themselves illustrious by their supe-
rior attainments, should take no no-
tice of Mr. Smeaton, a very celebrated
Civil Engineer. This gentleman was
much esteemed by all who had the
pleasure of his acquaintance; and Sir
George Savile and the Rev. Mr. Mit-
chell, rector of Thornhill, looked upon
him as the first practical mathema-
tician of the age. These worthy men
and sound philosophers used to spend
many happy days together at Rufford
Abbey, and it was during their stay
that Sir George Savile once prevailed
upon Mr. Smeaton to sit to a respect-
able, but country portrait painter.
That picture is now in the possession
of the Hon. Lumley Savile. The like-
ness is striking, but the painting
scarcely above mediocrity.
Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

IT

J. B.

May 10.

T may be an acceptable piece of intelligence to your Antiquarian Readers, that there are considerable remains of the old Priory of Dunstable in Bedfordshire, in the house on the East side of the street, now the residence of Mr. Gresham. When I had an opportunity of visiting it last November, I found all the rooms on the lower floor with vaulted stone roofs groined; whence, it appears probable, that they are a part of the ancient Cloisters, which have undergone no other change than being floored, and furnished as modern sitting rooms.

As considerable doubt has existed respecting the age of the Cross at

or figure of Lady Godiva, taken altogether give it an air of unrivalled antique grandeur and beauty.-The White Friars Monastery, now used as a School of Industry, is another remain which possesses considerable interest. The Cloisters continue partly appropriated as a dining-room for the inmates, and partly as a vestibule.The Hospital of the Black Friars, situated near Trinity Church, is quite in ruins.-Bablake Hospital, built in 1507, and the Grey Friars Hospital in 1529, have a feature of originality in the character of their architecture. These buildings are of timber and plaister, with small gable ends of wood, supported by brackets ornamented with figures. The windows with small diamond panes, the frames richly carved. Considering that these ancient buildings, when carefully conserved, afford to travellers much gratification, as they certainly did to me in September last, and often induce the visits of those who take pleasure in such memorials of the taste of former times, any instances of needless spoliation are proportionably subjects of regret. It is, perhaps, not too much to recommend to the Mayor and Corporation, that, with a view to undo the mischief which has al ready been done, they should reduce the windows, and remove the rough casting from Bablake Hospital. Yours, &c.

G. O. P. T. Mr. URBAN, Cheltenham, April 22.

Leighton Bosard, I would suggest the ALLOW me to offer for insertion

probability, at least of its being as old as the time of Edward the Third. It appears from a MS. in my possession, that that Prince frequently passed through Leighton in the pursuit of his favourite amusement Hawking, while he resided at Kingsbury-palace, Dunstable; and I have a copy of an order from him to the Sheriff, to repair the bridges between Leighton Bosard and Fenny Stratford.

Coventry. The present state of the Antiquities of this City deserves to be noticed, and recorded. St. Mary's Hall, its great ornament, carries back the mind to the days of the Plantagenets. The richness of the carvings, both in wood and stone, the furniture, particularly the fine tapestry representing King Henry VI. and his Court; and the equestrian portrait

in your Magazine a very ho nourable testimony to the character of a celebrated man, who has, upon various occsaions, figured in your pages, both as a contributor to their literary stores, and as the object himself of many an eloquent encomium, I mean Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON.—I am the more induced to extract the pas sage in question, because I am led to think that it has been but little noticed, and, in truth, never quoted. It occurs in a work, which, although it is a rich quarry for the Antiquary, and full of the most recondite learuing, is yet but in the hands of few, being from its very nature rather a publication of occasional reference for students in a particular line, than cal culated for a continuous perusal in the hands of the multitude. The Au thor having combated the accuracy

of

the Bishops of Bangor for many ages, till the reign of Charles I.

In the time of Cromwell, Parliament thought proper to restrain the number of buildings then erecting, whose Journals mention, that, "Sir John Barkstead, knt. in 1647, purchased of the trustees for sale of Bishop's Lands, the reversion of a messuage, with the apurtenances, situate near Shoe-lane, called Bangor-house, after with some waste ground, in length a term, for years then unexpired, 168 feet, and breadth 164 feet, intending to build on it." They as sign as a reason for an exemption in his favour, that the place was "both dangerous and noisome to the passengers and inhabitants."

of some of the Etymologies of the great Lexicographer, adds—" I hope that I have executed the whole with such a respectfulness to the Gentleman whom I meant particularly to encounter, as is peculiarly due to one whom every friend to virtue must esteem, and every lover of letters admire; whose negligences are merely the disgrace of the Reign that left such a Writer to struggle with distresses, and depend on booksellers, and whose mistakes are the incidental failings of humanity; one of whom I am happy to acknowledge, because it is doing justice to genius and to worth, that for energy of language, vigour of understanding and rectitude of mind, ranks equally as the first scholar and the first man in the kingdom." Whitaker's History of Manchester, vol. II. p. 328.-In Nichols's Literary Anecdotes (a work that may not unaptly be called a wilderness of entertainment and of instruction) is given, vol. III. p. 101, et seq. a most faithful sketch of this excellent man and very eloquent writer. But I cannot help lamenting that the publick has yet to regret the want of a more detailed account of his Life and his learned achievements—a work that was promised us some years ago from the pen of the celebrated Mr. Polwhele. Is there any chauce of our soon being gratified with this desideratum in our Biography of learned Ecclesiasticks?

Yours, &c. FREDERIC BEWLEY.

Mr. URBAN,

April 2. Sa curious specimen of early Domestic Architecture still remaining in the Metropolis, I send you a view of the remains of the antient residence of the Bishops of Bangor, (see Plate II.)

The property of the See is thus early noticed in the Patent Rolls: “ 48 Edw. III. Rex amortizavit Ep'o Bangoren' in successione unum messuag. unam placeam terræ, ac unum gardinum, cum aliis ædificiis, in Shoe-lane, London."

The situation of this messuage, place, other buildings, and garden, is directly at the back of St. Andrew's-court, and at the South-east corner of St. Andrew's Church-yard; and here was the town residence of GENT. MAG. May, 1819.

the See; and in the memory of per-
The ground is still in possession of
sons still living there was a garden,
with lime trees and rookery, whose
site is usurped by some very disagree-
able buildings. The ceilings of some
of the rooms in the front house were
about 40 years ago ornamented with
arms and crests.
N. R. S.

Mr. URBAN, Salisbury, April 21.

You have, in your very respectable

Publication, given us from time to time conjectural and problematical observations upon subjects of Natural History, and amongst the rest some remarks upon the Emigration and the Return of the Swallow.

Will you permit an Old Correspondent to offer a simple addition to these remarks, from actual observation?

I have for many years discovered that the arrival of the swallow in this Western quarter of the kingdom_first takes place upon the surface of the rivers Avon and Wily, near to the town of Wilton, about three miles from this place to the N. W. and that it extended its flight no farther during the first seven days, till the expiration of which period scarcely a swallow was to be seen at Salisbury. This, I conclude, we must attribute to their meeting with some fly or insect peculiar to those waters upon their first arrival. Being on Thursday the 8th inst. fishing upon the banks of the Avon and the Wily, I had the opportunity of witnessing their first arrival from the N. W.; finding myself instantaneously surrounded by an

immense

immense flight of swallows, not one of which appeared till that moment. On my return homeward, they partially accompanied me to the village of Bemerton, the summer residence of my worthy friend and neighbour Archdeacon Coxe, when I lost sight of them

entirely, and upon my arrival at Salisbury not a swallow was there to be seen, nor is there now at this day.

If any of your intelligent Correspondents can elucidate this seeming mystery, I will thank them to do it. Yours, &c. JAMES WICKINS.

COMPENDIUM OF COUNTY HISTORY.

ADDITIONS to CUMBERLAND, Vol. LXXXVI. Part ii. page 599.

"Thus by thy fall, Lowdore, reclin'd;
The craggy cliff, impendent wood
Whose shadows mix o'er half the flood.
The gloomy clouds which solemn sail,
Scarce lifted by the languid gale,
O'er the capp'd hill and darken'd vale,
Channels by rocky torrents torn,
Rocks to the lake in thunder borne,
Or such as o'er our heads appear
Suspended in their mid career,
To start again at his command
Who rules fire, water, air, and land,

}

I view with wonder and delight,
A pleasing though an awful sight;
For seen with them the verdant isles
Soften with more delicious smiles,
More tempting twine their op'ning bow'rs,
More lively glow the purple flowers,
More smoothly slopes the border gay,
In fairer circles bends the bay;
And last to fix our wand'ring eyes,
Thy roofs, O Keswick, brighter rise,
The lake and lofty hills between,
Where giant Meddaw shuts the scene."
Dr. DALTON.

ANTIENT STATE AND REMAINS.

British Inhabitants. Cumbri, a tribe of the Brigantes. Antiquities. British: Druidical circles on Grey Yawd, or King Harry fell, Sunken Kirk, and near Keswick.-Roman: Of miscellaneous antiquities the principal collections are at Netherby, Sir James Graham's; Netherhall, Humphrey Senhouse, esq.; Walton-house, W. P. Johnson, esq.; and Wigton, the Rev. Richard Matthews. The antiquarian brothers Lysons have given a description of 142 altars and inscribed stones found in this county. Aspatria, Cross-Canonby and Dearham fonts. Dearham and Gosforth church-yard crosses. Two pillars at St. Bride's. Carlisle Deanery. Askerton, Greystock, Irthington, and Millom castles. Towers and Mansion-houses of Dalston, Drumburgh-castle, Harby-brow, Hardrigg, Hewthwaite, Irton, Kirk-Andrews-upon-Eske, Lamplugh, Muncaster, Netherby, and Nether-hall. Excavations in the rock over the river Eden, called Wetheral Safeguard, or Constanstine's cells.-Glass vessel, called "The Luck of Eden-hall," noticed in the Duke of Wharton's ballad,

"God prosper long from being broke

The Luck of Eden-hall."

And another called "The Luck of Muncaster." On the preservation of these two vessels, according to popular superstition, the prosperity of their repective houses depends. Of the Edenhall cup there is an engraving in Lysons's "Cumberland." The Muncaster basin is said to have been presented to Sir John Pennington by Henry VI. who was secreted at Muncaster for some time.

Among the monuments of its bishops in Carlisle Cathedral, the most curious are those of William Barrow 1429, and Richard Bull (engraved in Gough's" Sepulchral Monuments") 1596.

St. Bees derives its name from Bega, an Irish saint, who founded a monastery here about 650. Calder Abbey was erected by Ranulph de Meschines in 1134.

Holme Cultram Abbey was founded in 1150, by Henry son of David King of Scols. In it was buried Robert Bruce, father of the Scottish King of that name. The abbot, though not mitred, was occasionally summoned to

Parliament.

Lanercost priory, founded by Robert de Vaux or de Vallibus, Lord of Gilsland in 1169, was often visited by Edward I. with his Queens Eleanor and Margaret. At his last visit with Queen Margaret he was detained by illness from October 8, 1306, to February 28, 1306-7.

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