P. 305. Text of Clarendon. "He bad a firm resolution never to acknowledge that he had committed any error." P. 305. "Mr. Mountague said that all the King's (Charles II.) hopes must be in the Presbyterians and Roman Catholics." P. 318. Sept." "Worcester fight, it was on the 3d P. 339. "There were necessities and factions in the Duke of York's family; but there needed no spurs to incite the Duke of York." P. 340. "The Duke with an earnestness of passion which he dissembled not." P. 343. "The Duke goes to the army; he got the reputation of a prince of very signal courage." P. 349. "The Chancellor desires the King not to employ him in Scottish affairs on account of the frequent resort of the little Scottish vicar (one Mr. Knox)." P. 387. September." "Cromwell's parliament met on the 3d Swift's Remarks. Sept. 3 always lucky to Cromwell. How old was he when he turned papist and coward? Dubitat Augustinus. But proved a cowardly popish king. The little Scottish scoundrel ! His lucky day. Rank Scotch thieves. Bussy Rabutin, "Amours des Gaulois." A prostitute whore ! The Chancellor never thought I wish he were always so for Honest, though fanatical. Of which religion? He never had any. P. 540. The Duke in Spain, he could have no As he did after in England. command unless he changed his religion. Nothing seems more surprising, in turning over the records of Charles the Second's reign, than the way in which his secret of having been always a papist was kept. Whether he was ever other than a papist in persuasion may be doubted, since we have known of the treasonable secret article of his father's marriage, giving the Queen and her priests the tuition of all the children until 13 years old; but it is certain that all his courtiers knew his real way of thinking long long before Father Huddlestone was brought to his death-bed. Ormonde once "saw him at Brussels on his knees at mass," but "said nothing;" though himself a stout Protestant, he probably thought it the King's personal secret, and he kept it more as a man of honour than one loyal to England. "Henry Bennet" wanted him to declare in order to get aid from France and Spain; Lord Bristol, on the contrary, counselled him to dissemble in order to strengthen the royal cause in England. England was hoodwinked on all hands until death tore off the bandage. Ormonde was of opinion that the papers paraded by James the Second, as found in his brother's strong box, were the composition of some priest, and copied by Charles as an "act of penance." GENT. MAG. VOL. XLIII. 4 G UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF THE POET MOORE. MR. URBAN,-When recently examining a quantity of letters which probably had not been disturbed for upwards of fifteen years past, I by chance met with the following letter of Tom Moore, the Poet and Historian of Ireland, addressed to Mr. William Lynch, the eminent Irish antiquary.† Its contents, I think you will allow, are sufficiently remarkable to be worthy of publication. Sloperton, Devizes, June 7th, 1835. DEAR SIR,-I shall much rejoice at our correspondence, should it be the means of leading to our nearer acquaint ance, and hope to be allowed, when I come next to town, to pay personally my respects to you. Whatever you may think of my Irish feeling (and, were it not for your kind and flattering article in the Magazine, I should have feared you rated it very low), I have at least enough to enable me to appreciate-I will not say (however deserved) the "manly and sensible," as you do not seem to like those epithets, but the warm, honest, and enlightened zeal which you show in behalf of every thing relating to the honour of our country. With respect to the opinion I ventured on the subject of our music, or rather of those airs which have reached our times, I am much inclined to think I may have been mistaken, and that the date of those airs is much more ancient than I have made it. But this has no more to do with the existence or merits of our music before the date of those airs than any doubt as to the age of a particular Irish manuscript Yours, &c. J. F. F. has to do with the antiquity or merits of Irish manuscripts in general; and you will see, from the last chapter of the published volume of my History, that I take credit to our country for the sweetness of its music from the very earliest times. With regard to what you say in your letter respecting our Milesian legend, it appears to me (though I can hardly think it possible) that you mean to compare this fiction with the Border tales and songs of Scotland, and the romantic legends of England's King Arthur, &c. &c. Whereas, assuredly, the real counterparts of our Gadelian antiquities are to be found in the forty kings of Scotland, and the descent of the Britons from Brute and the Trojans clumsy figments, which Milton and Camden in vain endeavoured to overturn, but which fell at last by the weight of their own nonsense, leaving only our structure of the same kind, standing or rather tottering in the anile pages of Keating, &c. &c. Your offer of assisting me with the advantage of your research and learning upon points which you must neces *A memorable question, answered in twenty-eight years after by the Revolution. Mr. Lynch was author of the "View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies established in Ireland during the Reign of Henry II. 1830." 8vo. He died in 1836. This refers to an article in The Dublin Penny Magazine. sarily be so much better acquainted with than myself I accept with pleasure and thankfulness, and shall take every opportunity of availing myself of it. It is my intention, at present, to visit Ireland this autumn, and I shall not fail to remember your advice respecting the fac-simile from the Brehon MSS. as well as the old notation of the Irish melody. Where, however, is this William Lynch, Esq. LETTER OF BERKENHOUT THE LITERARY BIOGRAPHER. MR. URBAN,-The Biographia Literaria of Berkenhout is known to most readers, and known as an unfinished work. What it was designed to be appears in the subjoined letter, which must have been addressed to Mr. J. Dodsley, and is worth preservation. It was formerly in the possession of Mr. Alexander Chalmers. Richmond, Surrey, The first volume begins with the fifth and ends with the sixteenth century. The second and third will contain the seventeenth century, and the fourth will comprise all the authors of the present century who have already departed this life. As you must naturally suppose me partial to my favorite child, I request that you will expose it to the examination of some friend on whose judgement you have reason to depend. SIR,-It is, I think, now about fifteen years since I had some conversation with you concerning my plan of a Biographia Britanica Literaria, part of which was then executed. I then promised, that if I should ever finish the work, as you had given me some hints for its improvement, you should have the refusal of it. I now keep my word, and have accordingly sent you the first volume ready for the press, which, I The fourth volume will contain a think, it were most advisable to publish good deal of information which hath seperately and as soon as possible. I never been communicated to the pubsend you, at the same time, the other lick, in consequence of intelligence bundle of Lives, in order to shew you which I have received from several that the whole work is in considerable literati relative to their immediate proforwardness. This bundle must be re- genitors. turned, there being several Lives wanting which are not yet transcribed. But you may depend on the second volume being ready for the press before the first is published, and so of the rest. The whole will be comprised in four Quarto volumes. I flatter myself you will believe me when I assure you, that it is not a careless or a hasty production, and that there is not in the whole work a single paragraph literally transcribed from any author whatsoever, except such passages as are marked as quota tions. I mention this circumstance, because some of our late voluminous biographical publications consist chiefly of mere transcript from former writers. The Preface to the first volume will exhibit a concise history of the rise and progress of Learning in these kingdoms. The general Title will be, as near as I can at present determine, Biographia Literaria; containing the Lives of English, Scotish and Irish Authors, from the dawn of Literature in those kingdoms to the present time, chronologically and classically arranged, with a catalogue of their works subjoined to each Life. If you will favour me with a line informing me when you will have leisure to talk with me on this subject, I will endeavour to meet you; but you will be so kind as to fix the time precisely. Yrs. J. BERKENHOUT. The late John Spray, Mus. Doc. one of the vicars choral of Christ Church, Dublin, &c. CORRESPONDENCE OF SYLVANUS URBAN. Proclamations against New Buildings; Clement's Inn Field; Sohoe; Dog Fields; Windmill FieldsThe Wardship of Valerian Wesley-Pheasantry in Saint James's Park; Keeper of the Cormorants -Macaulay and Mrs. Barbauld. PROCLAMATIONS AGAINST NEW BUILDINGS-CLEMENT'S INN FIELD-SOHOEDOG FIELDS-WINDMILL FIELDS. MR. URBAN,-In a communication I addressed to you some time since (Feb. 1855, p. 160), I adverted to the statute 35th of Elizabeth against new buildings, the proclamations prohibiting the increase of new buildings, the dispensations or licenses from the Crown non obstante the statute, and the curious local information to be occasionally derived from the proclamations as well as from the licenses. I therefore, in continuation of my remarks, send you an extract from a license granted to one Thomas Yorke, Gent., by patent, 15 Car. I., p. 2, n. 15, anno 1639, granting to him and his assigns "that he and they shall and may lawfully, peaceably, and quietly frame, erect, new build, and set up such and so many dwelling-houses, with necessarie coach-houses, stables, and outhouses to be used therewith, as he or they shall think fit, upon some part of a field called Clement's Inn Field, in the parish of St. Clement Danes, in the county of Middlesex, being the inheritance of the now Earl of Clare, the said houses and buildings to be built and erected on each side of the cawsey way leading from a certain bowling alley, now called Gibbon's Bowling Alley, at the coming out of Lincoln's Inn Fields, to a place called the Rayne-deer Yard, that leadeth or goeth into Drury Lane, the same buildings not to exceed on either side of the said cawsey waie the number of two hundred and ten foote of assize in length or front, and sixtie foot of like assize in breadth and depth on a side; and the front and outwalls of the same houses and buildings to be erected and builded with brick or stone or brick and stone, or one of them, according to the true intent and meaning of our proclamations in that behalf published: saving that it shall and may be lawful for the said Thomas Yorke, his executors, &c. and every of them, notwithstanding any proclamation to the contrary, to build the said houses with steps to ascend unto the first entry of the same at his and their will and pleasure: saving that he shall not suffer any more families than one to inhabit in one house together at one and the same time," with power to "make, *Pat. 13 Car. II. p. 17, in dors. n. 17. Curiosities of Literature. Shortly after the Restoration, which in public instruments is dated 12 Car. II. (anno 1661,) " a Proclamation concerning buildings in and about London and Westminster " was issued, which is too lengthy a document to trouble your readers if given in extenso; but the preamble demonstrates that the Government regarded with jealousy any increase of the metropolis, while the power of granting licences, which were also to regulate the structure of new buildings, was to be rigorously preserved, under the assumed prerogative of dispensation by a non obstante. The commencement of this proclamation is as follows, viz. :-"The King's Majesty find. ing that the orders and proclamations heretofore published by his late royal father and grandfather, and in the time of Queen Elizabeth, concerning buildings in and about the cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjacent, during the time of the late confusions have not been at all or very little observed or pursued, His Majesty therefore, out of the abundant care which he hath of the honour and safety of the said cities of London and Westminster, is resolved to revive and put in execution the effects of the same orders and proclamations, especially perceiving the foul inconvenience daily growing by increase of new buildings in the cities of London and Westminster and the suburbs and liberties of the same: whereby————————” However, this proclamation, which discourages the building of timber houses from the scantiness of English timber, which then began to be felt, and the danger of fire, and absolutely prohibits new buildings within two miles from the gates of the city, encourages, according to the term of former proclamations, the rebuilding of houses upon old foundations with brick or stone, and under regulations shewing that the solidity and uniformity of buildings in London had occupied public attention long previous to the fire of 1666. At the risk of being deemed tedious in This is cursorily alluded to in Disraeli's my excerpts from this class of public instruments, I subjoin one other proclamation, issued ten years after the foregoing, having for its object the suppression of mean buildings near Soho and in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly: viz. "A Proclamation against New Buildings, &c. "Whereas in the feilds commonly called the Windmill Feilds, Dogg Feilds, and the feilds adjoining to Sohoe and several other places in and about the suburbs of London and Westminster, divers small and mean habitations and cottages have been lately erected upon new foundations, and more of that kind are daily preparing, not only without any grant or allowance from his Majesty, but some of them against his Majesty's express command, signified by his Surveyor-General; which kind of buildings are likely to prove a common and public nuisance by being made use of for the most noysome and offensive trades, and by becoming the receptacles of a multitude of poor to the damage of these parishes, already too much incumbered, and by rendering the government of those parts more unmanageable, but especially for choaking up the aire of his Majesty's palaces and parkes, and indangering the infection, if not the total loss of those waters which by many expencefull draines and conduits are conveyed from those feilds to his Majesty's Palace at Whitehall, whereof some decay is already perceived by his Majesty's serjeant-plumber, Pat. 23 Car. II. p. 2, dors. and more is daily feared. Therefore, for T. E. T. † I find these fields mentioned in the counterpart of a lease now in my possession, which is thus indorsed: "Counterpart Sir William Pulteney's Lease to Mr. Beake, 1686, of the ground he holds, and where the wind-mill stood." This lease was granted by the Crown to Sir William Pulteney, and on its expiration a renewal was granted to Mr. Beake, whose name is preserved in Beak Street, as Sir William Pulteney's name is in the adjoining Pulteney Street. This lease is dated 22 Feb. 1685-6, and is made between Sir William Pulteney, of the parish of St. James in the Liberty of Westminster, Knight, of the one part, and Thomas Beake, of the same parish of St. James, carpenter, of the other part, whereby, after reciting a surrender of a lease made to James Wayne, he demised to said Beake "All that his messuage or tenement, commonly called the waterhouse and the gardens and appurtenances to the same belonging, containing by estimation half an acre of land be the same more or less, as the said premises are inclosed round with a brick wall, the same being formerly parcel of a field called the Six Acres, and situate lying and being at or near Mulghay, alias Dogg Fields, which said premises are abutting upon the messuage and garden late in the tenure or occupation of Mr. Roger Looker on the north, on a footway leading from Piccadilly towards Marybone on the east, and on a horseway and cartway leading as aforesaid, south and west. Together also with that piece or parcel of ground whereon the windmill lately stood, with the well thereunto belonging." Rent reserved 201. The term commencing from Christmas 1685 for 36 years. Beake, in 1686, granted building leases upon this ground for his "new intended street there, called Beake Street." In an old map by Morden and Lea, now in the possession of Mr. Frederic Crace, of Blyth Lane, Hammersmith, the "waterhouse" before referred to is delineated, being the only map in which this "waterhouse " appears. |