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Great, Little, and White Ruffia, of
Mufcovy, Keavie, Volodomere, Not-
gorod, Emperor of Cufan, Emperor of
Altrachan, Emperor of Siberia, Lord
of Pifcone, Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Imolentko, Iwerfa, Volinfko, Podol-
fko, Vghorico, Perinfco, Veafifco, Bul-
garico, &c. Lord and Great Duke of
Norgorod in the Lower Countries of
Cheringo, Refanfco, Potolico, Rof
tofco, Yerofiofco, Beloozafco, Oudo-
rolco, Obdorfco, Condinfco, Weepico,
Mitifluaco, and all the Northern parts,
Lord of the Country of Iverfco, of
Cartalinfco, and of Gruzinsco, and of
the Country of Cubardinico, of the
Dukedoms of Charcafco and Igorfco,
Lord and Monarch of Sewall, other
dominions and provinces, Eaft, West,
and North,

To our trufty and well-beloved cou-
fin Thomas Keyt*, Prince of Great
Wolford, in the dominions of
Great Britain, greeting, &c.

We, having been fully informed, during our late refidence in England, of the great prowels, conduct, and courage, which you fhewed in the civil wars of your country, and particularly in the bloody battle of Newbery, do efteem it a great infelicity, that our refolution of travelling there incognito would not permit us to vifit you, and learn from you thofe maxims and arts of war, which the great defigns we have laid for advancing our glory require our knowledge of, and our prefent expedition into Livonia makes very neceflary. But your natural propenfity to gather laurels in the field of honour, and great generofity of spirit in encouraging men of arms, have given us hopes that you will not difdain to accept the command of our army in this important juncture, where our honour is to deeply engaged, and wherein a defeat may not only be fatal

to our intereft, but ever cramp our ambition from attempting any glorious enterprises. We fhall be proud to ferve under your banner as a volunteer, and -to be a fcholar under fo renowned a mafier of war; and fhould be fecure of victory, though Mars himself should become general of our enemy the Swede. We have difpatched our well beloved coufin and counfellor and one of our generals, Knees Jevan Geoigowitz Trabetiko Weyood of Novogorod,

He was Lord of the Manor of Great Wolford, in Warwick thue.

with letters of request of our brother
the King of England, that he will
truft his kingdoms to Provdence for
fome few months, and permit you to
come over to us. And we have by
our fame coufin and general fent you
our ftaff of general, and a refignation
of our authority over our army, into
your hands, upon your fignifying to
him your refolution of commanding
them and ourfelt. In confidence of
your friendly afliftance, we bid you
PETER CZAR.
heartily farewell.

"From Camp before Narva,
in Livonia, Nov. 22, 1700."

Mr. URBAN,

Inner Temple,
Feb. 21.

T is not my intention to express any opinion on the fubjects that have particularly engaged the notice of your Correfpondent in the "Hints to paper inferted in vol. LXXII. p. 1181, intituled by you the Society of Antiquaries." Thofe obfervations-I leave untouched, but not fo the general introductory defamation. When a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine dares publicly to apply the opprobrious defcription of an indifcriminate rabble to a confiderable number of the duly-elected Members of a Society, which even he deigns to call

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learned and refpe&table," and of which he profefles to be one; I am routed indignantly to repel the illiberal afperfion, and to vindicate the honour of the Society of Autiquaries of London. Literary pride fometimes begets the ufe of contemptuous language; but, on this occafion, I am inclined to impute

it to Gothic rudeness.

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the utmost care.

the Honour and Intereft of the So-Your age and fituation require ciety of Antiquaries of London." At the fame time I would have him particularly advert to that part of the Statutes which regulates the Form and Caufes of Expulfion, where he will find it ordained, "That if any Fellow of the Society fhall contemptuously or contumaciously difobey the Statutes or Orders of the Society, or hall by Speaking, writing, or printing, publicly defume the Society, or -advifedly and maliciously do any thing to the damage and detriment thereof, he fhall in respect thereof he liable to be expelled the Society."

I now challenge this anonymous defamer to make his name as public as his abule, which will afford an opportunity of taking the fenfe of the Society, Whether he be a "WORTHY FELLOW?"

Yours, &c.

MR. URBAN,

HA

F. S. A.

Jan. 13. APPENING the other day to be turning over your -pages for January 1800, I found the defcription of "A Rambler's Re-visit to Buttermere." At the very fight of BUTTERMERE, wonder not that my whole frame was, as it were, electrified. From perufing the narrative, was it poffible for mortal, who had heard of the much-lamented fate of Mary Ro-binfon, to refrain ?

Pleafed as I was with the natural and lively description of the feftive Christmas amufements ftill regarded in thofe diftant abodes of content and happiness, though nearly forgotten by their more enlightened fellow-fubjects of the South, you may be fure I was not inattentive to every thing relative to the oncehappy "Mary; but, anxious to fee the end of the ftory, fome curfory reflections only occurred en paffant. With the ftranger's parting advice, however, I was more than ufually ftruck. Comparing it with the event, it feemed almost prophetic. Take it, as there related, and then let the reader judge.

come, and have come, purposely Strangers will to fee you; and fome of them with very bad intentions. We hope you will never fuffer from them; but never cease to be upon your guard. Be merry and wife." In reference to her age, I fhould obferve, that our Rambler ftates her to be nineteen; but, whether at the time of his re-vifit, which is moft probable, or of writing this account, is not altogether certain; fo that we are at a lofs to determine whether the is now 22 or 24. I am inclined to the latter opinion.

That Mary was poffeffed of a tolerable fhare of honeft rural fimplicity, can fcarcely be doubted by any attentive reader of the narrative.

Yet with this one cannot be quite fo certain, that the fafcinating language contained in the account of the "Fortnight's Ramble" had been wholly difregarded. She was confcious of her own fuperiority, and it could not fail of influencing her conduct. This is to be lamented. But for this unfortunate direction of her mind, the might probably have been at this moment happy, as the wife of fome deferving youth of her neighbourhood; and thereby the fnare into which the has been drawn would have been avoided. Perhaps the "black-eyed fwain," whofe attention to her and her female friend induced our Rambler " threwdly to guefs he was next neighbour to her heart," but ftill" rather more certain that Mary was in his," might have preferred a fuccefsful fuit. The danger of lavish encomiums and praites, even when founded in truth, is always alarming. A meretricious glare in defcriptive perfonalities, especially of the fair fex, ought never to be encouraged. The mitchiefs to be apprehended from it, are incalculable. We need no other proof than the univerfallypitied misfortune of the difconfolate Mary of Buttermere.

Would you think it, Mr. Urban,

that

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⚫ him to your vol. XXX. pp 317,318, 319, where he will find feveral Jetters containing many interefting particulars of that truly venerable perfon. It will there be feen, from his own information, that he was the youngest fon of twelve * children; had no inheritance whatever, but was dependent folely on his own exertions for his progrefs in life. His wife (who died in January 1800, at the advanced age of 92, an age which he himfelf attained) brought him a marriageportion of 40 pounds, the intereft of which, when added to the emoluments of his chapel, could not make his income more than 22 pounds per annum; yet by unwearied induttry, and, as he obferves, a providential bleifing on his diligent endeavours," together with "the kindnets of friends, and a cheap country to live in," he not only procured the neceffaries of life for a family of eight children, educated and put them forward in the world, but also contrived to fave a fhare of his pittance againft the days of age and infirmity. Moft fincerely do I hope, for the benefit of pofterity, that fome biographer will be found to embalm the memory of a man, who, through a long courfe of years, exhibited a, faithful picture of patriarchal fimplicity, adorned with the graces of every Chriftian virtue.

I thall be much obliged to any of your antiquarian friends, to tell me the modern names of the following manors, which are defcri

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of the brig Mentor, off Cerigo, Sept. 17, laden with valuable marble fculpture, the property of Lord Elgin, taken from the Temple of Minerva at Athens. I am extremely happy to inform the publick, by means of your widely-circulited Magazine, that part of this invaluable cargo has been recovered by the indefatigable exertions and perfevering efforts of Mr. Hamilton, Lord Elgin's fecretary, who, with Capt. Leake, of the Artillery, and Capt. Squire, of the Royal Engineers, was a paffenger in the Mentor, when he was to unfortunately wrecked in her voyage from Athens to Malta. Thefe three gentlemen were returning to England from an interefting tour which they had been making through Syria and Greece, where they had taken feveral plans of particular places, and kept accurate journals of every thing they met with worth notice, during their travels in thefe unexplored countries; and, as I am happy to inform your readers fome of the papers of thefe gentlemen have fortunately been recovered, the publick will, I hope, be gratified with the refult of their labours.

Mr. Hamilton remained at Cerigo after the unfortunate 17th or September, to endeavour to fecover any part of this truly-valuable cargo; for which purpose he tried every method, and at length fucceeded in this defirable end, by procuring divers from the Inland of Samos.

It may not be uninterefting to your

your readers to know, that to the fame gentlemen, Capt. Leake, Capt. Squire, and Mr. Hamilton, the learned world is indebted for a moft important difcovery, which was made known in a Memoir from Capt. Leake and Capt. Squire, prefented to the Antiquarian Society, on Thursday Feb. 3, by Dr. Raine, containing an account of their having decyphered the infcription on the Pillar at Alexandria, hitherto deemed illegible. By the infcription it appears, that the Pillar was erected in honour of Dio

elefan, not of Pompey, as has been commonly imagined. By the Memoir we find that this difcovery was effected only by unremitting attention and perfeverance, the infcription not being visible but when the fun fhone obliquely on it.

Mr. URBAN,

F. A. S.

Feb. 12. B E pleased to affure Crito that I am truly forry if I have wounded the feelings, or mifrepre.fented the fentiments, of fuch a man as he appears by his "apology" to be; (vol. LXXII. p. 1210.) If I had ever feen the "publication” which contains his "Epitaph on a Physician, &e." I fhould probably have found fomewhat there, which would have prevented my writing the "Lines" on that Epitaph. But, teeing the Epitaph only in the Ports corner of a country news-paper, and oblerving in it what feemed to me to be a fneer on Chriftian burial; I imagined that it had been inferted by fome enemy to Revealed Religion. It is well known that, for fome years paft, many newspapers, both in town and country, have been made vehicles of atheiftical and feditious principles. In the province where I rende, I have watched them well; and have fuffered nothing to pals without animadverfion, which feemed likely to taint the religious or political opinions of my neighbours. In juf tice to myself, I must request you to restore the true and original read

ing of the last of my "Lines," which ran thus,

"They nor their virtues would be mourn'd or mifs'd."

As Crito gives it, it affords no fpecimen of what he politely terms the" vigour of my wing:" the fault must have been in fome tranfcriber.

Alfo in line 7, for "the laft morn," read "that laft morn:" and, in the note*, for "in Calton Hill," read "on Calton Hill:" and for "the fons of fuperftition," read fuperftitious men.'

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Crito will acknowledge that lines 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, of his Apology," are not applicable to any thing contained in my "Lines;" as I have not any where faid that Chriftian burial can confer any benefit whatever on the "fons of vice."

I entreat, Mr. Urban, your refpectable correfpondent, to inform me what is the title of the "Publication" to which he alludes; that I may procure to myself the pleasure of perufing it.

THE AUTHOR of the LINES Occafioned by reading an EPITAPH on a PHYSICIAN, &c. &c.

THE PHYSICIAN AND THE DERVISE. MROW, the chief phyfician, and A Icah, the good dervife, began a journey together. Scarcely had they quitted the fuburbs of Bagdat, before, the foot of Ifcah flipping, he was dif abled from purfuing his way; and AmTow went on without his companion. Sad were the Phyfician's thoughts, and his path was folitary. "Strange," cried he, "and cruel is that Providence, which extends its protection to the wicked, and neglects to watch over the footsteps of Ifcah!" No fooner had he pronounced thefe words, than a man rufhed upon him from a fecret place, and with a blow beat him to the ground. Amrow, tendering his purfe, petitioned for his life. "Keep your purfe," replied the aflaffin; "and fince you are not licah, keep your life alfo." Amrow' wounds did not prevent him from proceeding; he purfued his way, but with different fentiments. "Ya, Allah," cried he, "merciful and juft art thou, who haft refcued Ifeah from the death which awaited him, and punished Amrow for murmuring against thy decrees !”

Mr.

Mr. URBAN,

ΤΗ

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Feb. 5. HE biography of Francis Beanmont, maker of the Charterhoufe, an office to which he was appointed in 1617 by the efpecial appointment of the king," I have been able to afcertain. He was fecond ton of Nicholas Beaumont, of Cole Orton, in the county of Leicester, efq.; took the degree of M. A. at Cambridge (date and college not difcovered); and died June 18, 1624. On his tomb in the Charterhoufe chapel he is fivled "Mafier of Artes, Elquier, late Matier of this the King's Holpitall*." In the next vó-, lume of the Hiftory of Leiceerthire fome farther particulars of him, with an engraving of his butt, fhall be inferted. Of his namefake and relation (vol. LXXI. p. 1095) fome interefting traits will be given in the faine volume. It is remarkable that there were four Francis Beaumonts of this family, all living in 1615; and of thefe at lealt three were poetical; the Matter of the Charterhoufe, the Dramatic Writer, and Francis Beaumont a Jefuit. Having mentioned this cireumftance to a friend who unites in his own perfon the ta lents of a Poet and an Antiquary; he favoured me with the following note: "As to the portrait of the great Dramatic Writer, Humphrey Mofeley (his original publisher) fays, I was very ambitious to have got Mr. Beaumont's pretare, but could not poffibly, though fpared no enquiry in thofe noble families whence he was defcended; as alfo among the gentlemen that were of his acquaintance when he was of the Inner Temple.Vertue's portrait of him was engraved from an original in the poffeffion of the Duke of Dortet; and there is a mezzőtímto of him by J. Simon. I have a good miniature in water colours, at the back of which is written, in a random hand, Francis Beaumont, the Poet, by William Bar. But it is much too old for a mai of 30. -Were it of him, it would be very curious. It has a very fine countenance; but the hair feenis grey-Jahn-William Baur was born in 1610, and could -be only five years old' at Beaumont's death. He does not appeir ever to have been in England. Nor could Beaumont be much more than 30 at

* See Malcolm's very fatisfactory history of the Charterhouse, in his." Londinium Redivivum,” p. 424.

Grar. Mag. February, 1968;

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Feb.

· 9.

Mr. URBAN,
YOUR correfpondent J. O. vol.

his earthen bottle with fimilar one's
found in Eflex, and communicated by
Mr. King to the Amiquarian Society
(Archæol. vol. V. p. 280); and E. W.
will find refemblances of his Irish
rings, &c. in the fame work, vol. II.
art. H. P. 33.

The complaint brought against the Society of Antiquaries by * *. p. 118), and the hints fuggefted, are certainly juft; but is it not the cafe with all S6cieties which rife from finall beginnings to eminence and wealth, that they lofe fight of their original inflitution, or of the means of fulfilling it? Do we not fee that, in charity as in literature, the temptation to ill-guided expence operates to the ruin of the infitution? Hofpitals, like literary rooms, degenerate into magnificence and pa rade, to the confumption of the very funds which have raised them to their height. The begging-box is open to every one. Unworthy members are admitted, to keep up the treafury and fwell the number, though they know

no more of the matter than the rufticks or journeymen to whom the British Mufeum ufed to be exhibited as a rareefhew, till the librarians were wearied out with doing nothing. The contrivance of the Council, ftated by your correfpondent, was at the time most jully reprobated; and from the copofition of the Council, men of rank and honnut, fuch a measure could hardly have been expected, had it not been thrown out, as he fuggefts, as a plan for extricating them out of debt,

can difapprove a magnificent

on of buildings which are the

vet undefaced ornaments of our inland, Becaule nobody can foresee how foon it may become the falon to exfermi

näte

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