ANTHONY ASKEW, M. D. was born at Kendal, in Westmorland, in the year 1722. His father, Dr. Adam Atkew, was in fuch high eftimation at Newcastle, that he was confidered as another Radcliffe, and confulted by all the families of confequence for many miles round. Anthony was educated at Sedburgh fchool, and from thence removed to Emanuel college, in Cambridge, where he continued until he took his degree of B.A. in December, 1745. He then went to Leyden, and refided there 12 months, with the view of being initiated into the fcience of medicine. In the following year we find him in the fuite of his majefty's ambaffador at Conftantinople. Returning from thence through Italy, he can to Paris in the year 1749. and was admitted a member of the Academy of Belles Lettres. He had here an opportunity of purchafing a confiderable number of rare and valuable MSS. and printed books in the claffics, belles lettres, and in various branches of science, and of laying the foundation of an elegant and extentive library, which foon after his death was fold by Baker and Leigh, Taviftock ftreet, for upwards of 5000l. Having finished his travels, he returned to Cambridge, and in the year 1750 commenced M.D He was foon after admitted Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians, and of the Royal Society, in London. What time could be afterwards fpared from attending his profeffional engagements was dedicated to the converfation of literary men, and to increafing and arranging his collection of books. He died at Hampftead, in the neighbourhood of London, Feb. 27, 1784. Though we have no publications of Dr. Afkew, yet the benefit the publick received by the diffemination of his collection of fcarce and valuable MSS. and books, give him a juk title to be recorded among the promoters of literature and 1cience. Mr URBAN, HE intended Hiftory of Bary" having been noticed in p. 484, I am induced to hope fome farther particulars respecting that work may be acceptable to your numerous Antiquarian Readers. It is purpofed to be laid before the publick under the title of "An Illuftration of the Monaftic Hiftory and Antiquities of the Town and Abbey of St. Edmunds Bury, by the Rev. Richard Yates, F.S.A. Chaplain to his Majelty's Royal Hofpital at Chelsea." It is well known that this monatiery acquired, and maintained during a long fucceflion of ages, a very diftinguished and extended celebrity, and is generally confidered as having exceeded in magnificence, wealth, and immunities, all the conventual establishments of Britain, Glaftonbury only excepted. A The prefent remains are curious and interefting, and attract very confiderable notice from the admirers of antient architecture numerous collection of drawings has been made; and, by finishing them upon the pot, a degree of accuracy in the delineation has been obtained, that, it is hoped, may prove highly gratifying to the eye of tafte. They have been for a confiderable time in the engraver's hands. The materials of the History are in fome particulars more copious than generally falls to the lot of the Local Hiftorian. Many of the Monafterial Regifters have escaped the ravages of Time, and the ftill more fatal and destructive attacks of Cupidity and Ignorance; and, though not in a regular and unbroken leries, they afford much curious information. Since the first propos fals were made public, many gen tlemen tlemen have obligingly favoured me with interefting communications; and to the liberality and friendship of Richard Gough, efq. I am under peculiar obligations. His ardent love of literature and Icience, his extenfive and valuable collection, his kind attentions to men of letters, and the generofity with which he communicates the ufe of important papers, though well known, ought not to pats unnoticed here; becaufe to them this Hiftory of Bury will be indebted for the valuable and extenfive collection relative to the Antiquities of the Town and Abbey, made by the late celebrated Antiquary, Thomas Martin, of Palgrave. Most of the printed and MS authorities have been confulted; and the various admeaturements and collections made, during a refidence of 37 years, within the Abbey-walls by my late father will be duly noticed, and particularly an accurate and meatured plan of the Abbey-church, in which the dimentions of the various parts will be diftinct y fpecified, and the very confiderable mistakes and omillions of former plans will be pointed out and corrected. The work has been delayed by many unforeseen and fome melancholy events; but, as no particular circumfiance has required immediate publication, and as the delays have been the occation of introducing confiderable acceffions of information, the whole may by them have been rendered more acceptable to the learned and judicious Antiquary. Yours, &c. RICHARD YATES. framed it with everlafting fame; yet there is ftill a very great grievance (which I believe the Legiflature to be totally unacquainted with), and I doubt if the Archbishops and Bifhops have a power to prevent. I beg leave, therefore, to make fome obfervations, which, I hope, may meet with attention before the Bill is finally paffed. It is true, a grand point is obtained by having a refident clergyman in every parith; and, I am convinced, will contribute confiderably to the morals of the pople. Nevertheless, it will be neceliary to inveftigat, now the incumbent is to refide, or his curate, what is the nature of the duty he is to perform. Our Church Rubrick has originally appointed regular fervice morning and evening; but where there are chapels of eafe to the mother church on Sundays, in fuch cafes as thefe, divine fervice can only be performed once a day; yet there are churches, the value of whofe livings are from two to 700l. per year, without any chapel annexed, and duty performed only once a day, and that generally in the afternoon, fo that the Epiftle and Gofpel is hardly read for one quarter of the year. This is a grievance intolerable, and could only have taken its rife from the indo lence of the incumbents in former times, and now become cuftom. How far the bithops may have a power now to infiit upon fervice twice on a Sunday, I cannot fay; but, if they have not any, it is abfolutely effential that a Bill fhould be provided for that purpofe; and was this fuffered to go on without remedy, in many parithes the cler. gyman, who will be brought into refidence by the prefent Bill, will have duty to perform only once on a Sunday. There is likewife in country churches an old cuftom very much neglected; that is, finging Pfalms, and a very necellary part of our fervice; and might in moft parithes, with the proper attention of the minister and churchwardens, be be carried into practice; and would be a means, in fome meafure, to prevent the crowds that frequent the various meetings of itinerant preachers, where the most pernicious doctrines are inculcated. Yet thofe who receive relief from the parish, I would advife, fhould obtain it only on the fole condition of coming to church; and, in order to enforce, it might be fo adjufted, that after divine fervice they hould be paid in the veftry. The confequence would follow, that all thofe who are under this defcription would come to church, as we always fee confirmed whenever any donations are to be given away. I believe on inveftigation it will be found to be the ufage on the first eftablishment of the poor-rates. I earnestly hope, Mr. Urban, thefe hints may be minutely examined into by thofe who have the power to redress them, as they are fuggefted by one who has been an eye-witnefs to the fad confequences of what is here recited; and I verily believe that no plan, devised by the wifdom of man, could operate in the end fo effectually for the profperity of the Church of England as the prefent Bill now pending in Parliament. And may God grant a blefling, and good fuccefs to attend it, is the earnest prayer of A CLERGYMAN of the Church of England. Mr. URBAN, IN June 1. N the night between the 11th and 12th of November 1799, many large and brilliant meteors illuminated the atmosphere; an account of which appeared in the Supplement to your Magazine for December the fame year. As they have not fince been noticed, and as they were feen in very diftant quarters of the globe, I trouble you with two defcriptions of them from a French publication, compared with one to be met with in your own Magazine. The coincidence of the accounts given by perfons no way connected with each other, and ignorant that the appearances Land which they defcribe were feen in any other place, is very remarkable. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1799, feveral meteors or balls of fire were feen at G. near Hartlepool, co. Durham, and other parts of that neighbourhood. They were first obferved between five and fix in the morning in an Eaftern direction, and continued falling in fucceflion, and together, till day-break. The atmosphere was very clear, and the moon, which was at full, fhone with uncommon brilliancy. The meteors at firft appeared like, what are vulgarly called, falling ftars, which foon became ftationary they then, as it were, burft, bur without any perceptible report, and paffed to the Northward, leaving behind them beautiful trains of floating fire in various thapes, fome pointed, fome irradiated, fome in fparks, and others in a large column. The fire balls continued falling near two hours, and were fucceeded, till near eight o'clock, by flight flashes of lightning. The general appearance was fublimely awful, and particularly fo to the Hartlepool fishermen then at fea. To fome fpectators the tky appeared to open, and to display a number of luminous ferpents, moving in a perpendicular direction; thefe were foon after broken into feparate balls, and fell towards the earth in a fhower of fire." This account refembles that of a difplay of artificial fire-works. Something, perhaps, mutt be allowed to the imagination of an aftonished fpectator. But, upon comparison, this account will appear to be not effentially different from that of J. J. Job Aimé, in his narrative of the deportation to Cayenne. As your correfpondent has fortunately never been in fo unhappy a predicament as M. Job Aimé was at that time, he could have no opportunity of communicating his fentiments to him The Frenchman, it will be obferved, was at fea on his return home, when when he defcribes this phæno menon. 64 20th Brumaire, (Nov. 11, 1799). This night, not being able to fleep, I went upon deck, where I enjoyed a grand fight. The firmament appeared to me all on fire, from midnight titl It about four o'clock in the morning. feemed to the eve that all the ftars were detaching themfelves from it, in order to traverle it in different directions; purfuing and croffing each other every fecond; or, to fpeak more correctly, without intermiflion; and leaving behind them a long train of light, which diffufed a very great brighines. The moment when a grand fire-work has juft been let off; and a great niany fkyrockets thrown into the air, may afford a juft idea of the fate of the iky, during this fiue night.” P. 253. To this account is fubjoined an extract from a journal kept at Cayenne. "In the night between the 20th and 21ft Brumaire, (11th and 12th of November), about half-poft three in the morning, the sky appeared lighted by the mot brilliant fires. Some perfons even affert that this phænomenon began about midnight The es had the appearance of what are called Shooting ftars: but they left a very lively trace. They croffed each other in every direction. Some role from the horizon, particularly in the North and Weli quarter. When for a few moments, the moon, which then fhone, was veiled by fome clouds, the feene bemagnificent and more ftriking. It cealed only with the first dawn of day. No noife was heard. This was one of the most beautiful phænomena that has been obferved, and it is to be wished that it may be afcertained in what parts of the globe it has appeared. The ardent imagination and fuperftition of the blacks made them fee the ftrangelt objects; feveral of them are extremely came more alarmed." The fame phænomenon was obferved at Edinburgh; and the captain of a vefel gave a fimilar dewhich fcription of the nittore, Worth of the Orkney iflands. In compliance with the with above expreffed, I have made these extracts, and fend them to your magazine, to request the further The remarks of an ingenious "Whether we fuppofe the meteors, feen in the night, between the 11th and 12th days of November, 1799, from the middle of the torrid to nearly the verge of the Northern frigid zone, to have been exactly the fame, or only fimilar appearances, it will be fill a circumftance equally new and furprifing; for, in the former cafe, they must have foared in regions much higher than we fuppofe any meteors except the Aurora Borealis, to reach; and in the latter, though, from the continual rains, during the preceding fummer, we imagine that the foil of this ifland of Great Britain was fo completely faturated with moisture, as to refemble one vaft marsh, from whence, undoubtedly, would iffue copious exhalations of the unctuous and mineral kind (which increate the quantity, and excite the motion, of the electrical effluvia suspended in our atmosphere), fuch as are fuppofed to produce the ignis fatuus, falling fars, &c. all of which are probably electrical appearances, yet it feems attonifhing that the atmosphere from Edinburgh to Cayenne (hould be equally dif poled to exhibit fich meteors. The fucceeding day (November 12) was fultry for the feafon; and between fix and seven, P. M. violent fqualls of wind, S. W. with intervals of dead calm.. N. B. Longitude of Stockton, where thefe obfervations were made, 1° 15′ W. Longitude of Cayenne, 50° W. Between thefe places are 51° 15′ ;, in 3h. 25m. Half-paft 2, A. M. ať Cayenne, will be 55m. paft 6, at Stockton. Midnight at Cayenne will be 3h. 25m. at Stockton." Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, J. B. June 20. FTER the very cha A rafter you have priver, vol. LVIII. p. 235, of the Works of Mr Welted; I have no doubt of your readily inferting the opinion entertained of him by one of his con contemporaries; who thus concludes a series of entertaining periodical papers, which for a confiderable time had amufed the town under the title of PASQUIN. "I am now only to pay my thanks to my kind and ingenious correfpondents, from whom I have received feveral very agreeable prefents, fome of which came to hand too late, and others, upon prudential reafons, were not thought proper to be inferted in this Paper. The laft prefent, indeed, and to me the moft valuable, was received at the very infiant in which I had refolved to difcontinue this Work, and brought with it fuch an eclat of merit and real worth, which diftinguishes itfelf already, no doubt with more advantage in the world, than it can poffibly receive from any praites of mine; I mean the Poems of Mr. Welfied, lately published and infcribed to the Lord Chamberlain. "I am fenfible how impertinent a figure a man makes, who takes upon him to recommend the works of a better writer than himfelf. A very popular author, fome years ago, gave himfelf thefe airs, much oftener, in my opinion, than became him; but I think I am well aware of this fhare, and am refolved not to be caught in it. No doubt the merit of this gentleman must make its own way, if there be really now fuch a thing as taste remaining in the world; and all notions of good and bad, the excellent and the miferable, are not confounded or wholly loft in the prefent admiration of little follies and childish pleafures. Be that as it may happen, all that I pretend to do is to vindicate my own tafe, without expecting to impofe it upon the world, or being at all out of countenance that it is not at prefent in popular vogue and ellimation. "Mr. Welfted has as yet treated us but fparingly, but that little he has given us, how much does it promife! What may we not expect from his comic writings, one piece of which is promifed to the ftage next winter? What, from his tranflation of Horace (once thought a defperate task), the fpecimen of which vies even in purity and nean is with the original? He has already brought us within view of elaffical excellence, and given us giimple of perfection ifeif. He has exhibited a fpecimen of genuine poetry, by which one may learn to form a taste, a and judge what it ought to be. Here a critical eve, if I mifiake not, may fearch in vain for the puerile, or the of feminate kind, the falle fublime, the filly tender, the pointed witticism, the unpointed folemn, the difjointed thought, thofe rattles and hobby-korfes of the the crowed fimile, the mixed metaphor, Mujes! to borrow fome of the terms from the author before cited. Before this collection the Author has prefixed a large Diflertation concerning the perfection of the English language, the fate of poetry, &c. and mattery of thought, and felicity of exhas treated his fubjects with fuch a preffion, which I believe his admired Dryden bimfelf, whom he fo jufly celebrates, would have found it difficult, well verfed as he was in this argument, to have exceeded. As to the former, his own writings are beyond any other argument, that we have already attained to a claffical age, and now fpeak the beft language we ever did or ever shall. As to the latter, he has vindicated the fcience of Poetry in fo reafonable and gentlemanly a manner, fo fee from the pedantry and cant of the profeffion, and has afferted the dignity and usefulness of it in preference to other ftudies, fo as the Mufes from the cells, whither Ignoone would hope is fufficient to call forth them, and refiore them to their antient rance and furril Folly have banished fplendour. How happy is that Poet, who is thus able to quit fcores with his art, and to bring verfe itself into as great credit and reputation as he has received from it! "I know not how this gentleman's labours may be acknowledged by the inclination to reward him as he deferves. publick: but I much fear the public And I have heard of another great Poet, who, after having eaten the bread of the publick for many years, has always been found lurking among its enemies, Battering fufpected traitors, darkly quibbling treaton, to curry favour with a ruined faction, and who now tranflates operas, and accommodates nonfenfe to mufic; affects a tafie he delpifes, for the meer wickednels of courting little tawdry fools that he hates. And this fame poet, I hear, has finished a tranflation of the Odyfles from the French, but refufes to publish it for want of a fecord ten thoufand guineas, which he is pleafed to call by the mo deft name of fitting encouragement. Yours, &c. M. GREEN. Mr. |