beyond their own vicinity; and that if he, or fome of his li beral-minded neighbours, do not communicate better information to the compiler, the error is likely to be continued.

While the prefent fyftem continues, of fetting apart fome from the general bufinefs of fociety, to officiate in cathedra ecclefia, the writer of this takes the liberty to afk thefe men of leifure and information, whether they may not well apply a few moments of their time, in a way fatisfactory to themselves, and ufeful to the public, in communi cating to the gazetteer-makers topographical information. If fuch will have the kindness to contribute to this work, their communica tions will be gratefully received; and here he may acknowledge to have received from feveral of his friends, and alfo from fraugers, of this defcription, both of the political establishment and diffenters, very liberal encouragement in the profecution of this work. But the prefent is a production which it does not require erudition to find fault with or amend. There is fcarcely any individual but may fuggeft improvements, or give ufeful information, on fome place which he knows and every reader, from the school-boy to the man in years, who fhall communicate amendments, will confer an obligation on the author.

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All who may have the liberality thus to yield affiftance to the work, are requested particularly to give information on fuch fubjects as the following, or as in anfwer to any of thefe queries:-What is the place? -What it's name?-In what district fituated?-low many houses or people? What the foil? What the appearance of the furrounding country?-By what production or manufacture are they enabled to fupport themfelves, pay taxes, &c.?-What curiofity have they or had they, natural or artificial? What particular customs?-What public eftablishments of Infirmaries, Hofpitals, Schools, Libraries, &c.?— What the fituation of the place?-On hill or in vale; on what road or highway; or on what river, bay, creek, or fea?-And what are it's distance and bearings from other places, &c.?-What places already mentioned in this work are fo infignificant, that they ought to be omitted? And which are fo important that they ought to form diftinct pa ragraphs?

Perhaps thofe who are kind enough to oblige him as above, will not take it amifs, if he take the liberty to fuggeft to them, that the communication between the country and the capital is eafy, and that opportunities in the courfe of the year may occur to them of fending up their defcriptions without expence. His reafon for mentioning this, is the apprehenfion that unneceffary expence of postage might otherwise be incurred; perhaps, many different people fending the fame information; and, he hopes, this alarm will be fully apologized for, when he mentions that feveral of his last year's letters did, for want of proper directions, travel, in a circuitous courfe, above 900 miles more than neceflary; and that one of them, in particular, to the writer of which he feels himself very much obliged, which coft half a wown, and would have been three times the amount if it had come by

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PREFACE.

poft all the way, would not, if the writer had had the above information, have coft any thing, and would have been of ufe in enriching the defcription of two capital towns, which cannot now be done in this edition.

Anticipating the future, from experience of the paft, the author expects he may again obtain epiftolary communications, and therefore mentions, that it will be convenient, if the defcriptions be written only on one fide of the paper, as they can then be cut up, and afforted alphabetically, and if they be fent up within a month or fix weeks of the midfummer of each vear, directed to JOHN WALKER, Guy's Hofpital, London. Letters (poft paid) thus directed, will be duly attended to; and his friends, who wish to have a more immediate communication, already know his direct addrefs.

On fo dry a fubject as a Gazetteer, correct and elegant language can hardly be expected; on the contrary, in the places of little note, for the fake of brevity, the jargon of the mercantile world is often adopted, by leaving out the ofs and ins, &c. in utter violation of fyntax or conftruction, but in compliance with a cuftom now fo generally received as almost to appear proper; witnefs the modern manner of addreffing letters, &c.

As, in the courfe of this work, the expreffions of elegant, handfome, &c. are often applied in defcribing works of art, the author thinks it right to obferve, that, while he thus declares a fact to the reader, 'who may hold fuch things in admiration, he fees, for his own part, in fuch productions, a hidden deformity; for, while the beauties. in nature appear ealy and fpontaneous, the productions of art do all hear upon them the marks of tedioufnefs, difficulty, toil, or fatigue, and he confiders every useless labour as a deduction from the comforts of the poor, who are deprived even of the neceffaries of life through the extravagance of the rich.

It is not ufual in books of this fort to give any errata, nor will the time admit a revifal of this work, yet a few inftances, from memory, may be noted. In the only inftance where the word phyfiological occurs, read pathognomonical; and, in like manner, for antifceptic, on mineral water, read antifeptic. In the defcription of London, read weft and east ends of the town, for east and weft ends of the town, and Threadneedle-ftreet for Throgmorton Street. Under Kilmainham, read the people of induftrious habits have returned, immediately after the words in and about the city. The omiffions of ARRAS and BANNOCKBURN have been pointed out to me by, I believe, natives of the countries in which thefe places are fituated.

ARRAS,

ARRAS, a large, ancient, and handsome town in the dept. of the Straits of Calais, containing 22,000 inhabitants. It is divided into two towns, one named the city, which is the most ancient; and the other the town, which is modern. Here are feveral fine public buildings, and a well furnished library and feminary. The ftreets are fpacious, and inhabited by traders and artificers. They have manufactories of fail-cloth and tapestry-hangings, especially the latter, which, from that art being firft invented in this city, take their name from it; but they are now more beautifully manufactured at Paris, Bruffels, and Antwerp. Before Arras fell into the hands of the French, the following infcription was over one of the gates of the city, Quand les François prendront Arras, les fouris mangeront les chats.-i. e. When the French fhall take Arras, the mice fhall eat the cats." 'But when the French took it, a wit obferved, that the infcription might ftill ftand, if, by erafing one letter, prendront were changed to rendront; i. e. shall reftore instead of fhall take. Arras is feated on the river Scarp, 12 miles SW. of Douay, and 22 NW. of Cambray. Lat. 50. 17. N. lon. 2. 51. E.

BANNOCKBURN, a town of Stirlingfhire, dear to the Scotch, who value national prowess; for here the vaft army of Edward II. was defeated, the invader himself narrowly escaping in a boat. By philofophy, however, which feems to be happily abolishing national diftinctions, courage is not now to highly estimated as it was in more barbarous times. The brute, which runs at large in the foreft and acts for it felf, feems vaftly more timid than that which is domefticated by man, provided that the mafter be prefent to animate his barking flave. There are, however, inftances where the brute in it's favage ftate, feems to equal in boldness the moft hardy and defperate dog in flavery, as in the protection of their young; and, fometimes in their affociations, for mutual defence, they difplay confiderable courage. The Scots, at Bannockburn, (more fuccessful than the English, who opposed the tyrant William I.) were, perhaps, like the French of the prefent day, as the animals in their native forefts; the flaves, led against them, as dogs in a fervile state. Bannockburn is also noted for the defeat of James III. that was killed in flight by the nobility, who, with the prince, his fon, at their head, took up arms against him on account of his tyranny.

There has one improper expreffion escaped the author, not through intemperate zeal, but from want of judgment at the time. In fpeaking of the people moft deeply engaged in the iniquitous traffic in human beings, he has ufed the name "incorrigible human butchers." Were he to write the part over again, he would fay "incorrigible men;" because, although they be butchers in effect, it appears that fome, very intimately connected with the Slave-Trade, are yet fo ignorant of the evil they promote, that they are far, very far, indeed, from being human butchers in defign. But although it be now very fully and openly proved, that the laughter of the hu man fpecies, as well as their abrutalization, is a confequence of the Man-Trade, he thinks it may not be improper to bring forward one frightful defcription of the Trade, which he particularly recollected at the time of writing, and which he does not remember to have feen related in what he has read on the fubject.

A friend of the author, travelling on the Grand Canal with a furgeon, formerly on board of a Guineaman, fupped at the fame inn with him, and, in the evening's converfation, was informed of a method of obtaining kidnapped flaves up the rivers in Africa. The vellel lies at anchor in the middle of the river, and during the day there is but little appearance of bufinefs about it; the night is the time for completing their deteftable works of darkness. At night, the boats are manned, watch is kept upon deck, and a con

ftant

fiant look-out along both fhores of the river. A fpark, truck with flint and feel, is the fignal afhore, that the kidnappers are coming with their prey. The fignal is anfwered on board in the fame way, and a boat fets out to meet them. A fpark can be diftinguifhed at an immenfe diftance through the gloom of night; and, by now and then repeating thefe fignals, the parties at length meet at the water's edge, when the furgeon examines the victims, and the bargain is begun. This is accounted a very cheap method of obtaining flaves; for the kidnappers generally with to get immediately rid of their victims, before their friends be alarmed. Sometimes it is a fingle ruffian, with his prey, whom they find on the fhore. The method of thefe terrible men, is to provide themselves with a knife and a strong leather thong, with a noose at one end, and to lie in wait in the thickets for the unfufpecting paffengers. When one of thefe, whom the ruffian thinks he can overpower, approaches fufficiently near to the thicket, he rufhes out, cafts the noofe round his neck, and drags him half fuffocated into the thicket. By degrees he flackens the noofe, but prefents the naked knife, affuring the victim, that he will inftantly put him to death, if he make the leaft noise or refiftance. Thus he holds him during the day, and at night, with the fame caution and the fame threats, leads him along to the river, announcing his arrival with the flint and fteel, as already mentioned. If the victim be a female, fhe is more eafily managed. It fometimes happens, that the whites, thinking the victim not valuable, or taking advantage of the ruffian's fituation, will not give him any thing for his prey. He then has no alternative. To let him loofe, might bring a hoft of the victim's friends upon him in revenge; and from defpair or indignation, he at once cuts open his throat, or ftabs him to the heart, and pushes him into the river, that his remains may be swept far away from the molt diligent refearches of his friends.

Thefe horrid inftances of murder, perpetrated under the influence of different and dreadful paflions, through this atrocious traffic, are perhaps only exceeded by fuch cold-blooded murders as are mentioned under the article NANTZ, or related in the report of the Directors of the Sierra Leona Company, of an English flave, who fet up a factory on the coaft. This unhappy wretch had arrived to fuch a pitch of hardness of heart, that, it seems, he used to tie ftones to the necks of his unfaleable flaves, and drown them in the river during the night. At length, having retired to the Ifle de Los, for the be nefit of fea air and medical help, the Bagos, one of whofe towns he had recently deftroyed, furrounded his factory, put his fon and adherents to death, fhared his effects to the amount of near 30,000l, with his flaves, and burnt all his buildings. The old man lived to hear the news, but died in about a month after. The people, who relinquifhed the ufe of Weft India produce, obtained by means of flavery, had certainly fome reafon on their fide, in adopting a condu&t so hu mane; but though the unfeeling legislature of their country has not yet removed the caufe, the abolition of the trade and emancipation of it's victims, are events which feem to he haftening. An affembly which enters upon the business of it's nation, without

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(fhal!

(fhall we fay the mockery of?) form of prayer, has had the piety to raise the blacks from the dust, and embrace them as brethren.

The author thinks it neceffary to obferve, that, as in the compilation of this Work, he has preferred the defcriptions which he received from natives or refidents, as he alfo requefted of the printers, who happened to be from different countries, to correct any errorthey might difcover in the copy, as he fometimes left this incom. plete, inferting queries in it, to be answered in the printing-office, the answers to be inferted to complete the narration; and, as he had not always the opportunity of reading the proofs, when ftruck off, fome expreffions may have crept in, which are contrary to his fentiments, though perhaps not at all difagreeable to the generality of readers. One of these, however, he has detected, and cannot but remark, that it is an expreffion that he believes never does efcape him, either in word or writing. The expreffion is "common people.' In the fame article, a title is embodied with the name, which is alfo contrary to the author's general manner; and he hopes, if there be any other inftances difcovered of departure from his ufual flyle, that they will be attributed to the causes already mentioned. His fentiments on the words common people are fo well expreffed in part of the errata of a work lately published, that, with permiflion of the author,

he here inferts it:

"The author perhaps should also note, as errata, the words 'common-people, better fort of people, &c.' in fhort, every expreffion which may have escaped him tending to exalt or deprefs the human fpecies, from any confideration of outward circumftances; and, in so doing, he claims the indulgence due to a foreigner, who receives or picks up certain phrafes without entirely entering into their full fig nification. The better fort of people', are thofe who are frugal in their expences, and confcientiously apply their time and poffeffions to the good of fociety, and it is to be regretted, that the oppofite character is common.' Charles Berns Wadfrom's Effay on Colonization.

INTRO.