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paralytic diforder, which deprived him in a great measure of his speech; but his mental faculties feemed to be ftill unimpaired. His diffolution was fo eafy that it was not perceived by those who stood by his bed-fide. He had derived from nature a found and vigorous understanding, which he had enriched with a large ftore of knowledge on various fubjects, but particularly with theological and biblical learning. His public difcourfes confifted of clear expofitions of Scripture, and of forcible animated reafoning, delivered in fuch an agreeable and ftriking manner as engaged univerfal attention. Feeling himself the truths he laboured to enforce upon others, they could not fail to make a ftrong impreffion. His piety was fervent and exalted, but founded upon rational principles, and without any mixture of affectation or enthufiafm. The zeal he difcovered for the interefts of truth and religious liberty was a very confpicuous part of his character; nor was his concern for the civil rights of

mankind lefs ardent. Yet both were
tempered with candour. In private
life, his deportment was amiable and
benevolent. His religious fentiments
were fuch as were deemed highly
heretical when he first entered upon
public life; on which account he found
fome difficulty in procuring ordina on,
and experienced the refentment of bi-
gots long after; but they would be
efteemed what is termed orthodox, by
many in the prefent day, as he attri
buted to Christ a high degree of pre-
exiftent dignity, and confidered him
as a proper object of religious wor
fhip. Mr. Towgood died at Exeter,
on the 31st of January 1792, in the
ninety-fecond year of his
age.

Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS,
BORN July 16, 1723, died Feb.
23, 1792. Of this celebrated painter
we have given memoirs, with a fine
portrait, in our Magazine for Auguft

1792.

[To be concluded in our next.

An Account of WESTBURN PLACE, near Paddington, the Villa of
JEWKES COULSON, Efq. With a beautiful Perspective View.

WE

ESTBURN PLACE, the hand- a perfon difpofed to enjoy the pleafome villa of Jewkes Caul- fures of rural retirement, might here fon, efq. an eminent anchorfmith, in forget his proximity to the bufy Thames-street, London, is fituated hum of men.' The houfe was built at Weltburn Green, one mile and a by Mr. Ifaac Ware, who quitted the half from Tyburn, Turnpike, and ignoble profeffion of a chimneythree quarters of a mile from the new weeper, and commencing the man church at Paddington. This green of fcience and tale, was employed in is one of those beautifully rural ipots, building many houfes, and diftinfor which that parish, although con- guifhed himself, moreover, by fome tiguous to the metropolis, is diftin- books on the fubject of architecture. guished. The houfe is fituated on a The gardens and pleasure grounds rifing ground, which commands a are laid out with great tafte; and pleafing view of Hampstead and High-clofe to Mr. Coulton's elegant mangate: the village of Paddington, with the elegant new church, produces a pretty effect when viewed from hence; and as no part of London can be feen,

fion is a farm-houfe, which is occu-
pied as an occafional country refidence
by the most noble George Grenville
Nugent, marquis of Buckingham.

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HISTORY of the MANNERS, VIRTUES, VICES, remarkable CUSTOMS, c. of the People of Great Britain; during the Reigns of Henry VII and VIII: Concluded from Page 105.

THE domeftic manners of the Scots have feldom attracted historical notice; and their advances in refinement are to be collected or conjectured from their peculiar cuftoms, their progrefs in the arts, and their improvement in their various comforts of life. Their mora's, contrasted with those of their ancestors, are arraigned as degenerate by the hiftorian Boethius, who accufes their intemperance, cenfures their luxury, and laments their departure from the frugal moderation and rugged virtues of the ancient Scots. His defcription, however, of thefe primitive obdurate virtues is far from attractive; and what he denominates vicious intemperance and exceffive luxury, may be fairly interpreted an increafing refinement and fuperior elegance in focial life. The nobles, who reforted feldom to cities, preferved in their castles their former rude but hofpitable magnificence, which increased their retainers and ftrengthened their power, fecured their fafety, or enabled them to profecute their deadly feuds. The people were divided into factions by thofe lords to whom they attached themfelves, whofe intereft they efpoufed, and whofe quarrels they adopted; and the clans peculiar at prefent to the Highlands, were probably once univerfal in Scotland. In the Highlands, and on the borders, clans were perpetuated by a conftant wa fare, that inured the people to the fiercenefs and rapine of a predatory life. As thieves and plunde ers their character was proverbial; yet their depredations, committed generally on hostile tribes, affume an appearance of military virtue; and their mutual fidelity, their obfervance of promifes, and in the Highlands, their inviolable attachment to their chieftains, are circumftances fufficient almost to redeem their character. The Chattan clan, during the minority of

James V, had made a destructive incurfion into Murray, but after their return were affailed and oppreffed by fuperior forces; and two hundred of the tribe, rather than betray their chieftain or disclose his retreat, preferred and fuffered an ignominious death.

The mutability of language to the learned, whofe fame depends on its duration, an inceffant topic of serious regret, feems to be counteracted by the art of printing; which, in proportion as it diffeminates a tafte for letters, re-acts as a model on colloquial fpeech, and operates, if not entirely to reprefs innovation, at least to preferve the ftability and perpetuate the radical ftru&ure of language. Such ftability the English language has acquired from printing, and at the diftance of three centuries, ftill exhibits the fame phrafeology and fyntactical form, varied only by thofe alterations effential to the progreffsive refinement of speech. The language of the period, if neceffaty to difcriminate its peculiar ftyle, was unpolished and oral; its character is rude finplicity, neither afpiring to elegance, nor folicitous of cafe, but written as it was spoken, without regard to felection or arrangement. Reduced to modern orthography, it is only diftinguishable from the common collo quial difcourfe of the prefent period, by a certain ruft of antiquity, by phrafes that are abrogated, or words that are either effaced or altered. Thefe, however, are not numerous; and we may conclude from the compofitions of the learned, that the lan guage of the people differed little from the prefent, unless in pronunciation, which, to judge from orthography, was harth, and fuch as would now be denominated provincial or vulgar. Whatever has been fince fuperadded, either by a skilful arrange

ment or the incorporation of foreign or claffical words and idioms, is more the province of critical difquifition than historical research; yet it merits observation, that the first attempts at elegance are afcribable, in poetry to Surry, in profe perhaps to fir Thomas More, whofe English ftyle, as it was modelled on his Latin, is conftructed with art, and replete with inverfions, approaching to that which, in contradiftinction to the vulgar, may be justly denominated a learned diction.

This hiftory has already furnished fufficient fpecimens both of the Scottish and English languages, which, defcended from the fame Gothic original, and nearly fimilar in former periods, divaricated confiderably during the prefent. This is to be attributed to the alteration and improve ment of the English, for the Scottish was more stationary; nor is there in the language a material difference between the compofitions of James I, and thofe of Bellenden, Dunbar, and Douglas; each of whom, by the liberal adaptation of Latin words, enriched and polifhed his vernacular idiom. But for the union of the crowns, which in literature rendered the English the prevalent language, the Scottish might have rifen to the merit of a civil dialect, different rather in pronunciation than structure; not fo folemn but more energetic, nor lefs fufceptible of literary culture.

The diet of the peasantry is fubject, in different periods, to few alterations; because it confits of the common produce of the foil, prepared in the fimpleft manner for food, Their bread-corn in England was rye or barley, fometimes oats mixed with pulfe; a food preferred for its nutrition to wheat, which, till rendered by a better cultivation cheap and abundant, was ufually confined to the tables of the wealthy. Thefe tables were more luxurious and expenfive than formerly; diftinguifhed by the

variety of delicate viands, as well as by the quantity of fubftantial fare; and Polydore expatiates with visible complacency on the various pleasures of thofe tables at which he had feasted; on the juicy flavour of the mut ton, and the sweetness of the beef, especially when flightly falted; on the tenderness of the young geese and the Kentish hens; the delicacy of the partridges, pheasants, and quails, and the fatnefs of the larks, thrushes, and blackbirds, of which incredible numbers were caught in winter, and prefented almoft at every table. But his tafte was peculiarly gratified by the varieties and abundance of excellent fish, which, to a churchman, renders the mortification even of the appetite luxurious; he difcriminates the gurnard, whiting, mullet, turbot, breme, and fturgeon; depreciates the mackerel as dry, the fhad as infipid; extolls the rich and delicious oysters, and approves of the recent translation of the pike from fens and lakes into gentlemen's ponds. To thefe the carp might be added, introduced from the continent in the prefent period as ftore for ponds; and from these par ticulars, to a foreigner important, we may conclude that few delicacies were wanting at feafts. Vegetables, however, were sparingly provided; and as regular markets were not general, country families killed a number of beeves at Michaelmas, and fubfifted till Whitfuntide on falted meat.

Their cookery cannot now be ap preciated, or diftinguished, otherwife than by a profufion of hot fpices with which every difh was indifcriminately feasoned *. Dinner and fupper were ferved in the hall, where the first table was placed in a fort of recess, or elevation, at the upper end, and referved for the landlord and his princpal guests, while vifitors, lefs refpectable, were feated with the officers of the household at long and narrow

Above 100 lb. of fpices were employed annually in the Northumberland family. Northumberland houfheld hook,

tables

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