ere she raved at the tediousness of the creature; and, having made up her mind not to part with the dear cap, implored me to take one of her frightful things in its place, which would confer an everlasting obligation on her. Fifty caps were tumbled over, that she might find one twice as valuable as that she kept; and my compliance so bound her to me, that I made my own terms. I am to have a salary of fifty pounds a-year, and a chamber to myself, adjoining to that of the young ladies; to whom the whole attic story is appropriated. A table is to be served for them and me; and a carriage to be allotted for us to take the air in. This arrangement once fixed, Lady Westbury told me, that, if I had any more stipalations to make, she must give me a carte-blanche; and ran away to her vis-a-vis-as gay as she was lovely. Never did I see so volatile, se beautiful, so fascinating, so unformed a young creature!'

We soon afterward meet with these judicious reflections, suggested by the character of Lady Westbury; the levity of which rendered her and the Earl by no means a happy pair:

Had this young lady been better educated, the evil, in all proba bility, had never happened. Women may not be calculated for those deep studies which give dignity to man: but when they have no resource in the love of reading (which mostly produces, if the books be judiciously chosen, taste, elegance, and sensibility, together with a contempt for those pleasures which neither give rise to, nor will bear, reflexion), they must, of course, snatch at each temporary amusement, with which to beguile the present hour; and pass all those not engrossed by sleep, in contriving how, alike, they can dissipate the future. Of all habits, that of mental indolence is the most fatal, as it is for ever increasing.

Men of literature have, I know not why, thought it right to confine the studies of the other sex within a very narrow compass, Would they wish a wife to have no other advantage over her maid, than a handsomer gown, or a prettier face? Yet these very men are not always proof against the disgust which ignorance induces; and they then, ungenerously, censure the soil for being barren, which they know was never cultivated! Nature and observation may supply all the sense that is necessary to govern our conduct upon common occasions; but education must quicken and refine that sense into intellect, before life can become enjoyment. It is in the capacity of increasing their knowledge, that the human race is superior to the brute; and the benignant Giver of all good has not restricted that capacity to half the human race!'

We shall conclude our extracts with the character of the gouty Colonel Percival, whom Cecilia afterward married:

There is something mighty eccentric in this old Colonel; yet has he warmth of heart, and many good qualities. I was left to entertain him yesterday evening, and my eyes were, perhaps, red with weeping; for, after playing at backgammon for a short time, almost in silence, he laid down the box.

"Come:" said he, "I see that you do not know what you are about: ring the bell, and let us brighten up our faculties with a cup

of

of coffee; and,in the mean time, we will talk soberly. What has my demure sister touched you up your funeral sermon, or my madcap Bess spoiled your new gown? Never mind her tricks, for she is very truly attached to you, and spends half the time she bestows upon me, in crying you up for a nonsuch."

I could not be insensible to so much kindness, especially as I knew that in showing it he departed from his natural character. With thanks for his inquiry, I assured him, "that none of his surmises were just; nor was it impossible to have many causes for grief, without referring for a moment to a family who all treated me with the utmost distinction."

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Nay," cried he, twisting his foot, and roaring with the pain, "it may be about money thou art vexing!-never, mind, child, while we have some amongst us. What am I the better for making my fortune!This cursed toe would twinge me much the same, if the stool it lies on was made of solid gold. What! not money neither?-Oh, ho! I shall guess now for fifty pounds; and had I not been an old fool, I might have guessed as well at first: all this pining, I warrant me, is for a sweet-heart.-Ah, ha! I have primed the right gun then at last? Come! tell me thy vexation, and we'll see what can be done to make thee happy. I have money enough to bestow a little on my little nurse, and Bess won't grudge it to you."

How much true generosity was couched in these common expressions! It at once opened my heart; and, thanking him with a warmth proportioned to the kindness, I assured him, that the grief I felt was among the few which money could not remedy.

"Ay!" cried he; "are you such a chicken yet? I should be glad to know any grief that money will not more or less remedy? So, pray, if you set any value upon my friendship, tell me yours."

I could not refuse a request urged from such motives; and, concealing the condition of my lover, told him the simple fact. Whether he was disposed to feel; for I drest my tale in touching language; or whether the tears of a young woman give effect to her words, I know not certain it is, that his great chair never seemed more uncomfortable to the worthy man. He threw himself from one side to the other, and thumped his fist on the table, till 1 started; with now and then an exclamation in proportion to the provocation. When I finished, he shook my hand ill my shoulder ached.

"I'll tell thee what, Cicely: thou hast met with more misfortunes at twenty-three, than ever I did at thrice thy age!--but that comes of being a woman. Od' if thou couldst have sent a bullet through his paper skull, or whipt a small-sword through the puppy's lungs, he would have thought twice before he would have dared thee to it. Thou art a cursed fool though, to cry thy eyes out for such a whiffler! Did'st ever see Ned Percival? he is a pretty lad enongh, and a good one too; worth a regiment of such fellows. One day he will come in snacks with Bess Egerton for all that I have in the world, but not unless he takes you into the bargain We will send for him to-morrow, and, if he hits your fancy, we'll have a little snug wedding of our own, on purpose to spite that scoundrel."

• Good

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Good God, my dear! how strangely are characters compounded! When he saw me sinking, dying, with the unkindness of the man whom it was plain I adored, to imagine that I should have the indelicacy to accept another! Hardly could I conceal my contempt while I coldly assured him that this incident had put a period to all my views in this life!

"Well, well," cried he: "no harm done. Do not have the lad if thou dost not like it and you are simple enough, I dare say like many other foolish girls, to hanker after Mr.-No, I do not ask his name; I won't know it: remember never tell it to me, lest I treat the puppy as he merits, if ever he comes within the latitude of my crutch."

From the cursory view, which we have taken of this produc tion, our readers will be able to judge for themselves how far it merits their attention. They will see that, although too prolix, it is of a superior class of novels, both in point of language and of the interest which it excites: but that, while it is rich in sentiments which all must approve, it contains some of a less correct nature, and cannot in all its parts be suomitted with prudence and safety to the innocence and inexperience of youth.

ART. IV. Antiquities, historical, architectural, chorographical, and itinerary, in Nottinghamshire, and the adjacent Counties, interspersed with biographical Sketches. Part II. Vol. I. By William Dickinson, Esq. 4to. pp. 344. 18s. Boards. Cadell

and Davies.

Man

To o the inhabitants of Southwell and its vicinity, this gentleman's labours must be very acceptable; and especially to those who are animated with a spark of antiquarian fire, since he has been peculiarly assiduous in investigating every cir cumstance in that department relative to this portion of the kingdom. Much of the former part of the work was occupied with researches into the history of the church and town of Southwell, and in the pages before us the subject is continued. The chapters, into which this second part is divided, treat of the Constitution of the Church of Southwell, of its revenues, and of the places from which they arise,of its founders, benefactors, and patrons,-of the, antiquities of the parish and neighbourhood of Southwell, and of its modern history.

In detailing the constitution of this celebrated collegiate church, Mr. D. carries us back to the earliest periods of its

* See M. Rev. Vol. xliii. N. S. p. 115.

records,

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records, when popish superstition contributed to fertilize (as he expresses it) the garden of the clergy; and when the end wment of chauntries, and the placing of enormous wax-candles on the altar of a favourite saint, constituted the sublimity of religion. The officers of the Cathedral, from the prebendaries down to the dog-whipper, are enumerated; as well as the lands from which their incomes arise. It may be difficult,' Mr. D. observes, to determine, with precision, what was the original constitution of the church of Southwell, at the time of its original foundation; with how many prebends it was endowed, or in what manner and proportion their revenues were distributed it appears, however, that about the latter end of the reign of William I., there were at least ten Pr-bends.' A record in the Augmentation carries its history higher, and reports King Edgar to have been the founder of this church, when it consisted of sixteen prebends and as many vicars choral but its history, at this remote period, is enveloped in uncertainty, especially with respect to the particulars of its constitution. From the Conquest to the time of Edward III. it was gradually rising in consequence: but it was not till the reign of this prince that it received a firm establishment, which it obtained by a royal confirmation of all its privileges and immunities. The general reader would not be interested in the accounts, which Mr. D. has furnished, of the several parishes and districts belonging to the different stalls of this cathedral; yet a memorandum, respecting the customs of Norwell, a village situated about ten miles north of Southwell, and which furnishes provision for three prebendaries in that church, is a curiosity, and may be amusing: it is extracted from entries made in the reign of Henry IV.

"Memorandum.-That all the tenants of the Lord, in bondage, as well free as natives, in Norwell, Woodhouse, and Willoughby, whereof three only are natives, being charged to declare the truth, concerning the customs and services of their tenements, say, that every one holding a bovate of land, or any messuage in the place of a bovate, ought to plough one day in sowing time in the winter, receiving from the Lord, for that work, wheaten bread and pease to the value of three pence, and to harrow with one horse, receiving, for the same, bread to the value of two pence; likewise he is bound to do the same services, at lent sowing, at the same price: also to weed with an hoe, for which he is to receive bread to the value of an halfpenny; he ought also, together with his companions, to mow the Lord's meadows in Northying, containing thirteen acres, for which he and the rest of the mowers of the same meadow, whose number is twenty four, shall eat in the Prebendal-house as follows: first, they shall have bread and beer, potage, beef, pork, and lamb, for the first course; and for the second, broth, pigs, ducks, veal or lamb roasted; and, after dinner, they are to sit and drink, and then go in and out of the hall three

13

three times, drinking each time they return; which being done, they shall have a bucket of beer, containing eight flagons and an half, which bucket ought to be carried on the shoulders of two men through the midst of the town, from the Prebendal-house unto the aforesaid meadow, where they are to divert themselves with plays the remainder of the day, at which plays the Lord shall give two pair of white gloves. On the day following, the mowing shall be made into heaps, for which work they shall have from the Lord four pence only, to drink; and when the hay shall have become dry, all the twenty four tenants shall carry the same unto the manse of the prebend, and there house it, for which they shall have, in bread, to the value of a penny per cart load, and each person assisting thereat (called treaders) shall have, for his work, bread, in value an halfpenny; and the aforesaid twenty four tenants shall mow three acres of the Lord's meadow in the Moor, and they, with the tossers, carrying the hay from the same meadow, shall toss it once, and every one working thereat shall have, from the Lord, bread, to the value of an halfpenny; and the Lord shall dispose of the rest; and every tenant holding an entire bovate of land, shall, with his companions, reap, &c. the Lord's corn, from the beginning to the end of autumn, with two men, receiving from the Lord, each day, for every one at work, bread to the value of one penny, and three herrings: likewise every tenant shall carry two cart loads of corn from the fields of Norwell to the manse of the prebend, and shall not therefore receive, from the Lord, any thing; and, at the end of autumn, the Lord shall give, to all his tenants so mowing, four pence, to drink, and one pair of white pigeons.'

In the chapter dedicated to founders, benefactors, and patrons, Paulinus, the reputed first archbishop of York, said to have been consecrated A. D. 625, on the authority of the venerable Bede, is asserted to have been the founder of the church of Southwell. How far this is fact or fable, it is of no import. ance now to inquire. The first instance of liberality to this ecclesiastical establishment, on authentic record, is that of Eadwy, king of England, who bestowed on Oscitel, his favourite, archbishop of York, and patron of this church, all the royal demesne in Southwell. In a subsequent paragraph, Mr. Dickinson explains the reason of this monarch's generosity:

In the reign of this Eadwy it was, that the monks began to rise in esteem and influence. The crown, at this time, appears to have been elective, and the clergy to have entirely influenced the elections. The diadem had been placed on the head of Eadwy by the secular elergy, in opposition to the monks; therefore he, in return, amply endowed their societies.'

Most of the early archbishops of York are found among the benefactors of Southwell; and the author, who 'professes only to deal obliquely in biography, after the mention of their names in chronological order, subjoins, in notes, some spirited