in the town-ball; but of that, or of the Ac aucto didici fortius ore loqui. tower; which tradition reports as the 6 By an act paffed 30 Geo. II. for improving the town. 7 During the progrefs of Charles the Firit in the Weft, on the 25th of July, 1644, he flept one night at Dr. Marwood's, a phyfician, in Honiton Colletanca Curiofa, vol. II. No. Xill. This was, doubtless, the fon of the above. This house is now the property and refidence of W. J. Tucker, M.A. rector of Widworthy, who is a maternal defcendant from both these. The house was built by John Marwood, physician, and Bridget his wife, 1619. heads heads erafed proper, for Marwood · In the North-eaft corner: a hand fome monument for John Blagdon, efq. buried 10th December, 1714, aged 45, and many of the family. Arms: Az. three trefoils Argent, on a chief indented Gules, two annulets Or, for Blagdon: other fhields with alliances. On the South fide: a monument for James Sheppard, efq. ferjeant at law, and member for Honiton, who died 1730, aged 49. Arms: Quarterly, ft and 4th, Sable, a fefs Argent, in chief three battleaxes paleways of the fecond, with a label; 2d and 3d, Argent, a lion rampant with femée of crofflets fitchy, Gules: Creft, a dog fejant Argent, fpotted with blood, hoofed Or, on a wreath Argent and Sable. A fmall marble fhield for Elijah Blampin, gent. who died 4th December, 1787, aged 59. A marble buft of William Gill, efq. who died 4th December, 1756, aged 72; with others of the family. Arms: Per fefs, Azure and Argent, on a bend Sable three quatrefoils of the fecond; a lion's head erazed and croflet fitchy, at top, and, in bafe, counterchanged. On a flat ftone in the chancel, an elegant Latin infcription for Ezra Cleaveland, B. D. rector of Honiton, who died 7th Auguft, 1740, aged 80. On two pillars, the Courtenay arms, Topaz, three torteaux. Оп two pillars, in the chancel, Pray for the Joul of John Takell, and Jone bys wyffe, with a mildrine Sable between 9. The altar-piece is of stone, with gilt tablets of the Creed, &c.; the railing raised on black and white marble lozengy. The organ-gallery and fcreen is finely pain. ted and gilt, and of curious workmanfhip. The brass chandeliers were given by Sir William Yonge, K. B. The font is small, lined with lead. The pulpit plain; over which, at angles, in the cieling, are four faces, carved and painted, habited feparately with wings, a mitre, a cowl, and armour; perhaps defigned for St. Michael, the dedicatory faint, the bifbop, the incumbent, and the patron, emblematic as fupporters of the fabrick 10. Of Rectors.-In Edward Ift, Henry de Pynkenee ". In Edward IIId, Mr. Sowerdon. In Henry VIIIth, Matthew Fayrman, Mr. Bale, Mr. Tripp, Mr. Parke died in 1564, Henry Steevens who fucceeded died within the year 1564, Mr. Slade, Mr. Dowrish, Andrew Cockram, who died 1598, was fucceeded by John Robins. 1605, Philip Nichols. 1613, John Eedes, B. D. who, being a Royalist, was in 1648 fequeftered, and fucceeded, pro tempore, by Francis Sourton, a celebrated preacher, who, on the act of uniformity paffing, refigned, and, in 1662, was fucceeded by Ozias Upcott. 1698, Ezra Cleaveland, B.D. 1740, Charles Bertie, M.A. 1788, Edward Honywood, B.A. The patronage in the Courtenay family. At the vifitation of the College of Aims, in 1620, no perfon entered either pedigree or arms from Honiton. Of Benefactions -Thefe are preferved on two tablets in the church; the moft remarkable of which is, the chapel of St. Margaret, with a leffer houfe adjoining, and tenements and lands for its fupport, which was left in 1550 by Thomas Chard, the last abbot of Ford, who was born at Tracey, near Honiton, and took his degree of D.D. in St. John's college, 1505. By a decree in Chancery, it is now vefted in the rector and churchwardens for the admiffion of poor perfons 12. This chapel (fee plate II.) has one small bell, is 33 feet long, Of which, for particular reasons, we request the favour of a copy. EDIT. There are no armorial infignia recorded in the College of Arms for Takell, nor in Sir W. Pole's Collection of Arms of Devonshire families; but the name is arranged in the list. This John Takell was a perfon of property, who lived in Honiton in Henry the Seventh's time. He was verfed in the law: and his only daughter married Baldwin Mallet, folicstor to Henry VIII. On two flat ftones, near the above pillars, are thefe infcriptions: "Hie jacet Jobanna Takell, vidua, quæ obiit 13 die Julii, 1529," "Hic jacet magifter Johannes Rygge, quendam rector bujus ecclefiæ, thefaurus Créditon." "No date to the latter; but to each, "Cujus anima parcet Deus. Amen.” 10 This beautiful church is in expectation of a picture from the pencil of Ozias Humphry, efq. as a tribute of respect and love for the place of his birth. 11 Who was proctor for the Bishop of Exeter in the parliament held at Carlifle. See Atterbury's Rights of an English Convocation, p. 488. The earlier part of the lift of rectors 1 prefent on the authority of a memorandum in an old register. 12 A small acknowledgement is paid to Sir George Yonge, K. B. the chapel having been built on a fpot given from the manor of Battishorn. A chapel of the fame name, and a leffer house adjoining, exifted at Taunton prior to Henry VIII. See Toulmin's History of Taunton, 4to, 1791, 13 feet 13 feet wide, contains an humble defk, a form, and books. Prayers, by one of the charity, are read twice a-week. Mr. Prince and Mr. Wood affert Thomas Chard to be the founder; but Mr. Cleaveland affirms it to have exifted before his time 13. Those whom the vindictive Jeffreys had executed at Honiton, for favouring Monmouth, were, near this fpot, boiled in pitch, and their limbs placed on the fhambles, and other public places: Mr. Potts, a young furgeon, of Honiton, died with great fortitude 14. The name of Honiton is of obfcure etymology. Ton fignifies a babitation, a town; boni 15, in the old Norman French, fignified the fame as bonte does now, that is, fame or difgrace. An old legend relates, that, at a certain time, almost all the women of the place were barren, and of courfe childlefs; that, to remedy this evil, they were enjoined by the priests to repair to St. Margaret's chapel, and pafs one whole day and night there in prayer, when, by means of a vifion, they would become pregnant; and the faint never abused their confidence. The arms of the borough (fee the great feal, pl. II. fg. 2), which are fingular, seem to allude to fomewhat of this kind, though perhaps of Saxon origin. It reprefents a pregnant female in devotion to an idol aufpicious to parturient women, an obftetric hand above beneath an honey fuckle, the whole furrounded with beads. There is now, however, no occafion for any invocation to the faint, the boni, or fame and disgrace, of the town, being long fince completely done away. The vicinity, though not fo populous as more inland fituations, boafts a neighbourhood as replete with friend. fhip, hofpitality, and politenefs. The reprefentatives are, Sir George Yonge, K.B. and George Templer, efq. The prevalent amufements are dancing and card-affemblies, and reading focieties. I will conclude with a flate of the Regifter for thefe laft twelve years. The earliest Regifter commences in 156416. TOWEVER rude the monuments Hof our ancestors may appear to the eyes of a more civilized race, I doubt not, but the humble tumulus will convey to pofterity as deep an impreffion of the brave act ons performed by its now-mouldering contents, as the magnificent and gorgeous marbles that decorate our nobleft edifices; and that long after thofe are defaced by the unerring hand of Time, the green-turfed mound, and grey-moffy ftone, without the aid of fculpture, will fay, Here fleeps, on his humble bed, a warrior.' At what period one of the following deferiion (lately difcovered and opened by the Lord of the Manor of Crosby Garrot, in the county of Westmoreland) has been raised, I know not; fome of your correfpondents, more critically acquainted with fuch antiquities, may probably be able, from the following account, to fay what æra produced it. Six bodies were cafed in ftone coffins made of the flates common in that country. The bottom of each confifted of two or three ftones well joined, every fide had from two to four, which were rather obliquely placed, over which were laid ftones, fimilar to the fides, all the length; there had not been any cement ufed, but each edge lay about an inch over the other. Over these fix, earth and ftones had been thrown about 6 inches higher than the coffins, and then four others exactly like the former (all due North and South) upon them, which were all covered about two feet; there appeared not to have been any distinction to any particular 13 Prince's Worthies of Devon; Wood's Athen. Oxon,; Cleaveland's Hiftory of the Courtenays, folio. 14 Locke's Western Rebellion, 8vo, Taunton. 15 A tenement of Sir George Yonge's, in Luppit, is called Honiwell. This fhews the word was in use. 16 In June, 1724, twenty-nine perfons died of the fmall pox. In July, fifty-four died; fifty of the fame diforder. In 1731, nearly the fame number in a month: inoculation was then little known. 178c, were many children of disease. 1783, influenza prevailed. Since the tax on baptifms, in 1783, many perfons evade the entering by private baptism. 1788, three perfons were buried in one week, whofe united ages were 272 years. body, 4 body, as in that opened at Halford Bridge. Around the whole (which was about 10 yards in circumference) a circle of flat ftones were placed edgeway, with their tops but juft appearing above the ground. The bones of thole that were opened were not much decaved; one skull had apparently been cloven half down by a fharp inftrument, and other bones mutilated; the teeth in most of them were perfect. No armour or cloathing appeared to have been inhumed with the bodies. The whole lay open a few days, and then was reltored as nearly to its former state as could be. It is fituated in a common pafture called Bullfat, under a hill, around which the remains of a foffe are still in many places to be traced. At the top of the hill are two more mounds, like the other (though not fo large) which have never been opened, and which, I doubt not, are fimilar tumuli. Yours, &c. T. C. Mr. URBÁN, Dec. 6. As your correfpondent Cliffordientis intimates a fear left his extended account of Lovelace should become tirefome, I beg to affure him, that many conftant readers of the Gentleman's Magazine have been highly gratified by his intelligent remarks, and are fo! citous he should fill extend them to fuch other poetical writers of the last century as have been too flightly noticed, or altogether overlooked in the feveral mif. cellaneous republications of our earlier poets. It would difplay a want of candour I cannot fufpect in the modern editors of the Biographia, if they did not avail themselves of fuch communications; and it is but common juftice to the memory of departed merit, that those who are poffeffed of critical or biographical information fhould at this time be liberal in imparting it, to afford an opportunity for incorporating fuch Collectanea into the body of our national repofitory for the lives of eminent men. Mr. Headley's obvious inattention to Habing:on is not compatible with his ufual diligence or good taste. He has paffed in filence and neglect over the two first parts of his elegant amatory effufions, entituled Caftara; and has even reprinted Langbaine's feanty notices of the poet, without referring to the more copious information of Wood, who has given many particulars refpe&ting him, in which every reader of his poetry muft feel interented. Your cor refpondent, I believe, has not mentioned, that feveral copies of commendatory Verfes by Lovelace were prefixed to the Dramatic Pieces of Fletcher, whom he feems greatly to have admired t. Lovelace himfelf is faid to have written two plays, The Scholar, a comedy, and The Soldier, a tragedy, neither of which were printed. Yours, &c. T. P. P. S. Can Cliffordienfis give any ac count of Robert Farlie, who published, in 1638, a Kalendar of Man's Life, and Moral Emblems, English and Latin, or of the Davifons, from whofe Mifcellany Dr. Percy printed two Poems, one by Sir W. Raleigh, the other by Francis Davifon, of whom he only remarks, that "he was fon of that unfortunate feeretary of state, who fuffered fo much from the affair of Mary Queen of Scots?" See Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 218. Mr. URBAN, Dublin, Jan. 15. IN V your vol. LXII. p. 901, J. M. an Exeter correfpondent, propoles leveral queries concerning the antient family of Vaux in England, a branch of which fettled in Scotland, in the reign of David the Ift. As I am fond of looking into old pedigrees, I have taken fome pains to obtain information on this fubject, and have fucceeded in gathering the following particulars: Nicholas Lord Vaux of Harrowden was, it is well known, fo created the 15th Henry VIII. His fon Thomas Lord Vaux, dying in 1595, was fucceeded by William his fon and heir, whofe fon George married Elizabeth, daughter of John Roper Lord Teynham; but, dying in the life-time of his father, he never had the title, which, on the death of William, defcended to his grandfon Edward, the laft Lord Vaux, who dying in the year 1661, without iffue, left two furviving *To the eight following: Philafter; Cuftom of the Country; Spanish Curate; Humorous Lieutenant; Mad Lover; Little Frech Lawyer; Valentinian; and Woman's Prize. This we may gather from his Address "to Fletcher reviv'd." "How have I been religious? What strange good Has fcap't me that I never understood? Have I hell-guarded hærefie o erthrowne ? That fate fhould be fo merciful to me, fifters, Mary married to Sir George Simeon, of Baldwin Brightwell, Oxfordfhire; and Catharine the wife of Henry Neville Lord Abergavenny; the daugh ter and heiress of the former married Sir John Conyers of Sokeburn, whose daughter Anne, fole heir to her father, was wife of Francis Talbot, eleventh Earl of Shrewsbury, whofe daughter Mary, at length heir, alfo fole heir to her mother, was married to John Stoner, Efq. of Stoner and Watlington Park, in Oxfordshire, whofe immediate defcendants in a direct line are, I believe, ftill in poffeffion of thofe eftates. As to Catharine, the other fifter of the laft Lord Vaux, and wife of Lord Aberga venny, the had by her marriage two fons and three daughters, viz. John and George, Catharine, Frances, and Elizabeth. The former, dying without iffue, was fucceeded in the title of Abergavenny by George. As to the fifters, I can only learn that one was married and had iffue, viz. Elizabeth wife of Thomas Stoner, father to the abovenamed John. George Lord Abergaven ny left two children, George and Bridget, the former died without iffue in 1694. The latter, heir to her brother, was married to Sir John Shelley, Bart. of Mitchellgrove, Suffex, whose daughter Frances Shelley, an only child, was married to Richard Viscount Fitzwilhams in this kingdom, grandfather to the prefent Lord Viscount Fitzwilliams, by which it appears probable that the title of Vaux is held in abeyance between tha: family and the Stoners. VA A GENEALOGIST. Mr. URBAN, Bermuda, 08. 26. "De mortuis nil nifi verum.” ALUABLE as your Obituary is, by being apparently the only public, general, and authentic, record of mortality, to which many might in future be induced to recur; it is not very eafy to avoid the two extremes of panegyric and cenfure. Notwithstand ing the old clamour of the degeneracy of the age, and that former times were better than thefe; I trust there exifts in Britain as much real virtue in the prefent as at any former period, and that it will not fuffer in comparifon with any country; and though many of your portraits are fomewhat highly coloured, I have no doubt they are likeneffes from nature: yet, in fome late reprefenta tions of high life, whether owing to pride of family or partiality of friends (I know, Mr. Urban, that you are far above being influenced by the tincture of golden rod), too much varnish hath occasionally injured the resemblance. Allow me alfo to afk, whether your recital of a late fingular dream (vol. LXI. p. 408), unless, powerfully au thenticated, does not tend to cherish Superftition; and, if true, what good can refult from it? From the article of commiffion, permit me briefly to difcufs what I think effential to that of omiffion. If, by a great diftance and obfcurity of a place, and a confequent paucity of European intelligence, any public investigation of the amiable character of the late Viscountess Courtenay hath hitherto escaped me, I fhall gladly acquiefce in the rectitude of my intention; if otherwife, permit me, with ftri&t veracity to affure you, I long and intimately knew her an orna. ment to the ftation in which it pleafed Providence to place her; who religiously discharged the refpe&ive duties of wife, of parent, and of friend. I have known "the bleffing of them that were ready to perifh come upon her," and have often feen her "to caufe the widow's heart to fing for joy." This many of her neighbouring clergy were not frangers to, though oftentation was foreign to her character; and I marvel at their fupineness, in not pointing out fo fhining an example in a manner much fuperior to the imperfect, though well-meant, endeavours of Yours, &c. W. Mr. URBAN, Ottery St. Mary, Feb.10. IN Du Halde's Account of China, Hoeng Kong asked his minifter, What was to be moft feared in a Government? Nothing, replied he, is more to be dreaded, than what they call the rat in the flatue. Query. Whether Mr. Warton, late Poet Laureat, and whose memory by me will ever be held in reverence, was not obliged to this hint, for the very beautiful fimile, introduced in that most excellent Poem, called the Triumph of Ifis? "Thus in the stately ship, that long has bore Britain's victorious cross from fhore to fhore, By chance, beneath her clofe fequefter'd cells, Some low-born worm, a lurking mischief, dwells; Eats his blind way, and faps with fecret toil X. Mr. |