EXPLANATION OF A NEW INVEN

TION FOR STOPPING THE PROGRESS OF FIRE ON BOARD OF

SHIPS, BY MR. JOHN READ OF WOOLWICH.

FRO

ROM the great confufion occafioned by the alarm of fire on board a ship, with the difficulty often of afcertaining the precife fpot where it is, it appears almoft impoffible to devife any means to prevent the progrefs of fuch an accident when once it has got head.

The only means that feem to promife fuccefs is, to convey water to any part of the ship according to the following method: To place frong pipes through the decks, clofe to the fides of the veffel:thofe going to the hold must be cafed, to prevent their being damaged by moving ftores between the decks. Thefe may be fo diftributed, that every part between the decks may be within the reach of a stream of water illuing from them. The magazine and place where fpirits and inflammable ftores are kept ought to have the greatest number of pipes about them, to prevent the fire reaching those parts.

Streams of water to the part on fire may be directed by a lever fixed on the top of the pipe, the end of which correfponding with the aperture below, the fame vertical plane will pafs through the lever and the fiream.

Small engines, such as those used for watering gardens, will be fufficient for the purpose. Two men only will be required for the fervice of each pipe, one to fupply it, and the other to direct the ftream. JOHN READ.

Royal Military Repository, Woolwich.

Mr. URBAN, Hawarden, Jan, 3. Do not know whether any of your Correfpondents have fent you intormation of a Sword + which has the ap

* This Invention, being the best for the purpose which had been prefented to the Society, and free from their objection of ever having been before the Public, obtained for Mr. Read the diftinguished honour of the Premium; and to him it muft ever be a gratifying reflection, that he has contributed a means to preferve feamen from one of the most dreadful calamities attending Navigation.. EDIT.

+I do not know whether I call it property; or it is a cutlafs or hanger; but, from the annexed sketch of it, (Plate II.fig 2.) you will be able to fay what is the proper Bame it should be called by.

GENT. MAG. March, 1793.

of

ΑΝΝΟ

On the left fide of the blade, next the DEO GLORIA; there a date, SOLI fimilar effigies to that on the right side, with the fame infcription round it; then, across the blade, FIDE, SED CUI VIDE; then to the hilt a fimilar effigies of a warrior on horfeback. The hilt and guard are of fteel, gilt with gold, the handle of fhagreen with filver threads round it, one of which only remains at prefent. The gilding is partly off, being corroded with ruft, which has alfo confiderably affected the blade.

It was long in the poffeffion of the family of the Whitmores, of Thirftafton, in Wirral, Chefhire. How it came into that family I know not; but it seems that it was highly prized by them, as the laft Jofeph Whitmore, Efq. is faid to have refused fifty guineas for it from a gentleman in London, who wished to have it to be depofited in fome public museum.

It is now in the poffeffion and the property of George Berks, gentleman, of Mold, Flintshire, in right of his wife, Mary, widow of John Ignatius Wright, Efq. of Plas ila, near Mold, and formerly of Brewer's Hall near Chefer. He was fon of John Wright, Eq. of Brewer's Hall, and married to his firft wife, Mary, the fifth daughter of the above Jofeph Whitmore, Eq. who by his laft will left it to his fonin-law, John Ignatius Wright, Efq, on account of the relationship which his mother, Mary, daughter of Sir John Gwillym, of Hartsheath near Mold,

was

was fuppofed to bear to the family of Oliver Cromwell,

The family of the Whitmores, of Thirstafton, I can give no account of. But the family of the Wrights came originally from York hire, and fettled at Bicklev in Cheshire. John, the feventh in defcent from the Wright who first fettled at Bickley, vixit, as the pedigree has it. 183. His fon Richard Wright, of Brickley, was fergeant at

arms, anno 1601.

Sir St. John Gwillvm, who is reported to have come from Yorkshire, married Mifs Catharine Lloyd, fole daughter and heiress of Edward Lloyd, Efq. of Heartsheath, by Mifs Catharine Wright, of Brewer's Hall; had iffue Richard Lloyd Gwillym, who fome time lived at Golbourn, in Cheshire, and the aforesaid Mary, mother of John Ignatius Wright, Efq. Richard Lloyd Gwillym, Efq. married a Mifs Whitley (probably of Afton, in the parish of Hawarden, Flintshire), whofe only fon Richard Lloyd Gwillym, Efq. married Mifs Jones, of Burton, Flintshire, whofe only daughter, Catharine, was married to Francis Wardle, Efq. of Chefter, whofe only fon Gwillym Lloyd Wardle, Efq. married Ellen, daughter and co-heirefs of Parry, Efq. of Wernfaw, Caernarvon fhire, and was High Sheriff of Flintshire, 1791.

There is a good half-length picture of Sir St. John Gwillym at Hartfheath. Your's, &c. ***

Mr. URBAN,

March 1. HE Public having been troubled THE fome months back with a correfpondence in the Gentleman's Magazine, refpecting the MSS formerly collected by Dr. Wilkes, and the Rev. T. Feilde, for a History of Staffordshire; permit me again to intrude upon your readers what I have now more particularly to advance upon that fubject; and at the fame time to acknowledge the great obligation due to your very liberal publication, for the effential fervice thereby obtained for my felf and that county.

My Queries refpecting the above collections, you may remember, were rather farcaftically, as well as moft illiberally and falfely, anfwered in the following month, (page 231.) by a Mr. A. P. who was pleafed to date his very ingenious and ingenuous epiftle from Derby. But whether that place had really the honor of giving birth, or refidence, to fo good a friend to me and the

public, I have never been able to difcover; nor has he yet condefcended to favour me with anv anfwer to my other letter communicated foon after through the fame free channel. Now, Mr. Urban. if that worthy "Well-witherto Topography in general" will have the goodness to come forward, undifguifed by any fictitious fignature, and avow his wife reafons for inferting fuch a letter, it will confer the highest obligation, both on myfelf, and on the perfons whom he dared to affert "would not fuffer thofe MSS in any shape to meet the public eye." Of what unpardonable injury fuch anonymous epiftles (if attended to) are to Society at large, and to the curious enquirer in particular, is evident from the fortunate fuccefs that has at length crowned my wishes, in fpite of all his treacherous arts to prevent it. The plain truth, in fhort, is, Sir, that the whole of thofe valuable Collections have been fince prefented to me, for the use of my intended Hiftory, upon terms the most liberal and praife. worthy; and I am proud to add, that, both in quantity and quality, they far exceed my most fanguine expectations. If it were not trefpaffing too much upon your time and paper, I fhould be glad here to offer fome trifling justice to the memory and labours of my predeceffors, in a flight sketch of their contents; particularly as fuch various and unjust opinions of them have been hitherto propagated, very much to the injury of the feveral meritorious collectors. The earliest MSS, I now find, were by Mr. Huntbach, of Fetherstone, or Seawall, in the hundred of Seifdon, who died 1704. They confift of the most valuable church-notes, extracts from old deeds, innumerable pedigrees, and regular hiftories of most of the parishes in that part of the county. The Rev. Thomas Loxdale, vicar of Leek, communicated his collections and curious additions to Erdefwick, at the requeft of the then Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, as appears by his letter to Dr. Wilkes. Mr. Hurdman, of Spot Grange, 1689, and of Stone, 1696, left alfo an admirable copy of Eidefwick, with his additions, now in the poffeflion of Charles Tollet, of Berley, Efq. who, amongst other friendly contributions, was pleased to offer me the ufe of that MS, which I here find, (with the permiffion of his late brother, George Tollet, Efq., an ingenious antiquary), copied by Dr. Wilkes, to

whofe

whofe excellent and indefatigable pen I am alfo indebted for an inexhauftible fund of other information, from the earliest and moft obfcure ages to his own times, drawn up in fo mafteily and perfpicuous a file, as at once evinces the profound fcholar and elegant antiquary. This juft opinion is not only founded upon his abundant writings in my poffeffion, but also confirmed by the various communications and correspondence upon the fubject by his contemporaries, the learned Bifhop Lyttelton, Dr. Vernon, &c. who fpeak of him as peculiarly qualined for fuch an undertaking. But, as I do not now intend to difplay all the merits of my induftrious predeceffors, I shall only add that the above collections were, at the death of Dr. Wilkes, fold by his executor, the Rev. Mr. Unett, of Stafford, for upwards of 100l. to the Rev. T. Feilde, who greatly enlarged and methodized them for the prefs, and, as is very well known in the county of Stafford, obtained fome subscriptions for publishing its Hiftory. But, whatever was the caufe of those proposals then proving unfuccefsfol, (whether from ill-grounded prejud ce, or the final relifh that formerly exited for foch useful works, compared with the prefent more enlightened and opulent period, when every laudable effort of the Arts and Sciences is moft flatteringly supported), fufficient is it for me to fay how much I am indebted for the invaluable treasure thus committed to my charge; and, in compliance with the wifhes of the generous Donor, I gladly embrace this first opportunity to inform the original encouragers of Mr. Feilde's Hiftory, that they will be entitled to become fubfcribers to the prefent work, with the deduction of their former payment. But, as it would be improper here to enlarge upon my own plan, I shall conclude with referring your readers to an intended advertisement on the cover of your next, and to the full proposals which I mean, before that time, to circulate in printed letters to the nobility and gentry, &c. of Staffordshire.

P. S. Allow me this opportunity of adding my focerett thanks to S. D. for his truly candid antwer (p. 1184) to my hafty remarks upon the IHC infcription, of which I now molt cordially concur with him in opinion, not only from at full conviction of his fuperior fkill in fuch tubjects, but alfo from a previous infpection of a fimilar and much plainer infcription. More parti

cularly do I feel S. D's polite manner of again illuftrating the fubject, after the affectedly candid instructions of R. S. (p. 1088), whoever he may be, but certainly no real encourager of Topography. S SHAW.

No 19, Thornbaugh-ft. Bedford-fquare. March 2, 1793.

Mr. URBAN,

TH

HE notice of T. P. p. 117, is too flattering to fuffer me to continue filent regarding our forgotten Poets but having left all my books on the fubject in the country, books not eafily met with, and procured by me at fome labour and expence, I must content myfelf at prefent with fending you a paper on Quarles, which has fome time lain by me, in confequence of a doubt, whether his merits were a fubje&t sufficiently novel to engage your attention. And here I take the opportunity of changing my fignature Cliffordienfis for the more appropriate one of

FERDINANDO STANLEY.

Eight or nine years ago I procured a copy of Quarles's Emblems, attracted, if I recollect, by the notice taken of him in Jackfon's Letters, though I do not remember having fince feen the latter book; nor can I recall to my mind any particulars of the author's Criticifms on them, which, as I am about to make fome fele&tions from the fame undeservedly-obfcure poet, I mention in apology for any poflible coincidence of extracts and remarks. In your vol. LVI. pp 666, 926, C. T. o. (now known to have been the fignature of the late ingenious Mr. Headley), endeavoured to prove the merit, and revive the memory, of the fame ill-ftarred bard; for which attempts both critics are very liberally attacked by a perfon under the fignature of Sharp, in your fame vol. p. 1106. When I took up the poems myself, I was delighted with the very extraordinary variety and nervoufnels of Quarles's verfincation, with the vigour and originality of his thoughts, and frequently with the frength of his language; still, however, I dftrufted my own judgement; but

now that

"Nonum prematur in annum," and that after fo long a period, during which, at intervals fufficiently diftant to leave no prejudice from former impreffions, I have repeatedly examined the book, to form my opinion from the

perufal of the moment; now, that I still continue, and have uniformly continued to think the fame, I add my moft hearty teftimony to his merits. That the finest paffages are too often debased by vulgar images, and metaphors, drawn from artificial objects, fentiments, manners, and expreffions, I cannot deny. But from this fault what poet, fo ancient, is free? Is Spenfer, or Shakspeare, or Cowley? Certainly not. Mr. Headley has not, I think, done him juftice; the particular paffages he has felected are not the most ftriking which might be found; but, if they were, here and there an excellent paffage will not constitute a good poem. I think there are whole poems, that, mixed with a few faults, are yet on the whole fuperlatively excellent.

Book I. Emblem III. is the print of a child disturbing a neft of wafps.

Prov. xiv. 13. Even in laughter the beart is forrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.

What's earth? or in it That longer than a minute

Can lend a free delight that can endure?
Or who would droil,
Or delve in fuch a foil
Where gain's uncertain, and the pain is fure?

Of the following quotation, the three laft lines are mentioned by Headley, ut fupra, p. 927; but the whole pallage is fo wonderfully fine, that it ought not to be feparated,

The world's a crafty ftrumpet, most affecting, [reject her, And clofely following thofe that most But feeming careleis, nicely disrespecting, And coyly flying those that most affec her: [he's free; Ifthou be free, she's strange; if strange, Than the there's none more coy, there's none more fond than the *.

O what a Crocodilian world is this,
Compos'd of treacheries, and infnaring
wiles!

She cloaths deftruction in a formal kiss,
And lodges death in her deceitful fimiles;
She hugs the foul the hates; and

there does prove [vows to love, The verycft tyrant, where the And is a ferpent mott, when moft she feems a dove.

Thrice happy he, whose nobler thoughts defpife

To make an object of so easy gains! Thrice happy he, who fcorus fʊ poor a

prize

[pains! Should be the crown of his heroic Thrice happy he, that ne'er was

born to try [born, did lie Her frowns and fmiles; or, being In his fad nurfe's arms an hour or two, and die!

The 10th Emblem of B. I. with a print of Cupid, Satan, and Mammon, playing bowls, contains a strong inftance of a fa fe tafte, and perversion of figurative language, for which, though it is by no means general through the work, the character of the writer has been damned. It ends with the four following ridiculous lines.

Good God! turn thou my brazil thoughts

anew;

(true

New fole my bowls, and make their bias I'll cease to game till fairer ground be given, Nor wish to win until the mark be Heaven. In Emblem 14. fome unufually fine verfes are debafed by the following paf fage.

When, when will day Begin to dawn, whofe new-born ray May gild the weather-cocks of our devotion, And give our unfoul'd fouls new motion? * This is aimoit a tranflation of a famou line in Theocritus.

With