GEORGE BARNWELL. THE Editor's Preface, p. 171. After what I have there said respecting Lillo's death and burial, I found it stated in Cibber's Lives of the Poets, (Vol. V. p. 340) that "He died Sept. 3, 1739, and was buried in the "vault of Shoreditch church." I requested a friend,' therefore, to apply to see the Register of Burials of that Parish, where he found" Lillo-George, from Rother"hith, Sept. 6, 1739." At p. 218, Note, I have given an extract from The Globe newspaper for November 17, 1810, respecting the Scene of the murder of the Uncle of George Barnwell. Since that was written, I have been directed to A Letter in The Gentleman's Magazine for October 1810, which I will here transcribe: "Mr. URBAN, "Shrewsbury, Aug. 13. "LILLO'S celebrated Tragedy of George Barnwell "having by some been imputed to fiction, and by others "to an event said to have happened at Camberwell; and "the whole still remaining in apparent obscurity; the "following observations, which arose from visiting a 66 place near Ludlow in Shropshire, may be deemed wor "thy of notice by the curious. The place alluded to is "called Hucks Barn, a short mile from Ludlow, on the "Leominster road, which is said to have been the resi"dence of the Uncle of George Barnwell; and a plot of ❝land near it still bears the appellation of Barnwell's 66 green, so named from his waiting there to rob his uncle "as he returned from Leominster fair; near to this green "is a wood, or thicket, in which he perpetrated the "horrid deed. The following extract from the old ballad "will further corroborate the fact of its being at or near "Ludlow. "Nay I an uncle have; "At Ludlow he doth dwell: "He is a grazier, which in wealth "The uncle might reside in Ludlow, and keep the house and land in his possession at Hucks Barn for the con"venience of keeping cattle, and as an occasional resi dence, which is the case with the present possessor. "The house is likewise a pretty clear index to the ballad, "it being, according to its general appearance, of the ❝ time of King James I. From the above observations "it seems evident, that the Play was founded on a sad catastrophe that really happened at that place. Thinking a view of the house, in which the unfortunate "Uncle of the infatuated Barnwell occasionally resided, << would be worth preserving in Mr. Urban's Museum, Í ❝ have enclosed one taken at the time I visited the place, «July 2, 1805. (See Plate 1.) D. PARKES." I have also met with a little volume called MEMOIRS OF GEORGE BARNWELL; The unhappy subject of Lillo's celebrated Tragedy; Derived from the most authentic source, and intended for the Perusal and instruction of the Rising Generation. By A Descendant. of the Barnwell Family. 12mo. 1810. 66 This work lays claim to the most undoubted authority. The Author, at p. 4, of the Dedication, calls it an authentic, and hitherto unknown, history." P. 85, he says, "We have received a description of "the unfortunate youth's feelings at this period, from *"See Percy's "Reliques of Antient Poetry," Vol. III. p. 260." "the same source whence we have derived the preceding "minute detail of antecedent circumstances, and as the "statement was drawn up by him, while pent up in his "dungeon, we cannot do better than to give it, exactly "in his own words, since the reader will form a more "correct opinion of the state of his mind." Again, p. 91. "while one account informs us," &c. 46 our more authentic information leads us to believe," &c. P. 106, after Barnwell is committed to the Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, it states that "His time was "occupied in prayer, in opening the state of his mind, "and all his guilty conduct to the ordinary, who was "extremely attentive to him, and in writing down the particulars of his past life, for the benefit of young "C men, who should feel themselves tempted to leave the ડ paths of integrity and virtue. It was from a copy of "this narrative, a few of which were printed and dis"persed by Mr. Strickland," the Master of Barnwell, the Thoroughgood of the play, "after the melancholy event, that the author of this sketch was enabled to "draw these minute circumstances in the preceding pages, "which, were their authenticity not unimpeachable, "would give to it the appearance of fable." And again, p. 115, Note," the manner of Barnwell's "introduction to her, was precisely the same as it is << given in a preceding part of this work, which the "reader may rely on to be authentic in every parti❝cular." This authentic history then makes George Barnwell to have been tried at the Assizes at Kingston, on Friday, the 18th of October, 1706, before the Lord Chief Baron Bury, and Mr. Justice Powel. p. 112. It appears, however, from Bp. Percy's Preface to the ballad of George Barnwell, (Reliques, Vol. III. p. 248.) that it was printed at least as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. "It is here given from three old printed copies, which exhibit a strange intermixture of "Roman and black letter. It is also collated with ano"ther copy in the Ashmole Collection at Oxford, which 66 "is intitled, "An excellent ballad of GEORGE BARN"WELL, an apprentice of London, who ... thrice robbed his master and murdered his vncle in Lud"low." This, and the Letter before given from the Gents. Mag., I must confess, outweigh in my mind, the claims of the Memoirs. Yet the Author gives the names of the Counsel, both for the Crown and the Prisoner, with their speeches, and the names of the Witnesses called on the trial. October is not now the usual season for the Assizes, nor can I find that it was so at the beginning of the last century. That the book was written with an intention to benefit the rising generation in a moral point of view, I have no doubt from its general tenor; but I conceive the endeavouring to pass this off as genuine, in opposition to former narratives, is wrong in itself, and unfair by them. On such literary impositions I have said somewhat before, (p. 91;) but I conceive the author of this as making pretensions beyond the authors of those works mentioned before. This is an absolute claim; those are a sort of half, or playful, pretensions. If there be a narrative printed by Mr. Strickland, of course it can be produced. But, though I conceive the author to have intended his work to have a good moral effect, yet I think there are faults in it. Some of the descriptions are too particular. At page 122, the Lord Chief Baron, in summing up the evidence, is made to say, speaking of women of loose and infamous character, "it is much to be re"gretted that their existence, must, from motives of ob"vious necessity, be tolerated in an enlightened coun"try." If, by the word tolerated, the author mean suffered to appear openly and shamelessly, as they do in our streets and public places, I cannot agree with him; but, if his meaning be merely, that we cannot altogether get rid of them, that I fear is too true; but I think that much might be done towards preventing them appearing so much in public, and much might be done in changing the public opinion with respect to thinking it a . venial fault for youth, and men in general, to have commerce with them. At p. 90, G. Barnwell, in his narrative of the murder of his uncle, is made to say, 66 At this instant, Satan 66 prompted me with an irresistible impulse." We have the highest authority for saying that God never suffers any one to be tempted above what he is able to bear by divine assistance, which will be given by being asked for; and, with every temptation, will make a way to escape. (1 Cor. x. 13. Luke xi. 13.) The temptation might be strong, VERY STRONG; but we are not justified in saying that any temptation is irresistible. In Barnwell's address to the court after his trial, he says (p. 125)" the short remaining period of my existence will be spent in seeking that heavenly peace ❝ and joy, which even the murderer may ask in contri tion, of offended heaven." Here, I think the author has passed over an opportunity which seemed to call decisively for mention of salvation through the Saviour: and, (p. 126.) it is said of Milwood, "May her present sorrows recompense for present crimes." The author, I suppose, meant to say past crimes; but no sorrows could recompense for them. Jane Shore (see Vol. I. p. 114.) is made to say of her tears, "They fall for my offences and must fall "Long, long,- -nor can they wash my stains away." In these Memoirs no mention is made of the fate of Milwood, by which omission a very valuable part of the *lesson to such unhappy women is lost. It appears, (p. 134) that Mr. Surr has written a Navel, in 3 volumes, on the story of George Barnwell, of which the author says, that Mr. S. has wisely deviated "more from the truth than Lillo, correctly judging, that passages which might pass current when delivered from "the stage would be accounted tedious and uninterest66 ing by those who are much in the habit of reading "novels. Notwithstanding he has lost sight of the real "circumstances of the tale, he has contrived to inter |