rustie work in stone. It consists of only one floor, on which are the two courts, a council-room, a grand-jury room, apartments for the several officers of the corporation, a waiting-room, and a vestibule. The council-room is seventy-five feet in length, and twenty-four in height, as well as in width, and forms the right wing of the building. The projection of the bow is fourteen feet six inches, its diameter being more than thirty-two feet. In this room the court of common council is holden, and the Mayor and Corporation give their public entertainments. It is ornamented with three excellent pictures: Queen Anne (who gave the last charter to this city), by Dahl; the Earl of Radnor, (founder of the building); and the late William Hussey, Esq. M. P. for the city (who gave a thousand pounds for furnishing and ornamenting the several apartments), by Hoppner. That of the Earl of Radnor, who is represented in his Recorder's robes, is esteemed a finely finished picture; as is also Mr. Hussey's; the latter is represented with the report in his hand from that memorable Committee of the whole House of Commons, which resolved" That the influence of the crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished." The Mayor's chair, which is of mahogany, and a beautiful piece of carving, was presented to the Corporation by the Hon. W. H. Bouverie, the other representative in parliament. The grand-jury room, wherein the justices also hold their meetings, is thirty-five feet in length, twenty feet six inches in width, and fourteen in height. Here are some good original portraits of various benefactors to the city, viz. King James I.; John, Duke of Somerset; Bishop Seth Ward; Sir Robert Hyde, chief justice of England; Sir Samuel Eyre, justice of the King's Bench; Giles Tooker, Esq. recorder of Salisbury; Sir Thomas White, founder of St. John's College, in Oxford; William Chiffinch, Esq. master of the wardrobe to King Charles II.; and Joan-Poplé. B 2 THE CORPORATION Consists of a Mayor, Recorder, Deputy Recorder, twenty-four The Earl of Pembroke is High Steward of the City. Robert Benson, Esq. Deputy Recorder. J. P. Tinney W. B. Brodie E. Davies Aldermen. Mr. T. Goddard Mr. J. Bennett Mr. J. Cobb Dr. S. Fisher Mr. G. Atkinson, Mr. J. Bennett, Mr. G. F. Cooper Mr. T. Brown Mr. J. Hussey Mr. C. W. Everett Mr. H. Shorto Mr. S. Foot Mr. G. Sampson Chamberlains. Mr. J. M. Hodding, Town-Clerk. The Mayor, two Chamberlains, four Aldermen of the Wards, three Serjeants at Mace, two Beadles, four High Constables, and thirteen Sub Constables, are elected annually by virtue of the Charter. EMINENT MEN OF SALISBURY. FRANCIS HYDE, was born in this city, and died secretary to the English embassy at Venice. There being some resemblance between both places, in the circumstance of canals, it gave the wits a handle for the following Epitaph: Born in the English Venice thou didst die, WALTER WINTERBOURNE, (according to Godwin) a native of this city, entered into the Dominican order. He was a good poet and orator, an acute philosopher, and a deep controversalist, which recommended him for confessor to King Edward I. His eminence, and the favor of that prince, recommended him to the Cardinalate of St. Sabine. Going to Rome, to the election of Clemont V., he died at Genoa, and his corpse was brought to London, and interred, A. D. 1305. WILLIAM HOREMAN, was born in Salisbury, and bred at Eton; from thence he removed to King's College, Cambridge. He was made vice provost of Eton, where he died in 1535. The Catalogue of his works by Bale, justly entitles him to the character of the most universal scholar of his time. HUMPHREY BECKHAM, was born in 1588. His parents would have brought him to the clothing business had it been possible to alter his predisposition to another art. Humphrey was constantly shaping rude figures in wood and clay, which determined his father to apprentice him to a Mr. Rosgrave, painter and carver. These arts, particularly the last, had arrived at tolerable perfection; the church had constant occasion for croziers, crucifixes, images of Saints, &c. But what animated artists, was the building of sepulchres, and the expensive decorations of monuments. Instances of this sort formerly were very common, not only in cathedrals, but in parochial churches; and in truth, many of them show a richness of invention, and a regularity of disposition that is admirable. King Charles I. made a large collection of paintings and statues, and had some taste for the fine arts, but the troubles during most part of his reign, prevented any improvement. At this unfavorable æra was Beckham born; and he lived to see it thought meritorious to destroy, with more than Gothic barbarity, the statues of Saints and eminent men, and every remains of ancient ingenuity: no place was a greater sufferer than the cathedral of Salisbury; numberless statues were placed in the niches on the outside of the church, and others in devout attitudes; but so great was the fury of Cromwell's soldiers, that though they indulged themselves in rapes, murders, and rapine, without any remorse, they pretended to abominate a statue; even those of private families, and the brazen arms on the monuments of the deceased, were defaced and carried away under the notion of removing superstition. Beckham now advanced in years, his genius was on the decline; the troubles of a family prevented him from attending to that walk in which he could excel; he spent the latter part of his life in obscurity, yet above want. Some time before his decease be carved his monument on the west wall of St. Thomas's church; it represents the Angel of the Lord appearing to the Shepherds, and also some other parts of Scripture. The design, execution, and perspective, are not inconsiderable for the hand of untutored nature. He died Feb. 2, 1671, aged eighty-three years. HENRY LAWES, was the son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral of Salisbury Cathedral. He was educated, with his brother William, under Giovanni Coperario (supposed by Fenton, in his Notes on Waller, to be an Italian, but really an Englishman, under the plain name of John Cooper), at the expence of Edward, Earl of Hertford. In the year 1625, he became a gentleman of the royal chapel, and was afterwards of the private music to King Charles I. In the Bishop's palace there is a portrait of him, marked with his name, and œtat sua, 26, 1622. For a more particular account, the curious reader is referred to Warton's Note on Milton's Sonnet, addressed to Lawes. JAMES HARRIS, the well-known author of Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Language and Universal Grammar, was the son of James Harris, Esq. of the Close, and Lady Elizabeth, one of the sisters of Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, who wrote the Characteristics. From this nobleman, and from his other uncle, the Hon. Maurice Ashley Cooper, the translator of the Cyropædia of Xenophon, Mr. Ifarris may be imagined to have inherited that elegance of taste, and passion for literature, for which he was so eminent. He received the first rudiments of his. education from the Rev. Mr. Hele, in the grammarschool of the Close, from whence, in the year 1726, |