This is alfo our ardent with; nay, we would, were our mental powers fuffici ently trong to grafp an object of fuch magnitude, not only inveftigate the revival, or rather the re-application of philofophy; for even in the gloomieft periods, though it languifhed, it was never totally extinguithed; but inquire why, after its once enlivening flame had mouldered through centuries, that have, from this circumstance, been em phatically termed dark, it should, as foon as it found a vent, be fuffered to walte itself in smoke, and rather cloud than illuminate the human faculties ? We would then how how, on the appearance of that elevated genius, Roge Bacon, whom we mentioned at the clofe of our laft Chapter, who, to adopt the quaint language of his time, may be termed the Sun of Science, the philofophical horizon became clearer, which would lead us to the contemplation of the effects of scientific attainments in the middle ages upon the religion, the morals, the manners, the commerce, and the manufactures, of the people of England in general, and the citizens of London in particular.

This, however unequal to the task, we will attempt: but as the difquifi tion already entered upon has frequently induced us to turn our thoughts to the tranfactions of ages far remote, fo has it produced in us a defire to contemplate the foundation upon which the philofophers and hiftorians of the latter part of the thirteenth, and the whole of the fubfequent centuries, erected their fcriptoral and scientific

VOL. L. AUG. 1806.

fuperftructures; a contemplation which naturally leads us to the confideration of the talents of those writers, whofe Jabours had, previous to the age of that celebrated man, adorned the literary hemifphere. Of natural and experimental philofophers, there had, from the time of the Romans, been very few in this kingdom; therefore we have chofen to dengnate the period to which we have alluded, as that of the refufcitation of thofe fciences, and alfo from the works of Roger Bacon, and of his cotemporaries, to date the existence of a fpecies of logic infinitely fuperior to what had for more than two centuries before ufurped the epithet of school divinity. We fhall therefore fuffer his age to form an epoch, and to stand as a bridge betwixt the old and the new fyttems; and while he and his cotemporaries occupy the middle space, take fome fhort notice of thofe writers that are on the remote fide; which will lead us more accurately to examine thofe that were coeval with, and sublequent to him.

Of those writers who may with propriety be termed ancient, whose works may, in many instances, be produced to rescue thofe ages in which they were written from the general opprobrium of ignorance that has been caft upon them, the catalogue is curious, and, as a fpecimen of the early effufions of genius and learning, ufeful. Hiftory, the nobleft fubject that can engage the attention or elicit the energies of intel lect, seems, before the minds of our ecclefiaftics became contaminated with the trifling logic and frivolous philofophy of the fchools, to have been their favourite purfuit, and, as the rays emanating from their pages reflect that light refpecting the transactions of early periods which has ferved to irradiate even the prefent, we conceive that a work of this nature would be incomplete if we omitted to notice those real benefactors to their country, and those zealous promoters of the honour of its metropolis, thofe literary sculptors, who have entombed its Monarchs in perrenial shrines, and ranged its nobles, its heroes, divines, merchants, manufacturers, and people in general, in the front of all the nations of Europe. We fhall, therefore, give a general lift of their names, and, in fome degree, of their writings, from the fixth to the close of the thirteenth centuries, from which

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period

Street-lane, at a houfe to which many pedlars reforted, and judged that it was now high time to think of the business that I came about, which was to employ the money that I had brought from Chester, and had taken by the way, in the pur.

chase of fresh articles.

Ardent in every thing, I could not, when I walked out the next morning, help contemplating with furprife and pleasure, that this town feems falt rifing into that fate of opulence which it now exhibits. I had remembered it when I was a boy, and found that a great number of new buildings were erected, and that others were planned. Almost every one of the inhabitants was engaged in business, almost every one usefully employed; this put me in mind of the claufe of an old act of parliament, which, as you know I ufed to dabble in these things, I intended to have quoted in my addrefs to the people of Ireland, in order to have thown the attention paid by the legislature, even in early times, to the rising manufactures of woollen, linen, and cotton, and which I fhall ftill quote in the note t; because, as I intend to blend thefe fub

* In a ftatute [8 Eliz.c.12.] the articles manufactured are specified to be cottons, frizes, and rugs; and about the fame time Manchester was diftinguished for being hand fomer than the neighbouring towns. [Camdina Britan. p. 610.] The only manufacture mentioned by Camden is the Manchester cotton, which he exprefsly calls woollen cloth, (lancorum pannoram). The real cotton, (lays the author of the Annals of Commerce, was probably unknown in England as a raw material at that time: yet, furely our Oriental trade, however contra&ted, might have made us acquainted with it.

Before A. D. 1541 Manchester was esteemed a populous town, and "had many manufactures of cloths, as well of lynnen as of woollen, by which the inhabitants of the fayde towne have obteyned, and come unto riches and welthy lyvings, and have kepte and fet many artificers and poore folkes to work within the fayde towne, and by reafon of the great occupying, good order, ftrayte and true dealinge of the inhabitants of the fayde towne, many frangers, as wel of Ireland as other places within this realme, have reforted to this towne with lynnen yarne, wolles, and other neceffary wares for making of clothes." [A 33 Hen. VIII, c. 15.]

jects with my obfervations upon copper, I fhall refume them in my next letter. I am, Sir, your obedient humble fervant, M. B. DRAPIER. M.

RYDE, IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT. [WITH A VIEW.]

THE Village of Ryde ftands in the

parish of New Church, two miles from Binftead, and paffes under two divifions, Upper and Lower Ryde, from their relative fituations. Upper Ryde ftands on a pleasant eminence, in a falubrious air, contains fome good houses, commands beautiful profpects toward Golport and Portsmouth, and is much reforted to by company during the bathing feafon. The accommodations are equal to thofe of molt other watering-places in the island; added to which are the inducements of good roads and pleafant rides, branching out from it in different directions. Lower Ryde is a straggling place, near the water's edge, under a fteep bank, at the extremity of a piece of land nearly twelve acres in extent, which feparates it from Upper Ryde. Its inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, or perfons engaged in the coafting trade. The paffage from hence to Portsmouth is the fhorteft from any point of the ifland. Boats pafs regularly every morning at feven in the fummer, and nine in the winter, to Gofport and Portsmouth; the charge is only one hilling; but a perfon wanting to cross, is empowered by Act of Parliament, to command a boat to go off at any time of the tide on paying five thillings.

The chapel at Ryde was built in 1719, by Thomas Player, Efq. who charged the manor with an annual rent of iol. payable to the vicar of New-church, to officiate therein, or provide a minister.

Toward the western extremity of the village are the bathing houses, which are fufficiently commodious. The water here is very pure, and the coaft, a beautiful fand, is thoal for nearly a mile. The channel here is about feven miles across to Portsmouth. In the neighbourhood of Ryde are several pretty villas; among which may be particularized Apley, the feat of Dr. Walker; St. John's, of Mr. Simeon ; and the Priory, of Sir Nash Grofe.

* At low water, a boat cannot ap proach within a hundred yards of the quay; in confequence of which, paffengers from Portimouth and other places are landed in a cart,

VESTIGES,

VESTIGES, collected and recollected. By JOSEPH MOSER, Efq. No. XLVIII.

A PHILOSOPHICAL AND MORAL VIEW OF ANCIENT AND MODERN LONDON.

IT

WITH NOTES, &c. Chapter XIII.

T has been the wifh of more than one fpeculator in these modern times to extend the fpirit of philofophy to the investigation of the principles, the morals, and the discoveries of ages, that have, long fince, elapfed, whofe mental, experimental, and mechanical efforts, have defcended to us as the most valuable of legacies; as they tend, under our improving hands, to promote the knowledge, to extend the commerce, and to increase the happinefs of the prefent period.

This is alfo our ardent with; nay, we would, were our mental powers fuffici ently strong to grafp an object of fuch magnitude, not only inveftigate the revival, or rather the re-application of philofophy; for even in the gloomieft periods, though it languifhed, it was never totally extinguithed; but inquire why, after its once enlivening flame had mouldered through centuries, that have, from this circumstance, been em phatically termed dark, it fhould, as foon as it found a vent, be fuffered to waste itself in smoke, and rather cloud than illuminate the human faculties ? We would then how how, on the appearance of that elevated genius, Roger Bacon, whom we mentioned at the clofe of our laft Chapter, who, to adopt the quaint language of his time, may be termed the Sun of Science, the philofophical horizon became clearer, which would lead us to the contemplation of the effects of fcientific attainments in the middle ages upon the religion, the morals, the manners, the commerce, and the manufactures, of the people of England in general, and the citizens of London in particular.

This, however unequal to the tafk, we will attempt: but as the difquifition already entered upon has frequent ly induced us to turn our thoughts to the tranfactions of ages far remote, fo has it produced in us a defire to contemplate the foundation upon which the philofophers and hiftorians of the latter part of the thirteenth, and the whole of the fubfequent centuries, erected their fcriptoral and fcientific

VOL. L. AUG. 1806.

fuperftructures; a contemplation which naturally leads us to the confideration of the talents of those writers, whofe labours had, previous to the age of that celebrated man, adorned the literary hemisphere. Of natural and experimental philofophers, there had, from the time of the Romans, been very few in this kingdom; therefore we have chofen to deugnate the period to which we have alluded, as that of the refufcitation of thole (ciences, and alfo from the works of Roger Bacon, and of his cotemporaries, to date the existence of a fpecies of logic infinitely fuperior to what had for more than two centuries before ufurped the epithet of school divinity. We fhall therefore fuffer his age to form an epoch, and to stand as a bridge betwixt the old and the new fystems; and while he and his cotemporaries occupy the middle face, take fome thort notice of those writers that are on the remote fide; which will lead us more accurately to examine those that were coeval with, and sublequent to him.

Of those writers who may with propriety be termed ancient, whofe works may, in many instances, be produced to rescue thofe ages in which they were written from the general opprobrium of ignorance that has been cast upon them, the catalogue is curious, and, as a fpecimen of the early effufions of genius and learning, ufeful. Hiftory, the nobleft fubject that can engage the attention or elicit the energies of intellect, seems, before the minds of our ecclefiaftics became contaminated with the trifling logic and frivolous philofophy of the fchools, to have been their favourite purfuit, and, as the rays emanating from their pages reflect that light refpecting the transactions of early periods which has ferved to irradiate even the prefent, we conceive that a work of this nature would be incom plete if we omitted to notice those real benefactors to their country, and those zealous promoters of the honour of its metropolis, thofe literary fculptors, who have entombed its Monarchs in perre. nial shrines, and ranged its nobles, its heroes, divines, merchants, manufactu rers, and people in general, in the front of all the nations of Europe. We fhall, therefore, give a general lift of their names, and, in fome degree, of their writings, from the fixth to the close of the thirteenth centuries, from which

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period we purpofs to inftitute a more particular inquiry refpecting the lives, &c. of thofe philofophers and authors whose works have adorned these subfe. quent ages.

Gildas Britannicus, furnamed the Wife, is the most ancient British writer of any note extant. He was born A.D. 493, and died 580 (Baker's Chronicle); though it is ftated by other authors, that he was born in the year 500, the period when the Saxons were defeated in the battle of Badon Hills, and that he wrote his treatise De Exidio Britannia when he was fixty-four years of age; alfo another against the immorality of the Clergy. The first, which he terms an Epifle, comprites the lamentable history, or ruin of Britain, and contains fome fatyric ftrokes upon the five Kings, Conftantine, Aurelius, Vortipor, Cuneglas, and Maglocun, who were Monarchs of feveral divifions of this Inland. The two firit, it has been obferved, were probably of Roman origin; and further, that perhaps Conftantine was of the family of that Confantine who was elected Emperor by the army at the beginning of the fifth century. But furely this is fuffering conjecture to wander into too wide a field. Wherefoever the Roman arms

prevailed, the Roman names were, by their conquered subjects, given to their offspring in compliment to their conquerors. This is obvious in the hif tory of every nation that became tributary to them; it is alfo natural, for it prevails even to this hour, and, as it firft produced, fo it continues, the cognominal fucceffion, from the victors to the vanquished, of which even curfory obfervation will produce many inftances.-Gilda Epift. Afferius Ant. Britan. cap. 13. Stillingfleet Origin. Britan. cap. 5.

Nennius +, a Monk of Bangor, lived

about A.D. 620. He wrote the Story of Britain *, &c.

Venerable Bede was born about A.D.. 672, at Girwy, now called Yarrow, near the mouth of the river Tyne, in the bishopric of Durham. He was, it appears, firft educated by a priest, named Ceolfrid +; afterwards by St. John of Beverly, under whofe aufpices he be

came a Monk of the town wherein he was born. Here he devoted himself

entirely to ftudy, and with fuch fuccefs, that he is allowed by the general voice of all nations and ages to have been the greatest ornament not only of Northumberland, but of England, and indeed of the western world.

In his folitude, for it is faid by some authors that he never went out of his cell, (they must mean in his latter years,) he made himself acquainted with all kinds of learning, and became fupereminently skilled in mathematics, aftronomy, and nearly the whole circle of thofe fciences that adorned ancient Greece and Rome. He afferted the rotundity of the earth, and from a prodigious number of his compofitions, one hundred and thirty-nine of which are till extant, and gathered into eight folio volumes, may be collected a body of the learning and science, together with the theology of the middle ages, which

would feem to indicate that there are fewer novelties in the fcientific fyftem than is generally believed. That Bede once refided in London is little to be doubted, as to him we are indebted for the earliest commercial notice of that city after the retreat of the Romans 1.

It

* This manufcript is in the Cotton lived in the ninth century, Biog. Dia.; library. This author is faid to have

but we are inclined to think this a mif

take, as that refers to another of the

fame name.

† A.D. 690, Ceolfrid, Abbot of Yar mouth, who was mafter of the Venerable Bede, wrote feveral letters, in Collect. Concil. Dufrefnoy's Tables, vol. ii, p. 285.

"Londonia civitas eft, fuper ripam præfati fluminis [Thamefis] pofita, et ipfa multorum emporium populcrum terra marique venientium." [Bede Hift, Ecclef. I. ii. c. 3.] King Alfred, in his tranflation of this paffage, calls the city "Lundenceafter'-and feo is monigra folce ceap ftow." Ceap ftow (merchandize place) will explain the modern name of

one

It is fuppofed, that in his latter years he devoted the whole of his life to writing his ecclefiaftical hiftory, and other works, and in inftructing the young Monks. The best edition of his history is that of 1722, folio. He died in 735

Ethelrdus, an eminent hiftorian, compofed a general Chronicle from the Creation to the end of the reign of King Edgar.

Sigebert, King of the Eaft Angles, wrote an Inftitution of the Laws. This Monarch in his latter days became a Monk; but it appears that he derived no protection from the fanctity of his character, for he is faid to have been killed by Penda the Vth, King of Mercia †, A.D. 652.

Daniel Wentalus, a Bifhop, wrote the hiftory of his province, and the as of the South Saxons. He died A.D. 746.

Afferius Menevenfis, Bishop of Sherborn, was born in Pembrokeshire, and became a Monk of the Benedictine Order, at St. David's. He wrote "the Story of Britain." It is faid, that Alfred, who created him a Bishop, founded the University of Oxford by his advice; but from the character of this Prince, it is equally probable, that the fuggeftion which produced that noble foundation was entirely his own, though he might poffibly take

one of the principal trading ftreets of the city. Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, Vol. I, p. 244.-The name of Chepitow (Monmouthshire) had the fame original, but has been kept more correctly to the native idiom. This town, though ftill a place of confiderable com merce, was once alfo confidered as the principal port of South Wales; which may well account for its being termed "Merchandize Place." After the reign of Henry of Monmouth, great part of the bufinels of the county town, i. e. the making of Monmouth caps, was removed to Bewdley, in confequence of a peftilence, and much of the commerce, &c. of Chepstow carried to Bristol.

An English Council directed his works to be publicly read in churches. -Biog. Brit.

+ Baker. This does not appear to be correct; at leaft Rapin, who quotes all the authorities of thofe times, gives us reafon to believe that this good Prince ended his days in the monastery where he had fixed his refidence.

the advice of the Bishop with respect to the mode of carrying it into effect. Afferius, from motives of gratitude to his illuftrious patron, wrote his life *. He died, according to fome hiftorians, A.D. 883, and to others 909 t.

Alfred the Great compofed feveral works, and tranflated others from the Latin, particularly a collection of Chronicles, Boetius's Confolations of Philo fophy, and a paraphrafe, in the Saxon language, of the ecclefiatical hiftory of Venerable Bedet. He died A.D. 901.

Johannes Scotus, or Eringena, born in Scotland, retired into France 850. He wrote upon the Body and Blood of our Lord, upon St. Matthew, and compofed many other works, either loft or ftill in manufcript; alfo a Difcourfe upon Predeftination, apud Man. guinum, on the Nature of Things §.

In 961, St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, compofed a Concord of Rules ||.

In 967, Edgar, King of England, a Code of Ecclesiastical Constitutions.

Colemanus Anglicus, who wrote a Catalogue and Chronicle of the Eng. lih Kings, lived in the reign of Harold the Ift.

Ofborn, a Benedictine Monk, Precentor of the Church of Canterbury, was very intimate with Lanfranc, the Archbishop, in the reign of William the Conqueror. He wrote the life of St. Dunstan, the Life and Miracles of our Saviour, and other works, which were held in confiderable efteem by the learned in his time. Died 1080.

Lantranc, Abbot of Bee, and St. Stephen, in Normandy, and finally Archbishop of Canterbury, to which fee he was elected 1070, was the author of feveral letters, a Commentary upon St. Paul, and a Controverfial Treatife upon the Body and Blood of our Lord, in which he oppofed the opinions of Berenger ¶.

Stephen