Page images
PDF
EPUB

the place, is everywhere seen connecting the principal streets with each other." The population in 1695 was about 7,383 persons; in 1750 about 8,141; in 1801, it was 13,479. The trade of the town was formerly very great in Welsh flannels: they were thirty years ago sold for 2s. to 2s. 6d. per yard; they now produce 45. 6d. to Js. The following is an instance of very commendable precaution against conflagration.

In the year 1796, a considerable manufactory of linen yarn was established at the end of the suburb called Castle-Foregate, by Messrs. Benyons and Bage, of this place, and Mr. Marshall of Leeds. This has already attained to great perfection under the spirited and skilful management of those gentlemen, who are entitled to just praise for their humane and judicious attentions to the health and morals of the numerous young persons whom they employ. The buildings are very extensive, and are secured from the ravages of fire by the exclusion of timber from almost every part of their construction, the roofs and floors are supported on brick vaults, the window frames, and all other parts where wood is used in buildings, are here of cast-iron The machinery, which is of wonderful contrivance, is worked by two steam engines.

that some of the citizens have formerly mistaken marvellously, may be inferred from their misuomers on natural history: a whale and a dolphin at Shrewsbury! A sturgeon is extraordinary enough! What a prodigy would this furnish to the Chronicle of some future Baker!

In a small museum is the dried body of a sturgeon, which was caught September 12th, 1802, in a wear adjoining the island a quarter of a mile below the castle. When alive, it weighed 192 pounds, and was nine feet long, and three feet four inches round. It was healthy and full of spawn; and although in struggling, the bones of the head, which were very thick, were fractured, it lived on a bench a day and a night after it was taken from the water. When the great distance from the sea is considered, perhaps not less than 300 miles, and the various barriers it had to surmount, especially the formidable wear near Gloucester, it is really wonderfut how a fish of such a size could have forced his way in safety so very far up the stream, or what could have been the stimulus to so great an exertion. Similar instances, however, occur in former years. We learn that in 1637, a small whale was taken near the town, and in 1748, a dolphin, in a wear below the castle; both probably were sturgeons, the latter measured three feet four inches in length. Two enormous turtle shells remain as monuments of the good living of Salopians in former days.

We cannot introduce our author's account of the festivals, still maintained by the corporation, the companies, &c. ; they By way of specimen of the author's are gaudy and amusing; but their spirit we select his account of the déclines. The castle, the walls, the gates, manner, the abbey, the churches, the bridge, &c. domestic habitations of our forefathers; are attended to in their order: and the as they are drawn from extant authorities, that abound in the town of Shrewsbury, eminent men of the town are duly commemorated. It is fit the present inha- which has not for many centuries suffered bitants of Shrewsbury should know, that,extensively by fire, they are entitled to peculiar confidence. In the yeare 1533, uppon twelffe dave in Shrowsbury, the dyvyll appearyd in saint Alkmond's churche there, when the preest was at highe masse, with greate tempeste and darkeness, so that as he passed through the churche, he mountyd up the steeple in the sayde churche, teringe the wyers of the sayde clock, and put the prynt of hys claves uppon the 4th bell, and tooke one of the pynnacles awaye with hymn, and for the tyme stayed all the bells in the churches within the sayde towne that they could neyther toll nor rynge. Taylor's MSS.

To attribute this infernal devastation to the electric fluid, would be to deprive the Salopians of the honour due to the exemplariness of that devotion, which could excite such a prodigious gust of Satanic wrath in opposition to it. However,

be

The town houses of our forefathers, as far as they relate to the present subject, may divided into the kernelled or embattled mansion, the hall or unembattled gentleman's house, and the tradesman's habitation. The einbattled mansion partook both of the castelLike the former, lated and collegiate forms. it was crowned with embrasures, and surrounded always in the country, and sometimes even in towns, with a noat, but had seldom more than one tower, placed at the point of most strength, which consisted of three or four stories, containing on each floor a single These were doubtless built on the principles of the keeps of castles. Like col

room.

The bishop's palace at Wells, a magnificent specimen of this kind of house, has a moat.

pact.

Of the great square windows in such houses, it is a well-known complaint of Lord Bacon," that one knows not where to become to be out of the sun." The characteristic accompaniments of these houses within, were huge arched fire-places in their halls, and kitchens; chimney-pieces in their chambers of state, richly carved and adorned with armorial bearings mixed with grotesque fi gures in wood, stone, or alabaster; raised hearths, long and massy tables of oak, from their bulk calculated to last for centuries. One apartment seldom omitted in houses of this rank and date, but never found in those of higher antiquity, was a long gallery for music and dancing, sometimes 150 feet long, a proof that the hall was now beginning to be deserted; at all events, the practice of dining in these great apartments at different tables, according to the rank of the guests was scarcely continued below the restoration.

leges, the embattled houses were uniformly | dows, and the other lofty, square, and comconstructed round a quadrangle with a tur reted gate-house of entrance, though not fortified with the massive round towers and portcullis of the castle gate. The principal apartments were the hall, the great chamber, kitchen, and chapel. The hall was a copy of those in colleges, which in their turn were of conventual origin. Here the master, with his family and superior guests, dined every day at a long oak table, elevated on two or three steps, called the highdees, at the upper end, whilst the tenants and those of inferior rank, were seated at a table below, at right angles with the former. The hall was lighted by one or more gothic windows and a long bow window, forming a recess, near the high table. It had no fire-place, but was warmed by a brazier of live coals in the middle, the smoke escaping from a hole at the top, this apartment being anciently always open to the roof, the timbers of which were forined into a pointed arch, carved and adorned with arms, rebusses, and quaterfoils. At the lower end was a wooden screen of latticed work, which supported a gallery for the minstrelsy, on great days. Under it ran a narrow lobby with a passage through, which communicated with a buttery hatch, where the butler at tended to administer ale to the numerous applicants at all times of the day; and beyond these were the offices. The great chamber adjoined the hall at the upper end. In this apartment was the luxury of a fire-place, if the wide open chimney-pieces of our ancestors deserve to be called luxuries, and it was the usual resort of the family when not at their meals it is conceived also, that, as in the combination room of colleges, and the locutorium or parlour of monasteries, the master with his chief guests often retired soon after dinner, from the cold atmosphere of the hall, to the social comfort of its hearth; while the inferior visitors were left to carouse by the dying embers of the brazier they had left.

The chapel was a small room often over the gateway, and sometinies adjoining it, and was rather an oratory for private devotion than for the assembling of a congregation. Our town does not now possess one perfect mansion of this carly kind, but the ruins of Charlton Hall will give some idea of them.*

To these ancient fortified houses, succeeded the embattled mansion of Queen Elizabeth or James 1. This was of two kinds, the greater and the less; one an improvement upon the rude quadrangle, the other an ex-' pansion of the ancient castlet; one luminous magnificent, with deep projecting bow win

* Stoke castle near Ludlow, improperly called a castle, is a very curious and entire specimen of the castellated mansion of early days.

The unembattled gentleman's house in towns partook of the general features of the above but was of smaller dimensions, and without any fortifications. These were in general retired from the street, by a small court two or three sides of which were inclosed by the house and offices, the rest with walls, and shut up with a gate, usually without any lodge or apartment over it. The most ancient of such houses consisted of a thorough lobby with a parlour beyond it on one side, with a stone floor, the kitchens and offices, on the other. The partitions were of rude oak, the chimnies wide and open, and the rooms, except the hall and great parlour, low and small. Vaughan's Place was originally a fine house of this sort. These comfortless habitations were succeeded by the houses of Queen Elizabeth's days. In them the ori ginal form was retained, though with considerable improvement. The entrance was by an inclosed projecting porch, which led to the hall. This was lighted generally by one great square window with cross mullions, a massy oak table beneath, at the lower end a gallery for music, or to connect the apartments above, and a fire-place embracing in its ample space almost all the width of the room, the Christmas scene of rude and boisterous festivity; beyond was uniformly a parlour, and on the other side, the great chamber, or withdrawing room, sometimes up three or four steps. In the windows of such houses and those of a rank above them, are found the remains of painted glass in a style which seems to have been fashionable in the seventeenth century; they consist of arms, cyphers, figures of animals, and scripture histories, or others, in small round and oval pieces. Of these the drawing is extremely correct, but the colours feiut and dingy, very unlike the deep and glowing tints of the foregoing cen

city of Westminster, the county of Middlesex, and four deaneries in Hertfordshire and Essex, containing nearly one hundred and sixty parishes, exclusive of the peculiars,-1

advanced state of decay as to occasion a charge upon the parish for their restoration that can be thought in any degree burthensome; whilst in numberless instances this seasonable exercise of my authority has awakened attention, and opened a way to the knowledge of some important particulats and latent defects, which, had they been suffered to remain much longer unattended to, would have proved highly injurious, and even hazardous to the existence of many neglected and decaying structures.

turies. These were probably of Flemish manufacture. Of this kind of mansion, the White Hall aud Bell Stone are good specimens. The tradesman's house was one or some-have met with very few churches in such an times two long ranges united, termin toin with gables in the street. The shop occupied the whole breadth next the street, and was entirely without glass, like our present unsightly butchers' shops. Behind was a kitchen, and beyond a small open yard round which were the warehouses and offices. The pride of the owners were their signs, which denoted the trade or craft by some animal or device: these either projected far into the street from the house, or were stuck upon high timbers opposite the door. In former days our towns must have exhibited the appearance of the streets of Pekin, rather than of the open and lively air of a modern European city. The barber's solitary pole, and here and there a heavy gilt sign projecting from an inn in an old town, are the only remains of these clumsy and inconvenient ornaments. Messrs. Stanier and Meire's house in the market-place, and some of the butcher's houses, are good specimens of these ancient dwellings.

My jurisdiction, whilst it includes some of the largest, the most populous, and wealthy parishes in the kingdom, also comprehends many others of very limited income,

and small extent.

When we consider the state of the large parishes in the western part of the metropolis, I have no hesitation in pronouncing, that great and important benefits would follow, if better accommodation could be provided, and more effectual encouragement given, to We understand that the author is the the middle and lower classes of the inhaRev. Hugh Owen, of Shrewsbury. His bitants to frequent the worship of the esta townsmen are obliged to him for his blished church, by the erection of free labours; and the public for his illustra-churches, or by allotting to them a larger tions of various interesting particulars in our national manners and history.

share of accommodation in the churches and chapels already established.

The archdeacon proceeds to notice the most prominent causes of premature inA Charge delivered to the Clergy of the jury and decay-such as burying within Archdeaconry of Middlesex, at the Vi- the walls of the church-this has proved sitation in May and June, 1808. fatal to many churches;-why not render By George Owen Cambridge, A.M. F.A.S. it exceedingly difficult, if not forbid it Archdeacon of Middlesex; and Preben- altogether? The injuries occasioned by dary of Ely. Cadell and Davies. Lon- injudicious repairs and improvements, ale strongly and justly pointed out. To obdon, 1808. tain more light, better glass in the windows is recommended. Casements that will open to permit a thorough draught of air-why not sashes? The church yard receives a share of the visitor's no tice-the fence-the grave-stones, &c.

THIS tract forms no improper companion to the statements of the venerable diocesan, given in p. 540. The observations contained in it, are highly important, and cannot be too generally disseminated in our country. We are sorry to be obliged to present them in a contracted form. They are the result of personal visitation, throughout the parishes of the archdeaconry. The parish officers are commended generally for their ready assistance, The worthy author directs to the choice of such officers, especially churchwardens, from among the most respectable inhabitants. He proceeds to say, After completing the inspection of the whole of this archdeaconry, including the

1

The state of the Parish Registers was subject of too much consequence to be over looked. As these are records of high legal authority, which are always open to be resorted to for the determination of questions of great moment to the parties interested, suitable attention should be paid to them, and they are to be regarded by the incumbent ap an important document, placed under his immediate care, for the accuracy of which he is personally responsible; and from whence he should always be able to furnish a satisfactory and authentic extract; but how can this be

done, or how can he answer for the fidelity of this record, unless the entries are correctly and faithfully made with his own hand, and the books preserved in his own custody? Such personal attention is the only sure method effectually to secure them from that disorder and confusion which has sometimes been severely animadverted upon in the courts of law, when unsuccessfully resorted to for the establishment of doubtful and litigated claims. Instances of this, I am reluctantly compelled to remark, have recently occurred within this archdeaconry; and my late examination of the register-books obliges me, in truth, to acknowledge, that if further proofs of similar neglect are not brought to light, it would be more owing to good fortune than to the care of some of the clergy, who appear to leave the performance of this duty to their parish clerk.

Duplicates should be regularly transmitted to the bishop's registry. Many excellent parsonage houses have been recently built, while others have undergone extensive repairs and improvements..

Means are taking for rearing such a growth of timber upon the glebes [in some instances] as cannot fail to prove a valuable appendage to the benefice, and an acceptable legacy to successors.

an intelligent and decorous person to fill that situation.

tion that a competent parish clerk, in We add the expression of our convicrespect to the comfort of public worship, approaches more nearly than is usually thought, to the importance of a competent incumbent.

The Propriety of the Time of Christ's Ap-
pearance in the World; a Sermon, preach-
ed May 23, 1808, at the Opening of the
New General-Baptist Meeting House,
Cranbrook in Kent, by John Evans,
A. M. Price 1s.

An Address, delivered at Worship Street,
October 2, 1808, on the Baptism by Im-
mersion of Mr. Isaac Littleter of the
Israelitish Nation, on his Profession of
Christianity, &c. By John Evans, A. M.
Price 1s. Sherwood and Co. London.

We place these articles together, be cause we learn, from an account prefixed to the latter, that Mr. Littleter being In the course of my parochial visits more struck with Mr. Evans's explanation of than one or two instances occurred of applica- the seventy weeks of Daniel, in the first tions from the parish clerk for my inter- of these discourses, requested an inter ference to obtain an augmentation of his salary: The very small pittance they now in conversations, publicly professed his view with the author, and after sundry general receive from the parish was probably faith in Jesus as sufficient, when it was first granted, to the Messiah, and engage the service of persons in respectable was baptized. Mr. E. considers the situations, and of competent abilities; but "doctrine of the Divine Unity," as havfrom the alteration in the value of money ing produced the most beneficial effects the profits of the appointment are so much on this occasion. As we fully agree with reduced as to be hardly worth the acceptance this converted Jew that "the unity of of a day labourer; whilst the additional fees God is as much a doctrine of the New, which he receives as the sexton, being fixed as it is of the Old Testament," we aban at a time when the price of labour was so much lower than it is at present, are but a don to his censure all who explain the doctrine of three distinctions, (of some bare equivalent for the interruption of his ordinary occupation. It would be attended kind) in the Deity, in such a manner as to with very beneficial effects, if the respect impeach his unity. They are "workdue to this very useful, though subordinate men who need to be ashamed of their office, were maintained beyond what it is, work." Whether the principal impediat present, by the appointment of men of ments to the conversion of the Jews do rather a superior description to those who not arise from the doctrine of the resur Dow generally fill it; and that their accept-rection, deserves Mr. E.'s further consideance of the office were insured by a liberal ration. In former days, the Jews certainaddition to the salary, which the parish ly were would not fail to find their account in grant from the dead was taught in the instance grieved that the resurrection ing to persons of worthy characters and of Jesus:" and when the gentiles heard suitable attainments; whilst the parochial minister, with whom the appointment ab- of the resurrection," some mocked," solutely rests, would receive much accom- and others deferred the investigation modation; and even the solemnity of divine of the matter. It may be said with worship be materially promoted by having great truth, "the assertion of the

[ocr errors]

truth for themselves. Let us avoid all rash judging, and leave their future state to God."

Resurrection always has been, and always will be, an insurmountable obstacle to The text of the address is Rom. xi. i. the general conversion of the Jews: it does not, therefore, follow, that we are to The same inadvertencies as in the former discourse mark the same want of time abandon the doctrine of the resurrection. Mr. E. is a gentleman of well known for revision. The writer describes the abilities, and arduous professional duties; destruction of Jerusalem by Titus as the that these discourses were composed in casting away intended by the Apostle, p. 19, yet says, in p. 20, the Jews were haste is evident, as we think, from several trips of the pen. The Jewish phylac- cast away at the time of their being car teries were not large pieces of parcl.-ried away captive by the heathen nations, ment sewed on the borders of their garments:" they were square envelopes worn on the forehead, and the left arm.

"The Essenes were a kind of hermits, renouncing the common enjoyments of life, and dwelling in the caves and desarts of the earth." No: they dwelt in communities, or convents.

"Every thing that Jesus did possessed publicity." No: the Evangelists describe some things he did as private.

though they were afterwards restored." He has ill expressed his meaning.

We give no opinion on the question whether the Jews shall return to their own land, though our private feeling inclines to the affirmative. Neither do we so much as attempt a calculation as to the time when. The following remarks are judicious.

If the dispersion of the Jews was thought long in the time of Julian [about 300 years after the destruction of the temple], ́and

means were taken for their restoration, what must now be the opinion of all thinking persons, when nearly fifteen hundred years [ad

Mr. E.'s remarks on the importance of public worship are just; and he censures the late Mr. Wakefield for his attack of so beneficial an institution. In our opi-ditional] have elapsed, and these people are nion that attack did a great deal of good; as it startled a number of half-unsettled well-intending minds.

still in a state of ignominy and depression? We may be assured, that some valuable purpose to be answered. The Jews are the In the preface to his second discourse depositaries of the Old Testament records, Mr. E. speaking of the transactions of the and these records describe the Messiah with Grand Sanhedrim at Paris,* observes every token of triumph and glory! Received "that the sacrifices made by the Jews by them, and read in their synagogues, they are permanent and energetic attestations of en the continent, for the extension of the truth of Christianity. Besides, their their civil rights, ill accord with the unexistence as a distinct people, in every nation bending strictness of the Mosiac ritual, under heaven, is an irrefragable proof of the and have given considerable offence to authenticity of the sacred records. It is a their brethren in this country." His pre-species of protracted miracle. Go where you face closes with sentiments which every rational mind will approve, whoever be their author.

"Let us avoid putting stumbling blocks in the way of the Jews. Let us propose Christianity to them as Jesus proposed it to them. Instead of the modern magic of scholastic divinity, let us lay before them their own prophecies. Let us show them their accomplishment in Jesus. Let us appland their hatred of idolatry. Let us shew them the morality of JESUS in our lives and tempers. Let us never abridge their civil liberty, nor ever try to force their consciences. Let us remind them, that as Jews they are bound to niake the law of Moses the rule of their actions. Let us try to inspire them with suspicion of rabbinical and received traditions, and a generous love of investigating religious

Compare Panorama, Vol. II. p. 913.

will, into Europe. Asia, Africa, or America, you meet the descendants of Abraham; you instantly recognize them by their features, and find them scrupulously attached to the religion of their forefathers! They are, notwithstanding the lapse of eighteen centuries, the same as they were in the time of our Saviour-tenacious and superstitious-perverse and obstinate to a proverb. All this is an argument for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are reserved to the glorious æra, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in, and ALL ISKAEL shall be saved.

The Jews are now so scattered and divided on the earth, that the most power. ful potentate, however outrageous and intent on their destruction, could not destroy the whole nation. Nor could even the coalescing of several governments insure the complete execution of such a design. In some place there would still be Jews,

« PreviousContinue »