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In Cornwall there are several wells which bear the name of some patron saint, who appears to have had a chapel consecrated to him, or her, on the spot. This appears by the name of Chapel Saint, attached by tradition to each. These chapels probably were simply Oratorics, but in the parish of Maddern [now spelled Madron], is a well called "Maddern Well," inclosed in a complete Baptistery: the walls, seats, doorway, and altar of which still remain. The socket, that received the base of the crucifix, or pedestal of the saint's image, is perfect; and the foundations of the outer walls is apparent. The whole ruin is very picturesque, and I wonder it is passed over in so slight a manner by all Cornish historians, and particularly by Borlase, who speaks merely of the virtues superstitiously ascribed to the waters. I was surprised at being informed that the superstitious of the neighbourhood attend on the first Thursday in May to consult this oracle by dropping pins, etc. Why on the Thursday? May not this be some vestige of the day on which the baptisteries were opened after their being kept closed and sealed during Lent, which was on Maundy Thursday? My informant told me that Thursday was the particular day of the week, though some came on the second and third Thursday. May was the first month after Easter, when the waters had been especially blessed; for then was the great time of baptism. When I visited this Well last week, I found a Polianthus and some article of an infant's dress, which shewed that votaries had been there. After the sixth century, these baptisteries were removed into the Church. I will thank any of your readers who can inform me whether there are any other remains of the kind in this country so perfect, and I shall be much obliged at a probable guess at the age of this building, and for any other information that may induce me to revisit it with increased motives of admiration.

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Nov. 28, 1803.

(Printed from Professor Porson's Manuscript.) Hail to the CHIEF, who with a Patriot's zeal, Wooes BRITAIN's friendship for his Country's weal; Who, having fought and triumph'd in her cause, Now seeks to cultivate her ARTS and LAWS: Who views our Isle in conscious vigour bold, For EUROPE'S Peace her energies unfold. Would he the secret of our strength explore, And bear it back to EGYPT'S fruitful shore? Oh, may the secret to the earth belong! The FREEDOM that enlightens makes us strong. No. 145, Strand. JAMES PERRY.

The practice for some time past has been to bring diseased children to the Well, on the first three Sundays in May. H.

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Circa quod priore loco proposituus est, possumus hujus scriptoris sententiam ad quinque articulos reducere. Primus sit. Mahometa secta, cum suis sectatoribus et singulariter Turcicum Imperium, in spiritualibus et temporalibus finem habebit intra spatium annorum 251, tot enim dumtaxat illi supersunt.

Quando vero hæc scribebat Doctor Navarrus, vertebatur annus nostræ salutis 1604, quare secundum istum anno 1855, vel circiter, quoad tam spiritualia quam temporalia (hæc enim duo ritè in Mahometica Secta et Imperio Turcico Auctor ille considerat) cessabit et finem habebit perdita ista superstitio.

Articulus quartus: Hoc regnum et secta penitus destructa et abolita erunt anno Domini 1854, vel 1856. This prediction may be thus translated :Concerning that which is mentioned in the former place, we are able to reduce the opinion of this writer, viz.Francis Navarre, to five points.

First, that the Mahommedan sect with its adherents, especially the Turkish Empire, will, both in its spiritual and temporal power, come to an end within the space of 251 years, for so many only remain to it.

When Dr. Navarre wrote this, the year A.D. 1604 was completed, hence according to him, in the year 1855, that abandoned superstition both in its spiritual and temporal power (for such is the Mahommedan sect and Turkish Empire justly considered by this author;) will cease and

come to an end.

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When it is considered that this presage was really written two centuries aud a half since; and the fact of the acceptation by the Sultan and his ministers of the requirements made to them by England and France, it will be seen that this prediction has virtually happened! The passive Turk may no longer oppress the Christian, and the bolder energies of the latter will finally subvert Mahommedanism; the Cross will be exalted to the exclusion of the Crescent, and this certain and rapid declension may be dated from 1856. This vast revolutionary change has been no less forced on the Turk, by the aggressions of Russia, than by the obstinacy of the ruling powers of the Turkish Empire, till at length unable in the presence of the allied powers to defend the tyrannical dogmas of their faith, an effectual change has been demanded, and the events of 1854 and 1855, were the unmistakeable precursors of what has happened, and will farther advance during 1856.

Adam Mickiewicz, the celebrated Polish poet, was buried in the church of the Madeleine, at Paris, on the

21st ultimo.

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NOTES ON SIR WALTER SCOTT'S LETTER. I have had great pleasure in perusing the inedited letter of Sir Walter Scott, printed in Current Notes, PP. 4-5. My father for many years rented a farm of Mr. Ellis, to whom it was addressed; and from the kindness that gentleman evinced towards myself, I ever respect his memory. At the sale of his library in May 1830, shortly after his decease, I made several purchases, but omitted to secure his copy of Froissart, with the elaborate Index to that work, in his beautiful handwriting. This was often to me a cause of regret, as I lost all trace of where it had gone; but in 1811, at the sale of the library of the Rev. John Dodd, late Vicar of this town, I obtained it, and the book with the Index is now in my possession. The latter is in foolscap size, of about 150 closely written pages. I never saw or heard of another copy; Scott's request as to the liberty of printing, appears to have failed of success.

My father once saw James Allan at Harbottle-fair, in a room crowded with people: he was chanting some verses of a song, and accompanying them on the pipes, making his instrument almost speak any word of double meaning, which he himself hesitated to utter. The Alnwick work upon him, was the first edition of his Life printed in that town; later editions of the volume were printed here, by Mackenzie and Dent. The particulars relating to Ringan Oliver and the Marquis of Lothian were communicated by James Veitch of Inchbonny, not Inchbinny, in a letter now before me dated June 21, 1836, and addressed to my worthy friend, Mr. James Telfer of Saughtree, Liddesdale, who wrote a good ballad on the subject, reprinted in his volume of Tales and Ballads, published in 1852. It is likely he will include this letter among his Border Gatherings. a work on which he is at present engaged.

I remember seeing James Veitch several times at Jedburgh; he was a tall stout man dressed like a superior workman, and wore a leather apron not over clean, much rounded at the bottom, and so short that it did not reach his knees. Besides being a first-rate maker of refracting and reflecting Telescopes, he made several pairs of spectacles for the neighbouring gentry; and an eight-day clock for Sir Walter Scott, which I have no doubt still indicates the hours at Abbotsford. A small white globe, not quite a foot in diameter, projecting from the wall, at the west corner of his house at Inchbonny, served the purpose of a sun-dial. His family were distinguished for mechanical genius. From his father's sister descended another friend of mine, James Thomson of Otterburn, who from the extent of his scientific acquirements, was possibly a still more remarkable man than his successful relative.

The lines to which allusion is made, are not on the North Tyne, which is a slip in Sir Walter's recollection, but are entitled-The Marriage of the Coquet and the Alwine; forming one of the poetical Tracts edited for the Typographical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in 1817, by the late Mr. John Adamson. They are written after the manner of Drayton, in his Marriage of the

Tame and the Isis, in the fifteenth song of Poly Olbion. The author's name appears to have been Shepherd, which for his own reasons the Editor very carefully concealed. I have an old manuscript copy of the poem bearing L. T., as the initials of the author.

The Lay of the Reedwater Minstrel was written by my late friend, Robert Roxby; the original manuscript is in my collection. Mr. Roxby, in conjunction with Mr. Thomas Doubleday, wrote the Coquet-dale Fishing Songs, of which an elegant edition was published in 1852, by Messrs. Blackwood.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Feb. 6. ROBERT WHITE.

MODERN CONSERVATORS OF ANCIENT ART.

A letter dated Naples, January 8, states, "an act recently committed here, has created as much indignation and ridicule among artistic persons, as the outrages of Mazza did lately in the political world. The group of the Rape of the Sabines, that has adorned the Villa Reale ever since the time of Charles the Third, has been removed from the public gardens. The group is a copy of the celebrated work of John of Bologna, and has not been imagined generally as capable of awakening any prurient thought, but within the last week has been condemned, muffled in canvas, and committed to the prisons of the Museum. The same fate it is said awaits the Rape of Europa, and the Rape of Proserpine, now in the Villa Reale. The Venuses of the Museum and the Nereid, are already locked up, and one unfortunate Venus, the Vincitrice of Capua, which had escaped priestly wrath, is soon to be laid hands on. Condemned to be no better than they should be, they are to be placed under lock and key-a fact! and this in a city where the foulest acts and sights present themselves every hour in the day, to the passenger; where a foreign lady can scarcely walk without blushing, and all these impurities which befoul the streets might be prevented by stringent directions to the police, from the men whose modesty they affect is shocked by a Sabine or a Venus. It is but due, that in the interests of art, such absurdities should be made known to the civilised world."

BELFRY

RHYMES. BOWDEN RINGERS ORDERS. You Ringers all, observe these Orders well! He pays his Sixpence, that o'erturns a Bell; And he that Rings with either spur or hat, Must pay his Sixpence certainly for that; And He that Rings and does disturb the Peal, Must pay his Sixpence, or a Gun of Ale. These Laws elsewhere in ev'ry Church are used, That Bells and Ringers may not be abused. According to Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaisms and Provincialisms, Gun is a north country word, for a large flagon of ale. Unde, "Son of a gun, implies a merry, jovial, drunken fellow."

Rectory, Clyst St. George, Feb. 2.

H. T. E..

COINAGE OF EDWARD THE FIRST.

Some months since I proposed that a complete list of all Edward the First and Second's pennies should be published in Current Notes; and now forward a list of those which have come under my notice, and shall feel much obliged if any of your readers who are interested in Numismatics would add to it any varieties. The basis of this list is Mr. Hawkins's Account of the Tutbury and Wyke "finds," in neither of which is the presence or absence of the marks of abbreviation of the EDW R' noticed-in the following list I shall presume this to be found on all the coins.

The London mint is placed first in the list, as emanating from the seat of regal authority: the provincial mints follow in alphabetical order. Nottingham.

LONDON.

F. R. N. HASWELL.

racter, the lower part curled inward. In the word ANGL the G is invariably of the gothic cha

1. EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

CIVI TAS LON DON

Letters large; m.m. a

large cross, with a long line at each end. A variety has the DN in DNS; and ON in LONDON, in monogram. Another has a colon after EDW R:

2. As no. 1, but with two dots on breast, intended
for a brooch.

3. Obv., as no. 1. Rev. CIVI SAT LON DON
4. As no. 1, but the letters are smaller; the coin
is itself less in size than the former.

5. As no. 4, but m.m. still smaller, and a star on
the breast at junction of mantle.

6. As no. 5, but on the reverse, the pellets overlay each other like scales.

7. As no. 3, m.m. a cross pattée, with a small line in continuation of each horizontal limb.

8. EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

.CIVI TAS LON DON As no. 1, but with pellets before legends.

9. As no. 8, but with pellet only on reverse before the legend.

10. As no. 2, with dot or pellet before LONDON on

the reverse.

11. As no. 10, but the letter N on the obverse is in English character; on the reverse in Roman. 12. As no. 2, but with a peculiarly formed cross on reverse before LONDON, the horizontal bar being simply a line.

13. As no. 1, the cross plain, not pattée at the ends. The letters rather large.

14. As no. 2, on reverse HB in place of HYB 15. EDW RE ANGL DN2 YB

CIVI TAS LON DON Letters large.

16. EDW REX ANGL DNS HYB

CIVI TAS LON DON Letters small.

17. Bust in Triangle. Reverse, CIVITAS LONDON Cuff's Sale Catalogue, nos. 785 and 786. 18. As no. 16, but on obverse, a rose on the King's breast. Cuff, no. 785.

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mark, on reverse, a cross moline (Bp. Beck, 1283-1311.)

48. As no. 47, but small letters.

49. As no. 47. Cross moline m.m. before legend on obverse and reverse.

50. As no. 48. Star on king's breast; the cross moline m.m. on obverse only.

51. EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

CIV ITA SDVR EME Cross moline m.m. before legend obverse and reverse. Letters small.

52. EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

CIVI TAS EME DVR The syllables transposed; large letters.

53. As no. 47; but on reverse, in one quarter, a cross moline instead of pellets.

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DUBLIN, IRELAND.

85. EDW R' ANGL DNS HYB A dot below bust. CIVITAS DVBLINIE Small letters.

86. As no. 85, but EDW B' on obverse.

87. Legends same as no. 85; but the letters on obverse are small; large on the reverse.

88. Legends as no. 85, but two dots below the king's bust. Letters large.

89. As no. 88, but small letters. 90. Legends as no. 85; two dots below bust; the letters on obverse small, on the reverse large. 91. As no. 85. A brooch in addition to dot on king's

breast.

92. EDW. R' ANGL' DNS HYB

CIVITAS DVBLINIE. On obverse, two dots and a third for brooch on king's breast. Letters large.

93. ⚫EDW R ANGL DNS HYB

Reverse as no. 85. Letters large.

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CREATION OF PEERS FOR LIFE.

The opponents to the unquestionably constitutional and legal prerogative vested in the Queen's authority to create Peers for life, appear to have purposely omitted any reference to Blackstone, who in his Commentaries, p. 401, observes :

Creation by writ has one advantage over that by patent: for a person created by writ holds the dignity to him and his heirs, without any words to that purport in the writ; but in letters patent there must be words to direct the inheritance, else the dignity ensues only to the grantee for life. For a man or woman may be created noble for their own lives, and the dignity not descend to their heirs at all, or descend only to some particular heirs: as where a peerage is limited to a man, and the heirs male of his body by Elizabeth his present lady, and not to such heirs by any former or future wife.

* Co. Litt., 9, 16. See 1 Woodes. 87.

D

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