William Roscoe, poet and politician, born at Liverpool 1752; died 1831. George STUBBS, R.A. painter of animals; born at Liverpool 1724; died 1806. Dr. John TAYLOR, Unitarian divine, teacher, and author of an Hebrew-English Concordance, born at Lancaster 1694; died 1761. Charles TOWNLEY, antiquary and skilful collector; born at Townley Hall 1737; died 1805. John TOWNLEY, military hero, translator of Hudibras into French; born at Towneley 1697; died 1782. Thomas WEST, catholic priest, historian of Furness and the Lakes; born at Ulverston; died 1779. John WHITAKER, divine, antiquary, and historian of Manchester, where he was born 1735; died 1808. Dr. John WORTHINGTON, divine and author, born at Manchester 1618; died 1671. It is to be regretted that the important and populous county of Lancaster is without a regular historian. Many local histories of great merit, however, have made their appearance; as the Histories of Manchester by Dr. Aikin (1795), by J. Aston (1816), and by the Rev. J. Whitaker (1818); the History of Liverpool, by Mr. Wallace (1795); the Histories of Whalley and Clitheroe, and of the Parish of Cartmel, by Dr. T. D. Whitaker (1818); Antiquities of Furness, by the Rev. T. West (1774); Description of Blackpool, by W. Hutton (1804); and Fragments relative to the History of Lancashire, by Mr. Gregson (1817.) There have also ap peared two Gazetteers of Lancashire; one by J. Aston (1822), and another by S. R. Clarke (1830); besides two anonymous works, entitled, The Stranger in Liverpool 1807; and the History of Liverpool (1819.) LEICESTERSHIRE. THIS County is (though not exquisitely) circular in the form; whilst Leicester, the shire town, is almost the exact centre thereof; and the river Soare, diameter-like, divides it into two equal halves; having Lincoln and Rutlandshire on the east, Derby and Nottinghamshire on the north, Warwickshire on the west, and Northamptonshire on the south. It extendeth from north to south thirty and three miles (measured from the utmost angle): but exceedeth not twenty-seven in the breadth thereof. Here, to avoid all offence, we will collect the quality of this soil from a native thereof: * who may be presumed exact in this quadri-partition. South-West. Rich ground, plentiful in corn and pasture, but wanting wood; forcing the inhabitants to make use of straw, cowshern, &c. North-West. For the most part hard and barren, yielding fruit not without labour and expence, but well-stored with wood and pit-coal. North-East. Good soil, apt to bear corn and grass, and sufficiently provided with fuel. South-East. Much like the last for fruitfulness, and, of the two, better furnished with fuel. However, these four quarters, being put together into the body of one shire, competently supply their mutual defects. NATURAL COMMODITIES. BEANS, Plenty of these in this county, especially about Barton in the Beans, in the hundred of Sparkenhoe, where they appear like a forest toward the time of harvest. Wherefore the scouts of Charles duke of Burgundy, who mistook a field full of high thistles near unto Paris, for the army of the king of France with their lances held upright,† might here commit the like mistake with more probability. Though beans be generally beheld but as horse and hog-grain, yet were they man's meat even in * Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 2. + Phil. Comineus, lib. i. cap. 11. the plentiful country of Canaan,* called p (Pholl) in the Hebrew; whence some deduce the word pulse, though none dare affirm that Daniel's pulse was made thereof. But more of this grain hereafter.† COAL. These are digged up plentifully at Cole-Orton, in the hundred of West Goscote. I say Cole-Orton, for there is another village called Cold-Orton in this shire: an addition which no less truly than sadly would be prefixed to most towns in this county, if not warmed in winter with this under-ground fuel, that above ground is so much decayed. I confess, Onoаvpòs ȧvopaкwv (a treasure of coals), passeth both in the Greek and Latin proverb for a frustrated expectation; and his hopes fall very low, who, looking for gold, either in specie or in ore, lighteth only on a heap of coals, which anciently used to be buried in the earth, for boundaries or limits of lands.‡ However, such mines of coals as these, without any help of alchemy, are quickly turned into gold and silver, sold at good rates to the counties round about. MANUFACTURES In this county are not to be expected; for where the husbandman's acre-staff and the shepherd's hook are, as in this county, in state, there they engross all to themselves, and command manufactures to observe their distance from them.§ THE BUILDINGS. This county affordeth no cathedrals; and as for parish churches therein, they may take the eye, not ravish the admiration of the beholder. Bottesford is one of the primest, very fair and large, with a high spire steeple. At the suppression of abbeys, many ancient monuments of the Albanies and Rosses were removed hither out of the priory of Belvoir, by the command of Thomas earl of Rutland ; and pity it was that his commendable care was not imitated in other places. As for civil structures, there is a seeming parity betwixt many fair houses in this shire; only something monarchical (above the ordinary aristocracy of fabrics) appears in the height, strength, and workmanship of the Stone Tower built by William lord 2 Sam. xvii. 28, and Ezek. iv. 9. In the proverb of Beanbelly Leicestershire, see p. 225. Austin, de Civitate, lib. xxi. c. 4. § The manufacture of stockings was successfully established in this county soon after the death of Dr. Fuller; and the navigable canals, which cross this county in every direction, have infused a spirit of commercial industry.—ED. A beautiful series of the Monuments of eight successive Earls of Rutland may still be seen in Bottesford Church.-ED. Hastings at Ashby de la Zouch. Also the fair, large, and beautiful palace built at Broadgate by Thomas Grey marquis of Dorset challengeth the pre-eminence above the rest.† THE WONDERS. There is a village in this county named Carleton, surnamed Curley, and all that are born therein have a harsh and rattling kind of speech, uttering their words with much difficulty and wharling in the throat, and cannot well pronounce the letter R. Surely this proceedeth not from any natural imperfection in the parents (whence probably the tribual lisping of the Ephraimites did arise); because their children, born in other places, are not haunted with that infirmity. Rather it is to be imputed to some occult quality in the elements of that place. Thus a learned author informeth us, that some families at Lablonne in Guienne in France do naturally stut and stammer, which he taketh to proceed from the nature of the waters.§ As for the inability distinctly to pronounce R, it is a catching disease in other counties. I knew an Essex man, as great a scholar as any in our age, who could not for his life utter Carolus Rex Britannia without stammering. The best was, the king had from him in his hearty prayers what he wanted in his plain pronunciation. My father hath told me, that in his time a Fellow of Trinity College, probably a native of Carleton in this county, sensible of his own imperfection herein, made a speech of competent length, with select words both to his mouth and for his matter, without any R therein, to shew that men may speak without being beholden to the dog's letter "Bean-belly Leicestershire."] PROVERBS. So called from the great plenty of that grain growing therein. Yea, those in the neighbouring counties use to say merrily, "Shake a Leicestershire yeoman by the collar, and you shall hear the beans rattle in his belly" but those yeomen smile at what is said to rattle in their bellies, whilst they know good silver ringeth in their pockets. Indeed I read a Latin proverb, "A fabis abstineto," (forbear beans); whereof some make a civil interpretation, "Meddle not with matters of state;" because anciently men cast in a bean when they gave their suffrages in public elections. Others ex This noble edifice, the residence of Lady Jane Grey, was burnt down at the close of the seventeenth century.-ED. † Of the houses built since Fuller's time, Staunton Harold, the seat of the Earl Ferrers; Castle Donington, Earl Moira's; and Kirkby Malory, Lord Viscount Wentworths, claim pre-eminence.-ED. Judges xii. 6. Mr. Joseph Mede. VOL. II. § Jo. Bodin, Method. Hist. cap. 5. pound it physically, because beans are windy, and discompose the tranquillity of men's minds by their flatuous evaporation; the reason assigned for the general report that Pythagoras prohibited the eating of them to his scholars. Yet an excellent author informs me, that Pythagoras had his repast on beans more than on any other kind of pulse.* However, nothing will put Leicestershire men out of conceit of their beloved beans: the rather because their plenty argueth the goodness of their ground; for, whereas lean land will serve for puling peas and faint fetches, it must be a strong and fruitful soil indeed, where the masculine beans are produced. "If Bevoir have a cap, You churls of the vale look to that." †] That is, when the clouds (as he expoundeth it) hang over the towers of the castle, it is a prognostic of much rain and moisture, to the much indamaging of that fruitful vale, lying in the three counties of Leicester, Lincoln, and Nottingham. But, alas! though the cap may be there still, the head (or the crown therefore) I am sure is not there [I mean Belvoir Castle itself], being lately demolished in our civil wars, though I hear some part thereof is rebuilding. I wish the workmen good success, though I suspect the second edition (to use a scholar's metaphor) of this castle will not be so full and fair as the former. PRINCES. JANE GREY, eldest daughter of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, by Frances Brandon, eldest daughter to Mary, second sister to king Henry the Eighth, was born at Broadgates, near unto Leicester. No lady, which led so many pious, lived so few pleasant days; whose soul was never out of the non-age of afflictions, till death made her of full years to inherit happiness; so severe her education. Whilst a child, her father's was to her a house of correction; nor did she write woman sooner than she did subscribe wife; and, in obedience to her parents, was unfortunately matched to the Lord Guildford Dudley; yet he was a goodly, and (for aught I find to the contrary) a godly gentleman, whose worst fault was, that he was son to an ambitious father. She was proclaimed, but never crowned queen; living in the Tower, which place, though it hath a double capacity of a palace and a prison, yet appeared to her chiefly in the latter relation. For she was longer a captive than a queen therein, taking no contentment all the time, save what she found in God and a clear conscience. Her family, by snatching at a crown which was not, lost a Aristoxenus apud Aulum Gellium, lib. iv. cap. 11. + Burton's Description of Leicestershire, page 2. |