ر

than true, that the ship-masters in general, at this hour, manage to evade the spirit of those monuments of national wisdom, preferring foreigners to our own seamen, and for this sole earthly reason, because, forsooth, the latter "have been in a man-of-war," as if they had thence derived a certain degree of moral contagion.

It would indeed, Sir, be very difficult to discover any one circumstance of more serious import to our maritime prosperity; it is evidently a danger far more formidable than American seduction, which has been so much talked of; yet who cannot perceive it must be nurtured by this system? And, consequently, it must be at once clear to the most superficial mind, that, even in a political light, the radical causes of the alleged exceptionable parts, in the characters of these brave men, and their evidently-peculiar debauchery, should be diligently and dispassionately examined into, and probed to their actual sources; and common justice (perhaps inseparable trom sound policy,) alike invokes an amendment of the matter, were it alone on the ground of gratitude.

When it is universally known, there is Searcely a ship's crew, in the whole navy, but can turn out mechanics of almost every description, as well as seamen; it were surely puerile to contend, that some means might not be adopted to rescue these brave, but inconsiderate, fellow. Creatures, who have so frequently fought and bled in their country's service, from wretchedness, crime, and destruction!!! Were but a system of limited service established, the good effects and prac ticability of which have been amply demonstrated in an (6 Essay on Naval Discipline," dedicated to the English nation, by Lieut. Thomas Hodgskin, R. N. an .improvement in their character would speedily ensue, all necessity for the impress would cease, and the virtuous affections of social life would then tend to rationalize them, instead of their ceasing to have any other homes than their ships. The generous susceptibility of their nature is proverbial, were it, alas! only permitted to receive a virtuous impulse, instead of one tending to the direct and rapid destruction of both body and mind. London, Sept. 20, 1814. A. B. C.

917

been lately discovered at Herculanean. It will be deemed a great favour if, through the channel of the Monthly Magazine, any further information be given concerning this very interesting volume.

D.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.
SIR,

S there cannot be a doubt that pure
As
wax candle are in every respect to
be preferred to those which are made of
any other materials, it is greatly to be
wished that a premium of magnitude were
offered by parliament, or at least by some
of the philosophical or philanthropic so-
cieties, for the discovery of any mode of
increasing the quantity of wax of every
kind. This would be a great benefit
conferred on mankind, and such an in-

ventor would moreover deserve to be mo

delled in wax, and afterwards sculptured in marble, or cast in metal, in preference to many a human butcher that now disfigures our churches and cathedrals. Φιλοκηρος.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

formed what were the oriOUR correspondent M. wishes to

he ginal claims to the title of Esquire, and whether they have received any subsequent modification," If he will refer to "Custance on the Constitution," or to the Encyclopædia Londinensis, he may procure every requisite information rela tive to a term, as he justly observes,

very indiscriminately applied." "The original claims to the title are more readily explained than the indiscriminate application of the same term in the present day. We are informed from history that the term Esquire originated with the Romans, and that its unde derivatur is from the Greek cauros, a hide, of which shields were anciently made, and afterwards covered. D. Fenning informs us, in his Dictionary, that the term Esquire "is a title of dignity next to that of a Knight, whom they attended in time of war, and carried his shield; at first, the name was a name of office only, and probably crept in among the titles of honour in the reign of Richard the 2d.; the title is now applied to all the sons of noblemen, and their heirs male for ever; the four esquires of the King's body; the eldest sons of baronets, and of knights of the Bath, and their sons in the right line; to those that serve the King in any worshipful employment, &c.; and to such as his Majesty gives arms, and creates es quires with a collar of S.S. of silver, who 2Q 2

were

were formerly called White Squires.'
The chief of some families enjoys the ti
tle by prescription, and those that bear
any superior office in the commonwealth,
as high sheriff of any county, and he who
is justice of the peace, together with un-
der-barristers and graduates of the Uni-
versity, during there residence at col
lege."
In France, esquires are a mili-
tary kind of vassals, having the liberty to
bear a shield inscribed with the family
ensigns. Sir Edward Coke, 2 Inst. 668,
observes, "that every esquire is a gen
tleman, and a gentleman is defined to be
one qui arma gerit, or who bears ar-
mour.' Cambden distinguishes four
sorts of esquires: viz. 1st, the eldest
sons of knights, and their eldest sons in
perpetual succession; 2dly, the eldest
sons of younger sons of peers, and their
eldest sons in like perpetual succession;
3dly, Esquires created by the King's letters:
ters patent, or other investure; 4thly,
Esquires by virtue of their offices, as jus-
tices of the peace, or other persons who
bear any office or trust under the crown.
It would appear, that property, how-
ever large and extensive, did not origi-
nally constitute au esquire; and, whether
66 any subsequent modifications" of a re-
cent date have taken place to render the
titular claims more general and indiscri-
minate, I am not competent to judge; it
is probable, the term Esquire is frequent
ly used complimentary, and on some oc
casions ad usum tenens."
Walsall, July 8, 1813.

F. W. W.

For the Monthly Magazine. MEMOIR of an ANTIQUE PURSE; drawn up by the REV. PREBENDARY DENNIS; to be transmitted to DANIEL LYSONS, ESQ. VICE-PRESIDENT of the ANTIQUA

RIAN SOCIETY.

N taking down a hedge some time

the western extremity of the village of Budleigh-Sal. terton, in the county of Devon, there was found, under the root of an elm, a curious antique, which deserves the attention of such as are fond of antiquarian research. The material of which it is made is metal, which appears to be of a mixed nature, containing a large proportion of brass and somewhat resem bling bronze. It consists of an oblong ring, sufficiently large to admit the middle joints of a moderately-sized fore-finger, to which is hung, on a pivot, a small beam, like the beam of a pair of scales six inches and a half in length, and half an inch in breadth; from the ́end of this beam is suspended a double

oblate thin frame, the two parts of which are joined by a hinge on each side, and open nearly in the manner of the steel frame of a modern card-purse, and, when open, present a perfect ellipse. The frame is nearly eight inches in its longest diameter, four inches and a half in its shortest, and about a quarter of an inch in thickness. The metal is somewhat corroded by lapse of time, but not so much as to render the inscription on it incapable of being decyphered. The letters are engraved, and the cavities have been filled up by some metallic substance of a lighter colour, which appears to be neither silver nor lead, as it yields no impression to any instrument, but cracks on being strongly pressed by a knife. The motto, on the beam, is the salutation of the angel Gabriel to the Vir◄ gin Mary, in small old English charac AVE MARIA GRA PLENA," is on one side; and, on the other, "DOMINUS TECUM." On each half of the oblate frame is inscribed, in Roman capitals, "SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA. Its form shews it most clearly to have been the frame of a purse, which was affixed to it by threads passing through four-andtwenty holes, the perforations still remaining. The inscription proves it to have been intended for sacred use, being dedicated to the honour and glory of God. There is only one purpose for which a purse is used in the performance of divine offices in the Romish church, and that is for conveying the silver vase containing the consecrated oil for the administration of extreme unction. But how could a purse of this description find its way to so remote a corner as Budleigh Salterton?

It is clearly ascertained, by the evidence of various authentic records, many of them still existing in the Tower or Court of Exchequer, inspected by the

antiquary,

bis collections towards a History of Devonshire, and particularly specified by Bishop Tanner, in his Notitia Monastica, that King William the Conqueror, who distributed many allotments of his newlyacquired territory among his Norman subjects, conferred upon the Abbey of S. Michael, in periculo maris, in Normandy, the district bounded on the east by the river Syd, on the west and north by the Otter, and on the south by the British Channel. This tract of land has a lofty ridge of hills passing through it, and terminated towards the sea by Peak-fill, which suggested the obvious division of it into two distinct manors, now consti tuting the two parishes of Sydmouth and

Otterton.

1814.]

Mr. Pilgrim on Small-Pox Inoculation.

Otterton. In each of these the Abbey of St. Michael founded a priory of Benedictines, or black monks, which, on the suppression of alien priories, were annexed to the Monastery of Sion, in Middlesex, (1 Ed. IV.); and, at the general dissolution of monasteries, they were granted (31 Hen. VIII.) as parcel of the endowments of Sion, to John Duke, who made the priory-house at Otterton, the principal part of which still exists, his place of residence; and, in the possession of whose family, it continued till a few years since, when it was sold by their representatives, the Rev. Duke Yonge and others, to the father of the present Lord Rolle.

It was the usual practice of monastic establishments to augment their original endowments by procuring the right of advowson to adjacent parishes, and ap. propriating to the support of the monas tery the rectorial tythes, presenting one of their own body to the care of souls, and allotting the small tythes for the en. dowment of the vicarage. The parish of East-Budleigh, in which the hamlet of Salterton is situated, being an adjoining parish to Otterton, was obtained by the priory, either through purchase or donation, and appropriated in the usual man

ner.

319

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

Y

SIR,

the assertion of Mr. Capel Lofft, OUR correspondent J. L. answers

that "a bill to prohibit the small-pox neither can nor will take place," by observing, that, "in every nation of Europe, except England, inoculation for the small-pox is absolutely prohibited;" that, "where one person dies by the small-pox on the continent, in a given number, there are ten deaths in England;" and that, "as the strength and even wealth of nations greatly depend on their population, it becomes a poli tical as well as moral duty to endeavour, by every justifiable means, to prevent such a waste of human life."

The argument upon this subject is comprised within a small compass: inoculation, being an evil, is permitted in this country, in order to prevent a greater evil, namely, the occurrence of the small-pox in a natural way; but, if the practice of vaccination, from which no danger can possibly arise, is found to be so efficacious as to preclude the necessity for inoculation, there certainly can be no solid reason why the latter practice, so replete with danger on account of communicating the disease to others by infection, should not be totally prohi

doubt that vaccination would be generally resorted to, in order to prevent the liability of this dreadful malady occurring in the natural way. E. T. PILGRIM. Woburn, June 17, 1814.

On the recent sale of an estate in Sal-bited; and, if prohibited, there is little. terton, there was found, among the titledeeds, a permission for the monks of Ot. terton to make salt at the salt-works at Salterton. This document accounts for Salterton being frequented by ecclesiastics, though a very small and obscure hamlet, where no church or chapel had ever been erected.

Connecting these several circumstances together, there appears to be consider. able ground of probability for the suggestion that the sacred purse in question belonged to the monks of Otterton-priory;

that it was brought to

by one of the fraternity who came to administer extreme unction to a dying labourer, employed in their own salt-works; and that it was either stolen by artifice, lost by accident, or secreted by design for the purpose of security on some emergent occasion. At all events, the discovery of this relic is somewhat interesting, if the investigation of it has only contributed incidentally to the elucidation of local history, or helped to ascertain the origin of the name of a hamlet now growing up into an agreeable little watering-place, which, from the salt-works carried on near the estuary of the Otter, evidently acquired the appellation of Salterton.

5

For the Monthly Magazine.
SKETCHES in a TOUR from BRISTOL to the
VALLEY of ROCKS, during the MONTH
of AUGUST, 1813; in a SERIES of LET-
TERS; by ROBERT WILLIAMS.

A
we ascended a sharp point of hill,
called Churchill-Batch, and no sooner
were we at the summit, than, turning
north-westerly, we beheld a view which
would have become the pencil of Salva-
tor Rosa, or Claude Lorrain! Any thing
would have become their pencil, you will
say; and therefore the observation wants
correction. The mountains of, Wales
then, rising one Łehind another, were in
the back ground; more forward was the
Bristol Channel specked with ships; and
in the foreground a variety of eminences
rising around a large tract of fertile land,
called the North-Marsh. We could
count a great number of parish churches,
environed with trees in various directions;

Church, a mile from Langford,

and

and the Vale of Langford, with Wrington a little to the north-east, gave an agree able charm to the whole; whilst, upon turning to the south-east, we observed a lofty eminence surrounded with an ancient embankment, indicative of what, in all probability, it once was, a Roman entrenchment. The word entrenchment has not, to me, an agreeable sound; nor has the adjective accompanying it a power of calling up more pleasant associations, unless when applied to those fathers of their country, who fought, who bled, who died for it: Brutus is an honoured name, but Cæsar semper Augustus

has no charms for me.

I cannot quit the Vale of Langford without again observing, that the residence or birth place of so many British worthies is to me truly classical, and inspires a kind of veneration which one hardly knows how to express.

I believe

their dress, Dr. Buchan has recommended as being preferable to any other for ease and bealth, and with that, therefore, I must not quarrel; I would observe, however, that what may be ease in the shape of dress with one person might not be so in another. There is one peculiarity in this sect, which has always struck me very much, (indeed, I have often remon strated with many of their members upon its evident absurdity,) and that is the use of the second person singular, instead of the second person plural; I know they argue upon the grammatical propriety of its use, and, did they keep strictly to grammatical propriety in the use of the word thou, we could not have so much to object to it, although custom, even in this, must ultimately decide every question of the kind. Even in the time of Horace it was so, and so it is still :

loquendi.

Usns

But, instead of using the word thou in the nominative case, they more commonly use the accusative case thee. Now, nothing can be a greater distortion of language than this, and, were they well to weigh the error, they would, I think, either use the proper nominative thou, together. or give up their peculiarity of address al

you, who know me tolerably well, will not Quem pénes arbitrium est, et jus et norma be very likely to suppose me supersti tious; but I confess that, in this respect, I am more so than sound reasoning will warrant; and, although I should not be disposed to adore a relic of Locke, or invoke the ashes of Langhorne, yet I cannot avoid a sort of reverential feeling at the remembrance of such names, a view of the scenes over which they must have often rambled, and a recollection of their writings-which some of our coldblooded bipeds may be disposed to class amongst the follies of the cloister; be it so, they will laugh at me, and I will go on my way, rejoicing that I am not such as they.

We passed nothing remarkable from Churchill to Cross, if we except the pleasant variety of views occasioned by the continual undulations of the road in a district considerably elevated, and a beautiful valley to the right studded with villages, on the south side of which is Winchcomb.

But I must not omit to observe, as you know I am partial to all intellectual im. provement, that at Sidcot we passed an excellent school, supported principally by the people called Quakers, a people who, with all their peculiarities, possess, as a body, I am confident, more solid and rational information than the same number of any one sect in England. But, although I confess myself partial to them, do not imagine that I am about to become a devotee. Their formality of dress is, in my opinion, bordering on the ridiculous, as there is scarcely a possibility, from the varieties of tastes in colour, that a drab will please every one; the shape of

The quakers are now by no means an unlettered sect; one may hope that, in their colloquial language, they will cease to remind us of such a glaring solicism.--One word more, and I have done. It seems a little extraordinary, that the quakers, or, as they designate themselves, the Friends, should, in their religious rites, have abandoned, wisely I think, almost every thing ceremonial; and that, on the subject of dress and language, they should have adopted so much formality and rule. They must be well convinced, that goodness of heart is not formed by the use of a little particle of speech nor sublime virtues engendered by the cut or colour of a coat. I leave this to be explained by chose more competent than I can pretend to be in this matter, and, in the mean time, am obliged to believe, that it is a part of the remaining superstition which their good sense will ultimately rescind.

We now descended to Cross, and, as we had come slowly from Langford, and been delayed by the hills, our friend B. kept up with us nearly the whole way. In descending to Cross, we had a confin ed view across Somersetshire, over Poldon-Hill to the Black Down-Hills, south of Taunton, a distance of at least thirty

five