tus hos regit artus. I am happy therefore in seeing the work sheet by sheet. The late Lord Carteret was so desirous of seeing all he could of Wetstein's Testament, that he got leave to have it sent sheet by sheet as printed. Your collection too of materials is, I suppose, equal_to that of any similar work; I remember I thought Dr. Foote Gower's wonderful. G. ASHBY."

"DEAR SIR,

Barrow, 7 Nov. 1791.

"I certainly think myself highly obliged on this occasion to Mr. Child and you, and beg you both to accept my thanks. I have read Bridges's History of Northamptonshire; and, as there is hardly a line in it relating to anything later than the year 1720, one knows no more of the present state of things than of Siberia. A volume of continuation + would certainly be agreeable, and might be done by a person to whom searching the offices might be inconvenient. I marked with my pencil every, the slightest, matter (and I think they are all such) that related to Leicestershire; probably you have done the same. Commend me to the modest man in last Gent. Mag. that desires every body to supply him with a complete account of gunpowder; this is hanging out the eleemosynary box with a witness.

"So Mr. Pennant used to do to me. 'Write you all you know on such and such subjects?' No: let me see your MS. or printed copy, and if I have anything worth adding I will do it; but why am I to write down what you have probably seized on, or neglect as not worth notice? "I am, dear Sir, your very humble servant,

"GEORGE ASHBY."

"DEAR SIR, Bury St. Edmund's, March 23, 1800. "It is a long time since I have had the pleasure of hearing from you; but I hope you are in good health, and that every thing goes on well. I am ready at any time to discharge my obligations to you, for your great kindness in cancelling the sheets of Loseby and Quenby. I wish, however, that I had desired you to reserve for me a copy of each; and perhaps you can still oblige me with one.

* For Cheshire; used by Mr. Ormerod, in his excellent history of that county.

† A noble work on Northamptonshire was begun by Mr. George Baker; but want of due encouragement, and the author's ill health, have unfortu nately left it incomplete, after being about one-fourth finished.

"I see Mr. Urban advertises a new edition of Mr. Daines Barrington on the Statutes. What I contributed to was the fourth; is this a later? If it is, I dare say that, among several others, he adopted a correction of mine, relating to his laughing at the scheme of laying a Welsh and English Bible in the churches in Wales; in which he has totally mistaken the meaning of the Act of Parliament: nor could anything better have been devised, except an edition of both languages in two columns on the same page. And the joke came with the less propriety from him, as he elsewhere says that Acts of Parliament should be treated with respect, and not laughed at. Can you be a means to oblige me with a copy of his portrait? In the 'Index Indicatorius' of one of the last months of last year,* (p. 1027) an explanation is desired of 'discovering lost maidenheads by sneezing.' In 'Hudibras' many of the queries you are troubled with are often very trifling, but this is a fair one; and I dare say (though I have not seen the book these fifty years) that the inquirer will find satisfaction in one of the notes on the Life of Democritus, the laughing philosopher, in Bayle's Dictionary. The circumstance is slightly mentioned in Diogenes Laertius, vol. i. p. 572, 4to. cIo lo СviC; but Bayle would enlarge on it with glee, and I dare say he has. GEORGE ASHBY."

Additions to the ASHBY Article.

P. 401. The substance of Mr. Ashby's observations on the Apamean Medal was communicated by Mr. Gough to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1776, p. 461.

P. 405. The Roman Miliary was found at Humberstone, near Leicester, in July 1771. Bishop Percy first ascertained that most important part of the legend A. RATIS II. having seen and examined it at the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. Wm. Gutteridge, of Humberstone, who rescued it from the labourers when they uncovered it, as they were levelling the turnpike-road, and who when he discovered the inscription had it secured with great care; and to him it is owing that it was not then destroyed or defaced." That Bishop Percy was the first who discovered a RATIS is proved by a letter of the Rev. G. Ashby to Dr. Percy himself, which is now before me; wherein, speaking of the inscription, he says, You are the only person I know who has viewed it with learned eyes;' and concludes by asking him, ‘Are you sure of A ratis, which appears perfectly fair [scil. in your MS.], and if so gives a great value indeed to the stone.'"-Bishop PERCY, in Nichols's Hist. of Leicestershire, III. p. 66*.

This important Miliary, which determines the ancient name of Leicester to have been Ratæ, was placed in the centre of an obelisk, with a brass plate recording its history.

"This Roman milestone was found in the road near Leicester, and placed here by the Corporation at large, in the mayoralty of James Bishop, esq. in 1783."

However well meant, this exposure of the inscription must eventually have led to its destruction. The inscription has been therefore lately removed from the obelisk, and is now carefully preserved in the town of Leicester.

438

REV. MICHAEL LORT, D.D.

Of this excellent scholar memoirs will be found in "Literary Anecdotes," vol. ii. pp. 594-605 ; and numerous notices of him in the other volumes of that work. See General Indexes, vol. vii. pp. 237, 618. He is also occasionally alluded to in "Literary Illustrations."*

"DEAR SIR,

TO DR. PERCY.

Lambeth House, Jan. 31. 1781.

"I hope you received my letter acknowledging the receipt of yours. I have now to inform you that you are not in the list of Lent Preachers for this year; which I suppose will be an acceptable piece of news to you.

"I went last Thursday, for the first time, to the Antiquarian and Royal Societies in Somerset House, or Place as some affect to call it. At the first I listened with great attention to a long paper of Governor Pownall's, on the Origin and Progress of Letters,† in which much was said about the Indian Paintings: but I did not carry away many new ideas. I wish you would find us some new ones concerning old matters; which would be very acceptable to the public in general, as well as to your faithful servant, Compliments to Mrs. Percy. "M. LORT.

"To the Rev. the Dean of Carlisle, Easton Maudnit."

"DEAR SIR, "Lambeth Palace, April 5, 1781. "I received the favour of your letter, and am truly concerned both on your own and the public account, that you should have been confined and plagued so long by a dis

* See vol. iv. 428, 580, 729; v. 710; vi. 152, 155, 412, 420, 605, 654, 664, 665.

+ Governor Pownall's paper on Indian Picture-Writing appears not to have been printed. It is alluded to in one by W. Bray, Esq. on the same subject, in Archæologia, VI. 159.