one of its hind legs, and a numerous cry of hounds behind it. The latter saw and heard all this as plain as ever he saw the house, he saw sideways the glaring saucer eyes of Padfoot, which if they had turned upon him he should have died. It was but last week that the Dissenting Minister of this town had a relation of Padfoot's appearance to the wife of a sick man whom he was visiting. Leeds has its distinct Padfoots, distinguishable one from another (as I am told) for almost every street; and what say you now to your Genii Locorum ?

"Do you collect stories relating to whimsical Wills? A Lady Bolles (Baronetess in her own right, whose epitaph you have in Thoresby under Ledston) ordered all her personal estate to be sold, the profits of it to be applied in providing a vast quantity of victuals and drink, to be consumed at Heath Hall in this neighbourhood, by as many persons as should choose to come, each devouring what quantity they should please, a certain sum to be reserved, and distributed in shillings to each grown up person, and sixpences to each child, as far as it should go. This part of her Will was fulfilled; some others were not to the satisfaction of the menu peuple; Lady Bolles, therefore, long walked in Heath Grove, till at length she was conjured down into a hole of the river, near Heath Hall, called to this day Lady Bolles's pit; the spell, however, was not so powerful but what she still rises and inakes a fuss now and then.

"There is a remarkable monument in Wakefield church which you overlooked, of which more hereafter. The Church is of the age of Edward IV. Concerning the occasion of Mr. Drake's publishing the Antiquities of York, and sundry other matters curious, instructive, and interesting, if so you shall wish, you may likewise be informed hereafter, and so a good morning to you, for I am called to dinner. Yours truly, B. FORSTER."

6. "DEAR GOUGH, Alverthorp Hall, Nov. 12, 1766. During this present unsettled state of my affairs you must be content to hear from me in such manner as I can write. I now sit down, hoping to have a whole hour to myself, bating three minutes, time enough I ween to write a composed epistle in; but then I have just dismissed a bricklayer, to whom I have been giving directions about the alteration of a chimney; a new horse is within this half-hour brought me upon trial; our kitchen chimney is down, and carpenters and masons are making a bustle within my hearing, and I shall be in the greater haste to make an end of writing, that my boy may the sooner carry it to the post, and be dismissed for the day to take his pastime in Wakefield great fair, held this day, being the Old Style anniversary of its host of patron saints. Thus circumstanced, expect to be made giddy once more, and from henceforward to my dying day all serene, and placid, and soporific shall be my style. I

have been fitting up the little humble apartment for myself here to a most enviable degree of snugness. Things around me will look more composed than even at the regretted Bromfield, for I have the ordering of the inside objects within my view, and no turnpike road passes within a mile of me without. Then, I have trees near both my windows, and cows grazing up to one of them, and the solitude of an unfinished stone-house, which makes not a bad object in its side appearance, seen thus from the table where I am writing, not that the draught is in fact a bit like the appearance of it, but I had a mind to try my hand at a hasty sketch in perspective. [Here a slight sketch with the pen.] "You enquire in one of your letters about my Sunday's exploits. Never did I see the appearance of such a crowd gathered together as the polls of the 2000 auditors of Wakefield make from the pulpit. I have no conception myself that one of them can hear me; they tell me, however, that all before me (which makes up by much the greater part of the audience) do very well. One comfort is, that it is of no manner of consequence to them whether they do or no, and (as I do not find myself in the least fatigued by bawling to them) not of much to me. There is no

chance of admiration here for any body but our Vicar, who has a thundering voice, and is commended in those very words for being a boisterous man.

"When you get access to Leland you may give me some intelligence about the old church of St. John at Wakefield, in which a person who died within these fifteen years was baptized. It stood where is now a large brick barn, which we past by in coming from Leeds, on our left hand, just before we entered the town. Leland says, as I am informed, that the fourth Incumbent of the New Church was living in his time, which, according to Sir Isaac Newton's allowance, of 20 years to each monarch or parson, or pew-sweeper, in a succession, will carry back the date of our present church to Edward IV. or Henry VI. I thought its appearance at a distance was not what I had expected from the view in the "Ducatus;" the reason is, that a few years ago the purflings were taken off from the spire, when its top was blown off, nor is it carried quite so high as it was before.

"In Wakefield were anciently six chantries:

66

"1. On the great bridge, where Edward IVth's chapel now stands. It was in being in the reign of Richard I. and was rebuilt and the endowment encreased by Edward IV.

"2. On Westgait bridge, St. Mary Magdalen's, in being 1658, but new houses now on its site.

"3. Somewhere in Kirkgait or near Norgate, for I am not clear in my intelligence about its situation, of which I am told there are some remains, which I have not however yet found out. About eleven years ago there were several old images found concealed in the house, which antiently was the chantry. A shopkeeper in this town, Bucktrout by name, purchased them, and

sent them about as a shew to fairs all over the country, but the' saints, indignant to be so degraded, estranged the minds of the menu peuple from the sight, so that the Sieur Bucktrout was not a gainer by the sacrilege.

"A 4th chantry was on the north side of the way in Westgait. De 5 et 6 nihil repertum est.

"Of the meaning of gait, as used to signify street in several Yorkshire towns, I believe I spoke before. It has no reference to gate, porta, but means via, and probably has the same etymology with our word gait, incessus, whatever that may be.

"Mr. Drake* the surgeon, for such he was at that time and in some practice, being at the inn where we drank coffee at Knaresborough, met there with Sir Harry Slingsby. Sir Harry was borrowing money, £600. I think was the sum, of a farmer upon a bond: the farmer would not lend unless there were two names in the bond: Sir Harry had brought no second person with him, and persuaded Mr. Drake to lend his name as a mere matter of form. Sir Harry for some time paid neither principal nor interest, and, being in Parliament †, could not be come upon himself, and had the cruelty to let Mr. Drake be arrested and thrown into the Fleet for the money; there he lay some time, and in that retirement he sent for what papers he had by him relating to York, and began digesting them. His confinement of course threw his physical business into other hands, and he commenced antiquary solely from that time. He might have lain in the Fleet to this day had not Lord Burlington interposed, who assured Sir Harry he would use all his interest to prevent his being re-chosen for Knaresborough, unless he paid the debt, and made a compensation to Mr. Drake.

Nov. 22, 1766.

7. Mr. GOUGH to Rev. B. FORSTER. "DEAR SIR, "I received the letter you are so uneasy about. My last to you was just put into the post as yours came out. Dr. Gower wonders he has not heard from you: he concludes you must have received his at Lincoln; and that you have no good account to give of yourself. He has been almost ever since we left him in the Beauvoir sick family. Did not your last leave half-told the story of Mr. Drake's oppressions, &c.? I rejoice to hear you have found a situation so like the snug one at Bromfield. Pray Heaven grant you wit not to run out at Alvethorp! If you get into York castle, I fear you will not write the Antiquities of Wakefield to get out again. A word about the saints found in the chantry; some account and a print of one appeared in two Ma

Of this accurate and intelligent Historian see the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VII. p. 115.; and some of his letters in these Illustrations, vol. I. p. 299.

+ Sir Henry Slingsby was M. P. for Knaresborough in seven Parliaments, from 1722 till his death in 1763.

gazines. Is it tanti think ye for me to purchase them for my Lararium: I should have asked first what will M. le Shopkeeper have for them, and are they still in his hands, and not in M. Vulcan's, for I think they were wooden gods; secondly what are their dimensions? if they are big as myself they will be too big to make playthings of, and our great barn, much less my museum, would not hold them. All this premised, I had better wait till I have taken a house at Easeby or Fountains, and then I may give out that the good things transported themselves to the pious antiquary; or shall I make myself personally present at Wakefield by way of beginning an acquaintance with them?

"Your Walpoles sleep here till I go to London for good. It is hardly worth while to pay their carriage from Enfield express, and when I am in town I shall the better know how your waggons move. Mr. Pollard is a most uncome-atable man; but I shall pay for the cheese some how or other by and by. There are Septuagints of all sorts and sizes: will a pocket volume suit your eyes, a quarto your hands, or a folio your desk? Are you a candidate for Sir L. Pilkington's favour, who turns tavern bills into Greek, that you make such a parade of your abilities that way?

"The Fund is the Queen Anne's bounty of the Dissenters; but to be disqualified to receive it 'tis enough if a man lies under the imputation of heresy without proceeding to overt acts. Presbyterians and Baptists have each their several funds, which likewise furnish exhibitions to their academy, as well as augment its income afterwards. These three are all the distinctions I can

hear of now. When a gentleman asks you a civil question you should give him a civil answer, not say you told him as much before. Style in writing may be taken as expressively as tone in speaking, but you are too benevolent to give a snappish answer anyhow. Your share of expenses Sept. 23-4, is £2. 8s. 1d. Now you have letter for letter, so may begin again, and that right soon. R. GOUGH."

8. Rev. B. FORSTER to Mr. GOUGH.

"DEAR SIR, Wakefield, Dec. 2, 1766. "What the devil is it to you how our waggons move? Did not I tell you before I left the South that parcels for me would frequently be coming from Walbrook, and that that was the warehouse for receiving whatever you might have occasion to convey to me? (When a man is once charged with a fault, there is nothing like a repetition of it. It is in the true spirit of repentance, and satisfies his monitor that he was right in his charge, and is worth a thousand acknowledgments.) But now, alas! I must change my tone for the suppliant, and pray that you would make haste to deliver me from my persecutors. Twice since I last wrote have I been called upon for the pay of. the Stilton cheese, and no longer by a solitary feeble friendless

old woman, but with encreased numbers each time.Why, friends, I would pay you for it with all my heart, but there is a correspondent of mine has undertaken to pay for it, and I am only apprehensive lest it should be paid for in both places, and you may take my word for it that my correspondent is a man of credit. Well, Sir, we can take your word to be sure, but we had rather take your money.'-Well hit, thought I. They will come to me again in about a fortnight;-if you have not an opportunity of paying in the mean time, pray let me know and leave it to me, for I can never dismiss them again;—at the sixth visit they would bring my whole two thousand auditors to be witnesses of my disgrace.

"Did I leave half-told the story of Mr. Drake and the rascal Sir Harry? No sure, I was interrupted, and forced to laconicize in my style, but I believe the whole matter was related. Haistwell will tell you of a peculiar padfoot we have here of our own, hight 'Boggard of Langar hede:' it is of old fame here; clanks its chain at a three lane end, and so parades it for a few hundred yards up the lane, under a long garden wall belonging to this house. It begins its stalk from a spot where is an old well (one of the three Robin Hood's wells in this Riding) under the present causeway. I have met with one person who saw it walk beside him for a quarter of a mile up the lane, and to be sure his aunt died that very night. It is white, with glaring eyes, fourlegged (like all our goblins), and about the size of a cawf, and is the most dreaded of all the padfoots of this part. My lad, at supper-time, hardly dares to come to my apartment, which looks towards the garden-wall, and is a great way from the rest of the house; he hardly ever indeed does venture without bringing with him some one of the family, or enticing a glorious fellow of a mastiff to accompany him to the door. Mrs. Baale had a servant brought back her godspenny after she was hired, and would not live here, upon any account, no, not if you would give her the house and estate. Come and help me to exorcise this fierce fiend.

"I will make some enquiry of Mr. Bucktrout about the wooden gods. I would give sixpence for the Magazine which had a print of one of them (if it is to be had separate), and my brother Tom is my backer.

"A hand Septuagint is the thing for a church, but alas! I can yet get no place either for it or myself. Know you whether Hales of Eton's name was John?—if it was I should be glad if you would at any convenient opportunity buy me his tracts or any of his works, which I suppose are all to be picked up cheap. Likewise Hexham de statu Aëris, &c. either his own Latin edition or the Translation, whichever comes to hand first. I hope you have answered for me to Dr. Gower, concerning the Lincoln letter I wrote to him from hence long ago. B. FORSTER."