fallen. Befides this, there is nothing fo easily diftinguished, as a real fall of rain (at a fmall diftance) from a mifty appearance only. We feldom indeed here obferve any rain-cloud fall, when not immediately under it ourselves; but we fee its fall, in different denfities, by ftreaming down in a variety of fhaded tints: and when under the fall, we have demonftration of it; being as diftinely perceptible to the ear, by the pleafant variety of founds proceeding from a variety of denfities. Now, the partial and narrow breaking of a raincharged cloud, may fometimes be difperfed before it meets the ground-and that, from its own natural thinnefs: for falling from a thin ferene air aloft, it fometimes meets with an active air below; which will effectually at least difperfe the ribbon or fpout-like appearance. But no change is perhaps wrought upon it at all-and all falls fair to the ground, tho' not full to the eye. The deception may lie in the horizon; which may itfelf be fo very hazy and foul, as to render the lower part of the fall invifible, from the diftance only. Perhaps too, this narrow vein of rain, falling immediately from the parent cloud in thick, mall, mizzly drops, may in the defcent join together; and before it reaches the furface, after various coalefcence may be fo knit together, and fo thinned in fubftance, that being transformed from a light, thick fhower, to a thinned fall of heavy cryftalline drops, that appearance may be loft at a distance, which at hand might be heavily felt. And perhaps philofophic obfervers, thoroughly acquainted with the atmosphere of fultry regions, may be pleafed to affign other caufes.

a

In fuch climates, Sir, we frequently fee a heavy fall of rain, on one fide of a fence or hedge, watering the thirfty fields of one gentleman, without bleting his neighbours with a fingle drop. A heavy rain will all on fudden rattle over the roof of a houfe, fcarcely leaving even a trace of it about the court-yard. And when thofe fort of clouds, thro' a little fanning breeze, have any rake or motion; fuch a vein of rain will run along a frect, touching the houfes of one fide only: or crofs over a town in the breadth of a few feet or yards while every drop from verge to verge is equally thick and heavy.

I have myfelf often feen fuch rain, and withal compofed of fuch heavy

drops, that had the fall been from a greater height, and firengthened by the action of wind (for very fortunately thefe falls are generally in the profoundeft calm), I am fure a good roof only could have ftood the weight. A remarkable inftance of one of those I met with on the 5th of May 1778, ar the burial of one of my parishioners, where there was at leaft a concourfe of three hundred people. The houfe of the deceafed was adjoining to the church-yard wall, and being dry and warm weather, I fat with many others for a little time without doors; when on a fudden a bustle happened amongst the company-endeavouring to get under cover, on account of an approaching fhower. As I did not immediately fee from whence it came, I at first got up to look about me, when I beheld the fun-beams from the Weft fhining thro' two clouds upon this fall; the loweft of which, ferving as a ground (fee the plate, fig. 6.) to make the fall vifible, we were prefented with a most beautiful appearance of fhining cryftalline drops, as large as hafel nuts, which fell very thick and faft within the church-yard, and about the distance of twelve yards from us. I knew it immediately to be a fpout; and from the dead calm, declaring that it would keep its fituation, I prevailed upon a few of the company to join me in taking our feats again; and accordingly it fpent its ftrength in a few minutes, without having thrown a hundred fcattered drops amongst the whole company. And may not fuch pours of rain be ftill heavier? Surely; particularly fo at fea. For here the heat of the fun during calms is much more intenfe than on the fhore: and the exhalations fometimes fo plentiful and heavy, that a cloud is unable to bear the burden to any great distance from the fpot at which it was taken up, but, as it were ftaggering along, quits the load with a confufed precipitation. And here, I think, may be formed fpouts of various moderate fizes and denfities, without giving us any fort of furprife; or to make us follow nature out of her ordinary way. Her extraordinary effects, we fhall come to by and by. For it is not water thrown upwards which conftitutes a fpout, any more than water falling downwards. Nor can it be the quantity either; for the spout which fell in LANCASTER in 1718, was not a jot more effentially a fpout, than that which yesterday tell

from

from the leads of my rectory houfe at ST. JAGO DE LA VEGA. And from thefe leads, according to the quantity of rain in the overpouring clouds, I have seen in our rainy feafons hand fome fpouts of various arches, fizes, and denfities.

But the friends of whirlwind vacuums will doubtlefs fay, "And is the ftupendous machinery for raifing fo wonderful a phænomenon as fome millions of tons of ponderous element in the pipe of a whirlwind, brought to a level with the paltry fpurtings from the leads of a private gentleman's houfe" It may indeed be lowering the dignity of a traveller's defcription; but, as I never could fee any true philofophy in fcrewing up accounts of uncommon phænomena till they grow paft belief or think that a story is not worth telling, unlefs the reader is fet a-ftaring; I confefs I cannot help thinking that the wonderful catalogue of nature needed not whirlwind-waterfpouts to increase the number.

And, after all, what have the fond friends of this philofophy made of the water-fpout? Is it terrible? Is it worthy of a mariner's dread? Or is it worth a voyager's attention? Not one of them all. As the ingenious philofopher in his mathematical figure has defcribed it, it is charming, I confefs, paffing curious, but a chip in porridge withal. Some voyagers have indeed related ftories of spouts rising out of the fea; forecastle men have feen many of them; and they alfo at the fame time have informed us, that correfponding falling Spouts were prefently after difcovered; where the rifing element was quickly expended, and from the clouds difgorged again in heavy and dreadful falls. But our whirlwind friends difclaim all dangers of this fort; unless, peradventure, we can imagine to ourfelves, that a fhip in the midft of a whirlwind should be whistled up bodily, anchors, cables and all in vacuo. For fuch philofophers are inclined to difpute the exiftence of falling fpouts altogether; fo that after their huge magazine of water is forced to the height of thirty-two feet (the plumb of a fhip's tafferel or fo, not worth talking of), it feems it is difcharged very innocently, and we don't know how, among the clouds they fay.

Dr. Mr indeed, of Botton, in a letter to Dr. Franklin, (page 239) acquaints us, be bad been told by fea-men

of spouts which have fallen fuddenly to the great danger of ships-but thefe (agreeable to his own hypothefis and plan, plate II. fig. 2.) fell only after they had risen from W to W-or his 32 feet-their breadth was 20 yards diameter, he fays, or 60 feet. The very untowardnefs and ill proportion of fuch a figure would have induced me at leaft to fufpect the traveller. I have oft times on the feas feen clumps of water, fix times that fize, but I should hardly have allowed myself to distinguish them by the name of waterspouts. Capt. CARTERET (in Hawkiworth, Vol. I. page 313) faw an appearance of this kind, and one much more remarkable being as lofty as a man of warbut we should hardly have found a place given to it in the narrative, had not its refemblance to a loft companion elated the whole crew. I partly here, however, forgive Dr. Franklin. Good men are often credulous-and it is too natural for us all to warp and coax a pliable ftory, when it will fuit a fond hypothefis.-But his application of the Lancaster spout in the fame paragraph is not fo like a philofopher-" One would think, he lays, from this inftance, that the column of a spout is fometimes lifted off from the water, and carried over land, and there let fail in a body.-Why, this is making no more of working about a whirling vacuum, than a fire-man does the directing pipe of his engine-and he drowns the poor people in COLNE, by an unlucky lifting of one of his fpouts, with as little ceremony as the enraged elephant did with a finmall turn of his probofcis-as the story goes.

Perhaps this to fome may appear illnatured irony-for he himself supposes this happens but rarely.-But why should he fuppofe it to happen at all? Why, to fuit his hypothefis of pulfion and fuction, muft a water-fpout be confined to the ocean, like a fquirt to the pond, and only upon a rare occafion be raifed up or lifted about to splash and beflood the neighbouring fhores? I have spent fome convivial hours with Dr. Franklin in a groupe of philofophic friends; and in numerous refpects have, as an ingenious gentleman, the highest efteem for him. Even in the diforted children of his genius, I can behold with pleasure any lineaments of beauty: and can easily excufe a fond parent himself, in feeing every feature to advantage-nay, perhaps, to doat upon

them

them. But furely, because I admire the Doctor's productions, I am not bound to put on his fpectacles, and view objects only in his favourite mediums; to believe, for inftance, that rivers run not into the fea, because he is pleafed to fay fo (Letter LVI. page 479)-for then indeed an end must be put to all impartial enquirings. J. L.

MR. URBAN,

MR. URBAN,

Nov. 6, 1783.

YOUR correfpondent A. G. p. 750,

has given a meagre account of Prefident Bradshaw, who was not only famous by reafon of the high ftation which he held under the Parliament, and Cromwell, but was alfo a man of family, of good parts, and, I believe, no enemy to his country. According to A. G. he was born at St. Dogmel's near Cardigan-Echard tells us, he was a of in

IN your September Magazine' Ward's p. 727, London Spy, "wherein mention is made of a place at Guildhall, called "Little Eale," for confining unruly apprentices; but expreffing a doubt whether it had been ever ufed for that purpofe. Whatever might be the cafe in Ward's time, it has certainly been appropriated to that ufe fince; as on the 2d of June, 1747, (I have a particular reafon for remembering the day) I faw a very refractory lad put in there, by order of the Chamberlain (Sir John Bofworth) about two in the afternoon, and who had not been releafed when I returned about five. W. E. N. B. Befides the pieces already mentioned, Ward, I think, wrote "England's Reform'd," an abufive burJefque on that happy revolution in religion brought about by Queen Elizabeth; and The Wooden World Diflected," a fcandalous defcription of a fhip of war, her officers, and men.

MR. URBAN,

BY

C.

DY an Act of Parliament, 15 Cha. 11. 2. for punishing woodstealers, the conftable may apprehend every perfon he fhall fufpe&t having or carrying any burden of any kind of wood, under-wood, poles or young trees, or bark or baf of any trees.

I am at a loss to know what is meant by the word baf, which is not to be found in Chambers or in feveral other dictionaries which I have confulted; nor can I get it explained by perfons much converfant with timber and trees. Perhaps it means the fruit of the tree, as the acorns of the oak, the most of the beech, (which laft comes near the found and orthography) &c. but if any of your correfpondents can clear it up, I fhall be obliged to them. W.

In a note at the bottom of p. 757, in your Mag. for Sept. mention is made of a Treatife by Rayner Heckford, Efq; on Bookland and Folkland -for whom printed? as I cannot find out the book.

Chimire and Lancashire, but family re tune of his own making; not without parts, but of great infolence and ambition. He was of Gray's Ian, and made ferjeant at law in the year 1648. Echard allows him to have been a man of good practice in his chamber," and not a little employed by the faction," tho' he infinuates, that he was not much known in Weftminster Hall. His fpirited behaviour at the trial of Charles, and his fubfequent actions, are well known. Smith in his Obituary, printed in the 2d Vol. of Peck's Defiderata Curiofa, fixes his death on the 11th day of Oct. 1659; he calls him "Judge of the Sherives Court in Guildhall." Echard fays, he died on the 31ft day of Oct. and gives a curious account of his intrepid behaviour in his dying mo ments. Whatever the friends of arbitrary power may alledge againft this man, I have every reafon to think, that he always acted from principle, and was as well skilled in the laws of his country, as any one of his contemporaries. His body was buried with great ftate and attendance in Westminster Abbey, and his funeral fermon preached by Michael Rowe. It was the lowest kind of revenge in Charles II. to mangle the corpfe of Bradshaw, after it had refted quietly for a whole year. I fhould be glad, Mr. Urban, if A. G. or any other of your correfpondents, would give a pedigree of Bradshaw's family, afcertain the time of his birth, the place of his education, and the time he was admitted of Gray's Inn, and alfo furnish us with fome account of the place where he refided, and of the eftates which he poffeffed. If he was married, I wish to know the furname of his wife, the rank of her family, and the children the bore to her husband.

A Hiftory of the Civil Wars of Great Britain and Ireland was printed by R. W. for Philip Chetwind, in the year 166.-At the end of the epiftle dedicatory to Charles Duke. of Richmond, the author figns himself J. D.

Can

Can any one of Mr. Urban's numerous friends inform me who this J. D. was? During the civil war feveral periodical papers were published by the contending parties, under the title of Mercuries. The Mercurius Aulicus, which was written by Sir John Birkenhead and Dr. Peter Heylyn on the part of the king, came out as early as the year 1642, and was continued for feveral years. On the fide of the parliament were publifhed, Mercurius Rufticus, Mercurius Civicus, and Mercurius Britannicus. Thefe alfo had a long run. There were two others, intituled, Mercurius Pragmaticus and Mercurius Melancholicus, both of which first came out in 1647. How long they were continued, I am not able to afcertain. I have fome reason to fuppofe that thefe papers are fcarce. There is a collection of them in the library of All Souls College in Oxford, but whether it is a complete one I know not. I fhould therefore with to be informed, Mr. Urban, by fome one of your readers, in what library, either public or private, a perfect fet is to be met with; and who were or are supposed to be the authors of the feveral papers. journal, intituled, Mercurius Britannicus, was written by Marchmont Nedham, of whom fome memoirs would be acceptable to your conftant reader, B. R. P. S. In many of our cathedrals there may be feen the figure of a bishop, who is faid to have attempted to faft 40 days and 40 nights, in imitation of our Saviour, and to have perifhed in the experiment. Who was this bifhop, or what circumftance gave rife to the story?

MR. URBAN,

The Parliament

Dec. 10.

ENCOURAGED by your fattering attention, I fend you, fans ceremonie, the characters of two diftinguifhed prelates (Bp. HOADLY and Abp. SECKER) tranfcribed from the Sibyls leaves of Mr. Jones.

Yours, EUGENIO. Bishop HOADLY, 1761. His father, who was a fenfible, religious, and worthy man, and inftructed him and his brother John in schoollearning, obferving his parts, and the parts alfo of his brother, though not equal to his, faid occafionally, being in company with fome of his friends, "My "fon John will probably one day be a "bishop, and Ben an archbishop." What he faid (though no prophet) proved in general true; only with this difference, that his elder fon was made a bishop, and his younger an archbishop.

An a converfation which I had the ho

nour of having with the Bp. of Winchefter many years ago in London, he told me, that he thought our liturgical forms ought to be revifed and amended, only for our own fakes, though there were no diffenters in the land." He added, that "the ftrict measures taken at the laft review were not approved by the famous Dr. Whichcott, but were thought by him to be much too fevere, and the effects only of a frong party-prejudice. "I plainly fee," faid the Dr." what they would be at; but I shall difappoint them. I can myfelf, with a good confcience, conform, though others cannot; whom I greatly pity, heartily wishing them more liberty, as really due to them by the laws of nature, and thofe of the gofpel. I, fpeaking for myself only, confider things upon a much larger bottom. I fee that I can fill promote the Chriftian Religion in general, though cramped in fome points, which I judge not to be very effential to it. This is the rule by which I conduct myself in thefe matters."

At another interview with this worthy bifhop (when I had fome fcruples relating to certain particulars enjoined by law), he told me, that " for his own part he had conftantly, whilft a parifhminifter, obferved the rules prescribed; and, amongst other injunctions, that he had never omitted the Athanafian Creed, when ordered to be read in the church. But you," said he, with an agreeable fmile upon his countenance, "are, I fee, of much the fame mind with my late excellent friend Dr. Clarke; who, though having fcruples to fome things, would yet continue in his miniftry to the church established, but was not willing to enter into new engagements by repealing the fubfcriptions, &c. I leave you to God, and to your own judgement and confcience : for I never go farther " At the fame time he added, when I mentioned Bp. Secker as a perfon to whom Lord Lyttelton had, the fame morning, wifhed me to apply for a relief of my fcruples; "I fomewhat wonder at this propofal : my Lord of Oxford's lips are glerwed *."

A monument is erected to his memory in the weft ifle of the cathedral at Winchefter. The infcription is in Latin, drawn up by himielf. The principal

contents and dates as follows: He was the fon of Samuel Hoadly, a

* In return, Abp. S. one day, at his table, when the Monthly Reviewers were faid, by one of the company, to be Chriftians, replied, "If they were, it was certainly fecundum ufum Winton." EDIT.

pref

prefbyter of the Church of England, and for many years inftructor of a private fchool, and afterwards of the public fchool at Norwich; and of Martha Pickering, daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Pickering. Born at Wefterham in Kent, Nov. 14, 1676. Admitted into Catharine Hall, Cambridge, 1692; of which hall he was afterwards chofen a fellow. Afternoon-lecturer for ten years at St. Mildred in the Poultry, London, from 1701. Rector of St. Peter's Poor, London, for 16 years, from 1704. Allo rector of Streatham in Surrey, for 13 years, from 1710. Confecrated Bp. of Bangor, Mar. 18, 1715. Confirmed Bp. of Hereford, Nov. 3, 1721. Confirmed Bp. of Salif bury, Oct. 29, 1723. Confirmed Bp. of Winchefter, Sept. 26, 1734. His first wife was Sarah Curtis, by whom he had two fons, Benjamin, M.D. and John, LL. D. chancellor of the diocefe of Winchester. His fecond wife was Mary Newey, daughter of the Rev. Dr. John Newey, dean of Chichefter. He died April 17, 1761, aged 85. On a fmall tablet underneath, are thefe words: "Patri a"mantiffimo, veræ religionis ac libertatis "publicæ vindici, de fe, de patriâ, de genere humano optimè merito, hoc "marmor pofuit J. Hoadly, filius fuper"ftes." His conftant motto was, "Veritas et Patria."

SECKER (Abp.), 1769.

When a young man, he preached to 2 fmall diffenting congregation at B--, in Derbyshire. If I am rightly informed, he was thought by the more elderly. and grave people there to be rather too young and airy for fuch a charge, fo he did not continue long in that ftation. To what place he removed from thence I have not heard, nor how he employed his time t.

He was many years rector of St. James's, Weftuinfter, and discharged the duties of that ftation in a reputable and exemplary manner, doing many acts of charity, &c.

When he was promoted to the fee of Oxford, feveral of the leading men among the diffenters began to entertain confiderable hopes of him, that he would be favourable to their intereft, and to the caufe of a farther reformation in the establifhed church; but found themselves mistaken in him. Dr. Doddridge, not long after the Bishop's advancement, took an opportunity to congratulate him upon the occafion, and alfo to exprefs his hopes that, being now in fo high a ftation, he would ufe his endeavours to bring matters to a greater degree of reconciliation between churchmen and diffenters, to remove obftacles lying in the way towards it, &c. The Bishop coolly anfwered, "Doctor, my fentiments concerning thofe matters are different from yours." [or fome fuch words.]

His early education was among the diffenters from the Church of England; whom (as his brother of Coventry told me) he left when he was about 17 years of age. [That brother, by the way, continued a diffenter to the laft, and was one of the chief among thofe of Coventry, and juftly esteemed by all that knew him, He died fome time before the Abp. and was the father of the late Dr, Secker, &c.] Dr. Chandler told me, that Mr. T. Secker and he were fellow-ftudents (I think he faid alfo chamber-fellows) at the academy at Tewkesbury, under the inftruction of Mr. S. Jones,

See the fhort account given of him, his education, &c, in Dr. Nowell's Antwer to Pict. Oxon, 1758, pp. 47, 48; which the Dr. had from the Abp, himself.

During his ftay in foreign parts, and application to the ftudy of phyfic, he wrote published ] a treatife, De Partu Difficili*.

The only medical treatile that he publifhed was, we apprehend, his thefs De Meairing Statica, when he took his degree of

hopes, and dropped the application.

It was faid he was always, after his advancement to his high dignity, more fhy towards the diffenters than he had been formerly. Several inftances have been given.

When he was exalted to Canterbury, he formed feveral defigns for the fervice of the established church, and the fecurity or restoration of its rules and orders, taking all opportunities to convince the world that he was firm and steady to her interefts, and a ftaunch convert from the principles of his education.

He intended to infift on a stric obfervation of the clerical habit (which was generally too much neglected), but found by degrees that the attempt was become in a manner impracticable, after fuch long difuse and difregard of order.

Some reprefented him as being of the Laudean notions and principles in feveral refpects; but I do not think he was a M. D. at Leyden, in 1720. EDIT.

+ See his Life, by his Chaplains, prefixed to his Works. EDIT.