LEGEND OF SAINT CECILIA. (FROM SIR JOHN HAWKINS.) AINT CECILIA, among Chriftians, is eftcemed the patronefs of music; for the reafons where ofwe must refer to her

hiftory, as delivered by the notaries of the Roman church, and from them tranferibed into the Gol. den Legend, and other books of the like kind. The ftory fays, that he was a Roman lady, born of noble parents, about the year 225. That, notwithftanding the had been converted to Christianity, her parents married her to a young Roman nobleman, named Va. lerianus, a pagan, who, going to bed to her on the wedding-night, as the custom is, fays the book, was given to underftand by his fpoufe that the was nightly vifited by an angel, and that he mutt for bear to approach her, otherwife the angel would deftroy him. Valerianus, fomewhat troubled at thefe words, defired he might fee his rival the angel; but his fpoufe told him that was impof fible, unless he would be baptized, and become a Chriftian, which he confented to: after which, returning to his wife, he found her in her clofer at prayer; and by her fide, in the fhape of a beau tiful young man, the angel cloathed with brightnefs. After fome conver fation with the angel, Valerianús told him that he had a brother, named Tiburtius, whom he greatly wished to fee a partaker of the grace which he himfelf had received: the angel told him, that his defire was granted, and that fhortly they fhould both be crowned with martyrdom. Upon this the angel

vanished, but foon after fhewed him felf as good as his word: Tiburtius was converted, and both he and his brother Valerianus were beheaded. Cecilia was offered her life upon condition that the would facrifice to the deities of the Romans, but the refufed; upon which the was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and fcalded to death: though others fay he was ftifled in a dry bath, i. e. an inclofure from whence the air was excluded, having a flow fire underneath it; which kind of death was fometimes inflicted among the Roma! $ upon women of quality who were criminals. See the fecond Nonne's Tale in Chaucer, the Golden Legend, print ed by Caxton, and the Lives of Saints by Peter Ri adeneyra, prieft of the Society of Jefus. Printed at St. Omer's in 1699.

Upon the fpot where her houfe ftood, is a church, faid to have been built by Pope Urban I, who adminiftered bap

tifm to her husband and his brother: it is the church of St. Cecilia in Traftevere. Within is a moft curious painting of the faint, as alfo a moft ftately monument, with a cumbent flatue of her, with her face downwards, of which the annexed plate gives a faithful reprefentatio..

St. Cecilia is ufually painted playing either on the organ or on the harp, finging, as Chaucer relates, thus:

And whiles that the organs made melodie, To GoD alone thus in her herte fong the, O Lorde my foul and cke my body gie

Unwemmed left I confounded be."

Befides this account there is a tradition of St. Cecilia, that the excelled in mufic, and that the angel, who was thus enamoured of her, was drawn down from the celeftial manfions by the charms

of

MR. URBAN,

Aug. 19.

MY kitchen in London is paved with large fquare ftones, laid in fand, which, though a great fecurity from fire, has been attended with an inconvenience, occafioned by the conftant heat and drynefs of it: for in fummer the flone floor (if I may fo call it and the dreffers were at night, on the remoral of candles, covered with black beetles innumerable, devouring bread, and every other eatable left there. I had often heard that the hedge-hog was very useful and dextrous in deftroying black beetles; and whilft I was in the country on the 16th of June laft, one having ftragged, in a very rainy day, from my fhrubbery to the garden-parlour door, my coachman caught him with his hat, and brought him to town, to try how far the account given of his deftroying beetles was true. At first he was very fulky, kept himself folded up (in what is called his torpid ftate) till he was almoft fpent for want of food; but in a few days his ftomach came to, and he grew reconciled to a town life, opened himself, and eat very heartily of apples and bread fopped in milk, and fucked the milk alfo out of his platter with great eagerness; and it is a truth, he is now fo far domefticated, as not to fear either cats or dogs. I have three of the latter, of whom he is not in the leaft fhy, nor do they interfere with, or moleft him, and he will take the soaked bread or apple out of your hand.

I have frequently obferved him at his meals. When the family are going to bed, he is brought, in an upright basket, out of another room, his conftant apartment in the day-time, (which, till put him into it, was over-run with mice,) into the kitchen. He then crawls up the fide of the basket, and by that means tips it down, looks out tharply for his foaked bread and pan of milk; taftes it with great delight, and immediately. runs under a clolet door in the kitchen, which he has invariably chofen for his retreat; and, hnding all jaje, returns and retreats many times, till he has finifhed his fupper. He is in like manner fupplied in the daytime, and throws down his basket when he wants to eat, or get under cover, for he will always, if poffible, find a hiding-place. If there is much talking, or candles put too near, or he perceives himfelf clofely obferved, he runs brifkly to his lurking place, till the lights are removed, and the room becomes quiet.

He continues in perfect health, and is

grown fo fat that it is with difficulty he can fqueeze under the clofet door. and is perfectly welcome to his board and lodging, which he has well merited by his good. fervices, for I do not believe there is one black beetle left in my. houfe; nor, I am inclined to think, one moufe, at least not in the room where he is kept. When displeased, he makes a grunting, or rather hifling I have never feen him carry off any of the beetles, apples, or other food, on his bristly back, as your correfpondent relates, but run away with it, and nimbly too, in his mouth. I doubt not, however, he does fo, when at large. I am led to think there is fomething in the fcent or fmell of this animal, his dang or urine (both which he makes plentifully) obnoxious, and even destructive to beetles, and probably to rats and mice, and is one, if not the principal, caufe of driving them away: certain it is, he has totally extirpated them from my houfe. Yours, &c. O.K,

MR. URBAN, Aug. 6. N your laft Magazine, p. 574, I obferve a final mistake in the lift of those Lords who voted, on Friday the 30th of May last, for reverfing the judgement of the Court of King's Bench in the cause between Lewis Difney Fytche and the Bishop of London. To this lift thould be added Lord Vif count Howe; and from it should be fubtracted the Bishop of Norwich (Dr. Bagot), who was abfent from London at that time. So that the whole number of Lords, 19, continues as before. But what name is to be added, in the place of Lord Howe, to the other lift of Lords, who voted for affirming the judgement, I do not know. M. X.

I

MR. URBAN,

Aug. 8. WISH fome Northamptonshire cor refpondet would find you a defcription of the fine old pictures at Mrs. Ro berts's of Thurnby. I recollect seeing there King Charies and Prince Henry, when very young; David Rizzio (lately given to Sir James Langham); a young lady of three years old (a 30,000l. for tune) with a toad on her head; and many others of value.

At Sibberton Lodge, near Walnsford in the fame county (where is a curious old chapel, now ufed as a dairy), are two good portraits on board of warriors in the laft century, one of them faid to be a Major Cambridge.

S. J.

MR.