you

ut ab fopi ingenio profectas.' The conclufion is, that fop compofed a book of fables, as well as other works, unless will fay the volume fo univerfally known was compiled by De'metrius Phalereus +; and this, I think,, may fafely be drawn, notwithstanding the obfervations of Dr. Bentley, fince, as to Demetrius, he probably only enlarged the collection. I am far from contending, that our prefent book, as given by the Oxonians A. 1718, af fords either fop's own language, or that of Demetrius; it has been modernifed without doubt+: but this does not hinder us from believing, that Efop himself might write a book in his own words at first, and so say the Oxonians, Hoc quippe veterum plerifque fibi licere exiftimarunt, ut eodem quo fcripta fua filo contexerent quas ille [fopus] feciffet fabulas: quo factum eft, ut ejufdem argumenti Apologos diffimili oratione ac ftilo narratos habeamus.' Probably fop's own diction, from its antiquity, or from dialect, for I prefume he was a Phrygian, might have become harth and obfcure, and this might be another rea. fon why Demetrius thought proper to revive them by a new edition.

Yours, &c.

PERMIT

T. Row,

MR. URBAN, Knightsbridge, Q. 3. me to communicate to the lovers of natural history, by your Magazine, the only one that will bear the perufal of men of fcience, a minute, but moft extraordinary incident, which I hope fome of your correfpondents will endeavour to account for.

Soon after one of the thunder ftorms which have been fo prevalent this feafon, I happened to look into a small drawer in my bureau, where different coins and medals, ancient and modern, are depofited. To my great furprize, three or four of the filver coins were blasted, as though they had been corroded with very potent aqua fortis. None of thofe ftruck in other metals were at all touched, except one caft of Admiral Rodney in a kind of white metal, refembling filver What makes .this more remarkable is, that though none but the filver medals are hurt, they by no means lay apart, but were fcattered among the others, may three of them totally covered by them.

Bentley, p. 138.

See the Oxford Preface,

No aqua fortis, or other corrofive, is in my houfe, much lefs in my bureau. I thought once the lightning might have been attracted by the key being left in the bureau; but my leaving a key in my bureau would have been almoft as extraordinary as the incident-itfelf, and I am almoft pofitive this was not the cafe. At any rate, this will not account for none but filver coins being injured, and only thofe in that drawer, while a large filver fnuff-: box ftood loofe in the bureau, almost under the key-hole, without being in the leaft hurt.

My library, in which the bureau ftands, fronts the South; and there is a chimney-board in the chimney. On the fame floor is a drawing-room with a bow-window into Hyde-park; the library opens into the drawing-room, and the door may have been left open.

The caft of Rodney being the moft remarkably injured, I fhall leave it with your ingenious editor, if he pleafes, for the inspection of curious friends.

X.

MR. URBAN, Sept. 6. E NQUIRY having been made after the notorious Bradshaw, your rea ders may poffibly be pleafed with the following lift of "perfons removed after burial," from an account of Weftminster abbey, in a Survey" published by Seymour in 1735.

OLIVER CROMWELL, the arch-rebel. He died of an ague Sept. 3, 1658. His body, for the flench, was buried privately Feb.6. After which a coffin was laid to reprefent him in ftate, with his waxen effigies, at Somerfet-house; his burial-thew was at fuch an expence, that the fecond thadow of him, his fon Richard, could never difcharge it. In an open chariot was his effigies crowned, carried in the moft folemn manner, and de

pofited here, where he continued fome time, having a fumptuous tomb erected for him, where the late Duke of Buckingham's now ftands. Of his removal hereafter.

That infamous wretch BRADSHAW, Prefident of the mock-court of justice, where he impudently infulted and gave fentence of death against his fovereign. He was a dark melancholy mifcreant, and as well qualified to kill his prince or his father in private, as fpair, i. e. that he should do no more mifto give judgement in public. He died in dechief; for in other respects he was infernally infatuated; his foul went to its place Nov. 11, 1659, and left his wretched carcafe in the Dean's houfe here, which was made a prefent to him for his good fervices. Thence it was brought into this church, and buried

the

refide near Belfast in the North of Irefand. They are of the feet of Quakers. Yours, &c,

MR. URBAN,

Y

H.

Hackney, Sept. 23, OU have inferted a remarkable ftory in your Magazine for May laft, p. 412, I here inclofe you another narrative of that kind, which undoubtedly comes as well authenticated as the teftimony of an individual can render it. This memorandum was lately found among the papers of the Rev. Mr. Mores, late of Layton in Eilex, former Ay of Queen's-college, Oxford, (a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, and highly respected for his learning and abilities, who died in the year 1778.) It fell into the hands of his fon, Edward Rowe Mores, Efq. who has au thorised me to lay it before the public, by means of your Magazine. The MS. fhall remain with you for fome time, for the infpe&tion of any gentle. man who may wish to have the fulleft conviction of the authenticity of fo interefting a relation. The hand-writing * I believe you can teftify, as you were well acquainted with the man.

Yours, &c.

J. PAYNE.

"Mr. John Bonnell was a Commoner of Queen's-college; he was remarkable in his perfon and his gait, and had a particular manner of holding up his gown behind, fo that to any one who had but once feen him he might be known by his back as cafily as by his

face.

"On Sunday, Nov. 18. 1750, at noon, Mr. Ballard, who was then of Magd., coll. and myself, were talking together, at Parker's door. I was then waiting for the found of the trumpet, and fuddenly Mr. Ballard cried out, Lord have mercy upon me, who is that coming out of your college? I looked, and faw, as

This figure I faw without any emo tion or fafpicion; it came down the qua drangle, came out at the gate, and walked up the High-frect; we followed it with our eves till it came to Cat-ftreet, where it was loft. The trumpet then founded, and Mr. Ballard and I parted, and I went into the hall, and thought no more of Mr. Bonnell,

"In the evening the prayers of the chapel were defired for one who was in a very fick and dangerous conditior, When I came out of the chapel, I enquired of one of the fcholars, James Harrifon, in the hearing of feveral others who were standing before the kitchen fire, who it was that was prayed for? and was answered, Mr. Bonnell, fen, Bonnell, fen. faid I, with aftonishment, what's the matter with him? he was very well to-day, for I faw him go out to dinner. You are very much mista ken, answered the fcholar, for he has not been out of his bed for fotne days. I then alerted more pofitively that I had feen him, and that a gentleman was with me who saw him too.

"This came prefently to the cars of Dr. Fothergill, who had been my tutor. After fupper he took me afide, and queftioned me about it, and faid, he was very forry I had mentioned the matter fo publickly, for Mr. B. was danger. oufty ill. I replied, I was very forry too, but I had done it innocently; and the next day Mr. B. died.

"Enquiry was made of Mr. Ballard afterwards, who related the part which he was witness to in the fame manner as I have now related it; adding, that Į told him the gentleman was one Mr. Bonnell, and that he came from Stanton-Harcourt. E. R. M."

MR. URBAN,

He is a gentleman of our houfe, and his name is Bonnell; he comes from Stanton-Harcourt. My God! faid Mr. Ballard, I never faw fuch a face in all my life. I anfwered fightly, His face is much the fame as it always is; I think it is a little more inflamed and fwelled than it is fometimes, perhaps he has buckled his band too tight; but I should not have obferved it if you had not fpoken. Well, faid Mr. Ballard again, I never fhall forget him as long as I live; and feemed to be much difconcerted and frightened.

☛ it is certainly Mr. Morts's. EDI.

ftoring fuch as have been loft, and reducing to certainty what has long been doubtful, are circumftances generally attended to by the curious; but is profeffedly the bufinefs of chronologers and antiquaries. If then it be judged

of moment that inaccuracies and errors like thefe fhould be removed, which, not only for information, but for the fake of truth, they certainly fhould, it cannot be lefs proper to prevent the like miftakes in future. To this end, Sir, I addrefs you (who have fo often diftinguifhed yourfelf in correcting miftakes) refpecting a name, the propriety of which should furely be fettled and

pre

ferred; as he who bears it will long be remembered and admired as an artist. The Catalogue of the Royal Academy Exhibition of this year gives this artift's name Zoffany; fome of the public papers Zoffani; but the character prints, fuch as Beard, Shuter, and Dunftall, in one, and Foote and Wefton in another, write it Zoffanij, all which ways, I prefume, are wrong, but the firft moft fo: And yet, if I may judge from what I hear, and from a recent inftance, I will here give you, Zóffany, accented on the first fyllable, feems to threaten being the general ufage. For being lately at a friend's house and seeing the portrait of his father, I asked him, who painted it? « Zoffany, Sir." Nor did this anfwer come from an illiterate perfon, but from a gentleman and a fcholar; and it being fo contrary to my conception of the artist's proper name, I cannot but wifh, for the fake of propriety and truth, that you would inform us how he writes and expreffes his name himfelf; which, once known, ought to be our invariable guide.

66

Zoffany is by no means an English name, but is, if I may fo fay, an attempt to anglify a foreign one; Zoffani, with an i final, is undoubtedly foreign, but, I believe, is not the name of our artist: Zoffanij, as in the above-named prints, is nearer the truth; yet, I prefume, it is not the whole truth. I judge the name to be Zoffanii, a word of four fyllables, and accented on the fecond thus: Zoffànii. Now to call a man Zoffany whofe name is Zoffànii, is a corruption not to be adopted or tolerated, especially too where the works of fo eminent a painter are likely to live for ages. It will, perhaps, be here asked, why I should doubt the exactness of a name as given in the prints? I anfwer, that both engravers and writing-mafters, though excellent in their way, are fometimes found deficient in orthographical niceties; and, perhaps, while indulging an inclination to flourish, depart from accuracy with out intending fo to do. In the prefent cafe, if Zoffanii be the true name, the laft letter of it, as in the print, fhould not have been jay, or, the confonant, or tailed jay as it is fometimes called) but it should have been the vowel i̟, The tittles, over the two laft letters, fhew that the engraver meant them as two letters, but then it was an unpardonable blunder in him to give a letter whofe meaning and expreflion is totally GENT. MAG. Od. 1783.

different from that it ought to have had, And, after all, it is more than probable that the whole mistake (if it be a mistake) arifes from the two last letters of the name (though they have tittles over them) taking the form of a yi ' and thus (fuppofing the tittles to have been over-looked) fixing the mistake, and thereby erroneously rendering the word Zoffany inftead of Zoffanii. Yours, &c. N. N.

P. S. It is neceffary to obferve, that our artist being now in the East Indies, recourfe cannot be had to himself, as f he were on the spot.

IN compliance with the requeft in p. 76, 1 fend you a tranflation of the paffage in Linné's Iter Westrogoth, p. 214; and am yours, &c.

D.

"Oaks grew in greater quantity on Hunneberg than in any other place in this neighbourhood; they covered entirely the fides of the mountain, and were very common on the top of it. The oaks that grew on the fides were not very large, and thofe on the top ftill lefs. The laft had fome particular appearance unlike the common oak; the items were thinner, the rind whiter and almoft covered with hypnums, fo that they looked more like beech than oak. The branches hung down more than in the common oak. The leaves were of a deeper green, more compact, more fhining, and without fpots: the underfide was of a clearer green, with whiter veins; the leaves were also more bent back at the bafe. But all these marks were not fufficient to give a good diffe rentia specifica. At last I obferved that the fruits had no footftalks, whence I concluded it to be a different variety, never before observed by Swedish Botanifts, viz, Quercus latifolia mas, quæ brevi pedunculo est. Bauh. pin. 419. or Pladyphillos mas. Dalech. hift. 2. I asked the farmers if the wood was harder or more durable, or if it had any other property different from that of common oak; bur they could give me no information about it. I don't doubt but a variety fo diftinct may have its own properties, and ferve for feveral purposes different from our common oaks.”