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to his tent. The attendants being difmiffed, he declared to him the grand fecret-that he was his father, and presenting him with Fifteen hundred pounds (a large fum in those days) faid, "Son, thou muft wait the iffue of to-morrow: if fortunate, I will acknowledge thee, and create thee Prince of Wales: if the battle goes against me, and I fall, forget what thou art and live retired: there is that (the money given) which will procure a maintenance." The Son withdrew to a place of fecrecy and obfervation. The fatal day came: the battle enfued; Richard fell: his fon immediately fet off for the capital, and, being about fixteen years of age, placed himself with a mason of great eminence. The gracefulness of his perfon and behaviour, bespoke that parentage, which, however, he had the art and addrefs carefully to difguife and conceal. The mafter quickly difcovered the genius of his apprentice, whofe fkill and judgment he relied upon in the nicest and most difficult parts of architecture. Being engaged in fome alterations and repairs in this ancient houfe, Richard's fon was fent down to fuperintend the workmen, where his wit, not less than his ingenuity, was fo engaging, that the owner of the feat retained him, and permitted him to build on his eftate a little manfion to refide upon. He lived fome years in this retirement, devoted to reading and contemplation, in

great

great repute for his learning, piety and modefty; and during that period he wrote his life. At the approach of Death, he gave the manufcript to his patron, with a requeft not to read it till after his decease. He recovered, but foon after died; and the aforefaid manufcript (inclosed, as it is fuppofed, by his friend within the wall) was not known or discovered till fo lately as 1768. It is now in the poffeffion of the family of the Derings, to whom the lovers of hiftory, and the public in general, would be greatly obliged for the publication.

L

AN ANECDOTE OF A JUDGE.

ORD CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT, who was very wild in his youth, was once out with fome of his raking companions on a journey into the country. They had spent all their money; and, after many confultations what to do, it was refolved that they should part company, and try their fortunes feparately. Holt got to an inn at the end of a ftraggling village; and, putting a good face on the matter, ordered his horfe to be well taken care of, called for a room, bespoke a fupper, and looked after his bed. He then ftrolled into the kitchen, where he faw a lafs, about thirteen years of age, fhivering with an ague. He enquired of his landlady, a widow, who the girl was, and how long

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fhe had been ill. The good woman told him that fhe was her daughter, an only child, and that she had been ill near a year, notwithstanding all the affiftance fhe could procure from phyfic, at an expence which had almoft ruined her. Holt fhook his head at the mention of the doctors, and bade the parent be under no farther concern, for that her daughter fhould never have another fit. He then wrote a few unintelligible words in the court hand, on a fcrap of parchment which had been used as the direction to a hamper; and rolling up, ordered it to be bound on the girl's wrift, and remain there till fhe was quite recovered. The ague however, returned no more; and Holt, after having continued there a whole week, called for his bill with as much courage as if his pockets had been filled with gold. "Ah, God bless you!" faid the old woman, "you are nothing in my debt, I am fure; I wish I was able to pay you for the cure you have performed on my daughter; and, if I had had the happiness to have feen you ten months ago, it would have faved me forty pounds in my pocket." Holt after fome altercation, accepted of his weeks accommodation as a gratuity, and rode away.

Many years afterwards, when he had become one of the judges of the King's Bench, he went on a circuit into the fame county; and, among

other

other criminals whom he was appointed to try, there was an old woman charged with witchcraft. To fupport this charge, feveral witneffes fwore that fhe had a fpell, with which fhe could either cure fuch cattle as were fick, or deftroy those that were in health. In the ufe of this fpell, they said, she had been lately detected, and, it having been found upon her, was ready to be produced in court. The judge then defired it might be handed up to him; when it appeared to be a dirty ball, covered with rags, and bound round with packthread. These coverings he removed, one after another, with great deliberation; and at laft came to a piece of parchment, which he immediately perceived to be the fame he had once ufed as an expedient to fupply his want of money. At the recollection of this incident, he changed colour, and was filent for fome time. At length, however, recovering himself, he addreffed the jury in the following manner. "Gentlemen, I must now relate a circumftance of my life, which very ill fuits my prefent character, and the ftation in which I fit: but, to conceal it, would be to endanger innocence, and to countenance fuperftition. This bauble which you fuppofe to have the power of life and death, is a fenfelefs fcrawl which I wrote with my own hand, and gave to this woman, whom, for no other caufe they accufe

as

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He then related the

as guilty of witchcraft." particular circumftances of the tranfactions, which had such an effect on the minds of her accufers, that they blushed at their folly and cruelty of their zeal; and Judge Holt's quondam hoftefs was the laft perfon ever tried for witchcraft in that

county.

A

Life fufficient to all Purposes,

IF WELL EMPLOYED.

N ancient poet, unreasonably discontented at the prefent ftate of things, which his fyftem of opinions obliged him to reprefent in its worst form, has obferved of the earth, "that its greater part is covered by the uninhabitable ocean; that of the reft, fome is encumbered with naked mountains, and fome loft under barren fands; fome fcorched with unintermitted heat, and fome petrified with perpetual froft; fo that only a few regions. remain for production of fruits, the pafture of cattle, and the accommodation of man.”

The fame obfervation may be transferred to the time allotted us in our prefent ftate. When we have deducted all that is absorbed in fleep, all that is inevitably appropriated to the demands of nature, or irresistibly engroffed by the tyranny of

custom;

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