HOUNSLOW-HEATH.

11

therefore made a partaker of his infamy. The heath, about fifty years ago, used to be disgraced with a long range of gibbets; but the Royal Family, frequently passing and repassing to Windsor, occasioned their removal, and no renewal of them has been attempted. The murder of Mr. Steel on the heath; the execution of the supposed murderers, (for they never confessed it) Halloway and Haggerty, Feb. 23, 1807, and the dreadful catastrophe attending it, are events in every body's recollection. Public records will convey them, with all their aggravations, to posterity.

The

I never see a gibbet, but it reminds me of an interesting story wrought up by the magic pen of Southey, entitled, Mary the Maid of the Inn. Her sweetheart became a robber and murderer. corpse of the victim was by him and his companions dragged to a neighbouring Abbey, in ruins, for interment-whilst poor Mary, visiting the spot at midnight as a trial of her courage, witnessed the horrid scene, and, by means of a hat, recognised the presence of her beloved as a coadjutor in this deed of villainy!-His trial, execution, and suspension in chains, followed. The termination of the tragedy ended in her insanity.

Where the old abbey stands, on the common hard by,

His gibbet is now to be seen;

Not far from the road it engages the eye:

The TRAVELLER beholds it, and thinks with a sigh

Of poor Mary the Maid of the Inn!

Founded upon fact such tales, well told, never

12

INTREPIDITY OF JOHNSON.

fail to agitate the affections, and lacerate the best feelings of the human heart.

of

Vestiges of ancient camps are discernible on Hounslow heath; and it has been, more than once, the rendezvous of the principal military force, of this kingdom. The Earl of Gloucester, in 1267, mustered here at the head of the Londoners. The army of King Charles was entrenched here in 1642, the day after the battle of Brentford; and the Parliamentary forces, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, encamped here in 1647, even to the amount of 20,000 foot and horse, with a great train of artillery-being visited by the speaker and several members of both houses of parliament. But we must not forget to mention, that in 1686, James the Second was stationed here with his army 15,000 men, under the Earl of Feversham, with the view of enslaving the nation, after the suppression of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion. This was the army, among whose officers and soldiers, Mr. Samuel Johnson, a spirited clergyman, distributed a piece against Popery, entitled an Humble and hearty Address to the all Protestants in the present Army, &c., for which he was solemnly degraded and whipt with the utmost severity. On this spot also the same army received the news of the acquittal of the seven bishops with loud rejoicings, even in the hearing of the King. His Majesty, sitting at dinner in the tent of the general, heard a sudden noise, and inquired anxiously the cause. Feversham told him that it was nothing but the rejoicing of the soldiers for the ac

INTREPIDITY OF JOHNSON.

13

quittal of the bishops. "Do you call that nothing?" replied he; "but so much the worse for them." In this, however, the King was mistaken; for the activity of Johnson, and the triumph of the bishops, accelerated the revolution. Johnson, who was whipt from Newgate to Tyburn, for the above pamphlet, bore it with the spirit of a martyr. It is too remarkable to be omitted: he observed afterwards to an intimate friend, that this text of Scripture coming suddenly into his mind, He endured the cross despising the shame, so animated and supported him in the bitter journey, that had he not thought it would have looked like vain-glory, he would have sung a psalm while the executioner was doing his office, with as much composure and cheerfulness as ever he had done at church, though he had at that time a quick sense of every stripe which was given him, to the number of 317, with a whip of nine cords knotted! This cruelty strikingly shews not only the tyranny of the times, but the spirit which was roused to counteract it, and by which it was finally overwhelmed. Impartiality, however, obliges me to say that Johnson was a man of a turbulent spirit; for he was not contented with the Revolution.

In 1793 barracks were built on the extremity of the heath, nearest Colnbrook, capable of containing above four hundred men, who, in general, behave with order and regularity.

Having mentioned the number of soldiers that have at different times been exhibited on this

heath, in all the pride of military evolutions, but are now laid low in the dust, we are reminded of Xerxes, who, surveying his vast army passing the Hellespont, wept when he considered that in the course of an hundred years they would be no more ! Such reflections, however obvious, are congenial with the best feelings of humanity. Near the heath are Powder Mills, which have exploded on various occasions.

Passing the village of Belfont, we could not help noticing the yew-trees in the church-yard, cut into fanciful forms, having even the date 1704 delineated on them with ingenuity. We were diverted with their appearance, though on other occasions we are ready to address the yew :

Cheerless unsocial plant! that loves to dwell
'Midst sculls and coffins, epitaphs and worms;
Where light-heel'd ghosts and visionary shades,
Beneath the wan cold moon, (as fame reports)
Embodied thick, perform their mystic rounds;
No other merriment, dull tree! is thine.

BLAIR,

We soon reached Staines, a pleasant town seventeen miles from London. On the south-east side of Staines is Runnymede, the spot on which King John was compelled by his barons to sign the famous charter of English liberties, styled Magna Charta:

-Near Thames' silver waters lies a mead,
Where England's barons, bold in freedom's cause,
Compell'd her king to ratify her laws;

With constancy maintained the subjects' right,
And serv'd a sov'reign in his own despite.

EGHAM.

On that fam'd mead their honest claims to seal,
They risk'd their private for the public weal;
Bravely resolv'd to make the tyrant yield,
Or die like heroes on the glorious field!

15

At the British Museum I was lately shewn what is said to be the very copy of the charter signed on this memorable occasion. It bore all the marks of antiquity, and being much injured by the ravages of time, a fac-simile laid close to it by way of elucidation.

Near Staines lies Egham, famous for its races, at the distance of four miles from Windsor. It. abounds with inns, being a thoroughfare into the West, and has an handsome charity-school.

From Egham we came to Bagshot, passing over a long and dreary heath, remarkable only for the roads by which it is every where intersected, and which were made for the convenience of his Majesty, when he indulged himself in the pleasures of the chace. At first sight they make a singular appearance, but are well calculated to answer the ends for which they were intended. These parts lying in the vicinity of Windsor, account for the purposes to which they are appropriated. Bagshot affords good accommodation to travellers. At one of its inns a curious scene took place between the famous John Wilkes, and one of his opponents whom he insisted to engage in a duel. It is so described by Wilkes in a letter, that the perusal of it cannot fail to occasion some merriment, though it has a reference to so serious a subject. The sterile tract of country with which the town