is surrounded, seems scarcely capable of much improvement.

*

Having drank tea at our next stage, Murrel's Green, only a single inn, with a pleasant garden, we got to Basingstoke before ten, wearied with our peregrination. This is a large populous place, with three charity schools, in one of which twelve boys are maintained by the Skinner's Company in London. The remains of Holy Ghost Chapel stand on an eminence and overlook the town. It was erected in the reign of Henry the Eighth: and the history of the prophets and apostles once formed a fine decoration to its apartments. has a market for corn, especially barley, and a considerable trade in malt. The chief manufacture is in druggets and shalloons. A fine brook runs by the town, which abounds with trout; for which, indeed, the Hampshire streams have been long famous. Contemplating these waters, whose transparency and rapidity please the eye even of the passing traveller, an exclamation was ready to escape my lips :

I in these flowery meads would be,
These crystal streams should solace me,
To whose harmonious bubbling noise,
I with my angle would rejoice.

WALTON.

It

In the neighbourhood of Basingstoke, there was, formerly, a seat of John Marquis of Winchester,

* Near Bagshot has been recently established Sandhurst Col lege, where young gentlemen are educated for the army, by masters of talents and celebrity..

which, in the civil wars, was turned into a fortress for the king, and held out a long time, to the great annoyance of the Parliament army; at length Cromwell took it by storm, and provoked by the obstinacy of its defence, put many of the garrison to the sword, and burnt the house to the ground! It was, we are told, a mansion fitter for a prince than a subject; and, among other furniture destroyed with it, there was one bed worth 1,4007. yet so considerable was the plunder, that a private soldier got for his share no less a sum than 300%. Alas! the fury of civil wars is so well known, that its outrages excite but little astonishment. Bella, horrida bella! was the pathetic exclamation of one of the most celebrated writers of antiquity!

Having travelled about fifty miles since three in the afternoon, we felt ourselves disposed to remain at Basingstoke during the night. Taking our accustomed refreshment, we successfully woed "kind nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," forgetting for a few hours the anxieties and hazards of our journey.

I remain, dear Sir,

Yours, &c.

ANDOVER; DUNS SCOTUS; WEYHILL; SALISBURY; BLANDFORD; DORCHESTER; WEYMOUTH; PORTLAND ISLE; BRIDPORT; CHARMOUTH: COUNTRY FAIR; CAPTAIN CURIOUS, DEALER IN SPARS AND PETRIFACTIONS; LYME; LANDING OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH; REMARKABLE EXECUTION OF HIS ADHERENTS; SID

MOUTH.

DEAR SIR,

THE next morning we were seated in our chaise before five, and soon got to Andover, a large pleasant well-built town, on the edge of the downs, for which Wiltshire is distinguished. It is said to have had its first charter from King John, and was last incorporated by Queen Elizabeth. It has a manufacture of shalloons, and is a great thoroughfare from Newbury to Salisbury, as well as from London down to the south-eastern extremities of the kingdom. I could not help remarking, that at the inn in this place, an engraving of Duns Scotus was placed over the bar, where the liquors are mixed for their customers. Whether the effigy of this profound doctor was thought necessary to the due mixture of the ingredients, or whether this grave metaphysician ever indulged in such delightful draughts, I am not able to say. The walls of colleges are, sometimes, decorated with his portrait; but I should never have expected to have caught his features in the bar of a tavern.

It may not be improper just to add, that this curious character, Duns Scotus, was of the order of

St. Francis; by the acuteness of his parts, and especially by his manner of disputing, he acquired the name of the Subtle Doctor. He was very zealous in opposing the opinions of Thomas Aquinas, which produced two parties in the schools, the Thomists and the Scotists. He was a writer of prodigious subtilty, and, like all subtle writers, refined upon every subject he handled, till it had no meaning left in it. This indefatigable scribbler left behind him ten volumes in folio-now mere ⚫ waste paper! He died 1308, at Cologne, in Germany. The perusal of this man's works reminds me of a SONNET

TO NOTHING!

Mysterious nothing-how shall I define
Thy shapeless, baseless, placeless emptiness;
Nor form, nor colour, sound nor size are thine,
Nor words, nor figures can thy void express.
But though we cannot thee with ought compare,
To thee a thousand things may liken'd be ;
And though thou art with nobody-nowhere,
Yet half mankind devote their lives to thee.
How many books thy history contain!
How many heads thy mighty plans pursue!
What labouring hands thy portion only gain!
What busy men thy doings only do!

To thee the great, the proud, the giddy bend,

And like my Sonnet-all in nothing end. *

On the left side of Andover lies Weyhill, remarkable on account of its having one of the greatest fairs for hops, cheese, and sheep, in England.

* See an ingenious volume, entitled Poetic Amusement, by the Rev. T. Beck, it is designed for young people, and is replete with instruction and entertainment.

It is, however, only a village, containing a desolate church, on a rising hill, with a few straggling houses.

From Andover we directed our course to Salisbury, where we arrived to breakfast. This city, and its adjoining plains, will be noticed in a future letter; since, upon our return alone, they became the subjects of examination. We may, however, just remark, that the appearance of this place conveys an idea of respectability, and its lofty spire excites admiration.

Blandford, in Dorsetshire, was our next place of destination. It lies upon the Stour, at the . distance of 107 miles from London. Twice has it been burnt down by accident; first in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the second time in the year 1731, when the fire raged so violently, that few of the people saved any of their goods. It unfortunately happened at this last conflagration, that the inhabitants were afflicted with that scourge to humanity, the small-pox, so that many of the sick were carried from amidst the flames into the fields, where they expired! But another account says, that the removal of them into the open air was favourable to the disease, and thus operated to produce, among the faculty, a more cool treatment of it.* The

* A Bill has been brought into Parliament to forbid Inocula tion for the Small-Pox, not only on account of its contagious nature, but with the view of extending the Vaccination. Some, howeve, highly disapprove of this prohibitory Bill, whilst others warmly commend it.