Durham had their origin. To thefe fucceed the lives of the Bishops of Lindisfarne; thofe of the Bifhops of Chefter le Street, to which place the corpfe of St. Cuthbert was removed, and a new cathedral was there founded by Eardulph, as being nearer. the royal refidence, then eftablished at York. The body of St. Cuthbert being again removed on account of a Danish invafion, and fettled at Durham, the circumftances of the building and endowing that cathedral are related, with the lives of the Bishops, to the conqueft; the effects which that event had on the ecclefiaftical fyftem of this realm, and the rights claimed by the Bishop of Durham in his double capacity of Prince and Baron, are confidered and explained; and the lives of the Bishops, from Walcher, are continued to Bishop Egerton, with whofe acceffion, in the year 1771, this volume terminates. At the end of each Bishop's life, from Walcher downward, is a lift of the officers of the fee. A lift is likewife given for the year 1785, with another of benefices and promotions in the gift of the Bishop of Durham, and the names of the incumbents in the fame year. On the whole, Mr. Hutchinson has acquitted himself of his task in a manner that does honour to his industry, and no difcredit to his abilities: nor was that talk an eafy one; the vaft power of the clergy in former times making them parties in all important matters of fate as well political as ecclefiaftical. Hence the hiftory of the Bishops of Durham is in fome measure the national hiftory of the times in which thofe Bishops lived. The notes, with which this work is illuftrated, are many of them curious and interefting, and the portraits of the bishops with which it is decorated, are in general neatly engraved. There are also two different views of the Abbey of Lindisfarne; that on the north, which is but an indifferent performance, has, we think, appeared before, in one of Mr. Hutchinfon's publications. Divers feals, coats of arms, and pieces of antiquity, are neatly cut in wood. In order to give our Readers a fpecimen of Mr. Hutchinson's ftyle, we have tranfcribed part of the character of Bishop Anthony Beak: In taking a review of this prelate's character, it must be remembered that he enjoyed a plurality of cures, and was fecretary to the king, at the time he was advanced to the fee of Durham. The first inftance in which he fhewed the boldnefs of a refolute judgment, was in his anfwer to the archbishop's demand of excommunicating his convent. His fortitude, when befet by ruffians at Rome, who broke into his apartment, to revenge the infults committed by his fervants, and his answer to King Edward I. which firit occafioned his fovereign's hatred, fhewed his unfhaken magnanimity of foul. other principles been as noble, his character would have been as ilHad his luftrious as his life was magnificent. But his pride was prevalent in every action of his life; it was the bias by which every part of his conduct conduct was influenced; and that pride affronted, brought forth im placable averfion, as has been feen in his contefts with the convent, in which it is evident he could not brook the indignity of contradiction; fo highly did he estimate his own confequence. He was pleafed with military parade and martial difcipline; but though he was defirous of a retinue of foldiers about him, he affected a feeming indifference and negligence towards them; and fhewed no concern whilft the greatest nobles bent the knee to him, and officers of the army waited standing as he fat. He thought nothing too dear, that could contribute to his public fame for magnificence; as an inftance of which, Grayftanes tells us, one time, in London, he paid 40. for forty fresh herrings (now about So. fterling money) when they had been refufed by the moft opulent perfons of the realm, then affembled in parliament. At another time he bought a piece of cloth, which was held up at fo high a price, that, proverbially, it was faid to be too dear for the Bishop of Durham, which he ordered to be cut into cloths for his fumpter-horfes. He feized the king's palfrey as a deodand, it having killed its rider in the way to Scot. land, within the liberties of his palatinate. His breach of confidence in depriving the fon of Vefey, and felling the barony of Alnwick, was derived from a wound his pride received in fome contemptuous jeft the baftard put upon him, which he never could forgive; and, in gratifying his refentment, he was guilty of the bafeft perfidy to his deceafed friend. He was fo impatient of reft, that he never took more than one fleep, faying, it was unbecoming a man to turn from one fide to the other in bed. He was perpetually either riding from one manor to another, or hunting or hawking. Though his expences were very great, he was provident enough never to want money. He always role from his meals with an appetite: and his continence was fo fingular, that he never looked a woman full in the face; whence, in the tranflation of St. William of York, when the other bishops declined touching the faint's remains, through a consciousness of having forfeited their virginity, he alone boldly handled them, and affifted the ceremony with due reverence. He died at Eltham, 3d March 1310, having fat 28 years, and was buried in the church at Durham, in the eaft tranfept, near the ferretory of St. Cuthbert, between the altars of St. Adrian and St. Michael the archangel, contrary to the cuftom of his predeceffors, who, out of respect to the body of St. Cuthbert, never fuffered a corpfe to come within the edifice. It is faid they dared not bring the bishop's remains in at the church door, but a breach was made in the wall to receive them, near the place of interment. He died poffeffed of great riches, with feveral jewels, veffels of filver, horses, and coftly veftments, which he bequeathed to the church.' Gr-e. *Rob. de Grayftanes-Ang. Sac. p. 746, L 2 ART. ART. IX. The Carfe of Stirling: an Elegy. 4to. 1s. Edinburgh printed; fold by Johnson, London. THE 6 "HE Author of the poem before us has, it feems, long indulged himfelf with contemplating the beauties which the Carfe of Stirling (or in other words the view from Stirling Caftle) prefents to the attentive obferver. Stirlingshire, befide being the theatre of many important events, and the refidence of feveral Scottish monarchs, is a fituation remarkable for the ftriking beauties of its furrounding fcenery. These circumftances, our Author fuppofes, would have been a fufficient inducement for the Mufes to have celebrated fo diftinguished a place. They,' fays he, however, continued to absent themfelves, and the windings of the Forth, with all its uncommon fcenery, have, remained unfung. On his return to Stirlingshire, after feveral years abfence, he ftill found his favourite scene new and delightful; and, glancing over the pictures of his youthful painting, he obferved, or fancied he obferved, certain tints, which he conceived might pleafe, and paffions which he thought might intereft. He has perhaps deceived himself; but in whatever light he may appear as a poet, he flatters himself, that, among other motives for publifhing The Carfe of Stirling, the following will at least screen him from public cenfure. A love of pleasure and diffipation has now fo completely diffused itself through all ranks, that agriculture and country improvements feem but fecondary concerns with our gentlemen of landed property. Inftead of promoting an honeft emulation by their bounty and patronage, the labours of an induftrious peafantry are confidered in no other light than as the means of procuring luxuries at the tables of their pampered landlords. Inftead of kindling a fpirit of enterprize, by their prefence and example, the metropolis of thefe kingdoms teems with men, who yearly doze away their time, and fquander their incomes amidit a round of follies, which, while they enervate the mind, bury the importance of a landed gentleman in complete obfcurity. To fuch the Author of this little piece means not to addrefs himself; but, though he may defpair of a change of manners among the diffipated and the unthinking part of his countrymen, the picture of rural life he has attempted to draw, may not perhaps be unwelcome to thofe, who, uncontaminated by example, point at higher pleasures than the fleams of a ball-room, or the fqueaking of an opera." The ftyle of the poem is plaintive and fimple: and the numbers, in general, are fmooth and harmonious. As a specimen, Carfe, as we are told in a note, fignifies a low flat country, of a rich clayey foil.' we we have felected the following ftanzas, where the poet, after having defcribed the beauties of the place, laments the propenfity of its inhabitants for travelling fouthward: Lur'd by the found of Pleafure's baleful strains, Yet fhall the bard who pours these fervent lays The varied landscape, mark'd diftinct and clear, Many parts of the performance remind us of Gray's manner, which our Author feems to have imitated with fome fuccefs. The concluding stanza, where our Poet fupplicates the guardian angel of the land, is an inftance: Yet let him + wander blameless by fome ftream, R_m. ART. X. The Structure and Phyfiology of Fishes explained, and compared with thofe of Man and other Animals; illuftrated with Figures. By Alexander Monro, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians and of the Royal Society, and Profeffor of Phyfic, Anatomy, and Surgery, in the Univerfity of Edinburgh. Royal Folio. 21. 25. Boards. Edinburgh, Elliot; London, Robinfons. 1785. CO OMPARATIVE anatomy, when purfued with a defign of improving and elucidating that neceffary branch of medical knowledge, phyfiology, is a ftudy which merits the peculiar attention of every rational phyfician; and we are happy to find that it has fo much engaged the thoughts of a gentleman, whose accuracy in obferving, and acutenefs in reafoning, render his works truly valuable and interefting. As we are fenfible that Dr. Monro's character and reputation cannot be heightened by any commendation of ours, we fhall briefly give an account of the obfervations of this ingenious anatomift, on a fubject which, though flightly treated by former naturalifts, is, nevertheless, curious and important. The circulation is the first object of our Author's enquiry. The heart of fishes is fimple, confifting only of one ventricle and one auricle. From the ventricle one artery is fent out, which carries the blood to the gills; and thence the blood paffes + The bard himself. * Scotia. to all the other parts of the body, without the intervention of a fecond ventricle as in man and animals with warm blood. This was known before, but Dr. Monro traces, with great accuracy, the whole courfe of the blood, and makes feveral curious and interefting obfervations, which had hitherto escaped the notice of the ichthyologift. At the beginning of the branchial are three femilunar valves, the middle parts of which, analogous to the corpufcula morgagni, are much thicker than in man, and illuftrate the ufe of thefe organs in him, as they evidently prevent the return of the blood into the heart when the artery is in action. Between these valves and the cavity of the ventricle, a cylindrical canal is interpofed, the coats of which have the fame muscular texture as the ventricle itself; whence, and the contraction of these mufcles, which co-operates with that of the ventricle, our Author is led to perceive, more evidently than in the human body, the very great analogy between the ftructure of the arteries and that of the ventricle. The whole mass of the blood is conveyed by the branchial artery to the furface of the gills, which, in a fkate, according to the Doctor's calculation, is upwards of 151⁄2 fquare feet for on each fide are four double gills, or gills with two fides each, and one fingle gill; that is, 18 fides or furfaces on which the branchial artery is fpread out; on each of these Ades are fifty divifions or doublings of the membrane of the gills; each divifion has on each fide of it, 160 fubdiviftons, folds, or doublings of its membrane, the length of each of which is oneeighth of an inch, and its breadth about one-fixteenth of an inch; so that in the whole gill there are 144,000 fubdivifions or folds, the two fides of each of which are together equal to the 64th part of a fquare inch, and in the whole gill 2250 square inches, or 15 fquare feet. After an injection, the Doctor has teen, with a microfcope, that the whole of this membranous fur→ face has been covered with a beautiful net-work of exceedingly minute veffels Our Author next traces the blood from the gills back to the heart. In the uppermoft gill, which is fingle, there is but one confiderable vein. In each of the four double gills are two, an upper and an under one joined together by, a large tranfverfe canal. From the trunks of thefe branchial veins the blood palles directly to all the other parts of the fish, by veffels analogous to the branches of our Aorta, and which the Doctor calls arteries. From the extremities of these feveral arteries the blood is returned to the heart, by veins which in general refemble our Vena portarum and Vene cave. Of these arteries and veins we cannot poffibly give our readers any adequate idea without the plates. From reviewing the circulating fyftem, the Doctor makes, among others, the following principal conclufions: |