XXXIV.

Oh! still as through life's dreary vale I stray,
On my sad soul thy cheering influence pour;
That, guided by thy bright unerring ray,

My feet may gain at length that heavenly shore !

We shall now copy a specimen of two of the minor compositions:

On two Sisters.

How often have I vow'd no woman's chain
Should bind my captivated soul again,

Yet who, fair Sisters, can repel the dart,

Or in your presence boast th' unconquer'd heart?
While, SALLY, thy maturer virtues warm,

And sense, sound judgment, and good humor charm;
Who can resist? and who but must admire,
JENNY, thy sprightly wit, and brilliant fire?
Oh! would the powers indulgent hear my prayer,
Guiltless each Siter's matchless charms to share,
By bands Platonic SALLY should be mine,

And JENNY Crown my hopes at Hymen's shrine.

Epitaph on a Beautiful Infant.

Bright to the sun expands the vernal rose,
Aud sweet the lily of the valley blows;

Sudden impetuous whirlwinds sweep the sky,
They shed their fragrance, droop the head, and die.
Thus this fair infant, from life's storms retir'd,

Put forth fair blossoms, charm'd us, and expir'd.'

Mr. Maurice informs us that a nuniber of the bantlings of his prolific Muse are yet wanderers from their parent, under the protection of different friends; and that, should the public smile on this assemblage, he hopes to be able to present a second exhibition to their notice and favour.

ART. XI. An History of the original Parish of Whaley, and Honor of Citheroe, in the Counties of Lancaster and York. By Thomas Dunham Whitaker, LL. D. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. 4to. pp. 487. With Plates and Maps. 31. 3s. Boards. Hatchard. 1801.

THE

HE parish of Whalley and the honor of Clitheroe, in the counties of Lancaster and York, are certainly under great obligations to Dr. Whitaker for the consequence which he has bestowed on them by this elaborate work. They are traced back to the Brigantes; to an inferior tribe of that people, denominated by Ptolemy the Setantii, or rather Segantii, but called, by the anonymous Ravennas, Sistuntiaci, or more probably Seguntiaci. On this occasion, it is scarcely possible to refrain from adverting to the curious etymon of the old French chro

nicler,

nicler, who derives the term Brigantes from the antient Gaulic noun brigands; admitting which it follows, that this and many other parishes of England may boast the honor of as noble a descent as the city of Rome. The excellent British etymologist, Baxter, informs us that the Seguntiaci, considering their situation along the sources of numerous brooks, and of some considerable rivers, may have derived their name from Second ui, the head of the waters.- From this point of station, our historical horizon widens, and we have an extensive view of the soil and climate of the region around.

In the second chapter, intitled Roman history, the author calls in question the authority of Richard of Cirencester, and is very severe on some of our modern antiquaries. He fears that Mr. Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, has been led by that monk, with a friar's lantern, into many devious paths, through many bogs and brakes, in his bold and excursive wanderings over the Sistuntian monarchy; and Dr. Leigh, the historian of Lancashire, who is so unfortunate as to have no friendly monk to bear his sins, escapes not the "cutting censures of the critic's pen."

Memorials of the parish, during the Saxon æra, occupy the third chapter.

The second book opens with the general head of Ecclesiastical History. The foundation of the parent church is related from a traditional account preserved in the Status de Blackburnshire; the truth of which, however, is doubted by Dr. W., inasmuch as it declares that Augustine preached at Whalley, which the Doctor asserts to be a downright falsehood, since there is no probability that he ever was in Northumbria. Another fatal objection to this account is thus delivered; I do not highly esteem the character of this man;' (pretty familiar in speaking of a saint!) his conduct towards the Christian Britons proves him to have had the narrowest views in religion; and he was besides proud, superstitious, and addicted to an indelicate casuistry, which, in men devoted to celibacy, argues at least a contaminated imagination.' Nevertheless, in one Christmas-day, says a fragment quoted by Camden, Austin baptized above ten thousand men, and consecrated the river Swale. Dr. W., however, on the authority of Rede and other collateral testimonies, thinks that the anecdote rather relates to Paullinus, the known apostle of Northumbria, than to Augustine. Whichever of them it was that performed this duty, it must be allowed at least to have been a very hard day's work. The æra of this memorable event, the first preaching of the gospel at Whalley, may with an high degree of probability be fixed between the years 625 and 631,' This being premised, next follow long

G 2

and

and dry lists of abbots and monks, dates of the building of churches, hallowing of altars, receipts and expenditures of monasteries, rentals of estates, &c. From the article of various expences, it appears that the monks of the abbey of Whalley drank about eight pipes of red wine per annum, besides white wine; and that they laid in their red wine at 41. per pipe : which is indeed a very moderate price in comparison with what both clergy and laity are obliged to pay for it in these later times. Another curious particular, which we learn from these records, is a charge pro stipite Sancti Henrici. Who is this St. Henry? No other than king Henry the VIth, who was actually adored at Windsor by the name of Holy King Henry. (Stowe's Ann. p. 424.) There is also a prayer addressed to Henry VI. in the Hora B. V. M. in usum Sarum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, A. D. 1502.-Under the head of provisions, appear, "Nutmuks; 15.; succarcande is.; succar 9s." This (as Dr. W. justly observes) is a curious fact; as it proves that sugar was in use amongst us before the discovery of America; but the history of this great ingredient in modern luxury is far from being well ascertained. The sugarcane, however, appears, from Pancirollus de Rebus Inventis, to have been grown in Sicily and manufactured at Venice, though probably in small quantities, some centuries before his time. But it was considered rather as a balsamic or pectoral medicine than an article of food.'

We cannot but remark the prodigious awe with which this antiquary approaches the tomb of a Lacey or a Stacey; though the beings themselves who bore these names, when alive, were perhaps of no more real benefit to mankind than the dust is at present into which their bodies have been decomposed. Let us hear with what unction the historian of the parish of Whalley puts up his pious orisons for the repose of the dust of the Laceys, after he had been laboriously digging in vain to find it :

The remains of the Laceys, (says he,) wherever deposited after their removal from Stanlaw, had undoubtedly been preserved with religious reverence, and inclosed in magnificent tombs. But in these researches there were no appearances which justified even a conjecture, that we had discovered them. This investigation being ended, the several remains were deposited once more near the place of their original interment, and the ground was carefully smoothed above, that no vestiges of recent inequality might tempt the hand of idle curiosity, or of credulous avarice, to draw them once more from their hallowed abode.

May they now rest in peace! Requiescant in pace! Amen. And, if the spirits which once animated that dust were capable of being disturbed by the momentary intrusion of respectful curiosity, may they be propitiated once more by this humble attempt to illustrate their mansion, and to perpetuate their memories in honour !'

8

Can

Can there be a finer instance of devout fustian than this! and all excited because the Laceys happened to live in the parish of Whalley, and, dying rich, were buried honourably two or three hundred years ago!

The chapter on Ecclesiastical History concludes with the following extract from Stow's Chron. Ann. 1536-7.

The 10th of March, John Paslew, bachelor of divinity, then being the five and twentieth abbot of Whalley, was executed at Lancaster; and the same day with him was hanged, drawn and quartered, John Eastgate, a monk of the same house, whose quarters were set up at divers towns in that shire; and on the 13th of March, William Hayddoke, a monk of Whalley, was hanged at Whalley, in the field called Pediam-guies, and there hanged a long time after. More about the same time, &c.'

Alas! this monastery is now in ruins; and a text of holy scripture is quoted as fortunately applicable to the purpose of lamentation: "We think upon her stones, and it pitieth us to see her in the dust." Psalm cii. Com. Pr. version.

We meet with nothing particularly remarkable in the short chapter intitled, Parish Church and Vicarage of Whalley, which contains a catalogue of the vicars from the year 1303 to 1772. On mentioning the exclusion of the Presbyterians from the pulpits, on the restoration, Dr. W. observes: Hence the formidable separation which took place, and hence in part the origin of modern sects, almost without number and without name, which threaten but too obviously the downfall of our civil and ecclesiastical establishment.'

Book III. commences with an account of the origin, progress, and ramifications of property. In the second chapter, the Laceys appear again, in all their glory; not indeed as

Inventas aut qui vitam excoluêre per artes,

Quique sui memores alios fecêre merendo,

but as memorable for more substantial properties, as lords of manors and possessors of grand revenues. One of them, however, early distinguished himself in such a manner as to induce a doubt in our minds, whether the author meant to include him likewise in his pious prayers for the repose of the departed family, not knowing whether his creed be as comprehensive as that of Origen: This Roger de Lacey,' says he, was the terror and scourge of the Welch; for his severe exeecutions upon whom, together with the general ferocity of his temper, he was profanely denominated Hell.'

Then follow catalogues of the seneschals of Blackburnshire; a particular survey of the forests of Blackburnshire; and an account of witches. If the author does not believe in the exist

ence of these præternatural beings, at least we will clear ours selves from any imputation of having asserted the contrary on unfounded inferences. Let us hear him:

Of the system of witchcraft, the real defect is not in theory, but in evidence. A possibility that the bodies of men should sometimes be given up to infernal agency is no more to be denied, than that their souls should be exposed to infernal illusions. That such ap pearances should be exhibited in one age, and withdrawn in another, is equally the case with miracles. That they should not extend to all countries is common to them and to revelation itself. But all the modern instances of supposed witcheraft, which I have read of, are discredited either by the apparent fraud or folly of the witnesses. Were I to behold with my own eyes such circumstances as have often been related, or were they to be reported to me by a philosophical observer of perfect integrity on the evidence of his senses, I know not upon what principles I could refuse my assent to the conclusion that they were really the effects of diabolical power.'

On this passage, is the following note:

That these opinions may not be accused of leaning too much to the doctrines of exploded superstition, I will take leave to refer my readers to the following sentiment of a great and enlightened moderu divine. That for any thing we know, he (the devil) may (still) opeate in the way of possession, I do not see on what certain grounds any man can deny. Bp. Hurd's Sermons, vol. iii. p. 239.'

An old room at Little Mitton so strikes the author's fancy, that he forbids any painter's brush or carpenter's hammer ever to come near it; enforcing his prohibition with the words of God himself in regard to his altar: "If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast defiled it; Exod. xx. 25. We know not on what principles these ludicrous quotations from holy writ can be justified in an orthodox divine.

Part the second (for this ponderous history is divided into parts, books, and chapters,) is filled with genealogical tables, and extracts from rolls and charters; which, we doubt not, were very accurately drawn up, and are very faithfully extracted. Having turned over these, (for hard indeed would be our lot if it were necessary for us to read them,) we come to a pious lamentation on the decline of religion, apparent from the modern style in which epitaphs and wills are at present composed the former consisting only of inflated panegyrics on intellectual attainments or relative virtues, on the profound scholar, the upright lawyer, the affectionate husband, the tender parent, the faithful subject, &c. without any thing like the old friez pour son alme, or the orate pro animâ, which was comfortable and edifying to the reader, and when thus the language of inscriptions seconded that of the pulpit. We fear, however, that, if religion be on the decline, it is not to be recovered by