four feet, forty feet and fix inch- the nourishment drawn from the roots, and imbibed by the branches and leaves, muft be the fame to both trees. Then muft not the great fhare of vegetative ingre s; and at five feet, thirty-fix feet and fix inches; and at fix feet, thirty-two feet and one inch. Now, although this oak is larger near the earth than that in Hamp-dients be conveyed in dew? fhire, yet it diminishes much more fuddenly in girt, viz. eight feet and five inches in two feet of height (I reckon by my own measures, as I took pains to be exact). Suppofe the diminution continues about this rate (for I did not meafure fo high) then at feven feet, it will be about twenty-eight in circumference, and the bottom fourteen feet contain fix hundred and eighty-fix feet round, or buyers meature, or feventeen ton and fix feet; and fourteen feet length of the Hampshire oak is one thoufand and feven feet, or twenty-five ton and seven feet, that is, three hundred and twenty-one feet more than the Yorkshire oak, though that is fuppofed by many people the greatest oak in England. I am unwilling to conclude this account of wathing the stems of trees without obferving, that all the ingredients of vegetation u nited, which are received from the - roots, ftem, branches, and leaves of a moffy and dirty tree, do not produce half the increafe that another gains whofe ftem is clean to the head only, and that not ten feet in height. Is it not clear that this greater flare of nourishment cannot come from rain? for the dirty ften will retain the moisture longer than when clean; and May not the mofs and dirt absorb the finest parts of the dew? and may they not act as a kind of fkreen, and deprive the tree of that fhare of air and fun which it requires? To develope this myfterious operation of nature would be an honour to the most ingenious, and the plain fact may af ford pleasure to the owners of young trees; for if their growth may be increafed by cleaning their ftems once in five or fix years (and perhaps they will not require it fo often) if the increase is but half an inch yearly above the ordinary growth, it will greatly overpay for the trouble, befides the plea fure of feeing the tree more flourithing. Although the extra increafe of my first washed beech was but four-tenths of an inch, the fecond was nine-tenths and a half, and the third near two inches; fo the aggregate extra increase is above one inch and one-tenth yearly; and the increase of the oak is eight-tenths. But calling it only half an inch, then fix years will produce above five cubic feet of timber, as the oak is eight feet round, and above twenty feet long, and fixpence will pay for the wathing; fo there remains nine fhillings and fixpence clear gain in fix years. Stratton, 08.29, 1780. ANTL ANTIQUITIES. Same Account of Lichfield, and its Cathedral. Extracted from Pennant's Journey from Chefer to London. ICHFIELD is a place of Saxon origin, and owes its rite to Ceadda, or Chad, the great faint of Mercia. I omit the legend of the thousand Chriftians, difciples of St. Amphibolus, that were martyred here under Dioclefian; or the three kings flain at this place in battle, as fculptured over the town-hall. I take up its hiftory about the year 656, when Ofway, king of the country, eftablifhed a bishopric here, and made Dwina, or Dinma, the firft prelate. To him fucceeded Cellach and Trumberct; and on his demife, the famous Ceadda. This pious man at first led an eremitical life, in a cell, at the place on which now ftands the church of his name, and fupported himself by the milk of a white hind. In this place he was difcovered by Rufine, the fon of Wolphere, who was privately inftructed by him till the time of his martyrdom, before recited. Remorfe and confequential converfion feized the Pagan prince. As fome fpecies of expiation, he preferred the' apoftle to the vacant fee. He built himself a small house near the church, and, with feven or eight of his brethren, during the interval of preaching, read and prayed in private. On the approach of his death, flights of angels fang hymns over his cell. Miracles at his death confirmed the holiness of his life. A lunatic, that by accident escaped from his keepers, lay a night on it, and in the morning was found restored to his fenfes. The very earth taken out of it, was an infallible remedy for all disorders incident to man or beaft *. Ceadda was of course canonized; a fhrine was erected in honour of him; great was the concourse of devotees: the place increased and flourifhed. The hiftory of our cathedrals is, in its beginning, but the history of fuperftition, mixed with fome truth and abundance of legend: humiliating proof of the weakness of the human mind! yet all the fine arts of paft times, and all the magnificent works we now fo justly admire, are owing to a fpecies of piety that every lover of the elegance of architecture must rejoice to have exifted. We are told, that in the days of Jaruman, about the year 666, the cathedral was founded. I fhall not trouble the reader with a dry lift of prelates, but only mention thofe diftinguished by fome remarkable event that befel the fee during their days. In thofe of Winifrid, fucceffor to St. Chad, in 674, Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury,thought fit to divide the bishopric into two, and to establish the other at Sidnacefter, in Lincolnshire, the prefent Stow. Winfrid difapproving this defalcation, was deprived for contumacy. The diocefe might well bear dividing; for at that time it contained the whole kingdom of Mercia. At prefent it comprehends all Staffordfhire,except Brome and Clent, which belong to Worcestershire; the larger part of Warwickshire; and about half Shropshire. In the time of Bifhop Adulf, Offa, King of the Mercians, procured liberty from the Pope of erecting the fee into an archbishopric, in 786, and to affign him for fuffragans Winchester, Hereford,Lagecefter (Leicester) Helmham, and Dunwick. This honour died with Adulf. A bifhop Peter, in 1067, the year fucceeding to the conqueft, removed the fee to St. John's, in Chefter, where he died and was interred in 1085. His fucceffor, Robert de Limefey, fmitten with the love of the gold and filver with which the pious Earl Leofric had covered the walls of his new convent at Coventry, in 1095 removed the fee to that city, and at once scraped from a fingle beam that fupported a fhrine, 500 marks worth of filver +. I now speak of a prelate of a different temper; to whofe munificence both the church and city were highly indebted. Roger de Clinton, confecrated in 1129, took down the ancient Mercian cathedral. We are not informed of the dimenfions or nature of the building, any more than we are of that built by this bifhop. It muft have been, according to the reigning mode of the times, of the fpecies of architecture ufually called Saxon, with maffy pillars and round arches. There is not at prefent the leaft relique of this ftyle. But I am unacquainted with the accident, or calamity, which deftroyed the labours of this pious prelate; who took up the crofs, and died at Antioch, on a pilgrimage to the holy fepulchre. After a fucceffion of twelve prelates, Walter de Langton, treafurer of England, was confecrated bifhop of this fee, in 1296. He was highly favoured by Edward I. His profperity was interrupted by the refentment of the prince, who meanly revenged on the bifhop a fhort imprisonment he had fuffered in the time of his father, for riotoufly deftroying his deer. After a profecution and confinement of above two years, he emerged from all his difficulties, and refumed his paftoral charge in a manner that did him great honour. He may be confidered as the third architect of this cathe • Wharton's Ang. Sacr. i. 433. dral; dral; to whom we are indebted by three fieges. The fituation of for the present elegant pile. He laid the foundation of Our Lady's Chapel; an edifice of uncommon beauty, finifhed after his death with money left for that purpose. He built the cloysters, and expended 20001. upon a fhrine for St. Chad. He bestowed on the choir several rich vestments, a chalice, and two cups of beaten gold, to the value of 2001. To the vicar's choral he gave a ftanding cup, and an annual penfion of 201, and procured for them and the canons great immunities in particular, there was an order from the king to the juftices of Staffordshire, that, without trial, they should hang upon the next gallows divers perfons that by force kept their lands from them. This prelate alfo furrounded the clofe with a wall and ditch, made the great gate at the weft end, and the poftern at the fouth. He gave his own palace, at the weft end of the clofe, to the vicars choral, and built a new one for himfelf at the east end. He partly built, or enlarged, the cattle at Ecclefhall, and the manors of Heywood and Shugborow, and the palace in the Strand. He finifhed his ufeful life in Nov. 1321, and was buried in the chapel of his own founding. The cathedral continued in the ftate it was left by Bishop Langton, till the time of the diflolution, when the rich fhrine of St. Chad, and other objects of fimilar devotion, fell a prey to the rapacity of the prince. The building continued in its priftine beauty till the unhappy wars of the laft century, when it fuffered greatly the place on an eminence, furrounded by water and by deep ditches, and fortified with walls and baftions, rendered it un happily a proper place for a gar rifon. In 1643, it was poffeffed by the royalists of the county, under the Earl of Chesterfield; when it underwent the attack rendered memorable by the death of Lord Brook, commander of the parliamentary forces. His lordfhip, in reconnoitring the cathedral, in a wooden porch in Dams-street, was fhot in the eye by a mufket ball, on March 2d, 1643. This happened to be the festival of St. Chad, the patron of the church. The cavaliers attributed the direc tion of the fatal bullet to the influence of the faint, in refentment of the facrileges this nobleman was committing on his cathedral. What fhare the faint had in this affair, I will not pretend to fay: but the mufket was aimed, and the trigger drawn, by a neighbouring gentleman posted in the leads, known by the name of dumb Dyot. The lofs of Lord Brook gave very fhort refpite to the garrifon; which was taken al moft immediately after by Sir John Gell. In April, in the fame year, it was attacked by Prince Rupert. At this time it was commanded by Col. Roufwell; a steady governor over an enthufiaftic garri fon. He defended the place with vaft refolution. A breach was made by the blowing up of a mine. The attack was made with great bravery, but great loss. At length the garrifon gave up, on on the most honourable conditions. The colonel took care to plunder the church of the communion-plate during the time the fanatics were in poffeffion. They ufed every fpecies of profanation; hunted a cat in it with hounds, to enjoy the fine echo from the roof; and brought a calf dreffed in linen to the font, and fprinkled it with water, in derifion of baptifm +. thedral to its prefent beautiful flate, at the expence of twenty thousand pounds §; one thousand of which was the gift of the dean and chapter; the rest was done either at his own charge, or by benefactions refulting from his own folicitations. He died in 1670. A very handfome tomb was erect. ed in the choir to his memory, with his effigy laid recumbent on it, with a mitre on his head, and his epifcopal drefs. The prince appointed Colonel Hervey Bagot the governor; The weft front is of great elewho kept poffeffion till the ruin of gance, adorned with the richest the king's affairs, in 1646; when fculpture, and till of late with the colonel, and other command- rows of ftatues of prophets, kings ers, being fatished that the king of Judah, &c. and, above all, a had not an hundred men in any very bad one of Charles II. who one place in the field, nor any had contributed to the repair of garrifon unbefieged, furrendered the church by a liberal gift of ⚫on very honourable terms, on the timber. This ftatue was the 10th of July, to Adjutant Lou- work of a Sir William Wilfon, thian . originally a mason from Sutton Coldfield, who, after marrying a rich wife, arrived at the dignity of knighthood. The ftate of this church after so many fieges, may easily be conceived. The honour of reftoring it to its former fplendor was referved for John Hacket, prefented to this fee in 1661. On the very next day after his arrival, he fet his coach-horfes, with teams, to remove the rubbish; and in eight years time reftored the ca The sculptures round the doors were very elegant; but time or violence hath greatly impaired their beauty. James II. when Duke of York, bestowed on this church the magnificent weft window. The fine + Mr. Green's MSS. Clarendon, ii. 235. During the time this gentleman commanded at Lichfield, he received the following extraordinary challenge from a Captain Hunt, a parliamentary commander in Tamworth. Mercurius Aulicus, p. 1347. Bagot, thou fonne of an Egiptian hore, meete mee half the way to-morrow "morning, the half way betwixt Tamworth and Lithfeald, if thou dareft; if "not, I will whippe thee when foever I meete thee. "Tamworth, this "Decemb. 1644. "Tho. Hunt." Colonel Bagot met him, and after a brisk action, whipped the fellow himself into his retreat, and narrowly miffed taking him. Articles of furrender, Br. Biogr. iv. 2457. A manufcript with which Mr. Green favoured me, makes the fum much lefs. VOL. XXV. K painted |