to Mann, dated March 11, beginning his letter with these lines from Dryden's All for Love' :

Portents and prodigies are grown so frequent

That they have lost their name.

It does not appear that it reached more than ten miles beyond London, where the old watchmen cried, 'Past four o'clock and a dreadful earthquake.' All the people of Hanwood declared to old James Cross that nothing of the sort had been felt in the valley of the Rea, not even at Snailbeach; and my venerable Friend declared to me by his 'Heartship of Oak' that he never felt it.

In the October of this year it was whispered among the old Jacobites of the county-who received their information from Lichfield-that the Pretender was in London, or had been there; and this information was correct enough, for he was a fortnight there in September, and then returned to France, finding that any further attempt to retrieve the throne was useless.

Meanwhile the trade of the country increased and the nation was prosperous, and it is remarkable, as concerned the Bill concerning the removal of the duties on American pig and bar iron, that the smiths and ironmongers of Brummagem were entirely in its favour. John Altree of Hanwood, who had business there frequently, reported their views, which were certainly early ones of free trade.

The first matter of importance which reached the valley in the year 1751, as far as my Talking Friend recollected, was the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales, which took place on March 20, between nine and ten at night; ' more beloved for his affability and good-nature,' writes Lord Chesterfield to his son, 'than esteemed for his steadiness and conduct.' He presently speaks of his eldest son—afterwards George III-as a most hopeful boy, gentle and goodnatured, with good sound sense.' His conduct on the death of his father showed that he was not likely to turn out a thorn or a wild grape. Walpole even was heard to say, 'Prince George, who has a most amiable countenance, behaved excessively well on his father's death. When they told him

of it he turned pale and laid his hand on his breast. Ayscough said, "I am afraid, sir, you are not well!" He replied, "I feel something here, just as I did when I saw the two workmen fall from the scaffold at Kew."' Such was the heart that was in the boy!

In an earlier portion of the letter here referred to, Walpole had said, 'The grief for the dead brother is affectedly great; the aversion to the living one as affectedly displayed. They cried about an elegy and added: 'Oh! that it were but his brother!' On 'Change they said, 'Oh! that it were but the Butcher!' Such is the way in which our people will express themselves; but, happily, their bark is worse than their bite, and such words are sort of safety-valve. The elegy alluded to is as follows-the stinging effusion, probably, of a disappointed and malcontent Jacobite. Certainly no member of the family was spared by those who were bitterly set against the Hanoverian Succession: :

Here lies Fred,

Who was alive and is dead.

Had it been his father

I had much rather;

Had it been his brother

Still better than another;

Had it been his sister

No one would have missed her;

Had it been the whole generation

Still better for the nation.

But since 'tis only Fred,

Who was alive and is dead,

There's no more to be said.

The eulogy in Smollett and Walpole's extract from the sermon at Mayfair Chapel are both equally out of place. One must sometimes fall back upon the truth,' Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape whipping?'

It was towards the end of this year that a report was circulated in the valley-so my Talking Friend told me that 'the Government was about to rob the people of eleven or twelve days'; and a curious report it was, and very generally used as a complaint, and even as a watchword of party. The reader will perceive at once that it referred to the alteration

of the style, or the reformation of the calendar, proposed by Lord Chesterfield, the most useful measure of the session.

The following summary is from Lord Mahon's 'History.' The error of the old style, now grown to eleven days, had long since been corrected by most civilised nations and acknowledged by all. Only England, with Russia and Sweden, clung to the exploded system, for no reason, apparently, than because it was a pope who established the new. 'It was not, in my opinion,' writes Chesterfield, 'very honourable to England to remain in a gross and avowed error, especially in such company.' Accordingly, having first paved the way by some articles in periodical works, he proceeded, in concert with the Earl of Macclesfield, Dr. Bradley, and other eminent men of science, to frame the heads of a Bill. He provided that the legal year should commence in future on January 1, and not, as heretofore, on March 25, and that to correct the old calendar eleven nominal days should be suppressed in September 1752, so that the day following the 2nd of that month should be styled the 14th. The difficulties that might result from the change, as affecting rents, leases, and bills of exchange, were likewise carefully considered and effectually prevented. With these provisions and safeguards the Bill was moved by Lord Chesterfield in a very able, and seconded by Lord Macclesfield in a very learned speech, and it was successfully carried through both Houses.

The first letter of Horace Walpole dated N.S. is to Mann, and from Strawberry Hill, October 28, 1752, and the appeal for loss of days, reported throughout the valley of the Rea, is thus corroborated: 'When, in 1754, Lord Macclesfield's eldest son stood a great contested election in Oxfordshire, one of the most vehement cries raised against him was, "Give us back the eleven days we have been robbed of!" And even several years later, when Dr. Bradley, worn down by his labours in the cause of science, was sinking under mortal disease, many of the common people ascribed his sufferings to a judgment from Heaven for having taken part in that impious undertaking.' 'And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.'

It is painful to remark that the state of the country at

this time was not on the advance; indeed, it seems to have been worse than for some time before. After having mentioned the dreadful crime of a Miss Jefferies, who had murdered her uncle, and that of a Miss Hardy, who had murdered her father, Horace Walpole writes to Mann at Florence: 'It is shocking to think what a shambles this country is grown. Seventeen were executed this morning, after having murdered the turnkey on Friday night and almost forced open Newgate. One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one was going to battle.'

It was in this year that one of the last (Dr. Archibald Cameron's, Lochiel's brother, being the last) executions for siding with the Stuarts took place, and unhappily at Shrewsbury. The sufferer was Mr. Thomas Anderson, of Richmond in Yorkshire, and a deserter from Sir John Ligonier's regiment of dragoons. He was, like many others, firmly attached to the Pretender, and was charged with enlisting troops for him. His trial was at Worcester on November 16, and lasted three days. Why he was brought to Shrewsbury for execution is not known. Every attempt was made to save him but ineffectually, as the petitioners were mostly of the Stuart party. An account of the whole transaction may be seen in our historians. He was buried in St. Mary's Churchyard the same day, and is said to have written the epitaph which follows, requesting it might be inscribed on his tombstone:--Stop, traveller,

I've pass'd, repass'd the seas, and distant lands;
Can find no rest but in my Saviour's hands.

My Talking Friend perfectly well recollected the execution of Anderson, for, as is usual with country people, many went that day to Kingsland; but they returned with sad hearts, and hoped they might never see such a sight again. And yet, year after year, thousands of country people from all parts of the county have gone to witness the public executions in front of the gaol. I am afraid there is something of the barbarian left in us all. Who remembers not the propensities of the witty George Selwyn of those days, who contrived to be present at every execution, and had a bit of

the rope each culprit hung by? I suppose it must be said, and admitted too, that

Every man hath business and desire,

Such as it is.

The only other incident connected with the old town this year was reported on his return home by John Altree, who had been with his relatives to church at St. Giles', and reported it at Hanwood on his return. I transcribe the account from the pages of Phillips: 1752.-On Christmas Day two houses on the Stone Bridge which were supported by beams crossing the navigation arch, through a decay of the case of the beams, fell into the river underneath with everything belonging unto them. The people occupying the houses, being at church, happily escaped.' This corroborated entirely the statement made by John Altree, and the day.

In the first letter written by Horace Walpole in the year 1753 to Mann at Florence he says in his peculiar way :-'In the memory of England there never was so inanimate an age; it is more fashionable to go to church than to either House of Parliament.' In this he alludes of course to the stirring of the dried bones by the result of Wesley and Whitefield's preaching; and a great thing, notwithstanding the excesses of enthusiasm, was it for the country, for it must be confessed that a numb and cold policy had settled upon priests and people. Lord Mahon has very properly devoted a chapter to the subject, to which I shall again allude.

The people at Hanwood, my Talking Friend told me, were taken much by surprise on Sunday morning in the year 1753 by hearing the banns of marriage asked after the second lesson, whereas heretofore they had been asked immediately before the sentences for the offertory. This was under the new Marriage Act (26 George II. c. 33), or, as it was called, Lord Hardwicke's Bill. Many inquiries were made about the alteration, and the rector for the time being, had to explain it to the congregation. Margaret Banes was but a girl in those days, and the wags by the brookside said significantly they supposed it had something to do with her. However, the people were quite contented with the rector's explanation,