Mr. URBAN, May 1. is straggling, but called extremely neat village, situated on the road between Stourhead and Longleat, about four miles from the former mansion. It is a place of considerable antiquity. A nunnery was founded here by Hanasser Bisset in the reign of Henry II. The peculiar object of this institution was the maintenance of leprous women; but to them were added some secular brothers, whose duty it was to provide necessaries, and manage their estate, for them. Hubert, the last Bishop of Sarum, about 1190, removed these priests, and substituted a Prior and Canons of the Augustine order. At the dissolution of this hospital the annual revenues amounted according to Dugdale to 1801. 108. 8d. and Speed 1977. Iss. 8d. Henry VIII. granted the site and the buildings to Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, and the property has continued in the same family to the present time. Part of the monastic buildings have been converted into a farm-house. The Charch is a small edifice, consisting of a body and two ailes, a chancel, and a square tower at the West eud. The chief entrance is by a porch on the South side. The building, both externally and internally, is perfectly plain, the windows are a mixture of pointed and square, but not of very antient date; and there is nothing to claim particular remark, except the monuments, the principal of which is one to the memory of Sir Edward Seymour, well executed in marble, A.D. 1750; and the celebrity of the person whom it commemorates, renders it worthy of distinction. The figure is in a reclining posture, habited in the robes of a Senator. On the pediment are two winged cherubs, one holding a torch, aud the other a serpent, em, blems of death and eternity. The monument was raised in 1750, by the Baronet's grandson, and contains the following inscription: "Under this marble are deposited the remains of Sir Edward Seymour, bart. late of Bury Pomroy, in the county of Devon, and of this place. A man of such endowments, as added lustre to his whole ancestry, commanded reverence GENT. MAG. May, 1816. from his cotemporaries, and stands the fairest pattern to posterity: being often Parliament. (A friend to his Prince, a servant to his country.) He advised the King with freedom, the Senate with dignity; that Senate, the bulwark of the English liberty, in which he presided for several years, found his eloquence an advocate, his integrity a guardian, his vigour a champion for its privileges: nor can any Englishman rejoice in that envied portion of his birth-right, the Habeas Corpus Act, without gratitude to the ashes of this Patriot, under whose influence it became his heritage. Born in the year 1633, his childhood felt not the calamities which, in the succeeding years, the spirit of anarchy and schism spread over the Nation: his manhood saw the Church and Monarchy restored, and he lived in dutiful obedience to both loaden with honour, full of years, (amidst the triumphs of his country) raised to the highest point of glory by that immortal Princess Queen Anne, he died in the year 1707. Francis Seymour, esq. in just veneration for the memory of his illustrious grandfather, and in due obedience to the last will and testament of Lieut.-gen. William Seymour, second son to the deceased Sir Edward, hath caused this monument to be erected, 1730." : A short distance East of the Church' is Bradley House, the residence of the Duke of Somerset. As an architectural object, this mansion is of no importance, but the size renders it convenient. The South part and principal front has a square wing at each extremity, which projects considerably before the centre; the rooms are handsome, lighted by large windows. The grounds belonging to it, though not extensive, are very pleasant; at the Southern extremity of which is a lofty chalk hill. Yours, &c. AN OBSERVER. THE Mr. URBAN, Lee, Kent, April 14. THE very picturesque village of Cadoxton is situate on the South side of the river Nidd, immediately opposite the town of Neath, in the county of Glamorgan. Its Church, a plain and neat structure, lately repaired and beautified, is dedicated to Saint Cadoc, an old British Saint of some celebrity. In its chancel are several monuments of the antient family of Williams of Dyffryn, in Upshot: the conclusion of an affair in archery. Window spaces where the wind enters. I A. H. An Account of the Pyramids near CAIRO, taken from a Letter to Mr. LA TROBE, by the Rev. JOHNANTES, D.D. Grand Cairo, April 17, 1770. TOOK lately a little journey in order to see the Egyptian Antiquities; the well-known Pyramids. They are about nine English miles from Cairo, on the other side of the Nile. Our company consisted of about 35 persons, partly French and Venetians. We all rode on asses, which would appear to you a very curious cavalcade. We went on the 14th of March in the afternoon from hence to Chiesa, a village opposite to old Cairo, about a league and a half from our house on the other side of the Nile, where the French have a house: here we staid all night. On the 15th, we sat out from thence before day-break, and after we had passed some of the finest fields full of fruit, part of which was already ripe, and some villages and clans of Arabs, we arrived at the Pyramids about half an hour past seven. These monstrous edifices stand on a barren sandhill; but their foundation is on a white rock, and it seems that the stone of which they are built, was taken from this rock. They are square, and rise gradatim, with steps to the top, but each step is about two feet and a half high. The height of each step, and the amazing height of the Pyramids themselves, and the steps by length of time having been damaged, make it very difficult to ascend to the top. My companion Mr. Dancke ventured up to the top, but I did not. The largest of these Pyramids has but one entrance into it, which is of fine smooth granite, but is only about four feet and a half square. At first the passage runs about 60 paces on a descent, and is pretty steep; when you have advanced about 50 paces on hands and feet, then you are obliged to creep on your belly, and it is with difficulty that you work your way through. I believe, if the sand and the stones were removed, the passage would in general be pretty much of the same dimensions with the entrance. Hav ing thus advanced about 60 paces downwards, then you enter a pretty spacious place, which looks like a damaged chamber, near which you find a well. From heuce the passage ascends, and is about four feet and a half wide, as at the entrance. Having crawled about 50 or 60 paces up hill, you enter an empty chamber, about 25 feet in length, and 15 feet in breadth; this is of smooth granite and large stones. The whole roof consists only of three stones. From hence you get again into a very high but narrow passage, which ascends, and is very steep; having climbed about 100 paces up this passage, you enter another chamber, something larger than the lowest or first-mentioned chamber. At one end of this you find a chest like a tomb of very smooth granite, which when struck sounds like a bell. (Of the marble pillar mentioned in Hubner's Geography, which is said to have this effect, nothing is to be seen.) The whole chamber is likewise very smooth granite. Several bye-paths are still evident; but as they are above half filled with sand, nobody chooses to venture into them, or else probably more such chambers might be found, and this conjecture is confirmed by the Arabs. In all these passages and chambers the air is much compressed, because it is admitted no where but at the entrance, which is, as mentioned above, very narrow. This, together with the va pour from the torches and the exces sive dust, which is raised by creeping in the sand, is the reason why no one likes to stay long in them, for it has frequently happened that people have fainted away in them, and must be drawn out. I measured one side of this pyramid, and found it to be 300 good paces, so that the compass at the bottom will amount to 1200 paces. There are but two so very large; the others would be very large if these were not there. Round about these, there are still a good many ruins of Pyramids and other buildings, in which hewn stones are found from eight to ten feet square, which are so well fitted and cemented together (as are also the Pyramids), that no nail can be driven in between them. Not far from thence there still stands an old large Sphinx, or monster. After we had taken a Old Change: the King's Exchange for coining of bullion was kept there, 6 Hen. III. Cheapside: a market was held there, which in Saxon is a "Chepe." Cripplegate was built before the Conquest, and took its name from the Cripples who used to beg there. Fenchurch-street: from a fenny ground made by the stream called Langbourn passing through it. Finsbury, for the same reason. Fleet Ditch was formerly navigable for merchant ships as far as Holborn Bridge. Holborn: formerly a village called Oldborn or Hillborn, from a stream which broke out near the place where the Bars now stand, and ran down the street to Oldborn Bridge, and so into the river Fleet. St. James's Palace was an hospital for lepers until the surrender to Henry VIII; who erected the present building, and made the Park adjoining. Lombard-street from the Lombards and other foreign merchants assembling there daily, before the Royal Exchange was erected. London-stone of its antiquity there is no memorial, except that it is mentioned in a Gospel-book given to Christ Church, Canterbury, before the Conquest. The Minories, where an Abbey of Nuns of St. Clare was founded, who were under age. Paternoster-row: so called from the Stationers or Text-writers who dwelt there, and wrote and sold all sorts of books in use, viz. : ABC with the Paternoster, Ave, Creed, &c. Also turners of beads, who were called paternoster makers. Smithfield a smeth ground, used as a market 550 years since. : or smooth Staple Inn was a hall for the merchants of the Staple till 1415. Wild Beasts were first kept in the Tower in 1235, when three leopards were sent by the Emperor to Henry III. Gold was first coined there in 1344; and criminals first executed on Tower-hill in 1466. Walbrook was a running water which entered the city-wall between Bishopsgate and Moorgate; and is now hid underground. Westminster-hall; built by Rufus 1097. Courts of Law first fixed there 1224. Lady. In the Country the Lady of a Manor used with her own hands to distribute bread to the poor, and was called by them in Saxon Laef-day, or bread-giver: these two words form the modern word lady. Hence loaf, from Saxon laef, bread. There is a piece of the Resurrection carved in bas-relief over the gate-way of the work-house in Shoe-lane, much admired by the curious. It has been lately painted to preserve it, which It has been has much injured it. imitated at the gates of St. Giles in the Fields; St. Dunstan East; and St. Stephen, Coleman-street. St. Paul's Cathedral stands upon the site of a Temple to Diana; and Westminster Abbey upon another dedicated to Apollo. Hence Immolat Dianæ Londinum, Apolini formosa Thornea. Thorney was the name of the little rural village now called Westminster. The spire of old St. Paul's Church, London, said to have been constructed in 1221, was 520 feet in height; but it consisted mostly, if not wholly, of timber and lead. The height to the top of the cross of the present dome is 370 feet. The Monument is 202 feet high; just half the height of the spire of Salisbury Cathedral. Dr. Hoadly was consecrated Bishop of Bangor in Ely Chapel, on May 18, 1715. This Chapel stands on the Western side of the antient quadrangle of Ely Palace on Holborn Hill, adjoining to the garden and field in which the writer of these articles saw rabbits running wild, previous to the whole being sold to Messrs. Gorham and Cole, who raised the present buildings called Ely Place; and the stones now forming the pavement next to the kirb of the footway were those of the original front of the antient Palace and Offices. The entrance to Holborn was by a double arch for carriages and foot, constructed of red brick, of very antient date. Sir Christopher Wren's Bills for building St. Paul's Cathedral amount ed to £.736,752 2 3 |