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Flintshire. Full of mines and coalpits; as also very curious calamins, especially about Holywell. Bulkeley Mountain; its clay for lutings, furnace-bricks, &c.

Denbighshire. Collieries at Wrexham. Barsham and Peutablue iron forges.

Montgomeryshire. Lead and copper mines in the manor of Keferliog, and iron works at Iltattravail and Dolobran.

Iron works at

Radnorshire, and Brecknockshire. Tanners Forge and Fanelly. Return to Bristol through Monmouthshire again.

. Though I have only particularised some few parts of Wales, yet all that Principality is properly a mineral country, and well worthy the search of a mineralist.

From Bristol take your route through Gloucestershire.

This county is chiefly stony, abounding with free-stone quarries, full of petrifactions. Gloucester. The Forest of Dean; full of iron mines, coalpits, and other mineral works. It is governed by its own mining laws and jurisdiction. The mines are large, rich, and furnish curious ore of the stalactites kind, called Brush Iron ores. A cavern at Charford Bottom, two miles from Stroud. Coal-pits at Seridge, Broad Moor Green, Acton, and Redbrook. Copper works also at Redbrook, near Colford, five miles from Monmouth. Cheltenham mineral waters. Lead mine near Sodbury. Iron forges at Lidbrook, Lidney, Upleadon, Fartworth, and Flaxley.

Herefordshire. I do not find any particular in this county remarkable enough to be specified, except the iron works at New Weare, Bringwood, and Lanidloe.

Shropshire. The iron works at Coalbrookdale, with the curious petrifactions and impressions of vege tables in the iron stone balls. There are many other iron works, at Pres cot, Sutton, Upton, &c. The pitchstone at Pitchford, Bental, Broseley, and other places. Pipe-clay at WenJock, and limestone used to fuse the iron-stone of Coalbrookdale. The limestone mountains of the Wrekin, and Cyn y Bwch, and the petrifactions in them. Many coalpits in Shropshire. The fossils to be collect

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ed in this county are the iron-stones,limestones, and petrifactions.

Cheshire. The salt rocks and works at Nantwich, Middlewich, &c. Silk mills at Stockport. The peat mosses. Copper mines at Alderley Edge. Other mineral works in this county ;-iron forges at Cranage, Warmington, and Lea.

Lancashire. Liverpool, famous for trade. The Candle or Kennel coalpits at Haigh, Wigan, &c. This coal turns and polishes; and toys, utensils, &c. are made of it. Coal-pits at Wigan, Warrington, Burnley, Townly, Hindley, and many other places. Manchester, and its manufactures. Copper mines at High Furness, Conyston Fells; copper works and furnaces at Warrington, but the ore smelted there is brought from Wales. Lead mines at Andlesack. Fine hæmatites ore found in the fells, and much of it is sent to Carron in Scotland, and Sheffield and Rotherham in Yorkshire and iron forges at Cunsey, Bachbarrow, Sparkbridge, Conyston, Caton, and Burgh. The navigable canals run through this county.

THER

[To be continued.] ·

SECRETARIES OF STATE. FROM A MS. OF DR. DUCAREL, 1768. HE old Kings of England had but one Secretary of State. This officer was anciently called Clericus Regis, or Secretarius; a title given to him that is ab epistolis, et scriptis secretis.

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The name of Secretary was at first applied to such as, being always near the King's person, received his com mands. These were called Clerks of the Secret, whence was afterwards formed the word Secretary, regî a secretis.

There was but one Secretary of State in this kingdom till about the end of the reign of King Henry VIII.; but then, business increasing, that Prince appointed a second Secretary; both of equal power, and both stiled "Principal Secretaries of State."

These Secretaries did not sit at the Council Board till the time of Queen Elizabeth, who first admitted them to the place of Privy Counsellors.

On the Union, Queen Anne added a third Secretary, who is frequently stiled " Secretary of State for North Britain."

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1820.]

Secretaries of State.-Forms of Worship.

Bath and Wells, 1495.

225

I believe the most antient Collection Hen. VII. Oliver King, made Bishop of of Letters, &c. of a Secretary of State now extant is contained in a fair Manuscript (No.211 in the Manuscript Library at Lambeth) entitled "Opusculum ex missivis litteris serenis

simi principis Henrici sexti Anglie et Francie Regis, tempore venerabilis viri Thome de Bekyntona Legum Doctoris, ejusdem Regis Secretarii, per eundem Regem missis: unà cum quibusdam aliis litteris ejusdem Secretarii, ac aliæ, nt infra suis locis patebit; ad utilitatem simplicium in unum collectum et compilatum."

[I have not at present the date of the first and last of these Letters; but will send it; however I know they are before 1443.]

This Dr. Bekynton became Bishop of Bath and Wells, Oct. 3, 1443, and died possessed of that See, Jan. 4, 1464.

In the interview of Henry VIII. and Francis 1. between Guines and Ardres, on the 7th of June 1520, the King's Secretary (the first of the four Counsellors Spiritual) ranked immediately after the Knights of the Garter, thus: The Secretary,

The Master of the Rolls,
The Dean of the Chapel,
The Almoner.

Among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 305, 44, is one entitled "The State of a Secretaries Place, and the Perill thereof, written

by Robert Cecill the Earle of Salis

bury. Fol. 369.❞

In the same Library, No. 6035, is a "MS. in quarto, containing daily Memorandums in relation to the business of the Secretary's Office, from 25 March to 3 December 1585."

The following is a list of as many of the Secretaries of the antient Kings of England as I have been able to discover in Bishop Godwin's Catalogue of the Bishops of England:

Hen. II. Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis. (Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 12.) Ric. I. William de Sancta Maria, Canon of St. Paul, made Bishop of London, A. D. 1199.

Edw. III. Thomas Hatfield, made Bishop

of Durham, 1345.

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Richard Fox, made Bishop of Winchester, 1502, and a Privy Coun sellor.

Fees of Principal Secretaries of State.

In a Manuscript in the MS Library at Lambeth (No. 286) containing a List of his Majesty's Officers, with their fees, sans date (seems to be written temp. Jac. 1.), I find

*OFFICERS IN COURT.

Principall Secretaries

Li. Fee.,..... 100 super Diett in Court." Those who attended the King were called, by way of distinction, Secretaries of the Commands, Regi à mandatis. This continued till 1559, when, at a treaty of peace between the French and Spaniards, the former observed that the Spanish ministers who treated for Philip 11. called themselves "Secretaries of State;" upon which the French Secretaires des Commandements, out of emulation, assumed the same title, which thence passed into England*.

Some farther particulars relative to the Secretaries of State may be seen in Chamberlayne's "Present State of England." A. C. DUCAREL,

Mr. URBAN,

HE

Thaxted, Feb. 1.

The Letter of J. W. (p. 8.), commenting on the matters which form some of the reasons given by Dissenters for differing from the established Church of England, I hope, will meet the eye of every reasonable Dissenter denominated" Independent," especially those who have been brought up in that persuasion without being acquainted with the principles wherein such dissension lies; for I think it will be allowed by them, that the Form of Prayer is the greatest principle of such dissension.

No sects or persuasions of the Christian Religion are so in veterate against the Roman Catholic Church as the Dissenters from the Established Church of England, not only on account, say they, of the worshipping of images and paintings (which they conceive bending the knee before the cross, or the Roman Catholicks do by this any painting of our Saviour, of the Apostles, and of their numerous

* Chambers's Dictionary.

saints),

saints), but from their prayers and other forms of their Church being performed by their priests in the Latin tongue, of which the lower orders of their hearers must be totally igno rant, consequently not able to join in the devotion.

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Now, Mr. Urban, I look upon the Dissenters' form of worship as bordering, in some degree, on that of the Roman Catholick, in this respect of keeping the Congregation in continual ignorance of what their ministers are about to utter.

In consequence of their discarding every particular form of prayer in their service, they are completely at the mercy of their minister as to the words and subjects of their prayer, without it being possible to know (till the minister has uttered it) the tenor or purport of any sentence of to accord their minds with the spirit it; consequently they must be unable of the prayer to such a degree of certainty as they would if they had a form of prayer to go through; for one mind may be bent upon humbling itself before the Divine Presence, imploring forgiveness for some particular sin, at the same instant that apother may be fervently bent upon offering up a thanksgiving for some particular blessing experienced, when, at that very moment, their minds are baulked (if I may use the expressjon), or called off to a prayer then offered up by the minister for the welfare of the Nation, or some other such general subject; whereas, had they a written form (as the Established Church has), they would be able to attune their minds to each prayer in succession.

I know it has been argued that, by repeating forms of prayer so continually, minds of men become so habituated to them, that they utter them mechanically, without even thinking or knowing what they utter. That such is too often the case, is to be regretted; but that cannot apply to those who have a true sense of our religion, and who seriously feel their aweful situation when so immediately throwing themselves into the presence of their Maker; besides, what may

be applied against the form of prayer

ing that read or explained too often ;
which, I am sure, no Christian will al-
Yours, &c.
M. L.
low.

(as to their being treated with indifference through continual use) will -certainly apply to the Bible, by hav-,

Mr. URBAN,

YOUR

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Feb. 4. YOUR Correspondent Lancashire (vol. LXXXIX. ii. p.602) may be assured that the most effectual way of producing fine short green grass is, the keeping of sheep on the land, and in winter feeding them with bay aud turnips. A cow pasture will probably be the richer field of the two; but it will be tufty; for I think the cow rather than the ewe avoids "The green sour ringlet, Whereof the superstitious ewe not bites." If grass-land has been originally very ill laid away, unless it is of so small an extent that it may be called a grass-plot, perhaps the eud will be sooner attained by ploughing it up,and with or without a crop, sowing it with attention merely to cleanliness, away with white clover and Dutch or hop clover (for the large red clover is not permanent) and rye grass, or any

other favourite fashionable grass. I presume your Correspondent's fields are covered with long white grass, as the Scotch poet says,

"The windle strae,

Sae limber and gray

Did shiver beneath their tread;" but if the land is wet, no remedy will be effectual previous to draining, and for real sound draining the cuts must be deep, and reach the fountain head, not such shallow things as may be disturbed by mould warps, or the operation of frost, &c.

All sorts of manure may be applied to old bad hidebound grass without effect, and yet, except in trusty hands, the plough is a dangerous experiment; if Lancashire's land is dry and sound, the safest choice will be to winterfeed sheep with plenty of turnips.

Bone manure, it is well-known, may be procured in the vicinity of large towns; there are mills for the purpose, but the bones may be very beneficially broken grossly by the hand. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

R. S.

Feb. 8.

PERMIT me to correct an error,

into which your able Correspondent BYRO has fallen, in inserting Lord Grey de Wilton among the na

1820.] Lord Grey de Wilton.-On British Coinage.

tives of Bucks. The following in
scription, copied from his monument
at Whaddon, may perhaps be consi-
dered by your Readers as satisfactory
evidence; although one Correspond
ent seems inclined not to place any
credit upon epitaphs. Fuller, how-
ever, whom I presume to have been
your Biographer's authority, was not
acquainted with Lord Grey.
"To the Glorie of the God of Hostes.

“Here under resteth Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, borne at Hames in France, who from his youth trained upp under his father the Lord W. Grey in militarie affaires, served in Queen Marie's tyme at St. Quintin's and Guiennes, being then of th' age of XX yeares; here leaving his father prisoner, bee was dispatched into Scotland for the truice at Edinboroe; and after in Queene Elizabeth's tyme served under his father at Leete +: lastly, he was implied L. Deputie into Ireland, and there he defeated the Spanish fort at Smerwick, rooted out the traytors of the English pale,

and subdued the rebells in the rest of all

the provinces, and having governed there about twoo years, retourued into England, and died at Whaddon the 14th of October 1593, in the 57th yeare of his age."

The latter part of this inscription confutes a note in Smeeton's re-publication of Clarke's "England's Remembrancer," which state, that Lord Grey "died at his residence in Tothill-street, Westminster."

If one name is substracted from the list of eminent natives, there are a few others not yet noticed by Byro: the two following may suffice for the present:

John Forster, author of "EngJand's Happiness promoted by a Plantation of Potatoes," dedicated to King Charles II. 1664, 4to. Hanslage, 1626, died 1693.

Margaret Andrewes, "A Virgin and a Saint," Lathbury 1667, died 1680. LATHBURIENSIS.

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227

the present state of our Coinage have given rise to some reflections in my mind on the same subject, which perhaps you will allow me to submit to your Readers through the medium of your Magazine.

The absence of historical devices from the issues of the modern mint, and especially from those of Great Britain, has been frequently noticed aud lamented. Indeed it is the more to

be deplored, as the late extensive coinage afforded an illustrious opportunity of remedying the defect, which every friend to the real glory of his country must be sorry to have seen altogether neglected. Instead of reverses that would have tended to memorialize the events of the past reign (one of the most remarkable of those which are recorded in the page of history) we are presented with the perpetual recurrence of the Royal arms, enclosed indeed, on the halfcrown pieces, within the collar of the Garter, but exhibiting no other material variety.

To this monotonous appearance the sovereigns and crown-pieces do indeed present some contrast-but the George and Dragon, which occupy the field on the reverses of the latter, bear a greater resemblance to a Perseus or Bellerophon after the antique, than to the tutelary Saint of Britain. A representation of that admirable specimen of modern architecture, the Waterloo Bridge, would bave formed a more interesting device-and, accompanied by such a motto as GALLI DEVICTI, would have recorded one of the most illustrions events of modern history, as well as the form of one of our finest edifices: the date of the battle might have appeared in the exergue. The venerable British Oak would have been equally ornamental, and an excellent companion to the Palm of Judea and the Silphin of Cyrene.

It is well known that the admirable suggestions contained in the 96th pa per of the Guardian gave rise to

*This William Lord Grey was obliged to ransom himself by the sale of the best part of his patrimony, Wilton Castle, Lathbury, &c.

+ Leith, where he was wounded in the shoulder.

Tothill-street, though now one of the most low parts of the metropolis, has a strong claim to notice; it is the birth-place of Betterton; and in its vicinity, if not upon the very site, the celebrated John Mansel, Ld. Chancellor to Hen. III. feasted that Monarch, with Alexander King of Scotland and Margaret his Queen, in 1256, ́ ́§ See her "Life," and Dr. Gibbons's "Pious Women,"

those

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these wonders of modern coinage, the farthings of Queen Anne, which, as Pinkerton truly remarks in his Essay on Coins and Medals," will do honour to the engraver, Mr. Croker, to the end of time."

I am not so sanguine or presumptuous as to imagine that any remarks of mine will lead to a similar result, however desirable. Still I cannot help indulging a faint hope that the attention of our Government will in process of time be directed to this object, and redeem the character of our national coinage from the reproach of poverty of invention, under which it so justly labours at present, and which is by no means attributable to any want of talent to execute such a design, as may be elearly proved by the inspection of Mudie's admirable series of medals, which are indeed an honour to any age, and an ornament to any cabinet-but which, not being intended for circulation, cannot hereafter be referred to as examples of numismatic excellence on the part of the directors of our mint, nor form what the coinage of a nation ought to exhibit, and what the wise policy of the Romans always contrived that theirs should be, an imperishable and universal record of national history.

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Mr. URBAN, Kellington, March 10.
Naddition to the list of living and

An Account of his Life and Writings may be seen in the Notes to Hutchinson's History of Cumberland.

Mr. Thomas Sanderson, a native also of Sebergham, has published a small volume of poems, many of which are very elegant. Mr. Sanderson was also the editor of Relph's Poems, lately published at Carlisle, and to which he annexed an account of his life, and a pastoral elegy ou his death. Mr. Sauderson is still living in a most beautiful rural situation upon the banks of the river Line in Cumberland.

Mr. Robert Anderson, another Cumberland poet, is still living in Carlisle. Some time ago he publish`ed a volume of poems, entitled “Cumberland Ballads." In these he accurately describes the manners and rustic sports of his native county, in its own dialect. Another edition, with considerable additions of this gentleman's poems, is about shortly to be published by subscription.

Mr. Robert Carlisle, a native of Carlisle, is still living. He has arrived at considerable eminence as a Painter; and is no less celebrated as a votary of the Muses. He has published several detached poems. Mr. Carlisle, if memory does not deceive me, is also author of two Novels, "The Rose of Cumberland," and "The Heir of Gilsland."

The late Miss Susan Blamire, of Thuckwood-nook, near Carlisle, from appears to what I have seen of her compositions,

last Supplement, p. 595, I would wish very superior rank. I am not con-
to subjoin the Rev. Francis Wrang-scious that any of her works were
ham, 1790; and a few more names
of persons, who, though their poems
are, many of them, written in a pro-
vincial dialect, are by no means un-
worthy of a place in a catalogue of
British Poets.

The first candidate I shall propose for this honour is the late Rev. Josiah Relph, for some time perpetual Curate of Sebergham, a small rural village situated near Carlisle. His poe tical works were first published shortly after his death, under the superintendance of the Rev. T. Denton, of Ashted in Surrey. Mr. Denton, I have been informed, was also himself a poet. A second edition was also published a few years ago at Carlisle. The chief and best of them are Pastorals, written in the dialect of his native county (Cumberland).

ever published: neither am I certain,
(not having the book at hand to re-
fer to) whether any account of her
life is given in Hutchinson's Cumber-
land. The following copy of verses,
written by her when in a declining
state of health, and which is the only
one which I have at present in my
possession, may, perhaps, amuse some
of your Readers.

"How sweet to the heart is the thought of
To-morrow,
[display;
When Hope's fairy pictures bright colours
How sweet, when we can from futurity
[day!

borrow

A balm for the grief that afflicts us toWhen wearisome sickness has taught me to languish [its wing,

For health and the comforts it bears on Let me hope, oh! how soon would it lessen my anguish, [bring. That To morrow will ease and serenity When

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