age in the 12th of Henry VI., and was certified, with his father, among the gentlemen of the county of Derby, who, pursuant to an act of parliament, took oath for the observance of the laws for themselves and their retainers. Henry, the fourth son of the above-mentioned John Parker, was groom of the chamber to Henry VIII. Thomas Parker, second son to the same Henry, married a Parker of his own family: he had three sons, the second of which was situated at Nether-Lees. Is there such a place so called in the vicinity, or nearer to Norton, than Norton-Lees? In the public records there is no further mention of the Parkers as a family of consideration residing in the north of Derbyshire; but in the first of George I., one of its descendants, the son of an attorney at Leek in Staffordshire, was elevated by his forensic talents to the chancellorship and subsequently to the dignity of an Earl, a circumstance conferring more ostensible distinction upon a family whose previous claims to respectable antiquity were already established. But it appears strange to one who considers such lineal claims as conferring no less honour, that the Earl of Macclesfield should not have founded his newraised dignity upon the superstructure of his ancestorial consequence, and have revived the name of the heiress to whom they owed the possession of the estates at Norton-Lees, and whose name, as is the fate of those families whose possessions descend to daughters, become obscured or lost in that which they have enriched: but perhaps Baron de Gothem might have been too sapient a designation even for a Chancellor of Great-Britain! The old house, which has given rise to this paper yet stands, as faithfully delineated by Mr. Blore, and probably thus stood when Sheffield itself was but a hamlet in the shire of Hallam. The floors of its upper rooms are no less curious than its exterior, being large and thick planks of timber bedded in mortar. The long range window in its principal apartment, so curiously formed of the dimunitive lozenge, deserves delineation, or a more certain preservation than its brittle material can ensure. With that consideration, by which our forefathers attended to the warmth and comfort of their habitations, the front faces a rising hill, whilst from the north it was sheltered by trees, whose junior descendants now form a fine colonnade that protects the venerable building and crowns the elevation on which it stands: from the west winds that prevail so much in this country, the huge barns were a strong barrier; on the east, an antique yew, yet standing, was one perhaps of many more, that formed the ornamental shade of the place. Thus guarded on all sides, and warmed within by the immense fires that the abundance of fuel supplied, and the large hearths and wide chimnies admitted, the original inhabitant felt not the seasons' difference, and there scarcely can b ea more curious contrast than what their domestic economy and habits presented, to those of their descendants; children of the same fathers, country, and climate, not differing more than the summer-houses now built by them, and the substantial halls of their forefathers. Ere another generation is gone by, even these their last relics will disappear. Such are the fashions of this world -such the fate of its children! Sheffield, April 21, 1818. M. M. M. and THE customs and manners of nations, as well as their laws and institutions, having arisen from climate, religion, and other causes, or at least being much affected by them, producing the variety which we see established on the face. of the earth; it is one of the most amusing results of the study of history to observe the occasional similarity of contrivance adopted by man in different countries, and in different ages, to attain his object, whether it be for the ac complishment of his interest, or the gratification of his more malignant passions. The following tests of Nationality, or proofs of Alienism, have occurred to me, and may afford amusement to your readers: We find in the book of Judges, (ch. xii.) that the men of Gilead were accused by those of Ephraim, of being fugitives from them. "And the Gile. adites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites, and it was so that when those which escaped, said, Let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said nay, then said they unto him, say now Shibboleth: and he said, Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan." In Dow's History of Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 69, we read, that Mahommed IV. having taken the city of Delhi, and ascended the imperial throne, A.D. 1390," ordered the elephants belonging to the slaves of Ferose, to be taken from them, and converted to his own use. Enraged at this injustice, they fled the city and joined his opponent. Mahommed upon this desertion, turned out a few who remained, ordering them on pain of death never to appear in the city. Many slaves, unwilling to leave Delhi, concealed them, selves: a search was ordered to be made, and such as were found were massacred. Some of these poor wretches upon this occasion, cried out for .mercy, affirming that they were originally Tartars. They were, upon this, ordered to pronounce the word "Gurragurri," by which they were imme, diately distinguished. All who sounded it with the accent of Hindostan were put to death." It is a curious coincidence that about the same time the city of London hould be disgraced by the commission of a similar atrocity. In the reign of Richard II. A.D. 1381, during the rebellion, the forces of Wat Tyler having entered the city of London, beheaded Richard Lyons, an eminent goldsmith and late sheriff, and having burnt and plundered the houses of the foreign merchants, they convicted them of alienism by making them repeat the words "bread and cheese," which they unhappily pronouncing with a transmarine accent, their deaths were inevitable,--Stow Iti. and Andrew's History of Great-Britain. vol. i. p. 396. 4to. Similar instances may be found in Rabelais lib. 5. c. 19,—and in Bodin. Rep. lib. 5. c.1. EUPHRASTUS, A TABLE OF ALL THE BATTLES THAT HAVE BEEN FOUGHT IN GREAT-BRITAIN, From the first landing of Julius Caesar, to the present day. Between whom the Battles were fought. The Victors, Killed. The Britons and Romans under Julius Cæsar. Romans. 46 In Oxfordshire. The Britons under Cassibelaunus & the Rom. Casibelann. Jul. Cæsar. The Britons under Cingetorix and the Romans Romans. The Britons under Caractacus, and the Ro-Plautius. 46 In Buckinghamshire The Britons under Togodumnus, and the Ro-Plautius. mans under Plautius. 47 Banks of the Thames The Britons under Caractacus, and the Ro-Vespasian. in Surrey. mans under Vespasian. in Worcestershire. 58 Isle of Anglesea. 61 Malden. 61 In Essex. 61 St. Albans. 61 In Surrey. 69 In Yorkshire. 78 In North Wales. 83 In Scotland. The Britons and Romans under Manlius Valens Ditto. Venutius and Cerealis. 70000 Dit to. The Ordovices & Romans und. JuliusAgricola Agricola. 84 OntheGrampian Hills Ditto. Ditto. The Caledonians & Romans under Antonius. Caledonia. The Caledonians and Romans under Gallio. Gallio. 10350 Scots& Piets 455 Ailsford 478 In Sussex. 489 Mexborough Ings. 495 In the West of Engd. The Britons under Ambrosius, and the Saxons Ambrosius. Cerdic. 520 Marshfield. Kenwal, King of Wessex, and his subjects, Kenwal, Kenwal, and Wulphur, King of Mercia, Ditto. Scots & Pict Ditto. Alfred, King of Northumb. and his subjects, Insurgents. Cuthred, King of Wessex, and his subjects Cuthred. Ethalbald, King of Mercia, and Edelhun, Edelhun. 757 Bessington, Oxford. Kinewolf, K. of Wessex, and Offa, K. of Mercia Offa. The Lows and Barrows, that so frequently occur in this now cheerless and denuded district, may probably justify the supposition, that it was once inhabited by a more numerous population, and that these naked hills and barren moors have heretofore been fertile places, a conjecture which may require more particular attention, when traversing those parts of Derbyshire, where these burial places of the earliest ages are more frequently found. The road from the summit of the East-Moor is carried with a gentle descent along the brow of the hill to a steep rocky knoll, which may be regarded as the commencement of that lofty ridge of mountains denominated Froggat Edge: thence it proceeds to Stoney Middleton, after first crossing the Derwent, near the village of Calver. The view from this rocky elevation, in grandeur and sublimity, is unsurpassed in Derbyshire: indeed it would be difficult to find in one short mile of road, in any other part of the kingdom, a succession of scenery more richly and beautifully varied than is here presented? The hills, which form the car pacious dale of the Derwent, even when individually considered, are noble objects; they are beautiful in outline, and, in connexion with each other, they exhibit all the grace and majesty which rock, and wood, and heath, and verdure, can possibly possess, when spread over a long chain of hills, sometimes rising boldly and abruptly into lofty and magnificent masses, at others declining into easy dales. The banks of the Derwent, from Stoke upwards, and throughont the whole of its windings, as far as the eye can trace its course, is every where luxuriantly wooded. On one side of the river the highest eminences are turreted with broken craggs of rock, which is the grand marking feature of every lofty projection from Froggat to Mill-stone Edge, and from thence to the vicinity of Hathersage, beyond which the blue misty hills of the Peak present a succession of faint and, shadowy outline, scarcely distinguishable from the clouds of heaven, of which they appear to form a part. He who undertakes, in passing through a country, to describe the scenes he admires, and who hopes to excite a correspondent picture in the minds of his readers, will often have to lament, the inefficiency of the means he is under the necessity of employing. The pencil, by an accurate delineation of forms, may speak to the eye, and the canvas may glow with the vivid tints of nature; but it is not through the medium of words, with whatever felicity they may be selected and combined, that an adequate idea of the finest fea ures of a landscape can be communicated. The language of description is likewise so very confined, and it phrases so extremely few, that similar appearances will often suggest a similarity of expression; hence the choicest terms become tireseme from repetition, and the impression they produce faint and imperfect. Geology of Derbyshire. No part of the kingdom is better calculated to facilitate the study of mineralogy, and geology, than the Peak of Derbyshire: it is here that nature, in a peculiar way, lays bare her operations. The various strata here exhi bited, in some places highly elevated, in others greatly depressed and broken into rents and chasms, by frequent dislocations, unfold the interior formation of the earth we inhabit, and carry the mind back to that era of time |