Spensers, Montagues, Bruces, Finches, Herberts, Bagots, Herons, Mallets, Sackvilles, Tracys, are also deserving of notice.

nan are branched from the Earls of Carrick. Certain it is, that King David II. made a grant of the castle and barony of Clackmanan, to Robert Bruce, "dilecto consanguineo suo." There seems no sufficient evidence of the existence of John Bruce, a younger uncle of King Robert, from whom Collins deduces the present family.

XXIX. There seems to be a considerable probability that the Finches are descended from the baronial family of Fitzherbert, recorded by Dugdale, who slightly mentions the report that the Herberts, Earls of Pembroke, are also so descended.

XXX. The family of Bagot, now peers, do not come strictly within this line; but Hervei Bagot, a younger branch of this family, was of sufficient consequence in the reign of Hen. III. to have married the heiress of Robert Lord Stafford, which name his posterity took, and continued that illustrious family, who became afterwards Dukes of Buckingham, &c.

XXXI. The family of Heron of Chipchase in Northum berland, made Baronets in 1662, and but lately extinct, seem to have been an undoubted branch of the family recorded by Dugdale.

XXXII. The Mallets of Enmore in Somersetshire (whose coheiress married John Wilmot, the celebrated Earl of Roches ter, in the time of Charles II.) were undoubtedly of the same family with William Mallet, Baron of Eye, Co. Suff. &c. And if Collinson, in his History of Somersetshire, be accurate, (as he appears in this case to be) from hence is derived Sir Charles Warre Mallet, lately resident in India, created a Baronet Feb. 12, 1791, being son of the Rev. Alexander Mallet, Rector of Combe-Fiory, and Preb. of Gloucester, who is stated to be

But though so few have continued in an unbroken male succession to the present, or even to Dugdale's days, yet many more have, through heirs female, laid the foundation of that greatness which families derived from them enjoy. Thus the accumulated honours and property of the great houses of Albini, Moubray, Fitzalan, Warren, &c. have been derived to the splendid family of Howard. Upon the vast feudal property, and noble family, of the families of Tony and Ros, are founded the -ducal family of Manners. Through the Ferrerses and Greys of Groby, the great family of Devereux rose into such importance-and through the Devereuxes the Shirleys-through the Neviles, the

the direct descendant of Richard Malet of St. Audries, by Joane daughter of Richard Warre of Hestercombe, grandson of Baldwin Malet of Curry-poole, solicitor to Hen. VIII. 2d son of Thomas Malet of Enmore, 1498. (Coll. Hist. Som. I. 93.)

XXXIII. According to Collins, Jordan de Sauckville, (collateral ancestor to the Dorset family) is mentioned in a charter of Rich. I. in the Cotton Collections, to be a Baron; and his brother Richard the same. They were at any rate a very considerable family at this time, as the Black Book of the Exchequer, and other cotemporary evidences prove. They occur in Ordericus Vitalis, as of consequence in Normandy, before the conquest.

XXXIV. Tracy of Todington, Co. Glouc. who, it seems satisfactorily proved, were derived from a younger son of Sudeley of Sudely. They were Irish Viscounts, and are very lately extinct.

Fanes-through the family of Chandos, that of Bridges through the Beauchamps, the Greviles through the Audleys, the Touchets through the Someries, the Suttons, Dudleys, and Wardsthrough the St. Johns (or Ports) the Powlets of Hampshire-through the Despencers, and Neviles, Sir Thomas Stapleton, now a Peer-through the Clintons, Trefusis, now a Peer-through the Cliffords, the Southwells-through the Greys of Wilton, Sir Thomas Egerton, now a peer, by creation. And the Stanleys were augmented by the Stranges of Knockyn-while a great proportion of the estates and some of the honours of the powerful family of Percy are inherited by the heir general, the present Duke of Northumberland: and the blood (and sometimes even part of the property) of by much the largest number of these families, whom Dugdale has recorded in his first volume, has descended by the female line among our nobility and most ancient gentry.

Nov. 2, 1807.

1799.

N° XIX.

On the conduct of the Censura Literaria.

TO THE RUMINATOR.

'SIR,

As I have never yet corresponded with you, I ought perhaps still to have waited till I had something more important to communicate. But as there is no end to procrastination, I embrace the impulse of the moment to send you a paper of scraps and miscellaneous remarks. When a man wanders about in the circles of literature without design, or particular occupation, he hears such jarring opinions, and contradictory dogmas, as to produce nothing but confusion in a mind that is not well-poised. I have for instance heard such opposite judgments regarding the line of conduct which your work ought to pursue, that, if I had not habituated myself to a slow admission of the most plausible sentiments, I should have changed my ideas almost every day. I shall not give way to the observations I could make either on those who would admit nothing but black-letter, and the rarest books; or on those who will endure nothing

but modern matter. It would be easy to indulge some just sarcasm on both; but I forbear. The truth is, Sir, that wisdom and genius depend not on ancient or modern phraseology. The narrow mind, which confines them to either, deserves a name, which I will not give it.

All the fashionable artifices of writing, which the mob cannot distinguish from real merit, are the meteors of a day. Genius shines with a steady light through the mists and disguises of time. Conversant as your pursuits must make you, not only with those productions which have survived the wreck of ages, but with those works, which, though now forgotten, possessed a temporary reputation, you would do well to exert those critical powers, which I fear you are too apt to neglect, în analysing the qualities, which have tended to insure a permanent favour. Do not put yourself on a par with collectors, who waste their time and money in running after what is merely rare! You well know, that, in nine cases out of ten, its rarity arises from its want of merit!

With regard to your Essays, I hear it remarked, that they are not sufficiently confined to subjects of literature; or of a nature sufficiently consonant with the primary purpose of your work. And I must admit that there is some justice in the remark. Yet I endeavour to plead for you, that these cen