Naturalist and benevolent Physician, Dr. Richard Pulteney, F. R. S. and F. L. S." "As each Volume may be considered a complete and independent Work, so far as relates to the several Hundreds described in it; it is presumed that the Third and Fourth may be found interesting to many Gentlemen, either resident in DORSETSHIRE, or having Property in the County, who do not actually possess the First and Second; and more particularly so to those who have the original Edition of 1774, which the present one by no means supersedes, as, from the great increase of materials collected with indefatigable industry by Mr. GoUGH, it contains more than double the Quantity both of Letterpress and Plates, and may therefore be considered, in some degree, a new Work, without which no Public Library, or Private Topographical Collection, can be complete.

P. S. Allow me, Mr. URBAN, to state to my Friends in LEICESTERSHIRE, that I have the fairest Prospect of completing the History of that County before Midsummer, having only Three Parishes at this time remaining to prepare for the press; and that any material Corrections in the former Parts will be thankfully received, if sent not later than the beginning of May. J. N.

ARCHITECTURAL INNQUATION.
No. CLIII,

(The Continuation of the Progress of

Architecture is deferred.)

BEING much amused tons that the

with the information that the Temple Church was under the hands of repairers, restorers, and beautifiers, I hastened to the spot on Sunday last, (Jan. 27) as the Church was then opened" (as it it is called), for Divine Service. My curiosity was quick ened, it being excited by the wish of some respectable friends that I should give my opinion on what professional operations had therein taken place.

After referring to my regular Survey of this Church in the year 1808, in its then state (Vol. LXXVIII. p. 997), I shall concisely state particulars, as follows:

West Front. Nothing done but gil painting the lower story, and yellow washing the upper ditto. Not one of the odious Wrenean overlayings of door-ways, windows, entablature, and scroll-shores, discarded, in order to bring out to view the original decorations on the walls, as is yet to be

Interior. The Nave. The boxes hiding the lower halves of the clusters of columns in the centre of the nave, taken away. The bases of these columus, consequently mutilated by such coverings, have been restored, not with an eyete the architecture of the Church, or to the various bases running round the circular side aile, but to some of Batty Langley's or Gibbs's Five Orders of Roman and Grecian Architecture. This masonic sinning is glaring in the hollow and fillet im mediately proceeding from the shaft of the column. In the spandrels of

the arches to the dado in side aile, are a succession of costumic heads; two of them modernised, by a very zealous copy from two cherubims heads, (Wrenean school), on a mural monument, date 16. stuck against the clusters at the South East turn of the circle. The lower parts of the walls, columns, &c., oil painted, and the upper lines washed with stone colour, and grey tints. This tinting is the modern mode of finishing common apartments, stair-cases, &c. The three grand arches entering from the nave to the choir stopped up; the centre one by the organ (as in 1808), and the other two filled with lath and plaster, or some other the like materials. The three apertures for admission into the choir, left as in 1808.

What an excellent opportunity is here lost to give to this most admiras ble building its original scenic effect, whereby the lines might be on view uninterrupted from West to East! A monstrous Stentorian Organ that is performed upon, without due cho raf accompaniments, darkens and precludes communication from the lengthened aile, in one principal centrical part of the edifice; as doth an enormous and grotesque Wrenéan pulpit, from the eye of devotion, an other important spot, anciently, so arranged

arranged as to give the grand lineal finish to the whole interior. But what gross errors will not professional men fall into, when fashion, or the taste of the day, drives them on, even in the face of such cha te and elegant architectural objects as every where present themselves within these sacred walls! If I am told of the Goths and Vandals of a remote" dark age," tell me also of the Goths and Vandals of the present enlightened age!" The features of the choir remain as in 1808, except that they have been oil painted, and washed in stone and grey tints, and the ornamented bosses in the groins and small bustos at the Eastern end above the window gilded. The recumbent statues of the knights in the nave, untouched; the tomb of the bishop on the South side of the choir has in part escaped; the housepainters' brush has only daubed the tomb, and the canopy over the statue, The rest of the monuments, set up during the course of the two last centuries, have been repainted, gilded, and varnished.

On leaving the Church, a friend conducted me to the

INNER TEMPLE HALL; Of which, externally, little of the original lines exist, the walls themselves having been altered and cased with modern decorations, Internally, the outline of the room to all appearance has not been trenched upon; and those particular parts of the first construction yet visible are timber arches, portioning the length of the design into six large divisions: the rest of the framing for the open, worked roof, appropriate to halls, is either destroyed or hid, as the space from arch to arch is filled with a frame of painted square panuels, containing flowers, in the style of 1760. The arches themselves tell the time of Henry VII. when, no doubt, the hall was erected. The original corbels from whence the arches sprung are also lost, or overlaid by the fantastic. ornaments of James I.'s reign. The screen, notwithstanding the date 1680 embossed upon it, is evidently carpenter's work of the date 1760 also.

Immediately succeeding the West end of the Hall, is a most curious and uncommon construction of two stories of crypts, or arched chambers, in two divisions each; these are beyond a doubt in their style of work coeval

with the Church. The first division of each crypt contains more minute masonic lines than the succeeding ones. They are of the finest masoury, and in the most perfect condition. In the first division of the first story, a chim ney-piece, and over it a bracket formed by an angel bearing two shields of arms, have been introduced in the Tudor times. These crypts are used for offices, cellars, &c.

In considering these vestiges of Antiquity, it is more than probable many similar subjects yet stand within the precincts of the Temple to be explored; and as numerous Patrons of the Arts are supposed to dwell within the boundary, it would surely give high credit to their names if they were to order an immediate survey of each antient particular that may be encountered, in a general plan, branching from the church in all die rections. It cannot be doubted but much discovery in this way would be the result, gratifying to the publick, but more directly that association of learned men, whom Royal patronage has ennobled, and the general voice of Science so much applauded.

H. M. (Vol. LXXX. p. 510.) is assured that the paragraph he has quoted is a puff direct. This is not the first speculation of the kind that has appeared from a certain quarter in the Public Prints. These restorers may indeed hope for such a charming opportunity; but they can never seriously say to themselves, we shall reap a golden harvest in this way. The fallacy of the business may indeed be "found in a Vase" (a Roman utensil), or a nut-shell, but not explanatory drawings sufficient for such a professional enterprize: a Chest, or Chests (old English repositories for Rolls or Books, &c.) would have much better borne out the conceit. all know that working drawings needful on such an occasion would at least load an eight-horse waggon. But this

We

discovery" is a most ridiculous insinuation; for I presume there is not one Collector of Antiquities, who can produce the least architectural hint left by our ancestors towards aiding workmen in restoring the destroyed or mutilated lines of Westminster Abbey, to say nothing of the absolute necessity of large and explicit outlined drawings for such undertakings. J. Britton, some five or six years past,

with the Abbey work-people, announced,that they had obtained, somehow or other, all the original drawings for building Henry VII's chapel, which upon investigation turned out to be DO more than two small wretched outlines of two compartments in the interior, scrawled, it is supposed, some 90 or 100 years back. As to the "reappearance of the Saints in the niches," this can mean no more than a series of fancy figures, done by some modern Sculptor, familiarized in the Pagan, Roman, and Grecian schools; but who, from the turn of thinking at this day, it cannot be expected would strike out any thing partaking of the superstitious costume, such as undoubtedly characterized the statues once occupying the said niches.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

AN ARCHITECT.

Feb. 17.

HE following Arguments having relation to an important question now in agitation, which is also touched on in your last Magazine, I hope you will give them a permanent place in your Publication, though they have already appeared in a Provincial Newspaper. Yours, &c. .S. Y.

SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, AND HUSKISSON. It cannot be denied that one of the most important questions in Political Arithmetick which ever was agitated is the dispute regarding the excess and consequent depreciation of the paper currency of the Empire. The Report of the Bullion Committee has its strong advocates and its strong opponents: at the head of the former is Mr. Huskisson; of the latter, Sir John Sinclair. It was not till yesterday that I saw either of their pamphlets, and at the same time the Review of both in the Quarterly Review for November (No. 8).-I happened to read the Review first; aud laid it down with the impression that Sir John Sinclair's observations were among the most weak and ridiculous that were ever laid before the Publick. I yielded the more to this, because I already knew that the Baronet was not possessed of a good style; wanted accuracy of thought and compression of phrase; and was too much in the habit of putting forth jeJune and indigested matter. I doubted still if it was not a right cause, which he had brought into contempt by his manner of treating it.

But what was my astonishment when I came to the pamphlet itself? I found that every passage extracted in the criticism had been garbled and perverted

to an extent of which I know no other instance; and discovered it to be a production resulting from great knowledge and very comprehensive views, though deficient in elegance and precision of language.

What the object of the Reviewers may be in this most monstrous abuse of 'horse-play raillery I neither know nor care. Their work professed to commence on the basis of a necessary counterbalance to the democratic doctrines of the Edinburgh Criticks, promulgated with an ability which it required similar efforts to resist. But some of their own great encouragers have since, it seems, gone into violent opposition; and hence, perhaps, this change in themselves!

The pamphlet of Mr. Huskisson is very acute and very able. But I cannot admit it to be so triumphant and conclusive as he and his friends seem to feel it to be. In the first place he appears to take much too narrow a view this narrow basis he takes assumption of the subject; but even in establishing for proof; and if his foundation can be taken from him, or even brought into question, his whole superstructure must of course follow its fate.

The whole of his pamphlet is built on this, that the high price of Bullion is a proof of the depreciation of Bank Notes, He assumes it to be tantamount to a mathematical demonstration. Now, so far from a mathematical demonstration, this does appear to me, and to many others, to be an extremely doubtful point at least. Bullion seems like any other mercantile commodity, of which the price depends on the varying demand for it. The state of our trade, and the expenditure for our large armies and navies abroad, may have made the demand out of proportion to the supply, at a particular crisis; in which case the augmented price is caused by the scarcity of Bullion, not by the excess of Bank Notes. And here a question arises, whether, if they, who now are content with the substitute of Bank Notes, would not, without that substitute, raise this Bullion still higher by adding to the competition for it in the market?

An increase of the circulating medium to any extent is no proof of excess, in case the wealth of the Country has increased proportionally. Has it so increased in this Empire? I have a strong persuasion that it has. Wealth, and the representatives of wealth, whether coin or paper, must never be confounded. I mean, real wealth, population, manufactures, buildings, canals, shipping, commerce, agriculture, machinery. Can the vast increase, within thirteen years, of

any

any one of these be denied? What then must be the aggregate increase? And will any one pretend that this does not require a proportionate increase of currency to represent it?

But what if this increase of currency should have been one of its chief parents, if not its only parent, in defiance of wasting wars and interrupted commerce! I verily suspect that it has!--The great rise has taken place since the suspension of Bank Payments, and with a rapidity in proportion to the increased issue of Bank Paper! The precious metals must be acquired by the loss of equivalents; a well-regulated Paper Currency rises with, and is created by, the Improvements which cannot be carried on without its aid. How much more rapidly therefore, on this account, National Wealth may increase by the one way than by the other, need not be pointed out.

We must not argue from abuses, nor from minor evils; in every possible system these will arise. Annuitants, and those of fixed incomes, it is said, are placed in a cruel situation, by their being unable to obtain as much for their money as formerly. But if this arises, not from excess of currency, but from increase of the wealth, is it meant that

the augmentation of our national prosperity shall stop, that they may keep their relative place in the scale of riches ?—The truth is, that the Farmer now pays double and treble his old rent, not because Paper is depreciated, but because Agriculture is improved; because his products are augmented; and the demand for them more keen. It is pretended that our Paper is depreciated a sicth; this surely will not account for double and treble rents!

It is by our Financial System that we have been enabled to carry on for so many years the glorious and unexampled

contest with the Great Scourge of Mankind at so incredible an expence: a system which, if it was in part the consequence of our antecedent wealth, I suspect to have been equally the cause of our present wealth and strength.

It seems to be almost the sole secret by which we have supported without decay an Expenditure of which the tenth part would, 40 years ago, have created a National Bankruptcy!

Does it not become us therefore to pause, before we are induced, by light Theorists and narrow Reasoners, to touch

it is on this broad scale that he has argued the question) Sir John Sinclair has been treated as a driveller of the lowest cast. Such unjust and dishonest opprobrium shall not terrify me from adding my feeble voice to his on so incalculably important a question; for much more forcible and comprehensive arguments than any that they have yet produced are necessary to convince me I am in the wrong.

I regret that neither my time nor your paper allow me to enter more at length, and in a more methodical and dignified manner, on the various topicks of this great subject which occupy my mind. This is scribbled in the utmost haste, amongst a variety of other pressing occupations, both literary and private. The only excuse for this hurry is, that if I did not do it at this instant I should not do it at all: and polish of style and literary fame are out of the question in such a communication. A pure sense of the importance of the subject induces me thus to trouble you. S. Y. Feb. 11.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 18.

N the Histoire de la Reformation, &c. by J. de Beausobre, reference is frequently made to some Remarks which it was evidently in the Author's contemplation to affix to the work. Qu. were those Remarks ever printed? and, if they were, have they found their way into this country?

Dr. Currie, in his Edition of the Works of Robert Burns (vol. II. 2d edit. p. 176, note), speaks of "the beautiful Story of the Paria" being translated "in the Bee of Dr. An derson." Qu. in which of the volumes of the Bee may that story be

met with?