the Oifter-hills; but neither thefe nor Kingsbury could we vifit. But return ing to the mill in the valley between the abbey and the old town, we croffed the fields to the remains of Sopewell Nunnery. Our converfation chiefly turned upon the amazing ength which ancient Verulam poffe fled, and on the heroic valour of the British Queen, Boadicea, who had cousafe to attack, and the fortune to conquer, fuch a strong town, when defended even by Roman veterans. The converfation, on a spot fo interesting, helped us on our road to Sopewell. This nunnery was founded about 1140, by Geoffrey, abbot of St. Albans. Its ruins are not very confiderable, and in themselves by no means picturelque, having little but the skeletons of a few old windows. In the chapel of this house Henry the eighth is faid to have been married to Anne B leyn; and it was the ipor afterwards inhabited by Nell Gwyn. The wall which once furrounded the adjoining grounds, and reaches to the London road, was erected by Sir Richard Lee, to whom the fite of the monastery had been granted by Henry the eighth. The ruins are of brick and flint. From Sopewell we returned to dinner at St. Albans, and afterwards took another walk to Verulam. Verulam is believed by most writers to have been the town of Caffivellaun attacked by Cæfar. The town which Cæfar took was fortified with fens and woods; and the fenny condition of St. Albans, till 950, when the mire in the meadows, already mentroned, was dried up by Abbot Elfric, is well known. The British coin mentioned by Camden, with an horfe and TASCIA, or tax, on one fide, and VER upon the other, is not improbably referred hereto; and it receives countenance from a unique coin of the fame period lately in the poffeffion of Mr. Clayton Cracherode, which had, on one fide, the figure of a bull, and on the other, at full length, V.E.R.L.A.M.I.O. London, at the time we are speaking of, was not fo confiderable as Verulam, though both towns are spoken of as remarkable places in the reign of Nero. And Tacitus, who gives an account of the revolting Britons under Boadicea, in the year 61, particularly mentions the laughter of no less than 70,000 at London and Verulamium. Verulam is called a municipium; and of London he lays, that it was famous for trade and navigation, though not honoured with the name of a colony. By this hint in Tacitus, Verulam appears to have been the more ancient of the two, and, in Cæfar's time, was, very probably, the most flourishing place. Camden thought that the name of Caffii, a body of Caffivellaun's fubjects, was still retained in Caibo hundred, in which Verulam is fituated. Ptolemy, the geographer, calls it Urolanium. The only object which remained to attract our notice on the road to town was the pillar near Glacefmere heath, hy Hadley. It was erected by Sir Jeremy Sambrooke, in 1740; and commemorates. the fecond battle which was fought in this neighbourhood between the Yorkifts and Lancaftrians. J. To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. SIR, WAS much entertained with Nicholai's Memoir on the Appearance of Spectres, which is published in the 23d number of Mr. Nicholfon's Journal; and as many people are pleafed with the marvellous, I lent it to fome of my friends. A lady, on returning the book, informed me that the faw nothing extraordinary in Nicholai's relation, that the herfelf had feen phantoms of this kind, fome of which the ftill remembered. At one time, when confined by ill health, fhe faw three old women dancing before her, in fuch a manner as caused her to laugh very hear tily, and to afk her attendants if they did not see the fame extraordinary spectacle. These phantoms were fucceeded by feftoons of the most beautiful flowers, which appeared to be cut out of now-white ivory, in the most exquifite manner: but thele fpectres fhe knew at the time to be nothing more than the effects either of difeafe or of a camphorated medicine which fhe had taken. A phyfician, who had seen Nicholai's Memoir on Spectres, told me very gravely, that he faw ́nothing in it that was new to him; for it is a matter commonly known to gentlemen in the practice of medicine, that tick people frequently fee phantoms of this defcription. Hence it appears, that the fpe&tres occafioned by difeafe are nothing more than waking dreams, and have no more connection with the known laws of optics, than the phantoms which we fee in a profound fleep. I am, Sir, 21ft Dec. 1803. R 2 Your's, &c. Z. W. POPU THE POPULATION ACT. As the refults of the late A&t for afcertaining the Population of Great Britain have not yet appeared before the Public in any form, except in the volumes printed by order of the Houfe of Commons, of which no more were taken off than fupplied the Members of both Houses, and certain Officers of State, we propose to prefent the whole of those refults to the Readers of the Monthly Magazine. Concordia amicabilis five Compofitio [After particularifing the joint intereft which they are to take in lawfuits, &c. it goes on thus:] "Promittimus infuper nos præpofiti, cuftodes, focii, ac fcholares omnes et finguli collegiorum prædictorum, et ad hoc nos et fucceffores noftros quofcunque efficaciter obligamus, quod confilia, favores, et auxilia hujusmodi, ficut et prout, ac quoties opus fuerit, & fuper his, feu ad ea congrui requifiti fuerimus, feu requifi ti fuerint, alterutrim impendemus, et impendent, snpendent, ad quod nos invicem præfentis noftri confenfus et promiffi vigore, ac in virtute facramenti, per fingulos noftrum dictis collegiis feu eorum alicui fingulariter præftiti, feu præftandi, volumus nos arctius teneri ; ut fic di&ta collegia mutua fe gaudeant defenfione munita, quæ in no mine conformitas et (annuente Domino) mutuæ ac perpetuæ charitatis, integritas decorabunt; nolentes, quod aliquis de col legiis fupradictis prætextu alicujus laboris feu favoris impenfi, in cafibus hujufmodi, quicquam præter expenfas rationabiles ac neceffarias exigat quovifmodo." CXLII. MR. CRADOC'S EURIPIDES. Mr. Cradoc, formerly of Emanuel, and now of Gumly-hall, in Leicestershire, a gentleman of much claffical taste, and who poffeffes a very curious and valuable library, has John Milton's copy of Euripides. Milton, though in fome refpects an undutiful fon, is ftill a favourite with alma mater, (as froward children are fometimes darlings with fond mothers ;) and Euripides is known to have been the favourite Greek bard of Milton: a short account, therefore, of this literary curiofity will not be out of place. We acknowledge our obligations to Mr. Cradoc for his condefcenfion in indulging us with the perufal of thefe volumes. The edition is that of Paulus Stephanus, in two volumes, printed in 1602, containing the old Scholia, and the comments of more modern critics. Prefixed to it, in Milton's handwriting, is "John Milton, pre. 12s. 6d. 1634 ;" and in the hand-writing of Dr, Birch, whofe property it was before it came into the hands of the prefent poffeffor, a fhort account, intimating that it had formerly been Dr. Hare's. This, at leaft, may be collected from thefe volumes, that Milton had read his author throughout, text, notes, and comments, with great attention and much critical skill; the margin being marked with amendments of the text, improvements of the Latin tranflation, and fome corrections more immediately in reference to the metre. The notes, indeed, are not very numerous, but are of fufficient confequence to give a character to the voJumes, and to have juftified Joshua Barnes, who had perufed them, in reckoning Milton among the critics to whom his edition is indebted. It may be, therefore, thought by fome, that Dr. Johnson, who had just feen them, fpoke not fufficiently like a critic în faying "The mar gin is fometimes noted, but I found nothing remarkable," Joshua Barnes, when he adopts Milton's readings or notes, generally acknowledges them; but one or two remarkably good readings have been adopted, unacknowledged by that editor, as hath been noticed by Mr. Joddrell, and pointed out to us by a learned perfon particularly converfant in Euripides. The notes are in Milton's hand-writing, (with the exception of two or three, which feem in another hand, and to have been written fince the time of Milton.) There are alfo various marks, defigned to point. out riking paffages, probabiy for imitation. CXLIII. TRANSLATION of a LATIN We have few more pleafing and elegans works than Mafon's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Gray. The following Latin lines are extracted from it, for the fake of accompanying them with an original tranflation; which, though far inferior to the Latin, may, probably, be read with indulgence, though not with approbation, by the English reader. The merit of this elegant ode confifts in its calm feriousness, and in its adaptation to the history, as well as fcenery, of the place. The long parenthefis, however, in a larger poem, would have been no beauty, and in fo fmall a one is a blemish. This blemish we have guarded against in the translation. Oh! tu, feveri Religio loci, Quocunque gaudes nomine (non leve Nativa nam certe fluenta Numen habet, veterefq: fylvas; Præfentiorem et confpicimus Deum Per invias rupes, fera per juga, Clivofq: præruptos, fonantes Inter aquas, nemorumq: noctem Quam fi repoftus fub trabe citrea Fulgeret auro, et Phidiacâ manu) Salve vocanti rite, feffo et Da placidam juveni quietem. Quod fi invidendis fedibus, et frui Fortuna facrâ lege filentii Vetat volentem, me reforbens In medios violenta fluctus, Saltem remoto des, pater, angulo Horas feneétæ ducere liberas, Tutumq: vulgari tumultu Surripias hominumq; curis. Tranflation: Thou Genius of this awful place, -Whate'er, unknown to me, thy name Thee 'mid thy native streams I trace, Thee do these ancient woods proclaim! *. La Grande Chartreuse. Ah! |