"And all the countrey North of the houses upon champaign sandy feilds belonging to Bradforde, very dry and pleasant for all kindes of recreation, huntinge, and hawkinge, and profitable for tillage.

"To the South and West, in the front of the house, is a riche deepe soil, where lyeth the pasture and meadow, and part of the arable, and the great coppice wood, in which there is a competent number of deere belonging to the demeasnes, into which there is a descent from the house, which standeth upon a very sandy hill ground, and hath a large prospect East, South, and West, over a very large and pleasant vale.

"This house is seated from the good markett townes of Sherborne three miles, Yeavell a mile, Ivelchester five miles, Cearne six miles, Crewkerne seven miles, Somerton eight miles, that plentifully yield all manner of provision, and within twelve miles of the South Sea."

The door of the gateway is somewhat similar to those which we see in the colleges of our Universities. It contains a small door within a larger one. These doors were anciently very common, and in the barbarous ages were certainly of very great utility. As the narrowness of the lesser door admitted the entrance of only one person at a time, and as the greater one was almost always kept fast, the porter, in case of an attack, might easily alarm the fa mily before a large body of men could rush in, and, in case the house was not taken by surprise, a few persons were capable of defending it. Erasmus, in his Colloquy intituled "Peregrinatio Religionis Ergo," describes a door of this kind which was to be seen in his time at the abbey of Walsingham, in Norfolk. I will give his own words :-" Ad latus septentrionale porta quædam est, non templi, ne quid erres, sed septi, quo tota clauditur area templo adjacens. Ea ostiolum habet perpusillum, quale videmus in valvis nobilium, ut qui velit ingredi, primum tibiam periculo exponere cogatur, deinde caput etiam submittat. Profecto tutum non erat ad hostem ingredi per tale ostiolum."

The chapel seems to have been built in the year 1600, as that date appears in a large stone fixed in the West wall. There was lately some painted glass, but it is now entirely destroyed, and the whole fabric is very ruinous, and has not been officiated in of late years. From whence should this negligence arise, as the chapel is certainly parochial ?

As many old houses are daily falling a sacrifice to the extravagance of the window tax, I hope your correspondents

with drawings or descriptions of all such as are about to be destroyed, which are in any wise deserving of the attention

of posterity.

1786, June.

Yours,

N. L.

III. New Survey of Devonshire.

MR. URBAN,

AMONG the numerous histories and surveys of particular counties, it seems somewhat remarkable, that none for the county of Devon should hitherto have appeared in print; except a disjointed copy of a work originally imperfect, and ill-written.

The imperfections of Risdon's Survey, and the room left for further improvements on its plan, and additions to the information it contains, might, one should think, have been sufficient inducements to have engaged some able pen in an undertaking that had a claim to public patronage; and, if well executed, would have been highly acceptable to the county, and insured a lasting fame to the author.

A county so populous and extensive, its productions so various, and its historical memorials so interesting and entertaining, might furnish materials for many large volumes. But the truth is, this great extent of the county, the variety of subjects that press on the historian, and call for illustration; the copiousness of some, and the obscurity of others, arising from equivocal and contradictory relations, or from their remote origin in those dark periods when none, or but few, memorials of any signal event or great revolution were recorded in writing; the variety of books, manuscripts, charters, deeds, and other curious papers, that ought to be consulted, as well as of places to be previously viewed, or authentic information to be procured concerning their situation and history; to which may be added, the proportional length of time that will be requisite to digest and polish the materials, in order to produce a regular and elegant work, fit for the public eye, and such as would rank the author with Atkyns, Dugdale, and Hutchins; these circumstances are sufficient to deter any one person, however ingenious, industrious, and well-informed, from engaging singly in so arduous and complicated an undertaking.

The natural history of this county would of itself, if justice were done to so copious a subject, supply materials for a volume of considerable bulk.

The antiquities of it would fill a volume of equal size, and demand the assistance of another able hand.

The historical, biographical, and genealogical departments, should be allotted to persons who have been respectively conversant in studies of this nature.

When so many discouragements unite to alarm the apprehensions even of the most profound and skilful antiquary, we need not wonder that so little hath been done towards a complete history of the county of Devon; and that the collections which have hitherto been made for that purpose, should chiefly be confined to private libraries, in manuscripts little known and seldom consulted.

Hooker's Description of Devon, so frequently referred to by Prince, and other authors, (but of which Mr. Chapple could never gain any information, notwithstanding the most diligent inquiries,) and Westcot's View of the County, still remain in MS. in the curious library of Mr. Coffin, at Portlege, near Bideford and Sir William Pole's celebrated MS. on the same subject is preserved in the hand writing of the original author, and was lately revised and put into a more decent and commodious form by Mr. Incledon, of Pilton, at the request of Sir John Pole.

Those papers were written, in the infancy of antiquarian studies, by authors who were chiefly indebted to Camden for the light they have thrown on the remoter antiquities of Devon; and the defect of information is particularly complained of by Westcot, whose researches and sagacity could but ill remedy the grievance which he so frequently la

ments.

Had those manuscripts, however, been published, they would have awakened curiosity, and some more able writers might have been induced to exert themselves, to supply their deficiencies and correct their errors. The foundation was laid, and the superstructure might have been raised with more satisfaction to the public, and with more credit to the author.

When almost every county in England had been honoured by its historian, it was the wish of many respectable gentlemen in Devonshire, that a county of such extent and importance should have the same tribute of respect paid to it; and, as they were justly dissatisfied with the meagre and unpolished memorials of Risdon, it was natural for them

the public hath already been favoured with; and when Mr. Chapple published his proposals, his plan was generally approved of; and, though his education and talents excited no very flattering expectations of an elegant and liberal history, yet the known industry of the man had raised an expectation of curious and accurate information, and he obtained all the credit his ambition could have aspired to as the editor of Risdon's Survey, with corrections and additions.

He engaged for nothing farther; and, had the materials which he collected for this purpose been presented to the public, they would have had no cause for complaint.

But, as he advanced in his work, so proportionally the materials of it increased both in bulk and consequence; and, not being able to fulfil his engagements to the extent his projected history required, he from time to time amused the public with excuses and promises, and at length died without completing his design.

His papers contain a mass of curious, though heterogeneous, information, and may be of vast use to any one who hath leisure, abilities, and resolution, for the work which he had left unfinished. Much trouble will be saved for the future historian. Many hints are given which may be pursued to great advantage in elucidating the antiquities of the county; and he, who may hereafter avail himself of the collections which I have laboured to reduce to some degree of system and arrangement, will not forget his obligations to Sir ROBERT PALK, whose love for his native county, and earnest wish to make them useful to the public, hath rescued these papers from oblivion, and placed them in his own library as a valuable deposit for futurity, and a monument of the laudable and industrious researches of WILL. CHIAPPLE.

Yours, &c.

1786, Sept.

SAMUEL BADCOCK.

IV. Particulars in the History of Barn-Elms.
MR. URBAN,

THE value of topographical facts has been universally admitted. Waving many advantages resulting from the establishment of truth, nothing is more likely to excite pleasing and useful emulation between the people of towns

and villages, and ultimately to promote national benefit, than representations of improvements upon the face of nature in the various parishes, than accounts of the virtuous and eminent persons who were born, or who resided, in them, and of the moral conduct and good government of their respective inhabitants.

The parish of Barnes, in Surrey, has been distinguished into the town or village itself, and Barn-Elms. It is situated on the side of the Thames, between Putney, an healthful and lively town, and Mortlake, once famous for its tapestry. Barn-Elms has, for a long time, been in the possession of the family of Hoare, the Banker. Its majestic elms have been the subject of many a pastoral poet. Count Heidegger, the founder of Italian operas, resided in the mansion of the present possessor. King George II. made a visit to him here; upon which occasion innumerable lamps were hung from the stately trees, and, as stars shining through solemn shades, beautifully illuminated the scene. Jacob Tonson lived and died at Barn-Elms. He had there a gallery of the portraits of all the members of the Kit-Cat Club, so denominated from the name of the landlord, Christopher Cat, at whose house their meetings were held. It need hardly be added, that Pope, Addison, &c. often sanctified this spot with their classic wit. Village-tradition says, Queen Elizabeth had a palace at Barn-Elms, to which she frequently retired; and that the unfortunate Earl of Essex resided near the green. When the citizens, in gaily-decorated barges, went up the river annually in Au gust, to mark and count their swans, which is called swanhopping, they used to land at Barn-Elms, and, after partaking of a cold collation on the grass, there merrily danced away a few hours. This was a gala-day for the village; and happy was the lad or lass admitted into the party of the fine folks of London. This practice has, however, been long discontinued; it is hoped not to give place to one less innocently festive. Cowley the poet lived at Barns; as did the painter Vanderbank. In this retreat also Henry Fielding drew some of his excellent pictures of life. Heretofore, during high spring tides, carriages could not safely pass be tween Barnes and Mortlake; but, since the spirited inhabitants have embanked the river, this inconvenience has ceased. This rural town has had many a bishop and brilliant character for its rector. Bishops Hare and Hume were pastors here; Dr. Ferdinando Warner, author of the