Ockham, a famous fchoolman. The church (Pl. II. fig. 1), which is dedicated to All Saints, confifts of two ailes, and has a tower with five bells at the Weft end. It is a rectory in the deanry of Stoke; the patron, the Right Hon. Lord King, who has a handfome feat near the church. This view was drawn in 1753; from which there is no material alteration except of the tree faid to be planted in Queen Eliza beth's reign, blown down a few years fince. The prefent incumbent, the Rev. Samuel Godschall*, was inducted in 1797. On the North fide of the church is a handfome monument of the Lord Chancellor King and his lady (fig. 2). On the urn is written, DEPOSITUM PETRI DOMINI KING, BARONIS DE OCKHAM. And at the bottom this infcription: "He was born in the city of Exeter of worthy and fubftantial parents, he raised himself to the highest character and reputation, He applied himself to his ftudies in the Middle Temple; and, to an exact and compleat knowledge in all parts and hiftory of the law, He was chofen a member of the Houfe of Commons in the year 1699; made chief-juftice of the Common Pleas in 1714, on the acceffion of King George I.; created Lord King, Baron of Ockham, and raised to the poft and dignity of lord high chancellor of Great Britain, 1725; under the laborious fatigues of which weighty place finking into a paralytic disease, he refigned it November 19, 1733; and died July 23d, 1734, aged 65. A friend to true religion and liberty. He married Anne, daughter of Richard Seys, of Boverton, in Glamorganshire, Efquire, with whom he lived to the day of his death in perfect love and happinefs; and left iffue by her four fons, John, pow Lord King, Peter, William, and Thomas; and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne." Mr. Walpole, in his Noble Authors, vol. II. p. 136, gives the following account of his lordship: "Lord Chancellor King was related to Mr. Locke, who, on feeing his treatife in defence of the rights of the Church, perfuaded him to apply himfelf to the law; to the highest dignity of which he rofe. We have, of his writing: Enquiry into the Constitution, Difcipline, Unity, and Worship, of the Primitive Church,' 1691. Hiftory of the Apostles' Creed, with critical Obfervations on its feveral Articles.' The Speech of Sir Peter King, Knight, Recorder of the City of London, at St. Margaret's Hill, to the King's moit excellent Majefty, upon his Royal Entry, Sept. 20, 1714." Near the monument of Sir Peter King and his lady is the brass plate of Walter Frilende, priest (fig. 3); and in the chancel are fome renlains of ftalls. In the church-yard of Ockham, near the porch, is a fquare graveftone, to the memory of a carpenter of the name of Spong, with this infcription by the Chancellor: "Who many a sturdy oak had laid along, I'd by Death's furer hatchet, here lies SPONG. Pofts oft he made, yet ne'er a place could get, The manor of Ockham was in the poffeffion of Ralph de Stafford, 1371. In 1527, the eftate, with the advowfon of the church, was granted, by King Henry VIII. with the knights fees thereunto be Younger fon of a useful and very respectable magiftrate at Albury, in the neigh- bourhood. GENT MAG. February, 1800. longing, longing, to John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Afterwards the eftate came into the poffefion of the antient family of the Weftons. See the Regifter belonging to the parifh-church of Weft Clandon. “Henry, fon of Sir Henry Weston, and Dorothy, haptized O&. 13, 156 1. "Richard, fon of ditto and ditto, baptized Sept. 17, 1564. "Richard Weston, efq. and Jane D-flar, gentlewoman, married May 27, 1583." The fifter of Mrs. Fitzgerald, of Weft Horley, who died two or three years fince, and was a Wefton, fuppofed to be about 111 years of age, was born at Ockham, at the time the family lived there. This eftate was bought by Sir Peter. King (the chancellor); in which he was fucceeded by his eldeft fon, John, who died without itfue. Peter, the fecond fon, fucceeded him, who died a batchelor. William fucceeded him, and died alfo without iflue. The youngest fon, Thomas, enjoyed the title and eftate and left itfue, Peter, Thomas, Aune, and Wilhelmina. Peter, the late lord, whofe death and character you have in vol. LXIII. p.1061, was fucceeded by his eldeft fon, Peter, who now enjoys the title and eftate. A. Z. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 28. N Artist and Antiquary, vol. A LXIX. p. 113, b. jufily ri dicules the little attention that is paid to antient coffume on the Englith ftage. Yet, poflibly, though it is their province" to catch the manners living as they rife," our managers behind the fcenes, hackneyed in trick and stage-effect, might anfwer with fome appearance of truth, that a too faithful copy of the obsolete manners of the dean, on every occafion, would frequently tend to create difguft or ridicule, inftead of applaufe, amongst the " profanum vulgus, the great vulgar and the fmall." In the gaping crowd of pit, box, and gallery, how comparatively few (they may juftly retort) are artists of vntú, or learned Antiquaries! Indeed, the moft conftant attendants at the theatre, confequently the managers' best friends, can hardly be fuppofed to know, or care, whether Hamlet's "inky cloak" could really be fafhioned like Mr. Garrick's full-drefs coat of black velvet; or, as his Father, when he "combatted the ambitious Norway," muft have been harneffed in fcale or in chain mail, whether the ghoft of the Royal Dane, in arms, could be fuppofed to talk away from the platform in vambrace and gorget of plate-armour: but, furely, the apparition itself fufficiently aftounded Denmark; no need to exhibit the late living warrior frowning under fuch a formidable fuit of buckram as no warrior then living had feen before. The armed ghoft of a king, I ween, if he is to be recognized, thould be "femblably furnished like the king himfelf." We repair to the theatre for rational information as well as vacant pleasure; and it ought not to be the managers' fault if we return confirmed in ignorance. The fpectators in general, but more especially thofe who are themselves unable to judge of the propriety of all parts of the fpectacle, are fuppo fed to rely on the taste and judgement of another, who, by receiv-. ing their money, feems tacitly to undertake the office of pleafing inftructor; therefore, if he wilfully mifreprefents and confounds the antient cufioms, manners, drefs, of our forefathers, I apprehend he neglects his duty, and breaks his engagement; for, he certainly leads into error, and deceives them. I am fufficiently aware of the impoffibility of attending to all minutia, and that very great allowance muft neceffarily be made. Perhaps, indeed, it would be no eafy matter to draw the line exactly; but every well-informed perfon will readily allow that, by confulting the beft works of our own and foreign Antiquaries, &c. which the manager of a London and theatre theatre ought to have at his fingers' ends, numberlefs palpable violations of the coftume might be avoided; and of course, in this inftance at leaft, the credit of our ftage would be rescued from much difgrace. Your correfpondent's belief, that "in antient times beards were worn univerfally," will be ftaggered, probably, when he recollects that the Normans in general, at and after the Conqueft, actually shaved their beards. Gunpowder was known in feudal times, for fome pieces of artillery are faid to have been used by Edward the third, at the battle of Crecy; though I do not mean to affert that it was then used for blowing up caftles; even the Spanish miners at Alicant might have been puzzled how to blow up this caftle of the lake; but if the proprietor, or manager, happens to have any acquaintance, or friends, amongst the French or Irish miners, perhaps he may fometimes condefcend to con o'er their useful leffons, and be able to handle their tools; or, for aught we know, may keep in his pay, for the purpose of burrowing under his lake, fome of thofe fub-aqueous engineers that are about to undermine the Thames itfelf, from Kent to the Effex fhore. The Antiquary informs us, that "the idea of feudal times naturally conveyed his imagination to a very remote period of our history, either previous to, or about, the time of the Conqueft:" but, Mr. Urban, even though feudal law might not be totally unknown amongst the AngloSaxons, before the Conqueft, yet I apprehend feudal inftitutions and times ftrictly feudal are generally understood to have commenced immediately at the Conqueft, when the milder, but more unfettled, Saxon laws were overwhelmed by the feudal fyftem of the Normans, in all its rigour. A fyftem juftly to be abhorred by Britons of the eighteenth cen tury; but which, by the bye, though enforced by the fword, was alfo welcomed by the religion, the learning, the prejudice, and the manners, of feudal times; and, though it is evident that every thing fubject to the power of man is confequently fubject to abuse, yet I verily believe their own form of government, as fwayed by fome of the Plantagenets, was better adapted to the fituation, habits, and opinions of our rough forefathers, during feveral centuries after the Conqueft, than the moft fpecious new-fangled fyftem which the wifeft of modern illuminated philofophifts could devife. And, farther, I am inclined to believe that this our favoured ifle was bleffed with its prefent happy conftitution quite as foon as the reftlefs inhabitants were prepared to enjoy, and I fear full as foon as they have been found to deserve it. Again, your correfpondent will allow that the Barons' wars in the reigns of King John and Henry III. and the dreadful feuds of the two Rofes (though not "about," but long after the Conqueft) were deeply tinged with feudal blood; yet, I am doubtful if the fafcina-: ting wildness of romantic chivalry can be traced much lower down the page of English hiftory. To me, therefore, there feems to be fome thew of reafon for limiting our "feudal times" to thofe middle ages between the decifive battles of Haftings and Bofworth; between the year 1066, when foreign feudal chiefs fubdued and thared the land, and the year 1485, when the fword had almoft extirpated the race of Anglo-Norman barons, and when baronial feuds were nearly extinguished by the downfall of. the laft Plantagenet, the bloody but valiant Richard; whofe def perate valour, at Bofworth, has often reminded me of Salluft's ani- ! mated defcription of the death of Catiline. "Catilina vero, longè a fuis, inter hoftium cadavera repertus eft, paululum etiam fpirans, ferociamque animi quam habuerat vivus in vultu retinens." The cau- Mr. URBAN, Eaf-Retford, Feb. 7. tion, they are much at your fervice; confident that, if any benefit can arife from the erection of monuments, you, as well as many others, will join with me in regretting the fhameful ruin and decay which fome, even of the firft fculpture, have been allowed to fall into. Such is the cafe with that from which the following epitaph was taken. It stands on the North fide of the chancel, in the vicarage church of Walkeringham, in the county of Nottingham; and, from what remains standing, as well as from the broken fragments now fallen to the ground, there remain marks of uncommon execution, and well worthy of being preferved. It would feem neceffary that fuch perfons, who can fo well afford to raife monuments of fo confiderable value, fhould leave a legacy, whereby to defray all expences incurred by their being fupported when in a state of ruin; as in this, as well as many other villages, no yeftiges of the family at prefent remain; and few perfons with to be at apy expence in matters that fo little concern them. M. S. FRANCISCI WILLIAMSONI, e generofa Williamfonorum profop á oriund. Roberti Williamsoni, hujufce comit. filii, natu quarts. My life to loofe, my foule to fave, Which to thee, reader, fhews thus much, On a feparate piece of blue marble was found Ed. Marshall, fculptor, 1639." Monument, in the general acceptation of the word, is meant to fignify any thing by which the memory of the deceated may be perpetuated; and hence, partly on account of the facred fituation in which dead bodies are interred, it is always cuftomary (in our days at leaft) to mark out fuch fituation as the most proper for erecting monuments, by which we may keep in remembrance the past life and actions of our dearest friends. Two confiderable advantages feem peculiarly to arife, from the cuftom of erecting thefe tokens of remembrance. First, by exhibiting to us a faithful picture of the virtues and religious principles as practifed by the deceated during his ftay here, on earth; and, fecondly, by conftantly reminding us of a future ftate, and thereby ftimulating us to acts of piety, virtue, and religion. Though painted, or engraved on ftone, on them may be delineated the virtuous actions, the diftinguished character, the noble fentiments, the refinements of Chriftianity, which fhone fo confpicuous in the conduct of the deceafed, during his paft travels through this life. This, upon mature deliberation, muft produce confiderable effects upon the minds of mankind in general, and of his relatives in particular, tending to produce an emulation, if not to excel, at least to equal the virtuous actions of their brother here departed. Whether he died, in the field of battle, |