plants, whenever I meet with any of un common fize or beauty. I, among many other of your readers, beg you will accept my thanks for your curious records of that kind; and if you will indulge me in propofing a request to your readers upon this fubject, you will farther oblige me. Some years ago, as I was travelling betwixt Weldon and Oundle, in Northamptonshire, going over a piece of forest. land to a village called Benefield, I obferved a large ftone fet up, with an inscription upon it, which was very legi. ble, as near as I can remember, thus:, "Near this place food Bocafe tree" (or Bowcale, I cannot remember truly which). I paid but little attention to it at that time; but I have often reproached myself that I did not make fomne farther enquiries about it, as there must be fomething particular in the hiftory of a tree, I fhould think, to render it worthy of having a memorial of it preferved in that manner. Now if any of your correfpondents or kind readers, who love to unbend their mind by enquiries into fuch things, would give themfelves the trouble to flate the hiftory of this tree in your entertaining Mifcellany, it would, doubtlefs, pleafe many of your readers as well as it would, Yours, &c. THO. WOOLSTON. P.S. I could not help lamenting the fate of the fine old oak which one of your correfpondents tells us was felled laft May in Sir J. Rufhout's park, at Blockley. I knew almoft fuch an one at Pilckley, in Northamptonshire, wherein a large fork had been the fecure neft ing-place for a pair of ravens, I fuppofe for generations, at least longer than any perfon in that neighbourhood could remember. I used to look for them as the harbingers of fpring, and took great pleasure always in remarking their œconomy; and once I oblerved them bufy in repairing their neft as early as on New Candlemas-day but, alas ! this, like the oak abovementioned, has yielded his leafy honours to the axe i T. W. the fummer. Dr. Cramer, in his Natural History of Auftria, I think, mention the woodcock to breed in the Auftrian woods, and to remove on the approach of winter to Italy, &c.; and then, like the woodcock of Sweden, in the fpring to return to its native forests. The writer of this faw, fome years fince, at Chalion, in Burgundy, fome woodcocks fo late in the feafon as the beginning of April. Now, as Dr. Cramer obferves, if this bird breeds in the woods of Auftria, it may probably do the fame in others in Germany, &c. and in particular in that vaft wild tract, the Sylva Hercynia, or Hartz Forell, though perhaps at prefent unnoticed by any author or Naturalift; and it is likely the woodcocks feen as above in France, as well as thofe that vifit Italy, confine their emigrations Northward to thofe receffes abovementioned, without ever croffing the German or Baltic feas. Several proots have been allo adduced to fhew that woodrocks have fometimes bred in England, from whatever cause originat ing, though very rarely, and that their nefis were remarked to contain two, or at moft three, eggs, or young ones. Further obfervations on the hiftory of this harmless, and, for its delicacy, per fecuted, friendlefs viitor, now approaching our coafts, in addition to the prefent flight and imperfect sketch, may prove acceptable to fome other of your nume rous readers, as well as, Sir, to your oc cafional correfpondent *, C. YOUR correfpondent Antiquarius, be P. 995, afks, whether, "from the letters with which the [cafe of the] Luck of Edenball is charged," it may not conjectured that it was originally defigned for a Jacramental chalice ?" This, you may tell him, the canons of the church, which he will find in Lyndewode's Provinciale, render impoffible. But I have no objection to think that it has been used as a drinking-glass by the fuperior of fome religious houfe. My inability to procure drawings of this ball and glass (both which I have feen) alone prevents me from giving a new nd handfome edition, with curious notes, of the doleful drinking bout, which, I have good authority to lay, was not written by the Duke of Wharton. To the information given by W. M. * See vol. LVII. pp. 35, 36, 57, 574 $75: vol. LVIII. p. 8a4. (P. 9912 (p. 991) about King Arthur and his round table, I fhall beg leave to add, that the feat of this fabulous monarch was at Carlife, and that Tarn Wadling, a fpacious lake near Armanthwaite, is frequently mentioned in our old poetical Tomances concerning him. It is faid, I think, that there is a city at the bottom of it. The origin of thefe local traditions is to be attributed to the Cambrian Britons, who kept poffeflion of this part of the country long after the Saxons, and even Normans, were in poffeffion of the reft. One feldom hears of King Arthur but in or near Wales, Cornwall, or Cumberland. The ballad, which I suspect your correfpondent had not immediately from Percy's Reliques, is incorrealy printed; but it is neither very antient nor very rare. He has taken it, I am perfuaded, from Clarke's Survey of the Lakes. It is always candid, however, to cite the true authority, though it may not happen to be the most refpe&table. Eamont (or Eimat) is a flight corruption of the Saxon Ea muth, i. e. the water's mouth, meaning Udef-water, whence this river flows. A Saxon name for a river is fo uncommon a circumftance, that I fhould be glad to know whether its ir ruption might not have taken place fub fequently to the fettlement of that people. P. 1066. That the regalia of Scotland have never been seen tince 1660 is not true. They were feen, examined, and a very minute defcription taken of them, in the prefence of a confiderable number of perfons, on the 26th of March, 1707, when they were formally deposited in a cheft within the Crown-room in the caftle of Edinburgh. This, however, was actually the last time of their being feen, though they are strongly fufpe&ted not to be there at prefent. And, indeed, if it be true (as the old Earl of Surrey feems to have thought when he talked of fighting for a thorn-buf), that it is the crown which makes the king, there appears good reafon for their removal, fince that fortrefs might not always hold out fo well as it did in 1745. Some people, I know, think that the Act of Union which ordains, that "the crown, fceptre, and fword of ftate, continue to be kept, as they are, within that part of the united kingdom now called Scotland, and thall fo remain in all time coming notwithAtanding the Union," has rendered fuch a ftep impoffible, which may be a fufficient anfier, indeed, to a bare fulpicion. But 1 contefs I have often wondered how Mons Meg, a large old ufelefs cannon of the kings of Scotland, and almoft the only public monument remaining of her antient monarchy, comes to be at this moment in the Tower of London; which has led me to doubt whether Scoon or Holyrood-houfe would be fuffered to ftand if they could be tranfported with so little noile or difficulty. Dannotyr belonged to the Keiths, Earls Martichail, who were heritable keepers of the Scout regalia, and had, in fat, a right to keep them where they would. It is, therefore, lucky that the then Earl Marifchall confented to this depotit; as we may gues which way they would have gone in 1715. Yours, &c. DEIRENSIS. Mr. URBAN, Barb, Dec. 17. EING in the country one of the fine days we have lately had, and riding with a gentleman through fome to fee us Mr. JAM ORIGINAL MEMOIRS OF MR. JAMES CAWTHORN. BY MR. GOODWIN. AMES CAWTHORN, author of the Poems publifhed under his name, was the fon of Mr. Thomas Cawthorn, upholsterer and cabinet-maker in Sheffield, by Mary, the daughter of Mr. Edward Laughton, of Gainsborough ; and was born at Sheffield, Nov. 4, 1719', and baptized Dec. 22. He early difcovered a strong inclination to letters, accompanied with great vivacity, and a quick apprehenfion, which induced his parents to give him a literary education, by placing him under the care of the Rev. Mr. Robinfon, mafter of the grammar-fchool in Sheffield. Here he foon made a confi. derable proficiency in the Clafficks, though not without an attention to his own native language; for he attempted to publish a periodical paper, called "The Tea-Table 3," but was early difcouraged by his father, from a reaLonable fuppofition that he had not a fufficient thare of prudence and know. ledge of life to conduct fuch a publication with propriety. In 1735 he was removed to the grammar-school at Kirkby Lonsdale, in Weftmorland, where he wrote fome pieces of poetry, which fhew the dawn ings of his genius, feveral of which are ftill preferved in his own hand-writing, with the dates annexed to them 4, viz. July 23. Non omnia vincit Amor. 24. Ignis Fatuus. Aug. 3. Ineft fua Gratia Parvis. 14. AnNatura intendat Monftrum? Sept. 13. Horace, Ode IV. Book I. tranf lated. o&. 3. On Steele's "Chriftian Hero"." "James was born Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1719, 2 hours and 40 minutes A. M." Entry, by his father, in a book of Annotations on the New Testament, published by H. Overton, without date. 2 Parish-register of Sheffield. 3 From the information of his filler. 4 Penes E. Goodwin. 5 May we beg a copy of it? EDIT. GENT. MAG. December, 1791. 16. Pindar. Mar. 1. Creation, a Pindarique Ode. His next poetical pieces are dated at Rotherham, where it is reported that he was employed as an affiftant under the Rev. Mr. Chriftian. 1736. July 5. Imitated from Boetius, De Confolatione Philofophiæ. Aug 6. To a Gentleman who cor rected fome Verses for me. Aug. 19. The dying Swan, Lat. redd. 1738. July 8. He was matriculated at Clare-hall, Cambridge; but whether he took a degree does not appear from the College-regifter, though, in the title of a fermon published in 1748, he is ftyled M. A. After he left college, he was for fome time affiftant to Mr. Clare, author of a treatife on fluids, and mafter of an aca demy in Soho Square; whofe daughter Mary he married, and by whom he had feveral children, who all died in their infancy 7. When he took holy orders is uncertain; but the earliest date upon his manufcript fermons, now in being, is "St. Anne's Westminster, Au. 15, 1743." 1743. O&t.... Upon the refignation of Mr. Spencer, he was elected master of Tunbridge-fchool. 6 Upon the ground of this he published poem intituled "The Perjured Lover, Shef field, printed by John Garnet, 1736;" a copy of which penes E. G. 7 See his Poems, p. 209. "Anne, firft daughter of James and Mary Cawthorne, born Feb. 8, 50 minutes rait 9 at night, died Feb. 11, 50 minutes past 10 morning, 17456. Mary, fecond daughter, born at the fame time, died Feb. 11, 1745-6, 10 minutes past one in the afternoon. Mary, third daughter of James and Mary Cawthorn, born Feb. 20, at 5 in the morning, died the fame day, paft one in the afternoon." Mr. Cawthorn's MS. penes E. G. |
