"He shall enquere of hym whiche demandeth the baconne, yf he have broughte tweyne of hys neghbors with hym. Whyche must answer" they be here redy," and then the steward shall cause theese two neighbours to swere, yf the said demandaunt be a weddyt man, or have be a man weddyt, and yf sythe hys mariage one yere and a day be passed; and yf he be a freeman or villeyn. And yf his seid neghbours make othe that he hath for hym all thies three poynts rehersed, then shall the baconne be take down, and broghte to the halle-dore; and shall there be layed uponne half a quarter of wheate, and uponne one other of rye. And he that demandeth the baconne shall kneele upon his knee, and shall hold his right hande uponne a boke, which boke shall be layed above the baconne and the corne, and shall make othe in this manere--"

"Here ye, Sir Philip de Somerville, lord of Whichenovre, mayntener and gyver of this baconne, that I A. sithe I wedded B. my wyfe, and sythe I had her is my kepyng, and at my wylle, by a yere and a day after our mariage, I wod not have chaunged for none other, farer ne fowler, rycher ne powrer, ne for none other descended of greater lynage, slepyng ne wakyng, at noo tyme. And yf the sayd B. were sole, and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wyfe, before all the wymen in the worlde of what condicions soever they be, good or evylle, as help me God and hys seyntis and thys fleshe and all fleshes-"

"And hys neghbors shall make othe that they trust verily he hath said truly; and yff it be founde by his neghbors, beforenamed, that he be a freeman, there shall be delyvered hym half a quarter of wheate and a cheese; and yf he be a villeyn, he shall have half a quarter of rye without cheese. And then shall Knyghtleye, the lord of Rudlowe be called for to carry all theis thynges afore-rchersed; and the seid corne shall be layd uponne horse and the baconne above ytt ;, and he to whom the baconne apperteigneth shall ascend upon his horse, and shall take the cheese before hym, if he have a horse; and yf he have none, the lord of Whichenovre shall cause hym to have one horse and sadyll to such tyme as he be passed hys lordshippe; and so shalle they depart the manoir of Whichnovre with the corne and the baconne, tofore him that hath won it, with trompetts, tabouretts, and other manoir of mynstralce; and all the free-tenants of Whichenovre shall conduct hym to be passed the lordshippe of Whichenovre, and then shall they all retorne except hym to whom apperteigneth to make the caryage and journey without the countye of Stafford at the costys of his lord of Whichenovre.”

"And yf the seid Robert Knyghtleye do not cause the baconne and corne to be conveyed as is rehersed, the lord of Wychnovre shall do it to be caryed, and shall distreigne the said Robert Knyghtley for his default for one hundred shillings, in his manoir of Rudlowe, and shall kepe the distress so takyn yrreplevisable."

The most noted place of which we have an account in this volume is the city of Lichfield; and it accordingly occupies a space of an hundred and twenty-seven pages, in which we find a sketch of its antient history. It is described as being purely of Saxon origin, and of course unknown in the times of

the

the Britons and the Romans; and it is said that, for a long period subsequent to the Norman Conquest, it continued to be a village, but that even in this mean and low state it received great honours from many of the Saxon kings. Its celebrated cathedral is treated at great length; and every circumstance connected with its history, its monuments, its epitaphs, its bishops, its deans, and its prebends, is most minutely detailed. To the majority of readers, these topics cannot be very interesting, however important they may be to the inhabitants of Lichfield. Those, therefore, who wish for information on this head, we must refer to the work itself.

Of the remarkable men whom Lichfield has produced, the most celebrated is the late Dr. Samuel Johnson; of whose life and character a sketch is here given, selected very judiciously from the voluminous accounts which have been already published by his friends. Nothing new occurs in it to lay before our readers but an epitaph written by him for the tomb of his parents, who are buried in St. Michael's Church, Lichfield, may be thought worth notice:

H. S. E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON:

Vir impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiduciâ Christianá fortis fervidusque ; Paterfamilias apprime strenuus: Bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negociis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi net suis defuerit. Lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias vel castas lasisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam expresserit. Natus Cubleia, agro Derbiensi anno MDCLVI, obiit MDCCXXXI.

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Apposita est Sara conjux, antiquâ Fordorum gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam, nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate præcellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: Eternitati semper attentam, omne fere Virtutis nomen commendavit. Nata Nortonia Regis, in agro Vigorniensi, anno MDCLXIX, obiit MDCCLIX.

Cum Nathanaele illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII, cum vires et animi corporis multa pollicerentur, obiit anno MDCCXXXVII, vitam brevem pia morte finivit.”

In reading this tumulary composition of a critic, who was himself so fastidious in his remarks on the productions of others in compositions of this kind, we cannot but observe how flat and how ambiguous is the praise with which the genius of Johnson honoured his progenitors. The laborum patientissimus, when applied to the country tradesman *, can mean little else than a patient drudge :-his paterfamilias strenuus perhaps conveys no very precise idea, unless that of a bustling housekeeper ;

* We mean no reflection on Dr. Johnson's father, who was reputable book-binder.

and

and his "mente negociis exculta" suggests the question, what polish could the mind of a shop-keeper derive from the trivial if not mean avocations (negociis) which exclusively must have been his lot?The panegyric on the mother seems to be still flatter than that on his father. The domi sedulam, foris paucis notam, nulli molestam, the good woman" who minded her business at home, was no gadder, and did nobody any harm," possessed virtues which are so trite and so humble, that even the style of Johnson writing in a dead language could not dignify the encomium.-What then could have been the motive, or what proof does it afford of sound judgment, to blazon such virtues in persons in such stations, on marble, and in a classical language?

Of the other men of eminence who were born in this city, the most worthy of note are William de Lichfield, who became rector of All-Hallows the Great in Thames-street, and died in 1447, leaving behind him (ut fides penes autorem) 3083 sermons of his own writing; lias Ashmole, who presented to the University of Oxford, in 1679, the celebrated collection of curiosities and manuscripts which are still preserved by that learned body in the "Musaum Ashmoleanum, schola naturalis historia officina chymica ;" and Dr. Thomas Newton, late Bishop of Bristol. Of this latter gentleman, we transcribe the sketch given by Mr. Shaw:

Thomas Newton, late Lord Bishop of Bristol,, and Dean of St. Paul's, London, was born in this city January 1, 1707. His father, John Newton, was a brandy merchant, who by his industry and integrity, having acquired a competent fortune, retired from business some years before his death.

Bishop Newton received the first part of his education in the free grammar school of this city-a school which he observes, had at all times sent forth several persons of note and eminence, from Bishop Smalridge and Mr. Woollaston, to Dr. Johnson and Mr. Garrick.

From Lichfield, he was removed to Westminster-school in 1717, where he continued six years, five of which he passed in the college. He afterward went to Cambridge, and entered at Trinity College. Here he resided eight months in each year till he had taken his Bachelor of Arts degree. Being chosen fellow of his college, he went afterwards to settle in London. He was ordained Deacon in December 1729, and Priest in the February following.

At his first setting out in his ministry he was curate at St. George's Hanover-square; and continued for several years assistant preacher to Dr. Trebeck. His first preferment was that of reader and afternoon-preacher at Grosvenor-chapel, in South-Audley-street. This introduced him to the family of Lord Tyreonnel.

In the spring of 1744 he was, through the interest of his great friend and patron the Earl of Bath, presented to the rectory of St. Mary-le-Bow. In the year following he took his doctor's degree. a

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In 1747 he married his first wife, a daughter of Dr. Trebeck She died in 1754; and in Sept. 1761 he married the widow of the Rev. Hand, an illegitimate daughter of John Lord Viscount Lisburne. In the same month, he kissed the king's hand for his Bishopric. Previous to which appointment he was lecturer of St. George's Hanover-square, Prebendary of Westminster, and Dean of Salisbury.

In 1764 Bishop Newton was offered the primacy of Ireland, which he modestly refused.

From the year 1769, to his death, ill health was almost his constant companion; and on the 14th of February 1782, this truly good man expired without a sigh, or the least visible emotion, his countenance still retaining the same placid appearance which was so peculiar to him when alive.

He was author of Discourses on the Prophecies, and many other valuable works*.'

Had Mr. Shaw reckoned Garrick among the Lichfield heroes, we should have found in his story something more interesting even than the Memoirs of the Bishop afford us: but Garrick, according to Mr. Shaw, was not a Lichfieldian † ; and he therefore gives no farther information respecting that celebrated man, than what is connected with the epitome of Johnson's life. He however obliges us with the elegant epitaph written for the tablet beneath his bust in Lichfield cathedral by Miss Seward; which was composed, says Mr. Shaw, at the earnest request of Dr. V-- but the present ill-chosen prose inscription was preferred, though by whom selected is not known. The following is the epitaph by Miss Seward :

"While o'er this marble bends thy pensive eye,
Here, stranger, breathe the tributary sigh!
Beneath these groves their Garrick nurs'd the art
That reign'd resistless o'er each feeling heart;
And here those virtues dawn'd whose power benign
Bids Hope for him celestial palms entwine.
Oft has his bounty, with pervading ray,

Chas'd the dark cloud from want's tempestuous day;
And oft his silence, generous as his aid,

Hid from the world the noblest part he play'd."

The last lines of this epitaph do credit to Miss Seward :but it does still more honour to Mr. Garrick that the idea, which they express, is not the creation of the poet's fancy, but the dictate of strict truth.

The Bishop's edition of Milton's poetical works surely ought not to be passed over in silence.

+ Mr. Garrick was born at Hereford, but was always considered as a Lichfield man.

Of

Of a work containing such a multiplicity of various matter as occurs in a county history, it were idle to attempt to give a competent idea by extracts:-let it suffice, therefore, to inform the reader, in addition to what we have already said of this publication, that whatever he may wish to learn of any given. spot in Offlow Hundred, (to which this volume is confined,) or of the general history of the county, he will most probably find here. He will also meet in the commencement with some curious fac similes of passages in Domesday Book, with an explanation of its terms; and, in the end, with a curious collection of letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, and Secretary Walsingham, written during the period of Queen Mary's confinement in Tutbury castle, and relating to the situation of that unhappy princess.

Among the materials not necessarily connected with the great business of the work, and which are here introduced as embellishments, is an elegant poem from the pen of Miss Seward, addressed to Mr. Lister of Lichfield; in which, besides abusing the Reviewers, (who, alas! but too often provoke the genus irritabile vatum,) she commemorates many literary and poetical characters who have given distinction to that city. Persuading Mr. Lister to tempt his muse, notwithstanding the many discouraging circumstances which surround the poet, she says:

"Yet oft, for candid friends, persuade
Thy muse to warble in this shade.
Its gales have been inur'd to spring,
With notes Aonian on their wing.

"Ah! witness many a sparkling rhyme.

By GARRICK rung in tuneful chime:
'Ere yet on Britain's stage he shone,
And shar'd the wreath his Shakespear won.
And witness Johnson's loftier strains,
Proud glory of his native plains;
And their's the learn'd* and lucky pair,
Ordain'd to fill the Prelate chair;

For modest Green in Lichfield grove,

With Newton strung his lute to love :
And many a muse delighted shed
Her myrtle on each rival head;

'Ere yet the mitre's envied round

Their brows with graver honours bound.
"Witness the bright, the jocund powers

That gave to wit the social hours;

Dr. Green and Dr. Newton, afterward Bishops of Lincoln and Bristol.'

RAY, DEC. 1799.

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