suredly put at least a temporary end to the disorder, and the fit seldom returned under a month, if a radical cure was not produced.

This machine I perfectly well re'member in a pond near the ground used as our play-ground. Whether it now remains there, your Correspondent can perhaps inform you. Indeed it is so seldom that one of them is seen in these days, that I am inclined to think the disorder, like the leprosy, is worn out, and is now only known in England by tradition.

I also recollect seeing, in Rugby Church, an application intended as a preventative of a complaint to which young women then used to be subject; this was, a white sheet thrown over a damsel who had been troubled with the falling sickness; and who was placed at the door of the Clergyman's desk, and there received from him a very excellent prescription, how to avoid being seized in the same manner again. As I have not seen the like since, I suppose that this also is a disorder nearly worn out. If, indeed, it appears at all in these days, it seems chiefly to attack married women; but in such cases the gentlemen of Doctors' Commons prescribe. Excuse my running into idle stories, which have grown out of my original subject; but, as I have told you that I was of the old school, you will guess that I am not very young, and garrulity is, perhaps, excusable in persons of a certain age. Whatever that age may be, I should much like to visit once more a place which I shall always speak of with great respect, and which must be seen with pleasure by A RUGBEIAN.

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Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 27. BEG the favour of your inserting this letter, for the purpose of call ing the attention of those who are chiefly interested in the subject, to the situation of our Army, dwindling away as it now is with disease. It is unnecessary to enter into a chemical explanation of that kind of decomposition of the solids produced by great and excessive fatigue: the generality of your readers would not be enlightened by such a dry detail. A similar decomposition is produced by the air of such a climate as Walche ren; and in most cases three-fourths of those brave fellows who are at

tacked by disorders occasioned by fatigue, as well as an excessively foggy climate, fall victims to such maladies. I beg, Sir, to propose a simple, but, at the same time (if properly used) effectual preventive, or remedy, and such as will, I hope, be found to answer the purpose; it is merely adding, as part of their diet, a jelly made of starch, seasoned, or not, in any way most convenient. This will brace the solids, and restore the exhausted frame more than any thing, perhaps, in the world; and if used by soldiers on a march, will be found of more service than any quantity of wine, or spirits. Whilst using it they need not complain of wanting butcher's meat, or in some cases bread, and many other things at present considered necessary to an army. It will be found an important addition to the Commissariat, and save the lives of thousands of brave soldiers. The use of it in Spain, Walcheren, East, and particularly West Indies, would be, I trust, a real blessing. Whether Medical men will take a hint so conveyed, I know not; but some of our Military men ought to have a trial made, and report on the subject in every Newspaper.

I

Yours, &c. PLINY THE MODERN. Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 10. HAVE lately returned from an excursion into Suffolk and the adjacent counties: in my journey I passed over the site of Horse-Heath Hall, the residence of the late Lord Montfort: the Mansion - house has been pulled down and sold piece-meal, by Mr. Bateson, the present owner. Mr. Lysons, in his Magna Britannia, informs us that John Bromley, esq. the ancestor of Lord Montfort, purchased the house and estate of a Mr. Carew; but he does not give any information as to the ancestor of John Bromley, nor from what branch of the Bromley family he is descended. If any of your Correspondents acquainted with the genealogy of that family would have the goodness to communicate so much of the pedigree of the Bromley family as relates to this John Bromley, the purchaser of Horse-Heath, it would be considered as a sensible obligation conferred upon your constant reader and correspondent,

HERALDUS CANTABRIGIENSIS.

Mr.

from the Side Ailes by four square

the Romans, has for ages been an object of peculiar interest to the lovers of Antiquity. It is situated at the North-Westernmost extremity of the county of Kent, bordering on the West side of the Isle of Thanet. In conjunction with Richborough, it formed the defence of the Rutupian port. The castle, a fort, was a square, containing more than eight acres of land within its walls; the foundations of which, on the East, South, and West sides, are tolerably entire, in many places to the height of 10 feet; those on the North side are entirely washed away by the sea. In Leland's time (who always gave good measure) it was about half a mile from the sea; since when, it has made such rapid approaches, that it now threatens soon not to leave a vestige behind. So numerous have been the descriptions of this famous fort, that it is quite needless to say any thing here of its antient history; but a slight account of its falling grandeur, and a view of its far-famed Church * are forwarded to your timedefying Miscellany, that the memory of its existence may not be obliferated, when the ruthless waves have laid its proud towers prostrate on the pebbly strand.

The Church was situated near the centre of the area formed by the Castle walls; and is supposed to have formed part of the Abbey, which was founded by Egbert in 669; though very many parts of it are certainly of a much later date; if indeed any part of it is as antient as Egbert's days. It consists of a Nave, High Chancel, and North and South Ailes, with two square Towers at the West end, crowned with lofty leaded spires. In the Northernnost Tower is a ring of four bells. The North entrance has a very fair Saxon arch; which evidently was the style of the original building; the Nave and Chancel being partly still in that mode. Length of the Nave 66 feet, width 24 feet. The Nave is separated

angles; the arches on these pillars are pointed. The pillars are 3 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 9 inches. The Chancel, which is separated from the Nave by one large and two smaller. semicircular aches, is 44 feet long by 24 feet wide, and is enlightened by a triplet of lancet windows at the East end, and four single ones on each side; there is an ascent of several steps from the Nave to the' Chancel. The Side Ailes are 50 feet 5 inches long, by 8 feet 9 inches wide. The appearance of the whole is venerable and commanding. The West Front is peculiarly striking; the whole width, including the Towers is 65 feet; the square of the Towers is 22 feet, within-side 12 feet. Over the West door is a triforium, but much decayed through time. The ascent to the spires is by 38 stone steps, a ladder of 22 rounds, a second of 16, third of 4, and the fourth of 8, making together a height of 69 feet 10 inches.

The monuments, which are not numerous, are described, and the inscriptions given, in Duncombe's "History of Reculvert;" and more fully in "A Tour through the Isle of Thanet, &c.;" therefore need not be repeated here.

If a hope could remain that this sacred edifice would be preserved from the imminent, nay immediate danger of total destruction, many would lament the dilapidated state in which it now appears. The trifling, though the only repairs it has experienced for many years, have been such as have only tended to obliterate its once-harmonizing beauties.

The fine and appropriate lancet windows on each side of the Chancel have long since been stopped up with brick-work; apparently with no other intention, than merely to save the expence of glazing! and no light af forded to the most sacred part of the edifice, but by the triplet at the East end. Several of the windows in the Ailes have received the same kind of repair! Many of the bat

GENT. MAG. September, 1809.

See

tlements

tlements are down; and the leading of the spires, in several places, blown off, and lays on the roof of the Church; though the timber of the spires is still sound, and as capable as ever of receiving and bearing the weight of its proper covering. But why these croaking observations? Is not the whole fane devoted to destruction? Alas, it is! and with an apathy more than stoical! Blush, ye bearers of the Christian name! if it be possible that a blush can suffuse the cheeks of those, who, while th y exert every nerve, to defend their neighbouring lands from the attacks of the devastating Foe, abandon the Temple of their God to its unpitied, and, perhaps by many, to its wished-for fate! "Strong language this." But not more strong than true. Did not, more than a twelve-month since, the cruel, not to say profane, decree pass, "Secure your lands on each side; but let the ****** go." And, if such a command existed, did it not originate in the consideration, that as the site on which the sacred edifice stands then formed a promontory, it of course caused the water to fail the heavier on the adjoining shores? and therefore, who will not say, "the sooner it is gone the better?" No one can acquiesce in this conclusion who believes there is a God, who remembers his commands to respect, preserve, and beautify his house, and to regard his worship in his Temple. Sooner would the Christian say, let us first endeavour to defend and secure "the place where God delights to dwell;" and then, with sure trust in his Providence, let, us set about the security of our temporal concerns; not doubting but that He who holds the winds in his fist," and can say to the most raging waves "be still," and there shall be a great calm, will smile on our endeavours, and crown our labours with abundant success.

But a few months since, there was more than a probability that, for a trifling expense, compared to the high estimation of the object to be saved, a defence might have been made, as the strand for a long distance was, and indeed still is, strewed with stones proper, and in number sufficient, to have completed the necessary work, and saved the cemetery from the inroads of the merciless waves! But now, alas! they have made their ap

proach to within 12 feet of the basis of the North Tower; and the remains of the silent dead are scattered on the strand, or hanging exposed · from the side of the cliff. As a convincing proof that no attempts are to be made to save the sacred fane, even the very stones above alluded to, which Nature had deposited there, as it were as a last resource to preserve the venerable structure, have been disposed of; but, as they are not yet removed, oh, that some lovers of their Maker and Religion, admirers of such venerated structures, would make one bold essay, arouse the few remaining friends of antiquarian fanes, and stimulate those whose duty it is to attempt the preservation of this far-famed house of God! A hint, conveyed to a generous publick through the widely-circulating pages of Mr. Urban, have more than once performed greater works than this. And as the Sister Towers have for ages, and thank God still do guide the mariner through the trackless deep, surely a proper application to the Right Honourable Master and Worthy Brethren of the Trinity House could not fail of its due effect. These hands but united, and we should have the pleasing reflection, that the Abbey Church of the antient Regulbium, or rather of the Raculf-cester, would remain to prove, to ages yet unborn,

"The tale of legendary lore." But to close this too much extended Paper, I do hope that the Church will be spared to us another year; which, indeed, will be sufficient to enter on the work to preserve it, before another Winter commences, should such favourable stars arise in our antiquarian hemisphere.

A view of the poor Vicarage-house* accompanies the view of the Church. Perhaps it always was one of the most mean structures ever appropriated to such a purpose. At my last visit, it had exchanged its inhabitants; and the jolly Landlord reyelled with his noisy guests, where late the venerable Vicar smoaked his solitary pipe! T. MOT, F. S. M.