Mr. URBAN,

T

Shrewsbury, Jan. 1. HINKING a reprefentation of the Houfe Stratford-upon

at

Avon, co. Warwick, in which the imShakspeare mortal

first drew breath, might be acceptable to his admirers, I have enclofed a drawing taken in July laft.

This houfe is fituated in Henleyftreet, near the White Lion inn, and is now divided into two dwellings, one of which is occupied by a defcendant of Joan Harte, filter to the Poet, who purfues the humble occupation of a butcher; the adjoining dwelling has been many years ufed as a public houfe, known by the fign of the Swan and Maidenhead. It appears that our great dramatic Poet was born on the 23d of April 1564, in the chamber marked S. in the view.

"Here Nature nurs'd her darling boy, From whom all care and forrow fly,

Whofe harp the Mufes ftrung: From heart to heart let joy rebound, Now, now, we tread enchanted ground, Here Shakspeare walk'd and fung."

GARRICK. In the chimney corner of the kitchen is an old chair, faid to have belonged to the Poet, but fo mangled by the knives of virtuofo's that little of the original form remains. Yours, &c. MR. URBAN,

THE

D. PARKES.

Jan. 2. HE following is copied from the original letter of Dr. Young to me, which is depofited among the papers belonging to the Society for promoting Natural Hiftory, of which I was then one of the four Prefidents. Dr. Young, when he gave me this written account, referred me by word of mouth to Lieutenant-General Robert Melville for farther information with refpect to the perfon who was frozen fliff, and recovered after life was feemingly extinct; and I took the earliest opportunity to talk with the General on the

fubject. He remembered, he faid, to have heard of the thing; but it did not confift with his own perfonal knowledge, though he always believed that the relation was true.

Yours, &c.

J. C. SIR, April 10, 1786. "WHILE in North America, I think it was about the year 1757 or 58, I came to the knowledge of a very odd phenomenon, which I am not fure is generally known to naturalists. The fact isfas follows, viz: If fishes are taken alive out from below the ice, in lakes or rivers, during an intense froft, and thrown upon the ice, or among the fnow, fo as to freeze immediately, although they are feemingly dead, and fo ftiff as to break fhort over upon trying to bend them, yet you may bring them alive again, or rather into a state in which they will perform all their animal motions, &c. as perfectly as before they were frozen. The fuppofition is that they are not dead, but the functions of life are only fufpended. And this is done by putting them into cold water. When I was told the fact at Albany, originally a Dutch fettlement, I was rather incredulous, and inquired among the Dutch people feparately, and found they all agreed in the fame ftory; after which I could no longer doubt of its truth. However it was not long before I had ocular demonftration of it. Some of the Mohawk Indians brought fome fish to Albany to fell, that were caught in the Oneida lake (I think they were trout); the woman of the houfe where I was quartered, bought a bunch of them, and hung them up in the infide of the chimney, the chimneys being very wide in that country as they burn wood. Bye and bye I obferved thofe fishes that were next the fire began to move firft, then thofe in the middle of the bunch, and thofe on the outfide laft of all. The Indians were three or four days on their journey before they arrived at Albany. The Dutch people fay, you may keep fish frozen and feemingly dead, not only days but

eyen

even weeks; nay, fome have gone fo far as to fay months; and when you want to bring them alive put them into cold water, or into an air where it barely thaws; for if they are put into warm water, or brought into too hot an air, they will putrify. In North America, where I was during the war before lati, the foldiers very often go what they call froft-bit: our method was, to prevent the bad confequences of it, to rub them over with fnow, or

to put the part into cold water, and bring the patient into a warm air by flow degrees. This is likewife practifed in Ruffia and other Northern European countries. I have heard of a person who was frozen fliff, that by the above treatment was recovered after life was feemingly extinct. This I do not relate as having feen, but I have been long of opinion, that fome of the people who perifh annually in the fnow in this country might be recovered again, if proper methods were taken for that purpofe. The experiment with refpect to the fifh, might be tried in this country during fevere froft. Let it be obferved, that if any perfon has a mind to try it, the fifh ought to be immediately frozen, either by laying it on the ice in the fhade, or putting it into fnow; for if the air be temperate, and the fifh abfolutely dies before it freezes, the experiment will not fucceed. I have been told by a gentleman from Switzerland, that it is a cuftom in that country, in carrying fish from one pond or lake to another, to put them into a tub of water, and when the water is all frozen then they tranfport them in the greateft fafety, without being beaten or binifed against one another, or against the fides of the veifel. Sir, I am your moft obedient, hunible fervant, GEORGE YOUNG."

(Signed)

Read April 11, 1786.

Addreed to the Rev. Doctor Calder.

The following article from the Poft man. Dec. 22-24, 1715, is a proper addition on the subject:

Whereas many people have been hurt in their limbs by exceffive cold weather, efpecially in the country; fome having loft their feet, &c. and that by ill management; for it is cuftomary to get near the fire, and bathe in warm water, either of which may occafion a mortification of the parts: Therefore this advertisement is given

1

in charity to any who may be in danger of the like misfortune, which may be prevented by the following method, viz. when the feet, &c. are extremely numbed with cold, not to come nigh the fire, or bathe in warm water, but bathe in cold water, rubbing the parts well with fnow, either of which will preferve them. This is fpoken froin experience, and may be depended upon; and, becaufe poor people feldom converfe with new fpapers, it is defired that thofe who read this will make it known."

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 14.

IT will, I doubt not, be a gratification to many of your readers, if you will prefent them with the following particulars of the great Dr. BENTLEY and his family, which are faithfully copied from M. Cumberland's very entertaining and well-written " Memoirs of his own Life." M. GREEN. "Of Dr. Richard Bendey, my maternal grandfather, I have perfect recollection. His perfon, his dignity, his language, and his love, fixed my early attention, and ftamped both his image and his words upon my nemory. His literary works are known to all, his private character is fill mifunderstood by many; to that I fhall confine myfelf; and, putting afide the enthufiafin of a defcendant, I can affert, with the veracity of a biographer, that he was neither cynical, as fome have reprefented him, nor overbearing and fatiidious in the degree, as he has been defcribed by many. Swift, when he foifted him into his vulgar Battle of the Books, neither lowers Bentley's fame, nor elevates his own; and the petulant Poet, who thought he had hit his manner, when he made him haughtily call to Walker for his hat, gave a copy as little like the character of Bentley, as his tranflation is like the original of Homer. That Dr. Walker, vice-mafter grandfather, and a frequent guest at his of Trinity college, was the friend of my table, is true; but it was not in Dr. Bentley's nature to treat him with contempt, nor did his harmless character infpire it. As for the hat, I must acknow ledge it was of formidable dimenfions, yet I was accuftomed to treat it with farther from the hand of its owner than great familiarity; and if it had ever been' chair, I might have been difpatched to the peg upon the back of his great armfetch it, for he was difabled by the

pally

palfy in his latter days; but the hat never frayed from its place; and Pope found an office for Walker that I can well believe he was never commiffioned to in his life.

I had a filter fomewhat elder than myfelf. Had there been any of that fternnefs in my grandfather which is fo falfely imputed to him, it may well be fuppofed we should have been awed into filence in his prefence, to which we were admitted every day. Nothing can be farther from the truth; he was the unwearied patron and promoter of all our childish fports and fallies; at all times ready to detach himself from any topic of converfation to take an intereft and bear his part in our amule ments. The eager curiofity natural to our age, and the queftions it gave birth to, fo teazing to many parents, he, on the contrary, attended to and encouraged, as the claims of infant reafon never to be evaded or abused; ftrongly recommending, that to all fuch enquiries anfwer fhould be given according to the firictest truth, and information dealt to us in the cleareft terms, as a facred duty never to be departed from. I have broken in upon him many a time in his hours of ftudy, when he would put his book afide, ring his hand-bell for his fervant, and be led to his shelves to take down a picture-book for my amufement. I do not fay that his good-nature always attained its object, as the pictures which his books generally fupplied me with were anatomical drawings of diffected bodies, very little calculated to communicate delight; but he had nothing better to produce; and furely fuch an effort on his part, however unfuccefsful, was no feature of a cynic: a cynic fhould be made of ferner ftuff. I have had from him, at times, whilft ftanding at his elbow, a complete and entertaining narrative of his fchool-boy days, with the characters of his different mafiers very humourously difplayed, and the punishments defcribed which they at times would wrongfully inflict upon him for feeming to be idle and regardlefs of his talk, "When the dunces," he would fay, "could not difcover that I was pondering it in my mind, and fixing it more firmly in my memory, than if I had been bawling it out amongst the rest of my fchoolfellows."

Once, and only once, I recollect his giving me a gentle rebuke for make

ing a moft outrageous noife in the room over his library, and difturbing him in his ftudies; I had no apprehenfion of anger from him, and confi dently anfwered that I could not help it, as I had been at battledore and fhuttlecock with Mafter Gooch, the Bishop of Ely's fon. "And I have been at this fport with his father," he replied; "but thine has been the more amufing game; fo there's no harm done." Thefe are puerile anecdotes, but my hiftory itfelf is only in its nonage; and even thefe will ferve in fome degree to establish what I affirmed, and prefent his character in those mild and unimpofing lights, which may prevail with thofe who know him only as a critic and controverfialistAs flashing Bentley with his defperate hook, to reform and foften their opinions of him.

"He recommended it as a very ef fential duty in parents to be particularly attentive to the firft dawnings of realon in their children; and his own practice was the best illuftration of his doctrine; for he was the most patient hearer, and most favourable interpreter, of firft attempts at argument and meaning that I ever knew. When I was rallied by my mother for roundly afferting that I never Лept, I remember full well his calling on me to account for it; and when I explained it by faying I never knew myself to be asleep, and therefore fuppofed I never flept at all, he gave me credit for my defence, and faid to my mother, "Leave your boy in poffeffion of his opinion; he has as clear a conception of fleep, and at leaft as comfortable an one, as the philofophers who puzzle their brains about it, and do not reft fo well."

Though Bishop Lowth, in the flippancy of controverfy, called the author of The Philoleutherus Lipfienfis, and detector of Phalaris, aut Caprimul gus aut foffor, his genius has produced thofe living witneffes that muft for ever put that charge to fhame and filence. Against fuch idle ill-confidered words, now dead as the language they were conveyed in, the appeal is near at hand; it lies no farther off than to his works, and they are upon every reading-man's fhelves; but thofe who would have looked into his heart fhould have ftepped into his houfe, and feen him in his private and domeftic hours; therefore it is that I adduce thefe little anecdotes and trifling incidents, which de

f

cribe the man, but leave the author to defend himself.

"His ordinary ftyle of converfation was naturally lofty, and his frequent ufe of thou and thee with his familiars carried with it a kind of dictatorial tone, that favoured more of the clofet than the court; this is readily admitted, and this on first approaches might miflead a franger; but the native candour and inherent tendernefs of his heart could not long be veiled from obfervation, for his feelings and affections were at once too impulfive to be loug repreffed, and he too carelefs of concealment to attempt at qualifying them. Such was his fenfibility towards human fufferings, that it became a duty with his family to divert the converfation from all topics of that fort; and if he touched upon them himself, he was betrayed into agitations, which if the reader afcribes to paralytic weaknefs, he will very greatly miftake a man, who to the laft hour of his life poffeffed his faculties firm and in their fulleft vigour. I therefore bar all fuch Inifinterpretations as may attempt to fet the mark of infirmity upon thofe emotions, which had no other fource and origin but in the natural and pure benevolence of his heart.

He was communicative to all without diftinction that fought in formation, or reforted to him for affiftance; fond of his college almost to enthufiafin, and ever zealous for the honour of the purple gown of Trinity. When he held examinations for fellow thips, and the modelt candidate exhibited marks of agitation and alarm, he never failed to interpret candidly of fuch fymptoms; and on thofe occafions he was never known to prefs the hefitating and embarraffed examinant, but oftentimes on the contrary would take all the pains of expounding on himself, and credit the exonerated candidate for anfwers and interpretations of his own fuggefting. If this was not rigid juftice, it was, at least in my conception of it, fomething better, and more amiable. And how liable he was to deviate from the ftrict line of juftice, by his partiality to the fide of mercy, appears from the anecdote of the thief, who robbed him of his plate, and was feized and brought before him with the very articles upon him: the natural procefs in this man's cafe pointed out the road to prifon; my grandfather's procefs was more fummary, but not quite fo legal.

While Commiffary Greaves, who was then prefent, and of counfel for the college ex officio, was expatiating on the crime, and prefcribing the measures obvioufly to be taken with the offender, Dr. Bentley interpofed, faying, "Why tell the man he is a thief? he knows that well enough, without thy information, Greaves. Harkye, fellow, thou fee'ft the trade which thou haft taken up is an unprofitable trade, therefore get thee gone, lay afide an occupation by which thou can't gain nothing but a halter, and follow that by which thou may'ft earn an honeft livelihood." Having faid this, he ordered him to be fet at liberty, against the remonftrances of the bye-ftanders; and, infifting upon it that the fellow was duly penitent for his offence, bade him go his way, and never fteal again.

"I leave it with thofe, who confider mercy as one of man's belt attributes, to fuggeft a plea for the infor mality of this proceeding; and to fuch I will communicate one other anecdote, which I do not deliver upon my own knowledge, though from unexceptionable authority; and this is, that, when Collins had fallen into decay of circumftances, Dr. Bentley, fufpecting he had written him out of credit by his Philoleutherus Lipfienfis, fecretly, contrived to adminifter to the neceffities of his baffled opponent, in a manner that did no lefs credit to his delicacy than to his liberality.

"A morofe and overbearing man will find himself a folitary being in creation; Dr. Bentley, on the contrary, had many intimates. Judicious in forming his friendships, he was faithful in adhering to them. With Sir Ifaac Newton, Dr. Mead, Dr. Walis of Stamford, Baron Spanheim, the lamented Roger Cotes, and feveral other diftinguifhed and illuftrious contemporaries, he lived on terms of uninterrupted harmony; and I have good authority for faying, that it is to his intereft and importunity with Sir Ifaac Newton, that the ineffimable publication of the Principia was ever refolved upon by that truly great and luminous philofopher. Newton's portrait by Sir James Thornhill, and thofe of Baron Spauheim and my grandfather by the fame hand, now hanging in the Mafler's lodge of Trinity, were the bequest of Dr. Bentley. I was poffeffed of letters in Sir Ifaac's own hand to my grandfather, which, together with the cor

rected

rected volume of Bp. Cumberland's Laws of Nature, I lately gave to the library of that flourishing and illuftrious college."

fhire, a family of great opulence and refpectability, allied to the Cromwells and Saint Johus, and, by intermarriages, connected with other great and noble houfes. I have perfect recollection of the perfon of my grandmo ther, and a full impreffion of her manners and habits, which, though in fome degree tinctured with hereditary referve, and the primitive caft of character, were entirely free from the hypocritical cant and affected fanctity of the Oliverians. Her whole life was modelled on the pureft principles of piety, benevolence, and Chriftian charity; and, in her dying moments, my mother being prefent, and voucher of the fact, the breathed out her foul in a kind of beatific vifion, exclaiming in rapture, as the expired, It is all bright, it is all glorious!

"His domeftic habits, when I knew him, were still thofe of unabated ftudy. He flept in the room adjoining to his library, and was never with his family till the hour of dinner; at these times he feemed to have detached himself mott completely from his ftudies; never appearing thoughtful and abftracted, but focial, gay, and poffeffing perfect ferenity of mind and equability of temper. He never dictated topics of converfation to the company he was with, but took them up as they came in his way, and was a patient liftener to other people's difcourfe, however trivial or uninterefling it might be. When The Spectators were in publication, I have heard my mother fay he took great delight in hearing them read to him, and was fo particularly amufed by the character of Sir Roger de Coverley, that he took his literary deceafe moft ferioufly to heart. She alfo told me that, when in converfation with him on the fubject of his works, fhe found occafion to lament that he had bestowed fo great a portion of his time and talents upon criticifm, inftead of employing them upon original compofition, he acknowledged the juftice of her regret with extreme fenfibility, and remained for a confiderable time thoughtful, and feemingly embarraffed by the nature of her remark; at laft, recollecting himself, he faid, " Child, I am fenfible I have not always turned my talents to the proper ufe for which I fhould prefume they were given to me; yet I have done fomething for the honour of my God, and the edification of my fellowcreatures; but the wit and genius of thofe old heathens beguiled me; and, as I defpaired of raifing myself up to their ftandard upon fair ground, I thought the only chance I had of looking over their heads was to get upon their thoulders." “Of his pecuniary affairs he took no account; he had no ufe for money, and difmiffed it entirely from his thoughts his eftablishment in the mean time was refpectable, and his

"I was frequently called upon by her to repeat certain fcriptural texts and paffages, which the had taught me, and for which I feldom failed to be rewarded, but by which I was alfo frequently molt completely puzzled and bewildered: fo that I much doubt if the good effects of this practice upon immature and infantine understandings will be found to keep pace with the good intentions of those who adopt it. One of these holy apophthegms, viz. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, I remember to have coft me many ftruggle to interpret; and the refult of my conftruction was directly opposité to the fpirit and meaning of the text. I was alfo occafionally fummoned to. attend upon the readings of long fermons and homilies of Baxter, as I believe, and others of his period; neither by thefe was I edified, but, on the contrary, fo effectually wearied, that, by noifes and interruptions, I feldom failed to render myfelf obnoxious, and obtain my difmillion before the reading was over. The death of this exemplary lady preceded that of my grandfather by a few years only; and by her he had one fon, Richard, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Joanna." (To be continued.)