which attaches to it from the celebrated lord chancellor, who was a younger son of the house, and born at Acton. The vicarage house a few years ago was rather a singular and venerable structure, built cruciform, with three rounded Elizabethan gables. It was erected (but much improved by the late vicar) in 1675. The following inscription is preserved on its walls:-Rev. Vir Humphredus Lloyd, episcopus Bangor hujus ecclesiæ vicarius ædem hanc lapsam proprio sumptu ex fundo struxit, A.D. 1675. Great additions have been made to it by the present vicar, which have destroyed its former, and primitive, and modest appearance, but were never finished. The parish register presents nothing curious; it commences not earlier than a few years after the restoration of the church and monarchy, as is the case of most in these parts. Yet the following selection from the names of the incumbents since the Reformation is remarkable:1577. Bishop Hughes. 1584. Hugh Bellot, D.D., Bishop of Bangor, 1585; Bishop of Chester, 1595. He was one of the translators of Queen Elizabeth's English Bible. His monument, a recumbent figure on an altar pedestal, is in the chancel of Wrexham church, where he is buried. 1592. Richard Parry, D.D., afterwards Bishop of this diocese. He revised the first edition of the Welsh Bible of his predecessor, Bishop Morgan, which he put forth in 1620, with the aid of his chaplain and connection, the celebrated and profoundly learned Dr. Davies, author of the Welsh and Latin Grammar and Dictionary. 1673. Humphrey Lloyd, D.D., Bishop of Bangor. 1690. Narcissus March, D.D., successively Bishop of Ferns, (which he seems to have held with this vicarage, Archbishop of Cashel, Dublin, and, lastly, Armagh, and several times Chief Justice of Ireland. 1764. Henry Newcome, M.A., nephew of Dr. Richard Newcome, Bishop of the diocese, who will long be remembered for his long and useful incumbency. The present incumbent is Heneage Horsley, M.A., son of the most eminent and profoundly learned Bishop of St. Asaph. An ancient British encampment called "The Roft," which may have been occupied by the Romans, so as to have perplexed the learned as to which nation to appropriate it, is to be seen on a projecting exploratory mount, overlooking the Vale Royal of Cheshire, and is much visited by antiquaries. Some years ago, the celebrated Welsh antiquary, Mr. Pennant, and his equally learned friend and instructor in ancient British history, the late Rev. T. Lloyd, of Caerws, met on the spot to decide the knotty point as to its British or Roman origin, but the dinner hour, which called them to the inn below, [to partake of a haunch sent to greet them by Lord Grosvenor from his not far distant mansion of Eaton Hall,] is said to have terminated their discussion. "Wat's Dyke," an ancient fortification extending some miles, appears in detached places. It is an appendage to the larger one, called "Offas Dyke;" which latter, as is well known, extends VOL. VIII.-Oct. 1835. 3 D from the River Dee, near Holywell, in Flintshire, to the Bristol Channel, for the purpose of repelling the British from the dominions of Offa, King of Mercia, its maker. The space between these two fosses was neutral ground, where the two nations met for barter. The mention of this boundary induces the notice of a custom peculiar to the church in Wales, proper, because it is the generally asserted rule that it does not prevail in these Welsh parishes alone, which are excluded from the rest of the principality by this very ancient boundary line. The custom to be noticed, is that of the relatives and friends making offerings of money to the officiating minister at funerals. Many think (as is, indeed, without more reflection very natural) that it is a relic of superstition, and meant originally to defray the charge of a mass for the deceased; but the preceding remark, which seems to restrict the custom with its origin to our ancient British church, which was notoriously free from such superstitions, previous to its amalgamation with the English branch, vindicates it from this obloquy. No one "offers," now-a-days, from any other motive than a mixed respect for the dead and attachment to the officiating minister, thus benefited. The practice is, that after reading the funeral lesson, the minister moves from the desk to the communion table, where he proceeds with the service to the end of the first collect, omitting at this station that part which is appropriate to the grave, but thereat taking it up. The chief mourners first, and then the other friends, march up the aisle, and make their respective offering on a small board, appended to the communion rails. The amount, in some instances, is great; but in most cases, being in pence chiefly, is not more than would be the prescribed fee for burying. Another custom, excluded the border parishes by the same line, is that which is called "the Plugain," (Pulli Cantus, some think,) or early cock-crowing service on the morn of Christmasday. In all Welsh churches, a few years ago, (but the service is beginning to be omitted in some, where the people are not of the simple country sort,) and still in most, the church is absolutely thronged on the occasion from five to six o'clock in the morning of the festival, and brilliantly lighted up, when the morning service is used; and, at intervals of the psalms and lessons, an individual, or a company of two or three, stand up in different stations, and sing a carol, taken in general from a printed book, which is always an excellent composition, the work of a modern or less recent Welsh bard, to which the most mute and pious attention is given. It serves the purpose of the best sermon; and is often as long, at this cold season, so as to render it expedient to repress many aspirants. It generally takes an extensive and very correct view of the doctrine of salvation; and it is truly admirable that men in the humblest stations, such as the com posers, can express themselves so well. The practice carries us irresistibly to those shepherds "who abode in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night." And if this be an observance derived from the unreformed in darker times, surely none but a gloomy mind will, none indeed can reasonably, object to it. Having mentioned what customs of, probably, the ancient British church do not prevail in this district of it, let me refer also to another peculiar omission local. The Ecania," wakes," which are celebrated in the principality, as in England, on the eve and day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated, are not so here, and (I believe not) in the adjoining parishes of Cheshire; but what is called the "rush bearing," or "rush burying" as it is commonly expressed, is substituted, and at a different period of the year. Perhaps in former times it was the practice to cleanse the sanctuary on that annual occasion, and to bear fresh rushes in procession to strew its floor, and decently to bury the old, which were deemed sacred. And now to conclude this account of Gresford Church, let us foster a hope that, should the threatening aspect of the times lead to attempts at anarchy and oppression, its walls will hereafter present additional monuments, like that of Colonel Robinson, to many a noble and loyal modern frequenter of its worships, who, though friendly to every reform that tends to the more extended influence of the established church, yet successfully resisted every fanatical attempt at its subversion." NATIVUS ET ALUMNUS. "A MODERN author, who writes the history of ancient times, can have no personal knowledge of the events of which he writes; and consequently he can have no title to the credit and confidence of the public, merely on his own authority. If he does not write romance instead of history, he must have received his information from tradition-from authentic monuments, original records, or the memoirs of more ancient writers and therefore it is but just to acquaint his readers from whence he actually received it."-HENRY. IN the preceding paper,* I expressed my design to go on from Robertson to another popular writer; and I now beg to call the reader's attention to the historian from whom I have borrowed my motto. In that part of his History of England which treats of the tenth century, Henry says: "That we may not entertain too contemptible an opinion of our forefathers, who flourished in the benighted ages which we are now examining, it is necessary to pay due attention to their unhappy circumstances. To say nothing of A correspondent mentions that Mr. Waddington, having been misled by Mosheim, as to St. Eloy, at a later part of his work, corrected the error, gave St. Eloy's real words, and animadverted severely, but justly, on Mosheim.-ED. that contempt for letters which they derived from their ancestors, and of the almost incessant wars in which they were engaged, it was difficult, or rather impossible, for any but the clergy, and a very few of the most wealthy among the laity, to obtain the least smattering of learning; because all the means of acquiring it were far beyond their reach. It is impossible to learn to read and write even our own native tongue, which is now hardly esteemed a part of learning, without books, masters, and materials for writing; but in those ages, all these were so extremely scarce and dear, that none but great princes and wealthy prelates could procure them. We have already heard of a large estate given by a king of Northumberland for a single volume; and the history of the middle ages abounds with examples of that kind. How, then, was it possible for persons of a moderate fortune to procure so much as one book, much less such a number of books as to make their learning to read an accomplishment that would reward their trouble? It was then as difficult to borrow books as to buy them. It is a sufficient proof of this that the king of France was obliged to deposit a considerable quantity of plate, and to get one of his nobility to join with him in a bond, under a high penalty, to return it, before he could procure the loan of one volume, which may now be purchased for a few shillings. Materials for writing were also very scarce and dear, which made few persons think of learning that art. This was one reason of the scarcity of books; and that great estates were often transferred from one owner to another by a mere verbal agreement, and the delivery of earth and stone, before witnesses, without any written deed. Parchment, in particular, on which all their books were written, was so difficult to be procured, that many of the MSS. of the middle ages, which are still preserved, appears to have been written on parchment from which some former writing had been erased."-Book ii., ch. iv., vol. iv., p. 80. After what I have said in former papers, it is, I trust, quite unnecessary to make a single remark on all this; which I transcribe and set before the reader, instead of asking him, as I should otherwise have done, to turn back to the statements of Robertson, which I have from time to time quoted, and to see how far, when read off without any explanation, they are calculated to give a true view of things. Henry has, however, one "hack story," of which I must take particular notice; for, notwithstanding the false impression conveyed by such absurd matter as I have just quoted, there is really more mischief done by the little pointed anecdotes with which some popular writers pretend to prove or to illustrate their general assertions. These stories are remembered by their readers, and the semblance of particular and detailed truth in one instance, gives sanction and weight to a whole string of false and foolish assertions about the general state of things. Perhaps it might be enough to refer the reader back to the instance of the Abbot Bonus;* but instead of that we will have an entirely new story, from Henry. Having told us that— "All the nations of Europe were involved in such profound darkness during the whole course of the tenth century, that the writers of literary history are at a loss for words to paint the ignorance, stupidity, and barbarism of that age" (Book ii., c. 4, vol. iv., p. 67,) and having, in proof of this, referred to "Cave Histor. Literar. * See No. IV., for June. p. 571, Brucker Hist. Philosoph. t. 3, p. 632," he adds on the next page "The clergy in this age were almost as illiterate as the laity. Some who filled the highest stations in the church could not so much as read; while others, who pretended to be better scholars, and attempted to perform the public offices, committed the most egregious blunders; of which the reader will find one example, out of many, quoted below." At the foot of the page, we find the following note : "Mein werc, Bishop of Paderborn, in this century, in reading the public prayers, used to say :-"Benedic Domine regibus et reginis mulis et mulabus tuis," instead of "famulis et famulabus," which made it a very ludicrous petition."-Leibniz Coll. Script. Brunsuic., t. i., p. 555. Very ludicrous indeed! What an odd person Bishop Meinwerc must have been, and what a very strange habit to fall into! But, without attempting to account for it, farther than by saying, "it was his way," may we not draw the inferences from it-first, that if he habitually made this blunder, he made a thousand others like it; secondly, that what he did, all the other bishops did; thirdly, that if the bishops were so ignorant, the priests and deacons, to say nothing of the laity, were infinitely worse? Are not these fair deductions? And yet, to say the truth, when I consider that my inquiry is not whether there were any ignorant, stupid, incompetent persons in the dark ages; but whether there were not some of a different character, I feel inclined to claim, or at least to cross-examine, this witness. I cannot but think that the story, even as it stands, may be fairly made to say something in my favour. If the bishop did make this blunder, it seems that he had, at least, one hearer who knew that it was a blunder, and who thought it worth while to note it down as such; which, moreover, he would hardly have done if conscious that he was the only person capable of seeing its absurdity. Besides, if this is only "one example out of many," there must have been persons in various places equally competent to detect such errors; and who, like the critic of Paderborn, thought them worth recording. So that, in proportion as the recorded blunders of this kind are numerous, we may be led to suspect a thicker and more extensive sprinkle of better-instructed persons. I know not how else to account for such things having been seen and recorded as errors; unless, indeed, we assume the existence of some one individual "George Seacoal," whose reading and writing in this dark age came "by nature;" and suppose him to have circuited about with "the lanthorn" which he had in charge, to" comprehend all vagrom men" who broke the bounds of grammar, and who has certainly acted up to the very letter of his instructions, by letting his reading and writing" appear where there is no need of such vanity;" for what did it matter to his flock whether |