Hall in

ACCORDING to my promile, I here

fend you a fketch of Dalfton Hall, in the parish of Dalfton, in Cumber land, and about three miles from CarKifle. (See Plates I. and II.)

In Nicholfon's and Burn's Antiquities of Cumberland is the following account of that parish. Ranulph de Melchines gave the barony of Dafton to Robert de Vallibus, brother of Hubert de Vallibus, firft Baron of Gifland, who thereupon took the name of Robert de Dalfton; and the defcendants of the faid Robert poffeffed that barony, in a lineal defcent, till King Stephen gave Cumberland to David King of Scots. However, not long after, we find it in the hands of the Crown. For by the record of an allize, 6 Edward I. the jurors find, that the barony of Dalton, with the advowfon of the church there, efcheated to the King, by reafon of the owner thereof, Henry fon of Maurinus (Morifon), being attainted of felony. Morifon is a Scotch name, and perhaps King David granted this barony to him; and, upon King Henry II's recovering the fame from the Scots, the felony might easily accrue. It continued in the Crown till the reign of King Henry III. who, by his charter in the 14th year of his reign, grants to Water (Matclerk) Bishop of Carlisle, and his fucceffors, the manor of Daltion, with the advowfon of the church there, with fac and foke, and woods, and mills, and all other appurtenances.

The fift meine lordship within this barony is Little Dalton, of which Dalfton Hall is the capital, or mantion. houfe. It was granted, as is aforefaid, to Robert brother to Hubert de Vallibus, first Baron of Gilfland, who there upon affumed the name de Dalton. He had a fon, Reginald de Dalfton, from whom the late Sir George Dalton, Bart. the laft of the name of Dalton,

was lineally defcended. Sir George, having no iffue male, fold this eftate, in 1761, to Monkhouse Davifon, efq. of London, and died at York, March 9, 1765, leaving an infant daughter.

This houfe (fee N° 1) is undoubtedly very antient; but, as there is no date or record to be found, the time of its erection cannot be afcertained. On the front of the houfe, which was the

Nicholson and Burn's Antiquities of Cumberland, vol. II. p. 341. GENT. MAG. December, 1790.

principal entrance, are placed spouts, as ata, to carry off the water from the roof, made to refemble the old forged cannon, differently ornamented. See a more exact reprefentation of one, at b in No 2. Under the fpouts is cut in relief an arrow pointed against a man's head, as at c, N° 2. Upon the cornice above the fpouts is placed a head, which I take to be of Roman conftruction, and was probably defigned for the head of Jupiter Ammon. It evidently appears never to have been originally intended to be placed where it now ftands, as there is no kind of fixture, and it may be eafily fhoved about.

In the field froating the house are traces of a Roman camp; the ditch and vallum are perfect on one fide: and near it is a barrow, now planted with firs. It is therefore probable that the head was found near this fpot. See the head, at d, in N° 2. In that part of the building marked e is the chapel, now used as a dairy. On the ftone fillet at fis the infcription inferted in your prefent volume, p. 414, which I was in hopes fome of your ingenious correfpondents would have been able to make out. Atf in N° 2. are the two figures which resemble a cat and a rat. On the little fquare tower are the Dalton arms; fee g, N° 2.

From the fituation of this houfe, which may be said to be on the borders, it was fou id neceflary, in antient times, to be well fecured against the inroads of their neighbours on the other fide of the Efk. Mr. Pennant tells us, "that, in thofe very unhappy times, every one was obliged to keep guard against perhaps his neighbour; and fometimes to keep themfelves fhut up for days together, having no other opportunity of tafting the freth air, but from the battlemented top of their caftelet. Their windows were very fmall; their door of iron. As late as the reign of our James I. watches were kept along the whole border, and at every ford, by day and by night: fetters, watchers, fearchers of the watchers, and overfeers of the watchers, were appointed *."

Notwithstanding these precautions, their exceffes continued for a long time; and thefe free-booters, who lived by pillage, were called Mofs-troopers, from their living in the Moffes.

In Daifton Hall, at the end of a dark

* Tour in Scotland and Hebrides, p. 68. pallage,

paffage, is a very Arong iron gate, with two bolts and a hafp, as in the drawing at b in N° 2. This was intended to fe cure the chapel and tau cafe which lead to the rooms above, where proba bly they kept their things of value, The little round tower, i, is a staircase to fome other rooms, and goes to the top of the house, where a door opens upon the leads.

There feems to have been every accommodation necessary for a large family; but it is now divided into two tenements, never again to be united. Yours, &c. H. R.

Mr. URBAN,

E

Νου. 30.

VERY one, at all acquainted with modern poetry and criticifm, well knows that one of the principal embel lishments of the comic epopee is the introduction of parodies on paffages in antient and modern clafficks. If Pope, among the host of bad or party-writers who attacked his fame, had not been able to discover a pair who wrote against him in partnership, he would have loft the opportunity of introducing a parody on the young Chiefs who form the fubject of the most interefting epifode, if epifode it ought to be called, in the Eneid. But, luckily for our Poet, one Burnet and Ducket published a joint-work against his first undertaking to tranflate the Iliad, intituled, merides, by Sir Iliad Doggrel;" and furnished him with a Nifus and a Euryalus for his Dunciad. It is in' the games in honour of Anchifes that the young heroes first make their appear.

ance.

Nifus & Euryalus primi.

"Ho

Euryalus forma infignis viridique juventa ; Nifus amore pio pueri. u. V. 296. And when they appear in the character of warriors, we are told, Nifus erat porte cuftos, Et juxta comes Euryalus.His amor unus erat, pariterque in bella ruebant, Tunc quoque communi portam ftatione tenebant. En. IX. 183. Let us now see how Pope profited by thefe paffages. Elkanah Settle, after regretting to Cibber how unfortunate it was that two such great men of their

Embrace, embrace, my fons! be foes no more! Nor glad vile Poets with true Criticks' gore*.

By way of contraft, he points out to Cibber the Friendship of two others: Behold yon pair, in strict embraces join'd† ; How like in manners, and how like in mind! Fam'd for good-nature Burnet, and for truth; Ducket for pious paffion to the youth ‡. Equal in wit, and equally polite, Shall this a Pafquin, that a Grumbler write. Like are their merits, like ewards they fare; That thines a conful, that commiffioner.

The Critick. Dennis, a fellow-fufferer, as we have feen, in the cause, with the ingenuity of a commentator accustomed to find meanings his author never thought of, infinuated in print, that Pope had, in the above parody, attacked the moral characters of Burnet and Ducket. But it is plain that the perfons themselves were not fuch Dances as to mifunderftand the Poet. If the charge had been true, the crime, rendered notorious by the celebrity of their accufer, muft have obliged them to leave their country; and, if false, a jury would undoubtedly have adjudged heavy damages for fo atrocious a calumny. But they were too wife either to fly their country, or appeal to a jury; for, had they had recourfe to the latter, I think we may fafely pronounce what

would have been the event in the words

of Pope and Horace :

Solventur rifu tabulæ, tu miffus abibis.
In fuch a cafe the plaintiff will be hifs'd,
My Lords the Judges laugh, and you're dif

mifs'd.

Such is my view of the above paffage, on which a late writer in your Maga zine, who ftands forward as the profeffed accufer of Pope and defender of the heroes of the Dunciad, has founded his grand charge against him. This writer, in your prefent volume, p. 338, afferts, that, in confequence of the Colonel's [Ducket's] spirited conduct on this extraordinary attack, Pope found it convenient to add the following note." M. F. (Ib. p. 786) asks, What was the Colonel's fpirited conduct on this occafion? Mr. W. has replied to the letter of M. F. but has omitted to anfwer the

armis

Concordes animæ. Ib. 826. Amore pio pueri.

Æn. VI. 833. fulgere cernis in