1821.] Overland Northern Expedition.-Kelloe Church.

than the others; having food and clothing easy to be provided. They are often indifferent to most European articles of commerce. The baneful traffic of spirits and tobacco, with some trinkets, form their only purchases. The poor natives of the other parts have to toil laboriously to gain even subsistence; they have therefore little to traffic with.

"All the Nations southward of this have suffered much this year from the prevailing diseases which have raged amongst them, and carried off many, especially children. They have now generally recovered their strength, but not their spirits, which are always greatly depressed on the loss of relatives. There was an instance of keen sensibility exhibited here a few days ago by a whole tribe, which would be scarcely expected in such uninformed minds; they declined to pitch their tents this season on a spot where they had long been accustomed to do, for fear the circumstance should re

5

vive the moments of grief they had all experienced in the loss of many relations, or the place should remind them of past pleasures in the society of friends whom they were never to see again. This race of men, Chipewyans, are a mild, timid set of persons, excellently described in Hearne and Mackenzie's Voyages.

"The cold was more severe than has been for many years. Both the old stagers and Indians have complained very much. I have not experienced more severity than I was prepared to expect; when travelling, I could generally keep myself warm by walking.

"You would enjoy the clear frosty nights; the stars appear with uncom mon brilliancy, but the weather is too cold for making observations with any accuracy. The Aurora Borealis is occasionally very fiue, and of the most variable kind, both in motion and colours."

6

Kelloe Church.-Campbell's British Poets.

Early in the fourteenth century a family who assumed the local name: was of some consequence in this place, and gave a Bishop to the See of Durham in 1311, in the person of Richard Kellaw. In 1312, his brother, Patrick Kellaw, commanded the troops of the Bishoprick against the Shavaldi, or freebooters of Northumberland, who (taking advantage of Bruce's attack on the Palatinate,) issued from their fastnesses, and levied plunder and contribution. Patrick Kellaw defeated the banditti in Holy Island; and their Captain, John de Wadale, perished in the action *.

By an heiress of the Kellaws, the possessions passed into the Forcer Family; the last of whom, Basil Forcer, died without issue in 1782. The Manor was sold in his life-time to John Tempest, esq. who devised it to Sir M. Vane Tempest; on whose decease it became the property of his heiress, the present Lady Stewart.

The Church and Parsonage stand above half a mile from the Village of Kelloe, in a long hollow vale on the North of a small trout stream, called Kelloe Beck.

The Church, which is dedicated to St. Helen, consists of a nave and chancel of equal width, both supported by buttresses, and a low square tower at the West end of the nave. The East window is divided into three lights, under a pointed arch. The nave has three windows of similar form, and the chancel three narrow pointed lights, all to the South.

Thornlaw Porch, or Pity Porch, which projects from the North side of the nave, seems to have been originally a Chantry, founded by the Kellaws in 1347. It was endowed with lands, which at the dissolution were valued at 107.

The Vicarage of Kelloe is in the patronage of the Bishops of Durham; but formerly in the Masters of Sherburne Hospital. The Glebe is all inclosed, and estimated to contain 222 acres. The present worthy vicar is the Rev. George Stephenson, M. A.

Here we for the present take our leave of Mr. Surtees's Work; but we shall shortly be called upon to notice the publication of a Second Volume of his interesting labours.-EDIT.

* See Mr. Surtees's General History,

p. xxx.

Mr. URBAN,

D

[Jan.

Bow, Jan. 4. URING the last thirty years the press has gradually yielded such an extraordinary increase of works under the multifarious names of Selections, Beauties, Minstrelsy, Extracts, Fugitive Pieces, &c. &c. gathered from our established poets, that the sixteens, twelves, duodecimos, octavos, and imperial octavos, might form an extensive juvenile library, had any school-boy a smattering of ambition to be dubbed " a collector." Fortunately the compilers, while they have increased the mass by" pouring out of one phial into another," have also crushed the young bibliographer's rising passion, by their tedious sameness. They possess only one generic character, and duplicates of modern works that only vary in the unimportant features of paper and type, are of little or no estimation. The stripling that has imbibed a taste for poetry, will read Milton, Gray, or any other standard poet, in a sixpenny edition with equal enthusiasm as if embellished and hot-pressed by Da Roveray or Sharpe.

It was my chance sometime since to be invited by an eminent city publisher to become editor of a few choice morsels of English poetry, or in the language of business, "Do a work for the Row." Unfortunately for the speculation, the announcement of my long-respected friend Mr. Murray of a similar publication, made us dread the curse of rivalship, and the being crushed by a long and widely puffed forestalment. Such a compilation was well adapted to a pedagogue whose little leisure is stealing one hour a day from my scholars, and it required only a smattering of taste, a small portion of judgment, and very little research. The materials I depended upon seemed ample. There was Dr. Anderson's and Mr. A. Chalmers's British Poets, with those useful selections by Ritson, Ellis, and Southey. As to biographical or cri tical notices, they were easily flung together by pilfering from the History of English Poetry, Censura Literaria, British Bibliographer, Restituta, and other modern works of similar character. Besides these sources I was assured of the covetable assistance of two gentlemen, well known for their literary attainments, and deeply read in antient poetic lore (which

1821.]

British Poets, edited by Mr. Campbell.

(which I know little about), who were to aid with the loan of a dozen or score elder authors of rather a rarer order, and who also undertook to dog-ear certain leaves of curious matter, fearful I might not hastily discover the same; with a caution to be particular if two poems were on the same leaf not to adopt the worst. Such was the outline of the plan, and my SELECT specimens would certainly have been completed in TWENTY portly octavos-But

Mr. Murray announced, and has since published, Specimens of the British Poets; with biographical and critical notices, and an Essay on English Poetry, By Thomas Campbell; or, as the label expresses it, BRITISH POETS, by T. CAMPBELL, 7 vols. 31. 13s. 6d.-Seven volumes ! although the works above noticed as sufficient to supply materials for twenty, have rendered copious assistance, and some acute readers have fancied there may be traced the assistant hand of a friend; yet has the whole been rammed, crammed, and jammed, into only seven volumes ! Certainly, however Mr. Campbell is justly entitled to his well-earned eminence as a poet, he must excuse a little blunt honesty in announcing that he is not quite up to the art of book-making, notwithstanding the reports circulated so opportunely before the appearance of his seven volumes. Then it was rung through echo's trump that the Specimens were the result, of a close application of eight years, which can scarcely be correct, for there are many instances of haste discoverable, and so little time is necessary for cutting down the bulk of an author into a trite specimen, that the last six volumes might as well have passed the press in eight months, as in as many years. Indeed I strongly suspect, from some traits of negligence, the whole work was hurried forward from the spreading buzz of my own project. Another groundless assumption was, that the labour, if such light amusement may be designated labour, was to find a remuneration of 1000l. Surely it cannot be. Booksellers do not now barter for "the whistling of a name, and Mr. Murray's purse, on this occasion, would be sufficiently lightened if it bore the evaporation of a cool 100%., which a puny wit may

7

argue is subtracting nothing. Lastly, Mr. Campbell was to supplant all that had been done by Headley, Ellis, Ritson, and Southey.-Now to the truth: Is all this extravagance of bruit accomplished? Can Mr. Campbell take credit for more than his "Essay on English Poetry," and his "Biographical and critical Notices :" articles of high merit, and had those parts been given in a moderate sized volume, then those sketches would have found a run of several editions, and which would, to an extensive circle, be even now acceptable. If the SEVEN Volumes were intended to be worthy the closet of the literary man, why tax him to load his groaning shelves with extremely long extracts from poets of most common reference; but Mr. Campbell to secure praise should not have suffered any one poet, found in the volumes of Anderson or Chalmers, to have occupied by specimen more than a single leaf. He has also erred if he believes any kind of finger-post necessary for the man that reads to discover the nervous passages in our standard poets. On the other hand, if it was calculated as a fit work to disseminate a love of poetry and better knowledge of our domestic writers, among the junior branches of society, who may have outgrown the longer-needing nursery varieties and the polished pages of Harris and Godwin, why eke out to seven volumes what might have been given in a double-columned octavo ? BRYAN BRAINTREE.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

Jan. 17.

HE epitaphs which appeared in your last, p.555, upon a Boxer and a Wrestler, most forcibly brought to my recollection two epitaphs, written about twenty-five years ago, upon one not celebrated for either boxing or wrestling, but for a kindred excellency, running.

Tommy Wilcox (for so he was always called) filled a situation, formerly very common and very useful, before the improvement of our roads and mode of travelling had done away with its necessity. He was running footman in the much-respected family of John Blackburne, Esq. the representative for Lancashire. Tommy seemed as if born for the situation. Below the middle size, he was of a very compact make, and agile limbs;

and

8

Epitaphs on Tommy Wilcox, Running Footman.

and his gait was very remarkable.
He could scarcely be said ever to
walk; his
pace was a kind of amble
or shuffle, which he could accelerate
from the slowest rate to the quickest;
going at least ten miles an hour and
his head always appeared as greatly
busied as his feet, keeping time with
them, and nodding slower or faster,
according to his own loco motion.
Indeed his head was quite as light as
his heels; encumbered with nothing,
except now and then with a message,
or some other business of fetching and
carrying. His perseverance was equal
to his speed. When the present
Member for the County was first re-
turned at Lancaster, Tommy attend-
ed in his capacity of running footman,
whether still retained in that situa-
tion, or a volunteer upon this occa-
sion, I cannot say. When his master
set out on his way home, with that
rapidity which good fortune generally
gives, and good news seem to require,
Tommy was left at first greatly be-
hind, and it was thought that he could
never regain on that day his accus-
tomed precedence: but long before
the travellers had reached home,
Tommy passed the carriage, and was
the first to announce his master's ar-
rival and success. This journey was
upwards of sixty miles, and perform-
ed at the rate of ten miles an hour.
He had no sustenance upon the road,
but what he derived from tobacco,
with which his mouth was always well
supplied.

Of this notable man, his career being finished, and his last breath gone, some gentlemen, who admired his talents, wished to preserve the memory. It was proposed to erect a stone over his grave, and inscribe it with a suitable record. Though the stone was never erected by them, the epitaph was written at their request by the Curate of the parish, who had gained some reputation for such-like compositions: and it was as follows:

His race is run! his journey's o'er!
Lo! here be rests to run no more!
Tho' by the swiftness of his heels,
He cou'd out-run the chariot wheels;
And if on errands he did go,
Wou'd fly "like lightning to and fro;"
Yet he that runs by night and day
O'ertook him on life's weary way,
And swifter than all mortals-Death
Soon ran poor Tommy out of breath.
This Epitaph, the curate, antici-
pating no small praise, shewed to his

[Jan.

rector, who was no other than the
Rev. E. Owen, of Warrington, the
well-known and far-famed translator
of Juvenal, as witty as he was wise,
as ingenious and facetious as he was
learned. The rector did any thing
but praise. He hemm'd and he ha'd,
and at length censured it, as too long
winded, and breathing too much the
spirit of Sternhold and Hopkins, say-
ing at the same time, "let me see if I
cannot mend it." To work he accord-
ingly went, and in about half an hour,
after many pulls and twists of the wig,
and amidst much smoke occasioned
by some vehement puffs of the tobacco
tube, out comes the following, which
appears so very like in expression and
conception to the epitaphs alluded to
above:

By mortal runners ne'er was he surpass'd,
Death only prov'd his overmatch at last.
Rest, Tommy, here! till with recruited
breath,

Thou ris'st to triumph o'er thy con-
queror-Death!

Should what are here sent be acceptable to Mr. Urban, the same hand can supply him with a few others much of the same kind, written upon persons as celebrated as Tommy in their way, and who have strutted, and fretted their day, and acted their parts

UPON THE BANKS OF THE MERSEY.

Mr. URBAN,

THE

Jan. 20.

HE two following Tablets have very lately been set up in the Abbey Church of St. Alban; the latter by Sir Edward Stracey, a new created Baronet, understood to be son to Sir John:

"In the Vault below are deposited the mortal Remains of the late Rev. John Payler Nicholson, A. M. formerly Student of Christ Church Coll. Oxford, afterwards Head Master of the Free Grammar School in this Town, and more than twenty years the pious and exemplary Rector of the Abbey Church. He dyed on the 9th day of May 1817, aged 58 years, highly revered, deeply regretted. His mournful Family, in grateful and duteous remembrance, have raised this Tablet."

"Sacred to the Memory of that worthy man, Sir John Stracey, Knight, Re

corder of London, obiit 1743.

"Also of Mary his Wife, obiit 1743. "Also of Mary, their eldest Daughter, obiit 1767.

"All highly beloved, and greatly_lamented."

J. B.

Mr.