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Cornelius Smith, born at Hythe, a Lieute--Mary, dau. of Colonel .... Faith, by nant in the ship in which King William came to England, ob. 1727, æt. 66, buried at Shoreham.

dau. of.... Porringer of Ireland, mar. at Hastings, ob. circa 1741, æet. cirea 64, bar, at St. Mary's, Dover.

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Chas. Thurlow Smith, ob. s.p.

mar. Thos.

Delamaine, esq. Barrister at Law.

SIR WM. SID-
NEY SMITH,

K. C. B. &c.

&c. &c.

Two sons.

Arms granted to Sir Sidney Smith in 1803.-Azure, on a chevron engrailed between three fions passant guardant Or, a wreath of laurel Proper, between 2 crosses Calvary Sable, with a Chief of Augmentation.-Crest, a leopard's head Proper, gorged with a plain collar, therefrom a line reflexed, issuant out of an eastern Crown Or; with a Crest of Augmentation.

The Arms of the Smythes of Corsham were, Azure, an escutcheon Argent within six lions rampant, Or; and were allowed to the younger branches at the Heralds' Visitation of Wiltshire in 1623, upon the production of an ancient seal, then, it is said in the Visitation, two hundred years old.t Customer Smythe, however, obtained two grants of arms to himself and his descendants, differenced from the old coat; the first grant being per pale Or and Azure, a chevron between three lions passant guardant counterchanged: and the second grant, from Clarencieux Cooke, in 1588, was the coat and crest now used by his noble descendant; namely, "Azure, a chevron engrailed between three lions passant guardant Or." Crest-" An ounce's head erased Argent, Pelletee, and gorged with a collar Sable, edged Or, charged with

three Pellets, and chained Or.' The arms and crest of Sir Sidney Smith, however they may be described in the instrument, are in fact a NEW grant, and were founded upon the coat allowed to Customer Smythe in 1588, from the idea that he was descended from that person, though the pedigree could not be deduced; a common prac tice where a connection between a grantee and a family entitled to Arms is presumed to exist. But an heraldic eye will at once discover, by the chevron being charged with "a wreath of laurel Proper between two crosses Calvary Sable," and by the crest being "a leopard's head Proper, gorged with a plain collar, therefrom a line reflexed," that the Arms and Crest of Sir Sidney Smith are totally distinct from those of the Viscounts Strangford. Yours, &c.

N.

+ Harleian MS. 1442, f. 112.-"This coat produced in an old seal, to be the right coat of this family, and is said to be two hundred years old."

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1830.]

New Church at Doncaster.

489

NEW CHURCHES.-No.XXVIII. multangular and unusual appearance.

CHRIST CHURCH, DONCASTER.
Architects, Woodhead and Hurst.
THE Town of Doncaster has been

TH

long celebrated for its beauty and cleanliness, for its striking approach from the south, its magnificent Grand Stand and celebrated Race Course, its public buildings, its venerable Gothic Church, and stately tower; and latterly by the erection of a beautiful Gothic Church, with an elegant spire, giving an additional feature to the town from every approach.

This new Church was founded and endowed by a benevolent individual of the name of Jarrett, whose ancestors had for a number of years been connected with the town of Doncaster. A monument in the old church states that a brother of the founder was an Alderman of this borough. John Jarrett, esq. the founder of Christ Church, was in early life a manufacturer at Bradford; subsequently, during the war, he became a partner in the extensive iron works carried on at Low Meor near Bradford, under the firm of Jarrett, Danson, and Hardy, where he acquired a very large fortune. Retiring from business some years ago, he returned to his native town to enjoy the fruits of his honest industry, and, during a period of several years he by acts of kindness and benevolence acquired the respect and esteem of his fellow townsmen. It pleased the Great Disposer of events to terminate his life before the completion of this his last pious work. The first stone of the Church was laid on the 9th of October 1827; and the founder died on the 15th of January 1828, at the age of eighty-three. The sums he gave were 10,000l. for the building, and 3000l. for the endowment.

The site of the Church, at the point where the Thorne road branches from the great North road, is particularly fine and open, occupying about two and a half acres of ground, surrounded by wide and spacious public roads. The style of architecture adopted is that which prevailed in the 14th century. The stone used is from the celebrated quarries of Roche Abbey.

The plan of the Church comprises a tower, nave, two side-ailes, and a chancel; the latter, together with two vestries, forms a semi-octagonal projection, which gives the east end a GENT. MAG. December, 1830.

There are six windows to each aile, and a seventh at the north-east and south-east vestries. Each of these is divided horizontally by two cross-mullions, and thereby formed into twelve lights; the centre three are square quatrefoils; and the tracery at the head forms three other quatrefoils. The east window is of six principal lights, and the upper part spread out in tracery.

The principal entrance is through a spacious octangular porch, the whole size of the tower, which is groined in imitation of stone. The entrance to the galleries and side-aites is by the doors on the north and south sides of the Church.

The size of the Church from the tower to the chancel, in the interior, is 94 feet long, and 52 wide, with galleries at the south and north sides and west end. The accommodation is for 1000 persons, of which 300 seats are free and unappropriated. The ceiling above the nave is divided into square compartments by bold ornamented beams, with bosses at the intersection, which are painted in imitation of oak. The side-ailes are groined in imitation of stone, having bosses at the intersection of the ribs, with corbels for the ribs to rise from.

The pulpit, reading, and clerk's desks, accord in style with the building, and are placed in the centre_of the middle aile, which is 10 feet wide; a handsome stone font is placed in front of the west entrance.

The

We cannot conclude this account without expressing our admiration of this beautiful specimen of modern architecture, which, although not free from defects, possesses architectural merit in a very high degree. uniform correctness of style in the detail, the beautiful and finely proportioned spire, the chaste and elegant tracery of the windows, the light ornamental buttresses and pinnacles, all combine to give a character to the building pleasing and satisfactory, and reflect great credit on the architects, Messrs. Woodhead and Hurst of Don

caster.

The building was consecrated by his Grace the Archbishop of York, on the 10th of September, 1829; and the Church opened for Divine Service on the 1st of November following.

The Rev. Henry Branson is appointed the first Minister to this Church,

and the friends of the Establishment will hear with satisfaction that, since the opening, the number of worshippers has increased by those who formerly attended the dissenting meetinghouses in the town and neighbourhood. A subscription has been raised for an organ, which is now building by Gray of London.

Mr. URBAN,

Summerlands, Exeter,
Dec. 4.

HE Letter of your Correspondent

Fleet-street, requires a short animadversion. Many of the circumstances so beautifully and classically narrated by Ossian, in a captivating and poetical style of language peculiarly his own, took place in Erin (the island in the west), of Ireland. It is said that some of the actions there are recorded in a Celtic character. It is probable that the historian Macpherson must have been misinformed on this point, which does not militate in the slightest degree against the authenticity of a composition so strikingly forcible and elegant as to have excited general admiration. In the Hebrides of Scotland there never was a Celtic character; and it is there that Ossian's Poems have been handed down, from hundreds of fathers to hundreds of sons,

during centuries. If your Correspond. ent doubts this, he had better proceed to Skye, or Ossian's "Isle of Mist," where, with the difference of a preposition, conjunction, or sign of a case, he will hear these fine compositions repeated, as published by Mr. Macpherson. Now as it is proved by unquestionable evidence, passing through ages, from father to son, that this is a fact, it may be for such sceptics as your Correspondent to make out, that Macpherson fabricated what was known, and repeated in hundreds of places, for centuries before he was born. The Poems may not be repeated all by any one man, but still the whole are floating in oral tradition, not liable to such interpolations and forgery, as manuscripts are subject to. When raising a regiment for the Chief of Macdonald, I had occasion to hear several fine poems, which are on oral record. Though inferior to Ossian's, the late Lord Macdonald had them collected by a competent person, because he deemed them authentic. The luminous and closely-reasoned dissertations of Dr. Blair, the eminent

Professor of Rhetoric, and the strong testimonies of able scholars and distinguished logicians, are sufficient to oppose to the stubborn prejudices of Johnson, who said that Macpherson ought to have been content with such evidence as that of standing oral tradition, laid before him on the very site of the heroic exploits narrated. It would be like proving a truism, by an argumentum ad absurdum, to say more on a subject admitting of no controversy, in the face of traditional living

lady Miss Catharine Talbot attempted an imitation of these Poems, but longo intervallo, however meritorious.

In former papers, I went far to prove that the Greek and Latin languages are in a great measure derived from the Celtic; and this was the opinion of the eminent orientalist, Sir William Jones, with whom I was in habits of friendship in India. The Celtic language, so remarkable for its simplicity of construction, is approaching rapidly to becoming a dead tongue. It would he well to establish in one or two of the Scottish Universities, a Celtic Professorship, for the preservation of so original and important a language. Yours, &c. JOHN MACDONALD.

Mr. URBAN,

London, Dec. 6. YOUR correspondent, S. H. He does

not appear to have seen the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society on Ossianic poems, else he would not, it is presumed, retain his scepticism concerning those interesting remains. The opinion of Dr. Johnson, to which he professes to adhere, was rash, and is now well known perfectly unjustifiable. The Doctor believed that no ancient Gaëlic MS. existed, but the laudable exertions of the above Society have recovered many; the antiquity of several reaching 1000 years beyond the era allowed by Johnson. If persons were readily found, in days gone by, able to repeat, for days and nights together, the lengthened traditional tales of their fathers, was there any thing to prevent them from being committed to writing?

That so much ignorance respecting the literature or state of oral learning of the Highlanders, should long have existed, and yet remain, is no great won der, when the total change of manners produced by the acts which abolished the system of clanship, that venerable institution of our Celtic ancestors, and

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