Mr. URBAN,

Augufi 3. I HAVE great pleasure in communicating to your correfpondent a receipt for deftroying mice, which I can pronounce to be fuccefsful. I have never had occafion to try it on rats, and fhould rather doubt its efficacy on fo large an animal; but with mice it is never known to fail.

Take a quarter of a pound of nux vomica, boil it two hours in three pints of water, then steep in the infufion, after it has been made forty-eight hours, a pint of wheat, firft ftraining off the liquor from the fediment. The wheat must be steeped for forty-eight hours more. Lay a fmall quantity of this every night in plates near the holes of the mice, removing out of their way, as much as poffible, any other food, The effect is rapid; often in a manner inftantaneous, as many of them die in the act of pilfering: and the others, who are not killed immediately, are as infallibly got rid of, fooner or later, if they eat a fingle grain of wheat thus medi

cated.

the office of confirmation, groupes together as many perfons as the rail of the communion-table will hold, inftead of addreffing the prayer to each perfon feve ally." But a very good reafon may be given, and fuch as, I am perfuaded, he wil have no objection to, however defirous he may be to fee the forms and ceremonies of the Eftab ifhed Church ftrictly obferved, viz. that neither time. nor the ftrength of the officiating minifter, would be fufficient to pronounce the bleffing enjoined by the Rubrick to each individual feparately. It is a conflant cuflom in the large and populous parishes of the Northern counties to give the bread and cup to fix or eight at a time, proneuncing the words of adminiftration but once, with the change of plural for fingular where neceffary. CLERICUS.

Mr. URBAN,

T

August 13.

In

HERE is no doubt but it is poffible for lightning to happen without be ing fucceeded by a clap of thunder. deed, the evening of every very fultry day in the fummer puts the matter beyond doubt. I will not be pofitive in allerting, that the reafon I am going to give, why lightning often happens without thunder, is the only true one; but, from the generally-received theory of electricity, I hope your correfpondent J. O. will have no reafon to be dilatisfied with it. A flath of lightning may be occafioned two ways: 1. when strata of the electric fluid are of unequal quantities, and oppofite qualities, in any part of the earth and the clouds above it; 2. when ftrata of the electric fluid are of unequal quantities, and oppofite qualities, in difterent clouds. In the firft cafe, the electric fluid always ftriving to be in equili brio, as foon as the fur charged ftratum is ftrong enough to pass through the air, which, being a non-conductor, makes a very powerful refiftance, the minus quantity of the one is restored to its equinorium by the redundancy of the other, and the refifting medium of the air occations the zigzag line of direction, and the explofion which we call thunder. In the fecond cafe, the flash is caufed by the fame principle; but the body of air, through which the electric fluid paffes from the furcharged cloud, is fo much lefs, and its rarity fo very much greater, that we may with reafon fuppofe, that the refiftance is not fufficient to make any explofion, or fuch an explofion as can

reach our ears.

CLERICUS.

* See the Index Indicatorius, p. 659. BARO.

April 3. A pair of swallows. Wind E. Great blight.-N. B. Perhaps thefe birds were tempted out by the myriads of infects.

April 8, Wryneck. Wind NE. Fine warm day.

April 1o. Cuckow. Wind SE. Cloudy and oppreffive.

April 11 Nightingale. Wind ditto. Weather ditto. Redstart.

April 20. Martins building.
June 29 Saw wryneck last.

The number of fmail birds is unufually great this year; a circumftance probably owing to the mildness of the two last winters.

Qu. Are the hirundos uncommonly numerous this fummer? If they are, the fact will be an argument against the fuppofition of their autumnal retreat to Senegal, though it will not prove that they do not retire to fome part of Eu. rope.

As the Memoirs of the Laufanne Physical Society are not likely to fall into the hands of your readers, Mr. Urban, I wish that either your Reviewers, or one of your correfpondents, would favour us with a tranflation of the paper on "the Redstart," inferted in the laft volume published by that Society.

Qu. What bird did Edwards (fee Preface to firft vol.) mean by "the Greater Redstart?" Did that indefatigable Naturalift notice more than one fort of that elegant bird? A FAUNIST.

P. S. Yellow lilies thrive weil in a London garden.-Spread birdlime upon boards for beetles.

Mr. URBAN, Wood-Areet, Aug. 6.

YOUR correfpondent Dent; will find

great fervice in frequently washing well with clear water (from the role of a watering-pot) the young leaves of his plants, as it takes off all infects, eggs, &c. As foon as the flowers of carnations are become withered they should be pulled out, but not fo as to injure the pod, where the feed grows, that place being a very fine harbour for earwigs, and then they may be eafily got the better of.

Carnations require but little water; they grow beft in a foil made of loam, earth dug out of the ground when diging for a cellar, and dried horfe dung But Nature is the best inftru&tor. Let him fee where the plant grows wild, obferve it, and he need not tear of foon being able to cultivate it to perfection.

A CULTIVATING FLORIST.

Mr. URBAN,

July 31.

To the particulars already furnished you refpe&ting Dr. Robert Greene, vol. LIII. pp. 226, 657, you may add, from a letter of Mr. Tho. Baker to Mr. Thomas Hearne, dated 1730, and preferved in the Bodleian library at Oxford, "Dr. G, author of the philofophy, who died in Staffordshire, ordered his body to be diffecled by a fkilful furgeon, his fkeitton to be hung up in King's College library, for public ufe, without a monument. The furgeon declined the work; and the Provost refufing to admit the body, it was buried in All Saints at Cambridge. His will, in nine or ten theets, appointed for his executors the heads of Ciare-hail, St. John's, Trinity, Jefus, Sidney, and Chrift's colleges; moft of his effects to his own college; but, if his will was not executed in every particular, to the above colleges in fucceflion."

In another letter, dated 1734, Mr. Baker fays of Bishop Barnet's ad vo lume of the "Hiftory of his own Time," which he had just read, that "it is not fo entertaining as the first, being less inftructive, and written with more temper and referve. His life, by his fon, is the beft part of the book; which, if it may be depended on, fhew him to have been a great, and no bad, m n; and I cannot forbear thinking that his enemies have blackened him beyond what he deferved. I have reafon to speak well of him, for he treated me with great humanity, as his letters to me will fhew."

The editor of Mr Bigland's "Glouceftershire Collections" mistakes in faying of the ornaments of Elkefone church,

66

P. 559, that accurate drawings and defcriptions of thefe discoveries were communicated to the Society of Antiquaries by Samuel Lytons, Efq. F.A.S. and published in the " Archæologia," vol. IX. p. 819, Mr. L's communication being of Roman discoveries at Comb-end farm near Cirencefier. Eikeftone is published in the fecond number of his Views and Antiquities."

Speaking of Beckford church, of Gloucefterfoire, p. 146, Mr. B, or his editor, fays, "over the North door remains a curious hieroglyphick;" which, we fuppofe, is like thofe at Quarrington, in the fame county.

In defcribing the monuments of James Lord Berkeley and his grandfon Tho

* See our Review, p. 744. EDIT.

mas,

mas, 1456, Mr. B. fpeaks of the mitre under their heads as their cognizance, which I doubt, and rather incline to believe their helmets, the ufual pillows on which fuch figures recline their heads.

Of the two figures in English Bicknor church, which are engraved by Mr. Bigland, he fays, "Whether the upper figure be an ecclefiaftick or female is left to the decifion of more intelligent An, tiquaries. The effigies of men are, almoft without exception, without armour in the age in which thefe appear to have been sculptured." The figure in queftion is evidently that of a man, and the habit that of an ecclefiaflick. The effigies of men from the earlieft antiquity were dreffed in the two habits, ecclefiaftical or military.

"On the base of the window of the South aile are three cumbent figures, with a lamb couchant at the feet of each: thefe do not exceed a yard in length. Thefe are called by Dr. Parfons the children of Thomas Lord Berkeley, viz. Thomas, Maurice, and Edmund, who died in their infancy." See the account of thefe in Mr. Gough's "Sepulchral Monuments," I. 114, plate XLIV.

· The name of Bourion on the Water, antiently written Burgton, implies a large borough, which is confirmed by the ruins of many houfes to be feen often after great rains. The manor belonged to Evgham abbey 35 Henry III. Walter de Burgton held it 15 Edward III. John Kouse and others 49 Edward III. After the diffolution it was granted, 4 Eliz. to Edmund Lord Chandos, whofe grandfon Grey fold it to Sir Thomas Edmonds, treasurer of the household and privy counsellor to Charles I. whofe daughter married Heury Lord Delaware, and their grandfon fold it to Charles Trimler, Efq. who held it in Atkyns's time. It came in 1764 to the family of the Ingrams of Cotele St. Al wyn's, now Tho. I. Efq. Mr. Collet had in Atkyns's time a handfome house and large eftate here. The rectory is va lued at 220l. per annum. George Vernon, rector of Sarfden, co. Oxf. held it 1767. It came to the Vernon family about the beginning of this century. Henry and Caroline V. prefented his fon Richard, LL.B. 1720, on his father's death; and on his deceafe, 1752, Do. rothy V. fpinfter, their relation, prefented William V. M.A. fecond fon of William V. of Horfington, co. Lincoln, Efq. by Jane daughter of Sir Henry

Gough, of Perry Hall, in Staffordshire, Knt. to whom he was directed by Admiral V. merely for the name, and who died fingle, April 28, 1780, having been prefented to the re&tory of Hanbury in Worcestershire, 1764, of the family of which place his father was a younger branch. On his death, Charles V. prefented William Hunter, M.A. 1781, and the next year Edward V. clerk. The prefentation of this perfon occafioned very fenfible and acute "Obfervations on the rapid Decline of the Clerical Credit and Character," Svo, 1782, (LII. 896.) attempted to be anfwered in "A Letter to the late Rector of Bourton," which was very ably replied to in "A Vindication of the Ob fervations, &c." all the fame year.

The next prefentation, if not the advowfon of the rectory, was, if I miftake not, left 1761 by Mrs. Dorothy V. to All Souls College, Oxford; but a caveat was entered, and the bequest, after a long fuit, fet afide; and her charitable legacy of 540l. to the poor of this, Lower Slaughton, and Clopton parifhes, is now in Chancery. It is be lieved the prefent incumbent purchased the advowfon, and, taking orders, prefented himself, or was presented, on the refignation of Mr. Hunter.

The rector has only one-third of the corn and hay tithes here, but the whole tithes of the corn and hay in Slaugh

ton.

Thirty acres of meadow, and eighty-five of arable, belong to the glebe. The rectory-house is large, and well-built of ftone. The church is built of free-flone, and had a South aile and centre tower; the length of the whole was 180 feet by 21 feet: the South aile, 25 feet in width, is called Clopton aile, becaufe built for the inhabitants of that parish. The tower was fo very antient, as to be afcribed by tradition to the Romans, by whom probably were only meant the Roman Catholicks. The pillars of the North door were alternately round and iquare, and the capitals adorned with Saxon foliage. Here was a chantry in honour of the Virgin Mary. Three inconfiderable brooks meet in the parish, from Guiting, Slaughton, and Swell, and joining be low what are from Sherburne, run down to Windrush, under the name of Windrush river.

Nethercat is a hamlet of this parish, held of the honour of Wallingford, under Edmund Earl of Cornwall, 25 Edward 1. belonging to Evesham ab

bey,

bey, and granted in truft 10 James I. The parih in Atkvns's time had 70 houfes, and 350 inhabitants, including -35 freeholders.

Mr. URBAN,

IN

D. H.

Aug. 11.

N answer to Mr. Green's enquiry, p. 612, I would obferve, that Sir Henry Spelman, in his excellent Gloffary, thus defines villata: "Dicuntur ville inba bitantes, villæ quafi communitas." Officium Coronatoris. "Statim accedere debent (coronatores) & ftatim mandare 4 villatas vicinas, vel 5 vel 6, quod fint coram ipfis in tali loco. Et infra appreciare faciant terras, blada & catalla, fi cut flatim vendere poffint & ftatim liberentur toti villate ad refpondendum de prædictis coram jufticiariis." This will be fill better understood upon compar. ing it with the coroner's precept at prefent iffued to the conftables of the four, five, or fix next townships, to return a competent number of good and lawful men of their town/bips to appear before him to make inquifition. The township first give notice to the coroner; and, if the body is buried before he come, the township thall be amerced. In the antient records of Glastonbury abbey we find, "villata debet arare bis in fatione hyemali," &c. Perhaps villata was fynonymous with the villa aimidia, which is opposed to villa integra, but not fufficiently defined. Spelman's Gloffary, v. hamel or bamleta, which is

another fubdivifion mentioned in the Statutes of Exeter, 14 Ed. I. requiring the names de toutes les villes & bumlets qui font en fon wapentake, bundred, ou franchife, and the attendance of eight men from each ville entiere, fix from each demie wille, and four from each bamlette *. Du Cange quotes Fieta, VI. c. 51, faying, "villa ex pluribus manfionibus eft vicinata, & villata ex pluribus vicinis." Chron. Joh. Whethamftedii, p. 383, edit. Hearne. Copy of a bill pretented to the King by the Commons in Parliament, 1456, "Ac etiam quod omnes honores cafira, dominia, villæ, villata, maneria, terræ, &c." where Hearne's note is, "villa ex multis conftat manfionibus vicinis, villata ex multis villis itidem vicinis: ita ut

Entire villages Sir H. conjectures to have confifted of ten freemen or frank

pledges, demi-villages of five, and hamlets of lefs than five. (Blackft. Introd. § 4. I. 115). Villata integra, in the record referred to by Mr.. Green, implies a divifion of villate, as well as villa, into dimidia.

villata propriè fit villa major-villarum plurium adunatio." Bp. Kennet defines it only, "a finall village, oppofed to burgus, a larger town," and fo it is named in a charter of Edward I. 1288, cited by him, P. A. p. 301, "in omnibus burgis & villatis noftris.P

The gold coins in your last month, p. 565, found near Croydon, are of the Emperor Valentinian, who reigned from A,D. 364 to 375; the firft has an infcription not given by Occo or Biragi,

VICTORES AVGVSTI,

it being generally VictoRIA AVGG; the two figures fitting crowned by Victory represent the Emperor and his fon Gratian, whom he declared Auguftus the year before. TR.OB. in the exergue, denotes that the money was coined at Triers. Treviris obygnata. This coin is of the year 368, in which he defeated the Alamanni, accompanied by his fon Gratian. The other is of his first year, ftruck at Antioch; ANT. A. Antiochia A. the fingle capital being put for 1. Such coins were among the large parcel found on the common near the late Mr. Duberley's houfe, at Bentley, in Great Stanmore, 1781. Camden II. 31.

P. 632. Mr. Butler's Lives of the Saints were first published in four vols. 4to, 1725. R. G.

VILLA & VILLATA explained. A VILLA was a town of any magni

tude: Villata, the people, or rather the chief men or community of the villa. By both was meant an allemblage of ordinary people, inhabiting con tiguous manfions. Vide Ingulphi Hiftoriam, apud Gall. p. 14 & p. 53; & Dugdale, Mon. I. p. 287, & Fleta, lib. vi. c. 51 ; & Bracton, tol. 212, 434; & Spelmanni Gloffarium. A villa fiagly, if it were confiderable enough, or, it fmall, with fome others adjoining, compofed a diftrict or tything. Auxiliar ville were members or appendages to the chief villa, called the caput. These diftrifts were divifions of the hundred, as hundreds were divifions of fhires or provinces. Each diftrict was administered by a reeve and four men; the latter were free tenants, or tenants in villenage, as it happened. They feem to have been chofen yearly by the villata; it was their office to fuperintend weights and meafures, and affize of ale; to apprehend for murder; to let no perfon who was of free condition, but without mafter or property, live in the diftrict without pledges or bondfmen, who fhould be re

Sponfibie