able by ftriking a blue with Pruffian lixivium; and when the letters on those parchments were touched with acid, the application of Pruffian lixivium turned them to an intense blue.

This experiment, while it fully afcertains the bafis of the ancient inks, points out a new method of reftoring them, when decayed, to a legible and ftrong colour. The only inconvenience is, that the iron being brought into a state of solution, is apt to fpread beyond the traces of the letters, fo that the operator muft be very cautious in the application of the two liquids: the fafeft way is to apply the Pruffian liquor firft, and then the acid.

The reviewer of this article had been turning his thoughts to the fame object, but on a different fide; not the reftoring of writings when decayed, but the prevention of their decay. The late Dr. Lewis has fhewn, in his Commerce of Arts, that the black matter in ink is a chemical combination of iron with a peculiar aftringent fubftance, which has fince been diftinguished by the name of aftringent or gall acid, as Pruffian blue is a combination of it with the fubftance called Pruffian acid; but that the aftringent fubftance is infinitely more perishable than the Pruffian, the blacknefs being deftroyed by expofure for a few weeks to the open air and fun, and only the yellowish iron calx remaining, fo pale as hardly to be vifible. He therefore propofed not only increafing the quantity of this perishable ingredient in the ink, as far as was confiftent with fufficient colour on first writing, but likewife impregnating the paper or parchment with the fame material. This would undoubtedly be of great advantage, but it is attended with fome inconveniences, particularly an unfightly yellow or brown colour, communicated by the galls when the impregnation is ftrong enough to prove effectual.

We therefore attempted firft to introduce the Pruffian acid along with the aftringent, in the compofition of ink, with the hopes both of improving the colour, and continuing a blue after the decay of the black. But finding the blue too much disposed to precipitate from the fluid, we washed papers and parchments with the Pruffian acid, which does not in the leaft injure them in whiteness, or any other respect. By writing with common ink on the materials fo prepared, a ground of Pruffian blue is formed under every ftroke, and remains ftrong after the black has been deftroyed by the weather, or discharged by acids. In this method the ink will bear a little increase of the vitriol, and thus have the further advantage of being deeper coloured on firft writing; for a furplus of vitriol has that effect in common ink, though it hastens very greatly the fubfequent decay. We hope these hints may deserve the notice of those who are interested in the durability of writings.

This volume concludes with a numerous account of books presented to the Society, from November 1786 to July 1787, with the names of the donors; and an Index to the whole, &c. as ufual.

ART. III. The Hiftory of Limerick, Ecclefiaftical, Civil, and Military, from the earliest Records to the Year 1787. Illuftrated by 15 Engravings. To which are added, the Charter of Limerick, and an Effay on Caftle Connel Spa, on Water in general, and Cold Bathing. By J. Ferrar, Citizen of Limerick. 8vo. 6 s. Boards. Lane, in London. 1787.

Judicious felection of facts, from authentic records, conftitutes the principal labour (as well as merit) of historical compilements. It is a work of great difficulty, and requires confiderable powers of difcrimination and judgment to adopt or reject the feveral particulars which diligent enquiries, and the attentive perufal of written evidence, have furnished. Mr. Ferrar feems to have beftowed great pains in procuring information; and if his arrangement does not appear to be fo advantageous to the reader as it might have been, he is, neverthelefs, entitled to our approbation on account of his industry, candour, and liberality of fentiment.

A as

The work is divided into fix parts, of which the firft and fecond treat of the ancient and prefent ftate of the city; with the most remarkable events: among others, the memorable fiege of Limerick, when that city withftood the power of William III. The third and fourth defcribe the churches, religious houses, public buildings, and charities. The fifth contains lifts of the provofts, mayors, &c, the charter of the corporation, articles of the capitulation of Limerick, and a list of men of learning and genius which the county has produced. The fixth and laft part defcribes the county of Limerick, with an account of the ancient families, &c. and a lift of the representatives in parliament, and high sheriffs, fince the year 1770, with a lift of fairs, &c.

The fixth part, though chiefly confined to the county of Limerick, contains fome particulars relative to Ireland in general. Mr. Ferrar fays, there are in Ireland 11,042,642 acres, and 2293 parishes. He gives a table of the number of acres in each county, of the average rental per acre, and several other particulars relative to the commerce, agriculture, and internal state of the kingdom. Whence the Author has felected his information on these fubjects we are not informed.

Mr. Ferrar has added an Effay on the Virtues of Caftle Connel Spa; or Water in general, and Cold Bathing. From the account which he gives of this Spa, it appears to be a chalybeate; but as he hath not added a chemical analyfis, we cannot

judge

judge of its ftrength. The practical directions for drinking the water, and for bathing, are compiled chiefly from Dr. Rutty and Dr. Short; and he could not have reforted to better authorities.

To the inhabitants and natives of Limerick the work will doubtless be acceptable; it will alfo be ferviceable in fome inftances to the antiquary and hiftorian. The fhort biographical articles, at the end of the fifth part, are valuable to the biographer; and though it contains but few lives, yet they will add to the general stock, and serve as materials for a Biographia Hiber

nica.

ART. IV. Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica. 4to. Nichols. 1787.

N our Review for last month, p. 99, we gave an account of

Numbers 37, 38, and 39, of this valuable work; and we have now before us the 40th, 41ft, and 42d Numbers; the former of which contains the hiftory and antiquities of the town, college, and castle of Fotheringay, in the county of Northampton. Price 4 s.

The caftle at this place feems to have been firft erected about the year 1084. By an inquifition made in the reign of Edward III. when it defcended to William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, it appears to have been greatly enlarged, improved, and well accommodated, according to the manner and taste of the times. Its ftate in the reign of Henry VIII. when it was part of the dower of Queen Catherine, is briefly defcribed by Leland, who was much pleased with the beauty of the circumjacent country.

The college here, together with the church, was erected on the ground where had formerly been a convent for nuns, by Edward Duke of York, in 1412, and fome following years. This college appears to have been no more than a religious foundation, for the support of a master, twelve chaplains, eight clerks, and thirteen chorifters, whose business it was to pray for the fouls of all the royal family, during their lives, and after their decease, &c. But we obferve, that after the Reformation, Laurence Saunders, M. A. of King's College, Cambridge, is ftyled divinity leturer at this place, and was afterwards, in the reign of Queen Mary, burnt at Coventry, on account of his religious principles.

Several circumftances of an amufing kind are related concern. ing Fotheringay; but that which renders it chiefly memorable in the annals of English history, is the long confinement and execution of Mary Queen of Scots. This tragical event furnishes many pages of the prefent article. The editor draws his materials principally from the Harleian Mifcellany, the Cotton Library, and Gunton's Peterborough. The funeral of the un

7

fortunate

fortunate Queen was conducted with great pomp, of which we have here a very particular account. The Bishop of Lincoln preached a fermon on the occafion, and is faid to have used thefe remarkable words: "Let us bleffe God for the happie diffolution of Marie, late the Scottish Queene, and Dowager of France; of whofe life and departure, whatsoever fhall be expected, I have nothing to say, for that I was unacquainted with the one, and not prefent at the other. Of her Majefty's faith and end I am not a judge. It is a charitable faieing of the father Luther, "Many one liveth a Papift and dieth a Proteftant:" onely this I have been informed, that he took her death patiently, and recommended herself wholly to Jefus Chrift."

The caftle is faid to have been demolished by the order of James I. in deteftation of its having been the prison, and the scene of the tragical end, of his mother.

This Number contains three plates; viz. Specimens of Queen Mary's hand-writing: View of the church, &c. at Fotheringay Portrait of Old Scarlet. This man was fexton to the cathedral of Peterborough, where there is a picture of him dated 2d July 1594, at which time he was 98 years of age. As this old fexton had the honour of burying two Queens, and is himself an object of curiofity, an engraving of his portrait is annexed, together with the infcription beneath it.

No. XLI. A Sylloge of the remaining authentic Infcriptions relative to the Erection of our English Churches. By the Rev. Samuel Pegge, A. M. Price 12s.

The induftrious antiquary, who furnishes this article, expreffes a furprise that the subject should have been fo totally neglected. He therefore employed himself in collecting a series of epigraphes, which he put into the hands of Richard Gough, Efq; who not only augmented the lift by more than an equal number, but also caused the whole collection to be enriched and ornamented with plates, exhibiting fac-fimiles of many infcriptions at this time extant in various and diftant parts of the inland.

Mr. Pegge's plan comprehends a period of time, from the first introduction of the Chriftian religion among the Saxons in this island, A. D. 596, to the reign of Henry VIII. inclufive. But after all the labour of thefe inquifitive and learned gentlemen, the lift is comparatively fmall. It amounts to about 136, to which are added feveral in the Appendix, communicated chiefly by the Rev. Mr. John Pridden. In this Number are many which yield but imperfect and uncertain information, Some infcriptions are quite worn away, or destroyed, but the account of them is preserved in books. Some are of a date much more recent than the erections, and among thefe fuch a relation is given, in a few inftances at least, as tends to weaken our dependance on the REV. March 1788.

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whole.

whole. Of this kind, certainly, is the infcription on a tablet formerly chained in the church of St. Peter, Cornhill, which tells us, that in the year 179, Lucius, the fyrft Christen kyng in this lond, then called Brylayne, fownded the fyrst chyrch in London, that is to fay, the chyrch of Sent Peter upon Cornhyl, and fownded ther an archbishopys fee, and made that chyrch the metropolitant, &c.' This tabular authority, our Author juftly obferves, is much too recent (being probably written about the reign of Henry VII.) to carry any weight with it, fince it must itfelf depend on the evidence of foregoing authors, fuch as Bede, and Jeffery of Monmouth. It is the opinion of Bifhop Lloyd, that in this affair of King Lucius, Bede has followed no better authority than that of the Liber Pontificalis, which the Bishop (with good reafon) fcruples not to call "a mixen of ill-contrived forgeries." This tablet was deftroyed by the fire of London, 1666, and if it was a lying tablet, the lofs is not to be lamented. Of a like kind is an infcription in Weftminster abbey, which would perfuade us that the church was founded by Sebert, king of Effex, about the year 610, and afterward, if we could credit the tale, confecrated by St. Peter himself. On enquiry it is found, that this king had no connection with the building in queftion, which was erected by fome perfon now wholly unknown, perhaps about the year 740. Some bodies were translated hither from the place of their original interment, in 1308, on the pretence that they were thofe of Sebert and his Queen Ethelgoda, on which occafion, according to the prieftcraft of the day, the inscription was added. But it farther appears, that neither the King of Effex nor his Queen were buried here; and that the tranflated bodies, whosefoever they were, could not be theirs: from all which our antiquary very fairly and candidly concludes, that as little credit can be given to the monkish infcriptions, when deftitute of other good evidence, as to the tablets formerly hung up in churches.

There are, however, inscriptions which admit of greater regard; as for inftance, that in Latin on the church-wall at Yarrow, on the mouth of the Tine, where Bede was born, and which, it is faid, is fairly legible to this day, acquainting us that the fabric was erected in 684, by Abbot Ceolfrid. This Mr. Pegge imagines, though on what ground does not appear, may be the first and oldest inscription we have of the kind.

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Infcriptions of a very early date, are few indeed. We foon pafs from A. D. 715 to A. D. 1058, to which year what is called the Oxford Marble is referred. This ftone was dug up in 1765, in Mr. Powel's orchard at Deerhurft, near Tewkefbury, Gloucefterfhire, and belonged to the Abbot's houfe. It relates the dedication of an Aulam regiam, hall, palace, or church to the Holy Trinity, by Duke Odda, who lived about that