shore. On further observation, I remarked other large meadows extending a long way into the Lake, and terminating almost in a point, which had evidently been formed by the floods of insignificant brooks, and which in some cases had cut and torn up the sides of the mountains to a degree of astonishment. So that the Lakes are filling up to a certainty, and faster than we seem to be aware of; I think in two or three thousand years they will be all flat meadows, with a river or main drain in the middle. Such meadows in the valleys frequently occur, and it is more than probable they once were lakes.

If we go upon a larger scale, we find a variety of substances continually pouring into the sea by the great rivers, and never returning, at least beyond the reach of a high tide, from which one would naturally suspect, exclusive of the help of minor causes, that the sea in process of time would be so filled up, as to deluge the whole earth. Those violent efforts of Nature, volcanos and earthquakes, may, indeed, at any time, in au instant, make the sea land, and the land sea; but what is there in the regular course of Nature to prevent the drowning of the earth; unless, to help us over the difficulty, we have recourse to an imperceptible increase in bulk of such strata, as lie below the reach of man, whose intrusion may destroy, or at least check their growth?-And that the earth rises more or less by the organization of strata of different degrees of strength and vigour, and shrinks in a state of decay or decomposition, I have no doubt: hence other lakes and seas, by a greater or less extension or depression of the bowels of the earth, will of course be formed; and the sea thus keep its distance for a time far exceeding the calculation of man.

But one word more on the subject of the Lakes. The proprietors of lands are bounded by the lake on one side: the fisheries have also their bounds and marks; and are generally the property of others, and totally distinct. Now, Mr. Urban, should the Lake be quite filled in, by dreadful and unusual torrents and inundations, in three years instead of three thousand, in point of law how will the matter stand? will the proprietor

of five acres become legally the proprietor of fifty, as his writings will shew his field is bounded on one side by water; or must the fisherman lose his all, or he in exchange become a landed proprietor also, whose writings point him out as a proprietor of water only? or will the lord of the manor cut the matter short, and settle the difference between them? And as the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland are bounded by the Lake for the whole length of it nearly,does the Lake itself form no part of either county? or is the real boundary of the counties an imaginary line running in a sort of zig-zag direction in the centre of the Lake, to correspond with the windings of the shores-in cases of arrest, or some other legal process which requires a tolerable degree of certainty?

Mr. URBAN,

W. M.

Feb. 4.

HAVE but a short account to set

tle with Sir John Carter this

month, reserving all my powers to resist his grand attack which he now threatens me with on the first of March.

John says, he will never cease to defend the welfare of Antiquities while his sight remains in force. I trust the following remarks will prove either that he has lost his sight, or his veracity; for his assertion is, that "over the points of the windows to the second story one of the spaces between the ornaments is directly over the points; whereas in the new work, one of the ornaments is stuck in the centre ;" but if John had had either eyes to see, or a rule to measure by, or honesty to confess what he had seen and measured, the true cause of this variation would have been self-evident.

For in the five Eastern windows the spaces between the buttresses are the same; but on the North and South sides they are much less; that is, the breadth of the windows is the same, but the piers are different. The piers on the East are two feet two inches each: the piers on the two sides are only one foot each. The effect therefore is, that in the East end the space between the buttresses contained nine ornaments, one of which must consequently be in the centre, unless John can make nine an even number. The other spaces

con

contain but eight ornaments, and consequently there is not an odd one to be placed over the centre. Specimens of the disposition of these ornaments two different ways still remain in the unrestored parts of the Chapel, which John might have seen. If he did not see them, he is ignorant; if he did see them, he has stated a falsehood direct.

One word more, and I have done with this Caviller for the present month, he now styles me an able Writer," but in his former addresses he has ranked me as 66 an Earl," or a Dean." I cannot thank him for any titles which he has the power to confer, any more than for his disingenuous correspondence; but, able or not able in other respects, I am still competent to encounter obloquy and to detect falsehood; and, with or without titles. I am still, Mr. Urban, Your obliged servant,

AN OLD CORRESPONDENT.

nec præterita vidit,

nec postera enarrabit ætas. Obiit Feb. 27, A. D. 1722, æt. 71.

P. S. What the income of the vica

rage might be at that time, I cannot say; but I can speak from authority wards, when an inclosure of the pathat more than forty years afterrish, which was large and populous, was about to take place, the claim made by the then incumbent, an aged man with a large family (who had then, and to his death, no other prewithin Goldsmith's estimate of "passferment than that) did not bring him ing rich with forty pounds a-year.” The Commissioners, however, with the aid and concurrence of a very considerate and liberal Impropriator, Lord of the Manor, and principal Proprietor (though the patronage add a hundred acres contiguous to was in the Crown), were enabled to the two, which, with a thatched cottage, small garden, and dove-cote, were the whole of the Vicarage Premises. E. J.

Mr. URBAN,

Feb. 1.

THE parish of SHARNFORD, in the county of Leicester, is 11 miles from that town, 4 from Hinckley, and 6 from Lutterworth. It is in the Hundred of Sparkenhoe; and in the Ecclesiastical division of the County, in the Deanery of Guthlaxton. In 1764 the parish was inclosed by act of parliament. Since the inclosure, the town has improved in its buildings. By the Return made to Parliament in 1811, Sharnford contained 85 houses and 90 families (48 of whom were employed in agriculture and 15 in trade, &c.), consisting of 188 males and 206 females, total 394; being an increase since the Return in 1801, of 8 houses and 21 persons. This is owing to the stocking manufactory, which has of late years much increased in this parish, and is still increasing.

The expences of the poor-rates have increased more than five-fold in the short space of 20 years,

In 1810, the number of teams was 12, saddle-horses 18, draught-horses

46.

The whole of the houses and lands belong to yeomen, or people of the middle class in society. The valuation of the parish under the schedule A, in the Property Tax,'in 1810, was 20801. The lands consist of arable, pasture, and meadow, level and fertile, some light land, but the greater part argillaceous. The roads have of late years rapidly improved, under the direction of that able Mathemati cian Mr. Joseph Clarke, who is one of the principal proprietors of land here, and is indefatigable in prosecuting useful improvements. The Roman Foss Road lies between this parish, and those of Frolesworth and Cleybrook, but is now neglected.

Edward Stokes lost his sight when a boy at school here, in 1741. He afterwards became rector of Wymondham, co. Leicester; and died in 1798, after being 50 years rector of Blaby, in the same county*.

The Church of Sharnford (see Pl. II.), dedicated to St. Helen, consists of a short tower, surmounted with four neat pinnacles, and in which are three bells; a small South porch; a nave, in which is a wide open space,

* See a particular account of Mr. Stokes in your vol. LXVIII. p. 537.

GENT. MAG. February, 1813.

between two rows of uninclosed seats; and a chancel, somewhat narrower, separated from the nave by a neat screen.

The value in the King's books is 91. 18s. 9d.; and in 1791 it was worth about 2001. Its present value is upwards of 3607. owing to a part of the lands being used for horticulture.

The Parsonage-house was built in 1639, and under-built about 70 years ago, as represented in the Plate; but since the drawing was taken, it has been repaired, at a considerable expence, by the present rector, the Rev. Joseph Cotman. The front and one end were entirely rebuilt, the windows in the frout being curiously arched in the fancy Gothic style.

The Rev. John Horton died rector of this parish in 1793, which preferment he had enjoyed 55 years. He was of King's-college, Cambridge, M. A. 1740, and left a widow, nearly of his own age. This respectable old couple had not, for nearly half a century, been farther from home than Hinckley, a distance only of four miles, where, so long as they were able to walk, they had paid an annual visit. They both died at the age of 81. (See vol. LXIII. p. 576.)

That excellent Divine, and very learned Critick, the Rev. Robert Nares, resigned this rectory in 1799, on being appointed Archdeacon of Stafford. He was for some years one of the Assistant Librarians in the British Museum; which he relinquished on being presented to the rectory of St. Mary at Reading, where he now regularly resides, highly respected as a worthy man and a conscientious Parish Priest. He was for some time Preacher at Lincoln's Inn Chapel; and has published, amongst other valuable Works, a regular course of Warburtonian Lectures.

For further particulars relative to the parish of Sharnford, I refer your Readers to Mr. Nichols's elaborate History of Leicestershire,” vol. IV. pp. 915-921. EUGENIO.

66

H. observes, that "Ecclesiæ Persona" ought to have known that the 24th of February is not the Festival of St. Matthew, but St. Matthias: St. Matthew's Day is Sept. 21.—And he asks, whether Mr. Clapham means to proceed with the republication of " Skelton's Sermons ?"

Mr.