picious trade, must give the benevolent heart the most agreeable fenfations. Villages fwarming with ftrong, healthy, and beautiful children, weil fed, though they may at this time of the year defpife shoes and ftockings, is another inftance; for these may be confidered as the offspring of trade handsome country houfes on every hill, elegantly furnished, and furrounded by as elegant pleasure grounds-and a great part of the old pulled down to make room for fpacious and ornamental manfions-thefe are thy bleffings, O Commerce !-Thefe are thy rewards, O Industry!

The collegiate church of Manchefter, a large Gothic pile, is a ftriking feature in the view of the town, and

The

ftands on a bold eminence. ancient monastery is converted into an excellent Free-fchool--an Hofpital where fixty boys are educated and maintained-and a library almost equal to the Bodleian, in number of books, rare MSS. and with a fund for adding every thing excellent to it in modern literature. These books are lent out to the inhabitants. The Infirmary, the Exchange, the Theatre, Mufic-rooms, and the New Jail with folitary cells, are all worthy the infpection of a traveller. Scarce any veftiges remain of the Roman ftation called Mancunia; it is fituated at one termination of the town, and of the duke of Bridgewater's canal.

HE perfon of Pepin was fo far from having any thing majeftic in it, that it was rather the contrary. In point of ftature, we are told, that he wanted fix inches of five feet, whence he was furnamed the fhort; but, in regard to fize, he was of fuch a make, as procured him likewife the appellation of Pepin the fat. The monk of St. Gal, among many idle ftories, has preferved one of this prince, which most of the hiftorians have tranfcribed, and which indeed ought to be preferved. Pepin had been informed, that fome of his principal commanders had made themfelves merry with his perfon: he invited them, therefore, to a fpectacle at Ferriers, which, in that age, was not uncommon. This was a combat between a lion and a bull. The king was feated on his throne, and all his great officers about him, when the beafts were let out. The lion immediately leaped out upon the bull, and brought him to the ground, and was on the point of ftrangling him. • Which of you,' faid Pepin, 'will make that beat let go his prey ?'— His great lords gazed in filence. That tak must be mine,' added Pepin; and, defcending from his royal 5

feat, he advanced with his fword drawn, directly toward the beafts. The lion, turning his eyes toward him, began to raise himself upon the bull, when, at a fingle blow, the king divided the head from the body. As he turned to his throne, he faid, without any emotion, David was a little man, and yet he triumphed over Goliah; Alexander too was a little man, but his arm was ftronger, and his heart more intrepid, than those of many of his captains, who were taller and handfomer than he.'-We may, from these remarks, with great certainty infer, that this founder of the fecond race of French kings had great perfonal merit, and might, therefore, have deferved a more honourable infcription than that which is placed upon his tomb, Cy gift le pere de Charlemagne.-Here lies the father of Charlemagne.' It is true, this fecond race are ftyled Carlovingians; but it is not decided, whether in honour of Charles Martel, the father of Pepin, or of Charles the Great, his fon. Be that as it will, Pepin atchieved what the one left imperfect, and opened that path to glory, which the other pursued with so much applause.

An

HAMPSHIRE, fometimes called

Hants, but more properly, the county of Southampton, is bounded, on the north, by Berks; on the eaft, by Surry and Suffex; on the weft, by Wilts and Dorfet; and, on the fouth, by the British Channel. It extends, exclufive of the Ifle of Wight, (which is, however, included in the county) forty-two miles in length from north to fouth, and thirty-eight in breadth from east to west. It is divided into thirty-nine hundreds, and contains one city, twenty market-towns, and 253 parishes. It fends twenty-fix members to parliament; namely, two for the county, two for the city of Winchester, and two each for the boroughs of Southampton, Portfmouth, Petersfield, Stockbridge, Andover, Whitchurch, Lymington, Christchurch, Yarmouth, Newport, and Newton.

Hampshire is confidered as one of the most agreeable and fertile counties in England, and has fupported, from the most remote times, a numerous population. Its furface is varied throughout with gently-rifing hills, and fruit-vallies and plains. Its air, in the more elevated parts, is clear and pure; toward the fea mild, and inclined to moisture. Its products are corn, cattle, wool, bacon, wood, and honey. The sheep are remarkably good, but small, and valued both for their flesh and wool. The bacon of this county is esteemed the best in England; and its honey, except that gathered on the heaths, bears a high price; and of this the inhabitants make excellent mead and metheglin. The excellency of the Hampshire bacon is attributed to the fwine being fupplied with plenty of acorns from the New Foreft and other woods, in which they are fuffered to run at large. The fea-coaft here furnishes oysters, lobsters, and other fea-fish, and its rivers abound in fresh fish,

especially trouts. There is no county

in England fo well wooded as this; and though the vast consumption of timber at Portfmouth, Southampton, Redbridge, and other places, fince the revolution, in building men of war and fmaller veffels, has confumed great quantities, yet there is still a confiderable growth of timber remaining; and with proper attention a fucceffion of oaks might be fecured for future generations, although the lat war made great havock among them. In the New Foreft there are oaks of feveral hundred years growth. This foreft is fituated in that part of the county, which is bounded, on the eaft, by Southampton Water, and, on the fouth, by the British Channel, and poffeffes advantages of fituation with refpect to conveyance by watercarriage and vicinage to the dockyards, fuperior to every other forest; having in its neighborhood feveral ports and places for fhipping timber, among which Lymington is at the distance of only two miles, Bewley about half a mile, and Redbridge three or four miles from the forelt; and the navigation to Portsmouth, the moft confiderable dock-yard in this kingdom, is only about thirty miles from the nearest of thofe places.

Domesday book contains a full account of every field, farm, or eftate afforefted, in hides, carucates, or veigates, by which the extent of land was then computed; together with the names of the hundreds, villages, and former proprietors, who were for the moft part Saxon, the rent, or yearly value of each poffeffion, and the tax which had been paid for it to the crown, during the reign of Edward the Confeffor, before the inhabitants were expelled, and that part of the country laid wafte by order of William the Conqueror ; which cruel act has been fupposed to be avenged by the casual death of his

two fons, Richard and William Rufus, and his grandfon Henry in that very foreft.

Stretch'd on the lawn his fecond hope fur

vey,

At once the chafer, and at once the prey. Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart, Bleeds in the foreft like a wounded hart.

POPE.

According to the perambulation made, and plan taken in the reign of Charles II, the foreft extends from Godfhell on the north-weft to the fea on the fouth-east, about twenty miles, and from Hardley on the eaft, to Ringwood on the weft, about fifteen miles; and contains within thefe limits, about 92,365 ftatute acres; all, of which is not however foreft-land, or, at prefent, the property of the crown; for within those limits are manors, and other confiderable freehold lands belonging to individuals. There are likewife copyhold, or cuftomary lands, belonging to the king's manor of Lyndhurst, fo that about 63,845 acres are the woods and wafte lands of the foreft, which are divided into nine bailiwicks, and thefe are fubdivided into fifteen walks. The officers are, a lord-warden, lieutenant, riding forefter, two rangers, woodward, under-woodward, four verdurers, fteward, under-fteward, nine forefters, twelve regarders, and thirteen under-forefters. The prefent establishment is attended with an expence of 3,400l. per annum.

By the fifth report of the commiffioners appointed to examine into the crown lands, it appears, that the foreft, although particularly favourable to the growth of timber, is much perverted from that great public object. It is fo overstocked with deer, that many die of want every year; in the winter of 1787, not lefs than three hundred died in one walk; great waste and destruction is made of the hollies and thorns, which afford the beft nursery and protection for young trees; inclosures favourable to the growth of timber are converted into

5

rabbit warrens, and many of the keepers deal largely in fwine. The commiffioners therefore recommend, that the deer be given up, the rabbits exterminated, the breed of fwine regulated, and the inclofures carefully kept up. It is ftated, that in the year 1783, only a fifteenth part of the timber was growing in the foreft, which was found there in 1608; but it will ftill yield a fupply of a thoufand loads a year; and it may be expected, if fuch a plan of management is adopted as fhall make the fincreafe and preservation of the timber its fole object, the foreft may be brought to produce at least as much as it did formerly. Although the annual demand for rough timber for the king's dock-yards, is, one year with another, 25,000 loads, yet many fhips of war being built in private dock-yards by contract with the navyboard, the whole quantity confumed in fupport of the navy, from October 1760, to the end of the year 1788, was 1,285,306 loads, or 45,904 loads yearly on an average. Another foreft, called the foreft of Eaft Bere, occupies the fouth-eaftern angle of this county.

The rivers are the Avon, which rifing in Wilts, enters this county at Charford, and falls into the fea, near Christchurch; the Tefe, which springs in the north-western parts of Hants, and flowing by Stockbridge, proceeds on to Southampton Bay; as does the Itchen from Winchefter, which has its fource in the middle of the county.

The principal manufactures of Hampshire are Kerfey, the fhalloons called rattinets, corded ftuffs, ferge denims, filk flockings, gloves, &c. and, from its convenient ports, this county has a good foreign trade.

The Isle of Wight has been aptly compared to a bird with expanded wings. It is twenty-one miles broad from east to weft, thirteen from north to fouth, in the middle where longeft, and fixty in circumference. The most easterly point of the island lies oppofite to Portsmouth, and the moit

wefterly