“In my late melancholy employment of reviewing and arranging the papers, which dear Mr. Gray’s friendship bequeathed to my care, I have found nine letters of yours, which I meant to have returned ere this, had I found a safe opportunity by a private hand; but as no such opportunity has yet occurred, I take the liberty of troubling you with this, to enquire how I may best convey them to you. I shall continue here till the 12th of next month, and hope in that interval to be favoured with a line from you upon this subject.
“I should deprive myself of a very sincere gratification, if I finished this letter, with the business that occasions it. You must suffer me to thank you for the very high degree of poetical pleasure which the first book of your ‘Minstrel’ gave my imagination, and that equal degree of rational conviction which your ‘Essay on the Immutability of Truth’ impressed on my understanding. I will freely own to you, that the very idea of a Scotsman’s attacking Mr. Hume, prejudiced me so much in favour of the latter piece, that I should have approved it, if, instead of a masterly, it had been only a moderate performance.
“I shall be happy to know, that the remaining books of your ‘Minstrel’ are likely to be published soon. The next best thing, after instructing the world profitably, is to amuse it innocently. England has lost that man, (Mr. Gray) who, of all others in it, was best qualified for both these purposes; but who, from early chagrin and disappointment, had imbibed a disinclination to employ his talents beyond the sphere of self-satisfaction and improvement. May Scotland long possess, in you, a person both qualified and willing to exert his, for the pleasure and benefit of society.”
BISHOPS OF SODOR AND MAN.
The Bishopric of Sodor and Man was first erected by Pope Gregory IV, about the year 840, and had for its diocese the Isle of Man and all the Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland; but when the Isle of Man became dependent upon the kingdom of England, the Western Islands withdrew themselves from the obedience of their Bishop, and had Bishops of their own, whom they entitled Episcopi Sodorenses, but commonly Bishops of the Isles. The Prelates of the diocese of the Isles had three places of residence, namely, the Isle of Icolumkill, Man, and Bute; and in ancient writs, are promiscuously styled Episcopi Manniæ et Insularum, Episcopi Æbudarum, and Episcopi Sodorenses, which last title is still retained by the Bishops of the Isle of Man; and the reason of this style is as follows: The Island of Ily, or I, or Ionah, was in former ages a place famous for sanctity and learning, and very early became the seat of a Bishop. This little Island was likewise denominated Icolumkill, from St. Columba (the companion of St. Patrick) founding a monastery here in the sixth century, which was the mother of above one hundred other monasteries situated in different parts of Britain and Ireland. From the many learned men who came to study here, the Picts and English Saxons of the North owe their conversion to Christianity. The Scots used long ago to commit the education of the presumptive heir of the crown to the care of the Bishops of this see; and so holy was the Island of Icolumkill reckoned, that most of the Scottish monarchs were interred there. The Cathedral church was dedicated to our Saviour, for whom the Greek word is Soter, hence Soterensis, now corrupted to Sodorensis; and it seems probable that this is the reason why the Danes called these Islands Sodoroe. The civil wars that raged among the Scots enabled the Danes and Norwegians to seize the Isle of Man; and about the year 1097 or 1098, Donald Bane, an usurper, who then sat on the throne of Scotland, treacherously put the Norwegians in possession of the Western Isles, for the assistance they had given him. It is probable that these foreigners were the cause that the see was translated entirely to the Isle of Man. They were at length however, expelled from all their usurped dominions. During the great contest between the houses of Bruce and Baliol for the throne of Scotland, King Edward III., of England, made himself master of the Isle of Man, and it has remained an appendage of the crown of England ever since. The Lords of the Isle of Man sat up Bishops of their own, and the Scottish monarchs continued their Bishops of the Isles. The patronage of the Bishopric of Man was given, together with the Island, to the Stanleys, by King Edward IV. and they came by an heir-female to the Duke of Athol, who still keeps it; and on a vacancy thereof, he nominates the intended Bishop to the King, who sends him to the Archbishop of York for consecration. This is the reason why the Bishop of Sodor and Man is not a Lord of Parliament, as none can have suffrage in the house of Peers who do not hold immediately of the King himself.
THE TABLE.
The form of a half-moon for a table is of very ancient date; the Romans called it the Sigma, from its resemblance to the Greek letter so called, which was in the time of the Roman Emperors like the letter C. Martial tells us this sort of table admitted but of seven persons, septem sigma capit. And Lampridius, in his life of Heliogabalus, mentions it very frequently, and says it was for seven only; he tells us the Emperor once invited eight, on purpose to raise a laugh against the person for whom there would be no seat. The same form of a table continued in after ages. The authors of the life of St. Martin say, that the Emperor Maximus invited him to a repast, where the table had the form of a sigma; and again in the lower ages, Sidonius Apollinaris speaks of the same thing in the life of the Emperor Majorianus; and it is likewise represented in a manuscript of the fifth or sixth century. The seat itself was only a common bench or form; the sigma was the principal piece of furniture, and most ornamented. In the time of Homer the guests sat round the table, as we do now, but afterwards some nations adopted the custom of a reclining position at their meals.
CLOCKS.
The first Clock we know of in this Country was put up in an old tower of Westminster Hall, in the year 1288, and in 1292, there was one in the Cathedral of Canterbury. These were probably of foreign workmanship; and it may be doubted, if there was at that time any person who followed the business of making clocks. There was, however, one very ingenious artist, Richard of Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, who constructed a clock which represented the motions of the sun, moon, and stars, and the ebbing and flowing of the sea. That this wonderful piece of mechanism might be of permanent utility to his Abbey, he composed a book of directions for the management of it. And Leland who appears to have seen it, says, that in his opinion all Europe could not produce such another.
There is a fine specimen of ancient Clock-making in Wells Cathedral. It is a clock constructed by Peter Lightfoot, one of the monks of Glastonbury, about the year 1325, of complicated design and ingenious execution. It was originally put up in that celebrated Monastery, and was placed in the south transept, and by means of a communication tolled the hours on the great bell of the central tower, whilst the quarters were struck by automata on two small bells in the transept. The dial plate shews the hours, and also the changes of the moon, the solar and other astronomical motions; on its summit there is an horizontal frame work, which exhibits by the aid of machinery, eight knights on horseback armed for a tournament, and pursuing each other with a rapid rotatory motion. At the Reformation this clock was removed from Glastonbury Abbey to its present situation in Wells Cathedral.