I

Mr. URBAN,

W. P.

Sept. 6. HEREWITH send you a few notes relative to the Parish Church of Blythburgh, in the hundred of Blything, in the county of Suffolk, 'to which

I hope you will afford a place in your Blythburgh is a village, situate on the great Yarmouth road; and, according to the returns under the Population Act of 1801, contained 54 houses, inhabited by 310 persons.

The Church is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and is a very fine structure: the Tower is square and plain, but the body is much ornamented; it consists of a Nave, Chancel, and Side-ailes, covered with lead and embrasured; at the East end of the Chancel is placed a well-executed crowned figure, in stone, intended to represent the Trinity. The Church is kept in a very bad state; many of its fine windows are closed with red bricks; the carvings on the roof, consisting of Angels bearing shields, on which are painted the arms of divers benefactors to the Church, are in such a condition that they are continually falling. An altar-tomb in the Chancel (one of those engraved for Gardiner's History of Dunwich) now serves as a base for two or three clumsy square columns of bricks; so that the deceased, whatever he might have been in his life-time, is now unquestionably a firm supporter of the Church. The other tomb, engraved by Gardiner, is at the East end of the North Aile, and seems now to serve as a depository for filth and dirt, for the upper slab has been broken across in two places, and the middle piece lost.

In the front of two pews, near the last tomb, are little figures, eighteen in number, representing the Apostles, &c. At the West end of the middle Aile is an old dial, with the little figure of a man who used to strike time on a bell (now cracked), in the manner the figures do at St. Dunstan's in Fleet Street. Under the dial is this, painted on wood:

A DANGEROUS Man is one who is continually endeavouring to prevent mankind in general from being injured by the stratagems of the selfish, and the knavery of the fraudulent. A Dangerous Man is one who sets his face against deceit; and without deceit it is impossible for the majority of mankind to prosper. A Dangerous Man is a friend to truth; and without falsehood it is oftentimes impossible to obtain what we wish for. A Dangerous Man is an advocate for sincerity; and if we were all to be sincere we should have no enemies to encounter with. A Dangerous Man is an enemy to slander and defamation; and without slander and defamation the pleasures of life would be few and uninteresting. A Dangerous Man employs his pen for the public good, and will detest a bad action (one intentionally so) in a neighbour, as much as he would in a stranger. A Dangerous Man advocates the cause of justice and equity; and by doing this he makes all bad men his enemies. A Dangerous man acts according to his own judgment, and exalts himself above the influence of wealth, of power, and of patronage. A Dangerous Man is afraid of nothing but acting wrong; and for this very fear he is reprobated by those whose feelings are too much animalized to admit of so childish a sentiment. A Dangerous Man smiles at the unjust censures of the world; and when he is disposed to feast on satisfaction, he takes a review of his own conscience. A Dangerous Man spares the weak, the ignorant, and the helpless; but the proud, the ambitious, and the tyrannical, he notices only to reform, to correct, or to mortify. A Dangerous Man is independent. He supports what he feels to be right; and his feelings must be altered before his conduct can be

changed. A Dangerous Man carries his head above the frowns of the world; and none but those who are determined to act uprightly can approach him without wishing to avoid him. Buonaparte is said to be a Dangerous man-never was the term more grossly misapplied. If there was virtue in his heart, there would be dan ger in his transactions. But the vicious ruin themselves by their own victories, as the fraudulent do by their own rapacities. It is goodness that makes men dangerous; for good men are enemies to all unjust pro ceedings; and while proceedings of this description abound in the world, good men must be dangerous men. The appellation is therefore an hos nourable one.

Yours, &c. PHILAGATHUS.

Mr. URBAN,

Sept. 6.0 MONTEAGLE House, Monteagle Close, Southwark, an antient and extensive building, (see Plate II.) was undoubtedly the residence of the Lords Monteagle, or Mount-Eagle, (which title still continues in the Irish Peerage, bearing for their crest, an eagle mounting), and is the house where the anonymous letter was sent to Lord Monteagle, which led to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, by his shewing the letter to King James *.

The place on which it stands be speaks it to have been what it is called; a close, field, or lawn, and, in all probability, then open to the Thames,

The various traces of antient

i

>

buildings in that neighbourhood, above the common standard, Levidently prove that it has been the residence of many persons of rank. In the Borough High Street, Nos. 19 and 20, near this spot, is a large house, the front of which is richly carved, with ornaments, and a coat of arms, and crest; and, till the front was repaired, various other curious devices, a castle besieged, &c.

An old house, likewise, which leads from the Borough High Street to * The letter is inserted in an old book in the possession of a family who has had it many years, and can trace their having lived near the spot up to the time alluded to; and it has been handed down to the present generation as a fact, of Lord Monteagle living there when the letter was sent him.

GENT. MAG, September, 1809.

Tooley Street, and sometime the King Harry the Eighth's Head tavern, was formerly the inn, or residence, of the Abbot of Battle (from which Battle-bridge in Tooley Street takes its name). It has capacious and extensive vaults, consisting of several rows of Gothic arches, supported by pillars, of late very perfect.

But, to return to Monteagle House. The inside denotes it to have been the habitation of splendour. The rooing are large and lofty. The remains of rich mouldings were visible some years since, but now destroyed. The fire-places, are very large. The cen tre of the house has the remains of a handsome entrance, having an ornamented circular projection over the door, in the carved form of an es calop-shell. The door rises on flight of stone steps; and the wings, which project considerably, were evidently built irregular, as was frequently the antient practice.

It is now in the possession of Mr. Davis, a cooper, who has converted the extensive back yard (probably formerly the garden) into a cooperage.

The remains of Winchester House, of which a plate and some description were given in vol. LXI. p. 1169, are very near this house; and it nearly joins St. Saviour's church-yard.

Yours, &c.

A

T. P.

LETTER LIV. ON PRISONS. Le travail éloigné de nous trois grands maux, l'ennui, le vice, et le besoin"

HOWEVE

VOLTAIRE. TOWEVER important it may be to the security and prosperity of mercantile relations, to reduce a freeman to the subjection of incarceration; a variety of contingencies, independently of dishonourable prin ciple, may reduce a person to a state of bankruptcy; yet, admitting of misconduct, or even criminality, it is dif ficult to explain the utility of a te dious confinement, after every thing has been delivered up to the creditor. It cannot improve morals, but may promote degeneracy; and, in many instances, locks-up industry, which might be exercised to the benefit of the creditor, and to the protection and support of an innocent wife and