UNIL

CH.

Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire?.

STANTO

TANTON HARCOURT, the ancient feat of the Harcourt family, is fituated in a parish of the fame name, about fix miles west of Oxford. Its majestic remains exhibit a venerable pile of building; and it is continually receiving the foftering aid of its noble poffeffor; who, with a knowledge of the modern elegancies of building, and refinements of art, is not unmindful of the precious remains of antiquity. The noble family of the Harcourts, it is well known, are defcended from the Har courts in Normandy, who have been in poffeffion of this manfien for near fix hundred years. The first barony was granted to fir Simon Harcourt, lord high chancellor, in the reign of queen Ann, who obtained this title of baron Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt. The earldom was created in 1749. Much of this noble structure was pulled down by the late earl. The kitchen of this building is of great antiquity, and fingularly conftructed; it is a fpacious fquare room; and though a kitchen without a chimney, beneath the eaves of the roof are fhutters contrived to give vent to the fmoke. It feems to be the opinion of the fearned in antiquity, that the windows, from their form, were inferted about the time of Henry the fourth. An old writer obferves, it is either a kitchen within a chimney, or a kitchen without one. The infide of the chapel, which is no longer in ufe, was a private oratory for the family, and remains with its painted and gilded ornaments in the ceiling, in a tolerable flate of prefervation. In the great hall, which joined to the chapel, was formerly much ftained glafs, on which were depicted the different quarterings borne by the Harcourts, and alfo the portraits and armorial bearings of feveral perfons habited like warriors, who were of this ancient family. This glafs has been lately removed, to prevent its deftruction.

VOL. XCIV.

Mr. Pope feems not to have been fo good an antiquary as a poet; for in one of his letters, he mentions a pane of glafs in this apartment, as a valuable antique, which, upon viewing at lord Harcourt's houfe in town, clearly appears to be a forgery, as the character of the letters and figures of the date, Ao Dm 1. 3. 4. 7. is evidently more modern. In the tower of this chapel, which is acceffible by a winding ftair-cafe, are three apartments; the upper of these is still called Pope's room, from his having occupied it as a ftudy, during a whole fummer which he paffed in this manfion. Here he finished his tranflation of the fifth book of the Iliad, which circumstance he has infcribed, with a diamond, on a pane of red glass, carefully preferved by earl Harcourt; a fac fimile of which may be feen in Ireland's Picturefque Views of the River Thames,' from which we have copied the annexed plate.

In the parish church, which is adjoining, on a marble tablet is the epitaph written by Pope, on the two lovers, John and Sarah Drew, who were ftruck dead by lightening in an adjoining field, during the refidence of our poet at this place. Here likewife are feveral very curious monuments, one in the fouth aifle, particularly deferving attention, of a Margaret Byron, wife to fir Robert Harcourt, who was fent over to Rouen, in Normandy, to receive Margarete of Anjou, queen of Henry VI, in 1445; and, for the various eminent fervices rendered to his fovereign and his country, received the honour of the garter about the year 1463; he is lying in armour, with the mantle of the garter thrown over him; and by him, his lady, who has likewife the mantle of the order, with the garter above the left arm, with the motto,

Honi foit qui mal y penfe.',

Mr. Ireland has given a sketch of this lady's figure, which, no doubt, mult be highly acceptable to the, admirer of antiquity, as there are but two other inftances known of ladies wearing the infignia of the garter; one of which is in the church of Ewelm, in this county, of Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer, wife to William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk; the other of Conftance, daughter of John Holland, earl of Huntingdon, and duke of Exeter, first married to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, and after, to fir John Gray, knight of the garter, in the reign of Henry V, and earl of Tankerville, in Normandy. Her monument is in the

church of St. Catherine, near the Tower, but quite defaced.

At Stanton Harcourt is likewife a handfome monumental figure of fir Robert Harcourt, who was standardbearer to Henry VII, at the battle of Bofworth-field; and alfo fheriff for the county of Oxford: in the fame reign he was made knight of the Bath, at the creation of Henry, duke of York, afterward Henry VIII.

Thefe monuments are finely preferved, and have been lately restored with much care; they are good fpecimens of the monumental fculpture of the times, as well as the perfonal decorations and habiliments at that period in ufe.

LETTER XXVIII.

Edinburgh, Oct. 1792.

ON cafting an eye over my mi

nutes of observation, and other materials, with which a ftay of ten days in the capital of Scotland has furnished me, I find them fo numerous and multifarious, that, as I mean not to fend you in form, a prefent ftate of the city of Edinburgh,' but folely to give a flight and impreffive fketch, and that within the compafs of a fingle letter, I am under confiderable difficulty how to arrange and generalize my abundance of particulars, in order to accomplish my purpofe; though I am far from intending you a Tableau d'Edinbourg,' correctly defigned and coloured; yet I would willingly attempt fomething beyond the meagre outlines of a map: fuppofe my effay then a fort of aqua-tinta drawing this, could I fortunately touch it with due fpirit, might per

2

haps be that fort of reprefentation, beyond which a traveller's letter ought not aspire.

The town of Edinburgh has, within thefe laft thirty years, undergone greater improvement, and received not lefs addition, in proportion to its original dimenfions, than London itself.

Our entrance on its weftern fide, from Linlithgow, gave us an opportunity of comparing with each other the nearer outlines and general appearance of the old, and new towns; the former lying on the right, the other on the left of a grand road, carried in a ftrait line for almost a mile betwixt them. The castle, on the naked rock, from its bold and exalted fituation, its vaftnefs, domineering aspect and picturefque irregularity of parts, its battlements and towers, &c. firft feizes the traveller's fight, and, for fome moments, rivets his attention. His eye next flides along the

antique

and splendour, probably not to be furpaffed, if equalled, in any other city in Europe. The profpects from Princes-freet toward the caftle, the old town, the hills, and the country on the east and weft, are varied, fingular and striking in an eminent degree. Thofe commanded by Queentreet, on the oppofite quarter, comFrehend the grand expanfe of the Forth, the moving and lively scenery cf its commerce, its different iflands, and the rich country intervening, ornamented with villas, gardens, groves and meadows. At a fmall diftance weftward, are the earl of Murray's houfe, gardens, and woods; from which, toward the Forth, runs a charming plantation-walk to lord Gardenftone's Temple of Hebe; the refervoir of certain mineral waters, faid to refemble thofe of Harrowgate. From these scenes the eye is carried to the numerous towns and villages on the farther fhore of the Forth, to the county of Fife, and, beyond it, the mountains in the distance; altogether uniting fuch an affemblage of objects, on fuch an extent of land and water, as the fituation of few streets in any city can boast.

The only prominent features of George-freet, which ftrike the eye apart from its general beauty and fymmetry, are the Phyfician's Hall and St. Andrew's church, oppofite each other: I cannot pafs the latter without more particular notice. It is of an elliptic or oval form: the tranfverfe axis or longer diameter is, within the walls, eighty-feven feet; its conjugate fixty-four. Four Corin thian columns fupport a very elegant Fortico toward the ftreet: a fpire 186 feet high, beautiful in itfelf, but too much beyond the other proportions of the building, ftarts up into the air between the church and the portico; its fummit leaving them difdainfully

both far beneath. The ordonnance of the interior is admirable; the pulpit, the feats and gallery being fo contrived, as that the preacher commands every face in the congregation, and every face the preacher. The pulpit is placed by the wall at the north fide of the building. The pews are all regularly adjusted to the curve of the oppofite fide, rifing in juft proportions one behind the other; a gallery above them directly fronts the pulpit. The fimplicity, neatness, and intelligence, which characterise the interior of this church, might defervedly render it a model for imitation. It may, perhaps, feem remarkable, that the plan of St. Andrew's church was defigned by a military man, major Frafer of the engineers. The fpire was not part of the original plan; and has been erected fome years fince the foundation of the church.

The projector of the new town, and of the chief improvements in the old one, which latter I fhall briefly mention by and by, and under whose aufpices feveral of them were finished, is faid to have been the lord provoft Drummond; elected fix times chief magiftrate of Edinburgh, and fill celebrated for his patriotic virtues. But this gentleman, too modest to arrogate to himself the honour of having fuggefted the first ideas of these noble plans, always afcribed them to the duke of York, James VII, who,' fays a refpectable hiftorian + of this city, in a vifit to Edinburgh, had the penetration to difcover, at one view, the improvements that might be made; and pointed out to the magiflrates, the extenfion of the city both on the fouthern and northern fides.' It seems obfervable enough, that, although the original conception of thefe fplendid improvements is thus traced up to the abdicated race, yet nothing

north.

† Kincaid.

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