OBSERVATIONS on the DISEASES in April 1794.

ATARRHS and coughs were extremely frequent; perfons advanced

were accompanied with fpitting of blood, which speedily proved fatal. Eryfipelas continued to prevail, with inflammatory fymptoms fimilar to those of the last month; pleurifies and flight rheumatic affections were likewife common; in short, all the difeafes which were met with had an inflammatory tendency; inflammations of the throat and fauces, accompanied with fever, affected more particularly thofe who refided near the river; they were likewife more liable to ophthalmies. Scarlet fever now and then occurred, but not fo frequent as to be confidered an epidemic; fmallpox was rather rare. None of thefe difeafes were accompanied with any peculiar fymptoms, so as to require any deviation from the usual treatment.

OBSERVATIONS on the DISEASES in May 1794.

NTERMITTENT fevers were common, particularly toward the clofe of the

INTORM, They were pretty conftantly accompanied with a large fecretiff

acrid bile, which was frequently abforbed and carried into the circulation, producing yellowness of the skin, &c. As none of the prevailing complaints had a putrid tendency, large and repeated evacuations were admitted of, and the difeafe was removed without the ufe of bark. Several inftances of fudden death occurred, from apoplexy principally, and to old perfons. Rheumatifm continued common. Smallpox was rather frequent, but chiefly originating from inoculation, and in almost every inftance mild and perfectly distinct. Measles were likewife frequent toward the end of the month; all the fymptoms were moderate, the cough and peripneumonic fymptoms rarely fevere. Several inftances of croup occurred, which in general, as is ufual, terminated fatally.

REMARKS during a SIX WEEKS RESIDENCE in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, in 1792: In a Series of Letters to a Friend.

LETTER IX.

Gloucester, Sept. 1792.

DEAR SIR,

curfion into Herefordshire, a county well deferving the notice of travellers, not lefs for its richness and fertility, than for the many fublime prospects it

AS, fince my laft, I have made fe affords. We left Gloucefter in the

veral fhort excurfions into the neighbourhood of Gloucefter, where curiofity was often repreffed, or, at lealt, the gratification of it interrupted by the hospitable allurements of country amusements, you are not to expect from me the regular detail of a gecgrapher. I can only promife a few remarks which I fnatched fuch opportunity to make, as an almost inceffant variety of agreeable objects would permit.

fet out, after writing my laft letter, with our friend Mr. T and his fon, with a view to make a little ex

morning, paffing through Westgate, the only remaining gate of this ancient city; from the bridge upon which we now were, you have, on the right, an extenfive meadow covered with cattle, and interfected by the Severn. On the left, this river forms a kind of ifland, called Olney or Alney, where, it is faid, the fingle combat between Edmund, king of England, and Canutas, king of the Danes, was fought, to decide the fate of the kingdom, which had been convulfed by bloody wars; it ended in a divifion of the kingdom, neither of the com312

batan

batants being victorious. The inhabitants of Walton, a few miles north of Gloucester, affert that this combat was fought at Oleneay, an island in that parith. It is inconvenient to ftop at prefent, to fettle this difference; and perhaps, as converfation fometimes flags in country villages, it were a pity it ever fhould be fettled.

About two miles from Gloucefter, we came to Highnam Court, the refidence of fir John Guife, bart. which we vifited. The houfe is a plain, but in fome refpects an elegant building, from a defign of Inigo Jones'. The rooms are fpacious; and the pleafure grounds are laid out in the modern tate. The park is of great extent, and commands fome charming profpects of the circumjacent country. On regaining the road, and looking back, we were not a little furprised to find the view of the houfe ob. ftructed by the awkward fituation of the church, an object in itself not difagreeable, but certainly placed there without any refpect to the good pleasure of the curious traveller, whom it deprives of one of the most favourable views of the houfe. I fhould have mentioned, although I cannot fpecify them, that there are many good pictures at Highnam Court. The predeceffor of the prefent worthy owner, general Guife gave away, from his family, that collection of pictures which are to be viewed in Christ church college, Oxford. In doing fo, the general did not deprive his family of much. He was a liberal collector of paintings, but there are few connoiffeurs who have not called his tafte in queftion.

From Highnam, we rode along a woody and picturefque country, where the eye is diverted by a variety of the mot agreeable objects, producing an effect upon the mind, not much ufed to fuch objects, which is more eafily felt than defcribed. Rural life,' an agreeable writer obferves, naturally infpires fentiments of benevolence; by continually receiving the gifts of

nature, the mind is enlarged, and men are infenfibly accustomed to diffufe them to thofe around them.'There are few men, I believe, on whom rural profpects do not produce a moral effect, temporary, perhaps, for vifible objects can produce no more; and if thofe whofe fituation affords conftant opportunity of rural contemplation are little affected by them, we may justly fufpect that the fault lies in a grofs infenfibility, or a perverted tafte.

The church of Churcham, of Church-hill, which we paffed on our left, is fingular for having the kind of pews which were used before the reformation, low and open benches, where the parishioners fit without any diftinction. Many inconveniencies might be avoided, if all churches were built in this manner; but I know not how it could be reconciled to the pride of family in the country, and to the more ridiculous parade of having the pews kept for parish pride in the metropolis, where they often remain empty during the whole fervice, while the zealous hearer is allowed to ftand upon the ftone floor, and the religious owner is efcorting his family to White Conduit houfe, or Bagnigge Wells.

We entered Herefordshire foon after paffing Lea Brook, about twelve miles from Gloucefter, and were scarcely arrived at the borders of the land of cider,' when we had to remark the badnefs of the roads. They are, indeed, proverbial, and are fuch, fays a late writer, as one might expect to meet with in the marshes of Holland, or the mountains of Switzerland.' From the foot of May-hill, an object, by the bye, which is every where grandly confpicuous, we had to wade through an amphibious road, if I may ufe the expreffion, to Bill Mill, to which we turned off from Weston, and where our first destination was. The depth of water in many places was three feet. The fame is obferved of many other parts of this county, which, in the improvement of roads,

know not.

is a century behind any other county in the kingdom. When a road is bad from inequalities, from a ftony, or rocky furface, it is fome comfort that it is dry, but that comfort is denied here in most parts of the year, and in the rainy feafon, they must be quite impatiable to carriages. Why they are fuffered to remain in this ftate, I The gentlemen of the county, who are otherwife encoura ers of cultivation and improvement, cannot furely be ignorant how much the value of land is increased by con enient roads, and how much all the favourable circumstances attending the intereft of a county are encouraged by an easy communication from one place to another. What becomes of the trade of agriculture, and what can the best produce of land yield to the owner, when it requires fix or feven horfes to 'drag a load of corn to market? Our friend T- fuggefted, in his way, that the road we were now upon might be rendered navigable at a very small expence; perhaps, if left to itself for fome years, it may become fo, without any expence at all!

But, forgetting the roads, the country through which we now travelled, abounds in picturefque fcenery, fometimes broken and irregular, fometimes parts only of a scene presenting themselves, but often they have all the correct properties of the true picturefque.-Bill Mill, where we arrived to dinner, is fituated in the center of a hollow, formed by rocky and woody hills rifing nearly circular; and gives an idea of rural folitude, an abtraction from the bufy hum of men,' which I have rarely feen. Fronting the house, built by Charles Bonnor, efq. the owner of this eftate, at the top of a steep hill, are the ruins of Pennyard Caftle; behind, the hill riding with a fteeper afcent, and fringed with wood, we found a great many hollow caverns of folid rock, admirably calculated for the folitude of an anchorite, and fome of them with natural arches, rude and

terrific. One of thefe we named the
Druid's Hall, and agreed to invite
you and fome other friends to a
Druidical repaft-but of that here-
after.-The valley is watered by a
fmall ftream, which rifes into confe-
quence fufficient to turn a paper mill.
I was fomewhat furprifed to find such
a manufacture in this folitary spot.
There are many fuch, however, in
this part of the world. They manu-
facture chiefly the coafer papers, and
find a market at Hereford, Bristol,
and thence to Ireland.

In the afternoon we fet out to view Goodrich Caftle. Although you perceive this fublime object towering high, long before you arrive at the banks of the Wye, on which it is fituated, yet it is when you come there that it trikes with the greatest force. I was fo powerfully affected by it, that I determined it should be the proudest object of the kind in the kingdom, and you may judge of the pleasure I received, when on my return the following paffage in Gilpin's Tour was pointed out to me.

After failing four miles from Rofs, we came to Goodrich Caftle, where a grand view prefented itself; and we rested on our oars to examine it. A reach of the river, forming a noble bay, is fpread before the eye. The bank on the right is fteep, and covered with wood; beyond which a bold This promontory fhoots out, crowned with a caftle rifing among trees. view, which is one of the grandest on the river, I fhould not fcruple to call correctly picturefque, which is feldom the character of a purely natural scene.'

For the hiftory of this caftle, I muft refer you to Grofe; he has given views of it, but they are, the plan of his work admitting no other, merely portraits of the ruins. Gilpin has given an outline of the scenery, but I know not that any thing has appeared which can convey a juft idea of the grandeur of its fituation. Leaving our horfes at the ferry-house, we ruins. afcended the hill and examined the