tural Antiquities of Norfolk," and other similar productions, is now engaged in illustrating the Antiquities of Normandy. Having had his attention for many years directed to the Ancient Architecture of England, and particularly to that of his native County, Norfolk, he has naturally been led to cast a wistful eye towards those regions beyond the sea, to which it was impossible not to suspect that the greater part of the most curious subjects which occurred in his daily researches, though commonly known by the name of Saxon, were in reality indebted for their origin. To ascertain this, which has long been an object of inquiry among the most learned Antiquaries, and at the same time to trace the History of Architectural Art in Normandy, by placing before his countrymen its finest specimens, and by shewing details of undoubted date, appeared to him to be an object well deserving of attention; and the more so, as what is known of these structures from previous publications, either in France or in England, is extremely small. But a still higher motive stimulated his exertions, in the confident hope that his Jabours, however restricted, might also be the means of throwing some degree of light upon the history of a country most intimately connected with his own, by language, manners, and laws, and in many instances also by blood; and governed, for more than a century, by one common Sovereign. With these objects, as soon as Peace appeared to be firmly established, he crossed the Channel; and the result of his researches he now ventures to submit to the Publick, as the best judges how far his endeavours have been attended with success. An attempt like this, he is well aware, might have been made far more advantageously before the period of the French Revolution; and it is matter of serious regret to him, that it was not so: that fearful storm burst with tremendous violence upon the Palaces of Kings, the Castles of Barons, and the Temples of Religion: many of the most sumptuous edifices, which the band of time and even the ravages of civil war had respected, were then swept from the face of the earth; but no small portion of what was vaJuable has been left. The two Royal Abbeys at Caen, though shorn of GENT. MAG. November, 1819.

much of their former grandeur, are happily still nearly perfect; the royal Castle of Falaise, and the more important ones of Arques and Gaillard, retain sufficient of their ancient magnificence to testify what they must have been in the days of their glory : the Towns and Chateaus, which were the cradles of many of our most noble and illustrious families, the Harcourts, Vernons, Tancarvilles, Gurneys, Bruces, Bohuns, Grenvilles, St. Johns, &c. are still in existence; and of more modern date, when our Hearys and Edwards resumed the Norman sceptre, numberless buildings of the highest beauty are every where to be met with in selecting these, as well as in the descriptive part of the Work, the Author has had the good fortune to be assisted by some friends at home, as well as by many of the most learned of the Antiquaries of Normandy; and, if Mr. Cotman has not been led to over-rate the importance of his own pursuits, the proposed Work cannot fail of meeting with encouragement and support.

NORMANNO-BRITANNICUS.

Mr. URBAN, Sept. 4. N vol. LXXXVIII. i. 312, note, it is erroneously stated that the portrait of Sir Harry Lee, with his trusty dog, was the same personage who lies buried at Quarendon in the ruinated Chapel described by me in volume LXXXVII. i. 504 ; ii. 105. The portrait mentioned by Mr. Pennant, and to which the allusion is made, was of Sir H. Lee of Ditchley in Oxfordshire, Bart.; whose daughter Anne was the first wife of Thomas Lord Wharton, afterwards created Marquis of Wharton and Malmsbury, Earl of Rathfarnham, and Marquis of Catherlough, and died April 12, 1715. Having been born in 1640, it was scarcely possible for him to have married the daughter of Sir Henry Lee, Knight of the Garter, who died in 1611. Moreover, Sir Henry Lee, K. G. if we may depend upon the inscription on the monument of his Lady in the North transept of Aylesbury Church, had only three children; there ycleped" impes," John, Henry, and Mary; all of whom are said to have been "slain by Fortune's spite," and the two former in their youth. The other Sir Henry Lee, to

whom

or if any of the Clare family still existed; the fact will be evident by reference to the Pedigree. The article De before the name, has been long disused in common with others, as Despencer, De Audley, De Burgh, now Spencer, Audley, Burke, &c.

The Earldom of Gloucester, with other honours, were entirely lost to this family, through the following occurrence: Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red Earl of Gloucester, when about to marry Joan d'Acre, King Edward's daughter, surrendered all his hereditary rights, titles, and honours, on condition of receiving

1

particulars of the antient family of Clare, somewhat confused by anachronisms and other inaccuracies, it is presumed that the annexed Pedigree, by distinctly showing the connections and branches of the family at one view, may prove acceptable to your Readers. Camden and Dugdale derive this family name from Clare in Suffolk; yet we find in the "Chroniques de Normandie," and the "Battle Abbey Roll," the names of Fitz Geffrey, Earl of Eu, and his son Fitz Gilbert, styled Seigneur de Clare or Cleret, from his Barony in the Paijs de Caux in Normandy, who having accompanied William the Conqueror to England, received from him the Earldom of Tunbridge, and Jands on the river Storn in Suffolk, where Fitz Gilbert de Clare built the castle of that name, which the town subsequently acquired. Several titles to branches of Royal and noble families have been since taken from this place +,

Sir Thomas de Clare and his son Richard, lineal descendants of the aforesaid Fitz-Gilbert, received in like manner the grant of all Thomond in Ireland, from King Edward the Second, where they settled the county, and built the castle called Clare, which also have given titles to other families. Mr. Sinnott (vol. LXXI. p. 12-18), seems to doubt if Strongbow had any surviving issue,

Lionel of Antwerp having married Elizabeth de Burgh, styled Dame de Clare ex Familia Clarentiæ, being grand-daughter of Gilbert de Clare, was in consequence created Duke of Clarence §. These losses, together with joining the Lancastrian party in England, and the O'Brien in Ireland, completed the ruin of the family. The Norfolk branch, however, being allied to the Bullens, were noticed by King Henry VIII. and Robert Clere of Blickling received the honour of knighthood. Queen Elizabeth, ever sparing of favours to her maternal relations, knighted her kinsman Sir Edward Clere. King James I. created Sir Henry Clere of Ormsby ¶ a Baronet, but he died without male issue, and the baronetage became extinct. In the Worcestershire family, Sir Ralph and Sir Francis Clare received the honour of knighthood from King Charles 1**. The former signalized himself in the defence of Worcester, and both being faithful to their unhappy Sovereign, lost their fortunes in his service.

C.

PEDIGREE

PEDIGREE OF THE CLARE FAMILY.

Gilbert Fitz Geffrey, Earl of Eu and Brionne in Normandy.

Tunbridge in Kent, built Clare in Suffolk, &c. Richard Fitz Gilbert, Seigneur de Clare en Caux, Earl of Rohesia, sister and heiress of Walter Giffard, Earl of Longueville

Roger de Clare, Lord of Humett in Normandy; ob. s. p.

in Normandy, and Buckingham in England.

Walter de Clare, Lord of
Gwent, and founder of
Tintern Abbey; ob.s.p.

Robert de Clare, Lord of Baynard castle and Dunmow in Essex.

Gilbert de Clare, sur-Elizabeth, sister of Walenamed Strongbow, ran, Earl of Mellent and

Earl of Pembroke.

Worcester.

Chepstow, and Pembroke. ConRichard Strongbow, E. of Strigul,Eva, dau. of Dermod, K. quered part of Ireland; ob. 1176. of Leinster.

Walter Fitz Robert, Lord of Dunmow,

Maud, daughter of Simon

de St. Liz, Earl of Northampton.

Isabella de Clare, married William, Earl Mareschall, jure uxoris Earl of 1189, ætat. 14. Pembroke, &c. &c. &c.

Richard de Clare, E. of Hertford, and jure—Amicia, 3d dau. and co heir of William Earl uxoris, Earl of Gloucester, &c. ob. 1218. of Glo'ster, and Lord of Glamorgan, Gilbert de Clare Isabella, 3d daughter and co-heir of the Earl of Pembroke.

Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, and 3d Earl of Gloucester, ob. 1262. Matilda, dau. of John de Lacy, E. of Lincoln, and Constable of Chester.

Roger de Clare, ancestor of the Clares of Kilkenny and Worcester.

cester and Hertford,ob.1295. Gilbert de Clare, E. of Glor-Joan d'Acre, dau. of King Edward I.

John de Burgh, Maud, dau. of Earl of Ulster.

Hugh Le Despencer, Earl of Eleanor de Clare; 1st husband, Gloucester, jure ux.; 2d husband, William de la Zouche Mortimar.

Ralph de Monthermer, her 2d husband, was Earl of Gloucester during the minority of his son-in-law, Gilbert de Clare.

Margaret de Clare; 1st husband, Piers Gaveston, E. of Cornwall; 2d husband, Hugh de Audley, jure uxoris, Earl of Gloucester,

John de Clare, only child; died an infant.

[411

IN

provement. It sometimes happens that very remarkable coincidences are found between writers of different tempers and habits, and in times very remote or distant from each other. Still it gratifies curiosity to endeavour to discover how it happens that such men should agree in thought and expression; and it is not without its use to inculcate and encourage that spirit of enquiry which dives into the recondite obscurities of science, and scrutinizes the mazy regions of Literature, because they who venture into places seldom visited, and with their eyes open, have, as Priestley somewhere said, at least a chance of finding something worth the trouble of looking for. It occurred to me the other day to look into Baptista Porta in search of information entirely foreign to the purport and subject of this letter, and by one of those accidents which are inexplicable, cast my eyes upon the chapter in which the author speaks of the mode of purifying water, and of rendering salt water potable; and it struck me very forcibly that I had lately seen a far more modern account of the like useful and ingenious contrivance, which, upon a little farther effort at recollection, proved to be contained in Dr. Lind's Essay on the way of rendering Salt Water fresh, &c.

Mr. URBAN, Sept. 13. N answer to the inquiries of Historicus, volume LXXXVIII. ii. p. 98, the literary life of Spence, as given in the Biog. Dict. appears to be correct. He long lived in habits of intimacy with Edward Rudge, esq. of Wheatfield, Oxfordshire, M.P. for Evesham, Worcestershire, whom he attended as travelling tutor on a continental tour, about the year 1725. He collected for him abroad with judgment and discrimination, a considerable library, consisting chiefly of the best and most esteemed French authors; and after their return, he spent much of his time with that gentleman, both at Wheatfield and at his town residence in Grosvenorsquare. After the decease of Mr. Rudge, in 1763, the mansion and estate at Wheatfield being obliged to be sold, his widow resided during the summer months at Weybridge in Surrey; Mr. Spence was here a constant inmate, and spent much of his time with her, as an old friend of the family. It was his constant practice to walk in the garden before breakfast; and one morning (Aug. 20, 1768), being later than usual in appearing at the breakfast table, Mrs. Rudge sent the servant into the garden to him, who found him lying on his face in the piece of water in the garden, near the margin, where it was very shallow, his hat was on the bank, and his dog sitting by it. His constitution was a very delicate one, and his health at this time much impaired ; it was concluded that he fell in by accident, in reaching after something in the water, aud was unable to extricate himself.

The portrait of Mr. Spence, which is engraved and published iu the folio edition of his "Polymetis," was painted by Isaac Whood for Mr. Rudge in the year 1739, which, together with the library collected by him, is now in the possession of his heir Edward Rudge, esq. of Wimpole Street. VIATOR.

Dr. Lind, after mentioning the want of fresh water at sea, says, 46 In the year 1761 I was so fortunate as to discover that sea water simply distilled, without the addition of any ingredient, afforded a water as pure and wholesome as that obtained from the best springs. I found, after a series of experiments, that the steam arising from sea water, while boiling, was perfectly fresh, and that no perceptible salt or bitumen arose with it; that it was sufficient to cool this steam, in order to have good water," &c.-Lind's Essay on Diseases, 3d edit. Lond. 8vo, 1777, p: 348, 349. The writer proceeds to explain the mode of effecting this salutary purpose with the utmost facility and economy, and afterwards notices the importance of the discovery, and that a claim to it had been publicly made by Dr. Poisonniere, "in a paragraph of news from Paris," in July 1764. Dr. Lind says, that in 1761, he had publicly demonstrated the facts assumed ;