1830.] Tower, Church, Antiquities, and Scenery of Dundry. Mr. URBAN, THE Feb. 3. HE village of Dundry, in Somersetshire, is situated on a range of hills, or rather one vast hill, 790 feet above the level of the sea, which may be said to commence at Bedminster. Its name is derived, says Collinson, from two Erse words, Dun and Dreagh, signifying "hill of oaks," of which wood, no doubt, there was plenty in former times. The manor of Dundry was formerly united to that of Chew Magna, and held by the Bishops of Bath and Wells, for a period of five hundred years, until the time of Edward VI., when it was alienated from the Church, and given to the Duke of Somerset, on whose attainder it reverted to the Crown, and passed through several hands, until it came from the Popham family to the Summers, who are its present pos sessors. This village has been honoured with a most magnificent Tower, appended to a most insignificant Church. But the former, which was erected in the reign of Edward IV. is a land-mark for an amazing extent, and might probably have been originally intended as such by the founder or founders, rather than as necessary for so contemptible a structure as that which shrinks beneath it. A turret crowns the north east angle, and buttresses of eight gradations support three others. Four horizontal strings separate the height into as many stories, each of which contains pointed windows, with neat mullions. The upper string, or cornice, has projecting grotesque heads of animals on every angle but the northeast, and one over each window to the cardinal points. The former support beautiful pierced flying buttresses to the four lanterns or pierced turrets; and the latter octagon columns embattled. The rich effect of the whole will be best exemplified by the annexed print. (See Plate 1.). The south-west, or weather-sides of this fine Tower, have recently been thoroughly and judiciously repaired, by the substitution of sound stones for those which were decayed. From the summit of this Tower is a fine view of Bristol, with its numerous spires, contrasted with the more solid tower of the Cathedral. More to the left, are the Crescents at Clifton, almost overhanging the Hot Wells; and GENT. MAG. February, 1880. 105 below the picturesque rocks of St. Vincent are occasional views of the Avon, bounded by the hanging woods of Stoneleigh. Rather more to the west, is Sir John Smyth's elegant seat at Long Ashton, over which are seen the waters of the Severn, bounded by the Welsh coast. To the south, the eye ranges over a rich and varied country, including Alfred's Tower, and the luxuriant woods rising above Sir R. C. Hoare's seat at Stourhead; also Knoll-. Hill, near Warminster, with the noble. plantations at Longleat, belonging to the Marquess of Bath, and the Duke of Somerset at Maiden Bradley; beyond which are the high downs of Wilts and Dorset. The body of Dundry Church is of more ancient date than the tower. The columns of the arches are plain and massive; and, at the west end of the nave, is a small lancet window, of the early English æra. The font is octagonal, with a large recess, and is enriched with sculpture of an early age. 1 2 In the Church is a monument to William Symes, gent. and several of his successors. There are also memo rials of the families of Tibbot, Haythorne, and Baker, of Alwick Court; and one to William Jones, of Bishport, of whom it asserts," that his natural abilities, unaided by academical educa tion, enabled him to refute, with uncommon sagacity, the slavish systems of usurped authority over the rights, the consciences, or the reason of mankind!!" In the Church-yard is a cross, with a tall shaft, having an ornamented head, nearly perfect, fixed on a high pedestal, on five rows of steps. Near it originally stood an immense stone, of about five feet cubic measure, which has been removed to the southern side of the Church. It is called the " Money Stone," and on it the poor have been paid from time inmemorial. North of the Church are the mutilated remains of an ancient stone coffin; and contiguous is an antique house, built by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, for the residence of the officiating cu rate, but now converted into the parish poor-house. Dundry contains 2,800 acres of land, 82 houses, 92 families, and 454 inhabitants. The living is a curacy an nexed to Chew Magna. Yours, &c. A TRAVELLER. 106 Distresses of the Manufacturing and Labouring Classes. [Feb. Summerlands, Exeter, Mr. URBAN, tures and commerce, are intimately connected with successful agriculture. Emigration has frequently been pro A long and established repute as the posed as an efficient means of providing Gentleman's, records whatever may be of general interest and utility to future generations. Nothing, within the whole Scope of the uncertain science of political economy, has created so deep a sensation in the public mind, as the sufferings and distress so prevalent among manufacturers and the labouring classes of the people. Ascribed to a multiplicity of causes, this dreadful visitation of Providence, apparently, is traced to none distinctly, while it is more than probable that all of them, operating variously, contribute to produce the melancholy effect so much felt and lamented. At a recent County Meeting, a Noble Lord attributes agricultural distress (it is thought truly) to not having lowered rents at the peace. Manufactures yielded the prodigious profits seen during the war, because the competition, if any, was feeble and unavailing. It is now far otherwise, as our own machinery is erected and in activity against us all over Europe and America; and inferior as the produce has comparatively been, it has approximated to an equality which has lowered the value of and demand for British manufactures. Buonaparte, that eminent destroyer of the human race, and whose inordinate ambition occasioned four hundred millions of the national debt, endeavoured in the Netherlands to rival the manufactures of this country, and signally failed. The consequence was a distress among operatives, similar to what is now unfortunately experienced here. That country abounding in moors of an improvable substratum, the government judiciously resolved to employ the starving and distressed manufacturers and labourers in cultivating these spare and unproductive lands, by spade, hoe, and mattock-husbandry, under the instruction and guidance of competent persons. Sufficient habitations were erected, and government sustained all expenses, till a successful course of systematic labour and industry rendered such assistance unnecessary. The barren ground thus brought into cultivation is now among the most fertile in the Netherlands; while former distress has disappeared, with a great increase of that national wealth and prosperity, which, through manufac for manufacturers and labourers unemployed. When such proceed to British colonies, the public welfare is benefited; but otherwise, they strengthen foreign nations to the injury of the mother country. In the present case of almost general distress, funds cannot be found for the removal of a sufficient number for rendering adequate relief. Besides, when population is diminished by this expedient, the chasm is soon filled up, and suffering rises rapidly to its original level. A permanent remedy, of constant application, is wanting; and, fortunately, it is obvious, efficient, and of easy application. The waste lands amount, at the lowest estimation, to five-and-twenty millions of acres, to which may be added about six millions of meadow-land. Without loss of time, proper farm-houses ought to be constructed on the waste lands most contiguous to the parts of the kingdom where pauperism and want of labour appear to be inost prevalent. Under the management and superintendance of persons skilled in agricul ture, the able-bodied objects now receiving poor-rates should be located on the prepared sites, with all requisites provided for setting them to work, in the cultivation of their respective allotments, by means of spade-husbandry. The females, furnished in the first instance with. the raw materials, will, ere long, furnish articles of clothing for their families. Thus, in a short time, these establishments will maintain themselves, provide for the tenant, and yield a rent. Where is the expense of carrying into effect so very eligible a plan to come from? It is manifest that a fair portion of the poorrate cannot be more advantageously employed. The sale of the waste lands has been frequently proposed, for dif ferent useful purposes. To defray the first expense of the important and indispensable plan, imperfectly sketched, here are the ready means, as these lands would be purchased with money that cannot now be employed. It is quite unnecessary to point out how highly the national interests would be promoted by the sale and cultivation of at least a due proportion of ground now comparatively useless. The clergy have the same title to tithes that the 1830.] Progress and Decline of Witchcraft. landlord has to rent. The best interests of Christianity demand that the clergyman and tenant should not be brought in contact on the subject of tithes; and therefore, in the proposed sale, the purchaser must be bound to pay this requisite tax, to be occasionally modified by the average price of corn, throughout every seven years, as equitable to both parties. Si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus imperti-Si non, it must be allowed that what appears to be readily prac ticable, and indispensably necessary, must be eligible. JOHN MACDONALD. ON THE PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT.-NO. V. "Behold them front to front, accursed both, Saul and the Sorceress. Her inquisitive gaze Glar'd on him; and his eyelid gradual sank Beneath her searching.' SOTHEBY'S "Saul." (Concluded from p. 29.) A Betty Townsend, aged 77, consiBetty Townsend, aged 77, considered by the superstitious as a witch, was tried for obtaining money from a child under the following circumstances. The prosecutor Jacob Poole, a labour ing man, had been in the habit of sending his daughter, aged thirteen, with apples in a basket to market. On Jan. 24, the old woman met with the girl, and asked to see what she had got in her basket, which having examined, she said to her, "Hast got any money?" The child said she had none. "Then get some for me," said the old woman, "and bring it to me at the castle door, or I will kill thee." The child terrified to an extreme at such a threat from a witch, procured two shillings, and carried it to her, when the old woman said, ""Tis a good thing thou hast got it, or else I would have made thee die by inches." She practised this upon the child several times, obtaining in all 21. 6s. 5d. This was at length disclosed by the child to her mother, who accused the witch, where upon she swore that if any one dared accuse her, she would make them die by inches. "No," said Mrs. Poole, who considered that she knew more about witches than her daughter, "that thee shall not; I'll hinder that," and, taking a pin from her clothes, scratched the witch from the elbow to the wrist, in three different places, to draw her blood; a process believed to be of un 107 failing efficacy as an antidote to witchcraft. It appears, by the "Annual Register" of 1802, that five women were tried at Putna, in Hindostan, on charges of sorcery, and being found guilty, were put to death. The Governor-General, on being informed of the circumstance, ordered all the principal persons who composed the tribunals, to be apprehended and arraigned before the Circuit Court of Putna, on charges of the murder of these women; and the Court ordered them to suffer death. It appeared, however, that this custom had been preserved time immemorial. Several of the witnesses referred to numerous instances of persons having been put to death by the Brahmins for sorcery; and one of them, in particular, proved that his own mother had been tried and executed as a witch. The Governor therefore pardoned the officers; but, to prevent the recurrence of a circumstance so disgraceful to hu manity, a proclamation was forthwith issued, declaring, that any one forming a tribunal for the trial of persons charged with witchcraft, or aiding or encouraging in any act to deprive such persons of life, shall be deemed guilty of murder, and suffer the penalty attached to that offence. On the 11th April, 1827, at the Monmouth Assizes, William Watkins, and three others, were indicted and found guilty of an assault upon Mary Nicolas, a decrepit old woman, up. wards of ninety, which they had committed under a belief, prevalent in that neighbourhood, that she was a witch. The old woman deposed to the pri soners and others having seized her, and beaten her with thorns and briars, for the purpose of, as in days of yore, drawing blood; and they also attempt ed to force her into a pool, for the purpose of trying the efficacy of the water ordeal. A witness proved the prisoners having taken the old woman to a lane where three cattle had died, and charged her with being the author of their death; and then, taking her to a stable where there was a colt, made her repeat se veral times, "God bless the colt!" They afterwards stripped her naked, and searched her, in order to find her teat, which they declared they had found, upon their discovering a wart or wen upon her head. This, in all probability, is the latest instance to be met with of English cre 108 Progress and Decline of Witchcraft. dulity as to the existence of this surprising art, and it may be questionable whether it will not be the last. From what has been stated, it Of dreadful magic and commanding song." Their Siren sisters "Twas then, too, that "Witchcraft celebrated pale Hecate's offering;" Shakspeare. The Queen of Witches, whose power extended over heaven, and earth, and sea, and hell. A Gipsey, or Egyptian, is a common name for a female fortune-teller to this day, which is doubtless attributable to the fact that Egypt was, as is well known, famous for the art of divination, of which we have a very early instance recorded in Exodus, where mention is made of the Sorcerers and Magicians exercising their enchantments in the presence of Moses and Pharoah; and it is singular that, anongst Gipseys as well as Witches, the preponderance on the side of those possessed of these endowments has invariably been in favour of the women. By what means the ladies, in preference to the other sex, became thus peculiarly gifted, I have not been able distinctly to ascertain. Certain, however, it is, that for many ages it was so peculiar to themselves, that they may justly claim the honour of being almost the sole possessors of it. One Richard Barnard, however, a minister of Batcombe, in Somerset, in 1627, attempted to account for this singular monopoly, in a little work entitled, "A Guide to Grand Jurymeu about the Trial of Witches." [Feb. he) than men, and may be for these reasous-First, Satan his setting upon these rather than on men, since his unhappie outset and prevailing with Eve. Secondly, their more credulous nature, and apt to be misled and deceived. Thirdly, for that they are commonlie more impatient and more superstitious; and, being displeased, more malicious, and so more apt to bitter cursing; and far more revengeful, according to their power, than men, and so herein more fit instruments of the devill. Fourthly, they are more tongue-ripe, and less able to hide what they know from others; and therefore, in this respect, are more ready to be teachers of witchcraft to others, and to leave it to children, servants, or to some others, than men. Fifthly and lastly, because, where they think they can command, they are more proud in their rule, and more busy in setting such on worke whom they may command, than men, and therefore the devili laboureth most to make them witches; because they, upon every light displeasure, will set him on worke, which is that which he desireth, and is sore displeased if he bee not set on worke, which women will be ready enough to doe." It is time now to bring this subject to a close; and, in doing so, it may not be altogether useless if we endeavour to satisfy ourselves whether or not there is any foundation for the belief, which appears to have been entertained in every age and in every country, that this extraordinary power has been possessed by our frail species. It ought readily to be allowed, that much imposture on the one hand, and much ignorant superstition on the other, have taken place as regards the practice of witchcraft; but can it be supposed that our heavenly Father would repeatedly command the rulers of his people, as we find he has done, to punish_with death a crime which never had any existence? The existence, malice, and power of infernal spirits, are sufficiently declared in Scripture, and their various arts minutely detailed. There can be no doubt that they have been both able and willing thus to interpose, if permitted, and that our nature is so corrupt and vile, as knowingly to combine with them. That witchcraft may be, and that it hath been until a late period practised, seems to be abundantly capable of proof, were any collateral evidence necessary to confirm the truth of the divine testimony, a conviction of which appears to have been deeply impressed upon the mind of the celebrated commentator Scott, as well as most other pious and intelligent commentators. But, as is well "There are more women witches (says observed by Scott, |