Spanish chefnuts and oaks running in a strait line, still hold their primitive appearance; here he was accustomed to pass the hours in that musing, and in those reflections, from which the public have gathered so rich a fruit, it retains the name of Addison's walk: This form of a ftrait line, is that to which in his earliest youth, he seems to have been attached, as part of the walks in Magdalen College, which are fashioned upon this model, ftill pass there under his

name.

THE Spanish oaks in these grounds are faid to have been the first that were planted in this country; the acorns were given to him by his friend Craggs, who brought them from Spain.

IN a kind of hermitage in this walk, I found the following verfes,

« Se

"Sequeftered from the world, oh! let me dwell,
"With contemplation in this lonely cell

"By mortal eye unseen, I will explore

"The various works of Nature's bounteous ftore,
"Revifit oft each flower whofe bloffom fair

"With fragrant fweets perfumes the ambient air
"Pry into every fhrub, and mark its way

"From birth to growth, from growth to fure decay:
« Or else with humble thoughts my eyes I'll bend,
"And view the near resemblance of my end
"Then think of death, and of eternal days
"Learn how to die, my Maker how to praise :
"All ways defpise, that draw my mind from this,
"Then ftrive to gain an endless age of bliss."

I Do not know that these lines were Mr. Addison's, but there is fomething in their moral turn, as well as their verfification, that renders them not unworthy a recital. This estate was purchased by Mr. Addison in the year 1711, of the younger fon of Sir William Boughton, for the fum of ten thousand pounds; in the purchase he was affifted by his brother Mr. Gulftone Addison, Governor of Fort St. George, at Madrafs, in

which

which station he fucceeded Governor Pitt, distinguished by the appellation of Diamond Pitt.

Ar the deceafe of Mr. Addison in 1719, this estate came to his widow the Countess of Warwick, from whom it devolved on their daughter, the prefent Mrs. Addison, whom I had the honour of feeing, at this visit, with no small degree of respect and veneration. This lady was born about a twelvemonth before the death of her father, who as fome vague reports in the country fay, left a large trunk of manuscripts, with a strict injunction that they should not be opened till her decease; if this be true, the polite and learned, may at a future day expect what may yet further magnify the revered name of Addifon.

To the weftward of Bilton, the Avon directs its course towards Little Lawford,

which ftands in the parish of Newbold upon Avon.

APPROACHING the grounds where Lawford-hall, the feat of the Boughton's, formerly stood, we pass the spot on which Dugdale fays" there was antiently a capital

meffuage, and divers cottages, belonging to "the monks of Pipewell Abbey." Nothing remains of these buildings at present, but a large corn-mill on the bank of the river which is directly oppofite to the fite of ground on which Lawford-hall stood till within these five years, when it was taken down by the late Sir Edward Boughton, Bart. from whom the manor and fite was purchased by John Caldecot, Efq. of Rugby, its prefent poffeffor. No part is standing of this ancient feat but its stabling, which is now applied to the purposes of a farm-house.

FOR the gratification of the curious, the annexed sketch of Lawford-hall is here given, as it appeared a fhort time before it was taken down.

THE fate of the late Sir Theodofius Boughton, by the horrid machinations of Captain Donellan, who married his fifter, are too recent in the memory of every one to need a repetition.

IN Lawford-hall, I am told, a room was preferved as the bed-chamber of an ances

tor