on the island. The public curiofity being excited respecting him, he was in duced to put his papers into the hands of Defoe, to arrange, and form them into a regular narrative. Thefe papers muft have been drawn up after he left Juan Fernandes, as he had no means of recording his tranfactions there. Capt. Cooke remarks, as an extraordinary circumftance, that he had contrived to keep an account of the days of the week and month; but this might be done, as Defoe makes Robinfon Crufoe do, by cutting notches in a poft, or many other methods. From this account of Selkirk, Defoe took the idea of writing a more extenfive work, the romance of Robinfon Crufoe, and very difhoneftly defrauded the original proprietor of his fhare of the profits. I conclude this ftory with Selkirk's obfervation to Sir R. Steele, only remarking, that it is a proof how apt we mortals are to imagine, that happiness is to be found in any fituation except that in which we happen to be. To ufe his own words, "I am now (fays he) worth eight hundred pounds, but fhall never be to happy as whe I was not worth a farthing."

1

YOUR correfpondent M. A. or, as I prefume, the Mafter of Arts, who has made mention of a ftone coffin found among the ruins of Reading Abbey, will much oblige a conftant.reader of your Mifcellany if he will favour him with an account when and where it was found, as I do not recollect any circumftance mentioned by any of your corre fpondents of the finding fuch a stone coffin. If M. A. refers to what bas been published refpecting the furmife that a leaden coffin there found was the coffin of Henry the First, that matter underwent much difcuffion, and was left in a flate of doubt. Whether a. correfpondent, who fuggefts his opinion to you respecting a matter haidly pollible to prove, may be pronounced unfortunate, or otherwife, is with me a matter of queftion. To be unfortunate is to be unprofperous, or wanting luck. I rather apprehend M. A. means to fay, the gentleman who tranfmitted to you that account was not infallible; nor did he pretend to be fo, or to be privileged from error, or incapable of miftake in a point which no man has yet afcertained to a demonftration. I would not contend with M. A. upon the definition or true meaning of the word "unfortunate," as applied to that nar rative; but I must contend that M. A.'s memory is very fallible when he pronounces that difcuffion to have respected a ftone-coffin. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

Mr. URBAN, Dublin, Feb. 25. IN the course of a late converfation with a nobleman of the fir confequence and information in this kingdom, he affured me, that Mr. Benjamin Holloway, of Middleton Stony, affured him, fome time ago, that he knew for fact, that the celebrated romance of Robinfon Crufoe" was really written by the E of Oxford, when confined in the Tower of London; that his Lordship gave the manufcript to Daniel Defoe, who frequently vifited him during his confinement; and that Defoe, having afterwards added the fecond volume, pub. lithed the whole as his own production. This anecdote I would not venture to fend to your valuable Magazine, if I did not think my information good, and imagine it might be acceptable to your numerous readers, notwithstanding the work has heretofore been generally at tributed to the latter.

W.W.

p. 142, your readers are told, that "Mr. King offers a new tranflation of 1 John iv. 3," or rather 2 and 3. I trust, I fhall give no difpleafure either to Mr. King, your Reviewer, or Readers, by informing them, if you, Sir, will permit me to do it, that, upwards of twenty years ago, the fame tranflation was given to that paffage (Every Spirit that confeffeth that Jefus is the Chrifl come in the flesh, &c.) by a now-deceafed Clergyman of acknowledged abilities in fcriptural learning, in a series of Sermons delivered on the three firft verses of the fourth chapter of St. John's Epiftle, and accompanied, with fuch realons as made it appear the true fenfe of the rule there laid down by the Apoftle. I think it but juftice to say. this; but at the fame time defire it may not be thought that I mean to caft any reflection

2

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Mr. URBAN,

AMONGST the utilities of the

Gentleman's Magazine, the means it affords of circulating information on inventions and improvements may be enumerated.

Amidft the lighter tracts of a daily paper, fuch explanations would feldom obtain notice, or, at beft, the notice only of a minute; and yet it will not be denied that articles of this kind may furnish amufement, and that there fhould fomewhere exift a repofitory in which fuch as are ufeful may be preferved.

The untractable nature of fmoke occafions a kind of annoyance, which may be ranked amongst the real difcomforts of life; the difguft, and even the terror, with which it is confidered, cannot be denied, whilft we remember that, of the two great difturbers of domeftic felicity, our proverb gives it even the foremost rank,

A fmoky chimney and a fcolding wife. Whether the order ought to be inverted or not, I leave to be debated by thofe who have experience in both; my prefent purpofe is to fhew, that fmoke is far more ductile and manageable than it has commonly been fuppofed to be.

A proof of the decay of religion in our days-would it were the only oneis the complaining of coldnefs in our churches, and of the efforts hitherto to render them warm and comfortable. As a fire placed against any one fide of a large building could have but a partial effect, and as the building of chimnies in the area muft utterly confound the fymmetry of any structure,Germanitoves were introduced, few of which have anfwered the intended purpofe in any tolerable degree.-The improvements of the Bank of England prefented a novelty of the ftove kind. In the centre of the hall, and of each of the principal offices, an edifice of caf-iron tupplied a GENT. MAC. March, 1788.

209

gentle heat, and much curiofity was excited refpecting the means by which it was produced. Fire was not doubted, although no fire was visible: and, as there was not any appearance of chimney or funnel, it was conjectured that the fmoke was confumed within the domes, with which each of these temples were feverally crowned; or, that the element was fupplied from fome material which could undergo combustion without emitting that noxious vapour. Thefe ftoves, however, were heated by a common fire of fea-coal, from which the fmoke paffed downwards. But, though the Bank ftove was much ad mired for the ingenuity of the contrivance, complaints were foon made, that the warmth emitted from the furface of cast iron was unwhole fome; that the air of the room was not exchanged and purified as by a common fire; that dif orders in the lungs, in fhort, a new diforder, an iron cough, was occafioned by them; and it is probable the charge is not altogether unfounded.

THE STOVE, which the annexed plate represents, is free from the objec tions which have been urged against the former.

By referring to the plate (f. 1), the reader will fee the form of a ftove with two open fire places placed on two faces of a triangle-to which a third might be added where it might be neceffaryfrom each of thefe the fmoke readily paffes through an aperture in the back into a flue, which defcends perpendicu larly about feven feet, then horizontally through a brick flue led over an arch, in order to leave a paffage or thorough fare in the cellar beneath, and, from thence, afcends through a common chimney to the top of the houfe. The fires conftantly burn well; and it is indeed curious, and to moft obfervers furprifing, to fee the fmoke, flame, and fparks, run downwards as readily as water, or any fluid could do. It may be neceffary to obferve, and will ferve to explain the principle of this contivance, that, at the time the hes are lighted in the ftoves, a handful of fhave ings fhould be put into the chimney through the fmall iron door (marked b); thefe being lighted, the fmoke afcending from them will expel the atmofpherical air from the shaft; which having caufed a kind of vacuum therein, the air from the horizontal and defcending flues rushes to fill the fpace,

and

and is followed by that from the room wherein the stoves are placed, paffing through the apertures in the fire-places; fo that a fufficient current or draft being obtained, the smoke is led to país downwards, coutrary to its natural tendency, as liquids will rife and pafs upwards through a fiphon, and from the fame caufe. I cannot difmifs the fubject without obferving, that an attention to the principle may lead to more effectual remedies for the fmoking of common chimnies, and that, by means of this improvement, churches, and other public Buildings, may be fupplied with plea fant and wholefome warmth; that the architect, thus relieved from the neceffity of providing fire-places and chimnies on the feveral fides of a building, will often be enabled to make a more convenient appropriation of the feveral parts to the ufes intended, and may fometimes find himfelf more at liberty to pursue the fuggeftions of his imagi nation in the nobler objects of his art, the attainment of graceful fimplicity, and the difplay of unincumbered space. Yours, &c. G.

N. B. One of thefe ftoves is placed in the Phoenix Fire-office, Lombard ftreet, where it anfwers in every the moft perfect degree.

Explanation of Plate II.

Fig. 1. A, the bafe or foundation.
B, fection of the floor.

C, circular hearth.

D, the fub-plinth or bed-ftone.
E, the ftove with two fire-places.
dddd, vents for warm air.

gg, the course of the flue and chimney. b, an iron door; for the ufe of which fee the defcription annexed.

Fig. 2. The bafe plate, of caft-iron. a a, the alhes pits.

bb, the flues, feparated from each other.

cccc, holes for the paffage of air from the cellar; which, after becoming heated in the cavities of the stove, is difcharged at the feveral parts marked dddd.

Fig. 3. The bed-ftone.

i1, the aperture for the flues.

k, four holes to admit air from the cellar into the cavitous parts of the flove.

Mr. URBAN, Leeds, March 2.

As many ingenious conjectures have

been fome time ago, and very lately, offered, refpecting the true read ing of the monaftic leal which has be longed to an hofpital dedicated to the

Virgin Mary, and hitherto fuppofed to have been fituate at a place called Nouthun; and what the initial letter of the name of the place really is being the fole matter in doubt, and which can be determined only by an accurate infpection of the original feal; it becomes, therefore, incumbent upon the poffeffor of it to communicate fuch information as may clear up that doubt, and which, it is hoped, the following remarks will not fail to do.

On looking back to vol. LVI. p. 1107, where your correfpondent W. & D. fuppofes that the initial letter might not be N but B, and the fmall joining ftrokes in the center and bottom parts of the B might have been so much worn in fo old a feal as to have escaped the obfervation of the delineator, I was induced to take off a very fair impreffion of the feal; and upon accurately examining it, and comparing fuch initial letter of the name of the place with the B in the word BEATE of the infcription, the first letter of the former appears evidently to be a B, the ftrokes at the top and bottom, and a small one in the center, of the B, and alfo a rotundity at the top and bottom of it, being yet vifible.

The infcription upon the feal ( fee pl. II. fig. 4) undoubtedly is s’HOSPITALIS BEATE MARIE DE BOVTHVN,

and carries with it the highest probability of having once belonged to one of the two hofpitals in the fuburbs of the city of York, which bore the name of Boutham, both being dedicated to St. Mary according to Tanner. Yours, &c.

A. B.

Mr. URBAN, Uttoxeter, Feb. 21. I HAVE fent you a drawing of the remains of a brafs, or mixed metal, vessel, which was brought to me on the 14th of February laft, and was found by a labourer the day before, in digging upon a common belonging to the parish of Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, which had never before been cultivated, and which is now inclofing in confequence of an act of parliament, for the purpose of aiding the poors rates, which are very high here. (See pl. II. fig. 5).

The common where the veffel was found is called the High Wood: there

is a very remarkable eminence upon it,

which goes by the name of Toot Hill, fuppofed to be a tumulus, and is upon the very higheft part of the common and is conspicuous at many miles dif

tance.