104 kinsman, John Ford, of Gray's Inn, to whom some of his plays are dedicated, was most probably the son of his uncle Richard; their names occur in a pedigree of the Ford family, in my possession. I suspect the Dramatist was never married, and there seems to be no foundation for Mr. Gifford's conjecture, that he retired to Ilsington towards the latter part of his life; if he had died there, his decease would have been noticed in the Parish Register.

Ford the Dramatist.

Mr. Gifford says, "Sir Henry Ford left no family, and with him, who died in 1684, terminated the line of the Fords; and the property was dispersed. Much of it fell, by purchase, to Eger ton Falconar, Esq. whose descendants held it till within a few years of the present period, when it passed alto gether into the hands of strangers." Introduction, p. xlix. All this is wrong; I have now a copy of Sir Henry's will before me, dated 11 Sep. 1684, the year of his death. He appoints his son Charles one of his executors, and by a special devise, be. queaths his Barton of Bagton to his grandson Henry Ford. He had likewise another son, Henry, and several daughters.

By Egerton Falconar, I suppose Mr. Gifford must mean the late Egerton Filmore, Esq. who was descended by the female line from Sir Henry Ford, and in whose family the remnant of the Ford property in Ilsington is now vested.

The name of Ford is not yet extinct in the parish. Bagton, after passing through several hands, was purchased by the first Lord Ashburton, and now belongs to Lady Ashburton.

In a work now preparing for the press, on the "Historical and Monumental Antiquities of the Hundred of Teignbridge, Devon," a more full and circumstantial account of the Ford family than has yet appeared, will be given. J. P. F.

[Aug.

the following account of his decease is contained in Aubrey's Anecdotes:

"Mr. Hobbes told me that the cause of his Lordship's death was trying an experiment. As he was taking the air in a coach with Dr. Witherborn (a Scotchman, physician to the King,) towards Highgate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into my Lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in salt. They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out of the coach, and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate Hill, and bought a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the bodie with snow, and my Lord did help to doe it himselfe. The snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell so extremely ill that he could not return to his lodgings (I suppose then at Graye's Inne), but went to the Earl of Arundell's House at Highgate, where they put him into a good bed warmed with a panne, but it was a damp bed that had not been layn in about a yeare before, which gave him such a cold, that in two or three dayes, as I remember, he (Mr. Hobbes told me) died of a suffocation."

The following is a copy of Lord Bacon's last letter:

"To the Earl of Arundel and Surry, "My very good Lord,

"I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of Mount Vesuvius: for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and induration of bodies. As for

the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well but in the journey between London and Highgate, I was taken with it were the stone, or some surfeit or cold, such a fit of casting as I knew not whether

But

or indeed a touch of them all three. when I came to your Lordship's house, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your house-keeper is very careful and dili gent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's house was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it, &c. "I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness, that I cannot steadily hold a pen."

I have endeavoured, but in vain, to discover the site of Lord Arundel's house. If any resident at Highgate can communicate any information upon this subject, it will be gratefully received by BASIL MONTAGU,

1827.]

Mr. URBAN, Ely Place, July 30. HE parish of Little Burstead, or THE Burghstead, in Essex, joins to,. and lies west south-west of Great Burstead, on which account it is sometimes called West Burstead. It is in the Archdeaconry of Essex, and Deanery and Hundred of Barstable, but is wholly exempt from the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon, and only subject to the Commissary in Partibus, &c. Little Burstead is 25' miles from London, 10 from Grays, and two from the well-known markettown of Billericay, which, it may be remarked, is a Hamlet in the adjoin-" ing parish of Great Burstead.

This parish has from time immemorial formed part of the possessions of the Bishops of London. It is so returned in that important national record, Domesday Book. Galt' [Wal ter] held of the Bishop, that which Godwin held in the time of King Edward [the Confessor], in whose reign it was valued at 60s. but now only 50s." The capital manor is still vested in the See of London, but out of the original manor have been created two others, the manor of Whitehall, and the manor of St. Margaret's. The mansion once belonging to Whitehall has been taken down some years, but the out-houses still remain, where the court is kept. On the opposite side of the lane, where the house belonging to the manor of St. Margaret's stands, about half a mile west of the Church, there is another old house belonging to an adjoining estate, called South Fields. Whitehall, St. Margaret's, and South Fields, belong to the heirs of the late Sir John Tyrrell, bart.

In the history of this parish, notice should be taken of the family of Walton, many years seated here.

The following members of this family were buried in the Church:

"Anne Walton, 1639.-Wm. Walton, 1640.-Geo. Walton, 1662.-Eliz. his wife, 1666. Sir Geo. Walton, 1739.--Wm. Walton, 1739. Capt. Chas. Walton, 1714.Mary Walton, 1748-4.-Wm. Walton, 1746-7.-Constant Charity Walton, 1773. -Geo. Walton, 1779."

The following lines are copied literally from a Tablet, which is in a plain frame, and suspended in the Church. The vellum on which they are written bas suffered under the hands of Time.

GENT. MAG. August, 1827.

105

Pious Teares for the lossse of the Worl GEORGE WALTON, Esq. who dyed July 16, 1662...

Hence, rites at livery! no mourners here
Hir'd from an hospitall, to weepe in state;
No Atheist's hackny'd derges to declare,
Or curse th' injustice of deare Walton's fate :
A true just greife as ours, a worth as his,
He beg no muse, his virtues yeeld supplies
Scornes a forct comment, or periphrasis,
Nor hang his herse with vain hyperbolies:
Plain coates are noblest, though ye vulgar

Then like a rocke (though drowned) hee Good, must be branded with malignitie, stoutly doth

Deride the waves and keepe his faith to both,
Retiring to his hospitable cell,
Hee shrouds the priests from our state-Jese-
bell,

sweet,

Where safely they resort, favour nor spite
Can make him change or seeme an hypocrite;
Vein his converse so friendly, smooth, and
[feet;
My greife's reneud-teares run in stead of
Such a converse as might a lecture bee
To the great states-men of morallitie.
A well poiz'd judgment, love or hate
Made it not soft or obstinate;
Reason did his discourses fill,
Not women's logick--" 'cause it wille,"
His language grave, yet not austere,
At once begetting love and feare,
His wite and mirth honest and free,
Calcin'd from drosse or ribaldry;
Each passion's master, for hee had
The art to make care smile, joy sad;
See his religion now, which lies
Neither in faction nor formalities;
Which rests not heady oulie, and affords
No food or rayment but in words.
Such life is in a faith that's dead,
His hands not shorter then his head;