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Embellished with a View of an Ancient Mansion at HIGH SUNDERLAND

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PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY BENTHAM AND RAY, HIGH-STREET, (To whom Communications, post paid, may be addressed :)

SOLD, ALSO, BY

BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, LONDON; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

WE have this month the pleasing task of acknowledging the receipt of a large supply of original communications from our friends.

Besides those which appear, we have received Topography of Rotherham, An elaborate History of the Judicial Combat,—Mr. W-w-t's paper on Monastic Institutions,-P. G.'s remarks on “the Gift of Tongues,”—J. B.'s translation of Petrarch's Sonnets,-the Steam-Packet,-Mr. Langley on Fate,-A. M.'s lines on the Sun,-Mr. Harksey's Mathematical Solutions and Questions,-Lines on a Seal with " Depechez vous" for its motto,- Sonnet to Laura,-Flora's lines on the Goldfinch,-and Hints and Suggestions from T. S. which we will not forget.

We have some reason to think that FEBRUA is occasionally a smoker; we mean not, of tobacco, but of something far more pungent, annoying, and frequently injurious. If on further examination the observations on this subject be not thought too particular, we shall give them a place in our next.

Vermiculus, P. G.-J. B.'s sonnets,-My Cradle-and the Nettle, -are intended for our next.

The paper on the plurality of worlds is too loose and incorrect for our purpose. We beg Mr. BASDEN to accept our acknowledgments for his letter, and at the same time we request a continuance of his favours.- V. F. F. is always acceptable.

To our fair correspondent who writes from the "Banks of the Ouse," we give it as our opinion that she can write well: if her compositions were rather less desultory, we think they would be improved, and very acceptable to the readers of the NORTHERN

STAR.

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ANCIENT MANSION AT HIGH-SUNDERLAND, NEAR HALIFAX.

To the Editors of the Northern Star.

WITH the drawing of the House at High-Sunderland, communicated by a friend, it will perhaps be interesting to your readers to have the following extracts from "The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, &c. by the Rev. John Watson, M.A." 4to. London, 1775.

66

High-Sunderland (situated about a mile north of Halifax, between the Bradford and Wakefield roads) was so called, as being, perhaps in ancient times, a farm which the Anglo-Saxons called by the name of Sunder or Sundor-lond; or it might be separated or set apart for some particular purpose or privilege, the knowledge of which is now lost; for in that case they would give it this name, as being sundered or divided from the lands about it. It is called High because situated at the top of a hill.

"When the present fabric at High-Sunderland was erected, does not appear by any inscription upon the building, but it was either the work of Richard Sunderland, who married Susan Saltonstall, about 1597, or of his son Abraham, who married Elizabeth Langdale; but more probably the latter, because we meet with the arms of Saltonstall and Langdale, impaled with those of Sunderland, in the windows. This house seems once to have been well ornamented; there are still some statues and busts remaining of tolerable workmanship. In a chamber-window, under the arms of Saltonstall, Langdale, and Thornhill, of Fixby,

Fælix quem virtus generosa exornat avorum,
Et qui virtute suis adjicit ipse decus. L.S.*

These letters, L. S., stand for Langdale, Sunderland, but I think them not so old as the house, because in another place the arms of Saltonstall and Langdale (as above) are impaled with those of Sunderland, which would belong to this Langdale's father to do. This Langdale also appears to have lived a good part of his time at Coley-hall, and to have sold the estate so late

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Happy is he whom the illustrious virtue of his ancestors adorns, and who, by his own virtue, adds lustre to theirs.

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as the interregnum. Over the north-door is written, Ne subeat glis serdus, a mistake for surdus; and over a door on the north-side, Ne intret amicus hirudo. At the back part of the house are four English lines, too coarse to be admitted here. In the hall, over the fire-place,

Maxima Domus utilitas; et pernicies, Ignis et Lingua.
Over the south-door,

Hic Locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat
Nequitiem, pacem, crimina, jura, probos;†—

which also is on the Town-house at Delft, in Holland, and also on the Town-house at Glasgow, in Scotland, with bonos instead of probos. Below the above lines, Confide Deo, Diffide tibi. On a pillar on the left hand of the south-door, Patria Domus. On a pillar on the right hand of the same, Optima Cælum. On the south-front,

Omnipotens faxet, stirps Sunderlandia sedes
Incolet has placide, et tueatur jura parentum,
Lite vacans, donec fluctus formica marinos
Ebibat, et totum testudo perambulet orbem!

"How vain are our wishes, and how uncertain the continuance of earthly things, may hence be seen, when either the writer of these, or his son, alienated this very estate which the then owner so earnestly wished might continue in the family for ever! Over the principal gate,

Nunquam hanc pulset portam qui violat æquum.§

On the same is a cherub sounding a trumpet; and in a scroll,

Fama virtutum, tuba perennis.||

"Arms belonging to the pedigree: For Sunderland, Parted per pale, Or and azure, three fioncells passant, counter-changed: thus it is in a window at High-Sunderland; but the coat is generally depicted with the lioncell guardant. For Langdale, Sable, a chevron between three estoils argent. For Saltonstall, Or, a bend between two eaglets displayed, sable. Thus it is at High-Sunderland, and thus I saw it borne, in 1766, by Samuel Saltonstall, Esq. alderman of Pontefract; but Thoresby, p. 236, has given us a coat of this family in which the bend is gules."

I am, Yours, &c.

***

• Houses when large, yield comfort: fires and tongues carry destruction with them.

+ This place {

bates profligacy

loves punishes
crimes

peace

preserves honours
justice the good.

↑ The Almighty grant, that the family of SUNDERLAND may peaceably possess this mansion and preserve the rights of its ancestors, till the ant drink up the waters of the nea, and the tortoise traverse the whole world.

§ Never may he who violates justice seek to enter this gate.

The fame of virtuous deeds is a perpetual trumpet,

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