pursuit; to a man, filled with scorn at the anonymous abuse not only of his friend, but his friend's countrymen, to whose industry Europe owes so much; and to a gentleman, filled with disgust at, and contempt for, the vulgar tone assumed by assailants, whose incognito alone secured them from a different and severer mode of castigation. To all those, who in the spirit of fair and honourable criticism ́ deal with my remarks, or my editions of books, I am accustomed to listen with such respect as their views deserve; and to all, in whatever school brought up, who seriously put their shoulder to the wheel with me, I hold out the right hand of fellowship; but against all quackery, and all quacks, I hold the old motto "War to the knife!" Yours, &c.

MR. URBAN,

JOHN KEMBLE.

Gloster Terrace, Hoxton, May 20. IT will be gratifying to your readers to be informed that there is a probability of something like justice, although late justice, being done to the memory of JOHN WICLIF; of whom Southey* has truly said, that" It is a reproach to this country, that no statue has been erected to his honour;" and another writert of some celebrity has observed, "Such men are the true heroes, to whom mankind ought to raise statues and trophies, rather than to conquerors, who often waste the lives of their fellow-creatures to gratify their own ambition."

Wiclif was a man of rare talents, distinguished learning, persevering industry, and great fortitude, and did more in the cause of the Reformation in this country than any other individual, because he may be truly said to have originated it. The service which he rendered to that cause has this peculiar feature of merit, that he stood alone, and was the first who started in that race of danger and of true glory, in which others could but follow him. His shrewdness, patience, and firmness, were equally conspicuous in his exposure of the unjust usurpations, the errors, and the iniquitous practices of the Church of Rome; and, although the effects of his labours were

* Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 347. + Wakefield's Family Tour.

not immediately perceived, either by friends or enemies, he unquestionably laid the foundation of the Reformation in this country. Of this the enemies to that great measure were afterwards so conscious, that they did him the honour to disinter his mortal remains, and burn them for the alleged heresy of his life.

The plan of a monument for Wiclif originated five years since at Lutterworth in Leicestershire, where it lay dormant for some time; but where about 300l. have since been raised towards its execution. Among other distinguished patrons of this measure, 1 find the names of the Right Reverend the Lords Bishops of Lincoln, Dublin, Salisbury, and Lichfield and Coventry. The memorial of Wiclif now contemplated is a monumental statue of him in the Church; but it has been suggested, that some more public memorial of him might be adopted: and a writer in the Leamington Chronicle has suggested a statue in or on the new Town Hall about to be erected at Lutterworth.

Will you, Mr. Urban, permit an old correspondent to offer another suggestion, and to propose the erection of a strong airy building in some convenient and central part of the town; which may be used as a TOWN SCHOOL, on the comprehensive principle of being open to receive the children of persons of all religious denominations. This I venture to submit would be an appropriate memorial of a man, who did so much to extend the knowledge of divine truth, and make it accessible to all, by liberating it from the thraldom of Popish proscription.

Another appropriate memorial of Wiclif I would also venture to suggest for the consideration of your literary and antiquarian readers. It is a complete and uniform edition of HIS WORKS; many of which have not yet seen the light, but remain locked up in public or private libraries. There are among them, no doubt, articles which would now be regarded as trifles, and interesting only to the antiquary and philologist; but there are others which would in all probability be found highly interesting to the theological student, and to the historian; and I have no doubt that if some person of adequate talent, and literary

eminence, would undertake this work, the public would cheerfully remunerate his toils by a liberal subscription. As Mr. Baber has given a valuable descriptive catalogue of Wiclif's works, in the introduction to his Life of Wiclif, a reference to that catalogue will satisfy your readers, that were they brought from their obscurity and placed before the public, they would find a place in every large library in Europe, and thus prove the most public, as well as the most imperishable monument of our great Reformer.

THOS. FISHer.

MR. URBAN, Hartburn, June 9. ABOUT twenty years since, I procured several curious MSS. from a mass of papers which had belonged to Mr. William Pickering, an apparitor of the Consistory Court, at Durham; and among these was a neatly written folio book, with the title-page, "EDWARD POTTER. ijs. iiijd. HERE BEGINNETH A Booke of Phisicke and Chirurgery, with divers other things necessary to be knowne, collected out of sundry olde written bookes, and brought into one order. The several things herein contayned may bee seene in the bookes and tables following. Written in the year of our Lorde God, 1610." The work commences with a list of the "thirty-three evil days" of the year, and a general calender; and on folio 2 has "A catalogue of all my books, and the prices they cost me, taken by me, Edward Potter, ye 30 of November 1594.” This catalogue is

in a different hand and ink to the rest of the book. Then follows seven folios, under the running title of "A Prognostication," which is a curious medley of rules about the weather, and astronomical calculations. "The first booke" begins on folio 11, a. and has this title " A coppye of all suche Medicines wherew the noble Countisse of Oxenford most charitably, in her owne person, did manye great and notable Cures upon her poore Neighbours." "The second booke," beginning on folio 19, is entituled, "Here beginneth a true copye of such Medicines wherew Mris. Johan Ounsteade, daughter unto the worshipfull Mr. John Olliffe, Alder

man of London, hath cured and healed many forlorne and deadlye diseases." "The thirde booke" begins on folio 48, b. and consists of "prety conceates of Cookery, as baked meats, gellies, conserves, sugar-plates, and others." "The fourthe booke," on folio 60, is headed, "Here fol-. loweth a booke which was founde in the Parson's study of Warlingham, written in the Roman hande, and it wanteth both the beginning and endinge." "The fifthe booke" contains

"

Certayne medicines which were taken out of the vicar of Warlingham's booke, beinge, as he sayde, taught him by the fayries;" and as specimens of the whole, I have, Mr. Urban, made the following extracts, supposing that many of your readers, unacquainted with the practice of medicine in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, may find amusement, in perusing and contrasting them with the science that guides the medical practitioners of the present day.

1. To staunche bloude.

There were three Maryes went over the floude;

The one bid stande, the other ftente bloude:

Then bespake Mary that Jesus Christ bore,

Defende gods forbod thou shouldeste

bleede anye more.

The three Marys here named were probably the Virgin Mary, the Egyptian Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Whether this is to be spoken as an exorcism, or worn as a charm, is not mentioned. The custom of wearing charms was probably adopted by the Christians from the phylacterics of the Jews, which were little cubical boxes, or as the word means,

conservatories, of a cubical form, sewed upon long fillets, at given distances, each made of parchment, and containing a roll with portions of the law written upon it. They were worn chiefly on the left arm, or wrist, and wound round and round it.

I formerly knew a Dutch Jew, who left his lodgings, and staying from them a more than usual time, his hostess sent for another Jew, his friend, who knowing that he had been dispirited on account of the embarrassed state of his circumstances, immediately began to dread, that in his despondency, he had destroyed himself, and was soon confirmed in the conjecture, from finding that he had left his philactery behind him-a thing a Jew

never does. His body was found a few days after in the river Wear. The philactery and his Bible I purchased, and found the former all made of parchment, as I have described. I loved the man for his most amiable, charitable disposition, as well as from his critical knowledge in the Hebrew language; but I will not mention his name, lest some one, consulting a disciple of the magicians of Egypt, take upon him to call upon his name, and disturb the repose of his soul.

3. To take awaye frekels.- Take the bloude of an hare, anoynte them with it, and it will doe them awaye.

Either hares are scarce in the Highlands of Scotland, or this remedy is unknown there, or the Gaelic beauties find freckles killing, for certainly they seem to take little pains to remove them. The fairies delighted in the crimson drops i' th' bottom of a cowslip; and of the fairy queen we are told that

The cowslip tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours.

The Highland shepherd sees as many captivating charms in the freckles of "the lonely sun-beams" of his love, as the queen of the fairy troop, that built the magic hill of Tomnaheurich in a night, saw in the sun-spots of her favourite flower, before the unhallowed plough tore up the meadows of her pride on the northern border of the Ness.

4. For a man or a woman that hath lost theire speeche. -Take wormewoode, and stampe it, and temper it with water, and strayne it, and with a spoone doe of it into theire mouthes.

How many men would like to be in a condition to try the efficacy of this remedy, with the hope that it might prove unsuccessful! Lay an ointment on a speechless woman's tongue! Who dares to stand the torrent of eloquence it would most certainly produce?

6. A verye sure and perfect remedye to cure a man, &c. of the pestilence; and some there hath bene that have bene cured in a nighte; the same remedye is allso good for God's markes, boyles, carbuncles, blotches, &c. and such like, as St. Anthonye's fire, &c.-Take the seed or berryes of ivye that groweth on trees or walls, and not of that which is founde lowe by the grounde: you must gather the sayde berryes very ripe, and of those

"And

To these wonder-working properties of ivy-berries, we may add some of the plant, from "Bartholome," a Franciscan friar, of the family of the Earls of Suffolk, who set forth his book "De Proprietatibus Rerum," in 1360; and he says that it is full wonderfull in knowledge and assaieng of wine; for it is certain yt if wine meddled with water be in a vessel of ivie, ye wine fleeteth over ye brink, and the water abideth." there is a manner-ivie, and deaw falleth on the leaves thereof, and waxeth gleymie, & turneth to glewe;" concerning which, Batman, in his additions to the text of our author, says, "the gum of ivy killeth lice and nits, and being laid to it, taketh away hair. It is unwholesome to sleepe under the iuie, or in an iuie-bush. It maketh the head light and dizzie." Malkin, in his South Wales, says that the stem of the ivy, on the north side of the castle of St. Anthan's, is five feet in girth, and in some years yields large quantities of gum; so that it may be certainly had of size sufficient to make vessels for assaying wine, and its gum, if of any use, obtained. Its berries have long held some repute as sudorifics; and I have seen it somewhere said that the powder of them was actually given with great success in vinegar, or white wine, in the great plague in London; though it may be doubted whether the healing virtue was not more in the vehicle than in the powder of the ivyberries. Bartholomew's account of ivyvessels being used for assaying wine, is

from Pliny, who says if the wine be mixed with water, the wine sokes through the wood, but the water remains.

8. To make a pretious water that Doctor Steuens did greate cures with, and kepte it secret tyll a little before his death, then taughte it to the Archbishop of Canterburye.-Take a gallon of white Gascoigne wine, ginger, gallingall, cynamon, nutmegs, graynes, cloves, annis seeds, fennell seedes, carraway seedes, of every of them like much, viz. a dram of each; then take sage, red mintes, red roses, time, pellitory of the wall, rosemarye, wilde time, and gromell, lavender (the flowers if you can get them), of every of them an handfull; then beate the spices small, and the hearbes allso; then put them all in ye wine, and let it stand therein twelve houres, stirringe it divers times; then still it in a lymbecke; and the first water being greene, put it by itselfe, for it is the best; the second water being white, is good, but not so good as the first; put that by itselfe; it is good for all manner of diseases, to drinke it fastinge, and at nighte laste, at every time a spoonefull; it is a presious and noble water, for a spoonefull is a preservative.

This, no doubt, was a precious cordial for the days it was in use. But we question whether water made of wine and spices, however skilfully combined, or slowly or coldly drawn, was half so exhilarating as ratafia or golden cordial, or eau-de-Cologne, or Geneva's famous water of juniper. We have never yet discovered the recipe for making the water of the gods, or seen a diagram of the "lymbecke" in which it was distilled; but we are certain that the Moors did no good to the beverage of Western Europe, when they brought with them into Spain the Egyptian art of distillation. Henry Earl of Cumberland, who was borne in 1517, and died in 1564, was, according to the Pembroke Memoirs, "much addicted to alchemy and chemistry, and a great distiller of waters." Pindar was very right

when he said "Water is the best."

13. To make an akeing tooth fall out.-Take wheate meale, and mixe therewith the milke of the hearbe called spurge, and make thereof past or doughe, with which ye shall fill the hollowe of the tooth, and let it be there a certayne time, and the tooth GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

Allso, if you

will fall out of it selfe. washe your mouth and teethe once a month with wine wherein the roote of this hearbe hath bene sodden, you shall never have payne in your teethe.

There can be no doubt but the caustic quality of the juice of almost every species of spurge, especially of Euphorbia peplus, applied to the human teeth, will corrode them rapidly. From its likeness to cream, and its severely acrid nature, the Irish call the plant that produces it, the "devil's churn." In England, from its being used to destroy warts, it is called wart-wort. Turner, the father of English botany, uses the name under peplis, and speaks of the burning taste of the seawart-wort which he saw growing in an island near Venice. Gerard also, who built his Herbal on foundations laid by Turner, tells of the horribly acrid quality of sea-spurge, which he experienced in company with Turner's ancient friend, Master Rich, in a walk along the seacoast, near Lee, in Essex.

15. For him that hath naturally a red face. Take foure ownces of the

kyrnells of peaches, and three ownces of gorde seedes, and make thereof an oyle, wherewith you shall anoynte his face morninge and eveninge; this will kill and destroye all redness. A thinge founde true by experience.

This recipe, if it was intended for the benefit of the fair sex, as well as of the gentlemen, might be found to furnish a very acceptable cosmetic for the toilettes of the blooming beauties of the country, who long to exchange the rosy hues of Hebe for the wan enchantments that lighten in the smiles of loveliness in fashionable life. We doubt its efficacy in removing the roseate hues that the liquor of cogniac suffuses over the face, much less in dimming the splendour of the crops of jewels that brandy produces on certain promontories, and, as their name implies," shine in the dark, like a lighted

coal."

19. To make the face fayre.-Take the blossomes of beanes, and distill them, and wash the face in that water, and it will be fair.

'The blossoms of beans!' Who that is enamoured of the fields and nature, has not inhaled their delicious Persian perfume; and has not been struck with the blackness of the beauty-spot on their corolle? We certainly recommend a place

on the toilette of the fair for this delicious water, as the perfumer, on distillation, will really find that it retains the fragrance F

of the flower; which we, however, do not suspect of yielding an essential oil, and consequently are not sanguine in our hopes of seeing the water of bean-flowers rivaling the ottar of roses.

21. To take away wartes.-When you kill a pigge, take the hot bloude, and washe the wartes, and let it drye on them; then presentlye after wash them, and they shall be whole.

Whoever practised this receipt with success, mixed the pig's blood with some matter, which he kept a secret; for, though we never tried the experiment, we are sure that blood, as it flows warm and unadulterated from an animal, can have no manner of effect in removing warts, or any other schirrhus tumour ; but warm blood is a convenient vehicle for a quack to use in working medical

miracles.

22. To remedye baldnes of the heade. Take a quantitye of Suthernwoode, and put it upon kindled coales to burne; and being made into powder, mix it with the oyle of radishes and anoynte the balde place, and you shall see great experiences.

What is here meant by experiences?" Changes? A new growth of hair, or a natural wig? Johnson is not quite right when he says that whey is one of the meanings of whig. He should have said sour whey; for till within the last forty years we remember a very agreeable summer beverage called whey-whig, being used by the people of Westmoreland, and made of whey with savoury herbs, such as mint, balm, and time, steeped in it, till it became slightly sour, and impregnated with the essential oil of the herbs. Of milk and whey they also said that it was gone, wented, whigged, or changed when it had turned sour. The word wig, as applied to an artificial covering of hair, has also that application, from a wig being a substitute or change for natural hair. And wig and wigh, in composition in the names of towns, means new or changed, and in some instances, as in its application to the Godmundingaham of Bede, Wighton means the idol's town, because idols were substitutes. If ointment of the oil of radishes, and the ashes of southern, should be found still to possess the virtue of covering bald heads with a crop of natural hair, how many elderly gentlemen, dear Mr. Urban, will be congratulating themselves with its delightful experiences,' after you kindly communicate to them this charming prescription!

30. A good drinke for them that are bewitched or forespoken.-Take rosemary three braunches, two leaves of comfrye, halfe a handfull of succorye, half a handfull of tyme, three braunches of hearbegrace, a quarte of running water, and seeth it tyll it be half consumed, and then strayne it. And then take one nutmegge, and one race of ginger, one pennyworth of mace, and two pennyworth of suger, and put them into the water, and drinke thereof first and laste a quantity at a time, warme; and eate five almondes everye time after you have drunke of the

water.

Fasting, they say, makes men acquainted with the unseen world; and no necromancer can have communication with the spirit of the dead, or do his unearthly works of witchery, without both he and the persons who employ him have spent a long time in fasting. We cannot tell how the wizzards do, but many believe that no man will see ghost or spirit, or think himself bewitched or forespoken, who is in health to eat and drink as he ought; and as the stomachic here recommended may have the effect of producing a healthy digestion and sound sleep, it is possible that it may be good for persons who think themselves possessed and bound in the spells of witchery. The accounts we hear of the command that the magicians of Egypt have over the spirits of the dead, and the communion that the fasting seers of Thebes enjoy with good spirits, will, we hope, be soon given to the world through the press. We will, however, briefly tell some few particulars, which we have heard respecting a magician at Cairo, and he and many others in that ancient country are now well known to many travellers both from England and from France. He came to any place he was sent for, and performed his feats in a private room, or in the open air, as he might be requested. He had no machinery or apparatus of any kind with him, except a fire and incense. His first request was that you would bring him a boy of twelve or thirteen years old-any that you chose; and he poured upon the palm of the boy's hand a blotch of common black writing ink. He then muttered certain prayers, and threw perfumes into the fire; and said to the boy" Call the seven flags," which being done, he asked, "Now how many do you see?" Perhaps "None," was the answer. Look again. "Oh, I see one, two, three, four." "What is their colour?" "Red, blue, &c." "Now I see one, two, three more."