16

Mr. URBAN,

Reprehensible Mode of punishing Scholars.

Jan. 12. IN the course of a short, I visited a N the course of a short tour through church in a country town, in which, while searching for monumental inscriptions, my attention was arrested by a list of living worthies, whom, on a nearer approach, I discovered were declared to have left the Sunday School connected with the said church, with credit. The names of the girls thus distinguished were written. The edges of the paper were decorated in a fanciful but neat style, in correspondence with the joyous nature of the testimonial. The catalogue of meritorious boys was adopted for longer duration. Their names were inscribed in gold letters on a wooden tablet, over a pink ground. These memorials were sus pended in a conspicuous part of the church, and as I witnessed them on a Wednesday, conclude that they were intended to remain in that position all the week. To this proceeding, perhaps, no serious objection can be made; and I have no doubt that the honour was more worthily bestowed in these instances, than in those of many deceased, whose virtues are "Firmly set forth in lapidary lines,Faith, with her torch beside, and little Cupids

Dropping upon the urn their marble tears."

my

But to come to the object of Letter. By the side of these eulogistic tablets were appended others of a condemnatory nature. Female delinquents who had left the school in disgrace, were recorded on paper, environed with gloomy black; while their companions in misfortune were registered on less perishable wood, the blackness of which served to render the inscribed names more conspicuous. The motives of those concerned in making this latter exposure, I do not question. An appeal is thus made to the fears of the other scholars, and a fair external conduct while at school is supposed to be ensured.

But, Mr. Urban, allow me to put a few questions on this subject; and if my objections to this practice carry weight in them, let it be discontinued. Is this proceeding in accordance with the laws of our country? A charac

ter is here blasted. Who would be inclined to employ a youth whose name was thus tainted? I cannot conceive any method more calculated to injure a person in the world than

[Jan.

this publicity. So long as the child is at school, the law could not interfere with the discretion used by the preceptor; but to perpetuate infamy, and in the most public place of concourse, is at variance with British jurisprudence. Is this proceeding judicious? The object of the Governors is doubtless to prevent offences, by working on the fears of the rest of the pupils. But that the repetition of offences is not prevented, is evident, from the circumstance that the numbers of delinquents recorded in the last year, have rather increased. But on this point I will not insist, as I am writing from memory; and as the School may have fluctuated in numbers. Is there not a want of judgment also in not specifying the offences? Ne scutica dignum horribili sectere flagello." A moral offence is one thing, but careless inattentive conduct in a child, whose spirits are buoyant, should be visited with less severity. But a silence respecting the nature of the offences is maintained; and a stranger might put the worst possible construction on them, and such an exposure would justify him in forming it. I cannot discern any thing analogous to this proceeding in our public schools and colleges, even where the parties have attained a greater age, and their offences are therefore less excusable.

Lastly, is this proceeding Christianly? "He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy," was an Old Testament promise. Here no opening is given for reformation; and unless some sacrilegious violator strip the church of its moveables, or some tempest bury these testimonials beneath the ruins of the temple, the infamy will live. The crimson dye of their offences will remain undischarged. Children require coercion; it is necessary, it is indispensable; but let them be chastised "with whips, and not with scorpions." Yours, &c. VIATOR.

The remarks of J. S. p. 304, coincide with those of PHILOGLUPHIST, vol. LXXXVIII. i. p. 520, who begs leave to add, that unless the Statue of Queen Anne is strongly protected by iron chevaux de frise to prevent the populace from climbing up and over it, whilst a procession, &c.) all the intended reparation of Mr. Hill's ingenious workmanship would be destroyed by the unthinking populace, who, on those occasions actually cluster on it so as to resemble an ant hillock!

passes,

Mr.

1822.]

M

17

Account of Michel Dean, Gloucestershire. Mr. URBAN, Jan. 1. |ICHEL DEAN, Great Dean, or, as it was sometimes formerly called, Michael Dean, is a market town in Gloucestershire, situate 11 miles North-West from Gloucester, on the borders of the Forest of Dean. It has a market on Monday, and two fairs held on Easter Monday and October the 10th. It derives its name Dean from the Saxon word den-vallislocus sylvestris, a valley or place near woods. Agreeably to the name, it is situated in a little low valley, surrounded with hills, which attract the clouds as they pass over, and often bring down the rain on this place, when the neighbouring parishes are free from it, in consequence of which it is exceedingly damp, and many of the inhabitants are afflicted by rheumatism; but to those whose constitutions will bear it, the air is keen and bracing, and the surrounding country is fertile and beautiful. Little is said of this town in history, but it bears evident marks of having been at some time or other a place of some size and importance: at present it is very small and mean in its appearance. It consists of one long street, running from North to South, and about midway a short street runs at right angles from the other, leading towards the West into the forest; it is served with water from a fine spring, a little above the town, on the forest side, by a conduit or covered channel of stone, which conveys the water into wells in different parts of the town, but which have been lately closed, and pumps erected over them. Within a few years past it contained several ruins of what must once have been large and stately buildings, but so antient that the oldest inhabitant has no recollection, nor is there any tradition of the particulars of their use or origin. In Domesday Book, p. 74, it is thus mentioned, among the lands of liam the son of Norman:

The Regular Canons of Southwick in Hampshire were seized of lands in Dean, and had a Charter of liberties thereon, 1st John, and a grant of another part of Dean in the 5th year of that reign, the rest remaining in the King's hands.

William de Dean was seised of Great Dean, and of a Bailiwick in the Forest, 43d Hen. III.

In the 9th of Edw. I. the Sheriff, in the account of all the vills in the county of Gloucester, returned Mitchel Deane, Parva Deane, and Abbenhall, as one vill. By the proceedings at a Justice Seat (a Forest Court), held in the 10th of the same reign, it appears the bailiwick of Great Dean was in the hands of the King, and kept by the Constable of St. Briavel's, a castle in the Forest; but in the 20th of the same reign, Henry de Dean held the manor and the bailiwick of Dean.

In the 10th of Edw. II. John Abbenhall was seised of the manor of Michel Dean, and of one messuage, and 140 acres of land; and in the 12th of the same reign, William de Dean held Great Dean, St. Briave!'s Castle, and four acres of assart land in Bradell.

In the 2d of Edw. III. Reginald de Abbenhall had a grant of markets and fairs in Great Dean.

In the 26th of Hen. VI. John Tip toft, Earl of Worcester, had this manor in marriage with Elizabeth Grender; and, after the death of his wife, held it by the courtesy of England during his life. He was a firm adherent to the house of York, and on the restoration of Hen. VI. lost his head on Tower Hill, and was buried in the Black Friers, London. He left no issue; therefore the manor descended to John Grender, alias Greyndour. -Walwyn (son of William Walwyn, who had been High Sheriff of GlouWil-cestershire, 10 Hen. IV.) married the daughter and heiress of the said John Grender, by whom he had the manor of Dean, which descended to his son William Walwyn. Thomas Baynham of Clower Wall married Alice, daughter and heiress of William Walwyn, with whom he had this estate. Sir Christopher Baynham, their son and heir, died seised of it, 32 Hen. VIII. His son, Sir John Baynham, died seised thereof, 38 Henry VIII. whose

"The said William holds in Dene two hides, two yard-lands and a half; in the time of King Edward (the Confessor), three Thanes, Godric, Elric, and Ernui, held these lands. There are three plow-tillages in demesne, and 38 bordars have 7 plow-tillages and a half, three of which pay 8s. It was worth 33s. now 44s. King Edward exempted these lands from tax for the preservation of the Forest."

GENT. MAG. January, 1822.

son

18

nor,

Account of Michel Dean, Gloucestershire.

son Christopher had livery of this ma3d Edw. VI. He dying March 5, livery was granted the same year to his brother Richard, as it was to Robert, 9th Eliz. and to Joseph Baynham, 14th Eliz. Among the memoranda kept in the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office, is an entry of a process in the nature of a quo warranto, against Charles Foxe, esq. to show cause why the manor of Michell Deane should not be seized into the hands of the Queen by reason of alienation, Michaelmas, 18th Eliz. Thomas Baynham had livery of the fourth part of the manor of Mitchel Dean, and of the third part of the advowson of the rectory, 20th Eliz. It afterwards became the property of Sir Robert Woodruffe; then came into the family of the Colchesters; and Maynard Colchester, esq. of Gloucester, is the present lord of the manor.

Walter de Lacy gave his lands in Dene to the Abbey of Gloucester, which gift the King confirmed, 14th William I. Roger de Staunton gave the watercourse of Dene and of Clinch to the said Abbey, 7th Richard I.; and the Abbey held lands in Dean of Edward Earl of March, 3d Henry VI. The inhabitants of Dean had a right of estovers and pasturage in the Forest of Dean, 7 Hen. III.

On a perambulation of the boundaries of the Forest of Dean by 19 Regarders of the Forest, in the latter end of the reign of Charles II., it was declared that the boundary of the parish of Mitchel Dean formed part of the boundaries of the Forest; and in the same reign the inhabitants of Mitchel Dean united with those of the other parishes round the Forest, and the foresters, in a sort of petition to Henry Lord Herbert, Lord Lieutenant of the County, and Constable of the Castle of St. Briavel's, and the rest of the Commissioners for the Forest, asserting their right to common, of pasture, herbage, and pawnage, estovers, houseboot, hey-boot, and fire-boot, and liberty to dig stone under and according to the government of the Court of Swanimote, and attachments in the said Forest, paying to his Majesty's Exchequer the yearly rent of one penny, called swine silver, or herbage money; and one penny, called smoke penny, or mark money, for every house,--and complaining of an in

[Jan.

fringement of their right by the sale of 18,000 acres to Sir John Wintour, knt. and the disafforesting the same, and praying the same might be restored.

The Charter of Henry Duke of Normandy, and Earl of Anjou, afterwards Henry II. granted to the monks, who were about to build the neighbouring abbey at Flaxley, among other things, "all the land under the old Castle of Dene, which remains to be assarted, and that which is already assarted;" but there is not at present the slightest vestige or tradition of a castle in Dean, and it is probable, from the manner of describing it, it was then only a ruin.

In the Charter of Henry II. to Flaxley Abbey, the monks settling there are called the Monks of Dean."

Formerly this town enjoyed a share of the clothing trade; and, some years ago, a small copper coin was found in a field near the town, which appears to be a token issued by one of the tradesmen of the town; and from its contiguity to the Forest, in which there were then immense numbers of deer, there were two large manufactories of buck and doe-skin leather, and also some glove manufactories. On the failure of the clothing trade, pinmaking was carried on here; that has, however, with all the other manufactories, ceased several years ago, since which the only trade carried on is the making of nails, and that to no great extent.

About 20 years ago there were several respectable families resident here, but nearly all of them are now extinct, or have left the place. Michel Deane now bears very few even of the wrecks of its prosperity, and exhibits a striking monument of the instability of earthly affairs and establishments.

The Church (see Plate II.) is a rectory in the deanery of the Forest, worth about 70l. a year. Mr. Colchester is patron, and Mr. Edw. Jones is the present incumbent. The Church is a large and handsome though plain building, with two ailes; its length, from East to West, in that part where the chancel is, is 82 feet; and, exclusive of the chancel, the length is 73 feet; the width, from North to South, 72 feet; so that, exclusive of the chancel, it forms a large square. It has a tower, containing a clock with chimes, and eight good bells, and surmounted

by