their travel it is related, that Lady Catharine was delivered af a son near a church porch at Bruges, in Flanders; who, on account of the circumstances of refuge and distress, was named PEREGRINE; which was the name taken by several of the noble family of Ancaster. The mansion in Barbican was named Willoughby House, and inhabited by Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby of Eresby, and father of Robert Bertie, the great earl of Lindsey, who was killed at the battle of Edgehill; the house, it seems, was then of vast circumference.

Towards the end of Golden Lane, was GARTER PLACE, SO called from Sir Thomas Wrythe, or Wriothesley, whose family had been, for some time, heralds at arms. Having been trained to the same studies by his father Sir John, he was created Wallingford Herald, and afterwards succeeded his father as Garter king at arms. His brother William, who was York herald, had issue Thomas Wriothesley, who, by various degrees of merit, arrived to be lord chancellor of England, and earl of Southampton. He died at his house in Lincoln Place, Holborn, called from him Southampton House, where we shall speak more of him. Sir Thomas, the uncle, built Garter Place, and on the top founded a chapel, which he dedicated by the name Sanctæ Trinitatis in Alto.

At the end of this street, where the pump now stands, the antient Barbican, Burgh-kenning, or Watch Tower, is sup-' posed to have been situated.

RED CROSS STREET, is so called from a cross which stood near the end of Golden Lane. This is a noble, wide, and well-built street, inhabited by persons of property, and runs from Barbican to the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate. There are several courts and alley, but they are of no material estimation either for structures or inhabitants.

The first object of attention is a DISSENTING MEETING HOUSE, which has changed owners and doctrines various times; it has been successively occupied by Independents, Baptists, New Jerusalem, and other congregations,

The adjoining house is the charity school belonging to the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, founded in 1698, for one hundred boys and fifty girls, who are clothed and edueated.

But the greatest ornament of this street, is

DR. WILLIAMS's LIBRARY

for the use of Protestant Dissenting Ministers.

"Daniel Williams, D. D. was born at Wrexham, în 1643, or 1644. He had a great natural vigour of mind, which being improved by an uncommon application, made à compensation for his want of such helps as many others have had in their early years. He loved serious religion from his youth, and entered upon the ministry about the time of the ejectment in 1662." Our limits will not allow us to follow Dr. Williams through the many persecutions he suffered both in England and Ireland, during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. After the Revolution he was unanimously chosen to succeed the reverend Mr John Oakes, as preacher to a numerous congregation in Hand Alley, Bishopsgate Street; he had before this many times officiated for Mr. Richard Baxter, at Pinner's Hall, Broad Street, and had succeeded that worthy character, in the lecture; but with great opposition, on account of his fe verity against Antinomian opinions. Upon this Mr. Williams withdrew himself, and was followed by Dr. Bates, Mr. Howe, Mr. Alsop, Dr. Annesley, and Mr. Richard Mayo; and they jointly set up the lectures at Salter's Hall. He was in great favour with William III.

"When, in the reign of queen Anne, a bill was depending in parliament against occasional conformity, he exerted himself to the utmost against it. He was very much for the Union with Scotland in 1707, and urged his friends to forward it, with great earnestness. In 1709, he received a diploma for the degree of D. D. from Glasgow, and another from Edinburgh; the latter inclosed in a silver box. In the latter end of Anne's reign, Dr. Williams having very dark apprehensions of the state of things, dealt freely with the

great

great man then at the head of affairs, with whom he had been long acquainted, and warned him of his danger, whe. ther he was embarked against liberty or not. But the freedom he took was not relished, the doctor's free remarks on the great man's conduct (in a letter to some friends in Ireland) being ungenerously carried to him, he was so incensed against Dr. Williams, that he never forgave him. No man in the nation more heartily rejoiced than the doctor at the over-blowing of the impending storm, by the acces sion of king George I. to the British throne; and on Sep tember 28, 1714, he, at the head of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers, in and about London, presented to his majesty an addrefs of congratulation. About this time his constitution, naturally strong, began visibly to decay; but he held on in the exercise of his ministry, till 1716, when, after a short illness, he departed this life January 26, aged seventy-three. He was interred in a vault of his own at Bunhill Fields, with a long Latin inscription to his me mory.

"Dr. Williams gave the bulk of his estate, by will, to charitable uses; as excellent in their nature, as various in their kinds, and as much calculated for the glory of God and the good of mankind, as any other that have ever been known. Among other objects of it are, the relief of poor ministers and their widows: the education of students in the university of Glasgow for the ministry: the support of schools, especially in Wales: the distribution of bibles and other pious books among the poor: a Protestant missionary in Ireland, &c. He left his library for public use, and directed a convenient place to be purchased or built, in which the books might be properly disposed of, and left an annuity for a librarian. The building we are about to describe was afterwards erected by a subscription among the opulent Dissenters, where the doctor's collection is preserved with peculiar care and neatnefs. This is also the place in which the body of Dissenting ministers meet to transact the business of the general concern; it is also the repository for portraits of. Nonconformist ministers, for MSS. and for other matters of curiosity and utility."

With a view to the formation of a public library, Dr. Williams had purchased, in his life-time, the valuable collection of Dr. Bates, to which he directed, by his will, that his own should be added. Of these a catalogue was printed, in one volume, 8vo. in 1727, some considerable time be fore a public library was opened; and the catalogue was published previously to the opening of the library, as the preface informs us, in order to induce other munificent and public-spirited persons, and lovers of literature, to contribute to its augmentation. Considerable donations to this library have accordingly been made at different times; but not such as have been proportionable to the long space of time which has elapsed since the foundation of the library, nor to the usual liberality manifested by the Dissenters on such occasions. Although it was known, that Dr. Williams, the founder, had left a considerable estate, which was appropriated to various. charitable purposes; yet it seems not to have been equally known, that his trustees were not empowered by his will to employ any part of the produce of his estate in the purchase of books for the augmentation of the library.

Lately, however, in consequence of the greatly improved income arising from that estate, the court of Chancery (before which the accounts of it are annually audited, and the sanction of which is necessary for any deviations from the letter of the founder's will,) has given directions that the sum of fifty pounds shall be annually appropriated out of the proceeds for the purpose of keeping in repair and increasing the library.

It would certainly be honourable to the Dissenters, and conducive to the interests of literature among them, that a public library, chiefly, though not exclusively, appropriated to their use, should consist of a numerous collection of valuable and well-chosen books. There are many such at present in this collection; but many others are yet wanting, both antient and modern, in order to increase its utility and estimation as a public library. The British Museum, Sion College library, and the University libraries, receive great

additions

additions of modern books, from its being required by law, that copies of all works entered at Stationers Hall should be sent to those libraries. But the library in Red Cross Street has no such resource; and it is, therefore, much to be desired, that those liberal-minded persons, who may be inclined to promote an augmentation of the library, should make such donations for this purpose as they may judge proper. Donations, with this view, may be either in books or in money; and it would also be desirable, that such authors, whether Dissenters or. others, as may be inclined to increase the library, should transmit copies of their works to this collection.

It was a good custom introduced into the school of Bishop's Stortford, that every scholar on leaving that seminary, should give some book or books to the school library: were the custom to prevail among Protestant Dissenters, that upon their ordination, they should make the same grateful. deposit, the accumulation would soon be considerable, and return to them sources of perpetual and useful informa

tion.

The building is divided on the first floor into two very handsome and spacious apartments, capable of containing forty thousand volumes, though the whole of the present contents of the library, amount to no more than sixteen thousand; these are however very scarce and very valuable, and are not confined to works upon Divinity; but the classes of general and particular History, the Arts and Sciences, Phi losophy, &c.

The GREAT ROOM contains several glazed presses, in which are deposited the works of Grævius and Gronovius, Rymer's Fœdera, the early editions of Milton's works, and the first edition of his Paradise Lost; and other works equally valuable. Here is also a great curiosity of its kind; "Eighteen volumes written with a white ink upon black paper (made on purpose) at the expence, and for the use of Mr. Joseph Harris (late of London, linen draper) in 1745, when his sight was so decayed by age, that he could

not