various, so grand, so dulcet, so undulating, so exquisitely graceful, except when they assume judicious harshness for picturesque purposes!

You will find inclosed a letter recommending you to Mr Croft. Adieu. Yours.

LETTER VII.

MR BIRKBECK *.

May 20, 1790.

SIR, The passage upon which you question me, is in a note to one of Major André's three letters, published with the monody I wrote upon his death. Previous to that publication, I showed these letters to my father, who observed, that he was mistaken in supposing the name Lichfield meant the field of blood;-" that its true meaning was the field of dead bodies, alluding to a battle fought between the Romans and the British Christians in the Diocletian Persecution, where the latter were massacred-that the three slain kings, with their burying-place, BarrowcapHill, near the town, and the cathedral, in a minia

Hartford, near Blandford, Dorset,

ture, form the arms of the city; that Lich is still a word in use, bearing the same meaning; the church-yard gates, through which funerals pass, being called Lich-gates, vulgarly Light-gates." This is certainly the received tradition of this place. The city-arms, as above described, are now over the town-hall, in rude sculpture; and the remains of ancient tumuli are yet visible upon Barrowcap-Hill, rising in the outskirts of the town. Your letter induced me to apply to Mr Buckeridge of this place, a gentleman learned in ancient history. He says there are many evidences of a massacre of the Christians in the Diocletian Persecution, which is universally supposed to have given the city its name, Lichfield, meaning the field of dead bodies. But he thinks the tradition fabulous respecting the battle and the kings; observing, that a battle supposes resistance; but how, says he, could an unarmed. company of devotees resist or defend themselves against a Roman soldiery?

Mr Buckeridge has been so obliging to furnish me with references to the historians who mention this massacre, as follow: "Vide Bedæ Historiam, Paris edition, 1681, page 33. See also, in the same author, an account of the life, death, and sepulture of Saint Chad, page 191-2, which is worth reading. I will transcribe," he adds,

"two or three lines: Habuit autem sedem Episcopalem, in loco qui vocatur Lycid-feid, in quo, et defunctus et sepultus est; ubi usque hodie, sequentium quoque provinciæ illius episcoporum sedes est.' Vide Plot's history of Staffordshire, page 398, who, giving a pretty full account of the massacre of the Christians, says, 'finding them in the exercise of their religion, he took and carried them to the place where Lichfield now stands, and martyred one thousand of them there, leaving their bodies unburied, to be devoured by birds and beasts; whence the place still retains the name of Lichfield, or Cadaverum Campus, the field of dead bodies; the city having, for their device, an escutcheon, with many martyrs in it, in several manners mangled.' "Vide Saxon Chronicle, published by Gibson, 1692, latter part, page 34.

"Licetfeld,-Lichfield, by Ingulphus and Huntingdon ;-Licethfeld, by Simon Dunelm ;Lichesfeld, according to Gervasius ;—Lichefelde, by Bromton, and Lychfeld, by Knighton, i. e. says he (Gibson) ut nonnullis visum, Cadaverum Campus (Field of Dead Bodies,) et si alii malunt interpretare Campum Irriguum, ab aqua qua in duas partes urbs divisa est hodie Lichfeld, in agro Staffordiensi.

"Vide the accurate historian, Dr Heylin's Help

to History, published by Paul Wright, B. D. 1773, page 281, says,

Lichfield, the chief city of Staffordshire, signifieth, in the old Saxon tongue, the Field of Dead Bodies; so called, from a number of Christian bodies which lay massacred and unburied there, in the persecution raised by Diocletian. It is situated in a low and moorish ground, on a shallow pool, by which it is divided into two parts, but joined together by a bridge and causey both together, making a city of indifferent bigness.' More evidences might be collected were they necessary; vide Leland, and Warton's Anglia Sacra." I am, Sir, your humble servant.

"

LETTER VIII.

THOMAS CHRISTIE, Esq.

July 1, 1790.

YES, my kind friend, Heaven has at length deprived me of that dear parent to whom I was ever most tenderly attached, and whose infirmities, exciting my hourly pity, increased the pangs

of final separation. It was in vain that my reason reproached the selfishness of my sorrow.

was my

I cannot receive, as my due, the praise you so lavish upon my filial attentions. Too passionate affection to have had any merit in devoting myself to its duties. All was irresistible impulse. I made no sacrifices, for pleasure lost its nature and its name, when I was absent from him. I studied his ease and comfort, because I delighted to see him cheerful; and, when every energy of spirit was sunk in languor, to see him tranquil. It was my assiduous endeavour to guard him from every pain, and every danger, because his sufferings gave me misery, and the thoughts of losing him anguish.

And thus did strong affection leave nothing to be performed by the sense of duty. I hope it would have produced the same attentions on my part; but I am not entitled to say that it would, or to accept of commendation for tenderness so involuntary.

It gives me pleasure that your prospects are so bright. A liberal and extended commerce may be as favourable to the expansion of superior abilities as any other profession; and it is certainly a much more cheerful employment than that of medicine. The humane physician must have his quiet perpetually invaded by the sorrows of