46 



NOTES AND QUERIES. . [2»-i s. K- si.. July i8. '57. 



First." But not to the mere antiquary alone does 

 it present a wide and interesting field of research : 

 the memories of once-living men who moved and 

 influenced their own and all succeeding genera- 

 tions still live among us. The birth-place of the 

 celebrated Dr. Watts, the lyric poet, is still pre- 

 served and fondly cherished ; but more than one 

 other spot existed till recently amongst us, whose 

 records will in the next generation be only the 

 theme of the historian. Northward from the 

 town, and overlooking the site of the ancient 

 "Clausentura," stands "Bevois Mount,"* formerly 

 the residence of — 



" the great and polished Earl of Peterborough, who laid 

 out the grounds, and enriched them with statuary 

 brought from Rome. It was a favourite retreat of Pope, 

 and was subsequently the residence of Sotheby." 



Entick furnishes a detailed description of its 

 early glories, adding — 



" The beauty of the improvements in every part can 

 hard!}' be conceived : there are Statues, Grottoes, Alcoves, 

 and at every bend of the walks something new and un- 

 expected strikes the eye." 



The accomplished Sir Henry Englefield, more 

 than half a century since, wrote of it in these 

 glowing terms : — 



" The name of Bevis-mount unites the recollection of 

 an old, and perhaps fabulous, British hero with that of a 

 man whose courage and adventures were scarcely' less 

 romantic than those of the most famous Paladins, and 

 who to these high qualities added a refined taste for 

 elegant Art and polite literature. What Englishman 

 can look without respect on the shades where the Earl of 

 Peterborough walked with Arbuthnot and Pope ! "f 



Mrs. Montague and Voltaire are also said to 

 have visited this classic retreat, — the romantic 

 charm of which has now for ever been dispelled, 

 it having, I regret to add, fallen a victim to the 

 speculative enterprise of the day. The estate, 

 after passing through various hands, has at length 

 been parcelled out into building lots, the timber 

 cut down, and, with the exception of a portion of 

 the house, every feature of interest has been 

 swept away, — an arbour in the grounds known, 

 I believe, as " Pope's Seat," having shared in the 

 general wreck. 



Another sylvan retreat in this neighbourhood, 

 described by a local historian a few years ago, as — 



" Freemantle House, the elegant mansion of the late Sir 

 George Hewett, Bart., a spot endeared to the lover of the 

 fervid and moral muse of Cowper, who spent some of his 

 earl^' days here," — 



has also, within these few years, been rased to the 

 ground, the materials disposed of, and roads and 

 buildings now occupy its site and the surround- 



* So called as being the reputed burial-place of the 

 renowned "Sir Bevois of Ilamptoune," — the legend, or 

 metrical romance recording whose exploits is doubtless 

 known to all j'our readers. 



t Walk through Southampton, edit. 1805, p. 116. See 

 also Walpole's Jioi/al and Noble Authors. 



ing grounds, which were of great beauty, diver- 

 sified by winding walks on the margin of an 

 extensive lake surrounded by woods. The mar- 

 ketable value of property being so much enhanced 

 in this rising and influential port, and the change 

 that has come over its character and prospects, — 

 from the quiet watering-place of yore to the busy 

 sea-port of today, — offer the only plausible ex- 

 tenuation of these acts of wholesale spoliation. It 

 is probable some of your correspondents may be 

 able to produce similar charges of Vandalism, 

 though probably not to the same extent, nor from 

 similar causes ; but if the desire to rescue any 

 hallowed spot from ruin and forgetfulness be 

 awakened, I shall be satisfied in having thus ren- 

 dered a tribute to the memory of departed worth, 

 and to have served, though in so humble a degree, 

 the sacred cause of literature. 



Henry W. S. Taylob. 

 Southampton. 



N.B. Since writing the foregoing, I have been 

 gratified to learn that the mansion on the Bevois 

 Mount estate still stands entire, though narrowed 

 in its appurtenances almost within its own limits, 

 and otherwise shorn of its pristine grandeur, — the 

 interior having been dismantled, and the fittings 

 sold, so as to comport with the more modest pre- 

 tensions of a " genteel suburban villa," to which 

 it has become reduced. In the grounds stood a 

 gigantic oak, some idea of the dimensions of 

 which may be formed from the fact that, when 

 felled and lopped, it was computed to contain 

 about sixty loads of timber. 



TOBACCO AND OUR REVOLUTION, 1688. 



I have been fortunate enough to obtain, by 

 purchase, the original Parliamentary Grant of 

 William III. and Queen Mary, appropriating the 

 duties on tobacco, &c., to the States of Holland, 

 in payment of money advanced ; and for the pay- 

 ments of the servants of Chai"les II., on three 

 sheets of parchment, with engraved borders and 

 portrait of William III., dated "the Fifteenth 

 Day of November, in the first year of Our Reigne," 

 and signed " By Writt of Privy Scale, — Pigott." 



The fact that the duties on tobacco — even 

 benignant Nicotiana — should have at once paid 

 the price of our glorious revolution, is one of the 

 very many curious and note-worthy incidents of 

 this eminently historical weed. It was indeed 

 befitting that she who fills and blesses the pipe of 

 peace — in her own home — under the shadow of 

 the Red Mountain, where the Great Spirit sanc- 

 tioned the Indian's holy pipe — should honour the 

 bill of that revolution — " of all revolutions the 

 least violent — of all revolutions the most bene- 

 ficent" — in the consistent words of our popular 

 historian, Mr. Macaulay. In one year tobacco 



