PUR 



PUR 



It includes two hundreds, called Hazier and Rowbarrow, 

 the former comprehending the eallern diviiion of the i(lc, 

 and the latter the weftern. Thefe are fiibdivided into nine 

 pariflies, and contain one town, Corfe-calUc, and feveral 

 large villages and hamlets. The foil is every where 

 calcareous ; but the furface is much diverfilied by hill and 

 dale. The quarries, fhores, and cliffs, on the fouth fide of 

 the ifle in particular, afford an inexhauftible fund of natural 

 curiofities. Near Kington, Worth, Langton, and Swan- 

 wich, are extenfive quarries of freeftone ; and in many parts 

 is a ftonc that rifes thin, and is ufed for tiling ; alfo a hard 

 paving flone, much of which was ufed in rebuilding London 

 after the fire, and in paving the ftreets and courts. At 

 Svvanwich is a white ftone full of fliells, which takes a high 

 pohfh, and looks like alaballer ; and near Dunfhay is dug up 

 marble of various colours, but chiefly a grey kind, formed by 

 a congeries of fhells, and anciently much ufed for grave (tones 

 and monuments. It was likewife very generally employed 

 forfmall columns in the churches which were ereftcd during 

 the 13th century. The cornua ammonis are frequently 

 difcovered here, fome of them two or three feet in diameter. 



In ancient times the whole of this ifle was a forefl, and 

 was well flocked with red and fallow deer, and flags, 

 efpecially in the well parts ; but thefe were almofl entirely 

 deflroycd in the civil wars. James I. was the lafl of our kings 

 who hunted here. The whole ifle was till latejy governed 

 by a lord-lieutenant, who was admiral of the ifle, and had 

 power to raife and mufler a militia ; but this office ceafed 

 when the regular militia aft was paffed. Formerly there 

 were many gentlemen's feats difperfed all over the ifle ; 

 which were probably built for the reception and accommo- 

 dation of the nobility and gentry who attended the royal 

 hunts, as mofl of the owners of eltates in this part of the 

 country had their principal feats elfewhere, and only came 

 hither in the hunting feafons. Thefe are now almofl, with- 

 out exception, converted into farm-houfes. For an ac- 

 count of the only town in Purbsck, fee Corfe-castle. 

 Hutchins's Hiilory and Antiquities of the County of 

 Dorfet, 2d edit, by Gough. Beauties of England and 

 Wales, vol. iv. by John Britton, and E. W. Brayley. 



PuRBECK Stone, the faxum arenarium cinereum Purbccenfe 

 of Da Cofla, and pfadurium friabile alb'ido fufcum of Hill, 

 is an alkahne fand-flone, which is harfh and rough, of a dif- 

 agreeable afhen colour, very heavy, and moderately hard, of 

 a texture not very compadl, but fomewhat porous, and is 

 compofed of an angular grit, cemented together by an earthy 

 fpar : it cuts freely, and with a tolerable even or fmooth 

 furface, but will not take a polifli. It will not ftrike fire 

 with a Heel, and burns to a white colour. The quarries of 

 this flone are in the ifland of Furbeck, in Dorfetfhirc, 

 whence it is brought to London in great quantities, and ufed 

 in building, and for pavements. Its fpecitic gravity is 2.68. 

 There is alfo another kind of Furbeck flone, ihe faxum fiifco- 

 albidum oi Da Cofla, and the /jmpexium durjjfimi/in, fp/eiidi- 

 dum alb'ido -fufcum of Hill, which is alkaline, of a dull, dif- 

 agreeable, pale, brownifh, white colour, and is not capable 

 of a polifli, though it cuts to a very fmooth furface : it is of 

 a fine, clofe, compatl texture, not quite deftitnte ofbright- 

 nefs, but full of fparks of pure fpar, and intimately mixed 

 with vafl quantities of fmall pettunculi, which are often fa- 

 turated and filled with the fame fubftance ; it is very heavy 

 and hard, and water does not pervade its texture ; it does 

 not ftrike fire with fteel, and when burnt, acquires a clear 

 afhen colour. This flone is brought from Furbeck, and ufed 

 in building, pavements, &c. Hill informs us, that it is 

 likewife found in many other parts of the kipgdom, and 



Vol. XXIX. 



tliat there are large flrata of it in Yorkfhirc. Da Cofta's 

 Fofhls, p. 128 — 152. 



FURBUTTY, in Geography, a river of Hindooftan, 

 which runs into the Chumbul ; fcven miles W. of Suifo- 

 pour, in the country of Agimere. 



FURCARl, a town of European Turkey, in Beffarabia, 

 on the Dniefter ; 4 miles S.E. of Bender. 



FURCELAIN. See Fokcelain. 



PURCELL, Hen'KY, in Biography, an Englifh mufi- 

 cian of more extenfive genius than perhaps our country can 

 boafl at any other period of time, was bom in 1658. His 

 father, Henry, and uncle, Thomas Furcell, were both rau- 

 ficians, and gentlemen of the chapel royal, at the refloration 

 of king Charles II. There is a three-part fong in Flay- 

 ford's " Mufical Companion," by Henry Furcell, which, 

 being printed in 1 667, when our great mufician was but nine 

 years old, mufl have been the produftion of his father. 

 There is likewife a chant in the firfl volume of Boyce's 

 CoUeftion, p. 289, N° II, called the " burial chant," by 

 Thomas Furcell, his uncle, who continued in the fervice ol 

 the chapel till the time of his death, in 1682. Though thefe 

 compofitions promife no great hereditary genius, they are 

 mentioned here, as mankind is naturally curious concerning 

 every thing that is connefted with eminent perfons. 



From whom Henry received his firfl inflruftions in mufic, 

 cannot be very clearly afcertained. But his father dying in 

 1664, when he was no more than fix years old, it is probable 

 he was qualified for a choriller by Capt. Cook, who was maf- 

 ter of the children from the refloration till the time of his 

 death, in 1672. For, as Furcell was appointed organifl of 

 Weflminfter Abbey at eighteen years of age, he mufl have 

 learned the elements of his art before his fourteenth year, at 

 which time Felham Humphrey, brought up in the royal 

 chapel under Capt. Cook, was appointed his fuccefibr, as 

 mailer of the boys. Furcell certainly continued to fuig in 

 the king's chapel, and to receive leffons from Humphrey till 

 his voice broke, an accident which ufually happens to youth 

 at fixteen or feventeen years of age : after this, perhaps, he 

 had a few leffons in compofition from Dr. Blow, which were 

 fufficient to cancel all the inftruftions he had received from 

 other mailers, and to occafion the boafl infcribed on the 

 tomb-flone of Blow, that he had been 



" Mailer to the famous Mr. Henry Furcell." 



But there is nothing more common than this petit larceny 

 among muficians : if the firfl mafter has drudged eight or 

 ten years with a pupil of genius, and it is thought neceffary, 

 in compliance with fafliion or caprice, that he fhould receive, 

 a few leffons from a fecond, he inftantly arrogates to him- 

 felf the whole honour, both of the talents and cultivation of 

 his new fcholar, and the firfl and chief iiiflruftor is left to 

 fing, Jtc vos non niobis. 



Purcell is faid to have profited fo mucli from his firfl lef- 

 fons and clofe application, as to have compofed, during the 

 time of his being a finging boy in the chapel, many of his 

 anthems, which have been conftantly fung in our cathedrals 

 ever fince. Eighteen was a very early age for kis being ap- 

 pointed organill ; that is, niaeilro di capella of Weftminfter 

 Abbey, one of the firft cathedrals in the kingdom for 

 choral compofitions and performance. It was not likely he 

 would flop here : the world is, perhaps, more partial to 

 promifing youth than accomphfhed age : and at twenty- four, 

 in 1682, he was advanced to one of the three places of or- 

 ganifl of the chapel royal, on the death of Edward Low, 

 the fucceffor of Dr. Chriflopher Gibbons, in the fame 

 ftation. 



D After 



