M E R 
well-conftru&ed arch. Proceeding up the hill, whore 
fteepnefs is alleviated by ameandring path, you arrive at 
a Ihady and thick-planted grove, where a root-houl'e claims 
your attention ; it is well and judicioufly formed, nor is 
it without the folemn accompaniments of eremitical foli- 
tude, the (kull and the hour-glafs. Palfing from hence 
along the tide of the hill, the Temple of the Sun is the 
next object of admiration : it is a very fuperb edifice, and 
commands a view not only of every thing hitherto de- 
fcribed, but alfo of the adjacent country, the park, and 
Alfred’s Tower, a magnificent building, erefted on a fpot 
which is rendered memorable by a victory fuppofed to 
have been there gained by that brave, wife, and iliuftrious, 
monarch. 
Defcending a fine verdant Hope from this building, by 
a fubterranean grot, you pafs under the road over which 
the rugged arch had before conducted you, and re-enter 
the principal part of the gardens, near a beautiful ftone- 
bridge of three arches, which is thrown acrofs a branch 
of the lake. From this bridge, and a little to the left of 
it, there is an aflemblage of beautiful objedts both near 
and diftant, fuch, indeed, as would demand the pencil of 
a Claude to delineate with any tolerable degree of perfec¬ 
tion. Palling from hence through the fkirts of the wood, 
by a Doric building called the Temple of Ceres, whole 
portico faces the lake, and winding onwards by an af- 
cending embowered path, you come to a fmall ruftic 
green-houfe, with parterres, and platforms of flowers and 
fcented fhrubs, in a fmall open garden before it; a path 
from hence leads to the gate which brings you to the 
village. Near this gate, on a fmall jutting point of the 
garden, which is let into the village as it were by a funk 
fence, Hands a gawdy, enriched, ancient, crofs, of a con- 
iiderable height, which, fome years ago, flood in the city 
of Briflol; but, being an obftruftion to fome propofed 
improvements in that city, it was procured by Mr. Hoare, 
and brought piece-meal in waggons to Stourhead ; and, 
after being repaired and richly coloured, it was eredted 
on this fpot, where it is a very contrafting and ornamental 
objeft. 
We now proceed, through Mr. Hoare’s woods and 
park, to a little building called the Nunnery. It is a 
Gothic defign, and has fome good old portraits in its 
apartment, and ferves as a place for occafional dinner and 
tea-drinking entertainments. Its fituation is very ro¬ 
mantic. From hence, by a winding road, you afcend the 
terrace, which is of a great length and breadth, and from 
whence there is the moft extenfive inland profpedl ever 
beheld. At the extreme point, which is a bold jutting 
eminence planted with firs, Hands Alfred’s Tower. It is 
a triangular building of white brick, large in its dimenfions, 
and of a very great height. At each angle there is a tower, 
one of which contains a circular ftair-cafe, that leads to a 
fmall room at the top, juft fufficient for the placing of tele- 
fcopes. From hence there is aprofpeft in circumference 
and extent i-eally aftonifliing. The interior part of the 
building is open to the top ; itfeems to be intended chiefly 
as an objeft, and a moft noble one it is. For, though it 
is without any ornament, except the figure of Alfred in 
a niche, and the inlcription under it, which js over the 
entrance, and is nothing but a lofty wall of brick, with 
the projecting towers of the fame materials and plainnefs ; 
yet fuch are the proportions, that it poflefles the moft af- 
fefting fimplicity and natural grandeur we ever remember 
to have feen in any Angle ftruCture, of any kind or in any 
country. Wilkes's Britijh Direflory, vol. iv. 
ME'RECZ, a river of Lithuania, which runs into the 
Niemen twenty-eight miles north of Grodno.—A town 
of Lithuania, in the palatinate of Troki, at the conflux of 
the Merecz and the Niemen : twenty-eight miles north 
of Grodno. 
ME'RED, a man’s name. 
MER'EDITH, a cape among the Falkland iflands, in 
the South Atlantic Ocean, between Port Stephen’s and 
Cape Orford. 
M E R 143 
MER'EDITM, a townfliip of North America, in Straf- 
ford-county, New Hampfliire: nine miles fouth-eaft of Ply¬ 
mouth ; incorporated in 1768, and firft called New Salem. 
MER'EDITH, a poft-town in the province of New 
York, North America: twenty-five miles fouth of Cooper* 
Town. 
MEREE'GA HAM'MAM, i. e. the Baths of Mereega, 
a town of Algiers, in the province ofTremecen, anciently 
called Aqua Calidcc Colonia; celebrated for its warm baths. 
The largeft and moft frequented of them is a bafin of 
twelve feet fquare, and four in depth; and the water, 
which bubbles up in a degree of heat juft luppof table, af¬ 
ter it has filled this ciftern, pafles on to a much fmallef one, 
which is made ufe of by the Jews, who are not permitted 
to bathe in company or in the lame place with the Maho¬ 
metans. Thefe baths were formerly covered, and had 
corridores of Hone running round the balms ; but at pre¬ 
lent they lie expoled to the weather, and are half full of 
ftones and rubbifh. Yet notwithftanding all this, a great 
concourfe of people ufually refort hither in the fpring, the 
leafon of thele waters ; which are accounted very effica¬ 
cious in curing the jaundice, rheumatic pains, and fome 
of the molt inveterate difeafes. Higher up the hill there 
is another bath, which being of too intenfe a heat to bathe 
in, the water is conducted through a long pipe into ano¬ 
ther chamber, where it is ufed in dnccian , an operation 
of like nature and eft’efts with pumping. Between this 
and the lower baths are the remains of a Roman town; and 
at a little diftance from it feveral tombs and coffins of 
ftone. It is twenty-four miles fouth-eaft of Sherlhell. 
ME'RELY, udv. Simply ; only; thus and no other way; 
for this and for no other end or purpofe.—It is below 
reafonable creatures to be converfant in fuch diverfions as 
are merely innocent, and have nothing elfe to recommend 
them. AddiJbn. 
Prize not your life for other ends 
Than merely to oblige your friends. Swift. 
Abfolutely: 
’Tis an unweeded garden, 
That grows to feed ; things rank and grofs in nature 
Poflefs it merely. Shahejpeare's Hamlet. 
I am as happy 
In my friend’s good, as if ’twere merely mine. 
Beaumont and Fletcher's Honelt Man's Fortune. 
MEREN'DERA, f. [Spanilh.] In botany, a genus of 
the clafs hexandria, order trigynia, natural order coro- 
nariae, Linn, (junci, Jti/J.) Generic characters—Calyx; 
Iheath of one leaf. Corolla : of fix petals, funnel-fhaped, 
equal; claws ereft, long and linear; borders elliptic-lan¬ 
ceolate, fpreading. Stamina : filaments fix, thread-lhaped, 
equal, inlerted into the claws of the petals, Ihorter than the 
limb, permanent; antherae terminal, ereft, awl-ffiaped. 
Piltillum: germen three-lobed,fuperior,fomewhat ftalked, 
oblong, acute; ftyles thread-lhaped, the length of the 
ftamens ; ltigmas limple. Pericarpium: capfule ftalked, 
oblong, three-lobed, acute, of three valves and three cells, 
opening at their inner edge. Seeds : feveral in each cell, 
obovate, ftalked, ranged along the margins of each valve. 
— Ejj'eutial Character. Sheath of one valve; petals lix, 
with long claws; antherae vertical; capfule of three cells, 
opening at their inner edge; feeds feveral. 
Merendera bulbocodium, or Pyrenean merendera; a 
Angle fpecies. Found in the grafly paltures of the higheft 
of the Pyrenean mountains, flowering at the commence¬ 
ment of autumn, and ripening feed in the following fpring. 
Root an ovate bulb. Stem none. Leaves three or four, 
produced after the flower is paft, radical, Ipreading, linear, 
acute, channelled, fmooth, a lpan long. Flower folitary, 
radical, the lize of a fmall crocus, with purplilh rofe-co- 
loured petals, white at their bale, and yellow anthers. 
Capfule fmall, brown, elevated on a ftalk two inches high. 
This plant might perhaps, without violence to nature, be 
referred to Colchicum, or to Bulbocodium. 
ME'RESj 
