344 M I D 
Whit-Tuefday, and" November 29. Near the town is a 
chalybeate water. 
Midhurft is an ancient borough by prefcriptior,, go¬ 
verned by a bailiff, who is chofen annually at the court- 
leet of the lord of the borough ; and fends two members 
to parliament. It is to be obferved, tiiat there is not a 
fingle houfe left Handing within the limits of the borough 
or place for which the members are elefted. The right 
of election is in one hundred and twenty burgage-holds, 
the lituation of which is diftinftly marked at prefent by 
the poiition of a large Jlone upon each of them. There 
is no part of the town of Midhurft built upon thefe te¬ 
nures ; they were the property of the father of the late 
lord vifcount Montague, who made, at the time of an 
ele&ion, a temporary afiignment of a part of them, either 
to fome of his domeftics or particular friends, for the pur- 
pofe of having thole members returned that he lhould 
nominate. The truftees of the eftates of the late lord fold 
thefe burgage-holds to the earl of Egremont for forty 
thoufand guineas ; who fold them again to lord Carring¬ 
ton. The ceremony of election is performed here by one 
perfon, Mr. Tyler of Petworth, deputed by the proprietor 
for that purpole ; the inhabitants of the town of Midhurft 
having no more concern in chooling the members than as 
many foreigners, though they pay all the taxes and ferve 
all ptiblic offices. We cannot underftand how the mem¬ 
bers for this place can be confidered as reprefentatives of 
the people, when there is not fo much as one l'olitary in¬ 
dividual exifting within the precinfts of the place to make 
a conftituent body. If the voice of the nation is only to 
be heard in the houfe of commons, how can that poffibly 
happen, unlefs it be its real reprefentative ? The above 
Inftance is a lufficient conviftion of the mockery of our 
reprefentation, and of the want of fome immediate radical 
cure for fo great an evil. The bailiff is the returning- 
officer; his bufinefs of calling up, &x. at an election, can¬ 
not be very laborious or complicated, as in fad there is 
only one elector to choofe two members ! Thefe members, 
who at this time reprefent the 120 large /tones we have 
been fpeaking of, are—Thomas Thomlon, efq. and lord 
vifcount Mahon. Midhurft is on the high road from 
London to Chichefter; eleven miles from Chichefter, and 
fifty fouth-fouth-weft from London. 
In a park, at a fhort diftance from the town. Hand the 
ruins of Cowdray-houfe, which was formerly the feat of 
the ancient family of Montague. It was one of the belt 
manfions in this county. The architecture was Gothic, 
and the form quadrangular; in the middle of the qua¬ 
drangle -was a refervoir of excellent water. The great 
hall was wainfcotted with cedar; and was called the buck- 
hall, from having been ornamented with the figures of 
feveral bucks; one in particular was pointed out to vi- 
fitors as the identical antlers of a flag which queen Eli¬ 
zabeth adually llrot when (in one of her excuriions) Ihe 
vifited that park and manfion. The houfe was, in gene¬ 
ral, fully and richly furnilhed, and very much ornament¬ 
ed with paintings, fome of which were excellent, particu¬ 
larly two or three family-portraits ; but what gave high 
celebrity to the paintings of the houfe, were the liiftorieal 
pieces by Hans Holbein : thefe pieces chiefly exhibited 
■proceffions in London, in the reign of Henry VIII. wherein 
fir Anthony Brown, an anceftor of the Montague family, 
made a confpicuous figure in a party-coloured garment, 
the drefs he wore when he ftood proxy for his mailer at 
the marriage of Anne of Cleves. Thefe paintings were 
lome years ago copied, and engravings taken of them, at 
the expenfe of the Antiquarian Society; and are published 
in the Archaflogia ; as alfo three family portraits (linking 
family-likenefles) in Walpole's Lives of eminent Painters. 
With a cabinet of medals, there was alfo a cabinet of cu¬ 
rious trifles in metal, wood, and ivory, turned by hand 
and engine-lathes. During the civil wars, when Crom¬ 
well’s, troops befieged and broke into this noble manfion, 
the family had fecreted the valuables, and plaftered the 
M i jy 
pictures of the royal proceffions with a thick white-waffi, 
to prevent their being feen and defaced by the republican 
forces; by which they were moftly preferved. The above 
magnificent manfion was burnt down September 24, 1793.; 
and, very foon after, the owner of it was unfortunately 
drowned at a place Called Liffenhocke, in Swifferland. 
Having a defire to view a famous cataraCl near that place, 
he and another gentleman embarked in afmall boat, not- 
withftanding the urgent folicitations of the inhabitants 
not to do fo, on account of the danger. They had not 
puflied oft' the flrore many minutes, when the boat was 
overfet by a whirlpool, and both gentlemen were drowned. 
The title of Vifcount Montague then became extiudl. 
There are feveral pleafant villages near Midhurft ; one 
of which, Trotton, is famous as being the birth-place of 
Otway the poet. Wilkes's Britijh Directory , vol. iii. Old¬ 
field's ReprefentativeH i/i, of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. v. 
MID'IAN, in ancient geography, a country inhabited 
by the Midianites, who were the defcendants of Abraham 
by Keturah, and who were feated on the north of the 
Amalekites, having the Dead Sea on the weft, the Ilh- 
maelites on the eait, and the Moabites and Reubenites oil 
the fouth ; the river Arnon parting them from this lail 
tribe. Their country was hot, fandy, and in many parts 
quite defert; yet it abounded with cattle, particularly 
with camels, which were ufeful beafts of burden for their 
caravans, with which they traded into Egypt in the time 
of the patriarch Jacob. The land of Midian was divided 
into a kind of pentarchy, or five kingdoms, in the time 
of the Exodus; fo that the Ifraelites, in the war which 
they waged with the Midianites, are laid to have flain its 
five kings, whofe capitals are fuppofed to have been fituated 
near the Dead Sea. They had alfo a famous metropolis, 
called after the name of their progenitor, often mentioned 
in the prophetic books of fcripture, as well as by other au - 
.hors ; particularly by Jolephus, who places a town of 
that appellation near the Red Sea, not far from the lpot 
where Ptolemy places that of Modiana. (See Madian.) 
Befides thefe towns, there were in this country Dibon- 
Gad, a large town on the river Arnon ; and Almon-Di- 
blathaim, not far from it; Beeroth, fo called from its 
many wells; and fome others. As to the city of Midian, 
it is probable that they rebuilt it, after the havock com¬ 
mitted upon them by the Ifraelites ; becaufe Eufebius 
and St. Jerome, who place it on the river Arnon, eaft- 
ward of the Dead Sea, and fouth of Ar, or Areopolis, in¬ 
form us, that in their time fome remains of it were vilible. 
The Midianites derived their origin and name from 
Midian, the fourth fon of Abraham by Keturah. He, as 
well as the reft of his brethren, having received a portion 
from their father, were fent into the Eaft Country, that 
they might be at a proper diftance from Ifaac. The Mi¬ 
dianites, in early tunes, were confounded with the Ifn- 
maelites; and many ages afterwards they are mentioned 
in conjunction with the Nabataeans and Kadarenes, the 
pofterity of Nabioth and ICedar, the fons of Ilhmael. We 
alfo find them fo incorporated with the Moabites, that 
Mofes feems to have regarded them as almoft one nation. 
Their religion was the fame; and they aCled in the ftrifteft 
concert together againft him and the Ifraelites. They 
were likewile united by ties of blood with thele nations, 
as on the one fide they were defeended from Abraham, 
and on the other from Lot; and, moreover, as they hap¬ 
pened to live in the northern or fouthern parts of their 
country, they joined either the Moabites or the Ifh- 
maelites. The Midianites were a very numerous race; 
and may be diilinguiihed into two dalles, viz. fhepherd* 
and merchants. The Ihepherds moved here and there in 
tents, and drove their cattle., before them 5 even when 
they went to war. The merchants alfo travelled from 
place to place in companies or caravans, as the merchants 
of thole parts do at this day ; and left the care of then- 
cattle to the women. The former had probably no fixed 
habitations, except fome ftrong holds uear their borders i 
