* 
554 On the Deflruétion of Antient Ruins. [July r, 
them, a Dr. Moulder,’a very learned man, 
and a diftinguifhed fellow of the Anti- 
quarian Society, who happened to be vi- 
{iting in the neighbourhood, called one 
~ morning when Iwas ‘abroad, and defired 
my gardener to fhew him about my 
grounds, particularly requefting to fee the 
remains of the convent. ‘* Convent! ‘fir, 
(fays the fellow) we have no fuch thing 
that I ever heard of ; but, perhaps, your 
worfhip ‘means the old walls that my 
mafter pulled down when he made his new 
garden by the*brook. ¢** Pulled down!” 
cried the doctor ; ** what do you mean ?-— 
but fhow me to the place.” ‘he man 
took him te the vale, and was going to 
open’the garden-door, when a flat ftone in 
the wall, on which were fome traces of 
letters, caught the dogtor’s eye. He 
fiopped fhort, lifted up his hands, and 
“broke forth into exclamations _ which 
frightened the poor fellow, and of which 
he remembers only the°words ‘* barba- 
rous! monftrous! facrilege!”? He then 
took out of his pocket a memorandum 
book, and began, with much pains, and 
no little ifl-humour, to tranfcribe the in- 
Scription, which unfortunately gave him 
additional trouble by being fixed in the 
wall the wrong end upwards. He ended 
by exaQly meafuring the length and 
breadth of the ftone with a pocket rule. 
«c Well Gays he, turning to the man) I 
fee you nave done your work completely. 
I fuppofe you dug up the old building 
from the foundation?” “* We did, fir, 
(replied he) and a power of trouble we 
had with it. They fay it was a famous 
place in the timé of the Papifhes. But if 
your worfhip wants to fee any more grave- 
ftones, I can fhow you fome.” . The 
dogtor acquielcing in this propofal, he 
* wasled to the fragments of a few more 
monumental fiones in diferent parts of the 
wall, the rude letters of which, where 
they were at all legible, he faithfully co- 
pied, and then, without deigning to pay the 
leaft attention to my daprovements, he 
made the man an acknowledginent, and 
haftily walked off. j 
The circumfiances of this vifit, when re- 
Jated, only diverted me, till a few months 
afterwards, an acquaintance calling upon 
me, ‘* Do you know,” fays he, with a fe- 
rious face, ** what an attack has been made 
upon you in print?” I was ftartled; upon 
which he took out a periodical publication, 
renowned for its gravity in trifles, and 
fhewed me a letter concerning the lately 
vexifting remains of the Monaftery of Cil- 
tercians, in the parifh of - which 
J prefently difcovered to have been written 
( 

‘tory 1s filent or obfcure. 
by my tefty vifitant. In this letter, the 
owner of the place was treated in the harfh- 
eft terms, as ** a Vandal, a foe to reverend 
antiquity, a violator of the dead, and a 
perfon void of all tafte and all regard for 
literature.”"—*¢ The precious relics which 
time and the rough hand of reformation 
had fpared, were utterly defiroyed by my 
ruder hands; and, as far as in me lay, I 
had contributed to the overthrew of one 
‘of the moft pleafing and ufeful of ftudies.”” 
To thefe charges, Sir, I am loth tor 
plead guilty; for though I have notrank- — 
ed in that clafs of men whofe fole bufinefs 
.in life is the employment of literary leifure, 
yet neither by education rior habit am I a 
total ftrancer to the Mufes; and I truft I 
havé a heart not inacceffible to the plea- . 
fures of knowledge, nor hardened againft — 
the impreffions of fentiment. I muft, in- 
deed, acknowledge that I have not learned 
to value a thing merely becaufe itis old. 
and ufelefs. Nor do my feelings plead 
with me in favour of relinquifhing to the 
bones ‘of ancient poffeffers the perpetual 
occupation of thofe feats which, when liv- 
ing, they wifely feleted on account of 
their beauty’ or convenience. I fee not 
why I fhould not enjoy my garden as well 
as the monks did theirs in the fame fpot ; 
and I think it a much lefs exime to diiturb 
the repofe of their fkeletens, than to banifh 
Flora and Pomona from a favourite refi- 
dence. The rights of the dead, J coniefs, 
affe@ mettle in comparifon with thofe ” 
of the living; and I reckon it high time 
for the. particles of bodies three or four 
centuries defun@, to return quietly to the 
bofom of the earth, and fulfil their dettiny. 
As tothe fare of pofthumous fame which 
may be preferved by the infcription of 
Gualter de Thorpe’ Prior hujus Monaf?.—I 
can accufe mylelt of a very {mall degree 
of injury in bringing it to a conciufion, 
when fo many elaborate’ works under the 
title of Monajiicons, Reper tories, Topoera~ 
phical Remains, County Hijiories, &c. nave 
taken fuch laudable pains to fecure the im 
mortality of thele worthies by monuments 
are perennius. 
The motives which infpire a reverence 
for the remains of*antiquity, and plead 
againft their demolition, are various ; but I 
think the rational ones may be reduced to 
very few. Where they poffefs intrinfic 
beauty or grandeur, and afford {pecimens 
of the tafte and ingenuity of former ages, 
they certainly deferve prefervation; as 
likewife where they illuftrate manners and 
modes of living, concerning which hif- 
Alice, when they 
are aflociated with any remarkable event, 
though 
