606 
in Nature was fully and clearly difcover. 
ed ; till it is made the objeét of pnyfiolo- 
gical perfeverance, conjecture’ may mi 
ead, but ¢annot fatisfy the public mind. 
M. Buzzi tells us of a woman at Milan, 
who was the mother of feven fons, three 
of whom were Albinos ; and, what is 
worth obferving, during her pregnancy of 
thofe three, fhe had an immoderate appe- 
tite for mijlk.* I have not been able to 
Jearn that the mother of Lampert. experi- 
enced any unufual fymptoms while im that 
fiate.. The eyes of Albinos are found to 
be intirely deititute of the avea, andio 
have only the choroid coat very thin, and 
tinged of a pale red by difcoloured blood ; 
thofe of Lampert hada ccntinual vibra- 
tory motion, which, I imagine was invo- 
luntary. Ifear I have already been too 
prolix, and fhall therefore refrain -from 
offering any further cbférvations on this 
eccult fubject: fhould no abler pen under- 
take the tafk, at fome future period E may 
again intrude on your attention, 
I am, Sir, your's, &c. 
J RP; BLigicg. 
Hereford, May 20; 1803. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Gitte’. Sa, 
ptt gieomien the late ‘Thomas Warton, 
in one of his Jaureate odes, made 
the firanze miftake of afcribing the battle 
of Agincourt to Edward IId, it, was 
theught a moft extraordinary, inftance 
of inadvertence in one who was an an- 
tiquary as well as a poet. But I have 
Hately, met with another inftance of his in- 
accuracy almoft as remarkable, which 
eonvinees me that this defect was habitu-: 
alto him. In his account of Henry How- 
ard, the gallant and poetical Earl of Sur- 
ry, (Hitt. of Englith Poetry, vol. iii.) he 
reprefents him as having attended his 
father in Scetiand in 1542, and dif- 
tinguifhed himfelf at the memorable 
battle of Floddenfield, where James IV. 
of Scotiand was killed.. This battle was, 
however, fought nearly thirty years be- 
fore, viz. in 1§13 3 and it was the father 
of this. Earl of Surry who commanded the 
centre of the army under his father, then 
Earl of Surry, Commander in Chief.— 
Our poetical Earl did in faét accompany 
his father to Scotland in 1542, in which. 
year the Rout of Solway tock place, 
which was foon followed by the death of 
“s 
* Vide Opufculi Scelei de Milan, 1784. 
Miftake of T. Warton.—Stone at Reading Abbey. (Ok; 
James V. A confufed recolle&tion of 
this event probably mifled the hiftorian. 
Your’s, &c. N. N. 
Ad 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
NE of the principal arches of Read« 
ing-abbey is compofed of a fubitance 
which has long divided the opinions of 
mineralogifts and antiquarians, and which 
has withftood the lapfe of time without 
any perceptible alteration. Some have 
fuppofed it a fpecies of ftone now extindt, 
fome a cement, whilf# others have con. 
cluded it to be a petrifaétion. Iwas long 
inclined to the latter opinion, but clofer 
comparifon and more extended obferva- 
tion have enabled me to judge what the 
fubftance really is; and 1 find it tovbe 
exactly Gimilar to a fpecies found at Wan. 
tage, about feventeen miles N. W. of the 
Abbey. This ftone is temarkably hard 
and ftrong, with. interftices, light, and 
confequently well calculated for the pura 
pofe of building arches. It is formed in 
lateral branches, which are hollow, and 
differs from a petrifaétion, infomuch that 
the fubftance itf&lf is not changed into 
ftone, but rots away, and leaves an ins 
cruffation, It is occahoned by a {pring 
containing a quantity of earth, dropping 
on mofs, over which it forms ‘a coat of 
fand cemented with clay.. Thefe fprings 
are common about ‘Wantage, and pars 
take alittle of a chalybeate. The large 
is one belonging to Mr, D. Hazell, which 
runs through a chalky hill, but when the 
water drops, it appears to be compofed of 
argillaceous mar], (but I have not had an 
opportunity of analyzing it,) which per- 
haps may be chalk impregnated with the 
water. ‘The ramifications of the mofs 
have at firlt a thin coating, refembiing 
hoar-froit, which enlarges as. itis 
longer expofed, affuming fantaftical forms. 
in the different ftages of the incruftation, 
In foie places, where the water runs be~ 
tween the foil and the mofs, the under- — 
partis folid ftone, while the upper pre- 
fents.a delightful green ; for although the 
fpring has been thcre from time immemo- 
rial, fine {pecimens of the Bryum undula- 
tum and Hypnum proliferum, cover it with 
a profufion of verdure. Nothing elfe, 
however, will grow there. Any fub- 
fiance, fuch as fticks, ftraws, &c. laid’ 
under the droppings of the fpring, will 
- have an incruftation in a few months. 
I wif 
