295 
‘The foundation-flone of an hofpital ‘for 
the county was laid by Lord North, at- 
tended hy feveral noblemen, and a nu- 
Merous coripany of the gentry and clergy 
of the neighbourhood, and of the refpec- 
table inhabitants of the town, on Michael- 
mas-Cay, 1772.. With great and pleafing 
expectation was the ftructure feen to rife ; 
and, in the year 1774, was the building 
covered in. Here the pen mutt ftop. 
Some. fatal mifmanagement blafted the 
hopes of the afflted. It was formed, 
perhaps, cn too large a fcale; and the 
liberality, with which it was commenced, 
was exhaufted with rearing the hell. 
The uniue proportion of expence, which 
was luffered to fall on a few gentlemen, 
damped zeal and generofity, and changed 
it into difgult.. For many years it ftood 
unfinifhed ; till the {cite and building 
were fold, to dilcharge tie debt incurred 
by the eregiion, to John Coles, Eiq. 
colic&or for the county, by whom it 
was converted into a family-reficence. 
The nxt clafs of buildings includes 
thofe which are employed for the purpofes 
of juftice and civi! government. The 
principal of thefe, both for magnitude 
and ufe, is the Affize Hall, which forms 
part of the Caftle. In its ancient ftate 
ts dimenfions were 1194 feet by thirty, 
and its height twenty teet five inches: 
and the two tribunals were held at each 
end, without any interfetting walls; but 
of jate, it has been divided into two dif. 
tinét courts, laid out in different depart- 
ments, acceffivle by different doors. The 
Caftle is held under the Bihhop of Win- 
cheer by John Hammet, Efg. one of 
the reprefentatives of the town, as a pur- 
chafe made by his father to fecure the 
we of the Hall for the purpofe of hold- 
ing the affizes in it, when the ruinous 
ftate into which it had fallen under a 
former tenant and proprietor, threatened 
the removal of them: it is now invelted 
by his fon in truftees for this purpofe, 
There is in the Cafle a ftrong room, 
called the Exchequer, in which the re- 
cords of Taunton Dzan Land are repo- 
fited.. A room properly fisted up for the 
purpote, on the ground floor of a large 
and elegant building, in the center of the 
town, called the Markct-houfe, is de- 
voted to the ufe of the juftices of the 
county, who prefide over its order.and 
peace. This building is formed on a 
~ pian comprehenfive allo of rooms for the 
purpofs ot entertainment and pleafure. 
On the ground floor is a coffee-room: 
where gentlemen, for the annual fub{crip- 
tion of a guinea, are accommodated with 
State of the Grand Funétion Canal. 
[April 1, 
fire and attendance, and fupplied with 
the new/papers, free from any other ex- 
pence. In it hangs the portrait of Mr. 
George Wiche, drawn by Thorne, af: 
the expence of the fub(cribers to the 
room, in teftimony of their refpeét to his 
probity. On the firt ftory, befides a 
commodious room for the card tables, 
there is a fuperb aflembly-room, fifty feet 
long, by thirty feet wide, and twenty- 
four fect high. . It is furnifhed with two 
large and elegant chandeliers, the gift of 
the late Colonel Coxe, when reprefentative 
of the county; and at one end is a full- 
length pi€ture of his prefent Majetty, 
given by Sir Benjamin Hammet.’ An 
Upper room in this ftruéture’ is fupplied 
with a billiard-table. The other public 
buildings, in this town, are a neat theatre, 
a bridewell, and a county. gaol, for fuch 
as are guilty of felonies, mifdemeanors, 
or a breach of the peace; but not for 
debtors. 
=~ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE writer of the Commercial Re- 
port, at page gg of your laft Num. 
ber, {peaking of the Grand Jun@ion Canal 
Company, fays, ** The laft works remain- 
ing to be executed, in order to complete 
their undertaking, are the tunnel and 
aqueduct at Bliiwoith ;°? but he feems 
not to have been aware of the extent of 
the works to be. performed before this 
Company and the public can enjoy the 
benefits of an uninterrupted navigation ; 
and I beg, through the medium of your 
Magazine, to ftatea few particulars rela- 
tive thereto, which I have been at the 
pains to collect. The grand object of 
this canal, in connecting the metropolis 
by the nearef rcut with the numerous 
canals in Warwickfhire, and the other in. 
terior parts of the country, has now for 
a confiderable time been accomplithed, 
though imperfectly, by a temporary rail 
way over the hill between Blifworth and 
Stcke Bruerne. The aqueduét alluded to 
by your Reporter, at Wolverton, near 
Stoney Stratford, was undertaken fince 
the communication acrofs that valley has 
been opened, by locking down into it, 
and up again on the oppofite fide, in or. 
der, by an embankment, to preferve the 
level, and aveid the wafte of two lock. 
ages, to which the fupply of water was 
found inadequate. Except, therefore, the 
failure of the former attempt ;to. tunnel 
through Blifworth-hill, and the confequent 
clay and expence of the railway, the 
I dreadful 
+ 
