THE Lundy Review, AND CRITICAL REVOLVING LIGHT. HAPAS DE TRACHUS HOSTIS AN NEON KRATEI. Oh! that mine adversary would write a book ! ! ! Castleton: PRINTED FOR ALADDIN BENSON, AT THE OFFICE OF THE LUNDY REVOLVING LIGHT. February, 1824. CONTENTS OF No. II. ART. I. Journal of the time I spent on the Island of Lundy, in the years 1752, and 1787. MS by a Gentle man. II. The life of 7 Benson, Gent. 2 vols. III. Signs of the Times, by Zodiac Broadbelt. IV. Reflections on Refractory Subjects and Surfaces, by Capt. Kater, H. P. Light Horse Marines. V. Are not these facts? A letter addressed to the Dissection Corps of St. Helena, by Radical VI. 1 The Roman Well, by the Author of Weave-a- 2 Lottery Prudence, an Orphan's tale, by Richardson Grandison Lovelace Goodluck, 18 vols. duodecimo, abridged, from the original work. Journal of the time I spent on the Island of Lundy, in the years 1752, and 1787. MS by a Gentleman. E W begin to think we shall soon equal The Quarterly in the art and mystery of geographical reviewing. What, in fact, the leading Periodicals of the day would do, if it were not for books of travels, we know not. Nothing literary can be more convenient for the critical pen, than works of this description; affording, as they do, such latitude for the Reviewer's wit, and such longitude for his extracts. If the unfortunate Traveller happens to be an absurd sort of a vagabond, (we use the word in its gentle and derivative sense) the reviewer has a fine laugh, and caricatures him in all positions. The man, perhaps, explores a desolate country is overtaken by storms stopped and plundered by banditti-pinched with hunger-dying of thirst; but what are all these evils to the reviewer? "What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?" The Reviewer, very likely, has just dined, or, what is better, is going to dinner. The Traveller gives a gloomy account of a certain city, or district, and the Reviewer cooly remarks, that, Mr. Such-an-one does not seem to have preserved his tem per, beyond a certain stage in his journey; witness, the following splenetic account of the people and manners of such a place,' &c. Then again, if the Itinerant proves to be, really, a man of science, and information, and has told the story of his travels in good stile, the Reviewer, just as coolly, cuts out the best passages in his book, and pastes them in, up and down, in the intervals of his own speculative and topographical wanderings; and lavishly praises, what he is afraid to shew his ig norance by blaming. Verily the public is well amused by the Reviewers: (would we could say the same for ourselves of Lundy!) but we shall try. The reader, if he has not forgotten, will remember that we took him in our kibitka, last month, to see Mrs. Holderness among the Tartars, or, as she, probably more orthographically, prints it, Tatars. Thrice happy times! when even the names of barbarians are becoming civilized: so stand apart Apothecaries! and let us hear no more of cream (crim) of tartar. We shall now change the scene of reviewing from Crim Tartary to the Island of Lundy. We last month reviewed the travels of a Lady, we shall now wait upon the voyage and travels of a Gentleman. He was not a professed author, and his work is therefore the more dependent on those best of all pretensions which any work can offer to the reader, namely, the curiosity and value of its materials. Before, however, we venture upon our proposed tour in Lundy, we may as well give the reader a slight summary of its geographical, but more particularly of its historical position; for, in spite of the long peace since 1815, and the consequent removal of the American blockade having opened to us islanders a freer communication with the great continents of North Devon, and South Wales, we question, whether our trans-marine readers know much more of this island, than they do of the Crimean Peninsula, to which we so lately introduced them, through the medium of Mrs. Holderness. Be it known, then, to all whom it may concern, in matters of business, or pleasure, that there is an island in the Bristol Channel denominated LUNDY ISLAND; (formerly spelt Londey, and Londi.) Its latitude is 51° 9′ 47′′, and its longitude 4o 38′ 28′′; its distance from Barnstaple Bar is called 19 miles, though we think it can scarcely be so much; from Hartland Point 11; and from Baggy 16. It is rather more than three miles long, by one mile broad, in some places scarcely so much, and contains nearly 2500 acres, some of it very good land, producing wheat. The elevated situation of the highest part of the island, is about 800 feet; conse quently, much of it is exposed to high winds; but it is, nevertheless, not very cold; and the cattle reared upon it, are merely placed under shelter of the hedges, according to the direction of the wind. We leave the reader to gather further particulars of its geography, &c., from our author's tour, and pass on to pur sue the interesting chain of its Political history. Like other insulated portions of the globe, it appears to have afforded a place of refuge, in times of danger, to the inhabitants of the neighbouring continents. When the Romans, Saxons, and Danes, successively invaded the western districts of the kingdom of Britain, Lundy Island offered its inaccessibility as a rock of defence' to those who escaped the invaders; for there being but one landing place, and that very dependent upon the state of the tide, a small body of resolute men might well defend the island: which, if taken, could yield nothing to the invader, but a barren rock, and the blood of a band of fugitives. Nothing worthy of historical record, after this, appears to have been transacted in Lundy, until the reign of Henry 3d, when the distractions of a troubled reign, rendered it one of the fastnesses of a band of outlaws, commanded by one William de Morisco. The cause of his choosing his retreat in such a place, is thus noticed in the popular histories of England. William de Morisco conspiring the death of King Henry 3d, at Woodstock, confederated with a knight of the Court to murder the King, by an inlet at the royal chamber window. But, it so happened, that the king slept elsewhere that night; and the intending murderer, seeking for him throughout the palace, stumbled upon the chamber of one of the queen's maids of honor, by name, Margaret Bissett, reading (no doubt a scotch novel) in bed; she, as women are wont to do in such cases, roused the household with a piercing shriek, and the knight conspirator was taken. William de Morisco finding his plot betrayed, fled for life and safetybecame a pirate and fortified the island of Lundy, leaving his associate to be drawn and quartered, at Coventry. But, at length, the Pirate of Lundy, was surprized, and with six teen of his accomplices, executed on the highest part of the island. After this event, order was issued by King Henry 3d, to earls, barons, and knights of Devon, to keep, or také care of the coast towards Lundy, where the king's enemies keep,' adding that unless they attended to it, the king had ordered HENRY, DE TRACY, REGINALD VALLETORT, PHILIP DE BELLOMONT, and GALFRID DINANT, at their expense, with advice of the Sheriff of Devon, to keep the peace in these parts.' There was also a particular order ta WALTER DE BATHON, sheriff of Devon, to keep the seas coasts from the king's enemies, who stay at Lundy.' * A History is again silent, till the reign of Edward 2d, who sailed from Caerfully, Glamorganshire, in November 1326, for Lundy, intending to make it a place of refuge; deeming it, from its inaccessible nature, easy to be defended against his rebellious subjects. But after beating up and down the Severn Sea for a week, he resigned his intentions, and land *The occurence of this name (De Tracy) in the neighbourhood, would rather go to prove, that the celebrated Sir Wm. De Tracy DID take refuge at Morte, in the reign of Henry 2d. A descendant living at Morte, would be a proper person to look after the Lundy Privateer.. |