An Account of the Brothers' Steps LAST summer 1780 I received a letter from a friend, wherein were these words:- "I THINK it would be worth your while to take a view of those wonderful marks of the Lord's hatred to duelling, called The Brothers' Steps. They are in the fields, about a third of a mile northward from Montague-House; and the awful tradition concerning them is, that two brothers quar relled about a worthless woman, and, according to the fashion of those days, fought with sword and pistol. The prints of their feet are about the depth of three inches, and Account of THE BROTHERs' sTEPs. 499 nothing will vegetate so much as to disfigure them. The number is only eighty-three; but probably some are at present filled up; for I think there were formerly more in the centre, where each unhappy combatant wounded the other to death: And a bank on which the first who fell died, retains the form of his agonizing couch, by the curse of barrenness, while grass flourishes all about it. Mr. George Hall, who was the Librarian of Lincoln's-Inn, first showed me those steps twenty-eight years ago, whem, I think, they were not quite so deep as now. He remembered them about thirty years, and the man who first showed them him, about thirty more, which goes back to the year 1692; but 1 suppose they originated in King Charles the Second's reign. My mother well remembered their being ploughed up, and corn sown, to deface them, about fifty years ago: But all was labour in vain; for the prints returned in a while to their pristine form; as probably will those that are now filled up. Indeed I think an account of them in your Magazine would be a pious memorial of their lasting reality. "These hints are only offered as a small token of my good-will to yourself and the work, by "Your son and brother in the gospel, This account appeared to me so very extraordinary, that I knew not what to think of it. I knew Mr. Walsh to be a person of good understanding and real piety; and he testified what he had seen with his own eyes: But still I wanted more witnesses, till, awhile ago, being at Mr.

Walsh to be a person of good understanding and real piety; and he testified what he had seen with his own eyes: But still I wanted more witnesses, till, awhile ago, being at Mr. Cary's in Copthall Buildings, I occasionally mentioned The Brothers' Footsteps; and asked the company if they had heard anything of them. "Sir," said Mr. Cary, "sixteen years ago, I saw and counted them myself." Another added, "And I saw them four years ago." I could then no longer doubt but they had been ; and a week or two after I went with Mr. Cary and another person to seek them. We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, north of Montague-House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at work, directed us to thc next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we found what we sought for, about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and about five hundred yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The steps answer Mr. Walsh's description. They are of the size of a large human foot, about three. inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are: supposed to have fallen, is still bare of grass. The labourer showed us also the bank, where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat. What shall we say to these things? Why, to Atheists, or Infidels of any kind, I would not say one word about them. For "if they hear not Moses and the Prophets," they will not regard anything of this kind. But to men of candour, who believe the Bible to be of God, I would say, Is not this an astonishing instance, held forth to all the inhabitants of London, of the justice and power of God?

But to men of candour, who believe the Bible to be of God, I would say, Is not this an astonishing instance, held forth to all the inhabitants of London, of the justice and power of God? Does not the curse he has denounced upon this ground bear some little resemblance to that of our Lord on the barren figtree, "Henceforth let no fruit grow upon thce for ever?" I see no reason or pretence for any rational man to doubt of the truth of the story; since it has been confirmed by these open, visible tokens for more than a hundred years successively.