acknowledgments for the obliging congratulations and expressions contained in it. The delay, I assure you, has not been owing to a want of due sense of the honour done me by your good opinion, but to very many concurring circumstances, which I will not trespass upon your time to enumerate. I will only beg you to believe that I am never favoured with your correspondence without valuing myself the more upon such a mark of your esteem, and increasing my respect for the many valuable qualities, both of heart and head, which you ap pear so eminently possessed of. I am now, by the Royal favour, extended to me through the most respectable patronage, advanced to a station, for which can hardly persuade myself that I have sufficient abilities. Zeal will not be wanting, and I purpose to do my best to quicken the study of Hebrew Literature among the youth of this place. For which end, I propose, as soon as I am well settled here, to institute a course of private Lectures, and to invite such young men as shall have acquired a little previous knowledge of the language (for 1 cannot waste my time in teaching simply to read) to join with me in a critical examination of some portion means I may have an opportunity of of the Hebrew Scriptures, by which putting them in a method of prosecuting their Hebrew Studies to more advantage. And this, I think, though not so shewy, will prove a more ef fectual assistance than could be con veyed in a course of public Declama tory Lectures. I should be glad to be favoured with your opinion on this head, and likewise with any hints that may suggest themselves to you for the conduct and improvement of this plan. "I was lately favoured with a Letter from my friend the Bp. of Waterford, who has been for some time engaged in a new Translation and Comment upon Ezekiel, and in which he tells me he has proceeded so far as to have already sent some sheets to the press. I am sure you will rejoice with ine in the prospect of such a valuable accession to our sacred stock. I wish you had not such pleas of exemption from contributing farther to it; but you have done enough to leave the world under a perpetual sense of obligation to you. I must confess I am *Abp. Newcome; see pp. 4. 102. disposed to think rather highly of Dr. Geddes's abilities for the work he has undertaken, from the specimen given in his Prospectus and Appendix ; only I think he has attempted more than one man can possibly execute to any degree of perfection. As for Dr. Kennicott's posthumous work, I cannot say it altogether meets with my approbation. As a careful and laborious collator, and collector of materials, I think too much praise cannot be given him. I loved him as a friend, and respected him as a man. do not think his fort lay in criticism. And had I been his executor, I should probably have suppressed many things which throw no lustre on his judgment. Among these I join with you in reckoning his strange conceptions of Psalm cx. v. 3. But I "I cannot conclude this Letter without assuring you again, that I shall always think myself happy in hearing from you, and that wishing you all possible health and happiness, I am, with true respect and regard, Dear Sir, "Your most faithful and obedient servant, B. BLAYNEY." Mr. URBAN, Dublin, July 11.. Memoirs, &c. of John Gwynn," togepart 1. p. 523, I see an account of a manuscript, entitled "Military ther with a ballad, called "The Maid nothing; but the latter, together with of Aghavore." Of the former I know the preliminary remarks prefixed by print. They are copied from a voyour Correspondent, may be found in John Ball, A. M. Chaplain to the Rt. lume of poems, published by the Rev. Hon. the Countess Dowager of BarThomas Ewing. In the copy from rymore, and printed in Dublin by which I quote, the date has been erased. The book is not uncommon, and of little value; it is remarkable for nothing but its vignettes and the neatness of its typography, and appears to be the composition of some in metrical effusions. The ballad person who spent his literary leisure given by your Correspondent is a tolerable specimen of the poetic merits of the whole. Mr. URBAN, G. Aug. 19. PERMIT me to observe, that Gilbert Wakefield, (the retentive felicity of whose memory, generally speak speaking, helps to crowd, somewhat too thickly, the pages of the various Classics which he has edited, with parallel passages,) has yet forgotten to notice, in his edition of Lucretius, the plagiarism committed by Themistius upon the well-known simile of the Poet: Lib. Prim. v. 935. Sed veluti, &c.-The words of Themistius, exhorting the Nicomedenses to the pursuit of Philosophy, run as follow, and I might almost venture to say, are a close translation of the language of Lucretius: Μιμητεον ημῖν τις σοφωτερὰς τῶν ἰατρῶν, οἱ τα πικρότερα τῶν Φαρμακῶν, μελιτι την κύλικα περιχρι σαντες, πίνειν διδοασι Orat. 12. fol. Paris, 1684. Is it not singular also, that the learned, though fantastical Hardouin, should have left unnoticed this striking parallelism, in his edition of The mistius? Mr. URBAN, F. B. Aug. 16. H AVING lately witnessed an experiment made by a Lady who imagines that she has the power of discovering subterraneous springs by means of the Divining-rod, and shortly afterwards finding that I possessed that extraordinary property myself, I take the liberty of answering a query on that subject, which appeared in a late Number of the Gentleman's Magazine; and proceed to give directions for the benefit of persons desiring to make the experiment. Take a fresh hazel-twig, forked similar to the prongs of a hay-fork, about one foot in length, and sufficiently flexible to be twisted, which must be done by holding the two prongs rather tightly in your closed bands, allowing the ends to project a little beyond your little fingers; when so held, its own elasticity, and tendency to return to its former unrestrained position, will cause it gradually to untwist itself, in doing which, it will move upwards or downwards without the least motion of the hands. So gentle, and almost imperceptible is the twist required, that it is very possible for a person to deceive themselves: (which I am confident was the case with the Lady whom I saw, and which had almost been so with myself.) Dr. Hutton's recantation of his former incredulity on this subject, and my own experience, convince me that it is also very easy to deceive others. The experiment succeeds best with twigs from those trees of which the bark is rather rough, such as hazel, apple, &c. as they afford a firmer hold. They are not so fit for the use of the diviner in winter, or when dry, being then less flexible. The idea of its not succeeding on a bridge, or in a boat, is erroneous. Mr. URBAN, YOUR W. Aug. 5. YOUR Correspondent A. (p. 36), has spared me the trouble of correcting one or two errata in the remarks on Chanckbury Hill. That article having some time elapsed from my hands, the Table in Paterson too recently arrested my attention. The computation was made, as given in the paper, by some well-informed persons in the nighbourhood. Bramble for Bramber, was an error of the Compositor. Pure Fancy, being a very limited faculty, is, says Professor Stewart, cultivated by an extensive observation of natural objects: to a very high degree of this is probably attribut able that supremacy of description of Nature and beauty, both human and physical, scarce "Of the earth, earthly," so peculiar to a contemporary Poet: in one of his " fancy's picturings" there is a passage remarkably characteristic of this wide-spread view: "A hill, the last As 'twere, the cape of a long ridge of such, Scatter'd at intervals, and wreathing smoke As English Scenery, some parts of our Southern range, though not coming within the arbitrary acceptation of the term Picturesque, embrace the gentler qualities of what is called the Beautiful. Where the sea forms a compartment in the landscape, this may with particular justice be said; and we suppose that those spots which furnish superior materials will not be overlooked in the Graphical Illustrations of Southern Scenery, which are forthcoming from a certain eminent publisher. The asperity of the critic Dennis is said, I believe, to have given way to sentiment in gazing from the tops of Leith and Box Hills. The elegant author of the Philosophy of Nature (Mr. Buck) has spoken of the views from these eminences with "simple sure effect" in the style of the Helvetic writer on Solitude. son, (for all of whom in the science of the picturesque we have an essential respect, is that quality which begets the metaphysical effect, associated with the sight of picturesque objects. Consequently the principle may be simply expressed by the phrase à la brute. Veald. A weald, wild, wold, sallus, sylva, nemus. Veold. Sallus, campus. Vold, a wold, saltus. In consulting Collier's Hist. Geog. Dict. vol. ii. Fol. Ed. (an old authority) he calls it the Weld. It has been observed in print, that A. says, "the Wild, or Weald, is the Chanckbury exceeds Welsh scenery; proper denomination," and Wold is the Writer seemed to think that this applied to hill only; as exemplified arose from there being no duplica- in the Fens of Lincolnshire and the ture of hills in the back ground; but Cotswold of Gloucestershire. If your this certainly is a defect, and not an Archæological readers will turn over excellence, if we reflect, that when Lye's Diction. Saxonic. Gothic. Latin. successive series of hills, in the amphi-fcl. vol. ii. they will find the words theatre-like disposition, are aggranweald and wold synonimous. dized above the anterior, the magnitude must become more impressive to the eye, and consequently more exigeant to the imagination. As all objects are converted by distance into ocular spectra, shape, bulk, colour, and position, must impart in different proportions different degrees of emotion. Welsh and Southdown scenery are very different; a constant uniformity of figure pervades the former, but you cannot regard a distinct prospect of mountains of the primitive or transition formations, in which every individual of a chain does not differ; it is either trapezoid, rhomboid, oblong, or possessing some angular distinction, greatly varying the whole. In Wales, mountains of disrupted rock, with wood growing from their very veins, acclivities whose ho rizon is screened from the eye with sombre sylvan masses, which shelter only nodding ruin, and the water only in security; there the frown bespeaks fixation in an agitated hour; and the repose of Nature in very different features to the gentle deviation from the right line in Southern prospect. I have added these remarks, because every thing relative to the picturesque, has no longer a mere poetical interest; the elegant crowds who rush to the Banks of the Wye, to Welsh watering places, or to the Highlands of Scotland, derive their impulses from that accomplished zest of Nature, which is as certain an accomplishment of genuine taste and refine ment, as colour is of light. A. enquires what is à la brute? The French adjective brut m. c, f. signifies rough; now roughness, according to such critics of nature as Gilpin, Zimmerman, Burke, Uvedale Price, Ali The remarks on Broadwater Church, p. 11, by J. F. (who by the way has used the same signature as I subscribed to my first communication on Chanckbury Hill) appear to be borrowed from the two (too) copious volumes of the Rev. J. Evans's Picture of a neighbouring Watering Place. Indeed the most material parts were formerly collected by Mr. Shaw, in the " Topographical Miscellanies," 4to. Be it remembered, that I have no claim to the merit of this description of Broad water. In the Tour of a late respectable Kentish Divine (p. 26), in speaking of the village of Nailsworth, which is on the Bath road from Gloucester and Cheltenham, he says, "Look down on the right hand; and observe a river gliding at the bottom, at the summit of the rising banks of which a quantity of red and white flannels stretched on frames."-The river is merely a succession of mill-ponds; but, being at the bottom of a deep valley, is a high embellishment, though too artificial in their cuts. It terminates a long line of valley, called the Bottoms, forming a septum between the Cotswold and Vale of Gloucester; the whole, and this part especially, from its umbrage and water, did it not abound in manufactories, whitewashed cottages, quarries of freestone and volite, would highly deserve the character given in 1797. Gilpin, in his Proëmium to the Wye Tour, Tour, lately edited with great improvement by Mr. Fosbrooke, speaks in equal admiration of this part of that populous and now magnificent county. The red and white flannels were cloths on the rack, as it is termed by the Cloth workers of this district. Yours, &c. J. F. premier. OF COPY "Cardif, 31 July, 1645. "ORMOND, it hath pleased God, by many successive misfortunes, to reduce my affaires, of late, from a verry prosperous condition, to so low an eb, as to be a perfect tryall of all men's integrities to me; and you being a person whom I consider as most entyrly and generously resolved to stand & fall with your King, 1 doe principally rely upon you for your utermost assistance in my present hazards: I have com'anded Dig. by to acquaint you at large with all particulars of my condition; what I have to hope, trust too, or feare; wherein you will fynde, that if my expectation of relief out of Ireland, be not in some good measure, and speedely answered, I am lykely to be reduced to great extremities. I hope some of those expresses I sent you since my misfortune, by the battaile of Nazeby, ar come to you, and am therfor confident, that you ar in a good forwardness for the sending over to me a considerable supply of men, artillery, and amunition; all that I have to add is, that the necessety of your speedy performing them is made much more pressing by new disasters; that I absolutely comand you, `(what hazard soever that Kingdome may run by it) personally to bring me all the forses, of what sort soever you can draw from thence, and leave the Governement there (during your absence) in the fittest hands, that you shall judge, to discharge it; for 1 may not want you heere to comand those forces wch will be brought from thence, and such, as from hence shall be joyned to them: But you must not understand this as a permission for you to grant to the Irish (in case they will not otherwise have a peace) any thing more, in matter of religion, than what I have allowed GENT. MAG. September, 1819. you alreddy; except only in some convenient parishes, where the much greater number ar Papists, I give you power to permitt them to have some places, wch they may use as chapells for theire devotions, if there be no other impediment for obtaining a peace; but I will rather chuse to suffer all extremities, than ever to abandon my religion, and particularly ether to English or Irish rebells; to wch effect, I have com'anded Digby to wryt to theire agents that were imployed hither, giving you power to cause, deliver, or suppresse the letter, as you shall judge best for my service: To conclude, if the Irish shall so unworthily take advantage of my weake condition, as to press me to that wch I cannot grant with a safe conscience, and without it to reject a peace; I com'and you, if you can, to procure a further cessation; if not, to make what devisions you can among them; and rather leave it to the chance of warr between them, and those forces, which you have not power to draw to my assistance, then to give my consent to any such allowance of Popery, as must evidently bring distruction to that profession, wch, by the grace of God, I shall ever maintaine, through all extremities: I know, Ormond, that I impose a verry hard task upon you, but if God prosper me, you will be a happy and glorius subject; if otherwais, you will perishe nobly, and generously, with and for him, who is "Your constant reall CHARLES R." The above Letter is addressed "For the Marquis of Ormond," with two seals bearing the arms of Charles in a perfect state, on the envelope with this memorandum, "31 July, 1645, by Robt. Smith, from Cardif," the two last words apparently by a different ink. On a blank side of the Letter are these words, "His Maties 31 July 1645. By Robt. Smith." Probably by the Marquis of Ormond. The Original of the above Letter, which is evidently genuine, is now in the possession of Peter Oliver, Esq. of Belgrave, a gentleman upwards of eighty years of age, the father of my Vicar, who very politely permitted me Mr. URBAN, R Aug. 28. EADING lately the Taming of the Shrew, in Mr. Malone's edition of Shakspeare, which has Dr. Johnson's criticisms at the end of each play; I was induced to refer to the 4th volume of the Tatler, that I might judge how far the Doctor was justified in his remarks on the 231st Number, page 187. His words are these: "From this play, the Tatler formed a story, vol. IV. No. 251. It cannot but seem strange that Shakspeare should be so little known to the author of the Tatler, that he should suffer this story to be obtruded upon him; or so little known to the publick, that he could hope to make it pass upon his readers as a real narrative of a transaction in Lincolnshire; yet it is apparent that he was deceived, or intended to deceive, that he knew not himself whence the story was taken, or hoped that he might rob so obscure a writer without detection." Now, Mr. Urban, owing to the trifling Erratum of No. 251 for 231, I was at first unable to find it, and consequently referred to the Index, but in vain. The omission could not be accidental, as the short Letter, at the conclusion of the story, on another subject is thus noticed in the table of contents. "Letter-With a Present of Wine, p. 187." How truly has Mr. Murphy observed, in his Life of the great Moralist, that "No man thought more profoundly, nor with such acute discernment. A fallacy could not stand before him!" That the Tatler intended to deceive, is too apparent I fear, and the omission in the Index corroborates Dr. Johnson's remarks. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, As G. W. L. Aug. 21. the following line of Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Comedy of Wit without Money : "Let Mims be angry at their St. BelSwagger, And we pass in the heat on't and be beaten." This is in Act iii. Scene 1.-The last Commentator, Mr.Weber, only quotes this note from the edition of 1778."Some local custom, tumultuously celebrated, is plainly alluded to in this speech. It was, we doubt not, familiarly known in the time of our authors; but we have in vain endeavoured to trace its memory, or discover its origin." What these Editors have failed to discover, I hope will yield to your R.S. sagacity and research. Mr. URBAN, T Aug. 9. Equitable Assurance Society the the last Quarterly Court of the Members attendant were strikingly reminded of the many pointed and prophetical passages in their respected Actuary's past addresses, to keep down extravagant ideas of the Society's encreasing Wealth. The utility of his wise admonitions about its ultimate distribution amongst future claims has been illustrated in a curious and alarming manner: what less than a most mistaken conviction of superabundant funds could offer to alienate 50,000. at a throw? it was ne gatived; true-but not with an indignation, such total disregard to the real objects of this Institution should excite. That deep Roman curse, “ Ultimus snorum moriatur," impending pos sibly over his waining years, had embittered or obliterated all feeling for others; who in a momentary fit are to give up a provision for wives and children, as useless in their case, because unhappily now needless in his own! Or, this proposer, like William the Conqueror, may stand the First of his family, and may have en dured through domestic calamity that universally deprecated misery of expectation to fall the Last of it. Be this as it may, accumulation beyond necessity carries danger. Our approaching decennial arrangements will, I trust, make farther guard S you and your coadjutors are unrivalled in Topographical against any kind of expenditure fo knowledge, and local customs, I hope reign to the fundamental purposes you may be able to inform an old of so meritorious and admired an InCorrespondent what is alluded to institution. Avus. Mr. |