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stances of a national kind have pointed the general tide of feeling and of thought.

The period which included the reign of Queen Anne in England, and of Louis the Fourteenth in France, has long been considered as having been unusually fruitful in the production of men of genius and of taste; and whoever considers the number of eminent men who were then contemporaries, and views the strength, scope, and lustre of their genius, as displayed in their various works, will probably acknowledge the truth of the opinion.

But a bias in favour of particular complexions of literary endowment, and of literary fame, has often developed itself, led by the example of reigning patronage and of courtly influence. Thus, it has been noticed by writers, and among others by Warton, that, in the days of the First James, an inordinate love of pedantry, quibble, and pun, was mixed up in the character of literary men, which often stamped an air of the ridiculous on their studies.

Many of the works of authors under the Protectorship were distinguished by cant and a ludicrous affectation of extraordinary sanctity of style and phraseology-and the literature especially patronized by Charles the Second abounded in false wit, and an extravagant fondness for smart and sprightly turns, epigrams, and profligacy of allusion, as we are informed by Shaftesbury-who, himself a polite author, wrote when this childish attachment to point and witticism was on the decline, and a more manly and better-regulated state of thinking had commenced. But speculating with a more general and comprehensive review of the literature and the genius of the last three hundred years, and this period comprehends, with a very few exceptions, all that is actually worth the notice of the cultivated mind, the contemplatist may be of opinion that sufficient grounds, from the prevailing feature and bias which marked each of these centuries, and the illustrious names which adorned the revolution of each, exists for a further distinction of the talents and sphere of lucubration in which the exertions of mind were displayed. He will probably think that the Sixteenth Century may, without impropriety, be distinguished as the age of

Polemics, and of Scholiasts, in which the researches and the talents of reformists and, controversialists predominated, and the zeal and prodigious application with which the classicks of antiquity were studied, and their text revised, was conspicuous over every other branch of learning. That, in like manner, the Seventeenth Century, from the numerous writers of the first rank and lustre, who adorned the church and advanced the discoveries of science, might also, without impropriety, be designated the age of Divines and Philosophers, as, in the course of its Philosophy, or the knowledge of Nature's laws and operations, accelerated by the intellects and the studies of a Bacon and a Boyle, received an impulse, and achieved discoveries, which, as they were unprecedented, have scarcely since been paralleled-while the eminent genius, combined with piety, which shone. forth in the upholders of our religion, was equally observable.

That the Eighteenth Century equally merits to be termed the age of Poets, Historians, Critics in polite and elegant literature, and Moral Writers,

as liberal erudition was carried to a high state of refinement, Poetry received additional pathos and beauty,

and a succession of Essayists struck out, in England, a mode of intellectual entertainment, original in its plan and attractive in its form and highly-popular mode of execution.

If, then, we examine the subject a little more minutely, and contemplate the literary complexion of the Sixteenth Century, we shall probably find that its prevailing characteristick was a virulence of zeal in controversial and theological opinions, and on the other hand, unwearied ardour which talent and learning displayed in the revival and annotation of the antient classics.

These signal and mighty changes. in Religion were chiefly effected by the Cranmers, the Whitgifts, the Hoopers, the Luthers, the Melanc thons, the Calvins, the Bezas, the Zuinglius's, the Knox's, the Bucers, and the Zuingles, while the inde-fatigable talents of Erasmus, of Julius Scaliger, of Isaac Casaubon, of Gerard Vossius, of Daniel Hiensius, of the Stephens's, and of Aldus, under the patronage of More, Wolsey, and other eminent men, went far in again restoring to the world the an

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Progress of Literature in different Ages. [Jan. which we

tient classicks in their pristine beauty, and in establishing among the learned a taste for the compositions of Greece and Rome, which has never since expired.

If we, in like manner, attentively view the literature of the Seventeenth Century, we shall find that, however it was adorned with its Poets, and other writers, it certainly derived a pre-eminent character from its advances in science, and fairly merits the designation of an age of Philosophy, when, both in England, and on the Continent, it could boast the names of Bacon, of Boyle, of Locke, of Halley, of Newton, of Malbranche, of Descartes, of Leibnitz, of Galileo, of Kepler, of the Bernouillis, of Torricelli, of Pascal, of Keil, of Grotius, of Puffendorff, and of Wolff,-great characters who flourished respectively within this period.

The period in question may likewise justly be thought (in England at least, and perhaps we may add in France) to have received a very decided and prominent feature from the genius and writings of such men as Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Tillotson, Barrow, Cudworth, Usher, Lightfoot, Leigh ton, Wilkins, Jeremy Collier, Chillingworth, Stillingfleet, Clark, Bossuet, Boardulouc, Massillon, Saurin, Flechiere, Fenelon, with various others, who at once reflected credit on the religion they professed, and adorned and enriched that depart. ment of literature to which they peculiarly attached themselves.

Carrying our views forward to the predominant features of the Eighteenth Century, it may be affirmed that the period which matured the genius, and witnessed the career of Pope, of Addison, of Young, of Gray, of Akenside, of Thomson, of Goldsmith, of Cowper, of Collins, of the Wartons, of Reynolds, of Melmoth, of Johnson, of Hawksworth, of Hume, of Robertson, of Burke, of Gibbon, with a variety of others of the first rank in our own country; and of Voltaire, of Rollin, of the Rousseaus, of Montesquieu, of Raynal, of Diderot, of D'Allembert, of Arnauld Berquin, of Schiller, of Goethe, of the Gesners, and of Klopstock, with numerous others on the Continent, who sustained these departments with brilliance and success, is properly designated the age of Poets, Critics, Moral Writers, and Historians.

The celebrated names, have here enumerated were not, it is true, contemporary, but appeared through a series or period of years, which, from their concentration, and decided eminence in their respective intellectual walks, may be thought to receive a complexion and a name from their lucubrations.

It is likewise true that, although in the present speculative arrangement we have conceived that a sufficient and predominating colour has been imparted, respectively, to the periods enumerated for the classification we have made, Poets, Artists, Historians, and Philosophers, of considerable and even of the highest eminence, have yet flourished anomalous to the order in which, under the present hypothesis, they are made to appear.

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Shakspeare, Milton, and Dryden, flourished in the Seventeenth Century, the Corneilles, the Racines, and the Boileaus, did the same;-as did also Otway, Butler, Denham, Cowley, Roscommon, Clarendon, Temple, La Bruyere, and Fontenelle; but these, however great and powerful their genius, were not, perhaps, from their number alone sufficient to impart a predominant name and character to the century in which they lived.

Philosophy, likewise, is here placed midway between the infant efforts of intellectual cultivation, and the period of its most advanced knowledge; and it may perhaps be said that the votaries of science, numerically considered, have far more abounded in the 18th than in the 17th century ;-but it may be replied that it was the 17th which elicited those grand discoveries, and furnished that profound and intense standard of thinking which has stimulated the minds of after investigators, and opened the way to the present enlightened state of scientific enquiry. In glancing through the course of these three centuries, into which we have speculatively divided the literature of modern times, it will be seen that, though on the whole, with scarcely perhaps an exception, the light of human knowledge, and the genius of literature have been gradually advancing, yet that particular genius has appeared in the literary hemisphere capriciously scattered in very unequal degrees of excellence. Yours, &c. E. P.

(To be continued.)

Mr.

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Mr. URBAN,

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Nov. 29. HE villages of Great and Little Appleby are situate partly in Leicestershire and partly in Derbyshire; that portion of them which is in the former county being in the hundred and deanery of Sparkenhoe. They are distant about six miles from Ashby de la Zouch, nine from Tamworth, 10 from Burton-upon-Trent, and nearly 9 from Atherston.

At the time of the Domesday Survey, the Abbey of Burton held lands in Appleby, which at the Dissolution came to the family of Brereton of Cheshire; who sold the same to the tenants early in the seventeenth cen tury.

The manor of Great Appleby was purchased by Sir Wolstan Dixie (knighted in 1604); who gave it to the trustees of Market Bosworth School, which his great uncle had founded; and in their possession it still remains. The manor of Little Appleby is possessed by George Moore, Esq. who has a handsome house; his family having been seated here since the reign of Elizabeth.

A curious old moated house at Ap pleby has been described and engraved in your vol. LXXXIX. i. 209.

The lordships of Great and Little Appleby contain about 2800 acres. The country is a fine champaign, principally of grazing land. The situation is very healthy: in 1808, seven persons were living here, all able to work, whose united ages amounted to 593 years.

Several years ago, one Joseph Green fell from the battlements of the church steeple, without receiving any injury. The same man, in striking the centre of a cellar, had more than 1000 bricks fell upon him, and was very little hurt.

The Church, (see Plate II.) dedicated to St. Michael, consists of a nave and two spacious ailes covered with lead, and a chancel covered with tiles. The North aile of the chancel belongs to the Free School at Bosworth. The Spire is handsome, near 52 feet high, and contains a good peal of six bells, of modern date, and a clock. From the battlements is a most beautiful view of the circumjacent country.

The chancel rests on three pointed arches; and the nave on five pointed GENT. MAG. January, 1821.

arches, each with clustered columns and ring capitals.

The advowson was purchased about 1600, by Mr. Wm. Mould; and in that family it continued till 1736, when it passed by an heiress into the Dawson family; the present possessor being Edward Dawson, of Whatton House, Esq.

In 1697, Sir John Moore, Knt. and Alderman of London, erected a Free School here for the education of boys in the parish of Appleby and the neighbouring villages; which, by the Statutes in 1706, was made free for all England. The foundation is under the direction of 13 governors; and since 1708 above 2000 persons have been educated here. The celebrated Dr. Johnson would have been elected Master of this School in 1738, could he have obtained the degree of M.A.

Mr. Glover, celebrated for the perfection to which he has carried the art of drawing in water-colours, commenced his career in life as a Writingmaster in this School.

In 1800, that part of Appleby which is in Leicestershire, contained 116 inhabited houses, and 3 uninhabited. There were 167 families, consisting of 223 males and 255 females, total 478; of whom 223 were chiefly employed

agriculture, and 204 in trade, &c. In the Derbyshire part, there were 98 inhabited houses, and 4 uninhabited. The families were 99; males 299, females 228; total 457. Of these 162 were chiefly employed in agricul

and 238 in trade, &c. N. R. S.

The Lorde and Ladye of HUNTING

DON'S Entertainment of their right noble mother, ALICE Countess Dowager of DERBY.

From a MS. in the Library of the Earl of Bridgewater (see our Review, p. 44.)

HIS curious Entertainment,

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Twritten by Marston, begins with the following laconic dedication, which may stand as a proper counterpart to the prologue of the players in Hamlet.

"To the Right Noble Ladye Alice Countess Dowager of Derby,

"Madam,

"If my slight Muse may sute your noble merit,

My hopes are crown'd, and I shall cheere my spirit;

But

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