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Lift of Books, vifited by our author. These islands (he fays) are equal, in fize, to the counties of Kent and Effex, taken together, and near half as large as all the territories of the United Provinces. Dr. Campbell gives a general and fuccinct history of them, fhewing what they have been formerly, and the caufes of their prefent fituation.

Pliny the Elder, in whofe time they were certainly known, fays, that there were thirty of them, and ftyles them the Hebudes. Ptolemy calls them Æbudæ, but names only five of them; and Solinus, who alfo mentions but five, is the only ancient writer who gives any account of their inhabitants. They were invaded and ravaged in the year 1998, by Magnus, King of Norway, and continued under theNorwegian government, from that time till the year 1266, when they were restored to the crown of Scotland. At Bute, as being nearest to the continent, Dr. Campbell begins, and from thence proceeds to Arran, where he propofes feveral improvements, particularly the working the veins of lead and copper that have been discovered there, and alfo the opening their coal mines, and working their tone quarries, extending their fisheries, making falt, foap, or glafs, and, in confequence, extending and improving their husbandry and grazing. The next ifland which he furveys is, Ifa, the most fouthern of thofe properly styled the bude, where our author recommends the rai. fing of timber, working of lead mines, and fishing. He next proceeds to the ifland of Juna, remarkable for containing neither hares nor foxes, and alfo greatly improveables from thence to Mull, formerly fuppofed to be facred to Minerva. The breed of horses there, which, though small, are much efteemed, is afcribed to fome Spanish horfes wrecked on this coaft in the armada. Mull is faid to be larger than Bedfordshire, and yet has only a hundred and fixty five inhabitants. "This inland," fays the Doctor, "was given in the fixth century to St. Columba", who erected here a famous monaftery, and dying at the clofe of that century, or the beginning of the feventh, was there interred. In fucceeding times, a nunnery, and feveral chapels were built there it was also famous for a Jibrary, in which were depofited the

Of this faint, and the origin of the name, derived from the Arkite dove, fee Mr. Bryant's Ancient Mythology. GENT. MAG. Auguft, 1774..

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archives and hiftories of the kingdom, together with many other curious manufcripts now difperfed and loft. But what rendered it most famous, was, its becoming the burial-place, not only of the Kings of Scotland, but alfo of Ireland, Norway, and the ifles, a alfo of the most diftinguished perfons of both fexes in the western part of Scotland and in the islands. The ruins that ftill remain are fufficient to justify the authenticity of thofe accounts, which fpeak of this place when it was in a condition better than it now is." The account of the bude is clofed with the ifle of Sky, and the Lewes, or Long-ifland; and many judicious reflections on the means of improving them (for which we must refer to the work) are annexed. We fhall only briefly obferve, that our author recommends the introduction of " trees and fhrubs from different parts of the world, particularly America, Chinese hogs, Indian and Flemish fheep, large rams, bulls, Spanish and Arabian horfes, affes, goats from Natolia or Barbary, buffaloes from West Florida, and all kinds of aquatic fowls and vaJuable fish." But, furely, with fubmiffion, it may be queftioned whether animals habituated, as many of these are, to temperate, and even hot climates, could ever be inured and naturalized to a fituation fo cold and inclement as this. And if the produce of China and India, of Spain and Arabia, whether vegetable or animal, was tranfplanted, or tranfported, to the Weltern iflands; we fhould apprehend, that the first storm and tempeft, froft or fnow, would be as fatal to them as the peftilential vapours of Batavia were to the natives of Otaheite. That the fe iflands are happily fituated for commerce cannot be doubted, and, therefore, to every propofed improvement of that kind we implicitly affent, viz. the charring of peats, the tanning of leather, the making of caviar from the roes of mackarel, or the beluga (which is ftill better, and more valuable), the ma nufacturing of ilinglafs, &c. To effect these falutary purposes, and to encourage foreigners to fettle there, our author propoles, I. the regulating and establishing property by law; 2. the erecting courts of judicature in every one of the great ifles, in the fame manner as in Arran and Bute, which are now a fhire, and alfo public schools, a custom-house, copious migazines of falt to be furnished to

the

370

Lift of Books, -with Remarks.

the natives in exchange for hemp and Hax, and the manufacture of canvas and fail-cloth. Packet boats, 100, fhould be stationed between these ifles, Gialgow, Liverpool, and Britol; in the great ifles a company or two of invalids thould be garritoned, a finall fum annually expended in compound ing the debts of imprisoned feainen or artificers, on condition of their going and fettling there with their familjer, for a certain reafonable term; proteftant foreigners might be invited by a general naturalization, &c. In conclu hon, however, the fishery is the point on which our author infilts the most, laying, that "for this, all allow, they are better fituated than any other coun try in the world," and styling "the natives, from their skill in navigating fafely and commodiously those narrow feas, which are dangerous to strangers, feamen of Nature's making."

From the bude our oblerver conducts us to the Orcades, which appear to have been known at a more early period than the former; and the two unprovements which be there suggests, additional to thofe propofed in the other islands, are, 1.the erecting an univertity, of which he recapitulates the probable advantages arising from their centrical Situation, and, 2.allowing the East. India company to erect a spacious magazine in one of thefe islands, where allo a collector, and a fufficient number of king's officers should refile, to receive the duties of fuchE.-India commo. dities as might be taken off by British fubjects. The Orkneys, we are told, contain 30,000 inhabitants, and are equal, in extent, to the county of Huntingdon. From them Dr. Camphell fteers to the Shetland idlands, which are reckoned near three times as large. That these islands have been hitherto fo imperfectly known, cur author imputes to the mistake which all the old maps have made in their Gruation, by placing them two degrees farther north than they really are, in order to make them correfpond with Ptolemy's defcription of Thule; and alfo the many fabulous relations of their being uninhabitable. Though barren, the country, however, is far from being defolate; though moorish and mountainous, it is not impafable: near the coafts, in particular, are, for mites together, fome flat, pleasant, and fertile fpots; though fishery (o much engroffes the natives, that fcarcely more than a fifth part of the land is cultivated.

Many of the improvements, partied. larly in fishery, before propofed, are alfo fuggefted here, together with the erecting magazines and falt-works, the establishing the manufacture of nets, the building boats, m king calks, kelp, coarse glafs, and foap, &c. A retrofpective view of the contents, and a recapitulation of the general obfer. vations, before made, on the advantages which Great-Brita n'derives from its infular fituation, and other circumftances, conclude the first volume.

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40. The Hiftory of English Poetry, from the clofe of the eleventh to the com mencement of the eighteenth Century. To which are prefixed two Differias tions: 1. On the Origin of romantic Fiction in Europe. 2. On the Intro duction of Learning into England. Vel. I. By Thomas Warton, B. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and of the Society of Antiquaries. 4to, Dodley..

THIS elegant writer, already well known to the learned world as a port*, a critic, and an antiquariant, oppofite as thofe characters feem to be, has bere in fome measure united them all; fo that, while his brother poets ar Oxford and Cambridge may think perhaps that he has facrificed his ingeni ty and pleasantry at the thrine of antiquity, his fellow students in Chancerylane may, on the other hand, be as much difappointed at the portic il graces and ornaments with which this work ahounds. Difficult as it is at once to please fuch difagreeing taftes, we confels to have received both delight and advantage from this poetical historian; though the farther he proceeds in his researches, and the nearer approaches he makes to modern times, the more flowery doubth fs will be his path, and his profpect more clear and extensive. As to the plan which he has pursued, (to adopt his own words,) he " has chefens to exhibit the history of our poetry in a chronological feries, yet has not always adhered fo fcrupulously to the regularity of annals, but that he has often deviated into occasional digreffions." " Mr.Mason, (he adds) a few years ago, gave him an authentic copy

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List of Books, -with Remarks.

of Mr. Pope's fcheme of a Hiftory of Englih Poetry, in which our poets were claffed under their refpe&tive Ichools; and the late Mr. Gray had allo projected a work of this kind, and tranflated fome Runic odes, for its illustration, now publifhed; but foon relinquishing that defign, he faYoured our author with the fubftance of his plan, which was that of Mr. Pope, confiderably enlarged, extended, and improved." Both thefe plans, however, for reasons here given, Mr. Warton has rejected, and has pu fued what he thinks a preferable method, as This performance, in its prefent form, exhibits (he fays) without tranfpofition the gradual improvements of our poetry, at the same time that it uniformly reprefents the progreffion of our lan guage." His reafons for commencing his annals with the Norman acceffion, rather than with the Saxon government; frem conclufive, the former being the era when our national cha ricter began to dawn." On the whole, he hopes to merit the thanks of the antiquarian for enriching the ftock of our early literature by new acceffious from ancient manufcript poems, never before printed, and but little known; and allo to gratify the reader of taste, by frequent y relcuing from oblivion the heroic tale, or the romantic legend."

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As a neceffary preliminary to his work, Mr. Warton couliders apart, in his fit differtation, the origin of ronance, a peculiar and arbitrary species of fiction, unknown to the Greeks and Romans, whofe introduction into the weltern world by the Saracens or ATabians he afcribés, not to the Crufades, as has been generally fuppofed, but to a much earlier period, the beginning of the eighth century, when thafe invaders entered and conquered Spain, and foon communicated their ideal tales to France and Italy. The wo ancient fabulous hiftories of Arthur and Charlemagne, the first and original heroes of romance, by Geof frey of Monmouth and Turpin, Mr. W. proves to have been written in the eleventh century. To the ir uption of the Afiatic or Georgian Gohs into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, &c. under Odin or Woden, a few years before the birth of Chrift, he attributes the introduction of many ufeful arts, particularly letters, which Odin is faid to have invented, and whom therefore the Scandinavians styled a god. And

371

this is confirmed by the biking fimilarity now fubfiding between feveral customs of the Georgians and those of Tome cantons of Norway and Sweden, and alfo by many traces of oriental ufages among all the European nations during their pagan ftite. Poetry in particular was introduced by these Goths, an act in which they were peculiarly fkdful, and wonderfully enthufi lic; and with the difcuffion of this fubject, and an account of the northern Scalds or Poets, of fome remains of Scaldic or Runie poetry, of the introduction of gleemen (or harpers) and mintiels, of the Irish, Welch, and Scottish bards, of the old Scandic romances now extant in Sweden, and of the ideas of chivalry and gallantry among the Goths, this dissertation concludes..

We cannot, however, difinifs it with out obferving, that the mall degree of attention and refpect with which the Greeks and Romans treated the fair fex, and that inconfiderable fare which they were permitted to take in converfation and the general commerce of life," feem carried by this ingenious writer to an extreme, which the claffic writers (to whom he appeals) will scarcely warrant, when we recollect the refpectable names of an Afpafia, a Clelia, a Lucretia, a Portia, &c. when we recollect that to two of thofe heroines Rome owed her liberties, not to mention the great veneration which was paid to the veal virgins. And as to complaifance," in which "these polifed people," accord ng to Mr. W. "were excelled by the barbarians," it will be difficult for him to produce an inftance in which the Goths were fo gallant as to lofe the world, like Anthony, for a miftrefs; or to facrifice their revenge and relentment to the intreaties of a wife and a mother, like Coriolanus.

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The fecond differtation opens with the irruption of the northern nations into Europe at the beginning of the fourth century, and traces the history and revival of letters through the fixth and fucceding centuries till the thi teenth. Interfperfed is a curious and interefting account of all fuch Latin writers as flourished in England during thofe æras, in which Alfred, though a king, truly great, and Bede, though a monk, truly Generable, both Saxons, are mentioned with the highet and jufteft diftin&tion. In that century (the eighth) Saxon literature was

372
Lift of Books,-with Remarks,
indeed at its height; as, befides thefe,
Aldhelm, Bishop of Shirburn, Ceol-
frid and Alcuine, mult alfo be diftin-
guished. And "Alfred (as Mr. W,
obferves) deferves particular notice,
not only as a writer, but as the illuf-
trious rival of Charlemagne, in pro-
tecting and affiling the restoration of
literature." Bede died in the year
735; Alfred in 900. To this dawn,
which was foon overcaft by the inva-
fions of the Danes, and their deftruc
tion of libraries, a long night of con-
fufion and ignorance fucceeded; till,
at length, in the beginning of the ele-
venth century, the clouds were again
difperfed, education being no longer
confined to the monks, and the Nor-
mans, a polished people, brought over
by the Conqueror, having introduced
into our find the rudiments of that
cultivation which it has preferved to
the prefent times. The Conqueror
himself was a patron and lover of
learning; and many of the Norman
prelates, preferred by him, were polite
fcholars. Of th fe, Godfrey, Pior
of Winchester, wrote epigrams with
the eafe and fimartness of Martial * ;
and Geoffrey, fchoolmaster (afterwards
Abbot) of Dunstable, compofed a play
called, The Play of St. Catherine,
which was acted by his scholars, and
was the firt drama exhibited in Eng-
land. Without defending the monaf-
rc fyftem, our hiftorian has tome just
oblervations on the utily of monaf-
teries in diffuling civility, foftening
the manners, and promoting ftudious
purfuits, particularly by encouraging
the tranfcribing f books, fcarce as
they were in the middle ages, for which
purpose a particular room in each mo-
nattery was affigned, and eftates were
often granted. The writers in our
own country, fubfequent to the con-
queft, here mentioned, are Joannes
Grammaticus, 1070; Laurence, Prior
of Durham, 1154; Robert Dunstable,
a monk of St. Alban's; Henry of Hun-

Camden has cited feveral of his epi-
The chief of his remaining
grams.
pieces are, Proverbia et Ep grammata
Satirica;"Carmina Hiftorica, de Rege
Canuto, Regina Emma," &c. All thefe,
which are in the Bodleian library, Mr.
W. fays, are certainly worthy of publi-
cation, not merely as a curiofity. The fol-
lowing epigram is not cited by Camden:

Pauca Titus preciofa dabat, fed vilia
plura :

Ut meliora habeam, pauca det, oro,
Titus."

tingdon, a Latin hiftorian and poet,
1147; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bishop
of St. Afaph, 1152, an hiftorian allo
and poet; John of Salisbury, the ele-
gant author of Policraticon; Eadmer
of Canterbury, and William of
Malmesbury, both monks, and good
hiftorians; Simeon of Durham; Ro-
ger Hoveden; Benedict, Abbot of
Peterborough; John Hanvill, monk
of St. Alban's, 1190, author of an
ingenious Latin poem called Architre-
nius (of which Mr. W. has given
fome extracts); Gyraldus Cambrenfis,
a kind of univerfal fcholar; Alexan-
der Neckham, Abbot of Cirencelter,
1217, a Latin poet, philofopher, &c.
Walter Mapes, a genial Archdeacon
of Oxford, the Anacreon of the ele-
venth century; Jofeph of Exeter, (or
Jofephus If anus), 1210, a miracle for
claffic compofition (of which Mr. W.
gives fome ftriking inftances from his
Bellum Trojanum); Geoffrey de Vine-
fauf, a Latin poet, celebrated by Chau-
cer, 1200; and Robert Grofthead, Bi-
fhop of Lincoln, an univerfal scholar.
Mr. W. adds, that the Jews, who
were allowed by William the Conque-
ror to fettle here in 1087, and, with-
in 200 years after, were expelled the
kingdom, promoted the circulation of
their learning by the fale of their
books. The temporary gleam of light
which thefe few polite fcholars had dif-
fufed, was foon however obscured, scho-
laftic divinitycompletely banished all po
lite and rational knowledge, and the ha-
bits of fuperftition and ignorance again
prevailed. "But (concludes our au-
thor) perhaps inventive poetry loft no-
thing by this relapfe. Had claffical;
taste and judgment been now established,
imagination would have fuffered, and
too early a check would have been
given to the beautiful extravagances of
romantic fabling. In a word, truth
and reafon would have chaled before
their time thofe fpectres of illufive fan-
cy, fo pleafing to the imagination,
which delight to hover in the gloom of
ignorance and fuperftition, and which
form fo confiderable a part of the poe
try of the fucceeding centuries."

Sect. I. Our author here examines the ftate of our poetry from the conqueft till the year 1200, or rather afterwards, obferving that the Saxon language fen in England being diftinguifhed by three feveral epochs, may be divided into three dialects, 1. The Britih Saxon, used from the Saxon entrance to the Danish corruption, for

Lift of Books,-with Remarks.

330 years, of which one monument only remains: 2. The Danish Saxon, which prevailed to the Norman invafion, and of which many fpeci-, mens are preserved: and 3. The Norman Saxon, which continued beyond the reign of Henry II. and with which thefe annals commence. Before and after the conqueft the French language (he adds) prevailed. Of NormanSaxon poems he gives several specimens, chiefly legends, all of them curious only as antiquities, and now fcarce readable. The earliest love-, fong (among the Harleian MS S.) he afcribes to the year 1200; and the first English metrical romance, written after the crufades, and mentioned by, Chaucer, is entitled The Gefle of King

Horn.

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In Se&.II. is inferted a fatirical ballad, written foon after the battle of Lewes, 1264. Henry III. he obferves, was the fift of our kings who entertained in his count a poet, called Mafer Henry the Verfifier. The firft poet whose name occurs in these annals is Robert,, a monk of Gloucefter, who has left a history of England in verfe, from Bratus to the reign of Edward I. written about the year 1288, a rhyming chronicle (Mr. W. fays) wholly del titute of ait or imagination." By the way, our author (in a note) is inclined to a fuppofition, that Stone henge, as Geoffrey of Monmouth has afferted from the British bards, is a British monument, erected in memory of Ilengift's mafficre, and that the name perhaps may be derived from it. Some ancient political ballads are next mentioned. Robert de Brunne, or Bourue, a monk and a poet, occurs in 1303; Le Brut d'Angleterre, 1155; and Le Roman le Roy, 1160, the oldest of the French romances, were tranfited by him of this tranflation fome specimens are annexed, more curious than poetical. Erceldoune and Kendale are mentioned as two old romances: of. the latter there are now no traces. Bishop Grothead was also a tranfl tor: of his Caftle of Love fome extracts are given. The monks often wrote for the minstrels. Their libraries were. full of romances. Guy Earl of Warwick was the work of a Francifcan fryar, Walter of Exeter, 1292. The minstrels were admitted to the monastic festivals. Of Regnorum Chronica, written, Mr. W. fuppofes, in the reign of Edw. I. he inferts fome fragments. Mirabilia Mundi was a work compofed

:

373

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THE tranfator's introduction is às follows: "Dr. John Battely, author of this work, born at St. Edmund's' Bury, in Suffolk, in 1647, fome time, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Chaplain to Archbishop Sancroft, afterwards, by his Grace's favour, Rector of Adifham, in Kent, Prebendary of Canterbury, and Archdeacon of the diocefe, died Oct. 10, 1708, and was interred in the South crofs of Canterbury cathedral, where a mural monument was erected to his memory.His Antiquitates Rutupine (now firft tranflated) were published in octavo by Dr. Thomas Terry, Canon of Chrift church, Oxford.

"As the original, being truly Ciceronian, is an account of a dialogue between the author and his two learned friends and brother chaplains, Dr. Hen. Maurice and Mr. Henry Wharton, and therefore, though elegant, is prolix, it is thought that the tranflation will be more acceptable to an English reader in a fmaller, though lefs claffic form, as a differtation or effay."

A fecond edition in quarto of the original was published in the year 1745, together with the author's Antiquitates S. Edmundburgi; an unfinished history of his native place and its ancient mo.. naftery, down to the year 1272.

Dr. Battely appears to have been extremely converfant with what relates to the antiquities of this country, and to have diligently ftudied the Greek and Roman writers for information on this fubject. He feems to afcertain beyond doubt, that Richborough is the * Milprinted **liaac."

Rutupi,

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