THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For DECEMBER, 1794.

ART. I. An Hiftory of the principal Rivers of Great Britain. Vol. I. An Hiftory of the River Thames. Folio. PP. 312.

51. 75. Boards. Boydell. 1794.

IN

Plates 46.

N fo highly cultivated a country as England, a well-executed hiftory of its rivers must be a very interefting work. Dr. Campbell has obferved, in his Political Survey of Great Britain, &c. that no other island in the world is watered by fo many fine ftreams; and if we confider that a capacious river is not only one of the nobleft works of nature, regarded merely as an object of fight, but that its usefulness, in affording fubfiftence to plants and animals, is fo great as fcarcely to be comprehended in its fullest extent, even by the moft enlarged intellect, we may almost be ready to exclaim with the fublime Pindar, that WATER is the beft gift of Heaven!

This element is therefore highly worthy of our beft attention; and it is a diftinguishing property of man that, by a judicious. application of his powers, he is enabled to improve many of the various bleffings conferred on him by a beneficent Creator. Water, when left to itfelf, might ftagnate in marshes, and Spend its principles of life in giving nourishment to useless plants, [ufelefs to man,] and to noxious animals: but by human induftry it may be taught to direct its courfe through meadows covered with flocks and herds, to fpread its fertilizing influence over orchards and gardens, and, by affording an abundant supply of the most neceffary article of life, give birth to towns and cities that may be raised on its banks*. Among the numberlefs advantages to the human race, which ingenuity and labour may produce from this inexpreffibly useful element, it is not one of the leaft that it promotes an eafy communication between the diftant parts of a country; and, for the purposes of

We pretend not here to trace the origin and maturity of rivers; the inquiry would certainly lead us beyond our limits,-and, poffibly, beyond our learning.

VOL. XV.

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navigation,

navigation, it seems to be univerfally allowed that no rivers in Europe are comparable to the English.

Of this fuperiority we have an example in the Severn, which is navigable without a lock from Welchpool to its mouth; traverfing, in that vaft extent of country, the beautiful provinces of Salop, Worcester, and Gloucefter. The navigation of the Trent, the Oufe, and the Thames, likewife, well deferves our notice and diftinction; exclufive of the great number of canals which interfect the midland and northern parts of the kingdom.

Befides thefe benefits, which are contemplated with pleasure by the philofopher and the politician, Rivers are regarded by the poet and the painter as contributing much to landscapebeauty, when placid and gentle; and, when wild and tumultuous, they are known to imprefs the mind with that awful terror which is a principal ingredient in our conception of the fublime.In thefe views, principally, the ingenious and learned author of the work before us feems to regard his fubject: though it must be remarked that he does not over-look the hiftory and antiquities of the towns that are fituated on the banks of the Thames, and in its vicinity. He likewife enlarges on the many beautiful edifices with which the margin of that noble river is fo frequently adorned; and which afford him ample fubjects for the exercife of his powers of description. In the magnificence of our buildings, the ableft architects have exerted their skill; and the tafte difplayed in the difpofition of parks and pleasure-grounds has given occafion to a celebrated writer, of the prefent age, to obferve that the landscapes of Claude Lorraine and the defcriptions of Milton were realized in fome of the country manfions of England.

Having intimated fufficiently, as we apprehend, the importance of the fubject of this fplendid and expenfive work, we are now to take notice of the manner in which it is executed.

In this first volume, (which is all that has yet been published, though the fecond, we are informed, is in forwardness,) the courfe of the Thames is traced from the fpring-head, in the parish of Cotes, in the county of Gloucefter, through Cricklade, Fairford, and Lechlade, where it is joined to the Severn by a canal which has lately been cut with great expence and labour :-it then enters Berkshire, and, dividing that county from Oxfordfhire, paffes through Oxford, Abingdon, Wallingford, Henley, and Maidenhead:-it next directs its courfe to Windfor and Kingfton; and here the author concludes, obferving that fo far the Thames has borne us on its ftream to the tide, and that in the fucceeding volume it will bear us on its tide to the Sea. He does not, however, confine himself wholly to the

Thames.

Thames. He gives us an interefting account of its tributary ftreams, the Churn, Coln, Windrufh, Evenlode, Cherwell, Tame, Kennet, Loddon, Wick, Wey, and Mole; and this relation includes the towns, pleasant villages, and the habitations of gentlemen that are fituated on the banks of these rivers, illuftrated by large coloured engravings, the delineations of which are recommended to us by the celebrated name of Farrington.

We fhall now felect fome paffages to enable the reader to judge of the entertainment which the work furnishes.-Among the more interefting parts, we have particularly remarked the canal which joins the Thames and the Severn; and concerning this we shall here give an extract:

After many unfuccefsful attempts to make the Stroudwater river navigable, a canal had been formed under an act of parliament, obtained in 1775, from the Severn to Wallbridge near Stroud; and in 1782, that very able and diftinguished engineer, Mr. Robert Whitworth, was employed at the defire of several opulent and public fpirited gentlemen, chiefly merchants of London, to form a plan and eftimate of a canal to communicate with the Thames; and in the following year, an act pailed for carrying this patriotic and beneficial project into

execution.

This navigable canal begins at Wallbridge, where the Stroud navigation ends, and proceeds to the immediate vicinity of Lechlade, where it joins the Thames; taking a courte of thirty miles, feven chains and a half, exact measurement. From Stroud to Sapperton, comprehends a length of feven miles and three furlongs, with a rife of two hundred and forty-one feet three inches; from Sapperton Tunnel to Upper Siddington, including the branch to Cirencester, nine miles eight chains and an half, and is perfectly level; and from Upper Siddington to the Thames near Lechdale, it continues a courfe of thirteen miles four furlongs and nine chains, with a fall of one hundred and thirty feet fix inches: the general breadth of the canal is forty-two feet at the top, and thirty feet at the bottom. In many places, where the ground is, to ufe the mechanical expreffion, a dead level, it is confiderably wider; the banks and towing-paths being made entirely with the foil dug from the canal. The tunnel, or fubterraneous paffage excavated beneath Sapperton-hill, is nearly two miles and a half in length, being lined with mafonry, and arched over at the top, with an inverted arch at the bottom, except in fome few places, where it was practicable to make a regular excavation out of the folid rock. The boats are twelve feet wide, and eighty feet in length; when loaded they draw four feet water, and are capable of carrying feventy tons. This canal was executed in a moft complete and masterly manner in the space of feven years. Nor should it be omitted, that warehouses are conftructed in every requifite station on its banks, with all neceffary engines for lading and unlading, and a fucceffive apparatus of lock-work, to remedy the various levels of the country through which it takes its course. On the 20th day of April 1789, Mr. Clowes, the acting engineer, employed to con

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duct this important bufinefs by Mr. Whitworth, who was then engageri on the Forth and Clyde canal in Scotland, paffed through the tunnel, for the first time, at Sapperton, in a veffel of 30 tons burden; and on the 19th of November, in the fame year, the first veffel paffed from the Severn to the Thames, in the prefence of a large concourfe of people, who came from all the adjacent parts of the country to behold and exult in a ceremonial, which was confidered as the harbinger of inexpreffible advantage to themfelves and their pofterity. Of the bridges that form the various paffages over the canal, the principal is near the Thames-head, from whofe fprings an engine, of great mechanic power, raifes a very large body of water to fupply the navigation. This bridge, with the adjacent buildings, the engines beyond it, and the fpire rifing from the embowered village of Kemble in the diflance, combined with the accidental and varying accompaniments of the navigation, form an interefting and pleafant picture. From thence the canal continues its courfe, and having received another acceffion of water from the Churn, by means of the cut which branches off to Cirencester, it proceeds by the town of Cricklade to its junction with the Thames at that fpot. This important junction is formed very near but a little below the village of Inglefham, about a mile above Lechlade. A round tower, called the Wharf-houfe, which, with the adjoining bridge, is a very pleafing embellishment of the fcene, has been erected here as a precautionary depofit for coals brought by the canal, in cafe the navigation fhould be at any time obstructed by the feverity of frolis, or an accidental deficiency of water.'

The author is very diffufe in his account of Blenheim. His admiration of that magnificent feat carries him fo far as to induce him to vindicate Sir John Vanbrugh, whofe fubftantial tafte in building was fo confpicuous as to become almoft pro.. verbial; and which procured for him the following well-known epitaph:

"Lie heavy on him, Earth, for he

"Laid many a heavy load on thee."

Let us attend to what is here boldly urged in his favour:

Sir John Vanbrugh has long been the fubject of cenfure, both ferious and epigrammatic, for the form and decorations of the immenfe ftructure which he defigned and completed. That the architect confidered it as a monument of national gratitude to the hero who had raised his country to the fummit of glory, and therefore gave it a monumental ftrength and durability, has been an apology made by thofe, who did not poffefs the requifite judgement to form a right eftimation of the ftupendous work. This princely pile is conftructed on a plan of the most perfect regularity; and though its various parts may not have been governed by the rules, or its proportions regulated by the fcale of Palladian fcience, they produce, notwithstanding, in their combined ftate, a magnificent whole, which finds no rival, under that idea, in any of our largest edifices, whofe form and decorations are ftrictly conformable to the fymmetry and defigns of the Greek and Roman architecture. Nor do we fear to hazard an opinion that the eye, which defcends from the general cffect of this fuperb

effort

effort of Vanbrugh's genius, to reft upon minute and diftinct defects, does not belong to a frame that is animated by a comprehenfive mind.'

Whether the writer will make many converts to his opinion of the merit of Sir John's architectural works, it is not for us to predict.

Our author enlarges on the popular hiftory of Fair Rofamond; which, as he remarks, has been the fubject of antient ditty, has been woven into romance, and has fuccefsfully occupied the modern ftage; nor is there any thing, in his opinion, either unnatural or improbable, in the principal circumftances which are faid to compofe it.

That a young monarch fhould become enamoured of transcendent beauty; and that the tenderness or the vanity of the female heart might render it an eafy conqueft to a royal lover, are events, which it requires but little knowledge of the human paffions to confider as of the moft natural occurrence. That the deferted or neglected Queen fhould feel the refentful pangs of jealoufy at fuch an infringement of her conjugal rights, and that, with her violent temper and active mind, the fhould meditate revenge, is fo true to nature, that the understanding meets it with a willing belief. Nor is it less credible, that, during the abfence of the enamoured monarch, engaged in diftant wars, the fhould let loofe her impatient revenge on the unhappy object of her jealous fury. Nothing, furely, can be found in thefe circumstances of the fory to check belief; and there is every thing in its catastrophe to call forth thofe emotions of pity, which at once pain and pleafe the tender heart. The bard of former times has fung the fate of Rofamond, and it is, perhaps, to. his unpolished mufe that we are chiefly indebted for the bowl which concluded it, as well as the mazy labyrinth that was formed; but formed in vain, to protect her from it. Her flory is to be found among thofe ancient ballads which compofed fo much of the poetry, and no fmall part of the vulgar biftory, of the times when they were written. Popular belief, which incuriously refts on popular traditions, has continued to embrace, with equal reliance, the facts as well as the machinery of thefe ditties; and leaves the tafk of feparating the one from the other to thofe folemn enquirers, who, fuperior to fentiment and difdainful of nature, never fail to difbelieve where authority is filent. We fhall confider it, however, as a natural tranfition from circumftance to belief, when we reprefent the fountain which flows perennial on the fite of the palace, recorded to have been the habitation of Rofamond, as having furnished the beverage of her table, fupplied the ciftern in which the bathed, or formed a christal mirror that fometimes reflected her charms. But fhould this spring be thought too fanciful a fource of moral influence; if it cannot be fuppofed that the fair one who beholds it, may seriously reflect on the fate of fallen beauty; or that the youth, as he ftands on the margin, may shudder at the crime of feduction :-ftill, as it poffeffes à certain traditional power to turn, awhile, the attention of the traveller from the fplendid water that flows by it, and to awaken those tender fympathies, which if they exift but for a moment, for that moment, im

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prove