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9. A Ride and a Walk through Stourhead. A Poem. Rivington, 4to, 15.

[Reviewed by a Correfpondent.] SOME miferable undreft Mufe, who tells us plainly,

-rude unpolish'd lays are all I have-mounting without fear or dread Her fellow-traveller, fteady, fafe, Who any other lord ne'er recognized, But from her infant-ftate was taught to munch

Ceres' bounty from her conftant hand, ftrolls forth

-from Hellyar's hofpitable roof,

i. e. the inn at Stourton, where, we dare fay, both he and her Pegafus were glad of a breakfast, which perhaps they mean to pay for by this poem, and trot over

-an affemblage of fuch endless beauties As HOABE bimfelf alone could bid arife; Nature's fly mimic, imitator clofe.

Old Stour, the fays, owes his fource to a concave vale with a modest spire, without which the farmers wives would lofe their bohea, and the spectator from the terrass the prospect of fuch chafle Dryads as the Grand Seignor himfelf cannot boat, they give fuch plenitude of joy unfatiating. A. mong thousands of stately oaks which, under other Georges and other BARRINGTONS are by cogent argument to convince France of treachery, are interfperft millions of firs and speaking pines in elegance unmatched. We do not recollect more than one fpeaking pine in all claffical antiquity-the pinus Argolica: but modern poetafters have vocal forests. From thefe whifpering woods, that in Eloian mufic bail their lord, the Mufe moves on (the is not a friky Mufe) to Dorset's falubrious downs.

Black fwans and rotten fheep may here be found

In equal numbers.

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His works his monument. Surviving friends To thefe truft prudent rather than to ftone. The note here fhews this laft line is ftolen from Terence's Ad rem attentio res. We always understood Res meant money; but we never heard that his Lordship left a large fhare of that behind him. Perhaps the meaning of thefe two lines is that he left fo little that his furviving friends in common prudence cannot afford him a monument; and therefore-the inference is obvious.

Measuring back with fow hafte, the Mufe comes to a labyrinth of grove, where, in a firaw-built convent, Wife and husband, innocent as doves, God's first command, " Increase and mulply,"

Fulfill with joy, obey with exftacy.
Here

The virgin parent, and her human fon,
Divine, masterly, placid, lib'ral Hoare
With tender, filial and parental looks,
Has fill'd.

Buried in ruins for whole centuries,
The Eastern Magi on their bendea knees
Humbly prefent their perfum'd offerings.
Their past hard fate judicious Bamp-
fylde faw,

And ordered them to be what once they

were.

A wicked wag would suppose that the Eaftern Magi came into the stable in fuch dirty boots, mired up to their knees, that one Mr. Bampfylde, shocked at the indecorum of fuch a visit, ordered their boots and great coats to be properly rubbed and brutht. Our Mufe, in a note, explains her meaning to be, that thefe Magi were buried in the ruins of Glastonbury abbey, and that Mr. Bampfylde is the gentleman hafe paintings in the collection at Stourbead do him honour.

The Mufe now mends her pace; at leaft, makes her

-fellow-traveller feel her sharparm'd heel,

who

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So the note: but we venture to fay that Neftor was talking all the timeand to better purpose, we truft, than the Orators of Westminster Forum, or Mrs. Cornellys.

But to proceed for all this while we have not cut the poem open-confequently have reviewed it only by halves, having the faying of old Heliod full in view, that half is more than the whole

The nurseries grow like frog Efopian, The fnowy cafcade from the pendent rock

The deep beneath revifits parent clouds. This last line is the dera fuperat unda of Virgil, Æn. III. 423; which by theby is verberat, and applied to Charybdis, a whirlpool, not a cafcade.

The Mufe, feated and regaling luxuriously in the Turkish tent, under 3 crefcents fhining at mid-day, fo that Phoebus is obfcured, fees two fwans fail by, one very majestically.

His brother, majefty apart, hoifts fail,
And rapid rushes on thro' yielding waves.
So Barrington ruht on the Gallic fleet;
So Pierfon, Farmer, Reynor, flew to
crufh

Their country's foes, and so mov'd flow
along

-, tarnish'd names.

After longing to kifs and tickle the Nymph of the Grot, where

Ivy fefquipedal waving depends, the Pantheon claims gratitude, and the Mufe is mov'd along towards the filver'd denizen of the hermitage, who unfortunately was not at home; and after frying, broiling, roafting, in the Palace of the Sun, where not a God

-deigns to help an Englifeman diftreft, though Heaven in kindnefs to Capt. Farmer fnatcht him with fudden flash to endless blifs, the poor mare conveys her rider purpled o'er, and, by the help of Mr. Hellyar's liberal hand and foothing voice, relieved.

"Now dawning reafon mourns the fatal chance

That fept between my happiness and me.
Anticipation, prophetess untrue,
Had pledg'd herself fresh beauties to difclofe:
From ev'ry region that I fhould furvey
Amazed, what ev'ry genius could atchieve;
That Titian's pencil I should own furpast;
That Eastern grandeur should no more be
heard

With wonder: that elegance nrivalled Should its whole-felf expand at once to view,

Fortune fuperior blafts my fav'rite fcheme
And lays me proftrate to lament my fate,
In hopes Anticipation may prove true
To giddy Fortune's pleafure I fubmit."

If there be any meaning in these 14 concluding lines, it must be, that the Mufe or the Poet, or both, tired to death with a long walk and ride in the hottest day of the year, got confoundedly drunk; or that they behaved fo ill, that Mr. H. found it expedient to turn them out of his grounds, if his fervants did not knock them down, but that they have the impudence to hope for another ride and walk thro' Stourheadif this bombaft rhapfodical account will pay the expences of a second journey His publisher has Oxford connexions; but if this poet is an Oxford man, we wish him for ever to conceal his college and degree: or if he is a Londoner, who in his annual vifit among the Wiltshire clothiers had a mind to fee what was clever in the county, we would exhort him to keep to his patterns and bowl of punch, and fettle his Blackwell hall accounts before he opens any correfpondence with Helicon or Parnaffus.

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"The next day as we were at dinner, he faid, "We are here for liberty and property." This * gentleman is a Jefuit, he wears his hat; I am a poor invalid, I wear my night cap.

I do not immediately recollect on what occafion he quoted these verses, Here lies the mutton-eating king,

Whole promife none relies on ;
Who never faid a foolish thing,
And never did a wife one.

[Ld, Rochester of Charles H.] But fpeaking of Racine, he quoted thefe two others,

The weighty bullion of one flerling line, Drawn with French wire, would thro whole piges fhine.

S. The English prefer Corneille to Racine.

V. That is, becaufe the English do not understand the French language well enough to perceive the beauties,

Father Adam.'

tto in Lord Rofcommon

of Racine's ftyle, and the harmony of his verfification: Corneille must please them more, because he is more ftriking; but Racine pleases the French, because he has more sweetness and tenderness.

S. How did you find the English fare? I

V. Very fresh, and

S. Their language?

very white.

V. Full of energy, precifion, and barbarifm: they are the only nation that pronounces their A, E.

He quoted the word bandkerchief, as a proof of the capricioufness of their pronunciation.

He related an anecdote of Swift: Lady Cartwright § [Carteret], wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Swift's time, faid to him, "The air of this country is good." Swift fell down on his knees, For God's fake, Madam, don't fay fo in England; for they will certainly tax it!'

He afterwards faid, that, though he could not perfectly pronounce English, he had an ear for the harmony of their language and of their verfification; that Pope and Dryden had the most harmony in poetry, Addifon in profe.

V. How have you found the French? S. Amiable and ingeniours. I only find one fault with them; they imitate the English too much.

V. How do you think us worthy to be originals ourselves?

5. Yes, Sir.

V. So do I too: but it is of your government that we are jealous.

S. I have found the French more free than I expected.

V. Yes; as to walking, or eating whatever he pleafes, or lolling in his elbow chair, a Frenchman is free enough; but as to taxes-Ah! Sir, you are happy, you may do any thing; we are born in flavery, and we die in davery; we cannot even die as we will, we must have a priest.

Speaking of our government, he faid, The English fell themfelves, which is a proof that they are worth fome

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thing we French do not fell ourfelves probably becaufe we are worth nothing.

S. What is your opinion of the Eloife?

V. It will not be read twenty years hence.

S. Mademoifelle de l'Enclos has written good letters.

V. She never wrote one; they were by the wretched Crebillon.

He faid, the Italians were a nation of brokers; that Italy was an old wardrobe, in which there were many old cloaths of exquisite taste. We are ftill, faid he, at a lofs to know whe. ther the fubjects of the Pope, or of the Grand Signor, are the most despicable!

He talked of England and of Shakspeare; and explained to Madam Denis part of one fcene in Henry V. where the King makes love to Queen Catherine in bad French; and of another in which that Queen takes an English leffon from her waiting-woman, and where there are feveral very grofs double entendres, especially on the word fot: and then addreffing himself to me, But fee' faid he,

what it is to be an author; he will do any thing to get money."

V. When I fee an Englishman crafty and fond of law-fuits, I fay, Behold a Norman who came in with William the Conqueror; when I fee a man good-natured and polite, See one who came with the Plantagenets; a churl, Behold a Dane: for your nation, as well as your language, is a medley of many others.

Do

After dinner, paffing through a little parlour, where there was a head of Locke, another of the Countess of Coventry, and feveral more; he took me by the arm and stopped meyou know this buft? It is the greatet genius that ever existed e though all the geniuses of the universe were affembled, he would lead the band."

Of Newton, and of his own works, he always fpoke with the greatest enthusiasm.

<< Letter xxvi.

"If you have not time to read a fhort detail of trifling particulars on the fubject of Voltaire, fkip this letter.

His house is convenient and very well furnifhed: among other pictures is the portrait of the Empress of Ruffin,

$ It was the hub of Newton,"

and that of the King of Pruffia, which was fent him by that monarch; and his own but in Berlin porcelain, with the infcription IMMORTALIS.

His arms are on his gate, and on all his plates, which are of filver: at the defert, the fpoons, forks, and blades of the knives, were of filvergilt: he had two courfes, and five fervants, three of whom were in livery: no other fervant is allowed to enter.

He spends his time in reading, writing, playing at chefs with Father Adam, and in overlooking the workmen in his village.

The foul of this extraordinary man has been the theatre of every ambition: he would be a man of univerfal learning, he would be rich, he would be noble, and he has fucceeded in all.

His laft ambition was to found a town; and, if we examine, we shall find that all his ideas were directed to this end. After the disgrace of M. de Choifeul, when the French ministry had given up the plan of building a town at Verloix, in order to establish a manufactory there, and to overturn the trade of the Genevefe, Voltaire determined to do at Ferney what the French government had intended to do at Verfoix.

He feized the moment of the diffentions in the republic of Geneva, and by fair promifes he engaged the exiles to take refuge with him, and many of the malecontents followed them thither.

He caufed the firft houfes to be built, and gave them for a conftant quit rent: he then lent money by way of annuities to those who would build themselves; to fome on his own life, to others on the joint lives of himself and Madam Denis.

His fole object feems to me to have been the aggrandizement of this village with this view he asked an exemption from taxes; and with this view he endeavoured every day to inveigle workmen from Geneva, to eftablish there a manufacture of clockmaking. I do not fay that he did not think of money; but I am convinced that it was only his fecondary object.

On the two days that I faw him, he wore white cloth fhoes, white woollen ftockings, red breeches, a nightgown and waistcoat of blue cloth, Howered and lined with yellow: he had a grizzle wig with three ties, and over it a filk night-cap embroidered with gold and filver,

Twelve years ago he had his tomb built, on the fide of his church, before his houfe: in the church, which is small, there is nothing extraordinary, except over the altar, where there is a plain figure in gilt wood, without a crofs. It is faid to be himself; for it is pretended that he has always had an idea of founding a religion."

10. Ruffia: or a Complete Historical Account of all the Nations which compofe that Empire. 2 Vols. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Nichols.

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THE Introduction to this work, dated "St. Petersburg, Oct. 15, 1779, gives a general account of Siberia, and of the Kara-Kitans, Mongouls, Burats, Kalmucs, and Tongares, of the religion of the Kalmucs and Mongouls, and of the religion of Tibet ; or of the Dalai Lama : all hitherto little known in Europe, and inaccurately defcribed. It concludes with the following eulogium on Profeffor Pallas:

"The foregoing accounts, with those which will appear in the fupplement at the end of the fourth volume of this work, may be confidered as a critical excurfion on the Mongolian hiftory, and the religion of Tibet. But all these accounts, no less than such as are to be met with in other authors, would be still more imperfect, had not Mr. Pallas lately favoured the world with a work in the German tongue, which deferves the attention of every man defirous of pursuing his enquiries into the hiftory of Afia, into the manners and religions of nations.

"Mr. Profeffor Pallas, of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Peterburg, travelled through many parts of the immenfe Ruffian empire. His difcoveries in natural hiftory, and his great merit in other branches of fcience, fecure him the esteem of every one that has candour and juftice enough to give honour to a genius rarely equalled; at the fame time that his readiness at communication and fweetnefs of difpofition render him the delight of all his acquaintance.

"This indefatigable researcher, travelling about the Volga, among the Kalmucs of thofe parts, and staying fome time in the parts circumjacent to Salenginsk and the countries inhabited by the Burats, endeavoured to collect upon the spot the traditions handed down among this people, to gather the different annals written in the Mongolian language, and to obferve every

thing

[graphic]

A moving Village of the NOGAYAN TARTARS.

from the new Historical Account of RUSSIA

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