cious editors know that vulgar minds are captivated by bold pretenfions and warm profeffions in literature as in medicine. Since the artifice is an innocent one, and fucceeds in recommending ufeful books among thofe by whom inftruction is greatly wanted; while, at the fame time, it is too apparent to deceive the well educated and fenfible; it deferves not the feve rity of fatire, though it muft of neceffity excite derifion. For fplendor and copiouinefs of panegyrical epithet, no age can produce a parallel to many of the curious titles and commendations printed on the blue covers of works delivered to the expecting world in weekly numbers. Language toils in vain for expreffions adequate to the excellence of the compofition, the beauty of the type and paper, and the fuperb elegance of the copper. plates. Grand, imperial, magnificent, unparalleled, are the beggarly epithets which the editors are compelled to use from the deficiency of language. All this is laughable; but it is found, I fuppofe, to introduce a Bible, or a Syftem of Geography, or a Hiftory of England, into the family of fome poor mechanic, who spends fixpence on Saturday for an improving book, which might otherwile be lavished in riot and intemperance.

In the higher ranks of literature, I know not that any peculiar affectation in titles is obferved to prevail. There is, indeed, too much good fenfe in the age to tolerate either arrogance or affectation in a title-page.

The only rule for the regulation of a title is, what common fenfe fuggefts, that it should be concife, as defcriptive of the contents of the book as concifenefs will allow, easy to be pronounced, and eafy to be remembered. A title page may be compared to the portal of an edifice. Who would exhibit the magnificence cf Grecian architecture, the fluted column, and the fculptured capital, at the entrance of a cottage? Pliny, who ridicules the inviting titles, fome of which are already defcribed, concludes with this lively exclamation: At cum intraveris, Dii, Deaque, quam nihil in medio, invenies! But when you shall have accepted the invitation, and have entered in, ye Gods and

Goddeffes, what a mere nothing you will find in the middle!

A title may inveigle the unwary; but thinking men and pofterity will form their judgments folely from the contents; and, if they are valuable, the old adage may be applied to them; "Good wine needs no bufh."

If books of repute have not at prefent pompous titles derived from Greek and Latin, yet public fights and public places abound in them.

Pliny and Gellius would perhaps be a little fevere on Holophuficon, Eidouranion, Microcofm, Lactarium, Adelphi, Rhedarium. It would not, in this learned age, be furprizing to see a barber ftyle himself on the architrave of his peruke warehouse, Phlebotomift, Odontologift, Chiropodist, Pogonologift, and P. C. A. or Profeffor of the Cofmetic Art. It is a little affectation of no confequence; and therefore one need not exclaim with the Satiriit,

-Non poffum ferre, Quirites, Græcam urbem.

Indeed, the love of pretty and well founding names extends to private life, and displays itself at the font of baptifm.

The names of Dorothy, Deborah, Abigail, Bridget, Judith, Barbara, Prudence, Charity, Grace, Obedience, have given way to Carolina, Wilhelmina, Charlotta, Emily, Amelia, and Henrietta. Even the good old English Ann, Mary, and Elizabeth, are elegantly converted into Anna, Maria, and Eliza. This great improvement of national tafte, which is at prefent vifible in the lowest as well as highest class, is doubtless diffused over the kingdom by fentimental novels, where a Deborah or a Bridget, even if fhe were of a degree of beauty, underftanding, and goodness, approaching to angelic, would be-A SHOCKING CREATURE! Such is the power of Names ! And I will agree, that it is very defirable to have a good name; and I hope to fee the Emilies and Henriettas of the prefent day, deferve a good name by exceeding in Virtue and good housewifery, as well as in elegance of tafte, the Deborahs and the Dorothies, the Prudences and the Charities, the Loves and the Graces of our great-grandmothers.

THE Isle of Skie is perhaps fifty miles long, fo much indented by inlets of the fea that there is no part of it removed

from the water more than fix miles. No part that I have feen is plain; you are always climbing or defcending, and every

ftep

tep is upon rock or mire. A walk upon ploughed ground in England is a dance upon carpets compared to the toilfome drudgery of wandering in Skie. There is neither town nor village in the island, nor have I seen any house bat Macleod's, that is not much below your habitation at Brighthelmftone. In the mountains there are ftags and roebucks, but no hares, and few rabbits; nor have I feen any that interested me as a zoologist, except an otter, bigger than I thought an otter could have been.

You are perhaps imagining that I am withdrawn from the gay and the bufy world into regions of peace and pastoral felicity, and am enjoying the reliques of the golden age; that I am furveying nature's magnificence from a mountain, or remarking her minuter beauties on the flowery bank of a winding rivulet; that I am invigorating myfelf in the funfhine, or delighting my imagination with being hidden from the invafion of human evils and human paffions in the darkness of a thicket; that I am bufy in gathering fhells and pebbles on the fore, or contemplative on a rock, from which I look upon the water, and confider how many waves are rolling between me and Streatham.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and inftead of thinking how things may be, to fee them as they are. Here are mountains which I fhould once have climbed, but to climb fteeps is now very laborious, and to defcend them dangerous; and I am now content with knowing, that by fcrambling up a rock, I fhall only fee other rocks, and a wider circuit of barren defolation. Of streams, we have here a fufficient number, but they murmur not upon pebbles, but upon rocks. Of flowers, if Chloris herself were here, I could prefent her only with the bloom of heath. Of lawns and thickets, he must read that would know them, for here is little fun and no thade. On the fea I look from my window, but am not much tempted to the fhore; for ace I came to this ifland, almost every breath of air has been a ftorm, and what is worfe, a ftorm with all its feverity, but without its magnificence; for the fea is here fo broken into channels, that there is not a fufficient volume of water either for lofty furges or a loud roar.

In thefe countries you are not to fuppofe that you fhall find villages or inclofures. The traveller wanders through a naked de

fart, gratified fometimes, but rarely, with the fight of cows, and now and then finds a heap of loose ftones and turf in a cavity between rocks, where a being born with all thofe powers which education expands, and all those fenfations which culture refines, is condemned to fhelter itself from the wind and rain. Philofophers there are who try to make themfelves believe that this life is happy, but they believe it only while they are faying it, and never yet produced conviction in a fingle mind; he, whom want of words or images funk into filence, ftill thought, as he thought before, that privation of pleasure can never please, and that content is not to be much envied, when it has no other principle than ignorance of good.

This gloomy tranquillity, which fome may call fortitude, and others wisdom, was, I believe, for a long time to be very frequently found in thefe dens of poverty: every man was content to live like his neighbours, and never wandering from home, faw no mode of life preferable to his own, except at the houfe of the laird, or the laird's nearest relations, whom he confidered as a fuperior order of beings, to whofe luxuries or honours he had no pretenfions. But the end of this reverence and fubmiflion feems now approaching; the Highlanders have learned that there are countries lefs bleak and barren than their own, where, instead of working for the laird, every man may till his own ground, and eat the produce of his own labour. Great numbers have been induced by this difcovery to go every year for fome time paft to America. Macdonald and Macleod of Skie have loft many tenants and many labourers, but Raaria has not yet been forsaken by a single inhabitant.

Mr. Thrale probably wonders how I live all this time without fending to him for money. Travelling in Scotland is dear enough, dearer in proportion to what the country affords than in England, but refidence in the ifles is unexpenfive. Company is, I think, confidered as a fupply of pleasure, and a relief of that tediouinefs of life which is felt in every place, elegant or rude. Of wine and punch they are very liberal, for they get them cheap; but as there is no custom-house on the land, they can hardly be confidered as fmugglers. Their punch is made without lemons, or any fubftitute.

Their tables are very plentiful; but a very nice man would not be pampered. As they have no meat but as they kill it,

they

they are obliged to live while it lafts upon the fame fleth. They kill a fheep, and fet mutton boiled and roaft on the table together. They have fish both of the fea and of the brooks; but they can hardly conceive that it requires any fauce. To fauce in general they are strangers; now and then butter is melted, but I dare not always take, left I fhould offend by difliking it. Barley-broth is a conftant difh, and is made well in every houfe. A ftranger, if he is prudent, will fecure his fhare, for it is not certain that he will be able to eat any thing elfe.

Their meat being often newly killed is very tough, and as nothing is fufficiently fubdued by the fire, is not calily to be eaten. Carving is here a very laborious employment, for the knives are never whetted. Table-knives are not of long fubfiftence in the Highlands; every man, while arms were a regular part of drefs, had his knife and fork appendant to his dirk. Knives they now lay upon the table, but the handles are apt to fhew that they have been in other hands, and the blades have neither brightnefs nor edge.

Of filver there is no want; and it will lat long, for it is never cleaned. They are a nation just rising from barbarity; long contented with neceffaries, now fomewhat ftudious of convenience, but not yet arrived at delicate difcriminations. Their linen, however, is both clean and fine. Bread, fuch as we mean by that name, I have never seen in the isle of Skie. They have ovens, for they bake their pies, but they never ferment their meal, nor mould a loaf. Cakes of oats and barley are brought to the table, but I believe wheat is referved for strangers. They are commonly too hard for me, and therefore I take potatoes to my meat, and am fure to find them on almoft every table.

They retain fo much of the paftoral life, that fome preparation of milk is commonly one of the dishes both at dinner and fupper. Tea is always drank ac the ufual times; but in the morning the table is polluted with a plate of flices of ftrong cheese. This is peculiar to the Highlands; at Edinburgh there are always honey and fweetmeats on the morning tea-table.

Strong quors they feem to love. Every man, perhaps woman, begins the day with a dram; and the punch is made both at dinner and fupper.

They have neither wood nor coal for fuel, but burn peat or turf in their chimnies. It is dug out of the moors or mofVOL. XIII.

fes, and makes a strong and lafting fire, not always very sweet, and fomewhat apt to fmoke the pot.

The houfes of inferior gentlemen are very fmall, and every room ferves many purpofes In the bed-rooms, perhaps, are laid up ftores of different kinds; and the parlour of the day is a bed-room at night. In the room which I inhabited laft, about fourteen feet fquare, there were three chefts of drawers, a long cheft for larger clothes, two clofet cupboards, and the bed. Their rooms are commonly dirty, of which they feem to have little fenfibility, and if they had more, ckan floors would be difficultly kept, where the firft step from the door is into the dirt. They are very much inclined to carpets, and feldom fail to lay down fomething under their feet, better or worse, as they happen to be furnished.

The Highland drefs, being forbidden by law, is very little used; fometimes it may be feen, but the English traveller is ftruck with nothing so much as the nudité des pies of the common people.

Skie is the greatest ifland, or the greateft but one, among the Hebrides. Of the foil I have already given fome account; it is generally barren, but fome fpots are not wholly unfruitful. Th gardens have apples and pears, cherries, ftrawberries, raiberries, currants, and goofeberries, but all the fruit that I have feen is fmall. They attempt to fow nothing but oats and barley. Oats conftitute the bread corn of the pace. Their harveft is about the beginning of October; and being fo late, is very much subject to disappointments from the rains that follow the equi

nox,

This year has been particularly difaftrous. Their rainy feafon laits from Autumn to Spring. They have foldsm very hard frofts; nor was it ever known that a lake was covered with ice ftrong enough to bear a skater. The fea round them is always open. The fnow fails, but foon melts; only in 1771, they had a cold Spring, in which the island was fo long covered with it, that many beafts, both wild and domeftick, perished, and the whole country was reduced to diftrefs, from which I know not if it is even yet recovered.

The animals here are not remarkably fmall; perhaps they recruit their breed from the main land. The cows are fometimes without horns. The horned and unhorned cattle are not accidental variations, but different fpecies; they will however breed together.

ON his releafement Trenk returned to

Vienna, where he was kept fome weeks

under arreft, from an opinion that he was difordered in his mind. At length, however, he found means to get an audience of the Empress Maria Therefa, who having heard his ftory, took him under her protection, and nominated him to the rank of Major. By accident he went to Spa fome time afterwards along with the celebrated General Laudohn, and was at laft induced to fettle at Arx, where he employed himself in publifhing fome of his writings, and had elfo a principal hand in the Aix Gazette, à periodical paper; which was after fome time prohibited. Befides this, he undertook a traffick of Tokay wine with England, France, and the adjoining countries. In confequence of this mercantile concern, he was led to make feveral travels into thete Countries. By the last journey which he made to London, he loft, according to his own account, a thousand pounds, in a tranfaction with fome Jews, who fwore before Sir John Fielding that they had paid him for a quantity of wine to that amount, though he had, in fact, never received the money from them. On this occafion he burfts out into feveral very illiberal and unwarrantable reflections on English juftice, and inveighs in the most abusive terms against the nation at large; as if, because he had been fwindled (fappofing the cafe to have happened as he fates it) by a pack of fraudulent perjured Jews, he were entitled to treat with fourrility a whole kingdom! But this is an offence to which he feems very prone. Whenever he receives a particula injury, he feldom fails of running into general abuse. With what little juftice fuch fort of vindictive attacks are made, every difcerning reader will at once perceive *.

In confequence of the lofs above-mentioned he now gave up his wine trade; and after fome time returned again to Vienna, purchafing with the gainings that ftill remain d, a landed estate in the Austrian don inions; where he now refides, dedicating, as he fays, his time to agricultural pui fuits and the occafional employment of his pen,

This is pretty nearly the fubftance of the narrative contained in his fecond volume.

The third and laft gives an account of his journey to Berlin on the death of Frederick the late King; by whofe fucceffor, Frederick William, the reigning Monarch. he was gracionfly received; and was, in confideration of the hardships he had fuffered under the former reign, prefented with a commiffion for one of his fons, who is in confequence in the Pruffian fervice, with the promise of promotion according to his deferts, Another of his fons is in the Imperial fervice.

The remainder of the third volume confifts of memoirs of the life of his Hungarian relation, Francis Trenk, and of Lieutenant Schell, the perfon who accompanied him in his efcape from his firtt imprisonment at Glatz. Subjoined to thefe are alfo a few additions and explications concerning the contents of the former volumes, with a reply to fome of the reviewers of his book-of which the two first volumes are dedicated in a curious preface," To the Ghost of Frederick in the Elyfian fields" -a dedication in which he accufes the late Monarch of having suffered himself to be deceived concern. ing his (Trenk's) character, actions, and intentions, and of having perfecuted him without allowing him an opportunity to convince him of his error. This vindication, which was not allowed him during the King's life, he flates as the principal object of thefe Memoirs, which he is perfuaded will fhew to the world, and, what is of more importance, to his friends and family, that he never merited to be ftigmatifed with the name, much lefs to be punished in the manner of a traitor. The third volume is infcribed in a poetical dedication to the prefent Monarch, Frederick William. Several mifcellaneous articles, and particularly fome anecdotes concerning the Courts of Pêterfburgh and Berlin, we are obliged to pass over for want of time; and we must now conclude our account of this ftrange and irregu lar work with obferving, that the character to be drawn from it of the Author is, that paffions to strong for reafon, and a degree of boldness incompatible with prudence, pro

duced

into actions capable of exciting fufpicions without any real evil intentions. The laft remark we have to make is, that he is intolerably given to Egolim. Some vanity is certainly allowable to one who has struggled fo manfully against adverty; but he is not intitled on this account to boast, in alinoft every page, of his noble defcent, his quick capacity, and his perfonal bravery. The frequent mention of thefe can only ferve to make the reader fufpect the force of his judgement.

APRIL 25.

MRS. WELLS, to obtain an audience at

her benefit, after much parade and previous puffing, exhibited imitations of feveral actreffes of both Theatres. Of fome the refemblance was fufficiently ftrong, but of others very faint. It is a fpecies of entertainment of little value when given in the best manner, and deferves no encouragement. Thefe imitations were introduced with the following addrefs, written by Miles Peter Andrews, esq.

The INTRODUCTORY LINES, Spoken by MRS. WELLS, before her IMl

TATIONS, April 25th.

Written by M. P. ANDREWS, Efq. 'TIS an old faying, as old Grey-heards tell, "Give folks an inch, they'll furely take an ell."

ALL love encroachment-Mark the fimple

Squire ;

But hold-at first, we'll mark a little higherSee his proud LORDSHIP, or his prouder

GRACE,

With courtly cringe, foliciting a place; Yet e'er one half-year's income's fairly reckon'd,

He "boos" no more; he then demands a fecond.

Next trace the progress of the Country Vicar,
Fond of good cheer, and orthodox good liquor;
Give him his Roaft-Beef Dinner every Sunday,
'Tis odds, but he walks in again-on Monday.
The CITY Dame, all dizen'd out fo gay,
Says, 66
Spouse, fuppofe we fets up our Pos-
Shay?"
The fond good Man, to please his cumbrous
Fair,

Adds a nag more, and fwaps the one-horfe

chair;

Now cramm'd with Nurfe, and Child, and many a bundle,

They ned to old acquaintance, as they trundle;

And cry, while chuckling o'er the joys of Marriage,

"How was genteel it is to keep one's Carriage!"

Yet, just to prove that Females may encroach, E'er the Chaife runs a mouth, Ma'am wants a Coach!

So I, the Weed of many a former hour, Now feem intent on copying every flow'r; And as the early blossom met your pardon, The foaring plant would rival all the garden : But thould my mimic powers not picture right The varied roles I attempt to-night; Be your indulgence, with your judgment shewn,

Theirs be the Merit-the Defe& MY OWN.

I'll fated FAIR! the tears your pity gave, Might fwell the current of the wat❜ry Grave 1

26. Mr. Powell from Bath appeared at Covent-Garden, and performed Sir Hector Strangeways in the Romance of An Hour, for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard. This part, originally performed by Mr. Shuter, requires an abler reprefentative than Mr. Powell, Some allowance, however, is to be made for a first appearance on a new stage.

Inchbald, was acted for the first time at Co29. Animal Magnetism, a farce by Mrs. vent-Garden. The characters as follow: Doctor Mr. Quick Mr. Pope Mr. Edwin

Marquis de Lancy
La Fleur, his fervant,
Bub 2