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Harwood for information, feems to have had but a flight acquaintance with the writers of antiquity. Poffibly, Mr. Urban, in this age of frivolifm, there may be many fuperficial geniu fes, who may wish to know fomething more about the genealogy of Wisdom, than the learned Dr. has communicated. You will therefore, I hope, favour them with the foregoing intelligence for their edification; as they may not always be fo happy as to meet with "an elderly man in a rusty black coat, and an old 'white wig," who will condefcend to take a hatchet, and open a fcull, that is almost impenetrable.

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

J. R--N.

York, May 24.
N the margin of an old Bible, that

Londone.

In another part of the Bible there is an earlier portrait of himself fimilar to the above, and prefaced in the following manner :

"1639, at Canterbury city

"Jn Milton, fon of Jn° Milton, born in Oxford, late of Chrift College, Cantabridd. This year of very dreadful commotion, and 1 weene will enfue murderous times of con

Alicting fight."

Then follows a flight fketch fomewhat like that in fig. 6; with

66

1639-J. Milton, A.M."

I fhall not prefume to make any commentary on this fubject, being now ad dreffing myfelf to one who is fo much more able to do it than myself. I have

I was once in the poffeffion of MIL- only to add, that, from every appear

TON, and is now the property of a refpectable clergyman in this county, are feveral notes in MS. which in the courfe of the laft fummer I was indulged with a fight of; and now fend you a copy of fome which appeared to me the most remarkable.

On II. Maccab. i. 19:

"When our fathers were led into Perfia, the priests, that were then devout, took the fire of the altar privily, and hid it in a hollow place of a pit without water, where they kept it fure, fo that the place was unknown to all men.'

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He obferves,

ance, there is reafon to believe them
H. B. PEACOCK.
genuine manufcripts of Milton.

Yours, &c.

Fig. 7. is a ring found near Croyland, and now in the poffeffion of Mr. Jennings, ironmonger, of Spalding.

graphical Notes regarding them. A Lift of Living English Poets, with Bio-, (Continued from p. 504.)

THE

HE Rev. Richard Polwbele, of Kenton, near Exeter, who, I prefume, is of an ancient Cornish family, is dif tinguished for his elegant fancy, his

"Perhaps the reafon why the Perfians great claffical learning, and the variety

worship fire to this day."

On 1. Maccab. xiv. 6.

"Now when it was heard at Rome, and as far as Sparta, that Jonathan was dead, they were very forry."

He obferves,

"When that day of death fhall come,
Then fhall nightly fhades prevaile;
Soone shall love and mufick faile,
Soone the fresh turfe's tender blade
Shall flourish on my fleeping fhade.”

Then follows a roughly-fcratched
picture of himself, fomewhat like the
very hafty sketch in pl. 111. fig. 5; at
top of which is written "J. Miltonius,
M. A. C. Coll." and at bottom, "My
Self, 1640,"

On the oppofite fide is written the following in a different hand:

"Mr. Hartlibe to Mr. Miltone fendeth the 12 booke of the Greciane volumes, and is obliged to hime

Obre 2nd

* See p. 522.

of his acquirements. He has tranßated Theocritus; is author of The English Orator, has written Sonnets, which he tures from Nature, and has produced published 1785, under the title of Pic Volume of Sermons, befides probably other things. He has now undertaken to write The Hiftory of the County of Devon, and though, perhaps, his know ledge of that kind might not be, when he engaged in it, very copious, or minute; yet the application of minds fo thing that in my opinion can throw a accomplished to fuch fubjects is the only grace upon them; and there is no reafon to doubt, that, from his pervading talents and indefatigable application, he will do the undertaking ample justice.

William Cowper, Elq. of the Inner Temple, Barrifter at Law (grandson of Spencer Cowper, the Judge, brother of the Chancellor), was educated at Weftminfter-School, and Ben'et College, Cambridge, and having fome years finee retired from the study of the law,

as

as probably uncongenial with his turn of mind, fpent his time in the quiet of a country retirement, I believe, with his friend, Mr. Unwin, fince deceased, when, in 1785, "he burft" at once "into" a "fudden blaze" by the publication of his Tafk, a poem fo beautiful, fo true an exemplification of the force of that divine art, that all language fails me, when I attempt to do it juftice. Admiration was the greater, because a volume of his poems, published a year or two before, though poffeffing merit of a different fpecies, fhewed no traces of the fire, the rich fancy, the moral pathos of this latter production. Opinions differ about the new Tranflation of Homer by this true poet; but, as I am one of those who judge of a compofition rather by its general fafcination than an examination of its parts, and think a work excellent in proportion as it hurries me on by its powers of interefting, I am delighted with Cowper, becaufe I cannot take him up without wishing to read him through; whereas I could never, by any exertion, get through one Book of the Tranflation of Pope.

Henry James Pye, Efq. (the reprefentative of an ancient family feated at Faringdon in Berkshire, which county he long reprefented in Parliament, and which paternal feat he fold, in 1788, to Mr. Hallett of Cannons), has long been known for his poetical publications, and fucceeded, in 1790, the late lamented Laureat, Tom Warton, in his office. His Farringdon Hill, Progress of Refine ment, &c. are well known. Most amiable in private life, and univerfally beloved in his own county, it is generally lamented, that he should find it expedient to retire from the fituation that

himself and his ancestors had long held

with fuch credit in Berkshire.

French Laurence, LL.D. a native of Bristol, and now one of the Counsel for the Managers in the Impeachment of Mr. Haftings, was educated, firft, I think, at Winchefter-school, and afterwards at Corpus Chrifti College, Oxford, of which he was a fcholar, and diftinguished there for his genius and his indolence. He was one of the reputed authors of the Rolliad, and wrote Tome fweet Sonnets, &c. which are inferted anonymously in the 4fylum for Fugitive Pieces.

Jofeph Richardfon, Efq. Barrister at Law, author of the new and elegant Comedy of The Fugitige, was be

bridge, and is supposed to be one of the lieve, educated at Trinity College, Cam conftellation of antiminifterial wits, who produced the Rolliad, &c.

Sheridan, ought to be mentioned among Thomas Tickell, Efq. as well as Mr. this fet; but they have been so much talked of in this line, that few words cal writers are too often the meteors of are neceffary regarding them. Politia day.

and Ariofto, a full account has lately Of John Hoole, the tranflator of Taffo been given in the European Magazine. His fon, the Rev. Richard Hoole, LL.B. author of The Curate, a poem, and the Romance of Arthur, a poem, in feveral books, 1789, feems to be a more original writer.

tive of Kent, and educated at Queen's Samuel Egerton Brydges, Efq. a na College, Cambridge, and the Middle Temple, published in March, 1785, at the age of 22, a Collection of Sonnets and other Poems, of which an account may be seen in your vol. LV.

The Rev. James Hurdis, curate of Burrab, in Suffex, is the author of The Village Curate, Adriano, or the Firf of June, and other poems.

The Rev. George Crabbe, chaplain to the late of Duke of Rutland, is author of the Library; the Newspaper, the Village, &c. all of the familiar kind, and all of peculiar excellence. He has alfo given a pleafing fpecimen of his profe, in the "Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir," which forms a part of Mr. Nichols's Leicestershire Collections. Mr. Crabbe is now rector of Mufton in that county. (To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN,

Prince's freet, Weflmin

THE lift of publications relative to fter, July 4.

the Roman Catholicks, p. 119, and the supplement to it, p. 494, induce me to requeft the favour of you, or fome of your learned correfpondents, to give an accurate lift of the feveral publications upon the fubject of the Slavetrade, from the first starting the subject to this moment, when it seems nearly hunted down.

To an inquifitive and reflecting man, whom narrow circumstances, and frequently a diftant refidence from the metropolis, keeps far remote from the bufy fcenes of life, nothing can be more agreeable than to be informed where he may glean a little knowledge of what has been said or done by others, upon

occafions

occafions, which have fomehow or other awakened his half-fleeping! affections to fociety. Some very import ant occafions have lately awakened mine; and now, roufed from the lethargy of unthinking indifference, I fhould like to know where to get the fullest lift of publications refpecting the revolutions in France, Poland, and the Low Countries; upon the question between the Eftablished Church and the Diffenters on the repeal of the Teft Act; and other fubjects connected with it by the difputants, though certainly diftinct from it, moft particularly upon the reform or alteration of our Liturgy. Such communications would render your Magazine most compleatly, what it is in a very great measure, a valuable repofitory of curious, philofophical, and hiftorical hints. RUS IN URBE.

Go

TWO MONTHS TOUR IN SCOTLAND. (Continued from p. 523.) OWRIE HOUSE is now convert ed into barracks; the most interefting apartments, however, ftill retain their antient form; and the very closet, a ftraight and fhallow one, in a mean chamber, is fhewn to ftrangers, where the tremendous man in armour flood concealed.

From a terrace behind the houfe, and bordering upon the Tay, is a commanding view of an elegant ftone bridge, confifting of nine ample arches, then lately thrown across that river; beyond which, at about two miles distance, lies Scone, of old the only legal place of inveftiture and coronation to the kings of Scotland.

From Perth, through the field of Loncarty, famous for the atchievements of the gallant Ruftic Hay, and through a diftrict exhibiting no defpicable specimens of cultivation, the traveller advances towards the Highlands, now beginning awfully to rife before him. It was in vain that we caft many a defiring look towards Dunfinane; and, though it was pretended to be pointed out to us, it remains a doubt whether it could be difcerned at all from any part of the track we were purfuing. Paffing through a long plantation of Scotch firs, the face of the country affumes a ruder air, whilst the vaft chain of the Grampian mountains, ftretching far away towards the left, frown folemnly as they retire.

Defcending gradually down a narrow vaje, a fmall village points out the fpot GENT. MAG. July, 1792.

where Birnam wood once flourished. It flourishes no more; whilst a few birches, thinly fpread along the hill-fide, feem to tell the paffenger, that it has not even yet recovered its exertions to confound the hopes "bove wifdom, grace, and fear," and to render "thriftlefs the vaulting ambition" of the hag-ridden and murderous Macbeth. All here was claffic ground; and we were almost equally furprized and pleafed to find the humbleft inmate of the village qualified to enter into the fpirit of our questions upon that fubject, which, in fuch a fi tuation, would be the most naturally and powerfully in poffeffion of our minds.

And be it here allowed me to remark the admirable felicity and force of Shakspeare's genius, feizing on the fimple fuggeftion (as related by Buchanan) of a dream, to build on it that bold and moft dramatic imperfonification of the Weird Sifters, with all its appropriate machinery of fpells and charms, to delude Macbeth to their infernal purpose, by predictions of his advancement to the throne. An inferior mind, following the hiftoric narrative, would have been content to have conveyed the occurrence to an audience through the medium of polished declamation. There is, however, moft certainly, a time for all things; and it is hazarding perhaps but little to affert, that amidst the prefent almoft general diffufion of letters, and the faftidioufnefs of modern criticifm, not even the genius of our inimitable Bard would obtain for the witchfcenes of Macbeth a patient hearing, were they now for the first time to be produced upon the stage.

(To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN,

Jaly is. THE following account of an im provement in the management of bees, which is ftrongly recommended by thofe who have put it in practice, may not be unacceptable to fome of your readers.

The improvement is that of having double fceps, the one on the top of the other. When the lower fcep is filled with honey, it is to be removed after the bees are admitted (through a passage which is made to be opened) into the upper fcep; into this fcep food must be put, and the bees will remain there, and go on with their work in it. When it is filled with honey, the former fcep (with food in it) may be replaced, an

the

the bees again admitted into it The full fcep is then to be taken away. This change of the feeps must always be made abour Midfummer; and, by thus annually removing the full one, more honey will be collected than is ufual, and the bees will not be destroyed.

Mr. URBAN,

A$

K. K.

June 20. S fome answer to your correfpond ent, who enquires, p. 424, concerning the exportation of English fheep to Spain, I beg.leave to inform him, that Rapin cenfures Edward IV. for improving the quality of the Sp.nifh wool by a prefent of theep to the King of Arragon; but Mr. Swinburne is of opinion that our Edward III. was the monarch who made this important prefent. Travels in Sicily, vol. I. p. 141. The fame ingenious and learned traveller thinks that the Tarentine wool, of which he gives an accurate defcription, owes fome of its goodness to English fheep. Ib. p. 229. But the truth of this opinion feems to be rather difputable, the wool of Tarentum being efleemed by the antients of the very firft excellence, as appears, among many other authorities, from Columella, lib. II.; and from that law mentioned by Quin tilian (lib. VII. cap. VIII.), which made it penal to export heep from their territory. A law which explains that paffage of Petronius, where, speaking of Trinaldico, he fays, parum illi bona iana nafcebatur, arietes a Tarento emit;& eos curavit in gregem, p. 36, and which has been imitated in this country by Stat. 3 Hen. VI. c. 2. And though Mr. Barrington (Obf. anc. Stat. p. 353) thinks that it never was a practice to export live sheep; yet I find that in 1566, Dec. 23. a bill against carrying over the sea, rams, lambs, or fheep, being alive, was read prima vice in the Houfe of Lords." D'Ewes's Journals, p. 112.

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To the engravings fuggefted by Rudder to your correfpondent I will add the following:-In p. 24 of his Hiftory of Gloucefter he tells us, that, at the Cotfwould fports, a lord and lady of the games are elected, that they have their fteward, mace bearer with a filken mace decorated with ribbons and filled with fpices, their page, their jefter in his motley coat, &c.; and that all these figures are curiously fculptured in antient carving on the North wall of Cirencester church. An accurate engraving of this carving would, I think, furnith a very projer and entertain.ng_ornament for

your Magazine, and might serve to illuftrate Mr. Tollet's learned Memoir, printed in the late editions of Shakfpeare, on the reprefentation of the May Games in his painted window.SCIOLUS.

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Mr. URBAN, Goodman's Fields, June23. IN p. 481. under the name of the Rev. Archdeacon Sharp, it is faid, that in right of his archdeaconry he was rector of Hexham, in Northumberland. I conceive that there are feveral mistakes in this affertion 1. The archdeacon of Northumberland is an ecclefiaftical officer appointed by the B fhop of Durbam; but Hexham has nothing to do with the diocefe of Du bam, it being a peculiar of York. 2. The great tithes of Hexham belong to Sir Thomas Blackett (late Wentworth), the lord of the manor, who, as impropriator, is ftyled lay redor; he repairs the chancel of the church, and appoints the curate 3. IF you look into Lloyd's Thefaurus, you will find "archidiacon' Northumbr' cum R. Howic." I can find no other mention in Lloyd of Howic; there is a lace called Howick, North-east of Alnwick. Here, however, the mistake, we may suppose, originated; though he must be a very careless reader who confounds the names of thefe two places, which have but one letter common to both.

The names of Hexham and Sharp have been connected in another way before now. I am in poffeffion of a copy of a MS account of Hexham, drawn up by the late Dr. Sharp's father, who was alfo archdeacon of Northumberland, It confifts of extracts from Prior Richard's Hiftory of Hexham, with copious notes; and was written for the information of a lady, now dead, who lived there, and with whofe family Dr. Sharp the elder was intimate.

I should efteem it a very particular favour if any of your readers, who may have the book, will inform me whether mention be made of Hexham in the Inlandic MS. intituled Nordymza, tranflated by Di. Thorkelin; which gives an hiftory of the invafions of the Danes, and their devaftations in Northumberland.

Mr. URBAN,

D. N.

July 2.

P. 207, col. I, l. 4, for “reddafque" read "reddarque."

Ib. col. 2, 1.44, 45, erafe the colon which follows" Lichfield," and place it after "70." THE

HE Editor of the Catalogue of unnoticed portraits from the Oxford Almanacks,

Almanacks, p. 207, having perused with fufficient attention the letter in p. 313 of your Magazine for April (whofe pompous fignature, Vindex, reminds him of the owl tricked out in eagle's feathers), was baffled in his hopes of finding there some errata to have added to the above, or any other fpecies of information, than that the gentleman is deplorably out of humour, but perfectly harmless and inoffenfive. You may probably be troubled at some future lefure hour with a fequel to that lift, unlefs it be fhewn upon what grounds the portraits are loaded with the epithets fictitious, not authentic, undeferving of regard." Without pretending to the fmallest degree of difcernment in the Fine Arts, the perfon who gleaned up thole notes cannot avoid laying much firefs on Vertue, the engraver, being celebrated for his." fcrupulous veracity" by fo great an encourager and judge of them as Mr. Walpole, now Earl of Or

ford. Many of the portraits in queftion (taken from originals preferved in the Bodleian gallery, or tranfmitted as heirloons, like thofe at Trinity, to fucceeding prefidents of the college) have vouchers for their authenticity, wanted by feveral articles in Mr Granger's Biographical Hiftory, which can be traced no farther than to their having appeared as frontifpieces to books frequently published after their author's death. The compiler of Dr. Ducarel's lift pays equal regard to the important information relative to his being barked at by Cerberus's triple heads, with which D. H. follows clofe on the heels of Vindex in p. 317. Few will charge him with having immoderately puffed off the motley groupe prefented to your readers. But furely refemblances of men, who occupied a certain rank in the State, or in the Church, though they may have been only obfcure under-fecretaries, or illite rate Irish bithops, are just as well worth preferving as thofe of the celebrated Mother Loufe, or Jacob Hall, the rope dancer. Yours, &c. L. L. P.S. July 5. All courtefies from an opponent, be they great or fmall, demand immediate acknowledgement. The "cura pofteriores" of Vindex, in p. 527 of your laft Magazine, came to hand but yesterday. His reference to Wood calls for the following additions to what was faid of Dr. Bernard Adams in March; he became fchoiar of Trinity in 1583, aged 27. With Limerick he kept Killenora (now a make-weight

to Kilaloe) from 1606 to 1617, when he voluntarily refigned it. After having been twenty-one years Bishop of Limerick, he died in 1625, aged 59. Over and above thefe meagre dates, and his laying out money in repairs and pious ufes, if it be requifite to fay any thing of his difpofition, we must infer that mufick was his grand hobby-horse, from its being recorded that he embel lifhed Limerick cathedral with "organs," in the plural number. Hence we are led to hope that all his vifitations went off as harmoniously as the illuftrious Garagantna's march, when he rode triumphant from Paris with the whole chime of bells plucked from the fleeple at Nôtre Dame, and fastened round his horie's neck. L. L.

Dr. HARRINGTON's Reflexions on Pblogifton, or fixed Fire. (Continued from p 500 *.)

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addition to the proofs which I have given in my different publications, that the body which Stahl, Scheele, Dr. Priestley, &c. call Phlogiston, is fixed fire, and not an element fui generis, I fhall observe,

That, by expofing iron to the nitrous, acid, an active fermentation, and a great generation of nitrous air, is produced, and the iron is reduced to a calx. If iron and water are exposed to atmo fpheric air, the iron will be reduced to a calx, the pure part of the air will be imbibed by the calx, and an oily feum will fwim upon the water. This was the refult of Mr. Schecle's experiment; who fays, "pure water only can produce inflammable air from iron; it is a fcum which constantly appears on the furface of the water after it had food over filings for fome weeks, and has been formewhat ftirred." If this oil is carefully feparated from the water, it will, with the nitrous acid, form pitrous air; or, if applied to the calx of the iron, the iron will be reduced, and in its reduction will part with the air it hd imbibed from the atmosphere, not in the ftate of pure, but of fixed, air. This I have already fully explained in my for. mer publications. Hence it appears that it is an oily body which forms the nitrous air, and the earth of the metal into its metallic fplendour. If heat is applied to this oily body, it will form inflammable air, and, if burned a the

* P. 499, col. I, 1. 23, tor promifing lead premifing. flat

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