352 Rowley's Poems.--Danger of the Theological Repository. dyghte, Ynn daifeyd mantells is the mountaynes [wythe the dewe, The nethe fpringe cowefleps bendethe The trees enlefede yntee heavenne ftrayghte, Whanne gentle wyndes doe blowe the wheftlynge dynne is bryghte. The evenynge commes, and brynges the dewe alonge, The roddie welkynne fheeneth to the eyne, Arounde the ale-ftake mynftrells fynge the fong, [twynne; Yonge ivie rounde the door-poffe do enI laie me on the graffe; yette to mie wylle Albeytte alle is fayre, there lackethe fomethynge ftylle. Third Mynftrell. Whanne Autumnne blieke and fonne brente doe appere, With his goulde honde guylteynge the falleynge lefe, Lyere, Bryngeyne oppe Wynterre to folfylle the Beerynge uponne bys backe the riped thefe, Whanne at the hyls wythe woddie* fede · ys whyte, Whanne levynne fyres, and lennes de mete from farre the fyghte. Whanne the fayre apple, rudde as evenskie, (grounde, Doe bende the tree unto the fructyle Whanne joicie peres, and berries of blacke [rounde, Doe daunce in ayre, and cal the eyne aThanne, bee the even foule, or even fayre, Meethynckes mie hartys joie ys fteyned with fomme care. die 2. Dr. PERCY to Dr. DUCAREL. Northumberland Houfe, Jan. 13, 1772. Dr. Percy prefents his best respects to Dr. Ducarel, and is extremely obliged to him for a fight of the curious letter and fpecimen with which he favoured him. Dr. P. has feen many former fpecimens of the fame verfes, and heard a great deal of the hiftory of the difcovery; which, when he has the pleafure to fee Dr. Ducarel, he will relate at large at prefent he can only fay, that their genuineness is rather doubted till the original MS. can be produced. 3. Mr. BRICKDALE to Dr. DUCAREL. Clifton, near Brifol, Mar. 11, 1772. Sir, In confequence of the converfation I had the pleasure of having with you laft week, I wrote to my friend Mr. Barrett, who on Saturday night laft fent the inclofed under cover to me to London: Word, a plant much cultivated in the neighbourhood of Brifiol, but, as I told you I thould, I had left London on Saturday. It came back to me to-day, and I take the firft opportunity of returning it to you. I shall be very happy if I am inftrumental in doing a favour to the public, by introducing a correfpondence between two perfons fo capable of producing matter to know that this comes to your hands. oblige them with. I fhall be glad to My attorney has given me the opinion you furnished him with relative to the appropriation of the church of WeftHarptry. I am, Sir, your most humble fervant, MATTY BRICKDALE. BELIEVING you to be a true friend to our divine faith, I make no doubt but that you will readily admit into your valuable publication a few observations upon a matter of great importance.. You have doubtless obferved, Sir, with much pain and concern, the revival of a work, intituled, "The Theological Repofitory," under the direction of the famous Dr. Priefley. A fourth volume is compleated, and confiderable progrefs is made in a fifth. The former volumes of this work were celebrated for their fingular boldnefs, and their undisguised lent church. oppofition to the doctrines of our excel One would have thought, Sir, that they would have gone no further. But in this revived part they become ftill more daring. Truths, held facred by the whole Chriftian world, are now openly oppofed. Not contented with following other Socinian authors, in denying the Deity of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, his vicarious facrifice, and the imputation of his righteousness to the fallen fons of Adom-not contented with attacking the bulwarks of our faith, they have proceeded to pull down the doctrine of the miraculous conception of the Son of God. Several writers in this work are joining hand-in-hand in demolishing thefe articles of our creed, upon the fpecious pretence of freeing Chriflianity from its incumbrances, and of opening a wider door to thofe unbelievers, who, they fay, cannot receive the Gofpel whilft it is. loaded with fuch infurmountable difficulties. The arguments of these writers, it is certain, have had alarming effects upon the minds of many. I oblerve there is a plaufibility in them, which is calculated to have a great impreflion upon fome perlons. Monumental Infcriptions at Henley and Cheltenham. perfons. I cannot, therefore, but with that much attention fhould be speedily paid to this matter by men of learning and abilities. Every one who has any refpect for the articles of our holy church, muft think it his duty to offer to the . public what he can, before the bad im preffions made by this work become more extenfive and fatal. And furely you, Sir, will deferve the hearty thanks of every friend to our Eftablished Religion, by giving a place in your useful Magazine to this letter. Yours, &c. JEREMIAH BROWN. P. S. Page 214. Your old and valuable correfpondent fuggefts, very candidly, a poetical licence as an answer to the cenfure paffed by A. B. p. 5. But Bp. Lowth, who has in his English Grammar quoted feveral inftances from Pope, &c. of fuch a construction, styles it a great impropriety." SCRUTATOR. MR. URBAN, May 17. Po OLYXENA cannot have an higher idea of my abilities as a mechanic than I have of his as a logician. It is impoffible to refift the force of his argu. ments; and, in excufe for the Diffenters of Henley, I can only plead, that they follow, though at an humble distance, the example fet them by their churchgoing brethren for thefe, without more regard to decency than the Diffenters fhew, bury their dead in the "tableyard," not indeed of a "paltry alehouse," but of the principal inn of the town. If you doubt what I say, I refer you, Mr. Urban, to your correfpondent Polyxena, who will prove it, by informing you, that "the walls of the church are on one fide, the walls of the Red Lion Inn on the other fide" of the church-yard at Henley. But, to have done with this trifling, is it poffible to believe that any difrefpect was meant, or to conceive that any is fhewn, to Mr. Gainsborough's memory, by depofiting his remains clofe to the walls of his meeting-houfe, and in the fame grave in which, not long before, he had himself caused to be laid the mortal part of that wife, whom, according to Polyxena's account (and I doubt not the truth of it), he loved fo well, as to injure his health by his unremitted and long-continued attendance on her? I ask any impartial perfon, could a more decent, a more proper place of interment have been found for him? Surely not. Directly over the fpot where this fond couple lie, and against the wall of the meeting, on a plain 363 white marble flab, is the following infcription: To the memory of Alfo the above 23 Aug. 1776. Yours, &c. NO DISSENTER. Mr. URBAN, May 2. INCheltenham church is the followlars of which naturally excite emotions ing epitaph, the concluding particuof pity and horror: "To the memory of Katharine, the wife of William P. A. A'Court, of Heaterbury, in the county of Wilts, efq. who departed this life on the 23d of September, 1775, in the 32d year of her age. The ftriétest honour and virtue, elegance of manners, integrity of heart, and delicacy of fentiment, endeared her to a felect circle of friends and acquaintance. She was cherished as an only infancy by a tender hotband, in whofe arms child by an indulgent father; beloved from the died an unnatural death, effected by poi fon, adminiftered by the hands of a cruellywicked livery-fervant, whofe refentment at being detected in theft prompted him to per petrate this horrid and execrable crime." Monumental infcriptions may veil, but they cannot obliterate truth. This epitaph is an inftance of notorious mifreprefentation. I have been informed, that Mrs. A'Court's real difpofition was very contradictory to the above panegyrick. She was remarkable not only for feverity, but cruelty, to her fervants. She frequently ufed to tear the hair, and beat the man who had recourfe to this barbarous mode of revenge. In the courfe of the trial he protefted his innocence, and hinted that he was not the only abettor of the crime for which he was condemned to fuffer. Human nature starts, back from the contemplation of an Iago or a Zanga. The livery. fervant, although ftigmatized with the perpetration of fo horrid a deed, ought not to be ranked with thofe fiends of revenge. However diabolical his conduct, impartiality demands that it should not be represented in the black eft colours. He was a villain, but not without fuch provocation as truth, while it records his crime, is induftrious to difcover and divulge, Yours, &c. PHILALETHES. MR. 364 Dr. Johnson's Cenfures on Harris's Dedication cenfured. MR. URBAN, May 18. I BEG leave to record a botanical fact, of the fame nature with thofe mentioned in your entertaining MifcelJany concerning the digitalis purpureus of Linnæus, and the fymbrium iris, that Ray tells us came up in great abundance on the ruins after the fire of London, and then difappeared. On breaking up fome ground about three years ago clofe to my houfe, there appeared feveral fpecimens within a small fpace, 30 feet fquare, of a plant, which provedon examination to be braffica orien salis. I looked eagerly for it again the next year in the fame place where it had appeared before, but never could fee it again, though the greatest part was fuffered to feed, and die down unremoved. Yours, &c. SUBOBELISK. Mr. URBAN, May 19. ALTHOUGH ne quid eft nimis in regard to Dr. Johnfon, I am induced to trouble you with the follow ing, on a motive of juftice. The Dr's cenfures and executions are, for the moft part, general, like his declaring Mr. Harris a coxcomb. But, in affirming that there are fix grammatical miftakes in his fhort dedication of Her mes, he has luckily, by this particular criticism, afforded an opportunity of being brought to the teft. I apprehend you will not think it much to tranfcribe the dedication; whereby the reader may at once judge for himfelf, whether indeed Mr. Harris's Grammar is of any value at all; as, if the affertion is true, moft perfons will prefume that it is not, and that the author will, ere long, refemble Alcandrumque, Haliumque, Noemonaque, Prytanimque f. time to cultivate. With regard to myfelf, if what I have written be the fruits of that fecurity and leifure, obtained by living under a mild and free government, To whom for this am I more indebted than to your Lordship, whether I confider you as a legiflator, or as a magistrate, the first both in dignity and reputation? Permit me, therefore, thus publicly to affure your Lordfhip, that, with the greatest gratitude and refpect, I am, my Lord, your Lordship's moft obliged and moft obedient humble fervant, "JAMES HARRIS." I am aware that any philological contention with the mighty Johnson is like taking a bull by the horns: yet Mr. Harris himself is not less than a goat in that walk, and is ftrongly withal backed by Dr. Lowth. I will, therefore, notwithstanding a flip of my own in my last, venture to pronounce dogmatically alfo, that there is not one that can be termed a grammatical mistake in this dedication. Indeed its might have been apoftrophized; but that does not feem neceffary, as that pronoun is never used plurally and farther might have been further; but, befides that further is a verb, I have always deemed farther the natural comparative of far: and be might have been is, but if precedes : publicly alfo might have been publickly, which the author knew very well, but that the ufage was otherwife. : Because thofe of a trade are never to agree, is it right that a perfon, having obtained, by whatever means, an af cendency in critical reputation, should thus wantonly blaft at random that of an accurate and laborious investigator? For my part, on reading Mrs. Piozzi's words, Dr. Johnfon was "good beyond the imitation of perishable beings," it occurred to me that the alluded to a certain text of scripture. The conftituents of this giant may be fummed up in ftrong fenfe and imagination, and common fcholarship, I mean common in kind. In eccentric learning he is not to be mentioned; and Dr. Priestley, even with his heterodox, in knowledge and fcience not heard of. ties, furely deferves the honour of bepernicious grammar, and rival abfurdiing deemed an equal prodigy with Pope faid of his paintings, has the ProJohnfon. Mr. Botwell, however, as teftant excufe, that his idol was like nothing in heaven, in earth, or in the waters under the earth. T. Mr. Literary Enquiries from Berlin, and the Middle Temple. 365 "Mon exemplaire eft in octavo, de 174 pages. Chaque livre des fix, qu'annonce le titre, eft fubdivifé en plufieurs chapitres. Le tout eft bati fur les principes de Herbert de Cherbury, & tend à établir la fuffifance de la reli gion naturelle aux depens de la revela tion. Dans le livre AAA, ou l'auteur examine les religions prétenduës revelées, il parle, au chap. 3me, de la religion Chretienne, à laquelle il donne la préference fur la Judaïque à caufe de fon utilité plus univerfelle, mais dont il veut faire voir en même tems la fauffeté, en expofant les dogmes abfurdes, & les abus des fectes particulieres, & furtout du Papifme, qu'il confond perpetuellement avec le Chriftianifme. "On voudroit favoir, s'il existe en effet un tel livre imprimé; ce qui ne feroit nulle part faifé à rechercher qu'en Grande Bretagne. Plufieurs litteratures Allemands, très d'ailleurs à ces fortes d'ouvrages, n'ont pû trouver ancienne mention de celui-ci, ni dans les journaux, ni dans les catalogues de bibliotheques, ni dans les citations de quelque autre livre. Le Gentleman's Magazine feroit bien propre pour y donner là-deffus quelque information fatis faifante. J. S." the works of Secundus. Whoever the tranflator might be, he was no mean poet; and living at a period when fuch a conftellation of learned lumina ries enlightened our country, renders the research a matter of fome curiofity. A friend of mine has a copy of this tranflation of the Bafia, elegantly bound in Morocco, and gilt: in a blank leaf is written, seemingly in Mr. Pope's own hand (for it correfponds with his writing in fome of his MSS. which I have feen)," Alexander Pope, the gift of J. Brydges." It would appear, then, thatthis was a prefented copy from the author J. B. to Mr. P. for that Mr. Pope had fuch a poetical friend as Mr. Brydges is certain. See a letter in Dr. Johnson's Life of Pope. But the afterifks, figned at the bottom of the Dif fertation, feemingly meant to correfpond in number with the letters of the author's name, will not anfwer to John Brydges. Could any of your literary acquaintances be able to inform me of this tranflator's name, it would fettle à point of fome moment to Yours, &c. W. G. L. Mr. URRAN, March 17. SEND another Tree for your entertaining Mifcellany. T. H. W. Pyrus malus fylveftris Linnai; the crabtree, or wilding. I "Honos erit huic quoque pomo." furprized to fee us affert, that the crab Many of your readers will be much alfo one of the moft ornamental trees, is not only one of the moft ufeful, but our inland affords. It is extraordinary, that this tree fhould be fo much neglected for live fences, as it will make a thicker and ftronger hedge in four or five years, than the hawthorn will in eight. For proof of this, we need only refer to those plants of this kind which are accidentally mixed with the hawthorn. But care must be taken to diftinguish the pippin-eyed crab from the wild apple. The true, or pippin-eyed crab, is defended by thorns, and grows with its branches clofely connected together; but the wild apple fends out weak, ftraggling, and unarmed branches. In a fence of this fort, here and there a plant may be grafted with any kind of apple, and fuffered to raife its head without any detriment. One precaution is neceffary to be inculcated: in forming this, 366 Botanical Account of the Pyrus Malus Sylveftris, or Crab-tree. this, and every other kind of live fence, Where this crab grows in its natural Crab-trees abound particularly in our forefts, and their fruit furnishes plenty of food for the deer late in autumn, when the grafs begins to fail, and in winter they brouze on the branches, which are cut from this tree, as well as the holly, by the keepers. It is certain, from the following quotation, that its produce was formerly of confe * Workmen thould never be allowed to fet up clofe paling. Plants will thrive where a fpace of three or four inches is left between every pa e; but clofe pales ftifle the live fence planted against it, are more expenfive, much more able to be blown down in topms, and decay looner, quence. "If any man gather any acornes or crabs in the foreft, and doe make fale of them at markets or elfwhere, to the hurt of the commoners, and the kings beafts of the foreft, yee fhall doe us to weet." Charge given in the Swanimote. Manwood's Forefi Laws, cap. 23. The Norman invader, and his fucceffors, who were fo devoted to the chafe, as to make almost as many laws for the management of their forefts, as they did for the government of their kingdom, and impanneled a jury with equal formality over dead deer, as over a murdered man, favage as they were, would not neglect to plant and increafe this, or any other tree, which produced fuktenance for their beafts of chafe. After what hath been faid concerning the ufe and beauty of the crab tree, it would be fuperfluous to recommend planting it in parks. Roafted crabs biffed in the bowls of our ancestors; the Britons gave a preference to the improved kind, for an apple-tree (Afallen ber) was valued at fixty pence, while a crab-tree (Afallen fur) only at 30 pence according to the laws of Howel Dda. In a late tour through a confiderable part of Kent, a county much enriched and ornamented by its plantations, we obferved with regret, that there were fcarcely any new orchards to supply the place of thofe which were wearing out. The fame may be faid of many other parts of the kingdom. Hath a feries of unfavourable years tired out the culti vators? or is the produce less valuable than formerly? It may not be amifs to hint to thofe who are defirous of raifing a fucceffion to their decaying orchards, that the fame kind of trees, like the fame kind of grain, never fucceed each other profperously in the fame ground. The A contemplative mind fees with pleafure that plants, as well as animals, when they come under the protection of man, throw off their wild nature, and adapt themfelves to his purposes. crab, the orange, and the plum, caft their thorns, as defences no longer ne ceffary; wheat and oats, their awns or beards, which conveyed the feed in a natural state to a proper fituation to ve getate; the gardener is repaid for his care by the enlarged complication of the leaves, and by the expanfion of the roots, of efculent vegetables; and it is difficult to conjecture why flowers, when brought into gardens, deviate fo much from their |