carry to the school; when his friend took it into his hand, out of curiosity to see what companion a man of letters had chosen, 'I have but one book,' says Collins, but that is the best.'

Mr. COLLINS, says Dr. Johnson, shewed the WARTONS in his last illness an Ode, inscribed to Mr. JOHN HOME, on the Superstitions of the Highlands, which they thought superior to his other works. Of this Ode the the foregoing is said to be a copy discovered among some old papers, in the concealed drawers of a bureau, left among other articles, by a relation, to the PUB. LISHER, who, however, ought not to have WITH-HOLD

EN HIS NAME.

Page 61. Mid those soft Friends, whose hearts some future day,

Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song.] How truly did Collins predict Home's tragic powers! ib. Go, not unmindful of that cordial Youth

Whom, long endear'd, thou leav'st by Lavant's side;] A Gentleman of the name of Barrow, who introduced Home to Collins.

63.

the shepherd's shiel,]

A summer hut, reared in the high part of the mountains, for the purpose of pasturing flocks in the warm

season.

64. Stanza Five.]

Before the Copy here given of this Ode was discovered, one still less perfect was found by a Scottish Clergyman, to fill a chasm in which the lines annexed were

substituted by Mr. MACKENZIE, author of the Man of Feeling.

Or on some bellying rock that shades the deep,
They view the lurid signs that cross'd the sky,
Where in the west the brooding tempest lie;
• And hear their first, faint, rustling pennons sweep.
'Or in the arched cave, where deep and dark

The broad, unbroken billows heave and swell,
"In horrid musings rapt, they sit to mark
The lab'ring moon; or list the nightly yell
Of that dread spirit, whose gigantic form
The seer's entranced eye can well survey,
Through the dim air who guides the driving storm,
And points the wretched bark its destin'd prey.
• Or him who hovers on his flagging wing,

O'er the dire whirlpool, that, in ocean's waste,
'Draws instant down whate'er devoted thing

The falling breeze within its reach hath plac'd— The distant seaman hears, and flies with trembling haste. 'Or, if on land the fiend exerts his sway,

Silent he broods o'er quicksand, bog or fen,

Far from the shelt'ring roof and haunts of men,
When witched darkness shuts the eye of day

'And shrouds each star that wont to cheer the night;

'Or, if the drifted snow perplex the way,

With treach'rous gleam he lures the fated wight,
And leads him flound'ring on and quite astray.'

64. As Boreas threw his young Aurora forth, In the first year of the first George's reign,] By young Aurora, The Poet undoubtedly meant the appearance of the northern lights, which happened

about the year 1715; a phaenomenon, it has been said, that no ancient writer has taken notice of, nor even any modern, previous to this period. An assertion, however, which but ill accords with VIRGIL'S :

Armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo

not to mention the vivid description of SPENSER, alluding to a like appearance in the reign of Elizabeth.

ib. They rav'd! divining thro' their Second Sight,] Second Sight is the term used for the divination of the Highlanders.

ib. Illustrious William !- -]

The late Duke of Cumberland, who defeated the Pretender at the battle of Culloden.

ib. Let not dank Will]

A fiery meteor, called by various names, such as Will o' the Wisp, Jack with a Lanthorn, &c. It hovers over marshes and fens.

66. Drown'd by the Kelpie's · -] The water fiend.

ib. -that hoar pile]

One of the Hebrides is called The Isle of Pigmies, where it is reported, that several miniature bones of the human species have been dug up in the ruins of a chapel.

ib. Or thither, where beneath the show'ry west,

The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid:] ICOLMKILL, one of the Hebrides, where near sixty of the ancient Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are interred.

67. Along th' Atlantic rock, undreading, climb,
And of its eggs despoil the Solan's nest.]

An aquatic bird like a goose, on the eggs of which the inhabitants of St. Kilda, another of the Hebrides, chiefly subsist.

69. Are by smooth Annan fill'd, or pastoral Tay,

Or Don's romantic springs, at distance, hail!]

Three rivers in Scotland,

ib. Then will I dress once more the faded bow'r,

Where Jonson sat in Drummond's classic shade;] Ben Jonson paid a visit on foot, 1619, to the Scotch poet Drummond, at his seat of Hawthornden, within four miles of Edinburgh.

ib. The cordial youth on Lothian's plains,—] Barrow, it seems, was at the Edinburgh university, which is in the county of Lothian.

ODE V.

Page 74. What millions perish'd near thy mournful flood When the red papal tyrant cry'd out—blood!'] Alluding to the persecutions of the Protestants, and the wars of the Saracens, carried on in the Southern provinces of France.

ODE VII.

Page 79. Ye green-hair'd Nymphs! whom PAN allows
To tend this sweetly-solemn Wood,]

At Ebberstone-Lodge a seat near Scarborough, finely
situated with a great command of water, but disposed
in a very false taste.

ODE X.

Page 88. Has Romely lost the living greens
Which erst adorn'd her artless grove?]

In Scarsdale, in the County of Derby.

ODE XI.

Page 91. -Newton's happy groves!]

Newton is the name of a seat belonging to Sir John Price.

ODE XII.

Page 93. The writer of this Ode, a near relation, and if we mistake not, brother, of the Author of "PHILEMON to HYDASPES," was educated at Magdalen college, Cambridge; and there distinguished himself as an elegant scholar and an amiable man. The "Adventures of Pompey the little," were written by him. He died of the small pox, vicar of Edgware, in

1759.

ODE XVI.

Page 109. While Theron warbles Graecian strains,] The author of the Pleasures of Imagination.

ODE XVII.

Page 110. The Gentleman addressed in this Ode, was second son of the third Viscount Townsend.