the inverfion of the image by the telescope while the light remains the fame; Mr. R. in feveral experiments, obferved the deception to be removed by illuminating the object with a reflected (which is alfo an inverred) light. He likewife observed, that upon taking out the glaffes, and looking through the open tube, that the object appeared in its unnatural or reverted ftate when illuminated with a reflected light; a tube is neceffary to confine the fight from other adjoining objects, which not being in the fame circumftances, would otherwife correct the imagination. Defcription of a remarkable Rock and CASCADE near the western Side of the Youghiogeny River, a Quarter of a Mile from Crawford's Ferry, and about Twelve Miles from Union in Fayette County, in the State of Pennfylvania. By Tno. Hutchins. This defcription is rather obfcure, and ought to have been ilJuftrated with a drawing. Any abridgment, we doubt, would be ftill more obfcure than the original. The cafcade, however, according to this account, certainly exhibits a moft fingular, romantic, and grand appearance. An optical Problem propofed by Mr. Hopkinson, and answered by Mr. Rittenhoufe. Mr. Hopkinfon holding near to his eye a filk handkerchief, tightly ftretched, and looking through it at a lamp which was at a confiderable distance, observed the threads of the handkerchief to be magnified to the fize of coarfe wires; on moving the handkerchief flowly to the right and left he was furprized to find that the dark bars did not move at all, but remained permanent before the eye. Mr. Rittenhouse explains this appearance by a judicious and ingenious method: he confiders the cross bars as an illufion, and not as the magnified threads; this illufion is caufed by the inflexion which the parallel rays coming from the lamp had fuffered in paffing the edges of the threads. His arguments are fupported by feveral experiments and illuftrations, which could not be understood without the figures. The MATHEMATICAL, ASTRONOMICAL, METEOROLO- ART. VIII. The Hiftory and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. By William Hutchinfon, F. A. S. Vol. I. 4to. Subfcription for the whole 21. 2s. Robinsons. 1785. HIS hiftory is written by Mr. Hutchinson, Author of the Excurfion to the Lakes, and View of Northumberland; who appears to have been particularly fortunate in obtaining a great variety of valuable materials for his work, having not only been indulged with leave to copy the public records of the fee, particularly the Doomfday book of the county of Durham (called Bolden Bolden Buke), and Bishop Hatfield's Survey, but he has also been favoured with a great number of valuable communications,fuch as charters, pedigrees, monumental infcriptions, drawings, and manufcript collections, preferved in divers private libraries; and thefe are enumerated and acknowledged in a prefatory advertisement. Mr. Hutchinfon opens his introduction with an eulogium on the labours of an hiftorian : The human genius,' fays he, knows not a nobler effort than that of collecting the various events of diftant times, and placing them in fuch fucceffive order and arrangement, as to exhibit a perfect delineation of the rife and progrefs of states, the civilization of mankind, and advances of fcience. By the labours of the hiftorian are tranfmitted the great viciffitudes which have attended on human affairs, and the knowledge of thofe principles which influenced the profperity as well as the decline of empires; from which affecting examples, wifdom forms her nobleft precepts. In fuch a review we become interested in the fate of the feveral perfonages who firft at tempted to releafe mankind from darkness and barbarism, and our hearts participate the joy of those whose wisdom tamed the ferocity of favage habits, and cultivated the human mind in the fchool of fcience and the liberal arts. While through oral tradition alone, interefting events were com→ municated, hiftory was dark and uncertain; affected by the fortunes of men, and fuffering mutilation by the fall of states, much obfcurity frequently enveloped the moft important changes; for before the invention of letters, public monuments were the chief means of faving the greatest atchievements of nations, and the most wonderful acts of providential interpofition, from oblivion. To fuch we are obliged to refort, when we difcufs thofe diftant æras, in which letters did not prevail, or in the contries where they had not acceptation. The work of the hiftorian, in the first ages of literature, was laborious and unpleafant; much depending on the uncertain definition of emblematical images, and myfterious tradi tions; whilst a retrospection through uncultivated ages, with the progress of ignorant and uncivilized nations, furnished difagreeable fcenes. It is fome happiness to us, that compaffionate angels have with-held the humiliating picture from our eyes.' Here we cannot help imagining that the conceit of these compaffionate angels may be an imitation of Sterne's recording angel, who with a tear blotted out the entry of the oath (worn by Uncle Toby; but, if fo, it is not a very happy one! Our Author then proceeds to give fhort accounts of the Druidical religion, the manners of the Brigantes, the acceffion of the Romans to that diftrict, the introduction of Chriftianity, the laws by which the Brigantes were governed, the arrival of the Saxons, and the ftate of religion in Brigantia, the kingdoms of Bernicia and Northumberland, with a fucceffion of the kings, ending with Ofwald, and the foundation of the fee of Lindiffarne, in which the opulence and honour of the palatinate or REV. Feb. 1787. L Durham Durham had their origin. To thefe fucceed the lives of the Bifhops of Lindisfarne; thofe of the Bishops of Chefter le Street, to which place the corpfe of St. Cuthbert was removed, and a new cathedral was there founded by Eardulph, as being nearer the royal refidence, then eftablished at York. The body of St. Cuthbert being again removed on account of a Danish invafion, and fettled at Durham, the circumstances of the building and endowing that cathedral are related, with the lives of the Bishops, to the conqueft; the effects which that event had on the ecclefiaftical fyftem of this realm, and the rights claimed by the Bishop of Durham in his double capacity of Prince and Baron, are confidered and explained; and the lives of the Bishops, from Walcher, are continued to Bishop Egerton, with whofe acceffion, in the year 1771, this volume terminates. At the end of each Bifhop's life, from Walcher downward, is a lift of the officers of the fee. A lift is likewife given for the year 1785, with another of benefices and promotions in the gift of the Bishop of Durham, and the names of the incumbents in the fame year. On the whole, Mr. Hutchinfon has acquitted himself of his task in a manner that does honour to his industry, and no difcredit to his abilities: nor was that talk an eafy one; the vast power of the clergy in former times making them parties in all important matters of ftate as well political as ecclefiaftical. Hence the hiftory of the Bishops of Durham is in fome measure the national hiftory of the times in which thofe Bishops lived. The notes, with which this work is illuftrated, are many of them curious and interefting, and the portraits of the bishops with which it is decorated, are in general neatly engraved. There are alfo two different views of the Abbey of Lindisfarne ; that on the north, which is but an indifferent performance, has, we think, appeared before, in one of Mr. Hutchinson's publications. Divers feals, coats of arms, and pieces of antiquity, are neatly cut in wood. In order to give our Readers a fpecimen of Mr. Hutchinson's ftyle, we have tranfcribed part of the character of Bishop Anthony Beak: In taking a review of this prelate's character, it must be remembered that he enjoyed a plurality of cures, and was fecretary to the king, at the time he was advanced to the fee of Durham. The first inftance in which he fhewed the boldness of a refolute judgment, was in his answer to the archbishop's demand of excommunicating his convent. His fortitude, when befet by ruffians at Rome, who broke into his apartment, to revenge the infults committed by his fervants, and his anfwer to King Edward I. which firit occafioned his fovereign's hatred, fhewed his unthaken magnanimity of foul. Had his other principles been as noble, his character would have been as illuftrious as his life was magnificent. But his pride was prevalent in every action of his life; it was the bias by which every part of his condu& conduct was influenced; and that pride affronted, brought forth implacable averfion, as has been seen in his contefts with the convent, in which it is evident he could not brook the indignity of contradiction; fo highly did he eftimate his own confequence.. He was pleafed with military parade and martial difcipline; but though he was defirous of a retinue of foldiers about him, he affected a feeming indifference and negligence towards them; and fhewed no concern whilst the greatest nobles bent the knee to him, and officers of the army waited ftanding as he fat *. He thought nothing too dear, that could contribute to his public fame for magnificence; as an inftance of which, Grayftanes tells us, one time, in London, he paid 40s. for forty fresh herrings (now about 8o. fterling money) when they had been refufed by the moft opulent perfons of the realm, then affembled in parliament. At another time he bought a piece of cloth, which was held up at fo high a price, that, proverbially, it was faid to be too dear for the Bishop of Durham, which he ordered to be cut into cloths for his fumpter- horfes. He feized the king's palfrey as a deodand, it having killed its rider in the way to Scotland, within the liberties of his palatinate. His breach of confidence in depriving the fon of Vefey, and felling the barony of Alnwick, was derived from a wound his pride received in fome contemptuous jeft the baftard put upon him, which he never could forgive; and, in gratifying his refentment, he was guilty of the baseft perfidy to his deceased friend. He was fo impatient of reft, that he never took more than one fleep, faying, it was unbecoming a man to turn from one fide to the other in bed. He was perpetually either riding from one manor to another, or hunting or hawking. Though his expences were very great, he was provident enough never to want money. He always rofe from his meals with an appetite: and his continence was fo fingular, that he never looked a woman full in the face; whence, in the tranflation of St. William of York, when the other bishops declined touching the faint's remains, through a confcioufnefs of having forfeited their virginity, he alone boldly handled them, and affifted the ceremony with due reverence. He died at Eltham, 3d March 1310, having fat 28 years, and was buried in the church at Durham, in the eaft tranfept, near the ferretory of St. Cuthbert, between the altars of St. Adrian and St. Michael the archangel, contrary to the cuftom of his predeceffors, who, out of refpect to the body of St. Cuthbert, never fuffered a corpfe to come within the edifice. It is faid they dared not bring the bishop's remains in at the church door, but a breach was made in the wall to receive them, near the place of interment. He died poffeffed of great riches, with feveral jewels, veffels of filver, horfes, and coftly veitments, which he bequeathed to the church.' ob. de Grayftanes-Ang. Sac. p. 746. L 2 ART. ART. IX. The Carfe of Stirling: an Elegy. 4to. 19. Edinburgh printed; fold by Johnfon, London. ΤΗ HE Author of the poem before us has, it feems, long indulged himself with contemplating the beauties which the Carfe of Stirling (or in other words the view from Stirling Caftle) prefents to the attentive obferver. Stirlingshire, befide being the theatre of many important events, and the refidence of feveral Scottifh monarchs, is a fituation remarkable for the ftriking beauties of its furrounding scenery. Thefe circumftances, our Author fuppofes, would have been a fufficient inducement for the Mufes to have celebrated fo diftinguished a place. They,' fays he, however, continued to abfent themfelves, and the windings of the Forth, with all its uncommon fcenery, have remained unfung. On his return to Stirlingshire, after feveral years abfence, he ftill found his favourite fcene new and delightful; and, glancing over the pictures of his youthful painting, he obferved, or fancied he observed, certain tints, which he conceived might please, and paffions which he thought might intereft. He has perhaps deceived himself; but in whatever light he may appear as a poet, he flatters himself, that, among other motives for publishing The Carfe of Stirling, the following will at leaft fcreen him from public cenfure. A love of pleasure and diffipation has now fo completely diffufed itself through all ranks, that agriculture and country improvements feem but fecondary concerns with our gentlemen of landed property. Inftead of promoting an honeft emulation by their bounty and patronage, the labours of an induftrious peafantry are confidered in no other light than as the means of procuring luxuries at the tables of their pampered landlords. Inftead of kindling a fpirit of enterprize, by their prefence and example, the metropolis of thefe kingdoms teems with men, who yearly doze away their time, and fquander their incomes amidit a round of follies, which, while they enervate the mind, bury the importance of a landed gentleman in complete obfcurity. To fuch the Author of this little piece means not to addrefs himself; but, though he may defpair of a change of manners among the diffipated and the unthinking part of his countrymen, the picture of rural life he has attempted to draw, may not perhaps be unwelcome to thofe, who, uncontaminated by example, point at higher pleafures than the fleams of a ball-room, or the fqueaking of an opera.' The ftyle of the poem is plaintive and fimple: and the numbers, in general, are fmooth and harmonious. As a fpecimen, Carfe, as we are told in a note, fignifies a low flat country, of a rich clayey foil.' we |