28.

Now, as Aeneas in the Stygian glades
Wondering beheld departed heroes' shades,

Amidst the forms of worthies dead we range,] In the yellow drawing-room are portraits, by Van Dyck of lord chief baron Wandesford, lord and lady Wharton, their daughters, archbishop Laud, king Charles the first and his queen. The portrait of the earl of Danby now hangs in the great parlour. W.

ibid. The next great form with melancholy eye,] Charles the first. W.

29. But see where Kneller now our eye commands} Sir Godfrey Kneller. W.

ibid. See mighty William's fierce determin'd eye,]. King William the third on horseback. W.

ibid.

Next in the steady lines of Brunwick's face, Majestic manly honesty we trace ;] George the first on horseback. W.

31. What strokes, what colours, Snyders could command! How great the power of Rubens' daring hand!] The four markets, by Rubens and Snyders. W. ibid. See! Mola next the Roman deeds displays,

That bids our hearts be patriots as we gaze.] The stories of Curtius and Cocles, by Mola, born 1609, died 1665. W.

ibid. Here Julio's wondrous buildings still appear,] A piece of architecture, by Julio Romano, born 1492, died 1546.

W.

ibid. Great shade of Poussin! from the Muse receive]

Here are the stories of Scipio's continence, and of

Moses striking the rock, by Nicolo Poussin, born 1594, and died 1665. W.

33. With scenes too sad Salvator strives to please,] A very capital picture of the prodigal son on his knees at prayers amidst the herd of swine, by Salvator Rosa, born 1614, and died 1673. W.

ibid. Purebeams of light around the Virgin play,] The famous picture, by Guido, of the doctors of the church disputing on the immaculate conception. Reni, born 1575, and died 1642.

W.

Guido

34. Thee too, Lorrain, the well-pleased Muse should name,] Claud. Gille of Lorrain, born 1600, and died 1682. W.

ibid. Nor e'er forget Domenichini's fame,] Domenico Zampieri, commonly called Domenichini, born 1561, and died 1641. W.

ibid. May we like Walpole, meet the fatal day!] Catharine Shorter, first wife to Sir Robert Walpole, whose merits are inscribed by her youngest son, the honourable Horace Walpole, on the tomb he erected in Westminster-Abbey, at once a monument of piety and taste.

EPISTLE IV.

Page 35. For a more particular account of these venerable ruins, the Reader is refered to Mr. Gilpin's "Observations on the river Wye," p. 31, &c.

35. See the ridg'd tide with sober grandeur heave,

And float in triumph o'er the river-wave.] This manner of the coming-in of the tide to the river Severn is called the Eager, or the Hyger, of the Severn. There is a beautiful allusion to it in bishop Sprat's History of the Royal Society. D.

36. Here, noble Stafford, thy unfinish'd dome,] The remains of a noble seat begun, by Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. DAVIES.

ibid. And thence the long-stretch'd race of Berkeley come.] Berkeley-castle, the seat of the

Earl of Berkeley.

37. Where Vaga mingles with Sabrina's tide.] The rivers Wye, and Severn.

D.

ibid. Ascending Chepstow shows it's castled seat.] Chepstow-castle in Montmouthshire, the seat of the Duke of Beaufort.

EPISTLE V.

Page. 39. Dr. Yalden, or, as Wood styles him, Youlding, was a younger son of John Youlding who had been page to Charles I. when Prince, and after the Restoration, an exciseman at Oxford. Our Author, born in that city, from being originally a cho. rister of Magdalen, became a demy and probationer fellow. He took the degree of Doctor of Divinity in the year 1708.

EPISTLE VI.

Page 47. The two Ladies here addressed, were the honourable Miss Lowthers, daughters to the late Lord Lonsdale.

ibid. From sulph'rous damps, &c.] The coal mines near Whitehaven are greatly infested with fulminating damps; large quantities of them being frequently collected in those deserted works, which are not ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air: and, in such works, they often remain for a long time, without doing any mischief. But when, by some accident, they are set on fire, they then produce dreadful explosions, very destructive to the miners; and bursting out of the pits with great impetuosity, like the fiery eruptions from burning mountains, force along with them ponderous bodies to a great height in the air.

ibid. From bursting streams, &c.] The coal in these mines has, several times, been set on fire by the fulminating damp, and hath continued burning for many months; until large streams of water were conducted into the mines, and suffered to fill those parts where the coal was on fire. By such fires, several collieries have been entirely destroyed; of which there are instances near Newcastle, and in other parts of England, and in the shire of Fife in Scotland; in some of which places, the fire has continued burning for ages; But more mines have been ruined by inundations.

48. The Daemons of the mine restrain, &c.] In order to prevent, as much as possible, the collieries from being filled with those pernicious damps, it has been found necessary, carefully to search for those crevices in the coal, from whence they issue out; and at those places, to confine them within a narrow space; and from those narrow spaces in which they are confined, to conduct them through long pipes into the open air; where being set on fire, they consume in perpetual flames, as they continually arise out of the earth.

49. And summons, &c.] Those who have the direc tion of these deep and extensive works, are obliged to use great care and art in keeping them continually ventilated with perpetual currents of fresh air; which afford the miners a constant supply of that vital fluid, and expel out of the mines damps and other noxious exhalations, together with such other burnt and foul air, as is become poisonous and unfit for respira

tion.

ib. Nor strikes the flint, &c.] It has been ob. served by Mr. Spedding, who superintends the collieries, and to whom the author here gives the name of Prospero, that the fulminating damp could only be kindled by flame, and that it was not liable to be set on fire by red-hot iron, nor by the sparks produced by the collision of flint and steel; he invented a machine, in which, while a steel wheel is turned round with a very rapid motion, and flints are applied thereto, great plenty of fiery sparks are emitted, that af