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lose sight of all these prudent examples; but come out of it yourself, or 'twill tumble and crush you."

Mr. Barber concludes with some general observations on the national character of the Welsh, which merit quotation;

The Welch are justly described to be the most robust and hardy inhabitants of this kingdom; for, unenervated by those sedentary. employments foisted on less happy regions by luxury and avaricious. policy, they boast the vigorous frames of aboriginal Britons. Although not generally tall, they possess a more unequivocal criterion of strength, in a fine breadth of chest; and hence it has been remarked, that a Cambrian regiment drawn up in line covers more ground than any other. By healthful toil and simplicity of diet invigorated, they are at once potent, courageous, animated, and ge

nerous.

It has been asserted, that the Welch are averse from strangers; -but by whom? By those who have provoked that aversion; who, carrying with them a vulgar estimation of superior show at the tables of England, have not known how to approve a regular board of hospitality, when contrasted by the splendid profusion of fashionable entertainments; who, representing the more gay appointments of other resorts, have pitied the Welchman's old fashioned furniture, and wondered how any gentlemanly being could exist in his gloomy Gothic habitation Such as can conceive no other travelling enjoyments thau superior inns, sumptuous dinners, and bowling-green roads, may quarrel with our principality. But it is for those who travel with more enlarged views, and proper introductions, to declare the ingenuous welcome that they have experienced: the eager solicitude that was every where manifested to afford them information; and the liberal fare set before them, which not even the greatly increased expence of family establishments could effectually suppress.'

The work contains a number of mistakes in minute particulars; and the author, like most of his predecessors, is generally incorrect in his orthography of Welsh names. We have often visited Wales, and never have witnessed instances such as those on which he grounds his charge of immodest customs among the Welsh women: while, on the contrary, his compliments to them on the score of real chastity are not better founded than the accusations of less important indelicacies.

ART. IV. Verses on several Subjects, written in the Vicinity of
Stoke Park, in the Summer and Autumn of 1801.
James Pye. Crown 8vo.
PP. 85.

1802.

T

45. Boards.

By Henry
Hatchard.

the gratitude of poets, the public are indebted for many beautiful compositions; and spirits may be said to be "finely touched to fine issues," in all those cases in which genius

is

is excited and kept in exercise by the amiable feelings of the heart. It was under impressions made by generous friendship, that the little poems before us were composed. Mr. Pye having been accommodated, by the kindness of his opulent brother bard Mr. Penn*, with the vicarage-house near Ske Park, he was so delighted with this rural retirement, and so flattered by Mr. Penn's hospitality, that his muse could not be silent on the occasion. To his liberal and classical friend at Stoke Park, these little pieces are therefore dedicated; and grata mihi, grata tibi, might have been assumed as the motto, since the tribute is equally honourable to both.

In the first poem, written in a seat at Stoke Park, near the Vicarage-House, then inhabited by the author, and commanding a distant view of Windsor Castle, Mr. Pye expresses his keen disgust' at those foul paths of plunder and of lust," which his situation as a police magistrate was continually bringing to his knowlege in the metropolis;

Where the stern ministers of rigid law

With iron scourge the harden'd ruffian awe;
Where fear alone can blunt fell murder's knife,
And gaols and gibbets watch o'er human life.'

Happy in his retreat in the country, he enters on a description of the rich and varied landscape before him, which naturally induces a review of the former circumstances of his life; and in which he laments that he was ever tempted by wild ambition to quit his native vale,

'Mid senates and 'mid camps in vain to find
Joys that could rival those he left behind,
Where, grasping at expence he ill could bear,
He saw his farms and woodlands melt in air.'

Though Mr. Pye sustained a ruinous expence in the situation of representative of the county of Berks, he is in some degree consoled by the honourable testimony of his quondam constituents; and he is too much a poet to be very partial to prudence, notwithstanding all his dear-bought experience. He thus proceeds to comfort himself, and to compliment his friend:

Nor can I much regret the idle days

When Fancy led me through her fairy maze;
Majestic science when I gravely woo'd,
Or sported with the Muse in frolic mood:
Though, as 'mid visionary scenes I stray'd,
1 saw life's real prospects round me fade;

* See account of his poems, M. R. Vol. xl. N.S. p. 367.

While with unclouded conscience I can see
A life from guilt, if not from folly free.
Ne'er did my hopes, my soul, my fortune lie
On the fleet courser or the rolling dye :

And though from early youth's first dawning hour,
Still tremblingly alive to beauty's power,
Ne'er did my art seduce a trusting maid,
Ne'er has my purse in shameful forfeit paid
A wife dishonour'd and a friend betray'd.

}

Then let me not with sorrowing eye pursue
Past scenes, which long have vanish'd from my view;
But ere of life the fleeting shadows close,
Thankful receive what Fortune yet bestows.
And you, my gen'rous friend, whose princely seat
Gives me from noise and strife a short retreat;
Where I can breathe again the fragrant air,
While days of leisure sweeten months of care;
Spring's blushing flowers, and Summer's fruits behold,
And Autumn's stores of vegetable gold;

Accept these votive numbers, nor refuse
The heartfelt offering of a grateful Muse;

Thanks from a heart, which, while it boasts with pride
A line to patriots, nobles, kings, allied;

Is prouder yet in sterling worth to shine,

Stamp'd by the friendship of a mind like thine."

Mr. Penn, in the last edition of his poems, published a sequel to Gray's Long Story; and Mr. Pye has here subjoined a sequel to that sequel, for the purpose of farther complimenting the taste and genius of his friend. If future bards, resident at or visiting Stoke, should deem themselves equal to the task of being continuators of Gray, the five hundred stanzas, playfully supposed to have been deficient, will resume their station, with interest for time lost; and then it will be indeed what Gray never intended it should be, A Long Story, and a very tedious one into the bargain.

The verses intitled October and May, addressed to Samuel James Arnold, Esq. contain some elegant stanzas; in which the poet maintains against the painter the superiority of the month of May. We present the conclusion to our readers: • Say, can the robin's plaintive note Mate Philomela's warbling throat

Which nightly charms the grove;
Or full and sweet, the feather'd throng,
Who loudly chant the matin song
Of ecstacy and love?

And bounding see in sportive dance,
Frolic the summer months advance,
Led on by youthful May;

While on October's solemn state
The hours of dreary winter wait,
The heralds of decay.

The frowning brow, the tearful
Of blooming May shall swiftly fly,
And every cloud be past;

While on October's richest hue
Doubtful we throw an anxious view,
And fear each smile her last.

But you, my friend, whose gifted mind,
In friendly union fondly join'd,
The sister arts inspire;
Who know alike with skilful hand
The glowing pencil to command,
And strike the sacred lyre,

• Will now mild Autumn's various dyes,
His mellow tints, and purple skies,
With plastic, hand pourtray;
Now taste the fragrant breath of Spring,
Her sylvan chorus join, and sing

The ambrosial sweets of May.'

Prefixed to a translation of the last Elegy of the third Book of Tibullus, are some judicious remarks on the view of that Poet in its composition, opposed to the explanation of it given by Dr. Granger :

This elegy (says Mr. Pye) has always struck me as peculiarly beautiful, exhibiting the vain attempts of a lover to get rid of his passion by the aid of wine, and which Dr. Granger has entirely lost by making it a dialogue between the lover and one of his jolly companions: he also adds, that the contest ends in the triumph of wine over love; but I think he who runs may read the very reverse in every line; even in the two last lines the poet upbraids himself for his absence of mind, and his neglect of the accustomed ceremony of the banquet.'

We may subjoin to this observation, that the single line

Perfida, sed quamvis perfida, cara tamen,'

is a sufficient evidence of the strong hold which Tibullus's mistress still maintained in his heart.

The translation occupies no more lines than the original, and the last twelve are thus rendered:

Ah! how I long with thee the winter night,

With thee the summer's livelong day to wear!
Perfidious maid! a love so true to slight;
Perfidious maid! yet, though perfidious, dear.
Bacchus the Naiad loves.-Haste, lingering boy,
Cool from the lucid spring the full-ag'd wine ;

If the vain nymph fly from our social joy

To seek a stranger bed, still must I pine?
Still sigh away the night's revolving hours?

Boy, be the bowl with stronger beverage crown'd;
With Tyrian perfumes wet, should blooming flowers
Long long 'ere this about my brows be bound.'

The Laureat is known to be a poet who writes with ease and elegance; and if this little volume should not materially augment, it will not detract from his former reputation. It is embellished with a view of Stoke Vicarage, a view of Windsor Castle through Stoke Park, and a portrait of Mr. Pye.

ART. V. Observations on the Structure, Oeconomy, and Diseases of the Foot of the Horse, and on the Principles and Practice of Shoeing. By Edward Coleman, Professor of the Veterinary College, &c. Vol. II. 4to. pp. 251.; with 15 Plates. 31. 13s. 6d. Boards. Egerton, Johnson, &c. 1802.

IN

the first porton of this work, which was noticed in our 36th vol. N. S. p. 100, the author was occupied with the consideration of the general structure of the horse's foot, and the mode of shoeing best adapted to preserve it in health. At the commencement of the present volume, he informs us that the practice recommended by him has now been adopted for several years, and that its utility during that period has been confirmed by a very extensive experience. He laments, however, that it has been frequently misunderstood; and that many have imagined, notwithstanding what he has explicitly said to the contrary, that it was the method of the Veterinary College to adapt the same kind of shoe to every foot, without attending to the accidental deviations of natural or acquired form.

The principal part of this volume is employed in examining the structure and functions of the contents of the hoof: but so considerable a portion of minute anatomical description occurs on this subject, that we must limit our abstracts to such parts as are more materially connected with the new mode of shoeing, and as may be intelligible without the assistance of the plates by which the work is illustrated.

The feet of the horse, though they sustain the whole weight of the body, are but of small size, and would be liable to be injured at every step, unless some extraordinary provisions existed to guard against concussion.-These consist in the descent of the navicular bone, the descent and spring of the two splent bones, and the motion of the sesamoids: but most of all in the elastic attachment of the coffin bone to the crust, and the consequent

elevation

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