only longer, and required to be more correct. The upper school is divided into four forms; the fourth, the fifth, the shell, the sixth, or the upper part of it, which is called the seyenth, generally filled by the seniour king's scholars. In the fourth, are read Virgil, Cæsar's Commentaries, and the Greek Testament, with the Greek grammar, not taught in any of the under forms. On Thursdays, the boys turn Martial's Epigrams into long and short verses, and on Saturdays, do a verse exercise from the Bible with the rest of the upper school. In the fifth, are read the same books, with the addition of the Greek epigrammatists, some part of Homer and Sallust. On Monday, a Latin theme, on Wednesday, an English one, or an abridgment from some prose author is read in the form; on Thursdays, they turn the odes of Horace into another metre, generally into hexameters and pentameters ; on Saturdays, Bibleexercise throughout the school. In the shell, the same course is pursued,except, that the only Greek author read, is Homer. In the sixth and seventh, where the head master presides, the higher Greek and Latin authors are all readsuch as Sophocles, Euripides, Demosthenes, sometimes Eschylus : Horace, Juvenal, Cicero, Livy, Sallust, &c. It would be tedious to run over all the books, and the different times when they are introduced; it will be sufficient to add, that a boy who has passed through the sixth form will find no difficulty in any Latin or Greek author whatever. Here the verse exercises are carried to the highest perfection, and a boy will produce, for his Saturday's Bible exercise, an alcaick ode, or thirty or forty, sometimes a hundred hexameter Vol. III. No. 12. 4 I verses, of the most flowing melody, and frequently of no little poetical elevation. The Greek Testament is read in Easter week, and Grotius*, with copious comments by the master, to infuse proper religious sentiments, on every Monday morning.† 5. I now come to my last consideration. The vacations are three times a-year. Three weeks at Christmas, when the king's scholars perform one of Terence's plays; the same-portion of time at Whitsuntide, and five weeks at Bartholomewtide. It must be confessed, there is here no waste of time; the boys being, moreover, employed in long repetitions, and holiday tasks, during the vacation. The expenses of the boarding houses are generally from thirty to thirty-five guineas per annum, and the utmost sum paid to the masters is seven guineas. I will now venture to assert, that no man can educate his son at a private school in so moderate a manner, particularly if he be sent to Westminster as a day. scholar. I have now made mention of all that occurs to me. I should certainly, however, not have resisted this opportunity of dwelling on the strict and most exemplary mode of religious education. pursued at Westminster, but that I can refer my readers to a much better account of it in the late Vindication of the Dean of Westminster. T. L. ORIGINAL POETRY. For the Monthly Anthology. MONODY, TO THE MEMORY OF GEN. HENRY KNOX. WITH all of nature's gift, and fortune's claim, A warrior-chief, in victory's field renown'd, A statesman, with the wreath of virtue crown'd. SUCH, KNOX, WERT THOU....shall truth's immortal strain In vain shall friendship breathe her holiest sigh. Yet wert thou blest. Ere age with chill delay When PITT, the soul of Albion, reached the skies, Source of the hope we feel, the truth we know. TO LIVE WITH ANGELS, AND IN GOD TO RISE. For the Monthly Anthology. ERIN. BEHIND the misty brow of yonder hill, Brisk as the bee that sucks the fragrant dew, But hush'd the strain that gladden'd all the plain And cheer'd with simple notes the homeward swain; For now away beneath yon scraggy thorn, Where nightly sits the bird of eve forlorn, And tall weeds wave, as sighs the hollow gale, Blest was his toil with crops of golden grain, And Erin grew in wealth, and rose in name. But, ah, that pleasing rest, which wealth imparts, Too oft unnerves the frame, unmans our hearts. So far'd it now with late our honest clown; In ease repos'd he thoughtless sought the town, And loitering day by day, a prey to harm, He left unplough'd the field, unsown the farm. The moments flew. His happy days were gone, Swift as the beam that scales the saffron morn; And now gloom'd round, with chilling frost combin'd, Cold want, that ragged rustled in the wind. The storm blew bleak, and drifting fast the snow, When Erin left the vale opprest with wo; Remorse with rankling tooth his bosom tore, And wild with grief he saw his home no more. Dec, 20, 1806, GENTLEMEN, To the Editors of the Monthly Anthology, The following Poem was presented to me by a literary female friend at Liverpool, with an assurance it was copied from the manuscript of Walter Scott. G. HELVELLYN. In the spring of 1805, a young gentleman of talents, and a most amiable disposition, perished, by losing his way, on the mountain Helvellyn; the remains were not discovered until three months afterwards, when they were found guarded by a faithful terrier, his constant attendant during frequent solitary rambles through the wilds of Cumberland and Westmoreland. I CLIMB'D the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn, On the left striden edge round the red tarn was bending, Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain's heather, How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber? When a prince to the fate of a peasant has yielded, Through the vault at deep midnight the torches are gleaming, But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb, When wilder'd he drops from some eliff huge in stature, And more stately thy couch by this desart lake lying, Now little masters swell themselves to men, Without one single glitt'ring joy remain? What will a land of learned Merchants see |