For OCTOBER, 1792. CONTAINING YORK 3 895 Meteorolog. Diaries for Sept. and O&t. 1792 874 | Reflexions on the prefent State of France By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gent. Printed by JOHN NICHOLS, at Cicero's Head, Red Lion Paffage, Fleet-freet; METEOROLOGICAL TABLE for October, 1792. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. Height of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. 27 28 29 30 white clouds, ferene and pleafant, flight fhower 3. A ftill calm after the rain; all filent except the chirping of a few birds, and the fong of the robin.-4. People very bufy at harvest-work.-7. Cuitng fecond crops of clover.10. A trong gale of wind, attended with violent ftorms of rain and hail. Corn confiderably damaged. The gale continued, but not with equal violence, till the evening of the 11th12. Fall of rain this day nearly one inch. Horizon very fiery at funfet, and to a great extent. The gale began again about ten o'clock in the evening, and continued, but with lefs violence, till the evening of the 13th.-14. Swallows fporting on the wing in flocks, but their flight very low.-18. Furz in its autumnal bloom-19. Much moisture precipitates from the air.-20. A loud and long clap of thunder about ten o'clock at night.-21. Two: claps THE (875 Gentleman's Magazine: For OCTOBER, BEING THE FOURTH Mr. URBAN, A 1792. NUMBER OF VOL. LXII. PART 11. 08. 21. *****S I have long been a reader and admirer of your very valuable Mifcellany, 1 flatter myself you will afford a corner ***** of it to the memory of a late lamented author, whose works have often enriched your Magazine, and who alfo was your confant reader and correfpondent. When I fay this excellent perfon was the late Mr. Warton, it cannot be neceflary to make a farther apology for troubling you with a few lines concerning him, who was fo dear to all lovers of literature, as well as to all who knew his private worth and virtues of which, as I long lived in habits of intimacy with him, I could fay much; but the occafion, at prefent, of my writing is, that, in looking over your Magazine for the laft month, I faw a fenfible letter, figned Academicus, lamenting (in which I fincerely join with him) fome errors of the prefs in the publication of Mr. Warton's Poems, publifhed, fince his death, in the course of the last year, Miftakes in printing will often happen, and are too common; but, as they expofe authors to undeferved criticifm, are mor tifying. I indeed lament with Academicus (who appears to have been a friend of the deceased), that any of the beautiful poems in question, or any other works of their admired author, fhould fuffer from being prefented to the world with any inaccuracy from the prefs-as every lover of literature must wish that, whatever bears fo truly refpectable a fignature as Mr. Warton's name, fhould be prefented to the publick with the moft fcrupulous exactness; and particularly fo, as, at the time thefe Poems were published, he was then, alas! no more. But, ineeed, no blemish can be reflected on his memory, as they were published a year after his lamented death; and there can be no doubt that, if a life fo valuable had not fo fuddenly been taken from us, the Poems in queftion would have been prefented to the publick with all that accuracy and elegance which fo ftrongly marks his other writings, He, doubtlefs, would have mentioned the circumttance of the infcription p. 179, which Academicus notices, viz. "Gentle reader, fee in me," &c. though, as Mr. Warton's rich fancy and fertility of genius were great, it is very probable that the fame thought, in writing on the fame fubject, might like him; and moft certainly he would have mentioned it, had he lived to arrange and correct the poems in question; but, in defcriptive poetry, the fame obje&s will of courfe be adopted by those who write on the fame subject. The Progrefs of Difcontent, which, Academicus fays, owes its origin to a theme which Mr. Warton wrote when he was very young (an undergraduate at Oxford), certainly cannot take from the merit of that admired poem, but re flects honour on its author; as the Pre fident * Mr. Warton was feized with a paralytic stroke on the night of the 20th of May, 1790, and expired the day following, to the inexpreffible grief of all who knew him. claps of thunder about half past two P.M.-23. The rain-gage quite full, 5 inches deep. 26. The fun of this day, which was brilliant, a welcome guest, and fo great a stranger, that every countenance feemed cheered by his friendly and benign afpect. It would have been curious to have noticed how feldom of late we have been gratified with his appearance.29. The rain of yesterday, accompanied with clofe and fultry air, has contributed more to injure the grain than any of the preceding weather. Wall-frit has little flavour. Apples fall eff, and are infipid. The greateft part of the grain remains in the field. Summer fallows in bad plight. The leaves of the turneps turn yellow. Fall of rain this month, 7 inches 8-10ths, Walton, near Liverpool Evaporation, 2 inches 3-1eths. J. HOLT Ld. Orrery to Dr. Birch fident of the College (then Dr. Huddesford) was fo much pleafed with fuch an early proof of his genius, that he defired him to paraphrafe them in English. The writer of this regrets, with Academicus, the omiffion of the very beautiful lines, intended to be placed under the ftatue of Somnus, in the garden of the late Mr. Harris, of Salisbury; and alfo of the Ode for his Majesty's Birth-day, which, had the lamented au thor lived, would not have happened. This fmall tribute to the merit of one of the most excelient of men, and pro. found fcholar, is paid by one who knew and effeemed his great talents, and loved his virtues, and will religiously cherish his merit and his fame. P. M. Mr. URBAN, Stowmarket, Suff.&.17. O a man who lives but little in T% what is called the World, an account of Living Authors is, I find, very agreeable; and I felt myself indebted to a late correfpondent of yours for the inof formation which he has afforded us feveral gentlemen, who have rendered themselves more or lefs confpicuous in their different departments of literature. In one or two, however, I found miftakes which I was myfelf able to correct; and, at length, many particulars in a brief account of Mr. Crabbe (whom I have long known), which were entirely mifreprefented. I muft, therefore, rather condemn than praife thefe petty biographical sketches t; and, if, what muft the authors themselves? Be fo obliging therefore, Sir, as to admit my correction of the following errors, though they are profeffedly of no great importance. Your correfpondent fays, that Mr. Crabbe was the son of a gla zier, and difliked the bufinefs; that he was put under the infru&tions of an apothecary, in which capacity he wrote his first work, and was then, by the ex ertions of his friends, and Mr. Burke's patronage, both got into orders, and made chaplain to the late Duke of Ruts land: Mr. Burke never heard his name till he faw his writings, which made him take fuch notice of him," &c. &c. Mr. Crabbe, Sir, was the fon of an Officer in the Cufioms at Aldborough, who for many years managed all the bufinels of that port with a degree of A corrected copy of which is printed in p. 164 of Mr. Headley's second volume. + We acknowledge it to be very flippery ground; yet, if contined to a lift of their Works, it is ufeful and agreeable., EDIT. and accuracy, on more than one occafion noticed, and held up as exemplary, by the Commiffioners. His grandfather was alfo a Collector there, Mr. Crabbe was, from his infancy, intended for the profeffion of phyfick, for which, I think, he had no great predilection. He received his education in this place. I fhall not, Mr. Urban, mention by whom, nor what, was his progrefs. He did not write his first work while an apothecary; neither did the publication of that work introduce him to the patronage of Mr. Burke, at whofe houfe a great part of it was writ ten. All this, perhaps, is nothing ma terial to the publick; but, if it be thought neceffary to write the lives of living men, there is, at leaft, an equal peceffiry that they should be carefully and truly written.. I S. H. Original Letter from the Earl of ORRERY to Dr. BIRCH. REV. SIR, Dublin, Dec. 30, 1747. HAVE juft now read the fpecimen of Mr. Johnfon's Dictionary, adI am dreffed to Lord Chesterfield. much pleased with the plan; and I think the fpecimen one of the best I have ever read. Moft fpecimens difguft rather than prejudice me in favour of the work to follow; but the language of Mr. Johnfon is good, and the argu ments properly and modeftly expreffed. However, fome expreffions may be ca villed at; but they are trifles. I will mention one; the barren laurel. The laurel is not barten in any fenfe what ever. : It has fruits and flowers. Sed On this ba funt nuga; and I have great expectation from the performance. fide of the water we have the fame kind of work going forward. I inclose to you the plan, more to fhew you that Ireland is not defective in learned la bours than from any curiofity in the work itself. The author is a clergyman. I am not perfonally acquainted with him but we correfpond; and, if I am to judge by his letters, he is not fo correct a writer as is neceffary for fuch a performance. There is an oddnefs in his ftyle and manner, that leads me to imagine the remarks will at least be extraordinary, if they are not just. He is reputed a scholar; but is in no degree to be compared to Mr. Johnson. All works of this kind, I think, should meet with encouragement, especially where the author does not write for bread. Mr. Mr. URBAN, IN 08. 12. N the prefent undecided ftate of the controverfy relating to the place of fwallows during winter, fome of your readers may not be difpleafed to be ac quainted with the opinion and expe. rience of fo good a naturalift as Mr. William Bartram; from whole Travels in North America' I have fent you the following extract on the subject, p. 281 and 283. "Even at this day, very celebrated men have afferted, that fwallows, at the ap proach of winter, voluntarily plunge into lakes and rivers, defcend to the bottom, and there creep into the mud and flime, where they continue overwhelmed by ice in a torpid ftate until the returning fummer warms them again into life; when they rife, return to the furface of the water, immediately take wing, and again people the air. This notion, though the lateft, feems the most difficult to reconcile to reafon and common fenfe, refpecting a bird fo fwift of flight, that it can, with ease and pleasure, move through the air even (wifter than the winds, and in a few hours time shift 20° from N. to S. even from frozen regions to climes where froft is never feen, and where the air and plains are replenished with flying infects of infinite variety. "In my refidence in Carolina and Florida, I have feen vaft flights of the houfe-fwallow and bank-martin paling onward N. toward Pennfylvania, where they breed in the fpring, about the middle of March; and likewife in the Autumn, in September or October; and large flights on their return fouthward; and it is obfervable, that they always avail them felves of the advantage of high and favourable winds, which likewife do all birds of paffage." For my own part, I must confefs, that the improbability of fwallows being torpid under water during winter is fuch, that the experience of its being fo mult be very clear and precife before I fha'l believe it. The opinion of that incomparable anatomift, Mr. John Hunter, must be allowed to have great weight. And because animation may be fu'pend ed under water for a few minutes, or even half an hour, we cannot thence logically conclude, that a man, or a fwallow, may live under water during all the rigours of a fevere winter. P. B. C. nies, and with great seeming velocity: the lateft were noticed on Sunday, the 7th inft; and fince that time they have entirely difappeared. I cannot think, from any thing I have feen or heard, that any part of the fpecies are doomed to lose fo large a portion of their lives in total apathy, and afterwards to revive again, as it were, to a fecond existence, It wears a much greater degree of confiftency, to fuppofe that they leave us to vifit, warmer climates during the ris gours of winter, as the woodcock migrates from a more Northern fituation into our latitudes. And wherever they fhould feclude themselves, upon a fuppofition that they remained with us in a ftate of torpidity, it is highly improbable they could elcape being frequently discovered by the penetrating eye of man. Birds of paffage feem to have been known in Virgil's time, and in Italy: Quam multæ glomerantur aves, ubi frigidus "MADAME, Grimsthorpe, March 29, 1683. "IF 1 had not fympathized with your ladyship in your affliction, and been concerned as much as wife or fonn, for the fad providence which it hath pleafed God to vifit you with, I had been earlier with my con folatory addreffes, and been one of the first mourners who had prefented themselves to your ladyfhip. I was fo much my lord's, that I fearee know whether i am myfelfe fince the feparation; and his unexpected departure hath had fuch an influence upon mee, that my fenfes are scarce at liberty to offer you the leaf confolation. I could write volumes of my lord's praises, and become almoft an hiftorian upon that fubject, wer not apprehenfive it might augment your griefe, and make your ladyfhip the more fenfible of the remove of so excellent a perfon. But, Madame, it is the greatest mistake in the world to lament the happinesse of one departed friends, who, indeed, are improperly faid to be dead, fince they live with Chrift. Nor should we mourne immode rately that feperation, fince wee know the things in this world will foone have theire period, |