I have seen alfo a contrary practice, which I fhall explain, together with its reafons; but firft, in order to fhew its real ufe, this fact must be inferted.

Two gentlemen, relations and neighbours, who had the fame foil, and the fame kind of trees, and those, to all appearance, managed in the very fame manner, found a vaft differ⚫ence always in the fruit: it was fo great, that their company < never failed to perceive it as well as themfelves; and when it came at last to be explained, the whole caufe was, that the • gardener of him whose fruit was worft, gathered it just before it was wanted, and the other much earlier. This feems to contradict reafon, frefhnefs being efteemed the great article in the nicety of fruit; but it is only a feeming contradiction.

'Let any one examine the state of plants in general in fummer, • and he will find it this; as the great heat of the day comes on, their leaves begin to flag, and they droop more and more till the cool of the evening. The reafon is, the great evaporation of their juices by the fun's heat: they grow flaccid from toward noon till near fun-fet: then the heat is over, and the dews refresh them: they continue recruiting and recovering during the whole night, and they are firm and lively in the morning.

The cafe is the fame in fruits, only it is not fo eafily per'ceived. At noon they are exhausted and flattened, and they ' are heated to the heart: all this renders them dead, and unpleafing. They begin' to recruit towards evening, as the leaves; and in the fame manner are in their full perfection at early morning. One hour after fun-rife is the time for gathering them: this was the fecret of the fuccefsful gardener, ⚫ and this every one should practise.

Let him take fome fruit-baskets of open work, cover them with large leaves, and at Seven in the morning go out to gather his fruit. When he has carefully chofen what is ripe, and laid it handsomely in the basket, let it be placed in a cool, but not • damp room, till it is wanted.

When the ripeft are gathered, the reft are to be preserved: and with refpect of birds, fome lime-twigs and trap-cages fhould be placed, and lines of feathers hung about the place.'

To conclude, this performance may, on the whole, be recommended to our Readers, as a ufeful work. Not that it is free from faults:-but errors in a book of this kind are of much lefs confequence to the Public, than thofe in fuch a work as the Compleat Body of Hufbandry; and therefore we fhall spare urfelves the difagreeable task of pointing out the few imperfections

we

we have cafually* (to confefs the truth) observed, in a careless walk thro' this new Garden of Eden.

This, the candid Reader will readily allow, is dealing frankly with him; but, perhaps, he will not fo eafily pardon the carele nefs as admit the confeffion: yet, if he has any bowels of compaffion, he will remember the fuperabundant fatigue we underwent, in our examination of the Body of Husbandry, and grant us a little indulgence in matters of lefs confequence.

G

AVON, a Poem, in three Parts. Birmingham, printed by John Baskerville. 4to. 3s. DodЛley.

HOUGH our Readers would naturally imagine that a Poem with this title, muft relate chiefly to the great Poet born near the river thus named, yet it was evidently neceffary to take in many other objects, in the extent of a performance of full thirteen hundred lines. Hence a little obfcurity arifes in fome places, where the real or fuppofed relation of the various tranfitions to the general fubject is lefs obvious, for want, as we apprehend, of a Clue or Synopfis of the chief heads from which the work is deduced. Wherefore we fhall give a very brief abridgment of the plan of this poem, which the Author has omitted, and which, we imagine, would scarcely present itself at once to a curfory Peruser.

Our smooth and fluent Poet, having propofed his fubject, and invoked the Naiad of it, after an eafy apology to the Lovers of polite Literature for the prefent amusement, juftly obferves, that Science and Genius arofe and extended with the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, the different Literary Worthies of whofe reign are properly mentioned. Among thefe Shakespear is not unhappily feigned [tho' the fiction is not quite new] to have furprized Nature with the Nine bathing in the Avon; and to have feized the Lyre they abandoned in their flight, on finding themfelves difcovered naked. After a poetical and animated enumeration of fome of the moft affecting tragical pieces of that fublime Poet, P. 8, 9, our anonymous Bard laments the want of a monument for him at Stratford on Avon, their common birth-place; and then sketches out his own design of one; which feems picturefque, and appofite. Having here paid an occafional compliment to Mr. Garrick, the Poet digreffes to the battle of Nafeby, which wearete fuppofe not very diftant from the Avon. This leads him into a brief mention of the rife, event, and cataftrophe of the Civil War; and thence, in the perfon of Britannia's Geniu, to the great Revolution in

1688,

1688, with fuch an approbation of it, as evinces his love of the tational Conftitution of his Country.

The fecond part fets out with commemorating, briefly, another Avon near Bath, and mentioning the adjacent country as difpeopled by the Norman, and turned into a foreft. Herein is introduced the love-tale of Licinius and Vonania, which the Poet fuppofes to have been transacted near the Avon, in the time of the Romans, when Vitellius was their General. This Tale has not a little variety and Pathos; it terminates happily, by the intervention of a British Druid; and our Author poetically exults on his having recovered it from the ruins of Time: which he might perhaps as juftly have affirmed of the tragical story of Locrine and Guendolen, recounted by the Druid, as an inftance of the unhappiness of thofe marriages, to which a true and virtuous paffion is not the principal inducement.

The third and laft part, returning more directly to his fubject, commences with a defcription of Otter-hunting; and then proceeds to that of Angling. Hence the Poet takes occafion to enumerate all the rivers and streams of any name that flow into the Avón; which gives him an opportunity of verfifying fuch fragments of our ancient History, as are recorded to have happened in their vicinage; and particularly to revive the fable of the Lady of the Lake, which he obferves, in a Note, to have been a popular character in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and to have been exhibited for her entertainment at Kenelworth; the ruins of whose castle are well defcribed, and deplored, by this fabulous Naiad of British birth. The Poet hence paffes to the ftory or legend of Guy Earl of Warwick; and concludes his performance with an Afpiration to Peace, as the great and neceffary embellisher of every beautiful scene he has defcribed. This is a natural conclufion for a lover of the Mufes, who are faid to be filenced by the din of War; though a good Politician fometimes difcerns War to be the fole means of obtaining a found and estimable Peace.

Having already referred our Readers to this Poet's fummary and animated enumeration of Shakespear's moft affecting pieces, we fhall prefent them at length, with the monument defigned for him by our Author, and poetically propofed to be erected at Stratford on Avon.

Here Avon, o'er her Parian urn reclin'd, Should iee her waves in fluid marble wind; While (in the stream the Attic Laurel thrown) She gives the bufkin'd Mufe a nobler crown. Along the rifing bank fhould proftrate lye Pale Envy's train, and turn the dazzled eye, REV. Sep. 1558.

T

Το

To fee the Bard's triumphant guard appear,
Where Nature fits the fkilful Charioteer.
In view might rife on Corinth's flow'ry pride,
Fame's ample dome, with gates expanded wide:
While the white fteeds extend the fhining rein,
And (pring emergent from the radiant plain.
Chain'd to the fhining wheels, on either hand,
The captive Paffions wait his high command.
Hope, here fhould fmile; Defpair fhould languish here,
Light Joy fhould laugh, and Sorrow drop the tear;
Revenge fhould feem with fecret wish to feel
The purple point, and whet the destin'd fteel;
While jaundic'd Jealoufy, all wildly drefs'd,
Hugs the dire cauftic to her fhuddring breaft;
Abforb'd in woe fhould Melancholy figh,
And boundless Madness ev'ry pow'r defy;
Love's flowing eyes, in languid foftnefs roll,
And Hate's dark frowns betray the tortur'd foul;
With hair erect, pale Terror shake his chain;
And lovely Pity footh her borrow'd pain:
By dædal Fancy charg'd with high relief,
The Carr fhould fwell with many a flory'd Chief;
There might the mimic tapers trembling gleam
Shew RICHARD ftarting from the direful dream;
The Master's hand fhould make the marble speak,
And pour cold Horror o'er the frozen cheek;
With haggard eyes might there the awak'ning Bride,
Behold her Romeo breathlefs at her fide :
Or the lov'd Youth fhould hang the dying Fair,
And each loofe limb her frantic deed declare;
There, terror-ftruck for actions not his own,
Should Denmark's Prince feem ttarting from the flone.
In ev'ry vein, and ev'ry nerve exprefs'd,

The pangs that tear his agonizing breast.

*

Here too-But fay this vain profufion why?

O think of HIM how fmall a part could die.

Nor blame this juft Remembrance, meant to tell,

How little fpoil Death gain'd when SHAKESPEAR fell.

It were improper, perhaps, to omit, in our fpecimen, what the Poet fays immediately of his fubject.

No Ganges fhe, nor Amazonian tide,

To fpread o'er worlds her waite of waters wide.
Mild AvoN drains her frugal urn to feed.
The fwelling bud, or cool the fmiling mead;
To lave the fleecy flock, or kindly yield

Her genial moisture to the gen'rous field.

* Her is printed here by mistake for bis, which we have ventured to

rectify.

But

But fees gay Plenty follow where she flows,
Pay the Swain's toil, and fweeten his repofe :
Sees her green banks the bleating nations throng,.
Or tunes her murmurs to the Fair-one's fong.

The remains of a Roman Way near the Avon give our Author an opportunity of representing the employment it furnishes for Antiquaries, who are very aptly characterized as feeding on fweet conjecture, in their devious investigations of it. whole paffage is picturefque and beautiful.

-Often bending o'er his paft'ral ftaff,

The fimple fwain enjoys an artless laugh,
To fee the curious paffenger furvey
Each vettige dark of old Vitellius' way,
And question where above the wat'ry plain
Rose the arch'd witness of the Roman reign.
But fee! victorious Time triumphant come,
Borne on the ruins of eternal ROME!
While ev'ry letter'd stone, that told her fame,
Submits to bear this greater Conquʼror's name.
Worn by the ceafelefs fteps of envious years
Now the fam'd track abruptly disappears;
Or now, difclofes fome obfcure remains,
To tempt the patient Antiquary's pains,
Who fed on fweet conjecture all the day,
Oft wanders pathlefs, to find out the way.

The

Having given these examples of this Writer's general fluency, and poetical expreffion, we may be allowed to mention a few, which might admit of improvement.-The following ellipfis of the fign of the infinitive mood

Th' impatient Briton then began recite.

may be authorised from Spenfer, and fome other old Poets; but our best moderns have (we think) ever avoided it, except where a very few particular verbs precede. The following diftich,

But tho' Life's giddy cup we wifely blend,
Folly's light froth will yet at last afcend.

contains one of those metaphors that might have been more happily expreffed. Pope fays, very confiftently,

In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, Joy ;

but why fhould folly be uppermoft in the cup tempered and blended by wisdom ?—

Were wrongs the Queen in tented fields redress'd:

Martial fields, or fields of War, would have read more eafily to us: but we gladly overlook a few more fuch trivial efcapes, as

† We should prefer the conjunctive and here, to the disjunctive but, that commences the feventh line of this citation, which plainly mentions fome confequences of what was predicated before of the Avon, and not any exception to it---A few more inaccuracies of the fame kind occur in other parts of this Poem.