this was a baseless assumption; but he had yet no discovery of his own, with which to supply its place. The Preface to the new Edition was already sent to the Printer, when Mr. H. seeing occasion to refer to Brathwait's Strappado for the Divell, 1615, for the purpose of illustrating an obscure passage, was struck with a similarity in the Apology for the Errata to those which occurred in Barnabee's Journal. A right clue once obtained runs and expands before the eye of energetic research, like wildfire. Tract after Tract of Brathwait's scarce Pieces was examined; and still the same quaint and peculiar apology for the Errata was found in each. Another clue now suggested itself. In the Journal is this passage; (in Part III. p. 309 ). « Veni Darlington, prope vicum << Thence to Darlington; there I boused, AGAIN : « Veni Nesham, Dei donum, In Cænobiarchæ domum; << Thence to Nesham, now translated, Once a nunnery dedicated; Vallies smiling, bottoms pleasing, Graced by a lovely Lady. »> AGAIN : Nunc ad Richmund, primo flore; Nunc ad Nesham, cum uxore, Læto cursu properamus, Et amamur et amamus; Pollent floribus ambulachrá, Vera veris simulachra ». «Now to Richmund, whence spring's comming, Now to Nesham with my woman, With free course we both approve it, Where we love, and are beloved; Here fields flower with freshest creatures Representing Flora's features ». Mr. H. therefore procured a search to be made in Darlington and its neighbourhood for the marriage of Brathwait. In the parish Register of Hurworth, in which parish NESHAM is situated, a village about three miles from Darlington, was found the decisive evidence the mariage of Richard Brathwait with Frances daughter of James Lawson of Nesham Esq. on May 1617. : The identity of the author was no longer to be doubted. But the more the Editor examined, the more coincidences he found with peculiar passages in the acknowleged writings of Brathwait. The Edition containing this discovery appeared in 1818. D. Bliss has since communicated the following confirmation from the MSS of T. Hearne. << The Book called Burnabas' Rambles, printed in Latin and English, in-12.o, was written by Richard Brathwaite, who writ and translated a vast number of things besides, he being a scribler of the times. But Mr. Bagford tells me that Mr. Chr. Bateman, (an eminent Bookseller in Pater 5 noster Row), who was well-acquainted with some of the family, hath several times told him that Brathwait was the author of it. This Book is since printed (1) In farther confimation Mr. Haslewood has discovered, that in a copy of the 2.d Edit. which belonged to Edw. Wilson Esq. of Dallam Tower, Co. Westmoreland, was written the following note: « The author I knew, was an old poet, Rich. Brathwait; father of sir Thomas, of Burnside Hall, near Kendall in Westmorland (2) ». Mr. Haslewood by the aid of a variety of coincidences fixes the date of the first Edition of Barnabee's Journal to 1650; and by an ingenuity of circumstantial evidence discovers the Printer to have been John Haviland. Sixty six years then elapsed before a second Edition appeared. It had been published anonymously; and in this period the name of the author, which had probably long floated on the public breath, had been lost to the literary world. << In progressu Boreali Veni Banbery, o prophanum! Ubi vidi Puritanum Felem facientem furem, Quia Sabbatho stravit murem ». « In my progresse traveling Northward, To Banbery came I, O prophane one! (1) The date of this MS of Hearne is 1713. The words in Italics were afterwards added, and clearly allude to the reprint of 1716. (2) Probably son of Edw. Wilson, by Iane daughter of Gawen Brathwait of Ambleside Esq. See Burn's Hist. of Westm. 1. 227. But why the author's name should not have come forth at the Restoration; why a composition of so much vivacity, such pure and unfailing humour, such elegant scholarship, so happily colloquial, so adapted to universal popularity, so fitted at once for the polite, the educated, and the common reader, should not at a period so congenial to its political and moral opinions, come into full notice and reputation, remains to be solved! That the Public had a taste for colloquial poetry and witty exposure of political character, is proved by the reception given to Hudibras, of which the Three First Cantos appeared in 1663. It is not meant to compare Barnabee's Journal with this extraordinary production; for there is an essential difference in their features, materials, and manner. Barnabee's distinction is simple, easy humour : Hudibras is almost over-abundant with original and profound wit; with deep knowlege of the perversities of human nature; with exhaustless allusions to abstruse learning with sagacious observations on the conduct of man in society; with axioms, which are become proverbial; with images, of which the felicitous and unexpected similitude never loses its brilliance. was, Brathwait not only survived the Restoration thirteen years; but still continued to write and to publish. But he at this epoch, arrived at the age of 73; and perhaps he thought that the Journal betrayed too much levity for years so far advanced it is true that at the period of publication this objection was in some degree in force: but the two first Parts at least seem to have been written in early youth; and perhaps the poet then trusted to the concealment of his name. On the whole, I am inclined to attribute the neglect and oblivion, into which this poem soon fell, to that very Restoration, by which it ought to have been drawn into full life. All the literature of the preceding twenty years was then indiscriminately forced into one common grave the dead and the living were buried together. The violent change, which took place, made it the fashion to reject every thing, that had before prevailed. All, which could interest, must be now not only gay; but French gaiety. Perhaps the Latin, (however light and happy), of Barnabee, was enough to make him be considered pedantic. In the same manner we must account for the simultaneous rejection of Lovelace, Stanley, Carew, Lord Pembroke, Herrick, and many others; whose poems now ceased to be read, and were soon forgotten. But it is also very probable, that the author of Barnabee's Journal did not himself sufficiently estimate the value of his own composition. I infer this from the character that more or less pervades all the other writings of Brathwait, with which I have had an opportunity of obtaining any acquaintance. In all of them is quaintness, pedantry, and a strong mixture of bad taste. They are the productions of a secondary kind of genius, stimulated into being by the hot-bed of temporary fashion a sort of intermediatory of an accomplished and literary man of the world between the learned, and the mass of idle and busy society. Hence A. Wood's censure, that they were the delight of a former age; the cast-offs of the better informed of that, which succeeded. Johnson says admirably, «< Those modi fications of life and peculiarities of practice, which are the progeny of error and perverseness, or at best of some accidental influence, or transient persuasion, muşt perish with their parents (1) |