of the Town-Hall, Sessions-House, Goal, Friary, (now Barracks,) the Markets, and Places of Worship besides those of the Establishment. Under this last head, mention is made of a very peculiar and, we believe, unique circumstance, viz. the en. dowment of a Presbyterian Meeting-house by a Clergyman of the Established Church; one of the Rectors of St. Mary's Church having left 401. per annum to support the Presbyterian meeting and interest in this townf.

Among the miscellaneous matters, we meet with Abbrevia tions from an old book called the Black Book, written in the times of Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV., Henry VII., in which mention is made of bull baytinge as a thing worn out of use and not fit to be revived." If our unpolished ancestors held this opinion, what shall we say of a British House of Commons, which, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, could sanction and encourage this barbarous sport-fit only for Savages?

ART. VIII. The Poems of George Huddesford, M. A., late Fellow of New College, Oxford. Including Salmagundi, Topsy-Turvy, Bubble and Squeak, and Crambe Repetita. With Corrections, and Original Additions. 8vo. 2 Vols. 12s. Boards. Wright.

1801.

То

the principal poems comprehended in this new and ele gant edition, due attention at their first publication was paid, in several of our volumes since the commencement of our New Series; and we with pleasure hailed the appearance of this sportive muse,-then new to the world. In later vols. of our Review, we offered the just tribute of applause to the successive productions of the same witty, and humourous writer, as mentioned in the title-page of the present re-publication.

With respect to the smaller poems by which this miscellany is enriched, Mr. H. himself thus speaks of them, in his prefatory advertisement:

The shorter Compositions contained in the First Volume, are interspersed with the productions of abler pens than his own: these, having been almost all of them given to the public in former editions of his SALMAGUNDI, (the favourable reception of which he is sensible that they have essentially promoted,) he has here re-edited them. They will be found, in the Table of Contents, to be distin guished with asterisms, and attributed to their proper owners.'

This acknowlegement is handsome; and it was due to the merit of the performances, particularly to the sweetly flowing lines of S. T. Esq.

We

We observe that considerable additions are now made to the exquisite poem intitled Salmagundi; among which we could not but note a very droll transformation of the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his fiery furnace, with his three Hebrew Salamanders,' which could not be burnt. In this burlesque exhibition of the majesty of Babylon, we are indebted to the playful poet for a hearty laugh:-but we must refer to the volume.

We shall now give a specimen or two of a different kind from the Poet's other novelties, here presented to his well entertained readers ;-and, first, let us have

'A SONG.

• Tho' Fortune may boast at her shrine
That the world's adoration is paid,
No idol shall she be of mine:
No devotion I owe the blind jade:
Yet rich in affection I live,
For tell me what boon so divine
Has a world of luxuriance to give
As one smile, my dear Mary, of thine?
The glitt'ring distinctions of state
May the envy of sycophants move;
But who would forego, to be great,
Independence, contentment, and love?
Gems and ore do not fall' to my share :
But what gem can such transport impart
As one glance of thy kindness, my Fair!
What mine's half so rich as thy heart?
With Fate let them quarrel that choose,
Chagrin shall ne'er furrow my brow,
To the pray'r of thy swain let the Muse,
Dear Maid, be propitious as Thou!
Then a truce with thy counsels, old Care,
Not a sigh at thy bidding I'll breathe:
For, though sombre the garb that I wear,
Yet light is my heart underneath.'

Bravo!-Another song, from the performance at the Wick bamical Anniversary :

WILLIAM OF WICKHAM, A SONG,

FOR THE WICKHAMICAL ANNIVERSARY, HELD AT
THE CROWN AND ANCHOR TAVERN,

I sing not your heroes of ancient romance :

Capadocian George, or Saint Dennis of France;

No chronicler I am

Of Troy and King Priam,

And those crafty old Greeks who to fritters did fry 'em :

But your voices, brave boys, one and all I bespeak 'em,
In due celebration of WILLIAM of WICKHAM.

" CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, at the Crown and the Anchor
The flask never quit 'till clean out they have drank her;
And united maintain, whether sober or mellow,

That old BILLY WICKHAM was a very fine fellow.

Hear the Lover: you'll learn, from his tragical stories
Of hard-hearted Phoebe, Corinna, and Chloris,
For some sempstress or starcher,

That rascally archer,

Call'd Cupid, has made him as mad as a March hare:
But at WICKHAM's brave boys should he brandish his dart,
We'll drown the blind rogue in a Winchester quart.

" CHORUS.

For WICKHAM's brave boys, &c.

Let the Soldier, who prates about storming the trenches
Of fortified towns, and of fair-visag'd wenches,

My numbers give heed to,

And, drinking as we do,

Shut up in its scabbard his martial toledo :
For we too shed blood, yet all danger escape,
Since the blood that we shed is the blood of the grape.

6 CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, &c.

Let Lawyers, accustom'd to quarrel and brawl,
Play the devil as usual in Westminster Hall,

Reputations bespatter,

Yet thrive and grow fatter,

While they dash wrong and right up as cookmaids do batter:
Here good fellowship reigns and, what's stranger by far,
No mischief ensues from a call to the Bar.

6 CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, &c.

Th' Empiric profound, who in heathenish Latin
Such potions prescribes as might poison old Satan,
With blister and bolus

And draught would cajole us,

'Till snug under ground he has clapt in a hole us:
But the wise sons of WICKHAM his regimen slight,
They swallow no draughts but of red wine and white.
C CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, &c.

Let Whig Rhetoricians our rulers defame,
And hungry Sedition's republican flame
Foment, and throw chips on,

Independance their lips on,

While they incense a mob, and exist by Subscription:

Here

Here of Liberty's Tree if for scions they search,
They'll instead catch a tartar,—Wickhamical Birch.

CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, &c.

Ye Poetical tribe, on Parnassus who forage,
Who prate of Jove's nectar and Helicon-porridge,
Yet, for beef-steaks and brandy,

Set each Jack-a-dandy

On a level with Frederick, or Prince Ferdinandy:
What's the sword of King Arthur, or Admiral Hosier,
TO WILLIAM of WICKHAM and his jolly old Crosier!
6 CHORUS.

Let WICKHAM's brave boys, at the Crown and the Anchor,
The flask never quit 'till clean out they have drank her ;
And united maintain, whether sober or mellow,

That old BILLY WICKHAM was a very fine fellow.'

To the lovers of rural felicity' we recommend the following

SONNET.

Around my porch and lowly casement spread
The myrtle sear, and gadding vine,

With fragrant sweetbriar loves to intertwine;

And in my garden 's box-encircled bed

The pansie pied, the musk-rose, white and red,
The pink and tulip, and honied woodbine,

Fling odours round; the flaunting eglantine

Decks my trim fence, 'neath which, by Silence led,
The Wren hath wisely fram'd her mossy cell;
And, far from noise in courtly land so rife,
Nestles her young to rest and warbles well:
Here in this safe retreat and peaceful glen
I pass my sober moments, far from men,
Nor wishing death too soon, nor asking life'

We shall conclude our extracts with a touch of old Elwes :

• IMITATION FROM THE GREEK.

Μεν Ασκληπιάδης ὁ Φιλάργυρος, κ. τ. λ.

⚫ Old Elwes once espied a Mouse

In the Dry Corner of his house :

Anthol.

And,

While his relation, the late Colonel Tims, was visiting Mr. Elwes at his house at Marcham, in Berkshire, a heavy shower falling in the night, he found the rain dropping through the ceiling upon his bed; on which he immediately rose and moved the bed from its place; he had, however, scarcely got into it again ere he found the same inconvenience recur, and oblige him to have recourse a second time to the same experiment, which still proved ineffectual. At length, after having pushed his bed quite round the room, he gained a corner where the ceiling was better secured, and there he

T 2

slept

And, though he had no cause to fear,
"Curse you!" quoth he, "what do you here?”
The Mouse indignant rais'd his head,
And thus, but without passion, said:
"No mouse alive would hither come
That had on earth another home.
"Tis not the risk we run, not that;
You ha'n't the heart to keep a cat.
Then traps, we know, are never set;
And why? because you grudge the bait.
We're in security, I grant,

But, safe from danger, die for want:
Tho' I should lodge here, why fear you?
When do you roast, or bake, or brew?
The mouse that trusted to your shelf
Would soon grow leaner than Yourself:
For never a morsel did I see

To put to the test my honesty.
But I disdain, Sir, to intrude
After your speech so gross and rude;
And think not that I make pretence ;
Upon my honour I'll go hence:
For in the rest of all your house

There's no fit lodging for a MOUSE."

We will not say as some have said, that wit and humour are of no party, but that they are of all parties; and therefore those readers, whose political opinions may not be in unison with the sentiments of Mr. H., should nevertheless peruse his verses with pleasure, and applaud their merit with sincerity.

ART. IX. Mr. Whiter's Etymologicon Magnum; or Universal Etymological Dictionary.

[Article concluded from p. 134.]

OUR UR strictures on the preliminary positions of Mr. Whiter have carried us so much into detail, that we can spare but little room for the examination of the theory itself, and of the evidence which is brought to substantiate it :-a few general remarks, however, we shall now endeavour to subjoin.

In the first place, we must observe that the theory is imperfect and unsatisfactory.-We are told, in the outset, that the same consonants always express the same elementary slept till morning. When he encountered his host at breakfast, he told him what had happened." Aye, aye!" said the old gentleman, seriously, "I don't mind it myself; but to those who do, that a nice Corner, in the rain."-See the Life of John Elwes, Esq page 13.'-See also M. Rev. vol. i. N. S. p. 447.

meaning