head. However, we first approach, upon the left, a chalybeate spring, with an iron bowl chained to it, and this inscription upon a stone:

'Fons ferrugineus

Divæ quæ secessu isto frui concedit 17.'

Then turning to the right, we find a stone seat, making part of the aforesaid cave, with this wellapplied inscription:

Intus aquæ dulces, vivoque sedilia saxo;
Nympharum domus 18'

which I have often heard Mr. Shenstone term the definition of a grotto. We now wind up a shady path on the left hand, and crossing the head of this cascade, pass beside the river that supplies it in our way up to the house. One seat first occurs under a shady oak as we ascend the hill; soon after we enter the shrubbery, which half surrounds the house, where we find two seats, thus inscribed to two of his most particular friends. The first thus:

Within are wholesome springs, and marble seats
Carved in the living rock, of Nymphs the bless'd retreats.

Ipsæ te, Tityre! pinus,

Ipsi te fontes, ipsa hæc arbusta, vocabant 20'

and a little further the other, with the following inscription:

'Amicitiæ et meritis

RICHARDI JAGO"1.'

From this last is an opening down the valley over a large sliding lawn, well edged with oaks, to a piece of water crossed by a considerable bridge in the flat-the steeple of Hales, a village amid trees, making on the whole a very pleasing picture. Thus winding through flowering shrubs, beside a menagerie for doves, we are conducted to the stables. But, let it not be forgot, that on the entrance into this shrubbery the first object that strikes us is a Venus de Medicis, beside a bason of gold-fish, encompassed round with shrubs, and illustrated with the following inscription:

'Semi-reducta Venus 22"

'To Venus, Venus here retired,
My sober vows I pay;

Not her on Paphian plains admired,

The bold, the pert, the gay.

'Not her whose amorous leer prevail'd

To bribe the Phrygian boy;

Not her who, clad in armour, fail'd
To save disastrous Troy.

20

EXPLANATION.

Thee, Tityrus! the pines,

The crystal springs, the very groves, invoked.

21 To the friendship and merits of

RICHARD JAGO.

22 Venus half-retired.

62

A DESCRIPTION OF THE LEASOWES.

'Fresh rising from the foamy tide,

She every bosom warms,

While half withdrawn she seems to hide,
And half reveals her charms.

'Learn hence, ye boastful sons of Taste!
Who plan the rural shade,

Learn hence to shun the vicious waste
Of pomp, at large display'd.

'Let sweet concealment's magic art
Your mazy bounds invest,
And while the sight unveils a part,
Let Fancy paint the rest.

'Let coy reserve with cost unite
To grace your wood or field;
No ray obtrusive pall the sight,
In aught you paint or build.

And far be driven the sumptuous glare
Of gold, from British groves,

And far the meretricious air

Of China's vain alcoves.

'Tis bashful Beauty ever twines
The most coercive chain;

"Tis she that sovereign rule declines,
Who best deserves to reign.'

A

PREFATORY ESSAY ON ELEGY.

BY WILLIAM SHENSTONE.

It is observable that discourses prefixed to poetry are contrived very frequently to inculcate such tenets as may exhibit the performance to the greatest advantage: the fabric is very commonly raised in the first place, and the measures by which we are to judge of its merit are afterwards adjusted.

There have been few rules given us by the critics concerning the structure of Elegiac poetry; and far be it from the author of the following trifles to dignify his own opinions with that denomination: he would only intimate the great variety of subjects, and the different styles in which the writers of Elegy have hitherto indulged themselves, and endeavour to shield the following ones by the latitude of their example.

If we consider the etymology of the word', the epithet which Horace gives it2, or the confession which Ovid makes concerning it 3, I think we may conclude thus much however, that Elegy, in its true and genuine acceptation, includes a tender and querulous idea; that it looks upon this as its peculiar characteristic, and so long as this is thoroughly sustained, admits of a variety of subjects, 1 EXEYE, E-particulam dolendi.

2 Miserabiles elegos.

HOR.

3 Heu nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit.

OVID. de Morte Tibulli.

which by its manner of treating them it renders its own: it throws its melancholy stole over pretty different objects, which, like the dresses at a funeral procession, gives them all a kind of solemn and uniform appearance.

It is probable that Elegies were written, at first, upon the death of intimate friends and near relations; celebrated beauties, or favourite mistresses; beneficent governors and illustrious men: one may add, perhaps, of all those who are placed by Virgil in the laurel grove of his Elysium. (Vide Hurd's Dissertation on Horace's Epistle)

Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.

After these subjects were sufficiently exhausted, and the severity of fate displayed in the most affecting instances, the poets sought occasion to vary their complaints, and the next tender species of sorrow that presented itself was the grief of absent or neglected lovers; and this indulgence might be indeed allowed them, but with this they were not contented: they had obtained a small corner in the province of love, and they took advantage, from thence, to overrun the whole territory: they sung its spoils, triumphs, ovations, and rejoicings 4, as well as the captivity and exequies that attended it: they gave the name of Elegy to their pleasantries as well as lamentations; till at last, through their abundant fondness for the myrtle, they forgot that the cypress was their peculiar garland.

In this it is probable they deviated from the original design of Elegy; and it should seem that

4 Dicite Io Paan, et Io bis dicite Pæan. Ovid.