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Thofe friends of yours who appear not to be over fanguine in the purfuit of agricultural improvement, perhaps, are prejudiced by floating opinions. Had they marked the refult of actual experience, I prefume, they would have found heep of the Spanish admixture with Ryeland, and other small finewooled sheep, to have produced from an afligned breadth of pafture, more and better mutton, more and better wool, than the native. All those who have had actual experience, and I know many, are decidedly of this fentiment.

I have a fmall flock of ewes defcending, on the female fide, from the Wiltshire breed, and repeated croffings with the Spanish; the carcafe is now reduced to the fize of the Spanish, i. e. to about half that of the Wiltshire; but fleeces of the Wiltshire, I underftand, will not exceed, on the average, 3lb. to 4lb. per fleece. Thefe ewes of mine, with carcafes fo reduced, produced laft fhear-time fleeces weighing 64lb. each, on the average worth 4s. per lb. in the fleece. A clothier in Somerfetfhire is now manufacturing the wool, with a view to claim the premium againft all competitors.

NEHEMIAH BARTLEY.

SIR, Bath, Sept. 4. I will take care to procure for you 5 Ryeland ewes. A few days fince I received 35 of thefe from the neighbourhood of Rofs, belonging to Sir J. Hereford, for the Spanish rams. The fame drover had with him between 40 and 50 wethers ordered by Lord Digby, Sherborne caftle, intended to be fatted for his Lordship's table. I have engaged with this perfon for about 30 ewes, which I expect will be brought here in the courfe of a fortnight, and that the price will be from 258. to 30s, each.

Lord Somerville prefers Ryeland theep for crofling with the Spanith, in which preference I incline to concur, and particularly becaufe they carry finer wool than any other

English breed, with an early dif pofition to fatten. I have Chilver lambs of the laft feafon very clofe to the Spanish, defcending fome from Ryeland ewes, and fome from the old Wiltshire. Thefe are now with the Spanish rams; their offfpring will be, as I think, equal in fineness to native Spanish; indeed the fleeces of fome of their dams have been adjudged to be fo by the manufacturers here. I mean to exhibit these lambs, also some ram lambs of the fame defcent, at our next general meeting, to be holden on Tuefday the 14th inftant.

NEHEMIAH BARTLEY. SIR, Bath, Sept. 6. In aufwer to yours of the 5th, it is my intention to difpofe of a few of the mixed ram and Chilver lambs, namely, 10 of each, which I did not mean to announce till the meeting of the Society. The loweft price of the rams will be 20 guineas each, and of the Chilvers 6 guineas. Should you, on these terms, be difpofed to take a ram or two, and not exceeding 5 ewes, I will chufe for the best, and fet them apart previous to the meeting. They nominally contain fomething of the English blood; but, in point of fact, their fleeces will prove equal to the native Spanish; indeed the fleeces of their dams have been fo adjudged by manufacturers; of. the latter, I have difpofed of all I chufe to fpare at 6 guineas each.

As to carcafe, the lambs are confidered to be much handfoner than that of the entire Spanish.. The Chilvers are now with the Spanish rams; for perhaps the proper time to produce is that pointed out by nature, and the method is become of general adoption. In a national view alfo; it is to diffufe the improvement more rapidly. The ram lambs ought alfo to be thus employed.

Lord Somerville has difpofed of a two-tooth ram of the first cross at 30 guineas; and I have another of the fame cross waiting here for a gentleman at 35 guineas.

NEHEMIAH BARTLEY.

Mr,

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the hermitage on the river Itchen, at Southampton; of which an account may be feen in Sir Harry Englefield's learned "Walk round Southampton" a work much efteemed by every admi rer of Antiquities. The ring is in the poffeffion of Arthur Hammond, efq. of that town. An explanation of the Z. infcription is requefied.

Mr. URBAN, Lancaster, O&. 26. TH HE drawing jig. 7) reprefents pretty accurately a fione pillar now to be feen at Foley, a farm-houfe about a mile to the North of this town.

It was lately found in a field near the abovementioned houfe, about 18 inches below the furface of the ground, by fome workinen who were digging for the foundation of a lime-kiln. The ftone is very entire; and the letters, which are cut into it, and not raijed, or in relievo, are very legible, except the two lines marked with afterisks, which are much effaced by time. The ftone is about 2 feet 8 inches in height by two feet in breadth. On one fide of it is the axe, and on the other fide the cutting-knife, neatly cut in relievo.

By giving this a place in your ufeful Mifcellany, it may probably incie fome of your ingenious correfpondents to favour the publick with their opinions on fo curious a piece of antiquity, and at the fame time much oblige, Yours, &c. M. TERRY. GENT. MAG. November, 1802.

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Codrus perfifts on my vex'd ear to force
His Thefeid; muft I, to my fate refign'd,
Hear, ONLY hear, and never pay in kind?
Muft this with farce and folly rack my head
Unpunith'd? that, with fing-fong whine
me dead?

Muft Telephus, huge Telephus! at will,
The day, unpunith'd, wafte? or, huger still,
Oreites with broad margin over-writ
And back, and-O ye gods! not finish'd yet?
Away I know not my own houfe fo well
As the trite, thread-bare themes on which
ye dwell;
[winds roar,
Mars' grove, and Vulcan's cave! how the
How ghofts are tortur'd on the Stygian shore,
How Jafon ftole the golden fleece, and how
TheCentaurs fought on thry's thaggy brow,

(The columns trembling with th' eternal found);

While high and low, as the mad fit invades, Bellow the fame dull nonfenfe through the

fhades.

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She wipt into the flew infeen, unknown,
And hir'd a cell, ye reeking, for her own.
There, Ainging off her drefs, th' imperial
whore
[door,
Stend with bar: breafts, and gilded, at the
And hew'd Britannicus, to all that came,
The wombyha: hore thee, in Lycnica's name:
Allur'd the patiers by with many a wile,
And aft'd her price, and took it, with a
fmile;

And when the hour of bufine's was expir'd,
And all the girls difmifed with fighs retir'd,
Yet hat could he did, flowly the paft,
And fare her man, and thut her cell the laft.
Still raging with the fever of defire,
Her veins all turgid, and her blood all fire,
Exhaufted, but unfatisfied, the fought
Her home, and to the emperor's pillow
brought
[with pois nous dews,
Cheeks r. nk with fweat, limbs drench'd
The fteam of tamps, and odour of the ftows."
As a note ou one part of this paffage
we have-

« With bare breafts, and gilded, &c.] The criticks do not feem to understand this paffage; they either fuppofe Meffalina's breaths to be bound with golden fillets, or they change auratis (gilded) into o'natis (beautiful): but Juvenal is to be understood literally the pupilia were covered with gold leaf; a fpecies of ornament which, however repugnant to our ideas of beauty, is ufed by many of the dancing girls and privileged tourtezans of the East to this day."

The tenth, that poetic, fervid, and majeftie Satire, which Bp. Burnet recommended to his clergy in his Paftoral Letters, is tranflated by Mr. Gifford with peculiar energy. The spirit of poely, however, in one of Juvenal's lines feems to have been too fubtle for Mr. Gifford's Mufe to transfer with full effect.

"In ev'ry clime, from Ganges' diftant

ftream

To Gades, gilded by the Western Beam,
Few, from the clouds of mental error free,
In its true light or good or evil fet.
For what, with reafon,do we feek or fhum?
What plan, how happily foe'er begun,
That, when atchiev'd, we do not with
undone ?

The gods have heard with too indu'gent
ears,
[pray'rs.
And cruth'd whole families beneath their
Bewildered this, by folly or hy fate,
We beg pernicious gifs in ev'ry itate:
A copious tide, a full and rapid flow
Of eloquence lays many a fpeaker low;
E'en ftregth itself is fatal; Milo tries
His wond'rous arms, and in the trial dies.
But heaps of wealth have still more dan-
g'rous "rov'

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Which Mr. Gifford tranflates→→→→ "The gods have heard with too indulgent ears, [pray 'rs. And crush'd whole families beneath their

But Dryden feems to have fastened on its import with greater eafe: "Whole houfes, of their whole defires poffeft,

Are often ruin'd at their own request.”

On the paffage which has just been quoted Mr. G. has these notes : "Milo tries

His wond'rous arms, &c.] The ftory of Milo is told in two words by Rofcommon: Remember Milo's end,

Wedg'd in the timber which he strove to

rend.'

"The traveller, &c.] Pauca licet portes, &c.-This, which ali tranflators take for an imaginary cafe, I believe to be an historical fact. The poet is ftill fpeaking of Nero's time; and he alludes to the cautious patience of thofe who, being in poffeffion of a few valuables, wished to remove them without being feen: note iter ingreffus; even thus they trembled for their fafety. The rapacity of Nero is again noticed ru the twelfth Satire, which fee."

The firft of the paffages in queftion is explained with confiderable eafe; a Gerinan commentator would have favoured us with 50 dry quotations, not half to applicable, perhaps, either to Milo or the timber.

Another favourable fpecimen may be felected from the fame Satire; where Juvenal, having taken his fiand upon the theatre of the world, fummons before him the illufirious characters of all

*(rou anxiously emotsid, too fondly lov'd); ages, to fhew, from the principal

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