It is impoffible to particularize the minute touches of defcription, which are equally fpirited and characteriftic. Some of the sketches poffefs peculiar excellence, as the Grifon gypfey-a very different being from the gypfey of Goldfmith and of Rogers. Many of the circumftances which compofe this picture are frightful to the fancy. The roofed bridge, where fhe is driven for fhelter, quivers in the form, and the water fpirits call fearfully from below; a

folitary light glimmers in the vale
the death-dog howls, and banditti
voices talk, the bufhes ruftle, and the
wolf approaches at the cry of her
child. The Lake of Uri is delineat-
ed in a more chafte and correct ftile,
and almost with the pencil of Gold-
fmith. The Chamois Chacer, and
the life of the Swifs Mountaineer,
are ftriking and original fketches,
as well as the Slavery of Savoy, and
the Influence of Liberty on Cottage
Happiness. Every perfon of real
tafte, that perufes these sketches,
will immediately recognize the true
enthufiaftic
energy of poetry, both
in the fentiment and in the expref-
fion; but he will at the fame time
regret the uncorrect colouring which
often sheds a falfe and tawdry luftre
over the real beauties of defeription.
The language is ftrong and vigorous,
but defective in respect of fimplicity:
the phrafeology is often original, but
clogged with exuberance of epithet,
and allures us from the ferenity of
obfervation, and the fweet deceptions
of fympathy, to attend to its own
uncommon ftructure. Indeed the la-
bour of compofition is too apparent
both in the fentiment and the expref-
fiom The ftructure becomes gawdy
from redundance of ornament; and
refembles a Grecian temple deform-
ed by the minute fritterings of Go-
thic architecture.

L. [Observations on BOWLES'S COOMBE ELLEN in our next Number.] ·

SIR,

IT

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.

T is a common obfervation among literary men, that in the most admired, compofitions that are generally reckoned original, there is very little originality. Not only are the fineft thoughts which occur in one fpecies of writing tranfplanted from another, incidents modified anew, and the names of characters changed, but even the plans of the most ori

ginal works are borrowed. So much impreffed was Voltaire with this idea, that he compares the inftructions we derive from books to fire, which we obtain from others, kindle at home, and communicate till it become the property of all. Every perfon has heard of the German who curfed the ancients for ftealing his good thoughts; but it muftbe owned that

the

the marauding ancients have caught a parcel of Tartars in the moderns, who have not failed to plunder them in their turn. Montaigne informs us, that he practifed a curious method of plagiarism, in which he has been copied with great fuccefs. He tells us, that he ufed to infert whole fentences from the ancients without acknowledgment, that the critics" is only a vague reference to the

might give nasardes to Seneca and Plutarch, while they imagined that they tweaked his nofe. Thus the moft original ideas in the Emilius of Rouffeau, and the mott ufeful part of that performance are borrowed in a note, in which the author of from the Tractate on Education, "this plagiarifm affects to particulafalfely attributed to Plutarch (if we "rize what opinions of Dr Hunter may truft Wyttenbach,) as Williams" are original; refers, in general, has shown at great length in his Lec"for the reft to a multitude of gramtures on Education. “marians, and, as if he were not yet

cal difcrimination and fcience would treated according to the reviewer's ftatement? Dr Hunter's fame as a grammarian is defervedly great, but can we believe he would have been fo little folicitous about his literary reputation, as to fuffer himself to be quietly fwindled out of the fruit of his laborious hours of study? Befides, the reviewer states the fact as one that is well known, whereas I had never before heard fuch an infinuation. I therefore request an elucidation of this fubject from any of your correfpondents or readers that may happen to be acquainted with the real ftate of the fact; and I do this with the greater expectation, as, from the circulation of your Magazine, it may be expected to reach either Dr Hunter, or Dr Gleig, or Mr Bruce, or fome of their friends. Edin. July 8th, 1799. PHILALETHRI.

have compofed for the Encyclopædia Britannica. Upon confulting the preface to the Encyclopædia Britannica, I difcovered an error in the statement of the reviewer; for it is not Dr Gleig the editor, but a Mr Bruce, whom I have fince discovered to be an Epifcopal clergyman at Dundee, who makes the acknowledgment to Dr Hunter of St Andrews; but then, in other refpects, the statement of facts feems to be correct, and of the intention it is im. poffible for me to judge. Can we fuppofe, however, that Mr Bruce would have made fuch an apology to Dr Hunter, if he had been guilty of the proceeding with which he is charged by the reviewer? Again, can we fuppofe that Dr Hunter would have remained filent, if he had been

HOPE

DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEW.

OPETOUN Houfe, the feat of the Right Honourable the Earl of Hopetoun, is fituate on the fouthern bank of the Forth, at the distance of about twelve miles north-weft from Edinburgh, aud within three miles of the burgh of Queensferry.

It is a stately and magnificent manfion; fronting the fouth; and accommodated with stables and other office houfes, uncommonly fumptuous and fuperb.

The bank upon which it ftands, rifing holdly over the Frith below, fpreads into an extenfive terrace; the furface of which is very gently varied by fome low and unequal fwells. Beyond this terraced bank, the level of the ground partially fubfides, and then rifes with a confiderable, but not disagreeably abrupt declivity, fo as to protect and fhelter the whole fcene below.

In the decoration of this fcene, much labour and expence have been apparently lavished, with tafte and fkill uncommonly happy. A beau.

tiful lawn expands immediately a round the houfe. A fpacious kitchen-garden fills the fubfiding bottom. On the skirts of the lawn, wood is beautifully difpofed; prefenting, firft, picturefque fingle trees; then thickening gradually into one furrounding mafs of verdant fhade; which, however, opens here and there, at proper points of view, to unveil to the eye diftant profpects, which invite and charm it, with all the power of the faireft landfcapes, felected and embellished by the genius of defign, and the most exquisite touches of the hand of painting. Path-ways are romantically conduct. ed through the encircling woods; and ruftic feats are difperfed here and there, under the trees; fuggefting to imagination, the bewitching, rural fimplicity; the love, the innocence, the uncloying joys, which have been attributed to the Arcadian scenery of the pastoral poets. A ftately wall encompaffes and bounds the whole fcene. It is acceffible by a fpacious

a fpacious road afcending from the interior fhore of the Frith, and by another paffage on the western fide. But, the advantages of profpect which Hopetoun Houfe and its circumjacent ornamented grounds enjoy, are fuch as to exceed every beauty that they have acquired from interior decoration. Towards the north weft extremity, on the very verge of the Frith, there is a point of view, from which the eye commands the whole turnings and windings of the Forth, with the expanfe of the Frith, from Stirling, to the ifle of May and North Berwick Law. The majestic course of the river, the widening Frith, the expanfion of the bay, the iflets fcattered amid the waters, the veffels of every form, gliding to and fro upon the furface, the towns and harbours appearing a round the coaft, the wide tract extending northward beyond the ftream, and bounded only by Ben Lomond, and by the Ochill and Grampian Hills; prefent all together, a fcene

of land and water; of the beauties and wonders of Nature, and the works of Art; fuch a wide range of ftill fcenery, and that fo much animated by the majeftic courfe of the stream, and by the bustle of men and other animals; fuch an endless diverfity, and fuch unceafing viciffitudes of all the effects of light and fhade; fo many objects, interefting naturally, and by themselves, and fuch a multitude of others fitted to engage the mind by every charm of affiation; fuch a combination of the fublime, the beautiful, and the picturefque; that it is probably unequalled in Britain; and is most certainly without a parallel in Scotland. It aftonishes the mind, at a firft profpect; and fixes it in a fort of awful admiration and delight, amid which all thofe mingled emotions are called up, which beauty or fublimity is capable to excite. Many other enchanting profpets are to be enjoyed from other points of view within these grounds.

This View is taken from the east.

CHARACTER OF THE LATE LORD SANDWICH.

ORD Sandwich was in every relation of life truly amiable. He was a good and affectionate father, a kind master to his fervants, moft of whom were known tolive in his service many years; and fome at this day remain in the family, maintained under the protection of the prefent Earl. They who were in the habit of living with him had every day occafion to obferve and admire the sweetness of his temper, which fhewed itself in continual acts of kindness and benevolent attention to all around him. His Lordfhip's heart was ever open to the exiof the diftreffed, and at all gences times moft ready and willing to admi. nifter relief; which he was the more enabled to do by his influence and intereft, when in power, than in his individual capacity; his patrimonial eftate, particularly in his early days, being too narrow to allow the exertion

of his benevolence in the extent which he wifhed. He was, however, as it were, inftinctively difpofed to relieve the miferies of life, in whatever shape they prefented themfelves to his notice. But his benevolence was not confined to persons of this defcription only; it extended to others, who, on the various contests in which he was engaged, opposed him with much vehemence in the purfuit of objects which he had moft at heart. So placable was his difpofition, that when the conteft was over, he rendered to many of them effential fervices; fo open to recon-. ciliation, that on the flighteft overtures he forgave even those who, after having received from him the higheft obligations, were most forward to affift his enemies in the virulent attacks fo repeatedly made on him while in office.

ON

9

ON THE INJUSTICE OF MENTAL SUBORDINATION.
From Mifs Randall's Letter to the Women of England.

WISH not to advise the fex againft cultivating what modern writers term, the Graces*. I would have woman highly, eminently polished; the fhould dance, if her form be well proportioned; the fhould fing, if nature has endowed her with the power of conveying that harmony fo foothing to the fenfes. She fhould draw, paint, and perform fanciful talks with her needle; particularly if her frame be delicate, her intellects feminine. But if nature has given her ftrong mental powers, half her hours of study should be devoted to more important acquirements. She fhould likewife, if ftrong and active, be, indulged in minor fports; fuch as fwimming, the ufe of the ball, and foot-racing, &c. We should then fee British Atalantas, as well as female Nimrods.

However fingular it may appear to a reflecting mind, hunting, certainly one of the most barbarous of mafculine fports, is, in Europe, tolerated as an amusement for the fofter fex! There again, weakness is, by the humane ordinance of man, devoted to perfecution. The harmless ftag and timid hare are hunted to deftruction, even by women!-Why, in this fingle inftance, does man agree in the propriety of mafculine purfuits? Why does the hufband, without apprehenfion or difguft, permit the tender, weak, and delicate partner of his cares, to leap a quarry or a five-barred gate, at the fame time that he would deem it the excefs of arrogance, to offer an

opinion on any subject which man confiders as exclufively adapted to his difcuffion? I can only conclude, that a wife has full permiffion to break her neck; though fhe is forbid to think or speak like a rational creaturet.

Why are women excluded from the auditory part of the British fenate? The welfare of their country cannot fail to interest their feelings; and eloquence both exalts and refines the understandingt. Man makes woman a frivolous creature, and then condemns her for the folly he inculcates. He tells her, that beauty is her first and most powerful attraction; her fecond, complacency of temper and softness of manners. She therefore dedicates half her hours to the embellishment of her perfon, and the other half to the practice of foft, languifhing, fentimental infipidity. She difdains to be strong minded, because the fears being accounted mafculine; fhe trembles at every breeze, faints at every peril, and yields to every affailant, because it would be unwomanly to defend herself. She fees no resemblance of her own character in the Portias and Cornelias of antiquity; fhe is content to be the epitome of her celebrated archetype, the good woman of St Giles's!

The embargo upon words, the enforcement of tacit fubmiffion, has been productive of confequences highly honourable to the women of the prefent age. Since the fex have been

con.

*The mind of woman, in proportion as it is expanded by education, will beCome refined. Mental emulation would be the beft lafeguard against the vanity of fenfual conqueft.

+ A hufband infers from this conduct, that he permits his wife to act like a madwoman, but he does not allow her to think like a wife one.

Many of the American tribes admit women inte their public councils, and allow them the privileges of giving their opinions, first, on every fubject of deliberation. The ancient Britons allowed the female fex the fame right; but in modern Britain women are scarcely allowed to exprefs any opinions at all!

This elegant and eflimable female is reprefented headlefs;-and I believe almost the only female in the kingdom univerfally allowed to be a good woman. Ed. Mag. July 1799.

B