hanging coppices; on one fide of which is a wood, full of large timber trees, and thick with underwood. This receives into its bofom a finall irregular piece of water, the other end of which is open; and the light there breaking in enlivens all the reft; even where trees overhang, or thickets border upon the banks, though the reflection of the shadows, the ftillness of the water, and the depth of the wood, fpread a composure over the whole fcence; yet the coolnets of it ftrikes no chill; the fhade spreads no gloom; the retreat is peaceful and filent, but not folemn; a refreshing shelter from the fcorching heat of noon, without fuggesting the most distant idea of the damp and the darkness of night.

• A rill much more gentle than any of the former, runs from this piece of water, through a coppice of confiderable length, dropping here and there down a fhallow fall, or winding about little aits, in which fome groupes of fmall trees are growing. The path is conducted along the bank to the foot of a hill, which it climbs in an aukward zig-zag; and on the top it enters a strait walk, over arched with trees: but though the afcent and the terrace command charming profpects, they are both too artificial for the character of the Leafowes. The path, however, as foon as it is freed from this reftraint, recovers its former fimplicity; and defcends through feveral fields, from which are many pretty views of the farm, diftinguished by the varieties of the ground, the different enclosures, the hedges, the hedge-rows, and the thickets, which divide them; or the clumps, the single trees, and now and then a hay-stack, which fometimes break the lines of the boundaries, and fometimes itand out in the midst of the pastures.

At the end of the defcent, an enchanting grove overspreads a finall valley, the abrupt fides of which form the banks of a lovely rivulet, which winds along the bottom: the ftream rufhes into the dell by a very precipitate cafcade, which is feen through openings in the trees, glimmering at a distance the fhades which over hang it: the current, as it proamong ceeds, drops down feveral falls; but between them it is placid and smooth; it is every where clear, and fometimes dappled by gleams of light; while the fhadow of every fingle leaf is marked on the water; and the verdure of the foliage above, of the mofs, and the grafs, and the wild plants, on the brink, feem brightened in the reflection: various pretty clusters of open coppice wood are difperfed about the banks; stately foreft trees rife in beautiful groupes upon fine fwelling knoles above them; and often one or two detached from the reft, incline down the flopes, or flant across the stream: as the valley defcends, it grows more gloomy; the rivulet is loft in a pool, VOL. XXIX. June, 1770.

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which

which is dull, encompaffed and darkened by large trees; and just before the stream enters it, in the midst of a plantation of yews, is a bridge of one arch, built of a dufky coloured ftone, and fimple even to rudeness; but this gloom is not a black fpot, ill-united with the reft; it is only a deeper caft of shade; no part of the fcene is lightfome; a folemnity prevails over the whole; and it receives an additional dignity from an infcription on a small obelifk, dedicating the grove to the genius of Virgil; near to this delightful spot is the first entrance into the grounds; and thither the walk immediately tends, alohg the fide of a rill.

But it would be injuftice to quit the Leafowes, without mentioning one or two circumftances, which in following the courfe of the walk could not well be taken notice of. The art with which the divifions between the fields are diverfified is one of them; even the hedges are diftinguifhed from each other; a common quickfet fence is in one place the feparation; in another, it is a lofty hedge-row, thick from the top to the bottom; in a third, it is a continued range of trees, with all their fems clear, and the light appearing in the interval between their boughs, and the bushes beneath them; in others thefe lines of trees are broken, a few groupes only being left at different distances; and fometimes a wood, a grove, a coppice, or a thicket, is the apparent boundary, and by them both the fhape, and the ftyle of the enclosures is varied.

The infcriptions which abound in the place, are another ftriking peculiarity; they are well known, and juftly admired; and the elegance of the poetry, and the aptnefs of the quotations, atone for their length and their number; but in general, infcriptions please no more than once; the utmost they can pretend to, except when their allufions are emblematical, is to point out the beauties, or defcribe the effects, of the spots they belong to; but thofe beauties and those effects must be very faint, which ftand in need of the affiftance: infcriptions however to commemorate a departed friend, are evidently exempt from the cenfure; the monuments would be unintelligible without them; and an urn in a lonely grove, or in the midst of a field, is a favourite embellifhent at the Leafowes; they are indeed among the principal ornaments of the place; for the buildings are mofily mere feats, or little root-houses; a ruin of a priory is the largeft, and that has no peculiar beauty to recommend it; but a multiplicity of objects are unneceffary in the farm; the country it commands is full of them; and every natural advantage of the place within itself has been difcovered, applied, contrafted, and carried to the utmoft perfection, in the pureft tafte, and with inexhauftible fancy.

• Among

• Among the ideas of paftoral poetry which are here introduced, its mythology is not omitted; but the allufions are both to ancient and to modern fables; fometimes to the fayes and fairies; and fometimes to the naiads and muses. The objects also are borrowed partly from the scenes which this country exhibited fome centuries ago, and partly from those of Arcadia: the priory, and a Gothic feat, ftill more particularly characterised by an infcription in obfolete language and the black letter, belong to the one; the urns, Virgil's obelisk, and a ruftic temple of Pan, to the other. All these allufions and objects are indeed equally rural; but the images in an English and a claffical eclogue are not the fame; each species is a diftinct imitative character; either is proper; either will raise the farm it is applied to above the ordinary level; and within the compafs of the fame place both may be introduced; but they should be feparate; when they are mixed, they counteract one another; and no reprefentation is produced of the times and the countries they refer to. A certain district should therefore be allotted to each, that all the fields which belong to the respective characters may lie together; and the correfponding ideas be preferved for a continuance.'

We doubt not but this beautiful defcription alone, will convey a fufficient idea of the entertainment to be met with in these Observations on Modern Gardening.

V. The Deferted Village, a Poem, by Dr. Goldsmith. 410. Pr. 25. Griffin.

T would be doing great injustice to eminent poetical merit, not to give our particular attention to this poem.—It is evident, from the Deserted Village, and from the Traveller, that in descriptive poetry Dr. Goldsmith has few fuperiors. He seems to poffefs Thomson's amiable heart, and, in a great measure, his ftrain of poetical fentiment. But he has this advantage over the author of the Seafons, (for to thofe poems we refer when we compare Dr. Goldsmith with Thomson) that he writes excellent poetry in rhime. For that good rhime, where it can be properly used, is preferable to good blank verfe, is now no longer queftioned by critics of true taste.

The principle, or fource, from which this poem flows, will be moft clearly feen, by quoting the following lines towards the beginning of it.

Ill fares the land, to haftening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;

ture,

Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;

A breath can make them, as a breath has made.
But a bold peasantry, [yeomanry] their country's pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,
When every rood of ground maintain'd its man; [Quere.}
For him light labour spread her wholesome store,
Juft gave what life required, but gave no more.
His beft companions, innocence and health;
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.

But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train
Ufurp the land and dispossess the swain ;
Along the lawn, where fcattered hamlets rofe,
Unwieldy wealth, and cumbrous pomp repofes
And every want to luxury allied,

And every pang that folly pays to pride.

Thefe gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,
Thofe calm defires that asked but little room,
Thofe healthful fports that graced the peaceful fcene,
Lived in each look, and brightened all the green;
Thefe far departing feek a kinder fhore,

And rural mirth and manners are no more."

Whether the argument of this piece, taken in all its latitude, is as just as the imagery is beautiful; whether he here fhows himself as accurate a politician and philofopher, as he is a poet of a rich and elegant fancy, may, perhaps, be doubted by the most difpaffionate and unprejudiced mind. To reject his theory at once, would be rafh: for it brings to the mind a complication of objects; and tends to inculcate a regard for the general rights of man: it produces an affecting view of the facred privileges, and the fubftantial bleffings of naBut fimple truth feems to tell us, that every period of a ftate hath its peculiar advantages and defects; its peculiar publick happiness, and public mifery. He who reads the Deferted Village, and is not acquainted with the face of our country, may imagine, that there are many deferted villages to be found in it, and many more tracts of uncultivated land than formerly. England wears now a more smiling aspect than she ever did; and few ruined villages are to be met with except on poetical ground.-Whatever is, muft be ultimately right, and productive of univerfal good. When the author of nature formed us, he knew, that, by our conftitution we must pass from barbarifin to a more improved state; and that, in process of time, we should arrive at a state of opulence, luxury, and refinement;

a ftate,

a ftate which, perhaps, is as productive of happiness as of mifery, to mankind. If many individuals have been oppreffed by wealth and power, to as many have those bleffings flowed from wealth and power which, otherwife, they had wanted. Innocence, it is true, flumbers in the village; but virtue affords a nobler enjoyment; and it is in the great metropolis, that virtue and genius are most strenuously exerted, and most amply rewarded. If Dr. Goldsmith had hitherto paffed his life at Auburn, he would not have been fo confpicuous, nor, we hope, fo happy a man as he is in London. Fame, when it is a tribute paid to true defert, muft greatly augment the felicity of man. If one unhappy female, who comes from the country to town, is, at length obliged, her friends, her virtue fled, to lay her head in the form, near her betrayer's door-another rural maid, who repairs to London, more prudent, and more fortunate, leads a more agreeable life there by her honefty and industry than her native spot would ever have afforded her; and at length makes an advantageous and happy marriage, the reward of her diligence and virtue.

But we are rather departing from our prefent province, and entering into too minute a difcuffion.-A fine poem may be written upon a falfe hypothesis: as a poet is not confined to niftorical fact, neither is he bound by the ftrictnefs of political and philofophical truth. His leading objet may be, a chimera; but if he exhibits it uniformly and ftrongly; if he dig nifies it with just, affecting, ardent images, and fentiments, and fuch as are its natural concomitants, the difficult, and noble task of the poet is discharged. It is needlefs to infilt upon harmonious and vigorous verfification; it is the fpontaneous refult of comprehensive and warm conception; it is as eafy to a poet as the drapery of a pi&ure is to a Reynolds.

We fhall now quote fome paffages from this poem; by which the author's poetical talents will be fully difplayed. The few quotations we fhall make will be fufficient to infure his reputation as a poet, however he may be attacked by ignorance and envy; or with whatever inaccuracies and faults he may be charged by juft criticifin, the friend at once to candour and to truth.

The objects of a village-evening, which affect the mind of a fufceptible obferver, are very warmly and beautifully defcribed. -The character of the worthy parish prieft of the village is a mafter-piece; it makes a facred and most forcible appeal to the beft feelings of the human heart. It would be unkind to our readers to give them fo fine a part of the poem curtailed: we shall therefore print the venerable picture entire; firft quot ing, in the author's order, the defcription of the village evening.

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and