e than two or three prove really good. On this account pure k Cider is now feldom made. It is the fame cafe with the Golden Pippin, and feveral of the other better forts of fruit; fo cuftom of mixing the prime fruits is now very generally adopted, been found to fucceed in every refpect. that Primeval interdicted plant-] n terms the Tree of Knowledge - the tree of INTERDICTED knowledge, P. L. v. 52. The INTERDICTED tree, P. L. vii. 46. 1. See! the numbers flow, &c. &c.] r John Denham, in his Imitation of the Cato Major, When of the vine I fpeak, I feem infpir'd, And with delight, as with her juice, am fir'd. 2. with her nectareous juice.] NECTAREUM Falernum. MARTIAL, L. 13. Ep. 108. 3.my country's praifes exalt.] Poet fings the praifes of Herefordshire in manifeft imitation of ebrated Praifes of Italy in Virgil's fecond GEORGIC.-He may pofed alfo to have had in his mind the following paffage at the Tion of Pliny's Natural History. o in toto orbe, et quacunque cœli convexitas vergit, pulcherrima nium, rebufque merito principatum naturæ obtinens, Italia, rectrix que mundi altera, viris, fœminis, ducibus, militibus, fervitiis, præftantia, ingeniorum claritatibus, jam fitu ac falubritate cœli temperie, acceffu cunctarum gentium facili, litoribus portuofis, benigno Hail Herefordian plant, that doft difdain All other fields! Heav'n's fweeteft bleffing, hail! And thy choice Nectar, on which always waits 526 benigno ventorum affiatu, aquarum copia, nemorum falubritate, montium articulis, ferorum animalium innocentia, foli fertilitate, pabuli ubertate. Quicquid eft, quo carere vita non debeat, nufquam eft præftantius; fruges, vinum, olea, vellera, lina, veftes, juvenci. Metallis auri, argenti, æris, ferri, quamdiu libuit exercere, nullis ceffit : et iis nunc in fe gravida pro omni dote varios fuccos et frugum pomorumque fapores fundit. 526. Be thou the copious matter of my Song] It is but fair to fuppofe that an author, frequently ftudying the works of any particular Poet, by the model of whofe verfification he wished to form his own, might infenfibly transfer certain expreffions, and even whole lines, into his imagination, fo as to use them himself without being confcious that he was indebted to any one for them; or, from a particular admiration of any line that peculiarly ftruck his fancy, might retain that line in his memory detached from the paffage to which it belonged, fo as to apply it, without recollecting how it had been firft introduced by the original author. "Great readers," fays Bishop Hurd, "who have their memories fraught with the ftores of ancient and mo"dern poetry, unavoidably employ the fentiments, and fometimes the very words, of other writers, without any diftinct remembrance of "them, or fo much as a fufpicion of having feen them. At the least, "their general caft of thinking or turn of expreffion will be much affected by them. For the moft original writer as certainly takes a "tincture from the authors in which he has been most converfant; as water, from the beds of earths or minerals it hath happened to run "over. Efpecially fuch authors as are ftudied and even got by heart by 66 66 Such us in our early youth, leave a lafting impreffion, which is hardly ever "effaced out of the mind." [Hurd on Poetical Imitation.] muft have been the cafe with our Poet in this paffage, or he would not have applied to the celebration of the Apple-tree a line from the following conclufion of one of the most folemn and sublime parts of all Milton's Paradife Loft. Hail Son of God, Saviour of men, thy name 527. thy choice Nectar, on which always wait Laughter and Sport, and care-beguiling wit, And friendship, chief delight of human kind. B. iii. 412. The Laughter, and sport, and care-beguiling wit, 55 And friendship, chief delight of human life. Traverse th' extremeft world? Why tempt the rage 535 The following appofite verses of Panyafis, a Greek Poet, are preferved by Athenæus. 531. Infincere.] Seneca ufes fincerus to defcribe any liquor in its pureft and most perfect ftate. Speaking of youth and age, he fays, Meliora prætervolant, deteriora fuccedunt. Quem ad modum ex amphora primum quod eft SINCERISSIMUM effluit, graviffimum quodque turbidumque fubfidit: fic in ætate noftra, quod optimum, in primo eft. EPIST. 108. 533. when our native glebe Imparts, from bounteous womb, annual recruits Gallic or Latin grapes- -] It is obfervable that the compliments our Poet here pays to the liquor he celebrates, were, till within thefe thirty or forty years, fully justified by the practice of his native county; and the chief liquor drunk in Herefordshire, even in very refpectable and opulent families, was Cider, while the confumption of Wine was extremely fmall. The rapid increase of luxury, and a growing contempt for the produce of our native country, have, however, of late years, nearly driven Cider from the tables even of perfons in middling stations and of very moderate fortunes, in the Cidercounties, to make way for very inferior liquors, " infincere and mixt,” under the name of wine. Gallic Gallic or Latin Grapes, or those that see The setting fun near Calpe's tow'ring height? Vaunt their rich Must; nor let Tokay contend 536. or those that fee The fetting fun near Calpe's tow'ring height.] This is claffical. The Roman Poets defcribe the fun as fetting immediately behind the Rock of Gibralter, the Calpe of the antients. Thus Aufonius, Epift. 18. Condiderat jam folis equos Tarteffia Calpe. And Statius, fpeaking of the birth place of Lucan, who was a native of Cordova, in the province of Andalufia in Spain, has the following lines, Felix heu nimis, et beata tellus, Quæ pronos Hyperionis meatus Summis Oceani vides in undis, Stridoremque rotæ candentis audis. 538. GENETH. LUCAN. V. 24. The Lesbian and Rhodian Vines are celebrated by Virgil in his fecond GEORGIC. Nor thine, O Rhodes I pafs, whose streams afford For fou'reignty] V. 89. WARTON. V. 101. WARTON. The Hungarian wines are held in the highest eftimation, particularly the Tokay, of which it has been generally fuppofed that the quantity produced is fo extremely fmall, that fcarce any genuine Tokay is ever exported. But Silvefter Douglass, Efq. (in an account of the Tokay and other Hungarian Wines, communicated to the Royal Society in the year 1774) fays this is a vulgar error, and defcribes the Tokay diftrict, and its feveral hills, as extending from the town of Tokay weftward, and then northward, so as to occupy a space of ten English miles fquare, interspersed with For fovereignty: Phanæus' felf must bow To th' Ariconian vales. And fhall we doubt T'improve our vegetable wealth, or let 57 540 Empower'd to fupply what Nature asks 545 Frugal, or what nice appetite requires? The meadows here, with battening ooze enrich❜d, Afcending spiral, rang'd in meet array! Lo, how the arable with barley-grain 550 with several extensive plains and villages. Near fome of these, particularly Talia and Tarezal, he says, the wine is better than what grows on the hill of Tokay; but it all goes under the fame general name. Tmolus et ASSURGIT quibus, et REX IPSE PHANÆ US. The mountain Phanæus ftood in the isle of Chios, now Scio, the wines of which island were held by the ancients in the highest estimation. BATTENING our flocks with the fresh dews of night. Milton's LYCIDAS. GEORGIC. ii. 518. Stands |