occupied. Among the public papers, is the correspondence between lord Grenville, Mr. Hammond, and citizen Otto, on the attempted negotiation. The selection of biographical anecdotes is very judicious. An admirably-drawn character is given of the great Catharine of Russia, as she is called, although her right to such a title may well be doubted. Lewis XVI. and Charles I. form the subjects of two other papers and a long account of the poet Burns completes this division of the work. In the part allotted to the manners of nations, we are entertained chiefly with oriental habits and superstitions: but it concludes with customs nearer home; and the singular rites of a sect in Wales, denominated jumpers, may vie in absurdity with the stupendous follies of the faquirs of Malabar. In classical and polite criticism the pen of Dr. Aikin is distinguished; yet in this branch room might have been found, if a little retrenchment had been made from the philosophical class, for other names besides those of Dr. Aikin and Dr. Currie. Under the philosophical class we were surprised to meet with some useful information on kitchen gardening; though there are also several other papers as little entitled to insertion under such a head. The work concludes with poetry, and a general review of domestic literature. In the former are some judicious extracts from Hayley, Sotheby, and Bloomfield: in the latter, the compiler has availed himself, with great skill, of the advan tages afforded to him by the monthly publications. On the whole, this volume will not be found inferior to its predecessors; and as well on account of the matter contained in it, as the manner in which every subject is arranged and discussed, it is calculated to afford much entertainment and instruction to the general reader. ART. VI.-Excursions from Bath. By the Rev. Richard Warner, 8vo. 8s. Boards. Robinsons. 1801. WE have always accompanied Mr. Warner with pleasure; and if, as an historian, we have occasionally differed from him, we will not revive the little disagreement (it has been indeed. but slight) in our tours. We will proceed with him cheerily, as before. These excursions are three in number, contained in four letters. In the first, he passes from Bath, through Frome, to Longleat, and thence round by Witham Friary to Stourhead and Hindon. From Hindon (Letter II.) he advances to Fonthill, Wilton, and Salisbury; and returns by Warminster and Trowbridge to Bath. It is not easy to contrive a tour more pleasing, or which contains objects of entertainment so various and so truly interesting in many different respects. In the second excursion, Mr. Warner marches eastward to Pickwick, to Corsham, and to Spy Park; and thence directs his course northward to Bowood, Chippenham, and Malmsbury, including Charlton Park. He returns by Badminton and Old Sodbury to Bath. In the third excursion he follows nearly the course of the Avon to Frocester; proceeds eastward to Cirencester; and returns in a somewhat devious track, including Tetbury, before he arrives at Tortworth, in the more direct road to Bath. Our author's apology for this undertaking, new and unusual to him, we shall transcribe from the introduction to the first letter. DEAR SIR, To JAMES COMRIE, Esq. Bath, Sept. 1st, 1800. You have imposed upon me so arduous a task, that I feel an almost insuperable diffidence at attempting to perform it. When I led you through the wild scenery of Wales, I proceeded without fear or hesitation; my work was easy; I had little else to do than to describe the face which nature wears in that incomparable country, where the features are in general so strong and well defined, that I must have been a miserable painter indeed had my portrait been altogether without resemblance. Besides, I had the field to myself, my plan had not been anticipated, and my letters consequently borrowed some interest and recommendation from novelty; but in the present case I see formidable difficulties on every side. Here I must exchange the simplicity of nature for the intricacies of art, and descend from the grand to the minute-from the mountain, the precipice, and the cataract, original manners and ancient customs, to the park and to the picture-gallery, to the refinements of luxury, and the elegancies of polished life. Innumerable examples of vertù, and exquisite specimens of the fine arts, present themselves for description; and what is still more deterring, a line is chalked out for me, a great part of which has already been trodden by taste and science, by a Gilpin and a Maton. Your requests, however, have with me always the force of commands; I hasten, therefore, to comply with them, and to lead you through a part of Wiltshire, in an excursion which must prove highly gratifying to you, if I am fortunate enough to convey a tolerably accurate idea of the many beauties which it exhibits.' P. 1. . It is however in this line that we must particularly notice Mr. Warner's success; for it is in a great measure a new one. On the whole, we are considerably pleased with his descriptions of collections of pictures. His historical remarks are concise and pertinent; they lead to those points of history which elucidate most strikingly the character, and render it most interesting to the observer. The pictures have been often described, and we shall not again copy catalogues too generally known. The account of Holloway, the receptacle of the beggars who infest the streets of Bath, is truly humorous and interesting. It is a little novel, where the real dénouement is in the commencement admirably disguised. The various objects in the first part of the excursion around Bath are well described, and we shall select the following judicious defence of the antiquary's re searches. • The tedious hill above Midford brings us at length to a level, a higher ground than we have trodden since we left Bath, and opens an extensive prospect to the right, quite into the county of Wilts. Proceeding to the five-mile stone, we reach the village of Hinton, and turn to the left, in order to survey the ruins of its abbey, and the remains of Farley-castle in its neighbourhood;—a rich treat to the antiquary, and not undeserving the attention of those who prefer the beauties of nature to the vestiges of former magnificence. Indeed, did the deviation afford us nothing but dilapidated cloisters and mouldering turrets, I should still think our trouble repaid; for lightly as the antiquarian taste is esteemed, and much as it is ridiculed, it notwithstanding opens no mean sources of gratification to the man who cultivates it rationally, and leads to consequences interesting to society, and beneficial to the individual. Did the enjoy ment of the antiquary consist in the unmeaning contemplation of unintelligible fragments and time-eaten stones, it would be fair to consider him as senseless as the objects to which he directs it: but when the remains of ancient days awaken curiosity and excite research; when they induce inquiries into the manners and customs, opinions and practices, of former times; when they lead to a comparison between the state of the arts amongst our forefathers and with us their descendants; when they are brought to the illustration of historical difficulties or distant events; above all, when they entice the mind to sober reflexion, and to a fair estimate of our present state, the evanescence of all human labours, and the vanity of all human schemes, the pursuit then assumes a more dignified aspect; it asserts the praise of contributing not only to the entertainment, but to the information of the community; it strengthens the religious principle, and makes the man better and wiser than he would be without it.' P. 22. Farley-castle, its splendid monuments and mummies, the manufactures of Frome, and the beautiful ornaments of Longleat, are described with great propriety. Marston-Bigot house, and Maiden-Bradley, are shortly noticed. The pictures of Stourhead detain him longer. But we shall prefer for our extract our author's truly interesting account of the classic scenes in the vicinity. • But the entertainment which the inside of the mansion at Stourhead affords, is surpassed by the gratification that arises from a view of its pleasure-grounds; which, to speak generally, I could say, exceed in tasty disposition and appropriate ornament, any I have ever had the opportunity of seeing. Nature, it must be confessed, had already formed a spot every way capable of being converted into a : perfect elysium, by the most agreeable variety of hill and valley, terrace and dale, when Mr. Hoare took the canvas in hand, to add those masterly touches which give life, and spirit, and finish to the whole. He has, indeed, executed his work with judgement and taste, and produced a picture beautiful in its parts, and perfect in the toutensemble. Almost as soon as we quit the house, the path to the lake declines gently through a velvet lawn, sprinkled with firs and beechtrees, and evergreens; the hill rising to the right and sinking to the left. These quickly thicken, and form themselves into a wood, admitting only occasional glances at the beautiful objects in the dale to the left, and on the lake below. The little church, with its open worked battlements, and the magnificent temple of Apollo swelling from the dark side of the hill above it, are caught through the first opening these are succeeded by a view of the Pantheon, suddenly bursting upon the eye from the opposite side of the lake, which stretches at its feet in tranquil majesty, embosomed on all sides in wooded elevations, rising amphitheatrically around it. To the margin of this piece of water (which, though covering only twenty acres, is so judiciously lost in every part amongst the woods, as to allow the imagination to stretch it to any extent) we are at length conducted, where a neat ferry-boat offers itself as the conveyance to the opposite side of the lake. We now reach classic ground, and, dropping all modern acquaintance, associate for a time only with the gods and heroes of antiquity. Here we have the opportunity of surveying and admiring the first piece of water. This is supplied with copious never-failing springs, (amongst which the chief one of the river Stour lends its powerful assistance) and preserves uniformly the same height, the waste water being carried off by an artificial cascade, so judiciously disposed as to form, from another point, a most beautiful feature in the scenery. The picture from the place of landing assumes a new face; but equally interesting and magnificent with those we have already noticed. Before us lies the lake, from whose verdant margin the wooded hills shoot up in all the majesty of shade; to the right appears the temple of Apollo, which, from the low point where we view it, appears to hold a loftier situation than before; and on the opposite side of the water the old stone bridge, and the Doric temple of the goddess Flora, disclose themselves. We now proceed to the grotto (invisible till it be reached) constructed in the side of a hill, and consisting of a passage, and the small apartment to which it leads. This is illumined by a circular hole at top, which, overgrown with ivy and other creeping plants, admits a sort of gloomy indistinct light, well calculated to aid the other circumstances of the spot, in deeply impressing the imagination, and assisting the belief that the figures which adorn the grotto are the living tutelary deities of the sacred waters within. On two sides of the apartment are arches, one by which it is entered, and an opposite one by which it is quitted. To the right appears a deep recess, or cavern, within which is the figure of a sleeping nymph, in white marble, reclining on a pedestal; and immediately under her a bath of crystalline water, supplied by a copious perennial spring issuing from the hill behind the statue. On a marble slab, which forms the first step of the bath, are the following lines by Mr. Pope, who frequently wooed the Muses in the shades of Stourhead; they are the elegant translation of some Latin verses by cardinal Bembo : "Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, "Hujus nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis, Opposite to the arch by which we depart from the grotto is a smaller cavern, inhabited by an ancient river god, pater Stour, I presume, sitting upon a large inclined urn, from the mouth of which pours a flood of water, said to be the chief spring of the river Stour, which, rising here, takes a circuitous course through Dorsetshire, marries the Avon near Christ-Church in Hampshire, and loses itself and its companion in the ocean, about two miles below that town. Over the arch in front of this recess hangs a wooden tablet, with some lines allusive to this aquatic deity. Hæc domus, hæ sedes, hæc sunt penetralia magni From this magic spot the path conducts us to a magnificent edi fice called the Pantheon, built after the model of that noble antique temple at Rome. Here, as in all the other tenements of Stourhead, magnificence has acted under the direction of perfect taste; and the large sum of twelve thousand pounds has been expended in a manner that at once interests the imagination and pleases the judgement. This structure stands on that part of the bank where the lake spreads itself into its greatest breadth, and commands all the objects before enumerated, with the addition of the beautiful Gothic cross; a view, in my opinion, superior to that from the temple of Apollo, though not generally esteemed so; since the latter is a bird'seye one, and every thing is seen below it; whereas the Pantheon is more on a level with most of the objects which compose the picture, and has the advantage of looking up to the others. This building consists of a portico, or vestibulum, and an adytum; the first is formed by four elegant columns of the Corinthian order, the second contains two antique busts, that on the right Alexander, and that on the left Pompey. An iron gate separates this member of the struc ture from the adytum, which, seen through its gateways, exhibits a most impressive sight. A circular opening in the dome admits the light, which receives a rich golden tinge from some yellow glass introduced into the aperture. The walls are stained of a deep purple colour, finely contrasting and relieving the brilliant white marble statues ranged round the apartment, and standing on superb pedestals of different foreign marbles-the whole forming such an august exhibition as subjects the understanding to the control of fancy; and |