MR. URBAN, June 24. THE intention of the annexed plate (exhibiting a part of a range of balluftrades made of cast iron for an out. fide ftore ftaircafe) is, to recommend the art of cafting iron to the notice of the public, an art yet in its infancy, though perhaps capable of being carried to as great an extent in the ornamental way as any we have. The engraving is an elevation of the firft left hand flight, as the obferver ftands in the park and looks at the front of the house; it goes towards the right as far as half the length of the landing, and might have in that place either a center pannel with a coat of arms, &c. ona continuation of the fame balluftrades onward MR. URBAN, flight-until it defcends the right hand It is a misfortune that the hand rail before it lofes itfelf in the newel could not be conveniently fhewn with fome other parts in perspective. The newels have four fides alike, and their ground plan is twelve inches fquare, the baluftrades are oval, about three inches and a quarter by four inches. As the ketch was made by a young man, not an architect, he naturally concludes that a master of that fcience will, at firft fight, point out many improprieties in it, notwithstanding which he hopes an attempt to introduce this new kind of manufactory will not be difregarded because the drawing is not correct. Ilington, April 9. You YOUR correfpondent P. W. having favoured the public, in your Magazine for December last, with the comparisons of the weather and the thermometer for December 1781; perhaps the inciofed account of the remarkable variations of the thermometer, in January laft, may not be unacceptable, which are much at your fervice, and may afford room for fpeculation to fome of your medical readers, whofe obfervations refpecting the effects of fuch great variations of heat and cold in fo fhort a pace of time on the human frame would be very acceptable to your conftant reader. E. B. N. B. My thermometer is placed in the open air in a northern afpect, where the fun never fhines on it. Remarkable Vatiations of the THERMOMETER, in January 1783. Days Morn Night(Wind) 27 Weather. 14 IN E Sharp froft, fine bright day 27 2234 do.. 11 44 48 12 49 484 very foggy lamp day, a thorough thaw a dull heavy foggy mifling day, with a few brightifh intervals a very cloudy morn; various after 1 cloudy fairith day very windy and cloudy, mifling afternoon WN oright funthine, wind high, ftormy in the evening. W ditto, mifling morning and evening, a great deal of rain in the night SW a fine day, but windy do. 41 31 24 20 22 30 24 2 44 46 wet day, wind very high at night W mifling all day N W fair N fine dry day, little fnow in the morn, very fnowy frosty night adrifling fnowy moru, bright afternoon, cloudy evening a foggy milling day, and thick foggy evening S foggy morning and evening, bright clear frofty afternoon wet dirty day, fair afternoon, clear night milling morn, windy bluftering day Ja cloudy windy day 334 34 W a very windy cloudy day, fome rain, p. m. wind very high all SEloudy day, fair in the evening. GENT. MAG. July, 17$3. 4 Y MR. URBAN, Derby, June 8. OUR correfpondents in vour March and laft Magazine being much mistaken refpecting the natural food of the Urchin, I am induced to fend you a completion of its natural hiftory. Nature has amply provided for every creature its proper fuftenance near hand; the hedges abound with fruits and ber ries to fupply the birds, the Urchin, and other little animals that frequent them. Had your humane correfpondent, H. H. confidered this, he might have preferved the domefticated Urchin longer, and feen more of its fagacity, efpecially in carrying his fruit away on his prickly knapfack. Men and dogs are his enemies; but as all creatures are tamed by man, it might have been curious to have reconciled him to a dog, though perhaps difficult. They are never torpid, but fleep in the day to prog about in the night, when all voices are hufhed and every foot at reft. It will fuck any of the milch animals; but cows and mares, being not fo cafly routed, have the preference with them. Since my other account of it, I have learned the true caufe of its biting; which is when the creature will not let down its milk; for this caufe mares, - being generally more averfe to it than kine, are oftener bitten, though their teats are fmaller than a cow's." A cow has been known to hum to it, as to its calf, inviting it to fuck. I don't wonder your friend obferved he lapped flowly, for probably it was the first time. They breed in the fpring. In July 181, I faw an old one and fix young killed by fome haymakers. The favage herd will fometimes make themfelves fport, by roafting this poor innocent crcature alive (maugre its thricks and cries) as was done at a village near this town on the feftival of a certain great perfonage fucceeding his grandfather, by way of burleique,, whilft all our streets were culinaries for roaft mutton and roast beef. We are more obliged to this animal than moft people are aware of; to him we owe a great variety of fhrubs, and plants, that fpring up in a fence of quick-fets a few years after planting, feemingly fpontaneously; which is generally attributed to birds, but not rightly. The farmer does not like his paitures fhaded with trees, of courfe he plants none; but when the Urchin has cafually plant cd, then he finds their ufe, lops them for fuel, and fells them for his ploughs, carts, waggons, hoops, and rails, &c. &c. Then furely he may wink at a little milk when taken without damage to his cattle. We have many orchards about Derby, of courfe plenty of hedge pigs; but Hertfordshire is a county where they abound fo much as to gain the natives of it the ludicrous appellation of "Hertfordshire Hedge-hogs.' It will eat any thing that another pig will eat. If any gentleman doubts the truth of my obfervations on this creature, let him procure a couple of young ones, and keep them in a garden or orchard that is walled round, free from any dog; give them milk twice a day warm from the cow, for you know they never choose it cold, or skimmed; lay near their haunt, or burrow, cherries, goofcberries, currants, apples, pears, crabs, plumbs of any fort, berries, floes, or whatever the gardens, orchards, and hedges abound with at the feafon; alfo a little of cach fort of corn, for depend.. on it, though no tithing-man, he will glean with the farmer at leaft. He pres fers milk, no doubt, before any liquid, though water often ferves him for want of it; he may too be tried with verjuice, perry and cyder, (for, according to the proverb, "they that will eat the deyil, feldom object to the broth of him"). By this means, Mr. Urban, your correfpondents will gain a better knowledge of his proper diet: for nature has not placed it in a fituation for one of flesh, unlefs of vermin and reptiles. Sharars (a kind of field-mice), alfe beetles, fnails, or even worms, may go down with him when deprived of his natural liberty, and become fallen (or, as D. W. fays, torpid) because unable to cater for himself: Some of thefe he no doubt obtained nightly, or your correfpondent's friend would never have found him alive and merry. It is very certain they lie up (in their natural way) as dormant against winter, which they feel will commence. By studying nature, we may learn the ufe of all God's creatures, which knowledge will prompt us to fee them treated more tenderly by others as well as by ourfelves. beft fituated where God and Nature has placed it. I thank Mr. D. W. (as I dare fay all your readers will) for his ebliging proffer to ferve us notwithftanding, but can he really be ferious when he talks of making the Urchin a domeftic animal, for the purpofe of catching beetles and mice, because he kills them in the fields and hedges, for which he is armed at all points (armé de toutes pieces), while we have that elegant nimble little creature, a cat **? Befides we shall be over-run with them in the winter, during his supposed state of torpidity! "Levia quidem ec, et parvi fortè fi per fe fpectentur momenti. Sed ex elementis conftant, ex principiis oriuntur omnia: et ex judicii confuetudine in rebus minutis adhibitâ, pendet fæpiffimè etiam in maximis, vera atque accurata Scientia."-CLARKE, Pref. to Hom. Iliad. AMIDST the various topics of uti. is **Mrs. Cibber,' faid the Rev. Mr. C. the genteeleft of all creatures, except a cat.' EDIT. of the notes of Mr. Upton; remove thofe united monuments of ingenuity from Shakespeare, in the edition of Johnfon and Stevens, and perufe the text only; if they then understand them without thefe aids, if the beauty of no paffage is loft in the omiffion of them, the eye of criticifm, no doubt, is tinneceffary, and penetration has exerted her labours in vain. This, however would be the daring affertion of Ignorance, and daily experience gives it the lie. Every candid reader cannot but acknowledge the obligations we all are under to thefe eminent men, whofe refearches fo much tend to the exalting of the fancy of a Spenfer, the univerfal powers of a Shakspeare, and the fplendid and weighty magnificence of a Milton. On the other hand, I am as far from wifhing to encumber the text with the ufelefs trappings of notes, where it is plain and determinate, as I am from omitting them where it is dark and obfcure. In this paper, therefore, if I have contributed in any degree towards fetting any paffage in a new light, in elucidating what feemed before ambiguous, or in having drawn the line between imitation and originality, I fhall content myfelf with that thare of praife refulting from bearing part of a character which is thought by fome to constitute the hewer of wood and the drawer of water, in the ranks of literarature. Cicero, in his work" de claris Oratoribus," has the following words concerning Hortenfius, "Et erat oratio cùm incitata et vibrans tùm etiam accurata et polita"-of which paffage [ once heard it obferved by a man, whofe powers of intellect can only be equalled by the goodness of his heart, that he knew no word in the English language which fully expreffed the meaning of vibrans, except flashy, which would not do from its being ufed in a bad fenfeit means "fplendid, and dazzling like the light of a fword alternately brandishing this way and that way"-yet, I think, (tho' at the fame time the paffage did not occur to me) Dr. Johnfon has in his Life of Congreve fallen upon a happy illuftration of it, and probably without intending the leaft imitation; his words are thefe: "His perfonages are a kind. of intellectual gladiators; every fentence is to ward or strike; the conteft of fmartnefs is never intermitted; his wit is a meteor playing to and fro with alternate corufcations." The Hendecafyllables of Dr. Mark 4 ham, |