ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to CORRESPONDENTS. We are obliged to W. H. Reid for the Ode he has transmitted us; but it has been so often printed, that it would afford no entertainment to our readers. Mr. Roberdeau's Prologue came too late for this Month. in our next. Mr. W.'s Views are received. hands of the engraver. We have no objection to print We are much obliged to him for them. One is in the By a mistake which was not feen until too late to remedy, feveral Pages of Poetry intended for this Month have unfortunately been omitted. AVERAGE PRICES of CORN, from July 11, to July 16, 1791. Wheat Rye Barl. Oats Beans COUNTIES upon the COAST. London 5 63 313 012 Middlefex 6 5 6.3 02 82 93 3 Norfolk 03 3 3 IO Lincoln 6 Hertford 6 O 1113 Cambridge 4.3 100 Huntingdon 5 80 Northuniberl.5 63 Northampton 6 Cumberland 6 104 Weftmorld. 6 Lancashire 6 Leicester 6 Cheshire 6 60 Nottingham 6 1780 80 6 1 ο Worcester 6 04 I Hants Warwick 6 So 6 02 92 43 5 6'0 0,0 92 44 Kent 5 10 0 02 112 44 WALES. 96 North Wales 6 14 13 South Wales 734 ? STATE of the BAROMETER and THERMOMETER. THERMOM. WIND. 73 87 67 65 W. 3-29 60 64 S. W. 4-29 49 W. PRICES of STOCKS, July 28, 1791. India Stock, New 4 per Cent. 1043 per Ct, Ind. Ann. — a 103 5 per Cont.Ann. 1785, 1197 3 per Ceut.red. 83 82 India Bonds, 1055. a 104s. prem. South Sea Stock, New S. S. Ann. 3 per Cent. Conf.83 per Cent. 1751, 3 per Cent. 1726, N. Navy & Vict. Bills Long Ann. 24 5-16ths Exchequer Bills Ditto Short 1778, 13-Lot. Tick. 16ths Irish Lot. Tick. JANE DUCHESS of GORDON. AT the defire of fome Correfpondents, Sufanna, 4. Lady Louifa, 5. Lady The Duke of Gordon is the fourth Duke, and firft Earl of Norwich, of this family. He was elected one of the Sixteen Peers of Scotland May 5, 1761, in which ftation he ferved until the year 1784, when he was advanced to the English Peerage by patent, dated July the 4th in that year, by the titles of Baron Gordon of Huntley in the county of Glocetter, and Earl of Norwich in the county of Norwich, with limitation of thofe titles to the heirs male of his body. An ACCOUNT of the LIFE and WRITINGS of Dr. THO. BLACKLOCK. THIS perfon, in the words of his biographer Mr. Spence, might be efteemed one of the most extraordinary characters that has appeared in this or any sther age. He was the fon of a poor tradefman at Annan, in Scotland, where he was born in the year 1721. Be fore he was fix months old, he was totally deprived of his eye-fight by the fmail-pox. His father (who by his fon's account of him must have been a particularly good man) had intended to breed him up to his own, or fome other trade: but as this misfortune rendered him incapable of any, His father and mother were natives of the county of Cumberland, where his paternal useftors lived from time immemorial. They generally followed agriculture; and were diftinguished for a knowledge and humanity above their fphere. His father was an honest and worthy tradefman, had been in good circumftances, but was reduced by a series of miffortunes. His mother was daughter of Mr. Richard Rae, an extenfive dealer in cattle, a confiderable business in that county; and was equally esteemed as a man of fortune and impor,. tance, B 2 all all that this worthy parent could do, was to fhew the utmost care and attention that he was able toward him, in fo unfortunate a fituation; and this goodness of his left fo frong an impreffion on the mind of his fon, that he ever spoke of it with the greatest warmth of gratitude and affection. What was wanting to this poor youth from the lofs of his fight and the narrownefs of his fortune, feems to have been repaid him in the goodness of his heart and the capacities of his mind. It was very early that he thewed a ftrong inclination toward poetry in particular. His father and a few of his other friends used often to read, to divert him; and among the reft, they read feveral paffages out of fome of our poets. Thefe were his chief delight and entertainment. He heard them not only with an uncommon pleafure, but with a fort of congenial enthufiafm; and from loving and admiring them fo much, he foon began to endeavour to imitate them. Among thefe early effays of his genius, there was one which is inferted in his works. It was compofed when he was but twelve years old; and has fomething very pretty in the turn of it; and very promifing, for one of fo tender to, it was from that time that he began, by degrees, to be fomewhat more talked of, and his extraordinary talents more known. It was about a year after that he was fent for to Edinburgh by Dr. Stevenfon, a man of tafte, and one of the phyficians in that city; who had the goodnefs to fupply him with every thing neceffary for his living and ftudying in the Univerfity there. Dr. Blacklock looked on this gentleman as his Mecenas; and the poem placed at the entrance to his works was a gratitude-piece addressed to him, in imitation of the firft ode of Horace to that great patron. He had got fome rudiments of Latin in his youth, but could not easily read a Latin author till he was near twenty, when Dr. Stevenfon put him to a grammarfchool in Edinburgh. He afterwards ftudied in that University; where he not only perfected himself in Latin, but also went through all the best Greek authors with a very lively pleasure. He was alfo a matter of the French language, which he acquired by his intimacy in the family of Mr. Provost Alexander, whofe lady was a Parifian. After he had followed his ftudies at Edinburgh for four years, he retreated from thence into the country, on the breaking out of the rebellion in 1745; and it was during this recefs that he was prevailed on by fome of his friends to publish a little collection of his poems at Glasgow. When that tempeft was blown Where now, ah! where is that fupporting arm See his Poems, p. 158. 4to edition. Dr. Blacklock's father was a bricklayer, and being informed that a kiln belonging to a fon in law of his was giving way, his folicitude for his intereft made him venture in below the ribs to fee where the failure lay; when the principal beam coming down upon him, with eighty bufliels of malt, which were upon the kiln at that time, he was in one moment crushed to death. over, |