CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 211 



Here we have an every-day case of horse-stealing spun out into thirty- 

 two 'couplets of rhyme, and dignified by the appellation of a— 



Strange event in olden day, 



When some nocturnal robber stole 



From pasture green a mare and foal." (! !) 



Floating down the stream we now get into the Severn once more, 

 when the Rhyd stops us for a moment, and the Doctor whispers the river 

 not to forget Sir Anthony, and she takes the hint — 



" Yet she her current turn'd aside 

 To where a Lechmere would abide 

 On fertile Rhyd's commanding brow — 

 Lechmere, the patron of the plough." 



Having thus " turned aside," the river sullenly and silently rolls on to 

 Tewkesbury, and pursues her career to the ocean. 



We shall leave Vaga and the other "minor rivers" to proceed in 

 their course, a host of notes, more bulky than the poetry itself, requiring 

 a passing notice. As the postscript to a letter sometimes contains the 

 only important intelligence, so the *' notes" to the " Springs of Plyn- 

 limmon" are far more entertaining and agreeable than the *' springs" 

 themselves. In fact, as a descriptive and topographical writer, we scarcely 

 know a more instructive guide than Dr. Booker, and he does not consult 

 his own good fame in attempting a poem in the octosyllabic couplet. 

 When he employs blank verse he is more at home, and we then see the 

 good vicar walking solemnly in his canonicals respected by all. We 

 extract from the notes the following 



ADVENTURE ON THE BLACK MOUNTAIN. 



"The thunder storm described in the poem (p. 152) was witnessed with delight 

 from the apex of the mountain, where in bright sunshine, myself and a friend 

 remained on our horses some time, surveying the progress of the storm far beneath 

 us. Perceiving, at last, it was advancing towards us, we galloped to a large heap 

 of cut peat ; and instantly alighting, giving the horses in charge to a servant, set 

 about rearing a cove, five or six feet high, with the large masses of peat. This 

 done, we took off the saddles and sat upon them, with our backs to the coming 

 storm, drawing the horses as close to us as possible by their bridles. Thus we 

 were sheltered : but not so our steeds, which the storm, attended by a furious 

 wind (following a dead calm), assailed most violently, driving hailstones and rain 

 in their faces, attended by lightning and immediate thunder, the most terrific I 

 ever knew. Affrighted, they pulled us from our seats ; when we were constrained 

 to let them go, with their bridles in disorder. Away they scampered, over the wide 

 range of uninclosed mountain, whither we knew not, till we heard them neighing 

 in the direction of Llantony Abbey, whence they had just before carried us in their 

 peregrinations. With them, the storm also took its departure ; and the saddles 

 we conveyed, as well as we could, toward them ; but not till again we had 

 surveyed the magnificent prospect with which we were surrounded, left illuminated 

 on all sides with the brightest sunshine, — many objects then distinctly appearing 

 in the glorious landscape, which before were invisible. My own horse, a petted 

 animal, knowing his name and »iy voice, on my calling him aloud, as we proceeded, 

 soon came joyously towards me ; when having secured him, he, by his neighing, 

 served as a decoy to the others, who surrendered themselves with broken bridles 

 to our guidance ; so that the incident, upon the whole, was neither disastrous nor 

 unpleasing." 



It must be admitted that our author wanders about rather freely in his 

 notes, breaking loose like his own horse, and giving long extracts from 

 Milton's Comus, his own " Malvern," &c. ; but this is all done in such 

 an apparent amiable, simple spirit, that we can scarcely complain. The 



NO. III. 2e 



