84 THE AUTHOR OF " DARTMOOR.'" 



windings of the river, is in length twenty-one miles, 

 and during its progress every prospect worthy of notice 

 on account of its grandeur or beauty, from Mount 

 Edgecumbe to Morwellham, is contemplated with the 

 eye of an enthusiast, and transferred with admirable 

 fidelity to his interesting picture. 



Although this work does not display the power and 

 energy which are so eminently developed in " Dart- 

 moor,'' nor the exquisite finish and music of language 

 which predominate in " My Native Village," yet the 

 reader will find much accurate delineation of nature's 

 most pleasing features and many scattered gems of 

 sterhng poetry — he will especially meet with, in nearly 

 every page, indications that Carrington possessed and 

 wished to exercise some of the best and noblest feelings 

 of our nature. He omits no opportunity of exposing 

 the deformity of vice and dwellmg on the loveliness of 

 virtue — he desires to render us contented and pleased 

 with the conditions which have been accorded to us, 

 and he displays in the most striking and attractive 

 light the benign influence of resignation and hope, with 

 the necessity of relying on the providence of a Divine 

 Power, and considering even our calamities as designs 

 disposed for some benevolent end. 



Possessing such attributes as these, it is to be sup- 

 posed that the " Banks of Tamar," &c. found favor 

 with such readers as had recourse to the aspii-ations of 

 poetry for the sake of a pure and healthy enjoyment: 

 but the work was unnoticed and unsought by those 

 who explore the realms of imagination for unnatural 

 and pernicious stimuli, who seek the exciting efiusions 

 of unprincipled writers, to gratify a morbid taste, just 

 as the satiated and depraved sensuahst applies to 

 devilled biscuit and grilled fish bones as provocatives 

 to further gratification of appetite. 



There is a species of melancholy, a feeling of re- 

 gret sometimes thrown over these pages, when some of 

 the individual stations in artificial society are touched 

 upon, but in such cases it will be invariably found that 

 the poet never attempts to engender discontent at ex- 



