4t2 



News pom Parnassus.. .Nv. VI. 



[June I, 



thft most snnguiiiary and feiocioxis ac- 

 cordingly hiriietl back, cut into the 

 body with their daggers, and actually 

 washed their hands in the blood of their 

 victim!* The horror whicli this dia- 

 bolical deed spread throiighovit the 

 country, roused the slumbering vigi- 

 lance of government, and the dispersion 

 of the banditti nas tlie necessary con- 

 ser[uence. Many were hanged in the 

 neighbourhood of Dinas Mowddwg, 

 and the rest left the country to return 

 no more. The fate of the chieftain of 

 tliis lawles horde is not known. It is 

 generally coniectiired that lie quitted 

 the country sifter the destruction of his 

 formidable band. We must not omit 

 to mention that these outlaws were par- 

 ticularly renowned for their skill in 

 archery. Lil<e the merry men of Sher- 

 wood, their grey-goose shafts seldom 

 told in vain, and their principal wea- 

 pons appear to have been tlie bow, the 

 sword, and the dagger.! 



Fw the Monthly Maf;azine. 



NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 



No. VI. 



CONTEMPLATION, and Other VO^MS. by 



ALEXANDER BALFOrU. 



LORD BYRON, in a Letter lately 

 published, lias come forward as 

 the champion of the poetical as well as 

 the jieisoual fame of Mr. Po])e ; both 

 of which, it seems, have been I'.uduly 

 aspersed by the Reverend Mr. Bowles. 

 We are aware that flic personal cha- 

 racter of an author has rothing to do 

 with the value of his literary produc- 

 tions ; otherwise Bacon had written in 

 vain, and the palm of genius must have 

 remained in the lumds of many whose 

 very names have been long sunk in ob- 

 livion. But, though neither the accu- 

 sations of Mr. BowK-s nor the defence 

 of Lord Byron, in regard to the private 

 conduct of Mr. Pope, — though neither 

 the censures of the one nor the panegy- 

 rics of the other, with respect to his 



p''j ' * A partoflhe wood is pointed out by 

 the peasant, as the spot where this horrid 

 act was coniniitted. Tradition says, that 

 the robbers hud felled some trees, and fixed 

 t>»em across tlic road in this place to pre- 

 vent the baron from proceeding onwards. 

 It is called from t\iis circumstance, " Lli- 

 diardy Barwn," or //le Baron s Gate. 



t A house formerly occupied by one of 



the clan is still remainiDg-, and at present, 



o we are informed, the property of Sir W. W. 



ai^ynn. If we mistake not, the descendants 



<^t,«f its old outlawed occupier, are now living' 



. f AVrf J a fine, heabhy, hard-workino- family. 



work.s, can possibly I'eLird or accelerate 

 the stream of Time or. \\ hich his name 

 is borne along to succes.sive genera- 

 tions, yet we must confes.s that we are 

 gratified with the tone and aiauner of 

 his lordship's animadversions. They 

 demonstrate that, if he has occasionally 

 lost sight of good taste in his own pro- 

 ductions, he is not yet in.sensible to 

 its charm in the writiugs of others; 

 and, in this view, hi:< letter alnio.st 

 compensates for the vulgar and inde- 

 cent ribaldry of Don Juan. 



It is now nearly a century since the 

 appearance of tlie Dunciad. Its lieroes 

 have been long forgotten, but their race 

 is not yet extinct. The dunces of the 

 present day are eager to avenge the 

 discomfiture of their ancestors ; and, in 

 proof of the system of Mr. Malthns, the 

 hungry swarm appear to be continually 

 increasing in a geometrical progression. 

 The .system of warfare, too, as well as 

 the characters of the combatants, is 

 materially different. It is not against 

 Mr. Por-ealnnc that (heir hostilities are 

 directed. They are revolutionary Van- 

 dals in the region of poetry ; and would 

 strip the Temple of Fame of almost all 

 those venerable statues which have so 

 long been dear to the Muses. The 

 prosaic puerilities and fifteen-syllable 

 lines of these ephemeral poetasters 

 would be pleasingly ludicrous, were it 

 not for the power which they have ac- 

 quired over the young and the ignorant. 

 In possession of reviews, magazines, 

 and newspapers, they interchange their 

 silly criticisms and fulsome praises of 

 the writings of one another, as if such 

 impertinent effusions were theoffspring 

 of taste or the dictates of wisdom. 

 They talk of simpliciti/ until (heir 

 stripling readers become enamoured of 

 vulgarity, and of sublimity until their 

 brains are heated with mysticism or 

 stupitied with absurdity. 



Surrounded by this apparent vacuity 

 of intellect, we are glad to recognize, at 

 intervals, a discijile of what is now 

 termed the Old School. One of this 

 class has just come under our review- 

 in an octavo volume, entitled " Con- 

 templation, with other Poems, by 

 Alexander Balfour." We are not of 

 the number of those hirelings who deal 

 out iiidiscrimiiiate praise, but we be- 

 lieve that we may say, with tinth, that, 

 whatever may be the faults of these 

 poems, they contain many beauties, 

 such as neitlier Pope, Goldsmith, nor 

 ^irey would have blushed to own. 

 With tliis opinion of their inerits,_we , 

 liclicvc 



