464 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



guarded by a large moat. It is 

 now ill the hands of a country 

 squire, who is no common sort of 

 man; but having said so much of 

 the parson, I will let the rest of 

 the parish depart in peace, though 

 I cannot help feeling the utmost 

 resentment at him for cutting 

 down some fine trees almost co- 

 temporary with the castle, which 

 he did to make room for a planta- 

 tion of sour grapes. The towers 

 at the great gate are covered with 

 fine venerable ivy. 



It was late in the evening before 

 we got home, but the silver Cyn- 

 thia held up her lamp in the hea- 

 vens, and cast such a light on the 

 earth as showed its beauties in a 

 soft and gentle light. The night 

 silenced all but our divine Doctor, 

 who sometimes uttered things fit 

 to be spoken in a season when all 

 nature seems to be hushed and 

 barkening. I followed, gathering 

 wisdom as I went, till I found 

 by my horse's stumbling, that 

 I was in a bad road, and that 

 the blind was leading the blind ; 

 so I placed mj' servant between 

 the Doctor and myself, which 

 be not perceiving, went on iu 

 a most philosophical strain to 

 the great amazement of my poor 

 clown of a servant, who not being 

 wrought up to any pitch of enthu- 

 siasm, nor making any answer to 

 all the fine things he heard, the 

 Doctor wondering I was dumb, 

 and grieving I was so stupid, look- 

 ed round, declared his surprise, 

 and desired the man to trot on 

 before ; and thus did we return to 

 Tunbridge-Wells. I can give 

 your Grace great comfort in telling 

 you Dr. Young will be with you in 

 a week's time. 



PISAN POETS, 



(Frum Fortyth't Rentarkt on Jtaly, flre./ 



In reviewing some of these bard9> 

 I shall begin with Pignotti, as he 

 still belongs to Pisa. So little does 

 this elegant fabulist owe to genius, 

 that his very ease, I understand, is 

 the result of severe study ; and con- 

 scious of this he seems to describe 

 his own faculty in these lines : 



• La natura 

 Parra che versati habbia da vena 

 Facil versi che costan tanta pena. 



Pignotti admires Pope and re- 

 sembles him. The powers of both 

 seem confined to embellish the 

 thoughts of others ; and both have 

 depraved with embellishment the 

 simplicity of the early Greeks. — 

 Pope's Homer is much too fine for 

 the original ; and Pignotti, for want 

 of Esop's naivete, has turned his 

 fables into tales. Some of his best 

 novelle are reserved for private 

 circles. I heard him read one on 

 '• the art of robbing," which could 

 not be safely published by a Tus- 

 can placeman. In the man him- 

 self you see little of the poet, little 

 of that refined satire which runs 

 through his fables, and has raised 

 those light-winged, loose, little 

 things to the rank of Italian classics. 

 Bertola is perhaps a more ge- 

 nuine fabulist than Pignotti. He 

 does not labour to be easy; for he 

 has naturally the negligence and 

 sometimes the vacuity of a rhym- 

 ing gentleman. His fugitive pieces 

 are as light as the poetical cobwebs 

 of his friend Borgognini. His son- 

 nets run upon love or religion, and 

 some inspire that mystic, unmean- 



