GENERAL POSTSCRIPT. 47 



As to the fecond general topic, Water, as 1 have heard no 

 dbjedtions made to what I have there aiTerted, and believe 

 every aiTertion confonant to the general principles of the art, 

 I fhall here add nothing. Yet in the little Epifode at the end 

 of it, I have been frequently queftioned whom I meant by 

 LIGEAJ and it has been thought that I ought not to have run 

 away with one of Virgil's Sea-Nymphs*, to tranfport her into 

 an Englim inland fcene. There is fome weight in this objec- 

 tion ; and to (hew that I think fo, I will here difcover what 

 I. have hitherto kept as a fort of fecret. The lines, where 

 this Nymph is mentioned, were written in- a. very retired 

 grove belonging to Mr. Frederic Montagu, who. has long 

 honoured me with his friendship, where a little clear trout- 

 ftream (dignified perhaps too much by the name of a River) 

 gurgles very delicioufly. The name of. this ftream is the 

 LIN, and the fpring itfelf rifes but a little way from his 

 plantations -fv I-feem to find myfelf afked here. pretty ab- 

 ruptly,. Why then did you not call your Nymph LINE A ? I 



will 



* Drymoquc, Zanthoque, Ligeaaue, Phyllodoceq-ae. GEOR/ iv. ver. 336. 



f At Papplewick, in Nottinghamftiire, on the edge of the Foreft of Sherwood. The 

 village itfelf has not been witnout poetical notice before, Ben Johnfon having taken 

 fome of his perfon<e dramatis from it, in his uafiniihed Paftoral Comedy, called ?fo~ 



