18 Hints to reform the Enghi/h Languages 
others repofing under the fhelter of a 
noble {preading chefnut-tree, clofe to 
the chapel, which was probably coeval 
with the terraces and other ruins: its 
trunk was of a vaft circumference, and 
placed any where it muft have been 
grand, but in its prefent pofition it is 
inexpreflibly beautiful. The back of 
this lovely fpot is defended by a natural 
wall, a perpendicular -rock of fome 
hundred feet high; all its crags occu- 
pied by noble trees, from which a little 
ftreamlet falls in a broken cafcade, then 
watering the area, and laftly hurrying 
-down the hanging wood into the Con- 
way. Fora hermit, poet, or lover, I 
know not a more delightful haunt. 
About five in the evening, we fet out 
for Conway, following the courfe of the 
river; and of the whole of our tour, 
this hitherto was by far the moft beau- 
tiful part. The river is a very noble 
ftream, and communicates to the vale 
through which it flows the moft lux- 
uriant fertility. On the left hand, the 
valley is bounded by the craggy roots 
of the Snowdon Mountains, adorned with 
woods, and enlivened by cafcades : on 
the right hand the plain rifes into hills 
of confiderable elevation and beautiful 
forms, but cultivated to their fummits ; 
fhaded by large maffes of woods, and 
fprinkled with villas. As we paffed 
through the vale, the fine lines in Gray’s 
Bard occurred to our memory : 
“© On arock, whofe haughty brow 
_ Frowns o’er old Conway’s foaming flood.’? 
Many fuch a projecting rock did we 
fee, where the Bard might have taken 
his ftation; but Gray has totally miftaken 
the character of the river; the Conway 
is one of the moft placed ftreams that 
1 ever faw. As we approached Conway, 
we had a fine view of its noble caftle, 
of the rocky promontory of Orme’s-bead, 
and the cliffs of Penmaen-maur. 
[To be continued in cur next. ] 
? EE a 
Io the Editor. 
SIR, 
ee plan you have adopted for the 
conduct of your Mifcellany feems 
to be calculated to afford a variety of 
means for the inftruétion and amufe- 
ment of your readers ; but there is one 
fubieét of confiderable importance, for 
which you do not feem to have made 
fufficient provifton: perhaps it may be 
confidered by you as coming under the 
general head of critici{m; but in that 
’ [ Feb. 
cafe there-is great danger of its being 
negleéted, or at any rate of not receiving 
that attention to which it is juftly en- 
titled. From the number of literary 
charaéters, whofe affiftance you Jufily 
rely on in the conduét of yeur Work, 
it will not be too much to expeét, ‘that 
fome might dedicate a portion of their 
time to an objeét, which has in view the 
improvement of our Janguage, or the 
correcting of thofe errors which, from 
the form of our government,, and the 
ftate of our manners, are continually 
encroaching upon beauty and elegance, 
either by the coining of fuperfluous 
words, the perverfion of ufual phraies, 
or an affeéted mode of pronunciation. 
I was ftruck with this idea on reading 
fome Effays in the German language, 
written by a fociety, under the direétion 
of Campé, for the fole purpofe of no- 
ticing the deviations from propriety 
of fpeech, arifing either from the dia- 
le&ts of an extenfive country, or the 
caprice-of the moft numerous body of 
writers in Europe: thefe Effays are 
noticed in the Iena Reviews, and the 
undertaking is worthy of tne-praife be- 
ftowed upon it. by the reviewers. ‘The 
German language and our own are de- 
rived from the fame fource. The Ger- 
man has preferved im a great degree its 
original purity, our own has been en- 
riched according to the opinion of fome, 
and tainted in the eftimation of others, 
by ftreams from Latium and Greece. 
‘The German has this advantage, that to 
the commoneft underftanding many 
ideas may be clearly conveyed by com- 
mon words, which in our country 
would be embarraffed with many tech- 
nical terms, either Greek or Latin, not 
to be underftood by any Englifhman 
without an application to his Diétionary. 
Perhaps you will not think it unworthy 
of your plan to fuggefi fome hints on 
this fubject, which may correét our 
patlion for foreign words, and fhow to 
the unprejudiced mind that there is a 
fufficitent fund in our own materials for 
the combining of new terms, without 
having recourfe fo often to foreign af- 
fifiance. 
But if. there is a neceffity. for an- 
Englifhman to be fo conftantly in the 
habit of borrowing either from his 
neighbours or from nations no longer in 
exiftence, there {till might furely be 
fome check put upon the idioms which 
diftinguifh at prefent the pronunciation 
er expreffion of different bodies amongit 
us. Thus we have a pronunciation ar 
tae 
