324. 
Olaus Magnus, de Gent. Sept. ‘ that af- 
ter their long winter, from the beginning 
of Otober to-the end of April, the 
northern nations have a cuftom to wel- 
come the returning fplendor of the fun 
with dancing, and mutually to feaft each 
other, rejoicing that a better feafon for 
fithing and hunting was approached.” 
Mr. Tollet proceeds: ‘in honour of 
May-day the Goths and Southern Swedes 
had a mock-battle between fummer and 
wiriter, which ceremony és retazned in the 
Ifle of Man, where the Danes and Nor- 
wegians had been for a long time mafters.”* 
This mock battle brings to my recollec- 
tion four very defcriptive lines on Spring ; 
I quote from memory, and do not recol- 
Te& where I met with them; the laft line 
is, I fear, incorrectly given ‘ 
Winter’s wither’d ciutches hold thee 
Doating on thy youthful charnis ; 
Summer, longing to enfold thee 
Pulls thee to his ardent arms. 
Thefe lines are not quoted, however, as 
fiaving: any reference to the mock-battle 
of the Goths: the poet doubtlefs meant 
merely to reprefent the uncertain foftnefs 
of the feafon; the alternation of mild airs 
and pinching frofts which charafterizes 
the youth of the year: Thomfon fays of 
Spring, 
As yet the trembling year is unconfirm’d, 
And winter oft at eve refumes the breeze, 
Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving 
fleets 
Deform the day delightlefs. 
Mr. Tollet’s account of the origin of 
May-fports is plaufible: if it were poffi- 
ble that the prefent celebration of them 
were at all connected with the following 
circumftance, the May-pole might in- 
deed be called the tree of liberty. After the 
Syracufans had obtained their celebrated 
victory over the Athenians, a tree was 
hung round with arms by way of trophy ; 
this formality was annually repeated in 
Syracufe in commemoration of the de- 
liverance, and the cuftom has defcended 
from generation to generatiori for more 
than 2200 years! ‘The folemn proceffion 
has ceafed, but atree is erefied on the 
firt of May before the fenate-houfe, and 
during the whole month no man is al- 
Jowed to arreft{ adebtor. A few years 
ago, thofe citizens who were at that time 
under arref were fet free, that they might 
partake‘of the public joy, and endeavour 
to. fatisfy their creditors *. 

rg E Pol ge x ar ge mae 
* See .Holcroft’s tranflation of Count 
Stolberg’s Travels through Germany, &c. 
vol. ii, page 4538. 
— 
ol 
Exirads from the Port Folia of a Man of Letters. [April 
In the cantons of Uri, Schweitz, and 
Underwalden, each individual (before 
the late Revolution) who had attained — 
the age ef 14, fovmed’a member of the © 
fovereignty, whd met every year on the 
firft of May, in a general council of the 
nation; in order to form laws and ele&- 
magiftrates*. The Swifs had no fhare 
of Syracufan fpirit, or they would have 
commemorated tlie birth of their inde-- 
pendence, by appointing the fir? of anus 
ary for their general council: it was on 
the firft of January, 1307, that the three 
heroes, SEAUFFACH, FurRS?T, and AR- 
NOLD, formed their renowned confpiracy 
againft the tyrant emperor Albert, “ and 
liberated their country by feizing and 
fending out of their territory all their 
imperial governors.” 
Is not the mayor of fome corporation 
towns. in this kingdom eleGed on the firft 
of May ? a 
HOGARTH. (Comzmunicated.) 
In the year 1786, Mr. Walpole pub- 
blifhed his anecdotes, in which he has in- 
troduced Hogarth’s catalogue and cha- 
racter. The volume printed at Straw- 
berry Hill, he (with the preceding part of 
his work) prefented to Mrs. Hogarth. 
The books were accompanied with the 
toflowing handfome apology for his ftric- 
tures on the genius of her hufband;. 

* See Mifs Williams’s Tour in Switzer- 
land. ef 
+The reader will think that fuch affertions 
as the following, demanded an apology. 
*¢ His (Hogarth’s) works are his hiftory 5 
asa painter be had but flender merit-—In co- 
louring he proved no greater a mafter; his 
force lay in expreffion, not in tints and 
chiaro fcuro.”” Anec. of Painting, vol. iv. p. 160. 
Hew was it poflible for Mr. Walpole to 
have written the foregoing lines, after hav- 
ing feen the pi€tures of Marriage a la Mode! 
Supplement to Hogarth Iliuftrated, byJohn 
Ireland, volume 3d, and laft. 
Another ‘proof of Hogarth’s uncommon 
powers, asa painter, has appeared fince the 
publication of the volume from which the 
above letter is extraéted. Onthe death of a 
widow lady in the parifh of St. James’s, Weit- 
minfter, it being neceflary to remove the 
goods from the houfe which fhe inhabited, 
there were found hanging upon the ftair-cafe 
twelve paintings from * Butler’s Hudibras,™ 
which, on being cleared from the dirt that had 
been accumulating upon them for more than 
half a century, exhibited evident and inters 
nal evidence of being the firft thoughts for 
the twelve prints which were engraved by 
that great artift, and publifhed in the year 
1726. 
The pi€tures have been removed to Mr, 
x Joha, 
