 1800.] 
‘valent, and in that opinion I heartily 
concur; as, however capable a piece is 
of variety of exprefion, we hear nothing 
from the rapid finger of a modern prac- 
titioner, but a helter-fkelter fucceffion of 
pianos and fortes. 
To remedy this defe&t and give the 
compofer fair play, the propofed ofcilla- 
tions of the pendulum are, undoubtedly, 
well adapted ; and without detracting from 
the merit of the firft fuggefter, I think 
W. C.’s ‘ {cale’? the moft eligible plan ; 
as not to dwell on the trifling difference 
in the breadth of inftrument keys, if the 
meafure, as it merits, gets into general © 
efteem, the performer on the violin, flute, 
&c. will find it equally neceffary with the 
practitioner on a key-inftrument, and with 
the difadvantage, probably, of having no 
harpfichord or piano-forte whereby to re- 
gulate the movement. 
Of the above-named Mr. Wright it may 
not be improperto obferve, that he is the 
inventor of a tran{pofing machine equally 
portable with Thompfon’s, but with this 
difference, that it has twelve-fold merit; 
that is, Thompfon’s only tranfpofes from 
and to the key of C major, leaving the ac- 
cidental flats and fharps ftill to puzzle the 
inexperienced tranfpofer; whereas, Mr. 
Wright’s machine tranfpofes from and to 
every key, both major and minor, through- 
out the fyftem, and fhews what every ac- 
cidental flat, fharp, or natural, ought to 
be in the key tranfpofed into. 
on the authority of one to whom Mr. 
Wright had fhewn an acting model of his 
invention; but whether it has been made 
public or not, I cannot pofitively fay. Of 
fuch a matter’s Jabors, however, we need 
not hefitate to pronounce that they benefit 
and do credit to a fcience upon which fo 
many paltry claims to diltinétion are daily 
made. 
With refpect to the queries of * A 
Friend,” [conceive wet and dry has refe- 
rence only to the waodez part of an inftru- 
ment; and that the tuning cannot be ma- 
terially injuredthereby, provided the grain 
of the wood is parallel with the firings 5 
it being well known, that wood ‘does not 
contract or expand lengthways. Not fo 
trifling is the action of heat and co/d upon 
the firings; upon which the flighteft 
Variation in the temperature of a room 
takes almoft immediate effeét, Hence a 
large fire, or an open door or window ad- 
mitting a current of air, will foon undo 
the beft tunift’s labors; but then, on the 
door or window being clofed, and the room 
reftored to its former temperature, the con- 
traction or expantion will be proportionately 
Account of a Poetical Collier. 
I ftate this 
ee fi 
perceptible, and the inftrument, of courfes 
be in tune again. Upon this principle it 
might be averred, that if the atmofphere. 
or temperature of a room could: be kept 
always uniform, an inftrument would never 
want tuning fo long as it held together. 
The averaged effect of our climate upon 
inftruments, or rather the difference be- 
tween fummer and winter, is, I believe, 
three-quarters of a note in the middle of 
an inftrument. SBrafs is infinitely more, 
fufceptible of heat and cold, than fteel 5 
copper not fo much fo. 
From thefe curfory obfervations it may 
be deduced, that the ftigma often beftowed, 
on the tunift ought to be lavifhed on the 
variable climate, or the imperfect and dif- 
ordered mechanifm of the inftrument ; it 
being a very cuftomary thing for people to 
defcribe their inftrument as being ‘‘ hor= 
ridly out of tune,” when a broken pen in 
an harpfichord, or a broken hinge in the 
hammer of a piano-forte, or any other 
difarrangement, equally remote from the 
firings, prevents the key put down froma 
founding the note. 
Fan. 14, 1800. A. B. 
~The 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT OF A POETICAL COLLIERa 
Ah me! full forely is my heart forlorn, 
To think how modeft worth negleted lies 3 
While partial Fame does with her blafts adorm 
Such deeds alone as pride and pomp difguife. 
SHENSTONE. 
HAT the adventitious circumftances 
of locai fituation may often tend to 
call forth the earlieft exertions of poetical 
genius, is a propofition too evident to ftand 
in need of any illuftration. ‘Thefe may 
undoubtedly be regarded as the principal 
fource of that relifh for metrical compofi- 
tion, which pervades the inhabitants of 
that part of Dumfrieshire which extends 
along the banks of the Efk, a river im- 
mortalized in the ftrains of Mickle. The 
verdure of the meadows; the woods that 
rear their green heads in every direétion 5 
the pellucid ftreams that defcend from the 
fides of a thoufand hills; the continual 
and varied ranges-or picturefque moun- 
tains that bound the horizon ;—all confpire 
to awaken in the mind of the beholder an 
enthufiaftic regard for the romantic fcenes 
of nature. This admiration almoft ne- 
ceflarily leads to a fondnefs for that art 
which profefies to pourtray her fimple 
beauties. Hence the origin of that poeti- 
cal enthufiafm, which difcovers itfelf in 
almoft every paftoral country. 
The inhabitants of Efkdale and the 
rz adjacent 








