1800. | 
- liged to hide himfelf in a cellar near 
Moorfields, to avoid being lodged in a 
room with an iron grate. In thofe days 
of adverfity he wrote fpeeches worthy of 
a Demofthenes, for and againft the moft 
important queftionsagitated in Parliament, 
which were publifhed under the names of 
the real members: Thefe fpeeches for a 
long time paffed for genuine in the coun- 
try: and it is not generally known, that 
among them is the celebrated Speech of 
Pit, which he is faid to have pronounced, 
when his youth was objected to him, and 
which never fo flowed from the mouth of 
Pit. Johnfon has now conduéted the 
Paétolus into his garden. He enjoys a 
penfion of three hundred pounds fterling, 
not to make fpeeches; but, as the Oppo- 
fition afferts, to induce him to remain 
filent. 
I forgot to tell you, that Johnfon de- 
nies the antiquity of Offian. Macpherfon 
is a native of Scotland; and Johnfon would 
rather fuffer him to pafs for a great poet, 
than allow him to be an honeft man. I 
am convinced of their authenticity. Mac- 
pherfon fhewed me, in the prefence of 
Alexander Dow, at leaft twelve parcels 
of the manufcript of the Earfe original. 
Some of thefe manufcripts feemed to be 
very old. Literati of my acquaintance, 
who underftand the language, have com- 
pared them with the tranflation ; and we 
muft either believe the abfurdity, that 
Macpherfon had likewife fabricated the 
Earfe text, or no longer contend againft 
evidence. Macpherfon declaimed a few 
paflages to me. The language founded 
melodious enough, but folemnly plaintive 
and guttural, like the languages of all 
rude uncultivated nations. 
Ck, 
STERNE. 
In an hiftoricaland critical Account of the 
Lives and Writings of the living Authors 
of Great Britain, publifhed in 1762, a 
meagre performance, even inferior to fome 
late attempts, is to be found a literary 
anecdote of Sterne, which may now be 
forgotten. The writer tells us, that 
Sterne’s fuccefs was owing to an accident 
by which fome authors would have been 
altogether difcouraged. He had offered 
to fell the copy of ** Triftram Shandy” to 
a bookfeller at York, for sol. 
feller not being willing to give that fum 
for it, he fet out for London. The lite- 
rary adventurer foon agreed on fair terms 
with Dodiley ; and the work refufed at 
York, produced the author and book- 
feller in London as confiderable a profit, 
as perhaps any” work of mere amulement 
ever did. 
_ tain, always a Captain,” it feems a be 
re-. 
The booke ° 
From the Port-Folio of a Man of Letters. ESS 
THE PRETENDER. 
THE vulgar proverb of ** Oncea Cap- 
applied to abdicated monarchs. The 
tender, when living in retirement at Rome, 
ufed to cry out in the fits of the gout, by 
which he was horribly tormented, Poor 
King! Poor King! A-French traveller who 
often went to fee him, told him that he 
was aftonifhed at never meeting any Englith 
at his houfe.—*¢ I know how it is,”” an- 
{wered he, ‘* they imagine that I remem- 
ber paft times; but I fhould receive them 
with pleafure, for I love my fubjects; I 
do indeed !”’ 
LA 
HOPS. 
THE moft ancient botanifts were not 
acquainted with the hop-plant; and it is 
probable that, like many culinary herbs, 
it became firft known in Europe at the 
time of the great migration and irruption of 
nations. Ifidore informs us, that the ufe 
of the hop was firft tried in Italy, Wa- 
Jafridus Strabo in the ninth, and 4Emilius 
Macer in the following century, have made 
no mention of it: nor does it occur in the 
Capitulare de willis imperatoris, which is 
generally afcribed to Charlemagne, and in 
which are named a great number of plants, 
to be cultivated in the emperor’s farms. 
The plant was, however, known in Ger- 
many, in the times of the Carolingians. 
In a charter of King Pepin, we meet with 
hop-gardens, bumulonarieg; and im the 
Statutes enacted in the year 822, by 
Adalard Abbot of Corbey, the millers 
belonging to the domains of the abbey 
are exempted from the fervice of labour- 
ing in the hop-grounds. Modi umult, 
humuli, bumulonis, occur among the moft 
ancient contributions, or rents paid in 
kind to churches and monafteries in Gers 
many. 
The Englifh, according to the moft cree 
dible accounts, learned the ufe of hops 
from fome native of Artois, who, in the 
beginning of the 16th century, introduced 
them into this country: but a long time 
after, the addition of them to beer was 
held to be an adulteration of that liquor. 
In the reign of Henry VI. the cultivation 
of the plant was prohibited; and {fo late 
as Henry the Eichth’s time the ufe of its 
product, as likewife of brimftone, was 
forbidden to the brewers under fevere pe- 
nalties, In the reign of Edward VI. about 
the year 1552, the term hop-grounds firlt 
occurs in our laws. In 1603, a very con- 
fiderable quantity of hops were already 
produced in this country : however, it was 
fill neceffary to import from abroad; and. 
U2 by 
