_ the found ofour own voices. 
/ 
106 The Poetical Works of the 
= 
gling and pathlefs mazes, and at laft were 
obliged to give over the purfuit. 
We now croffed a common to Norton 
Ferris ; whence, through a narrow defile, 
we pafied to 
. Maiden Bradley; where we refrefhed 
ourlelves with fome tea and rafhers of 
bacon: our repaft being accompanied with 
a-concert of vocal mufic, which though 
not performed in the fame room where we 
fat, effeCtually prevented us from hearing 
This delect- 
able performance was no other than a Cor- 
nifh fong, giving the French andall Revolu- 
tionifts to the devil, and exalting ‘* George 
the Great,’’ with all due veneration, to the 
fkies.. The performers were a company 
of colliers (not very angelic indeed in their 
appearance), but they joined in the apo- 
theofis with fuch Stentorian force of lungs, 
that I think it may be fafely affirmed that 
never conqueror or mighty potentate had 
his praife more loudly celebrated. 
The fortie from Maiden Bradley, as we 
directed our courfe towards the Bath road, 
prefented a pleafing picture, terminating in 
blue diffant hills ; but whofe principal 
beauty was undoubtedly derived from the 
brightnefs and ferenity of the evening. 
The road continued te be very interefting 
for the firft three miles, and through the 
twifted branches of fome fine romantic 
trees afforded feveral beautiful views. 
The beauty of the evening however was 
over before we arrived at Frome (the 
piace of our deftination ) which we entered- 
at about half paft nine, and where we 
were hofpitably entertained by the relations 
and friends of my fellow-traveller. 
(To be continued). 
ee 
Zo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; 
FE fpirit of true poefy has been fo 
long laid among the tombs of our 
literary fathers, that even the apparition of 
Genius is and ought to be contidered, in 
our days, highly miraculous. The little 
volume containing the poetical works of 
the Jate F. Little, efg. is a phenomenon 
of this kind. The editor, in a very 
ingenious preface, abounding with clafiical 
remark and polite critici{m, gives a brief 
_ account of the author, who, as it appears, 
was his particular friend, and a young 
man of the moft ardent fenfibility and re- 
fined paffion. His eulogium on CaTUL- 
Lus is elegant and accurate; but I do 
not coincide in the too favourable opinion 
he feems to entertain of the ¢* fentimental 
late Thomas Little, Efg.  [Sept. ¥5 
levity, the © grata protervitas’ of a Ro- 
chefier or a Sedly.*” The amatery writers. 
of an earlier date were certainly more 
fanciful, and, at the fame time, more na- 
tural; I fhall only inftance the names 
of a RANDOLPH, or a DRAYTON, poets; 
.with whofe works I doubt not that Mr. 
Lirtve himfelf was particularly intimate. 
To thofe I do not feruple to add Suck. 
LING, as much fuperior in delicate fimpli- 
city to his more famous contemporaries. 
In defcribing the warmer emotions of the - 
heart, there is a chaftity of expreffion re- 
quired, which can alone give a durability 
of colouring to performances of a nature 
generally evanefcent, or at leaft liable to 
decay with their fubjeét. Who, at this 
period of comparative purity, is delighted 
wh the mythological extravagance of 
WaLteR, or the polithed pedantry of | 
Lanspown? Their admirers are depart- 
ed with our grandames, or only exift in 
maiden-aunts, and antiquated beauties, 
who, happily, know very little of the mat- 
ter. Ass for the fo much celebrated elegies 
of HamMonpD, they are, though modern, - 
even lefs fufferable ; the ftiff, affeGted ex- 
ercifes of a {chool-boy, not the fpontaneous. 
and animated effufions of a lover; and 
I can hardly determine, whether even the 
mad flights of the DELLA-cruscCa tribe,- 
wild and inconfiftent as they are, may not 
be more appropriate to the delineation of 
thofe -fentiments which owe their very 
birth to the temporary frenzy of an over- 
heated heart, and, fometimes, of an over- 
heated head. Though fome may ftyle 
this apathy, it is certainly the apathy of 
reafon ; and cannot be refuted by the chy- 
merical enthufiafm of any metaphyfical ine 
amorato, from the time of PEerRARCHhim 
felf to the prefent. After this fhort di- 
greffion, I fhall enter more minutely into 
a detail of the pieces which fo forcibly 
demand our attention, fir pointing out 
their peeuliar charaéteriftics. i 
Although they may, cafually, betray the 
inconfiderate levity and effervefcence of / 
youth, they are, generally, correét and fi- 
nifhed; there is much verfatility of meafure, 
but. the diction and ftyle are uniformly 
fplendid. The playful archnefs of MatTr.. 
Prior has been, in fome places, happily - 
_imitated,’as in the lines, beginning “¢ Yes, 
I think I once heard of an amorous youth, 
&c. in the Sonc, p. 39; in the ** Kifs ;” 
and in ‘* Fanny of Timmou.” Many 
poems, of a more fublime or affecting 
order, remind us of that fimple fweetnefs — 
which LANGHORNE once fo frequently 
evinced. The ** SHIELD’’ is nothing in-. - 
4 terior: 
