aor. ] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazime. 
SIR, 
' HN the zooth page of your laft Number, 
] a correfpondent of your’s, under the 
fignature of Alboin, expreffes a wifh to 
fee {ome memoirs, &c. of Meflrs. Pick- 
ERING and BEDINGFIELD. You have be- 
low a circumftance in’ which they were 
both concerned, They were the real au- 
thors of the following fonnets, though it 
is known to very few. The writer of this 
was in the particular intimacy of the for- 
mer. Toufe his own words of the Lap- 
‘landers, whofe language, he imitated as 
below, ‘*I have joined (with him) in the 
fong, and capered (with him) in the 
dance,”’ the night has often pafled by un- 
heeded, and the morning has been brought 
in with our fongs—but my friend has ce- 
parted, and I know not what has hecome 
of him! the open-hearted man, the gay 
companion, the witty, the worthy, but 
deluded Pickering, the fharer of my mirth, 
and the partner in my vagaries, perhaps, 
like his own Gaberlunzie Man, now wan- 
ders through a Wreath o’ Sna !"—I needed 
not the promptings of Albein in Donocht 
Had; often have I feen it in the writing 
of my friend ; frequently have I heard it, 
when his voice increafed its melody,—but 
I beg your pardon, Mr. Editor, I mean 
not to eulogize!—I muft curb the feelings 
of friendfhip, and give you, after a fhort 
introduétion—firft, a Lapland fong and its 
anthor—lecondly, a Critici{m on it, with 
another Tranflation, by Bedingfield, at 
the requeft of Pickering, turning a feftive 
into a mournful idyll. The Criticilin of 
the latter your readers will doubtlefs join 
with me in calling amafterly performance. 
In the year 1796 Sir Henry Geo. Liddel, 
of Ravenfworth, in Durham, made a jour- 
ney into Lapland, and brought with him, 
onhis return, two natives of that country. 
An account of this voyage and thofe fe- 
rales, was given to the public by Mathew 
Confett, efq. in which he moft miftakenly 
introduces the fong of my lamented friend 
as an original Compojition of Laplandic 
Genius! But why need we be altonifhed? 
the poems of Rowley have had their Chat- 
terton, and thofe of Offian, a Macpher- 
Pickering and Bedingfield— Lapland Song, 
TA . 
fon; need we wonder then, that a fimilar 
genius fhould impofe upon a Confett> 
-‘Thefe Lapland females had been at'a large 
tavern in Newcatltle, and Pickering had 
the fortune to hear them fing. He went 
home, recolleéted the founds of the words 
as well as he could, wrote the following 
letter to the Printer of the Newcaftle Cou 
rant, introducing the accompanying jeu 
d'efprit as one ot the fongs he had heard; 
and I know aNo, that ic Was the occaficn 
of a meeting of a good many of the or- 
thodox prieits of that town to judge of its 
genumenefs, who decidedly pronounced in 
the afhrmative!! The tollowing is his 
letter to the Printer of the Newcattle Cou- 
rant:—** The public curiofity having been 
excited by the appearance of the mufical 
Lapland females in this country, a {pe= 
cimen of Scandinavian poetry may pro- 
bably afford fome little amufement to the 
many. In my youth a propenfity ta. 
travel led me through many a rude unci- 
vilized region ; and inthe Augué of 1761 
I fat me down in Lapland, at a place 
called Trouan, about 150 miles to the 
north-welt of Torne; there I lived through 
the winter. Iwas kindly treated by the 
hofpitable owner of the cottage; and how- 
evcr inclined the polified nations of Eu- 
ropé may be to treat the inhabitants of 
the Arétic region with derifion, let it be 
remembered, that happinefs is to be found”. 
on the cliffs of Lorne, and that hofpita-* 
lity {preads her unadorned table to the 
wanderer on the cold fltiore of Lulhea; I 
have joined in the fong and capered in the 
dance, and oft, while the ftorm pattend 
loudly without, the face of cheerfulneis | 
and content was to be feen round the fire 
in the hut of a Laplander. Curiofity led 
me to fee the Lapland wanderers at’ pre-~ 
fent in this country, and to my great fa- 
tisfaction they fang me afong, to which I» 
had often liftened with pleafure at Trouan, 
and which I now offer to you in an Eng- 
lith drets, confident that it will afford 
fome amulfement to the numerous readers 
of your excellent Paper. aie saa 
[The pretended fong is a jargon of words 
which we think it fuperfluous to copy. |. 
TRANSLATION. 2 A 
‘<The fnows are diffolving on Torno’s rude fGide,and the ice of Lulhea flows down the dark tide; 
Thy aark ftream, Oh Lulhe, flows freely away, and the fnow-drop unfolds her pale beau- 
ties to day 5 
Far off the keen terrors of winter retire, and the north-dancing ftreamers relinquifh their fire; 
The fun’s genial heat fwells the bud on the tree, and Enna chaunts forth her wild warbling 
with glee. . 
The rein-deer unharnefs’d in freedom fhall play, and fafely o’er Odon’s fteep precipice ftray 5 
‘The wolf to the foreft’s receffes fhall fly, and how] to the moonas the glides thro’ the fky: 
Thep hafte, my fair Luah, ah hafte to the grove, and pafs the {weet feafon in rapture and 
love ; 
In youth let our bofoms with extacy glow, for the winter of life ne’er a tranfport can know.” 
The 
