1805.] 
** brazen bridges’’ and £* brazen kettles,” 
I prefume that the bard meant nothing 
more than brazen horfe-fhoes, or brazen 
tires to the impoftor’s chariot-wheels ; 
but this point I leave to more fagacious 
critics to determine. 
Allow me now, Sir,—as the tranfition 
is not very viclent from brazen feet to 
wooden legs,-—to requeft that fome of 
your learned Cerrefpondents will be kind 
enough to inform me, when, where, and 
by whom, wooden legs were firft invent- 
ed; cr, at leaft, to furnifh me with any 
motices of them prior to theage of Mar- 
tial, the earlieft author in whom I recol- 
Icét to have met with them. He, too (like 
Catulius, in the cafe of the horfe-fhoes), 
only makes flight allufion to the wooden- 
les, asa thing ieemingly well known to 
every reader- His words—in the very 
appropriate metre of a /caxon, ox limping 
iambic—are, 
Inepte, fruftra crure ligneo curres. X.c. 6. 
Tam, &c. J. Cagey. 
Tfington, Feb. 2, 1805. 
Seem e . eee 
To the Editor of the Mouthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Bux very defirous of afcertaining 
who was the author of that moft de- 
Jightful ballad called ** Auld Robin 
Gray,” I fhall take it asa favour if any of 
your readers will give me [uch informa- 
tion on the fubjeét as they are able.— 
Perhaps your Reviewer cf Mufical Publi- 
cations may be as likely as any perfon to 
obtain accurate information. He may 
probably be acquainted with the writer of 
it, The particulars I wifh to afcertain 
are, who compofed the air, as well as the 
words, for it may be that they were not 
both by the fame perfon; alfo in what 
year they were compofed, and when and 
where firit made public. If it were pof- 
fible to obtain an authentic copy fiom the 
compofer, the infertion of it in your Mif- 
cellany would be very acceptable. Whe- 
ther ycu would permit the mufic as well 
as the words to be printed. I do not know. 
Probably there does exilt a copy in the 
hand-writing of the author, of both tune 
and words, to which accefs might be 
had. . 
Some of the printed copies (not all, I 
believe) begin with recitative. Whether 
this was in the original copies, or added 
afterwards, is fomewhat coubiful; but 
probably it was original. 
The beautiful fimplicity of expreffion 
in feveral parts of this ballad is wonder- 
fully ftriking, particularly the following, 
| fEON going - through 
Miscellaneous Dueries, Fe, Obs 105 
where Jenny relates the different methods 
which her father and mother took to per- 
fuade her to marry Auld Robin Gray. 
‘¢ My father urg'd me fair, but my mither 
did not {peak, . 
But the look’d into my face till my heart was 
like to break.” 
The copies which [ have feen differ very 
effentially in fome of the expreflions, on 
which account I much defire to-know the 
real words as they were written before 
publication. An Inquirer. 
ep. 4. UBos: 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
WAN SRE Toxites, in the dedjca- 
aVYiL tion of his Tladsvoss MPOTPeMT Hy 
ad Edwardum VI. to Sir William Paget, 
K. B. calls himfelf R. Peeta Laureatus. 
His work was printed in quarto at Bafil, 
in the white letter. The circumfance of 
his calling himfelf the King’s Poet lau- 
reat is fingular. I fhould be glad to 
know the hiflory and feries of thofe wha 
have been fo termed in this country, or 
who, in any other, may have been allowed 
the title by the Kings of England. 
Th OURS Occ. QuUZsIToR. 
eet 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
A SIRI a 
S the writer of the ProfpeCtus of the 
Beauties of Scotland has drawn up 
his advertifement with fuch a direét refe. 
rence to the Beauties of England and 
Wales, as to induce many to believe that 
the fame authors are concerned in both . 
works, I truft that you will permit me 
to contradict that opinion, through the 
medium of your Mifcellany, by the direét 
affertion, that I am not, in any way 
whatever, connected with the announced 
publication on the Beauties of Scotland. 
Epwarp. WEDLAKE BRAYLEY.« 
Wildernefs-row, Feb. 1, 1805. 
P.S. On the part of my affociate in the 
Beauties of England, &c. Mr. John Britton, 
I am authorized to make a iimilar decla- 
ration. 
SaaS sane 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER, 
Profeffor 
Heynes’s vaiuable edition of Virgil 
fome years ago, although I found mucha 
toadmire in the general {pirit of his re- 
marks, which appeared to me dictated by 
ajufter apprehenfion of the poet’s con- 
ceptions than is ufual with commenta- 
tors 5 
