28 On the Mufical Properties of English Syllables. [¥eb. ty 
‘ Hendom Grange near Ryhope, and in the 
vicinity of Hylton Ferry. During his re- 
fidence at the latter place, when he had 
nearly attained his 80th year, his occu- 
patiow becoming unprofitable, he gave up 
his farm, and engaged himielf in the fer- 
vice of a gentleman in the fame neigh-- 
bourhood, “by whom he was employed in 
the fields or ftable, or in fuch other work _ 
as he was capable of attending to, being 
always confidered tr uity and well- ‘difpof- 
ed. As he had long prided hinfelf on 
his dexterity im mowing, when he was 
almoft ninety, he anxioutly foheited his 
employer ior the loan of a guinea, to 
wager againit the fkill of a mueh younger 
competitor. For the laft fifteen years of 
his life, he refided in Sunderland, im the 
houfe of a crand-daughter, by whom, with 
the affiftance of other deicendants, ue 
was decently and refpectably maintai 
ed; ftill, however, keeping up his con- 
nexion occafionally with the family of his 
late mafter, who had removed into the 
environs of the town. Being one day, 
when he was upwards of a hundred years 
old, requefted by his miftrefs to purchafe 
her fome fow ‘Is, with an expeétation that 
he would bring them from the market, 
which was held very near his own refi- 
dence in Sunderland, he fet out on foot 
for a village feven niles diftant, where 
he had fome acquaintance, and having 
procured fome fowls of a fuperior quality, 
returned home from bis marketing with- ’ 
out delay. He was a ftrong mufcular 
man, about five feet fix inches high; he 
was fimple and of an eafy temper, never 
diftrefling himfelf about any thing beyond 
. the occurrence of the moment, a circum- 
{tance which probably contributed much 
to the prolongation of his life. Having 
never been afili¢ted with any fpecies of 
infirmity or ill health, he retamed his 
bodily vigour to a very late period, and 
his other faculties, with the exception of 
his fight which failed him in his laft year, 
to his death at the advanced age of 106, 
in the fummer of 1805. He left a fon 
upwards of 70, whom he always called his 
lad, a man of ftouter make than his’ 
father, who bears at this moment évery 
appearance of reaching a very adv anced 
_ age.- 
“Dec, 2 20, 1806. M. Y. 
a ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AM forry to trouble you again about 
errors of the prefs; but there is 
one in the laft line of the fecond column, 
-page 445,0f your laft Magazine, (2nmyRes 
marks on the improper Elifion of Vowels} 
that reduces the fentence to fuch tauto= 
logy and nonfenfe, that I am obliged to! 
requeft the opportunity of a confpicuous 
correction. J had ftated that <‘ many of 
our fyllables will be found, even in or- 
dinary delivery, to be lable to a 2 confi+ 
derable degree of latitude, both in euan- 
TITY and TUNE;” but your compofiter 
(who may very well be excaled for never 
having heard of the tune of fyllables, in 
the ordinary pronunciation of {peech) has 
fubftituted the word fame; aud made me 
dwell upon a diftinction (Gnfinitely too 
fubtile, I fuppofe, for the apprelention of 
any of your readers) between the guantity 
of a fyllable and its time.* 
I throw no reproach, therefore, on the 
corrector of your prefs, on account of this 
‘maccuracy: but as the difcrimination of 
the various properties of Englifh fyllables 
is one of thofe topics, to which, both 
from tafte and from profetiional duty, E 
am in the habit of paying a very parti~ 
cular attention ; I avail myfelf of the pre- 
fent opportunity to elucidate the diftinc< 
tion alluded to in my latt communication. 
Englith fyllables then, Sir, I conceive 
(and I believe I might confidently affirm 
the fame of the fyllables of ail languages, 
that ever did, or ever can exiit) differ 
from each other, not only in the enunci+ 
ative elements a e. the fimple qualities 
of the letters. of which they are compoted) 
and in their refpeétive quantities, G. e. 
the time they occupy in pronunciation) 
but, alfo, in the following qualities, which 
conftitute (in the moft comprehentive ap- 
plication of the word) ther tune; and 
which I fhali endeavour to contradiftin- 
guith by appropriate fymbols, the greater 
part of which [ pie bie owed frou the 
Ingenious work of Jofina Stecle.t 
‘Frrst, fyflables dif from each other 
-in their poi ife—that is to fay, in the affec- 
tions of heavy (A) and light (...)—the 
Thefts and Arfis of the Greeks :—the ul- 
ternations of which (not proceeding from 
* Either the lapfe of my pen, or of your 
compofitor, has brought me under the impu- 
tation of another error, which though general 
idiom would excufe, accuracy.would of Fcourfe 
rejeCt—-I mean the phrafe ‘¢ three firft lines,”* 
in my paper upon EliGions, inftead of “ firlt 
three lines.” Though f utterly abjure fuch 
colloquial phrafeology,.in critical difquifition, 
I thould not have thought it worth while to 
correct it, if fome unAnown correipondent had 
not felt it of importance enough for epiflolary 
interrogation. a 
+ Profodia Rationalis, or a Treatife on the 
Meafur¢ and Melody of Speech. Nichols, 1779. 
mere 
