Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Miscellanies. 
list, “ A Winter in Bath;” “ A Winter 
at Bath ;” “ The Winter in Dublin;” and 
by way of climax, we suppose, “ The In- 
Jidel Mother ; or, Three Winters in Lon- 
don.” We should have hinted to the au- 
thors of these productions, that a ttle- 
page ought to have some relation to the 
contents of a book; had we not been 
made acquainted with the strange fact, 
that at least two of these works were 
named, not by the author, but the book- 
seller. This ruse de commerce of a trick- 
ing title-page is only an old cheat practi- 
sed upon the purse of the public; but 
there is matter calling for much more se-~ 
rious censure in the last-mentioned work, 
with which it is not our province to inter= 
fere, otherwise than to lament that the 
press should be abused to such purposes. 
A work similar in character and tendency 
to the “ Infidel Mother, ” isthe “ Rising 
Sun.” 
To the fai author of the “ Libertines,” 
we are inclined to use the language of 
the witches in Macbeth, and exclaim, 
“ Fair is foul, and foul is faer |” The 
readers who can be amused, with such 
prurient trash as the Libertines, must 
have their mental appetites depraved, and 
their understandings warped in no com- 
mon degree. 
MISCELLANIES. 
< A Supplement to Dr. Johnson’s Dic- 
tionary of the English Language: or a 
Glossary of Obsolete and Provincial 
Words,” by the late Rev. JonaTHan 
Boucuer, A.M. Part the first. Lond. 
4807. 
The object of this valuable work is suf- 
ficiently explained by the title. It was 
Mr. Bouchevr’s tirft intention to have pre- 
sented to the world a Provincial Gloffary 
only; but having likewise direéted his at- 
tention to Obsolete Words as a subordi 
nate part of his undertaking, he found 
that his firft idea of giving the whole in two 
alphabets would be ob jeélionable. Va- 
rious inftances were continually occurring 
in which it was extremely difticult to de- 
cide whether a word which was formerly 
provincial was not now obsolete, or whe- 
ther a word supposed to be obsolete was 
not still provincial. In combining the 
two classes of words Mr. Boucher had 
proceeded as far as the letter G. His 
former Provincial Glossary having been 
advanced to T. Of the six letters which 
were compleated, the first is here sub- 
mitted to the judgment of the public: 
and the advertisement prefixed concludes 
with this remark, that 1f from any intrin- 
sic merit this first portion may appear to 
deserve a place on the same shelf with 
Montuty Mac., No. 159. 
645 
Jobnson, the family and the friends of. 
the lamented author will experience the 
satisfaction that they have not, from -a 
mistaken zeal for his posthumous, fame, 
‘sullied the literary character which he 
acquired while living. 
We quote the following, 
short speciinens:— 
© AFRET, part. «Filled yl fraught 
with. 
For rounde, environ, her crounet 
Was full of riche stones afret. 
Chauc. R. of the Rose, 1. 3203. 
‘ The etymology of. this word, and of 
- verb fret, is, as Dr. Johnson observes, 
very doubtful. Freight of a ship, which 
in French is spelled fret, and in Latin 
affretamentum, has usually been reterred 
to fretum or frith, a strait. But as many 
nautical terms have been adopted from 
the German, none of the etymologies 
mentioned by Johnson appear so reason= 
able, as to refer the word to the German 
“ fretten,” to load, from ‘which the 
French fret, the German fracht, and the 
English freight, may easily be deduced. 
“ AND-IRONS, 2. s. The irons, 
commonly called dogs, . on which wood 
is laid to burn, 
“ Dr. Arbuthnot, speaking of Corne- 
lius Scriblerus’s shield, says: 
AS ear though , : 
The maid, a cleanly wench, had scoured it — 
as bright as her and-irons. 
Memoirs of Martinus Seriberus 
————— th? and-irons 
(I had forgot them) were two winking Gili 
Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely 
depending on their brands. 
Cymbeline, Act. IT..s. Ge 
“« The term end-irons is in Yorkshire 
applied to two coarse iron plates, used 
to contract the fire-place. They are 
moveable: when a great fire is wanted, 
they are placed at adistance; and nearer 
for a small one. 
“© Andirons are mentioned in an inven- 
tory of goodes and cattels, taken in the — 
time of Henry VIII., and there called 
awndirons. See Struti’s Horda, &c. vol. 
ill. p. 64. 
“A pair of antique undirons embossed 
with figures, were sold at the Marquis of. 
Landsdown’s sale, this ae , (1806) for 
seventy guineas, 
« Skinner suggests three etymologies of 
this term: 1. Irons that may be moved 
by the hand; 2. End-irons, from their 
supporting the ends of the wood that is 
to be burnt; and 3. Brand-irons, as if it 
were a corruption of the Saxon bnanden, 
to burn. I conceive, however, that and, 
in this compound term, has the general 
40 senge 
