to the facred mount he takes his way, Prunes his young wings, and tunes his infant lay, His oaten reed to rural ditties frames,

To flocks and rocks, to hills and rills proclaims,
In fimpleft notes, and all unpolifh'd strains,
The loves of nymphs, and eke the loves of fwains.

Clad, as your nymphs were always clad of yore,
In ruftic weeds a cook-maid now no more
Beneath an aged oak LARDELLA lies →→→→
Green mofs, her couch; her canopy, the skies.
From aromatic fhrubs the roguish gale

Steals young perfumes, and wafts them thro' the vale.
The youth, turn'd swain, and skill'd in ruftic lays,
Faft by her fide his am'rous defcant plays.

Herds lowe, Flocks bleat, Pies chatter, Ravens scream,
And the full chorus dies a-down the stream.
The ftreams, with mufic freighted, as they pass,
Prefent the fair LARDELLA with a glass,
And ZEPHYR, to compleat the love-fick plan,
Waves his light wings, and ferves her for a fan.

Hence taking occafion to fpeak of those fuperior beings, who boaft the true refin'd imitative CLASSICAL tafte, he acknowledges his own infufficiency, as well as diflike to:

mar fair nature's hue

With all that artificial tawdry glare,

Which virtue fcorns, and none but trumpets wear.

Therefore, as dedicating himfelf entirely to her law, he fteers his courfe to Northern climes ;

Where, undisturb'd by ART's rebellious plan,
She rules the loyal Laird, and faithful Clan."

We will not overburthen the reader with quotations, but cannot forbear two extracts, the one of the be

ginning

ginning of the paftoral, with the description of Famine's Cave, the other (towards the end of it) of her perfon.

Two boys, whofe birth, beyond all queftion, fprings From great and glorious, tho' forgotten, kings, Shepherds of Scottish lineage, born and bred On the fame bleak and barren mountain's head, By niggard nature doom'd on the fame rocks To fpin out life, and starve themselves and flocks, Fresh as the morning, which, enrob'd in mift, The mountain top with ufual dulnefs kifs'd,... JOCKEY and SAWNEY to their labours rofe; Soon clad I ween, where nature needs no cloaths, Where, from their youth enur'd to winter, fkies, Drefs and her vain refinements they difpife... 11

Y

JOCKEY, whofe manly high-bon'd cheeks to crown With freckles fpotted flam'd the golden down, With mickle art, could on the bagpipes play, E'en from the rifing to the fetting day; SAWNEY as long without remorse could bawl HOME's madrigals, and ditties from FINGAL. Oft at his ftrains, all natural tho' rude, al The Highland Lafs forgot her want of food, And, whilft the fcratch'd her lover into reft,

Sunk pleas'd, tho' hungry, on her SAWNEY's breast.

Far as the eye
could reach, no tree was feen,
Earth, clad in ruffet, fcorn'd the lively green.
The plague of Locusts they fecure defy,
For in three hours a grafhopper must die.
No living thing, whate're its food, feasts there,
But the Chameleon, who can feast on air;
No birds, except as birds of paffage flew,
No bee was known to hum, no dove to coo;
No ftreams as amber fmooth, as amber clear,
Were feen to glide, or heard to warble here.

Re

1

Rebellion's fpring, which thro' the country ran,
Furnish'd, with bitter draughts, the steady clan.
No flow'rs embalm'd the air, but one white rofe,
Which, on the tenth of June, by instinct blows,
By inftinct blows at morn, and, when the fhades
Of drizly eve prevail, by inftinct fades.

One, and but one poor folitary cave, Too fparing of her favours, nature gave; That one alone (hard tax on Scottish pride) Shelter at once for man and beaft fupplied. Their fnares without entangling briers spread, And thistles, arm'd againft th' invader's head, Stood in close ranks all entrance to oppose, Thistles now held more precious than the rofe. All Creature's, which, on nature's earliest plan, Were form'd to loath, and to be loath'd by man, Which ow'd their birth to naftiness and spite, Deadly to touch, and hateful to the fight, Creatures, which, when admitted in the ark, Their Saviour fhunn'd, and rankled in the dark, Found place within; marking her noisome road With poifon's trail, here crawl'd the bloated Toad; There webs were spread of more than common size, And half-starv'd spiders prey'd on half-starv'd flies'; In queft of food, Efts ftrove in vain to crawl; Slugs, pinch'd with hunger, fmear'd the flimy wall; The cave around with hiffing ferpents rung; On the damp roof, unhealthy vapour hung, And FAMINE, by her children always known, As proud as poor, here fix'd her native throne.

After this follows an alternate lamentation between the two boys, which ended

from her throne of turf,

With boils embofs'd, and overgrown with fcurf,

1

Vile humours, which, in life's corrupted well!
Mix'd at the birth, not abftinence could quell,
Pale FAMINE rear'd the head; her eager eyes,
Where hunger e'en to madness feem'd to rife,
Speaking aloud her throes and pangs of heart,
Strain'd to get loofe, and from their orbs to ftart;
Her hollow cheeks were each a deep-funk cell,
Where wretchedness and horror lov'd to dwell ;
With double rows of useless teeth fupplied,
Her mouth, from ear to ear, extended wide,
Which, when for want of food her entrails pin'd,
She op'd, and curfing fwallow'd nought but wind
All fhrivell'd was her fkin; and here and there,
Making their way by force, her bones lay bare;
Such filthy fight to hide from human view,
O'er her foul limbs a tatter'd Plaid fhe threw.

Ceafe, cries the Goddefs, cease, &c.

༩

And the whole paftoral concludes with Famine's prophetical affurance of a glorious exchange, and the full promise of a better land; where, as the goddess informs them,

Already is this game of fate begun Under the fanction of my darling Son, That Son, whose nature royal as his name, Is deftin'd to redeem our race from fhame.

His boundless pow'r, beyond example great,

Shall make the rough way fmooth, the crooked straight,
Shall for our eafe the raging floods restrain,

And fink the mountain level to the plain:
DISCORD, whom in a cavern under ground

With mafly fetters their late Patriot bound,

Where her own flesh the furious Hag might tear,kai And vent her curfes to the vacant air,

Where, that she never might be heard of more,

He planted LOYALTY to guard the door,

Fer

For better purpose fhall Our Chief release,
Difguife her for a time, and call her PEACE

It would take up too much time, and in a work of this kind, which exifts only by variety, too much room, to expatiate on the many beauties, as well as severities contain'd in this fatire. In fhort, whatever may be the political merit of the poem, in its poetical light, it stands unrivall'd. We cannot however help remarking, that our author feems to know how to employ half a line, as well as any of his predeceffors, and has placed his Bavius in as lafting a nook as the fatyrical VIRGIL, where fpeaking of HOME, he fays he was

Difbanded from the house of pray'r

For loving plays, tho' no dull DEAN was there.

Who this Gentleman is, far be it from us to furmife, and for his fake, may pofterity never take the pains to enquire.

Talia fecreta coluerunt Orgia tædâ

Cecropiam foliti Bapta laffare Cottyton.

Juv. Sat. ii. v. 91.

OPE's hollow'd grotto, like his verse, remains,

POP

Still MARBLE-HALL adds honour to those plains, Where Thames, meandring thro' the T-m meads, From Drt's groves reluctantly recedés:

Yet, why does Tm of fuch beauties boaft?

Thefe noble scenes on little minds are loft.

Loft,