1798.] Mr. Houfeman's Tour continued watered, rather an open country than otherwife, and fomewhat hilly: farms are generally worth 100l. to 300l. a year. OXFORD ftands on a plain, in a fine fertile country; its numerous churches, colleges, and other fine buildings, which overtop the city, give it a magnificent appearance, at a little diftance. It contains thirteen parish churches; and, if I mistake not, eighteen colleges, is built with polish ed ftone, of a whitish colour; the houses and other buildings are tall and elegant, and the streets wide, and neatly paved. In fhort, OXFORD is, in my opinion, the moft pleafant and handfome town I have feen it is the first town generally built with ftone, which I have obferved fince I left Yorkshire. This city is almoft furrounded with little ftreams of pure water, which contain a great deal of fish. Thefe ftreams unite, and form a pretty large river. which, after watering a range of delightful meadows, falls into the Thames. OXFORD is chiefly fupported by the colleges the great number of students, moft of whom are the fons of noblemen and gentlemen of fortune who refide here, occafions a great demand, not only for the neceffaries but luxuries of life: its population does not appear to increase. : July 30, OXFORD to DODDINGTON, in Oxfordshire, 15 miles. An open, and not very fertile, country: the foil rather heavy, and has generally an under stratum of whitish freeftone rock, which, in fome places, rifes very near the furface. In this diftrict I obferved fome common, and a great deal of common-fields: the furface, in general, is pretty level, but fome little prominencies are to be feen. Roads, in this country, are neither good nor easy, being made with the foft white ftone, which is eafily procured: thefe ftones are broke upon the roads as in many of the northern counties. DODDINGTON ftands on a rifing ground, and is a pretty farming village. July 31, DODDINGTON to BANBURY, in Oxfordshire, 6 miles. Road made with freeftone, broken into fmall bits: that ftone is very remarkable, from. the great number and variety of petrified fhells in its compofition. I picked up feveral, which were quite entire, and had been completely incorporated with the ftones which furrounded them; their fubftance alfo partook of that of the ftone, but the fhape and colour of the fhells continue as before their petrifaction. The caufes of thefe furprising effects I leave to the investigation of naturalifts. The foil rather heavy; and roads, particularly towards 37 Wheat, barley, BANBURY, are bad. Auguft 2, BANBURY to SOUTHAM, in Warwick fhire, 13 miles. Road very bad, it is made with broken ftones. In this diftrict, there is much land in pafture, fome of which feems to have been used for that purpofe at least 100 years, and is now almoft covered over with hillocks, like ant hills, for want of cultivation. This manner of difpofing of lands is equally pernicious and unprofitable with commonfields, but from contrary caufes. The old paftures are employed in fattening bullocks, and it is faid the land-owners are injudicious enough not allow their farmers the ufe of the plough thereon. Farms and field's feem large: the foil of this district is generally heavy, and furface pretty level: from the great number of trees on hedges, the country has a woody appearance. I have noticed here, as well as in most of thofe fouthern coun"ties; that very few potatoes are grown, and 38 Mr. Houfeman's Tour continued. and that the labouring claffes are little acquainted with their use. Potatoes are confidered as a poor, weak, and unfubftantial food, and not fufficient to form the principal part of a meal. This is a great mistake; that fort of food must be allowed by all to be extremely cheep, and that it is alfo nutritive, is witneffed by thousands in the north of England and in Ireland, who make petatoes a great part of their food, and notwithstanding work as well, look as well, and are equally happy and content as thofe with more delicate palates in the fouth of England, and, I believe, more fo. How. ever, I am told, every where that there has been double the quantity, at least, fet this year than in former years, and that the idea was fuggefted principally by the recommendations of the Board of Agriculture, which is one good effect of that excellent inftitution. SOUTHAM is a fmall market town, containing 750 inhabitants, who are farmers, labourers, and tradefmen. Farms in that neighbourhood are worth from 20l. to 300l. a year, but generally from 30l. to 50l.: average rent about al. an acre. Auguft 4, I went from SOUTHAM to COVENTRY, in Warwickshire, 13 miles. Road very bad moft of the way; the foil is clay till within a few miles of CovEN TRY, where a lightifh fandy loam prevails; and the road there is alfo better. This district refembled the laft I paffed, except near COVENTRY,where the afpect of the country is more pleafant. Corn is there in great forwardness, I obferved a field of oats cut for the first time this feafon, and fome barley will be ready for the fcythe in a few days. The country round COVENLRY is rather open, dry, and extremely pleafant, while the city is the most dirty and difagreeable I have feen; which is occafioned by the extreme narrowness of the streets, and high old houfes with projecting fronts. Its population is estimated at 23,000 inhabitants. COVENTRY contains three parih churches, one of which (St. Michaels) has a fpire 303 feet high. Coals are brought in here by means of a canal, and fold at prefent for 8d. per cwt. The ftaple manufacture of this city is weaving ribbons, a great deal of which is done by women; which they perform fo quickly, that they ufually weave about nine yards for 1s. Farms in the neighbourhood of COVENTRY let for 151. to 500l. a year, but generally about 120l.: average rent of land 30s. or 35s. per acre. Auguft 7, COVENTRY to BIRMING {Jan; HAM, in Warwickshire, 18 miles. Here A fence 1798.] Mr. Houfeman's Tour continued. fence, are also made here in great numbers. Moft part of the town of BIRMINGHAM is quite modern, and its population is faid to be now near 70,000 inhabitants. Were that numerous affembly of people employed in cultivating the wafte lands in the kingdom, they would render a much more effential fervice to the public in return for their fupport. This town stands in a fine, open, and very pleafant fituation, and the country around it is cheerful: a canal, which communicates with different parts of the country, comes up to it. The streets are mostly uniform, pretty wide and clean, but not univerfally fo. Coals are cheap and plentiful here, which is very favourable to the manufacturer. New buildings, and even new streets, are rifing on almost every fide of the town. An idea may be found of the progreffive increase of inhabitants from the number of births and burials at different periods: in the year 1555 there were 37 births and 27 burials; in 1690 there were 127 births and 150 burials; and in 1791 there were no fewer than 3,310 births and 3,280 funerals. Auguft 11, Lwent from BIRMINGHAM to WOLVERHAMPTON, in Staffordshire, 14 miles. The country extremely populous, large villages filled with manufacturers of guns, piftols, locks, buttons, buckles, nails, &c. wages are very high, even the women in these manufactures earn confiderably by filing. The war is ufeful to most of these bufineffes. The buildings in this district are good, made with brick and tile, but look dirty and black, as do the inhabitants, which is probably the confequence of their employ; the furface is generally level, the afpect of the country pleasant, rather open, but it is far from being deftitute of wood. The foil various, but chiefly clay with a mixture of fand, and in feveral parts rather bars ren; but it abundantly compenfates for that defect by affording plenty of fine coals, which are got clofe by the road. This is the first coal county I have met fince I left the North. In travelling on this road, I was furprised to fee a number of fmall fires burning in a field of oats; on enquiry I was told, that the field conrained feveral old coal-pits, which, by fome means or other, were fet on fire, and could not be extinguished. Here are feveral large works for forging iron, which belong to Mr.Wilkinson, of Castlehead, in Lancashire. Warwick thire is much noted for iron and steel manufactures, but I did not observe any fuperio 39 rity in its agricultural department: it contains feveral elegant feats of noblemen and gentlemen, parks, and tracts of woodland; its air is pure, water generally plentiful, and buildings good. The farms are of all fizes, but more land in fmall than in large ones. The furface of the country pretty level, with here and there a little elevation: foil contains much clay, but not, in general, of the moft fertile nature, and it need not be repeated that it produces free-ftone and coal. WOLVERHAMPTON is a large manufacturing town, and is fuppofed to contain near 20,000 inha bitants its manufactures are chiefly the heavier forts of hardwares, fuch as axes, gridirons, trowels, fmoothing irons, locks, &c. there are alfo fome manufactures of fpectacle cafes. The streets of this town are very narrow and dirty, but many of the houses are pretty good, and the furrounding country is pleasant. A canal comes up to this town. It is very remarkable that in these fouthern counties the poor and labouring claffes of people have a great hatred to canals: thefe canals, fay they, are the ruin of the country; the farmers by their means can send the corn, and other productions of their farms, where they please, at a trifling expence, and thereby keep up the prices; feveral refpectable tradefmen alfo entertain the fame fentiments, and further add, that canals spoil and destroy much good land. Thefe people view the fubject with a microfcopic eye; for did they confider the effects of canals with respect to the kingdom in general, they would fee that whatever contributes towards leffening labour, reducing the number of horses, and facilitating the conveyance of different articles from places where they are lefs wanted to other parts where they are more wanted, at a fmall expence, is a great national gain and convenience. If thefe navigations are occafionally abufed in conveying corn more fnugly out of the kingdom when wanted at home, the fault is not in the canals, but in the criminal negligence of the officers who are appointed to fuperintend the exportation bufinefs. I took a walk one pleasant evening into a field near Wolverhampton, and looking to the N. W. faw a mountain at a distance, and afterwards two or three more; thefe I understand were the Shropshire hills, and were the first eminences I had seen, that could be called mountains, fince I left Yorkshire and Derbyshire. (To be continued.) ORIGINAL ( 40 ) ORIGINAL ELEGY ON SPRING. DELIGHTFUL fpring, I tafte thy balmy gales Pregnant with life, my fadden'd foul they chear, Creation fmiles, the woods, the hills, the vales, Hail the pure morning of the new-born year. Expand, ye groves, your renovated bloom; Warble, ye ftreams; ye fwelling buds unfold; Waft all the plenty of your rich perfume; And wave, ye florets, wave your leaves of gold. 'Rapt in the maze of nature's boundless charms, I gaze infatiate, wonder, and admire; Ah, how they footh th' impaffion'd hearts alarms, And wake to tranfports fhort the woe-ftruck lyre! But foon the profpect blackens on the view, Thefe fcenes of beauty, man, infenfate, mars; Cloaths fmiling nature with a mournful hue, Blafts all her blooms, and with her mufic jars. O might the moral fpring but once evolve It's infant bloffoms 'mid the noontide blaze, Barbaric paffion's low'ring mists diffolve, While dawn'd pure reafon with ferener rays! O fool to think it! winter, bleak and foul, There broods eternal, hope creates in vain Fantaftic forms, which chear the cheated foul, Poor a r-built fabrics of ti e poet's brain. See, life and health enliven all around, O'er lawns and woods,the eye delightedroves; While pour an artlefs harmony of found Flocks from the fields and warblers from the groves. Luxuriant verdure here adorns the plain, There the grey fallows, and the toiling team, The farms neat manfion, and the village fine, Whote mofs-clad tower reflects the fular gleam. But ah! while nature pours th' enlivening breath, Paints her fair forms, and fpreads her treafures here; O'er other thores black fweeps the cloud of death, Glares the red faulchion and the mur hicrous fpear. Ev'n now perhaps embattled armies meet, Loud beat the drums, and thundering can non roar, Rocks the dire field beneath unnumber'd feet, And terror waves her locks bedropt with gore: Through duft, in whirlwinds driven, inconftant feen, Thick fath the fwords, the frequent victim falls, While o'er his mangled-trunk and ghaftly nien, Hots trampling rufh, where maniac fury Calls. Say, folder, fay, grim fpectacle of pain, What fyren lur'd thee from thy peaceful home, POETRY. To leave thy poor, thy small domeftis train, For toils of arms o'er billowy deeps to roam? No beams of glory chear thy hapless lot, Thy name defcends not to a future age, Impell❜d to combat for thou know't not what, And urg'd to flaughter by another's rage. Thy widow'd wife, thine orphan children weep, And beg their fcanty meal from door to door, While, gafh'd with wounds, thy limbs difhonor'd fleep, And waste and moulder on a foreign fhore. In vain, alas, we boaft of civil worth, And vaunt of virtue, in religion's robe, If calm we view ambition iffuing forth, Her brood of fcorpions to infeft the globe: The bonds of nature we afunder part, Led by the blaze of paffions fanguine ftar, Peace on the lips, and murder in the heart, To favage, fell, accuift, infernal war. Hark! a glad found my wandering thoughts recalls, The diftant fheep-bell fills the quivering breeze, The fhade, flow-deep'ning, o'er the landscape falts, And veil'd in mifts the dim horizon flees, As the poor fhepherd folds his fleecy care, Loud chaunts the nightingaie his evening lay; Sing on, fweet warbler, homeward I repair, Warn'd by thy requiem to the clofing day. SYDNEY. Of the above ciegy, the three first stanzas are fet to mufic by Mr. Wheeler, and the 12, 13, 14, by the Rev. Richmond, of Trin. Col. which will appear in the next publication of the Cambridge Harmonic Society. With many a hue the verdant landscape glows; And breathing fweets along the cultur'd vale, Steals the fresh fragrance of the blufhing rofe. The roaring billows of the formy deep. Hufh'd to repofe, their hoftile rage forbear; And the low winds on the calm furface sleep, Cooling the ardor of the tepid air. No fu nn er fcenes, alas, no vermil bloom, Sooth the fick foul, by every ill opprefs'd: To wander cheerlefs through the midnight gloorn, To brave the terrors of the wintry blaft, (Whofe fwelling gufts ideal woes impart,) Are fcenes more fitted-for a broken heart. Eainburgh. AUGUSTA, 1798.1 Original Poetry 45 There while its branches whistle as they wave, That tree, O Connal! marks thy lonely gave: SONNET TO THE OWL. On the bleak hill when wild winds howl around, I WOO thee, cheerless melancholy bird, It strews its green leaves o'er thy hallow'd ground.. There if the folitary hunter go, They rofe, they flourish'd, and in thee they fell. Here was the din of arms, and ftain'd with gore, Here fell the mighty to arife no more. His tranfient glories withering ere they bloom. As rolling thunder in the noon-day skies, Dargo the Mighty to the battle flies, Dark and contracted was his fullen brow, And his funk eyes feem'd hollow caves below. Bright rofe their clathing fwords with wild alarms, And dire the clangor of refulgent arms. The fair Cremona, heavenly maid! was near, Daughter of Rinval, mafter of the spear, Who cas'd in mail had follow'd from afar. Her much-lov'd Connal to the din of war ; Whilft her loose treffes negligently flow, Her beauteous hand fultains the quiv'ring bow; On Dargo now the draws the crring dart Ah, hipless maid! it cleaves thy Connal's heart. So falls the giant-oak, the valley's pride, So rited rocks roll down the mountain's fide. In deep defpair th' unhappy virgin ftrays Through tangl'd paths and unfrequented ways, While chilly vapours fhroud the moon's pale beam, All wild the wanders by the murm'ring ftream; Connál, my love! Connal, my friend! the cries, She finks he faints-he trembles-andfhe dies. Here, earth, thou doft the loveliest pair inclofe, That ever flept in undisturb'd repofe; Within thy chilly bofom, here reclin'd Their memory rushes on my mufing mind, And while the falt tear trickles from mine eyes, The wild wind whistles, and the rank weed fighs. MONTHLY MAG. XXVII. Soothing to me is thy funereal cry, Here build thy lonely neft, and ever nigh My dwelling be thy fullen wailings heard. Amid the howling of the northern blaft Thou lov't to mingle thy difcordant fcream, Which to the vifionary mind, may feem To call the fufferers to eternal reft; And fometimes, with the fpirit of the deep, Thou fwell'ft the roarings of the stormy |