: for applying this plan to every clafs of Thips. He begins with the long-boat, thence he proceeds to the yacht, the floop, the 44-gun fhip, and the 74-gun fhip. He introduces the cutter as being the most proper to explain a propofed method of drawing fimilar bodies and the work concludes with the draught of Mr. Thompson's frigate. Through the whole feries he gives plain instructions to the ftudent, and leads him on regularly from the drawing-room to the mould-loft, and thence to the flip. We think it a most useful and advantageous treatife: Nothing of the fort has been published fince the book of Mr. Mungo Murray, and he, it is well known, was a mere draftíman, without the benefit of practical knowledge. Belides, it is many years fince he wrote, and almost all his rules are now forgotten, fince the practice of wholemoulding fell into difufe. ANECDOTES of the AUTHOR. Mr. Stalkart began at an early age to receive the rudiments of his education in the art of hip-building in his Majesty's royal dock-yard of Deptford, and he dif played great ingenuity in his various fuggeftions for facilitating, by eafier and lefs expenfive methods, the labour of the mould-loft. He faw the inconveniencies of the established plan of building, and turned his thoughts to the difcovery and adaptation of new ideas. He has fpent the best years of his life in experiments, and this work is the product of his labour. He is now the fuperintendant of one of the principal yards on the Thames, where he has extenfive opportunities of pursuing his improvements, and of trying the be nefit and effect of each new invention. We fee that the work is dedicated by permiffion to His Majefty. From this circumftance we are inclined to fuppofe that his plans have met the fenfe and approbation of the department which may make his labours useful to the ftate. We fincerely wish that it may be fo, and that the genius and industry of fo valuable a mechanic may not be transferred to the service of a foreign power, which unfortunately, for this country, has been of late, in other inftances, but too frequent. Collectanea Curiofa, or Mifcellaneous Tracts relating to the Hiftory and Antiquities of England and Ireland, the Univerfities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a variety of other fubje&s. Chiefly collected, and now first published, from the Manufcripts of Archbishop Sancroft, given to the Bodleian Library by the late Bishop Tanner, 2 vol. 8vo. 12 S. Fletcher. AVING frequently heard of the va might avoid loading our libraries with a manufcripts given ftale repetition of well-known facts and by Bishop Tanner to the Univerfity of Oxford, we have long flattered ourselves with hopes, that they would be accurately examined and judiciously selected for the information of the public. Collections of this kind are fingularly useful to the Hifto. rian and Biographer; and, under the direction of a perfon poffeffed of judgement, information, and integrity, would be always deemed valuable acceffions to the ftock of literature. Upon a careful perufal of the prefent work, we are forry to obferve, that the editor of it, Mr. John Gutch, seems totally deficient in the proper qualities for the undertaking. He is neither fufficiently acquainted with former collections of the like kind, to avoid choofing what has been already published; nor can we compliment him either for his care or accuracy in the present work now before us. A judicious collector ought to have informed himfelf, whether what he was about to publifh had ever appeared before, that he uninteresting circumstances. About one half of these volumes might very well have been fpared, being either hacknied in other collections, or too trifling and unimportant to deferve prefervation. We cannot therefore but repeat our concern, that Bishop Tanner's papers did not fall into better hands. In the first volume, No. 8, a letter from Queen Anne has been already published by Sir David Dalrymple; No. 11, in Lord Somers's Tracts, and in a separate pamphlet; No. 22, in Sir Henry Wotton's Remains; and many letters and memorandums concerning the trial of the feven Bishops in Clarendon's State Papers, and in other works. In the fecond volume, beides an equal number of repetitions of prices concerning the Bishops and the Revolution, No. 12 has been republifhed by Hearne; and the long and uninteresting detail of King Charles's marches, being No. 13, has been three times already before the E 2 public, public, first, as a separate pamphlet, fecondly, in a folio volume, by the author Sir Edward Walker, and, laftly, in Lord Somers's Tracts. No. 14 has not the merit of novelty, and several other pieces are fimilar to us, and, were it worth the trouble, might be fhewn to be already in print. We do not deny that fome valuable pieces are here preferved, and very extra ordinary it would appear, if a few could not be pointed out. The memoir, by Judge Blackstone, relating to the Lyttelton Roll, reflects difgrace on the Antiquarian Society for fuppreffing it. It does honour to its excellent author, and deferves to be read by every admirer of the learned writer. In p. 347 is a letter to Mrs. Weft, on the education of her fon, which is no otherwife curious, than on ac. count of the perfon to whom it relates. This information, however, the editor has totally withheld. We fhall therefore obferve, that the gentleman, whofe welfare the letter-writer is here fo folicitous about, was the celebrated friend of Mr. Gray, who very foon after retired from the Temple, in defpair of ever fucceeding as a lawyer. (See Gray's works, quarto edition, p. 97.) We fee no reafon for concealing the name of Mrs. Weft's correfpondent, though the editor has not thought proper to gratify us in this particular. As a fpecimen of the accuracy of this performance, we refer to p. 11, vol. 1, where we are told," that if a RIBAND had stricken a knight, &c." It is no more than what candour would dictate, to fuppofe this an error of the prefs, and yet we do not find it enumerated in the errata. It may therefore be proper to notice, that the word, marked in capitals, fhould be RIBAUD, an explanation of which may be feen in the learned Mr. Kelham's tranflation of Briton. As there are many valuable papers yet remaining unpublished in Oxford, which the numerous lift of fubfcribers to the prefent work may occafion being printed, we recommend to the prefent or any future editor, when occasion shall arife, to call in the affistance of the learned in this branch of literature, that the defects of the collection, now under confideration, may be avoided, and the fhelves of our libraries not a fecond time incumbered with fcraps of antiquity, which afford neither information or amufement. An Effay on Defenfive War, and a confiitutional Militia; with an Account of Queen Elizabeth's Arrangements for refifling the projected Invafion in the eyear 1588, taken from authentic Records in the British Museum, and other Collections, by an Officer, Svo. 3s. Evans. THIS is a but an HIS is a defultory, incoherent, but an we think his plan of defence impracticable in the prefent state of fociety, as moft of thofe are which have been offered to the public fince the late riots, he throws out many ingenious and important hints, which government would do well to confider with attention. The measures taken by the great Queen Elizabeth, for the defence of the kingdom when threatened by the Spaniards, are matters of curiofity, if not of ufe; and the hints, given to the friends of a conftitutional militia, are pertinent and important. ANECDOTES of the AUTHOR. The book is faid to be written by Capt. Dorfet, an officer in the Suffex militia, This gentleman was put into the army early and author of the Philofophic Venus. in life; but either his fortune, his intereft, or inclination, not ferving him in that line, tered into the Suflex militia, to be under and yet retaining a military turn, he enfriend and patron, the Duke of Richthe command, and near the perfon, of his mond. He is a married man; of gay but acquaintance; ardent in his friendships; decent manners; much efteemed by his but too fiery in his political temper. The best of thefe feems to be a pamphlet published by Kearfley juft after the riots, entitled a Plan of Affociation on Conftitutional Principles, and fince afcribed to the Perfian Jones. But it is only a sketch, and the author fhould have filled it up. Condolence: Condolence: An Elegiac Epiftle from Lieutenant General Burgoyne, captured at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777, 10 Lieutenant General Earl Cornwallis, captured at York Town, O. 17, 1781. 4to. I s. 6d. Evans. T HIS is written by Capt. Dorfet, the gentleman of whom we have juft given an account. It has excellencies and faults, fimilar to those hinted at in our remarks on his profe publication. There is one circumstance very remarkable in his panegyric on Washington, that he never once hints at the competition between him and General Lee, with whom the author was much acquainted while in England. We would advife him in the next edi tion to correct the following shocking example of the art of linking in poetry. SPEAKING OF WASHINGTON. Humane, beneficent, and juft, Lov'd by the good, the wife, the brave, The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbroch, or Logbrok, King of Denmark: Tranflated from the Latin, of Olans Wormins, by Hugh Downman, M. D. 1s. Fielding. T HIS fingular compofition is mentioned with high approbation by almost all our poetic antiquaries, and is here tranflated, with the utmost fidelity, by Dr. Downman. He has taken a liberty with the coarfe epithet, by which Lodbroch was diffinguished, which fhews his judgement; though he may be indebted to the tranflators of the fcriptures for the example. If the original had been literally rendered, it would have been Lodbroch's hair-breech; probably on account of the hairinels of his limbs. Dr. Downman has rendered it hair-feet, as the tranflators of the fcriptures always refers us to the hair of the feet, whenever they have occation to mention what grows on the lower parts of the body. ANECDOTES of the AUTHOR. Dr. Downman is the fon of a gentleman of good fortune in the neighbourhood of Exeter. He was brought up at the public fchool in that city, and took his degrees (if we miitake not) at Baliol Colege, at Oxford. He was defigned for the church; took orders to perform the duties of a clergyman for a few years in his father's neighbourhood. But a diforder, which has fince proved to be a liver complaint, rendering any exertions of his voice painful and dangerous to him, he went to Edinburgh, and took his degrees in phyfic. An early attachment to a very amiable and accomplished young lady, which did not meet the entire approbation of his family, though he was very nearly related to Lord Courtnay, and had a genteel fortune, fixed the first effays of his mufe on love. The poems to Thefpia, published at the end of the Land of the Mufes, are the genuine effufions of a poetic fancy, and of a heart fraught with those fincere and ardent paffions which have fince marked his life. While he was in Scotland, or foon after his return, he published the Land of the Mufes, in imitation of Spencer. Hardly any thing fo poetical has appeared in the last century; but the public relying chiefly on the account of Reviewers, the poem was left to make its way,by the influence of tane and judgement in those who perufed it. His reputation increased rapidly,and feveral editions of it have been fold. On this work, his reputation as a poet principally refts, and it is a misfortune it hould be in a language not commonly intelligible. It is probable, that his attention was turned to the ftage very early in life, as it is faid, feveral of his pieces have been offered for reprefentation. The publication of Lucius Junius Brutus was certainly meant as a reproach to his judgement of the managers. For, a very few alterations, fuggefted by a perfon acquainted with the theatre, would have rendered it a moft excellent tragedy. It is rumoured, that fome difappoint. ment in dramatic defigns induced him to engage in the tranflation of Voltaire; but whether the Doctor's health will enable him to proceed in his undertaking is at prefent very doubtful. The friends of genius and merit must lament, that his life has been a conftant feries of fufferings, and that there are not often any great hopes of his ever enjoying a tolerable state of health. Sele Select Odes of Pindar and Horace, tranflated; and other original Poems: Together with Notes critical, hiftorical, and explanatory; by the Reverend William Tajker, A. B. 3 vol. 8vo. l. 1 s. Dodsley. MR. Taker, fome time to inues the was educated at a grammar-school in propofals for translating those odes of Pindar, which had been left by Mr. Weft and others. The undertaking was Herculean; and Mr. Tafker had not fet down and counted his coft. This we prefume is the reason, that he has made up the first volume, by inserting pieces, which had appeared and had been fold in another form. But attention to points of difficulty has not been ufual with poets; and Mr. Tafker is really a poet. The tranflations from Pindar have great merit, all circumstances confidered. Pindar's beauties are on a fcale of freedom and extravagance unknown to any other author; and he has been confidered by puny verfifiers, as comets are by the vulgar. Pindar's Greek is alfo his own; and he must be ftudied as the Bible is ufually to learn Hebrew. Mr. Weft had felected the eaficft and most regular of his odes, and none but a Quixotic genius, like that of Mr. Talker, would have undertaken to tranflate thofe that remained, having no dependence but that of a fubfcription. The original odes are rendered with great fidelity and exactnefs; and, through the whole, Mr. Talker refpects his author more than himself. For, his English fuffers, fometimes unneceffarily, by his reverence for a Greek epithet or expletive. We think the public indebted to Mr. Tasker for the attempt, and wish he may be encouraged to accomplish it. ANECDOTES of the AUTHOR. Mr. Tafker is the fon of a clergyman in the western extremity of Devonshire. one of the neighbouring towns, and finished his ftudies at Oxford. His father thought he had provided for his family, by leaving his fon in poffeffion of the advowfon of a living of three or four hundred a year, subject to the payment of a fmall fortune to his fifter, and to the maintenance of his mother on the spot. But poets have always had the faculty of involving themselves. On the marriage of his fifter to an attorney (whom he calls in his preface, to the volume of Tranflations, his unlettered brother-in-law) the fortune was not produced, and a law-fuit commenced, which has haraffed and impoverished our author extremely. However, thefe diftreffes, it seems, first turned Mr. Tasker's thoughts to poetry. His ode to the Warlike Genius of Great Britain was written under the patronage of thofe general guardians of genius, the fheriffs officers for the county of Middlefex; and it was corrected and polished under the eye of Mr. Thomas, the marshal of the King's Bench. The ode bas great merit, fo has that to Speculation and moft of his other pieces. They are evidently written for patrons, and properly feafoned with flattery. What fuccefs they have had, we are not informed; but to judge by his appearance, which is truly poetical, no great things have been remitted for the fongs of the bard. His time is divided between his living, Bath, and London. He feems to be near forty years of age; of a strong and hale appearance; but lame of one leg. wears the drefs of a clergyman, but is feldom engaged in clerical duties. He Fashionable Follies, a Novel; containing the Hiftory of a Parifian Family; in two A volumes. SET of detached adventures rather than a regular progreffive ftory. The characters are mere fketches, touched with the hafty pencil of a master, and grouped feemingly without defign orfubject. It is not eafy to fay, whether this evident flightness is the effect of study or of accident. It may have relation to the whole plan, which is formed on the bafis of fashion, and it may be fashionable to act, in the most important fituations, with indifference and frivolity. We can only Dodiley. and we are therefore withheld from giving ment will be apt to forget what is due to the inclination, when they find that the power is wanting. Such inftances have occurred to Mr. T. Vaughan in the course of his many endeavours, but his philanthropy has withstood both the fhocks of ingratitude and the fhafts of ridicule.— It is faid, but we know not with what truth, that this gentleman stood as the original for the portrait of Dangle in the Critic. Almada Hill, an Epifle from Lisbon, by William Julius Mickle, 4to. Bew. 2 s. 6 d. POETICAL ideas are fo naturally infpired by an extensive prospect from a hill, that we may rather be furprised at the fewness, than at the number, of poems which are founded on the plan of contemplating from a mountain its adjacent landcapes. Nature and History both offer their aid to the poet's fancy; but, if the laws of this fpecies of poetry are to be drawn from the productions of the greatest merit, the author is confined to fuch defcriptions as are prefented, and to fuch historical or philofophical reflections as are raised by the objects around him. The Cooper's Hill of Sir John Denham has been justly admired by the critics for this propriety; and Almada Hill has a juft claim to this merit of keeping, as the painters would call it, though it is thrown into the style of an epistle, which we believe is both a novelty and an improvement in this fpecies of poetical compofition. We may venture at least to affert, that, in the inftance before us, the epiftolary ftyle has given both an animation and propriety to many of the reflections and defcriptions in Almada Hill, which could not have been attained by foliloquy. Our author thus prefaces his poem : "In the twelfth century, Lisbon, and great part of Portugal and Spain, were in poffeffion of the Moors. Alphonfo, the first King of Portugal, having gained feveral victories over that people, was laying fiege to Lisbon, where Robert, Duke of Gloucester, on his way to the Holy Land, appeared upon the coaft of that kingdom. As the cause was the fame, Robert was eafily perfuaded to make his firft crufade in Portugal. He demanded that the storming of the caftle of Lisbon, fituated on a confiderable hill, and whofe ruins fhew it to have been of great strength, thould be allotted to him, while Alphonfo was to affail the walls and the city. Both leaders were fuccefsful; and Alphonfo, among the rewards which he bestowed upon the English, granted to those who were wounded or unable to proced to Palestine, the castle of Almada, and the adjoining lands. "The river Tagus below and oppofite to Lisbon is edged by teep grotesque rocks, particularly on the fouth fide.Thofe on the fouth are generally higher, and much more magnificent andpicturefque, than the Cliffs of Dover. Upon one of the higheft of these, and directly oppofite to Lisbon, remains the stately ruins of the Caftle of Almada. "In December, 1779, as the author was wandering among these ruins, he was ftruck with the idea, and formed the plan of the following poem; an idea which, it may be allowed, was natural to the tranflator of the Luciad, and the plan may, in fome degree, be called a fupplement to that work. "The following poem, except the corrections and a few lines, was written in Portugal. The defcriptive parts are strictly local. The fineft profpect of Lisbon and the Tagus (which is there about four miles broad) is from. Almada, which also commands the adjacent country, from the Rock of Cintra to the Castle and City of Palmera, an extent of above fifty miles. This magnificent view is completed by the extenfive opening at the mouth of the Tagus, about ten miles below, which difcovers the Atlantic Ocean." This argument promifes a good deal under the management of true poetical talents; nor will the reader's idea of Mr. Mickle's powers of defcription and verfi. fication, difplayed in his former works, be difappointed in the perufal of the present. It is addreffed to a friend at Oxford, and opens with the following comparative view of the winter of England and Portugal. "While you, my friend, from louring wintery plains, [drizzling rains, Now pale with fhows, now black with From |