not told how. The objects they faw were of a motly nature. truly. First, there was Darkness with a Stygian rod, and the fiends of hell, and pale Envy, and deep-furrowing Time ploughing the front of Care, and Defpair, and Frenzy, and (strange to tell!) black Whirlwind riding the wings of Flame; and then there was a fair lawn blooming with a loose robe that was all balmy, on which loose robe of the lawn there were violets with dejected heads, and lilies languifhing, together with daifies on their velvet bed, and painted cowflips. Thefe laft, it is obferved, fmiled along the dale, and had no connection with the loofe robe of the lawn. Our author calls the place they had now got to, a sweet haunt of Quiet, and in our opinion not without reafon; if it be true, that the rugged gentry he had just seen did really wail, and curfe, and howl, at the unconfcionable rate he mentions. We fay, If it be true that they did fo; because he had previously affured us, that "the hollow rock's high-arching fide," where all this infernal work is now faid to be carried on, "ftood lone and filent as the defart tomb." Be this matter as it may; from the station which they now occupied, he goes on to tell us, that he could defcry a dark tower which was dim and tottering, and which befides these two properties had this particular circumstance attending it, that it clofed his extended view. The fpires of this tower were illumed with a feeble light, fo that he could fee either a bat and a raven, or bats and ravens, flying round them; for as there is to common eyes a palpable defect in the keeping here, we dare not pronounce, whether the paffage is to be understood in the fingular number or the plural. We fhall be candid enough however to own, that fetting the bat afide altogether, our optics could not have reached even a score of ravens, with fuch a light, and at fuch a distance, as the author has Ipecified. But Mr. Ogilvie may have got the fecond-fight. In the following stanza, the dark tower appears to be an old cathedral, with a long refounding ifle to it, over which the troubled ghoft ftrode flowly with hollow moan; and yet it is a dark, dim, tottering tower all the while. In this ruin, whether tower or cathedral, there was one cell that had withstood the waste of time. Here they found the lonely power they were in quest of fitting penfive, now liftening to the harp of Eolus that complained to the blast, and now to the howling wind which" died faintly murmuring round her ivy'd bower." Mark, reader, the cell is no longer a cell, but an ivy'd bower!

Solitude, who was rarely vifited but by people pale with grief or whelmed with care, no fooner perceived Fancy, than the ferenely afked her, why her loved ftep had ftrayed to that fequeftered fhade, and whence her follower? Fancy, being the queen of every grace,

pays

pays her a few compliments on her influence with the poets, and begs fhe will fhew to her inexperienced gueft, (pointing to the vifionary) as a guide to his future hours, thofe embowering shades where Britannia's fons, her own happy offspring, ftruck the trembling ftrings. This requeft preferred, the retires without waiting for a reply; and Solitude, and her pupil, as it appears, set out on foot. But, gracious powers! what an uncouth journey? for excepting here and there a lawn illumed by the filver beam of Cynthia, nothing was to be met with but deep glooms, tottering rocks, torrent floods, wilds, bleak mountains chilled with eternal snow, climes wasted by famine, and caves fhaken by earthquakes. At laft they reached the remoteft verge of night; where the wondering vifionary, from the fummit of an arching hill, beheld glorious fcenes unfolding themselves. In general, he tells us, there were amber rills creeping through groves of citron, where the yellow boughs flamed with downy gold; and in particular, there was in one place a garden bright in vernal beauty, which "fhook mufky fragrance on the fcented gale ;" and in another there was either a brown wood that waved on the darkening fight, or a fluttering Zephyr that skimmed the lilied vale: but which of the two it was, he has not positively said, for no other reason, we imagine, than that he did not perceive this part quite fo diftinctly as the reft. In fhort, this is the long-looked for region, the Elyfium itself of the poets, where every Bard, crowned with wreathing laurel, poffeffed his feparate shade near the feats of Pleasure; and where all and fundry of them, not excepting the invisible Denham, dim Dryden, melancholy Offian, and fighing Cowley, beamed mild like the refulgent ftar of eve.

Thus have we laid before our readers the fum and fubftance of this boastful performance; leaving it, as we went along, to the author himself, in his own high-flown phrafe, to expofe his own futility.-Mr. Ogilvie, after all, is not without imagination. The great misfortune he labours under is a want of that good fenfe, and clear difcernment, which must ever be the foundation of good writing. We therefore earnestly recommend to him, that when he courts Fancy to attend him on any future expedition, he will ufe his best endeavours to prevail upon Judgment to be of the party. This lat power indeed he seems to have cultivated very little. Hence it is, we conceive, that his defcriptions are too much extended, as well as too little diverfified and appropriated; hence likewife that rage for embellifliment, to which nature, truth, and probability, are almost always facrificed, and by which the feveral figures and draperies of his piece are thrown into one huge indifcrimi nate glare, with hardly a fingle fhade to relieve the eye. To the fame cause it may be alfo afcribed, that almost every stanza is at variance

variance with its neighbour stanza's, and not unfrequently falls to logger-heads with itself; reminding us of the famous John Lilburn of wrangling memory, concerning whom it was faid, that if there were no more men in the world than he, Lilburn would quarrel with John, and John with Lilburn. If to all this we add our author's over-weening conceit of his own abilities, which instead of being prudently concealed is ever and anon obtruding itself upon the reader, we shall find his character (as a writer of vifions at leaft) to bear a very near resemblance to that of a certain female celebrated by Mr. Pope; for howmuchfoever Mr. Ogilvie may disclaim kindred with the goddess of the Dunciad, thus much is manifeft, that like her

He tinfell'd o'er in robes of varying hues,
With felf-applaufe his own creation views;
Sees momentary monsters rife and fall,

And with his own fool's-colours gilds them all.

The copper-plate dedication prefixed to this work is a piece of wretched compofition, in every fenfe of the word. Befides, there is a grofs mifnomer in it; for we are pofitively affured, that it is not James earl of Hopetoun, but John earl of Hopetoun. Strange inattention in our author, not to perceive that the patron's name and the poet's were the fame! But

Blush not, GREAT BARD! that in thy glorious flight
Thine eye o'erlooks what meaner minds furvey:

A fly can mark what 'scapes an eagle's fight,

When shrined fublime amid the blaze of day.

The Elegy at the end feems to have been printed for the

fake of filling up a blank leaf.

IX, The New Bath Guide: or, Memoirs of the B-r-d Family. In a series of Poetical Epifiles. 4to. Pr. 5s. Dodiley.

THE

HESE poetical epiftles contain a humorous account of the customs of Bath, and the amufements of the polite company which refort to that scene of gaiety and diffipation. A confultation of phyficians, a vifit to the rooms, a ball, a public breakfast, and other incidents, give the author an opportunity of introducing a variety of characters, which he ridicules with great acuteness and wit.

A PUBLIC BREAKFAST; motives for the fame; a lift of the company; a tender fcene; an unfortunate incident.

• What bleffings attend, my dear mother, all thofe,
Who to crowds of admirers their perfons expofe !
Do the gods fuch a noble ambition inspire ?
Or gods do we make of each ardent defire ?
O generous Paffion! 'tis yours to afford
The fplendid affembly, the plentiful board;
VOL. XXI. May, 1766.

Bb

Το

To thee do I owe fuch a breakfast this morn,

As I ne'er faw before, fince the hour I was born:
"Twas you made my lord Raggamuffin come here,
Who they say has been lately created a peer;
And to day with extreme complaifance and refpect afk'd
All the people at Bath to a general breakfast.

You've heard of my lady Bunbutter, no doubt,
How the loves an assembly, fandango, or rout;
No lady in London is half fo expert

At a fnug private party, her friends to divert ;

But they fay, that of late, fhe's grown fick of the town, And often to Bath condefcends to come down :

Her ladyship's favourite house is the Bear;

Her chariot, and fervants, and horses are there =
My lady declares that retiring is good,

As all, with a separate maintenance, should;
For when you have put out the conjugal fire,
"Tis time for all fenfible folk to retire ;
If Hymen no longer his fingers will scorch,
Little Cupid for others can whip in his torch,
So pert is he grown; fince the custom began,
To be married and parted as quick as you can.

Now my lord had the honour of coming down post,

To pay his refpects to fo famous a toast;

In hopes he her ladyship's favour might win,
By playing the part of a hoft at an inn.
I'm fure he's a perfon of great resolution,
Tho' delicate nerves, and a weak conftitution;
For he carried us all to a place cross the river,
And vow'd that the rooms were too hot for Iris liver
He faid it would greatly our pleasure promote,
If we all for Spring-Gardens fet out in a boat:

I never as yet could his reafon explain,

Why we all fallied forth in the wind and the rain ?
For fure fuch confufion was never yet known;
Here a cap and a hat, there a cardinal blown;.
While his lordship, embroider'd, and powder'd all o'er,.
Was bowing, and handing the ladies afhore:
How the miffes did huddle and fcuddle, and run;
One would think to be wet muft be very good fun;

For by waggling their tails, they all feem'd to take pains
To moisten their pinions like ducks when it rains;
And 'twas pretty to fee how, like birds of a feather,
The people of quality flock'd all together;
All preffing, addreffing, careffing, and fond,
Juft the fame as thofe animals are in a pond :

You've read all their names in the news, I fuppofe,
But, for fear you have not, take the lift as it goes:

There was lady Greafewrifter,
And madam Van-Twifter,
Her ladyship's fifter.

Lord Cram, and lord Vulture,
Sir Brandish O' Culter,
With marshal Carouzer,

And old lady Mowzer,

And the great Hanoverian baron Panfinowzer.
Befides many others; who all in the rain went,
On purpose to honour this grand entertainment:
The company made a most brilliant appearance,
And ate bread and butter with great perfeverance;
All the chocolate too, that my lord fet before 'em,
The ladies dispatch'd with the utmost decorum.
Soft mufical numbers were heard all around,
The horns and the clarions echoing found:

Sweet were the ftrains, as od'rous gales that blow
O'er fragrant banks, where pinks and rofes grow.
The peer was quite ravifh'd, while clofe to his fide.
Sat lady Bunbutter, in beautiful pride!

Oft turning his eyes, he with rapture furvey'd
All the powerful charms fhe fo nobly difplay'd.
As when at the feast of the great Alexander
Timotheus, the mufical fon of Therfander,
Breath'd heavenly measures;

The prince was in pain,

And could not contain,

While Thais was fitting befide him ;
But, before all his peers,

Was for fhaking the spheres,
Such goods all the gods did provide him.
Grew bolder and bolder,
And cock'd up his fhoulder,
Like the son of great Jupiter Ammon,
Till at length quite opprest,

He funk on her breast,
And lay there as dead as a falmon,

O had I a voice, that was stronger than steel,
With twice fifty tongues, to express what I feel;
And as many good mouths, yet I never could utter
All the speeches my lord made to lady Bunbutter!
So polite all the time, that he ne'er touch'd a bit,
While fhe ate up his rolls and applauded his wit ;