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The many picturefque beauties with which Blackheath abounds, it is obferved, will render this print as refpectable an acquifition to the connoiffeur as to the antiquary. The richness of the foreground, the fleep afcent of the hills, which gradually rise above each other, and the view of the river, give a ftriking idea of that noble fimplicity of nature, which art has in vain attempted to reach. London is feen in the distance, where the eye may diftinctly trace St. Paul's, the Tower, Westminster-abbey, and many parish churches, forming a most picturesque group of buildings, and exhibiting to the fpectator the extent and dignity of the Old City, in its then contracted ftate, compared with its prefent fplendor. This drawing was made by Thomas Wyck, who died anno 1682. His works are well known, and this view may be numbered among the most capital of his performances. It was communicated by Paul Sandby, Efq; in whofe poffeffion it now is.'

A view of St. James's palace and Westminster-abbey from the village of Charing, is faid to have been engraved from an ancient view fuppofed to be drawn by Hollar; and appears to have been taken fomewhere about what is now the Eaft fide of St. James's ftreet.' The Writer gives a fhort account of St. James's palace, and we are rather furprifed that he should add nothing concerning the village of Charing. Entertaining as thefe volumes are, we find a defect of attention to fome things by which they might have been improved. The massacre at Stonehenge, by Hengift, the Hiftory of King Leyr, and his Three Daughters, are faid to be extracted from the ancient Hiftory of Great-Britain;' but this is hardly fufficient to fatisfy the generality of readers, who will naturally wifh to know from whence the accounts are taken, or what dependence is to be placed on them.-In fome articles, teo, we have thought there has not been all the exactness as to dates, which a work of this kind requires.

To the account of plates in the first volume which we have already given, we are now to add, The Scowls in the Woods of Thomas Bathurst, Efq; in Gloucestershire; A View, Plan, and Section of the Roman Bath, at Lidney Park, Gloucestershire; Edward the Black Prince, from the original Picture in the Pofsession of the Hon. George Onflow; Another View of Tintern Abbey, from an original; The Font in Orford Chapel, Suffolk; Thomas De Woodstock, Duke of Gloucefter, from the original Picture in the Poffeffion of Mr. George Onflow; The Bridge of Bridgenorth, Shropshire, Wefton in Warwickshire, the Seat of William Sheldon, Efq; Long Meg and her Daugh ters; John Evans, the ill-favoured Aftrologer of Wales (illfavoured indeed!) from the original Drawing in the Collection of Lord Cardiff; Netley Abbey, Hampshire; The Tomb of Henry the Fifth, Earl of Weftmoreland, and his Wives; Dr. Simon Forman, Aftrologer, from the original Drawing in the Collection

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Collection of Lord Mount Stuart; befide fome miscellaneous

prints.

Netley Abbey has been recommended to the attention of the Public by a poem which it occafioned fome years ago.

The pleafing melancholy, obferves this Writer, infpired by contemplating the mouldering towers and ivy-mantled walls of ancient buildings, is univerfally felt and acknowledged, by obfervers, of every fort and difpofition; but thefe fcenes receive a double folemnity, when the remains are of the religious kind, fuch as churches and monafleries.

Religious ruins not only ftrike pious perfons with that reveren. tial awe, which the thoughts of their original deftination muft always command, but as places of fepulture excite ideas equally applicable to all ranks and opinions, from the monarch to the beggar, whether believers or fceptics, it being impoffible to walk over a spot of ground, every yard of which covers the remains of a human being, once like ourselves, without the intrusion of the awful memento, that we must foon, very foon, occupy a like narrow tenement of clay; a confideration which will, for a moment, overcloud the most cheerful temper, and abtract from trifling purfuits, at least for a while, thofe of the most diffipated turn, and oblige them to bestow fome thoughts on that inevitable moment, when they are to depart

hence.

Netley Abbey, an infide view of which is here given, ftands eminently diftinguished among the monaftic ruins of this country, for its peculiar fitnefs to excite those folemn ideas juft mentioned. For this it is indebted not only to the elegance of its construction, its fize and extent, but alfo to the profufion of ivy with which it is overgrown, and which half clofes its figured windows, ferving by its fober colour to fet off the more lively green of a variety of plants and fhrubs, which have fpontaneously grown up within its walls, and out of the huge fragments fallen from its fretted roof, fo as to form a fort of grove in the body of the church, which, by limiting the coup d'oeil of the fpectator, hufbands out the beauties of the scene, and, in appearance, trebles its real magnitude.

Among these ruins, feveral of the different offices of the monaftery are distinguishable, particularly the Abbot's kitchen, in which opens a vault, faid by the person who fhews the place to communicate with the adjacent caftle. The hiftorians of the spot, likewise, commonly point out the place where a facrilegious mafon met that fate with which he had been threatened by dreams and vifions; that is, was crushed to death by the fall of part of a window, he was attempting to take down, having first demolished the roof.-This mo nattery was founded about the year 1239. For the fake of its materials, it has been dilapidated and plundered by different perfons, till within thefe few years; Mr. Dummer, the prefent proprietor, has caufed it to be fhut up, and a key to be left with a neighbouring cottager, who picks up a maintenance by fhewing it to the parties that come by water, from Southampton, to drink tea among thefe rains; an expedition the Editor of this work recommends to all perfons of tafte. The river runs within an hundred yards of the Abbey, which stands on an eminence furrounded by woods.'

The fecond volume of the Repertory opens with an elegant print of White Knights, Berkshire, the Seat of Sir Henry Englefield, Bart. The account of it is communicated by Governor Pownal, but is too long to admit of infertion, We are told it was one of the firft examples of the ferme ornée. It is a real farm, under the highest degree of culture, dreffed the mean while in every ornament which nature in her beft country garb can wear; while other feats of greater extent and more enlarged defign, have each fome one ftriking feature for which they are admired, this place, an harmonized affemblage of pleafing parts, has the fingular merit of being a one whole, and becomes as fuch a model to this fashionable taste of a country feat.' We are rather surprised, that while we have a long and entertaining description of this feat in its prefent form, there should not be some brief account of the time of its ancient ftructure and use, which certainly comports with the defign of this work.

It may be an amusement to many of our Readers to peruse an Order of Council, defcribing the drefs of a page in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,' faid to be copied from the original in the library of Thomas Aftle, Efq.

These are to praye and requier you to make pfent ferch within your ward & charges pfently to macke hew & cry for a yong ftripling of the age of xxii yeres, the coler of his aparell as foloweth: One doblet of yelow million fultion th'one half therof buttoned with peche colour buttons, & th'other halfe laced downwards one payer of peche color hofe laced with fmale tawnye lace a graye hat with a copper edge rounde aboute it with a bande pcell of the fame hatt a payer of watched ftockings. Likewife he hath twoe clokes th'one of veffey collor garded with twoe gards of black clothe & twisted lace of carnation colour & lyned with crymfon bayes & th'other is a red fhipp ruffet colour ftriped about the cape & downe the fore face twisted with two rows of twifted lace ruffet & gold buttons afore and uppon the sholdier being of the clothe itfelfe let with the faid twifted lace & and the buttons of ruffet filke & gold. This youthes name is Gilbert Edwodd & page to St Valentine Browne Knight who is run awaye this fowerth day of January with theis parcells following, viz. A chaine of wyer worke golde with a button of the fame & a imalle ringe of golde at it two flagging chaines of golde th'one being marked with theis letters v. & b. uppon the locke, & th'other with a little broken jewell at it, one carkanet of pearle and jafynitts therto hangeing, a jewell like a marimade of gold enameled the tayle therof being fet with diamonds the bellye of the made with a ruby & the fhilde a diamond the cheine of golde whereon it hangeth is fet with fmale diamonds & rubyes & certeyne money in golde and white money.

Burgblye Warwick
Hundone Heward

• Blue.

To all Conftables Bayliffs & Hedboroughs,
& to all other the Quene's Officers what-
foever to whome the fame belongeth &
apperteyneth.
Valentine Browne.

Concerning

Concerning the print given in the first volume, of Edward the Black Prince, we find the following juft remark, which ought to be here inferted: To a person skilled in painting, this portrait will feem both much out of drawing, and extremely flat; thefe faults the engraver could easily have corrected, but in pictures of this kind, the exactness of the copy, even in defects, conftitutes the greatest value of the piece. Ancient portraits serve not only to hand down fome refemblance of the perfon reprefented, but alfo the ftate of the arts at the time of their execution. Amendments would undoubtedly fruftrate information in both these articles.'

The last extract which we shall at prefent lay before our Readers, is the Copy of Sir John Lefley's Letter to Sir Thomas Riddle, of Gateshead, upon the fiege of Newcastle, by the Scots, in the year 1640.

• Sir Thomas,

Between me and God, it maks my heart bleed bleud, to fee the warks gae thro' foe trim a garden as yours. I hae been twa times wi' my coufin the General, & fae fhall I fax time mare afore the wark gae that gate; but gin a' this be dune Sir Thomas, yee maun macke the twenty pound thretty, & I maun hae the tag'd tail'd a trooper that ftands in the ftaw, & the little wee trim gaeing thing that ftands in the neuk o'th ha' chirping and chiming at the noun tide of the day, and forty bows of beer to faw the mains witha'; and as I am a Chevalier of fortune, & a limb of the house of Rothes, as the muckle maun kit in Edinburg, auld kirk can weel witness for thefe aught hundred years bygaine, nought fhall fkaith your houfe within or without, to the validome of a twapenny chicken. I am your humble fervant, JOHN LESSLEY, Major-general & Captain over fax fcore & twa men & fome mare; Crowner of Cumberland, Northumberland, Murrayland & Fife; Baillie of Kirkaldie; Governor of Burnt Island, & the Bafs; Laird of Libertine, Tilly and Wolly; Siller Tacker of Stirling, Contable of Leith, & Sir John Lefsley, Knight to the Boot of a' that.'

One might be apt to suppose that this letter had been formed in ridicule of the Major-general. The editor fhould have taken care to acquaint us from whence it is communicated, and how far its authenticity is to be relied on.

Farther extracts from this work we propofe to lay before our Readers in the next Number of our Review.

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b Clock.
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a Horse.

• Low lands.

lector of the land tax.

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Scotland. For a defcription, fee Pennant's Tour.

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ART.

ART. III. A Difcourfe delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Diftribution of the Prizes, Dec. 10, 1778. By the Prefident. 4to. 3 s. Cadell. 1779

THE

HE defign of the Prefident, in this performance, is to explain the original principles on which the rules of painting are founded; to give the young artift an enlarged and libe ral view of his ftudies; and to recommend to his attention an acquaintance with the paffions and affections of the mind, from which all rules arife, and to which they are ultimately to be referred. The Author acknowledges that poetry has a more extenfive influence over the mind than her fifler art. Poetry operates by raifing our curiofity,, engaging the mind by degrees to take an intereft in the event, keeping that event fufpended, and furprifing at laft with an unexpected catastrophe.'

The painter's art is more confined, and has nothing that correfponds with, or perhaps is equivalent to, this power and advantage of leading the mind on, till attention is totally engaged. What is done by painting is done at one blow; curiofity has received at once all the fatisfaction it can ever have. There are, however, other intellectual qualities and difpofitions which the painter can fatisfy and affect as powerfully as the poet; among these we may reckon our love of novelty, variety, and contraft; these qualities, on examination, will be found to refer to a certain activity and reft leffnefs, which has a pleasure and delight in being exercifed and put in motion; art therefore only adminifters to thofe wants and defires of the mind.

The Author proceeds to explain more particularly in what manner the qualities of novelty, variety, and contraft, are agreeable to the mind, and how far they ought to be employed in works of art. As there is a principle of activity, fo there is alfo a love of indolence in man, which is averfe to every exceffive exertion. This difpofition, which muft likewife be qualified by the painter, ought to limit the extent which he allows to the active principles. He muft not, by a predilection for novelty, exclude the pleasure arifing from the fight of what is agreeable to old habits and cuftoms; variety must not destroy the gratification derived from uniformity and repetition; and contraft ought not to be carried to fuch a length as would fatigue the fenfes by a violent and perpetual oppofition.

The Author's obfervations on this abftract, but important fubject, are just and ingenious; but the nature of his undertaking did not admit of his giving them their full extent. Those of our Readers who defire to fee the fame fubject treated at greater length, may confult an ingenious French work, entitled, "The Theory of agreeable Senfations*;" in which this doctrine is

• Vid. Review, vol. ii. p. 66, & feq. REV. July 1779.

C

explained

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