the house at which we arrived is one of the most pleasant in the country. On whatever fide we caft our eyes we had the most grand and picturefque views; immediately in front is an amphitheatre, in which one diftinguishes, at firft fight, a fuperb houfe belonging to Lady M¬ The eye endeaYours to trace out the walks that environ this beautiful habitation, and though the great diftance prevents it from doing fo diftinctly, yet it makes amends, by prefenting to it an extent of country which, for fix miles at leaft, is a picture of fertility and abundance. No doubt but you wonder that, feparated as we have been fome time from fociety, I fhould not begin by fpeaking of the pleasure we experienced in the agreeable company of the inhabitants of this manfion, intead of defcribing the charms of the house itself; on that head, indeed, I thould have much to fay, for here we met with all the politeness of the town, joined to the freedom and the opennels of manners of the country; the reception we met with from Mr. D was of that fort which conveys more to the heart than the tongue is able to exprefs. We returned to Neath to dinner, and then went to pay our homage to the ruins of the castle, which are but of fmall account in themfelves; but the view from them extends over a rich land cape. From this fpot we walked towards the more confiderable remains of the abbey, fituated on the Tawy, half a mile from the town. Enough of the church is ftill Randing, to give an idea of its form and beauty, for the windows of it are of an amazing fize and grandeur, but the moft entire and best preferved part is the adjacent convent: it were to be withed that it were lefs fo, tor the cells of it ferve as a retreat to an innumerable gang of mendicants, whole figures are hideous beyond all that can be imagined: the air which they refpire in thefe fubterranean caverns is, without doubt, the caufe of that livid complexion and lean aípeét which fo particularizes them.

As

foon as I entered into one of the vaulted outer parts, feveral women came out of holes that communicated with it: they furrounded me, and the further I advanced the more the troop augmented; they carried, almost all of them, infants upon their backs, and the tone of voice with which they beg

ged of us could be compared only to that of thofe women who headed the rebels at Paris. In fixing on those places as their habitations, they fave themfelves the payment of rent-but idlenefs is the great caufe of their being in this ftate of mifery. Night coming on, we could not begin to draw any thing.

"Next morning we again made a vifit to the ruins, for which purpose we provided ourfelves with a quantity of copper coin, to fatisfy the harpies who fhould attack us; to our great amazement, we had no occafion for it, for nearly at the fame time with ourselves arrived at this scene of mifery and horror a perfon of confequence and his family, confifting of two carriages and feveral fervants : this fplendor of equipage, and, above all, the infignia of the order of St. Patrick, fixed the attention of our invaders, and we were at liberty to take our drawings. How fhall I attempt to describe to you, madam, the agreeable fight which this travelling family prefented to me: the father, with a trembling touch, delineated, to the greatest pitch of exactness, the infide of a Gothic hall-whilst the daughter, fcarce entered on her fourth luftrum, united all the graces of Hebe to the precision of Urania-my imagination feemed to realize one of thofe fcenes of chivalry defcribed by Tallo. We compared our port-folios, and took our leave of each other: Mr. D, who had the complaifance to come to us, conducted us to his houfe, through a valley in which we could not refrain from fropping often to take sketches, and in which the abundance of charming, little fubjects is fo great that one is embarralled to make a choice. clofed, you have fome fpecimens: I have not attempted them all, becaufe I would leave you, madam, an opportunity of enriching your own port-folio at fome future time in this valley. Paffing by a forge, where the iron is manufactured, we were prefent, by accident, at one of their operations: I do not attempt to defcribe to you the infide of one of thofe abodes of Vulcan, because it is foreign to my subject; I muft, however, juft note a thing worthy of great attention, thofe vaft machines worked by fire, the ingenious invention of the age we live in, which,

In

Lup.

hipplying the place of human labour, produces fuch furprising effects. Here the team of water lifts, in equilibrium, a weight of five thoufand pounds, and the fame fteam, when condenfed, regulates the movements of the bellows, which, without ceaf ing, keep blowing the furnaces where

the metal is in fusion.

"This fame day, before we quitted Neath, we went to fee the cafcade at Dylas it is fituated on the Tawy, about fix miles above the town; the way to it is almoft covered with lofty trees, and on all fides the country is well cultivated and inhabited. My pencil will give but a very imperfect idea of what is fo truly worthy of curiofity. Artifts in general have been fond of attempting its defcription, but how great is the difficulty of the tafk! There you fee the earth feparated, and then joined together by enormous rocks, the water just ap pears, and then is loft in their cavities, as it were, to precipitate itself with greater uproar into a refervoir, where it seems inftantly to reft after all its fatigues. This is certainly not the most favourable feafon of the year for viewing fuch a spectacle. In the winter it muft needs be magnificently horrible. I will here finish my defcription and my letter together, and defire you to believe me to be,

&c."

Letter 6.

XVII. Peace, nominy, and Defiruction, a Poem. Infcribed to the Right Hon. Charles James Fox. By Mr. JERNINGHAM. 2d Edit. 4to. Is. 6d. pp. 17. Rivingtons, and White, Piccadilly.

"Rompez, Rompez tout pacte avec l'impiété."

ARGUMENT.

THE poet decks the fhrine of the "enduring martyr" with the mufes' choiceft wreaths, and gives the night fhade of Ignominy to "the Peace that lifts th' imploring eye" he fees an English peer in the fituation of a fuppliant, where his memorial ought to breathe a long excited vengeance; and thence, addreffing his country as the time ennobled VOL. I.-No, I.

feat of honour and virtue, urges her rather to perifh in the full blaze of glory, than to waste in the focket the last gleam of an agonized exiftence. He reprefents the tygrefs France as incapable of repofe; and, looking around her defolated domain, for thofe facred altars where the venerable priest performs the rites of peace and candour, he fees, instead, the cauldron of difcord, forcerers, who feafon its turbid confurrounded by a troop of infernal tents with the effence of every hu man calamity. Viewing thete fiends and their horrid orgies, he laments that he poffeffes not the combined powers of a Dryden, a Parr, an Orford, a Cambridge, a Wyndham, a Pitt, a Sheridan, and a Fitzwilliam, to 'roufe his country from her some brous lethargy.

The poet then adverting to the degraded ftate of juftice, honour, and religion, in France, pictures forth her deluded children as vifiting the cold remains of love, affection, and friendship, in the cemeteries of the dead, uncheared by any hope of re-union beyond the grave; themfelves journeying forward into the gloom of never-ending night, and robb'd of the heavenly rights of immortality. - He next marks the impious honours.bestowed on the afhes of Voltaire, the departed champion of irreligion, and laments the cold, immoral blaft, which has chilled the plants of science in France, and frozen the cur rent of inftruction, imparting even to infant minds the hardened habits of fanguinary cruelty. Viewing thefe enormities, he wishes for the warning voice which the prophet of old fent forth in Media to aroufe and unite the land against that deftroying mountain fo pregnant with ruin to the rest of the earth; and while "the futtering prayer of embaffy afcends an iron fky," he adjures his country, by her dearest interefts and most facred ties, to feize the pregnant hour, and regain the paths of martial renown,

H

He

pre

prefumes that England's new disease requires not the opium of peace, but the free operations of her conftitutional ftrength: he announces the wreck of his country's glory, under the restraints of cold reafon and delayed refentment; and preferring, in his mind, the highest infamy of a prostituted poetic pen, to that of figning this unnatural bond of peace, he concludes with a tributary apoftrophe to the enlightened fage of Beaconsfield, the fcatterings of whofe loaded wain in the harvest of moral and political fcience, have tempted him to follow its track.

with gore,

The plaint of innocence, the virgin's pray'r

Which the rude ravisher confign'd to air,

The hallow'd edicts by religion plann'd,

And holy wedlock's defecrated band:
Behold th'infernal forcerers unite
To close their incantation's fearful rite,
And leering caft into the vase profound
The likeness of two fculls which once
were crown'd.

"Say, for these fiends, if England
can defcend

To weave the bond that grapples friend to friend,

Flown is the fpirit of her living fame; And what remains?—a carcafe of a name!

"Cou'd I, like Dryden, wield the bolts of war,

Or boat the warm exuberance of Parr?

The glow of thought the piercing ray of heav'n,

By nature's liberal hand to Orford giv'n?

The zeal of him whofe energetic ftrain Unfolds the forrows of the negro