mine the volumes, and thereby faved my 78; but those who have made the purchafe in a confidence of the publisher's integrity, will be fufficiently mortified to find themfelves taken-in by fuch unprin. cipled forgeries. P.S. I take the liberty to inclose an effufion of George Alexander Stevens, and an excellent fong; neither of which, fo far as I know, has ever appeared in print. PHILARKAIOS. 1. On a Window in the Red Lion, Doncafter. FROM Wakefield drove by powerful laws, I gam'd, 'tis true: ay, that's the cause : Condemn'd for what deferves applause; Fallere fallentem non eft fraus. June, 1750. G. ALEX. STEVENS. 2. THE HOGAN OF HOUGHTON. A SON G. in fack, SOME bards of old time, who delighted [(mack; Have wrote in its praife, and extoll'd its fweet Some too have spoke in the praise of mild ale, And others ftand up (while they 're able) for ftale; Ding-dong O'Durfey (peace be to his foul!) Has render'd immortal the ftrong-beer of Knowle; [fung, But the Hogan of Houghton remains yet unThough more excellent liquor was ne'er tipp'd o'er the tongue. Had the Trojans drank Hogan, thofe blades of renown [their town, Had ne'er fuffer'd the Greeks to demolish But had fought all like furies, infpir'd by this, And Paris had long kept his favourite Mifs. He who drinks but one cup on't was ne'er known to sneak; 'Tis the only thing extant to make a cat fpeak: So fays Doctor Turner; and fure he can tell, At least when he gets himself rocky with Nell. Old ballad-wright Homer delighted in nec tar, [Hector; And made a great fufs with the tall boy call'd But, had he been caft upon Norfolk's fair coaft, He'd have drunk only Hogan, and fung Col'nel Oft *. Let poets of drawing-room beauties make boaft, I defy them to match or my liquor or toast. N. B. The Hogan of Houghton was brewed 14 bufhels to the hogfhead, and kept 14 years in the cafk before tapped. Mr. URBAN, June 30. I THINK you allow a little laugh is good for the health of your readers ; and that, amidft fo much ferious, but monthly, a fmall fervice of laugh may entertaining, matter, which you ferve up occafionally be brought upon your board. I, therefore, fend you an original letter, containing a description of Lisbon; and, though not fo full of information as fome others which I have occafionally given you, yet ftill it has its entertainment too, efpecially when I tell you it came from the only fon of a man, who, in his time, made no fmall figure in this country, and whofe fon now poffeffes many thoufand pounds a year. B. F. "SIR, "I am vaftly forry that I have not had the pleafure of writing to you before now, which I hope youll excufe, Lifbon is very fine place for buithness, but is badly fituated, for carriages, &c. and monftrous dirty they make nothing here to fling water and pils upon you as you pafs by, I like the place where I am and my masters too, they are both very worthy gentlemen, I am vaftly hurried to night that I can but just write this letter-fo I hope youll excufe the short difcription of Lisbon, I will tell you farther the next time I write, let me know what I can serve you in and I will do it with great pleasure, only let me know what it is, let me have an answer to this letter and you'll oblige me, mightly, fo pray excufe my brevity. I am dear Sir your most affectionate friend." MORRISIAN MISCELLANY. Of the Neceffity of having the true and real Names of Perfons and Places recorded in Hiftory; if other wife, the As and of their reafon, know, Story is falfe. LL men, who have the ufe of let that in reading of hiftories, or an account of any tranfactions, antient or modern, unless they have the true names of the perfons acting, and the places where they acted, it is no account at all, and is but like an apothecary that gives you ipecacuanha inftead of jallap. Is not this exactly the cafe of an Hiftorian, who gives you Walganus inftead of Gwalchmai, Breigh mons inflead of Eryri mons, Hu 1630 Morrifian Mifcellany.-Ancient British Names. dibras for Rhun-baladr-bras, Halterenmes for Allt yr ynys, Kentigern for Cyndeyrn Garthwys, Gannor for Dyganwy, Damnonium for Dyfnaint, Nuevin for Aneurin, &c. &c.? Is there any body then that takes a pleasure in reading the actions of his ancestors, or of the antient inhabitants of Britain and Gaul, in the old books that treat of Britain, but who would willingly have the real and true names of the people and places he reads of The occafion of the errors of authors in this refpect being either their want of knowledge in the Celtic tongue, or owing to the ignorance of tranfcribers, or to the publishers of antient MSS. in print, or elfe to that vicious cuftom of modeling or Latinizing Celtic names, whereas the names of men and places in all nations fhould be tranfmitted as they are used in the language that impofed them. It vexes me to fee the renowned king of the Britons, Cafwallon, nicknamed, in Cæfar's Commentaries, Cervellaunus, and several of the like, as Cynvelyn, Cunobelinus: to fee Cyn-las, in that patched piece of Gildas, called Cunoglaffus, and explained Lanto fulve, a yellow butcher; a plain mark of the forgery: and, in the fame author, Maelgwn Gwynedd tranfmogrified into Maglo Cunus. I am forry to fee the lands of Gwyr and Cydweli, in Glamorganshire, transformed in different corrupt copies of Nennius, to Guiber cet Guely, Gubir tee Guili, Guir Gecgadi, Guircat Gueli, and Gubir cet Gwely. The inhabitants of Ireland are under no obligations to Ptolemy, or his tranfcribers, for calling their ifland Istpris, instead of legding, or, as the Britons wrote it, Y Werdaynys, and, as it is to this day, Y Werddon, the green island, or, as the last name imports, the green place. I fhall now pafs over Bede, Matthew Paris, Matthew of Weftminster, William of Newbury, and all the Saxon and EngJith authors that fucceeded them, being all fwarming with errors where they have touched on the British names of men and places; but muft obferve, that the Welsh name Cynfelyn is, by Roman writers, Latinized Cunobelinus; the meaning of the word is yellow bead, and is compounded of cyn and melyn, and was the name of one of our antient kings of Britain about 1,800 years ago: but there is no more neceffity for a perfon of this name to have a yellow head, than for Mr. Whitebead the poet to have a white head, or Mr. Broadbead to have a broad [July, one. Cyn, in the antient Celtic, fignified firft, chief, or principal; cyntaf is firft; cyn, before; fo that it feems it was ufed but metaphorically for a head in the compofitions of names of men, So Cyntwrch, Hog's bead; Cynfarch, Horfehead; Cynllo, Calf's-head; Cynwalch, Hawk's head, &c. were men's names among the antient Britons, but were originally titles of offices of flandardbearers, or officers that carried fuch and foch figures in their banners. This fhews the vanity of etymologifts, that fearch for the nature or offices of perfons in their names; for every body knows that names of offices are often turned into common naines, as Steward, Butler, Majon, Smith, Carpenter, &c. Camden finds Brenbin, a king, in the name Brennus, the Gaulish leader, whole real name was Bran, a common name in Wales; and Brutwn marr, a great Briton, in the name Britomarus; as if people's names fhewed their qualities and offices; for the fame reafon Mr. John King fhould wear a crown; every one of the name of Armfirong thould be ftrong; and Mr. Button fhould be a very little, round man. Some English writers, for want of a competent knowledge in the old Celtic, have coined names for fome of our antient kings, which, with great confidence, they have impofed on the world as real names, and genuine; molt audaciously fetting up their own gueffes against the authorities of the an tient MSS, monuments, and traditions, of a whole nation. Sir Winston Churchill, in his Divi Britannici, fancied that Belinus and Brennus, the two brothers (called in Welth Beli a Bran), fons of Dyfnwal Moehmud, were the fame individual perfon; and that Belin fignified the fame with Cæfar, or Pha raoh, and was only a title of majesty ! and having found another Belin (Bef Mawr ab Manogan), as he calls him, father of Callivelaunus (who fought Ju lius Cæfar), and of Lludd and Niniaw; and that (atter this Caffivelaunus) there was a king here called Cunobelinus, of whofe coins we have feveral, he makes bold with them all, and turns them into Belins-Cafhbelin, Cunobelin, Ludbelin, Moriobelin, Tubelin or Tudorbelin, Guitkbelin, Belinarvirag, Calibelin, Cymbelin, &c.-names never fo much as heard of in any other hiftorian in the world; and all founded on his mistaking and confounding the name of Belt, who was the father of Caffivelaunus, or Cafwallan, with Cynfelyn, who is Latinized Cunobelinus. Cunobelinus. It would be endless to mention all these kind of mistakes in our English authors. The etymologies of the names of perfons and things ought to be looked for in their own language, and not after they have been trandated into another, and adapted to the tongues of trangers. Tyffilio's antient British Hiftore (who was a Welth bishop, and fon of Brock wel Yigithrog, Prince of Powys), and our other antient Welsh writers, poets, and genealogifts, should be the authors confulted on this occafion about Welsh etymologies; and, without thefe helps, it is but groping in the dark, and amufing the world with dreams and fancies. IN alteration, whether of correction or improvement? QUERIST. TO THE MAN OF FASHION. BY an affociation which may be thought a little extraordinary I pafs from the Man of Books to the Man of the World. The tranfition, however, is not uncommon in real life. The reverfe is indeed extraor dinary. I would fain unite these two characters; and, having lain-in a fund of fcholaftic lore, I fhould like to fet it' off by the acquifition of a little ton; as a preliminary ftep to which, I should be glad to be informed how I may diftinguifh the feveral colours which, in their feveral feafons, are worn by the fair and fashionable. My taylor is not always at hand; and truly I cannot remember half of them with any degree of accuracy. L have fancied, that as colours are fimple ideas, of which a person who has never feen them, or a person who has totally forgotten them, can have no conception, the painter might fupply this defect of our knowledge and understanding by depicting fome of the most remarkable hues of which the ftuffs commonly worn are fufceptible. Or, as you are the arbi ters of tafle and elegance, you might direct the makers of fashionable magazines and memorandum-books to give us, from. time to time, a tablet of fashionable colours, with their appropriate epithets. By these means we should not only apprehend the colour itfelf; but fuch of us as have not travelled may learn, by reference, the qualities of things and of perfons whom we never faw. Our ideas would be multiplied, and we should underftand your language though we might not enrich our own. QUERIST. TO THE MAN OF LETTERS. N perufing books which have paffed through feveral editions, I frequently meet with the titles of authors, of flatefmen, bishops, and other men eminent for their rank or understanding, together with allufions to events then recent; of all which, as a lover of biography and anecdote, I want to afcertain the true naine and date. Again, I have in my time bought up feveral books immedi ately on their publication; and before I could give them a hafty perufal, another edition has iffued from the prefs, with numerous alterations or additions, fo interfperfed in different parts of the work, that, without the trouble and expence of buying the laft, to compare throughout with the preceding edition, I cannot know whether I am in poffeffion of the actual opinions of the author. Many readers must have experienced thefe inconveniences. Might not the publifhers obviate the former, if they understood it to be the concurrent wish of writers and readers, that the date of Salop, July 12. every preceding edition were printed in IF the dialogue between the late Dr. fome confpicuous part of the book, as, Johnfon and Mrs. Knowles really for example, where the imprimatur is, paffed, as it is related in p. 500-502, it or ufed to be, exhibited? Some book- perfectly convinces me of what for many fellers may, perhaps, on certain occa years I fufpected, viz. that Dr. Johnfions, be averse to this obvious method fon was but a very fuperficial Divine ; of information: but the united influence and that he had never drunk deep at that of purchasers would prevail; nay, it facred fountain of Revealed Truth, which must be a defideratum with every author records the plan and œconomy of human who avails himself of the publications of redemption; nur had ever well informed others. The author alone, or a perfon himself of the MEANS by which the appointed by him, is competent to the Chriflian religion was originally comremoval of the latter inconvenience communicated to fallen man, and has ever plained of: and, out of regard to his fince been preferved from perishing from own character, and in gratitude to fuch off the earth. as buy up his first productions, ought he not to mark in a preface, more carefully than is ufually done, every fubßantial Mr. URBAN, Had Dr. Johnson's capacious mind been stored with those data which the facred Hebrew Scriptures, divested of the 632 Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Knowles.-Mifcellaneous Observations.[ July, vail with which the Rabbis and apoftate Jews have obfcured them, do amply furnish, he never could have been fo "chafed" and confounded, either by Mrs. Knowles, or even by Robert Barclay himself. Was not this ignorance respecting true theology, rather than mere conftitutional morbid melancholy, the fource of thofe fuperftitious notions which fo harraffed the good Doctor, and which held him in continual bondage and fear of death throughout the greatest part of his life? as I have converfed with Quakers of much ingenuity and acuteness; but I never met with an intelligent perfon among them, who, when properly dealt with, was not foon and eafily induced to give up his pretended LIGHT WITHIN naturally inherent in every man, or dri ven into the tents of downright Deifm, to which camp the Quakers certainly belong. The ftory of AHI EB'N YOCKDAN, fo pompously related in Barclay's "Apology," is now well known to be nothing more or less than part of an Arabic Romance. Although Charles Leflie (who knew the Quakers and their tenets better than any man not of the fect), in his "Snake in the Grafs," and the defences of it, has effectually expofed the delufions of that fubtle feet (originally fyftematized by the Jefuits), yet, in my opinion, no writer has more completely overturned their whole fabrick than the Rev. Daniel Gittins, in his "Remarks on the Tenets and Principles of the Quakers," one vol. Svo. London, printed for E. Withers. The book is now rather fcarce, but very well deferves to be re-printed, especially at this time, because it is an excellent ANTIDOTE, not only to the reveries of the Quakers, but also to those of the Swedenborgians, and all other enthufiafts, whether antient or modern. To this book I particularly refer your correfpondent M. F. p. 515. Is there any expectation that Mr. Park hurft's Hebrew and English and Greek and English lexicons will be foon republished? Many perfons in this neighbourhood have long been anxiously withing for them. W.C. feals, on a private plate. See "British Topography," vol. II. p. 18. If the name of the old manfion in Hertfordshire had been mentioned, the initial on the ring might more cafily be afcertained. Are the figures on the brown jug in relief or enameled? The firft, infcribed De Leifde, or rather Liefde, reprefents Charity; the fecond, De Gerechtiger, or Geregbtigheyd, Juftice; the third, Der Glof, or Geloof, Faith. I have fomewhere before seen such a figure as you have engraved in pl. III. fig. 5. of last month. The feal fig. 6. is not peculiar to Sporle priory. Such an one, found, at Shaftsbury, was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries about two years ago. It fill remains to be accounted for. Dr. Johnfon will fatisfy your correfpondent p. 529, that effectuate is used by Sidney, and derived from the French, effectuer. P. 534. Dr. Butler published "Lives of the Saints," in 5 vols. 4to. 1745 reprinted at Dublin, in 12 vols. 8vo. 1779. A fhort answer to all the blunders of the news-papers is, that the Lady Grofvenor, who died May 11, was the mother of the prefent Earl, and relict of his father, Sir Robert Grosvenor. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, THE B. B. July 18. HE truly ingenious and learned Baronet, in p. 91, col. 1, l. 9, deferves from his countrymen more than fingle line in your Obituary. He died on the third day of January laft at his feat at Colinton, near Edinburgh, after a long illnefs, which he bore with Chriftian patience, at the advanced age of 77 years. P. 468. The two laft verfes of the extract from Dr. Downman's excellent didactic poem are, in the fourth edition, printed at Edinburgh in 1788, more clegantly reduced to one: "For benefits receiv'd attan'd the lyre.” The other poems of this ingenious author are recorded in pp. 254, 5. P. 485, col. 1, 1. 8, 9, read "Samuel. Bever, elq. at Mortimer, in Berkshire." In his poffeffion is a very large and exquifite picture, in oil colours, of Leoni das taking leave of his wife and infant fon, painted by Mr. Sherwin, which may be justly esteemed as a moft valuable They are in relief. EDIT. acquifition, acquifition, it being almoft the only, if not the only, performance of the palette by this furprifing artift, the pupil and rival of Bartolozzi in the line of engraving. P. 503, col. I, 1. 42, read "rechriftianizing." P. 529. Johnfon's Dictionary fupplies an inftance from Sidney of what your philological querift deems "purely Scottiff." P. 531, col. 2. Your "Conftant Reader" will find the term gooseberry accounted for in the fame Dictionary. P. 563, col. 1. Enquiry is made after AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT, P. 538. Read "Continued from p. 441 copy of it be fent to us. PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT, 1791. (Continued from p. 544.) In the Commons, the fame day, Mr. Grey rofe to make his promifed motion relative to the fate of the nation. He contended, that the principles on which war would be maintained were only thofe which originated in the principle of felf. defence. He reprobated the latitude given to the construction of defenfive treaties; and afferted, that if fuch latitude was given, the country might be eternally involved in wars, termed wars of expediency, but which might be, in reality, unjuft wars, and wars ruinous to the country. He trufted, the Houfe were not to be told, that the armament was for the fupport, of Prussia. He agreed in the policy of maintaining the balance of power in Europe, but ridiculed as chimerical the hunting out of an enemy to contend for a port in the Black Sea, for the purpose of adding taxes to the country. He juftified the claims of Ruffia upon Oczakow and the Niefter, for her boundary, as calculated alone for the purpofe of defending her poffeffions from attack. He contended, that the war was neither politic nor juft; and condemned, as unconftitutional, the implicit confidence called for by Minifters; and concluded by moving a ftring of motions; the first of which was, "That it was at all times, and particularly under the prefent circumftances, the intereft of this country to preferve peace." Major Mailand feconded the motion. He felt himself impreffed with the perilous fituation of this country, and conGENT. MAG. July, 1791. tended that no good reafon for the proceeding had been, or could be, advanced. Lord Belgrave contended, that from the general character of his Majesty's Minifters, and from the experience the Houfe had had of their conduct, they highly merited the confidence neceffary upon the prefent occafion; to prove which affertion, his Lordship fhortly ftared the conduct of his Majefty's Minifters in the affurs of Holland and Spain; and concluded, by moving the previous question. Mr. Pybus was ftrenuous in fupport of the conduct of Adminiftration; afferted the policy of the country in checking the progrefs of the Rufian arms, independent of the treaty with Pruffia; and feconded the previous question. A debate then began, which continued till two in the morning, when the House divided on the previous queftion: Ayes 252, Noes 172. |