between thirty and forty. It is not improbable that they will ere long become extinct, as it is said no one can enter the order without bringing with him a considerable portion of wealth; and it does not appear from the observations I have made, that a predilection for a monastick life gains ground with either of the sexes.

The spot on which the convent is erected is very beautiful; below there is a lovely and fertile valley, intersected with vineyards, olive plantations, groves of lemons, oranges, limes, figtrees and all the fruits of this fine climate; the extensive, cultivated farms of the convent which stretch around agreeably diversify the prospect, and hedges of myrtie and oleander and aromatick shrubs contribute their aid to captivate the senses. As my eye rested on the surrounding scenery, I could not avoid reflecting for a moment with melancholy sensations on the strange inconsistency and infatuation of man. The poor beings who vegetate in these cloisters have no delight in the contemplation of nature. Immured in solitude, and secluded from the converse of their fellow men, their existence passes away in one dull, tedious round of self-denial and suffering. Yet, if any thing could induce a man disgusted with the world to turn monk, it would be, I think, to live in this spot. After we had gratified our curiosity in viewing the objects of this extrrordinary place, we prepared to return to Xerez, not however until we had paid a visit to the stables. They contained a number of very fine animals. The horses of Andalusia were formerly reckoned the handsomest in Europe. They surpass all the others of Spain at present, and those belonging to the convent are said to be in particular the choicest breed in the kingdom.

We arrived time enough to take dinner at Mr. Gordon's, and after passing the afternoon very pleasantly, we made arrangements for pursuing our journey the next morning. Finding, on inquiry, that unless we set out at day break, we could not reach Seville before night, we determined therefore to proceed no farther than La Brija, a town about five and twenty miles from Xerez, on the following day. This they informed us was the only place on the road where it would be possible to meet with any thing in the shape of an inn. Accordingly having made an ample provision of articles for eating and drinking, (it being always an indispensable precaution for travellers in Spain who are averse to starving, to lay in a stock beforehand) we took our departure about ten o'clock in the morning.

Five or six miles from Xerez we passed through part of the farm belonging to Mr. Gordon. He has between 2 and 3000 acres under cultivation, and has introduced on his grounds many improvements in agriculture. His example has however as yet met with but few followers. The Spaniards are so wedded to their old habits that it requires an almost supernatural influence to produce a change. He has on his lands several farmers

from Scotland, who make use of the English plough and harrow. The latter useful instrument they are unacquainted with in this country. The Spanish plough is of a very rude construction. The share is of wood and is of the same piece with the sheet and handle. Oxen are solely employed in tillage and draft. They are ignorant of the flail, and have neither barns for threshing or housing the grain. The corn is trod out by cattle in the open fields.

(To be continued.)

SILVA, No. 57:

Pinea silva mihi multos dilecta per annos.

Virg. 1x. En. 85.

THEATRE DE L'HERMITAGE.

CATHERINE II. after her return from the Crimea, had a private theatre constructed in that part of her palace, at St. Petersburgh, which is called the Hermitage. She collected a small but excellent company of French actors; and the pieces which were in French, and all written for this theatre, were performed, in the years 1787, 1788, before her and the persons who composed her intimate society. The collection forms two octavo volumes, and was published at Paris from a copy, which was one of a small number made by her order. The pieces, except one tragedy, by Segur, entitled Coriolanus, are mostly in one or two acts. They were composed by the empress herself; count Cobentzel, ambassadour of the emperour of Germany; count Segur, ambassadour of France; the prince de Ligne, an Austrian general; Momonof, the favourite of Catherine; count Strogonof, senator; Iwan Schwalof, great chamberlain ; d'Estat, a Frenchman, attached to the empress's cabinet; and the daughter of Aufrene, a celebrated comedian.

Five of the peices were written by the empress. One of them, which dramatizes the fable of the Fox and the Raven, was in consequence of a wager that she could produce a piece, or as most of them are called, a Proverbe, from that fable. The last piece by the empress is taken from early Russian history, and is called an imitation of Shakespeare. But it serves principally to prove that a great empress was but a poor imitator of Shakespeare.

The following extract is from the Ridiculous Lover, by the prince de Ligne. M. de Bonaccord is about concluding a marriage for his daughter, and takes the advice of two of his friends, one of whom being very absent, and catching only part of what is said by the other, always gives contradictory advice. After discussing a number of characters in this manner, M. de Bonaccord says,

"It was proposed to me to marry her to an Englishman. M. Raisonville. Heaven preserve you from it! more pensive than thoughtful, more hollow than profound, talking little, often through want of imagination.

M. de Bonconseil. Yes, look at Milton and Shakespeare, sometimes exaggerated, but always discovering genius.

M. Raisonville. With a great deal of harshness, and sadness in their character.

M. de Bonconseil. Yes, a great deal of character, brave fellows in war, sure in friendship, noble and beneficent, without duplicity, and always with some amiable singularity that is only suitable to themselves, &c.

HEBREW.

A monk, who served his society in quality of librarian, was required to form a catalogue of the books. He succeeded very well, until he took up a Hebrew author, of which language he was completely ignorant, and was for a long time at a loss to describe the volume. At length he inserted it in the catalogue, as a book, which had the beginning where the end should be.

The following lines, strange as such an encomium from such an author, and from such a poem, on the martyr Charles, may appear, are taken from a copy of verses, addressed and presented by Andrew Marvell to the Lord Protector Cromwell, entitled, "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's return from Ireland."

While round the armed bands

Did clap their bloody hands,
He nothing common did or mean,
Upon that memorable scene;

But with his keener eye,

The axe's edge did try,

Nor call'd the gods with vulgar spite

To vindicate his helpless right,

But bow'd his comely head

Down as upon a bed.

SIR RICHARD STEELE,

To the anecdotes which Johnson mentions in his life of Savage, respecting Sir R. Steele, the following related by Bisset may be added, as worthy of preservation. When out of place, and of course when his finances were low, Sir Richard

formed a project for converting a hall in his house into a theatre for reciting passages from the best authors ancient and modern; but, as usual, neglected to calculate whether his purse could bear the expense. When completed, Steele was delighted with its elegance and splendour; nd wishing to know whether it was as well calculated to convey sound as it was to please the eye, desired his carpenter to go to a pulpit at one end of the room and pronounce some sentences, while he himself at the other should judge of the effect. The awkward mechanick having taken his place, declared himself at a loss how to begin, or what to say. Sir Richard told him to speak whatever was uppermost in his mind. The carpenter was no longer in doubt, but in a distinct and audible voice called out: "Sir Richard Steele, here has I and these here men been doing your work for three months, and never seen the colour of your money. When are you to pay us? I cannot pay my journeymen without money, and money I must have." Sir Richard replied that he was delighted with the oratory, but by no means approved the subject.

OLD FASHIONED ORTHOGRAPHY,

AND A STRONG MEMORY.

THE following title of a book published towards the latter end of the sixteenth century, shows the difference between the mode of spelling the English language in that age and in this.

A Replie vnto M. Hardinges Ansvveare: by perusinge whereof the discrete, and diligent Reader may easily see, the weake and vnstable groundes of the Romaine Religion, whiche of late hath beene accompted Catholique. By John Jewell Bishoppe of Salisburie. 3. Esdrae. 4. Magna est Veritas, et prevalet. Greate is the truth, and preuaileth. Ex Edicto Imperatorum Valentin. et Martiani, in Concil. Chalcedon. Actione. 3. Qui post semel inuentam veritatem aliud quaerit, Mendacium quaerit, non veritatem. After the truth is once founde, who so euer seeketh further, he seeketh not for the truth, but for a lie. Imprinted at London in Fleetestreate, at the signe of the Blacke Eliphante, by Henry Wykes. Anno. 1565. With special Priuilege.

This antique title would hardly deserve place as a curiosity, if it did not also remind one of the author's memory, which was astonishingly quick and tenacious. It is affirmed of this Bishop Jewell, that he could always repeat exactly whatever he had written; that he would get a sermon by heart whilst the bell was ringing; and that the greatest noise or confusion in his room was no impediment to the exercise of his memory. Dr. Packhurst, his old tutor, tried him once with the most difficult

words in the Calendar, and found him equal to his pretensions. Bishop Hooper proposed to him forty Welsh, Irish, and foreign words, which on once reading only, and a short recollection, Jewell recited correctly, both backward and forward.

DRYDEN.

THE attack upon the immorality of the stage by Jeremy Collier and Sir Richard Blackmore is, perhaps, the most memorable era in the history of the English drama. In this honest and undistinguishing attack upon theatrical profligacy, Dryden bore a considerable share of rough treatment, and though he revolted at Blackmore's indiscriminate censure, yet to the chastisement of the rude Jeremy, in the spirit of a gentleman and a Christian, he replied: "I shall say the less of Mr. Collier, because in many things he taxed me justly, and I have pleaded guilty to all thoughts and expressions of mine, which may truly be argued of obscenity, profaneness or immorality, and retract them. If he be my enemy, let him triumph; if he be my friend, as I have given him no personal occasion to be otherwise, he will be glad of my repentance. It becomes me not to draw my pen in the defence of a bad cause, when I have so often drawn it for a good one." Immediately after this controversy Dryden died, and on that event the following lines were printed, having reference to the abuse of Blackmore and Collier.

BEFORE Commenting on the translations of Lucretius de rerum natura, it is impossible to withhold a few remarks on the subject and tendency of his poem. Though the writer is not compelled by any promise, to analyse in these numbers ori 40

VOL. VII.