The aspen light-from whence refined Her trembling notes could lull the mind To fainting extacy!

The witch with spells forbad the sun To fix his dusky kisses on

Her spotless brow or chin: Forbad with potent charms the air When sporting with her raven hair To parch her snowy skin.

But still, though lovelier than the light Sometimes a dark unusual flight Would long her beauties hide; When anger shook the beauteous maid Her cheek and lip were much decay'd, For all her roses died.

Her brow serene would knit and scowl;
Her voice in harshness ape the owl
That haunts the midnight air;
Till passion's tempest overblown
Again th' Eolian harp's soft tone
Would sigh" the weather's fair."

Oft, at the hour of darkness dread
When stars a feeble radiance shed
The dame forsock her towers,
And taught the virgin's hands to cull
Rank herbs of magic virtue full
With fair but fatal flowers!

Early, her coral lips would move To call the cloud-sprites from above

The demons from below,

Too soon, her voice alone would swell
The wild note of the witch's spell
With descant strange and slow.

Oft lurking nigh the sluggish stream
She watch'd to hear the kelpie scream
And wiled him from the wave.

Oft danced she with the fairy queen
In some thick grove or meadow green
Or cool sequester'd cave.

Swift-footed as the swallow's flight
She'd chace the fiend that glimmers bright
To work the traveller woe,

And catch him-While amid the race
Her large eyes sparkling in the race
Like shooting stars would glow!'

Sir Hugh,'and the 'Murder of Dumblain,'also possess great merit. The former indeed is written with exquisite simplicity and even pathos, and almost makes amends for much of the wretched trash to be found in other parts of the volume, if indeed any thing can make amends for such drivelling as this.

Exalted still the Drummond name

Fair Scotland's shores around;
What soul but feels the native flame
Blaze at the very sound?

* *

*

O long may yon blue mountains yield
Of chivalry the flower;

True knights courageous in the field
And gentle in the bower.

And dames as fair as she who lies
Beneath this marble stone,

Borne by their virtues thro' the sky
To heaven's immortal throne !!!'

*

'Lorenzo and Isabella' from Boccaccio is a long and unin teresting story very clumsily translated; as, for example,

'How oft the sighing Virgin's doom'd to see

A deal of beauty in a low degree!

And beauty once discern'd by loving eyes

What hoards of hidden merit next surprize!!!'

For some inscrutable reason Mr. Sharpe has favoured us with the translation of a French poem on the murder of Henri Duke of Guise, which, in his own opinion, has little merit. Perhaps he wished to shew the public that he understood French, of which this translation, however, is a very dubious proo

Agreeably to the fashion of the day, Mr. Sharpe has added notes to many of his poems. They are destitute of information, wit, and common sense, though they lay arrogant claims to them all. The few anecdotes they contain are borrowed from Scott. The attempts at wit are his own. How could the following expressions escape the lips of a gentle. man? Holyrood was the palace of the Scottish kings in Edinburgh; there is very little of the ancient building left, much being consumed by fire, and the beautiful chapel ruined under the eight of a new roof clapt upon it by obstinate beasts, who measured the strength of its weak walls by the durable rigour of their own skulls!! Mr. Sharpe may rest assured that though he certainly has some originality of thinking, he has no liveliness or playfulness of soul. But an obligation seems now to lie upon all ballad writers to be facetious. That

Celt-abhorring Goth, John Pinkerton, became sportive in his ancient forgeries; Mister Ritson restricted himself to that bold and manly kind of humour which consists in giving the lie direct to all who disagreed with him; Monk Lewis has relieved his insanities and indecencies with occasional jokes from old Joe; Ellis and Scott alone have discovered the wit and humour of scholars and gentlemen. Mr. Sharpe shews only the petulance and arrogance of a Scotch schoolboy. In excessive nationality he gets the better of all former Caledonian writers, and seems to think the whole nobility of the earth concentrated in a few high-cheeked Scotchmen.

ART. IV.—The History of Cleveland, in the North Riding of the County of York; comprehending an historical and descriptive View of the ancient and present State of each Parish within the Wapentake of Langburgh; the Soil, Produce, and Natural Curiosities; with the Origin and Genea logy of the principal Families within the District. By the Rev. John Graves. 4to. pp. 500. Vernor and Hood. 1808.

IT is not easy to point out a more dull, or to the general reader a more unprofitable species of literary amusement than that which is provided for them in the regular routine of a county or provincial history. The practice generally followed, and from which the examples of deviation are very rare, is first to lull him into a state of torpid somnolency by a short and spiritless abridgment of Hume or Smollett as far as the particular portion of soil under review is referred to in the general history of the country; and then, while under the influence of this powerful narcotic, to drag him leisurely round every parish in the district, telling him that such and such particular lands belonged to such and such particular families from the time of the conquest downwards, together with the manner in which they passed from each to each by marriage, forfeiture or surrender, by feoffment, lease and release, or fine and recovery. Genealogical tables are profusely scattered through the work to rouse attention by the semblance of a picture; and a very few real sketches, sometimes of scenery, but more frequently of old monuments or the arches of church-doors and windows complete the contents, and form by far the most interesting part of the volume.

Such is a county-history, such at least are nineteen out of twenty of the voluminous collectionsarranged under that bead in every public library; what a county-history may be, and what

some few are, is a very different question. The first, and most interesting subject which ought not only to enter into the composition of such a work, but to form its principal ingredient, is the biography of its inhabitants or natives, numbers of whom, in every county of England, whose lives have not been so rendered illustrious by public works or public actions, as to deserve a place in general biography, afford individual traits of character, or instances of uncommon changes of fortune, precious to the enquirer into human nature, and doubly precious to those with whom their names are connected by descent or affinity.

Of less universal interest, perhaps, but capable of affording the highest gratification to readers of a distinct taste and habit, are the original and picturesque descriptions of natural scenery, the execution of which requires, indeed, a genius and an ability of no ordinary cast, and which had better be shunned entirely by those writers who do not feel within themselves powers equal to the endeavour; since it is certain that many men are capable of writing exceedingly well on subjects of history and antiquities who have not the least relish for the charms of nature displayed in the majestic assemblage of water, hill, and woodland; and there are many more who, though not deprived of that exquisite source of pure gratification, the sense of what is grand and lovely in exterior objects, are yet ungifted with the refined power of analyzing or describing what they see and feel. It is therefore not reasonable to expect, from a work which certainly holds out no promise of the sort, what if it should. unexpectedly occur, must stamp the highest additional value on the performance.

Of local history also a great deal more may be made than it is often our lot to find attempted; especially if a work of this description be made the depositary of events, too unimportant, as connected with our national annals, to find a place among them, and yet reflecting such light on the manners and customs of our ancestors, or on the laws and privileges of manors or baronies, of guilds, corporations, or fraternities, as are not only curious' and amusing, but may be very instructive and useful to the present and future ages.

Provided these and such other objects of general interest be kept in view by the county-historian, and made the ground-work and ultimate scope of his labours,no civil wellbred reader would deny that the antiquary may also be indulged in his taste for worm-eaten deeds and broken monuments, or for Roman, Saxon, and Gothic gate ways; nor would any reasonable man object to a few, or a few hundred,

pages devoted to the gratification of the botanist, the mineralogist, or the lover of heraldry.

The difficulty of an undertaking so extensive in its objects, and the improbability of finding any one man qualified either with the patience or the variety of taste and pursuit necessary to its accomplishment, will undoubtedly be objected to this Utopian sketch, and we shall be reminded of our own frequent declamations on the vast increase of the Megabiblical evil. In answer to the latter charge; we can only observe that the number of county histories,' would be incalculably diminished were taste, and genius, or the labours of original discovery and research,deemed material to their execution; nor can any man who looks upon the many ponderous folios devoted to the illustration of one hundred square miles upon the usual plan, hesitate to believe that all the information s really useful or interesting which that portion of territory can possibly afford to the reader, enlarged to the utmost extent of our suggestions, would find much ado to dilate itself to any thing like the same dimensions. The other objection we are willing in part to admit; and in order to obviate it would propose a scheme (which is extremely hazardous in most literary works, but wholly unobjectionable in one of so miscellaneous and complicated a nature,) that no man, however learned, diligent, or in his own opinion well-qualified, should undertake the task without the adoption of regular associates, to whom,according to their several inclinations and pursuits, the several distinct branches of the business may be assigned, subject to the absolute revisal and arrangement of one presiding director. And this appears to us so natural, as well as convenient, a plan, that it is only matter of surprise, that in so few, if any instances, it has ever been proceeded upon. Under the management of such a society of active, and intelligent men, we have no hesitation in avowing our opinion that a county-history,' may be so conducted as to become a valuable repository of miscellaneous information of the most interesting kind, not only to those persons who are immediately connected with the particular region described or with the families settled in it, but to all who feel any concern in the past or present state of their native country.

The district on which Mr. Graves has thought proper to bestow his attention for the purpose of compiling a volume, which we are sorry to pronounce deficient in all points where (according to our opinion,) the mind of the county-historian should be principally engaged,comprises a small part only of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and perhaps in every respect the least interesting division of that extensive province. It