the banks of Winandermere; its trade, he fays, is not very confiderable, but its inhabitants are very induftrious: among other 'trades,

There is a tan-yard of pretty good account, managed lately by Mr. William Holm (now by his fon), who with honesty and industry accumulated a handfome fortune, and his family at prefent is the moft flourishing in Amblefide. What adds greatly to Mr. Holm's merit is, that what he died worth was all gained by himself with a fair and honest character.-I have heard him fay, that after he married, for want of work in his own way, he, for bread, carded wool, and his wife fpun it, till he could raife the price of four calf-fkins; with this ftock, being in all about eight fhillings, he begun his business, and died last year (1786) worth upwards of eight thousand pounds, leaving a widow and two fons. Let me add, that Mr. Holm never gave the leaft room to a fufpicion of avarice; he conftantly increased his family expence in the fame proportion that his fortune increased; and, before his death, kept a fingle horse chaife for the ufe of his family; yet he was an equal enemy to profufion, and perhaps never was known in his life to do either an act of meannefs or prodigality.’

We may here notice what is faid concerning many of the chapelries in thefe parts, which, before the death of queen Anne, were not worth above three pounds yearly; the inhabitants were left to procure, for themfelves, perfons properly qualified, raifing for them voluntary contributions, and furnishing them with clothes and Whittle gate.-Whittle gate, we are told, fignifies two

three weeks victuals at each houfe, according to the ability of the inhabitants, fo as that he should go his course as regularly as the fun, and complete it annually. Few houfes having more than one or two knives, he was often obliged to buy his own knife, or whittle; whence the above word is derived.

On the whole, we think that Mr. Clarke has certainly prefented an acceptable performance to the public: if there are. fome inaccuracies of style, or fome objectionable paffages; if, for inftance, in one place, he appears to speak with an unwarrantable freedom concerning fome part of the ancient Jewish history, or introduces occafionally unneceffary remarks, &c. the reader will more easily pardon him on account of the good fenfe and information which his work in general discovers. At the end of the fifth book, having mentioned what was particularly his intention, viz. an exact collection of what is antique, curious, picturefque, &c. in thefe parts; he adds,

I was in hope my abilities were equal to the task, but I found the labour fo exceffively great, that it was almost too much for one man to perform. Honett plain narrative is all I can boat. I have neither attempted to please my readers by laboured defcriptions of beauties which do not exift; nor have I endeavoured to veil my own ignorance behind a cloud of general epithets, which may apply to the defcription of one place as well as another. If fome things are introduced which may seem ludicrous, I hope my readers will pardon me,

whea

when they reflect that it was not my defign to inftruct only, but to

entertain.'

The plates are large and beautiful, and feem to have been executed with great attention: they are eleven in number, confifting of the roads to the lakes, with the adjacent country; and then the lakes them felves with their environs. We have only to add that the Border History, or a farther view of the ftate and customs of the Marches, or debateable land, employs feveral pages at the end of this volume.

Vol. I.

ART. V. Letters of the late Thomas Rundle, L.L.D. Lord Bishop of Derry, in Ireland, to Mrs. Barbara Sandys, of Miferden, Gloucestershire, with introductory Memoirs. By James Dallaway, M. A. of Trinity College, Oxford. 12m0. 2 Vols. PP. 174. Vol. II. pp. 255. 6s. Boards. Cadell. 1789. ISHOP Rundle was a character not likely to be foon forgotten; though he was not diftinguifhed as an author (a diftinction at which he never aimed), his connections with literary men, as well as with those who were high in the political line, together with his warm and rational attachment to the cause of liberty and free enquiry, have contributed to preferve his memory, with due refpect. He paffed a life of eafe, affluence, and enjoyment, under the aufpices of Dr. Talbot, bishop of Durham; and, afterward, under thofe of the fon of that prelate, who was lord chancellor of England; and with this family, in all its branches, he continued on terms of uninterrupted friendship. They had difcerament and generofity fufficient to efteem and value his learning, truth, and virtue; he equally regarded them, and ever speaks of them with friendship and gratitude.

The editor of the prefent work difcovers fome folicitude (which, we apprehend, Dr. Rundle himfelf would have deemed unneceffary) to free him from the fufpicion of not concurring entirely, in his religious fentiments, with thofe eftablished by English law. It is, however, fufficiently evident, from differ-, ent circumstances, and indeed from the letters now before us, that Dr. Rundle had a mind too liberal, candid, and wellinformed, to be dictated to in matters of faith; or to acknowlege that for truth which he did not find to be fupported by fcripture and reafon. It might be owing to this caufe, among others, that though he obtained fome confiderable preferment in the church, he had not, as he himself expreffes it, the cure of fouls, that is, we fuppofe, was never the immediate minifter of any particular parifh. A fufpicion of what (unreasonably indeed!) is termed heterodoxy or herefy, was effectually employed by Bishop Gibson, to prevent his advancement to an English fer; and all the influence of Lord Chancellor Talbot proved infufficient to remove the objection. This oppofition gave rife to two ab'e Kk 3

and

and useful performances in defence of Chriftian liberty, by a gentleman of the Temple, who proved to be Dr. A. A. Sykes: from these pieces, well received at the time (about the years 1734 and 1735) but now extremely fearce, fome valuable extracts are made in the prefent work. Yet in our view, which may poffibly be mistaken, there is a little inconfiftency in approving these reafonings, and at the fame time confidering orthodoxy, in the popular and general sense of the word, as an important and effential qualification, which this writer feems to fuppofe, and intimates that Dr. Rundle did not want it; which he certainly did not, if by orthodoxy is merely intended a belief of Christianity or of the fcriptures. The Doctor, however, gained that preferment in Ireland which he loft in England; and (pent the remainder of his days in ease and affluence, in fludy and beneficence.

Swift commemorated this advancement by fome fmart poetical lines, which will long preserve the event from oblivion. The Dean appears to think that a man may be a good Chriftian, and poffefs real and fterling worth, though he might not reach the ftandard of legal or eftablifhed orthodoxy; and, accordingly, he lashes, with a juft severity, some of those who filled the Irish

bench at that time.

The Bishop died in the year 1743, having hardly attained the fixtieth year of his age. A letter which he wrote a fhort time before, manifefts the firmness and fatisfaction with which he awaited his diffolution.

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Having faid thus much concerning Bishop Rundle, it is requifite that we should add a few lines relative to Mrs. Sandys, to whom the letters are addreffed. She was the daughter of Sir William Kyrle, governor of Carolina: the family fettled in Herefordshire during the reign of Henry the feventh: they claimed, we are told, John Kyrle Efq; the far-famed Man of Rofs.' The Lady was entrufted, during her minority, to the guardianship of Dr. Simon Patrick, bishop of Ely; and was afterward married to William Sandys Efq; of Miferden, Glocefter fhire, who dying in 1712, left her an ample jointure, and the manerial refidence for life. In this fcene, fhe is faid to have diffuted bleffings among her immediate connections, and to have maintained an intercourse with many of the most eminent characters in fociety. Her letters, it is added, abound with unequivocal proofs of an elegant and cultivated mind. She died in 1746. It was fuppofed that her valuable life was fhortened by her paying too fincere a compliment to the opinion of the ingenious bishop Berkely, to which, on the perufal of his Siris, the became fo enthufiaftic a convert, as to perfift in a course of tar-water, in direct oppofition to the advice of her phyficians.'

Dr.

Dr. Rundle's acquaintance with this lady feems to have ori ginated from the Talbot family. The editor obferves concerning the letters, that they are not offered to the public, as models of epiftolary excellence, as abounding in novel fentiments, or as being unufually happy in the expreffion of them, but-as reflecting the beft founded praife on the writer, who, having the fuperiority of intellectual acquirements, poffeffed unquestionably the moft amiable qualities of the human heart.

Thefe letters, which conftitute the fecond volume, bear the marks of originality: the inaccuracies are not many or confiderable, unless we might refer to page 103, where, to fay the leaft, the fenfe is obfcure and confufed, owing perhaps to fome negligence in tranfcribing; of which there appear to be other inftances, particularly in refpect of the pointing, as page 105, 1. 10. These are exceptions of a smaller kind; the volume is certainly fenfible and entertaining, inftructive and useful. A variety of fubjects are brought under review, in a natural and easy way, interfperfed with the obfervations of a man of tafte, learning, and virtue.-In the year 1730, Thomfon's Seafons made their appearance: Bishop Rundle takes a particular notice of them in fome of his letters: in one, he writes as follows:

'I have prefumed to fend you a prefent of Mr. Thomfon's Seafons; a volume on which reafon beftows as many beauties as imagination. It is a fubject, that our firft parents would have fung in Paradife, had they never been feduced by the ferene flattery of falfe knowledge to forfake humility and innocence.-When poetry was degraded from being the priestess of nature, fhe foon was reduced to lend her office to meaner purposes, and became the fervant of every paffion in the temper; vanity and love foon retained her in their fervice, and flattery and lafcivioufnefs were foon made too agreeable by her affiftance. How worthy therefore is the defign of chiding her meanness, to recall her to her firft high office of adorning piety, and raifing an ambition after virtue. This is the intention of Mr. Thomson's work. I am willing to be blind to every imperfection, where fo worthy a with guided the pen. But what are the imperfections? a rough or hard word, now and then indulged, to lift his verfe above profe, and make the paltry gingle of rhime unneceffary; the repetition of the fame phrafe, every where highly proper perhaps, but the warmth of writing concealed from him the remembrance, that the reader is, though the writer is not, cool enough to demand variety; a hint not worked up to the height, which our inexperienced imagination thinks it might be carried: but if we had ourselves tried, we thould wonder at the dignity to which words

It is fomewhat extraordinary to fee, in a work, confifting of two volumes, the firft (as in the prefent cafe) wholly devoted to the Preface; but it is a biographical Preface; and forms no improper divifion of the work. It is a small volume, but we think it a very entertaining one.

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have

have raised it. Thefe and fuch mighty imperfections offend thofe, who are untouched enough to be fo minutely judicious. But the fentiments of liberty, of virtue, of generous manly piety hurry away my approbation, and I have not leifure enough to be fagacious.The most amusing paintings of poetry, that fwiftly transport me from scene to fcene of nature, ever charming, ever wonderful, fo fill my heart with rapture, that I forget the poet and myself, and am only attentive on Him and his works, whofe goodness ordained the prefent only useful proportion of these changes, which are in all their majesty of wisdom placed before my reafon to demand its gratitude. Out of the abundance of the heart, the pen as well as the tongue fpeaketh, and my love of poetry hath made me forget to what an indecent length of praife I have fuffered it to ramble, and take up that paper, which fhould be allowed to more epiftolary fubjects.'

It would be eafy to felect paffages that might prove acceptable to our readers: the Bishop's account of different events; his feeling and fenfible lamentations on the death of his friends, efpecially thofe of the Talbot family, whom he celebrates with ardor; and his reflections of different kinds, are fuch as will intereft all who peruse them: but we must only infert the fhort character which is given of the Lord Chancellor's fon, Charles Richard, who died a fhort time after the letter was written, at the age of 24.

-' He is now at Paris, and behaves as one would wish he should behave. His rough English love for liberty difdains the embroidered flavery, that glitters in that trifling court. He hates chains though made of gold; and contemns a nation, who can be mean enough to be contented and in love with wretchedness, because it hath a painted face. With a fort of virtuous furlinefs, his good fenfe is fo much offended at their flattery of thofe that opprefs them, in that chain of mutual flaves and tyrants, which defcends from the highest to the lowest among them, that one almoft fears he should, instead of learning complaitance in that polite fchool of diffimulation, run counter to the manners he hates; and be in danger of grow. ing in love with that plain dealing which is now no-where fathior. able, if his good fenfe and good nature did not fecure him from it; the first teaches all, that civility and obligingnefs is a virtue as much due, as more important branches of juftice; the other, that benevolence in the heart will accommodate itfelf to all, and throw light and amiableness over the behaviour, and he who knows this, is wellbred by nature, though he makes a bow awkwardly and never learnt to cut a caper.'

In the appendix, are two letters; the fecond of which is from Mifs Talbot to a new-born child, daughter of Mr. 1. T. fon of the Chancellor; this pretty epiftle has been published before. The firft, is from William, afterward Earl Talbot, to Sir John Dutton it relates to fome election matters, but difcovers an integrity of heart and a love of liberty which must be pleafing to the reader. I wish (fays he) the nominal diftinétion of Whig and Tory was abolished, as the words only, not the fenfe

remain;