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POETICAL.

Art. 23. The Mufes and Graces on a Vifit to Grofvenor Square.
Being a Collection of original Songs fung by the Mafkers, at Mrs.
Crewe's elegant Ball, March 21, 1775. 4to. 1 s.

Bew.

The Graces might undoubtedly be welcome as well as reputable vifitants in Grosvenor Square; but the Mufes would, we fear, be almost as much out of their element in that air, as in the region of Grubstreet. They feem at least not to have joined in prefiding at this ball, where the Graces, it cannot be difputed, were prefent.

This poetical nofegay confifts of four ballads, and one copy of verfes, after the manner of Prior; to which is added, a little French bouquet, which is, in our opinion, more elegantly put together than any of the other flowers in this collection. We will venture at least to fubmit it to our Readers as no mean fpecimen or echantillon of the whole compofition:

Verfes prefented at Mrs. Crewe's Ball, to the Hon. Mrs. Bouverie, juft arrived in Town.

Les plaifirs s'empreffent à paroitre
Au moment que vous paroiffez;
Et je les vois chez moi renaitre,
Dès le jour que vous arrivez.
Chere amie, recevez la fête

Que mon cœur vous a préparé
En fortant de votre retraite ;
C'est l'hommage de l'amitié,
De cette menotte enfantine
Prenez fans crainte ce bouquet ;
Vous pourriez doutet à fa mine
De quelque niche qu'on vous fait.
Mais à genoux il vous fupplie,
Quoique d'amour il ait les traits,
De recevoir, charmante amie

Cet hommage de l'amitié.

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Art. 24. The Silver Tail; a Tale, in two Heroic Epiftles, from
Mr. Sz of the Exchequer to Signora A**j**i; with Signora
A**j**i's Answer to Mr. SZ. 4to. 1 s. each. Bladon.
1775.

A ftroke of pleafantry (generally afcribed to the British Aristophanes) fome time ago entertained the coffeehouses. The joke was founded on the story of a misfortune which is faid to have befallen Signora Agujari, the celebrated opera finger, in her infancy; and fome himing wag has feized the occafion for exercifing his wit, and treating the town with a couple of Mock-Ovids, chiefly at the expence of the gentleman alluded to in the title-page.-The anecdote which produced the joke was this,-that Signora Agujari having been the offfpring of an illicit amour, was, foon after her birth, deferted by her parents, and expofed in the wood of near Rome; where one of the wild fwine, a vile Italian brute, fell upon the poor in

*Whence her nick name, Baftardini.

fant,

fant, and devoured a confiderable portion of its pofteriors. The child's cries, however, brought timely affiftance; its life was faved; a benevolent perfon took care of it; and a filver plate is faid to have fupplied the deficiency of the part which had fuffered from the depredations of the voracious animal, The joke was, that on her coming to England, the harmonious ftranger was informed, that her filver tail was liable to taxation; and that the humorously replied, (as an Italian) that the revenue-officer might "enter it whenever he pleased."

Art. 25. The Feathers, a Tale; or Venus furpaffed by a Beauty in Grosvenor Square. Infcribed to a certain fair-plumed Dutchess. 4to. 1 s.

Bladon.

Celebrates the fashionable female plumage, in tolerable verse, and with no mean fancy; but the poem is too incorrect for greater praise, in a work of criticism.

Art. 26. The Advertiser; a Poem. 4to. I S. Bew. From the title we expected a humorous exhibition of the various fpecies of advertisements-but here is nothing of that kind. The Author feems to be one of those poor fcreech-owls we have fometimes feen hovering about the grave of Churchill. He now fcreams that the deceased Bard would be angry to fee Wilkes ftrutting LordMayor-forgetting, it should feem, that there are fuch things as city

feafts.

Art. 27. A poetical Addrefs to the Ladies of Bath. 4to. I S. Bath printed. Sold by Evans in the Strand.

"And we'll all be merry at Bath," fays the old fong; and fo, for once, may we dull rogues of critics. We have got our blind minstrel before us, and away we go-Come, old Boy! strike up. "Obferve the fexes, fee the general ftrife,

The youth of either rufhing into life!"

Bravo! the Lying-in Hofpital! go on :

"Mark Iphigenia, fo young, fo fair,
A form half-naked, with a mind as bare.”

Two half-fuits-proceed:

"Would the exert the utmost of her skill, To fhew the company fhe can't fit ftill ?” Perpetual motion in the pofteriors-Well: "A female wit is, at the very best, A filken vehicle for flimfy jeft."

A witty woman is a filken jeft bag. O rare minstrel !

"Some years ago the Belle of Belles came down, And drove like lightning thro' and thro' the town." There's a Crowdero! See what a little fresh rofin will do! "As every mirror that, expos'd to fight, Strengthens the rays of its reflected light."

A Philofopher, too! A mirror expos'd to fight frengthens its rays! O rare Crowdero!

"Who with opinion decks another's fleeve."

ม.

A Taylor too! yea, verily, and a Taylor; and a right notable im. provement this on the theological expreffion of pinning your faith on another man's fleeve.

REV, May, 1775.

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"What, Myra, could thy father and the devil mean
To yoke together fixty and fixteen ?"

Come; a pot of beer, and a little more rofin!

Sir Andrew's lady was a precious gift:

Mov'd with her fighs, he took her in her shift."

Phaw! try again.

"Till death, examples of a useful life,

That all may blefs the poet and his wife."

Art. 28. Poetical Amufements at a Villa near Bath. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Hawes.

These are some gentle folks that fing

About Bath-Easton and the
And furnish'd all with ends of
To fill up in a fortnight's
Verfes divine, like thefe, they
In Mrs. Miller's laurell'd

So, give your cook, to make a
But falt and flour, after long
How to make up the scanty
He brings it you made up with

fpring.

rhyme

time,

place

vafe.

pudding,
study'ng

matter,

water.

Art. 29. The Sentence of Momus on the Poetical Amusements at a Villa near Bath. 4to. I s. Bew.

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Illiberal, and therefore contemptible. What had personal and family characters to do with these harmless amusements? The poetical contributions might have been fair game for the pleasantry of Momus, and for his wit, could he have spared any on the occafion, which, however, appears to have been quite out of the question. But what had the fathers and grandfathers, the coufins, brothers, and fifters of the innocent contributors to do with the bafinefs, that they must come under his cenfare? Begging his godfhip's pardon, he muft either have been very impertinent, or very hungry. L. Art. 30. Charity; or, Momus's Reward; a Poem. 4to. 1 S. Evans.

Foolish ftrictures on the fentence of Momus! Are thefe Grubs the natural growth of Bath? Or are they our own dear Grubs, who, having had a good political winter, are gone down, for the sake of returning, to

"boaft that they have been at Bath?"
MISCELLA NEOUS.

Art. 31. The Hiftory of the Town and Port of Feverfham, in Kent. By Edward Jacob, Efq; F. S. A. Illuftrated with Copper-plates. 5 s. Boards. White, &c.

8vo.

Though hiftories and defcriptions of this local nature, generally defcend to particulars too minute for public attention, or for a large circulation; yet where gentlemen properly qualified are willing to undertake fuch neighbourly tasks, and to rifk the neceffary expences without probable views of reimbursement, they are at least intitled to the tribute of " empty praife." Records are thus preserved from the accidents and decays of time, and magazines of materials are furnished for more extenfive purposes.

Mr.

L.

:

Mr. Jacob has collected as many hiftorical anecdotes as an ancient town of no great confideration could furnish, and has exhibited as many defcriptive circumftances as it can be fuppofed to afford. He defcribes the oyfter fishery, and gives thofe who occupy it fuch hints as fhew that he understands their true intereft better than (from his representation) they do themselves. We have an account of the gunpowder manufactory, with the fate of the cultivation of madder, about the town: and the appendix, befide lifts and extracts from the records of the corporation, contains a relation of the murder of Mr. Ardern of Feversham; with an account of the unexpected feizure of the royal fugitive, James II. on his first attempt of efcaping to France. N. Art. 32. The History and Antiquities of Winchester, setting forth its original Conftitution, Government, Manufactories, Trade, Commerce, and Navigation; its feveral Wards, Parishes, Precincts, Diftricts, Churches, religious and charitable Foundations, and other Public Edifices. Together with the Charters, Laws, Caftoms, Rights, Liberties, and Privileges of that ancient City. IIJuftrated with a Variety of Plates. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6 s. Boards. Winton printed, and fold by Crowder, &c. in London.

Though this work is profeffed to be calculated for the amufement of thofe who may vift Winchester, in their fummer excurfions, yet of all the compilations of this kind that we have seen, we recollect no one fo dry, bald, and barren, as that now before us. A free and eafy defcription of the city and fuburbs might have been at least expected; its manufactures, trade, and navigation, are promifed in the title; yet thefe particulars will be fought in vain in the book: nor among the plates are we even furnished with a plan of Winchefter! In fhort, the nameless Writer is a mere monk; he is no where fo much at home as in a church; and when he enters one, he never quits it until he has copied and tranflated, every, the most infipid monumental infcription it contains. Thefe, with a careful and minute history of two or three charitable foundations, fill the greater part of both volumes; when, if the Compiler had poffeffed only the common powers of difcrimination, the city of Winchester, without neglecting the religious edifices, might have furnished more information and amufement for a liberal mind, in one volume; than can be found in the tiresome details here extended to two. Art. 33. A Letter to the Author of an Observation † on the Defign of establishing annual Examinations at Cambridge. 8vo. I S. Crowder.

The utility of the public examinations ftood uninvalidated by any thing the Obferver was able to allege against them. The prefent Writer has, therefore, all the advantage against him that a good caufe can poffibly give; and all that we have to do in this cafe is to announce the earnest expectation of the Public that this regulation will take place; a regulation in every respect aufpicious, not only to the intereft and profperity, of the university of Cambridge in par ticular, but to learning in general.

On which Lillo founded his tragedy, intitled, Arden of Feversham fee Rev. for January last, p. 56.

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+ See Review for Decemberlaft, p. 486.

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Art. 34. An Addrefs to the Members of the Senate. Cambridge printed.

This Addrefs of Mr. Jebb contains feveral propofitions evincing the neceffity of a reform in the difcipline of the univerfity of Cambridge, both in respect of morals and learning: a neceflity which we know, from experience, to exift, and which, we truft, the wifdom of the fenate will at length take into confideration. The voice of the Public demands it. The disappointed parent has reafon to lament the delay of it, and the ignorant fon ftands a heavy proof of the miferable effects of that delay. Thefe complaints are general: and a young man's returning from Cambridge more ignorant and more vicious than he went, is, we are afraid, no uncommon occurrence.

Art. 35. The Female Forgery; or, the fatal Effects of unlawful Love. Being a minute and circumftantial Account of the late extraordinary Forgery by the Meff. Perreaus, &c. To which is added a pathetic Elegy, &c. 8vo. I s. 6 d. Bew. A fungus, grown out of the news-papers.

Art. 36. Genuine Memoirs of Me. Perreaus, with many cu rious Anecdotes relative to Mrs. Rudd, &c. By a Gentleman, very intimate with the unfortunate Families. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Allen. Another fungus, of a fimilar growth.

Art. 37. Genuine Memoirs of the Meff. Perreau.

Kearfly.

12mo. 3s.

We are not fufficiently acquainted with the family-history and pri vate lives of the two unfortunate Perreaus, and their extraordinary affociate Mrs. Rudd, to pronounce decifively on the authenticity of the facts contained in this detail, previous to the time of the criminal tranfaction to which they owe their prefent unhappy importance in the eye of the Public; but we find it is generally confidered as the most fatisfactory account that hath, as yet, appeared. With refpect to the manner in which the Writer hath communicated thefe Memoirs to the world, we have more to fay. The ftyle is eafy, the language good, and the reflections interfperfed throughout the narrative are juft and pertinent; and give the whole a moral turn, as well as an entertaining form.

Art. 38. A peep into the Principal Seats and Gardens in and about Twickenham, (the Refidence of the Mufes,) with a fuitable Companion for those who wish to vifit Windfor and Hampton Court. To which is added, A Hiftory of a little Kingdom on the Banks of the Thames, and its prefent Sovereign, his Laws, Government, &c. By a Lady of DISTINCTION in the Republic of Letters. 8vo. I s. 6d. Bew. 1775.

A Peep into the Garden, &c. that is modeft enough, and very fuitable to the pretty flight sketch here given, of the principal feats of the nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood of the abovementioned refidence of the Mufes.' But when the LADY grows ftately, and begins to dazzle us with her rank and DIGNITY in the Republic of Letters,' her awe ftruck Reviewers have nothing to fay, but, with all due reverence and diftance, beg leave to fubfcribe themselves her Ladyship's thrice humble and most obedient fervants.

Art.

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