10 Hypothesis respecting the Author of the Iliad. HAVING recently had occasion to refer to the article Homer in Dr. Adam Clarke's Bibliographical Dictionary, I was surprised to find the learned author attribute to Dr. Bentley a Dissertation to prove that the Iliad was written by Solomon, King of Israel. I shall be obliged to any of your correspondents who will inform me where the work (if it exists) is to be found. I have reason to believe that no such manuscript is in the British Museum, where Dr. Clarke says he had been told it was, and I bave often heard that an Essay on the same subject was written by Joshua Barnes, in order to flatter the religious whim of his wife, that she might be induced to advance some of her property to enable him to complete the publication of his Homer. Dr. Clarke offers some conjectures on the hypothesis, which I presume he would not have done, had he not thought himself supported by Dr. Bentley's authority. J. S. Nelson-street, 3d June, 1815. MR. EDITOR, WHEN I was lately enjoying an excursion in the country, an accident at an inn where I happened to stop for a night, put me in possession of the fragment I herewith transmit to you. Whe ther or not it be a portion of some work about to make its public appearance, I know not; but, both on account of a certain degree of eccentricity which pervades it, and of the illustration it gives of the bad consequences which may arise from inhumanity to dumb animals, it may not be unacceptable to your readers. However just the unknown author's satirical reflexions on other subjects may be, I fancy that all liberal people on this side of the Tweed will agree that those upon the good town of Leith are greatly overcharged. I am, &c. London, June 15. SCOTO-BRITANNUS. "Two English gentlemen, particular friends, one an eminent artist in landscape, and otherwise accomplished, the other equally distinguished in the walks of literature, both of them great travellers, had proceeded in one of those admirable coasters, the Berwick smacks, as far as Leith, in their way to the Highlands of Scotland; with the view of making a devious tour through those interesting mountains, and communicating the result of their observa [Aug. 1, tions, should they appear of sufficient importance, to the public. They had been induced to undertake this excursion, and its proposed narrative, in consequence of being dissatisfied with the productions of almost all other tourists who had visited those parts, from that of surly Johnson down to the birth of the last extraordinary performance of the kind,-which lately issued from a pen in the Poultry,* and which may be considered as the cream and quintessence of the whole,and, after a candid perusal of them all, they considered themselves as fully warranted in dooming them in the aggregate, if not (like Don Quixote's library) to the flames, at any rate to the snuff-shop, kitchen, or temple of Cloacina; with the single exception of Johnson's Tour, which, but for the beautifully-expressed sentiment contained in it when he speaks of the island of Iona,* they would have condemned to the same fate. They alleged that the descriptions of the scenery, by which these epheme ral productions are characterized, are generally conveyed in such language as, by exciting a disgust at the mode of description, (which is insensibly transferred to the thing or scene described,) instead of encouraging in the reader the desire of contemplating the scene on the spot, actually tended to deter him from entertaining the bare thought of it; in which mind, if any thing were wanting to it, he was unalterably confirmed by the coloured views accompanying them: these being, in their opinion, far from the easy unaffected draughts, if not the finished pictures, of a master; on the contrary, so many hideous attempts after Nature, which would hardly have been exhibited in the windows of the celebrated Carrington, Bowles, and Co., who it is well known are not over-fastidious in the admission of such specimens of excellence into their collection. They likened the descriptive part of these abortions to the epistolary correspondence of schoolboys with their playfellows, or too fond mothers; in which they make an awkward, but pardonable, attempt at giving an account (sometimes an humourous one, forsooth!) of their rural excursions, sights, and amusements, during the holidays: and they compared the copper-plate views, so gaudily coloured, with which they are embellished, to the rude essays of boarding-school See Mawman's Tour. + See Tour through the Western Highlands. 1815.] Account of a Projected Tour in Scotland. misses, who have been a few months under the tuition of a drawing-master. They scouted the idea as altogether absurd, of gentlemen painters on these occasions aspiring to celebrity, however temporary and local, by imitating the style of meritorious professional men, such as Jukes, Gilpin, and others; as if the labours of those justly esteemed artists, because every thing appears so easy and natural in their effect, only required their imitation to insure success; never once reflecting that, to lay no stress whatever upon the requisite genius, men who devote themselves for a livelihood from morning till night to the exercise of their profession, must infinitely outstrip those who, from no such necessity being imposed upon them, only apply to it on the spur of the moment, and who must consequently follow haud passibus aquis. They were of opinion, that mediocrity, which all agree to be intolerable in poetry, is equally insufferable in her sister arts, music and painting; and they contended that Lord Chester field, when he denounced the practising on the violin by men of rank and fashion, as not becoming their sphere of life, and proposed restricting its use among its proper professors, with as much reason, though on a different principle, might have extended his prohibition to the use of the pencil; since it is only by the judicious division and assignment of labour, both intellectual and manual, that men can hope for the greatest perfection in all matters, either of science or art. But, miserably executed, both in point of literature and painting, as these Caledonian Tours have been, and deplorably short of imparting any thing like an adequate idea of the real scenery of the country, still they convey a glimmering kind of light, from the faint rays of which these gentlemen strongly suspected that the mountains of Scotland, bleak and barren' as they are, had not been exhibited in the most favourable colours, and that their visiting them personally, and surveying them carefully, in all probability would amply reward their toil. Fraught with these sentiments, they were about entering on their projected journey, from which they promised themselves much pleasure, and their friends and the public equal amusement and information. And well might they have done so; for the painter was a man of soul, who viewed the works of creation with a 'poetic eye.' He was acutely alive to the impressions of the sublime 11. and beautiful, and equally happy in the expression conveyed by his pencil-one, in short, who did not frivolously waste his attention on its minute and subordinate parts, but whose bold and comprehensive mind at once grasped the entire scene before him: while the other, to the indispensable ground-work of a sound classical education, superadded all the cultivation of which a happy natural genius is susceptible. History and antiquities, particularly as relating to Scotland-the different branches of natural history, especially zoology, mineralogy, and botany-as well as the application of mathematics to practice, so requisite to the philosophic traveller-were quite familiar to him. He had associated extensively among all ranks of mankind, and had been peculiarly observant of their manners, which he could pourtray with equal fidelity and liveliness, never indulging a vein of delicate satire, with which he was strongly tinctured by nature, beyond the bounds of discretion. Much was expected from the joint labours of such men; and no doubt much would have been effected by them. They certainly would not have skimmed the surface, nor would the world have been disgusted to downright nausea with their accounts of how much whiskey and oat-cakes they had called for at this hovel of an inn, or how they had lain at that; how hospitably they had been entertained by one laird, and how inhospitably another had suffered them to pass his house without inviting them into it; or such like puerilities. No! they had set out with much more enlarged views, and their attention would have been directed to objects more dignified and better calculated to afford useful instruction. But the best laid plans of men are too often marred by the unforeseen occurrence of circumstances apparently the most trivial! "It was their evil destiny to land at Leith, upon a dismal rainy day, when the quay and streets (which never are, if they ever were, commonly inoffensive in point of cleanliness) happened to be dirty beyond measure. Various stenches, highly obnoxious to their yet uninured organs of smell, assailed their nostrils, principally exhaled from the overflowing gutters, which, in point of colour, if not of contents, might well have been compared to the golden streams of the Pactolus. The heavy, gothic, irregular stone houses, generally half dilapidated by time, with their small windows, having many of them 12 Account of a Projected Tour in Scotland. the spaces for the panes of glass stuffed with dirty blankets, or filthy clouts, reminded them of so many abodes of despair, or prisons for malefactors, such as those with which most parts of Sicily, Italy, and Spain, abound. The unfavourable impressions which these things gave them at the outset, were by no means qualified by what they beheld on reaching the stage-coach office, whither they had found their way, designing to proceed in the coach to Edinburgh. Here they discovered a singularly uncouth vehicle, little more capacious than a common-sized dog-kennel, constructed principally of wood, which, however, it would appear, had been originally covered with leather, from some remaining ragged portions of that substance, still retained by the tenacity of the old nails, in contact with its otherwise bare roof and sides, and flapping in the wind. The leather belts, by which coaches are connected with the springs that support them, obeying the law by which all things yield to the destructive influence of time, had successively given way, and their places were now supplied with ropes. Much accustomed as our travellers had been to the rude and inconvenient conveyances on the Continent, they considered the Leith stages (which beggar all description) as making even those, by comparison, appear like so many coaches of state: they, therefore, did not consider it as advisable to squeeze their persons along with four other human beings into such a frail accommodation, but continued their way on foot. As they passed along, in no very enviable state of mind, reflecting in silence on these unpromising auspices, they were suddenly and painfully roused from their reverie by a horrible and scarcely articulate yell, close to their ear, of Fine mealy pitawties, a shullen a peck, an' awa they go! and, on turning round, beheld, as they verily believed, one of the Errinnyes squatted on the corner of a cart, equipped with the hat and coat of a man, and the pet ticoats and apron of a woman, with a wide yawning mouth, that seemed to threaten to engulf the beholder, announcing the sale of new potatoes! Had they suddenly come in contact with the torpedo, or gymnotus electricus, their feelings could not have sustained a more disagreeable shock; nor were these at all disposed to regain their wonted tranquillity, on the dying note of this horrifying and death-inducing sound being instantly and, as it were, continuously [Aug. 1, taken up by another hag, emulously antagonizing the first, and with an intonation of voice equally discordant and diabolical, proclaiming from her Stentorean lungs the fresh arrival of Quick fish and caller hawddies! On every hand, and in rapid succession, followed the delectable cries of Wha'll o' sa't, Fine findrim speldrins, Wha'll o' reefurds, Ripe grozards, green grozards, twa dips an3 a wallop! But the cope-stone, as it were, or climax, of this chaotic jumble of infernal sounds, and which had well nigh put them beside themselves-was two of the infima plebicula, a man and his wife, whose throats were nearly closed up with cynanche tonsillaris, accompanying the Scotch bag-pipe with voices more croakingly hoarse than that of a boatswain of a man of war, to the plaintive tune of "-Lochaber no more!" to the vast delight of a numerous and grotesque assemblage of tatterdemalions and sansculottes, who stood around shivering in the cold; many of whom, from their emotions being wound up to the highest pitch, melted into tears, while, on the other hand, that admirable performer in vocal music, Signior, who hap pened to be passing at the time, without any plug in his ears, and encased in nankeen pantaloous, from different and unaccountable sensations, is reported to have been instantly affected in the manner described by Shylock, in the Merchant of Venice! Here the travellers blessed themselves, and lamented to each other their having been gifted by nature with ears so exquisitely nice, that ninety nine sounds out of the hundred, against which they could not at all times shut them, proved so grating as to make them almost wish to have been born without them. But if their organs of smell and hearing were thus offended, those of sight experienced no less annoyance and disgust, from which there was no refuge, turn their eyes which way they would. If they looked upwards, they were immediately met by a board projecting from some window indicating a House to Set; as if houses, like razors, admitted of setting! On one hand they remarked a dungeon, into which led a descent of three or four steps, resembling a black hole for criminals, which was dignified with the name of the Sult Office, daubed on a sign over its entrance, where there stood on a chair without a back a wooden measure, containing a sample of the commodity dealt in, which, from long exposing to the passing 1815.] Account of a Projected Tour in Scotland. stoor, had acquired the appearance of a mixture of pepper and salt. In various other quarters they found the term office, with which, from education and habit, we are in England accustomed to associate the idea of dignity and authority, as the Chamberlain's Office, the Admiralty Office, &c., &c., in like manner prostituted on a variety of similar novels for vending the sorriest articles of commerce, compared with which, hucksters' booths in England might be reckoned even modish: as, The Pye Office, The Potatoe Office, The Spunk Officer, and a great variety of other offices of the like kind. Observing in a particular place, painted on a board," A Calendar Here," and having occasion to ascertain the day of the week on which the month had commenced, being the day on which they had taken their departure from the inetropolis, with that view they entered the premises, naturally concluding that "Calendar" in Scotland served the double end of denoting an Almanack and an Almanack House, or warehouse for the disposal of Almanacks; just as they had repeatedly observed in Palermo and other parts of Sicily and Italy, " Caffé," employed to signify both the article Coffee and a Coffee-house; but, to their utter astonishment, they found that, in defiance of all analogy in language, it implied one of those machines used in Eng land for the pressing of linen, which, by a happy but unintentional mistake of John Bull's, are familiarly distinguished by the name of mangles! A group of buxom young wenches, without either stockings or shoes, gossiping at the door, on learning the mistake they had committed, raised a horse-laugh at their expense; at which the strangers, in the frame of mind with which they were then possessed, were not a little nettled, as they were not less disgusted at observing the mud and mire of the streets oozing between the toes of their bare feet, like so much soft dough between the fingers of a baker. But what disgusted them beyond endurance was a circle of ten or twelve well grown boys and girls, squat ting in the public streets, with their heads Stoor is an expressive term in the dialect of the Lowlands of Scotland, which has no equivalent in English, signifying, like the Greek Kovs, dust in motion: whence a low squabble, or what the Romans denominated rixa, by an effort of humour, in which common Scots very little excel, is familiarly cal led a dust without stoop. The Match Office. 13 converging to the center, like so many radii of a wheel, and their inferior and posterior extremities, in a state of nudity, forming the circumference, by a kind of social compact, if not offering up, at any rate laying down, their sacrifices to that goddess at whose shrine none can officiate by proxy, while their mothers stood by, and the passengers moved on, as completely unconcerned as if they had been all members of the Free and Easy Club. "Heavens!" exclaimed the scholar to his friend the painter," can this be the country that gave birth to David Hume, to the inventor of the Logarithms, and to so many other great men--of which it is vaunted that, while barbaric darkness and Gothic ignorance involved the rest of Europe, it alone remained the seat of science, learning, and refinement. Alas! Troja fuit."-" Sic transit gloria mundi," with a significant shrug of his shoulders, replied the painter. Quickening their pace they had got half way up Leith Walk, when observing two inhuman scoundrels, eith carters, with all their might and main belabouring an unfortunate horse, which was already almost in articulo mortis from sheer want, to compel it to drag an over-load, the sight raised in them such horror and indignation, that, as if they had been actuated with one soul, suddenly turning on their heel, they set off at a round gallop back to Leith, where they procured a good dinner, more Anglorum, at Mrs. Bamborough's, and the very same evening returned by a smack, which happened to sail for London. 'I have been at some pains in detailing the above anecdote, thinking that I could not more strongly illustrate the evils that may, and frequently do arise, as this one to the eternal loss of the fine arts, did arise from the wanton infliction of pain on brute animals. But allow me to prosecute the subject farther, and ********* Desunt reliqua. Audi alteram partem. MR. EDITOR, I TRUST your well-known impartiality will allow the following facts to be inserted in your next number, the transmitting of which to you is occasioned simply by a wish to do justice to a worthy and much oppressed indivi'dual. The first idea of exhibiting a combined view of the Chef d'œuvres of the ancient schools of art, as now practised by the British Institution in Pall Mall, and so 14 Berenger and the Artists' Fund. worthily commended by you in your REVIEW OF THE FINE ARTS for last month, originated and was first promulgated by the Baron de Berenger, formerly proprietor of the Sporting Gallery of Pictures in Pall-Mall, as any one may satisfy himself of by referring to his published plan and conditions of that exhibition in 1810; in which he publicly and particularly invites the nobility and gentry to favour the institution (the Artists' Fund), he was then most disinterestedly endeavouring to form, and which endeavour produced his subsequent embarrassments, from the great loss it occasioned him. He even offered to give all the produce (not merely the profits but the produce) of that exhibition as his donation for its support. He invited, as I have before stated, the nobility and gentry to favour this his infant institution, now a prospering child of promise, with the occasional loan of fine paint ings," in which case," says the Baron, "the catalogue will describe them as private property lent condescendingly for that benevolent object, and adding the name of the person so obliging, unless objected to." I have two motives in pointing this out to your numerous readers, one to do justice to a deserving individual (for the recollection of former good deeds should not be effaced by subsequent errors) who is undoubtedly the father of the Artist's Fund for general relief, like the Literary Fund, while the other society, which has certainly great merits for its contracted scale of relief, and which succeeded in crushing his for a time," positively declined extending relief to any widows or orphans but those of its own members." I feel happy, as an artist, in finding from your magazine, that an Artist's General Benevolent Institution has been formed on the wide and extended scale proposed by the Baron de Berenger, and that it is so flourishing and in such good hands. Long may it flourish! June 4, 1815. PHILOJUSTITIA. MR. EDITOR, YOUR reviewer of the Fine Arts, with whom I am seldom disposed to differ in opinion, who would not, even if a little more acid in his criticism, be disagreeable to some palates; has in his article for the present month asserted, that the architectural talent which "this" See Plan for an Artist's Fund and Catalogue of the Sporting Gallery of Pictures; by Charles Random Baron de Berenger, &c. 3810. [Aug. 1, (exhibition) and the last seven years have displayed, proves that the nation requires nothing but public spirit to produce buildings worthy of any age or clime. "C'est peu," says Voltaire in his general history," d'avoir des Vitruves, il faut que les Augustes les employent." By this assertion and quotation I presume your reviewer to mean, that we do not at present feel any want of Vitruviuses and Palladios, but only require the fostering care of discriminating Mecanases to elicit them, I dare say many of your readers remember the important and damning fact on city criticism, which occurred at a meeting of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council-men, assembled to decide on the comparative merits of the designs submitted to them for erecting a mansion-house for the Lord Mayor on the site of Stocks-market: yet as there may be a few who do not, and are not aware how these wise men of the East transact their affairs, I will briefly relate it. Among the designs submitted to them, was an admirable adaptation of one of Palladio's, beautifully and scientifically arranged for this especial purpose by the celebrated Earl of Burlington, and another from the invention of a citizen and ship-carpenter. A wise member of the Court, whether alderman or common council-man I do not remember, shrewdly remarked that as Palladio was a foreigner, (by which word a citizen of London means not only one who is not a denizen of this country, but also one who is not possessed of the freedom of the city) and a Papist!! of course. the Court could not entertain for a moment the idea of adopting his plaus, but that the other " was English, sirs, from top to toe," emanated from the mind of a Protestant! a Londoner!! and a Citizen!!! Whatever may be thought to the contrary, Lord Burlington's admirable and patriotic offer of Palladio's invaluable design was rejected, and the ship-carpenter's was adopted, from which and by him was executed that building (the Mansion-house) which in the opinion of the poet, is "damned to everlasting fame," and which is said by an able architectural critic, to be more like a deeply laden Indiaman with her bulkheads, cabins, and carved stern, than a splendid civic palace. One more instance of civic sagacity, brought to my mind by an association of ideas raised by the Mansion-house and Stocks-market, and I have done. On its site, in the memory of some old men, not long deceased, was |