both polled and horned; the polled are the largest fize. There is a curious breed of black sheep at Mount Edgcumbe, The farmers are frequently not fufficiently attentive to the pasture. The forest and red deer are found in great plenty among the woods and high grounds; as goats are in the higher part of the mountains. At one time, Devonshire appears to have been over-run by wild beafts; but these have been, gradually, either tamed or extirpated,→ "In proportion," fays Polwhele, concluding his account of animals, 66 as man extends his demefnes, the beafts of the field retire within a narrower circle; the fierce, or timorous animal, becomes the object of the chace; and the generous beaft is fubdued and domesti. cated; and, where agriculture prevails, every effort is made to destroy the more obnoxious. That the ancient Britons paftured vaft herds of cattle, is a fact confirmed by the atteftations of Cæfar, Mela, and Strabo; and, as they attended very little to tillage, and the greater part of their time was devoted to hunting, they, probably, made continual additions to their stock, by bringing into fubjection the horned beafts that inhabited the wilderness. At this moment, the horfes of Exmoor and Dartmoor are almoft in a state of nature, fcarcely owning the protection of man, and flying his approach like the wildeft animals. Thefe, furely, were the original natives of Devonshire; and our cattle, in the northern parts of this county, might have been derived, in the fame manner, from the kine of the forest. In the time of the Romans, and during a great part, perhaps, of the Saxon Heptarchy, when agriculture was ftill in its infancy, the wild boar, and the bear, were not unknown to the weftem Britons. That the wolf and the wild cat, checked, probably, in their rapacity by our earlier fathers, had again become fo deftructive, as greatly to annoy the inhabitants of Devonshire, is a fact which hath already appeared; and they were extirpated by authority of the Legiflature: this was a recent event. Thus, while fome animals are hunted for the purpofe of fuftenance and pleasure, others are trained with a view to their fervices, or pursued in order to their deftruction, according to the different ftages of human fociety-in proportion to the prevalence of the favage, the femi-barbarous, or the agricultural life." Having accompanied the learned author through the Natural History of Devonshire, we fhall next attend him through his hiftory of Man, in that county, from the first fettlements in Britain to the prefent time; but this we defer to our next number. (To be continued.) ART. ART. III. Saint Guerdun's Well: a Poem. By Thomas White, Mafter of the Mathematical School of Dumfries. HE Analytical Review has twice noticed this poem; and its conductors, having an opportunity of fhewing the mutability of their judgement, have preferved their usual confiftency of opinion. In January, 1796, it was reprefented as "A pathetic tale, told in verfe, of no ordinary merit. The writer, though he modeftly chooses to remain concealed, and publishes his production in an unoftentatious form, is entitled to a confiderable portion of that approbation, which is the poet's best reward. He poffeffes a glowing fancy and a feeling heart, and is not deficient in the appropriate language of poetry. The ancient days of fuper ftitious credulity are poetically defcribed in the following introductory lines: • What time dank caverns, and the basky fhale, In July, 1798, the very fame lines are felected as a fpecimen of an affected phrafeology, which difpleases us," and dank and bafky are printed in italics. But it appears that, in this fecond edition, the author has attacked jacobinical wickednefs, and fupported the cause of religion, whenever his fubject prefented an opportunity of introducing allufions to fuch topics. Such a line as, "I ever lived in awe of the Supreme," will, conftantly, fubject a writer to the cenfure of the Analytical Review; and, as Mr. White concludes the fecond edition of his poem, by references to holy writ, we can easily account for the revolutionary judgement of fuch critics. As a fair fpecimen of this poem, we fhall exhibit the conclusion : "Long be the wild remembered, where the grave "The pyramids." Seeming Seeming defigned the everlafting hills Fat by Beth-peor; and his laws, from Heaven But, where the law is not, what guide has man, By thefe was Guerdun ruled: her precepts, pure, To pious refignation and to peace." Pp. 39, 40. In the first edition, a confiderable portion of the poem was written in dialogue; the author has now, judiciously, adapted the narrative form throughout the whole. Mr. White has introduced an ode of Guerdun, fierce Bardold's divine daughter, where the fings" in trains, like one of the celeftial quire." Milton's Paradife Loft was, probably, brought to the mind of the reader by the preceding extract, and he will here recollect fome refemblance to parts of the Allegro and Penferofo : "Now the orb of day defcends, While o'erhanging drops of dew, Fairy elves fhall dance the green "Here I reft beneath my bower, Here, at evening tide, ftill hie; Spent in due obeying thee." Pp. 25-27. The fable of this poem is beautiful, and difplays a glowing imagination; the whole is replete with pathetic paffages, and will be read with great pleasure. Occafionally, however, the file is involved, and the phrafeology exceptionable, as"Sounds preternal from the tomb." "Nor, till a fatal dart, To dread Wolferdens' breast transfixed his fhield, The word "Smouldering," though ufed by Dryden, is little known, and potence, enfanguined, detonation, fublimated, arburous, are not in general ufe. ART. ART. IV. A Short Addrefs to the Public, on the Monopoly of fmall Farms, a great Cause of the prefent Scarcity and Dear nefs of Provifions, with the Plan of an Inflitution to remedy the Evil, and for the Purpose of increasing fmall Farms throughout the Kingdom. By Thomas Wright, of Mark Lane. 8vo. Price 6d. Richardfon. London. 1795. ART. V. Large Farms recommended in a National View; a Reply to Mr. Wright's Addrefs to the Public on the Monopoly of fmall Farms. 8vo. Price is. Price is. Scatchard. London. HE firft of thefe pamphlets has been strongly recommended by the Critical Reviewers, who approve the writer's "Plan of increafing the Number of fmall Farms by a Subfcription Fund," with "fuccefs to fuch a philanthropic experiment," and obferve, that "the monopoly of farms has been long and justly a theme of complaint among those who confider the encouragement of agricultural induftry, and the cheapness of the neceflaries of life, as objects of importance to the community." (VOL. XVI. P. 353.) We might expect a Mark-Lane cornfactor to talk about monopolies, but a critic fhould know the meaning and derivation of the words povos folus, and Tohew vendo, fo that if words convey an idea, the term monopoly must import either that there is only one perfon that can let farms, in their appli cation of the term, or one perfon that can rent them, or in its moft extended fenfe, one affociated body that have united together to engross the agriculture of the kingdom. The writer and reviewer, however, may mean fome farmer or farmers in different districts, that are continually encreating the extent of their land, and, certainly, if a man be induftrious and fuccefsful, there ought to be no restriction or limitation to his exertions, or the employment of his capital, in a free, commercial, opulent, and agricultural nation. The man that produces moft grain and neceflaries of life from an acre, is the beft cultivator of an eftate for the proprietor, and for the community in general; and the reply of the merchant to Colbert, relative to commerce, laiffez nous faire, may be adopted by English farmers to our legiflature, for the Mark-Lane Wright withes the interference of our legislature to "increafe small farms," and the Critical Reviewers "think that fome regula tion, in the way of excife, would be peculiarly efficacious" for fuch purpofe. (VOL. X. P. 343.) If he could increase small farms, that is, make them larger, it would be a great defideratum, but to divide a compact eftate into fmall pittances, is to diminish the produce of the whole. Το |