the mind, taken by surprise, assents for a moment to the belief of the truth of classical mythology.' P. 104.

• The path leaving the Pantheon enters a grotto, through which it passes and ascends the hill behind the temple, conducting us in its way over the turnpike-road, which is very artfully carried under it, but so obscured by wood as not to be visible. Another variety now occurs, an hermitage, or wood-house, formed of old pollard trees, through which we are led to an eminence, when the view becomes more extensive, and, the immediate objects being lost, the valley opens to the right and left. Leaving this, a few paces more bring us to the temple of Apollo, another admirable imitation of classical architecture, being a copy from the temple of the Sun at Balbec. This is a circular building of the Corinthian order, surrounded by a peristyle, the entablature of which assumes a curious though elegant escallop or semi-circular form, supported by twelve pillars. As many niches adorn the face of the outside of the temple, each filled with its deity, cast in lead from antique models. A large cast statue of the Belvidere Apollo occupies the interior, which is lighted from above by a circular hole. The roof of the temple spreads into a dome, and has a double cieling; in the lower is the aperture, and in the coving of the other a splendid gilt representation of the solar rays, which, receiving the real light of this orb by an artful construction, throws into the temple below a most splendid reflexion when the sun is in its strength. From the temple of Apollo we follow a descending path, which penetrates a subterraneous passage, where the public road again crosses the walk at right angles, without being discovered; the latter abasing itself in its turn, and taking a gloomy course under the turnpike road. Emerging again into day, we are soon led to the temple of Flora, of the Doric order, simple and chaste as its tutelary deity. From the portico we take in the wide-spread lakes and all its adjuncts, seen here under new circumstances and different combinations; over the gate of the temple is this prohibition of entrance to the profane, Procul, O procul, este, profani; and within it are, a vase of composition from an antique model, two classical altars, and as many selle and busts. The last object which claims our attention in the gardens is the Gothic cross before mentioned, a most sumptuous piece of architecture, purchased of the corporation of Bristol by Mr. Henry Hoare, and transported by him to Stourhead.' P. III.

This delightful spot has detained us so long, that we must leave Fonthill, a house where expense' HAD (that 'bad,' how sad a passage 'tis !) reached its utmost limits in furniture and ornaments; where every room is [was] a gold mine, and every apartment a picture-gallery.' This splendid seat does not however detain our author long; and he proceeds to Wardour castle, where the paintings are described at somewhat greater length.

ly.

Mr. Warner passes through Wilton in some degree too hastiWe have however followed many tourists in this inter

esting spot: but no one seems to have remarked the singular incongruity between the Palladian bridge and the old mansion: it is a strip of lace on a worn-out coat. He steps with greater celerity through the streets of Salisbury, but enlarges considerably on Stonehenge and Old Sarum.

Of these the latter attracts attention only once in seven years; and as to the former, it is sufficient to say that our author treads in the fallacious steps of Mr. King, upon whose Munimenta Antiqua we have already had occasion to animadvert*. He of course believes this stupendous pile to be a druidical relic; but, more extraordinary still! a pile erected not by the aboriginal inhabitants, the auroxoves, of the country, but by a migration, and that a second migration too, of Belgic Gauls! Upon this subject we need only remark the singularity of bringing Belgic Gauls to erect in another country, with peculiar labor and art, a religious monument for rites which they did not acknowledge as their own, and which were indeed brought to them from this island, however they may have originally been introduced here.

In the second excursion, Corsham and Mr. Methuen's new picture-gallery, with its intended ornaments, are shortly described. Lacock-abbey also shares our author's attention; but the greater part of his commendations are reserved for Bowood, the seat of the marquis of Lansdown. We have little doubt of its meriting all the praises bestowed on it; but cannot subscribe to the entire panegyric bestowed on the talents of its owner.

Charlton Park, in the neighbourhood of Malmsbury, offers a curious collection of paintings; and Badminton, the seat of the duke of Beaufort, one peculiarly numerous, curious, and valuable.

In the third excursion we meet with nothing very strongly interesting. We find a manufacture of an unexpected kind, viz. that of sperma-ceti from the remains of animal substances; and we may now, in the manner of Hamlet, without the imputation of considering too curiously,' trace the fine lady illuminating assemblies which she once adorned. Blaze-castle furnishes a noble collection of paintings. The account of the ornaments of Berkeley-castle is also extensive; but we shall rather select the description of the castle itself and the scenery around.

Much variety of country and interesting scenery are offered to the traveler in his ride from this place to Berkeley, a distance of nine miles; the Severn, with its playful windings and rich banks, opening occasionally to the left, and the grand hills of Stinchcomb, Frocester, &c. swelling out of a highly-cultivated and populous country to the right. The august castle attracts attention as we approach the village, venerable on account of its antiquity, and awful from its having been the scene of one of the most atrocious murders recorded

* See our 30th vol. New Arr. p. 361.

in English history. It is situated at the southern extremity of the park, on a gentle rising of the ground, which gives it a view not only over the grounds in its neighbourhood, but also of a large tract of distant country-the fertile fields of Glocestershire, the reaches of the Severn, and the mountains of Monmouthshire. Founded originally in the reign of Henry I. by Roger de Berkeley, and completed in that of Stephen, by Roger the third earl of Berkeley, it has been preserved ever since entire and unaltered, except in some little circumstances which modern ideas of convenience demanded, and exhibits therefore the most complete specimen of ancient Norman military architecture in the kingdom. The noble owner has fitted up the interior in a manner consistent with the style of its venerable outside, judiciously excluding all modern knick-knacks, and admitting nothing in the line of furniture which does not associate with the ideas of feudal times and old English grandeur. An ancient gateway opens into the basse court; through which we enter the hall, a fine old raftered room, with a gallery at one end for the ac commodation of the minstrelsy on days of high carousing. From this apartment a small passage conducts us to the ancient chapel of the castle, long since decayed, lined with oak, having a gallery for the heads of the family to sit in during prayers, and a confessional for their use, when the stock of sin, becoming too heavy for the conscience, was to be removed by the wonder-working absolution of the accommodating priest.

• Connected with the chapel is the dining-room, wainscoted with oak, its cieling divided into square compartments by massive rafters of the same wood, and its walls decorated with ordinary full lengths, painted on wood, and probably imaginary, of

George earl of Berkeley, great great grandfather to the present earl; James I.; Jane Shore; Robert Fitzharding; and a picture of Reubens over the chimney.' P. 303.

The view from Frocester hill is highly beautiful and well described; but our account is already sufficiently extensive, and we must resist the temptation to copy it. The tunnel of the canal that unites the Thames and the Severn is an immense work, which claims equal admiration, on account of the extent, the labor, and the utility of the undertaking; but the description would afford little pleasure. Lord Bathurst's grounds will not obtain from the present age the compliments paid by Pope, as they are laid out in the stiff style of queen Anne's days. We shall conclude this article with our author's delineation of Wick rocks, premising a mineralogical error, at the distance of not many pages, in which he confounds strontian with barytes.

taste.

The geology of Wick rocks affords as much curiosity to the na turalist as the beauty of the scene offers gratification to the man of In the most lofty part they rise to the height of two hundred feet or upwards, and consist of a series of beds of lime-stone, and petrosilex, alternating with each other; exhibiting, towards the west, a vein of coal of fourteen inches thick, and another of lead, both formerly worked, shouldered on each side by a mass of petrosi

lex. In the centre of, the glen we find a bed of lime-stone, nearly six hundred yards in breadth, inclosed between two beds of petrosilex, of nearly the same horizontal dimensions, all dipping to the west-north-west, in an angle of sixty feet with the plain of the hori zon. Imbedded in this are lead ore, spathous iron ore, cauk or barytes, and that large species of anomia of which a profusion is found in the rocks of Mendip, Hotwells, and Derbyshire. The division of petrosilex adjoining to this great bed on the east combines again with the lime rock on the road to Doynton, and at this union becomes a mill-stone or pudding-stone. Below the glen to the westward, by the side of the Bristol road, and a little under the surface of the red ground which is sufficiently obvious to the eye, are deposited a great profusion of geodes or nodules, containing within them beautiful quartz crystal, with calcareous dog-tooth spar.' P. 342.

ART. VII.-On the Nature and Occasion of Psalm and Prophecy,` twelve Critical Dissertations. By James Hurdis, D.D. &c. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Johnson.

THE author of these dissertations, who hath recently paid the debt of nature, was unquestionably possessed of considerable talents; but whether his judgement at all times kept pace with his genius, there is much reason to question. His poetical compositions abound with beauties of description and sentiment which elevate him to no inconsiderable degree of preeminence, while he has occasionally showed the most bombastic expressions and turgidities of thought. Analogous to this sketch of him as a poet, is his character as a critic; and the work before us will amply confirm the decision.

In his first dissertation, Dr. Hurdis, having proposed his subject, and instanced the several points undertaken to be proved, proceeds to exhibit a view of the several feasts of the law, as connected with the climate of Syria; and thence advances the first part of his hypothesis, viz. that the leading festival of the Hebrew nation was that of the former and latter rain, which he describes with its attendant ceremonies. To prop the superstructure reared on this foundation, the doctor has recourse to the state of the Syrian atmosphere when the psalm was performed; and next adverting to the general state of nature, describes the judgement or annual assise, and attempts thence to illustrate some peculiar notions of the Hebrews.

The second dissertation carries us forward to the period of performing the psalm, which, according to Dr. Hurdis, was by night, and during illuminations. At the same time he insists the word was imparted. Hence, he proceeds-not very con sistently, as we think-to the singular regulation of Jeroboam;

from which digression he formally advances to consider the double nature of the psalm; when suddenly breaking off, he adverts to the mode of warfare among the Hebrews, and the hour they entered into and quitted the field. Then commenting on the voyage of St. Paul, and the psalm of Judith, with the manner in which it was exhibited, the dissertation closes with observations on the Hebrew season of peace.

The sixty-eighth psalm is the leading topic of Dr. Hurdis's third dissertation. Having closed his remarks upon it, he diverts to the choral dance performed upon the slaughter of Goliath, the thanksgiving of Hannah, and the triumphant dance of Jephthah's daughter. The congruity of this latter subject introduces our author in his wildly devious route to the psalms of Deborah, and of Miriam; upon the last of which a question is grounded, Whether the Hebrew psalm originated in Egypt? Deciding it to be an Egyptian custom, Dr. Hurdis next exhibits Pharaoh's daughter as leader of the chorus; and thence proceeds to seek for proof of the psalm being performed by Jacob before the descent of his family into Egypt. Another digression here follows relative to the choral customs of Asia compared with those of the South-Sea islands, combining descriptions from Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, and Horace.

In the fourth dissertation, and to the eighth inclusive, Dr. Hurdis distributes the book of psalms into separate classes. Of these, the first commences with the penitential song of Zion, which having considered, he proceeds to the forty-second and forty-third, the eightieth, eighty-third, eighty-fourth, hundred and forty-third, and sixty-ninth.

Having referred to this division such compositions of the psalmist as are expressive of the fears and apprehensions of a dejected people, with whom despair is more prevalent than hope, he includes in the second order those odes of a more lively class, which were sung in Israel, when surrounded by the enemy and waiting for the rain to descend: such as display the most ardent and pious confidence that it will not long be delayed.' Amongst those of this description, which Dr. Hurdis considers as the most elegant and remarkable, we may instance the tenth, eleventh, twenty-seventh, thirty-seventh, sixty-fifth, and hundred and fourth.

The third class of psalms is next considered and divided into two descriptions, the first comprehending the whole of the sixth dissertation, and consisting of psalm the twenty-ninth, seventy-seventh, eighty-fifth, ninety-third, ninety-fifth and sixth, bundred and fourth, hundred and twenty-sixth, and hundred and forty-eighth.

The second description of psalms of the third class, making the subject of the seventh and eighth dissertations, are the eighteenth, twenty-third, thirty-third, thirty-sixth, forty-seventh,