My next fhall be a comment on this scrap of poetry: 'till then, let this af fure you, that I and my female travelling companions are, and will be, in all parts of the world, truly your's. CORKE LETTER LETTER II. L Lyons, October 4th, 1754 DEAR SIR, ET us ftop, if you please, a little at Lyons. It is one of the largest and most flourishing cities of France. Its trade and fituation are circumstances that contribute much to its grandeur. The buildings are fine, particularly the townhouse, and two fides of the great square, anfwerable to each other in fize, height, and difpofition. In the middle is a large equestrian statue of Lewis XIV, and on each fide of him, at an exact distance, are two fountains, very properly adorned with figures in bronze. During the fummer-time they are constantly playing, and give an agreeable refreshment to the place. A third fide of the fquare is filled by by a beautiful, little grove: the fourth confifts only of old irregular houses. But first let us confider Lyons as a city of the Celtic-Gaul. It was built by L. MUNATIUS PLANCUS, the particular friend of Cicero, who pays him that very elegant compliment, which has been fince fo often applied to more modern generals: Omnia fumma confecutus es, virtute duce, comite fortuna *. It is to Plancus that Horace fo gaily prescribes wine; either when encamped and fixed amidst the din and clash of arms, or deeply retired amidft the filence and folitude of a rural life: --Tu fapiens finire memento Molli, Plance, mero; feu te fulgentia fignis Tiburis umbra tui †. Lib. i. Ode 7. * Plancus Thou haft furmounted every difficulty, "virtue being thy guide, and fortune thy com"panion." Do thou, difcreetly, with a friend, Whether Plancus was a Roman of high birth, and higher reputation. He was the perfon, who is faid to have perfuaded the fecond Cæfar to affume the name of Auguftus, inftead of Octavius. Little eloquence was neceffary, I prefume, to byass the emperor towards the exchange. Plancus, (indulge me a little in dwelling upon a favorite character,) was early bred to arms. He had commanded a legion in the time of Julius Cæfar. Soon after the death of that Emperor, he employed himself and his foldiers in building Lugdunum; perhaps not without fome particular ambitious view. The confufion of the commonwealth, confequent to the murder of Cafar, was fuch as allowed, and even compelled, every Roman to provide for himself against outrage, and impending ruin. But as my thoughts of Plancus are purely ideal, I Whether the camp thy fancy warms, quit the fubject, and pass from furmise to reality. Lugdunum was originally built in an ifland, that bore a triangular form. The little channel, which then rendered it an island, has been long fince filled up; and the two rivers, the Rhone and the Saone, [Rhodanus et Arar] flow on each side of the town in a parallel manner. No city has been more celebrated than Lugdunum, for the birth and refidence of great men. Auguftus refided there three years. Claudius was born there in the 744th year of Rome. It was also the birth-place of Caracalla and Geta; and the retreat of Domitian, who in his excellent brother's life-time, withdrew to Lugdunum, under a pretence of study, and with a specious intention of exercising his rare talents in poetry. Tacitus however seems to give another turn to the retreat; he hints as if Domitian retired from Rome, to hide that fecret ambition of empire, and that envy of his brother's cha racter, |