racter, intended for the ordinary operation of tittle-tattle dissection.

Our town is prettily situated in a fertile and beautiful country, and is much resorted to by travellers. Mr. Windeatt bas, therefore, not wasted his antiquarian knowledge and powers of description upon an unworthy object. He has not been dressing up a doll. We have, thank God, nothing to complain of, but that our place happens to be the seat of a corporation, which is occasionally the cause of much bickering. Your anonymous Correspondent has in telligibly, but cautiously, charged the members of this public nuisance with the guilt of misapplying the funds of several eleemosynary donations, and has endeavoured to throw a reflection upon the whole town in consequence; whereas, in truth, such charges can only apply, if they do apply at all, to those who partake of the loaves and fishes of the charter; and they, from tolerably obvious reasons, are very few indeed. If many were allowed to be qualified to sit down to the banquet, a thousand jealousies respecting livings, and little song places in public offices, might arise, and the feast would very likely end in a fray. Thus much for the political sims of the place, so insidiously enumerated in a long string of arch interrogatories, which can only be thought, even by your Correspondent, to attach to about 14 or 15 persons out of 2,503. However, if such abuses really exist, ineasures are about to be speedily adopt ed, as becomes such an age of correctional inquiry as this, to bring them to light, and the depredators to punishment. We are much indebted to Mr. Windeatt for tracing the progress of our refine ment, from cock-fighting to dancing and music, and from the barbarous pleasures of bull-baiting to the intellectual resources of no less than three book societies. We have, moreover, lately sent up to your great metropolis a very promising young painter, and, amongst the many genteel and opulent families which reside in this town, and its immediate vicinity, we have several able dilletauti artists and musicians, two tolerable antiquarians, and one poet.

Our intelligent champion has been censured by your Correspondent, for omitting to notice "the beautiful screen of stone" in our church: since that censure has reached us, we have carefully examined it, even to an occasional omission of our responses in the Litany, and have observed in it nothing worthy of ceJebration.

"MONTHLY MAQ. No. 183.

We are far from thinking Mr. W. censurable for noticing, that the influence of her Grace of Bolton, in the election of one member for Totnes, is derived from her being, the lucky mistress "of a fine stream which drives two sets of mills," which are valuable, and belong to the corporation. The circumstance is very curious, and will no doubt make many of your readers smile. Thus one of the members, like the eider duck in "the Peacock at Home," may be said to come up to Parliament by water. Upon this subject a merry wag one day observed, that you might see a senator in her Grace's water, like a rattlesnake in spirits of wine, only that water is no preser vative against corruption. However, the recent death of a great man amongst us here is likely to induce her Grace, at the next general election, to turn the course of her stream, and to change the face of

matters.

Your Correspondent, by interrogatory, has ungenerously cast a slur upon the political, and also, if I understand him, upon the moral character of Mr. Adams, one of our members, who is so strong in the popular opinion, that he wants even no invigoration from her Grace's stream. With respect to this gentleman we have the pleasure of observing, that he enjoys the good wishes and esteem of the town, and that the great interest which he possesses has frequently been exercised in favour of those who are without the pale of the corporation, and could give him no return but their gratitude. He lives close to the town in great hospitality, whilst Mr. Hall, the other member, with sagacious economy, never visits us but to make "his calling and election sure."

Your Correspondent, in the same cynical vein, has insinuated, that a quotation in Mr. Windeate's communication is from the pen of " a modern knight, Sir John Carr." We have eagerly read all the works of that elegant and lively writer, and we consider them not less creditable to that place than to the character of contemporary literature, and have never seen a line which resembled in style or matter any part of such extract. In truth, I strongly suspect it to be from the productions of Dr. Cornish, a literary gentleman, one of our townsmen, and the brother in law of a distinguished literary cha racter, Lord Teignmouth. We beg pardon for having trespassed so long upon your readers, but we have been naturally desi rous of rescuing the fair fame of our neat and much frequented town from the bili Kk

ous obloquy cast upon it by your Correspondent, and remain

Yours, &c.

TWO NATIVES OF TOTNES.

Totnes, Feb.1, 1809.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

IN your Magazine for this month per

ceive a long narrative respecting the late Sir Richard Hill, who was, if the accounts of his beneficence be true, a very useful good man. As such be his memory duly respected!

But the writer of that account secms to have been not perfectly informed. He has made some mistakes, and some .omissions. Permit me to attempt to rec. tify them.

He says, Sir Richard became known in early life to the Rev. and learned Messis. Romaine, Talbot, Stillingfleet, Veun, Berridge, and Walker.--Who, besides him, ever thought either Mr. Romaine, Mr. Venn, or Mr. Berridge, distinguished for learning? They were all of them, no doubt, pious in their way. But whoever bas heard, (as I have) the pulpit tittle-tattle of the first, or has read a printed volume of his letters, cannot, I think, give him credit for a vast profum dity of learning, no indeed for much clegance in writing. I remember a passage, in one of those letters to a lady, uns thus: Exalt the Lord Jesus Christ-Up with him 1-Up with him!Up with him!"-The rest of the volume is equally elegant and learned. So poor honest Mr. Berridge's thing, which he called a poem, viz. “The Christian World unmasked. Come! take a peep!" will not discover a vast deal of learning, or even of common sense, especially where he describes a laborious black smith with a spark got into his throat.Mr Venn also was a plain honest Calvinistie Methodist, but never before, that ever I heard of, mistakon for a scholar.

The other gentlemen, whoever they were, were not of celebrated name, ex.cept, perhaps, among the party; for 1, who have been intimately acquainted with methodism and its votaries, never heard of them.

The gentleman who wrote this account of Sir Richard, does not appear to know that Mr. Fletcher, the Vicar of Madely, was domestic tutor to Sir Richard and his brother Rowland. Mr. Fletcher at that time preached ficquently for Mr. Wesley, and I can reu.cuber to lave often seen

these two youths come with him to Weststreet Chapel. There, it is probable, they got their first impressions of metkodism, although they afterward took the calvinistic side. Fletcher (a most amiable man) was greatly respected by the old Lady Hill, the mother of these gentlemen, and it was then said, that he was

presented to the vicarage of Madely

through her interest.

When young Rowland came out, & a piping hot preacher, Sir Richard also, a young man of warm passions, and of the same calvinistic judgment with his brother, entered the lists with him against the wicked Arminiaus, and, in their zeal for what they thought the cause of God and truth, they regarded no customary restraints. Sir Richard published the pamphlet mentioned, and Rowland brought out a Farrago, then a Farrago double distilled, and after that other pieces of the same cast, in which are many epithets bestowed, and many hard reflections, which his maturer judgment would, no doubt, now disapprove. At this time Fletcher was their chief opponent, but an opponent who fought only with the keen sword of argument, finely edged with meekness. Fletcher was older than these warm young men; his judgment more mature, his passions more under command; so that he never forgot what became him as a Christian and a gentleman.

Mr. Augustus Toplady was also one of the warriors of that day, and a courageous one he was. Sir Richard Hill's eulogist says, that "he had a great command of language." If he means a copia verborum, he certainly had: but it was the language of Billingsgate, as any one may see who will take the trouble to wade through his controversial publications.

As to the supposition that he recanted some of his opinions when dying, it is probably not true. But if he did, it could not be either a disgrace or a credit to him. A man's judgment may not he as clear as usual, when near dissolution. But if it be so, surely there cannot be any disgrace in a change of sentiment, or in expressing that change, if he thinks he has been mistaken

It is, however, most probable, that if Mr. Toplady recanted any thing at that serious time, it was only the harsh expressions which his furious bigorted zeal had betrayed him into. He might then see, that it was possible for men who could not think with him to be equally

the

I revel and indulge my mental appetite ou the choicest morceaux of the plastic arts. In pacing the rooms of the Townley Gallery, oftentimes alone, and happily uninterrupted, my mind enjoys her rich repast. Abstracted from all the cares of the present moment, I am no longer an inhabitant of modern times, I am an unknown, an invisible spectator of the ancient world. I fancy myself contemporary with Phidias, with Myron, with Scopas, with Agesander, with Apelles,with Alcamenes; I fancy myself a subject of Alexander the Great, orof Pericles, Instead of an humble citizen of the British isles; I indulge in reveries, I join the applauding testimonies of an enlightened nation, at the first exposure to public view of the inimitable Laocoon; I am among the first in congratulating Agesander on his success; I join the illustrious Athenians in the important task of deciding the claims of Alcamenes of Athens, and Agoracritus of Paros, whose rival skill was exerted in finishing a statue of Venus; and exult as if I were really a citizen of Athens, in finding the palin of merit adjudged by the Athenians to their own citizen.

Taking up my description of the Townley Collection of Antiquities, 'where I concluded my last, we enter the third room, which is appropriated to Greek and Roman sculptures. The walls are ombellished with basso-rilievos of larger size than in the first room. In the centre of a very fine one (No, 3) is a pilaster pedestal, supporting a vase, the handles of which are composed of griffins' heads. There are several mythological symbols represented on this monument, which are peculiarly valuable as illustrations of the ancient poets and historians.

The museum is fortunate in having several representations of that much disputed figure, the Indian Bacchus ;-No. 3, No. 14, No. 47, and No. 75, in the first room; No. 4, No. 17, No. 19, No. 27, No. 29, No. 30, in this, &c. being all representations either in basso rilievo, busts, or terminal figures, of this bearded deity. The one before me (No. 4) is a basso-rilievo of large dimensions, representing the Indian Bacchus received as a guest by Icarus. The Indian Bacchus is neither the fat jolly boy of Anacreon, nor the beautiful youth of the Greek sculptors, but is a colossal venerable old inan, with a majestic beard, and a profusion of hair, which, as well as the beard, is very carefully and formally arranged in curls; he is clothed

from head to foot, in immense folds of drapery, which leave him but his right hand at liberty. By referring to Mr. Thomas Hope's, elegant publication of his Designs for Household Furniture, you will find several engravings of antique busts of this deity in his possession. In the Napoleon Museum at Paris there is a very fine statue of this god, of Pentelican marble, drest like the one in this example, which for a long time was considered to be a statue of Sardanapolus, the infamous king of Assyria, because his name was inscribed in Greek characters on the folds of his garment; but it has been discovered that the inscription is of a much later date thau the statue. The sagacity of the celebrated Winckelmann, was even imposed upon before this discovery; and not finding any traits of the Assyrian Sardanapolus in the statue, he searched in. vain for some other of the name. The learned Abbe Visconti, who is keeper of the statues, had the honour of restoring, by this important discovery, to the god of the East, his long lost property in this statue. But I am intruding into the Na poleon Museum without a passport, and at a time I should be in the British; therefore, to return from this digression, several of these tablets have the holcs through them that I alluded to in a for mer letter, which I there supposed was for the purpose of suspending them as studies for their disciples in the rooms of the ancient artists.

Next to this is an exquisitely designed basso-rilievo in marble (No, 5), which appears to have been a funeral monument to a father and his two sons, who are in Roman dresses. The attendant figures are the guardian divinities of the family. The inscription, which was in Greek, is unfortunately very nearly obliterated. At a small distance is a very fine one (No. 9.) which was divided by the artist into three compartments. In the upper divi sion, the infant Jupiter is represented riding on the Amalthean goat; in the middle, a triton is seizing a bull by the horns; and in the lower, two men are carrying a hog towards an elevated spot of ground to be sacrificed.

A fine Bacchanalian groupe of three figures (No. 12) is deserving attention; the first figure is a Bacchante playing on a tambourin; the second, a Faun playing on the double pipe; and the third, an intoxicated Faun holdinga thyrsus, which has been for time immemorial an attribute of Bacchus. Its origin may be dated from the conquest of India, and it is