stories and other pieces of fiction which they have rendered so celebrated, in abridgements, like ours, of the utmost brevity and simplicity, than in whole volumes of this kind of misrepresentation. The simple elements of them will be laid before him; and the eye of his own unobstructed heart will see more of what the poets saw of them, at once.

"I SAT out in the morning, in

LEIGH HUNT.

company with a friend, to visit a place where Milton spent part of his life, and where, in all probability, he composed several of his earliest productions. It is a small village, situated on a pleasant hill, about three miles from Oxford, and called Forest-Hill, because it formerly lay contiguous to a forest, which has since been cut down. The poet chose this place of retirement, after his first marriage; and he describes the beauties of his retreat in that fine passage of the "L'Allegro:"

'Strait mine eye hath caught new pleasures,
Whilst the landscape round it measures;

"It was neither the proper season of the year, nor time of the day, to hear all the rural sounds, and see all the objects mentioned in this description; but, by a pleasing concurrence of circumstances, we were saluted, upon our approach to the village, with the music of the mower and his scythe; we saw the ploughman intent upon his labour; and the milkmaid returning from her country employment.

"As we ascended the hill, the variety of beautiful objects, the agreeable stillness and natural simplicity of the whole scene, gave us the highest pleasure. We, at length, reached the spot where Milton, undoubtedly, took most of his

images: it is on the top of the hill, from which there is a most extensive prospect on all sides. The distant mountains, that seemed to support the clouds; the villages and turrets, partly shaded with trees of the finest verdure, and partly raised above the groves which surrounded them; the dark plains and meadows, of a greyish colour, where the sheep were feeding at large; in short, the view of the streams and rivers convinced us that there was not a single useless idea or word in the above mentioned description, but that it was a most exact and lively representation of nature. Thus, will this fine passage, which has always been admired for its elegance, receive an additional beauty from its exactness. After we had walked with a kind of poetical enthusiasm, over the enchanted ground, we returned to the village.

"The poet's house is close to the church; the greatest part of it has been pulled down, and what remains belongs to an adjacent farm. I am informed that several papers, in Milton's own hand, were found by the gentleman who was last in possession of the estate. The tradition of his having lived there is current among the villagers; one of whom shewed us a ruinous

wall that made part of his chamber; and I was much pleased with another, who had forgotten the name of Milton, but recollected him by the title of the Poet.

"It must not be omitted, that the groves near this village are famous for nightingales, which are so elegantly described in the "Il Penseroso." Most of the cottage windows are overgrown with sweet-briars, vines, and honeysuckles; and that Milton's habitation had the same rustic ornament we may conclude from the lark bidding him good morrow,

Through the sweet-briar, or the vine,
Or the twisted eglantine:

for it is evident, that he meant a sort of honeysuckle by the eglantine, though that word is commonly used for the sweet-briar, which he could not mention twice in the same couplet."

DOCTOR BARNARD'S RETORT UPON DOCTOR

JOHNSON.

THE following admirable jeu d'esprit was the production of Doctor Barnard, Dean of Derry, who, in conversation with Sir Joshua

Reynolds and other wits, advanced, that he thought no man could improve, when past the age of forty-five. Johnson, who was in the company, immediately turned round to the facetious Dean, and told him that he was an instance to the contrary, for there was great room for improvement in him (the Dean,) and wished he would set about it. Upon which the Dean, next day, sent the following elegant bagatelle to Sir Joshua Reynolds and the same company.

TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, AND CO.

By the Dean of Derry.

I lately thought no man alive
Could e'er improve past forty-five,

And ventur'd to assert it.

The observation was not new;

But seem'd to me so just and true,
That none could controvert it.

"No Sir," says Johnson, "'tis not so;
That's your mistake, and I can show
An instance, if you doubt it:
You, Sir, who are near forty-eight,
May much improve,-'tis not too late;
I wish you'd set about it."