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Hill bavi fuit Pear geefe. Dangerou bang over So as to b

bot fumm

filled wit

unfavora Extreme MISS V

ftruction plants will no

Apple-t

Graftin fruit. profit m

trees m

effect.

ducing

ARGUMENT

OF

BOOK I.

Subject propofed. Addrefs to the Natives of Herefordfhire. Dedication to MR. MOSTYN. Situation for an Orchard. Soil. Places famous for their Cider. King Ethelbert murdered by Offa at Sutton Walls. Account of Marcle Hill having moved. A foil not rich enough for Apples will fuit Pears. Very poor land will ferve to support sheep and geefe. Goats browse on the steepest mountains of Wales. Dangerous practice of gathering Samphire from rocks that bang over the Sea. The most barren land may be improved, fo as to be made capable of bearing Some produce. In very bot fummers trenches fhould be dug round Apple-trees, and filled with water; a long continuance of hot weather being unfavorable to the fruit. The unhealthiness of hot feafons. Extreme beat of the fummer in the year 1705. Death of MISS WINCHCOMB. Heat a caufe of Earthquakes. Deftruction of ARICONIUM. Some different forts of trees and plants will flourish when planted near together; but others will not. What forts of trees may be planted near the Apple-tree without injuring it, and what are noxious to it. Grafting. Different stocks proper for different forts of fruit. In the plantation of Orchards, ornament as well as profit may be attended to, and the different kinds of Appletrees may be intermixed with tafte, fo as to produce a pleafing effect. Virgil has finely diverfified his Georgics by introducing feveral beautiful digreffions and defcriptions.-Graft

ing,

Ferent forts of Apples. Pears. The Musk ed-ftreak Apple-cultivated and improved ORD SCUDAMORE. Compliment to his

n. Excellence of Red-ftreak Cider. The - it fings its praifes, and thofe of its naGeneral fertility of Herefordshire. Its Iron, Saffron, Wool. Its Natives famous nguished at the battles of Creffy and Aginlarly the Ancestor of the noble family of Compliment to LORD CHANDOS, and his SALISBURY and to ALDRICH, Dean of --University of OXFORD.-SIR THOMR.BROMLEY. MEW, Bishop of WINUKE OF BEAUFORT. LORD WEYRLEY, Secretary of State.-Beauty of Females. Love. Friendship. TREVOR, Panegyric on Sincerity; -on Virtue in geneis of VIRGIL's character. - HOMER.ILTON ;-cenfured for his Politics, but Poetry, of which the Author profeffes him

itator.

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s Virgil begins his GEORGICS;

Quid faciat lætas fegetes, quo fidere terram
Vertere, &c..

Poet, for ORCHARD, writes OR CHAT, from the Greek Oparos, Homer ufes to exprefs the garden, or rather orchard, of Alcinous, seventh book of his ODYSSEY.

in Miltonian verfe]

dern blank verfe had its origin in the School of Italian Poetry.-year 1528, Triffino published his Italia Liberata di Goti, without Not a long time after this, the celebrated Earl of Surrey the firft fpecimen of English blank verfe, in a translation of the 1 and fourth books of the ENEID.- -The Dramatic Poets foon to lay afide rhyme: the firft example of which, and indeed the firft ar English tragedy, was the Earl of Buckhurft's GORBODUC; in 1, as well as in Surrey's tranflation from Virgil, there are many which Milton would not have difdained to own. Blank verfe, ver, made but little progrefs, except among the Dramatic writers; does not appear to have been adopted for any original compofition of equence. Milton is therefore juftified in faying (in the account e verfe of his PARADISE LOST, prefixed to that Poem) that he had e firft example, in English, of antient Liberty reftared to Heroic Poem the troublefome and modern bondage of rhyme.

hilips was the firft Poet of any eminence who followed him in this of verfification, for which he is celebrated by Thomson.

Philips, Pomona's bard, the fecond thou
Who nobly durft, in rhyme-unfetter'd verfe,
With British freedom fing the British fong.

B

AUTUMN, 640.

He

Adventurous I prefume to fing; of verse
Nor skill'd, nor ftudious: but my native foil

5

He is alfo complimented on the fame account by a very able and elegant Poet, the prefent learned Provost of Eton College, in A Poetical Epistle to Chriftopher Anstey, Efq. on the English Poets, chiefly those who have written in Blank Verfe, published in the year 1772. After a very masterly opening, the Author thus addreffes Milton.

4.

my foul,

Poet of other times, to thee I bow
With lowlieft reverence. Oft thou tak 'ft
And waft'it it by thy potent harmony
To that empyreal manfion, where thine ear
Caught the foft warblings of a Seraph's harp,
What time the nightly vifitant unlock'd
The gates of Heav'n, and to the mental fight
Difplay'd celeftial fcenes. She from thy lyre
With indignation tore the tinkling bells,
And tun'd it to fublimeft argument.
Sooner the bird, that ushering in the fpring
Strikes the fame notes with one unvarying pause,
Shall vie with Philomel, when the purfues
Her evening fong thro' every winding maze
Of melody, than rhyme fhall foothe the foul
With mufic fweet as thine.- With vigilant eye
Thee Philips watches, and, with tafte refin'd,
Each precept culling from the Mantuan page,
Difdains the Gothic bond. Silurian wines,
Ennobled by his fong, no more fhall yield
To Setin, or the ftrong Falernian juice,
Beverage of Latian chiefs.

Adventurous I presume to fing; of verse.

Nor fkill'd, nor ftudious

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Thus Milton, in the opening of his PARADISE LOST;

I thence

Invoke thy aid to MY ADVENTUROUS SONG,

That, with no middle flight, intends to foar

Above th'Aonian mount

And, in the beginning of his ninth book, having recited the common fubjects of Heroic Poems, fuch as wars, races, games, tilts and tournaments, feftivals and entertainments, he thus proceeds;

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