neither thought nor expreffion to recommend it; and can, when fung, be termed no more than an agreeable piece of impertinence, calculated to fupply a want of understanding in a company. I forbear to mention the Big-bellied Bottle, and a variety of fimilar productions, which are univerfally known, and deferve to be as univerfally defpicable; but I fhall conclude this effay, with a fong, which I would recommend as an example to fuch gentlemen as are fond of cclebrating the grape, though no ways ambitious to do it at the expence of good fenfe and morality. The JUDICIOUS BACCHANAL. While the bottle to humour and focial delight The fmalleit affistance can lend; Where the madness or blafphemy hung; And let ev'ry accent which virtue should hate, Parch quick on my infamous tongue. While it happily keeps up the laugh of From my fight let the curfe be eternally the night, Or enlivens the mind of a friend: O let me enjoy it, ye bountiful powers! SIR, driv'n, Where my reason fo fatally stray'd; Or give man a cause to upbraid. A GRAMMATICAL REMARK. IN So when light clouds on airy pinions fail, And all the chequer'd landscape seems alive. frozen; wove, for woven; fpoke, for fpoken; and that then the participle accidentally becomes fimilar to the paft tenfe: 2. That the language feems gradually tending to omit the letter z in other kind of words for the fake of euphony; as houfen is become houfes; eyne, eyes; thine, thy, &c. and in common converfation, the words forgot, fpoke, froze, rode, are frequently used for forgotten, spoken, frozen, ridden. 3. It does not appear that any confufion would follow the indifcriminate ufe of the fame word for the past tenfe and the participle paffive, fince the auxillary verb have, ort he preceding noun or pronoun, always clearly diftinguishes them: and laftly, rhime-poetry muft lofe the ufe of many elegant words without this license. I think there is much juftice in thefe remarks, and have, therefore, tranfmitted them as an interefting article for your mifcellany.. I am, &c. HERMES, JUNIOR. An Account of the SOURCE, and OBSERVATIONS on the NAME, of T the THAMES. [From Mr. Ireland's Picturefque Views on that River.] HE fource of the Thames, this first of British rivers, is derived from a copious fpring, called Thames Head, near the village of Tarlton, about two miles fouth-weft of Cirencefter, and is contiguous to the foffe way leading to Somersetshire. Some writers have afferted, that the fource of this river is in the neighbourhood of Cobberly, in Gloucesterfhire, at a place called Seven-wells Head; but as the former opinion is most prevalent, I fhall date the prefent enquiry from thence. The name alfo of this river has long been matter of controverfy, even among the learned, on whom we ought to rely; it therefore becomes neceffary previously to investigate the various opinions and authorities that have been advanced on the fubject. The vulgar appellation it bears above Oxford is Thame-Ifis, evidently formed from a combination of the words Thame and Ifis; the fuppofed conflux of which gave rife to a poem of fome eminence, called The Marriage of Thame and Ifis.' How this river obtained the latter name, or at what period, I cannot learn: Stow feems to concur in this poetical fiction, and deems every one ignorant who gives the river any other appellation than that of Ifis; but to fhew that no great reliance is to be placed on his opinion, I will ufe his own words, which are fo flatly contradictory to themselves as to invalidate his authority: he fays, in the fifth chapter of his Survey of London, that the Thames beginneth a little above a village called Winchcomb in Oxfordfhire, and ftill increafing, paffeth first by the university of Oxford, &c. to London; and in the next chapter, that the Ifis goeth unto Thame in Oxfordshire,' (which is more than fifteen miles below Oxford) where 6 joining with a river of the fame de- All hiftorians, who mention the incurfions of Ethelwold into Wiltshire, A. D. 905, or of Canute, in 1016, concur likewife in the fame opinion, by declaring, that they paffed over the Thames at Cricklade." There is ftill further reafon for confiding in thefe authorities, as it is not probable, that the Thames Head, an appellation by which the fource has ufually been diftinguished, fhould give birth to a river of the name of Ifis, which river, after having run half its courfe, fhould reaffume the name of Thames, the appellation of its parent fpring. As to the origin of its name, it may poffibly be derived from the Saxon Temefe, or from the British word Tavuys, which implies a gentle ftream, and from which many rivers 3A 2 in 372 in this island derive their appellation; as Tame in Staffordshire, Teme in Herefordshire, Tamar in Cornwall, &c. Having thus briefly, and from the best authority adducible, endeavoured to establish the name of the river which is the prefent fubject of difcuffion, I flatter myfelf, I fhall avoid the imputation of blending the history of two rivers, where I mean only to treat of one-the THAMES. The great fupply of water, that fwells the early courfe of this river, the Thames Head, is occafioned by the first heavy fall of fnow and rain in the winter feafon, from different parts of the wolds or hills in Gloucesterfhire; which, pouring into the vallies beneath, unites with the fprings in Kemble Vale, contiguous to the Thames Head. The village of Kemble, from which this vale takes its name, is finely fituated on an eminence, and commands a rich extent of fcenery, happily diverfified by the eafy winding of the ftream, which terminates in a faint view of the Oxfordshire hills. About a mile below the fource of the river is the firit mill conftructed for grinding corn, which is Kemble mill; near which the ftream receives confiderable acceffion from several fprings iffuing out of the eastern fide of the wolds, as well as others that flow from Ath coppice, and the vicinity of Somerford; at which place the river may properly be faid to form a conftant current; which though not more than nine feet wide in the fum. mer months, yet in the winter feafon becomes fuch a torrent as to overflow the neighbouring meadows for many miles around; When the calm river, rais'd with sudden rains, 'Or fnows diffolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains.' In the fummer months, the Thames Head is fo perfectly dry, as to appear no other than a large dell, interfperfed with ftones and weeds. From Somerford the ftream gently winds its course to the village of Ashton Keynes, and thence to the town of Cricklade, where, being united with the river Churn from Čirencefter, and other ftreams from Malmefbury, Barnefly, and the eastern fide of Wiltshire, they form unitedly a river fufficient for the navigation of boats of about feven tons burden. An Account of the late great and fuccessful Undertaking, the JUNCTION of the THAMES with the SEVERN, [From the SAME. ] TH HE new canal, formed by the junction of the Thames and Severn navigation, from its contiguity to the fubject before us, will, I prefume, be deemed an object of fuch importance, as not to be thought irrelevant to the prefent enquiry. This canal may be confidered as the most elaborate and ftupendous work of art that, perhaps, any country, has yet accomplished; in uniting two of the nobleft rivers in this kingdom. A project was formed more than a century ago to join these rivers, and a furvey made by Jofeph Moxon, hydrographer to king Charles II. to prove its practicability. The idea is likewife fuggefted by Mr. Pope, in a letter to the honourable Mr. Digby, dated 1722, which, as it is written with a strong poetic and lively imagination, I fhall give in his own words. I could pafs whole days in only defcribing the future, and as yet vifionary, beauties that are to rife in thofe fcenes (in lord Bathurst's woods, at Cirencefter) the palace that is to be built, the pavilions that are to glitter, the colonnades that are to adorn them; nay more, the meeting of the Thames and Severn, which (when the noble owner has finer dreams dreams than ordinary) are to be led into each others embraces, through fecret caverns of not above twelve or fifteen miles, till they rife and celebrate their marriage in the midft of an immense amphitheatre, which is to be the admiration of pofterity a hundred years hence; but till this deftined time fhall arrive, that is to manifest those wonders, Mrs. Digby must content herself with feeing what is at prefent no more than the finest wood in England.' That once diftant period is now arrived, and the happy junction accomplifhed, under the furvey of an able engineer, Mr. Robert Whitworth, in 1782. It may not be improper to mention, that a canal was formed by act of parliament, in 1730, from the Severn to Walbridge, near Stroud, at which place the prefent work commences: The new canal afcends by Stroud, through the vale of Chalford, to the height of three hundred and forty-three feet, by means of twenty-eight locks, and from thence to the entrance of the tunnel near Sapperton, a distance of about feven miles three furlongs. The canal is continued by a fubterraneous paffage or tunnel, excavated beneath Sapperton hill, and under that part of lord Bathurst's grounds called Haley wood, making a diftance of two miles and three furlongs. The tunnel is near fifteen feet in width, and has fufficient depth of water to navigate barges from fixty to feventy tons burden; thefe barges are about eighty feet in length, twelve in width, and draw about four feet of water when loaded; hence the canal defcending one hundred and thirty-four feet, by fourteen locks, joins the Thames at Lechlade, a distance of about twenty miles and two furlongs. This work has been atchieved, with immenfe labour and perfeverance, out of a loose rock of lime and ftone; and, to fecure the water, it is lined throughout with well-tempered clay. Over this canal are many handsome bridges of fingle arches, particularly that at Thames Head, from whence this canal receives a confiderable body of water, as well as at Cirencefter, where it is again fupplied from the river Churn. Near the fouth weft fide of the town of Cirencester a large bafon is conftructed, with wharfs and warehouses for the convenience of this navigation. The bafon is fupplied with water by an a queduct formed under lord Bathurst's pleasure grounds, which are before his houfe. In the course of this vaft undertaking the canal from the Severn at Froomlade to Inglesham, where it joins the river Thames, is a distance of more than thirty miles; the expence of which has confiderably exceeded the fum of 200,000l., 3000 of which, I am credibly informed by a principal proprietor, have been expended in the gun-powder alone, used for the purpose of blowing up the rock. This immenfe work was completed on the 14th of November 1789, within a period of less than seven years from its commencement. Nor is it an easy task to defcribe the various advantages that feem likely to be derived from its extenfive communication with the different parts of Wales, Bristol, Gloucefter, Shrewsbury, &c. its more inland navigation, as ccnnected with the canals of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and its immediate intercourse with the Thames from Lechlade toward Oxford, Wallingford, &c. to London: fo various, and fo important, are the benefits derived from hence, both to the individual and the public, the inhabitant who receives with little expence the produce of the moft diftant quarter of the island delivered at his own door, and the traveller who pafies fmoothly and fecurely by it through roads no longer cut to pieces with heavy carriages, that it is much to be wished this work may prove as beneficial to the fpirited and enterprifing proprietors, as it is a bleffing to more than the countries through which it paffes. THE THE BRITISH MUSE. PROLOGUE To the New Comedy of The FUGitive. Written by RICHARD TICKELL, Esq. Spoken by Mr. BANNISTER, jun. Some fair affociate foothes it to content; Its rage with promiffory looks beguiles, And check th' incipient hifs by well-tim`d finiles WHAT perturbation flutters in the The vanquish'd Critics frown, but soften the Play; Actor and Author in one panic join'd; Braves but few perils from the well-drefs'd Not as of old, when train'd to frown and fret, In murky ftate, the furly fynod met, In black full-bottom'd wig, the Critic god Shook his umbrageous curls, and gave the nod! The Pit was then all men-how fhrunk the mufe From those bleak rows of overhanging yews! Unlike the gay parterre we now falute, That shines at once with bloffoms and with fruit; With chequer'd crowds that mingled taste difperfe; With female foftnefs join'd to manly fenfe, fast; |