while the late Edmund Hofkins, Efq. was preparing the draft of the bill, Mr. Garrick wrote him the following lines: To his counsellor and friend, Edmund Hofkins, Efq. Tom Fool fends greeting. ON your care muft depend the fuccefs of my fuit, ANECDOTE of QUEEN CAROLINE. The memory of Queen Caroline is revered for the excellence of her domeftic character. As a mother, the fhone in a confpicuous manner, by the attention which The paid to cultivating the difpofitions of her children. Of her Majesty's fuperior talent for that tender office, of her adroitnefs in feifing the happy moment to inftil virtuous principles, the following anecdote records an inftance, which ought never to be forgotten: The Princefs Royal was accuftomed, at going to reft, to employ one of the ladies of the court in reading aloud to her, till she should drop afleep. It happened, one evening, that the lady who was appointed to perform this office, being indifpofed, could not, without great inconvenience, endure the fatigue of standing; yet the Princefs was inattentive to her fituation, and fuffered her to continue reading till fhe fell down in a fwoon. The Queen was informed of this the next morning. Her Majefty faid nothing upon the fubject; but at night, when he was in bed, fent for the Princefs, and, faying that the wifhed to be lulled to reft, commanded her royal highness to read aloud. After fome time, the Princefs began to be tired of standing, and paused, in hope of receiving an order to feat herfelf." Proceed," faid her Majefty. In a fhort time a fecond ftop feemed to plead for reft." Read on," faid the Queen, Again the Princefs ftopped: again fhe received an order to proceed; ་་:"་ till at laft faint and breathlefs, fhe was forced to complain. Then did this excellent parent exhort her daughter to forbear how the indulged herself in eafe, while fhe fuffered her attendants to endure unneceffary fatigue. An illuftrious example to mothers, how to create and improve occafions for forming the difpofitions of their children. Anecdote of the PRINCE DE LIGNE, who commands the Imperial troops at Antwerp. This noble Prince, who is confidered by the English in fome respects as the Jack Spencer of the Pais-Bas, being fome years fince at Amsterdam, kicked up, as the phrafe is, a duft one night in that city; in confequence of which he was carried prifoner to the guard-houfe, and the next morning brought before the magiftrate, where he behaved with great rudeness, and pleaded his rank in excufe for his folly; but the magiftrate perfifted in doing his duty, and with great propriety reprehended him for his very improper behaviour. The Prince, however, when he was discharged, told the magiftrate, that the day might come when he might have a favourable opportunity to refent the infult he had received at Amfterdam. Accordingly, the confequences have been fatal to thousands of innocent people; for foon after the Prince arrived at Antwerp, fome company with whom he was converfing in the streets obferved, that now he had a favourable opportunity to fhow his attention to his friends the Dutch. "Yes (faid the Prince) and on fuch a night I will give them a hot fupper at Fort Lillo." An Auftrian foldier overhearing the converfation, thinking him ferious in his declaration, inftantly deferted to the Dutch, and informed them that Fort Lillo was to be attacked on fuch a particular night, for that he heard the Prince declare it. They believed him, and to fecure themselves therefrom, laid twenty-four thoufand acres of land under water, which, with the inundation; alfo fpread death, famine, and defolation. But the Prince is a buck, and and what fignified the lofs of fifty" Come, let's be gone (faid Mrs. thousand pounds to his coufin, the Duke D'Aremberg? Anecdote of Mrs. PRITCHARD and e The celebrated actress, Mrs. Pritchard, having retired with her family, during the fummer, into a country village, took a fancy to fee a play acted in a barn. She and her company engaged one of the best and most confpicuous feats in the little theatre. The scenes were made of pasteboard, and the clothes fuch as the manager could borrow or purchase. The orcheftra was filled with one fingle Crowdero.—The actors were uncelebrated, it is true, but did their best. Mrs. Pritchard, inftead of taking up with fuch fare as the country afforded, laughed fo loudly and inceffantly at the bufinefs of the fcene, that the country audience were offended. Somebody prefent happened to know the great actress, and the fiddler afking her name, was told that he was the great Mrs. Pritchard, of the theatre-royal, in London." I will give her a hint prefently," faid Crowdero, and immediately played the first tune in the Beggar's Opera: "Through all the employments of life, SIR, Pritchard) we are discovered; that fiddler is clever;" and as fhe crossed over the ftage to the enterance, fhe dropped Crowdero a curtfey, and thanked him for his admonition. Anecdote of Dr. YOUNG. Thus Adam look'd when from the garden driven, Hard was his fate, but mihe ftill more unkind, TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON MAGAZINE. HAT a paffage in the works of a reader can comprehend the full force of told, need a comment will not appear extraordinary, when you recollect that we have no registers in which the fucceffive changes of customs are chronicled, for the information of the curious. Hence, many of the fashions prevalent at the beginning of this century are now forgotten. Why, fays Clariffa, in the fifth canto of the Rape of the Lock, are all thefe honours lavished on our fex? "Why round our coaches crowd the white gloved beaux ? "Why bows the fide box from its inmost rows?" When this couplet was produced, it had no obfcurity; but now, before the that in the time of Pope, the fide-boxes in our theatres were occupied by gentlemen only, and that the front ones were as entirely appropriated to ladies. The prefent mixture of fexes in all our feats of the highest price in the playhoufe is not very productive of that ftilnefs which would at once befriend the actor and the intelligent fpectator. Lady Paper-Mill must have her flirt with Sir Charles Racket, though "the blank verfe halt for it." Fruitlefs at fuch a moment would be even Profpero's injunction. “Hush, and be mute, or elfe the spell is marr'd!" and Zara to as little purpofe can affirm that that "Silence is every where," when the tongues of the females and their gallants within a yard of her moft forcibly contradict her affertion. One would almost think our modern dames had received a hint for their behaviour while any story is telling, from the fecond edition of Phaer's Virgil, in which conticuere omnes," they whifted all, by the unlucky intrufion of a redundant letter, is rendered " they whistled all"-very uncourtly treatment of a hero who was beginning a narrative of his misfortunes. I may add, that in fome of our country churches, where the males and females ftill continue to be ranged on oppofite fides of the aisle, their re fpective attention to their duty is more earnest than where they happen to be promifcuoufly feated. I cannot, therefore, help withing the obfolete custom of keeping the fexes (at least the fashionables of both) apart from each other was revived in every place where taciturnity is confidered as a requifite to pleasure or meditation. If you, Mr. Editor, are as fond as I Your most humble fervant, TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON MAGAZINE. IT must be owned that there are fe- The former kind are mentioned in feveral paffages of fcripture, as in Canticles ii. 13; and in Hofea ix. 10. "I faw your fathers as the firft ripe in the fig-tree at her first time." To fruits the prophets allude in the two following paffages: Ifaiah xxviii. 4. "The glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley fhall be a fading flower, and as the hafty fruit before the fummer." Micah viii. r. "I am as when they have gathered the fummer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no clufter to eat: my foul defired the firft ripe fruit." Let us then confider the original: οὐ γὰρ ἦν καιρὸς σύκων.—Now as the moft ancient copies are without accents, it is hard to fay, whether the particle is to be read with a lene, or an afpirate; and we must be determined by the fenfe of the place. Let us read it then with an afpirate, and the fenfe may be of yàp v, for where he was, naipès cúnwr, it was the time of figs. And it is no uncommon tranfition, to refer yàp ju to the word be, and not to 'art. -You will find the like, cap. 16. v. 3, 4. and the ellipfis of the fecond is frequent. But if we retain the accent as it now ftands, and put an interrogation point at the end of the fentence, the fenfe will be very clear, ε γὰρ ἦν καιρὸς σύκων; for was it not the time of figs? that is, affirmatively, it was the time of figs. So the Anglo-Saxon reads it, without taking any notice of the particle There are folutions of this paffage in the commentators, but none which I like fo well as either of these two; and therefore I fhall not trouble you with them; nor need I fhew you, how proper an emblem this was to warn the Jews of what their fituation then was, and and what it fhortly would be.-The curious reader, befides the common annotators, may confult Lightfoot's Hor. Heb. ad Matth. 21. 19. Le Clerc. Crit. Art. p. 201, and the excellent pieces against Wolston. firft chapter of another draught, made fome time after his refurrection. Surely then St. Luke might fay the net was broken, in the former draught; and St. John, that it was not broken, in the latter, without their contradicting one another. I fhall only add, Sir, at prefent, that all cavils against the fcripture, upon examination, will be found to be equally frivolous and unjust. I am, Sir, There is also another apparent contradiction between St. Luke and St. John, concerning the breaking of the net. But this is only imaginary. For St. Luke is fpeaking in the fixth verfe of the fifth chapter of a miraculous draught of fifbes, at the very beginning of our Saviour's miniftry; and St. John, in the eleventh verfe of the twenty- March 1, 1785. Your very humble fervant, TO THE EDITOR OF THE LONDON MAGAZINE. SIR, F the inhabitants may be believed, owing its origin to a caftle (afterwards called du Bue) built by Julius Cæfar, about fifty years before the birth of Chrift. As the caftle was built for the purpose of protecting that part of the Roman province of Belgium from the incurfions of the fwarms of barbarous nations that lived beyond the Rhine, people chose to establish their refidence in its neighbourhood, that they might be at hand to receive fuccour from the garrifon of the caftle, in cafe of an attack; hence it became at laft the centre of a kind of town: it was conftantly the refidence of a Roman governor, till the empire of Rome was deftroyed in the weft; and then the ancient Kings of France used to fend officers, called Forresters, by whom the province of Flanders was governed, till it was given away in fee to a prince, who took the title of Earl of Flanders, which his defcendants bore for many ages. In the garden of the Dominicans, or Black-Friars, are to be feen the remains of Cæfar's old caftle on an eminence, from which the country could be explored for many leagues, till by the erection of other building round about, and the falling down of the tower, the profpect was obftructed. Near to this fpot is an inhabited island, X. Q. Lifle, April 9, 1784 formed by the river Deûle, in the derives its name (L'Ifle, or Island.) The town is fomewhat of an oval form, fomething more than a mile and a half in length, and a little lefs than a mile in breadth. It has feven gates, namely thofe of St. Andrew (otherwise called Royal, because it was built by Louis XIV.) to the north; St. Magdalen, St. Maurice, and Fives, to the caft; La Porte des Malades (or of the fick) to the fouth; and Our Lady's (Notre Dame) and La Barre to the weft; adjoining to' this laft gate is the citadel. I fhall fet out from the right of the citadel in giving you a defcription of the works with which the different fronts that the town prefents from these different gates are fortified. Between the citadel and St. Andrew's gate, there is only a demi front, by which the communication between both is kept up: this demi front is covered by outworks, which extend to the brink of the Foffe that contains the water which runs. round the citadel, of which I fhall fay fomething hereafter. To the right of St. Andrews is a moft beautiful and ftrong bastion, covered by a great hornwork, which commands the water-gate, through which the river Deûle runs out of the town; and a little farther. on, almost in front of this gate, arę * See our last number, p. 174, two two ftrong works, technically called. Tenaillons. It was before this front the Allies fat down, when they began the fiege of Life in 1708; and against it they directed their hottest fire: it was not, however, because this was the weakest part of the town, but becaufe the Deûle afforded them a greater facility to bring their artillery and ammunition from Menin, than if they had carryed them by land: by the length of the fiege, which, exclufive of the defence made by the citadel, lafted three months, you may well conjecture the place was not weak; however, it has been fince more ftrongly fortified by additional works, many of which have mines under them; and in cafe of neceffity may in a moment be blown up by the garrifon, if a befieging enemy fhould fucceed fo far as to make a lodgement on them: the two principal baftions of this place are extenfive and ftrong; and would admit of retrenchments in the gorge. The next front that the town prefents on this fide is that of St. Magdalen: the horn-work which covers St. Magdalen's gate cannot be fufficiently admired; it is one of the fineft pieces of fortification in Europe; it is the work of that famous engineer, Marshal Vauban: even the next front is covered by the fire of this horn-work. On the baftions are placed what engineers call cavaliers; that on the left, which was built before the fiege of 1667, when Louis the XIVth took Lifle, did great execution among the befiegers; and that monarch having found its fire very terrible, went in perfon to view and infpect it minutely, after he had made himself master of the town. St. Maurice's gate ftands in the next front; it is defended by two large baftions; on that to the left is a cavalier, the plunging fire from which must render an attack on this fide very hazardous indeed: the baftions themfeves are covered by a number of other works. Near this gate are fluices, by means of which the lands for a confiderable way in front may be laid under water; and fuch is the fituation of the country near it, that a befieging army could not poffibly drain it off. The any The next front includes the gate of Fives, a name which it derives from a village called Fives, towards which it looks. It was on this fide that Louis XIV. made his grand attack, and fucceeded: but at that time the works confifted only of a few half-moons; at prefent there is a ftrong bastion, covered by a counter-guard. In the gorge of this baftion may be feen the old gate of Fives, which is now fhut up. reafon of its being shut up, and another opened juft near it, is curious enough. It was through this old gate that Louis the XIVth made his entry into Lisle after the fiege; and in order to perpetuate in the minds of the inhabitants the memory of his greatnefs and munificence, he published an edict, by which he exempted from the payment of tolls or cuftoms of fort all goods, &c. that should arrive in Lifle through the gate by which the Grand Monarque had made his entry. But he had foon caufe to wish he had not beftowed fuch a privilege on this gate; for the people all round the country ufed to go much out of their way, in order to enter the town by the gate of Fives; fo that no toll or tax was paid at any of the other gates; and confequently there was almost an annihilation of the revenue arifing from tolls and taxes on goods entering the town. The King faw it was neceffary to divife fome means to restore the revenue; but at the fame time he made it a point of honour and of confcience not to violate the privileges granted by the edict. This confcientious and bnourable monarch, who with fo little remorfe, and who, regardless of honour and public faith, revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had been published in confequence of a folemn treaty, had his fcruples with refpect to this gate: he was happy, however, in an expedient by which the revenue was restored, and his word not violated: he ordered a new gate to be built within a few yards of the old one; and then caufed the latter to be fhut up. The new gate could not be called the old one; therefore could not claim the privileges which had been granted only to the latter. But to return to the works. Farther on is the baftion of the Noble Tower |