compare the prefent times and feafons with the former, which are thus brought back again to our view. And I am perfuaded fuch notes would prove a fource of confiderable amufement to the think ing part of mankind (many of whom may not be qualified, perhaps, to make fuch judicious comments on feveral articles), were it only to fhew the progrefs of Nature through the island, and wherein might be feen the causes or events by which her operations had been affected; and from whence the

minds of thofe interested in the imme

diate appearance of vegetation may derive confolation from a probability of a favourable change, or not be too fanguine, and rely wholly on the present Imiles of fo capricious a beauty.

It would prove a fecondary pleasure alfo to have the opportunity to compare the days of Spring on which the cuckoo was first heard, that destroyer of the peace of many a feathered pair; for the coupling of birds is ever, I believe, a pretty fure indication of the advance of the feafon; and the fame congenial power which promotes their union operates, in the fame degree, on the filent animation of the earth. We could then obferve too in what county first the nightingale commenced his folemn air; but especially in which part of the kingdom the fwallows make their first appearance. Your correfpondent, I find, faw two of thofe birds 200 miles N.W. of London, on the 28th of April, but I had already seen two or more on Eafter Monday, the 25th, within five miles of the metropolis.

The coming and the going, or, if you like it better, the appearance and difappearance of thefe beneficial creatures, and particularly how they are referved until the appointed feafon, demand man's admiration. Were it not for thefe three tribes, which take all their food upon the wing, our atmosphere, in the Summer months, would foon be rendered unfit for refpiration. The unfledged night-bird, fo well known in every village, may, be faid to exift, in like manner, upon the wing; and they reduce the number of thofe infects which do not appear in the day. Thus does Providence give life and happiness to myriads of creatures of various unknown claffes, the redundancy of which ferve for the fupport of others of a fuperior order. And though innumerable lambs are now daily flain to gratify the appetites and the wants of men, yet we

Juné 15.

THE Apofile Paul's repeated cau

tion to Timothy and Titus, that a bishop be "no ftriker," is much infifted on in a late publication, to which Archdeacon Paley affixes the quaint title of "Hora Paulinæ," as "aliene from one who lived under a Hierarchy, and as what could not have been written after the Government of the Church had acquired that dignified form it soon and naturally assumed.” Far be it from me to question the authenticity of any works afcribed, in Scripture Canon, to that great luminary of the Gentile world. I have only to remark, that ar guments fo extremely captious and trifling do far more harm than good to any caufe whatever. We need only to take a curfory view of the fituation of thofe Churches with whom St. Paul corre fponded, to fatisfy ourselves that they were by no means in a ftate of barbarifm. That the Grecian cities, Rome and Jerufalem, in the apoftolic days, exhibited the refinements, together with all the virtues and vices, of polished life, the Scriptures, and various antient profane hiftorians, abundantly testify. The accounts we every where meet with of their luxuries, particularly in their apparel, and at their feafts, fhew that, instead of just emerging from a ruder ftate, they had pafled the due bounds of civilization, and were verging apace towards that effeminacy which drew on their ruin.

But, from reading Mr. Paley, we should be led to infer that the Apoftle was addreffing himfelf to the uncivilized Goths, or that he echoed the diffonant jargon of thofe Picts who inhabited the Northern parts of this ifland, and, with out garments to protect them from the feverity of the climate, ran howling over their inhofpitable mountains; or that the buik of his converts were of a fimilar ftamp with thofe favages our Saxon predeceffors, who, with brutal exultation, dragged fhrieking victims to the altar, where their Druids officiated,

and

have, more than once, been a fubject of confideration in your useful and entertaining Mifcellany, I have thrown together fuch thoughts as occurred to me upon the fubject, hoping that the publication of them may be a mean, if not of conveving to fuch of your readers as are troubled with them ufeful information, at least of engaging tome pertons, who are better informed, to throw more light upon the fubject.

I find no reason to fuppofe that Beetles are an ient inhabitants of the boufes in this country. Shakspeare, indeed, makes Macbeth (peak of " thard-born" Beetles, j. e. fas Dr. Johnfon, 64 produced among brokin tones or pots;" or, as Bihop Warburton, hatche in clefs of wood," but, in the fame lise (a&t III. fcene 3.) he mentions alfo their dowly hums ringing night's yawning peal." Now, as our mode n houfe-beetles are perfectly filent, the poet must certainly refer to that infe& which we ca›l a cockchater, which is a fort of flving beetle, verv frequently to be feen and heard, and even felt, in a fummer evening in the country, for it flies about making a humming noife, and often triking aganft one's face as it flies. And, if Beetles had been as numerous formerly as they are in fome houfes at prefent, we fhould certainly find more frequent references to them in old books than we meet with: befides, how general, and how immenfely numerous, muft they by this time have been, especially confidering the fmailnefs of the rooms in days of yore, the loofe tapestry with which they abounded, the clufenefs of the buildings in large towns, and the general want of party-walls! On the contrary, they feem to me to abound moft in newer houfes : there are, within lefs than a mile of me, feveral new, well-built houfes, in all parts of which, I understand, they fwarm to fuch a degree as to be abfolutely intolerable; and I myfelf, but a few days ago, killed one that was walking, at Loon-day, in a new and elegant building of three or four years Banding. I have heard of their abounding at Briftol, and, I think, in fome part of Lincolnshire. They de ight in hot and dry places, fuch as chimnies, ovens, fugar-boufes, &c.; and I am perfuaded that it is a mistaken idea which fome perfons have adopted, that the primary and chofen refidence of thefe animals is in fewers. They are very voracious; and, I apprehend, eat almost any thing they can get at. But we are by no means fully intormed of

their hiftory. They will fometimes totally, and, fo far as appears, finally, abandon a house, without any cause known to the inhabitants. This has actually been the cafe, as I am informed, in two houses in my neighbourhood, in both which they were very numerous. I have known them (warm in one house in a prodigious degree; and in the adjoining houfe, which was feparated from the former only by a thin party-wall, not above one or two have been fren in a twelvemonth. With refpe&t to the common rem dy, a hedgehog, one of my neighbours procured one, which used to be kept in his kitchen, and let loofe to devour the vermin at night; but he was at length glad to get rid of it, for he thought it was the means of driving them into a bedchamber over the kitchen: and I have heard that another perfon who kept a hedgehog loft feveral little chickens, and, after fome time, found that the hedgehog deffroved them; they are, moreover, I understand, very nally creatures.

Some time fince I purchased a houfe, which I knew fwarmed with thefe vermin, though it had not been built forty years. No means had been feriously thought of, or pains taken, to get rid of them, for a long courfe of time: the fervants of my predeceffor very feldom opened the fafhes, and, I apprehend, were not very liberal in the ute of foap and water. I could find nobody that pretended to poflefs any specifick for the eradication of the verniin; and most of the remedies that I ever met with were mere palliatives, like that in your Magazın: for May laft. The places where they principally fwarmed were the kitchen and an adjoining clotet, which are facing the S. or SSE. and below the level of the garden. My furveyor directed the workmen to pull thole two rooms topieces, to take down the wainfcot and chimney-piece (behind the later of which were found thoufands of young' beetles, that looked more like ear-wigs), neatly to whiten the walls, and to fit-up the rooms again without wainlcot; for

66

thus," fays he, "there will be no place in which they can breed, or be hind which they can be hid. For a time none appeared; but afterward I faw a few, and heard that there were more be low fairs. At length a friend tound in a country paper, and communicated to me, the following "remedy for extirpating cock-roaches" (a larger and more offeanve fpecies of beeties): "Take afmali

quantity

ap

quantity of white arfenick, finely pulverized, frew it on fome fmall crumbs of bread, and lay it, the laft thing at night, on the hearth-ftone, or any other place where they principally haunt. Repeat ing it a few nights will have the defired effect." Thinking that it feemed to promife fair, I refolved to try it, and plied for fome arfenick to my apothecary, an intelligent man, who advised me to mix with it fine-powdered fugar inftead of crumbs of bread. I followed his prefcription for a night or two; but, not finding that it produced any vifible effect, I gave it up. I had fome converfation with him about the origin of the'e vermin. I obferved, that the most of thofe which I had feen in my house were not black, as the true beetles are, but reddish, which I understand to be the colour of the Weft Indian cock-roaches; and he feemed of opinion, that they must have been originally produced by the importation of thofe animals; an idea which feems to be confirmed by their colour, unless it be fuppofed that all the black beetles are originally of that colour, and afterward turn black. Now, if there be any ground for this hypothefis, may we not imagine that they are first introduced into our houfes by beams of old ship timber made ufe of in the building, which are impregnated with the eggs of thefe vermin derived from fugar-hogfheads, and warmed into life when the timbers happen to be fixed near a fireplace, oven, copper, or the like? and does not this argument receive fome ftrength from the appearance of the animals in so short a time after the building of houfes? Where I have been able to difcover crevices, from whence it might be fuppofed that the vermin would come forth into the rooms, fuch as the edges of a marble hearth, the bottoms of doorpofts that have fhrunk, or the like (and their bodies are fo very thin that it is amazing through what fmall crevices they make their way), I have had the places carefully stopped with plailer of Paris, or putty, and that appears to have anfwered the defired end. Upon the whole, the house is very tolerably, I will not fay totally, freed from this nuifance and, though I apprehend that the introduction of fresh air and light, by the conftant opening of fhutters and fathes, frequent (cowering of rooms, and the deftruction of them whenever seen, have done much toward ridding the houfe of thefe vermin, yet there is one thing which, I am inclined to think, has

been more effectual than all the other, and that I have heard ridiculed as a piece of fuperftition and folly, namely, a black cat, which the fervants fay they have frequently feen eat the vermin. I mention his colour, becaafe I have reafon to believe that white cats never eat them : at the fame time I must acknowledge I have heard it obferved, that cars which eat these animals foon grow fick and die; however, the fcavenger of iny family feems at prefent in good health and fpirits.

I tranfmit to you, Mr. Urban, these imperfect hints, fancying that, if you think proper to favour them with a place in your Magazine, both you and I may, perhaps, receive the thanks of fome of your numerous readers, who, like me, have a great antipathy to vermin. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

E.

July 1. THOUGH I am by no means forry

to be undeceived, I must own I have always fufpecled Mr. Mickle to be author of the pretendedly antient ballads in the third and fourth volumes of Evans's Collection. This fufpicion arose from the following caufes: first, Mr. Mickle was a poet of genius, of which the forgeries in queftion carry fome marks; fecondly, I knew that he and Evans were very intimate; and lastly, he was a native of Scotland, and (though I abhor national prejudices) I firmly be lieve that more perfons of that country have been concerned in literary impofitions upon public credulity than of any other in the world, from Hector Boetius, in the fifteenth century, down to his Prototype in the prefent: it remains for your correspondent to tell us, whether the actual perpetrator of this piece of villainy is to be added to the lift. Of Mr. Mickle's circumftances I can fay nothing; but as he had, for fome time before his death, folicited fubfcriptions for a guinea quarto of his "Poetical Works" (which I need fcarcely fay was never publifhed), I have a right to conclude that they were far from affluent. That Evans publifhed the volumes as contain. ing original ballads of genuine antiquity, no one who looks into them can entertain a doubt; and I fhall never think that a law of principle would allow fo profligate an impofition to be practifed with impunity: indeed, I know an eminent lawyer who is of opinion that the culprit may be indicted as a common cheat. Being a fort of fmatterer in ofd poetry, I called at Evans's fhep to exa