table, or fossil, but what are common in other places. There is neither wood nor waste ground in the parish; and we know, that where man has completely subdued the foil to his own use, he permits nothing to feed or profper, but what is serviceable to his private interest.

'The air hereis dry and healthy; fogs are not frequent, and clear off early when they happen. The inhabitants are happy, and many of them live to a good old age.

Their fuel here is pitcoal, which they have chiefly brought from Derbyshire and some from lord Middleton's coal-pits near Nottingham. The carriage being heavy, and the roads bad, it used to cost them 15d. or 16d. per hundred weight: but, since the navigation has been completed to Loughborough, they get it for 1od. or IId. per hundred.

'No great road leads through the parish; but the turnpike road from Oakham to Melton passes within a mile by Leesthorp, and they come upon it in going to Melton, at about the same distance before they come to Burton.

There is not any river that runs through the parith, or comes near it; and only one inconfiderable brook, which is sometimes dry. This joins another, more confiderable, that comes from Somerby by Leesthorp, and both, proceeding jointly by Burton Lazars, fall into the river Eye, between Brentingby and Melton.

There is no papist in this parish, nor one dissenter of any denomi, nation.

The parochial feast follows St. James; to whom the church is dedicated.

• There have been no perambulations time immemorial,

2

'The rent of the whole parish is

14221. 5s.

The number of houses is 21; families 22; and inhabitants 123; three teams kept.

The land tax at 4s. raises 1641. 14s. 2d.

'Labourers have Is. 2d. per day in summer, and is. in the winter; in harvest 1s. 6d. and their victuals. Land lets at 15s. an acre.

The nett expence of the poor in 1776 was 271. 16s.

'Medium of three years, 17831785, 451. 8s. 4d.'

These volumes are illustrated by a very liberal provifion of engravings, in which a view is given of every individual parish-church, as well as of feats, monuments, antiquities, and other remarkable objects. An appendix to the second volume contains a number of deeds, charters and other papers relative to each hundred; which addition will doubtless be repeated in the future volumes.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abbate Metastasio. In which are incorporated Translations of bis principal Letters. By Charles Burney, Muf. D. F. R. S. 8νο, 3 Vols. 1796.

THE name of Metastasio has long been associated in every European metropolis with the exquifitepleasures of the noble, the opulent, and the polished. The euphony of his lines and the fitness of his fentiments have been impreffed on our recollection, in concert with the most vivid and brilliant displays of all the arts of delight. Melodies of the most fascinating composers, assisted by punctual or cheftras,

cheftras, by fingers the most compaffing and smooth toned, have concurred in winging the shafs of his fong to our inmost fenfibility. The painter's magnificent perspectives, the dazzling pageants of the decorator, the easy floating motions of groupes of graceful dancers, and all the magic glories of realized mythology, have mingled at the theatre their influence with that of the poet, and have affifted in ftirring up within us that luxurious irritation and tumult of feeling, which form the highest scope of the artist and the purest enjoyment of the connoiffeur. Stript, however, of all these circumstances of effect, Metaftafio has acquired a reputation for genius and abilities, which the philofopher who peruses his writings in the closet will not, probably, hefitate to ratify. Yet how often does it happen that, removed from within the glare of theatric illumination, the god of the operahouse has withered into an ordinary man; and that the liquid language of the fkies had lent an oracular folemnity to fimple thoughts, or a bewitching harmony to infignificant infipidities? Be this, however, as it may, and even fuppofing that the literary character of Metaftafio himself thould be fated to fuffer depreciation by time and revolutions in taste; - should his dramatic writings even become a mere school-book for the learner of Italian;-yet he has refided so much at courts, and has been the darling of fo many artists, that his life can never be an object of indifference to those whose gentle eye preferably fixes on those places and periods, in which the pleasures of man have been the chief occupation of his rulers; and in which

factions have confined their bloodless struggles to the establishment of a theory of music, and have never extended their proscriptions beyond the condemnation of a tragedy.

To the inherent fashion of the subject of these volumes, is fuperadded the stronger recommendation which they derive from the celebrity of the author. The hiftorian of music is accustomed to convene and to fatisfy an elegant audience; and, whether he touches the harp or the monochord, he displays a masterly hand. His materials have been industriously collected at Vienna and in Italy, and comprehend, besides the wellknown biographies of Retzer and of Christini, many works of inferior note, as well as the posthumous edition of the poet's letters. The bulk of this publication confifts indeed of a tranflation of those letters, connected by the requifite interftices of narrative; all which form a very amusing whole.

Metaftafio was born at Rome in 1698, where his father had fettled as a confectioner. At school he displayed early talents as an improvisatore, and before eleven years of age could fing extemporaneous verses. Gravina, the civilian, known by having written tragedies on the Greek model, heard, admired, and adopted the young bard; to whom he gave a literary education, getting him admitted to the bar, and to deacon's orders, that civil and ecclesiastical preferment might be alike open to him. When 22 years of age, Metaftafio visited Naples, having inherited the property of Gravina, and attached himself as cicisbeo to the female finger Romanina. He there wrote an opera, which succeeded,

and

and from this time he applied wholly to theatric poetry. In 1729 he was invited to Vienna as the Imperial Laureate, and continued to furnish such dramas as his patron bespoke, until his death in 1782.

Dr. Burney well observes that it is poffible for a man of learning, study, and natural acumen, to be a good critic on the works of others without genius for producing original works himself, similar to those which he is able to censure. The opinion of Metastasio, therefore, may have its weight even when he criticises the great operawriters of antiquity: for the modern opera is the only faithful imitation of the antient tragedy. From his practice it appears, however, that he entertained one fundamental error in theory, and had not discovered that, in the opera, the means of imitation being peculiarly apparent, the distress should be more harraffing and the crimes more atrocious, in order to excite an equal degree of tragic emotion with these representations which approach more nearly to real and common life. We had felected

fome passages in order to give an idea of the spirit of his criticifm: but, finding them too long for our insertion, we must refer our readers to the 3d vol. in which they occur, p. 356-379.

Let it not be a reproach o our estimable biographer, that he has described, with the voluminous gravity of history, a groupe of poets, fingers, actors, and musicians. It is well that a work of this kind should make its appearance. We are scarcely accustomed as yet to affign, in human story, a place to each proportioned to the extent of his influence on human happiness. The crowned and the titled have their peculiarities immortalized, although they may have never added to the enjoyments of a nation ten evenings of glowing delight. The amufers of our leisure, the artists of our pleafures, may justly be ranked among the benefactors of society. Let it belong, then, to the muse of fame to elevate monuments over their remains, and to ftrew flowers on their grave, in token of our grate. ful remembrance!

Printed by J. Crowder, Warwick-Square.