ART. XIII. A general Account of all the Rivers of Note in Great Britain; with their several Courses, their peculiar Characters, the Countries through which they flow, and the entire Sca Coast of our Island; concluding with a minute Description of the Thames, and its various auxiliary Streams. By Henry Skrine, Esq. LL. B. of Warley in Somersetshire, Author of three successive Tours in the North of England and Scotland in 1795, and two successive Tours in South and North Wales in 1799 8vo. PP. 412. 10s. 6d. Boards. Payne and Mackinley. 1801. WE have on many occasions found our attention excited, on opening a new book, by an attractive vignette, — sent, like an avant courier, to announce the approach of persons of consequence; and when we have prepared our eager minds for the visit, we have, like many poor Maitres d'Hote!, been disappointed in our company. Mr. Skrine, however, as Sir Archy Mac Sarcasm would say, is none of your flashy young dogs that gang off like a squab; though he, too, presents us with a vignette. As he tells us that this design is from the pencil of a lady, we shall forbear saying a word about the cat and bagpipes, the goose and gridiron, and old Father Thames the ballad seller; though we could have wished, in deserved compliment to the author, to have seen a frontispeice from the exquisite hand of Claude de Loraine himself. Mr. Skrine has here given an Extraordinary Gazette of the March of all the Rivers, of Note, in Great Britain, and to the entire sea coast of our island; and, thus informed, we envy not those countries in which the Ganges and Hydaspes, the Cydnus and the Nile, the Tibur and the Po, nor even Pactolus itself, flowin proud celebration: neither do we wish for the deeplaid and surly fortresses of Cohorn and Vauban, while nature has engineered us with her rocks and her cliffs. Considerable travel, and, which is much more rare, enlarged and accurate observation, will be found in this volume: the author of which has surveyed water, wood, lawn, hill, and mountain, (the constituents of landscape,) with very keen and learned eyes; and he has told what he has seen with great perspicacity, and in the easy language of a gentleman. Although, therefore, he should exclaim with the Poet, "Flumina amem silvasque inglorius," we must introduce him to the public as a traveller to whom they are highly indebted for very elegant home information, in which the generality of persons have always been most woefully ignorant. In all countries, it is a common question, on seeing a river, to ask its name; and it is as com * See the late vols. of the M. R. mon mon an answer, particularly in our own country,—I cannot tell: but, all praise and honour be to Mr. Skrine! we shall now know not only the names, but the source, character, and progress of all our rivers; with the mansions, villages, towns, cities, castles, churches, palaces, &c. that brighten their banks, and their pastoral sportings through our beautified meadows; as also where, unblest by shrub or sprig, they run and shiver through the wilds of Scotland and Wales. We present to our readers a sample of the entertainment here afforded, in the author's account of some of the rivers in Devonshire; commencing with those which assist in forming our great national port of Plymouth : THE TAMAR is one of the most considerable rivers in the west of England, rising in the northern point of the district of Stratton in Cornwall, (not far from the source of the Torrige, which flows to the northern sea by Biddeford,) and dividing for a long distance. Cornwall from Devonshire. The Tamar's course is mostly southward, with some little variations, to the vicinage of Launceston; it then inclines somewhat to the east till its junction takes place, first with the Lyd from its cataract, wooded dell, and rocky bridge of Lydford, and then with the Tavy from Tavistock; after which that great æstuary is formed, which, descending to the south in several bold sweeps from Salt-Ash, incloses the dock of Plymouth, and afterwards co-operates with the Plym to create that large body of water, which constitutes Plymouth Sound, thus communicating with the sea. • The Tamar abounds in fine features, and excells in a majestic outline, occasionally attended with rocks, woods, and the usual appendages of romantic beauty. Launceston, the county-town of Cornwall, occupies a fine eminence on the west, above its steep banks, (which are there thickly fringed with wood,) remarkable for the lofty mount which forms the keep of its castle, and divided from Newport by the little river Atterry. Somewhat above, the Werrington descends to the Tamar from the north-west, flowing through the Duke of Northumberland's pleasant park of Werrington. On the Cornish side, a little below Tavistock, Culteal, a curious old seat of Lord Edgecumbe, exhibits the wild beauties of the Tamar in great perfection, and contrasts delightfully his ornamented and extended territory of Mount Edgecumbe. The Tavy, from Tavistock in the north-east, soon afterwards joins the Tamar, (which is still farther increased by the Lynher, from Callington, and the Tidi, from St. Germans on the Cornish side,) and increasing in importance, as the tide more and more influences it, soon becomes crowded with vessels, and stretches out in broad curving branches, which intersect the country on cach side. At length, its receding shores form the wind. ing basin of Plymouth Harbour, between the new town created by its Dock, and the Cornish Borough of Salt-Ash, presenting an assemblage of objects in its splendid exhibition of that grand repository of the British navy, which is difficult to be described, and no where to be matched, • The ! The Plym here adds its tributary waters to the Tamar, rising ou the west side of Dartmoor, and inclining to the south-west till it forms a large basin beneath the old town of Plymouth, and the fine woods and plantations surrounding Saiterham, the seat of Lord Boringdon. Here is constituted a commodious haven for the numerous merchant-vessels which come to Plymouth, separated from the greater bay filled by the men of war in the Tamar. The conflux of these two branches with the sea produces that noble road for shipping called the Sound of Plymouth, between Cornwall and Devonshire, opening to the south-east in front of that distant rock in the English Channel, on which the famous light-house of Eddistone has at last been successfully constructed, after various failures. The high grounds extending from the promontory of the Ram's Head defend this expanse of water from the west, above which Maker Tower exalts itself, whence signals are hoisted relating to vessels, ap◄ pearing in the channel. The enchanting groves, lawns, and plantations of Mount Edgcumbe, clothe the sides of this noble eminence with the utmost grandeur and beauty with which nature and art can be attended, and the choicest evergreens flourish here almost sponta neously, with a degree of verdure which is indescribable. Thus is formed a terrestrial paradise in the midst of the busiest naval display, which commands most happily the grand objects of the town, dock, garrison, and hospitals, of Ply mouth and Stonehouse, with the basins of the Tamar and the Plym, crowded with shipping, and the greater bay of Plymouth Sound, varied with alternate striking views aver sea and land. In the next chapter, Mr. S. continues his description of the streams of this beautiful county; and we shall make room for a part of his additional account: THE YEALME, ERME, AND AVEN, are three inconsiderable rivers, rising in Dartmoor, and reaching the sea in the southern projection of the Devonshire coast. The pleasant spot and Inn of Ivy Bridge, on the great western road to Plymouth, are found on the. banks of the Erme, which is there a mountain torrent. The course of all these rivers is southward, a little inclined to the west, and each has a considerable estuary. THE DART originates in the mountainous region of Dartmoor, descending first southward, and then inclining considerably to the east, before it quits that rude district; its winding course is afterwards to the south-east, as it passes Totness, and falls into the sea: between Dartmouth and Kingsweare. The Dart is the principal of all those rivers that are produced by the rocky range of Dartmoor in the centre of Devonshire, which in wildness at least, though not in height or extent, may emulate most of the mountainous tracts of Wales or Scotland, and can display a stronger contrast to the extraordinary fertility and riches of the surrounding districts, than those countries are generally capable of exhibiting. Rapidity is its first characteristic, and this quality it retains long after it leaves those mountains which enclose its source, as it descends into the rich plains of the southern part of Devonshire. A little A little west of Ashburton it forms a charming valley, and flows in placid beauty beneath the high hill, which is finely distinguished by the castle and church of Totness. Here the Dart is crossed by its last bridge, and, soon afterwards receiving the tide, it rolls in a majestic stream between bold hills covered with cultivation, woods, and villages, disclosing new beauties at every curve, and presenting a grand object to the adjacent country, varied perpetually both in its form and attendant features. The noble ruin of Berry Pomeroy Castle, an old seat of the Duke of Somerset, occupies an eminence on the east, at some distance from the river, below which a very picturesque rivulet descends through a dark winding dell, adding much to the solemnity and beauty of the scene, where the deep gloom of the overhanging wood, which encircles several majestic towers clothed with ivy, inspires that kind of awful dignity which seems suited to the most romantic periods of our antient history. The eminences which enclose the channel of the Dart become at last almost mountainous, forming on the west a barrier to the southern peninsula of Devonshire, between that river and the Tamar, and on the east to the Road of Torbay, while the river, winding between their wooded and rocky bases, passes the very striking position occupied by the hamlet of Kingsweare on its eastern bank, and the singularly irregular town of Dartmouth on its western, the whitened fronts of whose houses, built in stages over cach other, and beautifully interspersed with wood and rock, form a curious assemblage of interesting objects. The ivied walls of Dartmouth Castle, with its rustic spire, starting out from beneath a bold rocky hill, close the prospect with great majesty, and strongly mark the proud exit of the Dart towards the sea. THE TEIGN is the most eastern of all the Devonshire rivers, which take their rise in Dartmoor; its principal source is found near the village of Chegford on the eastern side of that wild district, not far from Moreton Hampstead. Its course is at first eastward, inclining afterwards to the south till it reaches Chudleigh, a little below which place, the smaller and more western branch joins it; both thus united, form a broad, but short æstuary, inclining to the east, which terminates in the bay of Teignmouth. No peculiar character marks either of these streams before their union, but the large basin they at last form is a very striking object, filling the whole space of a winding valley between the protruding eminences, each side of which is beautifully interspersed with woods, pastures, and villages. Teignmouth is one of the pleasantest bathing places on this coast, and the bold red rock, which forms the western barrier of the Teign on its exit into the large bay at its mouth, exhibits a grand object, variegated with stripes of green herbage, and protruding its massy pile into the sea.' We must desist from farther extracts, and shall only add that this volume will maintain a place in our travelling library, as worthy of the time, the expence, and the attention of a genGreen. tleman. ART. ART. XIV. The Philosophy of Natural History. By the late William Smellie, Member of the Antiquarian and Royal Societies of Edinburgh. Vol. II. 4to. pp. 515. 11. 15. Boards. binsons, &c. Ro THE In the commencement, the writer points out the utility of method in every science, and especially the advantages to be derived from a systematical arrangement of natural bodies. He then proceeds to give an historical review of the works of the most celebrated naturalists, with some remarks on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of their respective arrangements and systems. The second chapter treats of the multiplication and continuation of species; and, after some observations on the division of animals into viviparous and oviparous, Mr. Smellie states the principal antient and modern theories, particularly those which concern the generation of the larger animals. We here find the theories of Hippocrates, Aristotle, Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Harvey, Malpighi, De Graaf, Valisniari, Leeuwenhoeck, Buffon, and Bonnet: but we must necessarily pass over these details, as well for the sake of brevity as on account of the respect which is due to delicacy in a miscellaneous work. In the 4th Section of this Chapter, remarks are made on partial re-production; and the Earth-worm, Polypus, and Crayfish, are adduced as examples. In the following section, Mr. S. ridicules many of the supposed effects of the imagination on pregnant animals. Although he allows that any violent passion in the mother may occasionally produce deformed or even maimed children, yet he by no means assents to the reality of effects commonly supposed to have been produced by longing, or any other slight and temporary imagination of the mother; and he observes that, in these supposed effects of imagination, it may be asked, why are not the impressions, and otten cruel ones, of the whip, seen upon the offspring of mares and she-asses? it may perhaps be alleged that the inferior animals have no imagination: no person, however, who observes the economy of the most common quadrupeds, can entertain a doubt that they are possessed of this power; but they have not the folly to exercise it in a manner so absurd. violently she-ass, or a cow, though hunger often obliges them to long 2 A mare, a |