this place of retirement after his first marriage, and he defcribes the beauties of his retreat in that fine paffage of his L'Allegro :

Sometime walking, not unseen,

By hedge-row elms, on hillocks green.

While the ploughman, near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milkinaid singeth blithe,

And the mower whets his scythe;

And ev'ry shepherd tells his tale,

Under the hawthorn in the dale.

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures,

Whilst the landscape round it measures:

Russet lawns, and fallows grey,

Where the nibbling flocks do stray;
Mountains, on whose barren breast,
The lab'ring clouds do often rest;
Meadows trim, with daisies pied,
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;
Towers and battlements it sees,
Bosom'd high in tufted trees.

Hard by, a cottage chimney smokes,
From betwixt two aged oaks. &c.

It was neither the proper season of the year, nor time of the day, to hear all the rural founds, and fee all the objects mentioned in this defcription; but, by a pleafing concurrence of circumftances, we were fa

luted, on our approach to the village, with the mufic of the mower and his fcythe; we faw the ploughman intent upon his labour, and the milkmaid returning from her country employment.

As we afcended the hill, the variety of beautiful objects, the agreeable stillness and natural fimplicity of the whole scene, gave us the highest pleasure. We at length reached the spot, whence Milton undoubtedly took moft of his images; it is on the top of the hill, from which there is a moft extenfive profpect on all fides: the diftant mountains that feemed to fupport the clouds, the villages and turrets, partly fhaded with trees of the finest verdure, and partly raised above the groves that furrounded them, the dark plains and meadows of a greyish colour, where the fheep were feeding at large, in fhort, the view of the ftreams and rivers, convinced us that there was not a fingle useless or idle word in the above-mentioned description, but that it was a moft exact and lively reprefentation of nature. Thus will this fine paffage,

which has always been admired for its elegance, receive an additional beauty from its exactness. After we had walked, with a kind of poetical enthusiasm, over this enchanted ground, we returned to the village.

in

The poet's houfe was close to the church, the greatest part of it has been pulled down, and what remains, belongs to an adjacent farm. I am informed that several papers Milton's own hand, were found by the gentleman who was laft in poffeffion of the estate. The tradition of his having lived there is current among the villagers: one of them fhewed us a ruinous wall that made part of his chamber, and I was much pleased with another, who had forgotten the name of Milton, but recollected him by the title of The Poet.

It must not be omitted, that the groves near this village are famous for nightingales, which are so elegantly described in the Penfierofo. Most of the cottage' windows are overgrown with fweet briars, vines, and honey-fuckles; and that Milton's habitation had

the fame ruftic ornament, we may conclude from his defcription of the lark bidding him good-morrow,

Thro' the sweet-briar, or the vine,

Or the twisted eglantine:

for it is evident, that he meant á fort of honey-fuckle by the eglantine; though that word is commonly used for the fweet-briar, which he could not mention twice in the fame couplet.

If I ever pass a month or fix weeks at Oxford in the Summer, I fhall be inclined to hire and repair this venerable mansion, and to make a feftival for a circle of friends, in honour of Milton, the most perfect scholar, as well as the fublimeft poet, that our country ever produced. Such an honour will be lefs fplendid, but more fincere and respectful, than all the pomp and ceremony on the banks of the Avon.

i have the honour, &c.

Towards the end of this year, Mr. Jones accompanied the family of Lord Spencer in a journey to the Continent. I cannot better

>

defcribe his occupations and reflections during this excurfion, than in his own words:

* Mr. JONES to C. REVICZKI.

Nice, 4th Feb. 1770.

The date of my letter will not fail to furprize you; for I do not write from the plains, through which the Thames or Ifis, fo juftly dear to me, glides, but from the foot of the Alps, and in front of the Ligurian fea.

I have refided in this delightful little spot nearly three months; it was not poffible therefore for me to receive your two most acceptable letters, dated in September and January, before my departure from England: I have read them with fingular pleasure, to which their length did not a little contribute. You cannot conceive my anxiety to perufe your Treatife on the Military Art of the Turks; it is, I understand, depofited in Lord Spencer's houfe in London, but I expect to receive a copy by the firft veffel which