sistency, and authority to the whole. In this case, I should recommend that one (or two, at most) should be the principal labourers; that the rest should be contributors, revisers, or correctors ;

that a certain portion, when prepared, should be revised at stated periods by the society, once. twice, or oftener, as might be found necessary; and that Bothing should be admitted for publication unsanctioned by a majority of the members.

As this is, however, at present but a general proposition, I have only to add, that as soon as I have published the third part of the "Preceptor and his Pupils," which will be a preparatory. work on the force and signification of the English words for the use of schools, I intend to offer a specimen of what I conceive to be a proper analysis of words for the purpose of a dictionary; and should my views meet the approbation of the public, I shall then willingly submit the result of my labours to the

decision of such a literary tribunal. Yours, &c.

GEORGE CRABE.

Walworth, Sept. 8, 1808.

"O for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention."

Nor indeed without reflecting on

-the very casques

That did affright the air at Agincourt;"

and, consequently, exulting in the hero of that glorious scene.

There is not, perhaps, any circuinstance in the English history that basever given such celebrity to a town, as the birth of Henry V. at Monmouth. Edward of Carnarvon is little-spoken of; but the gay, the gallant Harry of Monmouth is the theme of every tongue. This traditional celebrity, although it certainly arose from a most extraordinary victory, has been greatly influenced by the historical dramas of Shakespeare, and is now so moulded into our mental frame, that it is impossible to hear the town of Monmouth mentioned without recurring immediately to the exploits both of the youthful prince and

the victorious monarch.

Impressed with this idea, it is with pleasure that we submit to our readers the preceding view, and also give to them a short account of the place of his nativity.

MONMOUTH, the county town of the shire from which it derives its name, is built in a most picturesque situation, at the confluence of those two romantic rivers, the Minnow and the Wye, over each of which there is a handsome stone bridge, and also another over the small river Trothy. In the market place, which is approached by a broad and handsome strect, stands the TowN-HALL, which is the principal object of our view. It is, forming an elegant colonnade, and ore as will be observed, erected upon pillars namented with the statue of Henry V. whom we have already stated to have heen one of the greatest ornaments of his country. In contemplating this spot to which we were once much attached, it strikes us, that the general view of the place, especially on a market-day, is one of the most lively that can be imagined; the vast variety of characters from the neighbouring counties of England and

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santry, and labouring people from the vicinity, combine to form the most pic turesque groups, in which national characteristics and national manners are strongly depicted. In these groups, the beauty of the fair sex of this part of the

Of the public buildings in Monmouth, the most conspicuous is St. Mary's Church, which is of stone, and is decorated with a spire steeple, 200 feet in height. A little to the north of it are the remains of an alien priory of the Benedictines, founded in the reign of Henry I. by Wihenoe, Lord of Monmouth. The gaol, which is most properly placed at the extremity of the town, is remarkable as well for the massive strength of its architecture, as for the excellent regulations under which its interior is governed. Camden says, that in the midst of the town, near the market-place, stands the castle, which (as we find in the king's records) flourished in the time of William the Conqueror, but is thought to have been rebuilt by Joha Baron of Monmouth;" though it appears that there was a strong fortress here in the times of the Saxons, and the ruins of the walls, with the four gates, were visible at the period when Leland wrote. At present, there are only part of the two round towers discoverable which belonged to the eastern gate, the gate and bridge of the Munnow, some traces of the moat, and the ruins of the castle. A free school was founded here by a person of the name of William Jones, a native of Newland, in Gloucestershire, who having, in menial service, amassed a considerable for

With respect to the beauty of the girls of this neighbourhood, we remember a piece of doggrell, which, as t shews that it had not passed unnoticed by an occasional visitor, we shall quote.

Why droops the sweet girls of the dale While Dean's-forest nymphs are in tears? Why do lies decline, nor embellish the vale?

Where the glowing carnation no longer

tune, returned in disguise to his native village, and asked relief, which was refused, and the supposed pauper referred to Monmouth, where the sagacity of the officers discovered that he had a settlement arising from servitude: he therefore, without giving them the trouble to pass him, repaired thither; and his reception by the townspeople so influenced his mind in their favour, that he founded a free-school, and endowed alms-houses for twenty poor persons, who receive 3s. 6d. per week. There is a considerable iron manufactory in the town; and the preparation of bark, which is brought from the forest of Dean, affords employment to many. Monmouth is a corporate borough, governed by a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs, fifteen common-council-men, &c. it is 25 miles from Gloucester, and 132 from London, containing 638 houses, and 3,345 inhabitants, viz. 1,512 males, and 1,835 females.

We have before recorded the celebrity of a native of this town in arms; we must now mention one of far infe rior rank, that, considering the times, made an almost equal progress in literature; we mean, Geoffrey, the famous British historian, who lived about the middle of the twelfth century: he was first Archdeacon of Monmouth, and afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph. It was considered as a singular circumstance, that he resigned this see, and, as it was said, to pursue his studies unmolested, retired to the monastery of Abingdon, of which he was abbot.

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