occurs in record, is in a charter of the year 1433; though, in our author's opinion, the building is of a much older date. The adjoinings, now inhabited, were partly rebuilt by Mr. William Drummond the poet, in 1638, and partly by his fon and fucceffor, fir William Drummond. From the windows of thefe buildings, as well as from the adjacent garden, fays our author, there is a moft delightful and romantic prospect, fimilar to thofe given by poets of Fairy Land, the river E& running with a murmuring fiream clofe under the eye, through a deep rocky glen, whofe fides are cloathed with wood to the water's edge; the fream here and there breaking against large ftones, or the projecting rocks, which exhibit a variety of picturefque forms, tinged with different colours. What greatly adds to the beauty of the fcene is, that though the banks are plentifully wooded, there are here and there bare fpots, through which the rocks, contrafted with the foliage, appear to great advantage.'

Under and near the mansion two ranges of caves have been fcooped out of the rock. Vulgar tradition makes them the work of the Picts; and this opinion is embraced by Dr. Stukeley; but is combated, and we think invalidated, by Maitland.

At this place, it is faid, Drummond entertained for a confiderable time, Ben Jonfon the poet; who, we are told, walked from London to converfe with him, and to fee Hawthorn den..

Woodhouse-Lie is another of the beautiful fcenes on the North Ek. It was feemingly, our author informs us, a small caftellated manfion, fituated on an eminence or mount evidently factitious. Very little of the building, except a huge chimney and fome ftraggling walls, are remaining on the mount. Below it, to the weftward, is a fmall fragment of a round tower. Under the ruins on the mount are feveral fine vaults.

Marchiston Tower ftands at a fmall distance from the Wryte's Houfes. From the ftyle of this building, Mr. Grofe, in whofe judgment we may generally confide, thinks it to be of an ancient date. But what adds chiefly to its fame is, its once having been the feat of the celebrated John lord Napier, the inventor of logarithms.

Seton-Houfe. The greater part of this building was erected about the time of queen Mary; but a caftle or manfion is faid to have itood hereabouts from a very distant period, though frequently deftroyed by the English in their, different inva fions. The ornaments, of which there is a great profufion, are much in the tafte of thofe at Heriot's hofpital.

Within the walls of the castle or mansion, at a small distance to the cast of it, ftands Seton-church, which feems to have

been

been an elegant building, adorned with sculpture, fome of which is ftill remaining. It appears that the fpire was never finished. The roof is arched, and covered with flag-stones, with which the floor is alfo paved. There are yet remaining some monuments with infcriptions, of which the most remarkable are recited by our author.

Borthwick Castle stands near twelve miles fouth-east of Edinburgh, on a knowl, in the midst of a beautiful vale, bounded by hills, which are covered with corn and woods. It confifts of a fquare tower, ninety feet high, with fquare and round bastions at equal diftances from its base. The ftate rooms are on the first story, once acceffible by a drawbridge: fome of the apartments were very large, the hall forty feet long, and had its mufic gallery; the cieling lofty and adorned with paintings.

Dalhousie Caftle is fituated near eight miles fouth-east of Edinburgh. Our author obferves, that the prefent edifice was most probably erected on the foundation of a more ancient building, as from the ftyle of its architecture, part of it does not feem older than the middle of the fifteenth century. [To be continued.]

The Hiftory of France, from the first Eftablishment of that Monarchy to the prefent Revolution. 3 Vols. 8vo. 18s. Boards. Kearley.

THE

HE reduction of a voluminous hiftory to modern bounds is, by favouring the convenience both of purchasers and readers, performing a real fervice to literature. On this account, we always receive fatisfaction from judicious hiftorical abridgments; fuch, we mean, as comprise the principal events of nations, and place them in a light the molt fuitable for preferving the neceffary concatenation between political caufes and effects. What works of this kind lofe in extent, they never fail to compenfate by energy; and there can be little reason to regret the deficiency of minutenefs, where no imperfection appears either in the accuracy, or the perfpicuity of the narrative. The author of the work now before us afpires not to the fruitless attempt of enlarging historical knowledge by the introduction of any new documents: he adopts the authorities of the most eminent writers, who have treated, either profeffedly or incidentally, of the history of France; and he acknowledges, that, in fome few inftances, where he found it neceffary to convey the exact sense of thofe writers, he should have thought it prefumption to have altered their expreffions. This ingenuous avowal might juflify a fufpicion, that the work must thence be of an unequal and variegated texture; but, with refpect to the first and fecond vo

lumes, where only fuch adoption could be practifed, we can truly affirm that this is by no means the cafe. The author, amidst the task of compilation, has not forfeited his claims to the character of an original hiftorian; and while he occafionally gives place to the fentiments and expreffions of different writers, he has been careful to preferve an uniformity in the compofition of the work.

This hiftory begins with an account of the origin and first expeditions of the Franks, and the reign of Clovis, whofe conquests, the author obferves, were equally atchieved by his head and hand; but whofe throne was cemented by the blood of his kinfmen, the Merovingian princes. Of this founder of the French monarchy, who died in the year 511, in the forty-fifth of his age, our author gives the following character:

Among his contemporaries, the valour and victories of Clovis certainly allowed him to claim the foremost rank; but his valour was stained with cruelty, and his victories obfcured by injustice. In the invafion of the Burgundians and Vifigoths, the most partial hiftorians have defcribed him as the aggreffor; and though in the battle of Tolbiac his fword was drawn against the Alemanni in the defence of his ally and kinfman Sigebert, yet he foon after hefitated not to fecure his throne by the death of that very ally in whofe caufe he had triumphed. His ruling paflion was to render himself abfolute monarch of all Gaul; and he may be confidered as more fortunate in the execution of his defigns than juftifiable in the means he employed. In private life, after his converfion to Chriftianity, he was chafte and temperate; nor does it appear that the husband of Clotilda ever violated the purity of the marriage-bed.'

The defcendents of Clovis are more memorable for the talents and policy of their minifters, than for their own virtue or abilities. Their throne was accordingly fupplanted, by the enter priting Charles Martel, the mayor of their palace; and the year 751 beheld the unfortunate Childeric, the last of the race, degraded, fhaved, and immured for ever in a monaftery.

The Carlovingian race, to which the regal dignity was now ransferred, broke forth with a luftre that justified the choice of ne nation. Under the two firft of its princes, a great extent of territory was added to the government of the Franks; but by a fubfequent partition of the dominions of Charlemagne, the kingdoms of Germany and France were for ever separated. From this period the defcendents of Pepin, like those of the preceding royal family, declined both in activity and power; until, in the year 987, they became extinct in the perfon of Loshaire, who was diftinguished by the epithet of Faineant.

Hugh Capet next gave name to a new dynasty in the kingdom of France. Affection and intereft, our author obferves, com

bined to direct the choice of the nation; and the crown, which, in the election of Pepin, was annexed to the greatest office, was, in the perfon of Hugh Capet, transferred to the greatest fief.

Charles the Fourth dying without male iffue, the crown devolved on his coufin-german, Philip, denominated the first of the race of Valois. This race continued through a number of princes, of various fortunes and difpofitions, under whom the French monarchy was alternately obfcured and illuminated. Henry the Third, the laft prince of this line, being affaffinated by James Clement, a Jacobin friar, the fceptre was transferred to the houfe of Bourbon, in which family it has ever fince remained. The fovereign in whom the new dynasty commenced, is one of the most diftinguished princes in the annals of France, and, like Charlemagne, has been dignified with the illuftrious title of the Great. From a miferable state of anarchy and internal difcord, he raised the kingdom to a degree of profperity which it had never before attained; and he was meditating the plan of its farther aggrandifement, when, by the hand of the infamous Ravilliac, he experienced the fame violent fate with his immediate predeceffor. It is unneceffary to add, that this victim of fanaticism was the celebrated Henry the Fourth.

The author of the prefent work has deduced the narrative, through those several races of the French monarchs, with equal perfpicuity and concifenefs. His authorities being already eftablifhed, they can now require no inveftigation; and it will therefore be fufficient for us to lay before our readers a competent fpecimen of the hiftory.

While the marefchal of Ancre, elated at the prospect before him, gave loofe to a temper naturally rafh and vindictive, his capricious jealoufies and unbridled arrogance precipitated on his own head the ruin that he meditated against his enemies. He had placed about the perfon of the young king a gentleman of the name of Luines, who infinuated himfelf into the favour and confidence of Lewis, by his unwearied affiduitics, and the ar dour with which he planned and partook of his childish amusements; but while the thoughts and hours of this new favourite feemed occupied by fports and pleafures the moft frivolous, he in private nourished an ambition above his rank and station. The marefchal had repulfed, with contempt, his offer of alliance by uniting his brother to the niece of Ancre; and Luines, not infenfible of the fufpicious difpofition of the Florentine, determined to provide for his own fafety, by the deftruction of a man whom from that moment he fecretly coufidered as his implacable enemy.

In the unguarded hours of familiarity, he impreffed Lewis with a lively dread of the dangerous defigns of the afpiring Ita Jian; he reprefented to him that his father, Henry the Fourth,

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had

had ever regarded, with peculiar averfion, the influence of the mare chal, and Leonora, over the mind of the queen. That he had only been prevented by the tears of his confort, from compelling them to repafs the Alps; that the evils which he had foreleen from their afcendancy over that princefs, were now realifed; the first prince of the blood was imprifoned; the principa. nobility were banished from cour:; and the kingdom was plunged into the calamities of civil war, to fatiate the revenge, or footh the arrogance of a fupercilious fo cigner. That while this infolent minion difpofed at pleaf.re of every employment of truft and importance, the fovereign himfelt was little better than a captive to the queen and the marefchal; and the avowed preference and attachment of the former, to his younger brother the duke of Orleans, ought to inspire him with fentiments of prudent diftruft.

The render years of Lewis were already diftinguished by that jealousy of the royal authority which afterwards became the prominent feature of his character. He listened attentively to the repeated fuggeftions of Luines, and at length imparted his refolution to atchieve his own deliverance, and to extinguish the torch of civil commotion by the death of the ma ef hal. With the concurrence of Lewis, Luines exacted an oath of Vitri, the captain of the guaid, to execute whatever the king should command. He then difclofed to him the royal orders to arrest the marefchal d'Ancre; and Vitri having affociated in the enterprize his brother Hillier, his brother-in-law Perfan, and a few more friends, on whofe courage and fidelity he could rely, prepared to execute the will of his fovereign.

While the confpirators were engaged in concerting their measures, the queen was confidentially admonifbed to difmi's her Italian favourites, whofe infolence must involve in their ruin her own influence; and Leonora was exhorted to confult her fafety by a prudent and timely retreat; the natural timidity of her fex inclined her to embrace the counfel that was offered; but the mareschal indignantly rejected the alternative, and declared that he would never defert that fortune which hitherto had conftantly accompanied him. On the morning fixed for his deftruction, he had entered the Louvre, furrounded by farty gentlemen who derived their fupport from his liberality; he was earnefly engaged in reading a letter, when the captain of the guard and his friends appeared; the retinue of Ancre, imagining they preceded their royal mafter, gave way; and Vitri, advancing to the marefchal, arrefted him in the name of the king. In a moment of aftonifliment and indignation he had laid his hand on his fword; this mark of refiflance was the fignal of his deftruction. The command of Vitri to kill him was inftantly obeyed; and three pistols, difcharged with unerring skill, extended the marefchal lifelefs on the ground.

The pretence of the king at a window which overlooked the bloody fcene, repreffed the ineffectual zeal of Ancre's adhe

rep s