THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, AND LONDON REVIEW, FOR DECEMBER 1803. JAMES HOUBRACKEN. [WITH A PORTRAIT.] FROM the low fate of the art of en graving in England at the time this artift lived, his name is become familiar to British Amateurs from the national work the Heads of Illuftrious Perfons," which, from the above circumftance, was, almoft of neceflity, in a great measure entrusted to his execution. At present the state of the cafe would be completely reverfed. Were fuch a work now undertaken, it would not require the aid of foreign artifts to produce a performance which would itand the telt of a comparison with any thing that could be brought forwards in oppofition from any part of the Continent. Public encouragement and the liberality of fuch men as the Boy DELLS, have brought the art to its utmolt perfection, and relieved the country from the difgrace of being obliged to call in foreign aid to execute a work like that we are celebrating. Of the artist now before us little is known. He was born at Dordrecht, the 25th December 1698. His father, Arnold Houbracken, was a native of the Same place, a painter, and died at Amfterdam in the year 1719. Young Houbracken, it may be presumed, was initiated in his art partly by his father, and his proficiency certainly did credit to his inftructor. He worked, how ever, for fome time with little profit and with lefs cèlebrity; and he had arrived at the meridian of life before he engaged in that work by which he is best known; a work, notwithstanding fome well-founded objections, which will reflect honour on the feveral perfons engaged in it, It feems to have been a plan of the accurate and induftrious George Vertue, who propofed to give fets or claffes of eminent men; but his defign was adopted by others, and at length taken out of his hands, who, as Lord Orford obferves, was belt furnished with materials for fuch a work. The perfons who undertook and brought to a conclufion this great national work, were the two Knaptons, encouraged by the vaft fuccefs of the tranflation of Rapin's Hiftory of England. They employed both Vertue and Houbracken, but chiefly the latter, and the publication began in numbers in 1744. The firit volume was completed in 1747, and the fecond in 1752. Lord Orford obferves, that fome of Houbracken's heads were carelessly done, efpecially of the Moderns; and the engraver living in Holland, ignorant of our hiftory, usinquifitive into the authenticity of what was tranfmitted to him, engraved whatever was fent. "I will mention," he adds, "two inftances; the heads of Carr, Earl of Somerfet, and Secretary Thurlow, are not only not genuine, but have not the lealt refemblance to the perfons they pretend to reprefent." Mr. Gilpin, in his Effay on Prints, fays" Houbracken is a genius, and has given us, in his collection of English portraits, fome pieces of engraving at least equal to any thing of the kind. Such are the heads of Hampden, Schomberg, the Earl of Bedford, the Duke of Richmond particularly, and fome others. At the fame time we must own, that he has intermixed among his works a great number of bad prints. In his Ggg 2 beft, beft, there is a wonderful union of foftnefs and freedom. A more elegant and flowing line no artift ever employed." Of the petty habits, manners, family, or domeftic connexions of Houbracken, we have no farther account. He lived to a good old age, and died at Amfterdam in 1780. LEISURE AMUSEMENTS. NUMBER X. "A thing of fhreds and patches." THE HE practice of common-placing the fenfe of books, once fo prevalent in the literary world, was justly condemned by Dr. Felton, in his very fen fible Differtation on reading the Claffics, as an unneceffary waste of time. It muit however be generally allowed, that it is of great utility to keep fome regifter of the more remarkable paf fages which we meet with in the courfe of our ftudies. When the work is in our own poffeffion, this can be done by making a memorandum of the page or chapter in which the remarkable paffage is to be found; and it is only when the book is fcarce, or not our own property, that we must have recourfe to the tedious method of tranfcribing. It is likewife advifable to preferve the remarks which occur to ourfelves in the perufal of books. A person who reads much, cannot remember long, even the general opinion he has formed of an author's merits, much less the train of his reasoning, or the points from which he diflents. To perufe books without making our remarks, is to reap no benefit from their perufal; and not to preferve thofe remarks, when we can fo easily do it, is certainly not what wisdom dictates. In confonance with thefe fentiments, I have always thought proper to keep a fpecies of literary memorandumbook, in which I infert any anecdote or opinion I may meet with in the courfe of reading or converfation, which I think worthy of prefervation, and, which, without taking this method, might be to me irretrievably Toft. From this book I have made the following extracts; and offer them for the amufement of thofe who honour my attempts with perufal. I may perhaps continue them in fome future number, when, as is the cafe at pre HAMLET. fent, I have not leifure to prepare any SIMILITUDES. In D'Ifraeli's "Curiofities of Lite rature," the following defcription of a butterfly is very juftly commended for its beauty. It is a quotation from P. Commire, a modern Latin poet. "Florem putares nare per liquidum æthe ra." "It flies, and feems a flower that floats Cunningham, in one of his beauti "Ah! what is't to me that the grasshopper fings? Or what that the meadows are fair? That, like little flowrets if mounted on wings, The butterflies flaunt it in air." As it is probable that Cunningham tion, I confider this as a cafual coinnever faw the firft-mentioned quota cidence. The thought contained in the famous couplets of Denham, which, according to Scott in his Critical Effays, have been praifed more than they deferve, bears a trong refemblance to fome lines in Cowley. Thus : "O could I Aow like thee, and make My great example, as it is my theme! not dull; Strong, without rage; without o'erflow, ing, full. DENHAM'S COOPER'S HILL, BRUCE'S LOCH LEVEN. A fimilarity between the last two lines of the above and a paflage in the sublime Pertian poet Ferdouiti, has already been pointed out: but as I am upon the fubject, and many of my readers may not have seen the paffage in that poet I allude to, I hope I fhall be ex cufed for quoting it here. It is this: "The spider hath hung with tapestry the palace of the Cæfars; the owl keepeth centinel in the watch-towers of Afrafial.” I hope no one will fuppofe I have produced the above quotations with the malevolent defign of proving the eminent authors I have taken the li berty to mention, as guilty of plagiarifm. Were this my intention, I might be blamed with great juftice. I have produced them, with one excep tion, as inftances of casual fimilitude in thought between men of great genius and fome of them of different ages and countries. Viewing it in this light, I truft what I have faid is not uninte refting. Dec. 15, 1803. A JOURNEY TO THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE, IN the beginning of September 1761, about four o'clock in the afternoon, I fet out on horseback, in company HERANIO. with a master of a fhip, from port Ora tava, to vifit the Peak. We had with us a fervant, a muleteer, and a guide. After as we could; but while we crept fo near the fire that one fide was almost fcorched, the other was benumbed with cold. About five in the morning we mounted again, and travelled flowly about a mile, for the road here was rather too steep for travelling on horfe back, and our horfes were now fatigued. At last we came among fome great loofe rocks, where was a fort of cottage built of loofe ftones the name of this place, our guide told us, was "Eftancia de los Ingleffes," (i. e. the English Pitching place) fo called, I imagine, from fome English people refting there, on their way to viut the Peak; for none go that journey but foreigners, and fome poor people of the ifland, who earn their bread by gather, ing brimtone; the Spanish gentry having no curiofity of this kind. Here we alighted again, the remainder of our way being too steep for riding, and left one of our fervants to look after the cattle, and then proceeded on our journey afoot. We walked hard to get ourfelves a-heat, but were foon fatigued by the feepnefs of the road, which was alfo loose and sandy. When we got to the top of this rifing or hill; we came to a vaft number of loofe great ftones, whofe furfaces were flat; each of thofe ftones or rocks was, on a medium, about ten feet every way. This road was not fo steep as the other, but we were obliged to travel a confiderable way over the rocks, leap. After afcending about fix miles, we arrived, towards fun-fet, at the most dif tant habitation from the fea this way, which was in a hollow. Here we found an aqueduct of open troughs or spouts, that conveys water down from the head of the hollow. Here our fervants watered the cattle, and filled fome fmall barrels with water, to ferve us in our expedition. While they were thus employed, we alighted and walked into the hollow, which we found to be very pleasant, abounding with many trees that fent forth an odoriferous fmell. Near the houses are fome fields of maize or Indian corn in feveral places on this fide of the island, the natives have two crops of this grain. Mounting again, we travelled for fome time on a steep road, and got into the woods and the clouds just as it grew dark. We could not well mifs our way, the road being bounded on both fides with trees or bushes, which were chiefly laurel, favine, and brefos or bruth wood. Having travelled about a mile, we came to the upper edge of the wood, above the clouds, where we alighted, made a hire, and fupped: fome time after, we lay down to fleep under the bufhes. About half an hour after ten, the moon hining bright, we mounted again, and travelled flowly two hours, through an exceffive bad road, refembling ruins of ftone buildings fcattered over the fields. After we got out of this road, we came upon fmall, light, white pumice-ftone, like peas or thingle. Here we rode at a pretty good pace for nearing from one to the other, for they an hour. The air now began to be very harp, cold, and piercing, and the wind blew ftrong about fouth-welt or well-fouth-west. Our guide advised us to alight, here, as it was a convenient place, and reft till four or five in the morning. We followed his counfel, and entered into a cave, the mouth of which was built up to about a man's height, to prevent the wind and cold from getting in. Near this place we were fo lucky as to find fome dry withered retamas, which was the only fhrub or vegetable we faw hereabout. With these we made a great fire to warm ourselves, and then fell afleep; but were foon awaked by an itching of the skin, which we imagined proceeded from fleas, but was owing to the cold thin air, want of rest, and fleeping in our clothes; a thing I have known happen to people on fuch expeditions. We paffed away the time here as well were not quite all close to each other, Among these is a cavern, where is a well or natural refervoir, into which we defcended by a ladder which the poor people placed there for that purpofe. This cavern is fpacious within, being almost ten yards wide, and twenty in height. All the bottom of it, except just at the foot of the ladder, is covered with water, which is about two fathoms deep, and was then frozen towards the inner edges of the cave: we attempted to drink of this water, but could not by reafon of its excel five coldness; however, our guide filled a bottle, which he had purposely brought from the Eftancia. After-travelling about a quarter or half a mile upon the great ftones or rocks, we came to the bottom of the real Peak or fugar-loaf, which is very Heep; and to add to the difficulty of afcending, the ground is loofe and |