To Mr URBAN on his compleating the XVIIIth Volume of the Gentleman's Magazine. the tide ; Now,tenfold ftrength by Mathefis fupply'd, He cleaves the mountain, and he stems [flow, This taught, for him, fubfervient feas to The ftars to wander, and the winds to blow. But while he rifes thus from arts to arts, Each ftep Neceffity or Chance imparts; Till, to entail the Bleffings on his kind, Heav'n taught him LETTERS, and their pow'rs affign'd: This Art,alone descended from the skies, Arrefts Ideas living as they rife; This to late times preferv'd the fage's thought, Reprov'd in fecret, and in filence taught. But Science ftill retir'd from public view, And,tho' immortal, yet fhe liv'd for few: Long, long her venerated page was rare, With labour copy'd, and preferv'd with care; Scarce a whole life one tranfcript cou'd produce, The toll of Pecerty, for Grandeur's use: Till now, improving on the plan divine, Man bade diffufive truth in PRINTING Thine; 'By this, the labour of a thousand years The perfect produce of a month appears. Now Science lurks no longer in the shade! To every eye is every thought display'd. Ah! not to Science facted is the art, Intruding Error proudly claims her part; Thro' the fame medium FALSHOOD's co [broken day And TRUTH's white radiance gives unThe fophift quibbles with an air fedate ; The fat' rift raves, and rhiming females prate; lqur's play, Here pious Kempis breaths feraphic fire; Here Wilmot rages with impure defire Here Newton reasons, and Des Cartes dreams, Here Morgan lies,& Muggleton blafphemes. How kind the hand, that, bleft with friendly skill, Divides the mafs, felecting good from ill. For Twice Nine Years a constant treat to frame, Forever tasteful as 'tis ne'er the fame ; The fterling fense that's stamp'd with St Long live! the plaudit of the wife to feel, While Envy yells unnotic'd at thy heel. NB. THE FRONTISPIECE is an emblematical Representation of fome of the Subjefts in this Volume, which will be easily recollefted by the attentive. For JANUARY 1748. CONTAINING, Core in Quantity and greater Barierp than anp Book of the Wind and Price.] 1. THE North West coast of England XV. Or affifting France with corn. furvey'd. II. A fpecimen of antient fhort-hand, with an explanation, and remarks. HII. THE Ld Worcester's mechanical inventions, with remarks. IV. A new method to plane mouldings V. To punish curfing and fwearing. XI. Van Haaren's fpeech to the Swifs. XVI. Welch and other proverbs against it. conftancy of the Canadefe. XXII. Enquiry into Shakespear's learning. With an accurate fheet Map of the greateft part of the northern hemisphere, By SYLVANUS URBAN, Gent. LONDON: Printed by E. CA VE, jun. at St John's Gate. A Survey of the North West coafts Remarkable infances of the cruelty and Fol. Scaliger's fatirical epigram on 9-11 ib. -Methods to fink or preferve fhips, and other military mechanic and hydraulic A method to make mouldings in ftone Refolution of magiftrates to punish Superftitious story in Carte's history of Non-existence of material substance af- Successful method of treating the small Account of the Swedish academy of sciences. Memoirs by Linnæus, 1, on perfecting exotic plants. 2, of ants. 3, of a fly deftructive to rain- deer. 4, Laplanders glue 16-17 19-20 M. Van Haaren's fpeech to the fenate of French king's letter to his high admiral concerning the Dutch placarts 19 Prulian memorial againit a Dutch guard France clandeftinely furnish'd with corn -Keafons against it -the cafe ftated 21 -Spanish, English, and Welch proverbs Remarkable expedient of Louis XIV. 23 16 23-24 ib. ib. Extracts from the Remembrancers 32-33 Lord Chesterfield's answer to the Pruffian The Conjurers, on the projected expor with a clay-nofe.-To the author of the ode to Hope, by Aminta, Rebus, on Bow-den.-Dr Bowden to the author.-Cause and Cure of the cow-diftemper.-New Year's ode 38 To mifs B-Anacreon odes 46 and I tranflated.-The decalogue.— EXTRACT of a Letter giving an Account of a Survey of the N. Weft Coast of England, in August 1746. at our Expence. WAS made extremely fenfible of the want of correct maps in the courfe of my furvey; in my opinion, the A nation ought to encourage general meridians thro' Britain, at leaft from Berwick to the fouth coaft of England, as has been done in France. Geography gains ground faft, and by a few obfer- B vations of the eclipfes of Jupiter's fatellites, made at different places by proper obfervators, our longitudes might all be corrected. The principal objection, I own, is the great expence of the work; but it is well known that Moll's little erroneous trifles, built altogether on copy, took very well, and certainly in a more curious age, correct ones would not want encouragement. It was my bufinefs every night to prepare meridians, by the north-pole, in cafe of mistakes by the needle, after allowance made for the pofition of the pole-ftar from the point of the earth's produc'd axis, against my mornings works. I could not find, that the points of Darwent mouth bore near fo much weft as fuppos'd in the prefent maps, the C makers of which, I imagine, depended on the magnetical meridian more than the folar one. And, indeed, as the difference of the magnetical and folar meridians is very near 18° on this coaft, it is not to be wonder'd that furveys, following the needle, fhould throw all promontories fo much fouth of weft, and all coafts too much weft of fouth, as feems to be the cafe, in conftructing on thefe principles; the magnetical being a falfe meridian, tho' failors ufe it for a true one. Obfervations by the magnetical needle uncorrected by the folar, are at leaft about 1 point weft of the north. It has encreased on this coaft fince 1715 from 14° to 17° 30', where it is now, but is ftill encreafing.I have marked te pofition of the fands from the beft intelligence-Tho' the fea coaft is most ufeful to be taken as it appears, for the fervice of mariners, yet it is great pity that public encouragement is not offer'd D for accurate maps of the land alfo. I began, at the monument on Burgh Marh, to measure off the Solway bay; and as the ground was very low, I took feveral bafes of triangles, to meafure the oppofite fhore, and fix it, principa Principal points. For general heights to keep conftantly in my eye, I fixed on three remarkable mountains, as judging they might be feen thro' the greatest part of the extent of my furvey; these were Skiddow in Cumber land, Criffield, and Burnfwark in Scot- A Land, which appeared, as in the draughts. The distances were determined thus: B I measured a bafe line on Burgh Mar, after correcting the magnetical meridian; this was directed to a tree on an eminence near Drumbugh, as judging it the longeft courfe in a plain. I carefully examined every angle from each of thefe ftations, and fix'd the feveral places as fpecified in my draught. It took me up fome time to get proper affiftants, and fix Skiddow, one of my principal aims; the ground C befides being very troublesome, by reafon of the frequent creeks and quick. fands, fo that I could reach no farther than Bowness on the 27th at night. From the monument the coaft is extremely low on the English fide, and a fine pasture till Drumbugh. At Bowness I took a new meridian to afcertain the truth of my triangles. It is properly fo called from the bend of the coaft at this promontory, which is the most remarkable one on the Solway bay, at leaft on the English fide. It is to be remark'd that the river Eden has of late years kept al moft clofe under the Scotch fhore, but its courfe is conftantly varying by the rapidity of land floods at low ebbs, thro' fuch a foft and flimy fand, that no chart can be given with certainty of its frethwater courfe; befides, the fands are extremely uncertain and dangerous to enter upon. At Fishgarth I meafur'd a fresh bafe D E at low ebb, to adjuft Workington lighe houfe, and proceeded forward by Ul or Eln foot. Maps are divided how to fpell this river, but it feems most reasonable Uln or Ulhn, becaufe above lerby, where this water flows, the dale or valley is call'd Uln dale, and the church Uln-dale church. Again from Ellenborough, near its mouth, one would be induced to write it Ellon, and 'tis commonly called at its exit Eln-foot. From Eln-foot the fhore is a fine hard fand, and the coast above at fome diftance high and woody, particularly above Flimby, a little village with faltpans; thefe woods are call'd Flimby parks, and the country affumes a better afpect. When we get to a fingle houfe call'd the Boin, the coaft elbows round, and the whole track from thence to Darwent mouth is a low, benty foil, fo broken with rabbets, that tis almoft impoffible to ride it after night falls. The river Darwent is the fecond for magnitude in Cumberland; it might be made navigable to Cockermouth, by cutting thro' fome grounds, and erecting locks; for it admits fhips of tolerable burthen for coafters to Workington. Workington feems a town of pretty trade, above 50 veffels belong to it, and the harbour dilates above the pier, which breaks the extreme violence of tides by wefterly winds, and affords a good harbour; but as it lay out of my limit I pafs'd the Darwent in a boat, and proceeded to follow the courfe of the coaft. On the oppofite fide we came up with the light-houfe and high land which we had feen for feveral miles; they are principal fea-marks for Workington harbour, and the Scotch coaft, which appears exactly as I have drawn it. Appearance of How-michal chapel H, and Workington light houfe L, for 16 miles along the coaft." The |