hopes, and relieved the necessities of our shipwrecked Mariner; all that I can collect for certain, is, that FALCONER Continued in the merchant service until he had gained the patronage of his Royal Highness EDward Duke of YORK, by dedicating to him the inimitable poem of THE SHIPWRECK, in the spring of 1762. Previous, however, to this, FALCONER had tried the strength of his natural talent; and, so early as the year 1751, appeared among the poets of his country to lament the death of FREDERICK PRINCE Of Wales: from this period, to the publication of his great work, he occasionally relieved, and strengthened his mind by literary occupation.

Of this first poetical effort I can only observe, that it contained great faults, with much promise of future excellence, when the style and ideas of its Author had become chastened by the perusal of classic writers. The following are some of the best lines:

"Oh bear me to some awful silent glade,

Where Cedars form an unremitting shade;
Where never track of human feet was known,
Where never cheerful light of Phoebus shone;
Where some unhappy Wretch aye mourns his doom,
Deep Melancholy wandering through the gloom;

Where Solitude and Meditation roam,

And where no dawning glimpse of Hope can come :
Place me in such an unfrequented Shade

To speak to none but with the mighty Dead.".

This Poem was printed at Edinburgh, and is thus alluded to at the close of the third Canto in the second Edition of the Shipwreck :

"Thou who hast taught the tragic Harp to mourn,
In early youth o'er Royal FREDERICK's urn."

However unsuccessful this attempt might have proved to overcome the natural timidity, or to gratify the tremulous expectation of a young Author; it is natural to suppose, that, having advanced thus far on his literary career, he would not afterwards extinguish the glowing embers of a genius which this attempt had fanned. But where are we to look for those sparks, which, perhaps, were chiefly confined to himself, or, if communicated, were only given to the confined circle in which he moved? The Gentleman's Magazine

In which they were inserted after the fourteenth line of p. 137. These lines did not appear in the third edition, and have been omitted in the present one.

contains one Poem,† which I have the authority of Lieutenant HUNTER to assign to FALCONER. I therefore suspect, that, a few years previous to the publication of THE SHIPWRECK, he occasionally sent poetical communications to that fashionable repository of literary talent; and am strongly inclined to think, that he was the Author of the lines On the uncommon scarcity of Poetry in that Magazine, signed J. W. A SAILOR; as also, of The description of a Ninety Gun Ship, in a subsequent volume, which had no signature.

In the first, which appeared in the Magazine for March 1756, how strikingly characteristic of FALCONER is the following passage:

"Yet what avails the smiles of lovely Maids,

Or vernal Suns that glad the flowery Glades ;
The Wood's green foliage, or the varying Scene
Of Fields, of Lawns, and gliding Streams between;
What, to the Wretch whom harder Fates ordain
Through the long year to plough the stormy Main?
No murmuring Streams, no sound of distant Sheep,
Or song of Birds invite his eyes to sleep;

By Toil exhausted, when he sinks to rest,

Beneath his Sun-burnt head no flowers are prest;

The Chaplain's Petition to the Lieutenants in the WardRoom. (Gent. Mag. 1758, p. 371.)

Down on the Deck his fainting limbs are laid,
No spreading Trees dispense their cooling shade;
No Zephyrs round his aching temples play,
No fragrant Breezes noxious heats allay;
The rude rough Wind which stern EOLUS sends,
Drives on in blasts, and while it cools offends:
He wakes; but hears no music from the Grove,
No varied Landscape courts his eye to rove :
O'er the wide Main he looks to distant Skies,
Where nought but Waves on rolling Waves arise."

Many of these expressions are exactly couched in the language of FALCONER, and the same style of complaint prevails that is visible throughout THE SHIPWRECK: yet if the reader can have any doubt respecting my opinion in this respect, he will surely agree with me in assigning to FALCONER The Description of a Ninety Gun Ship, inserted in the Magazine for May 1759. I can only subjoin a brief extract :

"Lavish in wealth, luxuriant in her pride,
Behold the gilded mass exulting ride!
Her curious Prow divides the silver Waves,
In the salt ooze her radiant sides she laves :
From Stem to Stern her wonderous length survey,
Rising a beauteous VENUS from the Sea!
Her Stem, with naval drapery engraved,
Shewed mimic Warriors who the Tempest braved;
Whose visage fierce defied the lashing Surge,
Of Gallic pride the emblematic scourge...

...

But leaving feigned armaments, behold!
Eight hundred youths of heart and sinew bold,

Mount up her Shrouds, or to her Tops ascend;
Some haul her Braces, some her Foresail bend."

The first lines exactly correspond with the description of the carved work of the merchant Vessel at the close of the first Canto; and the remainder are technical terms, which FALCONER alone is celebrated for having rendered harmonious.

But if we have to lament the loss of many of FALCONER'S Minor Poems, I may also express my astonishment at the uncertainty which still prevails respecting the real Author of Cease, rude Boreas; that it was not written by G. A. STEEVENS there can be but little doubt; he was neither versed in the science, nor in the terms of Navigation. It has long been my opinion, and that of many other persons, that this Ode was either composed by FALCONER, or by another Naval Poet, who now is scarcely known out of the profession, Captain THOMSON, † the celebrated, yet anony

A Life of this Officer appeared in the Naval Chronicle, (vol. vi, p. 237, and vol. vii, p. 93.) He was born at Hull, in Yorkshire, and received his education from Dr. Cox, at Hampstead. Sir Home Popham, and Sir T. B. Thompson, were