38 Account of Fontainville Foreft. difpofition, either to humanize the heart, or relax the rigidity of the mind. Cynically correct in bis affociation, he derogates none from the dignity of his ancestors; affecting rather a fequeftered obftrucity than a defire of visiting or being visited. His amours have been but little the fubject of general converfation, what however has tranfpired and is well known, does not redound much to the honour of MORALITY (or the PEERAGE) either on one fide or the other. His mode of travelling bears not the frongest tint of нUMANITY, and that man who can enjoy the happy moments of expeditious conveyance, founded upon the galling miferies of four POST HORSES, whipped out and whipped in, may have imbibed all the inferior advantages of immenfe wealth and a univerfity education, but it is evidently and diurnally clear he is a total stranger to the starting tear of fenfibility, to MARIA-LE FEVRE-THE ASS -THE STARLING or the tranfcendant greatness of CORPORAL TRIM; who, if afked to have formed a connection fo heterogenous, would have moft probably replied energetically, in the direct words of the immortal author 10 the afs at the gate of LYONS, If I do, I'll be d (To be continued.) -d." THE THEATRE. COVENT GARDEN. MARCH 27. HIS evening a new play was performed at this theatre, ander the title of Fontainville Foreft, the characters of which were thus reprefented. La Motte, a Frenchman of a good family and connections, reduced by a life of extravagance, retires with his wife from the difgrace which attaches to his hum bled circumstances, to a ruined abbey, in remote foreft, the eftate of the Marquis Montault. To this retirement he alfo takes under his protection a lady (Adeline) whom he had refcued from the hands of a ruffian-she had been defigned for a nun, but her parents were dead. Made defperate by penury-for the temporary fupport of his family, La Motte rushes from his retreat, and robs the lord of the furrounding territory, while on a hunting party in the neighbourhood is at length discovered, and purchafes the forbearance and fecrecy of the Marquis, by promising to forward his fuite with Adeline.She has already fixed her affections on young Lamotte, who about this point of time had arrived in good circumstances from the army, but laft from Paris; her antipathy to the Marquis is moreover rooted at first fight, which the event juftifies. Wandering by midnight through the intricacies of the abbey, she comes to an apartment (the door to which had been concealed behind the hangings of an room) that bears fufpicious marks of having been the fcene of a for mer Account of the new Operatic al Farce called Netley Abbey. 39 mer murder; this fufpicion is, confirmed by the difcovery of a fcroll, which had been hidden by the deceased, unravelling his me lancholy cafe, and laftly, by the appearance of his ghost ! To be brief-at length, it appears that this unfortunate man was the brother of the Marquis, facrificed by him-and the father of Adeline! The marquis alfo receives horror-working conviction of the latter fact, from a picture of Adeline's mother, which he perceives worn by that lady, at the moment when he is about to commit violence upon her perfon: this discovery fets the wretch upon working up the fhame depreffed La Motte, whom he confiders as his creature, to murder Adeline; which he pretends to give into, but temporizes, and thus ultimately faves her. The conclufion is poetically juft. Young La Motte having been entrusted with the dreadful fecret difcovered by Adeline, returns from a journey to Paris, which he made purposely to forward legal vengeance against the execrable marquis, to fee him in the agonies of guilty defparation plunge a dagger in his own heart. The La Mottes are reftored to fortune and honor, and the piece concludes with the marriage of the two lovers, The scenery of this new drama is very fine, particularly a moon. light, a thunder ftorm by night hattering the ruins of the abbey, the apartment in which the murder was committed, and the cell in which the ghost appears. The above play is avowedly taken from a very popular novel, entitled, the Romance of the Foreft, and does the author (Mr. Boaden) great credit in the execution. APRIL 12. THIS evening a new Operatical Farce was performed at the above Theatre, under the title of Netley Abbey, the characters of which were thus represented : Oakland MEN. Mr. Munden Mi. Incledon Mr. Johnstone Mr. Fawcett Jeffery Mr. Blanchard Mr. Powell Mr. Cubite Rapine Ellen Woodbine Lucy Oakland Mr. Clerimont WOMEN, Mrs. Mountain Mrs. Martyr. Ellen Woodbine, the heroine of the piece, and her widowed mother, appear to have been dispoffeffed of their eftate, by the fraudulent conduct of Rapine, their fteward. The family manGion having been destroyed by fire, and feveral writings of value suppofed to have perished in the conflagration, Rapin releases himfelf from all the obligations, to which he was liable by thofe writings, and becomes the oppref for of the family he formerly ferved. Ellen Woodbine, in this reverse of fortune, reforts to Oakland, father of Captain Oakland, an officer in the navy, and acquaints him that the Captain had honoured her with his addreffes, and as, from her loss of property, he might not be confidered fo approveable a match for hisfon, begs his interpofition to terminate the courtship.This Oakland endeavours to effect, but is foiled in his attempt by his daughter Lu-~ cy, and M'Scrape, an Irish fidler, who befides following the occu pation 40 Of the Origin and Antiquity of Forefts. portion of village barber, affifts in | piece is written by a Mr. Pearce. the plan. Captain Oakland, thus affifted, prevails on Ellen to give him an interview, near the ruins of Netley Abhey, to which place fhe is ** A fpecimen of the fongs may be feen in our poetical department. A of FOREST. Foreft is a vaft extenfive in wood; in French lieu foretier et fauvage: in Latin Locus fylveftris et faltus. Manwood, his foreft laws, cap. 1, no. 1, thus defines it : "A foreft is a certain territory of woody grounds, and fruitful paftures, privileged for wild beafts, and fowls of foreft, chafe, and warren, to reft and abide there in the fafe protection of the king, for his princely delight and pleafure: which territory of conducted by Catherine, the wait Of the ORIGIN and ANTIQUITIES ing maid of Mifs Lucy Oakland, who affumes on the occafion a jacket and trowfers. Here they are furprised by old Oakland: but his anger does not long continue; as the brother of Catherine, who is just returned from a cruize, relates that he had been fome time before in a fkiff, which was caft away under the cliffs of the isle of Wight, and that his two fhipmates, feeing certain death at hand, confeffed they had been the plunderers of Mrs. Woodbine's dwelling; and that, although the manfion was deftroy-ground fo privileged, is meered ed by fire, to prevent fufpicion of the robbery, the property ftill remained concealed in the receffes of Netley Abbey. In confequence of this discovery, the writings of value and other property are recovered. Mifs Ellen being reftored to her fortune, no longer feels a fcruple to admit the addreffes of Captain Oakland; and the confent of his father is in confequence readily granted. Of the general merits of this piece we can only fay that it abounds with lively and humourous fcenes. The well known character of an English Sailor, although it has been so often drawn, is here pourtrayed with novelty, and produced an effect on the au dience at once pleafing to the author, as well as gratifying to our feelings as Englishmen. The performers acquitted themfelves much to the fatisfaction of every perfon prefent, and the abundance of new fcenery does credit to the liberality of the Manager. We understand the and bounded by unremoveable marks, meers and boundaries, either known by matter of record, or elfe by prefcription, and alfo replenished with wild beasts of venery or chase; and with great coverts of vert* for the fuccour of the faid wild beafts; for the prefervation and continuance of which faid place, together with the vert and veniton, there are certain particular laws, privileges, and officers belonging only to the fame. The manner of making forests, as the fame author informs us, is as follows: "the king fends out his commiffion, under the great feal of England, directed to certain difcreet perfons, for the view, perambulation, meeting and bounding of the place he mindeth to be a foret, which being returned into the chancery, procla mation is made throughout all Vert, which in the French fignifies green, comprehends every thing which bears green leaves in the foreft. Manw. 5i. the Of the Origin and Antiquity of Forefts. 41 the space of thirty miles; to which fome attribute the misfortunes that befel feveral of those princes in that foreft, and parti the fhire where the ground lieth, that none fhall hunt or chafe any manner of wild beafts in that precinct, without the king's fpecial licence; after which he ap-cularly that Rufus was there fhot pointeth ordinances, laws, and officers fit for the prefervation of the vert and venifon; and fo it becometh a forest by matter of record. A foreft, in the ftrict fenfe of the word, cannot be in the hands of any but the king: and the reafon affigned is, becaufe no other perfon has power to grant a commiffion to be a justice in Eyre, to hold courts, &c.. The Norman kings not only inclosed forefts, but pubifhed those who hunted and killed any of the beasts, with the greatest feverity. Brompton tells us that William I. caufed the eyes of a man to be pulled out, who took either a buck or a boar; and Knighton informs us, that his fon, William Rufus, would hang a man for taking a doe. by Tyrrel; and before him, Richard, the brother of Henry I. was there killed by a foldier ; and Henry, the nephew of Robert, the eldeft fon of the conqueror, hung, like Abfalom, in the boughs of the forest."" Of Befides New Foreft, there are fixty-eight in England. Those which are more particularly noticed by hiftorians, and others, are the foreft of Windfor, in Berkfhire: Camb. Brit. page 213. Of Pickering, Cromp. 190. Of Shirwood, Id. fol. 202. Of Englewood, in Cumberland, anno, 4 H. 7, c. 6. and Cromp. 42. Of Lancaster, Id. 196. Of Wobmere, Stowe's Annals, 462. Of Gillingham, ld. 113. Of Knaresborough, 21, H. 8, 17. Of Wallham Caral,' Brit. 328. Of Breden, Id. 176. Of White Hart, Id. 150. Henry I. made no diftinc- Wierfdale, Id. 589. Of Lowntion between him who killed fall, Id. Of Dean, Id. 266, 8 H. a man or a buck, and pu- b. 27, 19 H. 7 c. 8. Of St. Leonished those who deftroyed the nard's, in Suffex, Manwood, 1, 144. game (though not in the foreft) Of Waybridge and Sapler, Id. either by forfeiture of their goods 63. Of Whitney, Id. 81. Of or lofs of limbs; but Henry II. Fekenham, Camb. 441. Of Rockmade it only imprisonment for aingham, Id. 396. Foreft de la time. His fon, Richard I. reviv-Mer, Id. 467. Of Huckeflow, Id. ed the old laws for punishing thofe who were convicted of hunting in the foreft: viz. that they fhould be caftrated, and have their eyes pulled out: but that king afterwards abolished this punishment, and appointed fuch con victs to abjure the realm, be committed, or pay a fine. The hiftorians of those times inform us, that New Forest was raised by the deftruction of twenty two parish churches, and many 'villages, chapels, and manors, for VOL. IV. No. XIX. 456. Of Afhdown in the county The following are properly the beafts of foreft: viz. The hart, hind, buck, hare, boar and wolf; legally all wild beafts of ve1 Inft, 233. but nery. HINTS to HORSEMEN. Pofition Difpofal of the Rider', Leg-A good feat. PERSON who rides with a little above the main, with his thighs and knees close to the fad. dle: fitting with his body erect, his ridge-bone anfwering to the ridge-bone of the horfe; fo that the animal and his rider may, in every motion, appear as one A curb, fhould always hook it body. The rider fhould not neg on himself; for, however mild and gentle the horse may be, fhould the curb hurt him, he may endanger his rider's neck. In fixing the curb, turn the chain to the right, and the links will easily unfold. The chain should be put on fo loosely as not to prefs upon the horfe's jaw, till the reins are drawn fomewhat tight. If the difpofition of the horse is gentle, and he has been taught to ftand ftill when mounted, a groom to hold him is unneceffary; but, thould he attend, never permit him to finger the reins nor meddle with any thing but that part of the head-ftall which comes down the horfe's cheek. The management of the reins belongs only to the rider to hold a horfe by the curb, when he is to ftand ftill, is very improper,because it puts him to unneceffary pain. When the rider has mounted his horfe, let him fit quietly for a few moments, left any fudden motion fhould diforder or dif turb him before he is well fettled in the faddle, with his nofe directly oppofite to the horfe's foretop, betwixt his ears, his legs hanging straight down, neither thrufting forward the toe, nor lifting up the heel, but with the ball of his foot flat in the stirrup, as if he ftood upright on the ground, the ftirrup-leather rather fhort than long, winding his toes fomewhat nearer to the horse's fide than the heel, holding the reins even with his chef, and with the point of the withers, a lect to ftroke and clap him gently with the hand, to divest him of unpleafing apprehenfions. A proper difpofition of the legs and thighs is fo effential towards the acquiring and keeping a graceful feat, that diftinct and particular inftructions are highly neceffary: to fit on that part of the horfe which, as he fprings, is the center of motion, is to have a good feat; from which it naturally follows, a weight could not easily be fhaken. The true seat is certainly that part of the faddle, into which the body naturally falls when the rider has no ftirrups; and this cannot otherwife preferved, than by a juft poife of the body, though many are advocates for the miftaken opinion, that it may be done by the grafp of the thighs and knees. be A judgment of the true feat may be formed, by pointing out the extremes of a had one. The first of these extremes is, when the rider places himself fo far back on the faddle, that his weight: preffes hard upon the horse's loins; the other, when he throws his body fe very forward, that it hangs over the pommel of the faddle the first of these extremes is adopted by fome grooms, who affectedly ride with fhort ftirrups; the later by timorous horfemen, who are terrified at the moft trifling flutter which the horfe may happen to make. A good rider has a determined place for his thighs, even on the hunting faddle, as can be fixed for |
