Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/308

248 A new edition of the Works of the Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, including the best translations of the classics, is in the press. It will form twenty volumes, royal octavo, printed in two columns, and will, in every respect, constitute one of the handsomest library books that has appeared for several years.

Mr. George Rose has announced some observations on the historical fragment of Mr. Fox, and an original narrative of the Duke of Argyle’s insurrection in 1685.

Mr. Bewick, of Newcastle, so deservedly celebrated for his skill in engraving on wood, has for a considerable time been engaged on A System of Economical and Useful Botany, which will include about 450 plants, the most useful in the materia medica, in diet and manufactures. The text has been prepared by Dr. Thornton, and will contain a body of valuable information relative to the history and uses of the several plants. There will be two editions; one on royal paper, of which only a small number will be printed; and the other on demy: neither of them inferior in beauty to Mr. Bewick’s former productions.

A society of physciansphysicians [sic] in London has been, for some time past, engaged in collecting materials for a new work, to be entitled The Annual Medical Register. They propose to comprise, in one volume, a complete account of the medical literature of the preceding year, together with an historical sketch of the discoveries and improvements in medicine and the collateral sciences; a report of the general state of health and disease in the metropolis, and a brief detail of such miscellaneous occurrences within the same period as may be deemed worthy of record.

Mr. Adam’s new work on Epidemics is nearly through the press. It is an address to the public, particularly the legislative body, on the laws which govern those diseases, and on the late proposals for extirpating the small-pox.

 

MUSICAL REVIEW.

In giving our opinion on the present work, we are well aware, that concertos are not so much intended to exhibit the science of the composer, as the skill and agility of the performer; and in this instance it is evident, that the principal aim of the author was that of giving to amateurs an opportunity of displaying moderate abilities to the greatest advantage; the composition is brilliant, and yet the passages lie perfectly under the hand.

The three movements of this concerto, consisting of a larghetto of a few bars, an allegro and rondo, are in C major.

The larghetto, although short, is expressive and solemn, and the responses introduced into the accompaniments cannot fail to add to the effect of the whole. In the allegro the character of martial music is preserved throughout, although in the different ideas little of originality is to be met with. We have been much pleased with some of Mr. L.’s modulations and transitions, particularly page 9 and 10. The subject, or rather the beginning of 