much feeling and elegance. "I ought to tell you," says the amiable author in her letter to me inclosing these lines," that I left my friends at D, and rode down on horseback, the first time I had mounted a horse for twenty years, to the parish of Laggan. I will not attempt to describe my feelings on visiting that spot for the first time. Such of them as can be described you will find portrayed in a few verses which I have transcribed for you, and which you must consider as a swan's song, for it is the last and will have no successor." I will only add, Mr. Editor, that the allusion in the close of these stanzas refer to the untimely death of Miss Frazer, late the heiress and representative of the ancient family of Foyers —— in the North Highlands. Miss F. had been an inmate of Mrs. Grant's family in Edinburgh, and fell a victim to a pulmonary complaint in the summer of 1817, under circumstances peculiarly affecting, I am, sir, Your well wisher, Washington Hall, 20 Feb. 1819. A. B. ON RETURNING FROM THE NORTH HIGHLANDS. ONCE more my northern way I trace, Once more review each well-known place; Reverting pensive as I go, To scenes of former joy and wo. To sanguine hopes too dearly priz❜d, To fears too surely realized; To fancy's dreams and passion's strife, Eternal barriers of the land, In sullen majesty you stand, As when the Roman eagles cowered, When o'er the invading ranks you lowered; As when the Saxon foe gave way Before the native's fierce array; When all your echoes join'd to hail The triumph of the free-born Gael. Advancing through the rugged strait When long remembered tales have power, The fleeting forms of warrior ghosts. As on their misty wreaths they sail, I bid the kindred phantoms hail! While wandering o'er the moonlight heath, But why this pause 'twixt wo and fear, Your aerial mists that meet the morning, And soothe my heart, a long adieu. Yes humble friends, your cordial greeting, The graces of your Celtic tongue, Where wild woods sigh and torrents rave, There beauty, youth and talent sleeps, 1 That hallowed tomb a wreath shall bind, As fair and spotless as her mind. Thick gathering mists obscure my view, ADVERSARY. CANDOUR and tenderness are in any relation, and on all occasions, eminently amiable, but when they are found in an adversary, and found so prevalent as to overpower that zeal which his cause excites, and that heat which naturally increases in the prosecution of argument, and which may be in a great measure, justified by the love of truth, they certainly appear with particular advantatages; and it is impossible not to envy those who possess the friendship of him whom it is even some degree of good fortune to have known as an enemy. Observations on the method of printing upon stone, and on the composition of the ink. Any calcareous stone, which is compact, with a fine and equal grain susceptible of being polished with pumice, and capable of absorbing a little moisture may be employed for lithography.* It was supposed, for some time, that the stones used at Munich alone possessed the necessary properties; but suitable materials have now been found in many of the departments of France. Among others, there are strata of calcareous stone in the mountains which separate Ruffec from Agouleme, which are well adapted for this kind of work. In order to compose the ink a vessel varnished and luted on the outside is warmed; when it is warm we introduce one part by weight of white Marseilles soap, and the same quantity of pure mastic. These substances are melted and carefully mixed together; five parts by weight of shell lac is then incorporated with them, by stirring them together until the whole is completely united, and there is then gradually added a solution of one part of caustic soda, in 5 or 6 parts its bulk of cold water. This addition must be made cautiously; for if the alkaline ley be poured in all at once, the liquor would froth up, and rise above the sides of the vessel. When these substances are completely mixed together, by employing a moderate heat and the agitation of a spatula, the necessary quantity of lamp black is added, and immediately after as much water as is sufficient to render the ink fluid and in a proper state for writing. The ink is applied to the stone as it would * A stone, adapted to the purposes of Lithography, has been discovered in east Lothian, Scotland; it is very abundant in Kentucky. It has also been found in Argenteuil, in France, and Burgundy has furnished some specimens. ED. P. F. be to paper. either by a pen or a pencil. When the design or writing is dry, and we wish to print from it, water acidulated with nitric acid, is employed, in the proportion of fifty parts of water to one of acid; by means of a sponge the surface of the stone is soaked with this water taking care not to rub the ink lines, this process is repeated as soon as the stone appears to be dry. An effervescence is produced, and when it ceases the stone is gently washed with pure water. While the stone is in this state, and still moist printers, ink isapplied to it, with the common apparatus, which only adheres to the parts that are dry. A sheet of paper, properly prepared to receive the impression, is then laid upon the stone, and the whole is subjected to the action of the press, or the cylinder. To retain the design upon the stone and to preserve it from dust when it is not used immediately after being prepared, it is covered with a stratum of solution of gum arabic, and this varnish is removed by water when we wish to print from the stone. Instead of ink a peculiar kind of pencil is sometimes employed to draw upon the stone or upon paper, from which a counter impression is taken on the stone. The pencils are composed of the following ingredients melted together: three parts of soap, two parts of tallow, and one of wax: when the whole is melted, and well mixed, we add lamp-black, until the colour be sufficiently intense, the fluid is then run into moulds, where it becomes solid as it cools, and acquires the consistence necessary for the formation of pencils. Additional observations on lithography. The following particulars are for the most part extracted from a report on this interesting art made to the royal Institute of France, Journal de Physique for Feb. 1817. Aloys Sennefelder, a chorus singer at the theatre of Munich, was the first who observed that certain cal careous stones have the property of contracting an intimate adhesion to characters traced on their surface with thick oily ink, and that if the stone was afterwards moistened, and then dabbed with printers ink, an impression of the characters might be transferred to paper. In 1800 he obtained from the king of Bavaria a patent for his process, and first applied it to printing music. The bis tory of the further progress of this art is foreign to the object of the present notice. The only stone hitherto discovered which completely answers the purpose is a compact, nearly pure carbonate of lime of a greyish white colour. At Solenhoffen, near Pappenheim, in Bavaria, are extensive quarries of it; also at Kehlheim, near Ratisbon, at both which places it has for many years been raised, and made into clay-stones for floors and hearths, &c. an application to which it is well fitted by its easily splitting into lamina of the required thickness and area, and by the facility with which it is brought to a smooth surface. It is supposed to be the same rock, geologically speaking, as the white lias, a calcareous flag-stone which is found in England covering the blue or common lias limestone. . But I believe that specimens of the requisite hardness and fineness of grain has not hitherto been discovered in this country. The stones are first brought to an even surface by rubbing them against one another, and are then finished with fine sand and pumice stone.* The ink if composed of soap, and resin, and gum lac, dissolved in a solution of caustic soda; to which is to be added a proper quantity of lamp black: the above ingredients after * This stone is found in great abundance in Kentucky, of which specimens have been brought to this city by Mr. Clifford, of Lexington, and compared with the stone from Munich, to which it is found to be similar. Dem. Press. being intimately mixed by trituration, are to be diluted with warm distilled water to the consistence of a thick ink, which is then ready for use. The same ingredients being exposed to a gentle warmth, at length dry into a mass, which being put into a wooden case may be used as chalk or crayon. It is difficult to find a pen which, when charged with this ink, will draw lines sufficiently fine for delicate work, and therefore the brushes, &c. of the miniature painter should be had recourse to. They who are accustomed to the fine handling required in pen and ink-drawing will, with due care, produce the best specimens of lithography. The design being drawn on the stone, either with the fluid ink or with the crayon, the whole surface is to be floated with water acdulated by nitrous acid, in order to remove any greasiness, and is then ready for use. Another variety in the practice of this art is to bring the surface of the stone to a fine polish, and then to coverit with a varnish of gum and lamp black. The design is etched in by cutting through the varnish by means of a needle and other proper instruments, after which the prepared ink is applied with a brush, and insinuates itself into the places where the varnish has been cut through. The stone is then placed on its edge in warm water, the varnish loosens and falls off, and the traces filled with the prepared ink alone remain. The process has been found useful for maps, and other works, in which very fine lines are required; the varnish however, is so much harder than that in common use among engravers, that some practice is necessary before the artist can employ the requisite degree of force. It ap pears probable that by mixing treacle with the gum, the consistence of the varnish might be materially improved. The effect of wood engraving is given very perfectly by covering the |