Notice of the EDINBURGH Exhibition of Pictures for 1809. WE WE have great pleasure in announcing the third public Exhibition of Paintings, &c. in Scotland, hibition of Paintings, &c. in Scotland, by the under-mentioned Artists, which opened for the season on the 9th of the present month; and which we have no hesitation in affirming to be inconceivably superior to those of the two preceding years, both in point of number of artists, and excellence of performances. Indeed, the progress made by some of the artists, within the period of the last twelve months, is truly wonderful, and cannot fail to be highly gratifying to every person who takes an interest in the progress of the arts in Scotland. For the present, we shall merely confine ourselves to an enumeration of the names of the artists, and shall, in the following Numbers of our Magazine, point out some of the performances which appear to us to possess distinguished merit, with a few remarks upon each. We cannot here help noticing, that we observed with astonishment, last season, symptoms of dissatisfaction and displeasure, on the part of some of the exhibitors, who had considered their labours as slighted, or overlooked, by us. We should not have expected this. We trust, any thing we said on that Occasion was expressed with sufficient diffidence on our part, and with every possible degree of indulgence and delicacy towards the exhibitors. In fact, those who were dissatisfied, must admit that they had only to complain of the sin of omission in us: nay, even if our criticisms had been misplaced, which, however, we have some reason to believe they were not, what, we would ask, would the artists wish for? Had their performances been overlooked altogether, and remained unnoticed in our national register, would they not have had to accuse us of gross negli gence? A bare enumeration of names, copy of their catalogue, could excite neither interest nor attention in any one: and if criticism be allowable up on every article shewn to the public for money, which we apprehend to be the case, what right can they have to complain, so long as these remarks are and free from personality, or other unconfined within the bounds of civility, worthy motive? This, we presume, they will at least concede to us, as having been the rule of our conduct. In short, he who submits his works to the public, must allow that public to express their opinion in the fullest and freest manner: and however superior the artists may consider themselves, either to amateurs or connoisseurs, in judging of the merit of works of art, they must, on such an occasion as this, be content to be silent, for they are pantnels, not judges, in the cause. On this subject we trust we shall never again have occasion to say another word. Should our friends be pleased to favour us with any remarks on pictures in the exhibition, we shall be thankful for them; and pay to which they may appear to us entitled. them that attention List of Artists in the Exhibition of 1810. Mr J. Thomson Mr John Henning Mr D. Tough Mr A. Geddes Mr J. E. Woolford Mr J. Thom Mr John Watson Mr Mich. Morrison Mr W. H. Lizars Mr Brown Miss James Miss Byrne Pro 246 Proceedings of the CALEDONIAN HOR- or, in his option, the sum of Ten AT TICULTURAL SOCIETY. T the Quarterly Meeting of this Society held on the 6th March last, communications from the following gentlemen, and on the following subjects, were read by the Secretaries: From Dr Duncan sen., "Account of a method of preparing a soporific medicine from the inspissated white juice of the common garden lettuce." From Mr John Shirreff," On the curled disorder in potatoes." From Mr Thomas Dickson, "on the curl in the potato." From Mr Macmurray, Stranraer, "On the gooseberry caterpillar, and the maggot infesting onions." From Mr Smith, Keith Hall, "On a new method of planting asparagus." From Mr Wighton, Melville House, Fife," On destroying insects, &c." The Society voted the Silver Medal to Alex. G. Hunter, Esq. Loretto, for the best six heads of spring brocoli. They appointed a committee to award the medal ordered for the first radishes, raised an the open ground, and brought to market; and it has been since assigned (12th April) to Mr James Thomson, gardener at Abercorn House, Duddingstone. At the above meeting, the following Plan and Regulations were adopted," to continue in force for one year, or till regularly altered or amended by a Quarterly Meeting." 1. The Society shall be denominated The Caledonian Horticultural Society, and shall consist of three classes of Members,- Ordinary, Honorary, and Corresponding. 2. The Ordinary Members shall not exceed One Hundred in number. They shall consist of intelligent practical gardeners, and of amateurs of gardening. 3. Each Ordinary Member shall pay to the Treasurer, towards the funds of the institution, One Guinea, within one month after his election; and One Guinea annually afterwards, Guineas, as a composition for annual payments for life. 4. The number of Honorary Members shall be limited to One Hundred. These members shall not be called upon to pay any annual contribution. They shall be entitled to attend the meetings of the Society, but shall have no vote in the management or appropriation of the funds, (excepting when any of them happen to fill offices in the Society;) but any donations which they may be pleased to bestow, either at their admission, or occasionally, for rewarding ingenuity and industry in practical gardeners, shall be under the management of the Ordinary Members. 5. The Corresponding Members shall consist of amateurs who reside at a distance from Edinburgh, and of intelligent practical gardeners, who, there is reason to hope, may occasionally favour the Society with useful communications. They shall not pay any annual contribution or admission money. They shall have no voice in elections or respecting prizes. But they shall be entitled to attend the meetings of the Society. 6. The Ordinary Members shall possess the sole power of admission into the Society. All admissions shall be by ballot, and the votes of twothirds of the members balloting shall be required for the admission of any new Member. If, however, there shall, at any time, be more candidates for seats, than the number of vacancies, those candidates shall be declared duly elected, in whose favour there is found to be the greatest number of votes. 7. Candidates, whether for the rank of Honorary, or Corresponding Members, must be recommended by Two members. The fate of the proposal shall be determined at the second regular meeting succeeding that at which it is made. 8. A meeting of the Society shall be held Quarterly, on the first Thes day day of March, June, September, and December, to transact all the ordinary business of the Society, and to hear such papers read as may be transmitted to the Secretaries during the course of the preceding quarter. 9. The objects of the institution are the promoting and improving the cultivation of the best kinds of Fruits, of the most choice sorts of Flowers, and of those Vegetables which are most useful in the Kitchen. For this purpose, a certain number of prize-medals shall be awarded, annually, to such persons as shall be declared by proper judges to be entitled to the preference in the investigation, by experiment, of subjects proposed by the Society.Communications shall also be received, on any subject connected with Horticulture, though not directly suggested by the Society. Such communciations shall be read at the quarterly meetings: and it being in contemplation to publish Memoirs or Transactions, those papers, deemed of sufficient importance, shall (with consent of the author) be laid before the public. 10. The Society will not consider itself responsible for the statements contained in essays which may be published in their Transactions: But when new methods are suggested, or new doctrines taught, it shall be a general rule to appoint a committee to superintend the repetition of the experimeats on which such methods or doctrines may be founded, and to examine generally into the validity of such improvements as may be proposed; and the results of these investigations shall be published. 11. On the first Tuesday of December annually, the Ordinary Members of the Society present at the meeting shall elect a President, four VicePresidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, and Twelve Counsellors, for the ensuing year, all of whom, excepting the President, shall be Ordinary Members; but the President may be chosen either from the list of Ordinary or Honorary Members. One Vice President, and two Counsellors (one of the Professional, and one of the Amateur class,) shall be changed every year; and the President every second year. 12. These Office-bearers and Counsellors shall make all the arrangements respecting prizes, papers, publications, and other business of the Society.But the proposals made by them shall be submitted to the consideration of the Quarterly Meetings. Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural History Society. AT the meeting of this Society, on the 7th April, Dr Macknight read a mineralogical notice, on the tract of the Highlands from Killin to Braemar, by the way of Glen Tilt. Ben Lawers is composed of undulated mica-slate, which at the summit is yellowish-grey, and in some varieties so full of quartz as to resemble a sandstone. Towards Logierait beautiful garnets begin to appear. Beyond Mullenearn, gneiss occurs; also limestone, hornblendeslate, and sienite. Besides the substances first mentioned, Glen Tilt is remarkable by a peculiar aggregate of felspar, hornblende, and occasionally quartz, in which the various proportions of these ingredients exhibit the rock under various aspects of the sienitic and greenstone species. It is di tinguished from granite (for which it has been mistaken) not only by the uncrystallized state of the felspar, but by the presence of hornblende, and the absence of mica. Professor Jameson has entitled it Sienitic Greenstone. It occurs in conformable beds; particularly one of great size, which intersects the channel of the river at different places, near the Lodge. Crossing the mountains from Glen-Tilt to the course of the Dee, we find hornstone, felspar-porphyry, and limestone, subordinate to mica-slate and gneiss; till we reach the Castletown of Braemar, where the granite of the Grampians at length appears. At At the same meeting, a communication from Col. Imrie was read, describing the conglomerate rock of the Grampians, and tracing it from near Stonehaven to the Burn, and again at Callender, 80 miles distant. The position of this conglomerate-rock is nearly vertical; and of this fact, in Col. Imrie's opinion, no satisfactory explanation has yet been given.-At this meeting, also, there was laid before the Society an accurate section of the coal-field at Alloa, accompanied with interesting remarks, by Mr Robert Bald, civil engineer, and manager of Mr Erskine of Mar's extensive coal-works. The depth of the section is 704 feet; the alternating strata are 141 in number, and the total amount of the different beds of coal, is 59 feet 4 inches-Capt. Laskey likewise presented to the Society a series of the remains of a curious fossil Encrinus found in slate-clay near Dunbar. Correction of alledged Mistakes in MILO's Tour. SIR, M To the Editor. ILO, in his Tour, has committed great mistakes respecting the lands of Tarry. In the first place, Dickmontlaw does not stand on the lands of North Tarry at all, but on the lands of Seaton, that were purchased and annexed to the lands of North Tarry, only about a century ago. In the second place, the Gallowhill does not stand on South Tarry, but on the farm of Newbigging, which forms part of the estate of Letham. This hill stands indeed very near South Tarry, but not upon it. I would advise Milo, before he unds the feelings of any proprietor, aire into matters of fact, and not vent his vague conjectures at ran. dom. I will here give the true etymology of Tarry. The Abbey of Arbroath was equally famous for its great revenues, and its great hospitality. The Monks long held the lands of Tarry in their own SIR, To the Editor. ENCLOSE you a letter to me, from Captain Robert Dalrymple, of the Foot Guards, who fell on the glorious field of Talavera. This account of the campaign in Portugal, which ended in expulsion of the French, is allowed by officers to be the best yet published. The writer of it was the youngest son of the late Sir John Dalrymple Bart. and baron of the Exchequer in Scotland. He was bred at Rugby school; and proceeded thence to Cambridge University, with design to study the English law, as his profession: but his relation, Lord Melville, giving him a pair of colours in the Guards, he exchanged the gown for the sword.— He followed the Guards to Egypt, and shared in the celebrity of expelling the French from that country. When the Guards returned, our young soldier went, with leave, to Italy, where he studied the classics on classic ground, and there conversed with those who were the most high, and saw what was most ancient. He returned, one of the most modest, most ingenious, and most intelligent men, in the whole army.He was admired, by those who knew him best, as a most gentlemanlike, pleasant, and communicative friend, who never lost a friend, that he ever had. When he was about to depart with the Guards, to Portugal, he said, having made up his affairs, and his mind, be cared little, whither he went, or what might be his fate. He survived the campaign of Portugal, to write the enclosed account of it, which is illustrative of his character, inge nuous, intelligent, and modest. On a day, which will be chronicled in our annals, and recollected by our posterity, Captain Dalrymple marched, with the Guards, into l'alavera field, whence he never returned. C. Punhete, on the Tagus, Sunday 18 June, 1809. MY DEAR SIR, On our first arrival in Portugal, the state of affairs here was so uncertain, and the accounts which we heard, so various and contradictory, that I thought it was much better to delay writing to you, till I did send you some information, which might be worth reading, respecting this country, and our own situation, since the army took the field. Our movements have been so rapid, that there has been little time for writing, but I avail myself, with much pleasure, of the opportunity which a few days halt at this place, on our return from the North, affords me, of collecting my thoughts, and of recalling myself, after so long a silence, to your recollection and friendship. We landed at Lisbon about the middle of March, and it was then asserted there was not a French soldier upon the frontiers of Portugal. By the end of the month the story was greatly altered, and it was then ascertained, that three corps were advancing by different routes; one under Soult, by Braga and Oporto; a second under General La Pisse, by Cividad Rodrigo; and the third under Victor, by the great road thro' Badajos The united force of the division was stated at 70,000 men. A vast bustle took place upon the receipt of this news, and on the 24 of April, a council of war was held on the situation of afApril 1810. fairs. Though the result did not transpire, yet we know, that orders were issued, after the consultation, for embarking all the stores at Lisbon as speedily as possible; and it was generally understood, that the army was to move to the left, so as to be ready to embark at Cascaes, unmolested by the populace, in case we should be forced to evacuate the country. On the 4th April a reinforcement of 5000 men arrived from Ireland, with a notificatron that more were to follow, this of course altered the state of affairs. Another council of war was held, and the result was, that the army advanced on the 9th, and a line was taken up from Santarem to Leyria. The Portuguese troops assembled at Abrantes and Thomar, under Marshall Beresford. On the 1st May and four following days, the whole of the English and Portuguese army collected at Coimbra. Sir Arthur Wellesley joined upon the 2d, and assumed the command. The plan of operations was then laid. Gen. M'Kenzie, with about 8000 men, was detached to Abrantes, to guard the bridge over the Tagus, and to watch Victor: the rest of the army moved in three columns; the Portuguese troops under Marshal Beresford, and an English Brigade under General Tils, marched on the 5th by Viseu to Lamego, crossed the upper Dours at the latter place, and occupied the main road which leads from Oporte by Amaranthe into Leon: the centre column, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, moved along the great road from Coimbra to Operto; and the last ones, under General Hill, marched in a parallel direction along the coast by Aveiro and Ovar: these two last columns marched on the 9th, the cavalry advanced guard had mojard to the river Agreda two days be ea They marched at 10 o'clock at nigh, on the 9th, in the hope of surprising a French detachment, which was posted at a village called Albergaria Nova; but though the distance, was only 12 miles, the road was so bad, and the dif ficulty |