able number of Antiquarian MSS. * and of Literary a Camp will disagree with the tenderness of your constitution. "I have long since heard of your most valuable Collection of MSS. relative to the History and Antiquities of this Kingdom, but never had the good fortune to meet with any friend of yours to whom I could mention how glad I should be of the honour of your correspondence, till the end of last October, when being in company with Mr. Beauvoir †, he promised to communicate to you my desire, which I find he has since done; and your obliging answer to his Letter occasions my troubling you with this. "I have, Sir, for some time past been engaged in a considerable work, viz. a Repertory of the Endowments of Vicarages in all the Dioceses of this Kingdom‡. My connexion with his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, my acquaintance with most of the Bishops, my situation in life, &c. &c. have enabled me to pursue this great work so far as to print the Endowments of Vi carages in the Diocese of Canterbury, as a sample of the rest. I have also now by me Eleven other Dioceses almost ready for the press. These are taken, not only from the Bishops' Registers, but from Chartularies and Register-books of antient Religious Houses; the Lambeth, Cotton, Harleian Libraries, &c. &c. "As it unfortunately happens that too many of the Registerbooks of Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, are now irrecoverably lost, the only way I could think of to supply that defect, as to the Endowments of Vicarages, was by applying to my friends for their assistance, from such Chartularies, Letters, and Registers of ancient Monasteries, as now remain in private hands; of these many have been lent me, which have proved of great use. But where persons live at a distance, extracts from them, with the date of the Endowment and page of the Register-book, have been communicated to me by various hands. My request to you, Sir, is, that you would let me know how I shall contrive to convey to your hands a copy of my Canterbury Endowments, which is a small quarto; and likewise to desire your acceptance of the inclosed Account of Dr. Browne Willis, with whom I suppose you was well acquainted. A. C. DUCAREL." Norton, Feb. 17, 1763. SIR, "I was honoured with yours, and am sorry my small Collection of Antiquities has been so much magnified. What it chiefly consists of are Autographs, and Original Letters of eminent Andrew Alvis, of St. John's, Cambridge; B. A. 1729; M. A. 1738; B. D. 1741; Rector of Great Snoring, Norfolk, 1762; died May 29, 1775. + See before, pp. 352. 356. Of this subject, and the Doctor's progress, see vol. VI. p. 389. be Dr. Macro married one of the two daughters of Edward Godfrey, Esq. Privy Purse to Queen Anne; by whom he had one son, and one daughter. =persons; and of these, indeed, I have a good many; and should be very desirous, by your and other friends' assistance, to increase the number: but as to that noble design you have now in hand I can give you little assistance, dealing almost wholly in History and Antiquities; but, whenever you come our way, you shall judge yourself, for I will shew you every thing I have, and will keep back nothing from you. I am now very old, and have not gone beyond my house and garden these many years; and therefore must impose this trouble upon those friends who will favour me with a look. I return you, Sir, many thanks for the sheet of that indefatigable Antiquary, Dr. Browne Willis, and for that part of your Repertory of the Endowment of Vicarages relating to the Diocese of Canterbury, which you intend to send me; if it goes by the Bury carrier who inns at the Bull Inn in Bishopsgate-street, it will come very safe, and extremely oblige, Sir, C.M." SIR, Norton, Feb. 23, 1763. "I just now received the parcel, and am extremely obliged to you for the favour. I am very sorry we are at such a distance from one another; and were it in my power to recal some past years, they should be employed in paying my devoirs to you; but, as the case stands, all expectations of that nature must be on my side, and I hope this year will not pass over before you afford me that pleasure. In the mean time, you would much oblige me, if, by means of those many opportunities and that numerous acquaintance you have, you would have a thought of increasing that small Collection of Papers I have. Dr. Birch could be, with all ease imaginable, very assistant to you in this matter; and I would willingly know what Dr. Ward's Brother the Bookseller did with his Brother of Gresham's correspondence. But a few days before his death he was making up a little packet for me, as he told one of my friends; but, poor man! I had the misfortune to lose him. You see, Sir, my mind is still roving after Autographs; but I have not the least opportunity of gratifying it, and therefore must beg the favour of your giving me what assistance you can, as 'tis very much in your power; and in so doing, you'll extremely oblige, Sir, Yours, &c. C. MACRO." Norton, Feb. 3, 1764. "SIK, "I was honoured with yours, and am very much obliged for the kind thoughts you have of increasing my small Collection of Originals; but I can by no means think of making an addition to them by the way you mention, or of bartering what I have for what I want. My being quite sequestered from the world, and having been so for a long time, and not having the least opportunity of increasing my store (which, to repeat it again, is very far from what you suppose it), was the reason of my giving you the trouble of having me in your thoughts when any such matters The Doctor died at Norton, Feb. 2, 1767, at the advanced age of 84; and in the Ipswich Journal is recorded as "the Senior Doctor in Divinity of the University of Cambridge; who, during the course of a long life, had indefatigably applied himself to his studies, and acquired a general knowledge of all arts and sciences." He was buried came in your way; and, as you are at the fountain-head, and have constant opportunities of picking up things of that nature, I was in hopes I might now and then be in your mind. "As to the gentleman who intends to favour us with the History and Antiquities of Suffolk, I wish it was in my power to do him any service; and I would readily contribute what I could toward so useful a work. I am, Sir, &c. C. MACRO." March 7, 1764. "SIR, "I am honoured with yours, and am very much obliged for your having me in your thoughts upon seeing the Catalogue of Mr. Thoresby's Collection; but, as I am confined, and cannot go beyond my limits, Catalogues of Autographs, which do not mention any of their contents, are of no service to me; nor can I judge what price to set upon them; so that I must renew my former request, that you would endeavour, among your numerous acquaintance, to pick up what Originals of eminent men you can meet with. One thing, indeed, could I have been upon the spot, I should have been tempted to purchase, and that is the Coin of the Saxon God Thor, with Runic Characters on the reThis I take to be an unit, and not to be met with in any other Collection but this. Please also to give my compliments to Mr. Beauvoir when you see him; and tell him he forgets to send me what he promised. I am, Sir, Yours, &c. C. MACRO." verse. * Dr. Macro once applied to a friend for an appropriate motto to his coat of arms. After some little consideration, his friend replied, let it be " Cocks may crow," a motto equally as appropriate as that of "Quid rides," assumed by the Tobacconist. Dr. Macro was in early life a Patron of the Fine Arts; and an encourager of men of talent. Peter Tillemans, the Painter, died Dec. 5, 1734, in the Doctor's house, at Norton: where he had been long retained; and was buried, by his own desire, in the church-yard of Stow Langtnft. A horse which he had been working on the day before his death now hangs unfinished in the hall of Dr. Macro's house at Norton." British Topography, vol. II. p. 38. This picture is now (1815) in the stair-case of John Patteson, esq. of Norwich, who has several of this Artist's best works. From this Collection more than Six Hundred Original Letters of Eminent Persons were purchased, jointly, by Dr. Ducarel and Mr. Astle, who afterwards divided them. Those which came to the Doctor's share I bought at his sale, and still possess. on on the 9th in Norton Church-yard, in an inclosure between the side of the Vestry and one of the buttresses which support the Church-wall. Dr. Macro's son was for some time a student at Emanuel College, Cambridge; but, having an inclination rather for a military than a clerical profession, he went abroad, and died about a year before his father; leaving his sister Mary† sole heiress to their father's property. This lady was soon after married to William Staniforth, esq. then of Sheffield, and afterwards of Little Haugh; who survived his wife; and dying without issue, Nov. 11, 1786, in his 70th year, the mansion at Little Haugh became the property of his brother Robert Staniforth, esq. whose daughter Jane brought it in marriage to John Patteson, esq. of Norwich. Dr. Macro's valuable Library remained undisposed of for nearly 40 years; when the principal part of it was sold to Mr. Beatniffe of Norwich. * Hitherto no inscription has been placed to Dr. Macro's memory; but a neat monument is now preparing for Norton Church, to the memory of Mrs. Staniforth, the Doctor's daughter, her husband William Staniforth, esq. and his brother Robert. "This lady, on the death of her father, immediately applied to Mr.Green, bookseller at Bury, to spare for no expence in getting the article of his death inserted in every Newspaper. This was in hopes of its falling under Mr. Staniforth's notice, whose addresses the father would not hear of. This succeeded to her wishes. G. A." "The Rev.T. Gough applied to this gentleman for the Letters of Bp. Smalridge (see p. 362); but he said, 'so many people had made similar claims, that, if he allowed one, he must allow all; and then nothing would be left, as he could not distinguish the merits of their pretensions.'-21 Nov. 1786, Dr. Norford, to whom I told this story, said it was exactly in character; for that he, knowing Dr. Macro had studied under Boerhaave, and maintained a correspondence with him, asked leave to read some of it in his presence, to see how far his private opinion agreed with one particular work, but was refused; this was before Dr. Norford attended him as a Physician. G. A.” § Who sold it, a few years ago, to a builder of the name of Braddock, lately deceased. Mr. Mr. THOMAS CHRISTIE was the son of a Merchant of Montrose, where he was born in October 1761; and, after a good school education, was placed in the counting-house by his father, whose opinion was, that whatever course of life the young man might adopt, a system of mercantile arrangement would greatly facilitate his pursuits. It is probable that he went through the routine of counting-house business with due attention, especially under the guidance of his father; but his leisure hours were devoted to the cultivation of general Literature, with such assiduity, that at a very early age he was qualified to embrace any of the learned professions with every promise of arriving at distinction. His inclination appears to have led him at first to the study of Medicine and Natural History *; * I shall give a specimen of his attention to that study: "DEAR SIR, Montrose, June 26, 1784. Among many other impediments to the progress of science, one is the different names which the same thing passes under, not only in different kingdoms, but in different parts of the same kingdom. A Correspondent in your Magazine (LIV. 106.) observes, that Mr. Daines Barrington, in his Miscellanies, has said that the Mountain Ash is not indigenous in the Southern counties; which mistake he fell into, from not knowing that Quickbeam is the name commonly given to that tree in these parts. Many instances of similar mistakes have occurred to me. The Writers of books on Natural History appear to me not to have been suffici ently careful to form a complete Nomenclature of the animals, birds, fishes, insects, plants, and trees, which they describe, so as to enable their readers, in different countries, to know what object in Nature their descriptions refer to. To remedy these defects, and the perplexities which result from them, people in different parts of the country ought to furnish lists of the names of things in those parts where they reside. To excite some of your Correspondents to do this, I shall subjoin a few articles, which have occurred to me, to shew the difference between names in Scotland and England. - The Mountain Ash, or Quickbeam, is with us the Rantry, or Roddan Tree. The red berries it pro duces |