friend Bp. Percy (who, as succeeding Bp. Taylor in Dromore, which he held for a time with Down and Connor, was able to add some particulars) to a Correspondent unknown to me other wise than by Bishop Percy's recommendation, Mr. Thirlwall of Mile-end, who then proposed publishing a new Edition of some of his Works, with some fresh materials in a prefatory account of him. With this latter Gentleman I had correspondence for a time; during which he was very liberal in presents of his publications on other points: but I apprehend he did not meet. with encouragement to proceed on this, as I inquired in vain of a Publisher, from whoin I bought his Son's Primitie; after calling in vain also at his house in Mile-end when ia town more than four years past, and leaving my card, neither him, nor Mr. Ralph Nicholson, nor Mr.Wheeldon* of Whethampstead, Herts, who did publish, and, besides much correspondence, gave me some Works of the Bishop's, did I ever see. Of my immediate Predecessor here, Nathanael Heyrick, I could quote sayings, at second hand, for half an hour together. As to facts and dates, I can say, from my Register, that he in 1741 succeeded his Father (who be came Rector in 1702); was to the last (1767) Fellow of Trinity in Cambridge; and, during his residence in College, a Whitehall Preacher. He preached, but declined complying with the request to publish, a Sermon for the Northampton Hospital; for which the preceding seven (from 1744 to 1750) had been usually printed and sold for the benefit of the then County Hospital. He pleaded to Lord Halifax, that perhaps the former Edition, or greater part of it, might not yet be out of print. Lord Halifax, when Secretary of State, put him on the Civil List for 100l. per annum, to enable him to keep- what he said he wanted a Curate and a Post-chaise. The latter he did not keep, because they taxed his pension. He left his entire property (after legacies of 201. each to Trinity College, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Poor of this Parish) to Mr. Orde, as executor and residuary legatee, formerly Fellow of Trinity, for whom he had received College Dividends during his absence in the West Indies; great part of which he expended on these premises in house and stables, to receive a West India Pupil, whose Sister Mr. Orde had married; and who married a Daughter of Mr. Deputy Gaminon of Snow-hill, lately deceased and buried as Duchess of Chandos, after many years past burying her former husband Mr. Elliston. I understood that Mr. Orde honourably distributed the overplus (after deducting merely his principal, amounting to 500.) amongst the Family, particularly some Sisters, who had lived in a Cottage here till their Mother died, and then went with a Brother Toby (also Fellow of Trinity) to a College Living, tenable with his Fellowship, in the County of Durham. The aged Survivor of all these Sisters, who continued there after that Brother's death, came up to take a last peep at her native place, - Who published a Life of Bishop Taylor. more con con amore than to visit her Kindred, I believe, accompanied by my Predecessor's excellent Housekeeper, whose Relatives she also visited at a small Turnpike-house near Uppingham for a longer stay than in this County or Leicester. This Servant afterwards very naturally married Toby's Curate, and brought him up there too, when I resided there, visiting me, with whom she was in the same capacity for a time. Of Toby Heyrick I had no knowledge.Samuel came here from Leicester often during my first year, as having the selling of an estate for a Widow of this parish.-With William, an Apothecary in London, I had an extraordinary casual interview, for half an hour, within a week of my succeeding Nathanael. In the Reading Coach, near Hyde Park Corner, an elderly man in deep mourning was taken up for a lift to a distant patient. He sifted me as to my past or future intended travels "I had lately been in Northamptonshire"'Did I know such a place as Loddington?'— "I had just returned from it"-'As Successor then to the Brother for whom I am in mourning.'-You may know how to make allowance for my not knowing how to stop when indulging my memory with thoughts of other times; especially as I can speak of another Predecessor, referred to in your pages by myself and others, with just respect in general —- Dr. Richard Newton, Founder of Hertford College, Oxford, whom I learnt to hold in high estimation from finding many of his publications in that Library of his Successor, for whom he obtained in his life-time (as having been his Curate, and Vice-Principal of the then Hart Hall) the presentation to Sudborough near Thrapston. He bequeathed his furniture and books to his Successor's option, in lieu of Dilapidations; which I accepted, as Bishop Lowth's Son did also from me, and (after a still intermediate Incumbent) the present Rector, a Baronet, Sir Thomas Hewett.— He was too well known to need my dwelling on his character; but I cannot resist the opportunity of introducing to your notice that of another distant Predecessor at Great Doddington, Northamptonshire, a Vicarage given me by Lord Thurlow, and in which Mr. Nares (who succeeded, since, my Brother Sturges at Reading) was my Successor. " M. S. Si scire quæras, quanta seges virtutum, incorrupta fides, probitasque morum, nec habendi invasit ardor, contentum contentum facilè in Ecclesià de Lichfield Sic nemini invidens huic se Parochiæ dedit, Domesticum semper insequebatur vitæ genus, aut æqui magis, temperatique virum animi, nec postera enarrabit ætas. Obiit Feb. 27, A. D. 1722, æt.71." "What the income of the Vicarage might be at that time, I cannot say; but I can speak from authority that, more than 40 years afterwards, when an Inclosure of the Parish, which was large and populous, was about to take place, the claim made by the then Incumbent, an aged man with a large family (who had then, and to his death, no other preferment than that) did not bring him within Goldsmith's estimate of passing rich with forty pounds a year.' The Commissioners, however, with the aid and concurrence of a very considerate and liberal Impropriator, Lord of the Manor and principal Proprietor (though the patronage was in the Crown), were enabled to add a hundred acres contiguous to the two; which, with a thatched cottage, small garden, and dove-cote, were the whole of the Vicarage Premisses." E. J. P. 711. The following Letter to Dr. Z. Grey settles the point respecting the Preface to Dean Moss's Sermons*: "DEAR SIR, Jan. 11, 1731-2. "I am obliged to set out for London, with my Work unfinished, for want of some particulars, which I would gladly be informed of; viz. on what Questions he disputed at the Public Act, when he went out Bachelor of Divinity; as well as those on which he had kept an Act in the Schools for the same degree. I have consulted the Master of Jesus †, who remembers one of the former to be, Jesum Christum esse verum Deum est creditu ad salutem necessarium—against Episcopius. Perhaps you may find the Thesis among his papers. I was likewise enquiring into the exact time of his several Promotions; but Dr. Ashton is of opinion that there is no need of being too minute in such particulars. I hope, upon searching the papers, you may find something that may give a farther light to things where my memory See vol. II. p. 539; vol. IV. pp. 152, 236. + Charles Ashton, B. D.; who shall be noticed hereafter. fails; especially if you confer with the Master of Jesus, who will be able to recollect many passages. If you will favour me with a speedy account, directed to me at Mr. Williams's, in Jamesstreet, Covent-garden, you may depend on my finishing what I am about without the least delay. I am, &c. A. SNAPE." VOLUME VI. P. 13, 1. 10, r: "Lord Coleraine." The Family were never exalted above a Barony. See before, p. 610. P. 22. The Medal of General Lambert was of silver. It was engraved by Vertue from a cast made from the original in the possession of Maurice Johnson, esq. and afterwards given by him to the Head of the Lambert Family. "It has a profile bust in the Roman taste;" and, says Mr. Johnson to Mr. Vertue, in April 1753, "when engraved, will do your Work and Simon's great credit."-The Medal of General Kossiter was of silver, in oval, environed with roses; his bust in armour, with a collarband. "This General," adds Mr. Johnson, was my Countyman; to whom my Grandfather, when but just a man, was Commissary. He was afterwards Sir Edward Rossiter, Knt." He was of Somerby in the county of Lincoln; and married Jane daughter of Sir Richard Samwell, of Upton in the county of Northampton, Bart. (Baronetage, IV. 585). He commanded the Lincolnshire Troops, and with Pointz besieged Shalford House, 1645 (Clarendon, II. 719, 722); and afterwards concurred with Fairfax and Monk in the Restoration (Baker's Chronicle, Ed. 1670, Reign of Charles II.) Both these Medals are engraved by Vertue in his XXth Plate of Simon's Seals, &c. Of the other two Medals on the same Plate, one represents the face of James Ash, esq. Member of Parliament for Bath in 1640 and 1656, Recorder of that City, and one of the Committee for Compounders at Guildhall. The other is for Charles Seaton, second Earl of Dunfermline, who, in the beginning of the Troubles, engaged with the Covenanters, and was one of the Committee of Parliament 1640; one of the Scotch Commissioners appointed to treat with the King for Peace; and appointed Privy Counsellor for life by the Parliament in 1641. He was also one of the Committee of Estates from 1644 to 1646; but returned to his allegiance, in which he died 1674, having been appointed by Charles II. Lord Privy Seal in 1671. P. 24. "There was a Sir Henry Johnson, Knt. in later times, who married into the Wentworth Family, and carried a considerable estate in Stepney Parish, or that Neighbourhood, into the Family of Lord Viscount Wentworth, in which I fancy it still continues. I know not if he were of this Family." J. BROWN. P. 25. Add this Letter, to Fairfax Johnson, Esq. of Spalding: "SIR, Enfield, Feb. 28, 1784. "Give me leave to present you with two copies of the History of the Spalding Society; one for yourself, in return for the readiness readiness you have shewn in communicating the materials for it to a person so little known to you; the other to be deposited in the Library of the Society, as a Memorial of their useful Institution. Whatever Errors have unavoidably crept into this Compilation shall be corrected or expunged on your pointing them out. I am, Sir, with due compliments to the Colonel and Mr. Maurice, your obliged and obedient humble servant, R. GOUGH." P. 46, 1.7, r." Standeth a Religious House: who doth it kenne?" P. 63. Strike out the note, it being a repetition. P. 72, note, 1. 24, for "tui," r. "te." P. 74. Claudius Amyand was Father of Sir George, created a Baronet Aug. 4, 1764. Ibid. Joseph Banks, jun. esq. of Revesby Abbey, was born in 1697; High Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1736; and some time M. P. for Peterborough. He was the grandfather of Sir Joseph Banks; and died in 1741. His second son, William Banks, surviving his elder brother Joseph (who died vitá patris) succeeded to the Revesby estate. He died in 1761; and was the father of the present Sir Joseph Banks. Ibid. Having mentioned the name of Mr. James Benson in the "History of Croyland," the following particulars were communicated by an anonymous Correspondent: "There was a very extraordinary and a very respectable Character, who was Rector of Croyland about twenty years ago, and well worth recording; his name was Benson; I fancy he was born blind, or at least had always a very imperfect vision; I think he told me he was educated at Wadham College; he appeared to be a good scholar, a man of excellent sense, modest, very agreeable and entertaining in company, and, as I was informed, a man of irreproachable morals and conduct. He went through all the Church Service, even the First Lessons, without the least hesitation; he had indeed a little Boy in the desk with him, to put him in should he accidentally be out; but I never heard that he was so. He officiated twice for the Clergyman where I lived, and where he was upon a visit. The first time I was confined to my bed, and could not attend him; but heard great astonishment expressed at the elegance of his performance. When he came again, I took the liberty of asking him to officiate, that I might have the pleasure of hearing him. Sir,' says he, 'it is as necessary for me to have my Sermons written, as it is for those Gentlemen who can see; but, if it is possible, as the weather is fine, I will oblige you, and I will let your Rector know to-morrow. This conversation was on the Friday; on the Saturday morning he got up at five o'clock, and walked with his little Servant till breakfast, when he sent up word that he would take the duty upon him. A better Discourse, in language or matter, I never heard; nor did I ever hear the Prayers uttered in a more edifying or engaging manner. After Church, I took his little Servant, a boy of about 14, in private, and asked him, "whether his Master's Sermon was new?" Perfectly so, Sir, |