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research, all his works are characterized by a peculiar humour, sly, dry, and shy, but never high."

On the same date the death on January 18th Dr. Petrie. of Dr. Petrie, "the well-known writer on Irish archæology," is noticed. In 1832 he received The Round for his essay on the Round Towers of Ireland

Towers of
Ireland.

Dr. Whewell.

the prize offered by the Irish Society, in all 900%. "He directed the historical and antiquarian departments of the Irish Ordnance Survey. His principal work is 'The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the Anglo-Norman Invasion'; his collections of Irish antiquities are of considerable value."

William Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, died on the 6th of March, of the effects of a fall from his horse.

He was born in

The Athenæum 1814, when an

the north of England in 1795.
of March 10th states that "in
undergraduate of two years' standing, the young
man won the Chancellor's medal for an English
poem......Whewell had great rapidity of acquisi-
tion, and a tremendous memory. He took his
degree in 1816, and was second on the Tripos.
......Mr. Whewell (who became a Fellow of his
College, and one of the Tutors) threw himself
into the reform of the University mathematics,
with Peacock, and Herschel, and Babbage. He
wrote works on mechanics, the first of their kind

in the University, and which aided the cause powerfully. But his exertions in this field are almost forgotten: his later writings have a wider interest. Dr. Whewell was appointed to the Mastership of his College by the Crown, on the resignation of Dr. Wordsworth, in 1841."

On the death of Dr. Whewell the Rev. W. H. Thompson, D.D., succeeded as Master of Trinity, Dr. Thomp and remained so until his death on the 1st of

October, 1886. On the 9th an obituary notice of him appears in the Athenæum.

son.

'The

Christian

Year.'

The death of John Keble, "the Laureate of John Keble. our national Church-author of 'The Christian Year,'" "full of honours as of years," is recorded on the 7th of April, 1886: "The profits of that little book of sacred verse have repaired-almost rebuilt his church at Hursley; a fact which is probably without parallel in literature.*.......... John Keble was born, it is said, in 1789; he went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and

Parker.

* John Henry Parker, who published 'The Christian John Henry Year,' appears to have been astonished at its success, and is reported to have said that he might have purchased the copyright for 20., but did not consider the book worth the money. "Of this most successful book there were sold, from its first publication in 1827 to the expiry of the copyright in 1873, no fewer than 379,000 copies. The selling price of these was 56,000l., and the sum paid to Mr. Keble 14,000l., being one-fourth of the retail price, a division of profits, we believe, quite unexampled in the VOL. II.

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took his Bachelor's degree in 1810. Going to Oriel as a Fellow, occupying himself as a tutor, he made such way in the University as to be appointed first Public Examiner and afterwards Professor of Poetry. From Oxford he went to Hursley, near Winchester; a village with which his name will be for ever associated in the recollections of his readers. It was there that he prepared his 'Prælectiones Academicæ,' his 'Lyra Innocentium,' his 'Psalms of David in English Verse,' and his 'Sermons on Primitive Tradition.' In policy, Mr. Keble was a High character. Churchman, being associated with Dr. Newman and Dr. Pusey in the discussion which disturbed Oxford and England in our early days; but his tenderness and piety made men forget that he was a partisan of unpopular ideas. The strongest of Evangelicals was bound to admit that the author of 'The Christian Year' was a good Christian and a true gentleman."

Keble's Christian

Origin of the
Ministerial

On August 11th the following note is made Whitebait as to the origin of the Ministerial Whitebait Dinner. Dinner: "In the old days, when the close of the Sir Robert session was near, Sir Robert Preston (M.P. for

Preston.

Dover) used to invite George Rose, Secretary of

publishing trade. It speaks well for both publisher and author that all the books written by Keble in the fortyeight years were published by Parker" (Obituary notice of John Henry Parker in the Bookseller, March 5th, 1884).

the Treasury, to his Fishing Cottage, on Dagenham Lake, Essex. Fish, venison and rare wines graced the board, at which Mr. Pitt subsequently became an annual guest. To better accommodate the minister, Sir Robert transferred the place of meeting to Greenwich; and to the number of invited guests were added Lord Camden and Mr. Long (afterwards Lord Farnborough). As besides these other guests were soon invited, an arrangement was agreed upon that Sir Robert should only, in future, contribute a buck and champagne annually, and that the other guests should defray all remaining expenses. matters stood till Pitt's death; after which Sir Robert continued to send out the invitations annually, generally to Cabinet Ministers, and usually then for Trinity Monday. This arrangement continued till Sir Robert's death in 1834. Lord Farnborough then issued the invitations ; and since that time the 'Fish Dinner' has grown into an annual institution."

Thus

Charles

Maclaren,

The death of Charles Maclaren, who established the Scotsman newspaper and lived to see founder of it enter its jubilee year, is recorded on the 15th

of September. Mr. Maclaren was in his eighty

fourth year.

the Scotsman.

A review is given on the 13th of October of 'Fire Prevention and Fire Extinction,' by James James Braidwood, "with illustrations, memoir, and

Braidwood.

portrait of the author." James Braidwood was the son of an Edinburgh tradesman, and when a youth "at any hour of day or night his keenest delight was to be present at a great fire, fighting for its extinction with an heroic forgetfulness of personal danger and a corresponding indifference to the consequences of long-continued toil......Before the end of his twentyAppointed to fourth year he had under his control the fireof the fire engines of Edinburgh, in which capital he engines of Edinburgh. displayed, throughout ten years of trying

the control

The London
Fire-Engine

service, the same zeal and superb fitness for his perilous occupation which he uniformly exhibited on a larger arena after his appointment to the command of the London Fire-Engine Establishment, in January, 1833.

"The occasion of his removal from the Scotch Establish to the English capital was the establishment of ment. the association for the protection of insured property from the ravages of conflagration, which, after thirty-three years of most beneficial though anomalous action, has, in accordance with the provisions of an Act of Parliament, recently made over its stock, staff, and responsibilities to the Metropolitan Board of Works, to which public department the task of guarding London from the incursions of fire has been appropriately assigned. The eight metropolitan insurance companies who were the original founders

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