look into the map of Kent, you will find they are nearer than Lydd and Wrotham. He got the dispensation; for this was argumentum ad hominem, Archbishop Potter died worth 70,000l. Tillotson, not worth 3000l.-he gave away very much. Herring left about 10,000l. laid out above 7000l. at Croy don and Lambeth, and was very charitable. Dr. Conyers Middleton. He was at first more addicted to music than to learning; but Dr. Bentley calling him a fiddler, it excited him to a close application to study, and he shewed Dr. Bentley soon he could write as well as fiddle. Bishop Sherlock used to declare he presented Dr. Middleton with a copy of his Discourses in 1725, when he first published them; and soon after the Doctor thanked him for it, and expressed his pleasure in the perusal. Dr. John Jortin. He was a very ingenious man, an acute and judicious scholar, born in Huntingdonshire, about 1701, educated at the Charter House school, and from thence sent to Jesus college, Cambridge, where he improved his literature greatly, ander the tuition of Styon Thirlby, who was also a very acute critic. When he had taken his Master of Arts degree, he married, and quitted college; but, having some private for tune of his own, and being of a peculiar disposition that could not solicit preferment, nor could bear to be neglected, but with severe reflections on those who preferred the ignorant and neglected the learned, he was without any benefice till about the year 1738, when Lord Winchelsea gave him the living of Eastwell, in Kent; but, the place not agreeing with his health, he soon resigned it. He was for some years, from about 1724 to 1732, an assistant to Mr. Capper, who rented a chapel in Great Russel-street, Bloomsbury. Archbishop Herring had a great value for him, and about 1751 presented him to the living of St. Dunstan's in the East, worth 2001. per annum, where he was much liked by his parishioners. In 1762, Dr. Osbaldiston, Bishop of London, gave him the living of Kensington, worth 300l. and a Prebend in St. Paul's cathedral, and made him Archdeacon of London, in the room of Dr. Cobden. aspect. In company he liked, he was at all times facetions, but mixed with a large quantity of "sal censuræ superiorum.' His sermons were sensible, argumentative, and to the purpose; but delivered in so negligent a manner, and with so little emphasis, as to make little impression on the audience. He was a virtuous man, no bigot, but pretty free in his thoughts on some controverted points, which yet he had not courage always to avow, reading and disapproving the Athanasian Creed at the same time. I was many years intimate with him, and had in general much satisfaction in his company, as with me he was unreserved. In some works he printed he had half the profits. In his Life of Erasmus, Six Dissertations, and Remarks, 3 vols. he sold the privilege of an impression, but kept the copyright himself. 1773, Aug. MR. URBAN, GIVE me leave to add a few anecdotes to those inserted in your last Magazine. Archbishop Gilbert. CRITO. This prelate, when bishop of Salisbury, had a great dispute with the Mayor, in regard to the separate jurisdiction of the city and the cathedral, refusing to let the mace be carried before his Worship in the church precincts, and once having actually a kind of scuffle with the mace-bearer. Soon after, the Judges of assize (I think Baron Smythe), being applied to by the cook, at a circuit dinner, to know if his Lordship chose any particular dish, replied, "No:"but, as he heard the Bishop was to dine with him, he de"sired, if there was any soup, that there might be no mace "in it, as the Bishop did not love mace.” Bishop Sherlock, On the Sunday after the news of the defeat of the rebels at Preston, in 1715, Doctor Sherlock, then Master of the Temple, preached a most loyal revolutional sermon. Those which he had preached some preceding Sundays were such as would not have offended the Pretender, if he had suc ceeded. The Benchers, as they came out of church, commended the sermon highly, but wished it had been preached at least the Sunday before: and it was then commonly said, that the battle of Preston had convinced the son, as the battle of the Boyne convinced the father, who, it is well known, after having dissuaded many of the clergy, in 1688, who had a confidence in his judgment, from taking the oaths, took them himself on the last day limited by act of Parliament, and left his friends in the lurch. Soon after, handing his wife along St. Paul's church-yard, "There," says an arch bookseller, "goes Dean Sherlock, "with his reasons for taking the oaths at his fingers ends." Dr. Jortin was some time assistant preacher at Lincoln's Inn chapel for Bishop Warburton. He had no recommendation to Archbishop Herring but his merit. His Grace told him most unexpectedly, at a dinner of the Sons of the Clergy, that the living of St. Dunstan's was at his service; which so surprized him, that he ran instantly out of the hall, and left his hat behind him. 1773, Sept. VIII. Anecdotes of ATTERBURY, BENTLEY, POPE, and FENTON.. MR. URBAN, THERE is no part of your Magazine more generally pleasing, than that which gives an account of the peculiarities and natural tempers of men eminent for their learning or great qualities. If what follows inay be thought worthy the public notice, you may depend on a future supply from, Your constant reader, J. D. BISHOP ATTERBURY, conversing with Dr. Bentley, on his contest with the Bishop of Ely, with regard to his visitatorial power over Trinity College, seemed to think that the Doctor would probably lose his cause in consequence of an old writing that had been discovered, bearing date in James the First's time. "I know very well what your Lordship "means," replied the Doctor: " it bears date, I think, anno "tertio Jacobi primi; it would have more weight with your "Lordship, if it were dated anno primo Jacobi tertii." The same Prelate, who bore the Doctor no good will for his attack on Mr. Boyle, and all the wits of Christ Church, on knowing what opinion the Doctor entertained of the English Homer. He for some time eluded the question; but, at last, being urged to speak out, he said, "The verses are good verses, but the work is not Homer, it is Spon"danus." To this provocation the modern Aristarchus owed his place in the ivth book of the Dunciad; at which his son Dr. Thomas Bentley, was so incensed, that he sent the poet a challenge. Pope, communicating this to some of his friends, officers in the army, two or three of them went to the hero's lodgings, and, after expostulating on the absurdity of sending a challenge to a man, who, on account of his figure, ought not to accept it, gave the Doctor his choice of any one of them for an antagonist as the poet's proxy. On his declining this, they insisted on his asking Mr. Pope's pardon, to which he submitted. "Fenton (says the late Lord Corke, his pupil) translated double the number of books in the Odyssey that Pope has owned. His reward was a trifle, an arrant trifle. He has even told me, that he thought Pope feared him more than he loved him he had no opinion of Pope's heart, and declared him, in the words of Bishop Atterbury, mens curva in corpore curvo*." Yet Pope, in a letter to Gay, says, "he esteemed Fenton almost as many years as he had "esteemed Gay;" and Atterbury assures Pope, that "he had loved and valued him ever since he knew him," &c. &c. Such is the sincerity of the witty and the great! 1773, Oct. IX. Anecdotes of MATTHEW PRIOR, and JOHN, DUKE of MARLBOROUGH. MR. URBAN, THE following Anecdotes of two eminent persons have been already published, but notwithstanding are very little known. The first made its appearance in an obscure pamphlet printed many years since; the other in one more respectable, but which did not more engage the public attention. I wish more circumstances relating to famous men were occasionally copied into your Magazine from the like sources, as the pamphlet form of their publication renders them very liable to be lost to the world. Your inserting these will oblige *Hughes's Letters, Vol. II. p. 27, first edition. J. B. Matthew Prior. In the year 1712, my old friend Matthew Prior, who was then Fellow of St. John's, and who not long before had been employed by the Queen as her Plenipotentiary at the court of France, came to Cambridge; and the next morning paid a visit to the Master of his own college. The Master (whether Dr. Gower or Dr. Jenkins, I cannot now recollect) loved Mr. Prior's principles, had a great opinion of his abilities, and a respect for his character in the world; but then he had much greater respect for himself. He knew his own dignity too well to suffer a Fellow of his college to sit down in his presence. He kept his seat himself, and let the Queen's ambassador stand. Such was the temper, not of a Vice-Chancellor, but of a simple Master of a college. I remember, by the way, an extempore epigram of Matt's on the reception he had there met with. We did not reckon in those days, that he had a very happy turn for an epigram: but the occasion was tempting; and he struck it off, as he was walking from St. John's college to the Rose, where we dined together. It was addressed to the Master. I stood, Sir, patient at your feet, But make a bishop's throne your seat, One only thing can keep you down, For your great soul too mean; You'd not, to mount a bishop's throne, Pay homage to the Queen. From "The friendly and honest Advice of an old Tory to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. Printed for S. Johnson, Charing-Cross, 1751," p. 23. John, Duke of Marlborough. THIS great man, who, by the pen of an enemy, has been acknowledged as the greatest general, and as the greatest minister, that our country, or perhaps any other, has produced; and whom another eminent writer thus pourtrays, "Cet homme, qui n'a jamais assicgé de ville qu'il n'ait Bolingbroke's Letters on the Use and Study of History, 1752, p. 200. |