baronet; hath no great estate, yet makes a great figure, and does not run out. A good education, a diligent application; his own natural parts, and some years' travel and experience, have rendered this gentleman a complete statesman.

He was the person that was entrusted with the Duke of Ormond's private orders; and that delivered them to him in Flanders, when he was disappointed from ruining the whole French army. It was owing to Sir Thomas that the Commerce bill was thrown out of the House of Commons; for which service, his knowledge in the civil law, his eloquence, and general ingenuity, the next parliament thought fit to choose him for their Speaker. Very few ever filled that chair so well, and none better.

He is a tall, well-shaped, brown man; very good humoured and courteous: takes a pleasure in obliging every body, and scarcely has an enemy; will not entirely confine himself to any party, but always opposes whatsoever he thinks wrong, though proposed by his best friends; is so far from being either covetous or ambitious, that he has more than once refused a place, when it has been offered him as a bribe. About forty years old.

Mr. Bromley

Is of a good family in Warwickshire, and born to a considerable fortune; was bred up at Oxford, where finishing his studies something sooner than usual, he travelled very young, and afterwards printed such an account of his travels as he has long since been ashamed of.

The University of Oxford have for many years chosen him for their member, and have received no small credit from such a representative. He is a zealous assertor of monarchy, a staunch church-man, and a violent opposer of any measures which either encourage or favour presbytery. Has for several had the best interest in the House of Comyears mons of any single person in it. No one is more listened to when he speaks, nor more deserves it. His orations are not light and superficial, but strong and persuasive.

The first parliament after Dr. Sacheverell's trial chose him for their Speaker; and having, with a great deal of honour and fidelity, served them and the country, her majesty thought fit to make him Secretary of State in the room of my Lord Dartmouth, who was made Privy Scal.

He is a lusty gentleman, of a comely venerable countenance; has wisdom and good nature in his looks, and is reckoned one of the honestest men in the world; is punc

tual in paying his debts, very charitable, and a great en courager of learning; is not hard to be spoken with, gives his advice freely, hates flattery, and never promises but with a real intention to perform; has always a great regard to merit, and seldom or never would promote a person, though ever so well recommended, without first trying his abilities. About fifty-five years old.

1784, Aug.

XXXIII. Anecdotes of Dr. KENNET and Dr. WELTON.

MR. URBAN,

IT is well known to many of your readers what offence was given in the beginning of this century, by an altar-piece erected in the church of St. Mary, Whitechapel. In this painting by W. Fellowes, representing the last supper, Judas the traitor was drawn sitting in an elbow-chair, dressed in a black garment, between a gown and a cloak, with a scarf and white band, a short wig, and a mark in his forehead between a lock and a patch, and so much of the countenance of Dr. Kennet, that, under it, in effect, was written, The Dean the Traitor. It was generally said, that the original sketch was for a Bishop under Welton's displeasure; which occasioned the elbow-chair. But the fears of a scandalum magnatum rising before the painter's eyes, leave was given to drop the Bishop, and make the Dean; which he did as well as he could. The print of it in the Society of Antiquaries library is accompanied with four manuscript lines by Mr. Maittaire :

"To say the picture does to him belong,
"Kennet does Judas and the painter wrong.
"False is the image, the resemblance faint:
"Judas compared to Kennet is a saint."

The preface to a sermon, preached on the occasion by Dr. Welton, the rector, 1714, intituled, " Church-Ornament without idolatary vindicated," gives an account of the whole affair. By way of defence, Dr. Welton republished "The case concerning setting up of images, or painting of them, in churches, writ by the learned Dr. Thomas Barlow, late Bishop of Lincoln, upon his suffering such images to be défaced in his diocese; wherein it is disapproved and

condemned by the statutes and ecclesiastical laws of this kingdom, and the book of homilies, &c. London, 1714." 8vo. First printed in Barlow's " Cases of conscience, London, 1692," 8vo.

It was found expedient to remove the picture, which is supposed to be the present altar-piece of the Abbey-church at St. Alban's, where tradition ascribes it to Sir James Thornhill.

1784, Sept.

P. Q.

XXXIV. Anecdotes of NATHANIEL PIGOTT, Esq.

MR. URBAN,

PERMIT me, through the channel of your excellent Re pository, to perpetuate the memory of a man who obtained the highest reputation in his profession-a man universally confided in, and who never wronged a single confidence. His integrity was so great, that men of all ranks coveted his friendship. His professional knowledge made him the envy of most of his contemporaries; and his works, which he left behind him, carry the highest authority with all the judges, being perpetually quoted in their determinations. Every lawyer will confirm this account, when I mention that great luminary of the law, Nathaniel Pigott, Esq. of whom I wish your ingenious and learned correspondents to make fuller mention. He flourished in the present century; and, with an unsullied character, acquired an extensive fortune. Happy would it be for mankind in general, if more such characters were maintained in the profession! As a conveyancer, he was more generally consulted than any other of his time. For his great probity and conscientious way of thinking, the highest placed their trust in him. He was indefatigable in his studies, and settled more conveyances than fall to the lot of others. There are extant of his a folio edition of Precedents, and a Treatise on Fines and Recoveries. The latter no man has attempted to correct or alter. It has passed divers editions. He would have been an ornament to the first seat in the law ; but, being of the Roman Catholic persuasion, he could not receive those appointments which otherwise would have been the consequence of his learning and excellences. He was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle

Temple; and died universally regretted on the fifth day of July, 1737. He left one son and two daughters. The former a man of deep knowledge, whose philosophical publications have been numerous; and many of them are to be met with in different volumes of the Philosophical Transactions. The daughters devoted themselves to a religious life at the English Convent at Brussels. The elder, I am informed, is now the lady Abbess. The youngest died, some years since, of a decline. Accomplished to the highest degree, and of a frame most delicate, perhaps few surpassed her in personal charms; and of her it may justly be said,

"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye;
"In all her gestures dignity and love!”

She is said to have contracted a regard for a gentleman who visited her at the convent, and to have repented too late that she had renounced the world. Mr. Pigott usually resided, when he retired from business, at Whitton, where he died, and was interred in Twickenham church, where a monument is erected to his memory, on which is inscribed the following epitaph :

"To the Memory of

Nathaniel Pigott, Barrister at Law,
Possessed of the highest Character
By his Learning, Judgment, Experience,
Integrity.

Deprived of the highest Stations
Only by his Conscience and Religion.
Many he assisted in the Law,

More he preserved from it.

A Friend to Peace, a Guardian of the Poor,
A Lover of his Country.

He died July 5th, 1737, aged seventy-six years." 1784, Sept.

MR. URBAN,

HAVING it in my power to comply with the request of your correspondent who has furnished some anecdotes, and has addressed himself to the public at large for more, concerning the late Nathaniel Pigott, Esq. I here subjoin the following particulars relating to that learned and respectable

man.

Being, as already said, of the Roman Catholic religion, his father sent him young, to the English college of Saint Omer's, for his education. There he distinguished himself by early and promising proofs of his future merit and excellence. On his return from thence to England, he gave himself up entirely to his favourite study of the law. In a short time he was admitted, by a flattering unanimity, a member of the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple. He soon became an object of public attention, and as soon commenced his reputation for the nicest honour, strictest integrity, and most profound learning; which daily increased, and which he carried, unsullied, to the grave. Under thirty years of age at the time of the Revolution, his opinions had the greatest weight with the leading Roman Catholics. of that period. Although faithful to his King, to whom he had sworn allegiance; and although, by the expulsion of that Prince, his most sanguine expectations of preferment were for ever blasted; he was moderate, and, on all occasions, endeavoured to check the intemperate zeal and violent animosities of those unhappy times. Of his conciliating principles a multitude of instances might be adduced; but it is feared the length of this relation may be unsuitable to your publication. Let it suffice to add, that in those times of phrensy, he was equally esteemed, respected, and trusted, by men of all parties. With his years the number of his friends increased; they were numerous, and in the highest stations. Many letters are still existing from the Lord Chancellor Harcourt to him; in which an unbounded confidence in his honour, and reliance on his professional opinions, appear. He died, as your correspondent observes, on the 5th of July, 1737; and the epitaph, from his monument, is correctly copied. But he seems to be in the dark as to the author of the epitaph. It was written by Mr. Pope, who at that time lived at Twickenham, about a mile from Mr. Pigott's villa at Whitton, where Mr. Pope visited, and frequently dined. As every thing relating to our great poet must interest the curiosity of your readers, I shall subjoin some particulars relating to the epitaph, more especially as they will shew the anxious attention he paid to, and the solicitous care he took of, every expression, and even every word, which came from him. On the death of Mr. Pigott the first epitaph was worded thus:

At that time an offer was made to him, and he had accepted the offer, of being appointed solicitor-general.