MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

DR. HORNE.

DOCTOR GEORGE HORNE, late bishop of Norwich, and for several years president of Magdalen College in Oxford, and dean of Canterbury, was born at Otham, a small village near Maidstone in Kent, on the first of November, in the year 1730. His father was the reverend Samuel Horne3, M. A. rector of Otham, a very learned and respectable clergyman, who for some years had been a tutor at Oxford. This gentleman had so determined with himself, to preserve the integrity of his mind against all temptations from worldly advantage, that he was heard to say, and used often to repeat it, he had rather be a toad-eater to a mountebank, than flatter any great man against his conscience. To this he adhered through the whole course of his life; a considerable

VOL. 1.

He died in 1768, aged 75.

B

part of which was spent in the education of his children, and in a regular performance of all the duties of his parish. He married a daughter of Bowyer Hendley, esq. by whom he had seven children, four sons and three daughters. The eldest son died very young. The late bishop was the next. His younger brother, Samuel, was a fellow of University College, where he died, greatly respected and lamented. He inherited the integrity of his father, and was an "Is"raelite indeed," who never did or wished harm to any mortal. Yet his character was by no means of the insipid kind he had much of the humour and spirit of his elder brother; had a like talent for preaching; and was well attended to as often as he appeared in the university pulpit. His death was announced to an intimate friend by his elder brother in the following short and pathetic letter:

My dear Friend,

(No date.)

"Last night, about half an hour past eight, it "pleased God to take from us, by a violent fit of the

stone in the gall-bladder, my dear brother Sam.

"He received the blessed sacrament, with my mother "and myself, from the hands of Dr. Wetherell";

and, full of faith, with the most perfect resignation,

b The present master of University College, and dean of Hereford, &c.

departed in peace with God, the world, and him"self. It is a heavy stroke to my poor mother; but "she and my sisters bear up with great fortitude. I "have lost a very dear friend and pleasant compa"nion! Pray for us-All join in every affectionate "wish for the happiness of you and yours, with

"G. H."

The youngest brother, the reverend William Horne, was educated at Magdalen College in Oxford, and is the present worthy rector of Otham, in which he succeeded his father, as also in the more valuable rectory of Brede in the county of Sussex.

Mr. Horne, the father of the family, was of so mild and quiet a temper, that he studiously avoided giving trouble on any occasion. This he carried so far, that, when his son George was an infant, he used to wake him with playing upon a flute, that the change from sleeping to waking might be gradual and pleasant, and not produce an outcry; which frequently happens when children are awakened suddenly. What impression this early custom of his father might make upon his temper, we cannot say but certainly, he was remarkable, as he grew up, for a tender feeling of music, especially that of the church.

Under his father's tuition, he led a pleasant life, and made a rapid progress in Greek and Latin. But some well-meaning friend, fearing he might be spoiled by staying so long at home, advised the sending of him to school. To this his good father, who never was given to make much resistance, readily consented; and he was accordingly placed in the school at Maidstone, under the care of the reverend Deodatus Bye, a man of good principles, and well learned in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; who, when he had received his new scholar, and examined him at the age of thirteen, was so surprised at his proficiency, that he asked him why he came to school, when he was rather fit to go from school? With this gentleman he continued two years; during which he added much to his stock of learning, and among other things a little elementary knowledge of the Hebrew, on the plan of Buxtorf, which was of great advantage to him afterwards. I am a witness to the high respect with which he always spoke of his master; whom he had newly left when my acquaintance with him first commenced at University College, to which he was sent when he was little more than fifteen years of age. When servants speak well of a master or mistress, we are sure they are good servants; and, when a scholar speaks well of his teacher, we may be as certain he is, in every sense of the word, a good scholar.

I cannot help recounting, on this occasion, that there was under the said Deodatus Bye another scholar, very nearly related to Mr. Horne, of whom the master was heard to say, that he never did any thing which he wished him not to have done.

But, when the lad was told of this, he very honestly observed upon it, that he had done many things which his master never heard He is now in an office of

great responsibility. They who placed him in it, supposed him still to retain the honesty he brought with him from Maidstone school; and I never heard that he had disappointed them.

While Mr. Horne was at school, a Maidstone scholarship in University College became vacant; in his application for which he succeeded, and, young as he was, the master recommended his going directly to college.

Soon after he was settled at University College (where he was admitted on the 15th of March, 17456), Mr. Hobson, a good and learned tutor of the house, gave out an exercise, for a trial of skill, to Mr. Horne and the present writer of his life, who was also in his first year. They were ordered to take a favourite Latin ode of Boëtius, and present it to the tutor in a different Latin metre. This they both did as well as they could: and the contest, in