fixed to a country life, where many recent accessions have rendered his property considerable, and where his son, a minor, has succeeded by maternal inheritance to a beautiful seat and surrounding estate. But amidst the profusion of modern titles, and the gaiety and dissipation which modern modes enforce, a country gentleman is no longer it seems of any im

* Lee, near Canterbury.-Lord Orford in a note to the Anecdotes of Painting, vol. IV. p. 94, third edit. 1786, speaking of Go thic architecture at Oxford, says "should the university be disposed to add decorations in the genuine style of the colleges, they possess an architect who is capable of thinking in the spirit of the founders. Mr. Wyat, at Mr. Barrett's, at Lee, near Canterbury, has, with a disciple's fidelity to the models of his masters, superadded the invention of a genius. The little library has all the air of an abbot's study, except that it discovers more taste.”

The World o'erlooks him in her busy search
Of objects more illustrious in her view;
And occupied as earnestly as she,

Tho' more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world.-
Not slothful he, tho' seeming unemploy'd,
And censur'd oft as useless. Stillest streams
Oft water fairest meadows; and the bird
That flutters least, is longest on the wing.-
For tho' the self-approving haughty World
Still as she sweeps him with her whistling silks,
Scarce deigns to notice him,-

His sphere tho' humble, if that humble sphere
Shine with his fair example, and tho' small
His influence, if it all be spent in works
From which at least a grateful few derive

Some taste of comfort in a world of woe,
Then let the supercilious Great confess

He

portance; his person and his equipage are too humble to be known in the world, and the obscurity of his station has been deemed sufficient to stifle the rights of descent, and debase the splendour of illustrious blood!

CYRIL JACKSON, D. D.

DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.

NO one has ever attained a greater degree of celebrity as governor of a college than the well-known subject of this sketch; and, if viewed in this light, we do not hesitate to pronounce him one of the most conspicuous PUBLIC CHARACTERS of the present age.

Cyril Jackson, D. D. was born in the year 1742, at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, where his father was for many years an eminent surgeon and apothecary; but having obtained a diploma for the degree of M. D. during the latter part of his life he practised as a physician, in which profession he supported a very re

He serves his country, recompenses well
The state beneath the shadow of whose vine
He sits secure, and in the scale of life

Holds no ignoble, tho' a slighted place.

The man, whose virtues are more felt than seen,
Must drop indeed the hope of public praise:
But he may boast, what few that win it can,
That if this country stand not by his skill,
At least his follies have not wrought her fall."

COWPER'S TASK, B. 31.

spectable

1

spectable character. At his death he left behind him either four or five children, of whom Cyril was the eldest, who at an early age was sent to Westminster school. The progress he made there was no doubt very creditable to himself; for although, on account of the fewness of the vacancies at that time, he did not come as a Westminster student to Christ Church, yet at the next Christmas after he entered there he was presented to a studentship by one of the canons. On obtaining this unexpected piece of preferment, he applied himself with great diligence, and the reputation which he soon acquired for his various literary acquirements, and especially for his Carmina Quadragesimalia (Lent verses), was such, as far surpassed the most sanguine expectations of his friends in his younger years.

He was now noticed, and his company courted by persons of the highest rank and greatest genius at that time in Christ Church; and a cordial friendship was contracted between him and the archbishop of York, which has subsisted uninterruptedly to the present day. Whether he ever undertook the offices of public tutor and censor of the college is uncertain; but it is probable that from choice he only superintended a few private pupils. At that early period of life, when the mind is so easily intoxicated with the flattering prospects of future greatness, Mr. Jackson, notwithstanding the notice he had attracted at Oxford, wished to have retired from its public scenes to the seclusion of a country village, of which he certainly

tainly had serious intentions for some time; and accordingly we find him thus expressing himself on the occasion in the following beautiful lines, which have never hitherto appeared before the public:

Si mihi, si liceat traducere leniter ævum,

Non pompam, nec opes, nec mihi regna peto;
Vellem ut, Divini pandens mysteria Verbi,
Vitam in secreto rure quietus agam.
Curtatis decimis, modicoque beatus agello,
Virtute et purâ sim pietate sacer.

Adsint et Graiæ comites, Latiæque Camænæ,
Et faveat, lepidâ conjuge, castus Hymen.
Quid restat? tandem mihi, cura, dolorque, valete;

Hoc tantum superest discere," posse mori."

As in these verses he has so beautifully thrown out a hint respecting the happiness and comforts of the connubial state, it is rather singular that he never had any serious thoughts of entering into it; but it is probable he never had; and from the advanced state of his life, there is every reason to suppose that he will spend the remainder of his days in celibacy.

Notwithstanding, however, his close application to study in his youthful years, he gave way occasionally to some little eccentricities. The fabric of his constitution, naturally an exceeding strong one, also appeared to be shook, and a nervous complaint was brought on, with which he is violently affected to this day; but happily his bodily infirmities have not been of such a nature as to impede the active exertions of his mind in his philosophical and learned researches.

His connexion with Dr. Markham, and other pers sons of interest and rank, most probably paved the way for his acquaintance with the Prince of Wales, in the regulation and direction of whose studies he enjoyed considerable share, having been appointed to the office of sub-preceptor to his royal highness, to whom he became much attached; and it is generally understood that a mutual respect has ever since subsisted between them.

Having filled so honourable an office, it could not be doubted but that he had opened to himself a speedy way to preferment; and accordingly he was almost immediately raised to a canonry of Christ Church, which he enjoyed till the removal of the late honourable Dr. Bagot to the bishopric of Bristol, in 1783, when he was appointed to the deanry, a place which he seemed eminently well calculated to fill.

Upon coming to the headship, Dr. Jackson found Christ Church in a flourishing state in point of num ber, but deficient in regard to discipline: to this last circumstance, therefore, he directed his chief and im mediate attention, resolutely applying himself to inspect more narrowly the conduct of the young men, and also to correct those deficiencies, and restrain those irregularities, which his mild and less-discriminating successor had overlooked. The effects of his reforming hand were soon felt and acknowledged; Christ Church was cleared of the refractory and indolent, and their places were supplied by such as were willing to submit to the salutary regulations of its governor..

The