"Ne fiat labor vel molestia in transcribendo, post lectas literas et librum accersitum per Bibliopolam benè approbatum in usus designatos, impense quæso ut communices eos Ludi-magistris insignioris nota, non secus ac minorum gentium circumquaque degentibus, ut Gloria Dei eniteat in multorum emolumentis.

"Et Clericis quibus tecum intercidit usus, ut Parochianis suis librum commendent; quo major Dei gloria, &c."

"

Mr. GEORGE AYSCOUGH to RICHARD GOUGH, Esq. Southampton Court, Jan. 13, 1781. "Having an opportunity of seeing your Topographical History, I think I can give you a few hints about Dr. Charles Deering, alias Doering*. He took his degree of Doctor of Physic, I think, at Leyden. His Diploma and Seal of the College I have placed in his Book of Plants in the British Museum. Soon after he came to London he was made a Secretary to the Ambassador going to Russia; on his return he married; he lost his wife. Some little time after he went to Nottingham; at first was well received; but his unaccountable temper soon lost his better. friends, he always finding fault with the cooking: this was his misfortune; it disobliged the mistress of the family, and consequently lost his place at table. Here he began to taste his troubles, and was soon nearly in want. He applied to John Plumptre, esq. to assist in writing the History of Nottingham;" and he helped him to most of the materials, and assisted him generously. As this was a work of time, he did not live to see it published. I think I may say his poverty broke his heart. Mrs Turner, a Lincolnshire lady, at that time boarded in Nottingham. His landlord acquainted her of his distress; she sent him half a guinea, and orders to the landlord to let her know how he went on. His landlord gave him the half guinea, with her compliments. The Doctor immediately replied, If you had stabbed me to the heart, I should have thanked you; but this I cannot bear.' He lived but a short time after. Before his last lness his friends bought him an electrical machine; with this he got a little money, and then he was made an Officer in the Nottingham foot, raised on account of the Rebellion in 1745 and 1746: but this was only an expence to him; he used to say all his helps hurt him, as being attended with more cost than his profits amounted to. He was a German, and master of nine languages. He observed sometimes, that every little schoolmaster could maintain himself, but he with all his knowledge could not. He died so poor that there was not a sufficiency to bury him; on which account the Corporation was taking his effects for that service, but Mr. Willington, druggist, of Nottingham, and myself, administered as principal creditors, and buried him genteelly in St. Peter's church-yard. He and I in joint expence printed the History of Nottingham,' and bought and got engraved the Prints that are in it; only Air. Plumptre gave us the West view.

* See before, vol. I. pp. 211. 800.

The

The Doctor wrote a book of Plants growing about Nottingham; a Treatise on the Small-pox, addressed to Sir Thomas Parkyns, Bart. and not a Doctor of Physic; and the Latin Account of the Transactions of the Nottinghamshire Horse, which was put up in the County Hall under the Colours after they returned from Scotland; all which I printed. The Anonymous of Nottingham I have; several small paper books of his writing; the first Plan of Nottingham Old Castle that you take notice of.

"So much for the Doctor. I will make an observation relating to my family: Mr William Ayscough, my father, was the first who introduced the Art of Printing into Nottingham, about the year 1710. He died when I was almost three years old, and was bu ried in St. Peter's church. My mother carried on the business till I was about 17, and was buried by her husband. I continued the printing till 1762, and in this year (1781) am in the 66th year of my age My mother was daughter of the Rev. Mr. George Young, Rector of Catwick in Holderness. I married Miss Elizabeth Prudom, but had no living issue; and then to Miss Edith Wigley, daughter of Benjamin Wigley, esq. of Wirksworth, and have a son, the Rev. Samuel Ayscough, who is writing the Catalogue of Dr. Sloane and Dr. Birch's Manuscripts in the Museum, and a daughter Anne. I thought this account would be agreeable to you, and plead an excuse for giving this trouble.

"If you should call on me, I can shew you Mr. Francis Willoughby's picture, his Father, Mother, and two Sisters; King Charles the First, about the time when he went to Spain, I think; Prince Henry, and Oliver; I presume all good ones; and an antient altar-piece, I suppose by Durer.-I am, &c. G. Ayscough.”

BEAUPRE BELL*, Esq. to Dr. NATHANAEL SALMONT. "SIR, Trinity College, May 19, 1729. The Brass Rings or Plates made use of in exchange, both before and in Cæsar's time, were not the product of this Island, but imported from other parts. Utuntur, says Cæsar, aut Aere, aut Annulis Ferreis ad certum pondus examinatis, pro Nummo. And a line or two after, Aere utuntur importato. Lib. V. c. 10. If they imported Brass, as it is plain they did, there is nothing improbable in supposing that Cunobeline, when he had seen the Gold and Silver Coins of the Romans, might import both those metals for the same purpose.-The novelty of striking a Coin at Rome with the Emperor's head upon it, might, as I observed, be one reason, among others, for Cunobeline's imitation. When you call it a fashion young in the world, your pen slipped. It is certain that the Greeks placed the heads of their Princes on Coins even before the Foundation of Rome.

"You see, Sir, I have made use of the liberty you are pleased to allow me, in dissenting freely from your opinion. I wish what I have said may furnish you with any fresh hint, or give you an opportunity of correcting an error in, good Sir,

"Your most obedient servant,

BEAUPRE BELL."

* Of whom see the "Literary Anecdotes, vol. V. p. 278. + Ibid. II. 132.

The Rev. WILLIAM DEJOVAS BYRCH,

the last surviving son of the Rev. William Byrch, Minister of St. Mary's, Dover, and Rector of Mongeham, Kent, by Jane, daughter of Mr. William Dejovas, was born July 19, 1730, and educated first at Peter House, and afterwards at Sidney College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1750; M. A. 1754; and was some time Fellow, during which he was Moderator of the University. He was elected F. S. A. in 1760.

In 1759, Mr. Byrch married Elizabeth, only daughter of Thomas Barrett*, esq. of Lee Priory in Kent, and heiress to her mother Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Peter De-la-Pierre, M. D. In right of his wife he became possessed of the manor and advowson of Kingston in Kent, and of Evering in the hundred of Folkestone. He held also Placehouse, in Woodchurch, in the same county. By her he had a son, Thomas-Peter, a Lieutenant of Marines, who died in 1784, unmarried; and an only daughter, Elizabeth, married, 1786, to Samuel Egerton Brydges, esq. younger and next brother to the Rev. Edward Tymewell Brydges +.

* Well known amongst the encouragers of the Arts, in which he was remarkably skilful, and celebrated for his Collections. He was a gentleman of great elegance and fine taste, to which, in a life as retired as was consistent with sociability, and an extensive knowledge of men and manners, were conjoined the utmost regularity, unfeigned piety, and the truest both conjugal and parental affection. He died Jan. 28, 1757.

+ See Hasted's Kent, vol. III. pp. 107. 358. 749.

Of this Gentleman, and his Claim to the Barony of Chandos, see Collins's Peerage, vol. VI. p. 756. He died in October 1807, aged 58.—Mr. Egerton Brydges (now a Baronet, Knight of the Order of St. Joachim, and M. P. for Maidstone) has particularly distinguished himself in the Literary world by many excellent and useful publications. See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 209. A View of Lee Priory, as repaired by the taste of Mr. James Wyatt, is given in Hasted's Kent, vol. III. p. 664. -This fine old mansion is now the property of Thomas Barrett. Brydges, esq. (eldest son of Sir Egerton), born June 20, 1789,

-

who

Mr. Byrch was endowed with uncommon qualities both of the head and the heart, though froni unconquerable modesty and diffidence he never became known to the world at large. He was not only complete master of the learned tongues, and had read and digested all the best Latin and Greek Writers, but he understood Hebrew, and was well acquainted with French and Italian; in all the deepest and politest writers of his own country he was thoroughly versed; and he was undoubtedly one of the deepest Mathematicians of the age, a study of which he had been peculiarly fond, and to which in early life he dedicated much time, and had he continued it with the same ardour, might have added lights (so original were his powers of thinking) that would have rendered his name renowned over Europe. Perhaps his labours are not totally lost; there are faint hopes he may have left papers, which are probably of the highest value. But, after all these wonderful acquirements, he had Learning of yet more estimation, and to which he applied yet more time; in the studies appropriate to his profession (of which he uniformly declined soliciting the emoluments, that he might prove himself a disinterested supporter of its cause); in these studies he was a most perfect master; he was the ablest advocate for the Church Establishment, the most truly orthodox in his opinions, and the firmest and warmest believer of the Christian Religion. Habituated as his mind was to the closest reasoning, and stored as it was with the most extended learning, the fallacious arguments, the false quotations, and all the arts by which half-witted or interested people support their principles, were in

who has taken the name of Barrett in compliance with the will of his great uncle Thomas Barrett, esq. who died in January 1803, and whose estates he inherits. See Gent. Mag. vol. LXXIII p. 91. -From a private press at Lee Priory, under the superintendance of Sir Egerton Brydges, the admirers of old English Literature have been favoured with several publications of uncommon elegance.

stantly

stantly detected by him. It is to be lamented that his diffidence prevented the world from receiving the advantage of such talents. An innate modesty, united with a valetudinarian constitution, kept one of the first of characters concealed from general knowledge. The same delicate state of health prevented his officiating in his clerical function; and finding his bodily strength inadequate to his mental powers, he displayed a conscientious discharge of duty, by relinquishing a living in his own disposal, because he could not personally perform the parochial part of it. But to the neighbourhood in which he lived the example of his life, which was as pure as his principles, and as amiable as his genius, diffused benefits which will no doubt secure him the highest rewards. He seemed born with an heart of as much sensibility, charity, and benevolence, as ever was possessed by a human being; and these qualities were tempered and confirmed by the perpetual influence of the purest Religion, so that he appeared at no moment of his life to act without consulting the approbation of his conscience. And with all these greater virtues and accomplishments, his manners were not only the most amiable and accommodating, but graced with a knowledge of all the lesser arts in no common degree. He was excessively fond of music; he understood and delighted in painting; and though he seldom took the pencil in his hand, he drew with all the bold and inventive freedom of a master; yet he was never the least fastidious or self-opinionated, but most easily pleased and delighted with the least glimmerings of genius, which he loved to foster, while the tinsel and affected style and sentiment of dulness or subordinate talents alone offended his purer taste; and the same inexpressible sweetness of disposition and manners enhanced tenfold the value of his advice and his purse, which was ever unboundedly open to the poor. For so rare an assemblage of excellences in

one