Ray, Morison, and Plukenet, all acknowledge their obligations for curious plants received from him.

After sir George Wheler entered into the church, he published, in 1689, "An Account of the Churches and Places of Assembly of the primitive Christians, from the Churches of Tyre, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, described by Eusebius; and ocular observations upon several very antient edifices of churches yet extant in those parts; with a seasonable application." We have also a third piece of his, entitled, "The Protestant Monastery, or Christian Oeconomics," which contains directions for the religious conduct of a family, and shews him to have been a remarkably pious and devout man.

Sir George married a daughter of sir Thomas Higgons of Grewell in Hampshire, who died in 1703, and left a numerous issue. The rev. Granville Wheler, of Otterdenplace, Kent, and rector of Leak in Nottinghamshire, who died in 1770, was his third son, and became his heir. He likewise distinguished himself as a gentleman of science, and a polite scholar. He was the friend and patron of Mr. Stephen Gray, who, jointly with him, contributed to revive the study of electricity in England. Sir George Wheler's name is preserved in London, from his having built a chapel on his estate in Spital-fields, known by the name of sir George Wheler's chapel, which has lately been repaired and refitted for public worship.'

WHETHAMSTEDE (JOHN), a learned abbot of St. Albans, was ordained a priest in 1382, and died in 1464, when he had been eighty-two years in priest's orders, and above an hundred years old. He wrote a chroicle of twenty years of this period, beginning in 1441 and ending in 1461. It contains many original papers, and gives a very full account of some events, particularly of the two battles of St. Alban's. More than one half of his chronicle is filled with the affairs of his own abbey, to which he was a great benefactor, particularly to the altar of the patron saint, which he adorned with much magnificence. About 1430 he employed Lydgate to translate the Latin legend of St. Alban's life into English rhymes, for the purpose of familiarising the history of that saint to the monks of his convent. He enriched the library by procuring transcripts

ham.

Ath. Ox. vol. II.-Biog. Brit.-Pulteney's Sketehes.-Hutchinson's Dur

of useful books, and was on account of such pursuits in high favour with duke Humphrey, who, when about to found his library at Oxford, often visited St. Alban's, and employed Whethamstede to collect valuable books for him.

WHETSTONE (GEORGE), is an author of whom very little is known. From the circumstance of his being a kinsman to serjeant Fleetwood, recorder of London, it is probable that he was of a good family. It appears that he first tried his fortune at court, where he consumed his patrimony in fruitless expectation of preferment. Being now destitute of subsistence, he commenced soldier, and served abroad, though in what capacity is unknown. Such, however, was bis gallant behaviour, that his services were rewarded with additional pay. He returned from the wars with honour, but with little profit; and his prospect of advancement was so small, that he determined to turn farmer, but being unsuccessful in that undertaking, was under the necessity of applying to the generosity of his friends. This he found to be "a broken reed, and worse than common beggary of charity from strangers. Now craft accosted him in his sleep, and tempted him with the proposals of several professions; but for the knavery or slavery of them, he rejected all his munificence constrained him to love money, and his magnanimity to hate all the ways of getting it." At last he resolved to seek his fortune at.sea, and accordingly embarked with sir Humphrey Gilbert in the expedition to Newfoundland, which was rendered unsuccessful by an engagement with the Spanish fleet. From this period, Mr. Whetstone seems to have depended entirely on his pen for subsistence. Where or when he died has not been ascertained. He is entitled to some notice as a writer whose works are in request as literary curiosities, but of little intrinsic value. Mr. Steevens pronounced him "the most quaint and contemptible writer, both in prose and verse, he ever met with." He wrote, 1. "The Rock of Regard," a poem in four parts. 2. "The Life of George Gascoigne," 1577, 4to. A reprint of this may be seen in the late edition of the "English Poets," 1810, 21 vols. 8vo. The only original copy known of late years, was purchased by Mr. Malone for forty guineas! 3. "Promus and Cassandra," a comedy, 1578, 4to, on this play Shakspeare founded his

Warton's History of Poetry, and references there.

"Measure for Measure."

4. "Heptameron of civil dis

courses," 1582, 4to. 5. "The remembrance of the life and death of Thomas, late earl of Sussex," 1583, 4to.

6.

A mirrour of true honour, &c. in the life and death, &c. of Francis earl of Bedford," &c. 1585, 4to. 7. "The English mirror, wherein all estates may behold the conquest of error," 1586. This contains much of the state history of the times. 8. "Censure of a dutiful subject of certain noted speech and behaviour of those fourteen noted traytors at the place of execution on the 20th and 21st of Sept." no date. 9. A poem "on the life and death of sir Philip Sidney" by him, and supposed unique, a very few leaves only, was lately sold at Messrs. King and Lochee's to Mr. Harding for 261. 5s. An account of some of these curiosities may be seen in our authorities. '

WHICHCOTE (BENJAMIN), an English divine of great pame, was descended of an ancient and good family in the county of Salop, and was the sixth son of Christopher Whichcote, esq. at Whichcote-hall in the parish of Stoke, where he was born March 11, 1609-10. He was admitted of Emanuel-college, Cambridge, in 1626, and took the degrees in arts: that of bachelor in 1629; and that of master in 1633. The same year, 1633, he was elected fellow of the college, and became a most excellent tutor; many of his pupils, as Wallis, Smith, Worthington, Cradock, &c. becoming afterwards men of great eminence. In 1636 he was ordained both deacon and priest at Buckden by Williams bishop of Lincoln; and soon after set up an afternoon-lecture on Sundays in Trinity church at Cambridge, which, archbishop Tillotson says, he served near twenty years. He was also appointed one of the university-preachers; and, in 1643, was presented by the master and fellows of his college to the living of North-Cadbury in Somersetshire. This vacated his fellowship; and upon this, it is presumed, he married, and went to his living; but was soon called back to Cambridge, being appointed to succeed the ejected provost of King's-college, Dr. Samuel Collins, who had been in that office thirty years, and was also regius professor of divinity. This choice was perfectly agreeable to Dr. Collins himself; though not so to Dr. Whichcote, who had scruples about

1 Life drawn up by Mr. Steevens for Dr. Berkenhout.-Warton's Hist. of Poetry.-Censura Lit. vols. II. IV. and V.-Bibliographer.

accepting what was thus irregularly offered him: however, after some demurring, he complied, and was admitted provost, March 16, 1644. He had taken his bachelor of divinity's degree in 1640; and he took his doctor's in 1649. He now resigned his Somersetshire living, and was presented by his college to the rectory of Milton in Cambridgeshire, which was void by the death of Dr. Collins, It must be remembered, to Dr. Whichcote's honour, that, during the life of Dr. Collins, one of the two shares out of the common dividend allotted to the provost was, not only with Dr. Which cote's consent, but at his motion, paid punctually to him, as if he had still been provost. Dr. Whichcote held Milton as long as he lived; though, after the Restoration, he thought proper to resign, and resume it by a fresh presentation from the college. He still continued to attend his lecture at Trinity-church with the same view that he had at first set it up; which was, to preserve and propagate a spirit of sober piety and rational religion in the university of Cambridge, in opposition to the style of preaching, and doctrines then in vogue: and he may be said to have founded the school at which many eminent divines after the Restoration, and Tillotson among them, who had received their education at Cambridge, were formed, and were afterwards distinguished from the more orthodox by the epithet latitudinarian. In 1658 he wrote verses upon the death of Oliver Cromwell, which, his biographer supposes, were done entirely out of form, and not out of any regard to the person of the protector. Nor had Dr. Whichcote ever concurred with the violent measures of those times by signing the covenant, or by any injurious sayings or actions to the prejudice of any man. At the Restoration, however, he was removed from his provostship by especial order from the king; but yet he was not disgraced or frowned upon. On the contrary, he went to London, and in 1662 was chosen minister of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, where he continued till his church was burned. down in the dreadful fire of 1666. He then retired to Milton for a while; but was again called up, and presented by the crown to the vicarage of St. Lawrence Jewry, vacant by the promotion of Dr. Wilkins to the see of Chester. During the building of this church, upon invitation. of the court of aldermen, in the mayoralty of sir William Turner, he preached before the corporation at Guildhall chapel, with great approbation, for about seven years.

When St. Lawrence's was rebuilt, he preached there twice a week, and had the general love and respect of his parish, and a very considerable audience, though not numerous, owing to the weakness of his voice in bis declining age. A little before Easter in 1683, he went down to Cambridge; where, upon taking cold, he fell into a distemper, which in a few days put an end to his life. He died at the house of his ancient and learned friend Dr. Cudworth, master of Christ's-college, in May 1683; and was interred in the church of St. Lawrence Jewry. Dr. Tillotson, then lecturer there, preached his funeral-sermon, where his character is drawn to great advantage. Burnet speaks of him in the following terms: "He was a man of a rare temper; very mild and obliging. He had credit with some that bad been eminent in the late times; but made all the use he could of it to protect good men of all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience; and, being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those times, he studied to raise those who conversed with him to a nobler set of thoughts, and to consider religion as a seed of a deiform nature (to use one of his own phrases) *. In order to this, he set young students much on reading the ancient philosophers, chiefly Plato, Tully, and Plotin; and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine sent from God, both to elevate and sweeten human nature, in which he was a great example as well as a wise and kind instructor. Cudworth carried this on with a great strength of genius, as well as a vast compass of learning." Baxter numbers him with "the best and ablest of the conformists."

But his character is drawn most at length by Tillotson in his funeral sermon. "I shall not," says Tillotson, "insist upon his exemplary piety and devotion towards God, of which his whole life was one continued testimony. Nor will I praise his profound learning, for which he was justly had in so great reputation. The moral improvements of his mind, a god-like temper and disposition' (as he was wont to call it), he chiefly valued and aspired after; that universal charity and goodness, which he did continually preach and practise. His conversation was exceeding kind and affable, grave and winning, prudent and profitable.

Dr. Whichcote, in common conversation and on the most common occasions, dealt much in pompous, compound words. One day seein two

boys fighting in the street, he went up and parted them, exclaiming, "What; moral entities, and yet pugnacious!"