following year to marry Miss Nicholas, daughter of Robert Nicholas, esq. a descendant of Dr. Nicholas, formerly warden of Winchester.

The tenour of his life was now even. During such times, as he could spare from the school, and especially on the return of the Christmas vacation, he visited his friends in London, among whom were the whole of that class who composed Dr. Johnson's literary club, with some persons of rank by whom he was highly respected, but who appear to have remembered their old master in every thing but promotion. In 1782, he was indebted to his friend and correspondent Dr. Lowth, bishop of London, for a prebend of St. Paul's, and the living of Thorley in Hertfordshire, which, after some arrangements, he exchanged for Wickham. This year also he published his second and concluding volume of the Essay on Pope, and a new edition, with some alterations, of the first.

In 1788, through the interest of lord Shannon, he obtained a prebend in Winchester cathedral, and through that of lord Malmesbury, the rectory of Easton, which, within the year, he was permitted to exchange for Upham. The amount of these preferments was considerable, but surely not beyond his merit, and it must be observed, they came late when his family could no longer expect the advantages of early income and economy. He was sixty years of age before he had any benefice, except the small livings of Wynslade and Tunworth, and nearly seventy before he enjoyed the remainder. The unequal distribution of ecclesiastic preferments would be a subject too delicate for discussion, if they were uniformly the rewards of ecclesiastical services, but as, among other reasons, they are bestowed on account of literary attainments, we may be allowed to wonder that Dr. Warton was not remunerated in an early period of life, when he stood almost at the head of English scholars, and when his talents, in their full vigour, would have dignified the highest stations.

In the year 1793, he came to a resolution to resign the mastership of Winchester. He was now beginning to feel that his time of life required more ease and relaxation than the duties of the school permitted, and his resolution was probably strengthened by some unpleasant proceedings at that period among the scholars. Accordingly he gave in his resignation on the twenty-third of July, and retired to his rectory at Wickham. A vote of thanks followed from the wardens, &c. of the school, for the encouragement he had given to genius and industry, the attention he had paid to the introduction of a correct taste in composition and classical learning, and the many and various services which he had conferred on the Wiccamical societies through the long course of years in which he filled the places of second and head master. These were not words of course, but truly felt by the addressers, although they form a very inadequate character of him as master.

During his retirement at Wickham, he was induced by a liberal offer from the booksellers of London, and more probably, by his love for the task, to superintend a new edition of Pope's Works, which he completed in 1797, in nine volumes octavo. That this was the most complete and best illustrated edition of Pope was generally allowed,. but it had to contend with objections, some of which were not urged with the respect due to the veteran critic who had done so much to reform and refine the taste of his age. It was proper to object that he had introduced one or two pieces which ought never to have been published, but it was not so proper or necessary to object that he

had given us his Essay cut down into notes. Besides that this was unavoidable, they who made the objection had not been very careful to compare the new with the old matter; they would have found upon a fair examination that his original illustrations were very numerous, and that no discovery respecting Pope's character or writings made since the edition of Warburton, was left untouched.

It has already been mentioned that he had once an intention of compiling a History of the Revival of Learning, and that he had abandoned it. About the year 1784', however, he issued proposals for a work which would probably have included much of his original purpose. This was to have been comprised in two quarto volumes, and to contain the History of Grecian, Roman, Italian, and French Poetry in four parts. I. From Homer to Nonnus: II. From Ennius to Boetius: III. From Dante to Metastasio: IV. From W. de Lorris to Voltaire. This he announced as "preparing for the press." Probably his brother's death, and his desire to complete his History of English Poetry, diverted him from his own design: but it does not appear that he made any progress in either.

After the publication of Pope, he entered on an edition of Dryden, and about the year 1799, had completed two volumes with notes, which are now in the possession of his son, the rev. John Warton, who has undertaken to give them to the world. At this time the venerable author was attacked by an incurable disorder in his kidneys, which terminated his useful and honourable life on Feb. 23, 1800, in his seventy-eighth year 5. He left a widow, who died in 1806, a son and three daughters, the youngest by his second wife. He was interred in the same grave with his first wife, in the north aisle of Winchester cathedral: and the Wiccamists evinced their respect for his memory by an elegant monument by Flaxman, placed against the pillar next to the entrance of the choir on the south-side of the centre aisle.

In 1806, the rev. John Wooll, master of the school of Midhurst in Sussex, published Biographical Memoirs of Dr. Warton, with a Selection from his Poetry and a Literary Correspondence. From all these, the present sketch has been compiled, with some additional particulars gleaned from the literary journals of the times, and other sources of information.

The personal character of Dr. Warton continues to be the theme of praise with all who knew him. Without affectation of superior philosophy, he possessed an independent spirit, and amidst what would have been to others very bitter disappointments, he was never known to express the language of discontent or envy. As a husband and parent he displayed the tenderest feelings mixed with that prudence which implies sense as well as affection. His manners partook of what has been termed the old court: his address was polite and even elegant, but occasionally it had somewhat of measure and stateliness. Having left the university after a short residence, he mixed early with the world, sought and enjoyed the society of the fair sex, and tempered his studious habits with the tender and polite attentions necessary in promiscuous

4 My copy of his Proposals has no date, but as Mr. Maty published them in his Review for 1784, I presume that was the time of their being issued. C.

5 "His cheerfulness and resignation in affliction were invincible; even under the extreme of bodily weakness, his strong mind was unbroken, and his limbs became paralyzed in the very act of dictating an epistle of friendly criticism. So quiet, so composed was his end, that he might more truly be said to cease to live than to have undergone the pangs of death." Wooll's Memoirs, pp. 102, 103. C.