ADDISON. JOSEPH ADDISON was born on the firft of May, 1672, at Milfton, of which his father, Lancelot Addifon, was then rector, near Ambrofbury in Wiltshire, and, appearing weak and unlikely to live, he was chriftened the fame day. After the ufual domestick education, which, from the character of his father, may be reasonably fuppofed to have given him strong impreffions of piety, he was committed to the care of Mr. Naifh at Ambrofbury, and afterwards of Mr. Taylor at Salisbury. Not to name the fchool or the masters of men illuftrious for literature, is a kind of historical fraud, by which honest fame is injurioufly diminished I would therefore trace him through the whole procefs of his education. In 1683, in the beginning of his twelfth year, his father being made dean of Lichfield, naturally carried his family to his new refidence, and, I believe, placed him for fome time, probably not long, under Mr. Shaw, then mafter of the fchool at Lichfield, father of VOL. II. B દ the the late Dr. Peter Shaw. Of this interval his biographers have given no account, and I know it only from a story of a barring-out told me, when I was a boy, by Andrew Corbet of Shropshire, who had heard it from Mr. Pigot his uncle. : The practice of barring-out was a favage license practised in many fchools to the end of the last century, by which the boys, when the periodical vacation drew near, growing petulant at the approach of liberty, fome days before the time of regular recefs, took poffeffion of the fchool, of which they barred the doors, and bade their mafter defiance from the windows. It is not eafy to fuppofe that on fuch occafions the master would do more than laugh; yet, if tradition may be credited, he often struggled hard to force or surprise the garrifon. The master, when Pigot was a school-boy, was barred-out at Lichfield, and the whole operation, as he faid, was planned and conducted by Addison. To judge better of the probability of this ftory, I have enquired when he was sent to the Chartreux; but, as he was not one of those who enjoyed the Founder's benefaction, there is no account preserved of his admission. At the fchool of the Chartreux, to which he was removed |