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ther claimant may be added on the credit of his own aflertion, which appeared about four years after Pope's de th. "When Pope was charg'd by Venus to de

(cribe

Belinda, deck'd by all the Sylphine tribe, The bluft'ring winds held in their struggling breath,

And ev'ry form lay filent, hush'din death. Now rage ye winds, your tears ye tempefts shed,

Belinda refts fecure, and Pope is dead! Peace to his honour'd fhade-with lawre's crowned [round;

Enthron'd he fate, the Bards flood lift'ning When (meaneft of the train) entranc'd I hung

To catch the nectar'd accents from his tongue;

Smiling he call'd me thro' the envying choir, And bade me ftrike the loud Moonian lyre; Trembling I touch'd the strings; be own'd the lays ;

Firm declir'd the envy and the praise."

Thefe lines form part of a poetical Epiftle to Lady Charlotte Fermor, and are to be found in a 4to volume of Mis. cellanies by Henry Layng, printed in 1748-Whether be was the Gentleman of Cambridge, faid, by Dr. Johnfon, to have lent his affiftance, and to have foon grown weary of the work,' I offer no conjecture; but have cited the paffage for the future comment of your learned correfpondent, J. Robertfon, whofe notice it appears to have escaped. P. S. May 4. If the above remarkable paffage had been printed in your laft Magazine, Indagator, p. 292, would have been fhewn, that the fact of Mr. Layng's having affifted Pope in tranfiting Homer does not reft upon the affertion of any other perfon, but on his own exprefs declaration, wherein he feems anxious to claim his share of a

literary honour, which at fome former period he had declined acknowledging; perhaps before the work had acquired its popularity. That in 1746 Mr. L. was the best poet in England is furely fomewhat difputable, and must have been the judgement of a partial friend, as Thomson was at that time living in the just enjoyment of a national fame. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

T.P.

May 7.

I OBSERVED, on a perufal of a fpe

cimen of the Hiftory of Oxfordshire, by the late Rev. Mr. Warton, that he quotes a parochial perambulation of that County by Anthony Wood; which he

notices to be curious, and yet unpublifhed Of this MS I fhould be glad to learn fome particulars, and whether it is in a ftate fit for the prefs. The Works we already have of that excellent Antiquare have afforded me fuch pleasure in the perufal, that I cannot help expreffing a wifh that the MS. above alluded to was added to the number of his printed works. J. C.

I

Mr. URBAN,

March 15.

AM aftonished at the ignorance of Mr Gough will find better employment your correfpondent, p. ico. I hope for his time than throwing it away in antwering his puerile queries. By his making a parade of the names of Hudfon, Stokes, and Sowerby (which laft gentleman he has honoured with the title of Doctor), it should feem that he had feen their Works; but, if he had perused them with the fmalleft attentrouble of fcribbling, and not have extion, he would have faved himself the pofed himself. Ne futor ultra crepidam may be juftly applied to this gentleman. Let him attend to the diforders of his

pigs, and he may, perhaps, be useful. Keep him, ye gods, from paper, pen,

66

and ink, That he may cease to write, and learn to [think." Yours, &c. R. G.

Mr. URBAN,

Mareb 20.

THE gentlemen of Queen's College,

Oxford, could fupply fatisfactory accounts of feveral of the perfons enquired after, vol. LXII. p. 1073. Ample Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Henry Winder (not Windfor) are prefixed to his Hiftory of Knowledge, Lond. 1756, 4to. by Dr. George Bonion.

"The omillion in Granger's Hiftory,” affuredly intended by that accurate and p. 1110, retailed from p. 999, was moft inquifitive writer, for the reasons alligned by Vindex, in p. 313. As to Vertue's

619, it cannot be impeached : but where fcrupulous veracity," infifted on in p.

are the "vouchers for the authentiinto the Oxford Almanacks? Many of city" of feveral of the portraits admitted them are certainly "fictitious;" and it is therefore to be hoped, that the Editors of Mr. Granger's Work will take no "notice of the fuggeftion of your correfpondent," and will not presume to "fupply," from the fource here pointed out, what cannot be realoably confidered as a "defect."

Yours, &c.

SCRUTATOR.

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The yew-tree which is at the Eaft end of the church is the only monument of Mr. William Baker, attorney at law, and his wife, who planted it from his garden, a few years previous to his death, at the feet of his wife: it is about thirty years landing. The fpiral yews, which adorn the walk, were planted about feventy years fince by Mr. Serjeant Sheppard, fome time member for Honiton, from his garden, now belonging to Mr. Edward Carter, attorney at law. His monument, defcribed as above referred, was principally compo fed of a marble flab, which used to decorate his hall, as being thought more durable than any then to be procured.

I fubjoin a lift of members for Honiton, more correct than any yet printed:

1640, Wm. Pole and Walter Yonge, efquires. 1660, Sir John Yonge and Samuel Searle. 1661, Courtenay Pole and Peter Prideaux. efqrs. 1678, Sir Walter Yonge and Sir Thomas Putt, barts. 1681, Ditto. 1685, Edmund Waldron and Sir Thomas Putt. 1688, Edmund Waldron and Richard Courtenay. 1690, 1695, 1698, 1701, 17C2, 1705, 1708, Sir William Drake and Sir Walter Yonge. 1710, Sir Wm. Drake; and a double return of Sir Walter Yonge and James Sheppard, efq. decided in favour of Sir W. Y. 1713, William Drake and James Sheppard, elq.

1714, Sir William Yonge and Sir William Pole. 1722. 1727, Ditto. 1734, Sir William Yonge and William Courtenay. 1741, Sir W Y. and Henry Reginald Courtenay.. 1747, Sir W. Y. and John Heath Duke. 1754, Sir Geo. Yonge and H. R. Courtenay. 1761, John Duke and H. R. Courtenay. 1763, Sir Geo. Yonge and John Duke. 1768, Sir G. Y. and Alderman Ciofby. 1774, Sir G. Y. and Laurence Cox. 1780, Sir G. Y. and Alexander Macleod. 1781, Sir G. Y. and Jacob Wilkinfon, elq. 1784, Sir G. Y. and Sir George Collier. 1790, Sir G. Yonge, GENT. MAG. May, 1793.

and George Templer, efq.

The following infcription, on a flat ftone before the communion rails in Honiton church, was written by the Rev. Richard Lewis, M. A. who died November 27, 1775. He was rector of Fiddeton, in Somerfettaire; vicar of Buckerel, in Devon; mafter of the grammar-fchool in Honiton; chaplain to Lord Beilenden; and in the commiffion of the peace for Devonshire. He poffeffed from Nature Atrong parts, which he cultivated with the fciences. He died efteemed and regretted: Hic jacent exuviæ mortales revdi admodum

viri

EZRA CLEVELAND, S.T.B. collegii Exons apud Oxonienfes quondam foci, et deinde, ita volente perhonorabili viro Dno Gulielmo Courtenay de Powderham baronetto, hujus ecclefiæ quadraginta per annos rectoris.

Per id omne tempus ftudiis gnaviter incubuit, animoque omnigenâ fere fcientiâ repleto, tum ethica officia, tum legis prophetarumque

præcepta

necnon Chriftianæ fidei articulos, peculiari quân am

perfpicuitate concionibus enucleavit. Vitam prorfus innocuam duxit, et plurimus benef-cit.

Moribus inerat feverita, fermoni gravitas, ut decuit miniftrum Dei.

Idem vero cum tempus pofceret, comes mire fettivus

multo permaduit fale. Ecclefiæ Anglicanæ ritum et doctrinæ fuit egregiæ tenax;

et, uno contentus facerdotio, alterum non ambivit, oblatum etiam recufavit. Completis tandem octoginta annis,

fenio potius quam morbo confectus, quafi obdormivit beatæ refurrectionis ípe feptimo die Augufti anno Domini 1740.

This ftone was placed in compliance with the win of Mr Cleveland's only daughter, who married Jonathan Ward, a merchant of Exeter. From the bad. nets of the ftone, this infcription is now totally obliterated. Mr. Cleveland, in his Genealogical Hiftory of the Courtenay Family, mentions the tower-window of this church having the arms of Bp. Courtenay (who was its patron about 1480), impaled with thole or his mother, who was daughter to Lord Hungerford. This was written but I cannot find it now; fo that, if it was painted on glafs, it is broken.

in 17359

I will beg leave to corre an error of the prefs, p. 115, col. 2, at the lower part, mentioning St. Margaret's chapel. It lays, with a leffer bouje; and the

note

mote alfo has it the fame; whereas it fhould be a leper houfe, or an hofpital for the cure of leprous perfons, adjoining. JOHN FELTHAM.

Mr. URBAN,

April 27.

FTEN as I have been cenfured for OF fpeaking out too plainly, it muft be allowed that my ftrictures, in p. 998 of your last volume, on the manner in which vifitatorial authority is now exercifed over colleges, were fufficiently guarded; but your correfpondents open the March Magazine by a clear ftatement of fuch facts, relative to the kindred of Chicheley, as may tend to roufe that antient Primate from the fhades. Weak, faid I, must be the man, who, inftead of bequeathing his property to those who are nearest to him by blood, afpires to the title of a founder. To place any hope in gratitude from eleemofynary priests, or the judicature of mighty prelates, is trufting bruifed reeds; on which if a man leans, they will pierce him. But a fuperficial refearch fet me right: Chicheley, I found, had much of the ferpent's craft, without a grain of the dove's fimplicity; he cared not for his relations; the encomiums on him, which occur in Godwin and Archbishop Parker, are calculated only to be written by monks, and perufed by the moft illiterate bigots of the dark ages, But Granger has ably delineated his portrait in a fingle outline, by merely remarking, that "he artfully diverted Henry the Fifth from diffolving the abbeys, by perfuading him to a war with France; which, he thought, would find fufficient employment for his ambitious and active fpirit." Let hiftorians fix, if they can, on the period of time at which fuch prelates have been wanting, to foment the acrimony of nation against nation, and light up the altar of Bellona with the torch of Religion. Voltaire, I think, mentions Matillon fingly, in moft honourable terms, as having never palliated or excited the thirft of monarchs and of ftatefmen for human blood: there are yet, I truft, fome Maffilions, though but few. To fpeak of folemn rites among the Pagan priesthoods of antiquity might found nugatory; to drag forth our contemporaries for inftances were invidious. Let us, therefore, examine what Ifaiah fays of the Jews (not fpecifying whether they obferved the feafons of January or April): "ye faft for debate and ftrife, to make your

voice to be heard on high, and to fmite with the fift of wickedness." Whence we collect, that, at thofe awful feafons, fome Levite high in rank, but much higher in felf-opinion, "cloathing himfelf with curfing like as with a raiment," came forward to excite public difcord, and, in his private capacity, folemnly to renounce all brotherhood with the man whofe mind is too enlightened to harbour his narrow and malignant prejudices. Shew me the Ecclefiaftick whofe doctrines uniformly tend to promote peace through the world, and to him I hall gladly yield profoundelt homage: enough for me to be fatisfied that he is a Chriftian and a Proteftant; but deeming it frivolous curiofity to enquire whether he belong to the herd of Athanafius, Calvin, or Socinus; whether he be a wealthy Bifhop, or an indigent Prefbyterian minifter.

It is now time to conclude the lift of

Oxford Almanacks. The notes in my poffellion were fhewn long ago to your Editor, as much at his fervice, or that of any other who would have taken the trouble of extracting them. I did it because they coft me fomething, because they were asked for, and nobody elfe would glean fuch bufks. Every fream gathers fomething from the foil through which it flows. Divertifying names and dates, by fcattering here and there a few of my own fentiments, is no grea ter a privilege than Poor Robin and all my piedeceffors have exercifed. The first thing I met with in a thick volume of Almanacks, printed about an hundred years ago, was, "Jan. 30. King Charles murdered before nis palace by his own fubjects, a fet of religious cutthroats," The next, which came from a different fhop, exhibited in fairer characters the anniversary of the "battle of Nateby, faral to the then Tories and High-churchmen."

1748. Alban hall. Robert de St. Alban, the founder, was, it feems, an Oxford citizen in the reign of K. John: but though, according to the doctrine of our modern Vefpafian, lucri bonus ift odor ex re qualibet, and money from an abject mechanick is never diftafteful, it was not allowed him to ftand elbowing prelates; he is, therefore, stuck in the back-ground with an unfurled plan in his hand, looking wondrous forlorn and difconfolate; while Henry the Eighth beftows a charter on Dr. Owen, his phyfician, another of our non-defcripts.

Dr. Fitzjames, feveral years warden

of

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