had for a while listened to the blandishments of infidelity *; and when West's book was published, it was bought by some who did not know his change of opinion, in expectation of new objections against Christianity; and, as infidels do not want malignity, they revenged the disappointment by calling him a methodist.

West's income was not large; and his friends endeavoured, but without success, to obtain an augmentation. It is reported, that the education of the young prince, now George III. was offered to him, but that he required a more extensive power of superintendance than it was thought proper to allow him. In time, however, his revenue was improved. He lived to have one of the lucrative clerkships of the privy-council in 1752, and Mr. Pitt afterwards made him treasurer of Chelsea-hospital. He was now sufficiently rich, but wealth came too late to be long enjoyed, nor could it secure him from the calamities of life. In 1755 he lost his only son; and on March 26, of the year following, a stroke of the palsy brought to the grave, says Dr. Johnson, "one of the few poets to whom the grave might be without its terrors."

Of his poetical works, his version of Pindar, although it discovers many imperfections, appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities. His "Institution of the Garter" is written with sufficient knowledge of the manners that prevailed in the age to which it is referred, and with great elegance of diction; but, for want of a process of events, neither knowledge nor elegance preserve the reader from weariness. His "Imitations of Spenser" are very successfully performed, both with respect to the metre, the language, and the fiction; and being engaged at once by the excellence of the sentiments, and the artifice of the copy, the mind has two amusements together. But such compositions, says Johnson, are not to be reckoned among the great atchievements of intellect, because their

* West, in one of his letters to the author of the "Life of Colonel Gar

diner," says, "One (lesson) I cannot help taking notice of to you upon this occasion, viz. your remarks upon the advantage of an early education in the principles of religion, because I have myself most happily experienced it. Since I owe to the early care of a most excellent woman, my mother (whose character I dare say you are no stran

ger to) that bent and bias to religion, which, with the co-operating grace of God, hath at length brought me back to those paths of peace, from whence I might have otherwise been in danger of deviating for ever. The parallel betwixt me and colonel Gardiner was in this instance too striking not to affect me exceedingly."-Letter to Dr. Doddridge, dated March 14, 1747-8.

effect is local and temporary: they appeal not to reason or passion, but to memory, and pre-suppose an accidental or artificial state of mind. An imitation of Spenser is nothing to a reader, however acute, by whom Spenser has never been perused. Works of this kind may deserve praise, as proofs of great industry, and great nicety of observation; but the highest praise, the praise of genius, they cannot claim. The noblest beauties of art are those of which the effect is co-extended with rational nature, or at least with the whole circle of polished life; what is less than this can be only pretty, the plaything of fashion, and the amusement of a day.

The private character of Mr. West was truly amiable and excellent. In him the Christian, the scholar, and the gentleman were happily united. His private virtues and social qualities were such, as justly endeared him to his friends and acquaintances. In his manner of life he was very regular and exemplary. He corresponded on very intimate and friendly terms with Dr. Doddridge, whose "Family Expositor" was ushered into the world by a recommendation from him; and he also wrote the doctor's epitaph,'

WEST (JAMES), a gentleman of literary talents, and long known for his fine library and museum, was the son of Richard West, esq. of Alscott, in Warwickshire, said to be descended, according to family tradition, from Leonard, a younger son of Thomas West, lord De la Warr, who died in 1525. He was educated at Baliol college, Oxford, where he took his degree of M. A. in 1726. He had an early attachment to the study of antiquities, and was elected F. S. A. in 1726, and was afterwards one of the vice-presidents. Of the Royal Society likewise he became a fellow in the same year, and was first treasurer, from Nov. 1736 to Nov. 1768, when he was elected president, and held that honourable office until his death, July 2, 1772. In 1741 he was chosen one of the representatives in parliament for St. Alban's, and, being appointed one of the joint secretaries of the treasury, he continued in that office until 1762. His old patron, the duke of Newcastle, afterwards procured him a pension of 2000l. For what services so large a sum was granted, we are not told.

Mr. West married the daughter and heiress of sir Thomas Stephens, timber-merchant in Southwark, who brought

1 English Poets.-Nichols's Bowyer.-Doddridge's Letters.

him a valuable estate in Rotherhithe; and by her he had a son, James, who was auditor of the land-tax for the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Chester, and Derby, and sometime member of parliament for Boroughbridge in Yorkshire; and two daughters, one of whom, Sarah, married the late lord Archer, and died his widow a few years ago. The other is still living in London. Mr. West's curious collection of MSS. were sold to the late marquis of Lansdowne, and were lately purchased by parliament, with the rest of his lordship's collection, for the British Museum. Among them is much of his correspondence, with the antiquaries of his time; and in the first volume of the "Restituta," some curious extracts are given of letters to and from Hearne. His valuable library of printed books, including many with copious MS notes by bishop Kennet, was sold by auction, from an excellently digested catalogue by Sam. Paterson, in 1773; and the same year were disposed of, his prints, drawings, coins, pictures, &c. Mr. West's catalogue is still in demand as one of the richest in literary curiosities. '

WEST (RICHARD), lord-chancellor of Ireland, a lawyer of whom we have very little information, studied his profession in one of the Temples. He married Elizabeth, one of the two daughters of bishop Burnet. He was ap

pointed king's counsel the 24th of October, 1717; and in 1725, advanced to the office of lord-chancellor of Ireland. This high post he did not long enjoy, but died the 3d of December, 1726, in circumstances not adequate to the dignity which he had possessed. He left one son, a very promising young gentleman, who is sufficiently known to the public by his friendship with Mr. Walpole, afterwards lord Orford, in whose works is his correspondence, and with the celebrated poet Gray.-Our author, the chancellor, wrote, "A Discourse concerning Treasons and Bills of Attainder," 1714. He also compiled, chiefly from the Petyt MSS. in the Inner-Temple library, entitled “De Creatione Nobilium," 2 vols. fol. a work called "An Inquiry into the Manner of creating Peers," 1719. He wrote some papers in the "Freethinker," a periodical essay; and Whincop says, he was supposed to have written, "Hecuba," a tragedy, 1726, 4to.

Of his son, we are informed that he was educated at

1 Nichols's Bowyer.-Restitua, vol. 1.-Granger's Letters, p. 33-36.

two.

Eton, and went thence to Oxford about the same time that Gray removed to Cambridge. Each of them carried with him the reputation of an excellent classical scholar; and Mr. Mason was told, what he seems unwilling to allow, that Mr. West's genius was reckoned the more brilliant of the In April 1738, Mr. West left Christchurch for the Inner Temple; but, according to his own account, in a letter to Walpole, he had no great relish for the study of the law, and had some thoughts of exchanging that profession for the army. When Gray returned from his travels in 1741, he found his friend West oppressed by sickness, and a load of family misfortunes, which had already too far affected a body originally weak and delicate. West died June 1, 1742, in the twenty-sixth year of his age. What remains to give an idea of his talents, may be found in lord Orford's Works, and Mason's Life of Gray.'

WEST (THOMAS), the ingenious author of "The History of Furness," published in 1774, 4to, and the "Guide to the Lakes," is supposed to have had the chief part of his education in the Roman catholic religion on the continent, where he afterwards presided as a professor in some of the branches of natural philosophy. He belonged to the society of the Jesuits at the time of their suppression, and afterwards officiated as a secular priest. He had seen many parts of Europe, and considered what was extraordinary in them with a curious eye. Having, in the latter part of his life, much leisure-time, he frequently accompanied genteel parties on the tour of the lakes; and after he had formed the design of drawing up his guide, which is said to have been suggested to him by Dr. Brownrigg (See BROWNRIGG), besides consulting the most esteemed authors on the subject (as Messrs. Gray, Young, Pennant, &c.) he took several journeys on purpose to examine the lakes, and to collect such information concerning them from the neighbouring gentlemen, as he thought necessary to complete the work, and make it truly deserving the title. He resided at Ulverston, where he was respected as a worthy and ingenious man; and died July 10, 1779, at the ancient seat of the Stricklands, at Sizergh, in Westmorland, in the sixty-third year of his age; and, according to his own request, was interred in the vault of the Stricklands, in Kendal church. Among Cole's MSS. in the British Mu

1 Biog. Dram.-Lord Orford's Works, vol. II.-Mason's Life of Gray.Gent. Mag. vol. LXXII.

seum is a letter from him to col. Townley, giving an account of some bodies found buried at Gogmagog hills, near Cambridge. In the " Archæologia, vol. V. is by him "An account of Antiquities discovered at Lancaster."

WESTFIELD (THOMAS), a native of Ely, was educated in Jesus-college, in Cambridge, where he was scholar and fellow some time; but, appearing in public, was, first, assistant to Dr. Nicolas Felton, at St. Mary-le-bow, London, and then presented to this church; and soon after to St. Bartholomew's, London; made archdeacon of St. Alban's; and at length advanced to the see of Bristol, as one of those persons whom his majesty found best qualified for so great a place, for soundness of judgment and unblameableness of conversation, for which he had before preferred Dr. Prideaux to the see of Worcester, Dr. Winniff to Lincoln, Dr. Brownrig to Exeter, and Dr. King to London. He was offered the same see in 1616, as a maintenance, but he then refused it; but, having now gotten some wealth, he accepted it, that he might adorn it with hospitality out of his own estate. He was much reverenced and respected by the earl of Holland, and other noblemen, before the troubles came on; but was as much contemned, when the bishops grew out of favour; being disturbed in his devotion, wronged of his dues, and looked upon now as a formalist, though he was esteemed not long before one of the most devout and powerful preachers in the kingdom; but this we may suppose not to be done by the parliament's authority; because we find an order of theirs, dated May 13, 1643, commanding his tenants, as bishop of Bristol, to pay him the rents, and suffer him to pass safely with his family to Bristol, being himself of great age, and a person of great learning and merit. He was afterwards ejected, and died June 25, 1644. He preached the first Latin sermon at the erection of Sion-college; and, though be printed nothing in his life-time, yet two little volumes of his sermons were published after his death, entitled, England's Face with Israel's Glass;" containing eight sermons upon Psalm cvi. 19, 20, &c. and "The white robe or Surplice vindicated, in several Sermons ;" the first printed in 1646, the other in 1660. He was buried in Bristol cathedral near Dr. Paul Bush, the first bishop, and has a stone with an epitaph over him.

2

1 Gent. Mag. LXXXIL-Gough's Topog.-Cole's MS Athenæ in Brit. Mus. Lloyd's Memoirs, fol.-Walker's Sufferings.-Cole's MS Athenæ.-Lysons' Envirous.