REMINISCENCES.

CHAPTER I.

[TO 1785.]

A FOX-HUNTING parson of good family in this county was in the habit of expressing his contempt for the canaille, by saying, "That fellow never had a grandfather!" I am not one of those who lay much stress upon ancestry, thinking that "Avos et proavos vix ea nostra voco."

My grandfather was a Fellow of St. John's College, and subsequently Precentor and Prælector Theologicus of Ely Cathedral. He died in 1763, leaving two sons, both Fellows of St. John's, of whom my father was the younger. But I am desirous to go back a step further, and claim relationship with that most excellent prelate, Bishop Gunning, who left to the Church all he received from it, dividing among his relations his savings from a small paternal estate, which is now in possession of the Rev. William Gunning, Archdeacon of Bath.

Many of my readers will probably have seen the monument of the good old Bishop in Ely Cathedral, and will agree with me in thinking that his epitaph is his best eulogy. Another undying memorial, also, remains in that beautiful Prayer for "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," of which he was the composer.

There is also a monument in Ely Cathedral to the memory of James Bentham, the renowned historian, whose fame is too well known to require comment from me. I could never pass this monument in after life without associating the remembrance of his excellent brother Jeffery, who was one of the Minor Canons for nearly fifty years, and a schoolmaster of great repute in that city. His manners were simple and unaffected; he was much beloved by his pupils (of whom I was one); and he contrived so skilfully to combine amusement with instruction, that nothing seemed to us a task. Our play-ground was very extensive; we had the range of the whole College. In bad weather, we sheltered ourselves in the Cathedral; and, incredible as it may seem, we spun our tops and trundled our hoops without interruption. These practices have long since been abolished; and my friend the Dean, with that taste and liberality for which he has always been so justly distinguished, has devoted his time and money to the restoration of that noble structure. May it please God to spare him to see

the completion of his great work-a work done with the same spirit as that with which the original pile was raised by its first founders, with whose names his own must for ever remain so justly associated!

It was with much regret I left Ely, as the state of health of our good master obliged him to discontinue his school. I was then sent to the Rev. Edward Waterson, of St. John's; and when the Earl of Bristol presented him to the living of Sleaford, in Lincolnshire, with the endowed school there, I followed him, and remained his pupil until I came to College.

I can well remember, when my father came to see me for a few days, his going to the Quarter Sessions, where he was both surprised and pleased to recognise his old College friend, Sir Francis Whichcote, sitting as Chairman: they renewed their acquaintance, and my father willingly agreed to spend a day and night at Aswarby. In the morning, the Baronet drove over for him; and, after spending a most agreeable day, they smoked their pipes together in the evening, and talked over their College adventures. Sir Francis pressed my father very earnestly to remain a week with him; and to his reply, that he had three churches awaiting him the following Sunday, Sir Francis said he would send a guinea to the churchwardens of each parish, to be laid out as they thought proper, which sum, he remarked, would be a satisfactory

excuse for the absence of the parson, unless Cambridgeshire differed very much from Lincolnshire.

That at this period the power of a magistrate was very great, and exercised with very little scruple, the following anecdote will prove :

As Sir Francis was dressing next morning, he perceived the under-groom making very free with his wall fruit. When breakfast was finished, he wrote a note addressed to the keeper of the House of Correction at Fólkingham, which he ordered the culprit to take without delay. The note contained the following words:"Give the bearer a dozen lashes; he will guess the reason. This he signed with his initials. Whether the offender was conscience-smitten, or, what is still more probable, took advantage of the wet wafer to acquaint himself with the contents, I know not; but he bribed a helper in the stable, by the promise of a pot of beer and the loan of a horse, to take it for him. The governor, after reading the note, ordered the bearer to be tied up, and the directions were scrupulously obeyed, to the infinite surprise and consternation of the poor fellow, who had no idea why he was thus treated until his return, when his account of what had taken place caused much merriment in the stable-yard. The tale very soon came to the ears of the Baronet, who laughed very heartily, and took no other notice of it than fining the delin

quent half-a-crown for the privilege of being flogged by deputy, and ordered it to be given to the suffering party.

It was my father's intention to have me admitted at St. John's; but my county was at that time filledby the Bishop of Ely's Fellow, named Hitch, and Zachary Brooke (son of the Margaret Professor of Divinity), was already admitted.

After some deliberation, my father decided upon entering me a Sizar at Christ's College, under Parkinson and Seale, at that time tutors: with the former he was well acquainted. There, also, my county was filled; but the occupant was the Senior Fellow, the Rev. Adam Wall, consequently a vacancy might be expected at no very distant period. The number of admissions at Christ's in my year was only three: two of the men professed not to read, and I was ignorant of the first Proposition in Euclid. There had been a contest for the Mastership in 1780, when Mr. Barker was elected in opposition to Mr. Parkinson. The disappointment of the latter was very great, as he was engaged to a Miss Charlotte Bridge, the most beautiful woman of the day. She was the daughter of a barrister residing on his own property at Harston, in this county. She had lost her mother some years; and her father died soon after her engagement to Parkinson, leaving a son who inherited