P. 264, note. "Mr. Herbert lived, and I believe died, at Cheshunt, Herts." J. BROWN. P. 277, l. 19, r. “1782.”—P. 284, 1. ult. r. “lætus.” P. 285, 1. 7, r. "to the Hon. Philip Yorke, afterwards second Earl of Hardwicke."-Ibid. note, 1. 19, r. robbed." P. 297, 1. 12, dele "slip."-P.316. N. Heyrick was only "M.A." P. 327, note *. "I do not believe that Sir Francis Child ever obtained any higher title than that of Knight; and, as a proof of it, the Childs here mentioned, who, I apprehend, were his sons, are called only Esquires. I suspect that Francis, 1. 7, is a mistake for Samuel; see Dr. Lort's note at the bottom." J. BROWN. P. 327, note, l. 4, r. "Neapolitan."-P. 338, note §, г. "1691.” P. 348, 1. 10, for "Hugh," r. "Henry." Ibid. note, 1. 25, r. Hugh father of the third lord." P. 353, 1. 11, for "200," r. "1200l." See Introduction to Archæologia, p. xxxv. P. 366, 1. 4, r. "1759;" 1. 9, r. " 17th;" 1. 14, r. "Græme." P. 367, 1. 39, r. Deputy Earl Marshal.” P. 369, 1. ult. r. "Natale Solum." P. 372, note, 1. 2, add "who has since become a Baronet by the death of his father." P. 386, 1. 20. Mr. Martin died March 7; see the Epitaph. P. 388, 1. 16. "But in that time [1771] fell Tom Martin's Collections; all of which if any man had bought, he might have formed a noble collection in one minute." T. F. P. 405. "Was Dr. Middleton born at Richmond or York? The Text says one, and the Note the other." J. BROWN. P. 406, 1. 21, for "Oak Morris," r. "Mount Morris." P. 419. Mr. Thomas Gordon obtained the office of a Commis sioner of the Wine Licence Office; and died July 28, 1750. (Correct this in vol. I. p. 709.) P. 422, l. 16, r. "eldest grand-daughter to his first wife." P. 423, first note, r. "two parts of that duty, and of that consolation, on supplication," &c. P. 429, 1. 1. Mr. North was "Vicar of Codicote, and Curate of Welwyn."-P. 469, 1. penult. for "were," r. “was.” P. 477, note, 1. 13, r. "Europe." P. 483, r. "dans le Departement." P. 486. "What means M. C. R.?" Member of the College of Rheims?" J. BROWN. P. 498, first note, 1. 4, r. "May 17, 1723.” P. 525, 1. 4 from bott. r. "Dissertatio historica." P. 529, l. 5, r. "Arley Hall." P. 534. Matthew Concanen, esq. was appointed Attorney-general of Jamaica, Jan. 30, 1732. P.568,1.4 from bott. for" William-Henry, "r. "George-William." P. 622. Ralph Allen, the nephew, died Aug. 30, 1777. When *** When I had thus far arranged the article of Additions and Corrections," I was honoured by a series of interesting Letters from GEORGE HARDINGE, Esq.; who, having perused a considerable part of the preceding Volumes with attention, communicated the result of his observations. I cannot, therefore, resist the temptation of setting aside, at present, all other Corrections and Additions, that those of Mr. HARDINGE, SO authentic, so characteristic, and so related, may be detached and preserved apart. I have that Gentleman's permission to copy them; and it would be unjust, not only to him, but also to my Readers, were I not faithfully to give them in his own words. "DEAR SIR, Grove, near Sevenoaks, Kent, May 24, 1813. "At this place, created by an Angel Mother*, and at present inhabited by two unmarried Sisters, I have been told, accidentally, of your new work on the 'Literary Authors of the Eighteenth Century,' described as one of the most interesting and most entertaining works that ever appeared. I long to borrow it, if you will entrust me with it; and I can assure you, as a faint return for this acquisition, that if your 'Bowyer's Life' should reach, as I dare say it will, another Edition, and if I should live to be apprized of the demand for it in time, I will furnish you with many Anecdotes respecting events and characters illustrated by that work." "DEAR SIR, Grove, Sevenoaks, June 2. "I cannot enough tell you how I thank you for the loan of the 'Anecdotes.' They would be gold, if I could have the courage to open the leaves; but I dare not be so free with them till you give me your credentials for that liberty. You little know what a ready Anecdotist you have lost in me, as I personally knew several of your Heroes; and, though an old man, have a juvenile memory. When the paper-cutter is put into my hand, I will communicate part of this floating budget." "DEAR SIR, Milbourne House, Esher, Surrey, June 5. "I have read, with enjoyment which I despair of the power to express, your entertaining Miscellany. I am astonished at the life you have infused into such a mass of Anecdote and Portrait, Antiquities, and Modern Literature. In many of your Lives I am as much at home, as if you had written my adventures of last week. I could fill an octavo of 300 pages with Anecdotes of your Heroes. Think what a fine old Grecian I must be, who intimately knew, for years and for ages, the first Lord Camden, Dr. Akenside, Mr. Hall (Markland's friend), Baron Adams, Wray, Lort, Barrington, Lord Dacre, Mr. Dyson, Horace Walpole, of Strawberry-hill, Mr. Cambridge, and Athenian Stuart, &c. But, lest you should think me older than I am, you will permit me to say, that all these friends of mine were older than myself by several years; but I always cultivated in youth men older than For some account of this extraordinary person, the genuine Sister of Lord Camden, see vol. V. p. 346. VOL. VIII. LL myself, myself, though in my old age I cultivate young men the most. Excuse this egotism, and this garrulity of age. "In your account of the Hardinges, I see a few inaccuracies.— My Father was the eldest, not the younger son, as you say of him in p. 338: Caleb was the younger brother. "P. 339. My Father resigned the office of Clerk of the House of Commons, in favour of Mr. Dyson, in February 1747-8; and was in the same month elected M. P. for Eye. On the death of the Hon. Johu Scrope, in April 1752, he was appointed Joint Secretary of the Treasury with James West, Esq. who had long before been Mr. Scrope's coadjutor." Extracts from a subsequent Letter: "P. 341. 'Knoll-Hills' is correct. The Denhill-Iliad should be Denhilliad. These humourous and good-humoured verses endangered my Father's life. Sir George Oxenden was going to challenge him; but the intervention of the ladies in both families averted the mischief. Sir George began life in the most brilliant manner. He made a distinguished figure in the impeachment of Lord Macclesfield, and was a favourite of Sir Robert Walpole. But the ladies were his bane. He was handsome, and at all points very agreeable to them. Shaken off by his Patron, he became a country gentleman. man. "Lady Gray almost reached the age of 100. She was the handsomest old woman I ever saw, and her complexion at 90 was that of a beautifully fair girl in her teens. Her spirits were astonishing; and she was the best company imaginable. Of her generosity and good-nature to young people I give you this remarkable trait: I visited her, at this very Denhill, when I was a young She heard me lament that I was too poor to sail across the Channel, and then ride (for I had my horses with me) to the Hague. The next morning she came down stairs to me, with a purse in her hand, There,' said she, 'go and hang yourself.' It contained 50 guineas. I fell at her feet; and the following day was at Calais; proceeded through Lisle and Brussels to the Hague; saw every thing and person that were my objects; and was her guest again in a month. She was the mother of the late Sir James Gray, who was our Ambassador abroad for several years, and was Knight of the Bath. "I have written an Essay on my Father's reading (p. 341); and have related the Bentley anecdote. "P. 342. Outlines, &c. was printed' should be 'were.' "Instead of humour, in the last line. I would say wit." "P. 345, for Lord Camden,' read Earl;' and note, 1. 13, for right then existing,' read rights.'-For who survived Nicholas,' read who survived Mr. Nicholas Hardinge.' "DEAR SIR, Milbourne House, June 7. "Inp. 342, 1. 23. read Thomas, Curate of Richmond from 1776 till his death, which happened Nov. 26, 1806, in his 55th year.' "At the end of this note, and in self-defence against a malignant or wanton falsehood of Gilbert Wakefield in the first Edition of his Life, I wish you by all means to insert the following narrative, in which I will be as unlike him as I can, by recollecting that, however provoked, I can preserve Christian forbearance, and the manners of a Gentleman. "The "The late Gilbert Wakefield, in the Memoirs of his own Life, written by himself, gave a colour to parts of this transaction very injurious to me. I am willing to believe, as well as to hope, that he had been misinformed. Indeed, in his life-time, I explained satisfactorily to Mr. Thomas Wakefield, the Curate of Richmond, how inaccurate his Brother's report had been; who, in the later Editions, dropped the article, but without acknowledging the error, and the correction of it. "Without copying the words of censure in which the imputation was couched; from delicacy to the Writer, who had no such delicacy for me; I will only say that it was insinuated as if I had violated my contract with Mr. Wakefield the father. "In a few words, the fact was this: Mr. Wakefield the father, a very amiable man, was under obligations to my father and my uncle the Physician, who had, between them, educated him. He was upon terms of intimacy with me; and proved, as well as professed, a peculiar spirit of good-will to me upon every occasion. When this change as to the Vicarage in 1769 took place, the late Earl Camden, my uncle, was Chancellor, and Mr. Dyson was my personal friend. By their important help in recommending this object, I obtained it. Before the Bill was brought into the House of Commons, I had many conferences with Mr. Wakefield upon the subject, who had then become Vicar of Kingston, with Richmond Curacy annexed. Mr. Bellamy held the two adjacent Curacies of Kew and Petersham. Mr. Wakefield was a party in the arrangement upon which the Bill was founded, and which contemplated a vacancy of Kingston and Richmond uno flatu, as arising from his death. Thomas Wakefield at this time was a boy, and was intended for trade. I never saw him in those days, or knew that he existed, though I remember to have seen Gilbert as a boy at his Father's house. I obtained the Vicar's perfect assent, and voluntarily gave up a very disputable point, viz. whether the Curacies could be vested freeholds in the Curate. In that concession my chief aim was, to ensure the continuance of Kew and Petersham, as united, and as then held by the same person; for as to Mr. Wakefield, it was perfectly assumed that he would hold the Curacy of Richmond, as well as the Mother Church of Kingston, till his death. Not a hint was ever given by him to me that he would substitute a Curate of Richmond, who would be found, at his death, in possession of that Curacy by his appointment, so as to baffle the whole scheme of this Parliamentary arrangement; nor would he ever have done it, but for a circumstance which remains to be explained. Had he told me in 1769 that it was possible for him to resign Richmond into the hands of a new and substituted Curate, a different Bill would have been framed; or I would have purchased, by other preferment for Mr. Wakefield, this dormant right. A gentleman who shall be nameless, and whose vindictive spirit, accompanied with an habitual impulse to mischief, though in a very dull understanding, made him a very dangerous man, conceived the bitterest enmity against me, because he had injured me, had imposed L. L. 2 upon upon me, had been detected and had been ridiculed by me-an offence that malice combined with dullness can least of all forgive. He tempted the dying father to send up for his Nottingham son, to make a Deacon of him just in time, and then vest the Curacy in him by a secret appointment. This valuable Curacy had been settled by me upon my next Brother, then Vicar of Kingston, on his marriage, in aid of his portion. But, when Mr. Wakefield senior died, the new Curate claimed against the Vicar. Except on account of my affection to this Brother, I had no interest at stake; but I felt myself bound, in honour to him, who had been so disappointed, fairly to debate the point, in a course of legal decision, at my own expence. It was argued upon the intention of the Act, as apparent in the words; and the decision sustained the appointment. But the real spirit of the contract, and the intention, as agreed between the parties, was on the other side, which constituted an equity that alone induced me to litigate the effect of the written contract. Mr. Thomas Wakefield had all the amiable and primitive simplicity of the father's mind, accompanied with a high sense of honour, and with a most feeling heart. He perfectly understood the subject as above stated, and prevailed upon his brother to discontinue his invective. The disappointed Vicar had afterwards the living of Stanhope, worth not less than 3000l. a-year, on which he now resides." Milbourne House, June 7. "DEAR SIR, "You describe my Naval Hero's* Letter, p. 346, as a Letter to his Father. It was written to his adopted Father; that is, to me, who educated him, and had appointed him, by an irrevocable deed of gift, my sole heir, when I lost him. "I have this moment seen, vol. VII. p. 481, under the head of Yorke, Charles Yorke's copy of my Father's Memorial upon the Regency. I am not sure if I have another copy. It was a masterly work, and was lent me once by Mr. Charles Yorke ages ago. I have been often surprized that it was not published in my Father's time." "DEAR SIR, Milbourne House, June 12. "In describing me, vol. VII. p. 485, you entitle me one of His Majesty's Justices; the title which is due to me, as Chief Justice, or Senior Judge, is the following, His Majesty's Justice for, &c. "I love Markland and his old woman! (vol. IV. p. 292.) It is what Pope calls the language of his heart. Your anecdote of his benevolence, in the midst of his poverty and sufferings, makes one revere his memory. When a boy, and *George Nicholas Hardinge, Esq. Captain in the Royal Navy; of whose Monument in St. Paul's Church, designed by Mr. Manning, a fine Eograving, by W. Sharp, has recently been published. In the centre of the Composition is a Cenotaph, having on its front a Lion's Head, the Emblem of British Valour; on the right of it, is a Native Indian, bearing the Naval Flag, whose Countenance and pensive Attitude point at the deep regret felt and expressed by the Communities of India, upon the loss of their zealous Defender: on the left, at the foot of the Cenotaph, is Fame, prostrate, with a Laurel Wreath in her Hand, which falls over the youthful Hero's Name, on the Pedestal, indicating the disappointment of her sanguine hopes at his early Fate, possessed |
