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want of eye-sight keen enough to trace the weak vestiges of almost evanescent ink. On the score of knowledge in antient hand-writing, his qualifications for the same task were equally disputable. Had Mr. Steevens, however, been the first to declare against the genuineness of these verses, was it not possible that his friend the Doctor, to whom the cause of the Savage or the Citizen [see Mrs. Piozzi's Collection, vol. I. p. 115] was indifferent, for the sake of mere contradiction, might have stood forth the Champion of the Counterfeit Rowley?

"But this sarcasm on Mr. Steevens is of little moment. What follows is of importance, because it may, perhaps, be considered as some oblique reflection on the literary integrity of Mr. Tyrwhitt; which, to those who enjoyed the happiness of his personal acquaintance, can want no justification.

"Vol. I. p. 337. Catcot has been convinced by Barret, and has written his recantation to Tyrwhitt, who still persists in his Edition of the Poems, and perhaps is not much pleased to find himself mistaken.

"As Mr. Tyrwhitt (unfortunately for the Publick as well as his particular Friends) can no longer vindicate himself, that office must devolve on one who honours his memory, and, knowing all his gradations of belief as to the authenticity or illegitimacy of the pieces in question, thinks he ought not to suffer the most remote insinuation to his disadvantage (and especially from the pen of a Writer so eminent as Dr. Johnson) to pass without proper notice.

"Before Mr.Tyrwhitt published his Chaucer, the productions of the fictitious Rowley were only known to him through the medium of partial transcripts, and extracts of very doubtful authority. When he was first favoured with these specimens, he was sufficiently willing to have supposed them genuine; but soon discovered reason enough for wavering in his opinions concerning their value, if considered in the light of antient compositions. Till he visited Bristol, however, he had not seen the smallest fragment of their boasted archetypes. His judgment, therefore, might be allowed to fluctuate till the means of complete decision were in his reach. No sooner had he examined the many-coloured "Rolles" (those simiæ vetustatis), than his sentiments became immutably fixed. Nevertheless, he resolved to proceed in printing the Poems, which had been already purchased (as curiosities of dubious character) by his recommendation. Still he forbore to obtrude on the Publick a single hint of his own concerning their spuriousness or originality; though he reserved to himself a right of delivering his undisguised opinions of them on some future occasion. Of this privilege he availed himself in an Appendix about a year afterwards; and, had Dr. Johnson been acquainted with the gentle

Mr. Tyrwhitt changed his opinion after his volume was actually completed at the press; and canceled several sheets which had been printed to demonstrate that the Poems were genuine. J. N.

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man whose conduct he undertook to censure, he would never have urged against him, either as a weakness or as a fault, that he persisted in his Edition of the Poems, and was not much pleased to find himself mistaken. Mr. Tyrwhitt was wholly uninterested in the result of the publication. He was equally content whether he was employed to enlist a Poetical Recruit, or to detect an Impostor who strove to disguise himself in the uniform of one of the oldest regiments of Parnassus. Mere truth was the object of his researches; and, in the present instance, he discovered it by his own sagacity, his judgment being alike uninfluenced by the recantations of Catcot, the disquisitions of Barret, and the decretals of Johnson. And yet, had the Doctor's representation of this matter been strictly just, could it have been amiss if the Visitant of Fanny the phantom had been disposed to manifest a little more indulgence to a quondam sceptick in the cause of the Pseudo-Rowley?''

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Pp. 151 and 155. "The Rev. Richard Wynne was Rector also of Ayot St. Lawrence, Herts; and published a new Translation of the New Testament, with Notes (many extracted from Dr. Doddridge), in two vols. 8vo. for Dodsleys, in 1764. I think he must have lived seven years longer than you allow him (p. 155). What he had, he left to his daughter; but that, I fancy, was only a few hundred pounds; and she very imprudently, perhaps for the sake of getting usurious interest for her pittance, involved herself in a connexion with some person; the consequence of which was, that she was thrown into prison, being called upon to pay his debts." J. BROWN.

P. 164. "With respect to Sir Edward Leigh's Cæsars, I find, in my second Edition of the Work (1647), dedicated by himself to his father Henry Leigh, esq. that he had himself given it the title of Analecta de XII primis Cæsaribus, and annexed Six more Emperors, with "certaine choice French Proverbs." F.WRANGHAM.

Pp. 180, 181, 182. Dr. Ayscough, if Tutor or not to Lord Lyttelton, was probably recommended to the Prince of Wales by him, as being married to his Lordship's Sister.

P. 196. Mr. John Ellis is thought to have been born in London about 1710; but of his early life and occupations no certain information has been obtained, except that he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He imbibed a taste for Natural History, probably when young; made collections of natural curiosities, and, by attentive observation and depth of thought, soon rose superior to the merit of a mere Collector. It is to him we owe the discovery of the Animal Nature of Corals and Corallines, which is justly said to form an epoch in Natural Science. The first collection he made of these new-discovered animals, after being presented to, and examined by, the Royal Society, was deposited in the British Museum, where it still remains. His mind was originally turned to the subject by a collection of Corallines sent him from Anglesey, which he arranged upon paper, so as to form a kind of natural landscape.

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But, though the opinion he formed of their being animals was confirmed by some Members of the Royal Society, as soon as he had explained his reasons, he determined to make farther observations, and enlarge his knowledge of Corallines upon the spot. For this purpose he went, in August 1752, to the Isle of Sheppy, accompanied by Mr. Brooking, a Painter; and the observations which he made still farther confirmed him in his opinions. In 1754 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society; and in that year prevailed on Ehret, the celebrated Botanist and Artist, to accompany him to Brighthelmstone, where they made drawings, and formed a collection of Zoophites. In 1755 he published the result of all his investigations, under the title of "An Essay towards a Natural History of Corallines," 4to; one of the most accurate books ever published, whether we consider the plates, the descriptions, or the observations which demonstrate the animal nature of the Zoophites. His opinions on this subject were opposed by Job Baster, a Dutch Physician and Naturalist, who published various Dissertations in the Philosophical Transactions in order to prove that Corallines were of a vegetable nature. But his arguments were victoriously refuted by Ellis, whose opinions on the subject were almost immediately assented to by Naturalists in general, and have been farther confirmed by every subsequent examination of the subject. In Botany Mr. Ellis distinguished himself by an Account of Two new Genera, the Halesia and Gardenia, both American shrubs; the former named after his learned friend the Rev. Dr. Hales; the latter named after Dr. Garden, long resident in Carolina. He was the author of a fourth new Genus, Gordonia, named after Mr. Gordon of Mile-End, which was described in the LXth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, along with a new Species of Illicium, or Starry Anise, from West Florida. It appears, also, by many specimens of his collecting, that he was an assiduous observer of the internal structure or anatomy of Vegetables. In November 1768 Sir Godfrey Copley's medal was delivered to him by Sir John Pringle, then President; and it being usual to single out some one or two papers in particular for such a compliment, one "On the Animal Nature of the Genus of Zoophites called Corallina," in a letter to Linnæus, and another "On the Actinia Sociata," in a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough, both printed in the Transactions, vol. LVII. were selected for this purpose. Mr. Ellis appears to have been at one time in trade, and not very successful. In 1764, however, Lord Chancellor Northington procured him the office of Agent for West Florida, and afterwards that of St. Dominica; places which, he says, made him "happy and easy," and did not require him to leave London. After a series of declining health, he died Oct. 15, 1776, leaving a daughter, Martha, who was afterwards married to Alexander Watt, esq. of Northaw in Herts. In 1786 a posthumous work of Mr. Ellis was published by this daughter, at the request of Sir Joseph Banks,

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Banks, intituled, "Natural History of many curious and uncommon Zoophites," forming the best systematic Account of the Zoophites which has yet appeared. Mr. Ellis appears from his correspondence, in the possession of Dr. Smith, to have been a man of great modesty, pious affections, and grateful sensibility. I shall take this opportunity of noticing another respectable Literary Character of the same name :

Henry Ellis, esq. was elected F. R.S. in 1749. In 1758 he was appointed Governor of Georgia; and in April 1761, of Nova Scotia, which he resigned in 1763. In a small volume of "Sketches and Characters of the most eminent and singular Persons now living," published in 1770 (attributed to Governor Thicknesse), Governor Ellis is thus noticed: "This Gentleman's success in life is a proof that merit does not always pass unrewarded. We remember to have seen him in the dress and occupation of a common sailor in the Mediterranean; in which capacity he earned his passage to England! Yet, to our astonishment, we have seen a letter under this ingenious but Irish Gentleman's name, giving so dreadful an account of the intense heat in an infant Colony of ours in America, that it would have deterred every Reader never to go there, except he had been bred an Anchor-smith, or born under the Torrid Zone.". - After his retirement from public life, he annually visited Voltaire and Tissot, and resided many months in France, where his habits of life are thus described by Lord Gardenstone, who, in his "Travelling Anecdotes," arriving at Marseilles, Nov. 7, 1786, says, "This day I waited upon Governor Ellis. My worthy friend Dr. Garden, of London, introduced me to his acquaintance, which I esteem a singular favour. The Governor is a gentleman of uncommon talents, and considerable fortune. In conversation he is remarkably agreeable. He has singularities in character; but, so far as I can discern, they are rational, benevolent, and pleasant. More than 20 years ago a voyage was performed, chiefly under his direction, for discovery of the North-west passage to the East Indies; of which he published an Account, which I have read with great pleasure. I have experienced that no man of affluent fortune entertains his guests with more unlimited hospitality, or greater variety of delicacies; yet he himself adheres strictly to a singular kind of Epicurean temperance. Though formerly an invalid, he now enjoys perfect health at the age of 64. His drink is pure water mixed with a small quantity of the richest, most costly, and cordial wines. His diet is very abstemious, yet luxurious, especially in fish dressed with all the ingredients and arts of the nicest cookery. He uses little or no other animal food of any kind. For 20 years past this gentleman has constantly, on the approach of Winter, retired from Britain or Ireland, where he has an ample estate, to pass the Winter in the South of France, or in Italy; mostly at Marseilles. He recommends Pisa as the most pleasant situation, and most salubrious climate, in Italy. In early Spring he resorts to Spa; and

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returns mostly to London till late in Autumn. In all his route through France he is known and expected like a bird of passage. No man is more able to give prudent and proper lessons to genteel travellers." Mr. Ellis is also respectfully mentioned in Governor Thicknesse's "Year's Journey to the Pais Bas" in 1783. He wrote a Book on "Police," which was so much approved of by Vergennes, that a part was adopted at Paris. He remained in Italy during all the Revolutionary Troubles in France; and died at Naples in 1807, at the age of about $5. He was exceedingly rich; and at the time of his death was the Father of the Royal Society, and the eldest Pensioner on the English Establishment. An Essay by Mr. H. Ellis, "On the Use of Ventilators in a Ship," is printed in Phil. Trans. XLVII. 211. P. 196, note, I. 14, for "that year," r. "1785."

P. 199. B. T. Pouncey, an excellent Engraver, and pupil and brother-in-law to the celebrated Mr. Woollett, began his career by engraving Seals for Dr. Ducarel and Mr. Astle, and Fac-similes of Domesday for the Counties of Surrey and Worcester; and afterwards executed several Views and Landscapes, foreign and domestic, after eminent Artists. I had the pleasure of employing him on the Norman Cathedrals in the "Alien Priories," and in some Plates for the "Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica.” He died in Pratt-street, Lambeth, Aug. 22, 1799.

P. 204, 1.3, r. "la Reine Mere."-P.216, note, 1.6, r. "Nicolls." P. 216, 1. ult. "Mr. Charles Weston was likely to know, for he was son to the Right Hon. Edward Weston, who was son to the Bishop of Exeter." J. BROWN. See before, p. 154.

P. 219, l. 8, r. “Richard Hurd, D.D. Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry."

P. 220. The Consecration Sermon preached by Dr. Balguy Feb. 12, 1769, was for Dr. Shipley, Bishop of Landaff, who was translated to St. Asaph in the June following, and succeeded at Landaff by the Hon. Dr. Barrington-whose Consecration Sermon was preached at Lambeth Oct. 4, 1769, by Dr. Stinton, and afterwards published.

P. 222. "An elegant Edition of the Athenian Letters was published in two vols. 4to, 1798, by Cadell and Davies, apparently under the inspection of the Hardwicke Family; to which is prefixed a Geographical Index; and illustrated with Engravings and a Map of Greece: being embellished with a Portrait of Philip Earl of Hardwicke, and several Engravings from antique Busts; with an introductory Letter to Abbé Barthelemi, Author of the Travels of Anacharsis. From that Edition it appears that, besides the Writers mentioned in your Note, not only Henry Coventry, esq. noticed in a subsequent volume, but Mrs. Catherine Talbot and Dr. Birch contributed to that Collection." E. Brooke.

P. 242. I wish here particularly to notice two additional tributes to Sir William Jones's memory- Mr. Charles Grant's Poem, and Mr. Francis Wrangham's, "On the Restoration of

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