XXIX. Letters relative to the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy. MR. URBAN, THE following letters were written by Edward Wake, of Charlton, in the county of Dorset, gent. (uncle to Archbishop Wake) to his wife, while he was in London promoting the establishment of the corporation of the sons of the clergy, of which he formed the first design. They are now first printed, both as they contain an early account of one of our most extensive and meritorious public charities, and as they may tend to perpetuate the praises due to the benevolent exertions of its first projector, The originals are in the possession of the writer's great-grandson, the Rev. Mr. Conant,* of Sandwich, in Kent. MY DEAREST, London, June 27, 1678. YOURS of the 24th I received, and at the same time a letter from Mr. Hearne. Yesterday I was to wayte on Madam Whitaker, where I found a second advice of two little roguish children made tawney moores. I have bought a good stronge playne horse, which goes all paces excellently well; and as soon as our charter for the charity for poor :lergymen's widows and children is past the broad seale, I purpose to waite on you, for I find, unless I stir in it, it will hardly goe on; and if I meet not with bad luck, I hope to inish it next weeke; but the design promises well, and if nen that have opened their mouths, will not shut their urses, we shall grow rich, and have a house speedily for boys, and their master lodged. I pray present my duty t my mother, my service to my brother, and the rest of my fiends. We are all doubtful whether we shall have peace o. war; but the Earle of Sunderland is going, if not gone, to the French king for the delivery of the towns to the Spaniard and Dutch mentioned in the treaty, or else to declare warre. Five regiments of foote are appointed to go to llanders. My dear, your very heartily affectionate friend, E. WAKE. *Thi gentleman's family were also benefactors to the sons of the clergy in the prson of the Rev. John Withers (to whom he was next of kin,) who, among oher charitable bequests, to the amount of 10,0001. left 2000l. to the uses of this charity. MY DEAREST, London, July 4, 1678. 1 RECEIVED yours of the 1st, and am glad to heare of all your welfares, which I pray God continue. The chief news that I can with any contentment write you is, that the bishops and inferior clergy highly approve of my darling project of the corporation of clergymen's sons, which there is possibility will arrive to as greate charity as any thing that now is; and, I thank God, that I have this satisfaction, that as I was the first starter of it, so my own diligence has chiefly brought it where it is; and herein you see that I have no great contentment that I make not you a sharer with me. Yesterday our governors met at my summons, and we had two great men that promised 100l. a piece, and Wednesday next is appointed for the next meeting, which, I hope, will not impede my setting out to you the day following, for I very much now long for Blandford, and, above all things, for your sake. 1782, Aug. My dear, yours, E. WAKE, XXX. Sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Maddock. MR. URBAN, Gloucester Street, Aug. 4. FINDING this letter of Sir Isaac Newton's tacked as an appendix to an obscure funeral sermon,* I supposed it would be agreeable to some of your philosophical readers to see it rescued from oblivion in your fund of literary curiosities. S. A. "For his honoured friend Joshua Maddock, Doctor of Physic, at his house in Whitchurch, in Shropshire. Vir Dignissime, Specimina illa optica, quæ pro humanitate tua ad me nuper misisti, tantam in his rebus peritiam ostendunt, ut non possum quin doleam incertitudinem principiorum quibus omnia innituntur. Etenim quæri potest, an sint in rerum By E. Latham, M. D. on the death of the Rev. Mr. Daniel Maddock, 8vo, Lond. 1754. natura radii tenebrosi, et, si sint, an radii illi, secundum aliam legem refringi debeant, quam radii lucis. Defectu experientiæ, nescio prorsus quid de his principiis sentiendum sit. Neque huic difficultati tollendæ, quam et tute ipse indigitasti facile adfuerit Tyberius. At positis ejusmodi radiis, una cum lege refractionis quam tu assumis, cætera recte se habent; neque propositiones tantum utiles sunt ac demonstrationes artificiosa, sed, et quod majus est, omnia nova proponis, quæ opticam, altera sui parte, auctura sunt, si modo defectus experientia in stabiliendis principiis tuis aliquo demum modo suppleri possit. Interim, quod me meditationum tuarum perquam subtilium participem fieri dignatus sis, gratias ago. Vale! Tui studiosissimus, Trin. Coll. Cant. Feb. 7, 1678-9. 1782, Aug. I. NEWTON." XXXI. Mr. Gray to Mr. T. Warton, on the History of English Poetry. SIR, OUR friend Dr. Hurd having long ago desired me in your name to communicate any fragments, or sketches, of a design I once had, to give a history of English Poetry, you may well think me rude or negligent, when you see me hesitating for so many months, before I comply with your request. And yet, believe me, few of your friends have been better pleased than I, to find this subject, surely neither unentertaining nor unuseful, had fallen into hands so likely to do it justice; few have felt a higher esteem for your talents, your taste, and industry. In truth, the only cause of my delay has been a sort of diffidence, that would not let me send you any thing so short, so slight, and so imperfect as the few materials. I had begun to collect, or the observations I had made on them. A sketch of the division or arrangement of the subject, however, I venture to transcribe; and would wish to know, whether it corresponds in any thing with your own plan. For I am told your first volume is in the press. INTRODUCTION.. On the poetry of the Gaelic, or Celtic, nations, as far back as can be traced.-On that of the Goths, its introduction into these islands by the Saxons and Danes, and its duration. On the origin of rhyme among the Franks, the Saxons, and Provençaux. Some account of the Latin rhyming poetry, from its early origin, down to the fifteenth century. PART I. On the school of Provence, which rose about the year 1100, and was soon followed by the French and Italians. Their heroic poesy, or romances in verse, allegories, fabliaux, syrvientes, comedies, farces, canzoni, sonnets, ba lades, madrigals, sestines, &c. Of their imitators, the French: and of the first Italian school, commonly called the Sicilian, about the year 1200, brought to perfection by Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, and others.-State of poetry in England from the Conquest, 1066, or rather, from Henry the Second's time, 1154, to the reign of Edward the Third, 1327. PART II. On Chaucer, who first introduced the manner of the Provençaux, improved by the Italians, into our country: his character and merits at large, the different kinds in which he excelled-Gower, Occleve, Lydgate, Hawes, Gawen Douglas, Lyndesay, Bellenden, Dunbar, &c. PART III. Second Italian school, of Ariosto, Tasso, &c. an improvement on the first, occasioned by the revival of letters, the end of the fifteenth century. The lyric poetry of this and the former age introduced from Italy by Lord Surry, Sir T. Wyat, Bryan, Lord Vaux, &c. in the beginning of the sixteenth century. PART IV. Spenser, his character: subject of his poem, allegoric, and romantic, of Provençal invention; but his manner of tracing it, borrowed from the second Italian school.- Dray-ton, Fairfax, Phineas Fletcher, Golding, Phaer, &c. this school ends in Milton.-A third Italian school full of conceit, begun in Queen Elizabeth's reign, continued under James and Charles the First, by Donne, Crashaw, Cleiveland, carried to its height by Cowley, and ending. perhaps in Sprat. VOL. III. F PART V. School of France, introduced after the RestorationWaller, Dryden, Addison, Prior, and Pope; which has continued to our own times. You will observe, that my idea was in some measure taken from a scribbled paper of Pope, of which, I believe, you have a copy. You will also see, that I had excluded dramatic poetry entirely, which if you have taken in, it will at least double the bulk and labour of your book. I am, Sir, with great esteem, Your most humble and obedient servant, Pembroke-Hall, April 15, 1770. 1783, Feb. T. GRAY. XXXII. Mr. Williams to Mrs. West. MR. URBAN, IN your account of a valuable publication* by Mr. Gutch, in your last volume, is the following paragraph: "Among the MSS. communicated to the editor is a sensible (anonymous) letter to Mrs. West, &c. on the education of her son. Qu. whether this was Gilbert West?" Having it in my power to satisfy this inquiry, I am now to inform you, that the writer of this truly sensible letter was John Williams, Esq. who had been secretary to Lord Chancellor West, of Ireland, and who was at this time upon his travels. It was addressed to the chancellor's widow, then at Epsom with her daughter, whom he afterwards married, Mrs. West was a daughter of Bishop Burnet, and mother also of Richard West, then a student in the Temple, the celebrated friend of Gray, and represented in Dr. Johnson's preface to Gray as a "friend who deserved his esteem by the powers which he shews in his letters, and in the Ode to May, which Mr. Mason has preserved." In the second volume of Dodsley's collection of Poems is "A Monody on the death of Queen Caroline, by Richard West, Esq. son to the Chancellor of Ireland, and grandson to Bishop Bur * Collectanca Curic sa. |