was not a little vain of his extraction; and had collected very good materials towards an history of his family, I remember Mr. Allen told me that he had all the fine monuments in the Church of Tonge in Shropshire taken by a good draughtsman: which church is full of very curious monuments of the Vernons; one of which see an account of in my 29th vol. p. 7. as also of another in Bakewell Church in Derbyshire in my vol. 35, p. 67, which I took at the request of the Doctor, when I was going a progress into that part of England in 1749. Dr. Vernon was much chagrined at his College, which would not suffer him to hold his Fellowship, which he much wanted, together with the living of St. George in Bloomsbury, and that of Orwell. He was a goodnatured man, but not very decent in his profession: and who gave himself so great latitude in talking, that when he was ever sa much in earnest, people did not care much to believe him."

61. Thomas Salisbury, LL. D. Fellow of Trinity Hall in Cambridge,

"Where I was well acquainted with him, succeeded to the Chancellorship of the Diocese of St. Asaph about 1744, and is since knighted, having married the daughter of Sir Henry Penrice, by whom he had a large fortune. He is the present worthy Chancellor, and Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. Jan. 20, 1762."

62. Thomas Tanner, D.D. Fellow of All Souls,

"Was made Chancellor of Norwich in March 1700. He was Prebendary of Ely, which he quitted for a Canonry of Christ Church; Archdeacon of Norfolk, Prolocutor to the Convocation in 1727; and Rector of Thorp by Norwich. This worthy man and excellent antiquary was made Bishop of St. Asaph in January 1731; and dying Dec. 14, 1735, was buried in the nave of the Cathedral of Christ Church in Oxford."

63. John Pomfret, obiit 1709.

"See Carter's Cambridge, p. 387, where it is said that he was son to Mr. Pomfret, an eminent attorney at Newport Pagnel in Buckinghamshire; but I much question that fact: that there is an eminent attorney, Mr. Ben. Pomfret of Newport Pagnel, now, if living, of the age of 84 or 85, I well know, being a very intimate acquaintance, and from whom I received many civilities during my whole residence of fourteen or fifteen years in that county, he being the first person of that county that my patron, Mr. Browne Willis, introduced me to. He had a son, now living, Rector of Emerton near Olney, and formerly of St. John's College, but as suredly no poet. If Mr. Pomfret, the author of The Choice, had heen nearly or any way related to Mr. Benjamin Pomfret, I must have heard of it, as he was an eternal talker, full of stories, which he loved to repeat; as much as others, who had heard them forty times before, were tired with the repetition. He used to love to come and stay some days at my house at Blecheley, where he was bred up when a boy; his grandfather Taylor having been Rector of that parish above forty years: so that I think I must have heard of the relationship, if any, between that agreeable poet and himself. Mr. Pomfret was looked upon to be as able an attorney as any of his profession, while he practised it; but had laid it aside for some years, being much afflicted with the palsy; but always hearty and cheerful when not in the gout. He was a shrewd, sensible man had hurt himself with building, having an elegant house and garden quite complete; understanding the nature of plants, trees, and flowers the best I ever yet met with in any gentleman.

"Poems on several Occasions. By the Rev. Mr. John Pomfret. Tenth Edition. With an Account of his Life and Writings: to which are added his Remains. London, 8vo. 1740.

"In the Life it is said that he was the son of Mr. Pomfret, Vicar of Luton, and educated in a grammar school in Bedfordshire, and sent to Cambridge, but to what College, unknown: and soon after his leaving the University was presented to the living

in Malden in Bedfordshire, near Ampthill; and about the year 1703 was promoted further to a good living in London diocese; but Bishop Compton being dissatisfied about an expression in The Choice, concerning his preferring a single to a married staté, though he was then actually married, a stop was put to his insti tution for some time; during the interval of which he took the small-pox and died at London at the age of 36. On the margin of my copy I had entered this:

"Mr. Benjamin Pomfret of Newport Pagnel tells me this, January 20, 1761, that he was no relation of the poet, as said in a former edition; and that he died of the small-pox in London while he was waiting on Bishop Gardiner to clear his character from something he had said in The Choice. But query, if not as above, waiting on Bishop Compton?"

64. Nevile Maskelyne, B. D. 1775, Fellow of Trinity College and F. R. S.

"He was presented in January 1775 by his nephew, Lord Clive, to the Rectory of Shrawarden in Salop. He is Astronomer Royal of Greenwich Hospital.

"One Mr. W. Gardiner, of Richmond in Surrey, who had been educated under Dr. Newcome of Hackney, went to Lisbon as a merchant, and had a great turn for astronomy, had many letters in the public papers relating to the earth's rotation, and challenged Mr. Maskelyne to confute his position: but Mr. M. seemed wise enough not to enter into any correspondence with a Don Quixotte in astronomy, and who was tilting at the Royal Society, the Professors of the two Universities, and every one whom unluckily he met in his way. He gave 20007. in 1774 tò St. Thomas's Hospital; and offered as much to St. Bartholomew's as a sacrifice for God's having put it in his power to overturn Sir Isaac Newton's system. He seems to be no bad writer; but mad and enthusiastic.

"The Rev. Mr. Nevile Maskelyne, F. R. S. and of Trinity College, was appointed Astronomer Royal to his Majesty, Feb.

13, 1765, on the death of Dr. Nath. Bliss, and resides in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park. He was presented by the Master and Fellows of the College to the living of North Runcton in Norfolk, vacant by the death of Mr. Hassal."

65. Beilby Porteus, Chaplain to Abp. Secker.

"When Dr. Porteus waited on his Majesty with his thanks for the honour of being nominated to the See of Chester, the King was pleased to tell him, That the dignity was conferred as a réward due to his merit, without the application of interest." Camb. Ch. Jan. 25, 1777.

"It is inconceivable the clamour, uproar, and rage which the order from the Archbishop to observe decently Good Friday, in 1777, gave to the faction: for many weeks together the presbyterian newspapers were full of abuse and lies relating to Archbishop Cornwallis and his family; and when one expected it should have subsided, two months after the day was observed, out comes the following long and severe paragraph in the London Evening Post of May 29, 1777; a paper one would rather suppose to have been printed in the capital of New England, than at London, on the Bishop of Chester, who, as a decent and respectable man, on that score is an offence to the fanatical tribe. Probably what roused their spirit was an excellent sermon on the Bishop's predecessor, Archbishop Markham of York, who had told a few truths of them, that galled their old sores; for in the same paper is the first of a threatened suit of letters relating to that sermon. The paragraph relating to Bishop Porteus is this, in which the King is not spared.

'On the late announcing a sort of outlandish name, one Por teus, to an English Bishopric, I naturally asked what was become of all our old, learned, and venerable English clergy, of the best families, that they were all passed over with so much contempt and injustice? I was informed that the young Prelate was a man distinguished by his Majesty's own judgment, and exalted by hist

w

mere personal favour, as one of the most promising talents and disposition to fill the sacred office, in a manner the most suitable to his own pious feelings, and sentiments, and the mild and liberal plan of government adopted by him. A countenance and a character so clear of cynical and ecclesiastical pride and austerity could not escape the penetrating observation, and the generous sympathy of the royal Patron. A Charles has had his favourite Laud. Similar characters and principles will always attract each other. It has indeed been insinuated, that over and above the great merit of Scottish extraction and interest, he has distinguished himself as a ministerial writer in the public papers almost as much as by the stretch of church power and arrogance in shutting up the city shops on Good Friday; which, as a sanctified, hypocritical triumph over both reason and Scripture, the civil and religious right of Englishmen, could not but be highly acceptable to tyrants and hypocrites of every denomination, particularly at court. By this experiment on the tame and servile temper of the times, it is thought the Host and Crucifix may be elevated to prostrate crowds in dirty streets some years sooner than could have been reasonably expected. And when a Wedderburne shall be keeper of the King's conscience and seals, and a Porteus of the spiritual keys, as the alterius orbis papa, there is no doubt but our consciences, and our property too, will be effectually taken care of.'

"That firebrand, Lord Chatham, unhappily found himself well enough to come to the House of Lords just at this time, and proposed an immediate agreement with the rebels of America, in which he was abetted by our Chancellor, the Duke of Grafton, who took occasion to attack the Archbishop's sermon, who arose and told the Duke, that his Grace did not know what whiggism was, but that his conduct was founded on whiggism run mad; and that he would at any time meet the Duke and justify, defend and maintain, every tittle of his sermon. The Bishop of Peterborough, Hinchliffe, the Duke's shadow, rose up and endeavoured [to draw off the attention from the sermon to the agreement with America, which he abetted, say these gentlemen, with an accuracy of language and elegance of composition rarely heard in 3 H

VOL. IV.