either senate house.' Lord Shelburne also abetted Lord Chatham's motion, and reprobated the Archbishop's sermon.

"On Monday, March 19, 1781, Lord Ferrars having made a speech against the Roman Catholics, with a proposal for severe penalties to be laid on them, as they increased much in Cheshire, the Bishop got up and made an excellent answer, and the lay Lord withdrew his motion for a time. After the riots of last year, it was a piece of cruelty to begin to stir again such troubled waters, and shews the humanity of whiggisni.

"I have been told that Bishop Porteus, notwithstanding his present orthodoxy, was near being overset at one time by his junction with the Feathers Tavern petitioners, but had sagacity enough to observe the precipice, and suddenly left them: he has still, as I am informed, somewhat of the leaven, by reading · lectures in his Cathedral in the afternoon."

66. Samuel Pegge.

"Mr. Pegge is an ingenious and sensible antiquary, and has various dissertations in the Gentleman's Magazine, besides some books upon various parts of our English antiquities. He is this year, I think, made Prebendary of Lincoln. He styles himself anagrammatically Paul Gemsege.

"It is rather unfortunate Mr. Pegge, whose first work is on the usefulness of precision, should stumble at the threshold, which is ever held ominous; for by thus aiming at an over great precision, we may be as liable to fall into mistakes, as following the beaten tracks of common authorities: for in the first place, Mr. Willis, who is criticised at p. 1, does not say at the place cited, vol. i. p. 387, of Hist. of Cath, that Bishop Wescham was Archdeacon of Oxford; though it is true, in a MS. note which I have copied, he has added it in the margin. In the next place, in a MS. list of the Archdeacons of Rochester, by the same gen. tleman, and by me transcribed into my 28th vol. of MS. Collections, p. 53, he puts down Roger de Weseham as Archdeacon of

Rochester in 1238, and resigning the same in 1245, when he was made Bishop, at which time William de Thriplow succeeded: and afterwards he makes Roger de Weseham Archdeacon of Rochester in 1304; so that it is evident he met with two persons of that name in that dignity.

"As Mr. Pegge takes several other advantages against his late good friend, Dr. Willis,' as he styles him at p. 2, and as Mr. Willis was then in another world, I shall, from my obligations to him, endeavour to invalidate Mr. Pegge's triumphs over him, in some passages where I have taken occasion to examine whether he was so faulty as represented. Mr. Willis's researches were far extended: no wonder in the multiplicity of them he was often, mistaken; and to be candid, I allow he often was so; but I do not know how it was possible he should be otherwise, considering the variety of MSS. and registers he had to consult, which were often faulty themselves. At p. 7 Mr. Willis is again called to account, and I have added in the margin :

Now after all the parade and precision on the author's part, and negligence of Mr. Willis, it is evident from a MS. note of the latter, that he was satisfied about the date, 1239, which he corrected into that in two places in his copy of his first volume of Cathedrals, p. 75 and 116.'

"At p. 23 he corrects Mr. Willis again, on account of a MS. which he has printed in the second volume of his Cathedrals, p. 219, and I have added on the margin as follows:

Whatever the MS. quoted here may say, Mr. Willis in a MS. note has put down Rob. de Marisco as first Prebendary, 1249, for which he quotes Prynne's Collections, vol. ii. p: 625, so that Mr. Willis's want of precision ought in justice to be ascribed to the multiplicity of his subjects; which yet, we see, he was able to reduce to a greater exactness, as occasion offered: this appears from numberless corrections and additions entered by himself on the margin of his own copies of such books as he had published; all which I have entered into the margins of my copies from the MSS. themselves; therefore, triumphing over such mistakes, especially when the subject was so confined, as a single life, and a few that depended on it, is neither candid nor

liberal, and in this case is triumphing before the victory: Mr. Willis has corrected his own error.'

At p. 25, 26, he is at him again for a wrong computation : whereupon I have observed in the margin of p. 26.

I know not the motives of Mr. Willis's computation, but certain it is, that he has corrected his own error by making the date 1298, in a MS. note on the place; but upon what authority he went I know no more than in the former case. All I can say is, that he so corrected them.'

"At p. 50 Mr. Willis is attacked for a mistake about a Prebend of Tame; but I have added:

Mr. Willis in a MS. note has corrected his error, and refers to Chronicon de Dunstable, p. 252, and to Rymer's Fœdera, vol. vii. p. 265, 266.'

"At p. 55 he is censured for not mentioning John de Kireby as Dean of Winburn: but I have added in the margin thus:

In a MS. list of the Deans of Wimburne-Minster, by Mr. Willis, inserted in my vol. 28, p. 65, he is put down as being elected Dean, Sept. 12, 1265.'"

67. Ralph Thicknesse, King's College.

"In a Collection of Epitaphs, published in 2 vols. 8vo. 1775, by T. Webb, is one for this Ralph, my schoolfellow and fellow collegian, who was an excellent performer on the violin, vol. i. p. 158.

"On Mr. Ralph Thicknesse.

Beneath this marble tuneful Thicknesse lies,
The man most honour'd, and the wit most wise.
Of manners generous as his open heart;
Warm, but not hot, and friendly without art.
Admir'd, caress'd, the favourite of the Great,
No boon he ask'd, nor envy'd he their state.

No life more amiable, no death more mourn'd.

Here strew your flowers, ye Muses! lend your aid,

And sooth with music his harmonious trade.

“In Mr. Thicknesse's New Prose Bath Guide, 8vo. 1778, he thus alludes to and mentions his brother, in talking of the impropriety of taking the Bath waters inconsiderately: This, in the course of many years acquaintance with Bath, we have often known to have happened, and once to a dear and most affectionate friend. He had frequently found great benefit by drinking the waters; but being straitened in point of time, was so imprudent as to attempt to pour down the same quantity in three weeks, which on former visits he drank only in six: the sad consequence was, that he died as suddenly, after eating a hearty breakfast of hot spungy rolls, as if he had died by a pistol,' p. 18: and at p. 32, mentioning Mr. Quin's Epitaph, in the Abbey Church at Bath, he takes occasion thus to remember his brother, whom 1 remember at school, where even then, he was remarkable for his fine touch of the violin.

"Having given one Epitaph, which every one may see in its place, we shall avail ourselves of inscribing here two others, written by ingenious men, which ought to have been there. The first by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the second by the late Dr. Oliver, both intimate friends of the deceased.

Near this place lie the remains of

RALPH THICKNESSE,
Master of Arts

And Fellow of King's College in Cambridge.

In his youthful days he acquired all the polite learning that could give ornament to the Gown:

which,

with a sprightly wit and genius,

Rendered him entertaining, agreeable, and dear to all his friends." He thought arms more becoming to the manly age,

And therefore joined the Laurel to the Ivy,

But died when they were just interwoven to adorn his brow.

"Mr. Ralph Thicknesse was reckoned the best gentleman player on the fiddle in England, and fell dead with that instrument in his hand, while he was playing a composition of his own, at a public breakfast in this city. He was one of the Masters of Eton, a Fellow of King's College, and a Lieutenant in the army, at the time of his death. His affectionate friend Dr. Oliver wrote the following lines to his memory:

Weep, all ye wits, that ever laugh'd before,

Thicknesse, your fav'rite Thicknesse, speaks no more:
No more his attic salt, his Roman fire,
The social band, delighted, shall admire.
Hush'd be all harmony, except the strain

That's taught, in mournful numbers, to complain,
How he, whose sounds celestial could combine,
Was snatch'd from earth, in heavenly choirs to shine.
Ye poets, sweet companions of his youth,

Quit all your fables, and adorn the truth:

In elegiac plaints his story tell,

How lov'd he liv'd, and how lamented fell.

"He died of the Bath waters in the year 1741, and was buried

in the Abbey Church, just opposite to the bust of Quin.

"As well as I remember, he was like this scribbling brother, a very eccentric character, bordering upon high flights, of a sanguine complexion, short-necked and fat; so it is no wonder that his death was sudden. . He had two other brothers whom I knew. One was my most intimate and worthy friend, Fellow also of King's College.

. 68. THOMAS THICKNESSE,

"Who died young of an habitual complaint, and constant spitting of very white frothy saliva, for which he had a constant seton in his neck; yet was of a most lively, cheerful conversation. He had made great collections for a new edition of Theocritus, with notes: what became of his papers I know not; for I think he died in London. He was of a sanguine and ruddy complexion,