That Mr. Jones was ready to communicate information to others, is evident from the preceding Letters to Dr. Birch*.

After Mr. Jones's death, many (if not all) ofhis MSS. passed into the hands of the Rev. Thomas Dawson, M. D. a Dissenting Minister of Hackney; and early in 1783 a large bundle of Biographical Fragments were presented to me (conformably, it should seem, to Mr. Jones's intentions) by an unknown hand. They were folded in a paper, indorsed, by Mr. Jones, "Various little Anecdotes, Memorials, and other the like Notices, perhaps one of them of so much significance; yet not to be destroyed in too much haste." Many of these have at various times been inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine†; several others are interspersed in the present Volumes; and an unpublished specimen or two shall here be givent.

* The amiable Mr. Gilpin, also, in the Preface to his "Life of Cranmer," 1784, p. iv. says, "In gratitude I must acknowledge particular obligation to the late Mr. Jones of Welwyn; the learned friend, and (I believe) the executor, of the celebrated Author of the Night-thoughts. But I never was personally acquainted with him. This gentleman had once entertained the design of writing the life of Archbishop Cranmer, and with this intention had made considerable collections: but laying his design aside, he was so obliging as to put his papers, near twenty years ago, into my hands. We had both, I found, drawn from the same authorities; only I had the mortification to observe, that he had been much the more industrious compiler. He had also, through the means of several of his learned friends at Cambridge, particularly the late Mr. Baker, gained access to many sources of information, less obvious to common enquirers.-Our plans too rather differed. His was chiefly to explain the opinions of the Archbishop: mine attempts rather to illustrate his character. Notwithstanding, however, this difference, Mr. Jones's papers were of considerable use to me. I have now deposited them, agreeably to his last will, in the library of Dr. Williams, in Red-cross-street, London."

See particularly his Anecdotes of Gilbert West, Bp. Burnet, Bp. Atterbury, Abp. Herring, Dr. Doddridge, Mr. James Harvey, and Dr. Samuel Clarke, vol. LIII. pp. 101. 227.

"Mr. Norris, of Bemerton, near Sarum. The Rev. and aged Mr. Thomas Colburne told me lately (1761) that, when he was a young man at Salisbury, he made a visit to this ingenious and exemplary Clergyman, at his house in Bemerton. This was, I suppose, not long after the Revolution, when Dr. Burnet was

Bishop of that see. Mr. Norris treated him very civilly; and, either before or after dinner (I do not remember which), took him out into his garden: from whence they had a full view of the City and Cathedral. "What a magnificent structure," said young Colburne, is that great Cathedral! You are happy, Sir, in this delightful prospect."-"Yes," said Mr. Norris, "It is all the prospect I have with respect to that Cathedral;" meaning that he had no expectation of preferment in it under the present Bishop. This good Mr. Colburne, as I observed from his own account of himself, was, in those his early days, a thorough-bred Jacobite, and no great friend to the happy Revolution; to which nevertheless, upon further knowledge, he became by degrees more inclined. Finding by repeated conversations with him, that he was a steady friend to the present Government, and had a high opinion of our young Sovereign, I said to him, in one of our walks, "You see, Sir, how the times and sentimens are altered: the far greater part of the Nation are staunch Whigs!" He, applying 1it immediately to himself, confessed, "I was formerly very strenuous for the other party, because I knew no better: but I have lived long enough to see, that I was, upon the whole, wrong in my sentiments: I see things now in another light, and, I think, the true one." This Mr. Colburne, a native of Hampshire, educated in the chief school at Salisbury, was afterwards Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; M.A. 1707 [contemporary with Dr. Young there], a tutor of note, and one of the Proctors of the University, &c. He afterwards resigned his Fellowship, and accepted a benefice in Norfolk [Walpole]; and married a daughter of Mr. W. Howell, author of "The Common Prayer Book the best Companion, &c." He is now [1761] near 80."

"Mr. Ingram, (commonly styled Dr. Ingram,) of Barnet. A man of extraordinary parts: of low origin, but great application, and therefore, under the blessing of God, the raiser of his own fortune, which was very considerable. Mr. H. who had his Instructions under him, tells me, (what he had had from himself) that he was at first, an apprentice to [I think he said] a shoemaker; however, he learnt by degrees the trade of a barber, and exercised it, and became eminent for tooth-drawing, &c. Mr. H. says, that he would have excelled in any other profession. He could hardly read at first, but learned, and made progress; and borrowing here and there a poor physic book, he became a small practitioner among his neighbours; afterwards extended his views to bone-setting, &c. and at last, became one of the most eminent surgeons in this part of the kingdom, being noted far and near for his uncommon skill and success, and having very great practice, both here and also often in London. He educated his son James in learning, and sent him to Oxford, where he was contemporary with me in Worcester College (M. A. 1730.) He commenced Doctor of Physic, and lived at Barnet, where he also died (before his father) about 1754. But his fame and abilities were not equal to those of the old man; who died at a great age, about 1757:"

No.

No. IX.

REV. DR. GLOSTER RIDLEY.

This worthy Divine was descended collaterally from Dr. Nicholas Ridley, bishop of London, who was burnt in the reign of Queen Mary. He was born at sea, in 1702, on-board the Gloucester East Indiaman, to which circumstance he was indebted for his Christian name. He received his education at Winchester-school, and thence was elected to a Fellowship at New-college, Oxford, where he proceeded B. C. L. April 29, 1729. In those two seminaries he cultivated an early acquaintance with the Muses, and laid the foundation of those elegant and solid acquirements for which he was afterwards so eminently distinguished as a Poet, an Historian, and a Divine. During a vacancy in 1728, he joined with four friends, viz. Mr. Thomas Fletcher (afterwards Bishop of Kildare), Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Eyre, Mr. Morrison, and Mr. Jennens*, in writing a tragedy, called "The Fruitless Redress," each undertaking an act, on a plan previously concerted. When they delivered in their several propositions, at their meeting in the winter, few readers would have known that the whole was not the production of a single hand. This tragedy, which was offered to Mr. Wilks, but never acted, is still in MS. with another called "Jugurtha." Dr. Ridley in his youth was much addicted to theatrical performances. Midhurst, in Sussex, was the place where they were

* This ingenious but unfortunate gentleman, to the unspeakable affliction of Mr. Ridley, and all his friends, fell by his own hand, and disappointed them of the hopes which they had formed, that time and reflection would have recovered him from some dangerous and fatal errors which he had imbibed.

exhibited; and the company of gentlemen actors to which he belonged, consisted chiefly of his coadjutors in the tragedy already mentioned. He is said to have performed the characters of Marc Antony, Jaffier, Horatio, and Moneses, with distinguished applause, a circumstance that will be readily believed by those who are no strangers to his judicious and graceful manner of speaking in the pulpit. Young Cibber, being likewise a Wykehamist, called on Dr. Ridley soon after he had been appointed chaplain to the East-India Company at Poplar, and would have persuaded him to quit the Church for the Stage, observing that "it usually paid the larger salaries of the two." For great part of his life, he had no other preferment than the small College living of Weston in Norfolk, and the donative of Poplar in Middlesex, where he resided. To these his College added, some years after, the donative of Romford, in Essex. Between these two places the curricle of his life had," as he expressed it, "rolled for some time almost perpetually upon postchaise wheels, and left him not time for even the proper studies of economy, or the necessary ones of his profession." Yet, in this obscure situation, he remained in possession of, and content with, domestic happiness; and was honoured with the intimate friendship of some who were not less distinguished for learning than for worth: among these, it may be sufficient to mention Bp. Lowth, Mr.

*To the friendly communication of this learned and venerable Prelate, I was indebted for several particulars in the Memoirs both of Dr. Ridley and Mr. Spence, which were first printed in the "Select Collection of Poems, 1782."

"SIR, Fulham, Sept. 23, 1780. "I am very much obliged to you for your kind attention to me, in sending to me the proof-sheet containing Poems of my late dear friend Mr. Spence, with an account of him. Your application to me is not improperly directed: for I have lately been employed in preparing an article for the new edition of Biographia Britannica on the same subject. I would very readily communicate my papers to you if you should desire it; but there is no occasion for it. Your account seems sufficiently full to answer your purpose; there is nothing material omitted;

and

Christopher Pitt, Mr. Spence, and Dr. Berriman. To the last of these he was curate and executor, and

and it is in the main very exact. I will here give you the few remarks that occur to me.

P. 2. note, 1. 2. spuriously, and 1. 5. and consequently not in orders. This is a false conclusion. He was ordained in the year 1724. The truth is, he left this pamphlet in the hands of a friend, to be published as soon as he had left England, with that Grub-street title, which he had drawn up merely for a disguise, not chusing to have it thought that he published it himself.

“Mr. Gray's chief objection to Polymetis is, that the author has illustrated his subject from the Roman, and not from the Greek Poets; that is, he has not performed what he never undertook; nay, what he expressly declared that he did not undertake.

"Plain matter of fact," &c. was Mr. Spence's. I think he wrote it during the Rebellion in 1745-6; and would have continued it, had the Rebellion continued. It was intended for a popular thing, and for the lower class of readers. Having no memoranda, and not knowing where to find it among my pamphlets, I have made no mention of it in my papers, and perhaps shall not add it, or only just note it as you do.

"I have looked over the titles of all the Poems in Dodsley's Museum and Collection; and may venture to assure you, that there is no Poem of Mr. Spence's in either, except " An Epistle from a Swiss Officer to his Friend at Rome." Museum, vol. II. p. 259. Collection, vol. III. p. 58.

"What you say of me is a great deal too much. I believe I looked over the whole with him before it was sent to the press; but certainly advised no alteration in Mr. Holdsworth's part, which is almost the whole. I communicated a few remarks; and after it was finished at the press, I examined all the sheets to collect the errata, which were more numerous than we expected. Mr. Spence was not then able to do it. Mr. Holdsworth's scheme to answer the description of Jugerum, p. 528, was lost; and I made out a new one for the engraver. This, as far as I can recollect, is all that I did in it.

"He was found flat upon his face, at the edge, where the water was too shallow to cover his hand, or any part of his body. This I know to be true; and I wish you would add it, because certain ill-natured people gave out that he drowned himself. He could not have chosen that place so improperly, where there were other places ncar at hand quite fit for such a purpose.

"I have made a few corrections of points, &c. in the verses. I must particularly desire you to print the first word in line 12, p. 14, as corrected; which is the principal word in the Poem, and which the Oxford correctors had printed His'try, to the ut

His account of Stephen Duck, first published in 1731, is professed to be written by Jos. Spence, Esq. Poetry Professor. See vol. II. p. 373.

ter