39* ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE REVEREND J. MITFORD. He was, in 1733, as Dr. Warton has kindly informed me, admitted scholar of Winchester college, p. 1.-on February 23rd. Where, says Langhorne, he continued till July 1741. p. 9.-till July 29th. Collins published his eclogues under the title of Persian Eclogues, p. 10. "The neglected author of the Persian Eclogues, which, however inaccurate, excell any in our language, is still alive: happy if, insensible of our neglect, not raging at our ingratitude."-Goldsmith's Enquiry into the State of Learning, p. 107. She became the wife of the reverend Dr. Durnford, p. 19. "The reverend Mr. Durnford, who resided at Chichester, and was the son of Dr. D. informed me in August 1795, that the sister of Collins loved money to excess, and evinced so outrageous an aversion to her brother, because he squandered or gave away to the boys in the cloisters whatever money he had, that she destroyed, in a paroxysm of resentment, all his papers, and whatever remained of his enthusiasm for poetry, as far as she could. Mr. Hayley told me, when I visited him at Eartham, that he had obtained from her a small drawing by Collins; but it possessed no other value than as a memorial that the bard had attempted to handle the pencil as well as the pen."-M. S. note by T. Park, esq. in his copy of Collins's poems, now in the possession of Mr. Mitford. William Collins died 12th June 1759. p. 20. The house in Chichester where Collins lived, is now Mr. Mason's the bookseller: Collins is buried under the pew in the church, belonging to the house; a stone tablet on the wall above. From the pen of Hayley, p. 20; and Sargent. "The following ridiculous incident respecting this very great poet, [Collins,] happened some years ago to that elegant writer Dr. Langhorne, according to the ingenious author of the Juvenilia. Dr. Langhorne, hearing that Collins the poet was buried at Chichester, travelled thither on purpose to enjoy all the luxury of poetic sorrow, and to weep over his grave. On enquiry, he found that Mr. Collins was interred in a sort of garden, surrounded by the cloister of the cathedral, which is called 'the Paradise.' He was let into this place by the sexton, and after an hour's seclusion in it, came forth with all the solemn dignity of woe. On supping with an inhabitant of the town in the evening, and describing to him the spot sacred to his sorrows, he was told, that he had by no means been misapplying his tears, that he had been lamenting a very honest man, and a very useful member of society, Mr. Collins the tailor!"-Drossiana, Europ. Magazine, Oct. 1795. p. 236. The translator of Polybius. [Hampton. D.] p. 23. note. Of this eminent scholar, but little remembrance seems to have been preserved. Dr. Parr always esteemed his translation of Polybius as the first in rank in the English language, and 'Twining's Aristotle the second: Hampton lived and, I believe, died at Bishop's Waltham in Hants, where an old clergyman, a friend of mine, told me he often used to call on him. All his books were kept in an old chest. The following communication by Thomas Warton, found among the papers of Mr. Hymers, etc. p. 29. TO THE PRINTER OF THE ST. JAMES'S CHRONICLE. SIR,-Mr. Collins's beautiful ode on the superstitions of the Highlands, lately published in the literary class of the Transactions of the Royal Society at Edinburgh, appears to have been taken from a mutilated and incorrect copy. That a more complete and even a perfect copy once existed, may be proved from the following anecdotes:-About five years ago, Mr. John Hymers, a fellow of Queen's college, Oxford, circulated proposals for printing the works of Mr. Collins, with a life and notes. Mr. Warton gave Mr. Hymers some curious particulars relating to the life of Collins. I have seen Mr. Hymers's papers, who is since dead, from which I send you this short extract. In 1754, I and my brother Dr. Warton visited Collins at Chichester, where he lived in the cathedral cloisters with his sister. Here he showed us an ode to Mr. Home, on his return from England to Scotland in 1749, full of the most striking superstitious imagery. It was in his own hand-writing, without a single interpolation or hiatus, and had every appearance of the author's last revisal, and of a copy carefully and completely finished for the press. I offered to take it with me to town,' etc. On the whole we may conclude that the Edinburgh copy is nothing more than a foul and early draught of this composition. “ I am, sir, yours, VERAX." [The foregoing extract from Warton's papers is not to be found verbatim in what I have given (from the Reaper) as his communication to Hymers. D.] List of the chief editions of the works of Collins, p. 36. "In the Register of Books published in March 1734, Gentleman's Magazine, vol. iv. p. 167. is an irregular Ode on the Royal Nuptials, by Mr. Philips; and then follows a Poem on the same occasion, by William Collins, printed for J. Roberts, pr. 6d."Park's M. S. note. [For a copy of this poem I have sought in vain. As our poet in 1734 was only in his fourteenth year, I incline to believe that it must have been written by another William Collins: yet J. Roberts was the publisher of the first edition of his eclogues; and the following extract from the Europ. Mag. informs us that Collins wrote verses when he was but twelve years old. D.] A singular line of this great poet [Collins] in a juvenile poem, which he made when he was twelve years old, on a Battle of the School-books at Winchester, is remembered; And every Gradus flapp'd his leathern wing. Drossiana, Europ. Magazine, Decr. 1795. p. 377;" Park's M.S. note. |