ings and conversation. Every man has, or ought to have, a little pride in appearing in good company; I could only have wished, therefore, that you had told the publick, that the whole property of his Works he assigned to me solely, and that he addressed a Letter to the publick upon the occasion. I would not have presumed to have pointed out to your notice and attention such trivial circumstances, only I frequently observe respectful mention made of the names of many of my friends and contemporaries on similar occasions. In another edition, perhaps these trifling remarks may be regarded. I flatter myself it will answer two purposes to me, without lessening in the least the credit of your publication. The first is but a piece of vanity, that my name will be enrolled amongst the the great room in Conduit-street. - Mr. Robson's principal amusement, when relaxing from the tumult of the world, was that which delighted Isaac Walton; and the records of Hampton and Sunbury proclaim his skill and patience as an Angler; where, associated with the late Rev. Richard Harrison, his friendly and skilful medical friend Mr. Woodd, and a few other select companions, he occasionally whiled away the early dawn and evening shade in harmless sport. His conversation was mild, cheerful, intelligent, communicative, but never obtrusive; and, as he had imbibed in his early education a familiar acquaintance with the Latin poets, was frequently illustrated by apt quo. tations. Though very far removed from the character of a bon vivant, he was a member of a monthly dining-club at the Shakspeare tavern ; society which the writer of this article can scarcely mention without emotions of the tenderest concern, as it brings to mind the many rational hours of relaxation it has afforded him, when congenial spirits, warmed not heated with the genuine juice of the grape, have unreservedly poured out their whole souls in Attic wit and repartee. But of this friendly band, after an association of about 35 years, Mr. Robson was nearly the last survivor! The late Mr. Alderman Cadell, with Messrs. James Dodsley, Lockyer Davis, Thomas Longman, Peter Elmsly, honest Tom Payne of the Mews-gate, and Thomas Evans of the Strand, were members of this society; from which originated the germ of many a valuable publication. Under their auspices, Mr. Thomas Davies (who was himself a pleasant member of the club) produced his "Dramatic Miscellanies," and his "Life of Garrick;" and here first were suggested the ideas which led to the publication of Dr. Johnson's invaluable "Lives of the most eminent English Poets." Worthies Worthies of the age; and the next, it may recommend the sale of the Works of my deceased Friend. I beg pardon for taking up so much of your time and attention; and request your acceptance of this assurance, that I am always, dear Sir, your very obedient humble servant, J. ROBSON." BRYAN FAIRFAX, esq. (a younger son of Thomas the first lord Fairfax of Cameron) was appointed a commissioner of the Customs in 1723; and, dying Jan. 9, 1749, bequeathed a very considerable fortune to his nephew, the Hon. Robert Fairfax, of Leeds Castle, Kent, afterwards Lord Fairfax. Mr. Fairfax's collection of Greek, Roman, and English coins and medals, was sold by auction, April 24, 25, and 26, 1751. Among other curiosities, he possessed one part of the famous Heraclean Table†. *Whose great-uncle was the memorable General, Sir Thomas Fairfax, who conducted the Parliament Army, in the time of Oliver Cromwell, against Charles the First; and who, with General Monk, assisted in restoring his son Charles the Second to the throne.-Thomas Lord Fairfax died, at his proprietary in Virginia, unmarried, in 1781, at the age of 89; and was succeeded by his younger brother, Robert, M. P. for Maidstone 1739 and 1747, and for Kent 1754 and 1761. The last lord was twice married; but died without issue, July 15, 1793, aged 87; and the title was afterwards claimed by, and confirmed in 1800 to, Bryan Fairfax, the present Lord, who is in holy orders, and is lineally descended from Henry, the fourth lord Fairfax. In 1732 two large tables of copper were discovered near Heraclea, in the bay of Tarentum, in Magna Græcia; the first and most important of them, which was broken into two, containing, on one side, a Greek inscription relating to lands sacred to Bacchus; on the other, a Latin inscription, being part of a pandect or digest of Roman municipal laws. Both these inscriptions were given to the world, in 1736, by Mr. Maittaire, as already mentioned in vol. II. p. 83. The second table, engraved on one side only, contained a Greek inscription relating to lands belonging to the temple of Minerva, nearly of the same antiquity with the first; but the inscription imperfect, the table being broken off at the lower end. The first part of the first table, soon after the discovery, was carried to Rome, and purchased there at a great price by Francisco Ficoroni, a celebrated antiquary. In 1735 it was brought by an Italian into England, where it was purchased by Mr. Fairfax; and at one of the public sales of his collection was bought for 421. by Philip Carteret Webb, esq. who In his very valuable library was the Bible printed by Fust, on vellum, 1462, and Cicero's Offices by the same printer, also on vellum, 1466. The whole library, being 2343 lots, was intended to have been sold by auction, on April 26, 1756, and the 17 following days; but, after being advertised, was privately sold for 2000l. to his kinsman Francis Child*, esq .and the printed catalogues, except 20, were suppressed. Mr. Child sent the library to his seat at Osterley, Middlesex, where, in 1782, it remained in the possession of his younger brother and heir, Robert Child, esq. and made part of the superb and magnificently bound library, of which a catalogue was drawn up, and only twenty-five copies printed, in 1771, in a handsome quarto. This latter catalogue was drawn up by Dr. Morell; assisted by the preceding labours of the Rev. Dr. Winchester, who had been tator to those gentlemen, and collected many books for the eldest of them. Mr. Fairfax's pictures, statues, urns, and other antiquities, were sold by auction, April 6 and 7, and the prints and drawings, May 4-8, 1756. Who in 1760 obliged the world with a curious account of it, read by him before the Society of Antiquaries, Dec. 13, 1759. Mr Web presented the table, March 12, 1760, to the King of Spain, by the hands of the Neopolitan minister in London, to be deposited in the royal collection of antiquities at Naples; where the other half and the second table had been placed by purchase, in 1748. The Commentaries of Mazochius on these tables, in 600 folio pages, were published at Naples in 1758. In return for the table, Mr. Webb received from his Sicilian Majesty, by the hand of the Neapolitan minister, in November 1760, a present of a diamond ring worth 300l. * The first wife of the Hon. Robert Fairfax was Martha Collins, niece to Sir Francis Child, bart. + In Mr. West's catalogue, No. 1920 (made up of old titlepages of early printed books, &c.) contained a MS list of "Books in Mr. Child's library at Osterley, printed before the year 1500;" and another such list, "before the year 1551." "Bibliotheca hæc olim fuit honorabilis viri Bryani Fairfax, cujus ab hæredibus pretio 2000 librarum redemit eam Samuel Child, armiger, de Osterley Park. Catalogum curavit Thomas Morell, S. T. P. cujus viginti quinque exemplaria in 'suum et amicorum usum imprimenda voluit dignissimus possessor, 1771." Note by Dr. Lort, in his own Copy of the Catalogue; which was purchased by Mr. Gough, and has since been consigned to the Bodleian Library. RICHARD RICHARD FRANK, of Campsal, esq. F. R. S. recorder of Pontefract and Doncaster, was a polite scholar, and a lover of antiquities. He died æt. 60, May 22, 1762. His valuable collections, including those of Dr. Johnston* (which came into his hands * Dr. Nathaniel Johnston, physician at Pontefract, made large collections from Dodsworth's papers and other quarters, and communicated many particulars to bishop Gibson. Mr. Drake tells us, the Doctor's MSS. are in such an awkward scrawl as to be scarce legible, and that a subscription was proposed some few years since to lodge them in the Castle library, which might have made them more useful than they can be now. The Doctor gave out, he had spent thirty years in amassing materials, and proposed to write the antiquities of the county after Dugdale's, and the natural History after Plott's manner. Wood was informed he grew weary of the work. Nicolson has left this censure on his labours, that "only death prevented the pub ication of what its readers would have been weary of." The Propo¬ sals for printing thein (published in 1722 by his grandson) are preserved in Mr. Bowyer's Miscellaneous Tracts. He had written a history of the Talbot family from their Norman ancestor Richard Talbot to Edward Talbot, last Earl of Shrewsbury of the house of Sheffield; an historical account of the reign of Charles I. after the breaking out of the civil war; and a short account of Stephen's reign. The first of these was in Mr. Gough's possession. His historical account of the family of Bruce is in the Harleian library, No. 3879. He had a copy of Domesday for Yorkshire, transcribed by himself, in a common hand. Dr. Burton (Pref. to his Monasticon) informs us, he had the use of above one hundred folio volumes relating to this county, collected by this indefatigable antiquary, and then in the hands of Richard Frank, esq. who had purchased as many as could be found, amounting to 97 volumes in folio, and some bundles in 4to, after the death of the author's grandson, Henry Johnston. A catalogue of them, and others in the Doctor's possession, was published in the Cat. MSS. Angl. tom. ii. p. 99. Among the rest is mentioned a large volume of Prospects of York, and other towns and casties, draughts of Roman and Saxon camps, and views of churches, abbeys, and seats: others contain arms, tombs, and monumental inscriptions, before the civil war. Dr. Ducarel informed the Society of Antiquaries, 1756, that Dr. Johnston's MSS. amounted only to ninety-seven volumes, and some quarto bundles, though in the Cat. MSS. Ang. they are a hundred and thirty-five; the rest were carried off by an amanuensis employed to copy such as related to the Darcy family, which, together with the originals, were burnt by an accidental fire in Lord Holderness's house; but no volumes had been carried into Suffolk, and used as waste paper, as some of the members had reported: that the two volumes of drawings were brought by the amanuensis into that county, where they were pasted on the walls of the late on the death of the author's grandson Henry Johnston *), are now, 1780, in the hands of Bacon Frank, of Campsal, esq. nephew and heir to the Recorder. ALEXANDER GORDON, M. A. a Scotsman, an excellent draughtsman, and a good Grecian, resided many years in Italy, visited most parts of that country, and had also travelled into France, Germany, &c. He published his "Itinerarium Septentrionale" in late Chancellor Johnston's house by children: that Mr. Thomas Martin had taken off many, and hoped to take off the rest, of which he promised an account. A volume of these drawings, with MS notes, supposed to be one of those carried into Suffolk, was in possession of Mr. Astle, who exchanged them with John Hatfield Kay, of Hatfield hall, Yorkshire, esq. Another volume of Drawings was recovered by the means of Dr. Ducarel, and sent to the late Mr. Frank, in whose library (now his nephew's, 1730) they remain. See British Topography, vol. II. p. 402–404. * Henry Johnston, LL. D. rector of Whilton, Northamptonshire, and vicar of Stow-Market, Suffolk; afterwards chancellor of the diocese of Landaff, prebendary of Lincoln, and rector of Stoke and Soham Monks, in the county of Lincoln, at which place he died, Sept. 19, 1755. See the family pedigree in Dr. Ducarel's Anglo-Gallic coins, p. 57. + By the following letter, preserved among the papers of Mr. Ames, it will be seen that the publication of this volume was not achieved without much pecuniary inconvenience to the Author. Tuesday, June 21, 1726. SIR, I received your letter of Monday, in which you desire me to meet you at the Quaker's; which I cannot, by reason of a prior engagement with Mr. Mackay and others; nor do I know well what you mean by insisting on my promises, seeing, I think, whatever I promised I have faithfully fulfilled, in a manner sufficient to any services I have had of you; which if you are not content, nor willing of a continuation of friendship, if you have a mind that justice shall decide the matter, let me know, that my attorney may appear, wherever you think proper to let me know, in a friendly manner, and if required, shall have sufficient bail ready, till a judge decide our difference. For my part, I thought by this time, on receipt of your clothes, you had been perfectly satisfied; and that the value of 261. 10s. is reward for all you have done me. I think you go a very strange way to work in gaining friends and people's esteem, by such unreasonable tensions, when you know with what difficulty I can get the two ends of my book's expence to meet. I did not expect this at your hand. Had you been easy till I had seen what profit I may have if any, or how my matters stand, I still would have exerted pre myself |