At the End of each Year is added an Obituary of some memorable Persons who died therein; whose Prebendal Stall (of most of those erected at the Reformation, and) continued down to this Time; as also of the Heads or Masters of each College or Hall in either of our famous Universities from their first Settlement to this Time. The whole extracted from the several Registers of the respective Cathedrial or Collegiate Churches or Foundations, as also from other authentic Records and valuable Collections, never before published;" folio. In this useful compilation the industrious editor had the advantage of the laborious collections of Dr. White Kennett; and was countenanced by the encouragement and subscription of no less than thirty Prelates.-An interval, however, of nearly a century from the original publication calls loudly for a new impression, not only with the proper continuation of the several lists, but with such amendments as more recent discoveries may have suggested in the parts already printed. Such an edition the publick had some reason to have expected a few years since from the unwearied industry of the Rev. John Gutch of Oxford; who was only deterred from the undertaking by its extreme labour, and from the fortunate circumstance of his obtaining the easier and more profitable employment of Registrar to his University. There are hopes, however, that it may still be undertaken. The Rev. Charles Coates, the very able author of the "History of Reading," his native town, (should the University of Cambridge deem it an object deserving the privilege of being franked through their press) would not shrink from the heavy task. My steady friend Mr. Gough possesses several copies of the work, with additions by various collecters, which might be of use; and my Own library contains two interleaved copies, which, in such able hands, would be of incalculable value; I need only say, that one of them was the copy of the Rev. Robert Smyth of Woodston, abounding with additions in the earlier parts of the work; the other was Mr. Le Neve's own copy, prepared by himself for a new edition, and containing the following brief account of its author: "John Le Neve, the publisher of the following Collections, was born in Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury, in the house facing Montague-house great gate, Dec. 27, 1679. He was the only child of John Le Neve and Mary the second daughter of John Bent of Paternoster-row, mercer. About the 8th year of his age his mother died. About the 12th, he was sent to Eton school, and admitted into the lowermost remove of the third form. About two years after, his father died. About the age of 16, being arrived about the upper end of the fifth form of the said school, he left it, and became a fellow-commoner of Trinity college, Cambridge, into which he had been admitted some time before; where making a short stay of not quite three years, he removed to London, and there married Frances the second daughter of Thomas Boughton, of King's Cliffe in Northamptonshire, gent. by whom he had issue John, Amy, Elizabeth, Richard, Peter, Elizabeth, Francis, Catherine."-Here the personal history ends; but Mr. Le Inscriptions (if any yet set up) are not come to hand. Intended as a Specimen of a much larger. Work. By John Le Neve, Gent." Vol. I. 8vo. "Some short Memorials concerning the Life of that Reverend Divine Dr. Richard Field*, Canon of Le Neve subjoins: "If there should ever be occasion to print a second edition of this work, let Fuller's Worthies and the Athenæ Oxonienses be revised; which will furnish the birth places and an account of the several other preferments (not dignities) which many of the persons herein named enjoyed; which may conveniently be added. The said books will likewise furnish very many materials towards an Obituary of several eminent personages who lie buried dispersedly, and which, being duly ranged under their respective years, may very pro perly be placed after the monumental inscriptions of each year, and help much towards a catalogue of the viri illustres of each age. Jo. LE NEVE, April 28, 1716."--At the beginning of this copy is a long communication from Dr. Browne Willis, being the particulars of the lives of many prelates; concerning which he says, "Mr. Le Neve, I count these will be of admirable use to you. I might possibly pick up more: but let me hear how your design advances of your Supplement. You are very welcome to these papers, or what I can send you; and I shall be glad to engage Dr. Tanner, &c. for you; and, if you like what is done of St. David's province, to send you an account of York and Canterbury."Another work by Mr. J. Le Neve, the "Lives of the Protestant Archbishops," will be noticed under the year 1720. He died about 1722. Mr. Lysons, in his Environs of London, says, he had a house at Stratford Bow. * This excellent Divine was born at Hempsted, Herts, Oct. 15, 1561; and was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. After having been M. A. seven years, he became Reader of Divinity in Winchester Cathedral; and in1594, being then B.D. was chosen Reader of that Faculty at Lincoln's Inn; whence he was presented by Richard Kingsmill, esq. (one of the Benchers, and Surveyor of the Court of Wards) to the rectory of Burrowcleeve in Hampshire; which he for some years held, though the valu able rectory of St. Andrew's Holborn was offered to him. He became D. D. 1598; and was appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to Queen Elizabeth the same year; and in 1604 obtained a canonry of Windsor. He was appointed Dean of Gloucester in 1609; but continued to reside principally at his rectory, and occasio nally at Windsor, where he was a particular favourite of King James, who frequently conversed with him on points of Divinity; and who much lamented his death, saying, "I should have done much for that man," &c. He was buried in the outer chapel of St. George at Windsor; with the following epitaph: VOL. I. "Richardus Field, hujus olim Coll. Canonicus, et Windsor and Dean of Gloucester, the learned Author of Five Books of the Church *, &c.; 8vo. "A Sermon preached before the Sons of the Clergy, at their Anniversary Meeting in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Dec. 6, 1716; by Thomas Bisse, D. D. Preacher at the Rolls, &c.:" 8vo. Mr. Anthony Blackwall's "Introduction to the Classics; containing a short Discourse on their Ex et Ecclesiæ Gloucestrensis Decanus, unà cum Elizabethâ Harrison, sanctissimâ et hic sub communi marmore expectant Christi reditum, qui felicitatem, quam ingressi sunt, adventu suo perficiat, ac consummet. Obierunt in Domino, ille anno Salutis 1616, ætatis suæ 55, hæc anno Salutis 1614, ætatis suæ 41." * This book coming into the hands of the learned Dr. John White, he was so much taken with it, that in a marginal note to his Epistle, set before his Book, intituled, The Way to the Christian Church, he thus speaks of it: "If any man desire to see all these and other questions more scholastically and accurately handred, let him read Dr. Richard Field, Of the Church; a Book that I recommend to our zealousest adversaries to read with diligence, and to compare with the learnedest that have written on their own side." Wood, Athen. Oxon. vol. I. p. 412. This worthy and learned man, born in Derbyshire about 1674, was admitted sizar in Emanuel college, Cambridge, Sept. 13, 1690; B. A. there 1694; M. A. 1698. He was appointed head-master of the noted free-school at Derby, and lecturer of Allhallows there, where in 1706 he distinguished himself in the literary world by "Theognidis Megarensis Sententiæ Morales, nova Latinâ Versione, Notis & Emendationibus, explanatæ et exornatæ : unà cum variis Lectionibus, &c." 12mo; addressed, in a copy of Greek verses, to the famous Joshua Barnes. Whilst at Derby, he also published the above-noticed "Introduction to the Classics;" which Mr. Bowyer reprinted in 1719; and in which were displayed the beauties of those admirable writers of antiquity, to the understanding and imitation even of common capacities; and that in so concise and clear a manner as seemed peculiar to Mr. Blackwall. A third edition of this work was afterwards published "with Additions." Yet Mr. Gilbert Cooper selects this very book as "one lamentable instance of able scholars having succeeded very ill in works where they have betrayed the greatest |