My humble service to Mrs. Stukeley concludes me, dear Sir, your inseparable friend and servant (as you see, both sleeping and waking), W. WARBURTON. For the Rev. Dr. STUKELEY, at Stamford. DEAR SIR, November 10, 1731. I received your agreeable letter, and should be glad we could have any opportunity of seeing one another oftener. If you do not go to London, I do not know but that towards Christmas I may have an opportunity of coming to Stamford, in case you be in the country; but I was told by a gentleman who lately came from thence, that they talked there, as if you would spend a great part of the winter in town. The same person told me further, that he they call the Dean of Stamford shews to every body a letter wrote to him from you in the most malicious and aggravating way in the world, wherein you earnestly desire him to concur with you in choosing Mr. Peck, who, you assured him, would do whatever you would have him. He represents this, which appears to me to have nothing unfair in it, as strangely to your discredit. I thought it proper to acquaint you with this Devil of a Dean, and how much he wants exorcising; the Court holy water, which, it seems, in that letter you gave him, makes him but the more impudent. Mr. Theobald has entered into articles for publishing Shakespeare with Tonson. It is to appear by next March; and he is to have for it eleven hundred guineas*, and your humble servant for his pains one copy of the royal paper books. But, as he has given me full satisfaction for his late conduct, and appears to be willing to perform the part of a * Of this, more hereafter. man man of honour, I absolve him from all hard thoughts, and am disposed to serve him all I can. This I thought proper, for good reasons, to let you know, whom I had acquainted with my (groundless as I am glad to find it) suspicions and complaints. Le Brun did not come last week by the waggon. I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate and most obedient humble servant, W. WARBURTON. For the Rev. Dr. STUKELEY, at Stamford. DEAREST SIR, B. B. May 9, 1732. YOUR very agreeable letter came very opportunely; for it found me overwhelmed with grief for the variety of ill usage my most excellent Patron * has lately met with. And, I will assure you, it is no small aggravation of it, that I have no opportunity of testifying my gratitude to him by serving him, though by the sacrifice of my fortune. I envy the felicity of antient times, when it was so frequently in the power of the meanest faithful dependant, by one brave stroke, to render good service to his Patron, when bore hard upon by faction and injustice. I wish, as you say, I had known that circumstance of 's good-nature and manners, and I should have treated him as he deserved; but there is not, even in human nature, ill-nature enough to treat so rascally a scoundrel with sufficient contempt; for this wretched Attorney has received many and great obligations from that family. But I will withdraw myself for a moment from these uneasy reflections. I like your project much, which invites me to take Thompson's shop; and, could I get Tyndal and Henley, Jackson and Waterland, Peckius and Wormius, for my garreteers, I should not fear to make * Sir Robert Sutton; see p. 3. † A Provincial Bookseller. my my fame, that is, my profit, more extensive than my renowned Predecessor's; who once told me, with the proud Parnassian sneer, that his Mercuries were read and admired in Ireland, Barbadoes, and Newfoundland. As for Peck's "Desiderata," I cannot but think young Roger Gale punished in the Dedication for the sins of his Grandfather, who generally prefixed to his fine editions of the ancient Greek Authors some stupid Man of Quality, that could hardly read English; so that, as he was always complimenting stupid Patrons, it is but according to the reason of things, that his Grandson should be complimented by as stupid a Client, whose invention, as Shakespeare says, "comes from his pate like birdlime from frize, it plucks out brains and all." Your reasons for your determination of always writing in Latin are good, and wise, and solid. I perceive you had entertained a strange notion of the difficulty of a thing, which, in effect, with practice, to one who knows the tongue, is easy enough. My humble service to good Mrs. Stukeley. I wish you both an agreeable journey to Buckden; and that, if she likes the old furbelloed mansion, she may one day become mistress of it, where she and I, in quality of your Lordship's Chaplain, will agree, according to the good old laudable custom, to rule and govern you, and dispose of all your Stalls and Standings; and while you, whom we shall confine within four walls, are adjusting the difficulties of ancient æras, we will make the most of the time present; and while you are consulting for the credit of the Fathers, we shall be scheming for a provision for the Sons and Daughters. And the wisdom between a petticoat government, and government by a long gown, is but a trifling difference: a woman that knows how to manage a hatch of goslings may be capable of administering a Diocese. I am, dear Sir, your ever affectionate and faithful friend, W. WARBURTON. P. S. P. S. Miss, I suppose, keeps close to Montfaucon yet. In another year she will make a better Antiquary than Peck; for, I observe, she already knows the difference between Pan's Pipe and Apollo's Harp which is more, apparently, than he does; or his ass's ears would not be so perpetually starting out, to testify the ill judgment he gives, and the ill choice he makes; but, if his hand has but the same attractive quality with his Predecessor Midas's, of drawing gold to him, he cares not what resemblance there is between their heads.-I feel my uneasy reflections returning upon me; and am forced to leave our Antiquary as he leaves old Cecil, half uncelebrated.-Vale, amice dulcissime. W. W. LETTER XIII. GUL. WARBURTON, amplissimo doctissimoque viro, GULIELMO STUKELEIO SUO, S. Aug. 8, 1732. LITERAS tuas, ô Bone! facetas et perelegantes jamjam accepi. Carmen amabile, quod, ex morbo evadens, tam lucidè pangis, statim atque legi, subiit mentem docti divinus Lucretî furor, qui, cum periodicæ febres inducias haberent, solitus est carmina, pharmaci loco, adhibere; dum defæcata vis animi, - extra Processit longè flammantia monia mundi. Fuit reverà mihi, et laudis nostræ gratulatio tua jucundissima, et doloris consolatio pergrata; nam, secundùm vetus dictum, laudes à laudato viro accipio. Hæ sunt solatia, hæ fomenta summorum dolorum. Firmissimâ tuâ benevolentiâ stipatus, vel durissimas molestias, vel fastum turgidum et superbum Asini Ecclesiastici dignitatibus onusti, æquo animo ferre possum. Quod tu dicis de itinere hûc faciendo, mirificè me lætificat. Sine ullâ morâ, precor, con cu silio factum adjunge. Velim quoque scire quo die venias, ut de obviàm itione tibi faciam, sicut vicissim solemus. Paulò ante illustrissimus Peckius, Sidus μúww ἀρχαιογράφων, inter itinera sua in domum nostram divertebat, coenabat, discubuit. Vidula ejus de more conferta erant et cruditatibus distenta; similia bulga isti infernali de quâ Poeta lepidus Swiftius suavissimè canit: His budget with corruption cramm'd, id est, Poetarum, Oratorum, Historicorum, virgâ Criticorum censoriâ, in ærumnis atque miseriis cloacarum degere ævum damnatorum; usquedum, revolventibus fatis, hic Eques erraticus incantamentum rumpat, et illos innocentes, fœdè laceratos et spoliatos jacentes, defendat, protegat, ac in lucem reVocet. Si fides sit isti primæ philosophiæ, quâ à Nutrice in gynæcio nos omnes imbuti sumus, quæ docet homunciones ex Apiato oriri; jurarem per omnes Deos Deasque clarissimum hunc Antiquarium, qui à Stanfordiâ petit originem, vice Apiati, singulari fortunâ, sepulchretum istud monasticum, herbis soporificis et lethalibus obsitum, pro portis oppidi situm, natalitium locum habuisse: hinc amor cuculli, hinc protervitas ingenii, hinc odium in bonas literas. Vale, vir optime, quo mihi nemo est amicior, nec jucundior, nec charior. Ornatissimam uxorem tuam, et tenellulam Antiquariam meam, plurimùm saluto. Domus te tota nostra salutat. GUL. W. LETTER XIV. To the Rev. Dr. STUKELEY, at Stamford. MOST DEAR SIR, November 13, 1732. I heard by accident you was at Grantham Visitation; and, as I have reason to suspect, in pur VOL II. C suance |