with what I think the most beautiful and picturesque spot in the island of Great Britain.

"My poor eldest brother died at Alnwick a few weeks ago. The youngest died in the beginning of the year. I have written to America, to my only remaining brother, a surgeon in the navy, who is heir to the family estate, and who, I doubt not, will come home directly, as it cannot now be an object to him to remain in the Bedford till she be ordered to England.

"The Viscount du Barry was killed yesterday morning by Mr. or Count Rice, a friend who lived with him. They went very early to the Down with their seconds and a surgeon in the same coach, and had the constancy to remain three hours on the ground waiting for daylight, that they might be enabled the more effectually to do the business they went out upon. It was soon over. Du Barry fell at the first fire, having lodged his ball at the same time so securely in his antagonist's thigh that it is not yet extracted. The reports of the cause of this quarrel are various. It would be idle, even if it was possible, to repeat them all. Some say it was religion, which is very unlikely; others, jealousy, which is hardly more credible, when one considers that it is a most un-Frenchmanlike passion. I must leave time to discover what, after all, may not be worth knowing. It appears equally strange and lamentable that honour's wounds are sometimes only to be healed up when humanity bleeds.

"I am yet to learn the time of my departure for Barbary, which I have not yet expressed any impatience about. I shall know more of the matter when I get to town. I am, with a thousand good wishes to you, Mrs. Percy and family, dear Sir, your ever obedient and faithful servant, NATH. DAVISON.

"P.S. Du Barry's lady and her sister are here. Their situation must be terrible. The Viscount and his lady have been figuring away at all the gay parties since they came, and kept a kind of open house, with tables plentifully furnished with victuals and cards-food for the hungry and idle. Rice, I understand, is an Irishman, (but I am not clear in this particular,) who has lived much abroad, and picked up a title in his travels.

"The seconds have thought it prudent to take themselves out of the way."

Rev. T. WARTON* to Dr. PERCY.

"DEAR SIR, Trinity College, Oxford, Jan. 11, 1778. "I beg the favour of you to send me a small notitia of the Duke of Orleans,† who wrote French sonnets, preserved in the British Museum-the state and condition of the manuscript, and merit of the pieces-his age and character, &c. I think he has some English poetry, but not legible. I have affirmed that no French sonnets are equal to Gower's, even by the French themselves. From my short stay in town I had not time to examine in the Museum. Yours very sincerely, T. WARTON."

Rev. Dr. FARMER to Dr. PERCY.

"MY DEAR Doctor, Emanuel College, Jan. 12th, 1778. "You would have been long before now troubled with my black letter had any thing occurred worthy the impression. The Catalogue of Graduates which you ask after is at present with its owner, Dr. Richardson, in Great Russell Street, who will, I am sure, give you leave to search for the Wilsons at your leisure. If any thing falls in my way you shall hear of it.

"I thank you for the Border History, which, to my shame, is more than I have done Mr. Steevens for Sir John Hawkins. Pray tell him I shall insist upon paying for it. I have not written to him, as I have not a moment at present to give to his assistance. Indeed a complication of business totally overwhelms my spirits.

"You frequently remind me of the money matters between us. It so happens that I shall be obliged to draw hard upon my banker before the end of the month for the University audit. Should it be convenient to pay the 40l. to Mr. Beecroft within that time, it may be singularly useful (for I know not what pupils' bills may come

* Of Rev. Thomas Warton see memoirs in Lit. Anecdotes, vol. VI. pp. 175-185; vol. VII. 455, 707; Literary Illustrations, General Index.

For an account of Charles Duke of Orleans, and his poetry, by Mr. Mitford, see Gentleman's Magazine for May 1842, pp. 459-472; in a Review of his "Poems written in English, during his captivity in England, after the Battle of Agincourt." Sir Henry Ellis discovered the volume among the Harleian MSS. and the poems were printed by Mr. Watson Taylor for the Roxburghe Club in 1827.

Of Dr. Farmer see memoir in Lit. Anecdotes, vol. II. 618-649; vol. VII. 132, 564; Literary Illustrations, General Index.

in), and, should you wish it, I will replace it in your hands as soon as may be.

66

Happy new year to all the family.

"Yours affectionately,

R. FARMER."

Dr. PORTEUS, Bp. of Chester, to the Rev. Dr. PERCY.

"DEAR SIR,

Nov. 5, 1778.

"If you will give me as early notice as you can of Lord North's levee, I will very readily attend you there at the proper hour, although I have had so very little intercourse with his Lordship (having never been in his house nor exchanged a word with him till he notified to me my late promotion) that I very much question whether he will recollect my face again. However, I will some how or other first introduce myself and then you to him, if you do not think of any more powerful friend to go with you (for I do not conceive a Bishop to be necessary), who would carry more weight with him than your faithful and obedient servant, B. CHESTER.

1779.

A letter from Dean Percy to the Rev. Thomas Maurice,† dated Sept. 5, 1779, acknowledging the honour done him in Mr. Maurice's poem of "Netherby," is printed in Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. p. 565.

Mr. DUTENS‡ to Dr. PERCY.

"Monday Morning [No date]. "Mr. Dutens presents his compliments to Dr. Percy, and finding that Elmsly has no more copy of the continuation of Don Quixote, begs his acceptance of this duplicate of his, which he had destined for the country. "He also sends him a note of references to the places of his Dissertations where Mr. Swinton is mentioned.

"To improve the hint dropped last night about Dr.

* Of Bishop Porteus see an excellent memoir in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary; also notices in Literary Anecdotes, VII. 331, 665; Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. p. 490.

+ The Rev. Thomas Maurice died March 30, 1824. See memoir of him in Gent. Mag. vol. XCIV. i. p. 467. Also notices in Literary Anecdotes, VII. 258.

The Rev. Lewis Dutens died May 23, 1812. See memoir of him in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXII. ii. p. 197, and a fuller account, abridged from his own Memoires d'un Voyageur," in the same volume, pp. 391-397. See also notices in Literary Anecdotes, VII. 119, 557.

Percy's parting with his Portuguese and Spanish romances and novels in favour of Mr. Dutens, he begs leave to mention that in case it comes to a conclusion, Mr. Dutens desires to allow ten guineas for Tirante el bianco, and the full of the value of every other, binding and all, as Dr. Percy shall mention."

1780.

Mr. LIONEL CHARLTON* to Dr. PERCY. "DEAR SIR, Whitby, Jan. 3, 1780. "The great hurry of business I have always been in since the recovery of my health is the only reason of my not answering sooner your very obliging letter of October 26th; surveying of land, measuring of houses, and my school, have hardly left me a moment to call my own for these four months last past. Among several surveys that I have made is the family estate of the Percys at Dunsley, of which I think it will not be disagreeable to give you the following account.

"The Manor of Dunsley contains about 600 acres of inclosed land, besides 777 acres which lie yet in moor. Sir John Sheffield, as a descendant from the Duke of Buckingham, now possesses 342 acres of this inclosed land, and it is that which I have lately been surveying. As for the town of Dunsley, it contains no more at present than ten or twelve dwelling-houses; and in the middle of the town street (or rather market-place) are yet to be seen the ruins of the chapel which formerly stood there; but, as the inhabitants have now a stone quarry close adjoining to it, human bones are frequently dug up there, which, in my opinion, is a kind of profanation of a place that was formerly sacred, no ways decent to be seen in a Christian country. On the south-east part of the town the traces of the Percy seat are yet to be seen, but entirely in ruins. On the north side of the town stands a part of the house wherein Lord Fairfax formerly lived in the time of the Great Rebellion, it being now the property of a very sensible and worthy freeholder called Corner. As for the hermitage, it is situate north-west from Dunsley, near Thordisa Beck, almost surrounded with wood, and now but

*Mr. Charlton died May 16, 1788. See memoir in Literary Illustrations, vol. III. p. 783.

little known.* It is on the south side of the beck, but its vicinity to Mulgrave Castle, which stands on the north side thereof, gained it the appellation of the Hermitage at Mulgrave. From Dunsley we have a fine prospect of Dunsley Bay, but still a much finer prospect thereof from a place called Auldeby, which is about a mile further west up into the country, and adjoins the Horse Croft, on the north-west part of the manor of Dunsley. Here art seems to have been joined to nature to form a place fit for the reception of some branch of the royal family in the days of Edwin the Northumbrian king. Its yet retaining the same name with the palace of that monarch, seems a strong argument in favour of what I now assert; I cannot help thinking Prince Hererick once lived there, and that it was the birth-place of Lady Hylda, being on the utmost extremity of Dunsley manor, not quite a mile distant from the well that yet retains her name, near Swarthow Cross, and no more than five or six miles from that other well which also bears her name in Hilderwell churchyard.

"As for my History,† I have been able to get no intelligence about it since 50 copies thereof were delivered to my bookseller Robinson, in Paternoster Row. I am in doubt whether all the subscribers have been served in and about London, though I wrote to him immediately after I received yours, to acquaint him where each book was to be delivered, and desired him to inform me what he had done; but he never took the least notice of my letter, notwithstanding all his fair promises while the History was publishing, and notwithstanding his being the sole vender thereof in London. I am very sorry I ever had any concern with him, and have now employed a gentleman in London to set matters to rights if he find it practicable.

"In my next I propose sending you an exact copy of one of our old Abbey Rolls, containing a particular account, at the time it was wrote, of all the yearly revenues of our abbey, which I think is a great curiosity. In the meanwhile, with desiring to hear from you when opportunity permits, and wishing you the compliments of the season, I remain, with the most sincere respect, Sir, your obliged humble servant, LIONEL CHARLTON."

* See Charlton's History of Whitby, p. 65; Ord's History of Cleveland, p. 312. The History of Whitby.