see Lord Londonderry, who is married to his cousin, daughter of Earl Camden. Should your Lordship meet him, I think you will be vastly pleased with him; I met him last year by accident at Waterford, just landed, with an intent of taking a tour through Ireland, of which he has seen much more than I ever expect to do, and proposes doing still more; he called on me, and renewed his visit, though too short, last year, since which he has favoured us with his very entertaining correspondence, and has been so kind as to renew lately the pleasure we enjoyed in his company. I have lately parted with him on board his Majesty's ship the Medusa, at Cove, having accompanied him to Mr. Brodrick's, from whence we went to the Bishop of Cloyne's,* in the care of whose amiable family I left him. Though a lawyer, being Chief Justice of part of South Wales, and the Queen's Solicitor General, he has great wit, much taste, and a great deal of poetic reading, and also writes very agreeably.

"I shall be happy at all times to have the pleasure of hearing from your Lordship, and beg you to be assured that I am, with the greatest respect and gratitude, your Lordship's humble servant, VERNEY LOVETT.”

Dublin Castle, October 30, 1793.

The Earl of WESTMORLAND† to Bp. PERCY. "MY LORD, "I received your Lordship's favour, and am very much obliged for your description of the state of your neighbourhood, which, were it not for this unfortunate law question, would be very satisfactory. I shall take every step I can, to have the business arranged in a way that will prevent any check to a manufacture of such importance. I shall be very thankful for a communication from your Lordship of anything further that arises in your neighbourhood: could you tell me what seems the opinion of people of the middling class of the system of volunteering? do you think they have only submitted for a moment, and would take it up again? do they preserve their arms with care, and their uniforms? I beg my acknowledgments on your congratulations on Lady Westmorland's recovery. Your Lordship's very obedient and faithful servant, WESTMORLAND."

* Dr. Richard Woodward. He died in 1794.

† John Fane, tenth Earl of Westmorland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1790 to 1795. He died Dec. 12, 1841, aged 82. See a memoir of him in Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1842, p. 207.

1794.

Bp. PERCY to ISAAC REED,* Esq.

"DEAR SIR, Dublin, April 5, 1794. "Your very obliging attentions to me when I was in England, have induced me to request a favour of you which will much oblige me. It is this that you will get the old volume which accompanies this letter handsomely bound, and then replace it in the Library of Dulwich College, whence it was borrowed by me before the fire which happened in 1780 at Northumberland House, and which consumed a great part of my library in my apartments there. You see it hath suffered; but happily not a leaf is wanting, but what was so when I first borrowed it. In the confusion which that fire occasioned, I gathered up all the fragments and relics of my books into chests, which were never opened till they were sent to Ireland, and then I had the pleasure to find that not a single article or leaf was wanting of the several books lent me out of the Library at Dulwich by my old acquaintance Mr. Swan, then one of the Fellows, and whom I had remembered at Christ Church in Oxford. Of those books Mr. Swan, at my desire, had kept a list, which plainly showed I had never intended to deprive the Library of them, and which, if I had, put it in the power of the College to reclaim them. As it was not till I had opened the chests, and had time to sort and arrange the contents, that I knew these books were saved, so, when I happily found they were so, I carefully laid them by to carry them back and restore them the first time I should return to England. But this being delayed some years longer than I expected, and Mr. Malone coming in the interim to Ireland, was so good as to take charge of all but this old volume, and carry them back with him, having promised me to bestow new bindings upon them all, and replace them for me. Which he would have done for me, with his wonted kindness, but I came myself to London; and, having got all of them which had in the least degree suffered in the bindings properly re-bound, &c. I had the pleasure of restoring every individual article, without the loss of a single leaf, to the Library, when I was last in England, except this one old odd volume, the only volume on the subject which I had from the Library, and which had escaped my atten

* See Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. p. 66.

tion. This I am now happy to return, and I have inclosed 5s. which I will entreat you to bestow in a new binding, and will hereafter repay any expense of a messenger to carry it to Dulwich, unless you should have the goodness to make an excursion there yourself; then I hope you will desire the Rev. Mr. Smith, the Fellow of that College, who received all the books from me, to show you every article of which he has the list, that you may be able to vindicate me, as I am sure you will be inclined to do, from any cruel and injurious insinuations which may have been thrown out upon this subject, and for which there could have been no grounds, but for the unfortunate accident of the fire above mentioned, and its unavoidable consequences, &c. In performing this kind act of friendship for an absent man, you will exceedingly oblige, dear Sir,

"Your faithful and most obedient servant,

"THO. DROmore.

"P.S. My Lord Sunderlin is so good as to convey this parcel to his brother, whom I shall entreat to forward it to you; and I hope you will favour me with a line to inform me when you receive it, and that you are well."

ISAAC REED, Esq. to Bp. PERCY.

"MY LORD, Staple Inn, July 11, 1795. "I received yesterday from the booksellers a copy of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry,' for which I beg leave to return my acknowledgments, and at the same time take the opportunity of apologising for what I am afraid may have been considered a neglect, in executing the commission you last summer entrusted to my care.

"As soon as I received the book I sent it to the binder, and, when it came out of his hands, went to Dulwich to deliver it to the Librarian. It happened at that time to be his vacation; he was absent, and therefore I was obliged to entrust it with the schoolmaster, leaving a note for Mr. Smith to desire he would acknowledge the receipt of it. In October he called upon me, but I was at Cambridge, and we did not see each other until after Christmas. then communicated to him such particulars from your Lordship's letter as related to the book, and was desired by him to assure you that the College were sensible that your conduct towards them had been perfectly honourable, and, whatever insinuations had gone abroad, they both

I

collectively and individually had no hesitation in declaring their disbelief of them. I was then about writing to your Lordship, when an illness came upon me which took off my attention from everything but myself. In February, I was informed by Dr. Farmer that your Lordship was expected soon in London, and therefore I thought it of less importance to write, as I should have an opportunity in so short a time of communicating the steps I had taken in this business.

"The above detail, which I fear your Lordship will consider very tedious, will, I trust, exonerate me from some of the blame, if it does not altogether excuse me from the whole charge of negligence. I have the honour to be,

"Your Lordship's most obedient and very humble servant, ISAAC REED."

Bishop PERCY to Bishop SUTTON.*

"MY LORD, Dublin, April 8, 1794. "I fear your Lordship will have reason to regret your readiness to oblige, when you find what trouble it entails upon you. Your kind acceptance of my nephew, as a candidate for holy orders, has encouraged me to apply again to your Lordship.

"I beg to be informed, when your Lordship will hold your next public Ordination for your diocese; and then, if you will have the goodness to admit among your candidates a young gentleman † whom I hope you will find well qualified, it will exceedingly oblige me. His case, which is rather particular, is briefly this: He is the son of a very worthy clergyman, who was formerly a private tutor at Eton, but is now settled in Ireland. His son has been regularly educated at Trinity College, in Dublin, where he has just taken his Bachelor's degree: but by a private regulation, some time since established here, the Irish Bishops are prevented from conferring orders till the candidates have attended a certain course of lectures in Trinity College. In the interim, his father is not only upon the point of losing his curate in a living at some

*Bishop of Norwich, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. He died July 21st, 1828, aged 73. See a memoir of him Gent. Mag. vol. XCVIII. ii. pp. 173, 194.

Rev. Mr. Sturrock, son of the Rev. William Sturrock. See p. 316.

distance from his own residence, but is also suffering great loss from the mismanagement of his affairs by a bad tithe-proctor; and, if this young gentleman waits the course prescribed by his college, it will be a year and a half longer before he can receive his dismission, although he is of full age for deacon's orders, being at or near 23. In the interim, the delay will be attended with even ruinous effects to his worthy family. As I am prevented by the above-mentioned regulation from ordaining him myself, I cannot but wish to get him admitted a candidate in England, where I shall desire his literary and theological attainments may be submitted to any proper examination; but for his moral character I can be answerable myself, having known him from a child, and being firmly persuaded he will be a valuable acquisition to the clerical profession."

Bishop SUTTON to Bishop PERCY. "MY DEAR Lord, Palace, Aug. 16, 1794. "At the time I received your Lordship's letter, and from that period to this, I was and have been overwhelmed with public business, and private distress. My Visitation (a circuit of six weeks' continuance) prevented me holding a public Ordination at the usual time. I shall hold one on the 21st of next month; and shall very readily admit Mr. Sturrock, under your Lordship's recommendation, as a candidate for deacon's orders. Mr. Sturrock will make his appearance at Norwich on the Wednesday preceding the day of Ordination. A very short statement of facts will, I am persuaded, be sufficient to apologise for any apparent neglect of your Lordship's application.

"It was necessary that the time should be fixed for Ordination before your Lordship's letter could be answered to any good purpose. The arrangements of a primary Visitation are numerous; and the duties of it sufficiently anxious. As the time approached I could think of nothing else; and, on the threshold of the business, I sustained a shock by a severe loss in my family, from the effects of which I am scarcely at this hour recovered. The time of Ordination is only just fixed.

"I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, your faithful, humble servant. C. NORWICH."