face to a complete publication of Lord Hailes's works; in which I suspect he will find difficulties not easily to be overcome :-an uncommon scarcity of dates is one, and the even and retired tenor of Lord Hailes's life is another; which gives little to say, but what his own works will say for him.

"Your Lordship mentions to Dr. Anderson your wish to make some compensation for the answer to your request, which indeed has been complied with in so tardy and ungraceful a manner, that I think it deserves none. In answer to a former request of mine, for any of Lord Hailes's letters you might have by you, I recollect that you said a great many of them had been lost in the fire in Northumberland House, but you was so good as to say, that if any still remain you would transmit them; if that can be done, it will be esteemed a favour by your Lordship's humble servant, HELEN DALRYMPLE."

Sir WM. FORBES* to Bishop PERCY. "MY LORD, Edinburgh, Nov. 23, 1803. Although a good many years have elapsed since I have had the honour of meeting your Lordship (I think the last time was at Tunbridge Wells), I hope I have not altogether slipt out of your remembrance. I therefore presume to intrude myself on your Lordship's recollection, for the purpose of requesting the following favour.

"Perhaps your Lordship may have heard of the death of Dr. Beattie, who with many valuable good qualities possessed no ordinary genius, both as a poet and philosopher. Having done me the honour to appoint me one of his executors, I have felt a duty imposed on me to pay attention to his posthumous fame; with which view, a new and uniform edition of his works in prose and verse is to be published, and I have been induced, from some peculiar circumstances, to undertake to write his Life; for which I have some advantages, from the intimate friendship and constant correspondence that subsisted between us, for almost forty years.

"With this view, besides the papers and letters that were in his own possession, and which are now in my hands as his executor, I am collecting such of his letters

This distinguished man was a member of the celebrated Literary Club with Dr. Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, and Bp. Percy. His Life of his friend Dr. Beattie (noticed in the above letter) gained him great credit. He died Nov. 10, 1806. See an account of him in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXVI. p. 1249.

as have been preserved by those friends with whom he corresponded. As I know Dr. Beattie was honoured with your Lordship's acquaintance, I think it probable he may have occasionally written to you; as he says in the Preface to his Minstrel,' that he took the first hint of that beautiful poem from your Lordship's valuable publication of Antient Ballads.*

"If you have received any of Dr. Beattie's letters, I shall be singularly obliged to you if you will have the goodness to send them to me, as they may very materially tend to elucidate some parts of his life and writings. I hope your Lordship will have the goodness to pardon the liberty I now take, from the consideration of my wish. of doing all the justice in my power to the arduous task I have undertaken.

"I remain, with much respect, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient servant, "WILLIAM FORBES."

THOMAS PARK,† Esq. to Вp. PERCY.

High Street, Marybonne,
November 5, 1803.

"MY LORD, "I have the pleasure of transmitting to your Lordship a transcript of what may be deemed blank verse, from Shelton's translation of Don Quixote in 1652. The book is not in my possession, or the transcript should sooner have been made; but I happened to meet with a copy of it yesterday in the library of a friend, and seized the immediate occasion of transferring the verses to paper. Should any others occur in the same volume, on a more deliberate inspection, they shall be duly communicated.

"Your Lordship will perceive, from the last Gentleman's Magazine, that the literary calumniator of his time is at rest with his forefathers: Peace to his perturbed spirit!' From his Bibliographia Poetica' your Lordship will also perceive that I took an active share in the completion of that work. Uncongenial as were the compiler and myself in our sentiments and habits, in our principles and practice,-in our pursuits we sometimes approximated: and after a casual interview at the house of Francis Douce, Esq. in Gower Street, I was solicited by the Bibliographer to look over and freely to correct his MS. This I did twice, and contributed so much to the accuracy and to the enlargement of it, that he declared he should consider

This is omitted in the Preface to the later editions.-J. M. † Of Mr. T. Park, see Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. pp. 95, 183.

half his share of any eventual profits which might accrue from the publication, as mine. After this voluntary declaration, however, he never sent me a single printed copy of the work; and I am solely indebted to his bookseller for such a mark of attention. Persevering in my endeavours to aid his similar pursuits, I looked with the same critical eye over his Bibliotheca Scotica;' and the recompense for all my labour was-a charge, angry as unfounded, that I had made a knavish alteration in the interlineation of a title-page!! Here closed the account current of our literary intercourse; and I since learn that the morbid temperament of his mind daily increased, till it terminated in delirium !—a close, however melancholy and pitiable, which has formed the only apology that could be suggested for a life passed in self-created enmity with all mankind. I ought to apologize perhaps to your Lordship for introducing so much on such an ungracious subject, but I was willing that the nature of the literary association between the late Hypercritic and myself should be clearly understood.

"With many thanks for the information respecting Dr. Anderson, I remain, my Lord, your Lordship's respectful humble servant, "THO. PARK."

"MY LORD,

January 21, 1804.

"In consequence of having removed from High Street to No. 11, Durweston Street, Portman Square, your Lordship's late letter did not reach me so soon as it ought to have done, and was very near not reaching me at all; which I should have seriously regretted, as it contains such flattering testimonies of kindness and good-will. I feel myself particularly obliged by the proffer of copies from your Lordship's valuable collection of metrical romances, for the purpose of completing Ritson's series; but, while I thankfully acknowledge the favour, I must hesitate to avail myself of it, for two very cogent reasons. One is, that I think Ritson's plan injudicious, and his execution of it repulsive; whence his book is likely to prove unsaleable. The other is, that my highly-esteemed and respected friend, Mr. George Ellis,* is preparing for publication a general analysis of early English metrical romances, intermingled with extracts from the ancient copies, which are curious for the illustration of manners, metre, or language, and which will certainly prove, like

* Of George Ellis, see Literary Illustrations, vol. VII. p. 602.

his Specimens of our lyric poesy, a popular book. I shall have no hesitation, however, in contributing to aid your Lordship's future plans on the subjects of Surrey and blank verse; and I shall have pleasure in adding to the latter, a copy of Queen Elizabeth's translation from one of the choruses in the Hercules Etæus of Seneca, which has been transcribed for my projected edition of Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors,' by Richard Heber,* esq. of Brazenose College, Oxford. From this gentleman, all that I have heard of Ritson's waning life was gathered: the most striking circumstance in which occurred on a visit to Gray's Inn, two days after delirium commenced. Ritson seemed to notice and to recollect him, but desired to waive much conversation at that time, as he was busily engaged in constructing a mansion for his future residence, the plan of which was then lying before him. Mr. Heber had the curiosity to look at what he called the plan :—and, lo! it was the view of Crazy Castle, prefixed to Hall's 'Crazy Tales.' His MSS. were not all destroyed by conflagration, though some of them appear to have perished, and among those, what Mr. Ellis much regrets, his minute investigations into our early national history. His notes on the edition of Shakspeare, published in 1793, which had been fairly written out at the desire of Mr. Steevens, but which he would not communicate to Mr. Reed, sold for one hundred guineas to Longman and Rees, who doubtless intend to print the whole: Mr. Steevens would probably have inserted only half.

"I do not hear any rumour that Mr. Astle's MSS.† are designed for public sale, but, should I do so, your Lordship may rely on being apprised of such report by "Your much obliged servant,

1804.

THO. PARK."

MICHAEL WODHULL, Esq. to Bp. PERCY.

"MY LORD,

Thenford, near Banbury,
September, 1804.

"For the last three years I have been much occupied in examining various errors in the volume of Poems your

*This very eminent Bibliomaniac, the Atticus of Dr. Dibdin, died Oct. 4, 1834, aged 61. See a memoir of him in Gent. Mag. N. S. vol. I. pp. 105, 196. And of the sale of his enormous collection of books, ibid. 62, 196; vol. III. 79, 195; V. 78, 112. Also, see Dibdin's Reminiscences, pp. 431-447. + Mr. Astle's MSS. are deposited in the Duke of Buckingham's Library at Stowe. See also Anecdotes, III. 203.

Michael Wodhull was a gentleman of large fortune, great benevolence, and extensive learning. He died Nov. 10, 1816; and a very full and just

Lordship did me the honour of accepting in 1772, not forgetting the additions I had made to it in 1798. Speaking of Dr. Darwin, I alluded to the fair prospect which dawned on Ireland soon after 1782, when he wrote, being clouded over at the distance of sixteen years; but on this being thought offensive, I was glad to remove it, as instead of conveying any compliment it tended to derogate from the Doctor's claim to the title of Vates' in its extended sense. Mr. Archdeacon Daubeny's calling what I have said of Scotch Nonjurors an untruth,' and refusing to retract the charge, would have given me the greatest uneasiness, had not the Act of Parliament, on being referred to, declared that their Letters of Orders shall not be deemed sufficient to be registered, and shall be (though registered) void to all intents.'

"An attentive revisal of this volume has been an agreeable occupation to me, under an infirm state of health; if any part of it can afford your Lordship the smallest amusement, I shall think myself highly gratified. I am, with great regard, my Lord,

"Your Lordship's most obedient servant,

"M. WODHULL."

1805.

Bp. PORTEUS to Bp. PERCY.

"MY LORD, London, January 23, 1805. "I had the honour of your Lordship's of January 15, with one inclosed for Bishop Skinner, which I forwarded to him. "I am very sorry that the complaint in your eyes increases, and prevents you from publishing your thoughts on the argument which you think arises in favour of the Mosaic account of the common origin of Man, from that very curious variety of the human species, the porcupine man and his descendants. When I leave this busy town, and the endless occupations in which it involves me, and retire again to Fulham, I hope in the spring, I shall be very glad to see the materials you have collected, which I shall then probably have leisure to peruse with care. But I should be still more gratified to see them in print, digested by some learned friend of yours under your account of him will be found in the Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXVI. ii. pp. 463, 564. The character of Orlando in Dr. Dibdin's Bibliomania has been attributed to Mr. Wodhull (see it in Gent. Mag. 1816, ii. 464). He was a frequent correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, chiefly under the finial letters of his name, L.L. See notices of him in Literary Anecdotes, III. 128; VII. 474, 715; and Baker's Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 711.