your Lordship. If so, you will let me know, that I may replace it. I now send you, and I shall hope with better success, the Country Curate's answer. I am told Herbert Croft is going to publish Rowley's poems, clothed in a modern dress, and, having declined to write Chatterton's Life for the Biographia Britannica, Kippis has himself undertaken it.

"In a Life of Christian Countess of Devonshire it is said that the Countess of Carlisle was imprisoned in the Tower during the Interregnum. Was this the famous Lady Lucy Percy? if so she must have changed sides and repented of having betrayed the King. Did you ever meet with any account of this event?

"I am, with best respects to your ladies, my dear Lord, yours very truly, "M. LORT.

"The Bishop of Dromore, Carlisle."

"MY DEAR LORD,

Saville Row, August 7th, 1783. "I am quite ashamed at seeing the date of your last, and not having sooner written to welcome your arrival and the ladies, I hope very safely, in your diocese. But I have been making some little excursions from home, and to-morrow my wife and I set out on a longer one, even to France and Flanders. How far or how long we shall make it, is not at present determined, and will probably depend more on the strength of our purse than our inclination.

"Here is a dead vacation at present, and little news for me to send you. Dr. Johnson is recovered, and gone to Mr. Langton's at Rochester.* Before he went he sat to Opie, the famous self-taught Cornish painter, for his picture, and who I am told has given a just but no flattering likeness of the Doctor.† I was about to inclose a curious pamphlet of Lord George Gordon's, containing an account of his three conferences with the King before the riots; but, upon looking again at your letter, you do not tell me that packets will go free to you, and I have no friend here at present to apply to, to frank for me.

I

"I have been 13 days at Rochester, and am now just returned. came back by water, in a common boat, 20 miles for a shilling; and when I landed at Billingsgate I carried my budget myself to Cornhill before I could get a coach, and was not much incommoded."-Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 23 July, 1783.

Mr. Boswell says that in 1784 Dr. Johnson resumed sitting to Opie for his picture, but believes it was never finished.

"A project has been sent over here from some of the Church of England Clergy in America, to have a bishopric created in Nova Scotia, and a bishop there to ordain for that Church. But this cannot be done consistently with the present Act of Parliament, and Forms of Ordination, in which the oaths to our King must be taken. So some of the New States talk of applying to and employing a Moravian Bishop. But in truth it should seem, from the last accounts from Philadelphia, that the military will turn the Congress adrift, as Oliver and his soldiers did the Rump Parliament.

"Your Lordship's ever faithful,

"The Lord Bishop of Dromore, at Segoe, near Lough Brickland, North of Ireland."

M. LORT.

"MY DEAR LORD,

Saville Row, Feb. 14, 1784.

"I really doubted whether my last letter had got safe. I can scarce send you any political news to be depended on; perhaps nobody can tell what the state of this country will be this day fortnight; those who really wish well to it want a coalition of parties, which there seems little reason at present to think will take place.

"Our poor President of the Antiquaries died yesterday,* though he had thought himself so well recovered from a dangerous illness that I received a card of thanks for inquiries about a week ago. Who will take the trouble of succeeding him as President I cannot yet say; such an opposition has been stirred up to the President of the Royal Society by some turbulent spirits, that I doubt whether he will choose to fill the chair another year. Dr. Horsley has set himself at the head of this opposition, which seems to be very ill founded, and to arise merely from that levelling spirit and impatience of all government which infects the present age. Your Lordship's ever faithful, "M. LORT.

"The Lord Bishop of Dromore, at Segoe, near

Lough Brickland, North of Ireland."

*The Rev. Dr. Milles, Dean of Exeter. See Literary Anecdotes, VII. 266, 629.

+ Sir Joseph Banks. Horsley's objection was to the Chair of the Royal Society being filled by a Baronet and Amateur. See Lord Brougham's Life of Sir J. Banks for information on this subject.

"MY DEAR LORD, Saville Row, Feb. 24, 1784. "In consequence of the death of the poor Dean of Exeter, the Council of the Antiquarian Society met on Saturday, and elected Mr. King President, pro tempore, till St. George's Day, when it is expected that Lord De Ferrars* will do us the honour to preside over us. At the same time that we elected Mr. King, it was proposed to appoint a coadjutor to Dr. Morell, or rather to Mr. Norris,† who is to read all the papers presented to the Society. At that time we did not know that poor Morell lay dead at Turnham Green. So now I hope our Society will go on with better auspices

Novus rerum jam nascitur ordo.

But I hope our reformation will proceed more quietly than that attempted in our Sister Society, where every fortnight a set of orators get up and fatigue themselves, and much the greater part of the Society, with virulent and illiberal charges against the President. Horsley, Maskelyne, Maty, Maseres, and Poore§ are the leaders of this band, who are joined by all those turbulent spirits that are impatient of all government and subordination, which is indeed the great evil and disease of the times. I believe I have prolonged and increased my complaints by going out twice to vote against these innovators, who kept the society talking and disputing and balloting till near eleven and twelve o'clock, though they have been baffled in almost every question by near three to one. I will say nothing of politics; our newspapers contain scarce anything else.

"Poor Dr. Johnson has had a very bad winter, attended by Heberden and Brocklesby, who neither of them expected he would have survived the frost; that being gone, he still remains, and I hope will now continue, at least till the next severe one. It has indeed carried off a great many old people. At the beginning of the winter, Johnson instituted a weekly sixpenny club at a porter-house in

* Lord De Ferrars was elected President S. A. April 23, 1784, and in the following May was created Earl of Leicester. He succeeded his father as 2d Marquess Townshend in 1807, and died in 1811.

Mr. Norris retired from the Secretaryship in 1790, and died Dec. 1792. See Lit. Anecdotes, VI. 127; VII. 294, 639.

See an

Rev. Thomas Morell, D.D. died Feb. 18, 1784, aged 82. account of him in Harwood's "Alumni Etonenses," and Gent. Mag. for 1797, p. 1088. Also notices of him in Lit. Anecdotes, VII. 274, 632.

§ Edward Poore, esq. an intimate friend of Bishop Horsley, and a member of the Essex Head Club,

Essex-street,* kept by an old servant of Mr. Thrale. I believe he has never been there since the first night. Your Literary Club has, I hear, been also involved in squabbles concerning an air balloon-who should be employed by them to make one. Sir William Hamilton is elected a member. He has brought over a very small vase from Rome, with figures in relief on it, that he says cost him 1000l. It has been long in the possession of the Barberini family, and is described by Bartoli in the Ædes Barberinæ, and in Wright's Travels. Herbert Croft is preparing an edition of all Chatterton's works,-all his political and obscene ribaldry.

"I shall wrap up and inclose a little more powder in some of Dean Tucker's queries, signed Cassandra. "Your Lordship's ever faithful,

"The Lord Bishop of Dromore, at Segoe, near Lough Brickland, North of Ireland."

દ

"MY DEAR LORD,

M. LORT.

Saville Row, Feb. 28, 1784.

Having by the last post sent your Lorship a long letter, little remains for me to say in this. A surprising alteration of the weather has taken place, which has relieved me and many other invalids, and enabled me to be present at a stout battle at the Royal Society on Thursday last, which lasted till past eleven o'clock, when the insurgents received a complete defeat on a question aimed at the President, 115 to 27.

"Mr. Preston,† who goes to Ireland as Private Secretary to the Duke of Rutland, was a fellow of our college, and a particular friend of mine. He is a travelled man, and you will find him very agreeable and well-informed.

"Your Lordship's ever faithful,

M. LORT. "P.S. The King was received last night at the Oratorio *Of this Club, see Boswell's Life of Johnson, and Literary Anecdotes, II. 553.

† Wm. Preston, D.D. was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, (of which at one time it was thought he would have been master,) B.A., 1753, M.A. 1756. He was chaplain to Dr. Yonge, Bishop of Norwich, whom he left to attend Lord Stormont at Vienna, in the same capacity. Then he went to Naples for his health, where, in the absence of Sir W. Hamilton, he acted as Chargé des Affaires, and had a pension in consequence thereof. He went to Ireland as Private Secretary to the Duke of Rutland, in 1784, and was appointed Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, in 1785. His illness was so severe and unabating for the last 12 months that it was asserted the fees to his physician swallowed up all his income. He left legacies to the Duchess of Rutland, Mr. Thorston, and Mr. Tydd, at whose house in Clare Street, Dublin, he died in the spring of 1789. See Gent. Mag. LIX. 372.

with uncommon bursts of applause. Cherries bought by the Grocers' Company to-day for 2s. 6d. a piece, to treat Mr. Billy Pitt, on a supposition that he will be more willing to reform the constitution than Fox and North. The Dissenters, Republicans, and Reformers have espoused his party, and stood up for the Prerogative.

"The Lord Bishop of Dromore, at Segoe, near

Lough Brickland, North of Ireland."

"MY DEAR LORD,

Saville Row, March 26, 1784.

"The privilege of franking here has just now ceased, more to the mortification than to the astonishment of the greater part of the House of Commons. The tide of popularity running now strong for the new Minister, he has seized the favourable moment of appealing to the people at large, and it is thought will gain a majority, but whether strong enough to carry on business cannot yet be guessed at.

"Your great Irish orator will, I suppose, be hardly chosen again for Winchester. It is said that the Duke of Chandos has been as much disappointed in him as the Earl of Plymouth was in the purchase of Punch. I hope he will not carry his reformation plan in your Parliament.

"You can easily guess what a noise the loss of the great sealt made here two days ago. Happening at such a juncture has given a handle to foolish party zealots to suspect it was stolen for some political purpose, which is impossible? But I believe it was never kept so carelessly before. The loss is said to have been supplied by a plaster of Paris cast, taken from a fair impression.

"The Prince of Wales has been very ill, even in much danger, and only saved by bleeding and blistering, which it is hoped will make him more cautious of eating and drinking for the future. Sir John Eliot§ told the Queen that he had been preaching as much to the prince against intemperance as any bishop could have done. The Queen replied, And probably with like success.'

"I have a MS. anecdote of your predecessor, Jeremy

* Mr. Pitt.

† Richard Gamon, jun. esq. brother-in-law of the Duke of Chandos. The Great Seal was stolen from Lord Thurlow's house in Great Ormond Street, and the thief was never discovered. A new Seal was made, and delivered to the Chancellor by his Majesty, March 25, 1784. See Gent. Mag. LIV. 378, 230.

§ Sir John Eliot, Bart. M.D. was Physician to the Prince of Wales.