the public feels universally that the elegant taste, sound judgment, and successful research displayed in that publication are such as must do credit to the compiler and editor throughout life, in whatever situation he may be placed. Though Bishop Percy be mentioned as editor, it is by a prolapsis always used, giving to him, in that character, the title which he afterwards acquired. But surely there is nothing for a Bishop to repent of in these volumes. Though I feel all this, I will take care in future to attend to your wishes implicitly on the subject.

"It gives me very great pleasure that you think the article on Dr. Caulfield judicious; I felt it was a difficult point to handle, without producing new irritation, and therefore should have been longer silent had I not been particularly urged.

"I will not add unnecessarily to the length of this, having said the other things that I wished to say in the letter, which ere this you will have received. Mrs. Nares unites in best compliments to yourself and Mrs. Percy, with, my Lord, your much obliged and faithful servant, "ROBERT NARES."

British Museum, Nov. 12, 1802.

"MY LORD, "I hasten to acknowledge the receipt of your two last kind letters, and particularly to thank you for the philosophical communication† contained in the second, to which due attention shall undoubtedly be paid, when we are to make our report upon that part of the Philosophical Transactions. At the sister Society of Antiquaries we are very busy about the famous stone from Egypt, containing three inscriptions, the first in hieroglyphic character, the second in Coptic, the third in Greek. The Greek has, of course, been copied, read, and translated, and as it states that they were all three intended to convey the same intelligence, the greatest hopes are entertained that it will prove the key to the two other characters. Heyne has written on the Greek, and it is said that Dr. Saeg has read the Coptic by it, but this is not yet certain.

"Having told you this literary news, if it should be such to you, permit me to remind you of a matter which respects myself only. In one of my last letters I stated to you the information I had received from Mr. Clapham, sen. respecting the pension demanded for poor Easton; and I begged of you to say whether his report recalled the transaction, or any of its adjuncts to your mind. His *See before, p. 597. † See hereafter, p. 603.

account is this-that in 1780, a pension of 13s. 4d. per annum was demanded, and paid at the visitation for the three years last elapsed. But that in 1783, (probably the next visitation), the demand was not only not repeated but the former payment refunded by him by the bishop's order. When I was at Ecton I again searched the rental with this clue to guide me, but there is no memorandum of yours on the subject. It appears then that I succeeded your Lordship in 1783, but probably after the visitation. I have written to the Bishop of Peterborough the above account of Mr. Clapham's information, but it would be a material point if his report could be at all confirmed by your recollections. I think, however, he has written documents to ascertain it, if the bishop should not otherwise be satisfied. The demand probably referred in justice to some other Easton.

"I forwarded your letter to Mrs. West, and intended to have added a cover, under the sanction of Mr. Hammond, with something from myself, as I have now the pleasure of her acquaintance, but it happened that accident prevented me, and your letter went without the accompaniment. We were so fortunate as just to meet Mrs. West at the time when we passed three days at Ecton in our return from Lichfield. She arrived there the day we did, and went to Northampton with us when we left it. I was much pleased with this circumstance. Her unaffected modesty is as remarkable as her talents, and she is in all respects a most valuable woman. Isted was not quite well when we were there, and I hear him still reported an invalid; but as it is only report, I hope that it is either exaggerated or wholly without foundation. Mrs. Nares unites in best regards to Mrs. Percy and yourself, with, my Lord, your most faithful and obliged servant, "ROBERT NARES.

"The eldest son of Jos. Warton is about to publish Dryden' from his father's materials. He has in contemplation also, to publish a selection from the correspondence of his father and uncle with various men of learning and talents."

"MY LORD,

Brighton, April, 1803. "After a silence, so long that I am justly ashamed of it, I write to you from a place which recalls the recollection of meeting you about three years ago. Mrs. Nares and

* He published Dryden's Poems in 4 vols. 8vo. with a few of his father's

notes.

I have taken advantage of the Easter holidays to revisit this place, and catch some of the reviving breezes of the sea: the same interval enables me to undertake the clearing a few of those arrears of correspondence which in winter more particularly accumulate; because the days are much shorter, and the tasks to be performed in them nearly the same. In summer I work for the Review before breakfast, and write letters after. In winter there is nothing before breakfast, but the necessary preparation for appearing at it; so letters are apt to be postponed. I believe I have not written to you since the Bishop of Peterborough in the fullest manner retracted his claim of pension upon poor Easton; in which matter I am certainly indebted in part to what you permitted me to say in your name. The fortunate recollection of Mr. Clapham, that the pension was once demanded of you, and formally refunded three years after, concluded the whole matter, and put it finally out of doubt. We called at Ecton, in our last journey from Lichfield, and there had the pleasure of meeting the ingenious and unassuming Mrs. West; whose acquaintance we were heartily glad to cultivate. We passed about four days there together. I have been a little in hope that you might possibly send me an account for the British Critic of her Infidel Father,' but as no such aid arrived, I have just written one myself, which is sent to the printer. I have given it the dignity of standing among the principal articles, for the sake of the author; and I think have so characterised it as will induce many to wish for further acquaintance with it.* I have dwelt chiefly on the serious parts, which are preeminently the best; and have praised the design and execution, not lavishly, but firmly; and not in generalities, but with specific instances. I hope the account will meet your approbation; since my regard for the author was originally derived in part from yours. I find that Ritson, who is most unequivocally mad, has again treated you with impudent scurrility. If there are any particular things that you wish said in return, you will be so good as to communicate them to me. An article from you, on the subject of his Metrical Romances, would be very acceptable to me, if you did not think yourself too much offended to meddle with him at all. To ridicule he lays himself extremely open, by his most absurd mode of spelling, which certainly shall not pass unobserved in the British Critic. "I hope you read, and did not object to, the article on * See British Critic for April, 1803, p. 406.

Goldsmith's Works.* I very carefully abstained from saying anything that might bring you into any question.

6

Mr. Leyden,† (now Dr.) who published The Complaynt of Scotland,' has lately sailed for the East Indies. He had actually engaged to go in the ship that was lost two months ago, (the Hindostan,) but fortunately changed his mind. Mr. Walter Scott, editor of the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' is now in London; but I missed seeing him in consequence of my journey hither. The spirit of research into our early poetry, which your Reliques so strongly encouraged, is now very active, and almost daily produces some accession to that branch of literature. G. Ellist will produce something more ere long; and whatever he does will, of course, bear the stamp of taste and genius. Mr. Gifford,§ the translator of Juvenal, is employed on an edition of Massinger. As no person is more likely than you are to be able to give some important aid to such a work, I have great pleasure in mentioning it to you. What he does himself, will be done with care and sagacity; but any hints from you will have great value, and it would much delight me to be the conveyer of them. Malone has furnished him with an unpublished play of the author. We have one or two about that date, in the Harleian Collection, but not ascertained to be his.

"We shall stay here only a few days more; so that a letter, which I hope to receive much sooner than I seem to deserve, will find me at the British Museum. I am, my Lord, with Mrs. N's. regard and my own to you and Mrs. Percy,

"Your obedient and obliged servant, &c. "ROBERT NARES."

*See British Critic for Sept. 1802, p. 295.

+ Dr. Leyden died at Cornelis, in Batavia, in 1811. His acquisition of languages was wonderful. Lord Minto used to say, "He had the gift of Tongues." Besides being an eminent classical scholar, he was master of the languages of the East, and had a strong natural genius for poetry. He was the intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott.

George Ellis, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A. died April 10, 1815, aged 70. Perhaps no man of his time better united the character of a gentleman and a man of letters. In 1790, he published his "Specimens of our Early Poetry," which, with an enlarged Edition in 1801, and the "Specimens of our Early Romances," formed an important contribution towards that growing study of our ancient literature which has breathed a youthful spirit into English poetry. These works justly gave him the titles of the Tressan, and St. Palaye, of England. He was one of the writers in "The Rolliad," "Probationary Odes," &c.; also in "The Anti-Jacobin." See a good memoir of him in Gent. Mag. for April, 1815, p. 371. He printed anonymously an account of the Dutch Revolution, 1769; also a small volume of Poems, without his name, 1778, 12mo.

§ Of Mr. Gifford see a memoir in Lit. Illustrations, vol. VI. p. 1.

“MY LORD, Lichfield, Sept. 9, 1803. "I am an interrupted and uncertain correspondent, but not a forgetful or an ungrateful one; for I often think of writing to you when I do not carry it into effect, and always feel myself greatly obliged by the friendly kindness of your letters. Your last, in which you speak of representing the case of poor Easton to Lord Northampton when you shall next visit England, is so particularly obliging that I cannot sufficiently express my thanks, though I did not want that motive for regretting the delay of your journey, which is but too likely to arise from the uneasy circumstances of the times. These circumstances add much to my desire of hearing from you, as it is impossible for your friends not to be anxious to know in what state your neighbourhood is in the present alarm.

"I have looked occasionally into Mr. Ritson on Metrical Romances, and find him indeed infamously abusive towards you. I wish much to hear from you what you think it best to do with him. If you leave him to my care, you may depend upon his receiving a very sound castigation; but you perhaps will wish to take him in hand yourself, in which case I shall be extremely happy to receive your communications upon the subject, which, besides answering him, will secure a good critique upon the book. I must attack him with ridicule for the strange absurdities of his spelling, and think of beginning the article with a view of them.

"In our last number was an account of that part of the Philosophical Transactions* which contains the analysis of the stones which fell from the sky; but I did not at first think of subjoining your remarks from the Gentleman's Magazinet with which you favoured me some time ago; and when I did (though I had them with me for the purpose), I could not contrive to introduce them at this distance from the press. I could not trust the printer without a revise, which could not here be had. The remarks would have made an excellent note on that part of the review; and the quoting the Gentleman's Magazine,

* Philosophical Transactions for 1802, art. VII. See British Critic for Aug. 1803, p. 144.

†This alludes to a communication from Bp. Percy to the Gentleman's Mag. in 1797, p. 179, which relates to the subjects of the Fall of Stones from the Clouds, the Cuckoo, &c.-See the preceding Letter of Mr. Nares to Bp. Percy, Nov. 12, 1802, in p. 599.