I do not think that I shall visit Donington, as I intended, soon enough for the time you mentioned about your History. But, if you still think that I can be at all useful for that or any thing else, I beg you will always command, my dear Sir, your very faithful friend, HERBERT CROFT. "P. S. July 28. This I did not send, thinking I might still go; but I shall not. Pray send me, by the Prittlewell Coach, your edition of Swift in boards. "The best friendly wishes possible." 13. "Amiens, August 14, 1910. "The Right Honourable Lady Mary Hamilton sends to Mr. Nichols, Printer, of London, a French work of hers, about the translation and profits of which (on the recommendation of the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft, Bart.) she trusts to him. His old friend Sir Herbert Croft trusts equally to him, about the publication of this work of his upon Horace; and Lady Mary is ready to enter into any proper agreement about a re-publication of her English worke, mentioned in a notice before this French one, of all which Sir Herbert Croft would revise the new editions. "Sir Herbert Croft's best wishes to all Mr. Nichols's family." 15. "Paris, Rue du Regard, No. 15, Oct. 21, 1814. "MY DEAR OLD FRIEND, "May this find you and all your family prospering, as I sincerely wish! I send you two copies of two publications of mine, one for you, and one for any bookseller, in case you are able to procure some trifle for me, for re-printing the English, or publishing a translation of the French. "Do me one service, as I want it to translate here. Procure me a complete edition of Love and Madness,' with Chatterton's Letters, and my 'Postscript to the memory of Johnson.' My friends have sent me two different editions, and both abridged, I suppose to save paper. Kearsley's last edition would no doubt be complete. This will oblige me very much, and Thorpe, the messenger who brings this, will let you know how you can send me the copy. If you have the one I gave you at the time, I will carefully return it. "I have seen, with much pleasure, your re-publications from the Gentleman's Magazine. That is the account of them, for I have not met with any of the volumes. Pray assure all your family that I am, and always will be, "Their and your sincere friend, HERBERT CROFT." Paris, Rue du Regard, No. 15, Oct. 31, 1814. 14. "MON CHER ET ANCIEN AMI, Ayant un peu la goûte, j'emprunte la main d'un ami Sécrétaire que j'ai eu le bonheur de rencontrer. Je vous ai envoyé, il y a quelques jours, par le courier du Duc de Wellington un pa- "10. D'envoyer à la grande-poste demander une lettre à mon "2°. Un Anglais assez instruit, m'a assuré qu'un de nos compatriotes (je crois Whitaker) a publié dernièrement un ouvrage sur les consonances, ce que nous appellons en Anglais alliterations, appuyant son systême sur les oeuvres de Shakspeare. Comme j'ai suivi pendant plus de trente années une découverte que je prétends avoir faite là-dessus, son ouvrage m'est de la plus grande importance, et je vous prie très instamment de la joindre au paquet que vous m'enverrez. Le courier, j'en suis persuadé, ne fera pas difficulté de s'en charger. "De mon côté, mon ami, je serai charmé de vous être utile "Le Chevalier HERBERT CROFT." 16. "Paris, Rue du Regard, No. 15, le 21 Decembre, 1814. "" MONSIEUR, Et Ami, "Si vous n'avez pas reçu la lettre, que je vous ai envoyée par un courier du Duc de Wellington, je vous demande pardon de ce que je vais vous dire. Mais en ce cas vous avez en assez de tems ou pour faire ma commission, ou pour me répondre que vous ne voudriez par la faire, et je crois que l'imprimeur du G. M. doit condescendre à répondre à un ami qui n'a jamais manqué une occasion de lui montrer son amitié, quoiqu'il ait eu une fois occasion de s'en plaindre. Je demande donc de votre politesse de me procurer l'exemplaire de mon ouvrage que je vous ai demandé, et de l'envoyer chez MM. Dobie et Thomas, Crane Court, qui vous payeront le prix, et les posts de mes lettres. J'imagine que vous feriez autant pour un imprimeur de Paris. 17. "Paris, Rue du Regard, No. 15, Jan. 11, 1815. MY DEAR OLD Friend, "You will easily imagine that I knew nothing of the ills which your letter of December 30 communicates. Your friends and your relations knew them before I did, but I do not think that many of them felt more concern, my poor, worthy friend, than I did, on reading your letter. As to Whitaker's Alliterations of Shakspeare, or some such title (but I am sure of the subject and the name), I can only say, that a literary man, to whom I spoke of my intended Work, lately told me, there was such a book published not long ago." As to Love and Madness,' I only wish for a copy which is not curtailed, and finishes, consequently, with the P. S. to the memory of Johnson; as it has been translated in France from a curtailed edition. I should suppose your son (to whom my best wishes) might easily render me this little service. I will take care not to forget the Swift; and I am, with all my usual regard for you, with my best wishes at this and at every season, and with much truth, my dear Sir, your very faithful friend, "HERBERT CROFT." The Rev. THOMAS FORD, D. C. L. was a native of Bristol; a Student of Christ Church College, Oxford; M. A. 1765; and D. C. L. 1770. When a young man, he was patronized by Archbishop Secker, and at the Archbishop's death was living in his Grace's family. In 1773 he was presented, by Richard Earl Howe, to the Vicarage of Melton-Mowbray in Leicestershire, a very extensive Parish, having within its limits the four Chapelries of Burton Lazars, Freathby, Sysonby, and Welby, and the separate hamlet of Eye Kettleby. The attention of this worthy Divine to the embellishment of his Church was worthy of high commendation. In the decorous preservation of that large and beautiful fabric, he was nice in the extreme. The uncommon cleanliness with which it was kept, and the scrupulous attention that not one pane of glass in its numerous windows should remain a single day unrepaired, will long be recollected to his cre dit. With that truly venerable building he was indeed actually enamoured; and that it deserved his care, will be evident by an inspection of the fine print of it, drawn and engraved by Basire in 1794, and contributed by Dr. Ford to the " History of Leicestershire." In that extensive and very laborious work, it is recorded, that "under his direction it was perfectly repaired, and now exhibits a grand and beautiful appearance, without any deviation from the original style of Architecture; it is kept in perfect neatness, simplex munditiis, if such a classical expression be allowable. In 1802, two treble bells were added to make the peal eight; a new set of chimes, and a most excellent clock, raised by subscription; all made by Mr. John Briant, bell-founder at Hertford, and which do him great credit. On the first bell is inscribed, 'Gloria Deo in excelsis. Sacrâ campanas octo exaudimus in arce "He also embellished the windows of his church with very beautiful painted glass, collected from an alms-house, and from various parts of his church, and from his chapels at Freathby and Welby. In seven pannels in the Consistory he placed the King's arms with those of the Archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, the Diocese, the two Universities, Leicester, and Melton-Mowbray; all very neatly executed.” Nor was the good Doctor's exertions confined to the ornamenting of his church. He never failed whilst in health, conscientiously to perform the sacred duties of his clerical functions in Melton Church twice every Sunday; and on the same day, once at three of the several chapelries appendant to his vicarage. He had also a very high sense of Church Authority, and regularly looked forward to an Episcopal Visitation as a matter of rejoicing. His Vicarage was on such occasions the Bishop's Palace; and, to make the ceremony more complete, he provided a beautiful chair for the Altar, after the model of the true antique, on which were emblazoned the arms of the See of Lincoln, impaling those of Pretyman*. Dr. Ford published: A Visitation Sermon, 1 Cor. ix. 16., May 18, 1775; a Sermon (in a hard winter) for the Benefit of the Poor, Deut. xv. 11, Dec. 1, 1782; and another, intituled, "Pietas Bristoliensis," in commemoration of the pious Edward Colston, esq. that wonderful benefactor of his day, on 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, Nov. 14, 1791. This venerable divine was known throughout England for his extraordinary attachment to Church Musick, in which he was eminently skilled, and for a singular intimacy with both the secular and sacred works of " the great Handel." He more than once expressed to the Editor of these Illustrations, that one of his fondest wishes was, that he might end his days in the stall of a Cathedral. Whenever he visited London, he was a regular attendant at St. Paul's; and the gentlemen of that Choir frequently complimented him with the choice of an anthem; and in his own church at Melton several parts of the service were usually chaunted. He was one of the most cheerful and pious of men. Both his head and his heart were full of the Bible. His style of preaching was modelled upon our Saviour's; for he delighted, and was most successful, in enforcing his arguments by illustrations drawn from the scenes of Nature and other sources with which he knew his hearers to be familiar. There belonged to him a natural felicity of wit, which rendered even his common conversation an intellectual banquet; he never went in quest of a remote phrase, and yet could hardly throw out a sentence not marked by originality, in either the thought or expression. His friends might not have been prepared to lose him upon so brief a summons, * See the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXXXV. ii. 493. |