17. "DEAR SIR, Melton-Mowbray, Jan. 31, 1802. "I have not heard from you, or of you this age. Whereabouts are you to be noted in Leicestershire? in Sparkenhoe? or Guthlaxton? quite out of my latitude, I fear: yet I would take a day's ride to talk with you. "Now I come a begging. Be it known to all whom it may or may not concern, that I am about a great job. Having finished my Church, I wish to put the chancel in suitable neatness : and solicit the alms and charitable donations of my loving friends to enable me. The impropriator gives handsomely. I shall need a hundred pounds; and have made good strides towards the sum. I only take gold: so if you will send me a letter with one pound one, it will confirm me in my opinion of your urbanity and liberality, and your name and character will give energy to my application to the Antiquaries and lovers of Gothic structures. will write folio in your praise. So I "Sure, I shall never be called up to town by the new Ministry, to kiss hands! and now I have missed my friend Sir Stephen Langston*, I shall never see the inside of the Mansion House! Well, I may pop in upon you, notwithstanding, before I lose all my pleasantries. Commend me to your gentle daughter, daughters, son, and son-in-law, Master Pridden, with his amiable wife. "To yourself I wish you all you wish,' Happy years in store; and by the score.' Yours, as aforesaid. THOMAS FORD." 18. "DEAR SIR, Melton-Mowbray, March 20, 1802. "By Mr. Cleathing of Thorpe-Arnold, a very lively and friendly neighbour, I send this to you, greeting. First, let me thank you for your donation t; and I hope, when you next are here, you will find it judiciously laid out. "Mr. Cleathing wishes to ask you some questions concerning Ravenstone, which may interest him as Vicar of Thorpe; and wants to know where some authorities in your book are to be found: satisfy him, and you will much oblige him. He desires to be introduced to you; and I am sure he will meet with every information and civility, that all do, who visit you, especially "Your much obliged, THOMAS FORD." 19. "DEAR MR. NICHOLS, Melton-Mowbray, Jan. 18, 1803. "I have an opportunity, by my friend Mr. Winge, Churchwarden of Melton-Mowbray, of enquiring after you, and your kind son and amiable daughters, together with Mr. and Mrs. Pridden. I want to know how you go on with your next Leicestershire volume. "We have lately added two treble bells to our peal, now making eight they were cast in admirable tune by Mr. Briant, of *This worthy Alderman, who had been Sheriff in 1796, died Nov. 5, 1797. See Gent. Mag. vol. LXVII. p. 1070. + See the preceding Letter. Hertford; and they were raised by subscription. On the first bell, I caused this inscription to be put: "Sacrâ campanas octo exaudimus in arce "I have made considerable progress in my patchwork of stained glass, about half way in the aisle south window; but find it will be a work of time to complete; and a work of contribution too. You once gave me some fragments: all that you lay hold on, save for me; there's a dear Antiquary. Perhaps you will send me a duplicate or two of some or all of your postraits for the next volume, or any other recreation, by Mr. Winge. You intended to lend me once, Gutch's publication of the Oxford Colleges, or Fasti, or any Antiquarian book. I will carefully regard it, and send it you again. My obliging friend Mr. Winge makes regular journeys to town: he is a very capital grocer of this place, and a very candid man: Vincent Winge by I am, dear Sir, name. "Your obedient servant, THOMAS FORD." 20. "MY GOOD FRIEND, Melton-Mowbray, July 17, 1804. Yesterday I received the volume of West Goscote. Let me hear from you, and say when we shall have the satisfaction of seeing you at Melton-Mowbray; though out of your circuit now, yet a Triennial Visitation and inspection of churches may be expected. Pray let me have a letter soon. "Yours ever, 21. "DEAR SIR, THOMAS FORD." Melton-Mowbray, July 17, 1804. "I expect a letter from you, in answer to my last, or ipse veni. Tell me where you are to be met with in your summer circuit, and hold a court of enquiry at the county town of Framland. I much wish you could get me the portrait of Archbishop Markham, at Boydell's. Yours, &c. THOMAS FORD." 22. " DEAR SIR, Melton-Mowbray, Nov. 19, 1807. "If you have any personal interest with Mr. Urban, I shall esteem it as a peculiar favour done to me, if you would intreat him, at all events, to make way (in the next Magazine for November, now compiling) for the enclosed Verses, which is my sincere offering to the memory of my ever-honoured sire, the late Archbishop of York *. I beg you would not fail, as the token, if it does not appear immediately, will be stale a month hence. May I depend upon your partiality and candour. "Where have you been this summer? I fear not able to go upon your Visitation into Leicestershire, as I had no summons * See this elegant Tribute of Respect in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXXVII. p. 1049. to attend you. Is your volume coming out? I could put a fresh word about Melton-Mowbray in your Addenda, if you will kindly give me a line of encouragement in answer to this. "I have almost finished my window of stained glass; but I want a coat of arms, no matter whose, to fill up the bottom part. You once sent me some fragments of broken glass which will help. Are you tolerably strong recovered from your confinement? Yours, &c. THOMAS FORD." 23. "DEAR SIR, Melton-Mowbray, Nov. 8, 1808. 66 Sometime ago I remitted to you my payment for the volume of Guthlaxton; and should have been gratified with a line from your well-known hand, and heard of your welfare, and that of your family. I desire now to add, that you would set down my name in the list of those, our countrymen, who have agreed to advance the price of the last volume to five guinea3. "Yours, &c. 24. "MY DEAR SIR, THOMAS FORD." Melton-Mowbray, March 20, 1813. 'I am ashamed and grieved to look back upon the date of the inclosed. Apologies are useless. I really beg your pardon for this strange delay. "I get old (not infirm indeed yet); but one should not forget the many kind and friendly communications we have had in time past together. When we shall see one another, I cannot guess, and can scarcely hope; but I wish you and yours, dear Sir, all happiness; and am, your obliged servant, THOMAS FORD." 25. "DEAR SIR, Melton Mowbray, Aug. 7, 1819. "I remember, when last I saw you here, that you said, when I meant to dispose of my History of Leicestershire, that you would give me a proper price for it; if you are of the same mind still, I will send you the volumes as I have them, I believe complete; though by lending them from time to time, they may be soiled; but not incomplete. You will look at them, and do the best you can for me; which I am persuaded you will, on the score of old friendly acquaintance*. "I fear I shall never see you again at Melton-Mowbray. I have improved and ornamented my church very much indeed, since you visited it; and made the chapel of Burton-Lazars, one of the most elegant; almost like one of the college chapels at Oxford. All this hath cost me MUCH, though my parishioners, I must acknowledge, have been liberal. Your Leicestershire volumes must set me clear. Mrs. Ford and myself grow old, though *Much as I sincerely regretted the cause of this letter, I hope it is needless to say that the request in it was instantly complied with, in its fullest extent. J. N. I continue, I thank God, to go through my various Sunday services as usual. We desire you to accept our sincere regard; and I subscribe myself, dear Sir, "Your obedient servant, 26. "MY DEAR SIR, THOMAS FORD." Melton-Mowbray, Aug. 14, 1819. "I have sent the volumes by this day's waggon. You will examine them; and what you think proper to give me, please to pay to Messrs. Pares and Heygate in my name. You do me a kindness, in remembering me in so friendly a manner. 1 do not despair of coming, next winter, to London, and then of seeing you and your daughters. You will favour me with a line, when you have received the books. Yours, at present in haste, most sincerely, THOMAS FORD." 27. "MY KIND MR. NICHOLS, Melton-Mowbray, Aug. 23, 1819. "I really am vexed that the volumes turn out so shabbily unworthy the purchase: as you must have been sadly disappointed*. The matter cannot now be helped: the more acceptable is your generous intent towards me. To part with the books, I assure you, my poverty, and not my will consents. You will add to my obligations if you will pay the money for them into the bank of Pares and Heygate, and take a receipt, which, if you send me down, will enable me to shew it at our County Bank, for immediate payment. I can say no more, than thanking you again for your pleasing Urbanity, I remain, "Yours sincerely, THOMAS FORD." *One of the volumes had been so frequently lent by Dr. Ford to his neighbours, that it was absolutely spoilt, and quite unfit for future sale. E 235 Rev. Archdeacon JEFFERSON. Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus For the following Memoir, I am indebted to a Friendly Correspondent. An exact and authentic account of individuals who have greatly excelled in any of the departments of active or of contemplative life, seems to afford a mode of instruction best suited to an animal like man, prone to imitation. When a single character is distinctly delineated, we can pursue every line with an ease equal to that with which the painter copies from an original picture placed before his eyes. We have the express authority of the pattern we have chosen, to direct us in every emergency; and we can tread with implicit confidence in the footsteps of the most distinguished men, without the suspense of deliberate selection. It is a remark of Aristotle, that the story of an individual, as it is a single object, is comprehended more fully, and, therefore, attended to with greater pleasure, than an history in which many personages are necessarily introduced. Such is the general nature and use of Biography: and it certainly can never be of greater utility than in the exemplar which it affords in the life and conduct of the late very Rev. Archdeacon Jefferson. He rose from certainly what is a respectable, yet by many deemed rather an humble situation in life, unassisted by powerful friends, and solely by the dint of his own natural talents, and his faithful and undeviating discharge of every duty, both as a Christian and a man, to the highest and most responsible situations in the Church; and, what is, perhaps, still more remarkable, he was indebted for almost all his preferments to the unsolicited patronage of three successive Bishops of London, under whose more immediate inspection he spent the greater part of his life, and who, on that account, may be presumed to have |