a gold orris; a wondrous hieroglyphic robe he wore *', in which was pourtrayed all the attributes of the god Fo, with the arms and achievements of the Cham of Tartary. Never did Christian doctor wear such a Pagan appearance; one would have imagined he had been sent hither from Tonquin, to propagate idolatrous worship. When I ceased to look upon him as a missionary, I began to consider him the best piece of Chinese furniture I had ever seen, and could hardly forbear offering him a place on my chimney-piece. He asked much after your health, and with so much regard, I am convinced he is still a good Christian at heart, though his habit is heathenish."

I shall add the following brief anecdote, on the authority of a Friend in whose Family he passed much of his time at Ealing. He lost his temper at cards; and then he used to say, in his broken English, "It is not for de gain, but for de conquest !"

THE REV. CHARLES DAUBUZ.

I do not regret an insertion, in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. II. p. 724, of a short notice of this learned Divine; as it subsequently produced a valuable supplementary article from the pen of the very learned and venerable Dr. Zouch; to which I am now enabled to make a small addition.

His Father, obliged to quit France at the Edict of Nantz, had a pass from Lewis the Fourteenth, sealed with his seal and his signature, which is in the possession of his grandson. Its being signed by the King, is a strong proof that Mr. Daubuz was a man of eminence. The pass permitted him to leave France with his wife and four children; but from

+ Vol. VIII. p. 372.

* A chintz dressing-gown. Lewis Charles Daubuz, Esq. of Truro, Cornwall, elder brother to John Theophilus Daubuz, Esq. Merchant in London.

agitation of spirits and strong feelings, he only reached Calais, where he died at the inn, and was privately buried in the garden, the innkeeper assisting his widow, during the night, to dig his grave. She remained in secret till joined by her husband's brother, Mr. Daubuz, who had some preferment in the Cathedral Church of York. He, personating her husband (agreeably to the pass), got them safe into England, and settled them in Yorkshire.

The Rev. Charles Daubuz, who was educated in Yorkshire, and went early to Cambridge, as stated by Dr. Zouch, died June 14, 1717, of a pleuretic fever, caught by sleeping in a damp bed, when returning from London, where he had been on the subject of printing his Commentary on the Revelations. That work was published in 1720 by his widow, Anne Pholotar Daubuz*; and re-published in 1730, in an abridged form, by the Rev. Peter Lancaster, as stated in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. I. p. 435.

Some particulars of the Rev. Claudius Daubuz, son of the above, are given by Dr. Zouch. His Nottinghamshire Rectory was Bildesthorpe, to which he was presented by Sir George Savile, in 1752. He also held a Prebend in the Collegiate Church of Southwell.

Stephen Daubuz, Esq. a gentleman who had fined for the office of Sheriff of London, died June 23, 1746.

Theophilus Daubuz, Esq. Merchant, of Falmouth, married Miss Judith Baril, of Tokenhouse-yard, London, July 7, 1750.

*It is a closely-printed folio volume of 1068 pages, intituled "A Perpetual Commentary on the Revelation of St. John, with a Preliminary Discourse concerning the certainty of the Principles upon which the Revelation of St. John is to be understood: by Charles Daubuz, M. A. late Vicar of Brotherton in Yorkshire."

65

THE REV. NORTON NICHOLLS, LL.B.

A few copies of the following Letter were printed by the particular desire of some of Mr. Nicholls's friends; and the learned Writer of it (Mr. Thomas James Mathias) favoured me with one of those copies, with liberty to reprint it *.

"MY DEAR SIR, London, Dec. 10, 1809. "It is my melancholy office to inform you of the death of our friend, the Rev. Norton Nicholls, LL.B. Rector of Lound and Bradwell, in the county of Suffolk, who died at his house at Blundeston, near Lowestoft, in that county, on Wednesday, the 22d of November, 1806, in the 68th year of his age. As you well knew the genius, the accomplishments, the learning, and the virtues of this rare and gifted man, your generous nature must think that some little memorial of him should be recorded, however frail. and perishable in my delineation. To be born and to die, did not make up all the history of our friend. Many of the chief ends of our being, which he fulfilled during the placid and even tenour of a long and exemplary life, proved that he had been; and they fully evinced that he had deserved well of all who had enjoyed the intercourse of his society. Many were enlivened by the cheerfulness of his disposition, and all partook of his benevolence.

His

chosen companions were delighted and improved by his readiness to communicate the rich treasures of his cultivated mind, in all the bright diversities of erudition and taste. Indeed, those studies which can alone be the aliment of youth and the consolation of our declining days, engaged his attention from his earliest years. Amplissimam illam omni

* See Gent, Mag, vol. xxx. ii. pp. 346, 601.

um artium benè vivendi disciplinam non vitâ magis quam litteris feliciter persecutus.'-Even when schoolboy, he was never desultory in his application; and he was distinguished for those exercises which mark strength of understanding and solidity of judgment. He wandered not in vain among those fields and hills, so justly styled 'happy' by our greatest lyric poet; and he left Eton for the University of Cambridge, with a mind prepared for greater attainments, and capable of that excellence which is the reward of ability when fostered by application. In addition to the attentions which he experienced from the celebrated Dr. Barnard, then master of the school, I have heard him frequently express his grateful sense of the assistance he received at Eton from the voluntary private instruction of Dr. Sumner, whose classical erudition was deep and extensive. By such men he was formed for the intercourse of those highly cultivated minds, educated in the groves of our Academe, which were destined to be the future ornaments and the supports of Literature, of the Church, and of the State. At the time when Mr. Nicholls became a student in Trinity Hall, the University was the chosen residence of Mr. Gray:

A sì gran nome sorga

Tutto il coro à inchinarsi del Parnaso !'

It was natural to feel a gratification in being a member of the same learned society with him; and it was natural also to aspire (if possible) even to a distant intercourse with such a man. To see Mr. Gray was desirable; to speak to him was honourable; but to be admitted to his acquaintance or to his familiarity, was the height of youthful, or, indeed, of any ambition. By the intervention of a common friend, Mr. Nicholls, when between eighteen and nineteen years of age, was introduced to Mr. Gray. I remember, he told me what an awe he felt at the time,

at the lightning of his eye, at that folgorante sguardo as the Tuscans term it; but Mr. Gray's courtesy and encouraging affability soon dispersed every uneasy sensation, and gave him confidence. Shortly after this Mr. N. was in a select company of which Mr. Gray was one; and, as it became his youth, he did not enter into the conversation, but listened with attention. The subject, however, being general and classical, and as Mr. Nicholls, even at that early period, was acquainted not only with the Greek and Latin, but with many of the best Italian poets, he ventured with great diffidence to offer a short remark, and happened to illustrate what he said by an apposite citation from Dante. At the name of Dante, Mr. Gray (and I wish every young man of genius might hear and consider the value of a word spoken in due season, with modesty and propriety, in the highest, I mean, in the most learned and virtuous, company,) suddenly turned round to him, and said, 'Right: but have you read Dante, Sir?' 'I have endeavoured to understand him,' replied Mr. N. Mr. Gray, being much pleased with the illustration, and with the taste which it evinced, addressed the chief of his discourse to him for the rest of the evening, and invited him to his rooms in Pembroke Hall. Mr. Gray found in his young acquaintance a ready and docile disposition; and he became attached to him. He then gave him instruction for the course of his studies, which he directed entirely, even to the recommendation of every author, and to the very order in which they should be read, which happily continued till the time of Mr. Gray's death. Mr. N. might well say to the Poet, in the words of his favourite Florentine, 'Tu sei lo mio maestro *. To this incident, so rare and so honourable to Mr. Nicholls, and to the improvement which was the

* Dante, Inf. c. 1.