Chief Justice Willes. It was amongst the defiderata of his Lordship's private enquiries to find out the principal caufes of longevity; and, accordingly whenever he examined a witnefs who had the appearance of advanced age, he generally enquired, "how he lived, what regimen he kept, &c. &c." This he practifed for a great number of years, fometimes balanced in his mind in favour of one fyftem, and sometimes in favour of ano. ther, till at last he found out, that whatever were their private habits, the early rifers had by far the greatest claim to longevity and this he often enforced to young people as an obfervation they thould by no means overlook in the conduct of life. : SIR ROBERT TAYLOR affords aftriking example of the habit and good effects of early rifing. We have been informed that this Gentleman, who was bred an architect, and followed it with confiderable reputation, never was found in bed for the fpace of forty years at five o'clock. He lived in good health to seventy-five years of age, and left to his only fon, the prefent Michael Angelo Taylor, Efq. a fortune of above one bun. dred thousand pounds, beside an hand fome jointure so his widow. His death was occafioned by a cold which he caught attending the funeral of a friend. KING WILLIAM. About November 1674, his Majefty (Charles II.) fent over the Earl of Ollory to the Hague,with a commiffion to propofe the Lady Mary, eldest daughter of the Duke of York, as a match for the then Prince of Orange. His Highnefs received the meflage with great refpect, and anfwered, "There was nothing he more ambitioned when the war was over; but then he could neither leave the war, or think it very pleafing to the Lady to bring her where the noife of war was.” This anfwer incenfed the Duke of York to fo high a degree, that he abufed the Earl of Offory in very strong terms; but when that Noblemen came back and fhewed his Royal Highness his Majesty's commiffion for what he did (which was not then known to him) he became pacified; but continued his anger fo fharp against the Prince, that none ever thought at that time that his Royal Highnels would ever permit that match to proceed. In 1677, however, they were married; but very much to the delicacy of the Prince, he would fuffer no preliminaries to take place till he had previously feen and converfed with the Lady. LORD BOLINGBROKE. (Characters of him by Swift, Lord CHESTERFIELD, and MADAME DE MAINTENON.) We have had occafion in a former number of this work to fhew in the different views of Lord Oxford (by Swift and Bolingbroke), how very difficult it is for pofterity to estimate the real characters of great men, when thofe beft qualified to judge from their talents and intimacy with the parties differ fo very materially in their hiftorical pictures of them. The following characters of Lord Bolingbroke afford another proof how far perfonal friendship or hatred will preponderate with perfons of the beft understandings on particular occafions. LORD BOLINGBROKE'S CHARACTER. By Swift. (In a Letter to Mrs. Johnson, in the Year 1711.) "I think Mr. Secretary St. John the greatest young man I ever knew. Wit capacity-beauty-quickness of ap prehenfion-good learning- and an excellent taste. The best Orator in the Houfe of Commons. Admirable conversation-good nature and good man. ners-generous, and a defpifer of money. His only fault is talking to his friend, by way of complaint, of too great a load of business; this looks a little like affec tation; and he endeavours too much to mix the fine gentleman and the man of pleasure with the man of business. What truth and fincerity he might have I know not-he is not above thirty-two, and has been Secretary of State above a year-Is not all this extraordinary ?" temper, and that his paffions conftantly got the better of his judgment." He added, "That no man was more partial to his friends, and more ready to oblige them, than he was; and that he would recommend them, and reprefent them as fo many models of perfection. But on the other hand, he was a moft bitter enemy to thofe he hated; and though their merit might be out of all difpute, he would not allow them the least share of it, but would pronounce them fo many fools and blockheads." LORD BOLINGBROKE'S CHARACTER. By Madame de Maintenon. When Bolingbroke was on his return to England after his banishment, Madame De Maintenon faid to our Minifter at Paris upon the occafion, "I wish your mafter joy of his new fubject; I hope he will profit much by him-C'eft bomme le plus ingrat-le plus coquin, et le plus fcelerat, que je connois." LATE LORD ORFORD. ExtraЯ of a Letter written by the late Lord Orford to a Lady of high Rank, on ber requesting him to give her a Character of the Comedy of "The Scornful Lady," of Beaumont and Fletcher, previous to its being altered to "The Capricious Lady," in 1783. pro "I return your Ladyship the play, and will tell you the truth. At first I pofed juft to amend the mere faults of language and the incorrectnefs-but the farther I proceeded, the lefs I found it worth correcting; and indeed I believe nothing but Mrs. Abington's acting can make any thing of it. It is like all the reft of Beaumont and Fletcher's pieces; they had good ideas, but never made the mot of them, and feem to me to have finished them when they were drunk, fo very improbable are the means by which they produce their denouments. To produce a good play from one of theirs, I believe the only way would be to take their plan; draw the characters from nature; omit all that is improbable, and entirely new write the dialogue; for their language is at once bard and pert, vulgar and incorrect, and has neither the pathos of the preceding age, nor the elegance of this-they are grofsly indelicate, and yet have no fimplicity. There is a wide difference between unrefined and vicious indecency:-the first would not invent fig-leaves-the latter tears holes in them after they are invented. *. In regard to gallantry, we are Hottentots, and the fcorn of Europe. Our newspapers teem with abuse on the prettiest women in England; and even the Theatre, that ought to be their temple, is, as your Ladyfhip knows, a Bear Garden, and puts me in mind of Slender in the "Merry Wives of Windfor," who entertains his Mistress with the exploits of Sacherson. "I am going in a few days to ParkPlace, and will, at my return, have the honour of paying my duty at your Ladyfhip's Cottage, or be proud of receiving a vifit at a Čaftle that is but a fhed to that of -, yet far more loyal to its Sovereign Lady whilft it belongs to your "Moft devoted old humble fervant, Nov. 1779. "HOR. WALPOLE." A few years before the late Duchess of Queensbury's death, the late Lord Orford (then the Hon. Horace Walpole) being, along with other company, at her table, in celebrating the anniverfary of her birth-day, filled a glass of wine immediately after dinner; and addreffing himself to the Duchefs faid, "Here is to your good health, my Lady Duchefs; and may you live till you're ugly :" upon which the Duchefs immediately replied, "Thank you, Sir, and may you always preferve your tafle for the antique.” as more ingenious than folid. It was anfwered by Frederick Guy Dickers, Efq. in a 4to. volume; and the evidence from the wardrobe-roil was controverted by Dr. Miles and Mr. Mafters, in papers read before the Antiquarian Society. It is faid, one or both of these latter pieces gave Mr. Walpole fo much difguft, that he ordered his name to be ftruck out of the lift of Members, and renounced the honour arnexed to it from his connection with the body of Antiquarians. It cannot, however, be denied, that the character of Richard is cleared from many of the enormities charged upon him by hif torians and poets. It was about this time that the tranflation took place for which he has fuffered the greatest cenfure, and from which, we believe, he derived a very lafting concern; though, when every circumftance is duly weighed, perhaps but little blame will attach to his memory. We fhall give Mr. Walpole's own narrative in his own words, extracted from a letter to Mr. W. B. "Bathoe, my book feller, brought me a pacquet left with him. It contained an ode or little poem of two or three ftanzas, in alternate rhyme, on the death of Richard the Firft, and I was told in very few lines that it had been found at Britto with many other old poems, and that the poffeffor could furnish me with accounts of a series of great painters that had flourished at Bristol. "Here I must paufe, to mention my own reflections. At first I concluded that fomebody having met with my "Anecdotes of Painting" had a mind to laugh at me. I thought not very ingeniously, as I was not likely to fwallow a fucceffion of great painters at Bristol. The Ode or Sonnet, as I think it was called, was too pretty to be part of the plan; and, as is eafy with all the other fuppofed poems of Rowley, it was not difficult to make it very modern by changing the old words for new; though yet more difficult than with most of them. You fee I tell you fairly the cafe. I then imagined, and do itill, that the fuccefs of Offian's poems had fuggefted the idea. Whether the trasfmitter hinted, or I fuppofed from the fubject, that the difcovered treature was of the age of Richard the First, I cannot take upon me to affert; yet that impreffion was fo ftrong on my mind, that two years after, when Dr. Goldfmith told me they were then allotted to the age of Henry the Sixth or Fifth, I faid, with furprize, They have shifted the date extremely.'-This is no evidence; but there is one line in the printed poems of Rowley that makes me more firmly believe that the age of Richard the Firft was the æra fixed upon by Chatterton for his forgeries; for that line fays, Now is Cœur de Lion gone' or fome fuch words; for I quote by memory, not having the book at hand. It is very improbable that Rowley, writing in the reign of Henry the Sixth, or Edward the Fourth, as is now pretended, or in that of Henry the Fourth, as was affigned by the credulous before they had digefted their fyftem, fhould incidentally, in a poem on another fubject, fay, now is Richard dead. I am perfuaded that Chatterton himself, before he had dived into Canning's hiftory, had fixed on a much earlier period for the age of his forgeries. Now to return to my narrative. "I wrote, according to the inclosed direction, for further particulars. Chatterton, in answer, informed ine, that he was the fon of a poor widow, who fupported him with great difficulty; that he was clerk, or apprentice, to an attorney, but had a taste and turn for more elegant ftudies; and hinted a wish that I would affift him with my intereft in immerging out of fo dull a profeffion, by procuring him fome place in which he could purfue his natural bent. He affirmed, that great treasures of antient poetry had been difcovered in his native city, and were in the hands of a perfon who had lent him thofe he had tranfmitted to me, for he now fent me others, amongst which was an abfolute modern paftoral in dialogue, thinly fprinkled with old words. Przy obferve, Sir, that he affirmed having received the poems from another perf whereas it is afcertained, that the Gentleman at Bristol, who poffeffes the fund of Rowley's Poems, received them from Chat terton. "I wrote to a relation of mine at Bath, to enquire into the fituation and character of Chatterton, according to his own account of himself; nothing was returned about his character, but his own ftory was verified. "In the mean time I communicated the poems to Mr. Gray and Mr. Maton, who at once pronounced them forgeries, and declared there was no fymptom in them of their being the productions of near fo distant an age, the language and metres being totally unlike any thing ancient; for though I expreffed no doubt to them, them, I afcribed them to the time of Richard the Firft; Mr. Gray nor Mr. Mafon faw any thing in the poems that was not more recent than even the reign of Henry the Eighth. And here let me remark, how incredible it is that Rowley, a monk of a mere commercial town, which was all Bristol then was, fhould have purified the language, and introduced a diversified metre, more claffic than was known to that polifhed courtly poet Lord Surry; and this in the barbarous turbulent times of Henry the Sixth; and that the whole nation fhould have relapfed into the fame barbarism of ftile and verfification till Lord Surry, I might almoft fay till Waller, arose.-I leave to better fcholars and better antiquaries to fettle how Rowley became fo well verfed in the Greek tragedians. He was as well acquainted with Butler, or Butler with him; for a Chaplain of the late Bishop of Exeter has found in Rowley a line of Hudibras t. "Well, Sir, being fatisfied with my intelligence about Chatterton, I wrote him a letter with as much kindness and tendernefs as if I had been his guardian; for though I had no doubt of his impofitions, fuch a spirit of poetry breathed in his coinage as interested me for him : nor was it a grave crime in a young bard to have forged falfe notes of hand that were to pafs current only in the parish of Parnafius. I undeceived him about my being a perfon of any intereft, and urged to him that in duty and gratitude to his mother, who had ftraitened herself to breed him up to a profeflion, he ought to labour in it, that in her old age he might abfolve his filial debt and I told him, that when he fhould have made a fortune he might unbend himself with the ftudies confonant to Lis inclinations. I told him alfo, that I had communicated his tranfcripts to much better judges, and that they were by no means fatisfied with the authenticity of his fuppofed MSS. I mentioned their reafons, particularly, that there were no fuch metres known in the age of Richard the First and that might be a reafon with Chatterton himfelt to fhift the æra of his productions. "He wrote me rather a peevish anfwer ; faid he could not conteft with a perfon of my learning (a compliment by no means due to me, and which I certainly had not affumed, having mentioned my having confulted abler judges); maintained the genuineness of the poems; and demanded to have them returned, as they were the property of another Gentleman. Remember this. "When I received this letter I was going to Paris in a day or two, and either forgot his request of the Poems, or, perhaps, not having time to have them copied deferred complying till my return, which was to be in fix weeks. 1 proteft I do not remember which was the cafe; and yet, though in a caufe of fo little importance, I will not utter a fyllable of which I am not pofitively certain, nor will charge my memory with a tittle beyond what it retains. "Soon after my return from France, I received another letter from Chatterton, the ftile of which was fingularly impertinent. He demanded his poems roughly; and added, that I should not have dared to ufe him fo ill if he had not acquainted me with the narrownefs of his circumftances. My heart did not accufe me of infolence to him, I wrote an aníwer, expoftulating with him on his injustice, and renewing good advice; but upon fecond thoughts, reflecting that fo wrong headed a young man, of whom I knew nothing, and whom I had never feen, might be abfurd enough to print my letter, I lung it into the fire; and wrapping up both his Poems and Letters, without taking a copy of either, for which I am now ferry, I returned all to him, and thought no more of him or them." Mr. Walpole then relates the information he received of the catastrophe of Chatterton, which he deplores in the following terms: "I heartily wished then that I had been the dupe of all the poor young man had written to me; for who would not have his understanding impofed on to fave a fellow being from the utmoft wretchednefs, defpair, and fuicide! -and a young man not eighteen, and of * Rowley is made to call it a city, which it was not till afterwards. HUDIBRAS, p. 2. c. 3. L. 795. ROWLEY, p. 72. Tyrrwhit's Edition. EDITOR. fuch fuch miraculous talents !"—"I lament not having feen him; my poor patronage might have faved him from the abyfs into which he plunged: but, alas! how could I furmife that the well-being and existence of a human creature depended on my iwal. lowing a legend; and from an unknown perfon? Thank God! fo far from having any thing to charge myfelf with on Chatterton's account, it is very hypothetical to fuppofe that I could have ftood between him and ruin." After the preceding statement, extracted from Mr. Walpole's unpublished defence, we conceive much of the prejudice entertained against him by fome on account of this tranfaction, will either totally difappear, or at least be confiderably leffened. In the year 1768, Mr. Walpeie printed fifty copies of his tragedy of the "Myfterious Mother," a performance entitled to very high praise. Of this piece an account is given in our Magazine of September 1787, to which, on this occation, we must refer. It was originally compofed with a view to the performance of Mrs. Pritchard; and could the horrible circumftance on which it is founded be foftened, we are of opinion it might ftill be reprefented with great effect by the prefent ornament of the tragic fcene. From this period no circumftance of importance occurred in the courfe of Mr. Walpole's life until the year 1791, when, by the death of his nephew, he succeeded to the title of Earl of Orford. The acceffion of this honour, and of the fortune annexed to it, made no alteration, in any refpect, in his manner of living. He till purfued the fame unvaried tenor of life, devoting himself to the conversation of his friends and to the purfuits of literature. He had been early afflicted with the gout, which, as he advanced in years, acquired ftrength, though it did not dif qualify him either for company or converfation. The fame fpirit of enquiry, the fame ardour of purfuit, and the fame candour in judgment, prevailed almoft to the lateft period of his life. He was capable of enjoying the fociety of his friends until a very thort time before his death, which happened on the 2d March 1797. Py his will, which contains 22 fheets, befides the addition of feven codicils, by one of which he directed that his body might be opened and afterwards privately interred; and bequeathed to Robert Berry, Efq. and his two daughters, Mary and Agnes Berry, all his printed works and manufcripts, to be published at their difcretion, and for their own emolument. To thefe two ladies he gives 4000!. each; and, for their lives, the house and garden late Mrs. Clive's, with the long ineadow before the fame, and all the furniture there; after their deaths or mar. riages, to go to the fame ufes as Straw berry-hill; and with a reftriction not to let the houfe for longer than a year. By the fame codicil he alfo directs all the boxes containing his prints, books of prints, &c. be conveyed to Strawberry. hill, to remain as heir-looms appurtenant to that eftate; and makes it a particular request to the perfon in poflethon of his favourite refidence, that the books, and every article of furniture there, may preferved with care, and not difpofed of, nor even removed. But all the letters written to him by fuch of his friends as fhall be living at the time of his death, are to be returned to the writers. * be Strawberry-hill is given to the Hon. Mrs. Anne Damer †, and a legacy of zcool. to keep it in repair, on condition that the refides there, and does not dilpole of it to any perfon, unless it be to This very beautiful villa was originally a fmall tenement, built 1698, by the Earl of Bradford's coachman, as a lodging-houfe. Colley Cibber was one of its firft tenants; and after him, fucceffively, Talbot, Bishop of Durham, the Marquis of Carnarvon, Mrs. Cheuevix, the toy-woman, and Lord John Philip Sackville. Mr. W. purchased it 1747, began to fit it up in the Gothic ftyle 1753, and completed it 1776. He permitted it to be shewn, by tickets, to parties of four, from May to October, between the hours of 12 and 3, and only one party a day. The beft, concife account of this villa, and its valuable contents, that has hitherto appeared, may be found in Mr. Lyfons's "Environs of London," but a more parti. cular defcription of it may foon be expected in a Hiftory (already printed) of the Parish of Twickenham. A Catalogue raifonnce of its furniture was drawn up by the noble owner, printed at Strawberry-hill in 1774, and reserved as a bequest to his particular friends after his decease. Of this work Ico copies are on fmall paper, and 6 on large; it is illuftrated with 14 prints by Godfrey, after drawings by Marlow and Pars. In the cottage in the flower garden was a library, formed of all the publications during the reigns of the three Georges, or Mr. W.'s cwn time. Daughter of the late Gen. Conway, and relict of the Hon. John Damer, cldeft fen of the prefent Earl of Dorchester, the |