"Johannes Burton, S. T. P.

Collegii Eton. Socius, obiit A. D. 1771, ætat. 75Vir inter primos Doctus, Ingeniosus, Pius, Opum Contemptor,

Ingenuæ juventutis Fautor eximius *."

66

He was intimately connected with Archbishop Secker, Bishop Hayter, and many others of that Bench. Besides the above Tract relating to Dr. Bray, he published in 1744 " The Genuineness of Lord Clarendon's History of the Rebellion vindicated against Mr. Oldmixon." In 1758 he edited the Five Tragedies in the Pentalogia, with a Dissertation thereon, and Notes, which he had recommended to his ingenious pupil Mr. Joseph Bingham, whose untimely death in 1736 prevented his completing the design. Dr. Burton then undertook the publication, and completed it in 1758, with a Preface, Dissertations, Index, &c. He collected, in

two volumes, several Sermons which had been separately printed and in two other volumes some Sermons, with various Pieces which had been separately published in Latin and Greek, under the title of "Opuscula." Among these are his Latin Orations, some Pieces of Poetry, and a humourous description of a Journey to Bath, intituled, "Iter Bathoniense :" and another Iter in Latin and Greek, under the title of "Iter Surriense et Sussexiense."

*The late Rev. Mr. Pennicott, of Long Ditton in Surrey, by the hands of the Rev. Thomas Streatfield, very kindly presented the annexed Portrait of the Doctor to William Bray, Esq. the highly-respected Editor of the History and Antiquities of Surrey; whence, by the same indulgence, it is here also preserved.

His Living of Worplesden was three miles from Guildford; between the two places, by a bridge which crosses the river Wey, part of the road was generally full of water on any flood, deep, sometimes impassable, and particularly bad in a frost. He set on foot the raising the present causeway, by which it is always safe and good travelling. Mr. Bray well remembers the original condition..

It is not generally known that Dr. Burton was in 1749 honoured with a niche in the Notes on The Dunciad, as a punishment for this jeu d'esprit. See vol. II. p. 767.

RARY!

It is understood that he was the Author, under the title of "Phileleutherus Londinensis," of " Remarks on Dr. King's Speech before the University of Oxford at the Dedication of Dr. Radcliffe's Library, April 13, 1749." This produced from Dr. King" Elogium Famæ inserviens Jacci Etonensis sive Gigantis; or, The Praises of Jack of Eton, commonly called Jack the Giant; collected into English Metre, after the Manner of Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, John Burton, and others. To which is added, a Dissertation on the Burtonian Style. By a Master of Arts." In this Satire Dr. Burton shared the lash with Mr. Bowyer the learned Printer, who had recently published the Songs in "Jack the Giant Queller*."

The Rev. ROBert Midgley, and

Mr. Archdeacon PIERSON.

The Rev. Robert Midgley was the only son of the Rev. Joseph Midgley †, M. A. Minister of Thirsk, in Yorkshire, and Sarah, daughter of John Pybus, of that place. Of the family of Midgley a pedigree is given in Thoresby's Leeds. Robert Midgley was sent early to the University, and took the degree of B. A. at Trinity Hall, in Cambridge, in 1703, when he was little more than eighteen years of age; and afterwards proceeded M. A. in 1733.

He was an able Divine, and an excellent Classic, and presided upwards of 53 years over the Freeschool of Coxwold, in Yorkshire (founded by Sir John Hart, Lord Mayor of London, in 1589); during which time he educated several gentlemen of that county, who were afterwards an honour to it.

* See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. II. p. 608.

† He was of Christ College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1674; M. A. 1678; died June 24, 1704, aged 49; and was buried at Thirsk.

The

The general traits of his character were ably drawn by the Rev. Anthony Temple*, one of his scholars, and who had married his niece, in a Latin inscription to his memory, but an English one was preferred for his monument in Husthwaite Church, where he was buried; both are subjoined to this Account.

Bromley, in his Catalogue of English Portraits, besides the Portrait here given by favour of the Rev. William Layton, of Ipswich (great-nephew to Mr. Midgley), who had it engraved from a painting in his possession, and presented a copy, in 1790, to such of Mr. Midgley's scholars as were then living, mentions, by some mistake, which cannot easily be accounted for, one prefixed to his "Compendious Schoolmaster," Svo; as he was not Author of any such work.

As the late Archdeacon Pierson, who was also great-nephew to Mr. Midgley, was both Master of the same school, and Minister of the same parish, I have added the inscription on his monument, which was, in a way most flattering to his memory, erected in Husthwaite Church.

Inscription in memory of Mr. MIDGLEY, late
Master of Coxwold School, in Yorkshire:
Hoc marmor tibi sit pro speculo, Lector:
Si bonus sis, temet ipse contemplaberis ;
Sin minus, quam pulchrâ sit virtus facie,
Hinc disces.

Viri enim ossa tegit, ad omnem probitatem facti,
Quem omnes suspiciebant,

Boni amore, mali reverentiâ prosecuti.
Id quidem non injuriâ :

Namque iracundiæ, etiam lacessitus, nihil tribuebat,
Nec suas ulli unquam invidebat laudes :
Quod laudare non potuit, candide excusabat.
Sibi proprium habebat nihil;

Cum amicis omnia communicabat,

Cum cognatis, cum egenis.