views formerly at Mr. Cave's, to ask any favour of you, but not having the least acquaintance with any gentleman of the Royal Society besides, I trouble you with a few enquiries I want to make, which will be a great kindness and obligation if you will please to inform me of, by a letter directed as beneath. My sight decaying pretty much, and rendering it somewhat difficult for me to provide as formerly for my Family (I having a Wife and seven children) I am wishing to know how I might apply for some little place that does not require all one's time, to help me out with some little additional Support.

"I apprehend there must be something of Messengers, Door-keepers, or whatever kind of Officers they may be, belonging to the Society. If you will be so good as to inform me what their list is, what salary, and who must be applied to for a gift of this kind, it will be esteemed a very singular Favour. I have no thoughts nor aim of becoming troublesome to you, farther than for your kind intelligence, and shall use no liberties with your Name, unless you are pleased from your own good-will to allow me any other encouragements or services which I have no pretensions nor boldness to ask of you. I am a subject of pity in my circumstances that I have so few, very few Friends, but I entirely trust to that good Providence to support me, some way or other, through my remaining days, whose regards I have so kindly, beyond all my deserts, experienced hitherto.

I am, with great respect,

Sir,

your most sincere, and

affectionate Servant,

MOSES BROWNE."

Next the Barley Mow, Mile-end Green,

Feb. 13th, 1745.

In 1750 he edited Walton and Cotton's Angler, with a preface, notes, and some valuable Additions; this was republished in 1759 and 1772; in the former year drawing him into a controversy with Sir John Hawkins, who hap pened to be then publishing an improved Edition of the same work.

From his Poems, as well as from the scattered observations in the "Angler," he appears to have been always of a religious turn; and in 1752 he published, in Verse, a series of devout Contemplations, entitled "Sunday Thoughts." Doctor Johnson, we are told, who often expressed his dislike of religious Poetry, and who, for the purpose of religious Meditation, thought one day as proper as another, read them with cold Approbation, and added that he had a great mind to write Monday Thoughts. They, however, went through a second Edition in 1764, and a third in 1781.

In a letter to Dr. Birch, dated Dec. 8th, 1752, he mentions the advice of many of his Friends, that he should endeavour to obtain Orders. "A gentleman of Northampton, he says, wrote me word a few days since, that he had a promise of a Living for me, if I would get ordained directly, and be down by the 30th of next month." Early in the following year his Testimonials were signed by Dr. Birch, Mr. Nicholas Fayting, and Dr. John Groom of Childerdale in Essex; and soon after his Ordination, he was presented to the vicarage of Olney in Buckinghamshire, on the Cession of Mr. Wolsey Johnson.

In 1754, he published a Sermon, preached at Olney, on Christmas-day, entitled "The Nativity and Humiliation of Jesus Christ, practically considered."

In 1755, he published a small quarto Poem, entitled "Percy Lodge, a seat of the Duke and Dutchess of Somerset, written by command of their late Graces, in the year 1749."

In what year he was presented to the vicarage of Sutton in Lincolnshire, we are not informed by any of the writers who mention him: but in 1763, he was elected to the Chaplainship of Morden College in Kent. In 1765, he published a Sermon, "preached to the Society for the Reformation of Manners;" and a few years after, a Visitation Sermon, delivered at Stony Stratford.

Beside these pieces, Mr. Browne is said to have published one or two political Tracts; and in 1772, a translation of a work by John Liborius Zimmerman, entitled "The Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ," 12mo. Lond. He died at Morden College, Sept. 13, 1787, in his 84th year.]

"The Compleat Angler," 8th Edit. 8vo.

Lond. 1760, edited by John Hawkins, Esq. afterwards Sir John Hawkins.

[A manuscript note of Mr. White, of Crickhowell, in a copy of the "Complete Angler," Edit. 1784, says, Sir John Hawkins was born March 18, 1719.

He was elected Chairman of the Session for Middlesex, Sept. 19, 1765, in which Capacity he published a Charge to the Grand Jury, Jan. 8, 1770, and received the Honour of Knighthood, Oct. 23, 1772.

He died at his house in the Great Sanctuary, Westminster, May 21st, 1789, in his 71st year, and lies buried in Westminster Abbey. The Public are infinitely indebted to him for the many valuable Anecdotes recorded in his History of Music: though his Biography of John

it must be confessed, was undertaken in an evil hour. Compare, for further particulars of him and his Works, Gent. Mag. Vol. XLVI. p. 522. XLVII. 29, 78, 125, 229, 273. LV. $75. LXIX. 473, and Kippis's Biogr. Brit. art. Addison, p. 55.]

9th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1766, edited by John Hawkins, Esq. A new title only.

. 10th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1772, edited by Moses Brown.

11th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1775, by Sir John Hawkins.

12th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1784,

by Sir John Hawkins.

. 13th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1792, edited by John Sidney Hawkins, Esq.

14th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1797,

also by Mr. Sidney Hawkins, but

without the larger plates.

15th Edit. 8vo. Lond. 1808.

[Printed in three sizes.]

"The Complete Angler, 16th Edit. a fac simile reprint of the Edit. of 1653." 12mo. Lond. 1810.

In the third Edition of the " Compleat Gentleman," by Henry Peacham, the xxi. Chapter is Concerning Fishing." 4to.

Lond. 1661.

66

[It does not occur in either of the previous Editions of 1622 or 1634.]

"The Experienc'd Angler; or Angling Im

proved: being a General Discourse of Angling." 8vo. Lond. 1662.

[By Col. Robert Venables, whose name appears at least in the three last of the subsequent Editions.]

2d Edit. 12mo. Lond.

3d Edit. 12mo. Lond. 1668.

4th Edit. 12mo. Lond. 1676.

5th Edit. 12mo. Lond. 1683.

[The fourth Edition forms the third part of the Universal Angler.

Among the Manuscripts in the Harleian Collection, are several Pedigrees of the family of Venables: particularly in the MS. 1393, f. 39, where the great Ancestor of Venables is stated to have been Galiard Venables, who came over with the Conqueror, and afterwards received the Earldom of Kinderton, in Cheshire, from Hugh Lupus. Another MS. 2059, recites a Deed from one of the family residing at Northwich, as early as 1260.

The Harleian Manuscript, 1993, f. 52, contains a paper, partly in the hand-writing of Colonel Venables, containing an account of the time he served the Parliament Army in Cheshire, and of the pay due to him between 1643 and 1646. From this it appears that in 1644 he was made Governor of Chester.

When Cromwell, by the persuasions of Card. Mazarine, fitted out a Fleet for the Conquest of Hispaniola in 1655, the command of the Army, (consisting of 2000 old Cavaliers, and as many of Oliver's standing Army, besides Volunteers and necessitated persons) was given to Col. Venables and Admiral Penn; who were ordered to take on board more forces at Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands.