with no inconsiderable personal ex-
ertions, formed a plan for uniting the
summits of Snow-hill and Holborn-hill,
by forming a level across the inter-
mediate valley by a handsome bridge,
under which the road from Black Friars
to the great North road might conve-
niently have been carried. For this
purpose, every inch of ground had been
measured by himself, and every exist-
ing house surveyed, between the hours
of four and six, of more than thirty
mornings, and an accurate plan and
design were communicated to a com-
mittee appointed for the purpose by the
Corporation of London; who, in their
Report on the subject, sanctioned by
their surveyor, the late George Dance,
Esq., highly commended the plan, but
objected to the cost of it, though at
least as great an expense was afterwards
incurred for a very disproportionate
improvement. Thanks to Mr. Pridden
were unanimously voted by the Corpo-
ration; and thus the business termin-
ated.

Another favourite idea of his, taken
up when resident at Caddington, was
the more effectual drainage of the Fens
in the several counties of Northampton,
Suffolk, Lincoln, Cambridge, Hunting-
don, and the Isle of Ely, commonly
called "The great Level of the Fens,'
which is under the direction of a highly-
respectable corporation, called "Go-
vernors of the Bedford Level." To
this subject he paid great attention;
and suggested several useful hints,
which in various conferences he com-
municated to the proper officers of the
Corporation.

In 1803 he preached a sermon for
the Anniversary Meeting of the Charity
Children in St. Paul's Cathedral. This
discourse was afterwards printed.

He was a zealous supporter of the
Royal Humane Society, having for
thirty-three years been one of the
gratuitous chaplains and managers of
that institution; and frequently advo-
cated the cause of that excellent public
charity in the pulpit. He was also for
some time the Honorary Secretary of
the Sea-Bathing Infirmary at Margate;
of which (with Dr. Lettsom and Mr.
Nichols) he was one of the original
founders; the freehold on which the
Infirmary was built having been pur-
chased in their names. He also fur
nished the design from which the build-
ing was erected. During several suc-
cessive years, accompanied by the writer

of this memoir, he attended the Anni-
versary of the Governors of the In-
firmary; and at intervals inspected the
churches in the Isle of Thanet, all of
which are antient, and most of them
very curious. Neat drawings were
made of all these religious edifices. The
registers were examined; the remark-
able epitaphs copied, and the numerous
brass plates rolled off, with a view to an
improved edition of Mr. Lewis's "His-
tory of the Isle of Thanet." He also
meditated a much-improved "Margate
Guide." But both these were aban-
doned from the pressure of professional
and other important avocations.

In 1812 he was presented by the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul's to the united
rectories of St. George, Botolph-lane,
and St. Botolph, Billingsgate; a pre-
ferment the more acceptable, as (though
he was in some degree a pluralist) the
whole of his appointments were com-
paratively small; and his constitution,
originally robust, showed evident marks
of approaching decay.

In the performance of his clerical du-
ties he was most exemplary. In the
pulpit he was familiar and energetic,
and in the desk devout and impressive.
His voice, naturally good, he learned to
modulate with skill; and in the sub-
limity of the burial service he particu-
larly excelled. Nothing could be su-
perior to his delivery of "I am the
Resurrection and the Life," &c. In
the cathedral, his chaunting never failed
to excite admiration, more especially
when, associated with his cordial friend
the late Rev. John Moore, the Litany,
that exquisite portion of the morning
service of the Church, was delivered by
the union of their powerful and well-
assorted voices.

He prided himself on the beautiful
regularity of his hand-writing in his
entries in the registers of his various
parishes. Copious extracts from the
early registers of Heybridge were com-
municated by him to Mr. Nichols for
the "Illustrations of the Manners and
Expenses of ancient Times in England,"
1797.

In the progress of the "History of
Leicestershire,' a period of more than
twenty years, Mr. Pridden frequently
accompanied Mr. Nichols in his visits
to the several churches in that county,
and made drawings of all that he visited,
many of which he contributed to the
numerous embellishments of that copi-
ous county history; in which every

church, with many of the monuments,
public buildings, &c. are engraved, to
the amount of nearly 500 folio plates.

In 1794 he was persuaded by a late
learned dignitary of the Church, to un-
dertake a task which that worthy divine
had begun, but found more laborious
than his clerical duties would enable him
to pursue, an ample epitome, under the
name of an Index, to the six volumes of
the Rolls of Parliament. This laborious
task he nearly completed, but in so mi-
nute and voluminous a manner, that it
employed more than 30 years of his life,
and deeply embittered the latter part
of it.

Mr. Pridden was twice married; first
to Anne, daughter of his old friend and
patron, Mr. Nichols,-she died in 1815;
and secondly, to Anne, daughter of an-
other of his old friends, Mr. Deputy
Pickwoad, who survives him; but by
neither had he any issue.

His

His remains were interred on the
12th of April, at his express desire, in
the same grave with those of his first
wife, in Islington Church-yard.
old and intimate friend, the Rev. Dr.
Dakins, precentor of Westminster Ab-
bey, performed the funeral service with
deep feeling; and the Rev. Dr. Fly,
and the Rev. Dr. Vivian, Minor-Ca-
nons of St. Paul's, with his brothers-in-
law, &c. attended as mourners.-Gen-
tleman's Magazine.

PULLER, Sir Christopher; late of
the Oxford circuit; chief justice of Ben-
gal; at Calcutta, about five weeks after
his arrival in the East Indies.

Sir Christopher Puller was the son of
C. Puller, Esq. for many years an emi-
nent merchant in Great Winchester-
street, in the city, but who has retired
from business for some time, and is now
living at Painswick in Gloucestershire.
He was at an early age sent to Eton
school, where he distinguished himself
beyond his companions in classical at-
tainments, and in the year 1790, he
went off to Christchurch, Oxford, se-
cond in celebrity only to Mr. Canning.
At that time this distinguished college
was in the zenith of its reputation, un-
der the government of Dr. Cyril Jack-
son, its great and memorable dean.
Mr. C. Puller had for his contempor-
aries at Christchurch, some of the most
leading men of the present day in the
various departments of Church and
State; the Earl of Liverpool, Mr. Can-
ning, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Lords Gran-
ville Levison (now Viscount Granville),

Holland, Morpeth, and Amherst, the
late Sir John Newbolt, Lord John Be-
resford (now an Irish Archbishop), the
Bishop of Exeter, and many others who
have since attained a high rank in their
respective professions. With most of
these Mr. C. Puller was connected in
intimacy and friendship, and he signal-
ized himself beyond all of them, with
few exceptions, in the college and uni-
versity exercises. In the year 1793 be
gained the university prize for under-
graduates, by a copy of Latin hexame-
ters on the subject of Ludi Scenici.
This composition was conceived in the
true spirit of Roman poetry, and dis-
played an intimate acquaintance with
the best models, united with the purest
taste. The following lines, addressed
to Athens, are a fair specimen :
O magna Heroum nutrix, sanctissima
sedes!

Urbs armis opibusque potens, latèque
subacto

Nobilitate mari! tu sera in secula sce-

næ

Audis prima parens! festis assueta te-
porum

Illecebris, aut ficto avidè indulgere do-
lori.

Tuque Ilisse pater! celsus qui Palladis

arces,

Et divum delubra tuis surgentia ripis,
Vidisti, musis longùm acceptissimus
amnis,

Dic age, sancte parens, &c.

Then follows a most animated de-
scription of the excellencies of Æschy-
lus, Sophocles, and Euripides, an apt
account of Aristophanes and Menander,
a short mention of the Latin comedy,
and a most beautiful and characteristic
eulogium upon our own divine bard
Shakspeare, too long for insertion, but
which may be safely recommended to
the admirers of classical literature, as
an admirable imitation of the peculiar
merits of Latin verse, so delicate in ex-
pression and vigorous in meaning.
Soon after this success in the Univer-
sity, Mr. C. Puller was elected to a
fellowship of Oriel, and gave up his re-
sidence at Oxford for the more smoky
atmosphere of Lincoln's Inn. Re-
signing the charms of ancient lore, and
withstanding the fascinations of tasteful
reading, he gave himself up to the pro-
fession of the law with unremitted dili-
gence and attention. In 1796 he under-
took, in conjunction with his friend
Mr. John Bernard (now Serjeant) Bo-
sanquet, the reporting of the "Cases

argued and determined in the Courts
of Common Pleas and Exchequer Cham-
ber." The reporters were assisted in
this task by the countenance and pa-
tronage of the successive Chief Justices
Eyre, Eldon, Alvanley, and Mansfield;
the former, Lord Chief Justice Eyre,
and we believe Lord Eldon also, hav-
ing corrected all their judgments. These
reports extend through three folio and
two octavo volumes, and are cited in
the Courts of Law as undoubted authori.
ties of credit and fidelity; the former
under the abbreviated title of Bos. and
Pull., the latter under that of "New
Reports." Mr. C. Puller in 1800

was called to the bar, and in a very
short time rose to eminence and prac-
tice at the Worcester and Stafford
Quarter Sessions, and on the Oxford
Circuit. His city connections also
made him known at Guild-hall, and
his talents and diligence were encou-
raged and rewarded by considerable
business in the mercantile causes tried
at that place. He pursued his career
without the bar very successfully until
the end of 1822, when he was promoted
to the highest rank in the profession,
independently of judicial elevation, be-
ing made a King's Counsel at the same
time with Messrs. Taunton, Shadwell,
Adam, and Sugden.

He

In the summer of 1823, the Chief
Justiceship of Bengal was offered to him
in the most handsome manner by Mr.
Wynne, the President of the Board of
Controul, which was too splendid an
appointment to be refused. He ac-
cepted it, trusting to a constitution na-
turally good, and to his long-established
habits of temperance, that he should,
under the permission of God, be able
to resist the climate. But it was other-
wise ordered by the Divine will.
sailed from England in November, de-
barked in April, and after a five weeks'
residence at Calcutta, fell a victim to
fever. Sir C. Puller was endowed
with a sound understanding, a vigorous
mind, and with powers of indefatigable
application. As a scholar he had im-
bibed that chaste and severe taste which
an education at a public school and an
English University seldom fails to give.
As a lawyer he was distinguished by
the strictest principles and the most ho-
nourable conduct, too proud to stoop to
those meannesses which some gentle-
men do not disdain to adopt to acquire
business, and never swerving, for any
temporary purpose, from the right line

of rectitude and probity which he had
marked out to himself as the path to
be pursued. He married Miss Louisa
King, the daughter of King,
esq. and a niece of Daniel Giles, esq.
of Youngsbury, county of Herts. In
his domestic relations he was above all
praise, and no one can do justice to him
as a son, a husband, and a father.
Nor are these practical excellencies to
be considered as singular, for through
life his virtues were sustained, his ac-
tions directed, and his hopes invigorated
by the faith of a real Christian.—Gen-
tleman's Magazine.

PURVIS, John Child, Esq. Ad-
miral of the Blue, at his seat, Vicars-
Hill House, near Lymington, Hants.
Admiral Purvis was descended from a
very respectable family in the county of
Norfolk. His grandfather, George
Purvis, was an old Post-Captain, and,
at the time of his demise, one of the
Commissioners of the Navy Board. Of
the period of his birth, or of his enter-
ing the service, we are not in posses-
sion; but at the commencement of the
war with France, in 1778, we find bim
serving on the American station, as a
lieutenant of the Invincible, bearing
the broad pendant of Commodore
Evans, in which ship he returned to
England; and on his arrival was ap-
pointed to the Britannia, a first rate,
carrying the flag of Vice- Admiral Dar-
by, with whom he remained until his
promotion to the rank of Commander.

On the 19th of August, 1782, Cap-
tain Purvis, being on a cruise off Cape
Henry, in the Duc de Chartres, of 16
guns and 125 men, fell in with, and
after a smart action captured, the
French corvette l'Aigle, of 22 guns
and 136 men, of whom 13, including
their commander, were slain, and 12
wounded. The British sloop had not
a man hurt. For his gallant conduct
on this occasion, Captain Purvis was
posted, September 1, following; but
peace taking place soon after, we find

no further mention of him till the com-
mencement of hostilities against the
French Republic, in February, 1793,
when he was appointed to the Amphi-
trite frigate, and subsequently to the
Princess Royal, a second rate, in which
latter ship he was ordered to Gibral
tar, to receive the flag of Rear-Admiral
Goodall, and from thence proceeded
with the fleet under Lord Hood, to the
southern coast of France.

On the 29th of August, the fleet en-

tered the port of Toulon, and Rear-
Admiral Goodall having been appoint-
ed governor of that town, Captain
Purvis received directions to take the
Princess Royal as high up the N. W.
arm of the harbour, and as near the
enemy's batteries, as possible. This
being done, and the ship properly
placed, not a day passed in the course
of the six weeks she was so stationed,
without an engagement with the repub-
licans; and notwithstanding their works
(being constructed with casks, sand-
bags, fascines, &c.) were soon disabled,
they invariably repaired the damages
during the night, and again presented
complete batteries on the ensuing morn-
ing. The Princess Royal was conse-
quently much cut up, and had many
men killed and wounded. The loss
sustained by the enemy was also very
considerable.

We next find Captain Purvis assist-
ing at the reduction of St. Fiorenzo,
and Bastia. He likewise participated
in the partial actions of March 14, and
July 13, 1795; and was subsequently
employed in the blockade of a French
squadron, consisting of seven ships of
the line and five frigates, in Gourjan
bay.

The Princess Royal having returned
to England, was paid off in the month
of November, 1796, and Captain Pur-
vis soon after obtained the command of
the London, another second-rate, at-
tached to the Channel fleet. In this
ship he remained near four years, under
the orders of Admirals Lords Bridport,
St. Vincent, and Gardner, Sir Henry
Harvey, and Lord Keith.

Early in 1801, the London, in con-
sequence of her easy draught of water,
was selected to form part of the ex-
pedition destined for the Baltic, and
Captain Purvis was appointed to the
Royal George, of 100 guns, into which
ship he removed off Ushant, and con-
tinued to command her until April
1802, on the 24th of which month she
was put out of commission.

The rupture with France in 1803,
again called our officer into service;
and from that period until his promo-

* In this action the Princess Royal
had 3 men killed, and 8 wounded.
The Ca Ira, of 80 guns, one of the
French ships captured on this occasion,
surrendered to her, after being warmly
engaged with several others of the Bri-
tish line.

tion to the rank of Rear-Admiral, April
23, 1804, he commanded the Dread-
nought, of 98 guns, and served under
the orders of the Hon. Admiral Corn-
wallis, in the Channel. On the 1st of
June, 1806, he hoisted his flag on board
the Chiffoné, and proceeded off Cadiz,
the blockade of which port lasted two
years and seven months, after his arrival
on that station, one year of which it
was conducted by himself during the
absence of Lord Collingwood in the
Mediterranean; and what is here worthy
of remark, the Rear-Admiral conti-
nued at sea at one time, without ever
being driven through the Gut, or even
letting go an anchor, for the space of
nineteen months, during which period
not a square-rigged vessel entered or
quitted the harbour, except on one oc-
casion, when several were allowed to
proceed, having regular passes from
England.

In the spring of 1808, at which pe-
riod Cadiz was threatened to be invested
by the satellites of an adventurer, who
had already usurped the throne of
France, and compelled another branch
of the Bourbon family to renounce his
legal inheritance, Rear-Admiral Pur-
vis and Major-General Spencer, with
whom he co-operated, appear to have
rendered essential service to the com-
mon cause, by establishing peace and
friendship with the Supreme Council
of Seville, at least as far as they had
authority to go.

Rear-Admiral Purvis having trans-
mitted to the Governor of Gibraltar,
Lieutenant-General Sir Hew Dal-
rymple, the state of Cadiz, there being
great commotion, and a strong dispo-
sition in the inhabitants to resist the
power of France, that officer detached
Major-General Spencer, with a corps
under his command consisting of 2,500
men, with directions to concert with the
Rear-Admiral such measures as circum-
stances might render necessary for the
advantage of the public service. The
Major-General in consequence having
taken up his residence with his naval co-
adjutor, those officers immediately de-
termined on circulating certain papers,
with invitations to the various descrip-
tions of persons who were most likely
to accede to their desires. No reply,
however, was returned, and on the ap-
pearance of the transports all the French
and Spanish ships were moved up the
Channel leading to the Caraccas. On
the 18th of May an address was de-

spatched to the Marquis Solano, Go.
vernor-General of the province of An-
dalusia, who acknowledged the receipt
of the letter, but requested no more
communications of the kind should be
forwarded to him. The marquis soon
afterwards fell a victim to the fury of
the populace.

At length, after several long con-
ferences and many letters had passed
between the British commanders and
the leading persons of Cadiz, parti-
cularly stipulating on the part of the
former that the French ships should
be made over to them as a preliminary
act, a convention was signed by each
party; but nothing could induce the
Spaniards to allow their new friends to
interfere in the capture of those vessels,
nor would they permit the English
troops to take post in the vicinity of the
port, declaring that they were them-
selves in sufficient force to reduce their
quondam ally, whom they afterwards at-
tacked, and compelled to surrender at
discretion.

Affairs were in this state when, on
the 11th of June, Lord Collingwood
came into the fleet, and Rear-Admiral
Purvis delivered to his Lordship the de-
spatches he had made up for the in-
formation of the Government at home.

Towards the close of the same year,
the Commander-in-Chief having re-
sumed his station off Toulon, Rear-
Admiral Purvis, on the receipt of in-
telligence that the French had possessed
themselves of Madrid, proceeded from
Gibraltar to Cadiz, in the Atlas of 74
guns, in order to secure the Spanish
feet from falling into the hands of the
enemy. On his arrival he found only
one ship of the line and a frigate in
commission, and all the others in sad
disorder in every respect. His first
object was to obtain permission to fit
the Spanish ships and prepare them for
sea, for which purpose he applied to the
Governor of Cadiz, the Commandant-
General of the Marine, and the Prince
de Montforte, Governor-General of
the province. The replies made to his
letters were by no means satisfactory,
except that from the Prince de Mont-
forte, who assured the Rear-Admiral
that he would without delay submit his
proposal to the consideration of the

* The French squadron at Cadiz,
consisted of five ships of the line and
one frigate, under the orders of a Flag-
officer.

Supreme Central Government of the
kingdom. In consequence of this he-
sitation on the part of the Spanish au-
thorities, much time was wasted before
the ships could be fitted for service:
however, the necessary orders being at
length issued, and a large supply of
cables and cordage brought from the
stores at Gibraltar, all those which were
deemed sea-worthy were rigged and
brought down from the Caraccas by the
British seamen; the remainder were
appropriated for the reception of the
French prisoners, there being at that
time confined in them and at Isle Leon,
nearly 13,000 sailors and soldiers of
that nation.

On the 23d of January, 1810, Vice-
Admiral Purvis learnt that the French
had forced the passes and were march-
ing in great force towards Cadiz, where-
upon he obtained the Governor's con-
sent to his blowing up the forts and bat-
teries along the east side of the harbour,
a measure which he had before proposed
without effect. On the 7th of March
following, during the prevalence of a
heavy gale of wind, a Spanish three-
decker and two third-rates, together
with a Portuguese 74, were driven on
shore on the east side of the harbour,
and there destroyed by the hot shot
from the enemy's batteries.

Fort Matagorda having been garri-
soned by British soldiers, seamen, and
marines, the French on the 21st of
April opened their masked batteries at
Trocadero, and commenced a heavy
fire on it and the San Paula, which ship
had been officered and manned by the
English. The latter was in a very
short time on fire in several places, oc-
casioned by the hot shot; but the wind
being easterly she cut her cables, ran
to leeward of the fleet, and by great
exertions the flames were extinguished.
The fort was bravely defended by Cap-
tain Maclaine of the 94th regiment,
until it became a heap of rubbish, when
the garrison was brought off by the
boats of the men of war. On the 28th
of the same month, Admiral Sir Charles
Cotton arrived at Cadiz in the Lively
frigate, on his way to the Mediterra-
nean, to assume the command of the
fleet on that station, vacant by the recent
demise of the gallant Collingwood.

At this period Vice-Admiral Purvis
had an application from the British

* He had been advanced to that rank,
October 25, in the preceding year.