6." DEAR SIR,

Tottenham, Feb. 8, 1813. "I am obliged to you for the loan of the first volume of the Sepulchral Monuments, which I shall return the first time my carriage comes to town. You know I have got the second volume; what must I give to add the first to it?

"As to JUNIOR *, I could have added another reason if the letter CORREGIO + be, as said by Woodfall to be, a true Junius ; but query? proofs are numerous. I have inclosed a copy of the letter you wished to be possessed of, which I had rather you or your son should defer the making use of for a few years. But hope, though ill at present, to see you here at Tottenham in a smaller house; this being too large now I have married three out of five children since I came here.

"Yours very sincerely,

J. E. WILMOT. "Do you wish for any autographs? Come and see the letters."

7. "DEAR SIR,

Tottenham, March 17, 1813.

"I send a very rough draft of two articles for the Obituary of next month, if you think them worthy of it, and would be so good as to correct or shorten them if too long. I am so lame, hand and foot, I cannot copy them over again.

"We leave this house the 2d of April; and expect to have a wedding the 29th of March +.

"Have you noticed any more of the many errata of Bishop Hough's Life? Yours, &c. J. E. WILMOT. "P. S. The worthy and respectable quaker, of whom I bought my new abode only a few weeks ago, is dead, after four days' illness."

8. "DEAR SIR,

Tottenham, May 2, 1813.

"I intend to call upon you on Tuesday, as I think you are generally in town, by half past ten; and should be obliged to you to let me see, if you have got, Lysons's Environs of London. I want to look for an Abbey at West Ham, from the ruins of which a friend has lent me an old seal (agate or onyx), the impression an animal like a dragon §.

"I am told there is an account of the ruins at West Ham in a periodical, or occasional publication, called the Ambulator, or some such name. I have got into a snug house here in White Hart-lane.

"Have you ever met with some Lectures on the Miracles of the Old and New Testament, by Bengo Collyer? I should ke

The letter in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXXXIII. i. p. 1. A letter supposed to be by the author of Junius had that signature. The marriage of his daughter Jemima-Arabella to John Holt, jun. esq. § This is engraved in Ogborne's Essex.

to look at then if you have got them; and perhaps I may bring a volume of my manuscript letters with me.

"I hope your daughters and son are well; and desire my compliments, being yours, &c. J. E. WILMOT."

9. "DEAR SIR, White Hart-lane, Tottenham, May 1813. "I am really so ashamed of the errata in the second volume of Bishop Hough's Memoirs, some of the printer, but mostly of the author, that I have taken some pains to correct them, with a view both to print them on a separate sheet, and to print a cheaper edition, but principally the latter, concerning both which I wish to ask your opinion; and as to the expence of the latter, without engravings, except perhaps that of the alliances of the Bishop, in order to make the letters more intelligible. But, as I wish to make it a cheap book to the purchaser, let me know the difference of two different papers, and what should be the price in each case.

"Yours very faithfully, J. E. WILMOT."

10. "DEAR SIR,

June 10, 1813.

"I have torn out three or four leaves of a little account I inclose, which I intended to leave my son or executors, to print or not; but I have some thoughts, if I live so long, that I may print it myself next spring. I believe the first part of it would contain from thirty to forty of the inclosed sheets; the next reports, &c.

"I wish, if this allowable imperial and royal phrensy will permit, that you would look it over at your leisure; and if you think it is fit for publication, and tolerably correct, I wish you would let me have a sheet of it in print (but not the title-page, which perhaps I might alter). A handsome quarto I think would be the best size; and a proof on such paper as one could write upon. By a sheet I mean two letter-press pages, as a speçimen; and I might be tempted to go on with it in the autumn, when I return from Worcestershire, whither I go in July.

"Yours sincerely,

11. "DEAR SIRS,

J. E. WILMOT."

Tottenham, Jan. 11, 1814. "If I were not so lame, I should call upon you both, to wish you many returns of the year, multos et felices.

"I cannot help expressing my thanks for the entertainment I frequently received this Christmas from your Literary Anec

dotes.'

"I have been amusing myself likewise with corrections; and adding to the many errors and omissions in the printed pedi

grees of the Wilmots *, which I will one of these days show you, please God I live. Best compliments to all your amiable family from your faithful servant, J. E. WILMOT."

12. "DEAR SIR,

March 30, 1814.

"I wish to print two or three epitaphs in the Church of South Normanton in the county of Derby, which might be bound in octavo size; and accompany, or not, the pedigree of which I sent you a copy. I have marked them progressively in the inclosed, according to the dates. Something of this might be the title: A few Epitaphs relating to the Pedigree of the Wilmots of Derbyshire.' "Yours very sincerely,

13.

J. E. WILMOT."

"April 2, 1814.

"Mr. Wilmot's compliments to Messrs. Nichols and Co. and begs to know whether they received his account of the National Debtt; and what Mr. Nichols senior thinks of it? J. E. W."

14.

"April 5, 1814.

"As my brother-in-law Lord Eardley has desired me to draw up an account of him and his descendants, and I have sent my copy of the Gentleman's Magazine to my son in the country, and Longmate is very erroneous, I wish you would let me know from your accurate Magazine when he took (which he does not recollect) the name of Eardley, and when created an Irish Peer. Yours, &c. J. E. WILMOT."

15.

"April 1814.

"I received yours; and I think of having a few more fainily epitaphs printed in the same form, viz. a large octavo, best paper, to bind up with the Life of my Father, or not, though I have given some of them in that volume already; and would wish them to be in order of their dates, except that the Revells had better be all, or nearly, together; but the most modern, (that to Col. Revell,) had better be the last.

"I should be glad likewise to have another sheet, or half sheet, of the same size and paper, containing the inclosed letter from the Rev. J. H. Michell, now Rector of Buckland, Herts, to J. Eardley-Wilmot, which, if I should ever re-print it again, but I do not think it likely (even if life would permit), I should add to the Appendix.

"I have added one epitaph, but two or three others you might

* See Nichols's History of Leicestershire, vol. IV. pp. 344, 937. +"Account of the National Debt, and the Public Funds or Stocks," printed in Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXIV. i. p. 339.

take from the volume, which I believe you have, viz. Lady Marow, Bishop Hough (which notice), Elizabeth Eardley, and my sister Lady Eardley. J. E. W.

"P. S. Write to me if you want further particulars; and you may put it to press, and send me a proof when you please."

[As probably few copies of Mr. Michell's excellent letter, mentioned in the preceding note, have been preserved, and as it affords some interesting details of the life of Sir Eardley Wilmot in his retirement at Wickham, it is here appended. It refers to p. 197 of the "Life of Sir Eardley Wilmot," l. 15.-Of the worthy writer see in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VIII. p. 213; and vol. IV. of the present Work, p. 866.]

16. The Rev. J. H. MICHELL to J. EARDLEY-WILMOT, Esq. Buckland, near Buntingford, Dec. 23, 1813.

"MY DEAR Friend, "Your request that I should endeavour to communicate to you the manner in which your dear father passed his retirement at Wickham during my residence with him, conveys a kind of obligation on my part, which I feel myself bound to fulfil, though not without some reluctance. We are both arrived at that period of life, when the recollection of past scenes, in which we have spent the cheerful season of youth with those whom we loved, and from whom death has long separated us, must be accompanied with some painful retrospects. But I will not give way to such melancholy ideas, though I cannot suppress them at the present moment.

"At this distance of time, after a lapse of more than thirty years, it may be difficult to recall many of those images which once interested and delighted me, in the character, manners, and habits of Sir Eardley, while I had the happiness of being the witness and the partaker of his domestic society. But some of those scenes can never be effaced as long as I have power to think upon his name and memory. His life, however, was so uniform and regular, that the detail of a few days may present a pretty accurate outline of his general employment.

"In summer he rose about seven, when I often accompanied him in his walks into the garden and grounds. There he amused himself with giving directions, which equally shewed his taste and judgment. While his strength permitted, and the weather was favourable, he often exercised himself in the morning in sawing small logs of wood, an exercise, which, I believe, was recommended to him by a medical friend. Immediately after breakfast, which was precisely at nine o'clock, we retired to the library. This was well furnished with books, chiefly from the collection of Lord Eardley, previous to their removal to his lordship's noble mansion at Belvidere. Our first employment

was the perusal of a chapter in the Greek Testament, which Sir Eardley studied with all the accuracy of a scholar and divine, and often with expressions of regret that his professional engagements had precluded him from the enjoyment of sacred literature. This was followed by his kind indulgence to myself in permitting me to read Coke on Littleton, and occasionally parts of Coke's Reports, with a view to my particular instruction, as I was at that period designed for the law. Here I had frequent opportunities to admire his uncommon powers of retention and judgment; any mistake in reading was instantly corrected by him. His observations in elucidating difficult passages and intricate arguments astonished me. He often expatiated on the excellence of the English law, as a system of the finest reasoning in its principles, tracing its origin from the feudal establishments, and shewing in what manner the legal terms, forms of conveyance, and juridical proceedings, were derived from this source. Sometimes he relaxed from this study by substituting some treatise on modern law. Astronomy, too, formed part of our mornings' reading, as far as Ferguson's book on that subject could afford any instruction.

"About one o'clock, unless interrupted by visitors or the weather, he rode on horseback, until the chronic complaint on his loins compelled him to exchange this exercise for a carriage. In accompanying him in his little excursions, I was repeatedly gratified with his conversation with the farmers, workmen, and villagers. His inquiries after their mode of managing their farms, or employing their labour, always ended in gaining from them such knowledge as he could not easily obtain by any other means; while his engaging manner of asking them questions made them anxious to communicate whatever they knew, without reserve or dissimulation. This was a talent which he possessed in a remarkable degree, and served to render our ride an object of information to himself and of interest to them. It was one of his maxims on these occasions, always to level his discourse to the capacity or experience of the inferior ranks, and by this mode of conversation with them on what they knew better than himself, to enlarge his own knowledge.

"In the course of our morning rambles we often called upon some of the neighbouring gentlemen. The urbanity of Sir E.'s manners, and the enlivening powers of his conversation, invariably made him a very welcome visitor.

"Belvidere, the country residence of his beloved daughter Lady Eardley, and within a few miles of Wickham, was one of the favourite places for our excursion. You know the reciprocal enjoyment that must have arisen from such interviews, in which it was difficult to discern, in the scale of affection, whether parental or filial love had the preponderance.

"About three o'clock, the fixed hour for the family dinner, we returned; and, if no company were present, the rest of the