the beginning of next week. This painful office, which millions would not have tempted me to accept, he pressed upon me so urgently when I last saw him, that I could not refuse him. He is to be buried in Plumstead Church, somewhere near London. Should you like to attend the funeral, you have nothing to do but to send word to Montagu-square. I trust to your friendship to mention his death in the public papers. Alas! I am incapable of doing any thing but to lament the irreparable loss I have sustained. Yours most truly, THOMAS LEMAN."

19. "MY DEAR SIR,

Crescent, Bath, Dec. 1, 1820. Being now able to read your letter, I can return you specific answers to all your queries. The monument, or tablet, is directed in his will; and in a private paper, left me as his executor, he adds, I hope the Master and Fellows of Emanuelcollege will let my monument be (after the design, and with the inscription affixed to my will,) placed at the north end of the cloisters.' As to any alterations that you may think necessary, I leave them entirely to your pure taste and sound critical judgment; and I add only, that I shall readily pay any expense relative to the having it written by your schoolmaster. I never saw Mr. Shout, nor do I know any thing of him; but I suppose, of course, that he will rigidly follow any orders you are so good as to give him.

"You cannot conceive what a weight you have taken off my mind by employing an amanuensis; for since I received the stone from Rosetta, and the brick from Babel, I have never been so completely puzzled. Your writing certainly is more mysterious than the former, and more inexplicable than the latter.

"Sir William Scott has written to me to inquire if I had found among my friend's papers some letters relating to the late Dr. Goldsmith, and which had passed between him and Burke, and Johnson and Marley, and were supposed to be in the Bishop's possession. There are none such in England, and I do not recollect ever having heard of such having been in his possession. Can you, who lived in such intimacy with the Bishop, recollect any thing about them?

"I do hope, and even entreat you to pay some attention to your health, and not to neglect the trifling complaint in your leg; for your life is of consequence to the world, and more particularly to your friends. I remain with great respect, my dear Sir, yours very faithfully, THOMAS LEMAN."

455

The Rev. James Douglas, author of the Nænia Britannica, was originally of the military profesion. In January 1780 he married Margaret, daughter of John Oldershaw, Esq. of Rochester (who had previously been an eminent surgeon at Leicester); and in the same year he was elected F. S. A. being then styled of Stratton-street, Piccadilly, and entered into holy orders. For some time he was a member of Peter-house, Cambridge. He afterwards settled in Sussex, where, after serving several Curacies, and having for some years been a Chaplain in Ordinary to the Prince of Wales, he was in 1799 presented by the King to the Rectory of Middleton. In 180.. he was presented by Lord Henniker to the Vicarage of Kenton in Suffolk.

His first publication was in the line of his original profession, "Essay on Tactics, from the French of Guibert, 1781," 2 vols. 8vo.

In 1782 he published, but without his name, one volume of "Travelling Anecdotes, through various Parts of Europe," and promised a second. This work was a mixture of description and anecdote, and was written somewhat in the manner of Sterne. It attracted considerable notice *; and a second edition, with the author's name, appeared in 1785. In the Preface to this, he "made an apology for declining to give the promised second volume of these Anecdotes, hinting very properly that more serious avocations are better suited to his present engagements in the solemn duties of the Church +.”

In 1785 he contributed to the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, "Two Dissertations on the brass instruments called Celts, and other arms of

* See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VIII. p. 685. There is a critique upon it, with extracts, in the Monthly Review, vol. LXVII. pp. 93-100. + Ibid. vol. LXXIV. p. 235.

the Antients, found in this Island*." The dedication to Lieut.-General Melville, F. R. S. F. A. S. &c. is dated from Chiddingfold in Sussex.

The same friend having addressed to him some observations on an ancient sword +, supposed to be Roman, Mr. Douglas returned him a reply; and both letters were read before the Society of Antiquaries, Jan. 27, 1785, and are printed in the Archæologia, vol. VII. pp. 374–378. On the same day also was read to the Society, and will be found in the pages following those named, a letter addressed to Mr. Douglas by the Rev. Mr. Mutlow, containing an "Account of some Antiquities found in Gloucestershire."

About the saine time he sketched the well-known whole-length portrait of Captain Grose, whom he caught napping; it was "cordially inscribed to those Members of the Antiquarian Society who adjourn to the Somerset, by one of their devoted brethren."

Also in 1785 he published in 4to, "A Dissertation on the Antiquity of the Earth;" read at the Royal Society, 12th of May that year §. This was

* The first of these had been read before the Society of Antiquaries, June 17, 1784, but not printed in the Archæologia, the Council fearing that so doing might "invade on Mr. Douglas's materials for the work he was then writing on the sepulchres of the ancients found in this island." His plan, however, being somewhat altered, and having perceived himself obliged to discard such observations as did not immediately relate to his subject, communicated his papers on Celts to Mr. Nichols; and they formed the Thirty-third Number of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, but are bound in the first volume.— This pamphlet has two masterly aquatint engravings by the author. To these in a review in the Gentleman's Magazine due commendation was given, whilst the Critic (Mr. Gough) found many holes to pick in the dissertation. See vol. LVI. of that work, p. 150. Mr. Douglas wrote a letter in reply, which will be found, ibid. p. 245.

+ Engraved in the Nænia Britannica, plate xxvI.

This plate is particularly noticed with the Captain's other portraits, in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. III. p. 659.

Noticed by the Monthly Reviewer, vol. LXXV. p. 457

an early essay on those diluvian remains, the study of which has been recently renewed with such increased ardour.

In 1786 appeared in folio, the first number of Mr. Douglas's greatest undertaking, intituled, "Nænia Britannica; or, a Sepulchral History of Great Britain, from the earliest period to its general conversion to Christianity. Including a complete series of the British, Roman, and Saxon Sepulchral Rites and Ceremonies, with the contents of several hundred Burial-places, opened under a careful inspection of the Author; tending to illustrate the early part of, and to fix on a more unquestionable criterion for the study of antiquity. To which are added, Observations on the Celtic, British, Roman, and Danish barrows discovered in Britain." In this work every circumstance relative to the tombs is particularly described, and the tombs themselves, with all their contents, are represented on aquatinta plates, executed by Mr. Douglas, and admirably adapted for conveying an accurate idea of the decayed relics*.

In the Forty-second Number of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, which was published in 1787, was another article by Mr. Douglas. This was "On the Urbs Rutupia of Ptolemy, and the Lundenwic of the Saxons t."

Mr. Douglas's excellent specimens of amateur engravings were thus applauded: "The plates in aquatinta, which we find to be the author's own performance, are neatly executed, and are good representations of the originals, particularly those of the coins, which we cannot help commending as engravings, although they are totally foreign to the main subject of his book."

* See the criticism of the Monthly Reviewer quoted in the Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 8.

† Mr. Douglas maintained that Rutupia was not Richborough, but Canterbury; that "the Lunden-wic, where Mellitus was Bishop, was London; the Londen-wic, cited from the Textus Roffensis, concerning commerce in that place, was Canterbury; and the Lunden-wic, so called in Ethelbert's grant, Reculver."

In 1791 Mr. Douglas published "Twelve Discourses on the Influence of the Christian Religion on Civil Society," 8vo *.

In 1793 he completed his Nænia Britannica in one folio volume, containing nearly forty plates, besides vignettes; and dedicated it to the Prince of Wales, to whom he had previously been appointed a Chaplain in Ordinary.

In 1795 he contributed to the History of Leicestershire a delicate plate of Coston Church, accompanied by the representation of a perfect fossil oyster, found in that parish. This plate was by his own masterly hand, in that species of engraving in which he so much excelled.

In 1818 Mr. Douglas communicated to the Gentleman's Magazine, a letter on some Roman Antiquities discovered at Blatchington in Sussex, with notices of other remains in that county t.

Mr. Douglas died at Preston in Sussex, Nov. 5, 1819, leaving a widow, three sons, and one daugther.

1. Rev. JAMES DOUGLAS to Mr. URBAN‡.

"MR. URBAN, Sept. 28, 1793. "It was a remark of Dr. Johnson, that the duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever it may discover; and to promulgate the determinations of Truth, whatever she shall dictate. The justness of this aphorism is universally received.

"On the publication of the Nænia Britannica, as the author had spoken freely, though not unhandsomely, of modern antiquaries, it was natural to suppose he would meet with various opinions, and encounter the occasional attacks of those who differed from him. The work became the property of the public, and praise or censure the public had a right to bestow; but, in the promulgation of critique, how far the dictates of truth

* See the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 88.

+ See Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXVIII. ii. 107. In a note Mr. Douglas mentions having been favoured by "a correspondence with the Rev. Thomas Leman, of Bath, one of the able Editors and Commentators of the new edition of the Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester."

From the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LXIII. ii. p. 881.