into the purses and note books of the trio, his brother, his sister, and self; and the more irksome will be the task, as he còntinues to be a polemophobist, and an advocate of course for a speedy peace; but, alas! that is not the ruling passion of the people of either France or of old England, though it may be easily proved that both countries suffer extremely by war. "Yours truly, S. DENNE." 102. Mr. DENNE to Mr. GOUGH. "DEAR SIR, Wilmington, Feb. 28, 1799. "Seldom hath a budget been dispatched from Wilmington to Cicero's Head without some scroll addressed to Enfield; but in the packet sent a few days ago to Mr. Nichols, there certainly was not for you a scrap of antiquarian or other intelligence, because I was unwilling longer to delay transmitting the promised reveries touching Arrii et Sebosi that are to be attached to the Memoirs of Bishop Atterbury, who was so unpolite as to apply, in a letter to Pope, these names rather contemptuously to the gentlemen in his time resident in the vicinage of Bromleyhouse. "Having in a letter to Archdeacon Law expressed a wish that some member of every college would so far follow the example of Mr. Masters as to compile at least a catalogue of members for the use of any person who might be disposed to form Fasti Cantabrigienses; this was the answer I received: 'On your mention of Mr. Masters's list of the Members of his College, I recollected that my late valued friend Dr. Farmer talked to me of an account that he had kept of his contemporaries at Emanuel. I shall, when I have an opportunity, inquire whether this manuscript be existent, and into the accuracy of its information. He professed to me, that he had noticed the situation of the members of our college, pointing out any changes in it, and an account of their literary productions. I shall be deemed, I fear, an apostate, having just entered my son at St. John's *. I now * Henry Law, of St. John's-college, Cambridge, took the degree of LL. B. in 1806; he is now Vicar of Standon in Hertfordshire, to which he was presented in 1811 by William Plumer, Esq. formerly M. P. for that county, who married in 1760 the Hon. Frances-Dorothea Carey, aunt to Mr. Law; but lost her after a union of only sixteen months. Archdeacon Law's wife was her next sister the Hon. Mary-Elizabeth Carey, third daughter of Lucius-Charles sixth Viscount of Falkland, by the Right Hon. Jane dowager Viscountess Villiers (widow of James-Fitzgerald Viscount Villiers, who died in the life time of his father John Earl of Grandison,) and daughter and heiress of Richard Butler, of London, Esq. The following epitaph by the Archdeacon to the memory of his brother, wife, and father, appears on an altar tomb in Broxbourn church-yard, at the east end of the church: "Under this stone are interr'd the remains of Henry Hoadly Law, son of Stephen and Martha Law, who died Septem know nothing of the Society at Emanuel; and, attached as I still feel myself to it, yet such partiality is not to operate in the momentous concern of a son's education. Mr. Smith, one of the Tutors of St. John's, is the very particular friend of Mr. Dampier; is thence well known to me, and his merits are universally allowed.' "Other articles of family and public intelligence, shall, for your amusement, be extracted from two letters of my chit-chat correspondent: "Mr. Archdeacon thus begins his letter of Feb. 14: 'You will not wonder that my attention is primarily directed to the marriage of my daughter. The union, that was completed on Tuesday last, met with my entire approbation. My acquaintance with Mr. Biscoe has been short; but every thing that I have seen has been satisfactory, and more ample testimonies of character I could not have wished for. I trust that he will be happier in this connexion than in a former one; if I may be allowed to commend my daughter, I would assert, that a milder and a more accommodating disposition is not to be met with. I must regret the separation from her; and if her two maiden sisters should follow her example, I shall feel myself in a very forlorn state, however anxiously I ought to wish for their advantageous settlement in life. Our Dean has now left Rochester; he was so good as to prolong somewhat his stay here, in order to perform the marriage ceremony at St. Margaret's Church.' Stephana being the Christian name of the bride, I have no doubt that she received it at the font in compliment to her grandsire; and from the report made of her by her father, she appears to be, happily for herself and the bridegroom, endowed with a large portion of those amiable qualities for which Governor Law was distinguished and honoured. The maiden name of the wife, to whom Mr. Biscoe was before unfortunately wedded, I have not been able to discover. G-, who acquired opulence in the East Indies, is that of her gallant. They still cohabit, but where I know not. An intimacy between Miss S. Law, and a sister of Mr. Biscoe, who is a married lady advantageously settled †, brought on the acquaintance of the nuptial pair. ber the 7th, 1768, aged 19 years. Of the Hon'ble Mary-Elizabeth Law, daughter of Lucius Viscount Falkland, and wife of the Rev. John Law, D. D. who died October 1, 1783, aged 44 years. And of Martha Law, wife of Stephen Law, Esq. who died February 9, 1785, aged 77. testimony of fraternal, conjugal, and filial affection, this stone is inscribed by the relation who was united by these several ties to the above justly valued and beloved, and who feelingly deplores their loss." As a * Joseph Seymour Biscoe, Esq. of Pendbill, Surrey, only son of Vincent Biscoe, of Austin Friars, Esq. by Lady Mary Seymour, only daughter of Edward eighth Duke of Somerset; he was elected F. S. A. about 1797. His daughter Mary was married in 1820 to Sir Robert-Harry Inglis, Bart. F. R. S. and S. A. now M. P. for the University of Oxford; and Frances in 1830 to George Basevi, Esq. F. S. A. + Mary (only daughter), married in 1798 to William Bensley, Esq. a "Hasted, as an advertisement may have apprised you, has let off another squib from his compressed History of our County, and a copy of the dedication thereof: To Joseph Musgrave, Esq. of Kypier, in the Bishopric of Durham,' is, as usual, sent for your perusal, being aware that otherwise you may not have the reading of it. 'Sir, Be pleased to accept this tribute of grateful respect for the friendship you have honoured me with, a friendship begun in our early days, when we first imbibed the rudiments of our education at the same seminary of learning in the county of Kent, whilst we were under our respective paternal roofs in the same neighbourhood. Your property in the county, your encouragement of learning, and of this History in particular in the earliest publication of it, joined to your well known liberality of sentiment, will, I am certain, induce you to continue your patronage to this edition, and to the author of it, which will add to those favours you have already conferred on him, who is, with much respect, your most faithful, &c. 'London, Dec. 10, 1798. EDWARD HASTED.' "The King's-school, attached to the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, must be the seminary alluded to, Mr. Hasted's father having at the time a house in Chatham, and the father of Mr. Musgrave being Store-keeper to the Office of Ordnance in that place. Mr. Musgrave has property in Borden, not far from Sittingbourne; and under that parish, as he has the advowson of the Vicarage, there is probably an account of him and his connexions. He is a man of very different character from his school-fellow, being discreet, and possessed of many engaging qualities; and I doubt not of the Historian's having often experienced the liberality of his disposition. "I remain, dear Sir, yours truly, 103. "DEAR SIR, S. DENNE." Wilmington, March 18, 1799. Acceptable was the intelligence that the now Director S. A. had communicated a billet to his indefatigable predecessor; and pleased was I to learn that the memoir on Arabic Numerals was not to be consigned to Coventry, because the compiling of it really cost us both much time and research; and, though it does not aim to fix the time when these symbols of arithmetic were first used in England, and much less to ascertain the original inventors of them, it will clearly show how astonishingly slow was the progress of them in common use after their excellency must have been understood. "Obliged am I to you for a copy of the sepulchral inscription over the remains of a quondam Vicar of Town Malling; and the remark I have to offer on one of the lines, which is Director of the East India Company, who was created a Baronet in 1201, and died in 1809, s. p. Lady Bensley died Feb. 28, 1830; see Gent. Mag. vol, C. i. 281. somewhat quaint, is, that it implies there was a vulgar garrulity afloat that was not to the credit of the deceased Vicar of Cheshunt. By way of return you shall have a copy from my father's Repertory of Incumbents of the Diocese of Rochester of what he has perpetuated concerning Mr. Browne. 'Carolus Browne, A. M. instit. ad Vic. Malling Occident. March 13, 1730, per mortem Sim. Babbe, Patron. Tho. Twisden, Baroneto (F Regro Sam. Bradford, Epi.); admiss. in Diac. Ord. Sept. 25, 1715, et in Presbyt. Sept. 22, 1717. (E Regro superscript.) E Coll. Trin. Cantab. Vicar. etiam de Cheshunt, Hertf. comitat. obiit Maii 27, 1748, et sepult. est apud Cheshunt.' From some other notes in English, minuted by my father in a different book, it is plain that Mr. Browne was for several years Curate of Town Malling, from which circumstance he became acquainted with the Patron. Nov. 23, 1716, he was licensed to the Curacy, with a stipend of £.40 and surplice fees, provided they did not exceed £.10 per annum; and he was to read morning prayers all Litany and Saints' days, and to catechise three times a week during Lent. At the primary visitation of Bishop Bradford, Mr. Browne returned an answer to the Prelate's injunctions concerning the benefactions to that parish, dated Sept. 28, 1724; and from the term 'injunctions' being used, it must be concluded that he had not taken proper notice of the previous article of inquiry. On looking into the Preacher's Assistant, I observe that he published two Sermons preached at the Assizes at Hertford in the year 1740. Simon Babb, Mr. Browne's predecessor at West Malling, had a dispensation of absence granted to him Oct. 11, 1717, upon his going to the Isle of Providence in North America, but he returned to England, and became Curate of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields. "Somewhat mortified, but not in the least surprised, was I, when I read the complaint of your sensible clerical correspondent in Dorsetshire, that he could obtain no satisfactory account concerning the organs used in so many churches before the reformation, as I have hitherto in vain pursued the like inquiry. The estimated weight of the iron, mentioned in the return of the church utensils at Buckland Newton, was, I sup; pose, noticed in order to its being sold; as to the 'pair' of organs, that was the customary mode of expression, meaning a set; and the same phrase was used for a pair, or pack, of cards. In country parish churches, even where the district was small, there was often a choir of singers, for whom forms, desks, and books were provided; and they probably most of them had benefactors who supplied them with a pair of organs, that might more pro "M. S. Caroli Browne, A. M. hujus ecclesiæ, necnon ecclesiæ de Malling Occiden. in agro Cant. nuper Vicarii. De cujus vita moribusque sileat hoc marmor, garrulus loquatur populus, pronunciabit vero Christus. Obiit annum agens quinquagesimum quintum 17 kalendas Jun. 1748.". Mr. Browne was presented to Cheshunt by James Earl of Salisbury in 1734. perly have been termed a box of whistles; and to the best of my recollection, there were in some of the Chapels of the Colleges in Cambridge, very, very indifferent instruments. The organ of the Chapel belonging to our old House was removed before I was admitted. If you cast your eye on "Addenda to the Histories of Lambeth Palace and Lambeth Parish," p. 272, you will see that in 1565, an olde paire of organs in that Church was sold for £.1. 10s.' It is also mentioned in the Churchwardens' accounts, that in 1517 there was a payment of 10s. to Sir William Argall for the organs; and that in the year 1568 a fee of 8s. was paid for keeping the organs one yere, and new organs must be meant. "From the small Rectory of Keston to the Parsonage of Berewick in Elmet*, is a very advantageous translation. The Rector of Keston being one of us peculiar Clerks of Shoreham Deanery, it was Mr. Hodgson's duty to have made his appearance at the visitation of Sevenoaks, but, as he lived at Croydon, he was, I believe, in the habit of making his bow there to the Dean of the Arches; at least I do not recollect the seeing him among us but when he was in course the Preacher, and he then appeared to me to be a brother who had not been an assiduous labourer in his pædadogish occupation. Keston must be a convenient commendam to the Vicar of Croydon. Of Mr. Ireland's † Sermons I know nothing more than I learnt from the Monthly Review, vol. XXII. p. 350. "I remain, dear Sir, yours truly, S. DENNE." 104. "DEAR SIR, Wilmington, April 1, 1799. "From my correspondent at Rochester I have had, since I wrote last, a very communicative epistle; but, alas! Mr. Archdeacon Law was obliged to begin it with a plea for his delay in not writing to me, owing to his having been detained eleven days on a visit to his brother-in-law, Mr. Cartier, of Bedgbury, who on the 22d of February was suddenly seized, while sitting with two friends after dinner, with a paralytic stroke. The use of the left side is nearly taken away.' Truly do I sympathise with Mr. Archdeacon on this severe attack, which must inevitably render life a burden to a friend and relation so deservedly dear to him. Mr. Cartier was a nonpareil East India Governor; and his conduct since his retirement into the country so excellent that his continuance in life is the anxious wish of his neighbourhood . * Rev. James Hodgson, collated to Keston by Archbishop Cornwallis in 1774. + Rev. John Ireland, D. D. Vicar of Croydon, and now Dean of Westminster. John Cartier, Esq. was Governor of Bengal for two years previously to the appointment of the celebrated Mr. Hastings. In 1774 he married his second wife, Stepbana, daughter of Stephen Law, Esq. of Broxbourn, formerly Governor of Bombay, and sister to the Archdeacon of |