tive argument with me, though by no means an infallible one, that the owners of such noses are apt to be snappish, peevish, and positive. I was told by Dr. Gooch, this 6 June, 1771, breakfasting with me, in his way from Ely to Cambridge, that when the Prebend he holds fell vacant, his father gave it to his Chaplain, Dr. Goodall, to hold for him, who was then Archdeacon of Suffolk, and he not of age to take it himself: and that when the Archdeaconry of Ely became vacant, he would have given that to Dr. Goodall also, but thought it not convenient that he should be Archdeacon of two places at once; so bid him look out for an exchange. Dr. Ch. Plumptre was the Prebendary of Norwich, of the gift of Lord Chan. Hardwick, who gave his consent that Dr. Goodall should have the stall, in case Bp. Gooch gave the Archdeaconry of Ely to Dr. Plumptre, who was the younger man. The Dr. said, that if he had not met with an exchange, he would have given the Archdeaconry to Dr. Goodall also, though he had one already. "He died on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1779, suddenly, being on a visit at Thos, Barrett's, Esq. at Lee, in Kent. "He was also Rector of the sinecure of Orpington in Kent, given him by Abp. Secker. "His nephew, Joseph Plumptre, dining with me at Milton, Sunday, Nov. 21, 1779, told me, that the late Archdeacon, his uncle, had had a slight touch of the palsy about six weeks before his death, and had been declining a year or more. What gave occasion to the report of his dying at Mr. Barrett's was, his having been on an afternoon's visit there, a day or two before. He was buried at Nottingham. I was told that the Archdeacon died rich, and left his fortune to his elder brother, who did not want it; leaving only an hundred pounds apiece to the Master of Queen's daughters, though the said Master had ten or eleven children, and his brother, Septimus Plumptre, Vicar of Mansfield, a large fa mily also: but with him he never was on good terms; and with the Master on ticklish ones, being of a peevish and fretful disposition." 96. Tho. Gray, Pembroke Hall, My most ingenious and lamented friend. "Mr. Tho. Warton of Oxford, in the preface, p. iv. of his History of English Poetry, 4to. 1774, gives no bad specimen of his vanity, by pretending to condemn it, when he tells us that Mr. Mason and Mr. Gray both, gave him their own, together with Mr. Pope's plan and scheme for such an History, but that he had rejected them, on finding them incompetent. "In 1778, Mr. Mason put up a monument for him in West, minster Abbey, and made these verses, to be inscribed on it. No more the Grecian Muse unrivall'd reigns: "I am apt to think that the characters of Voiture and Mr, Gray were very similar. They were both little men, very nice and exact in their persons and dress, most lively and agreeable in conversation, (except that Mr. Gray was apt to be satirical,) and both of them full of affectation. What gave occasion to the reflection was the following passage from the 2nd vol. of Melanges d Historie, et de Litterature, by the Carthusian Dom. Bonaventure d'Argogrie, p. 416, a book that I bought on Mr. Gray's recommendation of it to me. "Madame la Marquise de Sablé avoit accoûtume de reprocher Monsieur de Voiture en riant, qu'il avoit une vanitè de femme: ce que marquoit fort bien son caractere. Il en rioit aussi lui même, et ne croioit pas, que dans un procession qu'il faisoit d'aremer le monde, et toutes ses affectations, ce petit reproche hui fût desavan Jageuse.' "Reading Gil Blas for the 10th, or possibly 15th time, April 29, 1780, the print of Scipio in the arbour, beginning to tell his own adventures to Gil Blas, Antonia and Beatrix, was so like the countenance of Mr. Gray, that if he had sat for it, it could not been more so. It is in a 12° edition, in 4 vols, printed at Amsterdam, chez Herman Vytwerf, 1735, in the 4th vol. p. 94. It is ten times more like him than his print before Mason's life of him, which is horrible, and makes him a fury. That little one done by Mr. Mason is like him, and placid: Mr. Tyson spoiled the other by altering it. "Tom Davies feebly attempts to ridicule Mr. Gray's delicacy, in his being offended at Colley Cibber's Essay on the Character and Conduct of Cicero, in his Life of Mr. Garrick, vol. ii. p. 200. "Mr. Mainwaring of St. John's, in his dissertation at the head of his sermons, preached at Cambridge, and there printed in 1780, gently censures Mr. Gray for his commendations of Mr. Sterne's sermons, p. v. vi. vii. He also thus fairly strictures him at p. xcvi. No writings perhaps were ever more laboured and studied than those of Mr. Gray. Even good judges have almost consented to admit this circumstance, as an objection, and it may be true, that they would have been more pleasing, had they been less perfect. But what quality should most predominate, depends no less on the character of the writer, than on the kind of writing: what quality is most to be admired, is not matter of reasoning, but of taste. However, as the labour of Phidias and Praxiteles, of Zeuxis and Apelles were directed by their genius to the happiest issue; in like manner, the uncommon learning and industry of Gray, far from clogging or incumbering his genius, assisted its efforts, and guided its exertions.' I am a better judge of the truth of what he says further of him, and I wish I could acquit him of a spice of that fatal jealousy of authorship, which he there mentions as having disunited Mr. Pope and Mr. Addison: I speak on certain knowledge, from Mr. Gray's own mouth, a year or two before his death. I knew Mr. Walpole's warmth of friendship was more genuine and lively: this appears by his letter to me from Paris, where he was at Mr. Gray's death: and though their unlucky parting in Italy might have somewhat cooled their original friendship, I am satisfied it never extinguished it in Mr. Walpole, whatever it might have done in Mr. Gray, who perhaps might think himself the injured person, and sufferer in his views for ever. Mr. Mainwaring's words are these, reciting some in stances where rivalry of authorship has divided friends:-' It is more satisfactory to conclude these notes with a striking instance of a contrary kind, and perfectly in point. For the late Mr. Gray and his illustrious friend not only excelled greatly as poets, but precisely in the same species of poetry; a circumstance which, instead of impairing the early affection between them, served only to strengthen and cement it. Mr. Gray's foible was too much fastidiousness and sneering at those whom he called his friends, and I know Mr. Walpole came in for his share of it. "His verses on Lord Holland, and epitaph on Mr. Clarke are printed in Mr. Nichols's Select Collections of Poems, vol. vii. p. 350, 351. Lond. 8vo. 1781." 97. Tho. Goodrick, Bp. of Ely, (claimed at Jesus College,) Bene't College. "I gave the chief of the materials for his life in the Hist. C. C. C. C. the author of which had my first vol. of MS. collections for Cambridgeshire, where is a rough draught of his life: he also looked over these volumes. "I have since, viz. in 1768, enlarged it, and gave it with the lives of the Bps. of Ely, from Cardinal Lewis de Luxemburgh to Bp. Goodrick, in a large and complete manner, to Mr. James Bentham, now about publishing his History of Ely: though I believe he won't print half of it, out of shyness of publishing what Í have freely wrote, and out of parsimony to save paper and expence in printing. "It happened exactly as I foresaw, Mr. Bentham lived under the eye of a Bishop. "One Peter Valantius, a Frenchman, Chaplain to Bp. Goodrick for 20 years, or as he calls himself, Almoner, came to the prisoners in Ely jail, that had been put there for Heresy, by Bp. Thirlby, Chancellor, and encouraged them in their mad folly of being burnt for their Arian and Anabaptistical opinions; accordingly they were made blessed martyrs for their obstinacy by good master Fox. V. Book of Martyrs, vol. iii. p. 430, edit. 1641. "His monument would give a good print of him: but there is a better authority in the famous picture by Hans Holbein of Edward VI. giving the charter; for in it, amongst other portraits, is one of Bp. Goodrick, as Chancellor, standing near the King. It is well engraved by Mr. Vertue, and in my possession, among my antiquarian prints. Mr. Strype, in his edit. of Stow, p. 180, supposed it to be done for Ridley. "Ao. 5, Edw. VI. when Wm. Marquis of Northampton was sent with the Order of the Garter to Henry II. King of France, Bp. Goodrick was joined in commission with him. Ashmole's Garter, p. 392. In Trin. Coll. Libr. and at the investiture the Bp. made a speech to the King, to which the Cardinal of Lorraine returned answer, in the King's name, with all thankful acknowledgements of the honour of the order, p. 402. "As Bp. Goodrick had gone all lengths in K. Edward's Reformation, the meeting of him with the Cardinal of Lorraine must have been an awkward affair: and how his Right Rev. Lordship behaved is not particularized, especially as there was a solemn mass sung at the investiture, at which were present the Cardinals of Lorraine and Chatillon: if the last was he who was here in Eliz. reign, one may conceive him and our Bp. to be on better terms than with the Cardinal of Lorraine." 98. Robert Allot, St. John's College, This Robert was Fellow of St. John's College, 1599: and it seems not improbable, that he was the same person who was the editor of England's Parnassus, 1600,"* and of whom nothing has been hitherto discovered. I found this on the following extract from T. Baker's list of Fellows of St. John's College: 1599, Mar. 30. Ego, Rob. Allottus, Eborac. admissus sum in perpet. Socium, pro Dina F. Medicine Prof. longe experientiss: ac peritiss: E. Notis Jo. Bois."" EDITOR. * See Bibliotheca Anglo-Poctica. |