60. Wm, Mason of Pembroke Hall. "He was esteemed at College, where I had the good fortune to be acquainted with him, to be one of the chief ornaments of the University; is now married, and preferred in Yorkshire by Lord Holdernesse, and Precentor of York. His friend, Mr. Gray of the same College, dying, 1771, left him 5007. all his books, MSS. musical instruments, medals, &c. and executor to do with his papers as he should judge proper. "On Friday, Jan. 7, 1774, I was assured for certain that he was the author of The Heroic Epistle, &c. 1773. When I read it, I easily saw the reason of its great character, exclusive of its being well written, in fine poetry; and running through so many editions. Satire and ill nature is always acceptable. The King himself is not spared in several places of this short and snarling poem; so his ministers need not grumble that they are under the lash. He shews himself too much of a party-man throughout. I am sorry for it, as I had a great veneration for his character."-HE DENIES IT-14th edit. in 1777. 61. Wm. Melmoth, Eman. "One of our best translators of the classics into English. He is son of an eminent lawyer, who wrote The Importance of a religious Life. Mr. Melmoth is a most worthy and amiable character; and lived for some time at Shrewsbury, but now, 1771, at Bath, where he married his second wife, an Irish Lady, soon after the death of his former," Courtney Melmoth "is a different person from the respectable Mr. Melmoth. This last is a young man whose real name is PRATT.-Being a lad of some parts, he taught school for a time, and, by means of a friend, got interest with Bishop Green of Lincoln to put him into orders: after which he got a curacy at Peterborough, where, being a flowery and agreeable preacher, he was so much caressed and admired that he got into debt as much as he pleased, and borrowed money where he liked. Dr. Goddard of Clare Hall lent him 201. When he had got to the amount of 8001. he thought it time to decamp; got an inferior commission in the army, and 62. Milner, Jesus College. "In or about 1774 he was presented to a College Living, and died about the end of June, 1779, of a dropsy, occasioned by his drinking too great quantities of small beer. He was an excel, lent Botanist, and a worthy man: of a large size, and black com. plexion. 2 63. Casar Morgan, 1780. "V. Crit. Rev. 1780, p. 67, Monthly Review, 1780. p. 479." I remember him Minor Canon of Ely, in the year 1782; and afterwards Prebendary there. He was a learned man; an indefatigable student; and published a volume of very dull Poems, &c. Editor. 64. Francis Meres, Pembroke Hall. Author of Palladis Tamia. Wit's Treasury; being the Second Part of Wit's Commonwealth. "He was originally of Pembroke Hall; B. A. in 1587; and M. A. 1591. About 1602, he became Rector of Wing, in Rutland; and died there, 1646, in the 81st year of his age. See Farmer's Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare, 2nd edit. Cambr. 8vo. 1767, p. 89. Wood's Ath. Ox. F. i. 146." 65. Owen Manning, B. D. Fellow of Queen's College. Editor of Lye's Saxon Dictionary, 1772. "An ingenious man; a warm petitioner against the Articles and Liturgy; is collecting materials for an History of Surry." (Published since his death by Mr. Bray.) entered upon the stage: and afterwards going to Dublin, married a player there, of the name of Melmoth, which liking better than his own, he took that, and is now known by the name of Courtney Melmoth; and is a writer for booksellers in town. This account I rec'd Dec. 9, 1778, from M. L.” 66. R. Marshall of St. John's College. "Has a Latin epigram before John Hall of St. John's College, his Poems, 1646.” 67. Tho. May, The Poet, was of Sidney College. "Tho. May admissus in Sociorum comeatum, Sept. 7, 1609." Regr. Coll. Sidn. 68. Charles Jenner, Sydney College. Author of The Destruction of Nineveh. Seaton prize, 1768, The Gift of Tongues. Prize poem, 1767. Collection of Poems, 4to. pr. 3s. Town-Eclogues, 1772, 4to. 2s. The Man of Family. A sentimental comedy, "His Eclogues were thought to be ingenious; and his style much improved in them: The Visionary, not unlike Mr. Jerningham's Nunnery, and Vestal. "In the Cambridge Chronicle of Saturday, May 21, 1774, was this paragraph: "On Wednesday sennight died after a short illness at Claybrooke in Leicestershire, the Rev. Charles Jenner, A. M. Rector of that place. He was son to the late Dr. Jenner, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, and was much esteemed as a gentleman of distinguished taste in every polite accomplishment." "I heard at Cambridge, May 20, 1774, that he had been at London, and at Vauxhall, and being of a consumptive constitution, caught cold, and went home ill. He was a good singer of catches, and performer at concerts, and much with Lord Sandwich. His father's imprudences, it is said, much hurt him. The Archdeacon run into debt with every one; lived long at Cam bridge, and at last, about 1770, or 1771, was forced to leave England, and died at Boulogne, or thereabouts. "Mr. Charles Jenner was of an expensive turn; and had hurt his fortunes. Mr. Donald M'Kinnon of Aberdeen University, a native of the Isle of Skye, succeeded him," &c. In the Cambridge Chronicle for Saturday, Dec. 23, 1775, is this Epitaph, &c. "An elegant monument is erected in Claybrook Church, by a lady of very superior rank, to the memory of Mr. Charles Jenner, Vicar of that parish, author of Town-Eclogues, Louisa, &c. on which is the following inscription and epitaph: "To the memory Charles Jenner Clerk, M. A. Who died, May 11, 1774, aged 37. Here in the earth's cold bosom lies entomb'd For oft the sympathetic tear would start and felt it as his own. Reader, It is not Flattery, nor Pride, that rais'd To his remains this modest stone; nor yet A faint idea to the race to come, E. C. 1775. 69. Sam. Kerrich, D. D. C.C.C.C. Author of "A Sermon preached in the parish churches o. Dersingham and Woolferton, in the county of Norfolk, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 1746, being the day appointed for a genera Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the suppression of the late unnatural Rebellion, &c. on Ps. cxxiv. 7. Cambridge, 1746." 8vo. "He was father to my ingenious friend, Mr. Kerrich, Fellow of Magdalen College, who drank coffee with me at Milton this very day, June 24, 1777. Mr. Kerrich had Mr. Worts's Travelling Fellowship, and was at the same time tutor to Mr. Pettiward, Fellow Commoner of Trinity College, son to Dr. Roger Mortlock, alias Pettiward, my acquaintance while Fellow of that College. They travelled together through France and the Low Countries: settled at Paris for six months, and at Rome two years: he is an excellent draughtsman. "Dr. Kerrich, his father, married the daughter of Matthew Postlethwayt, Rector of Denton, and Archdeacon of Norwich: but had been engaged in the former part of his life to a young person at Cambridge, of the name of Newton, who left him her fortune and estate, and for whom he composed her epitaph in Bene't Churchyard, in Cambridge, which he also did for his fatherin-law, Archd. Postlethwayt, which see in Mr. Masters's History of Bene't College, in the Appx. p. 105, as also the former in my vol. vi. p. where is more relating to Dr. Kerrich, who, in 1726, was Rector of St. Benedict's Church in Cambridge." .. 70. Extract of a Letter from the Hon. Horace Walpole to the Rev. Mr. Cole at Milton, near Cambridge. Berkeley Square, Feb. 5, 1780. "I have been turning over the new 2nd volume of the Biographia (Britannica) and find the additions very poor and lean performances. The Lives entirely new are partial and flattering, |