Origin of Bland's 'Anthology'-Hodgson's contributions to it-Sketch of Bland's life and passages from his letters. 226 MEMOIR OF THE REV. FRANCIS HODGSON, B.D. CHAPTER I. FAMILY HISTORY-VAUGHANS-COKES-MOTHER'S INFLUENCE-ENTRANCE AT ETON. ABOUT the middle of the last century the rectory of Humber, in Herefordshire, was held by the Rev. James Hodgson. Born towards the close of the reign of Queen Anne, in the year 1711, he received his early education at the school of Hawkshead, in the Lake District, in Lancashire, at that time a school of considerable importance, at which the poet Wordsworth was subsequently educated. Ordained to the curacy of Humber, he served that parish for many years as curate before he was presented to its rectory by King George III. His sound theological learning, and the earnest piety of his disposition, are amply attested by the many sensible and practical sermons which he left; and for the twenty years during which he held the living he appears to have led the useful, unobtrusive life of a country clergyman, in the faithful discharge of his parochial duties, and in quiet intercourse with the families in the neighbourhood. About the year 1735 he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Henry Vaughan, vicar of the neighbouring parish of Leominster. The general question of hereditary influences is perhaps more fitted for the discussion of the genealogist than of the biographer; but when characteristic traits are distinctly noticeable in successive generations of a family, some mention of them in a biography cannot be considered to be foreign to its subject and purpose. The intense love of poetry which exercised so strong an influence upon the character of Francis Hodgson, the subject of the present memoir, does not appear to have been inherited from his father or grandfather, although both exhibited a fondness for classical compositions in prose and verse. But there is more reason to suppose that the poetic faculty may have descended to him from the family of Vaughans into which his grandfather married. It may not therefore be considered altogether irrelevant or un THE POET VAUGHAN. 3 interesting to mention briefly what is known of this talented family. In the short biographical sketch appended to the poems of Henry Vaughan, the Silurist,' edited by the Rev. H. F. Lyte, some account is given of its origin. We there read that The poet Vaughan was descended from one of the most ancient and respectable families of the Principality, deducing its pedigree from the ancient kings of that country. Two of his ancestors, Sir Roger Vaughan and Sir David Gam, lost their lives at the battle of Agincourt. His great-grandmother was Lady Frances Somerset, daughter of Thomas Somerset, third son of Henry, Earl of Worcester; and the possessions of the Vaughan family were very extensive, both in Brecknockshire and other parts of Wales. The chief family residence was the castle of Tretower, in the parish of Cwmdû, and when it was dismantled, Skethrock or Scethrog, in the same neighbourhood. At this latter place Shakspeare is said to have paid a visit to one of the family, and his commentator, Malone, thinks that it was perhaps there that he picked up the 1 That part of the Welsh border in which the Vaughans lived was called Siluria. |