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his god-father Sir Edward Walpole, and his early friend Colonel Barré, down to the leading Members of Lord Liverpool's administration. He possessed a masculine understanding, with a particular quickness and acuteness of observation. e During a long and active career in th public service (upwards of sixty-one years) he was remarkable for those qualities which eminently pointed him out for offices of great trust and responsibility.

His personal character may be summed up in one word--he was a finished gentle man of the old school-in the best and highest sense of the term. On a first interview something bordering on austerity might be perceptible in his manner, but this common attribute of official men almost instantly vanished, and the natural amenity of his disposition displayed itself in the most attractive colours. His countenance was prepossessing in the extreme; his eye, though keen and piercing, clearly demonstrated a benevolent as well as ardent mind. He delivered his opinions on all subjects with the utmost energy and decision, and with an emphasis peculiar to himself. Few men could rival him in the variety and correctness of his information, or in the extent of his memory, at a very advanced period of life. Such was the accuracy and minuteness of his research, that it was difficult to call in question any historical fact, or even date, which he advanced. The same degree of exactness pervaded the arrangements of his private life, and nothing could exceed the beauty and elegance of his handwriting, but the vigour and perspicuity of his epistolary style.

It is to be hoped that a detailed memoir of this venerable man will be given to the public by the same admirable pen, which some years ago illustrated, in one of the most beautiful biographical sketches extant, the virtues and talents of his distinguished son, Barré Charles Roberts, Student of Christ Church, Oxford. (4to. 1814.) In the mean time this feeble tribute to the memory of Mr. Roberts is offered by one who felt himself both honoured and gratified by his friendship.

[We may add that at the time of his decease, Mr. Roberts was the senior member of the Company of Apothecaries of London, of which he served the office of Master some years since, and in which society he was regarded with the highest respect.]

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This extraordinary and aspiring impostor was born at Warwick, April 3, 1772, and baptized at St. Nicolas church in that town, on the 15th of the same month, being the daughter of Mr. Robert Wilmot, a house-painter, and Anna-Maria his wife. She was educated under the

protection of her uncle, the Rev. James Wilmot, D.D. Fellow of Trinity college, Oxford, and Rector of Barton on the Heath in Warwickshire, and whilst living with him, shortly after quitting school, she appeared as a witness upon a very extraordinary trial for a burglary in her uncle's house, for which two men were convicted and executed. Her story was very marvellous, and her condnct, as she represented it, highly heroic.

At an early age she was married to Mr. John Thomas Serres, who had the appointment of Marine Painter to the King and Duke of Clarence, and was a son of Count Dominick Serres, one of the early members of the Royal Academy. After a few years they separated, and Mrs. Serres had to support herself and children by her own efforts. In 1806 she was herself appointed Landscape Painter to the Prince of Wales. We believe she at one time made her appearance on the stage, and she is said to have performed Polly iu the Beggar's Opera. Mr. Serres died on the 28th of December 1825; and a memoir of him will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcvi. i. 280.

Always possessing a busy and romantic imagination, Olivia at an early age essayed her powers in original composition; but we believe she did not venture before the public until the year 1805, when she printed a novel called "St. Julian." In the following year, she put forth her poetical miscellanies, under the title of "Flights of Fancy." She also published the Castle of Avala," an opera; and "Letters of Advice to her Daughters."

In 1813 she embarked in the first of her attempts to gull the British public, by proclaiming her late uncle before mentioned to have been the long-sought author of Junius. His pretensions were advanced in an octavo volume, entitled, "The Life of the Rev. James Wilmot, D.D." (see the Monthly Review, N. S. LXXII, 94, and Gent. Mag. LXXXIII, ii. 413.) The claim was completely negatived by letters from Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury and Mr. G. Woodfall, which appear in the Gentleman's Magazine for August 1813 (ibid. p. 99.) Mrs. Serres replied in Nov. p. 413, and Mr. Woodfall honoured her with one more rejoinder in Dec. p. 545. The lady was indulged with further attention in the next volume,

pt. i, pp. 213, 344, 535, pt. ii, 24, but the falsity of her pretensions was already apparent to every intelligent person who paid attention to the subject.

Her next extraordinary freak was assuming the character of a theologian, by publishing in 1814, "St. Athanasius' Creed Explained, for the advantage of youth. By Olivia Wilmot Serres, niece," &c. &c. It will be observed she had already began to traffic in assumed names; for that of Wilmot was not given her in baptism.

About the year 1817 she first discovered that she was not the daughter of Robert Wilmot, but of Henry Duke of Cumberland, brother to King George the Third. At first she was satisfied to be accounted illegitimate; but she shortly professed herself to be his legitimate daughter; first her mother was Mrs. Payne, sister to Dr. Wilmot, and afterwards she became the Doctor's daughter. On these pretensions she proceeded to forward her claims to the Prince Regent and Royal family, and the officers of Government.

She employed herself in fabricating several absurd and contradictory documents; the most weighty of which was a will of George the Third, bequeathing her 15,000l.; some of these were printed, for the amusement of the readers of the Gentleman's Magazine, in the number for July 1822. In the following June Sir Gerard Noel was induced to move for an investigation of her claims in the House of Commons, and was seconded by Mr. Hume; but Sir Robert Peel, in a clear and convincing speech, completely set the matter at rest, and enlightened the few who had been deceived by her extravagant assumptions. He pointed out that her documents were framed in the most injudicious and inconsiderate manner, many of the signatures being such as could never have been made by the parties to whom they were assigned. (see Gent. Mag. vol. xc, i. 637). He concluded by humorously observing that, "if these claims were given up, there were others which could yet be pressed. The lady He held in had two strings to her bow.

his hand a manifesto of the Princess Olivia, addressed to the high powers of the Kingdom of Poland, and stating that she was descended from Stanislaus Augustus!"

From this time, however, the Princess Olive was constrained to relinquish her carriage and footmen in the Royal liveries, which some simple tradesmen had permitted her to display, and her latter years were spent in obscurity and poverty within the rules of the King's Bench.

MRS. HEMANS.

May 16. At Dublin, Mrs. F. D. Hemans, the most able of our female poets. For the following memoir of her history and writings we are indebted to the Athe

næum.

Felicia Dorothea Brown was born at Liverpool, in the house now occupied by Mr. Molyneux, in Duke Street. Her father was a native of Ireland, her mother a German lady-a Miss Wagner-but descended from, or connected with, some Venetian family, a circumstance which Mrs. Hemans would playfully mention, as accounting for the strong tinge of romance and poetry which pervaded her character from her earliest childhood. When she was very young, her family removed from Liverpool to the neighbourhood of St. Asaph, in North Wales. She married at an early age-and her married life, after the birth of five sons, was clouded by separation from her husband. On the death of her mother, with whom she had resided, she broke up her establishment in Wales, and removed to Wavertree, in the neighbourhood of Liverpool-from whence, after a residence of about three years, she again removed to Dublin, her last resting-place.

From childhood, her thirst for knowledge was extreme, and her reading great and varied. Those who, while admitting the high-toned beauty of her poetry, accused it of monotony of style and subject, (they could not deny to it the praise of originality, seeing that it founded a school of imitators in England, and a yet larger in America,) little knew to what historical research she had applied herself how far and wide she had sought for food with which to fill her eager mind. It is true that she only used a part of the mass of information which she had collected,for she never wrote on calculation, but from the strong impulse of the moment, and it was her nature intimately to take home to herself and appropriate only what was high-hearted, imaginative, and refined. Her knowledge of classic literature, however, may be distinctly traced in her Sceptic, her Modern Greece,' and many other lyrics. Her study and admiration of the works of ancient Greek and Roman art, were strengthened into an abiding love of the beautiful, which breathes both in the sentiment and structure of every line she wrote (for there are few of our poets more faultlessly musical in their versification); and when, subsequently, she opened for herself the treasuries of German and Spanish legend and literature, how thoroughly she had imbued herself with their spirit may be seen in

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her Siege of Valencia,' in her glorious and chivalric Songs of the Cid,' and in her Lays of Many Lands,' the idea of which was suggested by Herder's Stimmen der Völker in Liedern.'

But though her mind was enriched by her wide acquaintance with the poetical and bistorical literature of other countries, it possessed a strong and decidedly marked character of its own, which coloured all her productions--a character which, though anything but feeble or sentimental, was essentially feminine. Her imagination was rich, chaste, and glowing; those who saw only its published fruits, little guessed at the extent of its variety.

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It is difficult to enumerate the titles of her principal works. Her first childish efforts were published when she was only thirteen, and we can only name her subsequent poems- Wallace,' Dartmoor,' The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy,' and her Dramatic Scenes.' These were, probably, written in the happiest period of her life, when her mind was rapidly developing itself, and its progress was aided by judicious and intelligent counsellors, among whom may be mentioned Bishop Heber. A favourable notice of one of these poems will be found in Lord Byron's Letters; and the fame of her opening talent had reached Shelley, who addressed a very singular correspondence to her. With respect to the world in general, her name began to be known by the publication of her Welsh Melodies,' of her Siege of Valencia,' and the scattered lyrics which appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, then under the direction of Campbell. She had previously contributed a series of prose papers, on Foreign Literature, to Constable's Edinburgh Magazine, which, with little exception, are the only specimens of that style of writing ever attempted by her. To the Siege of Valencia,' succeeded rapidly, her Forest Sanctuary,' her 'Records of Woman', (the most successful of her works,) her Songs of the Affections', (containing, perhaps, her finest poem,

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The Spirit's Return',) her National Lyrics and Songs for Music,' (most of which have been set to music by her sister, and become popular), and her Scenes and Hymns of Life.'

We should also mention her tragedy, The Vespers of Palermo,' which, though containing many fine thoughts and magnificent bursts of poetry, was hardly fitted for the stage; and the songs which she contributed to Col. Hodges' Peninsular Melodies.'

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She had been urged by a friend to undertake a prose work, and a series of 'Artistic Novels,' something after the

manner of Tieck, and Goethe's KunstRomanen, as likely to be congenial to her own tastes and habits of mind, and to prove most acceptable to the public.

"I have now," she says, (in a letter written not long since), "passed through the feverish and somewhat visionary state of mind often connected with the passionate study of art in early life; deep affections, and deep sorrows, seem to have solemnized my whole being, and I now feel as if bound to higher and holier tasks, which, though I may occasionally lay aside, I could not long wander from without some sense of dereliction. I hope it is no self-delusion, but I cannot help sometimes feeling as if it were my true task to enlarge the sphere of Sacred Poetry, and extend its influence. When you re

ceive my volume of Scenes and Hymns,' you will see what I mean by enlarging its sphere, though my plan as yet is very imperfectly developed."

In private life, Mrs. Hemans was remarkable for shrinking from the vulgar honours of lionism, with all the quiet delicacy of a gentlewoman; and at a time when she was courted by offers of friendship and service, and homages sent to her from every corner of Great Britain and America, to an extent which it is necessary to have seen to believe, she was never so happy as when she could draw her own small circle around her, and, secure in the honest sympathy of its members, give full scope to the powers of conversation, which were rarely exerted in general society, and their existence, therefore, hardly suspected. It will surprise many to be told, that she might, at any moment, have gained herself a brilliant reputation as a wit, for her use of illustration and language was as happy and quaint, as her fancy was quick and excursive; but she was, wisely for her own peace of mind, anxious rather to conceal than to display these talents. Her sensitiveness on this point, prevented her ever visiting London after her name had become celebrated: and, in fact, she was not seldom reproached by her zealous friends for undervaluing, and refusing to enjoy, the honours which were the deserved reward of her high talents, and for shutting herself up, as it were, in a corner, when she ought to have taken her place in the world of society as a leading star. The few who knew her will long remember her eager child-like affection, and the sincere kindliness with which, while she threw herself fully and frankly on their good offices, she adopted their interests as her own.

Her health had for many years been precarious and delicate: the illness of which she died was long and complicated,

but, from the first, its close was foreseen; and we know from those in close connexion with her, that her spirit was placid and resolved, and that she looked forward to the approach of the last struggle without a fear.

GEORGE PINCKARD, M D.

May 15. In Bloomsbury-square, aged 67, George Pinckard, esq. M.D. Physician to the Bloomsbury Dispensary.

Dr. Pinckard was a distinguished member of the College of Physicians, and in extensive private practice. In early life he was attached to the medical department of the army, having accompanied the expedition of Sir Ralph Abercromby to the West Indies, towards the close of the last century, as Physician to the Forces. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of Inspector-General of Hospitals, and continued for many years to superintend the entire medical department of that unhealthy station. He had a mind enriched by the stores of literature, and was the author of several works. Among these, his "Notes on the West Iudies," published in three octavo volumes, 1806, is regarded as a production of standard utility as a medical guide to the climate, abounding in original and intelligent views of the state of society, and accurate statistical information. Dr. Pinckard was founder of the Bloomsbury Dispensary, and continued the Physician for upwards of thirty years. To his professional exertions, and unremitting solicitude for its welfare, that charitable institution mainly owes its flourishing state. The severe visitations of bodily pain, to which for the last ten years he was occasionally subject by the disorder which so abruptly cut short his existence, compelled him to relax somewhat in the number of his personal attendances at the infirmary, and at the bed-side of the poor; but his mind continued to the last to watch over and

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promote its interests. In a pamphlet published shortly before his death, he has left proofs of the intelligence of his mind, and of his active benevolence in the cause of the poor.

A coroner's jury assembled to inquire into the circumstances of his sudden death. Dr. Rchard Pinckard, his nephew, said he resided in the same house with the deceased, and on Friday morning, May 15, his uncle proceeded to take breakfast, witness reading to him during the time. While thus engaged, a patient called, and Dr. George Pinckard went down stairs to him. In a minute or two witness heard a sound as if something had fallen heavily, and shortly afterwards the bell rang. The female patient who

had called on the deceased, told him, that after Dr. Pinckard had examined her throat, he turned round to write her a prescription, but before he got to the table he fell down, and in less than two minutes was a corpse. Dr. Williams of Bedfordplace, and Dr. Moore of Lincoln's-innfields, deposed that they were present at the examination of the body, and they had ascertained that the deceased laboured under a disease termed angina pectoris for a considerable length of time. They fouud partial ossification in the vessels about the heart, and also inflammation of the aorta. The jury returned a verdict of" Died by the visitation of God."

Dr. Pinckard was married June 27, 1817, to Miss Eastwood.

RICHARD SHARP, ESQ.

March 30. At Dorchester, on his road from Torquay to London, aged 76, Richard Sharp, esq. of Park-lane, and Mickleham, F.R.S. and S. A.; a gentleman well known in the literary world as "Conversation Sharp."

Though a great part of his life was spent in the superintendence of extensive commercial concerns, of which the responsibility rested on himself alone, he made such good use of his leisure, as to merit and receive the title of a man of letters, not the least distinguished of his time.

His "Letters and Essays in Prose and Verse," recently published, show that, if he had more exclusively devoted himself to study and composition, he might have taken a high station among our moral philosophers and moral poets. His taste and judgment were so correct, that Sir James Mackintosh, who was well acquainted with him, said that Mr. Sharp was the best critic he had ever known. His advice, which was equally valuable in matters of speculation and of practice, was always at the service of his friends, in whose reputation and success in life he never failed to take a lively and a generous interest. He was not less distinguished by his benevolence and kindness of heart, than by his powers of conversation. At the general election of 1806, he was returned to Parliament for Castle Rising, for which he sat till 1812, and was afterwards chosen for Portarlington, for which borough, we believe, he sat until 1820. In politics he was in principle a steady and consistent Whig; and though he had latterly retired from Parliament, no one was more watchful of political events, or more anxious for the extension of civil and religious liberty, and the improvment of the moral condition and happiness of society. Mr. Sharp has left behind him upwards of 250,0007. He has bequeathed

to Miss Kinnaird, his niece, to whom he was most affectionately attached, 150,0007, and he has fairly distributed 100,000l. among his other nieces and nephews.

SIR GEORGE TUTHILL, M.D. April 7. In Cavendish-square, Sir George Tuthill, Knt. M.D. Fellow of the College of Physicians. He was of Caius College, Cambridge; in 1794 was fifth Wrangler; and was subsequently elected to present a University address to the King.

Sir George Tuthill's entrance upon his professional career was considerably protracted, owing to an untoward circumstance, from which he was somewhat romantically delivered. Previous to the war with France, having proceeded to Paris, he was, with his lady, included among the numerous detenus at that period. When he had continued in captivity for some years, Lady Tuthill was at length recommended to appeal to the generosity of the first Consul; and, being provided with a petition, she encountered Napoleon and his suite on their return from hunting, and respectfully presented her memorial. The result was propitious, and in a few days they were on their road to England.

This accomplished physician was for many years attached to Bethlem and the Westminster Hospitals, and was highly esteemed by his professional brethren for his extensive professional acquirements, and general erudition. Under a cold exterior, Sir George Tuthill carried a very warm heart, and was much beloved by his patients and friends-he was peculiarly straightforward in his transactions, and was always actuated by the finest feelings of a gentleman and honourable man. His friendship was not readily given; it was never slightly withdrawn. Sir George was strictly a sententious speaker-he spoke in quick, short sentences, seldom uttering a word more than the occasion required, or omitting one that was necessary. He was for many years a lecturer on the practice of physic, &c., and, at one time, boasted the largest class in London; of late, his practice had been chiefly devoted to diseases of the brain, and his name has usually been included among the evidences in the Commissions de lunatico inquirendo. He was appointed to deliver the Harveian oration at the College of Physicians, on the 25th of June, and with his friends Sir Henry Halford, and lately deceased colleague, Dr. Maton, was actively engaged in effecting such wholesome reforms in the College as he deemed the improvement in the present state of medical science had GENT. MAG. VOL. IV.

rendered necessary. He was, however, a firm opponent to radicalism in the profession.

Sir G. L. Tuthill received the honour of Knighthood, April 28, 1820. Sir George's malady was inflammation of the larynx his medical attendants were Sir H. Halford, Dr. Warren, Dr. Watson, and Mr. Laurence. Mr. Knox, of the Westminster Hospital, also sat up with him. He died after an illness of 10 days. His funeral took place on the 14th April at St. Alban's. Many individuals of rank were desirous of paying the last sad token of respect to his memory, but Mr. Basil Montagu, his executor, directed that his funeral should be strictly private, in obedience to the wishes of Sir George, who was known to have an aversion to the pomp and show of mourning. He has left a widow and daughter.

His library, containing a good collection of books in medical, botanical, and miscellaneous literature, was sold by Messrs. Sotheby on the 26th and 27th of June.

MR. WILLIAM BLANCHARD. May 9. At Chelsea, aged 66, Mr. William Blanchard, the eminent comedian.

He was a native of York, where he was brought up by an uncle, the printer of one of the newspapers, who apprenticed him to the same business. At the age of seventeen, however, he left home to join a company of comedians at Buxton, in Derbyshire, then under the management of Mr. Welsh. He made his debut under the assumed name of Bentley, in the part of Allen a Dale in Robin Hood, and a favourable reception induced him to pursue his theatrical career. His success continuing, he was induced after a year or two to appear in his proper name, and performed some of the most usual tragic characters, as Romeo, young Norval, Barnwell, &c.

When he had attained the age of twenty, he became a manager on his own account, and opened theatres at Penrith in Cumberland, Hexham in Northumberland, and Barnard Castle and Bishop's Auckland in Durham, After a few seasons he relinquished management a poorer man than when he commenced.

In 1793 he was engaged by Mr. Brunton, for the Norwich company; in which he had abundant opportunities for the display of his talents. In particular his performance of rustic characters, old men, smart servants, sailors, &c. obtained him some applause, and rendered him an established favourite throughout that circuit. His increasing reputation attracted the attention of the managers of Covent Garden, who at once engaged him for five

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