For the power of communicating these minute memorials, I am indebted to my conversation with Gilbert Walmsley, late regifter of the ecclesiastical court of Litchfield, who was acquainted both with Smith and Ducket; and declared, that, if the tale concerning Clarendon were forged, he should suspect Ducket of the falsehood; for Rag was a man of great veracity. Of Gilbert Walmsley, thus presented to my mind, let me indulge myself in the remembrance. I knew him very early; he was one of the first friends that literature procured me, and I hope that at least my gratitude made me worthy of his notice. He was of an advanced age, and I was only not a boy; yet he never received my notions with contempt. He was a Whig, with all the virulence and malevolence of his party; yet difference of opinion did not keep us apart. I honoured him, and he endured me. He had mingled with the gay world, without exemption from its vices or its follies, but 1 but had never neglected the cultivation of his mind; his belief of Revelation was unshaken; his learning preserved his principles; he grew first regular, and then pious. His studies had been so various, that I am not able to name a man of equal knowledge. His acquaintance with books was great; and what he did not immediately know, he could at least tell where to find. Such was his amplitude of learning, and such his copiousness of communication, that it may be doubted whether a day now passes in which I have not fome advantage from his friendship. At this man's table I enjoyed many chearful and instructive hours, with companions such as are not often found; with one who has lengthened, and one who has gladdened life; with Dr. James, whose skill in physick will be long remembered; and with David Garrick, whom I hoped to have gratified with this character of our common friend: but what are the hopes of man! I am disappointed by that stroke of death, which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the publick stock of harmless pleasure. In the Library at Oxford is the following ludicrous Analysis of Pocockius: Ex AUTOGRAPHо. [Sent by the Author to Mr. Urry.] OPUSCULUM hoc, Halberdarie am pliffime, in lucem proferre hactenus distuli, judicii tui acumen subveritus magis quam bipennis. Tandem aliquando Oden hanc ad te mitto fublimem, teneram, flebilem, fuavem, qualem demum divinus (fi Musis vacaret) fcripfisset Gastrellus: adeo fcilicet fublimem ut inter legendum dormire, adeo flebilem ut ridere velis. Cujus elegantiam ut melius infpicias, verfuum ordinem & materiam breviter referam. I verfus de us mus Us duobus præliis decantatis. 2dits & 3us de Lotharingio, cuniculis fubterraneis, faxis, ponto, hoftibus, & Afia. 4 & 5 de catenis, sudibus, uncis, draconibus, tigribus & crocodilis. 6, 7, 8, 9"", de Gomorrha, de Babylone, Babele, & quodam domi fuæ peregrino. 10"", aliquid de quodam Pocockio. 11", 12", de Syria, Solyma. 13", 14", de Hoseâ, & quercu, & de juvene quodam valde sene. 15", 16", de Ætna & quomodo Etna us Pocockio Pocockio fit valde similis. 17, 18, de tubâ, astro, umbrâ, flammis, rotis, Pocockio non neglecto. Cætera de Christianis, Ottomanis, Babyloniis, Arabibus, & graviffimâ agrorum melancholia; de Cæfare Flacco*, Nestore, & miferando juvenis cujufdam florentiffimi fato, anno ætatis fuæ centefimo præmaturè abrepti. Quæ omnia cum accuratè expenderis, necesse est ut Oden hanc meam admirandâ planè varietate conftare fatearis. Subito ad Batavos proficifcor lauro ab illis donandus. Prius vero Pembrochienfes voco ad certamen Poeticum. Vale. Illuftriffima tua deofculor crura. E. SMITH. * Pro Flacco, animo paulo attentiore, scripsissem Marone. DUKE. DUKE. F Mr. RICHARD DUKE I can find few memorials. He was bred at Westminster and Cambridge; and Jacob relates, that he was some time tutor to the duke of Richmond. He appears from his writings to have been not ill qualified for poetical compositions; and being confcious of his powers, when he left the university he enlisted himself among the wits. He was the familiar friend of Otway; and was engaged, among other popular names, in the translations of Ovid and Juvenal. In his Review, though unfinished, } |