to imply want of liberality of manners. In his Essay on Greek Accents not only Bentleian acuteness and variety of learning are conspicuous, but justness of composition, elegance with spirit, and ingenuous and exemplary candour. Without the aid of those prejudices (violent in proportion to their absurdity), which might easily (by the vanity of parents and the blind idolatry of the world to birth and fashion) be improved to teach boys a contempt of discipline, the task of public education, faithfully administered, in whatever hands, will, it is to be feared, grow daily more difficult and discouraging, as domestic manners, which must support the influence of public instruction, become generally dissipated. One circumstance I cannot admit as an advantage to one master, or a prejudice to the other: Dr. Barnard's not having been an assistant, and Dr. Foster's having passed through that customary gradation. The late master of Harrow, Dr. Sumner, so elegantly celebrated by his pupil, Sir William Jones, was an assistant master of Eton. So was the present very learned and able master, who so well sustains the honour of that rising colony. The office of an assistant master of Eton is very improperly called a drudgery: the teachers of the lowest class (though Doctor Foster was from the first a master in the upper school) necessarily instruct, in the intervals between school hours, pupils of the highest; so that the difference is rather in honours and emoluments, than in the abilities required or the liberality of the employment. Nor is passing through subordinate ranks ever thought to diminish the usefulness or authority of those who are to preside, as they may the better acquire experience and a knowledge of the subjects of their future government. His exertions cost him dear, and certainly exhausted the vigour of his health, and cut short the expectation of a life endeared to literature and solid merit. But I cannot, nor will I, think the numbers who yet remember him, as having received their education under his auspices,-allow that the honour of Eton was degraded, or that her real interests, depending on a right system of education, suffered in his hands. What those scholars of his or any of them may be in a public view, is yet somewhat early to pronounce: nor does this so absolutely depend on the ability of the master. They will be useful and respectable mem bers of society, if instructions and example truly adapted to producing that effect can make them so. But in a great and the lessons of the times too strongly counteract those of the preceptor. Yet Eton wants not, nor I trust will ever want, wherewith to support an high and general reputation. I hope, Sir, you will pardon the prolixity of this defence of a man, whom so good a judge of merit as Dr. Barnard, after experiencing his worth as an assistant, established as his successor. Others better informed may do ampler jus tice to his memory. 1784, March. L. XXVIII. Anecdotes of Mr. WILLIAM AYSCOUGH and Dr. DEERING. MR. URBAN, MR. WM. AYSCOUGH, father of Mr. George A. whose death occurs in your last month's obituary, first introduced the art of printing into Nottingham, about the year 1710. He died when his son was almost three years old, leaving a widow, the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Geo. Young, rector of Catwicke, in Holderness. She carried on the business till her son arrived at the age of seventeen, who continued it after her death, and married, first, Elizabeth Prudom, by whom he had no living issue; and afterwards Edith, only daughter of Benj, Wigley, of Wirksworth, Esq. by whom he has one son and one daughter now living. Mr. A. with Mr. Thos. Willington, druggist, at Nottingham, printed Dr. Deering's History of Nottingham, 1751, 4to. being at the expense of all the plates, except the W. view of Mr. Plumptre's house, given by that gentleman. The late Mr. Ayscough, at his death was in his 69th year. Dr. DEERING, alias DOERING, took the degree of M. D. a Leyden. His diploma and the seal of the college were placed by Mr. Ayscough, in a copy of his book of Plants about Nottingham. Soon after he came to London, he was appointed secretary to the British ambassador to Russia, * On a slab on the floor of the S. aile of St. Peter's church, Nottingham; is this inscription: "Here lye the bodies of William Ayscough, printer and bookseller of this town, and Anne his wife: she was daughter of the Rev. Mr. Young, rector of Catwicke, in the county of York. He died in March 2, 1719; she died Dec. 16, 1792," On his return he married, but his wife died soon after he went to Nottingham, where he was at first well received; but his unaccountable temper soon alienated his best friends from him, and the capriciousness of his palate made him perpetually find fault with the table at which he boarded. Thus almost reduced to poverty, he applied himself to John Plumptre, Esq. to assist him in compiling a History of Nottingham; and was by him generously assisted and furnished with most of the materials, But as this was a work of time, he died of poverty and a broken heart before it was published. Such was the pride of his spirit, that re ceiving half a guinea from Mrs. Turner, a Lincolnshire lady, who then boarded in Nottingham, by the hands of his land. lord, the only reply he made was, "If you had stabbed me to the heart I should have thanked you, but this I cannot bear." He lived but a short time after. Before his last illness his friends bought him an electrical machine, whereby he got a little money; and then he was made an officer in the Nottingham foot, raised on account of the rebellion in 1745 and 1746, but this was only an expence to him. He used to say all his helps hurt him, as being attended with more cost than profit. Though he was master of nine lan guages, he would observe that every little schoolmaster could maintain himself, which was more than he, with all his knowledge, could do. He died so poor that there was not a sufficiency to bury him, and the corporation were about to take his few effects for that purpose, when Mr. Ayscough and Mr. Willington administered as his principal creditors, and buried him genteelly in St. Peter's church-yard. He published" A Catalogue of Plants growing about Nottingham. Nott. 1738," 8vo.; and "An account of an improved method of treating the Small-Pox; in a short letter to Sir Thomas Parkyns, Bart, Nott. 1737," 8vo.: and wrote a Latin account of the transactions of the Nottinghamshire Horse, which was put up under their colours after their return from Scotland. All these were printed by Mr. Ayscough, who had several small books in MS. of his writing. 1783, Dec. XXIX. Particulars relative to President BRADSHAW, MR. URBAN, state of the Gentleman's Magazine, of making inquiries after curious and interesting events, is certainly the best method of rescuing them from the ravages of time, as every person who has the opportunity of gratifying the curious will think it his duty to do it. In this light I consider it; and, as long as my correspondence shall be deserving the attention of your readers, I doubt not but you will permit me to add my mole-hill to your mountain of antiquities. S. AYSCOUGH. IN your Magazine for December last, you make inquiry after the periodical publications during the time of the great civil war. These publications will be found nearly, if not quite, complete in a collection made at the time, and now preserved in the most proper place for public utility, as all persons properly recommended, and who conform to the rules established by the Curators, have a right to consult them I mean, the British Museum. This collection was purchased by his present majesty, and by him deposited in that immense treasure of books, manuscripts, and curiosities, which was established by the munificence of parliament, and continues to be supported, in the same manner, to the honour of the nation, and the great advantage of literature. This collection consists of all the political tracts and periodical publications, with some of the religious, which were printed from November, 1640, to the Coronation of Charles II. Their number is about thirty thousand, bound up in two thousand volumes, besides about one hundred small political treatises in MS. bound up with them. They appear to have been preserved nearly entire, as only fifteen volumes were wanting when they were brought to the Museum, part of which have been since discovered, bound up with other volumes to which only one number had been retained. The order in which these books are arranged is periodical, a method (if you can learn when a book was published, or any particular event happened) certainly the most convenient; but if you know only that it was in the course of such and such years, renders an inquiry troublesome. I shall give one specimen of the utility of the Museum in general, and of this collection in particular, by collecting some account of President Bradshaw, according to your request. Harl. MS. 1912, is a very curious volume of Inquisitions *If there is not a copy of this MS. in the Library at Gray's Inn, it is Well worth the attention of the Benchers to have it copied. relating to Grays Inn, with lists of persons admitted, &c. &c. in which I find the name of John Bradshaw to occur very frequently. ELECTED. No. 565. John Bradshaw, 1605. 771. John Bradshaw, 1620. 798. John Bradshaw, 1622. 932. John Bradshaw, 1 Nov. 1637, Holborn, Middlesex. 955. John Bradshaw, 4 Feb. 1638, Hope, Lancashire. 1140. John Bradshaw, 28 Nov. 1657, West Chester. ANCIENTS. John Bradshaw, 23 June, 1645. BARRISTERS. John Bradshaw, 23 April, 1627. BENCHERS. John Bradshaw, 19 May, 1647. PAID FINE FOR CHAMBERS John Bradshaw, 51. Os. Od. 1647. Harl. MS. 1437, the visitation of Lancashire, by St. George, Norroy. P. 153, in the pedigree of Bradshaw, of Haghe, his eldest son, James, was seventeen years of age in 1613. He had six other sons, (none of the name of John,) and four daughters. At p. 155 are some other notes of the Bradshaws, and the following pedigree of the Bradshaws of Bradshaw, which appears rather more likely to be the family. Alexander Bradshaw, da. of Orrell, of Bradshaw. of Turton. |