❝ secret at present, and therefore do not mention it to any "body." He died July 7, 1776; and bequeathed all his books and papers to Dr. Heberden. 1778, July. XII. Anecdotes, Literary and Biographical, of Mr. BOWYER. MR. URBAN, I SEND you, agreeably to my promise, some anecdotes concerning the late Mr. Bowyer; which I hope will not prove unacceptable to your readers. J. N. IT hath been justly observed, "that the life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure." In that of Mr. Bowyer some remarkable incidents have most probably been consigned to oblivion, by his attachment to the duties of a fatiguing profession, and a timidity too frequently attend ant on merit. He was born in White Friars, December 17, 1699; and may almost be said to have been a printer à cunabulis. His father, whose name was also William*, was one of the most eminent of his profession; and his maternal grandfather (Icabod Dawkst) was employed in printing the celebrated Polyglott Bible of Bishop Walton. At a proper age he was placed under the care of the pious and learned Mr. Ambrose Bonwicket, (who had once * Son of John Bowyer, grocer, He was admitted a freeman of London, October 7, 2 James II. and opened his printing-office in 1699.” His son (of whom see Tatler, N°. 178,) was the printer of a news-paper in the reign of Queen Anne, and is introduced by the excellent author of Phædra and Hippolitus, in his elegant poem, intituled, Charlettus Percivall Suo; "Scribe securus, quid agit Senatus, "Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum, In This conscientious divine was born April 29, 1652; went to St. John's ollege, Oxford, in 1668, where he was appointed Librarian in 1670; B. A. 1673; was ordained deacon, May 21, 1676; priest, June 6, (Trinity Sunday) 1680; and elected Master of Merchant Taylor's School, June 9, 1681. 1689, the college of St. John's petitioned that he might continue Master of the School for life; but in 1691 he was turned out for refusing to take the path of allegiance. A curious correspondence of his, with Mr. Blechynden, en this occasion, is in being. been Master of Merchant Taylor's School) at Headley*, near Leatherhead, in Surrey, where his advances in literature were such as reflected the highest credit both on himself and his preceptor; for whose memory, to his latest years, he entertained the sincerest respect; and to whose family he was always an useful friend. The attachment, indeed, was mutual. One instance of the good school-master's benevolence, which made an indelible impression on the mind of his pupil, appeared in the following letter, written a few days after the dreadful fire† (Jan. 30, 1712-13), which destroyed the whole property of the elder Mr. Bowyer: "MY GOOD FRIEND, "I heard of the sad calamity, it has pleased God to try you with, last Monday; but concealed it from your sont till I had the account from yourself, and then broke it to him as gently as I could: he could not forbear shedding some tears; but that was no more than some of your friends here had done for you before, and it would be some comfort to them if their sharing in it might lessen your grief, We have in Job a noble example of patience and resignation under even a severer trial than this of yours; for, God be praised, though you have lost a worthy friend, your children are alive, and one§ of them providentially disposed *The poet Fenton was then usher at that school. + See an admirable letter on the same occasion from Dean Stanhope, in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1777. [See Vol. III. p. 43 of these Selections.] Some other affecting letters on this subject are in MS.--The damage sustained amounted to 51461. 18 s. To the honour of English humanity, let it be known, that, by the contribution of his friends, and those of his own fraternity in particular, Mr. Bowyer received towards his loss the sum of 25391. 15 s. 2d of which 13771. 9s. 4d. arose from a brief, the original return to which is now in the possession of his grandson. In grateful remembrance of this event, the elder Mr. Bowyer caused several metal cuts to be engraved, representing a Phoenix rising from the flames, with suitable mottoes; which were used as ornaments in most of the capital books that were printed both by him and his son. This circumstance Mr. Bowyer used frequently to mention with the highest gratitude; as he did another of the same nature. When the brief was to be read in Headley church, Mr. Bonwicke contrived that he should be kept at home, without assigning any reason for it. The writer of these memoirs accompanied him to that village so lately as 1774, when Mr. Bowyer, with great satisfaction, repeated the above and many other particulars of his younger years. Mr. Bowyer's daughter (by a former wife). She had just before been married to Mr. James Bettenham, who was likewise a printer. She died July 9, 1735, at the age of 39. of a little before, the news of which proved a happy mixture in your melancholy letter; and though you began with it, I made it the close of my narrative to your son. And when we have seen the end of the Lord, as St. James expresses it, we shall find that he is very pitiful, and of tender mercy, as he was to his servant Job, whose losses in the end were abundantly repaired; and since he is still the same God, if our behaviour be conformable, we may humbly hope for the like treatment. As an earnest of which, I must tell you, that he has already put it into the heart of a certain person, upon hearing of your great loss, to pay the whole charges of your son's board, &c. for one year; the person desires to be nameless, that the thanks may be returned to God only. My wife, who truly condoles with you, gives her service to yourself and Mrs. Bowyer, to whom pray give mine also, and to my good friend Mr. Ross: our service likewise, with hearty wishes of much joy, (notwithstanding this melancholy beginning) to the new-married gentlewoman your son speaks for himself in the inclosed, which he just now brought to, "SIR, "Your condoling friend, and faithful servant, AMBR. BONWICKE." Headley, Feb. 6, 1712-13. Mr. Bowyer was admitted, as a sizar, at St. John's college, Cambridge, in June 1716. Dr. Robert Jenkin, the Master of that college, had been a benefactor to his father in calamity; and the son, at the distance of sixty years, had the happiness of returning the favour to a relation of the wor thy Master, in a manner by which the person obliged was totally ignorant to whom he was indebted for the present he received. In 1719, he appears to have been a candidate for a fellowship; at least a Latin letter of his is extant, in which he seems ambitious of that honour. He continued at college till June 1722, under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. John Newcome; and, notwithstanding an habitual shyness, his regularity of conduct and application to study secured him the esteem of many very respectable members of the university. It was in that seminary of learning he formed an intimacy with Mr. Markland* and * See a particular account of Mr. Markland in Gent. Mag. p. 309. [p. 34 of this volume.] Mr. Clarke*, two friends with whom he regularly maintained a correspondence throughout life. Many of their letters are still extant, and are a treasure of polite literature and sound criticism. Both these friends he survived, and sympathetically lamented their loss. On the death of Mr. Bonwicke (Oct. 20, 1722), his grateful scholar had an opportunity of requiting in some measure the obligation he had received, by officiating for some time in the capacity of a school-master for the benefit of the family. In January 1724-5, he was executor to the will of Mr. James Bonwicke, (a son of his worthy master); who bequeathed to him the small cabinett which, in his own will, he gave to a benevolent friend for whom he had always entertained the highest esteem. One of the first books which received the benefit of his correction, after his return from Cambridge, was the complete edition of Selden, in three folio volumes; begun in 1722, and finished in 1726. An instance of his great attention to this work is still extant, in what he calls " An Epitome of Selden, taken in haste, as I read the proofs." 66 In 1726, the learned world was indebted to him for an admirable sketch of the learned William Baxter's Glossary of the Roman Antiquities, which he printed under the title of "View of a Book, entitled, Reliquiæ Baxterianæ. In a Letter to a Friend." A single sheet, 8vo. Of this View Mr. Clarke, in a letter without date, says, "Your account of Baxter's Glossary has pleased the Doctor [Dr. Wotton] exceedingly; and it is his opinion that we shall see your own press produce nothing better than what you put into it. It is exactly to his taste; and books which have the greatest variety of matter, require the greatest judgment to give a proper view of them. After his opinion, you need not ask, nor can I think it worth the while to mention, my own; this *Mr. William Clarke was born at Hagmon Abbey, in Shropshire, 1696; educated at Shrewsbury school, was fellow of St. John's, and chaplain successively to Bishop Ottley and Thomas Holles, Duke of Newcastle. The liv ing of Buxted was given to him by Archbishop Wake; and he was afterwards residentiary and chancellor of the church of Chichester, where he died Oct. 21, 1771. He married a daughter of the celebrated Dr. Wotton, by whom he had one daughter and a son (the ingenious author of the "Letters concerning the Spanish nation, 1763") to whom he resigned Buxted in his life-time. He wrote a learned preface to Dr. Wotton's Collection of the Welch Laws. But his principal work was, a volume on Coins, which we shall have occasion to mention hereafter. "I leave my cabinet of medals to my dear friend Mr. William Bowyer, junior.-Mr. J. Bonwicke's will. is the first view which you have given the public of yourself; the only fault I find with it is, that it is not so large as the life; the more we see of it, the better we shall like it." Very few copies were printed; and it is seldom found with the Glossary, having never been published. On the 20th of December, 1727, he lost an affectionate mother; and received on that occasion the following consolatory letter from the learned Editor of the "Antiquitates Asiaticæ* "SIR, "I would not trouble you with any business of mine yesterday, having too great a fellow-feeling of your case, and knowing how heavily you must then go, as one that mourneth for his mother.' It is now your turn, as it once was mine, to experience the divine rhetoric of that expression, in the fewest and lowest words, the fullest and highest that can be made. But withal, Sunt verba et voces quibus hunc lenire dolorem-possis ;' I mean that irresistible consolation of St. Paul, 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14. "I doubt not but this, and many like Christian comforts, occur of themselves to you, with all the advantage of reflec tion. Providence, when I was under the same disconsolate circumstances, the very day after I received the afflicting news, led me to Westminster Abbey, and there first fed and then alleviated my sorrow by a Greek inscription: Μνημονεύων τῆς σῆς ἀγαθότης &c. Αἰάζω σε καλλίση, καὶ λυπᾶμαι σφόδρα. Τὴν γὰρ ἀνάςασιν νεκρῶν Πιςεύω βεβαιῶς, καὶ προσδοκῶ. "The melancholy occasion will, I hope, be so far from hindering, that it will rather incline you to retire hither, and to fly a little from the place, though you cannot fly from the time of mourning. If he could find it convenient, I should be very glad to see your father with you; and, in the mean time, with my hearty prayers for the consolation of both him and you, I remain, "Your assured friend, and humble servant, Christmas-day, 1727. "EDM. CHISHULL." * Mr. Bowyer's copy of this curious book, which was rendered still more valuable by his MS. observations, has since his death (agreeably to his direc |