to consider; and returned it. Dr. Clarke himself communicated it to his Lordship. Mrs. Sykes, wife of Dr. Sykes, told me a few years ago, that Dr. Clarke, being intimately acquainted with her husband, would often make him a visit; and when he came, his usual way was to sit with him upon a couch, and, reclining upon his bosom to discourse in the most free, easy, and familiar manner, upon subjects agreeable to the taste and judgment of both. The late Sir John Germaine (whose character is pretty well known) lying upon his death-bed at Westminster, and being in great confusion of thought, relating to his de parture out of the present world, sent to Dr. Clarke, desiring some conversation with him. When the Doctor came, Sir John, in great anxiety, asked him, what he must do? "Oh! What shall I do, Doctor, what shall I do? I am in great distress of mind; what shall I do? Shall I receive the sacrament, and do you think it will do me good to receive it? Tell me, I pray you, tell me what I must do in my present sad condition." The judicious and honest Divine, well knowing what life he had led, and what his thoughts and pursuits had been chiefly bent on in the time of his health and prosperity, told him very sedately, "that he could not advise him to take the sacrament, as likely to be of any avail to him with respect to his final welfare; and so, commending him to the mercy of God, did not administer it." [This I had from the Rev. Mr. Bunbury, rector of Catworth.] I heard Mr. Harrison, of Balls, (M. P. for Hertford) say, that dining at a great man's house on the day that the late Archbishop Wake had been to kiss the king's hand on his being promoted to Canterbury, and mentioning his having seen him coming from court upon that occasion, Dr. Clarke, who was one of the company, after other observations made by others, said, We have now an Archbishop who is Priest enough. Dr. Clarke, speaking to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Doddridge concerning the best writers on the side of Christian Revelation, told him, that Mr. [Rd.] Baxter's treatise*, &c. was, in his opinion, one of the most masterly performances on that subject of any in the English language. The Rev. Dr. Young assured me, upon my asking him whether Dr. Clarke (with whom he had sometimes conversed) was of a free open disposition in discourse, "That no man was more so. He was, he said, civil, obliging, and * Reasons of the Christian Religion. modest, and far from reservedness, when there was a proper occasion for freedom in conversation." An ingenious, learned, and worthy Clergyman, coming out of the country, went one Sunday to hear Dr. Clarke. He was so delighted with his discourse, that, he said, he would at any time go twenty miles to hear him. Pope somewhere has a reflection on Clarke at court*; which arose from the poet's resentment against him, because he refused to use his interest with the Queen to get Lord Bolingbroke recalled from France, with a general pardon. After Mr. Pope's death, the Rev. Editor thought proper to vindicate Dr. Clarke from the aspersion here intended against him, and perhaps to recommend himself to the court, in removing the imputation from so amiable an attendant on it. 1783, March. XXIII. Particulars in the early Life of ATTERbury. MR. URBAN, J. J. IF you can spare a corner from modern politics and wrangling, to elucidate a period in the life of Bishop Atterbury, which till the late publication of his "Miscellanies" has been involved in perplexity, you will perhaps entertain not a few of your numerous readers. The time of his entering into holy orders is not exactly known; but may be very nearly ascertained by his "Epistolary Correspondence; where a letter to his father in 1690 is highly expressive of a superior genius, impatient of the shackles of an humble college life; whilst the father's answer displays the anxiety, together with a mixture of the severity, of the paternal character, offended by the querulousness of the son, and his dissatisfaction. He had taken the degree of B. A. June 13, 1684, (when he was little more than twenty-two years old); and that of M. A. April 20, 1687; and it has been ingeniously conjectured, that he had applied to the college for permission to take pupils whilst he was B. A. only (which is unusual), and that he was refused. After passing two or three years more in the college, he then seems to have thought too highly of himself (when now become M. A.) to take any at all, and to be " pinned down, as," he says, "it is hard luck to be, to this scene." This *Nor in a Hermitage place Dr. Clarke.' restlessness appears to have broken out in October, 1690, when he was Moderator of the college, and had had Mr. Boyle four months under his tuition, who "took up half his time," and whom he never had a thought of parting with till he should leave Oxford; but wished he "could part with him to-morrow on that score." The father tells him, in November, "you used to say, when you had your degrees, you should be able to swim without bladders. You used to rejoice at your being Moderator, and of your quantum and sub-lecturer; but neither of these pleased you; nor was you willing to take those pupils the house afforded you when Master; nor doth your Lecture please, or Noblemen satisfy you." In the same letter the father advises his "marrying into some family of interest, either bishop or archbishop's, or some courtier, which may be done, with accomplishments, and a portion too." And to part of this counsel young Atterbury attended; for he soon after married Miss Osborn, a distant relation of the Duke of Leeds, a great beauty, but of little or no fortune, who lived at or in the neighbourhood of Oxford. In February, 1690-1, we find him resolved" to bestir himself in his office in the house;" that of Censor probably, an officer (peculiar to Christ Church) who presides over the classical exercises; he then also held the Catechetical Lecture founded by Dr. Busby. At this period precisely it must have been that he took orders, and entered into another scene and another sort of conversation;" for in 1691 he was elected lecturer of St. Bride's church, in London, and preacher at Bridewell chapel. The earliest of his sermons in print was preached before the Queen, at Whitehall, May 29, 1692. In August, 1694, he preached his celebrated sermon before the governors of Bridewell and Bedlam, " on the Power of Charity to cover Sins;" to which Mr. Hoadly, (afterwards Bishop) published some "Exceptions ;" and in October that year he preached before the Queen "The Sinner incapable of True Wisdom;" which was also warmly attacked. The share he took in the controversy against Bentley is now very clearly ascertained. In one of the letters to his noble pupil, dated "Chelsea, 1698," he says, "the matter had cost him some time and trouble. In laying the design of the book, in writing above half of it, in reviewing a good part of the rest, in transcribing the whole, and attending the press," he adds, "half a year of my life went away,' Yours, XXIV. Anecdotes of Bishop THOMAS, Doctor YARBOROUGH, MR. URBAN, LET me resume my correspondence by transcribing some further miscellaneous and biographical extracts from the MSS. of the ingenious Mr. Jones. Yours, EUGENIO. OBSERVATIONES MEDICA. July 13, 1752. Dr. John Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln, 1753-1761, being at Copenhagen, and consulting an eminent physician there, near ninety years of age, concerning the best method of preserving health, had this rule given him (amongst seven other rules) viz. Last of all said the old physician, FUGE OMNES MEDICOS, ATQUE OMNIMODA MEDICAMENTA. This I had from the Bishop's own mouth. The other rules related to temperance, exercise, &c. Quære. Whether it might not have been somewhat à propos to have told his lordship the following little story presently after his own, viz. "A very old man, near ninety years of age, being asked what he had done to live so long, answered, When I could sit, I never stood; I married late, was a widower soon, and never married again." The above Dr. J. T. married four times. The motto, or posy, on the wedding ring at his fourth marriage, was, as I have been informed, If I survive, I'll make them five. APPARITIONS, &c. Nov. 30, 1759. Dr. Yarborough, J. J. Rector of Tewing, Hertfordshire, who had a long and intimate acquaintance with the late Gen. Sabine, governor of Gibraltar, whose country seat was at Tewing, told me this story, which he had from the General's own mouth, who was a person of great honour and veracity, and much good sense. That when he once lay dangerously ill of his wounds after a battle abroad, and began to recover, as he lay awake one night in his bed, having a candle in his chamber, he saw on the sudden the curtains drawn back at his bed's feet, and his wife then in England, (a lady whom he greatly loved) presenting herself to his full view, at the opening of the curtains, and then disappearing. He was amazed at the sight, and fell into deep reflections upon this extraordinary apparition. In a short time after he received the melancholy news from England that his beloved consort was dead, and that she died at such a time; which, as near as he could possibly recollect, was the very time on which he had seen that strange phenomenon. This he immediately entered down in his note-book, continuing ever afterwards fully persuaded of the certainty of some apparitions, notwithstanding the general prejudice to the contrary; "which," said he often, "I can, from my "own knowledge in this instance, confidently oppose upon "the strongest grounds." This is the story, and I here set it down as I heard it from the above-mentioned worthy Doctor, without making any remarks. See some other instances of this kind in the late Mr. Aubrey's Miscellaneous Collections, &c. where, (in my own printed book) I have entered down several references, &c. of the same kind: but determine nothing at present. Archbishop Tillotson. J. J. John Jones, of London, Esq. left by his will a very great sum of money to be distributed to charitable uses, at the discretion of his three executors: of whom, the most Rev. Dr. John Tillotson, by his favour and interest, procured towards the rebuilding of the college of Clare-Hall (of which he had some time been fellow) the sum of two hundred pounds. Commemoration-book of Clare-Hall. Dr. William Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, collected, in the course of many years, an immense treasure of remarks upon the Bible, filling up, from time to time*, a large folio edition of it * His Lordship corresponded, upon particular texts, with many learned men abroad. They made it their particular busiuess to discuss, &c. and sent him their answers. |