Brave Abdael o'er the prophet's school was placed;
Abdael, with all his father's virtue graced.—P. [348.]
Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, son to the restorer of the monarchy. He seems to have had no particular character of his own, excepting that he was fond of mechanics, and suggested some improvements on the diving-bell. The Whig writers seldom mention him without a sneer at his understanding.[446] His talents were, however, sufficient to recommend him to be chancellor of Cambridge, in place of the Duke of Monmouth, once the idol of the university, but whose picture they, in 1682, consigned to the flames, with all the solemnities of dishonour.[447] There is a Pindaric ode upon the election of the Duke of Albemarle to this presidency over the seat of the Muses, containing a suitable quantity of bombast and flattery; it concludes by promising his grace a poetical immortality:
Some happy favourite of the nine,
Some Spenser, Cowley, Dryden, shall be thine;
Happy bards, who erst did dream
Near thy own Cam's inspiring stream;
He midst the records of immortal fame,
He midst the stars shall fix thy name,
The muses safety, and the muses theme.