[28] George Richards, a contemporary of Stephens, and, though somewhat senior, of Middleton, was a University prize-man and Fellow of Oriel. He was “author,” says Lamb, “of the ‘Aboriginal Britons,’ the most spirited of Oxford prize poems.” In after life he made his mark as a clergyman, as Bampton Lecturer (in 1800), and as Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He was appointed Governor of Christ’s Hospital in 1822, and founded an annual prize, the “Richards’ Gold Medal,” for the best copy of Latin hexameters. Christ’s Hospital. List of Exhibitioners, from 1566-1885, compiled by A. M. Lockhart.
[29] Robert Percy (Bobus) Smith, 1770-1845, the younger brother of Sydney Smith, was Browne Medalist in 1791. His Eton and Cambridge prize poems, in Lucretian metre, are among the most finished specimens of modern Latinity. The principal contributors to the Microcosm were George Canning, John and Robert Smith, Hookham Frere, and Charles Ellis. Gentleman’s Magazine, N. S., xxiii. 440.
[30] For complete text of the Greek Sapphic Ode, “On the Slave Trade,” which obtained the Browne gold medal for 1792, see Appendix B, p. 476, to Coleridge’s Poetical Works, Macmillan, 1893. See, also, Mr. Dykes Campbell’s note on the style and composition of the ode, p. 653. I possess a transcript of the Ode, taken, I believe, by Sara Coleridge in 1823, on the occasion of her visit to Ottery St. Mary. The following note is appended:—
“Upon the receipt of the above poem, Mr. George Coleridge, being vastly pleased by the composition, thinking it would be a sort of compliment to the superior genius of his brother the author, composed the following lines:—
IBI HÆC INCONDITA SOLUS.
Say Holy Genius—Heaven-descended Beam,
Why interdicted is the sacred Fire
That flows spontaneous from thy golden Lyre?
Why Genius like the emanative Ray
That issuing from the dazzling Fount of Light
Wakes all creative Nature into Day,
Art thou not all-diffusive, all benign?
Thy partial hand I blame. For Pity oft
In Supplication’s Vest—a weeping child
That meets me pensive on the barren wild,
And pours into my soul Compassion soft,
The never-dying strain commands to flow—
Man sure is vain, nor sacred Genius hears,
Now speak in melody—now weep in Tears.
G. C.”
[31] He was matriculated as pensioner March 31, 1792. He had been in residence since September, 1791.
[32] For the Craven Scholarship. In an article contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine of December, 1834, portions of which are printed in Gillman’s Life of Coleridge, C. V. Le Grice, a co-Grecian with Coleridge and Allen, gives the names of the four competitors. The successful candidate was Samuel Butler, afterwards Head Master of Shrewsbury and Bishop of Lichfield. Life of Coleridge, 1838, p. 50.
[33] Musical glee composer, 1769-1821. Biographical Dictionary.
[34] Poetical Works, p. 20.