“You may print this if you will. Sam. Johnson.”
The living was held for many years by the Rev. William Phillipps, whom the Editor recollects residing at Camelford, and universally respected for his placid manners and benevolent disposition. A handsome monument has been placed to his memory in the church, by John Phillipps Carpenter, Esq. of Mount Tavy, his nephew and devisee, which records his decease on the 20th day of April 1794, aged 70.
Mr. Phillipps’s immediate predecessor was Daniel Lombard, Doctor of Divinity, son of a Protestant clergyman
in France, one of those who were constrained to abandon their country by the persecution raised in the name of Lewis the Fourteenth, by a Jesuite Confessor to the King and his mistress, the widow of a buffoon. He received the early part of his education at the Merchant-Taylors’ School in London, and proceeded from thence to St. John’s College, Oxford, where he obtained a fellowship, and took his degree of Doctor in Divinity. But Lombard never assimilated himself to the manners nor the society of England. He spent much time abroad, and especially in Germany, where he became known either to King George the Second, or, what is more probable, as a scholar and a divine to Queen Caroline: from them he obtained this living.
In Germany he most fortunately became acquainted also, with a Cornish gentleman, then serving with distinction in the army, but distinguished still more by his abilities, learning, and taste. This gentleman (Mr. Gregor) frequently received Doctor Lombard at Trewarthenick, and carried on with him a correspondence on literary subjects, which is still preserved, and appears to have been his chief friend and main support in a situation of complete banishment from all other associates of his studies or of his amusements; for it appears, from one of his letters, that in former times, he had been admitted a member of what would now be termed a club, with several branches of the reigning family at a German court.
All accounts agree in representing Doctor Lombard as a man of profound ecclesiastical and school learning; but at the same time wholly unacquainted with the ways of the world in which he was destined to live, or with the discoveries of modern science. Innumerable anecdotes were current about him half a century ago; of these two may serve as specimens.
He proceeded from London to take possession of his parish, mounted on one horse himself and his servant on another, driving a third laden with such articles as appeared to be indispensible in a country where he supposed nothing
could be procured; thus attended, he followed the great road, then passing through Camelford, but inquiring in a foreign accent for Lan-te-glos juxta Camèl-ford, he proceeded nearly to the Land’s End without obtaining the least information as to where his parish lay.
The other evinces that he had not condescended to pay any attention to the general classifications of Natural History, although Aristotle or Pliny might have communicated a sufficient store of knowledge in respect to animals, without his recurring to modern authors. Having observed a hen surrounded by a large brood of chickens, Doctor Lombard expressed his utter astonishment and surprise that so small an animal could possibly afford milk in sufficient quantity for the sustenance of such a numerous offspring.
He died at Camelford Dec. 14, 1746; and left a valuable library for the use of his successors.