The Short Critical Review of the life of Oliver Cromwell, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, has always been attributed to John Bankes, an account of whom will be found in Chalmers's Biog. Dict., vol. iii. p. 422., where it is confidently stated to be his. It was first published in 1739, 8vo. I have two copies of a third edition, Lond. 1747. 12mo. "Carefully revised and greatly enlarged in every chapter by the author." In one of the copies the title-page states it to be "by a gentleman of the Middle Temple;" and in the other "by Mr. Bankes." Bishop Gibson did not die till 1748, and there seems little probability that, if he were the author, another man's name would be put to it during his lifetime.
I conclude therefore that neither of these two works are by Bishop Gibson.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
Lines on the Temple (Vol. iii., pp. 450. 505.).
—In the Gentleman's Mag. (Suppl. for 1768, p. 621.), the reviewer of a work entitled "Cobleriana, or the Cobler's Miscellany, being a choice collection of the miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse, serious and comic, by Jobson the Cobler, of Drury Lane, 2 vols.," gives the following extract; but does not state whether it belongs to the "new" pieces, or to those which had been previously "published in the newspapers," the volume being avowedly composed of both sorts:—
"An Epigram on the Lamb and Horse, the two insignia
of the Societies of the Temple.
"The Lamb the Lawyers' innocence declares,
The Horse their expedition in affairs;
Hail, happy men! for chusing two such types