About twenty years since, it was a sort of fashionable amusement among scholars, to translate the popular Elegy of Gray in a Country Church yard, into Greek. There were some critics who doubted whether this admirable composition was calculated to make its appearance in a Grecian dress; nevertheless, the former of these Prelates was one of the more successful adventurers, and he dedicated his translation to the Duke of R. who was at that time become a member of the University of Cambridge.
Of the latter Prelate, the Sexagenarian appears to have had very little knowledge.
We have now to cross the water, where we shall find some illustrious members of the Episcopal Bench, who cannot reasonably be offended at being classed among the favourites of fortune. But it is time to end this chapter.
Ut enim in corporibus magnæ dissimilitudines sunt, alios enim videmus velocitate ad cursum, alios viribus ad luctandum valere, itemque in formis, aliis dignitatem inesse, aliis venustatem, sic in animis exsistunt etiam majores varietates.
CHAPTER XXX.
Our first attention must necessarily be directed to the Bishop of ⸺.
The ancestors and family connections of this learned and accomplished prelate, were of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and rigidly attached to those tenets. His Lordship was himself educated in them, and if we are not misinformed, actually studied in the college at St. Omer’s, with the intention of becoming a priest.
It happened, at least so our Brief instructs us, that whilst in this situation, his vivacity and parts attracted the notice of a near connection of the late Duke of ⸺, and that on his expostulation, and promises of protection and assistance, young ⸺ was without much difficulty prevailed upon to read his recantation, and become a member and a clergyman of our Protestant communion.
He came over to this country, and accompanied his patron to Ireland, but during his Grace’s administration, it does not appear that any preferment became vacant, becoming the patron to bestow, or the client to accept. He nevertheless availed himself of this interval to ingratiate himself more effectually with his patron, to whom he was enabled to render various services by the skilfulness and dexterity of his pen. He returned to England with the Duke, through whose good offices he was, after no great lapse of time, appointed to valuable preferment in some of the northern provinces. This however not exactly suiting him, he, through the same channel of interest, obtained an exchange for a valuable benefice in Ireland, upon which he fixed his residence.