[1018] There is a word wanting here in the MS. Copy, which probably was mind or spirit; alluding it is supposed to Tillotson’s liberal mindedness, and wish to get rid of the Athanasian Creed, &c.
[1020] Something is here wanting; vacate perhaps or relinquish.
[1021] The same MS. volume, or Collection, from which the above has been taken, contains the following curious fragment or P.S. of a letter of the date of 1742 from the same respectable prelate, to the same correspondent, as we presume, for it has no superscription.—
“I find by the direction of one of your correspondents, whose hand and head I guess at, how great a man a C—n of S— must be, that his titles must follow him into all countries. The other, whose hand and head I pretty well know, has more sense than to adorn the outside of his letters in that manner.—I remember a story of a clergyman of great form in Surry, who directed a post letter to Abp. Sancroft—To his Grace, my Lord Abp. of Canterbury, Primate of all England and Metropolitan:—which letter a man famous for imitating hands happened to see brought to the post-office at Epsom, and finding a little room left after the word metropolitan, added the words to boot, which caused great wrath in old Sancroft, and a thorough reprimand to the poor man next time he appeared at Lambeth, who could not distinguish the addition from his own hand. B. W.”
[1024] Of those letters of his which have fallen in this writer’s way all are of a date posterior to his removal from this town, except that which contains the account of the contested election in 1747, of which we have already given large extracts.—Of the rest the most remarkable is dated 24. July 1756, at Chelsea, where the Bp. of Winchester has a town house, with whom he then resided as his chaplain. Who his correspondent was does not appear; but he writes to him as follows—
“Dear Sir, I returned to this place a few days ago from Winch—r, after taking possession of a warm stall in the Cathedral, and a very good house in the close. My going thither was delayed a fortnight, by a feverish disorder, attended with some very odd and disagreeable circumstances of inflamation, from which I thank God I am very well recovered. I find that as my constitution is, I must, now and then, sacrifice something in point of health, to the plenty, that flows in this noble house. However I am not worse upon the whole, than when I lived in Norfolk: in that respect and all others I am sure I am a thousand times better. Winch—r and all the large towns in that county were full of Hessian troops, whose appearance and sober behaviour was pleasing. I saw them in several different circumstances. First In their military Exercise, out of the City, in a spacious plain on the top of a hill, every fine morning. Secondly. At their devotions, on Sundays, in the Body of the Cathedral; which was a most grave and edifying sight. Their service, (both of such as are Lutherans, and of others of them that are Calvinists,) is in the way of our Dissenters—1st. a psalm, very long, in which every Soldier bore his part; each having a book, and behaving in that, and the other parts of the service, with all possible decency and attention. I saw about 700 each time that I was present. They sing very well. The psalm was set by a Serjeant of Granadiers, a noble stately fellow; who had a vast pair of whiskers like birch brooms. All their granadiers wear this distinction in their faces. When the psalm was ended, a very solemn divine (tho’ he had no whiskers) in a black cloak, gave us a sermon in their language; after a prayer, which ended with the Lord’s Prayer; at which they all went down on their knees on the floor. The preacher used no great action, but he had a very great voice, great earnestness, and was in a great sweat. Then followed another psalm, much shorter than the first, and all was closed with a prayer shorter also than the former.—There was a Collection of money, but for what purpose I know not certainly. There were few of the common-people but gave something. It is said to be made for the preacher’s service, by some; others say it has relation to the Sacrament, which they receive monthly; but I saw not the administration of it. The generals and officers were all present and behaved with all seriousness. The officers are very genteel and frugal; yet generous enough to give the ladies of the place a Ball once a week.—Another circumstance I saw them in was at a Ball, in a garden, from 6 to 9 o’Clock, which was by far the prettiest entertainment I ever was at. The Dean of Winch—ter has a fine and large Garden, which is a place of resort on summer evenings, for all the persons of fashion (which are many) in the city. It consists of a large lawn, at the end of which, (or rather through which) passes a quick river, that has a Chinese bridge over it, and is formed into two cascades, as it runs along. There is also a large grove, fine walks of gravel, and two or three alcoves. Here the officers desired leave to introduce the music, and give the ladies a Ball. The Dean consented, and all the gentry and quality in and about the place were put together there. And for the three hours I spake of, 25 couples danced on the lawn on one side of the river, the musicians standing on the other. There were 25 hands, and all good ones. They have learnt at home the tunes of our English Dances, which are practised there in compliment to our sovereign and country. In the dancing one could not but observe, how true the officers stept both to the time and tune: whereas the dancing of the English gentlemen, and most of the ladies too, was what one may call Romps run mad. The day before I came away, the troops from all the towns were encamped, about a mile and a half from the city, which afforded me a mornings amusement of the most agreeable sort. The Dean and Prebendaries, who have each of them a good income; [and I’ll assure you, most of ’em, live up to it, as Peg B— said of the Week’s Preparation] have done these Foreigners honour at their Tables with high gentility. They almost all come to the Cathedral, and one of ’em who sat next me, by some broken English of his, and some bad latin, both of his and mine, was made to understand all the ceremonies that were performed by and upon me in the church, on the sunday I took possession. He seemed better satisfied with all other things, than with our surplices, scarves, and scarlet hoods; which he looked upon with somewhat of an evil eye: For, you know, that from the days of good Q. B—ss to these days some of the protestants abroad have objected to our Ecclesiastical Dresses as Popish—and some even of our own Divines have boggled at them in her time.—They have brought no women with them, but a few of the soldiers wives, who are very clean, large, and fleshy. They put on when they get abroad a Straw Bonnet, which shades and almost hides their faces, and a callico or printed linen cloak, very long and full.—The persons at Winch—r of the female sex [like those of another place that we know] are all, or would all pass for, fine gentlewomen. And I could not for my life help being diverted with a question asked by the simple Hessian Women concerning them. Pray, said they, have you none but ladies of quality in this place? The answer was, that there was but one lady of quality [Lady Jernegan] in the city. Well, said they, we thought they were all such; for in our country, they who are always dress’d out, and going from home, are ladies of quality: so we thought that ye were all quality.—One of the superior officers quartered at Southampton (where the resort of company to drink and bathe in the sea water, has benefited the place and spoilt the people) seeing all the gentlewomen of the town gadding abroad o’mornings, to the public rooms, or idle visits, bought up all the Thimbles he could get; and one morning when abundance of them were together in a public place, he presented each with a Thimble, saying, it must needs be, that they wanted the requisites to employ them properly at home, or they would not be constantly from home. This pretty reproof has produced a great deal of mirth, but very little reformation, that I heard of, among the Southhampton Quality.—The emoluments of churchmen as well as others who live in Hampshire, [at Winch—r especially] ought to be good. For (put all articles together that belong to house-keeping) and things are dearer there, than with you, by 7 and 6 pence in the pound. There is very little difference between the rate of eatables, coals. &c. there and in London. Fowls of all sorts, pigs, rabbets, are very high priced, and fish is 6d. a mouthful, tho’ Southampton is so near. For the fine folks that come down from London have in a very few years more than doubled the rate of that sort of food, even upon the place. But the worst circumstance belonging to both that city and county, is that there are many Roman Catholicks. One of that persuasion would have hired my prependal house at a considerable rent, for the term of the bishop’s life, till the end of which I shall not fit it up for my own use. I sent such an answer that I shall ne’er be applied to again by any body of that stamp: ‘any other person of fashion shall have it for half the money, and be thanked into the bargain.’ In looking over what I have writ, I find I have filled a sheet; this surprizes me, for I did not intend to fill more than a side. If you have as much patience as you used to have, may be you have read it all. You can’t do a more acceptable thing than to write to me, at any time, and at this time, it will be a sort of charity, I being greatly dejected in spirit, at the state of public affairs. Our Common prayer says, what is entirely true, ‘There is none that fighteth for us but only God:’ and I wish I could be sure we had him on our side. God bless us all. God bless you and yours, and all that you and I love, and that love us—But, as Falstaff says, ‘a pox on all cowards.’—So says your most humble servant, E. P.”
To the preceding we beg leave to subjoin the following letter, or rather fragment of a letter. That it is from the same hand seems sufficiently certain from both external and internal evidence. It was written in 1756, probably to his father, and it might be one of the last, if not the very last that passed between them. We insert it the more readily because so honourable to Bp. Hoadly’s memory, and not otherwise to that of Dr. F.—
“Dr. Thackery, who keeps a school an Harrow on the Hill, has one living and 14 children. A man bred at Eaton, and a great scholar in the Eaton way, and a good one every way, a true Whig, and proud to be so by some special marks of integrity. He was candidate for the Headship of King’s, and would have beat all men but George, and George too, if Sir R. W. had not made George’s promotion a point. Since this disappointment he took the school of Harrow to educate his own and other people’s children; where he has performed all along with great reputation. The Bp. of W. never saw this man in his life; but had heard so much good of him, that he resolved to serve him some way of other, if ever he could—but said nothing to any body. On friday last he sent for this Dr. T. and when he came into the room, my lord gave him a parchment, and told him he had long heard of his good character, and long been afraid he should never be able to give him any serviceable proof of the good opinion he had long conceived of him: That what he had put into his hands was the archdeaconry of Surry, which he hoped would be acceptable to him, as he might perform the duty of it yearly, at the time of his leisure in the Easter Holidays. Dr. T. was surprized and overcome with this extraordinary manner of doing him a favour, that he was very near fainting as he was giving him institution.—Tis 130l. a year, with dependencies that may bring in a deal of money.—1756.”
[1030] What led the author to this supposition or conclusion was an anecdote said to have been written by Dr. H. himself; in these words—
“In Turner de morbis cutaneis See Wts. related by Langius of a woman longing to bite a baker’s shoulder.—Somewhat like this was the case of Mrs. Forest the wife of an alderman (or baliff as they are called in Scotland) of Haddington in East Lothian; who having had 4 or 5 daughters, and then with child of a boy, and lying by her husband awake, while he was fast asleep, in a summer-morning, his shoulder lying bare, she long’d to taste of it, and after a great desire could not forbear fixing her teeth. He waking jump’d out of bed thinking she was mad, but being soon convinced of what was the matter, easily forgave the fact, but would not venture a second trial. After dressing and taking care of the slight wound, he soon after made a jest of the news to his companions at the tavern: but while they were a whetting, news was brought him that his wife was miscarried of a boy; upon which he merrily said, ‘d—mn it, if I had known it was a boy her longing should have been satisfied.’—This I had from the woman herself upon enquiry: for the story was notorious about the time I was born, 1669. G. H.—M. Dr.”