Part 44

“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_—1_st._ 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 6_d._ 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 130_l._ 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.”

{1037} Those traits in his character have been often elucidated by divers well known anecdotes, two or three of which we will here take the liberty of inserting.—One of them is given in a letter of Dr. Pyle, if we are not mistaken, of the date of 1752, addressed perhaps to his father.—

“Your old friend Sir W. B. came to my Lord Bp. of Winch—r some weeks ago, and told him that he waited upon him for a pension payable out of his estate to the College of Physicians. My Lord said, he never heard of any such pension paid out of his revenues; and as to an estate of his own, he had none. Yes, says the knight, you are chargeable herewith out of such an estate. My Lord said, he had no estate any where of his own, and as Bp. of W. he had no such estate as was named. Bp. of W—! quoth the knight; why then lam wrong; you are not the person. I wanted Sir Cecil Bishop, and they told me he lived here. Is Sir C. B. a clergyman, says my Lord? No, says the knight. Why then Sir you might have seen your mistake immediately, and so your Servant. This dog certainly wanted to see how the Bp. look’d, and thence judge of his being likely to live or not, on account of some estate that somebody he knows, is to buy or renew, who hold of the Bp. of W. and nobody but a man of his parts and assurance could, have got to the sight of him;” [_July_ 1752.]

Another anecdote of him is related by Bp. Warburton in a Letter to Hurd; dated Prior Park, Nov. 18th 1767.—

“When you see Dr. Heberden pray communicate to him an unexpected honour I lately received. The other day word was brought me from below, that one Sir William Browne sent up his name, and would be glad to kiss my hand. I judged it to be the famous physician, whom I had never seen, nor had the honour to know. When I came down into the drawing room I was accosted by a little, round, well fed gentleman, with a large muff in one hand, and a small Horace open in the other, and a spying-glass dangling in a black ribbon at his button. After the first salutation he informed me that his visit was indeed to me, but principally, and in the first place, to Prior Park, which had so inviting a prospect from below: and he had no doubt but on examination it would sufficiently pay the trouble he had given himself of coming up to it on foot. We then took our chairs; and the first thing he did or said, was to propose a doubt to me concerning a passage in Horace, which all this time he had still open in his hand. Before I could answer he gave me the solution of this long misunderstood passage: and in support of his explanation had the charity to repeat his own paraphrase of it in English verse, just come hot, as he said, from the brain. When this and chocolate were over, having seen all he wanted of me, he desired to see something more of the seat; and particularly what be called the _Monument_, by which I understood him to mean, the Prior’s tower, with your inscription. Accordingly I ordered a servant to attend him thither; and, when he had satisfied his curiosity, either to let him out from the park above into the down, or from the garden below into the road. Which he chose I never asked; and so this honourable visit ended. Hereby you will understand, that the design of all this was to be _admired_. And indeed he had _my admiration_ to the full; but for nothing so much, as for being able at past eighty to perform this expedition on foot, in no good weather, and with all the alacrity of a boy, both in body and mind.”

[Before we dismiss this anecdote, it ought to be observed that the bishop was somewhat incorrect in two instances at least: 1st. in representing our knight as a _little man_; 2_ndly._ in saying that he was then _past eighty_. Those who knew and remember him, speak of him as a _tall man_; and it is certain that he wanted several weeks of seventy six when he visited Prior Park.]—The next anecdote and the last that we shall here relate, came from the late Thomas Hollingworth, many years a respectable bookseller in this town, and who settled here under Dr. Browne’s patronage. He used to say that the first time he had to make out his bill after the doctor had been dubbed a knight, he wrote _Sir William Browne debtor to Tho. Hollingworth_. When he delivered it into the knight’s hand, he looked at it a short time, and then looking at him said, Mr. H. you might have said _the honourable_ Sir Wm. Browne. I beg your pardon Sir Wm. replied the bookseller, but upon my word I did not know that it was customary to prefix to the name of a knight the word _honourable_. As to that, rejoined the knight, tho’ it be not customary, it would yet have been pleasing.—That to be sure was childish and ridiculous enough; but we believe that with all his eccentricities and foibles, Sir. Wm. B. was far from being one of the most disreputable or unworthy characters that were to be found among the gentlemen of this town and its vicinity during his long residence here.

{1039} The rough draught, or fragment of a translation of the inscription is longer, but the rest the present writer could not well make out.—The above seems enough to give the reader a pretty just idea of the tenor of the whole.—Before we entirely dismiss this article, or take our final leave of Sir Wm. we should not omit to notice the much admired impromptu, or extemporaneous epigram produced by him when a regiment of horse happened to be quartered at _Oxford_, and the king having purchased the noble library of Bp. _Moore_, made a present of it to the university of _Cambridge_. The epigram was an answer to one that had been made by a Dr. Trapp, a witty, torified clergyman, on that occasion, in these words,

“The king, observing with judicious eyes The wants of his two universities; To _Oxford_ sent a _troop of horse_, for why? That _learned_ body wanted _loyalty_: To Cambridge he sent _books_, as well discerning, That that right _loyal_ body wanted _learning_.”

Which drew from Sir Wm. the following reply, said so have been much commended, even by Dr. Johnson.

“Contrary methods justly George applies, To govern his two universities; To _Oxford_ is dispatched a troop of horse, Since _Tories_ own no argument like _force_; To _Cambridge_ Ely’s learned books are sent, Since _Whigs_ admit no force like _argument_.”

{1052} The loose livers, (or whores and rogues of the parish, as some would call them) used to bring their _bastard_ children to him to _christen_, or make them christians, although they discovered no desire or inclination to live soberly, righteously, and godly, or become christians themselves. This he thought very improper and objectionable, and no less than a direct profanation of a religious rite; and therefore refused to christen such children, unless their parents made a profession of repentance, and solemnly promised to forsake those irregular and vicious courses, and lead for the future virtuous and pious lives. Some willingly complied with his requirement, upon whose children therefore he performed the said rite. Others could not be prevailed upon to submit to this requirement, for which reason he left their children unchristened, which gave great umbrage, not only to their parents and such like folk, but even to his own ecclesiastical superiors, up to the very bishop—all blamed him for having any scruples about such frivolous, harmless, and indifferent matters as these. Some also even of the most decent among his parishioners disapproved of his refusing to christen the said bastard children, it being, as they said, punishing the poor things for the sins of their parents. Forbidding those of loose or immoral lives to come to the Lord’s Table was another circumstance that gave great offence, and caused him no small trouble. One of these was the greatest man in the parish, or head Squire of the place; and a very fierce and dashing fellow he certainly was. He, by way of retaliation and revenge, set himself about picking holes in Mr. R’s coat. They were not indeed of an immoral, but rather an uncanonical nature. Mr. R. had allowed a certain worthy person to partake of the Lord’s Supper _sitting_ instead of _kneeling_. He also had _not_ made a point of wearing the _surplice_ while performing the burial service and some other duties. He had likewise taken the liberty of using the word _honour_ instead of _worship_ in the marriage service, and moreover of curtailing occasionally the liturgic part of the public service. These deviations were magnified into serious misdoings, and looked upon by his superiors in a very unfavourable light. Wherefore his conduct was afterwards more closely scrutinized; and from the examination and confession of his church-wardens the following articles of accusation were extracted, upon which he was proceeded against in the ecclesiastical court—1. That he did not read the Litany on _Wednesdays and Fridays_: 2. That he did not constantly wear the surplice in all his administrations: 3. That he did not usually administer the communion on _Christmas-day_, unless it fell on _Sunday_. Nor on _Whit-Sunday_. 4. That he did not read over the _Canons_ and _Articles_ twice a year. 5. That there were two children unbaptiz’d in the parish, which he refused to baptize. 6. That he was in the habit of conversing (or was on friendly terms) with one Mr. Richardson, an excommunicate person.—[Now this person was a worthy, pious dissenting minister, who had been persecuted for conscience sake, or for nonconformity, and excommunicated: and it was expected that no clergyman would converse or associate with him, unless he recanted: which was a sort of morality or religion which Rastrick did not approve, and therefore did not choose to practise.] The first time he appeared before the spiritual Court at Lincoln to answer to the above articles or charges, he had nothing to do but only to retain a _Proctor_ against the next court-day. When that time came, it fell out to be the very day when king James’s Declaration for liberty of conscience came first down into the country, which must have been in the spring of 1687. At this his second appearance he found the court very much down in the mouth (as he expresses it) and far from the heat and violence in their proceedings that he expected. They did however proceed to business, and went over each of those charges, but came to no determination: not thinking perhaps the then aspect of things favourable enough to warrant a rigorous decision. However that was, Rastrick was now becoming more and more dissatisfied with the terms of conformity, and began soon to think of availing himself of the royal Declaration of liberty of conscience to quit his public station in the church, as he actually did before the close of that same year. After which he seems to have continued disengaged till 1701, when he settled with the Presbyterian congregation in this town.

{1055} The author therefore requests the reader to correct his mistake at p. 1002 in dating Rastrick’s arrival here in 1710 or 11.

{1058} Something similar has occurred here within the present year (1811,) only with this difference, that the disaffected gained their point, and obliged the minister to resign and withdraw; whereas Mr. R. maintained his ground and retained his situation, in spite of all opposition, to the last. But he was constantly supported by the most respectable part of the congregation.