Roman Senate, and the Character of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 1758," 8vo; an anonymous pamphlet, but written by Edward Spelman, esq.

The third volume of Mr. Hooke's "Roman History," to the end of the Gallic war, was printed, under his inspection, before his last illness; but did not appear till after his death, which happened in 1764. The fourth volume was published in 1771.

Mr. Hooke left two sons; one of whom, Thomas, is a Divine of the Church of England; the other, a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and Professor of Astronomy in that illustrious Seminary†.

with some gentlemen of respectable characters, took out of his pocket a pamphlet, written by Mr. Warburton (afterwards Bp. of Gloucester) just then published; from which he reads a passage to the following effect: When God, in his justice, weighs the fate of Nations, he considers all arbitrary governments as paper and packthread in the scale! What,' said Mr. Hooke, 'does Mr. Warburton imagine, that God Almighty considers the great Monarchies of France and Spain only as paper and packthread?' No one in company made any reply, and the conversation dropped. But, we may suppose, they took the fairness of the citation for granted. The passage alluded to is in a pamphlet intituled, 'Apologetical Dedication to the Reverend Dr. Henry Stebbing, &c. 1746." Memoirs of Mr. Hollis, p. 497.

*For the following letter to the late George Allan, Esq. of Darlington, I am indebted to Mr. Allan's worthy son : "SIR, Birkby, Dec. 14, 1783. "I thank you, and am much obliged to you for the letter to the Earl of Oxford [see p. 606], and the trouble you have been at in transcribing it. How Bowyer got it out of the Earl's hands, I cannot conceive; nor how he could think himself at liberty to print it. What I learn from it is, that Mr. Hooke, when a young man, had some considerable losses in the South-Sea; and would have been glad of an employment under the Earl of Oxford, or some of the Earl's friends in the Ministry. Maty's story of the Duchess of Marlborough is pleasant, and I believe it to be true; but as for Warburton's idle tale of Mr. Hooke's endeavouring to pervert her Grace to Popery, it is too absurd to be believed by any body, or that that was the cause of her quarrelling with him. I have been told, that she wanted him to set about another work for her, from which he excused himself upon account of his Roman History. I am, &c. T. HOOKE."

+ See a very obliging and satisfactory Letter from this gen tleman in vol. V. p. 395.

It was publici juris; amongst the Earl of Oxford's numerous and valuable Collection of MSS. preserved in the British Museum.

No. XI.

DR. RICHARD FARMER.

as

This learned Critick and distinguished Scholar (who is justly celebrated in the "Encyclopædia Britannica" 66 a man of pleasing, though singular manners") was the descendant of a family long seated at Ratcliffe Culey†, a hamlet within the parish of Shepey, in the county of Leicester. His grandfather (who died in 1727, æt. 63) is described on his tomb, in St. Mary's church at Leicester as "John Farmer, of Nuneaton, gent." His father, who was largely engaged in Leicester in the profession of a maltster, married in 1732-3 Hannah Knibb, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. He died in 1778, at the age of So. His widow survived him more than twenty years, dying Dec. 14, 1808, at the advanced age of nearly 97. Their first-born son, John, died an infant.

* "One of us, who had the pleasure of being a little known to him, has been so much delighted with the natural ease and pleasantry of his conversation, that we made all the enquiries which we judged requisite to enable us to draw up such a biographical sketch of this agreeable man as might be acceptable to our Readers, and not unworthy of his character; but these enquiries were made in vain. Those to whom we applied knew little more of the incidents of his life than what we had previously found in a Miscellany, of which the writers seem to consider it as a principle of duty to vilify the character of every person, who, like Dr. Farmer, is the friend of order, and the enemy of sudden or rapid innovations. To that Miscellany, therefore, we must be beholden for many facts, but we shall certainly copy none of its malevolence." Encyclopædia Britannica.

See an ample Pedigree of Dr. Farmer's ancestors under Ratcliffe Culey, in the History of Leicestershire, vol. IV. p 950, -Dr. Farmer gives arms on his seal, Argent, a chevron Sable, between three Roman lamps, burning proper. Motto, Non extinguentur. Dr. Farmer shewed Mr. Cole his arms and pedigree in Guillim." MS. Cole, LIV. pp. 32, 33.

Richard,

Richard, the second son, was born, Aug. 28, 1735, in the antient Borough of Leicester; and received the early part of his education, under the Rev. Gerrard Andrewest (father of the present truly respectable Dean of Canterbury,) in the Free Grammar-school of his native Town; a seminary in which many eminent persons were his contemporaries.

About the year 1753, he left the school, with the character of being estimable for temper and talents; and was entered a pensioner at Emanuel College, Cambridge, when Dr. Richardson was master, and Mr. Bickham and Mr. Hubbard tutors.

* In Domesday this antient Borough is styled Civitas Leicestria. † See a Pedigree of the Family of Andrewes in the History of Leicestershire, vol. III. p. 456.

"Dr. Richardson was a good-humoured man, warınly attached to Tory principles, and no less strict in the minutiae of College discipline. It was matter of triumph in him to have been present, when a boy, at the trial of Sacheverell; and so rigid a disciplinarian was he, as to punish the wearing of a neckcloth (which at that time was deemed unacademical) instead of a stock, with the same strictness as a deviation from moral rectitude." Dr. Richardson, at the time when the question proposed by Dr.Jebb (see p. 630) was in agitation, was old and feeble; but he chose to be carried to the Senate-house; and when his shrill voice, on giving his vote, could scarcely be heard, he cried out to one of the Masters, enquiring whose voice it was, 'It was I, Master -it was I; I came to save the University.' Annual Necrology.

999

§ "Dr. Farmer's classical tutor was no ways distinguished for ability. He, however, had the interest of the upper part of the Society; and obtained the tutorship in preference to a man of respectable talents the late Bishop Hurd, author of a political work of considerable merit, [ Dialogues on the English Constitution'], which proves him at the earlier part of life to have been a Whig, and apparently one zealous and well-informed. It may therefore be inferred that Bickham was a Tory." Ibid.

:

"The mathematical tutor was Mr. Hubbard, a Tory also in principle; yet, in a course of years, his mind assumed a more liberal cast. He was allowed to be a judicious tutor; though, in matters of discipline and œconomy, regular to a degree of superstition he was also (his voice and appearance being favourable to that character) a popular preacher.The government of Emanuel College had thus passed into the hands of persons very different in political principles from those who formerly presided in it for Emanuel College had once been (so fluctuating are human institutions) a kind of nursery for Puritans." Ibid.

Mr.

Mr. Farmer, when an under-graduate, applied himself chiefly to classical learning and the belles lettres; was known to be a man of reading, distinguished rather for sprightly parts than profound speculations; and much esteemed in the circle of his friends.

He took his degree of B.A. in 1757; ranked as a Senior Optime; and was of the same year with Dr. Waring and Dr. Jebb. The degree, though not of the first class, procured him notice in College; and he successfully contested the silver cup given at Emanuel to the best graduate of that year with Mr. Wanley Sawbridge, brother to the Alderman. This cup is preserved with great care in Dr. Farmer's family.

His Cambridge Verses were, a Poem on laying the first Stone of the Public Library, 1755; and a Sonnet on the late King's death, 1760.

In 1760 he proceeded M. A.; and succeeded as classical tutor to Mr. Bickham, who went off to the valuable rectory of Loughborough in Leicestershire, in the gift of Emanuel College. In discharge of the part of his office more immediately classical, Mr. Farmer was entitled to considerable respect. He was a good scholar: but Theology and Mathematics were not his favourite studies. He did not give lectures in Euclid many years; but in Grotius and the Greek Testament he continued to lecture till he resigned the tuition. By his pupils, as formerly by his fellow students, he was generally esteemed; though an occasional want of punctuality sometimes exposed him to censure from their parents.

For many years, while tutor, he served the curacy of Swavesey, a village about eight miles from Cambridge, not far from the road to Huntingdon, which had been formerly served by the celebrated Dr. Jortin. In this situation he gained the respect of his

"The first books that he lectured in were, Euclid's Elements, Aristophanes, Tully's Offices, the Amphitryon of Plautus, and Hurd's Horace. In later periods, he lectured in Quintilian, Grotius de Veritate Religionis Christianæ, and the Greek Testament." Annual Necrology.

con

congregation, rather by his affability and social manners, than by the solemnity of his carriage, or the rigour of his doctrines *. At this time also he formed an intimacy with Sir Thomas Hatton, bart. a good-humoured country gentleman of LongStanton in Cambridgeshire.

He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, May 19, 1763.

In 1765 he was junior proctor of the University of Cambridge.

On the 15th of May 1766, he published, from the University press "Proposals for printing, by Subscription, The History and Antiquities of the Town of Leicester; originally collected by William Staveley, Esq. Barrister at Law, and formerly of Peter-house in that University. Now first offered to the Publick from the Author's Manuscript; with very large Additions and Improvements; and an Appendix of Papers relative to the Subject. By Richard Farmer, M.A. Fellow of Emanuel College in Cambridge, and of the Society of Antiquaries, London +."

"Swavesey was at that time frequented by Methodists; occasioned by the Rev. Mr. Venn, then rector of Yelling in Huntingdonshire, formerly fellow of Jesus College, and by the Rev. Mr. Berridge, then vicar of Everton, Bedfordshire, formerly fellow of Clare Hall. Between these gentlemen and Farmer there existed no great cordiality; for Farmer was no friend to their doctrines, which appeared to him irrational and gloomy. He elassed them with Presbyterians; and both Presbyterians and Methodists he considered as Puritans and Roundheads. Farmer was a greater adept in cracking a joke, than in unhinging a Calvinist's creed, or in quieting a gloomy conscience, He, however, possessed a spirit of benevolence; and knew how to perform a generous action to a distressed family. There are men who can read over a person's grave "He was a kind man," with greater satisfaction than " He was a great Preacher." Annual Necrology. + A mistake-for Thomas Staveley-who is called William in the Imprimatur which Mr. Farmer obtained for it in 1767.

"Conditions: 1. The Editor proposes, That the Work be elegantly printed in Quarto at the Cambridge Press; and illustrated with Copper-plates of the antient and present Town, Roman Pavements, Coins, Seals, &c. 2. That the Copy be sent to the Press as soon as the Number of the Impression may be tolerably ascertained; and that each Subscriber pay 5s. when he gives his Name, and 58. 6d. on the Delivery of the Book. 3. A few