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LITERARY ANECDOTES

OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

"Id bonum cura, quod vetustate sit melius."
SEN. Ep. xv.

THE Traveller, who in early life explored a region famed for natural or artificial curiosities, and with the eye of an Antiquary traced the vestiges of architectural splendour, whether the last remains of the Grecian temple, the Roman amphitheatre, or the Gothic aile or cloister, resumes his visit at a maturer age with augmented pleasure. New beauties meet his view; new ideas are impressed on his imagination, as new suggestions offer themselves to his reflection. He perceives, and is astonished to perceive, that some of the finest part of the landscape, some of the most beautiful features in the view, failed to meet his first researches. Having revolved, after an interval of many years, the imagery which as it were crowded on the mind at a first glance, he treads the ground again with caution; he confines himself to the more immediate object of his pursuit; and employs the pen or the pencil

VOL. I.

B

pencil on subjects which had before entirely escaped his attention.

The scenery to which the Reader is now recalled is of a more confined and humble nature; yet there are gleanings in our biographical harvest, which, it is hoped, will be thought not undeserving notice. Of the very early period indeed the recollections are few, but they are interesting; and, as we advance, the discoveries produced by diligent enquiry and friendly communications, and even by the loss of friends whom it would have been indelicate to mention whilst living, have removed the veil under which many curious particulars, highly honourable to the persons of whom they are related, were unavoidably concealed.

To whatever cause it may be owing, the lives of literary men are seldom recorded, while any remembrance of them remains. Except in a few cases, where interest, vanity, or gratitude are concerned, men of letters, who in general deserve better of the world than the more brilliant characters of the hour, the courtier or the pseudo-patriot, pass unnoticed to the grave; and curiosity is seldom awakened about them until the opportunity of gratifying it is irrecoverable.

The information, therefore, which, I flatter myself, was conveyed to the world in the former edition of the Memoirs of my late excellent Friend, encourages me, after an interval of more than six-andtwenty years, when so much fresh matter has occurred, to pursue a similar method.

WILLIAM BOWYER, confessedly the most learned Printer of the Eighteenth Century, was born in Dogwell Court, in the extraparochial precinct of White Fryars, London, Dec. 19, 1699; and may be said to have been initiated from his infancy in the rudiments of the art in which he so eminently excelled.

His father, whose name was also WILLIAM, was the son of John Bowyer, citizen and grocer, by Mary King *. He was born in 1663; bound apprentice to Miles Flesher in 1679; admitted to the freedom of the Company of Stationers Oct. 4, 1686; and very soon after became eminent in his profession.

He was twice married. By the first wife he had no issue. The second wife was Dorothy daughter of Thomas Dawks, a printer of some celebrity in his day, who in his youth, from 1652 to 1657, had been employed as a compositor on the celebrated Polyglott Bible of Bishop Walton .

Ichabod Dawks, a son of this Thomas, is introduced by Anthony Alsop, in his Ode, intituled, "Charlettus Percivallo suo:"

"Scribe securus, quid agit Senatus,
Quid caput stertit grave Lambethanum §,
Quid comes Guilford ||, quid habent novorum
Dawksque Dyerque T.

* Daughter of William King, citizen and vintner of London; who kept the King's Head Tavern in the Poultry. Her husband not succeeding in business, and dying in a short time after their marriage, the widow, with her only son, was taken home by her only brother, William King, who succeeded his father in business, and had several children, of whom only one daughter survived him. On the day of King Charles's Restoration, the wife of the last-mentioned William King, happening to be in labour, was anxious to see the returning Monarch. Charles, in passing through the Poultry, was told of her inclination, and stopped at the tavern to salute her.

† Who occurs in the list of Benefactors to the Company.

For some particulars of this important national publication, see the "Essays and Illustrations" in the Fourth Volume, No I. § Archbishop Tenison.

A familiar name for some common acquaintance.

The intelligence of Dawks and Dyer was conveyed throughout the kingdom, printed in a type which resembled writing, as the parliamentary minutes were till within these few years circulated. It appears also, by a periodical paper of 1709, that there were then actually published every week 55 regular papers; “besides a vast number of Postscripts, and other scandalous and seditious papers and pamphlets, that were hawked about the streets." Many of these being at present totally forgotten, it may be a curiosity to point out their names:

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The daughter of Mr. Dawks was born March 6, 1664-5; and was married, Oct. 10, 1685, to Mr. Benjamin Allport, of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, bookseller; by whom she had one son, Benjamin (who was born after his father's death, and died before he was a year old), and one daughter. She afterwards became the wife of Mr. Bowyer, who commenced his career as a printer by " A Defence of the Vindication of King Charles the Martyr; justifying his Majesty title to ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, in answer to a late Pamphlet, intituled 'Amyntor;' by the Author of the Vindication. London; printed by W. Bowyer, at the White Horse in Little Britain; and sold by most Booksellers in London and Westminster, 1699;" a very neat small quarto, containing ninety-six pages.

Before the close of the year 1699, Mr. Bowyer removed his printing-office into White Fryars, to a house which had formerly been the George

The Daily Courant, (as its title shews) 6 times a week
The Supplement,

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The General Remark,

The Female Tatler,

The General Postscript,

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Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 12

The British Apollo, Monday and Friday, ...

The London Gazette,

The Postman,

The Postboy,

The Flying Post,

The Review,

The Tatler,

The Rehearsal Revived,

The Evening Post,

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 12

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 21

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See a short character of each, in "The General Postscript, Oct. 24, 1709 ;" and for a general history of newspapers, and their first introduction into this kingdom, see the "Essays and Illustrations" in the Fourth Volume, No II.

tavern;

tavern *; and on the 6th of May 1700, was admitted a Liveryman of the Company of Stationers.

The earliest publications that we find from his new press were, "Two Sermons concerning Nature and Grace, preached at Whitehall, April 1699, by Edward Young, fellow of Winchester College,

* In which some of the scenes of Shadwell's " satia" are painted.

Squire of Al

+ This worthy Divine, the son of John Young, of Woodhay, Berks, whom Wood styles gentleman, was collated by Bp. Ward, in September 1652, to the prebend of Gillingham Minor, in the church of Sarum. When Ward's faculties were impaired by age, his duties were necessarily performed by others. We learn from Wood, that, at a visitation of Spratt, July 12, 1686, the Prebendary delivered a Concio ad Clerum, afterwards published; with which the Bishop was so pleased, that he told the Chapter he was concerned to find the Preacher had one of the worst prebends in the church. Some time after this, in consequence of his merit and reputation, or of the interest of Lord Bradford, to whom in 1702 he dedicated two volumes of Sermons, he was appointed chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and preferred to the deanry of Sarum. Three single Sermons of his occur: 1, "Preached before his Majesty at Whitehall, 29 Dec. 1678. By Edw. Young, B. LL. Fellow of New College, Oxon.; and Chaplain to his Excellency the Earl of Ossory, General of his Majesty's Subjects in the Service of the United Netherlands, 1679," 4to. 2, "Preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at Guildhall Chapel, Feb. 4, 1682. By Edw. Young, Fellow of the College near Winchester, 1683," 4to. 3,"A Sermon exhorting to Union in Religion; preached at Bow Church, May 26, 1688, and published at the desire of the Auditors. By E. Young, 1688," 4to.-Jacob, who wrote in 1720, says, he was chaplain and clerk of the closet to the late Queen, who honoured him by standing godmother to his son the Poet. His fellowship of Winchester he resigned in favour of a gentleman of the name of Harris, who married his only daughter. The Dean died at Sarum, after a short illness, in 1705, in his 63d year; and on the Sunday after his decease, Bp. Burnet preached at the Cathedral, and began his Sermon with saying, "Death has been of late walking round us, and making breach upon breach upon us, and has now carried away the head of this body with a stroke; so that he, whom you saw a week ago distributing the holy mysteries, is now laid in the dust. But he still lives in the many excellent directions he has left us, both how to live, and how to die:" a sentence treasured up by the Author of the Night Thoughts; by whose filial piety his father's tomb in the cathedral at Salisbury is thus inscribed:

"H. S. E.

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