His Review of Phillips's Life of Cardinal Pole, which was dedicated (by permission) to the King, fully answered the expectations of the publick. The interval, from that publication to the end of the year, was employed in finishing the notes on " Melampus," which he concluded Dec. 24, 1765. In 1766, though he was then of an age, quum melius dormire putet, quam scribere versus, yet this repose was still denied him, and he drudged on in the labour of a copyist, by transcribing the Syriac New Testament from one Syriac character into another. Approved and distinguished as a polemical his last number of "The Tales of the Genii" the first of February, in which month he died. The feelings of a father, happy, I hope, in the health, as well as life, of a valuable son, will incline you to excuse and pity me. He has left one child, and a wife now ready to lie in with another. A living, a farm, and the family affairs to attend to, on his being so suddenly snatched away, have more than filled up all my time. I am obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my youngest, now only son, from whom I have just received a letter of his arrival at Calcutta, in the kingdom of Bengal, after a very dangerous passage, in which his ship struck three times. I am very sensible I have been many years a-dying. Providence has been kindly directing my wishes to a better world, by transplanting so many of my friends thither, which have been so many strings cracked, and so many loosenings of my affections from this. Yet, in the midst of this death, am I engaged in writing, and in a kind from which my nature is most averse, religious controversy, with an artful Jesuit †, the author of "The Life of Reginald Pole." It would, I think, have been finished by this time, but for my late misfortunes, and the embarrassments they have brought upon me. I shall blush to appear to the world to have been so long about so slight a performance; but God has called me to the discharge of another duty, the subduing my will to the humble resignation to his, which, for the time, was more my duty than defending his truth against the corruptions of Rome: but this occasion few know of, and therefore will less excuse the imperfections of my answer. Melampus is left to his old acquaintance the worms. If time and lameness will give me leave, I will endeavour to call upon you when I wait on Lord Archer, in Grosvenor-square.I am, dear Sir, your affectionate humble servant, GEO. RIDLEY." His only surviving son (above mentioned) died soon after. - +In this particular Mr. Ridley was misinformed. Mr. Phillips was chaplain to the Earl of Shrewsbury, and canon of Liege, but not a disciple of Loyola. historian, 2 historian, Mr. Ridley was honoured by Archbishop Secker with the degree of D. D. and was selected, by that excellent judge and patron of literary merit, as a proper opponent for the author of the Confessional. To that writer, therefore (but without a name), Dr. Ridley addressed Three Letters, with remarks on his work, in the year 1767. In these, however, our Author, it is supposed, was little more than the Editor, and fought, like Teucer, under Ajax's shield; as many, if not most of the facts and arguments were supplied by the Archbishop himself*. For the share which Ridley took in this controversy, his merits, which had recommended him to Archbishop Secker, were soon after rewarded, by his Grace, with a Prebend of Salisbury (an option), the only notice which had been taken of him by the great, during a long, useful, and laborious life, devoted to the duties of his function. Few writers in this age deserved more, and few, we are sorry to say, received less. Worn out, at length, with cares and infirmities, he exchanged this life for a better, in November 1774, aged 72, leaving a widow and four daughters.-His works follow him. The following epitaph, written by Bishop Lowth, is inscribed upon his monument, in the chapel at Poplar, where he is interred. "H. S. E. Ab Academiâ Oxoniensi Oratoriæ facultati impensius studuit. * In this work the misrepresentation of Archbishop Wake's projected union between the English and Gallican churches is clearly confuted from that Metropolitan's own letters. quam quam variâ eruditione instructus, Two poems by Dr. Ridley, one styled "Jovi Eleutherio*, or an Offering to Liberty," the other called "Psyche," are in the third volume of Dodsley's collection. The sequel of the latter poem, intituled "Melampus," with" Psyche," its natural introduction, was printed in 1782, by subscription, for the benefit of his widow. Many others are in the 8th volume of Nichols's "Select Collection of Poems." His transcript of the Syriac Gospels, on which he had bestowed incredible pains, was put into the hands of Professor White; who published them, with a literal Latin Translation, in 2 vols. 4to. Oxford, at the expence of the Delegates of the press.. The MSS. Codex Heraclensis, Codex Barsalibæi, &c. (of which a particular account may be seen in his Dissertation "De Syriacarum Novi Fœderis versionum indole atque usu, 1761," were bequeathed by Dr. Ridley to the Library of New College, Oxford. Of these antient MSS. a fac-simile specimen was published in his Dissertation above-mentioned. A copy of "The Confessional," with MS Notes by Dr. Ridley, was in the Library of the late Dr. Winchester. *This poem, originally published (but without his name) during the Rebellion in 1746, was afterwards printed in Dodsley's Poems, vol. III. as was also his Psyche, or the great Metamorphosis, a poem, written in imitation of Spenser. The origin of this was as follows: his friend, Mr. Spence, having lent him the Works of Spenser, which he had never read, on returning them, our Author sent Mr. Spence, as a fragment, the fifteen first stanzas of Psyche, without farther plan or design, as an exercise to imitate that Writer. Mr. Spence pressed him to finish it: he did so, and completed the canto. This was his excuse for adopting obsolete words. After this, Mr. Dodsley, and other friends, prevailed with him to think of a second part to the Metamorphosis; but, "sensible (as he modestly said) how very moderate his talent was for poetry, he was desirous to supply that defect, as far as he could, by conveying some new and useful knowledge, through the vehicle of verse." As the first part of the Metamorphosis, in one canto, was a kind of Paradise Lost, this was to be a Paradise Regained. VOL. I. U U No. No. X. REV. DR. PHILIP BEARCROFT, was born May 1, 1697; elected scholar of the Charter-house, on the nomination of Lord Somers, 19 July, 1710; whence, in November 1712, he was elected to the University, and was matriculated of St. Mary Magdalen Hall, Oxford, Dec. 17, following. June 6, 1716, he became B. A. On June 28 next year, he was elected probationary; and that day two years actual Fellow of Merton College. He took Deacon's orders at Bristol Feb. 23, 1718; and Priest's at Gloucester 13 March, 1719; and proceeded M. A. 9 July following. He was appointed Preacher to the Charter-house in 1724; where, in 1735, he began his "Historical Account of Thomas Sutton, Esq. and of his Foundation in Charter-house." Printed in London, 1737, 8vo. In September 1738, he was made one of the King's Chaplains; and in March following, Secretary to the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. July 19, 1743, he was instituted to the rectory of Stormouth in Kent, which he held by dispensation. He would have printed a Collection of the Rules and Orders; but the Governors forbad it *. He was elected Master of the Charter-house, Dec. 18, 1753; and died Nov. 17, 1761. Though a worthy man, and with many good qualities, he had no talents for writing. * Gough's British Topography, vol. I. p. 691.-Some extracts, however, from them were actually printed; a very small number of copies only, in a quarto pamphlet, which were dispersed among the Officers of the House.-The archives have since been very liberally opened for the use of Mr. Malcolm, who has judiciously used them, in "Londinium Redivivum," vol. I. pp. 380-433. Na No. XI. REV. DR. THOMAS MORELL was born at Eton in Buckinghamshire, March 18, 1703. His father's name was Thomas, and his mother kept a boarding-house in the College. At the age of twelve he was adinitted on the foundation at Eton school*, and was elected, thence to King's College, Cambridge, Aug. 3, 1722. He took his first degree in 1726, and became M. A. four years after. At Lady-day 1731 he was appointed to the Curacy of Kew, in Surrey; and was some time also Curate of Twickenham. July 6, 1733, he was admitted ad eundem at Oxford; and in 1737 became F. S. A. having just been instituted, on the presentation of his College, to the Rectory of Buckland, Herts. In the following year he married Anne, daughter of Henry Barker, esq. of Chiswick; and in July 1743 became D. D. In 1762, whilst resident at Turnham Green, being very fond of music, he was drawn, by his friend and neighbour Hogarth, who then lived at Chiswick, in the character of a Cynic Philosopher, with an * The manner of accenting Morell's name being undecided, it was pronounced sometimes Morell, and sometimes Morell; which caused one of his friends to address him with the following extempore jeu d'esprit : "Sive tu mavis Morélus vocari, sive Morellus." + See Dr. Morell's literary portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Hogarth in the " Biographical Anecdotes of Hogarth, 1910," vol. I. p. 127-Dr. Morell was the good-natured friend who first pointed out to Hogarth the cruel invective of Churchill; ibid. p. 367. Dr. Wooll has preserved an undated Letter from Dr. Morell to Dr. Warton, on which he gives the following note: "When Dr. Morell visited Winchester, he, in a casual survey of the College, entered the school, in which some junior boys were writing their exercises, one of whom, struck no less with his air and manner than the questions he put to them, whispered to his schoolfellows, Is he not a fine old Grecian! The Doctor, overhearing the expression, turned hastily round, and exclaimed, "I am indeed an old Grecian, my little man! Did you never see my head before my Thesaurus? The boy, having made an awkward apology, hastily withdrew: and soon finding two of the |