Aug. 16, Saturday. Cool day. Tom reaped for Joe Holdom. I cudgelled Jem for staying so long on an errand at Newton Longueville." was daughter to Mr. Gostlin the Conveyancer: but left no issue behind him, and dying some seven or eight years ago left a good estate of 7 or 800l. per annum, to a Mr. Chapman of Cambridge, on mutual condition to leave each other their fortunes at their death's. Mr. Chapman took the name of Green, and dying about three or four years ago, left a widow and some children: she re-married since to a Mr. Keltz, an apothecary of Cambridge, her brother being the late Mr. Macro of the same place and profession. I am, dear Sir, yours most faithfully, WM. COLE. "Mr. Green left a maiden sister, who left Cambridge some seven or eight years ago, and now lives at Northampton." "DEAR SIR, Milton, Whit Monday, May 20, 1782. "I should have wrote before, but waited to know whether the Ely monuments, which are properly Saxon, would come into your plan: for I would by no means send them, if they did not; having a most particular regard for them, and would not' have them lost, as they were taken at my earnest request, in which I had some trouble. The ornamental arches of the first shew what the others were: for they were all ranged in a line, and had the same ornaments about them. It is a singular curiosity, and, to a genuine Antiquary, must please. The arch underneath each figure was the place where each person's bones were deposited, as I was an eye-witness. "Besides these four full sheets of paper, I send you Mr. Kerrich's draft of Sir de Trumpington, his drawing of Thomas Peyton of Iselham, esq. temp. Edw. IV. with two others of his two wives, most admirably done, and shewing the dress of the times; and a fifth of the tomb, or figure rather, of Sir Thomas de Sharnborne of Sharnborne in Norfolk, by the same excellent hand; all which I trust to your care, and shall be glad to have returned, when done with. I could have wished he had been more exact in giving draughts of the monuments, arms, inscriptions, &c. I am afraid he will disappoint your expectations of any account of foreign monuments and habits; he seemed to me to have only one object, that of cross-legged knights, and, perhaps, a few pillars in churches. What an opportunity he lost, by not visiting the English College at Rome, and other places! Mr. Lethieullier's drafts at Strawberry hill have many of them; and when I was at Paris, St. Omer's, &c. I took all the epitaphs I could of Englishmen, and lamented my deficiency in the pencil. My hands are so shattered with the gout this winter, that many days pass without being able to write a line; and when I can do it at all, my fingers are so ritrose, unpliant, and awkward, that I can hardly form my letters, and give me much fatigue: so you must expect little help from me, except I get better; and that I have In one of Horace Walpole's letters to him, May 4, 1781, he says, My poor dear Madame du have no hopes of. The death of my poor niece Apthorp, who was overturned on the 9th of this instant in my neice Newcome's coach and killed on the spot, contributes not a little to my malady. She was to have been married the same week to Mr. Chamberlaine, Fellow of Eton, whose brother came to so unfortunate an end, the 4th of last month, at the Treasury. "I wish to see Croyland: but how can you think that Mr. Walpole has taken more pains about the Rowley business than the subject deserved? It is probable he would not have entered into it at all, had he not been called upon publicly as the murderer of Chatterton. Surely it became him to justify his own conduct, and to expose an imposture *. "I can write no more, and will send the packet to-morrow evening. Yours faithfully, WM. COLE. "The family at Madingley are well; I saw Sir John lately, who is remarkably well, considering his last infirmity of the asthma. You will see on the papers of the Ely monuments, what I wrote about them at the time." "DEAR SIR, Milton, July 25, 1782. "I find you and Mr. Nichols dined at Strawberry-hill on Saturday; and I make no doubt of your entertainment; as I was well pleased to hear Mr. Walpole communicated to you so many of Mr. Lethieullier's drawings. He seems much pleased with your plan. I have been so ill I could not write before now. "The Bishop who ordained the Tapster, as he is styled, is the present one of Gloucester † ; which I am surprized at, as he had been refused at Lambeth, which, it is probable, he knew of. The case, I believe, is much exaggerated in the pamphlet, which is well written, but with too much acrimony. I have been told the writer wanted to hold the living till the young man was better qualified, and was refused. The character he gives of him shews so much spleen and rancour, that one would believe it. His father, who keeps a reputable inn in Gloucestershire, either bought, or had an estate left him, belonging to All Souls, on which was a living. This tempted the father to get his son into orders: and there can be no doubt, but every one in the same situation would have acted as he did. However, he ought to have been properly instructed and qualified. This Mr. Robson the bookseller told a friend of mine; who, however, has heard it since contradicted. "I was not surprized yesterday to hear that * * * ***. He took methods, in my private opinion, equally obnoxious to attain that high character, as the other had for a lower one: nay, I should not have marvelled if Doctors Priestley or Price had had the nomination: but I am told the former has + Dr. Samuel Halifax. * See vol. III. P. 301. quar Deffand's little dog is arrived. She made me promise to take care of it, the last time I saw her, should I survive her. That I will most religiously, and make it as happy as it is possible." Mr. Cole's answer is amusing. "May 7, 1781. I congratulate the little Parisian dog that he has fallen into the hands of so humane a master. I have a little diminutive dog, Busy, full as great a favourite, and never out of my lap: I have already, in case of an accident, ensured it a refuge from starvation and ill-usage. It is the least we can do, for poor harmless, shiftless, pampered animals, that have amused us, and we have spoilt." How could he ever have got through the transcript of a Bishop's Register, or a Chartulary, with Busy in his lap! So minute was Mr. Cole in penning almost every action of his life, that in one of his volumes he has quarrelled with his great Patron *. If you know the occasion, I should be glad to be informed of it. "I can give you no modern account of the Rous family: the following is from a MS. of Suffolk Families, by Sir Richard Gipps his Antiquitates Suffolcienses: [After giving a long account of the Families of Rous and Creke; Mr. Cole adds:] "I can write no more, than to assure you of my hearty good wishes towards all your worthy undertakings, and am, dear Sir, yours sincerely, WM. COLE." "Oct. 4, 1782.-As to my sending you the Crowland volume again, I shall have no objection to it, though it met with so cold a reception. How you can make a Supplement † from it, is more than I can conceive. The Corrodaries and other particulars mentioned in the several deeds would have enlivened your book under each abbot in whose abbacy they happened. You are too good a judge of these things to want my opinion. I will send the volume with the books for Mr. Nichols, or by him. "I thank you for your enquiries after my heatlh. Since you was here, I have been forced to send for physician, apothecary, and surgeon the last from a fall the day after I was at Madingley; and he has attended me ever since. "Mr. Essex I saw about a week ago; he has been to York and Lincoln, and is well. I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. WM. COLE." *The Earl of Shelburne, afterwards the first Marquis of Lansdown. + The XXIId Number of the "Bibliotheca Topographical Britannica."Browne Willis's Buckinghamshire Collections. See before, p. 667; and vol. V. p. 199. VOL. I. Zz preserved preserved the very weight of his body at different æras of his life. "1759. Weighing myself at my Lord Montfort's, as I often used to do, with others, there being scales for that purpose in the collonade under the house, I then weighed only 13 stone 9 pounds: but on Oct. 28, 1763, I had gained greatly, weighing now 14 stone 4 pounds. Nov. 12, 1749, 11 stone 8 pounds. Nov. 14, 1758, 13 stone 3 pounds. Aug. 23, 1768, 14 stone 2 pounds. Christmass 1769, I had lost 4 pounds, weighing 13 stone 12 pounds. Aug. 1, 1774, 14 stone 8 pounds. Jan. 25, 1775, 15 stone." In the XXXIXth volume of Mr. Cole's MSS. toward the end, are some additional particulars in regard to Rowley and Chatterton* as related by Dr. Fry; and in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1784, are two specimens of his Remarks on Books-the one panegyrical, the other satirical. In the Magazine for 1806, p. 693, is a long extract from a remarkable Letter of his to Dr. Lort §. My intelligent young friend Mr. Philip Bliss, of St. John's College, Oxford, who has undertaken to re-publish Wood's "Athenæ Oxoni* See MS Athenæ Cantabrigienses, vol. E. p. 138. Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, and an assistant in the Bodleian Library. Vol. LIV. p. 333. § The letter is chiefly on the subject of Rowley's Poems; but Mr. Cole adds, "No doubt you have seen in the London Evening Post of the last fortnight, several scurrilous squibs and reflections on our Primate, not for his routs at the palace, but for his endeavouring to bring folks to a sense of their duty and decency. In the last week's paper it is repeated, and the Archbishop's lady taxed with routs on a Sunday. Though I had formerly the honour of a decent familiarity with his Grace while at college, and have all the veneration that is due tanto patri; yet if the fact is true, and it is boldly and confidently asserted in the Presbyterian manner, I cannot help thinking but all that is said is proper enough for such antiepiscopal carriage. I have myself, as William Cole, no particular objection to a game of cards even on a Sunday evening, but as Vicar of a parish I should think myself highly blameable to do so in my parish, or as a clergyman any where, in a country where the prejudice is so vehement against it; so that I cannot believe the assertion." enses," enses," possesses a copy of that useful work, the margins of which are filled with the notes of Mr. Cole*, superadded to those of Mr.Thomas Baker. I shall close this account of a very worthy though eccentric writer, by four other specimens of his epistolary correspondence; the first of which is to his very early Friend and Patron Browne Willis, * Transcribed by Mr. Cole from a copy in the Public Library at Cambridge, in which is written, "The Rev. Mr. Thomas Baker, of St. John's College, in Cambridge, having made a vast quantity of notes upon Mr. Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, and inserted them in his edition of that work in 1691, all under their proper heads; which book he left to the Library of our University of Cambridge, I shall exactly copy the same into this edition of 1721; and to prevent any injury to Mr. Baker's memory, by being mixed with some of my own, I shall add at the end of each note or observation of Mr. Baker the initial letters of his name, T. B. to distinguish them from any that are there at present, or may hereafter be inserted by W. C. "Finished these Notes at Haddenham, in the Isle of Ely, Sunday, 29 Oct. an. 1749. W. C." +"This book I leave in trust with my worthy friend Dr. Middleton, for the Public Library. And I desire of my executor, that it may be delivered accordingly, though not mentioned in my will, and was otherwise disposed of when my will was made, now void as to that particular. THOMAS BAKER." + + "SIR, King's College, Cambridge, Jan. 17, 1747-8. "Yours of the 8th of this instant came to hand but a few days since, having been for the most part out of College since I saw you, which is the reason why you have not had these Epitaphs of Dignitaries before. I shall take the liberty of pointing out to you what mistakes have fallen in my way to observe, with whatever else I think may be agreeable to you. I have not been able, for my want of opportunity, to make any search into our Bishop's Register concerning the dedications; whenever I have, I will certainly make an extract of them, and let you have them. You desired me in your last to send something, which the seal tore off from your Letter. If I knew what it was, you might have depended upon it, had it been in my power. I should have thought myself very fortunate, had it been convenient, to have met you in London, where I should not have failed to have spent my time agreeably with one of your taste for Antiquity: however, promise myself some amends in seeing you in the summer. I can give no account of Bishop John de la Bere more than is to be met with in the most common books. I was very unlucky in not being able to read great part of your penultime letter; I shall take care not to lose it, that I may shew it you for your explication, there being many Dedications, &c. in it which will be of service to me. But I will detain you no longer, and will come to |