eagerly wish to purchase the works of a neglected antient English poet, whom Pope had called the Granville of a former age. So rapid are the revolutions of our language, and fuch the uncertainty of lite rary fame, that Philips, Milton's nephew, who wrote about the year 1674, has remarked, that in his time Surrey's poetry was antiquated and totally forgotten.

Character of Thomas Sackville, the first Lord Buckhurft; from the fame Authors

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ACKVILLE was born at Buckhurst, a principal feat of his antient and illuftrious family in the parish of Withiam in Suffex. His birth is placed, but with evident inaccuracy, under the year 1536. At least it fhould be placed fix years before. Difcovering a vigorous understanding in his childhood, from a domeftic tuition he was removed, as it may reasonably be conjectured, to Hart-hall, now Hertford-college, in Oxford. But he appears to have been a master of arts at Cambridge. At both universities he became celebrated as a Latin and English poet; and he carried his love of poetry, which he feems to have almost folely cultivated, to the Inner Temple. It was now fashionable for every young man of for tune, before he began his travels, or was admitted into parliament, to be initiated in the ftudy of the law. But inftead of pursuing a science, which could not be his profeffion, and which was unaccommodated to the bias of his genius, he betrayed his predilection to a more pleafing fpecies of lite

rature, by compofing a tragedy for the entertainment and honour of his fellow-ftudents. His high birth, however, and ample patrimony, foon advanced him to more important fituations and employments. His eminent accomplishments and abilities having acquir ed the confidence and efteem of queen Elifabeth, the poet was foon loft in the statesman, and negotia tions and embaffies extinguished the milder ambitions of the ingenuous mufe. Yet it fhould be remembered, that he was uncorrupted amidst the intrigues of an artful court, that in the character of a firft minifter he preserved the integrity of a private man, and that his family refused the offer of an apology to his memory, when it was infulted by the malicious infinuations of a rival party. Noris it foreign to our purpose to remark, that his original elegance and brilliancy of mind fometimes broke forth, in the exercise of his more formal political functions. He was frequently difgufted at the pedantry and official barbarity of ftyle, with which the public letters and inftruments were ufually framed; and Naunton relates, that his "fecretaries had difficulty to pleafe him, he was fo facete and choice in his ftyle." Even in the decifions and pleadings of that rigid tribunal the ftar-chamber, which was never efteemed the fchool of rhetoric, he practifed and encouraged an unaccustomed strain of eloquent and graceful oratory on which account, fays Lloyd, "fo flowing was his invention, that he was called the ftar-chamber bell." After he was made a peer by the title of lord Buckhurft, and had fucceeded to

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a moft extenfive inheritance, and was now discharging the bufinefs of an envoy to Paris, he found time to prefix a Latin epistle to Clerke's Latin tranflation of Caftilio's Courtier, printed at London in 1571, which is not an unworthy recommendation of a treatife remarkable for its polite Latinity. It was either becaufe his mistress Elifabeth paid a fincere compliment to his fingular learning and fidelity, or because the was willing to indulge an affected fit of indignation againft the object of her capricious paffion, that when Sackville, in 1591, was a candidate for the chancellorfhip of the university of Oxford, the condefcended earnestly to folicit the university in his favour, and in oppofition to his competitor the earl of Effex. At least the appears to have approved the choice, for her majefty foon afterwards vifited Oxford, where he was entertained by the new chancellor with fplendid banquets and much folid erudition. It is neither my defign nor my province, to develope the profound policy with which he conducted a peace with Spain, the addrefs with which he penetrated or baffled the machinations of Effex, and the circumfpection and fuccefs with which he managed the treafury of two opulent fovereigns.

Character of the late Dr. Fothergill; extracted from Dr. Hird's Af. fectionate Tribute to his Memory.

T must be admitted that no partiality of affection fhould fo warp the mind, as to influence its regard for truth. On common

fubjects, the world is indulgent enough to accept the embellishments which a warm imagination may add to a few plain facts, but the language of eulogy is always fufpected, and confequently much more expofed to the feverity of remark; yet if any subject that I am acquainted with will bear a more than ordinary warmth of expreffion, it certainly may be indulged in a tribute to the memory of the late Dr. Fothergill.

The general voice has placed him amongst the illuftrious characters of the prefent age; but, what is more to his honour, it has placed him amongst the best of men. May the memorial I am giving to the public preferve his nameunblemished by mifreprefentation, till fome more equal pen fhall hand it down to pofterity, as a bright example of what great usefulness extraordinary talents may prove to fociety, when under the direction of a good heart, fine feelings, and an enlarged philanthropy!

His understanding was of a manly, energetic caft; it was pe netrating, comprehenfive, and highly cultivated: there was a firm dignity in his character, which, though it could not bend to any thing unbecoming itself, yet was accompanied by a certain foftnefs and complacency of manners peculiarly conciliating. His heart was fincere, friendly, compaffionate, and liberal to excefs. His hand was an unfparing diftributor, and the bounties of it, left they might not reach the truly worthy, were, not unfrequently, diffused amongst the impofing and the ungrateful.

His practice as a physician was

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more generous than mere forbearance; it was marked by extraordinary kindness.

He confidered the inferior claffes of clergymen as more particularly the objects of his liberality and attention; being brought up in that line of education, which, in the opinion of the world, precludes bodily labour, and to which the idea of the gentleman is annexed, without a competency to fupport the character; to many of thefe, I am an evidence, he was a kind friend and a private benefactor; not only by his advice in perfonal distress, but by his purfe, on feverely trying occafions. Nay, fo cordial was his humanity towards thefe, that on a friend's hinting to him whilft he was in the country, that his favours were not marked by propriety of diftinction (the gentleman from whom he refufed his fee being placed in high rank in the church, with an independent fortune), he returned a ready explanation of his principle of action; "I had rather, faid the Doctor, return the fee of a gentleman with whofe rank I am not perfectly acquainted, than run the risk of taking it from a man, who ought, perhaps, to be the object of my bounty." Such was the noble style of this most excellent man's way of thinking. The humane reader will feel the fineft fprings of his affections moved, by the following anecdote, given to me by a clergyman of high tank, who reveres the memory of Dr. Fothergill, and places his obligations to him, in a very trying feafon, near to his heart.

A friend of his, a man of a worthy character, who has at this time an income of about one hunVOL. XXIV.

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dred pounds a year, church preferment, was, in the earlier part of his life, feated in London upon a curacy of fifty pounds per annum, with a wife and a numerous family.-An epidemical disease, which was at that time prevalent, feized upon his wife and five of his children in this fcene of diftress he looked up to the Doctor for his affiftance, but dared not apply to him, from a confcioufnefs of his being unable to reward him for his attendance. A friend who knew his fituation, kindly offered to accompany him to the Doctor's, and give him his fee; they took the advantage of his hour of audience, and after a defcription of the feveral cafes, the fee, was offered, and rejected; but a note was taken of his place of refidence. The Doctor called affiduously the next and every fucceeding day, till his attendance was no longer neceffary. The curate, anxious to return fome grateful mark of the fenfe he entertained of his services, ftrained every nerve to accomplish it; but his aftonishment was not to be defcribed, when, inftead of receiving the money he offered, with apologies for his fituation, the Doctor put ten guineas into his hand, defiring him to apply to him without diffidence in future difficulties.

Although amidst the diffufion of his favours he too frequently met with painful returns, yet he would never allow inftances of this fort to check the ardour of his mind in doing all the good he could to others; and even to thofe who returned ingratitude for kindnefs, his charity continued ftill patient, hoping all things. It was his common expreffion, when he found his favours mifapplied, or

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himself impofed upon, "I had much rather that my favours fhould fall upon many undeferving objects, than that one truly deferving fhould escape my notice."

From the extenfiveness of his daily employments in London and its neighbourhood, to which must be added, the variety of his medical, philofophical, literary, and friendly correfpondence, it may be a matter of furprise to many, how he could acquit himself of the number of his engagements; yet he understood fo well the value of a moment, and the influence of order in the management of time, that he could generally fettle his most interesting concerns every evening, before he retired to reft. His thoughts were fo perfectly digefted, his penetration was fo quick, and his hand was fo rapid in its obedience to the dictates of his mind, that what might have been to many able men a fcene of inquietude, not to fay of confufion, was, in his hands, eafy and familiar. In cafes of moment he was no procraftinator.

In the practice of a phyfician, it is a happiness to himself, and certainly a much greater to his, patients, if he is in poffeffion of that native acumen or fagacioufnefs of mind, which, from the fuperior importance of his art, ought to have a high place in the fcale of character, could it be clearly afcertained. In every other art or fcience it may be eafily diftinguished by men of moderate abilities; but in medicine, its effects not being fo obvious, popular impreffion, or private influence, muft neceffarily be accepted as fecurity for its existence. It has fo little dependance upon me,

dical education, and profeffional employment, that a man may have enjoyed all the advantages of the one, and all the emoluments of the other, yet neither he nor his patients may have felt the leaft degree of its influence.-Education and employment are ordinary things: but this alone is the life. of medical genius, and is truly extraordinary; it operates by quick difcrimination in dubious cafes; it throws a clear light upon appa rent difficulties; it fixes the judg ment determinately upon the right object, and is practically illuftrat ed by happy and unexpected events. It was this fpecies of penetration that principally diftin guifhed Dr. Fothergill as a medical man.

There was another advantage, of no fmall moment, which his patients derived from his attendance; he knew how to unite the kindnefs of friendship with his profeffional duties; and could enter into those retreats of anxiety, from which flow an infinitude of bodily diftreffes, with an eye clearly difcerning, yet incurious and benign.-A religious fenfibility of fpirit difpofed him to draw near the deep springs of affliction, and diffufe the oil of peace over the troubled waters. There was a difcretion in his fympathy, that attached the confidence of his patients to an uncommon degree; and of what importance fuch an acquifition must be in the course of an extenfive practice, I leave to the judgment of every skilful practitioner.

A lady of my acquaintance, occafionally expreffing her high regard for the Doctor, and the fatisfaction the received from his attendance