own fituation, and the king's temper. It was his misfortune to ferve a monarch, whofe refentments, which were eafily provoked, could only be fatisfied by the most severe revenge. Henry brought those men to the block, which other monarchs would have only difgraced.

Among thofe anecdotes of Surrey's life, I had almost forgot to mention what became of his amour with the fair Geraldine. We lament to find, that Surrey's devotion to this lady did not end in a wedding, and that all his gallantries and verfes availed fo little! No memoirs of that incurious age have informed us, whether her beauty was equalled by her cruelty; or whether her ambition prevailed fo far over her gratitude, as to tempt her to prefer the folid glories of a more fplendid title and ample fortune, to the challenges and the compliments, of fo magnanimous, fo faithful, and fo eloquent a lover. She appears, how

ever, to have been afterwards the third wife of Edward Clinton, earl of Lincoln. Such alfo is the power of time and accident over amorous vows, that even Surrey himself outlived the violence of his paffion. He married Frances, daughter of John earl of Oxford, by whom he left several children. One of his daughters, Jane countefs of Westmoreland, was among the learned ladies of that age, and became famous for her knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages. Surrey's poems were in high reputation with his cotemporaries, and for many years afterwards. He is thus characterised by the author of the old Arte of English Poesie, whose opinion remained

In

long as a rule of criticifm. the latter end of the fame kinges [Henry] raigne, fpronge up a new company of courtly makers, of whom fir Thomas Wyat the elder and Henry earle of Surrey were the two chieftaines, who having travelled into Italie, and there tafted the sweete and ftately meafures and ftyle of the Italian poefie, as novices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante, Ariofto, and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poefie from that it had bene before, and for that cause may just-. ly be fayd the first reformers of our English meeter and ftile." And again, towards the clofe of the fame chapter." Henry earle of Surrey, and fir Thomas Wyat, between whom I find very little difference, I repute them (as before) for the two chief lanternes of light to all others that have fince einployed their pennes upon English poefie: their conceits were loftie, their ftiles ftately,their conveyance cleanly, their termes proper, their meetre fweete and well-proportioned, in all imitating very naturally and ftudiously their maister Francis Petrarcha." recite the teftimonies of Leland, Sydney, Tuberville, Churchyard, and Drayton. Nor have these pieces, although fcarcely known at prefent, been without the panegyric of more recent times. Surey is praised by Waller and Fenton; and he seems to have been a favourite with Pope. Pope, in Windfor-foreft, having compared his patron lord Granville with Surrey, he was immediately reprinted, but without attracting many readers. It was vainly ima gined, that all the world would

I forbear to

eagerly

cagerly 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 remai ked, that in his time Surrey's poetry was antiquated and totally forgotten.

Character of Thomas Sackville, the fir Lord Buckhurft; from the fame Author.

S

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 domestic 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 univerfities he became celebrated as a Latin and English poet; and he carried his love of poetry, which he feems to have almoft folely cultivated, to the Inner Temple. It was now fashionable for every young man of fortune, before he began his travels, or was admitted into parliament, to be initiated in the ftudy of the law. But instead of purfuing a fcience, which could not be his profeffion, and which was unaccommodated to the bias of his genius, he betrayed his predilection tó 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 accomplish, ments and abilities having acquir ed the confidence and efteem of queen Elifabeth, the poet was foon lot in the statefman, 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 first 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. Nor is 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 usually framed; and Naunton relates, that his "fecretaries had difficulty to pleafe him, he was fo facete and choice in his style." 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 train 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 Buckhurst, and had fucceeded to a moft

a most 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 because his miftrefs Elifabeth paid a fincere compliment to his fingular learn ing and fidelity, or because the was willing to indulge an affected fit of indignation against the object of her capricious paffion, that when Sackville, in 1591, was a candidate for the chancellorship of the university of Oxford, the condefcended earneftly 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.

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 exposed to the feverity of remark; yet if any fubject 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 ufefulness 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 penetrating, 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 imposing and the ungrateful.

His practice as a physician was by

by no means confined to London and its environs, the place of his long and general refidence. For fome years past he made a point of retiring, during a few fummer months, to his place in Cheshire; a feat chofen by him as a fequeftered retreat from the labours and fatigue of his profeffional attentions, to digeft his thoughts, take poffeffion of himself, and invigorate his mind and body for his returning duties: but it too frequently happened, that what he had pleafingly conceived as an afylum from care and intrufion, proved not the retirement he was in purfuit of. Wherefoever he refided, his name and character followed him, carrying along with them thofe influences, which not onlypervaded every quarter of this, and the neighbouring kingdom of Ireland, but a very confiderable part of Europe and North America; from whence, in cafes that apparently would admit of the delay, he was frequently confulted by letter and defcription.

From this high rank in his profeffion, and from the respectful manner in which he was always treated, it may very reasonably be concluded that the pecuniary emoluments of his practice were large and fo they certainly were, to an uncommon degree; the produce of his annual practice being greater than has fallen to the lot. of moft phyficians in this nation: and could the fees he rejected be added to the fum, it would have increased to a furprising amount; but he was accuftomed to make diftinctions, which would not, I prefume at least, enter into every mind. Yet notwithstanding all thefe fources of affluence, fo large

and fo numerous were the channels throughwhich his bounties flowed, that they might be truly faid to be fcarcely equal to the liberality of his heart.

There is a certain exquifitenefs of fenfation in the tones of fome minds, which, amidst the various circumftances of life, and the unavoidable evils attendant on humanity, is, indeed, a moft painful fpecies of pre-eminence: the mind of Dr. Fothergill was of this mould; it was ever in unifon with the afflicted fpirit in all fituations, exciting him to acts of the most cordial friendliness.

In the diftribution of his favours, he retreated as much as poffiblefrom the acknowledgments of those he obliged. He knew the value of a grateful heart fully, for his own was grateful in the extreme; but he rather chofe that the objects of his kindness should feel that active and effential gratitude which is better evinced by a proper use of favours, and a happy change in circumstance and fituation, than by any verbal expreffion. In a few words, Dr. Fothergill's beneficences flowed from him with fo graceful an ease, and fo high a polish of address,

that no modeft worth was wounded, nor the acuteness of diftress increased, by the aukwardness of its acknowledgments.-His was not that drop-like bounty which paufes in its progrefs; it was full, flowing, and benign.

Although it may be the general practice of phyficians in other countries, as well as in this, to refuse the fees of the inferior clergy, yet the conduct of Dr. Fothergill towards numbers of this clafs was diftinguished by fomething

more

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 whilst 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 ftyle of this moft 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 rank, 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.

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 difeafe, which was at that time prevalent, feized upon his wife and five of his children in this fcene of diftrefs he looked up to the Doctor for his affiftance, but dared not apply to him, from a consciousness 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 bis attendance was no longer neceffary. The curate, anxious to return fome grateful mark of the fenfe he entertained of his fervices, 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 The found his favours mifapplied, or C

himself