minutes, without speaking a word. After carefully taking them up, they remained, during another interval, speechless. At last, on retiring, they said they had a particular favour to ask, which, if granted, should be kept a profound secret, and a handsome present reward the attendant for his confidence." Allow us," said they, "to return hither again in the evening; and (if practicable) without injuring the stone, let us lift it up, that we may only see the remains of Shakspeare." I need not say my informant told me, that the singularly enthusiastic request was not complied with. If it were made at all, how could such professed admirers of Shakspeare seemingly set at nought the threatened anathema which his own spirit uttered, as if on purpose to deter from so strange a profanation? "Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear To dig the dust inclosed here. L Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones." For, it is scarcely to be supposed that they who would disregard the Poet's prayer in one respect, would feel many compunctious visitings of Nature," by slighting it in another. Some trifling relick, if no more than one of the small "bones" of a little finger, would probably have been purloined, and moved" away. Another anecdote, relative to the Bust, was mentioned by my communicative Guide. On my inquiring how the fore-finger of the right hand became broken off, he said, "it was done by Mr. Garrick ;" and narrated the circumstance thus: At the Stratford Jubilee, while a large concourse of people were looking at the Bust, and noticing the pea in the right hand, Garrick, who was among them, raised his walking-cane, and, striking the pen from the hand (the finger along with it), said, "He has written enough!" Now if Garrick really did so, notwithstanding, as the Roscius of the age, he was the chief promoter. of the Jubilee in honour of Shakspeare, he well merited two or threesmart strokes, with the same cane, on his own shoulders. Mr. URBAN, Feb. 6. You "Quanto minus est, cum aliis versari, quam tui meminisse!' *See Mr. Bray's "Tour to Derby shire," &c. page 101. Original Original Letter from Dr. GILBERT I Madam, 2d January. BEGIN to write in the morning, because it is possible I may be out of town this evening, for I promised to be one night at Hamstead, during the holidaies, with my friend Mr. Kerk, and I apprehend he will call upon me this afternoon: but if I am not in the way to answer that which I expect from your Ladyship this afternoon, you shall be sure to hear from me by the. Saturday's carrier. I heard your great company had left you in the middle of the last week; but one of your cousins told me they believed you bad kept your chamber all the while: if you did this, and were not forced to it by any illness, I will say you are a true Tory indeed. I do not know if you have heard of the new name about the Town, of Trimmers, with which, among many others much better than I, the high blades here have been pleased to dig uify me-I ain glad, at least, that they are so favourable as not to count me a downright Whig. I have had occasion of late to see your two cousins, Mrs. St. John and Mrs. Chute, three or four times: you may be assured every thing is valued by me as it is related to you; but they have a great deal on their own account to recommend them. I am heartily sorry for the talk Mrs. St. John has fallen under, and the rather because she is a young. "Dr. Burnet, on the 31st March, 1689, was consecrated Bishop of Sarum; being advanced to the See of Salisbury within a few days after William III. was seated on the British Throne. An anecdote greatly to the honour of the Doctor is related by Historians, that Dr. Crewe, Bishop of Durham, having rendered himself obnoxious by the part he had acted in the High Commission Court, proposed to the Prince of Orange to resign his Bishoprick in favour of Dr. Burnet, on condition of an allow ance of 1000%. a year out of the revenue: our Author refused to accept it on those terms. The year 1682, or thereabouts, was the æra in which these Letters were wrote ; it will not be disagreeable to the Reader to turn his thoughts towards the Doctor's situation in life at that time. "On the apprehension of Popery, being introduced into England, our Author undertook to write the History of the Reformation of the Church of England, which he executed with great success and universal applause. In 1680 he published The Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester. During the affair of the Popish Plot, Dr. Burnet was often sent for by King Charles, and consulted upon the State of the Nation; and about the same time refused the vacant Bishoprick of Chichester, which his Majesty offered him provided he would entirely come over to his interest. But though his free access to this Monarch did not procure him preferment, it gave him an opportunity of sending his Majesty a most remarkable letter, in which with great freedom he reprehended the vices and errors both of his private life and his govern ment. The unprejudiced part he acted during the time the Nation was inflamed with the discovery of the Popish Plot; his candid endeavours to save the lives of Stanley and the Earl of Stafford, both zealous Papists; his temperate conduct with regard to the exclusion of the Duke of York; and the scheme of a Prince-Regent, proposed by him in lieu of that exclusion; are well known, and fully related in his History of his own Times. In 1682, when the Administration was wholly changed in favour of the Duke of York, he continued steady in his adherence to his friends, and chose to sacrifice all his views at Court, particularly a promise of the Mastership of the Temple, rather than break off his correspondencies with them. This year our Author published his "Life of Sir Matthew Hale," and his "History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands;" which being attacked by an anonymous writer, Dr. Burnet published, the same year, "An Answer to the Animadversions on the History of the Rights of Princes." As he was about this time much resorted to by persons of all ranks and parties; in order for a pretence to avoid the returning so many visits, he built a Laboratory, and for above a year be amused himself with chemical experiments. Upon the execution of Lord Russell, with whom he was familiarly acquainted, he was examined before the House of Commons in relation to that Lord's speech upon the scaffold, in the writing of which he was suspected to have had a band. Not long after, he refused an offer of a living of 3001. a year, in the gift of the Earl of Halifax, who would have presented him on condition of his residing still in London. In the year 1683 woman of so much sense and discre tion, and yet an error in her conduct has given occasion to all the discourse concerning her; and indeed Mr. Collt had so fair a character through the whole former parts of his life, that no wonder she thought he was not capable of so much villainy as he has shewn of late; but I told her she must blame her own charms, which are such, that they have put a poor Gentleman almost out of his wits, and have thrown him into these disorders that he has committed; but to this I added, that I did not see where those charms lay, and asked her if she could tell me you may think what a clown I am, by this rude kind of raillery. And now I come to the formality of wishing you a good and happy new year; but indeed I do so constantly wish you all sorts of blessings, both here and hereafter, that I cannot raise my wishes higher one day than another. Thus I have almost wrestled through a page of very dull stuff, of which I imagine you will give one ill-natured reason; that it is because I, not having got yours, have no new matter given ine for a chiding, which, I believe, is all the talent you think I have in writing. But I will go no further till I see whether you mend former faults, though I am afraid that, whether you mend or not, Ishall be unalterably, Madam, your most humble, most obedient, and most obliged servant, G. BURNET. Postscript. I have now got your letter, and am mighty glad of the hopes you put me in of another copy next week; but as for correcting, I will beg leave, when you do me the honour to allow my coming to wait on you at Winchendon, to bring down all you have written, and to set before you some corrections, on which you shall pass your judgment. I give this alloy to every one to whom I shew your Verses, that. you have not yet the talent of correcting what you write, and therefore your composures must be considered but as the first draughts; and, with that allowance, I dare be bold to say, they may be compared to the performances of the greatest masters. And I must tell you that you want one of the pleasantest and most entertaining parts of Poetry; for a critical review ing and mending what one has writ, is a very noble diversion; but it is that which one cannot force one's self to, and it commonly comes on with more years than you yet have: but the reason you give for it is an affliction beyond expression to one concerned, in you, "that you have not peace enough to be so calm;" to this I can say nothing but in the language of deep regret, and of the tenderest sympathy the nature of man is capable of: but that I will vent elsewhere in my most serious thoughts, and will not increase your sorrows by telling you so sad a discourse, as the share I have in them must needs make. I presumed to shew your Verses to my Lady Essex, who is a woman of great understanding, and has a high esteem of you, and admires your poetry; so also does my Lady Ra nelagh, of whom I suppose you have a right enough character: you cannot imagine how highly she esteems all you write; but, upon my he went over to Paris, where he was well received by the Court, and became acquainted with the most eminent persons, both Popish and Protestant. The year following, the resentment against our Author was so great, that he was discharged from his lecture at St. Clement's by virtue of the King's mandate to Dr. Hascard, rector of that Parish; and in December the same year, by an order from the Lord Keeper North to Sir Harbottle Grimstone, he was forbid preaching any more at the Rolls Chapel.-Upon the death of King Charles, and accession of King James, having obtained leave to go out of the Kingdom, he went first to Paris; there he lived in great retirement, to avoid being involved in the conspiracies then forming in favour of the Duke of Monmouth. But, having contracted an acquaintance with Brigadier Stouppa, a Protestant officer in the French service, he was prevailed upon to take a journey with him into Italy, and met with an agreeable reception at Rome and Geneva. After a tour through the Southern parts of France, Italy, Switzerland, and many places of Germany, he came to Utrecht, and intended to have settled in some quiet retreat within the Seven Provinces; but, being invited to the Hague by the Prince and Princess of Orange, he repaired thither, and had a great share in the councils then carrying on in relation to the affairs of England." W.H. + Interlined, and not very legible. sending sending her your "Despair,"she wrote to me that she was sorry to find you quarreling with your Maker, as if He had entailed ignorance and misery on our nature; and she would be much better pleased to see you continue in a strain of celebrating and adoring Him. I hope there is nothing in all this which makes you think I do continue in a chiding strain; though, when I read your letter, I found the bottom of the former page was almost prophetical; perhaps you will however say, it was guilt made me know what I was to expect. But one thing I will beg of you, that you will try if you are in the humour of writing at other times in the week than just before the carrier is to go, and let me see the effects: for, though I make a shift to draw out letters pretty long, by reading them frequently over, yet even that would be multiplied if they were longer, for I would not read them the less frequently because of their length. (From the "General Outline of the Swiss Landscapes.") T my arriving unto this town was called into the councell afor the Ambassadors of the Cantones, I was put to this exigent, either to shew that I was sent from_the_King's Grace, or else to let the French peace be concluded, or else to stand in manifest jeopardie of my life by unthrifty felons, moved thereunto by such as be corrupted ther with great somes of money from the French Kynge's, &c. When I was in this perplexitie, I desired to speak secretly with one or two of the most wise of the councell, and soe I was committed to the Lorde Galiace Vice-count, &c. "Immediately they did bring me into the councell again, and not only certified all the Cantones that I was truly your Grace's secretary, and sent by the King's councell, but also they offered themselves hostages unto the said Cantones unto such tyme that they might send into England, and have knowledge again uppon the truth of this matter, if they would not be leeve it, &c. &c. I should have an answer resolute; and undoubtidly if I had brought money with me, the Kinge's Grace and non other had had the Swices surelie. As the thinge standeth now, Kinge hath extorted in the duchie of it is very doubtfull, for the French Millan two hundred thousand crownes for to be paid to the Swice's ther, assoone as they ratifye the forsayd peace and thus the sayd French Ain Swice, I desired of the lordes Kynge doth treat his matters with of thes Cantones hasty expedition, and a resolute answer in my matters, considering that all the Cantons wear certified of my peticions by sufficient instruccions sent unto every Canton affore my commyng, by my lorde the -Cardinall Sedunen (Sion): herunto they made ther answer that, affore the day of the sitting of ther counsell I could have nou audience, for such was ther auncient order, &c. &c. "In the meantyme, ali such as favoured the French Kynge had published, and confirmed with great othes, that I was not sent out of England by the Kinge's consent, or any of the counsaill; ne was noe Englishman borne, but a false Spaniard craftily sent for to disseave them; and verily this untrue rumor did greatly alienat from me the mynds of the councell heare, and also of the common people, because they have soe often tymes bene begyled, in soe much, that when I money in hand. And we sola spe. Nevertheless if the 100,000 crownes be sent hither befor the next dyet, paradventure they may do some good: if not, actum est, &c. "In all baste, not only with mine owne letters, but also my lord's the Cardinal Sedunen. And at that tyme declared unto your Grace plainlye that we lacked nothing but money for to set forward the Swices within 8 days. 1 shall never forget the King's most wise and discreet words, sayd unto your Grace and my lorde the Duke of Suffolke at my depar ture: videlicet, “that his Grace would not that I should goe unto the Swices with if, if,' conditionally, and bare promise, but offer them redy, redz money, if they would serve him. Thes words were spoken by some in. spiration, for he that will obtain the service of thes men, must not onl have money for to pay ther wages at y ther |