not far beyond that in the Vatican. Other pieces, where the writing hath been scraped out, for want of vellum, to write other things on; and I verily believe he was the first that ever made that discovery; for, some years ago, in the Bodleian Library, he shewed me a MS. in Greek, that had been twice wrote on. His fragments are in divers languages, Greek, Latin, Saxon, &e. I believe the like is not in Europe, and I believe no person can make better use of them; so that if he meet with encouragement, as Mabillon had in France, we may have greater variety of specimens from him; besides which he intends towards a Saxon Bible. This Collection of his deserves a very great encomium.

You have formerly seen his specimen of antient hands, and by his al phabets you may judge of his performance. He is an excellent critick of the antiquity of all sorts of letters, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Saxon, &c. what century and country they were wrote in, the several sorts of ink in each country; the vellum, paper, parchment they were wrote on.

The Benedictine Monks at St.James had a good library; and the Capuchins at Somerset-house.

Sir William Godolphin and his brother the Doctor have both excellent libraries.

I have mentioned these particulars for the satisfaction of a particular friend, who was of opinion that there were more books in Paris than London. But, though in their Convents and Public Libraries they may exceed us, yet for books in Private hands we exceed them; and I am fully assured our Booksellers are better assorted than those at Paris.

Mr. Bateman hath had more libraries go through his hands within this twenty years than all those at Paris put together. In that time his shop hath been the store-house from which the learned have furnished themselves with what was rare and curious. From hence we have the happiness that few of our books go out of the kingdom; of late years only Vossius', which were lost by the management of some conceited, illnatured persons; and there were many excellent Greek MSS. very antient, some in capitals, and amongst the printed books some were as valuable as some of the MSS.-Bishop

Stilling fleet's printed books also went out of the kingdom. The MSS. remain here.

These, 7000 in number, were bought by the Right Hon. Secretary Harley, and that noble collection of Sir Simon D'Ewes, which is much

rarer. There are abundance of antient MSS. books, charters, &c. some in Saxon, others of great antiquity, which give great light into history. There are all J. Stow's Collection; several original leidger-books, cou cher-books, and cartularies of Monasleries in this kingdom, at Bury St. Edmund's, St. Alban's, and other Religious houses. This collection in some particulars exceeds any in England, and is the greatest treasury in its kind in the kingdom. There are, besides, many valuable MSS. and printed books.

Dr. Salmon hath the best collection of English folios that are to be found in any private hand: his library is a very stately room, and well situated as any I have seen; there are 1700 folios, with quartos and octavos proportionable, books well chosen and neatly bound.

........

Lately the Gentlemen of Doctors Commons purchased the library of Dr. which is put into a great room next to the Hall; and intend to collect more books to compleat it. The learned Dr. Pinfold is putting them in order; they are mostly re lating to Civil and Canon-Law.

Dr. Busby gave a collection of books in the room called the Museum at Westminster-school, for the use of the scholars.

I shall conclude with observing, that books being sold by auction, and printing catalogues, has given great light to the knowledge of books. This we are beholding to the Auctioneers for, such as John Dunmore, Edward Millington, Marmaduke Forster, William Cooper, John Ballard, &c. They had vast quantities of books went through their hands; as Smith's, the Lord Anglesea's, Dr. Jacomb's, Massow's, Earl of Aylesbury's, Lord Maitland's, &c. the great stocks of Scot, Davies of Oxford, and Littlebury's. Dispers ing catalogues of these much conduced to improving the learned in the knowledge of scarce and valuable books, which before stood dusty in studies, shops, and warehouses.

At

At a leisurable opportunity I will obey your commands in giving an account of the Antiquities of Buildings; as Churches, Monuments, Palaces, great Houses, Statues, both antient and modern, Collections of Paintings, and other pieces of Curiosity; though I intend first to shew you the several parts of the City; and what is remarkable and worthy to be seen in each +. J. BAGFORD.

Abbotts Roding, Nov. 2. Crudelis Pater, magis an puer improbus ille?

Improbus ille puer, crudelis tu quoque

Pater.

Mr. URBAN,

HE impression which was made

days of my life, from reading the Night Thoughts of Dr. Young, was such, that I regarded him as an Angel of Light. The solemnity of the subject, and the sublimity of his thoughts, impressed me with so much reverence and veneration for the Author, that the model of his life seemed to have been of the chastest kind, and his morals so pure, that his example might be followed in any stage of life with the greatest safety and security, with out any danger of deviating from the standard of Christian perfection. But, upon a nearer approach to the golden image which I had set up, there is a visible alloy, discovering too plainly that all is not gold that glis

tens.

The Example must be followed with caution: since not only in his earlier, but in his later days, there are strong exceptions to be taken against his moral and religious character. How far these severe observations may be justified, are now to be submitted to candid decision, and to the fair impartiality of judgment.

On perusing, a few mornings ago, the Life of Doctor Young, prefixed to a neat and elegant quarto volume of his Night Thoughts, my eye was offended with a flaw in the gem,

*This shall be given at some future opportunity. EDIT.

See a very curious and well-written Letter of Mr. J. Bagford to Mr. Hearne, in the first volume of the 2d edition of "Leland's Collectanea," pp. 58. & seq. relative to London, and the Antiquities in its vicinity.

which I wish to be removed by some scientific hand. There seemed to be also some inaccuracies, into which the Editor had fallen: and some obscurities, which stood in need of explanation and elucidation.

An explanatory note is wanted to the Life of Young, in which it is said, that in his 19th year he became a Member of New College; and in the same year was removed to Corpus.

It would be satisfactory to know, by what motive he could have been induced to have stood for a scholarship in C.C.C. at a time when in the year immediately following he would have succeeded to a Fellowship in his own College. What renders his removal still more inexplicable is, that he thereby gave up his eligibility to the different preferments in the gift of the two St. Mary Winton Collegesendowments such as no other College in the University is enriched with. So that, in his third removal, to All Souls, he did not regain an equivalent to what he might have remained in possession of.

The Editor of his Life having informed us, that he was removed from Corpus by Archbishop Tenison having appointed him to a Law Fellowship in All Souls, it would be highly satisfactory to know, whether by an appeal upon an undue election, or on what other occasion, the Archbishop, as Visitor, became invested with such privilege and authority, as to supersede the right of election in the Warden and Fellows of that foundation.

A farther explanation would be desirable respecting the Law Fellowship, which, the Editor acquaints us, the Archbishop had put him in possession of.

:

During my earlier connexion with the University, I do not recollect to have heard of a Law Fellowship in There are Vinerian Fellowships; which any one College throughout Oxford. are truly and literally Law Fellowships but they are appropriate to no peculiar College. In All Souls, New College, and St. John's, there are certain Fellows, who by the statutes of the College are under an obligation of taking their Degrees in Civil Law. But the Founder, so far from confining them to the study of jurisprudence, left them at full liberty, as their genius and turn of mind led

them,

them, to devote their talents to the study of Physick, Divinity, or Law. But the subject of more important moment is yet untouched.

It being far from the intention of my mind to rake up the ashes of the dead, or to take up the first, or even the last stone, to deface the monument erected to the pious memory of the deceased; I seek for information only for the cause of Truth-to clear up what is obscure-and to throw its proper shade and light upon the character of Dr. Young.

With this view I look to the Sylvas Academi, where the more authentic information may perhaps be obtained respecting some of the parti culars attached to the present subject. And I should also hope, that some of the friends or surviving relations of our Author may be able to dispel the dark and heavy cloud, which with Cimmerian darkness hangs over his memory.

The fair name and the honest reputation of the Author of the Night Thoughts are deeply sullied by the Editor's associating him in friendship with the Duke of Wharton. But, leaving nothing to the uncertainty of imputation, he precludes us from the delusion of hope, and from all misconceived prejudice in his favour, by roundly asserting that his morals were far from being correct. I should be extremely reluctant, as well as unwilling, to give my assent to so heavy a charge, unless the accusation were supported by such evidence as could not be gainsaid.

Should the truth of the charge be found to stand in full force against him, and that his moral character was debased by the contamination of vice-such an aspersion, would not only tarnish the lustre and brilliancy of his character, but it would prove also to be a libelous attack upon the Warden and Fellows of All Souls College at that time existing; for from them he must then have received his Testimonial for Holy Orders. Under what construction of Religion could they have subscribed their names with the solemn assurance, if the scandal and reproach were well-founded of his immorality-tha the was qualified, by a moral and religious life, to be a Minister of the Gospel of Christ?

The different persons, thus brought forward to public notice, are now

In that grave,

resting in the grave. where all things may be for a season forgotten, though I believe that our prayers for the dead avail nought, I may nevertheless innocently say, without blotting out a single iota from our creed, in pace quiescant!

The Biographer of Dr. Young has not thought fit to particularize the nature of his offence against the law of morality and order. Taking leave of his general charge, in hope that some friend may vindicate the Author of the Night Thoughts, and wipe off this foul aspersion from his name, I shall devote the remaining part of this interesting subject to the important consideration Whether, as a Father, to a Son who by some youthful indiscretion had given him offence, he did not exercise a severity too rigid, persevering with inflexible harshness for a long series of years?

The minor age of the Son ought, in all reason, strongly to have pleaded in his favour against the sternness of the Father; whatever might have been the errors of his conduct. He had scarcely left Winchester school, when he was banished from his father's friendly roof-when he forfeited all his protection, the benefit of his seasonable advice, and the wholesome correction, which might have led to the happy end of regain. ing that blessing which he had lost.

How unharmoniously does this rigida virtus agree with those musi cal and melancholy sounds, which he breathed in extreme heaviness of grief and affliction, when he bede wed the grave of Narcissa with tears, which, in sympathy of sorrow, have since flowed down the cheek from many an eye!

Could the Father of a daughternot his own-and the Father of a son, legitimately born, discarded and for bidden from all approach to his person, be the same identical being? Lord, what is Man!

Whether the melting melancholy strains which flowed from the pen of our Author, so deeply lamenting the death of Narcissa with a pathos sublimely great-overwhelmed with indignant sorrow at the cruel decree of the Romish Church denying his daughter the rites of Christian burial

whether those affecting strains were the genuine feelings of his heart; or caught from so fair a subject to

-

move the passions of the Reader, would be a kind of sacrilegious doubt. But, allowing those deep tones of grief to have proceeded from the bottom of his soul, his daughter felt not the difference between consecrated ground and the garden of flowers where her last remains were deposited; and, with respect to himself, he had the Christian philosophy to resort to, to support his mind under the Divine consolation, that her spirit had returned unto God who gave it whilst his only son, the son of a Protestant Minister, a beneficed Clergyman, was wandering in this country, unprotected, unrelieved, and unforgiven. I remember him an unhappy wanderer, friendless, and often, full often, I believe, almost pennyless, but certainly deficiente crumenâ. It would be a melancholy discovery to retrace the different distressing scenes and occurrences which he passed through, without any of the gifts of fortune, without any profession, and without any employment. He was possessed of superior talents, and a well-cultivated understanding, enriched with a lively imagination, and a vein of poetical fancy, not inferior, time and circumstances considered, to that of his father. But the want of academical education left him to struggle under the frowns of adversity in the prime of life. The Editor of Young's Life, boldly, but ignorantly, affirms, that he was sent from Winchester to New College. But this he wrote by dashing through a cloud before his eyes, without any kuowledge of his subject, and wilfully mistaking his way; for, had he made his inquiry at the corner of New College-lane, he would not have fallen into so gross and palpable an

error.

If the writer was not a mere copyist, he was working up the compilation of a Life with materials of which he neither knew the consistency, or the propriety of using them. He would not otherwise have committed to the press this incoherent and contradictory account of Young's admission in the University. His words are these: "He was sent to New College, in Oxford; but there being no vacancy, though the Society waited for one not less than two years, he was admitted in the mean time in GENT. MAG. December, 1816.

Baliol." If he was sent to New College, for what reason was he admitted in Baliol? And if in the mean time he was admitted in Baliol, consequently he could not have been sent to New College. How could he possibly have been sent, when there was no vacancy for his admission? It cannot with any propriety of language be said, that the Society were thus waiting; though it was strictly true of Young. Bot so far from his having been sent to the College, to which by a chapter of uncommon ill fortune, with all the chances in his favour, he never succeeded; he was during one of those two years the senior of the school at Winchester Col lege, waiting for the chance of the election in his last year, when he became a Superannuate.

But to digress no farther. Let it be granted that Mr. Frederick Young in the heyday of his blood had given his father just cause for resentment; should he have pursued the vengeance of his anger and displeasure to such a degree, and to such an unwarrantable length of time? Had he offended him beyond all hopes of forgiveness? Whatever faults the son had committed, so as to complete his ruin, should not the immoral habits of the father during his intimacy with the Duke of Wharton have risen up in his own judgment against himself, so as to have had compassion on the child of his bosom? The recollection of his having lived in friendship with a licentious and profligate Nobleman ought in reason to have induced him to have weighed in an even balance the demerits of the one with the evil habits of the other.

I am at a loss to conceive how a Clergyman like Dr. Young, so frequently laying open his heart in the confession of his sins with the rest of his Congregation, should so long have indulged a spirit of resentment, at the hazard of his own forgiveness from his Heavenly Father. With how much delusion of mind must he have offered up to Heaven the daily incense of his devotions in the Lord's Prayer without reducing to practice one of the most positive duties compreheuded in our most holy Religion! Equally surprising is it, that, as a priest of the Temple, he should repeatedly have administered the most comfortable