executor, hereafter to be named, one for his own use, and the other between his poor kindred, and distressed brethren," (probably the deprived clergy). The will then proceeds,

"Of this my laft Will and Teftament I constitute my ever dear friend, and now my truly honored father, Dr. Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, the fole executor, earnestly beseeching him to take that trouble upon him, and to accept of, befides what I have left him, after the payment of debts, legacies, and funeral charges, fifteen pounds to buy him mourning, and a ring, a pendulum repeating clock, a walnut escritore, with a cheft of drawers."

A codicil provides that—

"Whereas I have left five hundred pounds to be paid by my executor, the Reverend Father in God, and Bishop, Dr. Thomas Ken, to Magdalen College in Oxford, when he saw a fitt opportunity, my meaning is, that the faid Reverend Father should enjoy the intereft of the money during his life, unless he shall think fit to pay it before his death."

The Will was proved by Bishop Ken, the 17th March, 1699, and it appears, that this small but acceptable addition to his income was continued to him during his life. The principal fum was fecured by the bond of Lady Rachel Ruffell, which, after Ken's death, was delivered by his executor, William Hawkins, to the Burfar of Magdalen. *

Ledger W. p. 210, in the Burfary of Magdalen College, Oxford. For this and other information, relative to Fitzwilliam, I am indebted to the Rev. Dr. Bloxam, Senior Fellow.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Death of James II.-Death of William III.; his character -Acceffion of Queen Anne- Bishop Kidder killed in the Palace at Wells during the great Storm-Anne offers to reftore Ken to Bath and Wells; he declines, and perfuades Dr. Hooper to accept his Bishopric, which he refigns into

his hands.

S time thus wore away, and his friends received their laft fummons one by one, Ken continued to be the object of general respect, as an example of primitive holinefs and charity. At this period it was, that Dryden compofed his well-known "Character of a Good Parfon, imitated from Chaucer, and enlarged." We cannot have pofitive evidence, that Ken was the model which prompted these beautiful lines: but there is ftrong ground for the opinions, expreffed by Bowles, Markland, and others, beyond the refemblance of the portrait, which is fo great as almost to identify the original. We know that Sir William Trumbull, and Samuel Pepys, were the common friends of the Poet and of the Bishop ;-that Dryden's political opinions, and his having conformed to the Roman faith, would incline him to the Non-jurors, who were fellow-fufferers with himself, and we learn, from a letter of Dryden, that the poem was compofed at the

inftance of Pepys.* Sir Walter Scott, in his Life of Dryden, and alfo in a subsequent note to the Poem, expreffes his opinion, that it "applies to the Nonjuring Clergy, who loft their benefices for refufing the Oath of Allegiance to King William."+ In the "EXPOSTULATORIA," which was published a few months after Ken's death, he is expreffly faid to have been Dryden's model for the "Character of a Good Parfon." The author of the Preface to that work, after eulogizing the Bishop for his extenfive charities, by which "be made the Poor bis Executors during his life," proceeds, what remains for me to fay is, "Go thou, and do likewise,' and take his Character from the following Lines, in which Mr. Dryden has very accurately, and justly drawn bis Picture." Mr. Willmott, alfo, in his Lives of Sacred Poets, adopts the same opinion. Let the lines now speak for themselves, and they will, no doubt, carry conviction to the reader's mind:

"A Parish Prieft was of the pilgrim-train,
An awful, reverend, and religious man.
His eyes diffuf'd a venerable grace,
And charity itself was in his face.

See The Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, vol. ii. pp. 254-5.

The poem first appeared in a folio volume, published in 1700, under the title of "Fables, Ancient and Modern. Tranflated into verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, and Chaucer; with original Poems."

+ Preface to Dryden's Works, p. 225, and vol. xi. p. 398.

"EXPOSTULATORIA, or the Complaints of the Church of England, &c. By the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas Kenn, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells." London, 8vo, 1711. This is one of the works falfely afcribed to Ken.

§ Note, p. 105.

Y Y

Rich was his foul, tho' his attire was poor,
(As God had cloth'd his own Ambassador);
For fuch, on earth, his bleff'd Redeemer bore.
Of fixty years be feem'd; and well might last
To fixty more, but that he lived too faft;
Refined himself to foul, to curb the sense,
And made almoft a fin of abftinence.
Yet, had his afpect nothing of severe,
But fuch a face as promif'd him fincere.
Nothing referv'd, or fullen was to fee:
But sweet regards; and pleasing sanctity:
Mild was his accent, and his action free.
With eloquence innate his tongue was arm'd;
Tho' harsh, the precept yet the people charm'd.
For, letting down the golden chain on high,
He drew his audience upward to the sky:

And oft, with holy Hymns, be charm'd their ears :
(A mufic more melodious than the spheres).

For David left him, when he went to rest,

His Lyre; and after him, he fung the best.†

He bore his great commiffion in his look:

But sweetly temper'd awe; and foften'd all he spoke.
He preach'd the joys of Heav'n, and pains of hell;
And warn'd the finner with becoming zeal;

But on eternal Mercy lov'd to dwell.

He taught the Gospel rather than the Law;

And forc'd himself to drive, but lov'd to draw.

Yet of his little, he had fome to spare,

To feed the famish'd, and to clothe the bare;
For mortified he was to that degree,

A poorer than himself he wou'd not fee.

True Priests, he said, and preachers of the Word,
Were only stewards of their Sov'reign Lord;
Nothing was theirs; but all the publick store :
Intrufted riches, to relieve the poor.

* Ken was now 62; and as Chaucer makes no mention of the "Parson's" age, this resemblance of Dryden's own framing feems very fignificant.

+ Markland reafonably thinks this allufion to the Hymns almost decides the fact of the poem being framed on the character of Ken.

Now, thro' the land, his cure of fouls he stretch'd:
And like a primitive Apoftle preach'd.

Still cheerful; ever conftant to his call;

By many follow'd; lov'd by most, admir'd by all.
With what he begg`d, his brethren he reliev'd;
And gave the charities himself receiv'd;
Gave, while he taught; and edify'd the more,
Because he fhew'd, by proof, 'twas eafy to be poor."

Francis Turner of Ely went to his rest in November, 1700. Of all the deprived Bishops he was the most perfevering for the restoration of James, to whom he had been Chaplain, when Duke of York. He incurred. great personal rifk in this hopeless cause; and we have feen how his indifcreet zeal expofed all the party to fufpicion of plotting against the government.

We find no record of Ken's feelings at the lofs of this, his earliest friend: but in feveral of his letters, referring to their agreement in ecclefiaftical principles, he mentions him as "the Bishop of Ely now with God."

Soon afterwards (in the beginning of 1701), Ken was induced to renew his endeavours to heal the separation, or as he calls it, to "close the rupture.” The appointment of Dr. George Hooper to be Prolocutor of the Convocation, encouraged him to hope, that the occafion was propitious. It only required a joint refignation, by Lloyd and himself, of their canonical rights,-for Frampton had "never interrupted communion with the Jurors," and would concur in anything which tended to peace. He

Dryden's Works, Scott's edit. vol. xi. p. 394. These four last lines may have been in allufion to the Charitable Fund for the Nonjuring Clergy.