My friends with generous liquors I regale, For 'tis my best ambition, to be neat. By your sweet converse cheer'd, the live-long day Wine drives all cares and anguish from the heart, There's room for more; so to compleat the band, Your wife shall bring fair Innocence * in hand. Should Cave + want copy, let the teazer wait, While you steal secret through the garden gate. DECEMBER. (From the Poetical Calendar.) Last of the months, severest of them all, Through the twelve signs their rapid course have run; And winter on a goat bestrides the gale: A young lady then resident with Dr. H. + The Printer of the Gentleman's Magazine. Yes, we acknowledge what thy prowess can, JOHN DUNCOMBE. BORN 1729, DIED 1786. "An intimacy with our late ingenious and worthy friend, Mr. Duncombe, for forty years, entitles me to say, that in addition to a strong natural, and highly cultivated understanding, he possessed a consummate sweetness of temper, and thorough goodness of heart." (Mr. Nichols, Gent. Mag. for March, 1786.) -" The same desires, the same ingenious arts Delighted both;—we own'd and bless'd the Power That join'd at once, our studies and our hearts.” (Mason, Elegy 3d.) As we approach the end of our journey we feel that we are treading upon tender ground. Time has not yet sprinkled his dust upon the tombs of those we are now to notice, and they survive fresh in the "mind's eye" of the remainder of a circle which they but lately delighted. Broken as the continuity of this circle is by the hand of death, it yet consists of some near relatives, and of many admiring and affectionate friends. Happily for our concluding pages, the fair report that has survived them for solid virtues, well-employed talents, amiable manners, and exemplary habits, is confirmed by their writings, and would render praise from us unnecessary, were it not delightful to pay that tribute wherever we think it due. The Rev. John Duncombe was the only son of William Duncombe, Esq. a man of learning, literary habits, and as his published works attest, of considerable talent for poetry,* by Elizabeth, the sister of John Hughes, Esq. author of the "Siege of Damascus," the friend and literary associate of Addison, Steele, and Pope; an elegant writer, and a worthy and amiable man. John Duncombe was born in London, and baptised by Dr. Herring, an intimate friend of his family, and at that time officiating clergyman of the parish in which his father resided. From school he was removed in 1745 at the recommendation of the same worthy divine, then Archbishop of York, to Benet College, Cambridge, where he took his degree, and under the patronage of Dr. Herring obtained a fellowship. He entered into holy orders in 1755, and appears to have officiated as curate of Sundrich in Kent, immediately afterwards. During his residence upon this cure, he addressed to his patron, now at the head of the church, the following imitation of the 31st ode of the 1st book of Horace. To his Grace THOMAS, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury No stall prebendal, every year By fines and rents three hundred clear; *He was the author of a tragedy on the subject of the elder Brutus, of which a late writer has availed himself to good purpose. A curious account of the reception of this play may be found in the third volume of "Letters by several eminent persons deceased," pablished by Mr. J.Duncombe, page 144.— |