AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES AND CONTEMPORARY REMINISCENCES. 1. Warburton and Sherlock. Hatton, Febr. 16, 1814. Mr J. Bartlam, Dr Parr, and myself had a long chat after having returned from Kenilworth. In the course of it the Doctor said in his usual earnest and impressive manner.- "If ever you or Barker, after I am dead, hear it dogmatically said that Warburton was an unbeliever, I charge you to remember my words: his belief in Christianity was unfeigned. If ever you hear it said that Sherlock, who often took the orthodox side, was a believer-it may be, but I pause he was a wise man, but I think that he was sceptical. Sir Robert Walpole wished to have made him Chancellor, and in that high office he would have dug out great principles of equity, and have been next to Yorke." See Warburtonian Tracts, p. 185 n. 186 n. Wilkes's Correspondence, 3, 78. : II. Potter, Johnson, and Parr. April 24, 1814*. Potter, the Translator of Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, who was a tall man about 6 feet high, very handsome, with an aquiline nose, went up to London, and * This date, as is evident, denotes the day when Mr Barker was told the anecdote which follows, not the day on which the circumstance happened, p. 300. Dr Johnson, 'Well, well.' was introduced by Mrs Montagu of Shakspearian celebrity to a party of blue stockings*. At length Dr John- * Compare Anecson's name was announced. Mrs Montagu dotes of Bowyer, with all due form took Mr Potter by the hand, and introduced him to Dr Johnson, by saying: Mr Potter.' Dr J. muttered out something like, Mrs M. thought that Dr J. did not hear, and again said, 'Mr Potter, Dr Johnson.' Dr Johnson in the same sort of tone repeated his mutterings. Mrs M. was irritated at Dr J.'s apparent neglect of what she said, and still supposing that he did not hear the name of Potter mentioned, again said, 'Dr Johnson, Mr Potter the Translator of Eschylus.' Dr J. then said 'Well, Madam, and what then?' Dr Parr thought that Dr J. had, on the first entrance of Mr Potter, seen something in his manner, which he did not like. When Potter saw Dr Parr after this circumstance, he in the simplicity of his heart said to him- 'Well, I have seen your friend, Dr Johnson,' — he described him as a very cold-hearted man, of heartless manners, and then himself told the story, and seemed quite unconscious of Dr J.'s secret contempt for him. Dr Parr said that by the Eschylus Potter established his fame and lost some of it by the Euripides. Potter once told the Doctor that, as he had begun, he should finish the three Tragedians. The Doctor replied that it was not very likely that one man should succeed in turning into English three Poets of such opposite characters, and he reminded him how carelessly he had done the Euripides. When a part of the Sophocles was shewn to him, Dr Parr, who had nothing to say in its praise, adroitly and wittily turned the conversation by saying that he liked no translation but from one Bishopric to another, as he once did, when he was pestered by a silly prattler about the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. Come," said he, "Qui suspenderunt, suspendantur." Dear Sir, III. Letter from Thomas Taylor.* Manor Place, Walworth, Aug. 3d. 1814. Mr. Meredith desired me to request your acceptance of the accompanying copy of my translation of Aristotle's Metaphysics as a testimony of his esteem for your worthy manners and great erudition. At your leisure do me the favour to inform me what you think of my Greek motto, as I shall rejoyce if it meets with your approbation. Mr. Meredith hopes that the next time you are in town, he shall have the pleasure of your company to dine with him. I remain, Dear Sir, Your much obliged and obedient servant, THOS. TAYLOR. IV. NEWSPAPER-SCRAPS; PARR. 1. The Newspaper gossips state that the celebrated Dr Parr means shortly to take a wife. In that event the Par will take the odds, and both become even. 2. That celebrated scholar, Dr Parr, will in a few days lead an accomplished lady to the bymeneal altar. We have not heard if the lady is of literary celebrity, from whose fatal glance even Greek and folios could not shelter the learned Doctor. If she be such, let him beware, for When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war, (Dec. 24, 1816.) V. Anecdote of rooks. "Amongst the deliramenta of the learned, which have amused mankind, the following instance merits a conspicuous rank; Some years ago, there were several large elm-trees in the College-garden, behind the ecelesiastical Courts, Doctors' Commons, in which a number of rooks had taken up their abode, The translator of Plato, Aristotle, &c. forming in appearance a sort of convocation of aerial ecclesiastics. A young gentleman who lodged in an attic, and was their close neighbour, frequently entertained himself with thinning this covey of black game by means of a cross-bow. On the opposite side lived a curious old civilian, who, observing from his study that the rooks often dropped senseless from their perch, no sign being made to Lis vision to account for the phenomenon, set his wits to work to consider the cause. It was probably during a profitless time of peace. The Doctor, having plenty of leisure, weighed the matter over and over, till he was at length fully satisfied that he had made a great ornithological discovery. He actually wrote a treatise, stating circumstantially what he himself had seen, and in conclusion giving it as the settled conviction of his mind, that rooks were subject to epilepsy! The CAMBRIDGE Chronicle and Journal, Sep. 11, 1818. VI. Burns's widow. A Snuffers' Tray, presented to the Widow of the Poet Burns, bears the following inscription written by James Montgomery, who is himself an Ayrshire-Poet: "The Gift of a few Scots in Sheffield to the Widow of Burns: He pass'd through life's tempestuous night, A belliant, trembling Northern Light; Through years to come he shines from far, A fix'd, unsolting Polar Star. See the Itus or the SHEFFIELD-ADVERTISER, Oct. 30, 1821. VII. "MAKING LITTLE OF THINGS. A FARMER was complaining to a clergyman of his parish, of his poverty, and said that, when he took his produce to market, he could make nothing of it. The clergyman recommended him to go and explain the thing to his landlord; the Farmer said that he had been there, and he could make nothing of him!" THE MANCHESTER-GUARDIAN, Febr. 23, 1822. |