severe winter of 1739, his charities were incredible. His equipage was sumptuous, and he usually travelled in a post chariot, with six greys, with outriders, footmen, French-horns, and every other appendage of extravagant parade. How he became enabled to live in so much splendour, we cannot precisely determine. Bath swarmed with gamesters, and among this class, Nash was certainly to be numbered at the beginning; with this difference, that he wanted the corrupt heart too commonly attending a life of expedients. for he was generous, humane, and honourable, though a gamester by profession. Though in his youth he had been an universal gallant, when he came to his office at Bath, he relinquished his practice of betraying and seducing innocence, and commenced the guardian and protector of virtue. He not only defended the ladies from the insults of the gentlemen, but guarded them from the slander of each other. He endeavoured to render scandal odious, by marking it as the result of envy, accompanied with folly. Though much addicted to gaming, he amassed no riches; and was reduced at last to such a state of poverty, that he wanted that relief which he had never refused to others. Incapable of giving or receiving pleasure, in the evening of his life, he became poor, old, and peevish: and, indeed, a variety of causes concurred to embitter his departing days. He died in 1761, sincerely regretted by the city, to which he had been so great a bene

factor.

factor.

His remains were interred in the Ab

bey church at Bath. NAYLOR, (JAMES) an enthusiastic visionary, born in Yorkshire, in 1616, who was converted to quakerism by the famous George Fox, in 1652. As his features bore a near resemblance to many of the pictures of Christ, it struck his imagination that he was transformed into Christ himself. He presently assumed the character of the Messiah, and was acknowledged as such by his deluded followers. Accordingly we find him addressed, in 1656, by the title of "The everlasting son of righteousness, and prince of peace; the prophet of the most high God; nay, the only begotten son of God, out of Zion, whose mother is a virgin, and whose birth is immortal." He set out for Bristol attended by many of his adherents; and when they came to the suburbs, some women busied themselves in spreading scarfs and handkerchiefs in his way; two other women also accompanied him, (one on each side of his horse) and the numerous actors in the procession, sang aloud, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth; hozanna in the highest; holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Israel." Such a mockery of our Saviour's entrance into Jerusalem, drew the attention of the magistrates, by whom Naylor was apprehended; and, upon examination, blasphemously defending all that had passed in his personating Jesus Christ, he was commitred to prison, and six of his associates; soon after which they were all sent to London to the Parliament. By the house it was resolved, "That James Naylor

Naylor is guilty of horrid blasphemy; that he is a grand imposter, and a great seducer of the people." After this, sentence was passed, "that he should be set on the pillory in Palaceyard for two hours; be whipped by the hangman, from Westminster to the Old Exchange, and there be set on the pillory for two hours; in each place wearing a label, containing a description of his crimes; his tongue to be bored through with a hot iron, and he to be branded

he forehead with the letter B; afterwards to be sent to Bristol, and conveyed through that city on horseback, with his face backward, and publicly whipped the next market day after he comes thither: that from thence he be committed to prison in Bridewell, London, restrained from the society of all people, and to labour hard till he should be released by Parliament; and during that time be debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and have no relief but what he earns from his daily labour." This whole sentence was put in execution; his sufferings brought him to his senses, and with them to an exemplary degree of humility. After being confined about two years, on his release in 1660, he set out for Yorkshire, but was robbed, and left bound on the road, near King's Rippon, in Huntingdonshire, and died a few days after.

NERO, (CLAUDIUS DOMITIUS CAESAR) a Roman emperor, was the son of Caius Domitius, and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus. He succeeded Claudius, whom Agrippina murdered to facilitate his accession. His conduct

at

at the beginning of his reign was so much approved that it made him popular; but this fair appearance was of short duration. The baseness of his disposition was speedily manifested ; he committed a series of cruelties and profligacies unparalleled in the history of mankind. He not only murdered his own mother, and his tutor Seneca; but a vast number of other persons. He turned actor on the Roman Stage, and wrestled at the Olympic games. He publicly committed the most detestable crimes; and having caused Rome to be set on fire, beheld the spectacle from a high tower with delight, playing on his lyre by way of exultation. Several conspiracies were formed against him, none of which succeeded but that of Galba. At length, expecting to fall into the hands of the people, he slew himself in despair, A. D. 68, and of his age 32.

man

OATES, (TITUS) one of the most infamous of mankind, was born about 1619, and bred an anabaptist; but he afterwards conformed and entered into orders. He became chaplain of a of war; but was dismissed with every token of infamy. His story is related in every history of England, under the reigns of Charles II. and James II. we shall therefore only mention here, that, for the pretended discoveries which he made in the reign of Charles II. he obtained a pension of 1200l. a year, and apartments in Whitehall. Being convicted of perjury in the reign of James II. he was sentenced to pay a fine of 2000 marks, to be stripped of his canoni

cals,

238

O'BURNE. OLDCASTLE.

cals, to be whipped twice in three days by the common hangman, to stand in the pillory, and to be imprisoned for life. He died in 1705. O'BURNE, (JAMES) a famous ventriloquist, was a native of Ireland, though he resided many years in England. He delighted in an itinerant life, and playing a number of extraordinary pranks, which the peculiar faculty he possessed enabled him to do. As a specimen of his ability as a ventriloquist, we shall only mention a single instance. Meeting a farmer's servant on the highway, driving a waggon laden with trusses of hay, he so exactly imitated the cries of a child, which seemed to proceed from the middle of the hay, that the astonished countryman stood aghast; and the noise being several times repeated, O'Burne prevailed upon the driver to unload the waggon, and tendered his service in assisting him. While they were thus employed, the cries became louder and more pitiable; nor was the delusion discovered by the affrighted countryman, till the hay was all taken out: when the ventriloquist, after indulging himself in an outrageous laugh, left him to reload his team..

OLDCASTLE, (Sir JOHN) called the good Lord Cobham, was born in the reign of Edward III. He became a peer by marrying the heiress of Lord Cobham, and spared neither labour or expence in circulating the works of Wickliffe. He was one of the leaders in the reforming party, who drew up a number of articles against the corruptions which then prevailed among churchmen, and denied the spiritual dominion

of