tained in the pannels between the windows eight pictures, painted for the purpose by that eminent marine painter, Mr. Scott, represent, ing every different sort of ship, vessel, and boat, then in use. These pictures are now valuable as specimens of the skill of that excellent artist, and as a pleasing record of the taste and spirit with which my father pursued every object to which he directed his mind, and the instruction that was always mingled with his amusements.

Another of his boats that attracted attention was a twelve-oared barge built after a plan of his own, which was found to move with considerably more ease and expedition than any other boat of the same description, though the rowers were men unaccustomed to the water, being his own domestics, or the labourers employed in his vari ous works*, who had no other instructions given them than what they received from their master.

But in this flotilla the boat most entitled to notice, from the singularity and the ingenuity of its construction, was a double-boat, which owed its origin to the flying prow, the inconvenience and danger of which it was designed to remedy, whilst it retained its most valuable properties, lightness and expedition. Lord Anson, having admired the structure and success of these boats, as used by the inhabitants of the Ladrone islands, a particular description of which is given in his voyage, was preparing to make trial of one in England, when my father ventured to suggest his doubts, whether a boat, whose safety depended upon the most exact equilibrium, would succeed in this uncertain climate, however well it might answer on the smooth sea, and under the steady breezes of the Pacific Ocean; proposing, at the same time, to construct a boat upon a plan somewhat similar, that might obviate those objections. The experiment, in both cases, was creditable to his knowledge of the subject. The flying prow was twice tried between Portsmouth and Isle of Wight, and each time (as I have been informed) it was overset; after which it was hung up in the boat house of the royal yard at Deptford, where it has ever since remained, and may now be seen; but the double-boat answered every purpose required, being so swift that no other boat could overtake it, and so safe that it was scarcely possible for it to be oversett.

Sce a humorous description of them in his poem of ARCHI MAGE.'

The double boat consisted of two distinct boats, fifty feet in length, and only eighteen inches wide, placed parallel to each other at the distance of twelve feet, and secured together by transverse beams, over which a slight platform or deck was placed. Thus constructed it was enabled to spread a much larger portion of canvass than any other boat that presented so small a resistance to the element in which it moved. It is remarkable that Captain Cook should, many years afterwards, find the ingenious inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands making use of boats upon a similiar plan, and which experience had shewn them was preferable to the flying prow, or any other form that could be devised by a people unacquainted with the

use of iron.'

*It happened about the time when the improvements at Whitminster were completed, that Frederick the late Prince of Wales, accompanied by his Princess, his daughter the present Duchess of Brunswick, and a large party, made a visit to Lord Bathurst at Cirencester. During their stay at his seat, he signified to my father his intention of bringing their Royal Highnesses to see his place, and pass a day upon the water. They were accordingly received by him in his smaller boats, at the head of his own private navigation, and after landing to view the house and grounds, continued their passage to the Severn, where they were conducted to the Venetian barge, on board of which having taken their station in the most beautiful reach of the river, the whole party sat down to a well-served dinner, prepared in a boat fitted up as a kitchen, and previously placed there for that purpose. After taking as long a sail as the time would admit, they again returned by the same conveyance to the spot where they had embarked.

The Prince and Princess were always graciously pleased to speak of this as one of the pleasantest parties in which they had ever been engaged. His Royal Highness particularly noticed the skill and discipline of the boatmen, and the regularity and order with which every thing was arranged; saying he had frequently attempted the same on the Thames at Cliveden, but from some cause or other had never been equally successful.'

About the year 1744, Mr. C. became known to Mr. Villiers, afterward Earl of Clarendon :

The preference (says the writer) which they shewed for each other was very soon succeeded by a close and brotherlike friendship, which never experienced change or abatement. They passed much of their time together, and, as my father always resided at Mr. Villiers's house when in London, he was induced to visit that place more frequently.

At this gentleman's house he associated with the most distinguished men of that time, with many of whom he formed an intimacy productive of much pleasure, and from whose society he derived considerable advantage, when he afterwards settled in the neighbourhood of London, and mixed more in the world. Among this number were Lord Granville, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Grenville, Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Pitt, and Lord Bath.

By several of these friends he was strongly solicited to come into Parliament, and engage in public life. As he had a sincere love for his country, a clear insight into its real interests, and a great knowledge of political affairs, which he was desirous on all occasions to improve, he certainly was well qualified for so important a station, nor would he have declined it, if at any period of his life he had felt himself called upon by any very strong claim. He was remarkably exempt from those passions which usually incline men to exchange domestic enjoyments for the toils of public business. His love of fame was limited to a desire of being respected and beloved by those in whose society he wished to live; his natural disposition and talents were peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of polite literature, and the charms of familiar conversation; he therefore thought that, without any desertion of his duty, he might give way to the preference he REV. MAY, 18c4. entertained

C

entertained for private life. It was indeed his favourite maxim, that the pursuit of general knowledge, and the study of the liberal arts, by gentlemen of independent fortunes, who have no lucrative views, are of the greatest advantage to a country, and form the most marked distinction between an improved and a degenerate age; between a polished nation and a people wholly addicted to commerce or to

arms.'

By the death of Mr. Owen, Mr. C.'s income received a comfortable addition, which induced him to purchase a beautiful estate in Twickenham meadows, where he continued to live in the hospitable style of a country gentleman' for above thirty years. About this period (1751) he published his Scribleriad, a mock-heroic poem, which was intended and calculated to expose false taste and false science, and which is replete with happy parodies of distinguished passages in the classics, particularly in Virgil. This production, and his wellknown contributions to the periodical paper called the World, soon established his reputation as a scholar, a critic, and a man of wit. His conversation was remarkable for ingenuity and sprightliness; and indeed in this rare and desirable art he had very few equals. We transcribe some slight instances to illustrate this assertion:

A note from Mr. Moore, "the conductor of the World," requesting an essay, was put into my father's hands on a Sunday morning as he was going to church; my mother observing him rather inattentive during the sermon, whispered, "What are you thinking of?" he replied, "the next World, my dear."

I cannot help mentioning another instance of the same species of pleasantry. In one of his rides late in life, he was met by His Majesty on the declivity of Richmond Hill, who, with his accustomed condescension, stopped and conversed with him; and observing, that "he did not ride so fast as he used to do," my father replied," Sir, I am going down hill.”—

As my father entered the room one morning, Lord North obse~~, ed to him, that he had written a very handsome letter to his old friend and schoolfellow, Dr. , giving him the Deanery of- —, and put it into his hands, which having read he replied, "Yes, the letter is very handsomely expressed, and all very true, but shews plainly how little you know of your business as a minister. It reminds me of a story of an Irish peasant, who, upon seeing a partridge that was shot, fall from a considerable height, picked it up, and running with it to the gentleman who had killed it, cried out, " Arrah, your honour need not have shot; the fall would have killed him."-The deanery was sufficient for one man, the letter should have been sent to the unsuccessful candidate."

* See M. Rev. Vol. v. p. 116.

Mr.

Mr. Cambridge was very active in the pursuit of literary amusement and instruction, and communicated with amiable satisfaction the result of all his inquiries to the members of his own family. To render them happy was the principal. object of his life; and, with his powers of imparting entertainment, it will not be doubted that he was eminently successful. The following portrait will appear flattering only to those who were unacquainted with the respectable original :

Although my father was always disposed to draw society about him at his own house, where he had very frequent parties of select friends, he still kept up his communication with London; his easy distance from thence, and his habitual activity, enabling him to preserve his intercourse with it till very late in life. When not called to London by a fixed engagement, he was accustomed, being a very early riser, to reach town as soon as he expected to find any of his friends visible; to divide his morning as the various pursuits of his mind. directed; and in addition to the lighter topics of the day, he usually collected some solid and valuable acquisitions upon literary or other profitable subjects, and returned home with a mind recreated and improved.

After a day so spent, it was his constant practice and greatest pleasure to collect his family round him, and communicate to them whatever he had met with either of amusement or more serious instruction. That he made my mother his companion on all occasions has been already noticed; this tenderness of affection extended to his children, whom he delighted in having about him, and with whom, while he retained the authority of a parent, he always lived upon the footing of a fond brother. From his society therefore they were never excluded, they partook of all that was interesting to him, his studies were carried on while they surrounded him, and his library was the common room of the family.'

We close our extracts from this introductory piece of biography with the account of Mr. Cambridge's death; observing that the character, with which it concludes, is ably and accurately delineated, and that we are prevented only by its length from transcribing it:

• My father was considerably advanced in his eighty third year before he was sensible, to any considerable degree, of the infirmities of age; but a difficulty of hearing, which had for some time gradually increased, now rendered conversation troublesome and frequently disappointing to him. Against this evil his books, for which his relish was not abated, had hitherto furnished an easy and acceptable resource; but unfortunately, his sight also became so imperfect, that there were few books he could read with comfort to himself. general health however remained the same, and his natural good spirits and cheerfulness of temper experienced no alteration. Having still the free use of his limbs, he continued to take his usual exercise, and to follow his customary habits of life, accepting of such amuseC 2 ment,

His

ment, as conversation would afford, from those friends who had the kindness to adapt their voices to his prevailing infirmity; and that he still retained a lively concern in all those great and interesting events, which were then taking place in Europe, may be seen in some of his latest productions. But as his deafness increased, he felt himself grow daily more unfit for the society of any but his own family, into whose care and protection he resigned himself with the most affectionate and endearing confidence, receiving those attentions, which it was the first pleasure of his children to pay him, not as a debt due to a fond and indulgent parent, but as a free and voluntary tribute of their affection. In the contemplation of these tokens of esteem and love, he seemed to experience a constant and unabating pleasure, which supplied, in no small degree, the want of other interesting ideas.

It is well known, that among the many painful and humiliating effects that attend the decline of life, and follow from a partial decay of the mental powers, we have often to lament the change it produces in the heart and affections; but from every consequence of this sort my father was most happily exempt. This I allow myself to say upon the authority of the medical gentleman*, of considerable eminence, by whose skill and friendly attentions he was assisted through the progressive stages of his slow decline; and who has repeatedly assured me, that, in the whole course of his extensive prac tice, he had never seen a similar instance of equanimity and undeviating sweetness of temper.

During this gradual increase of feebleness, and with the discouraging prospect of still greater suffering, which he saw before him, his exemplary patience and constant care to spare the feelings of his family were eminently conspicuous; nor did the distressing infirmities, inseparably attendant on extreme debility, ever produce a murmur of complaint, or even a hasty or unguarded expression. It is somewhat singular, and may be regarded as a proof of an unusually strong frame, that no symptom of disease took place; all the organs of life continued to execute their respective functions, until nature being wholly exhausted, he expired, without a sigh, on the 17th of September, 1802, leaving a widow, two sous, and a daughter.

'Of Lord Chesterfield, who, like my father, possessed his faculties to the close of life, it is recorded, that the last words he uttered "were strictly in character;" and the remark made by his physician Dr. Warren, upon that occasion was, that his good breeding would only quit him with his life." I shall hope for indulgence in applying the like observation to him, who is the subject of this memoir, and whose latest words were equally characteristic; expressing that fond attachment to his family, which had ever been his ruling passion. Having passed a considerable time in a sort of doze, from which it was thought he had hardly strength to revive, he awoke, and upon seeing me, feebly articulated" how do the dear people do?" when I answered that they were well; with a smile upon his countenance, and

David Dundass, Esq. of Richmond.'