As

44. "DEAR SIR, Cambridge, May 3, 1784. "Since my last I received two letters from you, one of which was written before you received mine. I am not yet in a condition to consider your queries relating to Rochester bridge. soon as I am permitted to amuse myself with things of that kind, I will consider them; but I have been too ill to apply to any thing since I received them. This is the first day for some time that I have been able to ride for an airing, being confined with a blister on my head, which is not yet healed, though laid on this day was se'nnight.

"I hope I may be able to get to town on this day three weeks, though my stay will be short. If I can call on you in my way home, I will; and am, with best respects to Mrs. Gough and all friends, yours affectionately, JAMES ESSEX."

45. Miss ESSEX to Mr. GOUGH.

"SIR, Cambridge, June 13, 1784. "I am desired by my father to acknowledge the receipt of a parcel from you or Mr. Nichols, by means of Mr. Merrill, last night. He had promised himself the pleasure of seeing you at Enfield some day this week, and had taken a place in the Fly on Wednesday last for London; but the night before he was to have set out, he was seized with a paralytic fit, and fell from his chair in his study, which has deprived him of the use of one side. By timely assistance he soon recovered his senses and we hope, by proper application of blisters, will recover the use of his limbs. This accident has prevented his looking over those papers; but he hopes, in a little time, he will not only be able to read them, but to take a journey to Margate in the course of this summer; and hopes, if it should be convenient, to meet you somewhere in his way to town.

My father and mother join with me in compliments to yourself and family. I am, Sir, your humble servant, M. ESSEX."

46. Mrs. ESSEX to Mr. GOUGH.

"SIR, Cambridge, Oct. 4, 1784. "I received your kind letter on Saturday; we are much obliged to you for it, and your friendly offers of service to us. Mr. Essex died without a will, therefore we can know nothing how he would have liked to have had the manuscripts, &c. disposed, except by the information of our friends, for which we shall think ourselves greatly obliged, as we would wish to have every thing done that he would have ordered himself. The manuscript you mention, with some drawings we were informed by a friend here he meant to give to the Society, has not yet fallen into our hands; when we have found it, I will trouble you with a line to consult with you what is proper to be done. If there

is any other observation, or anything else that you can recollect, that you should like to have in memory of your old friend, it shall be entirely at your service. I will not dispose of any of his papers till I hear from you. You, I imagine, was not much surprised at hearing of his death, considering the state he has been so long in. We were never much encouraged to hope, from the beginning of his illness; but it came on very sudden at the last. He was down stairs two days before he died, and as well, and better in appearance, than he had been for some months. My daughter joins with me in respectful compliments to Mrs. Gough and yourself; and I am, Sir, your much obliged humble servant, E. ESSEX.'

In the 41st volume of Mr. Cole's MSS. (at the British Museum) are transcribed some of Mr. Essex's reports on Surveys of Lincoln and Ely Cathedrals. He is thus complimented in an introductory memorandum: "In December 1770, Mr. Essex, of Cambridge, lending me his MS. Surveys of the Cathedral of Lincoln*, on Bishop Thomas and the Dean and Chapter generously appropriating a tenth part of their income from the Church to the repairs and ornaments of it, about ten years ago, when his judgment was thought necessary to take a general view and survey of it, I thought them so curious and judicious that, with his leave, I took a copy of them. The first was made in 1761; the latter in 1764. Since which times he has built them a new altar-piece, from a design of his own which is universally approved of; he knowing more of Gothic architecture than any one I have heard talk of it; and by his works of this sort will convince the world that many people who have written on the subject are but dabblers in the science, and know not what they are about. His altar-piece for King's-college Chapel, now going to be erected within these two or three months, will satisfy the curious that what I have advanced is no mistake. Wм. COLE."

The Rev. T. Kerrich, in his communication on Gothic Architecture, addressed in 1809 to the Society of Antiquaries, says, man had explained and compared more buildings of all the different ages of Gothic Architecture than the late Mr. Essex, of Cambridge. He had also studied regular architecture with great attention, under Sir James Burrough; and must be considered as a good judge in this matter t."

His Survey of Lincoln Cathedral is the subject of his letter to Mr. Gough in p. 285. Following the articles above-named is a letter of Mr. Essex to the Dean and Prebendaries of Ely, concerning the removal of the choir in Ely Cathedral from its situation under the dome into the Presbytery; and also some correspondence between Mr. Essex and Mr. Gostling concerning the Cathedral of Canterbury, which is printed in the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. IX. p. 341. † Archæologia, vol. XVI. p. 306.

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REV. THEOPHILUS BUCKERIDGE, M.A.

Theophilus Buckeridge, son of Wild Buckeridge, Gent. and Theophila, daughter of Mr. George Hand, of Lichfield, was born in that city, July 22, and baptised at the cathedral, Aug. 1, 1724.

He was educated at the Grammar-school of Lichfield, under the Rev. John Hunter*. From thence

*Under the same Master, Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, Lord Chief Justice Willes, Lord Chief Baron Parker, Mr. Justice Noel, Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, Sir Richard Lloyd, Baron of the Exchequer, Robert James, M.D. well known for his Medical Dictionary, and as the inventor of the Fever Powder, Isaac-Hawkins Browne, au ingenious and elegant Poet, David Garrick, and Dr. Samuel Johnson, received the rudiments of their education. It is said of Mr. Hunter in Boswell's Life of Johnson, that, "though he might err in being too severe, the school of Lichfield was very respectable in his time. The late Dr. Taylor, Prebendary of Westminster, who was educated under him, told me 'that he was an excellent master, and that his ushers were most of them men of eminence; that Holbrook, one of the most ingenious men, best scholars, and best preachers of his age, was usher during the greatest part of the time that Johnson was at school. Then came Hague, of whom as much might be said, with the addition that he was an elegant poet. Hague was succeeded by Green, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, whose character in the learned world is well known. In the same form with Johnson was Congreve, who afterwards became Chaplain to Archbishop Boulter, and by that connexion ob tained good preferment in Ireland. He was a younger son of the ancient family of Congreve in Staffordshire, of which the poet was a branch. His brother sold the estate. There was also Lowe, afterwards Canon of Windsor.' Indeed Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time; he said, 'My master whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done nothing.' He told Mr. Langton, that, while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, 'And this I do to save you from the gallows.' Johnson, upon all occasions, expressed his approbation of enforcing instruction by means of the rod."-The poetess, Anna Seward, was Mr. Hunter's granddaughter; and has often been heard to relate that he was found in a field, soon after his birth, by some gen