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in the eyes of the profound philologist, and occasionally displays a pedantic affectation of learning; it will likewise be observed, that his accuracy has been questioned chiefly by an author whose assertion and ingenious theories are generally more apparent than his judgment; and that he laboured not so much for the assistance of mean capacities; as to be queath to posterity a work which should at once disclose the copious ness of our language, throw light upon the works of our early writers, and reflect lustre on Bacon, on Hooker, on Milton, and on Boyle.

Johnson, when viewed as the compiler of his Dictionary, must ever excite the warmest admiration of all who know how to estimate merit, or can admire a great and dignified, mind struggling with difficulties. Employed during the greater part of the period of these labours in the sole conduct of a periodical work, he had to divide his attention upon subjects in their nature totally dissimilar.

For more than two years did he struggle with the numerous difficulties, delays, and vexations, with which the prosecution of his work was necessarily attended. Compelled to look alone to his own native resources and individual exertions for assistance ;labouring, as is well known, under the discouragements of poverty, the effects of inherent disease, and the gloom of anticipated mental suffering; the resolution with which he combated the adverse circumstances with which he had to contend was not inferior to the more celebrated (because more antient) efforts of Demosthenes; and the obstacles he surmounted are scarcely paralleled by the achievements of most other writers, although accelerated by all the helps of fortune.

The reputation of Johnson in the science of Criticism is so universally acknowledged and established, that to enlarge on the subject would be both superfluous and injudicious; his merit, as Author of the "Rambler," as a moral delineator of the passions and aims of human life, has not been so frequently the subject of flattering encomium, perhaps not so justly appreciated. Amidst all the Authors, however, of either the ancient or modern world, who have la boured in the speculative field of

ethics, his pretensions blaze with a proud superiority: he has built a fabrick in the science of moral and theoretic disquisition, indicative alike of the most grand capacity of thought, and the most commanding powers of elocution, which can only perish, it is too little to say with his native language, but with the total extinction of literature, knowledge, and taste. For nature and human frailty are the same in every age and every clime-the character or conformation of its externals may be continually shifting a dress which is ever variable and fluctuating; but the radical basis of its operations is immutably commensurate with the existence of its objects,

Of the real value of posthumous fame, some have entertained a doubt, This, however, is certain, that, visionary as its notion may seem if it be viewed as an abstract good, there are few writers of any literary respectability who do not expend a considerable portion of their lives to obtain it. Johnson, in conjunction with his views of present, subsistence, and the benefit of mankind, may naturally be supposed to extend his views into futurity, and contemplate the slowrevolving ages at a distance, improving by his preceptive eloquence, and hanging on his elaborate periods. This may have stimulated his exertions, and rouzed him from that habitual indolence with which he has been perhaps too hastily charged. His hopes of immortality, however, were hung upon no slender threadno innovating systems, the offspring of a passing age, which, as it created, so it terminates their career; malignant criticism can permanently shake the basis upon which his memory is established, or throw his merits in the shade.

no

The great innovator, Time, whose unsparing hand is in most other cases productive only of decay, and which often, in literature detects the fallacy of slight pretensions, may peculiarly in the case of Johnson be said to brighten and confirm his reputation, and sufficiently to prove the justice of Voltaire's remark, that the best eulogium of a great Writer is good edition of his Works. Those weaknesses, errors, or prejudices which obscured the medium through which he was contemplated, become faint, and

are

are at length almost forgotten; whereas his literary beauties are ever fresh and vigorous; and his opinions, rendered venerable by years, acquire hat kind of sovereignty in literary

matters which we are often apt to distrust from the pen of a mere contemporary. The text alone remains ; the accumulated memorials of successive commentators and scholiasts slumber in oblivion.

Mr. URBAN,

E. P.

Jan. 7.

T London, in the year 1641, was

wood, a small quarto volume, intituled,

"The Life of Merlin, surnamed Ambrosius. His Prophecies and Predictions interpreted; and their truth made good by our English Annals. Being a Chronological History of all the Kings and memorable passages of this Kingdome, from Brute to the reigne of our Royall Sovereigne King Charles."

The following very interesting remark, strongly connected with the present subject, and to be found in MS. in a copy of the work which belonged to the late Beaupré Bell, of Beaupré Hall, in the county of Norfolk, and is now lodged in the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge, I take the opportunity of here transcribing for the use of your valuable and long-established publication.

"Mm. I saw an old MS. in Jesus Library (Cambridge), written in French, which, for several pages together, was the very same history with this. I did not take the pains to compare the whole, the language being very obsolete.-B. B."

It is worthy of remark, that a MS. was sold at the Roxburghe Sale, either the same, in all likelihood, with this (which the Librarian of Jesus College may, if he pleases, enquire into), or a duplicate; as our Readers will judge from the title: Roman du San Graal & de Merlin." The account of it given in the Roxburghe Catalogue is, that it was "MS. magnifique sur velin, relié en 2 grands vol. fol. M.R.enriche de 32 miniatures, & les letters initiales peintes en coulears rebaussées d'or." A folio volume was printed at Paris, A. D. MCCCCXCIII. intituled "Les Prophecies de Merlin."

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Mr. URBAN, Malmsbury, Jan. 3. "Sit apud te, honor antiquitati, sit ingentibus factis, sit fabulis quoque." PLIN. Epist.

which was published some time

N the Life of Thomas Hobbes,

since in a Collection of Letters and papers selected from the Bodleian Library, is contained the best account I have ever seen of that celebrated person. To an inhabitant of Malmsbury it is particularly valuable; it contains many passages relating to the local history of the town, not to be found elsewhere; and, as whatever relates Maimsbury can scarcely fail of being to such a man as the Philosopher of interesting to some of your Readers, perhaps you may think the following Particulars worth insertion in your Magazine. What I have to commuto Hobbes's family; of course, as nicate relates, however, principally, to himself, little can be added by a person

of Malmsbury merely as such, Hobbes having seldom visited ford. In the Register of the Abbey this place after he left it to go to OxChurch I have not been able to find any entry relative to Thomas Hobbes: birth; and the Register does not comno doubt Aubrey is correct as to his mence till two years after the time first entry in the Malmsbury Regisassigned by him for that event. The ter is dated the 18th February, 1590. The Register of Westport parish, the parish within the borough of Malmsbury in which Thomas Hobbes was born, is comparatively of modern date. The father of the Philosopher of Malinsbury was, as Aubrey states, Vicar of Westport and Charlton. Besides the Philosopher, he had another son, named Edmund: from this Edmund Hobbes, the brother of the Philosopher, are descended numerous families, still resident at Malmsbury and in its neighbourhood. The name of Hobbes, however, is now extinct. As the Philosopher died unmarried, the descendants of this Edmund Hobbes are of course his representatives.

Edmund Hobbes died in the year 1665. The following is the entry in the Register:

"Mr. Ed. Hobbes, of Westport, a burgess, bur. 22 Dec. 1665."

He had been Alderman of the borough of Malmsbury; and frequent instances occur in the Parish Register of his having performed the marriage

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ceremony after the publication of bauns at the Market Cross, during the Protectorate of Cromwell. Aubrey says he died at the age of 80, about the year 1660, leaving a son named Francis, and two daughters, Mary Tirrell, married to Roger Tirrell, of Thornhill Farm, and Eleanor Harding; to these, his two nieces, the Philosopher left by his will two legacies of 401. Edmund Hobbes, the father, gave to his daughter, Mary Tirrell, upon her marriage, a house adjoining to the Castle public-house in Westport, now the property of Adam Clark. It is not known whether there are any descendants from these two daughters of Edmund Hobbes; but the son Francis, who is stated by Aubrey to have "drowned his wit in ale," and whom he likewise calls " an ill husband," in the year 1652 married Sarah Alexander (the settlement made on the marriage of these persons is dated 3d August, 1652), and had a family of five children, who are mentioned in the will of the Philosopher, and to four of whom he has given a legacy of 1001. Francis did not long survive his father Edmund Hobbes, but died in the year 1668. The entry in the register is as follows:

Francis Hobbes, of Westport, buryed 8 May, 1668."

By his will, dated 6 May, 1668, he gave to his four children, Edmund, William, Sarah, and Frances, the premises called Garston, as follows: unto Edmund and William the ground called Garston, to be equally divided between them: unto his daughter Sarab, the ground called Spurmead; and unto Frances, the ground called Barnsdale Pitts. The eldest son, Thomas, was provided for by the settlement made upon his father's marriage. Edmund, the second, died, it is conjectured, unmarried. William, the third son, married, and had a son, who in some deeds is described as a currier of Bristol, where it is probable some of his descendants may be still living. Sarah was married to Thomas Matthews, described as a glover, and whose descendants were till very lately living in Malmsbury, and continued to carry on the family trade of glovers. The survivor of this family some short time since died at a very advanced period of life in a state of the most abjeet

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In this

poverty and wretchedness. branch of the family the names Edmund and Thomas were always kept up. Frances, the youngest daughter of Francis Hobbes, married John Tyley; and from this person are descended numerous families in the town of Malmsbury of the same name, as well as of the names of Dormer, Clark, &c. &c. Thomas Hobbes, the eldest of this family, the great nephew of the Philosopher, appears to have been a person of considerable property, and to have made many additions to the family estate called the "Garstons," by purchasing several other fields bearing the same ap. pellation. This Thomas Hobbes died in the year 1727 (his will is dated 28 August in that year), and left a very numerous family. His eldest son, also Thomas Hobbes, a currier, died without issue in the year 1746; and by his will, dated the 1st of January in that year, devised his lands called Garston to his brother, Edward Hobbes, for life, and upon his decease to his nephew Thomas Hobbes, son of the said Edward Hobbes, in fee. Thomas Hobbes, the great ne phew of the Philosopher, and who died in 1727, left several daughters, viz, one married to a person of the name of Witts, whose descendants are now living at Chippenham and Calue in this county. Another daughter was married to a Mr. Daniel Bennett, from whom are descended numerous families of the name of Bennett, Garlick, &c. &c. still resident at Malmsbury and its neighbourhood. Edward Hobbes left two daughters, one married to a person of the name of Brown, whose grandson, William Brown, a shoemaker, and an itinerant Boanerges, is still living at Malmsbury; and another daughter named Anne, married to

Lewis, from whom are descended numerous families of the names of Hanks, Lewis, Harding, &c. Thomas Hobbes, the son of Edward Hobbes, and to whom his uncle, Thomas Hobbes, who died in 1746, devised his lands upon the death of Edward Hobbes, resided at Bristol, where he carried on the business of a currier, and in 1752 married Mary Bosville, described as Mary Bosville, of Abergavenny, in the county of Monmouth, spinster. By this lady he had one son, also Thomas Hobbes, who is now, as I

have been informed, or was lately so, resident at Swansea in Glamorganshire, where he follows the profession of a Physician. The following then is the line of descent from Edmond Hobbes, the only brother of the Philosopher Thomas Hobbes: Edmond Hobbes, brother of the Philosopher, died 1665; Francis Hobbes, his son, died 1668; Thomas Hobbes, son of Francis, died 1727; Thomas Hobbes, son of last-mentioned Thomas Hobbes, died 1746; Edward Hobbes, brother of last-mentioned Thomas Hobbes, died 175..; Thomas Hobbes, of Bristol, son of Edward Hobbes, died 177..; Thomas Hobbes, of Swansea, still, or very lately, living.

This last-mentioned Thomas Hobbes is, therefore, very evidently the heir at law of the Philosopher of Malms bury; and by this gentleman the lands called Garston were, by indentures, dated 18th and 19th March, 1788, conveyed to Mr. John Garlick, then of Westport; but, as Mr. Garlick had married a niece of Edward Hobbes, the lands still continued in the family. A subsequent sale of the premises has, however, taken place; and the Garstons were finally alienated from the family of Hobbes in July 1810.

In the first page of the Malmsbury Register is the following entry: 1591. June. The 18 daye of June

Mr. Tho. Evans was inducted Vicar." The entry appears to be in the hand-writing of Mr. Evans, as he has written his name at the bottom of the page. Soon after occurs the follow ing entry:

April 1604. The 22nd daye were married Mr. Thomas Evans, Vicar, and Alyce Foskett, wydow, by Robert Latimer, at the chappell at Rodborne.”

The Reader will here recognize the names of both the persons to whom Thomas Hobbes was indebted for his education previously to his going to Oxford. Aubrey states Mr. Latimer to have been Vicar of Malmsbury this, from the above entry, does not appear to have been the case.

In a subsequent page of the register follows the entry of the death of

Mr. Evans.

"1611. Februarii. Buryed 19 February, Mr. Evan Thomas, alias Thomas Evans, late Vicar of Malmesbury, and parson there."

Mr. Evans was succeeded by a Mr. Matthew Watts. In the first page of

the Register, immediately under the entry recording the induction of Mr. Evans to the vicarage of Malmsbury, occurs an entry of the marriage of Francis, the uncle of Thomas Hobbes, and the person who sent him to, and, as Aubrey says, 66 altogether maintained" him at the University of Oxford. It is as follows:

"Februarii 1592, marryed the first daye, Francis Hobbes and Ellnor Trentor."

In the Register is likewise contained the following entry:

1606, was buried Edmond Hobbes." "April 1606. The 23 day of April,

in the church, with an inscription, to In the Abbey is a brass, the oldest the memory of this same person. Aubrey, as before observed, says, that Mr. Robert Latimer was the Vicar of Malmsbury, and that he exchanged it for a better living, called Leigh de La Mere. This appears to be a mistake; it was his son who was Vicar, as in the Register there is the following entry:

"The eighth of July, 1633, was inducted into this vicarage of Malmesburye, William Latymer, Bachiller of Arts, anno regni Regis Caroli nono.”

Mr. Robert Latimer was at this

time most probably living at Leigh de la Mere, Mr. Hobbes having visited him there in the year 1637. Leigh de la Mere is a village about five or six miles from Malmsbury, and adjoins the village of Easton Percy, where Aubrey resided.

There is not the slightest tradition of the destruction of Westport Church by Sir William Waller in 1644, as mentioned by Aubrey; so true is it, as he observes, "that though meu think a memorable accident shortly after it is done will never be forgotten, which, for want of entering, at last is drowned in oblivion." "Now is here rebuilt a church like a stable," is true to the letter. There is, however, I dare say, no doubt of the truth of what Aubrey says, as to the destruction of Westport Church; the town of Malmsbury having been a Royal garrison in the year 1643, as appears from many entries in the Register of baptisms of the children, marriages, and funerals, of men and Officers belonging to the King's army. Among others are the following:

"Baptized the vi of November, 1642, Elizabeth Dabridgcourt, ye dau'r of Thos. Dabridgcourt, esq. and Lieutenant Coll. in the King's armie, and

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Deputie Governor under Coll. Howard, of the towne of Malmsburye."

"1644. Marryed the 30 September, Marmaduke Pudsie, Lieuten-Col. of this Garrison, and Mris Mary Ivye, of the Abie."

It should seem, also, from the following entry, that the town had been previously in the Parliament's interest, as I believe Sir Edward Hungerford was engaged against the King.

Item. Buryed the 19 January, 1642, one of Sir Edward Hungerford's troopers, who was shott att Siceter (Cirencester) at the bringing in of Sir Edw. Baynton. Buried the 12 June a soldier of Captain Adies.-Buried the 13 June a soldier of Capt. Goares.-Buryed the 20 June a soldier of Cap. Goares, who was aecidentally killed.-17 Nov. Buryed, the same daye, a souldier yat was accidentally killed at Robert Shewrings, of Corston."

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tioned by Aubrey, called "The three
Cuppes," in the broad place" in
Westport, is still in existence; and
the house opposite to it, where Mr.
Hobbes received his education under
Mr. Latimer, must be that now in-
The one

babited by James Bond.
adjoining it on the South side was, as
I have been informed, many years
since a smith's shop.

How much reason have the present inhabitants of Malmsbury to regret that Mr. Hobbes failed in his endeavours to obtain from King Charles the grant of the land in Braydon for his intended school! This land, it is extremely probable, was the same that was sold about a year since by the Commissioners for managing the Revenue of the Crown Lands. There are, however, two Free-schools at Malmsbury, one of them said to be founded by the Saxon King Athelstan, whose tomb is still remaining in the Abbey. The revenue of this school is only 201. per unnum. It is reported that it was at this school that Hobbes and Aubrey both received their education - Quantum mutatus! It would puzzle the present master, a decayed tallow-chandler, to instruct his scholars to translate " Euripidis Medea" out of Greek into Latin Îambicks. In a note to Aubrey's “ Life of Hobbes," the word Gasten is derived from Gast, meaning Guest. This is not the pronunciation of the word in North Wilts; but the whole is founded on the supposition that the field is called Gaston: it is commonly pronounced so; but in the deeds relating to the property, the name is almost constantly written Garston; and the supposition that it was so called, as being the Gaston or Guest Ground of the Monastery, must be very far, I should imagine, from the right derivation. There

But to return to the more immediate object of this communication. Tradition has always pointed out as the birth-place of the Philosopher of Malmsbury" that extreme house that pointes into or faces the Horsefayre; the farthest house on the left hand as you goe to Tedbury, leaving the church on the right." Nothing can possibly be more correct and aceurate than this description of the situation of the house in which Mr. Hobbes was born. It was partly rebuilt about 40 years since; but, if I am not much mistaken, the buttery window still remains; so does the chimney-piece in the room below; and also, from its appearauce, the window of "the innermost room where he first drew breath." Six or seven years ago a small cottage was erected by the late Mr. Joseph Hanks, a lineal descendant from Edmund Hobbes, the Philosopher's brother, against the end of the house facing the Horse-fayre ;" so that now Hobbes's house is not that "extreme house." But, with this circumstance in his recollection, Aubrey's description is so accurate, a stranger might,,gious house, as at Sherston Magna, without the least difficulty, discover the Philosopher's birth-place. The house is now inhabited by a Mrs. Hanks; and formerly it was much visited by strangers, who would cut pieces from an elder-bush growing in the garden, gather leaves from the different shrubs, and even carry off pieces of mortar from the walls, as memorials of the Philosopher of Malmsbury. Such is the tradition of the place. The Public House men

are Garston Grounds where there never was a monastery or any reli

Kemble, Garsdon, and many other places in this part of Wiltshire; besides, some of the fields that bear the name of Garston, are, and have been from time immemorial, applied to the purposes of tillage. I should rather conjecture that the name must be derived from some word denoting excellence. The Garston Grounds are generally the best in the parish: those at Malmsbury are proverbially B. C. THOMAS.

So.

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