authors; yet his works are but few, and their merit only minor. They are divided principally into songs, light pieces, essays and satires, and are composed, almost without an exception, in a style now obsolete and uninteresting. His Essay on Satire, in which he was helped by Dryden, has been much commended, but that on Poetry deserves to be most read. This is the performance he himself valued the highest, and finished with the greatest care. It is particularly noticed in terms of approbation, both by Dryden and by Pope, and cannot be refused the praise of being constructed with much judgment, and expressed with considerable melody. There is also a volume of Memoirs by the Duke of Buckingham, which is written in a lively and perspicuous style; so much so, that many who have been disappointed with his merit as a poet, have willingly awarded him the palm of an elegant author in prose.

An edition of his poems was published after his death, with the following enthusiastic advertisement:

:

To the memory of

JOHN SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. These, his more lasting remains, the monuments of his mind, and more perfect image of himself, are here collected, by the direction of

CATHERINE, HIS DUCHESS.

Desirous that his ashes may be honoured, and his Fame and Merit committed to the test of Time, Truth, and Posterity.

An edition of his works, comprising Poems, Historical Memoirs, Speeches, Characters, Critical Observations, and Essays, was printed, in two volumes 4to. by Alderman Barber, during the year 1723. A reprint in two volumes, 8vo. took place in 1727, in which, however, some passages were sillily suppressed, because the scrupulosity of the editors deemed them dangerous, and offensive to the principles of the Revolution.

Pope wrote some lines, which are held to constitute the best of his epitaphs, for Buckingham's son Edmund-and they are printed here, because that young nobleman is also commemorated on his father's monument.

Ír modest youth, with cool reflection crowned,
And every opening virtue blooming round,
Could save a parent's justest pride from fate,
Or add one patriot to a sinking State—
This weeping marble kad not asked a tear,
Or sadly told how many hopes lie here.
Thy living virtue now had shone approved,
The senate heard him, and his country loved.
Yet softer honours, and less noisy fame,
Attend the shade of gentle Buckingham—
In whom, a race for courage famed, and art,
Ends in the milder merit of the heart;
And chiefs and sages, long to Britain given,
Pay the last tribute, of a saint, to Heaven!

This page leaves room for an additional extract, and the reader therefore is presented with another of his Grace's Songs, entitled the Recovery:'—

Sighing and languishing I lay,

A stranger grown to all delight;

Passing with tedious thoughts the day,
And with unquiet dreams the night.

For your dear sake, my only care
Was how my fatal love to hide ;
For ever drooping with despair,
Neglecting all the world beside!
Till, like an angel from above,

Cornelia came to my relief;
And then I found the joys of love

Can make amends for all the grief.
Those pleasing hopes I now pursue
Might fail, if you could prove unjust;
But promises, from Heaven and you,
Who is so impious to mistrust?
Here all my doubts and troubles end,
One tender word my soul assures :
Nor am I vain-since I depend

Not on my own desert, but yours!

181,

CHARLES BURNEY, Mus. Doc.

In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, and immediately under the monumental tablet to Dr. Blow, is a marble with the following inscription:

Sacred to the Memory of

CHARLES BURNEY, Mus. Doc. F.R.S.
Who, full of years and full of virtues,
The pride of his family, and the delight of society,
The unrivalled chief, and scientific

Historian,

of his tuneful art;

Beloved, revered, and regretted,
Breathed in Chelsea College his last sigh;
Leaving to posterity a fame unblemished!
Raised on the noble basis of intellectual attainments,
High principles, and pure benevolence.
Goodness with gaiety, talents with taste,

Were of his gifted mind the blended attributes;
While the genial hilarity of his airy spirits
Animated or softened every earthly toil;
And a conscience without reproach
prepared,

In the whole tenour of his mortal life,
Through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
His soul for Heaven.

The scholar and musician thus enthusiastically commemorated was born at Shrewsbury during the year 1726. After receiving

the rudiments of a literary education at the grammar school of his

native town, he was removed to Chester, where he studied the higher branches of knowledge with considerable advantage. An early inclination for music had induced his half-brother James to give him some lessons in the art while at Shrewsbury, and, as the growth of his years ripened this propensity into a passion, he was formally placed under the care of Baker of Chester, who had served a pupilage to Dr. Blow. In 1741 he returned home to his family, and passed three unprofitable years, anxious to advance himself in his profession, but wholly deprived of any opportunity of practice. At length he had the fortune to meet with Dr. Arne, who was so well pleased at the interview, that he received the aspirant as an apprentice for three years. Thus removed to London, his talents soon attracted both notice and preferment. In 1749 he was elected organist to St. Dionis' Backchurch, in Fenchurch-street, at an annual salary of 30%., and was engaged, during the same year, to preside over the organ at a series of concerts performed at the King's Arms Tavern, in Cornhill. More valuable occupation was soon after offered to his talents, and ably executed: he composed (for the theatre in Drury Lane,) the music in the dramas of Robin Hood,' by Moses Mendez; Alfred,' by Mallet; and the pantomime of 'Queen Mab,' which continued to be repeated during every season for a term of thirty years. All these were the labours of twelve months, at the close of which his health was so deeply affected, that a rapid consumption was feared by his physicians, and he was obliged to leave the metropolis for the benefit of a purer

air.

6

6

Retiring therefore to Lynne Regis, in Norfolk, he was chosen organist to the parish church, with a salary of one hundred pounds a year. At this residence he continued for nine years; and in that period formed the design of compiling a general history of music. Finding his health re-established in 1760, he gladly returned to the metropolis with a large young family, and pursued the avocations of his profession with an increase of emolument and reputation. His eldest daughter, at this time about eight years old, obtained considerable notice in the musical world, by her superior performance on the harpsichord ; and he maintained the popularity of his own character by the composition of several concertos which were deservedly admired. In

the winter of 1766 he brought out, at Drury Lane, The Cunning Man,' a translation of Rousseau's, ' Devin du Village,' which had amused his retirement at Lynne: it was a free, playful, and engaging version, but it had no very creditable success. After a lapse of three years, he received the honour of a degree as Doctor in Music, from the University of Oxford, on which occasion he produced an exercise in the musical school, consisting of an anthem of great length, with an overture, airs, recitative, and chorusses. This performance, equally elaborate and meritorious, attracted considerable approbation, and secured the distinction of many rehearsals at the music meetings of the University, under the direction of the memorable Emanuel Bach. In the following year he travelled through France and Italy, as well with a view of improvement, as to collect materials for his yet unfinished History of Music, an object which he never once permitted to sleep in his memory, from the moment at which he first conceived the project of the work.

The result of this journey was the publication, in 1771, of his 'Musical Tour, or the present State of Music in France and Italy.' The work was well received by the public, and deemed so good a model for all compiling travellers, that Dr. Johnson professedly adopted the plan of it in his account of the Hebrides:-speaking of his own book, the lexicographer observed— "I had that clever dog Burney's Tour in my eye." In 1772, he travelled through the Netherlands, Germany, and Holland, and in the course of the next year printed the particulars of the excursion in two volumes 8vo. It was also during the course of this year that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1776 appeared the first volume in 4to., of his 'General History of Music.' The remaining volumes were published at irregular periods, so that the four, of which it now consists, were not completed until the year 1789. For this undertaking the name of Dr. Burney is chiefly to be commemorated: alike remarkable for industry, variety, and judgment, it ranks standard in the language, and supplies the only source of critical information which the general reader can approach, upon one of the most interesting of subjects.

In 1775, at the desire of Sir John Pringle, he drew up, for the Philosophical Transactions, an account of Little Crotch, the