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nings, Esq. and Jane, who married Benjamin Thompson, Esq.

While Mr. Pegge was resident in Kent, where he continued twenty years, he made himself acceptable to every body, by his general knowledge, his agreeable conversation, and his vivacity; for he was received into the familiar acquaintance of the best Gentlemen's Families in East Kent, several of whom he preserved in his correspondence after he quitted the county, till the whole of those of his own standing gave way to fate before him.

Having an early propensity to the study of Antiquity among his general researches, and being allowedly an excellent Classical Scholar, he here laid the foundation of what in time became a considerable collection of books, and his little cabinet of Coins grew in proportion; by which two assemblages (so scarce among Country Gentlemen in general) he was qualified to pursue those collateral studies, without neglecting his parochial duties, to which he was always assiduously atten

tive.

The few pieces which Mr. Pegge printed while he lived in Kent will be mentioned hereafter, when we shall enumerate such of his Writings as are most material. These (exclusively of Mr. Urban's obligations to him in the Gentleman's

Magazine) have appeared principally, and most conspicuously, in the Archeologia, which may be termed the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries. In that valuable collection will be found more than fifty memoirs, written and communicated by him, many of which are of considerable length, being by much the greatest number litherto contributed by any individual member of that respectable Society.

In returning to the order of time, we find that, in July 1746, Mr. Pegge had the great misfortune to lose his Wife; whose monumental inscription, at Godmersham, bears ample testimony of her worth:

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Anna Clarke, uxor Samuelis Pegge
Vicarii hujus parochiæ;

Mulier, si qua alia, sine dolo,

Vitam æternam et beatam fidenter hic

nec erit frustra."

sperat ;

This event entirely changed Mr. Pegge's destinations; for he now zealously meditated on some mode of removing himself, without disadvantage, into his Native County. To effect this, one of two points was to be carried; either to obtain some piece of preferment, tenable in its nature with his Kentish Vicarage; or to exchange the

latter for an equivalent; in which last he eventually succeeded beyond his immediate expecta

tions.

We are now come to a new epoch in the Doctor's life; but there is an interval of a few years to be accounted for, before he found an opportunity of effectually removing himself into Derbyshire. His Wife being dead, his Children young and at school, and himself reduced to a life of solitude, so ungenial to his temper (though no man was better qualified to improve his leisure); he found relief by the kind offer of his valuable Friend, Sir Edward Dering, Bart.

At this moment Sir Edward chose to place his Son

under the care of a private Tutor at home, to qualify him more competently for the University. Sir Edward's personal knowledge of Mr. Pegge, added to the Family situation of the latter, mutually induced the former to offer, and the latter to accept, the proposal of removing from Godmersham to Surrenden (Sir Edward's mansion-house) to superintend Mr. Dering's education for a short time; in which capacity he continued about a year and a half, till Mr. Dering was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge, in March 1751.

* Afterwards Sir Edward Dering, the sixth Baronet of that Family, who died Dec. 8, 1798.

Sir Edward had no opportunity, by any patronage of his own, permanently to gratify Mr. Pegge, and to preserve him in the circle of their common Friends. On the other hand, finding Mr. Pegge's propensity to a removal so very strong, Sir Edward reluctantly pursued every possible measure to effect it.

The first vacant living in Derbyshire which offered itself was the Perpetual Curacy of Brampton, near Chesterfield; a situation peculiarly eligible in many respects. It became vacant in

1747; and, if it could have been obtained, would have placed Mr. Pegge in the centre of his early acquaintance in that County; and, being tenable with his Kentish living, would not have totally estranged him from his Friends in the South of England. The patronage of Brampton is in the Dean of Lincoln, which Dignity was then filled by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Cheyney; to whom, Mr. Pegge being a stranger, the application was necessarily to be made in a circuitous manner, and he was obliged to employ more than a double mediation before his name could be mentioned to the Dean.

The mode he proposed was through the influence of William the third Duke of Devonshire; to whom Mr. Pegge was personally known as a Derbyshire man (though he had so long resided in Kent), having always paid his respects to his

Grace on the public days at Chatsworth, as often as opportunity served, when on a visit in Derbyshire. Mr. Pegge did not, however, think himself sufficiently in the Duke's favour to make a direct address for his Grace's recommendation to the Dean of Lincoln, though the object so fully met his wishes in moderation, and in every other point. He had, therefore, recourse to a friend, the Right Rev. Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Dromore, then in England; who, in conjunction with Godfrey Watkinson, of Brampton Moor, Esq. (the principal resident Gentleman'in the parish of Brampton) solicited, and obtained, his Grace's interest with the Dean of Lincoln: who, in consequence, nominated Mr. Pegge to the living.

One point now seemed to be gained towards his re-transplantation into his native soil, after he had resisted considerable offers had he continued in Kent; and thus did he think himself virtually in possession of a living in Derbyshire, which in its nature was tenable with Godmersham in Kent. Henceforward, then, he no doubt felt a satisfaction that he should soon be enabled to live in Derbyshire, and occasionally visit his friends in Kent, instead of residing in that county, and visiting his friends in Derbyshire.

But, after all this assiduity and anxiety (as if admission and ejection had pursued him a second

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