In addition to the Stall at Lichfield, Mr. Pegge enjoyed the Prebend of Louth, in the Cathedral of Lincoln, to which he had been collated (in 1772) by his old acquaintance, and Fellowcollegian, the late Right Reverend John Green, Bishop of that See *.

This seems to be the proper place to subjoin, that, towards the close of his life, Mr. Pegge declined a situation for which, in more early days, he had the greatest predilection, and had taken every active and modest measure to obtaina Residentiaryship in the Church of Lichfield.

Mr. Pegge's wishes tended to this point on laudable, and almost natural motives, as soon as his interest with the Bishop began to gain strength; for it would have been a very pleasant interchange, at that period of life, to have passed a portion of the year at Lichfield. This expectation, however, could not be brought forward till he was too far advanced in age to endure with tolerable convenience a removal from time to

in one Diocese, under different patronages, and totally independent of each other. These two Whittingtons are likewise nearly equidistant from places of the name of Chesterfield.

*The Prebend of Louth carries with it the Patronage of the Vicarage of the Parish of Louth, to which Mr. Pegge presented more than once. On the first vacancy, having no Clerk of his own, he offered the nomination to his Benefactor Bishop Green; at the last, he gave the living, uninfluenced, to the present Incumbent, the Rev. Wolley Jolland, son of the Recorder of Louth.

time; and therefore, when the offer was realized, he declined the acceptance.

The case was literally this: While Mr. Pegge's elevation in the Church of Lichfield rested solely upon Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis, it was secure, had a vacancy happened: but his Patron was translated to Canterbury in 1768, and Mr. Pegge had henceforward little more than personal knowledge of any of his Grace's Successors at Lichfield, till the Hon. and Right Reverend James Cornwallis (the Archbishop's Nephew) was consecrated Bishop of that See in 1781.

On this occasion, to restore the balance in favour of Mr. Pegge, the Archbishop had the kindness to make an Option of the Residentiaryship at Lichfield, then possessed by the Rev. Thomas Seward. It was, nevertheless, several years before even the tender of this preferment could take place; as his Grace of Canterbury died in 1783, while Mr. Seward was living.

Options being personal property, Mr. Pegge's interest, on the demise of the Archbishop, fell into the hands of the Hon. Mrs. Cornwallis, his Relict and Executrix, who fulfilled his Grace's original intention in the most friendly manner, on the death of Mr. Seward, in 1790 *.

*It was said at the time, as we recollect, that this piece of preferment was so peculiar in its tenure, as not to be

The little occasional transactions which primarily brought Mr. Pegge within the notice of Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis at Eccleshallcastle led his Lordship to indulge him with a greater share of personal esteem than has often fallen to the lot of a private Clergyman so remotely placed from his Diocesan. Mr. Pegge had attended his Lordship two or three times on affairs of business, as one of the Parochial Clergy, after which the Bishop did him the honour to invite him to make an annual visit at Eccleshallcastle as an Acquaintance. The compliance with this overture was not only very flattering, but highly gratifying, to Mr. Pegge, who consequently waited upon his Lordship for a fortnight in the Autumn, during several years, till the Bishop was translated to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury in 1768. After this, however, his Grace did not forget his humble friend, the Rector of

strictly optionable; for, had the See of Lichfield been possessed by a Bishop inimical to the Archbishop or to Mr. Pegge at the time of the vacancy of the Stall, such Bishop might have defeated his Grace's intentions. The qualifications of the Residentiaries in this Cathedral we understand to be singular, dependent on the possession of certain Prebendal Houses, which are in the absolute disposal of the Bishop, as a sine quá non, to constitute the eligibility which is vested in the Dean and Chapter. As matters stood, in this case, at the death of Mr. Seward, the present Bishop of Lichfield (Dr. James Cornwallis), Mr. Pegge's warm Friend, co-operating with the Dowager Mrs. Cornwallis, removed every obstruction

Whittington, as will be seen; and sometimes corresponded with him on indifferent matters.

About the same time that Mr. Pegge paid these visits at Eccleshall-castle, he adopted an expedient to change the scene, likewise, by a journey to London (between Easter and Whitsuntide); where, for a few years, he was entertained by his old Friend and Fellow-collegian the Rev. Dr. John Taylor, F. S. A. Chancellor of Lincoln, &c. (the learned Editor of Demosthenes and Lysias), then one of the Residentiaries of St. Paul's.

After Dr. Taylor's death (1766), the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. John Green, another old Collegeacquaintance, became Mr. Pegge's London-host for a few years, till Archbishop Cornwallis began to reside at Lambeth. This event superseded the visits to Bishop Green, as Mr. Pegge soon afterwards received a very friendly invitation from his Grace; to whom, from that time, he annually paid his respects at Lambeth-palace, for a month in the Spring, till the Archbishop's decease, which took place about Easter 1783.

All these were delectable visits to a man of Mr. Pegge's turn of mind, whose conversation was adapted to every company, and who enjoyed the world with greater relish from not living in it every day. The society with which he intermixed, in such excursions, changed his ideas,

and relieved him from the tædium of a life of much reading and retirement; as, in the course of these journeys, he often had opportunities of meeting old Friends, and of making new literary acquaintance.

On some of these occasions he passed for a week into Kent, among such of his old Associates as were then living, till the death of his muchhonoured Friend, and former Parishioner, the elder Thomas Knight, Esq. of Godmersham, in 1781*. We ought on no account to omit the mention of some extra-visits which Mr. Pegge occasionally made to Bishop Green, at Buckden, to which we are indebted for the Life of that excellent Prelate Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln; a work upon which we shall only observe here, that it is Dr. Pegge's chef-d'œuvre, and merits from the world much obligation. To these interviews with Bishop Green, we may also attribute those ample Collections, which Dr. Pegge left among his MSS. towards a History of the Bishops of Lincoln, and of that Cathedral in general, &c. &c.

With the decease of Archbishop Cornwallis (1783), Mr. Pegge's excursions to London termi←

* The very just character of Mr. Knight given in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LI. p. 147, was drawn by Mr. Pegge, who had been intimate with him very nearly half a century.