Delicia, HARGRAVIA, aut quæ fe fub corpora condet? Aft ubi funereæ rapient VERNONA forores Totaque communi perfufa BRITANNIA luctu Condet honorato quicquid mortale fepulchro : Ille AQUILA aerios tentans fuper aftra volatus, Contemptis nemorum alitibus, terrâque relictâ Carpet iter fublime, deoque favente, CORUSCO SUBSIDET SOLIO, atque iterum reget Arma TON ANTIS. In comitijs prioribus Feb. 17, 1742-3. RICARDUS GARDINER, Aul. St. Cath. Cant. Alum. AT AT what time, or in what manner, Dick MERRY-FELLOW left the University of Cambridge we are not told, but immagine it to be foon after the date of the above, Feb. 17, 1743, for we find him in 1748, "returned to Norwich, after having been abroad for feveral years." He had then made a campaign or two in Flanders, and, as the country people term it, travelled a good deal to fee foreign parts; but from a continued series of misfortunes and disappointments, finding little probability of fucceeding in the army, he began to liften to fome propofals of entering into the church: thefe had often been made to him, but he as often refused, generally giving for answer, "that he thought himself by 66 ور no means qualified for fuch an undertaking,' and called to mind the answer of Dr. Donne (afterwards Dean of St. Paul's) which he is faid to have made to Morton, Bifhop of Durham, who ftrongly preffed him to go into orders, "that fome former irregularities* of his life "had been too notorious not to expose him to "the cenfure of the world, and perhaps bring "difhonour to the facred function." The Doctor having been abroad, in the expedition of the Earl of Effex against Cadiz, and at the Azore Islands, and refided feveral years in Spain and Italy. Hr IIE continued in this refolution till the year 1748, when, having been taken prifoner at fea by a privateer, and thereby prevented joining the army as a volunteer, which was then affembled near Maeftricht, under the command of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, who was equally remarkable for rewarding his volunteers, as well as leading them to action;-being plundered by the French feamen, ftript of all his cloaths, carried to Dunkirk and put into the common jail there; returning to England from his confinement, and in this fituation, now fully convinced that fortune was not his friend, and the conclufion of the peace following the year after (Oct. 18, 1748) he no longer hefitated to comply with the repeated inftances of his friends, and accordingly entered into Deacon's orders, in which he continued but a very little while, and further than which, he never proceeded in the church. From brown to black,-to red,-to black by rote, To the church he had fome pretentions, having had his education at an University, from whence he brought away fome Latin and Greek, though not a great deal of either. As to divinity matters, if not a perfect stranger to them, he was, however, fo little fufpected of having made any great acquaintance there, that it it was a common queftion with his intimate friends to afk, "whether the Bishop, who gave him his orders, examined him in the Bible, or "in Bland's Military Difcipline." UPON his return to Norwich, he food the banter of his companions for fome time, being daily told how well he became the fables, "that Japan had not altered him for the worse, "and what a pity it was, black cloaths were only "wore in mourning, fome people looked fo well "in them." This laft being always attended with a concern for the relation he had lost, which it was to be hoped was no near one; each in his turn verifying the obfervation of Horace. dummodo rifum Excutiat fibi, non hic cuiquam parcit amico: DICK MERRY-FELLOW was now in the twentyfixth year of his age; and as the reader may expect some description of him and his person, at that period of life, we fhall give it in as few words as we can. He was not the ingenui vultus puer, ingenuique pudo is of the Latins, nor the jeune Homme d'Esprit of the French, though not remarkably deficient This was his brother JoHN, who died at fea and was buried off the Rock of Lisbon, February 8, 1747. in either figure or fenfe; he was far from being genteel, yet, as he had been used to a great deal of company, was not very awkward; his friends never thought him a fool, though he was feldom heard to say any thing very clever, and when he did, it was always attended with a laugh from bimself first. His perfon was rather tall and thin, his legs long and flender; the latter were often fubjects of ridicule amongst his acquaintance; and to say the truth, were but two poor fticks indeed: his hair was of a colour that was a favourite of the antients, though we cannot fay the moderns have taste enough to admire it; it was by them. efteemed a mark of beauty; Homer's Helen was a Xpuronoping and the Aurea Cafaries and Flavi Capilli amongst the Romans, ever mentioned with refpect, and applied to admired men and women, are inftances too well known to be repeated here; indeed Horace has faid fomething in praife of black hair and black eyes, Spectandum nigris Oculis nigroque Capilli, But he might be a man of a particular fancy, and there's no accounting for that. His complexion was fair, and he wanted not to be told of it, being very fond of his own pretty face, and often laughed at by his friends |