are enabled to do from the most indifputable authorities, to wit, bis own compofitions, and which, we can affure the public, were intended by himself for the press. TRUTH being the fureft teft of compilation, we fhall, without any prejudice arifing from hope or fear, opinion or party, give a faithful, if not a comprehenfive, narrative of fuch circumstances as come fafely within our knowledge, in doing which, we shall adopt that excellent line of Shakespeare's. Nothing extenuate nor fet down aught in malice. As he chose to give himself the appellation of DICK MERRY-FELLOW in a well-known publication*, we * PUDICA. think ourselves fully warranted in now applying it; and it is hoped, that as the following fheets were rather haftily got up, to use a theatric expreffion, the Public will readily excuse a want of method, or of ftile. Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe HOR. I write, as I would talk; am fhort, and clear; Not clog'd with words, that load the weari'd ear. WE have, in moft inftances, thought proper to blank the names of perfons; not because we wanted confidence to infert them at length, but because we would avoid giving offence. To thofe already acquainted with our hero's tranfactions, the omiffion will be fufficiently underftood, and to those who are not---it is is immaterial. An anonymous ftory is as entertaining, and as inftructive, as if authorized by the greatest name. Ir may be asked, Who are we? we are indefinite! and therefore restrained, by the first problem of Euclid,---to ---to no point. Befides, memoirs are of the plural---and fo are WE! MEMOIRS MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE and WRITINGS O F R-ch--d G--d-n-r, Esq. Alias DICK MERRY-FELLOW. HE GENTLEMAN, whose Pofthumous Effays we have taken fome pains to collect, was fo eminently diftinguished by his learning, wit, and fatire, that his writings need not the force of elogy to recommend them to public notice. Dicere verum Quid vetat? He was born at Saffron-Walden in Effex, October 4, 1723, and died at Mount-Amelia in the parish of Ingoldifthorpe and county of Norfolk, on Friday, September 14, 1781, aged just fifty-feven years, eleven months, and ten days. His father was a fon of JOHN G-D-N-R, Efq. of Aldborough-Hall near Aldborough in the county of Suffolk, who was a Captain in Lord Cutt's regiment of foot, and died at Minorca, in the reign of Queen Anne, Anno Dni. 1708, when that ifland fell a conqueft to the British troops, and fquadron under the command of Admiral Sir John Leake, and General Stanhope. He was a man of confiderable property and eftate, and of fuch influence in the borough of Aldborough (then a populous and flourishing fea-port town, though in this prefent age great part of it has been fwallowed up by the British ocean that washes the east fide of the borough) that on his recommendation, the reprefentatives for Aldborough were generally chofen, an honour that he declined himself, as his military duty (being Captain of foot in Lord Cutt's regiment) fo frequently called him into foreign fervice. He died at an early period of life, but had this compenfation for the fhortnefs of it, that he lived and ferved his country in an age of heroes, and partook of the glories of that immortal reign, and of the important victories acquired by the all-conquering arms of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marleborough. Though happy in an honourable death himself, in the fervice of his country, yet it was an irreparable lofs in every respect |