Mr. Budgell had undoubtedly ftrong natural parts, an excellent education, and fet out in life with every advantage that a man could wish, being fettled in very great and profitable employments, at a very early age, by Mr. Addison: But by exceffive vanity and indifcretion, proceeding from a falfe eftimation of his own weight and confequence, he overftretched himself, and ruined his intereft at court, and by the fucceeding lofs of his fortune in the South-Sea, was reduced too low to make any other head against his enemies. The unjuftifiable and difhonourable law-fuits he kept alive, in the remaining part of his life, feem to be intirely owing to the fame difpofition, which could never submit to the living beneath what he had once done, and from that principle he kept a chariot and house in London to the very last. His end was like that of many other people of fpirit, reduced to great ftreights; for fome of the greateft, as well as fome of the most infamous men have laid violent hands upon themselves. As an author where he does not speak of himself, and does not give a loofe to his vanity, he is a very agreeable and deferving writer; not argumentative or deep, but very ingenious and entertaining, and his file is peculiarly elegant, fo as to deferve being. tanked in that refpect with Addifon's, and is fuperior to moft of the other English writers. Memoirs of the Orrery Family and the Boyle's, is the most indifferent of his performances; though the translations of Phalaris's Epiftles in that work. are done with great spirit and beauty. His As to his brothers, the fecond, Gilbert, was thought a man of deeper learning and better judgment when he was young than our author, but was certainly inferior to him in his appearance in life and, 'tis thought, greatly inferior to him in every refpect. He was author of a pretty Copy of Verfes in the VIIIth Vol. of the Spectators, Numb. 591. which begins thus, Conceal Conceal, fond man, conceal the mighty fmart, And it is faid that it was a repulse from a lady of great fortune, with whom he was desperately in Love whilft at Oxford, and to whom he had addreffed these lines, that made him difregard himfelf ever after, neglect his ftudies, and fall into a habit of drinking. Whatever was the occafion of this laft vice it ruined him. A lady had commended and defired to have a copy of his Verfes once, and he fent them, with these lines on the first leaf Lucretius hence thy maxim I abjure Nought comes from nought, nothing can If to these lines your approbation's join'd, and This gentleman died unmarried, a little after his brother Euftace, at Exeter; having lived in a very difreputable manner for fome time, having degenerated into fuch exceffive indolence, that he ufually picked up fome boy in the streets, and carried him into the coffee-house to read the news-papers to him. He had taken deacon's orders fome years before his death, but had always been averfe to that kind of life; and therefore became it very ill, and could never be prevailed upon to be a priest. The third brother William, fellow of New-College in Oxford, died (as I mentioned before) one of the clerks in the Irish fecretary of state's office, very young. He had been deputy accomptant general, both to his brother and his fucceffor; and likewife deputy to Mr. Addifon, as keeper of the records in Birmingham-Tower. Had he lived, 'tis probable probable he would have made a confiderable figure, being a man of found fenfe and learning, with great prudence and honour. His coufin Dr. Downes, then bishop of London-Derry, was his zealous friend, and Dr. Lavington the prefent bishop of Exeter, his fellow-collegian, was his intimate correfpondent. Of the two fifters, the eldeft married captain Graves of Thanks, near Saltafh in Cornwall, a fea-officer, and died in 1738, leaving fome children behind her; and the other is ftill alive, unmarried. The father Dr. Gilbert Budgell, was esteemed a fenfible man, and has published a difcourfe upon Prayer, and fome Sermons *There is an Epigram of our author's, which I don't remember to have feen publifhed any where, written upon the death of a very fine young lady. She was, the is,. (What can there more be faid) On Earth the first, In Heav'n the fecond Maid. See a Song of our author's in Stee'e's Mifcellanies, published. in 1714. Page 210. There is an Epigram of his printed in the fame book and in: many collections, Upon a Company of bad Dancers to good Mufic.. How ill the motion with the mufic fuits! So fiddled Orpheus----and so danc'd the Brutes.. ***** THOMAS THOMAS TICKELL, Efq; T HIS Gentleman, well known to the world by the friendship and intimacy which fubfifted between him and Mr. Addison, was the fon of the revd. Mr. Richard Tickell, who enjoy'd a confiderable preferment in the North of England. Our poet received his education at Queen's-College in Oxford, of which he was a fellow. While he was at that univerfity, he wrote a beautiful copy of verfes addreffed to Mr. Addifon, on his Opera of Rofamond. These verfes contained many elegant compliments to the author, in which he compares his foftnefs to Corelli, and his ftrength to Virgil *. The Opera firft Italian masters taught, Melodious trifles, and enervate strains; No charms are wanting to thy artful fong These complimentary lines, a few of which we have now quoted, fo effectually recommended him to Mr. Addifon, that he held him in esteem ever afterwards; and when he himself was raised to the dignity of fecretary of state, he appointed Mr. Tickell his under-fecretary. Mr. Addison being obliged to refign on account of his ill-ftate of health, Mr. Craggs who fucceeded him, continued Mr. Tickell in his place, which he held till that gentleman's death. When Mr. Addison was appointed fecretary, being a diffident man, he confulted with his friends about difpofing fach places as were immediately dependent on him. He communicated to Sir Richard Steele, his defign of preferring Mr. Tickell to be his under-fecretary, which Sir Richard, who confidered him as a petulant man, warmly opposed. He obferved that Mr. Tickell was of a temper too enterprifing to be governed, and as he had no opinion of his honour, he did not know what might be the confequence, if by infinuation and flattery, or by bolder means, he ever had an opportunity of raifing himself. It holds pretty generally true, that diffident people under the appearance of diftrufting their own opinions, are frequently pofitive, and though they purfue their refolutions with trembling, they never fail to purfue them. Mr. Addifon had a little of this temper in him. He could not be perfuaded to fet afide Mr. Tickell, nor even had fecrecy enough to conceal from him Sir Richard's opinion. This produced a. great animofity between Sir Richard and Mr.Tickell, which fubfifted during their lives. Mr. Tickell in his life of Addifon, prefixed to his own edition of that great man's works, throws out fome unmannerly reflexions against Sir Richard, who was at that time in Scotland, as one of the commiffioners on the forfeited eftates. Upon Sir Richard's return to London, he dedicates to Mr. Congreve, Addison's Comedy, called the Drummer, in which he takes occafion very fmartly to retort upon Tickell, and clears himself of the imputation laid to his charge, namely that of valuing himself upon Mr. Addison's papers in the Spectator. In |