appointment, in the Court-hall in this town, to take into consideration the proposals made to them by the Noblemen and Gentlemen, Bridgewardens of Rochester-bridge, for the loan of £.5000 towards the charge of taking down the fifth and sixth arches of the said bridge, and laying the same into one, for the better improvement of the navigation of the river Medway above the said bridge, the sum of £.3500 was immediately subscribed; and a Committee appointed to attend to a further subscription for completing the same.

"SIR WILLIAM BISHOP, Chairman. "Resolved unanimously, that the thanks of this Meeting be presented to the said Noblemen and Gentlemen at their next Meeting, for their honourable and candid proposals transmitted to us for the above purpose.

"Resolved, that the thanks of this Meeting be given to Daniel Alexander, Esq. surveyor and architect, and Sir William Bishop, the chairman, for their attendance and assistance at this Meeting.'

"The loan is for ten years, at 5 per cent. interest.

*

"Master Urban, in the Obituary for May, has truly suggested, that the late Master of Trinity-college was accounted one of the best mathematicians in the University. There was an hour, in the days of my ladship, when I experienced his superiority in that science, for in the first act I kept in the Sophs' schools, under Moderator Barford, Postlethwaite of Trinity was first opponent to Denne, of Corpus Christi-college, respondent, who soon perceived that he had not been well advised by his friend Byrch, to take the movements of the Lunar Apsis for one of his questions; however, I scrambled through it as well as I could, and was, at the end of the year, not a little pleased to have my name inserted with that of my more able opponent at the back of the tripos among those quibus senioritas reservatur in prioribus comitiis.' Disney, of Trinity †, was our Senior Wrangler;

The Rev. Thomas Postlethwaite, D. D. a native of Lancashire, of Trinity-college, Cambridge, B. A. 1753, (third Wrangler or Senior Optime,-in that year, for the last time, one class,) M.A. 1756, B. D. 1768, D.D. per lit Reg. 1789, Fellow 17.., Master 1789, on the resignation of Bp. Hinchliffe. He was presented to a living in his native county by the Earl of Derby, who had been his pupil in the University. He published only a single "Discourse, in two parts, on Isaiah, vii. 14—16, preached before the University, on Sunday, Dec. 24, 1780." (See Gent. Mag. vol. LI. p. 179.) He died at Bath, May 4, 1798, where a tablet in the north aisle of the Abbey Church merely records his name and date of his death. He left £.2000 and some books to his college; his landed property to his brother, with reversion to his son; and his funded property to his two nieces, one of whom kept his house, and attended him to Bath; and £.100 and some books to his executor, the Rev. Mr. Davies, Fellow of Trinity, and Public Librarian.

+ William Disney, D. D. was fourth cousin to the Rev. John Disney, D. D. the subject of the article in the present volume, pp. 478-489; being (as appears by the pedigree there mentioned) descended through VOL. VI.

3 B

and friend Fisher * distinguished by a Senior Optime. It so hap pened, that I had not an interview with Postlethwaite from the time of my drinking tea with him at his rooms, when I commenced M. A. Three or four years ago, he was a steward at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy; and I had flattered myself, that we should have renewed our acquaintance in Merchant-taylors'-hall, but I had the mortification of hearing, that he was prevented appearing with his white wand by a sprain, in consequence of a slip of his foot when getting in or out of a carriage. By the Dean of the Arches, at the Visitation of the Peculiars at Sevenoaks, I was told, that the Doctor was not very active after he became Master of the College, i. e. as we agreed, he soon discovered that, if he was alert, he and the Seniors should be at variance, according to antient usage; and as he was advancing in age, he therefore thought it would be more for his ease to keep within his lodge, and to enjoy the company of his brother Head of St. John's; for Masters Postlethwaite and Craven (who were of the same year) it seems chose to dine at each other's lodges one day in a week at least.

three generations of divines from a common ancestor, Sir Henry Disney, of Norton Disney, Knt. who died in 1641. The Rev. John Disney, son of Sir Henry, was Rector of Stoke Hammond, Bucks, and father of the Rev. Matthew Disney, Rector of Blechley in the same county; whose son, the Rev. Joseph Disney, Vicar of Cranbrook and Appledore in Kent, was father of the Rev. Matthew Disney, B. D. Fellow of St. John's-college, Oxford, who died unmarried March 9, 1768, and of the Rev. William Disney, D.D. William Disney was a Fellow of Trinity-college, Cambridge, B. A. 1753, M. A. 1756, B.D. 1768, D. D. 1789. He was chosen Regius Professor of Hebrew in 1757, and held that chair till 1771. In 17.. he was collated by his fellow collegian and friend Bishop Hinchliffe to the rectory of Paston in Northamptonshire; which in 1777 he exchanged with Mr. Jones, afterwards of Nayland, for the rectory of Pluckley in Kent. He published “A Sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, June 28, 1789, with some strictures on the licentious notions avowed or insinuated in the three last volumes of Mr. Gibbon's Roman History” (noticed in Gent. Mag, vol. LX. p. 58); and “The Superiority of Religious Duties to Worldly Considerations, 1800," 8vo. Dr. Disney married Jan. 9, 1782, Anna-Maria, daughter and co-beiress of Jobu Smyth, of Chart Sutton in Kent, Esq.; but had no family, and on his death, which it is believed occurred about 1816 (when an incumbent was collated to Pluckley), his branch of the family became extinct. * Edmund Fisher, "of Norfolk," admitted of Bene't-college, 1749, B. A. 1753, M.A. 1756, and Fellow of Bene't. Mr. Denne (in p. 755) has called him of Barkway, why it is not known, unless he was Curate there before he obtained the rectory of Dunford St. Peter's, Cambridgeshire, to which he was presented by his college. He died in 1819, in his 90th vear. Mr. Fisher is mentioned by Mr. Gough among his college friends (see the "Literary Anecdotes," vol. VI. p. 617; where, however, his Christian name is misprinted ;) and the person remembered in Mr. Gough's will was his son (also not Edward, but) Edmund. He, as his father, was of Bene't-college, B. A. 1797, M. A. 1800, and collated to the vicarage of Linton, Cambridgeshire, in the latter year by Dr. Yorke, Bishop of Ely. He is still resident on that living.

"The next time I write to my correspondent of the Ordnance-office, Gravesend, I shall apprise him of your remark, that you have discovered, in your late visit to Churches in the county of Huntingdon, many stone stalls in the south ailes, but do not remember seeing any in the north ailes. Query, may not this difference have proceeded from the convenience afforded by the south walls admitting easily such recesses; and the south sides of the north ailes generally communicating with the nave by open arches ? That there were chantries, or private altars, in both ailes, may be easily proved in many churches. "Yours truly,

88. "DEAR SIR,

S. DENNE."

Maidstone, July 17, 1798. "From your letter I had the first advice of the departure of my quondam tutor Masters. The office of biographer, which you are pleased to assign to me, I shall beg leave to decline, for a reason already suggested; and because I really have not so many circumstances relating to his life and conversation, and literary abilities, as a certain collector of Benedictine notes may be possessed of; not but that I may be tempted to scribble an addendum to the Obituary of Sylvanus Urban, where the merits and demerits of the deceased will doubtless be recorded, though I may not choose to communicate for insertion, the under-written anecdote, which I have heard my brother frequently repeat. The libel to be communicated had for its framers Denne, Green, Clagett, and perhaps there might be others of the junto; and it had its rise in Toby Masters's worrying the lads of the old House, by obliging them to attend an afternoon Lecture when they wished to be gossiping over their tea, and by constraining them to come to Chapel at half past six in the morning, when they wanted to lengthen their nap. In order to mark a Fellow who was thus troublesome, the junto chose to pen the following paraphrase on a passage in the Psalms, and to place it in the prayer-book of Mr. Dean, Quoth David of his enemy, He worketh mischief, he has conceived sorrow, and brought forth ungodliness, or words to that purport; but, quoth the commentators, 'Toby worketh mischief, he hath conceived dullness, and brought forth stupidity.'

"Sir Henry Wotton's sentiments must correspond with the feelings of every thoughtful person who has a satisfaction in reflecting on the days of his youth. Would it suit my convenience, I should choose to pay a yearly visit to a room on the south side of the Mint-yard at Canterbury; and to traverse my removes, from form to form, till seated in the highest class with a ci-devant Lord Chancellor, and with divers whose places are not any where to be found. Gray, having in his view of Etoncollege cited the text, 'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof,'

was one of the several lines which struck me with the notion, that the Poem originated from the epistle of a Provost of that College. You refer to the saying of a Primate, who had his last translation about thirty years ago; and I therefore conclude Archbishop Secker to be the person meant. His having made the remark you attribute to him was new to me; and I wish to know, for a special reason, whether it can be authenticated.

"To your question, whether the holy brede is not an unusual term for the Host? I will refer you for a solution to a clause in a statute of Edward VI. where it is enjoined, that in such Chappeles annexed, where the people hath not been accustomed to pay any holy bread, there they must either make some charitable provisions for the beryng of the communion, or els (for receyving of the same) resort to their parish Churches.' It was, perhaps, more frequently called, the Paschal Pence; and after the Reformation acquired the new term of Communion Pence. See Addenda to the History of Lambeth Parish, p. 374, note a. "1558. At Ester for the holye loff, 34s." Archæologia, I. 13.

"A trait of the peculiarity of a quondam Master of the old House shall be added to this scroll; and the Master meant is the person, who, according to tradition, was conveyed by his coachman to Drury-lane Theatre, in consequence of the order received from his master to drive to 'the old House.' For the authenticity of the tale I have to relate I can vouch, as I have found it recorded in a letter I wrote to my brother from Vauxhall, on Feb. 25, 1759, in which was this passage:

"After I had finished my letter last night, we were favoured with a visit from my good Lord of Ely *. We thought his Lordship paid my father a rather late visit; and we found he designed to have travelled back to Kensington, and by the pale light of the moon. The Bishop had, however, forgot that the moon was past the full, and would not rise till nine o'clock; he was therefore obliged to put himself to the expense of a flambeau; and what was still more unlucky, he had not a single farthing in his pocket to satisfy the demand of any gentleman of the road.' This John gathered from the conversation which passed between the Bishop and his foot-boy, whilst the Prelate was stepping into his chariot.Boy,' quoth he, 'Have you got any money in your pocket?' 'Yes, my Lord.' 'Give me all you have. What have you given me?' Four and sixpence, my Lord.' A very small sum, brother, for a Bishop of Ely to tender to a highwayman; and I am apt to suspect that, should a Macheath, or a Jemmy Twitcher, have paid his respects to his Lordship, be would, by way of frolic, purloin the feather-top wig, not unfrequently denominated by the lads of Bene't, Madingley Gap.'

"When Master Urban's Obituarist shall characterise Tutor Masters, he doubtless will not forget to inform the public, that in October 1745, in the perilous days of jacobitism, when the

Matthias Mawson, D. D.

aid was required of all heads, hands, and hearts, for the support and preservation of our present happy constitution, the zeal of the deceased prompted him to excite the Wilbrahamites, great and little, towards so good a work; and that the Preacher flatters himself that, by publishing his discourse, it would become more effectual and extensively useful. In the concluding paragraph he alludes to the valour and bravery of the ancestors of his flock, but without specifying any instance. Can any be produced by the Editor of Camden's Britannia? S. DENNE."

89. "DEAR SIR,

"Yours truly,

Wilmington, Aug. 18, 1798.

"The following are extracts from a letter of Mr. Clarke: "For notices from Mr. Gough's Cambridge excursion you receive my acknowledgments, as well as for the contents of a certain detached piece inclosed. True enough I have driven conjecture every where within my reach, on the subject of the delightful, yet abused, little oratory of our Lady; and I hope perseverance will elicit truth, by presenting such existing circumstances as may go towards giving preponderance to one of my conjectural experiments.

"I am not certain as to the antiquity of the well. One about thirty years ago was sunk, the man yet living who did the work; a body was removed. It is opposite what I believe Pennant supposes a representation of the west front of the great Chapel, of the same kind as that on the roof of the cloister, and Mr. Capon supposed a holy water niche; but, in reality, a little monument, robbed of its brass plates *, likely that of Dr. Chambre, Dean of the Chapel, the builder of the cloister itself, at 11,000 marks, who was interred beneath. But with regard to the object of pursuit, the well under the servants'-hall, for no stone with a ring appeared, I am led to suppose it a refitting and enlargement of one of an antient date. The room over the Chapel has had a beautiful finished tracery about its walls; it is named the King's Confessionary, and served probably enough that purpose; but I did not find the Chapel below called the Monks'. The King's Confessionary is a repository for a press-bedstead, is kept clean, and has had a chimney formerly; and the Speaker here puts on his robes. The ceiling is flat and plastered; once probably wainscoted and panelled. The galleries over the cloister have beautiful windows enough, the opposite side and ceiling plain and plastered. Were these not once painted for the recreation of Mr. Dean and his brethren, the Canons of St. Stephen's, to walk and study in?

"Mr. Gough does not, you tell me, recollect finding any stalls repeated in the north ailes of the Churches he visited, but

* See it engraved in Smith's Antiquities of Westminster.