Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow HIS RIDICULE. : WHEN Dr. Percy first published his collection of Ancient English Ballads, perhaps he was too lavish in commendation of the beautiful fimplicity and poetic merit he supposed himself to discover in them. This circumstance provoked Johnson to observe one evening at Miss Reynolds's tea-table, that he could rhyme as well and as elegantly in common narrative and conversation. For instance, says he, As with my hat upon my head Or to render fuch poetry fubfervient to my own immediate use, I therefore pray thee, Renny dear, Nor fear that I, my gentle maid, Yet hear, alas! this mournful truth, KING WILLIAM. THE courage, activity, and prefence of mind of this monarch at the battle of the Boyne, in July 1690, were extremely confpicuous during the whole of the engagement, in the course of which he repeatedly charged the enemy sword in hand. An English soldier, in the heat of the battle, pointing his piece at the king, he turned it afide without emotion, faying only, "Do you not know your friends?" The day was far advanced, when the Irish at length began to retire on all fides; and General Hamilton, who commanded the horse, making a furious charge, in the defperate hope of retrieving the battle, was wounded and taken prifoner. On being brought into the prefence of the King, who knew him to be the life and foul of the Irish army, William asked him, " If he thought the enemy would make any farther refiftance? to which Hamilton replied, "Upon my honour I believe they will." The king eying him with a look of difdain, repeated, your HONOUR!" but took no other notice of his treachery. ment, JAMES THE SECOND. THE rival monarch, far from contending for the prize of empire in the fame fpirit of heroifm, kept his station with a few squadrons of horse on the hill of Dunmore, to the fouth of the river, viewing through a telescope from the tower of the church the movements of the two armies. On receiving intelligence from Count Lazun that he was in danger of being furrounded, he marched off to Duleek, and thence in great hafte to Dublin. This daftardly conduct expofed him to the perfonal contempt of those who were most strongly attached to the caufe, Colonel Sarsfield, as it is faid, declaring, " that if they could change kings, he should not be afraid to fight the battle over again." ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON WAS a prelate who, in a very difficult and eritical fituation, had conducted himself with great wisdom, temper, and moderation. He had a clear head, with a tender and compaffionate heart, and like his celebrated predeceffor, predeceffor, Cranmer, was a faithful and zealous friend, but a gentle, generous, and placable adverfary. VISCOUNT DUNDEE. THIS celebrated man had formed himself on the model of the heroic Montrofe, and was poffeffed of the fame commanding commanding talents and graceful accomplishments. Having left the convention with the reft of the feceders, he quitted Edinburgh at the head of about fifty horte. Being asked whither he was going, he replied, "Whereever the fpirit of Montrose thall direct me." He was foon after killed at the battle of Killicranky, May 1689. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. THE first ftone was laid on June 12, 1675, by Sir Chriftopher Wren, and the building was completed by him in 1710, but the whole decorations were not finished till 1723. It was a most fingular circumstance, that notwithstanding it was thirty-five years building, it was begun and finished by one architect, Sir Chriftopher Wren, and under one prelate, Henry Compton, bishop of London. Whereas the church of St. Peter, at Rome, was a hundred and thirty-five years in building, in the reigns of nineteen popes, and went through the hands of truelve architects. In the reigns of James I. and Charles I. the body of this cathedral was the common refort of the politicians, the newsmongers, and the idle in general. It was called Paul's walk. It is mentioned in the old plays, and other books of the times. JUDGE JEFFERIES. 2 THE fallen Lord Chancellor Jefferies, the cruel instrument of defpotism under James II. died imprisoned in the Tower of London, of a broken heart, aided by intemperance. Whilst there he received, as he thought, a prefent of a barrel of Colchester oysters, and expressed great fatisfaction at the thought of having some friend yet yet left; but on taking off the top of the barrel appeared an halter ! LAMBETH CHURCH. MARY de Este, the unhappy queen of James II. flying with her infant prince from the ruin impending over their house, after croffing the Thames from the abdicated Whitehall, took sheiter beneath the ancient walls of this church a whole hour, from the rain of the inclement night of December 6, 1688. Here the waited with aggravated mifery till a common coach, procured from the next inn, arrived and conveyed her to Gravefend, whence the failed, and bid an eternal adieu to these kingdoms. DE THOU, THE celebrated historian, had a very fingular adventure at Saumur, in the year 1598. One night, having retired to reft very much fatigued, while he was enjoying a found fleep he felt a very strong weight upon his feet, which having made him turn fuddenly, fell down and awakened him. At first he imagined that it had been only a dream, but hearing foon after fome noife in his chamber, he drew afide the curtains, and faw by the help of the moon, which at that time shone very bright, a large white figure walking up and down, and at the fame time observed upon a chair some rags, which he thought belonged to thieves who had come to rob him. The figure then approaching his bed, he had the courage to ask what it was. " I am," said it, "the queen of heaven." Had such a figure appeared to any credulous ignorant man in the dead of the night and made fuch a fpeech, would he not have trembled with fear, and have frightened the whole neighbourhood with a marvellous defcription of it? But De Thou had too much understanding to be so impofed upon. Up Upon hearing the words which dropped from the figure, he immediately concluded that it was fome mad woman; got up, called his fervants, and ordered them to turn her out of doors; after which he returned to bed and fell asleep. Next morning he found that he had not been deceived in his conjecture, and that having forgot to fhut his door, this female figure had escaped from her keepers and entered his apartment. The brave Schomberg, to whom De Thou related his adventure some days after, confeffed that in fuch a cafe he would not have shewn so much courage. The king alfo, who was informed of it by Schomberg, made the fame acknowledgement. ERASMUS USED to dine late that he might have a long morning to study in. After dinner, he would converse cheerfully with his friends about all forts of fubjects, and deliver his opinions very freely upon men and things. So fays Milicheus, who was a student at Fribourg, and there had the pleasure of being well acquainted with Erafmus. CARDINAL POLE. THE very day after Cranmer was burnt, Pole was confecrated archbishop of Canterbury;-fo that the words of Elijah to Ahab concerning Naboth were applied to him, Thou hast killed and taken poffeffion. LUTHER. ERASMUS having been exhorted by his patron, Montjoy, to write against Luther, replied with a frankness which must please every reader :-" Nothing is more easy than to call Luther a blockhead: nothing is less eafy than to prove him one; at least it seems so to me. JORTIN. "IF a man finds," said that great man, " some of his learned productions purloined by others, he may, generally speaking, make out his claim to his own property, if he thinks it worth while; and he ought not to be very uneasy about it as if some strange accident had befallen |