Aschamum extinctum patriæ, Graiæque Camœnæ, (Epigr.) Imitated. O'er Ascham, withering in his narrow urn, F. W. Roger Ascham and Doctor Whitby were devoted lovers of cock-fighting-(Warton's Pope, See, also, Lloyd's State Worthies, III. 186. 613.) He could not endure even the smell of fish, we are told, and had a most Lutheran stomach. In this respect, he was resembled by Erasmus. The admirer of elegant composition will derive singular pleasure from reading the Narrative of the Life of Roger Ascham by Grant, the Master of Westminster School. It is drawn up in the form of a Latin Oration addressed to young men, who are anxious to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Latin tongue, and prefixed to Elstob's edition of Ascham's Latin Epistles in 8vo, Oxon. 1703. See, in Sadler's State-Papers, II. 47., a Letter "from my Lord of Bedforth and Sir F. Knowles," dated November 28th, 1569, recommending Roger Ascham to their loving friend Sir Raphe Sadler, Knight, Chancellor of the Duchy. See, also, Fuller's Worthies, II. 516, and the British Plutarch, I. 410. 3. ATKINSON RICHARD, Born at Ripley in Yorkshire, and admitted a member of King's College, Cambridge, in 1527, was appointed Provost of that Society, in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, upon the deprivation of Sir John Cheke. He died of the plague, as he was on a journey to hold Courts, and survey the College-Lands. 4. BALGUY THOMAS Was born September 27, 1716, at Northallerton; of which place his father John, Prebendary of South Grantham in the Church of Sarum, was Vicar. He was Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge; B. A. in 1737, M. A. in 1741, and D. D. in 1758. During his residence in the University, he was eminent for his singular acuteness in logical argumentation. He died at Winchester, January 19, 1796. See Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, I. 567. for the Preface, which he prefixed to the Discourses of his friend Dr. Powell, published (the year after his death) in 1776; and I. 601. for the compli mentary allusion of Warburton, to whose 'little senate' he is said to have belonged. He is indeed every where respectfully mentioned, throughout the correspondence of Warburton and Hurd (ib. III. 232.), and by Milner in his History of Winchester,' II. 91. speaking of his monument in the Cathedral of that City. (Ib. VI.) See, also, Gent. Mag. LV. 551. The succession of his preferments and publications, as well of those of his father, is given with great accuracy by Mr. Nichols (ib. III. 220.) in a note. If the vigour of his writings incurred some censures, his ability and the excellence of his character met their reward in the offer of the Bishopric of Gloucester (upon the death of Dr. Warburton, in 1781) which however, from a sense of his growing infirmities, he respectfully declined. This is mentioned in highly favourable terms by the actual successor, Hallifax, in his republication of Bishop Butler's Charge to the Clergy of Durham, which he dedicated to Dr. Balguy; and, also, in the dedication of his own Discourses to his Majesty. By Hurd he was pronounced "a person of extraordinary parts, and extensive learning, indeed of universal knowledge; and, what is so precious in a man of letters, of the most exact judgement, as appears from some valuable Discourses (collected, at Winchester, in 1785) which having been written occasionally on important subjects, and published separately by him, had other raised his reputation so high, that his Majesty out of his singular love of merit and without any recommendation, &c." (Ib. V. 652.) 5. BANKES THOMAS, D. D. Was elected Rector of Lincoln College in Oxford, in 1493. He died August 10, 1503, and was buried in the chancel of All Saints Church, Oxford. By his will he bequeathed monies for the founding of a chantry at Kippax in Yorkshire, the place of his birth; to the end that the souls of him and his parents, whose bodies are buried at that place, should be remembered by the priest in his prayers.'-(See Wood's Antiquities of Oxford by Gutch, 241.) 6. BARTLET BENJAMIN, F. A. S. One of the people called Quakers, was born at Bradford in 1714; and educated under his father an eminent apothecary, to whom Dr. Fothergill, the celebrated physician, was also an apprentice. The Doctor, subsequently, introduced his fellowpupil in London. His health declining however, he resigned his business, and devoted his time to literature. He was elected F. A. S. in 1764. He particularly excelled in his knowledge of the ancient coins of this kingdom, of which he had formed a very valuable collection. In the Archæologia, V. 335, is inserted a me moir written by him, On the Episcopal Coins of Durham, and the Monastic Coins of Reading, minted during the reigns of Edward II. and III. appropriated to their respective Owners.'* He died of a confirmed dropsy at Hertford, March 2, 1787; and his only son, a gentleman much esteemed for his amiable simplicity of life and manners, came to a melancholy end about seven months afterward. His library was sold in the same year.-(See Gent. Mag. for 1787, 277., and Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, I. 97, 98. 7. BAYNES RALPH Was born at Knowsthorp, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1555, he was appointed Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. He is described as the Restorer of Hebrew literature, in the age in which he lived; and was, in consequence, elected Regius Professor of Hebrew at Paris in the reign of Francis I., the great period of the revival of letters. After occupying his see nearly five years, he was deprived in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign; and died at Islington, under extreme torture from the stone, in 1660. He lies buried in the Church of St. Dunstan's, London. (See Stow's Survey, 431.; Rymer's Foedera, XV. 407, 410; and Fuller's Worthies, II. 502. *This has been recently reprinted, in a very neat manner, at Newcastle. |