1828.] Mr. Field's Memoirs and Opinions of Dr. Parr. 149 



not quite satisfied with the terms in which that gentleman speaks of this 

 part of his friend's conduct and character. He says " It was amusing 

 to hear him (Parr) speak of the tacit agreement which subsisted,, he said, 

 between him and his pupils at Stanmore that all their battles should be 

 fought upon a certain spot, of which he commanded a full view from his 

 private room ; as then he could see, without being seen, and enjoy the 

 sport, without endangering the loss of his dignity." (p. 102). Now, we 

 began this article with the view rather of shewing that Dr. Parr was an 

 over-rated man, than of praising or defending him : but, certainly, this 

 passage looks like an attack upon his moral feeling, which must have 

 proceeded from some miscomprehension. Surely the fact must have 

 been or at least the more charitable supposition from a friend would 

 have been that the doctor caused all pugilistic battles to be fought 

 under the circumstances described, in order that, without sanctioning 

 them by his actual presence, he might see that they were fitly conducted, 

 and confined within safe and reasonable limits ? Another assertion, too, of 

 Mr. Field's (p. 118) strikes us as a heavy reflection upon the character of 

 the doctor heavier, perhaps, than the writer contemplated, when he penned 

 it. He says speaking of the petition of the clergy to the House of Com- 

 mons in the year 1772, to obtain relief from the Thirty-nine Articles > 

 and of Dr. Parr's conduct with reference to that affair that he (Parr) 

 " was bold in thinking, and even talking" but " often fearful of acting ;" 

 and that he " not unfrequently advised and approved, and even secretly 

 promoted measures, which he had not always the courage to avow pub- 

 licly or support openly \" We shall not decide how far this was the 

 fact : but, certainly, Dr. Parr's political friends will not thank Mr. Field 

 for the accusation. 



The specimens, however, of our doctor's powers of conversation at 

 this time are delightful ! and leave no doubt of his perfect parity with 

 Johnson. On one occasion, dining with his biographer (who was also a 

 schoolmaster), he insisted on dining with " the boys," and faring alike 

 with them ; and, dinner being announced on these terms, no sooner . 

 says the author was he seated in the midst of his youthful company, 

 than he began to talk ! " Where do you come from ?" was the first 

 question he asked every body ; and, once upon the scent, away he rat- 

 tled. " To one, who came from Banbury, he talked of the battles of 

 Edge-hill ; and to another (who came from Market Bosworth), of that 

 ' bloody strife/ by which one king lost, and another gained, a crown ! 

 To a third, who said he came from Birmingham, c I suppose,' replied 

 he, you mean Brom wych ham ? Perhaps/ continued he, ' you do not 

 know the derivation or signification of the word ? but / do.' ' And then 

 he explained the first syllable to mean the name of a small tree, to which 

 the neighbouring soil is favourable : the second, a steep declivity, such 

 as that near the High-street, the site of the original town : and the third, 

 a home, or dwelling-place : i. e. a town on a hill, abounding with broom." 



With the same pleasing freedom and simplicity, he was accustomed to 

 speak, too, upon all points (this appears to have been a marked trait in 

 the doctor's character) connected with his own deserts or performances. 

 " How I wish," he said one day, in a discourse touching upon tolera- 

 ration and amity between the established church and the dissenting 

 clergy -" How I wish to be upon the bench ! were it only to shew to all 

 around me the example of a wiser and better spirit !" &c. &c. 



He thought favourably of Dr. Johnson ; with whom he had once a 

 conversation upon the liberty of the press. He used often to say after- 



