42 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«d S. X. July 21. '60. 



" I know not how to act with regard to our most ex- 

 cellent and valuable friend Eennell.* Such singular and 

 pressing invitations have I just received from him to go 

 to Winchester, that I am tempted to put them forthwith 

 into execution. Never was anj'thing more warm and 

 more kind. I am the more inclined to this as my decanic 

 occupation's o'er. Twenty good pounds, as Jemmy said, 

 actually to be resigned. I am this moment going to the 

 Doctor, who always thinks and always talks of you, as 

 well as most of those at present resident in Trinity Col- 

 lege, who declare, and I firmly believe from the sincerity 

 of their souls, that they shall never have a more valuable 

 Fellow again. 



" Yours for ever, 



" VV. L. Mansel." 



That the poetical "little wagging" was from 

 the pen of Dr. Mansel will scarcely admit of a 

 query. But how- much soever he may have been 

 amused by good Dr. Farmer's proposals for his 

 own likeness, he certainly, when Bishop of Bristol 

 and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, mani- 

 fested uncommon interest in another portrait — 

 that of Dr. Mansel himself! A friend, who in 

 the early part of the present century was a Cam- 

 bridge undergraduate, remembers that once going 

 into a certain shop near St. Mary's, his eye lighted 

 on a very well-executed portrait of Bishop Man- 

 sel. Noting his approval, and profiting by the 

 mollia tempora fandi, the proprietor of the shop 

 politely placed in my friend's hand a printed do- 

 cument, which proved to contain " Proposals" for 

 an engraving of the said portrait ; whereupon, in 

 the verdancy of his noviciate, my friend being 

 himself a " Trinity man," set down his name as a 

 subscriber. " Ah, Sir," said the printseller, " the 

 Master of your college will be sure to see it ; for 

 every day at the time when the colleges are at 

 dinner, and there is next to nobody in the streets, 

 his Lordship comes here with his two daughters to 

 read the names of the subscribers ! " 



J. Yeowell. 



DR. SAM. COLLTXS, PROVOST OF KING'S COLL. j 

 SAMUEL COLLINS, VICAR OF BRAINTREE, 



AND THREE COXTEMPOKARY PHYSICIANS OF THAT NAME. 



On 15th Feb. 1610-11, Samuel Collins was 

 Instituted to the vicarage of Braintree in Essex, 

 on the presentation of Robert Lord Rich. New- 

 court {Repert. ii. 89.) took this vicar to have been 

 the famous Samuel Collins, afterwards Provost of 

 King's College, and Regius Professor of Divinity 

 in the University of Cambridge. Bentham (Hist. 

 Ely Cathedral, 261.) calls the provoat vicar of 

 Braintree, Harwood (Alumni JEtonenses, 44.), and 

 Russell (Memoir of Bp. Andrewes, 449.), term him 

 rector of that parish. Dr. Bliss was evidently of 



the Rev. Richard Farmer, D.D., from the original in 

 Emmanuel College, is given in DibUin's Typographical 

 Antiquities, iii. 503. 



* Dr. Thomas Kennel), Dean of Winchester, and Mas- 

 ter of the Temple, who probably furnished some notes to 

 Tke Pursuits of Literature. 



opinion that he held the vicarage of that place. 

 (Wood's Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 664. n., where 

 Braintre is misprinted Brainbre.) Now the fact 

 is that Dr. Samuel Collins, who had been de- 

 prived of his provostship and his professorship 

 for his loyalty, died at Cambridge 16 Sept. 1651, 

 whereas Samuel Collins, Vicar of Braintree, sur- 

 vived till 2 May, 1667. (Wright's Essex, ii. 22.) 



There were three contemporary physicians 

 named Samuel Collins. It is not surprising to 

 find some confusion respecting them. AVe will 

 endeavour to distinguish them. 



(1.) Samuel Collins, eldest son of Samuel Col- 

 lins, Vicar of Braintree, was admitted of Corpus 

 Christ! College, Cambridge, in 1635, but was not 

 matriculated, and took no degree in that Univer- 

 sity. We presume that he was the Samuel Col- 

 lins, M.D. of Padua, who was incorporated at 

 Oxford, 5 May, 1659. (Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, 

 ii. 221.) In Braintree church is a brass plate 

 against the wall of the chancel above an altar 

 tomb inclosed in a grate with the following in- 

 scription : — 



" This grate was ordered to be set up by the last will 

 and testament of Samuel Collins, late doctor of physick, 

 eldest son of Mr. Samuel Collins, here under buried, who 

 served about nine years as principal physician to the 

 great Czar, emperor of Russia, and after his return from 

 thence, taking a journey into France, died at Paris, Oct. 

 26, 1670, being the fifty-first of his age. 



" Mors requies peregrinantibus." 



From this inscription there cannot, we think, 

 be much doubt that he is the author of 



" The History of the present State of Russia in a Letter 

 to a Friend at London ; written by an eminent Person 

 residing at the Great Czar's Court of Mosco, for the space 

 of nine j'ears: Illustrated with manj' Copper Plates. 

 Lond. 12mo. 1671." (Cf. Retrospective Review, xiv. 32.) 



It appears, moreover, from the Preface that the 

 author died before the work was published. 



(2.) Samuel Collins, son of Daniel Collins, 

 Vice-provost of Eton, and Rector of Cowley ; 

 born at Tring in Hertfordshire ; educated at 

 Eton; scholar of King's College 1634; Fellow 

 1637; B.A. 1638; M.A. 1642; admitted M.D. 

 4 Oct. 1648; Fellow of New College, Oxford, 

 1650; incorporated M.D. 'at Oxford 11 May, 

 1650; Registrar of the College of Physicians 

 1682; died 1685; buried at Cowley. (Lysons' 

 Environs, v. 15.) To him Wood (Fasti, ed. 

 Bliss, ii. 162, 163.) erroneously ascribes the above 

 book on Russia; stating, although the work is 

 anonymous, that it was published under the name 

 of Dr. Sam. Collins of the College of Physicians 

 in London, and Fellow of King's Coll. Harwood 

 (Alumni Etonenses, 236.), Lysons (ubi supra), 

 and others, have been evidently misled in this 

 matter by Wood. 



(3.) Samuel Collins, of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge; scholar 163—.; B.A. 1638-9 ;. Fellow 

 16—.; M.A. 1642; probably M.D. at Padua 



