LIFE OF LANGHORNE. 



«nd not a few enemies. Amongst the latter was Hugh Kelly, who 

 published a poem which contained a very illiberal invective against 

 him; particularly tlie accusation of damning, in the Review, all 

 works of exrellence, and praising his own. It is proper, however, 

 that the public should know (and I have been assured of the fact 

 on undisputed authority) that, in all the established Reviews, no 

 author is suffered to write an account of his own work. On the 

 contrary, if he furnish sketches, or hints, of his own publication, 

 they are rigidly examined, and corrected bj'^ the editor with the 

 strictest impartiality. But to return to the subject of our memoir : 

 in the year 1765, he was appointed by Dr. Hui d, the present bishop 

 of Worcester, assistant preacher at Lincoln's Inn; and, in the same 

 year, he published his "Letters on the Eloquence of the Pulpit." 

 They were followed by a poem in favour of the Scotch, called 

 "Genius and Valour," which, by opposing the "Prophecy of Fa- 

 mine" of Churchill, drew upon him the enmity of that satyrist; the 

 attack, however, did not deprive him of any portion of his credit. 

 On the contrary, he was rewarded, in 1766, by the university of 

 Edinburgh, with the degree of doctor in divinity. 



At length, in 1767, the doctor was united to Miss Ann Cracroft, 

 with whom, for five years, he had kept up an incessant correspond- 

 ence ; and the letters were, after her decease, and by her particu- 

 lar request, published under the title of "Letters to Eleonora." 



Soon after his marriage a living was purchased at Blagdon, 

 Somersetshire, to which the doctor retired with his beloved 

 companion. But his happiness was of short duration; for, at the 

 end of eighteen mont})s, Mrs. Langhorne, in the most awful trial to 

 which a female is exposed, forfeited her existence, leaving an infant 

 son, now the Rev. J. T. Langhorne, already mentioned. 



The impression which the loss of such an accomplished partner 

 made upon the mind of the doctor was extreme; and in order to 

 bury the recollection of past felicity, he retired to Folkstone, and 

 resided with his elder brother, the Rev. W. Langhorne: here he 



