476 



Deaths In and near London', 



rDec. f, 



beauties adds ornaments, which can hardly 

 eTcape the epithet of meretricious." In the 

 fpring ot' t!\e following year he vifiteei the 

 ifland of Sicily, exploring witli enthufiaftic 

 pleafure, the frequent monuments of lite- 

 rature and art, which ftill remain in that 

 claflic region. Returning by way of Cala- 

 bria, he had an opportuiiity of obferving the 

 effefts of thofe dreadful earthquakes, which 

 bad a (hoit time before io materially altered 

 the face of the country, converting rivers 

 into lakes, and Lrecipitating rocks and moun- 

 tains into the ocean. After vifiting the prin- 

 cipal cities of Italy, Mr. CUike arrived at 

 Venice, where he had an opportunity of 

 being ufefol to Mr. Gibbon, in procuring 

 and fending him books to Laufanne j in con- 

 Jcquence of which he received an invitation 

 to vifit that eminent hiftorian in his retire- 

 ment. Mr. Clarke afterwards took up his 

 refidence at Ficfole, in the near vicinity of 

 Florence, which he emphatically called 

 *' the firft flep of the Appennlnes, and where 

 Brunellefchi's immortal doom was tonftantly 

 under his eye," On his frequent vifits to 

 the city, a confiderable part of his time was 

 pafled in the library of the Grand-Duke, 

 where he obtained for his friend and corre- 

 fpondent Mr. Rofcoe, the intditcd poems of 

 the celebrated Lorenzo de Medici, and va- 

 rious other documents, which have fince 

 been jiven to the [Miblic, in the lives of Lo- 

 renzo de Metiici, and his fo.n Leo X. the au- 

 thor of which, has acknowledt"ed his various 

 obligations to Mr. Clarke, in the prefaces 

 to thofe works. On his return to England 

 by way of Switzerland and France, in the 

 year 1790, Mr. Clarke had the good fortune 

 to renew his acquaintance with the cele- 

 brated traveller, IDr. ChandUr, with whofe 

 fociety he was highly gratified, and for 

 whom he always retained a moft afff£lionate 

 regard. For fome years before his death, he 

 had retired from the mor; aftive part of bu- 

 fmefs to the enjoyn".ent of literary leifure, 

 and domeftic life, of which, however, he 

 was fuddeniy deprived, by an unexpetled 

 and fatal diforder, which for fome months 

 before his death, left his family and friends 

 without hope of bis recovery; but, which 

 he bore with that lirmnefs which formed 

 one of the charafteriftic features of his mind. 

 In his difpofition he was peculiarly mild, 

 gentle, and benevolent Without inter- 

 mixing much in general fociety, he was 

 actuated by kiadnefs and good-will to all. 

 In the knowledge of ancient and modern 

 languages few perfons !;<<ve attained a greater 

 proficiency. That he never attempted to 

 diflinguifh bimfclf by any literary publica- 

 tion, is to be attributed to a want of ambirion, 

 and not of talents. But although he pre- 

 ferred the Huratian rule " knitir tradiicere 

 cevum;'' to the teputution ol a writer, few of 

 his contemporaries were better qualified to 

 form a correft judgment either on works of art, 

 or on the produdliuus of literature and tails. 



" Not that tht poet's boafted fire 

 Shou'd fame's wide echoing trumpet fwell. 



Nor on the mufic of his lyre, 

 Each future age with rapture dwelL 

 The vaunted fweets of praife remove. 

 Yet fhall fuch bofoms claim a part 

 In all that glads the human heart. 

 Yet thefe the fpirits form'd to judge and 



prove 

 All nature's charms immenfe, and heaven's 



unbounded love. 

 In this refpeft, he has a right to be clalTeJ 

 among the members of that learned and 

 refpeftable body, not a fniall one in thefe 

 kingdoms, who form, as it were, the literary 

 public, and are the legitimate, and proper 

 guides of thi general opinion. Free from 

 the jealoufy too frequently found amongft 

 authors ; it is they who decide with cool 

 and deliberate impartiality, on the produc- 

 tions of the day; the guardians of tafte and 

 the unfipives of merit.* 



At her houfe at Chelfea, aged 72, after 

 three days lllnefs, Mrs ^JW Sophia Fordyce, 

 rellft of the late Dr. George F. Mrs F. 

 though born in Holland, where (he refided 

 till the was upwards of ten years of age, was 

 dtfcmded, not only from a very ancient and 

 ref^icftable Scotch family, of the name of 

 Stuart, but from a family who afpired to the^ 

 honor of tracing their defcent from the kings 

 of Scotland. Upon the return of her family 

 from Holland, (he went to refide with them 

 at Edinburgh, where though portionlefs, and 

 polVeffing only the beauties of the mind j Ihe 

 was feen and admired by Dr. Fordyce, who 

 was at that time a ftudent at Edinburgh, 

 and the afteftion being mutual was very 

 fpeedily followed by their marriage. The 

 match, though ftriiSlly a love match, proved 

 not altogether a happy one; for owing to.a 

 difcordancy in their tempers, in which, 

 though unfortunately not in this inftance, 

 lapfe ottime rather tends to produce an alle- 

 viation than to aggravate; the Doftor and 

 his wife, after having for 30 years lived to- 

 gether in a certain degree of h.-.rmony, (from 

 analogy of talents, rather than from analogy 

 of difpofitions) found it at length, for their 

 mutual comfort, necefiary to feparate. Mrs. 

 F. poiVefTed very diftinguilhed talents, un- 

 c mmon acutcnefs, and a fteady and perfever- 

 ing application to all^the purfuits in which 

 fhe engaged. To her we are indebted for 

 the able manner in which the hortui ficcui in 

 the Mufeum of the late Dr. Hunter, is pre- 

 pared, as it was a work which ihe performed 

 entirely with her ovvn'hands. Slic poffeflTcd 

 unparalleled talents for forming fiowers and 

 other objeAs of natural hiliory from fhells, 

 and as this was a putfuit to which (he devoted 



* During the refidence of Mr. Clarke, at 

 Lilbon, a copy of verfes was aidreded to him, 

 by one of his early literary afl'ociates, who en- 

 joyed his uninterrupted friendlbip to the clofeof 

 bis life, for which fee thePoetiy of this month, 

 a confiderable 



