22 Recollections ojDr. Parr. [Jan. 



Living in the secluded village of Hatton, near Leamington, but in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of a well-frequented watering-place, it 

 was not by the idlers who dined in his company one day at an ordinary, 

 or who lounged over to Hatton, in order (in the modern silly phrase) 

 " to see a lion," that Dr. Parr was to be known or appreciated. The 

 great characteristic of Dr. Parr's conversation was originality, united to 

 an utter contempt of what might be the prevailing fashion of the day. 

 Habits of intercourse were necessary to distinguish his serious from his 

 jocose style : and in the presence of indifferent persons he would some- 

 times support an opinion or an argument " to make them stare," which 

 they would be very idly employed in setting down as his real dispassion- 

 ate sentiments. 



It was in a visit to Leamington, during the summer of the year 1818, 

 that the author had the pleasure of being introduced to Dr. Parr — an 

 introduction which was followed by the advantage of his friendship and 

 society, whenever circumstances permitted it, up to the moment of his 

 lamented death. He was, at the time of first seeing him, in his 

 seventy-second year, with none of his activity or intellectual vivacity 

 impaired. In a recent publication he has been gratuitously presented 

 with " a lack-lustre eye." This must have been for the hackneyed 

 pleasure of quoting Shakspeare, for never was there anything so 

 unlike " lack-lustre " as the eyes of Dr. Parr. They possessed un- 

 common fire and expression for his time of life : and were of that fine 

 grey (more brilliant than blue, brown, or black,) that so often forms 

 the index to the features of uncommon genius. He held his head 

 a little on one side, in the Johnsonian manner ; his features were rather 

 agreeable than otherwise ; his wig not quite so large as has been 

 described, but still sufficient, with his grey bushy eye-brows, to give 

 a remarkable character to his face; his figure was middle-sized, not 

 much inclining to corpulence, and his clerical dress (which has been 

 so often compared to and mistaken for that of a bishop), was such 

 as he had a right to, as a prebend of St. Paul's. 



The manner of Dr. Parr was at that time frank, cordial, and 

 somewhat boisterous. Sickness and sorrow aftenvards subdued it to 

 the mildest tone. An invitation to Hatton afforded an opportunity of 

 enjoying the rich treat of his conversation in his social hours ; and as 

 every thing must be interesting connected with the scene which his 

 talents and virtues so long adorned, we will prefix a short description of 

 the locale, before we arrive at the presiding genius of the place. 



Hatton Parsonage, which rises modestly by the road-side, only 

 separated from it by a very small garden in front, consists, besides the 

 sleeping-rooms and offices, of three rooms on the ground floor, the 

 library, a little smoking-room, and the drawing-room, every article 

 of the furniture of which is now endeared by the remembrance of him 

 who made it the centre of social pleasure, enlivening it by his wisdom 

 and his wit. To the . ight of the fire-place was a massive Jauteuil, the 

 gift of one of his scholars, adorned with tapestry, and as inaccessible 

 as the books to anybody but the Doctor. Over his head were prints, 

 framed, and hung in a sort of order, called " the scholar's com- 

 partment." In the centre was Porson ; beneath him. Twining the 

 critic. To the right of Porson, Thomas Warton and Dr. Johnson ; 

 to the left, Gilbert Wakefield and Oliver Goldsmith. Alluding to 

 Dr. Johnson's epitaph on Goldsmith, the Doctor observed, smiling, 



