1826.] Recollections of Dr. Parr. 135 



of employments (not all, it must be owned, equally material) which he 

 made for himself, may be formed by the following extract from his 

 correspondence : — 



" Hatton, May \'2th, 1823. 

 " My numerous and important avocations make it indispensably necessary 

 for me to be severely punctual. I wished to go over to you, but I am sorry to 

 say that I have not in this week one single day at my conmiand, and the various 

 sorts of business in which I am now engaged, are of the highest importance. 

 To-morrow I nnist attend my neighbours at the May-pole. I, to-day, expect 

 a friend who travels fifty-six miles to help me in the catalogue, and must leave 

 me early on Saturday for his Sunday duty. Most provokingly, I must give up 

 the catalogue on Thursday, and attend the Archdeacon's visitation at Stratford ; 

 and this duty breaks in upon the time which I meant to employ with my friend 

 about the books. My mind is grievously oppressed. On Monday next I must 

 go upon business, to sec Caroline and her husband in Worcestershire. There 

 is not an hour in this week which I can call my own ; and this morning I have 

 been writing three letters upon a perplexing question of law. 



"With every good wish, I remain most truly your's, S. Parr." 



The " catalogue" to which the Doctor so often alludes in this letter, 

 was that of his vast library, which he began, partly to divert his mind, 

 after a heavy and irreparable loss ;* but, as he advanced in the task, it 

 became so much more complicated than he expected, that, instead of 

 the amusement, it was rather the fatigue of the two last years of 

 his life. His mind became hurried and agitated ; he grew nervously 

 anxious to complete it before his memory should fail him, as (to use his 

 own energetic expression) " no bookseller, no author, no scholar could 

 do it, if he himself died before it was finished." 



A letter in June, the same year, affectingly adverts to the state of 

 his mind. 



" Hatton, June 2, \%2Z. 



" I returned on Thursday night. On Friday and Saturday I had to answer 

 seventeen letters ; I have more on my hands, and am in the bustle of prepara- 

 tion for a tour to Cambridge, on account of my impaired health and ruffled 

 spirits. I come back in three weeks, and w ill certainly attend as, &c. 



" I beg my best respects, &c., and have the honour to be your faithful well- 

 wisher and obedient servant, S. Parr." 



The Doctor's voluminous correspondence was one of the pleasures 

 and torments of his life. He once told me he had been sorting the 

 letters of a single family,f and bade me guess their amount. 



I said, " about fifty." 



" Fifty !" cried tlie Doctor ; « eight thousand I" 



It must be recollected that this included the letters of three gene- 

 rations of writers ; but still I suspect some error in the calculation. 

 The Doctor said that his correspondence, exclusive of franked letters, 

 cost him annually sixty pounds ! 



To Cambridge the Doctor went, in hopes to banish the remembrance 

 of his dear pupil, companion, and friend. He visited Margate, Rams- 

 gate, and other places on the coast, and returned, apparently mended in 

 health, from his tour. But from that time may be dated a gradual 

 breaking up, and he never enjoyed again the heartfelt happiness he had 

 known formerlj^ 



To the aged, the death of one who stood at once in a friendly, and 



* The deatli of the Rev. John Bartlam. f The Sheridan famiJy. 



