140 Recollections of Dr. Parr. [Feb. 



He was not unwilling to be flattered on the subject. A letter written, 

 to be shewn to him, prefaced a classical question with the words, " if 

 you cannot answer my query, apply to that giant of learning Dr. Parr, 

 and he will certainly resolve it." The passage being shewn to Dr. Parr, 

 he smiled at the words " giant of learning," and seemed pleased with 

 the writer. On being requested by an admirer of his to lend his famous 

 Spital sermon, he replied carelessly, that he had not a single copy by 

 him, and that he set little value on that, or any of his English com- 

 positions. It is much to be regretted that he did not, while his faculties 

 were still in their strength, rear another durable monument to his own 

 fame in those languages of which he was so zealous a cultivator. 



About six years ago he hinted at such a project to the writer, who 

 understood him that he was then about to publish ; on asking what it 

 was, he replied, " a book full of Latin and Greek," and then changed 

 the conversation. Mis' clearness in dictation was wonderful to the last. 

 His memory was equally admirable. He could digest a whole paragraph 

 or inscription of his own composing in his head, and dictate it currently 

 to an amanuensis without hesitating at a syllable. Almost his last effort 

 in that way, was dictating the inscription to the memory of his friend 

 Thomas Sheridan, a. m., to be put upon the monument erected to him 

 in the church of St. Peter, near Margate. A few more recollections, 

 for which it was difficult to find the exact place before, shall be offered 

 as the}' occur, in the order that appears most natural.* 



He was fond of the society of youth — liberal of his advice, and would 

 intreat when he might have commanded. He has said to a young writer 

 whose attempts he overlooked, " there may be reason in what you say, 

 but don't put the expression I object to — pray, don't :" such was his for- 

 bearance with the occasional slowness of ignorance. But, to be a scholar 

 was certainly a first-rate recommendation to his favour, and he had 

 frequently characters of that description on a visit to him. Sometimes 

 he would introduce an old pupil, or a person he was famiUar with, in 

 a whimsical manner. 



Fac-similes of the Doctor's hand-writing (which was not unlike the 

 Greek character) have been seen. It may not be unamusing to the 

 reader to learn, that this crampt hand was written with the most beautiful 

 pens, and the greatest succession of them that could be seen in a library. 



The author would omit a distinguishing characteristic of Dr. Parr 

 not to add, that, however brightly burnt in him the love of genius and 

 classical enthusiasm, private worth was still more strongly the subject 

 of his regard. He has pronounced in the author's presence, some of his 

 warmest eulogiums on a venerable person — highly gifted, indeed, in qua- 

 lities of the heart, but totally deficient in those attainments on which 

 the Doctor was supposed to set so great a value. Of a lady he said, 

 " she suffers from pain and infirmity so much, that life, considered in 

 itself, is a burthen to her — but she is happy — for she has patience, 

 she has sweet temper, and she has piety." 



No event of a public nature affected Dr. Parr, in his latter years, so 

 much as the lamenied and unexpected death of the amiable Princess 

 Charlotte. He felt it as a national calamity. He felt it as the extinc- 

 tion of a light that shone pre-eminently bright among the lovely and the 



' He composed an inscription for the momimcntai pillar, erected by W. Chambev- 

 layne, Esq., in the park, at AVcstoa Grove, to the memory of Fox. — Edit. 



