CHRONICLE. 



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475 



Thomas Simpkin, proprietor of the 

 Crovvn and Anchor tavern, in the> 

 Strand, and recently master of the 

 vintners' company. 



25th. Rev. Erasmus Middleton, 

 a methodist clergyman, rector of 

 Turrey, co. Bedford, editor of 

 " Biographia Evangelica," 4 vols. 

 8vo. the style of v^hich is particu- 

 larly disagreeable ; a Dictionary of 

 Arts and Sciences, an indifferent 

 compilation; funeral sermons for 

 Thomas Jackson and William Binns, 

 The living was in the gift of the earl 

 of Peterborough, 1764. He was 

 one of the six young men expelled 

 the university of Oxford, many 

 years ago ; which circumstance gave 

 rise to Macgowan's satire of The 

 Shaver, 



At Orton, co. Murray, the hon. 

 Arthur Duff, youngest brother to 

 the earl of Fife. 



At Dublin, sir William Leighton, 

 bart. of the banking-house of Leigh- 

 ton, Needham, and Shaw. 



The body of a IVIr. Bailey, of 

 Holt, CO. Somerset, who had 

 been missing six weeks, was found 

 in the canal near Swinsdon. The 

 skull had been perforated, as with 

 a pistol-ba,!!, and a stone tied about 

 the neck to sink the body. 



At Osbaston, near Monmouth, 

 aged 90, Dame Morris. She had 

 had her coffin prepared many years 

 previously to her decease, and kept 

 it in her house, devoted to the pur- 

 poses of holding the necessaries of 

 life, (ic.; and when it came to be 

 appropriated to its real use, it was 

 found nearly filled ^<■ith apples, 

 which of course gave place to the 

 good old dame's body. 



Mr. Joseph Wclcli, well known 

 to the noblemen and gentlemen 

 educated at Westminster school, 

 having lived assistant to Mr. Giu- 



ger (bookseller to that seminary), 

 for the last 40 years. lie was long 

 in the habit of selling a MS. list of 

 the scholars, which, in 1788, he 

 printed in a quarto volume intituled, 

 <■'■ A List of Scholars of St. Peter's 

 College, Westminster, as they were 

 elected to Christ Church College, 

 Oxford, and Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, from the Foundation by 

 queen Elizabeth, 1561, to the pre- 

 sent time, including the Admissions 

 into the first-named College, from 

 1663. To which is prefixed, A 

 List of Deans of W«tmiiister, Deans 

 of Christ Church, Oxford ; Masters 

 of Trinity College Cambridge ; and 

 Masters of Westminster School. 

 By Joseph Welch." 



At Staiths, near Whitby, Signor 

 Rossignol, who appeared in Lon- 

 don about 25 years ago, at the ce- 

 lebrated Breslaw's, in Cockspur- 

 strect, opposite the Hay-market, 

 London. His exhibition consisted 

 of tutored birds. A number of 

 little birds to the amount (we be- 

 lieve) of 12 or 14, being taken from 

 different cages, were placed upon 

 a table, in the presence of the 

 spectators, and there they formed 

 themselves into ranks, like a com, 

 pany of soldiers. Small cones of 

 paper, bearing some resemblance to 

 grenadiers' caps, were put upon 

 their heads, and diminutive imita- 

 tions of muskets, made of wood, 

 •secured under their left wings. 

 Thus equipped, they marched to and 

 fro several times, Avhen a .'^ingle bird 

 was brought forward, supposed to 

 be a deserter, and set between six of 

 the musqneteers, three in a row, 

 who conducted him from the top to 

 the bottom of the table, on the mid- 

 dle of which, a small brass cannon, 

 charged with a little gun-powder, 

 had bceft previously placed ; and the 



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