2»is. VI. 150., Nov. 13. '58.3 NOTES AND QUERIES. 



389 



find an entry of a Richard Smith about two years ! After ironically describing the " raptures " of his 

 after the divorce : — mother at his escape from hanging, he says : — 



« 1699-1700 — ao Jan., Richard Smith, C." 



" C." in the register indicates a child. The Ous- 

 leys were both dead before Savage appeared on 

 the scene. 



In any of these cases, Mrs. Brett must have found 

 herself wholly at the mercy of Savage, — a fact which 

 Savage, feeling his way, and putting forth his story, 

 as he did, by degrees, must at last have become 

 convinced of, as he no doubt was, after the publica- 

 tion of the anonymous Life in 1727. Mrs. Brett's 

 principle, or her pride, may have prevented her 

 yielding to Savage's annoyance, and bribing hira 

 to silence ; but with her relations the case would 

 stand otherwise. They must have been scan- 

 dalised by the exposure that had now been going 

 on almost incessantly for ten years ; and they may 

 well have felt alarmed at the number of Savage's 

 converts, and at the public feeling aroused against 

 LIrs. Brett and her family by the Memoirs of 

 Savage, which were largely circulated while he 

 lay under sentence of death. Savage, in his 

 satire on " Fulvia," a lady who appears to have 

 remonstrated with him upon his attacks on his 

 supposed mother, says : — 



" The verse now flows . . . 

 Tia famed. The fame each curious fair inflames ; 

 The wildfire runs ; from copy, copy grows ; 

 Tlie Bretts alarmed, a separate peace propose." 



What members of the Brett family are here re- 

 ferred to does not appear. The interference of Lord 

 Tyrconnel, Mrs. Brett's nephew, however, is proved 

 by the dedication to the Wanderer, and other cir- 

 cumstances. Lord Tyrconnel was himself but a 

 child at the time of his aunt's divorce — could 

 know personally little of the facts, and probably 

 knew nothing whatever of the fate of the child, 

 and he may naturally have grown impatient at 

 his aunt's inability to silence Savage, or refute 

 his allegations, and have shrunk from the outburst 

 which would certainly have followed his public 

 execution. It would in such case be not sur- 

 prising that he privately endeavoured, as I under- 

 stand from his letter to Viscoimtess Sundon, to 

 procure Savage's pardon ; and that afterwards, 

 when the persecution of his aunt, who was now 

 getting in years, had reached its climax in the 

 publication of the Bastard, and the Preface to 

 the Miscellanies, he should endeavour to silence 

 him by sheltering and giving him a pension. The 

 date of this is evidently between the appearance 

 of the Preface (June, 1728) and that of the Wan- 

 derer in January, 172^, which is dedicated to 

 Tyrconnel ; but Savage had no doubt previously 

 obtained a hint of the disposition of Tyrconnel to 

 purchase peace, for in the poem of Nature in Per- 

 fection, published in March, 1728, he pays Tyr- 

 connel a compliment while attacking bis aunt. 



" Not so Tyrconnel welcomed the relief, 

 Inferior in his joy as in his grief ; 

 Stranger to motions of a mother's mind ; 

 In manners different aa in kindred joined." 



The patronage of Lord Tyrconnel, who was a 

 son of Sir William Brownlow by his first wife, 

 the sister of Mrs. Brett, is undoubtedly a fact 

 of importance in Savage's favour; but while 

 susceptible of any explanation, I can hold it of 

 but little weight against the inherent improba- 

 bilities, the cautious vagueness, the inconsistencies, 

 and proved falsehoods of Savage's story. 



Some of these points I must reserve for con- 

 sideration in another paper. W. Mot Thomas. 



A LIST OP BOOKS AND ARTICLB9 



Printed for Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., and chiefly 

 at the private press at Middle Hill, Worcester- 

 shire, between IS17 and Sept. 1858. 



1. Knights made by Chas. I., fol. and l2mo. 



M.H. 



2. Index of Names in the Inquisitions post 



Mortem in the MSS. called Cole's Escheats, 

 \2mo. M. H. 



3. The Heralds' Visitation of Middlesex, 1663, 



fol. Salisbury. 



4. Deeds relating to Shaftesbury Abbey, Co. 



Dorset., and Pershore Abbey, and Broad- 

 way, Co. Wore, 4/0. Evesham. 



5. Catalogue of Knights made between 1660 



and 1760, yoZ. arid 12mo. London. 



6. Disclaimers at Heralds' Visitations,_/'o?. zinco- 



graph. M. H. 



7. Wilts. Institutions of Clergy, 2 vols. /o/. M. 



H. 



8. Wilts. Pipe Rolls temp. Hen. 2., fol. zinco- 



graph. 



9. Wilts. Pedes Finium temp. Geo. 1. to 11 Geo. 



2., fol. zincograph. 



10. Wilts. Visitation, 1677,/o?. M. H. 



11. Wilts. Musters temp. Hen. 8., fol. 



12. Aubrey's Wilts, with Plates, 2 parts, 4to. 



London. 



13. Winchcomb Cartulary abridged, fol. litho- 



graph. M. H. 



14. Index to Worcestershire Pedes Finium, t. 



Car. 2. ad 13 Anna;,/()Z. zincograph. 



15. Wilts. Pedes Finium abridged a 7 llic. 1. ad 



11 Hen. 3.— Wilts. Inquis. post Mortem, 

 abridged 27 H. 3. to 12 E. 1. — Index of 

 Wilts. Fines, 1 to 10 Edw. 3., fol. M. H. 



16. Numismata Vetera, with Plates of Antiqui- 



ties at St. Bernard, /<>Z. M. H. 



17. Epwell, llaby, and "Melton, Hunts, \2mo. 



M.H. 



