2"J S. VI. lo3., Dec. 4. '53.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



445 



LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4. 1838. 



HICHAED SAVAGE. 



{Concluded from p. 428.) 



We have next the statement in Johnson that 

 on the death of iMrs. Lojd, the Lady Mason still 

 " continued her care, and directed him to be 

 placed at a small grammar-school near St. Al- 

 bans." The original authority for the grammar- 

 school is aiiain the Life of 1727, which says " at 

 St. Alban's ; " but Johnson alters to " near St. 

 Alban's," no doubt from Savage's authority; for 

 this appears to be the only point in the early life 

 on which Johnson had conversed with him. John- 

 son tells us that Savage always spoke with re- 

 spect of his master ; but his name and precise 

 whereabouts appear not to have been divulged, 

 although Savage must have been his scholar for 

 seven or eight years ; and it is a significant fact 

 that it is confessed in the Life (1727) that Savage 

 " derived little assistance " from this school ; the 

 writer adding that " as he was never favored with 

 any academical learning, so it was no secret to 

 those he familiarly conversed with that his know- 

 ledge of the classics was very slender and imper- 

 fect." 



As to Lady Mason, Savage's grandmother, we 

 are also left in much perplexity. The very earliest 

 authority (Jacob) speaks with gratitude of her ; 

 tells us that " to his own mother he has not been 

 in the least obliged for his education, but to her 

 mother the Lady Mason." If this were so, and if 

 she " continued her care," when did she cease to 

 do so? According to Savage's amended statement, 

 he only passed under " another name" till he was 

 seventeen years of age. He had, therefore, dis- 

 covered his whole story at this time. Mrs. Brett's 

 child " Richard Smith " would have completed 

 his seventeenth year on January IG, 17-^^4 ; and 

 according to Savage's account of his own age he 

 was seventeen on January 10, 17^1' But Lady 

 Mason was buried July 10, 1717, the very year 

 in which he published his poem of " The Convo- 

 cation," with the name " Richard Savage " on the 

 title-page. In any case, then, he had ample time 

 to appeal to his grandmother for assistance. Did 

 he do so ? And what was her answer ? Although 

 I have not been able to find her will, or any entry 

 of administration granted to her effects at the 

 Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the Bishop of 

 London's Court, or the two minor Surrey regis- 

 tries, she, being a lady of property, most probably 

 left a will which was proved somewhere. Did she 

 leave nothing to her unfortunate grandson ? 



The fact that Lord Rivers, who was known to 

 have been godfather to his son by the Countess of 

 Macclesfield, and therefore, as Johnson remarks, 

 appeared " to consider him as his own," did not 



die until 1712, was evidently a stumbling-block 

 in the way of Savage's theory of his childhood. 

 It compelled him, as no legacy to Mrs, Brett's 

 child would probably appear in the will, to repre- 

 sent that his existence was artfully concealed from 

 Lord Rivers to the hour of his death ; and it 

 also compelled Savage to place his discovery of 

 his parentage later than August 18, 1712, when 

 Lord Rivers died. At this time Savage, accord- 

 ing to his own statement, was fourteen years 

 and seven months old. Accordingly we are told 

 in the Life, on the authority of the Preface, that 

 when he. Savage, was " about fifteen," he re- 

 jected a proposal to be apprenticed to a shoe- 

 maker with scorn ; "for he had now, by the death 

 of his nurse," discovered his story. Apprentice- 

 ships to handicrafts were at that time, I believe, 

 invariably for seven years, and were not entered 

 into later than fourteen ; because they could not 

 be binding in law after the apprentice was one- 

 and-twenty. If then there had been an intention 

 to apprentice Savage, it would have been most 

 likely proposed when he was fourteen or earlier. 

 But fourteen vrould have been obviously many 

 months too early for Savage's purpose. We ac- 

 cordingly hear that he was " near fifteen." Yet 

 if Savage was really Lord Rivers's son by the 

 Countess of Macclesfield, he was twelve months 

 older than he thought himself. His mother then, 

 who at all events knew his right age, must have 

 delayed to propose the apprenticeship until he 

 was nearly sixteen. 



The fact of Lord Piivers's legacy, and of the 

 imposition practised upon him to prevent Savage 

 obtaining it, was first put forth, as I have already- 

 quoted it, in Jacob's Liven. In the Ufe, 1727, it 

 is repeated, and in Savage's own Preface to his 

 Miscellanies it appears again. Savage says : — ■ 



" If nature had not struck me off with a stranger blow 

 than law did, the other Earl who was most emphatically 

 my father could never have been told I was dead when 

 he was ahout to enable me by his will to have lived to 

 some purpose. An unaccountable severity of a mother I 

 whom I was not old enough to have deserved it from. 

 And by which I am a single unhappy instance among 

 that nobleman's natural children." 



Johnson's version, compounded of these several 

 accounts, is that the Earl Rivers : — 



" Had frequently inquired after his son, and had al- 

 wa}'s been amused with fallacious and evasive answers; 

 but being now in his own opinion on his death-bed, he 

 thought it his duty to provide for him among his other 

 natural children, and therefore demanded a positive ac- 

 count of him with an importunity not to be diverted or 

 denied. His mother, wlio could no longer refuse an 

 answer, determined at least to give such as should cut 

 him otY for ever from that happiness which competence 

 affords, and therefore declared that he was dead." 



Johnson adds, that the Earl " therefore be- 

 stowed upon some other person six thousand 

 pounds which he had in his will bequeathed to 

 Savage." Here we have a iiumber of fiicts for 



