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of the church are several bullet holes, which are supposed 

 to have been made by the besieging army. On the north 

 of the castle is a very perfect remain of the antient fosse, 

 which is now quite dry, and some very fine elms and other 

 trees are growing in it. A terrace goes nearly round the 

 castle, and to the west of it is a large bowling-green, bounded 

 by a line of very old yew trees, which have grown together 

 into a continuous mass, and are cut into curious shapes. 



(Smythe's Life of the Berkeley s ; Atkins's Hist, of Glou- 

 cestershire ; Rudge's Hist, of Gloucestershire ; Fosbrooke's 

 Hist, of Gloucestershire ; and Communication from a Cor- 

 respondent.) 



BERKELEY, GEORGE, son of William, of Thomas- 

 town, in the county of Kilkenny, was born at Kilcrin, near 

 Thomastown, on the 12th of March, 1684. He received 

 his early education at Kilkenny school under Dr. Hinton, 

 was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, Dublin, at the 

 ;ige of fifteen, and having stood successfully a strict exami- 

 nation, he was admitted a fellow on the <Jth of June, 1707. 

 In the same year he published his first work, ' Arithmetica 

 absque Algebra aut Euclide demonstrata,' written l>efore 

 he was twenty years of age, and chiefly remarkable as show- 

 ing the early bent of his mind and studies. His next work, 

 published in 1709, was 'The Theory of Vision,' and in the 

 following year ' The Principles of Human Knowledge' ap- 

 peared. The perusal of Locke's two treatises on govern- 

 ment having turned the attention of Berkeley to the doctrine 

 of passive obedience, he published in 1712 a discourse in 

 favour of it, being the substance of three sermons delivered 

 by him in that year in the college chapel, which passed 

 through several editions, but did him some injury by pre- 

 venting Lord Galway from giving him some preferment in 

 the Church of Ireland, for which he applied. In order to 

 publish his ' Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous' he 

 left Ireland in 1713 and went to London, where he was intro- 

 duced to literary and fashionable society by two men very 

 opposite in their political principles Sir Richard Steele 

 and Dr. Swift. Rewrote several papers in the 'Guardian' 

 for the former, and in his house formed a friendship with 

 I'ope, which continued during the remainder of his life. 

 Berkeley was recommended by Swift to the celebrated Earl 

 of Peterborough, with whom he set out as chaplain and 

 si-rivtary, in November, 1713, on his embassy to Sicily. 

 His lordship, however, left his chaplain and part of his re- 

 tinue at Leghorn, and proceeded on his embassy. On his 

 return to England in August, 17 14, with Lord Peterborough, 

 the fall of Queen Anne's ministry having shut out all hope 

 of preferment through this channel, he some time after be- 

 came companion to Mr. Ashe, son of Dr. St. George Ashe, 

 bishop of Clogher, on a tour through Europe, which occu- 

 pied more than four years. At Paris he visited Malebranche, 

 and entered into a discussion with him on the ideal theory, 

 which was conducted with so much heat that the excite- 

 ment is said to have hastened the death of the French 

 philosopher. When in Sicily he compiled materials for a 

 natural history of the island, but these papers, together with 

 his journal, were lost during his journey to Naples. On 

 his way home he wrote his tract, ' De Motu,' at Lyons ; and 

 as they had proposed the subject, sent it to the Royal Society 

 of Paris, and shortly after his arrival in London printed it 

 in 17-21. Seeing the misery produced about this time by 

 the South Sea Scheme, he published ' An Essay towards 

 preventing the Ruin of Great Britain.' 



He was now received into the first society. Pope intro- 

 duced him to Lord Burlington, by whom he was recom- 

 mended to the Duke of Grafton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. 

 On becoming chaplain to this nobleman he took the degrees 

 of bachelor and doctor in divinity of Trinity College, Dublin. 

 About this time his fortune was unexpectedly enlarged. 

 On his first visit to London, Swift had introduced him to 

 Mrs. Esther Vanhomrigh, the celebrated Vanessa. When 

 this lady discovered the marriage between Swift and Stella 

 she altered her will, and left the 8000/., which she in- 

 d for him, to Mr. Marshal and Dr. Berkeley, her ex- 

 rs. Berkeley did not, however, publish her corre- 

 ience with Swift, though she left this injunction in her 

 will, but committed the letters to the flames. In 1 724 

 Dr. Berkeley was made dean of Derry, a place worth 1 100/., 

 and he resigned his fellowship in consequence. From the 

 time of his return to England he had occupied himself with 

 a scheme for the conversion of the North American savages 

 by means of a missionary college to be erected in the Ber- 

 muda!. He published hi plan in London in 1725, and 



offered to resign his preferment and dedicate his life to this 

 benevolent project on an income of 100/. a year. Having 

 prevailed on three junior fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, 

 to consent to accompany him on incomes amounting to 40/.' 

 per annum, and having obtained, by showing the 'political 

 advantages likely to result from his scheme, a charter for 

 his college, and a promise of 20.000/. from the minister, he 

 expressed his delight in some verses, which show the be'ne- 

 volence and the enthusiasm by which he was actuated. 

 The verses begin, 



1 The muse, disgusted at an age and clime 

 liuiren of every glorious thenu'.' 



He resisted the temptation of an English mitre offered 

 him by Queen Caroline; and though he married in Au- 

 gust, 1728, Anne, eldest daughter of Mr. Forster, the 

 Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, he was not to 

 be turned from his purpose by any prospect of advantage 

 from such a connexion, but sailed in the middle of the e?i- 

 suing month for Rhode Island with his wile, a Miss Hand- 

 cock, two gentlemen of the names of James and Dalton. a 

 valuable library of books, and a large sum of his own pro- 

 perty. The fellows of Trinity College do not appear to have 

 accompanied him. He took up his residence at Newport. 

 in Rhode Island, and for nearly two years devoted himself 

 indefatigably to his pastoral labours. The government, how- 

 ever, disappointed him, and he was compelled, alter spending 

 much of his fortune and seven years of the prime of his life 

 on forwarding his scheme at home and in America, to leave 

 the scene of his philanthropic enterprise uud return to 

 England. Before he left, however, ho'presented his books 

 to the clergy of the province, and on reaching London took 

 the whole loss upon himself by returning all the sui>s<-ri|i- 

 tions which he had received. In February, 1 73-2, he preached 

 before the Society for the Propagation of the Go>pel in 

 Foreign Parts. The same year he published his 'Minuie 

 Philosopher,' a series of dialogues on the model of Pbto. 

 Of this work Bishop Sherlock of London presented a copy 

 to Queen Caroline, with whom Berkeley had many inter- 

 views after his return, and by whose patronage he was 

 promoted on the 17th, March, 1734, to the vacant bishopric 

 jf Cloyne, a see to which he was consecrated by the arch- 

 bishop of Cashel on the 19th May following. He repaired 

 immediately to the residence at Cloyne, and to the ex- 

 emplary discharge of all his episcopal duties. Hearing 

 from Addison that their common friend Dr. Garth on his 

 death-bed attributed his infidelity to the opinions of Dr. 

 Halley, whose mathematical education had much influenced 

 Garth, the bishop was induced to write the ' Analyst,' a 

 work addressed ' to an infidel mathematician,' which ex- 

 cited a good deal of controversy. In 173.3 appeared his 

 Queries proposed for the good of Ireland, and next year his 

 ' Discourse addresed to Magistrates.' 



Having received benefit from the use of tar-water when 

 ill with the colic, he published in 1744 ' Siris,' a work on 

 the virtues of tar-water, on which he said he had bestowed 

 more pains than on any other of his productions : he pub- 

 lished a second edition with emendations and additions in 

 1747. During the Scotch Rebellion in 1745 he addressed 

 a letter to the Roman Catholics of his diocese, and in 1749 

 another to the clergy of that persuasion in Ireland, entitled 

 ' A Word to the Wise,' distinguished by so much good 

 sense, candour, and moderation, that he received the thanks 

 of the parties whom he addressed. When Lord Cheste/- 

 Celd, in 1745, offered him the see of Clogher, worth twice 

 as much as the one he held, he refused it because he had 

 already enough to satisfy his wishes, and because he admired 

 the beauty of the situation of Cloyne. His ' Maxims con- 

 cerning Patriotism' appeared in 1750. His last work was 

 'Further Thoughts on Tar- Water,' published in 1752. In 

 July this year he determined on going with his family to 

 Oxford to superintend the education of his son and enjoy 

 that learned retirement to which he was attached. He 

 was, however, so impressed with the evils of non-residence 

 that he actually petitioned the king for leave to resign 

 his see, but his majesty was determined he should die a 

 bishop in spite of himself and refused his application, 

 giving him at the same time permission to reside wherever 

 he pleased. His last act before leaving Cloyne was to make 

 an arrangement by which 200/. a year would be distributed 

 during his absence to the poor householders of Cloyae, 

 Youghal, and Aghadda. 



In July, 1752, he removed to Oxford, where he was 

 treated with great respect. On Sunday evening, January 



