DOVER DRAKE. 



445 



tbickly covered with a fine hanging wood of vari- 

 ous trees and odoriferous shrubs and plants. The 

 frequent changes in the motion and appearance of 

 the transparent Dove, which is interspersed with 

 small islands and little waterfalls, contribute to di- 

 versify the scenery of this charming spot ; while 

 the rugged, dissimilar, and frequently grotesque 

 and fanciful appearance of the rocks, gives to it 

 that peculiar character by which it is distinguished 

 from every other in the kingdom. 



DOVER, LORD. George James Welbore Agar 

 Ellis, afterwards lord Dover, was born on the 

 14th of January, 1797. He was the son of lord Clif- 

 den by Lady Caroline Spenser. He completed his 

 education at Christ Church, Oxford ; where, at his 

 examination, in 1816, he was placed in the second 

 class, and took the degree of M. A., April 21st, 

 1819. At the general election, in 1818, he was 

 returned for the borough of Heytesbury; and thus, 

 at the age of twenty-one, took his seat in the 

 House of Commons. In the parliament of 1820 

 ne sat for Seaford ; in that of 1826 for Ludgers- 

 hall ; and in that of 1830 for Oakhampton. Dur- 

 ing the whole of this period he distinguished him- 

 self as an active member of the legislature ; sel- 

 dom, indeed, taking a very conspicuous part in 

 debates upon great political questions : but, while 

 he maintained his principles upon these, in a way 

 not to be misunderstood, applying himself with 

 more congenial and prominent zeal to every subject 

 which involved the cause of learning, the fine or 

 useful arts, charities, and the improvement of the 

 people. Thus, in 1824, when the sum of 57,000 

 was appropriated to the purchase of Mr Anger- 

 stein's pictures, as the foundation of a national 

 gallery, Mr Agar Ellis was the first person who 

 suggested this illustrious design, and one of the 

 most earnest and enlightened of its advocates, 

 whose energy conduced to the accomplishment of 

 the measure. On the formation of the administra- 

 tion, in November, 1830, he was selected by earl 

 Grey to succeed viscount Lowther as chief com- 

 missioner of woods and forests. This office, how- 

 ever, he resigned only two months after, on account 

 of his delicate health. 



Reverting to his patronage of the fine arts, lord 

 Dover was the steady arid generous friend of our 

 native school. One of his first, purchases was the 

 magnificent picture of the Queen's Trial, by Hayter, 

 so interesting and valuable for the large number of 

 portraits it contains. The works of Lawrence, 

 Collins, Jackson, Leslie, Newton, and other emi- 

 nent contemporaries, were added to the treasures 

 of his collection. In 1822, he prepared a "Cata- 

 logue Raisonne of the principal Pictures in Flan- 

 ders and Holland," which was printed, but not 

 published. Lord Dover's literary studies were 

 chiefly directed to the investigation of history, par- 

 ticularly that of his own country. His first pub- 

 lished production was " The true History of the 

 State Prisoner, commonly called the ' Iron Mask,' 

 extracted from Documents in the French Archives." 

 Following M. Delort, he demonstrated that mys- 

 terious personage to have been count Hercules An- 

 thony Matthioli, secretary of state to Charles the 

 third duke of Mantua. In 1828, he published 

 " Historical Inquiries respecting the Character of 

 Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor 

 of England ;" in which he adopted that view of the 

 distinguished personage in question, which puts his 

 personal qualities in strong opposition to his excel- 

 lence as an historian, and places his moral charac- 



ter, like that of lord Bacon, far below his great 

 talents. It was remarkable that his opinion of 

 lord Clarendon's character was seconded, shortly 

 after, by the late earl of Ashburnham's exposition 

 of the conduct of Hyde towards his ancestor, the 

 Jack Ashburnham of the unfortunate Charles I. 

 In 1829, lord Dover edited, in two octavo volumes, . 

 " The Ellis Correspondence," consisting of letters 

 written between January, 1666, and December, 

 1688, by various persons to his ancestor, Mr John 

 Ellis, who was secretary of the revenue at Dublin; 

 and illustrative of the same period as the diaries of 

 Evelyn and Pepys. In 1831, he published a Life 

 of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in two 

 vols. 8vo. His last literary task was that of edit- 

 ing the Letters of Horace Walpole to Sir Horace 

 Mann. A small volume of Lives of the most emi- 

 nent Sovereigns of modern Europe, written for the 

 instruction of his son, was published after his death. 

 Besides these works, he was the writer of some 

 able articles in both the Quarterly and Edinburgh 

 Reviews, as well as in the Annuals, Magazines, 

 and other periodicals. 



In 1832, on the resignation of the bishop of Sa- 

 lisbury, lord Dover was elected president of the 

 royal society of literature ; of which, nearly from 

 its foundation, he had been an active friend, and a 

 diligent member of the council. By way of an an- 

 niversary address, his lordship prepared for the so- 

 ciety an historical memoir; the subject of that for 

 1832 was the death of King Richard II. : and of 

 that for 1833 the Gowrie Conspiracy. The lat- 

 ter he did not read in person, his health being then 

 so impaired as to prevent his attendance. 



Lord Dover received his title of peerage by pa- 

 tent, dated June 16th, 1831. He married, March 

 7th, 1822, lady Georgiana Howard, second daugh- 

 ter of the earl of Carlisle, and sister to the present 

 duchess of Sutherland, lady Cavendish, &c. His 

 death took place at Dover House, Whitehall, on 

 the 10th of July, 1833. He left three sons and 

 three daughters. 



DRAKE, NATHAN, M. D., an honorary associate 

 of the royal society of literature, &c. was born in 

 York, on the 15th Jan. 1766. He graduated at Edin- 

 burgh in 1789; and after a short residence at Bil- 

 lericay in Essex, and at Sudbury in Suffolk, finally 

 settled as a physician at Hadleigh in the latter 

 county, in 1792, where he practised forty-four years. 

 In 1807 Dr Drake married Miss Rose of Bretten- 

 ham in Suffolk, by whom he had several children. 



The walk of literature adopted by Dr Drake was 

 that of light essays, and ingenious illustrations of 

 our standard literature ; though his first attempt as 

 an author was a medical treatise, published while 

 he was a resident at Edinburgh, His later contri- 

 butions to that science consists of papers in differ- 

 ent medical periodicals. Of his literary vvorks, by 

 which his name is more generally known, the fol- 

 lowing is a correct list: "The Speculator," a 

 periodical paper, written in conjunction with Dr 

 Edward Ash, 8vo. 1790. "Poems," 4to. 1793. 

 " Literary Hours," first edition, 1 vol. 8vo. 1798. 

 4th edition, 3 vols. 8vo. 1820. " Essays illustra- 

 tive of the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian," 3 

 vols. 8vo. 1805 ; second edition, 1812. " Essays 

 illustrative of the Rambler, Adventurer, Idler, and 

 other periodical papers, to the year 1809," 2 vols. 

 8vo. 1809. " The Gleaner, a Series of Periodical 

 Essays, selected from authors not included in the 

 British Essayists,' 4 vols. 8vo. 1811. "Shake- 

 speare and his Times, including the Biography oi 



