184] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



all this boasted knowledge how much is it to be regretted by the 

 world, that Mr. Allen was so secret a lover of the Muses, for we 

 have not a single scrap to illustrate his taste for polite literature, 

 and very few articles indeed from his pen respecting even his 

 favourite mathematics. The majority of those students in the 

 academic shades are either very selfish or very indolent, for few 

 of them communicate knowledge to others. In this respect they 

 resemble the Monks, who seemed to consider religion as their 

 peculiar study, and amused the people with a number of absurd or 

 unmeaning ceremonies. Our Universities have indeed been censured 

 with some appearance of truth for the laxity of their discipline and 

 the indifferent progress made by the majority of students. This 

 defect has been accounted for in the following epigram, which 

 however, like all witticisms, is rather to be admired for its point 

 than its truth : 



No wonder that Oxford and Cambridge profound, 

 In wisdom and science should ever abound j 

 Since each one takes thilher some knowledge each day, 

 And we meet with so few that bring any away. 



Mr. Allen founded and endowed a free-school in Uttoxeter, his 

 natal town. 



ELIAS ASHMOLE, 



Was the only son of Simon Ashmole, saddler, and Anne, the 

 daughter of Mr. Boyer, of Coventry, woollen draper. He was 

 born in Lichfield, May 23, 1617, received the rudiments of his 

 education at a grammar-school in his native city, and afterwards, 

 at his own request, instructed in the science of music, to which his 

 genius was strongly inclined. In consequence of his proficiency 

 in music he was admitted a chorister in the cathedral ; but a more 

 favourable opportunity for his advancement soon afterwards pre- 

 sented itself, in the patronage of James Paget, esq. Puisne Baron 

 of the Exchequer, who married his mother's sister. Accordingly 

 in 1633 he went to London. His father died in 1634, leaving him in 

 the seventeenth year of his age, with little property, and conse- 

 quently dependant on his uncle, with whom he lived about four 

 years, during which period he made a considerable progress in the 

 study of the law. 



