234] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



and the following year he was presented to the donative curacy of St. 

 Andrew's the Little, in Cambridge, commonly called Barnwell, and 

 published a Sermon delivered at Trinity Church, Cambridge, 

 March 28, being the time of the annual meeting of the children 

 educated in the charity-schools of that town. On the 27th of No- 

 vember, 1755, he had to lament the death of his father, at the age 

 of 70, which circumstance is noticed in an affecting letter printed 

 in Mr. Kurd's correspondence with Bishop Warburton. 



The friendship which had taken place between Dr. Warburton 

 and Mr. Kurd, had, from its commencement, continued to increase 

 by the aid of mutual good offices ; and an opportunity now offered 

 for the latter to shew the warmth of his attachment. Dr. Jortin 

 having spoken of Mr. Warburton with less deference and submis- 

 sion than the claims of an overbearing and confident superiority 

 seemed to demand, was called to account for it in a pamphlet en- 

 titled The Delicacy of Friendship, " which, while it gave the most 

 heartfelt satisfaction to his friend, severely hurt the feelings of 

 Dr. Jortin. This circumstance Mr. Kurd afterwards so much re- 

 gretted, that he expressed the most earnest wish that the essay 

 should be suppressed/' 



Though Mr. Kurd's reputation for genius and learning had been 

 long established, we do not find that his merit had attracted the 

 notice of the great, or that any disposition had appeared at this 

 time to advance his fortune. He still continued to reside at Cam- 

 bridge in learned and unostentatious retirement, till, in December 

 1756, he became, on the death of Dr. Arnald, entitled to the rec- 

 tory of Thurcaston, as senior Fellow of Emmanuel College, on Mr. 

 Hubbard's declining it, and was instituted in it Feb. 16, 1757: 

 he accordingly took up his residence at this place, perfectly satis- 

 fied with his situation. In the same year appeared A Letter to 

 Mr. Mason on the Marks of Imitation ; and Remarks on Hume's 

 Essay on the Natural History of Religion. This little tract was 

 occasioned by some passages in Hume's life of himself, and is a 

 most excellent ridicule and display of Hume's bad logic and rea- 

 soning; but Dr. Warburton is supposed to have had a considerable 

 share in it. Hume appears to have felt its severity ; for he de- 

 clares that it is written " with all the illiberal petulance, arrogance, 

 and scurrility which distinguishes the Warburtonian school." In 

 1762, he was presented to the sinecure rectory of Folkton ; and 

 two years afterwards appeared his celebrated Dialogues, which are 

 said to have laid the foundation of his preferment in the Church. 



