252] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



was buried in the church of that town. Mr. Anthony Burgess, of 

 Sutton Coldfield, an eloquent minister, preached his funeral sermon. 

 There are but few documents respecting the private life of Mr. 

 Blake. He published several tracts and sermons besides his " Vin- 

 diciae Faederis, a Treatise of the Covenant of God with Mankind, 

 &c." This work was published in London, 1653, 4to. " The 

 Covenant Sealed/* quarto, 1655; Meditations entitled "Living 

 Truths in Dying Times ;" and Controversial Tracts on Infant 

 Baptism. 



RICHARD MEADOWCOURT, 



An English critic, was born in Staffordshire in 1697, and was 

 educated at Merton College, in Oxford, of which he became a 

 Fellow. In 1732, he published Notes on Milton's Paradise Re- 

 gained, and in the following year was promoted to a canonry in the 

 Church of Worcester. He was author of several small tracts, con- 

 taining critical remarks on the English poets : and his Notes were 

 not neglected by the late Bishop Newton in publishing his edition 

 of Milton. He was greatly esteemed by the learned in general, 

 and died at Worcester in 1769, aged 72. Dr. Newton thus speaks 

 of him in his preface to the Paradise Regained. After enume- 

 rating the assistance given by friends, he adds, " I had the ho- 

 nour of all these for my associates and assistants before, but I 

 have been farther strengthened by some new recruits, which were 

 the more unexpected, as they were sent me by gentlemen with 

 whom I never had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance. The 

 Rev. Mr. Meadowcourt, Canon of Worcester, in 1732, published a 

 Critical Dissertation, with Notes, upon the Paradise Regained, a 

 second edition of which was published in 1748; and he likewise 

 transmitted to me a sheet of his manuscript remarks, wherein he 

 hath happily explained a most difficult passage in Lycidas better 

 than any man had done before him." The passage alluded to is 

 the 106th line of that poem, in which Mr. Meadowcourt explained 

 the words " Bellerus" and " Bayona's hold." He was author 

 also of eleven printed sermons, which are enumerated in Cook's 

 Preacher's Assistant.* 



Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary. 



