416 Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, by J. Hardy. 



Two of the vicars of Embleton are noticed by Anthony-a- 

 Wood (Athense Oxonensis, vol. i., p. 181). 1. William Cox, some- 

 time fellow of Merton College, afterwards vicar of Emildon. 

 2. William Cox, son of No. 1., M.A., of St. Andrew's University 

 in Scotland. He was a commoner of Merton College, in expecta- 

 tion of preferment from the visitors, to whom lie submitted in the 

 year following (1648), and in the same year, in April, being incor- 

 porated M.A., was made soon after by the visitors, fellow of 

 " Brasnose College." Afterwards, 1651, being expelled by Dr. 

 Greenwood for misdemeanour, he succeeded his father in the 

 vicarage of Emildon, Oct. 29, 1657, by the presentation of the 

 College. He was a kinsman to Anthony-a-Wood, and died at 

 Embleton or Emildon, May 16, 1672. 



Parker, the vicar in the reign of Queen Anne, was a cousin of 

 Steele the Essayist, and contributed to the Spectator the letter 

 in No. 474, of date Sept. 3, 1712 ; which concerns the manners 

 of the period, in the vicinity where he had come to be placed. 

 He was thoroughly dissatisfied with the boisterous civilities of 

 the north country gentlemen, where the topics were dogs and 

 horses, and anecdotes of falls and fractures over five-barred gates, 

 double ditches, and precipices, received in the chase ; nor could 

 he relish the boisterous mirth, which the narration of these 

 mishaps occasioned ; nor indulge in the deep potations at 

 carousals, where some of the guests measured " their fame and 

 pleasure by the glass." " But the most irksome conversation of 

 all others I have met with in the neighbourhood, has been 

 among two or three of your travellers, who have over- 

 looked men and manners, and have passed through France 

 and Spain, with the same" observation that the carriers 

 and stage-coachmen do through Great Britain ; that is, 

 their stops and stages have been regulated according to 

 the liquour they have met with in their passage. The enter- 

 tainment of these fine observers, Shakespeare has described to 

 consist 



' In talking of the Alps and Apennines, 

 The Pyrenean, and the river Po ;' 

 and then concludes with a sigh, 



' Now this is worshipful society !' " 

 He is said also to have contributed to the " Tatler," and was 

 the author of the celebrated "Cure for a Scold :" 



