17976 | Biographical Anecdotes 
gala days, confifted cf a gold pepper-box, falt- 
feller, and {poon, appropriated folely to the ufe 
of his highneis. On his return to his native 
country, he entered into the guards, and cap- 
tain Turner foon became one of the moft fafhion- 
able officers about town, both with refpect to 
dreis and equipage. L’Oi/eau, as fhe was called 
by fome, and the Bird of Paradife by others,. 
lived fome years with him, in great {plendour— 
fhe was of a noble family, and poflefied fome 
talents—fhe was alfo a married woman, but a 
receipt for 3001. affixed to a bil] of parcels, pre- 
cluded the poffibility of an aétion for crim. con. 
—Mr. Turner, at length, left the guards, and 
relinquifhed a life of diifipation, on his union 
with a very amiable lady. ‘his lady, who fur- 
vives him, is the great grand-daughter of our 
ereat Englifh poet Dryden, and daughter of Sir 
—— Dryden, bart. of Canon’s Athby, North- 
amptonfhire, With her he got a confiderable 
fortune, and on the death of the dowager lady 
Dryden, came into poffeffion of nearly 20001. 
a year, landed eftate ! a {mall portion of which 
appertained to the poet, of whom Pope makes 
fuch frequent and honourable mention: 
6¢ Waller was {mooth, but Dryden taught to 
join 
The varying verfe, the full refounding line, 
‘The long majeftic march, and energy divine. 
a Imit. or Hor. 1. 267. 
Unhappy Dryden—in all Charles’s days, &c. 
EssaY oN CriTICIsM. 
Mr. T. took fome pains, on getting poffeffion 
of Canon#s Afhby, to difcover the papers and 
. MSS. of his wite’s anceftor, but with little 
fuccefs; for he feon found out, that they had 
ali been carried to Rome, by his fon; they are 
faid to be depofited in the Vatican. As Row- 
ley’s poems, pretended to have been found by 
Chatterton, in an old cheit at Briftol, had made 
a great noife, and a rumour began to be buzzed 
about, concerning the Shakfpeare MSS. a very 
indifferent foet, whofe name is here purpofely 
concealed, applied to Mr. Turner, and enquired, 
with great eagernefs, if no old trunix of Charles 
the Second’s time, with fome parchments &c, 
of the fame period, were not exifting inthe fa- 
mily manfion of the Drydens? Being aniwer- 
ed in the affirmative, he inftantly difcovered a 
plan with which his bofom had been for tome 
time pregnant: this was no other than the re- 
Jfurrection of the inedited works of John Dryden ! 
—‘“* But who is to forge the poetry ?”” exclaim- 
ed Mr. 7. jocularly —‘* O, Ict that alone to 
me,” replied the writer of rebuffes and acroftics, 
“I can hit Dryden’s ftyle to a hair; for I have 
always adopted his manner of verfification !” 
—During that fhort, but difgraceful period of 
eur hiftory, commonly known by the appelia- 
tion of the ‘¢ Reign of Terror,’ Mr. Turner, 
who had now changed his name to Dryden, be- 
came high fheriff of the county of Northamp- 
ton; and in this capacity, a¢tually caufed a 
mannikin, called Tom Paine, to be hung on a 
gibbet, 30 feet high! Such an eleyated in- 
fiance oi loyalty did not pafs without its due 
* and was above all little-perfonal enmities. 
monly high degree of irritability. 
of Sir ‘foha Dryden. 
reward, for he foon after was knighted; a cir- 
cumftance which every body was aftonifhed at, 
as his two fitters were peereffes of Great-Britain, 
both his brother and uncle baronets, and he 
himfelf a2 manof figure. He was, however, 
fpeedily after this created a baronet ; for he had 
raifed a troop of yeoman cavalry, and been at 
great pains, not only to promote, but alfo to 
prefent, a petition from Northamptonfhire, ap- 
proving of the prefent very “ ju/f and nece/fary’’ 
war’! On this occafion, he applied to Lord 
Hawkefbury, now Ear] of Liverpool, ftating 
his own fervices, and intimating, that there was 
a dormant baronetcy in his wife’s family, on 
which he had claims; he alfo hinted, in dif- 
tant and polite terms (for he was an exceedingly 
elegant and well-bred man) that his lordfhip 
had formerly received many civilities from his 
father. ‘The reply of the noble earl was equally 
fhort and fatisfactory—he really “ had not Ine 
tereft fufficient to obtain fuch a favour; but had 
the honour to be, with the meft profound re-" 
fpect, attachment, and regard, his very humble, 
-and obedient fervant, &c. &c. 8c.’ Mr: Georce 
Rofe, another child of fortune, and the legiti- 
mate fucceffor of the Jenkinfons and Robinfons, 
obtained inftantly what the noble earl very in- 
genuoufly profeffed himfelf utterly unable to pro- 
cure, In refpe& to politics, Sir J. Dryden was 
what he called an efd whig, or, in other words, a 
modern tory. Wotwithftanding this, it muft be 
owned, that on many occafions, he exhibited re- 
peated inftances of great liberality in politics, 
On 
feeing two engraved portraits of Mr. Paine, at 
the houfe of a friend, he begged one of them, 
obferving, at the fame time, that at the veiy 
moment he had ordered him to be burned on 
effigy, an avkqward thought came acrofs his 
mind, ‘‘ that he could be no common man, 
whom government was at futh pains to hunt 
down; and that when the high fheriff of North- 
amptonfhire was perhaps fergotten, the author 
of the ** Righ's of Man,” would be mention- 
ed in hiftery with applaufe !’? The difeafe, or 
rather the complication of difeafes, which proved 
fatal to him, was an afthma, with which he 
had been long afflited, accompanied with a ne:- 
vous complaint, attended, as ufual, by a1 uncom= 
341 
This was 
rather increafed than abated by the unhappy 
turnof public affairs, for he was pafiionately 
attached to his country and its weliare, 
“ England! with all thy faults, I love thee 
‘ill,? 
was a fentiment to which he moft cordialiy af- 
fented. He lived long enough however, to ex- 
prefs his abhorrence and deteftation of a war 
he had once fupported, and this ¢rcumftance “ 
gave him great uneafinefs, | He was accuftom- 
ed, indced, within thefe laft three months, fre- 
quently toexclaim, ‘> that like Murins Sczevela, 
he would burn that hand which had prifented 
a petition tothe king, countenancing the pre- 
fent unhappy conteft.’? Sir }. D, was abou: 49 
years of age; he is fucceeded by an inganc ion, 
now fir Edward Dryden, and has left a wi ow, 
and a large family behind him. 
P..OVINCIAL 
