“ 
\e 
* A KE: Sel 
1798.] Marriages and Deaths, in and near London....David Davis. 223 
At Brentford, aged 74, Mr. 'T. Hardwick: 
Mr. Dennis, bookfeller, of Middle Row, 
Holborn: 
At Homerton, Mr. Henry Mene. 
At Edgware, after aj long illnefs, John 
Jelly, efgq. 
At Brompton, aged 
ing, elq. 
Thomas Watts, efq. of Craig’s Court, 
Charing-Crofs. 
In Piccadilly, Ifaac Walton, efq. upwards 
of twenty years one of the pages of the Bed 
Chamber to his Majetty. 
Mifs Denton, of Boltofi-ftrect, Piccadilly, 
daughter of the Rev. Mr. Denton. 
At Feltham, of which place lie was vicar, 
the Rey. John Hewitt, formetly of St. jolin’s 
College, Cambridge. 
Mr. George Preiley, of Henrietta-ftteet, 
Covent Garden. 
Mr. Gibfon, of Coventty-ftreet, 
market. 
At his Keufe at Camden Town, on the 
21 inftant, Mrs. Martha Moore, wire of 
Mr. John Moore, of South Molton-itreet, 
attorney at law. , 
Refpeéting the late David Davis, E/q. of 
Durkam-houfe, Hackney-road, Middlefex, we 
have been favoured with the following par- 
ticularse~The progrefs of f{cience is never fo 
rapid and accurate as in the minds of thofe 
whoie love of this knowledge foars above 
their native barbarity. The evident fupe- 
riority which the philofophers of Greece 
held and maintained over the refined inha- 
bitants of Rome, is an_irrefutible proof, 
Hiftory tells us, that the talents of the men 
wf Greece were more diverfitied and more 
accurate; and, indeed, the logic of Ariitotle, 
and the demonftrations of Euclid, are living 
teftimonies which verify the narration of 
hiftory : they are teftimonies which perfuade 
us that clofe thinking is not to be met with 
among the refined and pedantic, but among 
the pupils of nature, who, by fottering a 
{pirit of inquiry, raife themielves above the 
contemptible control of ignorance and bar- 
burity, and acquire a profound and demon- 
ftrable erudition. This fpirit of inquiry is an 
inherent principle of curiofity whicb, ‘in 
different climes, has different degrees of 
activity. Among the Welih people, who 
are the leaft civilized, perhaps, in all Eu- 
rope, curlofity is ever active, ever on tne 
wing, and always pufhing on in purfuit of 
knowledge, fame, and immortality. 
We have inftances of men who dated their 
being from among the mountains of Wales, 
80, Timothy Goold- 
Hay- 
and in procefs of time became*the admiration , 
of the univerfe. One might fuppofe that 
the minds of the inhabitants of Wales are 
like the violent torrents which pour down 
its mountains, carry nature and art before 
them, and by the force of their billows caufe - 
the furges of the main to retire. Dr. Price 
and Sir William Jones are Welth chara¢ters 
wheis cadebrity wilt out-live the sontiau- 
ance of time. Dr. Price, by his writings on 
morals and politics, taught man the im-= 
portant leflon—how to live; and Sir William 
Jones, by his affiduous refearches and cele- 
brity of talents, has fhewn us=that it is 
poilible for man to acquire fo durable a fame 
as newer to die. 
Among thofe fons of inquiry which 
Wales has produced, the late David Davis, of 
Durham-houfe, merited a diftin@ion.” This 
ufeful and intelligent charaGer was born at 
Cays, Carmarthenfhire, in the year 1722, 
and received that limited education which a 
country {fchoolmafter.could undertake to 
give. When this courfe of inftruétion had 
been completed, he undertook to teach the 
afpiring youth of Wales, and in the mean 
time to improve himfelf: It was at this 
time, and by his own ftudious exertions, that 
he acquired that accurate knowledge of 
grammar and numbers, and that elegant 
ftyle of penmanjhip, which in fucceeding 
years made him e-ttenfively ufeful and uni-+ 
verfally celebrated. At the age of 23, he 
left his native country, and arrived at Lon- 
don, the great emporium where genius feeke 
Its reward. Here he had no friends to intro- 
duce him into a {phere of refpectable utility, 
nor any income to fuppert him; but was 
obliged to degrade his talents by. engaging 
himielf as an hackney-writer at Doctors 
Commions. His continuance in this humili- 
ating fituation was but fhort; for he opened 
a boarding-fchool at Iflington, and flourifhed 
in that department for which nature defigned 
him. His fuccefs is evident. from the high 
opinion which the Brewers’ Company lrad of 
his talents, by appointing him mafter of the 
free grammar-{chool at Iflington. This ap- 
pointment he held and difcharged to the good 
and approbation of the community for 33 
years. In“17g0, he refigned the grammar- 
ichool, and removed to Durbam-houfe, a 
manfion erected by his own induftry, where 
he received a few pupils in order to amufe 
himfelf, and benefit the public: indeed, his 
great object through life was ufefulnefs. It 
was a principle he long inculcated and prac- 
tifed, and at length clofed at Durham-houfe, 
on the 28th ot March, 1797, in the 72d 
year of his age. . He was twice married, and 
has left after him a’ daughter by each wife. 
Zenobia, by his firft wite, has his freedom 
and afiability ; and Sarah Sufannah, by his 
fecond, (the amiable Mifs Bird, of Hererord) 
has his -underftanding and perfon; and, by 
pofleiling her father’s good qualification$, 
gives a fecond Jite to the virtues of the dead. 
David Davis was a penmuan of the fir 
eminence: his tafte was delicate and original, 
and his performances were masterly and aps 
proaching perfection. Penciling, drawing, 
double-inkirg, patching, &c. were innova- 
tions which he at all times defpifed. liis 
rules were ‘* nature, freedom, uniformity.” 
He never ftudied art to hide art; but, witha 
talent peculiar to himfelf, he ufed mature to 
embelivh 
