498 
t 
but in this war has had little opportunity to 
‘aiftinguifh himfelf. At the beginning of its 
he was appointed to command at Plymouth, 
‘and fince his refignation of that poft, we be- 
lieve admiral Macbride never hoifted his 
flag. ; 
* [ Additional Particulars relative to Dr. W. 
Brownrice, whofe death was noticed in the 
Cumberland News in our 55th Number. To his 
feat at Ormethwaite, near Kefwick, he 
had retired about 20 years fince, with- 
drawing himfeif as much from the praCtice of 
phyfick as his numerous connections, his high 
charaéter, and his friendly difpofition would 
permit ; and purpofing to divide his time and 
his tafte between the romantic fcenery of 
this delicious fpot, and his refearches in Na- 
tural Philofophy. It was his lot to choofe 
his own profeffion, aad he began his career 
under the moft aufpicious omens, ‘The uni- 
verfity of Leyden was at that day fhining in 
its higheft fplendour; Albinus in Anatomy, 
Euler, in mathematicks, and the chair of 
medicine and chemiftry, was occupied by 
the all-accomplifhed Boerhaave. Having 
made at Leyden a long and happy refidence, 
and taken his degree, he returned to his na- 
tive country, and, in Whitehaven, married 
a-lady of fingular good fenfe, and poffefling 
an addrefs fo verfatile and fuperior as never 
failed to charm in whatever circle it was 
exerted. He was author of an inaugural dif- 
fertation * De Praxi medica ineunda,” 4to. 
Lugd. Bat. 17373 of a treatife ** On the Art 
of making Common Salt,” printed at London, 
fn 1748, in 8vo3 which procured for him the 
addition of F. R. S.3 a book now long out of 
print, but not out of recolleétion. He alfo 
publifhed «¢ An Enquiry concerning the mine- 
ral elattic Spirit contained in the water of Spa 
ia Germany ; and, laftly, a treatife, publifhed 
in 1771. ¢* On the Means of preventing the 
Communication of PeftilentialContagion.” A 
trip to the Spas of Germany fuggelted to him 
the idea of analyzing the properties of the Pyr- 
mont fprings,and of fome others, and aétually 
Yead him into that train of difquifition, which 
terminated in the de-elementizing one of our 
elements, and’fixing its invifible fiuid form ina 
palpable and vifible fubftance. ‘That Dr. 
Brownrigg was the legitimate father of thefe 
difcoveries was not only known at the time 
to his intimate, and domettic circle, but alfo 
tothe then prefident of the Royal Society, 
Sir John Pringle 5 who, when called upon to 
beftow upon Dr. Prieitley, the gold medal for 
his paper ef ‘¢ Difcoveries of the Nature and 
Properties of Air,” thus obferved ; *‘And it is 
no-difparagement to the learned, Dr.Priefley, 
that the vein of thefe diicoveries was hit upon, 
and its courfe facceisfully followed up, fome 
sarg aga, by my very Jearned, very penetrat- 
z, very induftrious, but modeit, friend, Dr. 
Bsowarigg.”? . Fo habits, of too much difii- 
dence, and to his fcrupulofity of taite, the 
world has to attribnte the fewnefs of his 
publications, and the difficulties which always 
impeded his road to thé prefs. The writer 
y 
tH 
Marriages and Deaths in and near London. 
- 
| rJune.t, 
of this article has grounds for faying, that a” 
general hiftory of the county of Cumberland 
was one of the Do€tor’s literary projeéts, and 
that he had made feveral arrangements fubfer- 
vieat to fuch an undertaking,particularlyin the 
department of Natural Hiftory. Asa medical 
practitioner, his works were more numerous, 
and, if not equally celebrated, they were of a 
chara@ter- more endearing within the fpherg 
of their utility. His fyftem"of treating dif- 
eafe formed an epoch in the annals of medical 
pra€tice. The poof and the rich had every 
where fomewhat for which they thanked him; 
~and health feemed only one of the bleffings 
which he had todifpenfe. By thefe means 
the Doétor paffed into the fummit of profef- 
fional honour without rival or competitor, 
without controverfy or detra€tion, but not 
without applications and requefts from fellow 
ftudents and followers from diftant parts, from 
academies, focieties, and univerfities, foreign 
and domeftic, entreating permiffion to enrol 
his name among their refpeétive communities. 
In his younger days, though the claflics of 
Greece, Rome, and Britain, were prefent to 
“his fancy and enlivened and enriched his con- 
verfation, yet the Sacred Scriptures were the 
topics of his delight, and the objects of his 
veneration : and as his quotations of Virgil and 
Milton bore tetimony to the elegance of his 
tafte, and the, fervour of his genius ; fo, 
when Job and Ifaiah were breught forward, 
he fhewed what his imagination would afpire 
at, in the ranges of fublimity. In the or- 
dinary occurrence of good things, he never 
failed to give God the praife ; and in the more 
folemn difpenfations, he clofed his obfervations 
or reprefled his feelings, by a purpofe of 
refignation to God’s will.] 
\[ Additional particulars relative to Mr. Cow- 
PER, the Poct, whofe death we noticed at 
page 409, ef oxr laf? Number.—This very in- 
genious writer, and truly original poet, was 
the third in defcent from the great Earl 
Cowper, Lord Chancellor of England, He 
was born at Berkhamftead, Herts, in 1722, 
and educated at Weftminfter fchool; but the 
place of clerk of the Houfe of Lords, being 
neferved for him by that kind of /egal arrange- 
ment which i8 never difputed in the courts 
(though the perfon to be benefitted is feldom 
a party to the bargain), he was not fent to 
complete his ftudies at the univerfity, but 
finifhed them at the Temple. With what- 
ever propriety he may have been compared to 
the Martlet, from_the natural tiaidity of his 
difpofition, he could not be called “© The . 
Temple haunting Martlet,” fince he was 
feldom feen there in fummer; buf, with more 
certainty, to be found on the margin of 
Jewin-water, or in-the fhrubberies of Cole- 
Green, a manfion, whofe noble owner and 
name-fake, was alfo nearly related to him, 
He had an infuperable averfion to the drudger 
of the law, and indeed’ to all manner OF 
public bufineis. He wholly gave himfelf up 
tothis propenfity ; and, Oria meffra, has aps” 
peared tg have been his motto all his ra 
® 
