1803.} 
My neck and feet I keep from cold ; 
No marvel then,,though I be old 5 
Iam a willow, not.an oak ; 
I chide, but never hurt with ftroke.” 
This was the anfwer of my godfather, 
William Poulett, Knight, Lord St. John, 
Earl of Wiltthire, Marquis of Winchef- 
ter, Lord High Treafurer. of England, 
being demanded by an inward friend how 
he had lived in the times of King Edward 
the Fourth; King Richard the Third, 
King Henry the Seventh, King Henry. 
the Eighth, King Edward the Sixth, 
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, in 
all times of his life, increafing in greatnefs 
of honour and preferment. He died the 
roth of March, 1572, at the age of nine- 
ty-feven, and faw 103 perfons defcended 
from him. 
JOHN BUNYAN. 
Mr. BaGForD, a fhort time before he 
died, told the celebrated Thomas Hearne, 
that he once walked intothe country on 
purpofe to fee the ftudy of John Bunyan. 
Whea he came, John received him very 
civilly and courteoufly, but his ftudy con- 
filted only of a bible and a {mall parcel of 
books, which had been written by himfelf, 
all lying on a fingle thelf, ° 
RIATTRHEW PRIOR. 
The particular attention which Prior 
paid to the printing of his works may be 
gathered from the following note to Mr. 
Wanley, Lord Oxford’s librarian, the 
original of which is in the Britifh Mu- 
feum. 
“« Dear Mr. Wanley, = 5 Apr. 1718. 
_**T torment you before my appointed 
time, finding this fheet at home: As 
foon as you have looked it over, it may 
be carried immediately to the printer. I 
will trouble you to-morrow morning for 
the fheet which you have. It is Compli- 
ment in the moft refined French Diétiopa- 
ries, but I fubmit to you, as I ought with 
great reafon to doy every thing concern- 
ing literature. Your’s ever, 
M. Prior. 
ee 
ORIGINAL LETTERS. 
LETTER from DR. HICKES to DR. AR- 
THUR CHARLET, MASTER of UNI- 
VERSITY COLLEGE, OXxFORD ;—co. 
pied from the Original in the Bodleian 
Library. 
we I Am fo taken up with writing ad- 
ditions to the third edition of my 
book, that of late I have {carce written 
: 6¢ Fan. 23) 1730-31. 
** DEAR SIR, 
Original Letters. 
339 
letters fo any, but can defer fending my 
humble thanks no longer for your kind 
new year’s gift, the ftately Almanack, and 
the Orationes ex Poetis Latinis, where, af- 
ter looking upon the title-page, I hap- 
pened to dip in p. 46, where I cat my 
eye on the Sortes Virgiliane of Charles I. - 
‘¢. At belloaudacis populi vexatus, &c.” 
‘This gave me fome melancholick re- 
flection for an hour or two, and made me 
call to mind the ttory of Beraini, and his 
buft, burnt in Whitehall. Ic made me 
alfo callto mind the omens that happened 
at the coronation of his fon James IT. 
which I faw, viz. the tottering of his 
crown upon his head, the broken canopy 
over it, and the rent flag hanging upon the 
White Tower, over again my door, when 
I came home from the coronation. It 
was torn by the wind at the fame time 
the fignal was given to the Tower that he 
was crowned, I put no great ftrefs upon 
omens, but I cannot defpife them; moft 
of them, I believe, come by chance, but 
fome from fuperior intellectual agents, ef- 
pecially thofe which regard the fate of 
kings and nations. I pray give my moft 
humble fervice to Sir Philip Sydenham, 
and all my friends, and accept the fame 
from him, who is, with free refpect, 
es Sis; 
«© Your moft obliged and humble 
¢¢ Servant, 
‘¢ Geo. HickeEs.” 
ar) 
The following LETTER from AARON 
HILL to the celebrated EARL Of OX- 
FORD, is an excellent Foil to that which 
Fohnfon wrote to Lord Chefterfield —The 
Origmal is now among the Harleian Ma-« 
nufcripts in the Mufeum, No. 7523+ 
‘° MY LORD, 
‘¢ The character, perhaps, if I were 
filent, might tell your Lordfhip, that IF 
have heretofore anonymoufly troubled you ; 
but the nature of what I have now the ho- 
nour to addrefS you about obliges me to 
own a name, which never was fub{cribed 
with fo much hearty zeal and veneration, 
as it will be at the bottom of this paper. 
© Your Lordfhip has, herewith, the 
fample of a product new to Britain 5 
gratefal. for your bounties, fhe addrefles 
this as one among a thoufand happy con-. 
fequences of the peace fhe owes you. The 
printed account, which will be publifhed 
fome time hence, will make your Lord- 
fhip fully acquainted with the nature of 
the thing. The poem is no more than an 
honeft Mufe’s poor acknowledgment of 
XK 2 duty 
