424 
¥ most sincerely and most deeply lament, 
but also to express the obligation which, 
in common with every other friend of Mr. 
Nicholls’s, I feel to Mr. Mathias, for 
this mark of pure and affectionate fitend= 
ship, whieh does honour to the heart of 
& man whose talents and attainments the 
worid has long béen accustomed justly 
to appreciate. 
April 9, 1810. , SUFFOLCIENSIS. 
sopy of a LETTER, occasioned by the 
DEATH Uf the REV, NORTON NICHOLLS, 
LEB. &c. 
Landon, Dec. 10, 1809. 
MY DEAR SIR, 
Ir is my melancholy office to- inform 
you of the death of our friend, the 
rev. Norton Nicholls, LL.B. rector of 
Lound and Bradwell, in the county of 
Suffolk, who died at his house at Blun- 
deston, near Lowestoft, in that county, 
ou W ednesday the 22d of November 
1809, in the 68th year of his age. As 
you well knew the genius, the accom- 
plishments, the learning, and the virtues, 
of this rare and gifted man, your gene- 
rous nature must think that some little 
memerial of himshould be.recorded, how- 
ever frail and perishable in my delineation. 
‘To be born and.to die did not make 
up all the history of our friend. Many 
of the chief ends of our being, which he 
fulfilled during the placid and even tenor 
of a long and exemplary life, proved that 
he had been; and they fully evinced that 
he had deserved well of all who had en- 
goyed the intercourse of his society. 
“Many vere enlivened by the cheerfulness 
of his disposition, and all partook of his 
benevolence. His chosen companions 
were delighted and improved by his 
readiness to communicate the rich trea- 
sures of his cultivated mind, in all the 
bright diversities oferudition and of taste, 
Indeed those studies which can alone 
be the aliment of youth and the conso- 
Jation of our declining days, eagagéd his 
attention from his earliest years. “ Am- 
plissimam illam omnium artium bene 
- vivendi disciplinam, nan vita magis quain 
litteris feliciter persecutus.” 
Even when a school-boy, he was never 
deésultury in his application; and he was 
distinguished for those exercises which 
merk streng th of understanding and soli- 
dity of judgment. He wa andered not in 
vain among those fields and hills, so justly 
styled ‘happy’ by our greatest lyric poet ; 
-and he leit Eton for the university of 
Cambridge; witl mind df 
‘ Bs P72 b 
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men LS, Seaaid CADAaADIe L Uhictts 
greater attain 
Letter on the Death of the Red. Norion Nicholls 
excellence which is the reward of ability 
when fostered by application. In ade 
dition tothe attentions which he expe- 
rienced from the celebrated Dr. Barnard; 
then master of the school, I have heard 
him freqaently express his grateful sense 
of the assistance he received at Eton 
from the voluntary private instruction of 
Dr. Sumner, whose classical erudition 
was deep and extensive. By Such men 
he was formed for the intercourse ofthose 
highly cultivated minds, educated in the 
groves of our Academe, which were des- 
tined to be the future ornaments and the 
supports of literature, of the church, and 
of the state. 
At the time when Mr, Nicholls became 
a student in Trinity Hall, tie university 
of Cambridye was the chosen Re apace 
ot Mr, Gray: 
A* si gran nome sorga 
Tutto i] coro a inchinarsi del Parnaso! 
It was natural -to feel a gratification i 
beivg a member’ of the same learned so= 
ciety with him; and it was natural also 
to aspire Gf possible) even toa distané 
intercourse with such a man. 
To see Mr. Gray was desirable; to 
speak to him was honourable; but to be 
admitted to his acquaintance or to his 
familiarity, was the height of youthful; 
ov indeed of any, ambition. By the 
intervention of a common friend, Mr. 
Nicholls, when between eighteen and 
nineteen years of age, was introduced: 
to Mr. Gray. I remember he told mes 
what an awe he felt at the time, at the 
lightning of his eye; at that ** folgorante 
sguardo,” as the Tuscans term it; bug. 
Mr. Gray’s courtesy and encouraging af 
fability. soon dispersed every uneasy sens 
sation, and gave him confidence. 
Shortly after this Mr N. was ina select 
company, of which Mr, Gray was onej 
and, asit became his youth, he did not 
enter into the conversation, but listened 
with attention. 
being general and classical, and as Mr. 
Nicholis, even at that early period, was 
acquainted not only with the Greek and 
Latin, but with many of the best Italian 
poets, he ventured with great diffidence 
to offer a short remark; and happened to 
illustrate what he said by an ap 
citation from Dante. At the nai ie 
Dante, Mr. Gray (and I wish every say 
man of genius might hear and consider 
the value of a word ‘spoken in due seasons 
with modesty and propriety, in the high- 
est, I mean in the most learned and 
virtuous, company) suddenly — turned’ 
round to him, and said, * Right: but 
hag 
(June qy 
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