was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, under the celebrated Mr. BAKER, July 6, 1708. His first productions were the papers in the SPECTATOR we have enumerated. In the same year in which they appeared, 1714, he was elected fellow of his college, but not choosing to enter into orders, he was obliged to vacate his fellowship in 1716, and went to Montpellier, where, applying himself closely to the study of physic, he acquired the appellation of Dr. BYROM*. On his return to London, he married his cousin, Miss ELIZABETH BYROM, against the consent of her father, who consequently gave her no fortune, and our author's little property having been exhausted in his travels, he engaged in teaching short-hand writ ing, and for some years obtained a competent subsistence by that ingenious and useful art, and taught, amongst many others, the cele brated EARL of CHESTERFIELD. His talents, however, must have been otherwise conspicuous, as, in 1724, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Some time after, the family estate at Kersal devolved to him by the death of his elder brother, and relieved him from the business of teaching short hand.

He now retired to enjoy, what it appears he was eminently qualified for, the pleasures of domestic life, and indulged his pen in a variety of poetical attempts, chiefly on religious subjects; but his lighter verses, which in mature years he despised, have generally been allow

NICHOLS's Select Collection of Poems, vol. vii.

ed the preference. His religion, which was strongly tinctured with Behemenism, led him to discuss subjects in verse, which perhaps no man but himself would have clothed in that dress. His humour was, however, generally predominant, and inclines us to wish that he had been less attached to rhime, a propensity which betrayed him into more than poetical freedoms with subjects beyond his province. In one of his critical dissertations in verse, he denied the existence of St. George, the patron of England, and challenged the antiquaries to consider the question. The contest between a poet and an antiquary seems very unequal, yet the late venerable Dr. PEGGE accepted the challenge, and confuted the poet's hypothesis in a paper in the Archæologia.

Mr. BYROM died on the 28th of September, 1763, leaving behind him the character of a man of piety, wit, and learning. The general tenour of his life was innocent and inoffensive, and it appears that the great truths of Christianity had, from his earliest years, made a deep impression on his mind. It is some deduction from his character, however, that he not only spent much of his time in reading the mystic writers, but even professed to understand the works of JACOB Behmen.

Four papers in the eighth volume of the SPECTATOR, were the production of Mr. HENRY GROVE, of Taunton, a very learned and pious divine of the dissenting persuasion, who died in

1737, and of whom a very copious account is given in the Biographia. His papers are of the serious kind. Nos. 588 and 601, on self-love and benevolence; No. 626, on the force of novelty; and No. 635, on the enlargement of the powers of the mind in a future state. Of these essays the praise has been uniform. Dr. JOHNSON declared No. 588 to be "one of the finest pieces in the English language*;" and No. 635, was republished by the direction of Dr. GIBSON, Bishop of London, along with ADDISON'S Evidences, in a 12mo. edition, dated 1731+.

Mr. GROVE's publications in his lifetime were very numerous, and after his death, four volumes of posthumous pieces were added to his works. His "Moral Philosophy" is a very useful book, not only on account of the manner in which he has treated the various subjects connected with morals, but as forming an index of reference to every publication that had then appeared, in which each topic had been directly or collaterally treated.

In the list of the writers of the SPECTATOR, given by STEELE in No. 555, the name of Mr. HENRY MARTYN occurs, but no part of his share can be ascertained, except the letter to the king of France, in No. 180. No. 200, on the same subject, is conjectured by the annotators to be his, and they have the same suspicion of No. 232. Some account of this gentleman

BOSWELL'S Life of JOHNSON. See also the Additions to his Life, p. 12, 2d. edit. 1793.

+Biog. Brit.

is given in WARD's Lives of the Gresham Professors*. He was an excellent scholar and an able lawyer, but his infirm state of health would not permit him to attend the courts. He had a principal concern in a paper called "The BRITISH MERCHANT, or Commerce Preserved," in answer to "The MERCATOR, or Commerce Retrieved," written by DEFOE, in 179 numbers, from May 26, 1713, to July 20, 1714, with a view to get the treaty of commerce made with France at the peace of Utrecht ratified by parliament. The rejection of that treaty was in at great measure promoted by Mr. MARTYN'S paper, and government rewarded him for it by making him Inspector-General of the imports and exports of the customs. He died at Blackheath, March 25, 1721.

In the same list, in No. 555, are given the names of Mr. CAREY, of New College, Oxford, Mr. TICKELL, and Mr. EUSDEN†, but no inquiry into their respective shares has been yet satisfactory. The signature T. has been frequently suspected to mean 'TICKELL; yet nothing of his can be ascertained, except what will not rank him among ESSAYISTS, a poem entitled "The Royal Progress," in No. 620‡.

P. 333, after the life of his brother, EDWARD MARTYN, professor of Rhetoric, and the immediate predecessor of WARD, the biographer.

A short letter in No. 84. on idols, is ascribed by the annotators to Mr. EUSDEN, afterwards the poet-laureat, but this cannot deserve the acknowledgment in No. 555.

The annotators give him the first part of No. 410, as has been already mentioned,

An ingenious letter on the eye, in No. 250, is ascribed to Mr. GOLDING, of whom I have not been able to procure any information.

A very short letter, written with a tradesmanlike simplicity, in No. 268, and signed JAMES EASY, was the production of Mr. JAMES HEYWOOD, many years a wholesale linen-draper on Fish-Street-Hill, who died at his house in Austin-friars, in the 90th year of his age, July 23, 1776.

The excellent character of Emilia, in No. 302, was claimed by Mr. DUNCOMBE for Mr. HUGHES, but it has since been ascertained that it was written by Dr. BROOME; but whether Dr. BROOME, the poet, and partner with POPE in translating the Odyssey, is not so clearly determined. BROMIUS, mentioned in this paper, will not agree with his character, who, when Rector of Sturston, in Suffolk, " married a wealthy widow." The lady named here Emilia, was the "mother of Mrs. Ascham, of Connington, in Cambridgeshire, and grandmother of the present Lady Hatton."

The letter on foreign travel, in No. 364, signed Philip Homebred, was written by Mr. PHILIP YORKE, afterwards the celebrated Lord CHANCELLOR HARDWICKE. Mr. BoswELL informs us, probably in too decisive language, that Dr. JOHNSON would not allow merit to this letter, and said that "it was quite vulgar, and had nothing luminous." It is certainly not the paper we might expect from a LORD CHAN

*JOHNSON'S Lives of the Poets, art, BROME, or BROOME.