chancellor, Dr. Farmer, is said to have forced open the door with a sledge-hammer; and this act of violence is called courtly zeal, and all his subsequent preferments are attributed to it. But the fact is, that the opening of this door (of a chest) was not an act of intemperate zeal. The sense of the university had been taken; the senate, by its vote, had given its sanction to the measure before the vicechancellor exerted his authority, and gave his servant his official orders to break open the chest.

On the death of Dr. Barnardiston, master of Bene't college, Dr. Farmer was, on June 27, 1778, unanimously elected proto-bibliothecarius, or principal librarian of the university, to which he was well entitled from his literary character, and in which office he afforded easy access to the public library to men of learning of all parties, an obligation which some have not repaid by the kindest regard for his memory. Not so the late Mr. Gilbert Wakefield, who, besides other grateful notices, says, in p. 94— 95 of his Life, that he is "acquainted with striking instances of liberality in Dr. Farmer towards those of whose integrity he was convinced, however opposite their sentiments"—a character, which, although Mr. Wakefield is here speaking of the mastership of the college, may be applied to Dr. Farmer throughout the whole progress of his life.

In April 1780, Dr. Farmer was collated by bishop Hurd, then bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, to the prebend of Aldrewas, and the chancellorship annexed, founded in the cathedral church of Lichfield. In February 1782 he was made prebendary of Canterbury, as it is supposed, through the recommendation of the then first minister, lord North, which he resigned in 1788, on being preferred by the late Mr. Pitt to a residentiaryship of St. Paul's. A few hours after this appointment, he jocosely said to his friend Mr. Nichols, "I could now, if I thought proper, cheat the minister, for I have in my pocket an appointment to the residentiaryship of St. Paul's, without having resigned the prebend of Canterbury."

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Dr. Farmer had now attained the utmost of his wishes; and although both an English and an Irish bishoprick were offered to him, he declined them, for which various reasons have been assigned. One is certainly erroneous. been said "that in early life he had felt the power of love, and had suffered such a disappointment as had sunk deep in his mind, and for a time threatened his understanding.

From that period, though he retained his faculties entire, he acquired some peculiarities of manuer, of which he was so far conscious, as to be sensible that they would hardly become the character of a bishop; being likewise strongly attached to dramatic entertainments (which, if we mistake not, the English bishops never witness), and delighting in clubs where he could have rational conversation without state or ceremony of any kind, he very wisely preferred his residentiaryship to the highest dignity in the church." What is here said as to his habits being incompatible with the character of a bishop, cannot be denied; but these habits were partly natural, from indolence and a love of ease, and partly acquired by a seclusion from polished society. The lady to whom Dr. Farmer is said to have been attached, was the eldest daughter of sir Thomas Hatton, with whom he became acquainted while curate of Swavesey. Cole says, sir Thomas refused his consent, and this refusal appears to have been given in 1782, when Dr. Farmer was in his forty-seventh year, and if, as Cole affirms, the lady was then only twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age, she must have been an infant when Dr. Farmer became acquainted with her father. The whole, however, may be only one of Cole's gossiping stories; and whether so or not, Dr. Farmer, neither at this or any previous time, exhibited any symptoms of " disappointed love." It is more rational to suppose, with his last biographer (Mr. Nichols), that when he arrived at that situation, as to fortune, which gave him a claim to the object of his affections, he found, on mature reflection, that his habits of life were then too deeply rooted to be changed into those of domestic arrangements with any probable chance of perfect happiness to either party. As to his promotion to a bishopric, it may yet be added, that although few men have been more beloved by an extensive circle of friends than Dr. Farmer, there was not, perhaps, one of them who did not applaud his declining that station, or who did not think, with all their respect for him, that he would not have appeared to advantage in it. It is not as a Divine that Dr. Farmer was admired by his contemporaries, or can be known to posterity.

Few circumstances of Dr. Farmer's life remain to be noticed. His latter years were nearly equally divided between Emanuel college and the residentiary-house in Amen Corner. His town residence was highly favourable

to his love of literary society, and for many years he was a member of different clubs composed of men of letters, by whom he was much esteemed. He died, after a long and painful illness, at the lodge of Emanuel college, Sept. 8, 1797, and was buried in the chapel. His epitaph in the cloisters was written by Dr. Parr, who, in another place, and while he was living, said of him, "His knowledge is various, extensive, and recondite, with much seeming negligence, and perhaps in later years some real relaxation; he understands more, and remembers more, about common and uncommon subjects of literature, than many of those who would be thought to read all the day, and meditate half the night. In quickness of apprehension, and acuteness of discrimination, I have not often seen his equal. Through many a convivial hour have I been charmed with his vivacity; and upon his genius I have reflected in many a serious moment with pleasure, with admiration; but not without regret, that he has never concentrated and exerted all the great powers of his mind in some great work, upon some great subject. Of his liberality in patronizing learned men I could point out numerous instances. Without the smallest propensities to avarice, he possesses a large income; and without the mean submissions of dependence, he is risen to high station. His ambition, if he has any, is without insolence; his munificence is without ostentation; his wit is without acrimony; and his learning without pedantry." The value of this elegant character is its liberality, for Dr. Parr avows that " upon some ecclesiastical, and many political matters," there could be no coincidence of opinion. From rooted principle and ancient habit, Dr. Farmer was a tory, and Dr. Parr is a whig; it must be a third character, grown out of the corruption of all principle, that would injure the fair fame of Dr. Farmer by attributing his rise in the world to clerical or political subserviency.

Besides the very liberal and faithful discharge of his duties as master of his college, Dr. Farmer may be considered as a benefactor to the town of Cambridge, for by his exertions every improvement and convenience introduced for the last thirty years of his life, were either originally proposed, or ultimately forwarded and carried into execution by him. The plan for paving, watching, and lighting the town, after many ineffectual attempts, was accomplished in his second vice-chancellorship, greatly to the satisfaction of all parties. As a magistrate, he was

active and diligent; and on more than one occasion of riots, displayed great firmness of mind in dangerous conjunctures. In his office of residentiary of St. Paul's, if he was not the first mover, he was one of the most strenuous advocates for introducing the monuments of our illustrious heroes and men of talents into the metropolitan cathedral.

His library, which was particularly rich in scarce tracts and old English literature, was sold by Mr. King in 1798, a sale of thirty-five days, which produced 2,210l. although the books are supposed to have cost him less than 500l.— This and his other property he bequeathed to his brother Joseph, a gentleman many years a much respected resident at Leicester, who died in 1813. Such was his indifference to money matters, that his accounts with some of his pupils were never settled to the day of his death. Under such circumstances, it became necessary to remind them of the debts they had early contracted with their worthy tutor, and which still remained uncancelled. The application was in most instances attended with the desired success. The debt was no sooner stated than discharged. The mention of Dr. Farmer's name precluded the necessity of further inquiry. His life, they knew, was distinguished by the most disinterested acts of generosity and friendship. Some names might indeed be mentioned of persons who were disposed to controvert the justice of these claims, and to prevaricate rather than to settle; but they were few.'

FARNABIE, or FARNABY (THOMAS), a learned grammarian, was born in London about 1575. His father was a carpenter in that city; his grandfather had been mayor of Truro in Cornwall; and his great-grandfather was an Italian musician, who had settled in England *. After having received a proper grammatical education, he was admitted of Merton-college, Oxford, in the beginning of 1590, where he became servitor to Mr. Thomas French, fellow of that college, and soon distinguished himself as a youth of lively parts and great hopes. Being, however, of an unsettled disposition, he abruptly quitted the university, and, abandoning both his religion and his country, passed

* There was a Giles Farnaby, a musician, who was a contemporary with our anthor, and of whom some notice is taken in our musical histories, but could not be the person mentioned above.

Nichols's Bowyer.-Encyclop. Britan. Suppl.-Europ. Mag. Feb. 1800.Cole's MS Athena in Brit. Mus.-Seward's Biographiana.-Boswell's Life of Johnson.

over to Spain, and was for some time educated there in a college belonging to the Jesuits. At length, growing weary of the severe discipline of the institution, he found a way to leave it, and went with sir Francis Drake and sir John Hawkins in their last voyage, in 1595. By the former of these great naval commanders he is said to have been held in some esteem. Mr. Farnabie is afterwards reported to have served as a soldier in the Low Countries. No advantage was gained by him in these expeditions; for, having been reduced to much distress, he landed in Cornwall, and from the urgency of his necessities was obliged to descend to the humble employment of teaching children their horn-book. Whilst he was in this low situation he did not chuse to go by his own name, but changed it to Thomas Bainrafe, the anagram of Farnabie. By degrees he rose to those higher occupations of a school-master for which he was so well qualified, and after some time, he fixed at Martock in Somersetshire, where he taught a grammarschool with great success. In 1646, when Mr. Charles Darby was called to teach the same school, he found in that town, and the neighbourhood, many persons who had been Mr. Farnabie's scholars, and who, in their grey hairs, were ingenious men and good grammarians. From Martock Mr. Farnabie removed to London, and opened a school in Goldsmiths'-rents, behind Red-Cross-street, near Cripplegate, where were large gardens and handsome houses, together with all the accommodations proper for the young noblemen and gentlemen committed to his care. So established was his reputation, that at one time the number of his scholars amounted to more than three hundred. Whilst he was at the head of this school, he was created master of arts in the university of Cambridge, and on the 24th of April, 1616, was incorporated to the same degree at Oxford.

After a course of years, on account of some differences with his landlords, and the frequent sicknesses which occurred in the city, Mr. Farnabie determined, in 1636, to quit London, and reside at Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which town (at Otford) he had purchased an estate. Here he renewed his former occupation, and, from the number of noblemen's and gentlemen's sons who boarded with him, grew so rich as to add considerably to his landed property. One of the estates purchased by him was near Horsham in Sussex. His works, which have transmitted