two years, to the entire satisfaction of his sovereign and the army. About the same time he became a privy counsellor, and colonel of the 95th regiment. The next and last mark of the royal favour which Sir David received was the command of the first dragoon guards, which he held till his demise, Feb. 18. 1820. No. IX. THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER, LL.D. THIS able topographer was born June 8th, 1759, in the parsonage-house of Rainham, Norfolk, which is the subject of a singular story recorded by Sir Henry Spelman. In the reign of Charles I. 'Sir Roger Townsend, purposing to rebuild his house at Rainham, conveyed a large quantity of stones for the purpose, from the ruins of Croxford Abbey in the neighbourhood. These stones, as often as any attempt was made to build them up in this unhallowed edifice, obstinately gave way. The owner next tried them in the construction of a bridge, the arch of which in like manner suddenly shrunk. He then piously determined to apply them to the re-building of the parsonage-house, where they quietly remained until about the year 1764, when they were once more removed by the late Viscount, afterwards Marquis, Townsend, to another place; and the site of the original manse, of which the foundations are still visible, north-west from the church, was taken into the park. The strange wanderings of this Casa Santa are now probably at an end. The father of Dr. Whitaker was, in 1759, curate of that parish; but his elder brother dying unmarried in the beginning of the following year, he removed, October 3. 1760, to his paternal house at Holme, which had never been out of the occupation of the family from the reign of Henry VI. In November, 1766, the subject of the present sketch was placed under the care of the Rev. John Shaw, of Rochdale, an excellent grammarian and instructor. In 1771 he fell into such an ill state of health as rendered him incapable of any steady attention to books until 1774, when he was placed in the family of the Rev. William Sheepshanks, at Grassington in Craven. In the November of that year he was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he went to reside October 3. 1775. In November, 1780, he took the degree of LL.B., intending to pursue the profession of the civil law, which he studied for two years with great attention. But in June, 1782, his father having died after a week's illness, he settled upon his paternal estate, which for upwards of thirty years he continued to improve and adorn by successive plantations. In August, 1785, he was ordained deacon at Rosecastle, by Dr. John Law, Bishop of Clonfert; and in July of the following year received the order of priesthood from the same prelate: both without title. In 1788, having previously recovered, by a donation of 400l. the patronage of the chapel at Holme, which had been founded by one of his ancestors, with the aid of some liberal subscriptions he rebuilt it, the old edifice being mean and dilapidated. In 1797 he was licensed to the perpetual curacy of Holme, upon his own nomination. In July, 1799, he was qualified as a magistrate for the county of Lancaster, and the next year but one for the West Riding of the County of York. At the Cambridge commencement 1801, he completed the degree of LL.D.; and in the month of January, 1809, was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the vicarage of Whalley, the great object of his wishes. For this favour, besides his Grace's own generous disposition to reward a stranger who had written a history of the parish, he was also indebted to the recommendation of that learned and excellent prelate Dr. Cleaver, formerly his diocesan, and at that time Bishop of Bangor, to whose many instances of friendly attention Dr. Whitaker has frequently alluded in his writings with gratitude and respect. In 1818 he was presented with the valuable living of Blackburn, in Lancashire. He married Lucy, daughter of Thomas Thoresby, Esq. of Leeds, a kinsman to the celebrated antiquary of that name, who still survives him, and by whom he has left three sons and one daughter, having lost a daughter in 1816, and his eldest son the subsequent year, in consequence of a fall from his horse. The doctor is said never to have recovered the shock occasioned by this unfortunate catastrophe. He died at the vicarage-house, Blackburn, December 18. 1821. The following character of Dr. Whitaker is from the pen of a gentleman to whom he was intimately known. As a literary man, in which character he is most generally, though perhaps not most deservedly known, he was distinguished not less for industry and acuteness in research, accuracy of reasoning, and extent of knowledge, than warmth of imagination and vigour of style. To the study of English antiquities, which the lovers of Greek and Roman lore too often affect to despise as barbarous and uninteresting, he brough a rich store of classical information, and, what is of much rarer occurrence, a correct and classical taste; and when to these we add the knowledge of such modern languages as throw most light on the subject, an intimate acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon and Gothic dialects, on which our own is chiefly founded, and the habit of close attention to those numerous traces they have left in the rude tongue of the people around him, it may be admitted that few champions have appeared in the arena of antiquarian warfare more completely armed for the field. He must, indeed, be considered as having mainly contributed to the revival of a school in topography, which had well nigh become extinct. In the days of Leland and Camden, the fathers of this delightful study, it was thought no sin for an antiquary to be a man of genius and letters, and we find this ground occupied by the very first scholars of the age: but in succeeding times, the race had greatly degenerated; and a fell array of county and local historians might be produced, the heaviness of whose matter is only exceeded by the dulness of their manner, and whose dense folios will be found to contain little beside transcripts of parish registers, title-deeds, public records, and monumental inscriptions, not often pos م sessing even the merit of accurately representing their originals. Did an erratic antiquary now and then forsake the beaten track, making ever so slight pretensions to brilliancy of imagination or warmth of feeling, he was looked upon by his brethren as one whose levity was altogether inconsistent with the gravity of the corps, and whose light weapons were calculated to injure rather than benefit the cause; like a young divine, who should exhibit symptoms of wit before the convocation, or a knight errant who would break the ranks of a regular army to tilt and be slain for the honour of his lady. The natural consequence was, that the dulness of the whole brotherhood became proverbial: they were supposed to occupy the humblest place in the scale of literary existence; a step, perhaps, above the penmen of the counting-house, but very far below the lowest pretenders to literature in any other department. The possible utility of their pursuits in the illustration of history, manners, and the arts, was quite overlooked by themselves and others. If they were ever praised, it was for patience and industry: but even this scanty tribute was often withheld by those who did not hesitate to profit by their pains. From this degraded state it is not too much to say, that the historian of Whalley, Craven, and Richmondshire, has redeemed his favourite study; and to him we are chiefly indebted, if it has in modern times been discovered, that topography may be united with the keenest relish for natural beauty, with the most devoted attachment to the fine arts, with the grave contemplation of the moralist, the edifying labours of the biographer, and the loftiest flights of the bard. Nor will this merit be denied him, though the advocates of the old system may now and then triumph in a trifling inaccuracy, or raise the hue and cry against the inordinate ambition that would pant after higher honours than that of having compiled an index to a record office - that would aspire to the distinction of being read, and be but ill content with the immortality of resting in a library, to be produced only on the transfer of a manor, the proof of a pedigree, or the sale of an advowson. But topography, |