to read English, and attended him through the Latin tongue from the age of feven to thirteen. "A conftant and free "friendship fubfifted*" between this amiable poet and his noble pupil till Mr. Fenton's death in 1730; and his lordship always fpoke of him, and often with tears, as one of the worthiest " and modefteft men that ever adorned "the court of Apollo*. After paffing through Westminster-fchool, his lordship was admitted, as a nobleman, at ChriftChurch, Oxford, to which his father had been an honour and an ornament +, and was afterwards a confiderable benefactor. One of lord Boyle's firft poetical effays was in anfwer to fome verfes by Mrs. Rowe on an unfuccefsful attempt to draw his picture, and is as follows:

No" air of wit," no

boaft;

"beauteous grace

My charms are native innocence, at most.

" I

From his lordship's own information. His lordfhip's own words in a manuscript letter.

+ In particular by his translation of the life of Lyfander, from Plutarch, and his edition of the epiftles of Phalaris, which occafioned his celebrated controversy with Dr. Bentley.

Alike thy pencil and thy numbers charm,
Glad every eye, and every bofom warm.
Mature in years, if e'er I chance to tread,
Where vice, triumphant, rears aloft her head,
Ev'n there the paths of virtue I'll pursue,
And own my fair and kind director you || .

Soon after his coming of age, on May 9, 1728, lord Boyle married lady Henrietta Hamilton, youngest daughter of George earl of Orkney. This marriage, though entirely approved by lord Orrery, was unhappily the fource of a family diffention between the two earls. A difficult and delicate fituation for a husband who was tenderly affectionate to a most deferving wife, and for a fon who had the highest regard and attachment to his father! Such a father and fuch a fon could not long be difunited. A reconciliation foon took place. "They foon,' as Mr. Budgell expreffes it," ran into each other's arms. " This happiness, however, was but tranfient; for the unexpected death of the earl of Orrery, which happened August 28, 1731, prevented his cancelling, as he had intend

Mrs. Rowe's works, vol. 1. p. 163.

In his Memoirs of the Boyle family, p. 252.

ed, a claufe in his will, (having fent for his lawyer with that view) by which he bequeathed to Christ-Church, Oxford, his valuable library, confifting of above ten thousand volumes, (the Journals of the Houfe of Lords, and fuch books as related to the English history and conftitution, alone excepted,) together with a very fine. collection of mathematical inftruments." The fon was allowed three years to feparate the books above mentioned from the others. His feelings and behaviour on this trying occafion cannot be fo well expreffed as in his own words: "Give "me leave to own (fays he to his fecond fon, twenty years after) "how fenfibly

"I felt the force of an arrow directed. "from your grandfather's hand. The "wound, I believe, was not defigned to "be lafting. It was given in a passion,

and upon an extraordinary occafion: "but afterwards he was fo defirous to "heal it, by a return of the greatest de"gree of friendship and affection, that " he had directed the remaining scar to "be entirely erased, when his unexpect"ed and too fudden death prevented the "completion of his kind intentions, and

"the

the perfection of my cure. With difficulty I furvived the fhock. As it was not in my power to avoid the fe"vère decree, I obeyed; and, by my

rr

obedience, have flattered myself that "I fubmitted to the will of heaven.However, I have fince thought that I could not offer a more grateful facri. "fice to his manes, than by exerting "thofe faculties which he had, at firft, cultivated with fo much care, and had depreffed, at laft, only perhaps to raife them higher +." And doubtlefs with an allufion to this " fevere decree, "in a letter to Mr. Southerne in 1733, fpeaking of his fons, then children," Hammy, (fays his lordship) who is

દ

lefs fedate than his brother, contents "himfelf with his tops and his marbles, "without enquiring into the natural "caufes of things: By this means, the "youngest bids fair to be the favourite; “for, I find, I muft give the other a rap over the head in my will, or the next age will quite forget me,"

σε

"

2

+ Remarks on Swift, Dublin edition, p. 324. See vol. ii, p. 31. of Letters by Several eminent perfons arveafed, Lond. 1772. Befides

a 3

Befides this bequ'eft, the earl of Orrery left feveral confiderable legacies to perfons no way related to him, though he died extremely in debt || . All these debts, instead of fuffering his father's effects to be fold, the fon, with true filial piety and generofity, took upon himself, and fulfilled the bequefts by paying the legacies, and fending the books, &ç, within the limited time, to Chrift-Church, But deep was the impreffion which the lofs of a parent, thus aggravated and imbittered, left upon his mind; and a fit of illness, which it occafioned, obliged him to repair to Bath. Receiving, while he was there, a letter from a friend, with fome verses enclosed, in which he was urged to "difpell his grief by poetry,

V

and to fhew that Bath could infpire, "as well as Tunbridge," having written, fome humorous verfes from thence the year before, he returned the following anfwer:

Nor Bath, nor Tunbridge, can my lays infpire,
Nor radiant beauty make me ftrike the lyre:

J

So untrue is the affertion of Mr. Budgell, (p. 249-) copied in Biographia Britannica, that the earl left his fon a clear eftate, and a confiderable fum in ready money."

Far