tomb has been a singular one. In 1825, a thief named Diego Saminos (probably a foreigner) stole it from the stone to which it was affixed. He was arrested, tried at Gloucester Sessions, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The brass was recovered, but, instead of being restored to its proper place, was fixed "high out of reach and sight," to the wall on the east side of the southern transept of the church, where it still is.

The tomb itself is now in a dilapidated condition. Some years ago Mr. C. R. Baynes, of The Lammas, Minchinhampton, in a most intereresting article published in the Stroud News, drew attention to these facts; and, at the same time, opened a correspondence with Sir John Airey, then Astronomer Royal. The laudable object Mr. Baynes had in view was two-fold: the restoration of the tomb to its former condition, and the erection of a suitable memorial tablet in the church itself; the whole cost of which would not exceed £50. Neither the appeal to the public, nor that to the representative of astronomical science elicited the desired response.

The project was again revived at the Stroud meetings of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archeological Society, in July, 1880. On that occasion the members visited Minchinhampton Church, and both the rector, the Rev. E. C. Oldfield, M.A., and Mr. Baynes brought the subject under their notice. Nothing was done; but the Editor of the Transactions, commenting on these proceedings, reasonably observes: 66 To perpetuate the memory of so eminent a Gloucestershire man is a work which may well be undertaken by the inhabitants of the county, and doubtless the sum of £50, if necessary for the purpose, would without difficulty be raised upon a suitable appeal being made."

The simple facts of the case form the best appeal, and is it too much to hope that they will prove a sufficient one? The restoration of the tomb should be the first aim: that accomplished, something more might well be done. How

many glorious subjects the pages of the Bible and the expanse of the heavens would supply to illustrate the labours and preserve the memory of this devout astronomer! And would not such memorials of his worth and genius find appropriate places in the church of the parish where the light of his life first dawned, and in that of the parish where he was laid to rest when his sun had set? Thus, though dead, he would yet speak, testifying that "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork."

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BISHOP WARBURTON.

[1698-1779.]

PREACHER at one of the recent Lenten services in

the Nave of the Cathedral, quoted the opinion of Bishop Warburton on a controverted passage of Scripture. In doing so he spoke of the Bishop as having "lived among the men of Gloucester more than a hundred years ago. To many of the congregation it was an unknown name. "What Bishop did the preacher say?" inquired one friend of another. "Warburton," was the reply; but it was insufficient. "Warburton, Warburton," continued the inquirer, "who was Warburton ?" To this question a mural monument at the west end of the north aisle of the Cathedral supplies some answer; but it admits of a much fuller one, which this sketch is designed to give. The materials of which it consists have been gathered from numerous sources, but chiefly from "Some Account of the Life, Writings, and Character of Bishop Warburton," by Bishop Hurd, 1788; and "The Life of William Warburton, D.D." by the Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A., M.R.S.L., 1863.

Dr. WILLIAM WARBURTON, who filled the see of Gloucester from the beginning of 1760 till the middle of 1779, was one of the greatest theological writers and controversialists of the last century. This remarkable man was descended from an ancient Cheshire family, but was born at Newark, in Nottinghamshire, on Christmas Eve, 1698. At the age of eight he was left fatherless; but his education was carried on at good schools, where he acquired a competent knowledge of Greek and Latin. When fifteen years old he was placed with

an attorney at Great Markham, with whom he remained five years. During this period the bent of his genius appeared in a passionate love of reading and a devotion to classical and other studies, so that by the time his articles had expired he had laid a good foundation of general knowledge. Resolving to enter the Church, he placed himself under the instruction of a clerical cousin, and was at length ordained deacon at the age of twenty-five, and priest at twenty-eight, without having had the advantages of a University education.

His first living was that of Greaseley, in Nottinghamshire, of about £134 per annum, which he obtained in 1729. The following year having by the influence of Sir Robert Sutton been created Master of Arts at Cambridge, he was presented by the same gentleman to the vicarage of Brant-Broughton, in Lincolnshire, worth £560 a year; where he took up his abode with his mother and sisters. Two years afterwards the Duke of Newcastle presented him to the living of Frisby in the same county, which added £250 to his annual income. It was during this period of rural retirement-from 1728 to 1746-that he either wrote or projected the works with which his name and fame are most closely associated—“ The Alliance between Church and State," and "The Divine Legation of Moses." His miscellaneous productions were numerous, and, in addition to the labours of an author, he undertook those of an editor. Having formed a friendship with Pope, he sent out an edition of that poet's works; and, after devoting considerable attention to a critical study of Shakespeare, he at length issued an annotated edition of his plays, "whereon," he says, "he had bestowed some of those leisure hours which he could spare from the duties of his sacred function."

In 1745 Warburton married Miss Gertrude Tucker, the niece of Mr. Ralph Allen, a gentleman then residing at Prior Park, near Bath, at which beautiful mansion Warburton soon took up his abode. The following year he was honoured by being unanimously appointed to the preachership of Lincoln's Inn.

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His connection with Gloucester commenced in the early part of 1753. For many years he had been most intimate with Charles Yorke, the son of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, of Hardwicke Court, and Lord Hardwicke now offered him a prebend at the Cathedral as a mark of regard. He accepted the favour with thanks, and when, in the following year, he published a new edition of "The Divine Legation," he dedicated it to this patron. Bishop Hurd says: "Some who were curious in observing coincidences, and meant to do honour both to the patron and client, took notice that the stall to which Mr. Warburton was preferred was the same in which the Lord Chancellor Nottingham, that great patron of all the learned Churchmen of his time, had placed Dr. Cudworth."1

During the two years he occupied this stall he published a vigorous attack on Lord Bolingbroke's writings, under the title of "A view of Lord Bolingbroke's Philosophy, in Four Letters to a Friend," the first two of which came out in 1754, and the others in 1755. In September, 1754, he was appointed one of the King's chaplains in ordinary; and on this occasion took his doctor's degree from Dr. Herring, Archbishop of Canterbury. The offer of a prebend of £500 a year at Durham tempted him from Gloucester. While affecting to depreciate preferment he seems never to have declined it. Of his indifference to clerical vestments and his impatience under personal annoyance, an illustration comes from Durham. "A friend of ours," says a writer in the Quarterly Review, "many years ago, on being shown, among the curiosities of Durham Cathedral, the splendid vestments formerly worn by the prebendaries, asked how they had come to be disused: when the verger said: It happened in my time. Did you ever hear of one Dr. Warburton, sir? A very hot man he was, sir; we never could please him in putting on his robe. The stiff high collar used to ruffle his great full-bottomed wig; till one day he threw the robe off in a great passion and said he would never wear it again;