back with him into the town along Stall-street, in the narrow part of which was a Broad-wheel Waggon. His Lordship, perceiving the danger he was in, threw himself off, whereby he received a violent Contusion of the Head, and was otherwise much hurt." The end came on the Saturday evening. Bishop Johnson may have lived long enough to realise that the attention shown by him at the castle to his young American relative was justified by a certain eminence to which Hopkinson afterwards attained in politics, in law, and in the arts. Hopkinson is still the subject of study in American universities; an inquiry reached me recently as to his visit to this house from a New York professor, who was engaged on a monograph upon him as a thesis for a doctorate in philosophy. In view of the bishop's search for a harpsichord and of the visit to the Music Meeting, it is worth while to note that an American writer has enlarged on his eminence in this respect. Hopkinson," says he, "stood in the centre of musical life at Philadelphia," and he goes on to detail his interests as psalmodist, teacher, organist, harpsichordist, essayist, composer, and improver of the harpsichord." Indeed, there is reproduced in the same book a sentence in which Hopkinson, not at all complacently, describes himself as "the first native of the United States who has produced a Musical Composition." 2 Moreover, after his death it was thought worth while to issue his productions-judgments, poetry, essays-in three volumes; and there we have the interest of finding that Hartlebury moved him to verse not once nor twice. There was a Myrtilla-was it young Miss Baines ?—of whom he found himself thinking more tenderly as the day of his return to America drew near: Soon Myrtilla must thy friend 1 O. G. Sonneck, Francis Hopkinson (1737-91), 1905, p. 7. 3 Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings of Francis vols. (Philadelphia, 1792). 3 4 Ibid. iii. 143, 144. 2 Ibid. p. 78. Hopkinson, Esq., There was the bishop, whose kindness may be thus acknowledged1: VERSES Wrote in a blank book, which once belonged to Mr Shenstone, the poet, and was given by the Lord Bishop of Worcester. Come little book, the giver's hand Shall add such worth to mine, Come little book; nor in my care, An humbler lot refuse; Tho' Worcester own'd thee once, tho' once Hartlebury Castle, 1767. But above all there is Miss Sarah, his lordship's sister, whom we have seen to be the object of Hopkinson's rather awe-struck reverence. She is a great gardener, who demands and deserves his assistance in a way which provokes his, perhaps, rather pedestrian muse. We can leave the castle of Johnson's spacious days with a vision of hostess and guest busily weeding.2 THE HUMBLE PETITION Of the Docks, thistles and nettles of Hartlebury Farm, to the Lord Illustrious Worcester; let thy patient ear Oh! haste, and shield with thy protecting hand The thistles, docks, and nettles of this land. Soon as from earth we spring erect and gay, And to the dust bring down our with'ring pride. 1 Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings of Francis Hopkinson, Esq., iii. 133. 2 Ibid. 139. And Nor her alone we fear, a hostile band, In humble state beneath each hedge to stand, Nor e'er with pointed sting thy hands annoy; But through these fields we'll celebrate thy fame, And thistles yet unknown shall bless great Worcester's name. Hartlebury Castle, 1766. Note. These lines were occasioned by Mrs. I—'s, my Lord's sister, rooting out the thistles, etc., from the gardens, walks and park with uncommon industry and care. This chapter has not been void of literary reminiscences on a small scale; but there remains a greater, though without any touch of intimacy. "A Journey into North Wales in 1774 "1 brought Dr. Johnson to Chester on the way to Worcester. He must needs pass through Bridgnorth and Kinver. The road was so steep and miry, that we were forced to stop at Hartlebury, where we had a very neat inn, though it made a very poor appearance. James Johnson would surely have done the honours to Samuel before the great man passed on to visit Lord Sandys at Ombersley, if he had been given the chance. The strange thing is that the very slight account of the journey which has survived is so completely concerned with the inn as never to mention the castle. The description suits the "White Hart," for the "Talbot " can never have made a poor appearance; and the "White Hart" is by the gate of the bishop's avenue. 1 G. B. Hill, Boswell's Life of Johnson (1887), v. 455; September 12, 1774. CHAPTER XII HURD WITH the death of Bishop Johnson we are brought close to a time when we can realise something about the principles guiding the authorities of the eighteenth century in their choice of bishops. We have watched some expectant lordships calling on a Prime Minister in Arlington Street, when Hartlebury had lost an occupant, and we have seen something of the friendship which existed between Bishop Johnson and Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol. It is the latter who lays bare the plan on which the selection was conducted. George III had succeeded the sovereign to whom Maddox and Johnson had had the responsibility of being chaplains, and several ministries had come and gone since Mr. Pelham's, before the chief office in the state fell to George Grenville in 1763. It was he who, in December 1764, sent for Bishop Newton and offered him the archbishopric of Armagh and the primacy of Ireland in succession to George Stone.1 Newton "declined the offer with all possible gratitude," and did not hesitate to express "how much happier he should be with a translation to a bishopric in England, not naming any one in particular.” And then came the revelation of the plan. Mr Grenville said that he considered bishoprics as of two kinds, bishoprics of business for men of abilities and learning, and bishoprics of ease for men of family and fashion. Of the former sort he reckoned Canterbury, and York, and London, and Ely on account of its connexion with Cambridge; of the latter sort Durham, and Winchester, and Salisbury, and Worcester. He mentioned the Bishops Egerton and Lyttelton as likely to succeed 1 He was brother to Andrew Stone, the alleged associate of Bishop Johnson in Jacobite indiscretions. to some of the latter sort1 and informed the Bishop of Bristol that he was designed for one of the former; for His Majesty had the most gracious intentions in his favor, and he would soon experience the good effects of them.2 Fidelity to that plan was clearly achieved when the see of Worcester was filled at the end of 1774 by the translation from Coventry and Lichfield of the Hon. Brownlow North. It was a choice which on personal grounds would have delighted Bishop Hough. For his friend Lady Kaye had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married as her second husband Francis, Lord North and Guilford (afterwards created Earl of Guilford), and Brownlow North was their son. I most heartily congratulate your Ladyship [Hough wrote to Lady Kaye from Hartlebury 3] upon the happy conclusion of the treaty betwixt Lord North and his fine Lady. It is one of those uncommon marriages that all people approve, and we may reasonably expect Providence to distinguish it by peculiar blessings. In so far as the rapid progress of young Brownlow was a peculiar blessing, Providence did not belie Hough's prophecy. Born in 1741 and educated at Eton, he was a fellow of All Souls, being "founder's kin," at twentytwo, canon of Christ Church, Oxford, at twenty-seven, dean of Canterbury at twenty-nine, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield at thirty (the bare canonical age), bishop of Worcester at thirty-three, and bishop of Winchester at forty, thus occupying in succession two of the sees which Mr. Grenville felt to be naturally designed as bishopricks of ease for men of family and fashion." Promotion was certainly easier when your father was attached to the court of George III, and your half-brother was first lord of the Treasury. We can date North best if we realise that his turn to 1 John Egerton, then of Bangor, passed to Lichfield and to Durham ; but Charles Lyttelton, whom Hough had appointed to Alvechurch, remained bishop of Carlisle. 2 Thomas Newton, Works (1782, 3 vols.), i. 85 f. The good intentions resulted in 1768 in the deanery of St. Paul's, which he held with the bishopric of Bristol till his death. 3 Wilmot (ut sup.), 222; February 16, 1736. T |