OIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. EOIR OF RICHARD GOUGH, Esq. OF ENFIELD. [To the account of his Family, which Mr. Gough himself communicated to Mr. Stebbing Shaw, for the History of Staffordshire, we are in part indebted for the materials of this little Memoir. The remainder has been communicated by a literary friend.] THE HE family from which Mr. Gough descended, the Goughs of Wales, extend their line no further back that the time of Henry IV. though others of the name, and connected with the family, occur as early as the reign of Henry I. Sir Matthew Gough, with whose father, Innerth or John, the pedigree begins, having passed the prime of his life in the French wars of Henry V. and VI. finished it in Cade's rebellion, fighting on the part of the citizens, in July 1450, at the battle of London-bridge. Nor is this the only instance where Mr. Gough's ancestors were highly distinguished for their loyalty. The unfortunate Charles I. during his troubles, stopt at Wolverhampton, where he was entertained by Madam St. Andrew, who was either sister or aunt to Mr. Henry Gough, and that gentleman ventured to accommodate their Royal Highnes ses Charles Prince of Wales and James Duke of York. An antient tenement still remains at Wolverhampton, where these princely guests resided. A subscription being set on foot to aid the exigencies of the royal cause, the inhabitants cheerfully contributed according to their ability; but the most ample supply was expected from Mr. Gough, whose loyalty was as eminent as his fortune was superior, when, to the great surprise and disappointment of every one, he refused any assistance, though strongly urged by the king's commissioners, who retired in disgust and chagrin. When night approached, putting on his hat and cloak, Mr. Gough went secretly and solicited a private audience of his majesty. This appearing an extraordinary request, the dangerous circumstances of the times considered, the lord in waiting wished to know the object of the request, with an offer to communicate it to the king. Mr. Gough persisted in rejecting this offer, and after much interrogation, obrained admission to the royal presence. He then drew from bis cloak a purse, containing a large sum of money, and presenting it with due respect, said, May it please your majesty to accept this; it is all the cash I have by me, or I would have brought more." The gift was so acceptable to the king, that an offer of knighthood was made to Mr. Gough; but this loyal subject, having no other view than to serve his sovereign, declined this honour, which was afterwards conferred on his grandson, Henry of Perryhall, when he was introduced at the court of Charles II: and had mention made of the loyalty of his ancestors. It is presumed these services were not forgotten in the reign of Queen Anne, as Sir Henry obtained for two of his sons, while very young, the places of page to the Queen and Duke of Gloucester. Mr. Gough's father was Harry Gough, Esq. fifth son of Sir Harry Gough, of Per. ry-hall, and was born April 2, 1681. When only eleven years of age, he went with Sir Richard Gough, his uncle, to China, kept all his accounts, and was called by the Chinese Ami whang, or the white-haired boy. In 1707 he commanded the ship Streatham, in which he continued eight years, and with equal ability and integrity acquired a decent competency, the result of many hardships and voyages in the service of the East India Company, to which his whole life was devoted while he presided among their directors, being elected one in 1731, if not sooner. From 1734 to his death, which happened July 13, 1751, he represented in parliament the borough of Bramber, in Sussex, and enjoyed the confidence of Sir Robert Walpole: whose measures he so firmly supported, as not only to hurt his health by attendance on the long and late debates during the opposition to that minister, but was often known to attend the house with a fit of the gout coming on. His son Richard, the subject of our me moir, was born October 21, 1735, in a large house in Winchester-street, London, on a site peculiarly calculated for the birth of an antiquary, that of the monastery of Augustine-friars, founded by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, in 1253. At the time of the dissolution, the house, cloister and garden of the Angustimes were granted by the crown to William Lord St. John, afterwards Marquis of Winchester, who built a magnificent house upon the very spot, part of which remains, the rest is occupied by later dwellings, and among them stands the house alluded to. Mr. Gough's parents were dissenters, and their son received the first rudiments of Latin at home, under the tuition of a Mr. Barnewitz, a Courlander, who taught at the same time the sons of several eini bent ment merchants in the city; on his death Mr. Gough was committed to the instruction of the Rev. Roger Pickering, one of the most learned, most imprudent, and most illtreated of the dissenting ministers of his time. On his death, May 18, 1755, Mr. Gough finished his Greek studies under Mr. Samuel Dyer, the friend and literary contemporary of Johnson. After his father's death, in July 1752, he was admitted fellow-commoner of Benet College, Cambridge, where his relations, Sir Henry Gough and his brother John, had before studied under Dr. Mawson, afterwards Bishop of Chichester and Ely. Benet had peculiar attractions for a mind like Mr. Gough's; it had not only trained the great Parker to revive the study of antiquity, and received from him a rich donation of curious and ancient manuscripts; but had educated Stukeley, to trace our antiquities to their remotest origin. The college tutor in 1752 was Dr. John Barnardiston, afterwards master. His private tutor was Mr. John Cott, felInw of the house, who died at his Rectory of Broxted, Essex, in 1781. Under the private tuition of the three excellent scholars beforementioned, he early imbibed a taste for classical literature; and it is not to be wondered that his connexion with a college, eminent for producing a succession of British antiquaries, inspired hitn with a strong propensity to the study of our national antiquities. Here was first planned the British Topography, and hence, in 1756, he made his first visit to Croyland Abbey, whence his career of antiquarian pursuits literally began. From Cambridge he made his first excursions, and continued these pursuits every year to various parts of the kingdom, taking notes, which on his return were digested into form. In 1768 Mr. Gough published the "An#cdotes of British Topography" in a sinEle quarto volume. At this time the love of topographical research was daily increasing; and the outline it contained, of history of the progress of topographical enquires in Great Britain and Ireland, gave new life to the pursuit. The first compiler of a work like this was John Bagford, who furnished Bishop Gibson with the list prefixed to his edition of the Britannia. Bishop Nicholson's Historical Libraries, and Dr. Rawlinson's English Topogra pher, had of course become greatly imperfect, and Mr. Gough's work not only informed the curious what lights had from Time to time been thrown on our topograplacal antiquities, but enumerated most of materials which had been collected, MOSTELY MAU. No. 183, whether in print or manuscript. This work size, 1780, and has been since augmented was improved in two volumes of the same the press was interrupted by the fire at to a third, the progress of which through Mr. Nichols's. was elected a fellow of the Society of AnThe year before, February 26, 1767, he fixed to the first volume of the Archæolotiquaries, and drew up their History pregia, in 1770. of the president, Dr. Milles, Dean of ExIn 1771, by the partiality eter, he was, on the death of Dr. Gregory Sharpe, master of the Temple, nominated Director, which office he held till December 12, 1797, when, for reasons which the society can best explain, he quitted it altogether. He was chosen PR.S. 1775, but quitted that society in logia he superintended for many years; 1795. The publication of the Archæoand in the different volumes, till 1796, are various articles drawn up or communicaread at the Society of Antiquaries, Januted by him; his last paper we believe was ary 26, 1792, "On the Aualogy between certain ancient Monuments," and published in the eleventh volume of the Archæologia, 1794. Besides which, the dif ferent communications in the two latter volumes of the society's " Vetusta Monumenta," to which his signatures are annexed, prove him to have been for years the boast. most useful and laborious member it could in the last volume, 1796, is Mr. Gough's One of the principal articles Account of the great loss our national history sustained by the destruction of Lord Montague's house at Cowdray, in Sussex. mostly under the signature of D. H. in "Description des Royaulmes d'Angleterre In 1773 he formed the design of a new edition of "Camden's Britannia." For where, having already purchased the twenty summers he had amused himself collections of Mr. Thomas Martin, with with taking notes in various parts of Eng--the assistance of the captain's pencil, he land, and at last of Scotland, at first with no higher view than private information, or perhaps of communicating them to the public in some such form as Dr.Stukeley's Itinerary, or that of the local antiquities of particular towns or districts; but the mistakes and conciseness of preceding editors at last encouraged him to a new edition of the Britannia; the translation and enlarge. ment of which occupied seven years, and Mr. Gough was nine more attending it through the press. It appeared in three volumes folio, 1789: and has been since republished by Mr. Stockdale in four vo lumnes. About the same time the design was formed for Cataden, while on a visit at Poole, Mr. Gough beard of the difficulties under which Mr. Hutchins laboured in respect to his History of Dorsetshire. He set on foot a subscription, and was the means of bringing into light one of the most valuable of our county histories. Mr Hutchins was then combating the infirmities of age and gout, and Mr. Gongh superintended the work through the press, whence it issued in two volumes folio, 1774. Its author, however, did not live to see it completed, dying June 21, 1773. But his daughter was enabled to proceed to Bombay, and form a happy connexion with a gentleman to whom she had been long engaged, Major Bellasis, who in grateful return to the memory of his father-in-law, in 1795, at his own expence, set on foot a new cdition, to which Mr. Gough cheerfully contributed his assistance. The two first votumes are already in the possession of the world: the greater part of the third was destroyed, we believe, at Mr. Nichols's fire. Except Thomas's re-publication of Dugdale's Warwickshire, and two or three others of a paltry kind, this is the only instance of a county history attaining a second edition. In 1774 he entered into a matrimonial connection with lady whose maiden name was Hall; and retired principally to Enfield, the property at which his father purchased in 1723. Here he added to the family mansion an extensive library, which contains at the present moment the richest museum of topography in the kingdom. In 1777, he published "A Dissertation on the Coins of King Canute.". In the snowy season of 1778, Mr. Gough, accompanied by the late Captain Grose, made un excursion into Norfolk, made preparations for an improved "History of Thetford," which appeared the following year in quarto. Having also purchased Vertue's plates of the medals, coins, and great seals, executed by the celebrated Simon, and first published in 1752, he gave a new and enlarged edition of them in 1780, 4to. The same year he not only assisted Mr. Nichols in his "Collection of ancient Royal and Noble Wills," but wrote the preface; and soon after superintended the printing of Dr. Nash's "Collections for a History of Worcestershire," in two volumes, folio, 1781. About this time, too, Mr. Nichols published his " Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica," the design of which was both suggested and forwarded by Mr. Gough; and several essays bear his name, particularly the "Memoirs of Mr. Edward Rowe Mores; the Reliquia Galeana; the History of the Society of Antiquaries of Spakling; the Life of Sir John Hawkwood; a Genealo gical View of the Family of Cromwell; and the "History of Croyland-Abbey." In 1785 Mr. Gough published "A comparative View of the ancient Monu ments of India, particularly those on the Island of Salset, near Bombay;" in which, with considerable industry, he threw together the narratives of travellers of different nations. The next year appeared the first volume of his grand work, (collecting the materials for which had occupied a large portion of his life) entitled "Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain." The seeoud volume, in distinct parts, appeared in 1796 and 1799. In the introduction to the first volume, he enters on a large field of enquiry; the mode of interment, and construction of monuments, from the earliest ages to that which is now prac tised in Europe: somewhat of this ground he again goes over in the introduction to the second; and throughout the work produces ample reason for inveighing against the ravages of conquerors; the devastation of false zeal and fanatician; the depredations of ignorance, interest, and false taste; the defacements of the white-washer's brush, and a variety of other circumstances, which, besides the ever wasting band of time, have all contributed to destroy the sepulchral monuments of our ancestors. In this work be professes to have neither the object, the **Our materials (he says) are different, and my plan adopts only what his excludes; great events, great personages, great cha racters, good or bad, are all that he brings upon his stage! "I talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs And that small portion of the barren earth That serves as paste and covering to our bones! Mine are subjects rejected by the historian to the end of each reign, among the prodigies that distinguish it; yet is this detail not uninteresting. It is a picture of private mixed with public life, a subject in which my countrymen have been anticipated by their neighbours." The engravings which accompany it are not only numerous and accurate, but splendid: principally from the hands of the Basires. In 1794, Mr. Gough published an account of the beautiful missal presented to Henry VI. by the Duchess of Bedford, which Mr. Edwards, of Pall-mall, purchased at the Duchess of Portland's sale, and still possesses. Mr. Gough assisted Mr. Nichols also in the greater part of his copious, well-directed, and accurate History of Leicestershire: the remaining portion of which is still expected by the literary world. In 1803, Mr. Gough published the "History and Antiquities of Pleshy, in the County of Essex;" London, 1803, 4to. whick, though confined to the history of a single spot, forms collectively a mass of information whose value cannot in justice be lowly appreciated. His last work which bears the date of the same year, was that on the "Coins of the Seleucida:" illustrated by a beautifol set of plates which he had purchased at Mr. Dunne's sale. To the list of works which have either his name or his initials attached, it may be added, that his assistance to his friends engaged in literary pursuits, was snore extensive than will probably be ever known. ⚫ lle gave considerable help to Dr. Kippis, in the second edition of the Biographia Britannica: and prepared the Lives of Sir John Fastolf, and the Farrars of Little Gidding, for the sixth volume, which has never appeared. Mr. Ellis, in the History of Shoreditch, acknowledges great assistance, both from his pen and library; as well as Mr. Malcolm in the History of London. The prefaces to numerous other works, acknowledge the extensive patronage which, during the whole of his literary career, he was not only so able, but so ready to bestow on the study of our national antiquities. Born to an hereditary fortune, he was in ali respects pre-eminently qualified for the labours of an antiquary; the pain of whose researches can but rarely meet an adequate remuneration. And his mag nificent work upon Sepulchral Monuments, must long ago have convinced the world, that he possessed not only in himself the most indefatigable perseverance, but an ardour which no expence could possibly deter. Subsequent to 1805, his health, in consequence of numerous fits of epilepsy, began gradually to decline; and he died February 20, 1809; lamented as much by the poor of his neighbourhood for extensive charity, as by the friends of learning for his talents. The richest portion of his library, which was always open to the studious, rumour asserts, has been bequeathed to the University of Oxford. A CERTAIN degree of envy is said to attend the fortunes and the titles of the great and opulent. Those who do not possess these advantages, either be reditary or acquired, are supposed by some to conteinplate them with symptoms of jealousy, and to hate or to un dervalue what they themselves afe utterly unable to obtain. It is easy, how ever to disarm, this species of jealousy of half its malignity at least, by acting a noble part in society, and exhibiting as great a preeminence in public spirit, as in family honours and private wealth. These reflections are naturally produced by contemplating the character of a man who has tended not a little, nt once to embellish and to improve his na tive country, and whose private fortune was increased, and his influence augmented by an attention to agriculture and planting. James, Earl of Fife, was born in the town of Bam, in 1729. He was the second son of William, Earl of Fife, by his second wife, Jane, daughter of Sir James Grant, of Grant, Bart. Having an elder brother, who was educated at Westminster, he was intended from his cradle cradle for the profession of the law, and his first instructor was the celebrated. William Guthrie, whose picture is still in existence at Duff House, and who, after marrying in the family, repaired to London, and became one of the most la borious, if not one of the most able, writers of his day. Meanwhile Mr. Duff, the subject of the present memoir, repaired to the University of Edinburgh, for the two-fold purpose of completing his education, and studying the civil law, which is unhap pily the basis of the jurisprudence of Scotland, the whole having been entirely formed on the French model, in consequence of which it is but little favourable either to personal security, or public happiness. But the death of Lord Braco, in England, who had turned out exceedingly wild, altered the views of his younger brother, so that he immediately returned home, and became, what in England is termed, a country gentleman. He found his father in possession of a very large fortune, which he had aug mented by the purchase of considerable properties in the counties of Aberdeen, Moray, and Bamff. A rigorous and, perhaps, salutary economy, proverbial for two or three generations in the family, had enabled him to acideve this; and he had good sense enough, instead of leaving pitiful annuities to his younger children, to bequeath them separate and independent estates. During the life of his father Mr. Duff, now become Lord Braco, conceived the outline of a noble plan for the improve ment of his patrimonial fortune, which he filled up and completed, after the lapse of more than half a century. His model and mentor, on this occasion, was the late Farl of Findlater, a nobleman who possessed a great and enlightened mind, and whose name and deeds will be long remembered in that portion of Scotland, which at this day reaps so many advantages from his beneficent projects. In conformity to his judgment, which had been ripened by travel and experience, his Lordship began to plant, and in the course of a few years, the sides and tops of hills, nearly accessible, and hitherto unproductive, began to assume a new and a more advantageous aspect. The sterile soil now appeared verdant, and the uniform dull and barren extent of heath obtained a warmer and a more civilized tint, from the fir, the pinenster, the larch, the elin, the ash, and the oak, whose united masses for the first time cast a protecting shade along the dreary waste. His Lordship's ambition, nearly at the same time, pointed at another object: this was a seat in Parliament. He ac cordingly became a candidate for the county of Moray, and sat for some years as its representative. In 1760, be also married Lady Dorothea Sinclair, sole heiress of Alexander, ninth Earl of Caithness, with whom he obtained a very considerable fortune: but the nuptials did not take place under happy auspices, and, on the whole, this union proved unfortu nate, perhaps, to both parties. In 1768, he succeeded his father, both in honours and estate, and being now in possession of Duff house, a noble mansion, erected by the late Mr. Adan, architect, at Leith, and still unfinished, he immediately proceeded to complete and to furnish it. Soon after this he purchased Fife house, at Whitehall, and having a taste. for building, expended a very large sum in altering, or rather rebuilding it. Indeed, no Nobleman in Great Britain possessed, perhaps, so many seats, for, in addition to the town and country house already mentioned, he had many others, some of which shall be here enuinerated. Of Delgaty castle, where he occasionally resided, all the floors were formed from wood out of his own plantations.At Rothemay house, Mary Queen of Scots appears to have slept: it is situate in a picturesque country, but sequestered from all the world. Innes house, with the adjoining lands, he purchased from his cousin, Sir James Innes Ker, the 20th in lineal descent from Bercaldus, whose blood has mingled with that of the Scottish monarchs. Balvenny castle is situate on the banks of the Devron, while Marr lodge is in the centre of Aber deenshire. Here are grouse, ptarmigan, and game of all sorts; here, too, herds of wild deer scour along the mountain's brow, dart precipitately into the dells and valleys, and at times approach withia gun-shot of the house. During the political ebullition that succeeded the French Revolution, in this country, the Earl of Fife, we believe, was an Alarmist, and like many others of that description, in order to demonstrate his confidence in the existing government, accepted of an English peerage from it. Accordingly, in 1793, he was created Baron Fife, of the kingdom of Great Bri tain. This circumstance, however flattering it might prove in one point of view, |