powered me. It pleased God that she recovered, and I married her in the year 1741.. My uncle and myself were then upon very good terms, for he soon got me the prebendary of York-but he quarrelled with me afterwards, because I would not write paragraphs in the newspapers-though he was a party-man, I was not, and detested such dirty workt, thinking it beneath me. From that period he became my bitterest enemy. By my wife's means I got the living of Stillington-a friend of hers in the south had promised her, that, if she married a clergyman in Yorkshire, when the living became vacant he would make her a compliment of it. I remained near twenty years at Sutton, doing duty at both places. I had then very good health. Books, painting, fiddling, and shooting, were my amusements. As to the 'squire of the parish, I cannot say we were upon a very friendly footing: but at Stillington, the family of the C showed us every kindness: 'twas most truly agreeable to be within a mile and a half of an amiable family, who were ever cordial friends. In the year 1760, I took a house at York for your mother and yourself, and went up to London to publish * my two first volumes of Shandyt. In that year Lord Falconbridge presented me with the curacy of Cox • Jaques Sterne, LL. D. He was prebendary of Durham, canon residentiary, precentor and prebendary of York, rector of Rise, and of Hornsey, both in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He died June 9, 1759.. † It has, however, been insinuated, that he for some time wrote a periodical electioneering paper at York, in defence of the whig interest.See Monthly Review, vol. liii. p. 344. * A specimen of his abilities in the art of designing may be seen in Mr. Wodhul's Poems, published in 1772. • The first edition was printed the preceding year at York. + The following is the order in which Mr. Sterne's publications appeared : 1747. The Case of Elijah and the Widow of Zerephath considered. A Charity Sermon preached on Good Friday, April 17, 1747, for the support of two charity-schools in York. 1750. The Abuses of Conscience. Set forth in a Sermon preached in the cathedral church of St. Peter, York, at the summer assizes, before the Hon. Mr. Baron Clive, and the Hon. Mr. Baron Smythe, on Sunday, July 29, 1750. 1759. Vol. 1 and 2 of Tristram Shandy. 1760. Vol. 1 and 2 of Sermons. 1761. Vol. 3 and 4 of Tristram Shandy 1762. Vol. 5 and 6 of Tristram Shandy. 1765. Vol. 7 and 8 of Tristram Shandy 1768. Vol. 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Sermons. 1767. Vol. 9 of Tristram Shandy. 1768. The Sentimental Journey. The remainder of his works were published after his death. wold-a sweet retirement in comparison of Sutton. In sixty-two I went to France, before the peace was concluded, and you both followed me. I left you both in France, and in two years after I went to Italy for the recovery of my health; and, when I called upon you, I tried to engage your mother to return to England with me: she and yourself are at length come*, and I have had the inexpressible joy of seeing my girl every thing I wished her. I have set down these particulars, relating to my family and self, for my Lydiat, in case, hereafter, she might have a curiosity, or a kinder motive, to know them. • Hence it appears that this account of our author's life and family was written about six months before his death. † His daughter AS Mr. Sterne, in the foregoing narrative, hath brought down the account of himself until within a few months of his death, it remains only to mention that he left York about the end of the year 1767, and came to London, in order to publish The Sentimental Journey, which he had written during the preceding summer at his favourite living of Coxwold. His health had been for some time declining; but he continued to visit his friends, and retained his usual flow of spirits. In February, 1768, he began to perceive the approaches of death; and, with the concern of a good man, and the solicitude of an affectionate parent, devoted his attention to the future welfare of his daughter. His letters at this period reflect so much credit on his character, that it is to be lamented some others in the collection were permitted to see the light. After a short struggle with his disorder, his debilitated and wornout frame submitted to fate on the 18th day of March 1768, at his lodgings in Bond-street. Не was buried at the new burying-ground belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover-square, on the 22d of the same month, in the most private manner and hath since been indebted to strangers for a monument very unworthy of his memory, on which the following lines are inscribed: "Near to this Place Lies the Body of The Reverend LAURENCE STERNE, A. M. If a sound head, warm heart, and breast humane, It is scarcely necessary to gheerve, that thes date is erroneous |