his landlord they imbibed their principles of loyalty, as sir William was a most zealous royalist, and spent great part of his fortune in the cause, being the only person exempted from the benefit of the treaty, when Worcester surrendered to the parliament in the year 1646. Our poet's father was churchwarden of the parish the year before his son Samuel was born, and has entered his baptism, dated February 8, 1612, with his own hand, in the parish register. He had four sons and three daughters, born at Strensham; the three daughters, and one son, older than our poet, and two sons younger: none of his descendants remain in the parish, though some of them are said to be in the neighbouring villages. Our author received his first rudiments of learning at home; he was afterwards sent to the college school at Worcester, then taught by Mr. Henry Bright, prebendary of that cathedral, a celebrated • Mr. Bright is buried in the cathedral church of Worcester, near the north pillar, at the foot of the steps which lead to the choir. He was born 1562, appointed schoolmaster 1586, made prebendary 1619, died 1626. The inscription in capitals, on a mural stone, now placed in what is called the Bishop's Chapel, is as follows: Mane hospes et lege, Magister HENRICUS BRIGHT, Qui scholæ regiæ istic fundatæ per totos 40 annos scholar, and many years the famous master of the King's school there; one who made his business his delight; and, though in very easy circumstances, continued to teach for the sake of doing good, by benefiting the families of the neighbouring gentlemen, who thought themselves happy in having their sons instructed by him. Quo non alter magis sedulus fuit, scitusve, ac dexter, feliciter edocendis : Teste utraq; academia quam instruxit affatim Sed et totidem annis eoq; amplius theologiam professus, Vir pius, doctus, integer, frugi, de republica A laboribus per diu noctuq; ab anno 1562 4o Martii suaviter requievit in Domino. See this epitaph, written by Dr. Joseph Hall, dean of Worcester, in Fuller's Worthies, p. 177. I have endeavoured to revive the memory of this great and good teacher, wishing to excite a laudable emulation in our provincial schoolmasters; a race of men, who, if they execute their trust with abilities, industry, and in a proper manner, deserve the highest honour and patronage their country can bestow, as they have an opportunity of communicating learning, at a moderate expence, to the middle rank of gentry, without the danger of ruining their fortunes, and corrupting their morals or their health: this, though foreign to my present purpose, the respect and affection I bear to my neighbours extorted from me. How long Mr. Butler continued under his care is not known, but, probably, till he was fourteen years old. Whether he was ever entered at any university is uncertain. His biographer says he went to Cambridge, but was never matriculated: Wood, on the authority of Butler's brother, says, the poet spent six or seven years there; but as other things are quoted from the same authority, which I believe to be false, I should very much suspect the truth of this article. Some expressions, in his works, look as if he were acquainted with the customs of Oxford. Coursing was a term peculiar to that university; see Part iii. c. ii. v. 1244. Returning to his native country, he entered into the service of Thomas Jefferies, Esq. of Earls Croombe, who, being a very active justice of the peace, and a leading man in the business of the province; his clerk was in no mean office, but one that required a knowledge of the law and constitution of his country, and a proper behaviour to men of every rank and occupation: besides, in those times, before the roads were made good, and short visits so much in fashion, every • His residing in the neighbourhood might, perhaps, occasion the idea of his having been at Cambridge. large family was a community within itself: the upper servants, or retainers, being often the younger sons of gentlemen, were treated as friends, and the whole family dined in one common hall, and had a lecturer or clerk, who, during meal times, read to them some useful or entertaining book. Mr. Jefferies's family was of this sort, situated in a retired part of the country, surrounded by bad roads, the master of it residing constantly in Worcestershire. Here Mr. Butler had the advantage of living some time in the neighbourhood of his own family and friends: and having leisure for indulging his inclinations for learning, he probably improved himself very much, not only in the abstruser branches of it, but in the polite arts: here he studied painting, in the practice of which indeed his proficiency was but moderate; for I recollect seeing at Earls Croombe in my youth, some portraits said to be painted by him, which did him no great honour as an artist. I have In his MS. Common-place book is the following observation : It is more difficult, and requires a greater mastery of art in painting, to foreshorten a figure exactly, than to draw three at their just length; so it is, in writing, to express any thing naturally and briefly, than to enlarge and dilate : And therefore a judicious author's blots Are more ingenious than his first free thoughts. heard, lately, of a portrait of Oliver Cromwell, said to be painted by our author. After continuing some time in this service, he was recommended to Elizabeth Countess of Kent, who lived at Wrest, in Bedfordshire. Here he enjoyed a literary retreat during great part of the civil wars, and here probably laid the groundwork of his Hudibras, as he had the benefit of a good collection of books, and the society of that living library, the learned Selden. His biographers say, he lived also in the service of Sir Samuel Luke, of Cople Hoo Farm, or Wood End, in that county, and that from him he drew the character of Hudibras: but such a prototype was not rare in those This, and many other passages from Butler's MSS. are inserted, not so much for their intrinsic merit, as to please those who are unwilling to lose one drop of that immortal man; as Garrick says of Shakspeare: It is my pride, my joy, my only plan, To lose no drop of that immortal man. • The Lukes were an ancient family at Cople, three miles south of Bedford in the church are many monuments to the family: an old one to the memory of sir Walter Luke, knight, one of the justices of the pleas, holden before the most excellent prince King Henry the Eighth, and dame Anne his wife: another in remembrance of Nicholas Luke, and his wife, with five sons and four daughters. On a flat stone in the chancel is written, Here lieth the body of George Luke, Esq. he departed this life Feb. 10, 1732, aged 74 years, the last Luke of Wood End. Sir Samuel Luke was a rigid presbyterian, and not an eminent commander under Oliver Cromwell; probably did not approve of |