'A FORGOTTEN GENIUS.” 405 Dr. Kennicott, the famous Hebraist, said of him, 'The greatest men I ever knew were mere children compared with Henderson,' and Edmund Burke, then Member for Bristol, entreated him to study for the legal or the ecclesiastical profession, believing that he must certainly attain the very highest eminence in either. In the Hope Collection there is a curious picture of Henderson (there called Reverend '), surrounded by zodiacal emblems, by Bagwell. NOTE. DREAM OF HENDERSON'S DEATH AT OXFORD. N. J. A. writes in Notes and Queries, 1854, x. 26, 27: 'I have collected these particulars of his last illness, which I took down nineteen years ago from the lips of a highly respectable inhabitant of Bristol. John Henderson had a relation named Mary Macy, who lived on Redcliff Hill... she had the gift of second sight. One night she dreamed that John Henderson was gone to Oxford, and that he died there." In the course of the next day John Henderson called to take leave of her, saying he was going to Oxford, to study something concerning which he could not obtain information in Bristol. Mary Macy said to him: “John, you will die there." He said, "I know it." 'Some time afterwards Mary Macy waked her husband, saying, "Remember, John Henderson died at two this morning, and it is now three." Philip Macy made light of it, but she told him, in a dream she was transported to Oxford, where in reality she had never been. She there entered a room and saw J. H. in bed, the landlady supporting his head, and the landlord and others surrounding him'. Looking at him she saw others give him medicine, after which J. H. saw her and said, "Oh, Mrs. Macy, I am going to die. I am glad your are come, for I want to tell you that my father is going to be very ill, and you must go and see him." He then proceeded to describe a room in his father's house and a bureau in it, "in which is a box containing some pills; give him so many of them and he will recover." Her impression of the room was most vivid; she even described the appearance of the houses on the opposite side of the street. The only object she seems not to have seen was a clergyman who was in attendance on J. H. Henderson's father, going to the funeral, took Philip Macy with him, and on the way to Oxford Philip told him particulars of his son's death, which they found to be strictly true, as related by Mary Macy. Mary Macy forgot then about the pills, but sometime after she was sent for by John Henderson's father, who was ill; remembered her dream, found the bureau and the pills. . . and he was cured.' 1 Another account is that he died in College. CHAPTER XXXII. AN OLD DAY BOOK. A DAY-BOOK of accounts, kept, between 1768 and 1804, by a Tesdale Scholar and Fellow, has come into my hands. JOHN COLLINS, of Betterton, Berks, son of the Charles Collins mentioned on page 316, was chosen Scholar August 5, 1767, aged thirteen or fourteen, and came up on May 2, 1768. He brings with him from home £5 5s. 9d., and his first purchases consist of necessaries, such as wine-glasses, an extinguisher, two teapots, a green table-cloth, and so forth. His books, bought from time to time, show what a boy-student's library of that date was like. I give them as they come : £ s. d. This is the last entry before his Bachelor's degree, May 30, 1771. Six days later he was elected Fellow, and on that day there is entered: Then no more literary entries till he takes his Master's degree, after which the book purchases of the Fellow, from 1780 ordained, become 408 A FELLOW'S DAY-BOOK. Carr's Sermons Akenside's Poems . Subscription to John du Pre's1 Sermons Subscription to Mr Jones's Sermons of Bampton . Bartleiana Pharmacopeia Abstract of Game Laws Paley's Companion in visiting ye Sick Pd Miss Delamotte Subscription to Mr Beresford's Virgil These are all the purchases for twenty years. The following disbursements and receipts, from 1768 onwards, may seem to be worth putting down here, though not all relating to Oxford. I have selected the entries which seem most representative. Gave a Polish Nobleman [He was not yet seventeen] A Punt. Supper at ye Mitre. For a Letter to Abingdon A Pound of Candles Up the Water 1 Dr. JOHN DU PRÉ, entered Pembroke 1780, aet. 13; Fellow of Exeter 1773-83. O Ι O 3 June 5, 1771. Writing Name in ye Vice-Chancellor's 4 O I O 7 I O 19 6 962 46 Feb. 30 [sic] 1772. Paid at being presented to determine March 3, 1772. Paid Thirds 2 for Pigot's Room Dinner at ye Angel Subscription for a Clergyman's Daughter Dean and Aristotle for presenting etc. March 26, 1772. Liceat fees in the Schools etc. O 12 6 O 5 O May 7, 1773. Paid Roberts for not being at Prayers . 1 See p. 274. "The in-coming tenant paid the out-goer two-thirds of the original cost of the furniture. So in Wilding's Accompt Book (Collectanea, I, O. H. S., ed. Fletcher, 255, 264), in 1687, 'Reced of my Chum for thirds, oo. 05. co,' when he was leaving. The year before, 'To Colenet for thirds, 00. 05. 00.' 3 A burlesque lecture by Charles Lee Lewes. |