CHAP. VII.

APPOINTED TUTOR OF CORPUS.- HIS COLLEGE FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES.

1782 to 1783.

In the summer of 1782, Mr. Burgess was appointed tutor of Corpus, and held the office till the year 1791.

Though his studious habits and retiring disposition prevented his mingling much in general society at Oxford, there was a select set of literary men, including several Wickamites, with whom he lived on terms of intimacy, and to whom he was endeared by the same pleasing and attractive qualities both of head and heart which distinguished him in after life. Of these, nearly all have paid the debt of nature, but among the few that survive, those whom the author has had the privilege of consulting, either personally or through friends, bear their united testimony to his superior talents and amiable qualities. Among these may be enumerated the Reverend Dr. Routh, the present learned and venerable President of Magdalen College, Oxford; the Reverend Gilbert Burringdon, a Prebendary of Exeter; and the Reverend Mr. Putt, of Combe, near Honiton, Devon. The latter

thus describes him in a letter to his friend, the late Reverend Francis Huysh, written in the year 1837:

"Mr. Burgess was of rather longer standing at College than myself. From my first acquaintance with him, I perceived that he was indefatigable in the pursuit of literature, -more especially in the study of the Greek language. He had a pleasing person, simple, unaffected manners, was truly amiable, and universally beloved. He was as social as a life devoted to study could allow him to be. In short, he was, in every respect, among the most exemplary Academics of his time. I cannot express how gratified I feel at having once again met him at your house and my own.”

With Dr. Routh, for whom he felt the highest esteem, he kept up a literary correspondence to the end of his life. In a conversation with which the author was honoured by that eminent individual in the spring of 1837, he described his old friend as wedded from his youth to studious habits and pursuits, but as a most welcome and agreeable companion whenever he allowed himself to indulge in the pleasures of social intercourse.* He is described by another of his contemporaries as wearing on his fine features, as he paced the streets of Oxford, "the pale cast of thought;" and as having,

* Dr. Routh alludes to the Bishop in the following terms, in his Reliq. Sac. vol. i. p. 139. "Thomas Burgessius, vir etiam apud exteras gentes eruditionis laude insignis, nunc episcopus Menevensis dignissimus."

in youth, been, in person and manner, more like what he was in advanced life, than is often the case.

About this time, one of his favourite schemes was the publication of a quarterly Classical Journal, of which he was to undertake the editorial part. The nature of the project will be fully illustrated by the following letter from Mr. Tyrwhitt,—which, at the same time, forcibly proves what a wise Mentor he continued to possess in that gentleman.

DEAR SIR,

THOUGH, upon the first reading of your project, I thought of it as I do now, I did not choose to make an immediate declaration of my sentiments to you, for fear you should imagine that I had not given it all the attention which you had a right to expect from a friend to whom you had imparted so confidential a communication. To say the truth in a few words, I apprehend that your plan is not likely to answer either in point of reputation or profit, at the same time that it must necessarily engross your whole attention, and preclude the advances which would otherwise make in more useful studies. With respect to this last point, I believe any one, who knows what the life of a journalist is, will tell you, that it is as laborious as that of a galley slave, and as closely confined within a very narrow circle of labour. His trials are literally "never ending, still beginning." While he is copying or extracting one piece of nonsense,

you

he has the satisfaction to see a long succession of new nonsense springing up, and demanding the same kind office.

That no reputation can be derived from such an employment, I think is pretty evident on the contrary, it is much to be feared that the hurry in which the journalist is obliged to do his business, will often lead him into gross and ridiculous mistakes; not to mention the danger, from the same source, of his acquiring a habit of slovenly, inaccurate composition. I shall say little upon the article of profit, as I cannot suppose that it is a principal object with you. That some of the established literary journals are very profitable to the booksellers, who are proprietors of them, I can easily believe; but whether it be practicable for the author to secure any considerable profit to himself, I much doubt. But, on this head, Daniel Prince can give a better opinion than I can. I do not think that the difference between your proposed publication and the subsisting journals is likely to make it more generally saleable. The taste for Anecdota Græca et Latina is far from universal; and the English part (to which you have assigned a large space) will, I fear, be still less attractive. You will pardon me, I hope, for smiling, when I read in your bill of fare, Poems of Lydgate and Collations of Robert of Gloucester, &c.; but I should be seriously concerned to see you engaged in any un

dertaking, in which most of your time was to be thrown away upon such barren objects. I have found reason to suspect, lately, that the fragment of Nicetas (supposed to be unpublished) has been published in the Paris edition of that author among the Byzantine Historians. When you have an opportunity, I wish you would look into that matter. I am, dear Sir,

Yours very faithfully,

T. T.

Welbeck Street, Feb. 3. 1783.

DEAR SIR,

I AM happy to find that we are agreed upon the subject of your last. I was convinced that the project was a sudden thought, which might have been safely left to die away of itself; but, as you asked my opinion, I thought myself bound to give it with the sincerity and openness of a friend. There is something so ingenuous in your manner of asking and receiving advice, that I have almost persuaded myself that you would be glad at any time to hear my real opinion, even if it should be different from your own. If I am wrong, give me a hint, that I may mend my manners.

But how have I deserved, by endeavouring to keep you out of a scrape, that you should wish to involve me in a worse? An edition of the Poetics is no light matter ; but leaving that Θεων εν γουνασι,