viol, from an Italian master he kept in the house for the instruction of his children; though the Bishop himself had no ear for music. He spent the rest of the morning, and often a great part of the day, in study: his favourite author, from whom many of his notions were borrowed, was Plato. He had a large and valuable collection of books and pictures, which are now the property of his son, the Rev. George Berkeley, LL. D. The excellence of his moral character, if it were not so conspicuous in his writings, might be learned from the blessings with which his memory is followed by the numerous poor * of his neighbourhood, as well as from the testimony of his yet-surviving acquaintance, who cannot to this day speak of him without a degree of enthusiasm, that removes the air of hyperbole from the well-known line of his friend Mr. Pope: "To Berkeley every virtue under heaven." The inscription on his monument was drawn up by Dr. Markham, afterwards archbishop of York, then head master of Westminster-school, and is in these terms: Gravissimo præsuli, Georgio, Episcopo Clonensi: Seu ingenii et eruditionis laudem, Si amans patriæ, Utroque nomine gloriari potes Obiit annum agens septuagesimum tertium† : * By the poor of his neighbourhood.] One instance of his attention fo his poor neighbours may deserve relating. Cloyne, though it gives name to the sec, is in fact no better than a village: it is not reasonable, therefore, to expect much industry or ingenuity in the inhabitants. Yet whatever article of clothing they could possibly manufacture there, the Bishop would have from no other place; and chose to wear ill clothes, and worse wigs, rather than suffer the poor of the town to remain unemployed. + Mistake. LETTER S. LETTER I. To Mr. THOMAS PRIOR,* Pall-mall Coffee-house, London. Paris, Nov. 25, 1713, (N. S.) DEAR TOM, FROM London to Calais I came in the company of a Flamand, a Spaniard, a Frenchman, and three English servants of * Thomas Prior, Esq. the gentleman to whom the public is indebted for preserving the greatest part of the following correspondence, was born about the year 1679, at Rathdowney, in the Queen's County, the estate of his family since the middle of that century. He was educated in the university of Dublin, where he took the degree of A. M. and was fellowstudent with our Author. Being of a weak habit of body, he declined entering into any of the learned professions, though otherwise well qualified to have appeared with advantage in them: the great object of his thoughts and studies was to promote the real happiness of his country. In 1729 he published his well-known tract, A List of the Absentees of Ireland, in the close of which he strongly recommended the use of linen scarfs at funerals. The hint was adopted by the executors of Mr. Conolly, speaker of the House of Commons, at his public funeral in the month of October of this year; and that mode of burying has been effectually established ever since, to the great emolument of our most capital branch of trade. He published also several tracts relative to our coin, linen, manufacture, &c. But the glory of his life, and object of his unremitting labours, was the founding and promoting of that most useful institution the Dublin Society, of which for a series of years he discharged the duty of secretary. Every good and great man, his contemporary, honoured him with his esteem and friendship, particularly Philip earl of Chesterfield; of whose interest however his moderation led him to make no other use than to procure, by his Lordship's recommendation, from the late King a charter of incorporation for his darling child the Dublin Society, with a grant of 500l. per annum for its better support. Having spent his life in the practice of every virtue that distinguishes the patriot and the true Christian, he died of a gradual decline in Dublin, October 21, 1751, and was interred in the church of Rathdowney. Over his remains is a neat monument of Kilkenny marble, with an English epitaph: his friends have erected a more magnificent memorial of this useful member of society in the nave of Christ-church, Dublin, the inscription on which came from the elegant pen of our Bishop, and will appear below. See Views and Descriptions of Dublin, by Pool and Cash, p. 102. my Lord. The three gentlemen being of those different nations obliged me to speak the French language (which is now familiar), and gave me the opportunity of seeing much of the world in a little compass. After a very remarkable escape from rocks and banks of sand, and darkness and storm, and the hazards that attend rash and ignorant seamen, we arrived at Calais in a vessel, which returning the next day was cast away in the harbour in open day-light, as I think I already told you. From Calais Col. Du Hamel left it to my choice either to go with him by post to Paris, or come after in the stage-coach. I chose the latter, and on Nov. 1 (O. S.) embarked in the stage-coach with a company that were all perfect strangers to me. There were two Scotch and one English gentleman. One of the former happened to be the author of the Voyage to St. Kilda and the Account of the Western Isles. We were good company on the road, and that day sennight came to Paris. I have been since taken up in viewing churches, convents, palaces, colleges, &c. which are very numerous and magnificent in this town. The splendour and riches of these things surpass belief: but it were endless to descend to particulars. I was present at a disputation in the Sorbonne, which indeed had much of the French fire in it. I saw the Irish and the English colleges. In the latter I saw, enclosed in a coffin, the body of the late King James. Bits of the coffin and of the cloth that hangs the room have been cut away for relics, he being esteemed a great saint by the people. The day after I came to town I dined at the Ambassador of Sicily's, and this day with Mr. Prior. I snatched an opportunity to mention you to him, and do your character justice. To-morrow I intend to visit Father Mallebranche, and discourse him on certain points. I have some reasons to decline speaking of the country or villages that I saw as I came along. My Lord is just now arrived, and tells me he has an opportunity of sending my letters to my friends to-morrow morning, which occasions my writing this. My humble service to Sir John Rawdon, Mrs. Rawdon, Mrs. Kempsy, and all other friends. My Lord thinks he shall stay a fortnight here. I am, dear Tom, Your affectionate humble servant, G. BERKELEY. LETTER II. Turin, Jan. 6, 1714, (N. S.) DEAR TOM, AT Lyons, where I was about eight days, it was left to my choice whether I would go from thence to Toulon, and there embark for Genoa; or else pass through Savoy, cross the Alps, and so through Italy. I chose the latter route, though I was obliged to ride post in company of Col. Du Hamel and Mr. Oglethorpe, adjutant-general of the Queen's forces, who were sent with a letter from my Lord to the King's mother at Turin. The first day we rode from Lyons to Chambery, the capital of Savoy, which is reckoned sixty miles. The Lionnois and Dauphiné were very well; but Savoy was a perpetual chain of rocks and mountains almost impassable for ice and snow. And yet I rode post through it, and came off with only four falls, from which I received no other damage than the breaking my sword, my watch, and iny snuff-box. On new year's day we passed Mount Cenis, one of the most difficult and formidable parts of the Alps which is ever past over by mortal men. We were carried in open chairs by men used to scale these rocks and precipices, which at this season are more slippery and dangerous than at other times, and at the best are high, craggy, and steep enough to cause the heart of the most valiant man to melt within him. My life often depended on a single step. No one will think that I exaggerate, who considers what it is to pass the Alps on new year's day. But I shall leave particulars to be recited by the fire-side. We have been now five days here, and in two or three more design to set forward towards Genoa, where we are to join my Lord, who embarked at Toulon. I am now hardened against wind and weather, earth and sea, frost and snow; can gallop all day long, and sleep but three or four hours at night. The court here is polite and splendid, the city beautiful, the churches and colleges magnificent, but not much learning stirring among them. However, all orders of people, clergy and laity, are wonderfully civil; and every where a man finds his account in being an Englishman, that character alone being sufficient to gain respect. My service to all friends, particularly to Sir John and Mrs. Rawdon, and Mrs. Kempsy. It is my advice that they do not pass the Alps in their way to Sicily. I am, dear Tom, Yours, &c. G. B. LETTER III. DEAR TOM, Leghorn, Feb. 26, 1714, (N. S.) MRS. RAWDON is too thin, and Sir John too fat, to agree with the English climate: I advise them to make haste, and transport themselves into this warm, clear air. Your best way is to come through France; but make no long stay there, for the air is too cold, and there are instances enough of poverty and, distress to spoil the mirth of any one who feels the sufferings of his fellow-creatures. I would prescribe you two or three operas at Paris, and as many days amusement at Versailles. My next recipe shall be to ride post from Paris to Toulon, and there to embark for Genoa. For I would by no means have you shaken to pieces, as I was, riding post over the rocks of Savoy, or put out of humour by the most horrible precipices of Mount Cenis, that part of the Alps which divides Piedmont from Savoy. I shall not anticipate your pleasure by any description of Italy or France. Only, with regard to the latter, I cannot help observing, that the Jacobites have little to hope, and others little to fear, from that reduced nation. The King indeed looks as though he wanted neither meat nor drink, and his palaces are in good repair: but throughout the land there is a different face of things. I stayed about a month at Paris, eight days at Lyons, eleven at Turin, three weeks at Genoa, and am now here about a fortnight, with my Lord's Secretary (an Italian), and some others of his retinue; my Lord having gone aboard a Maltese vessel from hence to Sicily with a couple of servants. He designs to stay there incognito a few days, and then return hither; having put off his public entry till the yacht with his equipage arrives. I have writ to you several times before by post: in answer to all my letters I desire you to send me one great one, close writ and filled on all sides, containing a particular account of all transactions in London and Dublin. Enclose it in a cover to my Lord ambassador, and that again in another cover to Mr. Hare, at my Lord Bolingbroke's office. If you have a mind to travel only in the map, here is the list of all the places where I lodged since my leaving England, in their natural order: Calais, Boulogne, Montreuil, Abbeville, Pois, Beauvais, Paris, Moret, Villeneuve-le-Roi, Vermanton, Saulieu, Chany, Macon, Lyons, Chambery, St. Jean-de-Maurienne, Lanebourg, Susa, Turin, Alexandria, Campo-Marone, Genoa, Sestri-di-Levante, Lerici, |