Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan.

  • Bryan, George
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    perpetual exile. Just before this, a large fine dropped to him as Dean of Westminster, but he could have no right to receive it without the seal being set to it in full chapter. Sir Robert Walpole earnestly enquired whether a Chapter could not be held in the Tower, that he might receive the benefit of the fine. A chapter was accordingly there held, and the Bishop received a ;^iooo for his share. This anecdote, which is well authenticated, does great credit to the liberality of Walpole. Dr. Atterbury, in his private character, was most amiable and exemplary; as a preacher he was eloquent, and as a vTiter, his sermons, letters and other tracts, proved most decidedly that he possessed piety, genius, and erudition. On the i8th of June, 1723, having the day before taken leave of his friends, this eminent prelate embarked on board the Aldborough man-of-war, and landed on the Friday following at Calais. A prelate for wit, and for eloquence fam’d, Apollo soon miss’d, and lie need not be nam’d; Since amidst a whole bench, of which some are so bright. No one of them shines so leam’d and polite.—Sheffield, 1719. The celebrated Dean Swift came to Chelsea in the year 17 ii, and took up his residence facing Dr. Atterbury’s house in Church Street. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick, in Dublin, an illustrious poet, and political and satirical ^v^iter, was bom in Dublin in 1667, and died in 1745. Of a life so various and so full of business as Swift’s, w^e know not what part we could select consistent with the limits of this rvork that would not excite rather than gratify curiosity. The company of Swift was courted by persons of the first rank in life and literature ; the following peculiarities may be related:—He made to himself a rule never to speak more than a minute at a time, and to wait for others to take up the conversation. He was singularly happy in punning; and used to say, that none despised that talent but those Avho \vere without it. He also greatly excelled in telling a story; but, in the latter part of his life, used to tell the same rather to often. Though to strangers he appeared churlish, and austere to his servants, it is said he was a kind and generous master ; he was also very charitable to the poor.