P. 548, 1. ult. The Rector of Stisted was son of Mr. Samuel Jackson, of Namptwich in Cheshire, of a respectable antient Shropshire family. He was educated at Audlem School in Cheshire; removed to Brazenose College, Oxford, of which he was a Fellow about ten years, and collated to Stisted by Archbishop Potter, Oct. 4, 1742. His first wife, hy whom he had no issue, was the daughter of William Wickeham, esq. of Gazington, co. Oxford. Her two nicces, the representatives of their family, are married to the second and fourth sons of William Drake, esq. of Amersham, Bucks. His second wife was the eldest daughter of John Blencowe, esq. of Marston, co. Northampton. This pious, learned, and benevolent Divine died March 10, 1792, in the 84th year of his age, and the 50th year of a constant residence and minute attention to every duty of his charge. During the last 30 years a palsy, gradually creeping over his whole frame, deprived him of every power, except the faculties of a mind naturally most penetrating, and improved by the purest science. His own tenderness as a husband, father, friend, and master, was so gratefully felt and dutifully returned by all his relatives and dependents, in their watchful relief of his infirmities, as, under the Divine Providence, to be the probable means of his continuing among his parishioners to so late a period, an example of the warmest piety, the firmest patience, and humblest resignation, and of extending to them a charity that knew no bounds but in the degrees of misery meriting relief. By a second marriage he left two sons, the elder of whom, on his uncle's death, inherited the property of that family; assumed the name and arnis of Blencowe; married his first cousin, Miss Bree; and had by her, some time since deceased, a numerous family. He was afterwards married to Miss Biker. The younger son, who married Mary second daughter of Dr. Wakeham, Dean of Bocking, purchased, for his residence, Duton-hill, in Easton, near Dunmow, Essex.

P. 553. John Ryland, esq. was born in London; but spent the very early part of his life at Stratford-upon-Avon; from which circumstance he used sometimes to call himself a Warwickshire man, and, at one period of his life, possessed some landed property there. He was originally bred to the Law, but most probably quitted that profession early in life, as he was engaged in a West-India connexion for many years with Edward Clerk Parish, esq. and afterwards with John Bond, esq. in Crutched-friers. Mr. Ryland was a very early associate of Dr. Johnson, and also of Dr. Hawkesworth, whose sister he married, and with whom much of his younger life was spent. From his connexion with that gentleman he was a contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine; and, during Dr. Hawkesworth's occasional absence from London, conducted the Review department in it for a short period. He was a good scholar, and expressed himself, both in writing and speaking, in a peculiarly elegant and forcible manner. From long habits of

intimacy

own.

intimacy he occasionally caught the expressions of his friends Johnson and Hawkesworth; but his mode of thinking was his In a public view, he was lost as a man of business, for the labour and detail of which he was not adapted, and would have appeared to incomparably greater advantage in some of the learned professions. But his strict integrity and sedulous attention to the interests of those for whom he was concerned rendered him highly esteemed and valued by all his mercantile connexions. His long life, great part of which was spent amongst men of genius, created a fund of anecdote, which he was fond of communicating, in the most pleasing manner, to the various circles of his friends and acquaintance. When the Club at the Essex Head was established for the solace of Dr. Johnson's leisure hours, Mr. Ryland became a member. He - constantly visited Dr. Johnson during his last illness; favoured me with several of the particulars in the article in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. LIV. p. 957, which records the great Philologer's death; and was one of the friends who attended the funeral. Perhaps no man was more acquainted with Dr. Johnson's character, or better qualified to delineate it.—Mr. Ryland was a staunch Whig of the Old School; the principles which established the present Family on the Throne he never ceased to defend; at the same time that he had an utter abhorrence of that detestable system of pretended Liberty and Equality which desolated a large part of Europe. Such is the change of manners, that, whilst his friend Samuel Johnson used to call him a Republican and a Roundhead, others, of his modern acquaintance, were equally vociferous in condemning his principles, as tending to what they called Despotism and Arbitrary Power; himself, truly consistent, maintained those sentiments of attachment to the Constitution, which, under the then circumstances of the times, it was peculiarly necessary to manifest. Mr. Ryland's experience in political matters (having always taken an active part in public business) enabled him to adduce many instances, in support of his arguments, which were incontrovertible. Being a zealous friend of Elizabeth Canning*, whose cause he espoused in consequence of a laborions investigation of her case, he never ceased to condemn that deviation from the principles of criminal justice, the discharge of a Jury, leaving them to mix with the publick at large; which, in her case, he said, gave a turn to the cause it never recovered. It may be remembered, in his evidence (more than 30 years since) on the trial of Lee (a former clerk of his own) for forgery, he bore his testimony against Disputing-clubs, which have since, in a political view, come under the cognizance of the Legislature, and which, he maintained, were the source of ruin to many a young mind. Dr. Hawkesworth expresses sentiments adverse to them in a most admirable paper in "The Adventurer," the history of an Attor* Of another warm friend of Canning, John Cole, who died Dec. 19, 1795, in the service of the City of London, see Gent. Mag. LXVIII. 1039.

ney's

ney's Clerk, which, Mr. Ryland asserted, was drawn from real life. Mr. Ryland was a Dissenter, but, as he always expressed himself, of a peculiar kind, not being connected with any particular society. He was firmly attached to those doctrines which were maintained by the Reformers, and make the basis on which the Church of England is established, and which were also asserted by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster; of course, he was a Dissenter rather from the discipline than the doctrines of the Established Church. He was, in his manners and habits, truly devout, constant in his attendance on public worship whilst his health would permit, keeping in prospect that "view which should always predominate in our lives, and which alone can afford us comfort when we die."- Mr. Ryland died, of a gradual decline, June 24, 1798, at the age of 81. He was the last surviving member of a Society called "The Rambler Club," which was formed in the Winter of 1749, and met weekly at Horseman's, the King's Head, a famous beefsteak-house, in Ivy-lane; a set of Literati, who were the ornaments and instructors of the middle of the eighteenth century, and of whom it may be truly said their labours were never prostituted in the service of Vice and Immorality. Of this Society the four remaining in 1783, who had then a few meetings to recollect old times, were, Dr. Johnson, Sir John Hawkins, Mr. John Payne (then Accountant-general of the Bank of England), and Mr. Ryland. The Club originally consisted of ten members; and the other six were, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Salter, (father of the Master of the Charter-house); Dr. Hawkesworth: Mr. Samuel Dyer (a learned young man, intended for the Dissenting Ministry); Dr. William M'Ghie, a Scots Physician; Dr. Edward Barker, a young Physician; and Dr. Richard Barker, another young Physician.-It is remarkable that Mr. Ryland should no where have been noticed in Mr. Boswell's communicative Life of Dr. Johnson; and that the Ivy-lane Club is scarcely mentioned, and the names of only three of its members; and it is the more remarkable, as Sir John Hawkins and Mr. Murphy have both enlarged on that subject.

P. 553. Mr. Cruikshank was born in 1745 at Edinburgh, where his Father was Examiner in the Excise-office; and had him christened William-Cumberland, in compliment to the Hero of Culloden; but the latter name Mr. Cruikshank seldom used. The earlier part of his life was spent in Scotland; and at the age of 14 he went to Edinburgh, with a view of studying Divinity. Feeling, however, a strong propensity for Anatomy and Physick, he studied those sciences with great assiduity for eight years at Glasgow. In 1771 he came to London; and, by the recommendation of Dr. David Pitcairn, was appointed Librarian to Dr. William Hunter, who had applied to the Professors of Glasgow for a young man of talents to succeed Mr. Hewson; and this connexion was the principal means of raising Mr. Cruikshank to that conspicuous situation which he afterwards so well merited.

During the life of Dr. Hunter, Mr. Cruikshank became successively his pupil, anatomical assistant, and partner in Anatomy; and on the death of that celebrated man, Mr. Cruikshank and Dr. Baillie received an address from a large proportion of Dr. Hunter's Students, full of affection and esteem; which induced them to continue in Windmill-street the superintendance of that Anatomical School which has produced so many excellent scholars. Mr. Cruikshank, besides supporting with great reputation his share in this undertaking, made himself known to the world by some excellent publications, which have insured to him a high character, as a perfect Anatomist, and a very acute and ingenious Physiologist. In 1786 he published his principal work, the "Anatomy of the Absorbent Vessels in the Human Body," in which he not only demonstrated in the clearest manner the structure and situation of these vessels, but collected under one point of view, and enriched with many valuable observations, all that was known concerning this important system in the human body. Besides this work, the merit of which has been fully acknowledged by translations into foreign languages, he wrote a paper, intituled, "Experiments on the Nerves of Living Animals," in which is shewn the important fact of the regeneration of nerves, after portions of them have been cut out; illustrated by actual experiments on animals. This paper was read before the Royal Society, but not printed at the time, owing, as was said, to the interference of Sir John Pringle, who conceived that it controverted some of the opinions of Haller, his intimate friend. It appeared, however, in the "Transactions" for 1794. In 1779 he made several experiments on the subject of "Insensible Perspiration," which were added to the early editions of his work on the "Absorbent Vessels," and were collected and published in a separate pamphlet in 1795. In 1797, the year in which he was elected F. R.S. he published an "Account of Appearances in the Ovaria of Rabbits, in different Stages of Pregnancy;" but his fame rests upon, and is best supported by, his Anatomy of the Absorbents," which continues to be considered as the most correct and valuable work on the subject now extant. Mr. Cruikshank was not without some share of personal as well as intellectual vanity; but he had a generous and sympathetic heart; literally "went about doing good;" and was one of those liberal medical gentlemen whom I had frequently the satisfaction of meeting as friendly attendants on Dr. Johnson in his last illness. Mr. Cruikshank's death was occasioned by a disorder the fatal consequences of which had been predicted by one of his Pupils about 16 years before that event. He used at certain times to complain of an acute pain in the apex of his head; and his Pupil gave it as his opinion that the pain arose from extravasated blood, which was settled upon the sensorium ; and that, as no relief could be given without the greatest care in point of regimen, it would increase, till it was too heavy for the tender nerves or organs of the medulla oblongata to bear; of course, it would occasion a rupture, and end in dissolution.

When

When Mr. Cruikshank found himself in most excruciating pain, he sent for this gentleman, and every assistance was given; but the seat of the complaint, being directly under the pia mater, could not be touched. In this situation he breathed his last, July 27, 1800. The pericranium being afterwards opened, a quantity of extravasated blood was found upon the sensorium, some of the tender vessels of which were ruptured

P. 553. For " Bowles," r. "Rev. John Bowle." See vol. III. P. 183.

Ibid. Dr. Scott was the present very eminent Civilian, the Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Knight, M. P. for the University of Oxford, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, &c. &c.

P. 569. The following particulars are so honourable to the memory of a truly good man, that I transcribe them in the words of a worthy Correspondent at Acton in 1788: -"It is recorded of that eminent Lawyer, Philosopher, and Divine, Sir Matthew Hale, Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, that during many years, more than thirty, as nearly as can be recollected, he omitted no opportunity of going to his Parish Church on the Lord's-day, and joining in public worship, and that, after the sacred service, retiring into his closet, he wrote those "Contemplations on Texts of Scripture" which have been published. Some may think it strange, and that the gentleman stooped too low, or demeaned himself, in previously accepting a commission from the hypocritical and horrid nian of Huntingdon, to be a Judge of or in the Court of Common Pleas. Yet, on account of his great abilities and well-known integrity in other respects, he was promoted to the highest place in the other Court, after the Restoration of the Constitution in Church and State, which is still memorable and praise-worthy, as the murder of the Royal Saint is still shocking and deplorable; so that Acts of Parliament, enjoining the 30th of January to be observed as a Fast, and the 29th of May as a Festival, should be more carefully and conscientiously obeyed than usual. May these Acts never be repealed, to the dissatisfaction of true Churchmen and loyal Subjects, and to the encouragement and triumph of Fanaticks and Republicans! - Sir Matthew Hale constantly declined, as persons of the best quality now duly decline, the absurdity or troublesome vanity of drinking healths, uncommonly prevalent, and productive of pernicious intemperance, immediately after, and on account of, the Restoration; which abuse gave occasion for an extraordinary Proclamation, long sought for, and at last found in a large Collection of old Proclamations which once belonged to the zealous promoter of the necessary Revolution, the first Lord Somers.-Sir Matthew, when a young man, seeing an alarming instance of the dire effects of drinking excessively, vowed never to countenance such excess, nor to drink a health so long as he lived; temptations were resisted, and the vow was prudently and bravely observed to his dying day.-An old Clergyman in the North had so great

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