unhappy in coining names expressive of characters. His lines are commonly smooth and easy, and his thoughts always religiously pure; but who is there that, to so much piety and innocence, does not wish for a greater measure of sprightliness and vigour ? He is at least one of the few poets with whom youth and ignorance may be safely pleased: and happy will be that reader whose mind is disposed, by his verses or his prose, to imitate him in all but his non-conformity, to copy his benevolence to man, and his reverence to God."

*

During the period of Dr. Watts's residence in the family of Sir John Hartopp, he formed an intimate friendship with Mr. Gunston, who possessed the old manor-house and grounds, and was, therefore, his next neighbour. A row of "reverend elms consecrated to their friendship, are still standing in Abney Park, and form the fine old avenue leading to the northern end of the chapel.

I think Mr. Milner is mistaken in associating the old† mansion with the names of Queen Elizabeth and Leicester. The ancient manorhouse was situated in another part of the parish, and was pulled down in 1695. The site was afterwards let on building leases. Thomas Sutton, the founder of the Charter-house, occasionally resided there, after his marriage with Mr. Dudley's widow; and it has been con

* The more liberal and judicious reader will pardon this little slip of the Doctor's pen; or look upon it as one of those "Alings" in which he could not avoid indulging.

The mansion at Abney Park, although latterly made the manorial residence, was never the manor-house.

sidered probable, that, previously to her second marriage, it was let to the Earl of Leicester, who was a relation of her former husband. The arms of Dudley, with an earl's coronet and the order of the garter, were taken some time ago from a house near the site of the ancient manor-house.

The present mansion was built by Mr. Gunston, while he possessed this manor, and was completed in the year 1700. Dr. Watts and his friend had together watched the erection of the now venerable pile, and there still remain many interesting memorials of their friendship, and of Dr. Watts's subsequent residence. In the turret, upon the roof, many of his literary and religious works were composed; and, associated so entirely as this spot is with his venerable character and name, it possesses no common interest for the admirers of genius and piety.

The room in which Watts died has been always an object of notice to successive tenants and visitors. Mrs. Elizabeth Abney, the last of the family, died here in the year 1782. Of this lady Mr. Milner, in a note to his work, informs us, that the late Dr. Winter was accustomed to relate an anecdote of his early life with great glee: "Dressed in the costume of a belle of George the First's reign, with formidable hoop and all the appurtenances of the ancient régime, her appearance betokened considerable antiquity. On being introduced to her presence, the youth was abashed; but the good dame, by way of being familiar, asked

Y

him, how old he thought she was. The awestruck youngster replied, "Madam, 900 years!"

There is an apartment in the mansion ornamented in a costly manner, called the painted room, on which very considerable expense must have been lavished. The mouldings are richly gilt, and the panels on the sides of the room are painted with subjects taken from Ovid. On the window-shutters are some pictorial delineations, which are said to be the production of Watts's pencil, and are intended as emblematic of death and grief, with the Gunston and Abney arms painted under the respective figures.

It is certain that this branch of the fine arts was one to which he had paid attention; and some of his paintings, amongst which are enumerated the heads of Democritus, Heraclitus, Aristotle, and Alexander, are said to have been executed with great skill.

Dr. Watts's friendship and high regard for Gunston were evidently very great; and, after his friend's decease, in 1701, he composed a warm and affectionate elegy to his memory, which he presented to his sister, Lady Abney, at that time the lady-mayoress.

This poem contains so many allusions to the house and to the grounds which now form the Cemetery, that I have thought it hardly right to withhold it from the many who, now, perhaps for the first time, as being proprietors of the cemetery, or having friends interred within its sacred precincts, feel an interest in all the historical and poetical associations connected with it. If the composition may not be classed

high in the scale of poetic excellence, it will be difficult to find in the wide range of English verse, an elegy-not written for publication, but intended merely as a solace for the private grief of a surviving sister-with fewer defects, and abounding with more vivid description and warmer affection.

66 Had I been a common mourner at the funeral of the dear gentleman deceased, I should have laboured after more of art in the following composition, to supply the defect of nature, and to feign a sorrow; but the uncommon condescension of his friendship to me, the inward esteem I pay his memory, and the vast and tender sense I have of the loss, make all the methods of art needless, whilst natural grief supplies more than all.

66

I had resolved, indeed, to lament in sighs and silence, and frequently checked the too forward muse; but the importunity was not to be resisted; long lines of sorrow flowed in upon me ere I was aware, whilst I took many a solitary walk in the garden adjoining to his seat at Newington; nor could I free myself from the crowd of melancholy ideas. Your Ladyship will find throughout the poem, that the fair and unfinished building* which he had just raised for him

* The manor-house, now standing in the grounds of the cemetery.