"Did Browne Willis, Esq. produce the scheme to the Society of Antiquaries, as said in the Remembrancer; or is it a joke? "I have procured a Latin Comus for Lauder*; of which I suppose he makes great account. "St. John's Gate. ED. CAVE." In the latter part of Mr. Cave's life, having an extensive connexion in the line of his business; at Reading particularly, at Gloucester, and at Northampton, and several relations at Rugby; he was a frequent traveller; and, time being more an object to him than expence, and the luxury of turnpike-roads being then but little known, he generally used four horses. In one of these journeys, calling on an old school acquaintance, a man of great consequence, he directed the servant of the house to inform his master, "that Ned Cave the Cobler was come to visit him;" the name by which he was known to his quondam friends at Rugby-school, and of which in his more prosperous days he never was ashamed. * A volume of scarce Tracts, possessed by my kind and communicative friend Mr. Bindley, contains, amongst much trash, two curious articles at least; a Latin translation of Milton's Lycidas, and a version of Comus into the same language, both by William Hogg, a Scotchman. His Translation of Paradise Lost is now a very common article, though it does not appear to have been so at the time of Lauder's Forgeries on our immortal Poet. There is hardly any thing known of Hogg, who was a great Writer of Latin Verse. Besides these, he translated other pieces of Milton, a Poem of Blackmore's, the Book of Ecclesiastes, and other things, most of which are in Mr. Bindley's library. By the manner in which Lauder is here mentioned by Cave, it appears as if Johnson and he were visitors at St. John's Gate at the same time. Certainly, at first, Johnson did give credit (and it is to be feared not reluctantly) to Lauder's charges of plagiarism. He was particularly attentive to his horses; which were kept well, and worked well. If proof of this were required, it would be sufficient to refer to a letter of his in Gent. Mag. vol. XVIII. p. 390, on an efficacious remedy for the Glanders in Horses; confirmed by an affidavit of his coachman in p. 432. See also vol. XIX. p. 140. It is well remembered also that he was an ingenious mechanic; and, to the no small diminishing of his property, was continually devising plans for the improvement of mills, &c. &c. That he was the publisher of some valuable books, may be seen by various advertisements in the early volumes of the Magazine. His "Proposals for printing Du Halde's History of China" are worth preserving at large: "I. This Edition, which will take up about 300 sheets besides the Cuts and Maps, to be printed on the same Paper and Letter as here used. II. The Price to Subscribers to be at Three Half-pence a Sheet; if they amount to above Three Guineas, the surplus Sheets shall be delivered gratis. III. Every Sheet Map, or Sheet of Cuts, is reckoned as four Sheets of the Letter-press, excepting 3 Maps and 3 Plates, which must each be rated as 6 Sheets, though the Charge will exceed 7; Half-sheet Plates in proportion. IV. To publish 8 sheets once a fortnight, for One Shilling, or 20 Sheets for Half a Crown, once a month. V. A few Books on Royal Paper, at the Rate of One Shilling and Six-pence for Eight Sheets. VI. Gentlemen who subscribe for Six, to have a Plate inscribed to them. VII. That, a considerable Part of the Work being translated, it will be put to the press as soon as a Number of Subscriptions are come in sufficient to bear the Charge, which, in such Works as this, is never calculated under 1000. VIII. The Cuts to be engraved by the best Hands; the Maps done as well as the Originals, and several better. IX. That whatever Number of these Books there shall be a Demand for over the said Thousand, during the Progress of the Work, the Profits thereof shall, at its being finished, be fairly divided (excepting the few on Royal Paper) among the Thousand first Subscribers, only deducting 50%. to be given to such of His Majesty's British Subjects, as shall in the Opinion of the Royal Society, make (from the Hints given in this Description of China) the best and most useful Improvement in any be neficial neficial Branch of Art, and exhibit the same to the said Society within 3 Months after this Work is finished. X. Allowance to Booksellers as usual. -The Subscribers are not required to pay any Money (except for the Royal Paper) till they receive the Sheets; and therefore need only favour the Undertaker with their Orders by the General or Penny Post, directed to their humble servant, " EDWARD CAVE." A subsequent advertisement was thus varied: "Ready for the press, the entire Translation (illustrated with all the Cuts and Maps in the Original Copper Plates) a Description of China and Chinese Tartary, with Korea and Tibet, containing the Geography, and History, as well Natural as Civil, of those countries. Lately published at Paris by Pere du Halde, Jesuit, in 4 volumes, folio, and now reduced to 2 in English; with several necessary improvements by the translator, as specified in the plan of this Work, 6000 of which having been dispersed, we refer thereto. "This book will be delivered by E. Cave at St. John's Gate, according to the orders already received, or to be received, either in monthly numbers, 20 sheets each at half a crown, or 8 sheets every fortnight at one shilling, or may be had at the booksellers in town and country. "No money to be paid till the sheets are delivered, except a guinea for the royal paper, of which no more will be printed than subscribed for; half a guinea advance money for such as desire to have it only in volumes. "Those booksellers who have received subscriptions, are desired to send word what numbers they think they shall dispose of, that a computation may be made how many ought to be printed. Some gentlemen who have called at St. John's Gate, have been pleased to say, they have subscribed to certain booksellers, who have not sent any account thereof. "The Undertaker having more at heart the publishing a complete edition of this valuable Work for the the honour of this Nation, than seeking employment which he does not want, or than the view of profit, he having publicly offered to resign this Work to his Opponent, is willing to alter the first Proposals to the liking of several subscribers, who think the scheme for giving 50l. for the encouragement of Artists impracticable, notwithstanding the Undertaker has already given away one sum of 50l. and another of 51. according to Proposals, and has had the honour of proposing a Gold Medal of 107. (the dies for which will cost near gol.) and also another set of prizes to the amount of above 40l. which will most certainly be paid in a short time. Instead therefore of the former disapproved scheme of 50l. he is advised to give ten five pounds to such subscribers as they shall by lot fall to. But he is willing to do more: he will be ready to give the whole profits of the undertaking to fall by lot among the first 1000 subscribers, which profits, if encouragements offer, may produce fifty or a hundred five pounds; or, if it be thought proper to make only a few lots of five pounds, and divide the rest into lots of two and three pounds, there may be a fortunate lot to every five or six subscribers. 66 By this means great part of the subscribers, besides having a book the full value of the purchasemoney, will have a chance to gain the whole or double the sums they disburse; and the Undertaker, if this method succeeds, will be secured from loss, which is chiefly his aim; he having 50 and 50 instances to produce, wherein his publications have been printed upon him, before a day, a week, or month, have passed, to his great loss and disappointment. "If any books remain unsold at the conclusion of the Work, they shall be put to sale by auction, and the produce applied, with the other profits, to the benefit of the fortunate claimants; the Undertaker desiring nothing more than the charges of printing, engraving, and interest of money to be deducted, deducted, as far as shall be thought reasonable by the worthy Society for encouraging Learning *. "The fortunate claimants to be determined by the numbers of their tickets being drawn against such lots by the Mathematical Engines; for which purpose tickets, to the number of 1000, will be delivered to those who continue to take the Work in parts as it comes out, or who shall pay half a guinea subscription-money, and take the first, and then the second volume in the same manner. In 1738, Mr. Cave printed a small collection of Poems, the early productions of Eliza Carter, but without her name, who was then not quite 20 years old. It consisted only of 24 pages in quarto; and has the cut of St. John's Gate in the title-page. The "Parliamentary Register," of which Mr. Cave published a second edition in 1741, with the names of the members complete from 1660 to that period. I have a copy of this book continued by the Rev. Robert Smyth till his own death in 1761; * See Gentleman's Magazine for June 1736, vol. VI. p. 353. ↑ Gent. Mag. 1736, vol. VI. p. 624. He was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge, under the tuition of Dr. Newcome, master of that college, and dean of Rochester; was an indefatigable antiquary, and a member of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. He had made large collections for a History of the Sheriffs throughout England, to which Maurice Johnson, esq. founder of the Spalding Society, prefixed an introduction, on the dignity, use, and authority, of these great civil officers. Mr. Smyth had collected sheriffs, abbots, priors, and heads of religious houses, from Sir John Cotton's 38 MS Rolls, copied from those at Westminster, temp. Edward I. He greatly assisted Mr. Edmund Carter, a school-master, first at Chelsea, afterwards at Cambridge, in his History of that Town and University, 1753, and also in his History of that County; and whatever is more particularly valuable in that work must be attributed to him. It was his regular custom to bathe almost every morning in the river near Peterborough bridge; and, in the pursuit of this practice, he lost his life, Sept. 15, 1761. He came out of the water apparently well; but died a few minutes after, in the shop of a friend at Peterborough; and was buried in Woodston church-yard, with this epitaph: "In memory of the Rev. ROBERT SMYTH, |