It is to be regretted that so few anecdotes have been preserved respecting Mr. Addison as a writer in the Spectator. We are told, that when Jacob Tonson came to him for the papers which he contributed, Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary always lay open before him. Sir Roger de Coverley was his favourite character. Sir Richard Steele upon one occasion made the old knight guilty of a great inconsistency:* Mr. Addison warmly remonstrated with him, and would not leave his friend till he promised that he would no more meddle with his favourite. To prevent any such improprieties for the future, he resolved to put Sir Roger out of the way; or, as he himself humorously expressed it, to kill the knight that nobody else might murder him.

As a writer, as a man, and as a Christian, the merit of Mr. Addison can not be too highly extolled. His style has been always esteemed a model of excellence by men of taste. His humour has a charm which can not be described; his philosophy is rational, and his morality is pure; and what must highly enhance his writings to every good man, he studied to practise himself the virtues he recommended to others. His papers in the first seven volumes of the Spectator, are marked by one of the letters in the name CLIO.

EUSTACE BUDGELL.

As a writer in the Spectator, Budgell may be ranked next to Addison and Steele. He was the son of Dr. Gilbert Budgell, a clergyman; and was

See No. 410.

born about the year 1685. He distinguished himself both at school and at the University of Oxford by his rapid progress in classical learning. His father intended him for the bar, entered him in the Inner Temple; but he preferred polite literature, and the society of persons of fashion, to the study of the law. He associated much with Addison, who was his mother's cousin-german; and when that gentleman was appointed secretary to the Earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he took Budgell along with him as one of his clerks. So close was the friendship between these two relations, that they lodged together, spent much of their time together, and presented to the world their literary productions in concert.

In 1711 Mr. Budgell succeeded to his father's estate, which amounted nearly to 950l. a-year. But notwithstanding this accession to his fortune, he continued attentive to business. Mr. Addison obtained for him the office of under-secretary; he was also made chief secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, deputy clerk of the council in that kingdom, and soon after elected a member of the Irish parliament, where he was a distinguished speaker. In these different offices he conducted himself with much ability and diligence. When Mr. Addison became secretary of state, he obtained for him the office of accountant and comptroller-general of Ireland, worth 4007. a-year. But this honour was of short duration; he happened to give some umbrage to the Duke of Bolton, who succeeded to the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and he was deprived of all his offices. To this misfortune was added the death of Mr. Addison, which gave a decisive blow to his political

hopes; and the delusive South Sea scheme brought his fortune to the brink of ruin. The loss of his offices affected his judgment; and one disaster succeeded another so closely, that his mind never recovered its former tone. At length he formed the desperate resolution of putting an end to his life. Having filled his pockets with stones on the 4th of May, 1737, he took a boat at Londonbridge, and threw himself into the river. He had appeared quite disordered for some days before; and the coroner's inquest brought him in lunatic. Mr. Budgell possessed great accomplishments. He had a quick apprehension, a fine imagination, and a tenacious memory; a genteel address, a ready wit, and a graceful elocution. So attentive was he to his duty, that during the four years in which he held the offices of under-secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and secretary to the Lords Justices, he had never been absent four days from his employment, nor above ten miles distant from Dublin.

In the Spectator Mr. Budgell preserved a respectable character. He wrote all the papers in the first seven volumes which in the common editions are marked with the letter X, amounting to twenty-eight in number: and the eighth volume was written chiefly by Budgell and Addison. He wrote many excellent papers in the Guardian, which are marked with an asterisk; besides several papers in the Tatler, which are not distinguished. His style is elegant, and worthy of the intimate friend of Addison. His brother Gilbert Budgell wrote a pretty copy of verses in No. 591 in the eighth volume.

JOHN HUGHES.

JOHN HUGHES is said to have written the two letters in No. 33 and 53, signed R. B. and both the letters in No. 66, No. 91, the letters in No. 104, 141, and in 210, the second letter in No. 220, and No. 230, all except the last letter. Besides these, he composed the letter in No. 231, where the younger sister mentioned in Almahide was Mrs. Barbur, and No. 237. He also wrote the last letter in No. 252, 302, 306, and the letter in No. 311, Nos. 375, 525, 537, 541 and 554.

Mr. Hughes was the son of a citizen of London, and born at Marlborough in Wiltshire, in 1677. In the earlier part of his life he cultivated poetry, drawing, and music; in each of which he made great proficiency. He only followed them, however, as agreeable amusements, when confined by bad health, to which he was often subject. At the age of 20 he published a poem on the peace of Ryswick, which was received with much applause. This was soon succeeded by others; which possessed such merit as to introduce him not only to the friendship of Addison, Pope, Congreve, Rowe, and other polite writers, but also to the patronage of the greatest men in the kingdom. He was made secretary to the commissioners of the peace in 1717, by means of Lord Chancellor Cowper, and continued in the same office till his death. This event took place in the forty-second year of his age, a few hours after his tragedy entitled "The Siege of Damascus" had been acted at Drury-Lane with universal applause. He published two volumes of Poems, and some translations from the French; besides the periodical papers which he contributed to the Tatler, Specta tor, and Guardian.

THOMAS TICKELL.

THOMAS TICKELL, though his papers have never been accurately discriminated, was certainly a large contributor to the Spectator, and as such is entitled to notice in this place. He was the son of the Reverend Richard Tickell, and born in 1686, at Bridekirk in Cumberland. At what school he received the rudiments of education is not known; but in April 1701 he became a member of Queen's College, Oxford, was admitted to the degree of A. M. in 1708, and two years afterwards was chosen fellow of his college. He entered early into the world, where he gained the friendship of Addison by some of the finest encomiastic verses on Rosamond that ever were written on such an occasion. When the ministers of Queen Anne were negotiating with France, Tickell published The Prospect of Peace; a poem of which the tendency was, to reclaim the nation from the pride of conquest to the pleasures of tranquillity; and of which the merit was such as to command the praises as well of those who condemned as of those who approved the treaty of Utrecht. At the arrival of King George I. he wrote The Royal Progress, which is inserted in the Spectator No. 620, and therefore universally known.

The poetical incident of most importance in the life of Tickell was his publication of the First Book of the Iliad, translated in apparent opposition to Pope's Homer. Pope was led by various circumstances to suppose Addison, between whom and himself there was then a great coldness, the author of that translation; but the arguments on which his suspicion was founded, though VOL. I.-2