THE MONTHLY MIRROR, FOR AUGUST, 1806. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE REV. RICHARD GRAVES, M. A. RECTOR OF CLAVERTON, IN SOMERSETSHIRE. MR. Graves, of Claverton, was the younger son of a respectable gentleman's family in the north of Gloucestershire. His father, Richard Graves, Esq. of Mickleton, was a man of eminent endowments and literature, particularly versed in the study of Roman and British Antiquities, and so excellent an historian and medallist, that Mr. Hearn, the celebrated Oxford Antiquary, distinguished him by the appellation of Gravesius Noster. He made vast collections from Dooms-day book, the MSS. and records in the Tower, and other authentic stores of information, towards the history of the Vale of Evesham, in which a part of his estates was situated; all which papers, after his death, came into the hands of his friend James West, Esq. late President of the Royal Society, and at Mr. West's decease were sold, in 1772, to the Earl of Shelburne, His epitaph in Mickleton church is written with peculiar elegance by Mr. West. Richard Graves, the subject of this memoir, was born at Mickleton, in the year 1715, and received his earliest tuition from the curate of the parish, who, to gratify the literary taste of his father, taught him at the age of twelve years to study Hesiod and Homer. About a year afterwards he was sent to a public school at Abingdon, in Berkshire, and when just turned of sixteen was chosen a scholar of Pembroke college, in Oxford. On his arrival at college, he was invited to join a party of young men of extraordinary sobrie ty, who amused themselves every evening with reading Greek and drinking water, which wholesome beverage Dr. Cheyney had brought considerably into vogue. At the head of this singular society was Dr. Dumaresque, afterwards chaplain to the factory at Petersburg, Mr. Graves was, to use his own words, a pretty good Grecian, when he first went to Oxford, and during his continuance in such company for six months, in which time he had read over Epictetus, Theophrastus's characters, Phalaris's epistles, and such other Greek authors as are less frequently read in schools, it is to be supposed that he considerably enlarged his stores of erudition, and fixed his taste for literary pleasures. He did not, however, confine himself to this temperate society. After mixing successively in the various parties into which colleges are usually divided, he became particularly attached to Mr. Shenstone and Mr. Anthony Whistler, a young man of family and fortune in Oxfordshire, since likewise distinguished as the friend and correspondent of Shenstone. These three met almost every evening during the summer, and, less abstemious, though not less devoted to intellectual acquirement than the former party, "sipped Florence wine, and read plays and poetry, Spectators and Tatlers, and other writings of easy digestion." The conversation of men of such pleasing character was too congenial to Mr. Graves's mind to admit of any wish to change his present abode and situation, but as the revenues of a scholarship of Pembroke were very inadequate to the expences of an university education, he availed himself of his acquaintance with the late Mr. Wood, of Littleton, then a Fellow of All Souls, and was, by his interest, elected fellow of that college, in 1736. It is to his intimacy with Mr. Shenstone that Mr. Graves has been heard modestly to attribute the first notice he received from the world on appearing as a candidate for literary honours; but neither did his talents require the recommendation, of his friend's celebrity, nor was Mr. Shenstone the only person in whose regard his merits found their just estimation and support. At All Souls, with no less advantage to his growing fame, he formed likewise an intimate friendship with Mr. Blackstone, afterwards Sir William Blackstone; a man, whose extensive acquaintance with the various departments of science and art was only surpassed by his profound. knowledge of the laws of his country. With this great man Mr. Graves lived in habits of the most unreserved and social inter course, and their college friendship afterwards continued, uninterrupted and undiminished, to the latest hour of Sir William's life. Mr. Graves had early resolved to devote himself to theological studies; but the vivacity of his temper, ill suited to inactive contemplation, soon led him astray, and his thoughts turned to the more worldly allurements of the medical profession. Preparatively there fore to the study of physic, he came to London, and went through two courses of anatomy with the celebrated anatomist Dr. Nichols, when the attack of a nervous fever, occasioned probably by too ar dent application, compelled him to relinquish his medical pursuits, and he resumed the study of divinity, and in 1741 entered into Holy Orders. He now received an invitation from the amiable Mr. Fitzherbert, the father of the present Lord St. Heleris, who was just going to settle on his estate in Derbyshire, and, having a donative in his gift, wished to obtain the domestic society of a cler gyman. Mr. Graves accordingly accompanied him to Tippington, where his house became the resort of the most promising characters of the age, Mr. Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, Sir Eardly Wil mot, Mr. N. Harding, clerk of the house of commons, &c. &c. Here Mr. Graves resided for nearly three years, until he was called away by the duties of his college, where he was coming by turn into office. This induced him to wish for a curacy nearer to Oxford, and, having obtained one by the unsolicited kindness of a distant relation, he went to reside at it soon afterwards. But his career of learning was now interrupted by a power which often inspires, and often triumphs over the Muses. In the family, to which, on account of the incommodious state of the par sonage, he was admitted as a boarder, he became enamoured of the youngest daughter of a gentleman farmer, possessed of no other dower than beauty and artless good humour, and, his mind being filled with ideas of the most romantic happiness, he instantly soli cited her father's consent, and married her, without deigning to cast a thought on the indiscretion of such a proceeding. His college views, destroyed by the very means which he had taken to promote them, were now at an end, and, his marriage giving offence to his opulent relations, he was at once thrown on the world with no other resource than the slender fortune of a younger brother, and a curacy of fifty pounds a year. A series, however, of unexpected events relieved him from these threatening embarrassments. By a Fellow of All Souls, in no other respect friendly to him, he was advised to apply to Sir Thomas H― for his interest to procure a living then vacant in the neighbourhood; but as Mr. Graves had little or no claim on Sir Thomas's kindness, his application was on the point of becoming entirely fruitless, when a casual interview with Mr. Skrine,* a young gentleman of fortune, who was in search of a proper person to fill a living in his gift, fortunately reminded Sir Thomas of Mr. Graves's suit, and he procured for him the presentation to Claverton. The prospects of his life were thus closed in by a confined, but serene horizon; and on this living, to which he came in 1750, Mr. Graves resided till his death, without absenting himself a single month at any one time; exhibiting an example worthy of the ap probation of all, and the imitation of many, clergymen. # His life, subsequently to this period, was neither inactive nor useless to mankind. Besides his various literary compositions, as he found himself under the necessity of educating his own children, he was induced to take likewise other young gentlemen under his care, and his reputation as a classic scholar, at once profound and elegant, soon added celebrity, and numbers to his school. The vicinity of Claverton to Prior Park, the residence of the humble and illustrious Allen, afforded frequent opportunities of meeting and conversing with the visitors of that house, men selected for, and distinguished by, superior talents and virtue; from all of whom Mr. Graves met with the most gratifying attention, and particularly from the Bishop of Gloucester, among whose failings certainly was not that of wishing to stifle merit, or impede the progress of genius.† When Mr. Graves had been some time settled at Claverton, amidst the respect and love of his parishopers, a methodist shoemaker from Bradford came into his parish, bringing with him a large congregation, which assembled in an old spacious dwelling for the purposes of preaching and psalmody, and was soon reinforced by so many proselytes, that the rector thought it incumbent on him to attend the meeting in person, and to acquaint the preacher with the penalty to which his proceedings rendered him liable. Crispin's be • The father of the accomplished Lady Clarges. + As Mr. Allen lived in what was then thought a princely style, many of the first characters in England, distinguished by their rank, their learning, or their skill in any art or science, were the frequent guests of Prior Park. Mr. Pope, who was almost an inmate there, had now been dead some years, and Fielding was become a Middlesex Justice; but Dr. Warburton, Dr. Hurd, Mr. Richardson, the author of Clarissa, Mr. Mason, Mr. Hoare of Bath, Dr. Balguy, Prebendary of Windsor, and many other literary and remarkable characters, were hospitably and politely received by Mr. Allen. |