mained at Rome till after the death of his elder brother. Sir Robert Driden, our author's first cousin, who was unmarried, and died at CanonsAshby on the 19th of August, 1708, at the age of seventy-six, by his will devised his estate to his kinsman, Edward Dryden, the eldest son of Erasmus, a younger brother of the Poet; passing by

sons. Mrs. Thomas probably led him into the other errour, that one of them was a priest; for this conversation passed in 1736, some years after her spurious narrative was published. The other part of his information was correct; for Erasmus-Henry was certainly a Captain (and probably as he stated, a Captain in the Pope's Guards); as appears from the account-books of his uncle, Erasmus, in one of which are the following entries:

"Recʻ March y' first, 1709, [1709-10,] of Jo. Williams, to pay Captain Dryden my sonn's money rent accompt-10. os. od."

The same sum is entered again in another place thus : "March first, [1709-10] of Jo. Williams, payd to Captain Dryden, 10l. os. od."

"22 May, 1710. Recd per Jo. Williams, twenty pounds, payd to Sir Erasmus Dryden, per sonn Dryden's order. [He had succeeded to the title only a day or two before.]

"Reed about August the seaventh [1710], paid to Sir Eras. Dryden, by my sonn Mr. Edw. Dryden, before he came to Ashby,-20l. o. o."

In the year 1712, he drew up the following Account for the three preceding years, including the sums paid to Sir Erasmus-Henry Dryden, for part of that time, (both before and after he was a Baronet,) and to his mother before and after his death:.

Erasmus-Henry, the poet's youngest son, and a still nearer relation, to whom the title devolved,

Laday Dryden and Sir Eras. Accompt for 3 years. "A receipt in full to Laday [day] per Sir Eras. 1709.

"Paid, as appears by receipts, to Sir Eras.

and Mr. Shaw, [receiver for Lady Eliza

beth Dryden.].

"To Mr. Hodges [the Apothecary who attended Sir Erasmus-Henry Dryden in his last illness.].

100l.

"To funeral charges

"Per receipts.

"Recd from Laday [Lady-day] 1709 to
Michellmas, 1710, one yeare and halfe,
at 6oli. per ann.

"From Mickelmas 1710 to Laday [Lady-‚.
day,] 1712, Lady [E. Dryden's] Thirds,
`1 yeare and halfe, at 20li. per ann. · •
Recd of my dau. Dryden, [the wife of
his son, Edward Dryden,] by moneys
from Sir Eras. twenty-three shillings,
[probably the money in his pocket,
when he died.]

In the rough draft of this account, the sum above mentioned, paid to Captain Dryden in March 1709-10, is specified. His uncle appears to have occasionally supplied him with ten pounds at a time; and the nephew,

John Dryden, the eldest son of William Dryden, of Farndon, in the county of Northampton, who was the second son of Sir Erasmus Driden, the first Baronet of this family. Sir John Dryden enjoyed this unsubstantial honour but about a year and a half, dying, without issue male, at Woodford, in Northamptonshire, where he was buried, May the 22d, 1710; and by his death the title of Baronet devolved on the poet's third son, Erasmus-Henry. From the time his kinsman, Edward, became possessed of the family estate in 1708, Erasmus-Henry probably was an inmate at Canons-Ashby, where he appears to have resided after he succeeded to the title; and from various entries in the account-books of his uncle Erasmus, respecting the rents of the patrimonial estate in Northamptonshire, which were regularly received by him for the use of his nephew, though he was himself on the spot, I imagine he was in a state of mental imbecility, derived perhaps, from his mother. He lived little more than six months after his accession to the title; for having died at the family mansion in the fortysecond year of his age, he was interred in the church of Canons-Ashby, December 4th, 1710.°

it should seem, was sometimes obliged to borrow from him very small sums; for at the bottom of the last account made up in 1712, I find-" Lent at divers times to Sir Eras.-135."

Register of the parish of Woodford. 6 Register of Canons-Ashby.

By

his death the title was transferred to his uncle, Erasmus, who survived him near eight years, dying at the same place, November 3, 1718, at the age of eighty-two; and his son Edward having died in the preceding year, John Dryden, the eldest grandson of Erasmus, became the seventh Baronet; and the family estate and dignity were in his person once more united.

Dr. Johnson conceived, that no description of Dryden's person had been transmitted to us; but, on the contrary, there are few English poets, of whose external appearance more particulars have been recorded. We have not indeed any original whole-length portrait of him, such as that very curious delineation of Pope, with which we have been lately gratified, whence a more perfect notion of that poet's external appearance may be obtained than from all the friendly drawings of Richardson; yet from various descriptions of Dryden's person that have come down to us, a very adequate idea of it may be formed. He was certainly a short, fat, florid man," corpore quadrato," as Lord Hailes

Edward Dryden, the eldest son of the last Sir Eras mus Dryden, left by his wife, Elizabeth Allen, who died. in London in 1761, five sons; the youngest of whom, Bevil, was father of the present Lady Dryden. Sir John, the eldest, survived all his brothers, and died without issue, at Canons-Ashby, March 20, 1770.

So, perhaps, in Radcliffe's NEWS FROM HELL, 1682: "Laureat, who was both learn'd and florid, "Was damn'd long since for silence horrid."

some years ago observed to me; "a description which Æneas Sylvius applied to James the First of Scotland." The same gentleman remarked, that at one time he wore his hair in large quantity, and that it inclined to gray, even before his misfortunes; a circumstance which, he said, he had learned from a portrait of Dryden, painted by Kneller, formerly in the possession of the late Mr. James West. But perhaps his Lordship here is not quite accurate. By "before his misfortunes" was meant, before the Revolution; but the portrait in question, I suspect, was painted at a later period. From other documents, however, it appears that he became gray, before he was deprived of the laurel."

Again, in THE MEDAL OF JOHN BAYES, 4to. 1682:

46

Methinks, the ghost of Horace there I see,

Lashing this cherry-cheek'd dunce of fifty-three." (Blockheads, it is observable, in all ages have vented their spleen against men of parts, by calling them dunces.)

See also THE HIND AND THE PANTHER TRANSVERSED, 1687:-" Smith. What, is not there good eating and drinking on both sides? You make the separation greater than I thought it.

46

Bayes. No, no: whenever you see a fat rosy-colour'd fellow, take it from me, he is either a Protestant or a Turk. "Smith. At that rate, Mr. Bayes, one might suspect your conversion: methinks, thou hast as much the face of an heretick as ever I saw.

66

Bayes. Such was I, such by nature still I am.' But I hope ere long I shall have drawn this pampered paunch fitter for the strait gate."

9 See THE LAUREAT, 1687:

"See there a youth, a shame to thy gray hairs,

"Make a mere dunce of all thy threescore years."