ས། Some other particulars, relating to Stubbe, may be read in the article GREATRAKES.. STUBBS (GEORGE), Rector of Gunville, in Dorsetfhire, a worthy, honeft, intelligent writer, though little known as fuch, wrote many of the best papers in the "Free-thinker, 1718," (in conjunction with Ambrofe Philips and others,) a "New Adventure of Telemachus," printed in the "London Journal" of 1723 or 4, fince printed feparately in 8vo. a beautiful piece,, founded upon principles of liberty and true government, and the reverfe of the Archbishop of Cambray's on that subject, which, however palliated, are upon a wrong foundation. Three or four letters in the "London Journal," by Bishop Hoadly, at that time figned "Britannicus," arguing against popery, (which obliged even that great and good man to make an entire fubmiffion without exception, to the Pope, againft the tenor of all his works) evidently laid the foundation on which G. Stubbs built this "New Ad"venture." He alfo wrote " A Dialogue on Beauty," in the manner of Socrates, between Socrates and Afpafia. This he made the elegant foundation of a copy of verfes on the late Dr. John Hoadly's marriage, 1735-6, inclofing to him, with a letter, "Afpafia to Florimel," referring all along to that dialogue. There are fome other copies of verfes by him still in manufcript, though well worthy preferving, viz. "The Athenian Statue," an allegorical poem, doing juftice both to Bifhop Rundle (whofe virtues he knew how to commend, as well as to laugh at his foibles), and to the ecclefiaftical prudery and flander of Bithop Gibson and Venn: "Fickle Friendship," on Dr. Rundle; and "Verfes on Mifs Wenman's Singing," the author having dreamed of her. Though the critics, perhaps, may think all these too florid, yet they are very beautiful, and would better please the many. He printed alfo two fmall volumes (if not more) of "Mad. Sevigné's Letters," the first ever known in English, and thought to preferve the good-humour of the originals better than any of his fucceffors. He was intimately connected with Mr. Deputy Wilkins [A], the Whig printer in Little-Britain, by marrying his fifter for his first wife, who, by the way, was Anecdotes of Bowyer, P. 621. taken in by the French prophets. G. Stubbs married a fecond wife at Salisbury, daughter of Mr. Alderman King, who after his death married Mr. Hinxman, Rector of Houghton near Stockbridge. Mr. Stubbs was a filent, referved man, as feeming confcious of a want of addrefs, though at the fame time fuperior abilities and genius. STUKELEY (WILLIAM), an antiquary of much by Nichols, celebrity, defcended from an ancient family [A] in Lincolnshire, was born at Holbech in that county, November 7, 1687. After having had the first part of his education at the free-fchool of that place, under the care of Mr. Edward Kelfal, he was admitted into Bene't College in Cambridge, Nov. 7, 1703, under the tuition of Mr. Thomas Fawcett, and chofen a fcholar there in April. following. Whilft an undergraduate, he often indulged a strong propenfity to drawing and defigning and began to form a collection of antiquarian books. He made phyfic however, his principal study, and with that view took frequent perambulations through the neighbouring country, with the famous Dr. Hales, Dr. John Gray of Canterbury, and others, in fearch of plants; and made great additions to Mr. Ray's "Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam;" which, with a map of the county, he was folicited to print; but his father's death and various domeftic avocations prevented it. He ftudied anatomy under Mr. Rolfe the furgeon; attended the chemical lectures of Signor Vigani; and, taking the degree of M. B. in 1709, made himself acquainted with the practical part of medicine under the great Dr. Mead at St. Thomas's hofpital. He firft began to practise at Boston in his native county, where he ftrongly recommended the chalybeate waters of Stanfield near Folkingham. In 1717 he removed to London, where, on the recommendation his friend Dr. Mead, he was foon after elected F. R. S. and was one of the first who revived that of the Antiquaries [B], [A] His father, John, was of the family of the Stukeleys, lords of Great Stukeley near Huntingdon. His mother, Frances, daughter of Robert Bullen, of Wefton, Lincolnshire, defcended from the fame ancestors with Anne Bullen. [2] He was alfo one of the earliest members of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding; and held a regular cor refpondence with Maurice Johnfon, Efq; and the learned Gales. Several of his letters to thofe gentlemen adorn the "Reliquiæ Galeanæ ;" and others (which ftill remain among his MSS. in the poffcffion of his daughter Mrs. Fleming, 1784) will, it is hoped, be communicated in fome future number of the "Bibliotheca Topographica.~ i in 1717-18, to which laft he was fecretary for many years during his refidence in town. He took the degree of M.D. at Cambridge in 1719, and was admitted a fellow of the college of phyficians in the year following, about which time (1720) he published an account of " Arthur's Oon" in Scotland, and of "Graham's dyke," with plates, 4to. In the year 1722, he was appointed to read the Gulftonian Lecture, in which he gave a defcription and history of the Spleen, and printed it in folio, 1723, together with some anatomical obfervations on the diffection of an elephant, and many plates coloured in imitation of nature. Conceiving there were fome remains of the Eleufinian mysteries in free-mafonry, he gratified his curiofity, and was conftituted mafter of a lodge (1723), to which he prefented an account of a Roman amphitheatre at Dorchester, 4to. After having been one of the cenfors of the College of Phyficians, of the council of the Royal Society, and of the committee to examine into the condition of the astronomical inftruments of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, he left London in 1726, and retired to Grantham [c], in Lincolnshire, where he foon came into great request. The Dukes of Ancafter and Rutland, the families of Tyrconnel, Cuft, &c. &c. and most of the principal families in the country, were glad to take his advice. During his refidence here, he declined an invitation from Algernon Earl of Hertford to fettle as a physician at Marlborough, and another to fucceed Dr. Hunter at Newark. In 1728 he married Frances daughter of Robert Williamfon, of Allington, near Grantham, gent. a lady of good family and fortune. He was greatly afflicted with the gout, which used generally to confine him during the winter months, on account of which, for the recovery of his health, it was cuftomary with him to take several journies in the spring, in which he indulged his innate love of antiquities, by tracing out the footsteps of Cæfar's expedition in this ifland, his camps, ftations, &c. The fruit of his more diftant travels was his " Itinerarium "Curiofum; or, an Account of the Antiquities and [c] In this town Sir Ifaac Newton part of Sir Ifaac's life and family, (one of the early friends of Dr. Stuke- which he communicated to Mr. Conley) received the first part of his edu-duit, who then propofed publishing his cation, and intended to have ended life. Thefe papers, through the marhis days, if he could have met with a riage of a daughter, fell afterwards faitable houfe. Dr. Stukeley, by his into the hands of the late Lord Lyrefidence there, had an opportunity of mington. collecting fome memoirs of the earlier VOL. XII. с "Curiofities “Curiofities in his Travels through Great Britian, Cen"turia I." adorned with one hundred copper plates, and published in folio, London, 1724. This was reprinted after his death, 1776, with two additional plates; as was also published the fecond volume (confifting of his descrip→ tion of The Brill, or Cæfar's camp at Pancras, " Iter Boreale, "1725," and his edition of Richard of Cirencefter [D], with his own and Mr. Bertram's [E] notes) illuftrated with 103 copper-plates engraved in the Doctor's life-time. Overpowered with the fatigue of his profeffion and repeated attacks of the gout, he turned his thoughts to the church; and, being encouraged in that purfuit by archbishop Wake, was ordained at Croydon, July 20, 1720; and in October following was prefented by Lord Chancellor King to the living of All Saints, in Stamford [F]. At the time of his entering on his parochial cure (1730), Doctor Rogers of that place had juft invented his Oleum Arthriticum; which Dr. Stukeley feeing others ufe with admirable fuccefs, he was induced to do the like, and with equal advantage: for it not only faved his joints, but, with the addition of a proper regimen, and leaving off the use of fermented liquors, he recovered his health and limbs to a furprising degree, and ever after enjoyed a firm and active ftate of body, beyond any example in the like circumftances, to a good old age. This occafioned him to publish an account of the fuccefs of the external application of this oils in innumerable inftances, in a letter to Sir Hans Sloane, 1733; and the year after he published alfo "A Treatise on "the Caufe and Cure of the Gout, from a new Rationale;" which, with an abstract thereof, has paffed through feveral éditions. He collected fome remarkable particulars at Stamford in relation to his predeceffor Bp. Cumberland; and in 1736 printed an explanation, with an engraving, of a curious filver plate of Roman workmanship in baffo [D] Published in 1757, under this title: "An Account of Richard of Cirencester, monk of Westminster, and of his Works: with his an"cient Map of Roman Britain; and "the Itinerary thereof." [z] See "Britannicarum Gentium "1757," 8vo. See alfo Dr. Stukeley's publication, p. 12, 13. The Doctor's letters to Mr. Bertram (which were in being Dec. 24, 1773, at Copenhagen) would be a curiofity. Thofe of Mr. Bertram to the Doctor are lafely preferved. [] He had the offer of that of Holbech, the place of his nativity, from Dr. Reynolds, bishop of Lincoln. and of another from the Earl of Win chelsea; but he declined them both. relievo, relievo, found under ground at Rifley Park in Derbyshire; wherein he traces its journey thither, from the church of Bourges, to which it had been given by Exfuperius, called St. Swithin, bishop of Thouloufe, about the year 205. He published alfo the fame year his "Palæographia "Sacra, N I. or, Difcourfes on the Monuments of Antiquity that relate to Sacred History," in 4to, which he dedicated to Sir Richard Ellys, bart." from whom he "had received many favours." In this work (which was to have been continued in fucceeding numbers [G]) he undertakes to thew, how Heathen Mythology is derived from Sacred Hiftory, and that the Bacchus in the Poets is no other than the Jehovah in the Scripture, the conductor of the Ifraelites through the wilderness. In his country retirement he difpofed his collection of Greek and Roman coins according to the order of the Scripture History; and cut out a machine in wood [H] (on the plan of an Orrery) which fhews the motion of the heavenly bodies, the courfe of the tide, &c. In 1737 he loft his wife; and in 1738 married Elizabeth the only daughter of Dr. Gale dean of York, and fifter to his intimate friends Roger [1] and Samuel Gale, Efquires; and from this time he often spent his winters in London. In 1740, he published an account of Stonehenge, dedicated to the Duke of Ancaster, who had made him one of his chaplains, and given him the living of Somerby near Grantham the year before. In 1741 he preached a Thirtieth of January Sermon hefore the House of Commons; and in that year became one of the founders of the Egyptian Society [K]. In 1743 he printed an account [a]" In the progrefs of this work, "one of my views is an attempt to re"cover the faces or refemblances of "many great perfonages in antiquity, "mentioned in the Scriptures. If "novelty will please, I need not fear "of fuccefs: but it will not appear fo frange a matter as it feems at first "fight, when we have once afcer"tained the real perfons characterised "by the Heathen Gods and Demi gods Dr. Stukeley to Mr. Gale, May 9. 1737.—“I have wrote this "fummer a Difcourfe on the Mythe“ries of the Ancients, and would wil"liugly communicate it to you, as a "fecond number to my "Palæogra" på ́a Sacra.—Poor Maittaire is now ar Belvoir with the Duke. I think the Critic is in a declining flate of "health. I vifited Meadus; and Bibliotheca [H] He alfo cut out a Stonehenge [1] Whom he frequently accompanied in antiquarian excurfions. [K] Of which fee the "Anecdotes "of Bowyer," p. 107 and 623. The great and learned Eari of Pembroke, the first patron of this fociety, accompanied Dr. Stukeley in opening the barrows on the Wiltshire Downs; and drawings of his Lordship's antique marbles at Wilton were taken by the Doctor. |