of Lady Roifia's fepulchral cell lately discovered at Royston, in a tract, intituled, "Paleographia Britannica, N° I." to which an answer was published by Mr. Parkin [L] in 1744. The Doctor replied in " Palæographia Britannica, "N°II." 1746, giving an account therein of the origin of the univerfities of Cambridge and Stamford, both from Croyland Abbey; of the Roman city Granta, on the North-fide of the river, of the beginning of Cardike near Waterbeach, &c. To this Mr. Parkin again replied in 1748; but it does not appear that the Doctor took any further notice of him. In 1747 the benevolent Duke of Montagu (with whom he had become acquainted at the Egyptian Society) prevailed on him to vacate his preferments in the country, by giving him the rectory of St. George, Queen Square; whence he frequently retired to Kentish Town, where the following infcription was placed over his door,:

"Me dulcis faturet quies;
"Obfcuro pofitus loco
"Leni perfruar otio

"Chyndonax Druida [M].

"O may this rural folitude receive,

"And contemplation all its pleasures give,
"The Druid prieft!"

He had the misfortune to lofe his patron in 1749; on whofe death he published fome verses, with others on his entertainment at Boughton, and a "Philofophic Hymn "on Chriftimas-Day." Two papers by the Doctor, upon the Earthquakes in 1750, read at the Royal Society, and a Sermon preached at his own parish church on that alarming occafion, were published in 8vo, 1750, under the title of" The Philofophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious;" of which a fecond part was printed with a fecond edition of his fermon on "the Healing of Diseases as a Character of the Meffiah, preached before the College of Phyficians Sept. 20, 1750." In 1751 (in "Palæographia Britannica, N° III.") he gave an account of Oriuna

[1] Charles Parkin, M. A rector of Oxburgh, who continued Mr. Blom field's Hiftory of Norfolk.

[M] Alluding to an urn of glafs fo infcriped, found in France, which he was firmly perfuaded contained the athes of an arch-druid of that name.

(whofe portrait forms the frontispiece to Stonehenge), though the French Antiquaries in general confidered it as a forgery; but Mr. Tutet has a MS. vindication of it, by fome learned French antiquary, 43 pages in fmali 4to.

the wife of Caraufius; in Phil. Tranf. vol. XLVIII. art. 33, an account of the Eclipfe predicted by Thales; and in the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1754, p. 407, is the fubftance of a paper read at the Royal Society in 1752, to prove that the coral-tree is a real fea-vegetable. On Wednesday the 27th of February, 1765, Dr. Stukeley was feized with a ftroke of the palfy, which was brought on by attending a full veftry, at which he was accompanied by Serjeant Eyre [N], on a contefted election for a lecturer. The room being hot, on their return through Dr. Stukeley's garden, they both caught their deaths; for the Serjeant never was abroad again, and the Doctor's illness came on that night. Soon after this accident his faculties failed him; but he continued quiet and compofed until Sunday following, the 3d of March, 1765, when he departed, in his feventy-eighth year, which he attained by remarkable temperance and regularity. By his own particular directions, his corpfe was conveyed in a private manner to Eaft-Ham in Effex, and was buried in the church-yard, juft beyond the Eaft end of the church, the turf being laid fmoothly over it, without any monument. This fpot he particularly fixed on, in a vifit he paid fome time before to the vicar of that parifh [o], when walking with him one day in the church-yard. Thus ended a valuable life, daily fpent in throwing light on the dark remains of antiquity. His great learning and profound skill in those refearches enabled him to publifh many elaborate and curious works, and to leave many ready for the prefs. In his medical capacity, his "Differtation on the Spleen" was well received. His "Itinerarium Curiofum," the firft fruits of his juvenile excurfions, prefaged what might be expected from his riper age, when he had acquired more experience. The curious in these studies were not difappointed, for, with a fagacity peculiar to his great genius, with unwearied pains and induftry, and fome years spent in actual furveys, he inveftigated and published an account of thofe ftupendous works of the remoteft antiquity, Stonehenge and Abury, in 1743, and hath given the moft probable and rational account of their origin and use, afcertaining alfo their dimenfions with the greatest accuracy. So great was his proficiency in Druidical hiftory, that his familiar friends ufed to call him, "The Arch-Druid "of this age." ." His works abound with particulars that

[x] Of whom fee further in Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 625.

[o] Of whom fee the Anecdotes as before, p. 625. fhew

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fhew his knowledge of this celebrated British priesthood; and in his Itinerary he announced a History of the "ancient Celts, particularly the firft inhabitants of Great "Britain," for the most part finished, to have confifted of four volumes folio, with above 300 copper-plates, many of which were engraved. Great part of this work was incorporated into his Stonehenge and Abury. In his. "Hiftory of Caraufius," in two vols. 4to, 1757, 1759, he has fhewn much learning and ingenuity in fettling the principal events of that emperor's government in Britain. To his intereft and application we are indebted for recovering from obfcurity Richard of Cirencester's Itinerary of Roman Britain, which has been mentioned in p. 622. His difcourfes, or ferinons, under the title of " Palæogra"phia Sacra, 1763," on the vegetable creation," &c. befpeak him a botanift, philofopher, and divine, replete with ancient learning, and excellent obfervations; but a little too much tranfported by a lively fancy and invention. He clofed the laft fcenes of his life with completing a long and laborious work on ancient British coins, in particular of Cunobelin; and felicitated himfelf on having from them discovered many remarkable, curious, and new anecdotes, relating to the reign of that and other British kings. The 23 plates of this work were published after his decease; but the MS. (left ready for publishing) remains in the hands of his daughter Mrs. Fleming, reliét of Richard Fleming, Efq; an eminent folicitor, who was the Doctor's executor. By his first wife Dr. Stukeley had three daughters; of whom one died young; the other two furvived him; the one, Mrs. Fleming already mentioned; the other, wife to the Rev. Thomas Fairchild, rector of Pitfey, in Effex. By his fecond wife, Dr. Stukeley had no child. To the great names already mentioned among his friends and pations, may be added thofe of Mr. Folkes, Dr. Berkeley Bifhop of Cloyne (with whom he correfponded on the fubject of Tarwater), Dr. Pocock Bishop of Meath, and many others of the firft rank in literature at home: and among the eminent foreigners with whom he correfponded were Dr. Heigertahl, Mr. Keyfler, and the learned Father Montfaucon, who inferted fome of his defigns (fent him by archbishop Wake) in his "Antiquity explained.' good account of Dr. Stukeley was, with his own permiffion, printed in 1755, by Mr. Mafters, in the fecond part of his "Hiftory of Corpus Chrifti College," and very

A

foon

foon after his death a short but just character of him was given in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1765, by his ́ friend Peter Collinfon. Of both thefe, the author of the Anecdotes of Bowyer" availed himfelf; and was favoured with feveral additional particulars from refpectable authority. After his decease, a medal of him was caft and repaired by Gaub; on one fide the head adorned with oak leaves, infcribed REV. GVL. STVKELEY, M. D. S. R. & A. s. Exergue, æt. 54. Reverse, a view of Stonehenge, OB. MAR. 4, 1765, ÆT. 84; [but this is a mistake, for the Doctor was but 78.]. There is a portrait of him after Kneller in mezzotinto by J. Smith in 1721, before he took orders, with his arms, viz. Argent, a Spread Eagle double-headed Sable. Mrs. Fleming has another portrait of him in his robes, by Wills; and Mrs. Parfons (relict of Dr. James Parfons) has a fine miniature, which is efteemed a good likeness.

Adam in

STURMIUS (JAMES), a German of great learning Melchior, and excellent qualities, was of a noble family of Strafburg, vitis jurifand born there in 1489. He made himself illuftrious by confult. the fervices he did his country; and discharged the most Bayle,Die. confiderable posts with the greatest capacity and probity. He acquitted himself with the highest reputation of feveral deputations to the diets of the empire, the imperial court, and that of England. He contributed very much to the reformation of religion at Strafburg, to the erecting of a college which was opened there ten years after, and to the History of the reformation in Germany by Sleidan. This Sleidan thus teftifies, in his preface to that excellent work: "Nothing becomes an hiftory more, than truth "and candour; and I am fure I have taken great pains, "that nothing might be wanting to me in that refpect:

for I have not advanced any thing upon flight grounds " and mere report, but have taken my materials from the "records, which I have carefully collected, and which are "of undoubted authority. I received likewife the affiftance "of that noble and excellent perfon, James Sturmius, who, "having been above thirty years engaged in public and "important affairs with the higheft reputation, and having "generously honoured me with his friendship, frequently "cleared up my doubts, and put me into the right way; "and, at my request before his laft illness, read over the "greatest part of the work, and made the neceffary remarks upon it." He died at Strafburg O&t. 30, 1553, after languishing of a fever for two months. Sleidan, who mentions

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this,

66

Hift. lib. this, adds, that "he was a man of great prudence and inxxv. ad ann. tegrity, and the glory of the German nobility, on ac"count of the excellent qualities of his mind, and his distinguished learning."

1553.

In vitis philofoph.. Bayle, Dict.

66

Though he had a zeal for religion, yet he had been fome years without receiving the communion; being fcandalized, as well he might, at the difputes which prevailed among the divines concerning thefe words, "This is my body."

STURMIUS (JOHN), the Cicero of Germany, if we may use the terms of Melchior Adam, was born at Sleida in Eifel, near Cologne, in 1507. He was initiated in letters in his native country, with the fons of count de Manderscheid, whofe receiver his father was, and afterwards ftudied at Liege in the college of St. Jerome. In 1524, he went to Louvain, where he fpent five years, three in learning, and two in teaching; and had for his fellow-ftudents John Sleidan, Andrew Vefalius, and fome others, who afterwards became very eminent men, and had a great efteem for him. He fet up a printing-prefs with Rudger Refcius, profeffor of the Greek tongue, and printed feveral Greek authors. He began with Homer, and foon after carried thofe editions to Paris in 1529, where he made himfelf highly efteemed, and read public lectures upon the Greek and Latin writers, and upon logic. He married alfo there, and kept a great number of boarders; but as he liked what was called the new opinions in religion, he was more than once in danger; which, undoubtedly, was the reason why he removed to Strasburg in 1537, in order to take poffeffion of the place offered him by the magiftrates. The year following he opened a fchool, which became famous, and by his means obtained of the emperor Maximilian II. the title of an univerfity in 1566. He was very well fkilled in polite literature, wrote Latin with great purity, and understood the method of teaching; and it was owing to him, that the college of Strafburg, of which he was rector, became the most flourishing in all Germany. His talents were not confined to the fchool; he was frequently intruffed with feveral deputations in Germany and foreign countries, and difcharged thefe employments with great honour and diligence. He fhewed extreme charity to the refugees on account of religion: he was not fatisfied with labouring to affift them by his advice and recommendations, but he alfo

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