Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/289

 GRIERSON. 285 to these extensive and valuable literary labours, Dr. Gre gory contributed to various other works, and was for several years conductor of the “New Annual Register.” In his youth he wrote some verses; and a tragedy, entitled, the “Siege of Jerusalem,” has been attributed to him. Dr. Gregory was no less amiable in private life, than eminent as a literary character. He was for many years an active and zealous friend of the Royal Humane Society, and at their anniversary in 1797, he preached a sermon on the prevention of suicide. He was eminently useful as a member of the committees, as his knowledge of mechanics fully qualified him to decide on the merits of the different inventions presented to the society, for preserving the lives of shipwrecked seamen. He was elected F.S.A. in 1785. In 1789, he formed a matrimonial union with Miss Nunnes. He died, after a short illness, on the evening of March 12th, 1808, and was buried in the parochial church of West Ham. CONSTANTIA GRIERSON. That the most splendid talents united with the most intense application, is not confined either to sex or sphere of life, is fully evinced by the subject of the present memoir. This prodigy of early learning and acquirements (whose maiden name is no where mentioned) was born in the county of Kilkenny, of parents poor and illiterate. Nothing is recorded of her until her eighteenth year, when we are told by Mrs. Pilkington, that she was brought to her father to be instructed in midwifery, and that then she was a perfect mistress of the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French languages, and was far advanced in the study of the mathematics. Mr. Pilkington having inquired of her where she gained this prodigious knowledge, she modestly replied, that when she could spare time from her needle work, to which she was closely kept by her mother, she