Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/471

 POECKRIDGE. 467 books; and, at the expense of near 700l. he erected the beautiful gates and lodges at their botanical garden, at Glassnevin, near the city. He printed and circulated, gratuitously, a large edition of a most rare and valuable work, “Reflections and Resolutions,” by the Rev. Sa muel Madden, D. D. Dublin, 1738, 8vo. It is impossible to enumerate the extent of his private charities—he seemed only to exist for the purposes of benevolence and libe rality, and to diffuse comfort in the habitations of the wretched. By his will, after legacies to a surviving brother, to some other relations, his law agent, surgeon, apothe cary, and domestics, he appoints three trustees, to whom he gives 100l. per annum each, for life, in consideration of their trouble; and, after their decease, the same sum to the senior curates of Peter's and St. Bride's parishes, who are to be trustees for ever. To these trustees, he bequeaths his house and garden in Camden-street, and 15,000l. to found a school for protestant females, where as many as the funds will permit, are to be lodged, dieted, clothed, and educated, so as to render them useful members of society, and the trustees are to be residuary legatees to a l l his remaining property for the funds o f this school. To the schools and alms-houses o f St. Bride's parish, h e bequeathed 6000l. To the parishes o f St. Luke and St. Catherine, 1000l. each, and the same sums t o the Fever and Meath hospitals. His fine collection o f paintings, b y Rubens, Vandyke, Schalken, Rembrandt, &c. t o the Dublin Society for the Encouragement o f the Fine Arts i n Ireland, that country h e s o much loved, and o f which he was one o f the brightest ornaments. POECKRIDGE, We are informed, i n the “Philosophical Survey o f the South o f Ireland,” was the inventor o f the musical glasses. He was born t o a good estate i n the county o f Monaghan; but being more attached t o music than economy, he, like many other men o f genius, outlived the possession o f i t , and was obliged, i n h i s old age, t o make out a precarious