Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/205

Askew 'Seven against Thebes' in terms little complimentary to the learning or honesty of Askew. Askew's house was crowded with books up to the garrets. The collection was chiefly classical, and it was its possessor's aim to have every edition of a Greek author. The sale of his library lasted twenty days in the year 1775, and produced 3,993l. 0s. 6d. The principal purchasers were Dr. Hunter, Mr. Cracherode, the British Museum, and the kings of England and of France. The sale of Askew's manuscripts did not take place till 1785. Among the lots were the manuscripts of Mead and Taylor. An appendix to Scapula's Lexicon, edited by Dr. Chas. Burney in 1789, is described as taken 'è codice manuscripto olim Askeviano.' A verbal index to Aristophanes, by John Caravella, an Epirote, published at Oxford in 1822, is one of a series formerly in Askew's library. John Caravella was Dr. Askew's librarian.

Askew's regard for Mead was great; he engaged Roubiliac to execute his friend's bust in marble. Like Mead, he received many visitors, among them Archbishop Markham, Sir William Jones, Dr. Farmer, Dr. Samuel Parr, and Demosthenes Taylor. With the last he was very intimate, and subsequently became his executor. As Askew had travelled in the East, he was conjectured to be learned in all the oriental tongues, and in accordance with this remarkable hypothesis a Chinese, named Chetqua, was on one occasion brought to him. It is said that Askew made himself very agreeable to Chetqua, but Chetqua did not understand him, nor did he understand Chetqua. The Chinaman was, however, sufficiently grateful to Askew to make a model of him in his robes in unbaked potter's clay, coloured, about a foot high. This model may be seen in the College of Physicians, to which it was given by Sir Lucas Pepys, who married Askew's daughter. In the same college is the gold-headed cane which Radcliffe gave to Mead, Mead to Askew, and which, after passing through the hands of Pitcairn and Baillie, was finally placed by Joanna Baillie in its present domicile. He is the author of a manuscript volume of Greek inscriptions, now preserved among the Burney MSS. in the British Museum. An engraved portrait of Askew is given in the 2nd volume of Dibdin's enlarged edition of Ames's 'Typographical Antiquities.'

[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit.Mus. Catal.; Nichols's Lit. Anec. 3, 494; Dibdin, Bibliom. p. 515; Hirschung, Hist.-Lit. Handb. i. 60; Cantab. Grad. p. 12.] 

ASKEW, EGEON (b. 1576), divine, was a native of Lancashire. His family was originally of Mulcaster, in Cumberland, and subsequently of Kirby Ireleth, in North Lancashire, at which latter place one Thomas Askew, M.A., was instituted vicar in 1606. At the age of seventeen Egeon Askew became a student of the university of Oxford; he was B.A. April 1597, chaplain of Queen's College 1598, and M.A. June 1600. About the time of the accession of James I, having the reputation of a noted preacher, he was minister of Greenwich, Kent. He was the author of one book only, which was entered by George Bishop on the registers of Stationers' Hall 27 March 1605, said to be by Egeon Acton Askew, of Queen's College. This work is made up of college sermons, and is somewhat scarce. When Dr. Bliss edited Wood, there was no copy in the Bodleian Library; and the copy which Wood saw is wrongly described, being made into two books, after his manner. It was entitled 'Brotherly Reconcilement; preached in Oxford for the vnion of some, and now published with larger meditations for the vnitie of all in this church and common-wealth. With an apologie of the use of the Fathers and secular learning in sermons.' Lond. 4to, 1605. The dedication to King James is dated from Greenwich, 27 April that year. The book shows traces of very wide reading, the margins being filled with references to ancient authorities. Hence Wood described him as 'a person as well read in the fathers, commentators, and schoolmen, as any man of his age in the university.' The second portion of the book is in strict keeping with the style of composition in which he indulged; it is a discussion 'whether Humanitie, i.e. anything beside the words of scripture, be lawful quoad esse or quoad gradum at all, as some deny, or only against adversaries, as some hold, in sermons academical or popular.' It is not known when or where Askew died. Evelyn assured Wood that he did not die at Greenwich.

[Wood's Athen. Oxon. (Bliss), i. 756; Fasti, i. 274, 285.] 

ASPINALL, JAMES (d. 1861), miscellaneous writer and popular preacher, had first under his care a church in Cheshire, about fifteen miles from Manchester. He then became curate of Rochdale, where he remained for five years. He afterwards resided at Liverpool, and in 1831 was the incumbent of St. Luke's, where he preached a remarkable sermon called 'The Crisis, or the Signs of the Times with regard to the Church of England.' He then went to live in Lincolnshire, on the banks of the Trent, and in 1844 he was rector of Althorpe, a place which he held till his death. On 26 Jan. of that year he