Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/83

 10" 8. IV. JULY 22.1905.) NOTES AND QUERIES. 63 thither Lady Rothes and his large family. We saw much of them, and were highly gratified by their society. Dr. Johnson and General Paoli came down to visit Mr. Lang ton, and I was asked to meet them, when the conversation took place mentioned by Boswell, in which Johnson gave me more credit for knowledge of the Greek metres than I deserved. There was some question about anapfestica, con- cerning which I happened to remember what Foster nsed to tell us at Eton, that the whole series to the Baiis Anapiestica was considered but as one verse, however divided in the printing, and consequently the syllables at the end of each line were not Common, as in other metres. This observation was new to Johnson and struck him. Had he examined me further, I fear he would have found me ignorant. Langton was a very good Greek scholar, much superior to Johnson, to whom nevertheless he paid profound deference, sometimes indeed I thought more than he deserved. "I remember Lady Rothes sjx>ke of the advantage children now derived from the little books pub- lished purposely for their instruction. Johnson controverted it, asserting that at an early age it was better to gratify curiosity with wonders, than to attempt planting truth before the miud was prepared to receive it, and that therefore Jack the i iMiit-Killer, Parisnuis and Parismenus, and the Seven Champions of Christendom, were litter for them than Mrs. liarbauld or Mrs. Trimmer. He did not, however, convert his audience, for neither Lady Rothes nor my wife changed their mode of instruction in consequence." Longley, in August, 1786, on a visit with his family to Ramsgate, narrowly escaped death through being dashed by the sea with great violence against a bathing-machine. With some friends he paid a visit of four days to Calais and Boulogne, probably the sole occasion on which he was out of Eng- land. But in the summer of 1794 lie made a tour, with his own carriage and horses, through Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Longley was a Whig in politics. To the American war ho was warmly opposed. He was a keen advocate for reform in Parlia- ment, and he approved of Pitt's commercial treaty with France. When John .Reeves (see 'D.1S.B.') started his notorious association for preserving liberty and property against Levellers and Republicans, a branch was founded at Rochester, and Longley was chosen chairman. A committee was formed for the purpose of distributing useful publications, its members being the Dean, the Archdeacon, and the chairman of the branch; but Longley found that the Dean was bent on distributing a tract entitled ' Thomas Bull: Letter to his Brother John,' which was written by Jones of Nayland. This abused the French, declaring their government unlawful, " be- cause God never made an anointed republic," and vilified the English Dissenters, "accusing them of having occasioned the American war." Longley's protests against its issue were in vain. It was insinuated that ho must have been " influenced by a Jacobinical partiality to the French," and although he refrained from public action, " the Dean and clergy refused to dine with me as usual at the next audit, and the Dampier family and ours no longer visited." Folly very like this was conspicuous in a more recent war. In 1796 he contested, on purity principles, the representation of the city of Rochester, but he was at the bottom of the poll. From the statements in the autobiography about his resources, it is evident that Longley was not a good manager of his private affairs, and it became necessary for him to econo- mize by leaving Rochester. At Christmas, 1799, he took possession of a farm called Angley, and situated within a mile of Cran- brook, which he had purchased. Here he laid out hop-grounds, the result of a sale for 400£. of the produce of under three acres, and " in the six years during which I was a planter there was but one in which I lost, and I was in some a considerable gainer." On leaving Satis House, which he after- wards sold, he resigned the Recqrdership (23 July, 1803) and the post of assistant in the Bridge Trust, which he had held for near thirty years. He lived at Angley for about three years, when he sold it for 11,000?. to Sir Walter James, and removed to a very pleasant house at Hampstead, "at the ex- tremity of the town, very near the Heath," commanding an extensive view. In 1807, through the interest of Lord Darnley, a seat at the Thames police-court was given to him by Earl Spencer, the Homo Secretary in the Administration of 1806-7. The net salary was at first 4501., and then 540/. per annum, and his colleagues were John Harriott(see 'D.N.B.')and Mr. Kinnaird. Living at Hampstead, besides being exces- sive for his income, was inconvenient for his official duties. On 9 September, 1810, he " took a small house in Rowland Street, Fitzroy Square." Harriott died on 2 February, 1817, and Longley succeeded as resident magistrate, " the saving in house rent being near 200Z. per annum." In this position he remained until his death on 5 April, 1822. A beautiful miniature of him by John Smart now belongs to Lady Longley. Longley's wife was born on 25 March, 1754> and died at Putney on 24 or 25 September, 1845 (Gent. May., 1822, i. 475 ; 1845, ii. 544>. George Richmond, R.A., painted her portrait, which now belongs to Lady Longley. They had seventeen children. The eldest lived but twenty-four hours; John, Mary, and Clara