T

field Church, Bucks, (See Plate 1.) was taken from the window of a back parlour at the Saracen's Head Inn.The Monumental Inscriptions of this place are preserved in "The Topographer," vol. IV. p. 67; and I shall only point out to your Readers the Pyramid seen in the Church-yard, as the tomb of the gentle Waller;

"Maker and model of melodious verse." Yours, &c.

WILLIAM HAMPER.

The late Rev. Dr. Barnes was born

at Warrington, co. Lancaster, on what was then called the first, but now the thirteenth day of February, 1747. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Tho. Blinston, an eminently pious and useful Minister of the Gospel among the Nonconformists, for whom the Protestant Dissenters' present place of worship at Park-lane, near Wigan, was originally built. His father, Mr. William Barnes, died when he was young, not more than three years old. His mother, how ever, Elizabeth Barnes, daughter of the above-mentioned worthy Divine, was a very pious and excellent woman; and, under her tender care and good instruction, he was in his early youth, brought up under very serious impressions of religion. In consequence of the views and feelings which were thus excited in his mind, he soon discovered a strong inclination

to the sacred office of the Christian Ministry. He was accordingly educated with a view to this employment; first, at the Grammar-school in his native town, under the tuition of the late Rev. Mr. Owen, who is wellknown to have been an excellent classical scholar; then under the care of the Rev. Philip Holland, who kept a very respectable boarding-school at Bolten, to which place he went in 1761; and hence he removed, in the GENT. MAG. August, 1810.

summer of 1764, to the academy at Warrington, of which the Rev. Dr. Aikin was, at that time, principal tator; a gentleman equally distinguished by his learning and piety, and for whose memory his pupil, the subject of this Memoir, always expressed the highest veneration. He was also upon terms of very considerable intimacy, during his academical course of studies, and particularly in the latter part of it, with the late Dr. Priestley, who was then a tutor, in the department of the Languages and Belles Lettres, in the Warrington academy; and assisted him materially in some parts of the Rudiments of English Grammar, which the Doctor published about this period, particularly in collecting the examples of false grammatical construction, which are given in it, from Hume, and other Authors of established celebrity.

In the summer of 1768 the Rev. Tho. Barnes, for so he was now become, left the academy; having gone through his course of studies there with great honour to himself, and given full satisfaction to his tutors, both by his general behaviour, and by his proficiency in all those branches of learning to which his attention had been directed, and which are usually studied by candidates for the Ministry among the Protestant Dissenters of this kingdom, in their most respectable seminaries of education. His first settlement in the Ministry, which took place immediately upon his leaving the academy, was at Cockey Moor, near Bolton, iu his native county, and in the following year, he was there regularly set apart to the sacred office, by Ordination, for which service he continued, through life, a strenuous advocate. From his first entrance upon the work of the Christian Ministry, he applied to the discharge of its important duties with uncommon zeal and diligence; and his labours were crowned with correspondent success. During his continuance at Cockey Moor, which was nearly 12 years, the Congregation was much more than doubled, probably more than trebled, in the num ber of its members, under his pastoral care; and he was an eminently useful labourer, in the vineyard of his Master, though in a plain country situation.

In

In May 1780 he removed to Manchester, and became connected there, in the Pastoral relation, with one of the largest, most wealthy, and respectable Congregations among the Protestant Dissenters, of what is called the Presbyterian denomination, in this kingdom; and in this connexion be continued, during a period of upwards of 30 years, to the time of his death. Here also he approved himself a faithful, zealous, and affectionate Pastor, and was held in very high estimation, not only by the people of his immediate charge, but also by the inhabitants of the town in general. His regular duty only called him to perform one public service on the Sabbath; but, not long after his set tlement in Manchester, in the winter of 1782, he voluntarily undertook an Evening Service or Lecture, which soon began to be very numerously attended, and which he regularly continued every Sabbath evening in the winter season, till the declining state of his health, in conjunction with the circumstance of his having the whole regular duty of the Congregation devolved upon him, through the indisposition of his colleague, induced his friends, about the middle of last winter, to insist upon his either declining the Lecture, or having assistance procured for him in the other parts of the duty; in which circumstances he chose the former alternative, thinking it the more expedient measure upon the whole, though the Evening Lecture was his favourite service, and that which he thought more useful than any other which he performed. It has for several years past been attended by an audience amounting to upwards of 2000 in number; consisting chiefly, of respectable, serious, and attentive hearers, of different demominations of Religious Professions.

In the beginning of 1784 the subject of this Memoir had the degree of D. D. conferred upon him by the University of Edinburgh, upon the voluntary, and on his part unsought, recommendation of friends, who were well able to appreciate his Literary attainments, and whose testimonial to them, consequently, reflected upon him great honour. Of this measure the late Dr. Percival was the principal promoter. Not long after this, the Rev. Dr. Barnes was induced, by the solicitations of ais friends, to under

take, in conjunction with his colleague in the Pastoral office, the Rev. Ralph Harrison, the important charge of an Academical Institution at Manchester; upon which he entered in the summer of 1786, and over which he presided, as Principal, with great credit to himself, and utility to the publick, till 1798, when he determined to resign it, in consequence of the difficulty which he had for some time experienced, in maintaining, in so large a town as Manchester, where there are so many temptations to dissipation, that regular and strict discipline which he wished to support. His active mind, however, was always ready to embrace every opportunity of usefulness; and, after his retirement from the Academy, he began to take a lively interest in the concerns of the Manchester Infirmary, which continued to be a very favourite object of his attention to the time of his death, and in the conduct of which his assistance has been generally considered, and acknowledged, to be of great use. The Rev. Dr. Barnes undoubtedly possessed both natural abilities, and acquired attainments, which qualified him to have distinguished himself in the Literary world; and he had a considerable taste for those studies and pursuits which might have led to this result: in proof of which it may be mentioned that he was one of the first promoters of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society; and that, for several years, he took an active part in its proceedings, and wrote several papers which were published in the early volumes of its Memoirs; which his friend Dr. Percival, who was certainly a competent judge of their merit, considered to be so far creditable to his Literary reputation, that he repeatedly urged him to revise and enlarge them, and to publish them in a separate volume; but with this recommendation, though it came from so respectable a quarter, he never complied. Some circumstances afterwards arose, which, together with the multiplicity of his other engagements, induced him to discontinue his attendance of the meetings of the Society just mentioned; and since that time he has not taken any farther part in its proceedings.

He was a good classical scholar; read and studied the New Testament