And, type of vacant head, with vacant face, 108 the Inspector, the labour of his own head and hand, to have earned in one year the sum of £1500. He was intolerably vain, and in his writings disposed to satire and licentious scurrility, which he indulged without any regard to truth, and became frequently engaged in quarrels that always terminated in his own disgrace. For some abuse in his Inspector upon an Irish gentleman of the name of Browne, he was severely chastised in the circus at Ranelagh. He attacked the Royal Society in a scurrilous review of their Transactions, and abused his old patrons Mr. Folkes and Mr. Baker, for successfully opposing, on account of his unprincipled character, his admission among them as a member, and met with a similar rebuff in the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. In the midst of all this employment, he found time and means to drive about the town in his chariot, and to appear abroad, and at all public places, and most private parties, at Batson's coffee house, at masquerades, and at the opera and play houses, splendidly dressed, and as often as he could in the front of the boxes. Towards the end of his life his reputation as an author was so sunk by the slovenliness of his compilations, and his disregard to truth in what he related, that he was forced to betake himself to the vending a few simple medicines; namely, essence of waterdock, tincture of Valerian, pectoral balsam of honey, Canada balsam, tincture of sage, and Bardana drops; and by pamphlets, ascribing to them extraordinary virtues and as extraordinary cures, imposed on the credulity of the public, and thereby got, though not an honest, a competent livelihood. In 1773, he received from the King of Sweden the investiture of the Order of Vasa, or the Polar Star, in return for a present to that monarch of his Vegetable System, in twenty-six folio volumes, a magnificent work, which he completed at the expense and under the patronage of the Earl of Bute, who warmly interested himself for a time in favour of the author, and obtained for him the management of the royal gardens, but the grant was never confirmed. He was the author of a "Let Favour speak for others, Worth for me.”For who, like him, his various powers could call Into so many shapes, and shine in all? Who could so nobly grace the motley list, 110 Knows any one so well-sure no one knows— away, 115 tract entitled Lucina sine concubitu! under the name of Abraham Johnson, and which may be found in the second volume of Dodsley's fugitive pieces in prose. It is a clever but impudent hoax on the Royal Society, which was the object of his repeated attacks, in revenge for his rejection by that body. He died about the year 1775. 108 The vanity displayed by this man in constantly enlarging on his own merits, occasioned the following epigram: Hill puffs himself, forbear to chide, An insect vile and mean Must first, he knows, be magnified, Before it can be seen. 115 This alludes to a paper war in which Hill was engaged with Woodward the comedian, in consequence of an insult the latter had received in the exercise of his profession. Woodward represented him on the stage in the character of a quack doctor; and, in allusion to a habit Hill had of appropriating to himself any curious plant he could unobservedly lay his hands upon in public or private collections, adopted the following motto to one of his pamphlets: "I do remember an apothecary Culling of simples." Dr. Hill was also the hero of a mock heroic by C. Smart, entitled the Hilliad, which he provoked by writing a paper Melting, like ghosts, before the rising day. And reason of each wholesome doubt disarms, 120 called the Impertinent, in which curious piece he did not stop at abusing himself; the rest of it was made a vehicle for invective against Smart and Fielding. It was ushered into the world in a pompous manner as if intended to be continued, but no second number was ever published. The following lines afford some specimen of the severity of Smart's revenge: A wretch devoid of use, of sense, and grace, The universal butt of all mankind. HILLIAD. 117 This severe invective was intended to apply to a Mr Fitzpatrick, who was the ringleader of the riots at the thea tres in the year 1763. Mr. Garrick, on the revival of Shakes peare's Two Gentleman of Verona, made an order that nothing should be taken under the full price. In consequence of this regulation, the disturbance began at Drury Lane. Mr. Fitzpatrick and his party insisted that half price should be taken at every theatrical exhibition, except the first season of pantomime. Mr. Garrick, not complying with their de 12 180 By vilest means pursues the vilest ends, 135 140 Which heart can scarce conceive, or pen describe, mand, they proceeded to the grossest outrages. At length not only Mr. Garrick, but Mr. Beard, the manager of Covent Garden, found it necessary to acquiesce. Sometime previous to this disturbance, Mr. Fitzpatrick attacked Mr. Garrick's professional character in the Craftsman, and afterwards published his paradoxical strictures in a pamphlet, with a dedication to that gentleman. Mr. Garrick retaliated by writing a poem called the Fribbleriad, in which this six foot suckling, as he was designated, was very severely satirized under the name of Fizgig. Mr. Fitzpatrick smothered his resentment until it broke out in the riot at Drury Lane; his vehement exertions, therefore, on that occasion did not proceed from a generous public-spirited motive, but were prompted by ar unn.anly and illiberal principle of revenge. Came simpering on: to ascertain whose sex A six-foot suckling, mincing in Its gait, Fearful it seem'd, though of athletic make, Much did It talk, in Its own pretty phrase, Known but to few, or only known by name, Plain Common Sense appear'd, by Nature there 145 Nor male nor female! then on oath Femina, vir, neutrum. FRIBBLERIAD. 160 165 |