Queen's brother, to whom he was introduced, and was accustomed to relate, that the only marks of fplendour exhibited on gala days, confifted of a gold pepper-box, falt-feller, and fpoon, appropriated folely to the use of his highness. On his return to his native country, he entered into the guards, and captain Turner foon became one of the most fashionable officers about town, both with refpect to dress end equipage. L'Oiseau, as fhe was called by fome, and the Bird of Paradife by others, lived fome years with him, in great fplendour-she was of a noble family, and poffeffed fome talents-she was alfo a married woman, but a receipt for 300l. affixed to a bill of parcels, precluded the poffibility of an action for crim. con.- -Mr Turner, at length, left the guards, and relinquished a life of diffipation, on his union with a very amiable lady. This lady, who furvives him, is the great granddaughter of our great English poet Dryden, and daughter of Sir Dryden, bart. of Canon's Afhby, Northamptonshire. With her he got a confiderable fortune,, and on the death of the dowager lady Dryden, came into poffeffion of nearly 2000l. a year, landed eftate! a small portion of which appertained to the poet, of whom Pope makes fuch frequent and honourable mention :

Waller was fmooth, but Dryden taught to join

The varying verfe, the full refounding line,

The long majestic march, and energy divine. IMIT. OF HOR. 1. 267.

Unhappy Dryden-in all Charles's days,

&c.

Mr T. took fome pains, on getting poffeffion of Canon's Afhby, to dif cover the papers and MSS. of his wife's ancestor, but with little fuccefs; for he foon found out, that they had all been carried to Rome, by his

the Vatican. As Rowley's poems, pretended to have been found by Chatterton, in an old cheft at Bristol, had made a great noise, and a rumour began to be buzzed about, concerning the Shakspeare MSS. a very indifferent poet, whofe name is here purpofely concealed, applied to Mr Turner, and enquired, with great eagernefs, if no old trunk of Charles the Second's time, with fome parchments &c. of the fame period, were not exifting in the family mansion of the Drydens? Being anfwered in the affirmative, he inftantly discovered a plan with which his bofom had been for fome time pregnant: this was no other than the refurrection of the inedited works of John Dryden !. "But who is to forge the poetry?" exclaimed Mr T.jocularly-" O, let that alone to me," replied the writer of rebuffes and acroftics, "I can hit Dryden's ftyle to a hair; for I have always adopted his manner of verfification!"-During that short, but difgraceful period of our history, commonly known by the appellation of the "Reign of Terror," Mr Turner, who had now changed his name to Dryden, became high fheriff of the county of Northampton; and in this capacity, actually caused a manikin, called Tom Paine, to be hung on a gibbet, 30 feet high! Such an elevated inftance of loyalty did not pass without its due reward, for he foon after was knighted; a circumstance which every body was aftonished at, as his two fifters were peereffes of Great Britain, both his brother and uncle baronets, and he himfelf a man of figure. He was, however, fpeedily after this created a baronet; for he had raifed a troop of yeoman cavalry, and been at great pains, not only to promote, but also to present, a petition from Northamptonshire, approving of the prefent very “just and neceffary" war! On this occafion, he applied to Lord Hawkefbury, now Earl

of

of Liverpool, stating his own fervices, and intimating, that there was a dormant baronetcy in his wife's family, on which he had claims; he also hinted, in diftant and polite terms (for he was an exceedingly elegant and well-bred man) that his Lordfhip had formerly received many civilities from his father. The reply of the noble Earl was equally fhort and fatisfactory-he really" had not intereft fufficient to obtain fuch a favour; but had the honour to be, with the most profound refpect, attach ment, and regard, his very humble and obedient fervant, &c. &c. &c." Mr George Rofe, another child of fortune, and the legitimate fucceffor of the Jenkinfons and Robinsons, obtained inftantly what the noble Earl very ingenuously profeffed him felf utterly unable to procure. In refpect to politics, Sir J. Dryden was what he called an old whig, or, in other words, a modern tory. Notwithftanding this, it must be owned, that on many occafions he exhibited repeated inftances of great liberality in politics, and was above all little perfonal enmities. On feeing two engraved portraits of Mr Paine, at the houfe of a friend, he begged one of them, obferving, at the fame time, that at the very moment he had ordered him to be burned in effigy, an aukward thought came across his mind, that he could be no common man,

SIR

whom government was at fuch pains to hunt down; and that when the high theriff of Northamptonshire was perhaps forgotten, the author of the "Rights of Man," would be mentioned in hiftory with applause! The difeafe, or rather the complication of difeafes, which proved fatal to him, was an afthma, with which he had been long afflicted, accompanied with a nervous complaint, attended, as ufual, by an uncommonly high degree of irritability. This was rather increased than abated by the unhappy turn of public affairs, for he was paffionately attached to his country and its welfare.

"England! with all thy faults I love thee ftill,"

was a fentiment to which he most cordially affented. He lived long enough, however, to exprefs his abhorrence and deteftation of a war he had once fupported, and this circum. ftance gave him great uneafiness. He was accustomed, indeed, within thefe laft three months, frequently to exclaim," that like Munus Scavola, he would barn that hand which had prefented a petition to the king, countenanci g the prefent unhappy conteft, Sir J. D. was about 49 years of age; he is fucceeded by an infant fon, now Sir Edward Dryden, and has left a widow, and a large family behind him.

formation. But as there were no males remaining of the elder branch of the Stranges of Balcasky, Sir Robert became the male reprefentative of it, and was found by a legal investigation to have a right to the armorial bearings and every other mark of honour belonging to that ancient family.

He received his claffical education

at

at Kirkwall in Orkney, under the care of a learned, worthy, and much refpected gentleman, Mr Murdoch Mackenzie, who has rendered infinite fervice to his country by the accurate furveys and charts he has given of the islands of Orkney and of the British and Irish coafts.

Originally intended for the law, Mr Strange foon became tired of that profeffion, and perceived that his genius decifively led him to the arts of drawing and engraving. For this purpose he as introduced to the late Mr Richard Cooper, at Edinburgh, the only perfon there who had then any tafte in that line of the fine arts. He was bound with him as an ap. prentice for fix years; during which time he made fuch progress in his new profeffion, that his friends entertained the highest expectation of his fuccefs; nor were they difappointed. In the year 1747, he married Ifabella, only daughter of William Lumifden, fon of Bishop Lumifden; and foon after his marriage he went to France, where, with the moft ardent application he profecuted his ftudies, chiefly at Paris, under the direction of the celebrated Le Bas, who engraved many excellent prints from the Dutch painters. It was from Le Bas he had the first hint of the ufe of the inftrument commonly called the dry needle; but which he afterward greatly improved by his own genius, and which has added fuch fuperior beauties to his engravings.

In the year 1751, Mr Strange removed with his family from Edinburgh and fettled at London, where he engraved feveral fine hiftorical prints, which justly acquired to him great reputation. At this period hiftorical engraving had made little progrefs in Britain, and he may be properly confidered as its father.

The admiration he always had for the works of the great Italian pain, ters made him long defire to vifit Italy, the feat of the fine arts; and

the farther he advanced in life, he became the more perfuaded that a journey to the country was effential to an artist who had the laudable ambition to excel in his profeffion.— He therefore undertook this journey in the year 1760. In Italy he made many admirable drawings, feveral of which he afterward engraved. Thefe drawings are now in the poffeffion of Lord Dundas.

Every where in Italy fingular marks of attention were beftowed on Mr Strange; not only by great perfonages, but by the principal academies of the fine arts in that country. He was made a member of the academies of Rome, Florence, and Bologna, and profeffor in the Royal Academy at Parma.

To fhow the eftimation in which his talents were held at Rome, we cannot but record the following anecdote: The ceiling of the room of the Vatican library, in which the collection of engravings are kept, is elegantly painted by Signior Rotfanelli. It reprefents the progrefs of engraving; and the potrtraits of the most eminent artiffs in that line are there introduced, among which is that of our artist. Under his arm he holds a portfolio, on which his name is infcribed. He is the only British artist on whom this honour has been conferred.

In France, where he refided many years at different periods, his talents likewife received every mark of attention that could be beftowed on a foreigner. He was made a member of the royal academy of painting at Paris.

His Majefty king George III. ever attentive to the progrefs of the fine arts in Britain, and fenfible of the advantages of which engraving particularly has been to this country, even in a commercial light; and defirous to give a mark of his royal approbation of the merit of Mr Strange, whom he had confidered as at the

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