where the note says, “Dr. Antony Alsop, a happy imitator of the Horatian style.”

Indeed, Alsop seems to have been duly esteemed and appreciated by his contemporaries; and every tasteful scholar will concur in the opinion that his truly elegant Sapphics deserve a place among the few volumes of modern Latin verse, which he would place near Cowper’s more extensively known favourite, Vinny Bourne.

S.W.S.

Antony Alsop, respecting whom a query appears in No. 14. p. 215., was of Christchurch, under the famous Dr. Aldrich, by whom the practice of smoking was so much enjoyed and encouraged.  The celebrated Sapphic ode, addressed by Alsop to Sir John Dolben, professes to have been written with a pipe in his mouth:—­

“Dum tubum, ut mos est meus, ore versans,
Martiis pensans quid agam calendas,
Pone stat Sappho monitisque miscet

                                  Blanda severis.”

Ant.  Alsop took his degree of M.A.  March 23. 1696, B.D.  Dec. 1706.  He died June 10, 1726; and the following notice of his death appears in the Historical Register for that year:—­

“Dy’d Mr. Antony Alsop, Prebendary of Winchester, and Rector of Brightwell, in the county of Berks.  He was killed by falling into a ditch that led to his garden door, the path being narrow, and part of it foundering under his feet.”

I believe Alsop was not the author of a volume by a gentleman of Trinity College, and that he never was a member of that society; but that doubt is easily removed by reference to the entry of his matriculation at Oxford.

W.H.C.

Temple.

“R.H.” inquires, whether Antony Alsop was at Trinity College before he became a student of Christchurch?  I have considered it to be my duty to examine the Admission Registers of Trinity College in my possession since the foundation of the college; and I can only say, that I do not find the name in any of them.  That he was at Christchurch, and admitted there as a student, is recorded by his biographers.  It is also {250} said, that he was elected at once from Westminster to Christchurch, where he took the degree of M.A.  March 23. 1696, and that of B.D.  Dec. 12. 1706.  He was soon distinguished by Dean Aldrich as worthy of his patronage and encouragement.  He was consequently appointed tutor and censor, and in course of time left college, on his promotion to a prebendal stall in Winchesser Cathedral by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, the then Bishop, with the rectory of Brightwell, near Wallingford; at which latter place he chiefly resided till the time of his death, which happened by an accident, June 10. 1726.  Sir Francis Bernard, Bart., who had himself been a student of Christchurch, published the 4to. volume of Latin Odes mentioned by “R.H.,” Lond. 1753; for which he had issued Proposals, &c., so early as July, 1748.  In addition to these Odes, four English poems by Alsop are said to be in Dodsley’s collection, one in Pearch’s, several in the early volumes of the Gentleman’s Magazine, and some in The Student.  Dr. Bentley calls him, rather familiarly, “Tony Alsop, editor of the AEsopian Fables;” a work published by him at Oxford, in 1698, 8 vo., in the preface to which he took part against Dr. Bentley, in the dispute with Mr. Boyle.