I do now and then divert myself with their solemnity about arrant trifles; yet perhaps we owe much to their thinking those trifles of importance, or the Lord knows how they would have patience to investigate them so indefatigably.  Mr. Steevens seemed pleasant, but I doubt I shall never be demure enough to conciliate Mr. Gough.  Then I have a wicked quality in an antiquary, nay, one that annihilates the essence:  that is, I cannot bring myself to a habit of minute accuracy about very indifferent points.  I do not doubt but there is a swarm of diminutive inaccuracies in my Anecdotes—­well! if there is, I bequeath free leave of correction to the microscopic intellects of my continuators.  I took dates and facts from the sedulous and faithful Vertue,(467) and piqued myself on little but on giving an idea of the spirit of the times with regard to the arts at the different periods.

The specimen you present me of Mr. Gough’s detail of our monuments is very differently treated, proves vast industry, and shows most circumstantial fidelity.  It extends, too, much farther than I expected; for it seems to embrace the whole mass of our monuments, nay, of some that are vanished.  It is not what I thought, an intention of representing our modes of dress, from figures on monuments, but rather a history of our tombs.  It is fortunate, though he may not think so, that so many of the more ancient are destroyed, since for three or four centuries they were clumsy, rude, and ugly.  I know I am but a fragment of an antiquary, for I abhor all Saxon doings, and whatever did not exhibit some taste, grace, or elegance, and some ability in the artists.  Nay, if I may say so to you, I do not care a straw for archbishops, bishops, mitred abbots, and cross-legged knights.  When you have one of a sort, you have seen all.  However, to so superficial a student in antiquity as I am, Mr. Gough’s work is not unentertaining.  It has frequently anecdotes and circumstances of kings, queens, and historic personages, that interest me though I care not a straw about a series of bishops who had only Christian names, or were removed from one old church to a newer.  Still I shall assist Mr. Gough with whatever he wants in my possession.  I believe he is a very worthy man, and I should be a churl not to oblige any man who is so innocently employed.  I have felt the selfish, the proud avarice of those who hoard literary curiosities for themselves alone, as other misers do money.

I observed in your account of the Count-Bishop Hervey, that you call one of his dedicators Martin Sherlock, Esquire.(468) That Mr. Sherlock is an Irish clergyman; I am acquainted with him.  He is a very amiable good-natured man, and wants judgment, not parts.  He is a little damaged by aiming at Sterne’s capricious pertness which the original wore out; and which, having been admired and cried up to the skies by foreign writers of reviews, was, on the contrary, too severely treated by our own.  That injustice