YOUNG. 1681-1765. Born at Upham, in Hampshire Educated at Winchester and Oxford His first Poetry - Is patronised by the Duke of Wharton - Publishes his Universal Passion' Writes for the Stage Enters into Holy Orders Receives a Pension of 2007. a-year from George I. - Marries Death of his Wife - Publishes The Complaint, or Night Thoughts' Presented to the Living of Welwyn, in Hertfordshire His only Son - Death and Burial at Welwyn Works and Character. THE following Life was written, at my request, by a gentleman' who had better information than I could easily have obtained; and the public will perhaps wish that I had solicited and obtained more such favours from him. "DEAR SIR,-In consequence of our different conversations about authentic materials for the Life of Young, I send you the following detail: Of great men, something must always be said to gratify curiosity. Of the illustrious author of the Night Thoughts' much has been told of which there never could have been proofs; and little care appears to have been taken to tell that of which proofs, with little trouble, might have been procured. EDWARD YOUNG was born at Upham, near Winchester, in June, 1681. He was the son of Edward Young, at that time Fellow of Winchester College and rector of Upham; who was Mr. (afterwards Sir Herbert) Croft. He died at Paris after a fifteen years' residence in that city, April 27, 1816. "This 'Life' of Young was written by a friend of his son. What is crossed with black is expunged by the author; what is crossed with red is expunged by me. If you find anything more that can be well omitted, I shall not be sorry to see it yet shorter."-JOHNSON to Nichols. Of the house in which Young was born (now no longer standing) there is a view in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for March, 1829. When Joseph Warton the son of Jo. Young of Woodhay in Berkshire, styled by Wood gentleman. In September, 1682, the poet's father was collated to the prebend of Gillingham Minor, in the church of Sarum, by Bishop Ward. When Ward's faculties were impaired through age, his duties were necessarily performed by others. We learn from Wood that, at a visitation of Sprat's, July the 12th, 1686, the prebendary preached a Latin sermon, afterwards published, with which the bishop was so pleased, that he told the chapter he was concerned to find the preacher had one of the worst prebends in their church. Some time after this, in consequence of his merit and reputation, or of the interest of Lord Bradford, to whom, in 1702, he dedicated two volumes of sermons, he was appointed chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and preferred to the deanery of Sarum. Jacob, who wrote in 1720,3 says, "He was chaplain and clerk of the closet to the late Queen [Anne], who honoured him by standing godmother to the poet." His Fellowship of Winchester he resigned in favour of a gentleman of the name of Harris, who married his only daughter. The dean died at Sarum, after a short illness, in 1705, in the sixty-third year of his age. On the Sunday after his decease Bishop Burnet preached at the cathedral, and began his sermon with saying, "Death has been of late walking round us, and making breach upon breach upon us, and has now carried away the head of this body with a stroke; so that he, whom you saw a week ago distributing the holy mysteries, is now laid in the dust. But he still lives in the many excellent directions he has left us, both how to live and how to die." The dean placed his son upon the foundation at Winchester College, where he had himself been educated. At this school had the living of Upham, he placed the following inscription in the room in which the poet was born:-"In hoc cubiculo natus erat eximius ille Poeta Edvardus Young, 1681." This inscription is preserved in the new rectory. The Poetical Register,' 8vo., 1723, vol. ii. p. 241. 3 " And was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, where a monument to his memory is still to be seen. On a stone in Chiddingfold Church, in Surrey, is this inscription:"Here lyeth the body of Judeth, widow of the Rev. Edward Young, late Dean of Sarum, who dyed Dec. y 8th, in the 69th year of her age, Anno Doma 1714." This was the poet's mother. Edward Young remained till the election after his eighteenth birth-day, the period at which those upon the foundation are superannuated. Whether he did not betray his abilities early in life, or his masters had not skill enough to discover in their pupil any marks of genius for which he merited reward, or no vacancy at Oxford afforded them an opportunity to bestow upon him the reward provided for merit by William of Wykeham, certain it is that to an Oxford fellowship our poet did not succeed. By chance, or by choice, New College cannot claim the honour of numbering among its fellows him who wrote the "Night Thoughts.' On the 13th of October, 1703, he was entered an independent member of New College, that he might live at little expense in the warden's lodgings, who was a particular friend of his father's, till he should be qualified to stand for a fellowship at All Souls. In a few months the warden of New College died. He then removed to Corpus College. The president of this society, from regard also for his father, invited him thither, in order to lessen his academical expenses. In 1708 he was nominated to a law fellowship at All Souls by Archbishop Tenison, into whose hands it came by devolution. Such repeated patronage, while it justifies Burnet's praise of the father, reflects credit on the conduct of the son. The manner in which it was exerted seems to prove that the father did not leave behind him much wealth. On the 23rd of April, 1714, Young took his degree of Bachelor of Civil Laws, and his Doctor's degree on the 10th of June, 1719. Soon after he went to Oxford, he discovered, it is said, an inclination for pupils. Whether he ever commenced tutor is not known. None has hitherto boasted to have received his academical instruction from the author of the Night Thoughts. It is probable that his college was proud of him no less as a scholar than as a poet; for in 1716, when the foundation of the Codrington Library was laid, two years after he had taken his Bachelor's degree, Young was appointed to speak the Latin |