Dr. Parr had nearly completed his 70th year when he announced to his friends an intention of entering, a second time, into the married state. The communication was unexpected: and the first surprise soon gave way to serious apprehension for the consequences of such a change, at so late a period of life. This apprehension was, however, soon removed, when it was found that he had fixed his choice on Miss Eyre, sister of his late much-respected friend, the Rev. James Eyre of Solihull; a lady of suitable age, whom he had long known and esteemed; and who was excellently qualified by good sense, and by gentle and amiable dispositions and manners, for the task—certainly no easy task!—of watching over his health and happiness in his declining age.
To this lady he was married at Coventry, December 17, 1816: and the union
proved to him even more than was anticipated—the source of satisfaction through remaining
life, and of solace in approaching death. Never, indeed, was Hatton
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Among the events which contributed to throw cheering rays over the evening
of Dr. Parr’s life, was the restoration of his
grand-daughters to the place they were entitled to hold in his affectionate regards. Their
father had married a second time; and it became,
therefore, still more desirable to secure for them the protection of their grandfather.
Many attempts for the purpose had been made without success; and they were indebted at
length for a second reconciliation, more auspicious
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Lost for some time from her sight, but never absent from her thoughts, Mrs. Edwards was reduced to the expedient of seeking information concerning them through the medium of a stranger, to whom she ventured to write—a clergyman, who had just been presented to a living near their father’s residence in Wales; and whose name had accidentally caught her eye, in looking over a list of “preferments,” in a magazine. Guided by the knowledge thus obtained, she wrote to the young ladies themselves; and so well explained her views and urged her wishes, that, with her father’s consent, the elder sister, who bore a striking resemblance to her mother, made a journey to Warwick. After a day or two of painful suspense, she proceeded thence on a Sunday morning to Hatton. About an hour before the commencement of divine service, at which time her grandfather was generally known to be in his most composed and happy state of mind, she called at the parsonage, and was admitted to his presence. “Let him but see you,” said her kind adviser and encourager, “and nature will do the rest.” So it proved. The feelings of natural affection, powerfully excited by this sudden interview with the child of his daughter, and her very image, were triumphant; and the parent received back the long-estranged grand-daughter to his embraces and his heart.
But what must have been the delight of the
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This happy restoration of the elder sister to those paternal regards, from which she had been too long divided, was soon followed by that of the younger. From that time they were received by their grandfather into his guardian care; and their opening characters were gradually unfolding qualities, which could not fail to conciliate his esteem, mingled with his fondest affections.
A will, which Dr. Parr had made, and by which they had been almost disinherited, was replaced by another, more just to them; and they are now inheritrixes, in main part, of the large property of which he died possessed. Miss Wynne was married in Sept. 1822, to the Rev. John Lines, rector of Elmley-Lovett in Worcestershire. Miss Augusta Wynne, whose countenance greatly resembles her grandfather, is still unmarried.
It is pleasing to dwell on the closing period of Dr. Parr’s life, when, after “having endured very irksome
toil, and suffered very galling need,” for many years, he found himself
placed in a state of ease and affluence. He had now the ample means of exercising that
generous hospitality, in which
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He rose early even in his old age; and throwing carelessly round him his clothes, which were not uncommonly of uncouth shape and coarse texture, and not unfrequently well worn, and well patched, with his head enveloped in a night-cap, he sat down in his library, and employed himself in reading, writing, or dictating to others. Here, in the midst of his learned labours, he was often found by his morning visitors, to whom he seldom refused admittance; and whom he scrupled not to receive, attired as he was, totally unconcerned about his own grotesque appearance, and in truth hardly conscious of it. It was his habit, almost immediately on rising, to call for his pipe, with which he welcomed the morn, and cheered the studious hours of the day, as well as animated the social or the solitary evening.
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The same habits of industry, which he had acquired in youth, and cultivated in manhood, remained unchanged in advanced age. His thirst for knowledge was as ardent, and his application to study as persevering in the later, as in the earlier periods of life:1 and, as was said of Solon and Cato, he grew old learning something every day. Such was his impatience of doubt or error, where any thing like certainty may be obtained, that the least hesitation as to matters of fact, or the least perplexity as to the construction of a sentence, or the import of a phrase or word, would send him upon his researches; and he would persist in turning over volume after volume, till his uncertainty was removed. Though his reading was devoted chiefly to the great writers of ancient and modern times, whose works demand the severest exercise of the understanding; yet he would not disdain to peruse the publications of the passing day, if recommended to his notice; and he would discuss their merits with fairness and candour, always generously bestowing the praise to which they might seem entitled.
His morning hours were often devoted to his correspondents, who were very numerous; including not only his intimate friends, but many also of the most eminent writers and scholars in
1 “Æschyli Supplices et Eumenides Gr. recensuit G. Burges, &c.—Samueli Parrio, cui ne unum quidem, οιοι νυν βροτοί εισιν, parem e primis annis usque ad extremam senectutem astiduum cultorem fautoremque strenuum Græcæ literæ invenerunt, hunc libellum ipse ϕιλλη millit commendatque G. Burges.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 134. |
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Occasionally Dr. Parr took upon
himself to address letters of remonstrance or reproof to the zealous theologian, or to the
controversial writer, who had offended, as it appeared to him, against the laws of literary
courtesy, or the precepts of Christian charity. Of this an instance lately occurred in the
case of no less a person than that of the Lord Archbishop of Dublin. To that high dignitary
he twice presented a protest against the unfairness of reasoning, the rashness of
assertion, and the bitterness of invective, which have too much dishonoured his
Lordship’s polemical writings; and have injured
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“I gave a wholesome pastoral lesson to the new bishop; and, by letters, I have dropped serious though not very pleasing counsel into the minds of two of the right reverend dignitaries. I did not spare the Tory parsons. They crammed me with their heresies; and I dosed them with intellectual physic, prescribed by reason and Scripture, prepared in my shop, and administered by my hands, &c.—S. P. Holkham, August 21, 1816.”
It was a great misfortune, which Dr.
Parr had often occasion to lament, that his handwriting was such as to be
utterly illegible to those who were not accustomed to it, and almost so to those who were.
He was always glad, therefore, to employ an amanuensis when writing for others, or even for
himself, as he could not without difficulty decipher his own misshapen characters. The
present writer, on receiving from him a note of only a few lines, was always obliged, in
reading it, to seek the help of others; and sometimes to despatch a messenger for
explanation to Dr. Parr himself. Among the mass of letters and papers
now lying before him, the writer finds few, indeed, in which there are not many words,
often clauses, and sometimes whole sentences, which have never yet been made out, even by
persons considered as most skilful in giving form and order to these “chaotic
scrawls,” as they were frequently termed by Dr. Parr himself.
Thus humorously he describes his own manuscript of “Characters of Mr. Fox,” in a letter to his
printer. Mr. Belcher of Birmingham, to whom, and to
his
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“Sir,—I hope that your son will pardon the new tax I am going to lay upon his patience, when I request him, if possible, to put together the scattered limbs of the book, just in the same form in which he received them; so that I may hereafter show to my friends a many-headed, many-handed, many-footed monster, which certainly belongs to no known species; and for which all printers, booksellers, and devils of the press will put up their prayers that it may never propagate its own shapeless race; but remain a solitary individual, for blockheads to stare at, and men of sense to laugh at. I am sure that my learned friend, who writes for me, and all my scholarly acquaintance, will give your son the highest praise for industry and good sense, in making out the confused and deformed contents of a MS. quite unexampled since the invention of letters: for, I verily believe that the negroes of Africa, and the Cherokees of America, and I had almost said the long-tailed animals, from which Lord Monboddo supposes the human race to have been descended, might be taught in two months to write more legibly.—I am your sincere wellwisher,
On the same subject, Dr. Parr speaks
in a more serious strain towards the close of the preface to the two volumes just referred
to:—“The editor
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After a studious morning,1 Dr. Parr usually took his only exercise, which was gentle riding on horseback, enlivened by a few friendly calls on more distant neighbours. He had no inclination for any of the sports of hunting, shooting, or fishing;2 nor had he the least taste for gardening or
1 “It is very well known both to my pupils and my visitors, that few men are less idle than myself; and by many of my friends it will not be denied that a pretty considerable share of my time has been allotted to their writings. From my daily avocations, as an instructor, from my numerous, and I hope useful exertions, as a parish-priest, from the variety and extent of my correspondence, from the different affairs, about which I am either consulted or employed by different persons in different parts of the kingdom, I am often bereaved of the leisure, which would otherwise be dedicated to the prosecution of my studies, the relief of my spirits, and the preservation of my health.”—Reply to Combe, p. 54. 2 “Daniel’s Rural Sports, 4to. plates.—The gift of Jockey “Dr. Maltby to Jockey Dr. Parr.”—Bibl. Parr. p. 478. |
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His constitution was so hardy, that he went out in all states of the weather, except in snow, of which he had the greatest dread; as he pleasantly describes in the following note to his friend Mr. Parkes, written in the hard winter of 1807:—“I begin to fear that it scarcely will be in my power to wait upon you to-morrow. My chief apprehension is lest I should catch cold, in encountering my inveterate and invincible enemy—snow. I bid defiance to frost, to rain, to wind and heat; but I am always worsted in my conflicts with snow. However, if possible, I will be with you, &c.—S. P.”
Dr. Parr’s nature was highly social; and he almost always spent his evenings in the company of his family and his domestic visitors, or in that
1 New Monthly Mag. May, 1825. |
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After dinner, but not often till the ladies were about to retire, he
claimed, in all companies, his privilege of smoking, as a right not to be disputed; since,
he said, it was a condition, “no pipe, no Parr,” previously known, and peremptorily imposed on all who
desired his acquaintance. Speaking of the honour once conferred upon him, of being invited
to dinner at Carlton House, he always mentioned, with evident satisfaction, the kind
condescension of his present majesty, then Prince of
Wales, who was pleased to insist upon his taking his pipe as usual. Of the
Duke of Sussex, in whose mansion he was not
unfrequently a visitor, he used to tell, with exulting pleasure, that his Royal Highness
not only allowed him to smoke, but smoked with him. He often represented it as an instance
of the homage which rank and beauty delight to pay to talents and learning, that ladies of
the highest stations condescended to the office of lighting his pipe. He appeared to no
advantage, however, in his custom of demanding
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The reader will probably recollect, in the well-known story, his reply to the lady by whom he had been hospitably entertained, but who refused to allow him the indulgence of his pipe. In vain he pleaded that such indulgence had always been kindly granted, even in the mansions of the highest nobility, and even in the presence and in the palace of his sovereign. “Madam,” said Dr. Parr to the lady, who still remained inexorable, “you must give me leave to tell you, you are the greatest—“ whilst she, fearful of what might follow, earnestly interposed, and begged that he would express no rudeness.—“Madam,” resumed Dr. Parr, speaking loud, and looking stern, “I must take leave to tell you—you are the greatest—tobacco-stopper in England.” This sally produced a loud laugh; and having enjoyed the effects of his wit, he found himself obliged to retire, in order to enjoy the pleasures of his pipe.
Dr. Parr was accustomed to amuse himself in the
evening with cards, of which the old English game of whist was his favourite. But no
entreaties could induce him to depart from a resolution, which he adopted early in life, of
never playing, in any company whatever, for more than a nominal stake. Upon one occasion
only, he had been persuaded, contrary to his rule, to play with the late Bishop
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|
1 Those two very learned men, Mr. Markland and Dr. Clarke, fond, like Dr. Parr, of whist, were not equally scrupulous as to the amount of their stakes. The former, in a letter to Mr. Bowyer, thus writes: “The person you mention was formerly my acquaintance and great benefactor. I won a hundred pounds of him once at whist; and got it every farthing.” |
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