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Title:  Poems: by the late George-Monck Berkeley, Esq. ... With a preface by the editor, consisting of some anecdotes of Mr. Monck Berkeley and several of his friends.
Author: Berkeley, George Monck, 1763-1793.
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Mr. Frinsham, perhaps naturally the most contented-tempered of the fallen children of Adam, and the most hospitable, although he wished not for a larger income, wished for a larger, better house, in which to entertain his numerous friends and acquaintance. Rich and poor, high and low, all ate and drank at his house. The vicarage house at White Waltham was literally a very large old barn, with small rooms on each side. The kitchen, how∣ever, was not very small, and was payed with curious Ro∣man bricks, which might have consoled his grandson, Mr. Monck Berkeley, an enthusiastical antiquary.An answer of Mr. Frinsham to a letter written by his re∣lation Sir to Mr. Frinsham, offering him a living of one hundred pounds per annum, with a good house, if he would promise faithfully, and MIGHT BE DEPENDED UPONMr. Frinsham, in his answer to that letter, says, "It is as impossible that Ministry should always act disinterestedly for the good of the nation, as that they should not sometimes do so. No earthly power, therefore, should ever make me yield such a promise to any Minister, of any Monarch; were my own Father Minister. I shall therefore contentedly remain in my old clayed barn, until Providence removes me to the realms of bliss." Lord Bute used personally, as the Editor well remembers, when playing cards, spending the evening under that very humble roof—the top of Mr. Frinsham's wig just touched the middle beam—to say, "My dear friend, if ever I have power, the first man on earth for whom I will exert it, shall be yourself." And breakfasting with his lady at Mr. Frinsham's, the morning he quitted Waltham Place, he looked out of one of the sashes at his late dwelling, saying, "I grieve to leave it; Mr. might, if he pleased, have enabled me to continue; but, I hope, we shall soon meet again." They never did on earth; Mr. Frinsham dying before Lord Bute returned from Scot∣land. May they have met in a future state!, 0