The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

440 DR. WILLIAM STUKELEY.
first three years. As to its dissolution, I suppose, when ambition seizes the minds of
mortal men, literature flies of course. I have very large memoirs about it."'
This Egyptian Society was, however, the proximate cause of Dr. Stukeley's
removal from Stamford, and residence in London to the close of his life. The
Doctor, in the letter from which we have already quoted, says,
" It was at the meetings of the Egyptian Society that the Duke of MONTAGU took me so
much in his favour, as paved the way for my now being in town for the remainder of my
life; nor have I ever repented of it, though I grieved exceedingly for the loss of the Duke,
even as much as Horace did for the loss of his Meceenas; and I equally lost my Meccenas,
for I frequent no levees, nor trouble myself with any ambitious views, but enjoy a vast deal
of solitude; not running, as the rest of the world does here, from one public company to
another, from morning to evening; just as our folks do, running from the Royal Society to
the Antiquarians the same evening. Instead of that, I retreat every night at 6 o'clock to
my contemplative pipe, and that is more enjoyment to me than the company of the preceding day."
Although the Egyptian Society dropped, as we have stated, in the summer of
1743, yet the Duke of Montagu continued his "most particular favour and
friendship" to Dr. Stukeley. " He ordered me," adds the Doctor, " to come to
Boughton that summer, and constantly ever after invited me, by letter under
his own hand, to meet him there; and his kindness towards me increased every
year extremely."
In 1747, the Duke prevailed upon Dr. Stukeley to vacate his preferments in
the country, and gave him the Rectory of St. George, Queen Square, London,
where he appears chiefly to have resided to the close of his life. He frequently
retired, however, during the summer to Kentish Town.
In the year 1747, also, Dr. Stukeley received a
" complaisant letter from Mr. Bertram of Copenhagen, although unknown, entreating a correspondence with him, in the course of which he came to the knowledge of a curious MS.
of Richard, a monk of Westminster, giving so much light into the Roman antiquities of
Britain, that, having had the good fortune to obtain a copy of it, he published it with notes
and observations as a 2d part of his'Itinerarium Curiosum.'"'
Although the Doctor was partial to life in London, yet he appears to have
left his home at Stamford with considerable regret, and thus writes about the
change:
"Though I go again to live in London for my final remove, yet I carry the same mind
along with me. I cannot go from one public entertainment to another, and never be easy
but when I am in company. On the contrary, I love solitude in London; and the beauty
of living there is, that we can mix company and solitude in just proportion; whilst in the
country we can have nothing else but solitude. In Stamford, I so find it, almost equal to
that of our friend Guthlake's at Croyland.
"I leave here a most elegant place, and now it is not my own,2 I may praise it; for I
think, considering this is but its 4th year, it is as pretty a seat as I`ver saw. Beside my
temple of Flora, I made a temple of Bacchus, the upper part of it was a great window into
my study. I had contrived it so, that in a year or two I should have had a strike or two of
grapes within doors, ripe a month or two or more sooner than the English season; a place
Letter to Mr. Johnson, 16th June, 1750. The I Egypt." At the same meeting they nominated Mr.
date of the establishment of the Egyptian Society is Folks, Dr. Stukeley, Dr. Milles, Mr. Charles Stanfixed by another passage in this letter, which states, hope, Mr. Dampier, and Mr. Mitchell, associates of
"' The 11th December, 1741, I met Lord Sandwich the same, who, together with them, were styled
at Lebeck's Head, Chandos Street; when his Lord- founders of the Society. The Dukes of Montagu
ship, Dr. Pocock, Dr. Perry, and Captain Morden and Richmond were admitted members 22 January,
the Dane, declared the purport of that assembly 1741-42.
was, to form themselves into an Egyptian Society, 2 Dr. STUKELEY had, long before the date of
for the promoting and preserving Egyptian and this letter, sold his house to Mr. NOEL.
other ancient learning; they all having been in