Curialia Miscellanea, or Anecdotes of Old Times. Samuel Pegge
Successors at Lichfield, till the Hon. and Right Reverend James Cornwallis (the Archbishop's Nephew) was consecrated Bishop of that See in 1781.
On this occasion, to restore the balance in favour of Mr. Pegge, the Archbishop had the kindness to make an Option of the Residentiaryship at Lichfield, then possessed by the Rev. Thomas Seward. It was, nevertheless, several years before even the tender of this preferment could take place; as his Grace of Canterbury died in 1783, while Mr. Seward was living.
Options being personal property, Mr. Pegge's interest, on the demise of the Archbishop, fell into the hands of the Hon. Mrs. Cornwallis, his Relict and Executrix, who fulfilled his Grace's original intention in the most friendly manner, on the death of Mr. Seward, in 1790[22].
The little occasional transactions which primarily brought Mr. Pegge within the notice of Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis at Eccleshall-castle led his Lordship to indulge him with a greater share of personal esteem than has often fallen to the lot of a private Clergyman so remotely placed from his Diocesan. Mr. Pegge had attended his Lordship two or three times on affairs of business, as one of the Parochial Clergy, after which the Bishop did him the honour to invite him to make an annual visit at Eccleshall-castle as an Acquaintance. The compliance with this overture was not only very flattering, but highly gratifying, to Mr. Pegge, who consequently waited upon his Lordship for a fortnight in the Autumn, during several years, till the Bishop was translated to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury in 1768. After this, however, his Grace did not forget his humble friend, the Rector of Whittington, as will be seen; and sometimes corresponded with him on indifferent matters.
About the same time that Mr. Pegge paid these visits at Eccleshall-castle, he adopted an expedient to change the scene, likewise, by a journey to London (between Easter and Whitsuntide); where, for a few years, he was entertained by his old Friend and Fellow-collegian the Rev. Dr. John Taylor, F. S. A. Chancellor of Lincoln, &c. (the learned Editor of Demosthenes and Lysias), then one of the Residentiaries of St. Paul's.
After Dr. Taylor's death (1766), the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. John Green, another old College-acquaintance, became Mr. Pegge's London-host for a few years, till Archbishop Cornwallis began to reside at Lambeth. This event superseded the visits to Bishop Green, as Mr. Pegge soon afterwards received a very friendly invitation from his Grace; to whom, from that time, he annually paid his respects at Lambeth-palace, for a month in the Spring, till the Archbishop's decease, which took place about Easter 1783.
All these were delectable visits to a man of Mr. Pegge's turn of mind, whose conversation was adapted to every company, and who enjoyed the world with greater relish from not living in it every day. The society with which he intermixed, in such excursions, changed his ideas, and relieved him from the tædium of a life of much reading and retirement; as, in the course of these journeys, he often had opportunities of meeting old Friends, and of making new literary acquaintance.
On some of these occasions he passed for a week into Kent, among such of his old Associates as were then living, till the death of his much-honoured Friend, and former Parishioner, the elder Thomas Knight, Esq. of Godmersham, in 1781[23]. We ought on no account to omit the mention of some extra-visits which Mr. Pegge occasionally made to Bishop Green, at Buckden, to which we are indebted for the Life of that excellent Prelate Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln;—a work upon which we shall only observe here, that it is Dr. Pegge's chef-d'œuvre, and merits from the world much obligation. To these interviews with Bishop Green, we may also attribute those ample Collections, which Dr. Pegge left among his MSS. towards a History of the Bishops of Lincoln, and of that Cathedral in general, &c. &c.
With the decease of Archbishop Cornwallis (1783), Mr. Pegge's excursions to London terminated. His old familiar Friends, and principal acquaintance there, were gathered to their fathers; and he felt that the lot of a long life had fallen upon him, having survived not only the first, but the second class of his numerous distant connexions.
While on one of these visits at Lambeth, the late Gustavus Brander, Esq. F. S. A. who entertained an uncommon partiality for Mr. Pegge, persuaded him, very much against his inclination, to sit for a Drawing, from which an octavo Print of him might be engraved by Basire. The Work went on so slowly, that the Plate was not finished till 1785, when Mr. Pegge's current age was 81. Being a private Print, it was at first only intended for, and distributed among, the particular Friends of Mr. Brander and Mr. Pegge. This Print, however, now carries with it something of a publication; for a considerable number of the impressions were dispersed after Mr. Brander's death, when his Library, &c. were sold by auction; and the Print is often found prefixed to copies of "The Forme of Cury," a work which will hereafter be specified among Mr. Pegge's literary labours[24].
The remainder of Mr. Pegge's life after the year 1783 was, in a great measure, reduced to a state of quietude; but not without an extensive correspondence with the world in the line of Antiquarian researches: for he afterwards contributed largely to the Archæologia, and the BibliothecaTopographica Britannica, &c. &c. as may appear to those who will take the trouble to compare the dates of his Writings, which will hereafter be enumerated, with the time of which we are speaking.
The only periodical variation in life, which attended Mr. Pegge after the Archbishop's death, consisted of Summer visits at Eccleshall-castle to the present Bishop (James) Cornwallis, who (if we may be allowed the word) adopted Mr. Pegge as his guest so long as he was able to undertake such journeys.
We have already seen an instance of his Lordship's kindness in the case of the intended Residentiaryship; and have, moreover, good reasons to believe that, had the late Archdeacon of Derby (Dr. Henry Egerton) died at an earlier stage of Mr. Pegge's life, he would have succeeded to that dignity.
This part of the Memoir ought not to be dismissed without observing, to the honour of Mr. Pegge, that, as it was not in his power to make any individual return (in his life-time) to his Patrons, the two Bishops of Lichfield of the name of Cornwallis, for their extended civilities, he directed, by testamentary instructions, that one hundred volumes out of his Collection of Books should be given to the Library of the Cathedral of Lichfield[25].
During Mr. Pegge's involuntary retreat from his former associations with the more remote parts of the Kingdom, he was actively awake to such objects in which he was implicated nearer home.
Early in the year 1788 material repairs and considerable alterations became necessary to the Cathedral of Lichfield. A subscription was accordingly begun by the Members of the Church, supported by many Lay-gentlemen of the neighbourhood; when Mr. Pegge, as a Prebendary, not only contributed handsomely, but projected, and drew up, a circular letter, addressed to the Rev. Charles Hope, M. A. the Minister of All Saints (the principal) Church in Derby, recommending the promotion of this public design. The Letter, being inserted in several Provincial Newspapers, was so well seconded by Mr. Hope, that it had a due effect upon the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese in general; for which Mr. Pegge received a written acknowledgment of thanks from the present Bishop of Lichfield, dated May 29, 1788.
This year (1788), memorable as a Centenary in the annals of England, was honourable to the little Parish of Whittington, which accidentally bore a subordinate local part in the History of the Revolution; for it was to an inconsiderable public-house there (still called the Revolution-house) that the Earl of Devonshire, the Earl of Danby, the Lord Delamere, and the Hon. John D'Arcy, were driven for shelter, by a sudden shower of rain, from the adjoining common (Whittington-Moor), where they had met by appointment, disguised as farmers, to concert measures, unobservedly, for promoting the succession of King William III. after the abdication of King James II.[26]
The celebration of this Jubilee, on Nov. 5, 1788, is related at large in the Gentleman's Magazine of that month[27]; on which day Mr. Pegge preached a Sermon[28], apposite to the occasion, which was printed at the request of the Gentlemen of the Committee who conducted the ceremonial[29], which proceeded from