This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This fascinating collection of letters sheds light on the intellectual and social world of 18th century Oxford, and provides a glimpse into the lives of two young scholars grappling with the big questions of their time. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Excerpt from Letters of Richard Radcliffe and John James of Queen's College, Oxford, 1755-83: With Additions, Notes, and Appendices The following correspondence forms part of a large number of family letters which have gradually come into my hands during the last two years. Those have been selected for publication which bear in any degree on University life at the time. As the Provost of Queen's has kindly undertaken to write a Prefatory Note, I will content myself with giving a short account of the four men whose correspondence is now published. Both in this Preface and in the Index I shall refer to 'John James, senior, ' as 'Dr. James, ' and to his son John as 'James.' The one or two notes printed in italics are by James himself. Richard Radcliffe, the writer of the first sixteen of the letters, was the son of Francis Radcliffe of Ulock, and Anne, daughter of Mr. Jackson of Torpenhow, Cumberland. He was born in 1727, and was educated at St. Bees (see p. 34). On October 7, 1743, he entered as Batler at Queen's, was elected Taberdar April 21, 1748, and proceeded B.A. the same year. On October 30, 1751, he took his Master's degree. From his first letter to his friend Dr. James, we find that in 1755 he was curate of Bucklebury, in Berkshire, but was on the point of taking another cure in the same county, at White Waltham, where he took up his residence in January, 1756. He did not however remain there long, as a few months later his Vicar, Dr. Dodwell, put him into the living of Colsterworth in Lincolnshire, during the minority of his son Henry Dodwell. Radcliffe was Rector of Colsterworth for ten years, and then remained on for eleven years more as young Dodwell's curate, until in 1777 the living of Holwell in Dorset, in the gift of Queen's College, became vacant and fell to his share, he having been then all but thirty years on the Foundation 'without, ' as he says (p. 31), 'having had the offer of any preferment from College.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
In 1836 the United States government received a strange and unprecedented gift - a bequest of 104,960 gold sovereigns (then worth half a million dollars) to establish a foundation in Washington 'for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men'. The Smithsonian Institution, as it would eventually be called, grew into the largest museum and research complex in the world. Yet it owes its existence to an Englishman who never set foot in the United States, and who has remained a shadowy figure for more than a hundred and fifty years. Smithson lived a restless life in the capitals of Europe during the turbulent years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars; at one time he was trailed by the French secret police, and later languished as a prisoner of war in Denmark for four long years. Yet despite a certain a penchant for gambling and fine living, he had, by the time of his death in Paris in 1829, amassed a financial fortune and a wealth of scientific papers that he left to the new democracy America. Spurned by his natural father and his country, he would be acknowledged for his own achievements in the New World. Drawing on unpublished diaries and letters from archives all over Europe and the United States, Heather Ewing tells the full and compelling story for the first time, revealing a life lived at the heart of the English Enlightenment and illuminating the mind that sparked the creation of America's greatest museum.
