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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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his knowledge gave them an earnest of their truth . That zeal is , I apprehend , misplaced , which permits ignorance to assume information for the sake of attempting to keep together a congregation . Where proper supplies cannot be obtained , the place had far better be closed ; for when it is not , the Dissenters , though they may desire to do good , meet only with derision . M . S .
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448 Sir R . Clayton ' s Monument to Mr . Firmin .
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Selections from " The North American lievieio . " Neglect of German Literature in England . [ In this Journal for ApriJ 1820 , is a review of " Works of the German
Astronomers , " in which instances are given of their being unknown to scientific men labouring in the same department in this country— -this leads to the following passage—] IT is not , indeed , with respect to mathematics and astronomy alone ,
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Sir , July 5 , 1821 . WAS looking the other day into I the Life of Thomas Firmin , when I observed , with more attention than I had done before , the following passage , which is at pp . 85 , 86 , of the ed . 1698 , and at p . 70 of the re publication by the Unitarian Society , 1791
-' * My Lady Clayton has so great a re&pect for his memory , that she has , ( with the concurrence of Sir Robert , ) since his death , erected a handsome monument in their garden at Marden , in Surrey , in a walk there , called Mr . Firmin ' s walk , by reason of his
contrivance and activity in it . This monument is a marble pillar , about eight feet high , with an urn , and flowers growing out of the top of it , with this motto , Florescit fun ere virtus ; an emblem , you may conceive , of death and resurrection /'
Then follows " the inscription" on " a marble table fixed to one side of this pillar , " and designed " to perpetuate ( as far as marble and love can do it ) the memory of Thomas Firmin , citizen
of London . " After characterizing Mr . Firmin ' s extraordinary exertions for the public good , under the imjfulse of a " charity not confined to any nation , sect or party , " the inscription is thu 9 concluded :
" His agreeable temper rendering him an extraordinary lover of gardens , he contrived this walk , which bears his name , and where his improving conversation and example are still remembered . But since heaven has better disposed of him , this pillar is erected to charity and friendship by Sir Robert Clayton , and Martha , his lady , who first builded and planted in Marden .
" Born J [ l 632 ] at Ipswich , in Suffolk . Buried [[ 1697 ] in , Christ-church Hospital , London . " I had the curiosity to inquire where Marden was situated , and who were
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these titled friends of Firmin . Sir Robert Clayton , I found , was M . P . for London in ten Parliaments which occurred between 1678 and his death in 1707- He was Lord Mayor in 1679 , when he held his mayoralty in his mansion just built in the Old Jewry , and where the London Institution
was opened in 1805 . Mr . Granger CBiog . Hist . HI . 397 ) says of Sir R . Clayton , that he % < well understood and sedulously promoted the commercial , civil and religious interests of his country / ' Becoming " obnoxious to the Duke of York by voting for the Exclusion Bill , he retired from business , and amused himself with building
and planting , after that prince ascended the throne . When the Prince of Orange was at Henley , he was sent in the name of the city of London to compliment him on his arrival / ' Sir Robert Clavton had the honour to be
traduced , under the character of Ishban , in the latter part of Absalom and Ahitophel , the composition of which , " unhappy Dryden , " tired , perhaps , of his servile task , committed to that inferior hireling rhymer , Nahum Tate . Of Martha , the lady of Sir Robert Clayton , I can find no account .
Marden Park , still possessed by a Clayton , is near Godstone , to the right of " the 17 th mile-stone on the road through Croydon to Lewes and Brighton . I wish one of your readers who may be travelling that road would
ascertain and inform you whether the marble pillar is standing , and if " Mr . Firrnin's Walk" is yet to be distinguished , after the changes and chances of 124 years ; for so long has Thomas Firmin now rested from his works of faith and labours of love . N . L . T .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/8/
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