Tuyt, where the French were strongly posted. To arrive at this town, it was necessary to proceed along a road flanked by a number of batteries, planted on the isle Bommel, while the place itself was surrounded by a strong barricade. All these obstacles were surmounted; and notwithstanding the great superiority of the Republicans, they were forced from their posts, and obliged to cross the river Wahal with great loss of men and cannon. On the 8th of January following he was again successful near Buern, when part of his brigade, under Lord Cathcart, drove eight hundred of the enemy before them with great slaughter. On General Harcourt's return to England, the command of the remains of the British army devolved on General Dundas; and, in consequence of the severity of the weather, the allies now quitted the Dutch territory. He afterwards fixed his head-quarters at Delmenhorst and Rethen, in the neighbourhood of Bremen, rather than in that city, where the morals of the younger officers might be exposed to temptations; though it must be allowed that the police of Bremen may vie with that of any city in Europe in point of regularity and good order. The gallant remnant of the British army at length embarked at the mouth of a creek near Bremerlehe, on the 14th of April; and the fleet, consisting of upwards of two hundred sail, cleared the Weser on the 24th of the same month, and General Dundas returned to England.

In December 1795 he was removed from the command of the twenty-second foot to that of the seventh dragoons. He was also appointed governor of Languard fort. On the resignation of General Morrison from ill health, General Dundas was nominated quartermaster-general of the British army in 1797. General Morrison had held this office for thirty years, and his Majesty was pleased to allow the veteran five pounds per diem for life; which, however, he did not long enjoy, as he died in 1799.

When the army embarked for an expedition to Holland in 1797, Dundas was one of the general officers selected by his royal highness the commander-in-chief; and in all the

principal engagements in that country he had his full share, particularly those of Bergen and Alkmaar, on the 2d and 6th of October. With respect to the first mentioned, his royal highness in his official dispatches to government says, "The points where this well-fought action was principally contested were sustained by the British columns under those distinguished officers, General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and Lieutenant-general Dundas; whose exertions, as well as the gallantry of the brave troops they led, cannot have been surpassed by any former instance of British valour."

On the lamented death of General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, General Dundas succeeded him in the command of the second or North British dragoons, a corps which will ever be held in the highest point of view. He also succeeded him in the government of Forts George and Augustus in North Britain.

In the summer of 1801 he was second in command under the commander-in-chief of the grand army which was formed on Bagshot heath, where near 25,000 men were assembled. General Dundas took uncommon pains in disciplining this fine army, by having it out twice a day. His majesty and the royal family, when it was reviewed, gave him the highest praise for his exertions.

On the 12th of March, in 1803, he resigned quarter-mastergeneralship, and was put on the staff as second in command under his royal highness the Duke of York. His majesty was pleased also, as a particular mark of his royal regard, to invest him with the riband of the order of the Bath; and, on the 1st of June, he, with many of the knights, was installed in King Henry the 'Seventh's chapel. A grand ball and supper were given at Ranelagh on the third of the same month, which cost the junior officers seven thousand pounds.

As a reward for his many and important services, General Dundas was appointed, in 1804, governor of Chelsea Hospital, and a knight of the most honourable order of the Bath. On the 18th March, 1809, he succeeded the Duke of York as commander-in-chief of the forces; which situation he held.

two years, to the entire satisfaction of his sovereign and the army. About the same time he became a privy counsellor, and colonel of the 95th regiment. The next and last mark of the royal favour which Sir David received was the command of the first dragoon guards, which he held till his demise, Feb. 18. 1820.

No. IX.

THOMAS DUNHAM WHITAKER, LL.D.

THIS

F.R.S. AND F.S.A.

HIS able topographer was born June 8th, 1759, in the parsonage-house of Rainham, Norfolk, which is the subject of a singular story recorded by Sir Henry Spelman. In the reign of Charles I. Sir Roger Townsend, purposing to rebuild his house at Rainham, conveyed a large quantity of stones for the purpose, from the ruins of Croxford Abbey in the neighbourhood. These stones, as often as any attempt was made to build them up in this unhallowed edifice, obstinately gave way. The owner next tried them in the construction of a bridge, the arch of which in like manner suddenly shrunk. He then piously determined to apply them to the re-building of the parsonage-house, where they quietly remained until about the year 1764, when they were once more removed by the late Viscount, afterwards Marquis, Townsend, to another place; and the site of the original manse, of which the foundations are still visible, north-west from the church, was taken into the park. The strange wanderings of this Casa Santa are now probably at an end. The father of Dr. Whitaker was, in 1759, curate of that parish; but his elder brother dying unmarried in the beginning of the following year, he removed, October 3. 1760, to his paternal house at Holme, which had never been out of the occupation of the family from the reign of Henry VI.

In November, 1766, the subject of the present sketch was placed under the care of the Rev. John Shaw, of Rochdale, an excellent grammarian and instructor. In 1771 he fell into such an ill state of health as rendered him incapable of any

-steady attention to books until 1774, when he was placed in the family of the Rev. William Sheepshanks, at Grassington in Craven. In the November of that year he was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge, where he went to reside October 3. 1775. In November, 1780, he took the degree of LL.B., intending to pursue the profession of the civil law, which he studied for two years with great attention. But in June, 1782, his father having died after a week's illness, he settled upon his paternal estate, which for upwards of thirty years he continued to improve and adorn by successive plant

ations.

In August, 1785, he was ordained deacon at Rosecastle, by Dr. John Law, Bishop of Clonfert; and in July of the following year received the order of priesthood from the same prelate both without title. In 1788, having previously recovered, by a donation of 4007. the patronage of the chapel at Holme, which had been founded by one of his ancestors, with the aid of some liberal subscriptions he rebuilt it, the old edifice being mean and dilapidated. In 1797 he was licensed to the perpetual curacy of Holme, upon his own nomination. In July, 1799, he was qualified as a magistrate for the county of Lancaster, and the next year but one for the West Riding of the County of York. At the Cambridge commencement 1801, he completed the degree of LL.D.; and in the month of January, 1809, was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the vicarage of Whalley, the great object of his wishes. For this favour, besides his Grace's own generous disposition to reward a stranger who had written a history of the parish, he was also indebted to the recommendation of that learned and excellent prelate Dr. Cleaver, formerly his diocesan, and at that time Bishop of Bangor, to whose many instances of friendly attention Dr. Whitaker has frequently alluded in his writings with gratitude and respect. In 1818 he was presented with the valuable living of Blackburn, in Lancashire. He married Lucy, daughter of Thomas Thoresby, Esq. of Leeds, a kinsman to the celebrated antiquary of that name, who still survives him, and by whom he