[Footnote 5: Wishcart, Bishop of Gloucester, before alluded to.]

* * * * *

A NOTE ON ROBERT HERICK, AUTHOR OF "HESPERIDES."

In the summer of 1844, I visited Dean Prior in company with my brother,
in order to ascertain if we could add any new fact to the scanty
accounts of the _Life of Herrick_ recorded by his biographers. The
events of his life have been related by Dr. Drake, (_Literary Hours_,
vol. iii., 1st edit. 1798.--3rd edit. 1804), by Mr. Campbell, by Dr.
Nott (_Select Poems from the Hesperides_, &c. Bristol, 1810,) by a
writer in the _Quarterly Review_, vol. iv. 1810, by Mr. Wilmott in his
elegantly written _Lives of Sacred Poets_, vol. i., 1834, and in the
memoirs prefixed to the recent editions of _Herrick's Poems_ published
by Clarke (1844), and Pickering (1846). On examining any of these
biographies, it will be found that the year and place of Herrick's death
have not been ascertained. This was the point which I therefore
particularly wished to inquire into.

Dean Prior is a village about six or seven miles from Totnes: the
church, with the exception of the tower, had been recently rebuilt. The
monuments and inscribed stones were carefully removed when the old
fabric was taken down, and restored as nearly as could be to
corresponding situations in the new building. I sought in vain, amongst
these, for the name of Herrick. On making inquiry of the old sexton who
accompanied us, he said at first in a very decided tone, "Oh, he died in
Lunnun," but afterwards corrected himself, and said that Herrick died at
Dean Prior, and that an old tombstone in {292} the churchyard, at the