G

EORGE STEPNEY, descended from

the Stepneys of Pendigrast in Pembrokeshire, was born at Westminster in 166z. Of his father's condition or fortune we have no account. Having received the first part of his education at Westminster, where he paffed fix years in the College, he went at nineteen to Cambridge*, where he continued a friendship begun at school with Mr. Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax. They came to London together, and are said to have been invited into publick life by the Duke of Dorset.

His qualifications recommended him to many foreign employments, so that his time

seems to have been spent in negociations. In 1692 he was sent envoy to the Elector of Brandenburgh ; in 1693 to the Imperial Court; in 1694 to the Elector of Saxony; in 1696 to the Electors of Mentz and Cologne, and the Congress at Francfort; in 1698 a second time to Brandenburgh; in 1699 to the King of Poland; in 1701 again to the Emperor'; and in 1706 to the States General. In 1697 he was made one of the commissioners of trade. His life was busy, and not long. He died in 1707; and is buried in Westminster Abbey, with this epitaph, which Jacob transcribed:

H.S.E.
GEORGIUS STePnelus, Armiger,

Vir
Ob Ingenii acumen,
Literarum Scientiam,
Morum Suavitatem,

Rerum Usum,
Virorum Ampliffimorum Consuetudinem

Linguæ, Styli, ac Vitæ Elegantiam, Præclara Officia cum Britanniæ tum Europæ

præstita,
Sua ætate multum celebratus,
Apud pofteros semper celebrandus;

Plurimas

Plurimas Legationes obiit

Ea Fide, Diligentia, ac Felicitate, ht?"

Ut Augustissimorum Principum

Gulielmi & Annæ
Spem in illo repofitam
Nunquam fefellerit,

Haud raro superaverit.
pady Poft longum honorum Cursumi

Brevi Temporis Spatio confectum, 63111? Cum Naturæ parum, Famæ fatis vixerat, Bu Animam ad altiora aspirantem placide efflavit

G.S.
Ex Equestri Familia Stepneiorum,
De Pendegrast, in Comitatu

Pembrochienfi oriundus,
Westmonasterii natus eft, A. D. 16633

Electus in Collegium
Sancti Petri Westmonast. A. 1676.

Sancti Trinitatis Cantab. 1682.
Consiliariorum quibus Commercii

Cura commiffa eft 1697.
Chelseiz mortuus, &; comitante

Magna Procerum
Frequentia, huc elatus, 17076

such won

It is reported that the juvenile compositions of Stepney made grey authors blush. I know not whether his

poems

will

appear ders to the present age. One cannot always easily find the reason for which the world has sometimes conspired to squander praise. It is not very unlikely that he wrote very early as well as he ever wrote; and the performances of youth have many favourers, because the authors yet lay no claim to publick honours, and are therefore not considered as rivals by the distributors of fame.

He apparently profeffed himself a poet, and added his name to those of the other wits in the verfion of Juvenal; but he is

a very

lic centious tranflator, and does not recompense

his neglect of the author by beauties of his ei 101

own. "In his original poems, now and then, a happy line may perhaps be found, and now and then a short composition may give pleafure.

But there is, in the whole, little either of the grace of wit, or the vigour of 63754-11 HIM beirtos 973

J. PHILIPS

JOH

OHN PHILIPS was born on the

30th of December, 1676, at Bampton in Oxfordshire; of which place his father Dr. Stephen Philips, archdeacon of Salop, was minister. The first part of his education was domestick ; after which he was sent to Winchester, where, as we are told by Dr. Sewel, his biographer, he was soon distinguished by the superiority of his exercises ; and, what is less easily to be credited, fo much endeared himself to his schoolfellows by his civility and good-nature, that they, without murmur or ill-will, saw him indulged by the master with particular immunities. It is related, that, when he was at school, he seldom mingled in play with the other boys, but retired to his chamber; where his sovereign pleasure

Ff 2

was