198 HISTORY OF BISHOP AITCKLAND. their old preceptor, and he was frequently a guest at their hospitable table. He died at his house at Byers Green, and was interred at the Church of St Andrew's Auckland, on the 25th of February, 1785. His mansion and other real property were sold, in pursuance of the directions in his will, and the produce distributed amongst his poor relations. He left a very small personal estate, his chief support, in retirement, being an annuity paid him by Lord Bottetourt, but how acquired is not known. In early life, Mr. Wright contracted a pedantic stiffness of manner, which was not polished down by his subsequent intercourse with people of fashion : on the contrary, he rather affected to keep it up, though accompanied with the countenance of good humour. His temper was gentle and affable, and his mind generous ; but his studies, leading him out of the common track of human affidrs, left him little conversant with the ordinary duties of life. There was something flighty and eccentric in his notions, and a wildness of fancy followed even in his ordinary projects, so that his house was not built, or fitted up upon the model, or in the order of other men's buildings. In one of his letters he gives an elaborate description of it, and expatiates on the pleasures of a retired life in such a place. The lower storey of the house contained a parlour, kitchen, staircase, pantiy, cellar, and servant's room, with an arched passage leading to the garden terrace, and another to the forest-walk and proBtarium. ^' The principal storey," says he, " is entered by a flight of steps from the outside, with a half space from the terrace, which serves to dine upon in summer, having stone seats on each side, and an abacus, or balustrade, which answers very well both for a sideboard and dumb- waiter. Here I can most pleasantly enjoy a view of the town, the Roman Camp, and the evening sun." The interior staircase was ornamented with his own works ; and in the drawing-room was a representation of all the faculties of human knowledge, being a curious collection of prints, disposed in twenty-seven large compositions, five hundred being selected for that purpose, and elegantiy framed. A Roman tridinium^ with Doric pillars, was placed at one end of this room. Numerous paintings and prints decorated the other apartments. Two small cubicuUij or wings, were added to the main building. Here," says this singular man, I have perfect tranquility, though in a village, having no house nearer than a hundred yards. When I indulge myself with poetic ideas I can naturally conceive myself with an Olympus before me, a Mount Hemus on one side, and a Parnassus on the other."* After the death of Mr. Wright, several of his engravings were rescued from the coppersmith, by falling into the hands of George Allan, Esq., of Darlington, who purchased his collection of prints, mathematical instruments, and other valuable articles. The MSS. were sold by Sotheby in December, 1844. He lies buried beneath the shadow of our Parish Church, about midway between the north entrance and the monument to the late William Trotter, Esq. His grave is marked by a very humble-looking headstone, which bears the following inscription : — Near this place lie tiie remains of Thomas Wright, late of Byers Green, PhiL Nat and Mat. Prof. He died February 22nd, 1786. Turning again to the Register for Baptisms, we find the following : — 1795. — January 1. — ^Robert Eaye, son of the Bevd. Robert Greville & Dorothy his wife, of Bishop Aukland. 1802. — ^April 12. — John Mounsey, first son of the Rev. Qeorge Mounsey, curate of St Andrew Aukland, and Master of the Free Grammar School of Bishop Aukland, native of Dacre, Cumberld., by his wife, Ann Dalton, native of Musgrave, Westmorland. The first of the above entries in the Register records the baptism, at Bishop Auckland, of one of the first botanists and artists of his age. The A thenceum of June 16, 1866, referring to his death, says : — "A short time ago we had to record the deaths of Sir W. J. Hooker and Dr. lindley, and last week, we gave an account of the loss of Dr. W. H. Harvey. We have now to record the death of Dr. Robert Kaye Greville, who died in Edinburgh on the 4th of Juna He was well known as an exceedingly active philanthropist, one of the most accomplished botanists of Scotland ; and few men have done so much for the advancement of the. study of ciyptogamic plants. He was a most accurate and skilful artist. Robert Kaye Greville was bom at Bishop Auckland, in Durham, on the 13th of December, 1794. He was much interested in plants at an
- Westerton FoUy, the tower which staada in the village of Westerton, and which f onns anch a oonspionooa object for miles around,
was erected by Mr. Wri||ht for an obeenratory. It mav be worthy of remark that many of thoae problemB of physical science which are occapying the attention of some of the greatest phuosophers of the present day, were in part worked ont on this hill top, and in this so-called FoUy. Alexander Ton Humboldt, in his great work *' Cosmos," says, " Thomas Wriflht, of Barham, Kant, I^mibert^ and at lint also Sir William Herschel, were disposed to consider the form of the Milky Way, and the apparent aocomulation of the stars within this zone, as a consequence of the flattened fonn and unequal dimensions of the world island (starry stratum,) in which our solar system is included." De Moxoan has given an extract of the extremely rare work of Thos. Wright ( ** Theory of the Universe," London, 1760,) p. 241 in the "Philos. Masaone," ser. iii. No. 32. Thomas Wright, to whose researches the attention of astronomers has oeen so permanentl v directed since the beeinning of the present oentory, through the ingeniouB speculations of Hant and William Hersohel, observed only with a refleotor of one foot focal length." Digitized by Google
