His route was by Carlisle and Dumfries to Glasgow; thence to Stirling, Perth, Forfar, and Loch Ness; Sutherlandshire and Caithness, Cromarty, Aberdeen, Dundee, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Berwick, were next seen, and he made his way home by Morpeth. For anglers the book possesses great attraction. Franck is the first to describe salmon-fishing in Scotland, and both in that and trout-fishing with artificial fly he proves himself an excellent practical angler. His rules for fly-fishing, and especially for salmon-fishing, cannot be improved at present. Internal evidence shows that he had read the 'Compleat Angler;' indeed he tells us that he had argued with Walton at Stafford on the fact related by the latter of pickerel weed breeding pike, and that Walton laid it on Gesner and then 'huffed away.' Franck loses no opportunity of scoffing at him. He incidentally mentions Nottingham as being even in his time the nursery of many good anglers, describes their famous 'pith bait' and the breeding of salmon, and commends the dressing of a fly which could not be improved upon at the present day. He is the first angler to name that curious fish of the Trent, the burbot, and highly commends the salmon of the Thames, especially those caught below bridge. The rudiments of angling he learnt in the Cam, but perfected himself in the Trent. His puritanism frequently breaks out while discoursing of angling. He says of religion after the Restoration, 'It is worn so threadbare that nothing save the name is left to cover it.' It is plain that he read Shirley's poems.
Franck's second book is entitled 'A Philosophical Treatise of the Original and Production of Things. Writ in America in a time of solitude,' London, 1687. The running head title of the work is 'Rabbi Moses.' It is written in the same high-flown language as 'Northern Memoirs,' but is devoid of interest. Franck also probably wrote 'The Admirable and Indefatigable Adventures of the Nine Pious Pilgrims … to the New Jerusalem. Written in America in a time of Solitude and Divine Contemplation. By a Zealous Lover of Truth … ' London (Morphew), 1708. The introductory matter is signed 'Philanthropes' as in Franck's other books. The style supports the ascription.
[Memoir by Sir W. Scott, prefixed to an edition of the Northern Memoirs, 1821, see Lockhart's Life, v. 134, ed. 1837; Westwood and Satchell's Bibliotheca Piscatoria, p. 100; Retrospective Review, viii. 170; Censura Literaria, vi. 11; West-wood's Chronicle of the Compleat Angler, 1864, p. 13; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 27.]
FRANCKLIN, THOMAS (1721–1784), miscellaneous writer, son of Richard Francklin, bookseller near the Piazza in Covent Garden, London, who printed Pulteney's paper, ‘The Craftsman,’ was born in 1721, and admitted into Westminster School in 1735. In 1739 he was elected second from the school to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted on 21 June 1739, and took the degrees of B.A. in 1742, M.A. 1746, and D.D. in 1770. In 1745 he was elected to a minor fellowship, was promoted in the next year to be ‘socius major,’ and resided in college until the end of 1758. On the advice and encouragement of Pulteney he was educated for the church, but that statesman forgot his promises, and rendered Francklin no assistance in life. He was for some time an usher in his old school, and on 27 June 1750 was elected to the honourable, if not profitable, post of Greek professor at Cambridge. Later in the same year he was involved in a dispute with the heads of the university. Forty-six old boys of Westminster met between eight and nine o'clock on 17 Nov. at the Tuns Tavern to commemorate, as was their custom, the accession of Queen Elizabeth, and Francklin was in the chair. The party was just about to separate at eleven o'clock, when the senior proctor appeared and somewhat rudely called upon them to disperse. Many of the graduates present resented the summons, and hot words ensued. Several pamphlets were afterwards published, and among them was one from Francklin entitled ‘An Authentic Narrative of the late Extraordinary Proceedings at Cambridge against the W … r Club,’ 1751. Further particulars concerning the disturbance and the subsequent proceedings in the vice-chancellor's court will be found in Wordsworth's ‘Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century,’ pp. 70–5. He resigned his professorship in 1759, and on 2 Jan. of that year was instituted, on presentation of his college, to the vicarage of Ware in Hertfordshire, which he held in conjunction with the lectureship of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and a proprietary chapel in Queen Street, London. As a popular preacher his services were often in requisition. He was appointed king's chaplain in November 1767, and was selected to preach the commencement sermon at St. Mary's, Cambridge, on the installation of the Duke of Grafton as chancellor of the university in 1770. Through the favour of Archbishop Cornwallis he was appointed in 1777 to the rectory of Brasted in Kent, whereupon he vacated the living of Ware. For the greater part of his life Francklin was compelled, by want of lucrative preferment, to write for
