70 DENHAM: the characteristic virtues for which, above all countries, Ireland has ever been celebrated. We shall take leave of this excellent man with the fol lowing anecdote:– In the reign of King George II. being desirous of the honour of preaching before his majesty, he obtained, from the lord chamberlain, or the dean of the chapel, the favour of being appointed to that office on the fifth Sunday of some month, being an extra-day, not supplied, ex officio, by the chaplains. As he was not informed of the etiquette, he entered the royal chapel after the prayers began, and, not knowing whither to go, crowded into the desk by the reader. The vesturer soon after was at a loss for the preacher, till seeing a clergyman kneeling by the reader, he concluded him to be the man. Accordingly, he went to him, and pulled him by the sleeve. But Dr. Delany, chagrined at being interrupted in his devotions, resisted and kicked the intruder, who in vain begged him to come out, and said, “There was no text.” The doctor replied, that he had a text; nor could he comprehend the mean ing, till the reader acquainted him, that he must go into the vestry, and write down the text (as usual) for the closets. When he came into the vestry, his hand shook so much that he could not write. Mrs. Delany, there fore, was sent for; but no paper was at hand. At last, on the cover of a letter, the text was transcribed by Mrs. Delany, and so carried up to the king and royal family. SIR JOHN DENHAM, A poet of some celebrity, was the only son of Sir John Denham, Knight, of Little Horsley, in Essex, (some time chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland, and one of the lords justices of that kingdom,) by Eleanor, daughter of Sir Garnet More, Knight, Baron of Mellefont, in Ireland, and was born in Dublin in the year 1615; but was brought over from thence, two years afterwards, on his father being
