a new edition of Anthony à Wood's 'Athenæ Oxonienses.' Griffiths collected about 280 rare engravings and etchings by old masters, which were sold by auction during his life (May 1883). The sale excited much interest among art collectors. The Rembrandt etchings were especially fine, and one of them, the portrait of Dr. Arnold Tholinx in the first state (of which only three other copies are known, and they all in public collections), sold for 1,510l., the largest sum ever given for a single print. He gave to his college a valuable collection of engravings and medals relating to its history.
[Obituary notice in the Times; manuscript life by the Rev. S. J. Hulme, furnished by the present Warden of Wadham; personal knowledge and recollection; communications from friends and from Messrs. Colnaghi; sale catalogue of his collection.]
GRIFFITHS, alias ALFORD, MICHAEL (1587–1652). [See Alford.]
GRIFFITHS, RALPH, LL.D. (1720–1803), founder, proprietor, and publisher of the 'Monthly Review,' born in Shropshire in 1720, was of Welsh origin. He began life as a watchmaker at Stone in Staffordshire, where he attended the presbyterian meeting. He came to London and entered the service of Jacob Robinson, publisher of 'The Works of the Learned.' Tom Davies (1712?-1785) [q. v.] made his acquaintance about 1742, 'and preferred his company and conversation to that of' his employer; many years after this they were partners with others in an evening newspaper, and the two continued intimate for sixteen or seventeen years. Griffiths had a bookseller's shop in St. Paul's Churchyard in 1747, at the sign of the Dunciad. Here, on 1 May 1749, he produced the first number of the 'Monthly Review,' with but little preliminary advertisement. There was at the time no regular literary review in England, and the venture did not at first meet with much success. In 1754 Griffiths removed to Paternoster Row, and five years later was in the Strand, still keeping the sign of the Dunciad. It was in 1757 that Oliver Goldsmith made the memorable bargain with Griffiths, with whom he was to board and lodge, and for a small salary to devote himself to the 'Review.' Goldsmith never acknowledged his contributions, twelve in number, from April to September 1757, and four in December 1758 (reprinted in Cunningham's edition, 1855, iv. 265-333), and complained that the editor and his wife tampered with them. The connection lasted only five months. Goldsmith said he was ill-treated and overworked; his employer retorted that he was idle and unpunctual. Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths have been severely dealt with by the biographers of Goldsmith, who, however, is not likely to have been an efficient sub-editor (J. Forster, Life, 1876, vol. i. passim; De Quincey, Sketches, 1857, pp. 212-17). The next year Griffiths had a fresh quarrel with his late assistant about some books and a suit of clothes, which ended in Goldsmith agreeing to undertake certain literary work to balance the claim (Life, i. 118, 120). Griffiths devoted all his energy to the 'Review.' Its circulation increased, and at one time it was reported to produce 2,000l. a year. He is sometimes accused of having published at an immense profit the infamous 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure' [see Cleland, John], but it was a mild imitation of the original work which he issued in 1750 with a eulogy in his 'Review,' March 1750, pp. 431-2 (PisanusFraxi, Catena librorum tacendorum, 1885, pp. 63, 92, 95). He purchased a mansion (Linden House, the site being now occupied by Linden Gardens) at Turnham Green, and set up a couple of coaches. On 25 June 1761 Benjamin Collins of Salisbury purchased a fourth share of the 'Review' for 755l. 12s. 6d. (C. Welsh, Life of J. Newbery, 1885, p. 19). The rivalry of the 'Critical Review' (1756-1817), at one time conducted by Smollett, injured Griffiths's venture. Johnson's comparison of the qualities of the two periodicals is well known (Boswell, Life, ed. G. B. Hill, ii. 39, iii. 32). Recalling the figures of some of those who habitually attended Chiswick Church about the middle of the century, Sir Richard Phillips speaks of 'portly Dr. Griffiths … with his literary wife, in her neat and elevated wire-winged cap' (Walk from London to Kew, 1817, p. 213). Griffiths's first wife, Isabella, here mentioned, died 25 March 1764, aged 52. Wedgwood, writing to his brother, 16 Feb. 1765, refers to 'your good doctor Mr. Griffiths, I need not mention you know he hath one of the warmest places in my heart' (E. Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, 1865, i. 363). Griffiths visited Burslem in the following year, but was very anxious to return to 'his beloved Turnham Green' (ib. i. 460).
In 1767 he married a second wife, Elizabeth, the third daughter of Samuel Clarke, D.D., of St. Albans (1684-1750) [q. v.] She died 24 Aug. 1812. A sister married Dr. Rose of Chiswick, a neighbour and intimate friend of Griffiths. He still carried on his business with the old Dunciad sign in the Strand, 'near Catherine St., 1772, where we perfectly remember his shop to be a favourite lounge of the late Dr. Goldsmith' (European Mag. January 1804, p. 4). He failed, however, and the 'Review' became the sole pro-
