MEMOIRS OF CELEBRATED ETONIANS. NICHOLAS HARDINGE. THIS eminent scholar and accomplished antiquary, poet, and lawyer, was the son of the Rev. Gabriel Hardinge, Vicar of Kingston in Surrey, patris bene merentis, as he is designated by his son. The subject of this memoir was born in 1700. Educated on the foundation at Eton, he was transferred thence to King's College, Cambridge, in 1718-19; took his degree as B.A. in 1722, and as M.A. in 1726. "At Eton and Cambridge," writes Nichols, "he had the fame of the most eminent scholar of his time; and had very singular powers in Latin verse, perhaps inferior to none since the Augustan age." His friends, indeed, are said to have given the preference to his Latin verses even over those of Dr. George, 1 1 Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,' vol. v. p. 339. VOL. I. B the celebrated Provost of King's College.' According to his accomplished son, Judge Hardinge, “ Vultu erat severo, et a venustate omni remoto, sed liberali et aperto, moribus cum integerrimis tum humanissimis, et mirâ inter suos caritate ornatis." 2 Prejudiced, it may be mentioned, as was the great critic, Richard Bentley, against some of the King's College men of his time, he made an exception in favour of Nicholas Hardinge. The King's men, he said, were all puppies, except Hardinge; and Hardinge," he added, "is a King's man.' 66 3 On quitting Cambridge, Mr. Hardinge devoted himself to the study of the law, and having in due time been called to the Bar, was appointed AttorneyGeneral to William Duke of Cumberland, of Culloden celebrity. In 1731, he was constituted Chief Clerk of the House of Commons, the duties of which office, owing to his assiduity, tact, and knowledge of precedents, he is said to have discharged with singular advantage to the public service. Horace Walpole, for instance, incidentally speaks of him in this capacity as having the history of England at the ends of his Parliamentary fingers." He was still, it may be mentioned, holding this appointment when, during the fierce Parliamentary 1 Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,' vol. v. p. 339, note. 2 De Vitâ Nicolai Hardinge Fragmentum,' prefixed to his 'Poems,' 3 N. Hardinge's 'Poems,' p. 236. p. vi. debates which preceded the downfall of Sir Robert Walpole from power, that great minister, in applying to himself the well-known line in the Epistles of Horace "Nil conscire sibi, nullâ pallescere culpâ " incorrectly made use of the word nulli instead of nulla. The faulty grammar naturally offended the classical ear of the then leader of the Opposition, the celebrated William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, who had been a Westminster, as Walpole had been an Eton, scholar; and accordingly, in replying to Walpole's speech, he plainly told him that his logic was as bad as his Latin. The Prime Minister, however, not only warmly insisted on the correctness of his Latinity, but, with his customary disregard for Parliamentary formalities, offered to lay Pulteney a bet of a guinea, which the other accepted, that the word was nulli. Nicholas Hardinge was much too eminent a scholar, and much too near at hand, not to be sent for to decide the wager; and accordingly, his decision being adverse to Sir Robert, the Minister drew a guinea from his pocket, which he tossed over to the Opposition benches, where it was caught by Pulteney, who appears to have thoroughly enjoyed his triumph. Holding up the coin to the view of the House, "This," he said, "is the only money I have received from the Treasury for many years, and it shall be the last." Among Pulteney's effects at his death was found this identical guinea, wrapped up in a piece of paper, on which were inscribed the playful circumstances under which it had come into his possession.1 In February, 1747, Mr. Hardinge resigned his appointment as Chief Clerk of the House of Commons, on being elected member for Eye, and in 1752 was nominated joint Secretary of the Treasury. He continued to represent the borough of Eye in Parliament till 1754. Of Mr. Hardinge's English poetical compositions, the two which were held in the highest esteem by his contemporaries appear to have been his Dialogue in the Senate House at Cambridge,' written in 1750, and the Denhill-Iliad,' or 'Denhilliad,' originating in the trifling circumstance of the hounds running through Lady Grey's garden at Denhill, in East Kent. They are severally to be found in a collection of his 'Poems-Latin, Greek, and English,' edited by his son, Judge Hardinge. His Latin poems are doubtless far superior to his English. Of these, the best known is probably his Sapphic Ode, addressed to Sir Robert Walpole the year after the fall of the latter from power; Archdeacon Coxe having given it notoriety by transcribing it at length in his life of Sir Robert.3 2 Mr. Hardinge would seem to have been highly 'Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' vol. v. p. 341. 2 See also Nichols's Life of Bowyer,' p. 129, note. |