Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The coeval and fraternal friends of Joshua Watson.—Sir John Richardson.—Thomas Slices of Guilsborough.—Henry Handley Norris.— William Van Mildert: his early ministerial life.—Composition of the Boyle Lectures.—Difficulties "before his promotion.—Christopher Wordsworth. fTlHE subject of this chapter may perhaps be best J- introduced to the reader by the following letter from the late excellent Sir John Richardson, addressed to one of the children of John James Watson; written in his old age and retirement, and containing a retrospect of his long friendship with Joshua Watson and his brother; the worthy writer was the son of a very dear friend of Mr. Stevens, who, upon his father's death, became his kind and careful guardian. "Bedford-Square, Jan. 10, 1840. "I have often reflected, with gratitude to the Giver of all good, on the commencement and uninterrupted continuance of my long friendship with John James Watson. It began very soon after my first arrival at Oxford in the month of January, 1789. On that occasion my paternal friend, Mr. Stevens, conveyed me thither; when, on entering the town, we stopped at the gate of Magdalen College, of which his cousin, Dr. Home, then Dean of Canterbury, and afterwards Bishop of Norwich, was the President. Here I dined, and passed some happy hours, and at night was conducted by his servant to University College. "Early next morning, after attending chapel as a stranger, (for I was not yet a member of the College,) I was invited to breakfast by the Master, Dr. Wetherell, then Dean of Hereford; after which he entered into a long conversation with me, inquiring about my previous studies, my present means and my future prospects, and giving me much friendly advice. " Finding that my means were narrow, he strongly a...