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ADDISON.

OSEPH ADDISON was born on

JOSEPH

the first of May, 1672, at Milfton, of which his father, Lancelot Addison, was then rector, near Ambrofbury in Wiltshire, and, appearing weak and unlikely to live, he was chriftened the fame day. After the ufual domeftick education, which, from the character of his father, may be reasonably fuppofed to have given him ftrong impreffions of piety, he was committed to the care of

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Mr Naish at Ambrofbury, and afterwards of Mr. Taylor at Salisbury.

Not to name the school or the mafters of men illuftrious for literature, is a kind of historical fraud, by which honest fame is injurioufly diminished: I would therefore trace him through the whole procefs of his education. In 1683, in the beginning of his twelfth year, his father being made dean of Lichfield, naturally carried his family to his new refidence, and, I believe, placed him for fome time, probably not long, under Mr. Shaw, then mafter of the fchool at Lichfield, father of the late Dr. Peter Shaw. Of this interval his biographers have given no account, and I know it only from a ftory of a barring-out told

me

me, when I was a boy, by Andrew Corbet of Shropshire, who had heard it from Mr. Pigot his uncle.

The practice of barring-out was a favage licenfe practifed in many schools to the end of the laft century, by which the boys, when the periodical vacation drew near, growing petulant at the approach of liberty, fome days before the time of regular receís, took poffeffion of the fchool, of which they barred the doors, and bade their mafter defiance from the windows. It is not eafy to fuppofe that on fuch occafions the mafter would do more than laugh; yet, if tradition may be credited, he often ftruggled hard to force or furprise the garrifon. The mafter, when Pigot was a fchool

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a fchool-boy, was barred-out at Lichfield, and the whole operation, as he faid, was planned and conducted by Addison.

To judge better of the probability of

this story, I have enquired when he was fent to the Chartreux; but, as he was not one of those who enjoyed the Founder's benefaction, there is no account preferved of his admiffion. At the school of the Chartreux, to which he was removed either from that of Salisbury or Lichfield, he pursued his juvenile ftudies under the care of Dr. Ellis, and contracted that intimacy with Sir Richard Steele, which their joint labours have fo effectually recorded.

Of this memorable friendship the greater praise must be given to Steele.

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