Poems Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol by Thomas Rowley and Others in the Fifteenth Century

yiii ?i ft> & Ei Jfe s> E>
as presents partly as purchases, procured from him
copies of many pf his MSS. in prose ajid yfirscv
.> Other
Though his education was thus confined, he discovered an
early turn towards poetry and English antiquities, particularly
heraldry. How soon he began to be an author is not known.
In the Town and Country Magazine for March 1769, are two
letters, probably, from him, as they are dated at Bristol, and
subscribed with his usual signature, D. B. The first contains
short extracts from two MSS., " written three hundred years
ago by one Rowley, a Monk" concerning dress in the age of
Henry II. ; the other, " Ethelgar, a Saxon poem" in bom
bast prose. In the same Magazine for May 1769, are thre*
communications from Bristol, with the fame signature, D. B.
viz. Cerdick, translated from the Saxon (in the fame style
with Ethelgar), p. 233.—Observations upon Saxon heraldry,
with drawings of Saxon achievements, &c. p. 245.—Elinoure
and Juga, written tlrree hundred years ago by T. Rowley, «
ficular priest, p. 273, This last poem is reprinted in this vo
lume, p. 19. In the subsequent months of 1769 and 1770
there are several other pieces in the fame Magazine, which are
Undoubtedly of his composition. . • . 1 .
I» April .1770, he left Bristol and came to London, i«
■ hopes of advancing his fortune by his talents for writing,. of
■which, by this time, he had conceived a very high opinion^
. In the prosecution of this scheme, he appears to have almost
■entusly depended upon the patronage of a let of gentlemen,
whom an eminent author long ago pointed out, as net the very.
worfi judges, tr rewardtrs of merit> the booksellers of this great