Bacon, Phanuel

, rector of Balden in Oxfordshire, and vicar of Bramber in Sussex, was of Magdalen college, Oxford, where he took the degree of M. A. April 17, 1722; B. D. April 29, 1731 D.D. December 7, 1735. He possessed an exquisite fund of humour, was a famous punster, and wrote ai) admirable poem called the “Artificial Kite,” first printed in 1719, and preservedin the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1758. In 1757 he published five dramatic performances, viz. J. “The Taxes.” 2. “The Insignificants.” 3. “The trial of the Time-killers.” 4. “The moral Q,uack.” 5. “The Oculist.” None of these, however, were intended for the theatre. He was also the author of a very humorous ballad, entitled “The Snipe,” in which the friar is himself, and Peter is his fellow-collegian, Peter Zinzam, M.D. who died Nov. 9, 1781. This ballad is preserved in the “Oxford Sausage.” Dr. Bacon died at Balden, Jan. 10, 1783, in the eighty-third year of his age. ²