Dodd, Charles

, a Roman catholic historian, deserves a fuller memorial than can now be recovered. All we |

know of him is derived from Mr. Berrington, who informs us that he was a clergyman of the Roman church, resided at Harvington in Worcestershire, and died there about the year 1745. His virtues and talents were eminent, and his labours in the range of literature were incessant and manifold. The work that has principally given celebrity to his name is a “Church History of England,” 1737 1742, 3 vols. folio, with the place of Brussels, but evidently from the type, &c. printed in England. Having had repeated occasion to consult it, we are ready to acknowledge our obligations for information derived from this history, which cost the author the labour of thirty years; and we agree with Mr. Berrington, that it contains much curious matter, collected with great assiduity, and many original records. The author’s style, when the subject admits expression, is pure and unincumbered, his narration easy, and his reflections just and liberal, at least as much so as can be expected from an undisguised zeal for a certain train of opinions, and certain views of history. His materials are perhaps not well arranged, and he was himself, we are told, so dissatisfied, as, with his own hand, to copy this voluminous work into two or three different forms. This history remained for many years almost unknown, and we can remember when it was sold almost at the price of waste-paper. Its worth is now better ascertained, and the last copy offered for sale, belonging to the marquis Tenvnshend’s library, was sold for ten guineas. ¹