Raine, Matthew

, an eminent scholar and teacher, was born May 20, 1760. He received the first rudiments of his education under his father, the rev. Matthew Raine, who was for many years a schoolmaster of ability and reputation at Hackforth near Richmond in Yorkshire. In June 1772, he was admitted on the foundation of the Charter-house, to which he was nominated by the king at the request of lord Holderness. After distinguishing himself, as a boy, he was elected, in 1778, to a Charter-house exhibition at Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1783, having taken the degree of B. A. in 1782. He engaged for some time in tuition at the university, and had several distinguished pupils. In 1791, he was elected schoolmaster of the Charter-house, his only | opponent being Charles Burney, D. D. whose talents as a scholar were even then generally acknowledged, and are now perhaps unrivalled.

Mr. Raine having been advanced to this important station, for which no man was ever better qualified, he proceeded to take the degree of D. D. in 1798. In 1809, he was elected preacher to the hon. society of GrayVinn, and in the year following, was presented by the governors of the Charter-house to the rectory of Little Hallingbury in Essex, whither he had intended to retire at the close of 1811. But in the early part of the year, his frame was so weakened by a violent fit of the gout, added to his cares and anxiety for the school, and the labour which he bestowed on his compositions for the pulpit, that on a recurrence of his disorder, at the close of the summer, he was unable to throw it out, and died of suppressed gout, Sept. 17, 1810. His remains are deposited in Charter-house chapel, and a monument with an inscription written by Dr. Parr, has been erected to his memory by his scholars. The present school-room, built during his mastership, and the improvements made by him in the dormitory, will long remain as proofs of the attention which Dr. Raine paid to the discipline and good order of the school and such was the mildness and sweetness of his disposition, that his pupils loved and revered him while at school, and were Jus friends through life.

In the pulpit, the excellent choice and arrangement of his subject, and the graceful dignity of his manner, combined with a superior eloquence and harmony of voice, commanded the attention of his hearers, and whenever he preached, the chapel of GrayVinn was thronged by a numerous and enlightened audience. But his labours were not confined to the school and the pulpit. He was one of the first and most active managers of the London Institution and the “Society of Schoolmasters” is mainly in-r debted to his generous support for its present respectability and importance.

Among his intimate friends were all the first scholars of the day; and none was more indebted to the friendship of Dr. Raine than professor Person, whose successor in the professorial chair it was no little satisfaction to Dr. Raine to have educated under his own care at the Charter-house.

The literary world have much cause to regret the premature death of Dr. Raine. He had turned his thoughts | to many subjects of great interest to the classical scholar, but his delicacy was so great, that he scrupled to publish without more mature consideration than his employment gave him leisure to bestow on them. He published only two sermons, at the request of those before whom they were preached; one preached at Kingston-upoii-Thames, Feb. 19, 1786, on the death of capt. Pierce, commander of the Halsewell East Indiaman the other, a York assize sermon, preached July 26, 1789, when the father of his pupil Walter Fawkes, esq. was high sheriff. 1

1 From private conatnunicatieu,