PERCY, TUOIIAS. D.D., an eminent poetical collector, antiquary, and scholar, was b. at Bridgenorth, Shropshire, in 1728; was educated at Christchurch. Oxford; and having entered the church, rose to he bishop of Dromore, in Ireland, 1782. He died in 1811. This amiable and accomplished prelate, the friend of Johnson, Goldsmith, and other distingnislwd contemporaries, published translations from the Icelandic, a new version of the S9ng of 891onzon, the Northumberland Howeltold Book, a translation of Mallet's Northern, Antiptitie3 etc. his most popular and valuable contribution to our literature was the Ale/eV/ie..? qf Ancient Englieh, Poetry, consisting of old heroic ballads and songs, with sonic modern imitations, in which the editor himself displayed the taste and feel ing of a poet. This work appeared in 1765, and Percy lived to ,see four editions of it called fo^ by the piddle, and to receive the warm commendations of all poetical readers and critics. The Iteliptes were chiefly obtained from an old folio MS. that had fallen
into Percy's hands, with the addition of pieces from the Pepys collection at Cambridge, the Ashmole library at Oxford, the British museum, and the works of our earlier poets. Certain liberties were taken with some of the ballads—softening touches, repairs, and renovations—for which the editor was severely censured by Ritson and other antiquaries; but th.? collection was of great VialIC to our literature, recalling the public taste to the rude energy, picturesqueness, and passion of the old chivalrous minstrels and Elizabethan songsters. it captivated tile youthful imagination of Walter Scott, and was the inspirer and model of his ,IfinNtreley of the Scottish Border. The memory of Percy has been still further perpetuated by a chub book association, called the PERCY SOCIETY. See CLUB Boo :s.