(Robert), bishop of Carlisle, was born at Burnham in Buckinghamshire about the year 1493, and educated at Eaton-school; from whence, in 1507, he was elected scholar of King's-college, Cambridge, where he took his degree in arts, and was afterwards proctor of the university. In 1525, he was appointed master of Eaton school, then became fellow of that college, and finally provost. In 1529, he went to Oxford, where, being first incorporated bachelor of divinity, in the following year he proceeded doctor in that faculty; in 1531, he was made arch-deacon of Colchester; in 1534, canon of Windsor; and the same year, regitrary of the order of the garter. He was consecrated bishop of Carlisle in the year 1537, and died at Horncastle in Lincolnshire in 1556. He wrote,

1. Epistolae ad Gul. Hormannum, in Latin verse; printed in Horman's Antidoticon, Lond. 1521, of which book Pitts erroneously makes Aldrich the author. 2. Epigrammata varia. 3. Latin verses, and another epistle to Horman, prefixed to the Vulgariae pruorum of that author, Lond. 1519, 4to. 4. Answers to certain queries concerning the abuses of the mass; also about receiving the sacrament.

(Dr Henry), an eminent English divine and philosopher, born at London in 1647, was educated at Westminster school under the famous Dr Buffy, and admitted of Christ-church college, Oxford. He had a great share in the controversy with the Papists in the reign of James II. and bishop Burnet ranks him among those who examined all the points of popery with a solidity of judgment, clearness of argument, depth of learning, and vivacity of writing, far beyond any who had before that time written in our language. He rendered himself so conspicuous, that at the revolution, when Massey the papish dean of Christ-church fled, his deanery was conferred on him.

In this station he behaved in an exemplary manner, and that fabric owes much of its beauty to his ingenuity; it was Aldrich who designed the beautiful square called Peckwater Quadrangle, which is esteemed an excellent piece of architecture. In imitation of his predecessor Dr Fell, he published yearly, a piece of some ancient Greek author, as a present to the students of his house: he published A System of Logic, with some other pieces; and the reviling Clarendon's History of the Rebellion was intrusted to him and bishop Spratt; but it doth not appear that they made any additions, or considerable alterations in it, as has been asserted by Mr Oldmixon. Besides his preferments above mentioned, Dr Aldrich was also rector of Wem in Shropshire. He was chosen prolocutor of the convocation in 1702. This worthy person died at Christ-church on the 14th of December 1710. As to his character, he was a most universal scholar, and had a taste for all sorts of learning, especially architecture. Sir John Hawkins has favoured the public with several particulars relative to Dr Aldrich's skill in music; and on account of the Doctor's eminence in this respect, Sir John hath given his life, with his head prefixed. His abilities as a musician rank him, we are told, among the greatest masters of the science. He composed many services for the church, which are well known; as are also his anthems, nearly to the number of twenty. He adapted, with great skill and judgment, English words to many of the notes of Palestrina, Carissimi, Victoria, and other Italian composers for the church, some of which are frequently sung in our cathedrals as anthems. By the happy talent which Dr Aldrich possessed, of naturalizing the compositions of the old Italian masters, and accommodating them to an English ear, he increased the stores of our own church. Though the Doctor chiefly applied himself to the cultivation of sacred music, yet being a man of humour, he could divert himself by producing pieces of a lighter kind.

There are two catches of his; the one, "Hark the bonny Christ-church Bells," the other intitled, "a Smoking Catch," to be sung by four men smoking their pipes, which is not more difficult to sing than diverting to hear. His love of smoking was, it seems, so excessive as to be an entertaining topic of discourse in the university. Such was Dr Aldrich's regard for the advancement of music, and the honour of its professors, that he had formed a design of writing a history of the science; and the materials from which he proposed to compile it are yet extant in the library of his own college. It appears from these materials, that he had marked down everything which he had met with concerning music and musicians; but that he had wrought no part of them into any kind of form.

Dr Aldrich is of some note as a Latin poet. In the Musae Anglicane, we find two elegant copies of verses by him; one on the accession of King William III.

and the other on the death of the Duke of Gloucester. Sir John Hawkins hath preserved a humorous translation by him of the well-known English ballad,

"A soldier and a sailor," "A tinker and a taylor," &c.

The following epigram, intitled "Causa Bibendi," is likewise ascribed to Dr Aldrich:

"Si bene quid memini, Causa fuit quinque bibendi, Hospitis Adventus; praesens Situs, atque futura; Aut Vini Bonitar; aut qua libet altera Causa."

The epigram has been thus translated:

"If on my theme I rightly think, "There are five reasons why men drink: "Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry, "Or lest I should be by and by, "Or any other reason why."

The translation is not equal to the original. It is evident, from the verses cited and referred to, that Dr Aldrich was of a very cheerful and pleasant turn of mind. Indeed, he is always spoken of as having been a man of wit; and as one who, to his great talents and virtues, joined those amiable qualities, which rendered him the object of general affection, as well as of general esteem and respect. Having never been married, he appropriated his income to works of hospitality and beneficence, and in encouraging learning to the utmost of his power, of which he was a most munificent patron, as well as one of the greatest men in England, if considered as a Christian or a gentleman. He had always the interest of his college at heart, whereof he was an excellent governor. And, as he was remarkable for modesty and humility, concealing his name to those several learned tracts he published, so at his death he appointed to be buried without any memorial in the cathedral; which his thrifty nephew complied with, depositing him on the south side of bishop Fell's grave, December 22, eight days after his decease; which happened in the 63rd or 64th year of his age.

ALDROVANDUS (Ulysses), professor of philosophy and physic at Bologna, the place of his nativity. He was a most curious inquirer into natural history, and travelled into the most distant countries on purpose to inform himself of their natural productions. Minerals, metals, plants, and animals, were the objects of his curious researches; but he applied himself chiefly to birds, and was at great expense to have figures of them drawn from the life. Aubert le Mire says, that he gave a certain painter, famous in that art, a yearly salary of 200 crowns, for 30 years and upwards; and that he employed at his own expense Lorenzo Bennini and Cornelius Swintus, as well as the famous engraver Christopher Coriolanus. These expenses ruined his fortune, and at length reduced him to the utmost necessity; and it is said that he died blind in an hospital at Bologna, at a great age, in 1605. Mr Bayle observes, that antiquity does not furnish us with an instance of a design so extensive and so laborious as that of Aldrovandus, with regard to natural history; that Pliny has treated of more kinds of subjects, but only touches lightly on them, saying but a little upon anything, whereas Aldrovandus has collected all he could meet with. His compilation, or that compiled upon his plan, consists of 13 volumes in folio, several of which were printed after his death. He himself published his Ornithology, or History of Birds, in three folio volumes, in 1599; and his seven Books Of Insects, which make another volume of the same size. The volume Of Serpents, three Of Quadrupeds, one Of Fishes, that Of Exanguous Animals, the History Of Monsters, with the Supplement to that of Animals, the treatise Of Metals, and the Dendrology or History of Trees, were published at several times after the death of Aldrovandus, by the care of different persons; and Aldrovandus is the sole author only of the first five volumes of this work, the rest having been finished and compiled by others, upon the plan of Aldrovandus: a most extensive plan, wherein he not only relates what he has read in naturalists, but remarks all that historians have written, legislators ordained, and poets feigned: he explains also the different uses which may be made of the things he treats of, in common life, in medicine, architecture, and other arts; in short, he speaks of morality, proverbs, devices, riddles, hieroglyphics, and many other things which relate to his subject.