author of an esteemed Roman history, and other performances. Of this learned person the earliest particulars to be met with are furnished by himself, in the following modest but manly address to the Earl of Oxford, dated 7th October 1722: "My Lord, the first time I had the honour to wait upon your lordship since your coming to London, your lordship had the goodness to ask me what way of life I was then engaged in; a certain manoeuvre honte hindered me at that time from giving a direct answer. The truth is, my lord, I cannot be said at present to be in any form of life, but rather to live extempore. The late epidemical distemper seized me, I endeavoured to be rich, imagined for a while that I was, and am in some measure happy to find myself at this instant but just worth nothing. If your lordship, or any of your numerous friends, have need of a servant with the bare qualifications of being able to read and write, and to be honest, I shall gladly undertake any employments your lordship shall not think me unworthy of. I have been taught, my lord, that neither a man's natural pride, nor his self-love, is an equal judge of what is fit for him; and I shall endeavour to remember that it is not the short part we act, but the manner of our performance, which gains or loses us the applause of Him who is finally to decide of all human actions. My lord, I am just now employed in translating from the French a History of the Life of the late Archbishop of Cambay; and I was thinking to beg the honour of your lordship's name to protect a work which will have so much need of it. The original is not yet published. 'Tis written by the author of the Discourse upon Epic Poetry, in the new edition of Telemaque. As there are some passages in the book of a particular nature, I dare not solicit your lordship to grant me the favour I have mentioned, till you first have perused it. The whole is short, and pretty fairly transcribed. If your lordship could find a spare hour to look it over, I would wait upon your lordship with it, as it may possibly be no unpleasing entertainment. I should humbly ask your lordship's pardon for so long an address in a season of so much business. But when should I be able to find a time in which your lordship's goodness is not employed?" The translation here spoken of was afterwards printed in 12mo, 1723. From this period until his death, Mr Hooke enjoyed the confidence and patronage of men not less distinguished for virtue than for rank. In 1730 he published a translation of Ramsay's Travels of Cyrus, in 4to; in 1733 he revised a translation of the History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, by Thomas Townsend, printed in two vols. 8vo; and in the same year he published, in 4to, the first volume of the Roman History, from the building of Rome to the ruin of the Commonwealth, illustrated with maps and other plates. In the dedication to this volume, Mr Hooke took the opportunity of "publicly testifying his just esteem for a worthy friend, to whom he had been long and much obliged," by telling Mr Pope, that the displaying of his name at the head of those sheets was "like the hanging out a splendid sign to catch the traveller's eye, and entice him to make trial of the entertainment the place affords." But, he proceeds, "when I can write under my sign, that Mr Pope has been here, and was content, who will question the goodness of the house?" The volume is introduced by Remarks on the History of the Seven Roman Kings, occasioned by Sir Isaac Newton's objections to the supposed 244 years' duration of the royal state of Rome. His nervous pen was next employed in digesting an account of the conduct of the Dowager-duchess of Marlborough, from her first coming to court to the year 1710, 8vo. His reward on this occasion was considerable, and the reputation he acquired by the performance much greater. The circumstances of this transaction are thus related by Dr Maty, in his Memoirs of Lord Chesterfield (vol. i. p. 116): "The relict of the great Duke of Marlborough being desirous of submitting to posterity her political conduct, as well as her lord's, applied to the Earl of Chesterfield for a proper person to receive her information, and put the memoirs of her life into a proper dress. Mr Hooke was recommended by him for that purpose. He accordingly waited upon the duchess, while she was still in bed, oppressed by the infirmities of age. But, knowing who he was, she immediately got herself lifted up, and continued speaking during six hours. She delivered to him, without any notes, her account in the most lively as well as the most connected manner. As she was not tired herself, she would have continued longer the business of this first sitting, had not she perceived that Mr Hooke was quite exhausted, and wanted refreshment as well as rest. So eager was she for the completion of the work, that she insisted upon Mr Hooke's not leaving her house till he had finished it. This was done in a short time; and her Grace was so well pleased with the performance, that she complimented the author with a present of L5000, a sum which far exceeded his expectations. As soon as he was free, and permitted to quit the house of his benefactress, he hastened to the earl to thank him for his favour, and communicated to him his good fortune. The perturbation of mind he was under, occasioned by the strong sense of his obligation, plainly appeared in his stammering out his acknowledgments; and he who had succeeded so well as the interpreter of her Grace's sentiments, could scarcely utter his own."

The second volume of his Roman History appeared in 1745, when Mr Hooke embraced the occasion of congratulating his worthy friend the Earl of Marchmont, on "that true glory, the consenting praise of the honest and the wise," which his lordship had so early acquired. To the second volume Mr Hooke added the Capitoline Marbles, or Consular Kalendars, an ancient Monument accidentally discovered at Rome in the year 1545, during the pontificate of Paul III. In 1758 Mr Hooke published, 1. Observations on the Answer of M. l'Abbé de Vertot to the Earl of Stanhope's Inquiry concerning the Senate of ancient Rome, dated December 1716; 2. A Dissertation upon the Constitution of the Roman Senate, 1743; 3. A Treatise on the Roman Senate, by Dr Conyers Middleton, 1747; 4. An Essay on the Roman Senate, by Dr Thomas Chapman, 1750, a work which he inscribed to Mr Speaker Onslow. The third volume of Mr Hooke's Roman History, to the end of the Gallic war, was printed under his inspection before his last illness, but did not appear till after his death, which happened in 1764. The fourth and last volume was published in 1771. An octavo edition of the whole work was afterwards given to the world.