ALDRICH, 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 Collège, 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 archdeacon of Colchester, in 1534 canon of Windsor, and the same year registrary 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. Epistola ad Gul. Hormanum, in Latin verse, printed in Horman’s Antibossico, 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 Vulgaria Puerorum of that author, Lond. 1519, 4to; 4. Answers to certain queries concerning the abuses of the mass, also about receiving the sacrament.

Aldrich, Dr Henry, an eminent English divine and philosopher, born at London in 1647, was educated at Westminster school under the famous Dr Busby, 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 Popish 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[7:2:395]: 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 revising of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion was intrusted to him and Bishop Sprat. 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 ha§ 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 20. 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, entitled 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 Aldrielfs 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 every thing which he had met with concerning music and musicians, but that he had brought no part of them into any kind of form.

Dr Aldrich is of some note as a Latin poet. In the Jtlus<ε Anglicanae 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 has preserved a humorous translation by him of the well-known English ballad,
A soldier and a sailor,
A tinker and a tailor, &c.

The following epigram, entitled “Causae Bibendi,” is likewise ascribed to Dr Aldrich :—

Si bene quid memini, Causae sunt quinque bibendi;
Hospitis Adventus, proesens Sitis, atque futura,
Aut Vini Bonitas, aut quoelibet 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 encouraging learning to the utmost of his power, of which he was a most magnificent 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. His modesty and humility prevented him from prefixing his name to the learned tracts which he published during his life. At his death he wished to be buried in the cathedral, without any memorial; 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 63d or 64th year of his age.