DAINES

BARRINGTON (1727-1800)  ,Englishlawyer, antiquary and naturalist, was born in 1727, fourth son of the first Viscount Barrington . He was educated for the profession of the law, and after filling various posts, was appointed a Welsh judge in 1757 and afterwards second justice of Chester . Though an indifferent judge, his Observations on the Statutes, chiefly the more ancient, from Magna Charta to 21st James I., cap . 27, with an appendix, being a proposal for new-modelling the Statutes (1766), had a high reputation among historians and constitutional antiquaries . In 1773 he published an edition of Orosius, with Alfred's Saxon version, and an English translation with original notes . His Tracts on the Probability of reaching the North Pole (1775) were written in consequence of the northern voyage of discovery undertaken by Captain C . J . Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave (1744-1792) . Barrington's other writings are chiefly to be found in the publications of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, of both of which he was long a member, and of the latter vice-president . Many of these were collected by him in a quarto volume entitled Miscellanies on various Subjects (1781) . He contributed to the Philosophical Transactions for 178o an account of Mozart's visit at eight years of age to London . In his Miscellanies on varied subjects he included this with accounts of four other prodigies, namely, Crotch, Charles and Samuel Wesley, and Garrett Wellesley, Lord Mornington .

Among the most curious and ingenious of his papers are his Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds, and his

Essay on the Language of Birds . He died on the 14th of March 1800 and was buried in the Temple church .