BRYANT, Jacob (1715-1804), a writer on theological and mythological subjects, was born at Plymouth in 1715. His father had a place in the customs there, and was afterwards stationed in Kent, where his son was first sent to a provincial school, whence he was removed to Eton. Here he appears to have remained till 1736, the date of his election to King’s College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees of bachelor and master of arts in 1740 and 1744. He returned to Eton in the capacity of private tutor to the duke of Marlborough, then marquis of Blandford; and the good taste which his pupil showed through life, in the protection of the fine arts, and in the pursuit of science, sufficiently demonstrated the beneficial influence of his instructor’s example. In 1756 he went to the Continent as private secretary to the duke of Marlborough, then master-general of the ordnance and commander-in-chief of the forces in Germany; and he was rewarded after his return, for his various services to the family, by a lucrative appointment in tho ordnance, which allowed him ample leisure to indulge his literary tastes. Bryant died in his eighty-ninth year, on the 14th November 1804, in consequence of a fall from his chair while reaching up for a book in his library. He left his library to King’s College, having, however, previously made some valuable presents out of it to the king and to the duke of Marlborough. He bequeathed £2000 to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and £1000 for the use of the superannuated collegers of Eton School....