JOHN HUGHES, a frequent contributor to the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian, was born in Wiltshire, England, January 29th, 1677. He wrote much both in prose and verse, and was so well thought of that he had Johnson for a biographer. In later times, however, he has been forgotten even by the makers of encyclopædias, justifying the opinions of Swift and Pope in his own day. His “Poems on Several Occasions, with Select Essays in Prose” appeared in 1735. The book is long out of print, but as a pupil of Addison and a contributor to the Spectator, Hughes cannot be overlooked by students of the literature of Queen Anne’s reign. He wrote a number of plays which did not succeed, and when on February 17th, 1720, his “Siege of Damascus” was being warmly applauded at Drury Lane Theatre, where it had “made a hit,” he was dying. “What he wanted in genius he made up as an honest man,” Pope said of him.