Printer, author, and devoted antiquarian, joined in the management of the Gentleman's Magazine in 1778 and became its manager and editor from 1792 until his death. In the pages of the Magazine he built up his digressive, disordered, but invaluable work, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (published as a collection 1812-16); and his Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century which was published 1817-58, having been continued after his death by his son. He also collected The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (which was used by Scott for Kenilworth); published Anecdotes of Mr Hogarth (1780); an edition of Swift (1801); and a massive History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (1795-1815). His valuable collection of newspapers is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.