While Mr. Pegge was resident in Kent, where he continued twenty years, he made himself acceptable to every body, by his general knowledge, his agreeable conversation, and his vivacity; for he was received into the familiar acquaintance of the best Gentlemen's Families in East Kent, several of whom he preserved in his correspondence after he quitted the county, till the whole of those of his own standing gave way to fate before him.
Having an early propensity to the study of Antiquity among his general researches, and being allowedly an excellent Classical Scholar, he here laid the foundation of what in time became a considerable collection of books, and his little cabinet of Coins grew in proportion; by which two assemblages (so scarce among Country Gentlemen in general) he was qualified to pursue those collateral studies, without neglecting his parochial duties, to which he was always assiduously attentive.
The few pieces which Mr. Pegge printed while he lived in Kent will be mentioned hereafter, when we shall enumerate such of his Writings as are most material. These (exclusively of Mr. _Urban_'s obligations to him in the Gentleman's Magazine) have appeared principally, and most conspicuously, in the _Archæologia_, which may be termed the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries. In that valuable collection will be found more than fifty memoirs, written and communicated by him, many of which are of considerable length, being by much the greatest number hitherto contributed by any individual member of that respectable Society.
In returning to the order of time, we find that, in July 1746, Mr. Pegge had the great misfortune to lose his Wife; whose monumental inscription, at Godmersham, bears ample testimony of her worth:
"MDCCXLVI. Anna Clarke, uxor Samuelis Pegge Vicarii hujus parochiæ; Mulier, si qua alia, sine dolo, Vitam æternam et beatam fidenter hic sperat; nec erit frustra."
This event entirely changed Mr. Pegge's destinations; for he now zealously meditated on some mode of removing himself, without disadvantage, into his Native County. To effect this, one of two points was to be carried; either to obtain some piece of preferment, tenable in its nature with his Kentish Vicarage; or to exchange the latter for an equivalent; in which last he eventually succeeded beyond his immediate expectations.