James, Earl of Derwentwater.

Engraved by S. Freeman

from a painting by Sir G. Kneller.

without residence, or entrance into orders, and in 1592, on the death of Dr Grant, succeeded to the head-mastership of Westminster school.

Camden's next performance was a Greek grammar for the use of his scholars, which was very favourably received, and maintained its reputation as a school-book for upwards of a century after his death. The interest of Sir Fulke Greville obtained for him the office of Clarencieux, second king-at-arms, in 1597, and thus enabled him more fully to devote himself to his favourite studies than was compatible with the arduous and fatiguing duties of the mastership of Westminster. In 1600, Camden accomplished a personal tour in the north of England, in company with Sir Robert Cotton, the founder of the Cottonian library. The same year he published a description of the monuments in Westminster abbey. It had long been Camden's intention to write a civil history of England, but he appears to have relinquished this design soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth. The collection, however, of ancient British historians which he had made with a view to this work were printed in a uniform edition at Frankfort, under his superintendance. In 1605, he published "Remains of a greater work concerning Britain," &c. being a collection of fragments illustrative of the habits, manners, and customs of the ancient Britons and Saxons. In 1606, Camden drew up in Latin, by the desire of James I., an account of the Gunpowder plot; and in the same year the 6th and last edition of his "Britannia," in folio, passed through the press. It was from this edition that Philemen Holland prepared his English translation.

In 1612, Camden, having gone to Oxford to attend the funeral of his friend Sir Thomas Bodley, was offered the degree of A.M. which he declined, as he also did the honour of knighthood proffered him by the king, In 1615, he published "Annals of the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the year 1589." It was written in Latin, and had been begun in 1597 at the desire of Lord Burleigh, who contributed some materials for it. His continuation of the Annals in which he brought them down to the death of Elizabeth, was first published at Leyden, in 1625, in 8vo.; and the first edition of the Annals, complete, at London, in 1627, in folio. Another edition of the Annals was published by Hearne at Oxford, in 1717, in 3 vols. 8vo. Both Moulin and Maitland assert that King James made Camden alter various passages, and insert others, relating to the queen, his mother, in the Annals; but this is stoutly denied by Dr Smith. In 1622, Camden founded a professorship of history at Oxford, with a salary of £140 per annum. He died at his house at Chislehurst in Kent, on the 9th of November 1623, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster abbey. Besides the works already mentioned, a collection of his Latin letters with some small tracts was published by Dr Smith, in 1691. Another translation of the Britannia was published in folio, in 1695, by Edmund Gibson, afterwards bishop of London, which was reprinted with additions, in 2 vols. folio, in 1722 and 1773. But the best edition is that edited by Gough, and published in 1789, in 3 vols. folio.-Several portraits of Camden exist. The best is that by Basire in Gough's edition of the Britannia. There is an original portrait of him in

Painters' Hall.'

Biog. Brit.-Life by Gibson.-Vita Camdeni aut. T. Smetho. - Bayle.

2 F

Francis Bacon.

BORN A. D. 1561.-DIED A. D. 1626.

THIS illustrious person, the chief ornament of the age in which he flourished, and one of the most eminent examples of intellectual greatness which his nation or his species has ever produced, was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord-keeper of the great seal in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and of Anne, one of the learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cook, tutor to King Edward VI. another of whom was married to the celebrated Burleigh. He was born at York-house, in the Strand, London, on the 22d of January, 1561. Important as were the external advantages under which he came into the world, it soon became manifest that nature had endowed him still more bountifully with the nobler gift of genius. While yet a child, the vivacity and force of his remarks made him be regarded as a little wonder; and Queen Elizabeth, who delighted to converse with him, is said to have been wont playfully to distinguish him by the title of her young lord-keeper. In 1573, being only in the thirteenth year of his age, he was entered of Trinity college, Cambridge and here he remained till he was sixteen, having, by the ardour and success with which he prosecuted his studies, fulfilled the fondest hopes which had been formed of him, and given new promise of a brilliant manhood. It is even asserted that he had already at this early age laid the foundation of that fabric of philosophy which has immortalized his name. On leaving college, he was sent by his father to visit France in the train of Sir Amias Powlet, the English ambassador at that court; and this gentleman was soon led to entertain so high an opinion of his ability and discretion, that having a message of importance to transmit to his sovereign, he selected Bacon, young as he was, to be its bearer. Having satisfactorily acquitted himself of this commission, he immediately returned to Paris. During the remainder of his stay in France, he did not confine himself to the capital, but visited various parts of the country. He was yet abroad, when in the spring of 1579, he was recalled home by the news of the sudden death of his father. On his arrival in England, he found himself deprived of the greater part of the provision which he had expected, in consequence of his father not having had time before he expired to complete his intended disposition in his favour. The sequel of Bacon's history warrants us in considering this accident as an unfortunate event for his happiness and his fame. His father's purpose probably had been to bequeath him such a competency as would have raised him above the necessity of giving himself up to a profession, and left him at liberty to dedicate his time and his powers to literature and philosophy. In many, perhaps it may be said in most cases, the exchange of such a destination for the duties of what is called active life, would deserve to be regarded rather as an escape than as a calamity. But there was no danger that Bacon would in any circumstances have spent his days in idleness and insignificance. His full and producing mind, the overflow of which in all highest speculation could not be repressed by all the burthens of business and of ambition, would have given forth of its