1

"lay one night at my cozen Tho: aunt of Bath> Sellengers, wher we faw old Mr.

Hicklin, wher he and his daugh

went into the countrie:

" ter preferd William Pond to fearue my Lady. "To this place we came about 10 of y clock in "the night, and I was fo wearie as I could not "tell whether I fhould fleepe or eate first.

"The next day we went to North-hall, wher we found my aunt of Warwick fomething ill " and melancholy; fhe hir felfe had not bin ther paffinge a moneth, but lay at S'. Moyle Finches "in Kent, by reafon of the great plague, wth was " then much about North-hall.

"Not longe after Michaellmas my unckle "Ruffel, my aunt Ruffel his wife, their fon, "my Lo: of Bedford, my mother, and I, gaue

all allowance to M. Chambers, my aunts "Steward, in wth fort the house was kept dur"inge of being ther. I vsed to weare my haire"cullered veluer gowne euerie, day, and learned to finge and play on the bass viol of Jack Jenkins,' my aunts boye.

"Before Christmas my cozen Fraunces was "fent for from Nonefuch to North-hall, by rea"fon that hir grace was to goe from thence to

be brought vp wth the La: Harington in the << cuntrie. All this tyme we wear merrie at North-hall, my coz: Fra: Bourcher and my

"cozen Frauncis Ruffell and I did vfe to walk "much

"much in the garden, and weare great one wib "the other *

"Now ther was much talk of a maske wch the Queene had at Winchester, and how all the "Ladies about the Court had gotten fuch ill "names that it was growen a fcandalous place; " and the Queene hir felfe was much fallen from «hir former greatnes and reputation fhe had in [the] world."

GEORGE VILLIERS,

FIRST DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

"THE Duke," fays Sir Henry Wotton, " was illiterate; yet had learned, at Court, "first to fift and question " his own defects, by the

"unto him of the beft

"

well, and to supply drawing or flowing inftruments of ex

perience and knowledge; from whom he "had a fweet and attractive manner, to fuck "what might be for the public or his own pro

per ufe; fo as the lefs he was favoured by "the Mufes, he was the more fo by the "Graces."

"In point of drefs and luxury," fays Sir Henry Wotton, in his Parallel between the

Earl

Earl of Effex and the Duke of Buckingham, "they were both very inordinate in their appe"tites, efpecially the Earl, who was by nature "of fo indifferent a taste, that I must tell a rare "thing of him, though it be but homely, that he "would ftop in the midst of any physical po tion, and, after he had licked his lips, he would "drink off the reft.""

Lord Clarendon, in the " Difparity between "the Eftates and Conditions of this Nobleman " and the Earl of Effex," obferves, after praifing the Duke's extreme affability and gentlenefs to all men," He had befides fuch a tenderness and "compassion in his nature, that such as think the "laws dead if they are not severely executed, cen"fured him for being too merciful; but his cha"rity was grounded upon a wiser maxim of state: "Non minus turpe Principi multa fupplicia quam "Medico, multa funera:-and he believed, doubt« lefs, that hanging was the worst use man could "be put to."

The Duke, on his fatal journey to Portsmouth, was advertised by an old woman on the road that she had heard fome defperate perfons vow to kill him. His nephew Lord Fielding, riding in company with him, defired him to exchange coats with him, and to let him have his blue ribbon, and undertook to muffle himself up in such a manner that he fhould be mistaken for the Duke.

The

1

The Duke immediately caught him in his arms, faying, that he could not accept of fuch an offer from a nephew whofe life he valued as highly as his own 4.11

The following Letter from the Duke of Buckingham to James the Firft, I believe, is not in print. In most of his letters he appears an abject flatterer of the King, and thews a childish affection expreffed in very low language; in this, however, he writes in a manly ftyle. He would have recommended a fervant of his to fome place; but the King had previously difpofed of it.

"God forbid that for eyther me or anie of "mine your promis: fhould be forced; my man "is not in miferie; his mafter by your favour is "in eftate not to let him want; he is younge

yett patient, and your meanes manie to benefitt "him fome other way, an his honestie can de" ferve it; I will anfwere he will. So both I " and he are humble futers that you please your

felfe, in which doeing you content all. So crav "inge your bleffings, I ende your humble slave " and doge,

"STEENIE.

LORD BACON.

THIS great man has been accused of deferting his friend and patron the Earl of Effex in his diftress. Fuller thus attempts to exculpate him:

"Lord Bacon," fays he, "was more true to "the Earl than the Earl was to himself; for "finding him prefer deftruction before displeasing "counfel, he fair forfook (not his perfon, whom' "his pity attended to the graue, but) his prac "tices, and herein was not the worfe friend for "being the better fubject."

- Lord Bacon's Effays, which, as he fays, will' be more read than his other works," coming "home to men's business and bofoms," have been the text-book of myriads of Effay-Writers, and comprehend fuch a condensation of wisdom and learning, that they have been very fairly wiredrawn by his fucceffors. Dr. Rowley, his Chaplain, gives the following account of his method of study, and fome of his domeftic habits.

"He was," fays he, "no plodder upon works; "for though he read much, and that with great' judgment and rejection of impertinences inci"dent to many authors, yet he would use fome "relaxation of mind with his ftudies; as gently "walking, coaching, flow riding, playing at "bowls, and other fuch like exercifes. Yet he'

"would