him Lieutenant of the Tower, after the removal of Sir Gervase Elwes from that important command, in consequence of his being implicated in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.

Among the Loseley manuscripts printed by Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., are four original letters from King James to Sir George More, from which it appears that His Majesty was deeply indebted to Sir George for his management of Somerset previously to his trial for the murder of Overbury. In one of his letters the king says: 'It is easie to be seene that he (the Earl) while threattin me with laying an aspersion upon me of being in some sorte accessorie to the cryme.' Mr. Kempe, in another part of his work, states that, from the drafts of sundry disregarded memorials at Loseley, Sir George appears to have been ill requited for his services. to James, who neglected him in his declining years. He is noticed in Nichols' Progresses of that king, as attending his funeral in his office of Chancellor of the Garter in a very infirm state.'

In August 1617 Sir George More entertained the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I., at Loseley. Sir George sat in Parliament for Guildford in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., and for the county of Surrey in the reigns of these two sovereigns and Charles I. Sir George died in his 79th year, 16th October 1632. By his wife Ann, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Adrian Poynings, he had four sons and five daughters, of whom Ann, born May 1584, was privately married in 1600 to John Donne, afterwards celebrated as

a poet and divine, on whom King James conferred the Deanery of St. Paul's, but who at that time was secretary to Lord Chancellor Egerton. The lady's father was so highly incensed by this match, that he procured the dismissal of Donne from the Lord Chancellor's service, and caused him to be committed to the Fleet Prison; nor was it until after the lapse of several years that he was prevailed on to pardon the offending pair. Although he soon regained his own liberty, the successful bridegroom was put to a long and expensive process in the ecclesiastical court before he could recover possession of his wife, who was forcibly withheld from him; but at length a decree confirming the marriage was obtained in 1602. Mrs. Donne died 12th August 1615, seven days after the birth of her twelfth child. Most of these particulars are related in the

Loseley Manuscripts.

This curious work consists principally of copies from the manuscripts and other rare documents which are preserved in the muniment room at Loseley, 'the key of which,' Mr. Kempe says, 'had been lost, and its existence disregarded, during an interval of two hundred years.' These manuscripts had been kept in ponderous oaken coffers; but Mr. Bray, when proceeding with his History of Surrey, had access to them, and by permission selected a number of the papers, and had them bound in nine folio volumes. Among the fac-similes given in the manuscripts by Mr. Kempe is one of Lady Jane Grey as 'Quene.'

On the decease of the last of the male heirs of the Mores,

who died unmarried in May 1689, his sisters became his co-heirs. Elizabeth died a spinster in February 1691-2, when the whole of the inheritance became vested in Margaret, her surviving sister. This lady married Sir Thomas Molyneux, Knt., of the ancient family of that name, of Sefton, in Lancashire, from which the present Earl of Sefton, and Viscount Molyneux, of Maryborough, in Ireland, is descended. William de Moulines, the common ancestor of the Molyneux family, came into England in the train of William the Norman; and his name stands the eighteenth in the order of succession in the Roll of Battle Abbey.

Loseley Park is an extensive and finely wooded demesne, and is approached from the Portsmouth road. The scenery is enriched by venerable oaks and noble elms, standing singly and in clumps or groups. There is also a small sheet of water, and on the west a plantation of firs. Loseley, no doubt, 'had from an early period its manse or capital dwelling-house, fortified by a moat, according to the custom of the feudal ages;' but although some vestiges of the latter defence still remain, the dwelling itself has been long destroyed. The present mansion is an interesting example of the Elizabethan age, and was erected between the years 1562 and 1568 by Sir William More, as the central part of a structure intended to form three sides of a quadrangle, if not a complete square. But the design was never executed to the full extent, although a western wing, including a gallery 129 feet in length and 18 feet wide, and also a chapel, were annexed by Sir George More, the son of

the founder. That wing was, however, wholly taken down several years ago, and the building reduced to its original state. The edifice is of grey stone, and in its architectural plan there is a general uniformity, though by no means a strict one. All the windows are square-headed, but they differ much in size, those of the principal apartments being of large dimensions, and separated by mullions and transoms into several lights. In the bay or oriel window of the great hall, among other emblazonments, are the arms of the Mores, painted with the date 1568.

On

The principal entrance, which is in the centre of the front, opens into the hall, but was originally more eastward, namely, at the end of the passage between the screens which divide the hall from the kitchen and butteries. The entrance here was by a porch or vestibule, now a butler's pantry, and over it were placed three figures in stone. the left hand was that of Fortune treading on a globe, and holding a wheel on which was inscribed Fortuna Omnia; in the middle, and raised above the others, a figure, with one foot on a wheel, and the other on a globe, holding a book open, and pointing to these words, Nec Fors nec Fatum, sed .; and over the entrance to the vestibule was inscribed this distich:

'Invide, tangendi tibi limina nulla facultas,

At tibi, Amice, patent janua, mensa, domus.' Within the porch, over the hall - door, was inscribed, 'Invidiæ claudor pateo sed semper amico;' over the kitchen door, 'Fami, non Gula;' over the buttery door, 'Situ non

ebrictati;' and over the parlour door, Probis, non Pravis.' More characteristic details, which appear in Manning and Bray's Surrey, were derived from Russell's Guildford, in which work it is also stated that there were two gilt needlework chairs in the gallery, with cushions worked by Queen Elizabeth.'

In the hall was formerly an extensive collection of military weapons, but these have long been removed. It now contains several family pictures, namely:

Queen Anne Boleyn, Holbein; Sir Thomas More; Sir William More, with a long white beard, and his lady,; Sir George, Sir Robert, and Sir Poynings More; Nathaniel More, and his lady; Sir Thomas Molyneux, who married one of the two coheiresses of the Mores; Elizabeth More (sister of the lady of Sir Thomas Molyneux), who died unmarried; Sir William More Molyneux, and Cassandra, his lady, and their eleven children, in one piece, by Somers. All the above are whole lengths, as well as James I., and Anne of Denmark his Queen, which were originally placed at Loseley on the occasion of their visit to Sir George More in the year 1603. also a small three-quarter length of Edward VI.

:

There is

Nichols, in his Progresses of King James, says of the royal visit in 1603 'Sir Gorge More entertained their Majesties at Loseley Park; but all the notice I can find of this visit is mentioned in the following lines, written by Mr. William Fowler, who was Secretary and Master of Requests to Anne of Denmark, and attendant on the Court during the progress : "UPON A HOROLOGE OF THE CLOCK AT SIR GEORGE MORE'S, AT HIS PLACE OF LOSELEY, 1603.

"Court hath me now transform'd into a clock,

And in my braynes her restles wheels doth place.