"at S Hen: Wallups, wher my Lady, my aunt "and I, had layen 2 or 3 nights before, and did healpe to entertayn hir. "As we rid from my La: Wallups to Lance"leuell, rideinge late, by reafon of our stay at "Bafing ftoke, we saw a ftraunge comet in the night, like a cannopie in the aire, wch was a "thinge obferued ouer all England. "From Lance-leuell we went, as appears in "the marginall note in the 9th leafe [*], to M'. સ્પંદ "Dulons, wher we continued about a weeke " and had great entertaynement. And at that tyme kept a fast by reafon of the plague, wch દર was then generally observed ouer all England. ** From Mr. Dulons we went to Barton to one "M". Dormers, wher M. Hampshire, hir mo"ther, and fhe, entertayned vs wth great kindnes. "From thence we went often to the Court at "Woodstock, wher my aunt of Bath followed "her fute to the Kinge, and my mother wroat. "lers to the Kinge, and hir means was by my *Lo: Fenton, and to the Queene by my La: of "Bedford. My father at this tyme followed "hir [his] fute to ye Kinge about the border lands; fo that fometymes my mother and he [* See the preceding Page.] "did "did meet by chaunce, wher ther countenance "did fhew the diflik they had one of yo other: yet he would speak to me in a flight fashion, "and give me his bleffinge. Not longe be- wher my unc- ftayed about a ઃઃ 6.6 "While we lay heere we rid thorough Oxford once or twife, "but whither we went I rememb "not. Ther we faw the Spannish "Embaffador, who was then new come into England about the peace. While we lay at Barton "I kept fo ill a diet wth Mrs. Mary Cary and Mrs Hinfon in eatinge "fruit fo as I fell fhortly after into * * ficknes. 66 ઃઃ 66 * * "From this place my aunt of "Bath, haueinge little hope of hir "fute, tooke hir leaue of my mo.. ther, and returned into the weft "cuntrie. While they lay at Barton my mother and my aunt 60 week, and left payed for the charge of the house my cozen Fr: ther, who was purposed to "equallie. .. 66. "Some weeke or fortnight after my aunt was gone, wch was about Michaelmas, my La: went from "Barton to Greenes Norton, and lay one night at my cozen Tho: 66 Sellengers, Sellengers, wher we faw old M'. went into the "Hicklin, wher he and his daugh 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; the hir felfe had not bin "ther paffinge a moneth, but lay at S Moyle "Finches in Kent, by reafon of the great plague, "wch was then much about North-hall. "Not longe after Michaellmas my unckle "Ruffell, my aunt Ruffell his wife, their son, 66 my Lo: of Bedford, my mother, and I, gaue "all allowance to M'. Chambers, my aunts "Steward, in wch fort the house was kept du"ringe of being ther. I vfed to weare my haire"cullered veluet gowne euerie day, and learned "to finge and play on the bafs 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 with the La: Harington in the "cuntrie. All this tyme we wear merrie at "North Q3 North-hall, my coz: Fra: Bourcher and my cc cozen Frauncis Ruffell and I did vfe to walk "much in the garden, and weare great one wh "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, firft to fift and queftion well, and to fupply "his own defects, by the drawing or flowing "unto him of the beft 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 ર per use, so as the lefs he was favoured by the Mufes, he was the more fo by the *Graces," VILLIERS DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 231 "In point of drefs and luxury," fays Sir Henry Wotton, in his Parallel between the 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 phyfical potion, 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 praising the Duke's extreme affability and gentleness to all men," He had befides fuch a tenderness and 66 compaffion in his nature, that fuch as think "the laws dead if they are not severely executed, "cenfured him for being too merciful; but his charity was grounded upon a wifer maxim of "ftate: "Non minus turpe Principi multa fup"plicia quam Medico, multa funera :—and he "believed, doubtlefs, that hanging was the "worft ufe 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 |