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"death. I fhall be very forrie after I have beene "all my life time with the haffard of life, fortune,

industry, and after laboured to guive one mess "of good milke, and fhall at laft kicke it downe "with my foote. I had never guiven your father

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my vote, but that I conceived he mought have "mad that ufe of it that would have very "moutch have advantaged him one way, and not prejudised him in any other, My deare hart, pray love mee but as much as I fhall ever love you, which shall alwaies be above my life, " and bee the greatest happiness can redound to "him that loves you above his life,

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"CARNARVON

Indorfed by Mr. Grenville, "Found in a truncke at "Lady Carnarvon's, when her house was fearched."

This letter appears, from Mr. Grenville's indorfement, to have been feized in a box belonging to Lady Carnarvon, when her house at Wing near Aylesbury was fearched by him No. vember 29, 1642, under the order of the Committee of Safety. Robert Lord Dormer of Wenge or Wing, the writer of this letter, was the head of that noble family, whofe poffeffions in Bucks, belonging to the different branches eftablished at Wing, at Peterley, at Lee Grange, and at Dorton, were very large: all thefe poffeffions, fave what belonged to the branch eftablished at Peterley (the prefent Lord Dormer,) have paffed into other families, or have been alienated. The ManfionHouse at Wing was pulled down about fifty years ago by Sir William Stanhope, and the Estate now belongs to the Earl of Chesterfield.,

Robert

320

LORD STRAFFORD.

LORD STRAFFORD is thus described by Sir Philip Warwick in his Memoirs:

"Lord Strafford was every waie qualified for "bufinefs; his natural faculties being very ftrong "and pregnant. His understanding, aided by a

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a good phanfy, made him quick in discerning "the nature of any business; and through a cold "brain he became deliberate and of found judgHis memory was great, and he made it greater by confiding in it. His elocution was " very fluent, and it was a great part of his talent "readily to reply, or freely to harangue, upon

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any fubject. All this was lodged in a foure "and haughty temper, fo (as it may probably be believed) he expected to have more obfervance "paid to himself than he was willing to pay to "others, though they were of his own quality; " and then he was not like to conciliate the good" will of men of leffer ftation. His acquired "parts, both in Univerfity and Inns of Court learning,

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Robert Lord Dormer was created Earl of Carnarvon ed

Auguft, 4 Car. 1. He married Anne Sophia, daughter of Philip Earl of Pembroke, by whom he had Charles his fon and heir, who was killed at the battle of Newbury, Sept. 20,

"cuous one;

"learning, as likewife his foreign travels, made "him an eminent man before he was a confpifo as when he came first to shew " himself in the House of Commons, he was foon "a bell-wether in that flock. As he had these "parts, he knew how to fet a value upon them,

if not to over-value them; and he too foon "discovered a roughness in his nature (which a "man no more obliged to him than I was would "have called an injuftice); though many of his "confidants (who were my good friends, when "I, like a little worm being trod on, could turn "and laugh, and under that disguise fay as piquant "words as my little wit could help me to) were "wont to fwear to me, that he endeavoured to "be just to all, but was refolved to be gracious "to none but to those whom he thought inwardly "affected him; all which never bowed me, till "his broken fortune, and, as I thought, very unjuftifiable profecution, made me one of the fifty-fix who gave a negative to that fatal bill "which cut the thread of his life.

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"He gave an early fpecimen of the roughness "of his nature, when, in the eager purfuit of the "House of Commons after the Duke of Bucking"ham, he advised or gave counsel against ano"ther, which was afterwards taken up and pur"fued against himself. Thus, preffing upon "another's cafe, he awakened his own fate; for " when

VOL. I.

Y

"when that House was in confultation how to "frame the particular charge against that great

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Duke, he advised to make a general one, and "to accufe him of treason, and to let him get "off afterwards as he could, which really befell " himself at laft.

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"In his perfon he was of a tall ftature, but

stooped much in the neck. His countenance "was cloudy whilft he moved or fat thinking; "but when he fpake seriously or facetiously, he "had a lightsome and a very pleasant ayre; and indeed, whatever he then did, he did gracefully. Unavoidable it is but that great men give great difcontents to fome; and the lofty "humour of this great man engaged him too "often, and against too many in that kind; and particularly one with the old Chancellor Loftus, " which was fullied (as was fuppofed) by an intrigue betwixt him and his daughter-in-law. "But with thefe virtues and infirmities we will "leave him ruling profperously in Ireland, until "his own ambition or prefumption brings him "over to England in the year 1638, to take up a "loft game, wherein he loft himself."

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"

When Lord Strafford was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he made an order, that no Peer fhould be admitted into the Houfe of Lords in that kingdom without leaving his fword with the doorkeeper. Many Peers had already complied with

this infolent order, when the Duke, then Earl, of Ormond being asked for his sword, he replied to the door-keeper, "If you make that request again, Sir, I fhall plunge my fword into your body." Lord Strafford hearing of this said, "This Noble"man is a man that we must endeavour to get

"over to us."

Defection in party was perhaps never more feverely punished than in the fate of this extraordinary Perfonage. On quitting the Country Party, he told his old fellow-labourer Mr. Pym, "You see, Sir, I have left you."-" So, I see, "Sir Thomas," replied Mr. Pym; "but we will "never leave you fo long as you have a head upon your shoulders."

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The following curious and detailed account of the apprehenfion and trial of Lord Strafford is taken from "A Journal addreffed to the Prefby"tery of Irvine in Scotland, by Robert Baillie, "D. D. Principal of the Univerfity of Glasgow," who was fent up to London in 1640 by the Covenanting Lords of Scotland to draw up the Articles of Impeachment against Archbishop Laud, for having made fome innovations in the service of the Church of Scotland:

Among many more," fays the Doctor, « I "have been an affiduous affiftant of that nation' (the English), and therefore I will offer to give

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