God of this world, Gaine, but I dare say you guest not that To make it a meer Athens indeed they haue set up in the great church of St Peter here the plaine Pagan Pallas, Cap a pee, with speare and Helmet, & Owl & all, in the place of saints at least which heretofore it seemes usurped the window. So that for me I am either not scholler enough or not Pagan enough for this place. Besides I must see something euen for shame But that I am not yet so desperate to your desires of further suspence, I assure you or rather confes to you, for though t'will pleas you better perhaps tis more a fault I fear, a defect at least a dispropor- 10 tion of my weak soul to seuerer courses, I am not at present purposed for fixing. Nay I am so wretched that I am sometimes euen carefull for some meanes whereby to maintaine my trauells so as to keep me up from a necessity of engagement whethersoeuer I goe. For this purpose what of mine your merciful loue and diligence can procure for mee (you know the Partys wilbe seasonably welcome. And so much more missed is that which by your letter I might haue long ere now looke to haue Receiued by Mr. Tollys sending. My chamber incomb may be perhaps somewhat more readily payd mee if I may haue the same successor 20 thereto. How our neighbours do if well were a welcom hearing. How Mr. Haward. How my poore goods but aboue all how your self Sr the much worthier half of

Feb: 20 1643

Your poore friend. RC.

My good and gratious mother guilty of nothing to me wards but so great a share in my deserued sorrow, seekes to be remenber to you and your prayers, with and affection worthee of her self.

You shall not be angry, and Mr. Collet I know will not that while I writ I changed so much of ye circumstance as rather to put 30 the Resignation into his mothers hands and his who will be less partiall procurers perhaps of my desires in this.

Six days after this letter was written, the Earl of Manchester, administering the Ordinance for regulating the University of Cambridge, and for removing scandalous ministers in the seven Associated Counties' issued an order to the effect that the Fellows, Scholars, and Officers of Peterhouse were to be resident on March 10' to give an account of such things as should be demanded'. On March 13 Cosin was expelled from the Mastership for opposing the 6 shame] perhaps shame. 12 carefull] perhaps care full 15 Partys] parenthesis not closed. 22 worthier] preceded by better erased. 26-7 with... self] It seems likely that a word is to be supplied between with and and. It will be seen that the word 'an', partly underlined, occurs between of and her; and it seems most likely that erasure was intended.

proceedings of Parliament, and other scandalous acts'. On April 8, 1644, 'Mr. Tolly, Mr. Beaumont, Mr. Pennyman, Mr. Crashaw, and Mr. Comyn', not being resident when summoned, were ejected from their Fellowships, and their successors were appointed on June 11 of the same year.1

Whether Crashaw ever returned to England, and if so at what date, are questions which as yet admit of no certain answer; but if he did return-and this seems rather more than possible— it would be natural for him at this time to seek shelter at Oxford. There the Court had been established since July 1643, and there, until April 17, 1644, he would have an opportunity of meeting Susan, first Countess of Denbigh, to whom he was to acknowledge an 'immortall obligation' (see page 231, below). On that date, however, the Countess of Denbigh left Oxford for Exeter with Queen Henrietta Maria, to whom she was First Lady of the Bedchamber, and thence proceeded with the queen to France. Wood's statement that Crashaw was incorporated at Oxford in 1641 is confessedly based on hearsay; but it is very possible that the fact is true and the date incorrect; and further, it is intimated clearly in the letter from the queen recommending Crashaw to the Pope in 1646 that he had been a member of both English universities, and, less clearly, that he went to France direct from England. There is therefore considerably more than a shadow of justice in the claim that Crashaw was of Oxford as well as of Cambridge, though the evidence, attractive as it may be to Oxford alumni, hardly amounts to proof.

The queen's dispatch from Paris, of September 7, 1646, affords the next certain date in Crashaw's life. The statement in it that he had ' vescú prés d'un an aupres de moy' need not be understood as conflicting with Wood's assertion that he was presented to the queen through the agency of Cowley, who is said to have gone to Paris as secretary to Lord Jermyn in 1646.3 But it seems quite as likely that on Crashaw's removal to Paris some time in 1645 he made or renewed acquaintance with the Countess of Denbigh, and that she had at least had

1 See the document given in Appendix II, p. 419, below.

2 The best account of the first Countess of Denbigh is that given in Royalist Father and Roundhead Son (1915), by Cecilia, Countess of Denbigh. For portrait see frontispiece.

3 D.N.B., article Abraham Cowley.