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 faw a ftraunge comet in the night, like a cannopie in the aire, wch was a 66 thinge obferued ouer all England. "From Lance-leuell we went, as appears in "the marginall note in the 9th leafe [*], to M'. 66 Dulons, wher we continued about a weeke " and had great entertaynement. And at that tyme kept a fast by reafon of the plague, wch "was then generally obferved ouer all England. 66 "From M'. 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 dislik they had one of y' other: દર yet he would speak to me in a flight fashion, "and giue me his bleffinge. Not longe before Michaelmas my felf, my cozen Frauncis Bour, wher my unc- ઃઃ 66 "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 M's 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, tocke hir leaue of my mo"ther, and returned into the west "cuntrie. While they lay at Bar"ton my mother and my aunt payed for the charge of the house "equallie. ઃઃ "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'. "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 ye 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, wch was then much about North-hall. "Not longe after Michaellmas my unckle "Ruffell, my aunt Ruffell his wife, their fon, my Lo: of Bedford, my mother, and I, gaue all allowance to M'. Chambers, my aunts "Steward, in web fort the house was kept du ch ringe of being ther. I vfed to weare my haire"cullered veluet gowne cuerie 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 wh the La: Harington in the ❝ cuntrie. All this tyme we wear merrie at "North-hall, my coz: Fra: Bourcher and my 66 cozen Frauncis Ruffell and I did vfe to walk "much in the garden, and weare great one w "the other * 66 "Now ther was much talk of a maske wch the "Queene had at Winchester, and how all the "Ladies about the Court had gotten such 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." 66 GEORGE VILLIERS, FIRST DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. "THE Duke," fays Sir Henry Wotton, was illiterate; yet had learned, at Court, "first to fift and queftion well, and to fupply "his own defects, by the drawing or flowing "unto him of the best 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 · "In point of drefs and luxury," fays Sir Henry Wotton, in his Parallel between the Earl of Effex and the Duke of Buckingham, 66 they were both very inordinate in their appetites, especially the Earl, who was by nature "of fo indifferent a tafte, that I must tell a rare "thing of him, though it be but homely, that "he would stop in the midst of any physical "potion, and, after he had licked his lips, he, "would drink off the reft." Lord Clarendon, in the " Disparity 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 "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 "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 desperate persons vow to kill him. His nephew Lord Fielding, riding in company 84 |