Paul's being vacant, the king sent to Dr. Donne, and appointed him to attend him at dinner the next day. When his majesty

was sat down, before he had eat any meat, he said after his pleasant manner, " Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner;

His deprivation, however, was not effected. The archbishop obtained the king's pardon; and by his charities and devotion during the remainder of his life, endeavoured to expiate for his fault.

In a letter to Sir T. H., dated the 5th October, Donne writes: "For the triall of my lord of Canterburie's irregularity, there is a commission of sixe bishops, London, Winchester, and Rochester, and three onely elect, Lincoln, St. David's, and Exeter..... The consecration of these elect bishops, and consequently my being dean, must attend the issue of this commission."-Letters, p. 166.

In another, dated 11th October, 1621, "to the worthy knight Sir Thomas Lucy," he writes: "Truly, all things that are upon the stage of the world now, are full of such uncertanities, as may justly make any man loth to passe a conjecture upon them, not only because it is hard to see how they will end, but because it is misinterpretable, and dangerous to conjecture otherwise then some men would have the event to be. That which is especially in my contemplation, which is the issue of my lord of Canterburie's businesse (for thereupon depends the consecration of my predecessor, upon which the deanery devolves to the king,) is no farther proceeded in yet, than that some of the ten commissioners have met once; and upon Saterday next there will be a fuller meeting, and an entrance into the businesse, upon which, 199. much, very much in consequence, depends."-Ib. p.

Dr. Carey, who had been elected to the See of Exeter 27th September, was consecrated on the 20th November, 1621; and Dr. Donne was admitted dean of St. Paul's the 27th of the same month, in that year.

The very news of preferment, doffs even the cap of nobility where starved hope might have perished in despair. In a letter to Sir Henry Goodyere, at Polesworth, Donne writes: "Though I be not dean of Paul's yet, my lord of Warwick hath gone so low, as to command of me the office of being master of my game, in our wood about him, in Essex. I pray you be content to be my officer too, the steward of my services to all to whom you know them to be due in your walk." Letters, p. 227. The nobleman referred to, was Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick, admiral for the Parliament in the rebellion of the following reign.

and, though you sit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a dish that I know you love well; for, knowing you love London, I do therefore make you Dean of Paul's; and when I have dined, then do you take your beloved dish home to your study, say grace there to yourself, and much good may it do you."

Immediately after he came to his deanery, he employed workmen to repair and beautify the chapel ;* suffering, as holy David once vowed," his eyes and temples to take no rest, till he had first beautified the house of God."+

-

The next quarter following, when his father-in-law, Sir George More, whom time had made a lover and admirer of himcame to pay him the conditioned sum of twenty pounds, he refused to receive it; and said-as good Jacob did, when he heard his beloved son Joseph was alive," It is enough.1-You "It have been kind to me and mine: I know your present condition is such as not to abound,§ and I hope mine is, or will be such as not to need it: I will therefore receive no more from you upon

The ancient chapel annexed to the deanery. A survey made by order of parliament, in 1649, under the act for abolishing deans and chapters, furnishes a description of "the mansion house lately belonging to the dean of Paules."

It was a building of great extent, having its frontage towards the north, and wings of irregular construction; with a spacious court-yard front and back, and a gate-house and porter's lodge at either entrance. On the east side, a handsome grass-plat rendered the deanery a desirable residence. It was valued by the Commissioners at 150l. per annum.-Lond. Rediviv., v. iii., p. 16.

This "faire old mansion," stood on the south side of the present Cathedral, with the back gates opening into Carter-lane; and a tavern adjoining, which, in the time of dean Nowell, had been a sad nuisance, and the subject of law proceedings. -Egerton MSS., p. 135.

Property hath its duties and obligations, and even preferment its drawbacks; for in a letter dated October 4, 1622, apparently to his old friend, Sir H. Goodyere, Dr Donne writes: "You will scarce finde any that is not encombred and distressed in his fortunes. I had locked my self, sealed and secured my self against all possibilities of falling into new debts, and in good faith, this year bath thrown me 400l. lower than when I entred this house."-Letters, p. 135.

Dr. Donne, in his will, described his residence as in the parish of St. Gregorie, to the poor of which he bequeathed five pounds. The church of St. Gregory by Paul's, stood on the site of the present clock tower. The whole was destroyed in

the great fire of 1666.

† Ps. cxxxii., 4, 5.

Genesis, xlv., 28.

§ See note p. 21.

that contract;" and in testimony of it freely gave him up his bond.

Immediately after his admission into his deanery, the vicarage of St. Dunstan in the West, London, fell to him by the death of Dr. White, the advowson of it having been given to him long

Dr. Thomas White, a native of Bristol, was entered of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, about the year 1566. He was successively minister of St. Gregory by St. Paul's, and of St. Dunstan, Fleet-street. In 1585 he was appointed a canon of St. Paul's; and in subsequent years, Treasurer of Salisbury; canon of Christ Church, Oxford; and canon of St. George's, Windsor. As a preacher, he was much esteemed; and his only published works are sermons. His charities to his native town; his benefactions to Sion College; and his lectureship on Moral Philosophy, at Oxford, have preserved his memory in the estimation of the living. He died in 1623, and was buried in the chancel of St. Dunstan's church.

Newcourt quotes a manuscript from Sion College, which represents the vicarage of St. Dunstan as producing 240l. 4s. 93d., in Dr. Donne's time, by tythes. On the 11th May, 1624, Dr. Donne leased the tythes of the parish for twenty years (except the vicarage house and his two houses adjoining) to ten of the parishioners, for 2001. per annum, Donne paying all the king's dues. The vicarage house was situate in Fleet-street, near to Fetter-lane; and in 1693, was let to a vintner; "but the present incumbent, through the neglect of his predecessor, is ignorant of the site."-Lond. Rediv., v. iii., p. 454.

A letter, in the printed collection, written by Donne, at nearly the close of his life, explains his connection with this parish. Writing from “ Abrey-hatch, Jan. 15, 1630," to his "noble friend, Mrs. Cokain, at Ashbourne," he says: “I purpose, God willing, to be at London, within a fortnight after your receit of this, as well because I am under the obligation of preaching at Paul's upon Candlemas day, as because I know nothing to the contrary but that I may be called to Court, for Lent service; and my witnesse is in heaven, that I never left out St. Dunstan's when I was able to do them that service, nor will now; though they that know the state of that church well, know that I am not so bounde, as the world thinks, to preach there; for, I make not a shilling profit of St. Dunstan's as a church-man, but as my lord of Dorset gave me the lease of the impropriation, for a certain rent, and a higher rent, then my predecessor had it at. This I am fain to say often, because they that know it not, have defamed me, of a defectiveness towards that church; and even this mistaking of theirs, I ever have, and ever shall endeavour to rectifie, by as often preaching there, as my condition of body will admit.”— Letters, p. 317. Dr. Donne's able representative in the pulpit of this parish, was his favorite preacher, Matthew Griffiths, afterwards presented by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, to the rectory of St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish-street. Wood notes that he suffered greatly in the rebellion, both for religion and loyalty. -See Athen. Oxon., v. iii., p. 711.

Dr. Donne's conscientious administration of his patronage, and care in supplying the pulpits under his control, is illustrated by his reply to a very pressing recommendation for preferment. In a letter to Mrs. Cokain, he writes: "I told him

before by his honourable friend, Richard earl of Dorset, then the patron, and confirmed by his brother the late deceased Edward,* both of them men of much honour.

By these, and another ecclesiastical endowment which fell to him about the same time, given to him formerly by the Earl of Kent, he was enabled to become charitable to the poor, and

(Mr. Hazard) that my often sicknesses had brought me to an inability of preaching, and that I was under the necessitie of preaching twelve or fourteen solemn sermons every year, to great auditories, at Paules, and to the judges, and at Court; and that therefore I must think of conferring something upon such a man as may supplie my place in these solemnities: and surely, said I, I will offer them no man in those cases which shall not be at least equall to my selfe; and, Mr. Hazard, I do not know your faculties. . . . . . My noble sister, goes there no more to the giving of a scholar a church in London, but that he was a young gentleman's schoolmaster? You know the ticklishnesse of London pulpits, and how ill it would become me to place a man in a London church, that were not both a strong and a sound man; and therefore those things must come into consideration before he can have a living from me."-Sir T. Mathew's Coll., p. 354.

.....

* Richard Sackville, third earl of Dorset, whose character as an amiable man, a scholar, a soldier, a courtier, and a gentleman, has been recorded by the pen of his lady, Anne (see Collins' Peerage, v. ii., p. 194), died at Dorset House, London, on Easter Sunday, 1624, at the age of 35, and was succeeded in the earldom by his brother, Sir Edward Sackville, equally distinguished for his eminent abilities and accomplishments; but more prominently remembered as the survivor of that bloody encounter with the Idrd Bruce, so vividly described by himself (MS. in Qu. Coll. Lib., Oxford). He was subsequently invested with the Orders of the Bath and the Garter: in 1620, he was one of the commanders sent to assist the king of Bohemia; and was afterwards ambassador to the Court of France. In the civil wars of Charles I. he adhered to the royal cause; and took so much to heart the king's violent death, that he never after quitted his house. He died at Dorset House, Fleet-street, in July, 1652. Lord Clarendon has commended both the graceful vigour of his person, and the sparkling lustre of his mind.

+ The rectory of Blunham, in Bedfordshire. In a letter to Sir H. Goodyere, dated Feb. 26, 1621, Donne writes: "This day, I received a letter from my L. of Kent, written yesterday at Wrest; in which his lordship sends me word, that that favour which he hath formerly done me, in giving me Blonham, is now likely to fall upon me, because the incumbent is dangerously ill and because this is the season in which he removes from Wrest thither, he desires (for I give you his own word) that he may be accommodate there, (if it fall now) as heretofore. Out of my absolute and intire readiness to serve that family, I sent back his messenger with this answer, that I esteemed it a great part of my good fortune, that I should become worthy to be commanded by him."-Letters, p. 176. The patron at this time, was Henry Grey, eighth earl of Kent, who had to wife Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Gilbert Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury; and died, without issue, at his house in the Whitefriars, London, in 1639. In his will, Dr. Donne left twenty

kind to his friends, and to make such provision for his children that they were not left scandalous, as relating to their or his profession and quality.*

pounds to the poor of Blunham, and recognized his patron's favour by the bequest of "a painting hanging in his study, representing the laying of Christ in the tomb." There is also reason to believe that he sometime held the rectory of Seven Oaks, in Kent, under the patronage of his friend, the earl of Dorset. By his will, he left twenty pounds to the poor of that parish.

* A letter on his family circumstances at this time, dated "October 4, 1622," stated, in the printed collection, (evidently in error) to have been written to Sir Henry Wotton, was probably addressed to Sir Henry Goodyere. I am a father," writes Donne," as well as you, and of children (I humbly thank God) of as good dispositions; and in saying so, I make account that I have taken my comparison as high as I could goe; for, in good faith, I beleeve yours to be so: but as those my daughters (who are capable of such considerations) cannot but see my desire to accommodate them in this world, so I think they will not murmure if heaven must be their nunnery, and they associated to the blessed virgins there. I know they would be content to passe their lives in a prison, rather then I should macerate my self for them, much more to suffer the mediocrity of my house, and my means, though that cannot preferre them."-Letters, p. 135.

Fourteen days later, "Octob. 18, 1622, to the hon. knight, Sir G. P.," he writes: "Telle both your daughters a peece of a storie of my Con., which may accustome them to endure disappointments in this world: an honourable person (whose name I give you in a schedule to burn, lest this letter should be mislaid) had an intention to give her one of his sons, and had told it me, and would have been content to accept what I, by my friends, could have begged for her; but he intended that son to my profession, and had provided him already 3001. a year of his own gift, in church livings, and hath estated 3007. more of inheritance for their children and now the youth (who yet knows nothing of his father's intention nor mine) flies from his resolutions for that calling, and importunes his father to let bim travel. The girle knows not her losse, for I never told her of it; but truly, it is a great disappointment to me."-Ib. p. 185.

:

Disappointments, however, wear away by hopeful endurance, and offers-matrimonial proceed sometimes unexpectedly, and from quarters least anticipated.

It so happened that Constance passed some portion of her time with her maternal unele, Sir Thomas Grymes, at Peckham; where occasionally visited an elderly neighbour, who, from a clever stage player and fortunate speculator in land, had become lord of the manors of Lewisham and Dulwich, and founder of a College in his immediate vicinity. Sir Thomas Grymes had been there present at the solemn ceremony of the foundation day, September 13, 1619. And in Alleyne's Diary is found the following entry :

“1622. Sept. 24. I and my wife dined at Sir Thomas Grymes."

On the 28th June, the following year, Edward Alleyne lost his "religious and lovinge wife," Joan Woodward, "with whom he had lived in uninterrupted harmony upwards of thirty years."