66 MY WORTHY FRIEND,

"Since I last saw you, I have been confined to my chamber by a quotidian fever, I thank God, of more contumacy than malignity. It had once left me, as I thought, but it was only to fetch more company, returning with a surcrew of those splenetic vapors, that are called hypocondrical; of which most say the cure is good company, and I desire no better physician than yourself. I have in one of those fits endeavoured to make it more easy by composing a short hymn; and since I have apparelled my best thoughts so lightly as in verse, I hope I shall be pardoned a second vanity, if I communicated it with such a friend as yourself; to whom I wish a cheerful spirit, and a thankful heart to value it, as one of the greatest blessings of our good God; in whose dear love I leave you, remaining

"Your poor friend to serve you,

"H. WOTTON.”

(Reliquia Wottonianæ, p. 361. 4th edit.)

Page xx. Reliquia Wottonianæ.

A contemporary writer has thus delineated the characters of Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton."To speak it in a word, the Trojan Horse was not fuller of heroic Grecians, than King James's reign was full of men excellent in all kinds of learning. And here I desire the reader's leave to remember two of my old acquaintance: the one was Mr. John Donne, who, leaving Oxford, lived at the Inns of Court, not dissolute, but very neat; a great visitor of ladies, a great writer of conceited verses, until such time as

King James, taking notice of the pregnancy of his wit, was a means that he took him to the study of divinity, and, thereupon proceeding Doctor, was made Dean of St. Paul's, and became so rare a preacher, that he was not only commended, but even admired by all that heard him. The other was Henry Wotton (mine old acquaintance also, as having been fellow pupils and chamber-fellows in Oxford divers years together.) This gentleman was employed by King James in embassage to Venice: and indeed the kingdom afforded not a fitter man for matching the capaciousness of the Italian wits; a man of so able dexterity with his pen, that he hath done himself much wrong, and the kingdom more, in leaving no more of his writings behind him." (Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle of the Kings of England, London, 1684.)

Page liii. His affection for sacred music, &c.

"He that at midnight, when the very laborer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have often done, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of the nightingale's voice, might well be lifted above earth, and say, Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music upon earth?"—(Complete Angler, P. I. Ch. I.)

Page 3. George, Lord Bishop of Winchester. Dr. George Morley, distinguished by his unshaken loyalty and attachment to Charles I. was, at the Restoration, first made Dean of Christ-church, and

then Bishop of Worcester. In 1662 he was translated to the see of Winchester. Though nominated one of the Assembly of Divines, he never took his seat among them. During his absence from his native country, he endeared himself to several learned foreigners, particularly to Andrew Rivettus, Heinsius, Salmasius, and Bochart. He constantly attended the young exiled King; but not being permitted to follow him into Scotland, he retired to Antwerp, where for about three or four years he read the service of the Church of England twice every day, catechized once a week, and administered the communion once a month to all the English in the town who could come to it, regularly and strictly observing all the parochial duties of a clergyman, as he did afterwards at Breda for four years together. Walker, in his History of the Sufferings of the Clergy, having quoted Anthony Wood's character of this prelate, concludes with this exclamation: "O that but a single portion of his spirit might always rest on the established clergy!" He died in 1684.

Page 5. For Sir Henry Wotton's writing the life of Dr. Donne.

Sir Henry Wotton addressed the following letter to Mr. Isaac Walton, who had requested him to perform his promise of writing the life of Dr. Donne.

66 MY WORTHY FRIEND,

"I am not able to yield any reason, not so much as may satisfy myself, why a most ingenuous letter of yours hath lain so long by me (as it were in laven

der) without an answer, save this only, the pleasure I have taken in your style and conceptions, together with a meditation of the subject you propound, may seem to have cast me into a gentle slumber. But, being now awaked, I do herein return you most hearty thanks for the kind prosecution of your first motion, touching a just office due to the memory of our ever-memorable friend; to whose good fame, though it be needless to add any thing (and, my age considered, almost hopeless from my pen), yet I will endeavour to perform my promise, if it were but even for this cause, that in saying somewhat of the life of so deserving a man, I may perchance over-live mine own.

"That which you add of Dr. King (now made Dean of Rochester, and by that translated into my native soil) is a great spur unto me; with whom I hope shortly to confer about it in my passage towards Boughton Malherbe (which was my genial air), and invite him to a friendship with that family, where his predecessor was familiarly acquainted. I shall write to you at large by the next messenger, (being at present a little in business), and then I shall set down certain general heads, wherein I desire information by your loving diligence, hoping shortly to have your own ever-welcome company in this approaching time of the fly and the cork. And so I rest your hearty poor friend to serve you.

"H. WOTTON."

(Reliquia Wottoniana, p. 360. edit. 3.)

Page 6. Dr. Gauden.

Dr. John Gauden, born at Mayland in Essex, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, was Dean of Bocking, and Master of the Temple, in the beginning of the reign of Charles I. In 1660 he was made Bishop of Exeter, and from thence promoted to Worcester in 1662, in which year he died, aged 57 years. "Cum Gilbertus Cantuariensis Majestatem ejus certiorem fecisset Gaudenum vitâ functum esse, 'Non dubito' regerit Rex, 'quin facile erit reperire hominem eo longe digniorem, qui in ejus locum sufficiatur.'"

(Vita Johannis Barwick, p. 251.)

Page 8. Dr. Field.

Dr. Richard Field, Chaplain to James I. and Dean of Gloucester, died Nov. 21, 1616,- - the friend of Mr. Richard Hooker, and one of the most learned men of his age. He was the author of a work entitled, "Of the Church," fol. 1610.—James I. when he first heard him preach, said, "This is a Field for God to dwell in." With the same allusion Fuller calls him that learned divine, "whose memory smelleth like a Field that the Lord hath blessed.". Anthony Wood mentions a manuscript, written by Nathaniel Field, Rector of Stourton, in Wiltshire, containing "some short Memorials concerning the Life of that Rev. Divine, Dr. Richard Field, Frebendary of Windsor," &c. The feature which peculiarly marked his disposition, was an aversion to those disputes on the Arminian points, which then began to disturb the peace of the church, and from