28 J. HOPKINSOISr ANNIVEESAUX ADDRESS : 



make it truly noble, the element of self-sacrifice, was wanting ; 

 and he had one great failing, carelessness about money. To this 

 all his errors and misfortunes may be traced, for it fostered in him 

 a spirit of dependence, made him subservient to the will of others, 

 and led him to seek preferment with a pertinacity and obsequious- 

 ness which greatly mar the nobler attributes of his character. 

 Certainly he strove for place in order that he might have means 

 and leisure to pursue his studies, with the laudable intention of 

 devoting his time and talents to the benefit of mankind, but place 

 did not bring him the leisure he thought it would do, and though it 

 brought him means, those means were devoted to display, instead 

 of to the payment of his debts. As he had to borrow money in 

 his younger days to enable him to live in an humble way in his 

 chambers in Gray's Inn, it seems strange that after having been 

 for some years in the receipt of a princely income, twenty times as 

 great as then, and having enjoyed a handsome pension up to the 

 last, — it seems strange that he should die insolvent, and yet have 

 so little idea of the state of his finances as to leave in his will 

 a large number of legacies in money, and anticipate " a good round 

 surplusage" with which to endow two professorships in either of 

 the Universities (Oxford or Cambridge), "hoping that the stipends 

 .... may amount to two hundred pounds a year for either of 

 them." In this connection the following bequests may be men- 

 tioned as of interest to us : — "to the poor of St. Michael's near 

 St. Albans . . . fifty pounds . . . ; to the poor of the abbey church 

 parish in St. Albans, twenty pounds ; to the poor of St. Peter's there, 

 twenty pounds ; to the poor of St. Stephen's there, twenty pounds ; 

 to the poor of Eedborn, twenty pounds ; to the poor of Hempstead 

 . . . twenty pounds." He reckons Gorhambury to be worth "seven 

 hundred pounds per annum [equal to about £3000 in our day], 

 besides wooclfells, and the leases of the houses." Not long before 

 his death he was advised to cut down the woods around Gorham- 

 bury in order to raise money ; but he declined, saying : "I 

 will not be stripped of my feathers." The estate was conveyed 

 to trustees for the use of Sir Thomas Meautys, after whose 

 death it was purchased by Sir Harbottle Grimston, who had 

 married his widow, and from whom it has descended to its present 

 noble owner. Sir James "Walter Grimston, second Earl of Ycrulam. 



A man with so little idea of his financial position as Bacon 

 had, so lavish in his expenditure and so extremely careless 

 about money matters, so constantly short of money, and in fact 

 nearly always iu debt, could scarcely be expected to devote 

 much attention to preventing the continuance of the abuses of 



