By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 57 
gentlemen to be officers unto us as Mr. Fisher for one who cannot 
well take it upon him, in whose stead Sir Richard Varney a gentle- 
man meet to serve in that behalf, wold willingly endeavour himself + 
for Warwickshire, if it plese you to appoint or require him by your 
letters to take the chardge upon him. Thus leaving to trouble your 
Ldship any further at this tyme I commit you to God who send you 
increase of honour. Your good Lordships to command, Ambrose 
Cave.” This is scarcely the vein in which a Minister of State 
would write about a brigand in a cloak, waiting to stain his hands 
in a miserable murder. 
In tie novel you will recollect, that Varney is disposed of in a 
manner that is no doubt highly satisfactory to the reader. He is 
found next morning dead in his cell: having swallowed a dose of 
poison. That of course was, what it should have been, but not as 
it was. For behold, next year, 1561 (the year after her death), this 
same scowling brigand in the cloak, who had been found dead in 
his cell, is filling the dignified office of Her Majesty’s High Sheriff 
for the county of Warwick. He survived the “ poison ” seven years, 
dying 26th July, 1567. 
4.—Tony Foster. 
I have now another character to introduce, with whom you are no 
doubt most accurately acquainted by the help of Sir Walter Scott. 
What is your opinion, Ladies, of Tony Foster? He is described as 
a cruel hard-hearted miserly curmudgeon, so clumsily built as to 
border on deformity. He also has keen dark eyes and rugged brows, 
with a most unprepossessing countenance, is dressed in leather, 
1 « To endeavour himself for ;” %.¢., to consider himself bound, to undertake 
for. So in the Prayer Book, collect for Second Sunday after Easter, ‘‘ also daily 
endeavour ourselves:” in the Preface to the Confirmation service, ‘‘ they will 
evermore endeavour themselves,” and in the Ordination service, ‘‘I will en- 
deavour myself so to do.” In all these instances in the Prayer Book the words 
are often read with a pause between ‘‘ endeavour” and ‘‘ themselves,” as if the 
meaning were that they would—‘' themselves, do their best,” &c. The mistake 
isa very pardonable one, the modern use of the word endeavour being simply 
‘*to try.” Nor is there in the English translation of the Bible any other sense 
of the word. It is in the Prayer Book only that the obsolete use is retained. 
