272 Longleat Pavers, No. 4. 



I hope it is not doubtyd of butt thatt my L. hath byne att charge with 

 intelygence. Thatt is a matter of secrett and therefore I can 

 make noe estymatt, but leave it. 



For Jewells geven to her Ma*'^ as new year's gyftes and att other-~v 



tymes not fittinge to be sett down butt as a matter of charge to I 



• ' 11000 



my L. / And his own Jewels w'^'" he bought, the whole coste him > ^^^ 



att leaste £11000, soe I countt thatt one expence, and j'tt is a 



reason how my L. hath spentt his & his land soe -J 



Then his Lp^ platt [plate] coste 1200 1200 



My L. diett att courtt his apparell, his men's wages & his playing,"^ 



with his extraordynarie charges, in spendynge : butt as a man I q^w^-wv 

 of his place, I hope can nott be lesse estemed then between f 

 £4000 & 5000 which for this 7 years comes toe . . .J 

 His Lp'. revenue is aboute £2500 during his") £ 



mothers life his greatt aunts his unkell and other > 15000 soe my L 

 annuyties, soe thatt his revenue in vij years is J hath sold of his own I wh. was 



annuytye & land £400 r sold for 



by yeare J £15000 



The rest my 



L : oweth of his 



expence." 



XXX. — Two Letters from Samuel Danyel, Poet Laureate, 



TEMP. Elizabeth, to Mr, James Kirton, Steward to the Earl 



OF Hertford. 



[The next letter seems to supply an entirely new fact in the life of 

 Samuel Danyel, historian, and — after Spenser — Poet Laureate : 

 namely, that in 1608 he was acting as farm-bailiff to Edward 

 Seymour, Earl of Hertford, grandson of Protector Somerset, at 

 South Wraxhall, near Bradford-on- Avon. Monkton Farley Priory 

 had been granted to the Protector, and part of its land lay in South 

 Wraxhall. It is doubtful whether S. Danyel was a native of 

 Somerset or of Wilts, He was born about 1562, one authority says 

 near Taunton, another, near Beckington, a third, " at Wilmington 

 in Wilts near the plain of Salisburie.^' There is no such place in 

 Co. Wilts : and if Wilmington on the border of the two counties, 

 near Frome, is meant, the register of that parish goes no farther 

 back than 1580. There is a small place called Wilmington, in 

 Priston parish, in Co. Som., about five miles from Bath. 



S. DanyePs history, in brief, is that he was educated at Magdalen 

 Hall, Oxford, was domesticated in the family of the Earl of Pem- 

 broke, was afterwards tutor to Lady Anne Clifford (daughter of 



