304 The History of Longleat. 
with this place, that he was one of the seven prelates who, after 
James II. succeeded to the throne, opposed the Declaration of 
Indulgence, for which they were committed to the Tower. Notwith- 
standing this resistance to the Crown, Ken was afterwards, when 
the throne was declared vacant, one of those who refused to take 
the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, for which, by Act of 
parliament, he was deprived of his Bishoprick. 
The late Mr. Bowles of Bremhill was one of those who took in 
hand the life of Ken, and succeeded in producing a book, of which 
the Quarterly Review has said that it is about every thing else but 
Bishop Ken. There is, however, one passage to the point, and 
fortunately to our point. It is that in which Mr. Bowles has drawn 
the picture of the Bishop’s departure from the palace at Wells. 
‘We can easily conceive with what prayers of the poor, and how 
beloved and regretted, Ken bade farewell to the diocese and flock 
so dear to him, to the palace, the retired garden, and the silent 
‘water that surrounded them, to the towers, and to the devotional 
harmonies of his cathedral. Surely it would be no stretch of 
imagination to conceive, that, on the drawbridge as he passed, on 
leaving the abode of independence and peace, a crowd of old and 
young would be assembled with clasped hands and blessings, to bid 
him farewell. Perhaps his eye might have rested on the pale faces 
of some of the poor old men and women who had partaken their 
Sunday dinner so often, and heard his discourse, in the old hall. 
Then, and not before, we may conceive, 
‘‘ Some natural tears he dropp’d, but wiped them soon; 
The world was all before him, where to seek 
His place of rest, and Providence his guide.” * 
Providence guided him to this house, “He,” says a later bio- 
grapher, “put it into the heart of Viscount Weymouth to bear to 
the good man a message of comfort—the offer of a home in his 
noble mansion of Longleat.” Part of the domain is within the 
diocese of Wells, and Lord Weymouth had the happiness to 
persuade his deprived bishop to make this his final resting-place. 
Doubtless he felt that his presence would bring a blessing on his 
* Life of Ken, Vol. Il. p, 174. 
