258 Extras?! from 4he Port-folio of u Man of Letters. [0€t. I, 



dean of- St. Paul's, to the king, in 15Z7» 

 when the aiFair of the divorce was in agi- 

 tation. 



" I fenc'e unto your grace herein 

 cloyf'^d, an alphabete in the Ikbrcwc 

 lun'gf, defyvyng the lame to dfclyver the 

 faide alphibete to Mailier Foxe yourklt, 

 with cctnniatidtJTicnt to hym to gyve good 

 diligence for to ob'.eiiie the inieiiigence 

 thereof, and to have it promptly without 

 bocke, fsr he fo doying ihall within the 

 f-jace ol one monyih have fufficient know- 

 ledge of the Hebrew tunge, for to judge 

 thereby the Lattyii trar.flaiion, LXX in- 

 terpreters in Greeke, and the trouth com- 

 pryled in the Hehrewe bookes, whershy 

 ve rtiall liave a grot advantage, when he 

 in whome ve put moolte trulle, (lull truely 

 advtrtyle you of the irouih, as I do per- 

 feftly knowe hs wyll doo, both by his 

 ■wyfedome, leinyrge and fidelite to your 

 highneiTe ior the lytell aquayntnnce I have 

 made wi^h hym." This letter was firlt 

 printed in Kotfer Codicil of Robert 

 Wake^eld in 1518. 



TO THE REV. MR. COLE AT MILTON 



NEAR Cambridge. 

 Maifin, near Gkucejiert Aug. 15,1774. 



«« DEAR SIR, 



*' AS I am your difciple in Antiqui- 

 ties (for you ftudied them, when I was 

 but a fcoffer) I think it my duty to give 

 you fome account of my journeyings in 

 the good caufe. You will nut diliike my 

 date. I am in the very inar.Jion, where 

 King Charles I, and his two eldeft fons lay, 

 during the fiege; and there are marks of the 

 lalt's hack ng with h.s Iianger on a win- 

 dow, as he told Mr. Selvvyn's grand-father 

 afterwards. The prefent matter has done 

 due honour to the royal refidence, and 

 erefled a good marble biift ot the Martyr, 

 in a little gallery. Tn a window is a fliield 

 in painted glafsjwith that King's, and his 

 Queen's arms, which I gave him ; fo you 

 fee I am not a rebel, when ah/ia /nalcr 

 Antiquity (lands god-mother. 



<• I went again to the cathedral, and on 

 feeing the monument of Edward II, a new 

 iiiftoric doubt ftai ted, which I pray you 

 to folve. His mnjedy has a longifn beard, 

 and fuch were certainly worn at that time. 

 ■Who is the firit hifti rian that tells the 

 ftcry of his being (haven with cold water 

 fr m a diich, and weeping to fuppiy 

 warm, as he was carried to Berkeley- 

 ca!Ue ? Is not this apocryphal ? The 

 bouie whence Bp. Hooper was carried to 

 the ftake is ftill danMc.g tale quale. I 

 made a vifit to his aJltial fucciffor War- 

 lurtoi), who is very inficm^ fpcakswith 



much hefitation, and, they fay, begins to 

 lofe his memory. They have deftroyed 

 the beautiful cro's. The two batiered 

 heads of Hen. Ill, and Edw. Ill, are in 

 the poil-mafter's garden. 



" Yefterday I made a jaunt four miles 

 hence, that pleafed me exceedingly, to 

 Prinknafli, the individual villa of the 

 Abbots ot Gljucelfer. I wifhed you there 

 with their mitre on. It (tands on a glo- 

 rious but imprafticable hill, in the midft 

 of a little foreft of beech, and commanding 

 Elylium. The houfc is fmall, but has 

 good rooms, and though modernized here 

 and there, not extravagantly. Qn the ceil- 

 ing of the hall is Edward the IVth's jovial 

 device — A Fauco7i ferrurfe. The cliapel 

 is low arid fmall, but antique, and with 

 painted glafs, with many sngeis in their 

 Coronation robes ; i. e. wings and crowns. 

 Hinry VIII, and J.ine Seymour lay herej 

 in the dining room are their arms in 

 glafs, and cf Catherine of Arragon, and 

 of Brays, and Bridges. Under a window, 

 a barbarous bas-relief head of Harry, 

 young : as it is ftill on a fign of an ale- 

 houfe, on the defcent of the hill. Think 

 of my amazement, when they (hewed nne 

 the chapel plate, and I found on it, on four 

 pieces, my own arms, quartering my mo- 

 ther- in law Skerrel's, and in a (hield of 

 pretence, thofe of Fortefcue j certainly by 

 mirtake, for thofe of my fifter-in-law ; as 

 the barony of Clinton was in abeyance 

 between her and Fortefcue Lord Clinton. 

 The whole is modetn and blundeied : for 

 Skerrel fliould be impaled, not quartered, 

 and inflead of our creft, are two fpears 

 tied together in a ducal coronet, and na 

 coronet for my brother, in whofe time this 

 plate muft have been made, and at whofe 

 lale it was probably bought j as he fini(h- 

 ed the repairs of the church at Houghton, 

 for which I fuppofe, this decoration was 

 intended. But the (llver-fmith was no he- 

 rald you fee. 



" As I defcended the hill, I found, in 

 a wretched cottage, a child, in an ancient 

 oaken cradle, exailly in the form of that 

 lately publifhed trom the cradle of Edward 

 II. I purchafv.d it tor five (hillings, but 

 don't know whether I (liall have fortitude 

 enough to tranfport it to Strawberry-hill. 

 People would conclude me in my fecond 

 childhood, 



«« Today I have been at Berkeley, and 

 Thornbury-caftles. The firft difappointed 

 me nnuch, though very entire. It is much 

 fmaller than I expe£\ed, but very entire, 

 except a fmall part burnt about two years 

 ago, while the prefent earl was in tlia 

 houfe. The fire began in t'ne houfe-keep- 



«r'8 



