360 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



concerns the gentleman s whole estate, as to make a full 

 arbitration and final end, either by taking the pains in 

 ending it yourself, or preferring it to some other, whom 

 your lordship shall think fit: which I shall acknowledge 

 as a courtesy from your lordship ; and ever rest 



Your Lordship s faithful Friend and Servant, 



Hinchingbroke, the 22nd G. BUCKINGHAM. 



of October, 1618. 



To the Marquis of Buckingham. 



My very good Lord, 



I send the commission for making Lincoln s Inn Fields 

 into walks for his majesty s signature. It is without charge 

 to his majesty. 



We have had my Lord of Ormonde * before us. We 

 could not yet get him to answer directly, whether he would 

 obey the king s award or no. After we had endured his 

 importunity and impertinences, and yet let him down to 

 this, that his majesty s award was not only just and within 

 his submission, but in his favour; we concluded in few 

 words, that the award must be obeyed, and if he did refuse 

 or impugn the execution of it in Ireland, he was to be 

 punished by the justice of Ireland: if he did murmur or 

 scandalize it here, or trouble his majesty any more, he was 

 to be punished in England. Then he asked, whether he 

 might be gone. For that, we told him, his majesty s plea 

 sure was to be known. 



Sir Robert Mansell hath promised to bring his summer 

 account this day sevennight. God preserve and prosper you. 

 Your Lordship s most obliged Friend 



and faithful Servant, 



November 12, 1618. FR. VERULAM, Cane. 



To the Lord Chancellor. f 

 My honourable Lord, 



I send your lordship the commission signed by his ma 

 jesty, which he was very willing to dispatch as a business 

 very commendable and worthy to be taken in hand. 



* Walter, Earl of Ormonde, grandfather of James, the first Duke of Ormonde. 

 This Earl, upon the death of Thomas, Earl of Ormonde and Ossory, succeeding 

 to those honours, should have inherited likewise the greatest part of the estate : 

 but his right was contested by Sir Richard Preston, Lord Dingwell, supported by 

 the favour of King James I., who made an award, which Walter, Earl of Or 

 monde, conceiving to be unjust, refused to submit to, and was, by the king s 

 order, committed to the Fleet, where he remained eight years before the death of 

 that king ; but in 1625 recovered his liberty. 



t Harl. MSS. Vol. 7006. 



