230 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1660-1. 



which your Lordship was pleased to own was recom 

 mended unto you by the late King, my most gracious 

 Master, of glorious memory: And the continuance 

 thereof is most humbly implored and begged by me, 

 who am really and freely at your Lordship s disposal, 

 first, in order to his Majesty s service, and next to the 

 approving myself, 



&quot; My Lord, 

 &quot; Your Lordship s most really affectionate, 



&quot; and most humble servant, 



&quot; WORCESTER. 



&quot;June, llth, 1660.&quot; 



Within a fortnight after writing this letter, no doubt 

 encouraged by the Lord Chancellor s reception of it, he 

 petitioned the Crown as follows : 



&quot; To HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, &C. 



&quot; The most humble petition of Edward Somerset, 

 Earl and Marquis of Worcester, &c. 



&quot; Sheweth, That your Petitioner s father and himself, 

 having in ready money expended incomparably more 

 for the service of the Crown than any subject of England, 

 for which your Petitioner is possessed of sundry promises 

 of extraordinary reward and satisfaction, as well under 

 the Great Seal of England, as likewise voluntarily under 

 his late Majesty the King, your Majesty s father of 

 blessed memory, his own handwriting and private signet 

 set down in a most gracious ample and kind manner, it 

 being all that in those necessitous times his Majesty, 

 your Petitioner s most graciously obliging master, could 

 afford or be rationally demanded from him, yet in these 

 perhaps may not be so f i t to be ratified, lest they should 

 draw upon your Petitioner the envy of others, and 

 prove prejudicial to your Majesty. 



* Cal. of State Papers, Doin. Series, 1660-61. Edited by Mrs. M. A. E. Green, 

 8vo. 1860. 



