14 LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



that som nedefull supportail wolde be for me (in due tyme) 

 devysed : eyther throwgh the meer and gracious good favour 

 that I was perswaded the Q. most excellent Majesty did 

 beare unto me, or els throwgh the procurement of some of 

 the right honorable cownsaylours, which both right well 

 knew, by how hard dealing my father Roland Dee (servant 

 to her Majesties father the most renowned and triumphant 

 King of our age) was disabled for leaving unto me due mayn- 

 tenance : and also sufficiently understode of sundry sutes in 

 my behalf motioned, for some ayde toward the atcheving of 

 some of my honest intents. Of which sutes no one (hither- 

 to) hath taken the wished for success, for any my behofe. 

 Nay, in the mean tyme of some my travayles beyond the seas, 

 unleast your honor had put to your helping hand, I had 

 byn defeated of that little exhibition, which I enjoye ; being 

 but borrowed a while, by speciall priviledge and favor extra- 

 ordinary. And that unwillingly un my part, if I could other 

 wayes have had the supply therof in like yerely value, which 

 (as God knoweth) findeth not me, and my pore familie, ne- 

 cessary meat, drink, and fewel, for a frugall and philosophi- 

 call dyet. But if I may (with your Lordships favor) speak 

 as I think, unfaynedly : unleast your honor had supposed that 

 I had odly committed the care for my necessary mayntenance 

 unto some other noble cownsaylour than yourself: veryly I 

 judge, that, long ere this, your honor would have made me 

 to have tasted of that mervaylously famous your honorable 

 constant and lucky favour and benedicite of the Court 

 Royall ; whereby, may have bin and are made liable to dis- 

 pend of their owne yerely, thre, fowre, five, &c. of hundred 



Eownds. To compare with any of them in desert publik or 

 >rning, I neyther dare, nor justly can. But in zeale to the 

 best lerning and knowledg, and in incredible toyle of body 

 and mynde, very many yeres therfore onely endured : I know 

 most assuredly that this land never bred any man, whose ac- 

 cownt therin can evidently be proved greater than myne. I 

 trust that this my simple speche, uttered in the record of my 

 conscience, and with a sincere estimate both of myne and my 

 predecessors doings, will not seme to your wisdome arro- 

 gantly vaunted ; onely God can make the perswasion of the 

 truth hereof to settle into the bottom of your lordships hart. 

 And fearing to offend your honor any way, eyther with rude 

 homelyness, or with superfluitie of wordes, I will cut of all 

 such digressions ; and committing myself, and my honest 

 purposes, wholy to your Lordships protection and direction 

 henceforward, I beseche your honor to accept my faithfull 

 good meaning toward your Lordship, which, dayly and 



