60 LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 



occasion with my uttermost forces. I have effectually treated 

 with Mrs. Hare, and desired a worthy friend of mine, Dr. Pink 

 ot New College, and Dr. lies of Hart Hall, who hath much 

 power with her, to assist me in this treaty. The gentlewoman 

 much complains of the injustice of him and his brother, and 

 of their dealing with her, and says in effect that the sum now 

 due to her is 200/. : that they are able enough but not willing 

 to satisfy her, that they have received not long since 500/. for 

 land sold, that they have defeated many other poor men in 

 this kind, that Mr. Thomas Lydyat's personal debt to her is 

 50/., that he threatened to feed his brother in prison with her 

 money, that being here in Bocardo he was wont to flout and 

 jeer her as she passed the streets, and to say he \vould make 

 her jet it in one silk gown the less, that he is now building a 

 new house upon his benefice and therefore is not so poor as 

 he pretends, &c. All this and more she avows with great 

 confidence, and seems more sensible of their scoffs than of 

 any other injuries. Yet to gratify so many worthy friends as 

 have moved her in this business, she is content to remit 120/., 

 and to take for all 80/., as 50/. in land, and any honest man's 

 band (but she clearly refused to deal with either of them) for 

 the 30/. in some reasonable time, two or three years. Here 

 is the utmost point to w j hich for aught I can guess, she will 

 be drawn. She says, further, that she is aged, and a \voman 

 not able any w ay to improve her small store upon which she 

 lives: that she maintains a great number of her necessitous kin- 

 dred, and is forced with her great expence by law to right 

 their injuries: that she is charitable, but doth not believe 

 Mr. Lydyat's fit objects of charity : that she yields all this to 

 his friends and hers, nothing to him. 



For my part I cannot believe that Mr. Lydyat, a wise man 

 and a scholar, would forget himself so far as to taunt and 

 flout her. Both he and she sure have been abused by some 

 talebearer. Yet methinks it would not be amiss if Mr. Ly- 

 dyat did clear himself to her for that contempt, which most 

 deeply she apprehends, andbyhis letter give her fair satisfaction. 

 Some soft words to that purpose may yet a little more mollify 

 her. And for the main matter, you being so worthily pleased to 

 help him so liberally, what if he laid on his benefice a pen- 

 sion of 10/. for three years to pay her, or procure his brother 

 to pay it, as in reason and conscience (if he have any; she 

 thinks it very small) he ought. But she will have nothing to 

 do with them. Here's the best account I can give you of this 

 negociation. 



When you go into the Low Countries ; and when you are 

 there, I shall ever attend you with mine hearty prayers that 



