HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 387 



man possesses or is more entitled to the fond esteem of a grateful 

 tenantry. The following testimony of the respect heretofore en- 

 joyed by the family of Cotes will, we trust, prove acceptable to 

 our readers, not only on their account, but from the piety and dig- 

 nity of the style, and from the affecting description which it gives 

 of the latter days of (Bishop Hough) a venerable Prelate's life. 



Bishop of WORCESTER'S Letter to Lord DIGBY, April }3th, 1743, in the 93d 

 year of his age, three weeks before his death. 



" MY LORD, I think myself very k much obliged to your 

 Lordship's nephew for his kind visit, whereby I have a more au- 

 thentic account of your Lordship's health, than is usually brought 

 me by report ; and an opportunity of informing myself in many 

 particulars relating to your noble house, and the good family at 

 Woodcote, which I hear with the uncommon pleasure of one who 

 has been no stranger to them, Mr. Cotes is blessed in his child- 

 ren, all whose sons are not only deserving, but prosperous ; and I 

 am glad to see one of them devoted to the service of God. He 

 may not, perhaps, have chosen the most likely employment to 

 thrive by, but he depends on a master, who never fails to recom- 

 pense them that trust in him above their hopes. The young gen- 

 tleman will account to your Lordship for Hartlebury ; but I fancy 

 you will expect me to say something of myself, and therefore I 

 presume to tell you, my hearing hath long since failed. I am 

 weak and forgetful, having as little inclination to business, as 

 ability to perform it. In other respects I have ease, if it may not 

 more properly be called indolence, to a degree beyond what I 

 durst have thought on, when years began to multiply upon me. 

 I wait continually for a deliverance out of this life into a better, 

 in humble confidence, that, by the mercy of God, through the 

 merits of his Son, I shall stand at the resurrection on his right 

 hand. And, when you, my Lord, have ended those days that are 

 to come, which I pray may be many and prosperous, and as inno- 

 cent and exemplary as those that are past, I doubt not of our 

 meeting in that state, where the joys are renewable, and will 

 always endure. I am your Lordship's most obedient, and ever 

 affectionate servant, 



" JOHN WORCESTER." 



CAorfton, is a village and chapelry, about five miles north by west 

 from Eccleshall, and near the eastern branch of the river Sow. 

 The village, in which the chapel stands, is called Chapel Chorl- 



