deville), and they usually present them to the hearers through multiplying-glasses, and thereby cause the thing to appear far greater than it is in itself; they make mountains of mole-hills, like Charenton-BridgeEcho, which doubles the sound nine times. Such a traveller was he that reported the Indian fly to be as big as a fox; China birds to be as big as some horses, and their mice to be as big as monkeys; but they have the wit to fetch this far enough off, because the hearer may rather believe it than make a voyage so far to disprove it. Every one knows the tale of him who reported he had seen a cabbage, under whose leaves a regiment of soldiers were sheltered from a shower of rain. Another, who was no traveller (yet the wiser man), said, he had passed by a place where there were 400 braziers making of a cauldron-200 within, and 200 without, beating the nails in; the traveller asking for what use that huge cauldron was? he told him-Sir, it was to boil your cabbage.' Such another was the Spanish traveller, who was so habituated to hyperbolise, and relate wonders, that he became ridiculous in all companies, so that he was forced at last to give order to his man, when he fell into any excess this way, and report anything improbable, he should pull him by the sleeve. The master falling into his wonted hyperboles, spoke of a church in China that was ten thousand yards long; his man, standing behind, and pulling him by the sleeve, made him stop suddenly. The company asking, I pray, sir, how broad might that church be?' he replied, But a yard broad, and you may thank my man for pulling me by the sleeve, else I had made it foursquare for you.' SIR THOMAS HERBERT. [Description of St Helena.] St Helena was so denominated by Juan de Nova, the Portugal, in regard he first discovered it on that saint's day. It is doubtful whether it adhere to America or Afric, the vast ocean bellowing on both sides, and almost equally; yet I imagine she inclines more to Afer than Vespusius. Tis in circuit thirty English miles, of that ascent and height that 'tis often enveloped with clouds, from whom she receives moisture to fatten her; and as the land is very high, so the sea at the brink of this isle is excessive deep, and the ascent so immediate, that though the sea beat fiercely on her, yet can no ebb nor flow be well perceived there. The water is sweet above, but, running down and participating with the salt hills, tastes brackish at his fall into the valleys, which are but two, and those very small, having their appellations from a lemon-tree above, and a ruined chapel placed beneath, built by the Spaniard, and dilapidated by the Dutch. There has been a village about it, lately depopulated from her inhabitants by command from the Spanish king; for that it became an unlawful magazine of seamen's treasure, in turning and returning out of both the Indies, whereby he lost both tribute and prerogative in apparent measure. Monuments of antique beings nor other rarities can be found here. You see all, if you view the ribs of an old carrick, and some broken pieces of her ordnance left there against the owner's good will or approbation. Goats and hogs are the now dwellers, who multiply in great abundance, and (though unwillingly) afford themselves to hungry and sea-beaten passengers. It has store of patridge and guinea-hens, all which were brought thither by the honest Portugal, who now dare neither anchor there, nor own their labours, lest the English or Flemings question them. The isle is very even and delightful above, and gives a large prospect into the ocean. 'Tis a saying with the seamen, a man there has his choice, whether he will break his heart going up, or his neck coming down; either wish bestowing more jocundity than comfort. WILLIAM CAMDEN. The only other traveller of much note at this time was SIR THOMAS HERBERT, who in 1626 set out on a journey to the east, and, after his return, published, in 1634, A Relation of some Years' Travels into Africa and the Greater Asia, especially the Territory of the Persian Monarchy, and some parts of the Oriental Indies and Isles adjacent. According to the judgment of the author of the Catalogue in Churchill's Collection, these travels have deservedly had a great reputation, being the best We now turn to a circle of laborious writers, who account of those parts written [before the end exerted themselves in the age of Elizabeth to disof the seventeenth century] by any Englishman, cover and preserve the remains of antiquity which and not inferior to the best of foreigners; what is had come down to their times. Among these, the peculiar in them is, the excellent description of all leading place is unquestionably due to WILLIAM antiquities, the curious remarks on them, and the CAMDEN, who, besides being eminent as an antiquary, extraordinary accidents that often occur.'* This claims to be considered likewise as one of the best eulogy seems too high; at least we have found the historians of his age. Camden was born in London author's accounts of the places which he visited far in 1551, and received his education first at Christ's too meagre to be relished by modern taste. A brief hospital and St Paul's school, and afterwards at extract from the work is given below. In the civil Oxford. In 1575 he became second master of Westwars of England, Herbert sided with the parliament, minster school; and while performing the duties of and, when the king was required to dismiss his own this office, devoted his leisure hours to the study of servants, was chosen by his majesty one of the the antiquities of Britain-a subject to which, from grooms of the bed-chamber. Herbert then became his earliest years, he had been strongly inclined. much attached to the king, served him with much That he might personally examine ancient remains, zeal and assiduity, and was on the scaffold when the he travelled, in 1582, through some of the eastern ill-fated monarch was brought to the block. After and northern counties of England; and the fruits of the Restoration, he was rewarded by Charles II. his researches appeared in his most celebrated work, with a baronetcy, and subsequently devoted much written in Latin, with a title signifying. Britain; time to literary pursuits. In 1678 he wrote Threnor a Chorographical Description of the Most Flourishing odia Carolina, containing an Historical Account of the Kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the AdjaTwo Last Years of the Life of King Charles I. This cent Islands, from Remote Antiquity. This was pubwas reprinted in a collection of Memoirs of the Two lished in 1586, and immediately brought him into Last Years of that Unparalleled Prince, of Ever-high repute as an antiquary and man of learning. blessed Memory, King Charles I.,' published in 1702. Sir Thomas Herbert died in 1682. * Vol. i. p. 21. Anxious to improve and enlarge it, he journied at several times into different parts of the country, examining archives and relics of antiquity, and collecting, with indefatigable industry, whatever infor I hope it shall be no discredit if I now use again, by way of preface, the same words, with a few more, that I used twenty-four years since in the first edition of this work. Abraham Ortelius, the worthy restorer of ancient geography, arriving here in England about thirty-four years past, dealt earnestly with me that I would illustrate this isle of Britain, or, as he said, that I would restore antiquity to Britain, and Britain to antiquity; which was (I understood), that I would renew ancientry, enlighten obscurity, clear doubts, and recall home verity, by way of recovery, which the negligence of writers, and credulity of the common sort, had in a manner proscribed and utterly banished from among us. A painful matter, I assure you, and more than difficult; wherein what toil is to be taken, as no man thinketh, so no man believeth but he who hath made the trial. Nevertheless, how much the difficulty discouraged me from it, so much the glory of my country encouraged me to undertake it. So, while at one and the same time I was fearful to undergo the burden, and yet desirous to do some service to my country, I found two different affections, fear and boldness, I know not how, conjoined in one. Notwithstanding, by the most gracious direction of the Almighty, taking industry for my consort, I adventured upon it; and, with all my study, care, cogitation, continual meditation, pain, and travail, I employed myself thereunto when I had any spare time. I made search after the etymology of Britain and the first inhabitants timorously; neither in so doubtful a matter have I affirmed ought confidently. For I am not ignorant that the first originals of nations are obscure, by reason of their profound antiquity, as things which are seen very deep and far remote; like as the courses, the reaches, the confluences, and the outlets of great rivers are well-known, yet their first fountains and heads lie commonly unknown. I have succinctly run over the Romans' government in Britain, and the inundation of foreign people thereinto, what they were, and from whence they came. I have traced out the ancient divisions of these kingdoms; I have summarily specified the states and judicial courts of the same. In the several counties, I have compendiously set down the limits (and yet not exactly by perch and pole, to breed questions), what is the nature of the soil, which were places of the greatest antiquity, who have been dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, barons, and some of the most signal and ancient families therein (for who can particulate all?) What I have performed, I leave to men of judgment. But time, the most sound and sincere witness, will give the truest information, when envy (which persecuteth the living) shall have her mouth stopped. Thus much give me leave to say-that I have in no wise neglected such things as are material to search and sift out the truth. I have attained to some skill of the most ancient British and Saxon tongues. I have travelled over all England for the most part; I have conferred with most skilful observers in each country; I have studiously read over our own country writers (old and new), all Greek and Latin authors which have once made mention of Britain; I have had conference with learned men in the other parts of Christendom; I have been diligent in the records of this realm; I have looked into most libraries, registers, and memorials of churches, cities, and corporations; I have pored over many an old roll and evidence, and produced their testimony (as beyond all exception) when the cause required, in their very own words (although barbarous they be), that the honour of verity might in no wise be impeached. scant modest, who, being but of the lowest form in the For all this I may be censured as unadvised, and school of antiquity, where I might well have lurked in obscurity, have adventured as a scribbler upon the stage in this learned age, amidst the diversities of relishes both in wit and judgment. But to tell the truth unfeignedly, the love of my country, which compriseth all love in it, and hath endeared me to it, the glory of the British name, the advice of some judicious friends, hath over-mastered my modesty, and (will'd I, nill'd I) hath enforced me, against mine own judg ment, to undergo this burden too heavy for me, and so thrust me forth into the world's view. For I see judgments, prejudices, censures, aspersions, obstructions, detractions, affronts, and confronts, as it were, in battle array to environ me on every side; some there are which wholly contemn and avile this study of antiquity as a back-looking curiosity; whose autho rity, as I do not utterly vilify, so I do not over-prize or admire their judgment. Neither am I destitute of reason whereby I might approve this my purpose to well-bred and well-meaning men, which tender the glory of their native country; and, moreover, could give them to understand that, in the study of antiquity (which is always accompanied with dignity, and hath a certain resemblance with eternity), there is a sweet food of the mind well befitting such as are of honest and noble disposition. If any there be which are desirous to be strangers in their own soil, and foreigners in their own city, they may so continue, and therein flatter themselves. For such like I have not written these lines, nor taken these pains. The 'Britannia' has gone through many subsequent editions, and has proved so useful a repository of antiquarian and topographical knowledge, that it has been styled by Bishop Nicolson the common sun, whereat our modern writers have all lighted their little torches.' The last edition is that of 1789, in two volumes folio, largely augmented by Mr Gough. SIR HENRY SPELMAN-SIR ROBERT COTTON-JOHN SPEED-SAMUEL DANIEL. them highly valuable, had before this time been unfortunately destroyed by fire. From those which remain, historians still continue to extract large stores of information. During his lifetime, materials In 1593 Camden became head master of West- were drawn from his library by Raleigh, Bacon, minster school, and, for the use of his pupils, pub- Selden, and Herbert; and he furnished literary lished a Greek grammar in 1597. In the same year, assistance to many contemporary authors. Besides however, his connexion with that seminary came to aiding Camden in the compilation of the 'Britannia,' an end, on his receiving the appointment of Claren-he materially assisted JOHN SPEED (1552-1629), cieux king-of-arms, an office which allowed him by revising, correcting, and adding to a History of more leisure for his favourite pursuits. The prin- Great Britain, published by that writer in 1614. cipal works which he subsequently published are, Speed was indebted also to Spelman and others for 1. An Account of the Monuments and Inscriptions in contributions. He is characterised by Bishop NicolWestminster Abbey; 2. A Collection of Ancient English son as a person of extraordinary industry and atHistorians; 3. A Latin Narrative of the Gunpowder tainments in the study of antiquities.' Being a tailor Plot, drawn up at the desire of James VI.; and, 4. by trade, he enjoyed few advantages from educaAnnals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, also in Latin. tion; yet his history is a highly creditable performThe last of these works is praised by Hume as good ance, and was long the best in existence. He was composition, with respect both to style and matter, the first to reject the fables of preceding chroniclers and as being written with simplicity of expression, concerning the origin of the Britons, and to exercise very rare in that age, and with a regard to truth.' a just discrimination in the selection of authorities. It is, however, generally considered as too favour- His history commences with the original inhabitants able to Elizabeth; and Dr Robertson characterises of the island, and extends to the union of England the account of Scottish affairs under Queen Mary and Scotland under King James, to whom the work as less accurate than any other. Camden died un- is dedicated. In 1606 he published maps of Great married in 1623, at the age of seventy-two, and Britain and Ireland, with the English shires, hunwas interred in Westminster Abbey. Not long dreds, cities, and shire-towns. This collection was before his death, he founded and endowed a history superior to any other that had appeared. SAMUEL lecture at Oxford. DANIEL (1562-1619), who has already been mentioned as a poet, distinguished himself also as a writer of prose. Besides A Defence of Rhyme, published in 1611, he composed A History of England, of which only the first and second parts, extending SIR HENRY SPELMAN, a man of similar tastes, from the Norman Conquest to the end of the reign and who was intimate with Camden, was born of Edward III., were completed by himself. Of these, in 1562 at Congham, in Norfolk, of which county the first appeared in 1613, and the second about he was high-sheriff in 1604. His works are almost five years later. Being a judicious and tasteful perall upon legal and ecclesiastical antiquities. Hav-formance, and written in a clear, simple, and agreeing, in the course of his investigations, found it necessary to study the Saxon language, he embodied the fruits of his labour in his great work called Glossarium Archæologicum, the object of which is the explanation of obsolete words occurring in the laws of England. Another of his productions is A History of the English Councils, published partly in 1639, and partly after his death, which took place in 1641. The writings of this [Uncertainty of the Early History of Nations.] author have furnished valuable materials to English historians, and he is considered as the restorer of kingdom, I had a desire to have deduced the same Undertaking to collect the principal affairs of this Saxon literature, both by means of his own studies, from the beginning of the first British kings, as they and by founding a Saxon professorship at Cam- are registered in their catalogue; but finding no bridge. SIR ROBERT COTTON (1570-1631) is cele-authentical warrant how they came there, I did put brated as an industrious collector of records, chart- off that desire with these considerations: That a ers, and writings of every kind relative to the an- lesser part of time, and better known (which was cient history of England. In the prosecution of his from William I., surnamed the Bastard), was more object he enjoyed unusual facilities, the recent sup- than enough for my ability; and how it was but our pression of monasteries having thrown many valuable curiosity to search further back into times past than books and written documents into private hands. we might discern, and whereof we could neither have In 1600, he accompanied his friend Camden on an proof nor profit; how the beginnings of all people and excursion to Carlisle, for the purpose of examining states were as uncertain as the heads of great rivers, the Picts' wall and other relics of former times. It and could not add to our virtue, and, peradventure, was principally on his suggestion that James I. re-little to our reputation to know them, considering how sorted to the scheme of creating baronets, as a means of supplying the treasury; and he himself was one of those who purchased the distinction. Sir Robert Cotton was the author of various historical, political, and antiquarian works, which are now of little interest, except to men of kindred tastes. His name is remembered chiefly for the benefit which he conferred upon literature, by saving his valuable library of manuscripts from dispersion. After being considerably augmented by his son and grandson, it became, in 1706, the property of the public, and in 1757 was deposited in the British Museum. One hundred and eleven of the manuscripts, many of able style, the work became very popular, and soon passed through several editions. It was continued in an inferior manner to the death of Richard III., by John Trussel, an alderman of Winchester. Like Speed, Daniel was cautious in giving credit to narratives of remote events, as will appear from his remarks, here subjoined, on the commonly they rise from the springs of poverty, piracy, rather of the civil war which arose while that parliament was sitting, than of the proceedings of the parliament itself. The work was imposed upon him in his capacity of secretary for the parliament, and was reluctantly undertaken. It gave great offence to the royalists, by whom both the author and his performance were loudly abused. Its composition is inelegant, but the candour displayed in it has been pronounced much greater than the royalists were willing to allow. Among the minor historians of the time of Elizabeth appears SIR JOHN HAYWARD, who, in 1599, published The First Part of the Life and Reign of Henry IV., which he dedicated to the Earl of Essex. Some passages in it gave such offence to the queen, that she caused the author to be imprisoned. He was patronised by James I., however, and at the desire of Prince Henry composed Lives of the Three Norman Kings of England (1613). After his death, which happened in 1627, was published his Life and Reign of King Edward VI,, with the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1630). He writes with considerable smoothness, but too dramatically, imitating Livy and other ancient historians in the practice of putting speeches into the mouths of the characters. RICHARD KNOLLES, master of a free school at Sandwich, in Kent, where he died in 1610, wrote a History of the Turks, which is praised by Dr Johnson in the 122d number of the 'Rambler' as exhibiting all the excellences that narration can admit. His style,' says Johnson, though somewhat obscured by time, and sometimes vitiated by false wit, is pure, nervous, elevated, and clear. Nothing could have sunk this author into obscurity but the remoteness and barbarity of the people whose story he relates.' This account of the work is, how ever, considered to surpass its deserts. As a specimen, we extract the account given of The Taking of Constantinople by the Turks. and begun the assault, where shot and stones were A little before day, the Turks approached the walls delivered upon them from the walls as thick as hail, whereof little fell in vain, by reason of the multitude of the Turks, who, pressing fast unto the walls, could not see in the dark how to defend themselves, but were without number wounded or slain; but these were of the common and worst soldiers, of whom the the first force of the defendants. Upon the first apTurkish king made no more reckoning than to abate pearance of the day, Mahomet gave the sign appointed for the general assault, whereupon the city was in a moment, and at one instant, on every side most furiously assaulted by the Turks; for Mahomet, the more to distress the defendants, and the better to see the forwardness of the soldiers, had before appointed which part of the city every colonel with his regiment should assail: which they valiantly performed, delivering their arrows and shot upon the defendants so thick, that the light of the day was therewith darkened; others in the meantime courageously mounting the scaling-ladders, and coming even to handy-strokes with the defendants upon the wall, where the foremost were for the most part violently borne forward by them which followed after. On the other side, the Christians with no less courage withstood the Turkish fury, beating them down again with great stones and weighty pieces of timber, and so overwhelmed them with shot, darts, and arrows, and other hurtful devices from above, that the Turks, dismayed with the terror thereof, were ready to retire. Mahomet, seeing the great slaughter and discomfiture of his men, sent in fresh supplies of his janizaries and best men of war, whom he had for that purpose reserved as his last hope and refuge; by whose coming on his fainting soldiers were again encouraged, time the barbarous king ceased not to use all possible and the terrible assault begun afresh. At which means to maintain the assault; by name calling upon this and that captain, promising unto some whom he saw forward golden mountains, and unto others in whom he saw any sign of cowardice, threatening most terrible death; by which means the assault became most dreadful, death there raging in the midst of many thousands. And albeit that the Turks lay dead by heaps upon the ground, yet other fresh men pressed on still in their places over their dead bodies, and with divers event either slew or were slain by their enemies. In this so terrible a conflict, it chanced Justinianus the general to be wounded in the arm, who, losing much blood, cowardly withdrew himself from the place of his charge, not leaving any to supply his room, and so got into the city by the gate called Romana, which he had caused to be opened in the inner wall; pretending the cause of his departure to be for the binding up of his wound, but being, indeed, a man now altogether discouraged. The soldiers there present, dismayed with the departure of their general, and sore charged by the janizaries, forsook their stations, and in haste fled to the same gate whereby Justinianus was entered; with the sight whereof the other soldiers, dismayed, ran thither by heaps also. But whilst they violently strive all together to get in at once, they so wedged one another in the entrance of the gate, that few of so great a multitude got in; in which so great a press and confusion of minds, eight hundred persons were there by them that followed trodden under foot, or thrust to death. The emperor himself, for safeguard of his life, flying with the rest in that press as a man not regarded, miserably ended his days, together with the Greek empire. His dead body was shortly after found by the Turks among the slain, and known by his rich apparel, whose head being cut off, was forthwith presented to the Turkish tyrant, by whose commandment it was afterward thrust upon the point of a lance, and in great derision carried about as a trophy of his victory, first in the camp, and afterwards up and down the city. The Turks, encouraged with the flight of the Christians, presently advanced their ensigns upon the top of the uttermost wall, crying Victory; and by the breach entered as if it had been a great flood, which, having once found a breach in the bank, overfloweth, and beareth down all before it; so the Turks, when they had won the utter wall, entered the city by the same gate that was opened for Justinianus, and by a breach which they had before made with their great artillery, and without mercy cutting in pieces all that came in their way, without further resistance became lords of that most famous and imperial city. . . . In this fury of the barbarians perished many thousands of men, women, and children, without respect of age, sex, or condition. Many, for safeguard of their lives, fled into the temple of Sophia, where they were all without pity slain, except some few reserved by the barbarous victors to purposes more grievous than death itself. The rich and beautiful ornaments and jewels of that most sumptuous and magnificent church (the stately building of Justinianus the emperor) were, in the turning of a hand, plucked down and carried away by the Turks; and the church itself, built for God to be honoured in, for the present converted into a stable for their horses, or a place for the execution of their abominable and unspeakable filthiness; the image of the crucifix was also by them taken down, and a Turk's cap put upon the head thereof, and so set up and shot at with their arrows, and afterwards, in great derision, carried about in their camp, as it had been in procession, with drums playing before it, railing and spitting at it, and calling it the God of the Christians, which I note not so much done in contempt of the image, as in despite of Christ and the Christian religion. ARTHUR WILSON-SIR RICHARD BAKER. ARTHUR WILSON, another historian, flourished somewhat later, having been born in 1596. He was secretary to Robert, Earl of Essex, the parliamentary general in the civil wars; and afterwards became steward to the Earl of Warwick. He died in 1652, leaving in manuscript a work on The Life and Reign of James I., which was published in the following year. A comedy of his, entitled The Inconstant Lady, was printed at Oxford in 1814. We shall conclude our survey of the historical writers of this period by devoting a few words to SIR RICHARD BAKER, who lived from 1568 to 1645, and whose 'Chronicle' was long popular in England, particularly among country gentlemen. Addison makes it the favourite book of Sir Roger de Coverley. Baker was knighted by James I. in 1603, and in 1620 became high-sheriff for Oxfordshire, in which he possessed considerable property. Afterwards having imprudently engaged for the payment of debts contracted by his wife's family, he became insolvent, and spent several years in the Fleet prison, where he died in 1645. While in durance, he wrote Meditations and Disquisitions on portions of Scripture, translated Balzac's Letters and Malvezzi's Discourses on Tacitus, and composed two pieces in defence of the theatre. His principal work, however, was that already referred to, entitled A Chronicle of the Kings of England, from the time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James. This work, which appeared in 1641, the author complacently declares to be 'collected with so great care and diligence, that if all other of our chronicles were lost, this only would be sufficient to inform posterity of all passages memorable or worthy to be known.' Notwithstanding such high pretensions, the Chronicle' was afterwards proved by Thomas Blount, in Animadversions' published in 1672, to contain many gross errors; and although an edition printed in 1730 is said to be purged of these to a considerable extent, yet the work must continue to be regarded as an injudicious performance, unworthy of much reliance. The style of Baker, which is superior to his matter, is described, in a letter written to him by his former college friend Sir Henry Wotton, as full of sweet raptures and of researching conceits; nothing borrowed, nothing vulgar, and yet all flowing from you, I know not how, with a certain equal facility.' SIR HENRY WOTTON. SIR HENRY WOTTON, of whom some account has already been given, was himself one of the conspicuous characters of this period, both as a writer and a politician. While resident abroad, he embodied the result of his inquiries into political affairs in a work called The State of Christendom; or a most Exact and Curious Discovery of many Secret Passages and Hidden Mysteries of the Times. This, however, was not printed till after his death. In 1624, while provost of Eton college, he published Elements of Architecture, then the best work on that subject, and the materials of which were no doubt collected chiefly in Italy. His latter years were spent in planning several works, which, from the pecuniary difficulties in which he found himself involved, were never executed. The Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, a posthumous publication, is a collection of his miscellaneous pieces, including lives, letters, poems, and characters. These display considerable liveliness of fancy and intellectual acuteness, though tainted with the pedantry of the times. Several of them are here extracted : [What Education Embraces.] First, there must proceed a way how to discern the natural inclinations and capacities of children. Secondly, next must ensue the culture and furnishment of the mind. Thirdly, the moulding of behaviour and decent forms. Fourthly, the tempering of affections. Fifthly, the quickening and exciting of observations and practical judgment. Sixthly, and the last in order, but the principal in value, being that which must knit and consolidate all the rest, is the timely instilling of conscientious principles and seeds of religion. Every Nature is not a Fit Stock to Graft a Scholar on. The Spaniard that wrote The Trial of Wits,' undertakes to show what complexion is fit for every profession. I will not disable any for proving a scholar, nor yet dissemble that I have seen many happily forced upon that course, to which by nature they seemed much indisposed. Sometimes the possibility of preferment prevailing with the credulous, expectation of less expense with the covetous, opinion of ease with the fond, and assurance of remoteness with the unkind parents, have moved them, without discretion, to engage their children in adventures of learning, by whose return they have received but small contentment: but they who are deceived in their first designs deserve less to be condemned, as such who (after sufficient trial) persist in their wilfulness are no way to be pitied. I have known some who have been acquainted (by the complaints of |