And first to my most dear Sovereign and Master, of incomparable goodness, (in whose gracious opinion I have ever had some portion, as far as the interest of a plain honest man), I leave four pictures at large of those Dukes of Venice, in whose time I was there employed, with their names written on the backside, which hang in my great ordinary dining room, done after the life by Edoardo Fialetto": Likewise a table of the Venetian College, where ambassadors had their audience, hanging over the mantle of the chimney in the said room, done by the same hand, which containeth a draught in little, well resembling the famous D. Leonardo Donato, in a time which needed a wise and constant man. Item, The picture of a Duke of Venice, hanging over against the door, done either by Titiano, or some other principal hand, long before my time. Most humbly beseeching his Majesty, that the said pieces may `remain in some corner of any of his houses, for a poor memorial of his most humble vassal. Item, I leave his said Majesty all the papers and negociations of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Knight, during his famous employment, under Queen Elizabeth, in Scotland and in France; which contain divers secrets of state, that perchance his Majesty will think fit to be preserved in his Paper-office, after they have been perused and sorted by Mr. Secretary Windebank, with whom I have heretofore, as I remember, conferred about them. They were committed to my disposal by Sir Arthur 66 "This artift is mentioned in a very scarce volume, entitled, " Zanetti della pittura Veneziana,” as a painter and engraver, and a native of Bologna. "Odoardo Fialetti Bolognefe. Vifse lungo tempo e mori poi quefto Pittore in Venezia allevato nella fcuola del Tintoretto; e fece "fludii afsai regolati nell' arte. In genio fuo non fu tuttavia de piu vi"vaci e focofi." p. 502. Several of his pictures are in five of the churches of Venice; and he is celebrated for having engraved with great correctness two pictures of Tintoretto, now at Venice, in the Scuola di S. Rocco;" the one representing St. Sebaftian, the other the Marriage of Cana. * Of this celebrated artift, the most universal genius of all the Lombard School, the best colourist of all the moderns, and the most eminent for hiftories, landfcapes, and portraits, fee "Dryden's Frefnoy's Art of Painting," p. 267.- -Sir Henry Wotton, during his refidence at Venice, purchased feveral very valuable paintings for the Duke of Buckingham: Among others was probably the "Ecce Homo" of Titian, which was afterwards valued at 50001. and bought by the Archduke Leopold, who added it to his own collection in the Caffle of Prague. See" Cabala," p. 398. y Sir NICHOLAS THROGMORTON was eminent for his abilities in ftate affairs, and often fent by Queen Elizabeth ambassador to foreign courts. Of him Sir Francis Walfingham, lamenting the lofs fuftained by his death, writes thus in a letter to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester." Be it fpoken without offence of any, for counsel in peace, and conduct in "war, he hath not left of like fufficiency his fuccefsor that I know of." (Supplement to Collins's Peerage, p. 90. See also Kennet's Com plete History, &c. Vol. II. p. 430. Throgmorton his son, to whose worthy memory I cannot better dis charge my faith, than by assigning them to the highest place of trust. Item, I leave to our most gracious and virtuous Queen Mary, Dioscorides, with the plants naturally coloured, and the text translated by Matthiolo in the best language of Tuscany, whence her said Majesty is lineally descended, for a poor token of my thankful devotion for the honour she was once pleased to do my private study with her presence. I leave to the most hopeful Prince, the picture of the elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia, his aunt, of clear and resplendent. virtues through the clouds of her fortune. To my Lord's Grace of Canterbury now being, I leave my picture of Divine Love, rarely copied from one in the King's galleries, of my presentation to his Majesty; beseeching him to receive it as a pledge of my humble reverence to his great wisdom. And to the most worthy Lord Bishop of London, Lord High Treasurer of England, in true admiration of his Christian simplicity and contempt of earthly pomp, I leave a picture of Heraclitus bewailing, and Democritus laughing at, the world: Most humbly beseeching the said Lord Archbishop his Grace, and the Lord Bishop of London, of both whose favours I have tasted in my life-time, to intercede with our most gracious Sovereign after my death, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, that out of compassionate memory of my long services (wherein I more studied the public honour, than mine own utility), some order may be taken out of my arrears due in the Exchequer, for such satisfaction of my creditors, as those whom I have ordained supervisors of this my lust Will and Testament, shall present unto their Lordships, without their farther trouble ; hoping likewise in his Majesty's most indubitable goodness, that he will keep me from all prejudice, which I may otherwise suffer by any defect of formality in the demand of my said arrears. Το for a poor addition to his cabinet, I leave, as emblems of his attractive virtues and obliging nobleness, my great Loadstone, and a piece of Amber of both kinds naturally united, and Z THOMAS Lord WOTTON, fon of Edward, the firft Lord Wotton, and nephew to Sir Henry Wotton, married Mary the daughter and one of the coheirs of Sir Arthur Throgmorton, of Pauler Perry, in Northamptonfhire. a A phyfician of the 16th century, who publifhed commentaries on Diofcorides, adorned with large wooden prints. This work was once held in high eftimation. "I pray you, buy me the commentaries of Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, tranflated into French, and let it be bound "with two or three fheets of paper before and in the end. That book was never wont to go from me, and now I cannot tell how it is ftolen "from me: because it was noted with my obfervations and notes, I had rather have loft a far better thing." Letter of Sir Thomas Smith to Sir Francis Walsingham, in b Archbishop LAUD. C JuxoN, Bishop of London, was made Lord High Treasurer of England in 1635, through the intereft of Archbishop Laud. only differing in degree of concoction, which is thought somewhat rare. Item, A piece of Crystal Serangular (as they grow all) grasping divers several things within it, which I bought among the Rhaetian Alps, in the very place where it grew; recommending most humbly unto his Lordship, the reputation of my poor name in the point of my debts, as I have done to the fore-named Spiritual Lords, and am heartily sorry that I have no better token of my humble thankfulness to Ais honoured person. Item, I leave to Sir Francis Windebank, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State (whom I found my great friend in point of necessity) the Four Seasons of old Bassano, to hang near the eye in his parlour (being in little form), which I bought at Venice, where I first entered into his most worthy acquaintance. * To the above-named Dr. Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, I leave all my Italian books not disposed in this Will. I leave to him likewise, my Viol de Gamba, which hath been twice with me in Italy; in which country I first contracted with him an unremovable affection. To my other Supervisor, Mr. Nicholas Pey, I leave my Chest, or Cabinet of Instruments and Engines of all kinds of uses: in the lower box whereof are some fit to be bequeathed to none but so entire an honest man as he is. I leave him likewise forty pounds for his pains in the solicitation of my Arrears; and am sorry that my ragged estate can reach no further to one that hath taken such care for me in the same kind, during all my foreign employments. To the Library at Eaton College, I leave all my Manuscripts not before disposed, and to each of the Fellows a plain Ring of gold, enameled black, all save the verge, with this motto within, AMOR UNIT OMNIA. This is my Last Will and Testament, save what shall be added by a schedule thereunto annexed, written on the first of October, in the present year of our Redemption, 1637, and subscribed by myself, with the testimony of these witnesses, NICH. OUDERT. HENRY WOTTON, And now, because the mind of man is best satisfied by the knowledge of events, I think fit to declare, that every one that was named in his will did gladly receive their legacies: By which, and his moft juft and pafsionate defires for the payment of his debts, they joined in affifting the overfeers of his will; and by their joint endeavours to the King (than whom none was more willing) conscionable fatisfaction was given for his juft debts. d GIACOMO DA PONTE DA BASSANO, fo called from the place of his birth in the Marca Trevifana, in 1510, was a celebrated artift, who excelled in rural scenery and animals. He died at the age of 82, leaving four fons, two of whom were diftinguished painters. (Dryden's Fresnoy's Art of Painting, p. 290.) * In it were Italian locks, pick-locks, fcrews to force open doors, and many things of worth and rarity, that he had gathered in his foreign travel. The next thing wherewith I fhall acquaint the reader is, that he went ufually once a year, if not oftener, to the beloved Bocton-Hall, where he would fay, "He found a cure for all cares, by the cheerful company," which he called "the liv"ing furniture of the place:" and "a restoration of his "ftrength, by the connaturalnefs of" that which he called "his genial air." He yearly went alfo to Oxford. But the fummer before his death he changed that for a journey to Winchester College, to which school he was first removed from Bocton. And as he returned from Winchefter towards Eaton College, faid to a friend, his companion in that journey, "How ufeful was that "advice of a holy monk, who perfuaded his friend to perform "his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we "usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that "at my now being in that school, and feeing that very place "where I fat when I was a boy, occafioned me to remember "thofe very thoughts of my youth which then pofsefsed me: "fweet thoughts, indeed, that promifed my growing years nu66 merous pleasures without mixtures of cares, and those to be "enjoyed when time (which I therefore thought flow paced) "had changed my youth into manhood.But age and expe"rience have taught me that those were but empty hopes; for "I have always found it true, as my Saviour did foretel, "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof Nevertheless, I faw "there a fucceffion of boys using the fame recreations, and, * In this year he wrote his letter to Milton, who then lived near Eaton, thanking him for his prefent of "Comus," which he calls "A dainty "peece of entertainment; wherein," he adds, "I should much com"mend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a certain "Dorique delicacy in your fongs and odes, whereunto I mutt plainly "confefs to have feen yet nothing parallel in our language: ipfa molli"ties." (Reliq. Wotton. p. 343.) " Milton has commended this letter in his "Defenfio Secunda Populi Anglicani." "Abeuntem vir clariffimus Henricus Wootonus, qui ad "Venetos Orator Jacobi Regis diu fuerat, et votis et præceptis eunti "peregrè fanè utiliffimis eleganti epistolâ perfcriptis amiciflimè profequutus eft." "Ah, happy bills! Ah, pleafing fhade! "Where once my careless childhood firay'd, "A firanger yet to pain! "I feel the gales that from ye blow "A momentary blifs bestow, "As waving fresh their glad fome wing "My weary foul they seem to footh, "And, redolent of joy and youth, "To breathe a fecond fpring." GRAY'S Ode on a distant prospect of Eaton College. "queftionlefs, possessed with the fame thoughts that then pof"fefsed me. Thus one generation fucceeds another, both in "their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death." After his return from Winchester to Eaton, which was about five months before his death, he became much more retired and contemplative: in which time he was often vifited by Mr. John Hales (the learned Mr. John Hales), then a Fellow of that College, to whom upon an occafion he spake to this purpose: "I have, in my passage to my grave, met with most of those "joys of which a difcourfive foul is capable; and been enter"tained with more inferior pleasures than the fons of men are "usually made partakers of: Nevertheless in this voyage I "have not always floated on the calm fea of content; but have "often met with crofs winds and ftorms, and with many "troubles of mind and temptations to evil. And yet, though "I have been and am a man compassed about with human "frailties, Almighty God hath by his grace prevented me from "making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, the thought of "which is now the joy of my heart; and I most humbly praise "him for it: And I humbly acknowledge that it was not my"felf, but he that hath kept me to this great age, and let him "take the glory of his great mercy.-And, my dear friend, I now fee that I draw near my harbour of death; that harbour "that will fecure me from all the future ftorms and waves of "this reftlefs world; and I praise God I am willing to leave it "and expect a better; that world wherein dwelleth righteous66 ness; and I long for it." Thefe and the like expreffions were then uttered by him at the beginning of a feverish diftemper, at which time he was alfo troubled with an afthma or fhort fpitting: But after less than twenty fits, by the help of familiar phyfic and a spare diet, this fever abated, yet fo as to leave him much weaker than it found him; and his afthma feemed alfo to be overcome in a good degree by his forbearing tobacco, which, as many thoughtful men do, he also had taken fomewhat immoderately. This was his then present condition, and thus he continued till about the end of October, 1639, which was about a month before his death, at which time he again fell into a fever, which, though he feemed to recover, yet thefe ftill left him fo weak, that they and those other common infirmities that accompany age, and were wont to vifit him like civil friends, and after fomne fhort time to leave him, came now both oftener and with more violence, and at lalt took up their conftant habitation with him, ftill weakening his body and abating his cheerfulness; of both which he grew more fenfible, and did the oftener retire into his ftudy, and there made many papers that had passed his pen, both in the days of his youth and in the bufy part of his life, useless, by a fire made there to that purpose. These, and several unufual expreflions to his fervants and friends, feemed to foretel that the day of his death drew near; for which he seemed to |