that of Sir John Culpepper, are recorded by D'Ewes. Waller's conduct on his several examinations, in connexion with his plot, is very fully described-particularly his miserable, abject mien and aspect, before that very Assembly which had been many a time delighted by his eloquence, and enlivened by his wit. Such was the effect of his appearance upon his old associates, that many of them could not forbear shedding tears. Hotham, the man

who had refused to admit his sovereign into Hull, was still more overpowered with grief; but in both, there was a mixture of sycophancy. Waller practised subtle adulation, whilst he expressed in his tone and gesture the lowest degree of a dejected spirit.' Hotham wept with such intensity and passion,

as

to deprive him of the very faculty of speaking, and he often struck his right hand upon the bar where he leaned, holding a walking-staff in his left, so as the Speaker, perceiving in 'what case he was, bade him withdraw.' And yet D'Ewes records of this same man :—

Mr Pym then moved, that whereas it had been ordinarily reported that Sir John Hotham could discover something of his transporting money, he desired that he might be called in again, and the question asked of him.' This was accordingly done. At which, looking on Mr Pym, who sat next the bar on his right hand, he said in a fawning, flattering way," What! I, sir! I say anything of Mr Pym! Truly I do not know whether you speak to me in jest or earnest, for I know nothing of it, more nor less." The Speaker then asked, whether he had not formerly said that he did know? "No truly, sir," answered he; "for if I had said so, I had told a famous lie." At this latter carriage of his, all that wished him well were more ashamed than at his former.'

D'Ewes had many other troubles besides those which resulted from the failure of his parliamentary career. In July 1641, his wife was attacked with smallpox, following hard upon a confinement, and died on the 27th of that month, during his absence in London, and under circumstances extremely distressing. His grief was acute but transient. They had had many children, but she left no son surviving. The desire of perpetuating his noble name was too deeply rooted in the heart of Sir Simonds to allow him to remain long a widower. Guided by the same motives which influenced his former choice, he selected Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress, with only one sister, of Sir Henry Willoughby of Risley in Derbyshire. They were married on the 20th September 1642; and on the afternoon of that same day, D'Ewes had the pleasure of introducing his bride to Mr Speaker, who met them walking amongst the fashionables in St James's Park.

.. This second match was quickly followed by another attack upon D'Ewes, in the House of Commons, which we must allow him to describe. It is under the date of Thursday 22d September 1642.

I came in between 10 and 11.

The Speaker delivered in a letter which had been lately sent him by Sir Roland St John, Sir John Dryden, and others of the committee at Northampton, in which they sent an examination of one Roan....in which he confessed that, he was employed in Staffordshire by Lieutenant-Colonel D'Ewes, to raise men for the regiment of Colonel Bolls. The House made

some little stand at the clerk's pronouncing my brother's name; but the Speaker told them that it was my brother, and I acknowledged it; and the particulars having been read, the House was ready to lay it aside, but that Mr Henry Martin, who had long affected an infamous fame to make fiery and indiscreet motions, stood up and desired, that I, being brother to him who raised men against the parliament, might declare what I would do for the defence of the parliament. After I had sitten a pretty while, I stood up and said, that perhaps he who last spake might have a brother subject to error as well as myself, (and he had a brother that was a very debauched spendthrift ;) but that neither himself nor I could be called to answer for our brother's faults, and that, if it had been in my power to dissuade him from going on this expedition, he had not been there now amongst them. And for my declaring myself, I should be ready as soon as I knew how much of mine own I can be master of, to declare myself in such way as to give satisfaction to this House, But one Glyn, a lawyer who had long sided with the fiery spirits, and Sir William Armin, said that this was no satisfactory answer; whereupon divers near me desiring me to declare myself, I stood up again and spake in effect following.... "For Mr Glyn he cannot know the state of my affairs, and for the other gentleman who said the county in which my estate lies is in as good condition as any county in England, it is indeed very true that we do as yet enjoy quiet there; but my tenants do learn wariness from other places, and pay little rent, and I may truly say that for near upon two years that I have served in this House, and that with much diligence till I have had some diversion of late, (viz. in prosecuting my second blessed match,) I have scarce looked into mine own estate, or know much more of it than he doth. I shall therefore desire liberty to retire into the country for a month or two to get in my estate." That I would freely give them L.40 down presently, and would enlarge it according as I could get in that which belonged to me. I thought I should have given full content by this free offer; but some of the fiery spirits, grown into a real envy against me, because of the late great marriage God had vouchsafed me,.. began to cavil at my proffer; and Sir Robert Harley had so little wit as to desire that I should declare what I would do, [which occasioned a further discussion, in which Glyn, Sir William Armin, and Sir Harbottle Grimstone took part, and,] in the issue, my offer was neither accepted nor rejected. . . only I still pressing the House for liberty to go into the country, the Speaker told them, that I had married a fair lady, and therefore they had great reason to give me

leave to accompany her into the country. was neither granted nor rejected."

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This motion also

On the 11th October Sir Gilbert Gerrard renewed these motions on D'Ewes's behalf; and some of the fiery spirits being absent, obtained for him the desired permission to retire for a month into Suffolk. The difficulty he had found in procuring this accustomed liberty, gives proof of the suspicion with which he was regarded. He had become, indeed, a constant opponent of the parliamentary leaders, and there never was a man who was less able to contend discreetly. His opposition was a disputatious, quarrelsome altercation, which annoyed without frustrating, and disposed his adversaries to take advantage of every opportunity for retaliation. The position of his brother, no doubt, added to the jealousy which his own conduct inspired, but that cause of quarrel was soon removed. This promising soldier, ' a young man,' says Clarendon, of notable courage and vivacity, was wounded in the attack upon Caversham bridge during the siege of Reading; and, being removed into the town, died there very cheerfully.' The news instantly produced another, and a very unfeeling attack upon D'Ewes in the House. Mr John Gurdon, one of the representatives for Ipswich, and member of a family between which and that of D'Ewes there had been a long-standing friendship, assailed him in a way which he declares to have been as ungrateful, in respect of some par'ticular obligations from him to me,' as it was certainly in bad taste, if not, as he terms it, barbarous.' Gurdon would have had D'Ewes instantly called to account for his brother's estatesome L4000 or L.5000 of ready money, as he alleged, besides. lands saying that the money would come very fitly to be sent for supply to the Lord Fairfax. Thus called upon, D'Ewes stood up, and though,' as he says, 'the business was very sudden and unexpected to him, being newly clad with a sad and mournful habit,' his crafty wit supplied him instantly with a miserable evasion. By assuring the House that his brother died in his bed at Reading, he would have led them to believe that he had not been killed in arms against the parliament. If,' he continued with more truth, you will take his property from me by force and violence, so you may deprive me also of the rest of my estate.' The greater part of the House was satisfied, and several exclaimed, God forbid we should take any thing away which was "given you!' The Speaker echoed this sentiment, but Gurdon still persisted, exclaiming several times aloud, I am sure he died. a traitor to the parliament !'-Clownish words, says D'Ewes; but which the House so far regarded as to refer the matter to the Committee of Sequestration; notwithstanding his declaration,

C

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that although his brother had once had L.4000 or L.5000, he had spent it all in foreign travel, and had left only fifteen shillings in ready money. Before the Sequestrators, D'Ewes's adroitness did not forsake him. I told them that I had one word to trouble them with concerning myself. That I was lately unhappy in the death of a brother, who had left me his sole executor, with only fifteen shillings. If it be taken from me, it concerns this Agentleman near me, (viz. Sir Ralph Verney, who stood next me on my left hand, whose father, Sir Edmund Verney, being knight-marshal and bearing the King's standard, was slain at Edgehill,) and some members also of your Lordships' house, (for Earls Holland and Manchester were then present at the Committee ;) whereupon Earl Holland asked me who it was had so little wit to move such a thing.' D'Ewes merely remarked that it had been moved, and so got off scot-free.

One cannot wonder that a man whose heart had long been cold to the Parliament cause, and who was thus badgered in the House, should lose all interest in its proceedings. He removed from Goat's Alley to Great Russell Street, cultivated the acquaintance of Archbishop Usher, who was then Lecturer at Covent-Garden Church, fell back upon his Antiquarian studies, amassed MSS., planned great historical works, and attained the consummation of his wishes, in the birth of a thriving boy. His Parliamentary Notes descend only to November 1645, but he continued in the House until December 1648. He was then excluded by Colonel Pride and the army. His death took place on the 18th April 1650.

It is principally-though not entirely, witness his before mentioned Journals of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments as a member of the Long Parliament, and as a taker of Notes of its memorable Sayings and Doings, that Sir Simonds D'Ewes is worthy of being had in remembrance; and our chief object in presenting our readers with a sketch of his character, is to direct public attention to those Notes. We are not acquainted with any Historical Memorials of that momentous period, that can be at all compared with them in point of importance; and yet they remain unpublished inaccessible to all but the frequenters of the reading-room of the British Museum; illegible to those not acquainted with the manuscript characters of the period; and subject to all the chances to which the information contained in one single copy of a work is ever liable. The extracts which we have given, exhibit the nature of the historical materials and anecdotes to be found in them; but of these they present only an imperfect idea, and insignificant portion; for we have strung together only those which are the most nearly connected with

the Collector. There is not, however, a man of any parliamentary importance during that ever memorable period, whose character they do not strikingly illustrate. Cromwell, Hampden, Pym, Strode, Martin-all the leaders without exception-and many other persons who exercised an influence in that House for which the world has not yet given them credit, are here brought before us times out of number in their very habits as they lived—and with a reality which we seek in vain in any of the other memorials of that period. A man of D'Ewes's character would of course chronicle many things which it would have been well to let die; but, in spite of his trifling, and his verbose semi-legal phraseology, and his prejudices, which were violent, he has written down on these blotted sheets, facts and circumstances which, if published, would do more towards making known the real history of the times, and the characters and motives of the men who overturned the Monarchy, than any publication yet given to the world.*

1

ART. IV. Lyrical Compositions selected from the Italian Poets; with Translations. By JAMES GLASSFORD, Esq. Second Edition, greatly enlarged. 12mo. Edinburgh: 1846.

A FEW months only have elapsed, since the author of this precious volume closed a long life, calmly and modestly devoted to the most ennobling pursuits of our lettered nature. He, indeed, laid upon the altar of Philosophy and Literature, an offering as pure as any that has ever been there presented as little alloyed by those meaner motives which are commonly needed to prompt a continued devotion to mental exertion.

* It is not a little surprising that so valuable Repertory should not yet, in one way or another, have seen the light. The funds of our private Publishing Societies would have been far better employed in printing this Diary than upon hundreds of such Pieces as some of them have published. It forms five volumes of the Harleian Manuscripts, No. 162 to No. 166, preserved in the British Museum; and it is quite distinct from the Autobiography of D'Ewes, (in the same collection, No. 646,) lately published, and whose title is given at the head of this Article. The Autobiography, which comes down only to 1636, certainly contains some curious passages, but, as a whole, it is exceedingly uninteresting. It would, however, have been of greater historical value, had it been more intelligently and carefully Edited.