ture, but to an union of families, &c." In other words, fhe drew the Earl into the fame difgraceful and imprudent conceffions which fhe had procured from his unlucky predeceffors; and partly by intreaties, partly by threats, induced him to facrifice, in a great measure, the fortune, intereft, and happiness of himfelf and his family, to the aggrandizement of her ehildren by Sir William Cavendifh. To fum up her character with the brevity here required,

he was a woman of a mafculine understanding and conduct; proud, furious, felfish, and unfeeling. She was a builder, a buyer and feller of eftates, a money lender, a farmer, and a merchant of lead, coals, and timber. When difengaged from thefe employments, the intrigued alternately with Elizabeth and Mary, always to the prejudice and terror of her husband. She lived to a great old age, continually flattered, but feldom deceived, and died in 1607, immenfely rich, and without a friend.-The Earl was withdrawn by death from thefe complicated plagues on the 18th of November 1590.'

The nature of the bufinefs in which the Earl was immediately engaged, is fufficient to affure us of its difficulty, which is confirmed by feveral of the letters in this collection. Thus he expreffes himself when writing to Lord Burghley. The trouthe is, my good L. if it fo ftande wt the Quene's Matte pleafure, I could be right well contented to be dyfcharged of that charge; and thynk myfelfe therwth moft happy, if I could fee how the fame myght be w'out anny blemyche to my honore and eftymafyon; but rather w' the increase of bothe, as I dare before God and the woreld a vouce that my trouth and dutyful care in this farves hath defarved.'-Among other complaints, one is the great expence incurred, which is mentioned foon after he had entered on his office, when writing to the Marquis of Winchester and Sir Walter Mildmay.

It may please you to underflaund, that whereas I have had a certen ordinary allowaunce of wine, amongs other noblemen, for expences in my howfehold, w'out impofte. The chargs daily that I do nowe fufteyn, and have done all this yere paft, well knowen by reafon of the Quene of Scots, are fo grete therein as I am compelled to be now a futer unto yow that ye woll pleafe to have a friendlie confideration unto the neceffiue of my large expenfes. Truly two tonnes in a monthe have not hitherunto fufficed ordinarily, befids that is occupied at tymes for her bathings, and fuch like ufes, which feing I cannot by any means convenietly diminishe, myn erneft trust and defire is that ye woll now confider me w fuch larger proporcon in this cafe as fhall feem good unto your frendly witdomes, even as 1 fhall think my felf moche beholdinge for the fame. And fo I comit you unto God. From Tutbury Caftle, this xyth of January 1569. Yo affured frend to my pow, G. SHREWSBURY.'

* V. 2. No. 95. p. 113.

2

† No. 45. P. 27.

Without

1

Without taking notice of what is here faid of wine, for the Queen's bathings, which no doubt will appear odd to many our readers, we proceed to infert the editor's remark on the use of that article, in a note connected with the above letter:

This paffage will ferve to correct a vulgar error relating to the confumption of wine in thofe days, which inftead of being lefs, appears to have been, at leaft in the houfes of the great, even more confiderable than that of the prefent time. The good people who tell us that Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour breakfafted on roast beef, generally add, that wine was then used in England as a medicine, for that it was fold only by apothecaries. The latter affertion, though founded on a fact, feems to have led to a mistake in the former; for the word Apothecary, from the Greek Aroonen, Repofitorium, is applicable to any fhopkeeper, or warehouseman, and was probably once ufed in that general fenfe. It feems however to have been confounded, by a modern corruption, with the very apt term, Poticary, or Potitar, now only in ufe among the common people; which being no doubt derived from Пoréxw, adhibeo, might very properly fignify the perfon who applied, or adminiftered the medicines ordered by the phyfician.'

In another letter to Lord Burghley, the Earl writes as follows:

Affuredly the very charge of my whole householde, wth the entertainement I do geeve to my householde fervaunts, is not def. fraied with the allowance I have from her Matie; befides the which I dare he bold to faye the wyne, fpice, and the fuell, that is fpent in my houfe yerelie, being vallued, commeth not under one thoufande poundes by the yeare: Alfo the loffe of plate, the byenge of pewter, and all manner of howfeholde ftuffe, wch by them is exceedinglye fpoyled, and wylfully wafted, ftandeth me in one thoufande poundes by the yeare: Moreover, the annuitees I have geeven to my fervantes to th'ende to be more faithefully ferved by them, and to pvent any corruption that by want they might be provoked unto, cometh to above cccc' by the yere.-I do leave out an infinite numbre of other hidden charges wch I am dryven unto by keping this woman, for trobelinge you over longe; but I do trust that her Matis, of her owne confideration, wyll fo well thyncke of thefe thinges that she wyll not abridge any thinge of that wyche fhe hathe hitherto allowed. I have, in thefe xi yeres fervice in this charge, not pefteren her Marie wth any fuites, neither have I lamented the heavy burthen my mynde hathe borne in providing for her faffetye, and that my boddy hathe fuftayned (being thereby weakened) only for that I do recken myfelfe happy and fortunate in lyvinge to do her Matte trewe and loiall fervice.'

It is probable, that no confiderable new light will be thrown by these letters on this memorable tranfaction of Queen Elizabeth's reign, though they afford several minute

particulars as to the manner in which it was conducted. They do not represent our great English Queen to the advantage which we could wish; and the editor does not wholly neglect to point out inftances of treachery and tyranny. Yet although it has been fashionable of late years to decry this princefs, and we cannot avoid uniting in the cenfure on feveral occafions, we are inclined to think, that fufficient allowance is not always made for the difficulties of her fituation, for the prejudices, ignorance, abfurdity, fuperftition, &c. which, notwithstanding the progress that reformation had made, pervaded almost every mind of that period; and which-fad to fay-feem to be rapidly gaining ground on us, under all the advantages of these more enlightened days.

Among other letters, thofe of the Earl of Suffex, fome of them addreffed immediately to the Queen, are well worthy of notice they carry with them ftrong marks of ability, fidelity and real worth. The editor's account of this nobleman is as follows:

Thomas Ratcliffe, Earl of Suffex, eldest son of Henry, the fecond Earl, by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Thomas Howard, fecond Duke of Norfolk. This great man's conduct united all the fplendid qualities of thofe eminent perfons who jointly rendered Elizabeth's court an object of admiration to Europe, and was perfectly free from their faults: wife and loyal as Burghley, without his blind attachment to the monarch; vigilant as Walfingham, but difdaining his low cunning; magnificent as Leicester, but incapable of hypocrify; and brave as Raleigh, with the piety of a primitive Chriftian; he seemed above the common objects of human ambition, and wanted, if the expreffion may be allowed, thofe dark fhades of character which make men the heroes of history. Hence it is, probably, that our writers have beftowed fo little attention on this admirable perfon, who is but flightly mentioned in most hiftorical collections, unless with regard to his difputes with Leicester, whom he hated almost to a fault. His letters, which I efteem myfelf most fortunate in being the inftrument of difclofing, form a very valuable part of this collection, and, except a very few, are the only ones to be met with in print. I trust they will acquit me of extravagance in the flight view I have given of his character.'

The Earl of Suffex was employed in affairs of great moment: the two diftinguishing objects of this kind were the treaties of marriage, with the Archduke Charles of Auftria, brother of Maximilian II. the reigning Emperor; and with the Duke of Alençon, third brother of Charles IX. of France in each of these he was a prime negotiator. His letters on these and other fubjects are curious, interefting, and worthy of perufal but as our confined limits do not allow of many extracts, we must refer the reader to the volumes themselves. Notwithstanding

Notwithstanding his apparent ability and integrity, he, as well as others, met with fome confiderable neglect and ill ufage: as a fpecimen of his honeft fenfe of this circumftance, and of his fpirit to discover it, we infert the following paffage, from a letter to Sir William Cecil, dated Januarie 1569:

I was first a lieutente, I was after little better than a marshal; I had then nothing left to me but to direct hanging matters (in the mean tyme all was difpofed that was wthin my comiflion) and nowe I ame offered to be made a fhereif's bayly to deliver over poffeffions. Blame me not, good Mr. Secretarie, though my pen utter fumwhat of that fwell in my ftomake, for I fee I ame kepte but for a brome, and when I have done my office to be throwen out of the dore. I am the firft nobel man hathe been thus ufed. Trewe fervice deferveth honor and credite, and not reproche and open defaming: but feeing the one is ever delivered to me inftede of the other, I must leave to ferve, or lofe my honor; wch being continewed fo long in my howfe, I woide be lothe fhoolde take blemishe with me. Thefe matters I knowe procede not from lacke of good and honorable meaning in the Q Matic towards me, nor from lacke of dewte and trewth in me towards her, w grevethe me the more; and therefore feeing I fhall be ftill a camelyon, and yelde no other fhewe then as it fhall please others to give the couller, I will content myfelf to live a private lyfe. God fend her Matie others that meane as well as I have done; and fo I comitt you to th'Almightie.'

ch

If any of our readers fhould have been at all offended with what appears, in the prefent day, the uncouth ftyle of these ancient letters, they may probably have been equally pleased, as we have been, with the correct and eafy language of the editor of thefe volumes: as a farther fpecimen of which, we here add a few lines:

Gilbert, the feventh Earl (of Shrewsbury) came into public life when the English nation was rapidly emerging from that fimplicity of manners to which it had fo long been confined by bigotry and war. We shall accordingly obferve in his character certain amiable features, and certain faults, which were equally unknown to his ancestors. We shall find him the accomplished courtier, and welleducated gentleman, occafionally relapsing into the pomp and the ferocity of an ancient baron. The ftory of his public life lies within a narrow compafs, for he was never called to any high office of the ftate, though apparently better qualified than any of his predeceffors of whom we have been treating. His cafe in this refpect was peculiarly hard; for though it should feem that Elizabeth paffed him over on fome fufpicion of his difaffection to her, yet in the next reign he appears to have been thruft afide as one of the old followers of her court. He was fummoned to parliament a few months before his father's death; was inftalled a knight of the Garter on the 20th of June 1592; in 1596 went ambassador to France to ratify the treaty of alliance with Henry the Great; and

was

was appointed by James, at his acceffion, Chief Juftice of the foreits North of Trent.'

We can take very little notice of the letters to and from this nobleman, with thofe of many others which conftitute the third volume of this work. We obferve, in a letter from the Earl of Worcester to the Earl of Shrewsbury, an account of the ladies who attended on the Queen of James the First, which is rather amufing, and ferves to fhew what difquietude and mifery accompany the fervice of courts*:

Now, (fays the Earl,) having doone with matters of state, I muft a littell towche the feminine comon welthe, that agaynit youer coming youe bee not altogether like an ignorant countrey fellow. First, youe muft knowe we have ladyes of divers degrees of favor; fome for the privat chamber, fome for the drawing chamber, fome for the bedchamber, and fome for neyther certeyn, and of this nombre is only my La. Arbella and my wife. My Lady of Bedford howldethe faft to the bedchamber; my Lady Harford would fayn, but her husband hath cawled her home. My Lady of Derbee the yonger, the Lady Suffoke, Ritche, Nottingham, Sufan, Walfingham, and of late the Lady Sothwell, for the drawing chamber; all the reft for the private chamber, when they are not shut owt, for many times the dores are lokt; but the plotting and mallice amongst them is futche, that I think envy hathe teyd an invisible fnake abowt most of ther neks to fting on another to deaythe. For the prefence there are nowe 5 mayds, Cary, Mydellmore, Woodhouse, Gargrave, Roper, the fiext is determined but not come. God fend them good fortune, for as yet they have no mother.'

The editor's note on the last sentence informs us, that the office of Mother of the maids of honour exifted in the Queen's houfhold till towards the end of the last century, when the benign influence of the Revolution liberated them from the tyranny of their gouvernante, and fettled this fair fociety on republican principles.'

Befide nine plates of autographs, feveral other engravings enrich these volumes: the firft of them is introduced by a print of John Talbot, the great ancestor of all the Earls of Shrewsbury, taken from a very ancient portrait preserved in the College of Arms. The frontispiece to the fecond volume is the head of George, the fixth Earl, which, in our opinion, has a far more antique appearance than the former. The third volume opens with a beautiful engraving of Arabella Stuart, from the collection of the Honourable Horace Walpole, now Earl of Orford. The editor's note concerning this lady is as follows:

A very accomplished perfon, whofe name is fcarcely mentioned in hiftory, except with regard to Raleigh's ridiculous confpiracy,