Chapter VII: Part 7

[798]A person so much immerst in action all along and in fabrication of his owne fortunes, (till his confinement in the Tower) could have but little time to study, but what he could spare in the morning. He was no slug; without doubt, had a wonderfull waking spirit, and great judgment to guide it.

<_His residences._>

Durham-house was a noble palace; after he came to his greatnes he lived there, or in some apartment of it. I well remember his study, which was a little turret that looked into and over the Thames, and had the prospect which is pleasant perhaps as any in the world, and which not only refreshes the eie-sight but cheeres the spirits, and (to speake my mind) I beleeve enlarges an ingeniose man's thoughts.

Shirburne castle, parke, mannor, etc., did belong (and still ought to belong) to the church of Sarum. 'Twas aliened in ... time (quaere bishop of Sarum) to ...; then ...; then Sir W. R. begged <it> as a bôn from queen Elizabeth: where he built a delicate lodge in the park, of brick, not big, but very convenient for the bignes, a place to retire from the Court in summer time, and to contemplate, etc. Upon his attainder, 'twas begged by the favorite Carr, earl of Somerset, who forfeited it (I thinke) about the poysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury. Then John, earl of Bristowe, had it given him for his good service in the ambassade in Spaine, and added two wings to Sir Walter Ralegh's lodge. In short and indeed 'tis a most sweet and pleasant place and site as any in the West, perhaps none like it.

<_His acquaintance._>

In his youth his companions were boysterous blades, but generally those that had witt; except otherwise uppon designe to gett them engaged for him,--e.g. Sir Charles Snell, of Kington Saint Michael in North Wilts, my good neighbour, an honest young gentleman but kept a perpetuall sott, he engaged him to build a ship (the Angel Gabriel) for the designe for Guiana, which cost him the mannor of Yatton-Keynell, the farme at Easton-Piers, Thornhill, and the church-lease of Bishops Cannings; which ship, upon Sir Walter Raleigh's attainder, was forfeited. No question he had other such young....

From Dr. John Pell:--In his youthfull time, was one Charles Chester, that often kept company with his acquaintance; he was a bold impertenent fellowe, and they could never be at quiet for him; a perpetuall talker, and made a noyse like a drumme in a roome. So one time at a taverne Sir W. R. beates him and seales up his mouth (i.e. his upper and neather beard) with hard wax. From him Ben Johnson takes his Carlo Buffono (i.e. 'jester') in _Every Man out of his Humour_.

[799]He was a second to the earle of Oxford in a duell. Was acquainted and accepted with all the hero's of our nation in his time.

Sir Walter Long, of Dracot (grandfather to this old Sir James Long) maried a daughter of Sir John Thynne, by which meanes, and their consimility of disposition, there was a very conjunct friendship between the two brothers (Sir Carew and Sir Walter) and him; and old John Long, who then wayted on Sir W. Long, being one time in the Privy-Garden with his master, saw the earle of Nottingham wipe the dust from Sir Walter R.'s shoes with his cloake, in compliment.

<_Portraits of him._>

In the great parlour at Downton, at Mr. Ralegh's, is a good piece (an originall) of Sir W. in a white sattin doublet, all embrodered with rich pearles, and a mighty rich chaine of great pearles about his neck, and the old servants have told me that the pearles were neer as big as the painted ones.

He had a most remarkeable aspect, an exceeding[800] high forehead, long-faced, and sour eie-lidded, a kind of pigge-eie.

* * * * *

N.B.--At ... an obscure taverne, in Drury-lane (a bayliff's), is a good picture of this worthy, and also of others of his time; taken upon some execution (I suppose) formerly.

<_Miscellaneous anecdotes._>

[801]I have heard old major Cosh say that Sir W. Raleigh did not care to goe on the Thames in a wherry boate: he would rather goe round about over London bridg.

[802]My old friend James Harrington, esq. [Oceana] was well acquainted with Sir Benjamin Ruddyer, who was an acquaintance of Sir Walter Ralegh's. He told Mr. J. H. that Sir Walter Ralegh being invited to dinner to some great person where his son was to goe with him, he sayd to his son 'Thou art expected to-day at dinner to goe along with me, but thou art such a quarrelsome[803], affronting ...[804], that I am ashamed to have such a beare in my company.' Mr. Walter humbled himselfe to his father, and promised he would behave himselfe mighty mannerly. So away they went (and Sir Benjamin, I think, with them). He sate next to his father and was very demure at least halfe dinner time. Then sayd he, 'I, this morning, not having the feare of God before my eies but by the instigation of the devill, went[805]....' Sir Walter being strangely surprized and putt out of his countenance at so great a table, gives his son a damned blow over the face. His son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes over the face the gentleman that sate next to him and sayd 'Box about: 'twill come to my father anon.' 'Tis now a common-used proverb.

[806]He loved[807] ... one of the mayds of honor[LXXI.].... She proved with child and I doubt not but this hero tooke care of them both, as also that the product was more then an ordinary mortall[808].

[LXXI.] Quaere J. Ball, who? 'Twas his first lady.

[809]'Twas Sir Walter Ralegh's epigram on Robert Cecil, earle of Salisbury, who died in a ditch 3 or 4 miles west from Marleborough, returning from Bathe to London, which was printed in an 8vo booke about 1656 (perhaps one of Mr. Osborne's):--

Here lies Robert, our shepherd whilere,
Who once in a quarter our fleeces did sheer:
For his oblation to Pan his manner was thus,
He first gave a trifle, then offred up us.
* * * * *
In spight of the tarbox he dyed of the shabbo.

--This I had from old Sir Thomas Malett, one of the Judges of the King's Bench, who knew Sir Walter Ralegh, and did remember these passages.

<_Raleigh in James I's reign._>

[810]I have now forgott (vide History) whether Sir Walter was not for the putting of Mary, queen of Scotts, to death; I thinke, yea. But, besides that, at a consultation at Whitehall, after queen Elizabeth's death, how matters[811] were to be ordered and what ought to be donne, Sir Walter Raleigh declared his opinion, 'twas the wisest way for them to keep the government[812] in their owne hands, and sett up a commonwealth, and not be subject to a needy beggerly nation. It seemes there were some of this caball[813] who kept not this so secret but that it came to king James's eare; who at ... (vide _Chronicle_) where the English noblesse mett and recieved him, being told upon their presentment to his majesty their names, when Sir Walter Raleigh's name was told ('Ralegh') said the king 'On my soule, mon, I have heard _rawly_ of thee.'--He was such a person (every way) that (as King Charles I sayes of the lord Strafford) a prince would rather be afrayd of then ashamed of. He had that awfulnes and ascendency in his aspect over other mortalls, that the king....

It was a most stately sight, the glory of that reception of his majesty, where the nobility and gentry were in exceeding rich equippage, having enjoyed a long peace under the most excellent of queens; and the company[814] was so exceeding numerous that their obedience[815] carried a secret dread with it. King James did not inwardly like it, and with an inward envy sayd that, though so and so (as before), he doubted not but he should have been able on his owne strength (should the English have kept him out) been able to have dealt with them, and get his right. [LXXII.]Sayd Sir Walter Raleigh to him, 'Would to God that had been put to the tryall.' 'Why doe you wish that?' sayd the king.--'Because,' said Sir Walter, 'that then you would have knowne your friends from your foes.' But that reason of Sir Walter was never forgotten nor forgiven.

[LXXII.] From Dr. Whistler.

[816]He was _praefectus_ ( ...[817]) of Jarsey (Caesaria).

[818]Old major[LXXIII.] Stansby of ..., Hants, a most intimate friend and neighbour and coetanean of the late earle of Southampton (Lord Treasurer), told me from his friend, the earle, that as to the plott and businesse (vide _Chronicle_) about the lord Cobham, etc., he being then governor of Jersey[819], would not fully, or etc., doe things unles[820] they would goe to his island and there advise and resolve about it; and that really and indeed Sir Walter's purpose was when he had them there, to have betrayed them and the plott, and to have then delivered-up to the king and made his peace.

[LXXIII.] Quaere Sir R. Henley, if not colonel.

As for his noble design in Guiana, vide the printed bookes. Vide a Latin voyage which John, lord Vaughan, showed me, where is mention of captaine North (brother to the lord North) who went with Sir Walter, where is a large account of these matters. Mr. Edmund Wyld knew him[821] and sayes he was a learned and sober gentleman and good mathematician, but if you happened to speake of Guiana he would be strangely passionate and say 'twas 'the blessedst countrey under the sun,' etc., reflecting on the spoyling that brave designe.

[822]Vide de illo in Capt. North, pag.[823] 18 b.

[824]When he was attached by the officer about the businesse which cost him his head, he was carryed in a whery[825], I thinke only with two men. King James was wont to say that he was a coward to be so taken and conveyed, for els he might easily have made his escape from so slight a guard.

<_His imprisonment, death, and burial._>

He was prisoner in the Tower ... (quaere) yeares; quaere where his lodgeings were?

He there (besides his compiling his _History of the World_) studyed chymistry. The earle of Northumberland was prisoner at the same time, who was the patrone to Mr. ... Harriot and Mr. Warner, two of the best mathematicians then in the world, as also Mr. Hues (<who wrote> _de Globis_). Serjeant Hoskins (the poet) was a prisoner there too.

I heard my cosen Whitney say that he saw him in the Tower. He had a velvet cap laced, and a rich gowne, and trunke hose.

[826]He was scandalizd with atheisme; but he was a bold man, and would venture at discourse which was unpleasant to the church-men. I remember <the> first lord[827] Scudamour sayd ''twas basely sayd of Sir W. R., to talke of _the anagramme of Dog_.' In his speech on the scaffold, I heard my cosen Whitney say (and I thinke 'tis printed) that he spake not one word of Christ, but of the great and incomprehensible God, with much zeale and adoration, so that he concluded he was an a-christ, not an atheist.

He tooke[LXXIV.] a pipe of tobacco a little before he went to the scaffold, which some formall persons were scandalized at, but I thinke 'twas well and properly donne, to settle his spirits.

[LXXIV.] <recorded by> J. Stowe, I thinke.

I remember I heard old father ... Symonds (è Societate Jesu) say, that ..., a father, was at his execution[828], and that to his knowledge he dyed with a lye in his mouth: I have now forgott what 'twas. The time of his execution was contrived to be on my Lord Mayer's day (viz. the day after St. Simon and Jude) 1618, that the pageants and fine shewes might drawe away[829] the people from beholding the tragoedie of one of the gallants worthies that ever England bred. Buryed privately under the high alter at St. Margaret's church, in Westminster, on ... (vide Register); in which grave (or neer) lies James Harrington, esq., author of _Oceana_.

Mr. Elias Ashmole told me that his son Carew Ralegh told him he had his father's skull; that some yeares since, upon digging-up the grave, his skull and neck-bone being viewed, they found the bone[830] of his neck lapped over so, that he could not have been hanged. Quaere Sir John Elowys for the skull, who married Mr. Carew Ralegh's daughter and heire.

[831]Sir W. Raleigh--Baker's _Chronicle_, p. 441--'A scaffold was erected in the Old Palace Yard, upon which, after 14 yeares reprivement, his head was cutt off. At which time such abundance of bloud issued from his veines that shewed he had stock of nature enough left to have continued him many yeares in life though now above 3-score yeares old, if it had not been taken away by the hand of violence. And this was the end of the great Sir Walter Raleigh, great sometimes in the favour of queen Elizabeth, and (next to Sir Francis Drake) the great scourge and hate of the Spaniard; who had many things to be commended in his life, but none more than his constancy at his death, which he tooke with so undaunted a resolution that one might percieve he had a certain expectation of a better life after it, so far he was from holding those atheisticall opinions, an aspersion whereof some had cast upon him.'

[832]In the register of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in the moneth of October, Sir Walter Raleigh is entred, and is the last of that moneth, but no dayes of the moneth are sett downe, so that he being beheaded on the Lord Mayer's day, was buryed the.... He was buryed as soon as you are removed from the top of the steps towards the altar, not under the altar.--from Elias Ashmole, esq.

_On Sir Walter Rawleigh._

Here lieth, hidden in this pitt,
The wonder of the world for witt.
It to small purpose did him serve;
His witt could not his life preserve.
Hee living was belov'd of none,
Yet in his death all did him moane[LXXV.].
Heaven hath his soule, the world his fame,
The grave his corps, Stukley his shame.

[LXXV.] Horat. ep. 1, lib. 2:--Extinctus amabitur _idem_.

This I found among the papers of my honoured friend and neighbour Thomas Tyndale, esq., obiit ... 167-, aet. 85. This Stukely was....

<_His writings._>

[833]At the end of the _History of the World_ (vide last folio, _Hist. World_), he laments the death of the most noble and most hopefull prince Henry,[834] whose great favourite he was, and who, had he survived his father, would quickly have enlarged him, with rewards of honour. So upon the prince's death ends his first part of his _History of the World_, with a gallant eulogie of him, and concludes[835], _Versa est in luctum cithara mea; et cantus[836] meus in vocem flentium_.

He had[LXXVI.] an apparatus for the second part, which he, in discontent, burn't, and sayd, 'If I am not worthy of the world, the world is not worthy of my workes.'

[LXXVI.] From his grand-nephews my school-fellowes.

[837]His booke sold very slowly at first, and the bookeseller complayned of it, and told him that he should be a looser by it, which put Sir W. into a passion; and sayd that since the world did not understand it, they should not have his second part, which he tooke and threw into the fire, and burnt before his face.

Mr. Elias Ashmole saies that Degore Whear in his _Praelectiones Hyemales_ gives him an admirable encomium, and preferres him before all other historians.

[838]Verses W. R. before Spencer's F. Queen.

[839]He was somtimes a poet, not often[840].--Before Spencer's Faery Q. is a good copie of verses, which begins thus:--

Methinkes I see the grave wher Laura lay;

at the bottome W. R.: which, 36 yeares since, I was told were his.

[841]_Scripsit._

A dialogue between a Privy Councellor and a Justice of Peace.

The father's advice to his son.

Historie of the World.

Maximes of State.

History of William the Conqueror--Thomas Gale hath it.

Edmund Wyld, esq., hath his[842] (a manuscript) ☞ 'A tryall of oares and indications of metalls and mines.'

[843]E<dmund> W<yld>, esq., hath his MSS. of mines and trialls of mineralls--quod vide.

Vide Mr. Coniers[LXXVII.], apothecary, for Sir Walter Raleigh's examination (the originall).

[LXXVII.] 'Take a catalogue of the MSS. of Mr. Conyers, apothecary, at the White Lyon in Fleet Street.'--Memo. in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.

<_His friends._>

[844]His intimate acquaintance and friends were:--

...[845], earle of Oxford.
Sir Francis Vere.
Sir Horatio Vere.
Sir Francis Drake.
Nicholas Hill.
<Thomas> Cavendish.
Mr. Thomas Hariot.
Sir Walter Long, of Dracot in Wilts.
Cavaliero Surff,
etc.
Ben: Johnson.

When Serjeant Hoskyns was a prisoner in the Tower, he was Sir Walter's Aristarchus.

<_Copy of a letter by him._>

[846]A copie[LXXVIII.] of Sir W. Ralegh's letter, sent to Mr. Duke, in Devon, writt with his owne hand.

[LXXVIII.] I thinke I sent the originall to Anthony Wood.

MR. DUKE,

I wrote to Mr. Prideaux to move you for the purchase of Hayes[LXXIX.], a farme sometime in my father's possession. I will most willingly give whatsoever in your conscience you shall deeme it worth, and if at any time you shall have occasion to use me, you shall find me a thankefull friend to you and yours. I am resolved, if I cannot entreat you, to build at Colliton; but for the naturall disposition I have to that place, being borne in that house, I had rather seate myselfe there then any where els; I take my leave, readie to countervaile all your courtesies to the utter of my power.

_Court, the xxvi
of July, 1584._

Your very willing friend,
In all I shall be able,
WALTER RALEGH.

[LXXIX.] ☞ Hayes is in the parish of East Budleigh. He was not buryed at Exeter by his father and mother, nor at Shirburne in Dorset; at either of which places he desired his wife (in his letter the night before he dyed) to be interred. His father had 80 yeares in this farme of Hayes, and wrote 'esquier.'

<_Addenda._>

<_His last lines._>

[847]Even such is tyme, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joyes, and all we have,
And payes us but with age and dust.
Within the darke and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our wayes,
Shutts up the story of our dayes.
But from which grave and earth and dust
The Lord will rayse me up I trust.

These lines Sir Walter Ralegh wrote in his Bible, the night before he was beheaded, and desir'd his relations with these words, viz. 'Beg my dead body, which living is denyed you; and bury it either in Sherburne or Exeter church.'

<_His burial-place._>

[848]The bishop of Sarum <Seth Ward> saieth that Sir Walter Raleigh lyes interred in St. Marie's church at Exon, not the cathedral: but knowes not if any inscription or monument be for him.

[849]<James Harrington> lyes buried in the chancell of St. Margarite's church at Westminster, the next grave to the illustrious Sir Walter Raleigh, under the south side of the altar where the priest stands.

Sir Walter Raleigh hath neither stone nor inscription. Mr. Ashmole was the first told me of Sir Walter Raleigh. His son[850] was buryed since the king's restauration in his father's grave.

<_MS. account of his trial._>

[851]I am promised the _very originall_ examination of Sir Walter Ralegh, in the Tower, by Lord Chancellor Bacon, George Abbot (archbishop of Canterbury), and Sir Edward Coke, under their owne hands, to insert in my booke.

<_His 'History of the World.'_>

[852]An attorney's father (that did my businesse in Herefordshire, before I sold it[853]) maryed Dr. <Robert> Burhill's widdowe. She sayd that he <Burhill> was a great favourite of Sir Walter Ralegh's (and, I thinke, had been his chaplayne): but all or the greatest part of the drudgery of his booke, for criticismes, chronology, and reading of Greeke and Hebrew authors, was performed by him for Sir Walter Ralegh, whose picture my friend haz as part of the Doctor's goods.

=Walter Raleigh=, son of Sir Walter (1593-1617).

[854]Sir Walter Ralegh's eldest son, Walter, by his first wife, was killed in America, as you may find in the _Historie of the World_, which see.

My cosen Whitney[855] was coetanean with this Walter Ralegh at Oxon. I have now forgot of what house he was of[856]: but I remember he told me that he was a handsome lusty stout fellow, very bold, and apt to affront. Spake Latin very fluently; and was a notable disputent and courser, and would never be out of countenance nor baffeled; fight[857] lustily; and, one time of coursing, putt a turd in the box, and besmeared[858] it about his antagonist's face.

=Walter Raleigh=, grandson of Sir Walter (16---1663).

[859]Sir Walter Ralegh, _m._ ...
|
Carew Ralegh, _m._ ... lady Ashley[860]; but he had a
of ... in com. | former wife: but by which wife he had
Surrey, esq. | the issue Mr. Thomas Mariet knowes not.
|
Sir Walter Raleigh.
|
+---------------+--------+----------------------+
| | |
1. ..., _m._ ... Wilks. 2. ..., _m._ Sir John 3. ..., _m._ John Knight of
Elowys. Barwick Green
in Warwickshire.

He was knighted[861] by king Charles II at the same time when Sir Thomas Overbury was, and some wished that they might both have better fortunes than the other Sir Walter Ralegh and the other Sir Thomas Overbury. So you see Sir John Elowys married a daughter and co-heire of Sir Walter Raleigh.

=... Ralphson= (---- -1683/4).

[862]Mr. ... Ralphson, a nonconformist, was buried in London at ..., March 14th, 1683/4; above a 1000 persons were at his funerall.

_Note._

FOOTNOTES:

This note is referred to by Anthony Wood in Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, iii. 91. Wood gave Aubrey several commissions to make inquiries about non-conformists, as is seen in the following notes:--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6--'Nonconformists: vide Mr. Collins neer Grub Street and <Francis> Smyth the bookeseller.' MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7--'Vide Mr. Collins a nonconformist in an alley by Grub Street towards Finsbery at a sadler's; quaere de Anthony Wood's note of nonconformists which was sent[863] to Thankfull Owen': here Wood adds 'I desire without any delay to get this paper.'

=Thomas Randolph= (1605-1634/5).

[864]Thomas Randolph, the poet, Cambr.[865]:--I have sent to A. à Wood his nativity[866] etc., which I had from his brother John, an attorney (who lives at ...), viz. Thomas Randolph was the eldest son of William Randolph by his wife Elizabeth Smyth; he was borne at Newnham neer Daintre in Northamptonshire, June the fifteenth, 1605.

At the age of nine yeares, he wrot the history of our Saviour's incarnation in English verse, which his brother John haz to shew under his owne handwriting--never printed, kept as a rarity.

From Mr. Needler:--his haire was of a very light flaxen, almost white (like J. Scroope's). It was flaggy, as by his picture before his booke appeares. He was of a pale ill complexion and pock-pitten--from Mr. Thomas Fludd, his scholefellow at Westminster, who sayes he was of about my stature or scarce so tall[867].

His father was steward to Sir George Goring in Sussex. He had been very wild in his youth; and his father (i.e. grandfather to Thomas Randolph) left him but a groat or 3_d._ in his will, which when he recieved he nailed to the post of the dore--vide + A. W. lres[868]. His father was a surveyor of land, i.e. a land measurer.

Anno Domini <1623> he was elected to Trinity College in Cambridge.

Anno ... he rencountred captain Stafford[869] (an ingeniose gent. and the chiefe of his family, and out of which the great duke of Bucks brancht) on the roade.... He gave him a pension of I thinke C_ˡⁱ_. per annum, and he was tutor to his son and heir.

He was very _praecocis ingenii_, and had he lived but a little longer had been _famae suae superstes_.

He writt (as before mentioned) the history of our Saviour's incarnation (at 9 yeers old).

Aristippus, and the Joviall Pedler, 2 shewes, quarto, printed at London by....

Cornelianum dolium, a comoedie in Latin, 8vo, ἀνονυμῶς[870].

The Jealous Lovers, a comedie: printed.

His Poems, with The Muses Looking-glas, and Amyntas, printed at Oxon by Francis Bowman, 16--, in 4to; after, 16--, by him again in 8vo.

The epitaph on William Laurence in Westminster cloysters[871]--

[Dr. Busby, schoolmaster of Westminster, was Tom Randolph's schoolfellow and coetanean, and sayth that he made these verses--'tis his vaine:--

With diligence and trust[872] most exemplary
Did William Laurence serve a prebendary[873],
And[874] for his paines, now past before, not lost,
Gain'd this remembrance at his master's cost.
--O read those lines[875] againe: you seldome[876] find
A servant faithfull and a master kind.
Short-hand[877] he wrote; his flowre in youth did fade:
And hasty death short hand of him hath made.
Well couth he numbers and well[878] measur'd land,
Thus doth he now that ground wheron you stand
Wherein he lies; so geometricall
Art maketh some, but thus will nature all.

Obiit Dec. 28, 1621,
aetatis suae 29.]

He dyed in the twenty-eighth yeare of his age at Mr. <William> Stafford's, Blatherwyck, aforesayd; was there buryed March 17, 1634, in the aisle of that church among that noble family.

Sir Christopher, lord Hatton, erected to his memorie a monument of white marble--quaere his epitaph; I thinke A<nthony> W<ood> haz it.

I sent to A. Wood his brother's letter to me from whence I had most of this, and also his epitaph which my lord Hatton gott Mr. H.[879] rector of Hadham in Essex[880] to make, but it is puerile.

=Eleanor Ratcliffe=, Countess of Sussex (16---1666).

[881]Countesse of Sussex[882]: a great and sad example of the power of lust and slavery of it. She was as great a bea<u>tie as any in England and had a good witt. After her lord's death (he was jealous) she sends for ... (formerly) her footman, and makes him groom of the chamber. He had the pox and shee knew it; a damnable sot. He waz not very handsom, but his body of an exquisit shape (_hinc sagittae_). His nostrills were stufft and borne out with corkes in which were quills to breath through. About 1666 this countess dyed of the pox.

=Robert Record= (1510?-1558).

[883]Robert Record, M.D.--his life is in lib. 2, p. 174 of[884] _Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxon._, among the writers of All Soules College[885].

He was the first that wrote a good arithmetical treatise in English, which hath been printed a great many times, viz. his 'Arithmetick, containing the ground of arts in which is taught the general parts rules and operations of the same in whole numbers and fractions after a more easie and exact methode then ever heretofore, first written by Robert Record, Dr. in Phisick,' printed....

It was dedicated 'to the most mighty prince Edward the 6th by the grace of God king of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, etc.' In the end of which epistle:--

'how some of these statutes may be applied to use as well in our time as in any other time I have particularly declared in this book and some other I have omitted for just considerations till I may offer them first unto your majestie to weigh them as to your highness shall seem good. For many things in them are not to be published without your highness knowledge and approbation, namely because in them is declared all the rates of all oyles, for all standards from an ounce upwards, with other mysteries of mint-matters, and also most part of the varieties of coines that have been current in this realme by the space of 600 yeares last past, and many of them were currant in the time that the Romans ruled here. All which with the ancient description of England and Ireland, and my simple censure of the same, I have almost compleated to be exhibited to your highnesse.'--

Quaere if ever published?

'To the reader:--It shall induce me to set forth those further instructions concerning geometric and cosmography which I have already promised and am sure hath not hitherto in our English tongue been published.'--

Quaere of these.

The Whetstone of Witt, which is the second part of Arithmetick, containing the extraction of rootes, the cossicke practice, with the rule of equation and the workes of surd nombers. Quarto; dedicated 'to the right worshipfull the governors, consulles, and the rest of the company of venturers into Muscovia.' Here he speakes:--'For your commodities I will shortly set forthe suche a book of navigation'--quaere de hoc libro--'as I dare saie shall partly satisfy and contente not onely your expectation but also the desire of a great nomber beside. Wherein I will not forget specialy to touche bothe the old attempte for the northerly navigations and the late good adventure with the fortunate successe in discovering that voyage which no man before you durst attempt sith the time of king Alfred his reigne, I meane by the space of 700 yere, nother ever any before that time had passed that voiage except onely Ohthere that dwelt in Halgolande who reported that jorney to the noble king Alurede, as it doeth yet remain in auncient recorde of the old Saxon tongue.--In that book also I will show certain meanes how without great difficultie you may saile to the North-east Indies and so to Camul Chinchital and Balor which be countries of great commodities; as for Chatai lieth so far within the land toward the South Indian seas that the journey is not to be attempted untill you be better acquainted with those countries that you must first arrive at.--At London the xii day of November 1557.'

Preface:--'by occasion of trouble upon trouble I was hindered from accomplishing this work as I did intend.'

In the last leafe of this booke he is frighted by the hasty knocking of a messenger at the dore and sayes--'then is there no remedie but that I must neglect all studies and teaching for to withstand these dangers. My fortune is not so good to have quiet time to teache.'

The Castle of Knowledge, printed at London, 1596, quarto[886], and is dedicated 'to the most mightie and most puissant princesse, Marie, by the grace of God, Queen of England, Spaine, both Sicilies, France, Jerusalem, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Archduchesse of Austria, Duchesse of Milaine, Burgundie, and Brabant, Countesse of Haspurge, Flanders, Tyroll, etc.'

He was the first that ever writ of astronomie in the English tongue.

In an admonition for orderly studying of the author's workes before this booke there is an intimation in verse that he wrote these five bookes, scilicet, (1) The Ground of Arts, (2) the Pathway to Knowledge, (3) the Gate of Knowledge, (4) the Castle of Knowledge, (5) the Treasury of Knowledge.

All that I have seen of his are written in dialogues between the master and scholar.

[887]Can you[888] enforme me where Dr. Record lies buried? Me thinks Mr. Stow should mention him.

=John David Rhees= (1534-1609).

[889]Johannes David Rhesus, M.D.:--he wrote a compendium of Aristotle's Metaphysiques in the British language, mentioned in his epistle to Sir <Edward> Stradling before his Welsh Grammar. 'Twas in Jesus College library, Oxon, and my cosen Henry Vaughan (_Olor Iscanus_) had it in his custody. Dr. Rhees averres[890] there that the British language is as copious in expressing congruous termes of art as the Greeke or any language whatsoever. I have sent to Henry Vaughan for it.

[891]I have not yet heard from my cosen Henry Vaughan ('Olor Iscanus') concerning your queres[892] of Dr. David Rhese the physitian, which I wonder at.

=John Rider= (1562-1632).

[893]Memorandum--Rider is a Berks family, portant 'party per chevron argent and sable 3 crescents counter-chang'd.' Quaere if bishop <John> Rider, the author of the Dictionary, was a Berkshire man.

=George Ripley= (14-- -1490?).

[894]George Ripley was a canon of Burlington, the greatest chymist of his time. Mr. Elias Ashmole has the draught of his monument there.

Mr. Meredith Lloyd (an able chymist, and who informed his majestie and Sir Robert Moray herin) hath a MS. in 8vo, 3 inches thick, transcribed by T. P. 1580, viz.:--Medulla Philosophiae, in English; item, Ripley's XII Gates, in English verse (more full then in Mr. Ashmole's _Theatrum Chymicum_)--'Geo. Ripley finivit opus, anno 1471'--with the astronomicall tables comprehending the secret of the booke.

Item, Mr. Meredith Lloyd haz here in this collection another MSS. of Chymistry ἀνονυμῶς.

Item, another MS. of Birford, a monk of Ford.

Item, The Mirror of Light[895], another MS.

Item, another of an ἀνόνυμος[896], on the same subject.

The Ordinall of Alchymy, by Norton, MS.

Item, de Mercurio et lapide philosophorum, MS.

In this volumne is also bound-up Ripley's Ars chymica quod sit licita recte exercentibus.

Item, Mercurii Trismagisti 7 tractat.

Item, ejusdem, Tabulae Smaragdinae.

Studium concilii conjugii de massa Solis et Lunae, impress. Argentorati, 1566.

I have not had leisure to peruse this rare treasure enough[897]; but I remember Ripley trounces the monkes of Westminster for cheating the citizens of London, promising them making of gold.

=... Robartes.=

[898]_Concerning Furzecutters._--Brianston by Blandford in Dorset was, tempore Henr. 8, belonging to (Sir John, I thinke) Rocklington. He had a faire estate, and no child; and there was a poor cottager whose name was Rogers that had a pretty wife whom this knight did visit and had a mind to have a child by her. As he did suppose, he afterwards had; and in consideration of affection, etc., settled his whole estate on this young Rogers. William, lord marquesse Hartford (duke of Somerset), was son of the grand-daughter of this Rogers.

This present lord Roberts of Truro (now earl of Radnor) his grandfather (or great-grandfather) was a furze-cutter at ... in Cornwall--which I have heard old parson Wodenot of Linkenhorne in Cornwall say many times.

=... Robson.=

[899]Mr. <Fabian> Philips also[900] tells me that ... Robson was the first that brought into England the art of making Venice glasses, but Sir Edward Zouche (a courtier and drolling favourite of King James) oppressed this poor man Robson, and forc't it from him, by these 4 verses to King James, which made his majestie laugh so that he was ready to bes-- his briggs. The verses are these:--

Severn, Humber, Trent, and Thames,
And thy great Ocean and her streames
Must putt downe Robson and his fires
Or downe goes Zouche and his desires.

The king granted this ingeniose manufacture to Zouch, being tickled as aforesayd with these rythmes; and so poor Robson was oppressed and utterly undon, and came to that low degree of poverty that Mr. Philips told me that he swept the yard at Whitehall and that he himselfe sawe him doe it.

Sir Robert Mansell had the glasse-worke afterwards, and employed Mr. James Howell (author of _The Vocall Forest_) at Venice as a factor to furnish him with materialls for his worke.

=Henry Rolle= (1589-1656).

[901]I remember, about 1646 (or 1647) that Mr. John Maynard (now Sir John, and serjeant), came into Middle Temple hall, from Westminster-hall, weary with business, and hungry, when we had newly dined. He sate downe by Mr. Bennet Hoskyns (the only son of serjeant Hoskyns the poet), since baronet, and some others; who having made an end of their commons, fell unto various discourse, and what was the meaning of the text (Rom. 5. 7) 'For a just man one would dare to die; but for a good man one would willingly die.' They askt Mr. Maynard what was the difference between a just man and a good man. He was beginning to eate, and cryd:--'Hoh! you have eaten your dinners, and now have leasure to discourse; I have not.' He had eate but a bitt or two when he reply'd:--'I'le tell you the difference presently: serjeant Rolle is _a just man_, and Matthew Hale is _a good man_'; and so fell to make an end of his dinner. And there could not be a better[902] interpretation of this text. For serjeant Rolle was just, but by nature penurious; and his wife made him worse: Matthew Hale was not only just, but wonderfully charitable and open handed, and did not sound a trumpet neither, as the hypocrites doe.

=Laurence Rooke= (1623-1662).

[903]Laurence Rooke, borne at ... in Kent, was of <King's> Colledge in Cambridge, a good mathematician and a very good man, an intimate friend of Dr. Seth Ward (now lord bishop of Sarum).

I heard him reade at Gresham College on the sixth chapter of _Clavis Mathematica_, an excellent lecture: quaere for his papers which the bishop of Sarum haz.

He was a temperate man and of strong constitution, but tooke his sicknesse of which he dyed by setting up often for astronomicall observations. He lyes buried in the church of St. Bennet Finke in London, neer the Old Exchange.

His deare friend the bishop (then of Exon) gave to the Royall Societie a very faire pendulum clock, dedicated to Mr. Rooke's memory, with this inscription[904]:--

Societati Regali ad scientiam naturalem
promovendam institutae
dono dedit
Reverendus in Christo pater, Sethus, episcopus
Exon, ejusdem societatis sodalis
in memoriam
Laurentii Rook
viri omni literarum genere instructissimi
in Collegio Greshamensi primum Astronomiae
deinde Geometriae professoris
dictaeque societatis nuper sodalis,
qui obiit Jun. 26, 1662.

Seth <Ward>, now lord bishop of Salisbury, hath all Mr. Rooke's papers: quod N.B.

[905]M.S.

Hic subtus sive dormit sive contemplatur
Qui jamdudum animo metitus est
Quicquid aut vita aut mors habet
V.C. Laurentius Rooke e Cantio oriundus
In Collegio Greshamensi
Astronomiae primo, dein Geometriae professor,
Utriusque ornamentum et spes maxima,
Quem altissima indoles, artesque omnifariae,
Mores pellucidi, et ad amussim probi,
Consuetudo facilis et accommoda,
Bonis doctisque omnibus fecere commendatissimum:
Vir totus teres et sui plenus
Cui virtus et pietas et summa ratio
Desideria metusque omnes sub pedibus dabant.
Ne se penitus saeculo subducere mortuus possit
Qui iniquissima modestia vixerat
Sethus Ward episcopus Exon
Sodalis et symmystae desideratissimi
Longas suavesque amicitias
Hoc saxo prosecutus est.

Obiit Junii XXVII, A.D. MDCLXII, aetat. XL.
M.S.

This inscription was never set up; made, I thinke, by Ralph Bathurst; quaere Mr. Abraham Hill.

_Note._

FOOTNOTES:

In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 117, attached to the notice of William Camden, are pp. 17-24 of Lewis du Moulin's Latin orations, 1652. On p. 18 of this, Aubrey writes: 'I found this fragment amongst the papers of Mr. Laurence Rooke in bishop Seth Ward's study after his death.' Page 19 begins: 'Oratio in laudem ... Cambdeni,' July 10, 1652, beginning: 'Cum muneris ratio postulet.'

=Walter Rumsey= (1584-1660).

[906]Judge Rumsey: vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._

Walter Rumsey, of Lanover, in com. Monmouth, esquier (borne there), was of <Gloucester Hall> in Oxon; afterwards of the society of Graye's Inne, where he was a bencher.

He was one of the judges in South Wales, viz. Caermarthen, Pembrokeshire, and Cardigan circuit. He was so excellent a lawyer, that he was called _The Picklock of the Lawe_.

He was an ingeniose man, and had a philosophicall head; he was most curious for graffing, inoculating, and planting, and ponds. If he had any old dead plumbe-tree, or apple-tree, he lett them stand, and planted vines at the bottome, and lett them climbe up, and they would beare very well.

He was one of my councell in my law-suites in Breconshire about the entaile. He had a kindnesse for me and invited me to his house, and told me a great many fine things, both naturall and antiquarian.

He was very facetious, and a good musitian, playd on the organ and lute. He could compose.

He was much troubled with flegme, and being so one winter at the court at Ludlowe (where he was one of the councesellours), sitting by the fire, spitting and spawling, he tooke a fine tender sprig, and tied[907] a ragge at the end, and conceited he might putt it downe his throate, and fetch-up the flegme, and he did so. Afterwards he made this instrument of whale-bone. I have oftentimes seen him use it. I could never make it goe downe my throat, but for those that can 'tis a most incomparable engine. If troubled with the wind it cures you _immediately_. It makes you vomit without any paine, and besides, the vomits of apothecaries have _aliquid veneni_ in them. He wrote a little 8vo booke, of this way of medicine, called _Organon Salutis_: London, printed for Daniel Pakeman, at the Rainebowe, in Fleet-street, 1659, scil. the second edition, dedicated to Henry <Pierrepont>, marquess of Dorchester. I had a young fellow (Marc Collins), that was my servant, that used it incomparably, more easily than the Judge; he made of them. In Wilts, among my things, are some of his making still. The Judge sayd he never sawe any one use it so dextrously in his life. It is no paine, when downe your throate; he would touch the bottome of his stomach with it. There is praefixt a letter from the Judge to Sir Henry Blount, knight; to which is annexed Sir Henry Blount's ingeniose answer.

=John Rushworth= (1607-1690).

[908]I was borne in Northumberland[909], but my parents were both born in the county of York. The title of the books I writ went by the name of _Historicall Collections_; except _The earle of Strafford's triall_, which I toke with my owne pen in characters at the time of his triall, which I have impartially published in folio. And I gave the first president of my method in writing and declaring onely matter of fact in order of time, without observation or reflection: but Dr. Nalson, a learned man, finds fault with me, but I leave it to posterity to judg.

I being neere of kin to Sir Thomas Fairfax, the parlament's generall, he made choice of me to be his secretary in the wars[910], by which means I am beter inabled to give account of military affairs, both in the first wars and in the second which hapened in the year 1648--all which I am now upon perfeting the same, but the times favors not the comeing of it forth.

There is an other thing which inables me the better to proceed with the work I am now upon, my privity to all debates and passages in the house of Commons: for that house made choice of me to be assistant at the table to Mr. Ellsing, clark of that parlament to the house of Commons, by which means I was privey to all circumstances in there procedings.

I might perticularly remonstrate more concernements of my owne, as being with the king Charles the first at the camp at Barwick, at the great councill at York, at Newborne[911] nere Newcastle upon the Scots invading of England, et cetera.

Both the houses of parlament had the confidence in me that they sent by me ther[912] addresses to the king after he left the parlament and went to Yorke. And it so fell out that I rode severall times, with that expedition betwen London and Yorke (being one hundred and fivetey miles) in 24 hours at a time.

Sir[913], pardon my boye's ignorance in writeing:

JO. RUSHWORTH[914].

Southwarke,
July 21, 1687.

Mr.[915] Rushworth tells me he is superannuated. He hath forgott to putt downe the name of the place where borne: as also that he was secretary to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, when Lord Keeper of the great seale, which was a considerable place.

[916]Yesterday I saw Mr. Rushworth: which was a great mortification. He hath quite lost his memory with drinking brandy. Remembred nothing of you, etc. His landlady wiped his nose like a child.

[917]John Rushworth, of Lincoln's Inne, esq., historian, died in the Rules Court Alley in Southwarke, at the widow Bayley's house, a good woman and who was very carefull and tendfull of him, on Monday the twelfth day of May 1690[918]; and was buried the Wednesday following behind the pulpit in St. George's church in Southwarke. He was about 83, onwards to 84. He had no son, but 3 or 4 daughters, virtuous woemen: one is maried to Sir Francis Vane of ... in the north. He had forgot his children before he died.

=Richard Sackville=, third earl of Dorset (1589-1624).

[919]Richard, earle of Dorset (eldest son[920] and heire to the Lord Treasurer): he lived in the greatest grandeur of any nobleman of his time in England. He had 30 gentlemen, and gave to each 50 _li._ per annum, besides keeping his horse. George Villiers (after, duke of Bucks) was a pe<ti>tioner to have had a gentleman's place under him, and miss't it, and within a 12 moneth was a greater man himselfe; but the duke ever after bore a grudge to the earl of Dorset.--from the countesse of Thanet[921].

=Richard Sackville=, fifth earl of Dorset (1622-1677).

[922]Richard Sackville[BB], earle of Dorset[923], father of this earle (Richard)--'twas he that translated[BC] _the Cid_, a French comoedie, into English, about 1640.

Obiit anno Domini 167<7>; sepult. with his ancestors at Knoll in Kent. He was a fellow of the Royall Societie. He maried <Frances> Cranfield, daughter of the earle of Middlesex, by whome he had severall sonnes and daughters.

His eldest sonne is Richard, earl of Dorset and Middlesex, a most noble lord and my most kind friend.

Obiit 16<77>.

_Notes._

FOOTNOTES:

[BB] This note is in MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 20ᵛ. Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'quarterly <or and gules> over all a bend vair [Sackville]; impaling, <or>, on a pale <azure>, 3 fleur de lys <of the field> [Cranfield],' surmounted by a coronet. The note contains some confusions, which may be cleared up. (_a_) MS. Aubr. 8 was written in 1681, 'this earl' is therefore Charles, 6th earl (succeeded 1677, died 1706); but Aubrey twice calls him _Richard_. (_b_) The translation of _the Cid_ appeared, part i in 1637, and part ii in 1640. It was executed by Joseph Rutter (tutor to Richard, 5th earl) at the command of Edward, 4th earl; and therefore the attribution of the translation should be to Edward, 4th earl, who died 1652.

[BC] In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 102ᵛ, Anthony Wood has written this note:--'In pag.[924] 10, 'tis said that Richard, earl of Dorset, translated into English a French comedy called _the Cid_, whereas both the parts of it were done by Joseph Rutter.' To which Aubrey answers: 'It was Sam Butler told me that my lord of Dorset translated it.'--In MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 9ᵛ, Aubrey writes: 'Sam. Butler (Hudebras) one time at the tavern sayd that 'twas _this_ earl of Dorset's father that translated the comoedie called _The Cid_, writt by Corneille. Me thinks he should not be mistaken; but the world is mighty apt to it, you see.'

=Thomas Sackville=, first earl of Dorset (1536-1608).

[925]Epigram on the earle of Dorset, who dyed suddenly at the council-boord.

Uncivil death! that would'st not once conferre,
Dispute, or parle with our treasurer,
Had he been thee, or of thy fatall tribe,
He would have spar'd thy life, and ta'ne a bribe.
He that so often had, with gold and witt,
Injur'd strong lawe, and almost conquer'd it,
At length, for want of evidence to shewe,
Was forc't himselfe to take a deadly blowe.

These verses I transcribed out of the collection of my honoured friend and neighbour, Thomas Tyndale, esq.

Memorandum:--the tryall was with this Sir Richard Temple's great grandfather[926]. The Lord Treasurer had in his bosome some writings, which as he was pulling-out to give in evidience, sayed '_Here is that will strike you dead!_' and as soon as he had spoken these words, fell downe starke dead in the place.--from Sir Richard Temple. (Memorandum:--an extraordinary perturbation of mind will bring an apoplexie: I know severall instances of it.)

'Twas this lord that gott Salisbury house _cum appurtenantiis_, juxta St. Bride's, in exchange for a piece of land, neer Cricklade in Wilts, I thinke called Marston, but the title was not good, nor did the value answer his promise.--from Seth, <bishop of> Sarum, who sayes that all the parish of St. Bride's belonged to the bishop of Sarum, as also all Shoe-lane.

_Note._

FOOTNOTES:

In an old common-place book, of date _circ._ 1612, in Lincoln College library, is found this version of the lines:--

Immodest death! that never wouldst confer,
Dispute, nor parlé, with our Treasurer,
Had he bene thou, or of thy fatall tribe,
He would have saved thy life and ta'ne a bribe.
He that so often, both with golde and witt,
Had injurde law, and almost conquerde it;
He that could strengthen causes, and was able
To starve a sutor at the Counsell-table;
At length, not having evidence to show,
Was faine, good lord, to take his death: 'twas so.

=Robert Sanderson= (1587-166[2/3]).

[927]Dr. Robert Sanderson[BD], lord bishop of Lincoln, would confesse to his intimate friends, that 'he studied and mastered only Tully's Offices[LXXX.], Tho. Aquinas's Secunda Secundae and Aristotle's Rhetorique, and that all other bookes he read but cursorily': but he had forgott, by his favour, to speake of Aristot. Organon, etc. (Logique bookes), els he could never have compiled his owne excellent Logique,--from Seth Ward, bishop of Sarum, and <John> Pierson, bishop of Chester, his great friends. And bishop Ward sayd that he[928] would doe the like were he to begin the world again.

[LXXX.] <Samuel> Harsenet, archbishop of Yorke, alwayes carried it in his bosome.

He was a lover of musique, and was wont to play on his base violl, and also to sing to it. He was a lover of heraldry, and gave it in chardge in his articles of enquiry; but the clergie-men made him such a lamentable imperfect returne that it signified nothing. The very Parliamentarians reverenced him for his learning and his vertue, so that he alwayes kept his living, quod N.B. (the information in the Oxon. Antiq.[BE] was false).

He had no great memorie, I am certaine not a sure one; when I was a fresh-man and heard him read his first lecture, he was out in the Lord's Prayer. He alwayes read his sermons and lectures. Had his memorie been greater his judgement had been lesse: they are like two well-bucketts.

In his Logique, he recommends disputation to young men, as the best exercise for young witts. Under his picture, before his booke, is 'Aetat. 76, 1662.'

_Notes._

FOOTNOTES:

[BD] Aubrey gives in trick the coat, as found under one of Sanderson's engraved portraits:--'See of Lincoln; impaling, paly of six argent and azure, a bend of the first, quartering, ermine, on a canton ..., a cross engrailed ...' a crescent for difference.

[BE] i.e. Anthony Wood's _Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon._ lib. ii. pag. 167, where Wood says 'his omnibus ... a Parliamento privatus est,' including, i.e., his rectory of Boothby-Pagnall. In the _Athenae_ Wood modified the statement, in accordance with what Aubrey says here.

=George Sandys= (1578-1643/4).

[929]In Boxley register thus:--'Georgius Sandys, poetarum Anglorum sui saeculi facile princeps, sepultus fuit Martii 7, stilo Anglicano, anno Domini 1643.'

I happened to speake with his niece, my lady Wyat, at whose howse, viz. at Boxley abbey, he dyed. She saies he told her a little before he dyed that he was about 63.

He lies buried in the chancel neer the dore on the south side, but without any remembrance or stone--which is pitty so sweet a swan should lye so ingloriously.

He had something in divinity ready for the presse, which my lady lost in the warres--the title of it shee does not remember.

=William Saunderson= (15---1676).

[930]<In> Westminster abby[931] north aisle, the very place where colonel ... Matthews his statue was erected by the Parliament, to whom by his will he left all his estate.--This monument is of alablaster, a bust, but no coate of armes.

M.S.
Guliel. Saundersoni, equit. aurati
Regiaeque camerae generos. ordinar.,
viri
à natalibus, ab eruditione, ab invicta sua erga principes
fide, a scriptis, a candore,
clari.
Scripsit inter alia inque lucem emisit vitarum Mariae
Scotorum reginae, Jacobi, et Caroli I historias
idiomate Anglicano.
Post varias clades sub nupera perduellium tyrannide
acceptas, post diuturnos labores domi peregreque fortiter
exantlatos, vitae hujus umbratilis satur, plus quam
nonagenarius, animi tamen integer, transit
ad meliorem,
Julii 15 anno Christianorum MDCLXXVI.
H.M.
Conjugi optime de se merito quicum L annos
concorditer vixerat Brigitta Edvardi Tyrelli
eq. aurat. filia, virginumque nobilium sereniss.
Catharinae reginae ancillantium (ut vocant) Mater
M.P.

[932]Sir W. Saunderson:--he did read and write to his dying day. Sir Christopher Wren said that as he wrote not well so he wrote not ill. He dyed at Whitehall (I was then there): went out like a spent candle--died before Dr. <William> Holder could come to him with the sacrament. Quaere his family and coat of arms.

=Sir Henry Savile= (1549-1621/2).

[933]Sir Henry Savill[BF], knight, was borne in Yorkshire (vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._).... He was a younger (or <son> of a younger) brother, not borne to a foot of land. He came to Merton Coll. Oxon. <1565>; made Warden there <1585>.

He was a learned gentleman, as most was of his time. He would faine have been thought (I have heard Mr. Hobbes say) to have been as great a scholar as Joseph Scaliger. But as for mathematiques, I have heard Dr. Wallis say that he look't on him to be as able a mathematician as any of his time. He was an extraordinary handsome and beautifull man; no lady had a finer complexion.