Affignat. per Tall. inde levat. a fefto Sancti Matthei Ap'i, de anno 43° Regina Elizabethe, ufque ad Feftum Pafchæ extunc fequent. per fpatium unius medietatis anni, prout in Rotulis Pellium ibidem manifeftè & plenius liquet."

"There is another valuable MS. in this library, intituled, "Notæ Ciceroniana," written fo early as 1120, and fill in good preservation; which Mr. Aftle, an excellent judge of thefe matters, thus defcribes : "This MS. contains the Nora Tironiane, fo called from Tiro, the freed-man of Cicero, who improved the art of Short-hand writing very confiderably. Thefe Note continued in ufe till the middle of the eleventh century. In the year 1747, the learned and ingenious Monf. Carpentier publifhed at Paris this Alphabetum Tironianum with a great number of notes or marks for different parts of fpeech, and rules for acquiring the art of writing in these kind of Notes. There is a Dictionary of them by Janus Gruterus. See many particulars concerning thefe Notæ in my Origin and Progrefs of Writing.' P. 173-176."

"Mr. Turvile poffeffes a finely illuminated pedigree of his ances tors; of whom a more particular account will be found under Normanton Turvile. Of the branch which fettled at Afton Flamvile, the genealogy will be found on the opposite page."

If the above be entitled to attention, what follows cannot poffibly be lefs fo.

"Biographical and Hiftorical Illuftrations of Langton.

"WALTER DE LANGTON, a native of Welt Langton, was appointed lord high treasurer of England, Sept. 28, 1295, and elected bishop of Lichfield and Coventry Feb. 20, 1295-6. He was a great favourite with king Edward I, in whofe caufe he fuffered excommunication, and whole corpfe he had afterwards the honour of conducting from the borders of Scotland to Westminster. He was fcarcely arrived in London, when he was imprifoned by the conftable of the Tower; and, notwithstanding the repeated application of the clergy to king Edward II. in his behalf, was fhifted about to Wallingford and York for two years before he was released, and his property reftored. His only crime, according to Walfingham, was his having remonftrated with Edward II. in his father's life-time for his imprudence and extravagance, which the prince refented by breaking down the bishop's park-fences. His father having for this confined him, Edward II. determined that he should feel confinement himself, and even in his father's life involved him in accufations to the pope, who, after proper inveftigation, acquitted him. It appears from archbishop Greenfield's regifter, 1311, that he was even charged with murder.

With his own innocence, and friends' aflistance," fays Fuller, "at long failing he weathered out the tempeft of the pope's difpleafure. Longer ftill did he groan under the undeferved anger of king Edward the Second, chiefly because this bishop tharply reproved him, when as yet but prince, for his debauchery. But our Langton at length was brought (faith my author) in regis femigratiam, into the king's half favour; let me add, & in populi fefquegratiam, and into the people's favour and half, who highly loved and honoured him. His tragi-comi

cal

eal life had a peaceable end in plenty and pofperity." On his difcharge, he retired to his fee, to which he was an efpecial benefactor. "He found his cathedral of Lichfield mean," adds Fuller," and left it magnificent; and it will appear by the inftance of our Langton and others, that bishops continuing unremoved in their fee have atchieved greater matters than thofe who have been often tranflated, though to richer bithopricks." Indeed, prodigious was his bounty in building and endowing his cathedral, wherein he continued almoft 25 years. He compaffed the cloifters with a stone wall, and bestowed a rich fhrine upon St. Chad, which coft him £2000. He alfo ditched and walled that enclosure about the cathedral, now called The Clofe; erected two ftately gates at the Weft and South fides of it; and joined it to the city by the bridges that he built there in 1310. He bestowed large fums of money in buying plate, jewels, copes, and veftments, for the church; and obtained many privileges and immunities thereto. He alfo built a new palace at the Eat end of the Clofe in Lichfield; and repaired his cattle at Ecclefhall, his palace by the Strand in London, and his manor-houfe of Shutborough, co. Stafford. He died Nov. 16, 1321, and was buried in the chapel of St. Mary, a stately and coftly building of his own erecting. His figure there, made of Derbyshire marble, much injured by time and the civil war, is habited in pontificalibus, with his gloves on, and a jewel on his breaft; his left hand holding atrofier, his right in a potture of benediction. At his head is a pediment; and on each fide an angel cenfing him. In the fpandrils of the gateway belonging to the Chorifters house in the Clofe of Lichfield was placed the rebus of this bishop, a tun pierced by a lance.

"JOHN DE LANGTON, a native of Welt Langton, was brought up at Oxford, and became a Carmelite frier in London. He is ftyled by Bale" bachalarius ordinis Carmel ;" and Tanner fays, "fcholas frequentavit, & inter fupremos theologos meritò commemoratus eft." This John Langton (when William Courtney archbishop of Canterbury, and divers other prelates, affembled with king Richard II. at Stanford in 1392, condemned the .herefies of Henry Crump, a Ciftertian monk of Ireland) was prefent there, and, noting all that done, was collected a book of fpeeches on that occafion" fingula audacter inferuit & fcripfit in teftimonium talium errorum ;" and another of the arguments and anfwers which the faid Crump made use of to defend himself. One of thefe is called "De examinatione Doctoris Henr. Crump Hibernici;" the other, "Impugnatio ejufdem fuper confeffione." He wrote alfo another work, called "Actus fui ordinarii ;" which in its time was highly efteemed. He died in London fome time after 1400.

"A

"POLYDORE VERCEL (or Virgil, as his name has lately been written), a writer who, Bayle fays, did not want either genius or learning," was born at Urbino in Italy in the fifteenth century; but the year is not named. The earliest work he published was, Collection of Proverbs, 1498," infcribed to Guido Pacea duke of Urbino; and it was re-printed three or four times in a very fhort fpace. As he was the first among the moderns who published any book of that nature; he feems to have been a little proud upon it;

and

and the fuccefs encouraged him to undertake a more difficult work, his famous book" de rerum inventoribus," on the Inventions of Authors, printed in 1499; in the preface to which, as well as in his Proverbs, he boaftedof having opened the way to all other writers; and charges Erafmus, whofe "Adagia" firit appeared in the year 1498, and who did not notice Polydore's work, with a defign to rob him of the honour due to him. Erafmus, in his anfwer, demonftrates how much Polydore was mistaken in fancying that he had published his book of "Proverbs" before Erafmus, who, refpecting him as a man of merit and abilities, and being unwilling to quarrel, expoftulated with him in great candour and good-nature. Polydore, indeed, faid a great many harth things of him, in the preface to a new edition of his "Proverbs," ftill accufing him of vanity and envy, treating him as a plagiary, and extremely angry that Erafmus, in the preface to the firit edition of his " Adagia," had made no mention of his book. Their friendship, however, does not feem to have been long interrupted. Erafmus had perfuaded Froben to print Polydore's book; who in return yielded to ftrike out of the fourth edition of his " Froverbs” every thing injurious to Erafmus, to whom he dedicated the tranilation of a book of St. Chryfoftom; and prefented him with money to purchase a horfe. Polydore was afterwards fent into England by Alexander VI. to collect the tribute called Peter pence; and recommended himself in this country fo effectually to the powers in being, and was fo well pleafed with it, that, having in 1503 obtained the rectory of Church Langton, he refolved to spend the remainder of his life in England. In 1507 he was prefented to the archdeaconry of Wells and prebend of Nonnington in the church of Hereford; and was in the fame year collated to the prebend of Scamelby in the church of Lincoln, which he refigned in 1513 for the prebend of Oxgate in that of St. Paul, London, 1513.

In 1517 he published at London a new edition of his work "de rerum inventoribus," then confifting of fix books, with a prefatory addrefs to his brother John Matthew Vergil; and, about 1521, on the command of king Henry VIII, undertook a confiderable work, the "Hiftory of England," which, after twelve years labour, he publifhed, with a dedication to the king, in 1533; but, as Bayle rightly obferves, the English do not much value it. It has, indeed, been feverely cenfured by many of our writers; and a critick upon hiftorical works, who fpeaks of it with moderation, has yet faid enough to make it of no value. Thefe are his words: "Polydore Vergil was the moft accomplished writer, for elegancy and clearnefs of ftyle, that his age afforded. So much Leland, the fevereft enemy he had, has acknowledged of him; and, on this fcore alone, fome have unreasonably extolled him. But there is fo little of the other more neceflary qualification of a good hiftorian, truth and fair dealing, in all his twentyfix books, that he has been juftly condemned by our critics; and it is no wonder that fome of them have expreffed an indignation fuitable to the abuses put upon their country." And John Caius mentions it as a thing "not only reported, but even certainly known, that Polydore Vergil, to prevent the discovery of the faults in his hiftory, moft wickedly committed as many of our antient MS. hiftories to the flames

as a waggon could hold.". Yet it was printed feveral times, and very much read; which reflection, among many others, may ferve to fhew' us the value of fatne, diftinct from the real advantages it brings fince the worst books are often applauded in one age, while the beft in another hall drop into oblivion ere they fcarcely become known.

"In 1526, he publifhed a treatife Of Prodigies and Lots;" in three books, addreffed to Fr. Maria duke of Urbino: confifting of dialogues between himself and Robert Ridley of Cambridge, and ftrongly attacking divination. :

"In 1550, being advanced in years, he obtained letters of difmif fon from King Edward VI. to re-vifit his native country which he would not have requested had not old age required a warmer and more fouthern climate. Bishop Burnet telis us, that having been now almaft forty years here, growing old, he defired leave to go nearer the fun. It was granted him the 2d of June;, and, in confideration of the public fervice he was thought to have done the nation by his Hif tory, he was permitted to hold his archdeaconry of Wells and his prebend of Nonnington, notwithstanding his abfence from the kingdom." It is faid that he died at Urbino in 1555. He was not a zealous papift in all points. Though in moft of his writings he afferted the doctrine of the Romish church, yet he is faid to have defended the marriage of the clergy, and to have condemned the worship of images, with fome other fuperftitious practices of that church; nor was he at all difgufted with the alterations that were made in the affairs of England under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. There are feveral fentiments occafionally introduced in his writings, which did not pleafe the bigots of his own church."

Again, p. 678, from the hiftory of the Staveley family, we infert the following curious letters.

"Hinckley, Nov. 9, 1657.

"Good brother; this prefent opportunity invites me to prefent you with a cordiall, in telling you your deare is well, and your fonne and heire (not apparent), as thee witneffed in her letter to my mother the laft Friday. I intend very fuddenly to fee her, who feeth you in her thoughts; I will not fay I could wish you with us, for your abfence will be your prefence in a glass of wine; but in the end we shall coule our loves with teares, and leave you fomething in our will. Sir, lett me defire you to doo me the favour to bey me a rideing-band and a ring as foone as you can with convenience, and fend them by the next returne of our Hinckley-carrier, who lieth at the Rofe, or Ram, in Smithfeild: as for my band, I defire you to bey me a very good one, though it coft you 7 or 8 fhillings, if you can not have one cheaper. Soe, defireing you to haften into the country, left you finde you deare in the ftraw, I reft, yours, Jo. ONE BYE.'

་་

"June 20, 1667. My ague has left me, by virtue of a chimicall pouder, which a merchant gave me, which cured Thomas Onebye. I am informed that there are articles of peace conftructed betwixt the French and us, which at prefent is not thought reasonable to publish. You may fend to me to Somerset-house, at the counteffe of Guilford's lodgings,"

" Ang.

"Aug. 17, 1668, Yours of the 4th of July came not to my hands tell the 15th of this inftante. For the future, direct your letters to my lodgeings at Somerfett-houfe by the chappell. This fpring I have had the judgment of the best phyfitians in towne; have taken much phyficke, to deftroy, and clear my body, from the relicts of a quartan ague, which this fummer hath much impared my health; it haveing feifed uppon my fperitts, and corrupted my whole maffe of bloud. The phyficke I have taken hath much weakened my body; and what other good it hath done I know not. But, being advised for Tunbridge waters, where I have been this five weeks, I have received much good from them; my bloud being cleared, and my speritts revived; and the ableft phyfitions there tell me, there is great hopes of my recovery; for Tunbridge waters, proceeding from an iron minerall, purges the spleen and the mifenterium more than any ot er phyficke can doe; but worthey and famous doctor Ridgely tells me, there is aliquid divinum in morbis; and in our bodies there is cœleftis materia, and a quinta effentia. But, to conclude, health is the greatest bloffing to us all."

Sept. 22, 1688. My brother King writes me word, that Mr. Wollafton, who was joyned with us to finde a horfe for the militia, hath fhowen him a warrant from the deputy lieuetenants to take him off. I pray you affift my brother King in that bufineffe, which he will tell you at large."

"Sept. 26, 1668. My wife is this 26th inftant gone with my lady Gage to Hengrave by Berry, and will stay there about a moneth; foe that I am noebody but my felfe and my man, and, being much abfent from my lodgeings at present, direct your letters to Mr. Nun's, an apothecary, in the Strand, by omerfett-houfe.

"O8. 5, 1668. Let me know if there be not fome inclinations of Mr. Alfounder to marry my fiiter Wright."

"Nov. 9, 1668. This weeke I have beene at Newinarkett, and feen the trouble and expence the king and nobility gave themselves in their sports. What engaged me was fir Edward Gage at Hengrave (with whom my wife is,) whofe lady at prefent will not parte with her foe that I shall be a widdower for about a moneth longer. Affift honeft Ben King in the bufineffe of the militia horfe.”

"Nov. 18. Your laft letters come from you with foe much wifdome and kindnesse, that I believe you more than a brother, that is, a true friend; and shall now tell you a piece of news. My dear wife, which I and all my friends hitherto (by reafon of feverall accidents and thinges in the Queen Mother's court fince our marriage) thought that her interest and fortune might not be what was expected; by her intereft I have now an opportunity to gett an eftate; and, without bragg, my imployments re more to me, and afford an yearlye profitt to me, farr beyond my eftate. Sir Robert Long hath made me one of the meffengers of the Exchequer, and is putting me into his office. He is chiefe auditor for the king; in his hands are all the crown revenues and the treafury of England: by this means I have very good clyents, and great trufte putt into my hands of Chequer debts, which is noe fmall profit to me; and am daily before his majefty's lords treafurers of his revenues, and at counsell-board; and at prefent all

concerns