Harrison, one of the Fellows of Eton College, best acquainted with my books and pictures and other utensils, to be supervisors of this my last will and testament. And I do pray the aforesaid Dr. Bargrave, and Mr. Nicholas Pey, to be solicitors for such arrearages as shall appear due unto me from his Majesty's Exchequer at the time of my death; and to assist my forenamed executors in some reasonable and conscientious satisfaction of my creditors, and discharge of my legacies now specified; or that shall be hereafter added unto this my testament by any codicil or schedule, or left in the hands, or in any memorial with the aforesaid Mr. John Harrison. And first, to my most dear Sovereign and Master, of incomparable goodness, (in whose gracious opinion I have ever had some portion, as far as the interest of a plain honest man,) I leave four pictures at large of those Dukes of Venice, in whose time I was there employed, with their names written on the backside, which hang in my great ordinary diningroom, done after the life by Edoardo Fialetto: likewise a table of the Venetian College, where ambassadors had their audience, hanging over the mantle of the chimney in the said room, done by the same hand, which containeth a draught in little, well resembling the famous D. Leonardo Donato, in a time which needed a wise and constant man. Item, The picture of a Duke of Venice, hanging over against the door, done either by Titiano, or some other principal hand, long before my time. Most humbly beseeching his Majesty, that the said pieces may remain in some corner of any of his houses, for a poor memorial of his most humble vassal.

"Item, I leave his said Majesty all the papers and negociations of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Knight, during his famous employment under Queen Elizabeth, in Scotland and in France; which contain divers secrets of state, that perchance his Majesty

will think fit to be preserved in his paper-office, after they have been perused and sorted by Mr. Secretary Windebank, with whom I have heretofore, as I remember, conferred about them. They were committed to my disposal by Sir Arthur Throgmorton, his son, to whose worthy memory I cannot better discharge my faith, than by assigning them to the highest place of trust. Item, I leave to our most gracious and virtuous Queen Mary, Dioscorides, with the plants naturally coloured, and the text translated by Matthiolo, in the best language of Tuscany, whence her said Majesty is lineally descended, for a poor token of my thankful devotion for the honour she was once pleased to do my private study with her presence. I leave to the most hopeful prince, the picture of the elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia, his aunt, of clear and resplendent virtues, through the clouds of her fortune. To my Lord's Grace of Canterbury now being, I leave my picture of Divine love, rarely copied from one in the King's galleries, of my presentation to his Majesty; beseeching him to receive it as a pledge of my humble reverence to his great wisdom. And to the most worthy Lord Bishop of London, Lord High Treasurer of England, in true admiration of his Christian simplicity and contempt of earthly pomp, I leave a picture of Heraclitus bewailing, and Democritus laughing at the world; most humbly beseeching the said Lord Archbishop his Grace, and the Lord Bishop of London, of both whose favours I have tasted in my life-time, to intercede with our most gracious Sovereign after my death, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, that out of compassionate memory of my long services, (wherein I more studied the public honour than mine own utility,) some order may be taken out of my arrears due in the Exchequer, for such satisfaction of my creditors, as those whom I have ordained supervisors of this my last

will and testament shall present unto their Lordships, without their farther trouble; hoping likewise in his Majesty's most undubitable goodness that he will keep me from all prejudice, which I may otherwise suffer by any defect of formality in the demand of my said arrears. To for a poor addition to his cabinet, I leave, as emblems of his attractive virtues and obliging nobleness, my great loadstone, and a piece of amber of both kinds naturally united, and only differing in a degree of concoction, which is thought somewhat rare. Item, a piece of Crystal Sexangular (as they grow all) grasping divers several things within it, which I bought among the Rhætian Alps, in the very place where it grew; recommending most humbly unto his Lordship, the reputation of my poor name in the point of my debts, as I have done to the forenamed Spiritual Lords, and am heartily sorry that I have no better token of my humble thankfulness to his honoured person. Item, I leave to Sir Francis Windebank, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, (whom I found my great friend in point of necessity,) the Four Seasons of old Bassano, to hang near the eye in his parlour, (being in little form,) which I bought at Venice, where I first entered into his most worthy acquaintance.

"To the abovenamed Dr. Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, I leave all my Italian books not disposed in this will. I leave to him likewise my Viol de Gamba, which hath been twice with me in Italy, in which country I first contracted with him an unremovable affection. To my other supervisor, Mr. Nicholas Pey, I leave my Chest, or Cabinet of Instruments and Engines of all kinds of uses: in the lower box whereof are some1 fit to be bequeathed

1 In it were Italian locks, pick-locks, screws to force open doors, and many things of worth and rarity, that he had gathered in his foreign travel.

to none but so entire an honest man as he is. I leave him likewise forty pounds for his pains in the solicitation of my arrears; and am sorry that my ragged estate can reach no further to one that hath taken such care for me in the same kind, during all my foreign employments. To the Library at Eton College, I leave all my Manuscripts not before disposed, and to each of the Fellows a plain ring of gold, enamelled black, all save the verge, with this motto within, Amor unit omnia.

"This is my last will and testament, save what shall be added by a schedule thereunto annexed, written on the first of October, in the present year of our Redemption, 1637, and subscribed by myself, with the testimony of these witnesses.

"Nich. Oudert. "Geo. Lash."

" HENRY WOTTON.

And now, because the mind of man is best satisfied by the knowledge of events, I think fit to declare that every one that was named in his will did gladly receive their legacies: by which, and his most just and passionate desires for the payment of his debts, they joined in assisting the overseers of his will; and by their joint endeavours to the King (than whom none was more willing) conscionable satisfaction was given for his just debts.

The next thing wherewith I shall acquaint the reader is, that he went usually once a year, if not oftener, to the beloved Bocton Hall, where he could say, "He found a cure for all cares, by the cheerful company," which he called "the living furniture of that place;" and "a restoration of his strength, by the connaturalness of" that which he called "his genial air."

He yearly went also to Oxford. But the summer before his death he changed that for a journey to

Winchester College, to which school he was first removed from Bocton. And as he returned from Winchester towards Eton College, said to a friend, his companion in that journey: "How useful was that advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there! And I find it thus far experimentally true, that at my now being in that school, and seeing that very place where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me: sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures, without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed, when time (which I therefore thought slow paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that those were but empty hopes: for I have always found it true, as my Saviour did foretel, Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another, both in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death."

After his return from Winchester to Eton, which was about five months before his death, he became much more retired and contemplative; in which time he was often visited by Mr. John Hales, (the learned Mr. John Hales,) then a Fellow of that College, to whom upon an occasion he spake to this purpose: "I have, in my passage to my grave, met with most of those joys with which a discoursive soul is capable; and been entertained with more inferior pleasures than the sons of men are usually made partakers of: nevertheless in this voyage I have not always floated on the calm sea of content; but have