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That on the unnumbered idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high :-I'll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.-

Edg-Hadst thou been ought but gossamer, feathers,

air,

So many fathom down precipitating,

Thou hadst shivered like an egg: but thou dost breathe;

Ten masts at each make not the altitude,

Which thou had'st perpendicularly fell:

Glo.-But have I fallen, or no?

Edg.-From the dread summit of this chalky bourn :— Look up a-height; the shrill-gorged lark so far Cannot be seen or heard."

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SIR HENRY WOTTON,

BORN 1568.-DIED 1639.

On earth he travelled often,-not to say
He'd been abroad to pass loose time away;
For in whatever land he chanced to some,
He read the men and manners,—bringing home
Their wisdom, learning, and their piety,
As if he went to conquer, not to see.
So well he understood the most und best
Of tongues that Babel sent into the west;
Spoke them so truly, that he had, you'd swear,
Not only lived, but been born every where.
Justly each nation's speech to him was known ;
Who for the world was made, not us alone.
Nor ought the language of that man be less,
Who in his breast had all things to express.
He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find,
And found them not so large as was his mind.

(Cowley's Elegy on Sir H. Wotton.)

Pos

Thanks to the laudable zeal of the excellent Isaac Walton, we have ample materials before us respecting the life and character of this Kentish worthy. terity has not duly paid the debt of gratitude it owes the memory of this good man for the artless effusions of his honest pen. In simple language, but bearing the genuine impress of truth, he has furnished us with memorials of exemplary characters, who might otherwise, as far as their personal history is concerned, have sunk into the grave

-ignotique longå

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

Paulum sepultæ distat inertiæ
Celata virtus.

Walton published under the title of "Reliquiæ Wottonianæ," a memoir of Sir Henry Wotton, and a collection of his literary essays, state papers, letters, and poems. From the fourth edition of this volume, with such collateral aid, as can be obtained, the following account is collected, and wherever it is practicable for obvious reasons, the words of the original writer are retained.

The family of Wotton flourished in the county of Kent nearly three centuries, commencing with Sir Nicholas Wotton, Lord Mayor of London, who obtained possession of Bocton, Malherb, by marriage, in 1337, and expiring with the subject of the present article in 1639.

Several individuals of this family obtained distinguished rank and employment under various sovereigns, but it is most remarkable for having produced Nicholas Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury, distinguished more as a politician than a divine. This supple ecclesiastic, who may have been the original of the Vicar of Bray, contrived so to suit his religious opinions to the fluctuating times in which he lived, as to retain a seat in the privy councils of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, by all of whom he was highly esteemed and confidentially employed. The monumental inscription to his memory, informs us that he was sent as ambassador to various powers, no less than nine different times, besides holdding other high temporary employments. He was

modest as well as a prudent man, having repeatedly refused his proposed election to the ecclesiastical bench; and as he died poor after having witnessed the plundering of the monasteries, there is every reason to presume that he was also honest and conscientious in temporal affairs.

Sir Edward Wotton, another distinguished individual, was Comptroller of the Household to Queen Elizabeth, who employed him as her embassador at the court of James the First, when King of Scotland." "This man," says Dr. Robertson, "was gay, well-bred, and entertaining; he excelled in all the exercises for which James had a passion, and amused the young king by relating the adventures which he had met with, and the observations he had made during a long residence in foreign countries; but under the veil of these superficial qualities, he concealed a dangerous and intrigueing spirit. He soon grew into high favour with James, and while he seemed attentive only to pleasure and diversions, he acquired influence over the public councils, to a degree which was indecent for a stranger to possess." At the accession of James the First to the English crown, Sir Edward Wotton, was advanced to the peerage, by the title of Baron Wotton, of Merley, in Kent; which title became extinct by his death without male issue.

Of Sir Henry Wotton, the third distinguished individual of his family, it is our business to treat more at large.

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He was the youngest son of Thomas Wotton, by a second marriage,-great nephew to the Dean, and half-brother to the Baron. His father appears to have been a respectable, but a retired and unambitious

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country gentleman. His mother was the daughter of Sir William Finch, of Eastwell, and at the time of her marriage with his father, the widow of Robert Morton, both of Kent.

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Sir Henry Wotton was born at Bocton Malherb in 1568. He was educated at Winchester, and removed at sixteen years of age to Oxford, where he remained five years, having beer a resident at two different Colleges. On the occasion of his supplicating for a degree, he composed and read three lectures in Latin, on the subject of vision.

In the year 1589 he lost his father, who bequeathed him by will a younger brother's portion of one hundred marks a year, charged upon his estates. With this scanty provision, the year after his father's death, he commenced his travels; and during the six following years, visited most of the principal cities in France, Germany, and Italy. How he employed this portion of his time, may be collected from a series of letters written by him to Lord Zouch, and preserved in the Reliquiæ.

He seems to have assumed the character of a political student, acquiring languages, collecting facts, and informing himself respecting the statistics of the several countries he visited. His industry and application are conspicuous in every letter of this series, as is also his prudent management of his contracted income. In a letter to his noble correspondent, dated at Venice, December 9th, 1590, he remarks, "I am now to a certainty for a table and chamber with Doctor Blotius, master of the imperial library, which I have gotten by great means made to him, and am the only person in his house besides his own family. My study

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