dently to ancient forms and things rather than to the Romish doctrines; such an attachment as few antiquaries do not in some degree imbibe.

In his latter days Stowe had to encounter the more constant and depressing afflictions of poverty. Though his works were more popular in proportion to other classes of literature than, amid the varied reading of the present day, will readily be imagined, still their profits were insufficient to form the sole support of one, who had sacrificed to his "delectable studies" (that is his own term,) all other means of worldly gain, and had probably exchanged all other accumulation of property for that of books and manuscripts. He obtained from the City of London the appointment of Chronicler, with what salary (if any) is not known; and is said to have had a pension assigned him by his Company (the Merchant-Taylors); but finally, shortly before the close of his career, he was glad to accept the chances of a general public subscription, promoted by the royal authority, which was granted by letters patent.

Still, from first to last, Stowe was most assiduous. He was ever transcribing, translating, abstracting, and compiling; and, moreover, ever printing. Indeed, the different forms which his historical labours assumed seem quite to have puzzled his biographers, who all make some confusion in their accounts of them. Without entering at present into lengthened bibliographical details, it may be stated that his historical works were, 1. A Summary of the Chronicles, which was frequently reprinted, in a manual form; 2. Annales, a quarto volume; 3. A Collection of Chronicles in extenso, for which he never obtained a printer; and 4. Several of the elder Chronicles, published in the words of their writers.

1. There is a long series of editions of the Summary, perhaps one for almost every year* of Stowe's labours; yet they are all now scarce, and without a comparison of them (which on

Probably one for every year; for they were preceded by an Almanack, and were in fact the Annuals or Pocket-books of the Elizabethan age.

GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

that account it would be difficult to accomplish), it is impossible to say which were actually new impressions, and which adaptations by the reprinting of titles and addenda. It is stated by Lowndes, in the Bibliographer's Manual, that the first edition appeared in 1561, and that a copy of that edition, supposed to be unique, is in the collection of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville. This seems to be contrary to Stowe's own statement, Annales 1601, p. 818; yet the preface to Grafton's "Abridgement of the Chronicles," 1563, appears to allude to Stowe having then appeared in the field. The rivalry between these competitors continued for ten years after, Grafton's work being also frequently reprinted : and, as literary controversies were in those days conducted in no modified language, the bibliographer is now amused to trace in their prefaces and dedications, the sarcastic`attacks and quibbling rejoinders which were then the approved weapons of literary controversy. The history of the quarrel between Stowe and Grafton will be found in Ames's Typographical Antiquities, by Dibdin, vol. iii. pp. 422427. Subsequently to Stowe's death, Edmond Howes published three editions of this work, in 1607, 1611, and 1618, but he used the title of “Abridge

ment."

2. Of the "Annales " Stowe published four editions, in 1580, 1592, 1601, and 1605. The last is usually, and properly, called the best, as being Stowe's latest and fullest edition; but it is not generally known that it is the same as that of 1601, having only the sheet Qqqq reprinted, and the rest added. It is an interesting fact that it is continued down to the 26th of March 1605, only ten days before the author's death; thus proving the perseverance of his labours, even in the midst of poverty and extreme old age. "Annales are now generally known by the name of Stowe's Chronicle, having been re-edited under that title

The

Grafton sneered at "the memories of supersticious foundacions, fables, and lyes, foolishly STOWED together;" and Stowe spoke of "the rattling of empty TUNNES, and fruitless GRAFFES of Momus' offspring."

H

66

Thus, good reader, I desire thee to take these and other my labours past in good part, like as I have painfully (to my great costs and charges) out of old hidden histories, and records of antiquitie, brought the same to light, and for thy great commoditie bestowed them upon thee: so shalt thou incourage me (if God permit me life) to publish or leave to posteritie, a farre larger Volume, long

since by me laboured, at the request and commandement of the reverend Father

Mathew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury; but he then deceasing, my Worke was prevented, by printing and reprint ing (without warrant, or well liking) of Raigne Wolfes collection, and other late commers, by the name of Raphaell Hollinshed his Chronicles." *

Howes, also, in the notice he has given of Stowe among the eminent men of Elizabeth's time, mentions this work, which he states that Stowe "purposed, if hee had lived but one yeare longer, to have put in print, but being prevented by death, left the same in his studie orderly written, readie for the presse, but it came to nothing."+

The plan of this great work,-"Corpus Historicum," in which the remains of all the annalists should be brought under one view, and which was "laboured" by Stowe at the instigation of the great promoter of historical antiquities, Archbishop Parker,-appears to have resembled that which has been undertaken in our own day by Mr. Petrie, with the exception that Stowe had proceeded, with wonderful indus

try, to clothe the whole in a uniform English dress.

"

Probably the book entitled The Successions of the History of England," by John Stowe, printed in folio, 1638, and of which an account will be found in Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, p. 1749, was a portion of this work.

4. At the beginning of his Annales, 1601, Stowe has placed a list of no less than 339" Authors out of whom these Annales are collected." To three of these, Flores Historiarum, Matthæus Paris, and Thomas Walsingham, he has added this note: "I have caused to be printed." The thew of Westminster, was printed in Flores Historiarum, compiled by Mat

1567, Matthew Paris in 1571, and Walsingham in 1574. The praise of these works, on the score of liberal patronage, must be shared by Archbishop Parker.

But, on the part of Stowe, it should also be mentioned that not only was Holinshed greatly indebted to Stowe's "Summaries," in the edition of his Chronicles 1576; but that Stowe himself, notwithstanding his remarks above quoted, was a material contributor to the edition of Holinshed of 1586, as is proved by several references in his Annales 1601, and as is fully shown in his Life by Strype.

Such were Stowe's historical labours; worthy of all respect, and richly deserving of the gratitude of posterity. Yet, as his Chronicle is only one of the channels through which the stream of history descends; and as perhaps, for much of his earlier narrative, higher and more original

sources of information have since been opened, -we may congratulate ourselves still more in the possession of his very interesting and minute "Survay" of his native City; a work the

fruit of a long experience and personal investigation, and, in the eyes of every inquirer into the antiquities of London, now perfectly invaluable. The first edition is dated 1598, and sometimes 1599; the second 1603; the third, edited by Anthony Munday, who says he had the use of Stowe's papers, in 1618; these are all in quarto; the fourth by Munday and Henry Dyson, fol. 1633; the fifth, by Strype, 2 vols. fol. 1720; and the sixth and last 1754.

There are two other points remain ing to be mentioned, for which the memory of Stowe is to be honoured; -that he edited the works of Chaucer, and that he preserved those of Leland. On the latter head it is enough to state the important circumstance that when Hearne came to print Leland, much of the original which had been lost, was supplied by a transcript of the indefatigable Stowe. Of his labours on Chaucer, Stowe himself says, when noticing the monument of the poet in Westminster Abbey,

"His Workes were partly published in print by William Caxton in the reigne of Henry the sixt; increased by William Thinne, esquire, in the reign of Henry the eight; corrected and twise encreased through mine owne paynefull labors, in the reigne of Queene Elizabeth, to wit, in the year 1561, and again beautified with notes by me, collected out of divers recordes and monuments, which I delivered to my loving friend Thomas Speight; and hee, having drawne the same into a good forme and methode, as also explayned the olde and obscure wordes, &c. hath published them in anno 1597."

The fate and final disposal of Stowe's manuscript collections has never been exactly traced. It is satisfactory to know that many of them have, in various ways, found a resting place in the British Museum;t where the his

* Survey, 1603, p. 465.

+ Chiefly through the Collections of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, among whose manuscripts No. 245 was Giraldus Cambrensis, "translated by Mr. Stow, and wrote with his own hand;" No. 146, Florentius Wigorniensis, a Continuation of him from 900 to 1101, Aluredus Rievallensis, and Nicholas Trivet, all also translated and written by Stowe. Smith's Catal. MSS. Angliæ, ii. 387. These are

torical inquirer who meets with his uncommonly neat hand-writing, may rejoice for a time as in a pleasant pasture, disencumbered of the briars and thistles of the court and current hands, in which many of the manuscripts of the same period are disguised. In the MS.Harl. 367, are several papers more immediately relating to Stowe's private affairs, his quarrel with Grafton, his petitions for relief, &c. many of them bearing the marks of having been retained for a considerable time in the old Chronicler's pockets. A portion of one of these, being a draft of a petition to the Corporation of London, about 1587, has been engraved in the Autographs of Remarkable Personages," 4to. 1829, and from the same are copied the words your orator John Stowe, Citizen of this Citie," now placed under the portrait.

Stowe started at his outset in the pursuit of TRUTH, and to that essential point his labours were constantly directed. In the introduction to his

Summary," (1565), he set forward with this axiom, In hystories the chiefe thyng that is to be desyred is Truthe:" and he added this poetical caution to the " phrasemakers," ambitious of the personal display of tine writing:

"Of smoothe and flatterynge speeche, remember to take hede,

For trouthe in playn words may be tolde; of craft a lye hath nede."

Of his zeal, diligence, and unwearied perseverance, the reader must have already acquired an adequate impression. They have merited and attained the praise of a long posterity: the posthumous rewards for actual persecution and privation.

Howes, in the preface to his "Abridgement" of 1607 (also prefixed to his "Annales" of 1615) has related the circumstances under which he undertook to be the successor of Stowe in the capacity of Chronicler ; and after mentioning that several learned persons, to whom the public eye had been directed, failed to engage

now Nos. 551, 563, of the Harleian Collection, and many others may be traced in the Catalogue: see the Index, 1812, vol. iv. p. 313.

in the onerous work, he states that he conferred with them individually, and reports the several answers he received. "Another sayd, I cannot see how in any civil action a man should spend his travaile, tyme, and money worse, than in that which acquires no regard, nor reward, except backbiting and detraction.' And one amongst the rest, after he had sworne an oath, sayd, 'I thanke God that I am not yet madde, to wast my tyme, spend two hundred pound a yeare, trouble my selfe and all my friends, onely to gain assurance of endless reproach, losse of libertie, and bring all my dayes in question.' And like as these spake, so did many others." In which speeches, it is evident that the treatment of "late aged painefull Chronicler," just before mentioned, is intended to be described.

Still we

may further gather that Stowe bore his misfortunes with equanimity and good-humour. There is an anecdote in the Hawthornden MS., which, whether true or not, affords evidence of the opinion held of his character by his contemporaries,-that, walking with Ben Jonson (who also was always low in purse), they met two mendicant cripples, and Stowe jestingly asked them, "What they would have to take him to their order?" We find also another illustration of his lively temper in H. Holland's "Monumenta Sepulchraria Sancti Pauli,"

written any thing either for malice, feare, or favour, nor to seeke his owne particular gaine or vaine glory; and that his only paines and care was to write truth. He could never ride; but travelled on foote unto divers cathedral churches and other chiefe places of the land, to search records. He was very carelesse of scoffers, backbiters, and detractors. He lived peacefully; and died of the stone collicke, being fourescore yeares of age, and was buried the eight of Aprill 1605, in his parish church of Saint Andrewesundershaft: whose mural monument neere unto his grave was there set up at the charges of Elizabeth his wife."

I BEG to continue my series of memoirs of distinguished Cavaliers,* with one of Sir Henry Bard, Viscount Bellamont.

HENRY BARD was the younger of the two sons of the Rev. George Bard, who died Vicar of Staines, in the county of Middlesex, in 1618, by his wife Susan, daughter of John Dudley.

Maximilian, the elder son of the vicar, a wealthy girdler in the city, and a noted Parliamentarian, was born in 1606, as we learn from his epitaph in Caversfield church, Bucks. But the birth year of the younger has not been recorded. His grandfather, William Bard, of Talbygarth, co. Lincoln, was a younger son of Ralph Bard, of North Kelsey, in the same county, at which place the family had resided for many generations. With respect to his pedigree, Lord Bellamont was wont to relate of himself that "he descended from that man in Norfolk who went to law with W. and overthrew the Conqueror." The meaning of this vaunt I leave others to determine.

From Eton school he was entered, in 1631, of King's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his master's degree and a fellowship. Previous, however, to his taking these honours, he had made, upon the customary leave of nine weeks' absence, unknown to his relations, an excursion to Paris; and afterwards he proceeded on foot into France, Italy, Turkey, Palestine, Ara

*See Gent. Mag. for April, 1836, p. 350.

bia, and Egypt, of which places and of his several travels he sent a large account to his fellow collegian the Rev. Chas. Mason, D.D. subsequently Rector of St. Peter's-le-poor, in London. Returning home, he lived high, says Wood, as he had done before, without any visible income to support it. The means he commanded for his travels and for his manner of living, were supposed, by his contemporaries, to have been derived from his brother, great admirer," continues the same author," of his accomplishments, and as much despised by him."

a

It was about the time of his return from his travels, that Charles was preparing for that great struggle which found employment for courage and activity. Repairing to the Court at York," he made himself known to be a traveller and master of several languages, especially the French, which the Queen took notice of; and entering into his Majesty's service, he was soon put in commission and made a Colonel." Thus far in the words of Wood. In 1643, being at Oxford, Colonel Bard was nominated to be created D.C.L. and while staying here, on the 22d of November, he received the honour of knighthood. Shortly after, he was sent into Ireland; whence he returned with the two regiments of foot, commanded by Sir Charles Vavasour and Sir John Pawlet, and was engaged with them at the battle of Cheriton Down, fought on the 9th of March, between Lord Hopton and Sir William Waller. In this engagement he brought off a whole brigade, otherwise likely to be destroyed; but was eventually taken prisoner, and so severely wounded as to lose the use of one arm.

It is not unlikely that he was a prisoner when on the 28th of May 1644 he presented an Alcoran to his college, which the Rev. William Cole describes as a neat wrote book, illuminated, and of an 8vo size." It is supposed that he stole this volume from a mosque in Egypt; for being once told, says Wood," that it was not worth above twenty pounds, he made answer, Then he was sorry that he had ventured his neck for it."

By letters patent dated at Oxford, 2 March 19 Car. I. (1644), he received a reversionary grant of the offices of Governor of the Isle of Guernsey, and of

Captain of Cornet Castle, in that isle, for life, with all fees, profits, and privileges thereto belonging, after the death or other determination of the estates of Sir Peter Osborne and Lord Percy, former grantees.*

Soon after, he joined the King at Oxford, who there gave him the command of a brigade, and after intrusted him with the government of Campdenhouse, in Gloucestershire. While in this charge, we are told by Lloyd," he set open the gate to the enemy, as if deserted, but entertained them so that they spilt not so much claret wine in the house as they left blood before it." The Mercurius Civicus about this time has the following anecdote of the go"This papist,'

vernor.

says the paper, speaking of one Captain Brunt, gave intelligence of a constable at Queinton, and enforced him to bring in his collection money to Colonel Bard, governor of Campden. The poore constable came certified to the governour (then in bed) thereof; the governour demanded if it were all? the constable answered, He could not bring all, for the plague was in some houses. The governour replied, that if the plague were in one and the pox in the other, he would have all the money, and would talke with him further when he was up. After he rose, he commanded the constable to be throwne into a pond to swim for his life; where he had been drowned had he not beene helped out by one of the souldiers. Whereupon, the governour commanded the rest to fasten upon him, which they refused, and withstood the governour, by which means the constable escaped with his life."t

Bard continued at Campden to the 5th of June, when, at Prince Rupert's order, he rased the house to the ground, and joined the royal army on its march from Oxford to Evesham. On the 8th of October following Sir Henry was created a Baronet, by patent dated at Sherbourn, as Sir Henry Bard of Staines; and shortly after he married Anne, daughter of Sir William Gar