roughly knew and admired the principles of nat political constitution, which, by his indifference, he had contributed to destroy.

To reconcile this variance between his sentiments and his practice, we must consider that his ruling passion was a love of distinction, an obstinate adherence to opinions which he had once expressed, and that which was worse than both, an insatiable desire of gain. All these ties kept him united to a faction which he, in reality despised, and made him a calm spectator, if not an active party in measures which he knew in his heart were wrong.

He died in 1654, aged 70, and a few days before his dissolution, he sent for archbishop Usher and doctor Langbaine, and among other matters toid them that he had surveyed most of the learning that was among the sons of men; that his study was filled with books and manuscripts on various subjects; yet he could not recollect any passage out of them all wherein he could rest his soul, save out of the sacred scriptures.

Such was the end of this profound scholar and eminent statesman, to whom we are indebted for preparing and establishing the famous Petition of Right. Nor should it here be omitted that he resolutely refused to draw his pen in answer to the Ex B of king Charles I. when solicited so to do by Cromwell. That servile and disgraceful work he left to be performed by another, but of that hereafter.

113

WILLIAM CAMDEN.

CAMDEN, the nourice of Antiquity,
And lanthorn unto late succeeding age,
To see the light of simple verity,

Buried in ruines, through the great outrage,

Of her own people led with warlike rage:
CAMDEN, though time all monuments obscure,
Yet thy just labours ever shall endure:

SPENSER.

THE father of English antiquaries was born in the Old Bailey, in 1551. He received the first tincture of letters in Christ's Hospital, erected the year after his birth, by the incomparable young monarch, Edward the sixth. In 1563, he was removed to Islington, being infected with the plague. On his recovery he was sent to St. Paul's school where he made such a progress in learning, that in 1566, he entered a servitor at Magdalen College, but missing a demy's place there, he removed to Broadgate Hall, now Pembroke College, where he remained two years and a half, under Dr. Thomas Thornton, who being canon of Christ Church, took Camden to that house and provided for him during his stay in the University. In 1570, we find Camden suplicating the congregation

I

gation of Regents, for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, which was refused him; but his request was granted three years afterwards.

In 1575, he became second master of Westminster school, and it was while he filled this laborious situation, that he meditated the great work which has immortalized his name. All the spare

time which he could snatch from the duties of his arduous employment, he devoted to the examination of records, and other remains of antiquity. In 1582, he took a journey through Suffolk into Yorkshire and Lancashire, that he might examine on the spot, and with his own eyes, some of those objects which he intended to illustrate in his book, for the improvement of which he carried on, for many years, a constant correspondence with the most learned and judicious persons at home and abroad; he was fully sensible of all the difficulties of the task he had undertaken, and foresaw to how great envy he should be exposed, by adventuring upon such a piece as must naturally draw the attention of the learned throughout Europe, and therefore he omitted nothing that could render it worthy of that attention, and of the expectation of his friends.

This performance appeared in 1586, in one volume duodecimo, bearing this title, Britanniæ, sive florentissimorum Regnorum Angliæ, Scotia, Hiberniæ, & Insularum adjacentium ex intima antiquitate Chorographica descriptio. The year following, a new edition of this work, in the same

size and by the same printer, R. Newberry, was printed. In 1590 it rose to the size of an octavo volume, and in 1594 to a quarto, in which last form it was again printed in 1600, by G. Bishop. This was the first edition which was published with maps. In 1607, the Britannia assumed the importance of a folio, in which form it was again printed in 1610. All these editions were in Latin. In the last mentioned year an English version appeared which was the work of the industrious Philemon Holland, a physician, and a schoolmaster, who boasted of having written a large folio volume with only one pen, on which he composed the following lines, called by Mr. Granger, but very improperly, an Epigram.

With one sole pen I wrote this book,

In this translation Holland is said to have had the assistance of Camden himself. Another edi

*The same circumstance is related of Dr. Ferdinando Warner, who, happening to be in a stationer's shop when the late duchess of Portland came in and ordered a hundred of pens, said that he had written his Ecclesiastical History of England, two volumes folio, wholly with one pen which he still had in use. The duchess hearing this, and being a collector of all kinds of curiosities, begged the pen of the doctor, and caused it to be enclosed in a silver case, on which was an inscription recording its labours.

tion came out in 1637, but in this the translator took great liberties with the text. Bishop Gibson published an exact version in 1695, in one volume folio; and again, in 1722, in two volumes. The last editor was Mr. Gough, who expanded Camden into three volumes folio, in 1789; but this edition, notwithstanding its bulk and price, abounds with errors.

To return to Camden; he obtained his master's degree, in 1588, but it seems that his Alma Mater was not very liberal in bestowing her honours upon him, his request in this instance being complied with, conditionally that he should stand in the Act following.

Nor does it reflect any great honour upon the nation, that such a man should be suffered to continue in the office of an usher in a public school. He had indeed obtained from Dr. Piers, bishop of Salisbury, a prebend in that cathedral, those dignities being often held by laymen, in that and the following reign.

In 1598, Camden succeeded Dr. Grant, as head-master of Westminster school, for the use of which seminary he published a Greek Grammar. It is remarkable that this book went through one hundred impressions in as many years.

Having mentioned the publication of this Grammar, Bishop Gibson says of the author, "He was

* Wood Fasti Oxon. Vol. I. col. 135.

always