for twelve days together at Greenwich with great magnificence and addrefs, and entirely to the King's fatisfaction. In this character, attended by the politeft part of the Court, he made an excurfion to London, where he was fplendidly entertained by the Lord Mayor, and when he took his leave he had presents given him him in token of respect. But notwithstanding he made fo great figure in the diverfions at court, yet he was no idle fpectator of political affairs, and maintained his reputation with the learned world. He wrote the reign of Queen Mary, which tho' published in the name of Richard Grafton, in his chronicles; yet was certainly the performance of Ferrars, according to the annals of Stow, p. 632, whofe authority in this cafe is very high. Our author was an hiftorian, a lawyer, and a politician even in his poetry, as appears from thefe pieces of his which are inferted in the Mirror of Magiftrates, and which are not inferior to any others that have found a place there †. In the early part of his life he wrote fome tracts on his own profeffion, which gained h'm great reputation, and which discover that he was a lover of liberty, and not difpofed to facrifice to the crown the rights and properties of the subject. It feldom happens that when a man often changes his fituation, or is forced to do fo, that he continues to preferve the good opinion of different parties, but this was a happiness which Ferrars enjoyed. He was confulted by the learned as a candid critic, admired and loved by all who converfed with him. With refpect to the time of our author's death, we cannot be abfolutely certain ; all we know is, that he died in the year 1579, at his house in Flamitead in Hertfordshire, and was buried in the parish church; for as Wood informs † Lond. 40. us, us, on the eighteenth of May the fame year a commiffion was granted from the prerogative, to adminifter the goods, debts, chattles, &c. of George Ferrars lately deceafed *. None of our authors deliver any thing as to Mr. Ferrars's religion, but it is highly probable that he was a zealous Proteftant: not from his accepting grants of Abbey-lands, for that is but a precarious proof, but from his coming into the world under the protection of Thomas Lord Cromwell, who was certainly perfuaded of the truth of the protestant religion. Having this occafion to mention Thomas Lord Cromwell, the famous Earl of Effex, who was our author's warmest patron, I am perfuaded my readers will forgive me a digreffion which will open to them the noblest instance of gratitude and honour in that worthy nobleman, that ever adorned the page of an hiftorian, and which has been told with rapture by all who have writ of the times, particularly by Dr. Begnet in his history of the Reformation, and Fox in his Martyrology.Thomas Lord Cromwell was the fon of a Blacksmith at Putney, and was a foldier under the duke of Bourbon at the facking of Rome in the year 1527. While he was abroad in a military character, in a very low station, he fell fick, and was unable to follow the army; he was obferved one day by an Italian merchant to walk very penfive, and had all the appearance of penury and wretchedness The merchant enquired of him the place of his birth, and fortune, and upon converfing with Cromwell, was fo well pleafed with the account he gave of himself, that he supplied him with money and credit to carry him to England. Cromwell afterwards made the most rapid progress in ftate-preferments ever known. Honours were multiplied thick upon him, and he came to have the difpenfing of his fovereign's bounty. It hapAthen. Oxon, vol. 1. col. 146. E : VOL, I. No 2. pened pened, that this Italian merchant's circumftances decayed, and he came to England to follicit the payment of fome debts due to him by his correfpondents; who finding him neceffitous, were difpofed to put him off, and take the advantage of his want, to avoid payment. This not a little embarraffed the foreigner, who was now in a fituation forlorn enough. As providence would have it, lord Cromwell, then Earl of Effex, r.ding to court, faw this merchant walking with a dejected countenance, which put him in mind of his former fituation. He immediately ordered one of his attendants to defire the merchant to come to his houfe. His lordship asked the merchant whether he knew him? he answered no: Cromwell then related the circumftance of the merchant's relieving a certain Englishman; and asked if he remembered it? The merchant anfwered, that he had always mad it his bufinefs to do good, but did not remember that circumftance. His lordship then enquired the reafon of his coming to England, and upon the merchant's telling him his story, he fo interested himself, as foon to procure the payment of all his debts.- Cromwell then informed the merchant, that he was himfelf the perfon he had thus relieved; and for every Ducat which the merchant had given him, he returned to the value of a hundred, telling him, that this was the payment of his debt. He then made him a munificent prefent, and asked him whether he chofe to fettle in England, or return to his own country. The foreigner chofe the latter, and returned to spend the remainder of his days in competence and quiet, after having experienced in lord Effex as high an inftance of generofity and gratitude as perhaps ever was known. bie act of his lordship, employed, fays Burnet, of the belt writers at that time in panegyrics on fo great a behaviour; the fine pocts praifed him; his most violent enemies could the pens This not not help admiring him, and latest pofterity shall hold the name of him in veneration, who was capable of fo generous an act of honour. But to return to Ferrars. In our author's history of the reign of Queen Mary, tho' he fhews himself a great admirer of the perfonal virtues of that Princeis, and a very difcerning and able historian, yet it is every where evident that he was attached to the proteftant intereft ; but more especially in the learned account he gives of Archbishop Cranmer's death, and Sir Thomas Wyat's infurrection ‡. The works of this author which are printed in the Mirror of Magiftrates, are as follow; The Fall of Robert Trefilian, Chief Juftice of England, for mifconftruing the laws, and expound ing them to ferve the prince's affections. The Tragedy, or unlawful murther of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucefter. The Tragedy of Richard II. The Story of Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester. The Story of Humphry Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucefter, Protector of England. The Tragedy of Edmund Duke of Somerset. Among thefe the Complaints of Eleanor Cobham, Duchefs of Gloucefter, who was banished for confulting Conjurers and Fortune-tellers about the Life of King Henry VI. and whofe exile quickly made way for the murder of her husband, has of all his compofitions been moft admired; and from this I fhall quote a few lines which that Lady Speaks. The Ifle of Man was the appointed place, Grafton's Chron. p. 1350, 1351. Thither Thither in hafte, they posted me apace, There felt I firft poor prifoner's hungry fare, The chaunge was ftraunge from filke and cloth of gold To rugged fryze, my carcafs for to cloath; T Sir PHILIP SIDNEY. HIS great ornament to human nature, to literature, and to Britain, was the fon of Sir. Henry Sidney, knight of the Garter, and three times Lord Deputy of Ireland, and of lady Mary Dudley, daughter to the duke of Northumberland, and nephew to that great favourite, Robert, earl of Leicester. Oxford had the honour of his education, under the tuition of Dr. Thomas Thornton, canon of Christ Church. At the univerfity he remained till he was 17 years of age, and in June 1572 fet out on his travels. On the 24th of Auguft following, when the maffacre fell out at Paris, he was then there, and with other Englishmen took shelter in Sir Francis Walfingham's houfe, her Majesty's * Athen. Oxon. folio. p. 226. ambaffa |