to be had; and having discovered so little as yet, which lay hid in private hands, and not seen till the third volume was extant, I do not expect to live so long as to make any considerable collection for such a volume. And as to the friaries, which were mendicants, and had nothing but their houses of habitation, I did endeavour, when I had the perusal of the Tower records, to find out the times of their foundations, and by whom or at whose cost their houses were built; but thereof found so little, that it discouraged me to make mention of them, which I could properly have done in one of the Monasticons. What those records did afford concerning them I can easily shew you. Before I last left London I saw Dr. Plot's Book of Oxfordshire, which I like very well; wishing he may have good encouragement to succeed farther upon the like subject.* * * * * Wishing you good health, I rest your most affectionate friend and servant, WM. DUGDALE. Blythe-hall, near Coleshill, 23 Aug. 1677. For my very worthy friend Mr. Anthony Wood, at Mr. Leave this letter at the sign of the Dolfyn, in Warwick, Here follows an account of some antiquities discovered at Tamworth; a "trench wherein the bodies of a multitude of men had been buried, a spear-head of iron," &c. LETTER IV. Dr. HICKES✶ to Dr. SMITH.† Dr. Hickes presented to a Doctor's Degree at St. Andrew's. DEAR SIR, Edinburgh, Octob. 9, [16]77. I HAVE spent most of the time since I received your last in rambling from place to place in this country, or else you had received my thanks sooner, for the news you sent me, which was as acceptable to my Lord as myself. He read your letter, was very much pleased with it, and enquired particularly after you. Pray let me hear from you again, and * Dr. George Hickes was first a member of St. John's College, in Oxford, from which he removed to Magdalen College. He was rector of St. Ebbe's church, in Oxford. In March 1679-80, he was promoted to a prebend of Worcester, and presented by Archbishop Sancroft to the vicarage of All-hallows Barking, in London. In 1683 appointed chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, and, in 1683, dean of Worcester, of which he was deprived for refusing to take the oaths of allegiance. He was consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Thetford, by the non-juring and deprived bishops of Norwich, Ely, and Peterborough. Being grievously tormented with the stone, he died in 1715, in his 74th year. he was + Dr. Thomas Smith was elected fellow of Magdalen College in 1666, and deprived of his fellowship for refusing the oaths of allegiance in 1692. He published many learned works, and died in London in 1710. write me as much news as you can of state and court matters, and let me know what stories go of my Lord* now. I know he hath enemies in both kingdoms that correspond, and I would fain know what they say of him now. I have now a long story to tell you of myself, which I know will subject me to the censure of the English world,, and therefore I must desire you, as a faithful friend, to justify me as you have occasion. I was long solicited by some bishops here to accept of a Doctor's degree; but I was always resolute in denying it, and always gave such reasons as might have made them satisfied why I did not accept. But when they saw me so resolv'd, they took another way, and offered the compliment for me to my Lord, utterly unknown to me. My Lord was pleased with it, and was discontented that I made a difficulty at it, which was a mighty trouble to me, and therefore considering how great a lover he is of his country, and particularly of that University which confers degrees in divinity here, I thought myself in prudence obliged to submit. I told the Bishops that put him upon it, what streights they had brought me into either of taking a degree, whose dignity I was not able to support in my own country, or * The Duke of Lauderdale, high-commissioner of Scot. land, to whom Dr. Hickes was chaplain. hazard the displeasure of my Lord. As to this objection they told me, that my Lord knew what was fit for a D. D. in England as well as I, and since he expected it, that I could not lay a greater obligation upon him to make provision for me than to obey him cheerfully in this matter. I told him also how our own University might take it ill, custom having made it a debt for her own children that were dependent of her, as I was, to take their degrees there. To this they replied, that my condition was singular, and that the University could not be angry with me if they considered the circumstances I was in. The truth is, had I not complied with their desires, I had been looked upon as a contemner of the only honour this country was capable of conferring upon me, as my Lord's chaplain, and so had gained the ill will of the place. Wherefore to St. Andrews I went, where, after a speech full of compliments and respects to my patron, to my mother the University, and to myself, I was created D. D. in as solemn a manner as could be. My Lord is the patron of the University; it hath three colleges, and that for divinity is the Sorbonne of the kingdom. I hope all these reasons considered, no candid man will think me guilty of temerity or ambition. I could say much more for myself, but the rest when we meet. It will at least be a month ere we return. I wish we may not tarry here all the winter. Pray write I was this day shewed a nest of young rats, which were yesterday killed in a wood-house belonging to University College; which, because of somewhat extraordinary, I thought not amiss to acquaint you with. They were seven in number; two of them well nigh at their full growth, the other five somewhat less; but (which seemed very unusual) all their tails were interwoven like so many strings in a breade, from the rump to the little ends of the tails, so that they could not part. And by that means, the man who first found them (in a nest made of moss, on a bench among the wood) might as well have taken them alive, for by reason of this entanglement they could not go away. The old one, which it seems had continued to feed them to this bigness, did leap with great fury at the |