she inclines more to Afer than Vespusius. 'Tis in circuit thirty English miles, of that ascent and height that 'tis often enveloped with cloudes, from whom she receives moisture to fatten her; and as the land is very high, so the sea at the brink of this isle is excessive deep, and the ascent so immediate, that though the sea beat fiercely on her, yet can no ebb nor flow be well perceived there.

The water is sweet above, but, running down and participating with the salt hills, tastes brackish at his fall into the valleys, which are but two, and those very small, having their appellations from a lemon-tree above, and a ruined chapel placed beneath, built by the Spaniard, and dilapidated by the Dutch. There has been a village about it, lately depopulated from her inhabitants by command from the Spanish king; for that it became an unlawful magazine of seaman's treasure, in turning and returning out of both the Indies, whereby he lost both tribute and prerogative in apparent measure.

Monuments of antique beings nor other rarities can be found here. You see all, if you view the ribs of an old carrick, and some broken pieces of her ordnance left there against the owner's good will or approbation. Goats and hogs are the now dwellers, who multiply in great abundance, and (though unwillingly) afford themselves to hungry and sea-beaten passengers. It has stores of partridge and guineahens, all which were brought thither by the honest Portugal; who now dare neither anchor there, nor own their labours, lest the English or Flemings question them.

The isle is very even and delightful above, and gives a large prospect into the ocean. 'Tis a saying with the seaman, a man there has his choice, whether he will break his heart going up, or his neck coming down; either wish bestowing more jocundity than comfort.

From these writers of voyages and travels we now turn our attention to a very different class of authors-those who exerted themselves in the age of Elizabeth to discover and preserve the remains of antiquity which had come down to their times. Of these Camden, Speed, Spelman, and Colton present the first claim to our notice.

WILLIAM CAMDEN, who, besides being an eminent antiquarian, was one of the best historians of his age, was born in London on the second of May 1551. He received the rudiments of his education at Christ's hospital and St. Paul's school, and at the age of fifteen removed to Magdalen College, Oxford; but completed his studies at Pembroke Hall, in the same univereity. In 1575, he became second master of Westminster school; and while performing the duties of that arduous office, he devoted his leisure hours to the study of the antiquities of Britain-a subject to which, from early years, he had strongly inclined. In order personally to examine ancient remains, he travelled, in 1582, through some of the eastern and northern counties of England; and the fruits of his researches appeared in his most celebrated work entitled, Britain; or a Chorographical Description of the Most Flourishing Kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Adjacent Islands, from Remote Antiquity. This work, originally written in Latin, was published in 1586, and immediately brought the author into high repute as an antiquarian and man of learning. Anxious to improve and enlarge it, he journeyed at several times into different parts of the country, examined archives and relics of antiquity, and collected, with indefatigable industry,

whatever information might contribute to render it more complete. The sixth edition, published in 1607, was that which received Camden's finishing touches; and of this edition an English translation executed, probably with the author's assistance, by Holland, appeared in 1610.

The Britannia' has gone through many subsequent editions, and has proved so useful a repository of antiquarian and topographical knowledge, that it was styled, by Bishop Nicholson, 'the common sun, whereat our modern writers have all lighted their little torches.' The last edition of this great work is that of 1789, in two volumes folio, largely augmented by Gough.

In 1593, Camden became head master of Westminster school, and, for the use of his pupils published, four years after, a Greek grammar. This work soon became so popular as to be adopted in all the principal grammarschools in the kingdom. In the same year, 1597, he received the appointment of Clarencieux king-of-arms, an office which allowed him more leisure for his favorite pursuits; and his connection with Westminster school consequently then terminated. The principal works which he subsequently published are, An Account of the Monuments and Inscriptions in Westminster Abbey; A Collection of Ancient English Histories; A Narrative, in Latin, of the Gunpowder Plot; and Annals of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, also in Latin. The last of these works is praised by Hume as good composition, with respect both to style and matter, and as being 'written with simplicity of expression, very rare in that age, and with strict regard to truth.' Camden died at his own home in Chesselhurst, Kent, on the ninth of November 1623, in his seventy-third year, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Through his long life he was not less illustrious for his virtues than for his learning. In his writings he was candid and modest, in his conversation, easy and innocent, and under every change of fortune, even and exemplary. From the preface to Holland's translation of the 'Britannia,' we extract the account which Camden gives of his own labors :

EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE TO THE BRITANNIA.

I hope it shall be no discredit if I now use again, by way of preface, the same words, with a few more, that I used twenty-four years since in the first edition of this work. Abraham Ortelius, the worthy restorer of ancient geography, arriving here in England about thirty-four years past, dealt earnestly with me that I would illustrate this isle of Britain, or, as he said, that I would restore antiquity to Britain, and Britain to antiquity; which was, (I understood,) that I would renew ancientry, enlighten obscurity, clear doubts, and recall home verity, by way of recovery, which the negligence of writers, and credulity of the common sort, had in a manner proscribed and utterly banished from among us. A painful matter, I assure you, and more than difficult; wherein what toil is to be taken, as no man thinketh, so no mar. believeth but he who hath made the trial. Nevertheless, how much the difficulty discouraged me from it, so much the glory of my country encouraged me to undertake it. So, while at one and the same time I was fearful to undergo the burden, and yet desirous to do some service to my country, I found two different affections, fear and boldness, I know not how, conjoined in one. Notwithstanding, by the most gracious direction of the Almighty, taking industry for my consort, I adventured

upon it, and, with all my study, care, cogitation, continual meditation, pain, and travail, I employed myself thereunto when I had any spare time. I made search after the etymology of Britain and the first inhabitants timorously; neither in so doubtful a matter have I affirmed ought confidently. For I am not ignorant that the first originals of nations are obscure, by reason of their profound antiquity, as things which are seen very deep and far remote; like as the courses, the reaches, the confluences, and the outlets of great rivers are well-known, yet their first fountains and heads lie commonly unknown. I have succinctly run over the Romans' government in Britain, and the inundation of forcing people thereinto, what they were, and from whence they came. I have traced out the ancient divisions of these kingdoms; I have summarily specified the states and judicial courts of the same. In the several counties I have compendiously set down the limits, (and yet not exactly by perch and pole, to breed question,) what is the nature of the soil, which were places of the greatest antiquity, who have been dukes, marquisses, earls, viscounts, barons, and some of the most signal and ancient families therein, (for who can particulate all?) What I have performed, I leave to men of judgment. But time, the most sound and sincere witness, will give the truest information, when envy (which persecuteth the living) shall have her mouth stopped. Thus much give me leave to saythat I have in no wise neglected such things as are material to search and sift out the truth. I have attained to some skill of the most ancient British and Saxon tongues. I have travelled over all England for the most part; I have conferred with most skillful observers in each country; I have studiously read over our own country writers, (old and new,) all Greek and Latin authors which have once made mention of Britain; I have had conference with learned men in the other parts of Christendom; I have been diligent in the records of this realm; I have looked into most libraries, registers, and memorials of churches, cities, and corporations; I have pored over many an old roll and evidence, and produced their testimony (as beyond all exception) when the cause required in their very own words (although barbarous they be) that the honour of verity might in no wise be impeached.

For all this I may be censured as unadvised, and scant modest, who, being but of the lowest form in the school of antiquity, where I might well have lurked in obscurity, have adventured as a scribbler upon the stage in this learned age, amidst the diversities of relishes both in wit and judgment. But to tell the truth unfeignedly, the love of my country, which compriseth all love in it, and hath endeared me to it, the glory of the British name, the advice of some judicious friends, hath overmastered my modesty, and (will'd I, nill'd I) hath enforced me, against mine own judgment, to undergo this burden too heavy for me, and so thrust me forth into the world's view. For I see judgment, prejudices, censures, aspersions, obstructions, detractions, affronts, and confronts as it were, in battle array to environ me on every side; some there are which wholly contemn and avile this study of antiquity as a back-looking curiosity; whose authority as I do not utterly vilify, so I do not overprize or admire their judgment, neither am I destitute of reason whereby I might approve this my purpose to well-bred, well-meaning men, which tender the glory of their native country, and moreover, could give them to understand that, in the study of antiquity, (which is always accompanied with dignity, and hath a certain resemblance with eternity,) there is a sweet food of the mind well befitting such as are of honest and noble disposition. If any there be which are desirous to be strangers in their own soil, and foreigners in their own city, they may so continue, and therein flatter themselves. For such I have not written these lines, nor taken these pains.

JOHN SPEED was born at Farington, Cheshire, in 1555. He was brought up to the business of a tailor, and followed that trade until he rose to such emimence in it as to become one of the principal merchant-tailors in London.

Under what circumstances he abandoned the needle for the pen, is uncertain; but in 1596, he published his first important work under the title of The Theatre of Great Britain, which he afterwards enlarged and greatly improved. In 1606, he published maps of Great Britain and Ireland, with the English shires, hundreds, cities, and shire-towns. This work was much superior to any other of the kind that had then appeared. Speed's great work, the History of Great Britain, was not published till 1614. Though the author enjoyed few of the advantages of education, yet his history is a highly creditable performance, and was, for a long time, the best in existence. He was the first to reject the fables of preceding chroniclers concerning the origin of the Britons, and to exercise a just discrimination in the selection of authorities. His history commences with the original inhabitants of the island, and extends to the union of England and Scotland under James the First, to whom the work is dedicated. Bishop Nicholson characterizes Speed as a person of extraordinary industry and attainments in the study of antiquities. Besides his histories, Speed published, in 1616, The Cloud of Witnesses, or Genealogies of Scriptures, a valuable book of divinity, and often bound up with the Bible. His death occurred on the twenty-eighth of July, 1629, and he was buried in the church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, where a monument was erected to his memory.

เ

HENRY SPELMAN was of a respectable family, and was born at Congham, Norfolk, in 1561. He passed two years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then entered Lincoln's Inn as a student of law. In 1604, he was made Sheriff of Norfolk, and became so well known for his abilities, that the king sent him on three different occasions into Ireland on public business, and afterward appointed him one of the commissioners to inquire into the fees exacted in all the courts and offices in England. He received, soon after, the honor of knighthood from the king, and removing, at the age of fifty, to London, he devoted his life henceforth to historical and antiquarian researches.

Spelman was the intimate friend of Camden, and was a man of remarkably similar tastes. His works are almost exclusively upon legal and ecclesiastical antiquities. Having, in the course of his investigations, found it necessary to study the Saxon language, he embodied the fruits of his labors. in his great work called The Glossary, the object of which is the explanation of obsolete words occurring in the laws of England. Another of his productions is A History of the English Councils, in three parts, the first of which was published in 1639, and the remaining two after the author's death. This is a performance of great learning and research, and embraces an entire history of the church from its first establishment in Britain until the author's own time. Spelman died in London, in 1641, at the advanced age of eighty years, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, near Camden's monument.

The writings of Sir Henry Spelman have furnished valuable materials to

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SIR ROBERT COLTON. THOMAS MAY. [LECT. XVIII. English historians, and he is regarded as the restorer of Saxon literature, both by means of his own studies, and by founding a Saxon professorship at Cambridge.

ROBERT COLTON was descended from a very ancient family, and born at Denton, Huntingdonshire, in 1570. His mind very early developed, and having entered Trinity College, Cambridge, he there took the degree of bachelor of arts before he had passed the fifteenth year of his age. From the university he went to London, where, in his eighteenth year, he became a member of the society of antiquaries, and soon after an industrious collector of records, charters, and writings of every kind relative to the ancient history of England. In the prosecution of his object he enjoyed unusual facilities, the recent suppression of monasteries having thrown many valuable books and written documents into private hands. In 1600, he accompanied Camden on an excursion to Carlisle for the purpose of examining the Picts' wall and other relics of former times. On the accession of James the First, Colton was knighted, and at his suggestion that monarch, in 1611, resorted to the scheme of creating baronets, as a means of supplying the treasury. He died of a fever at Westminster, on the sixth of May, 1631, in his sixtyfirst year.

Sir Robert Colton was the author of various historical, political, and antiquarian works, which are now of little interest except to men of kindred tastes. His name is remembered chiefly for the benefit which he conferred upon literature, by saving his valuable library of manuscripts from dispersion. After being considerably augmented by his son and grandson, it became, in 1706, the property of the public, and in 1757, was deposited in the British Museum. One hundred and eleven of these manuscripts, many of them highly valuable, had before this time been unfortunately destroyed by fire. From those which remain, historians still continue to extract large stores of information. During his lifetime, materials were drawn from his library by Raleigh, Bacon, and Herbert; and he furnished literary assistance to Camden, Speed, and many other contemporary authors. Colton lived on terms of intimacy with all the literary men of eminence of his own country, and held frequent correspondence with distinguished foreign scholars. The historical writings of the authors last mentioned, do not furnish any examples sufficiently characteristic to require quotation.

Besides the eminent antiquarians and historical writers whom we have already noticed, in connection with this period, we have still to glance at May, Hayward, Knolles, Wilson, and Baker--authors though of less celebrity, yet of sufficient importance to require our attention.

THOMAS MAY was descended from an ancient but declining family of Sussex, and was born at Mayfield, in that county, in 1594. He was early instructed in classical learning in the neighborhood of his home, and afterwards entered a commoner in Sidney Sussex-College, Cambridge, where, in