death. My Lady Stanhope and her husband are going, six weeks hence, into France to the waters of Bourbon, which is all I will say now, only that I am ever

Hague, March 4.

Your most affectionate friend,

ELIZABETH.

I pray you remember me to your lady and to my Lord of Winchelsea.

To the Lord Finch.*

Elizabeth bequeathed her pictures, her books, and her papers to Lord Craven, who had been ever faithful and ever kind. That she was married to that nobleman, though it has been generally credited, has never been actually proved. He was thirteen years her junior; notwithstanding which disparity the feeling which actuated his attentions appears to have been something deeper than friendship. After her decease he is said to have resided principally at Combe Abbey, from its having been the scene of his beloved mistress's childhood.

It would be improper to dismiss our notice of the Queen of Bohemia, without a brief account of her presumed husband, and faithful servant, Lord Craven. He was the son of Sir William Craven, Knight, Merchant Tailor, who served the office of Lord Mayor of London in 1611. Early in life he had achieved a reputation in arms under Gus

* Add. MSS. 4162; Art. 6. Brit. Mus.

tavus Adolphus, and Henry Prince of Orange, which probably led, 12th of March, 1626, to his being created Baron Craven. During the civil wars, having fought bravely and suffered severely in the royal cause, at the Restoration he was raised by Charles II, 15th of March, 1663, to be Viscount and Earl Craven. In 1670 he succeeded the great Duke of Albemarle as Colonel of the Coldstream Guards: he was also a member of the Privy Council to Charles II. and his brother James. To the last, his life was as useful to his fellowcreatures, as his character was brave, generous, and open. He voluntarily remained in London during the time of the great plague, and built a lazaretto for the sick, behind what is now called Golden Square, but which then consisted of open fields. Pennant says, "he braved the fury of the pestilence with the same coolness that he fought the battles of his beloved mistress, Elizabeth, or mounted the tremendous breach at Creutznach:" and Dr. Gumble,* his contemporary, informs us, that he "freely chose to venture his life upon a thousand occasions in this afflicted time, in the midst of the infected; provided nurses and physicians for them that were sick, and out of his own purse expended vast sums of money, to supply the necessities of such as were ready to perish; an honour beyond all his gallantries and brave exploits in Germany and elsewhere."

* Life of Monk, by Thomas Gumble, D.D.

In the same spirit of philanthropy, whenever a fire broke out in London or its vicinity, so eager was he in his exertions, and so immediately was he ever on the spot, that it was said that, "his horse smelt a fire as soon as it happened." It is remarkable, considering the Earl's well-known exertions on such occasions, that, in 1718, his splendid mansion at Hampstead-Marshall, should have been destroyed by fire.

Whether at home or abroad, no one was more generally loved or universally respected. Handsome and gallant in his youth, he was through life, agreeable, benevolent, and kind-hearted. If Elizabeth really accepted him as her husband, what more can be said, than that she showed her judgment and her taste. In his attachment there was something almost amounting to romance. A soldier in early life, he was in his heart a soldier to the last. When, at the accession of James II. it was proposed to take away his regiment from the old courtier, 66 They might as well," he said, "take away my life, for I have nothing else to divert myself with." Notwithstanding his military tastes, the researches of the Royal Society, and the decoration of his own garden, continued, to extreme old age, to be the sources of pleasure and improvement.

A character so amiable may bear to have a single weakness recorded. It is related of him, at the court of Charles the Second, that he had a

failing of whispering in the ears of the principal politicans at court, as if to leave an impression among the by-standers that he was the depository of some state secret. It was on this account that Lord Keeper Guildford used to style him "Earwig." Charles II. was once much amused with seeing the Earl of Dorset, whose high breeding made him a patient listener, undergoing the infliction of Lord Craven's whispering. When they parted, the King inquired of Dorset what he had been listening to. "My Lord Craven," said the Earl, “did me the honour to whisper, but I did not think it good manners to listen."* Lord Craven died, 9th of April, 1697, at the age of eightyeight.

* Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, p. 187.

LADY ARABELLA STUART.

Character of this Lady-her Genealogy-her Importance in the political Intrigues of the Period.-Jealousy of Queen Elizabeth, and subsequently of James, with respect to her— her Lover Sir William Seymour, afterwards Marquess of Hertford her private Marriage to Seymour - Persecution consequent on this.-Imprisonment of Lady Arabella and Seymour their romantic Escape. - Pursuit of the Fugiher Committal to the

tives and Capture of Lady Arabella

Tower, and Death-her Burial in Westminster Abbey.

THOUGH nearly allied to the throne of England, and an object of jealousy to its possessors, it is remarkable how little is really known of the character of this unfortunate lady. By one writer, she is said to have been as little remarkable for beauty as for the qualities of her mind.* By others, her beauty and her genius have been highly extolled. Evelyn places her in his catalogue of learned women, and Philips among his Modern Poetesses.† Lodge in particular speaks of "her good sense, refined education, elegence of manners, and kindness of disposition." Let us, however, draw our own inferences from these contradictory statements, and we shall, perhaps, arrive at the truth. Certain it is, that though she became the object on which + Ballard, p. 248.

* Biog. Brit. vol. i. p.

173.