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faithful eye-witnesses of those things which others receive but in trust, whereunto they must yield an intuitive consent, and a kind of implicit faith. When I passed through some parts of Lombardy, among other things I observed the physiognomies and complexions of the people, men and women; and I thought I was in Wales, for divers of them have a cast of countenance, and a nearer resemblance with our nation than any I ever saw yet and the reason is obvious; for the Romans having been near upon three hundred years among us, where they had four legions (before the English nation or language had any being), by so long a coalition and tract of time, the two nations must needs copulate and mix; insomuch, that I believe there is yet remaining in Wales many of the Roman race, and divers in Italy of the British, Among other resemblances, one was in their prosody, and vein of versifying or rhyming, which is like our bards, who hold agnominations, and enforcing of consonant words or syllables one upon the other, to be the greatest elegance. As for example, in Welsh, Tewgris, todyrris ty'r derryn, gwillt, &c. so I have seen divers old rhymes in Italian running so; Donne, O danno, che felo affronto, affronta: in selva salvo a me: Piu caro cuore, &c.

Being lately in Rome, among other pasquils I met with one that was against the Scots; though it had some gall in it, yet it had a great deal of wit, especially towards the conclusion; so that I think, if King James saw it, he would but laugh at it.

As I remember, some years since, there was a very abusive satire in verse brought to our king;

and as the passages were a reading before him he often said, that if there were no more men in England, the rogue should hang for it: at last, being come to the conclusion, which was (after all his railing :)

"Now God preserve the king, the queen, the peers,
And grant the author long may wear his ears;"

this pleased his majesty so well, that he broke into a laughter, and said, "By my saul, so thou shalt for me: thou art a bitter, but thou art a witty knave."

When you write to Monmouthshire, I pray send my respects to my tutor, master Moor Fortune, and my service to sir Charles Williams: and according to that relation which was betwixt us at Oxford, I rest your constant son to serve you.

LETTER LIII.

JAMES HOWEL, ESQ. TO DAN. CALDWALL, ESQ. From the Lord Savage's House in Long Melford.

20th of May, 1619.

MY DEAR DAN, THOUGH, Considering my former condition of life, I may now be called a countryman, yet you cannot call me a rustic (as you would imply in your letter) as long as I live in so civil and noble a family, as long as I lodge in so virtuous and regular a house as any I believe in the land, both for economical government and the choice company; for I never

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saw yet such a dainty race of children in all my life together; I never saw yet such an orderly and punctual attendance of servants, nor a great house so neatly kept; here one shall see no dog, nor a cat, nor cage, to cause any nastiness within the body of the house. The kitchen and gutters, and other offices of noise and drudgery, are at the fagend; there is a back-gate for the beggars and the meaner sort of swains to come in at; the stables butt upon the park, which for a cheerful rising ground, for groves and browsings for the deer, for rivulets of water, may compare with any for its highness in the whole land; it is opposite to the front of the great house, whence, from the gallery, one may see much of the game when they are a hunting. Now for the gardening and costly choice flowers, for ponds, for stately large walks, green and gravelly, for orchards and choice fruits of all sorts, there are few the like in England; here you have your bon Christian pear and bergamot in perfection; your muscadel grapes in such plenty, that there are some bottles of wine sent every year to the king; and one Mr. Daniel, a worthy gentleman hard by, who hath been long abroad, makes good store in his vintage. Truly, this house of Long Melford, though it be not so great, yet it is so well compacted and contrived with such dainty conveniencies every way, that if you saw the landscape of it, you would be mightily taken with it, and it would serve for a choice pattern to build and contrive a house by. If you come this summer to your manor of Sheriff, in Essex, you will not be far off hence; if your occasions will permit, it will be worth your coming hither, though it be

only to see him, who would think it a short journey to go from St. David's Head to Dover Cliffs to see and serve you, were there occasion: if you would know who the same is, it is yours, &c.

LETTER LIV.

JAMES HOWEL, ESQ. TO HIS BROTHER, H. PENRY,

SIR,

Upon his Marriage.

20th May, 1622. You have had a good while the interest of a friend in me, but you have me now in a straighter tie, for I am your brother by your late marriage, which hath turned friendship into an alliance; you have in your arms one of my dearest sisters, who I hope, nay I know, will make a good wife. I heartily congratulate this marriage, and pray that a blessing may descend upon it from that place where all marriages are made, which is from heaven, the fountain of all felicity: to this prayer I think it no profaneness to add the saying of the lyric poet, Horace, in whom I know you delight much; and I send it you as a kind of epithalamium, and wish it may be verified in you both:

Falices ter et amplius

Quo irrupta tenet copula, nec malis
Divulsus querimoniis

Suprema citius solvet amor die.

THUS ENGLISHED:

That couple's more than trebly bless'd,
Which nuptial bonds do so combine,
That no distaste can them untwine,
Till the last day send both to rest.

So, my dear brother, I much rejoice for this alliance, and wish you may increase and multiply to your heart's content. Your affectionate brother.

LETTER LV.

JAMES HOWEL, ESQ. TO THE HON. JOHN SAVAGE, (Now Earl of Rivers) at Florence.

I am

SIR, London, 24th March, 1622. My love is not so short but it can reach as far as Florence to find you out, and farther too, if occasion required; nor are these affections I have to serve you so dull, but they can clamber over the Alps and Appenines to wait upon you, as they have adventured to do now in this paper. sorry I was not in London to kiss your hands before you set to sea, and much more sorry that I had not the happiness to meet you in Holland or Brabant, for we went the very same road, and lay in Dort and Antwerp, in the same lodgings you had lain in a fortnight before. I presume you have by this time tasted the sweetness of travel, and that you have weaned your affections from England for a good while: you must now think upon home, as (one said) good men think upon heaven, aiming still to go thither, but not till they finish their course; and yours, I understand, will be three years in the mean time you must not suffer any melting tenderness of thoughts, or longing desires, to distract or interrupt you in that fair road you are in to virtue; and to beautify within that comely edifice which nature hath built without you. I

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