and in particular, in a dispute between it and the college of surgeons relative to the authority of the latter to employ internal remedies in the treatment of certain diseases. The first annals of the college were written by him, and extend from 1555 to 1572. In the reign of Mary, he received permission to endow Gonville hall, in Cambridge, which was erected into a college with the names cf Gonville and Caius. He added to the funds of the college estates sufficient to maintain three fellows and twenty scholars. In 1559, he was made master of Gonville and Caius; and, six years afterwards, resigning his post as president of the college of physicians, he came down to the university to superntend the erection of new buildings in his college. He now resided entirely in Cambridge; and, on resigning the mastership of his college, he continued, as a fellow-commoner, to attend the chapel daily and assist at prayers. In this retirement he kept up his literary pursuits, and published many works, besides composing much which continues in MS. According to Mouffet's Health's Improvement,' he was reduced to a state of great debility before his death, and endeavoured to sustain his strength by the food of infancy. His death took place on the 19th of July, 1573, in the 63d year of his age. He lies in the chapel of his own college, where a monument is erected to his memory, with the simple inscription,-FUI CAIUS.

His name is recorded in a more substantial manner in the name of the college which his munificence enriched, and in the works of learn ing which he has left behind. During his residence in Italy, his first work appeared, consisting of a learned commentary on the treatise, 'De administrationibus Anatomicis,' attributed to Galen, and on that of the same author, entitled, ' De motu Musculorum.' This appeared at Basil, in 1544. His researches into the libraries of Italy enabled him to restore a treatise by Hippocrates, De Anatomia,' and to publish one which had hitherto existed only in manuscript, De Medicamentis.' Of other critical works he wrote a treatise on the consonance of the English with the Greek and Latin languages; and various annotations on Celsus which were never published. He wrote a system of medicine entitled, De Methodo medendi,' which appeared at Basil in 1544. Another medical work, the only one of his which appeared in English, was printed in 1552. It is entitled, 'A Boke, or Counseill against the disease, commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sickness. Made by Ihon Caius, doctor in Phisicke, &c.' This disease made its appearance at the time when Dr Caius practised at Shrewsbury, and his description is the best that is extant. He calls it a "contagious pestilential fever of one day"-and describes it as prevailing "with a mighty slaughter, and the description of it as tremendous as the plague of Athens." The practice of medicine was not then so far advanced as to render this work of much value in a practical point of view, but it displays deep learning. As a naturalist, Caius was very well informed. Some of his papers were inserted in the works of the celebrated Gesner, and afterwards appeared in a separate form in London, 1570. He was induced by Gesner to write a treatise on British dogs, in 1570. The arrangement which he followed has been adopted by Mr Pennant in his British Zoology. As an antiquarian, Caius distinguished himself on several occasions. Besides the extensive research exhibited by almost all his works, we have proof of his ingenuity in a vindication of

Cambridge, entitled 'De Antiquitate Cantabrigiæ academiæ.' One Key, or Caius, of All Souls college, Oxford, had asserted the superior antiquity of that university over that of Cambridge. This was answered by the work of Caius above mentioned, wherein, by much ingenious reasoning, he fixes the origin of the university of Cambridge at a period of 394 years before Christ! The works of Dr Caius, both published and in MS. are enumerated in a book which he published in 1570, entitled De Libris propriis.' Respecting the private character of Caius, little is known. He appears to have been of a studious disposition; and we may judge of his liberality of feeling from his munificence o his Alma mater.

Raphael Holinshed.

BORN CIR. A. d. 1520.-died a. d. 1580.

Of this useful and industrious writer, who has rescued many illustrious persons and facts from oblivion, there is but little account transmitted to posterity. We are informed that he was descended from a family of the same name at Bosely in Cheshire. Bishop Tanner says that he was educated in Cambridge, where he commenced master of arts in 1544. If so, we may conjecture that he was born about the year 1520. It has been thought that he was educated as a clergyman, and exercised the ministry; but this opinion seems to be confuted by the expressions in his will, of which the following is a copy, as given by Mr Hearne, in his preface to Camden's annals :—

"In the name of God, amen. I, Raphael Hollynshed of Bromecote, in the county of Warwick, ordaine and make my last will and testament in manner and form following:-First, I bequeath my sinful soule to almighty God, the creator of me and all mankind, trusting that, by the merits and blood-shedding of his dearest Son, Jesus Christ, he will pardon me of all my offences, and place my said sinfull soule, washed and purged from the filth of sin, among the number of his elect in the bliss of heaven. Secondly, for my worldly goods, whatsoever the same be, wherein I have any property to give and bestow the same, I give and bequeath them, and every part and parcel of them unto my master, Thomas Burdett of Bromcote, aforesaid, Esq., making and constituting him my only and sole executor. In witness whereof I have written my last will and testament with mine own hand, and subscribed my name, and put to my seale, the first day of October, in the year of our Lord God, a thousand five hundred, seventy-eight. "PER ME RAPHAEL HOLLYNSHED.

"Proved April 24th, 1582."

From this document, and from his literary labours, must be gathered the most that can be known of the chronicler. From these sources we learn, that though he might not have received a university education, he was a man of competent learning, and possessed of all the qualities of a diligent and faithful historian; that he was held in high estimation by the learned antiquaries of his day, with some of whom he was as

sociated in his works; that his life was divided between these useful labours and the faithful discharge of his duties as steward to the estate of the gentleman named in his will, and to whom he bequeathed all his worldly goods; and that he lived and died in the faith of a true protestant. This is substantially the life and character of Ralph Holinshed, and it is sufficient to commend him as a good man, and a worthy member of society, who lived rather for the benefit of posterity than for any sordid, personal ends.

The following is an account of the voluminous chronicles of Holinshed, in which work he was assisted by William Harrison, a beneficed clergyman of Kent, John Hooker, alias Vowell of Exeter, gent., uncle to the celebrated Richard Hooker, and a considerable antiquary, and Abraham Fleming, rector of St Pancras, London. "Vol. I. contains an Historical Description of the Iland of Britaine, in three books, by William Harrison: next, the Historie of England, from the time that it was first inhabited, untill the time that it was last conquered; by R. Holinshed. Vol. II. contains the description, conquest, inhabitation, and troublesome estate of Ireland; particularly the description of that kingdom, compiled by Richard Stanihurst. The conquest of Ireland translated from the Latin of Giraldus Cambrensis, by John Hooker, alias Vowell, of Exeter, gent. The chronicles of Ireland beginning where Giraldus did end, continued until the year 1509, from Philip Flatsburie, Henrie of Marleborow, Edm. Campian, &c.; by R. Hollynshed, and from thence to the year 1586, by R. Stanihurst and J. Hooker. The Description of Scotland, translated from the Latin of Hector Boethius, by R. H. or W. H. The Historie of Scotland, conteining the beginning, increase, proceedings, continuance, acts, and government of the Scotish nation, from the original thereof unto the yeere 1571, gathered by Raphael Holinshed, and continued from 1571 to 1586, by Francis Botevile, alias Thin, and others. Vol. iii. begins at Duke William the Norman, commonlie called the Conqueror, and descends by degrees of yeeres to all the kings and queenes of England. First compiled by Raphaell Holinshed, and by him extended to the yeare 1577; augmented and continued to the yeare 1586, by John Stow, Francis Thin, Abraham Fleming, and others."

In the second edition of the Chronicles, several sheets were castrated in the second and third volumes, chiefly of Thin's additions, because there were passages in them disagreeable to Queen Elizabeth and her ministry. These castrations were made by order of the privy council. They are, however, published separately, under the name of Castrations to Holinshed's Chronicle.' In the late reprint of the series of English Chronicles by the booksellers of London, Holinshed took the precedence, and was accurately edited in six volumes, 4to.

The time of Holinshed's death is not exactly known; but it ap pears from his will, that it was between the first day of October, 1578, and the twenty-fourth of April, 1582. Bishop Tanner says he died at Bromeote, in 1580.

Sir Philip Sidney.

BORN A. D. 1554.-died A. D. 1586.

THIS bright ornament of his country' was born at Penshurst in Kent, on the 29th of November, 1554. On the mother's side he was descended from the famous Dudleys, dukes of Northumberland; his father, though sprung from a less splendid source, was yet the representative of an old and respectable family, and, which is of more importance, was a man of rare talents and exalted virtues. Educated under his eye, and possessing so much inherent talent, the young Sidney's youth gave bright promise of his manhood, and, according to the testimony of his friend and biographer Sir Fulke Greville, made all who knew him, look upon him as one who was destined to play no undistinguished part on the great stage of life. Having imbibed the rudiments of knowledge at Shrewsbury school, he went to Oxford in 1569, and subsequently to Cambridge, where he applied himself to exploring, not only the common track of literature, but also its more hidden recesses, with a vehemence and intensity, as unusual as it was honourable. "Such was his appetite for learning," says Fuller, "that he could never be fed fast enough therewith, and so quick and strong his digestion, that he soon turned it into wholesome nourishment and thrived healthfully thereon." After leaving the university he went abroad, not for the purpose of plunging into dissipation, or of amusing himself with new scenes; but to gain the acquaintance of learned men, —to make farther acquisitions to his literary store,-to enlarge his mind by contemplating foreign customs and manners,-to observe the form of government under which the people were happiest,―to inquire into the resources and policy of states, and, in a word, so to expand his intellect, as to make him a worthy member of the first commonwealth in Europe. During his stay in Paris, the massacre of St Bartholomew deluged the French capital with blood, and covered the French name with eternal infamy. Sidney escaped in that night of crime by taking refuge in the house of the British ambassador, Sir Francis Walsingham, to whose care he had been recommended by his uncle, the famous earl of Leicester. From France he proceeded on his travels through Germany, Hungary, Italy and Belgium, diligently pursuing, wherever he came, all arts which it befitted a gentleman or scholar to know, and every where acquiring the love and admiration of those with whom he consorted. The most celebrated men of the day, disregarding his youth, admitted him to their intimacy. The two learned printers, Robert and Henry Stephens, Daniel Rogers, the poet Tasso, Zacharias Ursinus and others of almost equal eminence, honoured him with their friendship. One distinguished man, the justly-famous Hubert Languet, appears to have regarded him with an almost paternal affection, and by the excellent advice which he gave him, both orally and in frequent letters, contributed no little to confirm him in the bright path of honour and virtue on which he had already entered.

After an absence of three years, Sidney returned to England in May 1575.

His varied learning, his refined manners and polished mind, speedily made him the pride and admiration of the English court, to which probably the singular beauty of his personal appearance conduced. "He was so essential," says Fuller, "to the English court, that it seemed maimed without his company, being a complete master of matter and language." The queen-than whom none was more skilled in choosing fit agents for her purposes-soon discerned his talents, and in 1576, sent him as ambassador, ostensibly to condole with the Emperor Rodolph on the demise of his father Maximilian the II., and on a similar mission to John Casimir, count-palatine of the Rhine, whose father also was lately deceased. The real object of these embassies, was to consolidate a union of all the protestant states, against their common foe the catholic powers, in which Sidney succeeded. He had also the good fortune to acquire the friendship, not only of the potentates to whom he was sent as ambassador, but likewise of the illustrious William Prince of Orange, "one of the ripest and greatest counsellors at that day in Europe." Different as were these two eminent men in station, they were of kindred mind, and their friendship appears to have been as warm and sincere as could have existed between equals. On Sidney's return to England, he was highly applauded for the conduct of his embassies. "There hathe not been any gentleman, I am sure, these many yeres," writes Sir John Walsingham to Sidney's father, "that hathe gon throughe so honorable a charge with as great commendacions as he." For some time after his return he continued at court, diligently performing all the duties of a good son and a good subject, though, as may be inferred from Languet's letters, the life of a courtier had few charms for him. When the marriage between the queen and the duke of Anjou was in agitation, Sidney with memorable patriotism, wrote a long letter to the queen, in which he set forth, though at great risk of incurring her displeasure, many strong reasons against the match. This letter which is still extant, was distinguished not less by the force of its argument than by the beauty of its style, and, as Strype thinks, had considerable influence in swaying the queen's mind against the marriage.

About this time he got involved in a quarrel with the earl of Oxford, in consequence of which he retired from the court for a short time to Wilton, a beautiful seat belonging to his brother-in-law, the earl of Pembroke. It was here that he is supposed to have written his Arcadia.' This singular romance, being intended merely for the amusement of his sister, the countess of Pembroke, was composed on detached sheets of paper at different intervals, and each sheet was sent to the countess as soon as it was filled. She, who tenderly loved her brother, treasured up the manuscripts carefully, and some years after his death allowed them to be printed, contrary, it is said, to his dying wish.

Of the estimation in which Sidney was held, not only in England, but throughout Europe, it is no small proof that, young as he was, his assistance was personally requested in 1579, by one of the candidates for the crown of Portugal. Sidney would have complied with the request, had not the queen, who held his safety very dear, forbidden him. The queen also prevented him from embarking in an expedition which,