on the outside so finished as it is intended for you; but shall be with all expedition done, and you shall have it. Well, said the king, you must content yourself for a while.

133. The palsgrave, who had left the king discoursing, had stepped into the other room by, and there seen the poor alms-widows' rooms, which were built for them. He then comes to the king, saying, Sir, you shall, if you please to go with me, see another good thing, that will like you well. So the king and prince followed him, and the duke. So being come into the widows' rooms, which were handsomely wainscotted, and four beds in them, after the Dutch manner of their alms-houses, all along the walls, the room being rubbed and cleanly kept, the king looking well about him, and upon all things said, Truly this is worth the sight. I did not think to have seen a thing in this kind, that so well pleaseth me. God's blessing be upon the founders of it! Time was, speaking to the palsgrave, that you would have thought such a lodging not amiss. Yea, sir, said he, and happy I had had it full often. So some questions the king asked about the widows, &c. and going out of the room into a long arbour in the garden, the duke following him, he put his hand into his pocket, and took out of it five pieces in gold, saying to the duke, Let these be given to the poor widows. It is all I have, else they should have more; (these he had won the night before of the palsgrave at cards at Huntingdon) and will them to pray for me.

The

While the king was walking and talking and commending the fine and pleasant situation of the house upon a little hill, which it stood upon, to divers about him, saying, Gidding is a happy place in many respects; I am glad I have seen it: the young lords had gone into the buttery, and there found apple-pies and cheese-cakes, and came out with pieces in their hands into the parlour, to the prince, and merrily said, Sir, will your highness taste? it is a good apple-pie as ever we eat. prince laughed heartily at them: so wine was brought. The king came in, saying, It grows late: the sun is going down: we must away. So their horses were brought to the door. The king mounting, those of the family, men and women, all kneeled down, and heartily prayed God to bless and defend him from his enemies, and give him a long and happy reign. He lifting up his hand to his hat, replied, Pray, pray for my speedy and safe return again. So the prince also took horse, and away they went.

135. And as the king rode through the grounds, he espied a hare sitting, and then called to the duke for his piece, which he carried; and as he sat on horse-back killed the hare; but not so dead, but she ran a little way. But the prince, seeing her rise up, skipped off his horse, and ran after her, through two or three furrows of water, and caught her, and laughing shewed her to the king. And away they went: but it was late before they got to Stamford that night.

136. I had forgot to relate, that the king, a mile before he came at the house, seeing it stand upon a hill, demanded of sir Capel Beedells, who then waited upon him, and sir Richard Stone, the high sheriff, whom he knighted the evening before, when he came into Huntingdon, what house that was that stood so pleasantly. They told him, Little Gidding. Is that it? I must go and visit it. Doth not our way lie beneath it? They said, Aye. Those of the family of Little Gidding out of their windows seeing the king's company afar off, coming that way, they all went down the hill, to the end of the lordship, and at the bridge attended the king's coming that way, as most desirous to see him and to kiss his hands.

When the king came near them,

he asked sir Capel who those people were? He said the Ferrars' and Colletts' family that dwelt at Gidding. So the king approaching foremost of all, they went all to meet him; and kneeling down prayed God to bless and preserve his majesty, and keep him safe from all his enemies' malice. The king gave them all, as they passed by, his hand to kiss. The prince seeing that, came galloping up, and did the like. Some of them went to kiss the palsgrave's hand, but he refused. But turning to the duke, and the other young lords, he said, These ladies will not so soon get up the hill again. Come, let us take them up behind us. And so he came to persuade them. But they excused themselves, and made haste up the hill. The king rode on purpose a foot pace up the hill, talking with sir Capel and Mr.

Hill, and demanding many questions. And this is what then happened at the presenting of this book, which ever since hath been preserved at Gidding, and attends the happy hour to be delivered into the right owner's hand; which God Almighty grant in His due time! Amen, Amen, Amen.

137. Nicholas Ferrar, in a paper found in his study, thus writes in it:

"The king of England (he would say) had more several languages spoken by the subjects of his dominions than any king in Christendom, and therefore deserved to have a Bible of many languages, above other princes.

"There are twelve spoken in his dominions.

"1. English, spoken in England, and a good part of Scotland: those, I mean, that lie next to England. It is chiefly compounded of the Saxon, French, and Latin.

2. Scottish, spoken more northerly in Scotland. It retains more of the old Saxon, and is not mingled with so many French words, as English is. Bishop Douglas translated Virgil into this dialect.

"3. Welsh, spoken in Wales.

'4. Cornish, spoken in Cornwall. It is a dialect of the Welsh, but very various.

"5. Irish, spoken in Ireland.

"6. Scot-Irish, a dialect of Irish; and is spoken in the Hebrides, islands lying on the West of Scotland.

"7. Hethyan. Hethy is an island of the Orcades, in which is spoken a language which is a dialect of the Gothish or Norwegian.

"8. There is in Pembrokeshire in Wales, a country called Little England beyond Wales. They use a language compounded of the Dutch and Welsh.

"9. In the islands of Guernsey and Jersey they speak a corrupt kind of French, somewhat like the Walloon, which the Belgæ qui non teutonizant speak.

"10. In the famous Isle of Man is spoken a language that is compounded of Welsh, Irish, Norwegian, but most Irish words.

"This island deserves, and the people of it, a perpetual memorial, for many excellent things in it: which I cannot but thus briefly touch, in regard that my learned and pious uncle Nicholas Ferrar, of blessed memory, who had seen many parts of the world, would highly commend it, as a happy place to live in. For he would say, it were to be wished, and happy it were for England, that the same manner for law were here used, being a speedy and right way of justice, the soul of a kingdom, &c. That there were no beggars found in that island: that the inhabitants were most honest and religious, loving their pastors, to whom they use much reverence and respect; they frequenting duly divine service, without division in the church or innovation in the commonwealth. They detest the disorders, as well civil as ecclesiastical, of neighbour nations. And the women of this country, to their no small commendation, whenever they go out of the doors, gird themselves about with that winding-sheet that they purpose to be buried in, to shew themselves perpetually mindful of their mortality. O rare example to all!

"II. The languages spoken by the savages in the Virginia plantation.

66 12. That other kind also spoken

in New England by those savages.

These in the New

World."

Also there was another paper that named all the mothertongues, with their daughters, which as yet I cannot find: but hope I shall; and then will it be here underneath to be added. Sir, you know I did once shew it you in his study, with the other works before mentioned, and these that follow.