to me; and the Lord in mercy bless you, both with grace in your soul and the good things of this life.

Your most affectionate mother till death,
BRILLIANA HARLEY.

Be careful to keep the Sabbath.
Nov. 2, 1638.

She keeps him frugally endowed with money, but it seems to be all she can spare. "I have sent you a little purse with some small money in it, all the pence I had, that you may have a penny to give to a poor body; and a pair of gloves, not that I think you have not better in Oxford, but that you may sometimes remember her that seldom has you out of her thoughts."

A woman of gentle birth herself, how full of gentlewomanly feeling is the following passage!

Mr. Scudamore, that dwells hard by Hereford, who married my Lord Scudamore's sister, told your father the other day at Hereford, that he would see you at Oxford; he has been abroad in France and Italy if he do come :: to you be careful to use him with all respect. But in the entertaining of any such be not put out of yourself; speak freely, and always remember, that they are but men ; and for being gentlemen, it puts no distance between you; for you have part in nobleness of birth: though some have place before you, yet you may be in their company. And this I say to you, not to make you proud or conceited of yourself, but that you should know yourself, and so not to be put out of yourself, when you are in better company than ordinary: for I have seen many, when they come in to good company, lose themselves. Surely they have too high esteem of man; for they can go boldly to God, and lose themselves before men. Remember, therefore, when you are with them, that you are but with those who are such as yourself; though

some wiser and more honourable.

This account of her reading, and her criticism on Luther, are at least curious.

Having been often not well, and confined to so solitary a place as my bed, I made choice of an entertainment for my. self which might be easy and of some benefit to myself; in which I made choice to read the Life of Luther, written by Mr. Calvin. I did the more willingly read it because he is generally branded with ambition, which caused him to do what he did, and that the papists do so generally upbraid us that we cannot tell where our religion was before Luther; and some

have taxed him of an intemperate life. These reasons made me desire to read his Life, to see upon what ground these opinions were built; and finding such satisfaction to myself, how falsely these were raised, I put it into English, and here inclosed have sent it you; it is not all his Life, for I put no more into English than was not in the book of Martyrs.

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These things of note I find in it, firstly, what Luther acknowledges, he was instructed in the truth by an old man, who led him to the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ and Erasmus, when his opinion was asked of Luther, said he was in the right. It is true the truth was much obscured with error; and then it pleased the Lord to raise up Luther as a trumpet to proclaim His truth, and as a standard-bearer to hold out the ensign of His truth; which did but make those to appear of the Lord's side, who were so before. And it is apparent to me that no ambitious ends moved Luther; for in all the course of his life he never showed ambition though he loved learning, yet, as far as I can observe, he never affected to be esteemed more learned than he was. So that in Luther we see our own faces; they that stand for the old true way they bring up new doctrines, and it is ambition, under the veil of religion. Another observation I find in Luther, that all his fasting and strictness, in the way of popery, never gave him peace of conscience; for he had great fears till he had thoroughly learned the doctrine of justification by Christ alone; and so it will be with us all; no peace shall we have in our own righteousness. And one thing more I must tell you, that I am not of their mind who think if he had been of a milder temper it had been better; and so Erasmus says; but I think no other spirit could have served his turn. He was to cry aloud, like a trumpet; he was to have a Jonas spirit. Thus, my dear Ned, you may see how willingly I impart anything to you in which I find any good. I may truly say I never enjoy anything that is good but presently my thoughts reflect upon you; but if anything that is evil befall me I would willingly bear it all myself, and so willingly would I bear the ill you should have, and rejoice that you should enjoy what is good.

We are bound to note some great curiosities of spelling. Perhaps, indeed, they may not be much worse than those of Lady Rachel Russell, with which we are not in general favoured, though we know pretty well by specimens what they must have been. Our Lady Brilliana gives us

"Pheb." for February; Cheshire bears the remarkable appearance of "Schescheare" (p. 158); and q often stands for k, as in "remarquabell," and "scheer" for shire. Essex seems to be "Execkes." Deceive is an awful word; she brings it out in new fashion, "deceaufe." The most common mistake is in the transposition of letters,-write is in general "rwite," &c. "susphicient" for sufficient, &c. &c.

In our extracts it will be seen that we mostly take the liberty of giving what this true gentlewoman meant to write rather than what her pen occasionally did write; and, indeed, we cannot at all see why the editor should conceive bad spelling to be so very sacred a thing. It may be satisfactory in the first publication of an important document, on which matters of real consequence depend, to give an exact facsimile; but when a lady expressing herself clearly and well, yet, through defective education, writes "Schescheare" for "Cheshire," and "Pheby" for "Feb"," it is difficult to understand why we must have to puzzle over her errors. These, however, are smaller matters. We are most bound to note her candour and self-watchfulness, as where, speaking of some good but injudicious men, she begs her son "to look through the clouds of their infirmities upon the sunshine of their virtues," and sees the dangers of the day on every side; as at p. 69:

I am half of an opinion to put your brothers out to school. They continue still stiff in their opinions; and, in my apprehension, upon small ground. My

fear is lest we should fall into the same error as Calvin did, who was so earnest in opposing the popish holydays that he intrenched upon the holy Sabbath; so I fear we shall be so earnest in beating down their too much vilifying of the Common Prayer Book, that we shall say more for it than ever we intended.

My dear Ned, keep always a watch over your precious soul; tie yourself to a daily self-examination; think over the company you have been in, and what your discourse was, and how you found yourself affected; how in the discourses of religion observe what knowledge you were able to express,

and with what affection to it; and where

you find yourself to come short labour to repair that want; if it be in knowledge of any point, read something that may inform you in what you find you know not; if GENT. MAG. VOL. XLI.

the fault be in affections, that you find a weariness in that discourse of religion, go to God, beg of Him new affections to love those things which by nature we cannot love. After discourse call to mind whether

you have been too apt to take exceptions, or whether any have provoked you, and examine yourself how you took it. My dear Ned, you are to me next my own heart; and this is the rule I take with myself, and I think it is the best way to be acquainted with our own hearts, for we know not what is in us till occasions and temptation draw out that matter which lies quiet; and in a due observation we shall find at last in what we are proud, in what fearful, and what will vex and eat our hearts with care and grief. I can speak it of myself, there are many things which I see wise men and women trouble

themselves with, that I bless my gracious God for they never touched my heart; but I will not clear myself, for there are some things that of myself I cannot bear them; so that if I should have only observed myself in some things, should think I were of so settled a mind I would not be moved; but I know there are blasts that trouble any calm which is not settled upon that Rock which is higher than ourselves. My dear Ned, I will not excuse my length of lines, though it may be you may think it too long a letter; but rather think upon the affection with which I write it, who am Your most affectionate mother, BRILLIANA HARLEY. Nov. 1, 1639, Bromton Castle.

The interest with which she follows the political career of her husband and son may be anticipated. We have brief touches of all the principal matters in agitation-of Lord Strafford's trial, &c. Intimations occur occasionally of differences in the views of the young

brothers left at home. "Your brother Robin," she says, "cares not to know how it goes in the Parliament. Your brother Tom is the likest you, and loves Her anxieties about you dearly." health are great. She wishes his "lodgings were at Linconsine (Lincoln's Inn), and not in the laine (Chancery-lane) over against it; those laines were the unsweatests places in London, and always the sickness is in those places. I could wish you had rather been in the Temple or Graseine (Gray's Inn). Graseine, my thinks, is a fine place." She concludes with sending him "a peace of angelica roote;" he may carry it in his pocket, and bite Yet healthfulness sometimes of it."

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in Brampton Bryan Castle was not to be boasted of. Fevers and agues and severe colds seem to have been the order of the day among its inmates, and bleeding and blistering the perpetual practice.

Edward Harley, in spite of his mother's anxious wishes and endeavours, was not in Parliament during her lifetime. In fact his youth (only 18) at the time when she hoped that the death of the Member for Hereford would have opened the way to his election, itself would have rendered it undesirable; but this she does not appear to have felt. In 1642 a somewhat more suitable charge offered. He was made captain of a troop of horse in the Parliamentary army, which he joined under the command of Sir William Waller, and afterwards had a regiment of foot. In the various skirmishes and

actions in which this command engaged him, he met with several escapes and some severe wounds. Meanwhile, the calls upon his mother's courage and patience were great.

Whilst Sir Robert was engaged in Parliament, she became an object of suspicion to her loyal neighbours, and after repeated minor provocations and threatenings, the plunderings of his park of deer and game, and the withholding of his rents, the castle was surrounded by the soldiers of the royalists or "malignants," under Sir William Vavasour and Colonel Lingen. Shut up now in Brampton Castle with her children, and neighbours, "who resorted thither to keep themselves from the plunder and villanous usage then the practice of the Cavaliers," with the advice of Dr.

Nathaniel Wright, a physician of Hereford, frequently in attendance upon her, and who now, with his wife, took up his quarters there, and devoted himself and his money to the cause, and that of a veteran, sent to her by Colonel Massey from Gloucester, and her own servants, she defended it with a prudence and valour worthy of her distinguished family. The siege commenced 25 July, 1643, "on a day on which she and her young children were engaged in prayer and humiliation for the mercy of God to avert the dreadful judgment then justly feared," and continued for six weeks; when the besiegers, alarmed by the operations in and about the Forest of Dean, were hurried off to the neighbourhood of Gloucester. "The first stroke of the Cavaliers in the siege was upon a

poor aged blind man, who was without any provocation killed in the street." During the siege "the cook was shot by a poisoned bullet, and a running stream that furnished the village was poisoned." The church, parsonage-house, and dwelling houses, together with 'the mill about a quarter of a mile off, with the buildings belonging to the castle, were all destroyed: and early in the following year, Sir Michael Woodhouse, governor of Ludlow (having been successful in his brutal attack on Hopton Castle, which, in its distress, had received assistance from Brampton Castle), came before it again, when, after a gallant defence made by the servants, under Dr. Wright's direction, it surrendered at mercy only, and the inmates, including three of Sir Robert's younger children, were taken prisoners, after a siege of three weeks. There were taken 67 men, 100 arms, two barrels of powder, and a whole year's provisions.*

The letters written by Lady Brilliana during this time of trial are brief and cautious. They indicate, however, great distress.

My dear Ned, I know it will grieve you to know how I am used. It is with all the malice that can be. Mr. Wigmore will not let the fowler bring me any fowl, nor will not suffer any of my servants pass. They have forbid my rents to be paid. They draw away the young horses at Wigmore, and none of my servants dare go scarce as far as the town. And, dear Ned, if God were not merciful to me, I should be in a very miserable condition. I am threatened every day to be beset with soldiers. My hope is the Lord will not deliver me nor mine into their hands; for surely they would use all cruelty towards me, for I am told that they desire not to leave your father neither root nor branch. You and I must forgive them. Dear Ned, desire the prayers of the godly for us at Brompton. I desire to

as it is possible that I may keep the possession of your father's house for him.

I know not whether this will come to

your hand or no, but this I know, that I long to hear from you, and I pray God bless you, as I desire the soul should be blessed, of your

Most affectionate mother,
BRILLIANA HARLEY.

Jan. 28, 1642. Again

Now they say they will starve me out of my house; they have taken away all your father's rents, and they say they will

drive away the cattle, and then I shall have nothing to live upon; for all their aim is to enforce me to let those men I have go, that then they might seize upon my house and cut our throats by a few rogues, and then say they knew not who did it; for so they say they knew not who drove away the six colts, but Mr. Conningsby keeps them, though I have written to him for them. They have used all means to leave me have no man in my house, and tell me that then I shall be safe; but I have no cause to trust them. I thank God we are all well.

How affectionately the mother's heart cleaves to her son is seen to the last.

My dear Ned. -On Saturday I received your letter by Raphe. Your being well is mine, and therefore you may believe I rejoice in it. That you left me with sorrow, when you went last from Brompton, I believe; for I think, with comfort I think of it, that you are not only a child, but one with child-like affections to me, and I know you have so much understand ing that you did well weigh the condition I was in; but, I believe it, your leaving of me was more sorrow than my condition could be; but I hope the Lord will in mercy give you to me again, for you are both a Joseph and a Benjamin to me, and, dear Ned, long to see me; and I hope when you have spent some little time in the army you will come to Brompton. Since you desired your brother to come to you, I could not deny it, though I was loth to leave him (give him leave?). I hope he is come, before this, safe to you; and I pray God bless you both together, and that I may again have you return in safety with your dear father.

But this continual strife, combined with the anxieties and uncertainties of absence, could not be endured much longer; and this excellent woman, always of delicate health, seems to have sunk under a new threatening of the enemy and an attack of severe cold. In this state she wrote her last letter, dated Oct. 9th, 1643, and died a very few days afterwards, leaving her husband with three sons and four daughters: Edward, Robert, and Thomas; Brilliana, Dorothea, Margaret, and Elizabeth. Doubtless her remains were interred in the family tomb at Brampton Bryan church; yet, as the building was

then a ruin, and the registers for the time destroyed, no record of her burial remains. Two good and moderate divines, Pierson and Stanley Gower, were the rectors during the whole career of Lady Brilliana. The church was rebuilt by Sir Edward Harley during his father's life, and was reopened for the first time on occasion of the funeral of Sir Robert, which took place on the 10th Dec. 1656, just thirteen years after the death of Lady Brilliana; the funeral sermon being preached by the Rev. Thomas Froysell, minister of Clun, in Somersetshire, an old attached family friend and greatly respected these compositions will find a long exclergyman. Whoever is curious in tract from the sermon in the present volume.

It partakes of that bigh encomiastic strain, with its necessary disclaimer of merit, so usual in the funeral addresses of the day. Those, on the other hand, who dwell with greater interest on the traces of a mother's influence will have pleasure in following out whatever can now be known of the son of Brilliana Harley.

he steered his course in a middle path, We can only here briefly say that with no deviation from principle, but as one might well do who had seen much of extreme parties and hated their violence. Never shrinking from the odium of Presbyterianism, he was of course no favourite at the court of Charles the Second, though willing enough to make trial of the Stuart again. Charles gave him the government of Dunkirk, on receiving which he was made a knight. He married twice. His first wife, to whom he was united about a year after his mother's death, was the daughter of a Devonshire baronet; his second, of a Gloucestershire squire. By the first he had four daughters; by the second Robert, afterwards first Earl of Oxford; Edward, Auditor of the Imprest; Nathaniel, a merchant of Aleppo; Brian; and Abigail.

Sir Edward Harley lived to the age of 76, and died at Brampton Bryan, Dec. 8th, 1700.