myself, wherein, though your servant insisted further than, I am sure, would ever enter into your thoughts, I cannot but take it as a part of a faithful servant in him. But if your lordship, or your lady, find it inconvenient for you to part with the house, I would rather provide myself otherwise than any way incommodate you, but will never slack any thing of my affection to do you service; whereof, if I have not yet given good proof, I will desire nothing more than the fittest occasion to show how much I am

Your lordship's faithful servant,
G. BUCKINGHAM.

October, 1621.

TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

MY VERY GOOD Lord,

An unexpected accident maketh me hasten this letter to your lordship, before I could despatch Mr. Meautys; it is that my lord keeper hath stayed my pardon at the seal. But it is with good respect; for he saith it shall be private, and then he would forthwith write to your lordship, and would pass it if he received your pleasure; and doth also show his reason of stay, which is, that he doubteth the exception of the sentence of Parliament is not well drawn, nor strong enough, which, if it be doubtful, my lord hath great reason. But sure I am, both myself, and the king, and your lordship, and Mr. Attorney meant clearly, and I think Mr. Attorney's pen hath gone well. My humble request to your lordship is, that, for my lord's satisfaction, Mr. Solicitor may be joined with Mr. Attorney, and if it be safe enough, it may go on; if not it may be amended. I ever rest

Your lordship's most obliged friend,
and faithful servant,
FR. ST. ALBAN.

thereof, that you may no longer hang upon the treaty, which hath been between your lordship and me, touching York House; in which I assure your lordship I never desired to put you to the least inconvenience. So I rest Your lordship's servant,

G. BUCKINGHAM.

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

MY LORD,-I am glad your lordship understands me so rightly in my last letter. I continue still in the same mind, for, I thank God, I am settled to my contentment; and so I hope you shall enjoy yours with the more, because I am so well pleased in mine. And, my lord, I shall be very far from taking it ill, if you part with it to any else, judging it alike unreasonableness to desire that which is another man's, and to bind him by promise or otherwise not to let it to another.

My lord, I will move his majesty to take commiseration of your long imprisonment,* which, in some respects, both you and I have reason to think harder than the Tower; you for the help of physic, your parley with your creditors, your conference for your writings and studies, dealing with friends about your business; and I for this advantage, to be sometimes happy in visiting and conversing with your lordship, whose company I am much desirous to enjoy, as being tied by ancient acquaintance to rest

Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM. MY VERY GOOD Lord,

These main and real favours which I have lately received from your good lordship in procuring my liberty, and a reference of the consideration of my release, are such as I now find, that in building

upon your lordship's noble nature and friendship, I have built upon the rock where neither winds or waves can cause overthrow. I humbly pray your lordship to accept from me such thanks as ought to come from him whom you have much com

forted in fortune, and much more comforted in

showing your love and affection to him, of which I have heard by my Lord of Faulkland, Sir Edward Sackville, Mr. Matthew, and otherwise.

I have written, as my duty was, to his majesty, thanks, touching the same, by the letter I here put into your noble hands.

I have made also, in that letter, an offer to his majesty, of my service, for bringing into better order and frame the laws of England. The declaration whereof I have left with Sir Ed

* Restraint from coming within the verge of the court. Q 2

your lordship's servant, and to me another myself, as your lordship best knoweth, you would not have thought me a man alive, except I had put a letter into his hand, and withal, by so faithful and approved a man, commended my fortunes afresh unto your lordship.

My lord, to speak my heart to your lordship, I never felt my misfortunes so much as now: not for that part which may concern myself, who profit (I thank God for it) both in patience and in settling mine own courses; but when I look abroad and see the times so stirring, and so much dissimulation and falsehood, baseness and envy in the world, and so many idle clocks going in men's heads, then it grieveth me much, that I am not sometimes at your lordship's elbow, that I might give you some of the fruits of the careful advice, modest liberty, and true information of a friend that loveth your lordship as I do. For, though your lordship's fortunes be above the thunder and storms of inferior regions, yet, nevertheless, to hear the wind, and not to feel it, will make one sleep the better.

My good lord, somewhat I have been, and much I have read; so that few things that concern states or greatness, are new cases unto me: and therefore I hope I may be no unprofitable servant to your lordship. I remember the king was wont to make a character of me, far above my worth, that I was not made for small matters: and your lordship would sometimes bring me from his majesty that Latin sentence, de minimis non curat lex; and it hath so fallen out, that since my retiring, times have been fuller of great matters than before; wherein, perhaps, if I had continued near his majesty, he might have found more use of my service, if my gift lay that way; but that is but a vain imagination of mine. True it is, that as I do not aspire to use my talent in the king's great affairs; yet, for that which may concern your lordship, and your fortune, no man living shall give you a better account of faith, industry, and affection than I shall. I must conclude with that which gave me occasion of this letter, which is Mr. Mathew's employment to your lordship in those parts, wherein I am verily persuaded your lordship shall find him a wise and able gentleman, and one that will bend his knowledge of the world (which is great) to serve his majesty, and the prince, and in especial your lordship. So I rest

Your lordship's most obliged
and faithful servant,
FR. ST. ALBAN.

Gray's Inn, this 18th of April, 1623.

TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

EXCELLENT LORD,

How much I rejoice in your grace's safe return you will easily believe, knowing how well I love

you, and how much I need you. There be many things in this journey, both in the felicity and in the carriage thereof, that I do not a little admire, and wish your grace may reap more and more fruits in continuance answerable to the beginnings; myself have ridden at anchor all your grace's absence, and my cables are now quite worn. I had from Sir Toby Mathew, out of Spain, a very comfortable message, that your grace had said, I should be the first that you would remember in any great favour after your return; and now coming from court, he telleth me he had commission from your lordship to confirm it: for which I humbly kiss your hands.

My lord, do some good work upon me, that I may end my days in comfort, which, nevertheless, cannot be complete except you put me in some way to do your noble self service, for I must ever rest

Your grace's most obliged
and faithful servant,

October 12, 1623.

FR. ST. ALBAN.

I have written to his highness, and had presented my duty to his highness to kiss his hands at York House, but that my health is scarce yet

confirmed.

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

MY LORD,-The assurance of your love makes me easily believe your joy at my return; and if I may be so happy as, by the credit of my place, to supply the decay of your cables, I shall account it one of the special fruits thereof. What Sir Toby Matthew hath delivered on my behalf, I will be ready to make good, and omit no opportunity that may serve for the endeavours of Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Royston, Oct. 14, 1623.

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

MY HONOURABLE LORD,

I have delivered your lordship's letter and your book to his majesty, who hath promised to read it over: I wish I could promise as much for that which you sent me, that my understanding of that language might make me capable of those good fruits, which I assure myself, by an implicit faith, proceed from your pen; but I will tell you in good English, with my thanks for your book, that I ever rest

Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Hinchenbrook, October 29, 1623.

TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

EXCELLENT LORD,

I send your grace for a parabien, a book of mine, written first and dedicated to his majesty in English, and now translated into Latin, and enriched. After his majesty and his highness, your grace is ever to have the third turn with me. Vouchsafe, of your wonted favour, to present also the king's book to his majesty. The prince's I have sent to Mr. Endimion Porter. I hope your grace (because you are wont to disable your Latin) will not send your book to the Conde d'Olivares, because he was a deacon, for I understand by one, (that your grace may guess whom I mean,) that the Conde is not rational, and I hold this book to be very rational. Your grace will pardon me to be merry, however, the world goeth with me. I ever rest

Your grace's most faithful

and obliged servant,

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

MY LORD, I give your lordship many thanks for the parabien you have sent me; which is so welcome unto me, both for the author's sake and for the worth of itself, that I cannot spare a work of so much pains to your lordship and value to me, unto a man of so little reason and less art; who if his skill in languages be no greater than I found it in argument, may, perhaps, have as much need of an interpreter (for all his deaconry) as myself; and whatsoever mine ignorance is in the tongue, yet this much I understand in the book, that it is a noble monument of your love, which I will entail to my posterity, who, I hope, will both reap the fruit of the work, and honour the memory of the author. The other book I delivered to his majesty, who is tied here by the feet longer than he purposed to stay.

For the business your lordship wrote of in your other letters, I am sorry I can do you no service, having engaged myself to Sir William Becher before my going to Spain, so that I cannot free myself, unless there were means to give him

satisfaction. But I will ever continue

Your lordship's assured friend and servant,
G. BUCKINGHAM.

Ilinchenbrook, Oct. 27th, 1623.

TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. EXCELLENT LORD,

I send Mr. Parker to have ready, according to the speech I had with your grace, my two suits

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

MY LORD, I have moved his majesty in your suit, and find him very gracious inclined to grant it; but he desireth first to know from my lord treasurer his opinion and the value of it, to whom I have written to that purpose this enclosed letter, and would wish your lordship to speak with him yourself for his favour and furtherance therein, and for my part I will omit nothing that appertaineth to

Your lordship's faithful friend and servant, G. BUCKINGHAM.

Newmarket, 28th of January, 1623.

TO THE LORD ST. ALBAN.

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MY very noble Lord, Mr. Doctor Rawley, by his modest choice, hath much obliged me to be careful of him, when God shall send any opportunity. And if his majesty shall remove me from this see, before any such occasion be offered, not to change my intentions with my bishopric.

It true that those ancients, Cicero, Demosthenes, and Plinius Secundus, have preserved their orations (the heads and effects of them at least) and their epistles; and I have ever been of opinion, that those two pieces, are the principal pieces of our antiquities: those orations discovering the form of administering justice, and the letters the carriage of the affairs in those times. For our

histories (or rather lives of men) borrow as much from the affections and phantasies of the writers, as from the truth itself, and are for the most of them built together upon unwritten relations and

traditions. But letters written è re nata, and bearing a synchronism or equality of time cum rebus gestis, have no other fault, than that which was imputed unto Virgil, nihil peccat nisi, quod nihil peccet, they speak the truth too plainly, and cast too glaring a light for that age, wherein they were, or are written.

Your lordship doth most worthily, therefore, in preserving those two pieces, amongst the rest of those matchless monuments you shall leave be