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"The parlour was a large long room as properly A.D. 1666. furnished. On a great hearth, paved with brick, lay some terriers, and the choicest hounds and spaniels. Seldom but two of the great chairs had litters of young cats in them, which were not to be disturbed, he having always three or four attending him at dinner, and a little white round stick, of fourteen inches long, lying by his trencher, that he might defend such meat as he had no mind to part with to them. The windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, cross-bows, stone-bows, and other such like accoutrements. The corners of the room full of the best chose hunting and hawking poles; an oyster table at the lower end, which was of constant use twice a day all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters before dinner and supper through all seasons: the neighbouring town of Poole supplied him with them.

"The upper part of the room had two small tables and a desk, on the one side of which was a church Bible, and on the other the Book of Martyrs. On the tables were hawks' hoods, bells, and such like; two or three old green hats, with their crowns thrust in so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a pheasant kind

A.D. 1666. of poultry he took much care of and fed him

self. Tables, dice, cards, and boxes were not wanting. In the hole of the desk were store of tobacco pipes that had been used.

"On one side of this end of the room was the door of a closet wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, which never came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule of the house exactly observed; for he never exceeded in drink or permitted it. On the other side was the door of an old chapel, not used for devotion. The pulpit, as the safest place, was never wanting of a cold chine of beef, venison pasty, gammon of bacon, or great apple-pie, with thick crust extremely baked.

"His table cost him not much, though it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all but beef and mutton; except Fridays, when he had the best salt-fish (as well as other fish) he could get, and was the day his neighbours of best quality most visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, and always sung it in with my pert eyes therein a.' He drank a glass or two of wine at meals; very often syrup of gilliflower in his sack; and had always a tun glass without feet stood by him holding a pint of

small beer, which he often stirred with rose- A.D. 1666. mary.

"He was well-natured, but soon angry, calling his servants bastards and cuckoldy knaves, in one of which he often spoke truth of his own knowledge. He lived to be an hundred; never lost his eyesight, but always wrote and read without spectacles, and got on horseback without help. Until past fourscore he rode to the death of a stag as well as any."

[Mr. Horace Walpole says of this, that "it is a curious and well-drawn character of our ancient English gentry ;" and so it undoubtedly is. There is a portrait of this veteran sportsman at the Shaftesbury family seat at St. Giles'.]

ley's atten

reign af

Lord Ashley's accurate perception of character Lord Ashwas of singular use to him as a statesman. It tion to fowas applied with great effect to the ministers, fairs. and the chief persons in most of the foreign courts. By this and by his foreign correspondence he had an early intelligence of their counsels. As he saw the designs of France, the increase of her shipping, the improvement of her trade, and observed all the measures tending to her rising greatness, he was earnest for concluding the war with Holland. He was, likewise,

A.D. 1666. the principal cause of the king's not running into another, which would have proved highly prejudicial to the trade of the nation.

English merchant ships at

tacked by

the Dutch

in the Elbe.

At the breaking out of the war with Holland, Sir William Swann, the English resident at Hamburgh, applied to the senate to know whether they would undertake to keep the river Elbe in security, and protect the English ships from any hostilities. The senate answered, that their city was too weak to make such an engagement; but, if the King of Great Britain would agree to a neutrality in the Elbe, they would endeavour to persuade the States General to acquiesce in it. For the advantage of the city of Hamburgh, the States consented to such a neutrality; but the king would not declare his agreement.

In the beginning of the summer, 1666, the senate deputed Mr. Garmers, their syndic of the city, and afterwards Mr. Westerman, one of their body, to give notice to the secretary of the English company at Hamburgh, that they had received intelligence of the Dutch having a design to attack the English ships in the Elbe; and advised them, therefore, to be circumspect, and bring their ships under the can

non of the city. These were lying at a place A.D. 1666. called New Mill, about a mile distant from the walls of Hamburgh, but within the jurisdiction of the King of Denmark. There was no haven or fort there, but only a wind-mill, and a house which by the miller was made a victuallinghouse. Upon this notice, several ships sailed down the river to take the benefit of Sir Christopher Myng's convoy; but, being disappointed, they came back to their former station at New Mill. On the 24th of August 1666, about eight o'clock in the evening, four Dutch menof-war attacked the English fleet of merchantmen: eleven ships immediately cut their cables, and saved themselves under the protection of the city cannon; three others, endeavouring to escape, were stranded at a place something less than a mile from the city, but out of its jurisdiction, and were burnt, along with a Hamburgh ship that was laden. As the English had been firing their cannon all that day and the former by way of rejoicing, the senate had no knowledge of their being attacked, till they saw the flames of the burning ships.

This accident so incensed King Charles, that he ordered Secretary Morrice to send for the

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