issue: and also to command, that the said royal concession and declaration be registered in his Majesty's College of Arms. Whitehall, September 25.-The King has been pleased to give and grant unto the Reverend John Francis Thomas Hurt, of Beeston, in the county of Nottingham, and of Allen-hill, in the parish of Matlock, in the county of Derby, Clerk, and to Mary his wife, eldest daughter and coheir of Adam Wolley, late of Matlock aforesaid, Gentleman, deceased, His royal licence and authority, that they and their issue may take and use the surname of Wolley only; and that the said John Francis Thomas Hurt, and his issue by the said Mary his wife, may also bear the arms of Wolley, in compliance with a direction, contained in the last will and testament of the said Adam Wolley; such arms being first duly exemplified according to the laws of arms, and recorded in the Herald's Office, otherwise his Majesty's said licence and permission to be void and of none effect: and also to order, that this his Majesty's concession and declaration be registered in his Majesty's College of Arms. October 30.-Whitehall, October 17.-The King has been pleased to give and grant unto the Reverend John Bateman, heretofore John Buckby of Guilsborough, in the county of Northampton, Clerk, and unto Mary his wife, eldest of the two daughters and coheirs of the Rev. Joshua Wigley, late of the same place, Doctor of Divinity, deceased, by Mary his wife, the only child and heir of John Bateman of Guilsborough aforesaid, Esquire, both also deceased, His royal licence and authority, that they and the issue of their marriage may continue to use the surname and bear the arms of Bateman only, in compliance with a proviso and declaration contained in the last will and testament of the said John Bateman, Esq., bearing date the 27th day of September, 1782; such arms being first, &c. : and also to command, &c. Whitehall, October 24.-The King has been pleased to grant unto Richard Chetham, of South-hill House, in the parish of West Cranmere, in the county of Somerset, Esquire, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, on the half-pay of the 47th (or Lancashire) Regiment of Foot, His royal licence and authority, that he and his issue may (in compliance with a clause contained in the last will and testament of his maternal uncle, John Strode, late of South-hill House aforesaid, Esquire, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Somerset militia, deceased) henceforth take and use the surname of Strode, in addition to and after that of Chetham, and also bear the arms of Strode quarterly with those of Chetham, Strode in the first quarter; provided such arms be first, &c.: and also to command, &c. Whitehall, October 29.-The King has been pleased to give and grant unto Peter Broughton, of Tunstall, in the parish of Drayton in Hales, in the county of Salop, Esq., only son of the Rev. Peter Broughton, of Market Drayton, in the same county, Clerk, deceased, His royal licence and authority, that he and his issue may, in compliance with an injunction contained in the last will and testament of Richard Strey, of the town of Nottingham, Gent., deceased, henceforth take and use the surname of Strey, in addition to and after his present surname of Broughton: and also to command, &c. November 2.-Whitehall, October 31.-The King has been pleased to grant unto Lancelot Shadwell, Esq. the office of Vice-Chancellor of England, in the room of the Right Honourable Sir Anthony Hart, Knight, appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland. November 6.-Whitehall, November 5.-The King has been pleased to give and grant unto William Nicholson Phillips, of Roundhay, in the parish of Barwick in Elmet, in the West Riding of the county of York, Bachelor of Arts, of Queen's College, Cambridge, His royal licence and authority, that he and his issue may assume and take the surname, and also bear and use the armorial ensigns of Nicholson, agreeably to the wish of his maternal uncle, Stephen Nicholson, of Roundhay aforesaid, Esquire: provided that such arms be first, &c. November 9.-Windsor, October 31.-The King was this day pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood on William Henry Freemantle, Esq. November 13.-Whitehall, November 13.-The King has been pleased to order a Congé d'Elire to pass the Great Seal for the election of a Bishop of Rochester; that See being void by the translation of the Right. Rev. Father in God Hugh, late Bishop thereof, to the see of Carlisle; and his Majesty has also been pleased to recommer d the Right Rev. Father in God George, now Bishop of Sodor and Man, to be elected Bishop of the said see of Rochester. Whitehall, November 13.-The King has been pleased to nominate and appoint Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, to be a Knight Grand Cross of the said Most Honourable Military Order. The King has also been pleased to nominate and appoint the under-mentioned officers in the Royal Navy to be Companions of the said Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, viz. Captain John Acworth Ommaney; Captain the Honourable J. A. Maude; Captain Edward Curzon; Commander John Norman Campbell; Commander Richard Dickinson; Commander George Bohun Martin; Commander Lewis Davies ; Commander the Honourable William Anson; Commander the Lord Viscount Ingestrie; Commander Robert Lambert Baynes. Windsor, October 31.-The King was this day pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood upon the Right Honourable William Henry Freemantle, Treasurer of his Majesty's Household, and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order. November 16.-The King has been pleased to give and grant 'unto Thomas Tyers Savage, of New College, in the University of Oxford, Bachelor of Arts, eldest son, and unto James Tyers Savage, of St. Mary Hall, in the said University of Oxford, Gent., second son of Talbot Savage, late of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, in the county of Middlesex, Attorney-at-law, deceased, by Matilda his wife, who was the only child of James Tyers, late of Field Place, in the parish of Stroud, in the county of Gloucester, Esquire, also deceased, His royal licence and authority, that they may, in compliance with a clause contained in the last will and testament of their maternal grandfather, the said James Tyers, henceforth discontinue the surname of Savage, and assume and use that of Tyers only: and also to command, &c. November 20.-At the Court of St. James, 16th Nov.-The Right Honourable Sir James M'Intosh, Sir Lancelot Shadwell, and Sir William Keppel, were, by his Majesty's command, sworn of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and took their respective places at the Board accordingly. This day the Most Noble Henry Marquess of Lansdowne was, by his Majesty's command, sworn Lord Lieutenant of the county of Wilts; and Sir William Keppel was sworn Governor of the Island of Guernsey, and of the islands thereto belonging. St. James's Palace, 16th Nov.-The King was this day pleased to confer the honour of Knighthood on Lancelot Shadwell, Esq. upon being appointed Vice-Chancellor of England. November 23.-Whitehall.-The King has been pleased to give and grant unto Joseph Reyner, of Mark-Lane, in the City of London, merchant, son of Robert Reyner, late of Leeds, in the county of York, deceased, by Mary his wife, who was the sister of George Brooksbank, of the parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., also deceased, His royal licence and authority, that he may, in compliance with a proviso contained in the last will and testament of his maternal uncle, the said George Brooksbank, take and use the surname of Brooksbank only: and also to command, &c. HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN WORKS IN THE PRESS, OR PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. A Help to Irish History, or a Complete Synopsis of the Peerage of Ireland, exhibiting under alphabetical arrangement every Title of Peerage which has existed in that country. By Sir William Betham, Knt., Ulster King of Arms. Skelton's Specimens of Arms and Armour. Part IX. The History and Antiquities of Gloucester Cathedral; Illustrated by a Series of Views; with Biographical Sketches of the Bishops and other eminent Personages connected with the Edifice. By J. Britton, F.S.A. M.R.S.L. Early in the New Year will be published, in four volumes, small 8vo., Illustrated by about 100 Engravings, a new work, intituled Londiniana, or Reminiscences of the Eritish Capital, Antiquarian, Topographical, Descriptive, and Literary; interspersed with Characteristic Sketches of the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants. By E. W. Brayley, F.S.A. M.R.S.L. THE Retrospective Review. NEW SERIES. VOL. I.-PART III. The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley; consisting of those which were formerly printed, and those which he designed for the Press: now published out of the Author's original Copies; with the Cutter of Coleman Street. The Ninth Edition. To which are added some Verses by the Author, never before printed. London, 1700. ABRAHAM COWLEY was the son of a grocer who lived in Fleet Street, near the end of Chancery Lane; and was born in the year 1618. He was admitted king's scholar at Westminster school. His poetical tendencies manifested themselves at a very early age in the preface to his juvenile poems, which he published at the age of fifteen, under the title of "Poetical Blossoms," he informs us that he wrote "The Tragical History of Pyramus and Thisbe" at the age of ten, and his " Constantia and Philetus" at the age of twelve years. From Westminster he proceeded to Cambridge, and was elected a scholar of Trinity. College in 1636, and took his degree of Master of Arts some time previously to 1643. When the civil war broke out, he was, with others, ejected from his college, and subsequently joined the royal party at Oxford. During the heat of this contest he resided in the family of Lord St. Albans, and when the Queen retired into France, he accompanied her. He remained abroad about ten years, which he spent in the service of the royal family, and during that period performed various journeys on their affairs to Flanders, Holland, Jersey, Scotland, &c.; but his chief employment was in carrying on the correspondence between Charles I. and his Queen; in which duty, says Sprat, VOL. I.-PART III. A A "he cyphered and decyphered with his own hand the greatest part of all the letters that passed between their majesties, and managed a vast intelligence in other parts; which for some years together took up all his days, and two or three nights every week." In 1656 it was considered for the benefit of his party that he should come over to England, reside in privacy, and give notice to them of the posture of affairs. For some time he remained concealed in London, but was at length seized by mistake for another gentleman of the king's party, and being thus discovered, he was continued in confinement, was several times examined, and ultimately succeeded, though with considerable difficulty, in obtaining his liberation on bail. Having given the above brief particulars, for the sake of making more intelligible the interesting little memoir which Cowley has left of himself, in his Essays, under the title " Of Myself," we shall proceed to fill up our outline by a copious extract from it. "As far as my memory can return back into my past life, before I knew, or was capable of guessing what the world, or glories, or business of it were, the natural affections of my soul gave a secret bent of aversion from them, as some plants are said to turn away from others, by an antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and inscrutable to man's understanding. Even when I was a very young boy at school, instead of running about on holidays, and playing with my fellows, I was wont to steal from them and walk into the fields, either alone with a book, or with some one companion, if I could find any of the same temper. I was then, too, so much an enemy to constraint, that my masters could never prevail on me, by any persuasions or encouragements, to learn without book the common rules of grammar, in which they dispensed with me alone, because they found I made a shift to do the usual exercise out of my own reading and observation. That I was then of the same mind as I am now (which, I confess, I wonder at myself), may appear at the latter end of an ode which I made when I was but thirteen years old, and which was then printed with many other verses. The beginning of it is boyish, but of this part which I here set down (if a very little were corrected) I should hardly now be much ashamed. 9. "This only grant me, that my means may lie Not from great deeds, but good alone; Rumour can ope' the grave. Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends 10. "Books should, not business, entertain the light, My garden painted o'er With Nature's hand, not Art's; and pleasures yield, 11. "Thus would I double my life's fading space; These unbought sports, that happy state, To-morrow let my sun his beams display, "You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with the poets (for the conclusion is taken out of Horace); and perhaps it was the immature and immoderate love of them which stampt first, or rather engraved, the characters in me. They were like letters cut in the bark of a young tree, which with the tree still grow proportionably. But how this love came to be produced in me so early, is a hard question: I believe I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head first with such chimes of verse as have never since left ringing there: for I remember, when I began to read, and take some pleasure in it, there was wont to lie in my mother's parlour (I know not by what accident, for she herself never in her life read any book but of devotion), but there was wont to lie Spenser's works. This I happened to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the stories of the knights, and giants, and monsters, and brave houses, which I found every where there (though my understanding had little to do with all this); and, by degrees, with the tinkling of the rhyme and dance of the numbers, so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve years old, and was thus made a poet as immediately as a child is made an eunuch. With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly set upon letters, I went to the university; but was soon torn from thence by that violent public storm which would suffer nothing to stand where it did, but rooted up every plant, even from the princely cedars, to me, the hyssop. Yet I had as good fortune as could have befallen me in such a tempest; for I was cast by it into the family of one of the best persons, and into the court of one of the best princesses of the world. Now, though I was here engaged in ways most contrary to the original design of my |