LETTER LXXXV. For my worthy Friend, Dr. Love, Master of Benet College, I understand one Mrs. Nutting is a suitor unto you, on the right of her Son, about the renewing of a Lease which holds of your College. The old interest I have had makes me presume upon your favour. I desire nothing but what is just; leaving that to your judgment; and beyond which I neither now nor at any time shall move. If I do, denial shall be most welcome and accepted by, Sir, Your affectionate servant, This is not the Christopher Love who preached at Uxbridge, during the Treaty there in 1644; who is now a minister in London, and may again come before us; this is a Cambridge Dr. Love,' of whom I know nothing. Oliver, as we may gather, had befriended him in the old Cambridge days; nothing hard had befallen him during the reform of that University in 1644. Probably in Baker's Manuscripts it might be ascertained in what year he graduated, where he was born, where buried; but nothing substantial is ever likely to be known of him,—or is indeed necessary to be known. 'Mrs. Nutting' and he were evidently children of Adam, breathing the vital air along with Oliver Cromwell; and Oliver, on occasion, endeavoured to promote justice and kindness between them; and they remain two 'shadows of small Names.'1 Yesterday, Tuesday 13th March, there was question in the Council of State about 'modelling of the forces that are to go to * Lansdown MSS. 1236, fol. 83. 1 Cooper's Annals, iii. 491.-Mrs. Nutting, it appears, succeeded (Cambridge мs. penes me). Ireland;' and a suggestion was made, by Fairfax probably, who had the modelling to do, that they would model much better if they knew first under what Commander they were to go.1 It is thought Lieutenant-General Cromwell will be the man. On which same evening, furthermore, one discerns in a faint but an authentic manner, certain dim gentlemen of the highest authority, young Sir Harry Vane to appearance one of them, repairing to the lodging of one Mr. Milton, a small house in Holborn which opens backwards into Lincoln's Inn Fields;' to put an official question to him there! Not a doubt of it they saw Mr. John this evening. In the official Book this yet stands legible: 'Die Martis, 13° Martii 1648.' That it is referred to the same Committee,' Whitlocke, Vane, Lord Lisle, Earl of Denbigh, Harry Marten, Mr. Lisle, or any two of them, to speak with Mr. 'Milton, to know, Whether he will be employed as Secretary for 'the Foreign Languages? and to report to the Council.'2 I have authority to say that Mr. Milton, thus unexpectedly applied to, consents; is formally appointed on Thursday next; makes his proof-shot, 'to the Senate of Hamburgh,' about a week hence ;and gives, and continues to give, great satisfaction to that Council, to me, and to the whole Nation now, and to all Nations! Such romance lies in the State-Paper Office. Here, however, is another Letter on the Hursley Business, of the same date as Letter LXXXV.; which must also be read. I do not expect many readers to take the trouble of representing before their minds the clear condition of 'Mr. Ludlow's lease,' of the 2507.,'' the 1507.,' &c., in this abstruse affair: but such as please to do so will find it all very straight at last. We observe Mr. Mayor has a decided preference for 'my ould land;' land that I inherited, or bought by common contract, instead of getting it from Parliament for Public Services ! I fact, Mr. Mayor seems somewhat of a sharp man: but neither has he a dull man to deal with-though a much bigger one. 1 Order-Book of the Council of State (in the State-Paper Office), i. 86. 2 Ibid.; Todd's Life of Milton (London, 1826), pp. 96, 108-123. 3 Senatus Populusque Anglicanus Amplissimo Civitatis Hamburgensis Senatui, Salutem. (In Milton's Litera Senatus Anglicani, this first Letter to the Hamburgers is not given.) LETTER LXXXVI. For my worthy Friend, Richard Mayor, Esquire, at SIR, Hursley: These.' 'London,' 14th March, 1648. I received your Paper by the hands of Mr. Stapylton. I desire your leave to return my dissatisfaction therewith. I shall not need to premise how much I have desired (I hope upon the best grounds) to match with you. The same desire still continues in me, if Providence see it fit. But I may not be so much wanting to myself nor family as not to have some equality of consideration towards it.1 I have two young Daughters to bestow, if God give them life and opportunity. According to your Offer, L have nothing for them; nothing at all in hand. If my Son die, what consideration is there to me? And yet a jointure parted with 'on my side.' If she die, there is on your side' little money parted with;' 'even' if you have an heir male, there is' but 3,000l., and' without time ascertained.2 As for these things, indeed,' I doubt not but, by one interview between you and myself, they might be accommodated to mutual satisfaction; and in relation to these, I think we should hardly part, or have many words, so much do I desire a closure with you. But to deal freely with you: the settling of the Manor of Hursley, as you propose it, sticks so much with me, that either I understand you not, or else it much fails my expectation. As you offer it, there is 400l. per annum charged upon it. For the 150l. to your Lady, for her life, as a jointure, I stick not 1 'it' is not the family, but the match. at that: but the 250l. per annum until Mr. Ludlow's Lease expires, the tenor whereof I know not, and so much of the 2501. per annum as exceeds that Lease in annual value for some time also after the expiration of the said Lease,1gives such a maim to the Manor of Hursley as indeed renders the rest of the Manor very inconsiderable. Sir, if I concur to deny myself in point of present moneys, as also in the other things mentioned, as aforesaid, I may and do expect the Manor of Hursley to be settled without any charge upon it, after your decease, saving your Lady's jointure of 150l. per annum,—which if you should think fit to increase, I should not stand upon it. Your own Estate is best known to you: but surely your personal Estate, being free for you to dispose, will, with some small matter of addition, beget a nearness of equality, -if I hear well from others. And if the difference were not very considerable, I should not insist upon it. What you demand of me is very high in all points. I am willing to settle as you desire in everything; saving for maintenance 400l. per annum, 300l. per annum.2 I would have somewhat free, to be thanked by them for. The 300l. per annum of my old land3 for a jointure, after my Wife's decease, I shall settle; and in the mean time 'a like sum' out of other lands at your election: and truly, Sir, if that be not good, neither will any lands, I doubt. ''Ludlow's Lease,' &c. is not very plain. The tenor of Ludlow's Lease' is still less known to us than it was to the Lieutenant-General! Thus much is clear: 250+150 = 400 pounds are to be paid off Hursley Manor by Richard and his Wife, which gives a sad maim' to it. When Ludlow's Lease falls in, there will be some increment of benefit to the Manor; but we are to derive no advantage from that, we are still to pay the surplus' for some time after.". 2 Means, in its desperate haste: except that instead of 4007. per annum for maintenance, we must say 3007.' 3 Better than Parliament-land, thinks Mayor! Oliver too prefers it for his Wife; but thinks all land will have a chance to go, if that go. I do not much distrust, your principles in other things have acted1 you towards confidence.-You demand in case my Son have none issue male but only daughters, then the 'Cromwell' Lands in Hantshire, Monmouth- and Gloucester-shire to descend to these daughters, or else 3,000l. apiece. The first would be most unequal; the latter also' is too high. They will be well provided for by being inheritrixes of their Mother; and I am willing 'that' 2,000l. apiece be charged upon those lands for them.' - Sir, I cannot but with very many thanks acknowledge your good opinion of me and of my Son; as also your great civilities towards him; and your Daughter's good respects, whose goodness, though known to me only at a distance and by the report of others, I much value. And indeed that causeth me so cheerfully to deny myself as I do in the point of moneys, and so willingly to comply in other things. But if I should not insist as above, I should in a greater measure than were meet deny both my own reason and the advice of my friends; which I may not do. Indeed, Sir, I have not closed with a far greater Offer of estate; but chose rather to fix here: I hope I have not been wanting to Providence in this. I have made myself plain to you. Desiring you will make my Son the messenger of your pleasure and resolution herein as speedily as with conveniency you may, I take leave, And rest, Your affectionate servant, I desire my service may be presented to your Lady and Daughters.* 1 actuated or impelled. * Harris, p. 507; Dunch's Pusey seventeen. |
