county of Middlesex, during the minority of Wriothesly Duke of Bedford. 5. Robert. 6.- James. 7. George. The daughters were : 1. Lady Anne, who died unmarried. 2. Lady Diana, married at the age of fifteen to Sir Grevil Verney, of Compton Verney, in the county of Warwick, and secondly to William Lord Allington, Constable of the Tower. 3. Lady Margaret, who married Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, her first cousin. CHAP. II. BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF WILLIAM RUSSELL. LET TERS WRITTEN ON HIS TRAVELS. - LETTER TO HIS BROTHER. FIGHTS A DUEL. HIS MARRIAGE. WILLIAM RUSSELL, the subject of this work, was born September 29. 1639. He is said to have been educated at the school of one Lewis ; and a foolish story is told that this man, dressing up a dog, and calling him by the name of Charles Stuart, set the boys to try him in a mock court of judicature.* Mr. Russell was sent with his elder brother to Cambridge, where they were put under the tuition of Mr. Nidd. A letter of this gentleman, dated in 1654, gives an account of their progress in logic, the Roman historians, and natural philosophy. When their university education was completed, the brothers were sent abroad, and appear to have resided some time at Augsburg. The two following letters, the one from Mr. Russell to some person unknown, *Kennet's Chronicle. and the other from Mr. Thornton to Mr. Russell, illustrate the manners of the writers, and of their age. I copy these two letters, without any alteration in the spelling. Mr. Russell to "It is not long agoe since I received two letters from you together, and soone after another, that seconded them (bearing date Nov" 20") for which I give you many thanks, as likewise for the continuance of your friendship. By your last I understand that mine from this place, Geneva, and Lyons are come to your hands truely we arrived at the last place in the luckiest time desirable for all sort of fine sights, divertisements and recreations, for the concourse of people was then soe great by reason of the Queene of Sweden's arrivall there, that the town was hardly able to contain them, for in the house where wee lodged there were above an hundred persons, most persons of qualitie, and many hansome Ladyes, soe that a nights we had dancing and towards the evening's bathing, wch truely is a very fine recreation: although the Ladyes have their faces masked, neverthelesse one may sometimes espye parts that doe not less add to their luster. I wished you a sight of it truely as well as of the Queene of Sweden, who surely deserves it if any woman does, I doe not meane for the beauty of her face, but for that Maiestie that appeares in it, as likewise in all her actions and comportments, which savour far more of a man than of a woman, which sex she resembles in nothing more than in her inconstancie, for in truth I conceive her to bee as weary of her new religion as of her old one, as is plainly seen by her postures, gestures, and actions at Masse, before which I think she would at any time. preferre a good Comedie, and a handsome wittie Courtier before the Devotest Father. The rarities of Lyons are not many in number, but those that are we saw. We went to the Hospital (call'd de la Charité); it is one of the richest in all France, it feeding daily in the house above a 1000 persons, and without 15,000 (besides strangers), to whom every Sunday are distributed 6000 loaves, which come to 36,000 pound weight of bread, The granary is stored with corne for many yeares. Sir I told you in one of my former of our journey to the Carthusian Monasterie, but not of the reasons that moved St. Bruno (a German by nation) to retire himself into that desart, and there to constitute this order, because I suppose you have read it elsewhere; but whatsoever his reasons were, sure it is that tis y stricktest order among the papists, or rather imaginable, for what can there bee more strange than to see men in the flower of their age voluntarily to submit themselves to that kind of life where they are deprived of all the recreations and pleasures this world affords; for women are not permitted to go over their grounds, much lesse to enter their Convent; never eate flesh, (for although the eating of a bit of flesh would save their lives yet they would not be permitted to do it,) are the most part of their days and nights in their church, never talke together but on Sundays and Holidays, and then noe longer than while they bee at dinner (wch doth not laste for above an houre), and enjoye the sight of nothing but mountains and precipices, we to behold strike devotion into a man. I could inform you of many other particularities, in regard I rose in the night to see the ceremonies they used in the church, but it would require a volume: In short, I think they take more paines in going to Hell, than a good Christian doth in going to Heaven. Wee went from thence to Grenoble, and after three days' journey wee arrived at the gates of Geneva, where, while they were asking our names, country, and from whence wee came, I had leasure to see the place where the Savoyards attempted to take the towne by stratageme in the year 1602, and had scal'd |