CHAPTER II.

THE Bishop continues his narrative.-"There was at that time a famous school erected at Tiverton in Devon, and endowed with a very large pension; whose goodly fabric was answerable to the reported maintenance: the care whereof was, by the rich and bountiful founder, Mr. Blundel,* cast principally on the then Lord Chief Justice Popham. That faithful observer, having great interest in the master of our house, Dr. Chaderton, moved him earnestly to commend some able, learned, and discreet governor to that weighty charge; whose action should not need to be so much as his oversight. It pleased our master, out of his good opinion, to tender this

Peter Blundel, a native and clothier of that town, founded and endowed this school, which is a great ornament to the place. He appointed a feast to be kept annually on St. Peter's day in commemoration of him, for which he left a liberal allowance. He also founded two fellowships and two scholarships in Sidney College, Cambridge, and one fellowship and two scholarships in Baliol College, Oxford, for the scholars educated in this school.

condition unto me: assuring me of no small advantages, and no great toil; since it was intended the main load of the work should lie upon other shoulders. I apprehended the motion worth the entertaining. In that severe society our times were stinted: neither was it wise or safe to refuse good offers. Mr. Dr. Chaderton carried me to London; and there presented me to the Lord Chief Justice, with much testimony of approbation. The Judge seemed well apaid with the choice. I promised acceptance; he, the strength of his favor. No sooner had I parted from the Judge, than, in the street, a messenger presented me with a letter, from the right virtuous and worthy lady, of dear and happy memory, the Lady Drury of Suffolk, tendering the rectory of her Halsted, then newly void, and very earnestly desiring me to accept of it. Dr. Chaderton, observing in me some change of countenance, asked me what the matter might be. I told him the errand, and delivered him the letter; beseeching his advice: which when he had read, Sir, quoth I, 'methinks God pulls me by the sleeve; and tells me it is his will, I should rather go to the east than to the west.' 6 Nay,' he answered, 'I should rather think that God would have you go westward, for that he hath contrived your engagement before the tender of this letter; which therefore coming too late, may receive a fair and easy

answer." To this I besought him to pardon my dissent; adding, that I well knew, that divinity was the end whereto I was destined by my parents; which I had so constantly proposed to myself, that I never meant other, than to pass through this western school to it: but I saw that God who found me ready to go the further way about, now called me the nearest and directest way to that sacred end. The good man could no further oppose; but only pleaded the distaste which would hereupon be justly taken by the Lord Chief Justice, whom I undertook fully to satisfy: which I did with no great difficulty; commending to his Lordship, in my room, my old friend and chamber-fellow Mr. Cholmley: who finding an answerable acceptance, disposed himself to the place; so as we two, who came together to the university, now must leave it at once.*

See Sir John Cullum's History of the parishes of Hawsted and Hardwick, second edition, p. 68, in the list of Rectors, "2 Dec. 1601. Joseph Hall, A. M. ad pres Rob. Drury, mil."

Sir Robert Drury was the son of Sir William Drury, who was in 1589 killed in a duel in France: "even before he was out of mourning for his father, he attended the Earl of Essex to the unsuccessful siege of Rohan, in 1591, where he was knighted, when he could not exceed the age of fourteen years." Sir J. Cullum's History of Hawsted and Hardwick, pp. 168, 170. The family of Drury, which signifies in old English, a precious Jewel, has been of great reputation at Halsted and elsewhere, more especially since they were married with the heiress of Fresil of Sexham.--See Camden's Britannia, p. 370. Ed. 1695.

C

Having then fixed my foot at Halsted, I found there a danger opposite to the success of my ministry, a witty and bold atheist, one Mr. Lilly;* who by reason of his travails, and abilities of

*

He

Probably this Mr. Lilly was John Lilly, a dramatic writer, born in Kent in 1553. At sixteen years of age, he became a member of Magdalen College, Oxford; in 1573 he took the degree of Bachelor, and that of Master of Arts in 1575-6. seems afterwards to have travelled; he published a celebrated work, entitled "Euphues, or, the Anatomy of Wit." It is ascertained by his verses prefixed to a book entitled "Christian Passions," by H. Lok, published in 1597, that Lilly was then living. The exact time of his death is not known, but it probably happened soon after the year 1600. No particulars of his person, or private life, have come down to us, except that he was married; that he was a little man, and a great taker of tobacco. His dramatic writings abound with perpetual allusions to a kind of fabulous natural history, in which he, and some of his contemporaries frequently indulged themselves, and for which he has been justly censured by Drayton and others. "Lilly, when at Oxford, was so much distinguished for his wit and vivacity, that one of his adversaries endeavoured to depreciate him on this ground, as if his spriteliness and humour were greater than became a scholar."

It is therefore highly probable that this Lilly was the identical adversary of Hall; his abilities of discourse, his wit, "his fabulous natural history," and perhaps other profane writings, might give occasion to Hall to call him "a witty and bold atheist." The want of a knowledge of his fate bespeaks him the same person; Hall in his "account of himself," says, "this malicious man going hastily up to London to exasperate my patron against me, was then and there swept away by the pestilence, and never returned to do any farther mischief." His being patronized by Sir R. Drury, the patron of poets and wits, is another strong circumstance to identify him as the very person mentioned by Hall. The learned and witty Dr. Donne was patronized by him; to whom and his family, apartments were assigned in Sir R. Drury's large house in Drury Lane. See Sir J. Cullum's History of Hawsted, p. 170.

discourse and behaviour, had so deeply insinuated himself into my patron, Sir Robert Drury, that there was small hopes, during his entireness, for me to work any good upon that noble patron of mine; who, by the suggestion of this wicked detractor, was set off from me before he knew me. Hereupon, I confess, finding the obduredness and hopeless condition of that man I bent my prayers against him; beseeching God daily, that he would be pleased to remove, by some means or other, that apparent hinderance of my faithful labors: who gave me an answer accordingly; for this malicious man, going hastily up to London to exasperate my patron against me, was then and there swept away by the pestilence, and never returned to do any farther mischief. Now the coast was clear before me; and I gained every day of the good opinion and favourable respects of that honourable gentleman and my worthy neighbors.

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Being now therefore settled in that sweet and civil country of Suffolk, near to St. Edmund'sBury, my first work was to build up my house, which was then extremely ruinous.

"Which done, the uncouth solitariness of my life, and the extreme incommodity of that single housekeeping, drew my thoughts, after two years, to condescend to the necessity of a married estate, which God no less strangely provided for