^{page 5 note a} See Mrs. Green's life of Elizabeth of Bohemia, in Lives of Princesses, v. 533. We have consulted also the State Papers, both Foreign and Domestic, respecting this mission.

^{page 6 note a} Sir William Boswell, the King's diplomatic agent at the Hague.

^{page 7 note a} Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, i. 185, ed. 1846.

^{page 8 note a} Dragoons were at that time a kind of footmen on horseback. On service they generally alighted from their horses. They marched eleven in a rank, or file, and when they alighted to serve, the eleventh man held the horses of the ten. (Grose's Milit. Antiq. i. 111.)

^{page 9 note a} The uncertainty of historical testimony is exemplified in the various versions of the death of Colonel, or, as Cromwell terms him, General, Cavendish. Cromwell says above that he was driven into a quagmire, and there slain with a thrust under the short ribs. Another account of this affair (also signed by Cromwell) relates that one of Colonel Cromwell's men cut him on the head, by reason whereof he fell off his horse, and the Captain Lieutenant thrust him in the side, whereof within two hours he died. (Carlyle's Cromwell, iii. 470.) Another account, in Aubrey's Lives, ii. 276, says, that being out most dangerously in the head, he was struck off his horse, and so unfortunately shot with a brace of bullets after he was on the ground. Bishop Kennet, in his Memoirs of the Family of Cavendish, (p. 95,) upon the authority of a Life of Colonel Cavendish's mother (Christian daughter of Lord Bruce of Kioloss), says, that the Colonel was “murther'd in cold blood, after quarter given,” by Colonel Bury, who made himself dear to Cromwell by this and some other acts of cruelty. Lloyd, in his Memoirs (p. 673), relates that Colonel Cavendish, being governor of Gainsborough, “issued out to the relief of the surprised Earl of Kingston, he was overpowered, and, his horse sticking in the mud, he died magnanimously, refusing quarter, and throwing the blood that ran from his wounds in their faces that shed it, with a spirit as great as his blood.” It can scarcely be doubted that Cromwell's letter, and the other account signed by him, contain the truth, and that the rest are mere inventions of party prejudice. However Colonel Cavendish met his death, he was evidently a young man (just 23 years of age) of great promise. A thirst for travel had led him far beyond the limits of the Grand Tour. Forsaking his companion and tutor, he strayed away to Babylon, which he reached by taking service in the Turkish army. On his return to England, the civil war was just commencing. He naturally espoused the side of the King his godfather, and did so with ardour. After serving at Edgehill, he raised a regiment of horse, with which he performed his brief services at Grantham and elsewhere. Aubrey quotes from a funeral sermon preached for Colonel Cavendish, in which the preacher states that, “when Cromwell heard that he [the Colonel] was slaia, he cried out, “We have done our business!” (ii. 277.) Very likely. For a brief space-Colonel Cavendish had been the Rupert of the eastern side of England. On his death, and that of Markham his Lieutenant-Colonel, who was killed shortly before him, the power which had frightfully punished Grantham, and had ridden triumphant throughout that country, was at an end.

^{page 10 note a} It is doubtful whether this word has not been struck out of the MS.

^{page 12 note a} The persons here addressed require a brief note. Sir Edmund Bacon of Redgrave was son of Sir Nicholas, the premier Baronet of England, and grandson of the Lord Keeper; nephew therefore by the half blood of Francis Bacon the Lord Chancellor. Sir William Spring of Pakenham was created a Baronet by King Charles I. 11th August, 1641. The baronetage is extinct, but the name is remembered in the family of Lord Monteagle of Brandon, who is descended from the Springs of Lavenham, the original stock of those of Pakenham. Sir Thomas Barnardiston, created a Baronet in 1663, was the eldest son of Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston of Ketton or Kedington in Suffolk, a person of great eminence, five times member for the county of Suffolk. Maurice Barrow was the only son of William Barrow, at one time of Huningham Hall, co. Norfolk, and afterwards of Westhorp in Suffolk.—(Blomefield, , i. 684Google Scholar, ed. 1739, and Nichols's Topog. and Genealogist, , ii. 167.)Google Scholar

^{page 12 note b} Rushworth's Collections, v. 278. Besides this letter, Carlyle has printed another letter descriptive of this Gainsborough fight, addressed to the Speaker by Cromwell and two of the Lincolnshire committee-men, in which the facts are detailed substantially in the same manner. (Appendix, No. IV. vol. iii. p. 470.)

^{page 13 note a} Dixon's Life of Blake, p. 266.

^{page 14 note a} The word is worn away.

^{page 18 note a} Archibald Johnstone of Warriston, Lord of Session in Scotland, and one of Oliver Cromwell's peers. Burnet, who was his nephew, gives his character and man; particulars of his sad history. (Own Times, i. 48, 350, ed. 1823.)

^{page 20 note a} [During the Commonwealth.]

^{page 24 note a} Burnet's Own Times, i, 457, ed. 1823.

^{page 25 note a} Mr. Hide is conjectured to have been the handsome Lory or Lawrence Hyde, second son of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, created Earl of Rochester in 1682. In May and June 1678 he was at the Hague on diplomatic business. (Correspondence of Clarendon and Rochester, i. 16, 20.)

^{page 25 note b} Sir Carr Scrope was created a Baronet 1667–8, and died unmarried in 1680. He was one of the witty companions of Charles II., and author of various poetical effusions, to be found in Dryden's Miscellanies. Johnson notices him in his life of Rochester.

^{page 25 note c} Mrs. Knight, a singer of great celebrity, and a rival to Nell Gwynne in the tender regard of Charles II. She is mentioned by both Evelyn and Pepys, although the latter had not heard her sing up to the period at which his diary closes. The name of her Lady-mother has not been found.

^{page 25 note d} Probably the writer misplaced the n in this word, writing scunchis for scuchins. We have not been able to identify Lady Green.

^{page 25 note e} John Wilmot, the poetical Earl of Rochester, who, as Johnson remarked, “blazed out his youth and his health in lavish voluptuousness,” and with “avowed contempt of all decency and order.” The history of the contrast presented by the close of his life is a well-known book by Bishop Burnet. He died on the 26th July 1680, at the age of 34.

^{page 25 note f} The gentleman who could govern by rule of thumb was Henry Savile, the future Vice-Chamberlain, for whom see the Savile Correspondence, edited by Mr. W. D. Cooper for the Camden Society in 1858, The projected marriage did not come off.

^{page 26 note a} The Earl of Dorset was one of the wildest of the mad companions of the merry monarch. His doings are written at large in all the scandalous chronicles of that period. Nell Gwynne was living with him as liis mistress when the King took a fancy to her, and the terms of the bargain and sale by which she was transferred to the sovereign may be read in Cunningham, p. 68. Dorset or Buckhurat, for the latter was his title whilst Nell Gwynne lived with him, is more creditably known by his song “To all you ladies now at land,” and by his conduct at the close of the reign of James II. His life is included among Johnson's Lives of the Poets.

^{page 26 note b} Thomas Shadwell the poet, who owed to the influence of the Earl of Dorset his. appointment as laureate on the ejection of Dryden at the Revolution of 1688. However mean his poetry, his conversation is said to have been highly witty and amusing. From his companionship with Rochester and Dorset, it is not to be wondered at that it was also often indecent and profane.

^{page 26 note c} Joseph Harris, the celebrated actor, who drew sword for King Charles I. at Edgehill, and lived to delight the town, after the Restoration, with his Othello, Alexander, Brutus, and Catiline. Pepys describes him as a man of most attractive qualities. “I do find him a very excellent person, such as in my whole acquaintance I do not know another better qualified for converse, whether in things of his own trade or of other kind; a man of great understanding and observation, and very agreeable in the manner of his discourse, and civil as far as is possible; I was mightily pleased with his company.” Lord Braybrooke stated in a note to Pepys (ii. 196) that Harris probably died or left the stage about 1676. The present letter postpones that date for a year or two, and Dr. Doran in his most amusing treasury of information respecting the drama ( Their Majesties Servants, vol. i. p. 63), dates his retirement from the stage in 1682, and his interment at Stanmore Magna in 1683.

^{page 26 note d} Lord Burford, as we have already noticed, was the elder of Nell Gwynne's two children by the King. He was born 8th May 1670, created Lord Burford on the 27th December 1676, and Duke of St. Alban's on the 10th Jan. 1683–4.

^{page 26 note e} Lord Beauclerk, Nell Gwynne's younger son, was born 25th December 1671, and died, as we have before remarked, at Paris, in September 1680.

^{page 26 note f} Lady Harvey was Elizabeth, sister of Ralph third Lord Montagu of Boughton, afterwards Earl and Duke of Manchester. Elizabeth married Sir Daniel Harvey, a conspicuous person at that time; as ranger of Richmond Park he gave shelter in his house to Lady Castlemaine during her quarrels with Charles II. Her ladyship, according to Pepys, rewarded Lady Harvey by encouraging “Doll Common,” or Mrs. Cory, who was the distinguished representative of that character, to mimic Lady Harvey on the stage, in the character of Sempronia. Lady Harvey “provided people to hiss her and fling oranges at her,” and, that being unsuccessful, procured the Lord Chamberlain to imprison her. Lady Castlemaine “made the King to release her,” and a great disturbance was excited both in the theatre and at court. In the mean time Sir Daniel Harvey was sent away ambassador to Constantinople.