himself a king, yet he made two of his daughters queens, one of Caftile, and the other of Portugal, bringing home with him also a vaft treafure in ready money, having at the time he landed in England, as one of our hiftorians tells us, as many chefts of gold as loaded forty-feven mules. Upon his return, in fo good circumstances, his party began to revive, and the Duke recovered his credit at court, infomuch that the King in full parliament created him Duke of Aquitaine,and fent him over to take poffeffion of that noble principality. His old affection for the Lady Catharine Swynford, fifter to Chaucer's wife, revived with his for tune, and under colour of rewarding the care he hadta ken in the education of his daughters he made her very large grants in the nature of penfions*. We have no

*He made her very large grants in the nature of pensions.] The colour given by the Duke of Lancaster to these grants made in favour of the Lady Swynford was the care the had taken of his two daughters Philippa and Elizabeth, as appears by the words of the grant of the wardthip of Bertram de Sanbys's heir and of an annuity of two hundred marks per annum payable out of his honour of Tickhill, which words are thefe; "For the good "and agreeable fervice which our thrice dear and moft beloved

Lady Catharine Swynford, the mistress of our most beloved "daughters, hath rendered to our faid children, we have gi"ven and granted, &c." But no doubt the true reafon was for his special affection towards her on account of the children he had had by her, to whom he gave the name of Beaufort, in Latin de bello forte, from a castle so called in Anjou, which came into his family by the Lady Blanch of Artois Queen of Navarre. Thefe children were four, viz. John Beaufort, afterwards Earl of Someriet, Henry Beaufort, afterwards Cardinal Bithop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, Thomas Beaufort, Earl

particular account of the benefits that, accrued to Chaucer from this turn in the Duke's affairs, but notwithstanding this we have no reafon to doubt that he felt the effects of his patron's profperity, who had fuffered fo deeply by the declension of his influence. But it feems his diftafle to courts was grown fo ftrong that nothing could tempt him to quit his rural retirement, or to lanch again into that fea of bufinefs where he had been fo lately fhipwrecked. His mind however being more at rest he undertook and finished a new work, which has eftablished his reputation with respect to learning upon as firm a bafis as his former labours had fixed histame for wit andgenius. Thisnew work plainly appears to be wrote in the year 1391, and was intended for the use of his younger fon Lewis, then no more than ten years of age, and yet fo forward in his learning as to be defirous of having his father's inftructions in acquiring the principles of aftronomy. This gave birth to his Treatife on the Afrolabe, which not only of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Exeter, and Joan, firf married to Sir Robert Ferrers of Overly, and afterwards to Ralph Ear of Weftmoreland. We have mentioned this more particularly, because of the near relation between the defcendants of our Author and thofe of this lady by the Duke of Lancafter, of which we find it remembered by a very curious and circumfpect writer in the time of King Charles I. that there had been eight kings, four queens, and five princes, of England; fix kings and three queens of Scotland; two cardinals, upwards of twenty dukes, almost as many ducheffes of England, fevera dukes of Scotland, betides many petent princes and eminent goblity in foreign parts.

fhows the fkill of its author, but likewife incontestably proves ufeful fcience was not at near fo low an ebb in thofe times as it is generally reprefented. Neither will the cafe be at all altered if what fome writers have fuggefted fhould really prove true, and this Difcourfe of Chaucer's appear to be no more than a tranflation, or, which feems to be still a more probable opinion, a collection from other authors who had written before him upon the fame fubject.

About four years after this, while her husband was in France, Conftance Dnchefs of Lancafter died, and was buried with great folemnity at Leicester, and the Duke coming over into England at the clofe of the year, and not meeting with quite fo kind a reception at court as he expected, went fuddenly to Lincoln, where his old miftrefs Lady Catharine Swynford refided, and to the great furprise of the world, now when he had not either youth or beauty to recommend her, married her. This gave great discontent to the Duchefs of Gloucefter, the Countefs of Derby, the Countess of Arundel, and other ladies defcended of the royal family, becaufe fhe became by this marriage the fecond perfon in the realm, and from being no fit companion for any, was now fuddenly to take place of them all; but fae behaved with fo much difcretion and humility that these difputes were quickly composed, and in a fhort time fhe gained fuch an afcendency over the King that he carried her, as well as the Duke her

husband, with him the year after their marriage into France, at which time he efpoufed Ifabel the French king's daughter, then very young, and who was put under the care of the Duchefs of Lancaster.

After the ceremony of this marriage, and the return of the royal family to England, we find a very fingular inftance of the advantage that Chaucer received from this alliance, for now by letters patents the King granted him an annuity of twenty marks per annum, in lieu of that given him by his grandfather, and which in the time of his diftrefs he had been compelled to difpofe of for his fubfiftence. Soon after this he granted him his protection by other letters patents dated the 4th of May in the 21st year of his reign for two years, fignifying that for that space he had occafion to employ him in his fervice. Neither was this the last or greatest instance afforded him of royal favour, fince we find that by letters patents dated the 13th of October in the following year he had a pipe of wine annually granted out of the Cuftoms of the port of London, which was to be delivered him by the Chief Butler, and to this office his fon Thomas Chaucer was now raifed.

But if thefe benefits cheered and comforted his decayed fpirits in the decline of life, he had however the mortification to lose about the fame time his noble patron, his conftant friend,and kind brother, the Duke of Lancafter, by whom he was first brought to court,

and through whofe favour he never wanted either countenance or fupport when it was in his power to bestow. This lofs very probably afflicted him deeply, as we may gather from his retiring about this time to Dunnington-Caftle, where he spent most of his days during the last two years of his life, indulging his grave thoughts in the folitude of that fweet retreat *.

*Of that fweet retreat.] It is not very clear at what time our Author quitted his beloved houfe at Woodstock in order to go to Dunnington-Caftle, where he spent the last two years of his life, but as this was his final retreat, and became very remarkable for being fo, an account of it cannot be unacceptable to the reader. It was in Mr. Camden's time (when in its glory) "a fmall but neat caflle, fituate upon the brow of a rifing hill, having an agreeable profpect, very light, with windows on "all fides, faid to be built by Sir Richard Adderbury Knt, who "likewife founded an hospital beneath it called God's Haufe; "it was afterwards the feat of Chaucer, then of the De la Polcs, "and in our fathers' memory the dwelling of Charles Brandon "Duke of Suffolk." At the beginning of the rebellion in the reign of King Charles I. it was a garrifon for the King under the valiant Sir John Boys, which commanded the western road and town of Newbury, and was therefore of great advantage to the royal party as a fafe retreat, and the cannon playing from it much annoyed the parliament forces. This place his Majefty honoured by lying one night in it, but after a rough affault and as bold a refiftance, during which feveral of the towers were battered down, it was furrendered upon honourable conditions. This was the ancient ftate and the cecation of the late ruin of that pleafant fructure. At prefent there is nothing to be feen of it but what raifes horrour and concern, a battered gateway with two towers, and fome finall part of the thattered walls, being all that remains thereof. The ground about it and the ruins of it are choked with brambles and overrun with ivy; but left the place of its fituation should in a