Did he these wonders? and is his dear loss
Mourn'd by so few ? few for so great a cross.

But sure the silent are ambitious all
To be close mourners of his funeral.

If not, in common pity they forbear
By repetitions to renew our care:

Or knowing grief conceiv'd and hid, consumes
Man's life insensibly,-as poison's fumes

Corrupt the brain,-take silence for the way

T'enlarge the soul from these walls, mud and clay,

Materials of this body-to remain

With him in heaven, where no promiscuous pain
Lessens those joys we have; for with him all

Are satisfied with joys essential.

Dwell on these joys, my thoughts! Oh! do not call Grief back, by thinking on his funeral.

Forget he loved me: waste not my swift years,
Which haste to David's seventy, fill'd with fears
And sorrows for his death: forget his parts,
They find a living grave in good men's hearts:
And, for my first is daily paid for sin,
Forget to pay my second sigh for him:
Forget his powerful preaching; and forget
I am his convert. Oh my frailty! let
My flesh be no more heard; it will obtrude
This lethargy so should my gratitude,
My vows of gratitude should so be broke
Which can no more be, than his virtues, spoke
By any but himself: for which cause, I
Write no encomiums, but this elegy;

Which, as a free-will offering, I here give

Fame and the world; and parting with it, grieve

I want abilities fit to set forth

A monument, as matchless as his worth.

April 7, 1631.

IZ. WA.

THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY WOTTON. KNIGHT,

LATE PROVOST OF ETON COLLEGE.

THE LIFE OF SIR HENRY WOTTON.

SIR HENRY WOTTON-whose life I now intend to write-was born in the year of our Redemption 1568, in Bocton-Hall,-commonly called Bocton, or Boughton-Place, or Palace,-in the Parish of Bocton Malherbe,* in the fruitful country of Kent. Bocton-Hall being an ancient and goodly structure, beautifying and being beautified by the Parish Church of Bocton Malherbe adjoining unto it, and both seated within a fair Park of the Wottons, on the brow of such a hill, as gives the advantage of a large prospect, and of equal pleasure to all beholders.

But this House and Church are not remarkable for any thing so much, as for that the memorable Family of the Wottons have so long inhabited the one, and now lie buried in the other, as appears by their many monuments in that Church: the Wottons being a family that hath brought forth divers persons eminent for wisdom and valour; whose heroic acts, and noble employments, both in England and in foreign parts, have adorned themselves

* A parish situate five miles westward from Charing, and about a mile and a half south of Lenham, almost in the very centre of the county. The present state of this once princely mansion, is extremely ruinous, but some fragments of its former splendour are yet remaining in the fine oaken staircase, and in the first story of the house, where there is an immense apartment with carved wainscot walls coloured in partitions, having a ceiling also divided into pannels, and painted in water-colours. This part of the building is now inhabited by a farmer, but much of its ancient character is lost by the principal front being modernized, the large apartments divided, and the arched doorways, bay-windows, &c. being blocked up; though a very fine specimen of the latter, formed of octangular panes, is yet perfect. Several dates cut in stone, principally of the sixteenth century, are still remaining on the ruins. The Church of Bocton Malherbe, dedicated to St. Nicholas, stands nearly in the centre of the Parish; on the eastern side of the Hall; and within the rude dwarf wall of flints which surrounds the building of Bocton Place.