her forgiveness before he died. The Bishop having homely urged the necessity of a full, and prevailed, as is hoped, for a sincere repentance, several times proposed the administration of the holy sacrament, but, although it was not absolutely rejected, it was yet delayed from time to time, till (I know not by what authority) the Bishop, and all others present, were put out from the presence for about the space of an hour, during which time, it has been suggested, Father Huddleston* was admitted to give extreme unction."

King's House at Winchester.

The best summary account of the magnificent royal structure at Winchester is in Wilks's History of Winchester; the more interesting as the materials are supposed to have been supplied, if the work was not written, by the well-known Thomas Warton. From that work I transcribe the following: "On the very spot where the castle formerly stood, Charles the Second began a magnificent royal palace, from a design of Sir Christopher

* My friend, John Huddleston, Esq. late Director of the East India Company, has a striking portrait of Father Huddleston, a relation of the family. It is now in Mr. Huddleston's residence, Laura Place, Bath.

This is the most authentic account, as far as it goes, of what took place in the chamber of death. Charles sunk under an apoplectic stroke, being taken Sunday, 2d February, and dying Thursday the 6th, 1684.5

Wren, the first stone of which was laid March 23, 1683. It was intended by the King for a summer residence, and was sufficient to entertain the whole court with all kinds of sport and diversion! There was particularly intended a large cupola, which was to have been carried thirty feet above the roof, so as to be seen a great way at sea. The south side is two hundred and sixteen feet, and the west three hundred and sixty-eight feet, and the shell, when it was discontinued, is said to have cost upwards of twenty-five thousand pounds, although the building was no farther prosecuted than carried up to the roof, and covered in. The whole building contains no less than a hundred and sixty rooms! The great staircase was to be supported by fine pillars of Italian marble,* which were presented to the King by the Grand Duke of Tuscany!"

It should have been remarked that the brick appendage to the Deanery of Winchester, has been taken down by the present learned and virtuous Dean, Dr. Reynell.

*The application (see p. 55) —

"Tu secanda marmora

Locas sub ipsum funus: et sepulcri

Immemor struis domos:"

seems more appropriate, when we consider this circumstance.

So died Charles the Second, and such was that death-scene in which the new Bishop of Bath and Wells, with elevated sanctity and fervent prayer, stood so virtuously conspicuous.

Not being yet admitted to the temporalities of the See, in consequence of this sudden stroke, the nomination of Charles was, immediately afterwards, confirmed by his brother, now James the Second, and Ken, conscious of the weight of duties, far more than gratified by the thought of worldly distinction, took possession of a See to whose interests he devoted himself and all his faculties, and which, for the remainder of his life, in possession or deprivation, formed the incessant object of his care.

We shall now see him, remote from Courts, silently but anxiously pursuing the same undeviating path of conscientious duty, which this more

eminent but anxious station in the Church now imposed on him.

But let us first cast a look over his new place of abode. No situation could be conceived more agreeable to the turn of mind and disposition of Ken than Wells, except, indeed, the scenes where he had lived so long, which were connected with his earliest friendships, and his old and dearest associates. But the situation of Winchester, in other respects, bore no comparison with that of Wells, if a poet and a lover of picturesque scenery were to determine. The neatness and the quietude of Wells must have been in unison with pious and placid feelings, as far as a city can be in unison with those feelings. Here was the castellated abode of peace and prayer, separate from the crowd, surrounded with its still moat, and, as it were, sheltered from the world and its tumults, under the wing of the venerable cathedral,—with an inclosed garden, commanding, from its embattled walls, the rich scenery of hills and champaign, and the beautiful vale of Glastonbury, crowned by its distant Tor. The episcopal domain extended to Banwell,* commanding the sweep of the Severn-sea, bordering the territory of Ken-court, the ancient possessions of the

* The present Bishop, as much revered as beloved, has built, on this part of his picturesque domain, a cottage, over the Cave of antediluvian Bones at Banwell, which has been described by the Author. See "Banwell-hill, or Days departed," a poem.!!!

more prosperous part of the family, at the time when the father of Ken, little dreaming his son should ever there or thus be placed, followed the drudgery of his office in the smoke of London, anxious to provide for a most numerous family.

We can readily conceive the family at Kencourt were the first to bid their once obscure relative welcome: but the most immediate cares of the new Bishop, at his coming, were those of the cathedral, the clergy, and the poor. His publications attest these cares, and doubly gratifying must it have been to him, from youth attached to devotional music, to find in his chapter, not only a learned and exemplary character, but one devoted scientifically to the art which both loved, and which is most nobly employed in the service of Christian worship; I allude to Dr. Creighton, the son of the late Bishop, whose Church services are still heard in every cathedral.

Bishop Ken published, indeed, few literary works, and those were chiefly called forth by his situation and immediate duties. After his accession, he published the following:

Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of Bath, on Ascension-day May 5th, 1687.

Wood, speaking of this Sermon, says: "which Sermon, though not extant that I know of, yet there were animadversions made upon it by a Roman Catholic, who writes F. J. R. C. J." Probably at this time, when James had shown so decidedly