pece one wt another, and for above xv inches xvid a pece to xvii and xviii inches, and for above xviii inches xviiid a pece. The firste of them, all charges received, will stand me in xvid [each] at the least before I shall have them home. And yf it please you to shewe yor ponde and fetche your fyshe home to yo howse, I will send downe my tonnes unto you yt yor w. maye have one of them to carry the fyshe home to your howse. And upon sighte of yor fyshe, yf I see they be more worthe then I have before sett downe I will mend the pryce. But in any wyse I wolde have the greatest and best to serve her majestie wall, althoughe I pay the mor for them. I wolde gladly have them the weeke after twelf daye, wherof I crave your worship's answere, and so I humbly take my leave. London, this xxi of December 1581. Yor worshipps to com'aund, I have sent yor w. by this bearer a firkin of no worse oysters than I serve her matie wthall. The Plague. So accustomed were the people to the recurrence of this dreadful scourge, that a belief was common among them that it returned to visit them every twenty years. In the visitation in 1665, known as the Great Plague, which we may cursorily notice, these apprehensions were increased by the pretenders to astrology, who disseminated an opinion, which was listened to by the multitude with much credulity, that the disease originated from conjunctions of the planets. One of these seers, John Gadbury, who wrote a tract on the Great Plague in 1665, (a copy of which is in the British Museum,) says that the true causes of the plague are to be found no where but in the heavens; that astrologers with good reason affirm that all popular diseases are irritated by Mars and Saturn. He then cites instances of great conjunctions of the planets, terrible comets, eclipses, and other phenomena, producing plague. The plague was an acute, epidemical, contagious, and raging fever, generally destroying life within four or five days. It was accompanied with tumours, or small red spots like flea-bites, which latter were peculiarly called the tokens. Some of the regulations adopted with a view to preventing the spreading of the plague must rather have promoted its destructive effects; for no sooner was one person in a house taken ill of the disorder, than the whole of its inmates were shut up in it; a guard placed at their door, who was the only person through whom they could obtain the necessaries of life; the portal was marked with a large red cross, and over it the inscription, "Lord have mercy upon us," truly, indeed, applicable to their hopeless situation, when, in immediate contiguity to the dying and the dead, they were left in dumb despair to expect their own summons from the destroying angel of the pestilence. We have seen in the possession of the intelligent antiquary, Mr. Lemon, whom we have before had occasion to notice, an original plague bill, or return of deaths by this disorder, intituled, "London's Lord have mercy upon us. A true relation of the plagues or visitations in London, with the number of all the deceased that were buried, viz. the first in the year of Elizabeth, anno 1592; the second in the year 1603; the third in the never to be forgotten year 1625; the fourth, anno 1630; the fifth, this now present visitation, 1636, which the Lord of his mercy deliver London and England from." The bill is headed by a curious woodcut, representing the open fields, into which bodies in coffins or in shrouds are brought out for interment. A waggon appears in the foreground, employed as a funeral car. The angel of the Lord is represented in the clouds over the east end of St. Paul's cathedral, displaying in one hand a flaming sword, in the other a scourge composed of numerous lashes. A "bare-ribb'd death" in the foreground brandishes a huge dart, and shews an hourglass, in a triumphant attitude, as he exults the enlargement of his empire. in ( 117.) Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, to Sir William More, and his son George More, Esq. as Justices of Surrey. Precautions to be used against the Plague, the Queen having determined to reside in the county the most part of the summer. We select this from various notices of the above disorder occurring in the MSS.* After my very hartye comendations, whereas her matie hathe determyned to make her resydence * We will briefly recapitulate a few of the remainder. A petition from the inhabitants of Guildford, dated 17th September, 1563, begging him to cause that the fair at Catherine Hill should be stayed on account of contagion. This, it appears, by a letter from Cecil, inclosing the Queen's official letters wthin the Countye of Surr' duringe the most pte of this som', and hath comaunded me to signifie unto you that her highenes pleasure is, that you upon receyte heareof forthewyth gyve order and direction unto all maiors, balyfes, constables, headborowes, and other officers to whom it may aperteyne wtin yor division that they and ev'ye of them in hir matie's name charge and comaunde the Inhabitants wtin their severall offices and lymytes not to receyve any childe borne in London, the suburbes and confynes thereto adjoinynge, to be norced in any of their houses, nor any Inhabitantes win the sayd places to come to make their dwelling, aboode, or sorjoniynge wthin their houses or teneme'ts hereafter, duringe the tyme of such contagious in was granted with some difficulty. The fair was procured by charter dated the 2d of Edward II. to the founder of the chapel on Catherine Hill, Richard de Wauncey, Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford, to be held yearly on the feast of St. Matthew. The chapel itself is now a picturesque ruin. A letter from the Lords of the Council to the Sheriff and Justices of Surrey, dated 15th November, 1574, forbidding them to allow the people to resort to plays and shews at that time of contagion. This resolution must have been principally levelled at the theatres and bear-gardens on the Bankside, Southwark. In 1592, R. Sothebie writes to Sir William More that the Law Term was kept at Hertford on account of the plague, and that lodgings in that town were in consequence so scarce that 51. the week had been offered for a chamber, and none to be had. This sickness is noticed by Stow in his "Summarie,” who says that there was no Mayor's feast that year by reason of the infection. fection and sicknes, upon payne of imprisonment and hir matie's grevous displeisure. And also yf any houses or places wthin their sayd offices or lymytes be at this instant infected or suspected of infection, that you cause suche care to be had as they may be pvided of suche necessaryes as the pties infected may not have cause to straye abrode for their releyfe, or other their necessarye busynes to be don elswher, to the greate hurte of other places now free. And thus, not doubtinge of yor vigilante care and spedye delygence herein, do bydde you most hartelye farewell. From my house at Haylinge, this first of May 1593. Youre lovinge frynde, To his lovinge fryndes Sr Will'm of Surrye gyve these. C. HOWARD. The Armada. What a crisis for England's Monarch and England's Church was the year 1588! The unquenchable light of the Gospel Religion, cherished by its mild disciple Edward VI. and obstructed by the sanguinary bigotry of Mary, had again burst forth with overpowering effulgence under the auspices of her successor Elizabeth, that truly English lion-hearted Queen. Confident in the goodness of her |