there by the Popish faction. At my coming to Westminster, I took the like oath, where (absit jactantia) God so blessed my labours, that the now Bishops of London, Durham, and St. Asaph, to say nothing of persons employed now in eminent places abroad, and many of especial note at home, of all degrees do acknowledge themselves to have been my scholars; yea, I brought there to church divers gentlemen of Ireland, as Walshes, Nugents, O'Raily, Shees, the eldest son of the Archbishop of Casilles, Peter Lombard, a merchant's son of Waterford, a youth of admirable docility, and others bred popishly and so affected. I know not who may say that I was ambitious, who contented myself in Westminster school when I writ my Britannia, and eleven years afterwards, who refused a mastership of Requests, offered, and then had the place of a King of Arms, without any suit, cast upon me. I did never set sail after present preferments, or desired to soar higher to others. I never made suit to any man, no not to his Majesty, but for a matter of course incident to my place; neither, God be praised, I needed, having gathered a contented sufficiency by my long labours in the school."

The humility of Camden's disposition appeared also in his declining the degree of Doctor of Laws which was offered him by the University of Oxford, when he attended the funeral of his friend Sir Thomas Bodley; and in refusing the honour

of knighthood proposed to be conferred on him by king James.

All his ambition was to be instrumental in the advancement of learning and in serving the interests of learned men. He kept up a correspondence with Casaubon, Thuanus, Scaliger, Du Chesne, and other writers of the greatest eminence; and so high was his reputation that no foreigners of rank came to this country without visiting him.

"To be particular in his acquaintance, (says Bishop Gibson) would be to reckon up all the learned men of his time. When he was young, learned men were his patrons; when he grew up, the learned men were his intimates; and when he came to be old, he was a patron to the learned. So that learning was his only care, and learned men the only comfort of his life. What an useful and honourable correspondence he had settled, both at home and abroad, does best appear from his letters; and with what candour and easiness he maintained it, the same letters may inform us. The work he was engaged in for the honour of his native country, gained him respect at home, and admiration abroad; so that he was looked upon as a common oracle; and for a foreigner to travel into England and return with out seeing Mr. Camden, was thought a very gross omission. He was visited by six German noblemen at one time, and at their request wrote his

Lemma

Lemma in each of their books as a testimony that they had seen him."

On his refusing the honour of knighthood, which had been accepted by his brethren Sir William Segar, and Sir Richard St. George, Garter and Norroy Kings at Arms, Mr. Bolton, a profound antiquary and historian wrote to Camden as follows:

"Right worthy Sir,

"Though your brother Kings have outgone you in the honour of knighthood, they shall ever come behind you very far in the peculiar honour of immortal fame. Some ascribe it to ambition in you, that you are not a knight, (for you know how preposterously witty the wits of our time are on other men's actions and abstinences) as thinking the neglect thereof an higher point than the acceptance. Others to pusillanimity; and we your friends to your modesty; which I am angry with notwithstanding, because it hath deprived us of some grandeur in our friend's advancement."

Though Camden had no great reason to feel himself under any obligation to the University of Oxford, where he had missed a fellowship, and received his degrees with difficulty, so far from entertaining any resentment, he contributed an essential favour to that learned body, by instituting in his life time a professorship of Modern History. The foundation was liberal, and the first professor

was

was Degory Wheare, Master of Arts, fellow of Exeter College, to whom Camden assigned twenty pounds for the first year, forty for the second, and one hundred and forty pounds for every succeeding year.

Before we close this article, we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of copying a curious letter written to Camden, by his ancient friend and brother antiquary Dr. Francis Godwin, bishop of Hereford.

"Last Easter term I was in London, and sought you, but had not the good hap to find you. It discontented me not a little, I had no other errand but to see you. I love you, nay I honour you. We now grow old and sickly. I am afraid we shall never meet. Fiat voluntas Domini. But what becomes of your second part of Elizabetha? How fain would I see it out! Let it not die. Live you long. Faxit. You shall live the longer, if the world may see that of you, which shall make you immortal even in this world, except so far forth, as the world itself is mortal. Although, why do I put in that perhaps of that which is extra aleam? you see how delighting to talk with you, I had rather to talk idle, than to say nothing. Camdeno meo salutem plurimam. Vale. Whitborne, October 9. 1620."

Aug. 18, 1622, as Camden was sitting in his chair and very thoughtful he suddenly lost the use of his hands and feet, and fell down upon the floor, but without receiving any hurt, and soon recovering

recovering his strength got up again. The account of this accident was one of the last things that he committed to writing. It was however followed by a severe illness which lasted to the ninth of November, 1623, when he died at his house at Chislehurst, in Kent, aged seventy-three. His remains were interred with great solemnity, in Westminster Abbey, opposite the tomb of Chaucer.

In a letter from Sir Henry Bourchier to Archbishop Usher, he gives this account of the death and funeral of Mr. Camden :

"The latest [news] which I must send you, is very

sad and dolorous, being of the death of our late worthy friend, Mr. Camden, whose funeral we solemnized at Westminster, on Wednesday last in the afternoon, with all due solemnity: at which was present a great assembly of all conditions and degrees; the sermon was preached by Dr. Sutton, who made a true, grave, and modest commemoration of his life: As he was not factious in religion, so neither was he wavering or inconsistent, of which he gave good testimony at his end; professing in the exordium of his last will and testament, that he died, as he had lived, in the faith, communion, and fellowship of the Church of England. His library (I hope) will fall to my share, by an agreement between his executors and me, which I much desire, partly to keep it entire, out of my love to the defunct." Near his grave a handsome monument was erected to his memory, having his effigy thereon, holding

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