Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/506

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492 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

markable as his fpirit in the pro- feirion itfelf. His * imprefies and inventions of entertainment were much admired. One of his maiks is defcribed by a f cotemporary ; I fhall give a little extrad of it, to preienc the idea of the amufements of that age, and as it coincides with what I have already remarked of the queen's paflion.

My Lord of EfTex'.^ device, fays Rowland White, is much commend- ed in thefe late triumphs. Some pretty while before he came in him- felf to the tilt, he fent his p.ige with fome fpeech to the queen, who returned with her majeiiy's glove. And when he came hlm- ielf, he was met by an old hermit, a lecretary of Itate, a brave foldier, and an cfquire. The iiril prefented hini with a book of meditations ; the feccnd with political difcouries; th-: third with orations of brave fought battles ; the fourth was but liis own follower, to whom the other three imparted much of their purpofe before the earl's entry. In ihort, each of them endeavoured to win him over to their profeiTion, and to perfuade him to leave his vain following of love, and to be- take him felf to heavenly meditation. But the elquire anfwered them all, and told them plainly, ' That this

  • knight would never forfake his

< IV'IiHreis's love.whofe virtue made

  • .-.11 his thoughts divine, whofe

« wifdom taught him all true po-

  • licy, whofe J beauty and worth
  • were at all times able to make
  • l-.im fit to command armies.' He

pointed out all the defetls of their ieveral purfuits, and therefore

thought his own courfe of life to be

bell in ierving his miftrefs. The

queen faid, • That if Ihe had

  • thought thf-re would have been

' fo much faid of her, (he would

  • not have been there that night.'

The part oi the efquire was played by Sir Toby Matthews, who lived to be an admired wit in the court of Charles the Firll, and wrote an affe(^led panegyric on that af- feded beauty the Countcf> of Car- liile.

The works of this Lord were,

  • A memorial drawn up on the
  • apprehenfion of an invafion from
  • Spain.'

• A narrative of the expedition

  • to Cadiz '
  • To Mr. Antony Bacon, an apo-

' logy of the Earl of Effex, a- ' gain It thole which taifeiy and m.i-

  • licioufly take him to be the only
  • hindrance of the peace and quiet
  • of his country.' Reprinted in

1729, under the title of, ' The

  • Earl of Elfex's vindication of the

' war wiih Spain.' Both thefe pieces were jullificacions of himfeH fro.Ti the afperiions of his enemies. A very good judge commends both pieces much, and fays of the latter particularly, ' that the earl refolv- ' ed to deliver his own arg.imcnts

  • with all the advantages that his
  • own pathetic eloquence could

' give them, and which flill re-

  • mains a memorial ot his great
  • virtues and admirable abilities. '

• Advice to the Earl of Rutland ' for his travels;' publiflicd at Lon- don in 1633, 8vo. in a book iq-

  • Sir H. V/ooton, p. 174. His device was a diamond, with this motto, nv^!

TORMAS MINUIS, Camdt n" s remains .

•f Rowland White, in the Sidney papers, vol. i. p. 362. 1 'I'Tic queen was then fixty-vhrte,

titaled,