Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/33

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INTRODUCTION

lished at Redburn, Herts, near St. Albans, and the manor of Gorhambury went to him as the elder son, although Lady Bacon lived there until her death. Francis Bacon's legacy was a good name and a great intellect, which had been trained and cultivated by the best education to be had at that time. Diplomacy could not be pursued as a career without means, and a month after his father's death, Bacon returned to London. He was eighteen years old, and was dependent on his own exertions both for a living and for advancement in the public service. He took lodgings in Gray's Inn and resolutely applied himself to the study of the law. Later Anthony Bacon, back from some years of travel in France, Italy, and Spain, joined him, and the brothers, with little ready money between them, set up a coach, much to their frugal mother's dismay. She sends to her sons from Gorhambury home-brewed beer, fish, strawberries in season, and game, with accompanying letters full of motherly care and admonition. A letter to Anthony, dated, "Gorhambury, April 1, 1595," begins,—

"I send between your brother and you the first flight of my dove-house; the Lord be thanked for all: ii dozen and iiii pigeons, xii to you, and xvi to your brother, because he was wont to love them better than you from a boy." Another letter to Anthony tells us what Bacon's habits as a student were, "I verily think your brother's weak stomach to digest hath been much caused and confirmed by untimely going to bed, and then musing nescio quid when he should sleep, and then, in consequence, by

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