SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BrasWirt',

Memoirs ot the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, N.G., Vice-Chamberlain and Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth. Including his Correspondence with the Queen and other distinguished Persons. By Sir Harris Nicolas, G.C.31.0 • • Bentley. TIATELs.

Travels in the Interior of Brazil, principally through the Northern Provinces, and the Gold and Diamond Districts, during the years 1836-1841. By George Gardner, P.L.S., Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Ceylon.• • .Reeve, Brothers. JOILISMNDENcE,

Two Discourses delivered in the Middle Temple Hall. By George Long, Barrister-

at-law, &c. Su. With an Outline of the Course Knight.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR

CHRISTOPHER HATTON.

THERE is a manuscript volume at the British Museum which was in the possession of the late Mr. tipcott, and was purchased by the Trustees at the sale of his collection : it is called "Booke of Letters re- ceaved by Sir Christopher Hatton, Vice-Chamberlain to the Quene's Ma- jestie, from sundry Parsons, and procured by him to be written in this same Booke." The history of this volume before it came into Mr. Up- cotes possession is unknown ; but there seems no reason for doubting its authenticity, partly, as it appears to us, because many of the letters are not of a kind to be the subject of a forger, and some of them are too trifling, dull, or prolix, to be the produce of invention. From the number of letters by Mr. Samuel Cox, the Secretary of Sir Christopher Hatton, it is very probable, as Sir Harris Nicolas intimates, that the " Booke " was copied by him; • but there is no evidence of this, or of any other point connected with its history. The letters commence with 1573, when Hatton was in his thirty-fourth year, and come down to 1587; four years Wore his death. The Correspondence is of a very various character, such as might be expected to be addressed to a Privy Councillor and a favourite. Sometimes a minister or a diplomatist writes upon public business : sometimes suitors solicit favours or interest : as Hatton was a goodnatured man, and liberal in his religious views, there are petitions for support from persons of very opposite creeds—in fact, from the Romanist to the Puritan : some of the letters are curious public documents, and some are so very private that neither their writers nor their subjects are known. As the title of Chancellor is not ascribed to Hatton in the titlepage, and only one or two letters appear after his elevation, Sir Harris Nicolas infers that the collection was made before his promotion to that high office.

It appears to have been the original intention merely to publish the contents of this "Booke," with illustrative notes ; and for that purpose a transcript was placed in the hands of Sir Harris Nicolas. A perusal, however, must have convinced him that a considerable part of the Cor- respondence had no popular attraction, and indeed little antiquarian value. He appears, therefore, to have endeavoured to impart character to this correspondence by rendering it more complete ; searching the State Paper Office for letters of Hatton, and bringing together those which ex- isted elsewhere in manuscript or print. An examination of Lord Camp- bell's biography of Hatton, in The Lives of the Chancellors, discovered some strange inventions,—statements without any reference, and without any known authority; while the noble biographer's general view of Hatton's character was depreciatory, and made from a loose opinion, rather than drawn from considerate and accurate knowledge. Sir Harris therefore determined to use the Letter-book placed in his hands as a con- tribution of materials to the Memoirs of Sir Christopher Hatton ; to complete them by a collection of other letters bearing directly upon his life, and by a narrative of his career grounded upon authorities. In the correspondence he has included every letter by Hatton whose existence is known, inserted the epistles in chronological order where the date can be ascertained, and embodied in the Memoir "every fact relating to the life of Sir Christopher Hatton that could be found."

We know not what authority Sir Harris possessed over the contents of the Letter-book; but it is clear that some mistaken notion of the value derived from their originality has impaired the popular attraction of the volume. Even as a mere collection of miscellaneous correspond- ence, we think extensive omissions would have been required ; be- cause mere news of the day, or letters upon personal matters from obscure or unknown persons (for some of the letters are not subscribed,) and never interesting beyond the parties concerned, neither illustrate manners not attract for themselves ; and there are several communications from men of name that may be placed in the same category. In a niiscella- aeons collection, however, the reader is prepared for a disjointed and fragmentary character; and he expects many letters of small interest, even if he is reading with some particular object. A different principle of expectation is at work in a life. We look for a finished article, not for the raw material. Every letter which does not directly illustrate the ca- reer or character of the subject is felt to be an encumbrance; even cor- respondence of intrinsic interest for its composition, its information or its pictures of the times, is better relegated to an appendix than permitted to Impede the march of a memoir, if it does not in some way concern the life. Hence, in despite of the industry and learning displayed in the Memoir, and of skill in setting the letters, the book is rather cumbrous ; a defect that would have been obviated had some of the letters appeared as mere correspondence.

There is, undoubtedly, a temptation to overdo the correspondence of Hatton. Owing his rise to personal appearance and exterior accomplish- ments, and not ostensibly engaged in important public business, at least till towards the close of his life, he appears but little as a leading agent in affairs ; though as a Queen's favourite he was the centre of innumerable applications, and seems to have been occasionally used by the Ministers as a species of go-between to whom they might write their opinions, with a view of being shown to Elizabeth, in a plainer style than they could venture to address her directly. Hence, Hatton's biography as a courtier and favourite is more truly contained in his miscellaneous correspondence than would be the case of a man whose actions were more conspicuous ; and it undoubtedly leaves a favourable impression of his character. In a sourt and at a period where rivalry and enmity sometimes ended in blood, and mostly in bitter hatred, Hatton, notwithstanding his rapid and unde- serving rise, seems to have had no enemies of any account save Raleigh ; to have been a common receptacle for the troubles of public servants, and a sort of refuge for the needy and distressed. With his great and ins- scrupulous rival, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, he lived on the best of terms during his life, and was appointed by Leicester one of his exe- cutors, with a bequest, of which only true regard could have dictated the terms—" To my Lord Chancellor, mine old dear friend, I do give one of my greatest basins and ewers gilt, with my best George and Garter, not doubting but that he shall shortly enjoy the wearing of it, and one of his armours which he gave me." On the subject of the George the testator was a prophet : Hatton was made a Knight of the Garter the year before Leicester's death. There are various friendly letters too from Leicester in the Correspondence, though letters prove little. The following, how- ever, has a hearty, natural air ; and is curious as a picture of roads, cha- racters, and manners, in the days of " Good Queen Bess." We give it with Sir Harris's setting.

" The hearty noble couple,' from whose house Leicester wrote the following letter, were Henry first Lord Norris of Ryeot, and his wife, Margery, daughter and coheiress of John Lord Williams of Thame. It appears that they expected to have been honoured with a visit from the Queen-

" TIM EARL OF LEICESTER TO Slit CHRISTOPHER HATTON.

" Good Mr. Captain—Having so convenient a messenger I thought good to salute you, and withal to let you know I found a very hard journey yesterday after I de- parted you. It was ten of the clock at night ere I came here, and a more foul and ragged way I never travelled in my life. The best was, at my arrival I met with a piece of cold entertainment at the Lady's hands of the house here; and so had you done too, if you had been in my place; for she was well informed ere I came that I and you were the chief hinderers of her Majesty's coming hither, which they took more unkindly than there was cause indeed. But I was fain to stand to it that I was one of the dissuaders, and would not for anything, for the little proof I had of this day's journey, that her Majesty had been in it; being, in deed, the very same day her Highness should have come hither, which I re- membered not till this question grew. Well, I did, I trust, satisfy my Lady, albeit she saith she cannot be quiet till you have part of her little stomach too. Trust me, if it had not been so late, I think I should have sought me another lodging, my welcome awhile was so ill; and almost no reason could persuade but that it was some device to keep her Highness from her own gracious disposition to coins hither. But I dealt plainly with her, that I knew she would have been sorry afterwards to have had her Majesty come at this time of the year to this place. I assure you, you should find it winter already. Thus much I thought good to tell you, that, when my Lady comes thither, you may satisfy her, as I hope I have done; but her Majesty must especially help somewhat, or else have we more than half lost this lady. To help to make amends, I offered her my lodging there, if her Majesty stayed at Oatlands. They had put the house here in very good or- der to receive her Majesty, and a hearty noble couple are they as ever I saw to- wards her Highness. I rest here this Sabbath-day to make peace for us both; what remains you shall do at their neat charge upon yon. God grant I find her Majesty no worse than I left her, and you as well to do as myself. From Rycott, the 11th of September 1682. "Your old assured friend, ROT. LEICESTER."

The manuscript Letter-book contains some letters from the Queen to Hatton ; and from the State Paper Office Sir Harris Nicolas has hunted out several from Hatton to Elizabeth. It is easy to see that Sir Harris gives credit to the report rife at the time, and considers Hatton to have been something more than a platonic favourite of Elizabeth. With the exception of the following passage, in a letter written in the courtier's forty-fifth year, when he was under a cloud, there is no proof to support that opinion; and this passage, such as it i, is qualified by the context.

"Though, towards, God and Kings, men cannot be free of faults, yet, wilfully or wittingly, He knoweth that made me I never offended your most sacred Ma- jesty. My negligence towards God, and high presumptions towards your Ma- jesty, have been sins worthily deserving more punishments than these. But, Madam, towards yourself leave not the causes of my presumptions unremembered; and, though you find them as unfit for me as unworthy of yen, yet, in their na- ture, of a good mind they are not hatefully to be despised."

There are, no doubt, several very singular letters from Hatton written eleven years earlier, when he was ordered to Spa for his health, and the Queen sent her own physician to attend him. Still, they seem to us to prove nothing, though they may serve to thicken other proofs. A ficti- tious name for a favourite (in this case "Lydda") was a royal fashion down even to Queen Anne's days ; and the style, familiar and odd as it reads to us, was only a compound of the jargon of enplinIsm and that high-flown gallantry in which it was Elizabeth's pleasure to be addressed. We continue to give the settings of the biographer.

"On the 5th of June, Hatton wrote the following reply to some letters which he had received from the Queen, though only two days had elapsed since he quitted her presence:

"If I could express my feelings of your gracious letters, I should utter unto you matter of strange effect. In reading of them, with my tears I blot them. In thinking of them I feel so great comfort, that I find cause, as God knoweth, to thank you on my knees. Death had been much more my advantage than to win

health and life by so loathsome a pilgrimage. -

"The time of two days bath drawn me flarther from you than ten, when I re- turn, can lead me towards you. Madam, I find .the greatest lack that ever poor wretch sustained. No death, no not hell, no fear of doath shall ever win of me my consent so far to wrong myself again as to be absent from you one day. God grant my return. I will perform this vow. I lack that I live by. The more I find this lack, the further I go from you. Shame whippeth me forward. Shame take them that counselled me to it. The life (as you well remember,) is too long that loathsomely lasteih. A true saying, Madam. Believe him that bath proved it. The great wisdom I End in your letters, with your Country counsels are very notable, but the last word is worth the bible. Truth, troth, truth. Ever may it dwell in you. I will ever deserve it. My spirit and soul (I feel) agreeth with my body and life, that to serve you is a heaven, but to lack you is more than hell's torment unto them. My heart is full of woe. Pardon (for God's sake) my tedious writing. It doth much diminish (for the time) my great griefs. I will wash away the faults of these letters with the drops from your poor Lydds and so inclose them. Would God I were with you but for one hour. My wits are over- wrought with thoughts. I find myself amazed. Bear with me, my most dear sweet Lady. Passion overcometh me. lean write no more. Love me; for I love you. God, I beseech thee witness the same on the behalf of thy poor servant. Live for ever. Shall I utter this familiar term (farewell)? yea, ten thousand thousand farewells, ifs apeaketh it that most dearly loveth you. I hold you too

long. Once again I crave pardon, and so bid your own poor Lidds farewell. 1578

June. Your bondman everlastingly tied, CH. Harrow." In a late review of Mr. Dyee's Beaumont and Fletcher, we had some notice of Aylmer Bishop of London, who was reprimanded for felling tim- ber, and nicknamed "Ellmar" or elm-marrer. In Hatton's Correspond- ence he is a frequent writer; and exhibits himself in a very had light,— bitter, malignant, proud, and servile, the very type of a "Prelate" of the time. Here is a sample of his flattery to the Queen and Hatton. "I beseech you, Sir, vouchsafe so to deal with me as I may not live but with her Majesty's geed liking; otherwise I shall go on like a horse that is spurred and not cherished, and so in the end shall fall under the burden. If my fighting against the beasts of Ephesus, my travails that I took when I was twenty years younger than I am now for the Government of Women, [books of his] my con- tinual setting forth of her Majesty's infinite gift from God and unspeakable de- serts towards us, have merited nothing; yet it is the honour of a Prince to breathe life into dead bodies, and, after the cold and dead winter, to cheer the dry earth with the fresh and lively spring time. I study with my eyes on my book, and my mind is in the Court.; I preach without spirit; I trust not of God, but of my Sovereign, which is God's lieutenant, and so another God unto me—for of such it is said Volt estis dii; I eat without stomach, I sleep without rest, I company without comfort, and live as one dead. You labour daily to your great commen- dation to cherish other Bishops set up by others, and will you throw down him whom you have set up yourself? You think the fault that is past can never be recompensed. If that be your conceit, assure yourself it will redound the more to your honour and reputation if you can freely forgive it. Cresar was sorry that Cato had killed himself, because he could not make him bound to him by for- giving and delivering him. Let Ciesar's _noble mind be in you, though Cato's mind be not in me."

Amid the general servility of the times,—which, however, was partly formal,—Walsingham stands conspicuously forth as a plainspoken coun- seller and an independent man ; writing in an honest, pithy, and natural manner. But his letters, though valuable, relate to matters of state, and nave less attraction taken singly than epistles of lesser historical importance from worse men. Here is a curious half begging half boasting letter from Churchyard the poet, who had slain a man, apparently in some brawl, and solicits Hatton for his release from prison, and for money.

"God, that worketh all goodness by worthy instruments, hath offered me great good hap, and wrought a perfect means to restore one to liberty. The man's wife whose husband I slewis contented to abandon her suit, and henceforth to surcease her malice, so that I hope I shall presently depart from prison, though not able (poor wretch as I anl) to depart with any money. The divers occasions of ex- pense in my restraint have taken from me the best part of my purse, and only left me the bare strings to play withal. I blush, being old, to beg; and yet not ashamed to crave, being a courtier. A soldier should rather snatch than stand at world's benevolence; but no man appoints his own portion, and men often fare the worse for snatching too baldly. Will, I want, and how to get requires a cunning reach; and then is simplicity but a very blunt hook to take that which may sup- ply a man's necessity. Why fear I my feebleness? the fortune of poets bath been ever poor and needy. Homer had but one eye, and knew not where to dine; Ovid had two eyes, and yet could see but few that did him good; Virgil, Petrarch, Dante, Marshall, Marot, and many more, were poor and rich, but not to continue; and may not I presume among them, as poor as the best, and a writer not always among the worst? Though not a poet, yet one that hash used both pen and sword with poet's fortune, as well as they, to my own hindrance. Your honour seeth my defects, and may easily help them, when you please, with some small remembrance of your bounty and goodness. I write not this to crave, but only desire some means to enlarge me, the sooner to drive away this indigence. Your Honour's servants, or whosoever please you, may now be welcome and visit me when they will in this sweet comfort and expectation qf present liberty, and bring that with them which a prisoner is glad to see, and will be ever most joyfully willing to receive, whatsoever shall proceed from your accustomed goodness, whom I commit to the grace of God. From the Palace of Repentance, the 10th of July 1581. Humbly at your Honour's commandment, T. CHURCHYARD."

Beyond the dates of his preferments and grants, few facts are known of the career of Hatton. His ancestors were country gentlemen, with an apocryphal pedigree to the Conquest. Christopher was born in 1540; and, though a third son, succeeded to the family estate of Holdenby, on the death of his elder brothers. He went to Oxford probably about 1656, and became a member of the Middle Temple in 1560. In 1561 he took a part in a Temple masque ; and is said to have first attracted the attention of the Queen on a similar occasion; but the time or place of this opportunity is not known. His first appointment was that of Gentleman Pensioner; which Sir Harris Nicolas infers took place between March and June 1564. He subsequently became Gentleman of the Privy Chamber; and in 1568 the stream of royal bounty began to pour upon him in the profitable form of grants of land and offices of profit, as well as of credit. In 1571 he was returned to Parliament, and the next year became Captain of the Guard. In 1575 he again obtained large grants ; in 1677 he was appointed Vice-Chamberlain, Privy Councillor, and knighted ; at the same time he received further grants of lands. He was one of the Judges nominated to try the Babington conspirators in 1586, and one of the Commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots in the same year. In 1587 he was made Chancellor, to the astonish- ment of all men and the anger of the bar ; next year he became a Knight of the Caner; and in 1591 he died.

Though not a very active member of the Commons, Hatton seems to have been acceptable to the House, and not devoid of discretion or elo- quence; but perhaps his temper and his position with the Queen con- tributed to his influence. On the occasion of the trials for the Babington conspiracy, he displayed more acuteness and legal view than might have been expected from such a courtier life as he had led ; and it was his speech to Mary Queen of Scots which induced her to appear and plead before the Commission. As Chancellor, his failure was expected; but by taking opinions when at a loss, and deciding according to equity, he surpassed the public expectation.

The little apparent envy and ill-will he created are better evidence of his good temper and manners than even the report of his contemporaries. His abilities appear to have been considerable, and his acquirements by no means small, regard being paid to the little time he could have had for study. In 1568 he wrote the fourth act of a tragedy produced by gentlemen of the Inner Temple ; a very different matter, when our stage was unformed, from such an attempt now. Upon all public occasions his appearance was creditable, and something more; whether as a Member of Parliament, Speaker of the Lords, a Judge for high treason, or Chancellor. His personal accomplish- ments must have been very great, since they procured him, a simple gentleman, attention from a Queen, in an age when the bodily exercises gave ease and grace of demeanour to every man who ranked above the vulgar. Tradition and record both assign to him preeminence in the dance ; but the habitual practice of the art, which Gray attributes to the Lord Keeper "when he had fifty winters o'er him," seems to have been a poetical flight. There is a contemporary notice, that in his forty-ninth year he "danced the measures" at thewedding of his nephew and adopted son : leaving the gown in his chair, he said, "Lie thou there, Chancel- lor." From liberality and habits of expense he seems to have been al- ways poor. His embarrassments are mentioned more than once; and his death was ascribed by contemporaries to uneasiness of mind, brought on by the Queen's determination to be paid a debt which he owed her. This, Sir Harris Nicolas remarks, is not likely, as his disease was diabetes, an incurable complaint, at least in cold or even temperate climates ; but anxiety might have aggravated the disorder. An admirable portrait pre- fixed to the volume does justice to the good looks of Hatton ; but his looks are rather of the shopman or cavalry captain style, than of the "nobleman" or intellectual cast.

The Memoir of Hatton has been composed, as we have already inti- mated, in consequence of the unfounded views and statements of his life and character by Lord Campbell. This Life is subjected by Sir Harris Nicolas to a running commentary in the shape of foot-notes, which handle each error, or rather fantasia, as it falls in the way : and a grave case is made out against Lord Campbell as a trustworthy writer, unless his Lordship has had access to unknown authorities. Except a few speeches and one or two cases when he quotes the exact words of his authorities, Lord Campbell seems to have looked upon the records as themes for his invention, or to show his knowledge of Master Shallow's doings when he was of Clement's Inn, as well as his more practical knowledge of other Shallows of later days. All this is invented plea- santly, and we need not say done with a simple bonhommie which im- presses the reader in favour of Lord Campbell's good-nature: but it raises some question of the value of his work as a true representation of his authorities. This is especially the case as regards the remoter Chancellors, the incidents of whose lives are little known, but the accuracy of which any reader would feel inclined to take implicitly upon the authority of so distinguished a lawyer and a Chancellor to boot.