THE HATTON CORRESPONDENCE.* THE cream of the forty-nine volumes of

the Hatton Correspond- ence is here set before us by Mr. Manacle Thompson. His selection consists principally of news-letters addressed to Lord Hatton, Governor of Guernsey, by various correspondents, and forms a continuous narrative of events from the Restoration to the death of William III. Its publication will scarcely render it necessary for the historian to reconsider many of his judgments on men and things, although it will certainly enable the student to make many a profitable jotting in the margin of his Macaulay. But it will place the reader at the point of view from which thoughtful men and women of rank regarded the march of events under the later Stuarts, and it will bring before him many a trait of national and individual character which will throw a little fresh light on a page illumined by the two greatest of English diarists. By a curious coincidence, the last letter but one in these volumes records the death of Mr. Pepys, "who was a very valuable person, and my particular friend."

Lord Hatton's correspondents include persons of very diverse character. There is Bishop Jeremy Taylor, who writes in terms of exaggerated respect which would be fulsome in a lacquey of the present day. There is Bishop Fell, of Oxford, a little " donnish " perhaps, but full of the spirit of the scholar and the gentleman. There is Scroggs, of whom more anon, and Danby and Nottingham ; the Countess of Man- chester, who uses to the utmost the privilege of her sex to

• Correspondence of the Family of Hatton, being chiefly Letters addressed to Christopher, first Viscount Hatton, A.D. 1601-1704. Edited by E. Maunde Thompson. Printed for the Camden Society. 1878.

spell as she will, a privilege of which all the ladies who figure in this volume largely avail themselves ; Alice Hatton, whose fresh delight iu the pleasures of the town and keen enjoyment of the gossip of the passing hour are con- tagious, after well-nigh two centuries ; Dugdale and Marlborough, and a host of others. The first volume opens with a love-letter written about 1601, in which the writer sententiously remarks that he has " markt it out as true property of ye fierie soul to' honour chart beauty where ever it harbers, and to love ye eerie wictdowes of yt house where soe faire a guest as rcrtue soiourneth." In the next letter, the lady to whom this courtly compliment was addressed, now a widow and a mother, writes to her son at Cambridge, promising to make him " a sommer sutc," on her return from an approaching visit, and giving him wise and loving counsel, expressed in that weighty and stately style which was a second nature to so many among the contemporaries of our Authorised Version. But the majority of the letters here printed were addressed to Lord Hatton by his brother, Charles Hatton, and by Sir Charles Lyttelton. Lyttelton and Hatton are certainly a distinct acquisition to our gallery of Restoration worthies. Respectable in all ways, in character, education, and in talents, they represent a class which was by no means too numerous under Charles II. and his successors. They have many intellectual interests, literary, artistic, and scientific. They discuss the technique of Vandyke, the appear- ance of Absalom, and Achitophel, questions of botany and horti- culture. Hatton was a friend of Evelyn, as well as of Pepys, and was fond of a good story. The brother of Madame Dacier told Hatton he " lodg'd in Suffolk Street, vis-d-vis le Livre rouge, but his Red-book proved to be ye Roe Buck." In 1693, Hatton took a house in Stratton Street, Piccadilly, and writes, " We are in a house from whence we have soe great a pro- spect into ye country yt out of our parlour-window, whilst I am now writing, we can plainly and distinctly see ye hounds as they are hunting in ye adjacent fields, and hear ye sound of ye horns and cry of ye doggs." But if it would be impossible to see and hear such things from a Piccadilly drawing-room to-day, we may congratulate ourselves that our Bishops do not keep their consecration-feasts at the Cock, as the Bishop of Bristol did in 1672 ; and that one Bishop would scarcely allow himself to tell another—even " in the heat of debate "—that " he was an old dotard, intoxicated with tobacco and Revelations?' Courtier as Lyttelton was, he was forced to admit, at the very commencement of the Bloody Assize, that the country " looked as one passed already like a shambles ;" and he could not but believe that more would be heard when the Par- liament met of the violence used in suppressing the insurrec- tion. Of Jeffreys he had said, when he was only Recorder of London, that " he had, in great perfection, the three chief quali- fications of a lawyer,—boldness, boldness, boldness." He cons plained that of public news he was able to tell very little, for though he " came from the Court, they talk there of nothing but horses and dogs." A passage in a letter written in 1687 forms a curious commentary on Charles's dying request to his brother not to "let poor Nelly starve." "Mrs. Nelly has been dying of an apoplexie. She is now come to her sense on one side, for ye other is dead of a palsie. She is thought to be worth 100,000/i.,2,000/. in revenue, and ye rest jeweles and plate." Of the beauties of Charles II.'s time, Lyttelton never had a high opinion. So early as 1664 he wrote, " there was greate festivity at [the Duke's] birthday, and at night a ball, where really, Kytt, I saw but a few such beautyes as, wthout flattery to our- selves and them, you and I have had the happinesse to doe more than wayte upon and serve in our time. I thinke the race of fine women mightily decayed, or else it is that, being grown older, I am not so apt to spy them out, or so concerned for them when I doe." We find a curious popular superstition two• or three times repeated in the Hatton Correspondence. It was reported that when Lady Ranelagh, and again, when her brother, Robert Boyle, lay dying, flames broke out of one of the chimneys of the house, and continued for some time, though no cause could be discovered by those within ; and when Dr. Busby departed this life, Lyttelton mentions how he "heard an od story, that ye people in ye street, when he was expiring, saw flashes and sparks of fire come out of his window, wch made them run into ye house to put it out, but when they were there saw none, nor did they of ye house." One piece of gossip is of some literary interest. In 1678 steel pens seem to have been scarce, for in that year Mary Hatton wrote to her brother to ask whether there were any in England, and to offer her services to procure him a supply, by the agency of one who "assured her that neither the glass pens nor any other sorts are near so good."

An Oxford resident gives a very full and valuable account of James II.'s proceedings at Magdalen, but, to our mind, the most distinct gain to be derived from the perusal of these letters is the vivid picture of Scroggs which they contain. Scroggs hitherto has been for most students of the Merry Monarch's time a name of reproach, rather than a very distinct personality.

Macaulay, we believe, does not so much as mention him in his History. But he lives in the Hatton Correspondence ; though we have but three of his letters and a few brief mentions of him, we know him henceforward but too well. His im- pudence is almost sublime ; the brutal animalism of the man is something to remember. He is first introduced to us in a very amusing scene at Westminster Hall. A mad cow, after doing great execution in King Street, entered Palace Yard, and caused a considerable stir :—

"Those in ye Hall, who saw ye bustle and swords drawn, were afrighted, and some crycd out ye Fifth-Monarchy men were up, and come to cut ye throats of ye lawyers, who were ye great plague of ye land. Some flung away their swords, yt they might not secure to make any defence ; others their periwiggs, yt they might appear to be ye meaner persons; ye lawyers their gowns, and yr friend, Serjeant Scroggs, who of late hath had a fit of ye gout, wage per- fectly cured, stript himself of his gowne and coife, and with groat activity vaulted over ye bar, and was presently followed by ye rest of his brethren."

In 1673, Scroggs wrote to Lord Hatton :-

" There is, my Ld, in all yr family, such a smoothness of kind- ness, like a dead calme, not a wrinkle to be seenc ; but it carries you nowhether. I could wish, if it were possible, yr Lordships example could change that way in 'ern ; for I suppose that tyme and ye nature of yt place has wrought off much of that sweetness web, as in wine, leaves it better to ye tast and stomack. And now you talke of wine, well remembered ! the last hogshead's abroach, and without a sudden supply there is no living for mee at Weald Hall. The woemen drink in fear aliready, and you know all theire passions are violent. 'Tis not a small matter will satisfy any one's desire, and heere are a greate many to be satisfyed, besides yr sisters and Mr. Hatton's lady, famous at 2 in ye morning. My Lrd, by my last I wrott how you might send it, viz., to have it landed at Rainham, wch Arthur knowes, and from thence Ile send for it. Thinke not of any other stores at Guernsey but this, and let as much of it be clarrett, and as strong as you please, and more than ever you imagined."

A month or two later Sir William again wrote what he him- self admits to be a " railing " letter, complaining of the non- fulfilment of Lord Hatton's promises, and that his wine must cost him £10 a hogshead, instead of £6. We will give another extract from his third letter, still on the same subject :--

" You say very true,—wine is answerd with nothing but wine. If anything or anybody else could have donne it otherwise, it must have bin yr Lrdship, in whom there is much art, but in wine is truth. Yr present was spoild before yr brother receivd it. We broke ope yr coffin at his howse, wherein we found only the furniture of a coffine, corruption. Those lympitts yt wer never scene in England lack wine to make 'em tad ; and I will take it yt yr Lrdship keeps yr word, that you send wt was never yet seene in England, when you send ye next hoggsheads. My Lrd, you must not take it ill if I write of nothing but wine, for there is nothing I want more, nor of wch I can better write, or more willingly,—with this difference only, that wine wrott for has not halfe yt elegancy as wine thankt for."

In 1676 Scroggs was made Judge of the Common Pleas, and Lord Chief Justice in 1678. The latter appointment was a reward for a King's Speech which he had drawn up, but which was not delivered. Three speeches were submitted to the Council, Hatton states, the composition of the Lord Treasurer, Scroggs, and Sir William Temple respectively ; the last was the successful candidate, but Scroggs's speech gave great satisfac- tion. Scroggs trimmed, "not wisely, but too well," over the Popish plot, and it was found necessary to supersede him, on a handsome pension. There is an amusing account of a dinner at the Lord Mayor's, in which he had a passage of arms with Lord Shaftesbury ; and the last we hear of him is where Charles Hatton promises to send " by the carrier, with the tobacco "—appropriate company—a copy of Scroggs's answer to Oaths and Bellow. Charles Hatton married Scroggs's daughter, Elizabeth Gilby, after expressing great indignation at a report that he went to the Chief Justice's house for the purpose of court- ing her. " I must needs say," he wrote, " I thinke her a very good woman but she hath one fault, and an unpardonable one ; no portion, except three boys ; and I desire to meddle not with ye mother, except yr Loppe will take ye boys."

Dr. Edward King, who was present when Charles II. was seized with his fatal illness, contributes several letters to these volumes. He was voted £1,000 for his service on that occasion, but was knighted instead, which, as Bishop Fell remarked, was equivalent to fining him £100. His description of an earthquake which happened in 1692 gives a fair specimen of the intellect of this amiable old toady :—" I had been out of towne, just come home ; and, as I was at dinour in my dineing-room (one paire of stairs), on a suddaine the table and room shakt, put us all into a strange confusion. My wife said, Mr. King, wts. this ?' Her woman, yt was at diner wth us, started from the table, as pale as death, and cri'd, Oh ! an earthquake !' " &c.

Of duels we have abundance in these pages ; even the King's and Duke's footmen " tilted." Many crimes are recorded, among others, the murders of Mr. Thynne and Dr. Clench. At the trial of Lord Cornwallis for murder in 1676, when the Lords retired, his servants brought " Naples bisquits and wine," which were first presented to the Lord High Steward, and after given about to the company. Plots abound, from the Rye-House Plot to a Pewter-pot Plot. A correspondent states that Lord William Russell, in the interval between his condemnation and execution, " eats little, drinks tea much, is very composed and resolute." Lord Hatton's correspondents were chiefly Tories ; and both Lyttelton and Hatton found themselves under arrest during the reign of William III. The latter has many a dry blow at the new regime. In March, 1693, he records with evident pleasure how " this evening his Sacred Majesty returned back through the City, with as great silence as the Grand Seignior marches through any city in his territories ;" and he writes, on the second anniversary of William's death, in the last letter here printed :—" Several sermons for King William were preached in moat churches ; and in our market, the butchers' shops were generally shut up, and few would sell any meat, though it was market-day, they postponing their gaine to faction, from the effects of which, Good Lord, deliver us !' " In dealing with a book like this, which, like Burton's Anatomy, is an admirable work to steal from, it is difficult to know where to stop. We must confine ourselves to one more extract, which shows that the workman of 1675 was already puzzled by certain economical problems, which his descendant of two centuries later has scarcely solved :-

"Here hath been, every day since Sunday last, great disorders committed in ye city and suburbs by ye weavers, who first, in great numbers, fell upon ye French weavers, palled down some of their houses, burnt their loomes ; but, afterwards, those weavers who had loomes without engines broke open the houses of all those weavers who had loomes with engines, and burnt their loomes, pretending that one man with an engine-loome can doe more worko in one day then ten men with loomes without engines, and yt, therfore, ther vase thousands of weavers yt, for wt of employment, were ready to starve, and yt they had rather venter hanging than starving."

It only remains to express our thanks to Mr. Maunde Thompson and the Camden Society for these singularly interesting volumes.