1881.] MSS. at Hatfield House. thors; JAMES'S Reign. The Catholics and Puritans again occupy their share of the ecclesiastical papers of this reign. The rentals of the Bishopric of St. Andrew's, the Abbey of Kelso, and the Bishopric of Glasgow, as resigned in 1605 by the Duke of Lennox, on having the Cobham and other lands in England given to him, may be cited for their curiosity. The Historical portion opens with the actual draft of the proclamation declaring James King of England, in the hand of Sir R. Cecil, and bearing numerous marks of his careful composition; there is also a warrant addressed to the Lieutenant of the Tower, signed by the principal nobility, as well as the council, that his Majesty may be proclaimed by him within his precincts; this, it may be here stated, is signed by both Lord Cobham and Lord Grey, who are represented by Hume to have been tardy in their recognition of the title of the new Sovereign. The various transactions of the early part of this reign, including Raleigh's and the Powder Plot, are here more or less illustrated. There are also copies of papers sent to the second Earl of Salisbury, touching the proposed marriage of the Prince (Charles I.) with the Infanta of Spain, differing in some cases with the received history of that matter.. The Military and Naval matters in this reign of less interest, afford some papers; but the branch of the Revenue and Expenditure, as may be expected, is more voluminous. The local and individual history contains also many papers of interest and value. The head of Foreign Affairs exhibits, as in the last reign, negotiations, advertisements, or the intelligence com. municated of the state of foreign courts, by spies, residents, &c. Among the Miscellaneous may be mentioned a paper, attributed to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, on the King's prerogative; the Privileges of the Baronage of England, wrote, as is supposed, by John Selden;" the original of the Compendium of the Records, by Arthur Agarde, as prepared by the author, and presented and dedicated to the first Earl of Salisbury; a regis 5 ter of the Proclamations, printed in 1608, &c. &c. Of CHARLES I.'s time, and later periods, there are also a number of historical and other papers, &c. The Volume containing the Letters is by far the most interesting portion, both as respects the number and contents of these communications. The first head, or Royal Letters, includes specimens of most of the reigning Princes of that period, and a quantity of James's letters to Elizabeth, and to the Earl of Salisbury after his accession. The second contains a number of letters from Queen Elizabeth to the Duke of Anjou. The third contains the Secret Correspondence of James with Sir R. Cecil during Elizabeth's life. This commences with James's communication opening the correspondence, which appears to have been brought about by Mar and Kinloss, James's ambassadors to Elizabeth on Essex's death. By it, it also appears that Essex had represented Cecil to James as favourable to the Spanish interest, and opposed to his. This Cecil disproves, but reserves himself entirely to the will of his present sovereign. Cecil's first letter is an open and honourable statement of the terms of this his countenance to James. There are also copies of letters sent to James by the Earl of Northumberland and forwarded by him to Cecil. The whole is perfectly unconnected with the volume published by Lord Hailes under this title, which, on examination, will be found to consist of Lord Henry Howard's ingratiating epistles to Mar and Kinloss; and certainly its contents warrant the conclusions of historians hitherto, had they only distinctly distinguished him to whom the honour of the production was due. The fourth contains the correspondence of Arabella Stuart, on her attempting to marry Mr. W. Seymour in 1602, of those connected with her, and those appointed by Elizabeth privately to examine into the matter, nothing of which is so early noticed by historians. The fifth contains a number of letters, partly in cypher, addressed to the Earl of Essex by the Duc de Bouillon, father of the famous Marshal Turenne from 1589 to 1599. The sixth, or general division, extends from 1540 downwards, in one chronological series, and to the end of Elizabeth's reign; an abstract of each 6 Original Account of the Fire of London. letter is given, or, if printed, where it appears. To those of James's is omitted this useful abridgment, which we regret, as none of them are published, or have ever been examined for that purpose. (To be resumed.) Lea-Hall, Yardley, near Mr. URBAN, Birmingham, July 18. AS your Magazine has lately been the medium of much information respecting the origin and obliteration of the inscriptions on the Monument; it may probably suit you to insert at your own convenience the inclosed original letter of an eye-witness to the dreadful calamity which that noble column commemorates. Yours, &c. MY LORD, B JOHN BLOUNT. Sept. 6, 1666. I suppose your Lordship may have heard of this sad judgment that has been upon us, by some flying report, though not the particulars, and this goes by the first post. Being constant with the Duke, I presume to believe none has seen more of it then I have, he being so active and stirring in this business, he being all the day long, from in the morning till 11 or 12 at night, using all means possible to save the rest of the city and suburbs. On Tuesday our only hope was to save Fleet-street, and so to Whitehall, by pulling down houses both sides [July, Bridewell Dock,b so to make a broad All orders signified nothing; had The Duke, on Tuesday about 12 o'clock, was environed with fire; the wind high, blowed such great flakes, and so far, that they fired Salisbury Court, and several of the houses between that and Bridewell Dock, so the Duke was The Duke of York. Evelyn gives his unprejudiced testimony to his Royal Highness's great exertions: "It is not indeed imaginable how extraordinary the vigilance and activity of the King and the Duke was, even labouring in person, and being present to command, order, reward, or encourage workmen, by which he showed his affection to his people, and gained theirs." Diary, Sept. 6.-"The King and the Duke, who rode from one place to another, and put themselves into great dangers amongst the burning and falling houses, to give advice and direction what was to be done, underwent as much fatigue as the meanest, and had as little sleep or rest." Lord Clarendon. bCommonly called Fleet-ditch, now covered by Farringdon-street and Bridge-street, Blackfriars. "We have now (as it is usual in all extraordinary accidents), several prophecies started up: none more remarkable than that of Nostredame, a Frenchman who wrote a book of prophecies above a hundred years since, and therein (cent. ix. stanza 49) exactly predicted the Parliament's putting our King to death, and in his book (cent. ii. stanza 51) hath this: Le sang du just a Londres sera faute Bruslé par foudres de vingt trois les six. [It will be noticed here that Nostradamus had merely religious persecution in his mind.] Most of our last year's Almanacks talked of fire in London, and one named the month, but it was expunged by l'Estrange (who licensed them) for fear of the consequence."-Letter written in 1666, printed in Malcolm's Londinium, vol. iv. p. 80. d Many strange things are recorded of the Digbys; but the gift of prophecy in a son of Sir Kenelm is a new feature in this history. 1831.] Original Account of the Fire of London. forced to fly for it, and had almost been stifled with the heat. The next hopes there was, to stop it at Somerset house, it raged so extreme in Fleet street on both sides, and got between us, and at six of the clock to the King's Bench office at the Temple. Night coming on, the flames encreased by the wind rising, which appeared to us so terrible to see, from the very ditch [Fleet-ditch] the shore quite up to the Temple all in flame, and a very great breadth. At ten of the clock at night we left Somerset House, where they began to pull down some in hopes to save, but did despair, and fled to our last hopes to save Whitehall, by pulling down Sir John Denham's buildings, and so up to Charing-Cross. The Queen and Duchess resolved to be gone by six o'clock on Wednesday morning for Hampton Court. Nothing can be like unto the distraction we were in, but the Day of Judgment. About 11 of the clock on Tuesday night came several messengers to the Duke for help, and for the engines, and said that there was some hopes of stopping it; that the wind was got to the south, and had blown the fire upon those houses from the street between 7 the side of the Temple Church; by that means had took off the great rage of the fire on that side, and on the side of the street St. Dunstan's Church gave a check to it. We had not this mercy shewed to us alone, but likewise hearts and hands from the people; the soldiers being almost all tired out with continual labour. By six of the clock on Wednesday the Duke was there again, and found the fire almost quenched on both sides the street; from thence he went to the Rolles, put the people to work there to preserve the rolls, caused all people, men, women, and children that were able to work, to come, and those that refused to beat them to it; by this means he got people to other places, as Fetter Lane, which he preserved by the assistance of some brick houses and garden walls; likewise Shoe Lane was preserved by the same way. At Holbourn bridge there was my Lord Craven, who gave a check to the fire there, and by noon quenched it. It then broke out again at Cow Lane in Smithfield; so Lord Craven went to assist Sir Richard Brown, who is but a weak man in this business. The Lord Mayors went to Cripplegate, pulled e co Sept. 5. It pleased his Majesty to command me," says Evelyn, "among the rest, to look after the quenching of Fetter Lane, and to preserve, if possible, that part of Holborn, whilst the rest of the gentlemen took their several posts, some at one part, some at another (for now they began to bestir themselves, and not till now, who hitherto had stood as men intoxicated, with their hands acrosse), and begau to consider that nothing was likely to put a stop but the blowing up of so many houses as might make a wider gap than any had yet been made by the ordinary method of pulling them down with engines. This some stout seamen proposed early enough to have saved near the whole city, but this some tenacious and avaritious men, aldermen, &c. would not permit, because their houses must have been of the first."-Pepys mentions some instances of this parsimony, particularly of one Alderman Starling, whose house had been saved by "our men," the very same seamen of whom Evelyn speaks. The Clerk of the Privy Council; and father-in-law of Mr. Evelyn. Sir Thomas Bludworth. It may be conjectured that the censure of being a weak man" belongs rather to this functionary, than Sir Richard Browne; since several of the accounts notice his inefficiency. Mr. Pepys was sent to him on the first day (Sunday Sept. 2), with the King's command" to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way." He found him in Cannon-street, "like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King's message he cried, like a fainting woman, Lord, what can I do? I am spent; people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it.' That he needed no more soldiers; and that, for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having been up all night. So he left me, and I him, and walked home, seeing people all almost distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire."-"The Lord Mayor," says Lord Clarendon, "though a very honest man, was much blamed for want of sagacity on the first night of the fire, before the wind gave it much advancement, for though he came with great diligence as soon as he had notice of it, and was present with the first, yet having never been used to such spectacles, his consternation was equal to that of other men, nor did he know how to apply his authority to the remedying the present distress; and when men who were less terrified with the object pressed him very earnestly that he would give order for the present pulling down those 8 Original Account of the Fire of London. down great store of houses there to stop it, being grown to a great head. Lords of the Privy Council rid about to every place, to get pipes opened that they may not want water, as Lord Chamberlain, Lord Ashley, and others, so that by Wednesday towards the evening we supposed the fire every where quenched, excepting that about Cripplegate, which we hoped well of. No sooner was the Duke come to Whitehall but a new alarm-50,000 French and Dutchh in arms, and the Temple on fire again.1 Immediately we repaired to the Temple again. When we came there, found a great fire occasioned by the carelessness of the Templars, who would not open the gates to let people in to quench it; told the Duke unless there was a barrister there they durst not open any door. The Duke found no way of saving the Temple Chapel, and the Hall by the Chapel, but blowing up the Paper house in that court, which experiment, if it had been used at first, might have saved a great many houses. [July, One of the Templars, seeing gunpowder brought, came to the Duke, and told him it was against the rules and charter of the Temple that any should blow that with gunpowder, therefore desired the Duke to consider of it, with more impertinence; upon which Mr. Germaine, the Duke's Master of the Horse, took a good cudgel and beat the young lawyer to the purpose. There is no hopes of knowing who this lawyer is, but the hope that he will bring an action of battery against Mr. Germaine. About one o'clock the fire was quenched, and saved the chapel and the hall; so the Duke went home to take some rest, not having slept above two or three hours from Sunday night. The next morning being Thursday, the King went to see how the fire was, and found it over in all places. It burnt down to the very moat of the Tower. They were very fearful of the Tower, carried out all the gunpowder, and brought out all the goldsmiths' money (which was at first carried thither), to Whitehall, houses which were nearest, and by which the fire climbed to go further (the doing whereof at that time might probably have prevented much of the mischief that succeeded), he thought it not safe counsel, and made no other answer than that he durst not do it without the consent of the owners." h❝In the midst of all this calamity and confusion, there was, I know not how, an alarm begun that the French and Dutch, with whom we were now in hostility, were not only landed, but were entering the city. There was, in truth, some days before, great suspicion of those two nations joining; and now that they had been the occasion of firing the town. This report did so terrify, that on a sudden there was such an uproar and tumult, that they ran from their goods, and taking what weapons they could come at, they could not be stopped from falling upon some of those nations whom they usually met, without sense or reason. The clamour and peril grew so excessive, that it made the whole Court amazed, and they did with infinite pains and great difficulty reduce and appease the people, sending troops of soldiers and guards to cause them to retire into the fields again, where they were watched all this night."-Evelyn. "About four in the afternoon (Wednesday Sept. 5) it broke out again in the Temple, (it is thought) by a lurking spark that had lain concealed ever since the morning, which, happening among Paper-buildings, quickly increased, and had baffled two engines, if the blowing up some lodgings had not prevented its diffusion, which was before midnight. The Duke of York was here three or four hours, showing much diligence, as he had done in several parts of the city that day, where he had seen, as he said, above a hundred houses blown up."-Letter dated" Middle Temple, Sept 24, 1666," in Malcolm, iv. 76. * To what has been quoted from Evelyn on this point may be added a paragraph from the letter-writer of the Temple, showing the great assistance derived from gunpowder. In pulling down houses, they always began too near the fire, by which they were forced from their work ere finished. It was, indeed, almost impossible, after it had made such a large circle, to make a larger round it by any other means than that of blowing up houses, which had been proposed the first day by more experienced persons, then esteemed a desperate cure, but afterwards practised with very good success. For, by putting a barrel of gunpowder, or thereabout, under each house, it was first lift up a yard or two, and then fell down flat, without any dangers to the bystanders."-Malcolm, iv. 77. 1 Clarendon continues, where we last broke off: "His (the Lord Mayor's) want of skil! was the less wondered at, when it was known afterwards that some gentlemen of the Inner Temple would not endeavour to preserve the goods which were in the lodgings of absent persons, nor suffer others to do it, because, they said, it was against the law to break up any man's chamber." |