nce, which was to
receive and pay off money, for the service of the magazine, and
artillery; at which time Sir Edward Sherborne was commissary-general
of it. It was then, that at leisure hours he followed his studies, was
deemed a member of Queen's-College, being entered among the students
there, and might with other officers have had the degree of master of
arts conferred on him by the members of the venerable convocation, but
neglected it. After the surrender of the garrison of Oxford, from
which time, the royal cause daily declined, our author was reduced to
live upon expedients; he came to London, and in order to gain a
livelihood, he wrote several little things, which giving offence to
those in power, he was seized on, and imprisoned, first in the
Gatehouse, then in Newgate, and at length in Windsor Castle, at which
time, when he expected the fevered stroke of an incensed party to fall
upon him, he found William Lilly, who had formerly been his
antagonist, now his friend, whose humanity and tenderness, he amply
repaid after the restoration, when he was made treasurer and paymaster
of his Majesty's ordnance, and Lilly stood proscribed as a rebel. Sir
George who had formerly experienced the calamity of want, and having
now an opportunity of retrieving his fortune, did not let it slip, but
so improved it, that he was able to purchase an estate, and in
recompence of his stedfast suffering and firm adherence to the cause
of Charles I. and the services he rendered Charles II. he was created
a baronet by patent, dated 31st of December 1677.

Sir George was esteemed, what in those days was called, a good
astrologer, and Wood calls him, in his usual quaint manner, a thorough
paced loyalist, a boon companion, and a waggish poet. He died in the
year 1681, at his house at Enfield in Middlesex, and left behind him
the name of a loyal subject, and an honest man, a generous friend, and
a lively wit.

We shall now enumerate his works, and are sorry we have not been able
to recover any of his poems in order to present the reader with a
specimen. Such is commonly the fate of temporary wit, levelled at some
prevailing enormity, which is not of a general nature, but only
subsists for a while. The curiosity of posterity is not excited, and
there is little pains taken in the preservation of what could only
please at the time it was written.

His works are

Hemeroscopions; or Almanacks from 1640 to 1666, printed all in octavo,
in w