tion he took little part in
public affairs, but at the Restoration he managed to be made a Privy
Councillor and Lord Privy Seal.

Clarendon has another and shorter character of Say, which supplements
the character here given, and deals mainly with his ecclesiastical
politics (vol. i, p. 241). He was thought to be the only member of the
Independent party in the House of Peers (vol. iii, p. 507).

Arthur Wilson gives short characters of Essex, Warwick, and Say:
'_Saye_ and _Seale_ was a seriously subtil _Peece_, and alwayes averse
to the Court wayes, something out of pertinatiousnesse; his _Temper_
and _Constitution_ ballancing him altogether on that _Side_, which
was contrary to the _Wind_; so that he seldome tackt about or went
upright, though he kept his _Course_ steady in his owne way a long
time: yet it appeared afterwards, when the harshnesse of the humour
was a little allayed by the sweet _Refreshments_ of Court favours,
that those sterne _Comportments_ supposed _naturall_, might be
mitigated, and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed
and brought to obedience' (_Reign of King James I_, p. 162).

49.

Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 48-9: _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16.

This and the four following characters of men of learning and letters
are taken from the early section of the _Life_ where Clarendon proudly
records his friendships and conversation with 'the most excellent men
in their several kinds that lived in that age, by whose learning and
information and instruction he formed his studies, and mended his
understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness of behaviour,
and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his manners.' The
characters of Jonson, Falkland, and Godolphin which belong to the same
section have already been given.

Page 167, l. 27. _his conversation_, fortunately represented for us in
his _Table-Talk_, a collection of the 'excellent things that usually
fell from him', made by his amanuensis Richard Milward, and published
in 1689.

Page 168, l. 3. _M'r Hyde_, i.e. Clarendon himself.

l. 5. _Seldence_, a phonetic spelling, showing Clarendon's haste in
composition.

l.10. Selden was member for Oxford during the Long Parliament.

ll. 15, 16. Compare Clarendon's _History_, vol. ii, p. 114: 'he had
for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved, was rich, and would
not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for
any preferment, which he had never affecte