is visit to Norwich, looking about for somebody to
knight, intended, as usual on such occasions, to confer the title on the
mayor of the city; but this functionary,--some brewer or grocer perhaps,
of whom nothing else than this incident is recorded,--declined the
honor, whereupon the gap was stopped with Dr. Browne.]

Mr. John Evelyn, carrying out a long and cherished plan of seeing one
whom he had known and admired by his writings, visited him at Norwich in
1671. He found Sir Thomas among fit surroundings, "his whole house and
garden being a paradise and cabinet of rarities, and that of the best
collections, especially medails, books, plants, and natural things[2]."
Here we have the right background and accessories for Whitefoot's
portrait of the central figure:--

"His complexion and hair ... answerable to his name, his
stature moderate, and habit of body neither fat nor lean but
[Greek: eusarkos;] ... never seen to be transported with
mirth or dejected with sadness; always cheerful, but rarely
merry at any sensible rate; seldom heard to break a jest, and
when he did, ... apt to blush at the levity of it: his
gravity was natural without affectation. His modesty ...
visible in a natural habitual blush, which was increased upon
the least occasion, and oft discovered without any observable
cause.... So free from loquacity or much talkativeness, that
he was something difficult to be engaged in any discourse;
though when he was so, it was always singular and never trite
or vulgar."

[Footnote 2: These two distinguished authors were of congenial tastes,
and both cultivated the same Latinistic literary diction. Their meeting
must have occasioned a copious effusion of those "long-tailed words in
osity and ation" which both had so readily at command or made to order.
It is regrettable that Evelyn never completed a work entitled 'Elysium
Brittannicum' which he planned, and to which Browne contributed a
chapter 'Of Coronary Plants.' It would have taken rank with its author's
'Sylva' among English classics.]

A man of character so lofty and self-contained might be expected to
leave a life so long, honorable, and beneficent with becoming dignity.
Sir Thomas's last sickness, a brief but very painful one, was "endured
with exemplary patience founded upon the Christian philosophy," and
"with a meek, rational, and religious courage," much to the edification
of his f