each, never to learn.... You should know many of
these tales you tell to be but ordinary, & many other things, which
you repeat, & serve in for novelties to be but stale.... Your too much
love of the world is too much seen, when having the living" [income]
"of L10,000, you relieve few or none: the hand that hath taken so
much, can it give so little? Herein you show no bowels of
compassion.... We desire you to amend this & let your poor Tenants in
Norfolk find some comfort, where nothing of your Estate is spent
towards their relief, but all brought up hither, to the impoverishing
of your country.... When we will not mind ourselves, God (if we belong
to him) takes us in hand, & because he seeth that we have unbridled
stomachs, therefore he sends outward crosses." And Bacon ends by
commending poor Coke "to God's Holy Spirit ... beseeching Him to send
you a good issue out of all these troubles, & from henceforth to work
a reformation in all that is amiss, & a resolute perseverance,
proceeding, & growth, in all that is good, & that for His glory, the
bettering of yourself, this Church & Commonwealth; whose faithful
servant whilest you remain, I am a faithful servant unto you."

If ever there was a case of adding insult to injury, surely this piece
of canting impertinence was one of the most outrageous.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _Life of Sir Edward Coke._ By H.W. Woolrych. London: J. & W.T.
Clarke, 1826, pp. 145-48.

[4] Lipscomb's _History and Antiquities of the Co. of Bucks_, 1847,
Vol. IV., p. 548.

[5] Gray made the churchyard of Stoke Pogis the scene of his famous
Elegy, and he was buried there in 1771.

[6] _Ency. Brit._, Vol. XIV. Article on London.

[7] Lady Elizabeth's house in Holborn was called Hatton House. A
letter (_S.P. Dom._, James I., 13th July, 1622) says: "Lady Hatton
sells her house in Holborn to the Duke of Lennox, for L12,000."
Another letter (ib. 26th February, 1628) says that "Lady Hatton
complained so much of her bargain with the Duchess of Richmond for
Hatton House, that the Duchess has taken her at her word and left it
on her hands, whereby she loses L1,500 a year, and L6,000 fine."

[8] "Under no man's judgment should the King lie; but under God and
the law only."

[9] Letter from John Castle. See D'Israeli's _Character of James I._,
p. 125.

[10] _Cabala Sive Scrina Sacra_: Mysteries of State and Government. In
_Letters of Illustrious Persons, etc_. London: Thomas Sawbridge and
others, 1791,