so sad that, to another humour
than mine, it would be unsupportable; but I have been so used to
misfortunes, that I cannot be much surprised with them, though perhaps I
am as sensible of them as another. I'll leave you, for I find these
thoughts begin to put me in ill humour; farewell, may you be ever happy.
If I am so at all, it is in being

Your

_Letter 15._--What Temple had written about Mr. Arbry's prophecy and
"the falling down of the form," we cannot know. Mr. Arbry was probably
William Erbury, vicar of St. Mary's, Cardiff, a noted schismatic. He is
said to have been a "holy, harmless man," but incurred both the hate and
ridicule of his opponents. Many of his tracts are still extant, and they
contain extravagant prophecies couched in the peculiar phraseology of
the day.

The celebrated Sir Samuel Luke was a near neighbour of the Osbornes, and
Mr. Luke was one of his numerous family. Sir Samuel was Lord of the
Manor of Hawnes, and in the Hawnes parish register there are notices of
the christenings of his sons and daughters. Sir Samuel was not only a
colonel in the Parliament Army, but Scout-Master-General in the counties
of Bedford and Surrey. Samuel Butler, the author of _Hudibras_, lived
with Sir Samuel Luke as his secretary, at some date prior to the
Restoration; and Dr. Grey, his learned editor, believes that he wrote
_Hudibras_ about that time, "because he had then the opportunity to
converse with those living characters of rebellion, nonsense, and
hypocrisy which he so lively and pathetically exposes throughout the
whole work." Sir Samuel is said himself to be the original "Hudibras;"
and if Dr. Grey's conjecture on this matter is a right one, we have
already in our minds a very complete portrait of Dorothy's neighbour.

The old ballad that Dorothy encloses to her lover has not been preserved
with her letter. If it is older than the ballad of "The Lord of Lorne,"
it must have been composed before Henry VIII.'s reign; for Edward
Guilpin, in his _Skialethia_ [1598], speaks of

Th' olde ballad of the Lord of Lorne,
Whose last line in King Harrie's day was borne.

"The Lord of Learne" (this was the old spelling) may be found in Bishop
Percy's well-known collection of Ballads and Romances.

SIR,--You must pardon me, I could not burn your other letter for my
life; I was so pleased to see I had so much to read, and so sorry I had
done so soon, that I resolved to begin them again, and