mployed himself at Earl's Croome
in general study, and particularly in painting, which he is said to have
thought of adopting as a profession. It is probable, however, that art has
not lost by his change of mind, for, according to one of his editors, in
1774 his pictures "served to stop windows and save the tax; indeed they
were not fit for much else." He was then recommended to Elizabeth, countess
of Kent. At her home at Wrest, Bedfordshire, he had access to a good
library, and there too he met Selden, who sometimes employed him as his
secretary. But his third sojourn, with Sir Samuel Luke at Cople Hoo,
Bedfordshire, was not only apparently the longest, but also much the most
important in its effects on his career and works. We are nowhere informed
in what capacity Butler served Sir Samuel Luke, or how he came to reside in
the house of a noted Puritan and Parliament man. In the family of this
"valiant Mamaluke," who, whether he was or was not the original of
Hudibras, was certainly a rigid Presbyterian, "a colonel in the army of the
Parliament, scoutmaster-general for Bedfordshire and governor of Newport
Pagnell," Butler must have had the most abundant opportunities of studying
from the life those who were to be the victims of his satire; he is
supposed to have taken some hints for his caricature from Sir Henry
Rosewell of Ford Abbey, Devonshire. But we know nothing positive of him
until the Restoration, when he was appointed secretary to Richard Vaughan,
2nd earl of Carbery, lord president of the principality of Wales, who made
him steward of Ludlow Castle, an office which he held from January 1661
[v.04 p.0886] to January 1662. About this time he married a rich lady,
variously described as a Miss Herbert and as a widow named Morgan. His
wife's fortune was afterwards, however, lost.

Early in 1663 _Hudibras: The First Part: written in the Time of the Late
Wars_, was published, but this, the first genuine edition, had been
preceded in 1662 by an unauthorized one. On the 26th of December Pepys
bought it, and though neither then nor afterwards could he see the wit of
"so silly an abuse of the Presbyter knight going to the wars," he
repeatedly testifies to its extraordinary popularity. A spurious second
part appeared within the year. This determined the poet to bring out the
second part (licensed on the 7th of November 1663, printed 1664), which if
possible exceeded the first in popularity. From this time till 1678, the
da