feel,
That o'er my volumes many an age may steal:
But hard it is the well-clear'd eye to cheat
With honours undeserved, too fond deceit!
Greece, greatly eloquent, and full of fame,
Sighs for the want of many a perish'd name;
And Rome o'er her illustrious children mourns,
Their fame departing with their mouldering urns.
How can I hope, by such examples shown,
More than a transient day, a passing sun?
Enough for me to win the present age,
And please a brother with a brother's page.

By other verses, addressed to Cranmer, it would appear that Leland was
experiencing anxieties to which he had not been accustomed,--and one
may suspect, by the opening image of his "Supellex," that his pension
was irregular, and that he began, as authors do in these hard cases,
to value "the furniture" of his mind above that of his house.

AD THOMAM CRANMERUM, CANT. ARCHIEPISCOP.

Est congesta mihi domi Supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta,
Qua totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori.
Sed Fortuna meis noverca coeptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.
Quare, ne pereant brevi vel hora
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes, et patriae simul decora
Ornamenta cadant, &c. &c.

IMITATED.

The furnitures that fill my house,
The vast and beautiful disclose,
All noble, and the store is gold;
Our ancient glory here unroll'd.
But fortune checks my daring claim,
A step-mother severe to fame.
A smile malignantly she throws
Just at the story's prosperous close.
And thus must the unfinish'd tale,
And all my many vigils fail,
And must my country's honour fall;
In one brief hour must perish all?

But, conscious of the greatness of his labours, he would obtain the
favour of the Archbishop, by promising a share of his own fame--

----pretium sequetur amplum--
Sic nomen tibi litterae elegantes
Recte perpetuum dabunt, suosque
Partim vel titulos tibi receptos
Concedet memori Britannus ore:
Sic te posteritas amabit omnis,
Et fama super aethera innotesces.

IMITATED.

But take the ample glorious meed,
To letter'd elegance decreed,
When Britain's mindful voice shall bend,
And with her own thy honours blend,
As she from thy kind hands receives
Her titles drawn on Glory's leaves,
And back reflects them on thy name,
Till time shall love thy mounting fame.

Thus was Leland, like the melancholi