r the very words of the will; they ran
thus, Mr. Boss. 'And whereas my beloved son, had he lived, would have
been a member of the College of ---- in the University of Cambridge,
which he would have adorned by his genius, learning, youthful virtue,
and the various qualities which did equal honour to his head and heart,
and would have rendered him alike distinguished as the scholar and the
Christian, I do devise and bequeath the sum of thirty-seven thousand
pounds sterling, now in the English Funds,' etc; and then follows the
manner in which he will have his charity vested and bestowed, and
all about the prize which shall be forever designated and termed 'The
Vavasour Prize,' and what shall be the words of the Latin speech which
shall be spoken when the said prize be delivered, and a great deal more
to that effect: so, then, he passes to the other legacy, of exactly the
same sum, to the hospital, usually called and styled ----, in the city
of London, and says, 'And whereas we are assured by the Holy Scriptures,
which, in these days of blasphemy and sedition, it becomes every true
Briton and member of the Established Church to support, that "charity
doth cover a multitude of sins," so I do give and devise,' etc., 'to be
forever termed in the deeds,' etc., 'of the said hospital, "The Vavasour
Charity;" and always provided that on the anniversary of the day of
my death a sermon shall be preached in the chapel attached to the
said hospital by a clergyman of the Established Church, on any text
appropriate to the day and deed so commemorated.' But the conclusion is
most beautiful, Mr. Bossolton: 'And now having discharged my duties, to
the best of my humble ability, to my God, my king, and my country,
and dying in the full belief of the Protestant Church, as by law
established, I do set my hand and seal,' etc."

"A very pleasing and charitable and devout and virtuous testament or
will, Mistress Merrylack," said Mr. Bossolton; "and in a time when
anarchy with gigantic strides does devastate and devour and harm the
good old customs of our ancestors and forefathers, and tramples with
its poisonous breath the Magna Charta and the glorious revolution, it
is beautiful, ay, and sweet, mark you, Mrs. Merrylack, to behold
a gentleman of the aristocratic classes or grades supporting the
institutions of his country with such remarkable energy of sentiments
and with--and with, Mistress Merrylack, with sentiments of such
remarkable energy."