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injury, his Secretary Cuff, a vile man, and of a perverse nature. I could also name others, that when he was in the right course of recovery, and settling to moderation, would not suffer a recess in him, but stirred up the dregs of those rude humours, which by time and his affliction, out of his own judgment, he sought to repose, or to give them all a vomit. And thus I conclude this noble Lord, as a mixture be tween prosperity and adversity, once the child of his great mistress's favour, but the son of Bellona.

BUCKHURST, *

My Lord of Buckhurst was of the noble house of the Sackvilles, and of the Queen's consanguinity. His father was Sir Richard Sackville, or, as the people then called him, Fill-sack, by reason of his great wealth, and the vast patrimony which he left to this his son, whereof he spent in his youth the best part, until the Queen, by her frequent admonitions, diverted the torrent of his profusion. He was a very fine gentleman of person and endowments, both of art and nature, both without measure magnificent, till on the turn of his humour,

* Thomas Sackville, Baron of Buckhurst, Earl of Dorset, and Lord High-Treasurer of England. He was a beautiful poet, as is evident from his share of the Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates, and no less able

a statesman.

+ His conversion was owing, it is said, to the following incident: Happening, when he began to feel his

and the allay that his years and good counsels had wrought upon those immoderate courses of his youth, and that height of spirit inherent to his house. And then did the Queen, as a most judicious and indulgent Prince, when she saw the man grow stayed and settled, give him her assistance, and advanced him to the treasurership, where he made amends to his house for his misspent time, both in the increasement of estate and honour which the Queen conferred on him, together with the opportunity to remake himself, and thereby to shew that this was a child that should have a share in her grace, and a taste of her bounty. They much commend his elocution, but more the excellency of his pen; for he was a scholer, and a per

fortune embarrassed, to wait on an alderman of London, who had made great advantages by purchasing from him, he was made to wait so long ere he could see the man of money, that his heart revolted at subjection to such incivility; and to prevent being in future exposed to it, he became a frugal improver of his remaining pro perty. Fuller's Worthies.

son of a quick dispatch, (faculties that yet run in the blood,) and they say of him, that his secretaries did little for him by the way of inditement, wherein they could seldom please him, he was so facete and choice in his phrase and style: and for his dispatches, and the content he gave to suitors, he had a decorum seldom since put in practice; for he had of his attendants that took into roll the names of all suitors, with the date of their first addresses, and these in their order had hearing; so that a fresh man could not leap over his head, that was of a more ancient edition, except in the urgent affairs of state. I find not that he was any ways ensnared in the factions of the court, which were all his times strong, and in every man's note; the Howards and the Cecills of the one part, my Lord of Essex, &c. on the other part; for he held the staff of the treasury fast in his hand, which once in the year made them all beholding to him; and the truth is, as he was a wise man, and a stout, he had no reason to be

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a partaker; for he stood sure in blood and in grace, and was wholly intentive to the Queen's service; and such were his abilities, that she received assiduous proofs of his sufficiency; and it hath been thought, that she might have more cunning instruments, but none of a more strong judgment and confidence in his ways, which are symptoms of magnanimity and fidelity, whereunto methinks this motto hath some kind of reference, aut nunquam tentes aut perfice; as though he would have charactered in a word the genius of his house, or expressed somewhat of an higher inclination than lay within his compass. That he was a courtier, is apparent, for he stood always in her eye and favour.

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