The following letter by this queen is extracted from sir George Bromley's curious volume, and must have been addressed to her eldest surviving son, Charles Lewis, who was restored to the Lower Palatinate in 1648, upon condition of quitting all right and title to the Upper.

"Son,

"I thought to have written to you by Floer. I thought [he] was but gone to Amsterdam: because he did not tell me of his going, I staid till now; believing he would have come to me before he went; but now I see he is at Heidelberg, I send this by the post, to let you know that the States have given me for my kitchen one thousand guilders a month, till I shall be able to go from hence, which God knows how

and talents. Elizabeth, the eldest, made such progress in scientific studies, that Descartes, in the dedication of his "Principia," tells her she was the only person he had met with, by whom his works were perfectly comprehended. Penn, the legislator of Pennsylvania, held several conferences with her on the principles of his sect, and published some of her letters to him in his "Travels." Her sisters, Louisa and Sophia, were not less distinguished for their skill and taste in the arts. The paintings of the former are highly esteemed by the curious, not only for their rarity, but their merit; and are preserved in foreign cabinets with the works of the greatest masters. It has been observed of these three sisters, that "the first was the most learned, the second the greatest artist, and the third the most accomplished lady in Europe." Biog. Hist. vol. ii. p. 108. Prince Rupert was one of her accomplished children. Mr. Seward has printed a letter from Elizabeth to lord Clarendon, in the second volume of his Anecdotes; but it contains little of importance or interest.

7 See Bromley's Catalogue of engraved Portraits, p. 67.

and when that will be, for my debts.

Wherefore I earnestly entreat you to do so much for me as to augment that money which you give me, and then I shall make a shift to live a little something reasonable; and you did always promise me, that as your country bettered, you would increase my means, till you were able to give me my jointure. I do not ask you much. If you would add but what you did hint, you would do me a great kindness by it, and make me see you have still an affection for me, and put me in a confidence of it. Since you cannot pay me all that is my due; that will shew to the world you desire it, if you could.

"I pray do this for me: you will much comfort me by it, who am in so ill a condition, as it takes all contentment from me. I am making my house as little as I can, that I may subsist by the little I have, till I shall be able to come to you; which, since I cannot do because of my debts, which I am not able to pay, neither the new nor the old, if you do not as I desire you, I am sure I shall not increase.

"As you love me, I do conjure you to give an answer, and by the time commonly; and you will tie me to continue, as I am most truly,

Hague, August 1655.

"Yours, &c."

Many of her original letters, written when young, to her royal brother, occur in Harl. MS. 6986. One of them, it is presumed, cannot be unacceptable.

"Worthy Prince, and my dearest Brother, "I received your most welcom letter and kynd token by Mr. Hopkins, highly esteeming them as delightfull memorialls of your brotherly love; in which assuredly (whatsoever ells may fayle) I will ever endevour to equall you; esteeming that time happiest when I enjoyed your company, and desiring nothing more than the fruition of it again; that as nature hath made us neerest in our love together, so accident might not separate us from living together. Neither do I account that the leste part of my present comfort, that though I am deprived of your happy presence, yet I can make these lines deliver this true message, that I will ever bee, during my lyfe,

"Your most kinde and loving syster,
"ELIZABETH."

To my most dear Brother, the Prince.

But her highness's title to appear in the present work is willingly transferred from the Nuga Antiquæ, where first appeared "Verses by the Princess Elizabeth," given to lord Harington of Exton, part of which will most suitably close this article. The metre of the poem is a little quaint and singular, but the aspirations it breathes are faultless.

This is joye! this is true pleasure,
If we best things make our treasure,
And enjoy them at full leasure,
Evermore in richest measure.

CHARLES THE SECOND

[Is entitled to have his name inscribed on the muster-roll of royal authors, according to the affirmtion of sir John Hawkins, and even on the negative testimony of lord Orford2 himself, who thought there was nothing in the following amatory song to contradict the report of its having been said in an old copy to be written by this witty prince.

"I pass all my hours in a shady old grove,
But I live not the day when I see not my love:
I survey ev'ry walk now my Phillis is gone,
And sigh when I think we were there all alone.
O then 'tis I think there's no hell
Like loving too well.

"But each shade and each conscious bow'r when I find,
Where I once have been happy, and she has been kind;
When I see the print left of her shape on the green,
And imagin the pleasure may yet come agen;

O then 'tis I think that no joys are above
The pleasures of love.

"While alone to myself I repeat all her charms, She I love may be lockt in another man's arms,

2 Works, vol. i. p. 327. A stronger claim to royal authorship has been produced by sir D. Dalrymple, from the Pepysian MSS. in Magdalen College, Cambridge, being "An Account of the Preservation of King Charles II. after the Battle of Worcester, drawn up by the King himself."