"He cometh upon you with a tale, which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner." SIR P. SIDNEY's Defence of Poesy.

HE tale of Sir Thomas Overbury is indeed one of fearful mystery. Born with more than ordinary genius, nursed in affluence, the companion of states

men, and the favourite of princes;

yet this man, so highly favoured, so marked for distinction, was doomed to an early death, to suffer lingering tortures, and to die in a loathsome dungeon, surrounded by the ghastly forms of murderers!

Thomas Overbury was born at Compton Scorfen, in the parish of Ilmington in Warwickshire, in 1581.* He was the son of Nicholas Overbury, of Boorton-on-the-hill in Gloucestershire; and, ac

* At the house of his maternal grandfather, Giles Palmer. It is a tradition in Warwickshire, that he frequently resided at Barton-on-the-Heath, which was purchased by Walter Overbury, younger son of Nicholas, who built the present Manor House there.

cording to Wood,* was "educated partly in grammar learning in those parts." In Michaelmas term, 1595, he became a gentleman commoner of Queen's College, Oxford, and through the aid of a good tutor and severe discipline, made rapid progress in philosophy and logic. In 1598, as a “squire's son,” he took the degree of bachelor of arts, and soon after left the university and settled in the Middle Temple. How long he continued in the study of the law, we have not been able to ascertain. The writer of the "Secret History of the Reign of James,” MS. in the Harleian library,† says, at the University and the Temple, "he was instructed in all those qualities which became a gentleman; by the entreaty of my Lord Treasurer, Sir Robert Cecil, preferred to honour, found favour extraordinary, yet hindered in his expectations by some of his enemies, and to shift off discontent, forced to travel; therein spent not his time as most do, to loss, but furnished himself with things fitting a statesman, by experience in foreign government, knowledge of the language, passages of employment, external courtship, and good behaviour-things not common to every man." Overbury travelled for some time on the Continent, and on his return home, had the reputation of being an accomplished person, which, as

• Athenæ Oxonienses, ii. 134, edit. Bliss.

+ Printed in the second volume of The Autobiography and Correspondence of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 8vo. 1845. Mr. Halliwell, the editor, observes, "Wilson seems to have been indebted to this MS. in his Life of James, and it is altogether a curious and valuable memorial of the stirring events of the time." It was written before the close of the year 1615.

Wood quaintly expresses it," the happiness of his pen, both in poetry and prose, doth declare."

The fortunes of Overbury now become mixed up with those of the powerful Earl of Somerset, some of the events of whose early career we must briefly bring before the reader.

Robert Carr was descended from an ancient Scottish family,* and had spent some years in France, acquiring the necessary qualifications of a courtier. Some writers have asserted, that he had been a favourite of King James in Scotland, and at the coronation was made a Knight; but this is not the fact. Sir Robert Carr, who was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation, was afterwards created Earl of Ancram; he was related to Somerset. Robert Carr had certainly been a royal page before the accession of James to the throne of England; he was, however, a mere child at the time, and many years must have elapsed before his re-introduction at court in 1606.

The circumstances attending the establishment of his favour with the king, are graphically described by Sir Anthony Weldon, whose "Court of King James" is worthy of much more credit than is commonly assigned to it.†

* He was the son of Carr, of Fernihurst, a faithful servant of Queen Mary of Scotland, and frequently mentioned in her letters.

+ Wood calls this book "a most notorious libel;" Rapin "a satire;" and Dr. Campbell asserts "that the notions and evidence it contains are of no value at all." Mr. Brewer, the recent editor of Bishop Goodman's Court of King James the First, calls Weldon" an infamous writer," and" a monster of impurity." But in spite of those learned

"There was there," says the knight, 66 a young gentleman, master Robert Carre, who had his breeding in France, and was newly returned from travel, a gentleman very handsome and well bred, and one that was observed to spende his time in serious studies, and did accompany himselfe with none but men of such eminences, as by whom he might be bettered. This gentleman, the Scots so wrought it, that they got him a groom's place of the Bedchamber, and was very well pleasing to all. He did more than any other associate himselfe with Sir Thomas Overbury, a man of excellent parts, (but those made him proude, over-valuing himselfe, and

writers, recent discoveries fully confirm the truth of Weldon's statements.

Sir Anthony Weldon was of ancient family, originally of Weltden, in Northumberland. Hugh Weltden, second son of Simon Weltden, of Weltden, temp. Henry VI., was sewer to Henry VII. His second son Edward was Master of the Household to Henry VIII. and owned the manor of Swanscombe, in Kent, where he settled. His son Anthony was Clerk of the Spicery, and afterwards promoted to be Clerk of the Green Cloth to Queen Elizabeth, in which office he died. His eldest son, Sir Ralph Weldon, died in the same office to King James, 1609, æt. 64; and Sir Ralph's younger brother Anthony, who died 1613, was Clerk of the Kitchen to both Queen Elizabeth and King James, which office he surrendered to his nephew, Sir Anthony, (son of Sir Ralph,) our author, 2nd James. (See his epitaph in Swanscombe Church, printed in Thorpe's Registrum Roffense, p. 1005; and Hasteds Kent, second edition, 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 411, 412.)

These particulars are derived from Sir E. Brydges' Memoirs of the Peers of England, during the Reign of James the First: 8vo. 1802, p. 106. They are not included in Sir W. Scott's notice of the author, prefixed to his reprint of Weldon's Court of King James. (See Secret History of the Court of James the First: 8vo. Edinburgh, 1811, vol. i. p. 301.)

under-valuing others, and was infected with a kind of insolency.) With this gentleman spent he most of his time, and drew the eyes of the court, as well as the affection of his master upon him; yet very few, but such as were the curious observers of those times, could discern the drawing of the king's affection; until upon a coronation day, riding in with the Lord Dingwell to the tilt-yard, his horse fell with him, and brake his legg. He was instantly carried into master Rider's house, at Charing Cross, and the news as instantly carried to the king, having little desire to see the triumph, but much desired to have it ended; and no sooner ended, but the king went instantly to visit him, and after, by his daily visiting and mourning over him, taking all care for his speedy recovery, made the daybreak of his glory appeare, every courtier now concluding him actually a favourite."

In

The fortunes of Robert Carr rose rapidly from this hour. On Christmas-eve 1607, he was knighted, and sworn a Gentleman of the Bed Chamber. 1610, he was created Lord Carr, of Bransprath, and Viscount Rochester, and advanced to be Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. Shortly after, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In 1614, he was created Earl of Somerset, and appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and at the death of Salisbury, he became first Minister.

During these successive steps to nobility, Somerset (for we shall now call him by that title) was not neglectful of Overbury, with whom he had formed an acquaintance very early in life. The origin of this friendship is thus related by old Sir Nicholas Over