antiquities never before imprinted, by the industry and care of John Philipot, Somerset Herald, and W. D. Gent." appeared in 1674.*

The latter years of his life were principally dedicated to the composition of what is, after the Britannia, his greatest performance, his Latin Annals of the reign of Elizabeth (Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante Elizabetha), the first part of which, coming down to the year 1589, was published in folio at London, in 1615, and in 8vo. at Frankfort the following year. The second part, though completed by the year 1617, he withheld from the press during his lifetime; and it was first printed in 8vo. at London in 1625. An English translation of the entire work is inserted by Kennet in his Complete History. Camden began his Annals of the Reign of Elizabeth in 1597, at the instigation of Lord Burghley, whose view was, that the history should be a monument to the fame of his royal mistress, and probably little else than a panegyric from beginning to end; but the changed circumstances in which it was written and published prevented the finished performance from turning out exactly conformable to the original design or conception. It is in fact such a his

*There has been some difference of statement as to the year in which the Remains was first published. The Dedication, to Sir Robert Cotton, is dated the 12th of June, 1603, and Dr. Smith, Camden's earliest biographer, says the book was published in 1604. The date on the titlepage, however, is 1605. But it probably appeared early in that year; as may be gathered from the mention of it as a book upon which he had "lighted of late," in a letter of Richard Carew, the historian of Cornwall, dated 8th April, 1605, which is inserted among the Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries; with Notes and Illustrations by Sir Henry Ellis, K.H.,' 4to. Lond. Printed for the Camden Society, 1843, pp. 98-100. In the Index Carew's letter is erroneously entered as relating to a "book dedicated to" Camden. The Remains was an anonymous publication; and the Dedication was subscribed only with the final letters of Camden's Christian and surname.

tory of the reign of Elizabeth as might be expected to be produced by a court writer in the reign of her successor. The work was submitted, before being published, to the perusal of King James; and of course it could contain nothing that would give offence to his majesty. In particular, the story of his mother could be told only in one way. It was at one time supposed that the work had been in many parts altered and interpolated by the royal order or pen; but for that notion there seems to be no good ground. The standard edition, published by Hearne in 1717 from a manuscript corrected by Camden himself, exhibits no variations which favour any such conclusion. We are bound then to believe that, if the work was biassed by the time and circumstances in which it was prepared, so were the actual opinions of the writer. In his Preface, while he speaks with little satisfaction of its execution, he asserts the integrity and good faith with which it had been compiled in solemn terms. "Whatever it be," are his concluding words, "I dedicate and consecrate it at the altar of truth to God, to my country, and to posterity." Selden has pronounced Bacon's History of Henry VII. and Camden's Annals to be the only two historical works relating to English affairs worthy of their subject; but Camden's performance cannot claim a place in that shortest of all literary catalogues, the catalogue of great historical works. Its chief merit is distinctness of statement. a piece of writing, it is probably at least equal to the Britannia; but then something of higher art is looked for in a history than in a topographical description. Even its value as a record of facts is not very great. It does not contain very much that is not to be found elsewhere; and a large mass of information respecting the events of Elizabeth's reign is now before the public, which was inaccessible and unknown when Camden wrote.

As

The summers of the last years of his life Camden spent mostly at Chiselhurst in Kent; and it was here that he was attacked with his last illness, in the autumn of 1623. On the 18th of August, as he sat in his chair,

absorbed in thought, he suddenly lost his muscular power, and fell from his seat on the floor; he did not, however, injure himself; and he soon so far recovered his strength as to get again upon his feet.

He has himself

noted the incident among the last of the entries in the Diary which he kept during the reign of James, and from which Kennet has abstracted and translated what he calls his Annals of that reign. A severe illness, however, followed, which carried him off on the 9th of November. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the south aisle, near to the place where his monument may still be seen. The attendance at his funeral was very splendid, comprising not only all the College of Heralds, but a great number of the nobility and other distinguished persons. The greater part of his savings he had set aside the year before his death to found a Professorship of History in the University of Oxford. The rest he left mostly in small legacies and remembrances to his relations and friends. Among the former his will, made on his last birthday, mentions his cousin John Wyat, painter, of London, and Mr. Camden, of London, silkman, of whom the former has a legacy of a hundred, the latter one of ten pounds. Besides the sixteen pounds to the painter-stainers, he also left twelve pounds to the company of cordwainers, or shoemakers, to purchase them a piece of plate, on which he directed the same inscription to be engraved as on that to be purchased by the painters. His printed books and manuscripts he bequeathed to Sir Robert Cotton, except such as related to arms and heraldry, which he directed that his successor in the office of Clarenceux should have upon certain conditions. "But," according to Bishop Gibson, upon the erection of a new library in the church of Westminster, the printed part was removed thither by the procurement of Dr. John Williams, Lord Keeper of England, Bishop of Lincoln, and dean of that church; who laid hold of an expression in the will that was capable of a double meaning.' A number of tracts and papers written by Camden, together with his Life and a collection of his letters, was published by Dr. Thomas

66

Smith in 1691; and other letters from him and to him are to be found in various publications. His name, which has been sung by Spenser, and of which his works are an enduring monument, has lately been brought into additional celebrity by the novel and successful experiment of the Camden Society.

FRANCIS BACON was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and was born at York House in the Strand, on the 22nd of January, 1561. In boyhood he was sprightly and intelligent beyond his years. The queen, who was taken with the smartness of his answers, used to try him with questions on various subjects; and it is said, that once when she asked him how old he was, his reply was ingeniously complimentary :-"I am just two years younger than your Majesty's happy reign." Elizabeth expressed her approbation by calling the boy "her young lord keeper." Nothing is known of his early education. Having, however, parents of a superior order- a father distinguished as a lawyer and a statesman, and a mother gifted with uncommon abilities, and eminent for her learning and piety, Bacon was placed favourably, from the first, for the formation of a learned and virtuous cha

racter.