truth, no appearance. The appointment of preachers on such occasions is usually exercised by the vice-chancellor, not the chancellor himself; and the author, in his dedication to Laud, plainly gives us to understand, that "the superior," in obedience to whose commands he embarked in the work, was not the same with him to whom he inscribed it when published. "It pleased some," he says, "who had the power to command me, to wish me to the publication of these my short and sudden meditations, that, if it were possible, even this way I might express my duty to God and the king. Being thus far encouraged, I resolved to go somewhat further, even to the boldness of a dedication to your grace, that, since I had no merit of my own to move me to the confidence of a public view, yet I might dare to venture under the protection of your grace's favour." And he goes on to allege several different reasons for the propriety of inscribing such a work to the archbishop, without once mentioning (what, if it were true, would have been the best reason of all,) that it was by Laud's own command that he had undertaken the discussion of the subject.

Of this earliest production of Taylor's genius, the defects and merits may be the subject of future investigation. I will here merely observe, that the former are those of the time at which he lived, and are, themselves, chiefly defects as being out of their place, and as less proper for a solemn discourse than a popular harangue or a polemical pamphlet. The latter are almost exclusively his own; and if we have less of that splendid strain of eloquence which, in his later works, has left him without a rival, it will not be denied that in his earliest sermons are many blossoms of genuine power and beauty, which continued meditation and longer practice might be reasonably expected to ripen into fruits, worthy of Paradise.

Ascetic as Taylor was in many of his opinions, celibacy appears to have formed no part of his plan of life; nor does he seem to have attached so much value to the learned leisure of an university, as to have been inclined to linger there after a new and important scene of action and duty was elsewhere opened to him. I have already observed, that, from the date of his institution to Uppingham, he was but little resident in All Souls; and he now, at an earlier

age than is usual with literary men, took a step which was to separate him from his fellowship entirely.

On the 27th of May, 1639, being then in the twentysixth year of his age, he married, at Uppingham, Phoebe Landisdale, or Langsdale, of whose family little else is known than that her brother was a physician, established first at Gainsborough, and afterwards at Leeds, where he was buried January the 7th, 1683. Of Phoebe's mother, though not of her father, mention is made in one of Taylor's letters; and from this circumstance, as well as the daughter's being married at Uppingham, it is probable that she was a widow residing in that parish.

By Phoebe Langsdale, Taylor had three sons, one of whom, William, (so named, in all probability, after his great patron, Laud,) was buried at Uppingham on the 28th of May, 1642; nor did the mother long survive her infant. The other boys grew up to manhood, and their melancholy deaths were among the last and most grievous trials of Taylor's eventful pilgrimage.

This year, 1642, was marked, however, by many public as well as private sorrows; and, in the great struggle which was now begun, he ably and courageously contended on the side both of episcopacy and monarchy. He appears to have been among the first to join the king at Oxford, where, shortly after, he published, "by his majesty's command," his treatise of "Episcopacy asserted against the Acephali and Aërians, new and old;"" encouraged," as Heylin tells us," by many petitions" to the same effect" to his majesty and both houses of parliament." But, though it was natural that the outrageous proceedings of the presbyterian party should have produced a considerable revulsion in the national feeling, and though the work itself is well adapted to profit by and strengthen such a disposition, it is probable that men's minds were, by this time, too generally made up to leave them inclination or leisure for the study of controversy; and the fact that the treatise remained without an attempt at reply from the other party, is a probable argument that it was less read than it well deserved to be.

To such rewards, however, as the king and church had y Bonney's MS. Note. Jones's MS. Bonuey, p. 18.

Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 465.

to bestow, Taylor had no common pretensions; and we find him admitted, on the first of November in this same year, with many other eminent loyalists, by the royal mandate, to the degree of doctor of divinity. The distinction, however, was considerably lessened by the indiscriminate manner in which similar honours were then bestowed; inasmuch as the unfortunate monarch, having few other ways in his power of rewarding the services of his adherents, created, about the same time, his doctors and masters of arts with so much profusion, as to call forth a remonstrance from the heads of houses against a practice which threatened to destroy the discipline, the dignity, and even the revenues of the university ".

The Presbyterians had more power to hurt than Charles to reward and it was, probably, about this time that the rectory of Uppingham was sequestered; a fact which is certain from the joint authority of Walker and Lloyd, no less than from all which is known of Taylor's subsequent poverty. The date of his deprivation, however, or the name of his intrusive successor, I am not able to supply. Neither Walker, Calamy, nor Clarke, throw any light on the subject; and though the bishop of Peterborough has, with much kindness, examined for me the register's office of that diocese, no information appears there, or in the parish books of Uppingham, which can add any thing to the facts already collected by Mr. Bonney. Of course neither Taylor, nor any of the deprived clergy, relinquished their claim to the livings of which they were despoiled; but as their places were, in every instance, filled up without loss of time by the ruling party, it is something remarkable that no record remains of the institution of the intruder, his incumbency, or his expulsion on the return of monarchy and episcopacy. The name of Daniel Swift only once occurs (on the 20th of April, 1652,) as choosing a churchwarden, and signing himself" Pastor de Uppingham;" and there is not the smallest appearance, during the following years of Taylor's life, that he received any part of that pittance which the clergy, presented to livings by the parliamentary commissioners, were enjoined to pay to their expelled predecessors.

b Note (H.)

Bonney, p. 31, Note.

He had obtained, however, a wealthy and powerful patron in Christopher Hatton, Esq., afterwards lord Hatton of Kirby, who had been his neighbour at Uppingham, and to whom his Defence of Episcopacy, as well as many other of his earlier works, are dedicated; "a person," Clarendon tells us, "who, when he was appointed controller of the king's household, possessed a great reputation, which, in a few years, he found a way to diminish "."

It is always difficult to determine the real character of a public man, between the widely varying statements of his friends on one side, and his enemies or rivals on the other. The same lord Hervey who was the Sporus of Pope's tremendous satire, is extolled by Middleton, in all the exuberance of elegant flattery, as the last of the Romans, the bravest, the best, and most eloquent of mankind. Nor is it easy to find a more splendid character in history than is ascribed by the hope or gratitude of Taylor to the nobleman of whom the historian speaks thus slightingly. It was not, indeed, till the present age that men of letters appear to have completely broken through that debasing custom which made excessive eulogium and affected humility essentials in the addresses of authors to the great and wealthy. Yet Hatton cannot have been destitute of learning or of talents, since in him Taylor found opinions congenial to his own on the subject of toleration, and since it was at his suggestion, and with his assistance, that Dugdale undertook his Monasticon .

Of Taylor's history, during the remainder of the civil war, we are very imperfectly informed. Wood speaks of him as a frequent preacher before the court at Oxford, and as following the royal army in the capacity of chaplain, till, on the decline of the king's cause, he sought an asylum in Carmarthenshire. The following letter, however, represents him, at the close of the year 1643, living, for a time at least, with his mother-in-law and children, and oppressed, as should seem from some of his expressions, by those pecuniary difficulties which, during by far the greater part of his life, continued to pursue and harass him. The silence observed respecting his wife confirms lady Wray's statement,

d

⚫ Clarendon, Hist. Rebell. vol. ii. 156. Oxon.

• Note (I.)

that he had buried her before he quitted Uppingham. For the rest, it serves to show how constantly his attention was directed to the spiritual welfare and improvement of those with whom he was connected. The original letter is in the British Museum.

"DEARE BROTHER,-Thy letter was most welcome to me, bringing the happy news of thy recovery. I had notice of thy danger, but watched for this happy relation, and had layd wayte with Royston to enquire of Mr. Rumbould. I hope I shall not neede to bid thee be carefull for the perfecting thy health, and to be fearful of a relapse. Though I am very much, yet thou thyself art more concerned in it. But this I will remind thee of, that thou be infinitely [careful] to perform to God those holy promises which I suppose thou didst make in thy sicknesse; and remember what thoughts thou hadst then, and beare them along upon thy spirit all thy life-time. For that which was true then is so still, and the world is really as vain a thing as thou didst then suppose it. I durst not tell thy mother of thy danger (though I heard of it), till, at the same time, I told her of thy recovery. Poore woman! she was troubled and pleased at the same time, but your letter did determine her. I take it kindly that thou hast writt to Bowman. If I had been in condition you should not have beene troubled with it; but, as it is, both thou and I must be content. Thy mother sends her blessing to thee and her little Mally. So doe I, and my prayers to God for you both. Your little cozens are your servants; and I am

Thy most affectionate and endeared Brother, "November 24, 1643."

"To my very dear Brother, Dr. LANGSDALE, at his

Apothecary's House in Gainsborough."

"JER. TAYLOR."

This letter is without any mention of the place whence it was written; but the notice which occurs of Royston, who was a bookseller and printer in Ivy Lane, and who published most of Taylor's later works, would naturally lead us to suspect that its writer was then in London. This is, however, altogether at variance with Wood's statement, unless