Phaëton (just such another driver as themselves), that he should parcere stimulis (the stimulus in driving being of the same use formerly that the lash is now). Stripes and blows are the last and basest remedy, and scarce ever fit to be used but upon such as carry their brains in their backs, and have souls so dull and stupid as to serve for little else but to keep their bodies from putrefaction."—Sermon upon Proverbs, xxii. 6.

And Cowley, in describing the Betula (Angl. birch-tree), how he does paint from nature!

That Milton's character was notorious or infamous at Cambridge has never, to my knowledge, been proved; and there is in his favour this most overwhelming testimony, that he never forfeited the esteem and friendship of the great and good. Was Sir Henry Wotton writing to a man of blighted and blasted reputation when he sent the kind and complimentary letter prefixed to Comus? In that he not merely eulogises the "Dorique delicacy" of Milton's songs and odes, but gives him much kind and considerate advice upon the course he was to pursue in his travels, as well as some introductions to his own friends, and promises to keep up a regular correspondence with him during his absence. Milton was very proud of this letter, and speaks of it in his Defensio Secunda. Again, Milton's associates at Cambridge must have known all about the misdemeanour (whatever it was) that caused his rustication, and yet they permitted him to take a part in, and perhaps to write the preface of, the ever memorable volume which contained the first edition of Lycidas.

The person commemorated was Edward King, a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge (Milton's own college); and I need not adduce Milton's affecting allusions to their close and intimate friendship. It was for another of the Fellows of Christ's College that Milton at the age of nineteen (the very year after his rustication) wrote the academic exercise Naturam non pati Senium, found amongst his Latin poems. But I will omit a great many arguments of a similar kind, and ask this question, Why has Milton's college career escaped the lash of three of the most sarcastic of writers, Cleveland, Butler, and South, who were his contemporaries? Cleveland must have known him well, as he, as well as Milton, had contributed some memorial verses to King, and party feeling would perhaps have overcome collegiate associations. Nor could their mutual connexion with Golden Grove have saved him from the aspersions of Butler. After the Restoration, Richard Lord Vaughan, Earl of Carbery, appointed the author of Hudibras to the stewardship of Ludlow Castle; and his second wife was the Lady Alice Egerton, who, at the age of thirteen, had acted the Lady in Milton's Comus. It was to her likewise that Bishop Jeremy Taylor dedicated the third edition of the third part of the Life of Christ, as he had dedicated the first edition to Lord Carbery's former wife, whose funeral sermon he preached. I do not remember that Cleveland or Butler have on any occasion satirised Milton; but I do remember that Dr. South has done so, and I cannot understand his silence on the matter if Milton's private character had been notorious. Of course I do not believe the anonymous invective ascribed to a son of Bishop Hall's. Dr. South was not the man to "mince matters," and yet Milton's college life has escaped his sarcasms. What his opinion of Milton was we may learn from his sermon preached before King Charles II. upon Judges xix. 30.

"The Latin advocate (Mr. Milton) who, like a blind adder, has spit so much poison upon the king's person and cause," &c.

"In præfat. ad defensionem pro populo Anglicano (as his Latin is)."—Vol. ii. pp. 201-2. Dublin, 1720. fol.

Any one who can help me out of my difficulty will much oblige me, as Bramhall's letter is a painful mystery, and truth of any kind is always less distressing than vague and shadowy surmises.

RT.

Warmington, Oct. 16, 1851.

THE SEMPILLS OF BELTRUS: ROBERT SEMPILL.

Some few months ago there was published in Edinburgh the first collected and only complete edition of the Poems by the three brothers "Sir James, Robert, and Francis Sempill of Beltrus," better known as the authors of "The Pack-Man's Paternoster; or, a Picktooth for the Pope," "The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, Piper of Kilbarchum," "The Blythsome Wedding," "Maggie Lauder," &c., with biographical notices of their lives. I am now anxious to know if any of your numerous correspondents can inform me if copies of the original editions of the Poems by "Robert Sempill" can be procured, or if they are in any of the public or private libraries in England? The following are what I am in quest of, viz.:

1. The Regentis Tragedie, 1570.

2. The Bischoppis Lyfe and Testament, 1571.

3. My Lorde Methwenis Tragedie, 1572.

4. The Sege of the Castel of Edinburgh, 1573.

Also where any notice as to his family, life, and character can be found.

A collection of Sempill's Poems, with some authentic account of the author, is certainly a desideratum in Scottish literature.

T. G. S.

Edinburgh, Oct. 18. 1851.

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN OF GAUNT.

John of Gaunt, by his third wife Katharine Swynford, left four children, born before his marriage with her, but legitimated by act of parliament. Of these the eldest is thus mentioned in Burke's "Introduction" to the Peerage, p. xxi.:—

"John de Beaufort, Marquess of Somerset and Dorset, who married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, and had a son John, Duke of Somerset, whose only daughter and heir, Margaret, married Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and was mother of Henry VII."

Query, Was Margaret "only child," as well as only daughter of John Duke of Somerset? or was she not sister to Henry, Edmund, and John, successively Dukes of Somerset? (See Burke's Peerage, "Duke of Beaufort.")

In that case, after the death of this last-named Duke John issueless, she would become "sole heir," as she had always been "sole daughter," of Duke John the First.

Or was she in fact the daughter of this second and last Duke John? At his death the male line of Lancaster became extinct; the royal branch having already failed at the death of Henry VI.

There appears some little confusion in Burke's excellent work, as may be seen by comparing p. xxi. of the Introduction, &c., with the genealogy of the Beaufort family.

A. B.

Clifton.

Minor Queries.

246. Rocky Chasm near Gaëta: Earthquake at the Crucifixion.

—Dr. Basire (who was archdeacon of Northumberland, prebendary of Durham, and chaplain to King Charles the Martyr and King Charles II.), in his account of a tour made by himself and companions in 1649, says:

"Wee landed to see Gaëta, a pleasant, strong, and very antient citty. In it we saw some wonders, especially the thorow rupture of a rocky mountain by