pole pointed out an error, which has run the round of critics, in a line in "Othello," describing Michael Cassio, the Florentine, as "a fellow almost damned in a fair phyz," but the real reading, which has not been arrived at yet, is "a fellow almost damned in a fair wise." This is entirely conformable to the next lines and general design of his character. The original mistake arose out of the similarity of the long f to the letter f, which caused the word to be printed "wife," as it is yet in all the editions, while Michael Cassio has no wife, but only a mistress," Bianca," in the play.

Passing on to the closing year of Sir Thomas's life, I find a kind letter, addressed by him to my great-grandfather, Walden Hanmer, afterwards Sir Walden, who was his godson, and in time the third of his successors under the settlement. The fellow-traveller mentioned in it was his wife, Anne, daughter of Henry Vere Graham, Esq., of Holbrook in Suffolk. Her elder sister, Eleanor, was married to Sir William Bunbury.

DEAR COUSIN,

Mildenhall, Oct. 24th, 1745. I am much pleased to hear that you and your fellow traveller are lodged safe and well at Sympson, and the

1 There is a good portrait of her here in crayons, by Cotes of Bath.

more because the first day of your journey proved so uncommonly bad; yet how much more dangerous was the later end of it, three hours in the dark; how could you possibly escape being hurt? You lay the fault upon the roads of Bedfordshire, but I am afraid you lay too long in the morning. The whole journey of your life I hope will be prosperous, not only free from dangers but from fears too. Sir William and my lady are just now setting out for Holbrook, and Mr. North' goes away tomorrow; so that if I were not pretty well practised in the art of living alone my mind would be as dark and gloomy as the time of year. This comfort too I have, that, as the sun is to return, so you and my pretty cousine have promised to come ere long to cheer and enliven my days. I think myself well justified in giving her that title, for nature has made her pretty, and you have made her my cousine. To her, and to your mother and sister, I beg my humble service. I hope you will let me know how you steer all your future motions, that my wishes may goe along with you, and you know they must all be good which are directed towards you and your family from,

Dear Cousin,

Your affectionate humble Servant,

THO. HANMER.

To Walden Hanmer, Esq., at Sympson, near
Fenny Stratford, in Buckinghamshire.

1 This was Montague North, editor of his cousin Roger North's Examen, which he dedicated to Sir Thomas; it was printed in 1740.

In a letter to John fourth Duke of Bedford, dated March, 1745, printed in the first volume of the Correspondence of that Duke, and relating to the great drainage undertakings which are among many claims to public respect and gratitude inherited and possessed by the Russell family, Sir Thomas, who had already been drinking Bishop Berkeley's tar-water, mentions his failing health and inability to take journeys of any length; and in a little more than a year afterwards, May 7th, 1746, he closed his life at Mildenhall, when he was within a few months of the age of sixty-nine, and on the 19th he was buried at Hanmer. He had no son by either of his marriages, and with him expired the last of the descendants in the male line of his great-grandfather Sir John, who had been made a baronet in 1620' by King James I.; and the line of Thomas Hanmer of the Fens, and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Job Charlton of Ludford, by their two sons William and Job, and their sons, with Col. William Hanmer their halfcousin, were all that remained to carry on the representation of the family in his name and blood,

1 July 11th of that year, next before Edward Osborne, Esq., of Kiveton, whose son was the minister Lord Danby, Duke of Leeds; he began as a Yorkshire baronet.

as it was limited and expressed by his settlement and confirmed by will afterwards.

A letter from Sir Thomas to his cousin William of the Fens, written in 1712, when he was about to join the Duke of Ormond in the Netherlands, which will be given in its place, shows that, failing children of his own, he intended to look to his relations there from a very early period. Though he says in his letter to my great-grandfather Sir Walden, that he was "well practised in the art of living alone," I do not believe he was at all

1 There is an imitation of the tenth satire of Alamanni on this subject, by Sir Thomas Wyatt, which has always pleased me very much :

"This maketh me at home to hunt and hawk,

And in foul weather at my book to sit,

In frost and snow then with my bow to stalk."

Sir T. Wyatt to John Poins. Our Sir Thomas attended to his gardens and fish-ponds at Bettisfield, as well as to his books, as the following memoranda in his handwriting bear witness:

"On the east side of the house, against the parlour chimney, a fig-tree from Mostyn, called there the pink fig, from the colour of the inside, but the true name in Italy from whence it comes is Sancti Johannis Primaticcio; the fruit is large, but apt to drop before it is ripe.

"Against the drawing-room chimney, a fig-tree from Mostyn called the Gentile in Italy, from whence it originally came; the

forgotten in the scenes which he had left; there was a portrait of him at Stowe as an old man,

fruit is white and the most delicious of all figs; ripe about the middle of September.

"On the south wall, in the lower garden, from the house to the door

"Two apricot trees; a fig from Mostyn called the Verdine; another fig expected from Mostyn of the Gentile kind; a greengage plum. On the same wall, from the door of the espalier of limes:

"Memorandum of Fish put into the lower pond in the Park. "July 8th, 1736. Eleven brace of fine large carp, most of them near two feet long, and three brace of fine tench," &c., &c.

Roger North, Sir Thomas's kinsman and friend, wrote "A Discourse of Fish and Fish-ponds, by a person of honour," which contains a kind of idyll of a morning passed upon the water near a gentleman's house. He says: "Moving upon it in boats either in a calm weather or with some wind that stirs the water, gives the employing somewhat of a sail after a romantic way, and thus encircling a house, taking the variety of walks and gardens here and there, visiting stables and offices, seeing the horses air upon the bank, are pleasures to be understood by those who by experience are taught the vanity of greatness, and have an understanding to consider the true felicities of life." The passage is like a picture by Wouvermans.

In Cullum's History of Hawstead Sir Thomas Hanmer is mentioned as one of the last gentlemen in Suffolk who amused themselves with the game of bowls.

1 In 1768 the old Duke of Newcastle, congratulating Lord