and the state papers, we can gather nothing to our purpose prior to the Restoration, except from Lord Clarendon. "Of the revolt of the fleet in the reign of Charles I., his lordship observes: 'The rear-admiral Sir John Mennis, who was of unquestionable integrity, and Captain Burly, were the only two who refused to submit to the Earl of Warwick, the Parliament high admiral. They were quickly discharged and set on shore; and the rest, without any scruple or hesitation, obliged themselves to obey the Earl of Warwick in the service of the Parliament: so that the storm was now over, and the Parliament fully and entirely possessed of the royal navy and militia by sea; for they quickly disposed of two other captains, Kettleby and Stradlin, whom they could not corrupt, who guarded the Irish seas, and got those ships likewise in their service. And thus his majesty was without one ship of his own, in his three kingdoms, at his devotion.' "This noble fidelity is a lasting honour to Sir John and the three brave captains who durst remain loyal and true in a time of universal treason. When Prince Rupert undertook the care of the little but faithful fleet which he had collected together, he appointed Sir John Mennis commander of the Swallow, a ship of which he had many years before been captain. This squadron sailed to Helvoetsluys; but the prevailing party defeated the great object of the expedition. Sir John afterwards appears to have been appointed to co-operate with the loyal Colonel Penruddock in the revolt against Cromwell; but the cause was weakly supported, and terminated in the ruin of several on land; happily Sir John was safe. He continued with his sovereign till the Restoration, when his merit was well remembered. The gaiety of his spirits, and his mental abilities, greatly assisted his interest. Nautical men are generally sent to sea with very little learning; but he, being both a scholar and a gentleman, was probably the most accomplished seaman in the fleet, with the exception of the Earl of Sandwich, who was able to distinguish himself by his pen and his pencil as well as by his word, as his мss. abundantly testify. By these мss. it is evident that his lordship highly valued Sir John Menus, as he writes his name. In 1662 he was with that nobleman at Tangiers. In 1662 we find him with Lord Sandwich at Lisbon, to whose court he went to receive Catherine the Infanta, the consort of Charles II. We here see him employed in taking and valuing the jewels which composed a part of the queen's fortune. At this period he was vice-admiral of the fleet; and without doubt received some valuable presents, as well from the court of Portugal as from his own. Whatever his gallantry, however, it must have been put exceedingly to the test by the Portuguese maids of honour who accompanied her majesty to England; for they seem to have been carefully and most skilfully selected for their extreme ugliness. "We hear little of him after this time, when, indeed, his age and services required retirement. He had outlived the wits of his youthful days, and England was more strange to him than the continent, where he had spent so large a portion of his life. Were it worth the inquiry, many notices of him and Dr. Smith might perhaps be found in the writings of their contemporaries. Neither Sir John nor any of his family sat in parliament after the return of Charles II." CHARLES ALEYN. (Circa 1600-1640.) Charles Aleyn received his education at Sidney College in Cambridge; and when he went to London, became assistant to Thomas Farnaby, the famous grammarian, at his great school in Goldsmith'srents, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. In the year 1631 he published two poems on the victories of Creci and Poictiers, written in stanzas of six lines, of which the following may suffice as an example. The Black Prince is encouraging his army at the battle of Creci: "Courageous Edward spurs their valour on, And cheers his sprightly soldiers: where he came, And where it found a spark, it made a flame : If lions be their captains in the field." * In Sir John Denham's poems is an epistle "To Sir John Mennis being invited from Calais to Boulogne to eat a pig." It begins thus: "All on a weeping Monday, With a fat Bulgarian sloven, To Bologne is gone," &c. And in Richard Fleckno's Diarium, 1656, are these lines: "Our English Dr. Smith, Whose Muse so bonny is and blythe; When Aleyn left Mr. Farnaby, he went into the family of Edward Sherburne, Esq., to be tutor to his son, who succeeded his father as clerk of the ordnance, and was also commissary-general of the artillery to King Charles I. at the battle of Edgehill. The next piece which our author produced, a poem in honour of King Henry VII. and the important battle which gained him the crown of England, was published in the year 1638, under the title of The Historie of that wise and fortunate prince Henrie, of that name the seventh, King of England; with that famed Battaile fought between the said King Henry and Richard III. named Crook-back, upon Redmore near Bosworth. Besides these three poems, there are in print some little copies of commendatory verses ascribed to him, and prefixed to the works of other writers, particularly before the earliest editions of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays. In 1639 he published the History of Eurialus and Lucretia. This was a translation; the story is to be found among the Latin epistles of Æneas Sylvius. The year after, he is said to have died, and to have been buried in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn. HENRY HUTTON. (Circa 1600-1671.) Henry Hutton, the fifth son of Edward Hutton, a member of an "ancient and genteel family in the county palatine of Durham," having been educated at Oxford, where he graduated A.M., became perpetual curate of Witton-Gilbert, two miles from Durham, where he died, at an advanced age, 24th April, 1671. He was the author of Follie's Anatomie, or Satyres and Satyricall Epigrams, with a compendious history of Ixion's Wheele, printed in 1619, and a reprint of which forms one of the many titles of the Percy Society to public gratitude. Hutton was a caustic and vivid writer, and has sketched with some humour a picture of the habits and manners of his time. Many of his observations were drawn from passing events; and the incidental notices of Sir John Harington, Tom Coryat, Taylor the Waterpoet, and George Wither, form not the least interesting portions of his work. Follie's Anatomie appears to have been Hutton's only production. JOHN CLEVELAND. (Circa 1600-1658.) John Cleveland was born at Hinkley, in Leicestershire, of which place his father was vicar, but we do not find in what year. He received his grammatical education in the same town, under Richard Vines, a zealous puritan, and was afterwards sent to Christ's College, in Cambridge. He was soon distinguished for his uncommon abilities, more especially for his talents as an orator; and when he became of proper standing, was elected a fellow of St. John's College. He continued here about nine years, the delight and ornament of that house, says Wood; and during that time became as eminent in poetry as he was in oratory. At length, upon the breaking out of the civil war, he was the first champion that appeared in verse for the royal cause against the parliamentarians, for which he was ejected from his fellowship as soon as the reins of power came into their hands. Upon this he retired to Oxford, the king's head-quarters, as the most proper place for him to exert his wit, learning, and loyalty at. Here he began a paper war with the opposite party, and wrote some smart satires against the rebels, especially the Scots. His poem called The Mixed Assembly, and his Character of a Committee Man, are thought to contain the true spirit of satire, and a just representation of the general confusion of the times. He was so very active with these weapons, which nature and his own application had furnished him with, that he was highly respected not only by the great men of the court, but also by the wits and learned of the University. He addressed an oration, Winstanley tells us, to King Charles I., who was so well pleased with it, that he sent for him, and gave him his hand to kiss, with great expressions of kindness. When Oliver Cromwell was a candidate to represent the town of Cambridge, as Cleveland engaged all his friends and interest to oppose it, so when it was carried but by one vote, he is said to have cried out with much passion, that "that single vote had ruined the church and kingdom." From Oxford he went to the garrison of Newark-upon-Trent, where he was so highly respected by all, especially by Sir Richard Willis, the governor, that he was made judge advocate, and so continued till the surrender of that place, showing himself, says Wood, a prudent judge for the king, and a faithful advocate for the country. While he was at Newark he drew up a bantering answer and rejoinder to a Parliament officer, who had written to him on account of one Hill, who had deserted from their side, and carried a great sum of money with him to Newark. The garrison of Newark defended itself with much courage and resolution against the besiegers, and did not surrender but by the king's special command, after he had thrown himself into the hands of the Scots; which order of his majesty Cleveland warmly resented in a poem called The King's Disguise. As soon as this event took place, he was thrown into a jail at Yarmouth, where he remained for some time, under all the disadvantages of poverty and wretchedness. At last, being exhausted with the severity of the confinement, he addressed Oliver Cromwell in a petition for liberty in such pathetic and moving terms, that his heart was melted with the prisoner's expostulation, and he set him at liberty. Having thus obtained his liberty, he retired to London, and settled himself in Gray's Inn; and as he owed his release to the Protector, he thought it his duty at least not to act against him. But Cleveland did not long enjoy this state of ease and study, for an intermitting fever seizing him, he died upon the 24th of April, 1658. On the 1st of May he was buried in the church of Saint Michael, in the city. His works, consisting of poems, characters, orations, epistles, &c., were printed (1677), with his portrait before them. JOHN PHILIPS. John Philips, the maternal nephew and disciple of John Milton, "from whose education (writes Edward Phillips) as he hath received a judicious command of style both in prose and verse, so from his own natural ingenuity he hath his vein of burlesque and facetious poetry, which produced the Satire against Hypocrites, and the Travestied Metaphrase of two books of Virgil, besides what is dispersed among other things. Nevertheless, what he hath written in a serious vein of poetry, whereof very little hath yet been made public, is in my opinion nothing inferior to what he hath done in the other kind.” DR. JAMES SMITH. "James Smith, son of Thomas Smith, rector of Merston in Bedfordshire, and brother to Dr. Thomas Smith, some time an eminent physician of Brazen-nose, was born," says Wood, "in the said town of Merston, matriculated as a member of Christ Church in Lent term, |