Grave men and full of Experience and at home the Execution is to be done by young men Captains and Soldiers abroad And said he my Lord of Essex hath shewed great Wisdom Courage and Boldness hitherto and brought it to a very good Pass for a beginning And now having more Experience and Malby and other Captains with him of Courage it was to be hoped that he should bring it to a good End Yea said the Queen but who hath he with him but Malby Shall I trust so great a Matter to him and such a Mass of Money Who shall have the Charge of it and the laying out of it Madam answered the Secretary the Money is to be committed to the Treasurer there and upon his Accounts to be employed upon the Captains and Soldiers for their Wages and Victuals and upon Fortifications If he do keep his Plat then he followeth that which the Wisest Heads of the Counsellours in England think fit and best to be done Otherwise he deceiveth them and your Highness and most of all himself Which it is not likely that he should and I trust he will not do But the Queen still harped upon that string that there was lacking able Ministers and shewed her self notwithstanding at this Discourse desirous to consult with the Treasurer But tho' the Commission and Order for the Earl of Essex was by her signed at last still she was doubtful of the success of her Irish affairs thus committed to that Nobleman some about her Enemies to him lessening his Worth to the Queen Whereupon the Secretary entreated the Treasurer whose Opinion she greatly valued in Matters of State that he would perswade her to think no more of it till Michaelmas that is till half a year were past And by that Time he trusted she should see such good success that she should be glad and sorry only that it was not set upon before Thus earnestly did Sir Thomas solicite his Royal Mistress for the Good of Ireland and labour'd to release and satisfie her Mind anxious about her successes and loth to part with her Money without fair Probability of succeeding And perhaps he was the more earnest herein the safety and good Estate of his Lands in the Ardes depending upon this Expedition of that Noble Lord. The Secretary was this Year with the Queen in her Progress And in the Month of August he was with her at Charteley Whence she went to Stafford Castle and thence to one Mr. Giffords the Secretary attending her This being some part of her Progress It was now lately grown a common Practice to ride with Daggs or Pistols Whereby it came to pass that Thieves wearing weapons did more boldly rob true men travailing upon their Occasions And there were now also common Routs of roguing Beggars by the high way side naming themselves Soldiers of Ireland lately disbanded Of both these the Queen Decemb. 4. willed the Lords to write unto the Lord Treasurer for the Redress of them And she shewed the Secretary that some of them had said they were in Company 1500. which were fain now to go a begging The Secretary by a private Letter let the Lord Treasurer understand this and added that it was honourable and almost necessary that some good Order were taken for these two Disorders And for the Remedy hereof Sir Thomas drew out a Proclamation shewing how great and heinous Robberies and Murders had been committed both in the Highways and other Places in divers Parts of the Realm by such as did carry about with them Daggs or Pistols contrary to the good and wholesome Statutes of the Realm That the Queen therefore of a great Zeal and Care that she had to the Safety and Preservation of her Subjects and to the good Government of the Realm in all Peace and Surety calling to mind how unseemly a thing it was in so quiet and peaceable a Realm to have men go armed with such offensive Weapons as tho' it were in Time of Hostility and how prohibited by her Noble Progenitors did charge and command all her Subjects of what Estate or Degree soever they were that in no wise in their journeying going or riding they carried about them privily or openly any Dag or Pistol or any other Harquebuse Gun or such Weapon for Fire under the Lengths exprest by the Statute made by the Queens most Noble Father upon pain of Imprisonment or other Punishment And the Justices Mayors Bailiffs and Constables were to arrest such as should come to any Town with such Weapons And all Keepers of Inns Taverns c. should have care and regard that no man should bring into their Houses any such prohibited Weapons and if they did to seize upon the same and to bring the Persons to the Constable to be arrested But because for the multitude of those evil disposed Persons which carried about them such Weapons for mischievous and unlawful Intents some of her good Subjects had been compelled for their own Defence and to avoid the danger of such Thieves to provide them Daggs and Pistols and carry them openly she was contented for a certain time specified that all Noble men and such known Gentlemen which were without Spot or Doubt of evil Behaviour if they carried Daggs or Pistolets about them in their Journeys openly at their Saddle Bows and in no other close manner And such of their Servants as rid in their Company Sir Thomas Smith in a Parliament this Eighteenth year of the Queen procured an Act to pass for the Universities and the two Colleges of Eaton and Winchester for which his Memory will be always dear to Scholars which was that a third part of the Rent upon Leases made by Colleges should be reserved in Corn paying after the Rate of Six Shillings and Eight pence the Quarter or under for good Wheat and Five Shillings a Quarter or under for good Malt. This Corn the Tenants were yearly to deliver to the Colleges either in Kind or in Money as the Colleges pleased after the Rate of the best Wheat and Malt in the Markets of Cambridge and Oxford at the day prefixed for the Payment thereof Fuller in his History of Cambridge maketh this Remark here That Sir Thomas Smith was said by some to have surprised the House herein Where many could not conceive how this would be at all profitable to the Colleges but still the same on the Point whether they had it in Money or Wares But the Knight took the Advantage of the present cheapness knowing hereafter Grain would grow dearer Mankind daily multiplying and Licence being lately given for Transportation So that at this day much Emolument redouudeth to the Colleges in each University by the passing of this Act and tho' their Rents stand still their Revenues do encrease The Act ran For the bearer Maintenance of Learning and the better Relief of Scholars That no Master Provost President Warden Dean Governor Rector or chief Ruler of any
College Hall or House of Learning after the End of that Sessions of Parliament should make any Lease for Life or Years of any of their Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments to which any Tithe Arable Lands Medow or Pasture did appertain Except that one Third Part at the least of the old Rent were reserved and paid in Corn that is to say in good Wheat after Six Shillings and Eight Pence the Quarter or under and good Malt after Five Shillings the Quarter or under To be delivered Yearly upon Days perfixed at the said Colleges c And for default thereof to pay the said Colleges in ready Mony at the Election of the said Leasees after the Rate as the best Wheat and Malt in the Market of Cambridge and in the Market of Oxford and of Winchester and Windsor for the Rents that were to be paid to the use of the Houses there were or should be sold the next Market day before the said Rent should be due without Fraud or Deceit And that all Leases otherwise hereafter to be made and all Collateral Bonds and Assurances to the Contrary by any of the said Corporations should be void in Law to all intents and purposes And the same Wheat Malt or Money coming of the same to be expended to the Use of the Relief of the Commons and Diet of the said Colleges And by no Fraud or Colour 〈◊〉 or fold away from the Profit of the said Colleges and the Fellows and Scholars of the same and the Use aforesaid upon pain of Deprivation to the Governors or chief Rulers of the said Colleges and all others thereto consenting And this was no more than Sir Thomas himself had practised long before when he was Provost of Eaton whensoever he made or renewed the Leases of that College The Benefit of which he had well experienced by the rising of the Prizes of Corn even in his Remembrance For this Eternal Benefit to the Houses of Learning he deserved an eternal Monument and so a member of one of them in a Poetical Flight wrote O! Statua dignum Inventum Phrygiaque Columna About the year 1576. Sir Thomas Smith began to be afflicted with that Sickness and the publick Cares of the Queen and State As it is a Thing that is wont to create a true Friendship I mean the Proportion and Likeness of Tempers so it is not without Remark that Sir Thomas and the Lord Treasurer Burghley their Distempers were the same And which was more remakable still they used to seize upon these two Persons at the same Time Their Distemper was a Rheum The Rheum as he wrote to the same Lord which is my natural Enemy is commonly wont to assault me most when your Lordship is also grievously troubled with yours For April 22d 1576. at which time the Lord Burghley was very ill of his Distemper Sir Thomas wrote him a Letter that he was then seized with his And which was an ill Sign whereas before it used to take him either in his Jaw or Teeth or in the Lower Body with Loosness and all over with Sweat now it fastned it self in his Throat and Tongue and would not by any Art be removed So that he was almost out of Hope of any Amendment but clearly without Hope of any speedy Help tho' he never took so much Advice as he wrote nor used so many Physicians nor observed so much their Rules which he styled their Preciseness But when all is done added he piously that man may or ought to do the Sequel and Event of Health and the End of Life is in Gods Will and Pleasure That which he shall appoint is best to me Surely all is one being as willing now to Die as to Live and I trust with Gods Mercy and Hope therein as ready For it grieveth me to Live unserviceable to my Prince and unprofitable to my Country Heavy and unpleasant to my self For what Pleasure can a man have of my years when he cannot speak as he would For his chief Grief was in Eating and Drinking and Speaking and in the last especially While his Legs he said his Hands his Memory and his Wit served as much as need be desired It was indeed a great Grief to him that it so affected his Tongue And he avowed That if it were at his own Choice he had rather his Disease had taken hold of any other Part of his Body So that that Piece only as he called it which is contained in an handful space were at quiet Which yet was without pain or grief but when he Eat or Drank or Spake The continual Defluxion and falling down of tough Flegm still vexing it and interrupting the most necessary uses of the Throat This envious Disease stopt that Eloquent Tongue of his And that Sweet and streaming Rhetoric which was wont to flow to the Delight and Admiration of all received now a Fatal Check and Sir Thomas must play the Orator no more no nor scarce utter a single Word For to that Extremity he was brought at last Which the Poet that wrote the Muses Tears for him thus expresses Nescio quis subito Morbus sic occupat artus 〈◊〉 quâ—â—lim mellita din jam verba solebat Fundâ—re vix aliquam possit transmittere vocem Gutturis ast imis latitans radicibus intus Haereret nullumque Sonum Lingua ederet illo Qâ—o solita esl Splendore decus laudemque merente He foresaw that he was like to continue a long while in this Condition And be so disablied from his common Function and to attend the Queen's Business But he could not be idle which he said was contrary to his Nature He was therefore minded to follow his Study and take a Review of what he had formerly done and in this â—eathful Leisure as he called it among other Occupations and Pastimes he would remember the Days of his Youth and look back again to his Doings then and now being Old Quasi repueraseâ—re i. e. hereby as it were to grow a Child again When he was Secretary in King Edwards Days he wrote a Book of the Value of the Roman Coins to our English Standard upon a Question Cecil his fellow Secretary had moved to him viz. What was the Ordinary Wages of a Soldier at Rome This Book as many others which he wrote in his Youth he had now lost Two of these he had sent he remembred one to Sir Robert Dudley now Earl of Leicester and the other to Sir Will. Cecil now Lord Treasurer Now he had lately desired Mr. Wolley to search in the said Earl's Study for it but it could not be found He desired therefore the Lord Treasurer to see for it who he thought had not laid it up so negligently And especially he desired the Tables which were exactly and plainly set forth For searching among his old Papers he could find the first Draught of the said Book and the Adversaria Whereby he was able to fill up all
those that should succeed him of a long time were like to take to Learning he gave all his Latin and Greek Books to Queens College in Cambridge where he had been brought up and his great Globe of his own making but so that the Master and Fellows having Warning so soon as he was dead or at the least so soon as he was Buried or before the which he willed they should have with a true Inventory carried to them of his said Books sent Carts to fetch them away within Tenor Twelve Days And these he gave also upon Condition that they chained them up in their Library or did distribute them among the Fellows such as would best Occupy them But so that they did it by Indenture and Condition that when they departed from the College they restored them to the College again But in case the Master and Fellows of the said College would not fetch them away sending some careful Man to see them well trussed and packed then he gave them to Peter House upon like Condition If neither of them would do it then he Willed his Executors to Sell or use them at their Discretion But yet of many of his Books he made gifts to his Learned Friends or Scholars at the University As to Mr. Shaw Parson of the Parish wherein he lived Chrysostoms Works in five Volumes Origen in two Volumes Luthers Works Bucer Galatinus Felvus super Psaltcrium Pet. Martyr in lib. Iudicum And as he gave these Divinity Books to a Divine so to one Tho. Crow a Physician whom he called his Servant he gave these Books of Galen de Compositione Medicamentâ—rum de Alimentorum Facultatibus Methodus Melendi Petrus Pena de Herbis Antidotarium speciale Turners Herbal Fallopii Opera Rendelâ—tius And besides these he gave him the Monument of Martyrs in two Volumnes and a Latin Bible in Quarto Gilded Also to Sir Clement Smith so called I suppose because he was in Priests Orders then a Resident of Queens College and the same I conjecture with him that was after Doctor of Divinity a Younger Son of his Brother George he gave or rather lent itus Livius Aristotle in Greek and Plato in Greek and Latin Tullies Works and Ten more of his Books which the said Clement would chuse on Condition that when he went away from the College he should restore them to the College again He gave a standing Massy Cup which had the Seven Planets in the Cover to the Queen as most worthy having all the good Gifts endued by God which he ascribed to the Seven Planets they be the Words of the Will Praying her Majesty to take that simple gift in good worth as coming from her Faithful and Loving Subject And in case of any Ambiguity or Doubt arising in any part of his Will he gave Authority to his Executors to add to it to make it more plain with good Advice so that they kept the true meaning and sense And then himself gave a general Explanation of one chief Part of his Will namely That he would have him that should enjoy the House and Mannor of Theydon at Mount to be able to keep House there to the Relief of the Poor and to set Neighbours at Work But if the Executors could not reconcile some Ambiguity that might happen in his Will that then they should stand to the Decision and Judgment of his Cosen Nicols a Lawyer Mr. Henry Archer a worthy Gentleman of the Parish of Theydon Garnons afterwards Living and Dying at Low Leyton and Parson Shaw aforementioned whom he made Supervisors of his Will Which he did in a great point of Wisdom to avoid Controversies of Law Which oftentimes break Friendship and swallow up an Estate so contended for He made his Youngest Brother George Smith who had several Children and his Nephew by his Sister Iohn Wood his Executors This Will is said to be reviewed and corrected by him after the Death of his Nephew William Smith of Walden the Son as it seems of his second Brother Iohn Smith Febr. 18. 1576. when he Signed with his Hand every Page All his Manors Lands and Tenements he had already given by Indenture made between him on the one part and Francis Walsingham Secretary to the Queen Iames Altham Henry Archer Esquires Humphrey Mitchel and his Nephew Iohn Wood on the other Part bearing date Febr. 4th in the 19th year of the Queen This Will was proved 15. Aug. 1577. before Tho Yale by Iohn Wood that is three days after Sir Thomas's Death And by George Smith not before May 14. 1578. I do not meet with many Bequests of Charity in this Will because those Acts he seemed to have done as the wisest and surest Course in his Life time when himself might see them truly and justly performed CHAP. XVII Observations upon Sir Thomas Smith NOW to make a few Observations upon this Wise and Learned Gentleman And first Of his Learning For he was one of the greatest Scholars of his Age and one of those many brave Shoots that the University of Cambridge then produced As Denny Châ—ke Haddon Ascham Ponet Cecil and some others that for their Merits and Parts were transplanted to the Court His Profession was the Civil Law and he was the first Regius Professor of it in the University placed therein by the Royal Founder King Henry VIII whose Scholar he was But tho' that were his Profession yet he was a Man of General Learning He was a great Platonist Which Noble and Useful Philosophy he and Cheke brought into Study in the University accustomed before to the crabbed barbarous useless Schoolmen Haddon speaking to him of Plato calleth him Plato tuus Your Plato who he told him called upon him to serve his Country and to be ready too to give it all that he had received from it He understood Physic well In his Oration for the Queens Marrying against him that had declaimed for her single Life and among other Reasons for it urged the Diseases and Infirmities that attended Child-bearing he asserted on the contrary how it preserved Women from Diseases and other Inconveniences and cleared their Bodies amended their Colour and prolonged their Health and undertook to bring the Authorities and Reasons of Physic for it And when in March 1574. the Lord Treasurer had a sit of an Ague Smith shewed his skill that Way by the Judgement that he made of it saying That he trusted it was but Diaria coming of a sudden Obstruction in the Pores of his Skin as he told him by Cold That which in a rare Body and tenderly kept must needs be till either by Evaporation or Sweat the same be opened again And so he hoped that now that Lord had but the weariness of that Accident and no formed Ague His Skill herein also appeared in his Discoursing so learnedly of his own Distemper as we heard before And here I will set down a Recipe I find in