Fortescue was named Master or Keeper of the Great Wardrobe. This was an office of dignity and antiquity. The residence belonging to it was in the Blackfriars, and the Great 'Wardrobe served as a depository for records, as well as for (in Fuller's words) the ancient clothes of our English kings which they wore on great festivals.' He still, and for some time afterwards, continued to direct the queen's studies; and was thus, as Lloyd quaintly remarks in his State Worthies,' 'the one whom she trusted with the ornaments of her soul and body.' It is clear that John Fortescue had none of his father's scruples, and that he accepted the religious changes of the time either from conviction, or from the peculiar intellectual indifference which characterised the age, and of which the queen herself was the great example. His younger brother Anthony was differently constituted. He became a leading conspirator with the Poles in their plot against Elizabeth, and his escape with imprisonment, instead of losing his head, has been generally attributed to Sir John's intercession with his royal mistress. His devotion to her interests was great, and he was always in high favour, but it was not until late in the queen's reign that he rose to great office, and on the death of Sir William Mildmay in 1589, became Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was at once made a privy counsellor, and two years afterwards was knighted-an honour which at that time was not lightly bestowed or lightly esteemed. As Chancellor he was concerned in most public transactions, and there is but one opinion among the writers of his time as to his great patriotism and integrity. He is the vir integer' of Camden; and Lloyd, quoting Camden's words, tells us that Queen Elizabeth declared that two men outdid her expectations-Fortescue for integrity, and Walsingham for subtlety and officious 'services.' The motto of his house is thus referred to by one Thomas Newton, in 1589:

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'Scutum forte tuis cum sis fulcrumque Britannis,
Conveniens certe nomen et omen habes.'

A few of Sir John Fortescue's letters are preserved. One, addressed to Lord Burghley in 1592, refers to a book which of late years has received considerable attention-the 'libel,' as Fortescue calls it, printed at Cologne in 1585, by Doctor Nicholas Sandars, and entitled 'De origine et progressu Schismatis Anglicani.' Sandars, among other statements, insists that Anne Boleyn was actually the child of Henry VIII., who sent Sir Thomas Boleyn on an embassy to France, and in his absence became the father of Anne. Fortescue refutes

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this libel by an appeal to dates. The French embassy was despatched in 1520. The king was married to Anne Boleyn in November 1532. So that the shameless lying of this libellour is most apparent; for her majesties' (Queen Elizabeth's) birth 6 was in anno Domini 1533, and then her mother shuld have ben but thirteen yere old at hir byrthe.' Fortescue's judgment on matters of more practical importance than this was frequently sought for by Lord Burghley; and the favour of one so well considered at Court was not to be disregarded. There is a curious instance of this consideration' in the Sidney Letters. Whyte, the correspondent of Sir Robert Sidney, then in the Low Countries, writes in April 1600:- Sir John Fortescue, understanding that there are two ships laden with 'spice come from China to Middleburgh, is very desirous to have ten pounds of that ginger they bring. If your lordship 'please to provide it, I see it will be very well taken.'

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Shortly before the death of Elizabeth, Fortescue, we are told, speaking with a dear friend of his own of the weakness of the time, said that his comfort was that he was old and 'weak as the time itself, being born in the same year with the queen.' He looked with some apprehension to the coming of James into England, and to his probable importation of needy Scots; and clearly desired, as Osborne writes in his Memoirs, that 'in regard of the known feud between the nations English and Scotch, the king might be obliged to articles' binding him to certain conditions. This was the aim of Raleigh and Cobham; but in whatever manner Fortescue put forth his opinion he avoided the displeasure under which the others fell, although he was not continued in the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. He received, however, other marks of James's favour. The king visited him, first at his house at Hendon, and afterwards at Salden, on the occasion of his joining the queen, Anne of Denmark, who followed him into England after a short delay. They met (June 27, 1603) at Sir George Fermor's seat of Easton Neston, and after dinner rode together to Salden, where they were entertained for several days in great state and splendour. Sir John afterwards took some part in public affairs, and sat in James's first parliament as member for Middlesex ; but his health had for some time been failing, and he died in December 1607. One or two of his speeches in Parliament and elsewhere have been preserved. They abound in classical quotations, after the fashion of the time and beyond it. Fortescue was, however, no ordinary scholar, as might have been expected from his having been appointed to direct the studies of Elizabeth.

He was one of those who assisted Sir Thomas Bodley-for whom, as a Devonshire man, he may be supposed to have had some kindness-with books for his great library at Oxford; and he was accordingly received with all imaginable respect ' when he went to visit that library.'

The house of Salden, which Sir John Fortescue built soon after he acquired the estate, at an early period of his career, was of brick and stone, and a grand example of an Elizabethan mansion. It seems to have displayed, like Burghley or Hatfield, a certain mixture of Italian renaissance with the gables and mouldings of the native Tudor. There was an alabaster chimney-piece in the gallery chamber, 'greatly admired for its curious workmanship;' and the windows were filled with stained glass representing the many quarterings of the Fortescues, and the shields of houses in any way allied to them. It is sad to write of it in the past tense; but Salden is one of the numerous houses of that period which have been completely swept away, leaving nothing but broken ground with a garden. terrace or a venerable yew tree to mark the site of what was once the glory of an entire district. The house stood on a rising ground, overlooking far and wide the rich and wooded country of northern Buckinghamshire. There are some traces of the bowling green, where it is said that one of the Fortescues was killed by the stroke of a ball; and the field below it is known as the 'Beggar's Mead,' since it was there that the broken meat from the house was everyday distributed among the poor. Indeed the hospitality and large housekeeping' of Sir John Fortescue were well represented by his successors, one, or more, of whom were, it is said, in the habit of giving half-a-crown to every poor person of the parish they encountered. Principles of political economy were ill understood in those days, and the parish, it may be, was not very thickly peopled. The last male descendant of Queen Elizabeth's Sir John died in 1729. Salden then passed to two distant cousins, the house itself, strangely enough, being allotted half to one share, and half to the other. It was then sold to a joiner,' and pulled down. In the gallery, according to Brown Willis, who has preserved the inscription under it, hung the portrait of Sir John Fortescue the founder. This has disappeared altogether, and no trace of its fate has been recovered. No copy and no other portrait exist, so far as can be ascertained; and we are thus left without knowledge of the 'vera effigies' of one who was certainly not the least distinguished among the 'states'men old' who in bearded majesty' surrounded the queen of lion-port. On his monument in Mursley Church there are

kneeling figures of Sir John and his wife Cecily, daughter of Sir Edmund Ashfield of Tottenhoe; but these can hardly be portraits. The funeral of Fortescue was directed by William Camden, as Clarencieux king-at-arms, who, in his Annals of 'Elizabeth,' acknowledges the assistance he had received from 'Joannes Fortescuus, qui mihi hæc scribenti in nonnullis lumen porrexit.' The chancel of Mursley has of late been rebuilt; but this monument, and the yet more stately tomb of Sir Francis Fortescue, son and successor of Sir John, have been duly restored and replaced by the care of Lord Clermont.

Öf the domestic life of Sir John Fortescue at Salden we know little beyond the fact that his house was one of extreme hospitality. We have no such an edifying book of charges' as that of his father, Sir Adrian. But among the 'Domestic' State Papers of the reign of Elizabeth is preserved a very curious series, giving us the history of a lively quarrel between Fortescue and his neighbour Lord Grey of Wilton, and illustrating one side, at least, of his country life. Lord Grey was the owner of Whaddon Hall, where Elizabeth had visited him, and was keeper of the adjoining district of Whaddon Chase, which bordered on the lands of Salden, over which Fortescue had obtained a right of free warren. Before this, as it appears, the keepers of the chase had been in the habit of following their game over Salden. Fortescue, 'in the Chamber of Presence at Westminster,' complained to Lord Grey that his servants would not recognise the change of right at Salden, but insisted on breaking the new hedges and enclosures. My lord therewith in a choller said, "Tush, a lord in your teeth, I will hunt it and it shall be hunted, spite of all you can do."

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At

a second meeting things went on a little more smoothly, and Fortescue, at Lord Grey's request, promised that he would 'not be an ill neighbour to the game.' After his return to

Salden, however, Fortescue found that the keepers of the chase kept to their bounds no better than before, to the injury of his own warren game, partridges, pheasant, hare, and 'conies.' There were sundry skirmishes; and on one occasion, according to Lord Grey's deposition, Fortescue himself, with a company of men carrying bows and staves, came on the keepers who were hunting on the Salden side of the hedge, 'bestowed ' on them divers blows,' and then espying a boy who was with them, and who had before angered him, he did fall to him, and having beaten him well, did command his men to take and hold him whilst he might cut his points to whip him.' The boy and the rest escaped at that time. 'So,' writes my Lord Grey, ended this day's pagen' (pageant). But the ill

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blood on either side was not lessened; and the following night, ' at twelve of the clocke, I,' deposes Fortescue, being in bed and in sleepe,' one Savage, ranger of the chase came on the Salden land, bringing with him fifteen other persons, with bows, forest-bills, and long picked staffs. They having cast 'off hounds, blowing horns, and making hallooing and loud cry, began their hunting, shogging down to the wood close, where, in the gully between both woods, my servants overtook them.' These were Fortescue's men, who had been roused by the noise, and who came prepared for a fray. They were not disappointed. Many arrows were shot, as well forked-heads as other. Bartelmew Cornish' was wounded in the thigh with an arrow, and in the head with a forest-bill;' Savage was stricken down and taken,' and four others of Lord Grey's men were very evil hurt, and one to the death, as since is fallen out.' This seems to have brought the affair to a crisis. Many of the rioters were imprisoned, but only for a time, and Lord Grey made a complaint to the Privy Council that although he had sought redress of so heynous a fact as 'the killing,' he had been ordered by their lordships to let the matter alone; and to see mine adversary so much favoured in ' an evil cause, and myself, in seeking of justice, so lightly ac' counted of, besides the wrong doth bring no small grief unto 'me.' Accordingly, he sought 'justice' with his own hand. In November 1573 he and Fortescue were both in London. Lord Grey knew that Fortescue would pass under Temple Bar about ten o'clock on a certain morning. He waited for his appearance in the shop of one Lewes, a cross-bow maker,' and disposed his twelve serving men divided on every side of the street.' After Fortescue had passed, Lord Grey, coming behind with a crab-tree truncheon, strake me on the head,' says the other, in his complaint to the Council, so sore that I was astouned and fell from my horse, saying, as the standers by do report, "You have spoiled me." Whereunto he answered," Nay, villain, I will have my pennyworth of thee; "thou shalt not scape so. There was a fight. The servants on either side set on each other, and there would have been loss of life if the rescue of the street had not been.' Unfortunately this is the last of the papers. We do not know in what manner Fortescue was avenged, and although we find Lord Grey in the Fleet Prison soon afterwards, it does not appear on what charge he had been placed there. A letter from the Fleete,' addressed by him to Lord Burghley, may possibly refer to this matter. In it he says: It is not to be doubted but that Fortescue will inform anything for the

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