prayed and required to give order to be executed. And immediately the same was put in execution."* Thus stripped at once of his coat and calling, Archee retired to his native parish in Cumberland, and, we may hope, dedicated the remainder of his days to something more useful and creditable than the gibes and tricks of a jack pudding. Charles, who, when Prince of Wales, evinced a much greater turn for the bagatelle than in after life, amused himself often with the facetious sayings of Archee; and and put him upon his staff in his romantic expedition to Spain. The following anecdote determines the fact. “Our cousin Archy has more privilege than any, for he often goes, with his fool's coat, where the infanta is with her meninas and ladies of honour; and keeps a blowing and blustering among them, and flurts out what he lists. "One day they (the Spaniards) were discoursing what a marvellous thing it was * Rushworth's Histor. Collect. vol. ii. page 470. that the Duke of Bavaria, with less than fifteen thousand men, after a long and toilsome march, should dare to encounter the Palsgrave's army, (King James's son-in-law,) consisting of above twenty-five thousand, and to give them an utter discomfiture, and také Prague immediately after. Whereunto Archy answered, that he would tell them a stranger thing than that. Was it not a strange thing,' quoth he, that, in the year 88, there should come a fleet of one hundred and forty sail from Spain to England, and that ten of these could not come back to tell what became of the rest ?'"* DAVY RAMSEY (Whom our author makes to be the father of the imaginary Margaret) was a real character, and had the honour of being clock-maker to King James the First. His occupation led him, necessarily, into an intimacy with the * Howel's Letters, page 136. heavenly bodies; and no man could form such a friendship in the seventeenth century, and not run the risk of becoming a firm believer in supernatural agency. That honest David was bitten, we may collect from the following anecdote, told by Lilly the astrologer. "Davy Ramsey," says he, "his Majesty's clock-maker, had been informed that there was a great quantity of treasure buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey; he acquaints Dean Williams therewith, who was also then bishop of London; the dean gave him liberty to search after it, with this proviso, that if any was discovered, his church should have a share of it. Davy Ramsey finds out one John Scott, who pretended the use of the Mosaical rods, to assist him herein: I was desired to join with him, unto which I consented. One winter's night, Davy Ramsey, with several gentlemen, myself, and Scott, entered the cloisters; we played the hazel rod round about the cloisters; upon the west side of the cloisters the rods turned one over another, an argument that the treasure was there. The labourers digged at least six feet deep, and then we met with a coffin; but in regard it was not heavy, we did not open it, which we afterwards much repented.* From the cloisters we went into the Abbey church; where, upon a sudden, (there being no wind when we began,) so fierce, so high, so blustering, and loud a wind did rise, that we verily believed the west end of the church would have fallen upon us; our rods would not move at all; the candles and torches, all but one, were extinguished, or burned very dimly. John Scott, my partner, was amazed, looked pale, knew not what to think or do, until I gave directions and command to dismiss the dæmon; which when done, all was quiet again, and each man returned into his lodgings late, about twelve o'clock at night. I could never since be induced to join with any in such-like actions. "The true miscarriage of the business was by reason of so many people being present at the operation; for there were above thirty, some laughing, others deriding us; * David Ramsay brought an half-quartern sack to put the treasure in. |