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Show 264 ATROCIOUS JUDGES. [.\. D. 1Gfl3. pointment to the govern1nent that no furtlH'r aid coultl be expected fron1 hitn in the Inca. ures still contemplated for cutting off the \Vhig leader;-, and de p re~ ~ ing the \Vhig party. IIis hopel e~ condition being ascertainec1, he was deserted and neglected by all his Whitehall p~tron s, who had lately been so attentive to hitu, and he r eceived kindness only fro111 humble depenllents and orne youug lawyer-, who, notwith. tanding all his fault , had been attached io him from his singular good humor. A few 1ninutes after ten o'clock in the forenoon of Tuesday, the 19th of June, 1683, he expired in a honse at Par~ son's Green, to which he hall unwillingly tran. f'errccl himself from Butcher Row ·when pro1noted to be chief jn ' lice. His exact age was not known, but he wa · not suppo. ed to be much turned of fifty, although a trangcr who . aw him for the first time woulll have 1akcn hin1 to be cousideralJl)' more advanced in life. Of his appearance, his mann \rs and his habits, we have, frotn one ·who knew l1im intimately, the following graphic account, which it woulu he a sin to abridge or to alter,- "As to his per ·ou, he wa very corpulent and bea.~ tly - a 1nere lun1p of morbid fie h. lie u ed to ,·ay, ' by his troggs, (such a humorous way of talking he atfecteu ) none coulcl say he ·wanted issue of his body~ for he IHld nine in his back.' He was a fetid mass that offended his ncjghbors at the bar in the sharpest degree. Those who:-;e ill fortune it was to stand near him were confc sor ·, and in summer time almo't martyrs. This hateful decay of hi , car cass came upon him by cont•i nual sottl• shness ; 11' 0r, to 8ay no t l1 1· ng o f br'' tndy' he wa seldom w1. thou t a pot o f a 1e at 1u .s nose or near him. That exercise was all he used ; the rest of his life was A. D. 1G83.] ED:\IUND SAL'NDERS. 26u sitting at his desk or pi ping at home; and that home was a tailor's house, in Butcher l~ow, called his lodging, and the man's wife was his nur"'e or worse ; Lut by virtue of his money, of which he n1ade li ttle account, though he got a great deal, he soon becan1e master of the family; anu bei11g no changeling, he never rmnoved, but was true to hi!:l friend and they to him to the la.~ t hour of hi "' life. \ Vith all this, he bad a goodne, s of nature antl dispo ·ition in so great a degree that he rnay be de.·rrveuly styled a plu'lantltrope. He was a very S ilenu ·· to the boys, a"' in tllis place I 1nay term the stuclents of the law, to make thc1u merry whenever they had a n1ind to it. lie hacl nothing of rigid or austere in hin1. If any near him at the bar grumbled at his stench, he ever converted the complaint into content and laughing with the abundance of his wit. As to his onEnary dealing, he was as hon c~t as the driven now was white; and why not haYino- no r<.'o-ard for monO)' or desire ' <::> 0 to be rich? And for good nat ure and conde cen ion, there was not his fellow. I l1ave seen hi1n, for hours and half hour.s together, before the court sat, t and at the bar, with an audience of studen t" o' 'er against him, putting of ca es) and debating so a~ suited their c:1pacitics and encouraged their industry. And o in the tcn1pl , he . ldom moYed without a parcel of youths hanging about him, and he merry and jesting with them. Once, after he wa' in the king's business, he dineJ with the lord keeper, and there ho showed another qualification he bad acquircu, and that was to play jigs upon a harpsichord, ha,·ing taught him ·If with the opportunity of an old virginal of his landlady's; but in such a manner, not for defect but figure, as to see him was a jest." 23 |