After some time spent in France, he betook himself to the war in Holland, where after he had made two or three campaigns, according to the custom of the English volunteers, he came in the leisure of the winter to visit England, about the time of the infancy of the duke of Buckingham's favours, to whom he grew in a short time very acceptable. He was a very handsome man3, of a lovely and winning presence, and gentle conversation; by which he had got so easy an admission to the court and grace of king James, that he gave over the life of a soldier. He took all the ways he could to endear himself to the duke, and wisely declined receiving any grace or favour but as his donation; above all, avoided the suspicion that the king had any kindness for him upon any account but of the duke, whose creature he desired to be esteemed, though the earl of Carlisle's friend. And he prospered so well in that pretence, that the king scarcely made more haste to advance the duke, than the duke did to promote the other. Under this protection, he received every day new obligations from the king, and great bounties; and continued to flourish above any man in the court, while the weather was fair; but the storm did no sooner arise, than he declined fast from the honour he was said to be master of. 6 After va

Mercer says, in his panegyrical address to lord Holland,

Thy courtly presence and thy princely grace

Add to the splendor of thy royall race."

Angliæ Speculum, 1646

Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 62.

rious proofs of meanness and tergiversation, lord Holland lost his head by the sentence of that court which had condemned their sovereign to die.

Mr. Reed considers the earl of Holland as a man remarkably selfish in his temper, and of a disposition rather cunning and penetrating than brave or open; and this inference is partly deduced from his illiberal contest with the duke of Newcastle; a particular account of which may be seen in the Biographia Dramatica. 7

The official tracts which make this nobleman rank as an author, are the two which follow:

"The Lord of Holland's Letter from Yorke, the 13 of this instant Moneth of August: to the Honorable Lords of Parliament," 1641, 4to.

"A Declaration made to the Kingdome, by Henry Earl of Holland." Lond. 1643, 4to.

The former of these relates to the disbanding of certain regiments of horse, and the latter appears to have been written as an apology for leaving the king and returning to the parliament; but neither of them appears of sufficient interest to furnish a literary extract.8

7 Vol. i. p. 61.

8 I take this opportunity of mentioning, that there is a tract in the British Museum with the following title, which is nearly as unintelligible as the contents of the book, at least to the uninitiated: "A. Z. The Earle of Holland, Chief of Adepts; his five and twenty Yeares Wonder-Revelation, from the Yeare 1660 untill the Yeare 1685. Printed at Amsterdam for the Author, 1684," This chief of adepts may have been a mystic of mystics.

JAMES STANLEY,

EARL OF DERBY.

AMONG the sufferers for king Charles the first, none cast greater lustre on the cause than this heroic lord, who seems to have been actuated by a true spirit of honour and disinterestedness. Some contracted great merit from their behaviour in that quarrel; the conduct and brave death of this lord were but the conclusion of a life of virtue, accomplishments, and humanity.

He wrote

"The History and Antiquities of the Isle of Man (his own little, kingdom), with an Account of his many Troubles and Losses in the civil War; and of his own Proceedings, during his residence there in 1643 interspersed with sundry Advices to his Son, Charles, lord Strange, upon many curious points."

It was not completed as he intended it, but is published as he left it, in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa.2

2 Vol. ii. lib. 11.