civility to all men, and without the least show of acrimony towards any who had served the king; and was so much attached to monarchy, that he was one of those who most desired and advised Cromwell to accept and assume that title, when it was offered to him by his parliament. He was designed to command the fleet which was to hinder the Dutch from assisting the Dane against the Swede; and was upon that expedition when Richard Cromwell was thrown out of the protectorship. On his return home he went quietly into the country, and remained neglected and forgotten till those revolutions were over which were produced by Lambert's invasion upon the parliament, and Monck's march into England; and then the secluded members being restored, called him to resume the command of the fleet. Lord Orford has supplied the remainder of his history. The following account of his studies is taken from a catalogue of astronomers appended to Sherburne's Manilius, 1675. The late earl of Sandwich, even in the midst of his weighty state negotiations, was pleased sometime to employ himself in making considerable observations, both astronomical and physiological, and to communicate the same to the Royal Society: as his "Observations of an Eclipse of the Sun, June 22, 1666, at Madrid; the Sun's Height in the Solstice; also the Latitude of Madrid; esteeming by the Sun's Altitude in the Solstice, and by other meridian Altitudes, the Latitude of Madrid to be 40° 10′, which differs considerably from that assigned by others." He likewise made some "Observations of the Immersions of the Satellites of Jupiter;" and on Dec. 25, O.S. 1666, observed at Madrid a great halo about the moon; the semidiameter whereof was about 23° 30': Aldebaran being just in the north-east part of the circle, and the two horns of Aries just enclosed by the south-west of the circle, the moon being in the centre: and about five or six years before, viz. Nov. 21, O. S. 1661, an hour after sun-set, he observed a great halo about the moon of the same semidiameter, at Tangier, the moon being very near the same place. See Philos. Transact. No. 21, p. 390. A very high character of lord Sandwich, written in French, and dated à Bourg-Charente, le xme Octob. 1684, may be seen in Harl. MS. 1625; and in No. 7010, are some of his lordship's letters, written while at sea, during the years 1665 and 1666; but none of them seem to call for a transcript. His treatise on metals has not been met with. In the interesting Journal of Evelyn, anno 1667, a particular entry was made of lord Sandwich's mournful catastrophe, and a most exalted estimation of his worth, from personal acquaintanceship.] MARGARET, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE, HAVING taken notice of her grace in the course of this work, I shall here only give a list of her works, which fill many folios, 3 "The World's Olio." Lond. 1655, folio. "Nature's Picture drawn by Fancie's Pencil, to the Life." 4 "In this volume (says the title) are several feigned stories of natural descriptions, as comical, tragical, and tragi-comical, poetical, romancical, philosophical, and historical, both in prose and verse, some all verse, some all prose, some mixt, partly prose and partly verse. Also, there are some morals and some dialogues, but they are [Vide art. of the duke of Newcastle.] 3 [Granger says thirteen, and adds "if her merit as an author were to be estimated from the quantity of her works, she would have the precedence of all female writers, ancient or modern." Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 60.] 4 [To this book, says Dr. Lort, was prefixed a curious print of the duke and duchess sitting at a table with their children, to whom the duchess is telling stories; and at the end is a very curious account of her birth, education, and life, written by her grace: where she has said very high things of the exquisite beauty of her person, and rare endowments of her mind. See Ballard. Three fine copies of this scarce book were preserved in the Bridgewater library.] |