chancellor. As orator he had thanked Bacon for a gift to the university of his ‘Instauratio’ (4 Nov. 1620), and had written complimentary Latin verses on it in his private capacity. Bacon dedicated to Herbert his ‘translation of certaine psalms’ (1625), ‘in recognition of the pains that it pleased you to take about some of my writings.’ In 1623 Herbert delivered an oration at Cambridge congratulating Prince Charles on his return from Spain, and he expressed regret, in the interests of peace, that the Spanish match had been abandoned. Herbert at the time undoubtedly hoped to follow the example of Sir Robert Naunton and Sir Francis Nethersole, his predecessors in the office of orator, and obtain high preferment in the service of the state. But the death, in 1625, of the king and of two of his chief patrons, and his suspicions of the wisdom of Buckingham's policy, led him to reconsider his position. His own early inclinations were towards the church, and his mother had often urged him to take holy orders. To resolve his doubts whether to pursue ‘the painted pleasures of a court life, or betake himself to a study of divinity,’ he withdrew to a friend's house in Kent, and studied with such energy as to injure his health. While still undecided, John Williams, bishop of Lincoln, presented him to the prebend of Layton Ecclesia. To the prebend was attached an estate at Leighton Bromswold, Huntingdonshire, on which stood a dilapidated church. Herbert was not ordained, and was thus unable to perform the duties connected with the benefice; but the presentation called into new life the religious ardour of his youth.
Two miles from Leighton was Little Gidding, the home of Nicholas Ferrar [q. v.], with whom Herbert had some slight acquaintance while both were students at Cambridge. Herbert offered to transfer the prebend to Ferrar; but Ferrar declined the offer, and urged Herbert to set to work to restore the ruined church (Ferrar, Life of Nicholas Ferrar, ed. Mayor, pp. 49-50). Herbert eagerly followed Ferrar's advice. Two thousand pounds were needed. His own resources were unequal to that demand, but with the help of friends he carried the work through. With Ferrar, who gave money as well as advice, Herbert thenceforth corresponded on terms of great intimacy. They styled each other ‘most entire’ friends and brothers, but they seem only to have met once in later years. Herbert's final absorption in a religious life was doubtless largely due to Ferrar's guidance. Donne, the friend of Herbert's mother, proved also a sympathetic friend, especially at the time of Lady Danvers's death in 1627. To Herbert, Donne gave one of his well-known seals, bearing on it a crucifix shaped like an anchor.
Owing partly to ill-health, and partly to his attendance at court, Herbert had already delegated his duties as orator at Cambridge to a deputy, Herbert Thorndike, and at the close of 1627 he resigned the post altogether. Threatened with consumption he spent the year 1628 at the house of his brother, Sir Henry Herbert, at Woodford, Essex, and early in 1629 visited the Earl of Danby, brother of his stepfather, at Dauntsey, Wiltshire. There he met, and fell in love with, a relative of his host, Jane Danvers, whose father, Charles Danvers of Baynton, Wiltshire, lately dead, had formed a high opinion of Herbert's character, and openly told him that he wished him to marry one of his daughters. The marriage took place at Edington on 5 March 1628-9. Soon afterwards, on 6 April 1630, Charles I, at the request of the Earl of Pembroke, presented Herbert to the rectory of Fugglestone with Bemerton, Wiltshire. He was in doubt whether or no to accept the presentation, but went to Wilton to thank the earl for his kind offices. Laud, bishop of London, was then with the king at Salisbury, and Pembroke immediately informed him of Herbert's hesitation. Laud sent for Herbert, and convinced him that it was sinful to refuse the benefice. Tailors were summoned to supply clerical vestments, and Herbert was instituted to the rectory by John Davenant, bishop of Salisbury, on 26 April 1630. Herbert's life at Bemerton was characterised by a saint-like devotion to the duties of his office. There he wrote his far-famed series of sacred poems. He still practised music in his leisure, and twice a week he walked to Salisbury Cathedral. He repaired Bemerton Church (thoroughly restored by Wyatt in 1866), and rebuilt the parsonage, inscribing on the latter some verses addressed to his successor. Friends contributed to these expenses, but he spent (he wrote to his brother Henry) 200l. from his own resources, ‘which to me that have nothing yet is very much.’ But consumption soon declared itself, and after an incumbency of less than three years he was buried beneath the altar of his church on 3 March 1632-3. He had no children, and left all his property to his wife, saving a few legacies of money and books to friends. His widow afterwards married Sir Robert Cook of Highnam House, Gloucestershire, whither she carried many of Herbert's writings. These were burnt with the house by the parliamentary forces during the civil war. A library of books which Herbert had deposited, with chains affixed to the volumes, in a room in Montgomery Castle, met with a very similar
