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Sir John Cheke and Sir Thoma* Smith. 113 my living was yearly 1201. , after this sort : my lecture of Civil Law was to me yearly 40J., the office of chancellorship to my lord of Ely 50/., and my benefice of Leverington 361. ; and yet I so ordered the matter, that mine own board, my three servants, three summer nags/ and three winter geldings, all this did not stand me in much above SQL yearly ; so that, except I would spend of unthriftyness, I might save well enough, as I did, and I trust honestly." Smith afterwards states the account of his income at the time he was writing. His fee as secretary was yearly 100J. The advantage of the seal, he had been told, was wont to be good ; this three months (he declares) it hath not been to me 11. The deanery of Carlisle produced 80/., besides 40/. pension paid to its late holder, who remained a Romanist. The income of the provostship of Eton he had not ascertained, from the unsettled ^state of its affairs. Other aspersions circulated against him were that he bought benefices, and that he had been a chopper and changer of land. These he wholly denied. Smith appears even at this early period to have been somewhat jealous of Ceeill, who was as yet only Master of Ptequcsts : " And Mr. Ceeill (he exclaims) is a great mote to be cast against me, that he, poor man, is none such. Truely, for Mr. Ceeill, I take him to be an honest and a worthy man, nor see I cause why he should be brought and used to my displeasure, whom I have ever loved." But yet the tale-bearers had been known to remark, That poor man is no purchaser ! "Let him (replies Smith) change his book of purchase he had this year with mine, and I will give him one thousand pounds to boot, and yet win almost five hundred pounds by the bargain." Some other very remarkable statements follow, respecting favourable purchases of crown lands, but whether the whole apply to Cccill or not, is ambiguous. Two further points of covetousness had been alleged against Sir Thomas Smith. One was that his wife did not go so gorgeously as some would have her, " if that be a fault (he replies,) although she is little, let her bear it; she hath all my money." The other charge respected his housekeeping. " At Eton, (he declares,) where I have one, whosoever cometh, whether I be there or not, shall know whether I keep house or not. At London, where I can get no house, it is hard for me to keep an house." He had taken as much pains as any man to procure a suitable residence, and was not so mad, or so little a lover of his ease, but that it would have been sometimes a pleasure to him, when he might steal a leisure, to eat a morsel of meat, dressed after his fancy, in his own house ; or not to prefer to c Strype, in making use of this passage, in his third chapter, has unaccountably altered this word, stating that "he kept three servants, three guns, and three winter geldings." Oxford edit. 1820, p*. 28. VOL. XXXVIII. Q