The queen was forced to yield to the importunity of her domestic ruler, but not without a struggle, as may be seen in the foregoing correspondence. Lord Harvey knew not one word of what was in agitation, if the maker of his peerage may be believed, "until a messenger was sent from the queen to him, saying, that lord Harvey must come to the back-stairs on such a day, to kiss the queen's hand for being made a peer.'" The regnal history of queen Anne retains some traces of the now-forgotten custom of sceptring acts of parliament; but it was only in connexion with her authority as queen of Scotland, and was performed by commission. Early in her reign, some years before the union, lord Tarbut wrote to queen Anne, May 8, 1703, to tender his resignation of secretary of Scotland, in displeasure at some immunities given to the presbyterians there, which he had supposed would not have been done in her reign. His words imply that the deed was not wholly ratified, as her sceptre of Scotland had not yet given it legal vitality. "I will not venture to give judgment on it now; your majesty's authority is recognised in the first act, and touched by the royal sceptre, and so is law; the last is passed in parliament, but not yet touched, nor the other ratifying presbyterial government, but waits your majesty's commissioner to give them the touch." All classic readers will remember the sacredness of the sceptres of the kings in the Iliad, and it might be thought that the Scotch, who drew their cruel national laws from the Romans, had been to the Greeks for their sceptring3 ceremonies; but it was a regnal custom in England as well as Scotland, for a slight but indisputable notice of it occurs 1 MSS. Coxe, vol. xliv. Letter to Mr. Hutchinson from duchess of Marlborough, inedited. Compare the passage in the "Conduct of the duchess of Marlborough," where this fine intrigue is cautiously mentioned, and the fresh information relative to the queen, in the inedited portion printed in the text, will be appreciated. 66 2 Sir Henry Ellis's Historical Letters, second series, vol. iii. Reign of Anne. 3 A very scarce tract, containing some printed speeches of the members of the Scottish Convention Parliament in 1703, with which lord Hopetown has favoured the author of this work, casts some light on this custom. By the constitution of this kingdom no act of the estates (of Scotland) had the force of a law unless touched by the king's sceptre, which was his undoubted prerogative. The touch of his sceptre gave authority to our laws, as his stamp did to our coin." All the speeches are addressed to the lord chancellor. (Speeches by a member of parliament which began at Edinburgh the 6th of May, 1703. Edinburgh, printed in the year 1703.) in the parliamentary journals after the coronation of Mary I. No notice exists of this picturesque act of regality, that we can find, excepting in the annals of these queen-regnants of England and Scotland, for lord Tarbut's letter refers to the ceremonial as done in behalf of Anne queen of Scotland, not Anne queen of Great Britain. Since the accession of James I., the island sovereigns had been titular kings and queens of Great Britain; but the island was only united in name. Her majesty had resided, some months in her youth, in her good kingdom of Scotland; but she never visited it during her reign, neither was her presence ever desired there, that we can find, even by the slightest token conveyed in national lyrics. The following letter is supposed to have been addressed by the queen to the president of her Scottish council: "QUEEN ANNE TO "Windsor, June 19th. "I have received so much satisfaction from your prudent management of my affairs in this session of parliament, that I am willing to lay hold of the first opportunity of taking notice of it to you. "My lord Tarbut, in his late letters, seems to think himself of little use to the carrying on of my service there, and desires to attend near my person; and, though I have no objection of my own to this request, I would not determine upon it one way or other till I knew your thoughts of it, and whether you are of opinion he may be spared from Scotland, without prejudice to my service there; for which I am so well satisfied of your zeal and concern, that I have deferred coming to any resolution upon this matter, till I had consulted you. "I am, your very affectionate friend, "ANNE R." 2 The most dismal storm that ever ravaged the earth occurred at the decline of the year 1703. The queen was then at her palace of St. James, and was eye-witness to the extraordinary desolation of the park, where ancient trees, of historical celebrity, were laid low before her eyes. Among others, the group planted by the children of James I., near the passage of the Horse Guards; those trees which awoke a tender remembrance in the breast of Charles I. who, when he was marching across the park on the morning of his death, said to his newly-found friend, colonel Tomlinson, pointing to one of them, "That tree was planted by my brother Henry." The storm began on the evening of November 26, and 1 Mus. Brit. Bibl. Butler, fol. 18. 2 Congreve Correspondence. Bromley Collection. Pennant's London. raged without intermission until the next morning; not like a winter tempest, but attended with peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning. The leads of most of the churches in London were rolled up by the power of the wind, like scrolls. The Thames was choked at London Bridge with boats and barges dashed together. The severity of the storm set against the south and west of Englandthe north scarcely felt it. Sixteen of the largest ships of the navy were wrecked, and utterly lost, with all on board. Many tempests cause great devastations on the sea-coast, that do no mischief inland; but this swept the interior of the southern and western counties with the besom of destruction. Whole families were crushed under their own roofs, and multitudes of people killed and wounded. Among the most remarkable accidents of the kind was the fall of a stack of antique chimneys in the episcopal palace of Bath and Wells, which killed the bishop and his lady, Dr. and Mrs. Kidder, in their bed. A When the news reached queen Anne of the tragical death of the intruding bishop of Bath and Wells, she determined to restore the see to its ejected bishop, Ken. nobleman (supposed to be his friend, lord Weymouth) intimated to him, by her majesty's orders, " that he was to return to his diocese, without any oaths being required or any questions asked of him, just as if he had merely left his palace on a long journey. The true bishop of souls replied "that he was an old man, stricken with years and infirmity, and overborne with hard work,' but if it were permitted him to resign his charge to a faithful son of the church of England, who had already taken the oaths to the daughters of James II., he would cheerfully lay down his pastoral staff as one o'er-wearied." It was further intimated that the primacy was meant for him by the queen. Ken had too much wisdom to be tempted with the promise. He said, "he felt that his sole worldly business was to perfect his resignation to his chosen successor, Dr. Hooper, dean of Canterbury, his friend, whose principles he had 1 To quote the words of one of his biographers, "He had in the midst of his poverty performed all the spiritual duties of his diocese. The people of the west almost adored him, because of his noble and courageous resistance of the slaughters of the monster Kirke, in Monmouth's rebellion. He saved the lives of hundreds." known since they were both thirteen years of age." Our readers will remember Hooper as chaplain to Mary II. when princess of Orange, and afterwards appointed by her to the deanery of Canterbury, to the great anger of her husband. If the character of our bishop Ken could shine brighter it was on account of his admirable moderation in nominating a successor who had complied with the times rather than one who was a nonjuror like himself; but he was more anxious for the Christian welfare of the souls committed to the guidance of his pastoral staff, than for the gratification of partisans. Dr. Hooper had complied with the revolution as conscientiously as his friend Ken had renounced it.' When queen Anne had with great joy confirmed a bishop of Hooper's known loyalty to her in the episcopal see of 'Dr. Ken always said, that God, by his misfortunes, had preserved him from a death very horrible to human contemplation, since, if he had not been ejected from his episcopal palace, he should have been crushed to death in the great storm, as Dr. Kidder was, as he had always occupied the same chamber. Like most persons who struggle to keep the middle path between furious extremes, Dr. Ken had been calumniated by fanatics, and was sometimes assailed by a "no-popery" howl. It troubled not the serene and studious life he led, after he had consigned his pastoral staff to the hands of the friend of his youth, Hooper, who, he was rejoiced to observe, became infinitely beloved throughout the great western diocese. Dr. Ken, as before, spent his winters in Salisbury Close, under the roof of his dutiful nephew, Prebend Isaac Walton, (the son of his sister and the well known and excellent author, Isaac Walton ;) summer he passed among the shades of Longleat, the seat of lord Weymouth. The welcome visit of death met our Ken at Longleat,—welcome, for he was a great sufferer from ill health, or rather, it ought to be said, from frequent bodily torture, arising from a dire malady. In the cessation from paroxysms very hard to bear, he soothed his mind by the composition of divine poetry; he is one of the most inspired lyrists of our church, and his poems, only found in the libraries of old loyal church-of-England families, have furnished a mine of sweet lays and thoughts to some members of our church in these days. Before Ken expired, he thus expressed his faith: "I die," he said, "in the holy and apostolic faith professed by the Christian church before the disunion of the East and West. More particularly, I die in the communion of the church of England, as it stands distinguished from all papal and puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the cross. If the egotism may be forgiven the sisters who have written these Lives, (who have been calumniated by the same sect that persecuted Ken,) they say, likewise, such is and has been their belief, and may God give them grace to die in it! The room, at Longleat, where Ken died is still shown. It is said that he put on his shroud before he expired, and then composed himself for the sleep of death, "not out of any superstition," as he observed, "but from the wish that my remains might go to the grave just as God had left them." Ken was attended to his humble grave in the parish church-yard by true and simple Bath and Wells, the abdicating prelate celebrated the event by a poem, of which these lines are a fragment : "Forced from my flock, I daily saw with tears, A stranger's ravage ten sabbatic years; In sending them a pastor to my mind, As old Valerius when he Austin chose." After Dr. Ken had resigned his bishopric to Dr. Hooper, he signed himself "Thomas late bishop of Bath and Wells;" nothing could induce him to discontinue his episcopal signature till that time. It is to the honour of queen Anne that she settled on the old man a pension of 2007. per annum, which he thankfully accepted, as it was clogged with no conditions which his conscience rejected. The seas were scarcely tranquillized after "the great storm" when the fleet of the rival candidate for the throne of Spain, Charles of Austria, appeared off the western coast; and as he was on his way to take possession of his kingdom, to which queen Anne had sent succours to support his claims, he wished to pay his respects in person to her. The queen immediately despatched her master of the horse, the duke of Somerset, to Portsmouth, to receive the royal stranger, on his arrival at Spithead, Dec. 26, 1703. The duke went on board the king of Spain's ship, and delivered to him "a compliment," and a letter from queen Anne, informing him "that she had come to Windsor Castle, in order that he might more conveniently pay her the visit he had given her reason to hope for." As the duke of Somerset occasionally resided at Petworth, his seat on the coast, he hearted mourners, the children from the village school he had established and taught. These little ones followed the earthly remains of their beloved pastor and friend in silence and tears. He was buried at dawn of day, and just as the last spade of earth had been cast upon his coffin the sun rose, and the children, with one voice, burst forth into that holy and familiar strain, "Awake, my soul, and with the sun," (the Morning Hymn, written by the departed prelate,) which closed his obsequies. He died, March 19, 1711. Dr. Hooper died at Berkeley, on September 6, 1727, in the 87th year of his age; he was born at Grimsby, Worcestershire, November, 1646. He was interred in Wells cathedral. Both of these prelates had been domestic chaplains in Holland to Mary II., when princess of Orange. Hooper entertained a higher opinion of her than Ken, who lived with her when she was advanced further in life by three years. VOL. XII. 1 Biographia Britannica. H |