Cognatos, Cumulatissime perfudit. Demum Meritis juxta atque annis plenus, A. Salut. clɔ ɔcxx. Etat. suæ LXXIX. I should have observed, before this period of time, that the doctor caused a poem of his (entitled Musica Incantans, sive Poema exprimens Musicæ Vires, Juvenem in Insaniam adigentis, et Musici inde Periculum) to be printed at the request of his very good friend Dr. John Fell, in the year 1667, though written in 1655, when he was bachelor of arts, and that this was highly applauded; as the work of an extraordinary genius and a very ready wit, for the beauty of its language, and the quickness of its turns; but the taste of the present age being contrary to what it was in those days, and less given to flourishes of that nature, I make it my choice not to be particular as to any quotations from it, since the doctor, to his dying day, has regretted the publication of it, as a juvenile and unmomentary performance. I should also have acquainted the reader, that the doctor was before this possessed of 751. per ann. lands of inheritance, as of a copyhold estate of inheritance in the manor of Cantlors alias Cantlow, in Kentish Town, Middlesex, by the death of his father; but not being able to account for the year in which he died, must ask leave to insert it in this place. John Sobieski, grand marshal of Poland, having been elected to fill the throne of that kingdom on account of his great merits, and notable achievements in war against the infidels and other enemies, on the death of king Michael Wiesnowiski, who was supposed to have been poisoned by a Frenchman at Zamoisk, his Britannic majesty, two years after the said choice, which was made in 1674, gave credentials to the honourable Lawrence Hyde, esq. son to the late lord chancellor Clarendon, to act as ambassador extraordinary to compliment that king thereupon, and to make presents to his new-born daughter the princess Teresa Cunegunda, (now electress of Bavaria,) to whom his majesty had some time before stood godfather by proxy. Accordingly Mr. Hyde, in pursuance of his commission, provided himself with a most sumptuous equipage; and out of his very great respect to Dr. South, who had endeared himself to that noble person by being his tutor, would needs take him with him in the quality of his chaplain; which the doctor very readily agreed to, being of a very curious and inquisitive temper, and desirous of being an eyewitness of the posture of affairs in other countries, as well as his own. What improvements he made by these inquiries may be best seen by an account of his, directed to Dr. Edward Pococke, then regius professor of Hebrew in Oxford, and one of the canons of Christ Church; who, though of much longer standing than the doctor, by his first entrance upon that dignity in the year 1648, took such a liking to his conversation, as to hold a most intimate friendship with him. The said narrative runs thus, and is copied from Dr. South's original manuscript. My best Friend, and most honoured Instructor, TO keep my word with you, which I gave at Cornbury, when we last parted, I send herein some account of my voyage and travels, with a few observations on the country, inhabitants, manners, and customs of the kingdom, whereof I have been a cursory, and, I fear, but too curious an investigator; though I do it with hope, that you, who have so perfect a knowledge of the eastern world, by what you have communicated to me concerning the affairs of the Turkish court, Palestine, &c. will pardon my falling infinitely short of you in my description of one of the northern kingdoms, whereof your avocations elsewhere may not have allowed you the attainment of so just a description. My lord ambassador set sail from Portsmouth, on board the Tyger man of war, with the Swallow in company, and some merchant ships under convoy, on the 11th of June last; and after having stayed some few days in the Sound, to despatch messages with compliments to the courts of Sweden and Denmark, cast anchor before Dantzick on the 11th of August, where he was received under a discharge of the artillery on the ramparts, and was the next day conducted to an audience of the queen of Poland, (who had made a journey thither, while the king her husband was in the field,) wherein he paid her majesty the usual devoirs in the name of his royal master, and presented the young princess her daughter with a very rich jewel, and a cross of diamonds of great value. He afterwards, with a very magnificent retinue, set forward for Poland, and was received by the king in his camp near Leopol in Russia, with demonstrations of respect and kindness suitable to his character and person, where his majesty did him the honour of sending some of his chief officers to shew him the army, and their way of encamping. Having mentioned Leopol, which is the metropolis of the palatinate of Russia, it may not be improper to tell you, that this city is large and well fortified, having two castles, one within the walls, and one without, on a rising ground, which commands the town; both which, together with the city, were founded by Leo duke of Russia, about the year 1289. The archbishop of this see is both spiritual and temporal lord of his diocese. Here also reside an Armenian archbishop, and a Russian bishop, depending on the patriarch of Constantinople, with several churches belonging to each bishopric. The Armenian Roman Catholics have inhabited here time out of mind, and are governed wholly by their own prelate, enjoying very great privileges on account of the considerable commerce they maintain with the Persians and other eastern people. This city likewise gives great encouragement to learned men, who are very civilly received by their academy, which is supplied with professors from that of Cracow; though, from what I could find from those professors themselves, and the very bishops too, they had as little furniture that way in their own persons (except an insight into the Latin tongue) as some of the meanest of our Welsh clergy. The churches here are generally fair and well built, and abound with all kinds of costly ornaments. The peace being happily concluded, to the advantage of Poland, between his majesty and the Turks and Tartars, whereof his excellency Mr. Hyde had no small share of the management, the king returned in November to Zolkiew, his own patrimony, which is a town in Russia, adorned and defended by a castle, and intermixed with several delightful gardens, with a fair church in the middle of it, built with various sorts of marble, and whither the ambassador waiting upon him, had his public audience there in a most solemn manner. He was first carried in the king's coach, attended by six of his own, twenty-four pages and footmen in rich liveries, and sixty odd coaches of the chief nobility. When arrived at the court, he was received by the chief marshal (who is in the nature of a lord chamberlain) at the stairs' foot of the palace, and conducted to his majesty, who received him standing under a canopy. Whereupon his excellency delivered his master's compliments in a Latin speech ©, in which he gave assurances of the king of Great Britain's inviolable attachment to that prince's interests, congratulated him upon the last treaty of peace brought to a happy conclusion with the infidels, and made overtures to enter into such alliances with the crown and republic of Poland, as should be judged most conducive to the honour and safety of both nations. To this his Polish majesty gave a very agreeable and satisfactory answer in the same language, which he had readily ad unguem, and caused the ambassador afterwards to sit down at the same table with him, where he was attended by the chief officers of state standing; it being a custom in Poland to admit none to that honour but the princes of the blood. This king is a very well spoken prince, very easy of ac This speech was written in English by Mr. Hyde, and turned into elegant Latin by Dr, South. cess, and extreme civil, having most of the qualities requisite to form a complete gentleman. He is not only well versed in all military affairs, but likewise, through the means of a French education, very opulently stored with all polite and scholastical learning. Besides his own tongue, the Sclavonian, he understands the Latin, French, Italian, German, and Turkish languages: he delights much in natural history, and in all the parts of physic; he is wont to reprimand the clergy for not admitting the modern philosophy, such as Le Grand's and Cartesius's, into the universities and schools, and loves to hear people discourse of those matters, and has a particular talent to set people about him very artfully by the ears, that by their disputes he might be directed, as it happened once or twice during this embassy, where he shewed a poignancy of wit on the subject of a dispute held between the bishop of Posen and father de la Motte, a Jesuit and his Majesty's confessor, that gave me an extraordinary opinion of his parts. As for what relates to his majesty's person, he is a tall and corpulent prince, large faced, and full eyes, and goes always in the same dress with his subjects, with his hair cut round about his ears like a monk, and wears a fur сар, but extraordinary rich with diamonds and jewels, large whiskers, and no neckcloth. A long robe hangs down to his heels, in the fashion of a coat, and a waistcoat under that, of the same length, tied close about the waist with a girdle. He never wears any gloves; and this long coat is of strong scarlet cloth, lined in the winter with rich fur, but in summer only with silk. Instead of shoes, he always wears, both abroad and at home, Turkey-leather boots, with very thin soles, and hollow deep heels, made of a blade of silver bent hoop-wise into the form of a half-moon. He carries always a large scimetar by his side, the sheath equally flat and broad from the handle to the bottom, and curiously set with diamonds. His majesty married Mary de la Grange, daughter to the Marquis of Arquien, some time after his accession to the throne, made cardinal in complaisance to his majesty. This lady, who was but ten or twelve years old when she came |