Sir Henry Wyat, the father, had suffered for his loy. alty to the house of Lancaster, and been imprisoned in the Tower, in the reign of Rich. III. for which K. Hen. VII. on his accession, knighted him, and made him a privy counsellor.

By that monarch, he was intrusted to conduct to the Tower, the unfortunate Edmund De La Pole, Earl of Suffolk. He was continued of the council by K. Hen. VII. and, either by the father or son, appointed master of the Jewel-Office.*

At the coronation of Q. Anne Boleyn, his son performed for him the office of Ewerer; from whence Lord Orford conjectures, that he was himself at that time too aged to attend such a ceremony.

His descendant, Mr. Wyat, of Charter-house Square, told Vertue, that it was a tradition in the family, that when Sir Henry was prisoner in the Tower, he was preserved from being starved by his cat, who brought him a pigeon. † His wife was Anne daughter of Thomas

Skinner, Esq. of Surry.

Sir

Mr. Wise shewed to the Antiquarian Society, in 1734, “ A vewe and Accomptes of all and singular the Kinges Jewelles, stone, perle, flate of gold and of silver, in the custody and kepynge of Sir Henry Wyat, Maister of the Kinges Jewelles, as well touching all and every. parcellis by him recey-ved to the Kinges use and issuinge out of the same, as also such plate as in charge of such officers of the Kinges most honourable householde, and other by indenture, and the true poix and waight of every parcel of the same, taken by the Rt. Revd. Father in God, John Archbp. of Armachan, Maister Thomas Magnus, Archdeacon of Est. riding, and Sir Wm. Kingston, Kt. deputed Commissioners by the Kinges Highness, for the same purpose the 14th daye of February, the xii year of our Soveraine Lorde, Kinge Henry the Vill." A similar account by Sir Anthony Aucher, Master also of the Jewel Office in the same reign, is in the possession of Edward Taylor, Esq. of Bifrons in Kent, M. P. in right of his wife, who is one of the heirs of that family.

† Sir Thomas Wyat, (the Poet's son by Elizabeth daughter of Sir Thomas Brooke, Lord Cobham,) was executed for the rebellion which goes by his name, 11 April, Q. Mary. He married Jane, daughter and coheir of Sir William Haute, of Bishop'sbourne, co. Kent; by whom he had a son and heir, George Wyat, Esq. who was restored in blood; and succeeded his mother in

the

Sir Thomas Wyat, their son and heir, was educated at St. John's College Cambridge. He then travelled principally to Italy, whence he derived his most splendid accomplishments. For "he was one of the first," says Lord Orford, "who introduced the numbers used by the poets of that country into his own. That he had drunk

the manor and abbey of Boxley, near Maidstone in Kent. He died 1624, leaving by Jane, daughter of Sir Thomas Finch, of Eastwell, Co. Kent, Sir Francis Wyat, of Boxley, Kr. who was twice Governor of Virginia; and died Aug. 24, 1644, leaving, by Margaret sister of George Sandys, the poet, a daughter Elizabeth, married to Thomas Boswell, of Little Mote in Eynsford, Co. Kent, Esq. and two sons, Henry and Edwyn. Henry, the eldest, left a daughter and heir, Jane wife of Sir Edward Duke of Cossington, Co Kent, Kt. (whose daughter and heir Frances married Sir Thomas Selyard, Bart. whose son and heir Sir Thomas Selyard, Bt. left two daughters his coheirs.) Edwyn Wyat, Esq. succeeded his brother Henry, at Boxley, as heir male. He was made a Serjeant at law 1684, was Recorder of Maidstone and Canterbury, Chief Justice of Carmarthen, Pembroke, and Cardigan, and M. P. for Maidstone. He died Dec. 7. 1714, æt 85, leaving, by Frances, daughter and coheir of Thomas Crispe, of Quekes in the isle of Thanet, Esq. several sons and daughters. Edwyn Wyat, Esq. his eldest son died before him, without issue. His 2d son, Francis Wyat, Esq. succeeded him at Boxley, where he died without issue; and was succeeded by his only surviving brother, Richard Wyat, Esq. who died possessed of it in Dec. 1753, aged nearly 80. Leaving no issue, he devised his estate to Robert Marsham, second Lord Romney, great grandson of his aunt Elizabeth Besvile, whose daughter and heir, Margaret, married Sir Robert Marsham, Bart. Hasted's Kent, II. 125, 126. Lord Orford says, "Vertue was acquainted with a Mr. Wyat, who lived in Charterhouse Square, and was the representative descendant of that respectable family. In 1721, and at other times, Vertue saw at that gentleman's house portraits of his ancestors for seven descents, and other pictures and ancient curiosites. Among the rest, were heads of Sir Thomas Wyat and of Anne Boleyn, in rounds, on board; of George Wyat, the son of the younger Sir Thomas; of Sir Frances Wyat by Isaac Oliver; and of Edmund Wyat, Sergeant at Law, drawn by Sir Godfrey Kneller, in 1686. There was besides, the picture of Sir Henry Wyat, of whom I have been speaking, painted with a fur gown, with a chain of gold about his neck, in the manner of Holbein."-He adds, 66 It would be fortunate, if mention of these pictures should lead to the knowledge of the person who now possesses them."-Miscellaneous Antiquities, Printed at Strawberry-Hill, 1772, 410. No. a. p. 6, 7.

deeply at the classic founts of ancient poetry, appeared in his Latin translations: the softer elegance of the Italian assisted him in refining our tongue; and he polished the language of the court, instead of imbibing politeness from it. Camden says, he was splendide doctus; Ascham, that he was one of the best translators of the Latin poets of the age he lived in; and Wood calls him the delight of the muses, and of mankind. Leland published a book of elegies on his death, (called Næenia.) His brave and accomplished friend, Lord Surrey, composed an epitaph for him; and Sir Thomas Chaloner, one of the luminaries of that half savage, half. Augustan age, another; both in verse. Sir John Mason, Chancellor of Oxford, wrote one in prose.

"Yet did not these engaging pursuits nor even his success in them, absorb his mind in indolent delights. His soul was vigorous, his genius manly; and while his purpose was to polish his country, he meant to be fit to serve it with his sword, or his councils. We are assured that he was skilled in the military arts of that age; his employments, his letters, his orations, speak how able a statesman he was; how acute an orator. Wood records his valour, and the manly beauty of his person."*

Thus accomplished, he became a great favourite of K. Hen. VIII, who employed him in several embassies: they were even heaped on him beyond his wish. Twice however he fell into disgrace with that capricious monarch. On one of these occasions, he was committed to the Tower, and brought to his trial for Treason. The only charges of importance, were that of connection with Cardinal Pole, and some hypothetical words on the King's Supremacy. Lord Orford has printed his Defence, which was copied by Gray the poet, from the originals in the Harleian MSS. "The Parnassian flame," adds the lively and noble editor, " that had prophesied from the mouths of the Bards, could condescend to be a transcriber. In this instance his labour was the homage of justice paid to a genius, his predecessor. What Mr. Gray thought worth copying, who will not think worth reading?"

Miscell, Antiq. ut sup.

Sir Thomas died at last in the public service. Being sent to conduct the Embassador of the Emperor Charles V. from Falmouth to London, he overheated himself by riding post in the middle of Summer, and being attacked with a malignant fever, died on the road at Shirburn in Dorsetshire, in 1541, æt. 38. Among the numerous cuJogiums of his cotemporaries, the panegyric of Lord Sur rey owes more to truth, says Warton, even than to the graces of poetry, or the flattery of friendship.

Warton, has discriminated the character of this poet, with more than his usual critical acumen. He observes, "that he is inferior to Surrey in genius; as his poems abound more in good sense, satire, and observations on life, than in pathos, and imagination. But it is unlucky, that to the poem beginning My Lute awake,' which he cites as a favourable specimen, on account of its lyric sweetness, Wyat does not seem to have a just claim, as it is ascribed by Mr. Park, in the Nuge Antiqua, to Lord Rochford. It does indeed contain more of tender sentiment than seems to belong to Wyat.

The elegant critic also complains, that Wyat betrays too much of the conceits of his Italian masters.

His poetical epistles, in which the peculiar powers of his mind were best calculated to shine forth, are full of interest, and generally expressed with great happiness. He gives the picture of a strong and generous mind, polished, enlarged, and softened by experience, and deeply impressed with the value of rural quiet, from a contrast with the restless and dangerous life of a courtier.

"This is the cause, that I could never yet

Hang on their sleeves, that weigh, as thou maist see,
A chip of chance, more than a pound of wit;
This maketh me at home to hunt and hawk,
And in foul weather at my book to șit

In frost and snow; then with my bow to stalk;
No man doth mark whereso I ride or go;

In lusty lees at liberty I walk."

"Nor am I not where truth is given in prey

For money, prison, and treason, of some

Hist. E. P. III. 29, &c.

DD 3

A common

A common practice used night and day;
But I am here in Kent and Christendom,
Among the Muses, where I read and rhime;

Where it thou list, mine own John Poines, to come,
Thou shait be judge, how I do spend my time."

The rich and picturesque banks of the Medway wit nessed the early contemplations of Wyat. He must, from boyhood, have imbibed from his father the materials on which his moral sensibility was continually at work. This is the scene of the Wizard's description in the Kentish Tale, in Cens. Lit. II. 120.

"Then let me fly to Medway's stream,
Where flowing Wyat us'd to dream
His moral fancies! Ivied towers,
'Neath which the silver Naiad pours
Her murmuring waves thro' verdant meads,
Where the rich herd luxuriant feeds,
How often in your still recesses

Iv'e seen the Muse with careless tresses
Scatter her flowers, as Wyat bade,
In spring's enamel'd colours clad !
Lov'd castle, art thou still array'd
In fame, or do thine honours fade?
They fade! Lo, from the tottering walls
Down in huge heaps the fragment falls,
And lonely are thy courts; and still
The voice that whisper'd to the rill;
Thy very name is sunk! how few,

Know it once shone in glory's hue!

Familiarity with the dependence and the vices of court, made him sigt for retirement, and enjoy with the keenest zest the air and quiet of the country during those short intervals from business which he could procure. The sentiments which he indulged, during these temporary retreats, are beautifully expressed in his three best poems, "Of the mean and sure estate, written to John Poines;' "Of the Courtier's Life, written to John Poines ;" and "How to use the court, and himself therein, written to Sir Fraunces Bryan."

See a fine portrait of John Poines, with an interesting memoir by Lodge, in the Holbein Heads.

The