William Camden

“ William Holloway, who argues at some length (Romney Marsh, 23 to 40) in favour of the idea suggested by Camden. Mr. H. quotes the words of his authority thus: "Newenden, I am almost persuaded, was that haven I have so long sought after . . . Anderida, &c." (compare with the extract above from Gibson's Camden.) Such language appears to indicate, that at first Camden himself felt no certainty on the subject, although afterwards, if he wrote what is cited as from him in the preceding note, he seems to have almost persuaded himself that his conjecture was fact. ”

“ Camden, the antiquary, was much attached to Carleton, and speaks of him (Brit. in Northumb. p. 816) as one 'whom I have loved in regard of his singular knowledge in divinity and in other more delightful literature, and am loved again of him.' Anthony à Wood (Athenae Ox.) describes him as 'a person of solid judgment and various reading, a bitter enemy to the papists, and a severe Calvinist.' His views, however, upon the subject of election were not nearly so rigid as those of the majority in the synod of Dort, and his theology does not seem to have affected the amiability of his disposition. ”

“ A few weeks before Lord Chatham died, Lord Camden paid him a visit. Chatham’s son, William Pitt, left the room on Lord Camden’s coming in. “You see that young man,” said the old lord; “what I now say, be assured, is not the fond partiality of a parent, but grounded on a very accurate examination. Rely upon it, that young man will be more distinguished in this country than ever his father was.” His prophecy was in part accomplished. At the age of twenty-four he was Chancellor of the Exchequer ”

“ In 1549 he "kept house" near the well within Aldgate, but afterwards he removed to Lime Street ward, where he resided till his death. About 1560 he entered upon the work with which his name is associated. He made the acquaintance of the leading antiquaries of his time, including William Camden, and in 1561 he published his first work, The woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, newly printed with divers addicions whiche were never in printe before. This was followed in 1565 by his Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, which was frequently reprinted, with slight variations, during his lifetime. ”

“ Though the war, as Burghley admitted, was a religious one, and Sir William was a Roman catholic, he had served with fidelity. ‘Qui singulari fide et fortitudine in Hibernico bello meruerat’ is Camden's testimony (Annals, p. 471) . ”

“ H. Blayds (who assumed the name of Calverley) , was ed. at Harrow, Oxf., and Camb. He was called to the Bar in 1865, and appeared to have a brilliant career before him, when a fall on the ice in 1866 changed him from a distinguished athlete to a life-long invalid. Brilliant as a scholar, a musician, and a talker, he is perhaps best known as one of the greatest of parodists. He pub. Verses and Translations (1862) , and Fly-leaves (1872) . He also translated Theocritus (1869) .
CAMDEN, WILLIAM (1551-1623) . —Antiquary and historian, b. in London, and ed. at Christ's Hospital, St. ”

“ THE brutal and sanguinary murder for which this unhappy man was tried, was that of Mr. William Duke, the chief police-officer of Huddersfield, in Yorkshire. Surrounded as it is by circumstances of the very greatest barbarity and atrocity, it is no small relief to find that the person by whom the dreadful deed was committed was insane, and therefore legally irresponsible for his acts. ”

“ He notes under the year 1581, the commencement of his friendship with Brisson, the distinguished French jurist, who, being on an embassy in England, singled out the poor Westminster master, the ‘umbraticus vir et pulvere scholastico obsitus’ (Smith) , for special attention; and still earlier, in 1577, a visit of Abraham Ortelius, the ‘universæ geographiæ vindex et instaurator,’ to England brought the two men together. Camden, urged and encouraged by his new friend, undertook the systematic preparation of the ‘Britannia.’ For this work Camden's labours were enormous. ”

“ Bishop Hoadley was once present at one of the meetings in this tavern, when Steele rather exposed himself in his efforts to please, a double duty devolving upon him, as well to celebrate the “glorious memory” of King William III., it being the 4th of November—as to drink up to conversation pitch his friend Addison, the phlegmatic constitution of whom was hardly warmed for society by the time Steele was no longer fit for it. One of the company, a red hot Whig, knelt down to drink the health with all honours. ”

“ He was born in 1574, the grandson of a gentleman who, for his religion, lost his estate, and for a time his liberty, in Queen Mary's time, and the son of a clergyman in humble circumstances, who died about a month before his "rare" offspring was born. His mother, shortly after the death of her husband, married a master-bricklayer. Ben, who as a boy doubtless exhibited brightness of intellect and audacity of spirit, seems to have attracted the attention of Camden, who placed him in Westminster School, of which he was master. ”

“ Much of his leisure after leaving the university was passed in travelling through the kingdom and noting its antiquities. But his collections at this time were not made with any view to publication.
Camden's patrons at this period were Dr. Gabriel Goodman, dean of Westminster, and his brother Godfrey; and it was by the dean's interest that he was appointed in 1575 to the second mastership in Westminster School under Dr. Edward Grant. A schoolmaster's life still left him free in holiday time to make occasional journeys of inquiry. ”

“ On 7 Sept. 1607 Camden had injured his leg so severely by a fall from his horse that he was kept to his house for nine months, only leaving it at length to attend the funeral of his friend Sir John Fortescue, who had assisted him in his early work on the 'Annals.' During this confinement 'he put the last hand to his "Britannia" which gained him the titles of the Varro, the Strabo, and the Pausanias of Britain in the writings and letters of learned men' (Gibson) , and published during 1607 an edition in folio, which was a considerable enlargement on those which had preceded. ”

“ As overseer of the will of Frances, countess of Sussex, he took part in the inauguration of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. In 1590 he founded Christ's Hospital at his native town of Ruthin, for a president, warden, and twelve poor inmates, and in 1595 added to the foundation a grammar school. Camden was always an intimate friend. Goodman assisted him in his ‘Britannia,’ to which he prefixed Latin verses in 1586, and bequeathed to him a gold ring with a turquoise stone. ”

“ Cotton's friendship with Camden began at Westminster School, where Cotton was educated—Camden being at that time second master. In the last year of the century, the two friends made an antiquarian journey into the North, where they explored the old Roman wall, built to keep out the marauding Picts, and returned to Connington laden with trophies. These were afterwards presented to Trinity College, Cambridge, where they are still preserved. Camden's Britannia contains more than one allusion to this journey. His History of Queen Elizabeth was long supposed to be their joint work ”

“ AN "F. S. A." WHO LOVES PUDDING.
Minor Queries Answered. Poem by Camden.
—Where is the Latin poem by Camden, De Connubio Thamæ et Isis, to be found?
Camden (in Britannia, sine Regnorum Anglæ Chorographica Descriptio, folio, London, 1607) quotes very largely from this poem, of which he is the reputed author, viz., page 215, 19 lines; page 272-3, 64 lines; page 302, 12 lines.
Dr. Kippis, Biographia Britannica, article "Camden," in vol. iii., assigns the poem to Camden; and Dr. ”

“ In 1571 Camden left Oxford and returned to London. He had no regular employment, and for the next few years he was free to pursue his antiquarian studies. He now began to amass the materials which laid the foundation for his future work, the ‘Britannia.’ In the address ‘ad Lectorem,’ which he added to the fifth edition of that work, Camden has himself given us an interesting sketch of the way in which his studies were directed to antiquarian subjects, and how the ‘Britannia’ grew under his hand. ”

“ J. E. B. Mayor has collected their testimonies in an appendix to his edition of the 'Scholemaster,' pp. 268-80. All scholars who were personally acquainted with him speak of his affectionate and gentle nature; but Camden adds in his 'Annals,' under date 1568: 'Nevertheless, being too much given todicing and cockfighting, he lived and died a poor man.' Upon this passage much discussion has arisen, and several writers have attributed the poverty of Ascham's later years to his habit of gambling. ”

“ The above incident from Strype is interesting, for here manifestly is the source whence Camden derived his information upon the subject. In his quaint “Remaines,” published thirty years later (1614) , after alluding to the Latin names then in vogue, he adds:
“As little will be thought of the new names, Free-Gift, Reformation, Earth, Dust, Ashes, Delivery, More-fruit, Tribulation, The-Lord-is-near, More-triale, Discipline, Joy-againe, From-above, which have lately been given by some to their children, with no evill meaning, but upon some singular and precise conceite.” ”

“ The questions were submitted, and Lord Mansfield, instead of meeting them, "with most abject soothings," as Horace Walpole gleefully says, "paid the highest compliments to Lord Camden." He had the highest esteem for the noble and learned lord who thus attacked him, and had ever courted his esteem in return. He had not expected this treatment from his candor. It was unfair; he would not answer interrogatories. The reply was a signal for relentless torment. ”

“ At the close of Camden’s answer, he introduced the allegorical picture of Calumny, that elegant invention of the Grecian fancy of Apelles, painted by him when suffering under the false accusations of a rival. The picture is described by Lucian; but it has received many happy touches from the classical hand of the master of Westminster School. As a literary satire, he applies it with great dignity. I give here a translation, but I preserve the original Latin in the note as Camden’s reply to Brooke is not easily to be procured. ”

“ The quarrel between Camden, the great author of the “Britannia,” and Brooke, the “York Herald,” may illustrate these principles. It has hitherto been told to the shame of the inferior genius; but the history of Brooke was imperfectly known to his contemporaries. Crushed by oppression, his tale was marred in the telling. A century sometimes passes away before the world can discover the truth even of a private history.
Brooke is aspersed as a man of the meanest talents, insensible to the genius of Camden, rankling with envy at his fame, and correcting the “Britannia” out of mere spite. ”

“ Hills—expensive open.”
“Is it rot?”
“Umph—listen to this!” Camden’s sharp eye lighted on a vivid sentence or two. “Not the usual type of villain—and the girl is rather unique. Up to tricks with her eyes shut. I wonder how she’ll pan out?” Camden turned the pages rapidly, overlooking some of Con’s best work, but getting what he, himself, was after.
“By Jove! she doesn’t do it!”
“What—push those matches this way—what doesn’t she do?” asked the angel.
“Eternally damn the man and claim her sex privilege of unwarranted righteousness!”
“Does she damn herself—like an idiot?” The angel was interested. ”

“ This, to be in harmony with the late Perpendicular chancel, was crowned by an ugly battlement. In 1841, the Cambridge [303] Camden Society took the church in hand. Their architect was Salvin, who restored it very well, taking down the upper storey, adding a conical slate roof in agreement with tradition, and opening out the Norman doorway. Unfortunately, the Society’s taste in stained glass was not very advanced, and the gaudy east window by Willement is not at all appropriate. Wailes’ glass in the round part is much better, but is not all that could be desired. ”

“ He was the intimate friend of Camden; they occupied the same house in Westminster, and when, in 1609, Camden was attacked by a pestilential disease, he retired to Heyther's house at Chislehurst to be cured, and there he died in 1623, having appointed Heyther his executor. When Camden founded the history lecture at Oxford in 1622, he made his friend Heyther the bearer to the University of the deed of endowment. The University on that occasion complimented Heyther by creating him Doctor of Music, May 18, 1622. ”

“ The Camden Council have lost a distinguished member, and many persons a singularly warm-hearted and unselfish friend. He was indeed one of those attractive characters who carry into old age the fervour and generosity of early life. ”

“ In the debate in the house of lords, on a motion of Lord Chancellor Thurlow to put off the reading of the bill, Lord Camden said: 'He would venture to affirm, and should not be afraid of being contradicted by any professional man, that, by the law of England as it now stood, the jury had a right, in deciding on a libel, to judge whether it was criminal or not ”

“ In the 1789 edition of Camden's "Britannia" a drawing of the maze exhibits merely a series of concentric circles with extensions on the outermost pair forming the "bastions." This illustration could hardly have been prepared on the spot.
About twenty miles to the north-west of Saffron Walden and a few miles to the west of Cambridge lies the little village of Comberton (Cambs) . The playground of the village school occupies one corner at the cross-roads, and in the south-west angle of this, enclosed by iron railings, lies a turf maze of a pattern similar to that at Alkborough. ”