distinction which will not be misunderstood by those who know to what caprices the success of modern artists is often indebted.'

BACON (SIR NATHANIEL), knight of the bath, and an excellent painter, was one of the sons of the lord-keeper sir Nicholas Bacon, and half-brother to the viscount St. Alban's. He travelled into Italy, and studied painting there; but his manner and colouring approach nearer to the style of the Flemish school. Mr. Walpole observes, that at Culford, where he lived, are preserved some of his works; and at Gorhambury, his father's seat, is a large picture in oil by him, of a cook maid with dead fowls, admirably painted, with great nature, neatness, and lustre of colouring. In the same house is a whole length of him by himself, drawing on a paper: his sword and pallet hung up, and a half length of his mother by him. At Redgrave-hall, in Suffolk, were two more pieces by the same hand, which afterwards passed into the possession of Mr. Rowland Holt; the one, Ceres with fruit and flowers; the other, Hercules and the Hydra. In Tradescant's museum was a small landscape, painted and given to him by sir Nathaniel Bacon. In the chancel of Culford, in Suffolk, are a monument and bust of him, with his pallet and pencils. Another monument was erected to his memory at Stiffkey in Norfolk, the inscription upon which is published by Mr. Masters. The same writer informs us, that sir Nathaniel was famed for painting plants, and well skilled in their virtues. He married first, Anne, the daughter of sir Thomas Gresham, and secondly, Dorothy, daughter of sir Arthur Hopton. By the former he had three daughters, the eldest of whom married John Townsend of Rainham, ancestor of the present marquis Townsend. The monument above-mentioned was erected by himself in 1615, the 69th year of his age, but has not the date of his death.

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BACON (SIR NICHOLAS), lord keeper of the great seal in the reign of queen Elizabeth, descended from an ancient and honourable family in Suffolk. His father was Robert Bacon of Drinkston in that county, esq. and his mother was Isabel, the daughter of John Gage of Pakenham in the said county, esq. Nicholas, their second son,

1 Cecil's Memoirs of John Bacon, R. A.-Gent. Mag. 1799; also vol. LXVI. 180.

2 Biog. Brit. vol. I. p. 448.—Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters.-Master's Hist. of C. C. C. C.

was born in 1510, at Chislehurst in Kent. After having received the first rudiments of learning, probably at home, or in the neighbourhood, he was sent when very young to Corpus Christi college in Cambridge, where having improved in all branches of useful knowledge, he went to France, in order to give the last polish to his education. On his return he settled in Gray's-Inn, and applied himself with such assiduity to the study of the law, that on the dissolution of the monastery of St. Edmund's-Bury in Suffolk, he had a grant from king Henry VIII. in the thirtysixth year of his reign, of the manors of Redgrave, Botesdale, and Gillingham, with the park of Redgrave, and six acres of land in Wortham, as also the tithes of Redgrave to hold in capite by knight's service, a proof of the estimation in which he was held by his majesty. In the thirtyeighth of the same king, he was promoted to the office of attorney in the court of wards, a place both of honour and profit, and his patent was renewed in the first year of Edward VI.; and in 1552, which was the last year of his reign, Mr. Bacon was elected treasurer of Gray's-Inn. His great moderation and consummate prudence, preserved him through the dangerous reign of queen Mary. In the very dawn of that of Elizabeth he was knighted, and the great seal of England being taken from Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York, was delivered to sir Nicholas Bacon, on the 22d of December 1558, with the title of lord keeper. He was also of the privy council to her majesty, who had much regard to his advice. The parliament met Jan. 23, but was prorogued on account of the queen's indisposition to the 25th, when the lord keeper opened the session with a most eloquent and solid speech. Some of the queen's counsellors thought it necessary that the attainder of the queen's mother should be taken off; but the lord keeper thought the crown purged all defects, and in compliance with his advice, two laws were made, one for recognizing the queen's title, the other for restoring her in blood as heir to her mother. The principal business of this session was the settlement of religion, in which no man had a greater share than the keeper, and he acted with such prudence as never to incur the hatred of any party. On this account he was, together with the archbishop of York, appointed moderator in a dispute between eight Protestant divines, and eight Popish bishops; and the latter behaving very unfairly in the opinion of both VOL. III.

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the moderators, and desiring, to avoid a fair disputation, to go away, the lord keeper put that question to each of them, and when all except one insisted on going, his lordship dismissed them with this memorandum, "For that ye would not that we should hear you, perhaps you may shortly hear of us;" and accordingly for this contempt, the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln were committed to the tower, and the rest were bound to appear before the council, and not to quit the cities of London and Westminster without leave. The whole business of the session, than which there was none of greater importance during that reign, was chiefly managed by his lordship, according to his wise maxim, "Let us stay a little, that we may have done the sooner." From this time he stood as high in the favour of the queen as any of her ministers, and maintained a cordial interest with other great men, particularly with those eminent persons, who had married into the same family with himself, viz. Cecil, Hobby, Rowlet, and Killigrew. By their assistance he preserved his credit at court, though he sometimes differed in opinion from the mighty favourite Leicester, who yet once bad fair his ruin, when certain intrigues were carried on respecting the succession: Some statesmen, and particularly the earl of Leicester, pretended to favour the title of the queen of Scots, but others were more inclined to the house of Suffolk. queen sometimes affected a neutrality, and sometimes. shewed a tenderness for the title of the Scottish queen. In 1564, when these disputes were at the height, Mr. John Hales, clerk of the Hanaper, published a treatise which seems to have been written a considerable time before, in favour of the Suffolk line, and against the title of the queen of Scots. This book was complained of by the bishop of Ross, ambassador from the queen of Scots, and Ross being warmly supported by the earl of Leicester, Hales was committed to prison, and so strict an inquiry made after all who had expressed any favour for this piece, that at last the lord-keeper came to be suspected, which drew upon him the queen's displeasure, and he was forbidden the court, removed from his seat at council, and prohibited from meddling with any affairs but those of the chancery nay, Camden says he was confined *. At last,

* The lord-keeper could not have incurred the queen's displeasure, from his dislike to the title of the queen of

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Scots, because it clearly appears from "A Discourse upon certain points touching the Inheritance of the Crown,

however, Cecil, who is suspected to have had some share in the above treatise, with much difficulty restored him to the queen's good opinion, as appears by her setting him at the head of that commission, granted in the year 1568, for hearing the difference between the queen of Scots, and her rebellious subjects; and in 1571, we find him again acting in the like capacity, though very little was done before the commissioners at either time, which was what queen Eliza beth chiefly desired, and the covering her inclination.with a decent appearance of justice, was perhaps not a little owing to the address of the lord-keeper. Afterwards he continued at the head of her majesty's councils, and had a great hand in preventing, by his moderation, some violent measures afterwards proposed. The share, however, that he had in the business of the duke of Norfolk, and his great care for promoting the Protestant religion, created him many bitter enemies among the Papists both at home and abroad, who though they were able to do him no great hurt, yet published some libels, particularly "A Detection of certain practices, &c." printed in Scotland, about 1570, and "A treatise of Treason," both which gave him considerable uneasiness, although the queen expressed her opinion, by a proclamation, ordering them to be burnt. As a statesman, he was remarkable for a clear head, and acute understanding; and while it was thought of some other great men that they seemed wiser than they were, yet the common voice of the nation pronounced, that sir Nicholas Bacon was wiser than he seemed. His great skill lay in balancing factions, and it is thought he taught the queen that secret, the more necessary to her because the last of her family, and consequently without many of the usual supports of princes. In the chancery he distinguished himself by a very moderate use of power, and the respect he shewed to the common law. At his own request, an act of parliament was made, to settle and establish the power of a lord-keeper, though he might probably have taken away all need of this, by procuring the title of lord chancellor but according to his motto, which was Mediocra firma, he was content to be safe, and did not desire

conceived by sir Anthony Brown, and answered by sir Nicholas Bacon," that the latter was decidedly for the title of

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the queen of Scots. This discourse was published in 1723, by Nath. Boothe, esq. of Gray's Inn.

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to be great *. In that court, and in the star-chamber, he made use, on proper occasions, of set speeches, in which he was peculiarly happy, and gained the reputation of a witty and a weighty speaker. His great parts and great preferment were far from raising him in his own opinion, as appears from the modest answer he gave queen Elizabeth, when she told him his house at Redgrave was too little for him, "Not so, madam," returned he, "but your majesty has made me too great for my house." Yet to shew his respect for her majesty's judgment, he afterwards added wings to this house. His modesty in this respect was so much the greater, since he had a great passion for building, and a very fine taste, as appeared by his house and gardens at Gorhambury near St. Alban's, now the seat of lord viscount Grimston. Towards the latter end of his life, he became very corpulent, which made queen Elizabeth say merrily, that "sir Nicholas's soul lodged well. To himself, however, his bulk was very inconvenient; after walking from Westminster-hall to the star-chamber, which was but a very little way, he was usually so much out of breath, that the lawyers forbore speaking at the bar till he recocovered himself, and gave them notice by knocking with his staff. After having held the great seal more than twenty years, this able statesman and faithful counsellor was suddenly removed from this life, as Mallett informs us, by the following accident: "He was under the hands of his barber, and the weather being sultry, had ordered a window before him to be thrown open. As he was become very corpulent, he presently fell asleep, in the cur

*After he had been some months in office, as keeper of the great seal, he began to doubt to what degree his authority extended, which seems to have been owing to the general terms used upon the delivery of the great seal, of which we have various instances in Rymer's Fœdera. Upon this, he first applied himself to the queen, from whom he procured a patent, bearing date at Westminster, the 14th of April, in the first year of her reign, whereby she declares him to have as full powers as if he were chancellor of England, and ratifies all that he had already done. This, however, did not fully satisfy him; but four years afterwards he procured an

act of parliament, which declares, "That the common law always was, that the keeper of the great seal always had, as of right belonging to his office, the same authority, jurisdiction, execution of laws, and all other customs, as the lord chancellor of England law. fully used." What the true reason was that made his lordship so uneasy, is not perhaps known to posterity. But sir Henry Spelman has observed, that for the benefit of that wise counsellor sir Nicholas Bacon, the authority of the keeper of the great seal was by this law declared to be in all respects the same with that of the chancellor.