378 VERSES ON THE DUKE OF HAMILTON.

amiable Miss Elizabeth Burrell; but after some years of great levity and folly, he died. The Duchess married again, the Marquis of Exeter. The following verses on the death of the Duke of Hamilton were written by Mr. Douglas of Glasgow, who knew the Duke from his early years, before his Grace got into bad company.

Here lies beneath this sculptur'd stone
All that remains of princely Hamilton,

All that remains of beauty, health, and strength,
Grac'd by high lineage, and abundant wealth;
Exulting nature, when the child was born,
Lavish'd her stores her favourite to adorn:
And when the beauteous boy to manhood sprung,
Knit every joint, and every sinew strung,

Gave grace to action, to exertion ease,

A mien unrival'd, and each power to please;
She crown'd him with perception's brightest beam,
And fill'd his heart with friendship's sacred stream;
O'er his fine form her radiant mantle threw,
And with his strength his finest talents grew.
O! gifts neglected! talents misapplied,
Favours contemn'd, and fortune unenjoy'd,
At this sad tomb the serious man may find
A subject suited to engage his mind;
And the rash youth, who runs his wild career
May tremble at the lesson taught him here,
While baffled nature mourns, neglected, by,
And hails the shade of Douglas! with a sigh.

The bright prospects of his youth were brilliant, but by errors and gross folly all was lost!

LORD CHATHAM.

THIS most distinguished nobleman commenced his political life when very young. He was the youngest son of Robert Pitt, Esq. of Baconnock in Cornwall, by his wife, Harriet, (sister of the Earl of Grandison in Ireland) and was grandson of Thomas Pitt, Esq., who was Governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies, in the reign of Queen Anne. He sold a most extraordinary diamond to the King of France for 135,000l. a sum exceeding any that had ever before been given for a diamond. The same Governor Pitt was the father not only of Robert Pitt, (Earl Chatham's father) but also of Thomas Pitt, created Earl of Londonderry in Ireland, and of Colonel John Pitt,

William Pitt was very remarkable by talents and energy of mind in early life; he was a cornet of dragoons in his twentieth year, but soon after he became a member of the House of Commons, at twenty-two years of age: he married in 1754 Lady Hester Grenville, the sister of Richard, Earl Temple; but before he married had been some time in Parliament, and wrote the following verses when he left London, for a few months' repose from his political labours, addressed to his brother.

Forsake the town's huge mass so long and wide,

Full of profusion's sickening joys,

Leave the vain Capital's insipid pride,
Smoke, riches, politics, and noise.

They, masters of themselves, the happy few,
Whose hearts at ease, can say secure,

This day rose not in vain! Let Heaven next give
Or clouded skies, or sunshine pure.

"Tis not for me, to sink with mean despair,

Should the proud ship of Fortune whirlwinds toss, Nor venal Idols soothe with bartering prayer,

To shield from wreck their most corrupted dross.

In all the tumults of the warring sphere,

My light charg'd bark may haply glide,

Some gale may waft, some conscious thought shall cheer,
And the small freight shall tranquil ride.

He was, as we have said, a younger son, and with small fortune, but he possessed an exalted mind with unblemished integrity. The late Lord Melville was the intimate friend of his son, the illustrious William Pitt, who gave Lord Melville these verses, written by Lord Chatham, in his twenty-second year; Lord Melville gave them to Mrs. Baron Mure at Edinburgh, from whom the Editor had them.

SIR WILLIAM COURTEN.

THE family of Sir William Courten had been so much united with, and nearly related to, persons of the most noble rank in England, and moreover so highly distinguished by talents and merit, that they are most worthy to be recorded in a Biographical work.

Sir William Courten was knighted by King James the First of England, at Greenwich Palace, May 31, 1622, and Sir Peter Courten was knighted by his Majesty at Whitehall, February 22, 1623. The pedigree of the family is preserved in the British Museum: it begins with a Roger de Curtis who went to Flanders in 1423, and had married there into the family of the Earl of Brabant, and was connected with the Talbot family of England. Roger de Curtis was a native of Devonshire, the last of that name, and descended from him was an ornament and an honour to England by contributing greatly to enlarge and extend the commerce, wealth, and dominion of the nation, both in the East and the West Indies, at a very early period, as is fully related in the Biographical Dictionary, written by Dr. Kippis, D.D. F.M.S.

This family had been fixed in Flanders for

many years; but being Protestants, they had suffered by the horrible cruelty of Philip the Second, who married Queen Mary of England. He encouraged her to destroy the lives and property of her English subjects, and left her, to proceed himself in the same way in Flanders, where the Duke of Alva was his minister, as wicked as his master. They seized upon the property of every Protestant, and, by diabolical cruelty, none escaped. If the industry and virtues of some superior families had been remarkable, they were the first to be destroyed, and their whole fortune confiscated to increase the revenue of King Philip.

In the year 1567, a multitude of the Protestants, who were able to escape from this dreadful persecution, came to England, thankful to God for the preservation of their lives. They settled in different parts of the country, but chiefly in Devonshire. They had suffered bitter adversity, but in that good school, and by the knowledge of the gospel of Christ, they had gained humility, patience, and hope.

William Courten was the son of a respectable tailor at Menin, near Antwerp; he had married his wife Margaret, at Antwerp. He had escaped from prison, and lost all his property; they arrived in London in 1568, with their daughter Margaret, and her husband Bondean. They had some property and were thankful to be in England; they took a house in the city of London, in Abchurch Lane, where the family began some business, by