Storeys of Old.

Lecture fall, in the hands of so many able and godly men, as I am persuaded the founders of this are; in these times, wherein we see they are suppressed with too much haste and violence, by the enemies of God His Truth. Far be it that so much guilt should stick to your hands, who live in a city so renowned for the clear shining light of the Gospel. You know, Mr. Storie, to withdraw the pay is to let fall the Lecture, for who goeth to warfare at his own cost? I beseech you therefore, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, put it forward, and let the good man have his pay. The souls of God's children will bless you for it, and so shall I, and ever rest, your loving friend in the Lord.

OLIVER CROMWELL.

Commend my hearty love to Mr. Busse, Mr. Beadly, and my other good friends. I would have written to Mr. Busse, but I was loath to trouble him with a long letter, and I feared I should not receive an answer from him; from you I expect one so soon as conveniently you may."

Vale *

Such is Oliver's first letter. The Royal Exchange has been twice burned since this piece of writing was left at the Sign of the Dog there. The Dog Tavern, Dog Landlord, frequenters of the Dog, and all their business and concernment there, and the hardest stone masonry they had, have vanished irrecoverably. Like a dream of the night, like that transient sign or effigy of the Talbot Dog, plastered on wood with oil pigments, which invited men to liquor and house-room in those days! The personages of Oliver's letter may well be known to us.

Of Mr. Story, strangely enough, we have found one other notice. He is among the Trustees, pious and wealthy citizens of London for the most part, to whom the sale of Bishop's Lands is, by Act of Parliament, committed, with many instructions and conditions, on the 9th October, 1646.† James Story is one of these, their chief is Alderman Fowke. From Oliver's expression, "our country," it may be inferred or guessed that Mr. Story was of Huntingdonshire. A man who had gone up to London, and prospered in trade, and addicted himself to Puritanism ; much of him, it is like, will never be known. Of Busse and Beadly (unless Busse be a misprint for Bunse, Alderman Bunce, another of the above Trustees), there remains no vestige.

Concerning the "Lecture," however, the reader will recall what was said above of Lecturers and of Laud's enmity to them, of the Feoffees who supported Lecturers, and of Laud's final suppression and ruin of those Feoffees in 1633. Mr. Story's name is not mentioned in the list of the specific Feoffees, but it need not be doubted he was a contributor to their fund, and probably a leading man among their subscribers. By the light of this letter we may dimly gather that they still continued to subscribe and to forward Lectureships where possible, though now in a less ostentatious manner.

It appears there was a Lecture at Huntingdon, but his Grace of Lambeth, patiently assiduous in hunting down such objects, had managed to get that suppressed in 1633,‡ or at least to get the King's consent for suppressing it. This in 1633. So that Mr. Wells could not, in 1636, as my imbecile friend supposes,§ be the Lecturer in Huntingdon, wherever else