ractice has, under
Providence, served to create our literature, to maintain our liberties,
and to win for England its exalted position among the nations of the
earth.

Heartily, therefore, do we bid God speed to "DE NAVORSCHER;" and
earnestly will we do all we can to realize the kindly wish of our
Amsterdam brethren, that the "two neighbourly nations of Holland and
England, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be
more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them."

* * * * *

Notes.

SIR JOHN DAVIES AND HIS BIOGRAPHERS.

Sir John Davies, the "sweet poet" and "grave lawyer"--rather odd
combinations by the bye,--according to Wood, was "born at Chisgrove, in the
parish of Tysbury in Wiltshire, being the son of a wealthy _tanner_ of that
place!" This statement is repeated in Cooper's _Muses' Library_, p. 331.;
Nichols's _Select Poems_, vol. i., p. 276.; Sir E. Brydges's edition of
Philips's _Theatrum Poetarum_, 1800, p. 272.; Sir Harris Nicolas's edition
of Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_, vol. i. p. cii., &c. And Headley, in his
_Select Beauties of Poetry_, ed. 1787, vol. i. p. xli., adds, "he was a man
of _low_ extraction!" Wood's assertion concerning Davies's parentage, was
made, I believe, upon the authority of Fuller; but it is undoubtedly an
error, as the books which record the admission of the younger Davies into
the Society of the Middle Temple, say the father was "late of New Inn,
_gentleman_."

Mr. Robert R. Pearce, in a recent work, entitled _A History of the Inns of
Court and Chancery_, 8vo. 1848, p. 293., gives the following sketch of the
leading facts in the life of our "poetical lawyer:"--

"Sir John Davis, the author of _Reports_, and several other legal
works, and a poet of considerable repute, was of this Society [_i.e._
the Middle Temple]. His father was a member of New Inn, and a
practitioner of the law in Wiltshire. At the Middle Temple, young Davis
became rather notorious for his irregularities, and having beaten Mr.
Richard Martin (also a poet, and afterwards Recorder of London) in the
hall, he was expelled the house. Afterwards, through the influence of
Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, he was restored to his position in the
Middle Temple; and, in 1601, was elected a Member of the House of
Commons. In 1603, he was appointed by King James Solicitor-General in