fresh memories of the rebuilding
and planting at Hampton Court by William III. and Queen Mary. The
passing away, and in opinion of that day the surpassing, of Wolsey's
palace there were none then to regret.

A more characteristic feature in this letter will be found in the details
of a project which Defoe says he had himself advocated before the Lord-
Treasurer Godolphin, for the settlement of poor refugees from the
Palatinate upon land in the New Forest. Our friendly relations with the
Palatinate had begun with the marriage of James the First's eldest
daughter to the Elector Palatine, who brought on himself much trouble by
accepting the crown of Bohemia from the subjects of the Emperor Ferdinand
the Second. As a Protestant Prince allied by marriage to England, he
drew from England sympathies and ineffectual assistance. Many years
afterwards, during the war with France in Queen Anne's time, the allies
were unprosperous in 1707, and Marshal Villars was victorious upon the
Rhine. The pressure of public feeling on behalf of refugees from the
Palatinate did not last long enough for any action to be taken. But if
it had seemed well to the Government to accept the project advocated by
Defoe, we should have had a clearance of what is now the most beautiful
part of the New Forest, near Lyndhurst; and in place of the little area
that still preserves all the best features of forest land, we should have
had a town of Englishmen descended from the latest of the German
settlements upon our soil. Upon the political economy of Defoe's
project, and the accuracy of his calculations, and the more or less
resemblance of his scheme to the system of free grants of land in
unsettled regions beyond the sea, each reader will speculate in his own
way.

There are interesting notes on the extent of the sheep farming upon the
Downs crossed in this journey. There is high praise of the ladies of
Dorsetshire. There are some pleasant notes upon dialect, including the
story, often quoted, of the schoolboy whom Defoe saw and heard reading
his Bible in class, and while following every word and line with his eye,
translating it as he went into his own way of speech. Thus he turned the
third verse of the fifth chapter of Solomon's Song, "I have put off my
coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile
them?" into "Chav a doffed my cooat; how shall I don't? Chav a washed my
veet; how shall I moil 'em?" This is a good e