er in the Tower, made
acquainted with it, whereas before he was made to believe by his
companions, that he should be bountifully rewarded for that his good
service to the Catholic cause, now perceiving, that, on the contrary,
his death had been contrived by them, he thereupon freely confessed all
that he knew concerning that horrid conspiracy, which before all the
torments of the rack could not force him to do.

"The truth of this was attested by Mr. William Perkins, who had it from
Mr. Clement Cotton, to whom Mr. Pickering gave the above relation."

[19] Erasmus, the poet's immediate younger brother, was in trade, and
resided in King-street, Westminster. He succeeded to the family title
and estate upon the death of Sir John Dryden, and died at the seat of
Canons-Ashby 3d November 1718, leaving one daughter and five grandsons.
Henry, the poet's third brother, went to Jamaica, and died there,
leaving a son, Richard. James, the fourth of the sons, was a tobacconist
in London, and died there, leaving two daughters. Of the daughters, Mr.
Malone, after Oldys, says, that Agnes married Sylvester Emelyn of
Stanford, Gent.; that Rose married ---- Laughton of Calworth, D.D., in
the county of Huntington; that Lucy became the wife of Stephen Umwell of
London, merchant; and Martha of ---- Bletso of Northampton. Another of
the daughters was married to one Shermardine, a bookseller in Little
Britain; and Frances, the youngest, to Joseph Sandwell, a tobacconist in
Newgate-street This last died 10th October 1730, at the advanced age of
ninety. She had survived the poet about thirty years. Of the remaining
four sisters, no notices occur.

[20] [A few facts of a more precise kind about the contents of this and
the foregoing paragraphs may be grouped here. The Rev. H. Pickering was
rector of Aldwinkle (the better form) All-Saints from 1507 to 1637, not
from 1647 to 1657. This destroys Scott's inference. The error arose from
a misreading of his epitaph. "The village" did not strictly belong to
Lord Exeter: but he had property in Aldwinkle St. Peter's, and the two
parishes are close together, one church being at one end and the other
at the other of the joint village. Erasmus Dryden and Mary Pickering
were married at the church of Pilton, a very small village between
Aldwinkle and Oundle, on October 21, 1630. Dryden was therefore
indisputably the eldest son. Blakesley, where his father's property was
situated, is not near Aldwinkle or Ti