e Countess of Warwick
to her Majesty, earnestly requesting that commissioners might be
appointed to hear his pretensions and decide upon his claims. Two
commissioners were accordingly sent to Mortlake, where Dee showed them a
book containing a distinct account of all the memorable transactions of
his life, except those which occurred in his Jast journey abroad. He
detailed to them the injuries, damages, and indignities which he had
suffered, and humbly supplicated reparation at their hands. The Queen,
in consequence, sent 100 marks to Mrs Dee, and promises to her husband.
At length, on December 8th, 1594, he obtained a grant of the
chancellorship of St Paul's. But this did not answer his expectations,
upon which he applied to Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, giving an
account of all the books he had either written or published. This, with
other applications, led to his being presented with the wardenship of
Manchester College, vacant by the removal of Dr William Chaderton to the
see of Chester. On the 14th of February 1596, he arrived with his family
in that town, and on the 20th he was installed in his new charge. He
continued here about seven years, passing his time in a very turbulent
and unquiet manner. On the 5th of June 1604, he presented a petition to
King James, earnestly desiring that he might be brought to trial and
delivered, by a judicial sentence, from those suspicions which his
astrological and other inquiries had brought upon him. But the King,
knowing the nature of his studies, was very far from showing him any
mark of his favour. In November, the same year, he quitted Manchester,
returning to his house at Mortlake, where he died, old, infirm, and
forsaken of his friends, being very often obliged to sell some book or
other to procure a dinner. The following account of Dr Dee's expenses
from Trebona to London, copied from a statement in his own
handwriting,[19] we have thought too curious to omit:--

"The charges of my last return from beyond seas, A. 1589, being
favourably called home by her Majestie from Trebon Castle in Bohemia.

[Sidenote: 600 lib.]

"My journey of remove homeward from Trebon Castle to Staden cost me more
than 3000 dollars, which we account

[Sidenote: 120 lib.]

"Besides the cost of 15 horses wherewith I travelled all that journey;
of which the 12 which drew my 3 coaches were very good and young
Hungarian horses, and the other three were Wallachies for the saddles:
which 15