e used metaphorically of those
who, by curtailing the liberty of book-printing, would 'buy up' the
stock of knowledge and dole it out as they thought fit.

30 _he who takes up arms for coat and conduct_: this refers to Charles
I's exaction of a tax for the clothing and conducting (i.e. conveying)
of troops.

_his four nobles of Danegelt_: a noble was a coin worth 6s. 8d.
Danegelt was originally the land-tax raised by Ethelred the Unready to
buy off the Danes; the word was afterwards used of any unpopular tax,
here of Charles I's imposition of ship-money, resisted by Hampden.

_In this unhappy battle_: the battle of Newbury, Sept. 20, 1643, in
which the advantage was on the whole with the King against the
Roundheads.

33 _vacant_: i.e. open, unclouded.

_addresses to his place_: i.e. to his office. Falkland was Secretary
of State to Charles I.

40 _Phalaris_: a Sicilian tyrant of the sixth century B.C., famous for
his cruelties. The Greek poet Stesichorus was a contemporary of his.

42 Samuel Pepys, from whose diary this extract (slightly abridged) is
taken, wrote solely for his own private amusement, troubling himself
very little about style or grammar. He held a post in the Navy Office,
and his work did not often allow him to take a day in the country, such
as he here describes.

46 Defoe's _Captain Singleton_ is an imaginary account of the
adventures of certain pirates in different parts of the world. In the
extract here given they are lying in Chinese waters. 'William,' one of
their crew, has gone ashore to trade with some Chinese merchants.

47 _thieves' pennyworths_: 'things sold at a robber's price,' i.e.
below their real value.

55 _composures_=compositions.

56 _the Great Mogul_: the Emperor of Hindostan.

_Muscovy_=Russia, of which Moscow was formerly the capital.

57 _the old philosopher_: Socrates; see Hooker's reference to the
anecdote on page 17 of this book.

_degree_: i.e. of latitude and longitude.

62 _whereas the ladies now walk, etc_.; this was written in 1711, when
ladies wore very large 'hoops,' or crinolines.

65 Tom Jones, the hero of Fielding's novel of that name, takes some
friends to see Hamlet, acted by Garrick. Partridge, is a timorous
ex-schoolmaster, without experience of the theatre.

77 _redans_: projecting fortifications.

_the talus of the glacis_: the pitch of the outer slope of an earthwork.

_banquettes_: the raised wa