Soon after Mr. Ferrar’s death, certain soldiers of the Parliament resolved to plunder the house at Gidding.  The family being informed of their hasty approach, thought it prudent to fly; while these military zealots, in the rage of what they called reformation, ransacked both the church and the house; in doing which, they expressed a particular spite against the organ.  This they broke in pieces, of which they made a large fire, and at it roasted several of Mr. Ferrar’s sheep, which they had killed in his grounds.  This done, they seized all the plate, furniture, and provision, which they could conveniently carry away.  And in this general devastation perished the works which Mr. Ferrar had compiled for the use of his household, consisting chiefly of harmonies of the Old and New Testament.]

[Footnote 25:  Valdesso died at Naples in 1540.]

[Footnote 26:  Altered from a Dirge in Shirley’s “Contention of Ajax and Ulysses.”—­The lines in Shirley are

  “Your heads must come
  To the cold tomb—­
  Only the actions of the just
  Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.”]

[Footnote 27:  “Mr. George Herbert, Esq., Parson of Fuggleston and Bemerton, was buried 3d day of March, 1632.” (Parish Register of Bemerton.’)—­It does not appear whether he was buried in the parish church or in the chapel.  His letter to Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, the translator of Valdesso, is dated from his Parsonage at Bemerton, near Salisbury, Sept. 29, 1632.  It must be remembered, that the beginning of the year, at that time, was computed the 25th of March.  In this year also, he wrote the short address to the Reader, which is prefixed to his “Priest to the Temple,” which was not published till after his death.]

[Footnote 28:  It is not to be supposed that Andrew Melville could retain the least personal resentment against Mr. Herbert; whose verses have in them so little of the poignancy of satire, that it is scarce possible to consider them as capable of exciting the anger of him to whom they are addressed.]

LETTER FROM
MR. GEORGE HERBERT
TO
NICHOLAS FARRER,

the Translator of Valdesso

[Sidenote:  Concerning Valdesso]

My dear and deserving brother, your Valdesso I now return with many thanks, and some notes, in which perhaps you will discover some care which I forbear not in the midst of my griefs; first for your sake, because I would do nothing negligently that you commit unto me:  secondly for the Author’s sake, whom I conceive to have been a true servant of God; and to such, and all that is their’s, I owe diligence:  thirdly for the Church’s sake, to whom by printing it, I would have you consecrate it.  You owe the Church a debt, and God hath put this into your hands—­as he sent the fish with money to St. Peter—­to discharge it; happily also with this—­as his thoughts are fruitful—­intending the honour of his servant the Author, who, being obscured