* * * * *

JOHN STOWE.

In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. vii., new series, p. 48., is a
clever notice of the life and works of the venerable John Stowe. It
says:--

"The biographers have affirmed that he quitted his trade; but
there is nothing to authorize that assertion in what he says
himself upon the subject."

In the preface to an edition of the _Summarie for the Year_ {298} 1575,
now in my possession, Stowe says:--

"It is nowe x yeres, since I (seeing the confuse order of our
late englishe Chronicles, and the ignorant handling of aunciet
affaires) leaning myne own peculiar gains, coscerated my selfe
to the searche of our famous antiquities."

Stowe was born in 1525; he was then 40 years of age when he gave up his
"peculiar gains," and devoted himself entirely to antiquarian labours.
There had already appeared his edition of _Chaucer_ in 1561, also the
commencement of the _Summaries_; but his greater works, the _Annals,
Survey of London_, &c., were not published till several years after.

In his old age he was reduced to poverty, or rather to actual beggary;
for shortly before his death, when fourscore years old, he was
permitted, by royal letters patent, to become a mendicant. This curious