clusion of a "Memoir of the Life of Sir Ralph Sadler," prefixed to the work, there is an extract from Lloyd's "Worthies;" in which that writer asserts, that Sir Ralph Sadler "bequeathed three things to such as may have the honour to succeed him:
1. All letters that concerned him, since of years, filed.
2. All occurrences, since he was capable of observation, registred.
3. All expences since he lived, of himself, booked."
Of the first of these bequests, the public now enjoys the benefit, by means of the above-mentioned publication; but the two others have unfortunately perished. How these manuscripts of Sir Ralph Sadler were dispersed, and lost, amid the revolution of property, and the succession of families, which have taken place among his descendants, during the two last centuries, it would be now useless to enquire, and impossible to discover. The loss of both, but particularly of the second, is certainly much to be regretted.
Sir Ralph Sadler died at the age of 80, in 1587.
II. Sir Walter Aston, of Tixall, near Stafford, married, about the year 1607, Gertrude Sadler, the grand-daughter, and finally the heiress of Sir Ralph Sadler.[1] In the year 1627, he was raised to the
- ↑ I think it very probable, that Sir Ralph Sadler was acquainted with Sir Walter As-
prorogued on the 24th of December following: In which the cards were so well packed by Sir Ralph Sadler, that there was no need of any more shuffling till the end of the game. This very parliament, without any sensible alteration of the members of it, being continued by prorogation from session to session, until at last it ended in the death of the king." Sir Ralph even appears to have enjoyed the confidence of the bloody and bigotted Mary. See his "State Papers," vol. i. p. 368.
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