A A COLLECTION OF INTERESTING Anecdotes, Memoirs, &c. ANECDOTE OF THE Bastard Son of RICHARD III. N the walls of the ancient houfe of Sir Edward IN Dering, in the County of Kent, lately pulled down and rebuilt, a Latin manufcript was found, written by a bastard son of Richard III. not mentioned by any of our Hiftorians. The occafion of its lodgment was as follows: This youth was privately educated in the Country, at a great expence, under the best masters in every fcience. The tuition anfwered the royal expectation. The night before the fatal battle of Bofworth Field, the King fent for him, and he was privately conducted to his tent. The attendants being difmiffed, he declared to him the grand fecret-that he was his father, and presenting him with Fifteen hundred pounds (a large fum in those days) faid, "Son, thou muft wait the iffue of to-morrow: if fortunate, I will acknowledge thee, and create thee Prince of Wales: if the battle goes against me, and I fall, forget what thou art and live retired: there is that (the money given) which will procure a maintenance." The Son withdrew to a place of fecrecy and obfervation. The fatal day came: the battle enfued; Richard fell: his fon immediately fet off for the capital, and, being about fixteen years of age, placed himself with a mason of great eminence. The gracefulness of his perfon and behaviour, bespoke that parentage, which, however, he had the art and address carefully to disguise and conceal. The mafter quickly difcovered the genius of his apprentice, whose skill and judgment he relied upon in the nicest and most difficult parts of architecture. Being engaged in fome alterations and repairs in this ancient houfe, Richard's fon was fent down to fuperintend the workmen, where his wit, not less than his ingenuity, was so engaging, that the owner of the feat retained him, and permitted him to build on his eftate a little manfion to refide upon. He lived fome years in this retirement, devoted to reading and contemplation, in great great repute for his learning, piety and modefty; and during that period he wrote his life. At the approach of Death, he gave the manufcript to his patron, with a request not to read it till after his decease. He recovered, but foon after died; and the aforefaid manuscript (inclofed, as it is fupposed, by his friend within the wall) was not known or discovered till fo lately as 1768. It is now in the poffeffion of the family of the Derings, to whom the lovers of hiftory, and the public in general, would be greatly obliged for the publication. AN ANECDOTE OF A JUDGE. ORD CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT, who was very wild in his youth, was once out with fome of his raking companions on a journey into the country. They had spent all their money; and, after many confultations what to do, it was refolved that they should part company, and try their fortunes feparately. Holt got to an inn at the end of a ftraggling village; and, putting a good face on the matter, ordered his horfe to be well taken care of, called for a room, bespoke a fupper, and looked after his bed. He then ftrolled into the kitchen, where he faw a lafs, about thirteen years of age, fhivering with an ague. He enquired of his landlady, a widow, who the girl was, and how long she had been ill. The good woman told him that she was her daughter, an only child, and that she had been ill near a year, notwithstanding all the affiftance fhe could procure from phyfic, at an expence which had almoft ruined her. Holt fhook his head at the mention of the doctors, and bade the parent be under no farther concern, for that her daughter fhould never have another fit. He then wrote a few unintelligible words in the court hand, on a fcrap of parchment which had been used as the direction to a hamper; and rolling it up, ordered it to be bound on the girl's wrift, and remain there till fhe was quite recovered. The ague however, returned no more; and Holt, after having continued there a whole week, called for his bill with as much courage as if his pockets had been filled with gold. "Ah, God bless you!" faid the old woman, "you are nothing in my debt, I am fure; I wish I was able to pay you for the cure you have performed on my daughter; and, if I had had the happiness to have feen you ten months ago, it would have faved me forty pounds in my pocket." Holt after fome altercation, accepted of his weeks accommodation as a gratuity, and rode away. Many years afterwards, when he had become one of the judges of the King's Bench, he went on a circuit into the fame county; and, among other |