“Dear Prue,—I am very sleepy and tired, but could not think of closing my eyes till I had told you I am, dearest creature, your most affectionate, faithful husband,
R. Steele.
“From the Press, One in the morning.”
It would seem by the following note that this hourly account of himself was in consequence of the connubial mandate of his fair despot:—
“Dear Prue,—It is a strange thing, because you are handsome, that you will not behave yourself with the obedience that people of worse features do—but that I must be always giving you an account of every trifle and minute of my time. I send this to tell you I am waiting to be sent for again when my Lord Wharton is stirring.”
Leland, in his magnificent plan, included several curious departments. Jealous of the literary glory of the Italians, whom he compares to the Greeks for accounting all nations barbarous and unlettered, he had composed four books “De Viris Illustribus”, on English Authors, to force them to acknowledge the illustrious genius, and the great men of Britain. Three books “De Nobilitate Britannica” were to be “as an ornament and a right comely garland.”
What reason is there to suppose with Granger that his bust, so admirably engraven by Grignion, is supposititious? Probably struck by the premature old age of a man who died in his fortieth year, he condemned it by its appearance; but not with the eye of the physiognomist.
Ancient Funerall Monuments, p. 692.