[694] See notice of Wilkins, in Pope's Life of Seth Ward.
[695] Newcome, in his Diary, says—"November 22, 1672. I received the sad news of the death of the learned, worthy, pious, and peaceable Bishop of Chester, Dr. John Wilkins; he was my worthy friend." John Angier, the Nonconformist minister at Denton, speaks of his removal as a great loss.—Heywood's Life of Angier, 86. Martindale (Autobiography, 196) also refers to the Bishop's moderation, and adds—"But the Archbishop of York, by his visitation, took all power out of his hands for a year, soon after which this honest Bishop Wilkins died." I may be permitted to add that the good Bishop was a wit. In reference to his idea of the possibility of a passage to the moon, the Duchess of Newcastle said to him, "Doctor, where am I to find a place for waiting in the way up to that planet?" "Madam," replied he, "of all other people in the world, I never expected that question from you, who have built so many castles in the air, that you may be every night at one of your own."—Stanley's Memorials of Westminster, 234.
[696] Preached at the Guildhall Chapel, London, 1672, p. 46.
[697] Own Time, i. 187.
[698] Wood, Athen. Ox. iii. 969.
[699] Wood's Athen. Ox., iii. 1085.
[700] Norwich, April 13, 1670. Lambeth Library, Tenison MSS. 674.
[701] Athen. Oxon. iv. 309–317. There is a letter from Croft amongst the State Papers (Dec. 30, 1678), relative to his Library, &c.
[702] Hist. 42.
[703] He lay in state in a room under the Regent House. Over the hearse was spread the coat of the King or Herald-at-arms, of crimson satin, richly embroidered with gold. At the head of the hearse was standing the Bishop's mitre, which was silver-gilt, the cap, or inpart whereof, was crimson satin or silk; the mitre was plain, saving some little flower wrought in the middle on each side thereof, and on the top of each a little cross of about an inch in length and breadth. On one side of the top of the hearse lay along the Bishop's crosier of silver, somewhat in likeness to a shepherd's crook of about an ell long, and in thickness round above two inches and a half.—Ald. Newton's Diary, quoted in Annals of Cambridge, by Cooper, iii. 522.