"He was bred", says Dr. Fuller (i), "a Gentleman- Commoner in Oxford; where, being but fourteen Years old, and yet three Years standing, he was call'd out to dispute ex tempore, before the Earls of Leicester and Warwick, with the matchless Sir Philip Sidney.
Si quaeritis hujus
Fortunam pugnae, non est superatus ab illo.
Ask you the End of this Contest ?
They neither had the better, both the best."
Mr. Wood expresses it thus:
"At fourteen Years of Age", says he (k), "he disputed ex tempore with the matchless Philip Sidney, (while he was a young (l) Man, I suppose) in the presence of the Earls of Leicester, Warwick, and other Nobility, at what time they were lodged in Christ-Church, to receive entertainment from the Muses."
Mr. Wood says afterwards, that
"After Mr. Carew had spent three Years in Oxon, he retired
to the Middle Temple, where he spent 3 Years more" (m) ;
which may be true, tho' he brings in no Authority for it. But what he adds, that
"then he was sent with his Uncle (Sir George Carew as it seems) in his Embassage unto the King of Poland; whom when he came to Dantzick, he found that he had been newly gone from thence into Sweden, whither also he went after him :"
And that