# The Works of Sir John Suckling in prose and verse/Letters to several Persons of Honour

LETTERS to SEVERAL PERSONS of
BY
LONDON: Printed for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Arms in St Pauls Churchyard. 1659.
LETTERS
XXX
My Lord, But that you do and say things in Scotland now (my lord) unfit for a good subject to hear, I should have hoped your lordship, by a true relation of the passages there, would have disabused your humble servant here. Distance and men's fears have so enlarged the truth, and so disproportioned everything about the town, that we have made the little troop of discontents a gallant army, and already measure no Scotchman but by his evening shadow.
We hear say you have taken livery and seisin of Northumberland, and there are that give in Cumberland for quietness sake, and are content to think it part of Scotland, because it is so barren. London scriveners begin to wish they had St. Michael-Mount's-men's security for the borderers they have standing bound in their shops; and the Witheringtons' and Howards' estates are already freely disposed to the needier rebels. Much of this part of the world is in agues, but not all, my lord; there are that have read the chronicles, and they find the English oftener marched into Edenburgh than the Scots into London.
Your old friend, Alderman ——— (a learned bard, and a great in-seer into times), saith it is a boil broken out in the breech of the kingdom, and that when it is ripe, it will heal of itself. Others use a handsomer similitude, and compare Scotland to a hive of swarming bees which they say the king watches to reduce them for the better. There is a saucy kind of intelligence about the town, of ten thousand pounds that should be sent by my Lord M—— for redemption of affairs there; but this the wiser sort suspects, for, besides that his majesty buys his own again, they say none but the king would give so much for it.
Some are scandalized at the word of union, and protest they find no resemblance betwixt this new Covenant and our Saviour's. Others wonder why they would make use of religion rather than their poverty for the cause of their mutining, since the one is ever suspected, and the other none would have disputed.
Your humble Servant.
XXXI
Good Mr. Alderman, It is most true (I confess) that we do say things here unfit for you to hear there, and for this very reason I will forbear particulars. But this I do (Mr. Alderman) not so much out of fear for myself as care for you; for though you write in the present tense, and use the particle now, which is a kind of an exclusive word, yet it is well enough known a Scotchman at all times might speak what an Englishman durst not hear. It seems (sir) strange to me, that in the beginning of your letter you give us the name of rebels, when none are more his majesty's most humble subjects than we, as in the front of our petitions and messages most plainly appears. True it is, that in case the king will not do what we would have him, we have provided arms, and have persuaded those here, and sent to others abroad to assist us; but that we have at any time denied ourselves to be his most faithful subjects (by your favour, Mr. Alderman) I think will hardly appear. For the taking of livery and seisin of Northumberland (if there be any such thing) neither you nor my Lord ——— ought to be troubled at it, for that is a business belongs to the law, and upon a trial had here in Edenburgh before any of the Covenant, no question but there will be a speedy end of it. The thing I most wonder at is, that our old friend should be so much mistaken as to call Scotland the breech of the kingdom, since you know that is a part of all the rest most subject, and is still put to endure the lash, so that in all likelihood it should rather be your country than ours.
For your simily of the bees, and reducing us to the better, you may assure his majesty from me that it will not quit cost; for both his predecessors and himself have found sufficiently that, hived or unhived, we yield not much honey.
Now, sir, for our new Covenant's having relation to the other, you must know that, though it is not absolutely alike in ​all, yet in some things it doth not disagree, and in this especially it suits—that there is but little care taken for settling High Commission Courts in either.
XXXII An Answer to a Gentleman that sent to inquire after the Scottish business
Sir, That you may receive an account of the Scottish business, and why there hath been such irresolution and alteration about the levies lately, it is fit you know that this northern storm (like a new disease) hath so far posed the doctors of state that as yet they have not given it a name, though perchance they all firmly believe it to be rebellion. And therefore (sir) it is no wonder if these do here as the learned in physick, who, when they know not certainly the grief, prescribe medicines sometimes too strong, sometimes too weak. The truth is, we here consider the Scottish affair much after the rate the mortals do the moon: the simpler think it no bigger than a bushel, and some (too wise) imagine it a vast world, with strange things undiscovered in it—certainly two ill ways of casting it up, since the first would make us too secure, the other too fearful. I confess, I know not how to meet it in the middle, or set it right; nor do I think you have, since I should believe the question to be rather A King or no ​King there, than A Bishop or no Bishop. In great mutinies or insurrections of this nature pretentions speciously conscionable were never wanting, and indeed are necessary; for rebellion is itself so ugly, that did it not put on the vizard of religion, it would fright rather than draw people to it, and being drawn, it could not hold them without it.
Your humble Servant.
XXXIII
Sir, We are at length arrived at that river, about the uneven running of which my friend Mr. William Shakespeare makes Henry Hotspur quarrel so highly with his fellow-rebels, and for his sake I have been something curious to consider the scantlet of ground that angry monsieur would have had in, but cannot find it could deserve his choler, nor any of the other side ours, did not the king think it did. The account I shall now give you of the war will be but imperfect, since I conceive it to be in the state that part of the four and twenty hours is in, which we can neither call night nor day. I should judge it dawning towards ​earnest, did not the Lords Covenanters' letters to our Lords here something divide me. So (sir) you may now imagine us walking up and down the banks of Tweed like the Tower lions in their cages, leaving the people to think what we would do if we were let loose. The enemy is not yet much visible: (it may be, it is the fault of the climate, which brings men as slowly forwards as plants:) but it gives us fears that the men of peace will draw all this to a dumb show, and so destroy a handsome opportunity, which was now offered, of producing glorious matter for future chronicle.
Your most humble Servant, &c.
XXXIV
My Lord, At this instant it is grown a calm greater than the storm, and if you will believe the soldier, worse. Good arms and horses are already cheap, and there is nothing risen in value but a Scotchman. Whether it be (my lord) the word native, or the king's good nature, we know not; but we find they really have that mercy on earth which we do but hope for from heaven; nor can they sin so fast as they are forgiven.
Some (and not unreasonably) perchance will imagine that this may invite good subjects to be ill, and that, as the sun melts ice but hardens clay, majesty, when it softens rebellion, may make allegiance stubborn. If (my lord) they shall more straitly now besiege the king's ear, and more boldly ingross suits, posterity must tell this miracle, that there went an army from the south, of which there was not one man lost, nor any man taken prisoner but the king.
Your humble Servant.
XXXV
Sir, The little stops or progresses which either love of the public, private fears, niceties of honour, or jealousy have caused in the treaty now on foot, arrive at me so slowly, that unless I had one of Mr. Davenant's Barbary pigeons (and he now employs them all, he says, himself for the queen's use) I ​durst not venture to send them, sir, to you, lest, coming to your hands so late, you should call for the map to see whether my quarters were in England or in Barbary. The truth is, I am no first favourite to any Lord of Secrets at this time; but when they come from Council, attend the short turn with those that are, and, as in discharge of pieces, see a whisper go off some good space of time before I hear it, so satisfy my thirst of novelty from the stream, not from the fountain.
Our very thoughts are hardly news; and while I now intend to write you other men's (for my own are not worthy of knowledge), it is not without some fear that they have already sent them to Whitehall themselves.
There are, sir, here that have an opinion, necessity, not good nature, produced this treaty, and that the same necessity which made them thus wise for peace will make them as desperate for war, if it succeed not suddenly.
Some conceive little distrusts among themselves will facilitate the work, and that the danger, now grown nearer, will divide the body, by persuading each man to look to his own particular safety. So we see men in ships, while there is hope, assist each other; but when the wrack grows visible, leave the common care, and consult only their own escape.
J. S.
XXXVI
Her much obliged, And, sir, Your most humble Servant, J.S.
XXXVII
Your humble Servant, J.S.
XXXVIII
Sir, Lest you think I had not as perfectly forgot you as you glory to have done me, let these lines assure you that, if at any time I think of you, it is with as much scorn as you vainly hitherto may have supposed 't has been with affection. A certain general compassion in me, and pity of poor follies, of which number I take this to be one—a triumph, where there has been no conquest, has persuaded me to let you know this much.
J. S.
XXXIX
Your humble Servant, J. S.
XL To T. C.
Though writing be as tedious to me as no doubt reading will be to thee, yet considering that I shall drive that trade thou speak'st of to the Indies, and for my beads and rattles have a return of gold and pearl, I am content for thy sake, and in private, thus to do penance in a sheet.
Know then, dear Carew, that at eleven last night, flowing as much with love as thou hast ebbed, thy letter found me out. I read, considered, and admired; and did conclude at last, that Horseley air did excel the waters of the Bath, just so much as love is a more noble disease than the pox.
No wonder if the Countesses think time lost till they be there. Who would not be, where such cures flow? The care thou hast of me, that I should traffick right, draws me by way of gratitude to persuade thee to bottle us some of that, and send it hither to town. Thy returns will be quicker than those to ​the Indies; nor need'st thou fear a vent, since the disease is epidemical.
One thing more: who knows (wouldst thou be curious in the search), but thou mayest find an air of contrary virtue about thy house, which may, as this destroys, so that create affection? If thou couldst,
The lady of High-gate then should embrace
The disease of the stomach, and the word of disgrace.
Gredeline and grass-green
Shall sometimes be seen,
Its arms to intwine
About the woodbine.
J. S.
XLI
It is none of the least discourtesies money hath done us mortals, the making things, easy in themselves and natural, difficult. Young and handsome people would have come together without half this trouble, if that had never been. This would tell you, madam, that the offer, having nothing about it of new, begot in our young lover very little of anything else, but melancholy, which, notwithstanding, I could easily perceive grew rather from a fear of his father's mind, than a care of satisfying his own. That persuaded me to throw in all, and add the last reserve, which fortunately turned the scale, the cavalier setting a greater rate, and truly, upon the kindness of it, than upon the thing, and in that showed the courtesy of his judgment, as well as his ability. The uncle is no less satisfied than the nephew, and both are confident to draw to the same thoughts, to whom, as it was fit, I have left the office.
Your humble Servant, J. S.