The reader will be amused with the following Curious Extracts from the Will of an Earl of Pembroke.

"Imprimis. - For my soul; I confess I have heard very much of souls, but what they are, or whom they are, or what they are for, God knows, I know not: they tell me now of another world, where I never was, nor do I know one foot of the way thither. While the king stood, I was of his religion, made my son wear a cassock, and thought to make him a bishop, but then came the Scots, and made me a Presbyterian; and since Cromwell entered, I have been an Independent. These, I believe, are the kingdom's three estates; and if any of these can save a soul, I may claim one; therefore if my executors do find I have a soul, I give it to him who gave it me.

"Item. - I give my body, for I cannot keep it, to be buried. Do not lay me in the church-porch, for I was a Lord, and would not be buried where Colonel Pride was born.

"Item. - My will is, that I have no monument, for then I must have epitaphs and verses, and all my life long I have had too much of them.

"Item - I give all my deer to the Earl of Salisbury, who i know will preserve them, because he denied the king a buck out of one of his own parks.

" Item, - I give nothing to the Lord Say, which legacy [ give him, because I know he will bestow it on the poor.

"Item. - To Tom May I give five shillings: I intended him more: but whoever has seen his history of the parliament, thinks five shillings too much.

"Item. - I give Lieutenant General Cromwell one word of mine, because hitherto he never kept his own.

"Item. - I give up the ghost, concordat cum originati"