North, Dudley, Third Lord

, who appears to be the first of this family entitled to notice in a work of this description, was born in 1581, and succeeded his grandfather Roger, second lord North, in 1600. From the biographer of the family, we learn that “he was a per on full of spirit and flame, yet after he had consumed the greatest part of his estate in the gallantries of king James’s court, or rather his son, prince Henry’s, retired, and lived more honourably in the country, upon what was left, than ever he had done before.” He is said, however, in another authority, to have carried into the country with him the dregs of an old courtier, and was capricious, violent, vindictive, tyrannical, and unprincipled. In 1645 he | pears to have acted with the parliament, and was nominated by them to the administration of the admiralty, in conjunction with the great earls of Northumberland, Essex, Warwick, and others. He died Jan. 16, 1666, being then eighty-five years of age, and was buried at Kertling, or Cartlage. He lived to see his grandchildren almost all grown up, and Francis, the second of them, beginning to rise at the bar. He was the author of a miscellany in prose and verse, entitled “A Forest of Varieties, first part,” 1645 a second part had the title of “Exonerations” and a third part included “Privadoes, or Extravagants.” The whole were reprinted in 1659. The prose, says lord Orford, which is affected and obscure, with many quotations and allusions to Scripture and the classics, consists of essays, letters, characters in the manner of sir Thomas Overbury, and devout meditations on his misfortunes.' The verse, though not very poetic, is more natural. Sir E. Brydges, in his “Memoirs of the English Peerage, has given considerable extracts from this publication,” as it is by no means common, and as it lays open many traits of the noble author’s life and character, with much energy, feeling, ability, and eloquence." He appears likewise from these essays and letters to have been perfectly conscious of the errors of his early life, although he might not be able to conquer his temper in old age. ¹