at least after Gilbert, the son of the former Gilbert, came of age.

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12. Gilbert was but five years old at the time of his father's death; when he came of age he was summoned, 1309, by the title of Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. He was busily engaged and highly respected during a short life. In 1311, the Earls being assembled at Bedford, he was by them made Keeper of England, and in the same year constituted Guardian of the whole Realm during the King's absence in the wars with Scotland, and again Regent in 1313, when the King went to France. On the 24th day of June, 1314, in the twenty-third year of his age, he was slain at the battle of Bannocksburne, and was buried on the left hand of his father at Tewkesbury, the place of his nativity. He had only one son, who died before him; and thus the noble Earldom of Gloucester, which was formerly called the second pillar of England, was divided into three Baronies, and parted between this Earl's three sisters; Eleanor, married to Lord Hugh Despencer; Margaret, first to Piers de Gaveston, and afterwards to Hugh de Audley; and Elizabeth, first to John de Burgo, son and heir of the Earl of Ulster, in Ireland, afterwards to Lord Roger D'Amorie.

13. Hugh Despencer, younger son of the Earl of Winchester, by marriage, as before mentioned, became the next Earl; but in 1326 being attainted, he was by the Queen's order, drawn on a hurdle through all the streets of Hereford, on St. Andrews eve, hanged on a gallows fifty feet high, beheaded and quartered, and his four quarters sent to several places in the kingdom, but his head was fixed on London bridge.

14. Hugh de Audley, the second husband of Margaret de Clare, was by the favour of Edw. III. created Earl in Parlia ment in 1329. His castle at Thornbury had been seized by

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the King's order in the late reign, for neglecting to serve Edward II. and refusing to come to Gloucester, on the 3d of April, 1321, in pursuance of summons, but on account of some errors in the prosecution, it was restored in the first year of the next reign. In 1340, being with the King in France, and one of the Marshals of the English army, he was in that part of it which was drawn up for battle at Vironfosse, and led by Edward himself. In the year following he was in the memorable sea fight before Sluyce, between the English and French. After many other scenes of active life, in which he was engaged, he died 1348, leaving issue only one daughter, Margaret, the wife of Ralph Lord Stafford; and thus the honour of Gloucester came to the heirs of Lord Stafford. Earl Hugh was buried at Tewkesbury, on the north side of the high altar.

15. Lord Audley dying without issue male, the title was dormant till the year 1398, when Thomas le Despencer was made Earl by Rich. II. with the rent of 201. from the revenues of the county. About 1398, being attainted, 1. H. IV. for conspiring to dethrone the King, he was first ignominiously degraded from his title, afterwards adjudged as a traitor, beheaded at Bristol, and buried in the middle of the choir, in Tewkesbury church. Since him the Earldom of Gloucester has not been revived.

DUKES OF GLOUCESTER.

1. Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III. was created Duke of Gloucester 9. Rich. II. and with the title had a grant of 1,000l. per annum, to be paid

out of the customs of several ports. He was appointed to several offices of the highest dignity, but being of a fierce, headstrong, ambitious, and unquiet spirit, he incurred the hatred of the King, by whose privity and procurement, he was privately smothered between two feather beds at Calais, in September, 1397.

2. Humphry of Lancaster, the youngest son of Henry IV. was created Duke of Gloucester in the Parliament holden at Leicester, by the King his brother, in the first year of his reign. He was a true friend and patron to his country, which he proved himself to be in the prudent management of the realm during the twenty-five years' minority of his nephew Henry VI. By the ambition and malice of Margaret of Lorrain, and his uncle the Cardinal of Winchester, he was deprived of his life, being found dead in his bed, on the morrow after he was apprehended, without any signs of violence on his body, in 1447.

3. Richard Plantagenet, younger brother to Edw. IV. was shortly after the coronation advanced to the title of Duke of Gloucester; too well known for the infamous murder of the young King, Edw. V. and his brother, in the Tower, and the usurpation of the crown in consequence of that event. He was slain in battle at Bosworth field, perishing there by a fate too mild and honourable for his multiplied and detestable enormities.-Hume.

4. Henry, the youngest son of Charles I. was declared Duke of Gloucester on the 8th of July, 1640, the day of his birth, but was not created till May 13, 1659, by his brother Charles II. After the murder of his father, he was sent with two servants to Dunkirk, with a promise, it is said, of a small allowance for his support, provided he would not come near his brother, nor any of his relations,

On his arrival, however, on the Continent, he was conducted to his mother and brother at Paris. He accompanied his brother to England on the restoration, and soon after, on the 30th of September, 1660, died of the small pox. His body was buried in the royal chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster, and on his coffin was this inscription, on a silver plate ;-Depositum illustrissimi Principis Henrici Ducis Glocestriæ, Comitis Cantabrigiæ, filii quarto geniti, serenissimi Regis Caroli (piæ semper memoriæ) defuncti; et fratris serenissimi Regis Caroli ejus nominis secundi. Qui in aula Regia apud Whitehall, die Jovis, decimo tertio die Septembris, anno a Christo nato, 1660, in Domino obdormivit, Ætatis suæ vicesimo.

5. William Henry, only son of George and Ann, Prince and Princess of Denmark, was born at Hampton-court, July 24, 1689. He was baptized on the 27th following, and immediately declared Duke of Gloucester by his uncle, King William the Third. He was made Knight of the Garter, January 6, 1695, and died of a fever in 1700, in the twelfth year of his age.

6. Frederic Lewis, son of George II. Prince of Wales, and Knight of the Garter, was created Duke of Gloucester in 1718. He was father to his present Majesty, George the Third, and died in 1751.

7. William Henry, second son of Frederic, Prince of Wales, and brother to his present Majesty, was born Nov. 25, 1743, and on the 17th of Nov. 1764, the dignity of Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh was granted to him and his heirs, together with that of Earl of Connaught, in Ireland. He died August 25th, 1805, and was buried September 4th, in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor.

8. William, only son of the late Duke, succeeded to the

title. He was born at Rome, January 15, 1776, and is now living, an ornament to his elevated rank, and an illustrious example of virtue, uncontaminated with the vices of a dissipated age.

CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND OFFICERS OF THE CITY, WITH THEIR PRIVILEGES, &c.

The chief magistrate in the time of the Romans was styled a Consul, though history has transmitted the names only of two, and these occur after the Romans had quitted the island, though before the form of government,' which they had established, was superseded by Saxon or Danish customs. Morvid was Consul in the reign of Arthur, about 490, and Wulpin le Rue in the fifth of Canute appears from Domesday Book, that Gloucester was then civitas et burgus.

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The title of Præfect was introduced in 1022, and Osmund was Provost in the 16 and 22 Hen. II. In the reign of King John it was made a borough, and governed by two bailiffs, and in that of Hen. III. a corporation, and the chief officers were called Præpositi or Provosti; and though the King appointed another person to be Provost of Gloucester, yet it is probable that the office of that person was no more than that of Fermer, to receive the King's rents and other payments due to him, and that till the time of Henry III. there was no regular succession of Provosts or Bailiffs here. The first in Henry the Third's reign were Thomas Felde, and John Blound, or Blounte, who were succeeded by William le