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Rh the cathedral. During the carrying out of these plans he was much at Winchester, and on one of these visits, while he was lodged at the Deanery, he desired that Ken, one of the prebends, should accommodate Nell Gwynn with his house. This Ken resolutely, though respectfully refused, on the ground that she was not a fit person to be received in the precincts. Charles bore him not the slightest ill-will, and afterwards appointed him Bishop of Bath and Wells for his conscientious protest. A small building was erected for Nell on the south of the Deanery, and was only pulled down in the last century. Afterwards a house in Colebrook Street, outside the precincts, was allotted to her.

It is due to the King that the rebuilding of London after the fire was conducted on a scale of beauty and convenience. His reign may truly be called an Augustan age of science, literature, architecture, and the arts in England. He came to the throne with a nation groaning under taxation, and denuded of art, science, and learning, society in a state of barbarism, religion a tyrannical oppression of half the community. In the twenty-four years of his reign the country found peace. Taxes were abated, religious differences healed, and he abolished the statute for the burning of heretics. People worshipped God in their own way. He helped Penn with all his might in establishing a colony in the New World, where freedom of religion and thought might flourish. He provided for naval veterans at Chelsea; he totally re-organized and improved the Navy; he formed and confirmed excellent commercial relations between England and all the known world; he founded and helped the East India Company, and helped to soften and civilize life throughout the kingdom. All the beneficent acts of his reign were his own, and none of them owed their suggestion or accomplishment to his ministers.

In October, 1682, there was some sort of reconciliation between Charles and Monmouth, who had been in very ill odour, and Monmouth kissed his and