Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/225

404 the archbishop held a court second only in grandeur to that of the King. This was a matter of customary state which he could not dispense with; and we find him now addressed by his friends Lord Wentworth and others with more ceremony than before in deference to his increased rank. But his manner was not changed to his friends, by whom he seems to have made himself both beloved and respected, and his private letters, though somewhat more authoritative in language, especially when communicating the King's injunctions, breathe the same loving and friendly spirit as ever. Whatever may have been his faults as a statesman (and he was not the only one who could not read the signs of the times), Laud did more towards the restoration of churches and putting down of abuses than any primate before or after him. In writing to bishop Bridgeman, from Lambeth, 29th October, 1638, about certain matters on which he had hoped to give him some fuller advice, he concludes by saying: "But since as yet I cannot, I thought it not fit to defer the other Busines any longer, concerning your quadrangle or Abbey-court, & the Brewhouse, & Maulthouse there. I have, as you desir'd me, written my Le'rs, by the King's command, to the Dean and Chapter there; wch are here inclosed; and I pray deliver them. I have likewise sent your selfe a copie, that you may see what I have written; and I hope they will obay itt. If they doe not, I promise you they shall smart for it. So in great hast I leave you to God's blessed Protection and rest," &c. The letter inclosed is as follows: "After my hearty commend: &c. I am informed that in your Quadrangle, or Abbey-Court at Chester, wherein my L. ye Bp of Chester's house & your owne houses stand, the Bp's House takes up one side of the Quadrangle; and that another side hath in it the Dean's house and some Buildings for singing men; that the third side hath in it one Prebend's house only, and the rest is turned to a Malt house; and that ye fourth side (where ye Grammar School stood) is turned to a common Brewhouse, & was lett into lives by yor