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 ig8 THE CECILS

not to pass between those whose minds contemn all the knots that utility can fasten. Toys, which argue only memory in absence, may be interchanged, so long as they are no other. Secondly, there is at this time something in question which concerns you in profit, wherein the care I have shown to further your desires will now be imputed to this expectation, and so give a taint to that profession which I have made only to delight in your favour, in respect of your sincerity and ability to do her Majesty service. Thirdly, it grieves me to think that divers of my adversaries, who are apt to decry all values that are set upon my coin, may think that you, who should know me better than they do, find me either facile or not clear from servile ends ; the conceit whereof so much troubles me as it has almost made me venture a desperate refusal, but that I feared to have made you doubtful that I had judged you by others' scantling. Next, I pray you think whether the eyes of the world can wink at these shows, and whether if the Queen shall hear it, she will not be apt to suspect me that I am the earnester in your cause for it. But what should I now call back yesterday ? For I have accepted your fair present rather than discontent you, and have only reserved an assurance that this was given me out of the vastness of your kindness, not out of any other mistaking my disposition. For requital whereof, I can only return this present, that though I have neither gold nor silver, yet I have love and honesty."

The records of gifts made to Cecil are almost the only indications of his tastes and private occupations which his correspondence affords. Thus we learn that he was very fond of horses, and also of hawking. Within a few months, in 1593, he received four horses, as gifts from different friends, as well as "a suite of four

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