an Apartment in the Tower of London. 93

amateur of fuch barbarous fpeclacles, but, as far as whipping went, even fouled his confecrated hands with the bafe offices of the exe- cutioner, and of whom a moft remarkable faying has been handed down. When wondering at the courage of the poor proteftant martyrs even in the fire, and at efFe&s fo very different from thofe it was intended and expected to produce, he exclaimed, in the coarfe language of that age : " Plague on them! I think they take delight in burning." Dr. Story, in his laft will, charged his wife Joan not to fet foot on the land of England, or carry his daughter thither (according to a promife fhe had made to God and him) until it were reftored to the unity of the church, " except it be for the only intent to pro- cure her mother to come thence ; and in fuch cafe not to tarry there above the fpace of three months, unlefs (lie by compulfion be forced thereunto." There was difcovered under the word " Thomas' a great A upon a bell, a punning rebus, plainly intended for the name of Dr. Tho- mas Abel, who was executed for treafon in the year 1540* It is very obfervable that a fimilar rebus for the name of the fa- mous alderman Abel, the monopolizer of wines in the reign of Charles I. is given in the very fine and fcarce portrait of him en- graved by Hollar, and barely mentioned by Granger, who, from this circumftance, muft have been an entire ftranger to his hiftory and character. Dod, in his Church Hiftory, tells us, that Thomas Abel or Able, was educated in Oxford, where he completed his degrees in arts 1516, and, proceeding in divinity, became doctor of that faculty. He was not only a man of learning, but alfo very well qualified in many other refpects. He was a great mailer of mftrumental mufic, -and well fkilled in the modern languages. Thefe qualifications in- troduced