THE LIFE o' MILTON. 443 thought to bear any relation to France : that Milton's fecond wife aid not die in childbed, as Mr. Philips and Toland relate, but above three months after of a confumption ; and this too Mr. Birch relates upon her authority ; but in this particular fhe muff be miftaken as well as in the other,for our author's fonnet on his deceafed wife plainly implies, that fhe did die in childbed. She knows 'nothing of her aunt Philips or Agar's dcfcendents, but believes that they are all extina : as is likewife Sir Chriftopher Milton's family, the laft of which, the Pays, were two maiden fitters, Mrs, Mary and Mrs. Catha- rine. Milton, who lived and died at Highgate ; but unknown to her, there is a Mrs. Milton living in Grofvenor itreet, the gran-daughter. of Sir Chriftopher, and the daughter of Mr. Thomas Milton before mentioned : and the herfelf is the only furvivor of Milton's. owrt family, unlefs there be fotne in the Eaft Inclies,Whien the very much queftions, for fne ufed to hear from them fornetimes, but has heard nothing now for feveral years : fo that in all probability Milton's whole family will be extin& with her, and he can live only in his writings. And loch is the caprice of fortune, this gran-daughter of a man, who will be an everlaiting glory to the nation, has now for forne years with her hufband kept a little chandler's or grocer's fhop for their fubfiftence, lately at the lower Holloway in the road between 1-1:gligate and London, and at prefent in Cock Lane not far from Shoreditch Church. Another thing let me mention, that is equally to the honor of the prefent age. Tho' Milton received not above ten pounds at two different payments for the copy of Paradife Loft, yet Mr. Hoyle author of the treatife on the Game of Whiff, after having difpofed of all the firft impreflion, fold the copy to the bookfeller, as I have been informed, for two hundred guineas. As we have had occafion to mention more than once Milton's manufcripts preferved in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, it may not be ungrateful to the reader, if we give a more particular account of them before we conclude. There are, as we Paid, two draughts of a letter to, a friend who had importuned him to take orders, together with a fonnet on his being arrived to the age of twenty
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