complexion; and now she is ordering his chamber, that he may delight to be in it as often as his studys require. For the rest, most of this time hath been spent in acquainting ourselves with him; and truly he is chearfull, and I hope thinks us to be good company. I shall, upon occasion, henceforward inform your Excellence of any particularities in our little affairs, for so I esteem it to be my duty. I have no more at present, but to give thanks to God for your Lordship, and to beg grace of Him, that I may approve myself, Your Excellency's most humble and faithful servant, ANDREW MARVELL. "Windsor, _July 28, 1653_. "Mr. Dutton[55:1] presents his most humble service to your Excellence." Something must now be said of Marvell's literary productions during this period, 1652-1657. It was in 1653 that he began his stormy career as an anonymous political poet and satirist. The Dutch were his first victims, good Protestants though they were. Marvell never liked the Dutch, and had he lived to see the Revolution must have undergone some qualms. In 1652 the Commonwealth was at war with the United Provinces. Trade jealousy made the war what politicians call "inevitable." This jealousy of the Dutch dates back to Elizabeth, and to the first stirring in the womb of time of the British navy. This may be readily perceived if we read Dr. John Dee's "Petty Navy Royal," 1577, and "A Politic Plat (plan) for the Honour of the Prince," 1580, and, somewhat later in date, "England's Way to Win Wealth," 1614.[56:1] These short tracts make two things quite plain--first, the desire to get our share of the foreign fishing trade, then wholly in the hands of the Dutch; and second, the recognition that England was a sea-empire, dependent for its existence upon a great navy manned by the seafaring inhabitants of our coasts. The enormous fishing trade done in our own waters by the Dutch, the splendid fleet of fishing craft with twenty thousand handy sailors on board, ready by every 1st of June to sail out of the Maas, the Texel, and the Vlie, to catch herring in the North Sea, excited admiration, envy, and almost despair.