CAMDEN was amongst the earliest of those intimates, and to the dying day of the author of the _Britannia_ the close friendship which united him with COTTON was both unbroken and undiminished. The former was still in the full vigour of life when COTTON had given proof of his worthiness to be a fellow-labourer in the field of English antiquities. In 1599 they went, in company, over the northern counties; explored together many an old abbey and many a famous battle-field. When that tour was made, the evidences of the ruthless barbarism with which the mandates of HENRY THE EIGHTH had been carried out by his agents lay still thick upon the ground, and may well have had their influence in modifying some of the religious views and feelings of such tourists. Not a few chapters of the _Britannia_ embody the researches of COTTON as well as those of CAMDEN; and the elder author was ever ready to acknowledge his deep sense of obligation to his younger colleague. For both of them, at this time, and in subsequent years, the storied past was more full of interest than the politics, howsoever momentous or exciting, of the day. But, occasionally, they corresponded on questions of policy as well as of history. There is evidence that on one stirring subject, about which men’s views were much wont to run to extremes, they agreed in advocating moderate courses. In the closing years of the Queen, COTTON, as well as CAMDEN, recognised the necessity that the Government should hold a firm hand over the emissaries of the Church and Court of Rome, whilst refusing to admit that a due repression of hostile intrigues was inconsistent with the honourable treatment of conscientious and peaceful Romanists. It was, in all probability, almost immediately after COTTON’S return from the Archæological tour to the North which he had made with his early friend, that he received a message from the Queen. ELIZABETH had been told of his growing fame for possessing an acquaintance with the mustiest of records, and an ability ‘to vouch precedents’ such as few students, even of much riper years, had attained to. He was now to be acquainted with a dispute about national precedency which had arisen at Calais between Sir Henry NEVILLE and the Ambassador of Spain. [Sidenote: THE TRACTATE ON ENGLISH PRECEDENCY OVER SPAIN.] It was Her Majesty’s wish that he should search the records which bore upon the question, and send her such a report as might strengthen NEVILLE’S hands in his contest for the honour of England.