Mr. Keene was again appointed to the same honourable station, and in 1754 his majesty George the second was pleased to give a fresh and public mark of approbation of the ambassador’s conduct, by dignifying him with the knighthood of the order of the Bath; and as the king of Spain graciously performed the ceremony of investing him with the ribband, Sir Benjamin, in allusion to that particular ceremony, took for his motto “Regibus Amicis.” He died at Madrid 15. December 1757, at the time when he was about to return to England, with a view of retiring from public employment, and to be created a Peer of Great Britain. {1073a} His great abilities as a minister, exercised and improved by long and important services; the liberality and magnificence with which he supported the dignity of his public character, without any attention to the increase of his private fortune; and unusual esteem and affection for his person, which his many amiable qualities procured him at the court where he resided, were universally acknowledged, and made his death, especially at that critical juncture, a real loss to his country. His remains were brought over from Madrid, and buried at Lynn, in St. Nicholas’ chapel, near his beloved parents. {1073b} A sarcophagus of white marble is placed over his grave, having on one side a medallion bust of the deceased, and on the other a bas relief of Peace trampling under foot the emblems of War, and pointing to ships and bales of merchandize. 20. Dr. _Edmund Keene_, a younger brother of Sir Benjamin, was borne at Lynn in 1714. Through the interest of Sir Robert Walpole he was educated at the Charter-House, and thence admitted of Caius College, Cambridge in 1730. He was elected Fellow in 1737, but afterwards he removed to St. Peters’ college, on being appointed Fellow of that society in 1739; and he was made Master of Peter-House in 1748. He was elected Vice-chancellor of the university two succeeding years, 1749 and 1750. In 1753 he was promoted to the see of Chester; {1075} and in 1764 the Primacy of Ireland was offered to him, which he declined: but (as it is related by Bp. Newton in the account of his life,) “he urged his request to Mr. Grenville, that, upon the vacancy, he might succeed to the see of Ely, which was the great object, the aim and end of all his ambition.” In 1771, he “succeeded to his heart’s desire, and happy it was that he did so; for few could have borne the expense, or displayed the taste and magnificence which he did, as he had a liberal fortune, as well as liberal mind, and really merited the appellation of a builder of palaces. For he built a new palace at Chester, he built a new Ely-house in London, and in a great measure a new palace at Ely, left only the outer walls standing, formed a new inside, and thereby converted it into one of the best episcopal houses, if not the very best in the kingdom. He had indeed received the money which arose from the sale of old Ely-house, and