their mother, and hy his will, dated four days previous to his demise, bequeathed his lands and possessions to his wife during- her life ; his great gold chain that tho King had graciously presented to him, worth one hundred and forty pounds, to his son "William ; and to each of his daughters, Katherine and Anne, as their wedding portion, four hundred pounds, a sum equal to about two thousand pounds each present money ; a bequest paltry indeed, considering that to him belonged Kendal Castle, the rich inheritance of the Greens, of Brougliton, and other manors and broad lands, to say nothing of goods, chattels, and money. Katherine was endowed by nature with uncommon talents, which, by the wisdom of her mother, were improved and carefully cultivated. Besides being a perfect mistress of her own tongue, she was a good Latin, French, and German scholar, and even possessed some knowledge of Greek; whilst her skill and industry in tbe use of the needle were such, that to this day may be seen, in excellent preservation, at Sizcrgh Castle, a superb counterpane, and a toilet cover of rich white satin, embossed with flowers and heraldic devices, in many-coloured silks and threads of gold, wrought, it is said, solely by her hands. In 1524, a negotiation was opened for the marriage of Katherine to the heir of Lord Scroop. With this view, several letters passed, between Lord Parr's widow, Lord Scroop, and Lord Dacre, the latter acting as mediator; but as both parties were fishing for gold, they each endeavoured to drive so hard a bargain that the affair tendom, shortly afterwards (the date is came to nothing, and was terminated by unknown) gave her hand in marriage to Lord Dacre writing to Lady Parr, in the wealthy Lord Latimer, an elderly May, 1525, expressing regret that the widower with two children, who had almatter had not been amicably arranged, ready buried two Avives : — Elizabeth, and declaring that Lord Scroop's demand daughter of Sir Itichard Musgrave, and of eleven hundred marks was only what Dorothy, who died in 1527, and was she could afford to give ; and as to his daughter of Sir George de Vere, and cooffer of one hundred marks jointure, it heiress to John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. was not far from the established custom Whilst the wife of Lord Latimer, of the country, which was to give ten Katherine passed most of her time at his marks jointure for every hundred marks castle of Snape, in Yorkshire, near Great of dower. Tanfleld, a manor which belonged to No long time afterwards, Katherine her childless brother, William Parr, and was married to Lord Borough, of Gainsto which, at the time of her marriage, borough, an elderly widower with chilt she was heiress presumptive. Her lord dren much older than herself, and who died about the year 1528, leaving her a childless widow of fifteen. Whilst yet in deep mourning for the loss of her first husband, Katherine, to her infinite sorrow, received intelligence of the death of her beloved mother, and last surviving parent, on the twentieth of May, 1529, The will of Dame Maud Parr, widow and late wife of Sir Thomas Parr, as Kathcrinc's mother styles herself, is remarkable for lack of sense and perspicuity. In it allusion is made to the marriage of Kathcrinc's brother to Lady Bourchier, daughter of the Earl of Essex, and sole descendant of Isabella Plantagenct, sister to Kichard, Duke of York, the King's great-grandfather ; an alliance which connected the family of the Parrs still more closely to that of their sovereign. Katherine, it appears, passed the period of her first widowhood at Sizergh Castle, under the protection of her stepson, Henry Borough. Both her brother and her uncle obtained posts in the royal household, and she herself appears to have been on something like terms of friendship with the King, as in the privy purse expenses of Henry the Eighth, is an entry, in 1530, of a rich coat of Kendal cloth, which she presented to him. The present, however, must have been one of friendship, and not of love. Henry's affections were then firmly fixed on Anno Boleyn, and this fact was well known to Katherine, who, although astrology had predicted that she was horn to be one of the greatest queens in Chris