one of the latest of the English madrigal composers, published in 1619 :' In the Dedication to George Villiers, Marquess (afterwards Duke) of Buckingham, the composer tells his patron th a t he was ' an indiuiduall appendant of your . . . noble Mothers house and name,' and says of his songs th a t ' some were composed in your tender yeares, and in your most worthy Fathers house, (from whom, and your most honourable Mother, for many yeares, I receiued part of my meanes and liuelyhoode).' From this it seems th a t Vautor must have been a domestic musician in the house of Sir George Villiers (the father of Buckingham) and his wife. She was Mary, daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, and before her marriage had been a waiting-woman in the household of her cousin, Lady Beaumont (of Cole Or ton) ; another member of which branch of the Beaumont family was Sir Thomas Beaumont of Stoughton (d. 1614); his death is celebrated by Vautor in *An Elegie, on the death of his right worshipfull Master, Sir Thomas Beaumont, Knight, of Stoughton in Leicestershire.' Sir George Villiers died in 1606, and after his death Lady Villiers lived with her sons a t Goadby, a village in the north-eastern comer of the c o u n ty : this connexion with both Stoughton and Goadby entitles Vautor to be regarded as a Leicestershire musician. The only other biographical details th a t are known about him are th a t on May 11, 1616, he was dispensed for not hearing the lectures of the ' praelector musicae * a t Oxford, ' being in practice in the country ' and th a t on the same day he supplicated for the degree of Bachelor of Music, being described as of Lincoln College. His request was granted by grace, on the condition th a t he should compose ' hymnum choralem sex partium ' ; he was admitted Mus.B. on July 4, 1616. So far, no music by Vautor has been discovered except the work published in 1619, which is one of the rarest music-books of the early 17th century. I t is reprinted in E n g l ish Madr igal S chool, vol. xxxiv. The compositions contained in it show a curious striving after originality, displayed not only in the selection of the words set, but also in a fondness for various musical devices peculiar to the composer. The last number in the collection, the great six-part madrigal ' Shepherds and Nymphs of Diana ' is a direct imitation in its words of the ' Oriana * madrigals published eighteen years earlier, while its music echoes, not unsuccessfully, the style of Wilbye. But probably the real Vautor may be better detected in the five-part ' Sweet Suffolk Owle ' and the Latin ' Mira cano,' with its curious effects of full chords repeated ten times in succession. Though he was evidently far below the greater English musicians of his day, Vautor is an interesting figure, and deserves to be better known. w. b . s .