Sir Henry Wotton was in England when this letter was written early in
1612, and Donne was probably at Amiens, shortly to proceed to Paris with
Sir Robert Drury. The phrase "when I was last here" is the only known
evidence of an earlier visit to France.
In the _Life of Wotton_, Walton writes:
"I must not omit the mention of a love that was there [at Oxford]
begun betwixt him and Dr. Donne, sometime Dean of St. Paul's; a man of
whose abilities I shall forbear to say anything, because he who is of
this nation, and pretends to learning or ingenuity, and is ignorant of
Dr. Donne, deserves not to know him. The friendship of these two I
must not omit to mention, being such a friendship as was generously
elemented; and as it was begun in their youth, and in an University,
and there maintained by correspondent inclinations and studies, so it
lasted till age and death forced a separation."