[1] Holland House is the manor-house of Abbots Kensington. “In Domesday Book (our extract is from Lysons) the place is called Chenisitun, in other ancient records Kenesitune and Kensintune. Chenesi is a proper name; a person so named held the manor of Huish in Somersetshire, in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Kensington manor, which had been the property of Edward, a thane of King Edward’s, was granted by the Conqueror to Geoffrey, bishop of Constance, Chief Justiciary of England, under whom it was holden (when the survey of Domesday was taken) by Alberic or Aubrey de Vere, ancestor of the Earls of Oxford. The manor,” says the Survey, “is taxed at 10 hides, and contains 10 caracutes; on the demesnes are four ploughs, the villans have five, and might employ six. There are 12 villans, holding each a virgate, and 6 who hold 3 virgates jointly. The priest has half a virgate, and there are seven slaves, meadow equal to two plough lands, pasture for the cattle of the town, pannage for 200 hogs and three acres of vineyards, valued altogether at 10l.—in King Edward’s time at the same. The manor was afterwards the absolute property of the Vere family, and was held by them in capite for several generations, being parcel of their barony by virtue of their office of High Chamberlain. [In 1264, on the death of Hugh de Vere, the demesne was valued at 4d. an acre, and the meadow-land at 3d.; a dovehouse at 3s., a court and vineyard 3s., fishpond and moat 2s. In 1296 the whole value of the manor was 19l. 13s. 6¼d. In 1331 it was somewhat less.] Aubrey de Vere, grand justiciary of England, was created Earl of Oxford by the Empress Maud, and afterwards confirmed in that title by Henry II. Upon the attainder of John, the twelfth earl, who was beheaded in 1461 for his adherence to the house of Lancaster, the manor was seized by the crown and given to Richard, duke of Gloucester. It came afterwards into the hands of William, marquis of Berkley, who gave it to Sir Reginald Bray. John, earl of Oxford, son of the attainted earl, having been restored to his honours, recovered (probably by purchase) the ancient inheritance of his ancestors, and by his will, bearing date 1509, left it to John, his nephew, the next heir to the title. Subsequently it passed to Sir Walter Cope, and from him to Henry Rich, earl of Holland, to whose descendant maternally, Lord Kensington, it now belongs. In 1776 the only surviving son of Francis Edwardes, Esq., who married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Rich, earl of Warwick and Holland, was created an Irish peer by the title of Baron Kensington.”

[2] Campden House, now a ladies’ school, was built about the year 1612, by Sir Baptist Hickes, an eminent citizen of London, afterwards Viscount Campden. In 1691, it was the residence of Anne, then Princess of Denmark, who lived here for about four years with her son, the Duke of Gloucester, who, unhappily, died at the age of eleven years. Here, it is said, a regiment of boys about his own age was formed for his amusement, “with whom he sported in military evolutions.” The house has undergone many alterations, but retains many of its original features. The palace of Kensington was chiefly built by William III., but “considerably enlarged and altered by succeeding monarchs.” Until his death, it was the residence of his late Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex.

[3] Clarendon, in his “History of the Rebellion,” has drawn the character of this peer:—“He was a very handsome man, of a lovely and winning presence, and genteel conversation, by which he got so easy an admission into the Court of King James,” that he abandoned the life he had previously led—that of a soldier. The favour of James was continued to him by his successor, Charles I.; and “whilst the weather was fair, he continued to flourish above any man about the court; but the storm did no sooner arise, but he changed so much, and declined so fast from the honour he was thought to be master of,” that he grew distrusted by the two State parties, and alternately deserted and betrayed both. Ultimately, however, he took part with the king, was taken prisoner at a skirmish near Kingston, tried, and sentenced to death: “the house being divided upon the question, whether he should be reprieved or not, and the Speaker giving the casting vote against him.” “Thus,” says Lord Orford, “perished the once gay, beautiful, and gallant Earl of Holland, whom neither the honours showered upon him by his prince, nor his former more tender connexion with the queen, could preserve from betraying and engaging against both. On the scaffold he appeared sunk beneath the indignation and cruelty he received from men, to whom and from whom he had deserted.”

[4] The death of Addison is thus touchingly described by Dr. Young:—“After a long and manly, but vain struggle, with his distemper, he dismissed his physicians, and with them all hopes of life; but with his hopes of life, he dismissed not his concern for the living, but sent for a youth nearly related, and finely accomplished (the young Earl of Warwick), yet not above being the better for good impressions from a dying friend. He came, but life now glimmering in the socket, the dying friend was silent: after a decent and proper pause, the youth said, ‘Dear sir, you sent for me; I believe and I hope that you have some commands; I shall hold them most sacred.’ Forcibly grasping the youth’s hand, he softly said, ‘See in what peace a Christian can die.’ He spoke with difficulty, and soon expired.” Dr. Johnson states that “Addison had been tutor to the young Earl, and anxiously, but in vain, endeavoured to check the licentiousness of his manners. As a last effort, he requested him to come into his room when he lay at the point of death, hoping that the solemnity of the scene might work upon his feelings. When his pupil came to receive his last commands, he told him that he had sent for him to see how a christian could die.”

[5] The second son of the first, and brother of the second, Lord Holland, was Charles James Fox, much of whose early life was passed at Holland House.

[6] Francis Cleyn was born at Rostock, and was originally in the service of Christian IV. of Denmark. For a proper education in art he visited Italy, and there became known to Sir Henry Wotton, by whom he was introduced to Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I. Soon after his arrival in England he was employed to give designs, “both in history and grotesque,” for the tapestry manufacture then recently established at Mortlock. At Somerset House he painted a ceiling of a room near the gallery, with histories and compartments in gold; the entrance of Wimbledon House he painted in fresco; Bolsover in Nottinghamshire, Stone Park in Northamptonshire and Carew House at Parson’s Green, were ornamented by him. He also executed several books for carvers, goldsmiths, &c., “made designs for various artists,” and was the master of Dobson. His two sons also were esteemed painters. He died in London—“a most pious man,” according to Evelyn—in 1658.

[7] Whilst mentioning the drama as connected with Holland House, it is worthy of notice that the tragedy of “Jane Shore” was acted there in the “late Lord Holland’s time” (Dodaley’s “Old Plays,” vol. xii. p. 345). The late Mr. Fox supported the character of Lord Hastings; his brother, the General, was Bishop of Ely; Lady Sarah Bunbury, Jane Shore; and Lady Susan O’Brien, Alicia.

[8] “The name Blickling,” according to Blomefield, “seems to signifie the low meadows at the Beck.”

[9] Among these odd substitutes for ancient heroes, are carved copies of foot-soldiers of the time of George III. It would seem as if the Earl of Buckingham—writing in 1765—had actually contemplated the “improvements” indicated in the following letter. “I have,” he writes, “determined what to do with the Hall. Some tributary sorrow should, however, be paid to the nine Worthies—but Hector has lost his spear and his nose; David his harp; Godfrey of Boulogne his ears; Alexander the Great his highest shoulder; and part of Joshua has fallen in. As the ceiling is to be raised, eight of them must have gone; and Hector is at all events determined to leave his niche. You will forgive my replacing them with eight worthies of my own times, whose figures are not yet essentially mutilated, viz., Dr. Shebbeare, Mr. Wilkes, Dr. Hill, Mr. Glover, Mr. Deputy Hodges, Mr. Whitfield, Justice Fielding, and Mr. Foote; and as Anne Boleyn was born at Blickling, it will not be improper to purchase her father Henry, the eighth figure (which by order is no longer to be exhibited in the Tower), who will fill with credit the space occupied by the falling Hector.”

[10] We borrow a passage from Mr. Robinson’s “Vitruvius Britannicus,” which conveys a compliment as justly merited as it is well expressed. “On the resignation of the Duke of Sussex, the Marquess of Northampton was elevated to the chair of the Royal Society; and if ardent zeal in the promotion of scientific truth, unaffected affability of manners, liberal and unostentatious hospitality, and exemplary private character, are deemed qualifications for the blue riband of science, his lordship’s claim to the distinguished honour must be universally admitted.”

[11] Among the pictures are portraits of Bishop Compton, Sir Stephen Fox, a “conversation piece,” by West, including the eighth Earl of Northampton, his lady, and two children. There is also a portrait of Spenser, second earl (in armour), who, as we have seen, devoted himself so bravely to the royal cause in the civil wars, and was killed at Hopton Heath: at an advanced age he raised a regiment of foot and a troop of horse at his own expense. Other portraits at Castle Ashby are, a curious and finely-painted head of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was killed by Felton. In the Long Gallery are portraits of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his countess, painted on panel; these are valuable as examples of the art of the time of Henry VI. This Talbot was one of the most renowned heroes of his time, having gained no less than forty battles and skirmishes. At his death he was above eighty years of age. Walpole ranks these pictures among the most ancient specimens of English painting.

[12] “Kirby Hall is situated in Corby Hundred, about nine miles north-west of Oundle, partly in the Parish of Bulwick, and partly in that of Gretton—the Church of which contains several monuments to members of the family of Hatton.”

[13] The family of Hatton is stated to be descended from Ivon, a noble of Norway, whose sixth son, Wolfaith, obtained the Manor of Hatton, in Cheshire. Sir Christopher Hatton is said to have danced himself into Court favour; mightily pleasing the fancy of “the virgin Queen” by the graces of his person; and consequently rising with great rapidity through the several offices of Captain of the Guard, Vice Chamberlain, Privy Councillor, &c., until, in 1587, he obtained possession of the seals as Lord Chancellor. He died not long afterwards—and, it is believed, of a broken heart, in consequence of a demand, on the part of his fickle and heartless mistress, for the payment of an old debt, which he was unable to discharge. He was a liberal patron of learning,—one of the worthies of the Elizabethan age; “so great, that his sentence was a law to the subject; and so wise, that his opinion was an oracle to the Queen.”

[14] The name has been said to be compounded of Bent, an old English word for brow of a hill, and the Celtic al, or hal (Lat. altus), a termination commonly found in names of hills. The motto of Benthall, “Tende Bene et alta pete,” seems to allude to this interpretation of the name; but as, in Domesday Book, the name is spelt “Benhale,” the first syllable may be derived from the Gaelic word En, or An—water, the letter B being only the prefix importing the article the. This suggestion receives some weight from the fact that the Benthall estate, and one of the same name in another part of Shropshire, are washed by a river—the Severn. The derivation of the second syllable is too plainly correct to be interfered with.

[15] Benthall MSS. Dugdale’s “Monasticon.”

[16] Polyd. Virg.

[17] Heralds’ “Visitations of Salop.”

[18] It is remarkable that a superior seigniory or lordship in this estate was retained by the Burnell family till so late a period as the close of the reign of Richard III., while the Benthalls, the subtenants, were lords of the manor, as appears by their descriptions in deeds and on the court-rolls.

So early as in the reign of Edward III., lords of manors began to neglect the military services, on condition of which they held their lands under the tenant in capite (in most instances a powerful baron), who, on his part, owed and neglected services to the king, the supreme owner of the lands. The rights of the superior or intermediate lords becoming disused, the lords of manors gradually acquired the tenure which, in the present day, supposes only a superior right in the sovereign; yet it was not till Henry VII. had grasped the sceptre that the feudal system of military service was totally suppressed.

In effecting national improvement, that sagacious monarch acted on the just conviction that his own paid army was better to be relied on than the retainers of his nobles: he wisely conceived that, having already dethroned their sovereign, they might be little scrupulous of removing his successor, whose personal pretensions to the throne, though strengthened by his marriage, were by no means universally admitted.

[19] Buried in the family vault, near the altar of Benthall Chapel.

[20] This gentleman and his wife, Ann, daughter of Piers Cariswall, Esq. of Lilleshall, were interred in St. Clement’s Chapel, in the south aisle of the parish church of Much Wenlock. There is a small estate in the parish belonging to their descendants, the Benthalls of Buckfast, in Devonshire.

[21] Rot. Hund.

[22] At that time the head of the family of Cassey of Wightfield, Cassey Compton, and Kilcot, in the county of Gloucester.

These manors descended to John Cassey, Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry IV., and from him to Thomas, the subject of this note, who died while on a visit to his son-in-law at Benthall, A.D. 1634, and was buried in Wenlock Church.

[23] Hulbert’s “History of Shropshire.”

[24] This tower was erected by one of the family of the Phelips. The ascent to it is so gradual, that he is said, upon one occasion, to have visited the summit in his coach and four. The road winds round the hill.

[25] The family suffered considerably, in consequence of their devotion to the royal cause during the unhappy reign of Charles the First; and, afterwards, their loyalty being unchilled by their losses, Colonel Richard Phelips united with Colonel Wyndham in secreting, and subsequently conveying out of the kingdom, the Second Charles.

[26] “Skimmitting, or, as it is called in the north of England, stang-riding, is still kept up in many parts of the kingdom, for the purpose of exposing to shame and ridicule, the man who has been guilty of cruelty or infidelity towards his wife.” In the basso-relievo at Montacute, the wife, accompanied by a crowd of villagers, is represented bestowing a few sound blows with her shoe upon her faithless partner, and “the artist has with happy effect introduced a church in the back-ground, to intimate that certain vows and promises which had been there solemnly pledged ought to have been kept in remembrance.”

[27] “It would appear from the introduction of the elegant screens or door-cases in the principal living rooms, that the cold draughts of air, caused by the long passages, the extent of the rooms, and the great size of the windows, must have been felt even in the time of Elizabeth; these screens could have been made only for warmth and comfort. They are beautifully painted, and their effect is very quaint and pleasing.”—C. J. Richardson.

[28] On a mural monument in the chancel of Caverswall Church, adjoining that of his father, which we have engraved, is the following singular inscription to his memory:—

“M.S.

“George Cradock, Esq., (for his great prvdence in y? common lawes well worthy to be beav-Clarke of y? assizes for this Circvit), did take to wife y? most amiable, most loving Dorothy, y? davghter of John Savnders, Doctor of Physicke, by whom he had a Pair-royall of incomparable davghters, to wit, Dorothy, Elizabeth, and Mary.

“It is easie to gvess that he lived in a splendid degree, if I shall bvt recovnt vnto you that

“But! but! to our grief, George Cradock is assavlted by death in y? meridjan of his age, not far off from his Castle of Caverswal (lately bvilt, even to beavty, by Mathew Cradock, Esq., his father, who lies inter’d near this place).

“And dying of y? small pox y? 16th of April, 1643, he tooke himselfe to y? private masion of this tombe, erected for him at y? cost of Dorothy, his obseqviovs wife, where he now rests (vnder the protection of an Essoine) vntil he shall be svmmon’d to appeare at y? last great and general Assizes.”

The Sir Thomas Slingsby, of Scriven, Bart., who married Dorothy, the eldest of this “pair-royal,” was beheaded by Oliver Cromwell.

[29] William Chetwynd, who was Gentleman Usher of the Chamber to Henry the Seventh, in the ninth year of that king’s reign was barbarously and treacherously assassinated on Tixal Heath, near Ingestre, by Sir Humphrey Stanley, of Pipe, from motives of jealousy, having inveigled him from his house by a counterfeit letter. Pennant says:—“It does not appear that justice overtook the assassin, although his widow perseveringly evoked it.”

[30] The fertility and other natural advantages of “the vale,” and, we may believe, its picturesque beauties also, in remote times, determined the ancient nobility of Staffordshire to make it their chosen seat. This, and a lower portion of the river, are adorned with that graceful bird the swan. Ingestre, and the neighbouring royalties, have had “games of swans” immemorially. Amongst the distinguishing marks on the beaks of the birds used in 1785 in the several royalties adjoining the Trent, enumerated by Dr. S. Shaw, we find that of “Earl Talbot, Ingestre; two notches on the right side.”

[31] Walter Chetwynd, Esq., of Ingestre, the celebrated antiquary, was the son of Walter Chetwynd, Esq., and married Ann, daughter of Sir Edward Bagot, Bart., August, 1658. He introduced the learned Dr. Plot, from Oxford, into Staffordshire, to write its Natural History. Dr. Plot exhibits in his work (1686) a Plan of Ingestre Hall, and gives an account of the rebuilding of Ingestre church by his patron.

The first person who undertook to write upon the history and antiquities of Staffordshire was Sampson Erdeswick, Esq., of Sandon, near Ingestre, venerandÆ antiquitatis cultor maximus, as Camden describes him; i. e. an eminent encourager of venerable antiquity. He died in 1603, and was buried under a handsome monument, having his effigy, “cut to life,” erected by himself in his lifetime, in Sandon church. His MS. papers fell into the hands of Walter Chetwynd. This latter gentleman obtained in addition the collections of Mr. Ferrers, of Baddesley, and of William Burton, the Leicestershire historian, and brother of the Anatomist of Melancholy. To these he added very large collections of his own. All these MSS., upon the repairing of Ingestre Hall, were put in a box, for safety, by the Rev. James Milnes, rector, and were unfortunately lost. They were, however, subsequently found at Rudge; but continued in obscurity, till rediscovered at Ingestre, when they were placed in the hands of Dr. Stebbing Shaw, the learned and indefatigable historian of the county, whose premature decease unhappily interrupted his elaborate work. There is a good portrait of Walter Chetwynd, Esq., the antiquary, by Lely, at Ingestre Hall.

[32] One member of the Talbot family, Charles Talbot (son of the Lord Chancellor), who died in 1733, made the tour of Europe with Thomson, the author of the “Seasons,” to whom Lord Talbot was a liberal patron and kind benefactor.—His poem on “Liberty,” which was conceived during their travels, opens with an affectionate tribute of sorrow to the memory of his friend.

Thomson also composed a poem “To the memory of Lord Talbot,” which is equally creditable to the Chancellor and the Poet, and reflects great honour on Lord Talbot’s family, to whom it is addressed.

[33] The village of West Bromwich is remarkable as the birthplace of Walter Parsons, porter to King James I., who appears to have been equally distinguished for extraordinary strength and equanimity of temper. His stature was but little above the common size; yet such was the prodigious power of his arm, that he could easily “take up two of the tallest yeomen of the guard and carry them where he pleased, in spite of their attempts to free themselves from his iron grasp.”

[34] Over the entrance of the Porch leading to the Great Hall from the Court Yard, is a shield cut in stone, with these seven quarterings:—

[35] During the lifetime of this Earl, old English hospitality was kept up in a most primitive style, whenever he was residing at the Hall. The tenants and tradesmen employed by his Lordship were allowed to visit the Hall whenever they pleased, and many yet living remember with grateful pleasure the entertainment afforded them there.

[36] The exception should, however, be made in favour of General Thomas Tollemache. In the Church, there is a sarcophagus of white marble, in which stands, upon a pedestal, a bust, and behind it an obelisk of reddish marble, surrounded by military trophies. On the face of the sarcophagus is this inscription:—“Thomas Tollemache, Lieutenant-General (descended of a family more ancient than the Norman Conquest,) second son of Sir Lionel Tollemache, Bart., by his wife, Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart in her own right. His natural abilities and first education were improved by his travels in foreign nations, where he spent several years in the younger part of his life, in the observation of their genius, customs, politics, and interest; and in the service of his country, abroad in the field, in which he distinguished himself to such advantage by his bravery and conduct, that he soon rose to considerable posts in the Army. Upon the accession of King William III. to the Throne, he was made Colonel of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, and soon after advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General. In 1691, he exerted himself with uncommon bravery in the passage over the river Shannon, and the taking of Athlone, in Ireland, and in the battle of Aghrim. In 1693, he attended the King to Flanders; and at the battle of Landen, against the French, when His Majesty himself was obliged to retire, he brought off the English Foot with great prudence and success. In 1694, he was ordered by the King to attempt the destroying of the harbour of Brest in France; but on his landing at the head of six hundred men, he was so much exposed to the enemy’s fire, that most of his men were killed, and himself shot through the thigh, of which wound he died a few days after. Thus fell this brave man, extremely lamented, and not without suspicion of being made a sacrifice, in this desperate attempt, through envy of some of his pretended friends; and thus failed a design, which, if it had been undertaken at any time before the French were so well prepared to receive it, might have been attended with success, and followed with very important effects.”

[37] These rhymes are curious and interesting, and possess sufficient merit to justify our devoting to them the space necessary.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

[38] Hengrave is called in Domesday Book “Hemegretha.” In several ancient deeds it is variously spelt Hemegreth, Hemegrede, Hemegrave, and Hengrave.

[39] This information we condense, chiefly from a costly volume in quarto, published by the late John Gage, Esq., F.S.A., entitled “The History and Antiquities of Hengrave.”

[40] His portrait, by Holbein, is among the family portraits at Hengrave. It is that of a fine portly citizen, with a stern, but intellectual, countenance. He was Sheriff of London in 1533 having been previously knighted. His mercantile transactions were principally carried on “at the cloth fairs or staples holden at Antwerp, Middleburg, and other places in Flanders, by the Merchant Adventurers, to which company he belonged.” His wealth must have been enormous, for he purchased estates in the counties of Suffolk, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and Nottingham.

[41] It is said that Sir George Trenchard, Sir John Gage, and Sir William Hervey, each solicited at the same time the hand of the wealthy heiress; and that, to keep peace between the rivals, she threatened the first aggressor with her perpetual displeasure; “humorously telling them that, if they would wait, she would have them all in their turns—a promise which the lady actually performed.” Her first husband was Sir George Trenchard, her second Sir John Gage, and her third Sir William Hervey. She left issue only by her second husband.

[42] Several documents relative to “the raising of Hengrave” are still preserved. Among others, is the contract with John Eastowe, the mason, to “macke a house at Hengrave of all manor of mason’s worck,” &c. &c. “The said John must have for ye sayd worck, and finishing thereof, iic. li. (£200), to be paid, x li. when he begins the foundacyon thereof, and afterwards always as xx li. worth of worke is wrought by estymacion.” The plasterer’s contract is for £116 “of lawful money of Ingland.” Among other items are these—“For a lode of tymber, vi s.;” “The glasyar, for making of all the glass wyndowes of the manour place, with the solar, and for xiii skuttchens with armes, iiii li.” (four pounds.)

[43] Burnet gives a character of the first Earl of Dysart by no means flattering. “He was well turned for a Court; very insinuating, but very false; and of so revengeful a temper that rather than any of the counsels given by his enemies should succeed, he would have revealed them, and betrayed both the King and them. He had one particular quality, that when he was drunk, which was very often, he was upon a most exact reserve, though he was pretty open at all other times.”

[44] The Duchess of Lauderdale was one of the “busiest” women of the busy age in which she lived. Burnet insinuates, that during the life-time of her first husband “she had been in a correspondence with Lord Lauderdale that had given occasion for censure.” She succeeded in persuading him that he was indebted for his escape after “Worcester fight” to “her intrigues with Cromwell.” “She was a woman,” continues the Historian, “of great beauty, but of far greater parts. She had a wonderful quickness of apprehension, and an amazing vivacity in conversation. She had studied not only divinity and history, but mathematics and philosophy. She was violent in every thing she set about; a violent friend, but a much more violent enemy. She had a restless ambition, lived at a vast expense, and was ravenously covetous; and would have stuck at nothing by which she might compass her ends.” Upon the accession of her husband to political power, after the Restoration, “all applications were made to her; she took upon her to determine everything; she sold all places; and was wanting in no methods that could bring her money, which she lavished out in a most profuse vanity.”

[45] Lysons, writing more than half a century ago, describes the furnishing of the Mansion in terms which suit exactly to describe its present state. “It is,” he says, “a curious specimen of a mansion of the age of Charles the Second. The ceilings are painted by Verrio, and the rooms are ornamented with that massy magnificence of decoration then in fashion. The furniture is very rich; even the bellows and brushes, in some of the apartments, are of solid silver, or of silver filigree. In the closet adjoining the bed-chamber, which was the Duchess of Lauderdale’s, still remains the great chair in which she used to sit and read; it has a small desk fixed to it, and her cane hangs by the side. The furniture of the whole room is such that one might almost fancy her Grace to be still an inhabitant of the house.”

[46] The ministry, popularly known as the Cabal, came into power at the latter end of the year 1667, when Clarendon was turned out of office, and impeached by Parliament. That minister had raised a host of enemies at Court, by preserving a state and decorum foreign to their reigning habits. Evelyn says, “He kept up the form and substance of things in the nation with more solemnity than some would have had. The Parliament had accused him, and he had enemies at Court—especially the buffoons and ladies of pleasure—because he thwarted them, and stood in their way.” There were, however, grave charges brought against him as Chancellor, and he was obliged to fly the kingdom, dying an exile in France about seven years afterwards. The ministry that succeeded him consisted of five noblemen, the initials of whose names formed the word Cabal, to which their actions in many instances too well answered. These noblemen were Sir Thomas Clifford, first commissioner of the Treasury, afterwards Lord Clifford and high treasurer; the Earl of Arlington, secretary of state; the Duke of Buckingham; Lord Ashley, chancellor of the Exchequer, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury and lord chancellor; and the Duke of Lauderdale. During the ascendancy of these ministers, Charles grew more reckless than ever. As none of them possessed the power Clarendon had of restraining him, he became much more despotic, treated Parliament more contemptuously, and allowed himself to become the pensioner of the French king.

The passing of the Test Act in 1673 first disunited “the Cabal,” on which occasion Clifford, the Popish lord treasurer, resigned his staff. Soon after the Prorogation of Parliament, on the fourth of November in the same year, the King took the great Seal from Shaftesbury, and gave it to Sir Heneage Finch, as Lord Keeper. The other members of the Cabal ministry, Arlington, Buckingham, and Lauderdale, were in seeming odium at court; and Clifford was unexpectedly succeeded by Sir Thomas Osborn, who was created Lord Treasurer and Earl of Danby; he became in effect prime minister, and the Danby administration was in many respects more iniquitous than that of the Cabal.

[47] “Manuscripts and other rare documents illustrative of some of the more minute particulars of History, Biography, and Manners, from the reign of Henry VIII., to that of James I., preserved in the muniment room of James More Molyneux, Esq., at Loseley House, in Surrey. Edited by Alfred John Kempe, F.S.A., 1836.” This curious and very interesting volume contains many singular documents, “connected with passages in history and biography, with the entertainment of the Court, with the internal regulations of the magistracy, and in some instances with the minor relations of domestic life”—affording very considerable help to arrive at correct ideas and just estimates of the state of society and political government in the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries. The editor intimates that the manuscripts were discovered in the muniment room at Loseley, “of which the key had been lost, and its existence disregarded during an interval of 200 years.” One of its earliest documents is a summons to Christopher More, to come to London to welcome Anne of Cleves, with six servants in his company, to ride amongst other gentlemen in “cotes of black velvet, with cheines of gold about their neckes, and with gownes of velvet or some other good silke for their chainge.”

[48] “In 1511, a dispute arose between the college on the one part, and the mayor, burgesses, and parishioners on the other, as to the liability of their respective bodies to repair the transepts and tower, with the bell and other appurtenances belonging to the latter. By consent of the parties, the point at issue was referred to the arbitration of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, and Robert Sherburne, Bishop of Chichester; and an award was soon after published, by which the burthen was equally divided between the college and the town. To the former, the duty of repairing the south transept, commonly called ‘the chancel of the parish,’ was assigned; to the latter, the obligation of attending in the same manner to the north transept; while the expense of upholding the tower, and the emoluments to be derived from the use of its bells, were thenceforth to be shared equally by both.”

[49] At the suppression, it was endowed with a yearly revenue of 263l. 14s. 9d.

[50] By this Thomas Fitz-Alan and his wife Beatrix was founded a hospital called “Maison Dieu,” for the maintenance of as many poor as the revenues with which it was endowed, would support. At the Dissolution, these were valued at 42l. 3s. 8d. per annum.

[51] In one of the chapel windows is the figure of a swallow on the wing, which is considered to intimate the original of the name of the castle; “for history and geography,” says Mr. Tierney, “the realms of fancy and romance, have all been explored in order to discover its etymon.” One author has amused himself with a rebus founded on the resemblance between the words Hirondelle and Arundel; and “it is not improbable,” writes Dr. Beattie, “that the migratory bird, here introduced, may have been selected as an appropriate emblem for the chapel window. The conjecture is, at least, as plausible as another that has been advanced; namely, that Arundel is derived from Hirondelle—the name of Bevis’s Horse.”

[52] This Countess of Derby was the daughter of Sir William Morley, K.B., and her mother was a daughter of Sir John Denham, the Poet. On the north side of the Chancel is a marble Monument to her memory. She died in 1752, at the age of 85. She was distinguished by charitable deeds and on her tomb is represented sitting under an oak, relieving poor travellers, and pointing to a building she had founded in the Parish—a Hospital endowed in 1741, as the inscription informs us, “the Alms-houses for the habitation and support of poor aged and infirm women,—the School for the habitation and maintenance of a school-master, and the education of poor boys and girls—the women and children to be chosen out of the parishes of Boxgrove, East Lavant, and Tangmere.”

[53] “This Adeliza,” writes Camden, “was daughter to Godfrey Barbatus, of Lovaine, who had for her dowrie Arundell Castle and all the forfeited lands of Robert de Belismo, the Earle, when the King (Henry the First) took her for his second wife.

“In her commendation, a certaine Englishman in that unlearned age wrote some unlearned verses,” of which these lines are the commencement:—

After the King’s death she married William de Albini; “who, taking part with Maude the Empresse against King Stephen, and defending his castle (of Arundel) against him, was, in recompense of his good service, by the saide Maude, the Empresse and Ladie of Englishmen (for this title she used), created Earle of Arundel; and her son, King Henry, gave the whole Rape of Arundel to that William, to hold of him by the service of fourscore and foure knights’ fees and one halfe.” During her contest with Stephen, Maud was lodged in the Castle of Arundel, which the King besieged. The Earl, however—or, it is said, his Countess—by diplomacy, contrived to facilitate the escape of the Empress to Bristol, from which she took shipping, and returned to the Continent.

“A small Chamber, over the inner gate of Arundel Castle, enjoys the traditionary fame of having been her sleeping-room, during her sojourn there. It is a low square apartment, such as the Castellan might have occupied during a siege.” The Bedstead on which the Empress is reported to have slept is still preserved there. “Its massive wallnut posts are elaborately carved, but so worm-eaten that, unless tenderly scrutinized, the wood would be apt to fall into powder in the hands of the visitor.” We have quoted this brief account from Dr. Beattie’s History of Arundel. From the engraving that accompanies it, there can be little doubt that this relic is no older than the reign of Henry the 8th, if so old.

[54] Hutton, in his “History of Birmingham,” states that Sir Lister Holt, taking advantage of his brother’s necessities, induced him to cut off the entail, in order that the estate might pass away from his family. Thus, he adds, “an ancient race, which sprung from the anvil, and sported upon an estate of 12,000l. a-year, is now sunk into its pristine obscurity; for its head, Thomas Holt (perhaps Sir Thomas), at this day (1812) thumps at the anvil for bread, in the fabrication of spades—as amiable a man as any of his race; and the only baronet who ever shaped a shovel may take a melancholy ramble for many miles upon the lands of his ancestors, but cannot call a single foot of it his own.”

[55] For the several drawings which accompany and illustrate this account of Aston Hall and the church, we are indebted to Mr. Allen Edward Everitt, an excellent artist of Birmingham.

[56] Richard de Beauchamp was born on the 28th of January. 1381, and succeeded his father in the Earldom of Warwick in 1401. At the coronation of Henry IV., he was created a Knight of the Bath, being then only 19 years of age. “When scarce more than a youth,” he suppressed the rebellion in Wales, under Owen Glendower, whose standard he took in battle. During the whole of the reign of the fourth Henry, he was one of the most prominent, honourable, and useful “pillars of the state;” and, at the coronation of Henry the 5th, he was constituted Lord High Steward; in 1415, he was declared Captain of Calais, and Governor of the Marches of Picardy: subsequently, he became tutor to the young Prince Henry, and on the death of the Duke of Bedford—14 Hen. VI.—he was appointed Regent of France, and Lieutenant-General of the King’s forces in that realm and the Duchy of Normandy. He died in the Castle of Rouen, April 30, 1439—17 Henry VI. His body was conveyed to England, and deposited in the Church of St. Mary, “in a fair chest made of stone.” until the Chapel was prepared for its reception.

[57] Thomas de Beauchamp died of the pestilence at Calais, on the 13th of November, 1370, at the age of 63. He had retired from public life, but hearing that the English army, under the Duke of Lancaster, lay in camp, perishing from famine and disease, and refused to fight the French, by whom they were surrounded, he instantly embarked for France, where his “bare appearance so alarmed the enemy, that they commenced an instant retreat.” Recumbent figures of the Earl and his Countess—finely sculptured—are laid upon the monument which occupies the centre of the choir. A fine brass of his second son, Thomas, and Margaret, his wife, was preserved from the fire of 1694, and is now placed against the east wall of the transept, and near the entrance to the Chapel. It is a beautiful specimen of the costume of the period, and has been engraved in Waller’s recent publication.

[58] Dugdale has preserved a curious and interesting document in connexion with the Chapel, being the “Covenants of Agreement between the Executors of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, viz. Thomas Huggeford, Nich. Rodye, and Wm. Berkswell, and the severall Artists that were employed in the most exquisite parts of its fabrick and ornaments—as also of the costly Tombe before specified, bearing date xiii Junii, 32 H. 6.”

These are the covenants of John Essex, Marbler; Will. Austen, Founder; Thomas Stevyns, Coppersmith; Bartholomew Lambespring, Dutchman and Goldsmith. John Prudde, of Westminster, Glasier, further covenanted to glase all the windows in the new Chappell in Warwick, with Glasse beyond the Seas, and with no Glasse of England; and that in the finest wise, with the best, cleanest, and strongest glasse of beyond the Sea that may be had in England, and of the finest colours of blew, yellow, red, purpure, sanguine, and violet, and of all other colours that shall be most necessary, and best to make rich and embellish the matters, Images, and stories that shall be delivered and appointed by the said Executors by patterns in paper, afterwards to be newly traced and pictured by another Painter in rich colour at the charges of the said Glasier. All which proportions the said John Prudde must make perfectly to fine, glase, eneylin it, and finely and strongly set it in lead and souder, as well as any Glasse is in England. Of white Glasse, Green Glasse, black Glase, he shall put in as little as shall be needfull for the shewing and setting forth of the matters, Images, and storyes. And the said Glasier shall take charge of the same Glasse, wrought and to be brought, to Warwick, and set up there, in the windows of the said Chapell; the Executors paying to the said Glasier for every foot of Glasse ii s. and so for the whole xci li. i s. x d.

[59] While standing among the graves of generations of the family, and noting down the words in which were recorded their claims to live in memory, we heard suddenly from a young woman who guided us to the church—and who conveyed the sad intelligence with tearful eyes—that on the very morning of our visit another of the Lucys had been summoned to take his place among the dead. George Lucy, Esq., the Lord of Charlecote, died on the 1st of July, 1845—somewhat suddenly; leaving, however, a son, not yet of age, to inherit the honours and estates. The circumstance was to us peculiarly unfortunate; for Mr. Lucy had courteously offered to supply us with all the information in his power to give, concerning the neighbourhood and its several associations. We found that his loss was felt in the cottages almost as bitterly as in the mansion; and obtained certain assurance that he, like his progenitors, had been a generous landlord, and a kind friend to the poor.

[60] The painting is so well described by Washington Irving that we quote his words:—

[61] It is now generally admitted, however, that the lines beginning—

were—neither the whole nor a part—written by Shakspere, the lampoon containing no indications of genius; it is a libel on the memory of the poet to assert that they were the offspring of his mind—to say nothing of the “poorspite” they would have manifested,—a feeling totally away from so great a soul. The story of Shakspere’s early transgression and its consequences is thus related by Rowe: “An extravagance that he was guilty of first forced him out of his country, and that way of living which he had taken up; and though it seemed at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occasion of exerting one of the greatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatic poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and, amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford; for this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge that ill-usage, he made a ballad upon him.” That Shakspere engaged in a frolic similar to the one related of him, is by no means improbable; freaks of the kind are common enough to “young fellows;” and although it is impossible to imagine that the poet took part in this, from any motive other than that love of risk and adventure inseparable from great minds in the bud, we may readily believe tradition to be in the main correct. That Sir Thomas Lucy was not a man of even poor understanding is sufficiently proved by the epitaph to the memory of his wife.

[62] Mr. Wheeler, a most intelligent gentleman of Stratford, who has given much time and thought to all subjects connected with Shakspere’s history,—and by whom we had the advantage of being accompanied to the church—directed our attention to the fact, that formerly a charnel-house adjoined the chancel, from which there was a communicating door. Here the bones of the neglected or forgotten were gathered:

And it is by no means unlikely that the frequent contemplation of a scene so humiliating, and of objects so revolting, may have induced the anathema,

[63] It was part of the plot of the conspirators implicated in the Gunpowder Plot to hasten into Warwickshire, seize the person of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I., and proclaim her Queen; and, on the discovery of the plot, they did so “hasten into Warwickshire” (it is surmised to Combe Abbey, where probably the princess then was); but the vigilance of Sir John Harrington secured her from their hands. In a work published in 1833—“Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen,” edited by J. G. Cunningham—we find the following interesting particulars relative to the son of this Lord Harrington:—

“John, Lord Harrington, born 1591, died 1613, was eldest son of that Lord Harrington to whose care King James committed the education of his daughter Elizabeth. While a boy, he spoke French and Italian with fluency, and was distinguished for the extent, variety, and accuracy of his learning. During a tour which he made on the Continent, he is said to have excited the deadly enmity of the Jesuits by his ardent attachment to the reformed doctrines, and by his bold and eager avowal of them in public; and it was supposed his premature death was occasioned by poison, administered during his residence abroad; but it is extremely probable the whole of this statement may be referred to the violent religious prejudices and antipathies of the times. On succeeding to the family title and estates, he honourably discharged all the debts which his father had contracted by his magnificent style of housekeeping. He was eminently pious, spending great part of the day in religious meditation and exercises, and devoting the tenth part of his income to charitable purposes.” He died in the twenty-second year of his age, and his estate descended to his two sisters, Lucy, Countess of Bedford, and Anne, wife of Sir Robert Chichester.”

[64] Mr. Richardson makes the following observations on this controverted point: “Great portion of the present building was raised by Lord Harrington; of the ancient monastic pile a portion of the cloisters only remains; these form a fine corridor, which ranges along the lower division of the building. On the west side of the house is a large addition, said to be by Inigo Jones, but which is more probably the work of Captain William Winde, the pupil of Sir Balthazar Gerbier; at least, it is ascribed to him by Horace Walpole (see his ‘Anecdotes,’ vol. iii. p. 169, Dallaway’s edition).”

[65] The Princess Elizabeth was married to the Elector Palatine at the early age of sixteen. Her virtues, talents, and sweetness of temper, combined with exceeding gaiety of disposition, together with her personal charms, made her almost an object of idolatry with the cavaliers of her age. She was usually styled “the queen of hearts;” and it was to her that Sir Henry Wotton addressed the elegant lines commencing—

Immediately after her marriage to the Elector, they proceeded to their palace at Heidelberg, which became the focus of the chivalry of the period.

This scene of their enjoyment and happiness they quitted when the Elector became king of Bohemia, and thenceforward evil destiny pursued their steps. The deposed sovereign died of a broken heart, at the early age of thirty-six; and after his death the queen remained at the Hague, living in privacy and poverty, but exerting the energies of her fine mind to educate her children, of whom she had several. The management of her affairs she confided entirely to her gallant defender the Earl of Craven, who had entered the military service of the states to be near her, and to whom she is understood to have been privately married. On the Restoration she was invited by her nephew, Charles II., to pass the remainder of her life in England, a proposal which she gladly accepted. She arrived in London on the 17th of May, 1661, with Lord Craven, and took up her residence at his house in Drury Lane, where she remained till the following February, on the 8th of which month she removed to Leicester House, and died there on the 13th, only five days after she had entered it. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, in a vault made for the interment of her brother Henry, prince of Wales.

That her ambition principally induced the downfall of her husband, there is little doubt. On this subject we borrow an eloquent passage from Mrs. Jamieson: “One of the most interesting monuments of Heidelberg, at least to an English traveller, is the elegant triumphal arch raised by the Palatine Frederick V., in honour of his bride—this very Elizabeth Stuart. I well remember with what self-complacency and enthusiasm our chief walked about in a heavy rain, examining, dwelling upon every trace of this celebrated and unhappy woman. She had been educated at his country seat; and one of the avenues of his magnificent park yet bears her name. On her fell a double portion of the miseries of her fated family. She had the beauty and the wit, the gay spirits the elegant tastes, the kindly disposition of her grandmother, Mary of Scotland; her very virtues as a wife and woman, not less than her pride and feminine prejudices, ruined herself, her husband, and her people. When Frederick hesitated to accept the crown of Bohemia, his spirited wife exclaimed, ‘Let me rather eat dry bread at a king’s table than feast at the board of an elector.’

[66] The legend of Guy of Warwick was extremely popular in the middle ages; and his encounter with the Danish champion Colbrand, as well as his victory over the Dun Cow, was the favourite subject of the wandering minstrel. Dugdale has given the narrative of his battle with Colbrand, which he seems inclined to believe to be true in the main features, although “the monks may have sounded out his praises hyperbolically.” According to him, “in the 3 year of King Athelstan, A.D. 826, the Danes having invaded England cruelly wasted the countrys where they marcht, so that there was scarce a Town or Castle that they had not burnt or destroyed almost as far as Winchester,” where the King resided, and to whom they sent a message, requiring him to resign his crown to their generals, holding his power at their hands, and paying them yearly tribute for the privilege of ruling; or, that the whole dispute for the kingdom be determined in a single combat, by two champions, for both sides. The King having chosen the latter alternative, enjoins a fast for three days, and in great anguish of heart that Guy, the famous warrior, is absent on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, prays Heaven for assistance. An Angel appears to the King as he lies on his bed, and directs him to arise early on the morrow, and take two bishops with him to the North gate of the city, and stay there “till the hour of Prime,” until the poor people and pilgrims arrive, among whom he must choose a champion, and the choice must fall on him who goes barefooted, with a wreath of white roses on his head. The King goes, and meets the Pilgrim, accosts him, and asks his championship, which he hesitates to give, excusing himself on the ground of his weakness with much travel, and exhorts him to seek a fitter help. To this the King bitterly answers, “I had but one valiant knight, which was Earl of Warwick, called Guy, and he had a courageous servant, named Sir Heraud de Ardene; would to God I had him here, for then should this duel be soon undertaken, and the war finished, and as he spake these words the tears fell from his eyes.” The Pilgrim is moved, and ultimately consents, and after three weeks spent in prayer and preparation, the battle begins. Colbrand “came so weightily harnessed that his horse could scarce carry him, and before him a cart loaded with Danish axes, great clubs with knobs of iron, squared bars of steel, lances, and iron hooks, to pull his adversary to him.” The giant uses a bar of steel in the combat, which lasts the whole day—Guy in the end proving victorious, and taking a farewell of the King to whom he declares himself, goes towards Warwick, and thence to a hermit in its neighbourhood, living with him till his death, and succeeding him in his cell until his own decease. The spot is still pointed out, and bears the name of Guy’s Cliff.

But this is not the only Giant story connected with the family. Their well-known crest or cognisance is said to come from one Morvidus, an Earl of Warwick in the days of King Arthur, “who being a man of great valour slew a mighty giant in a single duell, which gyant encountered him with a young tree pulled up by the root, the boughs being snag’d from it; in token whereof, he and his successors, earles of Warwick, in the time of the Brittons, bore a ragged staff of silver in a sable shield for their cognisance.” Such were the old fables with which our ancient family histories were obscured, or rendered romantic and wonderful to the subordinate classes.

[67] From the top of Guy’s Tower, ascended by 133 steps, the view is most fine and most extensive. Far stretching in the distance are seen the tall spires of the Churches at Coventry; nearer is the ruined Castle of Kenilworth; still nearer, are Guy’s Cliff and Blacklow Hill, famous in legend and story; Leamington appears lying at our feet; while “Stratford-on-the-Avon” seems almost “within arms-reach;” far off are the hills of Shropshire; on all sides are fertile plains, of seemingly illimitable extent, with here and there dark woods and forests; the Panorama is inconceivably beautiful and grand.

[68] The following legend is given by Dugdale, as extracted from a MS. penned about the time of Edward IVth:—“Hugh the son of one Richard, holding the lordship of Hatton and likewise this place of Wroxhall, of Henry earl of Warwick, was a man of great stature; which Hugh going to warfare in the Holy Land was taken prisoner, and kept in great hardship for 7 years: at length he addressed his prayers to St. Leonard, the patron of his church, who appeared to him in a dream, in the habit of a black monk, and bade him arise and go home and found at his Church a house of nuns of St. Benet’s order. He treated it as a dream, but on its repetition joyfully made a vow to God and S. Leonard that he would perform his commands: which vow was no sooner made than he was miraculously carried thence with his fetters, and set in Wroxall woods, not far from his own house, yet knew not where he was, until a shepherd of his own accidentally found him, and though much affrighted (in respect of his being overgrown with hair), after some communication discovered all to him. His lady and children being apprised of the circumstance, came forthwith to him, but believed not that he was her husband till he shewed her a piece of a ring that had been broken between them. Having given thanks to God, our Lady, and S. Leonard, and praying for some divine revelation as to the site for his monastery, he was specially directed by certain stones pitched into the ground in the very place where the altar was afterwards set. On its completion two of his daughters were made nuns therein, one of the nuns of Wilton being fetched to direct them in their rule of S. Benedict.”

[69] Extract from a MSS. written about 1690, by Dr. Markhouse, a prebendary of Carlisle, upon the “Deanery of Westmorland,” and containing much curious information upon ecclesiastical matters in that county.

[70] “Sir William Stirkland in the reign of King John or Henry III. married Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Ralph D’Aincourt and his wife Helen.”

“This piece of sculpture is one of the earliest instances of the quartering of arms, and is a curious example of the preference given to the heiress with whom the family had become allied, the arms of D’Aincourt being placed first—a circumstance which often occurred at that early period of heraldic art. The quartered coat was not in use before the time of Edward III.”

[71] “The family is a branch of the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk: the first Earl was only son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk by his second marriage, and was a distinguished naval commander temp. Elizabeth. In 1605 this peer was employed in the search about the houses of Parliament, which terminated in the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot; in 1613 he was Lord High Treasurer of England. His second son was the first Earl of Berkshire.”—Dodd’s Peerage.

[72] “The reason why the name of Fountains was given to this Abbey is a matter of some doubt. It is not an improbable conjecture that the monks might think it conducive to their honour, and that of their house, to give it the appellation of the place where their founder, St. Bernard, drew his first breath—Fountaines in Burgundy. This opinion is also corroborated by the consideration that no remarkable springs break out on this spot which could have given rise to the appellation. But the learned and ingenious historian of Craven, Whitaker, has given another derivation of the word. Skell, the rivulet that washes its walls, signifies a fountain; and he observes that the first name assigned to this house was the Abbey of Skeldale; but the monks, who always wrote in Latin, translated it ‘De Fontibus;’ and afterwards, when the original name was forgotten, it was translated ‘Fountains.’”

[73] George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, died at a small inn at Kirby-Moorside, on the 15th April, 1687. He was buried in the churchyard, but the precise spot is unknown. The following is a literal extract from the register which records his burial:—

He must have gone to the grave unattended except by the parish officials. The Earl of Arran accidentally passing by the inn while he was dying, gave, indeed, directions to see him “decently interred.” But the memory of his grave has faded; there is not only no stone to preserve his name, but even tradition cannot point out the spot upon which to place it, so that his ashes may be covered by a poor monument. The reader will recall the famous lines of Pope:—

The room is still shewn to the curious; it is a small and poor chamber, not the “worst” in the house, although a strange contrast to the princely halls the licentious duke had so long inhabited:—