¦ E« m mmmj mmmm mmm mmmi^mn A GLADE IN OLD 5HUTE PARK THE STRIFE OF THE ROSES AND DAYS OF THE TUDORS W THE WEST. THE STRIFE OF THE ROSES AND DAYS OF THE TUDORS IN THE WEST. W H. HAMILTON ROGERS, E.S.A., AUTHOE OF "MEMOBIALS OF THE WEST," &C. ILLUSTRATED BY EOSCOE GIBBS. " WHAT FAME IS LEFT FOE HUMAN DEEDS IN ENDLESS AGE ? " EXETEE : JAMES G. COMMIN, 230 HIGH STEEET. LONDON : W. W. GIBBINGS, 18 BURY STREET. M.DCCC.XC. TOKQUAY : FEINTED EY SHINNEE & DODD. M.DCCC.XC. PREFACE. The subjects described in the following pages, have been chosen from among the almost unlimited number that present themselves to notice, during the stirring periods in which they are included, as they appeared to lend interest and variety of incident, illustrative of the days wherein they occurred. The concluding paper — not originally written for this series — extends into the era of the early Stuart, and has claimed admission from the comparatively unique features of its history. W. H. H. E. " The Middle Ages had theie wars and agonies, but also intense delights. theib gold was dashed with blood ; BUT OUES IS SPlilXKLED WITH DUST. ThEIK LIFE WAS INWOVE WITH WHITE AND PUEPLE, OUKS IS ONE SEAMLESS STUFF OF BEOWN." John Raskin. CONTENTS. 1. "OUR STEWARD OF HOUSEHOLD." ROBEET, LOED WlLLOUGHBY DE BROKE, K.G. . 1 2. EXTINCT FOR THE WHITE ROSE. William, Loed Bonville, K.G. 37 3. UNDER THE HOOF OF THE WHITE BOAR. Henry Staffoed, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, K.G. 87 4. UNHORSED AT BOSWORTH. John, Loed Cheney, K.G. 118 5. "WITH THE SILVER HAND." Stafford of Suthwyke, — Aeohbishop, and Earl . 137 6. " THEY DID CAST HIM." Sie Thomas Arundell, K.B. 155 7. OF THE IMPERIAL LINE. Theodoro Paleologus 183 POEMS. PAGE The Message of the Cross. 24 Tamae's Flow . 36 The Meadow Ranunculus 38 Autumnal Houes 84 A Mothee's Song. 86 Salisbuey Spiee 117 Distant Chimes 135 Boswoeth Field . 136 "The Transept of the Maetybdom " 154 The Five Wounds 167 " slout pullus hieundinis sic clamabo " 182 The Welteeing Shoee 189 Paleologus . . 196 "Ex HOC momento PENDET ffiTEENITAS " 206 ILLUSTRATIONS. A Glade in Old Shute Pabk Effigy of Lord Willoughby de Broke, Callington 1 The Cheney Monument, Edington 8 Effigies of Sir Fulke and Lady Greville, Alcestee 29 Tomb of the Second Lord Willoughby de Broke, | Beee-Feerees I 32 Bench-ends, Beeb-Fereees 33 Presumed Effigy of Cicely Bonville, Astley 37 Effigy -of the Eael of Shrewsbury, Whitchurch . ^43 Effigies of Lord and Lady Harington, Poelock 48 Old Shute Gateway gg Effigy of the Duchess of Suffolk, Westminstee ) Abbey f • ' Bench-end, Limington 80 Bench-ends, Barwick 81 Dorset Chapel, Otteey St. Mary 84 Monument to the Duke of Buckingham, Beitfoed 87 Discovery at the Saracen's Head Inn, Salisbury.,! 109 Effigy of Cardinal Moeton, Canteebuey Cathedeal 116 Effigy of Loed Cheney, Salisbuey Cathedeal l£§ Indent of Beass of Archbishop Staffoed, I Canteebuey Cathedeal J 1"' Effigy of Sie John Dinham, Kings -Caeswell 140 143 Gravestone of Emma, Mother of Archbishop | Stafford, North-Bradley j Effigies of Lord and Lady Bottreaux, Noeth. Cadbuey 147 Brass of Sir John Arundell, St. Columb-Major 155 Regal Heraldry, temp. Henry VIII., Cowic, Exeter 168 Bench-ends, Landulph 183 Part of the Lower Seats, Landulph 199 Panel from the Gorges Monument, St. Budeaux 204 Imperial Arms of Greece (Paleologus Monument) 206 Portrait 206 EFFIGY OF ROBERT, LORD WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE, K.G, C*LI,INOTON CHDRCH, CORNWALL A.D. 1502. OUR STEWARD OF HOUSEHOLD." AT somewhat moije than halfway distance between Weymouth on the skirt of the Atlantic, and the good old city of Bristow by the Severn sea, on the thin iron line that crosses the wide end of the western peninsula between those places, — and which in the early days of railway enterprise was cleverly, but of course futilely, stretched as a boom, designed to ' block ' all further extension westward, — and just inside the county of Wilts, lies the quiet little town of Westbury. The station itself is somewhat " larger and more commodious," than common. A two-fold reason accounts for this, one, that of its being the junction of another line that departs hence for Salisbury, and secondly the nature of the industry that meets the eye from the platform, and is in its way unique in these parts. This is the appearance of three towering iron furnaces, with attendant rows of coke ovens, placed on an eminence just outside the station yard ; busily smelting the iron-stone that is quarried from a large ex cavation on the opposite side of the line, and which passes under the railway proper in mimic trains, pulled by a tiny locomotive up to the great glowing bastions, there to be speedily devoured and purified into ' pigs ' of the best quality. A very English sight indeed you will say. Yes, certainly if we were in some of the northern localities of this mineral- saturated island of ours, but strange in its isolated appearance among the bucolic characteristics of the southern portion of it, and moreover here, at least, a development in its way peculiarly modern. The antient ' staple ' of the district is the very primeval one of the manufacture of woolen cloth, which has existed for centuries, is still considerably followed, and enjoys all its olden reputation as being ' West of England,' a pass-word for excellence and purity of fabric, untainted by the admixture of 'shoddy,' characteristic of north- country production. Westbury in company with her sister towns is largely interested in the industry. Our wandering to-day is not in quest of manufactured products iron or woolen, but of a nature that lends a clue to our thoughts which takes us back to the far past strife of the Eed and White Eoses, 2 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. and era of Bosworth, and of the heart-burning that inspired the distich, " The Rat, the Cat, and Lovell our Dog, Rule all England under the Hog," — for the writing of which and presumed sympathy with the Bed Rose, be it remembered, a Wiltshire knight, Sir William Colhngbourn of Lydiard by name, was by the vindictive Richard " caused to be abbreviated shorter by the head, and to be divided into four quarters," — and to search for traces of one of the principal actors, who played a conspicuous part in the turmoil, for he was probably born, or had his original habitation close by. Yonder is the town of Westbury with its factory chimneys and massive church tower in their midst, — below "us the busy railway-station, and immense iron-stone quarry, — in front the great furnaces. Nothing very suggestive in all this as to our expedition to find the old home of Willoughby in these parts ; he of the famed circle of the Garter, and first Baron by a name taken from the little rill of Brooke or Broke, that, outlasting his name and fame, still flows past the house that he occupied while in the flesh. Yet it cannot be very far off. These are our thoughts as we look from the parapet of the bridge that carries the highway over the railroad below, our steps lead us northward, and although our local geography ends here, our usual luck for further guidance is at hand. An old stone-breaker by the wayside stays his hammer as we pass, to give us the morning's salutation, and to our respond we add the interrogatory as to our path to an old house or place called Brooke or Broke, somewhere near. " Brooke-Hall you mean " said he, with special emphasis on the affix, " I know it well, follow on for nearly a mile until the road leads into the brook ; then turn into the gate on your right, go through two meadows and you will see Brooke Hall before you. It is an old antient place, and I have heard was a grand one once, but it is only a farm-house now." With due thanks to, and musing on the inextinguishable influence of tradition, thus continued and wove into the life of our humble but intelligent informant, we saunter along, until the rippling sound of water attracts us on our left. Mounting the low ledge that bounds our path on its other side, at our feet in the enclosure below (locally termed the Bisse) the Brooke or Broke sparkles along gaily as ever, and apparently as undiminished as when four centuries a-past, the knight, whose memories we are in search of, forded its flow. A little farther beyond, and the lane we have been traversing descends abruptly into its bed, which forms a continuance of the thoroughfare for a short distance. Our path diverges through the gate on the right, and into the green fields. Here, at once, although much ameliorated to the wants of the modern farmer, the undulating nature of the ground, the richness of the turf, and scattered stately trees still lingering about to attest its olden beauty and importance, we recognize unerringly the well known characteristics of an antient park, but apparently not of large size. Traces of a winding road lead on from the lane gate, and stretch WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 3 away over a swarded knoll, on the right ; with pleasurable steps we reach the summit of the acclivity, and descry at about another field's space ahead, the still existing remains of the Brooke Hall of our trusty informant. " A grand place once " — we ruminate, recalling the words of the old stone-breaker, as we halt under the shadow of a tall, massive gable, buttressed at the angles like a church, and with the original hip-knop a trefoil on a stalk, still very perfect, and bravely weathering the sunshine and breeze at its apex. From this gable stretches back a building ninety feet long with high-pitched roof, and forms one side of the farm-court. Its further end is joined to a cross-structure of smaller size, now used as the farm dwelling-house. Cautiously we push open the large doors of the cow-court and look inside. This, from no dread of meeting, and having our intruding footsteps ordered off by the antient knight who once possessed it, but rather from the undesirableness of making too sudden acquaint anceship with the vigilant curly-tailed custodian of its precincts eyeing us from within, and who may not, until properly assured to the contrary, be quite satisfied with the object of our investigation ; but a kindly word of advice to him, and of welcome to us, from his master close by, speedily puts everything at ease, and with full permission for inspection. Before however we proceed to investigate the old place, we mentally join company with the famous old itinerant Leland, who came here on a similar errand, and recall the burthen of his descrip tion, when it was in pristine condition, and still in possession of the Willoughby s. " There was of very aunciente tyme an olde maner place wher Brooke Hall is now, and parte of it yet appearithe, but the buyldynge that is there is of the erectynge of the Lorde Stewarde unto Kynge Henry the vii. The wyndowes be full of rudders. Peradventure it was his badge or token of the Amiraltye. There is a fayre Parke, but no great large thynge. In it be a great nombar of very fair and fyne greyned okes apt to sele howses. " The broke that renithe by Brooke is properly caulyd Bisse, and risethe at a place namyd Bismouth, a two myles above Brooke village, an hamlet longynge to Westbyry paroche. Thens it cummithe onto Brooke village, and so a myle lower onto Brooke Haule, levinge it hard on the right ripe, and about a two miles lower it goith to Trougbridge, and then into Avon." We enter the court yard, and the main portion remaining, which was probably erected by the Lord Steward, occupies the whole of the left side. It is a strong substantial building. The front toward the yard has three doorways having good late-pointed arches, and five two-light windows of small dimensions. Between the doorways are buttresses. At first sight, the building seems as if intended for a large hall, especially from the fine high-pitched roof, and its completeness inside, having all the. old timbers remaining. But it appears to have been divided off, and formed into apartments, a considerable portion of the old wood partition- work still remains. It is now used as a stable, barn, and for other farm purposes. The upper end of this long building is joined to a cross portion, apparently the better' -part of the fabric, but not of large dimensions. This has been modernized 4 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. to the requirements of a farm-house, and almost all its antient features obliterated. The walls are of great thickness, nearly six feet, and at the end are some later transomed Elizabethan windows, bricked up, and in a small outhouse below is " T. — 1684 ; " a still later time-mark. As far as could be observed, what at present remains, appears to be only a small portion of the original structure, but in which direction it extended is not certain. Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, writing in 1650, and who visited Broke about that time, describes it as "a very great and stately old howse " with " a Hall which is great and open, with very olde windowes." There was a " canopie chamber," a dining room, parlour and chapel, and the windows were filled with cjats shewing the armorial descent of Willoughby, which he minutely describes; and further, the windows "are most of them semee with Budder of a Ship, or ; " — and again he observes " the Rudder everywhere." We had greatly hoped to have enriched our sketch book with a similitude of one of those rudders, but alas, the most diligent search and enquiry was vain. Not a fragment of the old glazing remained, and neither arms, badge, nor device, was to be found anywhere on the building, sculptured or limned. A small enclosed garden (now used as a rick-plot), skirted with poplars, on the opposite side of the court, was the only other noticeable feature connected with the old place. Thus much for Broke Hall, said we — retracing our steps over the grassy undulations — the antient residence successively of Paveley, Cheney, and Willoughby, all names of knightly renown ; aforetime, as well as now, probably no more apt description could be given of the still sturdy old fabric, than the itinerant's terse note on this little park that surrounds it, it was and is " no great large thing," albeit the " grand one once " of the tradition-burthened mind of our friend the stone-breaker, and this true enough in its way perhaps also, when compared with the hovels of the peasantry that then had their stations near it. The family of Paveley, the antient owners of Broke, held it as early as the reign of Henry I. Reginald de Paveley was Lord of Westbury, succeeded by Walter, and again by Walter Lord of Westbury, in 1255. To him Reginald, who deceased 1279, and Walter, Sheriff of Wilts 1297, died 1323, and succeeding him Reginald de Paveley, who died 1347 ; he married Alice, widow of John, the second Lord St. John of Lageham, died 1322. To him John de Paveley, who married Agnes, with issue two daughters, Joan married to Sir Ralph Cheney, and Alice wedded to Sir John St. Loe, died 1366. The Paveley s also held considerable possessions in Dorsetshire, and bore for their arms, Azure, a cross fleurie or. Cheney, Cheyney, or Cheyne, — originally De Caineto — (or query, from the French du chene, ' of the oak ') was also an old and largely ramifying family, that first came over with the Conqueror, and were subsequently scattered throughout midland and southern England, from Kent to Cornwall, their name still surviving as an affix to their olden possessions in several locahties. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 5 A branch appears to have been early settled, and afterward held considerable station in Devon. "In king Henry III. tyme " says Pole, " Sir Nicholas Cheyney was lord of Upotery," where he was succeeded by bis son Sir William, of whom the Antiquary continues "at what tyme the Dean and Chapter of Roane, with consent of the Kinge, and Archbishop of Roane, granted the same unto ye said Sir William Cheyney, which they had formerly held of the grant of William the Conqueror." Sir William Cheney married Felicia, and had issue Sir Nicholas, who married Ehnor, was Sheriff of Devon, 15 Edward II., 1322, and died 3 Edward III., 1330. To Sir Nicholas succeeded William his son, who married Joan daughter of William Lamborn. He had two sons, Edmond, who died without issue, and Ralph. Sir Ralph Cheney married Joan, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Paveley of Broke, and died 2 Henry IV., 1401. Sir William Cheney, his son and successor, married Cicely, daughter of Sir John Stretch of Pinhoe, Devon, and widow of Thomas Bonville. She died 14 October, 1430. To him and his lady, Bishop Stafford of Exeter on 27 Jan., 1400-1, granted license for them to have divine service performed in their Chapel, " infra manerium suum de Pinho." He was Sheriff of Devon 1408. Secondly he married Joan daughter of John Frome of Woodlands, Dorset, and widow of Sir William Filliol who died 3 Henry V., 1418. Sir William Cheney died 12 Henry VI., 1434, leaving two sons Edmond and John. Sir John Cheney was of Pinhoe. He married Elizabeth daughter of John Hill of Spaxton, was Sheriff of Devon 12 and 22 Henry VI., 1434-44, and was succeeded by his son John, four times Sheriff, who married Margaret daughter of Nicholas Kirkham of Blagdon, and died leaving four daughters his coheiresses. Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, knt., born 4 Dec, 1401, married Alice daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, knt. "with the Silver Hand," of Suthwyke, Wilts, and Hooke, Dorset, who died 27 May, 1442, and was buried in the Chapel of St. Anne in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, which he founded ; — by his wife Elizabeth who died in 1420, daughter of Sir John Mautravers of Hooke, knt. Sir Edmond, who died 30 May, 1430, left two daughters, — Elizabeth, born Nov., 1424, married Sir John Coleshill, knt., of Duloe, Cornwall, and died about 1492,* — and Anne, born, 26 July, 1428, who married * The manor of Tremoderet or Tremedart in Duloe, Cornwall, by Emmeline or Emma, daughter and heiress of Hiwis, brought it to her first husband Sir Robert Tresillian, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, who was executed at Tyburn in 1388. In 1391 she married as her second husband Sir John Coleshill, who procured a grant of this and other manors forfeited by the Chief Justice's attainder. Sir John Coleshill, their son, then about twenty-three years of age, was slain at the battle of Agincourt, leaving an infant son who died without issue in 1483, being then Sir John Coleshill, Knt. His only sister Joanna, was thrice married, first to Sir Renfrey Arundell, a younger son of the Lanberne family, secondly to Sir John Nanfan, thirdly to Sir William Haughton. The manor passed from Arundell to St. Aubin, and thence to Sir John Anstis, Garter King at Arms, who died in 1743 and is buried in the church, after him to his son who 6 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. Sir John Willoughby, knt., who was killed at Tewkesbury 3 May, 1471. Secondly his wife Alice married Walter Tailboys, of Newton- Kyme, Yorkshire, by whom she had a daughter Alianore married to Thomas Strangeways of Melbury, Dorset, ancestor to the Earls of Ilchester. She died in 1469. Thus at the death of these brothers, the name of Cheney in the Devonshire branch became extinct. A long genealogical digression this, but only the necessary putting together a portion of the skeleton of our httle history, which we hope to clothe eventually with something of living interest. Our path has led us back again to the elevated platform of the railway bridge, and also at a mile's distance before us, the old town of Westbury, in which, says Leland, "there is a large churche, and the towne stondith moste by clothiers " appears dimly among the trees, — and its characteristics of to-day still accurately confirm the itinerant's description of three centuries ago. There, rises the lofty church tower much as he witnessed it, but the tall chimney shafts that bear it company have absorbed all the hand-looms that then made busy, by the weaving of kersey and serge, the cottage precincts when he paced its streets. Through the long, and comparatively quiet main thoroughfare of the httle borough, and our thoughts are busy, though our steps are stayed, as we halt to admire the large and handsome west window of the church, perpendicular in style, but with considerable originality of treatment in design ; and rising behind it, the massive proportions of the tower. Here we hope to find some memorials of Paveley, Cheney or Willoughby, for our historic memory recalls to us, that within the fabric there is a Chantry which was formerly attached to Broke Hall, and that its windows were said to be filled with rudders as at their old seat. Our foot crosses the porch threshold, and with intuitive direction leads us at once to the east end of the south aisle, where some apparently well-preserved old oak screen-work, partition off what we rightly divine was the Broke Chantry. But as we draw near a vision of ominous newness, windows flaming with colour, and garish decoration of costly kind spread over every part, puts to the rout at once all hope of anything antient being found within it ; and we learn that the Chantry has been recently elaborately ' restored ' as a memorial chapel to the present owners of Broke, whose family have held its possession for about a century. held it, and was also buried there 1754. " Under an arch in Duloe Church,'' says Lysons, "richly ornamented with vine tracery, is an altar tomb, enriched with shields in quatrefoils, having at the west a bas-relief of the Crucifixion ; on this tomb lies the effigies of a knight, carved in stone, in plate armour with collar of S.S. Round the verge of a large slab of Purbeck marble, on which it rests is the following inscription, Pit jawt lolj'ts Colslpll milts nWu'trt h'xx's, he GTremr.tIjr.rt rt patron' (juj's ud't rpi obiii sbiii hit m'ts m'rii mx'a JTiti Jtjiu" cctdmiii aq' n'u nron'tiei' J|«i' a' " WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 7 We scan the enclosure minutely, but not a vestige of sculpture or inscription, nor stray rudder in the windows, was visible to identify its olden founders, and whether any such had ever existed within it, could not be ascertained. Foiled in our examination of the Chantry, we proceed to look carefully over the whole of the spacious interior of the edifice, but the search is vain. There is yet one chance left, friend of mine, peradventure some stray shield or badge memorizing these antient families may be found outside. Slowly we perambulate the exterior of the structure, and were just preparing to leave the churchyard precincts altogether vanquished, when on the right dripstone termination of the label of the doorway-arch of the httle porch at the base of the west window, there on a small shield very much denuded and weather-worn, we trace the four fusils in fess of Cheney, with the ghosts of the escallops faintly visible in their centres. On the shield to the left is the indistinct outline of a bird of some kind. In his notice of Westbury church, Aubrey remarks : — " In an aisle, north of the chancel where nothing remains of the old glass, tradition is that two maydes of Brook built it (probably Alice and Joan coheiresses of Sir John Paveley (1361) of Brook, — the one married Sir John St. Loe, the other Sir John Cheney). In a chappelle south of the chancell, are left in one windowe some Rudders of Ships or the cognizance of the Lord Willoughby of Brook. In an aisle north of the tower, called Leversidge aisle, were these two escutcheons now gone, viz. — Cheney impaling Paveley, Cheney as before impaling a lion ramp : quartering a cross flory, not coloured." How surely and regularly history, at least the history of human nature repeats itself. Our forefathers, as it is often discovered in the repair or rebuilding old churches, did not scruple when alteration or enlargement of the fabric was needed, to break up the gravestones, or coffin-lids, of their predecessors, this also at the period when a religious thrall exercised its full power over them, while at the same time it encouraged the laying down similar memorials to those they were destroying. In a succeeding age when this influence had lost its spell, and greedy, selfish ends, had absorbed, or stifled completely such traces as remained, a remorseless and almost revengeful desecration followed, buildings were razed, monuments ruthlessly defaced or destroyed, and sepulchres violated, as if those who had left them such interesting and sacred heritage, had been a succession of malefactors deserving the utmost reprobation and contempt. The great despoliation over, the same spirit of heedless, callous unconcern, although in lesser degree, has shewn itself as largely existent through the succeeding centuries, down to these later times of pseudo-ecclesiasti cal revival, which in too many instances continues to exhibit in a still more exaggerated form, all the latent traits of thoughtless destruction, that had its place in days of old. Thus much for our investigation of Westbury church and its garishly garnished Chantry, but before we leave this part of the world, we have another interesting structure to visit, where, if we mistake not, a most important memorial concerning the antient lords of Broke Hall is to be found. 8 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. Our steps lead us out of Westbury by the north west, and passing along under the great White Horse, boldly figured on the high hill by our right, and through the village of Bratton, a turn in the road a short distance beyond, brings us at once in full view of the large and antient Conventual Church of Edington. It is no province of ours here, to describe the great architectural attractions of this fine and still well-preserved fabric, but a glance at the uniquely-shaped tower windows, gives us a clue to what we may expect to find within, for the tracery in their heads, have an unmistakable resemblance to a cross fleurie, or rather recercelee would best describe its shape, the coat- armour of the family of Paveley. Entering the church by the south porch, a survey of the south aisle arcade, brings the eye at once to the memorial we are in search of. The monument is under the second arch of the nave, west of the transept, in the south aisle. It consists of a high tomb with canopy, flanked by an entrance-doorway forming part of one composition, extending the whole breadth of the arch. This was originally one of the enclosing screens of a Chantry, the other two, east and west, dividing it from the aisle having been removed. In the wall of the aisle opposite the tomb, is a two-storied piscina, which was formerly within the area of the Chantry, and against the east division doubtless stood the antient altar. The cover- stone of the tomb is Purbeck marble, and on it are the indents of a knight and lady, but not of large size. The knight's head appears to have rested on a helmet with lambrequin, and an animal was at his feet. The lady in long robe and head on a cushion. Two shields were above their heads, and two more below their feet. There was no ledger-line. Below the tomb are traceried panels with shields in their centres, on them is carved these arms : — 1. A rudder. — 2. Four fusils in fess, each charged with an escallop (Cheney). — 3. Four escallops, two and two (Erleigh?). These charges are exactly repeated on both sides. The canopy is of square form, flanked by buttresses pinnacled on their faces, and the groining within shews five fan-traceried pendants. At the east end- is a large niche, the west is open. The doorway is surmounted by a rich ogee crocketted canopy with finial, and is panelled above. A continuous cornice surmounts both tomb and doorway, of vine foliage and mouldings, crested originally by the Tudor flower, only a part of which now remains. It is broken on each side by four angels holding shields. On the north side are two single angels supporting the arms of Cheney, at the west corner are two angels holding a larger shield quarterly of four : — 1 and 4 (Cheney) ; 2 and 3, a cross fleurie (Paveley). On the south side the single angels display the arms of Paveley, and the pair at the end Cheney impaling Paveley. Over the inner doorway the rudder is again carved — here at Edington its earliest appearance. In the churchyard, near the porch, is a large broken Purbeck marble stone, probably removed from the pavement of the Chantry THE CEESE7 MONUMENT, EDINOTON CHURCH, WILTSHIRE, WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 9 within. On it are the indents of a knight, and lady in horned head-dress, under an ogee crocketted canopy, flanked by pinnacles, evidently of contemporary date with the tomb. Above the figures are two shields, below their feet the space is powdered with scrolls, and a ledger-line enclosed the whole. As usual with influential families resident near large ecclesiastical foundations, and having considerable landed property in the district, the Paveleys, who were the Lords of Westbury Hundred, were doubtless largely connected with the welfare of the Monastery, and as liberal donors toward the building of the Abbey Church. The armorial story told on the tomb, points to its being the memorial of Sir Ralph Cheney, who married Joan, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Sir John Paveley, and succeeded in her right to Broke. He died 2 Henry IV., 1401. The great William of Edington, conse crated Bishop of Winchester, 1345, and afterward Chancellor and Treasurer to King Edward III., was born here, and became a considerable benefactor to the village and Monastery. His surname has not been recovered, but surmised to have been Cheney, — at any rate in a deed dated 1361, the Bishop is described as " guardian of the heiresses of Sir John Paveley," — and one of these, Joan, as we have observed, married Sir Ralph Cheney, and as a consequence with great probability she found sepulchre here with her husband, in their Chantry in the Abbey Church. Back to the railway station again, and a place among the cohort of the iron horse, for a long journey is before us, even from the open, breezy chalk-plains of Wiltshire, to the marge of the majestic Tamar in westernmost Devon, and the granite-bouldered precincts of east Cornwall, where we hope to get further clue to the haunts of Willoughby when in the flesh. Here, we are leaving what was probably his first home and earhest associations before ambition dawned on his future path ; there, we shall visit his later possessions when the sun of fortune had shone on him, and he basked in its rays of honours and wealth. There also our pilgrimage will eventually lead us to that last house, the which he in common with earth's humblest denizen must share. Before, however, we proceed further on our way to what we may term his second home, it behoves us to say something anent the antecedents and coming of the knight himself, and how the name of ; Willoughby originally became located in the west country. Like many a younger son rejoicing in a titled extraction, coupled with probably only a slender portion of the family patrimony, the wooing of a\ distaff- — who, beside let us hope, being endowed with her full share of| love's tahsman, personal attractions, enjoyed also the further potent charm of being an heiress to boot — brought the father of our knight from the fens of Lincolnshire to the distant altitudes of Wilts, and in winning the hand of Anne Cheney for a wife, subsequently became in her right the Lord of Broke. A similar errand sent his son away to the boundary line that divides Devon from Cornwall, and with the well-dowered Blanche Champernowne of Beer-Ferrers for his helpmate, 10 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. there to find his future home, and where we propose to look for him again, after we have gossiped over his lineage awhile. In common with many of our old titled names, Sir John de Willoughby its first possessor in this country was a Norman knight to whom the Conqueror gave the manor of Willoughby in Lincolnshire.* His descendant Sir Wilham in the reign of Henry III. married Ahce daughter and coheiress of John Bee or Beke of Eresby, summoned to Parliament as Baron Beke of Eresby 1295-6. He was succeeded by his son Robert, who inherited at the decease of his grand-uncle Anthony Beke, Bishop of Durham, the great possessions of that prelate, and 7 Edward II., was summoned to Parhament as Baron Willoughby de Eresby. His great-grandson was Robert, fourth Lord Willoughby ; he married first Ahce daughter of Sir Wilham Skipwith, and secondly Margaret daughter of William, Lord Zouch, who died in 1391. t His third son Sir Thomas by Ahce Skipwith, married Ehzabeth daughter of John de Nevill, Lord Nevill of Raby, and Elizabeth Latimer his second wife, only daughter of William, fourth Lord Latimer of the first creation, who died in 1388. Sir Thomas was succeeded by bis son Sir John Willoughby, who married Joan Welby, described as an heiress, and their son was the Sir John Willoughby, who married Anne daughter of Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, Wilts ; whose son was Sir Robert Willoughby, the first Lord Willoughby de Broke, and subject of our httle memoir. There were three other sons, William of Turners-Piddle, Dorset, who died in 1512, and was buried at Bere- Regis ; Thomas, who married Isabel Bedyke of Silton, Dorset, died 1523, and ordered his body to be buried in the church there ; and Edward, Dean of Exeter Cathedral, and Canon of St. George's, Windsor, who died in 1508. Also two daughters, Cicely, Abbess of Wilton, who died in 1528, and Ehzabeth, married to William Carrant, of Toomer in Henstridge, Somerset. Thus far for the coming of the knight ; our next care will be to trace, as far as means available enable us, his progress and actions during the eventful days in which he hved. The strife between the contending factions of the Red and White Roses, in his younger years was strongly predominant, and so thoroughly had the fierce rivalry for supreme power permeated society, that probably it was almost * Burke, t The fine and almost perfect memorial brass of this lady is in the chancel of Spilsby church, Lincolnshire. She is habited in cote-hardie with mantle over, crenulated head-dress with coverchief , two dogs with collars and bells at her feet, her head rests on richly embroidered cushions. On the ledger-line is this inscription, ^it jacef Ulargeria qiu fait mot ^.obnti ht SHglng^bg ht ©rcsbg qiu ubiit *bhj bit mensis Octobris an'o u'ni mtU'imo ttt umiagesimcr p'mo trii' a'it n'n'nrf beus and these arms : 1. Mortimer. — 2. Ufford and Bec quarterly, as borne by Lord Willoughby de Eresby. — 3. Ros. — 4. Wells. — 5. Bohdn. — 6. Zouch. — 7. Beaumont. — 8. Willoughby impaling Zouch. At the angles are the emblems of the four Evangelists. There are also two other splendid figures, probably the succeeding baron and his lady, in the same chancel. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 11 impossible to remain neutral, while men so blindly, yet withal so devotedly, risked their lives and fortunes in partizanship with the contending claimants of the divine right. To choose a side was an absolute necessity, — "Under which king, Bezonian ? speak or die ! " was the question of the hour, and had to be answered with all its contingent risk. In the west country the adherents of the Red Rose seemed to have the preponderance, the detestable craft and cruelty of Richard III. doubtless had its effect of estrangmg from sympathy with him, all except just those who were allied to his rule by the hollow tie of self-interest, and the usual glamour of adhering to the powers that be, no matter how arrived at or constituted, or what its actions were. The first important social function we find Sir Robert Willoughby discharging, is that of Sheriff of Devon, 21 Edward IV., 1481, being the year preceding the one in which his friend Sir Giles Daubeney held the same office. And then, in harmony with the prevailing distracted state of public affairs we have described, we next observe rhm in active sympathy with the claims of the Red Rose, and consequent enlistment in the cause of Richmond of York, in the company of a large number of west country gentlemen, the Marquis of Dorset (representative of Bonville), Giles Daubeney, the Courtenays, John Cheney, Walter Hungerford, and others, in their rising and march to Sahsbury, in order to effect a junction with, and aid the movement in Wales of the ill-fated Duke of Buckingham, in 1483. But the extraordinary swollen state of the Severn — " an inundation so remarkable that for a hundred years afterward it was called the Great Water, or Buckingham's Water, said to have lasted ten days, and that men, women, and children were carried away in their beds by the violence of it " — placed a barrier between their forces from effecting a junction, leaving the unfortunate Stafford in Richard's power, who forthwith consigned him to the scaffold at Sahsbury, and sent Sir Robert and his companions in speedy flight to the south coast, and thence ' beyond seas ' over to Richmond in Brittany, thereby escaping a similar sanguinary fate, which would have been remorselessly meted out to them. For this defection his lands were seized, and Broke and Suthwyke were bestowed by Richard on his favourite Sir Richard Radchffe. Our clue as to his movements, for a short time, becomes one of surmise rather than of actual proof. At the dispersal of Buckingham's followers, Sir Robert and bis attainted companions fled to Brittany, and he remained probably with them at Vannes or the neighbourhood, until the Earl of Richmond set out on his final expedition from Harfleur to Milford-Haven. This he doubtless accompanied, although no special mention is made of his name, nor as to his taking part in the engagement at Bosworth, where however he must have been present from circumstances that followed. Dugdale says "he was a successful sharer in the benefit of that great victory," another thing to that of sharing its danger. A much more important event however, identifying the presence 12 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. of Sir Robert at Bosworth, or immediately near, and shewing the confidence the victor placed in him, was Richmond despatching the knight, the day after the battle, and before Henry left Leicester, with a detachment of horse to the castle of Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, to convoy the unfortunate Earl of Warwick (son of the Duke of Clarence and nephew of Edward IV.), then a prisoner there, to the still safer and more dangerous custody of the Tower of London, only to emerge eventually from thence to his death on the scaffold. This mission is thus described by the old chronicler Hall. Henry in order "to obsist the first likely mischiefe, sent before his departure from Leycestre Sir Robert Willoghby knight to the maner of Sheryhutton in the County of Yorke for Edward Plantagenet Erie of Warwike sonne and heire to George Duke of Clarence then beyng of the age of xv yeres, whom Kyng Richard had kept there as a prisoner durynge the tyme of his vsurped reigne. Sir Robert Willoghby accordynge to hys commission receaved of the conestable of the castle the Erie Edward, and him' conueighed to London, where the youngelynge borne to perpetual calamitie was incontynent in the towre of London putt under safe and sure custody." The circumstances connected with the inveiglement of this poor boy, — who for fifteen out of the twenty-four years he had lived, had been a close prisoner, and so shut out from all knowledge of the outer world, that he was said " not to know a goose from a capon," — into a confession of complicity with Perkin Warbeck's attempt, and then his barbarous murder, — for it was nothing less, — on Tower Hill, is one of the darkest of the many selfishly revengeful crimes that stain with indehble cruelty the reign of the first Tudor king, as the equally detestable slaying of the lad's aged sister the Countess of Sahsbury, in 1541, appals by the horror of its incidents, the second. " The truth was," says Rapin, " the real crime that cost him his life, was his being the last male heir of the house of York." He was beheaded 14 Nov., 1499, and Sir Robert hved to witness the wretched fate of the noble youth he had four years previously brought a captive to London, and in his death the extinction of the hope of the White Rose. At the conclusion of Henry's first Parhament in 1485, in company with his friend Sir Giles Daubeney, Sir Robert had the honour of the peerage conferred on him, by the title of Baeon Willoughby de Broke, but the writ of summons does not appear to have been issued until 12 August, 1492. About the same time he was constituted one of the king's Privy Council. In 1489, he was created a Knight of the Garter, being the two hundred and forty-fourth on the roll of that noble order. Lord Willoughby de Broke' s first important pubhc function appears to have been his despatch from Portsmouth by Henry, with an army " to the number of eight thousand choice men and well armed, who, having a fair wind, in a few hours landed in Brittany " in March, 1489, professedly to protect at her own proper costs and charges the girl-duchess Ann, then about twelve years old, from the aggression of the French king, Charles VIII. , who was encamped with a hostile force within her territory, but which province he eventually added to his kingdom, together with the hand of its young mistress. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 13 Here he remained in inglorious ease until November, when the little army, with the exception of the five hundred left to occupy the " cautionary towns " until payment for the expedition was made, returned; during which time, and for a considerable portion of the year ensuing, a game of dissimulation and feints at fighting was carried on between the three monarchs, Henry, Charles, and Maximi lian, practically over the destiny of the young Duchess. Then the scene of this playing at war shifts suddenly from Brittany to Flanders, where the subjects of Maximilian — the proxy husband, of Ann — at Ypres and Sluys were in open revolt, respecting " an unpalatable edict concerning coin," and to aid whom Charles VIII. had sent Marshal d'Esquerdes with large succours of help, thus attacking the would-be bridegroom and his child fiancee, on each side, and at once ; a game that proved successful in the end. Maximilian in his turn sent ambassadors, over to the wary calculating Henry, then holding the scales between the monarchs, as he was at the same time also engaged in negociations with Charles, who was procrastinating and not intending to give any definite answer, nor but httle frightened at Henry's preparations, as he was well assured within himself how matters would eventually terminate. Henry was however seriously annoyed at the French king's dissimulation, and despatched with all speed a httle expedition of a thousand men over to Calais, the command being entrusted to the Lords Morley and Willoughby de Broke. Lord Daubeney was at that period Governor of Calais, and to this force he added another thousand men, drawn from the garrisons of Calais, Hammes, and Guisnes ; and they had " secret instructions to aid Maximilian and raise the siege of Dixmude " where the citizens, soldiers, and their allies were encamped. The Enghsh soldiers appear to have stolen an effective surprise upon the Flemings and their French alhes in the night, for they had apparently no idea of the attack, and routed them with great slaughter, , said to have been eight thousand in number, while only a hundred or thereabout of the English were killed, a statement to be received with caution, as Lord Morley, Sir James Tyrrell, Captain of Guisnes, Sir Humphrey Talbot, Marshal of Calais, Sir Gilbert Talbot, and others, were among the slain. The pursuit over, the English army retired to Newport, where Marshal d'Esquerdes appears to have followed and attacked them without result. As this was the first touch of real hostilities, such as they were, between Henry and Charles, for the time it " bred a great coldness " between the belhgerent monarchs. But the coldness did not last long, and meanwhile a complete tangle of matters enveloped these three royal players, over the destiny of their hostage the girl-princess of Brittany, secretly wedded by proxy to Maximilian, practically a prisoner in her httle kingdom, unprotected, and in the eyes of the French king a very desirable alliance for him, and so incorporate that province under the crown of France, of which nation it formed an integral portion. Ambassadors came over from the Duchess to sound Henry's intentions of protection toward her, others were despatched across in February, 1491, to the 14 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE, French king by Henry, and these were followed again by further ambassadors from Ann, vainly waiting in London for an answer. So things progressed, and Charles who by his agents was busily plying the young Duchess with his suit, in his turn amused the Enghsh envoys, until he found he had won her and had the game in hand, then he cut the knot of the difficulty by marrying her 16 Dec, 1491 ; and Henry's ambassadors returned discomfited. This climax came as a bomb-shell among the great personages. Maximilian was furious at the loss of his bride, and threatened immediate invasion of France for so deadly an affront ; this however did not much trouble Charles. What he was most concerned with was the attitude of Henry who was also greatly enraged, and who, beside openly boasting he should at once prepare for war against him, was also influencing Ferdinand of Spain — whose daughter Katharine was espoused to his son Arthur — to join him in the conflict. Thus France was threatened on three sides at once, Charles however had httle fear of Maximilian or Ferdinand. In the meantime Henry had another trouble nearer his door, with the Scotch, and no settlement appeared to be in view, while the comphcation in France continued, the French king being probably moving behind to prevent. Ambassadors again came over from Charles to negociate, but Henry who had the ulterior object of getting well paid for what he was about to do, and the old debt due by Ann of Brittany discharged, aided by liberal subsidies from Parhament, assembled an army of twenty-five thousand foot, and sixteen hundred horse, and on the second of October crossed over to Calais, to make conditions on his adversary's soil, never meaning to fight, but by show and menaces, see what he could get. The conduct of this large flotilla, which arrived at Calais the same day, was under the command of Lord Willoughby de Broke, as Lord High Admiral ; a notable piece of seamanship for the age, and shewing that at the time England had a considerable reserve of shipping. Henry with all the ' pomp and circumstance ' of war marched out to Boulogne, then, instead of fighting, the inevitable ambassadors on both sides duly met, and a treaty of peace was signed at Etaples on the third of November. The French king perfectly well knew his anta gonist's mercenary longings, and that himself and. his army were only there to exact the last golden crown possible, for the conclusion of the matter by monetary consideration was an understanding between them before Henry left England. So Charles agreed to pay Henry an immense sum in discharge of his wife's debt, and also another large amount, arrears of the yearly pension agreed to be paid by Lewis XL to Edward IV., his wife's father. Thereon the Enghsh king retired with his army and treasure, or the promise of it, back to London, the French monarch returned to his young bride at Paris, and the undis puted possession of her dowry the Duchy of Brittany, and Maximilian was left to shift for himself. After this manner therefore ended the war concerning Brittany which began five years before in 1487. This appears to have been the last foreign service in which Lord WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 15 Willoughby de Broke was engaged. We do not find his name among the generals * of the king's army employed in the suppression of the Cornish revolt at Black-Heath, nor otherwise engaged at home, until the landing of Perkin Warbeck at Whitsand Bay in September, 1498, when he held a command in the royal forces under Henry in his march to the west to meet the plebeian pretender to his crown. Lord WiUoughby de Broke came to Taunton with Lord Daubeney and others commanding the troops, and after Perkin' s return as a captive from Beaulieu, went on with Henry to Exeter. There the king dealt with the insurgents personally, many of whom came with halters round their necks sueing for pardon, and having punished some, to use his own words, "grant unto the residue generally our grace and pardon, and our Commissioners, the Earl of Devon, our Chamberlain, and our Steward of Household, have done, and do dayly, in our County of Cornwall." The ' Steward of Household ' was Lord Willoughby de Broke, and he was peculiarly fitted for the duty, not only on account of his relationship by property with the County, but also by virtue of his position as Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall. This was apparently his last public employment of any note, and probably age was steahng on him, as he died four years afterward. Of the offices and honours conferred on him by Henry, we find those of Lord Steward of the Household, Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall, and alternately that of Captain-General or Marshal of the land forces, and as an Admiral of the fleet, in the king's expeditions to France, also a chief Commander of the forces when engaged at home. He was called to the Privy Council, created a Baron by writ of summons, and subsequently elected a Knight of the Garter. He twice served the office of Sheriff of Devon, in 1481, and again in 1488. Lysons says "in the reign of Henry VII. the mines of silver and gold (in Cornwall) were leased to Sir Robert Willoughby." Thus far have we proceeded with Lord Willoughby de Broke's publie services abroad and at home ; our next care must be to glance at his domestic surroundings, and what constrained him to leave his old ancestral place of Broke Hall amid the breezy altitudes of north Wilts, and find his way to the sheltered banks by Tamar's marge, in south Devon. Nothing in any way singular or unusual, simply that potent cause which has tempted many a young man to stray far away from his father's roof-tree, brought Robert Willoughby down to Beer- Ferrers, — the search for a wife, — and the lady he selected was endowed with one, at least, most attractive charm, eagerly sought after by mediaeval knight — and not altogether lost sight of, by suitors in these, in some respects not much-improved mercenary, unchivalric modern days of ours, — she was an heiress, largely dowered with the home possessions of an antient race, of whom she was there the sole representative in right of her grandmother, one of three sisters, coheiresses, its last descendants ; while on her father's side she was * Lysons says he was one of the Commanders against them. 16 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. also the only survivor of a branch of another of the most time- honoured names in the county. Blanche Champernowne was the pleasant name of the distaff that Robert Willoughby won for his bride. She was the only daughter of John Champernowne of Beer-Ferrers by Ehzabeth Bigbury bis wife, which John succeeded his elder brother Roger who died without issue. He was the second son of Alexander Champernowne (who died 30 June, 1441), by his wife Joan, daughter and coheiress of Martyn Ferrers, who, says Pole "was the last of yt name of Ferrers, Lord of Beere-Ferrers." Alexander was son of Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, by his first wife Ahce daughter of Thomas Lord Astley, and whose second wife was Katharine daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney. The family of De Ferraris or Ferrers, whose ' name and blood ' Blanche Champernowne represented, deserves a short genealogical notice here. They had from very early date been settled in the parish of Beer, one part of which, says Pole, "takes his name of ye family of Ferrers, th' ancient inhabitants, from whence all the Ferrers in Devon and Cornwall issued." Ralph de Ferrers was its lord in the reign of King Henry II., to him succeeded Henry, Reginald, and Sir Wilham who married Isolda daughter of Andrew Cardinham, leaving issue Sir Roger, Sir Reginald, and Sir Hugh the ancestor of the Churston descent. Sir Reginald, of Beer, married Margaret sister and coheiress of Sir Robert le Dennis of Pancrasweek, and had issue Sir William who married Matilda daughter of Roger Carminow. They were followed by their son Sir John, who was succeeded by his son Sir Martyn, who, says Pole, was " the last of that name of Ferrers, Lord of Beere-Ferrers ; a person of great honour and integrity, one of the principal persons entrusted with the guard of this shire," corrobor ated by Risdon, who adds, " he was put in special trust, with others, for the defence of the sea-coast against the invasion of the French in King Edward the third's time." Sir Martyn left three daughters, Ehzabeth married to Hugh Poynings, Lord St. John of Basing, Leva to Christopher Fleming, Baron of Slane in Ireland, and Jone " to whom the mannor of Beer- Ferrers fell in portion " to Alexander Champernowne. Further notices of this family will occur on our visit to the little sanctuary in the village, which they appear to have originally built, and wherein several interesting memorials to them remain. Their allusive arms were, Or, on a bend sable, three horse-shoes argent. Concerning this prettily named heiress Blanche Champernowne and her family, the prosaic and literal old itinerant Leland, gives us further notice, and, if his description of her be correct, takes much of the romance out of it, — " There was another house of the Campernulphes more auncient, caullid Campernulphe of Bere. The last of this house left a doughter and heire caullid Blanche, maried first onto Copestan of Devonshire, and after devorcid and maried onto the Lord Brooke, Steward onto Henry the VII, and he had by her a 700 markes of lande by yere. " John Willoughby that cam out of Lincolnshire and maried the an heire general of the Lord (of) Broke, and after was Lord Brooke hymself , lyeth buried at Hedington, and was a benefactor to that house. As I remembre, the sunne of WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 17 this Lord Broke was Steward of king Henry the VII House, and his son was the third Lord Brooke of that — . N.B. — and he had a sunne by his firste wife, and that sunne had ij doughters maried to Daltery and Graville. He had by another wife sunnes and doughters. The sunnes toward yong men died of the sweting syknes." The genealogy is here somewhat confused, but Leland appears to have been trusting to memory only. We have made pilgrimage to, and described what remains of the old ancestral home of the knight in Wiltshire, and our steps next lead us to the locahty of the new one he possessed by right of his wife at Beer-Ferrers in Devon. Like all places situate on the estuaries of large rivers such as the Tamar, that are tidal, and fringed by creeks that run considerable distances inland, Beer- Ferrers on the land side is only to be reached by a circuitous route from Plymouth, and therefore we elect the easier and more direct approach to it, by aid of the iron horse to Saltash, and thence by boat. The tide is well up, and a pleasant breeze soon speeds us on our way. We pass the Budshead creek, that extends inland to Tamerton- Foliot, and are soon opposite a second and somewhat larger opening that runs up to Maristow, where, at its far end, the sparkling Tavy, fresh from the granite boulders of Dartmoor, delivereth her waters into the salt bosom of the lower Tamar. At about mid-distance up the creek on its northern shore, a small compact village, with a square battlemented church tower rising in the midst, has its place on the bank that slopes gently down to the water's edge. Thither we steer our way, and making fast our little craft to the pier, or ' quay ' as these landing places are locally termed, find ourselves at Beer-Ferrers. And where shall we discover this new home, you say, that Lord Willoughby de Broke acquired by right of Blanche Champernowne, and when in the flesh possessed and resided in, with surrounding park, and for which mansion or manor-house, his wife's ancestor Sir Wilham de Ferrers had a license to castellate from king Edward III. in 1337, a concession subsequently renewed to his widow the Lady Matilda, and continued to his son Sir John ? Even in Leland's time, immediately after the decease of the last Lord Willoughby de Broke, it seems to have disappeared, for he notes : — " on the east side of this creek is Buckland. And on the west side is Bere, where the Lord BroJce's house and park was." We believe nothing now remains to mark its former site but a few undulations in the turf. A graphic picture of the lawlessness of the era of Lord Willoughby de Broke's earlier residence at Beer-Ferrers, and the amenities of social hfe exhibited between the " bettermost folk " of that district, and comparatively neighbours also, is shewn in an account preserved among the muniments of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, describing attacks made on the person, servants and residence of his ancestor Richard Edgcumbe of Cotehele (M.P. for Tavistock in 1468) by Robert Willoughby of Beer-Ferrers, and thus described by the Earl to the members of the Royal Archaeological Society in 1876 :— " The document is rather amusing, dated 1470, and is apparently the rough copy of a complaint or information by this Richard against Robert Willoughby, 18 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. who lived across the water at Beer Ferrers, of injuries done to him at sundry times. This paper which is remarkable for its wonderful spelling and for the careful way in which every hostile act is estimated at its money value, contains no less than thirteen items or charges, each specifying some distinct outrage on the part of the said Willoughby and his followers, numbering on one occasion ' three score persons, infoi-m of war arraied, withjackes, salettes, bowys, ar'ws, and byelys, who at various times andplaces contrewayted the said Richard to have mordered him and with force of armes made a great affray and assawte upon him and his servants sometimes to the gret jeperdy and dispayre of his liff,' always to his hurt and damage of so many pounds. And on another occasion attacked Cotehele House itself and carried off a very miscellaneous collection of articles to the hurt and damage of the said Richard of a great many pounds ; and at other times took divers of his servants and kept them for a week at a time in prison at ' Bere Ferrers,' and ' bete ' and grievously wounded others, especially one William Frost, to the hurt and damage to the said Richard of £20 and more. It is a curious fact that fifteen years later this Willoughby (as Lord de Broke) and Richard Edgcumbe .held high places together in the court of Henry VII." Richard Edgcumbe had a narrower escape however from the vengeance of Richard III., after the suppression of Buckingham's revolt, in which he was a partizan, being strongly attached to the fortunes of the Red Rose. A party of armed men in Richard's interest, headed according to tradition by Sir Henry Bodrugan, other wise Trenoweth, of St. Gorran in Cornwall, an adherent of the White Rose, made search for him in his own beautiful home of Cotehele. Carew describing the event says, "he was driven to hide himself in those his thick woods, which overlook the river, what time being suspected of favouring the Earle of Richmond's party, against King Richard the III., he was hotely pursued, and narrowly searched for. Which extremity taught him a sudden policy, to put a stone in his cap, and tumble the same into the water, while these rangers were fast at his heeles, who looking downe after the noyse, and seeing his cap swimming thereon supposed that he had desperately drowned himselfe, gave over their farther hunting and left him at liberty to shift away, and ship over into Brittaine : for a grateful remem brance of which delivery, hee afterwards builded in the place of his lurking, a Chapell." After the victory of Bosworth, and Henry was seated on the throne, it came to Edgcumbe's chance to turn the tables on his adversary, and this he did most effectually. Tradition further relates, according to Lysons quoting from Tonkin, that, " Sir Henry Bodrugan was in arms in Cornwall against the Earl of Richmond, (Henry VII.) that he was defeated on a moor, not far from his own castle by Sir Richard Edgcumbe and Trevanion, and that he made his escape by a desperate leap from the cliff into the sea, where a boat was ready to receive him, and fled to Ireland, when all his large estates, including Bodrugan Castle, described by Borlase " that there was nothing in Cornwall equal to it for magnificence " were forfeited to the Crown. Most of Bodrugan's estates, including the manor of St. Gorran (whereon was the castle) were granted to Sir Richard Edgcumbe, and now belong to his descendants." Two very remarkable and almost identically coincident escapes. The place where he jumped over the cliff at Dodrnan's Head, is still known as "Bodrugan's Leap." Edgcumbe was Comptroller of the Household, and of the Privy Council to Henry VII., and died returning from an embassy to WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 19 France, at Morlaix on his way home, in 1489. Willoughby, Lord de Broke was bis superior officer as Lord Steward of the Household to the same monarch ; thus at Court they were closely associated with each other. Subsequently 22 Henry VII. (1497), Lord de Broke obtained of the king a grant in fee of the manor of Trethewye in St. Cleer, and all the lands there, 'part of the forfeited possessions of Sir Henry Bodrugan, and which were situate near his other property at Callington. So these worthies divided the spoil of their unfortunate neighbour. As it hath happened to us aforetime, in many of our wanderings, in search of the former earthly habitations of those we were essaying to bring back to the stage of our thoughts, so also here,— successively of Ferrers, Champernowne and Willoughby, — all traces of their olden home have disappeared, and only a site with a name and a tradition remains to identify where stood their antient dwelling-place. Therefore our steps lead us back to that hallowed spot, where they, in common with us all, found their last and final home of eternal rest, there to seek for such memorials of them as may yet remain. The church of Beer-Ferrers is an antient structure, the chancel and transepts of interesting early-decorated character, and but little disturbed from their original condition. But although used for parochial worship in the ordinary sense of the word, the little sanctuary was of old something more than that, being dignified ecclesiastically as a foundation of collegiate character, and termed an Arch-Presbytery. Of these somewhat uncommon religious establish ments there were two in Devon, the other being at Haccombe, founded (about the same time) 1341, by Sir Stephen de Haccombe. This, at Beer-Ferrers, was founded by Sir Wilham de Ferrers, who having rebuilt the church was desirous of making it Collegiate. For this purpose he assigned a sufficient endowment for an arch-priest and four other priests, who were to hve in common under the same roof ; and provision was also made for an assistant deacon, or sub-deacon, or at least a clerk. The Community were to perform the daily and nightly office in the church, and to offer up perpetual prayers for the prosperity of the Founder and his Lady Matilda during their lives, and for their souls after death. Also for the souls of Reginald de Ferrers and his wife Margery (parents of the Founder) and the souls of Sir Roger and Lady Joan de Carminow (parents of his wife) and the bishops of Exeter living or dead. Bishop Grandison confirmed this foundation 17 June, 1333. The Founder did not long survive his charitable work, for it is found in that prelate's register (vol. ii., fol. 219) that his relict and executrix Matilda obtained from the bishop 15 Dec, 1338, an acknowledgment of having well and faithfully administered to her husband's property, and that only the sum of twenty pounds remained in arrear, " ad completionem cantarie de Biry." (Oliver.) A glance into the chancel, although five centuries have flown, brings us face to face with the Founder and his wife. There— marvellously preserved— humbly postured on one knee, his glowing tinted proportions, amid the crimson interlacery, and quarrels of pale- 20 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. pencilled leaflets, that fill the east window, arrayed in gilded chain-mail, silver genouilleres and sword-hilt, with the armories of his race, the dark bend and gleaming horse-shoes traversing both ailette and surcoat. In his raised hands he bears the offering of a grand church, having three spires, and over his head runs a legend that apparently reads " (SYR) E WILL'S FERREYS ME FECIT." Fronting him in the adjoining hght, with hands uphfted in prayer, kneels his wife Matilda Carminow, in snowy wimple and cover-chief, pink boddice and sleeves, with the broad bend of her husband's arms embroidered on her golden robe. The inscription above her head, seems to be confused and undecipherable. Studding the borders of the lights, interspersed among other ornaments, are the arms of Ferrers and Carminow, and a grand escutcheon similarly charged, and encircled with beautiful green-foliaged ornament occurs below. Thus much for the history of the foundation of the arch-presbytery as depicted in the window ; immediately beneath on the north side of the altar, upon a raised tomb of plain character, rest the recumbent effigies of the Founder and his wife, carved in stone, and habited almost exactly in duphcate of the figures limned on the glass above. Over them rises a beautiful pyramidal canopy, cusped below, flanked by pinnacles rising from the ground, the whole richly foliaged and finialed. In the upper spandrels are angels swinging censers.* But the peculiarity of this memorial consists in the lower portion of the canopy being cut through the wall, and opening to the side-chapel or chamber that adjoins the chancel on that side, where its elevation is repeated, as in the church, but with much less ornament. In the transept, which appears to be coeval with the chancel, in the east wall is a piscina, and the moulding immediately adjoining, marks the position of an altar that once had its position there. In a recess beneath a finely moulded arch at the north end under the window, is the effigy of a knight in chain-mail and surcoat, with shield, and hands grasping his sword, cross-legged, — the head raised and supported on a large bascinet- shaped helmet. The - legs are destroyed to the knees, and of the hon on which his feet rested, only the paws remain. This figure is of contemporary date with the Founder in the chancel, with great probability is a Ferrers, and may represent his father, who was on the bede-roll of the foundation. Here concludes our notices of the memorials of Ferrers, the first of the influential families Blanche Willoughby represented. Our next care, will, if it may be, to note any traces of the equally antient race that succeeded them at Beer, and gave to her, her maiden name of Champernowne. One only, humble but characteristic, remains, now ousted from its original position in the pavement of the church, to the yard outside, where it must speedily pass to decay. It is a flat stone, on which is incised a Calvary cross on degrees, having at the intersection the * There appears to be only two examples of this fine style of monument found in the county, the other occurring in the Chapel of St. James, in Exeter Cathedral. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 21 Sacred Heart rayonne, inscribed with the Sacred Monogram. Below is this inscription, — Hie iaret Jtoger ffiljampnoni'e Jtrmtner an' a'i't p'p'mtar be' ante' This was the eldest brother of John Champernowne, to whom he succeeded at Beer, and uncle to Blanche Willoughby. Roger died 14 November, 1422. Following these, our investigations naturally carry us on to note such remembrances of Willoughby as occur in the sacred edifice. There are several, actual and inferred, but our jottings must be stayed for the present, as the first memorial to that noble race is found elsewhere, — and our steps will return here after a while to conclude them. Again we have recourse to our little craft, and crossing the bright Tamar, land on the Cornish side, and thence by a circuitous and winding lane of considerable length, find ourselves on the high road about halfway between the old half-maritime, half-inland borough of Saltash, and the equally antient half-mining, half- agricultural borough of Calhngton. As we steadily climb the gentle but continual ascent that leads to the old tinners' town, a grand and varied prospect surrounds us. Immediately in front looms the immense pyramidal mass of Hingston Down and Kit Hill rising over it, in all near eleven hundred feet above the tidal marge of the blue sea that gleams behind us, its crest garnished with many a tall chimney stack, the out-growth of that glamour of wealth so invincibly dear to the Cornishman's heart, that is always coming, but so seldom arrives, and whose witchery has been handed down from countless generations even long before old Leland's foot passed over it, and he made note of it as "being a hy hylle, and nere Tamar yn the easte part, baryn of his self, yt it is fertile by yielding of tynne both by water and dry warkes." Hence the distich, " Hengston Down well yrought, Is worth London Town dear ybought," but whose smokeless chimneys now stand as the witness-ghosts of the hundreds of thousands of buried treasure sunk aforetime within its vast bosom, yet nevertheless rich to a degree in mineral wealth, and boundless resource of granite and clay of the finest quality, from which considerable returns have been made. To the right in the far distance rise the shadowy tors of Dartmoor in successive range, melting back and merging into the grey realms of cloud-land. On the left, clear cut into the bright evening sky, appears the magnificent boldly outhned mass of the Caradons, behind which the sun has just dipped, and a blue aerial haze of singular beauty and varying density, stretches down their side and unites them to the broad valley beneath. We pass the skirt of Viverdon Down, an immense common, susceptible of better cultivation, but now a fastness for game only, and rough food for young animals; albeit gay in its appointed season with 22 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. wealth of heather and gorse, and, if neglected by man, glorified by the unseen touch of the Infinite, — " How full of love must He In all things be, Who strews with beauty e'en the waste and wold, Who gives the moorland lark His purple heath-bower dark ; The mountain bee, his wilderness of gold." Quietly continuing our way, a short distance further brings us to the apex of the ascent, and as we begin to descend, before us is the 1 tyrmer's towne ' of Callington, with its granite-built, expressively- pinnacled church tower rising well above the clustering houses that surround it. Here, at Calhngton, Lord Willoughby de Broke held another large property by right of his wife as a descendant of Ferrers, and also at South-Hill, as being himself the representative of the family of Stafford. Lysons says, — " The manor of Callington was in the Ferrers family when the market was granted in 1267 by Henry III. ; Joan daughter of Martyn Ferrers, brought it into the Champernowne family, Lord Willoughby de Broke became possessed of it by marrying their heiress. It appears that he occasionally resided, and that he died, at the Manor-house of Callington, for he directed in his will he should be buried in the church of that parish in which he should die. From Willoughby it passed by successive marriages to Paulet, Marquis of Winchester (who married his grand-daughter Elizabeth), Dennis, Rolle, Walpole, and Trefusis. At Southill, two-thirds of the great manor or franchise of Callilond or Kalliland, to which the church of Southill is appendant, which belonged formerly to the baronial family of Stafford, and passed by a coheiress to Willoughby Lord Broke, and now vested in Trefusis." Where the Manor-house mentioned by Lysons was situate cannot now be determined, but it is surmised to have been a building, which has long wholly disappeared, and was called Chickett-Hall, that formed Lord Willoughby de Broke's residence at Callington, and where he presumably departed this hfe. He was patron of the important benefice of South-Hill, and in its daughter church of Callington he was buried. But according to Sir R. C. Hoare he died at Wardour Castle, Wilts, which he had purchased. Lord Broke made his will 19 August, 1502, and "ordered his body to be buried in that parish wherein he should happen to die appointing that part of the issues and profits of Mitton and Kelmesham, dc, Go. Worcester, and the Manors of Helmingham, Thorpe-Latimer, Skredyngton, Heckington, Ledynghall and Swyne- head in Com 1 Lincoln (then lately belonging to Lord Latimer) should be employed by -the space of twenty years next after his decease, to the finding of a priest to sing in the parish church of Hoke in Com : Dorset, for that term, taking for his salary every year ten marks, and to the relief of fourteen poor men and women, by the space of the said twenty years, to pray for his soul, as also for the soul of Blanche his wife, and the souls of his father and mother." Probate, 25 December next ensuing. (Dugdale.) WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 23 Lord Willoughby de Broke is buried on the north side of the chancel of Callington church, and his monument— perhaps the finest of its kind in Cornwall — consists of his effigy recumbent on a high- tomb, both composed of alabaster. He is habited in complete plate armour, collar and apron of mail, and broad-toed sollerets, and is armed with sword and misericorde. The hands are in gauntlets, the head — which rests on a helmet — is uncovered, the hair cut short across the forehead, but flowing by the sides of the face, to the shoulders. The helmet is mantled, and surmounted by the crest a Saracen's head ajfronte, couped at the shoulders, ducally crowned, and with ear-rings. The feet are on a hon, and behind the soles, are two monks, or weepers, their heads bowed and inclining toward each other, resting on one hand, with the other they hold a rosary. The Garter appears below the left knee, and over the armour he wears the Robe and Collar of the Order, on the left shoulder is embroidered the Shield encircled by the Riband, the Collar is composed of roses within a garter, and garter-knots alternate, and from it is suspended the George. The tomb below is formed of panels filled with rich tracery, having in their centres shields with carved armorial bearings, and twisted pillars were at the corners ; of these two remain. No inscription is visible, it was probably only painted on the verge of the ledger-moulding, but traces of colour and gilding are faintly discernible on the figure. The effigy is in a fair state of preservation, but wretchedly disfigured on the surface, by legions of names and initials, barbarously cut into, and scratched on it. The shields, — two of which are encircled by the Garter, — are charged with the arms borne by Lord Willoughby de Broke, as derived from Willoughby de Eresby with due difference. Quarterly : first grand quarter 1 and 4, Sable, a cross engrailed or (Ufford) ; 2 and 3, Gules, a cross moline argent (Bec or Beke), at the intersection a crescent for difference ; second, Gules, a cross patonce or (Latimeb) ; third, Gules, four fusils argent, on each an escallop' sable (Cheney) ; fourth, Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure engrailed sable (Stafford). On the styles between the panels appears the rudder, surmounted by the rose of his patron Henry VII. It is singular that no armorial alliance allusive to his wife appears on the tomb, but only his own family achievement with its proud distinguishment conspicuously displayed, finds place thereon. Yet Blanche Champernowne was an heiress of no mean descent, and richly dowered also, being the representative of the two very antient races of Ferrers and Champernowne, west country names of remote descent, and wide-spread renown, whose property she inherited. The more to be noted also, as he was presumably buried and his monument occurs in the church at Calhngton, whose manor formed a portion of her possessions. Where Lady Willoughby de Broke was buried does not appear. At Beer-Ferrers the horse-shoes of Ferrers do find position of equal consequence with her husband's, but largely super imposed with the rudders of Willoughby. Champernowne does not appear in either church, but on her descendant's tomb at Alcester, 24 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. both Ferrers and Champernowne are carefully marshalled among the elaborate heraldic display. Stay thy foot, friend of mine, a short while, ere thou passest out of the sacred enclosure, and scan yon venerable churchyard cross — how rich is Cornwall in these reminders — slightly leaning, yet hale in the strength of the almost imperishable granite, and with the age-worn imagery of the Great Sacrifice, still plainly discernible, insculped on one of the faces of its pediment. There it was before the honour- bedizened noble — whose tomb we have been just surveying — found his way to Callington to enjoy the portion of his great possessions, situate near it ; and who shall say he may not many a time have bowed his head in silent prayer, and crossed himself reverently at the sight of its solemn appeal, when in life he passed in front of it, as he entered the adjoining sanctuary for worship, ere he finally found therein his grave. And here also it is to-day, speaking the same eternal lesson to us, who are seeking to gather back from the woof of the Past, ravelled threads of his memory ; and there it will, doubtless be found, when we also are merged into the things that were. Such is THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS. Hoary and worn and frayed, — Old cross, — By ruin's hand arrayed, Time's dross : — What message never stayed, Speaks from thy lips decayed ? " Strife of the years is gone, Not me, — Drooping, bereft, and lone, Here see Pilgrim, by days undone, Heaven's pleading-still, milestone. " Ah 1 many eyes as thine Have come, Met this old gaze of mine, Then home, Would their glad steps incline, Bearing my tale divine. " Where are they now ? 0 say — No sound, — Ask the memorials gray, Around, — They came again this way, And down beside me lay." Lord Willoughby de Broke by his wife Blanche Champernowne, left one son Robert, his heir, and a daughter Ehzabeth, married (as his second wife) to Wilham Fitz-Alan, seventeenth Earl of Arundel, K.G. who died in 1543, and was buried at Arundel. Robert Willoughby, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, married first Ehzabeth, eldest of the three daughters and coheiresses of Sir Richard Beauchamp, second Lord Beauchamp of Powyke, who died WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 25 1503, by his wife Ehzabeth daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford, knt. This marriage of Lord Beauchamp and Elizabeth Stafford, took place in the private chapel of his manor-house of Beauchamp's- Court near Alcester, by special license of the Bishop of Worcester. The manor of Alcester belonged to the Beauchamps. Walter de Beauchamp, brother to Wilham de Beauchamp, the first Earl of Warwick of that line, purchased a moiety of the manor, and had one of his seats at Beauchamp's-Court near that town, the other being at Powyke, in Worcestershire. His descendant Sir John de Beauchamp, K.G., who was created Baron Beauchamp of Powyke, 2 May, 1447, by Henry VI. and who was also Lord Treasurer of England, purchased the other portion of the manor of Thomas Bottreaux, a representative of the antient Cornish family of that name, who had held it for several descents. He died in 1478, and at his death left the whole manor to his son and heir, Richard, the second baron ; and he at the marriage of his daughter Ehzabeth with Robert Willoughby, settled its reversion, subject to his own life, upon her. By this his first marriage, Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke had one son Edward. More concerning him presently. Secondly he married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset, K.G. — by his wife Cicely, the heiress of the Lords Bonville and Harington. By her he had two sons Henry and Wilham (who died young of the sweating sickness) * and two daughters, Ehzabeth married to John Paulet, second Marquis of Winchester who died in 1576, and Anne wedded to Charles Blount, fifth Lord Montjoy, who died in 1545, son and heir of William, fourth Lord Montjoy, whom her mother Dorothy Grey subsequently married as her second husband. Of the public services of this nobleman we hear httle beyond his being attached to the expedition under the command of his father-in- law the Marquis of Dorset, sent to Spain early in 1512 by Henry VIII. on behalf of Ferdinand of Arragon, and which returned to England somewhat ingloriously in the November of the same year. He survived his son Edward, and gave a considerable portion of his large property to the daughters of his second wife. He made his will 1 Oct., 1521, and "bequeathed his body to be buried in the Hospital called the Savoy, in the suburbs of London, before the image of St. John the Baptist, appointing a priest of honest conversation should be provided to sing and pray for his soul, as also for his ivife's soul, and * Bacon thus describes the pestilence: — "This disease (Sweating Sickness) had a swift course both in the sick body, and in the time and period of the lasting thereof, for they that were taken with it, upon four and twenty hours escaping were thought almost assured. It was a pestilent fever but as it seemed not seated in the veins or humours, for that there followed no carbuncle, no purple nor livid spots, or the like, the mass of the body being not tainted, only a malign vapour flew to the heart and seized the vital spirits, which stirred Nature to strive to send it forth in an extreme sweat. And it appeared by experience that this disease was rather a surprise of Nature, than obstinate to remedies, if it were in time looked unto ; for if the patient were kept in an equal temper, both for clothes, fire, and drink moderately warm, with temperate cordials, whereby Nature's work were neither irritated by heat, nor turned back by cold, he commonly recovered. But infinite persons died suddenly of it, before the manner of the cure and the attendance were known." 26 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. all his ancestors souls for ever, in the place ivhere he should be buried taking for his yearly salary seven pounds." After making bequests to his illegitimate children, he gives " to his son Henry, all his harness, bows, arrows, and all other his weapons defensive, to the intent he should be therewith ready to serve his prince, in time of need." " And departing this life shortly after by a pestilential air 10 Nov. 13 Henry VIII. — 1521, — was buried in the church of Beer-Ferrers." (Dugdale.) Edward Willoughby, son of the foregoing, married Margaret daughter of Richard Nevill, second Lord Latimer \ of the second creation (by Anne Stafford his wife), who died in 1530, By her he had three daughters, Elizabeth, Anne, and Blanche. Anne died unmarried, Blanche married Sir Francis Dautry, knt., and dying leaving no issue, Elizabeth the eldest was left at length, says Colhns, — " sole heir to the last Lord Broke, her grandfather ; also to her grandmother Elizabeth, eldest of the daughters and coheirs of the last Lord Beauchamp of Powyke ; and thus in her own person, united the illustrious successions of those two noble families. As the sole heir to her grandmother, she came to be seized in fee of the whole manor of Alcester, in consequence of which, letters-patent of exemplification were granted 3 Elizabeth, to her then a widow, confirming all the grants of fairs, markets, &c, made in the time of her ancestors. And as the sole heir of her grandfather, it appears by an inquisition taken after her death, that she died seized in fee, not only of the manor of Alcester, but of sundry other manors and lands, in the counties of Warwick, Worcester, Lincoln, Leicester, Somerset, and divers others ; the whole amounting to so great a value, that she might well have been esteemed one of the richest heiresses of her time, as well as one of the best descended." Here was a lady rivalling in illustrious birth and immenseness of possessions the famed west country heiress Cicely Bonville, one of whose daughters her grandfather had married as his second wife. What fortunate youth was destined to make prize of this high-born and wealthy orphan, — with whom was to reside the influence of the bestowal of her hand, fortune, and let us hope also, her heart ? There resided not far away from the home of this fatherless, richly- dowered girl, an old and well descended race of gentlemen caUed Greville. Leland, who wrote his itinerary contemporary with the httle lady's existence in the flesh, thus describes them, — " Sum hold opinion, that the Gravilles cam originally in at the conquest. The veri ancient house of the Gravilles, is at Draiton by Banburi, in Oxfordshire. t Memorable also is this Richard, Lord Latimer, for the dispute he had with Robert, Lord Broke, touching the Barony of Latimer; to which as next heir in blood to John, Lord Latimer of Danby, who died without issue 9 Henry VI., he claimed a right. But to end the contention the Lord Broke was informed by an herald, that Sir George Nevill, grandfather to Sir Richard, was created Lord Latimer by a new title, which therefore lineally descended to Richard, by Henry, son and heir of the said George ; and that the Lord Broke had made a wrong claim ; who shduld have claimed his style from William Latimer, first created Lord Latimer of Danby, (the head manor of this Barony) temp. Edward II ; on this, the Lord Broke perceiving his error, and having a' title of his own, was contented to conclude a match between their children, and Richard suffered a recovery on certain manors and lordships demanded by the Lord Broke, with which adjustment both parties were well satisfied. — Banks. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 27 But ther is an nother manor place of the chief stok of the Gravilles, caullid Milcot, yn Warwickshire, where a late is a newer, fairer and more commodious house. And court rolles .remayne yet at Draiton, that the Gravilles had landes ons by yere 3300 marks. And Gravilles had Knap Castel, and Bewbush Parke, and other landes in Southfax, by descentes of their name. "Grevill an ancient Gent, dwelleth at Milcote, scant a mile lower than Stratford towards Avon ripa dextra." This "ancient gent" residing at Milcote, only a comparatively short distance from Beauchamps-Court, Sir Edward Greville by name, although of considerable social standing, did not rank in influence with the Brokes and Beauchamps. He appears to have been an assiduous attendant at the Court of Henry VIII. , "was in the commission of the peace for Warwickshire, and in 1514 at the seiges of Terouen and Tournay, also at the battle that ensued, called by our historians the Battle of Spurs, from the swiftness of the French running away. He received the honour of Knighthood 13 October for his valiant behaviour. In 1523, he was appointed one of the Knights to attend the King (Henry VIII.) and Queen to Canterbury, and from thence to Calais, and Guisnes, to the meeting of the French king ; every one of that degree having a chaplain, eleven servants, and eight horses." Sir Edward married Anne, daughter of John Denton of Amersden in the county of Bucks, died in 1529, and was buried in the Chapel of St. Anne in the church of Weston-upon-Avon. By his wife he had four sons, John, Fulke, Thomas, and Edward, and like a prudent far-seeing father, he naturally looked about for good matches for them, and one prize at least was in view, and near at home, if he could obtain her reversion. So making use of his Court influence, on his return from the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he "in 13 Henry VIII., 1522, obtained the wardship of Elizabeth, one of the daughters and coheirs, and eventually the sole heir of Edward Willoughby the only son of Robert, the second Lord Broke ; a grant which in its consequences, greatly contributed to aggrandize his family as will appear from what followed." Theoretically it would be presumed the "obtaining a wardship from the Crown," was simply that of a philanthropic trusteeship, but practically it meant something of a much more sordid nature, even the disposal of the person and possessions of the ward, for its own selfish uses and purposes, a monstrous privilege, or rather power, which was the chief object of their acquisition, and as a rule duly enforced. Therefore in accordance, we learn further that " Sir Edward intended her for John his eldest son, but she preferred in affection Fulke his younger son, and we get the following account of this marriage from a manuscript entitled ' The Genealogie, Life, and Death of Robert, Lord Brooke,' — wrote in 1644, and in possession of Francis Earl Brooke,* — ' In the days of king Henry the Eighth, I read of Sir Edward Grevill of Milcote, who had the wardship of Elizabeth, one of the daughters of the Lord Brook's son. This Knight made a motion to his ward, to be married to John his eldest son ; but she refused, saying. that she did like better of Fulke his second son. He told her, that he (Fulke) had no estate of land to maintain her, and that he was in the King's service of warre, * Collins, Peerage, edition 1756, and probably now among the muniments of the Earl of Warwick. 28 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. beyond the seas, and therefore his returne was very doubtful. She replyed and said, that shee had an estate sufficient for both, for him, and for herselfe, and that shee would pray for his safeties, and waite for his coming. Upon his returne home, for the worthy service he had performed, he was by king Henry honoured with knighthood ; and then he married Elizabeth, the daughter of the Lord Brooke's son.' " After all, Sir Edward did not have it exactly his own way, some little romance was mixed up with this " matter of mere attorneyship," and the evidently high-spirited girl had a will of her own, and preferred the sailor youth, to the more prosaic stay-at-home son. It is well perhaps her inchnations did not lead her for choice outside Sir Edward's family circle, and doubtless the knight was sufficiently reconciled to find one of his boys in possession of the heiress. By this marriage Sir Fulke settled himself at Beauchamp's-Court, and with his wife's large property, and others acquired afterward by purchase, became of high distinction and position in the county of Warwick, and it further appears that " he was an affectionate husband and tender parent ; that he had encountered great difficulties, in securing the inheritance of his wife (the daughters of the late Lord Broke, claiming as coheirs), and that he was remarkably accurate in his accounts, and adhered strictly to justice in all his transactions, appears by the whole tenor of his will, dated 12 Elizabeth, in which towards the end he thus expresses himself, ' and my especial requests to my executors (his wife and eldest son) for the love I have borne them, and for the travel I have taken in establishing the hole inheritance, with my great costs also to be considered, I most earnestly require them, and on God's behalf charge them, that my debts be paied, if I die before the accomplishments thereof '.' " So it fortunately turned out, that the Lady Elizabeth was happily wedded to a kind, honourable, and just man. She bore him seven children, three sons and four daughters, — Fulke, who succeeded his father, — Robert, of Thorpe-Latimer, Lincolnshire, ancestor of the Earls Brooke and of Warwick, — Edward, of Harrold Park, Waltham- Abbey, Essex, whose 'line terminated in two daughters coheiresses, — Mary, married to William Harris of Hayne, Devon, — Eleanor, to Sir John Conway, of Arrow, and Ragley, in Warwick, who died in 1603, father of Edward, first Baron Conway, — Catherine, to Charles Read, of the county of Gloucester, and Blanche who died unmarried. This evidently attached couple did not long survive each other, Sir Fulke died 10 Nov., 1559, and his wife followed him to the tomb the year following — 1560. They were buried under a magnificent monument that originally stood at the end of the south aisle, near the chancel in Alcester church, but which is now removed to a position near the tower at the west end. Considering Alcester church was almost wholly rebuilt about a century and a half since, at an era when memorials of the dead were not too circumspectly cared for, this noble tomb with its recumbent figures, and wealth of ornament has been wonderfully preserved from injury. Except that the coloured decoration is somewhat softened by Time, it is otherwise but little mutilated, and displays all its antient splendour almost unimpaired. G^^'cgS^ c^ EFFIGIES OF SIB FULKE AND LADY ELIZABETH GREVILLE, WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 29 On a black marble table are their effigies in alabaster, richly painted and gilded. Sir Fulke, bare-headed, is in full armour, two chains around the breast, from the lower depends a Maltese cross (or star) of five arms, sword and misericorde, feet in broad sabbatons puffed at the toes, and resting on a hon, — rings on his fingers, head reclining on a helmet, with crest a greyhound's head couped at the shotolders sable, collared or. Lady Ehzabeth wears a close fitting cap, hair parted in the centre and brought across the brow, ruff, three small chains around the neck, gown with collar, sleeves having dependant lappets, and puffed, knotted and slashed at the shoulders, with robe over fastened across the breast with cordon and tassels. Her head rests on double cushions, rings are on her fingers, and from her girdle, suspended by a chain, a gold pomander or pix, with double rose ornament on the lid. By her left foot is a little dog, sable and collared. The effigies are in a fine state of preservation, and around the edge of the table this inscription : — Here lireib the boiiJEa of f ffoblkfi nrebile krtTrgljt & la&j (BlijabEtb hia ttrefe the bobrthtEr & ijeivz of eoinaro JxtiUoit0tjbTr£ £KrjUTJTE ttj£ aOttE & tTETfrE of ItobErt hrillounbbrrE knggbt lorb of brokE & laby (BlijabEth ottE of th£ DougbtEra & ia\je^xes of tbE lorb beaitrbampa of pofoTjEhE inbicbE f ffoulkE brjEb ibfi * bay of jtobEirtbEr a'tto o'tti JE0 b° lis anb tb£ a£ib laby (El^abEtb bga mi?ff bEpErtEtr tbe bay of in thE yE« of o^ lorb gob JE° b0 Is of mbofE fouka gob fjabE tnfirErr antEn On the sides of the tomb below are a series of small figures, and an elaborate heraldic display, which claims special notice. Under the knight are seven figures: 1, a knight in full armour, bareheaded, sword, and chain round neck ; 2 and 3, two ladies, with black hair, chains round their necks, their gowns red, lined with black. On the other side of the large shield, four figures : 4 and 5, two ladies with black hair, gold chains, and black gowns lined with red ; 6, apparently a chrism child, with hood and clothes wound round in red, laced across the chest, knees, and ankles with a black band; 7, another lady clothed as 1 and 2. Under the cornice eight small shields :— 1. Sable, a cross engrailed or (Uffoed).— 2. Gules, a cross moline or (Bec). 3. Gules, a cross fleurie or (Latimbk).— 4. Sable, a fess between three fleurs-de-lys or.— 5. Gules, four fusils in fess or* each charged with an escallop sable (Cheney).— 6. Gules, three mullets pierced, or.— 7. Azure, a cross fieurettee or (Paveley ?).— 8. Gules, a hon rampant or. Below them inscribed in the centre, JUma (Bbmarbi orEbile bE miknte militia. under the inscription a large escutcheon quarterly of four,— 1 and 4. * Gold is used throughout the heraldry on the monument to represent either metal. The shields are here blazoned as they actually appear. 30 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. Gules, a fess between six martlets or. — 2 and 3. Or, on a fess azure, three fleurs-de-lys of the first. Round the shield on a blue riband, DONA PACIENC.IA DIEN ME On the other side under the lady are eight figures : 1 and 2, are ladies in gilded caps and cuffs, black gowns lined with red, and sleeves similar to those worn by Lady Greville ; 3, a chrism child habited exactly as that on the opposite side ; 4, a lady clad similar to the first two. On the other side of the central shield, four ladies apparelled as the other three, their gowns red lined with black. All the figures stand on httle pedestals and have their hands raised in prayer. Under the cornice eight small shields : — 1. Sable, a fret or (Maltbavers). — 2. Azure, two bars gemells or (Cifbewast). — 3. Per fess gules and azure, three crescents or (D'Aumaele). — 4. Gules, a saltier vaire, between twelve billets or (Champernowne). — 5. Or, on a bend sable, three horse-shoes of the first (Ferrers). — 6. Azure, an eagle displayed or (Bigbury). — 7. Gules, a fess between six martlets or. — 8. Or, on a fess azure, three fleurs-de-lys of the first. Inscribed below them in the centre, ^.rma JtobErt UtillongbbyE bomtna bz brokE. Under the inscription a large escutcheon quarterly of eighteen : — 1. Sable, a cross engrailed or (Ufford). — 2. Gules, across moline or (Bec). — 3. Gules, a cross fleurie or (Latimer). — 4. Sable, a fess between three fleurs-de-lys or. — 5. Cheney. — 6. Gules, three mullets pierced or. — 7. Azure, a cross fleurettee or (Paveley?) — 8. Gules, a lion rampant or. — 9. Or, a cross fleurie gules. — 10. Or, three bars gules. — 11. Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure engrailed sable (Staffoed). — 12. Or, six lioncels rampant gules, three and three. — 13. Maltravees. — 14. Cifbewast. — 15. D'Aumaele. — 16. Champernowne. — 17. Feeeebs. — 18. Bigbuey. — Around the shield the riband of the Garter with motto, HONI SOIT qVI MAL Y PENSE At the head of the tomb, four small shields * on the cornice : — 1. Sable, on a cross within a bordure both engrailed or, nine pellets of the first (Geevtlle). — 2. Frminois, a fess checquy or and azure. 3. Quarterly per fess dancette, 1 and 4 or, 2 and 3 azure, in the dexter chief a crescent gules. — 4. Geevtlle. Below them inscribed in the centre, ^.rma JFulconia grsbilE tntlttia $t bomtttt (SlijabEtb usoria eiub. under, a large escutcheon supported by nude alabaster figures of boys, — baron, quarterly of four charged as the shields on the cornice above, impahng femme, quarterly of twenty, eighteen of the charges as on * Commencing with these, the series of small shields round the tomb, number ing twenty-four in all, follow the same sequence as the corresponding number of quarterings on the escutcheon below them. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 31 the large shield below the lady, and 19. Gules, a fess between six martlets or. — 20. Or, on a fess azure, three fleurs-de-lys of the first. Around the shield on a blue riband the motto as under the knight. At the foot of the tomb, four shields on the cornice: — 1. Or, a cross moline gules.— 2. Or, three bars gules. — 3. Staffoed. — 4. Or, six lioncels rampant gules, three and three. Inscribed below them, Jlrma iltEharbt b'rti bE bello darrtpo baronia bE pouitEb Et b'iti be ^.kEatEr. Underneath are two shields and a lozenge, — one above two. On the first, quarterly of four, as under the knight ; on the second, quarterly of four as baron at the head of the tomb, in the fess point a mullet for difference. On the lozenge twenty quarterings as femme, — as at the head of the tomb. Twisted pillars occur at the corners of the tomb, and on each side of the large escutcheons, and the whole composition is in a remark ably good state of preservation. Fulke, the eldest son of Lady Ehzabeth, was a most accomphshed man, and the great friend and biographer of that "mirror of knighthood," Sir Phihp Sidney. He married Ann, daughter of Ralph Nevill, fourth Earl of Westmoreland who died in 1549. By her he left one son Fulke, and one daughter Margaret, married to Sir Richard Verney of Compton-Mordak, Warwickshire. Sir Fulke died in 1606. Sir Fulke, the grandson of Lady Elizabeth, was really the heir through her to the barony of Broke, but at that time, it did not appear to be a point clear in law, that after an honour had been for some time in abeyance in the female line, it could be afterward claimed by the heir. He was greatly in favour at the Court of Ehzabeth, who rewarded him liberally, and he obtained from king James I., in the second year of his reign, a grant of Warwick Castle and its dependencies, then in a ruinous state, which he gradually re-edified and restored at great cost, and, January 29, in the eighteenth year of the same reign was advanced to the title of Baron Brooke, of Beauchamp's-Court, a dignity further enhanced to an Earldom of the same name 7 July, 1746, followed by that of the Earldom of Warwick 13 Nov., 1759. Sir Fulke, the first Lord Brooke, was unfortunately murdered at his house in London, by one Haywood his servant, who hearing Lord Brooke had not included, him for a legacy in his will, as he had his other servants, Lord Brooke not considering him entitled to it, resented the omission, and after angry expostulations, stabbed him in the back, in his bedchamber. The assassin then rushed into another chamber, locked the door, and destroyed himself. Lord Brooke hngered a few days, and expired 30 Sep., 1638. It was to the descendants of Margaret Greville, sister to Sir Fulke the first Lord Brooke, and grand-daughter of the Lady Elizabeth, that the title of Willoughby de Broke, was destined to be restored. She married Sir Richard Verney, of Compton-Murdack in Warwickshire, 32 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. the then representative of that very antient and distinguished family. Sir Richard died 7 Aug., 1630, and Lady Margaret 26 March, 1631. They had issue four sons and four daughters. Sir Greville ob : 1642, the eldest son of Sir Richard, had also four sons, — Greville, the eldest ; John, who died young ; Richard, of Belton ; and George. This descent of Greville (the eldest son of Sir Greville) became extinct on the death of his son Wilham in 1683, leaving no issue. The succession was now vested in Richard of Belton in the county of Rutland, third son of Sir Greville. He was a person of considerable culture and influence, and Sheriff and Knight of the shire for Warwick. As descendant through the heiress of Greville, from Robert Willoughby, Baron of Broke, he laid claim to that title, which was allowed him in Parliament 13 February, 1695, — 8 William III., and on the twenty-fifth of that month, had summons by writ to the house of peers, and on the twenty-seventh took his seat accordingly as the third Baron Willoughby de Broke, — the original title being granted 12 August, 1492, — 7 Henry VII. He married two wives, hved to the great age of ninety, and was buried at Compton- Verney, Warwickshire. The title is still held by his descendants. Here ends our direct genealogical and biographical details, and we retrace our steps to the church of Beer-Ferrers, where the second Lord Willoughby de Broke was buried. We have described such remembrances as remain there to the famihes of Ferrers and Champernowne, and it now becomes our province to make note of the memorials that exist to their successors the Willoughbys. The first traces that meet the eye are on the bosses of the roof of the south porch — whereon are shields charged with the arms of Ferrers, Cheney, Latimer, &c. ; and a glance within the church shews us a pleasing array of bench-ends, of well designed tracery and uniform design, except the two easternmost, which are ornamented with shields of arms, referable to their presumed donor. On one is the achievement of Willoughby de Broke, similar to the escutcheon on the tomb at Callington, on the other the bend and horse-shoes of Ferrers, here made four in number, and saltierwise across them, are five rudders, — that descended to and was adopted by Willoughby. Both porch and bench-ends are of late fifteenth century work. We pass into the north transept, and there on the north side of the position of the antient altar once therein, and standing at right angles from the wall, is a large high-tomb of Purbeck marble. The massive cover stone is plain, but around its edge is a deeply sunk indent in which was originally the inscription either on brass or painted within it. Below in panels are shields with classic wreaths around them, boldly sculptured,— there are no charges on the escutcheons, and they appear to have been originally covered with brasses, on which the charges were emblazoned. The era may be referred to the first half of the sixteenth century, and with great probabihty it may be considered to be the tomb of Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, who died in 1522. Before we leave the sacred edifice, a chastened thought creeps over us, as we take a last look at the fine old glass in the east BENCH -"ENDS, BEER -FERRERS CHURCH, DEVON. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 33 window. Just seventy years a-past, a gifted student in the pursuit we also at humbler distance love, made pilgrimage here, and was engaged in making a drawing of its interesting painted story, when death suddenly stayed the work of the artist, snapping the very pencil in his fingers, and instantly translated him, from picturing the earthly image of the Founder of these courts below, into his immortal presence in the great temple above, and the company of all those who "have died in His faith and fear." Gratefully we note, appreciative minds have placed a small brass in the pavement, where, on the 28 May, 1821, Charles Alfred Stothard met with his sad, and to mortal sight, untimely end. His cunning fingers are mouldering in the dust below, and moss and decay are stealthily obliterating his record outside, but the fidelity and truth of his works remain bright and undimmed, forming his best and most enduring monument, — for " It is the gods that die, not God ; It is the arts that perish, not Art ; And beauties may disappear, but Beauty herself Is immortal." The arms proper of Willoughby appear to be Or, fretty azure, and with regard to the badge of the rudder, although it has been questioned, still the evidence of investigation goes far to prove it to be by ancestral descent, the peculiarity of this family. Leland makes special note of their appearance at Broke-Hall, and also in Westbury church. It first occurs in connection with Cheney on the tomb at Edington, also with Willoughby at Callington, is well marked on the bench-end at Beer-Ferrers, and again — out of compliment — appears in similar situation in Landulph church, on the opposite side of the river. It is found in Lychet-Matraver's church in east Dorset, on the font and over the windows, accompanied by the golden fret of Matravers ; here it follows Ehzabeth, sister of Lord Willoughby de Broke, who married William Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, Baron Matravers of Lychet, and lord of the place, who died in 1543. The church was evidently rebuilt about that time, and displays the characteristics of late, almost debased Perpendicular. Another memory concerning Willoughby de Broke yet remains for us to chronicle, and we must spirit you away, gentle reader, from Tamar's oozy marge to the dry undulating chalk hills of central Dorset, and invite you to enter the well-cared-for little church of Hooke. Descending to him through his grandmother Anne Cheney, as representative of the famihes of Stafford and Matravers of Hooke, Lord Willoughby de Broke held large properties in this and the adjoining parishes, eleven manors (as enumerated by Hutchins), and where also he had a seat, of which, says Coker, " Humphrey Stafford who married Matraver's heir, was the great builder of it," then the residence of the Marquis of Winchester, descendant of the Willoughbies ; "but his successors have not thought so well of it, wherefore it is hke to run to decay." On its site now stands a modern mansion, with a few antient vestiges interwoven, and around it is a fair-sized park. It was in Hooke church that the first Lord 34 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. Willoughby de Broke by will endowed the priest for twenty years to pray for his soul ; and within the edifice, on the south side, is a small chantry, which opens to the church by an arch of late character, richly decorated with a course of quatrefoil panels having in their centres shields, and edged on each side with a string-course of fohage. There are no bearings on the shields. Here, doubtless, the masses pro bono statu of the deceased nobleman's soul were regularly sung and said for the time specified. No memorial to Willoughby is visible in the chantry, excepting a small brass, that probably had its original station within it, but is now affixed to the opposite wall, which records the following, — ©f yor tfrarytE pray for ibfi fouls of (Bbmoitb j^mar latE fe'b'nt to &obt toylrmbby brtyrrbt latE lorb fjrobfi ixTtjirbe (Ebmottb bfirfiffEb yE siti bay of lanuary tbE ysr of or lorb m b* ssiii on irrbofE IouIe JFhit bauE mEwy arrtErt Wilham Willoughby succeeded to the Arch-Presbytery of Beer- Ferrers 21 April, 1533, — patron Walter Seymour, by virtue of grant from Lord de Broke. He died 1565, and the Arch-Presbytery expired with him. Both probably were members of the same family. A review of the life of the first Lord Willoughby de Broke exhibits no sahent features, beyond those associated with the social distinctions and worldly prosperity, usually conferred on and accom panying the faithful subserviency, that follows in the wake of a conqueror. His public functions scarcely reached in importance those exercised by his companion at Court and in arms, and fellow west- countryman Giles, Lord Daubeney ; but in the main they were much alike ; each served Henry as a military commander, both on sea- and land, abroad and at home, were the envoys entrusted to negociate his crafty, vacillating, compromising policy in missions to foreign potentates, and held respectively the highest positions at his court, the one as Lord Chamberlain, and the other as Lord Steward of his Household. Although the Edgcumbe episode seems to pourtray him in _ his younger years as a daring and lawless marauder on his neighbour's peace and possessions, large allowance must be made for the disorganized state of society in that distracted age, where every man essayed to be a law unto himself, and might became right, in a very large sense of the word. In after years — like Lord Daubeney — when Henry was firmly seated on the throne, and order largely restored, Lord Willoughby de Broke was probably a careful and cautious courtier, steering clear of the intrigues that stalked about Henry's court (and infested the Tudor dynasty to its close), one who studied the mercenary, selfish policy of his royal master, and made himself generally useful as opportunity and circumstance occurred, and in return was rewarded with honours, accompanied by grants of his neighbour's confiscated lands, which cost the generous monarch he served, nothing to bestow. His name, somewhat prominent from the functions he exercised, helps to fill up the middle distance of the picture, that environs _the advent of the first Tudor king. WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. 35 Concerning the history of the subsequent possession of the antient home of the Willoughbies de Broke,— Charles Blount, the fifth Lord Montjoy, who married Anne the daughter of Robert, the second Lord Willoughby de Broke by his second marriage, had in her right, livery of the manor, 31 Henry VIII., 1539. He was of eccentric turn, served in the rear guard of the army sent to France in 1544, and by his will made at that time, he ordered a stone to be set over his grave in case he was there slain, with the following epitaph, as a memento to his children, to keep themselves worthy of so much honour as to be called forward to die in the cause of their king and country — " Willingly have I sought And willingly have I found, The fatal end that wrought Thither as dutie bound: Discharged I am of that I ought To my countrey by honest wound ; My soul departyd Christ hath bought; The end of man is ground." and further devised some extensive charitable bequests. He died in 1545, and was buried in the church of St. Mary Aldermary, London (Weever) — his grandson Charles Blount, eighth baron (raised to the dignity of Earl of Devonshire, and K.G. in 1603), — sold Broke Hall and Manor to William Jones, of Edington, Wilts, gent, in 1599. Yet one more remembrance of the Willoughbies and of the same house as the Lords Willoughby de Broke, waits notice, and our little chronicle concerning them is concluded. In Southleigh churchyard in east Devon, close to the chancel end of the church is a high-tomb, erected evidently to a person of some position ; on the end panel is incised the grand achievement of Willoughby de Eresby, as on the tomb at Callington, and with the crescent for difference, shewing that he was of the same descent. The form of the letters in the inscription is of an extraordinary uncouth kind, and tell us HERE LIETH THE BODY OF HENRY WILLOUGHBY WHO DYED THE 28 DAY OF SEPTR. 1616. but we have been hitherto unable satisfactorily to place him in the Willoughby pedigree ; the following however may be added. Sir Wilham Willoughby, second son of Sir John Willoughby of Broke, and brother to Robert, Lord Willoughby de Broke, was of Toners-Piddle near Bere-Regis, Dorset, and by his will dated 28 November, 1512, proved 13 February, 1512-13, ordered his body to be buried in the church of St. John the Baptist at Bere-Regis. He endowed a Chantry at Edington in Wilts, and gave to the Abbey of Milton in Dorset fifty marks. Nicholas Willoughby his son was also of Toners-Piddle, where, says Hutchins, " he held this manor and advowson, and four hundred acres of (plough) land, two hundred of mead, three hundred of wood, and two thousand of furze and heath, there and in Snelling and Chilborough, of Lewis Mordant as of his manor of Duntish, in free socage and by fealty." In 1546 Robina his widow instituted John Brikill to the rectory. By his will 36 WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE. dated 15 May, 1542, he ordered his body to be buried in the church of Bere-Regis, as did also Leonard Willoughby his son. " At the upper end of the north aisle," Hutchins remarks, " are two altar tombsof grey marble, but the brass plates, effigies, escutcheons, and inscrip tions gone ; perhaps they belong to the family of the Willoughbies." In 1653 Sir Robert Willoughby and Ehzabeth his wife sold the capital mansion-house, farm, and advowson of Toners-Piddle to Robert Lewen. Toners-Piddle church "was re-built in 1759, the little aisle of the Willoughbies was not re-erected. There were no inscriptions in it, that family generally burying at Bere." Christopher Willoughby, another son of Sir William, married Isabel daughter of Nicholas Weeks of Dodington, Gloucester, and he had a son named Henry, who married Jane daughter of Dauntsey of Lavington, Wilts. Richard Willoughby, third son of Sir John Willoughby of Broke, was of Silton, Dorset, having married Isabel daughter of John Bedyke of that place, who brought the manor to her husband. He died 1523, she 1524, and both by their wills ordered their bodies to be buried in the church of St. Nicholas there. They left several descendants. Henry Willoughby's tomb at Southleigh, has been carefully and substantially repaired by a representative of the family. Back to Beer-Ferrers again our thoughts return, and recall the memory of our last visit to the antient home, successively of Ferrers, Champernowne, and Willoughby, names all now extinct, that had relationship there. Evening is creeping on, as we leave the Httle jetty and find ourselves afloat, slowly making way out into the Tamar proper. How many a story speaks to us of the past, from its dim cliffy banks, that history and tradition have preserved, how many more, silent and forgotten, are lost for ever. Such the doom and fate of human life, httle episodes on the stream of time, successive and evanescent as the wavelets that rise and die against the bosom of our little craft. Of Willoughby de Broke, a larger remembrance remains, but it only points in a fuller sense to an often recurring issue of human life, graphically summed up concerning them by the quaint old historian Westcote, — " but this family fading in his very blossom, soon came to his period." TAMAR' S FLOW. 0 Tamar' s flow ! lowly I bend mine ear, And listen to thy lisp that greets the shore, Bearing Tradition's burthen soft and clear, From the dim portals of the never more ; — Two voices spell me from thy mingled tide, One, mighty ocean's whisper, murmurous, deep, Telling of ventures glorious, that hide Within its billowy bosom rocked in sleep ; — The other, rippling from thy crystal fount, A tinkle sweet of elves, and fays, and flowers, Legends borne down from woodland, vale, and mount, Departed homes, and haunted shrines and towers ; — Flow on, — until this tranced ear shall be, But one more memory that is merged in thee ! EfFlOY, FRKMOMED TO IthPRKSENT CICELY BONVILLE, MARCHIONESS OF DORSET Astlet CanRiiH, Wabwiokshirb, — circa 1530-5 EXTINCT, FOR THE WHITE ROSE. LEAVING the antient town of Colyton by its south-western approach, the broad turnpike-road that leads over the hill to Sidmouth, at about half-a-mile's distance up its ascent, a turn to the right takes us into the trackway of a winding and somewhat narrow Devonshire lane. A pleasant prospect opens across the valley below, through which the Coly sparkles along with sinuous course, and immediately in the mid-distance appears the old ruinous cradle of the Courtenay family, Colcombe Castle, grey-walled, ivy-clad, and orchard environed. Beyond and just under the further fir-topped hill-line, another grey dot strugglingly emerges from among the dense garnishing of foliage that surrounds it, and shews us what remains of old Shute House, while to its left, across the far valley, rises the beautiful tree-crested acclivity of Shute Park ; locahties of special importance pertinent to the interests of our little narrative, to be referred to by and by. In front a delightful and typical Devonian landscape extends itself. Sprinkled over with the deserted homes of the olden lesser squirearchy, the antient lords of the vale, and picturesquely varied alternate with copse, plantations, and well-timbered hedgerow, the two valleys of the Coly and the Brinkly bifurcate just at this point, meeting under the shadow of the remarkable pyramid- shaped hill, Waddon Pen, and then stretch away, variously broken into lesser knoll and vale, until lost in the misty outline of the high, far-distant curtain of the Farway hills, with their tiny clumps of trees that just break the even contour, and stand hke sentinels on the rampart-appearanced outline against the grey sky: They recall also for the moment to the historic memory, the burthen of a pleasant story, connected with its breezy, and comparatively unfrequented altitude, one of the numberless traditions that throng the hills and vales of the olden region of the Danmonii. A rest for awhile on the parapet of the bridge spanning the httle Morganhayes brook, hastening to join the Coly a few fields' distance below ; a rivulet whose banks at Spring time are almost fairy-land with abundance of some of our finest wild flowers, broad stretches of daffodils, myriads of white-starred anemones, gleams of pale primroses 38 BONVILLE. and bleached lady-smocks, and sheen of golden-cups in their succession, but specially, when uncertain April brings her tears and sunshine, the haunt of the most gorgeous of them all THE MEADOW RANUNCULUS. Close by the rippling streams' translucent marge, Ranunculus of gold, Bright to the sun in constellation large, Thy glowing stars unfold. 'Mid all the wealth Spring scatters without stint, By meadow, bank or stream, Gay daffodil, or king-cup's myriad glint, Spread like a golden dream ; — She brings no rival whose attractions may With thee in all compare, Brave thy full beauty in its strong array, And matchless clusters dare. No, nor sweet Summer when adown the land Her flower-sprent steps incline, Bearing the sceptred iris in her hand, — The glory still is thine. Continuing our pilgrimage, about a mile's distance further brings us to a bridge spanning another small stream, also flowing down to meet the Coly below at a place appropriately named Bournehayne, and immediately at the entrance of the httle village of Southleigh. Passing under the shadow of some fine old yews, our steps lead up a httle acclivity to the left, into the churchyard. There we halt for a minute to scan the Willoughby tomb, with its grand escutcheon and uncouth cahgraphy, and then look inside the little sanctuary, where, owing to the necessity of almost entire rebuilding, only one monument of importance remains, preserved in the chancel, to be further referred to in the course of our little story. On the porch threshold the eye is arrested momentarily by an almost obliterated seventeenth- century flat stone, bearing the still-traceable yeoman-gentleman name of Starre of Beer, and the fragment of another leaning against a grave near, of contemporary date, inscribed with the patronymic of Clode — a name still existent in the parish, — and whose earthly calling is described as 'goldsmith,' a strange vocation to find chronicled here in this rural vale, and the memorial probably of one who practised the craft in busier scenes elsewhere, and returned to his native parish, when he finally laid down burnisher and graver, to find his last resting-place. Down a small meadow below the church, to the rill we crossed on entering the hamlet, and our path inchnes along its banks up the valley through which it flows, and a right pleasant vale it is, flanked on the left by extensive plantations of almost every species of useful conifer, which stretch down, exhibiting great luxuriance of growth, their different habits finely contrasting, and adding the great charm of variety ; while the opposite ascent is also picturesquely wooded with BONVILLE. 39 ordinary foliage. So we leisurely continue a full mile or more, when the valley somewhat expands. Here some fine trees are scattered park-like in appearance around, with a small modern mansion in their midst, and this brings us to our present destination. Who would imagine, viewing the peace and retirement of this dehghtful rural solitude, so far removed from the ken and the movements of busy, anxious, restless, ambitious man, and where only the voice of the thrush, the flicker of the butterfly, the hum of the bee, the rustle of the coney, the song of the lark, the bleating of the flock, or the low of the kine, is seen or heard, that a story of wondrous historic interest and significance "take hys begynnyng " from this spot ? Yet an apt symbol of how small and comparatively unknown beginnings, at times end in being engrafted into the largest results, lies close beside us. Who shall predict the ultimate destiny of the humble ripple of water that sparkles along at our feet ? Down through this valley it hastens to the Coly, then on to join the larger Axe, thence to mingle with the salt tide and be merged in the blue expanse of the Channel, and finally be found adding its tiny tribute to the grandeur of the great Atlantic. As of the stream, so of the story that has origin here on its banks, and from him who was one of the earliest settlers thereon, back in the twihght of the days of the early Plantagenets, when a country gentleman with no recorded pretension to influence or fame, beyond the inalienable witness of Norman descent, betrayed by his name, to this place found his way and fixed his abode. After sundry generations the descendants of his race, although still holding their original home here, travelled far afield, away from the quietude and peace of these sylvan scenes, lured into the dangerous path of ambition, and became prominent actors in the great, stirring, troublous drama of mediaeval Enghsh history, as active and devoted partizans in the contending factions, fighting to the death amid the strife of its kings, and shedding their blood unstintedly in the conflict. Then followed the great but dangerous honour of kinship with royalty and its fatal glamour, culminating at last in their aspiration to the possession of the crown itself, with the result, finally, of laying one of their last and most guileless representatives, headless on the steps of the throne to which they laid claim. A relation of real incidents that" needs no garnishing of romance to -enhance its extraordinary interest. Wiscombe, — Wescombe, probably originally West-combe, is the name given to these historic precincts. The very earliest mention of its ownership assigns it as among the possessions of the Abbey of St. Michael de Monte, in periculo maris, in Normandy, and was at the beginning of the thirteenth century held of its Abbot by Roger de Daldich, of the family of Daldich of East-Budleigh. After awhile came a change of ownership, and then we get the first mention of the name of the family, the outhne of whose succeeding generations we propose to attempt, albeit imperfectly, to chronicle. A story, nevertheless, of surpassing interest, even among the crowd of great traditions that form the historic heritage of the famed county of Devon. 40 BONVILLE. This was, according to Pole, its grant, or sale, with the reservation of twenty shilhngs yearly rent, " about ye middest of the raigne of kinge Henry III.," by the aforesaid Abbot and Roger de Daldich to Nicholas de Bonville, evidently a gentleman of that era, and whose name — de bonne ville — ' of the fair or good village ' — unmistakably pointed to the original birthplace of his family, as being found in the land immediately beyond the southern sea, from which his ancestor doubtless also migrated in the train of the Conqueror. All we know of the life of this Nicholas de Bonville, presumably the first of his name as possessor of Wiscombe, is that he married a lady named Amicia, and it was probably he, who in accordance with the rehgious custom of the age, was the donor of a rent -charge at ' Tuddesheye,' now Studhayes, in Kilmington, to the Abbey of Newenham, in the adjoining valley of the Axe, and in its Conventual church was buried, as described by Mr. Davidson, "lastly against the north wall of the choir, lay Sir Nicholas Bonville, a benefactor to the abbey who died in 1266." * He left a son named Wilham. But according to another account of the early generations of Bonville, the first recorded was Nicholas Bonville who was living in 1199. To him his son Wilham Bonville (not Nicholas), who married Amicia, did homage for lands in Somerset, 6 Feb., 1265, and was succeeded by his son William, who married Joan, a widow, t Wilham Bonville wedded a lady named Joan, — in a hst of the Guild Merchants of the antient borough of Totnes, dated 1260, and still preserved, the third name that occurs is Will's de Boneuille, but whether to be identified with an owner of Wiscombe of that name, may not be determined, but the era accords. Of him we learn nothing further beyond the date of his death 2 Edward I., 1273 ; and that he was succeeded by his son Nicholas. Nicholas de Bonville was styled also "of Shute," by right of his wife Ehzabeth de Pyne, of whom and her dower a few words. The first recorded owners of Shute, and from whom it received its name, were Sir Lucas and Sir Robert de Schete, who held it early in the reign of Henry III. From them it passed to Sir Robert and Sir Thomas de Pyne, of the " antient progeny " of Pyne in east Devon. Sir Thomas who was Sheriff of Devon 56 Henry III., and successively 6, 9, and 10 Edward I., at his death left two daughters coheiresses. One of these distaffs, Matilda (otherwise Hawise), wedded Nicholas de Bonville of Wiscombe, to whom she brought Shute as her portion. " In this place (Shute) the f amy lye of Bonvill," says Pole, "made their principall dwellinge, which had (longe before this Nicholas had the mansion howse, and mannor of Shute) divers lands within Shute, namely Sir Nicholas Bonvill (his grandfather) had Leggeshayes, and other lands their, his dwelhnge beinge at yt tyme at Wiscombe." The policy of this marriage is therefore apparent. Himself and wife appear to have both died the same year, 23 Edward I., 1295. They left a son and heir named Nicholas, and another son John, who married Joan, daughter of * History of Newenham Abbey, t Vivian's Visitations of Devon. BONVILLE. 41 Waryn Hampton of Musbury, and she married secondly John Sachville, and thirdly John Faringdon of Faringdon. Sir Nicholas Bonville of Shute and Wiscombe, married Johanna, daughter of Sir Henry Champernon of Clyst-Champernon (who died in 1320), by his wife Johanna daughter of Henry Bodrugan. He was two years old only at his father's death, but the date of his own decease does not appear. There were four children, of whom Sir William was the eldest son and successor. Alexander, the second son, married Hawise, daughter of Henry de la Forde in Musbury, and had a son Nicholas, styled "of Forde," whose daughter Edith, married Richard Okebeare, through whose descendant, Pole, afterward of Shute, was the representative, before he purchased the Bonville's forfeited inheritance, and through whom they quarter the arms of de la Forde ; Sable, a poppy with roots and fruit or, and Bonville. Isabel, who married Sir Roger de Nonant of Broad-Clyst, and last of that name ; they left two daughters, Ahce who married John Beauchamp of Ryme, and Eleanor. The beautiful monument with effigy in Broad-Clyst church is supposed to represent this knight, who reclines in a recess on the south side of the chancel, and is clad in plate armour with bascinet, mail-gorget, surcoat, and ornamented baudrick. The feet rest on a lion, the head on a tilting helmet, and angels are at the shoulders. A richly foliated canopy of screen-like character fronts the figure on the side toward the church. Anne, the second daughter became a nun at Wherwell. Sir Wilham Bonville, of Shute, " a very sweet and noble seat, adorned in those days (as it still is) with a fair park and large demesnes," the first prominent representative of this family, and who added greatly to its social status, was a wealthy and munificent man. He married first Margaret, daughter and coheiress of Sir William d'Aumarle of Woodbury, Devon, who died 15 Nov., 1361, by his wife Agnes de Meriet, daughter of George de Meriet, of Merriot, Somerset. By her he had four sons, and two daughters. She died 13 May, 1399. Early in the succeeding century Sir William married secondly Ahce (whose surname has not been recovered), widow of Sir John Rodney, who died 19 Dec, 1400. Sir Wilham Bonville was her fifth spouse, for she had wedded three husbands previous to Sir John Rodney. Firstly, John Fitz-Roger, lord of the manor of Chewton- Mendip, Somerset ; by whom she had a daughter, Ehzabeth, who married John Bonville, her last husband's eldest son by his first wife ; secondly, she married Sir Edmond de Clyvedon, of Clyvedon, Somerset, who died 13 Jany., 1375-6 ; and thirdly, as his second wife, Sir Ralph Carminow of Menheniot, Cornwall, who deceased 9 Oct., 1386. Sir Ralph who is said to have been " by a brase of Greyhounds pulled over a Cliff and died," was buried in Menheniot church, where there is a small brass, — probably the earhest remaining in Cornwall— to his memory, thus inscribed, — ©ratfi pro attima itomini Itaoulpljt darmynnbi militia, turns attttttE propiEiEtur tens JVrrtEtt. 42 BONVILLE. Lady Ahce Bonville survived all her husbands nearly twenty years, and died 27 March, 1426. A glance at the numerous ventures of this much-married lady will give the uninitiated in the study of genealogy some idea of the difficulties which beset it, in sifting, tracing, and separating the tangle of relationship that wove together the leading families of the west during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. It was the custom to marry very early in life, often at fifteen or sixteen, and that short widowhoods and remarriage almost invariably followed decease on either side, and not uncommonly resulting further also, in the children of the previous marriages matching together, a " matter of mere attorneyship," probably in many cases entered into to consohdate the family estates. Beside his "mansion howse " at Shute, which was his principal residence, Sir Wilham, as was usual, had a town house or hotel, in the parish of the Holy Trinity, Exeter. On 17 April, 1404, Bishop Stafford licensed John Govys rector of Holy Trinity, as the parish church was being rebuilt at the time, " ut in aula infra mansum domini Willelmi Bonevyle, militis, infra parochiam dicte ecclesie Sancte Trinitatis situatum, divina possis celebrare, ac per presbiteros ydoneos facere celebrari, necnon parochianis tuis guibuscumque Sacramenta et Sacramentalia conferre et ministrare valeas." Of Sir William's sons, Richard the eldest died without issue before 1397. John the second son became his father's heir and successor. Thomas Bonville, third son, married Cicely, daughter of Sir John Stretche of Sampford-Arimdell, Somerset, who died 6 Aug., 1390, by his wife Katharine daughter of Sir John Beaumont, of Sherwill, North Devon. They had two sons, William who died 28 Aug., 1412, and John in 1426. Both were styled " of Merriot, Somerset," property that descended to them through their great-grandmother, and died without issue. He, Thomas, died about 1401, and his widow soon after married Sir William Cheney of Broke, Wilts, and died 18 Oct., 1430.* Wilham, the fourth son, died without issue ; we hear nothing of him beyond his being a witness to his stepmother's will. Katharine, the eldest daughter, married first Sir John Cobham, of Blackborough, Devon, by whom she had a daughter Elizabeth, married to Walter Charleton. Secondly she married John Wyke of Nynehead-Florey, Somerset, and thirdly Humphry Stafford of Grafton, Worcestershire. She died 1 Aug., 1416. Ehzabeth, second daughter, married about 1390, Sir Thomas Carew of Ottery-Mohun, who died 25 Jan., 1431. She died 8 Feb., 1450-1. Sir Wilham who was Sheriff of Devon 13 Richard II., 1400, died on 14 Feb., 1407-8, and was buried before the great Cross in the choir of Newenham Abbey Church. Beside him was afterward laid Ahce his second wife. This was during the abbacy of Leonard Houndalre, who presided over the Community 1402-13. * See page 5. BONVILLE. 43 He bequeaths by bis will, — a very long document written in French, — and made " on the Saturday next before the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, 1404, my body to be buried before the High Cross of the " church of Newenham ; to Alice my consort my mansion at Exeter for her life, all my books, vestments with other apparel belonging to my chapel, all kinds of necessaries belonging to my hall, chambers, pantry, buttery, kitchen and fish-pond, within my manor of Shute, and all other chattels on my manors of Wescombe, &c, &c, elsewhere, 100 marks in money, and the half of my silver vessels, &c. ; 100 marks, to assist in making and repairing the bridges and roads that are weak and fallen within my lordships of Devon and Somerset ; to alienate by mortmain 50 marks of land and of rent per year for a Maison Dieu in Combestreet at Exeter, for 12 poor men and women to be lodged there always, also 300 marks to the said Maison Dieu in honour of God, and to sustain the said house, and the aforesaid poor men and women, all my rents in Exeter, except my mansion; — to Dame Anne Bonville, nun of Wherwell, 10 marks, a hanapp (drinking cup) with silver cover, and my best hoppelond (great coat) with the fur. To William my son 200 marks to assist him in getting married ; to Thomas son of John Bonville £20 in money ; to John son of Thomas Bonville to assist him in getting married 100 marks. To my daughter Dame Katharine Cobham £20 ; to my daughter Dame Elizabeth Carew, £20. I devise that all my debts be duly and fully paid, and if any offences or extortions by me have been committed against any persons I will that they be restored to them, according to the greatness of the offence ; 24 torches of wax, and 24 poor men be clothed the day of the interment of my body, and to other poor people coming on the day of my burial £10, that each who comes may have one penny ; and that my mansion and my retinue be kept just as it is for one quarter of a year after my death. Appoints Alice my consort, and six clerks executors ; Monsieur Thomas Brooke and John Strecch, surveyors ; nothing to be done without the counsel and assent of the said surveyors." There is also included a very large number of religious bequests to pray for the good estate of his soul, at various places, and legacies in money and kind, to the poor on his extensive estates. John Bonville, son and heir of Sir William and Margaret d'Aumarle, married Elizabeth, only child and heiress of John Fitz- Roger, daughter of the first husband of his father's second wife. She was heiress-general to the Fitz-Rogers and brought the manor of Chewton-Mendip, near Wells, Somerset, and much other property into the family. In the south aisle of the chancel of Chewton- Mendip church, on a high-tomb are the recumbent effigies of a knight and lady, — the knight in chain and plate armour, with bascinet, mail-gorget, baudrick and spurs. On his surcoat are em broidered three lions rampant, the arms of Fitz -Roger. The lady is in long robe, wimple and cover-chief. The armour and costume are assignable to this era. John Bonville had two sons, William eldest and heir, Thomas, and one daughter Isabel. Thomas the second son, who was Sheriff of CornwaU, married first Johanna eldest daughter of Hugh de St. John, eldest son of Thomas de Poynings, Lord St. John of Basing, by his wife Ehzabeth daughter of Martyn Ferrers of Beer-Ferrers. By her he had one son John. Secondly, he married Leva, daughter and heir of John Gorges of Tamerton-Fohot, Devon, and widow of John Wibbery. She died 16 Dec, 1461. Thomas died 11 Feb., 1467. John Bonville son of Thomas, married first Johanna Wibbery daughter of his father's second wife, by her first husband John 44 BONVILLE. Wibbery. By her he had two daughters, Anne married to Philip Coplestone, and Joanne married to John Elliot of Coteland. Secondly, he married Katharine, by whom he had two daughters, Florence who married first Sir Humphry Fulford, K.B., and secondly, Thomas Hext ; and Elizabeth who married Thomas West, Lord Delawarr. John Bonville died 24 Aug., 1494. Isabel, only daughter of John Bonville, son and heir of Wilham Bonville, married Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, son of Sir Richard Champernowne, who died 26 Feb., 1418-19, and Katharine daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney, and who were both buried at Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge. John Bonville, her father, died in the hfetime of his father, 21 Oct., 1396, and Elizabeth Fitz-Roger, his widow, married secondly Sir Richard Stuckley of Trent, Somerset. Leland thus speaks of the "maner places" of the Bonvilles, Wiscombe, and Shute : — " on the west part, over an hille byyond Seton is Wiscombe, a fair maner place, sumtyme the Lord Bonvilles ; now longging to the Marquise of Dorsete. The parkes and maner places of Wischum and Shoute abowte Axminster in Devonshire were the Lord Bonevilles, and after a knightes of that name or ever they came to the Marquis of Dorsetes hand." In Sir William Bonville, the eldest son of John Bonville and Ehzabeth Fitz-Roger, we reach the most celebrated individual of his race, and practically the last male in the direct line, as his son and grandson died in his lifetime. His father having died in 1396, when he was quite a child, and his mother being married again to Richard Stuckley, it is probable the boy was in the custody of his grandfather at Shute up to his death in 1407, and subsequently in the guardian ship of his step-grandmother the Lady Alice until his coming of age, and taking possession of his large property in 1414, which year his mother died, but his step-grandmother hved twelve years afterward, dying in 1426. The particulars as to the birth and baptism of this wealthy and unfortunate man, as they were deposed to by the witnesses appearing before the escheator at the enquiry held to make proofs as to his coming of age, are very homely and interesting.* This was taken at Honiton on "Tuesday, All Hallow's Eve, in the first year of the reign of King Henry the Fifth after the Conquest, before Henry Foleford, the Lord the King's Escheator in the county of Devon." Numerous witnesses were examined, and John Cokesdene and two others deposed, — " that William the son of John, is of the age of 21 years and upwards, having been born at Shute, on the last day of August in the 16th year of the reign of the Lord Richard, late King of England, the Second after the Conquest (1393), and baptized in the parish church of ' the same vill on the same day about the hour of vespers. And this they well know to be true, as they the said jurors were, on the said last day of August, together elected at Honiton, on a certain ' Love Day ' to make * From The Porlock Monuments, by the late Mrs. Halliday, a very able and comprehensive monograph of Harington, with much collaterally of Bonville. BONVILLE. 45 peace between two of their neighbours, and on that very day there came there a certain Lady Katharine, widow of Sir John Cobham, knight, and then wife of John Wyke of Nynhyde, an aunt of the said William the son of John, proposing to drive to Shute, thinking that she should be Godmother to the said infant, and met there a certain Edward Dygher, servant to the said Sir William Bonevile, who was reputed to be half-witted in consequence of his being loquacious and jocular, and who asked her whither she was going. Who answering quickly said : 'Fool, to Shute to see my nephew made a Christian,' to which the said Edward replied, with a grin, in his mother tongue, ' Kate, Kate, ther to by myn pate comystow to late,' meaning thereby that the baptism of the child was already over. Whereupon she mounted upon her horse in a passion, and rode home in deep anger, vowing that she would not see her sister, to wit the said child's mother, for the next six months, albeit she should be in extremis and die." Thus much for the Lady Katharine's appearance, her disappointment and displeasure at not being able to be present at the child's baptism, although she had adjournied so far for that purpose, and her immediate return. Then a certain John Prentys and two others testify that " all the matters as to the said Lady Katharine are true, inasmuch as the whole took place in the said John Prentys' house, where they themselves were present at the time, and saw and heard all." Then comes an interesting testimony shewing the lord of Shute still kept full interest in the older home of the family at Wiscombe, and at the date of his grandson's birth was engaged near there in a business transaction with squire Walrond of Bovey, living thereby. Richard Lutrell and John Prustes relate, — " on that day Sir William Bonevile was at his manor of Southleigh busy in setting up certain boundary marks between a parcel of his own land called Borcombe to the same manor belonging, and the land of one William Walrond, on which occasion the aforesaid Richard and John were present at the special request of the said Sir William Bonevile. And then and there came Andrew Ryden, a servant of the same Sir William, and told his master that his son John had a son born to him, upon hearing which the said Sir William rejoicing exceedingly lifted up his hands, and thanked God, and immediately mounting upon his horse rode home." Following this is the evidence of those who witnessed the ceremony of the christening in the little church on that summer evening, Wilham Hodesfelde, and Richard Damarle, probably a relative of the child's grandmother. They also speak of the grandfather's dehght and the present he made his grandson thereon, and say, " they were present in the said church on that day at the time of the solemniza tion of the baptism of the said William the son of John, to hear vespers, and as soon as the ceremony was over there came one Walter Walsehe, the said William Bonevile' s bailiff of his manor of Stapyldon in the county of Somerset, and told his master that he had well and finally completed the autumn gathering, both of his said manor of Stapyldon and his manor of Sokke, and had brought with him 400 lambs of that year's produce of the manor of Sokke aforesaid, of which said lambs the said William Bonevile immediately gave 200 to the said infant then and there baptized." Finally we get the information as to who were the child's sponsors and of the high ecclesiastic who was one of them, and doubtless 46 BONVILLE. came across specially from Newenham Abbey to perform the ceremony, making his distinguished godson a commensurate present. Thomas Bowyer and Ralph Northampton remember " that they were personally present in the said church, and saw there three long torches burning, and two silver basins, with two silver ewers full of water, John Legge then Abbot of Newenham and Sir William Bonevile being the godfathers and Agnes Bygode the godmother of the same child, upon whom the said Abbot there bestowed a silver gilt cup of the value, as it was said, of 100 shillings, with 40 shillings in money told, contained in the same, which as it appeared to them was the most beautiful they had ever beheld in a like case." Poor child ! The lambs bleating outside, and the ghttering gift cup, — " the most beautiful they had ever beheld," — and filled with silver pieces ! The costly christening vessels and flaming torches, the abbot in his robes, the knights and ladies in their splendid apparel, the clustering parishioners gathered round, curiously and respectfuUy to witness the baptism of the heir, and the solemn evening twilight softly stealing through the casements of the httle sanctuary. What a suggestive picture of country- wealth and peace thus surrounding the first hours of the child, and what a contrast to the scene that was destined to environ that child's last hours, of whose bitterness, what seer, had he been then present, would have been bold enough to predicate ? When crushed by misfortune, his son and grandson having fallen by the sword before his eyes a few weeks previously, and although bowed by age, yet still attracted by the glamour of the deadly conflict, — far away from these happy precincts, with a captive king in his keeping as a ransom, but powerless to save him, — he stood an unfriended prisoner alone in the hands of a relentless enemy, surrounded by the ghastly wrecks of a battlefield, and then hastily perished amid the ghastlier paraphernaha of the scaffold, the axe and block, the executioner in his mask and the jeering soldiery. With what boundless mercy are the ultimate issues of these lives of ours hidden from us I Being in possession of his large property, it was not likely that a young man of his distinguished station, in those stirring times should long remain "with idle hands at home." Accordingly we find him three years afterward, in 1418, employed in the military service of his country, for "being then a knight" he proceeded to France in the retinue of Thomas, Duke of Clarence, brother to Henry V., in that king's expedition to Normandy. In the first year of Henry VI., 1422, he served the office of Sheriff of Devon. In 1428 we get an interesting incident recorded, of amenities passing between Sir William and his neighbour the Lady Joan Brooke, widow of Sir Thomas Brooke, of Weycroft, near Axminster, and Holditch Court, Thorncombe, " on the 14th April of that year Nicholas Wysbeche, Abbot of Newenham," says Mr. Davidson, "was appointed with five of his neighbours a mediator in a dispute between Sir William Bonville of Shute, and Joan widow of Sir Thomas Brooke, arising from the obstruction of several public roads and paths in the formation and enclosure of the park at Weycroft by the lady and her son. The transcript of an instru ment has been preserved which recites the circumstances of the case at great EFFIGY OF JOHN TALBOT, EARL OF SHREWSBURY, K O. "Whitchurch, Shropshire — A.D. 1453. BONVILLE. 47 length, and concludes with an award, which as the abbot was nominated by the lady Brooke, does credit to his justice as an umpire, as well as to his hospitality ; for after deciding on every point in favour of Sir William Bonville, and directing all the ways in question to be thrown open to the public, that the knight and the lady should ride amicably together to Newenham Abbey on a day appointed, where they should exchange a kiss in token of peace and friendship and dine together at the abbot's table. The deed is dated at Axminster 13 August, 1428." The brass effigies of Sir Thomas and his lady are in Thorncombe church, still very perfect. Amicably and pleasantly settled, and justly too withal by the good Abbot Wysbeche, and with proper regard to the rights of way exercised by the public at large, which seem to have been duly cared for and protected by the lord of Shute. Nearly fourteen years now elapse before we hear further of him, and then in 1442, he appears to have held a maritime command, and "sailed from Plymouth to Bordeaux with twenty-five ships and four thousand men," and the year following was employed on land service, being "retained by indenture to serve the king a whole year with twenty men at arms, and six hundred archers, and was made Seneschal of Acquitaine." In 1449, he was commissioned " to serve the king upon the sea, for the cleansing of robbers and pirates," and the same year he held Taunton Castle, but was compelled to surrender it to the Duke of York. In 1450 a letter was sent to him amongst others, by the king requesting help for the preservation of Lower Normandy from the French. Doubtless in consideration of these mihtary and other services, actively and faithfully rendered to Henry VI., he was by that king raised to the honour of the peerage, by Writ of summons dated 23 September, 1449, — 26 Henry VI., — to Parliament by the title of Babon Bonville of Chewton (from Chewton-Mendip in Somerset), where he inherited a large property, derived from his mother as heiress of the Fitz-Rogers. He was also created a Knight of the Gabtee, being the one hundred and eighteenth in the succession of that noble Order. In 1453 he was ordered to France with a force sent for the rehef of Guienne. While there it is probable he was a participator in the engagement wherein the gallant Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, lost his life. The same year " in consideration of his further services he was constituted Governor of the Castle of Exeter, and the year following, 1454, made Lieutenant of Acquitaine." From this partial relation of his public services, our thoughts wander for a time, to the domestic surroundings of his home life. Lord Bonville married first a lady named Margaret, but who she was the labours of investigators have as yet failed to discover. By her he had one son, Wilham, and two daughters, — Phihppa, who married William Grenville, brother to Sir John, and second son of Sir Theobald Grenville, by Margaret daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe, by his third wife Matilda daughter of Sir John Beaumont, and was thus grandson to Earl Hugh and Margaret Bohun of Colcombe, — and Margaret, second daughter, who married Sir 48 BONVILLE. Wilham Courtenay of Powderham, Sheriff of Devon in 1483, and who died in 1485. Lord Bonville wedded secondly, Ehzabeth, daughter of Edward Courtenay, third Earl of Devon, known as "the bhnd Earl," who died in 1419, and was presumably buried at Ford Abbey ; by bis wife Matilda, daughter of Thomas Lord Camoys. She was then the widow of Sir John Harington, fourth Baron Harington of Aldingham in the County of Lancaster, and who died 11 Feb., 1417-18. She died 28 October, 1471, thus surviving her second husband ten years, and her first husband fifty-three years ! — and was probably buried with her first husband in Porlock church, where they founded a perpetual Chantry, and where their splendid tomb still exists, with effigies recumbent ; moved probably from its antient position, and now much shorn by time and ill usage of its original glory, but still displaying ample evidence of the taste and skill of the mediseval craftsman. By his second marriage Lord Bonville left no issue. The figures on the monument at Porlock are sculptured in alabaster, and Lady Harington-Bonville wears cote-hardie and gown, with mantle over, fastened across the breast by cordon and tassels. Around the hips is a rich cincture, and a double chain with dependant jewel encircles the neck. The head-dress is horned, the hair secured in a reticulated caul splendidly embroidered, and with jeweUed ornaments filling the interstices. Just over the brow is a band- coronet, studded with pearls and crested by fleurs-de-lys, and her fingers are ornamented with rings. Angels support the cushions on which her head rests, and an animal, probably intended for a boar, as allusive to her family, is at her feet. Lord Harington is in plate armour, orle around his bascinet, plate gorget, large epauheres with deeply scolloped terminations, diagonally placed sword-belt with sword, rich baudrick across the hips with anelace, small tuilles, gauntlets, and about his neck a chain of ornamented link-work, with the usual trefoil clasp and small pendant. The head reclines on a helmet with crest of a lion's head couped at the shoulders, and angels were originally on each side supporting it. The feet rest on a hon. The armour is of an interesting character, and of later date than that worn at the death of the knight, being referable to what was in use about the middle of the fifteenth century, accounted for by the appearance of his wife by his side, who survived him more than half a century. There is a fine canopy over the effigies. We broke off our httle personal history in the year 1454, when presumably Lord Bonville had returned from Aquitaine, of which province he had been made Lieutenant. The next glimpse we get of him is in the year following, and the incident, that brings him before us, is quite in keeping with the belhgerent spirit of the times, and which seems to have invaded both public and private life at this turbulent and lawless era. The old historian, Westcote, gives a succinct outline of this remarkable quarrel, " In this parish (Colyton) are yet remaining the two antient seats of two illustrious families, Colcombe of Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, and Shute alias Sheet, of the Lord Bonvile ; each of them having their parks and large lati-f unds c^gF^ sreg gamjhter to the fEortre Utanpiea gorfet & after llatergit jie Jjamjhter of j^gr Sthomaa (§re ght of ffefrntarir tire mbi pre of the raigne of ftttng ltettt'11 the (B^ght an0 iromrrte 1545 ant ve irere of hia age There were formerly eight shields of arms ; of these six remain quartered as follows, — (1.) Baron, quarterly of six:- — 1. Abundell. — 2. Dinham. — 3. Abohes. — 4. Chideook. — 5. Caeminow. — 6. Abundell"; — impaling femme, quarterly of eight, — 1. Gbby. — 2. Hastings. — 3. Valence. 4. Febbebs of Geoby. — 5. Astley. — 6. Widvtlle. — 7. Bonville. — 8. Habington. For Sir John Arundell, and the Lady Ehzabeth Grey, his first wife. (2.) Baron, quarterly of six as before, impaling femme, quarterly of four : — 1 and 4. Geenville. — 2 and 3. Whitley. For Sir John Arundell and Katharine Grenville his second wife. (3.) Baron, as before, impaling femme, quarterly of four : — 1. Howaed. — 2. Beotheeton. — 3. Wabeen. — 4. Mowbeay. For Sir Thomas Arundell (second son of Sir John), and his wife Margaret Howard, daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, and sister of Queen Katharine Howard. (4.) Baron, quarterly of four : — 1 and 4. Edgcumbe. — 2 and 3. Holland; — impaling femme, Arundell and other quartered coats as before. For Richard Edgcumbe and Ehzabeth daughter of Sir John Arundell. (5.) Baron, quarterly of eight : — 1. Ratolipfe. — 2. Fitz-Waltee. 3. BuENELL. 4. BoTETOUET. 5. LuCY. 6. MlLTON. 7. MoETIMEK of Noefolk. — 8. Culcheth ? ; — impaling femme, Arundell with quartered coats as before. For Mary (daughter of Sir John Arundell and his second wife Katharine Grenville ;) and her first husband, Robert Ratchffe, Earl of Sussex. (6.) Baron, quarterly of four : — 1. Fitz-Alan. — 2. Fitz-Alan of Bedale. — 8. Widville. — 4, quarterly, 1 -and 4 Maltbaveks. 2 and 3 Clun; — impaling femme, Arundell, &c, as before. For Mary Arundell, as above, and her second husband, Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel. Although, from his memorial brass, Sir John Arundell is pre sumably buried here, Weever, in his notice of St. Mary Woolnoth, BONVILLE. 69 London, gives this inscription as being found in that church for him, — "HERE LIETH SIR JOHN ARUNDELL KNIGHT OF THE BATH, AND KNIGHT BANERET, RECEIVOR OF THE DUCHY GREY DAUGHTER TO THE LORD MARQUESE DORSET, WHO DIED 8 FEBR: THE 36 OF THE REIGNE OF KING HEN. THE 8." Of the three remaining daughters of Cicely Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset, Eleanor married as his second wife Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, for a considerable time Lord Deputy of Ireland during the reign of Henry VIII. In his prime, he is said to have been "one of the fairest men then living," and led a very eventful and troubled life, was greatly disliked by Wolsey, who twice got him cited to England and sent to the Tower on charges of maladministra tion, and on his third committal in 1534 to that fortress, he never emerged again ahve. During his incarceration his son — " called ' Silken Thomas,' of tall stature, comely proportion, amiable countenance, flexible and kind nature, and endowed with many accomphshments and good qualities" — together with his five brothers, engaged in open insurrection in Ireland. The news of this so " oppressed him with grief," that it is said to have hastened his death, which took place in 1534. Six months afterward, the five brothers and their nephew, his son, "were all six condemned to suffer the punishment of traitors, and were accordingly executed at Tyburn, on 2 Feb., 1535-6, — being hanged up, cut down before they were dead and quartered." The Earl was buried in the Tower Chapel, and on digging a grave therein for Ralph, son of Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower in 1580, his coffin was found with this inscription on it, — HERE LYETH THE CORPES OF THE L. GERALD FITZ-GERALD, EARLE OF KYLDARE, WHO DECEASED THE I2TH OF DECEMBER, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD M.CCCCC.XXXIIII. ON WHOSE SOLE JESU HAVE MERCY Of this Earl, Holhngshed relates that he was " A wise, deep, and far reaching man ; in war valiant and without rashness ; and politic without treachery ; such a suppressor of rebels in his government, as they durst not bear armour to the annoyance of any subject. He was so religiously addicted to the serving of God, as what time soever he travelled to any part of the Country, such as were of his chapel should be sure to follow him. He was also well affected to his wife, as he would not at any time buy a suit of apparel for himself, but he would suit her with the same stuff ; which gentleness she recompensed with equal kindness ; for after that he deceased in the Tower, she did not only ever after live a chaste and honourable widow, but also nightly before she went to bed, she would resort to his picture, and there, with a solemn conge she would bid her lord good night." Not the least interesting, and almost romantic account, of one of the many of Cicely Bonville's daughters. The poet Earl of Surrey's ' Fair Geraldine ' was one of this Earl's children. 70 BONVILLE. Of the Marchioness's two remaining daughters, Anne was married to Richard Clement ; and Bridget died young. Leland, making note of this large family, remarks, — " The sole doughtar of the Lorde Harington cawlid (Cecily) was maried to Thomas the first Marquese of Dorset that favorid the cummynge of Henry the vii, and 'he had by hir a 14 children, bothe men and wimen of excedinge goodly parsonage, of which the first sune lyvyd not longe, and then had Thomas the name of Lorde Harington, and aftar was the second Marquese of Dorset." The Marquis of Dorset with Lord Hastings commanded the rear-guard at the battle of Tewkesbury, and after the engagement was over, and the young Prince Edward taken prisoner, who being introduced to Edward's presence, and interrogated, was brutally struck by him on the mouth with his gauntlet, and was thereupon dragged out of the king's presence and murdered by the attendant nobles, the Marquis of Dorset is said to have been among the savage conclave. Mercy and pity appear at the time to have fled from the earth. Naturally all went well with the Marquis during the reign of his father-in-law, Edward IV., but at that king's death the machinations of Gloucester, Buckingham, and Hastings, the entrapping Earl Rivers, and getting possession of the persons of the young king and his brother, placed him in considerable peril. The Duke of York was under his custody in London, as Governor of the Tower, but on the approach of Gloucester to London, with the young king, the Marquis, together with the Duke of York, the Queen-Mother and her family at once took sanctuary at Westminster. Events rapidly succeeded each other. Gloucester got first named Protector, a stepping-stone merely to his assumption of the Crown ; the Earl Rivers and his companions, and Lord Hastings, were mercilessly disposed of ; the young king and his brother sent to the Tower. Nothing now remained calculated to give Richard any cause for uneasiness, or he in the way of his ambition, but the fact that these two poor boys, his nephews, were still alive. This difficulty did not exist long, and they perished under the influence of the same hideous resolve. But the retribution was surely coming, if delayed for a time. Buckingham had retired in dudgeon to his castle at Brecknock, and his astute prisoner Morton, soon became the capturer of his gaoler, at least in mind, and then bade him adieu. Then followed the series of intrigues between Buckingham, the Countess of Richmond, and the Queen-Widow, with Sir Reginald Braye as ambassador, and Dr. Lewis as go-between, which ended in the unfortunate rising of Buckingham, so disastrously extinguished by the Severn flood. The Marquis of Dorset then appears to have quitted sanctuary, and gone into Yorkshire, presumably to raise forces, with the intention of joining the other contingents to be gathered in Kent under Sir Richard Guilford, and from the west under the Courtenays, Cheney, Daubeney, and others, the place of rendez-vous being at Salisbury. Before however this could be accomphshed, or rather while measures BONVILLE. 71 were being taken in preparation, Buckingham's misfortune took place, and these, the other chief actors, fled for their lives, and were fortunate to escape and get across the channel to Brittany, and to the Earl of Richmond. Richard promptly attainted the fugitives, and, says Rapin, — "issued a Proclamation against Buckingham, and the Marquis of Dorset, with others of his adherents, whom he supposed to be in league with him. But as the Marquis had not appeared in arms, and so could not be styled a rebel, he made use of another pretence to involve him in the sentence. He said that having taken oath at his coronation to punish vice and wickedness, he was obliged to punish the Marquis of Dorset, notorious for his debaucheries, who had seduced and ravished several virgins, being guilty of sundry adulteries, &c. A reward of a thousand marks, or one hundred marks a year (in land), was promised to anyone who would bring the Marquis to justice, and sums in proportion for the rest that were named in the Proclamation." They got safely across however, and so foiled the tender intentions of this amiable potentate. Richmond appeared soon after, returning from his fruitless voyage across the channel, and, " when he arrived he heard of the Duke of Buckingham's death, and found the Marquis of Dorset, and other English gentlemen who had made their escape. They all swore allegiance to him, and he took his corporal oath on the same day, the 25th of December, that he would marry the Princess Elizabeth, when he had suppressed the usurper Bichard, and was in the possession of the Crown." Richard, however, who was kept well informed of all that went on abroad, had determined if possible to check-mate this scheme of Richmond, by marrying the lady himself, — " and to that end did his utmost to ingratiate himself with her mother the Queen Elizabeth. He sent flattering messages to her in Sanctuary, promised to advance the Marquis of Dorset and all her relations, and won upon her so much by his fair speeches, that forgetting the many affronts he had cast upon the memory of her husband, on her own honour and the legitimacy of her children, and even the murder of her dear sons, she complyed with him, and promised to bring over her son, and all the late king's friends from the party of Richmond, and went so far as to deliver up her five daughters into his hand. She also wrote to her son the Marquis of Dorset, to leave Richmond and hasten to England where she' had procured him a pardon, and provided all sorts of honours for him." Then, of course, followed the " illness " of Richard's poor Queen, now completely in the way of these delicate arrangements, who hearing " what was reported against her, believed it came from her husband, and thence concluding that her hour was drawing nigh, ran to him in a most sorrowful and deplorable condition, and demanded of him, ' what she had done to deserve death.' Richard answered her with fair words and false smiles bidding her ' be of good cheer for to his knowledge she had no other cause.' But whether her grief, as he designed it should, struck so to her heart, that it broke with the mortal wound, or he hastened her end, as was generally suspected, by poison, she died in a few days afterward." Thus another victim was removed from this ghastly panorama of treachery and guilt. She was the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, the ' king-maker,' and, when Richard married her, widow of Prince Edward (heir to Henry VI.), so foully murdered after the battle of 72 BONVILLE. Tewkesbury. The Lady Katharine Bonville was her aunt, and Cicely BonviUe, her daughter, was the poor Queen's cousin. Richard's new matrimonial project did not go on so smoothly as he expected, his former Queen " was scarcely cold in her grave, before he made his addresses to the Princess Ehzabeth, who held his pretended love in abhorrence, and the whole kingdom averse to so unnatural a marriage," — she was his own niece. He therefore put off for a time further prosecuting his suit, and " deferred his courtship until he was better settled on the throne." Richmond, who in his turn had full knowledge of all Richard's proceedings, was quite equal to the occasion, and determined to foil his rival both of wife and kingdom, which he successfully accomphshed. In the meantime the Queen-Mother, to oblige Richard, continued " to write her son the Marquis of Dorset, to leave Richmond. The Marquis fearing the Earl would not succeed in his enterprise, gave way to his mother's persuasions, and King Richard's flattering promises, left the Earl, and stole away from Paris by night, intending to escape into Flanders. But as soon as the Earl had notice of his flight, he applied to the French Court to apprehend him in any part of his dominions, for both himself and his followers, were afraid of his discovering his designs if he got to England. " Having obtained license to seize him, the Earl sent messengers every way in search of him, and among the rest Humphrey Cheney, Esq., who overtook him near Champaigne, and by arguments and fair promises prevailed with him to return. " By the Marquis's disposition to leave him, the Earl began to doubt, that if he delayed his expedition to England longer, many more of his friends might grow cool in their zeal for him. So he earnestly solicited the French Court for aid, ' desiring so small a supply of men and money, that Charles could not in honour refuse him ; yet for what he lent him, he would have hostages, that satisfaction should be made. The Earl made no scruple of that, so leaving the Lord Marquis of Dorset (whom he still mistrusted), and Sir John Bourchier, as his pledges at Paris, he departed for Rouen, where the few men the French king had lent him, and all the English that followed his future, rendezvous'd.' " Rather an ignominious denouement, but doubtless Richmond, quite estimated the quahty of his man, and would not allow the Marquis to play any possible double game by taking him to England with the expedition. So he remained at Paris, in this kind of semi-imprisonment, until after the battle of Bosworth, Henry's coronation, and the end of the Parliament in 1485, when the king was possessed of some means to pay off his debt to the French king. This being obtained, he sent across to Paris and redeemed the Marquis and Bourchier, and invited them over to England. On the 18 Jan. following, Henry married the Princess Elizabeth, half-sister to the Marquis. Soon after the king restored him to all his honours, called him to the Privy Council, and created him a Knight of the Garter, being the two hundred and fortieth in the succession of that noble Order. Henry however still distrusted him, for on his pilgrimage to Walsingham in 1487, — " being come to St. Edmunds-bury, he understood that Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, was hasting toward him, to purge himself of some accusations that had been made against him. But the King, though he kept an ear for him, yet was BONVILLE. 73 at the time so doubtful, that he sent the Earl of Oxford to meet him, and forthwith carry him to the Tower; with a fair message nevertheless, that he should bear that disgrace with patience, for that the King meant not his hurt, but only to preserve him from doing hurt, either to the King's service or to himself, and that the King should always be able (when he had cleared himself) to make him reparation." Very wise of Henry, doubtless, and done in kindness to prevent his not too strong-minded brother-in-law getting into mischief. The Marquis remained in the Tower until after the coronation of the Queen, — when Henry, who had locked him up " rather upon suspicion of the time, than of the man, set him at hberty without examination, or other circumstance." He was with the large army taken across the channel to France in 1492, in the flotilla under the command of Lord Willoughby de Broke, which was apparently designed, but really never intended, to assist the Emperor Maximilian. - The Marquis also held a command in the royal forces in 1497, at the defeat of the Cornish insurgents on Black-Heath. It is probable also he accompanied Henry into the west, at the suppression of Perkin Warbeck's attempt in October of the same year. Respecting this Mr. Davidson writes, — " The king left Exeter on 3 November, and passed the night at the College of St. Mary, at Ottery, and on the next day proceeded to Newenham Abbey. At this place the king remained nearly a week until the 10th, when he resumed his progress to London. It is difficult indeed to imagine for what reason the king remained so long a time at Newenham at this period, unless he was engaged in making enquiry for such of the men of consideration in the Counties of Devon and Somerset as had taken part with the rebels, and in appointing the commissioners for detecting them. Among those commissioners the name of Sir Amias Paulet appears, whose residence in Somersetshire was at no great distance from this place. It may be conjectured also, that the king was entertained by the lord Marquis of Dorset, at his manor and mansion of Shute, which is nearly adjoining the Abbey demesnes, for this nobleman appears to have been on terms of familiar intercourse with his sovereign. The following items appear in the king's privy purse expenses; — '1492, 7 July. To my lord Marquis for a ring of gold, £100. — 1495, March 20. — Loste at the buttes to my lord Marques £1.' " Four years after Warbeck's rebellion, on the 10 April, 1501, the Marquis died ; by his will, without date, he " bequeathed his body to be buried in his College at Astley, before the image of the Blessed Trinity, in the midst of his closet, within the same College; and that his executors should cause to be said for his soul, in every of the four orders of Friars in London, a hundred masses, and at the time of his burial, one hundred marks to be distributed in alms to the poor people." On a boss over the organ-gallery in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, are the arms of the Marquis, quarterly of eight: — 1. Barry of six argent and azure, in chief three torteaux (Grey). — 2. Or, a maunche gules (Hastings).— 3. Barry of ten argent and azure, an orle of martlets gules (Valence). Over these three quartermgs a label of three points ermine — 4. Gules, seven mascles, three, three, and one, or (Quincy). — 5. Azure, acinquefoil ermine (Astley). — 6. Argent, 74 BONVILLE. a fess and a canton gules (Widvtlle). — 7. Sable, six mullets argent, pierced gules (Bonville). — 8. Sable, a fret argent (Harington). On his banner he bore the same quarterings. The " tenan," an unicorn ermine. His standard, per fess white and murrey. The badges are " bunches of daisies, tufted proper " (this from Widville). The motto, "A MA PUISSANCE " (Willement). Cicely Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset, married secondly Henry Stafford, second son of Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham (by his wife Catherine daughter of Richard Widville, Earl Rivers), who, rising in revolt against Richard III., was beheaded at Salisbury, 1483. He was created Earl of Wiltshire by Henry VII., in 1509, and constituted a Knight of the Garter by the same monarch, being the two hundred and fifty-eighth on the roll of the Order. The Marchioness of Dorset was his second wife. His first was Muriel, daughter of Sir Edward Grey, — created Viscount L'Isle, 1483, — brother to Sir John Grey, father of the Marquis of Dorset, and therefore cousin to the Marchioness's first husband. The Earl of Wiltshire left no issue by either of his wives. He died 6 March, 1523, when his title became extinct. On a boss in the vaulting of the choir of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, is his badge, a Stafford knot argent, differenced by a crescent sable, and on a stall-plate below are his arms, quarterly : — 1. France and England within a bordure argent (Plantagenet). — 2. Bohun. — 3. Staffoed. — 4. Bohun, Eael of Noethampton ; there are no supporters. The crest, in a ducal coronet, per pale sable and gules, a demi-swan argent, beaked gules, the ivings endorsed. Motto, " HUMBLE ET LOYAL " (Willement). The carved escutcheon of this Earl, quartered as above, with crescent for difference, and encircled by the Garter, was found among the ruins of the Cluniac Priory of St. Mary Magdalene at Barnstaple, and is now preserved in a modern residence built on the site. The knot and crescent are found on the churches of Axminster, Ottery St. Mary, and Seaton, and will be further referred to. We do not hear much more of the Marchioness, but she evidently stood very high in the Court of Henry VIII. , for in September, 1533, at the christening of the Princess, afterward Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Queen Anne Boleyn, at Greenwich, Hall relates that "the old Marchioness of Dorset, widow," was one of the child's god-mothers, and in the grand procession the Marquis her son, bore the Salt, and she afterward made the infant-princess "a present of three gilt bowls pounced with a cover." By her will, dated 6 March, 1528-9. 19 Henry VIII., she " bequeathed her body to be buried in the Chapel of Astley, in the tomb where her husband the late Lord Marquis lay, and a thousand masses to be said for her soul. That a goodly tomb should be made in the Chapel of Astley over the Lord Marquis her husband, and another for herself, and two priests daily to sing in the said Chapel of Astley by the space of eighty years, to pray for the soul of the said Lord Marquis and her oivn soul." BONVILLE. 75 The exact date of her death does not appear to have been ascertained, but probably before, or by 1530, when she would have been about seventy years old. With the death of Cicely Bonville — last of her name and race — the main personal interest of our little narrative ceases, and it is not intended, in bringing our story to its conclusion, to give a long detailed account of the two next succeeding generations of the Greys, which belongs rather to national history. Thomas Grey, eldest son of Thomas Grey, first Marquis of Dorset, and Cicely Bonville, was summoned to Parhament in 1509, as Lord Ferrers of Groby, and in 1511, as the second Marquis of Dorset. He married first Eleanor, daughter of Oliver, Lord St. John, by whom he had no issue, and secondly Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Wotton of Bocton in Kent, by whom he had Henry, his successor ; — John, ancestor of the Earls of Stamford ; — Elizabeth, married to Thomas, Lord Audley of Walden, K.G., Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII., who sat as High Steward at the trial of Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, and who died in 1544 ; — Catherine, to Henry Fitzalan, eighteenth and last Earl of Arundel of that family, Lord High Steward to Queen Ehzabeth, and K.G., who died 1579; — and Anne, to Henry Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire. He appears to have enjoyed the favour and confidence of that dangerously uncertain despot Henry VIII., and in 1512 was constituted Commander-in-Chief of the expedition sent into Spain, designed as an augmentation of the forces of the Emperor Ferdinand in the invasion of Guienne, and with him were associated the second Lord Willoughby de Broke and other noblemen. In 1514, he was with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in France at the jousts of St. Denis, and acquired considerable renown ; as afterward at the meeting of Henry and Francis in 1521 on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was one of the lords who signed the celebrated letter to Pope Clement touching the king's divorce, and subscribed to the articles of impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey. Altogether a pliant and observant courtier probably, who carefully noted, studied, and comphed with the errant phases of his grim master's will, the only safe way of getting on with him, and keeping his head on his shoulders, but, of course, requiring the aid of a not too-exacting conscience. He made his will 1530, " ordered his body to be buried at Astley, near his father, and his executors to make and build a Chapel at Astley, according to the will of his father, with a goodly tomb over his father and mother, and where he himself resolved to be buried." Together with further bequests " to found an alms house for thirteen poor men, who were to have twelve pence a week, and a livery of black cotton yearly at a cost of four shillings, and three honest priests to pray for his soul, dc." Relating to the burial of this nobleman, we append the following, given as a quotation by Burke, — " The Collegiate church of Astley, founded by Thomas third Lord Astley, whose heiress-general married the ancestor of this Marquis, a most rare and 76 BONVILLE. beautiful piece of workmanship, having fallen down, a new chancel was erected by the parishioners. When on opening the vault where the body of the Marquis was laid, a large and long coffin of wood was found, which at the curious desire of some, being burst open, the body which had lain there for seventy-eight years, appeared perfect in every respect, neither perished nor hardened, but the flesh, in colour, proportion, and softness, alike to any corpse newly interred. The body was about five feet eight inches in length, the face broad and the hair yellow. All which seemed to be well preserved from the strong embalming thereof." Henry Grey, third and last Marquis of Dorset, was constituted Lord High- Constable of England for three days at the coronation of Edward VI., 1547. In 1551 made Justice in Eyre of all the King's Forests, and in 1552 Warden of the East, West, and Middle Marches toward Scotland, and 11 October of the same year was created Duke of Suffolk, and installed Knight of the Garter. He married first Katharine, daughter of Wilham, Earl of Arundel, but by her had no issue. Secondly, he espoused Frances, daughter of Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk in 1514, and K.G., — by his third wife the Princess Mary, second daughter of king Henry VII., widow of king Lewis XII., and so Queen-Dowager of France. The issue of this marriage was three daughters, Jane, Katharine, and Mary. The Lady Jane Grey married the Lord Guilford Dudley, son of John Dudley, created Duke of Northumberland in 1551 and K.G. ; by his wife Jane daughter of Sir Edward Guilford, knt. The Duke his father, was beheaded on Tower Hill 22 Aug., 1553. The Lady Katharine Grey, married first Henry, Lord Herbert, eldest son of William, Earl of Pembroke, from whom she was divorced. Secondly she married Lord Edward Seymour, son of the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded on Tower Hill, 22 Jan., 1552. Lord Edward Seymour was created by Queen Ehzabeth in 1559, Baron Beauchamp of Hache, and Earl of Hertford. But for marrying the Lady Katharine without the permission first obtained of the imperious and unfeeling Queen, they were both committed to the Tower. He was fined five thousand pounds, and endured nine years imprisonment. His wife bore him three sons during her captivity, and she died while still a prisoner in that fortress 26 Jan., 1567. He died at an advanced age in 1621. The Lady Mary Grey married Martin Keys, Groom-Porter to Queen Elizabeth. It is not necessary here to enter into the mournful circumstances of the deaths, — perhaps the most sad in English history— of the youthful Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guilford Dudley, — they are fully known to all who have the slightest acquaintanceship with our national annals. The event occurred on 12 Feb., 1554. The same remark will apply to the fate of the Duke of Suffolk, her father, — his participation in Wyatt's rising, the story of his fleeing from his pursuers, hiding in a hollow tree in his park at Astley, and betrayal (under circumstances somewhat similar to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham), by Underwood, one of his own park-keepers to whom he had confided the secret of his life, — need only the outhne of relation here, to give semblance of completion to our httle history. EFFIGY OF FRANCES BRANDON, DOCHESS OF SUFFOLK. Wehtminhtkr Abbet. — A.D. 1559. BONVILLE. 77 He" found his death also by the executioner's hand on Tower Hill, 23 Feb., 1554. The Duchess of Suffolk, his widow, married secondly Adrian Stokes, Esq. She was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, where, on a high-tomb of the same costly material, reclines her effigy in alabaster, clad in the rich costume of the period, with a crowned lion at her feet. On one side of the tomb is this inscription, — HERE LIETH THE LADIE FRANCES, DVCHES OF SOVTHFOLKE, DOVGHTER TO CHARLES BRANDON, DUKE OF SOVTHFOLKE, AND MARIE THE FRENCHE QVENE; FIRST WIFE TO HENRIE, DUKE OF SOVTHFOLKE, AND AFTER TO ADRIAN STOCK, ESQVIER. and on the other the following, — IN CLARISS: DOM: FRANCISCO SVFFOLCLE QVONDAM DVCISS/E EPICEDION. MIL DECVS AVT SPLENDOR, NIL REGIA NOMINA PROSVNT SPLENDIDA DIVITIIS, NIL JVVAT AMPLA DOMVS ; OMNIA FLVXERVNT, VIRTVTIS SOLA REMANSIT GLORIA, TARTAREIS NON ABOLENDA ROGIS. NVPTA DVCI PRIVS EST, VXOR POST ARMIGERI STOKES ; FVNERE NVNC VALEAS CONSOCIATO DEUS. Below in panels are sculptured the arms of France and England, Brandon and Stokes with numerous quarterings. Of this lady says Dean Stanley, — " She had thrown herself headlong into the Protestant cause. She had dressed up a cat in a rochet to irritate the bishops ; and had insulted Gardiner, as she passed by the Tower, ' It is well for the lambs when the wolves are shut up.' Naturally in her own turn she had to fly after her husband's and her daughter's bloody death, and lived just long enough to see the betrothal of her daughter, Catherine Grey to the Earl of Hertford, and to enjoy the turn of fortune which restored her to the favour of Elizabeth, and allowed her sepulture beside her royal ancestors. The service was probably the first celebrated in English in the Abbey since Elizabeth's accession ; and it was followed by the Communion service, in which the Dean (Dr. Bill) officiated, and Jewell preached the sermon. Could her Puritanical spirit have known the site of her tomb, she would have rejoiced in the thought, that it was the first to displace one of the venerated altars of the old Catholic saints." The effigy, a very noble one, clasps a book, presumably intended for the Bible, in her hands, doubtless another evidence of her "Puritanical spirit," and which she probably deemed of more importance than the choicest relics of "saints" preserved in the " venerated altars " that teemed around. Adrian Stokes, or Stock, Esq., who married the Duchess of Suffolk, 1 March, 1555, just twelve months after the Duke's death, is said to have acted as her Master of the Horse. In spite of this disparity of social position, and also of age (he being about seventeen, and the Duchess thirty-two years old at the date of their marriage), the union appears to have been a happy one (she only survived four years), for at her death in December, 1559, she left him in possession 78 BONVILLE. of large estates in Warwickshire and Leicestershire. In 1571 Stokes was returned to Parhament for Leicestershire, having under his charge the Lady Mary Grey, his step-daughter, and about that period, married secondly, Anne, widow of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton. He died without issue 30 Nov., 1586. He erected this fine monument to her memory. His ward the Lady Mary Grey appears to have had no higher ambition in the selection of a husband, than her mother's second venture, having married, as previously related, Martin Keys, Groom- Porter to Queen Elizabeth. It may be, her step-father's social position was against anything better. The memorials of Cicely Bonville, Marchioness of Dorset, are fairly numerous and interesting. " The walls of many churches," says Mr. Davidson, "in the neighbourhood of this lady's extensive possessions testify by the arms and devices of her family and connections, that she employed a part of her immense wealth by assisting in their erection." The most considerable of these, is the beautiful Chapel on the north side of the nave of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, at Ottery, and known as the "Dorset aisle," which without doubt she built. It is of considerable size, and its fan-traceried vaulting very rich ; on the piUars of the arcade are the arms of Bishop Oldham, and his rebus, an owl holding a label in its beak inscribed with the last syllable of the prelate's name, (jam, — 1504-19 ; and also of Bishop Vesey his successor, 1519-51. This shews that its erection occurred within those dates, after her marriage with the Earl of Wiltshire, but before her death, which took place about 1530. Studding the moulding under the parapet outside are the family badges, the Harington fret, Stafford knot, bull's-head of Hastings, and Bourchier knot, often repeated, while over the porch-entrance are the denuded remains of what was evidently the armorial achieve ment of this lady. There is a shield surrounded by the Garter, but the bearings are quite undecipherable, except the traces of a fret, the supporters appear to have been a lion on the dexter side, and on the sinister an antelope. Above the shield is a helmet, and remains of a crest. At the top and in the base of the panel is the Stafford knot, of large size, and on each side this device is repeated alternately with the mullet of Bonville. These arms together with some other sculpture within the porch, appear to have been designedly mutilated, perhaps after the attainder and execution of the Duke of Suffolk, by order of Queen Mary, similarly to the manner the heraldic achievements of the Countess of Salisbury in her beautiful Chantry in the Priory Church of Christ Church, Hants, were commanded to be obhterated ("delete") by Henry VIII. , after her savage beheading. The outer armorial panel is supported by columns with a crocketted canopy, and figures of angels stand on the pillars ; at their base are small shields with the merchant's mark and initial of Goodwyn of Plymtree, who held that manor of the Hastings family at the time. There are several of the original bench-ends within the BONVILLE. 79 Chapel ; on one is a large double rose and on another pomegranates, but they are of comparatively plain character in carved detail. At the meeting of Henry VIII. and Maximilian at Terouenne in 1515, Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham was "attired in purple satin, his apparel full of antelopes, and swans (of Bohun) of fine gold bullion, and full of spangles." Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, his brother, and second husband of Cicely Bonville, bore on his banner the swan (of Bohun) amid semee of Stafford knots, with the motto, " HUMBLE ET LOYAL." Knightstone, in Ottery St. Mary, originally the inheritance of the Bittlesgate family, became the property of the Marchioness of Dorset in 1494, the remainder having previously been vested in Wilham, Lord Bonville. On the attainder of her grandson, the Duke of Suffolk, in 1554, it was purchased by Mr. Wilham Sherman, a merchant of Ottery, who died in 1583, and whose brass effigies are on the pavement of the south aisle of the church. In the church of Limington near Ilchester, Somerset, two memorials are found, but whether they are to be considered mementoes of Cicely Bonville, or of her son the second Marquis, is not so clear. These consist of two finely carved bench-ends, in the chancel. They are of considerable height, having fleur-de-lys shaped finials on the top, and below occurs, on one the rose, and on the other the pomegranate, of Henry VIII. Then foUows a large shield, quarterly, — 1 and 4, six mullets pierced, three, two, one (Bonville). — 2 and 3, a fret (Haeington) ; and under this the initials W. C. joined by a cordon. Beneath are four roses, single and very thickly double, alternate. The Bonvilles acquired considerable property in Limington, Somerset, of the representatives of the De Gyvernay family. The last of them Henry de Gyvernay died seized of the manor 35 Henry III., leaving a daughter Joan married to William de Shareshull. The very fine and well-preserved effigy in the uniquely-groined north transeptal Chantry, was probably placed to the memory of one of them (although the armour and appointments are comparatively late), and the other three earlier effigies on the floor doubtless represent preceding generations. The initials W. C. on the bench-end evidently allude to Walter Cocks, incumbent of the parish, who was inducted in 1535, patron the Marquis of Dorset. This would be about five years after Cicely Bonville's death, and in the lifetime of her son, but the marshalling of the arms seems to allude more directly to his mother. On escutcheons in the panels of the carved parapet of Axminster church are the Harington fret, and the Stafford knot, surmounted by a crescent ; this last badge having allusion to Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, her second husband, he being the second son of Henry, Duke of Buckingham. " As the manor of Uphay in the parish belonged to her," remarks Mr. Davidson, "it is not surprising she should have contributed to the enlargement of the church at Axminster." Among the shields shewing the descent of Walrond, that formerly had place on a screen in their Chantry in Seaton church, is one 80 BONVILLE. charged with the Stafford knot and crescent, probably included out of comphment by the squire of Bovey to his noble neighbour of Wiscombe. It also occurs over the tower door at Hawkchurch, together with the arms of Daubeney, and the Abbey of Cerne. But the most interesting of all, is the presumed effigy of Cicely herself, in the portion remaining of the once beautiful church of Astley, in Warwickshire. This, for a long time fixed upright in the wall of the tower, at the west end of the choir, now rechnes on a low tomb. The figure is of alabaster, with pyramidal head-dress, gown richly embroidered and gilt, and mantle, on which are traces of crimson colour, the head rests on a cushion originally guarded by angels. From her girdle are suspended an aumoniere on the right side and a rosary on the left. There are two other effigies, also in this church, sculptured in alabaster. One, a knight with hair polled, in fuU plate armour, and collar of S.S. His head rests on a helmet, and his feet on a hon. The other, a lady, has long flowing hair to the shoulders, on her head a coronet with traces of fleurs-de-lys and pearls, necklace, and wearing also tho rare Yorkist coUar of Suns and Roses, from which is suspended the Lion of March. The remains of angels support the cushions on which her head rests. The ladies are much shorter in stature than the knight, and the probability is they all occupied separate tombs, which stood in the side chapels originally existing attached to the antient chancel, before it fell down and was rebuilt at the time the body of the second Marquis was discovered, at the end of the seventeenth century. The knight is apparently the earlier effigy of the three, probably dating about 1480-90, the lady with the coronet next, or about contemporary, and the lady in the pyramidal head-dress considerably the latest, as shewn by her costume, which would accord very nearly with that worn at the era of Cicely Bonville's death. Sir Edward Grey, uncle to Thomas Grey, first Marquis of Dorset, married Elizabeth, sister and heir of Thomas Talbot, Viscount L'Isle. 15 Edward IV. he was created Baron, and 1 Richard III. Viscount L'Isle, died in 1492, and bequeathed his body to be buried in the new chapel of Our Lady, begun to be built by himself in the College of Astley, where the body of his late wife Elizabeth lay interred. His daughter Muriel was the first wife of Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, second husband of Cicely Bonville. A guess may be hazarded that these figures represent Sir Edward Grey and his wife Ehzabeth. Before we close our account of the Bonville and Grey memorials, we propose to include — from its uniqueness of example — another remembrance to a presumed second-cousin of the Lady Cicely, that we discovered among the fine series of bench-ends in a visit to the little church of Barwick, near Yeovil, on our way back from Limington. It is one of a pair in the chancel, almost ahke, the only difference being — and here note the evident purpose conveyed in all medieval symbolism — that one shield, the earliest in the succession is suspended by a guige from a hawthorn tree in blossom, and the later one from c^<8?^t<&a&£ INDENT OF THE BRASS OF ARCHBISHOP STAFFORD. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, A.D. 1452. WITH THE SILVER HAND. A WARM sunny morning in early May, and turning our steps from the thriving and somewhat busy town of Trowbridge, — a place which, hke its quieter sister of Westbury, " stondith mostly by clothiers," — its forest of smoking chimneys, garish town-hall, and tall spire, — our path inclines by the broad south-westerly road that leads to Frome and the parts adjacent. The walk is pleasant enough in its way, but without special incident to interest the wayfarer, beyond the ordinary pedestrian and vehicular motion of the hour. In this direction we continue for about a mile and a half, and having passed through the village of Studley, halt at a stile or gateway on our left, and looking across a meadow of some extent, discern, environed by orchards, the grey outhne of a building, having the unmistakable time-worn appearance of survival from a former age, albeit not of large size, and flanked with clustering outbuildings, that betoken its present inmate to be engaged in the great primeval occupation. Instinctively — from a memory sympathetically stored — a reverie for the moment takes possession of the thoughts, as at the sight of the unpretending structure, a large picture passes rapidly before the mental eye, and with measured emphasis we observe, — a mother unknown, — a son the most famous, — their last descendant the most unfortunate ! Why — friend of mine — say you, do we propound this enigmatic commentary as we view the old place ? Gives it short clue to characters, presumably, once connected with it, whose hves have embodied striking phases of human existence, which whet the imagination to contemplate, and to divine with all its subtle ingenuity, incidents conformable to animate them ? Listen. Yonder is Suthwyke ; — there, back in the middle of the fourteenth century, a scion of the great family of Stafford of mediaeval fame, found his way from the county that gave them their patronymic, and he, marrying the daughter of its then possessor, settled himself within it, and became its lord and master. 138 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. Around its grey walls, so retiring and unpretentious, cluster traditions of the first importance, that lead us out into the great field of national history. From the first of this knightly race that then dwelled therein, by a mother unknown, — who may have been the comely daughter of some villain residing near, — issued a son, who, despite all the contumely of his birth, won the mitre of the adjoining See, rose to the supreme station of being the custodian of the nation's purse, the keeper of the conscience of its reigning King, and finally sat on the archiepiscopal throne of the realm, when the Church was in her best estate. Of his grandson, styled of this place, who,' deputed to maintain the royal prerogative against plebeian agression, fell fighting under the fierce onslaught of Wat Tyler in distant Kent. Again, of his son, who rising high in the favour of his Sovereign, was by him dignified with a patent of nobility named after his heritage in this rural spot, with honours further increased ; but who, meanly swerving by ingratitude and petty dudgeon, in the first service imposed on him by the monarch who had so recently honoured him, — to the confusion of his royal patron, — was by the same kingly hand, as suddenly and ignominiously extinguished, and with him perished also the name and race of the family, of which he was its last representative. So we deliver the solution to our parable, as we leisurely cross the broad meadow, but as we draw near the house, or Court as it is termed, — our foot is abruptly stayed by a comparatively invisible — until we are close on its edge — but decisive hindrance to nearer approach, and indicative at once of the olden character of the habita tion, a deep and wide moat, still well supphed with water, that surrounds the area on which the house stands. But no mail-clad warrior, with glance of lance and pennon, salutes us, no whnpled lady passes like a shadow around the old gable corners, — all the signs of life visible are a bevy of ducks busily disporting themselves in the water below, and a group of calves on the opposite brink, thrusting their dappled faces through the bars of the fence, and calling lustily to their foster-mother, the dairy-maid, to bring them their accustomed meal. A short distance below, a friendly stone bridge reveals itself, which spans the chasm, and leads to a building, — that probably still per petuates in form and size the antient gate-house, — with a large semi circular-arched, and somewhat ornamented doorway, ghost of the original portal, with its attendant portculhs and drawbridge. We cross the bridge, but observe at a glance that it is doubtful if any traces of the dwelling of the Stafford dynasty, or their immediate successors, will be found in or upon it, and such proved to be the case. The building is of moderate size, bears the characteristics of having been erected early in the seventeenth century, and these distinguishing features, with the exception of the nmlliohed windows, a rather fine balustraded and newelled staircase, and the appearance of an old nail-studded door here and there, — have been nearly obliterated by adaptation to modern requirements. No dates were visible, two panels over the entrances may contain such, but they are carefully plastered over. STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. 139 Suthwyck — Suthwyk — Southwyke, now modernized to Southwick Court, is apparently built on the antient site, and probably very nearly represents the original size of the building. A domestic chapel was attached to the httle mansion. This was situate a short distance from it, on the other side of the moat ; it now forms the corner of the farm court, and was converted, about the year 1839, into a stable. No trace of ecclesiastical use is found within it, but a few of the old roof-timbers are discernible; the piscina, windows, &c, being doubtless removed when it underwent the process of conversion. "In Southwick, a tything of North-Bradley," says Canon Jackson, — " two carucates of land belonged in 1274 to William de Greyville or Greynville, who held under the Abbess of Bomsey. About 1294, his son Adam de Greynville, (there was a Justice in Eyre of his name in 1267) attached to his house at Southwick Court a Chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist. By surrendering to the Bector of Bradley, (at that time the Prebendary of Edington) a ground called Alerleye, he obtained the right of presenting to his Chapel a chantry priest, who in acknowledgment of fealty, was to offer two pounds of wax in Bradley church, every year on the anniversary of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. In 1369 the Bishop of Sarum (Bobert de Wyvil) granted a license for Mass to be said in the private mansion house of Southwick. This chaplain in after times was always instituted to his office by the rectors of Edington Monastery, to whom the church of Bradley then belonged." At the dissolution of Chantries in the reign of Henry VIII. , Southwyke, Grenefreds (Grenvylles) Chantry, as it was called, was reported by the Commissioners " Baltazar Segytte, incumbent, with six pounds seven shillings a year. The plate weighed eight ounces one pennyweight, and the goods were valued at nine shillings, whilst eight and fourpence was allowed for a bell." Suthwyke Court, and manor passed by successive heiresses through the families of Greynville, Stafford, Cheney, and Willoughby. About 1483, during a temporary forfeiture, it was given by Richard III. to his favourite Ratcliffe ; it was however restored, and about 1520 sold by Robert, second Lord Willoughby de Broke to Sir David Owen, a supposed son of Owen Tudor, who in his will, dated 1529, mentions this Manor and Chantry. It was afterward disposed of in parcels, but the Court, by descent, is now held by the old Wiltshire family of Long of Rood-Ashton. Of its former possessors, a few words. Sir John Stafford, knt., of Amelcote and Bromshull, Staffordshire, who was living in 1361, married as his second wife the Lady Margaret, daughter of Sir Ralph Stafford, K.G., and one of the original founders of that Order, second Baron Stafford, and who was subsequently raised to the Earldom 5 March, 1351, and died in 1372 ; by his wife' Margaret, only daughter and heiress of Hugh de Audley, Baron Audley. * He had issue by this marriage a son and heir named Humphrey. * "Here (Tunbridge, Kent,) sometime lay entombed the bodies of Hugh de Audley, second son of Nicholas, Lord Audley of Heleigh Castle, in the county of Stafford, who was created Earle of Gloucester by King Edward the third. This Huqh died 10 November 1347. His wife Margaret (first married to Pierce Gaveston Earle of Cornwall) dyed before him in the yeare of our Lord 1342, the 13 day of 140 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. This son, Sir Humphrey, migrated into Wilts, and married first Alice, daughter and heir of John de Greynville, the then possessor of Suthwyke. By her he " acquired a large estate, viz., the manor, mansion house, and patronage of the Church of St. John Baptist thereto annexed of Suthwyke juxta Frome-Selwood, in the parish of North-Bradley, Wilts, — the manors and advowsons of Clutton and Farnburgh, Somerset, and the manor of Burmington, Warwick," and she was married to Sir Humphrey before 1365. Her father bore for his arms, Argent, six lioncels rampant gules. By her husband Sir Humphrey, she had a son Humphrey, who became her heir. Sir Humphrey married secondly, Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir William d'Aumarle of Woodbury, Devon, who died 15 November, 1362, and widow of Sir John Maltravers of Hooke, in Dorset, who died 15 June, 1386, and whose arms were, Sable, a fret or. She had no children by Sir Humphrey, but two daughters by her first husband ; Maud, married first to Peter de la Mare, of Offelegh, Herts, who died about 1395, and secondly to Sir John Dinham, of Buckland-Dinham, Somerset, who died about 1428 ; * and Elizabeth, married to her second husband's only son. He was sheriff of Dorset and Somerset 12 Henry IV., 1411. Elizabeth, the second wife of Sir Humphrey died the 15 Oct., 1413, and the knight himself survived her sixteen days only, dying on the 31 Oct., 1413, and both were buried beside her first husband, Sir John Maltravers, in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury. He was the first of his line that bore for his arms, Or, a chevron gules within a bordure engrailed sable. All the foregoing coats of arms including also D'Aumarle, Per fess gules and azure, three crescents ardent, are found among the heraldic display on the tomb of their descendant the Lady Elizabeth Willoughby- Greville at Alcester. Sir Humphrey Stafford — only child of the foregoing — was of Suthwyke in right of his mother, and of Hooke, jure uxoris. He was surnamed " with the Silver Hand," — a ' periphrasis ' whose meaning has not been explained, — and married Elizabeth, the second daughter of his father's second wife, by her first husband Sir John Maltravers. By her he had three sons, Richard, John, and William, and one daughter Ahce. Aprill. They were both together sumptuously entombed by Margaret their daughter, the onely heire of her parents, wife to Ralph de Stafford, Earle of Stafford. The said Ralph de Stafford and Margaret his wife, were here likewise entombed at the feet of their father and mother, this Balph by the marriage of his wife Margaret, writ himself in his charters and deeds, Baron of Tunbridge. Hee died 31 August, 1372, Margaret his wife dyed 7 September, 1349." (Weevek.) * Query, if the fine effigies of a knight and lady in Kings-Carswell church in south Devon do not represent this Sir John Dinham and his first wife, Maud Maltravers. The Knight has the arms of Dinham on his surcoat, and the shields on the tomb below display Dinham impaling a fret or frette. There is another interesting effigy of a ladv in the same church, that may possibly be intended for the second wife of Sir John Dinham who was a daughter of John, Lord Lovel. STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. 141 Sir Humphrey, having thus married the heiress of Maltravers, probably removed to Hooke, their antient seat, and made it his residence. Coker says of Hooke House, that "in foregoing ages the Cifrewasts, men of great antiquity and note dwelled there." Mal travers married Cifrewast's heir, and the old historian continues, "Humphry Stafford who married Maltravers' heir, was the great builder of it. This place hath since been much beholden to Wilham Pawhtt, Marquis of Winchester, who augmented it with new buildings and often lived there, but his successors have not thought so well of it, wherefore it is like to run to decay." Paulet held it through his wife Elizabeth Willoughby, by inheritance from Cheney and Stafford. * Arms of Cifrewast of Hooke, — Azure, three bars gemelles or, — also found at Alcester: Sir Humphrey died 27 May, 1442, his wife had pre-deceased him, dying about 1420, and both were buried in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, in the Chapel of St. Anne therein, which he had founded. Before proceeding further with this descent of Stafford, our little annals confront us with its most distinguished representative — albeit by a side issue— John Stafford, consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 1425, Archbishop of Canterbury 1443, Lord Chancellor to Henry VI., and who died in 1452. Who were his parents, and where is his position in the family pedigree ? The recognized ' authorities ' on the subject describe him as being another son of the first Sir Humphrey, and brother to him "with the Silver Hand." Yet no definite proof thereof has been forthcoming. His presumed father Sir Humphrey made his will at Hooke 5 April, 1413, with codicil dated 30 Oct., same year, but in it he does not even mention him. Yet Sir Humphrey's second wife Elizabeth Maltravers in a codicil to her's, dated 14 October, 1413, does refer to him by bequest, Item, Magistro Johanni Stafford, &c. ' Sir Humphrey Stafford also, the only son of Sir Humphrey (the Archbishop's presumed father), in his will dated 14 Dec, 1441, includes bequests to the future Archbishop, thus recorded, — " Item, do et lego Johanni fratri meo divina pietate Bathoniensis et Wellensis episcopo, unum par de fflacons argenteis et deauratis. " Item, eidem Episcopo unam ymaginem argenteam et deauratum decollationis sancti Johannis Baptiste, ac unam magnam peciam de Aras vocatam He also appoints the said bishop his brother, and Wilham his son, with others to be his executors. An extraordinary confusion appears to have enveloped the state ments of historians and antiquaries as to the pedigree of Stafford, and the Archbishop's origin ; this however has of late been satisfactorily cleared up by the researches of an accomplished and accurate gene alogist. He was the son of the first Sir Humphrey, but not born within the legal pale of wedlock, and his mother's name was Emma, * See page 33. 142 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. that she was subsequently admitted to the Sisterhood of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Canterbury, of which her son the Archbishop was a Brother, but who she was has not as yet been recovered. She died 5 Sept., 1446, and was buried in a mortuary chapel in the north aisle of the parish church of North-Bradley, Wilts, in which Suthwyke is situated. " As her son was elevated to the primacy in 1443 he is here (on the gravestone) correctly described as Archbishop at the time of his mother's death, which could not have been done had she died in 1440. Considering that the archbishop raised this mortuary chapel as a resting place for his mother's remains, — if not for his own — in the church of the parish in which Suthwyke manor house is situate, and that his father resided at Suthwyke until the period of his marriage with his second wife, when he removed to her dower house of Hoke in Dorsetshire, it is not unreasonable to infer that the archbishop was born in the parish of North-Bradley. " As his mother survived Sir Humphry's last wife, who died in 1413,— only sixteen days before Sir Humphry — it is impossible the archbishop's mother could have been Sir Humphry's wife, at the time her son was born. His birth must be set as far back as 1387, if not earlier, as in 1413 he was made LL.D. at Oxford, and in the same year he was collated to the Prebendal stall of Barton in the Cathedral church of Wells." * The mortuary Chapel that the Archbishop erected to the memory of his mother, and to which doubtless he had her remains conveyed, and therein interred, occurs at the east end of the north aisle of North-Bradley church, and is of the width of the last bay of the arcade. It is of square form and projects with definite character from the church, to which it forms a kind of transept. The architecture is Perpendicular, and of rich character. The east window square-headed, of some height from the floor, shewing that there was an altar once below it, and a piscina occurs in the pier of the arch on the south side. The south window is of large size, bay-shaped, and extends to the roof, the side jambs are panelled with window-shaped tracery, and along the top is a string-course of quatrefoil panels with bosses, and these are repeated at the base over the tomb ; here they have shields in the centre, but with no charges on them. The roof, in a good state of preservation, is a richly trussed one of oak, with deeply moulded transoms, again subdivided by smaller ones, the squares between ornamented with quatrefoils, having well-carved bosses in their centres, and others at the intersec tion of the trusses. On one nearest the chancel is the cross and crown of thorns, — on others the arms of Hungerford, the double rose, and some display, apparently representations of stags, a fox, man on horse, &c. The tomb of the Archbishop's mother is^in the recess of the bay of the north window. It occupies its whole width and depth, and assumes the form of a plain solid bench rising some height from the ground, with no ornament of any kind. It is composed of white stone, as is also the gravestone, let in on the top, which appears to be of somewhat different kind, and of more friable character. * See a most able and comprehensive account of •• Stafford of Suthwyke," in Notes and Queries for 1871, by B. W. Gkeenfield, Esq., f.s.a., &c, from which we quote ; and for other help kindly afforded, we here gratefully acknowledge. EMMA, MOTHER OF ARCHBISHOP STAFFORD. North-Bradley Chough, "Wiltshire. — A.D. 1416 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. 143 On this gravestone the effigy of the mother of the Archbishop is incised, below her feet is a pedestal, and over her head a rich canopy supported on side buttresses. Although the lines of the figure are somewhat denuded, yet sufficient remains to shew she was clad in the ordinary costume of a lady of the period. On her head she wears a coverchief that depends to the shoulders, a wimple around her neck, and she is otherwise attired in long gown and robe over. The hands are raised in prayer, and at her feet is a dog, apparently a spaniel, from his dependant ears and clouded coat. The incised lines are filled with a black composition, as is also the inscription that forms a ledger-line around the stone, — Ifir, faeet b'na. (Bmma mater Uetteran-fejitmt pairis et iromhtt Jj'tti Koh'is J^tafforc tret rrra' ffiatttaartettsts ^reljiepi' que 0biit quinto trie mentis j^eptemfrria atttur ir'rtt Jttillesirrw tree"10 mmura'a'mo bi° ntf artime p'piriet' ire' am' On the outside, the Chapel is very noticeable, on account of its height and rich character as compared with the main fabric of the church. The corner buttresses have pinnacles at their stages, and the space below the north window is filled with quatrefoiled panels, and lozenges, traceried, with plain shields in their centres. A remarkable peculiarity is observable, — the carved ornamentation of the Chapel was never finished, the pinnacles on one buttress are completed, the crockets on the other only roughed out, and the cusps of the panel work above the tomb inside, still display the pencil marks of the intention of the carver, which his chisel never gave form to. The shields also are all perfectly plain and uncharged, and no trace of the armories of Stafford are at present visible anywhere on the Chapel, either within or without. When Aubrey visited the Chapel in 1669, he notes, — "By -the north aisle is a peculiar chappell of excellent worke, the roof of wood curiously carved. I guesse the worke to be about temp : Henry VI. about which time this kind of Gothique architecture was at the height. This was as noble a Chapelle as any in the county, now, in the windowe, like a great bay windowe is only one scutcheon left entire ; viz : Stafford, — Or, a chevron gules. Another was quarterley, now broken ; another thus Stafford, imp : Beville. At the bottom thereof is a flatt gravestone of freestone well worked, lineally with the figure of a lady in a Gothique niche. In the limbe thereof this inscription " f)ic jattt b'ns (Smma, &c." The old antiquary gives the inscription fairly correct as it now is found, but at the end he adds these further- words, — "<$ Jens trhra me |ohrt toitstrfra rttinn," — (0 triune God, save me, John, from perdition). But such never could have existed on the face of the gravestone, as the inscription, without this addition completely fills the ledger-line around its edge. Probably he saw it in one of the windows. He 'then goes on to say, — " In the limbe of the windowe are these fragments " Smim matris 1) tt'iti gob'is iirtjjitp r birrt." In the top of this windowe, and also of the other, in scrolls, — " (Snoijii scauton: flosw leiugnm." The other windowe is all broken, but the scrolls aforesaid : only the picture of the archbishop, except his 144 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. head, remains, of curious painted glass, he in his formalities, with pall, crozier, &c, in a cope of sky colour. In a limbe of this windowe " tmjus reptile . . . . . . arctjitut fiantuar." In the carved wood work of the roofe are several httle hunting figures, as of men carrying a deer, shooting a deer in the wood. One scutcheon of Hungerford in wood. This chapell is built outside the church, as Hungerfords at Sarum, but the scutcheons of stone are not charged." A review of the circumstances attending the origin and career of John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, furnishes a subject of pecuhar interest. Born, as we have observed, outside the legal pale, and as a consequence, subject to all its worldly disadvantages, this drawback appears to have found no hindrance to his advancement on the path of hfe, which ultimately led — short of sovereignty— to the highest station it had to offer. This result exhibits another striking instance of those marvellous careers, that have so often waited upon these natural children of mankind, who bearing down all obstacles in their way, and contemptuous of the goody-goody frowns and askant glances of their more piously-bred neighbours, by the force of their character, and the self-reliance engendered by what is termed mis fortune of birth, have achieved the position of standing among the leaders and rulers of their race. Examined by the light of common sense, the cause of this innate distinction is perhaps not far to seek. In its highest and truest sense, such have received, their being under the strongest impulses that animate the human heart, knit by the influence of attachment often so powerful, that no present consequence, or after consideration received at the time a moment's parley, and Nature in the result asserts the aristocracy of her lineage ; whereof the life of the Archbishop is a notable example. Proscribed doubtless, then as now, by the social world from assuming equality with them, and unable therefore to pursue any of the usual worldly professions with equal chances of success, it is refreshing to find the highest human vocation, the office of the Christian minister, was at his acceptance, — the Church opened her door to the human waif, — who was destined afterward to become her chief pastor. From his presumed father — as usual — he received scant help, but five years before his death, Sir Humphrey bestowed on him a costless gift, by presenting the future Archbishop to the family living of Farnboro', in the diocese of Bath and WeUs, — a See he afterward presided over. The close affection also that evidently existed between the Arch bishop and his mother, cemented doubtless by the circumstances of his birth, and her consequent comparative isolation from society, is a delightful trait in his character ; and it may be fully surmised caused. him to take her to Canterbury, there to become a Sister of the religious house, of which fraternity he was a Brother, in order that she might be well cared for, and be near him, and where she probably passed the last twenty years of her life. She hved long enough to see her distinguished son ascend the Archiepiscopal throne, and as Lord Chancellor also to the reigning sovereign, King Henry VI. , become at once the first citizen of his native land, both in Church and State ; a remarkable privilege, that few mothers indeed, — no matter what dis tinction of birth or station they inherited, — have been destined to witness. STAFFOED OF SUTHWYKE. 145 At her death in 1446, the Archbishop had her body conveyed back to North-Bradley, of which place she presumably was a native, and where probably her son was born. There he deposited her remains in the mortuary chapel attached to the parish church he had specially built to receive them, under a tomb whereon he caused her form to be depicted, and surrounded it with the simple inscription that still remains to bear witness of his filial affection. It is noticeable that some intimacy must have sprung up between his father's family and himself, for although Sir Humphrey does not mention him in his will, yet Ms second wife Elizabeth D'Aumarle does so in hers. This intercourse probably ripened toward the end of his life, for his legally-born half-brother, Sir Humphrey "with the Silver Hand," who died ten years before the Archbishop, bequeaths him some silver plate, and constitutes him one of his executors. This acknowledgment would be quite in accordance with the ordinary ways of the world, Sir Humphrey doubtless properly felt that the honour of the friendship had now passed to the side of his presumed half-brother, — the stray off-shoot of the Stafford blood, had outgrown and overshadowed in position and fame, all the other branches of the family tree, and consequent on this, as a matter of course, his kinship was not disowned, and the Archbishop became the "frater meo " of the Knight "with the Silver Hand." But, strange irony of this world's remembrance, — in death, if not in life their memory was to be avenged, — not a fragment of a memorial, nor the trace of an inscription remains to any direct member of the influential family of Stafford of Suthwyke and Hooke. Eschewing the humble precincts of the churches of the parishes in which their homes in Wilts and Dorset were situate as a place of burial, they caused their dust to be carried many miles away to the grand Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, and deposited in a Chantry they had founded therein, with its attendant priest to supplicate unceas ingly for the welfare of their souls. Not very long after the last member of their race was laid within it, ruthless hands razed the great fabric to the ground, when all the memorials to the dead it contained were destroyed, and with such completeness, that even the position of their sepulchres may not at present be discerned, so that now, the tomb of the mother of the Archbishop alone remains in these western parts, to bear indirect witness of their former existence. The Archbishop appears to have died at Maidstone on the sixth of July, 1452, and was buried in the " Transept of the Martyrdom " in Canterbury Cathedral. He lies under an immense (Purbeck ?) marble stone, perhaps the very largest in the cathedral, eleven feet five inches in length, by four feet six inches in breadth. On this was originally a magnificent brass, almost entirely filling the stone, but only the indent, now also much frayed, remains. The outline shews us the effigy of the Archbishop in pontificalibus, with mitre and pastoral staff. He stands under a rich canopy with pinnacles and finials, supported on long buttresses that extend down to the base of the composition. Below his feet there was evidently 146 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. a square panel which probably contained the " confabulatorie epitaph" seen and copied by Weever. Around the edge of the stone is a ledger- line, that probably had the emblems of the Evangelists at the angles. The Archbishop's gravestone has shared the common fate accorded to all the brass-inlaid stones, that doubtless formerly thickly adorned the pavement of the cathedral, but of which not a single undespoiled example now remains. On a boss in the vaulting immediately above, are the prelate's arms, being those of the See of Canterbury, impaling, Or, on a chevron gules, a mitre argent, within a bordure engrailed sable (Staffoed of Suthwyke, with difference). Weever, * thus speaks of the Archbishop. — " Here (Canterbury Cathedral) lies interred in the Martyrdome an Archbishop, very noble, and no lesse learned, one of the honourable f amilie of the Staffords ; Sonne (saith the Catalogue of Bishops) vnto the Earle of Stafford, but I finde no such thing in all the Catalogues of Honour ; a man much favoured by King Henry the fifth, who preferred him first to the Deanrie of Wells, gave him a Prebend in the Church of Salisbury, and made him one of his privie Councell, and in the end Treasurer of England. And then although this renowned King was taken away by vntimely death, ye hee still went forward in the way of promotion, and obtained the Bishopricke of Bath and Welles, which with great wisedome hee governed eighteene yeares, from whence he was removed to this of Canterbury, in which he sate almost nine yeares ; and in the meanetime was made Lord Chancellour of England, which office hee held eighteene years (which you shall hardly finde any other man to have done) vntill wearie of so painfull a place, he voluntarily resigned it over int ) the King's hands. And about three yeares after that died at Maidstone July 6. Ann : 1452. Vpon a flat marble stonC over him I find this confabulatorie Epitaph : — (§iri;s fuit ettuxleea mtem eelaa aasea moles? jitaf&rrft 3Vntiatea ftterat aittuamte loljanttea. %ta aeirit sebe marmur quean ainral ebz ? IPriiem gattjtfnie, fUnni tatins et inbe flrimaa egreums. ^Pro preaule fmtire precataa ^.arenlam grains hute bet be Uirgitte uatua. Of the Archbishop's public career as Metropohtan and Lord Chancellor, this belongs rather to the province of national history, and is altogether too extensive for even short notice here, it has been amply treated by Dean Hook in his Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chancellors thus speaks of Stafford in that capacity, — "Having with great reputation taken the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford, he practised for some time as an advocate in Doctors Commons, when Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury elevated him to be Dean of the Arches and obtained for him the deanery of St. Martin, and a, prebend in Lincoln Cathedral. He then became a favourite of Henry V., who made him successively Dean of Wells, Prebendary of Sarum, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and Treasurer of England. He attached himself to the party of Cardinal Beaufort, by whose interest in 1425, he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells. * Edition, 1631. EFFIGIES OF WILLIAM, LORD BOTTEEAUX, AND ELIZABETH BEAUMONT, HIS WIFE, North Cadbory Church, Somerset, — A,D. 1460. STAFFOED OF SUTHWYKE. 147 " From the Close Boll we learn ' that the Lord Cardinal, Archbishop Kempe, on 25 Feb. 1432, delivered up to the King, the gold and silver seals, and the Duke of Gloucester immediately took them and kept them till the fourth of March, on which day, he gave them back to the King and they were delivered by his Majesty to John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells for the despatch of business.' " He filled the office of Chancellor till 1450 a longer period than any one had before continuously held the Great Seal. This took place on 31 Jany. 1450, the day the Parliament pursuant to the last adjournment, when, 'the Archbishop of Canterbury was discharged from the office of Chancellor, and John Kempe, Cardinal and Archbishop of York was put in his place.' " He retired from politics and died at Maidstone, in Kent, on 6 July 1452. He was pars negotiis neque supra, one of those sensible, moderate, plodding safe men, who are often much relished by the leaders of political parties, as they can fill an office not discreditably, without any danger of gaining too much eclat, and with a certainty of continued subserviency." " Sensible — moderate — plodding — safe," — words which may be condensed into, and construed to embody that most useful, homely, yet withal rarest, of all endowments, — common-sense — whose practice in the long run is of far greater value from its reliability, than the too-often-found instability and hazard of careers termed brilhant, — and ever forms a most desirable, if not a great character. To return to the descent of Stafford and the four children of Sir Humphrey " with the Silver Hand." Sir Bichard Stafford the eldest son, married Maud daughter and heir of Bichard Lovell, Esq., by Elizabeth daughter and coheir of Sir Guy de Briene, knt. By her he had one child only, a daughter, named Avice, ob. 3 June, 1457, "a great heiress," married as his second wife, to James Butler, fifth Earl of Ormonde, created Earl of Wiltshire and K.G. in 1449. He was also Lord Treasurer of England and a staunch adherent of the Bed Bose, was taken prisoner after the battle of Towton, by Bichard Salkeld, Esq., and beheaded at Newcastle 1 May, 1461. Sir Richard died about 1427, his wife afterward married John Fitzalan, thirteenth Earl of Arundel, K.G., ob. 12 June, 1435, by whom she had a son Humphrey, fourteenth Earl. She died 19 May, 1436, and was buried with her first husband in the Chapel of St. Anne in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury. Sir John Stafford, second son, married Anne daughter of Wilham the third and last Lord Bottreaux, ob. 14 May, 1462, by his wife Elizabeth daughter of John, Lord Beaumont. By her he had one child only, Humphrey, who died in Scotland 6 Aug., 1461. Sir John died 5 Nov., 1427, and was buried with his kindred at Abbotsbury Abbey. The presumed tomb with effigies of Lord and Lady Bottreaux, the parents of Anne, is in the church of North-Cadbury, Somerset. Its original position was in the Founder's place, on the north side of the chancel, but it is now relegated to a corner of the tower at the west end. The knight is in complete plate armour, the lady in richly ornamented horned head-dress, and long robes. A canopy is over their heads. Lord Bottreaux married first Elizabeth, daughter of John, Lord Beaumont, she died about 37 Henry VI. (1459). By her he had two sons and two daughters. William, who died before 1434 ; Reginald, ob. 1420; Anne, married to Sir John Stafford; and 148 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. Margaret, who died 7 Feb., 1478-9, eventually sole heiress to the large property and titles of Bottreaux and Mules, married to Eobert, Lord Hungerford, ob. 14 May, 1459. Lord Bottreaux married secondly Margaret daughter of Thomas, Lord Boos. He died seized of fifty manors, in the western counties, among them North-Cadbury, which they possessed through the heiress of Mules, and in that church (which they probably rebuilt), by his will he ordered himself to be buried. Beginald, the second son, and brother of Anne, was buried at Aller church, near Langport, which parish was part of the family property. On a flat stone formerly in the pavement of the chancel, but now set upright, on a ledger-line is incised the following inscrip tion, — Hir. faeet Jloginaltma filius William bom' ire §otrea«£ qui nbiit xxx biz menaia Unlit atmo tram' m'mei-E In the centre is a shield, — A griffin rampant (Bottreaux), impaling semee of fleurs-de-lys, a lion rampant (Beaumont). William Stafford, Esq., third son, was of Suthwyke ; he married Katharine daughter of Sir John Chidiock, knt., by whom he had one son Humphrey, subsequently created Lord Stafford of Suthwyke and Earl of Devon. More with regard to him presently. William Stafford, together with his relative Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton, knt., Commander of the King's forces, were both killed in the encounter with Jack Cade and the Kentish insurgents (who came off victorious), at Sevenoaks, 18 June, 1450. His wife married secondly Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall, knt., ob. 12 Nov., 1473, and thirdly Sir Roger Lewkenor, knt., ob. 4 Aug., 1478. She died 10 April, 1479. Ahce, their only daughter, married first her neighbour Sir Edmond Cheney, of Broke, Wilts, and by him had two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne. * Secondly she married Walter Tailboys of Newton-Kyme, Yorkshire, ob. 13 Apl., 1444 ; by him she had one daughter Alianore, married to Thomas Strangeways, Esq., by whom she had two sons Henry and Thomas, and one daughter Joan. Thomas Strangeways died in 1484, his wife Ahanore 2 April, 1502, and both were buried in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey church of Abbotsbury. Our thoughts now concentrate on the last — most greatly honoured, yet withal most unfortunate — representative of Stafford of Suthwyke, who rose to the highest dignity conferred on the family, but whose possession of the distinction was indeed short, and his hfe still more suddenly and disastrously extinguished. This was Humphrey, the only son of William Stafford of Suthwyke, killed at Sevenoaks in 1450. His cousin Humphrey, son of his uncle Sir John Stafford, dying in Scotland in 1461, he became the sole male heir left remaining. He was born about 1440, and appears to have identified himself with the cause of the White Rose, and to have been in much favour with Edward IV.* See page 5. STAFFOED OF SUTHWYKE. 149 Stafford is accused of having been ill-disposed toward the Courtenays, Earls of Devon, who were zealous adherents of the Red Rose ; naturally so, for they were descendants of that branch of the royal blood, and with such devotion, that the three brothers, Thomas, Henry, and John, who were the last representatives of the elder descent of that illustrious house, lost their lives, either in the battle field or on the scaffold, and their property by confiscation, in support of its claims. They were the sons of Thomas Courtenay, first of that name, Earl of Devon, who died 3 Feb., 1458, by his wife Margaret Beaufort, second daughter of John, Earl of Somerset, eldest son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, by his third wife Katharine Swynford. A necessary digression respecting the Courtenays takes place here, as Stafford bears the sinister reputation of acquiring, by means not the most honourable, a large portion of their property and their title. Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, the eldest of these brothers, fighting for the Red Rose, was made prisoner after the battle of Towton, 29 March, 1461, taken to York, attainted and beheaded by order of Edward IV., and all his property confiscated to the crown. He appears to have been one of the most lawless and unscrupulous men of that lawless era, — his father it was, who is said to have fought with Lord Bonville on Clyst-Heath, and himself, the son, the leader of the outrage and murder of poor old Radford the lawyer, at Poughill, near Crediton, so graphically described in one of the Paston letters, and which as a picture of the ferocity of the time will bear extract here, — " Also y'r is gret varyance bytwene ye Erll of Devenshire and the Lord Bonvyle as hath be many day and meche debat is like to growe y'rby for on thursday at nyght last passed ye Erll of Denshyres sone and heir come w't lx men of Armes to Badfords place in Devenshire which was of counceil w't my Lord Bonvyle and they sette an hous on fyer at Badfords gate and cryed and mad an noyse as though they had be sorry for ye fyer, and by that cause Badfords men set opyn ye gats and yede owt to se ye fyer and for w't th'erll sone foreseid entred into ye place and intreted Badford to come down of his ehambre to spike w't' them p'myttyng him that he shuld no bodyly harm have upon whiche p'mysse he come down and spak w't ye said Erll sone. " In ye mene tyme his menye robbe his ehambre and ryfled his hutches and trussed suyche as they coude gete to gydder and caryed it away on his own hors. " Thanne y'erll sone seid, Badford thou must come to my Lord my Fadir, he seid he wold and bad oon of his men make redy his hors to ride w't 'hene whiche answerd hym yt alle his hors wern take awey, thanne he seid to y'erll sone sr yo'r men have robbed my ehambre and thei have myn hors yt I may not ride w't you to my Lord yo'r fadir, wherfor I p'y you lete me ride for I am old and may not go. " It was answerid hym ageyn yat he shuld walke forth w't them on his feete and so he dede till he was a flyte shote or more from his place and yanne he was softly for cawse he myght not go fast and whanne yei were thus dep'ted he t'ned oon forw't come ix men ageyn upon hym and smot hym in the hed and fellid of then kyt his throte." (28 October 1455.) We fear the feud between Bonville and Courtenay, that began with the ' vahant performance ' on Clyst-Heath, was still raging, and it may be, the cause of poor old lawyer Badford's death, as it is mentioned he " was of counceil w't my Lord Bonvyle," which circumstance the Courtenays appear to have resented in this terrible 150 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. manner. Six years afterward the edge of the axe fatally crossed the throat of "ye said Erll's sone," and leader of this outrage, at York. The place from which this free-booting party set out was Tiverton Castle, the family residence, where his father the Earl was then living. The castle and manor of Tiverton formed part of the Courtenay possessions afterward given by Edward IV. to Stafford. Henry Courtenay, the next brother, and Earl of Devon, for alleged complicity with Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick,, and his brothers, then exerting their influence for the restoration of Henry VI., was with Sir Thomas Hungerford of Farleigh Castle, seized, attainted of treason, and after a short trial before the King's Justices, both beheaded at Salisbury, 4 March, 1466. John Courtenay, the third and last of these brothers, fell fighting for the Bed Bose at the battle of Tewkesbury, 4 May, 1471. In his death, that branch of the family became extinct for the cause of the Bed Bose, as their neighbours and relatives the Bonvilles suffered extermination, about the same time, and in a similar manner, con tending for the White Rose. But the charge against Humphrey, Lord Stafford, chiefly related to his alleged antagonism to Henry Courtenay, the second of these brothers, who was executed at Sahsbury, and whose death he is said to have 'procured.' In those days of feud and intrigue, it is impossible to say what men may not have covertly done, to carry out their aims and designs, but it is to be hoped such was not really Stafford's conduct in this case, for if so, the signally sudden and similar retribution, that so soon afterward overtook him, was well deserved. But be that as it may, it is certain that a large portion of the confiscated possessions of the Courtenays, " the bulk of the estate," about the time of the death of Henry Courtenay, was bestowed by Edward IV. on Stafford, and three years afterward, 7 May, 1469, he was raised by that monarch to the old and coveted title of Earl of Devon, and this while John Courtenay, the last of the three brothers, was still alive, as he perished at the battle of Tewkesbury two years afterward. But John Courtenay, the true heir to the distinguished title, lived long enough to see this pretender to it as ignominiously extinguished, and it is remarkable that this illustrious heirloom, although twice conferred on others, each attempt has proved futile to wrest it from the rightful owners. Sir Humphrey Stafford had been created Baron of Suthwyke, first by Writ of Summons dated 21 July, 1461, afterward confirmed by patent dated 24 April, 1464, and, as we have observed, he was further advanced to the dignity of Earl of Devon, 7 May, 1469. Very soon after this honour was conferred on him, Edward despatched the Earl with eight hundred archers, to aid the Earl of Pembroke and his brother Sir Richard Herbert then in command of about seven thousand Welchmen, marching to give Sir John Corners STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. 151 and the Lancastrians battle. The sequel cannot be better related than in the words of Cleaveland : — " With these forces the Earl of Pembroke resolved to hinder the rebels in their journey, and having notice that they took their way by Northampton, he led the whole body of his army against them, having given orders to Sir Richard Herbert with two thousand soldiers, to wheel about and charge the enemy in the rear. Sir John Coniers had so carefully strengthened the rearward, that the Welch were repulsed with loss, whereupon Sir Richard Herbert retired to his brother, and Sir John Coniers diverted from his direct course to London, marched towards Warwick, where the Duke of Clarence, and the Earl of Warwick, had levied a mighty host. The Earl of Pembroke followed him closely, expecting an opportunity of cutting off some part of the enemy, as they marched disorderly, or to give battle to the whole army : but while he was in this pursuit of glory, a small difference between him and the Lord Stafford, ruined the whole attempt ; for he encamping at Banbury, a question arose concerning an Inn, to which Stafford pretended, as having long used the house ; but the Earl of Pembroke, in regard of his pre- heminence as General, was resolved to lodge in it. This so trivial distaste, (if there was no farther treason in it) grew so high, that Stafford withdrew himself and his English archers. The rebels, who soon had notice of this unhappy discord, gave the Earl's camp the next morning a sudden assault : the Welch received the charge so stoutly, that they took Sir Henry Neville, the leader ; but, guilty of too much barbarity, most cruelly slew him in cold blood, by which act they raised so fierce a desire of revenge in the enemy, that the next day they gave the Earl battle, and the fight was longe and cruel, but at last the Welchmen fled ; in the battle five thousand of the Welch were slain, and, among the few prisoners the Earl of Pembroke, and Sir Richard Herbert were taken, whose heads were soon after sacrificed to the ghost of Neville." Another account says this quarrel about the Inn was the result of a matter of love rather than war, that " a fair damsel was resident in the house, of whom both Earls became enamoured, and contrary to the arrangement entered into between them, the first in possession should remain so, the Earl of Devon was dispossessed by the Earl of Pembroke, which excited so much discord between them that, unmind ful of his duty to his Sovereign, and the cause in which he was engaged, he departed with his power," — and so, as a consequence thereon, the Earl of Pembroke and his brother lost their lives, together with five thousand soldiers, who perished on the plain of Danesmore, near Edgcote, about three miles from Banbury, 6 July, 1469. Treachery of this kind was not likely to be lightly passed over by Edward, justly angry at the defeat of his army, and ingratitude of the man he had so recently honoured. Orders were sent to the Sheriffs of Somerset and Devon to seize Stafford wherever they could find him, and put him to immediate death. The Earl had returned to Somerset, he was taken at the village of Brentmarsh, promptly conveyed to Bridgwater, and there at once beheaded in the market place on the 17 Aug., 1469. His body was conveyed to Glastonbury, and buried under the south arch of the great tower, at the cross of the Abbey Church. He had made his will some years before, bearing date 3 September, 1463, wherein he " bequeathed his body to be buried in the Church of our Lady at Glastonbury, and appointed Mr. Michael Goss, and Mr. Watts, then Wardens of the Grey Friars in Exeter, should for the salvation of his soul, go to every parish church, in the counties of 152 STAFFORD OF SUTHWYKE. Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Devon, and Cornwall, and say a sermon in every church, and town, and other. And because he could not recompense such whom he had offended, he desired them to forgive his poor soul, that it might not be in danger " (Dugdale). So perished Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon, still quite a young man, for he could not have been more than thirty years of age, — " he enjoyed," continues Cleaveland, "but a httle time that honour and estate which he got by procuring the death of its right owner, and he was in derision called The Earl of three months standing and no more." The Earl married Isabel daughter of Sir John Barry, knt., — and after his death she remarried with Sir Thomas Bourchier, knt., fifth son of Henry Bourchier, second Earl of Ewe, and 30 June, 1461, created Earl of Essex, who was also Lord Treasurer of England, and who died in 1483, — by his wife Isabel, daughter of Bichard, Duke of York, and sister to King Edward IV., another strange conjunction, her thus marrying a nephew of the man who had so vindictively beheaded her first husband. But sentiment had httle place in those days ; ambition, station, and love of rule were the things sought after, all else seems to have been forgotten. Weever gives the following inscription as occurring in the church of Ware, Herts, where both herself and second husband appear to have been buried, — Ule iacet ®Immaa bourchier miles ftliua Henriei eomitis ;;— N 1=1 I ljg jt) iupro "THEY DID CAST HIM." A PLEASANTLY representative English look has the irregular, disjointed, yet withal eminently picturesque little town of Tisbury, viewed from the acclivity of the railway station. On the one side a group of cottages, and fine trees planted high on the shoulder of the hill, shews well against the distant sky-line, and patches of houses— broken in their midst by the principal hostelry of the place, staringly obtrusive in the most modern brick and white, perched at the top of the straggling street that leads up to it,— carry the eye across to the further fringe of the elevation on the other side, where an ecclesiastical looking edifice, gabled and pinnacled, cuts into the ether and balances the picture. Low in the valley on the extreme right, some very old, and, evidently from this distance, unmistakably important buildings are gathered together, attesting the presence of the chief domicile of the place in days of yore, and still retaining much of their antient consequence with old gateway, great kitchen, and turreted chimney, and vast barn two hundred feet long, with roof arched and high as a cathedral, — the antient Grange, or Place, and country seat of the Abbess of Shaftesbury. Thus much for the mid-distance of the scene ; an equally represen tative, and in some peculiarities unique fore-ground is at our feet. Centrally almost, comes the Church — large, substantial, and well-windowed — with a curious, but now-a-day unfortunately very common, half-antient half-modern look, exhibiting a low massive tower rising from its centre, capped with a pseudo-classic lantern, pierced with four large, circular, winking clock-face apertures. It stands in a well-kept churchyard, ornamented by some noble yew trees, and around two sides of it runs a road, skirted with low antient buildings, picturesquely gabled and chimnied, and dating from Tudor times. Immediately on the right of the church, and jostling, almost vulgarly invading the sacred precincts of the churchyard, which it adjoins, rises the obtrusive bulk of a huge brewery, with accom panying chimney stalk, as big as the church itself, and almost as 156 ARUNDELL. venerable looking, * a pertinent illustration of the contiguity, so often sarcastically associated in one of our modern political cries. On the left of the church, but at further distance, and pleasantly situated on an acclivity, is an immense well-built union workhouse, larger than either. Strange company these, materially and metaphorically, and eminently characteristic of our modern civilization, the brewery and the workhouse, with the church between them, and suggestive of many thoughts ; — of clamorous interest too even in this little town, in this passing hour, as announcements in large letters attest that meet the eye of the wayfaring man, tarrying here about. But leaving these present-day regions of noisy morality, and all "burning questions" akin, to other disciples, be the purpose of our quiet enjoyment to-day of a fairer and more gracious kind, as we note peradventure the career, and seek it may be the association and historic companionship of one who trod the troubled path of life in the past, and endeavour — however imperfectly — to brighten his memory for a season. A short leisurely stroll from the station leads us by the great shrine dedicated to the Bacchus of our modern Briton, and we halt in front of the gate opening to the path leading to the north porch of the large church immediately before us. But ere we enter, we pause to take a momentary glance at the long line of semi-ecclesiastical, almshouse-looking buildings with Tudor gables and high chimnies that skirt the opposite side of the road, and from one of which the civil custodian of the church, in response to our enquiries, emerges. From him we learn that the house he dwells in was probably antiently the Priest's dwelhng, who was perhaps a monk appointed by the Abbess of Shaftesbury to whom a large part of the manor of Tisbury belonged, if not also the patronage of the benefice. In making some excavations behind it a few years since, the skeletons of several persons were found, on one skull the hair remained very perfect, but subsided to dust the instant it was uncovered, as if shrinking from the sacrilege of the intrusive eye and curiosity of the present. The building may also have been a Cell attached to Shaftesbury Abbey, and this spot the last resting-place of the solitary religious, once resident within it. The pavement of the path through the churchyard leading to the church is also strongly representative of modern destructive notions, and exhibits,— although it traverses what we should regard from its associations as sacred precincts, — a true example of the now-a-day " way of the world." It is floored with the older memorial stones of the departed that rest, now un-named, around, and the tear-wrought memories they were charged to perpetuate, callously trod under the foot of man, and in sure process of ruthless obliteration. " They are only very old stones," said our cicerone in answer to our protest, — "families all gone and no one to look after them," — exactly so, * Of late it has been considerably rebuilt, and " dappered up " as the Dorsetshire folk express it, to newness and smartness of appearance. ARUNDELL. 157 thought we with a half- sigh mingling with the echo of the Plough man's fine, ringing a presaging knell over the fate of our possible memory, when, as here, some day and perhaps ¦• — no distant date, Stern Ruin's ploughshare drives elate," and this outrage on the memories of the departed, not the best preparation altogether for entrance into the temple of Him, whose love knoweth no change, and whose remembrance faileth not for the children of men, more enduring than Job's yearning for graven words with iron pen in the rock for ever, or even as vigorous Toplady puts it in glorious anticipation, — " My name from the palms of His hands, Eternity will not erase." Inside, the church has a somewhat desolate look, * and no antient memorial catches the eye, except two small brass effigies of a Frankhn or Merchant of Henry the Seventh's days, in long tunic with scrip buckled to his waist, and his wife with pointed head-dress and embroidered girdle, riven from their sepulchral stone and nailed to the wall ; an early denizen it may be of the grand old domicile of Place: A noticeable and somewhat unique feature however must not be forgotten, — the cover of the font, pyramidal in shape, of oak panelled and crocketted, and richly gilded. There were formerly two screens across the transepts, but they have disappeared. There are fine roofs to the side aisles, on the bosses are the Sacred Names, and the date 1595. A curious circumstance here may be mentioned, the tower has three times been struck by lightning, once in 1762, again in 1795, and also of late years,— and this doubtless accounts for the incongruous style of its lantern-shape upper storey. But the chief historic association of the church, and what has led our wandering feet here to furnish a text to hang our little story on, is found in the chancel, though very little comparatively is to be seen there even, by the uninitiated as things at present are, to give direction to his thoughts. Tisbury tells of Arundell ! Such is the first suggestive thought to him of the west-country that cometh to that little rural town, and specially in this chancel, beneath whose pavement the dust of the earlier members of one of its most distinguished descents is at rest. But the home-land of that antient race, so happily and allusively named after our gentle summer visitant, — the graceful-flighted " chimney- haunting " swallow, — is not here. Not on the boundless arid chalk plains, on whose rocky skirt the swallow of the west has with kindred instinct migrated, seek we his parent nest. In the dusky twilight of our national history we trace probably bis earhest haunts, chronicled in the great accompt of the Norman Conqueror, as then holding considerable possessions amid the rich plains of Somerset and breezy uplands of Dorset. Then we hear of * It has recently been considerably restored. 158 ARUNDELL. him nestling in a green combe in leafy Devon, and anon occupying a " coigne of 'vantage " on the southern fringe of tor-crested Dartmoor, and where his name still clings though its possessor has long since fled. From thence in the days of the earlier Plantagenet kings, he winged his flight across the deep-banked Tamar into far Comubia, where the soft mists of the Atlantic and warm southern sunshine alternate, bathe the granite bastions that defend her valleys, and there finally settled Arundell, there built he his parent nest and reared his " procreant cradle," and thenceforward he and his for centuries flourished and multiplied in great honour and ample estate, until his name for power and influence was styled the Great, and it became a household word in the county of his adoption. But wealth and honour, not even when alhed with teeming descendants scattered around and settled in divers descents seemingly to defend it, can perpetuate a race, " There is no armour against fate," and to the mutation and decay, impartially entailed on human destiny, both peer and peasant ahke are equally doomed. So, in Cornwall, for centuries, the generations of Arundell succeeded each other at Lanherne and Trerice, the great twin stems of this noble stirpe, and spread and rooted themselves, in divers offshoots located near. But gradually that name, although surnamed the Great, and their descendants, one after another, dwindled away under the breath of Time, until its sound became an echo and a tradition only, in the regions of its olden home, and finally became extinct. In 1701, the Great Arundell of Lanherne (from them the dormant Arundells beneath our feet were descended), last of his name of the elder house, died, and a distaff only followed him to his grave. She was wedded and the mother of a son, — but his name was not Arundell, — but on him his grandfather settled all his estates, and the heritage of his antient name. Again the succession was denied, daughters only were born to him, and distaff succeeded distaff. One of them sleeps below, presumably in life a happy and unique fate befell her, as by her marriage with Lord Arundell was united the two descents of Lanherne and W ardour, and her name will probably recur to our thoughts again before our httle story ends. Seventy years — just a spell of human life^later, in 1773, the final representative of the almost equally distinguished descent of Trerice (they had been ennobled by Charles II. in 1664), John, fourth and last Baron Arundell of Trerice, passed to that bourne, from which no traveller, however distinguished, returns. It is curious that both he, and his noble wife — who was a sister of the Earl of Strafford and pre-deceased him— both found their sepulchre far eastward of their native home, and repose in the chancel of the church of Sturminster- Marshall in Dorset, not very far from this. But to return to Arundell of Tisbury — yet we must still digress for a time — and to this chancel, where, beginning three centuries ago, ARUNDELL. 159 and descending from him of whom we propose to have something to say, lie the ashes of the ancestors of the green branch of this antient stock located not far off, still nobly upholding its olden name and fame, although in its earlier days it had. to struggle fiercely through some of the direst vicissitudes that environ human hfe, to perpetuate its existence. To translate our thoughts, once more, for a short time to Cornwall, and recall the then representative of the Lanherne descent, Sir John Arundell, knt., a man great at the Courts of king Henry VII. and his bluff son Henry VIII. From both those monarchs he received distinguished marks of favour, being successively nominated a Knight of the Bath, a Knight of the Garter, and also for his valour at Terouenne and Tournay at the celebrated " battle of the Spurs " created a Knight-Banneret. He was well descended. On his father's side of the family escutcheon, among other venerable Cornish bearings, was displayed the blue field and golden bend of the antient Carminow, — insignia for dignity rivalling the blazon of the distinguished Scrope, — and quartered also with it, there appeared, in happy alliance with the sivalloivs of Arundell, the garland of kindred martlets that fringe the shield of the olden race of Chidiock in Dorset. His well-born mother was a daughter of Sir John Dinham of Hartland, a noble Devonian name of that era, her brother, to whom she was coheir, being John, Lord Dinham, so created by king Edward IV., 28 February, 1466, also like her husband included within the circle of the Garter, and holding high office under Henry VII. ; she could also claim the blood of illustrious Courtenays among her ancestors. Sir John Arundell by marriage allied himself with families of great influence, his first wife being the Lady Ehzabeth, daughter of Thomas Grey, Lord Marquis of Dorset, step-son to Edward IV., and half-brother to the Queen of Henry VII., — her mother being the last descendant and sole heiress to a great but unfortunate Devonshire name, Cicely Bonville. Secondly, he wedded Katharine, daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville, a knightly and warhke race of the first renown in north Cornwall, and sister of Jane, who was married to his kinsman the other Sir John Arundell of Trerice. His aunt, his father's sister Elizabeth, was married to Sir Giles, who was afterward created Lord Daubeney, and K.G.,— a man hke himself of high rank at the Court of Henry VII. In 1506 he was appointed Beceiver of the Duchy of Cornwall, a position of great honour and influence in his native county, and in 1509 the office was confirmed to him for life. Thus by birth, alliance, honours, appointments, and possessions, he seems to have been amply qualified to sustain the appellation bestowed on his ancestor, that of being designated the Great Arundell of the West. He died in 1544-5, and a superb brass exhibiting the effigies of himself and two wives, his children, and elaborate armorial insignia, still exists in the church of St. Columb Major, in Cornwall, but whether he was buried there, or in St. Mary Woolnoth in London, 160 ARUNDELL. there is some doubt, — but the balance of testimony inclines toward St. Columb. * Take breath, friend of mine, after the shadow of this great and much honoured Tudor magnate has passed across the screen of the past, dimly lit by the illumination of your thoughts, — for a broad and striking glimpse follows in his wake, of what we are sometimes apt to term the " good old times " opens upon us, as we rapidly picture the chief events that characterized the days of Thomas Arundell his second son, and the first of Wardour, and. glance at his companions at the Courts of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., together with those of his immediate descendants in the succeeding reigns of the two last Tudor sovereigns. If those eventful times were not " good " in the large acceptance of the term, there was a large infusion of stern unflinching reahty within them. The influence of strong mental power meets us everywhere, men aspired to be men, — sons of Anak in their resolu tions, — and the views they took and combated for, were to them no myths, — nor did the almost absolute certainty of the fate of the martyr's stake, the headsman's block, or the confiscator's hand, if the enterprise should fail, deter or daunt an inflexible and often relentless purpose, dictated perhaps by the call of religious sentiment, or animated by the promptings of high personal ambition alone, or cast it may be, in the mould of real or imaginary patriotic duty. Contrasted with such, our puny doings of the present offer suggestive difference to the hfe-poised movements carried out by the deep-souled resolves that sustained the doings of the men, who passed through the grim ordeal of the blood-gripped days of Wolsey and Somerset, — some episodes of which, occurring during the reign of Henry VIII. and his son the boy-king, we propose lightly to glance at, — when the ' shapings ' of the history of our native land lay in rather grander purpose than the now-a-day triviahties and com panionship ravings of our modern political ' stump.' Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, who died in 1545, by his first wife the Lady Elizabeth Grey, left two sons, — Sir John the elder, a country gentleman located at the old family seat of Lanherne, and Sir Thomas, ancestor of the Wardour descent, and the subject of our httle story. Sir Thomas, born probably about 1500, was as a younger son sent early a-field to seek his fortune, and for that purpose introduced, it may be by his father, to the precincts of the Court of Henry VIII. , where afterward he appears to have spent much of his time amid its phantasmagoria of pleasures and horrors, ecclesiastical, military, and civil. Beginning, if not exactly with actual attendance at the Court itself, but doubtless intended as a stepping-stone to it, we first hear of him as attached to the service of the next potential person of the realm, the subtle and ambitious Wolsey, in whose retinue he was * Refer to pages 67-8-9 for a further account of this knight, and detailed description of his memorial brass. ARUNDELL. 161 appointed as one of the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber to my Lord Legate and Cardinal, with whom he was on friendly terms, and who probably brought him into notice. The pompous semi-royal state in which this notable ecclesiastic lived and moved, even in that extravagant age, is almost incredible. His setting off to France on one of his diplomatic journeys is thus described, — " Then marched he from his own house at Westminster, through all London, over London Bridge, having before him a great number of gentlemen, three in a rank, with velvet coats, and the most part of them with chains of gold about their necks; and all his yeomen followed him with noblemen's and gentlemen's servants, all in orange tawny coats, with the cardinal's hat and T and C, for Thomas Cardinal, embroidered upon all the coats, as well of his own servants, as all the rest of the gentlemen's servants ; and his sumpter mules, which were twenty or more in number. And when all his carriages and carts, and other of his train were passed before, he rode like a Cardinal very sumptuously with the rest of his train, on his own mule, with a spare mule and a spare horse trapped in crimson following him. And before him he had his two great crosses of silver, his two great pillars of silver, the King's broad seal o£ England, and his Cardinal's hat, and a gentleman carrying his cloak-bag, which was made of scarlet, embroidered with gold. Thus passed he forth through London, and every day on his journey he was thus furnished, having his harbingers in every place before, which prepared lodgings for him and his train." All this was not much beyond the state this proud churchman ordinarily assumed, and it leaves little room to wonder why Henry VIII. and Wolsey could not exist together, nor of church and state being straightway at issue, nor why not long afterward the knock of a heart-broken monk at the gate of the Abbey of Leicester was the knell of his own order in England. Wolsey passed out of his troubled existence in November, 1530, and in the year following, 1531, an event took place that at once placed Sir Thomas among the foremost men of that era, this was his marriage with a scion of the noble house of Norfolk, — Margaret, eldest daughter of Lord Edmund Howard. He was the third son of Thomas Howard, second Duke of Norfolk, K.G., who died 21 May, 1524, by his first wife Ehzabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir Frederick Tilney. Concerning this Duke a few words. "On May 13, 13 Henry VIII., 1521," says Collins, — "he performed the office of Lord High Steward on the trial of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, and gave sentence of death on him, whereat he was so much concerned, as to shed tears." Then he further continues, — "In 14 Henry VIII. (the next year) he — the Duke — obtained a grant in special tail, and to his son, Thomas, Earl of Surrey, of the manors of Welles, Shyringham- Stafford, Bannyngham, Warham, and Weveton in the County of Suffolk, with the advowsons of their churches ; part of the possessions of the before specified Edward, Duke of Buckingham, attainted." This Duke of Buckingham was the son of the ill-fated personage of our little narrative, executed at Salisbury ; * — he fell, it is related, * See page 111. 162 ARUNDELL. like his father, by domestic treachery, and the enmity of Wolsey, on a most frivolous charge, and at his trial thus made answer to the " tears "of the Lord High Steward, — " My Lord of Norfolk, — you have said as a traitor should be said to ; but I was never any. I nothing malign you, for what you have done to me, but the eternal God forgive you my death. I shall never sue to the king for life, though he be a gracious prince ; and more grace may come from him than I desire, and so I desire you and all my fellows to pray for me." Such is the recorded reply of the doomed, high-souled captive, to the "tears" of his fellow duke, and condemning judge; whose sincerity of grief on the occasion may be estimated by the subsequent fact of his soliciting for the gift of a large portion of the victim's possessions the year following. But the Dukes of Norfolk of those days appear to have been among the most unscrupulous men of that era. Then we learn with almost incredulous surprise that Thomas, the third Duke of Norfolk, and son of the Lord High Steward, who presided at Buckingham's trial, married the victim's daughter Ehzabeth ; — their son was the accomphshed and ill-fated Earl of Surrey, beheaded twenty-five years afterward in the same reign, and on equally flimsy pretence. To resume. Lord Edmund Howard married Joyce, daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper of Hollingbourne, Kent. He is described as being " Marshal of the Horse, in tha battle of Flodden-field, 5 Henry VIII. when he, and his elder brother the Lord Thomas Howard leading the van-guard, this Lord Edmund was in some distress, through the singular valour of the Earls of Lennox and Argyle ; but the Lord Dacres coming to his succour with one Heron, the fight was renewed and the Scots vanquished. In 12 Henry VIII., on that famous interview which that King had with Francis I. of France, where all feats of arms were performed between Ardres and Guisnes for thirty days, he was one of the challengers on the part of England." On the occasion of his marriage, and to give his son position befitting his rank as a country gentleman, his father, Sir John Arundell, settled on Sir Thomas and his wife, partly in jointure, a dozen or so manors in the Counties of Dorset and Somerset. In 1532, and again in 1533, he filled the office of Sheriff of Dorset. But it was the alhance itself with the influential family of Howard, destined immediately afterward to be so closely related to the crown itself, and in perilous nearness to the grim and capricious Henry, that must have given him considerable importance, advanced him to the front rank among the courtiers, and afforded him ample opportunity to promote his position and interests, both as to honours and wealth. These were not slow of arriving. In May, 1533, Henry VIII. was wedded to ' sweet ' ill-fated Anne Boleyn. This brought Sir Thomas into his first direct relationship with that king, to whom, through his wife, he now stood in the position of cousin, the new Queen being the daughter of her aunt Ehzabeth (sister of Lord Edmund Howard), wife of Sir Thomas Boleyn, K.G. — afterward created Viscount Bochford, and Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. Our next ghmpse of him is within the royal precincts, and being ARUNDELL. 163 the recipient of an honour, amid the company of some of the most distinguished men at Court, on the occasion of the crowning of that unfortunate Queen. Among the " Knights of the Bathe, made at the coronation of the most excellent Princesse Queen Anne the 25 yere of the reign of Kinge Henry the Eight on Whitsonday the last day of .May, 1533; (when) shee was crown'd at Westminster," — twelfth on the hst occurs the name of Sir Thomas Arundell. Just three years afterward and on the 19th of the same month of May, 1536, Queen Anne Boleyn was from the Tower, " a little before noon, led _ down to the green, where the young grass and the first daisies of summer were freshly bursting into sunshine. A single cannon stood loaded on the battlements, the motionless cannoneer was ready, with smoking linstock at his side ; and when the crawling hand upon the dial of the great Tower clock touched the mid-day hour, the cannon would tell London that all was over. The Yeomen of the Guard were there, and a crowd of citizens ; the Lord Mayor too, and the deputies of the guilds, and the sheriffs, and the aldermen ; they were come to see a spectacle which England had never seen before, - a head which had worn the crown falhng under the sword of the executioner." * But there was a much more interested listener for the fatal boom of that cannon than any heart-struck citizen of London, as we learn further, " An old tradition strongly depicts the impatience with which Henry expected her death. On the fatal morning he went to hunt in Epping Forest, and while he was at breakfast his attendants observed he was anxious and thoughtful. But at last they heard the report of a distant gun — a preconcerted signal. 'Ah! it is done,' cried he, starting up — ' the business is done ! Uncouple the dogs, and let us follow the sport.' In the evening he returned gaily from the chase, and on the following morning he married Anne's maid of honour, Jane Seymour, who on Whitsunday, the 29th, clad in royal habiliments appeared in public as Queen." t So perished poor Queen Anne Boleyn, niece to Sir Thomas. A fortnight or so before her death, on her arrival at the Tower, she agonizedly asked of Cromwell, "I pray you tell me where my Lord Rochford ys ? and I told her I saw hym afore dyner in the Cort. 0 wher is my swete brother ? I said I left hym at York Place : and so I dyd." Never to see him again — he was beheaded on Tower Hill two days previous to her own execution. This fresh marriage of the king with Jane Seymour, the sister of the man with whom Sir Thomas was eventually imphcated and suffered, continues incidentaUy, pertinent interest to our httle story. Queen Jane Seymour, although she escaped the wretched fate of her immediate predecessor and successor in the royal preference, fell a victim to an even more painful death, at the birth of her son, which took place 12 October, 1537. At the ceremonial of the christening of the infant prince Sir Thomas was present, and also, as a matter of course, the child's * Froude. t Comprehensive History of England. Macfarlane and Thompson. 164 ARUNDELL. uncle, Sir Edward Seymour (afterward Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector), on that occasion one of the most honoured guests. Little wot these men as they gazed on, and took part in the splendid ceremony, that those helpless, motherless, baby hands were destined at some future and not very distant day to sign their death warrants, which consigned them to the scaffold, and both for alleged participa tion in the same offence. Henry VIII. having become tired of, and also got divorced from Anne of Cleves, and Cromwell, the promoter of the distasteful marriage, having been summarily disposed of by the usual method of the axe, another event in the king's matrimonial projects was about to happen, which brought Sir Thomas into still closer relationship with him. Henry had this time set his eyes on Katharine Howard, a daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, cousin to the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, and sister to Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Arundell. She was proclaimed Queen 8 August, 1540, but the king had been privately married to her some time before. Thus the knight now stood in the double capacity of being by marriage both cousin and brother-in-law to his most august and cruelly inclined sovereign, by whom Sir Thomas was made ' Chancellor ' to the new Queen. This relationship to Henry must have given him great influence, and as the spoliation of the Abbeys and Monastic institutions was then busily going forward, he would have good opportunity of advancing his suit, or claims for a. portion of the large landed possessions of these institutions then being distributed with lavish hand. In this distribution Sir Thomas appears at different times to have acquired by grant and purchase a considerable share. Concerning this a short notice presently. Queen Katharine Howard at the time of her marriage with Henry could not have been more than twenty years of age. Two short years only passed by, and then a fearful charge of similar nature to that which liad sent her hapless cousin to the block, was alleged against herself, and on the 13 February, 1542, after almost unexampled mental suffering, she perished in like manner on the Tower green. With her died also, and by the same means, Jane, Lady Rochford, the wife of Queen Anne Boleyn's brother George. All three of these headless women were laid side by side in the Tower Chapel. Thus was severed by like circumstances, in each case equally deplorable, the living tie that had connected Sir Thomas Arundell with his dread sovereign. He appears, however, to have been endowed with the rare faculty of keeping himself clear of the difficulties that would naturally arise amid such mournful conditions, and to have enjoyed apparently the friendship, if not the confidence of the grim king, and which does not appear to have been afterward disturbed. This was manifest by what followed. In 1541, — which must have been during the lifetime of Katharine Howard, and while she was Henry's Queen, — Sir Thomas purchased of the king for £761 — 14 — 10, the Manor and Grange of Tisbury, late the property of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, and advowson of the ARUNDELL. 165 living, the manor and advowson of Dorrington in Wilts, and sundry other lands. In 1545, — this was also the year his father, Sir John Arundell, died, — King Henry VIII. , by letters patent, granted to him a large number of manors, late the possessions of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, in the counties of Wilts, Dorset, and Somerset (including also probably the site of the Abbey), and other property in London. The Benedictine Abbey, or Nunnery of Shaftesbury, was one of the most antient religious foundations in the west of England, and existed probably before the time of King Alfred, who was a great benefactor, and one of its principal Founders, about A.D. 888. "It was first dedicated," says Hutchins, " to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but it lost that name, at least for several ages, upon the translation hither of the body of St. Edward the Martyr, who was murdered at Corfe-Castle 18 March, 978, and first clandestinely buried at Wareham, whence, according to Leland, he was next year, or as others on better grounds say, three years afterwards removed to this abbey by Elpher, or Alpher, duke of Mercia. This unfortunate king being esteemed a martyr, and canonized a saint, his shrine was much resorted to by superstitious pilgrims, and persons of all ranks and qualities, and even by some of our kings, particularly Canute who died here. On account of the burial of St. Edward, the abbey and the church received their names from him ; and the abbess was styled Abbess of St. Edward, and the very town almost lost its old name, and was called for some time Burgus Sancti Edwardi, and Edwardstowe." Upwards of thirty abbesses from the foundation, presided over this important community, to. its surrender by Ehzabeth Zouch, its last Abbess, to the King Henry VIII. , 23 March, 1539, when there were fifty-five nuns within it. " It was one of the largest and best endowed nunneries in England, except Syon in Middlesex, its revenues at the suppression being estimated at between eleven and fourteen hundred pounds per annum. This occasioned a proverb, mentioned by Fuller in his Church History, — ' That if the Abbot of Glastonbury might marry the Abbess of Shaftesbury, their heir would have more land than the King of England.' The abbess was of such quality, that she was one of the four who held of the king by an entire barony, and had by tenure privilege of being summoned to parliament, &c, though upon account of their sex it was omitted. They had writs directed to them, to send their quota of soldiers into the field, in proportion to their knight's fees. The three others were those of Barking in Essex, St. Mary in Winchester, and Wilton." Thus much for the Abbess, her wealth, importance and high station ; the buildings of the Abbey, and Abbey "church, appear to have been of commensurate grandeur, but, continues Hutchins, — " There now remain not the least vestiges of it. It seems to have stood parallel with Holy Trinity churchyard, which anciently belonged to it, at the east end of the abbey, on Park-Hill, as appears by bones and coffins found there. It was the glory and ornament of the town, the mother church, and almost the only place of sepulture, there being but one ancient in any of the present churches, which is in St. Peter's, and seems to have been removed hence. It was a most magnificent building, if we may judge from the traditions the townsmen retain of its largeness and height, and from the spire, which Camden and others, derive the name of the town. By its great height, and advantageous situation on the top of the hill, it must have had a very fine effect, and been seen over a great part of the counties of Dorset and Somerset. It is greatly to be lamented it was not left standing and made parochial, being so great an ornament to the town and county. 166 ARUNDELL. "The arms of the Monastery were, Azure, a cross between four martlets or, — Dr. Tanner in his Notitia Monastica says they were, Azure, on a pale sable, cotised argent, three roses or. The former are in Wolveton house, and are those commonly given to King Alfred." The fine buildings of the Abbey having been demolished, St. Peter's church in Shaftesbury appears to be the only building of any size, — and this not very large, — of antient date now left remaining, and is the " mother, principal and presentative " church of the place. Hutchins enumerates nearly a dozen little churches and numerous chantries - that once had their station at Shaftesbury, clustering around the Monastery, the major portion of which seem now to have disappeared. St. Peter's is of late character, and very plain archi tectural detail, erected probably toward the end of the reign of Henry VII. The single ornamental portion is the cornice or frieze toward the street, temp. Henry VIII. , on which appears the double, rose, portcullis, pomegranate, arms of the See of Winchester, some other local coats, a merchant's mark, &c. Within, on the altar step, is the only monumental remembrance left of the Abbey, and apparently removed hither from it, a large blue stone, having in the centre a small brass plate, now almost obliterated, with this inscription as copied by Hutchins, — JSnh ista saio tnmulat' .corpus j^teph'i flaime, armtger', fil' et hereiT Jtielji' |5aime, arm', rjitonii' aenearhali Ijnfua mnnasterii, gni obiit siiif irie mens' ^eeembria : Jtamo Jj'ni m.ma:.iriip r.nfus a'ie p'pitiet' altiaaimua §e'. Jtanen. The indents of four shields, two at the top and two at the bottom of the stone, are visible. Stephen Payne held the office of Seneschal to the Abbess, which probably meant her Steward or Bailiff for the Abbey property.. Of him, says Hutchins, — , " Here (Shaftesbury) was another freehold held 2 Henry VIII., 1511, by Stephen Payne at his death ; namely— seven messuages, three gardens in Shaston, of the Abbess ; forty acres of land in Bellchalwel of the Earl of Northumberland; and seventy-eight acres of land in the hundred of Alcester, of the Abbot of Evesham, by rent of five shillings." In the chancel window are two escutcheons ; — 1. Azure, a dolphin embowed or (Fitzjames of Lbwston), impaling, Bendy of eight or and azure, within a bordure of the first (Newbukgh op Winfkith), the shield encircled by a riband, but the inscription destroyed. " The ancient family of Fitzjames," continues Hutchins, " was formerly seated at Bedlynch. Sir John Fitzjames, knt., son of James Fitzjames, married Alice, daughter of John Newburgh of East Lullworth, Esq and was father to Sir John ; Richard, bishop successively of Bochester, Chichester and London; and Aldred, ancestor of the Lewston line. The elder branch has been long extinct, but produced many eminent men. Sir John Fitzjames was lord chief justice of the king's bench thirteen years ; died 30 Henry VIII., 1539 " ARUNDELL. 167 On the other are,— quarterly, 1 and 4, Argent, a barrulet gules, between four bars gemelles wavy azure ; 2 and 3; Argent, a chevron gules, between three castles sable. Two further escutcheons display, one the emblem of the Trinity with . customary legends, and the other — what is seldom seen in painted glass, being usually found sculptured on the frieze, or on the capitals of the pillars, at or over the entrance to chantry or chancel, — the imagery of THE FIVE WOUNDS. Look at yon carven shield, Above the chantry door, No blazoned pride bedecks its field, But emblems five sprent o'er. There are His pierced feet, — There are His mangled hands, — And wounded heart, — whose latest beat Ceased at love's sweet commands. " Jjrftt fce llgS "—there symbolled trace, Hushing this mortal strife, — "#f pittg, nterti, comfort, gratg, giiur fforla$tirtgh Igffie." The shepherd monk of old, Well his vocation knew, Set it o'er gateway of the fold, That all his flock may view. Ere ranged in order close, They gathered round his board, Signs of His sorrows, sufferings, woes, With thankfulness adored. Seen with unseen allied, — Trusting their happy fate, Should some day see them glorified, Keystone of heaven's gate. Wayfarer of to-day, The same tale runs for thee, As in the ages far away, And for all time to be. As Sir Thomas Arundell did not get the royal grant until two years after the dissolution of the Abbey, it is probable the work of destruction on the fine building was considerably advanced, as but little time as a rule was allowed to elapse before the demolition commenced, anything that could be turned into money, such as the bells, lead, &c, sold, and the walls pulled down and carried away tor building purposes. 168 ARUNDELL. Bespecting this we further learn from Hutchins, — " Tradition says, that one Arundell, steward to the Earl of Pembroke, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, built a large house in the town for himself, out of the Abbey materials. This seems to have' been the same which Mr. Coker speaks of, when he says, ' The greatest ornament of the town is a fair turretted house of the Lord Arundell of Wardour.' But it is most probable it was built by Sir Thomas Arundell, or his son Sir Matthew, out of the ruins of the Abbey. It stands in Bymport Street, and has been a public house, it is now almost pulled down. In 1747, on the chimney piece were these arms, — 1. Arundell, with crescent for difference. — 2. Quarterly, 1 and 4, Gules, four lozenges ermine (Dinham), 2 and 3, Gules, three arches conjoined, argent (De Arches). — 3. Chidiock. — 4. Sable (azure), a bend, with label of three points or, for difference (Cakminow)." This was not all the property Sir Thomas appears to have had assigned him at the dissolution of religious houses. In 1547, Henry VIII. granted him the house and site of the Priory (or College) of Slapton in South Devon, " except all the lead upon the said College other than the gutters, and the lead in the windows ; except all the bells and ornaments " — the rectory, also that of Loddiswell, and three other manors in Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall. Although his wife's sister Queen Katharine had been executed four years previously, he is described as ' Chancellor ' to her. Associated with Sir Thomas Arundell at the Court of Henry VIII., and also in his country possessions in the west, was his relative Henry Daubeney, Earl of Bridgwater, a most unfortunate man. He was the son of Giles, Lord Daubeney, K.G., a trusted servant and soldier to Henry VII. ; the old seat and possessions of the family being at South-Petherton, and later at Barrington Court near that town. Lord Daubeney married Ehzabeth, sister of Sir Thomas Arundell, K.B., of Lanherne, — the father of Sir John Arundell, who was the father of the Sir Thomas of our narrative, — Henry Daubeney, Earl of Bridgwater, his only son, would therefore be Sir John's cousin. But not only by kinship on his father's side, but also by a similar relationship on his wife's, was the Earl closely connected with Sir Thomas. Lord Bridgwater married secondly, Katharine Howard, daughter of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife Agnes Tilney. She was therefore aunt to Sir Thomas' wife, being her mother's half-sister. The Countess of Bridgwater was greatly persecuted during the trial of her niece Queen Katharine Howard, and almost every means was resorted to to implicate her with that unfortunate woman. The Earl, her husband, plunged into the vortex of expensive frivohties that surrounded the Court of Henry VIII., and it is related irretrieva bly crippled, if not finally ruined himself by extravagant display at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He died without issue, in seclusion and comparative penury at the little rural parish of South-Perrott, near Crewkerne, and was there buried 12 April, 1548,— his wife survived him, and was interred in the Norfolk Chantry in Lambeth church, 11 May, 1554. * * For further account of this Earl, and his father Lord Daubeney, see "Memorials of the WlsI," pages 173-220. ARUNDELL. 169 It was this double tie of relationship that doubtless led to the important transactions with regard to the sale or transfer of a large portion of the Earl's landed possessions to Sir Thomas Arundell, when from time to time he had necessity ; or it may be by family arrangement to protect himself and wife from forfeiture, in those days of peril and consequent attainder and confiscation. In 1536-8-9 Henry, Lord Daubeney, conveyed to his nephew, Sir Thomas Arundell, his manors of Tollard-Boyal, Farnham, Long- Crichell, Kershall, Goorsley, and Hampreston, with advowsons, &c, and Shaston, Wimborne-Minster, Gussage- All- Saints, Tarrant-Gun- ville, and Stubhampton, in the counties of Wilts and Dorset, with a clause " that if Henry, Lord Daubeney, should die without heirs to his body, the same should remain to the use of the said Sir Thomas Arundell and his heirs for ever." In 1542 the Earl conveyed the manor of South-Petherton to him. This included the manor and park of Barrington, and the forest of Boche (Neroche ? ) the advowson, Chantry, and free Chapel of South-Petherton, and of the Hundred, and lands at Yarcombe, &c. And this leads us to his last and most important purchase, that of the Castle and Park of Wardour, on 4 July, 1 Edward VI., 1547. Wardour Castle and its olden inhabiters have a special interest interwoven in our little -narratives, three or four of the subjects of them, having successively, either occupied or possessed it. About the year 1495 the Earl of Ormond granted a lease of it to the giant Sir John, afterward Lord Cheney, K.G., — the " unhorsed at Bosworth," — and it is not at all improbable that he may have died there, as he was buried at the not very far-distant cathedral of Salisbury. Then on the 4 July, 14 Henry VII., 1499, three years after Lord Cheney's death, Thomas, Earl of Ormond, sold the Castle of Wardour to Eobert, the first Lord Willoughby de Broke, " our Steward of Household," and according to one account, he is said to have died there, although his monument is found and he is probably buried at Callington, in far-distant Cornwall. Lord Willoughby de Broke and his descendants appear to have retained possession of it until 1547, when his ultimate heiress Lady Ehzabeth Greville and her husband Sir Fulke disposed of it to Sir Thomas Arundell. Thus much, as a short notice of the principal landed possessions acquired by Sir Thomas Arundell. Some by gift of his father, others by arrangement with his uncle Lord Bridgwater, or by purchase from different possessors, and a further large portion partly by purchase, — if it may be so-called,— and partly probably by free grant from the King, Henry VIII., the whole of which in the aggregate would constitute Sir Thomas a wealthy man, and a west- country magnate of leading position. A curious circumstance becomes noticeable here. The sale and grants of property acquired under Henry VIII. were the despoiled possessions of the Church, the property of the suppressed and dismantled Abbey of Shaftesbury, and dissolved Priory or College of 170 ARUNDELL. Slapton. Yet the Arundells (as also the Howards to whom they were so nearly allied) were at the time, and still continue to be, specially distinguished by their fealty to the Roman communion, the antient faith of their fathers. This fact, however, does not seem to have hindered his acceptance of what at the time, by common consent had been " set aside for the Lord." To which it may be answered, if he had not acquired it, many others were doubtless eagerly waiting for the chance ; and it was never hkely to return to fulfil the original purpose of the donors. Notwithstanding the dangers that surrounded the Court of Henry VIII. , and the perilous proximity of relationship in which, by marriage, he stood toward that monarch, specially amid the com plications that arose during the impeachments, trials, and sad deaths of the two Queens, his wife's relatives ; yet neither Sir Thomas, nor Lady Arundell, seems to have been involved or suspected in any way, indeed, to the contrary, as he appears subsequently to have experienced Henry's favour, it being three years after Queen Katharine Howard's death, when he received the grant of the Priory of Slapton from that king. All this points to his being a prudent man, keeping aloof from the dangerous intrigues continually arising, and he has been described as a wise administrator. He was grandson of Cicely Bonville, the great west-country heiress, and his mother Elizabeth names him as one of the executors to her will, and therein describes him as " her trusty and well-beloved son." Before the reign of Henry VIII. closed, its last victim was led to the scaffold, the accomplished. Earl of Surrey, and nephew of Sir Thomas. The Duke of Norfolk, his father, with cruel obduracy had presided over the trial of his niece the unfortunate Queen Anne Boleyn, and now the same fate had overtaken his son. The executioner was waiting for himself also, but the unexpected death of Henry occurred just in time to save him. The "Fair Geraldine " of the poet Earl was a cousin of Sir Thomas on his mother's side, being the daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, who married the Lady Eleanor, probably a younger sister of the Lady Elizabeth Grey, mother of Sir Thomas. With the conclusion of the reign of Henry VIII., the larger and presumably, on the whole, happier portion of the life of Sir Thomas Arundell may be said to have ended. The child-king, Edward VI., in January, 1547, commenced his reign, and four short years only were destined to pass before Sir Thomas was laid in a traitor's grave. In 1549 a distinguished office was conferred on him, one that his father had held before him, and of peculiar honour in his native county, that of Beceiver General of the Duchy of Cornwall. This year, however, the first cloud appeared over his hitherto fortunate career. Himself, with his brother Sir John ArundeU of Lanherne, were both suspected of being implicated in the rebellion of their uncle Humphrey Arundell, Governor of St. Michael's Mount, " a man well-esteemed for military services." This was the religious insurrection, demanding the old ritual, and antagonistic to the ARUNDELL. 171 reformed service of the Church, which began in Cornwall, and gathering strength as it advanced, laid ineffectual siege to Exeter, where, however, the citizens, during their captivity, were reduced to great straits. The insurgents then marched to meet Lord Bussell, who was stationed with some force at Honiton, but he defeated them with considerable loss at Feniton (or Fenny) Bridges. They then retreated to Clyst-Heath, near Exeter, where — " they had brought with them a crucifix upon a cart, covered with a canopy, and beset with crosses, tapers, banners, holy bread and water, as a representation of those things for which they fought." At Clyst-Heath, Lord Gray with his troops, reinforced with those under Lord Bussell, dispersed the ignorant priest-led rustics with great slaughter ; — " The dispersion of the insurgents was followed by the same conduct on the part of the royal army, as if they had put to route a foreign enemy in his own country, ' for the whole country was then put to the spoil, and every soldier sought for his best profit.' " Sir Anthony Kingston, as Provost-Marshal of the king's army, was commissioned to try and punish the delinquents, and his cruel and brutal conduct was quite on an equality with that of the wretched Jeffreys on a similar errand a century afterward ; — " Gibbets were set up in various places, on which great numbers of the leaders of the rebellion were hanged. Others, and especially Arundell, the chief captain, were carried to London, and there executed. It was reckoned that about four thousand in all perished by the sword or by the hands of the executioner, of those engaged in this Devonshire (and Cornwall) insurrection." Humphrey Arundell, their uncle, was conveyed to London and hanged at Tyburn in January, 1549-50. And then it is recorded in the Council book, — " XXX. Jan., 1549-50. Sir Thomas Arundel, Knight, committed to the Tower by order of the board." And further in King Edward's journal, — " 1549. Sir Thomas Arundel and Sir Jhon (his elder brother) committed to the Tower for conspiracies in the west partes." It is probable the Arundells, from religious motives only, sympa thized with the views of the insurgents, and were not actual promoters or partakers in the movement, but on account of their kinship with the leader of the revolt they were doubtless subjects of considerable suspicion. There must, however, have apparently been other circum stances besides this, which were deemed to affect Sir Thomas unfavourably, for he does not appear to have been released from his durance in the Tower after his committal until the 4th of October, 1551, which would be a year and nine months subsequent. Could it have been also for suspicion of aiding in the movement that led to the first humiliation of the Duke of Somerset, which occurred in the October preceding his committal to the Tower ? It 172 ARUNDELL. may have been so, — or deemed so, — yet from what is left recorded, his presumed action seems to point to the contrary. " One of the ' Metrical Visions ' of George Cavendish, the Gentleman Usher of Cardinal Wolsey, furnishes some biographical particulars of Sir Thomas Arundell, namely, that he was educated with Cardinal Wolsey, and was Chancellor to Queen Katharine Howard. He is also made to confess that ' I was the cheaf councellor in the first overthrowe of the Duke of Somerset, which few men did knowe.' " With regard to his fate, there is a curious passage in a very rare book, bishop Ponet's ' Short Treatise on Politic Power.' Writing of the Earl of Warwick, Ponet states, ' at the erles sute Arundell hathe his head with the axe divided from his shoulders.' " * and commenting on the same subject, — " Bishop Ponet in his ' Treatise on Politic Power,' says in reference to his (Sir Thomas') arrest in 1549, ' he conspired with that ambitious and subtil Alcibiades, the Earl of Warwick, after Duke of Northumberland, to pull down the good Duke of Somerset, King Edward's uncle and protector,'— if this be correct it is singular he should have been afterwards re-arrested for conspiring with Somerset against Northumberland." t On such slender and second-hand evidence and apparently so improbable, as to his helping at first to pull down the Protector, not much may be said ; — men's views and movements at the time often veered amid these intrigues for the possession or direction of the supreme power, — but Sir Thomas' after-implication with the Duke seems to refute it. That the Earl of Warwick (Northumberland) may have used his influence for the destruction of Sir Thomas, in the company of his rival, — the greater victim, — may be accepted without much scruple. Sir Thomas was released from the Tower on the 4th of October, and in the meanwhile, events as to Somerset's overthrow, were now rapidly developing themselves to a conclusion. Northumberland — the rival and enemy of the Protector — had given intelligence of a conspiracy in which Somerset, Sir Thomas Arundell, Sir Balph Vane, and several others were concerned. Of course there was the inevitable informer, and in this case a certain knight, called Sir Thomas Palmer, has recorded against him this unenviable notoriety. In Sir John fiayward's Life and Beign of K. Edward VI., we read, — " Herewith Sir Thomas Palmer, a man neither loving the Duke of Somerset, nor beloved of him, was brought by the Duke of Northumberland to the King being in his garden. Here he declared on St. George's day last before, the Duke of Somerset being upon a journey towards the north, in case Sir William Herbert, Master of the Horse, had not assured him he should receive no harm, would have raised the people ; and that he had sent the Lord Gray before, to know who would be his friends : also that the Duke of Northumberland, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of Pembroke, and other lords should be invited to a banquet, and if they came with a bare company, to be set upon by the way ; if strongly, their heads should have been cut off at the place of their feasting. He * Note in ilachyn's Diary, by J. G. Nicolls. t The Chapel in the Tower, by Doyne C. Bell. ARUNDELL. 173 declared further that Sir Ralph Vane, had two thousand men in a readiness; that Sir Thomas Arundell had assured the Tower, that Seymor and Hamond, would wait upon him, and that all the horse of the Gendarmerie should be slain." This must have been the day on which the boy-king records in his journal, — " 11 Oct., 1551. Sir Thomas Arrondel had ashuerid my Lord that the Towre was sauf." The "my Lord " here must have related to Somerset, which the King heard of in his conversation with Northumberland. On the 16 October, 1551, says Grafton, — " being Fryday, the Duke was again apprehended, and committed to the Tower, on a charge of high treason." And the King records,— " This morning none was at Westminster of the conspiratours. The first was the Duke, who came later than he was wont, of himself. After diner he was apprehendid." Sir John Hayward thus describes it, — " and so after dinner, he (the Duke) was apprehended ; Sir Thomas Palmer, Sir Thomas Arundel, Hamonde, Nudigates, John Seymour, and David Seymour, were also made prisoners, the Lord Gray being newly come out of the country was attached. Sir Ralph Vane, being sent for, fled. Upon the first message it was reported that he said that his Lord was not stout, and that if he could get home he cared not for any ; but upon pursuit he was found in his servant's stable at Lambeth covered with straw. He was a man of fierce spirit, both sudden and bold, of no evil disposition, saving he thought scantiness of estate too great an evil. All these were the same night sent to the Tower, except Palmer, Arundel, and Vane, who were kept apart in the Court, well guarded in chambers apart. After these followed Sir Thomas Holdcroft, Sir Miles Partridge, Sir Michael Stanhope and others. The day following the Dutchess of Somerset was sent to the Tower, also with her were committed one Crane, and his wife, and her own chamber woman. Crane confessed for the most part as Palmer had done, and further added that the Lord Paget's house was the place, where the nobility being invited to a banquet, should have lost their heads, and that the Earl of Arundel was made acquainted with the practice by Sir Michael Stanhope. This Crane was a man, who having consumed his own estate, had armed himself to any mischief. All these were sworn before the Council, and forthwith upon the information of Crane, the Earl of Arundel, and Lord Paget were sent to the Tower." On the same day, Machyn notes, — " 1551, xvj. day of October, was had to the Towre, Sir Thomas Arundell and Lady (with many others)." and the King writes, — " 16 Oct. Arrondel was taken." Twenty-seven peers took part in the trial of Somerset, his rival the Duke of Northumberland being one, and the Marquis of Winchester presided as Lord High Steward. On the 2nd December following, narrates Grafton, — " the sayd Duke was brought out of the Tower of London, with the axe of the Tower borne before him, with a great number of billes, gleves, holbardes, and 1 74 ARUNDELL. polaxes attending upon him ; and was had from the Tower by water, and having shot London bridge, at five of the clock in the morning, so came unto Westminster Hall, where was made in the middle of the Hall a new scaffold, where all the Lords of the King's Counsaill sate as his judges, and there was he arraigned and charged with many articles both of treason and felony. And when after much milde speeehe, he had aunsered not guiltie, he in all humble manner put himselfe to be tryed by his peeres, who, after long consultation among themselves, gave their verdict that he was not guiltie of the treason, but of the felony." The King says in his diary, — " The Duke of Northumberland wold not agree that any searching of his death shuld bee treason. So the lordis acquited him of high treason and condemned him of treason feloniouse, and so he was adjudged to be hangid." As the punishment was hanging, he " departed without the ax of the Toure" — which the people outside not understanding, " shouted harf a dousen times so loud that from the halle dore' it was harde at Charing Crosse plainely, and rumours went that he was quitte of all." But his adversaries had got him too safely for release on this side of the grave, once more he was to appear before his fellow-men when the axe, and not the halter as was adjudged him, was to finish all. On Friday, the 22nd of January following, the Duke was, at eight in the morning, beheaded on Tower Hill. It was not until five days after the execution of the Duke that Sir Thomas Arundell, and his companion Sir Ralph Vane were put on their trial. The first to be tried was Sir Thomas' presumed confederate, Sir Ralph Vane. Machyn relates, — " 1551-2, — The xxvii. day of January was reynyd at Westmynster Hall, ser Raff a Vane knyght of tresun and qwyt of hytt, and cast of felony to be hangyd." Of this resolute and brave man, says Hayward, — " He was charged with conspiring with Somerset, but his bold answers termed rude and ruffian-like, falling into ears apt to take offence, either only caused, or much furthered his condemnation. ' The time hath been,' said he, ' when I was of some esteem, but now we are in peace which reputeth the coward and couragious alike.' " He strongly denied that he had practised treason against the King, or any of the Lords of the Council, and added that " his blood would make Northumberland's pillow uneasy to him." The ' qwest ' were not long in disposing of him, and the King comments, — " 27 Jan., 1551-2. Sir Bate Vane was condemned of felony in treason, aunsering like a ruffian." The next day was appointed for Sir Thomas Arundell to appear before his judges. It was apparent they must have had very slender or unsatisfactory evidence, and it is cruel to read with what pertinacity they were required to decide on his case. It is probable that, hke the Duke of Somerset, he was taken from the Tower to Westminster Hall by water, and imagination can easily depict the various phases of the .scene. Aroused early on the morning of the twenty-eighth of January, in mid-winter almost, it may be in ARUNDELL. 175 cold and pitiless weather, escorted by the Lieutenant of the fortress, Sir John D'Arcy, and accompanied by his officers, down to the well- guarded boat waiting for him, under the shadow of the great arch that spans the Traitor's Gate, the way lit by the feeble light of a lantern, which, as they seated themselves in the little craft, faintly revealed the portcullis raised for the occasion, and the dark waters of the Thames, just discernible through it, made visible by the flickering gleam thrown upon its surface, rippling to the inconstant night-breeze. Then their emerging from the gloomy portal, the prisoner sitting silent and motionless in the stern, the officers and halberdiers ranged on each side, and in front the heads-man's official, with the dread axe resting on his shoulder. Then their passage down the quiet river, with no sound to break the solitude, but the measured splash of the oarsmen steadily rowing him to his doom. Then their landing at Westminster in the just-breaking light of morning, and the sad little procession wending its way up to the main door of the vast Hall, its dim, cavernous roof, scarcely distinguishable by the cluster of twinkling points of light gathered in its centre, where, arrayed in all the picturesque costume of the age, emphasized by the scarlet cloaks of the judges, were congregated a large body of legal and civic functionaries, the solemn array of the jurors of the 'qwest,' and a throng of anxious citizens, assembled to decide whether he was guilty, or not guilty, — if he should live or die. But the ' qwest ' had not so easy a matter before them, in the disposing of his case, as they had the day before with that of Sir Ralph Vane. The evidence was presumably of slight or doubtful character, and so the day passed by and evening arrived, but no decision was arrived at. Sir Thomas had to endure this prolonged suspense, and was taken back to the Tower again, to wait through the anxious night, and then the following morning, go through the same dread ordeal, and appear once more before his judges, to learn his fate. The ' qwest ' of the jury appear to have thoroughly and sturdily debated the guilt or innocence of the prisoner, and not being able to agree, were thereon subjected to the usual inhuman treatment of being starved in cold and darkness into agreement, — if such it may be called, — or rather a decision, one way or the other. And so they " sate shut up " in a house all that live-long night, and it was not until day-break the next morning that "they did cast him,"— the dissentients probably being wearied into compliance. When Sir Thomas — who perhaps may justly have had latent hope that their disagreement might end favourably for him — stood before his accusers for the second time, his doom was decided on, and he heard the fearful result that " they had acquitted him of treason, and cast him of felony, to be hanged." Machyn thus describes the assiduous process of his condemnation, — " 1551-2. The xxviij. of Januarij was reynyd sir Thomas Arundell, Knyght, and so the qwest cold nott fynd ym tyll the morow after, and so he whent to the Towre agayn, and then the qwest wher shutt up tyll the morow withowt mett or drynke, or candylle or fyre, and on the morow he came a-gayne and the qwest qwytt ym of treasun, and cast hym of felony to be hangyd." 176 ARUNDELL. And Hayward soliloquizes over the unhappy event, — " Sir Thomas Arundel was with some difficulty condemned, for his cause was brought to trial about seven of the clock in the morning, and about noon the jurors went together, and because they could not agree, they were shut in a house all the residue of that day and all the night following. The next morning they found him guilty. Unhappy man ! who found the doing of anything or nothing dangerous alike." and the little King mechanically notes in his diary, — " 29th Jan., 1551-2. Sir Thomas Arundel was likewise cast of felony in treason, after long oontroversie, for the matter was brought in trial bie seven of the cloke in the morning 28th day ; at none the qwest went together ; they sate shut up together in a house, without meat or drinke, bicause they could not agree, all that day and all night ; this 29th day in the morning they did cast him." So the first act of the coming tragedy was completed, and then after they had made sure of the destruction of their victim, they were equally assiduous that he should have ample religious consolation, in order that he " may dye well," — and so give colour to the assumption that he was rightly convicted ; and seemingly seek to justify the cruel sentence, awarded under such manifest difficulty, arising from the slight grounds of the accusation preferred against him. Therefore the very same day of his condemnation, the 29th of October, " the Council issued orders to the Lieutenant of the Tower, ' that Doctour Bill may from tyme to tyme resort to Sir Bauff Fane for his instruction to dye well ; and that Doctour Parker may resort from tyme to tyme to Sir Thomas Arundell for the lyke purpose." * Both these spiritual advisers were evidently Protestants, holding office in the Reformed Church. Dr. William Bill was successively Master of St. John's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, and afterward Provost of Eton, Dean of Westminster, and Almoner to Queen Elizabeth. Dr. Matthew Parker was Chaplain to Edward VI., Dean of Lincoln, and afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. What faith Sir Ralph Vane professed may not be related here, but from his bold and resolute character it may be surmised to have been of an easy going kind, and the clerical consolers sent to administer to him in his necessity might have been as acceptable as any other. Not so to Sir Thomas Arundell ; his rehgious adherence as a staunch Catholic was doubtless well known, and to him, the intrusion of the men named, in his hopeless distress, would have been adding still further cruelty to his sentence, by depriving him of that last prepara tion and final rites of the church he belonged to, which one of her own confessors could alone afford him. Application was therefore made for this privilege, and so we find that, — "on the 11th of February, Mr. Perne was allowed to resort to Sir Thomas Arundell, to instruct hym to dye well." * * Bell's Chapel in the Tower. ARUNDELL. 177 To die well,— such was, apparently, the condition most sought for, to appear penitent, and if possible to ensure this, the strong religious point was waived, and one, — probably of the ejected rehgious of the previous reign, — was "allowed" admittance to the death- sentenced prisoner. The monk who came was presumably William Peryn, Prior of the Black-friars, and a distinguished preacher ; he probably attended Sir Thomas in his last moments. The last scene of this mournful progression was now at hand. On the 22nd February the Lieutenant of the Tower received instructions to give notice to — " Sir Thomas Arundell, and Sir Bauf Vane that they should against Friday next, prepare themselves to dye, according to their condempnation." But another and melancholy privilege had now to be sought for, and that was to change the ignominious method of hanging, — the punishment accorded for treason-felony, — to the less degrading death by beheading. Some influence had to be used, but it was granted. The same method of death was also extended to Sir Michael Stanhope. No alteration, however, was accorded — if sought for — with regard to the execution of the "ruffian," Sir Ralph Vane, and Sir Miles Partridge; they were to perish at the same hour at the gaUows, which was probably set up beside the scaffold on Tower Hill. Cavendish in his Metrical Visions, thus refers to this circumstance in the last stanza of that one relating to Sir Thomas Arundell, — " To be hanged though my judgment ware, Yet to do me honour they changed my sentence, And to leese my head to ease me of my care : — But death was the thing of all their pretence Which they desired ; — such was their conscyence There I make an end, and I without redresse As here ye may see me, a symple body hedlesse." Then came the final order on the 23rd to the King's Sohcitor — "To make a warrant for the beheading Sir Thomas Arundell, and Sir Michael Stanhope, and to perform the process of hanging of Sir Bauf Vane and Sir Miles Partridge, who are appointed to be executed on fryday next between ix. and xi. before noone." The warrant was duly made out and dated the 25th, — the next day Friday, the 26th February, was fixed for their execution. Machyn thus describes the event, — " The xxvj. day of Feybruarii the wyche was the morrow after saynt Mathuwe day, was hedded on the Tower hill, sir Myghell Stanhope knyght and ser Thomas Arundell, and incontenent was hangyd the seylff sam tyme sir Raff a Vane knyght, and ser Mylles Parterege knyght of the galowse besyd the and after ther bodys wher putt in to dyvers new coffens to be bered, and heds, in to the Towre in cases, and ther bered." Both Sir Thomas Arundell and Sir Michael Stanhope were interred in the Tower Chapel. Thus he followed in the same dire way, and was buried beside his two headless kinswomen laid there a few years previously. 178 ARUNDELL. What is to be said as to all these proceedings, and their melancholy termination, had guilt or innocence anything to do with it, or was it expediency only, that controlled the result ? Sir John Hayward apparently supphes the true key as to the object of the nefarious transaction, — " Not long after the death of Somerset, because it was not thought fit that such a person should be executed alone, who could hardly be thought to offend alone, Sir Ralph Vane and Sir Miles Partridge were hanged on Tower Hill, Sir Michael Stanhope and Sir Thomas Arundell were there also beheaded. " All these took it upon their last charge, that they never offended against the King, nor against any of his Council. God. knows whether obstinately secret or innocent, and in the opinion of all men Somerset was much cleared by the death of those who were executed to make him appear faulty ." But their deaths were not destined to go long unavenged. He who had poured the " leperous distilment " into the young king's ear, that sent Sir Thomas to his doom, and others, in company with his rival Somerset, lame-footed vengeance was on the trail of his unscrupulous, ambitious footsteps, it speedily overtook him, and the next headless body that was brought to find unconscious entrance to the Tower Chapel was that of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. As the grave closes over the unfortunate Sir Thomas Arundell our thoughts next follow to those he left behind him. The usual fate was awarded his possessions as a traitor, he was attainted, and they were confiscated to the Crown ; but King Edward, two years after his death, restored to his widow, the Lady Elizabeth Arundell, her full dower out of her deceased husband's property. Of course there is no direct memorial existent to Sir Thomas Arundell, but it is singular, that in the fine brass to the memory of his father, mother, and his father's second wife in St. Columb church, Cornwall, one of their children, a httle headless armoured figure still remains, and beside it is Sir Thomas' escutcheon, — ArundeU with six quarterings, impaling Howard with four. The diminutive effigy is undoubtedly designed to represent Sir Thomas, — the label over his head that contained his name is gone. The corresponding indents of figure, shield, and label, were originally filled with a representation of his brother Sir John, his name and arms. Sir Thomas Arundell, by his wife Ehzabeth Howard, left two children, Sir Matthew, who succeeded him, and Margaret, married to Sir Henry Weston. Sir Matthew married Margaret, daughter of Henry Willoughby * of Wollaton, Notts, by his wife Anne, third daughter of Thomas Grey, second Marquis of Dorset, and sister to Henry, afterward Duke of Suffolk. They were second cousins, both being the grandchildren of Cicely Bonville. With the accession of Queen Mary, matters wore a very different aspect toward the Arundells. Doubtless the Queen fully recognized and esteemed their allegiance to the antient faith, which she held in common with them, and so we find in the first year of her reign, she * The ghost of his name, and the tomb in Southleigh churchyard, seem to haunt our little narratives, see pages 35 and 85. ARUNDELL. 179 restored by patent to Sir Matthew, all his deceased father's lands. This does not seem to have included Wardour Castle, which appears to have been granted by lease or otherwise to the Earl of Pembroke, who greatly embellished it, but Sir Matthew subsequently, by purchase, acquired its possession from that family ; it was not, however, free of the claims of the Crown as will be seen. He probably resided before this at Shaftesbury, in the house he had built out of the ruins of the Abbey. Sir Matthew was knighted, with twenty-two other west-country gentlemen, who " were dubbed in the progress to Bristowe, anno d'ni, 1574," by Queen Elizabeth. Once more we find ourselves in Tisbury church, and in this chancel, where the succeeding generations of the Arundells of Wardour, after the vicissitudes of this life, — and in their earlier days they had their ample share of them, — were over, — and one after another were here gathered together in the fold of death. Sir Matthew was buried 24 Dec, 1598. This inscription com memorates him, — IESUS. MAT' ARUNDEL, EQUES ORDINE, INTUS DORMIT IN PULVERE. IGNOSCAT ILLI OMNIA QUI NOSTRA TULIT CRIMINA. DELICTA JUVENTUTIS MEE ET IGN0RANT1AS MEAS NE MEMINERIS DOMINE. I. H. S. Thomas, his son, succeeded him. " Prompted by the ardent and chivalrous spirit of adventurous enterprise prevalent in the reign of Elizabeth, he obtained the Queen's permission to enter the service of Rudolph II., Emperor of Germany, to whom she addressed a personal letter of recommendation of her ' kinsman.' " This was correct enough, — Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of Queen Anne Boleyn, and so grand-daughter of Lady Elizabeth Howard, — Thomas ArundeU was the great-grandson of Lord Edmund Howard, her brother. In 1595, at the siege of the city of Gran, or Strigonium, in Hungary, then held by the Turks, he gave great proofs of his valour, " and that in forcing the water tower, near Strigonium, he took from the Turks their banner, slaying the bearer with his own hand." For this and other services Budolph created him a Count of the Holy Boman Empire, which he had the temerity to accept, without getting sufficient leave from his jealous- and imperious ' kinswoman ' at home, and for which he appears to have suffered some confinement. It raised a dispute also at Court as to what precedence, or otherwise, this foreign distinction was entitled to, and the matter being brought before the Queen for her opinion, she characteristically rephed, — " that there was a close tie of affection between the prince and subject ; and that as chaste wives should have no glances but for their own spouses, so should faithful subjects keep their eyes at home, and not gaze upon foreign crowns, and she, for her part, did not care her sheep should wear stranger's marks, nor dancs after the whistle of every foreigner." 180 ARUNDELL. and she intimated to the Emperor, that she had forbad him any place or precedence in England. It is probable Queen Elizabeth had no great liking for the Arundells, being prejudiced against them, it may be on account of their religious principles. Some years before, in 1575, when Sir Matthew Arundell had re-acquired Wardour Castle and Park, she seized upon it to enforce the payment of an old Crown debt, that seems to have been owing on property Sir Thomas Arundell acquired of Henry VIII. , and had not been cleared off, and which it was probable from his relationship to that monarch, was never intended should be paid. The Queen, we beheve, did not insist on the payment, but it shewed her semi-hostile attitude toward them then, and this incident of the acceptance of a foreign title, did not tend to improve it. King James, however straitened and antagonistic in his religious views, and natural distaste to the Roman communion, nevertheless, recognized his merits, by creating him in the second year of his reign, 4 May, 1605, Baron Arundell of Wardour, but neither Queen Elizabeth, nor that King, we believe, ever recognized his foreign title. He died at Wardour Castle, and was buried in this chancel. The following inscription is to his memory, — THOMAS DOMINUS ARUNDELIUS, PRIMUS BARO DE WARDOUR, SACRI ROMANI IMPERII COMES, OBIJT 7110 DIE NOVEMBRIS, yETATIS SVJE 79, ANNO DOMINI 1639. SICUT PULLUS H1RUNDINIS SIC CLAMABO, Isais xxxviii. v. 14. With this we close any extended notice of the succeeding descendants of this noble and distinguished family. Thomas his son was a devoted Royalist, and " being at the battle of Lansdown was shot in the thigh by a brace of pistol-bullets, whereof the same year he died in his Majesty's garrison at Oxford," — the devoted and heroic Blanche Somerset his wife it was who so bravely defended Wardour Castle during the war of the Commonwealth ; she died at Winchester, but both are rejoined in death here. These inscriptions occur to them, — d. o. M.. Hie parte sua mortali quiescit, qui in coelo potiori parte vivit im- mortalis Thomas Arundel, Baro Arundel de Warder, sacri Romani imperii Comes, primogenitus nempe Thomae Arundel, Baronis etiam de Warder, qui, ob insignia et pietatis et fortitudinis exempla in communem Christiani nominis hostem in Hungaria ad Strigonium praestita haeredjiarium hunc honoris titulum a Rodolpho secundo meruit ipse, et ad posteros transmissit ; cujus dignitatum virtutumque hie hasres, dum vixit, sic Deo in constanti pietatis exercito militavit in terris, ut debitum sibi in ccelis triumphum expectare videretur, ita se totum in Regis Caroli primi obsequium, imminente in Anglia bello civili, impendit, ut in illud opes fortunamque profuderit, ac vitam denique ipsarri lubentissime contulisset, e qua excessit Oxonii die 190 Maij, ann. setatis 59, annoque reparatas salutis 1643. ARUNDELL. 181 And on the adjoining stone : — d. o. M. Hie conjugi conjux amantissima adjacet Domina Blancha Somerset, filia Edwardi Somerset, Wigorniae Comitis, privata sigilli custodis, magistri equitum, &c., quae marito par generis splendore, exercitio virtutum non impar, in aula regia quasi in cella privata vixit quanto dignitate terrena sublimior, tanto pietatis fulgere splendidior, quantoque regiae vicinior majestati, tanto (quod parum est inter mortales) supremo dilectior numini quo ut proprius frueretur coelo natura mortalitatem exuit Wintoniae die 28° Octob : ann : aetat : lxvi. annoque Dom : m.dc.xlix. Henry, their son, spent five years in the Tower, 1673 to 1678, on the information of the infamous Titus Oates, but afterward became Lord Privy Seal to James II. " Which Henry Lord Arundell, at his own charge, raised a regiment of horse for the service of King Charles the First in the time of the usurpation, and stoutly defended his Castle of Wardour against those rebellious forces, which, under the command of Edward Hungerford, did then attempt it on behalf of the Parhament. In the year 1678, he was with William Earl Powis, William Viscount Stafford, William Lord Petre, and John Lord Bellasis, committed prisoners to the Tower, and afterwards were impeached by the House of Commons of high crimes and offences, without being brought on their trial. He continued prisoner with the other Lords, till the year 1683, when they were admitted to bail. " On King James II. accession to the throne he was sworn of his Privy Council, and on 11 March, 1686, was constituted Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, also, when that Monarch, in 1688, began his journey towards Salisbury, he committed the administration of affairs in his absence to the Lord Chancellor, the Lords Arundell, Bellasis, Preston, and Godolphin. He departed this life 28 December, 1694, having married Cecilie, daughter of Sir Henry Compton, C.B., of Brambletye, in the county of Sussex." (Collins.) Henry, the seventh baron, by his marriage in 1739 with Mary Arundell- Bealing of Lanherne, who died in 1769, re-united the antient branch of the family from which he was descended ; he died in 1756, aged 38, is interred below, and his epitaph (by translation) tells us, "who taking to himself to wife Mary Arundell, the most noble heiress of the family of Lanherne in Cornwall, and having gotten a son of her, a most renowned race which for more than two centuries had been rent asunder, now happily united, flourishes, and may it for ever flourish by the favour of God." With the memory of this delightful incident, so gracious and refreshing after the blood-stained relation of the earlier portion of our little narrative, we take our leave of this garner of the departed Arundells, and, seeking once more the rapid convenience of the iron road, are passing swiftly homeward. As the train ghdes rapidly by the little station of Sutton-Bingham, we remember that not far from this, another and almost unique trace of Arundell of Cornwall is to be found. At about a mile's distance is the village of East-Coker, and in the south transept window of its church are two antient shields of painted glass side by side, on one are the arms of the See of Exeter, on the other quarterly, ArundeU and Carminow. These are the arms of John Arundell, Bishop of Exeter, who presided over the diocese two years, died 19 Feb., 1506, and was buried in the 182 ARUNDELL. church of St. Clement Danes, London, and, as far as we have knowledge, is the only trace of memorial existing to him. Once more the career of the subject of our little narrative returns to us. All appears to have gone well with him, even among the perils with which he was environed during the reign of Henry VIII. It may be, the instant danger of giving offence to the wishes or inclinations of that capricious tyrant kept him in the path of caution and safety. But when that king's baby-son assumed the reins of sovereignty this terror had disappeared, and men were busily vieing with each other as to whom, — professedly under the little king, — should really rule the destinies of the nation. Sir Thomas now appears to have taken action, and identified himself with one side of the contending factions, not prominently, but sufficiently marked to make him a subject of suspicion — to say nothing beyond — with those he was presumed to differ from, and this on an adverse emergency was a position of considerable peril. So it turned out, for in the end his death appears to have been resolved on, not because his offence was easily proved, or that he deserved such punishment, but as a make weight, to give the colour of comphcity, and so justify the death of Somerset, by the execution of himself, and that of others, thereby inferring the plot was a real one, and of dangerous extent. If so, — and circumstances seem strongly to confirm this view, — his was altogether a hard fate ; it is difficult indeed, to imagine a harder one. "SICUT PULLUS HLRUNDINIS SIC CLAMABO." Even Thine altars ! — there my soul shall flee— 0 Lord of Hosts ! and as a swallow come On quivering wing, and chatter mournfully, And make her nest, and seek eternal home. Even Thine altars ! where in holy state Lies the Great Sacrifice of endless love, Incense adoring streams to heaven's gate, Service unceasing seeks Thy throne above. Even Thine altars ! there unharmed to stay, And when my captive pinions death shall free, Migrate to fairer regions far away, There fold my wings, and rest in peace, with Thee. gen imia. ' '"-- - -^ ¦" v -¦r^ppw OF THE IMPERIAL LINE. A LEISURELY sail from the beautiful, capacious, and almost land-locked harbour of Plymouth, up its main inlet — so curiously named the Hamoaze — to the picturesque precincts of the lower extremity of the Tamar, on a bright summer day with a gentle breeze, is an excursion in all respects most enjoyable. The harbour itself is studded over with craft of every variety and size, and sails spread of almost all hues, with here and there a fussy steam-boat ploughing its smoky way between them, while just inside, and tethered as it were to the dim line of the breakwater, are two or three dark grim-looking ironclads, lying as watch-dogs at its entrance. Sea- ward, is the broad, blue, open main ; on the left, the tree-fringed heights of Mount-Edgcumbe ; before us, the irregular, creek-broken shore of the " Three- Towns " jutting angularly into the deep, clear water, with houses crowding down to its rocky edge. There, too, in its centre, is one of the most classic spots on English soil — the Hoe — consecrated by endless historic national traditions, and made sacred beyond imagination's most inspired effort, by the tears, prayers, and hopes that have alternately taken their rise, and from its heights watched the silent sails pass on below to the distant ocean, bearing voyagers, the purpose of whose errands, — who may declare ? On its pleasant open plateau, how diverse also have been the objects of those who from time to time have there assembled. Determined spirits with hands upon their sword-hilts, waiting and watching for the first glimpse of the van of the seven miles crescent-flotilla of the dark and hostile Spaniard, sweeping onward toward the shore, bearing the chains of slavery, spiritual and social, within their holds. Bands of bare-headed, bent-browed men, kneehng in reverent, prayerful conclave — the last home-office of their undaunted faith — ere they stepped on board the peaceful convoy, expatriated by conscience from their native soil, in search of a larger liberty, and destined to found in another hemisphere, an even greater England than they were leaving. Invader and emigrant, each shall we say, with purpose animated by soul-constraining rehgious convictions, but with ultimate aspirations, how different ! 184 PALEOLOGUS. Spectators, — myriad numbered, greeting with enthusiastic plaudits, the departure of stately fleets, that at intervals during successive centuries, have passed out, destined to carry the grand conquests of the seamanship and valour of the English race, — triumphs martial and commercial, — to every sea ; or anon, sorrowful groups with down-cast hearts, wafting sad and final farewells to those, who have here in continuous exodus set out to seek new homes on distant shores, and from hence cast their last "longing, hngering look," at the receding, vanishing outline of their native land ; or again, eager eyes anxious to descry the first rise of the sail of the home-bound ship on the distant horizon, bearing a freight more precious to the love-strained heart, than all the wealth of Ind. But while these suggestive thoughts are haunting us, we have slowly crept up to the warlike precincts of the lower Hamoaze. We pass the huge, cavernous, pent-house-looking, but now empty 'slips,' hanging over the darkhng tide, in which the ' wooden walls ' of old England were wont aforetime to be built, ere the "steam-urged iron monsters of our present new England were dreamt of. And we ruminate a moment over this change of times and things, and mentally ask the question, What is the gain to human development achieved by much of the scientific — ergo ' mechanical — apphances of the present hour ? the which, while it flatters the lord of creation with the behef he has become the autocrat of the forces and elements, in truth practically reduces that proud being to be the servant and care-taker of the machine he has constructed, for assuredly to a very large extent to this menial occupation he is being rapidly reduced. Specially with regard to ships and navigation, a generation or two ago, vessels in construction and appearance were not only beautiful objects as such, but required also aU the skill, foresight, courage, and dexterity which taxes the resources of manhood to the utmost, and forms the basis of true seamanship, for their guidance and control. Then there was something both for the mind and bodily energy ahke to exercise and develope itself on ; and undoubtedly much of the secret of our victories, both in "commerce and war, that we have achieved in the past, may be traced to our proficiency therein, and as a consequence, the cause of our winning the crown of success among all other competing maritime nations. Now almost all is changed, science has invaded the citadel of living endeavour, and deposed its activity and ambition ; while furnished with the results of her conquests, one man practically has become as good as another, the spur of incentive has vanished from the heel of individual aspiration to excellence, with this result, that if to man the privilege of becoming a greater, nobler being, fostered by the soul's glorious activities, as having something to conquer, or win, be denied or removed from him ; he can now console himself with the belief he may afford to become a much idler one, — a prime factor in the creed of the present hour. And therefore instead of the slips and the wooden-walls, with clatter of adze, axe, and caulking hammer, and the wholesome odour of Stockholm tar, — here we are abreast of the ' steam-yard,' with PALEOLOGUS. 185 its metalhc clang and reek of coal-smoke, threading our way between a swarm of iron-clads of every form and shape ; ugly, dark, and diabolical-looking, as the errand they are constructed for, their sullen turrets, monstrous guns, and blood-curdling names, aptly and unmis takably assuring the beholder that their eventual port of destination hes on the shore of Hades. Steam-pinnaces and swift torpedo-boats are rushing about, and large tenders surging along, among whom we carefuUy steer, and look across with a glance of relief on the smart, clean, handsome three-deckers moored stern to stern in mid-stream ; floating Othellos, that now with occupation gone, serve as nautical colleges for the sailor-boys, where they are instructed in such slender knowledge of seamanship as is at present deemed necessary. How different was the measure of requirement in the early years of the first George, when the unfortunate Falconer wrote his poem of the Shipwreck, whose seamanship was apparently as dear to him as the muse, and so, delighted to cunningly array her with all the terms of the mariner's vocabulary, a feat never attempted by other poet, and of course a hopeless task to any but a true sailor, — " But now, the transient squall to leeward passed, Again she rallies to the sudden blast. The helm to starboard moves ; each shivering sail Is sharply trimmed, to clasp th' augmenting gale — The mizzen draws ; she springs aloof once more, While the fore-staysail balances before. The fore-sail braced obliquely to the wind, They near the prow th' extended tack confined : Then on the leeward sheet the seamen bend, And haul the bow-line to the bowsprit end, To topsails next they haste, the bunt-lines gone, Through rattling blocks the cluelines swiftly run ; Th' extending sheets on either side are manned ; Abroad they come, the fluttering sails expand ; The yards again ascend each comrade mast, The leeches taught, the halyards are made fast, The bowlines hauled, and yards to starboard braced, The straggling ropes in pendent order placed." We pass a magnificent white-clad troop-ship, with a beading of red-coats leisurably looking over the forecastle, and glide under the lee of one of those steam-winged brigands of the deep, a steel-built cruiser, whose towering trim spars, and beautiful lines, excite admira tion, but chastened with the reflection of the capabilities for destruction she carries in her enormous propelling power and far-reaching guns. Woe, think we, to the peaceful merchantman who may venture to disregard, or seek to flee from the summons of her eagle eye ! And now we are sailing easily amid an assemblage of objects, whose presence makes the heart sink, and the cheek burn as we contemplate the rotting millions they represent, — the fleet of huge discarded hulks, whose now comparatively untrustworthy fighting and defensive capabilities, represent the modern advance in- the art of destruction in maritime warfare. Here and there a sohtary figure peers over the rusty bulwarks, but with regard to the majority, not a 186 PALEOLOGUS. living creature paces their deserted decks. Gay, golden, and bright- coloured figure heads, — nymph, triton, or naval hero, — still decorate their prows, but these to our fancy's eye, resolve themselves into gilded skeletons with eyes of flame, and grasping the lightning darts of destruction in their grisly clutches, — the ghastly phantasmagoria of Death ! And then comes the mournful reflection, that the original cost of each of these now comparatively valueless hulls, — being for all other purposes mere useless accretions of old iron and wood, — and designed for the destruction of the human race, would have more than sufficed to have built and endowed a hospital or coUege, whose beneficent errand should have been' for all time (and while our present institutions are also starving for want of funds), and that the aggregation of hulks floating lazily around us, and of their predecessors, would represent an amount of wealth sufficiently large to have dotted the empire all over with such excellent institutions. Last thought of all, as we look back and watch the bright red cross slowly unfold itself on the summer breeze over the taffrail of one of the largest of them, — the hallowed symbol of peace and good will hoisted over these engines of bloodshed, — we muse at the strange antithesis suggested by its display, as if designed in bitterest satire, to justify, or as it were, consecrate their direful mission. A curious example of what we presume would be termed national rehgious ethics, as at present professed in this Christian land of ours. But then we recollect that favourite patriot, the courageous (at home) and braggart, fire-eating Jingo, with his eight hundred millions of debt on his back, has to be duly considered in the motley compact. "Peace and good will ' ' at present looks like a hopeless dream, to be further off than ever, and its development in the boasted civilization of the last quarter of the nineteenth century exhibits, instead, the strange spectacle of more fighting men on land, and ships of war at sea, furnished with the most tremendous appliances for the destruction of human life than could be found, perhaps, at any previous era of the world's history. Europe appears a vast armed camp, filled with millions of soldiers, apparently only waiting in feverish suspense some chance incident, to march on each other, and deluge the continent with carnage. And yet amid all this there are not wanting hopeful signs, that below these dread preparations, a wiser and healthier undercurrent is slowly, but surely moving, that will eventually, we trust, sap the foundations of this mihtary incubus, and free the long-suffering peoples from its deadly glamour. The consequences of the wickedness and folly of that game "which kings delight to play at" will be clearly seen, and a larger and more comprehensive system of government take the control into its own hands, and put a veto on the players. Industry, guided by intellectual resource, is busily organizing its battalions, with a power, destined, we ween, at no distant date to be mightier than armies or navies. Intelligence, combined with a knowledge of social and commercial needs, will become the great factors of national influence and wealth in the future, and, unless we greatly mistake, the basis of a kingdom's prosperity in the coming PALEOLOGUS. 187 time will be fought out on these battle-fields, and on them win its silent and bloodless victories. But a much greater and consolatory thought possesses us as we take a final glance at the grim citadels of destruction lazily floating on the now smihng strength of the watery expanse, — but compared with which in its tempestuous wrath, they are as the bubble that vanishes on its surface, — even the controlling power of that Mighty Ruler of both, of which the Royal Minstrel has with prophetic grandeur sung ; strikingly paraphrased by His humbler disciple and lyrist, the gifted Apostle of Cornish revival, here aptly recalled, — " The Lord is King : ye saints rejoice And ceaseless alleluias sing ; The angry floods lift up their voice In vain, — for lo, the Lord is King ! All ocean's waves may swell and roar, They cannot break their sandy chain ; Supreme in majesty and power, The Lord shall o'er them rule and reign. Though war's devouring surges rise, Beyond their bounds they cannot go ; The Lord is King above the skies, And rules the embattled host below. 'Tis God the Lord, whose mighty will Makes angry war's contentions cease, And bids the maddened world be still, And brings the joyous gift of peace." Withdraw thine eyes aft, friend of mine, banish all further con templation of the decaying sea-dragons, and look a-head where a very different spectacle awaits thee. Immediately to the left is the little, quiet, steep-streeted Cornish borough of Saltash, but now made notable by the presence of Brunei's stupendous iron railway -bridge, spanning the river before us, and thrusting itself into the bosom of the old town ; one of the largest mechanical works of this, or any age, and exhibiting the strange engineering inversion of suspending the load beneath the arch, as the road-way is slung or supported below, instead of traversing above it. Its great height from the water, to a considerable extent, contracts to the eye its huge proportions, which may however in a measure be estimated, by -observation of the railway-train slowly threading its way across, being scarcely seen, and but httle heard from below, or recognized merely by a thin white hne streaming back above the parapet, and a subdued rumble ; and by noting also the Liliputian dimensions of some artizans, that look like a bevy of insects perched on one of the great tubes. The extraordinary construction it displays seems to suggest that here for once, Science with syren persuasion must have charmed the ear of Wealth to accede to her request — " provide me with the means required, and in return you shall be shewn what can be accomplished" — so lavish is the strength, and fantastic the form of the vast structure. On the river below this immense creation, the 188 PALEOLOGUS. floating steam-bridge crawls across at short intervals, for passengers and vehicles. As we look at the two extraordinary methods of transit, the reflection arises that at only a few miles up the stream, an inexhaustible supply of granite may have been obtained and easily floated. With this enduring material a handsome bridge might have been erected, with arches sufficiently high for all useful purposes of navigation, and the roadway on it made wide enough for railway and ordinary purposes, and, what is so dear to the calculating proclivities of our race, it would undoubtedly have paid well also, in addition to its enormous convenience. But then the wisdom of our senators would not have been exemplified, nor the constructive ingenuity of the engineer glorified. We emerge from the shadow of the great bridge, and pass another smart training-ship. Moored there we presume to justify the out rageous and apparently prohibitive stipulation of Parliament, — which required that a railway train should be carried through the air above the masthead of a fully rigged old-fashioned man-of-war, — for we never heard of another performing such a feat. Nor did our sagacious and far-seeing legislators probably dream of the advent of the squat iron-clads, with neither mast or sail, and hulls more under the water than above it, that now form the fleet of the present. Leaving this the last trace of grisly war behind, we enter on a glorious stretch of the uncontaminated Tamar, and admire two or three barges with their grand, looming, picturesque sails, — like great- winged sea-birds, — slowly traversing the bright expanse. Here a prophetic echo from the lyre of the poet who dwelled at its source, crosses the mental ear, and finds fulfilment, — "Fount of a rushing river ! wild flowers wreathe The home where thy first waters sunlight claim ; The lark sits hushed beside thee, while I breathe, Sweet Tamar spring ! the music of thy name. Fair is the future scenery of thy days, Thy course domestic and thy paths of pride ; Depths that give back the soft-eyed violet's gaze, Shores where tall navies march to meet the tide." Delightfully we career along, and our thoughts suggest what a spirit -cheering, buoyant — heart as well as boat — feeling of freedom fills the mind, when afloat in a trim craft with a full sail, and a fail- wind. Pre-eminently so on the boundless sea, and in lesser degree, but most enjoyable also, on this broad reach of inland water. The busy succession of waves rising up and greeting with flickering salute the prow of our little vessel, as with easy rocking motion she speeds over their undulating succession. And the contented satisfac tion, also, that we have the pleasant breeze, with its varying force for our untiring steed ; no haunting thought - disturbs, that some noble animal in slavery is running the sands of his hfe out the faster for our gratification,— nor the dread possibility of instant annihilation, that hovers continuously over the rushing transit of the iron trackway. PALEOLOGUS. 189 Verily of all modes of fnovement, none equals for pleasantness the sailor's, nor does the phantom of a wild pitiless sky, lee shore, and foam-mantled rocks greatly alloy it. Wild glory of the weltering shore, The clouds dark portent hangeth o'er, The rushing billows muffled roar. Like storm-drenched bird, from out the west The labouring bark by strong winds pressed, Beats to the haven of her rest. The seaman views the turmoil grim, And be his vessel tight and trim, The tempest wears no fears for him. Starboard the helm, friend, for we have now fetched nearly a mile plus the bridge, and prepare to set thy foot for the first time on old Cornubia's shore, and make acquaintance with its inhabiters, a generous, independent liberty-loving race, who through the past centuries have " one and all " vigorously asserted their right to social and rehgious freedom. Yonder is Landulph church-tower peering up among the undulations of the shore, — this will be our first port of call, to visit the sanctuary nestling among the dwellings at its foot, and make note of sundry interesting associations — one specially unique — connected with it. We pull in our little craft, and having made fast to a place of safety among the seaweed-clad slaty ledges of rock, set off for our destination, and a few minutes' walk brings us to the door of the little edifice. On entering, the first thing that arrests attention, is the large number pf carved bench-ends with which the nave and south aisle are furnished. Although under any conditions these architectural features are most attractive to the antiquary, as displaying in their sculptured imagery, direct witness of the art of past existences, the examples here found, for quality of workmanship, reflect not the purer glory of the Plantagenet workman, nor the lavish wealth of the earher Tudor. Their shallower and comparatively unstudied work, points to the era just before that crowned Dowsing, — who in relation to the church was dubbed Defender of her Faith, but whose truer and more congenial title should have been Destructor of her Works, — by his ravages among the religious establishments, gave the final quietus to the fast- dying spirit of ecclesiastical art. But even apart from his relentless savagery, its chief incentive had almost disappeared, for men were then fast learning the easier faith of word-service alone, unallied with the older self-denying, and more tangible offering of deeds. The real and the painstaking had given place to the less troublesome and quicker wrought, — rich deep-cut cusp, vine-leaf, rose, and blazoned shield were succeeded by coarse rustic allegory, ill-shaped animals and birds, tasteless initials and dates, and confused heraldry, interspersed with heathen masks and grotesques, elbowing the cross and sacred monogram — the last dying speech and confession of the expiring Gothic. Here the symbolism of the Passion seems to have been 190 PALEOLOGUS. the old carvers' favourite subject, occurring in the greatest profusion, variety, and minuteness of detail, — a pertinent example of the lowest form of religious teaching, the objective (even now a favourite with some), designed by its pictured symbolism to impress, and in its way instruct the unlettered mind, a poor apology for the nobler and more comprehensive study of the sacred text. One or two of the panels are however more noteworthy, as preserving a flickering of the antient beauty of design, and these find record in our sketch-book. A sprinkling of curiously imperfect and jumbled heraldry, apparently allusive to afore-time settlers in Landulph and important families located near, occupies many ; on these we recognize the roses of Lower, the rudders of Willoughby de Broke, the saltires of Glanville, and the bells of Porter of Trematon, while on others occur the insignia of the See, and specially noticeable, those of the princely Courtenay, — the eagle on the bundle of sticks, feathers, and shields charged with the three torteaux, badges and arms of the last descendants of the first house of that illustrious descent, — armories almost ubiquitous, both within and without the church door in these western parts. Here in Landulph this noble race owned considerable posses sions, inherited through the marriage of Emmeline, daughter of Sir John Dauney (or De Alneto), with Sir Edward Courtenay, who died 1372, of whom Cleaveland records, — " he had sixteen manors, and died before his father the Earl, and had by his lady two sons, Edward who came to be Earl after his grandfather, and Sir Hugh of Haccombe, whose grandson Edward was restored to the Earldom of Devonshire upon the failure of the elder brother's issue." The effigies of ' Sir John Dauney, his daughter Emmeline and her husband Sir Edward Courtenay are found in the neighbouring church of Sheviocke. The property continued in the ownership of the Courte nays, until the cruel execution of Henry, Marquis of Exeter, by Henry VIII., when it was annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall. And here an interesting circumstance may be noted, concerning the carved array of the symbolism of the Passion on the old seats before us, as we remember that these emblems appear to have been general favourites in Cornwall, and occur largely displayed in similar situations within many other churches in the county. Cornwall has ever been distinguished for the earnest religious views of its inhabitants, and from the earliest times, its material record has survived. The large number of old Crosses strewn thickly over the wild moorlands or by the solitary wayside, in churchyard or village street, were set up as reminders to the passing foot, of the way to eternal life, and contemporary with them Holy Wells covered the bright springs in the valleys, and appealed with their simple imagery to those who came thither to draw, not to forget to thirst also for the living water that refreshes the soul ; while Sainted Names numberless, the stories of whose devoted lives are lost in the mist of antiquity ; all attest that olden deep spirit of religious influence and observance, not to be found in other regions of the west, and which continues almost undiminished down to the present hour. PALEOLOGUS. 191 It was this feeling which brought the hardy miners, and their half-brethren the Dartmoor peasantry, with their clubs and bows up to the gates of Exeter in sturdy remonstrance, and to leave their mangled bodies afterward on Clyst Heath, when the Mass they were accustomed to reverence was abolished from their sight in the rural sanctuaries where they worshipped, during the days of the sixth Edward. It was this that stirred their hearts, and sent their war-cry aloft, when their countryman Trelawney stood in peril of liberty and life at the hands of the sinister James. It was this unsatisfied yearning, stifled while under the rehgious torpor which had settled over the mid-Georgian era, that welcomed the evangelic cry of Wesley, when he breathed over their valley of dry bones, and devoted disciples by myriads sprang into new and spiritual existence, followed subsequently by the kindred and scarcely less-fruitful mission of O'Brien, the apostle of the north Devon hills ; and later still with equal earnestness, their recognition and steadfast adhesion to the beneficent discipline of Father Matthew. The same earnest receptive spirit has continued in them through all the centuries. In emotive warmth of heart, — not altogether wanting in touch of chivalry, — home-loving clanship of nationahty, and kinship of antient tongue, the Cornish hold much in common with the Welsh, Irish, and Scotch ; qualities on crossing the Cheviots, Wrekin, or Dartmoor, lost altogether in the common-place, flavourless compromise called English character. Slowly we wend our way through the nave, and observe in addition to the numerous carved bench-ends, the lower compartments of the antient rood-screen (its stair-turret still exists in the wall of the south aisle), all the upper portion having disappeared. The design of its tracery is similar, and from this we assume that the edifice was entirely refitted within, if not wholly rebuilt at the same era. But the majority of the benches have suffered curious treatment at the ingenious hands of the parish joiner, a generation or so since, when these old solid structures were transformed into pews, by grafting on them above slender deal continuations, furnished with doors. Then unfortunately the carved edging around their ends was nearly aU cleared away, so as to form a panel at the base, and finished afterward by the whole being "neatly painted and grained" to acquire uni formity. The north aisle has a fine open-timbered waggon roof, the dividing arches between the nave and aisles are composed of granite — moor- stone as Polwhele delighted to designate it — ponderous and strong, and these, coupled with the old sturdy oak praying-benches beneath, convey a sense of reality and abidingness in work that contrasts strongly with our modern flimsy imitations. " See now, along that pillared aisle The graven arches firm and fair ; They bend their shoulders to the toil, And lift the hollow roof in air. Huge, mighty, massive, hard, and strong, Were the choice stones they lifted then ; The vision of their hope was long, They knew their God, those faithful men." 192 PALEOLOGUS. Having lingered a moment in the south aisle to note the badges of the royally descended Courtenay, our steps tend eastward to the memento that records an even more illustrious name than theirs, and that forms the unique association connected with this country church. But ere we reach it they are arrested a moment to 'observe the two large- and singularly representative squires' pews of the Jacobean knight Sir Nicholas Lower, an olden resident of Chfton in Landulph, and of whom we shall have something further to say by and by. One was evidently intended for the use of the family, the other on the opposite side of the aisle, larger, raised and arranged as a sort of gallery, evidently intended to be occupied by his worship's servants and retainers. Both are elaborately decorated in their upper portions with carved panels displaying the armories of his descent and alliance, below they exhibit the linen pattern, and on the corners appears his crest sculptured in full relief. Immediately beyond is a large high-tomb, whose massive black marble table records that the bodies of the old knight and his dame repose below, while on the aisle wall immediately above the gallery-pew are two further inscribed brasses to their memories. Now stay thy foot, and hearken ! for we are standing not on princely, nay, nor royal, but even over imperial dust. Give thy thoughts wing, from these leaden skies and mist-hung coasts, — nor stay them until they have reached the sunny shores of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, the classic precincts and immortal traditions of that superlatively beautiful city that holds the keys of the two continents in her hands, and to the illustrious dynasty that erstwhile ruled her, and by whose name she is still designated. Then learn that a direct descendant of this distinguished race, an exile from his native clime, and almost an outcast on the face of the earth, found his last refuge in this life, under a friendly roof close by, and lies at rest, — not in marble sarcophagus under vaulted dome near the home of his royal ancestors, — but, equally well, beneath the simple pavement of this rustic sanctuary. Besolve thy parable, you say. Bead the inscription recorded on yonder unpretending brass plate : — HERE LYETH THE BODY OF THEODORO PALEOLOGVS OF I'ESARO IN ITALYE; DESCENDED FROM YE IMPERYAIL LYNE OF YE LAST CHRISTIAN EMPERORS OF GREECE; BEING THE SONNE OF CAMILIO, YE SON'E OF PROSPER, THE. SONNE OF THEODORO, THE SONNE OF IOHN, YE SONNE OF THOMAS, SECOND BROTHER TO CONSTANTINE PALEOLOGVS, THE 8TH OF THAT NAME, AND LAST OF YE LYNE YT RAYGNED IN CONSTANTINOPLE, VNTILL SVBDVED BY THE TVRKES; WHO MARRIED W'TH MARY, YE DAVGHTER OF WILLIAM BALLS OF HADLYE IN SOVFFOLKE, GENT: AND HAD ISSVE 5 CHILDREN THEODORO, IOHN, FERDINANDO, MARIA AND DOROTHY, AND DEPARTED THIS LIFE AT CLYFTON, YE 2ITH OF IANVARY, 1636. PALEOLOGUS. 193 Over is the proud achievement of his race, — Per fess, a double- headed eagle displayed, collared, and with an imperial crown between the heads, standing on the castles of Europe and Asia, being the imperial arms of Greece, with crescent for difference. Proceed we now to give such few particulars of the dynasty and hfe of this imperially descended exile as space permits. Thomas Paleologus, as the inscription informs us, was second brother to Constantine, last of the Christian Emperors of Greece. He succeeded his brother the Emperor John in 1448, and bravely defended his beautiful metropolis from the unclean foot of the invader, when Mahomet II. laid siege to it with an immense army ; but being abandoned by the reigning princes of Christendom, — then too busy quarrelhng among themselves to help him, — was unable to repel them, and died fighting like a hero in the breach 29 May, 1453. His death was foUowed by the capture of the royal city, which was forthwith handed over to all the horrors of pillage and outrage by the Moslem host. Thenceforward the unspeakable Turk, with his fanatic courage, his slavery, cruelty, and sensual sloth, settled himself within its delightful precincts, as the future capital of his dominions, and brought his unsavoury presence into the community of Christian nationalities, remaining only to become an unceasing source of sanguinary contention among them, his wretched and effete govern ment being from time to time saved from summary extinction, only by the jealousy of his protectors. A notable and salutary change of circumstances and opinion notwithstanding, and in strong contrast to the apathy or fear with which the European potentates viewed the original triumphant entry and settlement of the disciples of Mahomet into the beautiful city of Constantine four centuries previously. In the terrible conflict that resulted in the downfall of Constanti nople, the carnage on both sides was immense. The Greeks fought with great determination, " the Turks lay dead by heaps upon the ground, yet other fresh men pressed on. still in their places," so that at last the beleaguered defenders appear to have been borne down by their force of numbers. Together with this, "it chanced Joannes Justinianus the Generall to lie wounded in the arme ; who losing much blood, cowardly withdrew himselfe from the place of his charge, not leaving any to supplie his roome, and so got into the cittie by the gate called Romana, which hee had caused to be opened in the inner wall, pretending the cause of his departure to be for the binding up of his wound, but being indeed a man altogether discouraged. The souldiours there present dismayed with the departure of their Generall, and sore charged by the Janizaries, forsooke their stations, and in haste fled to the same gate, whereby Justinianus was entered, with the sight whereof, the other souldiours dismayed, ran thither by heapes also. But whilest they valiantly strive, all together to get in at once, they so wedged one another in the entrance of the gate, that few of so great a multitude, got in; in which, so great a presse and confusion of minds, eight hundred persons were there by them that followed, troden underfoot, or thrust to death. The emperor himselfe, for safegarde of his life flying with the rest, in that presse, as a man not regarded, miserably ended his dayes, together with the Greek empire. His dead bodie was shortly after found by the Turkes amongst the slaine, and knowne by his rich apparell ; whose head being cut off, was forthwith presented to the Turkish tyrant ; by whose commaundment it was 194 PALEOLOGUS. afterwards thrust upon the point of a launce, and in great derision caried about as a trophee of his victorie, first in the campe, and afterwards up and downe the citie." * Thus fell Constantinople, and thus perished Constantinus, the eighth of that name, its last Emperor, " a prince of a mild and soft spirit fitter for the church than for the field, who hearing of the great preparation made by the Turkish king, first made such preparation as his owne small abilitie would extend unto, and then sent his embassadours unto other Christian princes earnestly craving their aid, and assistance in that his dangerous estate. But that labour was lost, and all his sute vaine ; for they being at variance one with another, and having more care of private revenge, than how to repulse the common enemie of Christianitie, could not, or would not afoord him any helpe at all." All the assistance the poor Emperor had, to resist the cloud of assailants then fast closing around the doomed city, was from " certaine ships and galhes " of the Levantine coast then by chance at Constantinople, among whom was " Joannes Justinianus an adventurer of Genua, who had been scouring those seas, with two tall ships, and four hundred souldiours, where he was entertained by the emperour. And forasmuch as he was a man honourably descended and supposed to be of great courage and direction, was by the emperour appointed Generall of all his forces next unto himselfe. He also entertained six thousand Greekes ; which with three thousand Venetians, Genowais, and others whom he made stay of, joined unto the cittizens, was all the weake strength he had to relie upon for the defence of his state and empire." The appointment of the Venetian as chief commander was an unfortunate one, and he exhibited the usual cowardice and treachery when put to the test, which adventurers usually display, although nothing the besieged could have done would probably have eventually saved the city from the host of invaders surrounding it, it being a hopeless conflict with superior numbers. Those of the citizens whose patriotism inspired them to confront the enemy, fought with great heroism, but numbers of others appear to have held aloof, denying their emperor not only their personal assistance, but also of their substance to pay the mercenaries to fight for them, and " whoe in their turn refused any longer to goe to the walls than they were sure of their dayly pay ! " The " wofull emperour," who appears to have done everything in his power for the defence of the royal city, was thus fighting under hopeless circumstances, and with the longest odds against him. Over the frightful cruelty and wickedness that followed in the three days' sack of Constantinople, after its capture, by the invaders, and their " abhominable and unspeakable filthinesse," let the hand of Time draw a veil. At the period of the fall of Constantinople, Thomas and Demetrius Paleologi, brothers to the unfortunate Emperor Constantinus, "governed a great part of Peloponesus, one of the most famous provinces of Grsecia, and these two princes dismaied at their brothers disaster fortune, began so farre to despaire of their own estate ; and upon the first brute thereof they were about presently to have fled by sea to Italy." * " Generall Historie of the Turkes," by Bichard Knolles, ed. 1603. PALEOLOGUS. 195 But they remained, and as misfortunes rarely come alone, their own subjects just at this juncture rose in arms against them, and in their extremity they sought for peace at Mahomet's hands, offering to become his tributaries ; and the conqueror sent over one of his generals and an army and quieted the insurrection. As vassals to the Turk the two princes lived for a few years (but not in the greatest harmony with ' each other), and then hearing that " the Christian princes of the west were making great preparation against the Turke," refused further tribute to Mahomet, who thereupon re-entered Peloponnesus, with a "puissant army," and the Greek princes had to fly for their lives, the one to Mantinia, and the other to " the strong cittie of Epidaurus, now called Bagusa." Again they had to sue for peace, which Mahomet, after stripping them of almost all the little authority they had left, and imposing further tribute, granted. Not long after this Mahomet was himself disquieted by rumours of the Christian princes of the west being about to intervene and drive him out of Greece, and thinking probably there would be no settled peace for him in the Peloponnesus, while the Greek princes remained there with any semblance of power, and the brothers Paleologi being at variance between themselves, and the promised tribute also not forthcoming, availed himself of the opportunity to finally subdue it. He therefore marched into those parts with a large force, reducing the cities, laying waste the country, and cruelly putting to death thousands of its inhabitants. Demetrius fled to Sparta, but when Mahomet arrived there, he came out and " humbly submitted himself with all he had in his power," which so " pleased the Turkish tyrant, that hee courteously received him, and comforted him ; neverthelesse, hee committed him to safe custodie, and carried him about with him as his prisoner." Thence after much ravage and slaughter the Moslem victor, " by the counseU of Demetrius, ' sent one of his captaines, with certaine companies of Greeke souldiours, unto the strong cittie of Epidaurus, to command them in the name of the prince, to deliver unto him the citie, with the prince, his wife, and daughter, that lay there. But the Governour trusting unto the strength of the citie, refused to deliver the same ; yet suffred the princess with her daughter, to depart out of the citie, being willing to goe to her husband ; whom the captaine having received, returned and presented them to Mahomet ; by whose commandment they were sent into Beotia, there to attend his returne toward Constantinople, and an eunuch appointed to take charge of the young ladie who had so warmed Mahomet's affection, that he tooke her afterwards to his wife.' " Thus far for Demetrius. What was Thomas Paleologus, the ancestor of our Theodorus, about this while ? Something very different, and of much more honourable complexion. He was within and busy fortifying the city of Salmonica, to which came Zoganus-Bassa, one of Mahomet's commanders, " but the castle was by the space of a whole yeare after valiantly defended against the Turkes left to besiege it, by Thomas the prince ; and which for lacke of water was at length yielded unto him. Of whom (Prince Thomas) Mahomet afterwards gave this commendation, ' That in the great countrey of Peloponesus, hee had found many slaves, but never a man but him.' " 196 PALEOLOGUS. After its surrender, Prince Thomas, " seeing the miserable ruine of his countrey, and the state thereof utterly forlorne," took ship and sailed for Italy. He was well received by Pius II. at Borne, who during his life allowed him a considerable pension for the maintenance of his state. But what became of Demetrius? Mahomet— his campaign over — returned with great triumph toward Constantinople, " carrying with him Demetrius the prince, with his wife and daughter ; but after he was come to Hadrianople, and placed in his royal seat, he removed the eunuch from the fair young ladie, and took charge of her himselfe. As for Demetrius her father, hee gave unto him the citie of jEiram, with custome arising of the salt there made, as a pension to live upon." Thus far for these brethren. Lysons adds, "it is probable that Theodore, the descendant of Prince Thomas, who hes buried at Landulph, sought an asylum in England in consequence of the hostility shewn towards the Greeks by Pope Paul V. and his successor Gregory XV." PALEOLOGUS. Imperial eagle ! still with glance intent, Thy necks outstretched, and poising wings as yet, Claiming to rule o'er each vast continent, With feet upon their gateways firmly set ; An empire's diadem hangs o'er thy brows, Yet rests on neither;— as if glory's aim Waited on fortune to inspire her vows, And ratify ambition's lofty claim ; — But she smiled not, — death put the chaplet on Life's brave endeavour, and a hero's fate Awarded thee instead of victory won, The martyrs' halo, for the crown of state : When sank the Cross blood-stained in western sky, And in the east the Crescent flared on high. Theodoro Paleologus appears to have married before coming to England, Eudoxia Comnena, and by her had a daughter called Theodora, born at Scio 6 July, 1594, and who was married 10 Oct., 1614, to Prince Demetrius Bhodocanakis, at the Greek church of SS. Peter and Paul, Naples. But he must have settled in England before 1600, for in that year, on May 1st, he wedded secondly at Cottingham, in the county of York, Mary, the daughter of William Balls of Hadleigh in Suffolk, gent. He appears to have sought public employment, military or civil, for among the State Papers, Domestic, Charles I., there is a letter from him to the Duke of Buckingham, dated Plymouth, 9 March, 1627-8, in which he thanks the Duke for the courtesy shewn him at Plymouth, and prays to be taken into his service. He further states that he is a gentleman, born of a good house, and in possession of accomphshments worthy of the name he bears, but unfortunate in the reverse of fortune experienced by his ancestors and himself ; and that he has hved and shed his blood in war even from his youth, as the late Prince of Orange, and other noblemen, both English and French, have testified. PALEOLOGUS. 197 He concludes by proffering himself both faithful and competent to serve the king, and ready to shew gratitude to the duke.* This was only eight years before his death, and when he was probably verging on old age. Inheriting the military aptitude of their race, Theodoro, his eldest son, entered the service of the Parhament, as heutenant in the regiment commanded by Lord St. John, in the army of the Earl of Essex. He was buried 3 May, 1644, in Westminster Abbey, and according to the Register of that edifice, "near the Lady St. John's tomb." But of the Lady St. John's monument, Dean Stanley says, "once in St. Michael's, now in St. Nicholas's Chapel," — and further, — "in the Chapel of St. Andrew, close to the spot where now is the Nightingale monument, lies Theodore Paleologus." Ferdinando chose the side of the King, and fought under Major Lower (probably a member of the Lower family of Chfton) at Naseby, 18 June, 1645, when Lower was killed, and it is supposed John Paleologus fell by his side. Ferdinando afterward emigrated to Barbados, where his maternal grandfather had an estate, and there he became proprietor of a plantation in the parish of St. John, and was for twenty years, 1649-69, surveyor of highways. He made his will in 1670, gives " to my loving wife Bebecca Paleologus, the one half of my plantation, and to my son Theodorus the other moiety," to his sisters, " Mary Paleologus and Dorothy Arundel each tioenty shillings sterling." He also names legacies of horses to Edward and Henry Walrond, — a Devonshire name, a Humphrey Walrond (query, of the Farringdon descent), being President of the island in 1660. He died about 1680, and was buried in the church of St. John's. Theodorus his son was a mariner on board the ship Charles II., and died at sea in 1693. f "The Greeks," says Dean Stanley, "in their War of Independence, sent to enquire whether any of the family remained, and offered, if such were the case, to equip a ship and proclaim him for their lawful sovereign. It is said that a member of the family still remains." This would relate to the descendants of Ferdinando. How strange would have been the circumstance had such an undoubted descendant been discovered, and the imperial eagle again arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of time, and strove to consohdate the shifting fortunes of this heroic and strugghng people. Maria, the elder daughter mentioned on the monument, died unmarried in 1674. Dorothy her sister became the wife of Wilham Arundell of St. Melhon in 1657, and deceased in 1681. Theodoro Paleologus, as the inscription informs us, died at Clifton, an old manor house in Landulph. This was originally the seat of a younger branch of the Arundells of Trerice, and built by Thomas * Monumental Brasses of Cornwall, by E. H. W. Dunkin. t Archer's Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies. 198 PALEOLOGUS. Arundell (son of Sir Thomas Arundell by Anne Moyle) about the year 1500. From the Arundells it passed to the Killigrews, and successively to Sir Nicholas Lower and Sir Reginald Mohun, who married the daughters of -Sir Henry Killigrew. Lysons describes it in his time as still existing, — " with its halls, chapel, &c, but much dilapidated, and then occupied as a farm house." It has sinee been wholly pulled down and rebuilt as a modern farm residence. At the date of Paleologus' decease, Clifton was evidently in the occupation of Sir Nicholas Lower, and it is probable the imperial refugee, with such of his family as remained with him, found a home under the roof-tree of the knight. Great friendship apparently existed between the Lowers and the Paleologi, as in his wiU Sir Nicholas orders " Item, I doe give unto Mrs. Maria Paleologus tenne pounds to be paied unto her within one quarter of a yeare after my decease," — this was the eldest daughter; two of his sons fought under Major Lower, and the father was buried in the Clifton aisle, and close by him the testator was himself afterward laid. Sir Nicholas Lower was a descendant of an old Cornish family, being the third son of Thomas Lower of St. Winnow by his wife Jane Reskymer ; was knighted by Charles I., 1 June, 1619, and became Sheriff of Cornwall in 1632. He married. Ehzabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Killigrew, being her third husband, she having previously wedded Sir Jonathan Trelawney, of Pool in Menheniot in 1604, and Sir Thomas Reynell of East Ogwell, 1607. Sir Nicholas, and his wife Elizabeth Killigrew, are both interred under a large high-tomb at the east end of the Clifton aisle of Landulph church. On the cover-stone, which is of black marble, and very massive, are the following inscriptions : — HEERE LYES BVRIED THE BODYES OF SIR NICHOLAS LOWER OF CLIFTON IN LANDVLPH IN CORNEWALL KNIGHT WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE XVII DAYE OF MAY. 1655. And of Dame Elizabeth his wife who departed this Life the vi day of June 1638 aged 68 yeares and heere Expect a glorious Resurrection. Arms, — A chevron between three roses, on the chevron a mullet for difference (Lower), impaling, — a double-headed eagle displayed within a bordure bezantee (Killigrew). • Crest, — An unicorn's head couped, thereon a mullet. In the east window of the aisle, above the tomb, are the arms of Lower alone, in painted glass, — Sable, a chevron between three roses argent, with two crests, one Lower, and the second, a wolf passant azure, langued and armed gules (Reskymer?). LI L' T[ 1 l PALEOLOGUS. 199 On the wall over the south Lower seat, are these further inscrip tions on brasses, — HERE LYETH BVRIED YE BODY OF SIR NICHOLAS LOWER OF CLIFTON KNIGHT, (DESCENDED OF THE HOVSE OF ST. WINOWE) THE SONNE OF THOMAS LOWER AND JANE HIS WIFE, ONE OF THE CO-HEYRES OF RESKYMER; WHO HAD ISSVE SIX SONNES, VIZ: SIR WILLIAM LOWER KNIGHT DECEASED IN CARMARTHEN SHIRE, JOHN LOWER, THE SAID SR NICHOLAS LOWER, SIR FRANCIS LOWER KNIGHT, THOMAS LOWER DECEASED IN LONDON, AND ALEXANDER LOWER. HE MARRIED WITH ELIZABETH, ONE OF THE DAVGHTERS OF SR HENRY KILLEGRVE OF LONDON KNIGHT, DIED WITHOVT ISSVE, SVRRENDRINGE HIS SOVLE TO HIS REDEEMER AT CLIFTON, YE 17TH OF MAYE, ANNO DOMINI 1655. and to his much-married spouse, who pre-deceased him nearly twenty years, the following quaint tribute to her memory : — HEERE LYETH BVRIED THE BODY OF DAME ELIZABETH LOWER LATE WIFE VNTO SIR NICHOLAS LOWER OF CLIFTON, KT, DAVGHTER VNTO SR HENRY KILLIGREWE OF LONDON, KT, ANTIENTLY DESCENDED FROM YE HOVSE OF ARWENNICK IN CORNWALL, AND FROM YE YOVNGEST OF YE LEARNED DAVGHTERS OF SR ANTHONY COOKE, KT, A MAIDE OF HONOVR TO QVEENE ELIZABETH; WHO FOR TREW VERTVE, PIETY, AND LEARNING, CAME NOTHING SHORT (THAT I MAY MODESTLY SPEAKE) OF ANY OF HER ANCESTORS, AND FOR HER SINGVLAR COVRTESIE TO ALL, AND AMIABLE SVBIECTION TO HER HVSBAND (A VERTVE RARE AND HIGH) I THINKE CAN HARDLY BE MATCH'D, WHO DESERVES A FAR AMPLER CHARACTER THEN CAN BE CONTAINED IN SO NARROW A ROOME : SHE DYED AT CLIFTON IN CORNWALL, THE SIXT DAY OF JVNE IN THE YEARE OF OVR LORD, 1638, AND EXPECTS HEERE A GLORIOVS RESVRRECTION. The two representative " squires' pews " we glanced at on our way down the aisle, and in which presumably the old knight, his dame, and their dependants performed their devotions, when they were in the flesh, and resident at Clifton, accompanied it may be by his imperially descended friend, — are situate a little above their last resting places. Some of the middle panels exhibit the linen pattern, a late example of this last remnant of pointed design. Alternating with these are several filled with floriated ornament, having in their centres shields, continued also on the cornice above, displaying the descent and alhances of Lower. On the first seat, — 1. A chevron betiveen three roses (Lower). — 2. Per fess, three pears in base, in chief a demi-lion rampant (Perrott). — 3. Three castles (Kestell). — 4. An annulet surmounted by a mullet. — 5. Three chevrons ermine (Esse ?). — 6. A chevron engrailed, between three talbots passant (Carveth or Tregassawe). — 7. A chevron between three trefoils, stems crazed. — 8. Tivo bars, in chief three roundels. — 9. A fess fretty. — 10. A cross moline (Upton?). — 11. A chevron between three birds. — 12. A chevron between three boars' heads — 13. A chevron between three moors' heads affrontee, couped at the shoulders (Tregenna?). — 14, as 1. 200 PALEOLOGUS. On the second seat, — 1. A double-headed eagle displayed, within a bordure bezantee (Killigrew) . — 2. Three bars, in chief a wolf passant (Beskymer). — 3. Three bends (Bodrugan). — 4. Three bends within a bordure bezantee (Valletort). — 5. A bend, a label of three (Carminow). — 6. A chevron, a label of three (Prideaux). — 7. A crescent surmounted by a mullet (Denzell). — 8. A boar passant, between three mullets (Trevarthian ?). — 9. A cross between four mullets (Flamank?). — 10. A fess indented, between three mullets. — 11. A stag's head (Trethurffe?). — 12. A calf passant (Cavoell). — 13. Lower. The crest, an unicorn's head couped at the shoulders, in full rehef at the corners, and the initials N.L. and E.L., together with the date 1631, is carved on the panels. Lower impahng Killigrew appears also on the brasses. The character of the carving is superior for the era, and its subjects heraldically interesting. A few words further here concerning two immediate descendants of this, — at the time, — numerous Cornish race, who acquired some renown, the one in amusing, and the other in preserving this transitory life of ours. John Lower of Tremeer, brother to Sir Nicholas, had a son Sir William, a cavaher strongly attached to the royal cause. He was a dramatist, and retired to Holland during the Commonwealth that he might enjoy peaceful companionship with the muses. He was a great admirer of the French poets, particularly CorneiUe, and on their works built the plans of four out of the eight plays which he wrote. He also issued translations from the French, and edited a Journal of the movements of Charles II. while in exile. He subsequently possessed Chfton as heir-general of the family, on the decease without issue of Thomas Lower (the son of Sir Wilham Lower, Sir Nicholas' brother), to whom Sir Nicholas left it. He died in 1662. Bichard Lower, the other descendant, was a celebrated London physician, and the author among other works of a " Treatise on the Heart," which "attracted much notice, in consequence of the chapter on the transfusion of blood which the author had practised." He died in 1690, and was buried at St. Tudy. Here we conclude such notices of the lives, deaths, and, memorials of the Paleologi, and their friend the old knight at Chfton and his family as have been found available. Have you anything further to say of them, you ask, ere we leave the little sanctuary ? What can there be said further — would be the obvious reply — concerning those whose lives, deaths, burial-places and memorials, have all been duly noticed and recorded ? Well, for once, not even the fastness of the grave will be proof against some additional remembrances of the Paleologi. Man's curiosity is unbounded and insatiable. No place or association is altogether safe from the intrusion of his prying eyes and ransacking fingers, if he thinks there is anything likely to be found therein calculated to gratify its longings, and he gets the chance, or has permission to make the search. In this particular he follows in the trail of death as being no respecter of persons, but with this ignoble difference to the great conqueror, that he waits until the hfe is gone before he seeks to assuage his morbid longings by an invasion PALEOLOGUS. 201 of the bodies of his forefathers. It would be supposed the sanctity of death and the rest of the grave would naturally be privileged, but no, they have rather stimulated his curiosity, and so have found little or no consideration in his sight. The cunningly-embalmed Egyptian potentate in his burial fortress of the great pyramid, — his humble spice-wound subject in his rock-hewn sepulchre, — the Roman emperor in his grand mausoleum, — Greek hero in costly sarcophagus, — British chieftain in flint-piled barrow, — mediseval saint in shrine, and king, ecclesiastic or noble in their ponderous stone coffins, — all have in turn been subjected to this unfeeling scrutiny, and the poor. dust and mouldering bones rummaged over by irreverent hands,' very few indeed escaping violation, sometimes for hope of plunder, but usually for idle curiosity, and the indulgence of relic-hunting propensities. And yet, perhaps, there is scarcely anything the living heart would more shrink from contemplating, than the possibility of such indignity being offered to the frail decaying tenement it had beat in, after death ; . a sentiment shared in common by the greatest intellects and humblest minds, — but that does not avert the outrage. * The ashes of the Paleologi have not escaped this common danger of being examined, the father's here on this bank of the Tamar, and by curious coincidence, the son's in the distant island of Barbados, but no indignity was offered the remains. At Landulph, toward the close of the last century, "when the vault was accidentally opened, the coffin of Paleologus was seen, a single oak coffin, and curiosity prompting to hft the lid, the body of Paleologus was discovered, and. in so perfect a state, as to ascertain him to have been in stature much above the common height, his countenance of an oval form, much lengthened, and strongly marked by an aquihne nose, and a very white beard reaching low on the breast." A physiognomy and stature eminently representative of his imperial descent, and how remarkably preserved after the lapse of nearly two centuries. In 1831 a hurricane destroyed the church of St. John in Barbados. In a vault under the organ-loft was discovered " the leaden coffin of Ferdinando Paleologus, in the position adopted by the Greek church, which is the reverse of others. It was opened on the 3rd of May, 1844, and in it was found a skeleton of remarkable size, imbedded in quicklime, thus shewing, that although Ferdinando may have accom modated himself to the circumstances of his position, he died in the * " About a year ago, there was a wonderful discovery of an antient tomb at Sidon, containing over a dozen sarcophagi. Many of them are described as being in the finest style of art, and formed after the Greek manner. Among them was a royal one, and on it was an inscription of which the following is the translation : — 'I, Talnite, Priest of Astarte, and King of Sidon, lying in this tomb, say . 'Come not to open my tomb ; there is neither gold, nor silver, nor treasure. He who will open this tomb shall have no prosperity tinder the sun, and shall not find rest in the grave.' This expresses the old yearning to be at rest; but the belief in wealth deposited in royal tombs has always frustrated the realization of these desires. Now-a-days the archaeologist is the greatest desecrator.'' (Daily News, 4 March, 1888.) The anathema on Shakspeare's gravestone is another well-known example of this dread. 202 PALEOLOGUS. faith of his own church." * He thus appears to have been of commanding appearance as his father. Before we leave the little edifice, a look into the tower, and a glance under the communion table. Two incidents attendant on the perils of access to Landulph's maritime position meet the eye. In the chancel a flat stone commemorates the fate of a former rector, " Ediuard Ameredith, who married Alice, the fourth daughter of William Kekewitch of Catchfrench in Gornewall, Esquire ; 8th of May, 1661, — being drowned in passing the Byuer." Within the tower a tablet erected a hundred years later is thus inscribed, — Near this place Lies the Body of Fitz-Anthony Pennington, Bell-Founder, of the Parish of Lezant in Cornwall, who departed this Life, April 30. 1768. JEtatis sua 38. Tho' Boisterous Winds & Billows sore, Hath Tos'd me To and Fro, By God's Decree in spite of both, I rest now, here below. At the top of the monument is incised a winged angel with a trumpet, supporting a man bearing a church bell ; at the bottom a laver-pot flaming ; both being emblems of his vocation. Fitz- Anthony Pennington, member of a noted family of bell-founders, was also unfortunately drowned. This occurred at Anthony passage, — a somewhat dangerous creek further down the river, — while conveying across a church bell intended to be set up at Landulph. The curious doggerel in praise and regulation of ringing, that is inscribed on a large wooden tablet opposite the monument, is said locally to be an effusion from his pen, but it has a much earlier date. The Penningtons •were successively of Exeter, Lezant, and Stoke-Climsland, and itinerated as occasion required. They cast nearly five hundred bells for the churches in Devon and Cornwall, between the end of the seventeenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth centuries. Imperialist or Bepublican ? Such are the echoes that quest the mental ear from the opposite sides of the Tamar, as our httle craft gets well out into mid-stream, and we make for the creek that runs inland on the shore immediately facing Landulph. Here dwelled an antient family, in Domesday survey called Alured Brito, afterward named from the place of their residence De Budockshed (since provincialized to Butshead or Budshead), and who continued there from the time of King John downward for fourteen generations, until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when the inheritance passed by a distaff to the possession of another old race (also having antecedents near), named Gorges. The venerable home of the Budocksheds has been destroyed, but two fine old barns — one of grand * Archer. PALEOLOGUS. 203 proportions — and a picturesque granite gateway, still remain to attest its aforetime importance. Winifred, one of the daughters and coheirs of Roger Budockshed, Esq. (who married Frances daughter of Sir Phihp Champernowne of Modbury), the last possessor of that name of the mansion and manor ; brought it to her husband Sir William Gorges, knt., a Vice-Admiral, Deputy of Ireland, and a Gentleman Pensioner of Queen Elizabeth. He was a scion of the wide-spreading Somersetshire family of that name, and had three sons, — Tristram, Arthur, and Edward. Dying in 1583, he left it to his son Tristram, who married Elizabeth daughter of Martin Cole of Cole- Anger. He had one son William, and four daughters, two of whom married Courtenays of the Landrake descent, and another Trelawney. Wilham died without issue, and disinheriting his sisters, " conveyed Budoke- side," says Pole, " unto Sr Arthur his unkle, and hee hath lately sold it." Sir Arthur Gorges was of Chelsea, he disposed of the old possession to the Trevills, a family of prosperous Plymouth merchants. In the Budockshed aisle of the church is a handsome monument to them, which bears the following inscription : — Here Lyeth Bvried the Body of Richard Trevill, Esqr., who died Avgvst the XXVI., 1648. Aged 73. Here Lyeth Bvried the Bodyes of Richard Trevill, Esqr., Nephew and Heire of the Aforesaid Richard, who died April the 4th, 1662. Aged 51. And also of Mary his Wife, who died the XXV. day of Febrvary, 1663. Aged 57. Here Lyeth Bvried the Body of Richard Trevill, Esq., Sonn of the said Richard and Mary, who died Janvary the XIX. 1665. Aged 19. This Monvment was Erected by William Trevill, of Bvtshead, Esq., in the year of ovr Lord 1667, to Perpetuate ye memorie of his Worshipfull Predecessors and Relations here buried. Arms, — Or, a cross sable, debruised by a bendlet azure (Trevtll), impahng, — Argent, a chevron gules, between three birds (coots or moorcocks), sable. On ledger-lines upon flat stones below, the first and second of the foregoing inscriptions are repeated, with the arms of Trevill sculptured. In their centres are these further notices : — Also Here Lyeth The Body of William Trevill of Butshead, Esq., Father of Lethbridge Trevill, who departed this Life the 18th Day of May, 1680. Also Here Lyeth the Body of Lethbridge Trevill, Son of William Trevill of Butshead, Esq., who departed this Life 27th of February, 1699. The name of Trevill is still perpetuated in a street in Plymouth. 204 PALEOLOGUS. From the Trevills, by a distaff, it became the property of Brigadier- General Trelawney, whence it descended to his son Sir Harry Trelawney, Bart., aide-de-camp to the celebrated Duke of Marlborough. This gentleman ' ' for many years led a retired life at Budshead, where he amused himself with planting and gardening, having been the first person who brought ornamental gardening to any perfection in the west of England. His gardens, which abounded with American and other exotic shrubs and plants, were much resorted to by the curious." (Lysons.) Some remains of his taste still exist, and an old yew garden, once having a fishpond in its centre, and one or two noble trees of unmistakably foreign origin, still hale and vigorous. This genealogical recital brings us to "the middle of our song." Wilham Gorges, the last local possessor of Budockshed, was cousin to the celebrated Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the Founder of the State of Maine, U.S.A., and for some years Governor of Plymouth. He was also identified with St. Budeaux, both by property and marriage; first, by being owner of the manor of Kinterbury in that parish, and secondly, one of his four wives having been Elizabeth, sister of Wilham Gorges of Budockshed, and widow of Edward Courtenay. Sir Ferdinando, whose history and proceedings are largely interwoven with the stirring movements of his time, both of warlike character at home, and colonization and enterprise abroad, died 14 May, 1647, and was buried at Long- Ashton, near Bristol. In the Budockshed aisle of the church of St. Budeaux, is a beautiful monument to the memory of that famUy and their imme diate successors, the Gorges. It consists of a high-tomb, with pUlars at the angles, the cover-stone of. slate finely carved, and a reredos of exquisite Elizabethan design. On it are these arms, — 1. Sable, three fusils in fess, between three stags' faces argent. Crest, — A moor's head affrontee proper (Budockshed). — 2. Quarterly, — 1 and 4. Lozengy or and azure, a chevron gules, a crescent for difference (Gorges). — 2 and 3. Argent, a bull passant sable, within a bordure of the second bezantee (Cole). — 3. Gorges, with crest, — a greyhound' s head couped at the shoulders, and collared, with crescent for difference. — 4. Gorges and Budockshed quarterly. — 5. Budockshed, with crest. The original inscription, which was probably gilded on it, had disappeared, but the sculptured date, 1600, remains. The monument had become greatly dilapidated, but was restored in 1881, and the following inscription then cut on it, — Roger Budockshed, of Budockshed, Esquire, obiit 1576, Sir William Gorges, Knight, obiit 1583. Dame Winifred Gorges, ob : 1599. Tristram Gorges, of Budockshed, Esquire, ob : 1607. Mrs. Elizabeth Gorges, ob : 1607. Restored 1881 ; chiefly at the expense of the Historical Society and Citizens of the State of Maine, U.S.A. ; in memory of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the first Proprietor and Governor of that Province, A.D. 1635 ; aided by some connections of the Gorges family in England.' PALEOLOGUS. 205 Singularly coincident— as with the Paleologi at Landulph, so with the second of the Gorges of Budockshed— the recital of his life and burial does not end all we have to say of him. In speaking of "St Buddocks," as Bisdon calls it, he narrates the following :— "The church of this parish once stood in a remote and unhealthy place by the river side, but Eobert Budshed rebuilt it in a place more convenient^ at his own cost; whereof (see the fate!) his own daughter first possessed the place for her burial ; and in this church there is a tomb erected to the memory of Tristram Gorges and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Cole, which about thirty years after his funeral was taken up by occasion of burying another of that tribe in his sepulture; in whose coffin digged up, the carcass was found with the flesh fallen on his ridge- bone like a jelly there lying all his bones in order, as they that were eye- witnesses have delivered." * Enow of death and his doings. Now for the lesson of reflection that the fives and aims of the principal characters in this httle story of to-day's wandering suggest to us. We take a farewell view from the delightful acclivity on which the church of St. Budeaux is situate, with panorama of the wide- spreading Tamar and its ramifications at our feet, and the great Cornish hills retreating inimitably in the distance beyond ;— then slowly retrace our steps down to the river's side at Budockshed, and are soon again afloat, half- drifting, half- sailing, making for our haven at Saltash passage. Another and strange dream of the vicissitudes of human life, finds its fulfilment in the one case over the grave of the imperial exile at rest among the peasantry of the hamlet in the httle sanctuary yonder. Driven from his native clime,— bereft of all his kingly traditions,— the splendid empire he may have been born to rule the possession of the barbarian invader, — himself dependant on the bounty of a stranger,— and his royal name extinct, — such was the fate of Paleologus ; conditions which instruct us, that the same inexorable law of mutability affects equally a dynasty, whether its residence be in a palace or a cottage. There is no station privileged against the misfortunes that afflict our common mortal conditions. But what of the emigrant commemorated at St. Budeaux, Sir Ferdinando ? He voluntarily left his English home to help found the magnificent commonwealth, that in a single century has absorbed a whole continent, in extent infinitely larger than the realms the Constantines in their fullest glory presided over, and whose existence was altogether unknown when their last representative lost his crown and his hfe. How different the errands of these men in their migra tions from their native land. But no emperor rules the destinies of the nation he helped to found ; the charm of simple and equal citizenship is the secret of its strength ; and while the memorial of Paleologus is viewed with curious sympathy by the wayfarer, as being only the interesting reminder of an extinct rule, — the tomb of Gorges has * Robert Budockshed thus spoken of as builder of the present church of St. Budeaux, married Anne daughter of Sir Thomas Pomeroy, knt., and lived three generations before Boger of the monument. Lysons says it was rebuilt in 1563, the era of Soger Budockshed. Tradition records that the former church was at Budockshed. 206 PALEOLOGUS. been renovated by the descendants of those pioneers he helped to conduct across the broad Atlantic, and left with them the deathless heritage of liberty and progress. Again we are enveloped in the gloom of the -great bridge, another pleasant day's voyaging is ended, and as our foot touches the shore, a suggestive farewell thought follows us across the river, bearing on its wing the motto inscribed on the sun-dial over the porch of the church of St. Budeaux : — "EX HOC MOMENTO PENDET jETERNITAS." Upon this moment — here we part, Until the coming dawn arise And we are spared, — nay, do not start, The present moment as it flies Is all the dower Life gives the heart, All that the miser Time supplies. Upon this moment — yon bridge vast, That spans the deep and darkling tide, To that frail link which joins at last Life to eternity so wide, Is as the gossamer, that's cast Across the green dell's dewy side. Upon this moment — warm hands greet, Though glance be hid by shadows dim, Hark to those fisher children ! sweet Singing their votive evening hymn, — Their dreams will be again to meet, All undisturbed by truth so grim. No sword of Damocles infest Life's subtle thread of moments spun, This day is ours — with loving zest Cease not 'till all its work be done, Then fold thy hands, and take thy rest, And calmly wait to-morrow's sun. RESURGAM s£*—i~*^t^r x»-*--«-'2^ tipesxf INDEX. A. Abbotsbury Abbey Church, 145. Alcester Church, Greville monument in, 29. Aller Church, Bottreaux monument in, 148. Ameredith, Edward, his epitaph, 202. Anstis, Sir John, 5h. Arms on Arundell monument in St. Columb Church, 68 ; of Astley, 73 ; Beauchamp, 31 ; Beaumont, 148 ; Bee or Beke, 23, 29, 30 ; Bigbury, 30 ; Bodrugan, 200 ; Bonville, 79 ; Bottreaux, 148 ; Broughton, 133 ; Budockshed, 204 ; Carminow, 168, 200; Carveth, 199; Cavell, 200; Champernowne, 16, 30 ; Cheney, 7, 8, 23, 29, 30, 123?i, 128, 130, 133n ; Cifrewast, 30, 141; Cole, 204; D'Aumarle, 30, 140; De Arches, 168; Denys, 83; Denzell, 200; Dinham, 168 ; Drake, 82 : Echyng ham, 81; Erleigh, 8; Esse, 199; Ferrers, 30 ; Fitz-James, 166 ; Fitz- Roger, 43 ; Flamank, 200 ; Forde, 41 ; Gorges, 204 ; Grenville, Greyn ville, 83, 140; Greville, 30; Grey, Marquis of Dorset, 73 ; Harington, 74,79; Hastings, 59, 73; Kestell,199; Killigrew, 198, 200; Latimer, 23, 29, 30 ; Lower, 198, 199 ; Maltravers, 30, 140 ; Newburgh, 166 ; Paleologus, 193 ; Paveley, 4, 8, 29, 30 ; Perrott, 199 ; Peyvre, 131, 133, 133n ; Plan tagenet, 74; Prideaux, 83, 200; Quincy, 73 ; Reskymer, 198, 200 ; Rogers, 81 ; Shaftesbury Abbey, 166; Shotisbrooke, 123?!; Shurland, 128, 130 ; Stafford, 23, 30, 31, 74, 143, 146 ; Tregassawe, 199 ; Tregenna, 199; Trethurffe, 200; Trevarthian, 200 ; Trevill, 203 ; Ufford, 23, 29, 30 ; Upton, 199 ; Valence, 73 ; Valletort, 200 ; Widville, 74 ; Willoughby, 23, 30, 33 ; Earl of Wilts, 74. Arundell family, 158. Arundell, Elizabeth, 168; Humphrey, 170, executed, 171; Sir John, 67, 148, 159, 170, his epitaph, 69, his children, 160, his death, 165 ; Sir Matthew, 179 ; Sir Benfrey, 5n ; Sir Thomas, 198 ; Sir Thomas, Lord, 163, 179, his house at Shaftes bury, 168, manors granted him by Lord Daubeney, 169, suspected of rebellion, 170, committed to the Tower, 171, released, 172, again imprisoned, 173, condemned to death, 175, executed, 177, his children, 178, his estates attainted and restored to his widow, 178, created Baron A. of Wardour, 180, his epitaph, 180, his descendants, 180; William, 197. Arundell brass in St. Columb Church, 178. Arundell inscription at Tisbury, 180. Arundell tombs in Tisbury Church, 179. Astley Church, presumed Bonville effigy in, 80. Astley, Alice, 16. Astley arms, 73. Audley, Hugh' de, 139u ; Margaret, 139 ; Thomas, Lord, 75. Axminster Church, 79. B. Balls, Mary, 192, 196. Barry, Isabel, 152. Barwick Church, 80. Beauchamp Chapel, Salisbury, 127. Beauchamp family, 25. Beauchamp, Bishop, 127 ; Elizabeth, 24 ; John, 41 ; Bichard, his arms, 31. Beaufort, Margaret, 89. Beaumont, Elizabeth, 147 ; Katharine, 42 ; Matilda, 47. Beaumont arms, 148. Bedyke, Isabel, 10. Beer-Ferrers, 17 ; church, 19, arms in, 32. 208 INDEX. Beke, Bee, Alice, 10 ; Anthony, 10. Beke arms, 23, 29, 30. Bigbury, Elizabeth, 16. Bigbury arms, 30. Blue Boar Inn, Salisbury, 109. Blount, Charles, 25, 35; Elizabeth, 66 ; William, 67. Bodrugan, Sir Henry, 18 ; Johanna, 41. Bodrugan arms, 200. Bodrugan Castle, 18. Bohun, Mary de, 88. Bonville, Anne, 62 ; Cicely, 25, 26, 51, 63, 159, her second marriage, 74, her will, 74, her numerous memorials, 78 ; John, 62 ; Margaret, 81 ; Nicholas, 40 ; Sir Nicholas, . 83 ; Thomas, 5, 62 ; Sir William, Lord, his will, 43, birth and baptism, 44, dispute with Lady Brooke, 46, his family, 47, created a Baron, 47, duel with Earl of Devon, 49, custodian of Henry VI., 60, be headed, 62, place of burial unknown, 62 ; William, 50, slain, with his son, at Wakefield, 61. Bonville family, 40 ; extinction of, 63 ; illegitimate branch of, 63n. Bonville arms, 79. Bonville-Nonant monument in Broad- Clyst Church, 41. Bosworth, Battle of, 123. Bottreaux, Anne, 147 ; Margaret, 148 ; Reginald, 147, his epitaph in Aller Church, 148 ; Thomas, 25 ; William, 147. Bottreaux arms, 148. Bottreaux tomb in North-Cadbury Church, 147. Bourchier, Sir Thomas, his epitaph, 152. Brandon, Frances, 76. Brienne, Elizabeth, 147. Britford Church, Buckingham's monu ment in, 109, 117. Broad-Clyst Church, monument in, 41. Broke Chantry in Westbury Church, 6. Broke and Suthwyke granted to Sir E. Badcliffe, 11. Brooke Hall, 3, as described by Leland, 3, and by Aubrey, 4. Broughton, Anne, 128, 132 ; Sir John, 131. Broughton arms, 133. Bruse, Giles, his epitaph, 134. Bryanstone Church, Rogers epitaph in, 81. Buckingham, Duke of — see Stafford. Budockshed, Roger, 204 ; Winifred, 203. Budockshed family, 202. Budockshed aisle in St. Budeaux Church, 204, monument in, 204. Budockshed arms, 204. Butler, James, 147. Callington, 21. Callington cross, 24. Camoys, Matilda, 48. Cardinham, Isolda, 16. Carew, Sir Thomas, 42. Carminow, Joan, 19 ; Matilda, 16, 20 ; Sir Balph, his brass in Menheniot Church, 41 ; Sir Roger, 19. Carminow arms, 168, 200. Carrant, William, 10. Carveth arms, 199. Catesby, Bichard, 56. Cavell arms, 200. Champernowne, Champernon, Alex ander, 16 ; Sir Arthur, 82 ; Blanche, 9, 16 ; Frances, 203 ; Johanna, 41 ; John, 21 ; Sir Richard, 44 ; Roger, 21. Champernowne family, 16. Champernowne arms, 16, 30. Charleton, Walter, 42. Cheney, Agnes, her epitaph, 122?i ; Anne, 9, 10, her epitaph, 133 ; Cicely, 81 ; Sir Edmund, 148 ; Sir Henry, Lord, 129, 133m ; Jane, her epitaph, 134 ; Sir John, Lord, 11, 121, 169, joins Buckingham's con spiracy, 123, his arms, 123», over thrown at Bosworth, 124, created a Knight Banneret, K.G., and Baron, 125, his death, 127, succeeded by Sir Thomas, 127, his effigy, 127 ; Sir Balph, 4, his tomb in Edington Church, 8; Sir Thomas, 127, 128, his children, 128, his epitaph, 132 ; Sir William, 42. Cheney family, 4, 5, 121, 148. Cheney arms, 7, 8, 23, 29, 30, 123m, 128, 130, 133m. Cheney monument in Toddington Church, 132. Chickett-Hall in Callington, 22. Chidiock, Katharine, 148. Cifrewast arms, 30, 141. Clement, Richard, 70. Clifton in Landulph, 197. Cobham, Sir John, 42. Cocks, Walter, 79. Cole, Ehzabeth, 203 ; Wilham, 203. Cole arms, 204. Coleshill, Joanna, 5 ; Sir John, 5, 5k, his epitaph, 6m. Collingoourn, Sir William, 2. Constantinople, fall of, 194. INDEX. 209 Constantinus VIII. slain, 193. Conway, Sir John, 28. Copestan, , 16. Coplestone, Philip, 44, 63. Courtenay, Edward, Sir Edward, 190, 204 ; Elizabeth, 48, 50, 81 ; Henry, 150; Hugh, Sir Hugh, 47, 190; John, 150 ; Thomas, 60, his sons, 149 ; Sir William, 48. Courtenays, the, 11. Courtenay estates forfeited and re stored, 152. Cralle, Elizabeth, 121. Crips, Nicholas, 128. Crukerne, Amy, 82. Culpeper, Joyce, 162 ; Sir Thomas, 162. D. D'Aumarle, Elizabeth, 140 ; Margaret, 41. D'Aumarle arms, 30, 140. Daldich, Roger de, 40. Daltery, Dautry, , 17; Sir Francis, 26. Daubeney, Giles, Sir Giles, Lord, 11, 12, 15, 67, 123, 159, governor of Calais, 13 ; Henry, 168 ; Katharine, 16, 44. Dauney, Emmeline, 190. De Arches arms, 168. De la Mare, Peter, 140. Denis, Dennis, Margaret le, 16 ; Philippa, 82. Denys arms, 83. Densloe, Elizabeth, 82. Denton, Anne, 27. Denzell arms, 200. Devereux, Walter, 67. Dinham, Sir John, 140, his probable effigy, 140?i ; John, Lord, 152, 159 ; Katharine, 67. Dinham arms, 168. Dorrington manor, 165. Dorset, Marquis of — see Grey. Dorset aisle in Ottery Church, 78. Drake, John, 81 ; Richard, portrait of, 83u ; Robert, 81, his descendants, 82, his monument at Southleigh, 82. Drake arms, 82. E. East-Coker Window, Arundell arms in, 181. Echyngham, Anne de, 81. Echyngham arms, 81. Edgcumbe, Bichard, 17, 18. Edington Church, 8. Edington, William de, 9. Edward V., conspiracy against, 91. Elliot, John, 44. Erleigh arms, 8. Esse arms, 199- Faringdon, John, 41. Ferrers, Elizabeth, 43 ; Joan, 16, 22 Sir John, 17 ; Margery de, 19 Matilda de, 19; Reginald de, 19. Sir William de, 17, 19, his window and tomb, 20. Ferrers family, 16. Ferrers arms, 30. Filliol, Sir William, 5. Fitzalan, Henry, 75 ; John, 145 Catherine, 76 ; William, 24. Fitzgerald, Gerald, 69. Fitzjames family, 166 ; arms, 166. Fitz-Boger, Elizabeth, 43, 44. Fitz-Roger arms, 43. Flamank arms, 200. Fleming, Christopher, 16. Forde, Hawise de la, 41. Forde arms, 41. Forteseue, Margaret, 129. Fowell, Joan, 82. Frome, Joan, 5. Frost, William, 18. Frowyke, Frideswide, 128. Futford, Sir Humphrey, 44. G. Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, his con spiracy, 90 ; proclaimed king, 98 ; Buckingham's conspiracy against, 99. Gorges, Arthur, 203 ; Edward, 203 ; Elizabeth, 204 ; Sir Ferdinando, 204 ; Leva, 43 ; Tristram, 203, 204 ; William, Sir William, 203, 204 ; Winifred, 204. Gorges arms, 204. Govys, John, 42. Graville, , 17. Grenville, Greynville, Alice, 140 ; Amy, 81 ; Katharine, 68, 159 ; William, 47, 139. Grenville arms, 83, 140. Greville, Blanche, 28 ; Catherine, 28 Edward, 27, 28, his arms, 30 Eleanor, 28 ; Lady Ehzabeth, 169 Fulk, Sir Fulk, 27, 28, 31, his monument in Alcester Church, 29, his arms, 30, created Baron Brooke and Earl of Warwick, 31, murdered, 31 ; Margaret, 31 ; Mary, 28 ; Robert, 28. Greville arms, 30. Grey, Anne, 85, 178; Dorothy, 25; Sir Edward, 80 ; Elizabeth, 52, 159 ; 210 INDEX. Muriel, 74 ; Thomas andhis children, 66 ; Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, 11, 123, his death, 73, his will, 73, his arms, 73 ; his descendants, 75 ; Thomas, second Marquis, his will, 75. Gyvernay, Henry de, 79. H. Haccombe Church, 19. Haccombe, Sir Stephen de, 19. Hampton, Joan, 40. Harington, Elizabeth, 50. Harington arms, 74, 79. Harris, William, 28. Hastings, Anne, 52, 53 ; George, 111 ; Katharine, Lady, her will, 58 ; Sir William de, 51 ; William, Lord, 123, amours with Jane Shore, 54, loyal to Edward IV., 54, his children, 54, 58, beheaded, 57, his will, 58. Hastings arms, 59, 73. Haughton, Sir William, 5k. Herbert, Henry, Lord, 76 ; Sir Walter, 111. Hext, Thomas, 44. Hill, Elizabeth, 5. Hiwis, Emma, 5k. Holland, Anne, 52, 66, 89. Hooke Church, 33. Hooke House, 141. Hooper, William, 81. Houndalre, Leonard, 42. Howard, Lord Edward,162 ; Katharine, 164, 168 ; Margaret, 161. Hungerford, Mary, 53 ; Robert, Lord, 148 ; Walter, 11. K. Kekewich, Alice, 202. Kemp, Thomas, 128. Kestell arms, 199. Keys, Martin, 76. Killigrew, Elizabeth, 198 ; Sir Henry, 198. Killigrew arms, 198, 200. Kings-Carswell Church, effigies in, 140h. Kirkham, Margaret, 5. Knightstone in Ottery, 79. L. Lamborn, William, 5. Landulph Church, 189, heraldry in, 190, inscriptions in, 202. Latimer, Elizabeth, 10 ; John, Lord, 26k ; Bichard, Lord, 26m ; William, Lord, 26k. Latimer arms, 23, 29, 30. Lewkenor, Sir Roger, 148. Limington Church, 79. Loddiswell Rectory, 168. Lovel, Lord, his mysterious death, 126. Lovell, Maud, 147. Lower, John, 200 ; Major, 197; Sir Nicholas, 192, his descent, 198, his will, 198, his epitaph, 198, 199 ; Richard, 200; Thomas, 198, 200; Sir William, 200. Lower arms, 198,. 199. M. Maltravers, Elizabeth, 5, 140. Maltravers arms, 30, 140. Menheniot Church, Carminow brass in, 41. Meriet, Agnes de, 41. Minster Church, Sheppey, 132. Mohun, Sir Reginald, 198. Morley, Lord, 13. Morton, Cardinal, 99, his birthplace, 115, his place of burial, 116 ; his tomb, 116, 123. Moyle, Anne, 198. N. Nanfan, Sir John, 5m. Neville, Anne, 31, 89; Elizabeth, 10 George, Sir George, 26k, 51, 60, 128 Katharine, 50, 60 ; Margaret, 26 Sir Thomas, 60. Newburgh arms, 166. Nonant, Sir Roger de, 41. North-Bradley Church, Stafford Chapel in, 142. North-Cadbury Church, Bottreaux tomb in, 147. O. Okebeare, Richard, 41. Ottery Church, Dorset aisle in, 78. P. Paleologus, Dorothy, 197 ; Ferdinando, his will, 197, his children, 197, his coffin opened, 201 ; Maria, 197 ; Theodore, his epitaph, 192, his family, 193, seeks service in England, 196, his wives, 196, his sons, Theo doro, Ferdinand, and John, 197, his coffin opened, 201 ; Thomas and Demetrius, their subjection to the Turks, 195. Paleologus arms, 193. Paulet, John, 25. Paveley, Alice, 7 ; Joan, 5, 7, 9. Paveley family, 4, 9. INDEX. 211 Paveley arms, 4, 8, 29, 30. Payne, Stephen, his brass in Shaftes bury Church, 166. Pennington, Fitz-Anthony, his epi taph, 202. Perrott, Sir John, 128. Perrott arms, 199. Petre, Sir William, 81. Peyvre, Mary, 128, 131. Peyvre family, 130. ' Peyvre arms, 131, 133, 133k. Peyvre monument in Toddington Church, 131. Pinhoe, Stretch's Chapel at, 5. Plantagenet, Anne, 88. Plantagenet arms, 74. Plymouth, 183. Pole, John, 84. Pomeroy, Anne, 205?t. Powderham Church, arms of Courte nay and Bonville in,' 65. Poynings, Sir Hugh, 16. Prideaux, Elizabeth, 81. Prideaux arms, 83, 200. Pyne, Elizabeth de, 40. Q- Quincy arms, 73. R, Badcliffe, Sir Richard, 11. Badford murdered at Poughill, 149. Ratcliffe, Robert, 111. Read, Charles, 28. Reskymer, Jane, 198. Beskymer arms, 198, 200. Beynell, Sir Thomas, 198. Richard III., his death at Bosworth, 124. Rivers, Earl, made prisoner at North ampton, 91 ; his execution, 94. Eoche, Elizabeth, 127. Rodney, Alice, 41. Rogers, John and Elizabeth, their epitaph, 81. Rogers arms, 81. Boos, Margaret, 148. S. Sachville, John, 41. St. Budeaux Church, 204, rebuilt, 205. St. Columb-Major Church, Arundell brass in, 67, 159, 178. St. John, Eleanor, 75 ; Johanna, 43. St. Loe, Sir John, 4. Salisbury, 87. Saltash, 187. Saracen's Head Inn, Salisbury, 109. Seaton Church, 79. Seymour, Semar, Edward, 34 ; Lord Edward, 76 ; Walter, 34. Shaftesbury Abbey, 165, arms of, 166 ; Church, 166. Shareshull, William, 79. Sherman, William, 79. Shore, Jane, 54. Shottisbroke, Eleanor de, 122. Shottisbroke arms, 123k. Shurland, Margaret de, 121. Shurland arms, 128, 130. Shute, 40, 84. Shute House, Old, 65. Shute Park, 64. Skipwith, Alice, 10. Slapton Priory, 168. Southleigh Church, Willoughby tomb in, 35, 85 ; Drake monument in', 82. Southleigh, architectural remains found at, 84. Spilsby Church, Willoughby brass in, 10k. Stafford, Alice, 5 ; Anne, 26 ; Edward, Duke of Buckingham beheaded, 111 ; Elizabeth, 25 ; Henry, Earl of Wilts, 74, 79, his arms, 74 ; Henry, Duke of Buckingham, 89, made Constable of England, 98, pressed by Morton to assume the crown, 101, failure of his conspiracy, 105, betrayed, arrested, and executed, 107, burial place unknown, 108, his monument in Britford Church, 109, his children, 111 ; Humphrey, 42, 111, 148 ; Sir Humphrey, Lord Stafford, his children, 147, created a Baron and Earl of Devon, 150, beheaded, 151, his will, 151; Archbp. John, his parentage, 141, his mother's monument and epitaph, 143, death and burial, 145, his tomb, 145, probably born at North- Bradley, 145, his arms, 146, his epitaph, 146. Stafford family, 88, 139, 148. Stafford arms, 23, 30, 31, 74, 143, 146. Stafford chantry in AbbotsburyChurch, 145. Stanley, Sir William, 124. Stokes, Adrian, 77. Stothard, Charles Alfred, 33. Strangeways, Thomas, 6, his children, 148. Stretch, Cicely, 5, 42. Stuckley, Sir Bichard, 44. Suffolk, Frances, Duchess of, her epitaph, 77. Suthwyke, 137, 139. Sutton, John, 67. Sweating Sickness, the, 2on. 212 INDEX. T. Tailboys, Walter, 6, 148. Tailboys family, 148. Talbot, Elizabeth, 80 ; Sir Gilbert, 13 ; Sir Humphrey, 13. Throgmorton, Anne, 78. Tisbury, 155. Tisbury Church, 157 ; Arundell tomb in, 179. Tisbury Manor, 164. Tiverton Castle, 150. Toddington, Cheney mansion at, 130. Toddington Church, monuments in, 131, 132. Tothill, Jane, 82. Tregassawe arms, 199. Tregenna arms, 199. Trelawney, Sir Harry, 204 ; Sir Jona than, 198. Tremoderet, or Tremedart, in Duloe, 5 k. Tresillian, Eobert, 5. Trethurffe arms, 200. Trevarthian arms, 200. Trevill, Lethbridge, his epitaph, 203 ; Bichard, his epitaph, 203 ; William, his epitaph, 203. Trevill arms, 203. Tyrrell, Sir James, 13. U. Ufford arms, 23, 29, 30. Upton arms, 199. V. Valence arms, 73. Valletort arms, 200. Verney, Sir Bichard, 31. Verney family, 32. W. Wake, Richard, 67. Walrond, Edward, 197 ; Henry, 197 ; Humphrey, 197. Walrond family, 79. Wardour Castle, 169- Ware Church, Bourchier epitaph in, 152. Welby, Joan, 10. Wentworth, Jane, 129. West, Thomas, 44. Westbury, 1, 6. Westbury Church, Broke Chantry in, 6 ; as described by Aubrey, 7. Weston, Sir Henry, 178. Wibbery, Johanna, 43. Widville, Elizabeth, 66, conspiracy against, 90 ; Catherine. 74, 111 ; Bp. Lionel, his tomb, 110. Widville arms, 74. Willoughby. Anne, 25, 26, 35; Blanche, 26, place of burial unknown, 23 ; Edward, 25, 26 ; Elizabeth, 25, 26, 141; Henry. 75, 85, tomb in South leigh Church, 35 ; John, Sir John, 6, 16 ; Margaret, 178, her brass in Spilsby Church, 10h ; Nicholas, 35 ; Robert, 17 ; Sir Robert, first Lord Willoughby, 11, 169, custodian of Earl of Warwick, 12, created. a Baron, 12, Lord High Admiral. 14, Commander of forces against War- beck, 15, Steward of the Household, 15, his marriage, 16, obtains the manor of Trethewye, 19, his monu ment in Callington Church, 23, his arms, 23, 30 ; Bobert, second Lord, 24, 67; William, Sir William, 34, 35. Willoughby family, 10, connection with the west, 9. Willoughby arms, 23, 30, 33. Wiscombe, 39, 44, 81. Wotton, Margaret, 75. Wyke, John, 42. Wyvil, Robert de, 139. Z. Zouch, Elizabeth, 165 ; Margaret, 10. NOTE TO ILLUSTBATIONS. The indent of the brass of Archbishop Stafford being greatly frayed and denuded, the original outlines have been restored in the illustration, after a close and careful examination of the stone itself. In the incised figure of the Archbishop's Mother, the lines are fairly perfect, except those forming the hands and face. These have been completed from the faint indications that remain. B. G. COBBIGENDA. ige 5. Footnote, line 1, for Tremedart, read Tremodart. )» i» , 9, ,, Lanberne, , , Lanherne. „ 11. Text, , 19, „ Richmond of York, , , the Earl of Richmond „ 37. n , 14, „ interests, , , interest. „ 39. ,, , 37, ,, incidents, , , incident. „ 77. Inscription, , 16, „ Mil, , Nil. „ 123. Text, , 9, ,, Thomas, , , John. „ 143. Inscription, , 12, ,, venerandissimi, , , venerabilissimi. „ 167. Poetry, , 27, „ his board, , , His board. „ 181. Text, , 12, „ 1673 to 1678, , 1678 to 1683. ii ii Quotation, , 29, „ C.B., , K.B. By the same Author, uniform with this volume, and fully illustrated : MEMORIALS OF THE WEST, HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE, COLLECTEn ON THE BOBDEELANC 0T SOMEESET, DOESET, AND DEVON. EXETER : JAMES G. COMMIN, 230 HIGH STREET. LONDON : W. W. GIBBINGS, 18 BTJRY STREET. M.DCCC.LXXXVIII. }p 3 9002 00739 5768