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BUCKS  BIOGRAPHIES 


JOHN  HAMPDEN 
From  the  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


BUCKS  BIOGRAPHIES 

A  SCHOOL  BOOK 

BY 

MARGARET  M.  VERNEY 

BUCKS  T.  C.  EDUCATION  COMMITTEE 


No  land  in  all  the  world  hath  memories  of 
nobler  children.' 


OXFORD 
AT  THE   CLARENDON   PRESS 

1912 


HENRY  FROWDE,  M.A. 

PUBLISHER  TO   THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  OXFORD 
LONDON,    EDINBURGH,   NEW  YORK 
TORONTO   AND  MELBOURNE 


DEDICATED  TO 
THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  COUNTY 

THAT  THE  EXAMPLE  OF 

THE  MEN  AND  WOMEN  OF  YESTERDAY 

MAY  HELP  THEM  IN  MAKING  THE  COUNTY  HISTORY 

OF  TO-MORROW 


M.  M.  V. 
CLAYDON,  1911 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 13 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 14 

INTRODUCTION 15 

CHAPTER  I 
Or  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS      .         .        21 

Romans  in  Bucks.  Cymbeline.  Preaching  of  Christianity. 
Birinus.  Modwenna.  St.  Osyth  of  Aylesbury.  St.  Rumbold 
of  Buckingham.  Edward  the  Elder  and  the  Danes.  Elfleda. 
Edward  the  Confessor,  Nigel  of  Boarstall,  Wulwin,  and 
St.  Wulfstan. 

CHAPTER  II 

OF  NORMAN  KINGS,  PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS       .        28 

The  Bulstrodes.  Domesday  Book.  Henry  II  and  Becket  at 
Brill.  St.  Hugh  as  Diocesan  of  Bucks.  King  John  signs 
Magna  Carta.  Italian  Archdeacons  of  Buckingham.  John 
Shorne  of  North  Marston. 

CHAPTER  III 

EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR  OF  CASTILE,  AND   THE 

CRUSADES,  1270-1307  .        39 

Enthusiasm  for  the  Crusades.  Prince  Edward  and  Eleanor 
sail  for  Tunis  and  Palestine  ;  his  battles  and  wound  ;  their 
return  home  as  king  and  queen.  Conquest  of  Wales. 
Eleanor's  death ;  her  funeral  passes  through  Bucks.  Ed- 
ward's Parliament  at  Ashridge.  The  Friars  preach  in 
Bucks  another  Crusade. 


8  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IV 
JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS    .         .         .        47 

Wycliffe  at  Oxford  and  at  Ludgershall.  ' The  Black  Death.' 
Poverty  of  the  parish  priests.  Schemes  of  Church  Reform. 
Wycliffe  in  London ;  tried  in  St.  Paul's ;  tried  at  Lam- 
beth ;  starts  the  'Poor  Preachers',  and  translates  the 
Bible  ;  his  teaching.  Queen  Anne  of  Bohemia.  Burning 
of  Lollards  in  Bucks. 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  RED  ROSE  AND  THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS         54 

Agincourt.  Education  of  Henry  VI.  Founding  of  Eton 
College ;  studies,  manners,  diversions.  Wars  of  the  Roses. 
Edward  IV  wishes  to  transfer  the  College  to  Windsor. 
Second  Charter.  Cox  and  Udall.  Founding  of  Thornton 
Grammar  School.  Edward  IV  meets  Elizabeth  Woodville 
near  Stony  Stratford ;  their  secret  marriage.  Court  tailor 
of  Wraysbury.  Edward  V  at  Stony  Stratford ;  waylaid  by 
his  Uncle  Gloucester,  and  carried  off  to  the  Tower. 

CHAPTER  VI 
CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON,  1485-1536     ...        64 

Her  childhood  in  Spain ;  connexion  with  Bucks  as  Princess 
of  Wales ;  her  regency.  Flodden  Field.  Persecution  of 
heretics.  Colet  and  his  School.  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold. 
Lace-making  in  Bucks.  Ann  Boleyn,  Jane  Seymour,  Anne 
of  Cleves,  and  Katherine  Parr. 

CHAPTER  VII 
BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  '          ....        74 

Change  and  Reaction.  Church  bells  and  bell-founders. 
Parish  Registers.  Bibles  in  English.  Church  ornaments. 
Effects  of  the  Reformation  on  the  School  endowments  at 
Eton  College,  Buckingham,  Wycombe,  and  Amersham. 


CONTENTS  9 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH  WITH  HER  GALLANTS  OF  THE 

SWORD  AND  PEN 82 

The  Queen  at  Ashridge,  Colnbrook,  Chenies  and  Sharde- 
loes.  Sir  Henry  Lee.  Pageants  at  Quarendon  and  Marlow. 
The  Queen's  progress  and  viands.  Shakespeare  in  Bucks. 
The  Chaloner?.  Bishop  Alley  and  Christopher  Barker.  The 
English  Bible.  Sir  Marmaduke  Dayrell.  Haddon  and  the 
'  Judicious  Hooker '. 

CHAPTER  IX 

UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  ' 93 

The  struggle  between  the  Crown  and  the  Commons.  Bucks 
elections.  Sir  Francis  Goodwin  and  Sir  Christopher  Pigott. 
Persecution  of  the  Catholics  under  Elizabeth  and  James. 
Priest-finders.  The  Digbys  of  Gavhurst  and  the  Gunpowder 
Plot.  The  Authorised  Version"  of  1611.  Dr.  Brett  of 
Quainton. 

CHAPTER  X 
SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY       .  102 

The  half-brothers.  Sir  Francis  fights  the  Spaniards  and 
joins  the  Moors ;  dies  in  Sicily.  Sir  Edmund's  more  serious 
career  ;  in  charge  of  Whaddon  Chase ;  Knight  Marshal  in 
Charles  I's  Court ;  in  Parliament  and  the  Scotch  War ; 
Standard-Bearer  to  the  King ;  killed  at  Edgehill. 

CHAPTER  XI 
JOHN  HAMPDEN,  1549-1643          .         .         .         .110 

His  home  and  forefathers ;  educated  at  Thame  and  Oxford ; 
friendship  with  Eliot ;  resists  Ship-money ;  attempted 
arrest  of  the  five  Members  ;  Hampden's  death  and  funeral. 

CHAPTER  XII 
THE  DENTONS  OF  HELLESDEN        .         .         .         .115 

Denton  family.  Hillesden  House  held  by  the  Cavaliers ; 
taken  and  burnt  by  Cromwell.  Capt.  Abercrombie.  Sir 
Alexander  Denton's  death  in  the  Tower. 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XIII 

SIR  JOHN  DENHAM  AND  THE  SIEGES  OF  BOARSTALL 

HOUSE 119 

Denhara  and  Wither.  Sir  W.  Campion  defends  Boarstall ; 
Col.  Gage  takes  it ;  second  siege  by  Fairfax  ;  surrender  of 
the  Royalists.  Sir  Thomas  Fanshawe.  Sir  John  Dunham's 
after-life. 

CHAPTER  XIV 
JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674          .         .  124 

Childhood  in  London;  youth  at  Cambridge  and  Horton; 
blindness  and  adversity ;  friendship  with  Ellwood  ;  settled 
at  Chalfont.  Paradise  Regained.  Samson  Agonistes. 
Cowper's  tribute  to  Milton. 

CHAPTER  XV 
THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  THE  PROTECTORATE       .       132 

Bucks'  Address  to  the  Long  Parliament.  The  Hermit  of 
Dinton.  Cromwell  at  Aylesbury  after  the  Battle  of  Worces- 
ter. The  Justice  and  the  Innkeeper.  Arrest  of  Sir  Ralph 
Verney.  The  Major-Generals.  The  Mad  Hatter. 

CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION     .         .         .       141 

Rejoicings.  The  Ins  and  the  Outs.  Restoration  of  the 
Clergy  ;  their  previous  sufferings.  Persecution  of  Noncon- 
formists, Dissenters,  and  Quakers. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  WHARTONS  OF  WINCHENDON  AND  WOOBURN        149 

Philip,  Baron  Wharton,  the  Puritan  Peer ;  Edgehill ;  the 
Restoration.  'Tom  Wharton,' politician  and  sportsman; 
marries  Anne  Lee ;  returned  for  Bucks  in  spite  of  Judge 
Jeffreys;  made  a  Marquis.  Philip,  Duke  of  Wharton, 
Jacobite  and  Catholic ;  his  miserable  end. 


CONTENTS  11 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS  ;  LORD  RUSSELL 

AND  BISHOP  ATTERBURY       .         .         .         .157 

The  Russells  of  Chenies.  Rachel  Lady  Russell.  Lord 
Russell's  trial  and  execution.  James  II  and  Jeffreys. 
William  and  Mary.  Honours  for  the  Russells.  Lady 
Russell's  old  age  and  death.  Atterbury  of  Milton  Keynes ; 
devotion  to  the  Stuarts;  banished  by  George  I;  dies  abroad. 
Jacobite  lady  at  Newport  Pagnell. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER,  THE  POETS 

OF  SOUTH  BUCKS  AND  NORTH  BUCKS     .         .       168 

The  Poets  of  South  and  North  Bucks  ;  both  scholars  and 
Nature-lovers.  Gray's  journey  with  Walpole ;  life  at  Stoke 
Poges  ;  life  at  Stowe.  Cowper's  early  sorrows  and  depres- 
sion; with  Mrs.Unwin  at  Olney;  a  poet  in  middle  life;  fame 
and  friendships. 


CHAPTER  XX 
'  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING  '  .         .         .         .       181 

'  Rule  Britannia.'  '  Farmer  George.'  The  Grenvilles  of 
Stowe  and  Wotton.  Earl  Verney.  Edmund  Burke.  John 
Wilkes.  Shelley  at  Marlow.  Cobbett. 

CHAPTER  XXI 
Louis  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE     .         .         .195 

Exiles  of  the  French  Revolution.  Louis  XVIII  settles  down 
at  Hartwell  House ;  visits  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  at 
Stowe ;  death  of  the  Queen ;  triumphal  departure  from 
Aylesbury ;  chased  from  Paris  and  restored.  Comte  de 
Paris  at  Stowe. 


12  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XXII 

SCOTT  THE  COMMENTATOR  AND  SCOTT  THE  ARCHITECT     203 

Thomas  Scott's  early  hardships  ;  influence  of  the  Wesleys  ; 
the  Bible  Commentary ;  his  pecuniary  troubles ;  success  of 
his  book  ;  his  old  age  at  Aston  Sandford.  Thomas  Scott, 
junior,  Vicar  of  Gawcott ;  his  son  Gilbert's  artistic  tastes. 
A  Bucks  village  in  the  early  nineteenth  century.  The 
Oxford  Movement.  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  the  pioneer  of  the 
Gothic  revival ;  his  work  in  Bucks. 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

BENJAMIN  DISRAELI,  EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD  .        .       212 

Disraeli's  long  connexion  with  Bucks ;  his  home  at  Braden- 
ham.  Vivian  Gray.  Wycombe  elections.  Marriage.  M.P. 
for  Bucks.  Life  at  Hughenden.  Agricultural  dinners. 
Friendship  with  Queen  Victoria,  j 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS,  YEOMANRY,  MILITIA, 

AND  VOLUNTEERS 223 

The  14th  and  16th  Regiments  of  Foot.  Bucks  Militia.  Sir 
Harry  Calvert.  First  Staff  College  at  Wycombe.  The  14th  at 
Waterloo.  Volunteers  and  Yeomanry.  General  Sir  George 
Higginson  and  the  Crimean  War.  Indian  Mutiny.  Admiral 
Sir  Edmund  Fremantle  and  the  Ashanti  War.  Admiral 
Pigott  and  the  bombardment  of  Alexandria.  Lord  Ches- 
ham  and  the  Bucks  Yeomanry  in  the  Boer  War. 

CHAPTER  XXV 
OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS  AND  THE  '  LADY  OF  THE  LAMP  '        238 

Physicians  of  different  types.  John  Smith.  Thomas 
d'Oyley.  Sir  Thomas  Clayton.  John  Radcliffe.  Social 
prejudices.  Lawrence  Wright.  George  Bate.  Martin 
Lluelyn.  William  Denton.  Thomas  Willis.  Sir  Samuel 
Garth.  Friend  and  Mead.  Robert  Ceely.  Sir  Henry 
Acland.  George  De'Ath.  Florence  Nightingale  in  Bucks ; 
her  Nurses  at  Claydon  ;  her  Health  Missioners ;  her  death 
and  burial. 

INDEX  OF  NAMES  251 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

JOHN  HAMPDEN  .....          .        Frontispiece 

EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR 43 

'  PLUCKING  THE  RED  AND  WHITE  ROSES  IN  THE  OLD  TEMPLE 

GARDEN '.........      57 

THE  TRIAL  OF  CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON      ....      71 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH 87 

SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY         .......     105 

JOHN  MILTON     .........     127 

ADRIAN  SCROPE 135 

ANNE  LEE 153 

THE  PARTING  OF  LORD  AND  LADY  RUSSELL       .         .         .159 
THE  ACCESSION  OF  WILLIAM  AND  MARY     .         .         .         .163 

WILLIAM  COWPER 175 

GEORGE  GRENVILLE 185 

EDMUND  BURKE  .........     189 

SIR  GILBERT  SCOTT 207 

LORD  BEACONSFIELD   .         .         .         .         .        .         .         .217 

DR.  WILLIAM  DENTON 243 

Miss  FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE  AND  HER  NURSES  .  .    249 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lipscomb,  History  of  Buckinghamshire  (1831-47). 

Victoria  County  History,  Bucks. 

Browne  Willis,  History  of  Buckingham  and  other  works. 

Records  of  Bucks,  Proceedings  of  the  Bucks  Arch.  Society. 

Church  Bells  of  Bucks,  by  A.  H.  Clocks. 

Memorials  of  Old  Buckinghamshire,  P.  H.  Ditchfield. 

Worthies  of  Bucks,      \ 

Local  Records,  >  Robert  Gibbs. 

History  of  Aylesbury,  > 

History  of  the  Hundred  of  Desborough.     Langley  (1797). 

Aedes  Hartwellianae,  by  Admiral  Smyth. 

History  of  Wycombe.     John  Parker. 

History  of  Newport  Pagnell.     Ratcliff  and  Bull. 

History  of  Datchet.     Osborne. 

History  of  Wendover.    Dr.  West,  LL.D.,  C.C. 

History  of  Winslow.     Arthur  Clear. 

History  of  Bernwood.     Rev.  C.  H.  Tomlinson. 

History  of  Wraysbury,  Horton,  and  Colnbrook.     Gyll. 

History  of  Burnham  Beeches.     Heath. 

History  of  Denham.     Lathbury. 

History  of  Westbury.     Rev.  R.  Ussher. 

History  of  Farnham  Royal.     Carr-Gomm. 

History  of  Chalfont  St.  Giles.     Phipps. 

History  of  Town  of  Cowper.     Wright. 

History  of  Jordans  and  Chalfonts.     W.  H.  Summers. 

Cowper,  Poems  and  Letters. 

Gray,  Elegy  and  Ode  to  Eton  College. 

Verney  Memoirs.     M.  M.  Verney. 

MSS.  in  Museum  (Library  of  Bucks  Arch.  Society)  at  Aylesbury. 

Notes  on  Historical  Buckingham.     J.  T.  Harrison. 

Old  Country  Life,  \ 

Recollections  of  Old  Country  Life,  [  by  J.  K.  Fowler. 

Records  of  Old  Times,  ) 

Highways  and  Byways  of  Bucks.     Clement  Shorter. 

Bucks  (Murray's  Handbooks).    Rev.  P.  H.  Ditchfield. 

Bucks  (Methuen's  Little  Guides).    E.  S.  Roscoe. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  revival  of  pageants,  and  their  success,  has  shown 
us  how  interesting  local  history  may  be  made  if  the 
events  connected  with  a  town  or  county  are  illustrated  in 
a  series  of  striking  scenes. 

No  written  words  can  arrest  the  attention  of  children  as 
do  these  living  pictures,  but  the  pageants  give  us  a  hint 
that  a  set  of  historical  vignettes  and  the  lives  of  a  few 
famous  men  and  women  may  be  more  interesting  than 
a  connected  history  condensed  within  the  limits  of  a  school 
reading-book. 

The  recent  remarkable  progress  in  the  Schools  of  the 
county,  in  Nature  study  and  drawing  from  Nature,  have 
made  the  Bucks  child  well  acquainted  with  the  trees, 
flowers,  and  birds  of  the  neighbourhood,  with  the  conditions 
of  vegetable  growth  in  the  educational  school-garden,  and 
with  the  geography  of  the  parish. 

It  is  desirable  that  this  spirit  of  observation  and  of 
original  research  which  appeals  to  every  intelligent  child, 
should  be  extended  to  the  human  interests  of  the  com- 
munity past  and  present.  Both  the  domestic  and  church 
architecture  of  Bucks  are  very  interesting ;  there  are 
Jacobean  manor-houses,  now  usually  farm-houses,  and 
admirable  specimens  of  Queen  Anne  and  Georgian  houses  in 
the  market  towns ;  while  the  beautiful  old  cottages  in  the 
villages  repay  attention  at  least  as  much  as  the  homes  of 
the  birds  and  the  spiders. 

Brasses  with  mediaeval  costumes,  monuments  in  stone 
and  marble,  the  parish  registers,  the  porches,  fonts, 
windows  and  bells  in  many  of  our  village  churches,  offer 
points  of  historical  interest  generally  unexplored  by  the 
children  living  in  the  parish.  The  study  of  social  customs, 
the  changes  from  hand  to  machine  work,  the  growth  or  the 
decay  of  local  trades,  the  prevalent  names  and  surnames 


16  INTRODUCTION 

often  confined  to  a  small  district,  the  dialect  names  for  wild 
and  garden  flowers,  rimes,  proverbs  and  stories  still  to 
be  gleaned  from  the  older  generation — all  this  information 
to  be  gained  not  from  books,  but  by  the  children's  own 
observation,  and  where  possible  illustrated  by  their  draw- 
ings, would  give  fresh  zest  to  country  life  from  the  historical 
point  of  view,  and  new  topics  for  school  compositions. 

The  bird  and  tree  competitions  and  kindred  efforts 
have  sent  the  children  to  Nature,  the  Empire  Day  celebra- 
tions have  widened  their  horizon ;  but  in  our  English 
counties,  so  full  of  historical  associations,  there  is  a  rich 
inheritance  of  human  and  social  interest  still  to  be  possessed 
by  the  young  generation. 

Buckinghamshire  does  not  at  first  sight  offer  any  very 
dramatic  material.  Far  from  the  heroism  and  adventure 
of  the  sea-coast,  it  is  a  county  of  rich  pasture  land,  fine 
dairy  cows,  prime  beef  and  fat  ducks ;  of  hedgerow  elms, 
oaks  and  beech-woods ;  of  gentle  undulations,  culminating 
in  the  considerable  chalk-ridge  of  the  Chilterns,  bordered 
by  the  silvery  Thames  and  intersected  by  the  slow  winding 
Ouse. 

Aylesbury,  Buckingham,  Stony  Stratford,  Newport 
Pagnell,  Amersham,  Chesham,  and  Marlow  are  among  the 
picturesque  old  market  towns  unspoilt  by  modern  progress. 

Agriculture  has  always  been  the  chief  Bucks  industry, 
but  the  railway  has  created  a  centre  of  skilled  work  at 
Wolverton ;  Olney  has  a  boot-factory ;  and  the  old 
borough  of  Wycombe  has  a  growing  trade  in  chair-making. 
The  nearness  to  London  and  the  admirable  sites  for  villas 
have  given  to  part  of  South  Bucks  something  of  a  suburban 
character ;  Slough  has  an  increasing  population,  but 
nothing  can  spoil  the  glorious  beech-woods  and  the  river 
scenery  ;  and  Bucks  can  claim  to  be  a  typical  rural  county 
of  the  Midlands. 

Bucks  possessed  a  royal  residence  under  several  of  the 
Plantagenet  kings,  but  when  security  from  attack  was  no 
longer  the  chief  consideration  in  the  choice  of  a  palace,  the 
impregnable  site  of  Brill  had  to  yield  to  the  charms  of 
Windsor. 

Bucks  soldiers  and  sailors  have  distinguished  themselves 
all  over  the  world,  but  no  great  battle,  since  Saxon  times, 


INTRODUCTION  17 

has  been  fought  within  its  borders.  In  the  Civil  War  there 
were  sieges  of  private  houses,  and  much  marching  and 
countermarching  of  the  opposing  forces  over  its  meadows. 

Attached  for  centuries  to  the  distant  see  of  Lincoln,  the 
county  had  no  great  abbey  or  cathedral  or  university, 
though  in  Eton  College  it  has  boasted  of  the  most  famous 
public  school  in  England  or  in  the  world. 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  absence  of  king,  abbot,  and  bishop 
which  contributed  to  a  spirit  of  sturdy  independence,  and 
made  Bucks  the  home  of  many  unpopular  causes.  Lollards, 
Calvinists,  Quakers,  Independents,  and  Baptists  here  early 
found  a  refuge,  and  according  to  Fuller,  Bucks  had  '  before 
the  time  of  Luther  more  martyrs  and  confessors  than 
all  England  beside  '.  John  Knox  preached  at  Amersham, 
and  Richard  Baxter  held  there  a  theological  field-day. 
John  Bunyan  served  as  a  private  soldier  at  Newport 
Pagnell.  The  old  Catholic  faith  has  had  its  confessors  and 
martyrs ;  the  Throckmortons  and  their  neighbours  at 
Weston  Underwood  were  unmoved  by  the  Reformation; 
and  Sir  Everard  Digby  of  Gayhurst  was  one  of  the  authors 
of  the  Gunpowder  Plot. 

Many  learned  and  saintly  divines  and  schoolmasters  have 
been  numbered  amongst  the  Bucks  clergy  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Wycliffe,  Hooker,  and  Sheldon  have  been  among 
her  parish  priests ;  Dean  Colet  endowed  St.  Paul's  School 
from  his  property  in  the  county ;  Dr.  Busby,  the  great 
Head  Master  of  Westminster  School,  had  property  at 
Willen  and  relatives  at  Addington ;  Brett,  '  the  learned 
Rector  of  Quainton ',  was  one  of  the  translators  of  the  Bible 
of  1611  ;  Atterbury  was  born  at  Milton  Keynes,  of  which 
his  father  was  rector ;  Newton  of  Olney,  Scott,  the  com- 
mentator, of  Aston  Sandford,  and  Spencer  Thornton,  of 
Wendover,  were  distinguished  in  the  Evangelical  move- 
ment. When  the  Oxford  Revival  came,'  Bucks  possessed 
her  own  great  architect  in  Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  son  of  the  Vicar 
of  Gawcott,  who  gave  ungrudgingly  his  time  and  money  to 
the  restoration  of  the  old  Gothic  churches. 

It  is  the  singular  good  fortune  of  this  county  that  one  of 
her  country  churches,  and  incidentally  the  village  life  which 
centred  round  it,  have  been  described  by  such  a  poet  as 
Gray,  and  her  scenery  and  manners  by  so  loving  a  student 

986-4  B 


18  INTRODUCTION 

as  Cowper.  Indeed  it  is  remarkable  how  many  poets  and 
writers  are  connected  with  Bucks.  Milton,  the  greatest  of 
them  all,  dreamt  of  Paradise  in  the  peaceful  scenery  of  the 
Chalf  onts  ;  Sir  John  Denham  is  associated  with  Boarstall ; 
Waller  wrote  under  his  oak  at  Coleshill ;  Dryden  at  Denham 
Court  as  the  guest  of  Sir  William  Bowyer ;  Pope  and 
Thomson  were  inspired  by  the  '  paradise  of  Stowe '.  At 
Beaconsfield,  Crabbe  found  a  haven  of  rest ;  Shelley,  '  the 
Hermit  of  Marlow ',  wrote  there,  as  also  his  friend  Peacock ; 
Gibbon  owned  the  manor  of  Lenborough ;  Praed  was 
member  for  Aylesbury ;  Frank  Smedley  (a  cripple  from 
childhood),  the  brave  author  of  Frank  Fairleigh,  wrote  at 
Marlow ;  Captain  Mayne  Reid:,  the  friend  of  boys,  at 
Gerrard's  Cross ;  Shirley  Brooks,  the  genial  editor  of 
Punch,  was  born  at  Brill  in  1816 ;  Sir  Walter  Scott  was 
a  constant  guest  at  Ditton  Park. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  frequently  visited  his  relations  at 
Lavendon  Grange ;  and  it  was  from  the  quiet  of  a  Bucks 
garden  that  Herschel  found  the  planet  Uranus. 

Captain  Cook,  who  sailed  round  the  world,  used  to  stay 
at  Denham  Place ;  Sir  James  Ross,  the  Arctic  explorer, 
ended  his  life's  long  voyages  at  Aston  Abbots ;  Professor 
Richard  Owen's  boyhood  was  spent  at  Fulmer  Place,  in  the 
house  built  by  his  great-grandfather. 

The  political  record  of  the  county  is  a  splendid  one.  Was 
not  the  table  long  kept  at  Datchet  on  which  King  John 
signed  Magna  Carta  on  the  Island  of  Runnymede  in  the 
parish  ?  The  same  spirit  that  gained  the  Charter  made 
Hampden  resist  the  Ship-money,  and  sent  4,000  Bucks 
freeholders  riding  up  to  London  with  their  own  remon- 
strance. There  were  many  devoted  Cavaliers  in  the  country 
houses,  but  the  county  generally  sided  with  the  Parliament ; 
and  though  Bucks  men,  wearied  with  uncertainty,  rejoiced 
in  the  Restoration,  they  were  up  in  arms  against  the 
encroachments  of  James  II  and  won  the  famous  election 
of  1685  against  Judge  Jeffreys,  as  is  told. by  Macaulay. 
Aylesbury  supported  her  townsman  Wilkes,  when  he  stood 
for  liberty  of  election  ;  Stowe  gave  two  Prime  Ministers  to 
England  in  George  and  William  Grenville  ;  Burke  was  both 
a  Bucks  M.P.  and  a  resident  in  the  county  ;  Canning  was 
Member  for  Wendover,  and  in  Victoria's  days  Bucks  was 


INTRODUCTION 


19 


proud  in  the  possession  of  a  Prime  Minister  who  loved  to 
identify  himself  with  the  county  and  its  interests,  and  all 
England  listened  while  Lord  Beaconsfield  poured  forth  his 
wit  and  wisdom  at  the  Farmers'  Ordinary  at  Aylesbury ; 
the  Right  Hon.  W.  H.  Smith  resided  in  South  Bucks,  and 
the  Earl  of  Rosebery  has  a  home  at  Mentmore. 

The  Bucks  regiments  and  the  Militia,  Yeomanry,  and 
Volunteers  have  taken  an  honourable  share  in  the  story  of 
the  county  and  the  empire  ;  and  the  first  Staff  College  was 
started  here. 

We  have  a  long  roll  of  Bucks  Physicians  and  Surgeons ; 
Florence  Nightingale  spent  some  time  at  Claydon  and 
worked  with  the  County  Council. 

Mr.  A.  Morley  Davies,  D.Sc.,  F.G.S.,  of  Amersham,  is 
preparing  a  School  Geography  of  Bucks,  dealing  with  its 
topography,  natural  history,  and  antiquities,  as  one  of 
a  series  published  by  the  Cambridge  University ;  in  this 
volume,  it  is  proposed  to  deal  with  the  historical  and  biogra- 
phical associations  of  the  county  ;  it  is  hoped  that  the  two 
books  may  be  used  together  in  the  schools  as  represent- 
ing two  different  aspects  of  local  study.  A  list  of  books 
for  wider  reading  on  the  subjects  treated  will  be  found 
at  the  end  of  the  volume. 


B  2 


My  thanks  are  due  to  the  following  authors  and  publishers  for  leave  to 
quote  from  the  books  mentioned  below  : — 

Messrs.  LONGMANS. — History  of  England,  Part  I,  by  York  Powell  and 

Tout ;   Froude's  Short  Studies  ;   The  Russells  of  Chenies. 
G.  M.  TREVELYAN. — England  in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe. 
Messrs.  DENT. — Froude's  Life  of  Lord  Beaconsfield. 
Rev.  CHARLES  MARSON. — Hugh  of  Lincoln. 
Messrs.  SMITH  &  ELDER. — Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 
Messrs.   MACMILLAN. — Oliphant's  Literary    History    of   the    Nineteenth 

Century ;  Lord  Albemarle's  Fifty  Years  of  My  Life.     Lord  Morley's 

Burke,  English  Men  of  Letters. 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.  Cox. — History  of  Parish  Registers. 
HON.   SEC.,  BUCKS   ARCHITECTURAL  AND  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY, 

and  the  LIBRARIAN. — Records  of  Buckinghamshire,  published  by  the 

Society  ;   Gough  MSS.  in  the  Society's  Library. 
THE  EARL  OF  ROSEBERY. — Lecture  on  The  Grenvilles  of  Stowe,  printed 

in  Records  of  Bucks. 

ALFRED  H.  COCKS,  Esq. — The  Church  Bells  of  Bucks. 
Messrs.  STANFORD  and  Rev.  P.  H.  DITCHFIELD. — Murray's  Bucking- 
hamshire. 

H.  W.  HOARE.— Our  English  Bible 

Mrs.  GREEN. — J.  R.  Green,  History  of  the  English  People. 
Messrs.  METHUEN. — France  since  Waterloo,  by  W.  G.  Berry. 
LADY  RITCHIE. — The  Four  Georges,  by  W.  M.  Thackeray. 
COUNTY  HISTORY  SYNDICATE. — Victoria  County  Histories,  Bucks,  vols.  i. 

and  ii. 
Admiral  the  Hon.   Sir  EDMUND  FREMANTLE. — The  Navy  as  I  have 

known  it. 
Right  Hon.  G.  W.  E.  RUSSELL. — Collections  and  Recollections ;  Sketch 

of  Louisa  Lady  de  Rothschild,  privately  printed. 
J.  R.  H.  FOWLER,  Esq. — Echoes  of  Old  Country  Life. 
D.  H.  SCOTT,  Esq. — Recollections  of  Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  edited  by  bis  son. 

The  Hon.  T.  F.  FBEMANTLE. — MS.  Notes  on  Bucks  Military  Matters. 

HENRY  ALLHUSEN,  ESQ. — Information  about  Stoke  Poges. 

S.    D.    CHIPPINGDALE,  Esq.,   M.D. — MS.  Notes    on    By-gone    Bucks 

Doctors. 

Mrs.  STANLEY  LEIGHTON. — MS.  Letters  of  Sir  Henry  Williams  Wynn. 
And  also  to  Admiral  PIGOTT,  Rev.  MACKWOOD  STEVENS,  and  Rev.  P. 

CAUTLEY. 


CHAPTER  I 
OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS 

THE  Roman  occupation  had  done  much  for  Britain.  In 
Bucks,  forests  had  been  cleared,  marshes  drained,  good  roads 
like  Akeman  Street  and  Watling  Street  traversed  the 
county ;  many  useful  trees  and  shrubs  were  brought  from 
abroad,  and  sheep-farming  was  introduced.  The  remains 
of  gardens  and  villas  belonging  to  rich  Roman  families  have 
been  found  at  High  Wycombe,  Foxcote  (near  Buckingham), 
and  at  Tinge  wick  ;  Roman  pottery  and  coins  at  Brill, 
Boarstall,  Olney,  Winslow,  Steeple  Claydon,  and  elsewhere. 
As  early  as  the  first  century  Christianity  reached  Britain, 
and  from  this  old  British  Church  sprang  the  early  Celtic 
Churches  of  Ireland  and  Wales,  who  nobly  repaid  the  debt 
they  owed,  by  missionary  work  in  the  mother  country, 
when  Christianity  had  been  wellnigh  extinguished  by  wave 
after  wave  of  heathen  invasion  by  Saxons,  Jutes,  Angles, 
and  Danes. 

The  first  six  hundred  years  of  our  history  are  full  of  cruel 
wars  ;  '  in  the  early  rough  times  of  a  nation's  life,  unless  it 
can  fight  well,  it  has  but  a  poor  chance  of  living  at  all,  in 
the  struggle  going  on  around  it.'  The  names  that  remain 
to  us  are  those  of  soldier-kings  and  leaders,  and  side  by  side 
with  them  the  churchmen  and  missionaries,  often  women, 
who  in  gentler  ways,  but  with  equal  courage,  were  labouring 
and  dying  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  In  Bucks 
the  course  of  the  Ouse  and  the  range  of  the  Chilterns  play 
an  important  part  in  the  fighting.  There  is  a  legend  of 
a  battle  at  Great  Kimble  in  which  the  two  sons  of  Cymbeline, 
the  British  chief,  were  killed ;  he  had  a  palace  at  Velvet 
Lawn. 

The  name  of  Cymbeline  is  great  in  legendary  story.  In 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  Chronicle,  a  storehouse  of  heroic 


22    OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS 

tales,  written  about  1147,  is  a  version  of  the  story  according 
to  which  Cymbeline  was  the  grandson  of  Lud,  the  founder 
of  London,  still  remembered  in  the  name  Ludgate  Hill ;  he 
was  a  great  British  soldier,  brought  up  in  Rome  about 
the  time  of  Christ ;  he  governed  Britain  well  and  justly. 
Cymbeline,  or  his  sons,  later  resisted  an  invasion  by  the 
Romans,  and  then  made  an  honourable  peace  with  them. 
French  romances  and  plays  were  founded  on  the  story  of 
Cymbeline,  and  Shakespeare  took  '  the  slight  suggestions 
of  the  old  story  for  the  shaping  of  his  beautiful  play ',  in 
which  the  fighting  between  Romans  and  Britons  is  only  the 
background  to  the  picture  of  a  faithful  wife,  Imogen,  tried 
and  true. 

Another  battle  was  fought  at  Chearsley  between  the 
Saxons  and  Britons.  Bucks  was  included  in  the  Saxon 
kingdom  of  Mercia.  In  the  seventh  century  Birinus,  a 
Roman  monk,  was  sent  here  by  Pope  Honorius  to  preach 
the  Gospel ;  he  met  with  much  success  in  the  Midlands, 
baptized  the  King  of  Wessex  in  635,  and  founded  the  see 
of  Dorchester,  to  which  Bucks  belonged  up  to  the  time  of 
the  Norman  Conquest. 

The  name  of  Birinus  or  Berrin  still  lingers  in  the  hills 
above  Wallingford.  He  is  said  to  have  met  with  his  death 
in  the  Chiltern  woods  by  the  bite  of  an  adder — and  legend 
adds  that  no  adder  can  live  within  sound  of  Dorchester 
bells,  though  they  were  unable  to  save  their  saint  and 
founder.  Modwenna,  an  Irish  princess,  was  also  preaching 
to  the  heathen  in  Ireland,  England,  and  Scotland.  A 
woman  of  the  most  fearless  and  holy  character,  learned  in 
all  the  age  could  teach,  she  was  said  to  have  been  a  disciple 
of  St.  Patrick.  She  was  accompanied  on  her  missionary 
journeys  by  a  band  of  Christian  maidens,  who  suffered  gladly 
all  sorts  of  hardships ;  reduced  sometimes  to  eating  the 
bark  of  trees  ;  often  flying  from  violence,  but  everywhere 
making  converts.  Modwenna  founded  two  famous  monas- 
teries, as  refuges  for  Christian  women  and  as  centres  of 
worship,  education,  and  missionary  effort.  One  of  these 
religious  houses  Modwenna  ruled  herself,  the  other  was 
presided  over  by  her  friend,  Edith,  sister  of  an  early  King 
Alfred  of  Northumbria.  One  Lady  Edith  was  the  possessor 
of  the  town  and  manor  of  Aylesbury.  A  daughter,  Osyth, 


OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS    23 

was  born  at  Quarrendon  to  Frithwald,  King  of  Mercia,  who 
had  become  a  Christian,  and  the  young  princess  was  sent 
to  these  two  good  women  to  be  educated.  The  legends 
connected  with  her  name  are  somewhat  slight  and  trivial, 
but  we  repeat  them  as  they  were  told  to  the  children  long 
ago.  Osyth  was  sent  by  Modwenna  to  Edith  with  a  book, 
then  a  rare  and  precious  treasure.  As  she  crossed  a  bridge 
on  her  way,  she  was  blown  into  the  water  and  sank.  Mod- 
wenna and  Edith  searched  for  her  in  much  distress  ;  coming 
on  the  third  day  to  the  place  where  she  was,  they  called  her 
by  name  and  she  rose  out  of  the  water  alive  and  well.  Her 
parents  married  her  to  a  Prince  of  the  East  Saxons,  but 
with  his  consent  she  built  a  nunnery  on  some  land  which 
he  gave  her  at  Chich  in  Essex,  and  devoted  herself  to 
a  religious  life.  A  band  of  Danish  pirates  tried  to  make  her 
renounce  her  faith  ;  on  her  refusal  she  was  beheaded  at 
a  fountain  to  which  she  was  wont  to  resort  for  bathing. 
Then  she  rose,  took  up  her  head,  walked  with  it  in  her  hands 
to  the  church  at  Chich,  and  knocked  at  the  door.  Her 
friends  took  her  body  and  buried  it  at  Aylesbury,  near 
which  her  home  had  been ;  but  she  appeared  in  a  vision 
to  a  smith  of  that  town,  and  asked  that  her  bones  might 
be  moved  to  Chich,  which  was  done  after  they  had  rested 
forty-six  years  at  Aylesbury.  St.  Osyth  was  canonized, 
and  her  day  was  kept  at  Aylesbury  on  October  7.  A 
holy  well,  dedicated  to  her,  was  shown  at  Quarrendon. 
A  pretty,  homely  custom  kept  up  her  memory.  When 
the  housewife  went  to  bed  (much  alive  to  the  danger 
of  fire  in  the  old  thatched  cottages),  she  raked  out  her 
hearth,  made  a  cross  in  the  ashes,  and  prayed  to  God  and 
St.  Osyth  to  keep  the  house  till  morning  safe  from  fire  and 
water. 

The  champion  of  heathenism  in  the  seventh  century  was 
the  famous  Penda,  King  of  Mercia,  the  last  of  the  great 
Pagan  princes.  '  His  ability  and  the  unmitigated  ferocity 
of  the  old  Saxon  spirit  gave  him  an  advantage  over  his  more 
gentle  and  civilized  neighbours.'1  His  daughters  became 
Christian,  and  it  was  by  the  influence  of  women  that  Mercia 
at  length  abandoned  the  old  paganism  ;  one  daughter  was 
said  to  be  the  mother  of  Osyth,  another  of  Rumbold,  or 
Rumwold,  the  baby-saint  of  Buckingham.  Never,  surely, 


24     OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS 

was  a  saintly  reputation  founded  on  so  short  a  sojourn  in 
this  wicked  world  as  that  of  Saint  Rumbold.  According 
to  the  legend  he  was  born  on  November  1,  623,  at 
King's  Sutton,  was  baptized,  and  died.  During  his  life  of 
three  days  he  spoke  many  holy  words,  professed  his  faith 
in  Christ,  and  gave  orders  about  the  disposal  of  his  body. 
This  was  to  rest  one  year  at  Sutton,  two  at  Brackley,  and 
then  to  remain  at  Buckingham  for  ever.  The  church  at 
Buckingham  was  at  that  time  a  chapelry  of  King's  Sutton 
church  in  Northamptonshire. 

The  story  of  the  infant  confessor  touched  the  imagination 
of  the  people.  Many  churches  and  wells  were  dedicated 
to  St.  Rumbold,  and  to  these  the  blind  and  lame  came  in 
great  numbers  to  be  healed.  The  chief  well  in  Buckingham 
seems  to  have  been  at  the  Prebend  End  of  the  town,  and 
Church  Street  was  formerly  St.  Rumbold  Street ;  he  is  still 
allowed  to  give  his  name  to  a  lane.  The  south  transept  of 
the  old  church  (destroyed  by  the  fall  of  the  spire  in  1698) 
was  called  St.  Rumbold's  aisle,  and  so  many  pilgrims 
flocked  to  his  shrine,  that  a  large  house  was  built  for  them 
to  lodge  in,  to  the  west  of  the  church,  known  as  Pilgrims' 
Inn,  and  still  standing  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  1477  Robert  Fowler  left  a  bequest  for  a  hand- 
some new  shrine  to  be  made  in  marble,  and  a  coffin  or  chest 
curiously  wrought  and  gilt  to  contain  the  saint's  little 
bones.  When  the  church  was  pulled  down  in  1777  and 
a  new  church  erected  on  the  site  of  the  Saxon  castle,  the 
coffin  of  St.  Rumbold  was  discovered. 

After  St.  Rumbold's  death  Christianity  spread  fast.  The 
Saxon  kings  of  Mercia  had  a  palace  at  Winslow ;  Offa  II 
founded  the  Abbey  of  St.  Albans,  and  endowed  it  with  his 
royal  manor  of  Winslow.  Many  of  the  Danes  under  Alfred's 
influence  became  Christians,  and  were  allowed  to  colonize 
a  portion  of  the  east  of  England,  and  to  rule  it  by  their 
own  laws.  Bucks  was  included  in  the  Danelagh.  But  this 
peaceful  absorption  of  the  Danes  did  not  come  without 
a  long  struggle. 

Alfred's  son,  Edward  the  Elder,  had  to  defend  himself 
from  a  Viking  fleet  from  Brittany  in  915  ;  when  they  were 
beaten  off  he  attacked  the  Danish  settlements  on  the  Ouse, 
took  Buckingham  after  a  siege  of  four  weeks,  and  fought 


OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS    25 

and  defeated  the  Danes  at  Bledlow  ('  the  bloody  Hill '), 
when  the  great  Whiteleaf  Cross  is  supposed  to  have  been 
cut  on  the  side  of  the  chalk  hill  above  Princes  Risborough, 
as  well  as  the  smaller  cross  above  Bledlow,  to  celebrate  the 
victory  ;  though  there  are  prosaic  people  who  say  that  the 
crosses  were  only  way-marks  for  guiding  travellers.  King 
Edward  lodged  a  considerable  time  at  Buckingham  and 
built  a  fortress  in  918,  on  the  hill  where  the  church  now 
stands  (still  remembered  in  the  name  of  Castle  Street) ;  he 
and  his  sister  Elfleda  or  Ethelfleda,  the  Lady  of  the  March- 
land,  '  a  woman  godly,  righteous,  and  wise ',  were  untiring 
in  securing  the  safety  and  peace  of  the  realm,  in  making 
good  laws  and  building  churches.2  Holinshed  tells  us  that 
the  king  suffered  his  sister  Elfleda  to  govern  the  kingdom 
of  Mercia  during  his  life,  '  and  not  without  good  reason,  for 
by  her  wise  and  politic  order,  used  in  all  her  doings,  he  was 
greatly  furthered  and  assisted.  She  did  build  and  repair 
towns  and  castles  and  build  bridges.  .  .  .  Finally,  this 
martial  Lady  and  manly  Elfleda,  the  supporter  of  her 
countrymen,  and  terror  of  the  enemies,  departed  this  life 
at  Tamworth  about  919.'  It  has  been  said  from  the  evidence 
in  Domesday  Book  that  the  legal  position  of  women  was 
better  under  Saxon  laws  than  it  was  at  any  later  time  till 
the  close  of  Victoria's  reign.  Not  only  did  women  fill  many 
high  public  offices,3  but  the  wife's  name  appears  side  by 
side  with  her  husband's  as  the  '  lord '  of  a  separate  estate 
both  among  landlords  and  '  thanes  ',  as  in  the  instance  of 
a  female  landowner  at  Tyringham  during  her  husband's 
lifetime.  Several  Parliaments  of  the  Mercian  kings  were 
held  at  Risborough.  King  Edward's  second  son,  Edmund, 
the  Deed-doer,  recovered  the  Danelagh  from  the  Danes, 
and  made  it  part  of  the  kingdom  of  England  for  ever  ;  his 
name,  like  his  father's,  must  have  been  well  known  in 
Bucks. 

The  next  king  who  has  left  his  mark  on  the  county  is 
Edward  the  Confessor,  crowned  on  Easter  Day,  1042.  '  He 
was  a  quiet,  pious  man,  loving  the  Normans  with  whom  he 
had  been  brought  up,  and  their  polished  clerkly  ways,  much 
interested  in  Church  matters,  which  he  and  his  Norman 
chaplains  settled  in  their  own  way,  beloved  by  his  people 
who  for  a  short  interval  were  at  peace  and  happy. ' 1  Edward 


26     OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS 

was  much  occupied  with  building  a  church,  where  now  the 
choir  of  Westminster  Abbey  stands,  but  he  had  the  old  English 
love  of  field-sports,  and  he  also  built  himself  a  hunting -lodge 
at  Brill,  overlooking  the  royal  forest  of  Bernwood ;  the  office 
of  Forester  was  held  from  that  time  forward  by  the  Lords  of 
Boarstall,  about  which  there  is  a  picturesque  story.  Nigel 
the  Forester  slew  a  great  wild  boar  that  had  dared  to  inter- 
fere with  the  king's  hunting,  and  he  presented  the  boar's 
head  on  his  knees  to  the  king.  Edward  the  Confessor 
granted  to  him  and  his  heirs  the  custody  of  Bernwood,  by 
the  service  of  a  horn  entitled  the  Charter  of  the  Forest. 
This  Nigel  built  a  house  at  Boarstall;  the  horn  was 
handed  down  as  an  heirloom  from  one  owner  to  another, 
and  now  belongs  to  Sir  Lancelot  Aubrey  Fletcher,  at 
Dorton  House.  In  the  old  Boarstall  House  of  Civil  War 
fame  the  incident  was  represented  on  a  carved  wooden 
bedstead. 

Another  legend  of  Edward  the  Confessor  is  connected 
with  Ludgershall.  A  Saxon  yeoman,  Wulmar,  had  a  son 
Wulwin,  surnamed  Spillecorn.  During  a  hard  day's  work 
felling  timber  in  Bernwood  Forest,  Wulwin  lay  down  under 
a  tree  and  fell  asleep  ;  the  sun  shone  full  on  his  face,  and  he 
became  blind  for  seventeen  years.  He  visited  eighty-seven 
churches  and  prayed  to  the  saints  in  vain  ;  he  dreamt  that 
the  king  could  heal  him,  and  having  journeyed  from 
Ludgershall  to  Windsor,  and  made  his  way  with  difficulty 
into  the  presence  of  the  king,  he  told  of  his  dream,  and 
prayed  for  mercy.  Edward,  distrustful  of  his  power,  said 
he  would  be  truly  grateful  if  God  chose  by  his  means  to 
take  pity  on  a  miserable  creature.  Then  dipping  his  hands 
in  water  he  placed  them  on  his  eyes,  and  the  man  cried  out, 
'  I  see  you,  O  King  ! '  The  story  goes  that  Wulwin  was  then 
appointed  to  a  place  of  honour  in  charge  of  the  palace  of 
Windsor,  and  that  he  survived  his  benefactor  by  many 
years. 

Edward's  queen,  Edith,  owned  the  manors  of  High 
Wycombe,  Amersham,  and  Little  Marlow  ;  she  was  a  great 
lady  in  the  realm  as  the  daughter  of  the  powerful  Earl 
Godwin,  but  they  were  childless,  and  the  king's  last  years 
were  troubled  by  questions  of  the  succession.  '  At  mid- 
winter, 1065,  King  Edward  came  to  Westminster  to  hallow 


OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS     27 

the  Minster  he  had  built  to  the  glory  of  God  and  St.  Peter,1 
and  on  Twelfth  Night 

'  There  suddenly  came 
Death  the  bitter ;    and  that  dear  Prince 
Took  from  the  earth.    The  angels  bore 
His  soothfast  soul  into  heaven's  light.' 

'  Edward's  holy  life  that  spoke  him  full  of  grace,  and  the 
gift  of  prophecy  ascribed  to  him,  gained  him  the  title  of 
Confessor,  and  made  him  for  years  the  favourite  saint  of 
the  south  of  England.' 

After  his  death  and  the  few  troubled  months  of  Harold's 
reign,  Norman  influences  were  to  dominate  Church  and 
State,  but  one  more  saint  and  the  last  of  the  Saxon  prelates 
is  connected  with  Bucks  by  legends. 

St.  Wulfstan  was  Bishop  of  Worcester  from  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  Confessor  to  that  of  William  Rufus.  '  As  he 
was  journeying  to  the  Court  of  London  he  lodged  at  a  town 
called  "  Wicumbe ",  and  slept  in  an  old  house  whose 
ruinous  appearance  threatened  a  speedy  fall.  And  in  the 
morning,  when  he  was  about  to  recommence  his  Journey, 
the  building  began  to  crack,  and  the  rafters  and  beams  to 
give  way  downwards.  All  the  servants  jumped  out  of  doors 
in  a  fright,  so  panic-struck  as  to  forget  altogether  that  their 
master  was  alone  within  ;  but  once  safely  out  of  doors  they 
remembered  him,  and  shouted  loudly  for  him  to  come  out 
before  the  whole  building  fell  down  together  ;  but  none  was 
brave  enough  to  go  in  and  rescue  him.  But  he,  fortified 
with  the  buckler  of  faith,  stood  calm  and  immovable,  and 
by  virtue  of  his  sanctity  the  impending  destruction  was 
suspended  until  the  horses  and  baggage  were  safely  got  out 
and  loaded  ready  for  departure.  Then  the  holy  man  went 
forth  from  the  building,  and  immediately  the  whole  house 
was  violently  shaken  and  fell  with  a  terrible  crash,  walls 
and  roof,  into  a  chaotic  heap  of  ruins.'  Six  years  later  he 
was  at  Wycombe  again  to  consecrate  a  church,  and  was 
credited  with  the  miraculous  cure  of  a  maid-servant  afflicted 
with  a  grievous  disease  of  the  tongue  and  throat.  '  Wulfstan 
was  a  pattern  of  all  monastic  and  episcopal  virtues  as  then 
understood.'  4  Through  all  the  changes  and  troubles  of  the 
Norman  Conquest  he  was  beloved  by  the  conquerors  and  the 


28    OF  SAXON  KINGS,  SAINTS,  AND  LEGENDS 

conquered.  He  devoted  himself  with  the  utmost  humility 
and  diligence  to  the  welfare  of  the  poor ;  he  rebuilt  Wor- 
cester Cathedral  in  the  great  age  of  Norman  architecture,  but 
his  words  were  remembered  that '  the  men  of  old,  if  they  had 
not  stately  buildings,  were  themselves  a  sacrifice  to  God, 
whereas  we  pile  up  stones  and  neglect  souls ' — he  laid  the 
emphasis  of  life  on  worship  and  service. 

1  York  Powell  and  Tout,  History  of  England. 

*  Holinshed's  Chronicle.  '  Victoria  County  History,  Bucks. 

4  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. 


CHAPTER  II 
OF  NORMAN  KINGS,  PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS 

AFTER  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  the  lands  of  the  English 
who  had  fought  with  Harold  were  given  to  Normans  and 
Frenchmen,  and  manors  in  Bucks  that  had  belonged  to 
Edward  the  Confessor's  queen  were  granted  to  Odo,  Bishop 
of  Bayeux  ;  all  over  the  county  foreign  nobles  and  church- 
men held  some  of  the  best  estates,  but  there  was  one  fine 
exception  to  the  general  submission  to  the  Conqueror. 

A  Saxon  family  named  Shobbington  had  been  settled  at 
Hedgerley  for  generations,  and  when  a  Norman  lord  was 
prepared  to  seize  the  land  with  a  warrant  from  William, 
and  the  grant  of  1,000  of  the  king's  own  soldiers,  Shobbing- 
ton, the  owner,  was  thoroughly  roused.  He  got  all  his  own 
people  together,  with  his  friends  and  neighbours  the 
Hampdens  and  Penns,  entrenched  his  house,  and  prepared 
for  an  obstinate  resistance. 

The  Normans  sat  down  before  the  place  to  besiege  it,  but 
according  to  the  picturesque  family  story  the  Shobbingtons 
made  a  sally  in  the  night,  mounted  on  fierce  but  well-broken 
bulls,  surprised  the  Normans,  and  broke  up  the  camp. 
King  William,  a  brave  man  himself ,  could  appreciate  courage 
and  daring ;  he  sent  Shobbington  a  safe-conduct  to  come 
to  Court,  where  he  appeared  riding  on  his  bull,  accompanied 
by  his  seven  sons,  and  promised  fealty  if  the  king  would 
confirm  him  in  his  estates,  which  William  did,  and  he  added 


OF  NORMAN  KINGS 


29 


the  name  of  Bulstrode  to  his  own  in  memory  of  his  trusty 
mount,  and  the  name  gradually  replaced  that  of  Shobbing- 
ton.  The  Bulstrodes  were  well  known  in  Bucks  for  many 
succeeding  centuries.  The  story  is  a  good  one,  but  sur- 
names were  unknown  until  long  after  this. 

As  soon  as  he  was  settled  in  his  new  kingdom,  William  the 
Conqueror  made  the  great  inquest  into  the  ownership  of 
land  and  property,  known  as  the  Domesday  Book,  which 
was  done  so  thoroughly  that  the  people  complained  that 
there  was  not  a  yard  of  land,  not  one  ox,  nor  one  cow,  nor 
one  swine  left  out  that  was  not  set  down  in  the  king's  rolls. 
From  this  survey  we  have  accurate  knowledge  about  the 
landowners  and  the  produce  of  the  county,  more  than 
eight  hundred  years  ago. 

'  There  has  been  a  complete  shifting  of  the  population 
from  North  to  South  Bucks  in  eight  centuries ;  Creslow 
had  a  larger  population  in  1085  than  in  1901,  while  the 
population  was  lowest  in  the  hundreds  of  Burnham,  Des- 
borough,  and  Stoke.' 

By  mapping  out  the  townships  and  manors  mentioned  in 
Domesday  as  being  laid  waste,  the  march  of  William's 
forces  after  the  Battle  of  Hastings  has  been  traced.  In 
Bucks  the  main  army  seems  to  have  marched  '  along 
the  foot  of  the  Chilterns  through  Risborough  to  Aston 
Clinton ;  then  through  Waddesdon  and  Claydon  to 
Buckingham,  and  by  Wolverton  to  Olney  and  Lavendon.' 
Whether  Aylesbury  or  Buckingham  were  touched  does  not 
appear,  but  Stowe  was  '  waste  '  when  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux 
received  it  from  the  king.  A  right  wing  from  Aston  Clinton 
passed  through  Cublington  and  Linslade  to  the  Brickhills  ; 
another  detachment  went  by  Iver,  Taplow,  and  Woburn. 
In  Saxon  times  the  manor  of  Aston  Clinton  was  held  by  a 
lady  named  Wlwen  ;  a  Norman  knight,  Edward  of  Salis- 
bury, took  possession  of  her  lands,  and  was  standard- 
bearer  to  Henry  I  at  the  Battle  of  Brenonville  in  1119,  in 
which  Walter  Giffard,  Earl  of  Buckingham,  also  dis- 
tinguished himself.  He  became  Earl  of  Longville,  and 
founded  a  Priory  at  Newton-Longville.  William  de  Keynes, 
Lord  of  Milton  Keynes,  fought  against  King  Stephen  at 
the  battle  of  Lincoln,  and  took  him  prisoner  with  his  own 
hand. 


30  OF  NORMAN  KINGS, 

The  Norman  kings  continued  to  live  at  Brill  as  Edward 
the  Confessor  had  done.  Henry  I  was  there  and  Henry  II 
kept  his  Court  in  the  palace  in  1160,  when  Thomas  a  Beckett 
attended  him  as  Chancellor,  and  again  in  1162,  the  year 
when  Beckett  was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

Henry  and  Beckett  were  great  friends  in  those  days,  and 
they  may  well  have  loved  Brill,  with  its  extensive  views 
over  the  green  expanse  of  the  forest  of  Bernwood  at  their 
feet,  abounding  with  deer  and  all  kinds  of  wild  creatures. 
Beckett  in  youth  had  been  '  a  bold  rider  and  keen  sports- 
man, he  was  always  a  hater  of  liars  and  slanderers,  and 
a  kind  friend  to  dumb  beasts  and  to  all  poor  and  helpless 
folk  '.l  As  for  Henry,  he  is  described  as  a  lover  '  of  tem- 
perate fare  and  ceaseless  exercise,  for  he  rose  at  daybreak, 
passed  most  of  his  time  on  horseback,  and  when  he  came 
home  in  the  evening  would  tire  out  his  courtiers  by  standing, 
for  he  would  never  sit  down  save  at  council  and  at  dinner. 
His  ungloved  hands  were  rough  and  scarred  with  work,  his 
legs  bowed  with  riding,  and  his  voice  harsh  from  shouting 
to  his  soldiers  and  his  hounds.'  It  is  one  of  the  great 
tragedies  of  history  that  the  conflicting  interests  of  Church 
and  Throne  and  the  king's  hasty  words  too  hastily  inter- 
preted, made  Henry  his  friend's  murderer,  to  his  lifelong 
sorrow.  We  like  to  think  of  them  at  Brill  in  the  early  days 
riding  about  together  and  taking  earnest  counsel  for  the 
good  of  the  realm.  Henry  was  a  great  statesman  and 
lawyer,  '  he  linked  the  old  English  free  local  moots,  to  the 
strong  central  Royal  Court,  by  his  plan  of  juries  and 
judges  in  eyre,  which  have  endured  to  this  day,  and  made 
firm  the  foundations  of  the  free  constitution  under  which 
Englishmen  and  Americans  are  now  living.' 

With  the  Norman  settlement  came  the  Conqueror's 
foundation-charter  of  the  new  cathedral  of  Lincoln,  which 
was  endowed  with  the  old  churches  of  Aylesbury  and 
Buckingham  and  the  manor  of  Wooburn,  part  of  King 
Harold's  property  forfeited  after  the  Battle  of  Hastings. 
Bucks  formed  part  of  the  new  diocese  of  Lincoln ;  church 
building  and  re-building  received  a  great  impetus,  and  many 
fine  Norman  churches  then  built  remain  to  this  day. 

Sixteen  years  after  the  murder  of  Beckett,  another  great 
churchman,  but  of  much  gentler  manners,  the  famous 


PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS  31 

Hugh  of  Lincoln,  became  our  bishop  from  1186  to  1200. 
St.  Hugh  laboured  throughout  his  diocese,  to  put  down 
oppression  and  to  promote  peace  and  righteousness.  He 
was  the  friend  of  three  English  kings,  Henry  II,  Richard, 
and  John,  to  whom  he  gave  frank  and  fearless  counsel. 
While  he  sternly  rebuked  vice,  specially  in  high  places,  he 
was  full  of  compassion  for  the  criminal  and  the  madman, 
and  most  tender  towards  lepers.  These  unfortunate 
creatures  were  seen  in  Bucks,  as  the  leper  squints  in  many 
of  our  churches  testify.  St.  Hugh  found  them  banished 
from  all  human  care,  wicked  in  many  cases,  as  well  as 
miserable.  He  taught  them,  washed  their  sores  with  his  own 
hands,  and  would  eat  out  of  the  same  dish  with  them ; 
it  was  perhaps  in  consequence  of  his  example  that  in 
Henry  Ill's  reign  a  Leper  Hospital  was  established  at 
Chipping  Wycombe  dedicated  to  St.  Margaret  and  St.  Giles. 

The  bishops  of  Lincoln  had  several  palaces  in  the  county, 
at  Fingest,  Wooburn,  and  other  places.  At  Wooburn  their 
fine  old  moated  Manor  House  retained  till  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  '  its  ancient  character  of  feudal  magnifi- 
cence '.  As  late  as  1592  the  church  bell-ringers  at  Marlow 
were  paid  for  ringing  on  St.  Hugh's  Day. 

Two  recorded  incidents  illustrate  the  manners  of  the  time. 
From  Buckingham  it  was  reported  to  the  bishop  that 
a  certain  dead  man  would  walk ; 2  that  he  fell  violently 
upon  his  wife  and  his  brothers,  that  he  walked  even  by  day 
'  terrible  to  all,  but  visible  only  to  a  few '.  A  meeting  of 
the  clergy  was  called,  when  it  was  decided  to  wreak  all 
sorts  of  violence  on  the  dead  body.  This  the  bishop 
forbade,  and  wrote  a  letter  in  his  own  hand  absolving  the 
unquiet  spirit.  '  It  was  laid  upon  the  dead  man's  breast 
and  thenceforward  he  rested  in  peace,  as  did  his  alarmed 
neighbours ;  whatever  we  think  of  the  tale  we  see  the 
tender,  reverent  spirit  of  the  bishop.' 

At  Wycombe  and  Berkhamstead  he  found  some  pagan 
rites  still  surviving  in  the  worship  of  wells  and  springs ; 
these  customs  he  suppressed  with  a  stern  hand.  He  was 
looked  upon  as  the  enemy  of  all  superstition,  in  his  pas- 
sionate desire  for  truth.  '  St.  Hugh  stood  singularly  apart 
from  the  men  of  his  time  in  his  appreciation  of  alleged 
miracles.  He  desired  neither  to  hear  about  miracles 


32  OF  NORMAN  KINGS, 

wrought  by  others,  nor  would  he  allow  them  to  be  imputed 
to  himself.  A  fine  saying  of  his  was  remembered,  "  that 
the  great  miracle  of  the  saints  was  their  sanctity,  and  that 
this  by  itself  was  enough  for  guidance."  '  His  character 
was  a  rare  combination  of  keen  worldly  wisdom  and  tact, 
with  the  deepest  ascetic  devotion.  His  most  striking 
characteristic  was  perhaps  his  perfect  moral  courage.'  He 
stood  up  for  the  people  against  the  forest  laws  and  the 
oppression  of  the  royal  foresters  and  gamekeepers.  He 
thoroughly  gauged  King  John's  worthless  character,  and 
fought  for  the  principles  which  triumphed  soon  after  his 
death  in  the  signing  of  Magna  Carta. 

The  portrait  is  not  complete  without  mention  of  St. 
Hugh's  love  of  children  and  animals,  which  both  warmly 
reciprocated.  All  children,  even  babies,  were  drawn  to 
him,  and  he  loved  to  romp  with  them  ;  he  put  many  of  his 
baby-friends  to  school  later  on,  and  started  them  in  various 
callings. 

The  blue-tits  came  out  of  the  trees  to  perch  on  his 
shoulder.  Soon  after  the  bishop  was  installed,  a  large  wild 
swan  came  to  the  ponds  at  his  manor  of  Stowe,  outside 
Lincoln,  and  drove  off  and  killed  the  other  swans  he  found 
there.  '  The  servants  caught  and  brought  him  to  the 
bishop's  room.2  The  beast-loving  man,  instead  of  sending 
him  to  the  spit,  offered  him  some  bread,  which  he  ate,  and 
struck  up  an  enthusiastic  friendship  with  his  master.  It 
would  nestle  its  long  neck  far  up  into  the  bishop's  wide 
sleeve,  and  ask  him  for  things  with  pretty  little  chatterings. 
It  would  leave  the  water  and  stalk  through  the  house 
walking  wide  in  the  legs  ;  it  would  not  notice  or  brook  any 
other  man.  If  the  bishop  slept  or  watched,  the  swan  would 
keep  other  animals  at  bay.  When  he  went  away  the  bird 
retired  to  the  middle  of  the  pool,  and  took  his  rations  from 
the  steward,  but  would  have  none  of  him  when  his  friend 
returned.  No  length  of  parting,  even  for  two  years,  made 
any  difference.  When  the  carts  and  forerunners  arrived 
(with  the  household  stuffs)  the  swan  would  push  boldly  in 
among  the  crowd,  and  cry  aloud  with  delight  when  it  caught 
the  sound  of  its  master's  voice  ;  it  would  go  with  him 
through  the  cloisters  to  his  room,  upstairs  and  all,  and  could 
not  be  got  out  without  force.  It  lived  for  many  a  day  after 


PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS  33 

its  master  had  gone  home.  Floating  conspicuous  on  the 
lake,  it  reminded  orphaned  hearts  of  their  innocent,  kind 
and  pure  friend,  who  had  lived  patiently  and  fearlessly, 
and  taken  death  with  a  song — the  new  song  of  the  Re- 
deemed.' 2  The  faithful  swan  became  St.  Hugh's  attribute, 
and  may  be  connected  with  the  adoption  of  the  swan  as  the 
arms  of  Buckingham  and  Wycombe,  and  as  the  County 
Badge,  though  it  was  afterwards  associated  with  the  great 
families  of  Mandeville  and  Bohun,  who  bore  a  swan  on  their 
shields. 

King  John  and  William,  King  of  Scotland,  the  arch- 
bishops, abbots,  and  barons,  all  flocked  to  the  bishop's 
funeral,  '  no  man  so  great  that  he  thought  himself  happy 
to  help  carry  that  bier  up  the  steep  hill  at  Lincoln.  Shoulders 
were  relieved  by  countless  hands,  these  by  other  hands  ;  the 
greatest  men  struggled  for  this  honour.  The  cathedral  was 
blocked  with  crowds,  men  came  in  streams  to  kiss  his  hands 
and  feet,  and  to  offer  gold  and  silver.' 

In  the  words  of  an  old  poet — 

'  Staff  to  the  Bishops,  to  the  monks  a  treasure  true, 
Counsel  for  schools — kings'  hammer — such  behold 
was  Hugh  ! ' 

King  John  stirred  to  some  real  regret  at  the  funeral  of 
St.  Hugh,  who  had  helped  to  crown  him,  is  perhaps  the 
pleasantest  glimpse  we  get  of  this  wayward  and  cruel  man's 
character.  He  kept  up  the  palace  at  Brill  and  a  hunting 
lodge  at  Datchet,  but  he  was  much  out  of  England,  fighting, 
and  losing  his  father's  splendid  heritage  of  Anjou  ;  hiring 
foreign  mercenaries  against  his  English  barons,  and  alter- 
nately defying  and  abasing  himself  before  the  Pope  of 
Rome.  The  key-note  of  Shakespeare's  play  is  that  King 
John  acts  at  the  bidding  of  expediency,  not  of  right — '  men 
false  to  their  country  make  ill  compacts  with  the  enemy,' 
men  false  to  themselves  can  never  be  true  to  their  friends. 
In  the  tortuous  story  of  the  struggles  between  John,  the 
French,  and  the  Pope,  our  county  had  no  share,  but  it  is 
one  of  her  chief  historical  glories,  that  it  was  in  Bucks  that 
the  treacherous  king  was  at  last  brought  to  bay.  On 
June  15,  1215,  on  an  island  in  the  parish  of  Wraysbury, 
opposite  Runnimede,  the  king,  the  archbishop,  and  the 

986-4  C 


34  OF  NORMAN  KINGS, 

barons  met  and  signed  the  Great  Charter  of  the  Liberties 
of  England.  The  massive  oak  table  on  which  King  John 
is  said  to  have  signed  was  long  preserved  at  Datchet,  and  is 
now  kept  at  Magna  Carta  Island. 

The  story  is  given  by  Holinshed  with  many  graphic 
touches  ;  the  barons  being  come  into  the  king's  presence 
required  of  him  '  first  to  appoint  the  use  of  those  ancient 
laws  unto  them,  by  the  which  the  kings  of  England  in  times 
past  ruled  their  subjects  ;  secondly  that  he  would  abro- 
gate those  newer  laws,  which  every  man  might  with  good 
cause  name  mere  wrongs,  rather  than  laws  .  . .  The  barons, 
having  obtained  a  great  piece  of  their  purpose,  returned 
to  London  with  their  Charter  sealed.  Great  rejoicing  was 
made  .  .  .  the  people  judging  that  God  had  touched  the 
king's  heart  and  mollified  it,  whereby  happy  days  were 
come  for  the  realm  of  England — but  they  were  much 
deceived.  The  king  having '^condescended  to  make  such 
grant  of  liberties,  far  contrary  to  his  mind,  was  right  sorrow- 
ful in  his  heart  ...  he  whetted  his  teeth,  he  leant  now  on 
one  staff,  now  on  another,  as  he  walked,  and  oft  brake  the 
same  in  pieces,  when  he  had  done,  and  with  such  disordered 
behaviour  and  furious  gestures  he  uttered  his  grief,  before 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Council,  that  the  noblemen  might 
well  perceive  .  .  .  what  would  follow  of  his  impatiency  and 
displeasant  taking  of  the  matter.'  3  The  king  took  imme- 
diate steps  to  break  his  plighted  word  ;  the  Pope  supported 
him  ;  the  barons  in  despair  offered  the  crown  to  the  eldest 
son  of  the  King  of  France,  and  it  was  only  John's  miserable 
death  in  the  succeeding  year,  that  put  a  stop  to  a  cruel 
civil  war. 

In  the  eastern  counties  John  had  plundered  many  abbeys 
and  religious  houses  ;  in  crossing  the  Wash  he  lost  most  of 
the  booty  and  narrowly  escaped  drowning.  After  the 
wetting  '  he  fell  into  an  ague  the  force  and  heat  whereof, 
together  with  his  immoderately  feeding  of  raw  peaches  and 
drinking  of  new  cider,  so  increased  his  sickness,  that  he  was 
not  able  to  ride,  but  was  fain  to  be  carried  in  a  litter, 
presently  made  of  twigs,  with  a  couch  of  straw  under  him, 
without  any  bed  or  pillow,  thinking  to  have  gone  to  Lincoln. 
But  the  disease  still  so  raged  and  grew  upon  him  .  .  .  that 
in  the  Castle  of  Newark,  through  anguish  of  mind  rather 


PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS  35 

than  through  force  of  sickness,  he  departed  this  life,  the 
eve  of  the  19th  of  October,  1216,  in  the  year  of  his  age 
fifty  and  one  '. 

(It  is  to  the  credit  of  the  monks  as  gardeners  that  King 
John  should  have  been  tempted  to  excess  by  '  raw  peaches  ' 
about  the  middle  of  October  ;  they  must  have  been  cleverly 
stored,  and  were  evidently  a  great  delicacy.) 

John  bequeathed  his  body  to  St.  Wulfstan  as  he  died,  and 
it  was  duly  buried  in  Worcester  Cathedral.  Well  did 
Shakespeare  draw  the  moral  of  the  reign  in  the  fine  lines 
which  conclude  his  play  : 

'  This  England  never  did,  nor  never  shall 
Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  a  conqueror 
But  when  it  first  did  help  to  wound  itself  .  .  . 
Come  the  three  corners  of  the  world  in  arms 
And  we  shall  shock  them.    Naught  shall  make  us  rue 
If  England  to  itself  do  rest  but  true.' 

The  long  rule  of  Henry  III  saw  the  coming  of  the  Friars 
who  cared  for  the  sick  and  the  lepers,  and  taught  the  people 
many  useful  arts  ;  and  the  development  of  the  Schools  of 
Learning  at  Oxford,  after  the  model  of  the  famous  University 
of  Paris.  Both  these  things  had  their  influence  on  the  con- 
dition of  Bucks. 

The  county  had  at  least  two  learned  men  of  her  own  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  for  whom  a  European  reputation 
may  be  claimed,  and  both  came  from  Wendover.  '  Richard 
the  Englishman,'  as  he  was  called  abroad,  was  a  distin- 
guished doctor,  who  studied  medicine  at  Paris  and  prac- 
tised in  Italy,4  where  he  became  so  famous  that  he  was 
appointed  physician  to  Pope  Gregory  IX,  who  gave  him 
on  his  death-bed  a  crucifix  containing  relics.  His  writings 
on  anatomy  and  medicine  were  standard  authorities  in  the 
profession  ;  some  of  his  MSS.  are  at  Oxford  in  the  Bodleian 
and  in  the  libraries  of  Balliol  and  Merton  Colleges.  Richard 
of  Wendover  seems  to  have  ministered  to  the  soul  as  well 
as  to  the  body  ;  he  was  a  canon  of  St.  Paul's,  and  held  other 
church  preferment.  When  he  died,  in  1252,  he  bequeathed 
the  Pope's  crucifix  to  the  Abbey  of  St.  Albans. 

The  other  famous  scholar,  who  styled  himself  Roger 
Wendover  of  Wendover,  that  we  might  have  no  doubt  as  to 

c  2 


36  OF  NORMAN  KINGS, 

his  native  place,  interests  us  still  more  in  the  schools  than 
the  physician  does.  It  is  thanks  to  his  industry  in  collect- 
ing and  writing  his  Flowers  of  History  that  many  of  these 
old  stories  have  come  down  to  us. 

While  kings  and  barons  were  busy  fighting  battles  and 
making  laws,  and  '  Gurth  the  swineherd '  and  his  fellows 
were  earning  a  bare  pittance  by  incessant  labour,  it  was 
one  of  the  great  merits  of  the  monasteries  that  they  gave 
shelter  to  a  class  in  the  community  with  sufficient  learning, 
taste,  and  leisure  both  to  preserve  the  history  of  old  times 
and  to  chronicle  the  events  of  the  passing  day.  The  Scrip- 
torium, or  Record  Office  of  the  monastery,  was  one  of  the 
regular  departments  of  a  highly  organized  society,  prac- 
tising all  the  arts  of  peace.  Those  brothers  who  were  good 
scribes  and  artists  were  set  to  make  copies  of  the  Bible  and 
of  all  sorts  of  famous  books,  religious  and  secular,  with  ex- 
quisite penmanship  and  brilliant  illuminations.  In  addition 
to  this,  they  kept  the  accounts  of  the  monastery,  and  a 
record  of  events  inside  the  walls,  and  of  the  life  outside 
as  it  affected  their  interests.  Scholars  and  historians  were 
thus  formed,  and  Roger  of  Wendover,  a  priest  with  a 
monastic  training,  achieved  a  considerable  reputation  as  an 
industrious  editor  and  compiler,  and  as  an  original  chroni- 
cler. Roger  was  less  happy  in  making  history  himself  than 
in  recording  the  deeds  of  other  men.  As  Prior  of  Belvoir 
he  gave  universal  dissatisfaction  ; 4  accused  of  wasting  the 
goods  of  the  church,  he  was  first  reproved  and  then  removed 
by  his  superior,  the  abbot.  But  once  installed  as  the  head 
of  the  Scriptorium  of  the  great  Abbey  of  St.  Albans,  soon 
after  the  signing  of  Magna  Carta,  he  found  his  vocation,  and 
did  admirable  and  enduring  historical  work,  till  his  death, 
in  1236.  The  garden  of  history  from  which  he  culled  his 
Flowers  has  grown  so  prodigiously  in  extent  and  variety 
as  to  bewilder  a  modern  gatherer  of  a  modest  posy  ;  but 
Roger  of  Wendover's  name  stands  as  an  example  of  love 
and  reverence  for  the  past  and  as  an  encouragement  of  any 
honest  endeavour  to  preserve  and  hand  on  its  treasures. 

A  curious  little  bit  of  thirteenth-century  history  may 
find  a  place  here.  Soon  after  St.  Hugh's  death,  the  Arch- 
deacon of  Buckingham,  Matthe  de  Stratton,  made  a 
journey  to  Rome  and  died  there  ;  after  which  the  popes 


PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS  37 

appointed  to  be  Archdeacons  of  Buckingham  four  Italians 
in  succession,  who  hardly  ever  visited  England  and  per- 
formed their  duties  by  deputy.  One  of  these  deputies  was 
John  Shorne,  probably  the  man  whose  name  was  the  most 
venerated  throughout  England,  though  he  was  never 
canonized. 

In  1290  Master  John  Shorne,  who  had  been  Rector  of 
Monk's  Risborough,  was  appointed  to  the  living  of  North 
Marston,  which  he  held  for  some  twenty-four  years  till  his 
death  in  1314.5  He  was  renowned  far  and  near  for  his  great 
piety  and  miraculous  powers  ;  '  his  knees  became  horny 
from  the  frequency  of  his  prayers.'  He  blessed  the  water 
of  the  '  Holy  Well '  still  shown  at  North  Marston,  and 
endowed  it  (as  was  believed)  with  healing  properties.  In 
those  days  and  long  after  the  Devil  was  a  vivid  personality, 
to  be  actually  encountered  and  fought  by  the  saints,  and 
as  St.  Dunstan  was  said  to  have  seized  the  Evil  One  with 
tongs,  so  Master  Shorne  caught  the  Devil  and  imprisoned 
him  in  his  boot.  For  this  reputed  miracle  he  became  an 
acknowledged  saint.  We  are  not  told  how  the  world  was 
benefited  while  the  Devil  was  kept  in  the  boot ;  and  whether 
North  Marston  in  particular  was  freed  from  lying,  malice, 
and  all  uncharitableness  ;  but  the  story  became  widely 
known  and  was  carved  in  wood  and  stone  and  painted  in 
church  windows.  At  North  Marston,  in  1660,  and  perhaps 
later,  '  there  was  a  picture  in  glass  of  Sir  John  Shorne,  with 
a  boot  under  his  arm,  like  a  bagpipe,  into  which  he  was 
squeezing  a  little  figure  of  the  Devil '.  Two  churches  in 
Norfolk,  Gately  and  Cawston,  have  representations  of  the 
Bucks  saint ;  his  fame  spread  from  Kent  to  Northumber- 
land, and  in  a  poem  of  Heywood's,  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII, 
a  palmer,  in  telling  of  the  holy  places  he  had  visited,  classes 
Master  John  Shorne's  shrine  at  Canterbury  with  St.  Denis's 
at  Paris  and  St.  Mark's  at  Venice.  But  Shorne's  chief 
shrine  was  at  North  Marston,  where  he  died  and  was  buried, 
and  this  became  a  famous  place  of  pilgrimage  ;  and  such 
rich  offerings  did  the  pilgrims  leave  behind  them  that  in  the 
degenerate  days  of  the  monasteries  the  monks  of  Windsor 
bargained  with  the  monks  of  Dunstable  about  the  removal 
of  the  saint's  bones.  In  1478  the  Dean  of  Windsor  actually 
obtained  the  Pope's  license  to  remove  the  shrine  and  the 


38  OF  NORMAN  KINGS, 

relics  to  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor ; '  the  monks  published 
and  bruited  abroad  what  a  sovereign  qualified  saint  was  come 
among  them  against  all  diseases  spiritual  and  temporal.' 

North  Marston,  however,  continued  to  attract  pilgrims, 
a  stone  image  of  the  saint  was  there,  and  the  Holy  Well, 
famed  for  the  cure  of  ague,  then  the  most  common  form 
of  illness  in  the  county.  An  old  rhyme  says  : 

'  To  Master  John  Shorne 
That  blessed  man  borne 

For  the  ague  to  him  we  apply — ' 

Such  numbers  of  invalids  came  to  the  waters  that  houses 
were  specially  built  to  receive  them,  and  a  finger-post  on 
Oving  Hill  directed  travellers  to  the  famous  well,  which 
was  said  to  have  this  inscription  on  the  wall : 

'  Sir  John  Shorne,  Gentleman  born, 
Conjured  the  Devil  into  a  Boot.' 

When  the  Lollards  were  being  persecuted  at  Amersham 
some  were  condemned  to  perpetual  prison,  some  thrust  into 
monasteries,  and  others  forced  to  make  pilgrimage  to  the 
principal  shrines  in  the  county,  St.  Rumbold's,  Sir  John 
Shorne's,  and  the  Rood  at  Wendover.  The  Vicar  of 
Wycombe  got  into  trouble  '  as  he  met  certain  coming  from 
Sir  John  Shorne's,  for  saying  they  were  fools  and  calling 
it  foolatry '.  A  century  later  all  England  came  to  be  of 
the  vicar's  opinion.  At  the  time  of  the  suppression  of 
the  monasteries  one  of  the  Commissioners  wrote  to 
Thomas  Cromwell  that  at  Marston  '  Mr.  John  Shorne 
standeth  blessing  a  boot,  into  which  they  do  say  that  he 
conveyed  the  Devil '.  This  figure,  which  seems  to  have 
been  of  wood,  was,  with  other  of  the  more  valuable  relics, 
packed  in  a  chest  fast  locked  and  nailed  and  sent  up  by 
barge  to  London.  In  the  next  reign  Bishop  Latimer,  preach- 
ing 'of  the  Popish  Pilgrimages',  denounced  the  'running 
hither  and  thither  to  Mr.  John  Shorne,  or  to  Our  Lady  of 
Walsingham ',  and  '  the  Boot '  was  amongst  the  relics  most 
ridiculed  by  the  Reformers. 

In  1876  a  successor  of  John  Shorne,  as  Vicar  of  North 
Marston,  Dr.  S.  R.  James,  established  a  flourishing  school 
there  which  he  named  Schorne  College. 


PRELATES,  AND  LEGENDS  39 

The  history  of  the  North  Marston  shrine  is  that  of  many 
others.  Visits  are  paid  at  first  to  the  place  where  a  good 
man  lived  and  died  by  those  who  knew  and  loved  him  ;  the 
custom  spreads  and  a  pilgrimage  is  authorized  by  the  church, 
commended  to  the  faithful,  and  imposed  as  a  penance  on 
heretics.  Money  (which  has  spoilt  so  many  works  of  love) 
flows  in  and  makes  the  shrine  an  object  of  greed  and 
jealousy  to  rival  monasteries,  till  the  interests  of  the  village 
are  referred  to  the  Pope  at  Rome  ;  the  avarice  of  the 
Court  and  nobles  suppresses  and  confiscates  whatever 
remains  of  the  shrine  ;  bishops  denounce  it,  and  Puritans 
deride,  then  the  place  and  the  saint  fall  into  complete 
oblivion,  till  the  modern  historical  spirit  revives  curiosity, 
and  the  locality  is  once  more  interested  in  a  kindly, 
tolerant  way  in  the  story  of  its  own  bygone  sanctity  and 
greatness. 

1  York  Powell  and  Tout,  History  of  England. 
8  Rev.  C.  Marson,  Hugh  of  Lincoln. 

3  Holinshed's  Chronicle. 

4  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  *  Records  of  Bucks. 


CHAPTER  III 

EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR  OF  CASTILE,  AND 
THE  CRUSADES,  1270-1307 

ONE  of  the  greatest  movements  of  the  Middle  Ages 
of  romantic  and  enduring  interest  is  that  of  the  Cru- 
sades. A  holy  man  in  France,  Peter  the  Hermit,  preached 
that  it  was  God's  will  that  Christians  should  unite  to 
clear  Palestine  of  its  Mohammedan  conquerors,  who 
were  putting  the  Syrian  Christians  to  cruel  deaths,  and 
desecrating  the  holy  places  dear  to  believers  all  over  the 
world. 

It  seems  to  our  practical  age  almost  incredible,  that  at 
a  time  when  travelling  was  so  difficult  and  dangerous,  men 
should  leave  their  homes,  drop  their  daily  work,  risk  plague, 
imprisonment,  and  death  in  many  forms,  for  so  shadowy 
an  object ;  but  thousands  of  all  ranks,  sewing  a  little  cross 


40       EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR  OF  CASTILE 

of  red  cloth  on  their  left  arm,  vowed  to  fight  the  Turks 
and  free  the  Holy  Land.  • 

The  wonderful  story  of  the  Crusades  is  another  proof 
that  man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone,  and  that  if  the 
right  appeal  is  made  to  the  heart  and  the  imagination, 
men  and  nations  will  throw  up  their  material  interests  in 
the  enthusiasm  for  a  great  unselfish  cause. 

'  To  chase  the  pagans  in  those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walk'd  those  blessed  feet, 
Which  fourteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nail'd 
For  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross.' 

Thus  Shakespeare  puts  the  desire  into  the  mouth  of 
Henry  IV,  a  century  and  a  half  later,  when  the  inspiring 
motive  of  the  Crusades  was  dying  dowrn.  But  when 
Edward  I  was  young,  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  still 
seemed  possible  to  soldiers  of  the  Cross.  Minstrels  and 
wandering  story-tellers  recounted  their  wonderful  exploits  ; 
Crusaders  who  perished  abroad  were  held  in  reverent 
memory ;  then-  cross-legged  effigies  may  still  be  seen  in 
some  old  churches,  as  in  Hughenden,  Cllfton-Keynes,  and 
Ashendon,  though  their  very  names  have  often  been  for- 
gotten. 

We  realize  something  of  what  a  journey  to  Palestine 
meant  in  the  thirteenth  century  by  following  the  fortunes 
of  Prince  Edward,  eldest  son  of  King  Henry  III,  with  his 
Spanish  wife,  Eleanor  of  Castile. 

Henry  III  had  been  engaged  in  a  long  war  with  his 
barons,  led  by  Simon  de  Montfort,  a  name  familiar  in 
South  Bucks,  where  the  de  Montfort  tombs  are  still  to  be 
seen  in  Hughenden  Church. 

Edward,  a  much  better  soldier  than  his  father,  had  been 
fully  occupied  in  defending  King  Henry's  life  and  crown, 
and  while  the  fortune  of  war  favoured  first  one  side  and 
then  the  other,  the  royal  ladies  and  children  took  refuge 
in  France. 

When  peace  was  restored,  the  king's  sons,  Edward  and 
Edmund,  fired  by  the  wish  to  follow  then-  great  uncle, 
Richard  Ccour  de  Lion,  prepared  to  take  up  the  Cross  in 
1270.  Edmund  had  lately  married  Aveline,  hen-ess  of 
William  de  Fortibus,  Earl  of  Albemarle  ;  she  was  content  to 


AND  THE  CRUSADES,  1270-1307  41 

stay  behind,  and  died  before  his  return ;  but  Edward's 
wife  determined  to  accompany  her  husband.  To  all  remon- 
strances Eleanor  replied,  that  nothing  should  part  those 
whom  God  had  joined,  and  that  the  way  to  heaven  was 
as  short  from  Syria  as  from  England  or  her  native  Spain. 
With  her  mother-in-law,  Queen  Eleanor  of  Provence,  she 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  chief  English  shrines  to  pray  for 
the  health  of  the  children  (two  boys  and  a  girl)  whom  she 
was  to  leave  behind.  A  great  gathering  of  the  Estates  of 
the  Realm  was  held  in  Westminster  Hall,  when  the  barons 
kissed  the  hand  of  little  Prince  John  and  swore  fealty  to 
him  as  his  grandfather's  heir,  in  case  his  father  should  be 
killed  in  the  Holy  Land. 

They  were  a  striking-looking  couple ;  Edward,  like  King 
Saul,  was  a  head  and  shoulders  taller  than  the  people, 
famed  in  arms  and  in  all  manly  exercises,  wise  in  council, 
and  strong-willed,  with  a  wife  who  was  in  every  respect 
his  true  and  capable  companion  and  helpmeet.  Eleanor 
started  first,  and  put  all  her  energies  into  the  preparations 
made  in  her  husband's  French  dominions  for  the  campaign. 

When  Edward  joined  her  at  Bordeaux  they  sailed  with 
a  fleet  to  Tunis,  where  their  ally,  Louis,  King  of  France, 
had  turned  aside  from  the  main  purpose  of  the  Crusade 
to  fight  another  army  of  Moors.  They  found  the  good 
king  dead  of  the  plague  and  his  army  much  discouraged. 
Indeed,  most  of  the  leaders  determined  to  go  home  again, 
but  Prince  Edward  declared  that  if  all  left  him,  he  and 
his  groom  Fowin  would  go  on  alone.  So  with  his  faithful 
wife  and  his  own  men  in  thirteen  ships  only  he  sailed  for 
Palestine. 

In  those  days  wars  had  to  cease  in  the  winter,  and  they 
retired  to  Sicily.  When  the  time  came  round  again  '  that 
kings  go  out  to  battle ',  he  landed  in  Palestine,  raised  the 
siege  of  Acre  at  Easter,  1271,  fought  and  won  a  battle  at 
Nazareth,  and  after  much  inconclusive  fighting,  wintered 
in  Cyprus.  Again  he  \vent  to  the  fray  and,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  returned  to  Acre.  Here  he  was  nearly  killed 
in  his  tent  by  the  Emir  of  Joppa,  who  treacherously  pre- 
tended to  be  the  bearer  of  a  letter.  The  old  tradition 
that  Eleanor  sucked  the  poison  from  the  wound  we  are 
no  longer  allowed  to  believe,  but  rather  that  her  brother- 


42      EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR  OF  CASTILE 

in-law  Edmund  led  her  away  weeping,  while  a  surgeon  cut 
out  the  poisoned  sore.  During  the  siege  of  Acre  a  daughter, 
Joanna,  was  born  to  them,  and  they  lost  the  company  of 
a  faithful  friend.  The  Archbishop  of  Liege,  a  former  tutor 
of  Edward's,  was  ministering  to  them  in  the  camp  ;  he 
heard  that  he  had  been  chosen  to  be  Pope  in  his  absence, 
and  had  to  leave  immediately  for  Italy. 

There  was  much  sickness  and  suffering  in  the  English 
camp,  and  a  ten  years'  truce  was  at  last  concluded  with  the 
enemy.  Edward  and  Eleanor  returned  to  Sicily,  where  sad 
news  met  them  of  the  loss  of  then*  two  little  boys,  and  later 
of  the  death  of  Henry  III.  The  new  king  and  queen  did 
not  hurry  home.  They  visited  then*  old  friend,  now  Pope 
Gregory  X,  who  gave  them  a  great  reception  at  Orvieto, 
and  lingered  in  France,  where  a  boy  was  born  to  them, 
called  Alphonso  after  the  queen's  brother.  As  they  passed 
through  any  famous  town  and  heard  of  a  sham  fight  or 
tournament  going  on,  King  Edward  must  needs  stop  and 
try  his  strength  in  the  lists,  in  the  spirit  of  a  keen  cricketer 
who  would  not  willingly  miss  a  great  match,  if  he  were  in 
the  neighbourhood. 

After  then*  return,  the  wars  with  the  Welsh  filled  many 
troubled  years  ;  Edward  of  Carnarvon,  Prince  of  Wales, 
was  the  first  of  then*  sons  who  survived  his  childhood,  and 
he  had  a  Welsh  nurse.  Five  hundred  years  later,  Gray, 
whom  we  claim  as  a  Bucks  poet,  wrote  the  fine  lament  of 
the  Welsh  bard  who  had  seen  Wales  finally  subdued  : 

*  Ruin  seize  thee,  ruthless  King  ! 
Confusion  on  thy  banners  wait.' 

King  Edward  and  Queen  Eleanor  were  present  in  Lincoln 
Cathedral  in  1280  when  the  body  of  the  great  Bishop 
Hugh  was  lifted  out  of  the  tomb  and  placed  in  a  new 
shrine,  adorned  with  gold  and  jewels,  in  the  Angel  Choir, 
near  where  the  modern  memorial  to  the  good  queen  herself 
now  stands. 

In  1290,  Eleanor  fell  sick  of  a  fever,  and  Edward  sent 
her  to  Harby  in  Nottinghamshire ;  it  was  the  last  of  her 
many  journeys ;  he  joined  her  on  November  20,  and 
remained  with  her  till  her  death  on  the  twenty-eighth. 
She  was  called  the  '  Friend  of  the  English,  the  peacemaker, 


Photograph  by  8.  Smith,  Lincoln 
EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR 


THE  CRUSADES,  1270-1307  45 

the  stay  of  the  realm  '.  In  life  they  had  been  inseparable. 
For  thirteen  days  he  followed  her  bier  from  Lincoln  to 
Westminster ;  and  at  each  day's  close  they  halted  at  some 
town  where  the  clergy  came  out  to  meet  the  sad  procession, 
and  with  prayers  and  dirges  to  place  the  coffin  before  the 
high  altar  of  the  principal  church.  At  each  resting-place 
the  king  put  up  later  a  beautiful  stone  cross  in  memory  of 
the  dear  queen.  One  of  the  towns  thus  honoured  was  Stony 
Stratford,  on  the  old  Roman  road  of  Watling  Street,  along 
which  they  proceeded  to  London.  The  last  halt  was  at 
Charing  Cross,  which  keeps  to  this  day,  in  the  midst  of 
the  bustle  of  a  great  railway  terminus,  the  memory  of  the 
brave  wife  and  '  dear  Queen  '  who  made  in  faith  the  long 
journey  '  as  far  as  to  the  Sepulchre  of  Christ ',  and  lived 
to  return,  and  to  lay  her  bones  in  English  earth,  in  the 
midst  of  a  sorrowing  people.1 

The  king  granted  his  manor  of  Denham  in  South  Bucks 
to  the  Abbot  of  Westminster,  to  provide  that  masses  for 
her  soul  and  singing  by  the  whole  convent  should  com- 
memorate the  day  of  the  queen's  death,  with  solemn  tolling 
of  the  abbey  bells.  He  settled  every  detail  of  the  memorial 
services  with  tender  care.  After  they  had  been  reverently 
performed,  '  seven  times  twenty  poor  people  were  to  be 
found  and  served  with  victuals,  writhin  the  close  of  the 
Abbey,  before  and  after  which,  each  of  the  said  poor  people 
shall  devoutly  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  Creed  and  the 
Magnificat  for  the  soul  of  the  said  Eleanor,  and  for  all 
the  faithful  departed.' 

Edward  kept  the  next  Christmas  in  Bucks,  and  held 
a  Parliament  at  Ashridge,  then  within  the  borders  of  the 
county,  where  his  cousin,  Edmund  Earl  of  Cornwall,  had 
just  founded  a  monastery  of  the  order  of  Bonhommes 
(Good  Men)  and  endowed  it  with  a  relic  of  the  supposed 
blood  of  Christ,  later  the  subject  of  much  controversy. 
'  A  pleasanter  place  than  Asheridge  it  hard  were  to  finde,' 
sang  an  old  poet,  but  any  district  which  had  to  provide 
the  court  with  food  was  sorely  distressed  and  impoverished. 
The  king's  dainties  were  supplied  by  levies  on  the  sheriffs 
of  the  adjacent  counties  and  the  bailiffs  of  the  towns. 

1  The  cross  in  the  yard  at  Charing  Cross  is  not,  of  course,  an  original 
Eleanor  cross ;  it  was  erected  in  the  nineteenth  century. 


46      EDWARD  I  AND  ELEANOR  OF  CASTILE 

While  Yarmouth  sent  herring-pies,  Sussex  brawn,  and 
Bristol  conger-eels,  the  sheriffs  of  Bucks  and  Beds  sent  up, 
on  one  occasion,  428  hens  for  the  royal  table.  William  de 
Ailesbury  held  his  manor  on  condition  of  finding  'litter 
of  straw  '  for  the  king's  chamber,  '  geese  in  summer  and  eels 
in  winter ',  as  often  as  the  king  should  come  into  the  town. 

Edward  I,  unlike  many  of  his  successors,  believed  in 
Parliaments,  and  would  always  call  on  his  people  to  help 
him  in  a  difficult  crisis.  He  took  trouble  to  make  elections 
free,  '  forbidding  any  man  to  trouble  them  by  force,  craft 
or  threat.'  He  was  anxious  for  the  safety  of  the  high- 
roads, for  setting  watchmen  in  towns  and  villages,  for  the 
proper  arming  and  calling  out  of  the  militia,  and  he  forbade 
markets  to  be  held  in  churchyards.  Bucks  sent  up  one  or 
two  county  members  to  Edward's  Parliaments,  but  only 
four  boroughs  were  then  represented  :  Amersham,  Marlow, 
Wendover,  and  Wycombe.  The  king  took  some  trouble 
to  settle  the  grievances  of  the  burgesses  of  Wycombe 
against  their  powerful  neighbour  Alan  Bassett,  concerning 
'  outlying  lands  and  mills,  and  the  right  to  hold  fairs  and 
markets,  and  even  the  claim  of  the  Lord  of  the  manor 
to  carry  off  the  dung  in  the  streets '.  Such  matters  had 
come  up  in  two  previous  reigns,  with  constant  complaints 
of  the  wrongs  done  '  by  the  said  Alan,  to  the  said  burgesses  ', 
and  though  Edward  I  confirmed  their  liberties  '  for  ever  ', 
yet  the  heirs  of  the  said  Alan  and  the  said  burgesses  went 
on  disputing  for  another  250  years  orj  more,  till  Queen 
Mary  granted  them  a  '  final  charter  '  in  1553. 

The  king  had  a  palace  at  Chenies  in  Bucks.  His  father, 
Henry  III,  had  been  building  walls  round  Windsor  Castle, 
and  this  noble  pile  gradually  displaced  the  palace  at  Brill 
in  royal  favour. 

In  1292,  the  Friars  were  preaching  another  crusade,  and 
Oliver  Sutton,  one  of  St.  Hugh's  successors  as  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  sent  his  blessing  through  the  Archdeacon  of 
Buckingham  to  all  who  should  assist  the  Friars  in  the 
county  of  Bucks,  in  getting  recruits  for  the  Holy  War. 
The  king  was  too  busy  with  the  Scottish  war  to  help  them 
then,  but  in  his  will  he  left  a  great  sum  of  money  to  equip 
seven  score  knights  for  the  Holy  Land,  where  he  wished 
his  heart  to  be  buried. 


AND  THE  CRUSADES,  1270-1307  47 

'  Edward  kept  his  full  health  and  strength  till  within 
a  few  days  of  his  death,  though  his  life  had  been  rough 
and  restless.1 '  His  device  was  '  Keep  Troth ',  and  he  lived 
up  to  it. 

It  is  a  matter  of  the  deepest  regret  that  Stony  Stratford 
has  lost  King  Edward's  gift,  the  Eleanor  Cross ;  but  he 
in  life,  and  she  in  death,  left  their  mark  in  the  county. 

1  York  Powell  and  Tout,  History  of  England. 


CHAPTER  IV 
JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS 

JOHN  WYCLIFFE  (born  about  1324,  died  1384),  the 
religious  and  social  reformer,  was  born  near  Richmond  in 
Yorkshire.  On  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Tees  was 
Barnard  Castle,  the  owner  of  which,  John  Balliol,  had 
founded  in  the  preceding  century  the  famous  Oxford  College 
called  after  him.  To  Balliol  College  the  boy  was  sent  as 
a  scholar,  with  far-reaching  effects  upon  Oxford  and  upon 
England.  Wycliffe  became  a  Fellow,  and  afterwards  Master 
of  Balliol,  he  was  a  learned  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  the 
greatest  English  preacher  of  his  day.  At  that  time  the 
University  teachers  were  only  paid  by  being  given  church 
preferment ;  Wycliffe  held  the  living  of  Filhngham,  which 
he  exchanged  for  that  of  Ludgershall  in  1368.  Probably  he 
did  not  reside  here  much,  but  Ludgershall  was  near  enough 
to  Oxford  for  Wycliffe  to  ride  backwards  and  forwards 
between  his  parish  and  his  college,  and  it  was  in  the  priest's 
chamber  over  the  church  porch  that  he  is  said  to  have 
written  one  of  his  famous  books,  Concerning  the  Civil  Power. 
Buckinghamshire  was  permanently  influenced  by  the  teach- 
ing of  Wycliffe  and  his  followers,  after  he  himself  had  left 
Ludgershall  for  Lutterworth  in  Leicestershire. 

During  the  lifetime  of  Wycliffe  a  great  change  passed 
over  England.  In  his  boyhood  were  the  brilliant  victories 
of  Edward  III  and  the  Black  Prince,  followed  by  the 


48       JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS 

exhaustion  of  the  country  which  had  lavishly  poured  out 
men  and  money  for  the  long  war  with  France  ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  a  reign  in  many  respects  so  glorious,  fell  '  the 
gigantic  calamity  of  the  Black  Death  ',  a  sickness  which  in 
1349  carried  off  from  one-third  to  half  the  population  of 
England. 

The  Great  Pestilence  fell  heavily  on  all  the  Midland 
counties  ;  in  Bucks  the  religious  houses  suffered  much,  the 
Prior  of  Bradwell,  and  the  Prioress  of  Ankerwyke,  and 
seventy-seven  of  the  parochial  clergy  died  in  that  fatal 
year,  1349. 

When  the  plague  was  at  last  stayed,  manufacturers  were 
without  workmen,  farmers  without  labourers,  and  in  spite 
of  laws  to  keep  down  wages,  the  few  men  available  would 
make  their  own  terms,  and  the  forced  service  of  feudal 
times  was  superseded  by  free  labour  for  wages,  the 
herdsmen  and  ploughmen  leading  the  way  in  the  rural 
counties. 

The  great  wealth  of  the  church  had  constantly  called 
forth  the  protests  of  reformers,  but  that  wealth  was  most 
unequally  divided.  While  the  bishops  and  abbots  enjoyed 
great  revenues  and  were  practically  independent  of  the 
civil  law,  the  parish  priests  were  miserably  poor.  In  many 
places  the  great  monasteries  had  absorbed  the  tithes,  and 
appointed  as  vicars  illiterate  men,  who  undertook  the 
duties  for  next  to  nothing. 

The  prelates  and  clergy  did  not  refuse  subsidies  to  the 
crown,  but  they  already  paid  heavy  taxes  to  the  Pope, 
and  '  the  influence  of  Pope,  bishop,  and  monk  on  parish 
work  was  very  bad  '.  It  was  a  complaint  of  the  rich  men 
of  the  time  that  the  poor  parish  priest  often  took  part  in 
the  popular  tumults  and  risings  which  culminated  in  the 
Peasants'  War. 

In  1374  Wycliffe  and  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  were 
sent  to  Bruges,  as  Royal  Commissioners,  to  treat  with  the 
Pope's  delegates  about  various  points  in  dispute  between 
England  and  Rome. 

It  was  a  time  of  trouble  and  unrest.  The  old  King, 
Edward  III,  was  in  his  dotage,  the  Black  Prince,  whose 
last  breath  had  been  spent  in  defence  of  the  privileges  of 
parliament,  was  dead.  Langland,  the  poet  of  the  people's 


JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS        49 

sufferings  and  wrongs,  compared  the  Commons  '  to  an 
assembly  of  mice  and  rats  who  were  consulting  how  to  bell 
the  cat,  the  old  king,  who  was  at  perpetual  war  with  them. 
But  people  were  warned  that  worse  times  would  come  when 
the  kitten,  Richard  II,  was  king,  there  would  be  no  one  to 
keep  order,  and  anarchy  would  be  let  loose '. 

Wycliffe,  pondering  over  these  things  as  an  English 
parish  priest  and  a  statesman,  '  was  the  first  to  see  that 
no  effectual  reform  was  possible  unless  it  was  undertaken 
by  the  lay  power,  and  that  enormous  advantages  would 
accrue  to  the  State  if  the  accumulated  wealth  of  the  mon- 
astic idlers  could  be  used  to  relieve  the  heavy  burden  of 
ever-growing  taxation  "  which  was  crushing  the  working- 
classes  ".'  He  vigorously  protested  against  the  interference 
of  Rome  in  English  affairs.  His  name  was  known  to  all 
classes  as  the  champion  of  the  poor,  and  as  the  learned 
churchman  who  '  called  upon  the  State  to  reform  an  un- 
willing clergy '. 

John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  the  strongest  of  the 
king's  sons,  took  up  Wycliffe  for  political  reasons,  rightly 
valuing  a  man  '  supreme  in  the  arts  of  persuasion  and 
debate  ',  and  brought  him  from  Oxford  to  preach  at  Paul's 
Cross  and  in  the  London  churches.  John  of  Gaunt  was 
pledged  to  a  crude  scheme  of  church  disendowment,  which 
would  have  enriched  the  nobles  without  benefiting  the 
nation  at  all.  Courtenay,  bishop  of  London,  was  much 
incensed  and  alarmed.  At  his  instigation  the  gentle  Arch- 
bishop Sudbury  in  February,  1377,  summoned  Wycliffe  to 
appear  before  him  at  St.  Paul's.  There  were  many  cross- 
currents of  popular  feeling.  The  citizens,  who  loved  Wycliffe, 
had  a  quarrel  with  John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  attacking  the 
power  of  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  liberties  of  the  city.  As 
Wycliffe  moved  slowly  up  the  crowded  cathedral  aisle  of 
old  St.  Paul's,  said  to  be  the  longest  in  Christendom,  sup- 
ported by  the  royal  duke  and  Lord  Percy,  and  with  a  body 
of  Oxford  friars,  the  mob  of  London  streamed  in,  and  the 
strange  trial  began. 

It  was  chiefly  a  loud  dispute  between  the  peers  and  the 
Bishop  of  London,  until  the  mob  broke  in  and  fought  the 
duke's  guard,  and1  'the  prisoner  was  carried  off  by  his 
friends,  whether  in  triumph  or  retreat  it  was  hard  to  tell. 

986-4  D 


50      JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS 

What  Wy cliff e  thought  of  it  all,  we  can  never  even  guess. 
We  do  not  know  whether  he  wished  the  duke  to  go  with 
him  at  all.  In  the  roaring  crowd  of  infuriated  lords,  bishops, 
and  citizens,  he  stood  silent,  and  stands  silent  still '. 

In  June  the  old  king  died.  The  next  year  Wycliffe  was 
summoned  to  answer  eighteen  articles  of  accusation  before 
the  archbishops  in  Lambeth  Chapel,  when  the  Princess  of 
Wales,  mother  of  the  young  king,  sent  an  imperious  message, 
forbidding  the  court  to  proceed  against  him,  and  the  citizens 
broke  into  the  chapel  and  set  him  free.  He  was  still  supreme 
at  Oxford,  then  '  a  centre  of  learning  and  thought,  which 
has  no  parallel  in  importance  to-day '  ;  he  provided  the 
university  in  his  Latin  addresses  with  '  new  views  of 
religion  and  society ',  while  from  the  pulpit  he  taught  the 
people  in  English  '  doctrines  which  he  had  first  put  into 
shape  for  the  learned  '.  It  was  not  until  his  studies  led  him 
to  deny  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  in  1381  that  he 
was  branded  as  a  heretic.  '  John  of  Gaunt  hurried  down 
to  Oxford  to  prevent  him  from  ruining  a  fine  political 
career  by  an  insane  love  of  truth.'  Wycliffe  had  quite  other 
plans  in  his  head  than  his  patron  dreamt  of,  he  refused  to 
keep  silence,  and  the  alliance  of  the  two  men  came  to 
an  end. 

Disappointed  in  all  hope  of  political  reform,  and  driven 
at  length  from  his  official  position  in  the  university,  Wycliffe 
devoted  himself  to  the  deeper  spiritual  needs  of  England, 
and  determined  to  fight  ignorance  and  promote  vital 
religion  by  translating  the  Scriptures  and  establishing  an 
order  of  '  poor  preachers '  to  teach  the  common  people. 
'  He  gathered  round  him  a  body  of  university  men,1  living 
together  at  Oxford,  probably  in  some  common  hall,  clad 
in  long  russet  gowns  of  one  pattern,  with  large  pockets, 
going  on  foot  through  the  country  '  preaching  in  churches 
or  in  the  open  air  to  rich  and  poor  a  simple  form  of  evan- 
gelical religion,  and  exaggerating  their  master's  antagonism 
to  the  existing  church  order. 

Wycliffe's  teaching  put  the  Bible  in  quite  a  different 
position  from  that  given  to  it  by  the  mediaeval  clergy.  He 
began  the  great  Protestant  appeal  to  Scripture  against 
church  traditions  and  venerable  abuses,  and  in  consequence 
he  thought  it  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  laity  should 


JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS       51 

be  able  to  read  the  text  for  themselves.  Parts  of  the  Bible 
had  been  rendered  into  Anglo-Saxon  and  Middle  English, 
and  the  learned  might  study  it  in  Latin  ;  the  Psalms  were 
the  treasure-house  of  the  Church's  devotions,  but  Wycliffe 
for  the  first  time  conceived  and  executed  the  great  task  of 
translating  the  whole  Bible  from  Latin  into  the  vulgar 
tongue.  He  himself  undertook  the  Gospels,  and  probably 
completed  the  whole  of  the  New  Testament,  while  his 
friends  and  followers  wrorked  at  the  Old  Testament ;  the 
English  Bible  was  completed  before  1400,  but  parts  of  it 
were  in  circulation  by  1381.  In  that  year  a  sudden  revolt 
in  Kent  under  a  priest,  John  Ball,  was  attributed  to  the 
spread  of  Wycliffe's  opinions,  and  the  cruel  suppression  of 
the  Peasants'  War  and  the  treachery  of  the  young  king 
increased  the  bitterness  of  the  rulers  in  church  and  State 
against  '  the  evangelical  Doctor  '. 

But  the  angel  of  death  came  mercifully  to  call  Wycliffe 
before  the  terrible  persecution  of  his  followers  began ;  he 
was  taken  ill  while  at  service  in  his  own  church  at 
Lutterworth,  in  December,  1384,  and  he  never  spoke 
again. 

Wycliffe  reverenced  the  sacraments,  and  loved  the 
services  of  the  church.  He  wrote  of  the  Virgin  as  an 
example  to  all  good  women,  but  he  held  that  the  wor- 
ship of  Mary  and  of  the  saints,  the  regard  for  relics,  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope,  and,  above  all,  the  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  were  late  additions  to  the  beliefs  of 
the  primitive  church.  He  denounced  the  sale  of  pardons 
and  indulgences,  and  the  whole  system  of  extorting  money 
for  sins,  while  doing  little  to  reform  the  sinner,  '  as  if  grace 
could  be  bought  and  sold  like  an  ox  or  an  ass.'  He  preached 
a  large  tolerance,  many  centuries  in  advance  of  his  age, 
pleading  that  Christ  wished  his  commandments  to  be 
obeyed  willingly  and  freely,  and  had  appointed  no  civil 
punishment  for  the  breach  of  them.  His  austere  and 
simple  life,  his  undaunted  courage  and  plain  speaking, 
everywhere  attracted  the  common  people. 

As  the  years  went  on  the  bitterness  against  Wycliffe's 
memory  and  his  writings  increased  ;  but,  strangely  enough, 
while  his  books  were  being  ,burnt  in  England  they  were 
leavening  a  court  and  nation  in  the  middle  of  the  continent 

D  2 


62        JOHN  WYCLUTE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS 

of  Europe.  Anne  of  Bohemia,  the  much-loved  wife  of 
Richard  II,  herself  a  patroness  of  learning,  was  a  link  be- 
tween Prague  and  Oxford,  and  at  least  one  young  Bohemian 
noble,  of  her  numerous  suite,  studying  in  our  university, 
carried  Wyclifife's  works  back  with  him  to  his  own  country. 
Queen  Anne  possessed  the  four  Gospels  in  English — '  not ', 
as  Bishop  Arundel  said  in  his  sermon  at  her  funeral  in  1394, 
*  that  this  godly  lady  had  these  books  for  a  show,  hanging 
at  her  girdle,  but  that  she  seemed  to  be  a  studious  occupier 
of  the  same '.  It  was  so  well  known  that  John  Huss  derived 
his  opinions  from  the  English  doctor,  that  the  Council  of 
Constance,  which  condemned  Huss  to  death,  thought  it 
worth  while  actually  to  decree  that  Wycliffe's  body,  which 
had  lain  peacefully  in  the  grave  for  over  thirty  years,  should 
be  dug  up  and  publicly  dishonoured. 

Wycliffe's  preachers  were  mostly  ordained  priests  of  the 
church  with  Oxford  degrees ;  neither  they  nor  their  hearers 
were  prepared  to  be  considered  as  heretics,  still  less  as 
martyrs.  When  called  to  account  they  were  ready  to  argue, 
to  explain,  and  if  need  were  to  recant ;  they  had  the  sup- 
port of  many  powerful  laymen,  and  when  released  they 
went  out  again  teaching,  and  distributing  the  Scriptures. 
But  when  under  Henry  IV  and  Henry  V  they  were  hunted 
out  of  the  church,  and  the  godly  were  bidden  '  to  shun  and 
avoid  '  a  Wycliffite  '  as  a  serpent  which  putteth  forth  most 
pestiferous  poison  V  their  congregations  consisted  more  and 
more  of  poor  working  folk,  and  the  '  Hedge-Priests  '  them- 
selves became  less  and  less  educated.  The  contemptuous 
name  of  Lollard  (an  idle,  lolling  fellow)  was  given  them, 
but  the  very  fact  that  they  were  treated  as  a  dangerous 
sect,  inspired  them  with  the  consciousness  that  they  had 
something  worth  holding  by,  they  apologized  no  more,  but 
kept  firmly  to  their  convictions. 

The  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  Keeper  of  the  King's  Privy 
Seal,  was  John  de  Buckingham,  born  in  that  town,  and  for 
some  timeJRector  of  Olney,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
taken  any  prominent  part  in  the  controversy. 

In  1397  Sir  John  Cheyne  of  Chesham  Bois  was  condemned 
to  death,  with  the  Lollard  chief,  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  but 
the  sentence  was  commuted  to  perpetual  imprisonment. 
Thomas  Drayton,  rector  of  Drayton  Beauchamp,  was 


JOHN  WYCLIFFE  AND  THE  LOLLARDS        53 

excepted  by  name  in  a  general  pardon  granted  to  Lollards 
in  1414. 

It  was  in  this  second  generation  that  the  Lollards  gained 
a  strong  footing  in  Bucks  from  Oxford  to  the  Chilterns. 
Foxe,  who  was  collecting  materials  for  his  popular  Book  of 
Martyrs,  in  the  first  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  found  at 
Amersham  an  old  man  and  woman  who  had  actually  seen, 
as  children,  the  burning  of  Lollards. 

Stories  were  whispered  by  cottage  fires  of  the  brave  end 
of  William  Tylsworth,  martyred  in  Stanley  Close,  his  own 
daughter  Joan  being  forced  to  carry  and  to  light  the 
faggots  ;  of  Thomas  Harding,  Thomas  Bernard,  and  James 
Morden,  Amersham  working-men,  and  of  Joan  Norman, 
who  also  suffered ;  of  Thomas  Chase,  and  of  Robert,  the 
miller  of  Missenden,  burnt  at  Buckingham,  and  of  many 
another  humble  and  honoured  name.  Christopher  Shoe- 
maker, of  Great  Missenden,  was  accused  of  converting 
a  neighbour  by  reading  to  him  the  words  of  Christ,  from 
a  book  called  Wickliffe's  Wicket  \  he  was  burnt  to  death 
in  1518. 

When  power  changed  hands,  the  same  intolerant  spirit 
caused  many  an  innocent  Catholic  to  suffer.  These  bitter 
memories  are  recalled,  not  for  the  sake  of  reviling  the 
persecutors,  but  because  it  is  part  of  our  proud  inheritance 
as  a  county,  that  from  generation  to  generation  Bucks  men 
and  women  met  death  in  its  most  cruel  forms,  with  quiet 
courage,  rather  than  deny  the  truth,  which  was  the  whole 
of  truth  to  them  as  they  understood  it.  i 

The  interest  of  Wycliffe's  life  to  English  churchmen  lies 
in  the  fact  that  it  was  an  English  priest  who  strove  to 
reform  the  Church  of  England  from  within,  and  that  the 
Reformation  which  came  back  to  us  more  than  a  century 
later  from  Germany  and  Geneva  was  of  English  descent, 
and  returned  to  a  land  long  since  prepared  to  receive  it, 
by  the  work  of  John  Wycliffe,  once  Rector  of  Ludgershall. 

1  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  Life  and  Times  of  Wycliffe. 


64  THE  RED  ROSE  AND 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  RED  ROSE  AND  THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS 

[HENRY  IV's  reign  was  full  of  political  and  social  unrest, 
and  Henry  V  began  again  the  long  strife  with  France.  The 
war  was  very  popular,  as  wars  generally  are,  especially  wars 
of  aggression  ;  and  under  the  leadership  of  the  young  king, 
one  of  the  splendid  figures  in  our  island  story,  our  county 
cheerfully  provided  men  and  money.  At  Agincourt 

*  The  men  of  Buckingham  came  on 
Under  the  Swan  the  badge  of  that  old  Town'. 

We  have  a  very  definite  link  in  the  county  with  Henry's 
queen,  Catherine  of  France,  the  little  French  bride,  with 
her  broken  English,  familiar  to  us  in  Shakespeare's  play  of 
Henry  V.  The  village  of  Long  Crendon  was  assigned  to 
her,1  and  her  Great  Steward,  Walter  Beauchamp,  held 
several  courts  there  up  to  the  thirteenth  year  of  her  son's 
troubled  reign.  The  Court-Rolls  of  the  manor  date  back  to 
Edward  III,  the  Court-House  was  the  recognized  place  for 
holding  the  manorial  courts,  and  was  the  centre  of  the  vil- 
lage life.  In  1482  to  1488  the  Dean  and  Canons  of  Windsor 
held  courts  at  Crendon  again,  under  Henry  VII,  so  that 
the  Long  Crendon  Court-House,  besides  its  value  as  a  speci- 
men of  fourteenth-century  domestic  architecture,  has  many 
historical  associations.  On  Henry's  untimely  death  his 
conquests  fell  to  pieces.  The  Red  Rose  of  Lancaster  was 
represented  by  a  tiny  rosebud,  in  Henry  of  Windsor,  who 
became  king  at  nine  months  old.  The  Privy  Council  were 
early  busied  about  his  education.  The  Lady  Alice  Boteler 
(whose  family  had  lately  founded  the  Grey  Friars  monastery 
at  Aylesbury)  was  charged  to  teach  him  courtesy  and  good 
breeding,  and  the  warrant  running  in  the  name  of  his  two- 
year  old  majesty,  allowed  her  '  to  chastise  us  reasonably 
from  time  to  time  as  the  case  may  require  '. 

When  the  king  was  seven  years  old,  Richard  Beauchamp, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  who  had  travelled  much  in  Italy,  became 
his  tutor,  and  the  Court  was  filled  with  little  boys,  heirs  of 


THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS  55 

the  peers  of  the  realm,  who  were  to  be  brought  up  with  the 
king,  perhaps  in  imitation  of  the  Palace  School,  an  educa- 
tional experiment,  at  Mantua,  called  the  Home  of  Joy. 

To  found  a  school  or  college  was  now  the  aim  of  the  best 
men  of  the  day,  as  their  ancestors  had  endowed  monasteries 
and  priories.  Archbishop  Chicheley,  said  to  have  been 
Rector  of  Bletchley,  who  baptized  Henry  VI,  founded 
a  grammar  school  at  Higham  Ferrars  and  the  College  of 
All  Souls,  Oxford.1  The  Earl  of  Suffolk,  one  of  the  king's 
chief  friends,  had  just  given  the  Ewelme  Endowment,  the 
benefits  of  which  have  lasted  to  the  present  day  ;  many 
Bucks  children  getting  higher  education,  and  many  excellent 
cottages  having  been  built  at  Marsh  Gibbon  and  elsewhere 
from  the  Ewelme  funds. 

The  young  king,  who  loved  learning,  was  therefore 
following  the  best  examples  about  him,  when  at  eighteen 
he  wished  to  found  '  The  King's  College  of  Our  Lady  of 
Eton  beside  Windsor  '.  He  speaks  of  it  '  "  as  a  sort  of  first 
fruits  of  our  taking  into  our  own  hands  the  government  of 
our  kingdoms  ...  it  has  become  the  fixed  purpose  of  our 
heart  to  found  a  college  . . .  not  far  from  our  birthplace  ".* 
The  school  was  only  a  part  of  the  foundation  ;  there  were 
almshouses  for  poor  and  disabled  men  and  a  great  church 
with  clerks  and  choristers  and  provision  for  the  teaching  of 
music  and  part-singing.  A  Master  in  Grammar  was  to  teach 
the  twenty-five  (afterwards  seventy)  poor  scholars  and  all 
others  whatsoever  from  any  part  of  our  realm  of  England, 
freely,  without  exaction  of  money.' 2  The  model  and 
mother  of  Eton  was  Winchester  College,  and  the  same  rules 
applied  generally  to  both.  The  beautiful  chapel  represents 
only  the  choir  of  the  great  church  Henry  had  planned.  The 
king  laid  the  first  stone  of  it  himself  in  1441,  just  before  he 
went  to  lay  the  first  stone  of  the  sister  college  he  was 
building,  King's  College,  Cambridge,  with  its  glorious  chapel. 

The  Eton  scholars,  elected  between  the  ages  of  8  and 
12,  were  taught  reading,  music,  and  grammar;  the  latter  was 
defined  as  '  the  key  to  the  Scriptures,  the  gate  to  the  liberal 
sciences,  and  to  theology  the  mistress  of  them  all'.  Latin 
was  understood  all  over  Europe,  and  an  Eton  boy  was 
expected  to  have  a  good  knowledge  of  certain  Latin  authors, 
to  write  Latin  prose  and  verse  and  to  speak  it  in  and  out  of 


56  THE  RED  ROSE  AND 

college.1  A  letter  of  1479  has  preserved  the  kind  of  subject 
set  for  Latin  verse  : 

'  Quare  quomodo  non  valet  hora  valet  mora  ? 

Why,  when  the  hour  does  not  avail,  does  delay  avail  ? 
and  the  boy  answers  that  you  can  see  an  example  in  the 
trees,  everything  cannot  be  done  in  a  day  but  delay  avails.' 
The  discipline  was  severe.  Religious  instruction,  accord- 
ing to  one  set  of  rules,  was  to  be  given  before  breakfast,  the 
master  reciting  '  one  little  piece  in  Latin  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  Creed,  the  Treatise  of  Manners,  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, the  Seven  Deadly  Sins  ...  or  some  other 
proper  saying  meet  for  the  Babies  to  learn  '.  The  Treatise 
of  Manners  went  into  minute  details  and  began  with  the 
lines  (in  Latin)  : 

'  Good  manners  for  the  table  here  we  tell 
To  make  our  scholars,  gentlemen  as  well.' 

It  contained  the  famous  epigram,  '  Remember  that  you 
eat  to  live,  and  do  not  live  to  eat ' ;  the  perfect  manners  for 
which  Etonians  are  famous  have  therefore  long  roots  in 
the  past. 

The  old  English  song-game  of  '  Nuts  and  May  '  keeps  the 
memory  of  the  simple  diversions  which  preceded  by  many 
centuries  the  cricket  and  football  of  our  public  schools,  and 
even  the  earlier  hoops  and  marbles.  On  May  Day  Eton 
boys  were  allowed  to  get  up  at  four,  to  gather  boughs  of 
May  to  adorn  the  college  windows,  provided  always  '  that 
they  do  not  wet  their  feet '.  They  were  then  also  permitted 
to  write  their  verses  in  English  '  on  the  flowery  sweetness 
of  springtime '.  In  September  the  school  went  a-nutting, 
and  nuts  were  given  to  the  master  and  fellows. 

Thomas  Alwyn  (or  Walwayn)  of  Newport  Pagnell  was 
head  master  from  1441  to  1442,  but  his  name  is  obscured 
by  that  of  William  Waynflete,  the  great  Winchester  head 
master,  transferred  to  Eton  perhaps  as  provost,  the 
founder  of  Magdalen  College,  who  divided  his  energies 
between  Winchester,  Eton,  and  Oxford. 

It  is  a  curious  little  bit  of  history  that  Cromwell  was  the 
last  to  give  the  annual  royal  gifts  of  game  and  wine  to 
Eton  College. 


[Copyright  by  the  Fine  Arts  Publishing  Co.,  Ltd., 
publishers  of  the  large  colour  reproduction 

'  PLUCKING  THE  RED  AND  WHITE  ROSES  IN  THE  OLD  TEMPLE  GARDEN  ' 
From  the  fresco  in  the  Palace  of  Westminster  by  H.  A.  Payne 


THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS  59 

And  so  Henry's  foundation  flourished,  but  the  pious 
founder  himself  was  struggling  in  a  sea  of  troubles.  '  Plague 
and  bad  weather  and  famine  wrought  misery  which  was 
heightened  by  the  weak  rule,  which  suffered  wrongs  and 
crimes  to  go  unpunished  and  unatoned.'  The  Wars  of  the 
Roses  completed  the  people's  misfortunes. 

When  Edward  IV  was  proclaimed  king  he  made  a  great 
effort,  even  in  the  founder's  lifetime,  to  transfer  the  Eton 
endowments  to  Windsor,  and  to  substitute  the  names  of 
Edward  and  Elizabeth  for  those  of  Henry  and  Margaret. 
Bells,  plate,  and  jewels  were  actually  carried  off  to 
St.  George's  Chapel.  The  Provost  Westbury  bowed  to  the 
storm,  but  he  and  Waynflete,  who  had  been  specially  charged 
by  Henry  to  carry  out  his  plans,  gradually  regained  the 
favour  of  Edward  and  saved  Eton  College  for  the  county, 
with  a  new  charter. 

Henry's  college  continued  to  flourish,  and  in  1529, 
another  Bucks  man,  Richard  Cox,  born  at  Whaddon  and 
educated  at  Eton,  became  head  master.  Ascham's  account 
of  '  the  best  schoolmaster  and  greatest  beater  of  his  time  ', 
long  thought  to  be  Udall,  is  now  said  to  describe  Cox,1  who 
was  undoubtedly  a  great  head  master  ;  the  self-government 
of  boys  by  boys  flourished  under  his  rule.  Cox  became 
tutor  to  Edward  VI,  suffered  persecution  and  exile  under 
Mary,  and  was  Bishop  of  Ely  under  Elizabeth.  His  suc- 
cessor, Nicholas  Udall,  is  better  remembered  as  'the  father  of 
English  comedy'.  He  wrote  plays  for  the  Eton  boys,  and 
their  acting  and  recitations  wrere  so  good  that  when  later  the 
Puritan  spirit  would  have  put  them  down,  it  was  pleaded 
that  there  was  no  better  training  than  this  for  a  public 
speaker — Eton  that  had  begun  by  training  priests  and 
preachers  was  turning  out  orators  and  statesmen  besides. 

The  story  of  Eton  forms  a  literature  in  itself,  and  is  inter- 
woven with  all  the  later  history  of  England  and  the  Empire. 
Reverting  to  the  time  of  Henry  VI  we  find  another  grammar 
school  was  founded  in  Bucks  in  the  parish  of  Thornton, 
within  a  few  years  of  the  founding  of  Eton. 

The  founder,  John  Barton,  of  Thornton  Hall,  was  a  suc- 
cessful lawyer  and  Recorder  of  London,  who  represented 
Bucks  in  the  last  Parliament  of  Richard  II.  Thornton 
Grammar  School  was  a  small  Eton,  '  in  such  proportion  as 


60  THE  RED  ROSE  AND 

the  riches  of  a  Recorder  might  bear  to  the  resources  of 
a  Monarch.' l  All  essentials  were  the  same — the  masses  for 
the  founder's  soul,  the  grammar  school  free  for  all  the 
children  of  the  town,  the  scholars  on  the  foundation,  and 
the  alms-folk.  But  whereas  at  Eton  the  services  were 
conducted  by  a  provost,  ten  fellows  and  ten  chaplains,  at 
Thornton  the  chaplain  and  head  master  were  one  and  the 
same. 

Being  founded  under  Henry  VI  it  was  thought  prudent, 
as  at  Eton,  to  have  a  fresh  license  from  Edward  IV  in  1468, 
in  which  Barton's  Chantry  is  said  to  be  founded  by  Robert 
Ingleton,  another  Thornton  man.  '  Sir  William  Abbot, 
Chantry  Priest,'  in  Tudor  times,  seems  to  have  been  school- 
master up  to  the  age  of  86  ;  he  died  in  1574.  His  successor, 
John  King,  was  styled  '  Schoolmaster  of  our  Lady  the  Queen 
at  Thornton  '.  Eton  College  and  the  tiny  grammar  school 
at  Thornton,  with  its  six  scholars  and  six  alms-folk,  are  the 
only  grammar  schools  known  to  have  existed  in  the  county 
before  the  Reformation. 

It  is  a  delightful  bit  of  bygone  Bucks  history  that  while 
king,  prelate,  and  peer  were  setting  up  great  lamps  of 
learning,  the  lawyer  and  the  small  country  squire  were 
lighting  their  own  little  candle  in  the  village  of  Thornton, 
hereafter  to  transfer  its  light  to  Buckingham.  And  if  the 
'  spires  and  antique  towers '  of  Eton  still  venerate  '  Her 
Henry's  holy  shade  ',  the  scholars  of  the  present  flourishing 
Latin  School  at  Buckingham  may  well  make  a  pious 
pilgrimage  to  Thornton  Church,  to  visit  the  tombs  of  the 
Bartons  and  Ingletons,  their  early  benefactors  under  the 
Red  Rose  and  the  White. 

The  tide  of  Civil  War  ebbed  and  flowed,  no  actual  fighting 
took  place  in  Bucks,  but  the  roar  of  battle  echoed  from 
St.  Albans  in  1455  on  the  eastern  border,  to  Northampton 
on  the  north  in  1460. 

At  the  Battle  of  Wakefield,  Sir  John  Tyringham  of 
Tyringham  was  fighting  for  Henry  VI,  he  was  seized  and 
beheaded  with  some  other  knights  to  avenge  the  death  of 
Richard,  Duke  of  York,  though  not  personally  responsible 
for  it. 

In  the  spring  of  1461  Edward  IV  was  proclaimed  king, 
Henry  fled  to  the  north,  and  Margaret  to  Flanders.  In  1464 


THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS  61 

Warwick,  the  kingmaker,  who  was  anxious  to  strengthen 
the  House  of  York,  was  negotiating  a  marriage  between 
Edward  and  the  sister  of  the  crafty  and  powerful  King 
Louis  XI  of  France ;  but  Edward,  who  ought  to  have 
been  with  his  soldiers  in  Yorkshire,  lingered  at  Stony  Strat- 
ford, a  place  intimately  connected  with  him  and  his  son  at 
turning  points  in  their  fortunes.  While  hunting  in  Whittle- 
bury  Forest  he  met  Elizabeth  (Woodville),  the  widow  of 
Sir  John  Grey,  who  was  killed  fighting  for  the  Red  Rose  in 
1461.  Her  father,  Sir  Richard  Woodville,  had  been  made 
Lord  Rivers  by  Henry  VI,  and  she  had  herself  been  lady 
of  the  bed-chamber  to  Queen  Margaret.  Seeing,  however, 
that  the  fortune  of  war  was  with  the  White  Rose,  the  lady, 
with  her  two  little  sons,  waylaid  the  young  king  Edward 
in  the  forest  and  made  a  personal  appeal  to  him,  as  her 
dower  and  their  inheritance  were  forfeited  or  withheld. 
Elizabeth,  Lady  Grey,  is  described  as  a  woman  '  of  a  more 
formal  countenance,  than  of  excellent  beauty  .  .  .  yet  with 
her  sober  demeanour,  sweet  looks,  and  comely  smiling, 
beside  her  pleasant  tongue  and  trim  wit,  she  made  subject 
to  her  the  heart  of  that  great  prince  ' ; 2  and  in  May  1464 
they  were  married  secretly  at  her  mother's  house  at  Grafton, 
Edward  returning  to  Stony  Stratford.  A  few  days  later  he 
paid  her  a  longer  visit,  and  went  on  to  York,  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  The  secret  was  kept,  till  Warwick  again 
pressed  his  French  alliance,  and  Edward  told  his  council 
that  he  was  already  a  married  man.  The  unpopularity  of 
the  alliance  was  increased  by  the  honours  showered  upon 
the  queen's  relations,  and  the  great  marriages  arranged  for 
them.  After  Elizabeth's  Coronation,  William  Paulet,  of 
Wraysbury,  was  given  the  office  of  Tailor  of  the  Great 
Wardrobe';  so  the  Court  fashions,  at  least,  were  set  by 
Bucks.  He  had  for  his  wages  I2d.  a  day,  out  of  the  manor 
of  Langley  Marish,  which,  with  Wraysbury,  was  part  of  the 
queen's  dower.  The  Woodvilles  were  fond  of  display,  so 
perhaps  it  was  not  William  Paulet's  blame  that  fashions 
were  so  extravagant.  Never  had  such  ample  sleeves  swept 
the  ground,  nor  headdresses  soared  to  such  a  height,  nor 
peaked  cloth  shoes  attained  to  such  a  length  of  incon- 
venience. 

Swans,  always  plentiful  in  the  county,  were  considered 


62  THE  RED  ROSE  AND 

as  *  the  king's  game '.  Edward  IV  ordained  that  no  one 
whose  income  was  less  than  five  marks  might  possess  a  swan. 
Owners  marked  their  swans  on  the  beak,  the  king's  swans 
had  '  the  double-nick ',  perverted  into  the  double  neck, 
which  became  the  swan  with  two  necks  of  the  old  sign- 
boards. The  swan-upping,  or  taking  up  of  the  cygnets 
to  mark  them,  was  on  the  Monday  following  Midsummer 
Day. 

In  1466  the  unfortunate  King  Henry  was  captured, 
lodged  in  the  Tower,  but  not  unkindly  treated ;  Edward 
and  Warwick  quarrelled,  and  Henry  was  again  proclaimed 
king  in  1470,  but  Edward  regained  the  throne  by  his  victory 
at  Barnet  in  1471.  His  friend  Montague  and  his  enemy 
Warwick  were  slain  there,  and  he  buried  them  both  in  state 
at  Bisham  Priory  ;  Warwick  had  owned  the  manors  of 
Newport  Pagnell  and  Linford,  forfeited  by  the  Botelers. 
Edward  reached  London  on  May  21,  and  that  night  Henry 
died  in  the  Tower,  certainly  by  violence.  '  His  life  had 
been  so  sorrowiul,  and  he  himself  had  been  so  innocent  of 
the  wrongdoing  that  had  brought  civil  war  on  in  England, 
that  many  men  held  him  for  a  martyr.  He  was  a  merciful 
man,  long-suffering,  mild  of  speech,  and  patient  in  his 
troubles  ;  pure  and  pious  in  his  life,  ever  grieving  over  the 
sin  and  sorrow  he  could  not  stop.'  2  The  next  day  EdwTard 
knighted  and  rewarded  many  citizens  who  had  stood  by 
him,  and  among  them  Ralph  Verney,  of  the  Mercers' 
Company,  afterwards  Lord  Mayor.  The  king  gave  him  the 
forfeited  lands  of  William  Wandsworth,  in  Aylesbury, 
Bierton,  and  Burcote,  and  Sir  Ralph  Verney  purchased 
the  estate  of  Middle  Claydon,  and  built  himself  a  house 
there.  North  Bucks  seems  to  have  supported  the  White 
Rose,  but  families  were  cruelly  divided.  Sir  Ralph's  son, 
Sir  John  Verney,  later  sheriff  for  the  county,  married 
Margaret,  named  after  the  Queen  of  the  Red  Rose,  whose 
father,  Sir  Robert  Whittingham,  died  for  King  Henry  at 
Tewkesbury.  As  the  fortunes  of  war  changed,  the  menaced 
households  put  forward,  as  in  Stuart  times,  the  services  of 
any  member  of  the  family  who  had  fought  on  the  other 
side,  to  ward  off  ruin  and  death.  An  old  crusader,  Sir 
John  Cheynie,  died  in  1468,  aged  100. 

Richard   Fowler,    of   Buckingham,    the   descendant    of 


THE  WHITE  ROSE  IN  BUCKS  63 

another  crusader,  rose  into  favour,  and  King  Edward  made 
him  his  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster ;  he  was 
member  for  Bucks  and  a  benefactor  of  his  native  town  till 
his  death  in  1477. 

Thomas  Lord  Hungerford,  of  Stoke  Poges,  a  brave 
supporter  of  the  Red  Rose,  was  put  to  death  by  Richard, 
Duke  of  Gloucester.  His  younger  brother,  Walter,  narrowly 
escaped  the  same  fate  when  Richard  was  king,  but  he 
managed  to  escape  near  Stony  Stratford  from  the  guards, 
who  were  taking  him  to  the  Tower,  and  fought  bravely  for 
Henry  VII  at  Bosworth  Field. 

Edward  IV's  troubled  reign  continued  to  be  embittered 
by  the  feud  between  the  king's  brothers  and  the  Woodvilles, 
and  when  the  king  died  in  1483  in  the  prime  of  life,  Holin- 
shed  attributes  to  him  a  speech  foreshadowing  coming 
trouble — '  The  realm,'  said  the  dying  man,  '  should  always 
find  kings  and  perad  venture  as  good  kings.  But  if  you 
among  yourselves  in  a  child's  reign  fall  at  debate,  many 
a  good  man  shall  perish,  and  haply  he  too  and  ye  too,  ere 
this  land  find  peace  again.'  The  queen  took  sanctuary  in 
Westminster,  with  her  second  son  Richard.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  was  at  Ludlow,  under  the  care  of  his  uncle,  Earl 
Rivers ;  the  story  is  vividly  told  by  Shakespeare  in 
Richard  III.  The  queen  begged  that  her  son  might  have 
a  strong  escort  when  he  came  up  to  London  to  be  crowned, 
but  she  was  overruled.  A  few  days  later  the  Archbishop  of 
York  announced  to  her — 

'  At  Stony-Stratford  they  do  rest  to-night.' 

How  the  name  must  have  brought  back  the  happy  and 
romantic  days  of  her  courtship  and  stolen  marriage,  when 
she  was  loved  by  a  king  for  herself  alone,  in  defiance  of  the 
maxims  of  prudence  and  high  policy,  and  it  was  just  at 
Stony  Stratford  that  the  great  tragedy  of  her  life  began. 
Her  young  son  was  taken  prisoner  there  by  his  uncle 
Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  and  she  never  saw  him  again  ; 
her  brother  was  put  to  death. 

Edward  V  slept  at  Stony  Stratford,  where  his  window  in 
an  old  house  is  still  shown,  and  Earl  Rivers,  with  part  of 
his  suite,  went  on  to  Northampton  ;  the  Dukes  of  Gloucester 
and  Buckingham  met  them  there.  The  next  morning  they 


64  THE  RED  ROSE  AND 

took  the  way  to  Stony  Stratford, '  where  they  found  the  king 
and  his  company  ready  to  leap  on  horseback.  They  alighted 
down  with  all  their  company  about  them,  in  which  goodly 
array  they  came  to  the  king,  and  on  their  knees  very  humbly 
saluted  His  Grace,  who  received  them  in  a  very  joyous  and 
amiable  manner,  nothing  knowing  nor  mistrusting  as  yet 
what  was  done.' 

That  sadly  interrupted  journey  ended  in  the  Tower, 
where  the  king's  brother  joined  him — 

'  Rough  cradle  for  such  pretty  little  ones.' 

The  sad  pity  of  their  murder  still  stirs  us,  as  it  has  stirred 
many  hearts  for  400  years ;  an  old  song  helped  to  keep 
their  memory  green — 

'  When  these  sweet  children  thus  were  laid  in  bed 
And  to  the  Lord  their  hearty  prayers  had  said, 
Sweet  slumb'ring  sleep,  then  closing  up  their  eyes, 
Each  folded  in  the  other's  arms  then  h'es.' 

Did  the  children  of  Stony  Stratford  sing  it,  one  wonders, 
where  they  had  once  gathered,  to  see  their  boy-king  ride 
past. 

1  Victoria  County  History,  Bucks.  *  Holinshed's  Chronicle. 


CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON,  1485-1536 

WHEN  Henry  VII  arranged  the  marriage  of  his  son 
Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  with  Catherine  of  Arragon  in 
1501,  he  chose  the  future  Queen  of  England  from  the  most 
celebrated  reigning  family  in  Europe. 

Spain,  which  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII' s  grand- 
daughter Elizabeth,  was  the  bitter  enemy  of  England 
and  the  tyrannical  suppressor  of  political  and  religious 
liberty,  then  stood  as  the  champion  of  Christianity 
against  Mohammedanism ;  and  the  fight  of  centuries 
was  brought  to  a  climax  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors 
from  Spain  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  parents  of 


CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON  65 

Princess  Catherine.  Isabella  was  the  most  prominent  and 
popular  woman  of  her  time.  A  queen  in  her  own  right,  an 
accomplished  scholar,  an  admirable  wife  and  mother,  her 
arrival  in  the  field  had  often  changed  defeat  into  victory 
by  the  enthusiasm  she  inspired  in  the  soldiers.  She  was 
idolized  by  her  people  and  held  as  a  Saint  by  the  Church  ; 
it  was  her  help  and  sympathy  that  sent  Columbus  forth  to 
the  discovery  of  the  New  World,  and  thus  gave  to  Spain 
the  dominion  of  South  America  and  the  West  Indies. 

Catherine's  childhood  was  spent  in  most  stirring  scenes. 
Queen  Isabella  lodged  in  the  Spanish  camp  with  her  four 
little  girls  during  the  long  siege  of  Granada,  and  devoted 
all  her  leisure  to  their  education.  Catherine  was  a  good 
Latin  scholar,  a  student  of  the  Bible  in  Latin,  and  was 
accomplished  in  needlework  and  all  feminine  arts. 

She  was  in  Granada  when  the  English  king  asked  her 
in  marriage  for  his  son.  Her  father  and  her  future  father- 
in-law,  both  famous  for  their  skill  in  driving  a  hard  bar- 
gain, wrangled  long  over  the  disposal  of  her  large  dowry, 
but  when  this  was  settled  Catherine  was  well  received  in 
England,  and  Henry  VII  gave  her  as  Princess  of  Wales 
the  rents  of  land  in  Steeple  Claydon,  Wendover,  Wrays- 
bury,  Bierton,  and  other  Bucks  villages,  so  that  she  was 
at  once  connected  with  the  county. 

Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  died  at  Ludlow  a  few  months 
later,  and  Catherine  was  left  a  widow  at  seventeen.  She 
longed  to  return  to  her  own  country,  but  Henry  VII, 
wishing  to  keep  her  fortune  in  England,  obtained  special 
leave  from  the  Pope  that  she  should  marry  his  second 
eon  Henry,  now  his  heir.  This  marriage  took  place  just 
after  Henry  VII  died  in  1509. 

The  young  king  and  queen  made  a  magnificent  progress 
through  London.1  The  houses  were  hung  with  tapestry 
and  cloth  of  gold,  and  maidens  in  white  lined  the  streets 
holding  palms  of  white  wax  in  their  hands,  marshalled  by 
priests  in  rich  robes  with  fragrant  incense  in  their  silver 
censors.  The  bride  herself  was  in  white  embroidered  satin, 
her  fine  black  hair  hung  down  her  back  from  under  her 
golden  crown,  with  brilliant  jewels.  She  sat  in  a  litter 
of  glistening  white  stuff  shot  with  gold  and  drawn  by 
white  horses.  The  next  day  was  the  coronation  at  West- 

986-4  E 


66  CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON 

minster,  followed  by  a  long  series  of  festivities.  Henry  VIII 
loved  fine  clothes  and  beautiful  colours,  and  hunting  and 
tilting  and  all  sorts  of  exercise,  music,  dancing,  and  acting. 
He  and  his  gentlemen  once  dressed  up  as  Robin  Hood 
and  his  Merry  Men,  and  came  suddenly  into  the  queen's 
rooms  to  surprise  her  and  her  ladies.  These  were  happy 
years  for  Queen  Catherine,  her  husband  loved  and  trusted 
her,  and  the  Court  was  filled  with  interesting  and  clever 
men  both  English  and  foreign ;  but  she  had  the  sorrow 
of  losing  two  or  more  baby  boys  before  the  birth  of  her 
daughter  Mary.  In  1513  Henry  VIII  was  at  war  with 
France  and  with  Scotland  ;  and  when  he  went  off  himself 
to  France  he  left  the  queen,  with  full  powers  as  Regent, 
to  manage  the  kingdom  in  his  absence. 

Catherine  was  said  to  be  staying  at  Buckingham  with 
Edward  Fowler,  in  the  fine  old  '  Castle  House  '  (rebuilt  in 
1611),  when  she  received  the  news 

'Of  Flodden's  fatal  field, 
Where  shivered  was  fair  Scotland's  spear, 
And  broken  was  her  shield  ! ' 

The  queen  wrote  to  Wolsey  that  she  had  been  '  horrible 
busy,  making  standards,  banners,  and  badges ' 2  for  her 
husband's  soldiers,  and  she  was  very  proud  to  have  this 
news  of  victory  to  send  him.  A  gallant  Bucks  soldier, 
Lord  Scrope  of  Hambleden,  was  among  the  killed.  An 
old  yew  now  in  the  churchyard  at  Hughenden  is  said  to 
have  been  planted  in  memory  of  Flodden  Field ;  the 
battle  was  felt  to  be  very  momentous,  and  Scott  has 
immortalized  it  for  us  in  Marmion. 

The  Church  in  England,  on  the  brink  of  the  great  up- 
heaval of  Henry's  later  years,  was  zealously  persecuting 
Protestants,  with  Catherine's  full  sympathy.  Her  mother, 
the  pious  Isabella,  had  established  the  '  Inquisition '  in 
Spain,  and  she  was  bringing  up  her  daughter  Mary  in  the 
same  faith.  During  Catherine's  regency  Bishop  Smith  of 
Lincoln  died  in  his  palace  at  Wooburn  in  1513.  His 
character  shows  both  sides  of  the  cultivated  and  scholarly 
prelate  of  the  day.  He  was  a  lover  of  learning  and  the 
founder  of  Brasenose  College,  Oxford,  but  the  poor  Protes- 
tants of  Bucks  found  in  him  the  most  relentless  of  per- 


CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON  67 

secutors.  A  torture-chamber  called  Little  Ease  adjoined 
the  palace.  Here  in  1506  Thomas  Chase  of  Amersham 
suffered  and  died  under  cruel  torture  with  great  fortitude  ; 
to  avoid  inquiry  he  was  said  to  have  committed  suicide, 
and  was  buried  with  every  mark  of  dishonour  in  Norland 
Wood  by  the  side  of  the  road  from  Wooburn  to  Little 
Marlow.  Thomas  Man,  of  Amersham,  a  noted  preacher 
who  boasted  that  he  had  converted  700  persons  to  Lollard 
doctrines,  was  brought  before  Bishop  Smith  in  1511.  He 
recanted  and  was  imprisoned  at  the  Abbey  of  Oseney, 
but  escaping  he  resumed  his  preaching  and  was  burnt  as 
a  relapsed  heretic  in  1518.  Cardinal  Wolsey  was  for  a  short 
time  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  after  Bishop  Smith's  example 
was  planning  the  still  more  magnificent  foundation  of 
Christ  Church  College,  Oxford. 

In  Hambleden  Church  is  a  finely  carved  oak  chest,  with 
a  variety  of  armorial  bearings,  said  to  have  been  fashioned 
out  of  the  head  and  foot  pieces  of  Wolsey's  bedstead. 
Higher  up  this  green  winding  valley,  fitly  called  '  The 
Happy  Valley ',  is  Fingest  Church,  whose  solid  Norman 
tower  was  already  centuries  old  in  Wolsey's  time  ;  in 
a  field  adjacent  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln  had  a  hunting-box ; 
and  Woolleys,  hard  by,  a  place  marked  in  the  oldest  county 
maps,  is  said  to  derive  its  name  from  the  wolves  that 
long  lingered  in  the  woods,  still  the  haunt  of  many  foxes  and 
badgers.  A  grim  tradition  connects  this  country  with  a 
predecessor  of  Wolsey's  at  Fingest,  Bishop  Burghersh,  who 
baptized  the  Black  Prince,  and  was  a  great  statesman  in 
life ;  but  after  death  was  condemned  to  wander  round  his 
park,  a  ghost  in  the  dress  of  a  keeper,  until  the  common 
lands  he  had  enclosed  should  be  restored  to  the  people. 

Queen  Catherine  had  a  Bucks  chaplain,  William  How, 
of  Wycombe,  whom  she  sent  on  a  mission  to  Spain,  where 
he  was  made  Bishop  of  Orense.  He  received  an  honorary 
degree  at  Oxford  when  he  returned  in  1526,  and  became 
chaplain  to  Henry  VIII. 

Among  the  thinkers  and  students  of  the  old  faith  was 
John  Colet  (about  1467-1519),  the  son  of  Sir  Henry  Colet, 
a  rich  Bucks  landowner  of  the  Mercers'  Company,  twice 
Lord  Mayor  of  London.  Lady  Colet  is  mentioned  in  a 
Claydon  will  of  1509  as  having  lent  £36  to  Dame  Margaret 

E  2 


68  CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON 

Verney.  Their  son  John  was  an  enthusiastic  scholar,  and 
became  a  popular  preacher.  Henry  VII  made  him  Dean 
of  St.  Paul's  in  1505.  He  never  changed  his  simple  Oxford 
habits,  wore  his  black  gown  where  his  predecessors  had 
been  clothed  in  purple,  and  kept  a  frugal  table.  He  was 
diligent  in  preaching  and  expounding  the  Bible,  often  in 
English ;  he  was  full  of  reforming  the  Church,  and  was 
a  close  friend  of  More  and  Erasmus.  He  was  yet  more 
intent  to  raise  the  level  of  English  education.  He  at  once 
set  himself  to  found  a  school  which  was  to  be  managed, 
not  by  the  dean  and  chapter,  but  by  the  Mercers'  Com- 
pany, wishing  '  to  diminish  ecclesiastical  control  while  he 
increased  the  religious  tone  of  the  ordinary  teaching  and 
enlarged  its  scope  '. 

The  scholars  were  153  poor  children,  the  number  of  the 
fishes  caught  in  the  miraculous  draft.  Over  the  Master's 
Chair  was  a  figure  of  the  Child  Jesus  '  of  excellent  work, 
in  the  act  of  teaching  ',  whom  the  children  coming  and 
going  saluted  with  a  hymn  ;  over  the  figure  were  two  lines 
in  Latin — 

'Children  learn  first  to  form  pure  minds  by  me, 
Then  add  fair  learning  to  your  piety.' 

To  endow  his  school  Dean  Colet,  after  his  father's  death, 
transferred  his  large  estates  in  Bucks,  the  Manors  of 
Wotton  and  Weston  Turville,  &c.,  and  lands  in  Aston 
Clinton,  Wendover,  Sherrington,  Bierton,  Wingrave,  and 
Aylesbury,  &c.,  to  the  Mercers  '  for  the  continuance  of 
St.  Paul's  School  for  ever  '. 

While  his  scheme  was  taking  shape  in  1512,  a  Convocation 
of  the  Clergy  was  called  to  consider  how  best  to  put  down 
the  Lollard  heresy  '  lately  revived  '.  Archbishop  Warham 
asked  the  dean  to  preach  the  opening  sermon  in  St.  Paul's. 
Colet  boldly  denounced  the  corruption  and  ignorance  of 
the  clergy,  and  pleaded  for  the  reform  of  the  Church  of 
England  from  within.  The  Lollards  were  amongst  the 
most  attentive  members  of  his  vast  audience ;  some, 
one  hopes,  had  come  up  from  the  Chilterns  ;  their  misdeeds 
were  forgotten  in  the  storm  that  fell  upon  the  preacher. 
He  was  denounced  as  a  heretic,  and  it  seemed  that  he, 
and  his  school-theories,  were  to  be  violently  swept  away. 


CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON 


69 


5ut  Colet  had  powerful  friends,  including  the  King  (who 
sympathized  with  his  efforts  for  the  revival  of  classical 
learning),  and  he  left  nothing  undone  to  secure  the  pros- 
perity of  his  foundation. 

Of  his  personal  fate  he  was  less  mindful ;  he  died  a  devout 
Catholic,  but  though  he  was  careful  about  the  disposal  of 
his  books,  he  left  no  money  for  masses  for  his  soul,  indeed 
he  had  little  left  to  bequeath. 

Colet's  school  is  so  prosperous  at  400  years  old  that 
his  passionate  wish  that  it  should  last  '  for  ever '  seems 
far  more  probable  now  than  it  did  in  1512. 

In  1517  there  was  a  riot  of  the  apprentices  in  London 
on  '  111  May  Day  ',  which  was  so  cruelly  put  down  that 
many  mothers  saw  their  boys  hung  up  to  the  signposts 
outside  their  masters'  doors. 

The  queen,  hearing  of  their  distress,  hurried  to  the  king, 
and  taking  his  sisters  with  her,  the  dowager  queens  of  France 
and  Scotland,  Mary  and  Margaret,  they  knelt  together  and 
with  tears  and  earnest  prayers  obtained  the  pardon  of  the 
other  lads,  which  intercession  the  people  of  London  took  very 
kindly,  as  several  Spaniards,  Catherine's  countrymen,  had 
been  killed  in  the  riot.  Verses  were  written  in  her  praise  : 

'No  sooner  was  this  pardon  given 
But  peals  of  joy  rang  through  the  hall, 
As  though  it  thundered  down  from  heaven 
The  Queen's  renown  amongst  them  all.' 

In  the  spring  of  1520  Henry  and  Catherine  went  to 
a  grand  ceremonial  meeting  in  France  with  the  young 
king,  Francis  I,  and  his  wife  Claude,  the  heiress  of  Brittany. 
Amongst  the  list  of  those  who  went  in  their  suite  to  the 
Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold  are  many  Bucks  names,  Sir 
Roger  Went  worth,  Sir  Adrian  Fortescue,  Lord  Russell 
of  Chenies,  Sir  Hugo  Tyrrell,  Sir  John  Hampden,  '  Sir 
Ralph  Verney  and  the  three  young  esquires,'  one  of  whom 
was  the  queen's  cupbearer.  So  great  was  the  extravagant 
display  in  armour,  dresses,  and  tents,  that  gentlemen  sold 
their  estates  to  pay  for  their  clothes. 

'  0  many 

Have  broke  their  backs  with  laying  manors  on  them 
For  this  great  journey.' 


70  CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON 

Queen  Catherine  had  '  a  foot-carpet  embroidered  with 
pearls '.  Amidst  the  tedious  pageantry  she  had  at  least 
the  happiness  of  meeting  a  good  and  charming  woman  in 
the  French  queen,  Claude  of  Brittany ;  they  saw  each 
other  daily,  and  received  the  Communion  kneeling  side 
by  side,  from  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  afterwards 
Catherine's  bitterest  enemy. 

In  the  churchwardens'  accounts  of  Wing  is  an  inventory 
of  the  church  goods  in  1528,  which  includes  a  border  of 
cloth  of  gold  for  the  high  altar,  the  gift  of  Sir  Ralph  Verney, 
who  had  evidently  put  some  of  his  gorgeous  trappings  to 
pious  uses  after  his  return.  This  Sir  Ralph  married,  as 
his  second  wife,  Anne  Weston,  maid  of  honour  to  Queen 
Catherine,  who  gave  her  a  marriage  portion  of  200  marks 
and  the  custody  of  a  minor,  Sir  John  Danvers. 

An  old  inn  at  Colnbrook, '  The  Catherine  Wheel/  has  kept 
the  proud  tradition  that  Henry  and  Catherine  stayed  there 
on  one  of  their  journeys.  A  great  man  in  the  saddle  and 
a  lover  of  open-air  sports,  his  burly  figure,  with  his  ready 
joke  and  fat  smile,  was  everywhere  well  known  and  liked. 
The  merry  song  to  the  king's  own  tune  was  sung  in  many 
a  countryside — 

'  The  Hunt  is  up,  the  Hunt  is  up, 
And  it  is  wellnigh  day ; 
And  Harry  our  King  has  gone  a'  hunting 
To  bring  his  deer  to  bay. 
Awake  all  men,  I  say  again, 
Be  merry  as  you  may ; 
For  Harry  our  King  has  gone  a'  hunting 
To  bring  his  deer  to  bay.' 

Henry's  knowledge  of  theology,  his  skill  in  music,  his 
patronage  of  art  and  letters,  his  care  for  the  navy,  and  his 
enlightened  statesmanship,  had  won  the  praise  of  men 
like  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Erasmus ;  and  foreign  Courts 
envied  England  the  possession  of  such  a  monarch. 

A  dark,  stormy  sunset  was  to  end  this  brilliant  day. 
Queen  Catherine  outlived  her  royal  estate  and  her  domestic 
happiness.  A  younger  and  more  beautiful  woman  sup- 
planted her  in  her  husband's  affections ;  separated  from 
her  child,  '  unqueened,  yet  like  a  queen,  and  daughter  to 


[Copyright  by  the  Fine  Arts  Publishing  Co.,  Ltd., 
publishers  of  the  large  colour  reproduction 

THE  TRIAL  OF  CATHERINE  OF  ABBAQON 
From  the  fresco  in  the  Palace  of  Westminster  by  F.  0.  Salisbury 


CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON  73 

a  king ',  she  spent  some  sad  years  of  poverty  and  neglect, 
died  at  Kimbolton  Abbey  in  the  fifty-first  year  of  her 
age,  and  was  buried  in  Peterborough  Cathedral  in  1536. 
Catherine  of  Arragon  is  remembered  in  Bucks  as  the 
founder,  or  at  least  the  patron,  of  the  art  of  pillow  lace- 
making,  which  continued  to  be  a  characteristic  and  flourish- 
ing industry  for  generations.  Indeed,  it  was  said  in  the 
eighteenth  century  to  be  '  the  general  employment  of  the 
female  population  of  the  whole  county  '.  The.  old  art 
and  the  old  Spanish  patterns  have  been  revived  of  late 
years  by  the  North  Bucks  Lace  Association,  and  her  name 
is  kept  by  '  Queen  Catherine  Road  '  in  Steeple  Claydon. 

From  the  time  of  the  cruel  divorce  of  Catherine  of 
Arragon,  a  blight  seemed  to  fall  on  the  Court  and  those 
connected  with  it.  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn  (who  had  suc- 
ceeded the  Botelers  as  lord  of  the  manor  of  Aylesbury) 
saw  his  beautiful  daughter  Anne  hurried  from  the  throne 
to  the  block,  and  his  young  son,  a  poet  and  diplomatist, 
was  also  beheaded  in  1536.  Sir  Francis  Weston,  nephew 
of  the  Lady  Verney  who  waited  upon  Catherine  of  Arragon, 
was  executed  at  the  same  time.  Jane  Seymour,  whom  we 
may  claim  as  a  Bucks  lady  as  she  was  born  at  Seymour 
Court  near  Marlow,  and  possessed  the  lordship  of  Swan- 
bourne,  died  when  her  child,  the  long  desired  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  but  a  fortnight  old  ;  it  was  remarked  that  she 
was  the  only  wife  for  whom  Henry  wore  black. 

In  1539  Sir  Ralph  Verney,  who  had  been  present  at 
the  baptism  of  Edward  VI,  was  sent  by  the  king  to  receive 
Anne  of  Cleves  on  her  arrival.  This  unfortunate  princess 
kept  up  her  friendship  with  Sir  Ralph  in  after  years,  she 
named  his  son  Sir  Edmund  Verney,  who  was  Knight  of 
the  Shire,  as  one  of  her  executors,  and  left  him  '  a  jug  of 
gold  with  a  cover  '.  A  small  deed  in  the  muniment  room 
at  Claydon  about  a  transfer  of  land  is  signed  '  K.  R. 
Katherine  the  Queen '.  Katherine  Parr  was  connected 
by  marriage  with  several  families  in  Bucks.  Beachampton 
House,  close  down  upon  the  Ouse,  still  dignified  in  neglect, 
is  supposed  to  have  been  her  residence.  It  was  part  of 
the  dowry  of  the  queens  of  England  ;  two  stone  gateposts 
mark  the  entrance  to  what  was  once  a  house  of  considerable 
extent ;  a  panelled  drawing-room  and  a  small  richly 


74  CATHERINE  OF  ARRAGON 

carved  staircase  with  the  royal  Tudor  badges,  on  the 
verge  of  decay,  traditionally  connects  Katherine  Parr,  the 
last  of  the  long  procession  of  Henry's  queens,  with  the 
county. 

In  Bucks  the  name  of  the  great  Tudor  monarch  has 
been  handed  down  as  the  Blue-Beard  of  popular  story ; 
and  the  managers  of  a  village  school  recently  objected  to 
the  hanging  there  of  his  portrait  by  Holbein,  on  the  score 
that  he  had  had  too  many  wives. 

1  Miss  Strickland,  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England. 

2  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. 


CHAPTER  VII 

'  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  ' 

FROM  the  marriage  of  Henry  VIII  with  Anne  Boleyn  to 
the  middle  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  a  time  of  distracting 
changes  in  the  order  of  public  worship,  and  of  much 
suffering,  uncertainty,  and  unrest.  '  Bell,  Book,  and 
Candle,'  and  all  the  familiar  symbols  of  the  old  faith 
seemed  to  be  thrown  into  the  melting-pot ;  and  when 
the  upheaval  under  Henry  VIII  and  the  still  more  drastic 
changes  under  the  boy-king  Edward  VI  were  followed  by 
the  violent  reaction  under  Queen  Mary,  '  men's  minds,'  as 
old  Fuller  puts  it,  '  stood  at  gaze,  it  being  dead  water  with 
them  which  way  the  tide  would  turn.' 

The  suppression  of  the  monasteries  and  the  disappear- 
ance of  abbot  and  friar  made  less  difference  in  Bucks 
than  elsewhere,  as  there  were  no  great  abbeys  here  like 
St.  Albans  or  Oseney  over  the  borders  ;  yet  the  troublous 
times  could  not  but  be  felt  in  every  parish.  The  Bishops  of 
Lincoln  in  the  fifteenth  century  had  complained  bitterly 
of  the  Bucks  portion  of  their  diocese ;  the  clergy  were 
poor,  many  churches  ruinous,  the  monastic  houses  absorbed 
the  great  tithes  of  the  livings  under  their  care,  and  '  there 
was  an  undercurrent  of  heresy  among  the  laity '.  But 


'  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  '       75 

when  changes  came,  the  great  wealth  accumulated  in  the 
monasteries  and  around  the  popular  shrines,  instead  of 
being  devoted  to  religion  and  education,  was  mostly 
absorbed  by  the  king  and  the  nobles.  The  chantry  chapels, 
many  of  which  had  come  to  be  used  as  parish  churches, 
shared  the  fate  of  the  monasteries.  Glorious  buildings 
were  reduced  to  ruins,  brasses  melted  down,  stained  glass 
broken  in  pieces,  wall  paintings  scraped  away,  the  bells 
'  gambled  for,  or  sold  into  Russia ',  priceless  libraries 
dispersed,  the  paper  and  parchment  sold  to  grocers  and 
soap-boilers,  or  sent  abroad. 

The  ship  of  the  Church  was  labouring  in  heavy  seas, 
storms  were  succeeding  each  other  from  opposite  points 
of  the  compass,  with  a  bewildering  succession  of  sailing 
directions  from  Geneva  and  from  Rome.  During  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI,  church  plate  and  ornaments,  often 
of  great  value,  would  be  forbidden  and  sold  for  the  king's 
use,  and  in  a  year  or  two  later  the  churchwardens  would 
be  ordered  to  provide  at  their  own  expense  the  very  things 
of  which  they  had  been  deprived.  Fonts  were  destroyed 
and  basins  used  instead,  and  then  again  basins  were  strictly 
forbidden. 

An  odd  bit  of  church  property  belonged  to  Great  Marlow, 
which  must  have  greatly  offended  the  Puritans  ;  '  5  pairs 
of  Garters  and  bells,  5  coats  and  a  fool's,  with  4  feathers/ 
were  let  out  to  the  Morris  dancers  of  neighbouring  villages. 

Mr.  John  Myers  has  written  some  interesting  studies 
of  the  church  plate  of  the  county  in  the  records  published 
by  the  Bucks  Archaeological  Society.  Many  cups,  made 
in  1569,  are  still  used  for  the  Communion.  We  may  be 
thankful  that  the  very  changeableness  of  the  time  often 
delayed  the  destruction  of  ancient  monuments.  Amongst 
the  most  enduring  of  church  possessions  are  the  bells, 
and  we  have  the  advantage  in  this  county  of  a  learned  and 
most  interesting  volume  on  The  Church  Bells  of  Bucks, 
by  Mr.  Alfred  H.  Cocks.  He  computes  that  we  have  more 
than  1,000  bells,  of  which  nearly  100  date  before  the 
Reformation.1  '  Within  a  radius  of  eleven  miles  round 
Buckingham  there  are  nine  bells,  all  apparently  of  the 
fourteenth  century  and  of  local  manufacture.  The  single 
bell  at  Foscot,  the  trebles  at  Little  Linford,  and  Barton 


76       '  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  ' 

Hartshorn  and  Thornton  are  amongst  them,  and  the 
second  at  Beachampton.'  2 

The  early  bell-founders  were  called  Potters  ;  there  seem 
to  have  been  local  foundries  at  Newport  Pagnell,  Bow 
Brickhill,  and  Sherington  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  I ; 
at  any  rate  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  VI  and  Elizabeth 
there  was  a  flourishing  bell-foundry  at  Buckingham,  the 
very  site  of  which  has  been  forgotten.  John  and  George 
Appowell  were  the  Master  Founders,  and  held  good  posi- 
tions in  the  borough  ;  they  were  succeeded  by  Bartholomew 
Atton  and  Robert  Newcome  from  about  1590  to  1633,  after 
which  no  bells  were  known  to  Jbe  cast  there.  During  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  there  was  a  famous 
foundry  at  Drayton  Parslow,  worked  by  several  generations 
of  the  Chandler  family,  descended  from  Anthony  Chandler 
(the  blacksmith  of  that  village  in  Tudor  times).  The 
Chandlers  were  followed  in  1752  by  Hall,  who  carried  on 
their  business,  until  the  record  appears  in  the  parish 
register  of  the  burial  of  '  Edward  Hall,  poor  old  Bell- 
founder,  February  9,  1755 '.  Thus  many  of  our  fine  bells 
were  of  local  make,  and  very  individual  in  ornament  and 
character.  It  is  a  matter  for  regret  that  this  skilled  work 
is  no  longer  carried  on  in  the  county. 

The  early  bells  bore  pious  inscriptions  (as  well  as  the 
founders'  stamp),  some  of  which  were  quaint  and  beautiful, 
such  as  '  Sonoro  Sono  Meo  Sono  Deo '  (with  my  sonorous 
sound,  I  sound  unto  God) ;  '  Voco  Vos  Orate  Venite ' 
(I  call  you  come  and  pray) ;  '  Vox  Ego  sum  Vita'e  '  (I  am 
the  Voice  of  Life) ;  all  taken  from  Bucks  bells  ;  or  on 
a  later  Tingewick  bell  in  English, 

'  When  I  ring  or  toll  my  voice  is  spent ; 
Men  may  come  and  hear  God's  word,  and  so  repent.' 

Others  had  prayers  to  Christ,  the  Virgin,  or  the  Saints, 
according  to  the  dedication  of  the  church  they  were  made 
for.  But  even  the  bells  suffered  from  the  uncertainty  of 
the  times  ;  was  it  safer  to  pray,  or  not  to  pray,  to  Our 
Lady  and  the  Saints  ?  So  '  in  the  hottest  time  of  the 
Reformation,  1534  to  '36  ',  and  again  in  Mary's  reign, 
the  founders  produced  nonsense  inscriptions,  or  '  Alphabet 
Bells ',  on  which  letters  are  inscribed  merely  in  alpha- 


'  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  '       77 

betical  order  that  they  might  not  get  into  trouble  with 
either  side  ;  a  cowardice  unworthy  of  a  noble  craft. 

So  much  for  the  Bell :  as  to  the  Book — we  may  say  that 
England's  best  possessions  came  out  of  this  time  of  storm 
and  stress,  the  version  of  the  Bible  in  glorious  English, 
and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  They  too  were  alter- 
nately authorized  and  banished,  and  the  Prayer  Book 
suffered  adversity  until  the  Restoration  of  1660.  The  fine 
old  folio  Bibles  chained  to  the  reading-desk  were  often 
centres  of  disturbance. 

At  Chesham  Bois,  a  tenant  of  the  Cheyne  family  com- 
plained that  he  had  been  evicted,  because  he  read  the  New 
Testament  that  the  king  had  put  into  the  churches.  At 
Horton,  a  curate,  who  was  preparing  holy  water,  was 
so  worried  and  irritated  by  a  tailor  of  Colnbrook  who 
read  out  the  Bible  in  the  church  in  a  loud  tone  for  the 
edification  of  himself  and  others,  that  he  finally  sent  the 
tailor  about  his  business,  having  vainly  tried  to  moderate 
his  voice.2 

Before  the  Reformation,  Latin  service-books,  missals, 
breviaries,  &c.,  existed  in  the  churches,  somewhat  varied 
according  to  the  use  of  the  particular  diocese.  Side  by  side 
with  these  service-books  for  the  priests,  from  the  four- 
teenth century  onwards,  were  books  for  the  religious 
teaching  of  the  laity  containing  the  Psalter,  with  public  and 
private  forms  of  prayer,  in  English  and  Latin  known  as 
Books  of  Hours,  or  Primers  ;  all  these  contributed  materials 
to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  so  happily  preserved 
for  us  the  forms  of  devotion  that  had  been  in  use  for 
centuries.  A  discovery  of  great  interest  was  made  in 
Addington  Church  during  its  restoration  by  the  Rt.  Hon. 
J.  G.  Hubbard,  afterwards  Lord  Addington,  who  had 
bought  Addington  Manor.  On  August  5,  1857,  the  work- 
men came  upon  six  books  walled  up  in  the  north  wall  of  the 
chancel  in  order  to  preserve  them  ;  they  were  in  perfect 
condition,  and  the  initials  T.  A.  were  those  of  Thos.  An- 
drewes,  rector  there  during  the  first  years  of  Elizabeth's 
reign.  Browne  Willis,  writing  about  1750,  speaks  of  another 
find  of  older  missals  in  the  chancel  wall  which  he  thinks 
were  hidden  by  Wm.  Hall,  the  last  rector  presented  by 
the  Priors  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  who  died  in  1546  ; 


78       '  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  ' 

these  books  were  probably  found  in  1710,  when  the  church 
was  restored  by  Thomas  Busby.  The  missals  then  found 
have  disappeared  ;  but  the  books  discovered  in  1857  have 
been  rebound  and  well  cared  for.  One  of  them  is 
Henry  VIII's  reformed  Sarum  Primer  in  Latin  and  English, 
printed  by  Petyt,  1541  ;  only  one  other  copy  of  this  edition 
is  known  to  exist,  and  is  at  the  Roman  Catholic  college  at 
Stonyhurst.  The  Prayer  Book  itself  reflected  the  changes 
of  the  times  ;  in  Cranmer's  Litany  of  1544  the  old  invoca- 
tions to  the  Virgin  and  the  saints  were  retained  with  a  new 
prayer  against  '  the  Bishop  of  Rome  and  all  his  detestable 
enormities  '.  Then  the  archbishop  himself  was  martyred, 
and  both  sets  of  prayers  omitted.  At  Bletchley  a  Prayer 
Book  of  1638  said  to  have  belonged  to  Charles  I,  bound  in 
red  velvet  with  silver  clasps;  with  a  Bible  and  a  copy  of 
Eikon  Basilike,  was  given  to  the  Parish  by  Browne  Willis. 
Another  wave  of  change  swept  the  Prayer  Book  itself  from 
our  churches,  till  it  was  finally  restored  and  amended  in 
1660  and  1662. 

Parish  registers  were  started  by  an  injunction  of  Thomas, 
Lord  Cromwell,  in  1 538  ;  every  parish  was  bound  to  provide 
a  book  and  a  locked  coffer  to  keep  it  in,  and  every  Sunday 
morning  the  clergyman  was  ordered  to  bring  it  out,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  churchwardens  to  record  in  it  '  all 
the  weddings,  christenings  and  buryings  made  the  whole 
week  before  '.3  This  excellent  scheme,  which  entailed  little 
or  no  expense,  has  been  called  '  the  one  commendable 
action  of  this  marvellously  shrewd  but  absolutely  un- 
scrupulous man '.  The  first  books  were  of  paper  and 
perishable,  afterwards  parchment  was  enjoined  ;  a  well- 
preserved  register  is  the  most  valuable  foundation  for  the 
history  of  a  parish.  Two  Bucks  registers  (of  Stoke  Ham- 
mond and  Old  Wolverton)  are  among  the  oldest  in  England, 
and  contain  entries  even  before  1538.  Other  facts  besides 
those  enjoined  were  entered  by  degrees,  as  when  a  baby 
at  Thornton  was  '  found  hanging  in  a  basket  on  the  gates 
which  open  out  of  the  great  yard  into  the  highway ',  or 
a  little  black  page-boy  described  as  '  a  Moor  of  Guinea ' 
was  baptized  at  Middle  Claydon  (1689),  several  members 
of  the  Verney  family  standing  as  sponsors — we  get  valuable 
sidelights  in  this  way  about  the  manners  of  the  times. 


'  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  '       79 

We  learn  when  an  epidemic  caused  a  sudden  increase  in  the 
burials.  At  Little  Mario w  in  1621,  '  Mary  the  wife  of 
William  Borlase  July  18,  a  gratious  ladye  she  was,  dyed 
of  the  plague  as  did  18  more  '  ;  at  Stoke  Poges  in  the  same 
year,  and  at  Lavendon  and  Newport  Pagnell  in  1666, 
the  registers  show  a  terrible  plague  mortality.  The  register 
at  Little  Brickhill  preserves  the  fact  that  this  village  was 
once  an  Assize  Town,  and  that  forty-two  criminals  were 
executed  and  buried  there  between  1561  and  1620.  At 
Chesham  in  1589  is  the  burial  of  a  pedlar  '  slain  in  a  fray  by 
another  pedlar '  coming  in  together  to  a  fair,  and  the 
entries  of  a  man  (1591)  and  a  widow  (1603)  both  killed  by 
falls  out  of  a  cherry-tree.  From  that  register  we  also  learn 
of  the  flourishing  leather  trade  at  Chesham  in  Elizabethan 
days,  shoemakers,  tanners,  curriers,  and  glovers  abounding. 
From  the  registers  and  from  the  less  enduring  tombstones, 
interesting  study  may  be  made  of  local  names,  and  com- 
pared with  those  now  on  shop-fronts  and  in  school  registers. 
Often  the  family  names  persist  in  a  small  area,  and  are 
quite  different  from  those  a  few  miles  off,  and  if  Christian 
names  were  also  noted  and  explained,  we  should  not  have 
the  clipped  forms,  Lizzie,  Maggie,  Nelly,  and  such  like, 
of  the  fine  old  English  names  Elizabeth,  Margaret,  and 
Eleanor  which  are  links  with  a  long  past. 

To  return  after  this  digression  to  the  reign  of  Edward  VI, 
Of  the  candles,  censers,  crosses,  and  other  ornaments, 
many  had  been  sold  before  1552,  as  at  Hambleden  '  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor  and  the  comfort  of  the  parish  ',  but  there 
was  no  uniformity  in  the  interpretation  of  rubrics.  In 
June  1553  a  letter  was  sent  by  the  Privy  Council  to  the 
gentlemen  of  the  county,  to  recommend  to  them  John 
Knox  ;  and  the  stern  old  Scotchman  preached  in  Amer- 
sham  Church  ;  a  month  or  so  later  the  open  preaching  of 
Calvinism  was  dangerous.  On  the  death  of  Edward  VI, 
Sir  William  Windsor  of  Bradenham,  high  sheriff,  and 
Sir  Edmund  Peckham  proclaimed  Queen  Mary  in  Bucks, 
and  the  county  generally  supported  her  against  Lady 
Jane  Grey.  Lord  Windsor,  Lord  Hastings,  and  the 
Peckhams  raised  4,000  men  for  her  service.  In  reward 
for  this  early  support  at  a  critical  time,  Queen  Mary  be- 
stowed municipal  honours  on  the  towns  of  Aylesbury, 


80  '  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  ' 

Buckingham,  and  Wycombe.  Sir  Edward  Windsor,  son  of 
the  sheriff,  served  with  Philip  at  the  siege  of  St.  Quintin, 
in  1557,  and  did  gallantly. 

One  other  aspect  of  the  Reformation  deserves  to  be 
considered — its  effect  on  the  educational  endowments  of  the 
county.  When  the  Act  of  Edward  VI,  in  1584,  abolished 
chantries  and  colleges,  the  old  grammar  schools  lost 
most  of  their  endowments  ;  in  Bucks,  Eton  was  strong 
enough  to  retain  them,  and  was  exempted  from  plunder. 
The  other  grammar  schools  were  robbed  of  lands,  and 
given  fixed  yearly  payments,  which  prevented  their  in- 
come growing  with  the  growth  of  wealth  in  the  country, 
and  by  the  fall  in  the  value  of  money  reduced  them 
gradually  '  from  a  fair  living  to  a  miserable  pittance '.  Eton 
College  was  ordered  in  1553,  just  before  the  death  of 
Edward  VI,  to  convert  the  church  goods  '  from  monu- 
ments of  superstition  to  necessary  uses  ',  which  took  the 
form  of  silver  wine-pots,  jugs  and  bowls  for  the  buttery  ; 
a  little  later  the  beautiful  pictures  in  the  chapel,  painted 
in  1480,  were  ordered  to  be  whitewashed  by  the  college 
barber,  '  so  preserving  them  for  rediscovery  in  1848.'  In 
1563,  the  court  having  left  London  for  Windsor  owing  to 
the  plague,  a  select  company  was  dining  in  Sir  William 
Cecil's  chamber,  of  whom  Roger  Ascham  was  one.  '  I  have 
strange  news  brought  me,'  saith  Mr.  Secretary,  '  that  divers 
Scholars  of  Eton  be  run  away  from  the  School  for  fear  of 
beating.  Whereupon  Mr.  Secretarie  took  occasion  to  wish 
that  some  more  discretion  were  in  many  Schoolmasters  in 
using  correction  .  .  .  who  punish  rather  the  weakness  of 
nature  than  the  fault  of  the  scholar.'  This  conversation 
produced  the  retirement  of  the  head  master  of  Eton, 
and  the  writing  of  a  famous  book  on  education,  Ascham's 
Schoolmaster  ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  rule  of  the 
rod  was  much,  if  at  all,  impaired. 

Sir  Henry  Savile,  provost  from  1596  to  1622,  did  much 
for  the  Eton  College  library ;  he  dispatched  a  carpenter 
to  Oxford  to  see  the  fittings  of  the  new  Bodleian  Library, 
and  '  Joyce  the  waterman  '  brought  his  books  from  London 
up  the  river.  Savile  even  set  up  a  printing-press  at  Eton, 
and  produced  there  his  magnificent  edition  of  Chrysostom 
in  eight  folio  volumes,  at  the  cost  of  £8,000. 


'  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  '       81 

Edward  VI's  Royal  Latin  School  in  Buckingham  was 
held  from  the  time  of  Edward  VI  to  that  of  Edward  VII  in 
the  old  chantry  chapel  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  and 
St.  Thomas.  The  chantry  was  founded  by  Matthew 
Stratton,2  who  was  Archdeacon  of  Buckingham  1223  to 
1268.  It  was  rebuilt  by  John  Ruding,  Canon  of  Lincoln  and 
Prebendary  of  Buckingham,  1471  to  1481.  There  was 
a  painting  over  the  altar  of  the  Lamb,  the  Baptist's  emblem, 
'  but  it  was  destroyed  in  1688  by  the  schoolboys  as  a  relic 
of  popery ; '  underneath  were  Ruding's  arms  and  his 
motto  '  May  God  amend  all ' .  The  chantry  was  suppressed 
by  Henry  VIII ;  Browne  Willis  attributes  the  modern 
foundation  to  a  bequest  of  Dame  Isabel  Denton  in  1540, 
to  which  Edward  VI  added  an  annuity  from  the  Exchequer. 
Records  have  lately  been  found  of  the  existence  of  a  school 
as  far  back  as  1423,  but  its  connexion  with  the  modern 
school  has  not  been  traced.  The  Thornton  Grammar  School 
of  the  time  of  Henry  VI  was  transferred  to  Buckingham 
in  1592  and  the  endowments  were  merged  in  one.  The 
Buckingham  Latin  School  had  a  chequered  career,  until 
the  County  Council  started  it  again  with  new  buildings 
(under  the  scheme  of  1904)  as  a  mixed  school  for  boys  and 
girls. 

The  Royal  Grammar  School,  High  Wycombe,  was  created 
in  1550  out  of  the  endowment  of  a  HospitaL  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist  built  about  1180  for  a  master,  brethren  and 
sisters.  In  1551  the  buildings  were  sold  to  the  borough, 
the  whole  of  the  funds  being  devoted  to  the  school.  There 
is  a  quaint  entry  in  the  records,  showing  that  the  burgesses 
are  content  that  the  schoolmaster  shall  have  '  the  pleasure 
and  profit  of  a  Cow  or  twain  .  .  .  and  5  loads  of  wood 
yearly '  ;  this  settlement  was  upset  by  Queen  Mary  ;  and 
when  Elizabeth  restored  the  endowment  to  the  borough, 
it  was  saddled  with  an  almshouse  charity  which  detracted 
from  school  funds  and  complicated  its  accounts  as  its 
'  pleasures  and  profits  '  had  to  be  divided.  The  first  head 
master  on  the  records  was  Gerard  Dobson,  an  Eton  scholar 
and  Vicar  of  Wycombe  ;  he  educated  Edmund  Waller  the 
poet  and  politician,  who  gratefully  remembered  his  teaching. 
The  school  is  now  extremely  flourishing,  and  is  rapidly 
outgrowing  its  old  buildings. 

986-4  F 


82       '  BELL,  BOOK,  AND  CANDLE  ' 

The  Challoner  School  at  Amersham  (1620),  the  Borlase 
School  at  Mario w  (1628),  and  the  Aylesbury  Grammar 
School  (1687),  belong  to  a  later  generation,  but  they,  with 
the  modern  County  High  School  for  Girls  at  High  Wycombe 
(1901)  and  the  County  Secondary  School  at  Wolverton 
(1902),  are  all  working  happily  under  the  County  Council, 
with  an  educational  centre  at  Aylesbury.  A  secondary 
school  at  Slough  will  soon  be  added  to  their  number.  Some 
twenty  elementary  schools  were  endowed  in  Bucks  between 
1648  and  1793. 

1  A.  H.  Cocks,  Church  Bells  of  Bucks. 

2  Victoria  County  History,  Bucks. 

3  Rev.  Dr.  Cox,  History  of  Parish  Registers. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH  WITH  HER  GALLANTS  OF 
THE  SWORD  AND  PEN 

No  story  of  one  of  the  Home  Counties  would  be  complete 
without  the  great  figure  of  Queen  Bess  and  her  progresses 
and  pageants. 

It  seems  curious  that  while  English  sailors  and  statesmen 
were  then  first  dreaming  that  Britannia  might  rule  the 
seas,  and  were  disputing  with  Spain  the  mastery  of  a  New 
World,  the  queen  herself  travelled  so  little,  and  her  stately 
journeys  often  meant  a  removal  from  Chelsea  to  Greenwich, 
or  from  Hampton  Court  to  Whitehall.  At  least  we  may  be 
glad  that  she  and  her  splendid  court  paid  more  than  one 
visit  to  Bucks.  Indeed,  some  years  of  her  stormy  girlhood 
were  passed  in  the  south  of  the  county. 

Edward  VI  in  1550  granted  to  his  '  dearly -loved  sister', 
Princess  Elizabeth,  '  the  Manor  and  Mansion  of  Ashridge, 
formerly  the  Religious  House  of  the  Bonhommes  '.  Here 
she  lived  in  retirement  until  1554,  when  on  a  suspicion  of 
her  being  concerned  in  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt's  conspiracy,  in 
which  some  Bucks  Protestants  were  involved,  Queen  Mary 
sent  down  to  Ashridge  to  arrest  her  sister. 


GALLANTS  OF  THE  SWORD  AND  PEN        83 

Elizabeth  was  ill  at  the  time,  but  was  peremptorily 
carried  off  in  a  litter.  She  took  another  forced  journey 
through  Bucks  in  1558,  when  brought  from  Woodstock  ; 
in  passing  through  Colnbrook  the  wheel  came  off  her  coach, 
and  she  spent  the  night  at  the  George  Hotel  there.  Sir  Robert 
Dormer,  to  whom  Henry  VIII  gave  the  Manor  of  Wing, 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  received  Princess 
Elizabeth  at  Ascott  House. 

One  of  the  pleasant  incidents  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was 
her  life-long  friendship  for  Sir  John  Fortescue  of  Salden, 
Mursley.  His  father  was  hastily  beheaded  by  Elizabeth's 
father,  about  1539,  and  Sir  Adrian  Fortescue's  name  has 
been  recently  included  by  the  Pope  in  a  list  of  the  Catholic 
martyrs  who  suffered  under  Henry  VIII,  Elizabeth,  and 
James  I.  The  little  boy  of  eight  years  old  was  brought  up 
as  a  Protestant  by  his  mother,  and  became  a  distinguished 
scholar.  Queen  Mary  appointed  him  as  tutor  to  the  Princess 
Elizabeth.  He  was  the  same  age  as  the  princess,  and  her 
cousin,  through  the  Boleyns  ;  they  had  the  same  love  of 
learning,  and  were  close  friends.  Elizabeth,  on  her  acces- 
sion, made  him  Master  of  the  Wardrobe,  '  trusting  him,'  as 
was  said,  '  with  the  ornaments  of  her  soul  and  body.'  He 
was  in  parliament  all  through  her  reign,  generally  as  member 
for  Buckingham  or  for  the  county.  He  carried  a  motion 
that  no  member  should  enter  the  House  with  his  spurs  on, 
'  for  offending  of  others.' 

In  1589  Fortescue  was  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  and  became  very 
wealthy.  He  built  a  great  house  at  Salden,  in  the  parish  of 
Mursley,  where  he  was  reported  to  have  a  household  of 
sixty  servants,  including  his  own  butcher  and  baker,  and  it 
was  the  work  of  one  man  to  open  and  shut  the  many  windows 
and  shutters  daily.  It  was  perhaps  not  completed  in  time  to 
receive  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  James  I  and  Anne,  his  queen, 
stayed  here,  with  their  elder  children,  Henry  and  Elizabeth, 
and  Anne  restored  a  decayed  hospital  at  Newport  Pagnell. 

Sir  John  Fortescue's  love  of  literature  lasted  all  his  life, 
and  he  presented  books  to  the  new  Bodleian  Library  at 
Oxford.  In  spite  of  his  father's  fate,  he  was  a  persecutor 
of  the  Catholics,  and  sat  on  a  commission  for  banishing 
seminary  priests  and  Jesuits. 

F  2 


84  QUEEN  ELIZABETH  WITH  HER 

Sir  John  died  in  1607,  and  his  monument  is  to  be  seen 
in  Mursley  Church  ;  his  descendants  went  back  to  the 
Church  of  Rome,  their  Bucks  property  was  sold,  and  in  the 
eighteenth  century  Salden  House  was  completely  pulled 
down.  Two  coats  of  arms  on  painted  glass  were  removed 
by  Browne  Willis  to  Fenny  Stratford  Church  ;  and  a 
beautiful  little  manor-house  close  to  the  church  at  Swan- 
bourne  still  remains,  which  is  said  to  have  been  built  by 
Queen  Elizabeth's  friend,  Sir  John  Fortescue,  for  his 
children. 

The  queen,  on  her  return  from  a  visit  to  the  University 
of  Oxford,  was  entertained  in  1566  by  Edward,  Lord 
Windsor,  at  Bradenham.  'Miles  Windsor,  kinsman  to  this 
Lord,  spoke  an  oration  to  the  Queen,  which  she  noticed 
with  much  approbation  to  the  Spanish  Ambassador  then 
present.'  Arthur,  Lord  Grey,  received  the  queen  at  Whaddon 
Hall  in  1568. 

In  1570  she  visited  Francis  Russell,  Earl  of  Bedford,  at 
Chenies ;  he  was  an  active  member  of  her  Privy  Council, 
and  had  taken  a  large  share  in  the  religious  settlement,  and 
the  drawing  up  of  the  new  liturgy.  Queen  Elizabeth  was 
also  entertained  at  Shardeloes  by  William  Tothill,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  Sir  John  Denham.  Joan,  the  eldest 
of  their  thirty-three  children,  brought  the  property  to  her 
husband,  Francis  Drake,  in  whose  family  the  fine  house 
and  park  has  remained.  Sir  William  Drake  was  a  bene- 
factor of  Amersham,  where  he  built  the  market-house  ; 
pictures  of  Elizabeth  and  of  Sir  Christopher  Hatton  still 
exist  at  Shardeloes. 

The  most  picturesque  figure  in  Bucks  at  that  time  was 
Sir  Henry  Lee,  who  represented  the  county  in  parliament, 
as  his  father  had  done  before  him,  and  owned  '  three  goodly 
mansions  '  near  Aylesbury.  As  Queen  Elizabeth's  champion 
and  a  Knight  of  the  Garter,  he  was  a  great  man  at  court. 
He  had  served  in  four  reigns,  and  foreign  ambassadors  spoke 
of  him  as  a  most  accomplished  '  man  of  arms  ',  who  would 
'  break  a  lance  with  great  dexterity  and  commendation '. 
Every  year  on  the  day  of  the  queen's  accession,  November  17, 
Sir  Henry  Lee  '  presented  him  at  the  tilt ',  and  maintained 
'  the  honour  of  her  sacred  majesty  '  against  all  comers.  In 
the  thirty-third  year  of  her  reign,  when  the  queen  and  her 


GALLANTS  OF  THE  SWORD  AND  PEN        85 

champion  were  both  '  by  age  overtaken ',  he  resigned  his 
office,  and  in  1590  Elizabeth  honoured  her  old  friend  by 
spending  two  days  with  him  at  Quarendon,  where  a  famous 
masque  was  performed  in  her  honour. 

A  crowned  pillar  was  set  up  in  the  grounds,  in  front  of 
which  the  old  knight  piled  his  armour,  and  clad  in  black 
velvet  with  '  a  buttoned  cap  of  the  country  fashion '  on 
his  head  ('  my  helmet  now  shall  make  a  hive  for  bees '), 
he  besought  the  queen  to  accept  his  prayers  in  lieu  of  his 
arms,  and  to 

'  vouchsafe  this  aged  man  his  right- 
To  be  your  bedesman  now,  that  was  your  knight  '-1 

The  fine  house  of  Quarendon,  with  its  gardens  and  the 
park  that  fed  '  3,000  sheep  beside  other  cattle ',  has  entirely 
disappeared;  only  the  little  church  remains,  forlornly,  in 
a  bare  field,  and  the  gallant  old  challenger  and  bedesman 
is  buried  there. 

Another  time  Queen  Elizabeth  visited  Yewden  House, 
Hambleden,  Bisham  Abbey,  and  Marlow.  Out  of  the 
beech-woods  came  a  wild  man  with  a  club  to  salute  her, 
with  the  god  of  the  woods,  Sylvanus,  who  wished  Elizabeth 
'  as  many  years  as  our  fields  have  ears  of  corn,  both  infinite  ; 
and  to  her  enemies,  as  many  troubles  as  the  wood  hath 
leaves,  all  intolerable  '.* 

On  a  hill  hard  by  sat  Pan,  and  two  virgins  keeping  sheep, 
and  as  they  kept  their  sheep,  they  were  virtuously  sewing 
in  their  samplers — for  the  queen  would  have  no  one  to  be 
idle.  Pan  came  forward  and  paid  her  the  most  charming 
rustic  compliments.  '  Green  be  the  grass ',  he  said,  '  where 
your  Highness  treads ;  calm  the  water  where  you  row, 
sweet  the  air  where  you  breathe,  long  the  life  that  you  live, 
happy  the  people  that  you  love.'  Lower  down  in  the  corn- 
fields Ceres  appeared  in  a  harvest-cart,  having  a  crown  of 
wheat-ears,  and  with  some  dainty  verses  presorted  the 
queen  with  a  jewel  from  '  the  Lady  of  the  Farm ',  Lady 
Russell. 

All  who  took  part  in  the  welcome  knew  that  they  were 
acting  to  a  most  appreciative  guest ;  and  the  queen  loved 
it  all,  and  could  take  her  share  in  music,  poetry  and  wit, 
with  the  best  of  them. 


86  QUEEN  ELIZABETH 

It  was  consistent  with  Elizabeth's  love  of  outdoor  sports 
and  fresh  air  that  she  did  not  admire  the  sheltered  sites  in 
which  the  old  manor-houses  were  generally  built.  A  Bishop 
of  London  won  the  name  of  Mar-Elms  by  his  complaisance 
in  cutting  down  the  thick  trees  that  impeded  the  queen's 
view  from  the  windows  of  Fulham  Palace.  At  Hampden 
House  her  host,  Griffith  Hampden,  cut  the  Queen's  Gap 
through  his  park,  to  facilitate  her  journey  from  Oxford, 
and  there  is  a  story  that  when  she  complained  overnight 
that  she  could  not  see  the  view  for  the  trees,  her  loyal  host 
and  his. men  set  to  work  so  early  that  the  trees  were  down 
when  she  looked  out  of  window  in  the  morning. 

'  In  her  progresses  she  was  always  most  easy  of  approach  ; 
private  persons,  magistrates,  men,  women,  and  children 
came  joyfully  without  any  fear  to  wait  upon  her.'  The 
complaints  of  a  farmer  who  had  been  too  ruthlessly  de- 
prived of  his  ducks  and  capons  for  her  table,  were  kindly 
listened  to.  '  She  never  appeared  tired,  nor  out  of  temper, 
nor  annoyed  at  the  most  importunate  suitor,  not  even  the 
defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada  more  won  the  hearts  of  her 
people,  than  the  way  she  rode  about  the  country  and 
received  their  simple  love  and  loyalty. 

'  Renowned  Queen  of  this  renowned  land, 
Renowned  land,  because  a  fruitful  soil : 
Renowned  land  through  people  of  the  same  : 
And  thrice  renowned  by  this  her  Virgin  Queene — 
So  dear  a  darling  is  Elizabeth.' 

In  a  dialogue  of  1591  it  is  pleasant  to  find  the  queen 
compared  to  '  a  gentle  mistress  of  children  '  guiding  her 
scholars'  hands  with  her  own  to  make  them  write  fair 
letters,  and  giving  the  little  ones  all  the  credit,  proving 
that  there  were  gentle  and  patient  teachers  when  theories 
of  education  were  most  severe.  We  have  stories  too  of  an 
even  more  famous  wayfarer. 

Shakespeare  passed  through  the  woodlands  of  Bucks  on 
his  way  from  Stratford-on-Avon  to  London.  There  was 
a  green  track  much  frequented  by  strolling  players  and 
itinerants,  which  led  from  the  Roman  road  of  Akeman 
Street  to  Bern  wood  Forest  through  Grendon  Underwood. 
This  village, '  the  dirtiest  town  that  ever  stood',  though  thus 


QUEEN  ELIZABETH 
From  the  title-page  of  the  Bishops'  Bible 


GALLANTS  OF  THE  SWORD  AND  PEN        89 

maligned  in  winter,  was  lovely  in  its  summer  greenery. 
Here  Shakespeare  stayed  in  an  old  house,  once  the  Ship  Inn, 
then,  as  now,  belonging  to  the  family  of  the  Pigotts  of 
Doddershall,  who  have  lived  for  centuries  in  the  county. 
Here  Shakespeare  came  across  the  '  ancient  and  most  quiet 
watchmen ',  whom  he  immortalized  as  '  Goodman  Verges, 
and  honest  neighbour  Dogberry  '.  The  actor-poet  outraged 
these  worthies  by  passing  a  summer's  night  in  the  porch, 
or  perchance  in  the  church  itself.  They  could  only  suppose 
that  he  came  to  rob  the  parish  chest.  He  was  arrested, 
with  all  the  noise  and  importance  he  made  such  good  use 
of  in  his  comedy  ;  and  when  at  his  request  the  chest  was 
opened  and  nothing  was  found  to  be  missing,  the  con- 
stables '  thanked  God  that  they  were  rid  of  a  knave  ',  and 
he  is  reputed  to  have  reproached  them  with  making  '  Much 
ado  about  nothing  '. 

The  sylvan  scenes  in  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  are 
also  said  to  belong  to  Grendon,  and  those  who  have  wandered 
through  these  woods  in  spring  know  the  '  faint  primrose 
beds  '  that  Hermia  loved,  and  feel  the  '  briars  and  thorns 
at  their  apparel  snatch  ',  just  as  they  did  three  hundred 
years  ago  ;  we  can  find  to-day  '  a  bank  whereon  the  wild 
thyme  blows  ',  the  roses  and  '  sweet  honeysuckle  ',  and  the 
ivy  still  '  enrings  the  barky  fingers  of  the  elm '. 

These  stories  were  collected  on  the  spot  by  Aubrey,  the 
antiquary,  who  lived  within  twenty-six  years  of  Shake- 
speare's death,  and  claims  to  have  met  '  Master  Constable  ' 
at  Grendon  in  1642,  in  a  green  old  age. 

Another  of  Shakespeare's  comedies  is  connected  with 
South  Bucks  ;  in  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  Mrs.  Ford 
orders  her  men  to  carry  the  basket  of  dirty  linen  in  which 
Sir  John  Falstaff  is  hidden,  '  to  the  laundress  in  Datchet- 
Mead.' 

Grendon,  in  1598,  contributed  '  beeves  and  muttons '  for 
the  queen's  household.  But  her  best-loved  pastures  were 
those  of  Creslow  (near  Winslow),  placed  by  a  special  deed 
of  Elizabeth  under  '  the  chief  clerk  of  our  kitchen  for  the 
benefit  of  our  household  '. 

The  queen's  bill  of  fare  included,  besides  the  choice 
Creslow  beef  and  mutton,  '  great  birds  as  herons,  swans, 
and  bitterns,'  down  to  the  small  teals,  plovers,  and  baked 


90  QUEEN  ELIZABETH  WITH  HER 

larks.  She  had  but  little  of  vegetables  or  fruit  on  her 
table,  but  on  New  Year's  Day,  1589,  she  accepted  '  a  fair 
pie  of  quinces  '  as  a  present  from  her  sergeant  of  the  pastry. 

Almost  at  the  end  of  her  reign  the  queen  was  splendidly 
entertained  at  Stoke  Court  in  South  Bucks  (the  home  of 
her  old  friend,  Sir  Christopher  Hatton)  by  Sir  Edward  Coke, 
her  Attorney-General ;  a  narrow  green  track  out  of  the 
Hambleden  Valley  is  still  called  Dudley's  Lane,  from  her 
magnificent  favourite,  the  Earl  of  Leicester. 

'  Her  Majesty  and  suite  left  Bradenham  House  on  horse- 
back, passing  through  some  of  the  loveliest  bits  of  primeval 
forest  of  Walter's  Ash,  over  Downley  Common,  through 
Tinkers  Wood  ;  down  Hobbes'  Lane  to  Wycombe,  where 
she  was  greeted  right  royally,  and  spent  the  night  at 
Bassetbury  House,  belonging  to  John  Raunce.' 

Among  the  illustrious  men  of  the  reign  were  the  Chaloners, 
a  Yorkshire  family  settled  in  Bucks.  Sir  Thomas  Chaloner, 
author  and  diplomatist  (1521-65),  was  granted  the  Manor 
of  Steeple  Claydon  by  Queen  Mary,  who  inherited  it 
from  her  mother,  Catherine  of  Arragon,  and  as  the  family 
monument  in  the  church  records,  '  he  was  a  great  soldier 
and  scholar  knighted  by  the  Protector  of  Edward  VI  (on 
the  field  of  Musselburgh).  He  was  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  for 
his  bravery  and  learning,  sent  ambassador  to  the  Emperor 
Ferdinand,  and  to  Philip  II,  king  of  Spain.'  The  queen 
made  a  grant  in  maintenance  of  lamps  in  the  church  of 
Steeple  Claydon. 

Dr.  Robert  Chaloner,  Rector  of  Amersham  (probably  of 
the  same  family),  founded  free  grammar  schools  both  in 
Yorkshire  and  Bucks.  His  name  still  lives  in  the  Chaloner 
School  at  Amersham,  which  after  flickering  down  to  a  little 
company  of  four  boys  in  the  early  nineteenth  century,  has 
been  saved  by  a  new  scheme,  and  new  buildings  opened 
in  1905.  Dr.  Chaloner's  school  now  receives  girls  as  well 
as  boys,  and  his  endowment  is  supplemented  by  grants 
from  the  County  Council. 

In  Fulmer  Church,  which  he  built,  is  a  fine  altar  tomb  to 
Sir  Marmaduke  Dayrell,  '  servant  to  the  famous  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  her  wars  both  by  sea  and  land,  and  afterwards 
in  her  household  ...  he  was  employed  in  matters  of  great 
trust  for  fifty  years.'  The  name  of  these  Dayrells  has  been 


GALLANTS  OF  THE  SWORD  AND  PEN         91 

kept  by  one  of  the  Lillingstones,  where  the  family  lived 
from  the  time  of  King  John  until  1796,  when  the  property 
was  sold  to  the  Robarts  family.  There  is  a  fine  fifteenth- 
century  brass  to  an  older  Dayrell  in  the  church. 

Walter  Haddon  (1516-71),  born  at  Lillingstone  Dayrell, 
and  an  Eton  scholar,  was  a  well-known  statesman  and 
writer  at  Elizabeth's  court.  He  attributed  to  his  mother 
all  the  learning  that  he  had  ;  he  translated  the  Prayer 
Book  into  Latin,  and  served  the  queen  as  ambassador  at 
Bruges  and  elsewhere  ;  she  made  him  her  Master  of  Re- 
quests. Not  being  '  on  progress  '  she  was  seldom  in  the 
mood  to  look  at  the  petitions  he  brought,  and  one  day 
coming  into  her  presence  she  called  out  to  him  bluntly  '  Fie, 
sloven,  thy  new  boots  stink  !  '  '  Madam,'  replied  Haddon, 
'  it  is  not  my  boots  which  stink,  but  the  old  stale  petitions 
that  have  been  so  long  in  my  bag  unopened  '  ;  an  answer 
which  one  is  sure  Her  Highness  appreciated. 

Another  Lillingstone  Dayrell  man  of  note  was  Richard 
Smith  (1590-1675),  one  of  the  earliest  book-collectors, 
a  haunter  of  sales  and  second-hand  bookstalls.  He  held 
an  office  of  profit  in  the  Poultry,  which  enabled  him  to 
indulge  his  taste. 

A  name  to  be  honourably  remembered  is  that  of  William 
Alley  (1510-70),  born  at  Chipping  Wycombe,  and  educated 
at  Eton.  He  was  a  famous  preacher  and  student,  and 
opened  his  library  to  any  needy  scholars,  '  whose  com- 
pany and  conference  he  earnestly  desired.'  Alley  became 
Bishop  of  Exeter ;  the  queen,  '  out  of  the  great  respect  she 
had  for  him,  sent  him  each  New  Year's  Day  a  silver  cup.' 
He  was  '  very  courteous  and  gentle,  at  table  full  of  honest 
speeches,  with  learning  and  pleasantness,  and  for  exercise, 
a  great  player  at  bowls  '.2  Did  the  wits  of  the  court  call  him 
Bowling  Alley  ?  The  bishop  wrote  the  Poor  Man's  Library 
and  a  Hebrew  Grammar,  and  made  the  translation  of  the 
Pentateuch  for  the  magnificent  new  edition  of  the  Scriptures 
in  English  known  as  the  Bishops'  Bible — a  black-letter 
folio  printed  in  1568.  A  simple  and  thoughtful  portrait 
of  the  queen  appeared  on  the  title-page  ;  the  book  was 
supplied  to  the  cathedrals,  and  every  Church  dignitary  was 
ordered  to  keep  a  copy  in  his  hall  for  the  use  of  his  servants 
and  visitors.  The  impetus  given  to  the  printing  of  the 


92  QUEEN  ELIZABETH  WITH  HER 

Bible  in  English  was  one  of  the  glories  of  Elizabeth's 
reign.  In  1577,  a  new  name,  well  known  in  South  Bucks, 
that  of  Christopher  Barker  (1529-99)  appeared  among  the 
privileged  queen's  printers.  In  1588  Barker  obtained  an 
exclusive  patent  for  the  printing  of  English  Bibles  and 
Prayer  Books.  Between  1575  and  1599  more  than  seventy 
editions  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  the  English  Bible  were 
produced  by  this  famous  printer.  To  Christopher  Barker 
we  owe  the  first  Bibles  in  roman  type,  instead  of  the  earlier 
black  letter.  He  is  mentioned  among  the  gentlemen  of  the 
county  as  sending  one  horse  and  one  foot-soldier  to  the 
queen's  muster  at  Tilbury,  to  repel  the  Spanish  invasion. 
His  country  house  was  at  Datchet,  where  he  died  ;  there 
is  a  tablet  to  him  in  the  church,  and  an  entry  of  his  burial, 
in  the  register ;  but  his  gift  to  the  church  of  one  of  his 
finely  printed  Bibles  has  disappeared. 

A  famous  scholar  and  writer,  Richard  Hooker  (1544- 
1600),  author  of  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  was  for  a  time 
a  Bucks  rector.  He  distinguished  himself  at  Oxford  by  his 
learning,  and  still  more  by  '  his  dove-like  simplicity  '.  He 
is  described  as  '  an  obscure  harmless  man  in  poor  clothes, 
of  a  mean  stature  and  stooping,  and  yet  more  lowly  in  the 
thoughts  of  his  soul ;  of  so  mild  and  humble  a  nature  that 
his  poor  parish  clerk  and  he  did  never  talk,  but  with  both 
their  hats  on,  or  both  off  at  the  same  time  '.2  Hooker  was 
an  active  and  exemplary  parish  priest,  but  though  he  was 
a  master  and  a  creator  of  the  great  English  prose  of  that 
day,  he  had  no  repute  as  a  preacher  ;  '  his  voice  was  low, 
stature  little,  gesture  none  at  all,  standing  stone  still  in 
the  pulpit.'  It  was  as  the  champion  and  exponent  of  the 
Church  of  England,  in  his  great  book,  that  he  earned  the 
title  of  the  '  Judicious  Hooker  '. 

A  well-known  tale  of  Isaac  Walton's  has  made  his  in- 
cumbency of  Drayton-Beauchamp  historical.  With  charac- 
teristic shyness  he  committed  the  choice  of  his  wife  to 
a  good  woman  who  had  provided  him  with  a  lodging,  when 
he  reached  London,  '  wet,  weary,  and  weather  beaten  f, 
after  a  ride  from  Oxford.  His  landlady  bestowed  upon  him 
her  own  daughter,  Joan,  whose  chief  portion  was  a  shrewish 
tongue.  Her  loud  commands  Hooker  meekly  obeyed,  and 
when  two  beloved  pupils  of  his  Oxford  days,  Sandys  and 


GALLANTS  OF  THE  SWORD  AND  PEN        93 

Cranmer,  came  into  Bucks  to  see  him,  they  found  him 
with  the  Odes  of  Horace  in  his  hand,  '  like  innocent  Abel 
tending  his  few  sheep  in  a  common  field.'  When  their  old 
friend  took  them  into  the  house,  '  their  best  enjoyment 
was  his  quiet  company ',  but  this  was  soon  broken  into  by 
the  wife's  voice  calling  upon  Richard  to  come  and  rock  the 
cradle,  and  so  little  peace  did  she  give  them,  that  they  were 
forced  to  leave  Hooker  to  his  wife's  company,  and  find 
'  a  quieter  lodging  for  themselves '. 

But  the  visit  had  lasting  effects  ;  the  youths  had  powerful 
relations  in  the  Church,  and  they  gave  them  no  peace  till 
Hooker  was  made  Master  of  the  Temple,  and  Drayton- 
Beauchamp  knew  him  no  more. 

Three  years  after  Hooker's  death  the  great  queen  died. 
She  left  an  enduring  mark  on  our  history  and  literature, 
even  in  the  very  preface  of  our  English  Bible,  where  we  are 
told  that  it  was  the  expectation  of  the  enemies  of  England 
'  that  upon  the  setting  of  that  bright  Occidental  Star, 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  most  happy  memory,  some  thick  and 
palpable  clouds  of  darkness  would  so  have  overshadowed  this 
Land,  that  men  should  have  been  in  doubt  which  way  they 
were  to  walk;  and  . . .  who  was  to  direct  the  unsettled  State.' 

The  estimates  of  her  character  and  policy  have  differed 
widely ;  here  we  may  remember  her  as  an  accomplished 
and  gracious  lady  riding  about  our  green  ways — greeting, 
and  greeted  by  her  people. 

1  Nichols,  Progresses  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

2  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. 


CHAPTER  IX 
UNDER  'GENTLE  JAMIE' 

THREE  events  connect  Bucks  with  the  reign  of  James  I : 
the  constitutional  struggle  just  beginning  between  the 
Crown  and  the  Commons,  the  persecution  of  Catholics,  and 
the  translation  of  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  English 
Bible. 

On  January   11,    1604,   writs  were  issued  for  the  first 


94  UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  ' 

Parliament  of  the  new  reign.  King  James,  as  his  manner 
was,  gave  his  subjects  much  good  advice  ;  they  were  to 
select  members  who  did  not  seek  only  to  advance  their  own 
interests,  who  were  not  of  turbulent  humour  or  superstitious 
blindness  ;  no  bankrupts  or  outlaws.  The  proclamation 
finally  ordered  that  all  returns  should  be  made  to  the  Court 
of  Chancery,  which  should  be  the  judge  of  the  validity  of 
elections.  This  last  claim  would  have  reduced  the  Commons 
to  mere  nominees  of  the  Crown. 

Parliament  met  with  the  feeling  that  a  crisis  was  at  hand, 
and  the  first  matter  that  brought  the  Commons  into 
collision  with  the  Crown  was  the  right  of  the  member  for 
Bucks  to  take  his  seat. 

The  election  had  been  held  at  Brickhill,  as  the  plague  was 
bad  at  Aylesbury  ;  the  gentry  desired  to  elect  Sir  John 
Fortescue,  Queen  Elizabeth's  old  friend,  but  cries  of 
'  a  Goodwin,  a  Goodwin  '  from  the  freeholders  secured  the 
return  of  Sir  Francis  Goodwin.  Sir  Francis  was  in  debt, 
and  it  was  doubtful  whether  or  not  he  came  under  the 
definition  of  an  outlaw  ;  the  Court  of  Chancery  pronounced 
his  election  void,  issued  a  fresh  writ  and  declared  Sir  John 
Fortescue  to  be  member  for  Bucks.  The  same  claim  had 
been  made  by  the  Crown  in  1586,  and  defeated,  but  this 
time  the  Commons  resolved  to  settle  once  for  all  the  right 
to  decide  on  the  election  of  their  own  members.  The  House 
summoned  Goodwin  to  the  bar,  and  having  heard  his  case, 
ordered  him  to  take  the  oath  and  his  seat,  which  he  did 
accordingly.  The  Lords  sent  down  a  message  to  the 
Commons  asking  for  information  about  the  Bucks  election ; 
the  Commons  refused  to  give  it,  as  it  was  a  private  matter 
that  concerned  themselves  alone  ;  pressed  again  by  the 
king,  they  consented  to  a  conference.  With  admirable 
prudence  they  confined  their  opposition  to  the  main  point, 
though  the  king  had  raised  several  others — '  The  Prince's 
command  is  like  a  thunderbolt,'  said  one  member,  '  and  the 
roaring  of  a  lion.'  Mr.  Speaker  had  a  private  interview  with 
the  king,  lasting  from  8  to  10  a.m.  At  length  the  king 
acknowledged  that  the  Commons  were  the  proper  judges  of 
the  constitution  of  their  own  House,  but  asked  them  as 
a  personal  favour  to  annul  both  returns.  This  they  con- 
sented to  do,  having  obtained  a  letter  from  Goodwin  that 


UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE 


95 


he  was  not  anxious  to  retain  his  seat,  and  at  the  fresh  election 
the  choice  fell  on  Sir  Christopher  Pigott,  whom  the  king 
had  lately  knighted.  Sir  Francis  Goodwin  was  elected  the 
following  year  by  the  borough  of  Buckingham,  and  he  was 
again  chosen  for  the  county  in  1620.  His  granddaughter 
married  Philip,  Lord  Wharton. 

It  seemed  as  if  a  member  for  Bucks  was  destined  to  be 
a  stumbling-block  to  the  Stuarts.  While  Scottish  affairs 
were  being  discussed  in  the  next  session  (1606),  Sir  Christo- 
pher Pigott,  without  removing  his  hat  or  rising  from  his 
seat,  was  heard  to  speak  in  a  loud  voice.  Called  to  order, 
he  rose  and  began  violently  to  abuse  the  Scots,  whom  he 
called  thieves,  murderers,  and  rogues — '  They  have  not 
suffered  above  two  kings  to  die  in  their  beds  these  200 
years,'  he  said,  and  '  our  king  hath  hardly  escaped  them  '  ; 
he  continued  with  a  torrent  of  invective.  The  astonished 
members  stared  at  each  other,  but  took  no  further  notice, 
possibly  agreeing  with  him,  as  the  king's  Scotch  favourites 
were  most  unpopular.  Three  days  later  the  House  received 
an  angry  message  from  the  king,  '  that  he  did  much  mislike 
their  neglect  in  not  interrupting  the  speaker  in  the  instant ', 
and  commanded  them  to  take  immediate  steps  to  bring  the 
delinquent  to  justice.  The  Commons  hesitated.  '  They 
knew  not,'  they  said,  'what  way  to  censure  him  for  it, 
freedom  of  speech  in  their  House  being  a  darling  privilege.' 
They  decided  that  Pigott  was  not  accountable  to  any  other 
authority,  but  proceeded  to  deal  with  him  themselves  with 
great  severity.  Sir  Christopher  disclaimed  any  intention 
of  disloyalty,  but  he  was  made  to  kneel  down  and  told  by 
the  Speaker,  Sir  Edward  Philips,  of  Hogshaw,  who  was 
also  his  brother-in-law,  that  his  offence  was  '  so  apparently 
heinous  .  .  .  that  the  House  would  give  no  reason  for  their 
judgement ',  but  he  was  dismissed  from  his  place  as  Knight 
of  the  Shire,  and  was  to  be  kept  in  the  Tower  a  prisoner 
during  the  pleasure  of  the  House. 

In  this  sudden  calamity  the  unfortunate  man,  ill  and 
miserable,  turned  over  in  his  mind  what  friend  would  stand 
by  him.  Martin  Lister,  member  for  Clitheroe,  had  lately 
hired  Claydon,  where  he  had  been  accused  of  cutting  down 
old  trees,  and  ploughing  up  old  pastures,  but  Pigott  was  his 
neighbour,  not  his  landlord,  and  to  Lister  he  appealed. 


96  UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  ' 

Lister  represented  to  the  House  that  Sir  Christopher 
Pigott  was  '  sick  of  a  burning  fever  and  in  danger  of  his 
life ',  and  presented  a  letter  from  him  of  humble  apology. 
The  Commons,  possibly  ashamed  of  the  vehemence  of  their 
loyalty,  released  him  within  a  fortnight  of  his  arrest.  He 
retired  to  Doddershall  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  to 
reflect  on  the  imprudence  of  attacking  a  Scotchman,  and 
Anthony  Tyringham,  fourth  member  for  the  seat,  in  two 
years,  was  chosen  in  his  stead.  Sir  Thomas  Crewe,  member 
for  Aylesbury,  was  Speaker  in  the  last  Parliament  of  the 
reign. 

The  changes  that  followed  the  Reformation  had  brought 
great  hardships  upon  the  families  who  refused  to  abandon 
the  old  faith.  Many  Catholics  were  perfectly  loyal  English- 
men, and  the  Dormers  and  the  Throgmortons  sent  up  man 
and  horse  for  the  defence  of  the  queen  and  the  realm,  as 
cheerfully  as  the  Hampdens,  Pigotts,  and  Verneys. 

But  when  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests  educated  abroad 
conspired  against  Elizabeth's  life,  and  attempts  were  actually 
made  to  assassinate  her,  grave  political,  as  well  as  religious, 
issues  were  involved.  '  The  Catholic  whose  zeal  had  been 
stirred  up  by  the  new  missionaries  was  far  more  hostile  to 
the  Government  that  supported  Protestantism  than  his 
father  had  been  before  him,  and  repression  consequently 
tended  to  become  more  and  more  severe.'  Among  the  most 
famous  of  the  Roman  Catholic  families  in  Bucks  were  the 
Dormers  of  Wing,  the  Peckhams  of  Denham,  the  Digbys  of 
Gayhurst,  and  the  Throgmortons  of  Weston  Underwood ; 
other  names  given  as  '  harbourers  of  priests  '  were  Gifford, 
of  Steeple  Claydon,  and  Mercer,  of. East  Claydon.  Robert 
Gray,  chaplain  to  the  Catholic  Lord  Montagu,  was  wont 
to  go  with  him  to  visit  his  son-in-law  Sir  Robert  Dormer 
at  Wing ;  Gray  was  often  imprisoned,  and  was  credited 
with  knowing  all  the  priests  and  Jesuits  in  Bucks,  and  their 
haunts.  Persecutions,  fines,  and  rewards  had  developed  an 
odious  type  of  informer  known  as  a  priest-finder ;  very 
little  evidence  was  required  against  a  Papist.  Priests  were 
concealed  in  private  houses  who  for  years  never  went 
outside  the  doors  ;  and  to  harbour  or  help  a  priest  was 
enough  to  condemn  a  Protestant.  As  late  as  1601  '  Thomas 
Hackshot,  a  stout  young  man  of  Mursley,  was  executed  at 


UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  '  97 

Tyburn  for  rescuing  a  Romish  priest  out  of  the  hands  of  an 
officer  '.1 

At  Stoke  Poges,  in  1564,  Mrs.  Isabel  Hampden  had  her 
house  roughly  searched  and  ransacked ;  no  priest  was 
discovered,  but  '  a  pathetic  list  remains  among  the  State 
Papers,  of  the  innocent  books,  pictures,  and  objects  of 
devotion  carried  off  ',  including  a  letter  from  the  Pope.  In 
1586  the  house  of  Sir  Christopher  Browne  at  Boarstall  was 
suddenly  entered  by  a  magistrate  and  searched  from 
7  a.m.  to  6  p.m.,  the  gates  being  guarded  all  the  time. 
'  Coffers,  cupboards,  closets,  trunks,  caskets,  and  secret 
places,  were  turned  out ' ;  men  '  breaking  open  all  locked 
doors  for  lack  of  keys ',  making  a  bonfire  outside  of 
'papistical  images  and  books',  and  leaving  the  house  a 
wreck.1 

In  1589  Thomas  Belson  of  Brill,  and  his  servant,  Hum- 
phrey Pritchard,  were  both  hanged  at  Oxford  for  helping 
a  priest,  George  Nichols,  who  was  hanged  with  them. 

The  Pope  and  the  English  Catholics  hoped  much  from 
the  accession  of  James  I,  who,  in  advance  of  his  age,  was 
in  favour  of  toleration,  and  began  to  negotiate  a  most 
unpopular  peace  with  Spain.  But  the  old  round  of  plots 
on  the  one  side,  and  executions  on  the  other,  began  again 
before  the  first  year  of  his  reign  was  out,  and  in  1605  the 
old  Recusancy  Acts  were  enforced  and  the  Catholics  heavily 
fined.  The  Puritan  party,  on  the  other  hand,  thought  that 
the  king  had  not  gone  far  enough.  There  was  great  indig- 
nation in  the  county  when  Father  Roger  Lee  converted 
Mary  Moulsoe,  the  heiress  of  Gayhurst,  and  her  husband, 
Sir  Everard  Digby.  Their  fine  house  became  a  centre  of 
Catholic  intrigue ;  Nicholas  Owen,  a  Jesuit,  skilled  in 
devising  hiding-places,  made  for  the  Digbys  a  movable 
floor,  revolving  on  a  pivot ;  this  being  unbolted  revealed 
a  room  below  with  secret  ways  in  and  out  of  it ;  and  clever 
cabinets  and  drawers  in  which  papers 'might  be  concealed. 
The  famous  priest,  Father  (G«rard,  "was  Digby's  great 
friend. 

In  the  autumn  of  1605  there  was  a  Roman  Catholic 
pilgrimage,  to  St.  Winifred's  well  at  Holywell,  which  began 
and  ended  at  Gayhurst ;  several  members  of  the  Digby 
family  took  part  in  it ;  and  Guy  Fawkes  stayed  at  Gay- 

986'4  G 


98  UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  ' 

hurst.  Sir  Everard  Digby,  who  had  at  first  disapproved  of 
the  Gunpowder  Plot,  yielded  to  the  fascination  of  its  pro- 
moters, and  threw  himself  headlong  into  it ;  he  was  only 
five-and-twenty,  and  an  enthusiastic  convert.  A  country 
house  was  hired  for  him  on  the  borders  of  Worcestershire, 
and  he  was  to  hold  a  great  hunting  match  on  the  day  of  the 
meeting  of  Parliament,  the  5th  of  November.  As  soon  as 
news  should  be  received  that  the  king  and  the  parliament 
had  been  blown  up,  Digby,  with  some  members  of  the 
Hunt,  were  to  seize  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  who  was  at 
Combe  Abbey,  within  an  easy  ride. 

Tresham,  one  of  the  conspirators,  betrayed  the  secret 
to  his  brother-in-law,  Lord  Monteagle,  whose  life  he  wished 
to  save.  When  the  news  reached  Sir  Everard  of  the  com- 
plete failure  of  the  plot,  he  rode  desperately  for  his  life,  but 
was  captured,  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  tried  in  Westminster 
Hall,  dragged  on  a  hurdle  to  St.  Paul's,  and  there,  on 
January  30,  1606,  he  was  hanged,  and  his  body  treated 
'  with  the  usual  ghastly  barbarities  '.  On  the  scaffold,  like 
the  gallant  youth  that  he  was,  '  he  confessed  his  guilt,  with 
a  manly  shame  for  his  infatuation ',  and  exonerated  Father 
Gerard  of  any  share  in  the  Gunpowder  Plot.  It  had  not 
yet  dawned  upon  the  pious  on  either  side  that  '  men  must 
agree  to  worship  separately  in  peace,  if  they  cannot  agree 
to  worship  peacefully  together.'  The  young  widow,  Lady 
Digby,  retained  her  property,  and  brought  up  her  two  boys 
at  Gayhurst ;  but  the  house  was,  not  unnaturally,  viewed 
with  suspicion.  The  eldest,  Sir  Kenelm,  who  was  but  three 
years  old  when  he  lost  his  father,  grew  up  very  handsome 
and  accomplished ;  he  and  his  beautiful  wife,  Venetia 
Stanley,  were  great  favourites  at  Court,  and  were  painted 
by  Vandyck.  The  younger  son,  Sir  John  Digby,  was  killed 
at  the  battle  of  Langport  in  1645.  There  was  an  alarming 
report  in  later  years,  which  spread  far  and  wide  in  Bucks, 
started  by  a  molecatcher's  boy,  who  had  heard  it  from  an 
ostler,  that  Sir  Kenelm  had  sent  his  mother  great  store  of 
arms  for  a  Papist  rising,  and  that  '  men  should  go  over 
their  shoe-tops  in  blood  '.  Lady  Digby  exposed  the  story 
by  asking  for  a  full  inquiry,  but  it  proves  the  strong  local 
impression  left  by  the  Gunpowder  Plot.  The  5th  of  Novem- 
ber was  '  remembered  '  for  years  with  special  gusto  at  High 


UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  '  99 

Wycombe  ;  the  four  wards  had  rival  bonfires,  and  skir- 
mishes with  fireworks,  after  which  the  mayor  and  aldermen 
sat  down  to  '  cold  spareribs  and  apple-sauce  ',  and  drank 
loyal  toasts  from  a  loving  cup  of  spiced  ale. 

Gayhurst  was  sold  in  the  next  century,  by  two  Digby 
heiresses,  to  Sir  Nathan  Wrighte,  Lord  Keeper  to  Queen 
Anne,  whose  monument  by  Roubillac  is  in  the  church. 
Mr.  W.  W.  Carlile,  who  was  M.P.  for  North  Bucks  from 
1895  to  1905,  now  owns  the  house.  The  memory  of  the  old 
possessor  is  still  preserved  in  Digby's  Walk,  and  by  some 
humble  creatures  peculiar  to  the  place.  White,  edible  snails, 
tinged  with  red,  are  said  to  abound  in  the  Gayhurst  woods, 
descendants  of  those  Sir  Kenelm  brought  from  the  South  of 
France,  for  his  wife,  Venetia,  who  was  consumptive.2  They 
are  not  appreciated  by  Bucks  invalids,  but  a  Pectoral  Paste 
of  Snails  is  often  to  be  seen  in  French  chemists'  windows  to 
the  present  day. 

From  political  conflicts  and  religious  persecution  we  turn 
with  relief  to  the  best  legacy  which  King  James  has  left  us, 
the  Authorized  Version  of  the  English  Bible  of  1611.  The 
celebration  of  the  Tercentenary  of  its  publication,  both  in 
England  and  in  America,  has  reminded  us  afresh  of  its 
history,  and  of  the  credit  due  to  the  king  for  its  initiation. 
At  a  meeting  at  New  York,  held  in  April,  1911,  a  letter  was 
read  from  King  George  V  which  is  of  great  historical 
interest,  speaking  as  he  does  in  the  name  of  England  and 
as  a  direct  descendant  of  King  James :  '  I  rejoice  that 
America  and  England  should  join  in  commemorating  the 
publication,  300  years  ago,  of  that  version  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  which  has  so  long  held  its  own  among  English- 
speaking  peoples.  Its  circulation  in  our  homes  has  done, 
perhaps,  more  than  anything  else  on  earth,  to  promote 
among  old  and  young,  moral  and  religious  welfare,  on  either 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  version  which  bears  King  James's 
name  is  so  clearly  interwoven  in  the  history  of  British  and 
American  life  that  it  is  right  we  should  thank  God  for  it 
together.  I  congratulate  the  President  and  the  people  of 
the  United  States  upon  their  share  in  this  our  common 
heritage.' 

On  the  same  occasion,  our  ambassador,  Mr.  James 
Bryce,  reminded  us  that  this  great  translation  '  was, 

G  2 


100  UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  ' 

like  most  great  things,  no  sudden  achievement  of  a 
group  of  gifted  scholars,  but  the  mature  fruit  of  desires 
and  purposes  which  had  long  been  ripening  in  the  minds  of 
our  ancestors '. 

.Indeed  we  may'tbe  said  to  have  gained  this  treasure  by 
a  happy  accident.  The  conference  called  at  Hampton  Court 
Palace  in  1604  met  to  consider  the  complaints  of  the  Presby- 
terians against  the  Prayer  Book,  one  of  which  was  that  the 
extracts  from  the  Bible  were  mistranslated.  Dr.  Reynolds, 
their  leader,  proposed  that  an  altogether  new  translation 
should  be  undertaken.  This  was  received  unfavourably  by 
churchmen,  who  had  so  lately  been  given  the  Bishops'  Bible 
of  1568,  but  it  laid  hold  of  the  king's  imagination  ;  '  James 
was  a  born  theologian,  from  his  childhood  he  had  been 
devoted  to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  he  had  written  a  para- 
phrase of  Revelation,  and  translated  some  of  the  Psalms. 
He  well  knew  that  Greek  and  Hebrew  Scholarship  had 
made  great  progress  in  the  preceding  thirty  or  forty  years.' 3 
'  The  notion  of  directing  in  his  own  royal  person  a  great 
national  enterprise,  such  as  the  production  of  a  translation, 
surpassing  all  its  predecessors  in  fidelity  and  literary 
excellence,  was  as  gratifying  to  his  self-confidence  and  his 
vanity  as  it  was  congenial  to  his  tastes.' 3 

jln  this  labour  our  county  was  honourably  represented. 
When  the  company  of  forty-seven  revisers  began  their  work, 
the  Prophets  were  entrusted  to  seven  Oxford  men,  among 
whom  was  '  Brett,  of  a  worshipful  family  '.  Richard  Brett 
(1567-1637)  was  known  as  the  learned  Rector  of  Quainton  ; 
to  which  living  he  had  been  appointed  in  1595.  He  was 
famous  for  special  knowledge  of  the  biblical  languages  and 
of  other  Eastern  tongues.  His  daughter  Elizabeth  married 
William  Sparke,  who  succeeded  his  father  as  Rector  of 
Bletchley  (where  he  was  born),  and  was  a  member  of  the 
Hampton  Court  Conference. 

In  the  fine  parish  church  of  Quainton,  so  rich  in  brasses 
and  sculpture,  there  is  an  interesting  monument  of  the  old 
translator.  He  and  his  wife,  Alice,  daughter  of  Richard 
Brown,  sometime  Mayor  of  Oxford,  in  full,  close  ruffs,  and 
long  lines  of  graceful  drapery,  kneel  on  each  side  of  an  ark- 
shaped  box  or  desk,  with  smaller  figures  of  their  six  sons 
and  four  daughters  ;  the  background  is  a  room  in  perspec- 


UNDER  '  GENTLE  JAMIE  '  101 

tive  with  two  large  open  books  on  the  wall,  and  pictures  or 
framed  needlework. 

[In  a  large  box  in  the  south  aisle,  of  the  same  shape  as  the 
one  on  the  monument,  lie  the  mutilated  remains  of  the  fine 
folio  of  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible,  presented  by 
Brett  to  his  church.  It  has  been  roughly  handled  by  men 
and  eaten  by  mice,  but  should  not  be  beyond  repair  and 
loving  restoration.  Inscriptions  in  Hebrew,  Greek  and 
Latin  on  the  wall  commemorate  in  faultless  syntax  the  old 
rector's  private  and  public  virtues,  and  at  the  last  there  is 
a  bit  of  comfortable  English  doggerel  which  his  wife  probably 
felt  brought  her  nearer  to  the  man  with  whom  she  had  spent 
thirty  happy  years  than  all  the  learned  classical  phrases. 

'  Instead  of  weeping  marble,  weepe  for  him, 
All  ye  his  flock,  whom  he  did  strive  to  winn 
To  Christ,  to  Lyfe,  so  shall  you  duly  sett 
The  most  desired  stone  on  Doctor  Brett.' 

It  was  the  time  for  elaborately  ingenious  epitaphs. 
Francis  Quarles,  one  of  the  most  popular  of  Puritan  poets, 
whose  book  of  emblems  was  in  every  religious  household, 
wrote  some  of  his  most  famous  memorial  lines  for  the 
beautiful  monument  in  Hambleden  Church  to  Sir  Cope 
D'Oyley,  his  wife  (the  poet's  sister),  and  their  children  ;  the 
description  of  the  lady  ends  thus — 

'  In  spirit  a  Jael, 

Rebecca  in  grace,  in  heart  an  Abigail ; 
In  works  a  Dorcas,  to  the  Church  a  Hannah, 
And  to  her  spouse  Susannah, 
Prudently  simple,  providently  wrary  ; 
To  the  world  a  Martha,  and  to  heaven  a  Mary.' 

1  Victoria  County  History,  Bucks. 
*  Murray,  Handbook  to  Bucks* 
3  Hoare,  Our  English  Bible. 


102  SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY 


CHAPTER  X 

SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY, 
1584-1642 

THE  lives  of  two  half-brothers,  both  landowners  and  well- 
known  characters  in  Bucks,  help  us  to  understand  the 
silent  changes  of  outlook  in  English  society  from  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  to  that  of  Charles  I. 

Mr.  J.  R.  Green,  who  has  given  us  our  best  picture  of 
Puritan  England,  thus  defines  the  difference  :  '  There  was 
a  sudden  loss  of  the  passion,  the  caprice,  the  subtle  and 
tender  play  of  feeling,  the  breadth  of  sympathy,  the  quick 
pulse  of  delight  which  had  marked  the  age  of  Elizabeth  ; 
but  on  the  other  hand  life  gained  in  moral  grandeur,  in 
a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  manhood,  in  orderliness,  and 
equable  force.  Home,  as  we  conceive  it  now,  was  the 
creation  of  the  Puritan.  ...  A  higher  conception  of  duty 
coloured  men's  daily  actions  .  .  .  the  wilfulness  of  life,  in 
which  the  men  of  the  Renaissance  had  revelled,  seemed 
unworthy  of  life's  character  and  end.'  *  The  elder  brother 
in  our  story,  Sir  Francis  Verney,  showed  all  this  wilfulness 
of  life,  and  impatience  of  restraint.  He  belonged  to  the 
adventurous  band  of  the  great  sea-rovers,  who  at  the  best 
were  like  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  at  the  worst  became  mere 
swashbucklers  and  pirates.  To  these  men  the  long  war 
with  Spain  had  opened  a  career  of  chivalrous  adventure, 
such  as  the  Crusades  had  given  their  ancestors ;  and  they 
were  undone  when  King  James  proclaimed  his  unpopular 
treaty  of  peace. 

The  younger  brother,  Sir  Edmund  Verney,  with  the  same 
courage  and  knightly  tradition,  was  burdened  with  deeper 
problems ;  and  could  no  longer  draw  his  sword  light- 
heartedly  to  cut  through  the  tangled  problems  in  Church 
and  State  that  beset  an  English  gentleman  of  the  seven- 
teenth century. 

Sir  Francis  Verney,  born  1584,  was  the  eldest  son  of 
Sir  Edmund  Verney  of  Claydon.  Educated  at  Trinity 
College,  Oxford,  he  made  a  journey  to  the  Holy  Land,  was 
entertained  on  his  return  by  the  English  ambassador  at 


SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY  103 

Paris  ;  fought  some  famous  duels,  and  was  held  to  be  one 
of  the  handsomest,  best  dressed,  and  most  gallant  gentle- 
men of  his  day. 

He  had  inherited  his  father's  property  in  Herts,  and  the 
manor  and  advowson  of  Quainton,  where  his  ancestress, 
Margaret  Iwardby,  Lady  Verney,  has  a  brass  in  the  church. 

Sir  Francis  had  no  liking  for  the  homespun  duties  of 
a  country  squire ;  a  marriage  had  been  arranged  for  him 
in  childhood  by  his  masterful  stepmother,  with  her  daughter, 
Ursula  St.  Barbe.  His  dislike  of  '  ould  Lady  Verney  '  ex- 
tended to  his  wife,  and  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
upset  a  settlement  which  gave  the  Claydon  estates  to  his 
younger  brother,  he  sold  his  Quainton  property  and  re- 
solved to  '  forsake  the  friends  who  had  injured  him,  and 
the  country  which  had  refused  him  redress  '.2 

As  the  war  with  Spain,  lately  so  glorious,  had  become 
unlawful,  Sir  Francis  joined  with  the  Giffards  (another  well- 
known  Bucks  family)  in  more  or  less  piratical  expeditions, 
in  which  even  English  ships  were  sometimes  plundered. 
He  also  took  part  in  a  civil  war  in  Morocco,  where  a  reck- 
less band  of  young  Englishmen  lent  their  swords  to  the 
emperor,  who  was  fighting  a  '  pretender  ',  as  the  emperors 
of  Morocco  have  been  doing  ever  since. 

By  land  and  sea  Sir  Francis  and  his  friends  defied  all 
virtuous  efforts  of  King  James  to  put  them  down.  There 
is  a  legend  that  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  made  to  serve 
as  a  galley-slave,  and  died  in  great  poverty  and  misery, 
having  '  turned  Turk '.  The  facts  were  sad  enough  :  he 
caught  a  fever  in  Sicily,  and  was  nursed  by  the  brothers  of 
the  great  Hospital  of  St.  Mary  of  Pity  at  Messina,  where  he 
died  in  1615,  aged  thirty-one.  But  the  rich  silk  pelisses, 
slippers,  and  turban  sent  home  by  an  English  merchant, 
and  still  kept  at  Claydon  House,  contradict  the  report  of 
his  poverty,  as  his  staff  inlaid  with  crosses  in  mother-of- 
pearl  disproves  the  improbable  story  of  his  apostasy. 

It  was  amongst  such  brave  and  restless  spirits  that 
'  Rupert's  Horse '  was  to  be  recruited  in  the  succeeding  reign. 

Sir  Edmund  Verney,  born  in  1590,  early  lost  his  father, 
but  he  was  brought  up  by  his  mother  in  all  knightly  exer- 
cises that  might  fit  him  for  the  camp  and  the  court,  in  the 
love  of  outdoor  sports,  of  art  and  music,  and  in  the  paths 


104  SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY 

of  domestic  virtue  and  personal  piety.  As  a  youth  he 
served  with  the  army  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  visited 
the  Courts  of  France,  Italy,  and  Spain. 

In  1610  he  was  appointed  to  the  household  of  Henry, 
Prince  of  Wales,  in  which  Sir  Thomas  Chaloner  of  Steeple 
Claydon  held  the  important  post  of  tutor  and  chamberlain. 
Chaloner's  sons,  both  M.P.s,  were  in  later  years  to  be 
among  the  Regicides,  alienated,  like  Sir  Edmund's  son,  by 
Charles's  policy — but  in  those  days  Chaloners  and  Verneys 
were  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the  Stuarts,  and  to  the 
end  of  his  life  Sir  Edmund  spoke  of  Prince  Henry's  early 
death  as  the  greatest  sorrow  he  had  ever  known. 

In  1612  Sir  Edmund  married  Margaret  Denton  of  Hilles- 
don,  who  made  him  very  happy,  and  brought  him  twelve 
children.  The  next  year  he  was  appointed  to  the  household 
of  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  ten  years  his  junior, 
and  with  whom  he  lived  henceforth  on  terms  of  close 
intimacy,  not  even  disturbed  by  Charles's  inveterate  habit 
of  borrowing  large  sums  of  money  from  his  friends. 

Sir  Edmund's  share  in  the  mad  journey  to  Spain  in  search 
of  the  Infanta  scarcely  concerns  us  ;  on  his  return  he  took 
an  active  part  in  county  business.  George  Villiers,  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  the  splendid  court  favourite,  made  him  his 
lieutenant  in  charge  of  Whaddon  Chase,  a  great  tract  of 
forest  and  moorland  stretching  then  from  Winslow  to 
Bletchley,  with  leave  to  kill  what  game  he  would,  and  to 
reside  in  the  Manor-House.  The  forest-laws,  which  the 
tillers  of  the  soil  had  protested  against  ever  since  the 
Norman  Conquest,  were  still  obnoxious.  The  cottagers  of 
Little  Horwood  (none  of  whom  could  sign  their  names) 
petitioned  Sir  Edmund  to  intercede  for  them  with  the  great 
duke,  and  certified  '  that  the  deer  did  much  oppress  them, 
lying  down  in  their  corn  and  grass  ',  also  that '  their  ancient 
rights  to  cut  and  fetch  furzes  from  off  the  common  land 
was  now  forbidden  them  '.  There  was  much  poverty  and 
sickness,  small-pox  was  rife,  and  there  were  outbreaks  at 
intervals  of  the  plague,  brought  down  from  the  cities  ;  it 
was  part  of  the  duty  of  a  country  gentleman  to  arrange 
for  those  on  his  estate  afflicted  with  scurvy  to  be  brought 
to  town  to  be  touched  for  '  the  King's  Evil '. 

In  1624,  Sir  Edmund  Verney  was  returned  to  Parliament, 


Vandyck  pinx. 

SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY,  KT.,  KNIGHT-MARSHAL  AND 
STANDARD-BEAEEB 

From  a  picture  at  Claydon  House 


SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY    107 

and  continued  to  represent  Buckingham,  Aylesbury,  or 
Wycombe  for  the  greater  part  of  his  life.  When  Charles 
became  king,  he  made  his  faithful  servant  Knight-Marshal 
of  the  Palace,  which  involved  a  general  supervision  of  the 
royal  household,  officers,  and  tradesmen,  the  regulation  of 
markets  held  at  the  palace  gates,  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  Marshalsea  Prison  for  the  detention  of  prisoners. 
The  Knight-Marshal  had  to  pay  the  warders,  and  to  recoup 
himself  precariously  by  fees  extorted  from  the  prisoners. 

Sir  Edmund  was  constantly  riding  up  and  down  between 
London  and  Bucks ;  as  Deputy  Lieutenant  he  had  many 
unpleasant  duties  to  perform,  such  as  disarming  the  Roman 
Catholics  and  the  constant  levying  of  subsidies  of  doubtful 
legality.  He  was  obliged  to  leave  his  large  family  chiefly 
to  Dame  Margaret's  care,  as  his  attendance  in  the  House 
of  Commons  became  more  and  more  vital,  but  he  kept  up 
the  most  tender  relations  with  his  children  and  children's 
children,  who  were  all  accustomed  to  meet  at  Claydon. 

A  letter  of  his  has  been  preserved,  written  at  one  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  when  a  little  granddaughter  was  grievously 
ill,  to  announce  to  his  son  in  London,  that  his  '  sweet  child 
was  going  apace  to  a  better  world  '.2  One  cannot  imagine 
Sir  Francis  Verney  watching  beside  a  dying  child,  any  more 
than  one  can  think  of  Sir  Edmund  as  a  buccaneer,  and 
'  shouting  with  the  shouting  crew  '. 

On  religious  and  political  grounds,  Sir  Edmund  was 
opposed  to  the  policy  of  Laud  and  Straff ord ;  he  subscribed 
to  bring  Archbishop  Ussher  from  Ireland  to  preach  at 
Paul's  Cross,  and  received  him  in  his  house  ;  he  allied 
himself  with  Hyde  and  Falkland  against  the  politics  of  the 
court  and  the  queen. 

The  Bucks  members  were  notable  men.  Sir  Miles 
Hobart,  M.P.  for  Marlow,  suffered  imprisonment  in  the 
Tower  for  his  freedom  of  speech ;  Sir  Peter  Temple  was 
shut  up  in  his  own  house  at  Stowe  for  arrears  of  ship- 
money  which  he  refused  to  pay  ;  Sir  Edward  Coke,  of  Stoke 
Poges,  M.P.  for  the  county,  was  the  legal  adviser  of  the  con- 
stitutional party  ;  Whitelock,  Goodwin,  and  Bulstrode,  and 
younger  men  like  John  Hampden,  were  making  their  mark. 

Then  the  war  with  the  Scots  began  in  1639  ;  Sir  Edmund 
was  at  Claydon  tormented  with  sciatica,  and  still  more 


108  SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY 

troubled  in  mind  at  the  king's  policy  ;  but  he  prepared  at 
once  to  meet  him  at  York,  looked  to  his  armour,  summoned 
his  men,  and  made  his  will.  He  was  anxious  that,  wherever 
he  fell,  he  should  be  buried  in  the  church  of  Middle  Claydon, 
a  provision  which  his  eldest  son  and  his  faithful  steward, 
Roades,  willingly  undertook  to  carry  out. 

His  letters  were  disquieting  to  those  who  loved  and 
watched  for  him.  '  Our  Army,'  he  wrote,  '  is  but  weak, 
our  Purse  is  weaker,  if  we  fight  with  these  forces  we  shall 
have  our  throats  cut,  and  to  delay  fighting  we  cannot  for 
want  of  money  to  keep  our  Army  together.' 

An  inconclusive  peace  was  made  in  the  field,  and  the 
fight  renewed  in  Parliament.  In  the  midst  of  the  tense 
excitement  of  Stratford's  trial,  Dame  Margaret  died  in 
London,  and  her  husband  and  son  could  scarcely  get  leave 
of  absence  for  her  hurried  funeral  at  Claydon. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  at  last,  King  Charles 
called  upon  his  old  friend  to  be  his  standard-bearer.  During 
the  anxious  weeks  preceding,  Sir  Edmund  had  privately 
confessed  to  Hyde  that  he  did  not  like  the  quarrel,  and 
heartily  wished  the  king  would  yield  to  what  his  people 
desired — '  so  that  my  conscience  [he  said]  is  only  con- 
cerned in  honour  and  gratitude  to  follow  my  master. 
I  have  eaten  his  bread  and  served  him  near  thirty  years, 
and  will  not  do  so  base  a  thing  as  to  forsake  him,  and 
choose  rather  to  lose  my  life  (which  I  am  sure  I  shall  do)  to 
preserve  and  defend  those  things  which  are  against  my 
conscience  to  preserve  and  defend.'  3 

But  the  time  for  scruples  had  gone  by ;  Sir  Edmund  had 
been  given  what  every  soldier  covets,  the  post  of  honour 
and  danger,  and  he  said  as  he  accepted  the  charge,  '  That 
by  the  grace  of  God  (his  word  always)  they  that  would 
wrest  that  standard  from  his  hand  must  first  wrest  his  soul 
from  his  body.' 

On  August  22,  1642,  the  royal  standard  was  raised  at 
Nottingham,  with  trumpets  blowing  and  all  the  pomp  and 
panoply  of  war.  But  the  country  was  slow  to  respond,  and 
the  standard  itself  was  blown  down  by  an  unruly  wind, 
nor  '  could  it  be  fixed  again  in  a  day  or  two  till  the  tempest 
was  allayed  '.  Men  were  depressed  by  this  ill  omen,  but  Sir 
Edmund  was  no  fair-weather  friend. 


SIR  FRANCIS  AND  SIR  EDMUND  VERNEY  109 

On  October  23  the  first  battle  of  the  great  Civil  War  was 
fought  at  Edgehill.  Sir  Edmund,  who  always  felt  the 
weight  of  his  helmet,  went  bareheaded  into  the  field.  The 
struggle  round  the  standard  was  '  furious  in  the  extreme  ; 
Sir  Edmund  adventured  with  it  among  the  enemy  that  the 
soldiers  might  follow  him.  He  was  offered  his  life  by 
a  throng  of  his  enemies  if  he  would  deliver  it  up  ;  he 
answered  his  life  was  his  own,  but  the  standard  was  his  and 
their  sovereign's,  that  he  would  not  deliver  it  up  with  his 
life,  and  he  hoped  it  would  be  rescued  when  he  was  dead.'  2 
Sixteen  gentlemen  fell  that  day  by  his  sword,  till  according 
to  tradition  his  left  hand  was  cut  off,  still  faithfully  grasp- 
ing the  staff  of  the  standard.  On  one  of  the  fingers  was  the 
ring  with  the  king's  portrait,  given  him  by  his  master. 
The  standard  was  recovered  by  Captain  Smith,  a  Catholic 
officer  of  the  King's  Life-Guards,  who  may  also  have  found 
and  saved  Sir  Edmund's  ring. 

The  most  diligent  search,  by  orders  of  his  devoted  son, 
failed  to  discover  his  body.  Sir  Ralph  had  this  poignant 
addition  to  his  grief,  that  the  affectionate  relations  of  a  life- 
time had  been  strained  and  difficult  at  the  last.  Sharing 
his  father's  political  convictions  without  his  personal 
obligations,  he  adhered  to  the  Parliament. 

The  news  of  the  battle  spread  consternation :  the  old 
pathetic  words,  '  They  shall  be  as  when  a  standard-bearer 
fainteth,'  seemed  to  describe  the  state  of  Claydon.  Sir 
Edmund  Verney  had  left  home  in  his  usual  health,  and  his 
children  and  servants  had  watched  the  cavalcade  starting 
cheerfully  out  of  the  old  courtyard. 

There  had  been  no  funeral,  no  tangible  proof  of  his  death  ; 
ghost  stories  were  rife,  and  for  generations  it  was  believed 
that  Sir  Edmund's  ghost,  seeking  its  hand,  haunted  both  the 
battlefield  and  his  old  house,  with  the  surrounding  spinneys. 

There  is  a  strange  allusion  to  Edgehill  in  the  parish 
register  of  Little  Brickhill,  stating  that  a  woman,  Agnes 
Potter,  of  Dunstable,  wounded  in  the  battle,  died  there  on 
her  way  home,  November  30,  1642.4 

1  J.  E.  Green,  History  of  the  English  People.         *  Verney  Memoirs. 

*  Clarendon,  History  of  the  Great}Rebellion. 

*  Cox,  History  of  Parish  Registers. 


110  JOHN  HAMPDEN 

CHAPTER  XI 

JOHN  HAMPDEN,  1549-1643 

IF  one  name  stands  pre-eminently  for  Bucks  it  is  that 
of  the  statesman  and  soldier  John  Hampden,  perhaps  the 
most  honoured  memory  left  by  the  Civil  War.  Gray's 
epithet  of  a  '  village  Hampden '  is  one  which  every  boy 
should  long  to  earn.  A  '  village  Hampden '  would  be 
simple,  brave,  and  modest,  the  terror  of  the  bully,  the 
champion  of  the  weak,  steadfast  in  the  right  cause  at  any 
personal  cost ;  doing,  and  if  need  be  suffering,  in  the 
village  life  what  Hampden  did  and  suffered  for  England. 

John  Hampden,  born  1594,  was  the  eldest  son  of  William 
Hampden  of  Great  Hampden,  who  had  considerable  estates 
in  the  county,  and  died  when  his  son  was  only  three  years 
old,  in  1597.  William  Hampden  was  mainly  occupied  with 
country  pursuits ;  in  his  will  '  his  horses  are  carefully 
described  and  generally  bequeathed  by  name '.  He  had 
owned  the  estate  for  six  years  only,  after  the  death  of 
his  father,  Griffith  Hampden,  in  1591,  and  had  not  had  time 
to  take  as  much  share  in  public  life  as  either  his  father  or 
his  son.  His  beautiful  estate  had  belonged  to  the  Hampden 
family  from  the  time  of  the  earliest  authentic  records,  and 
it  was  one  of  the  conditions  of  tenure  that  the  Hampdens 
should  maintain  the  ancient  Whiteleaf  Cross  which  stretches 
its  hundred  feet  of  whiteness,  cut  out  of  the  green  slope  of 
the  Chilterns.  The  present  representative  of  the  Hampdens, 
the  Earl  of  Buckinghamshire,  was  the  first  chairman  of 
our  County  Education  Committee.  Hampden  House  stands 
high  amongst  the  fine  beech-woods  bordering  the  Chilterns, 
and  was  noted  for  its  springs  of  pure  water,  and  for  the 
fine  ale  brewed  in  the  old  mansion.  King  John  had  been 
a  guest  in  the  house ;  later  on  the  Hampdens  fought  for 
the'Red  Rose,  and  bore  their  share  in  making  the  history 
of  the  county  and  the  kingdom. 

Queen  Elizabeth's  visit  has  been  already  mentioned. 
James  I  stayed  with  the  Hampdens  while  John  was  a 
little  boy ;  it  was  a  wonderful  home  to  grow  up  in,  with 
all  its  associations.  Hampden's  mother,  Elizabeth  Crom- 


JOHN  HAMPDEN  111 

well,  was  a  remarkable  woman  ;  she  was  the  aunt  of  Oliver 
Cromwell,  and  lived  through  the  reigns  of  six  sovereigns  ; 
she  saw  the  estates  of  the  realm  turned  upside  down,  the 
king  brought  to  the  scaffold,  and  her  own  family  exalted 
to  the  highest  place  and  power.  But  in  spite  of  her  great 
name  and  her  great  nephew,  a  Royalist  she  was  bred  and 
a  Royalist  she  remained  to  the  end  of  her  long  life  of  ninety 
years ;  she  was  buried  at  Great  Hampden  in  1664. 

Her  eldest  son,  John,  seems  to  have  inherited  the  best 
traditions  of  the  Hampdens  and  Cromwells.  He  had  the 
Puritan  ideals  of  duty,  self-restraint,  and  hard  work,  with 
their  love  and  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  together  with  the 
wider  culture,  the  refinement  and  charm  of  manner  which 
distinguished  the  noblest  of  the  Cavaliers.  The  boy  was 
educated  at  Lord  Williams's  School  at  Thame,  in  the  old 
buildings  at  the  entrance  of  the  long  street.  It  is  pleasant 
to  think  that  Bucks  boys,  in  that  part  of  the  county, 
still  cross  the  border  as  he  did  to  the  excellent  Thame 
Grammar  School.  Hampden  loved  books,  and  was  a 
diligent  scholar  both  at  school  and  college.  In  spite  of 
the  influence  of  Laud,  a  few  Oxford  colleges  '  retained  their 
Puritan  character ;  in  the  cloisters  and  river  walks  of 
Magdalen,  Hampden  and  his  Buckinghamshire  neighbours 
imbibed  those  principles  which  they  afterwards  maintained 
in  arms,  when  they  held  the  Chiltern  Hills  as  the  outworks 
of  London  against  the  Oxford  Cavaliers  '.*  He  had  a  good 
knowledge  of  law,  but  history  was  his  favourite  study.  He 
carried  about  with  him  a  History  of  the  Civil  Wars  in 
France,  a  well-worn  and  much-read  volume,  little  thinking 
that  the  same  troubles  were  to  befall  his  own  country, 
and  that  he  was  to  play  so  leading  a  part  in  them.  He 
was  called  to  the  Bar  and  lived  for  a  time  in  London, 
but  on  his  marriage  with  Elizabeth  Symeon  of  Pyrton, 
when  he  was  twenty-five,  he  settled  at  Great  Hampden. 
He  sat  as  member  for  Wendover  in  the  Parliaments  of 
1625  to  1628,  and  it  was  largely  owing  to  his  efforts  that 
this  ancient  borough  regained  its  right  to  a  representative. 
During  the  early  years  of  Charles  I  he  resisted  the  king's 
illegal  acts  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  and  for  his 
opposition  to  a  forced  loan  of  money  he  was  kept  a  close 
prisoner  in  the  gate-house  at  Westminster  and  elsewhere, 


112  JOHN  HAMPDEN 

to  the  serious  injury  of  his  health.  Hampden's  chief  friends 
in  the  House  of  Commons  were  his  neighbour,  Sir  Miles 
Hobart,  and  Sir  John  Eliot,  both  noble  and  fearless  men, 
who  suffered  greatly  for  then*  resistance  to  the  Crown ; 
Eliot  finally  died  from  his  long  and  rigorous  imprisonment 
in  the  Tower,  where  he  was  denied  even  the  solace  of  an 
open  window.  Hampden  cheered  him  with  constant  letters, 
and  undertook  the  care  and  education  of  his  children. 
Sir  Miles  Hobart,  who  on  a  famous  occasion  had  locked 
the  door  of  the  House  and  put  the  key  in  his  pocket  while 
the  king's  messenger  was  knocking  for  admittance,  was 
released  from  the  Tower,  but  died  shortly  afterwards  by 
an  accident  in  1632.  His  monument  in  the  church  at 
Marlow  shows  him  as  a  good-looking  man  in  a  ruff  and 
slashed  doublet,  with  long  hair  and  nothing  of  the  Puritan 
in  his  aspect.  A  bas-relief  represents  '  his  four -horse 
coach  running  away  down  Holborn  hill.  The  off -hind 
wheel  is  broken,  the  coachman  gone,  the  horses  galloping 
under  no  control.  There  are  several  interesting  details, 
the  wheelers'  traces  are  hitched  to  the  axles  of  the  front 
wheels  '.3 

During  the  eleven  years  that  followed  the  dissolution  of 
Parliament  in  1628,  Hampden  retired  to  his  home,  where 
he  passed  some  happy  years  as  an  active  magistrate  and 
landowner,  devoted  to  his  wife  and  children,  his  books,  and 
outdoor  sports ;  but  he  was  not  to  be  quiet  long.  In 

1634  he  had  the  bitter  sorrow  of  his  wife's  death,  and  in 

1635  began  Hampden's  resistance  to  the  illegal  levy  of 
ship-money  which  has  made  his  name  so  famous.    '  Public 
affairs  grew  darker  and  darker ;   the  promises  of  the  king 
were  violated  without  scruple  or  shame,'  and  he  made  one 
more  attempt  to  raise  money  without  calling  a  Parliament. 
In  1636  Hampden  chose  to  resist  the  payment  of  twenty 
shillings  assessed  on  his  land  in  the  parish  of  Stoke  Mande- 
ville.    Burke  quoted  his  action  more  than  100  years  later, 
when  the  Americans  were  also  resisting  unjust  taxation. 
'  Would  twenty  shillings,'  he  said,  '  have  ruined  Mr.  Hamp- 
den's fortune  ?      No,   but  the  payment  of  half  twenty 
shillings  on  the  principle  it  was  demanded  would  have 
made  him  a  slave.' 

This  famous  trial  roused  the  interest  of  the  whole  country, 


JOHN  HAMPDEN  113 

twelve  judges  delivered  their  opinions  ;  Hampden  had  the 
support  of  Sir  George  Croke  of  Chilton,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  King's  Bench,  known  as  the  Patriot  Judge ;  finally  the 
decision  was  in  favour  of  the  crown,  the  raising  of  ship- 
money  was  declared  lawful ;  but  the  defeat  immensely 
increased  Hampden's  popularity,  as  the  judges'  reasons 
1  left  no  man  anything  he  could  call  his  own  '. 

In  the  Short  and  the  Long  Parliaments  Hampden  was 
member  for  the  county — 'there  they  sat,  courtier  and  Puritan, 
the  pick  and  choice  of  the  gentlemen  of  England,  by  birth, 
by  wealth,  by  talents  the  first  assembly  of  the  world.' 
There  is  a  sheet  of  paper  still  preserved  at  Claydon  House 
on  which  are  the  names  of  the  Bucks  members  '  fair  writ 
for  sport  ',2  among  them  Hampden's  firm  round  hand  is 
conspicuous  ;  he  soon  became  their  leader.  He  is  described 
at  this  time  as  '  a  powerfully  built  man,  with  an  abundance 
of  crisp  wavy  hair  falling  almost  to  his  shoulders,  but 
brushed  away  from  the  forehead  so  that  it  did  not  conceal 
the  height  and  breadth  of  a  very  striking  brow.  The 
features  were  good,  the  upper  lip  very  short,  the  mouth 
firm  but  sweet,  the  jaw  square  and  massive,  the  eyes 
singularly  thoughtful '.  Hampden  was  a  silent  rather  than 
an  eloquent  member,  but  he  followed  the  business  with 
the  closest  attention,  and  the  few  words  he  sometimes 
contributed  to  the  end  of  a  debate  always  carried  weight. 
He  was  diligent  in  the  work  of  the  committees,  and  became 
an  authority  on  the  procedure  of  the  House.  No  report 
of  the  debates  was  then  allowed  to  be  published,  but 
Hampden's  friend  and  neighbour,  Sir  Ralph  Verney, 
a  careful,  methodical  man,  would  bring  in  small  folded 
sheets  of  paper  and  a  pencil,  to  make  notes  for  his  own 
information,  which  have  since  become  of  great  historical 
interest. 

On  January  4,  1642,  a  private  message  was  received 
at  the  House  from  the  Earl  of  Essex  that  the  king  was 
coming  down  to  arrest  five  members,  of  whom  Hampden 
was  one,  and  advising  them  to  withdraw,  which  they  did 
forthwith.  '  As  Charles  stepped  through  the  door  which 
none  of  his  predecessors  had  ever  passed,  he  was,  little  as 
he  thought  it,  formally  acknowledging  that  power  had 
passed  into  new  hands.'  Sir  Ralph  Verney,  diligently 

986-4  H 


114  JOHN  HAMPDEN 

scribbling  on  his  knee,  recorded  the  Speaker's  loyalty 
and  the  sovereign's  discomfiture.  The  news  caused  an 
outburst  of  indignation  in  the  county,  4,000  Bucks  gentle- 
men and  freeholders  rode  up  to  London  to  support  and 
vindicate  their  member.  War  was  becoming  inevitable, 
and  Hampden  consulted  with  his  cousin  Cromwell  how 
a  force  could  be  raised  to  defend  the  liberties  of  the  realm, 
of  '  such  men  as  had  the  fear  of  God  before  them '.  He 
undertook  to  raise  and  train  a  regiment  of  foot,  and 
Colonel  Hampden' s  '  Green-Coats ',  with  their  motto 
'  There  is  no  turning  back  ',  became  one  of  the  best  regiments 
in  the  Parliament's  service. 

When  war  had  broken  out  Hampden  urged  decisive  action. 
In  June  1643  the  Parliamentary  forces  were  scattered 
between  Thame  and  Oxford,  Prince  Rupert  saw  his  advan- 
tage and  led  a  vigorous  attack.  On  the  18th  Hampden 
was  wounded  in  a  skirmish  at  Chalgrove  Field.  In  mortal 
pain  and  in  the  bitterness  of  defeat  he  was  seen  '  to  ride 
off  the  field  before  the  action  was  done,  which  he  never 
used  to  do,  with  his  head  hanging  down,  and  resting  his 
hands  on  the  neck  of  his  horse  '. 

There  is  a  story  that  he  looked  towards  the  house  at 
Pyrton  whence  he  had  brought  his  bride  Elizabeth,  and 
would  have  gone  there  to  die,  but  the  enemy  lay  in  that 
direction ;  he  turned  his  horse  towards  Thame,  where  he 
arrived  '  almost  fainting  with  agony  '.  He  lingered  on  for 
six  days,  in  terrible  suffering  borne  with  the  greatest 
courage ;  he  wrote  letters  from  his  bed  on  public  affairs 
of  which  his  thoughts  were  full;  received  the  Sacrament 
with  great  devoutness,  and  then  he  died. 

The  broad  street  of  Thame  down  which  Hampden  had 
so  often  run  as  a  schoolboy  was  filled  with  his  Green-Coats, 
and  thence  a  long,  sad  procession  of  his  own  people  singing 
the  90th  Psalm  bore  their  soldier  and  patriot  home.  The 
coffin  was  taken  through  the  banqueting  hall  of  the  old 
house  into  the  brick  parlour  he  had  specially  made  his 
own.  Later,  with  arms  reversed  the  soldiers  carried  him 
across  the  lawn  to  the  parish  church,  and  '  laid  the  body 
of  John  Hampden  beside  the  tombs  of  his  forefathers  in 
the  chancel,  near  the  touchingly  worded  memorial  he  had 
dedicated  to  his  first  wife '.  The  county,  the  army,  and 


JOHN  HAMPDEN  115 

the  Parliament  deeply  mourned  his  loss  ;  '  a  man,'  they 
said,  '  so  religious,  and  of  that  prudence,  judgement, 
temper,  valour  and  integrity  that  he  hath  left  few  his  like 
behind.'  To  the  county  he  has  bequeathed  his  name,  to 
'  village  Hampdens  '  his  example. 

1  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.        *  Verney  Memoirs.        3  Records  of  Bucks. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  DENTONS  OF  HILLESDEN 

THE  Dentons  of  Hillesden  were  a  family  of  Cavaliers, 
who  suffered  much  for  their  loyalty  to  King  Charles.  The 
estate  had  been  given  by  Edward  VI  to  Thomas  Denton, 
Treasurer  of  the  Temple,  M.P.  for  Bucks  in  1554.1  His  only 
son  Alexander,  a  very  handsome  youth,  married  an  heiress 
in  Herefordshire.  When  she  died,  at  eighteen,  with  her 
first  baby,  Sir  Alexander  was  broken-hearted  ;  life  seemed 
over  for  him  at  twenty-three,  and  he  put  up  a  fine  altar 
tomb  with  figures  of  himself,  his  wife  Anne,  and  the  little 
swaddled  baby  in  Hereford  Cathedral.  Some  years  later, 
to  the  great  joy  of  his  parents,  he  married  again  Mary 
Martin,  daughter  of  a  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  had  a  son 
Thomas.  Dying  at  the  age  of  thirty-one  he  was  buried  at 
Hillesden  in  1574,  and  his  family  put  up  another  memorial 
there,  so  Sir  Alexander  has  monuments  in  two  different 
counties,  while  Anne  and  her  babe  lie  alone  together. 

The  son  Thomas  was  an  important  country  gentleman, 
a  magistrate  and  an  M.P.,  allied  with  his  neighbours  the 
Temples  of  Stowe,  and  the  Verneys  of  Claydon.  He  left 
twelve  children.  His  eldest  son  and  successor,  Sir  Alex- 
ander, married  Mary  Hampden  before  the  troubles  began, 
and  no  family  suffered  more  from  divided  affections  and 
interests  during  the  Civil  War. 

Sir  Alexander's  eldest  son  John  was  a  colonel  in  the  Royal 

H  2 


116  THE  DENTONS  OF  HILLESDEN 

army  ;  his  brother-in-law,  Sir  Edmund  Verney,  had  just 
laid  down  his  life  for  the  king  ;  his  nephew  and  dearest 
friend,  Sir  Ralph  Verney,  took  the  Parliament  side,  and 
John  Hampden,  his  wife's  famous  cousin,  was  '  their  fore- 
most man  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  in  the  field  '. 
Sir  Alexander  was  a  gentle,  affectionate  man,  loving  his 
home  and  his  children,  who  would  gladly  have  kept  out  of 
all  strife,  but  his  sympathies  were  well  known. 

In  August  1642,  just  after  the  king's  standard  had  been 
raised  at  Nottingham,  Nehemiah  Wharton,  a  Parliamentary 
soldier,  marching  towards  Buckingham,  boasted  that  he 
had  shot  a  deer  in  the  park  of  '  that  malignant  fellow ', 
Sir  Alexander  Denton,  and  feasted  the  troop  to  their  great 
content. 

Hillesden  House  stood  on  a  ridge  close  to  a  beautiful 
Henry  VII  church,  a  few  miles  from  Buckingham,  between 
Oxford,  where  the  king  lay,  and  Newport  Pagnell,  garrisoned 
by  Colonel  Luke  for  the  Parliament.  Colonel  Smith, 
a  native  of  Buckingham,  took  command  of  the  place  for 
the  king  in  1644,  1,000  labourers  worked  to  dig  trenches 
and  throw  up  a  mound  for  such  small  guns  as  they  were 
able  to  spare  from  Oxford ;  and  the  country  people  made 
a  cannon  out  of  one  of  the  big  elm  trees  and  hooped  it 
round  with  iron.  The  house  was  full  of  women  and  girls, 
Sir  Alexander's  sisters  and  daughters  and  nieces,  besides 
the  village  people  who  came  crowding  in,  with  less  than 
300  soldiers  to  defend  them. 

Oliver  Cromwell  marched  from  Aylesbury  with  a  large 
force,  sleeping  the  night  at  the  Camp  Barn  at  Steeple 
Claydon.  The  garrison,  surprised;  could  make  no  real 
defence,  the  church  was  carried,  and  then  the  house. 
Sir  Alexander  lost  everything,  even  his  money,  which  was 
kept  behind  a  panel,  and  under  the  lead  roof  ;  and  the 
house  was  burnt  to  the  ground.  Cromwell  went  on  to 
Buckingham  ;  the  master  of  Hillesden,  beggared,  broken- 
hearted and  a  prisoner,  was  marched  off  to  Padbury,  where 
he  spent  a  night  of  great  discomfort,  and  then  to  Newport 
Pagnell.  The  Muster  Rolls,  lately  recovered,  show  that 
at  this  very  time,  John  Bunyan,  aged  sixteen  or  seventeen, 
was  a  soldier  of  the  garrison  there.  The  knowledge  that 
he  gained  of  the  coming  and  going  of  troops  and  prisoners, 


THE  DENTONS  OF  HILLESDEN  117 

and  of  the  walls,  gates  and  sally-port  of  Newport  Pagnell, 
were  reproduced  in  after  years  in  his  Holy  War.  Some 
twelve  years  later  his  first  book  was  sold  at  Newport  by 
Matthias  Cowley,  bookseller. 

Cromwell's  soldiers  were  under  stern  discipline  and  were 
much  less  feared  in  Bucks  than  Rupert's  troopers.  The 
women  and  children  were  escorted  across  the  fields  to 
Claydon,  weeping  as  they  went,  but  they  were  not  molested  ; 
indeed,  the  tragedy  ends  with  an  exchange  of  courtesies 
and  two  love  stories.  When  Colonel  Smith  surrendered, 
a  Puritan  soldier  rudely  knocked  off  his  hat,  he  complained 
to  General  Cromwell,  who  assured  him  the  man  should  be 
punished,  and  taking  a  new  beaver  from  off  his  own  head, 
he  begged  Smith  to  accept  of  it  in  the  meantime. 

Captain  Jeremiah  Abercrombie  (the  Puritans  loved  Old 
Testament  names),  one  of  the  attacking  force,  wooed  and 
won  on  the  march  Susan  Denton,  Sir  Alexander's  sister.  It 
was  a  strange  introduction  that  the  lover  had  helped  to 
sack  and  burn  his  mistress's  home.  But  in  such  troubled 
times  a  timid  maiden  lady,  no  longer  very  young,  might 
well  be  glad  of  the  protection  of  a  husband,  so  the  wedding 
took  place  at  once,  and  they  went  off  to  Addington,  where 
Captain  Abercrombie  had  been  quartered  for  several 
months  in  the  old  manor  house,  restored  and  added  to 
a  few  years  later,  by  Robert  Busby  the  lawyer,  whose 
family  tombs  are  in  Addington  Church. 

Abercrombie  was  well  known  in  these  parts.  He  had 
been  sent  from  the  army  at  Newport  Pagnell  to  get  news 
and  provisions  in  Winslow  and  the  neighbourhood.  He 
wrote  to  the  Earl  of  Essex  that  he  had  found  a  party  of 
Cavaliers  in  Winslow  intent  on  the  same  business.  '  Some 
10  men  within  the  town,  drinking,  dancing,  and  sinking 
themselves,  and  some  44  with  their  colours  at  the  town's 
end.  I  advanced  towards  them  and  they  made  no  great 
haste,  but  at  last  I  advanced  with  a  full  body  upon  them, 
they  took  heels  and  I  followed,  and  they  ran  the  hay  way 
to  Padbury  Bridge.  I  confess  they  beat  us  at  running,  if  it 
had  been  for  £1,000,  and  ran  into  their  den,  which  was 
Sir  Alexander  Denton's  house.'  (Each  side  accused  the 
other  of  coming  '  to  rob  the  poor  inhabitants '.)  '  Here 
I  shall  remain  in  this  house  till  I  know  your  Excellency's 


118  THE  DENTONS  OF  HILLESDEN 

pleasure,  and  shall  ever  remain  your  Excellency's  at  com- 
mand, to  sacrifice  his  blood.' 

It  was  no  empty  boast ;  a  few  months  after  his  marriage 
Captain  Jeremiah  was  killed  in  a  skirmish  '  with  a  party 
from  Boarstall '  ;  his  widow  was  left  with  a  turbulent  baby 
Jeremiah,  who  was  the  plague  and  the  pride  of  her  old  age. 

Meanwhile  Sir  Alexander  Denton  had  been  brought  up 
to  the  Tower  where  his  daughter  Margaret  was  allowed  to 
wait  upon  him.  Colonel  Smith,  the  defender  of  Hillesden 
was  also  confined  there,  and  managed  a  difficult  courtship 
of  his  fellow  prisoner  Margaret  Denton.  This  marriage 
brought  a  ray  of  comfort  to  Sir  Alexander,  who  had  to  bear 
another  overwhelming  sorrow ;  his  son  John,  wounded  at 
Hillesden,  had  no  sooner  recovered,  than  he  was  killed  at 
Abingdon  in  command  of  a  Royalist  force.  He  received 
thirty  wounds  at  the  last,  '  that  good  young  man  whose 
very  enemies  lament  him.' 1 

On  the  winning  side  there  was  an  order  made  that  in  all 
the  parish  churches  should  be  read  '  A  catalogue  of  remark- 
able mercies,  conferred  on  the  midland  counties  by  the 
recent  victories,  including  the  taking  of  Hillesden  House — 
which  victory  enabled  the  Parliament  to  ease  and  comfort 
the  poor  inhabitants  of  the  almost  wasted  county  of 
Buckingham '. 

Sir  Alexander  Denton  died  of  a  fever  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1645,  aged  48,  just  as  his  friends  were  expecting  to  accom- 
plish his  release. 

Hillesden  House  was  rebuilt,  and  a  later  Alexander 
Denton  (1679-1740)  was  recorder  and  three  times  M.P.  for 
Buckingham,  till  he  became  a  judge,  and  in  1729  he 
was  made  chancellor  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards 
George  II.  He  married  an  heiress,  Catherine  Bond,  and 
was  so  much  beloved  at  Hillesden  for  his  probity  and  bounty 
'  that  it  was  said  that  the  best  thing  belonging  to  the  place 
was  its  Master  '  .2  He  was  brought  up  at  the  Free  School  at 
Buckingham,  which  Isabel  Denton  had  endowed,  and 
showed  his  gratitude  to  the  head  master,  Robert  Styles, 
by  giving  him  the  living  of  Preston  Bissett.  He  died 
childless,  and  his  nephew,  George  Chamberlayne,  suc- 
ceeded him  as  M.P.  for  Buckingham,  and  became  his  heir. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  the  owner  of  Stowe  bought  and 


THE  DENTONS  OF  HILLESDEN 


119 


pulled  down  the  mansion,  a  loss  which  the  parish  has  never 
recovered,  and  the  old  church,  with  the  bullet-holes  in  its 
door,  stands  amid  a  few  cottages,  the  vicarage  and  the 
school,  in  the  silence  of  green  fields,  with  its  fine  avenue  of 
elm  trees,  and  its  proud  memories  of  old  heroism. 


Verney  Memoirs. 


Gough  MSS. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SIR  JOHN  DENHAM  AND  THE  SIEGES  OF  BOAR- 
STALL  HOUSE 

THE  history  of  Boarstall  has  been  intimately  connected 
with  that  of  the  great  forest  of  Bernwood  ;  the  story  of  the 
original  boar  has  been  already  told. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  III  a  court  was  held  at  Brill,  at 
which  poachers  who  had  killed  the  king's  deer  were  severely 
punished,  and  declared  to  be  common  malefactors  ;  at  the 
same  time  the  rights  of  the  men  of  Brill,  Boarstall,  and 
Oakley  to  pasture  their  cattle  in  the  forest,  excepting  only 
during  the  month  that  the  fawns  were  born,  was  reasserted. 
Besides  the  deer,  the  king's  hogs  were  privileged  creatures 
in  the  forest,  and  had  their  duly  appointed  guardians,  who 
eventually  rose,  in  name  at  least,  above  their  fellows  ; 
while  shepherd,  cowherd,  and  woodman  remained  among 
the  workers,  the  stye-ward  rose  to  be  steward,  and  at  last 
to  be  a  Stuart  and  a  king.  In  the  time  of  James  I  a  com- 
mission was  sent  to  cut  the  trees  down,  and  to  the  free- 
holders whose  cattle  had  ranged  through  the  forest,  small 
grants  of  land  were  made  as  compensation,  partly  from  the 
crown  lands,  partly  from  those  belonging  to  Sir  John 
Denham. 

This  Sir  John  Denham,  a  judge,  had  land  in  Surrey  and 
Essex,  as  well  as  in  Bucks,  and  held  high  judicial  appoint- 
ments in  Ireland.  He  was  steward  of  Eton  College  and 
acted  as  their  counsel.  He  was  sheriff  for  Bucks  in  1622, 


120  SIR  JOHN  DENHAM  AND  THE 

He  with  other  judges  had  pronounced  that  Charles  I  could 
legally  levy  the  ship-money  ;  and  he  was  one  of  the  judges 
before  whom  his  neighbour  John  Hampden's  case  was 
tried.  Sir  John  Denham  was  very  ill  of  an  ague,  but  he 
exerted  himself  to  write  an  opinion  in  favour  of  Hampden, 
and  then  he  died.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Sir  John 
Denham,  in  1639,  who  was  quite  a  famous  poet  in  his  day, 
'  a  slow,  dreaming  young  man,'  he  was  called  at  Oxford, 
'  more  addicted  to  gambling  than  to  study.' 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  was  living  in  Surrey, 
and  was  made  governor  of  Farnham  Castle.  He  was  there 
besieged  and  made  prisoner,  and  had  all  sorts  of  ups  and 
downs  of  fortune.  While  Denham  was  fighting  for  the 
king,  a  rival  poet,  George  Wither,  was  a  captain  in  the 
Parliament's  army,  and  was  pouring  forth  songs  and  broad- 
sheets in  defence  of  his  own  side.  They  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  each  other.  A  jest  of  Sir  John  Denham's  has 
come  down  to  us.  When  Wither  was  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Royalists,  Denham  begged  Charles  I  to  pardon  him,  '  For,' 
he  said,  '  while  Wither  lives,  I  shall  not  be  the  worst  poet  in 
England.' 

Whilst  Denham  was  busy  fighting,  intriguing,  and  writing 
poetry  in  the  south,  his  fine  house  in  Bucks  was  being  forti- 
fied for  the  king,  and  held  as  an  outpost  of  the  forces  at 
Oxford.  The  command  of  Boarstall  was  given  in  1644  to 
Sir  William  Campion.  Letters  are  still  extant  written  by 
the  king  to  this  gallant  young  soldier.  He  had  no  sooner 
taken  up  the  command  of  the  garrison,  than  he  was  told 
to  send  his  two  brass  guns  to  Oxford,  as  the  king's  army 
sorely  needed  them,  and  had  no  brass  to  cast  more.  He  was 
next  ordered  to  pull  down  the  church,  built  in  the  early 
fifteenth  century,  and  to  send  the  bells  to  Oxford  to  be 
melted  down  ;  to  remove  any  cottages  that  might  interfere 
with  the  defence  of  the  tower,  and  to  cut  down  the  trees  to 
make  '  palisadoes  '.  He  was  to  take  every  cart  away  from 
the  farmers,  and  to  use  them  for  thirty  days  in  strengthen- 
ing the  fortifications. 

A  little  later  the  king  needs  great  store  of  tow,  hemp, 
and  flax  to  make  '  match  '  for  the  cannon,  and  Campion  is 
to  search  all  the  country  round  Boarstall,  which  is  said  to 
yield  considerable  supplies  of  these  commodities.1  He  is 


SIEGES  OF  BOARSTALL  HOUSE  121 

congratulated  in  March  at  the  success  he  has  had  over 
'  the  rebels  ',  but  a  little  later,  he  was  ordered  to  withdraw 
his  men  to  Oxford,  and  abandon  the  place.  This  was  soon 
found  to  be  a  mistake  ;  Boarstall  was  then  garrisoned  for 
the  Parliament  from  Aylesbury  ;  their  forces  were  so  active 
in  harassing  the  Royalists,  and  in  levying  contributions  upon 
all  the  country  round,  that  the  king's  men  resolved  to 
re-take  it.  Lady  Denham  during  this  interval  seems  to 
have  lived  again  in  her  house  by  leave  of  the  enemy  ;  there 
is  an  unexplained  sentence  that  when  the  attack  began, 
'  Lady  Denham,  conscious  of  her  disloyalty,  stole  away  in 
disguise.'  This  siege  has  given  Boarstall  an  honourable 
mention  in  Clarendon's  History.  Colonel  Gage,  who  was 
held  in  great  esteem,  '  offered  to  undertake  the  reducing 
it,  with  a  party  of  commanded  men  of  the  Foot,  3  pieces 
of  Cannon,  and  a  troop  of  Horse,  who  by  the  break  of  day, 
appeared  before  the  place,  and  in  a  short  time  got  posses- 
sion of  the  Church  and  the  Out-houses,  and  then  battered 
the  house  itself  with  his  Cannon,  which  they  within  would 
not  long  endure,  but  desired  a  Parley.  Upon  which  the 
House  was  rendered  with  the  Ammunition  and  much  good 
provision  of  Victual,  and  had  liberty  given  them  to  go  away 
with  their  arms  and  horses.' 

Whereupon  the  unfortunate  country  people  were  pil- 
laged once  more  by  Colonel  Gage's  soldiers  '  besides  the 
Prey  that  they  frequently  took  from  the  very  neighbour- 
hood of  Aylesbury'.  Sir  William  Campion  was  again 
installed  as  governor,  and  Lady  Campion  came  and  lived 
there.  Some  skirmishing  took  place  round  Boarstall  in  the 
spring  of  1645,  and  General  Skippon  had  designs  on  the 
place,  which  was  more  seriously  attacked  by  Fairfax  in 
June.  The  challenge  and  the  reply  show  the  courtesies 
and  etiquette  of  seventeenth-century  warfare,  between  two 
gallant  gentlemen. 

'  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  to  Sir  William  Campion. 

'  SIB, — I  send  you  this  summons  before  I  proceed  to 
extremities  to  deliver  up  to  me,  the  house  of  Boarstall 
.  .  .  with  all  the  ordnance,  arms,  and  ammunition  therein 
for  the  use  and  service  of  the  Kingdom,  which  if  you  shall 
agree  unto,  you  may  expect  civility  and  fair  respect,  other- 


122  SIR  JOHN  DENHAM  AND  THE 

wise  you  may  draw  upon  yourself  those  inconveniences, 
which  I  desire  may  be  prevented.  I  expect  your  answer 
by  this  trumpet  within  one  hour. 

Your  Servant, 

1  THO.  FAIKFAX.' 

'  Sir  William  Campion  to  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax. 

'  SIB, — You  have  sent  me  a  summons  of  a  surrender  of 
this  house  "  for  the  service  of  the  kingdom  ".  I  thought 
that  cant  had  been  long  ere  this  very  stale,  sufficient  only 
to  cozen  women  and  poor  ignorant  people  ;  for  your  civili- 
ties, so  far  as  they  are  consonant  to  my  honour,  I  embrace 
. . .  but  I  am  ready  to  undergo  all  inconveniences  what- 
soever, rather  than  submit  to  any,  much  less  to  those  so 
dishonourable  and  unworthy  propositions.  This  is  the 
resolution  of,  Sir, 

Yours, 

'  W.  CAMPION.'  1 

Before  the  besieging  force  assaulted  the  place,  Sir  William 
asked  one  favour,  that  Lady  Campion,  who  was  in  delicate 
health,  should  be  allowed  to  go  forth.  This  Sir  Thomas 
refused  with  civil  regrets,  but  added  that  if  Lady  Campion 
or  any  other  gentlewoman  fell  into  his  hands,  he  would  take 
care  '  that  the  like  cruelty  may  never  be  used  by  any  of 
this  army,  which  hath  lately  been  executed  by  some  of 
yours  at  Leicester '. 

The  attack  was  made  on  June  6,  and  repulsed  by  the 
garrison  with  much  courage  ;  Fairfax  was  '  beaten  off  with 
loss ',  and  retired  to  Brickhill,  thence  to  Newport  Pagnell 
and  Sherrington,  where  he  met  Vermuyden  from  the  north, 
and  Cromwell  from  Ely,  their  combined  forces  numbering 
more  than  13,000  men.  The  good  news  that  Boarstall  had 
held  out  was  received  by  Charles  just  after  the  storm  and 
sack  of  Leicester ;  '  never,'  says  Dr.  Gardiner, '  had  Charles's 
prospects  seemed  brighter  than  when  he  was  nearing  his 
sudden  and  irreparable  overthrow.'  On  June  14  the  king's 
army  was  utterly  defeated  at  Naseby  ;  in  August  the  king 
himself  passed  through  Boarstall  on  his  road  from  Whig 
to  Oxford. 


SIEGES  OF  BOARSTALL  HOUSE  123 

In  the  spring  of  1646  Fairfax  was  again  before  Boarstall, 
summoning  it  to  surrender.  Sir  William  Campion  writes  to 
the  king  desiring  to  know  his  pleasure  ;  they  have  been 
'  blocked  up  almost  8  weeks ',  '  yet  I  would  not  part  with 
my  trust  without  orders '.  *  The  king  was  in  no  position  to 
help  his  faithful  servant ;  Oxford  itself  was  being  aban- 
doned, and  the  smaller  garrisons  were  quite  isolated. 
Campion  heard  that  '  my  Lord  Wharton  and  others  '  were 
much  set  against  him  by  his  obstinacy  in  defending  a  hope- 
less cause,  and  on  June  3,  1646,  Just  a  year  after  his  former 
repulse,  Fairfax,  writing  from  Water  Eaton,  sends  com- 
missioners to  receive  the  surrender  of  the  Boarstall  garrison. 

Sir  William  Campion  was  killed  at  the  siege  of  Colchester 
in  1648,  aged  thirty -four  ;  '  he  was  pious,  valiant,  constant 
to  his  prince,  whose  cause  he  chose,  and  whose  service  he 
died  in.' 

After  this  Lady  Denham  returned  to  her  home,  and  was 
able  to  show  kindness  to  a  Royalist,  Sir  Thomas  Fanshawe, 
who  was  marched  through  Boarstall,  as  a  prisoner,  after 
the  battle  of  Worcester.  He  refused  the  money  she  offered 
him,  but  greatly  desired  a  shirt  and  some  handkerchiefs. 
She  fetched  the  latter,  and  two  smocks  of  her  own,  being 
ashamed  to  offer  them,  but  she  had  none  of  her  son's  at 
home,  and  begged  him  to  take  them.  Sir  John  Denham 
meanwhile  was  travelling  in  France,  Holland,  and  even 
Poland,  to  get  money  for  the  exiled  royal  family.  At  the 
Restoration  he  was  made  Surveyor-General  of  Works, 
a  post  previously  held  by  Inigo  Jones  ;  he  is  said  to  have 
designed  Burlington  House,  Piccadilly ;  as  his  deputy  he 
secured  the  young  Christopher  Wren,  who  is  credited  with 
building  the  Manor  House  in  Winslow,  the  classical  church 
at  Willen,  Fawley  Court,  the  Upper  School  at  Eton,  and 
the  choir  of  Chicheley  Church. 

Denham's  after-life  took  him  away  from  Boarstall,  and 
the  property  passed  later  into  the  Aubrey  family,  who  also 
owned  the  fine  old  house  at  Dorton.  A  picture  at  Dorton 
represents  the  only  son  of  the  house  playing  with  a  lamb. 
The  child  was  accidentally  poisoned,  and  the  distracted 
father,  in  despair  from  the  loss  of  his  heir,  pulled  down  the 
old  house  at  Boarstall,  which  had  withstood  the  shock  of 
arms,  and  so  many  vicissitudes  of  fortune. 


124  SIR  JOHN  DENHAM 

The  fine  gate-house  still  remains,  with  its  guard-room 
and  moat. 

Sir  John  Denham  is  remembered  by  his  poem  on  the  view 
of  London  from  Cooper's  Hill,  and  his  praise  of  the  Thames 
with  the  famous  concluding  lines  : — 

'  Thames,  the  most  loved  of  all  the  Ocean's  sons 
By  his  old  sire,  to  his  embraces  runs 
Hasting  to  pay  his  tribute  to  the  sea, 
Like  mortal  life  to  meet  eternity.  .  .  . 
0  could  I  flow  like  thee,  and  make  thy  stream 
My  great  example,  as  it  is  my  theme  ! 
Though  deep,  yet  clear  ;   though  gentle,  yet  not  dull ; 
Strong  without  rage,  without  o'erflowing  full.' 

1  Lipscombe,  County  History. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


WHILE  Strafford  and  Falkland,  Hampden  and  Cromwell, 
were  quietly  growing  up  in  the  country,  whose  fate  they 
were  to  influence  so  greatly,  a  boy  was  born  in  London 
who  was  to  serve  England  in  quite  a  different  fashion,  and 
leave  as  glorious  a  name  as  the  best  of  the  fighters  and  law- 
makers— John  Milton. 

The  poet's  grandfather  was  a  substantial  yeoman,  living 
at  Stan  ton  St.  John,  between  Brill  and  Oxford,  who  adhered 
to  the  old  Catholic  faith,  and  disinherited  his  son,  John 
Milton,  for  joining  the  Church  of  England.  The  son  went 
to  London  and  became  a  scrivener,  what  we  should  call  a 
solicitor,  and  being  a  man  of  probity  and  force  of  character 
made  'a  plentiful  fortune'.  His  little  son,  also  named 
John,  attended  St.  Paul's  School,  under  the  shadow  of  the 
old  Gothic  cathedral,  and  had  a  clever  man,  Thomas  Young, 
as  his  private  tutor.  He  had  a  sister,  Anne,  some  years 
older  than  himself,  and  a  brother,  Christopher,  seven  years 
younger ;  he  therefore  did  lessons  alone  and  very  strenu- 
ously. He  was  considered  clever  and  promising,  and  his 


JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674 


125 


father  spared  no  expense  in  his  education,  and  gave  him 
what  was  yet  more  precious,  his  constant  sympathy  and 
supervision ;  the  boy  generally  studied  till  midnight,  in  spite 
of  headaches,  and  probably  thus  began  to  injure  his  eyesight. 
Old  London  before  the  fire  was  wonderfully  picturesque  ; 
in  Milton's  childhood  Shakespeare  was  still  alive,  supping 
at  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  and  producing  his  great  plays  at 
the  Globe  Theatre.  '  It  was  a  warm  and  happy  home  the 
boy  grew  up  in.  Peace,  comfort,  and  industry  reigned 
there.  A  grave  Puritanic  piety  was  the  order  of  the  house, 
religious  reading  and  devout  exercises  were  part  of  the 
regular  life  of  the  family.  A  regard  for  religion  as  the 
chief  concern  of  life,  and  a  dutiful  love  to  the  parents  who 
so  taught  him,  would  be  cultivated  in  Milton  from  his 
earliest  years.'  The  interest  in  Bible-reading  was  stimu- 
lated by  the  new  translations  which  were  employing  some 
of  the  best  scholars  of  the  time.  Our  Authorized  Version 
in  its  fine,  melodious  English,  appeared  while  Milton  was 
a  little  boy.  The  scrivener  who  was  a  busy  man  at  the 
head  of  his  profession  was  not  a  slave  to  business  ;  he  loved 
books  and  he  loved  music  even  more.  He  had  an  organ  in 
his  house  and  his  songs  and  melodies  were  well  known  in 
musical  circles ;  the  tunes  still  in  our  hymnbooks,  York  and 
Norwich,  were  written  by  him.  John  must  often  have 
listened  to  his  father's  organ-playing,  and  he  was  brought 
up  to  consider  music  and  poetry  as  worthy  of  the  most 
earnest  study.  The  boy  became  a  singer  almost  as  soon 
as  he  could  speak,  and  in  his  teens  he  was  composing 
metrical  versions  of  his  favourite  psalms.  When  Cornelius 
Jansen,  a  young  Dutch  painter,  came  over  from  Amster- 
dam, one  of  the  first  portraits  he  painted  was  that  of  the 
scrivener's  son  John,  at  ten  years  old,  '  a  grave  intelligent 
little  Puritan  boy  with  close-cut  auburn  hair,  and  an 
expression  of  loveable  seriousness.'  As  an  elderly  man 
Milton  thus  wrote  of  his  recollected  childhood — 
'  When  I  was  yet  a  child,  no  childish  play 
To  me  was  pleasing  ;  all  my  mind  was  set 
Serious  to  learn  and  know,  and  thence  to  do, 
What  might  be  public  good  ;  myself  I  thought 
Born  to  that  end,  born  to  promote  all  truth, 
All  righteous  things.' 


126  JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674 

At  sixteen,  Milton  was  sent  to  Christ's  College,  Cambridge, 
the  college  of  Latimer  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney  ;  lie  was  there 
for  seven  years,  and  his  pure,  austere  life  and  great  personal 
beauty  won  him  the  name  of  the  Lady  of  Christ's.  He 
matriculated  Just  at  the  time  of  Charles  I's  accession  ; 
the  plague  was  raging  in  London,  where  he  spent  his  vaca- 
tions, and  in  1630  there  was  so  terrible  an  outbreak  of  it 
at  Cambridge  that  '  the  University  was  in  a  manner  wholly 
dissolved ',  most  colleges  being  empty,  the  remaining  men 
being  close  prisoners  in  their  rooms ;  Milton  retained 
through  life  the  greatest  horror  of  the  plague.  The  most 
notorious  death  was  that  of  old  Hobson,  the  Cambridge 
carrier,  who  for  fear  of  spreading  infection  was  forbidden 
his  constant  journeys  to  and  from  London.  Milton  wrote 
two  kindly  and  humorous  epitaphs  over  the  old  man,  who 
in  his  eighty-sixth  year  died  of  the  boredom  of  being  idle — 

'  Ease  was  his  chief  disease  ;  and  to  judge  right 
He  died  for  heaviness  that  his  cart  went  light ; 
His  leisure  told  him  that  his  time  was  come ; 
And  lack  of  load  made  his  life  burdensome.' 

Milton's  ode  on  Shakespeare's  death,  and  his  beautiful 
Christmas  hymn,  the  Ode  on  the  Nativity,  were  written 
during  these  Cambridge  years. 

Changes  had  come  about  in  his  home,  Anne  Milton  had 
married  a  Mr.  Phillips,  Christopher  was  at  college  ;  his 
father  and  mother  left  London  and  bought  a  country  house 
at  Horton,  which  was  to  be  John  Milton's  home  for  the  next 
six  years.  Much  of  his  greatest  poetry  was  written  in 
Bucks,  first  at  Horton  and  afterwards  at  Chalfont  St.  Giles. 

In  our  day  William  Morris,  the  poet  of  The  Earthly 
Paradise,  loved  to  describe  himself  as  '  the  idle  singer  of  an 
empty  day ',  and  emphasized  the  fact  that  he  aimed  at 
beauty  rather  than  moral  teaching.  Such  a  mood  would 
have  been  impossible  to  Milton.  In  his  mind  the  poet  was 
a  prophet  and  teacher  whose  highest  aim  should  be  '  to 
justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man '  ;  this  purpose  became 
more  and  more  serious,  through  the  political  stress  of  his 
manhood  and  the  blindness  and  trouble  of  his  old  age,  when, 
like  Jeremiah,  he  felt  himself  to  be  living  among  a  people 
who  had  wholly  fallen  from  righteousness ;  for  him  there 


JOHN  MILTON 
From  an  engraving  after  the  painting  by  Faithorne 


JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674  129 

could  be  no  visions  of  an  Earthly  Paradise,  his  eyes  blinded 
in  this  world  saw  Paradise  Regained  in  '  a  better  country 
that  is  a  heavenly  '. 

The  young  poet  who  wrote  such  graceful  and  lovely 
poems  at  Horton,  as  Lycidas  and  the  Allegro  and  Penseroso 
(the  joyful  and  the  grave  view  of  life),  was  full  of  enjoyment 
of  Nature  and  Art,  but  as  quite  a  youth  he  had  definitely 
set  before  him  the  ideals,  that  a  poet  must  be  of  noble  and 
lofty  character,  a  man  of  '  labour  and  intent  study ',  and 
that  a  great  subject  could  alone  inspire  a  great  poem.  He 
would  gladly  '  leave  something  so  written  to  after  times,  as 
they  should  not  willingly  let  it  die  '.  In  Masson's  Life  of 
Milton  there  is  a  charming  description  of  the  beauty  of 
Horton  and  the  surrounding  country  with  its  woods  and 
nightingales,  the  stream  of  the  Colne,  as  yet  unvexed  by 
paper-mills,  flowing  through  the  village,  and  to  crown  all  the 
distant  towers  of  Windsor  '  bosom'd  high  in  tufted  trees  '. 

Young  Milton  had  entered  no  profession,  and  he  was 
always  grateful  to  his  father  for  the  patience  and  sympathy 
which  enabled  him  to  prepare  for  life  in  his  own  way,  in 
tranquillity  of  mind,  amid  the  quiet,  restful  Buckinghamshire 
scenery,  and  with  his  beloved  books.  This  time  of  prepara- 
tion included  a  journey  to  Italy,  after  the  death  of  his 
mother  in  1637  ;  on  his  return  he  settled  in  London,  where 
he  took  in  pupils,  his  nephew  Edward  Phillips  and  others, 
and  his  household  was  a  model  of  '  hard  study  and  spare 
diet '.  After  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament  the  share 
he  took  in  the  political  and  religious  controversies  of  the 
time  made  Milton  deliberately  give  up  poetry  for  what  he 
felt  to  be  his  duty  to  his  country.  After  the  execution  of 
the  king  he  became  Latin  Secretary  to  the  Council  of  State, 
which  brought  him  into  constant  intercourse  with  Fairfax, 
Vane,  and  Cromwell,  and  all  the  members  of  the  House 
most  worth  knowing.  He  sacrificed  his  failing  eyesight  to 
his  diligent  work  in  writing  and  reading  dispatches,  but  he 
had  gained  a  new  experience,  an  insight  '  In  all  things  that 
to  generous  actions  lead  '. 

By  the  age  of  forty-three  he  was  in  total  darkness, 
a  calamity  even  greater  to  him  than  to  most  men,  before  his 
great  poem  long  meditated  was  even  begun.  Just  '  as  the 
country  had  begun  to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  costly  efforts 

986-4  I 


130  JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674 

it  had  made  to  obtain  good  government ',  Cromwell's  death 
brought  to  an  end  with  a  crash  all  that  Milton  most  cared 
for.  Blind,  a  widower  with  three  little  girls,  he  became 
at  the  Restoration  one  of  a  proscribed  and  broken  party,  he 
had  heavy  money  losses,  and  only  just  escaped  with  life 
and  liberty.  Milton  resolutely  turned  his  mind  away  from 
the  politics  of  the  Restoration  ;  driven  from  London  by  the 
Great  Plague  in  1665,  he  settled  once  more  in  Bucks  at 
Chalfont  St.  Giles,  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  completion  of 
his  poem,  Paradise  Lost, 

Those  who  knew  him  describe  him  as  stately  and  cour- 
teous, though  he  could  be  very  satirical.  '  He  would  sit  at 
his  house  door  in  a  grey  coarse  cloth  coat  in  fine  weather 
to  receive  visitors  ;  indoors  he  was  neatly  dressed  in  black. 
He  rose  at  four  in  summer  and  five  in  winter  ;  before  break- 
fast the  Bible  was  read  to  him  hi  Hebrew.  Then  he  read  or 
dictated  till  midday  ;  he  took  some  exercise,  walking,  or, 
in  wet  weather,  swinging ;  he  always  had  music  in  the 
afternoon,  saw  his  friends  in  the  evening,  and  went  to  bed 
after  a  pipe  and  a  glass  of  water.'  He  was,  of  course, 
dependent  on  a  reader  and  writer  ;  he  would  dictate  twenty 
or  thirty  lines  to  any  one  who  happened  to  be  near  him, 
sitting  in  an  arm-chair  with  his  leg  over  the  elbow. 

Milton's  conception  of  woman  was  the  exact  opposite  of 
Shakespeare's ;  women  might  be  fair  and  mildly  amiable, 
but  he  had  never  met  (or  never  recognized)  a  Cordelia, 
a  Portia,  or  a  Hermione.  He  reaped  as  he  sowed  ;  he  had 
laid  it  down  that 

'  Nothing  lovelier  can  be  found 
In  woman,  than  to  study  household  good.' 

He  expected  no  intellectual  companionship  or  moral  support 
from  women,  and  he  found  none.  In  early  days  his  young 
wife,  Mary  Powell,  a  foolish,  frightened  girl,  left  him  to  go 
back  to  her  mother  for  two  years,  and  only  returned  after 
a  difficult  reconciliation.  Elizabeth  Minshull,  the  wife  of 
his  last  years,  looked  kindly  after  his  creature-comforts, 
but  the  old  blind  man,  who  had  never  known  or  cared  what 
he  ate  and  drank,  was  distracted  by  the  stupidity  of  his 
meagrely  educated  daughters,  and  found  no  satisfaction 
at  home  for  his  fierce  intellectual  appetite. 


JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674  131 

The  two  elder  girls,  much  bored  with  his  claims  upon 
them,  learnt  gold  embroidery  as  a  means  of  support. 
Deborah,  the  youngest,  was  more  dutiful  to  her  father,  but 
it  must  have  been  a  dreary  task  to  read  out  to  him  in  foreign 
languages  when  she  did  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the 
words.  Happily  volunteers  were  to  be  found  who  con- 
sidered it  an  honour  to  act  as  secretary,  the  most  devoted 
being  Thomas  Ellwood,  educated  at  the  Thame  Grammar 
School,  who  suffered  much  by  joining  the  Bucks  Quakers. 
He  it  was  who  found  a  house  for  Milton  at  Chalfont,  and 
suggested  to  him  to  write  a  further  poem  on  Paradise 
Regained.  There  is  a  pleasant  tradition  at  Beaconsfield 
that  Milton  wrote  a  part  of  Paradise  Regained  in  a  grotto 
at  Hall  Barn  in  Edmund  Waller's  garden,  a  poet  to  whom 
fortune  had  been  kinder.  The  last  work  of  the  poet- 
prophet  was  Samson  Agonistes — '  the  record  of  an  heroic 
soul  totally  defeated  by  an  irreversible  fate,  and  unflinch- 
ingly accepting  the  situation  in  the  firm  conviction  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause.'  '  The  triumphant  Royalist 
reaction  of  1660  is  singular  in  this,  that  the  agonized  cry 
of  the  beaten  party  has  been  preserved,  in  the  intensest 
utterance  of  the  most  intense  of  English  poets,  Samson 
Agonistes.'  * 

Milton  received  two  sums  of  £5,  and  no  more,  for  Paradise 
Lost,  a  work  which  placed  him  next  to  Shakespeare  in 
English  literature,  and  among  the  half-dozen  famous  poets 
of  the  world.  His  political  partisanship  delayed  the 
recognition  of  his  greatness ;  Dryden  at  once  appreciated  it, 
but  in  the  next  century  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  grand  manner, 
discovered  much  to  find  fault  with  in  Milton's  poems. 

Cowper,  perhaps  of  all  poets  the  least  like  Milton,  was  up 
in  arms  in  his  defence.  '  Was  there  ever  anything  so 
delightful,'  he  writes,  '  as  the  music  of  Paradise  Lost  ?  It 
is  like  that  of  a  fine  organ,  has  the  fullest  and  the  deepest 
tones  of  majesty,  with  all  the  softness  and  elegance  of  the 
Dorian  flute,  variety  without  end  and  never  equalled, 
except  perhaps  by  Virgil.  Yet  the  doctor  has  nothing  to 
say  .  .  .  but  something  about  the  unfitness  of  the  English 
language  for  blank  verse  .  .  .  Oh,  I  could  thrash  his  old 
jacket,  till  I  made  his  pension  jingle  in  his  pockets.' 

That  we  may  judge  for  ourselves  how  right  Cowper  was, 

I  2 


132  JOHN  MILTON,  1608-1674 

we  close  with  the  beautiful  lines  that  tell  how  Milton  felt 

and  met  his  great  affliction. 

'  Thus  with  the  year 
Seasons  return,  but  not  to  me  returns 
Day,  or  the  sweet  approach  of  ev'n  or  morn, 
Or  sight  of  vernal  bloom,  or  summer's  rose, 
Or  flocks,  or  herds,  or  human  face  divine  ; 
But  cloud  instead,  and  ever-during  dark 
Surrounds  me,  from  the  cheerful  ways  of  men 
Cut  off,  and  for  the  book  of  knowledge  fair 
Presented  with  a  universal  blank 
Of  nature's  works  to  me  expung'd  and  rased 
And  wisdom  at  one  entrance  quite  shut  out. 
So  much  the  rather,  thou  celestial  Light 
Shine  inward,  and  the  mind  through  all  her  powers 
Irradiate,  there  plant  eyes,  all  mist  from  thence 
Purge  and  disperse  that  I  may  see  and  tell 
Of  things  invisible  to  mortal  sight.' 

1  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  &c. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  THE 
PROTECTORATE 

AYLESBTJRY  had  had  its  full  share  in  the  fighting  and  the 
suffering  of  the  Civil  War.  Cromwell,  Fairfax,  Luke,  Fleet- 
wood,  and  others  of  the  Parliamentary  generals  were 
familiar  figures  in  the  neighbourhood.  Cromwell  stayed  at 
Dinton  Hall  with  Simon  Mayne  after  the  battle  of  Naseby, 
and  left  his  sword,  still  kept  there. 

Prince  Rupert  had  attempted  to  carry  the  town  in 
a  cavalry  action  known  locally  as  the  battle  of  Aylesbury. 
Chilton  House  narrowly  escaped  destruction,  the  village 
of  Swanbourne  was  burnt  down  by  the  Cavaliers  under 
circumstances  of  great  cruelty.  Winslow  was  pillaged, 
and  brutal  jests  of  the  officers  were  remembered  even  more 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  133 

bitterly  than  material  losses.  On  the  whole  the  county 
sympathized  with  the  Ironsides.  In  1648  divers  inhabitants 
of  Bucks  sent  up  their  thanks  to  the  Parliament  for  their 
unwearied  labours  for  the  public,  and  their  great  successes  ; 
they  gave  their  rulers  some  good  advice,  and  affirmed  their 
resolution  to  '  adhere  unto  and  stand  by  them '.  They 
received  the  thanks  of  the  House  '  for  their  constant  good 
affections ',  and  the  Speaker  told  them  that  their  peti- 
tion was  to  be  printed  'as  a  pattern  for  other  counties'. 
Thomas  Chaloner  of  Steeple  Claydon,  Thomas  Scott  of 
Aylesbury,  Simon  Mayne  of  Dinton,  Richard  Ingoldsby 
of  Lenborough,  Cornelius  Holland  of  Creslow,  Adrian  Scrope 
of  Wormsley,  Richard  Deane  of  Princes  Risborough,  Sir 
George  Fleet  wood,  Sir  Peter  Temple  of  Biddlesden,  and 
other  Bucks  men,  signed  Charles  I's  death-warrant.  But 
the  violence  of  the  procedure  and  the  patience  of  the  sufferer 
sent  a  thrill  of  sorrow  and  pity  throughout  England.  The 
black,  masked  figure  of  the  king's  executioner  became  the 
centre  of  many  legends,  and  in  Bucks  it  was  whispered  that 
the  mysterious  creature  who  lived  in  a  cave  at  Dinton  was 
the  man.  John  Bigg,  the  Dinton  Hermit,  passed  his  life 
in  savage  solitude  ;  his  clothes  and  his  shoes  (still  preserved) 
were  a  marvel  of  clouts  and  patches  kept  together  with  nails  ; 
he  survived  the  Restoration  and  the  Revolution,  and  when 
the  Stuarts  had  been  finally  driven  from  England  his  bones 
were  laid  at  Dinton,  near  those  of  his  master,  Simon  Mayne, 
who  died  in  the  Tower  of  London  in  1661. 

Among  the  Bucks  regicides  Colonel  Richard  Deane  played 
the  greatest  part  after  the  king's  death.  He  was  related  to 
Cromwell  and  Hampden,  and  enjoyed  the  intimate  friend- 
ship and  confidence  of  the  Protector.  After  some  sea- 
faring experience  and  as  a  subaltern  of  artillery,  he  was 
made  Comptroller  of  the  Ordnance,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  the  victories  at  Naseby  and  Worcester,  in 
Scotland,  and  in  Ireland.  As  admiral  and  general  at  sea 
he  did  much  to  improve  the  navy  as  he  had  before  im- 
proved the  artillery,  and  fought  the  Dutch  with  Blake 
and  Monck.  In  a  naval  engagement  off  the  North  Fore- 
land in  1653  one  of  the  first  shots  struck  Deane,  and  he  fell 
where  he  stood.  Monck  threw  a  cloak  over  his  dead  friend, 
and  after  a  two-days'  fight  the  Dutch  fleet  was  routed.  The 


134  THE  COMMONWEALTH 

highest  honours  were  bestowed  on  the  admiral's  body :  after 
lying  in  state  at  Greenwich  he  was  buried  in  Henry  VII's 
chapel  in  Westminster  Abbey ;  but  in  common  with 
Blake,  his  remains  were  dug  up  again  after  the  Restoration. 

Adrian  Scrope  lived  to  meet  with  a  more  tragic  fate. 
He,  too,  distinguished  himself  in  the  Civil  War,  and  raised 
a  troop  of  horse  for  the  Parliament ;  he  married  Mary 
Waller  of  Beaconsfield,  a  cousin  of  the  poet.  In  his  beauti- 
ful old  home,  Wormsley,  on  the  border-line  of  Bucks  and 
Oxon.,  folded  away  hi  the  wooded  slopes  of  the  Chilterns, 
there  is  a  fine  portrait  of  Scrope  by  Walker.  He  was  tried 
after  the  Restoration  ;  he  is  described  as  a  comely  ancient 
gentleman  ;  he  defended  himself  with  dignity  and  modera- 
tion, but  he  was  hung  with  all  insulting  cruelty,  which  he 
bore,  while  life  lasted,  with  cheerful  courage. 

About  the  time  of  the  king's  execution  the  troops 
quartered  in  Bucks  were  being  moved  to  Ireland.  The 
cruel  story  of  that  war  does  not  concern  us,  except  that 
the  officer  in  command  of  Ormonde's  regiment  at  Drogheda 
was  Sir  Edmund  Verney  of  Claydon  (a  younger  son  of  the 
standard-bearer),  who  was  treacherously  murdered  after  the 
surrender  of  the  town.  The  hopes  of  the  Cavaliers  revived 
when  Charles  II  was  crowned  in  Scotland  and  invaded 
England,  but  his  army  was  entirely  routed  by  Cromwell 
at  Worcester  on  September  3, 1651.  Cromwell's  own  letter  to 
the  Parliament  calls  this  '  a  crowning  Mercy  '.  '  What  the 
slain  are  I  can  give  you  no  account  .  .  .  but  they  are  very 
many  because  the  dispute  was  long,  very  near  at  hand  and 
often  at  push  of  pike  ;  there  are  about  six  or  seven  thousand 
prisoners  taken  and  158  colours.'  An  old  account  says 
that  the  Lord  General  '  marched  up  in  a  triumphant 
manner  to  London  driving  4,000  or  5,000  Prisoners  like 
sheep  before  him  '.  Among  them  was  Sir  John  Packington, 
lord  of  the  manor  of  Aylesbury,  on  whom  a  heavy  fine  was 
imposed  and  whose  mansion  at  Aylesbury  was  demolished. 
Cromwell  entered  the  town  with  the  pomp  and  display 
of  a  conqueror ;  all  the  troops  quartered  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood were  assembled  to  make  a  great  military 
spectacle ;  the  streets  were  filled  with  the  unfortunate 
prisoners.  Outside  the  town  commissioners  met  him  to 
convey  to  him  the  formal  thanks  of  Parliament.  '  Crom- 


ADRIAN  SCEOPE 
From  a  picture  at  Wormsley,  by  permission  of  F.  W.  Fane  Esq. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  137 

well  received  the  deputation  with  all  kindness  and  respect 
and  rode  with  them  across  the  fields,'  where  Mr.  Winwood, 
who  was  a-hawking,  met  them,  and  the  Lord  General  went 
a  little  out  of  his  way  to  enjoy  the  hawking,'  a  sport  he  was 
very  partial  to.  '  They  then  came  to  Aylesbury  where 
they  had  much  discourse  as  they  supped  together/  and 
the  next  day  the  tragic  cavalcade  went  on  to  London. 

After  Worcester  it  seemed  that  the  country  was  about 
to  settle  down,  Cavalier  and  Roundhead  together,  with 
some  mutual  respect ;  Richard  Hampden  was  in  Cromwell's 
Upper  House ;  the  Speaker  of  Barebones'  Parliament  had 
become  Provost  of  Eton.  Sir  Richard  Temple  had  large 
parties  to  hunt  the  stag  in  the  park  at  Stowe.  Colonel 
Henry  Verney,  who  had  fought  for  the  king,  met  Richard 
Cromwell  and  Claypole  (Cromwell's  son-in-law)  at  country- 
house  shooting-parties ;  Sir  Ralph  Verney  returned  from 
exile  and  began  repairing  his  home  and  stocking  his  garden  ; 
but  Cromwell  found  it  impossible  to  govern  either  with 
or  without  a  parliament.  Royalist  plots  against  his  life 
were  many  and  avowed,  and  men  began  again  to  look 
askance  at  their  neighbours.  There  was  a  curious  instance 
of  this  at  Aylesbury  in  1655. 

Mr.  Henn,  an  active  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  seques- 
trator,  noted  two  strangers  who  had  ridden  into  the  town, 
mud-splashed  and  travel-stained,  and  had  put  up  at  the 
White  Hart  Inn,  an  old  gabled  house  on  the  site  of  the 
present  market  behind  the  Town  Hall.  How  picturesque 
the  Aylesbury  inns  were  then  we  can  judge  by  the  old 
buildings  of  the  '  King's  Head '. 

The  justice  bustled  in  and,  calling  the  host  Gilvey, 
a  well-known  Cromwellian,  plied  him  with  questions  about 
his  guests,  inspected  the  tired  horses  with  their  handsome 
trappings,  and  charged  him  to  lock  the  stable-door  that 
the  strangers  should  not  be  able  to  get  away  till  he  had 
examined  them  in  the  morning.  The  host,  not  too  pleased 
to  have  his  guests  interfered  with,  locked  the  door  and 
put  the  key  in  his  pocket,  and  the  justice  went  home  to 
supper.  Later  his  guests  sent  for  Gilvey  and  threw  them- 
selves on  his  mercy ;  they  were  two  important  Cavaliers, 
the  Earl  of  Rochester  and  Sir  Nicholas  Armourer,  who  had 
come  over  to  reconnoitre  and  to  report  to  the  king  over  the 


138  THE  COMMONWEALTH 

water.  They  told  him  that  it  would  be  quite  easy  to 
betray  them  to  certain  death,  but  what  good  would  that 
be  to  him,  they  would  rather  trust  themselves  to  his 
compassion.  The  host  replied  that  he  had  given  his  word 
to  detain  their  horses  till  the  morning,  and  that  his  word 
must  be  kept ;  but  that  if  in  the  night  they  chose  to  steal 
two  nags  of  his  he  should  know  nothing  about  it.  The 
gentlemen  gave  him  a  gold  chain  and  a  pocketful  of  gold 
coins ;  at  midnight  they  got  up,  noiselessly  mounted  two 
horses  in  another  stable  ready  saddled  and  bridled,  and  after 
creeping  through  the  dark  silent  town,  they  galloped  to 
London.  Here  Lord  Rochester  disguised  himself  by  wearing 
a  large  flaxen  wig  and  speaking  French,  and  when  pursuit 
was  over  they  both  rejoined  Charles  at  Cologne. 

Meanwhile  at  Aylesbury  there  was  blank  dismay,  the 
justice  duly  came  in  the  morning,  the  key  of  the  stables 
was  safe  in  the  host's  pocket,  there  were  the  horses,  but 
the  bedroom,  hastily  searched,  was  found  empty.  The 
justice  stormed  and  reported  to  the  Government,  who 
blamed  him  for  not  securing  the  men  overnight — the  host 
had  no  explanation  to  offer.  Years  after,  when  Lord 
Rochester  was  on  the  winning  side,  he  built  a  large  room 
on  to  the  White  Hart  Inn ;  the  host  Gilvey  was  sent  for 
to  court  by  Charles  II  and  had  no  reason  to  repent  that  he 
had  kept  the  laws  of  hospitality  unbroken. 

All  over  the  county  the  Royalist  squires  and  others  who 
had  never  been  Royalists  were  at  the  mercy  of  informers  and 
panic-mongers.  In  the  midst  of  his  quiet  and  useful  life 
Sir  Ralph  Verney  was  arrested  in  June  1655  :  '  being  now 
brought  to  Town,'  he  writes,  '  with  divers  Lords  and  other 
persons  of  quality  for  we  know  not  what  .  .  .  and  though 
I  must  confess  the  Soldiers  that  took  me  at  Claydon  used 
me  very  civilly  yet  they  took  all  the  Pistolls  and  Swords 
in  the  house,  and  carried  me  to  Northampton  thence  to 
Brickhill  and  London.'  x  He  was  confined  in  St.  James's 
Palace  and  tried  to  make  a  joke  of  it.  '  The  Protector 
hath  highly  obliged  me  in  sending  for  me  from  my  own 
cottage  to  lodge  me  in  his  Palace,  with  a  guard  upon 
me  day  and  night  which  is  usual  to  none  but  Princes.' 
The  shock  was  great  to  every  one  at  Claydon.  Will 
Roades,  the  steward  who  vainly  tried  to  see  his  master 


THE  PROTECTORATE  139 

again,  sent  him  up  a  letter,  full  of  pious  consolation,  together 
with  a  venison  pasty.  Mr.  Stafford  of  Winslow  and  others 
of  Sir  Ralph's  neighbours  were  also  in  confinement ;  '  for 
these  country  gentlemen  accustomed  to  do  all  their  business 
on  horseback  it  was  most  irksome  and  unwholesome  to  be 
penned  up  in  London  during  the  summer  months,  and  one 
after  another  suffered  in  health.' l  At  the  assizes  at  Bucking- 
ham, the  judge  hi  his  charge  defended  the  Protector's 
action,  and  assured  the  Grand  Jury  that  no  innocent 
person  would  eventually  suffer. 

They  were  kept  until  October,  and  released  on  what  Sir 
Ralph  termed  '  barbarous  conditions  '  ;  they  promised  '  to 
abstain  from  plotting  against  the  Government,  and  to  give 
information  against  those  who  did  so  '. 

The  county  was  now  divided  into  districts  each  under 
a  major-general,  who  commanded  the  militia,  with  a  body 
of  commissioners  who  were  charged  to  get  returns  of 
all  property  held  by  Royalists  to  be  supertaxed  to  meet 
the  heavy  expenses  rendered  necessary,  it  was  alleged, 
by  their  plots  against  the  Government.1  Sir  Ralph  had 
scarcely  settled  at  home  when  he  found  himself,  with  forty 
others,  summoned  to  appear  before  Fleetwood,  the  major- 
general  at  Aylesbury,  sitting  with  half  the  gentlemen  of 
the  county  as  judges,  to  assess  the  other  half,  their  friends 
and  neighbours,  as  delinquents.  '  For  the  community  at 
large  the  danger  lay  in  the  growing  habit  of  the  executive, 
strong  in  military  support,  to  deal  out  penalties  at  its  own 
will  and  pleasure.' 

Dreadful  heart-burnings  ensued,  some  petitioned  the 
Protector,  only  to  be  referred  back  to  the  major-general. 
Mr.  William  Smith  of  Akeley  was  one  of  the  sufferers,  and 
had  to  pay  a  tenth  of  his  income.  It  would  have  comforted 
the  Bucks  squires  who  rode  away  from  the  '  George '  in 
Aylesbury  with  such  unpleasant  documents  buttoned  under 
their  riding  coats,  could  they  have  foreseen  how  soon  these 
military  tribunals  were  to  be  swept  away  when  Parliament 
met.  But  the  intense  irritation  they  had  caused,  uniting 
men  of  opposite  parties  in  a  common  grievance,  did  much, 
even  in  a  county  like  Bucks,  to  reconcile  the  squires  on  the 
Puritan  side  to  a  Stuart  Restoration.  '  There  were  few 
indeed  who  would  not  have  joined  with  Thomas  Stafford 


140  THE  PROTECTORATE 

in  his  daily  petition  to  our  Heavenly  Father  that  He  would 
grant  us  a  speedy  deliverance  out  of  the  power  of  the 
major-generals  and  restore  us  to  the  protection  of  the 
common  law.'1 

Colonel  Richard  Beke  of  Haddenham,  descended  from 
Queen  Elizabeth's  chief  equerry,  was  a  man  of  mark  during 
the  Protectorate  ;  he  was  the  last  man  knighted  by  Richard 
Cromwell  before  the  Restoration.  He  made  his  peace  with 
the  Stuarts  and  was  M.P.  for  Aylesbury  and  later  for 
Wendover ;  he  is  buried  at  Dinton,  where  his  old  age  was 
spent. 

Out  of  this  welter  of  conflicting  opinions,  religious  and 
political,  eccentric  figures  emerge,  who  seem  like  caricatures 
of  the  earnest  men,  suffering  for  righteousness'  sake  in  both 
camps,  yet  utterly  sincere.  Such  a  man  was  Robert  Crab, 
another  Bucks  hermit,  born  at  Buckingham,  of  a  much 
more  intellectual  type  than  John  Biggs. 

He  fought  for  seven  years  in  the  Parliamentary  army  ; 
he  was  a  deeply  religious  man,  a  mystic,  a  fanatical  vege- 
tarian, and  devoted  to  animals,  whom  he  could  not  bear  to 
see  ill-treated.  From  eating  roots  he  took  to  a  watery 
broth  thickened  with  bran ;  as  a  pudding  he  prescribed 
turnip  leaves  chopped  up  with  bran ;  he  finally  settled 
down  to  a  simple  regime  of  dock  leaves  and  grass.  He 
lived  on  three  farthings  a  week,  wearing  '  a  sackcloth  frock 
with  no  band  on  his  neck '  in  a  hut  of  his  own  building.2 
Crab  preached,  disputed,  and  meditated,  and  while  digging 
up  his  parsnips  saw  '  visions  of  the  Paradise  of  God  '.  He 
dabbled  in  astrology  and  medicine,  and  had  at  one  time 
120  patients.  His  diet  rules  gave  great  offence  to  well-fed 
ministers  and  physicians ;  he  was  denounced  at  Chesham 
'  as  a  witch  ',  and  imprisoned  for  a  time  at  Clerkenwell 
without  any  food  at  all,  until  a  good  dog  brought  him  a  bit 
of  bread.  He  wrote  his  own  life  as  the  Wonder  of  the  Age  ; 
he  published  a  violent  theological  book  called  Dagon's  Down- 
fall, and  another  attacking  the  Quakers ;  he  foretold  the 
Restoration  and  the  coming  of  William  III,  and  became 
a  prophet  of  some  repute.  He  removed  himself  and  his 
hermitage  in  old  age  to  Bethnal  Green,  where  he  died,  and 
was  buried  in  Stepney  Church  in  1680. 

But  in  spite  of  his  various  callings  as  soldier,  doctor, 


THE  PROTECTORATE  141 

prophet,  author,  vegetarian  and  hermit,  Crab  would  have 
been  long  forgotten,  had  he  not  set  up  at  Chesham,  on 
leaving  the  army,  as  a  '  haberdasher  of  hats '.  He  pros- 
pered greatly,  but  he  persisted  in  praying  behind  his 
counter,  and  in  1651  he  sold  his  shop  and  all  his  goods  to 
give  to  the  poor,  and  after  such  outrageous  proceedings, 
won  the  immortal  nickname  of  the  Mad  Hatter.  He  is, 
therefore,  the  undoubted  ancestor  of  the  fourth  guest  who 
took  tea  in  Wonderland,  with  Alice,  the  Dormouse,  and  the 
March  Hare  ;  and  he  furnishes  us  with  a  link  between  the 
troublous  times  of  the  Commonwealth  in  Bucks,  and  the 
most  charming  fairy  tale  of  our  own  day. 

1  Verney  Memoirs.  2  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION 

ONE  of  the  most  dramatic  moments  in  English  history- 
was  the  Restoration  of  the  exiled  Charles  II  on  his  thirtieth 
birthday  by  the  acclamations  of  the  nation  that  had  defeated 
him  in  a  hard  fought  fight  and  beheaded  his  father. 

The  news  from  London  roused  the  whole  country  ;  '  such 
universal  acclamations  of  wild  and  sober  joy  I  never  yet 
saw,'  wrote  Mr.  Butterfield,  Rector  of  Claydon,  in  those 
bright  May  days  of  1660,  '  we  had  our  bonfire  and  bells 
ringing  even  at  Claydon  ;  heaven  and  earth  seem  to  con- 
spire to  make  a  fair  and  fruitful  spring  of  plenty  and  joy 
to  this  poor  kingdom.  The  fields  and  pastures'  begin  to 
put  on  their  best  dress  as  if  to  entertain  His  Majesty  and 
make  him  in  love  with  his  native  soil.' l  Men  who  had  tried 
to  be  neutral  no\V  furbished  up  the  rusty  memory  of  a 
Royalist  ancestor ;  William  Abell,  the  Squire  of  East 
Claydon,  began  making  a  collection  for  '  the  poore  King  ', 
and  Mr.  Townshend,  Rector  of  Radcliffe,  stirred  up  the 
clergy  to  do  the  same  ;  but  in  a  countryside  so  impoverished 
this  was  considered  officious  and  uncalled  for.  The  Bucks 
peers  were  resplendent  in  new  robes,  the  Bucks  squires 


142     THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION] 

trooped  up  to  the  coronation,  and  wrote  home  to  less 
fortunate  friends  that  the  gallantry  and  lustre  of  this  great 
solemnity  '  no  pen  nor  ink  can  express '.  Ribbons  and 
titles  were  lavishly  bestowed.  The  defender  of  Hillesden 
became  Sir  William  Smith  ;  Thomas  Lee  of  Hart  well, 
Richard  Ingoldsby  of  Lenborough,  Sir  Ralph  Verney  of 
Claydon,  and  Henry  Andrewes  of  Lathbury,  were  made 
baronets.  Dr.  James  Fleetwood  of  Chalfont  St.  Giles  was 
the  first  chaplain  in  ordinary  to  the  king ;  Captain  Peter 
Dayrell  received  a  knighthood  in  the  order  of  the  Royal 
Oak.  The  trained  bands  met  at  Winslow  under  Captain 
Edmund  Stafford,  with  'the  Colours, Leading  Staff,  Partizans, 
Halberts,  Muskets,  and  drums  '  to  be  trained  '  according 
to  the  modern  discipline  of  war ',  the  county  also  raised 
a  '  Volunteer  Troop  of  Horse  '  to  meet  at  Aylesbury.  Bell- 
ringing  and  fireworks  were  the  order  of  the  day,  the  theatres 
were  re-opened,  horse-racing,  bull-baiting,  and  cock-fighting 
were  again  in  vogue.  One  voice  indeed  was  raised  to  warn 
the  nation  that  we  were  '  losing  by  a  strange  after-game  of 
folly  all  the  battles  we  have  won,  all  the  treasure  we  have 
spent ',  but  no  one  heeded  the  blind  prophet.  Milton's 
political  writings  were  ordered  by  the  House  of  Commons 
to  be  publicly  burnt,  with  whatever  of  contempt  the  action 
of  the  common  hangman  could  bestow.  f 

Many  devoted  Royalists  had  died  before  seeing  the  return 
of  the  Stuarts,  for  whom  they  had  suffered  so  much.  Among 
these  was  Sir  Anthony  Chester,  of  Chicheley  (1593-1651), 
who  fought  at  Naseby,  and  lent  Charles  I  large  sums  of 
money.  His  fine  house  was  defaced  and  ruined,  and  he  fled 
to  Holland,  but  crept  back  to  die  at  home,  and  was  buried 
at  Chicheley  with  his  forefathers. 

The  loyal  and  long-exiled  clergy  returned  to  their  bene- 
fices, the  Prayer  Book  was  restored  to  the  churches,  Sir 
Ralph  Verney,  and  probably  many  other  laymen,  presented 
their  parish  priests  with  new  surplices,  trees  were  given 
to  the  church  at  Winslow  'towards  the  making  of  a 
gallery'.1 

The  country  parsons  of  Bucks  had  suffered  less  than  in 
other  counties  during  the  Presbyterian  rule.  Peel,  Vicar 
of  Wycombe,  had  been  '  absolutely  the  first  man  of  all  the 
clergy  whom  the  party  began  to  fall  upon ',  and  Oakeley, 


THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION      143 

Vicar  of  Hillesden,  had  shared  the  imprisonment  of  the 
Dentons ;  only  nine  clergymen  seem  to  have  been  actually 
dispossessed,  but  there  were  many  sad  stories  here  as  else- 
where. 

Matthew  Bate,  Rector  of  Maids  Moreton  and  Leckham- 
stead,  died  in  1642,  broken-hearted,  after  seeing  his  beautiful 
church  at  Maids  Moreton  wrecked  by  Colonel  Purefoy  and 
his  soldiers.  The  parish  register  records  that  '  the  windows 
were  broken,  a  costly  desk  ...  a  spread  eagle  gilt,  on  which 
Bp.  Jewell's  works  used  to  be  laid,  doomed  to  perish 
as  an  abominable  idol  &  the  Cross  (which  with  its  fall  had 
like  to  have  broke  out  the  brains  of  him  who  did  it)  was  cut 
off  the  steeple '.  Lillingstone  Dayrell  Church  was  also 
injured  by  soldiers,  who  destroyed  the  font  and  did  other 
damage.2 

George  Roberts,  Rector  of  Hambleden,  was  one  of  the 
ejected  clergy  in  1642 ;  he  was  sent  for  by  the  House  of 
Commons  as  a  delinquent,  but  fled  to  the  king  at  Oxford  ; 
he  survived  the  Restoration  by  a  few  months  only.  A 
monument  in  Hambleden  Church  preserves  the  memory  of 
his  sorrows  and  of  his  restoration  '  by  the  never  to  be 
forgotten  mercy  of  His  Majesty's  return  '. 

John  Barton,  Vicar  of  Aylesbury,  was  driven  out  in 
1645,  but  he  received  shelter  at  Wotton  House,  where  he 
acted  as  chaplain  to  Mr.  Grenville. 

John  Gregory  of  Amersham  (1607-1646),  a  distinguished 
linguist  and  scholar,  had  no  such  friend,  and  died  in  an 
obscure  ale-house  in  the  greatest  poverty. 

Dr.  Dillon  of  Shenley  '  died  in  jail ;  he  was  a  person  of 
great  learning  and  of  a  good  life  and  conversation  '. 

John  Fournesse  was  driven  out  of  his  living  at  Great 
Marlow,  but  reinstated  after  the  Restoration. 

Anthony  Tyringham,  Rector  of  Tyringham,  had  a  worse 
fate.  He  was  robbed  and  wounded  by  soldiers  in  a  brutal 
fashion  near  Whitechurch,  so  that  when  he  reached  Ayles- 
bury on  a  dark  November  night,  '  the  Surgeons  were  forced 
to  cut  off  his  arm.'  '  He  bore  the  loss,'  writes  a  good 
Royalist,'  with  incredible  patience  and  magnanimity,  telling 
the  rebels  that  notwithstanding  all  their  ill  usage  of  him  he 
hoped  he  should  live  to  see  them  hang'd.'  He  failed  in 
his  hope. 


144     THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION 

Gilbert  Sheldon  was  Rector  of  Ickford  in  1636,  which  he 
held  with  another  living  ;  he  was  a  man  of  strong  character 
and  practical  ability ;  a  personal  friend  of  Charles  I. 
Sheldon  was  turned  out  of  his  cure  in  1647,  and  for  a  time 
imprisoned ;  he  remained  in  hiding  in  Derbyshire,  and 
collected  money  for  the  royal  cause.  After  the  Restoration 
he  was  made  Bishop  of  London,  and  then  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  set  himself  with  great  energy  to  help  the 
poorer  clergy,  and  to  take  up  Laud's  work  in  the  church. 
He  remained  at  Lambeth  during  the  worst  time  of  the 
plague,  preserving  numbers  of  poor  people  alive  who  must 
otherwise  have  perished  ;  he  raised  a  fund  for  rebuilding 
St.  Paul's  after  the  fire,  to  which  he  gave  largely. 

In  1676  the  Archbishop  had  a  religious  census  taken, 
from  which  it  is  possible  to  obtain  returns  for  almost  every 
Bucks  parish.  The  population  of  the  county  was  computed 
at  68,618,  of  whom  only  364  were  Romanists,  3,862  Non- 
conformists, and  some  64,364  attended  their  parish  churches. 
Sheldon  never  married,  and  delighted  to  devote  his  large 
income  to  '  public,  pious  uses '.  He  employed  Sir  Chris- 
topher Wren  to  build  at  a  cost  of  £25,000  the  Sheldonian 
Theatre  at  Oxford,  in  which  on  great  occasions  the  Uni- 
versity degrees  are  still  conferred.  As  he  had  comforted 
Charles  I  in  his  adversity,  so  he  fearlessly  rebuked 
Charles  II  and  his  wicked  court ;  his  known  generosity  and 
disinterestedness  gave  him  great  influence  in  the  country. 
In  Bucks  the  former  Rector  of  Ickford  was  known  as  a 
cruel  religious  persecutor,  together  with  the  Lord  Lieute- 
nant, the  Earl  of  Bridgwater,  also  an  excellent  man ;  in 
their  day,  alas,  persecution  stood  for  religious  zeal,  and 
toleration  was  held  to  be  indifference.  Such  men  '  were 
creating  day  by  day  the  martyrology  of  dissent '. 

Many  of  the  '  intruded  clergy '  had  ministered  in  their 
parishes  with  great  devotion  for  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  ; 
when,  in  1662,  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed,  only  a 
few  conformed,  the  greater  number  left  home  and  cure  and 
went  out  penniless  into  the  world  as  bravely  as  their  pre- 
decessors had  done,  and  became  known  as  Nonconformists. 

So  on  both  sides  there  was  much  suffering  for  righteous- 
ness' sake.  A  typical  case  was  that  of  Samuel  Clarke  ;  his 
father  and  grandfather  were  clergymen,  and  he  was  brought 


THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION     145 

up  for  holy  orders  from  the  time  he  was  a  Cambridge 
undergraduate  ;  he  worked  at  an  annotated  Bible,  a  well- 
known  and  useful  book  in  its  day.  Refusing  to  take  the 
engagement  of  fidelity  to  the  Commonwealth,  he  was  turned 
out  of  a  fellowship  ;  he  was  afterwards  appointed  Rector  of 
Grendon  Underwood  by  Squire  Pigott  of  Doddershall.1  He 
was  an  excellent  preacher,  and  loved  his  garden,  his  grape 
vines,  and  his  books,  but  he  was  so  much  opposed  to  the 
arbitrary  action  of  the  Church  after  the  Restoration,  that 
he  and  his  two  sons  resigned  their  livings  in  1662,  and 
subsequent  persecutions  drove  him  further  from  Epis- 
copacy. Philip,  Lord  Wharton,  provided  him  a  home  at 
Winchendon,  [where  he  never  gave  '  the  least  umbrage  of 
suspicion '.  But  some  years  later  he  was  seized  in  his  old 
parish  by  '  Lord  Brackley's  Troopers  ',  and  detained  at  the 
Red  Lion  Inn,  Aylesbury,  whence  he  appealed  to  Sir  Ralph 
Verney,  as  a  magistrate,  to  be  either  tried  or  released.  He 
at  length  found  a  refuge  at  High  Wycombe,  where  in  Puritan 
phrase  he  founded  '  a  gathered  church  '  in  his  own  house  ; 
h.e  died  suddenly  while  leading  the  prayers  of  his  people  in 
1701,  and  was  buried  in  the  parish  church. 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Vincent,  ejected  from  Langley  Marish, 
went  up  to  London  just  after  the  great  fire,  and  preached 
'  to  large  multitudes  in  the  ruins  '.  His  popularity  brought 
him  into  adverse  notice,  '  red-coat  soldiers  '  were  sent  to 
disperse  his  hearers  ;  once  '  they  rudely  pull'd  him  out  of 
the  pulpit  by  the  hair  of  the  head  after  they  had  planted 
four  muskets  at  the  four  corners  of  his  pulpit,  with  which 
he  seemed  not  terrified.  He  endured  long  periods  of  imprison 
ment,  aggravated  by  severe  attacks  of  ague,  when  he  con- 
soled himself  by  writing  A  Covert  from  the  Storm,  a  book 
'  to  encourage  the  Fearful  in  times  of  suffering  '. 

John  Gibbs,  vicar  of  Newport  Pagnell,  being  ejected 
from  the  living,  remained  on  in  the  town,  where  a  con- 
gregation gathered  round  him  and  held  him  in  high  esteem  ; 
George  Swinho,  'of  St.  Leonards,  settled  at  Princes  Ris- 
borough,  where  he  too  ministered  to  those  who  came  to 
him.  Mr.  Bennet,  ejected  from  Waddesdon,  preached 
privately  in  Aylesbury.  These  and  many  more  good  men 
were  lost  to  the  Church. 

Matthew  Mead,  of  a  Soulbury  family,  held  the  Duncombe 

986'4  K 


146     THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION 

living  at  Great  Brickhill  during  the  Commonwealth  ; 
Cromwell  promoted  him  to  Shadwell,  but  being  ejected  in 
1662,  he  retired  to  Holland.  In  1674  a  great  meeting- 
house was  built  for  him  at  Stepney,  to  which  he  contributed 
four  large  pillars,  the  gift  of  the  States  General ;  he  died 
in  1699. 

The  Dissenters  were  treated  with  still  greater  rigour. 
Benjamin  Keach  (1640  to  1704)  was  a  well-known  Baptist 
minister.  He  was  born  of  poor  parents  at  Stoke  Hammond, 
and  baptized  in  the  parish  church ;  later,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  John  Russell,  a  Baptist  minister  at  Chesham,  he 
was  baptized  again  at  fifteen,  and  worked  as  a  tailor.  At 
the  age  of  nineteen  Keach  became  a  zealous  preacher ;  in 
1664  he  was  seized  and  imprisoned  for  preaching  at  Winslow, 
where  he  had  found  his  wife,  Jane  Grove,  and  where  he 
ministered  in  a  humble  little  chapel  in  Pillars'  Ditch.  He 
had  not  long  been  released,  when  he  was  arrested  again  for 
writing  and  printing  the  Child's  Instructor,  a  Baptist 
catechism.  He  was  tried  at  Aylesbury  before  Sir  Robert 
Hyde,  sent  to  prison  without  bail,  and  sentenced  '  to  stand 
in  the  pillory  at  Aylesbury  in  the  open  market ',  and  again 
in  the  pillory  at  Winslow,  where  his  '  seditious  and  veno- 
mous book '  was  to  be  burnt  before  his  face,  and  he  was 
fined  £20.4  Another  time,  while  he  was  preaching  at 
Winslow,  the  little  meeting-house  was  surrounded,  Keach 
was  seized,  and  with  much  violence  and  indignity  tied 
across  a  horse,  and  so  taken  again  to  Aylesbury.  The 
bitterness  of  the  trial  was  increased  by  the  knowledge  that 
the  Rector  of  Stoke  Hammond,  who  had  been  appointed 
under  the  Commonwealth,  and  had  just  conformed,  was  the 
one  to  inform  against  him.  In  1668  Keach  took  refuge  in 
London,  but  he  was  a  man  of  too  much  originality  to  please 
any  authority.  He  published  a  collection  of  hymns  and 
first  introduced  congregational  singing  in  his  chapel,  which 
the  London  Baptist  Association  of  1689  condemned  as 
'  a  carnal  formality  '.  His  brother,  Henry  Keach,  a  miller 
at  Soulbury,  had  sometimes  a  meeting  in  his  mill  of  one 
hundred,  '  all  mean  people,'  as  their  persecutors  described 
them ;  and  from  thence  John  Griffith  and  Jonathan 
Jennings  were  sent  to  Aylesbury  Gaol.  The  name  remains 
in  Reach's  Meeting  House  and  burial  ground  at  Winslow, 


THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION     147 

one  of  the  oldest  dissenting  chapels  still  existing  in  Bucks. 
His  little  persecuted  flock  met  at  Granborough,  Oving,  and 
North  Marston  in  private  houses,  taught  by  John  Hartnell, 
a  thatcher  of  North  Marston. 

There  was  a  strange  character,  Richard  Carpenter  (1609- 
1670),  born  at  Newport  Pagnell,  whose  life  was  a  pro- 
gression by  antagonism.  Sent  by  the  Pope  as  a  Benedictine 
to  convert  England,  he  became  an  Independent  minister  : 
after  abusing  the  Church  of  England,  to  which  he  once 
belonged,  and  the  Baptists  against  whom  he  wrote  a 
pamphlet,  in  the  coarse  humour  of  the  time,  called '  Anabap- 
tists washt,  and  washt,  and  shrunk  in  the  Washing '  ;  he 
preached  at  Aylesbury  with  some  ability  and  notoriety, 
and  returned  finally  into  the  Roman  fold. 

Churchmen  and  Dissenters  agreed  in  hatred  and  persecu- 
tion of  the  Quakers.  The  historian,  Lecky,  calls  them  *  an 
eccentric  but  most  admirable  sect  which  will  always  be 
remembered  for  its  noble  services  to  the  causes  of  religious 
toleration  and  the  abolition  of  slavery.'  In  later  times 
they  have  been  distinguished  by  their  great  benevolence, 
the  quaint,  quiet  decorum  of  their  manners,  their  austere 
morality,  and  their  protests  against  wasteful  luxury  and 
ostentation.  They  refused  to  take  oaths,  to  pay  tithes,  or 
to  enter  the  army,  and  they  also  objected  to  things  which 
seemed  quite  harmless  to  ordinary  people.  They  would 
not  use  the  names  of  the  months  or  of  the  days  of  the 
week,  because  some  of  them  were  called  after  heathen  gods  ; 
they  said  thee  and  thou  instead  of  you,  and  they  would 
not  take  off  their  hats  in  salutation,  or  use  any  title  of 
courtesy. 

George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  was 
intended  to  be  a  clergyman,  but  he  found  no  rest  in  the 
churches  who  were  '  refuting  and  reviling  each  other ' 
He  would  sit  with  his  Bible  in  an  orchard,  or  walk  about 
the  fields  thinking  deeply  and  in  silence ;  he  spent  some 
time  at  Newport  Pagnell,  and  wandered  about  this  and 
other  counties,  where  '  his  strange  face,  his  irremoveable 
hat,  and  his  leather  breeches  were  well  known.'  In  1657 
Isaac  Penington  heard  Fox  preach,  and  he  and  his  wife, 
formerly  Lady  Springett,  publicly  joined  the  society. 
Penington  was  a  man  of  good  family  and  fortune,  well 

K  2 


148     THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION 

known  in  South  Bucks.  He  lived  first  at  Datchet,  then  at 
The  Grange,  Chalfont  St.  Giles,  where  the  Quakers  met  for 
worship  before  the  meeting-house  at  Jordans  was  built. 
A  young  man,  Thomas  Ellwood,  lived  in  the  house  for 
seven  years,  as  tutor  to  the  children.  Penington  was  a  very 
clever  man,  and  of  transparent  modesty  and  gentleness. 
In  1660  he  was  in  Aylesbury  Gaol  with  seventy  other 
Quakers ;  they  were  confined  in  a  decayed  building  '  not  fit 
for  a  dog-house ',  which  in  the  year  of  the  great  plague 
became  a  dreadful  centre  of  infection.  Penington,  who  had 
neither  strong  health  nor  high  spirits,  yet  bore  his  suffer- 
ings and  privations  so  gallantly,  that  he  cheered  up  all  his 
fellow  prisoners.  Mary  Penington  took  a  small  house  in 
Aylesbury  to  be  near  her  husband  in  this  anxious  time. 
He  had  bitterly  offended  the  Earl  of  Bridgwater  by  refusing 
to  bow  or  to  call  him  my  Lord ;  the  Grange  was  confiscated, 
and  when  at  last  he  was  released  by  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  '  with  the  wonder  of  the  Court  that  a  man  could  be 
so  long  imprisoned  for  nothing,'  he  settled  at  Woodside, 
near  Amersham.  There  were  times  when  all  the  adult 
Quakers  were  in  prison,  and  the  meetings  were  kept  up  by 
the  children. 

Thomas  Ellwood,  Milton's  friend  and  reader,  the  tutor  in 
Penington's  family,  was  another  of  the  Bucks  Quakers. 
He,  too,  knew  well  the  horrors  of  the  Aylesbury  Gaol ;  he 
was  sent  there  once  with  Penington  and  others  for  no 
offence  but  that  of  attending  a  Quaker's  funeral  at  Amer- 
sham. He  wrote  an  account  of  his  own  life  and  several 
religious  books,  and  died  at  Hanger  Hill,  near  Amersham. 
Wycombe  Quakers — Littleboy,  Trone,  Cock,  Steevens,  and 
others — also  suffered  imprisonment '  in  a  loathsome  dungeon 
in  Frogmore  Ward ',  and  Zachary,  a  Beaconsfield  Quaker, 
was  heavily  fined  for  attending  a  service. 

Meanwhile  a  more  famous  man,  William  Perm,  a  scholar 
and  statesman,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  admiral,  had 
joined  the  Quakers  and  married  Penington's  stepdaughter, 
Gulielma  Springett ;  a  maiden  '  clothed ',  it  was  said, 
'  with  soft  and  angelic  radiance.'  Perm's  career  belongs  to 
the  general  history  of  the  seventeenth  century :  he  founded 
the  Quaker  State  of  Pennsylvania,  the  only  settlement  of 
Europeans  in  America  made  without  force  of  arms,  and 


THE  FERMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION     149 

with  due  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  natives.  After  his 
many  long  journeys,  William  Penn  died  in  England,  and 
was  buried  at  Jordans,  where  his  two  wives  and  his 
friends,  Isaac  Penington  and  Thomas  Ellwood,  had  been 
already  laid.  This  little  meeting-house  of  Jordans,  with 
its  graveyard,  is  the  most  sacred  spot  on  earth  to  the 
Society  of  Friends,  and  is  still  visited  by  many  pilgrims 
from  America. 

In  Newport  Pagnell,  where  Fox  preached,  some  honoured 
names  are  still  connected  with  the  Church  he  founded  ; 
there  are  old  meeting-houses  at  Buckingham  and  Olney  ; 
there  were  little  bodies  of  Friends  in  many  of  the  villages, 
but  their  conscientious  objection  to  paying  tithes  has 
caused  their  removal  from  the  agricultural  districts. 

In  the  course  of  years  many  extravagances  of  enthusiasm 
and  many  eccentricities  of  dress  and  manners  have  been 
abandoned,  but  the  Friends  have  taught  a  quarrelsome  and 
noisy  world  the  beauty  of  peace  and  mercy,  of  patience, 
gravity,  and  silence. 

1  Verney  Memoirs.  2  Lipscombe,  County  History. 

3  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  4  Clear,  History  of  Winslow. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  WHARTONS  OF  WINCHENDON  AND 
WOOBURN 

THE  story  of  the  three  Whartons  who  are  connected  with 
the  county  as  Baron,  Marquis,  and  Duke  is  one  of  extra- 
ordinary contrasts  and  vicissitudes  of  fortune  ;  of  wealth, 
talent,  and  popularity  used  and  abused. 

From  '  the  good  Lord  Wharton ',  the  Roundhead  of  the 
Civil  War,  to  his  grandson  the  Jacobite  Duke,  who  died 
outlawed  and  worn  out  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  the 
three  generations  of  statesmen,  soldiers,  sportsmen  and 
spendthrifts  exemplified  all  that  fortune  could  bestow  of 
dignity  and  of  misery. 


150  THE  WHARTONS  OF 

In  Wooburn  Church  there  is  a  gravestone  to  Arthur, 
'  only  son  while  he  lived,  to  Philip  Lord  Wharton,  born  and 
died  in  1641,  aged  9  months ' — 

'  Let  an  infant  teach  the  man 
Since  this  life  is  but  a  span 
Use  it  so,  as  thou  mayest  be 
Happy  in  the  next  with  me.' 

The  quaint  doggerel  is  in  grotesque  contrast  with  the  lives 
of  the  baby's  brothers  and  nephew. 

The  Whartons  had  been  settled  for  generations  in  York- 
shire and  Westmoreland,  but  Philip,  fourth  Baron  Wharton 
(born  1613),  lived  in  South  Bucks,  at  Wooburn  House,  which 
he  enlarged  at  great  expense. 

There  is  a  beautiful  portrait  by  Vandyck  of  Philip  Lord 
Wharton  as  a  shepherd-boy,  which  has  strayed  away  as 
far  as  to  St.  Petersburg.  He  was  one  of  the  handsomest 
men  of  his  time,  and  was  proud  of  his  fine  legs  in  dancing. 
He  collected  pictures,  and  was  a  lover  of  architecture  and 
of  gardening ;  but,  though  his  tastes  inclined  him  to  become 
a  fine  gentleman  and  a  courtier,  he  threw  in  his  lot  with 
the  Puritans,  and  incurred  the  special  displeasure  of  King 
Charles  and  Strafford  for  his  share  in  a  petition  against 
the  billeting  of  soldiers  in  private  houses.  He  was  a  pro- 
minent member  of  the  House  of  Lords  during  the  Long 
Parliament ;  a  friend  of  Cromwell,  Hampden,  the  Good- 
wins, and  the  Verneys  ;  he  was  made  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Bucks  in  1642,  and  later  in  the  same  year  took  the  field 
under  the  Earl  of  Essex  for  the  Parliament,  and  fought  at 
Edgehill.  He  was  sent  by  Essex  to  give  a  report  of  the 
battle  to  a  Committee  of  the  Two  Houses  and  the  Lord 
Mayor  in  the  City.  With  much  frankness  he  acknowledged 
that  his  own  regiment  of  young  soldiers  ran  away,  but 
saved  their  colours ;  and  he  gave  an  account  of  the  death 
of  his  friend  and  neighbour,  Sir  Edmund  Verney,  the 
standard-bearer.  When  the  king  was  defeated,  Wharton 
inclined  to  mercy,  and  strongly  disapproved  of  his  execu- 
tion. 

His  second  wife  (married  1637)  was  Jane,  daughter  of 
Arthur  Goodwin,  at  whose  death  they  inherited  the  fine 
estate  of  Winchendon ;  she  brought  him  many  sons  and 


WINCHENDON  AND  WOOBURN  151 

daughters.  He  was  in  mourning  for  her  loss  at  the  time  of 
the  Restoration,  '  but  to  give  his  black  a  look  of  joy  on  that 
occasion,  his  buttons  were  so  many  diamonds.'  Though 
he  welcomed  Charles  II,  he  was  suspected  by  the  Govern- 
ment, and  his  married  daughter,  Lady  Willoughby  de 
Eresby,  crossing  over  the  ferry  at  Lambeth,  heard  the  other 
passengers  discussing  the  Act  of  Grace,  and  saying  that 
her  father's  name  would  be  left  out  of  it,  though  Sir  Christo- 
pher Pigott  and  other  Bucks  Roundheads  were  included. 
Being  a  wise  woman  she  held  her  tongue,  but  made  her 
husband  go  at  once  to  the  king,  and  so  earnestly  did  he 
plead  his  cause  that  Lord  Wharton  was  pardoned,  and  very 
justly. 

He  loyally  served  King  Charles,  disagreed  with  James  II, 
and  was  one  of  the  first  peers  to  welcome  William  III.  He 
lived  to  be  eighty-three,  and  to  moralize  on  the  shrunken 
condition  of  the  legs  he  was  once  so  proud  of.  He  left  money 
for  1,050  Bibles  and  catechisms  to  be  given  to  the  children, 
at  Waddesdon  and  Wooburn  and  elsewhere,  who  had  learnt 
by  heart  seven  specified  psalms ;  the  books  were  to  be 
bound  in  calfskin  and  sheepskin  to  benefit  the  farming 
interest. 

Thomas,  first  Marquess  of  Wharton,  born  1648,  was 
entirely  unlike  his  father,  though  they  were  much  attached 
to  each  other.  His  boyhood  during  the  Commonwealth  was 
passed  abroad,  '  amid  Geneva  bands,  heads  of  lank  hair, 
upturned  eyes,  and  sermons  three  hours  long,'  but  he  broke 
away  violently  from  all  Puritan  traditions.  He  was  very 
popular  and  sociable,  full  of  fun  and  wit,  but  quite  unprin- 
cipled ;  a  sportsman,  a  gambler,  and  a  keen  fighting 
politician.  He  was  elected  M.P.  for  Wendover  at  the  age  of 
twenty -five,  and  married  in  the  same  year  sweet  Anne  Lee 
of  Ditchley,  a  considerable  heiress,  a  cultivated  and  charm- 
ing woman,  whose  skill  as  a  poetess  won  for  her  the  admira- 
tion of  Dryden  and  Waller,  and  the  friendship  of  Bishop 
Burnet.  '  Tom  Wharton  '  treated  her  with  scant  respect ; 
when  their  marriage  contract  was  to  be  signed  he  put  off 
starting  till  the  last  possible  moment,  and  then  drove 
twenty-two  miles  in  two  hours,  rattling  over  shocking  roads, 
and  just  saved  the  situation.  His  wife's  dowry  enabled  him 
to  cut  a  great  figure  at  Newmarket  and  at  Quainton  and 


152  THE  WHARTONS 

Newport  races,  and  he  prided  himself  in  the  possession  of 
a  famous  racehorse,  '  Careless,'  *  which  Louis  XIV  had 
vainly  tried  to  buy.  His  horses  were  magnificently  lodged 
at  Winchendon  House,  with  carved  mangers  and  racks,  and 
stucco  and  gilded  ceilings  to  the  stables.  The  letters  of  the 
time  are  full  of  Tom  and  his  brother  Harry  Wharton,  their 
hard  riding  and  driving,  and  feasting,  their  brawls  and 
duels  and  practical  jokes,  but  Tom  Wharton  had  a  more 
serious  side,  and  was  the  popular  hero  of  a  famous  Bucks 
election.  He  was  a  strong  Protestant  and  Whig,  and  had 
brought  up  from  the  Commons  to  the  Bar  of  the  Lords  the 
Bill  to  exclude  James,  as  a  Catholic,  from  succeeding  to  the 
throne. 

The  general  election  which  followed  the  death  of  Charles  II 
in  1685  was  keenly  contested  in  Bucks.  Sir  Ralph  Verney 
and  his  cousin,  Sir  Richard  Temple,  who  had  won  Bucking- 
ham for  the  Whigs  in  1681,  stood  again  for  the  two  seats 
which,  down  to  1832,  depended  on  the  votes  of  thirteen 
burgesses ;  the  Tory  candidates  were  Lord  Latimer  and 
Sir  John  Busby  of  Addington.  At  Amersham  '  the  town 
was  full  of  Ale  and  Noise  and  Tobacco ' 2 ;  at  Aylesbury 
the  Whig  candidates  were  quarrelling  among  themselves. 
The  roads,  and  even  the  green  lanes,  were  alive  with  riders 
and  rumbling  coaches  taking  the  numerous  candidates 
about.  In  the  picturesque  manor  houses  by  the  wayside 
the  gentry  kept  a  supply  of  '  sherry-sack,  sugar,  and 
nutmeg'  to  give  their  friends  a  stirrup-cup  as  they  rode 
past.  But  the  borough  contests  paled  before  the  excitement 
of  the  county  election,  in  which  all  the  influence  of  the 
Crown  was  to  be  pitted  against  that  of  the  Whartons. 
Judge  Jeffreys  had  bought  Bulstrode  Manor  House,  where 
in  1678  Charles  II  stayed  with  him  and  drank  his  health 
seven  times  in  succession,  and  he  was  already  notorious  in 
the  county.  He  took  charge  of  the  contest ;  the  Government 
candidate  was  Thomas  Hackett,  '  an  unknown  young 
gentleman  of  Newport  Pagnell '.  Sir  Ralph  Verney  writes 
how  '  my  Lord  Chief  Justice  like  a  torrent  carries  all 
before  him  ' ;  '  this  demi-fiend,  this  hurricane  of  a  man,'  as 
the  election  ballads  call  him.  Macaulay  has  told  the  story 
how  Jeffreys,  finding  the  Whartons  too  strong  at  Aylesbury, 
adjourned  the  poll  to  Newport '  in  the  heart  of  Mr.  Hackett's 


ANNE  LEE — MRS.  T.  WHARTON 
From  a  picture  at  Claydon  House 


THE  WHARTONS  155 

country '  ;  and  how  the  Whigs  arrived  to  find  every 
available  lodging  and  stable  engaged,  and  food  and  pro- 
vender bought  up.  They  were  compelled  to  tie  their  horses 
to  the  hedges  and  to  lie  in  the  open  fields  ;  but  Jeffreys  had 
misjudged  his  men,  the  Bucks  spirit  was  up,  and  Wharton 
and  Lord  Brackley  were  returned  in  triumph. 

After  this  the  political  influence  of  the  Whartons  was 
without  a  rival.  Tom  Wharton  spared  no  expense  at 
elections,  kissed  the  babies,  remembered  all  their  names, 
and  was  considered  a  model  candidate  !  In  later  years  his 
journeys  through  the  county  to  Quarter  Sessions  resembled 
Royal  Progresses.  '  The  bells  of  every  parish  were  rung  as 
he  passed  through,  and  flowers  strewn  along  the  road. '  With 
his  versatile  talents  he  dealt  a  shrewd  blow  at  King  James, 
writing  a  song  known  by  its  refrain  of  Lilliburlero,  which, 
set  to  music  by  Purcell,  was  sung  by  the  army,  the  town, 
and  the  country,  and  became  such  a  powerful  weapon  on 
the  popular  side  that  Wharton  boasted  after  the  Revolution 
that  he  had  sung  a  king  out  of  three  kingdoms  ! 

He  obtained  high  office  under  William  and  Mary ;  he 
was  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  made  Joseph  Addison 
his  secretary. 

Anne  Wharton  died  soon  after  her  husband's  famous 
election ;  she  had  occupied  herself  in  writing  religious 
poems  and  dramas ;  by  Bishop  Burnet's  advice  she 
never  sought  for  a  separation ;  she  had  no  child  to  love 
her,  and  their  splendid  home  was  to  her  a  sad  and 
lonely  one. 

Wharton's  second  wife,  Lucy  Loftus,  brought  him 
another  large  fortune  ;  William  III,  whom  he  entertained 
magnificently  at  Wooburn,  stood  sponsor,  together  with 
Princess  Anne,  to  his  only  son,  baptized  at  Winchendon. 
He  had  passed  middle  life  when  he  succeeded  his  father  in 
1696  ;  he  was  made  Marquess  of  Wharton  for  his  political 
services,  an  honour  he  had  enjoyed  for  two  months  only 
when  his  life  and  his  plottings  ended  together  in  1715. 
The  most  universal  villain  I  ever  knew '  was  Swift's 
summary  of  his  life,  but  Swift  was  his  bitter  enemy.  Even 
his  funeral  (April  22,  1715)  could  not  be  carried  through 
without  a  dramatic  sensation.  As  the  long  black  procession 
wound  up  the  steep,  green  lanes  to  Winchendon,  it  was 


156  THE  WHARTONS 

suddenly  arrested  by  the  strange  darkness  of  a  total  eclipse.3 
After  the  first  moments  of  consternation,  the  country 
people  must  have  felt  that  the  sun  had  fittingly  marked  the 
greatness  of  the  occasion,  when  Death  ventured  to  remove 
the  splendid  Marquess  of  Wharton. 

His  son  Philip,  a  spoilt  child  of  fortune,  with  the  family 
ability  and  good  looks,  was  created  Duke  of  Wharton  by 
George  I,  and  then,  out  of  mere  perverseness,  he  intrigued 
with  the  exiled  court  at  St.  Germains. 

He  deserted  his  young  wife,  and  dissipated  his  great 
fortune  in  speculation  and  foolish  extravagance.  He  sold 
his  Buckinghamshire  estates,  and  his  grandfather's  fine 
collection  of  pictures.  He  went  abroad,  dabbled  in  diplo- 
macy and  soldiering,  professed  himself  a  Catholic,  fought 
against  his  countrymen  at  Gibraltar,  and  was  indicted  for 
high  treason.  His  last  three  years  were  spent  in  rambling 
about  Europe  in  beggary,  drunkenness,  and  absolute 
destitution.  The  doles  he  received  from  the  Pretender  were 
at  once  squandered  or  absorbed  by  a  clamorous  rabble  of 
creditors.  This  English  duke  died  miserably  in  a  Franciscan 
convent  in  Spain,  in  1731,  and  Pope  drew  his  portrait  in 
some  famous  lines  : 

'  Wharton,  the  scorn  and  wonder  of  our  days  ! '  &c. 

With  the  Duke  of  Wharton's  death  all  his  titles  became 
extinct ;  of  the  great  house  at  Upper  Winchendon,  with 
its  stately  gardens  and  orange-trees,  not  a  vestige  remains  ; 
but  the  Bibles  and  Catechisms,  whose  precepts  were  so 
flagrantly  disregarded,  are  still  given  to  the  children  in  the 
name  of  the  '  Good  Lord  Wharton  '. 

1  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  2  Verney  Memoirs.  3  Gough  MSS. 


THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS  157 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS,  LORD 
RUSSELL  AND  BISHOP  ATTERBURY 

ANOTHER  great  Whig  family,  contemporary  with  the 
Whartons,  but  with  much  finer  traditions  of  public  duty 
and  of  home  affection,  was  that  of  the  Russells  of  Chenies. 
When  the  head  of  the  family  settled  at  Woburn  Abbey 
and  became  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  Russells  were  chiefly 
associated  with  another  county,  but  Bucks  still  holds  their 
graves.  Froude,  in  his  Short  Studies,  describes  the  Russell 
chapel  at  Chenies  built  in  1556,  with  its  fine  series  of 
monuments  ;  for  three  centuries  and  a  half  the  Russells 
have  led  the  way  in  political  and  social  progress.  '  They 
rose  with  the  Reformation.  They  furnished  a  martyr  for 
the  Revolution  of  1688.'  '  To  know  the  lives  of  the  dead 
Russells  is  to  know  English  history  for  twelve  generations.' x 

William  Russell,  Earl  of  Bedford,  signed  the  Covenant  in 
1645,  but  he  retired  to  Woburn  when  the  old  landmarks 
were  being  submerged,  and  Charles  I  twice  visited  him 
there  ;  he  is  now  chiefly  remembered  as  the  father  of 
William  Lord  Russell  (1639-1683),  'whom  English  con- 
stitutional history  has  selected  to  honour  as  its  chief  saint 
and  martyr.' x  His  wife,  Rachel  Lady  Russell,  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  figures  in  our  history.  The  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Southampton,  her  mother's  family,  the  de  Ruvignys, 
were  distinguished  French  Protestants,  and  were  exiles  in 
England  on  account  of  their  faith.  They  were  married  in 
1669.  Lady  Russell  refers  to  their  home  life  as  one  of 
'  sweet  and  full  content '.  In  1678  the  '  Popish  Terror  ' 
disturbed  all  ranks  of  society,  and  caused  Catherine  of 
Braganza  to  be  undeservedly  suspected.  Lady  Russell 
writes  from  town  to  her  husband  at  Woburn.  (Her  letters 
were  left  at  the  Brickhill  post-office  to  be  called  for.) 
January  1,  1679.  '  I  ate  porridge  and  partridge  with  my 
sister  .  .  .  made  a  dozen  visits,  and  concluded  at  Whitehall, 
I  learnt  nothing  there  but  that  the  Queen  had  cried  heartily  ; 
her  eyes  made  it  very  visible,  yet  she  was  very  lively.' 


158          THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS 

Lord  Russell  sat  long  in  Parliament  as  a  silent  member,  and 
his  marriage  had  brought  him  such  unbroken  happiness 
that  neither  he  nor  his  wife  wished  to  be  involved  in  the 
intrigues  which  filled  the  last  years  of  Charles  II's  reign. 
The  king  continued  to  be  wonderfully  popular,  specially 
with  those  who  knew  him  only  from  a  distance,  and  in 
1681  High  Wycombe,  Aylesbury,  Buckingham,  Wendover, 
and  Marlow  vied  with  each  other  in  swelling  '  the  glut  of 
loyal  addresses  '  of  the  most  fulsome  flattery. 

Lord  Russell  had  made  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  Duke  of 
York  by  his  opposition  to  any  Roman  Catholic  coming 
to  the  throne,  and  when  the  Rye  House  Plot  broke  out  in 
1683  he  was  suddenly  arrested  and  tried  for  high  treason. 
In  this  dreadful  calamity  Lady  Russell's  courage  supported 
his  own.  She  acted  as  his  secretary  during  his  trial,  and 
left  nothing  undone  to  save  him  during  the  short  interval 
between  his  sentence  and  his  execution  ;  but  she  would  not 
counsel  him  to  make  any  unworthy  denial  of  his  principles 
to  save  his  life,  as  some  friends  were  urging  him  to  do. 
Lord  Russell  depended  upon  her  self-command,  and  this 
never  failed  him ;  she  helped  him  to  part  bravely  with 
his  children,  and  when  they  were  gone  she  remained  in  the 
Tower  to  share  his  last  evening  meal,  and  they  talked 
cheerfully  together.  At  10  o'clock  she  left  him,  he  kissed 
her  four  or  five  times  ;  each  anxious  not  to  distress  the 
other,  they  parted  in  composed  silence.  He  sent  her  word 
in  the  morning  that  he  had  slept  well,  and  hoped  that  she 
had  done  the  same.  He  died  nobly  and  patiently  in  the 
forty-fourth  year  of  his  age.  His  mother  did  not  long 
survive  him,  and  it  fell  to  the  young  widow  to  care  for 
her  f ather-in-law,  her  little  son,  her  two  daughters,  and 
her  sister's  motherless  children.  She  devoted  herself 
absolutely  to  the  children's  health  and  upbringing,  and  but 
rarely  allowed  herself  any  expression  of  the  sorrow  she 
always  carried  about  with  her.  '  Yet  secretly  my  heart 
mourns  too  sadly  I  fear,'  2  she  writes  to  an  old  friend,  '  and 
cannot  be  comforted  because  I  have  not  the  dear  companion 
and  sharer  of  all  my  joys  and  sorrows.  I  want  him  to  talk 
with,  to  walk  with,  to  eat  and  sleep  with,  all  these  things 
are  irksome  to  me  now  ;  the  day  unwelcome,  and  the  night 
so  too  ;  all  company  and  meals  I  would  avoid  if  it  might  be.' 


LORD  RUSSELL  AND  BISHOP  ATTERBURY    161 

A  sharp  illness  of  her  little  boy  made  her  realize  that 
she  had  still  something  to  lose,  and  that  she  had  some- 
thing precious  to  live  for  when  he  grew  '  exceedingly 
better '. 

Two  years  after  Lord  Russell's  execution  Charles  II  died, 
in  February  1685.  He  was  sincerely  lamented  in  Bucks. 
Some  of  the  country  squires  were  anxious  about  their 
mourning,  and  whether  black  cloth  or  crape  would  be  the 
more  correct.  They  were  assured  that  if  they  kept  at  home 
they  might  save  '  the  cost  of  blacks  ',  as  the  coronation  of 
the  new  king  would  take  place  within  three  months  ;  and 
there  were  some  loyal  rejoicings  on  this  occasion. 

But  James  II  soon  alienated  his  best  friends.  He  offended 
the  Bucks  magistrates  by  dismissing  their  popular  Lord- 
Lieutenant,  the  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  who,  as  Lord  Brackley, 
had  won  the  famous  election  of  1685,  and  by  appointing 
Jeffreys  in  his  stead.  Sir  Thomas  Tyrrell,  Sir  Thomas  Lee, 
and  Sir  Ralph  Verney  were  dismissed  from  the  commission 
of  the  peace.  Honours  were  heaped  on  the  hated  Jeffreys, 
now  Lord  Chancellor.  James  II  and  Mary  of  Modena  went 
to  dine  with  him  at  Bulstrode  Manor,  as  Charles  II  had 
done  before,  where  he  was  famed  for  his  '  boisterous  con- 
viviality '  When  Jeffreys's  son,  aged  thirteen,  and  of  '  very 
low  stature  ',  was  married  at  Bulstrode  to  Lady  Charlotte 
Herbert,  only  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  '  13  years 
of  age  and  taller  than  her  husband,'  the  Court  and  the 
Privy  Council  wore  their  wedding  favours. 

In  the  summer  of  1688  there  were  bonfires  at  Bucking- 
ham, and  '  great  acclamation  of  the  people  '  on  the  release 
of  the  seven  bishops.  In  October  Irish  Catholic  troops  were 
being  marched  through  Bucks  to  London,  to  the  great 
displeasure  of  the  county  ;  there  were  militia  levies  at 
Stony  Stratford,  and  all  the  Buckingham  trained  bands 
were  sent  off  to  oppose  the  landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.3 
The  next  news  frbm  London  was  of  strange  confusion, 
'  King,  Queen,  and  Prince  all  gone,  my  Lord  Chancellor 
and  the  Seal,  and  a  world  more  gone  or  going.'  There 
was  great  excitement  in  Buckingham  when  '  a  calash 
dashed  through  with  2  gentlemen  attended  by  26  horsemen 
well  armed  and  mounted',  whose  blue  coats  were  lined 
with  orange  serge — the  new  colour  in  English  politics ; 

986-4  L 


162  THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS 

and  smart  ladies  were  ordering  orange  silk  for  their  petti- 
coats, and  wore  nothing  but  orange  ribbons.  The  Lord 
Chancellor  never  returned  to  his  Bucks  home :  he  was  recog- 
nized at  Wapping  disguised  as  a  sailor,  was  with  difficulty 
rescued  from  the  mob  and  lodged  in  the  Tower,  where  he 
died  in  April  1689,  and  was  buried  in  the  next  grave  to 
Monmouth's. 

The  Journal  of  Mr.  Butterfield,  Rector  of  Middle  Claydon, 
shows  how  hardly  the  Bucks  clergy  were  put  to  it  to 
maintain  the  doctrines  of  passive  obedience  and  non- 
resistance  which  they  had  been  zealously  preaching  since 
the  Restoration  ;  it  was  difficult  to  obey  '  Nero  '  when 
Nero  was  so  bent  on  running  away,  but  on  the  whole  they 
shared  the  satisfaction  of  the  laity  in  the  Revolution.2 

With  better  prospects  of  toleration  the  Quakers  this 
winter  opened  their  new  meeting-house  at  Jordans,  destined 
to  be  so  famous. 

When  the  Convention  met  to  offer  the  crown  to 
William  and  Mary,  Bucks  again  sent  up  all  her  stalwarts, 
most  of  whom,  or  their  fathers,  had  fought  for  liberty  in 
the  Long  Parliament.  Among  them  was  Sir  William 
Scawen  of  Horton,  three  times  M.P.  for  Bucks,  a  great 
merchant,  and  governor  of  the  Bank  of  England.  He 
emerged  from  his  retirement  to  put  his  money,  and  his 
experience  on '  'Change ',  at  the  service  of  the  new  sovereigns. 

In  1699  William  III  gave  a  large  field  at  Boarstall, 
for  the  poor  of  Oakley  and  Brill,  known  as  Poor  Folk's 
Pasture. 

Lady  Russell  had  kept  up  an  intimate  correspondence 
with  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Orange,  whose  respect  for 
her  was  well  known,  and  her  influence  was  now  sought 
by  those  who  wished  to  stand  well  with  the  Court.  One  of 
the  first  acts  of  the  new  reign  was  to  reverse  the  attainder 
of  William  Lord  Russell;  his  father  was  made  Duke  of 
Bedford,  his  son  became  Marquess  of  Tavistock.  Rachel 
Lady  Russell  saw  her  husband  vindicated  and  his  cause 
triumphant.  She  welcomed  the  friendship  of  Queen  Mary 
for  her  married  daughters,  for  herself  she  had  nothing  to 
ask.  She  had  a  great  respect  for  William  III,  and  when  he 
died  it  was  said  that  a  letter  from  Lady  Russell  was  found  in 
his  pocket. 


-2 

I 
a 


fc  a 
o 

M  O 

S2  o 


a    a 

H     P 


LORD  RUSSELL  AND  BISHOP  ATTERBURY    165 

Lady  Russell  lived  to  see  her  children's  children  and 
grandchildren,  and  retained  her  health  and  memory  to  her 
eighty-seventh  year.  There  is  a  homely  touch  in  a  letter 
of  hers  in  1718 :  '  Evening  is  creeping  upon  me,  by  the  side  of 
a  grandchild,  who  was  willing  to  take  her  dinner  with  me, 
her  sister  having  taken  physic,  and  she  not  loving  boiled 
chicken.' 

With  her  bright  faith  and  long  experience,  she  was  the 
adviser  and  comforter  of  many.  She  was  consulted  as 
to  the  policy  the  Princess  Anne  should  pursue  at  the 
time  of  her  father's  overthrow  ;  in  family  disagreements, 
especially  between  married  couples,  she  was  constantly 
implored  to  come  and  make  peace.  When  the  young 
heiress  of  East  Claydon,  Molly  Verney,  made  a  runaway 
match,  it  was  Lady  Russell  who  was  appealed  to,  to  per- 
suade her  grandfather,  Sir  Ralph  Verney,  to  forgive  the 
culprit,  and  his  last  illness  was  brightened  by  her  sympathy 
and  prayers. 

Lady  Russell  had  lived  under  five  kings,  two  queens, 
and  Oliver  Cromwell ;  she  died  in  1723  on  a  day  she  had 
always  kept  sacred,  her  husband's  birthday,  September  29, 
and  she  was  laid  beside  him  in  the  chapel  at  Chenies. 

Among  the  local  occurrences  of  1693  is  noted  the 
accidental  drowning  of  Dr.  Lewis  Atterbury,  on  his  journey 
home  from  London  to  Milton-Keynes,  where  he  had  been 
rector  since  1657.  An  able  man  himself ,  he  was  the  father 
of  the  famous  Francis  Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester 
(1662-1732),  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  the  Church  of 
England  divines  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  and  the 
early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  took  the  opposite 
side  to  the  Russells  in  the  great  controversies  of  the  day, 
and,  like  them,  suffered  severely  for  his  opinions. 

Born  at  the  Rectory  of  Milton-Keynes  and  educated  at 
Westminster,  he  had  a  brilliant  career  at  Christ  Church, 
and  became  one  of  the  foremost  preachers  and  con- 
troversialists of  the  High  Church  and  Tory  party.  Atter- 
bury was  a  great  favourite  with  both  the  Stuart  queens, 
Mary  and  Anne  ;  he  had  a  commanding  figure  and  a 
graceful  delivery.  He  became  Dean  of  Carlisle  and  of 
Christ  Church,  then  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  Dean  of 
Westminster;  he  was  a  champion  of  the  rights  of  the 


166          THE  WHIG  AND  TORY  MARTYRS 

clergy  in  convocation,  and  a  great  debater  and  orator  in 
the  House  of  Lords. 

He  officiated  at  the  coronation  of  George  I,  but  his 
heart  was  with  the  Stuarts  ;  and  in  1720  he  was  arrested 
and  accused  of  favouring  a  Jacobite  rising.  He  was 
condemned,  deprived  of  his  ecclesiastical  preferment,  and 
banished  in  a  very  arbitrary  manner,  and  in  1723  he  left 
England  never  to  return. 

He  wrote  to  Pope  from  the  Tower,  bravely  quoting  his 
friend's  fine  lines  : 4 

'  Some  natural  tears  he  dropped,  but  wiped  them  soon ; 
The  world  was  all  before  him  where  to  choose 
His  place  of  rest,  and  Providence  his  guide.' 

His  life  abroad  was  a  sad  one  James  was  a  master  diffi- 
cult to  serve ;  and,  less  happy  than  Lord  Russell,  Atterbury 
lost  a  wife  who  was  '  the  inspiration  of  his  youth  and  the 
solace  of  his  riper  years  '  in  the  very  crisis  of  his  troubles. 
He  died  in  France  in  1732,  and  was  privately  buried  in 
Westminster  Abbey. 

Bishop  Atterbury  was  an  enthusiast  when  art,  literature, 
and  theology  were  sinking  into  the  cold  correctness  of  the 
Georgian  period.  His  successor  at  Christ  Church  and 
Carlisle  said  of  him,  '  Atterbury  comes  first  and  sets  every- 
thing on  fire,  and  I  follow  him  with  a  bucket  of  water.' 4 
What  his  friend  said  in  jest  was  literally  true  of  his  political 
career :  the  Stuarts  managed  to  extinguish  every  effort 
made  to  reinstate  them  ;  it  was  a  hard  fate  for  so  clever 
a  man  and  so  devoted  a  Jacobite. 

There  were  a  few  families  in  Bucks  who  sympathized  with 
Atterbury's  opinions.  Thomas  Phillips,  of  Ickford,  lost 
a  property  in  the  county  under  his  grandfather's  will,  by 
his  devotion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  He  became 
a  Jesuit  for  a  time,  and  obtained  some  foreign  preferment 
through  the  influence  of  Prince  Charles  Edward.  He 
wrote  a  life  of  Cardinal  Pole,  famous  in  its  day ;  he  died 
at  Liege  in  1774.  [His  sister  Elizabeth  was  abbess  of  the 
Benedictine  nuns  at  Ghent. 

Another  notable  Jacobite  was  Mrs.  Jane  Symes,  one  of 
the  Andrewes  of  Lathbury,  who  had  acquired  the  manor  in 
1599.  Her  father  was  high  sheriff  in  1706,  and  a  friend  of 


LORD  RUSSELL  AND  BISHOP  ATTERBURY     167 

Browne  Willis.  As  a  young  girl,  her  presence  of  mind  had 
saved  their  Catholic  neighbour,  Sir  Robert  Throckmorton, 
from  arrest,  in  the  rebellion  of  1715.  Hearing  that  her 
father  was  required  to  search  Sir  Robert's  house  for 
arms,  she  ordered  his  carriage,  hurried  over  to  Weston 
Underwood,  persuaded  Sir  Robert  to  give  up  to  her  his 
arms  and  whatever  could  compromise  him,  and  concealed 
these  things  at  Lathbury  till  the  danger  was  overpast.  She 
left  the  county  for  some  years  as  the  wife  of  a  Somersetshire 
rector,  with  whose  views  in  later  life  she  disagreed ;  but 
she  had  returned  to  Bucks  on  the  death  of  Mr.  Andrewes. 
Mrs.  Symes  had  been  a  year  in  possession  of  Lathbury 
House^and  of  Lathbury  Bridge,  an  important  passage  of 
the  Oiise,  when  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  appeared  with 
his  army,  in  1745,  marching  against  Prince  Charlie.  The 
soldiers  wrere  quartered  in  the  church  and  in  the  town 
of  Newport  Pagnell,  the  surrounding  fields  were  full  of  their 
artillery  and  baggage.  The  Ouse  showed  Jacobite  sym- 
pathies, and  was  in  full  flood  ;  the  mistress  of  the  bridge 
had  locked  up  its  two  portals,  and  in  reply  to  the  fierce 
duke's  summons  she  sent  him  a  bold  message  that  she 
was  in  London  and  had  taken  the  keys  with  her.  The  duke 
tried  to  get  man,  woman,  or  child  to  declare  Lathbury 
House  was  held  by  Papists,  that  he  might  have  an  excuse 
to  blow  it  up.  But  Newport  Pagnell  would  not  inform 
against  an  old  neighbour.  His  soldiers  at  last  broke  open  the 
bridge  gates,  and  burnt  Mrs.  Symes's  trees,  hedges,  and 
cornfields  as  they  passed  through  her  domain  ;  but  she 
had  at  least  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  she  had  delayed 
the  British  army  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter  on  its  way  to 
quench  the  last  Jacobite  hope  in  the  blood  of  Culloden 
Moor. 

1  Froude's  Short  Studies.  2  Verney  Memoirs. 

3  Lady  Russell's  Letters.  4  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. 


168    THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER,  THE 
POETS  OF  SOUTH  BUCKS  AND  NORTH  BUCKS 

IN  Gray  and  Cowper  we  have  two  men,  both  amateurs 
of  poetry  rather  than  professional  poets,  neither  of  them 
a  native  of  Bucks,  but  both  finding  their  most  inspiring 
subjects  in  the  county ;  Gray  in  the  south,  at  Eton  and 
Stoke  Poges ;  Cowper  in  the  north,  at  Olney  and  Weston 
Underwood.  It  is  a  happy  combination,  of  which  any 
county  might  be  proud.  Their  poetry  was  absolutely 
different ;  Gray's  verse  was  as  restrained  and  compact  as 
Cowper's  was  diffuse  and  expansive.  Both  were  scholars 
and  lovers  of  nature,  content  to  study  and  describe  what 
was  actually  before  them  ;  wherein  they  differed  from  the 
highly  artificial  and  courtly  school  of  Pope  and  his  imitators. 
Gray  found  material  enough  for  his  immortal  elegy  in  the 
'  ivy-mantled  tower  '  of  a  village  church  and  its  graveyard  ; 
Cowper,  in  the  slow,  winding  river,  and  the  broad  street  of 
a  small  market-town. 

Thomas  Gray  was  born  in  London  in  1716,  and  was,  like 
Milton,  the  son  of  a  scrivener.  He  was  educated  at  Eton, 
and  in  his  '  Ode  to  Eton  College '  he  described,  in  after 
years,  with  the  affection  of  a  true  Etonian,  the  joys  of  the 
playing-fields,  and  the  river,  and  the  '  earnest  business  ' 
of  lessons  '  that  bring  constraint,  to  sweeten  liberty ' : 

'  The  thoughtless  day,  the  easy  night, 

The  spirits  pure,  the  slumbers  light 

That  fly  th'  approach  of  morn.' 

The  strenuous  games  of  cricket  and  football  were  shortly 
to  come  in,  but  the  Eton  of  Gray's  time  was  content  with 
marbles,  a  hoop,  and  a  ball,  as  he  puts  it  poetically  : 

'  To  chase  the  rolling  circle's  speed, 
Or  urge  the  flying  ball.' 

Gray  was  less  happy  at  Cambridge,  though  alive  to  all 
the  historical  interests  of  the  place.  His  fair  complexion 
and  refined,  fastidious  tastes  won  him  the  nickname  of 


POETS  OF  SOUTH  AND  NORTH  BUCKS   169 

'  Miss  Gray  '.    He  only  wished  to  learn  what  he  wanted  to 
know,  and  not  what  the  authorities  desired  to  teach  him. 

He  had  made  friends  with  Horace  Walpole  at  Eton,  and 
Walpole  invited  him  to  journey  with  him  as  his  companion 
through  France  and  Italy.  Their  characters  and  fortunes 
were  ill-matched,  and  they  had  a  difference  of  opinion  at 
Florence.  '  Part  they  did,'  is  Dr.  Johnson's  trenchant  com- 
ment, '  whatever  was  the  quarrel,  and  the  rest  of  their 
travels  was  doubtless  more  unpleasant  to  them  both.'  On 
Gray's  return  home  in  1741  he  lost  his  father,  who  had 
dissipated  his  fortune,  and  Gray,  who  never  cared  for 
money,  was  now  reduced  to  a  very  modest  income.  He 
was  much  at  Cambridge,  and  went  on  studying,  for  his  own 
satisfaction,  languages,  literature,  and  natural  history ; 
but  his  happiest  days  were  at  Stoke  Poges.  He  had  passed 
his  vacations  there,  as  an  undergraduate,  with  his  aunt, 
Mrs.  Rogers.  His  widowed  mother  now  settled  herself  at 
Stoke  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Antrobus,  at  West  End  Cottage, 
'  a  compact  box  of  red  brick,  with  sash  windows,'  Gray 
called  it,  and  it  was  here,  while  living  with  the  two  gentle 
ladies,  that  his  best  work  was  done.  Gray's  travelling 
companion  and  contemporary,  Horace  Walpole,  as  the  son 
of  a  great  Prime  Minister,  was  in  touch  with  all  the  fashion- 
able and  literary  people  of  the  day,  and  we  are  indebted 
to  him  for  an  intimate  knowledge  of  those  circles  during 
the  Georgian  era.  He  had  made  it  up  with  Gray,  whose 
writings  he  commended  to  his  many  genteel  friends.  Gray, 
on  his  side,  wrote  a  graceful  little  ode  on  the  death  of 
Walpole's  cat,  '  Drowned  in  a  Tub  of  Gold  Fishes.' 

About  1750,  the  'Elegy  in  a  Country  Churchyard'  was 
handed  about  in  manuscript,  and  brought  the  author  a 
pleasant  friendship  with  Lady  Cobham.  Not  far  from 
Stoke  Poges  Churchyard  stood  an  old  Elizabethan  manor- 
house,  beautiful  and  interesting  enough  to  inspire  any 
poet's  enthusiasm;  In  the  early  Middle  Ages  an  heiress, 
Amicia  de  Stoke,  had  carried  the  property  to  Robert  Poges, 
and  the  house  had  rolled  up  its  historical  memories  century 
after  century.  It  was  full  of  dark  turns  and  unexpected 
corners,  of 

'  Rich  windows  that  exclude  the  light 
And  passages  that  lead  to  nothing.' 


170    THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER 

The  Lord  Keeper,  Sir  Christopher  Hatton,  whose  dancing 
Queen  Elizabeth  so  much  admired,  had  owned  the  house 
and  led  the  revels  in  it : 

'  His  bushy  beard,  and  shoe-strings  green, 
His  high  crown' d  hat  and  satin  doublet, 
Moved  the  stout  heart  of  England's  Queen 
Though  Pope  and  Spaniard  could  not  trouble  it.' 

Another  owner  was  Sir  Edward  Coke,  Attorney-General, 
who  spent  at  Stoke  a  miserable  old  age,  '  alone  on  earth, 
suspected  by  his  king,  deserted  by  his  friends,  and  detested 
by  his  wife.'  Here  Charles  I  had  been  brought  as  a  prisoner 
in  1647,  and  at  this  door  William  III  had  been  refused 
admittance  by  its  stanch  Jacobite  owner,  Robert  Gayer. 
This  wonderful  house  was  in  possession  of  Viscountess 
Cobham,  who,  having  read  the  Elegy  written  by  her  near 
neighbour  at  the  Cottage,  earnestly  desired  to  make  his 
acquaintance.  Two  ladies  who  were  her  guests  went  out 
to  find  him,  and  the  poet  wrote  a  delightfully  whimsical 
account  of  it  all  in  the  '  Long  Story '.  In  a  mock-heroic 
style  he  sketches  the  old  house,  with  the  portraits  of 
the  old  '  Lady  Janes  and  Joans '  looking  down  from  the 
gallery 

'  In  peaked  hoods,  and  mantles  tarnished, 
Sour  visages  enough  to  scare  ye, 
High  dames  of  honour  once  that  garnished 
The  drawing-room  of  fierce  Queen  Mary.' 

He  tells  how  '  a  wicked  imp  they  call  a  poet '  was  hunted 
down,  caught,  and  dragged  into  the  lady's  presence  ;  how 
he  protested  he  was  neither  a  poacher  nor  a  rifler  of  hen- 
roost or  dairy  ;  and  then  comes  the  pleasant  climax  : 

'  My  Lady  rose,  and  with  a  grace 
She  smiled,  and  bid  him  come  to  dinner.' 

The  instant  success  of  the  Elegy  justified  Lady  Cobham's 
discernment ;  it  ran  through  eleven  editions,  and  in  1757 
Gray  was  offered,  and  declined,  the  post  of  Poet  Laureate. 
In  1768  he  was  made  Professor  of  Languages  and  History 
at  Cambridge,  an  unsolicited  honour  he  greatly  appreciated, 
though  failing  health  constantly  interfered  with  his  duties. 


POETS  OF  SOUTH  AND  NORTH  BUCKS   171 

He  had  by  this  time  lost  the  two  who  made  his  home  ; 
he  described  Dorothy  Gray  in  her  epitaph  as  '  the  careful, 
tender  mother  of  many  children,  of  whom  one  alone  has 
the  misfortune  to  survive  her  '. 

In  striking  contrast  to  Gray's  quiet,  studious  life,  Horace 
Walpole  was  laboriously  playing  at  being  young  and 
sprightly  in  another  part  of  the  county.  In  June  1770 
Walpole  met  the  Princess  Amelia,  daughter  of  George  II, 
at  Stowe,  where  she  was  being  entertained  by  Earl  Temple, 
and  wrote  a  lively  account  of  it.  '  A  Princess  at  the  head 
of  a  small  set  for  five  days  together  did  not  promise 
well.  However,  she  was  very  good-humoured  and  easy, 
Lady  Temple  is  good-nature  itself,  my  Lord  was  very  civil 
.  .  .  and  I  happened  to  be  in  such  good  spirits  and  took 
such  care  to  avoid  politics,  that  we  laughed  a  good  deal.' 
Walpole  describes  the  long-drawn-out  meals  (Princess 
Amelia  had  the  vast  family  appetite) ;  the  fishing  in  the 
park,  the  walks  in  the  stately  gardens,  with  visits  to 
the  Temple  of  Friendship,  the  Temple  of  Janus,  and  to  the 
Doric  Arch  which  Lord  Temple  had  built  in  memory  of 
a  former  visit  of  the  princess's,  with  her  name  on  one  side 
and  a  medallion  portrait  on  the  other.  He  describes  the 
beautiful  landscape  seen  through  it,  and  '  the  over-bowering 
trees  '.  '  Between  the  flattery  and  the  prospect,  the  Princess 
was  really  in  Elysium ;  she  visited  her  arch  4  or  5  times 
a  day  and  could  not  satiate  herself  with  it.'  He  winds  up 
with  the  account  of  a  very  characteristic  evening  party,  in 
which  the  thickets  and  lake  at  Stowe  were  lit  up  to  imitate 
the  famous  gardens  of  Vauxhall.  '  With  a  little  exaggera- 
tion I  could  make  you  believe  that  nothing  was  so  delight- 
ful...  but  the  evening  was  more  than  cool,  and  the  destined 
spot  anything  but  dry.  There  were  not  half  lamps  enough 
and  no  music  but  an  ancient  militia-man,  who  played 
cruelly  on  a  squeaking  tabor  and  pipe.  As  our  procession 
descended  the  vast  flight  of  steps  into  the  garden,  in  which 
was  assembled  a  crowd  of  people  from  Buckingham  and 
the  villages,  to  see  the  Princess  and  the  show,  the  moon 
shining  very  bright,  I  could  not  help  laughing  as  I  surveyed 
our  troop,  which,  instead  of  tripping  lightly  to  such  an 
Arcadian  entertainment,  were  hobbling  down  by  the 
balustrades  wrapped  up  in  cloaks  and  great  coats  for  fear 


172    THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER 

of  catching  cold.  The  Earl  you  know  is  bent  double,  the 
Countess  very  lame  ;  I  am  a  miserable  walker,  and  the 
Princess,  though  as  strong  as  a  Brunswick  lion,  makes  no 
figure  going  down  fifty  steps.  Except  Lady  Anne,  and  by 
courtesy  Lady  Mary,  we  were  none  of  us  young  enough  for 
a  pastoral.' 

In  the  church  at  Upton,  which  has  disputed  with  Stoke 
Poges  the  honour  of  being  the  original  scene  of  Gray's  Elegy, 
is  the  tombstone  of  an  old  Bucks  lady — '  Sarah  Bramstone 
of  Eton,  Spinster,  a  person  who  dared  to  be  just  in  the 
reign  of  George  II.'  Imagination  falters  before  the  figure 
of  this  maiden  lady  writing  her  own  epitaph,  wrapped 
round  with  the  cardinal  virtues.  But  when  we  realize  the 
artificial  standards  that  prevailed  in  life  and  art,  we  may 
be  thankful  that  Gray  dared  to  be  simple  '  in  the  reign  of 
George  II '.  He  lived  on  into  that  of  George  III,  and  died 
in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  in  1771.  He  was  buried  at 
Stoke  Poges  beside  his  mother. 

Gray's  old  house  is  now  called  Stoke  Court,  and  is  the 
home  of  Mr.  Henry  Allhusen,  who  has  kindly  given  the 
following  information  :  The  present  house  consists  of  West 
End  Cottage,  with  additions  made  by  Mr.  John  Penn  in 
1840,  Mr.  Darby  in  1860,  and  by  the  grandfather  of  the 
present  owner  in  1871.  Through  all  these  changes  many 
of  the  old  rooms  preserve  their  original  shape,  and  tradition 
points  to  one  as  the  poet's  own  room.  An  avenue  of  trees 
along  '  Gray's  Walk '  leads  to  an  old  summer-house  on  rising 
ground,  whence  he  could  see  the  '  distant  prospect  of  Eton 
College '. 

The  Manor  House  of  the  '  Long  Story '  is  now  in  the 
hands  of  a  new  owner,  who  is  once  more  building  it  up. 
A  sort  of  vestibule  or  short  cloister  remains  on  the  north 
side  of  the  church,  by  which  the  former  owners  of  the 
manor  had  private  access  to  their  great  pew.  At  the  death 
of  Lady  Cobham,  in  1760,  the  house  was  sold  to  Thomas 
Penn,  second  son  of  William  Penn  of  Pennsylvania.  His 
son  John  pulled  down  the  greater  part  of  it,  and  Wyatt 
erected  for  him  a  pretentious  classical  house,  known  as 
Stoke  Park,  and  now  used  as  a  golf  club.  Quaint  stories 
are  told  of  John  Penn,  a  confirmed  bachelor,  whose  dislike 
of  women  was  such,  that  his  attached  old  housekeeper  took 


his  orders  standing  behind  his  back,  where  he  could  not 
see  her. 

He  had  at  least  a  real  love  for  Gray,  and  put  up,  with 
the  best  intentions,  a  huge  '  tea-caddy  '  sarcophagus  to  his 
memory.  The  lovely  meadow  outside  the  churchyard,  in 
which  it  stands,  recalls  a  verse  that  has  somehow  dropped 
out  at  the  end  of  Gray's  Elegy : 

'  There  scattered  oft,  the  earliest  of  the  year 
By  hands  unseen,  are  showers  of  violets  found, 
The  red-breast  loves  to  build  and  warble  here 
And  little  footsteps  lightly  print  the  ground.' 

We  turn  to  his  younger  contemporary,  the  poet  of  North 
Bucks,  and  find  the  two  men,  with  great  differences  of 
temperament,  had  many  tastes  in  common. 

William  Cowper  was  the  eldest  son  of  the  Rector  of 
Berkhamstead,  Dr.  John  Cowper,  chaplain  to  George  II. 
His  mother  was  Anne  Donne,  a  descendant  of  the  poet  and 
divine,  who  was  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 
Born  in  1731,  over  the  border  in  Hertfordshire,  the  chief 
work  of  his  life  was  done  in  North  Bucks,  and  his  name 
will  always  be  connected  with  Olney.  He  was  a  lovable, 
shy,  and  delicate  child,  and  his  very  happy  home  was  broken 
up  by  the  death  of  his  mother  before  he  was  six  years  old. 

Fifty  years  afterwards  he  was  given  her  picture,  and  the 
sight  of  his  mother's  sweet  face  brought  back  to  him  most 
vividly  the  unforgotten  incidents  of  his  childhood  at  the 
Rectory.  The  scarlet  cloak  in  which  the  gardener  Robin 
drew  him  to  school  along  the  public  way  ;  the  visits  his 
mother  paid  him  after  he  had  been  tucked  up  in  bed  ;  her 
smile,  her  kisses,  the  pretty  embroidery  she  used  to  make  ; 
and  then  the  desolate  day  of  her  funeral.  He  remembered 
how  he  watched  the  black  procession, 

4  And  turning  from  my  nursery  window  drew 
A  long  long  sigh  and  breathed  a  last  adieu ' ; 

how  the  maids  promised  that  his  mother  would  soon  return, 
and  how  he  went  on  hoping  and  being  disappointed — 

'  Till  all  my  stock  of  infant  sorrow  spent 
I  learnt  at  last  submission  to  my  lot, 
And  though  I  less  deplored  thee,  ne'er  forgot.' 


Cowper's  '  Lines  on  his  Mother's  Picture '  all  English 
children  should  know  and  love. 

After  an  unhappy  time  at  a  private  boarding-school,  he 
went  to  Westminster,  to  which  many  members  of  Parlia- 
ment sent  their  sons,  and  where  he  made  friends  witli  men 
who  were  afterwards  famous  and  in  great  positions.  He 
played  in  the  shadow  of  the  Abbey,  and  was  good  at  the 
new  games  of  cricket  and  football.  A  harmless,  gentle  boy, 
he  was  well  liked,  but  no  one  suspected  that  Cowper's 
name  would  be  remembered  when  his  brilliant  school- 
fellows were  almost  all  forgotten. 

After  this  he  worked  hi  a  lawyer's  office,  but  he  had 
neither  good  health,  good  spirits,  nor  any  steady  industry 
to  make  dull  work  tolerable.  His  brightest  hours  were 
spent  at  the  house  of  his  uncle,  Ashley  Cowper,  with  his 
charming  cousins,  Harriet  and  Theodora,  who  were  merry 
girls,  and  very  good  to  him.  When  his  apprenticeship  was 
over  he  did  not  make  money  enough  to  support  himself  at 
the  Bar ;  he  was  thriftless  and  listless,  and  tormented  by 
gloomy  thoughts  and  bilious  attacks. 

Suddenly  into  this  aimless  existence  fell  a  piece  of  good 
fortune — Cowper  was  offered,  by  a  relation,  the  place  of 
Clerk  to  the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords.  It  was  work 
to  suit  him,  and  well  paid,  but  Cowper's  happiness  in  the 
prospect  was  at  once  dashed  to  the  ground,  when  he  heard 
that  he  '  was  bid  to  expect  an  examination  at  the  bar  of 
the  House,  touching  his  sufficiency  for  the  post  he  had 
taken '.  He  worked  himself  up  into  such  an  agony  of 
nervous  terror,  increased  by  the  feeling  of  the  ingratitude 
he  was  showing  to  the  man  who  had  appointed  him,  that 
his  mind  gave  way ;  he  attempted  suicide,  then  had  a 
dreadful  time  of  self  -reproach  and  of  religious  depression. 

His  friends  naturally  thought  that  he  had  missed  the 
chance  of  his  lifetime,  and  that  he  would  never  be  more 
than  a  hopeless  and  useless  invalid ;  but  they  were  mistaken. 
Cowper  '  did  more  than  get  well ' — his  outlook  on  life  was 
changed,  a  deep  religious  faith  '  took  the  place  of  his 
anguish  and  despair  '.1  He  left  London  for  Huntingdon, 
and  there  made  the  friendship  with  the  Unwin  family, 
which  had  the  most  blessed  influence  on  his  future.  Mrs, 
Unwin  was  a  calm,  strong  character,  well  read,  delightful 


WILLIAM  COWPEB 

From  the  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery  attributed 
to  Romney 


POETS  OF  SOUTH  AND  NORTH  BUCKS   177 

in  conversation,  and,  as  Cowper  said,  '  more  polite  than 
a  duchess.'  She  was  mother  and  friend  to  the  gentle,  much- 
tried  soul,  '  from  whom  she  wanted  nothing  but  the  tran- 
quil companionship  which  was  his  happiness.'1  After 
Mr.  Unwin's  death '  the  widow  and  her  harmless  lodger '  went 
to  Olney  to  be  near  the  Rev.  John  Newton,  '  a  man  of 
strong  character  and  ceaseless  activity,  whose  own  life  had 
gone  through  all  sorts  of  violent  changes,  and  who  was  now 
preaching  and  teaching  among  the  lace-makers  and  straw- 
plaiters  of  North  Bucks.'  Cowper  became  a  kind  of  lay- 
curate  to  Newton,  visiting  the  sick  and  dying,  conducting 
prayer-meetings,  writing  for  Newton's  collection  of  Olney 
Hymns,  and  wearing  himself  out  in  the  most  exhausting 
work.  He  loved  the  poor  and  was  a  comforter  of  many, 
but  his  health  broke  down  again,  and  only  Mrs.  Unwin's 
devoted  nursing  restored  him  to  life  and  reason.  After 
this  Cowper  recognized  the  need  of  a  quiet  routine.  He 
lived  out  of  doors,  gardening,  keeping  tame  animals, 
carpentering,  taking  long  walks,  enjoying  the  meadows  and 
trees  and  the  lazy  meandering  Ouse.  Mrs.  Unwin,  on  the 
look  out  for  anything  to  occupy  her  invalid,  encouaged 
him  to  write  poetry.  But  it  was  a  livelier  influence,  that 
of  Lady  Austen,  a  widow  who  came  to  live  in  Olney,  which 
first  stirred  the  poet  of  fifty  to  put  forth  his  real  powers  of 
wit  and  wisdom.  Lady  Austen  told  him  the  story  of  John 
Gilpin's  ride,  and  he  wrote  in  one  night  the  poem  that 
made  all  England  shake  with  laughter.  She  commanded 
him  to  write  about  her  sofa,  and  in  '  The  Task '  he  gave 
the  most  charming  description  of  an  English  home  at  tea- 
time,  the  curtains  drawn,  the  bubbling  urn,  the  pleasant 
familiar  talk  of  the  family.  '  Up  to  this  time  no  one  had 
ventured  to  make  the  fireside  heroic,  or  set  it  in  front  of  all 
that  is  happy  and  beautiful.' l 

Cowper  woke  up  to  find  himself  famous  on  the  publica- 
tion of  '  The  Task '.  Letters  poured  in  from  old  friends 
and  schoolfellows,  and  from  new  readers  delighting  in  his 
poems. 

This  sympathy  was  very  good  for  him,  and  in  an  unusual 
burst  of  high  spirits  he  wrote  :  '  It  is  a  noble  thing  to  be 
a  poet ;  it  makes  all  the  world  so  lively.  I  might  have 
preached  more  sermons  than  even  Tillotson  did,  and  better, 

986-4  M 


178    THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER 

and  the  world  would  have  been  still  fast  asleep  ;  but 
a  volume  of  verse  is  a  fiddle  that  puts  the  universe  in 
motion.' 

His  love  of  Nature,  his  sympathy  with  the  people,  his 
happiness  in  small  pleasures,  and  the  trouble  he  took  in 
his  poems  to  share  these  with  others,  and  to  illustrate  the 
beauty  of  common  things,  made  a  new  departure  in  English 
literature.  It  was  a  saying  of  his,  '  that  a  letter  may  be 
written  upon  anything  or  nothing  just  as  that  anything 
or  nothing  may  occur.' 

Whether  he  described  the  postman  blowing  his  horn, 
and  clattering  with  his  muddy  horse  up  the  long  street 
of  Olney  ;  or  the  pious  old  woman  working  at  her  lace- 
pillow  ;  or  just  his  usual  winter  walk,  he  was  studying 
from  Nature.  '  He  saw  with  eyes  as  clear  as  truth  itself 
what  was  before  him  in  the  soft,  fresh,  outside  world  ...  he 
was  bold  to  say  what  was  in  him,  and  to  say  it  in  his 
own  way.' 

Another  woman,  Harriet,  Lady  Hesketh,  one  of  the 
cousins  who  had  made  merry  with  him  as  a  youth,  greatly 
cheered  his  later  years.  She  removed  the  poet  and  Mrs. 
Unwin  from  Olney  to  a  better  house  in  the  adjacent  parish 
of  Weston  Underwood  belonging  to  Mr.  Throckmorton, 
where  for  a  time  he  was  very  happy,  '  near  to  our  most 
agreeable  landlord,  and  his  agreeable  pleasure  grounds.' 
'  I  am  going  to  tell  you  a  secret,'  he  wrote  thence  to  Lady 
Hesketh,  '  a  great  secret,  that  you  must  not  whisper  even 
to  your  cat.  I  am  making  a  new  translation  of  Homer.' 
This  was  his  task  at  Weston,  but  it  was  much  less  con- 
genial to  him  than  his  own  local  subjects,  and  took  up  all 
his  leisure.  '  He  who  has  Homer  to  transcribe,'  he  writes 
in  a  mock-heroic  vein,  '  may  well  be  contented  to  do  little 
else.  As  when  an  ass  being  harnessed  with  ropes  to  a 
sand-cart,  drags  with  hanging  ears  his  heavy  burthen, 
neither  filling  the  long  echoing  streets  with  his  harmonious 
bray,  nor  throwing  up  his  heels  behind,  frolicsome  and 
airy,  as  asses  less  engaged  are  wont  to  do — so  I  seldom 
allow  myself  those  pretty  little  vagaries,  of  which  I  intend 
hereafter  to  enjoy  my  fill.' 

Shy  and  nervous  as  he  was,  Cowper  kept  in  touch  with 
public  events  in  his  retirement,  and  the  influence  of  his 


POETS  OF  SOUTH  AND  NORTH  BUCKS   179 

writings  was  considerable.  His  advocacy  was  sought  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  or  when  any  oppression  was  to 
be  brought  to  light.  His  description  of  the  Bastille  was 
quoted  by  Fox  in  Parliament ;  he  had  a  passionate  love 
of  liberty,  religious,  political,  and  personal,  and  his  defini- 
tion of  the  relations  between  the  King  of  England  and  his 
subjects  is  admirable  for  its  good  sense  and  balance  : — 

'  We  love 

The  King,  who  loves  the  law,  respects  his  bounds, 
And  reigns  content  within  them  :    him  we  serve 
Freely  and  with  delight,  who  leaves  us  free  : 
T'  administer,  to  guard,  t'  adorn  the  state 
But  not  to  warp  or  change  it.     We  are  his 
To  serve  him  nobly  in  the  common  cause, 
True  to  the  death,  but  not  to  be  his  slaves.' 

His  wide  sympathies  made  him  an  earnest  friend  of 
peace,  and  his  are  the  famous  lines  : — 

'  But  War 's  a  game,  which  were  their  subjects  wise 
Kings  would  not  play  at.' 

Gray,  in  his  reflections  on  the  life  and  death  of  the  Bucks 
labourers,  perceived  how  much  power  and  genius  ran  to 
waste  for  lack  of  education  and  opportunity  : — 

'  Hands  that  the  rod  of  empire  might  have  sway'd 
Or  waked  to  ecstasy  the  living  lyre  ; ' 

but  he  also  saw  their  '  homely  joys  '  and  compensations, 
and  expected  men's  '  sober  wishes  '  never  to  soar  above 
their  '  destiny  obscure  '.  Cowper's  generation  had  been 
shown  by  the  stern  lessons  of  the  French  Revolution,  that 
the  toilers  might  not  for  ever  submit  to  drudgery,  hunger, 
and  ignorance,  but  might  claim — and  with  violence — a  share 
in  the  higher  inheritance  of  the  race. 

During  Cowper's  lifetime,  two  working-men  in  Bucks 
managed  to  rise  above  their  circumstances  ;  education 
would  have  helped  to  discipline  the  spasmodic  energies  of 
the  one,  and  to  smooth  the  needlessly  arduous  path  of  the 
other. 

James  Andrews  (1734-1817)  was  a  stonecutter  at  Olney, 
fashioning  such  old  gravestones  '  with  uncouth  rhymes, 

M  2 


180    THOMAS  GRAY  AND  WILLIAM  COWPER 

and  shapeless  sculpture  decked ',  as  Gray  was  fond  of 
deciphering  in  his  country  churchyard.  But  tiring  of 
cherubs'  heads,  scythes,  and  hour-glasses,  Andrews  took  up 
wood-carving  and  wood-engraving,  with  much  success.2 
From  a  log  of  wood  of  '  Shakespeare's  Mulberry  Tree  '  he 
sculptured  a  bust  of  the  poet,  esteemed  '  no  mean  like- 
ness ' 2 ;  he  painted  pictures  or  made  a  pair  of  boots  with 
equal  facility.  He  then  turned  his  attention  to  making 
musical  instruments,  telescopes,  and  microscopes,  even 
learning  to  polish  the  lenses.  Andrews  carried  on  his 
experiments  to  the  age  of  83. 

George  Anderson  of  Weston  Turville  (1760-1796),  whose 
intense  concentration  of  mind  was  a  striking  contrast  to 
Andrews'  versatility,  was  born  in  '  chill  penury's '  lowest 
grade.  Losing  his  father,  he  went  out  to  field  work  as 
a  child,  with  only  such  a  smattering  of  elementary  arithmetic 
as  an  elder  brother  contrived  to  give  him.2  A  born  mathe- 
matician, he  thought  in  figures  during  his  working  hours, 
and  scraped  together  such  knowledge  as  he  could  get  in 
his  scanty  leisure.  At  seventeen  he  saw  some  problems 
set  in  the  London  Magazine,  solved  them,  and  sent  the 
answers  with  his  village  address.  This  led  to  the  discovery 
of  his  genius  :  he  was  found  threshing  in  a  barn,  whose 
walls  were  covered  with  triangles  and  parallelograms. 

He  was  too  shy  to  wish  for  notice,  but  Dr.  King,  Vicar 
of  Whitchurch,  insisted  upon  sending  him  to  Oxford,  where 
he  took  his  M.A.  degree  at  Wadham  College.  After  this, 
Dr.  King's  brother-in-law,  Scrope  Bernard,  Esq.,  M.P.,  had 
him  up  to  London  ;  he  found  work  in  the  India  Board  of 
Control,  and  by  his  remarkable  talent  and  industry  rose 
to  be  their  Accountant-General.  While  preparing  the  com- 
plicated accounts  for  the  Indian  budget  of  1796,  Anderson 
was  seized  with  sudden  illness  and  died,  aged  thirty-six. 

Four  years  later  the  Poet  of  Olney  was  taken. 

On  the  horizon  of  Cowper's  life  the  clouds  had  gathered 
again.  Mrs.  Unwin  died,  and  he  sank  into  silence  and 
melancholy  till  death  released  him  in  1800  ;  but  the  gentle 
spirit  had  given  its  message  to  the  world,  and  that  endures. 

1  Mrs.  Oliphant,  Literary  History  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
1  Gough  MSS. 


'  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING '  181 

CHAPTER  XX 

'  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING ' 

WHEN  the  young  King  George  III  came  to  the  throne  the 
long  duel  with  France  for  supremacy  in  the  East  and  West  was 
coming  to  a  victorious  end.  India  was  ours,  and  Canada ; 
and  it  was  at  Clieveden  in  Bucks,  then  the  house  of  his 
father,  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  that  Dr.  Arne's  famous 
patriotic  song  '  Rule  Britannia  '  was  first  heard  in  public  in 
1763,  when  the  nation  was  proud  of  all  these  conquests. 
During  the  first  part  of  the  reign  the  attention  of  England 
was  engrossed  with  constitutional  questions  at  home,  until 
France  again  rudely  challenged  Britannia's  right  to  rule  the 
waves,  and  the  protracted  struggle  began  again  which  only 
ended  at  Waterloo.  Through  these  sixty  eventful  years 
King  George,  with  all  his  mistakes,  never  lost  the  affection 
of  his  people. 

His  moderate  abilities  had  received  only  the  narrowest 
education,  and  he  ascended  the  throne  with  lofty  ideas  of 
what  was  due  to  the  Patriot  King.  Though  his  home  life 
was  a  model  of  simplicity  and  he  was  content  himself  to 
sup  off  water-gruel,  he  lavished  immense  sums  in  controlling 
elections  and  corrupting  members,  till  he  had  formed  in 
Parliament  a  mercenary  party,  known  as  the  King's 
Friends,  '  as  if  (as  was  said  at  the  time)  the  body  of  the 
people  were  the  King's  Enemies.' 

George  III  and  Queen  Charlotte  were  always  kind  to  the 
Eton  boys,  and  his  birthday,  the  4th  of  June,  continues  to 
be  their  Speech  Day.  Their  good-natured,  homely  figures 
were  well  known  in  that  neighbourhood  ;  and  at  Stowe  the 
Queen's  Temple  was  built  in  Queen  Charlotte's  honour.  As 
Thackeray  puts  it — '  Rain  or  shine  the  king  rode  every  day 
for  hours,  poked  his  kindly  red  face  into  hundreds  of 
cottages  round  about,  and  showed  that  shovel-hat  and 
Windsor  uniform  to  farmers,  to  pig-boys,  to  old  women 
making  apple-dumplings,  to  all  sorts  of  people,  gentle  and 
simple.  Our  fathers  read  of  these  things  with  pleasure, 
laughed  at  the  king's  small  jokes ;  liked  the  old  man  who 


182  'WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING' 

lived  on  plain  roast  and  boiled ;  who  despised  your  French 
kickshaws ;  who  was  a  true  hearty  old  English  gentleman.' l 

Lord  Rosebery,  in  his  lecture  on  the  Political  Aspect  of 
Buckinghamshire,  has  given  us  a  splendid  picture  of  the 
part  played  by  the  county  in  the  political  drama.  '  The 
great  epoch  of  Bucks,'  says  Lord  Rosebery,  '  was  the 
eighteenth  century.  ...  I  claim  for  Bucks  that  she  is  the 
most  famous  of  English  counties  in  the  field  of  politics 
during  that  period.  .  .  .  It  is,  I  think,  safe  to  say  that  there 
were  more  political  combinations  hatched  in  Bucks  during 
the  eighteenth  century  than  in  all  the  rest  of  England, 
except  London  and  Bath.  Why  was  this  ?  The  reason 
seems  to  lie  in  the  Palace  of  Stowe  and  its  inhabitants — 
Lord  Cobham  and  the  great  house  of  Grenville.  .  .  .  Stowe 
and  the  Temples  and  the  Grenvilles  represent  a  race  rooted 
in  the  county  for  centuries,  a  race  which  long  controlled 
the  county,  and  at  one  time  threatened  to  absorb  it.  This 
political  power  began  under  the  fostering  influence  of  Lord 
Cobham,  who  was  not  only  a  politician  but  a  field-marshal, 
and  at  Stowe  were  gathered  that  remarkable  group  known 
as  the  Cobham  Cousins,  Grenvilles,  Lytteltons,  and  Pitts. . . . 
This  powerful  combination  composed  of  one  man  of  genius 
and  several  men  of  ability,  all  more  or  less  impracticable, 
might  have  governed  the  country  for  a  generation  had  they 
only  been  able  to  agree.  That,  however,  was  obviously  out 
of  the  question  ;  and  the  Temple  of  Friendship  reared  by 
Lord  Cobham  to  contain  the  busts  of  his  friends  had,  long 
before  it  was  finished,  survived  its  purpose  and  meaning. 
But  it  was  not  one  group  of  men  that  embodied  the  political 
power  of  the  dynasty  of  Stowe,  for  it  continued  through 
long  generations.  There  was  the  generation  of  Lord 
Cobham,  then  that  of  Temple,  George  Grenville,  and  Pitt, 
brothers  and  brothers-in-law,  constantly  at  variance,  con- 
stantly endeavouring  to  patch  up  a  formidable  and  fraternal 
peace.'  2 

The  great  Grenville  epoch  of  the  history  of  England 
lasted  for  more  than  a  century — '  during  the  whole  of  that 
time  there  had  been  a  Grenville  finger  in  every  political  pie. 
During  the  whole  of  that  time  Stowe  had  been  a  political 
fortress  or  ambuscade,  watched  vigilantly  by  every  political 
party  ;  the  influence  of  Stowe  had  been  one  which  the  most 


'WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING'  183 

powerful  minister  could  not  afford  to  ignore  ;  and  the 
owner  of  Stowe  had  been  the  hereditary  chief  of  a  political 
group.  Tons  of  correspondence  survive  to  show  the  activity 
and  power  of  that  combination. 

And  the  temple  in  which  all  this  power  was  concentrated 
was  worthy  of  its  trust.  Its  magnificent  avenue,  its  stately 
but  not  overwhelming  proportions,  its  princely  rooms  of 
reception,  its  gardens,  its  grottoes,  its  shrines,  still  breathe 
the  perfume  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  its  superb 
saloons  we  seem  to  expect  brocades  and  periwigs  and 
courtly  swords ;  we  seem  to  see  the  long  procession  of 
illustrious  ghosts  that  in  life  were  the  favoured  guests  of 
the  house — Pope,  and  Thomson,  and  Glover,  Vanbrugh  and 
Chesterfield,  Pitt  plighting  his  troth  to  his  Hester,  Horace 
Walpole,  and  a  world  of  princes — an  unrivalled  succession 
of  curious  and  admiring  visitors  from  all  parts  of  England 
and  Europe.  The  house  has  lost  its  priceless  collections,  but 
no  atom  of  its  unpurchasable  charm.  Bare,  but  still  beauti- 
ful, Stowe  remains  the  central  glory  of  Buckinghamshire.' 2 

George  Grenville  (the  second  son  of  Richard  Grenville, 
of  Wotton,  and  Hester  Temple,  the  heiress  of  Stowe),  M.P. 
for  Buckingham,  succeeded  Lord  Bute  as  Prime  Minister 
in  1763  ;  he  was  an  able  financier  and  administrator,  and 
at  once  devoted  himself  to  the  task  of  devising  fresh  taxes, 
among  others  the  famous  Stamp  Act,  the  first  beginning 
of  trouble  with  our  American  colonies. 

Lord  Shelburne,  afterwards  Marquess  of  Lansdowne,  who 
lived  just  outside  the  town  of  Wycombe,  was  a  famous 
politician  in  the  opposite  camp.  He  advocated  conciliation 
of  the  American  colonists,  but  he  was  distrusted  by  his  col- 
leagues, and  hated  by  George  III ;  he  was  Prime  Minister  for 
a  short  time  in  1783.  He  was  a  cultivated  man  and  a  patron 
of  literature  and  art.  Dr.  Johnson  used  to  stay  with  him. 
Lord  Shelburne  has  left  an  amusing  account  of  the  political 
anxiety  that  Wycombe  gave  him.  '  Family  boroughs,'  he 
said,  '  cost  much,  by  what  I  call  insensible  perspiration  .  .  . 
it  consists  in  paying  a  little,  commonly  a  great  deal  too 
much,  on  every  article  .  .  .  the  rents  of  houses  and  lands 
must  be  governed  by  the  moderation  of  voters.  You  must 
be  forthcoming  on  every  occasion  not  only  of  distress  but 
of  fancy,  to  subscribe  too  largely  to  roads  ;  to  get  livings 


184          '  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING  ' 

and  favours  of  all  sorts  from  Government,  without  mention- 
ing a  great  deal  of  obscure  hospitality,  and  a  never-ceasing 
management  of  men  and  things.  And  after  all,  when  the 
crisis  comes,  you  are  liable  to  be  outbid  by  any  nabob  or 
adventurer.  What  can  you  say  to  a  blacksmith  who  has  seven 
children,  or  to  a  common  labouring-man  who  is  offered 
£700  for  his  vote,  or  two  misers  who  are  offered  £2,000, 
which  are  instances  distinctly  on  record  at  Wycombe  ? ' 

Lord  Shelburne's  house,  then  known  as  Loakes  Manor, 
was  sold  in  1790  to  Lord  Carrington,  who  often  received 
William  Pitt  there.  The  house  was  rebuilt  and  called 
Wycombe  Abbey.  About  1896  it  was  sold  by  the  present 
Earl  Carrington,  the  grandson  of  Shelburne's  friend,  to  the 
Girls'  Education  Co.,  and  under  its  famous  head  mistress, 
Miss  J.  F.  Dove,  M.A.,  the  school  has  led  the  way  in  the 
Higher  Education  of  Girls.  Three  prime  ministers,  besides 
Pitt,  have  stayed  at  Wycombe  Abbey  ;  Disraeli  in  1848, 
Gladstone  in  1876,  and  the  Earl  of  Rosebery  in  1884. 

The  leader  of  the  Whig  opposition  in  North  Bucks  was 
Ralph  Verney,  of  Claydon,  Earl  Verney  in  the  Peerage  of 
Ireland.  His  family  had  a  long  political  connexion  with 
the  county,  and  he  fought  many  bitterly  contested  elections 
against  the  Grenvilles.  He  early  recognized  Edmund 
Burke's  ability,  and  gave  him  his  first  seat  in  Parliament 
for  Wendover,  as  he  had  already  given  William  Burke  a  seat 
at  Great  Bed  win.  A  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  he  took 
much  interest  in  the  scientific  improvement  of  agriculture, 
and  Burke  wrote  that  no  man  in  England  had  been  '  so 
indulgent,  humane,  and  moderate  a  landlord  on  an  estate 
of  considerable  extent  or  a  greater  protector  to  all  the 
poor  within  his  reach  '.  Lord  Verney  was  a  man  of  artistic 
taste  and  generous  instincts  ;  he  lent  lavishly  to  his  friends, 
and  began  to  rebuild  Claydon  House  on  a  magnificent  scale 
from  the  designs  of  Adam.  '  Three  beautiful  rooms  and 
a  broad  marqueterie  staircase  remain,  but  his  niece  and 
successor  pulled  down  the  rest  of  the  new  wing,  unfinished 
at  his  death.' 

Many  stories  are  told  of  his  hospitalities  and  extrava- 
gances ;  of  his  patronage  of  literature  ;  of  his  black 
servants  with  silver  trumpets  ;  of  his  debts  and  losses  ;  and 
in  1784  the  attention  of  the  whole  country  was  fixed  upon 


GEORGE  GRENVILLE 
From  the  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


'  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING '  187 

the  Bucks  election  contest  between  Stowe  and  Clay  don. 
Cowper,  in  his  '  snug  parlour '  at  Olney,  described  in  one 
of  his  charming  letters  how  he  was  canvassed  by  the  Tory 
candidate  ;  how  '  a  mob  appeared  before  the  window, 
a  smart  rap  was  heard  at  the  door,  the  boys  hallo'd,  and  the 
maid  announced  Mr.  Grenville  '.  How  Cowper  assured  him 
that  he  had  no  vote,  and  Mr.  Grenville  civilly  replied  that 
he  had  a  great  deal  of  influence  ;  how  in  a  moment  the  yard, 
the  kitchen,  and  the  parlour  were  filled  with  people  ;  how 
they  frightened  Puss,  the  tame  hare  ;  how  relieved  the 
poet  felt  when  '  the  hero,  with  his  long  train  of  obsequious 
followers  withdrew  ',  although  he  was  allowed  to  be  '  very 
young,  genteel,  and  handsome  '.  The  polling  lasted  sixteen 
days  and  Verney  was  defeated  by  twenty -four  votes.  After 
this  came  a  financial  crash,  but  while  his  trustees  and 
lawyers  were  anxiously  considering  how  small  a  pittance 
their  magnificent  client  could  live  upon,  another  general 
election  burst  upon  the  country :  '  the  clamour  for  the 
popular  candidate  drowned  all  other  cries  ;  Lord  Verney's 
agent  wrote  that  he  would  try  to  limit  his  expenses  to 
£12,000  or  £15,000  (June  1790).  Processions  carrying  his 
banners  converged  on  Aylesbury  from  all  the  neighbouring 
districts,  two  hundred  gentlemen  breakfasted  at  Claydon 
House,  "three  hundred  of  the  meaner  sort"  were  fed  with 
the  remnants  of  the  meal ;  he  was  triumphantly  returned, 
and  the  county  rang  with  his  praises.' 

Edmund  Burke  (1729-1797),  though  by  birth  an  Irishman, 
was  intimately  bound  up  with  the  county  history ;  even 
when  his  parliamentary  connexion  was  transferred  from 
Wendover  to  Bristol  he  made  his  home  here,  and  bought 
the  estate  of  Gregories  (now  Butlers  Court)  in  the  parishes 
of  Perm  and  Beaconsfield.  Himself  one  of  the  great 
masters  of  English,  he  loved  the  place  the  better  because 
it  was  associated  with  the  poet  Edmund  Waller,  who 
occupied  the  house  called  Hall  Barn  ;  and  he  would  take 
his  guests  to  see  Waller's  Oak,  and  his  grave  with  its 
fantastic  little  pyramid  under  the  great  walnut  tree,  in 
Beaconsfield  Churchyard.  Hall  Barn  has  been  rebuilt  and 
enlarged,  and  is  now  the  home  of  Lord  Burnham.  At 
Gregories  Burke  entertained  a  succession  of  interesting 
guests,  and  in  his  '  assiduous  protection  of  neglected  worth  ' 


188  'WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING' 

sheltered  George  Crabbe,  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  his  fortunes, 
treated  him  as  a  member  of  his  family,  and  enabled  a  famished 
apothecary  to  become  a  good  clergyman  and  a  popular  poet. 
One  of  Burke's  chief  friends  was  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
The  great  painter  had  received  a  commission  from  the 
Empress  Catherine  of  Russia,  and  he  was  thinking  over 
a  subject  in  which  the  Infant  Hercules  should  be  strangling 
a  brace  of  serpents.  On  arriving  at  Beaconsfield  he  saw 
a  splendid  little  boy,  named  Rolfe,  playing  on  Burke's 
lawn  and  at  once  made  a  study  of  him  as  Hercules.  The 
child  justified  the  name  given  him  in  1786,  and  lived  on 
as  a  portly  farmer  till  1850.  As  a  Whig,  Burke  intensely 
disliked  the  policy  of  the  Grenvilles,  but  they  were  personal 
friends,  and  there  is  a  pleasant  story  of  his  writing  one  of 
his  famous  pamphlets  at  Claydon,  and  going  with  Lord 
Verney  to  Stowe,  to  talk  it  over  with  '  their  friend  the 
enemy '.  After  Burke's  great  speeches  in  the  House  of 
Commons  and  in  Westminster  Hall  he  loved  nothing  so 
well  as  to  return  to  '  the  calm  shades  of  Beaconsfield,  where 
he  would  with  his  own  hands  give  food  to  a  starving  beggar, 
or  medicine  to  a  peasant  sick  of  the  ague,  where  he  would 
talk  of  the  weather,  the  turnips,  and  the  hay  with  the 
team-men  and  the  farm  bailiff,  and  where  in  the  evening 
stillness,  he  would  pace  the  walk  under  the  trees,  and  reflect 
on  the  state  of  Europe  and  the  distractions  of  his  country  '  .3 
In  July  1797  Canning  wrote  to  a  friend,  '  There  is  but  one 
event,  but  that  is  an  event  for  the  world — Burke  is  dead.' 
To  complete  the  dramatis  personae  of  county  politicians  we 
must  include  John  Wilkes  (whom  the  other  actors  would  have 
called  the  villain  of  the  piece),  as  he  was  closely  connected 
with  Aylesbury.  The  son  of  a  wealthy  distiller  at  Leighton 
Buzzard,  he  was  educated  at  Aylesbury,  at  the  school  of 
Mr.  Leeson,a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  it  was  at  Aylesbury 
that  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  met  and  married  a  mature 
heiress,  Miss  Mead,  and  there  his  only  child  was  born. 
They  lived  at  the  Prebendal  House,  and  he  put  up  a  tablet 
in  the  churchyard  wall  to  William  Smart  his  gardener. 
Wilkes  was  high  sheriff  for  Bucks,  and  afterwards  member 
for  Aylesbury.  His  local  reputation  was  bad  ;  he  had 
never  returned  his  wife's  affection,  and  after  some  unhappy 
years  they  were  separated,  he  keeping  and  squandering  the 


Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  P.R.A. 
EDMUND  BURKK 
From  the  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


'WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING'  191 

greater  part  of  her  fortune.  He  joined  a  club  of  wild  young 
men  of  fashion  at  Medmenham,  to  whom  all  sorts  of  blas- 
phemous and  wicked  practices  were  imputed,  and  as  scandal 
loses  nothing  in  the  telling,  Wilkes  was  looked  upon  as 
a  wholly  vicious  and  dangerous  man.  His  singularly  ugly 
face  and  his  squint  lent  themselves  to  horrible  caricatures  ; 
and  he  was  as  much  hated  in  good  society  as  King  George 
was  beloved,  yet  by  the  irony  of  fate,  Wilkes  became  '  un- 
wittingly the  chief  instrument  in  bringing  about  some  of 
the  greatest  advances  the  constitution  ever  made  '.  The 
king's  conscientious  obstinacy  and  Grenville's  finance  lost 
us  our  American  colonies,  and  their  attempt  to  crush  the 
member  for  Aylesbury  made  '  Wilkes  and  Liberty '  the 
accepted  war-cry  of  reform  all  over  the  country. 

At  that  time  what  we  mean  by  a  newspaper  was  unknown, 
and  parliamentary  debates  were  private.  Wilkes  had 
started  a  paper  called  the  North  Briton,  written  with  great 
ability,  and  in  the  forty-fifth  number  he  made  a  violent 
attack  on  the  king's  speech  in  opening  Parliament,  which 
he  called  '  the  most  abandoned  instance  of  ministerial 
effrontery  ever  launched  upon  mankind  '.  The  court  chose 
to  take  this  not  as  a  charge  against  ministers,  but  as  a 
personal  attack  upon  the  king  himself.  As  the  paper  was 
anonymous,  a  general  warrant  was  issued  against  the  whole 
staff  of  writers  and  printers,  Wilkes  was  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned and  a  search-warrant  was  issued  to  seize  his  private 
papers. 

The  law-courts  decided  that  all  these  three  courses  were 
illegal.  The  member  for  Aylesbury  had  to  be  released, 
and  he  republished  the  obnoxious  forty-fifth  number  of  the 
North  Briton,  the  name  of  which  became  a  household  word. 

The  House  of  Commons  then  expelled  and  outlawed 
Wilkes,  who  went  abroad.  These  high-handed  proceedings 
brought  about  the  fall  of  the  Grenville  Ministry.  The  Whig 
Ministry  of  Lord  Rockingham,  which  succeeded,  was  inspired 
by  Edmund  Burke,  who  was  the  Prime  Minister's  secretary  ; 
by  the  intrigues  of  the  king's  friends  they  soon  fell,  but 
they  had  abolished  general  warrants.  Wilkes  then  returned 
from  abroad,  was  elected  for  Middlesex,  and  petitioned  for  the 
reversal  of  his  outlawry.  Except  for  the  king's  personal 
animosity  this  might  have  been  granted,  but  Wilkes  was 


192  'WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING' 

imprisoned,  expelled  again  for  the  old  offences,  re-elected, 
and  expelled  once  more.  After  a  long  fight  in  which  Wilkes 
stood  for  the  liberty  of  newspaper  reporting,  as  well  as  for 
the  liberty  of  electors  to  choose  their  own  representatives, 
he  was  made  an  alderman  of  the  city  of  London,  and  later 
Lord  Mayor,  and  having  defied  the  summons  of  the  House 
of  Commons  to  appear  at  the  Bar,  he  finally  triumphed,  and 
sat  as  member  for  Middlesex  for  many  years. 

His  struggles  with  the  Government  were  keenly  followed 
both  by  friends  and  foes  in  Aylesbury.  He  was  an  ex-officio 
trustee  of  the  grammar  school,  and  one  of  his  libellers 
compared  him  in  a  song  to  the  Dragon  of  Wantley : — 

'  But  the  Aylesbury  men  like  fools, 
Thought  John  Wilkes  a  greater  rarity ; 
They  made  him  Trustee  of  the  Schools 
And  he  swallow'd  up  the  Charity.' 

His  persecutions  had  drawn  out  much  sympathy  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  his  friends  paid  his  debts  amounting 
to  £17,000,  but  he  had  a  genius  for  contracting  fresh  ones  ; 
he  became  a  popular  idol,  and  his  portraits  were  sold  every- 
where. Wilkes  had  fine  manners  and  much  wit  and  humour ; 
his  tender  affection  for  his  daughter  was  the  best  part  of  his 
character.  '  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  insolvent.'  An 
obelisk  in  Ludgate  Circus  commemorates  his  mayoralty, 
a  tablet  in  Grosvenor  Chapel  marks  the  burial  place  of 
'  John  Wilkes  a  friend  to  liberty  '. 

Younger  than  Burke  and  Wilkes,  but  still  under  King 
George,  and  belonging  to  the  generation  which  was  deeply 
influenced  by  the  ideas  of  the  French  Revolution,  Percy 
Bysshe  Shelley  is  amongst  the  great  poets  who  wrote  in 
the  county.  He  was  educated  at  Eton,  and  was  one  of 
the  few  Etonians  who  resisted  the  spell  and  charm  of  the 
school,  and  was  miserable  there.  Though  all  his  life 
devoted  to  boating,  he  never  cared  for  games,  and  was  in 
revolt  against  all  tradition  and  authority.  He  was  as 
harshly  treated  at  home  as  at  Eton.  Dr.  Keate,  the  great 
head  master  in  1809,  was  then  master  of  the  lower  school ; 
'  he  flogged  Shelley  liberally,  and  the  scapegrace  in  return 
plagued  him  without  stint.'  This  imaginative  and  nervous 
boy  was  very  sensitive  to  kindness,  and  was  capable  of  the 


'  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING  '  193 

most  generous  friendships  ;  he  delighted  in  science,  but 
there  was  no  modern  side  to  a  public  school  then ;  his  ex- 
periments in  chemistry  led  him  into  scrapes,  and  he  left 
Eton  with  some  abruptness  in  1809.  When  we  next  find 
Shelley  in  Bucks  he  was  only  in  his  twenty-second  year, 
his  undisciplined  character  had  brought  much  sorrow  on 
himself  and  those  dependent  upon  him,  but  he  was  already 
a  master  of  English  style  in  verse  and  prose,  and  full  of 
unselfish  enthusiasm  and  ideals.  His  friend,  Thomas  Love 
Peacock,  whose  novels  of  county  society,  Headlong  Hall, 
Nightmare  Abbey,  and  the  rest,  had  a  great  run  in  their  day, 
was  living  at  Marlow.  Shelley  took  Albion  House  at  Marlow 
in  1815,  and  settled  down  there  to  write  a  long  ambitious 
poem,  The  Revolt  of  Islam.  In  his  preface  Shelley  reviews 
the  hopes  excited  by  the  French  Revolution,  the  panic 
produced  by  its  excesses,  with  the  violent  reaction  against 
freedom  which  was  gradually  giving  place  again  to  sanity. 
The  object  he  set  before  him  was  to  kindle  '  a  virtuous 
enthusiasm  for  those  doctrines  of  liberty  and  justice,  that 
faith  and  hope  in  something  good,  which  neither  violence, 
nor  misrepresentation,  nor  prejudice  can  ever  totally  ex- 
tinguish among  mankind.  .  .  .  There  is  no  quarter  given 
to  revenge,  or  envy,  or  prejudice.  Love  is  celebrated 
everywhere  as  the  sole  law  which  should  govern  the  world  '. 
'  The  poem  was  written,'  as  Mrs.  Shelley  tells  us,  '  in  his 
boat  as  it  floated  under  the  beech-groves  of  Bisham,  or 
during  wanderings  in  the  neighbouring  country,  which  is 
distinguished  by  peculiar  beauty.  The  chalk  hills  break 
into  cliffs  that  overhang  the  Thames,  or  form  valleys  clothed 
with  beech  ;  the  wilder  portion  of  the  country  is  rendered 
beautiful  by  exuberant  vegetation  ;  and  the  cultivated 
part  is  peculiarly  fertile.  With  all  this  wealth  of  nature 
which,  either  in  the  form  of  gentlemen's  parks,  or  soil 
dedicated  to  agriculture,  flourishes  around,  Marlow  was 
inhabited  by  a  very  poor  population.  The  women  were 
lace-makers  and  lost  their  health  by  sedentary  labour,  for 
which  they  were  ill-paid.  The  Poor  Laws  ground  to  the 
dust  not  only  the  paupers,  but  those  who  were  obliged  to 
pay  poor-rates.  The  changes  produced  by  peace  following 
a  long  war,  and  a  bad  harvest,  brought  with  them  the  most 
heart-rending  evils  to  the  poor.' 4 

986-4  N 


194  '  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING ' 

Many  a  poet,  fastidious  and  sensitive  as  Shelley,  might 
have  been  content  to  write  about  these  sufferings  rocking  in 
his  boat  under  the  '  interlaced  branches '  of  the  beech-trees, 
on  the  river  he  loved  so  well.  But  Shelley's  love  for  the  poor 
was  not  a  mere  sentimental  emotion,  his  active  and  ready 
help  was  ever  at  their  service  ;  he  had  many  pensioners 
among  the  poor  lace-makers,  and  he  caught  opthalmia 
severely  and  repeatedly,  in  ministering  to  the  very  poorest 
in  their  miserable  homes.  He  and  his  wife  lived  on  the 
simplest  fare,  in  order  to  have  more  to  give  away  ;  the  poet 
did  not  touch  meat  or  wine,  nor  keep  a  horse.  He  never 
wished  his  charity  to  be  known,  his  gifts  were  made  with 
the  greatest  delicacy,  and  there  is  a  story  of  his  walking  into 
Marlow  without  his  shoes,  having  given  his  own  to  a  poor 
woman. 

Shelley  had  taken  his  house  for  twenty-one  years,  but 
there  was  no  permanence  in  his  troubled  career,  and,  to  the 
grief  of  their  poor  neighbours,  he  and  his  wife  left  Marlow 
for  Italy  after  three  years'  residence  there.  He  did  not 
forget  the  Thames  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  and  he  writes 
to  his  friend  Peacock  about  the  massive  ruins  at  Rome, 
of  the  Baths  of  Caracalla : — '  The  perpendicular  walls 
resemble  nothing  more  than  that  cliff  at  Bisham  Wood, 
that  is  overgrown  with  wood,  and  yet  is  stony  and  precipi- 
tous. You  know  the  one  I  mean  ;  not  the  chalk-pit,  but  the 
spot  that  has  the  pretty  copse  of  fir-trees  and  privet  bushes 
at  its  base,  and  where  Hogg  and  I  scrambled  up,  and  you, 
to  my  infinite  discontent,  would  go  home.'  In  the  summer 
of  1822  came  the  news  that  this  brilliant  career  had  been 
suddenly  closed  by  the  capsizing  of  a  sailing  boat  off  the 
coast  of  Leghorn.  Shelley's  lyrics  are  amongst  the  most 
musical  and  exquisite  in  our  language  ;  such  as  his  Ode  to 
the  West  Wind,  To  a  Cloud,  and  To  a  Skylark.  His  life  in 
Bucks  is  one  of  the  many  beautiful  associations  of  our  river 
scenery,  specially  as  his  love  of  Nature  and  his  passion  for 
liberty  were  combined  with  such  practical  sympathy  and 
kindness  as  he  showed  to  the  poor  of  Great  Marlow. 

We  have  another,  and,  on  the  whole,  a  more  cheerful 
account  than  that  given  by  Mrs.  Shelley.  Cobbett,  who 
had  an  intense  sympathy  with  country  life,  records  in  his 
Rural  Rides  a  journey  through  South  and  Mid  Bucks  in 


1  WHEN  GEORGE  III  WAS  KING '  195 

1822.  Labourers  were  getting  from  Ss.  to  12s.  a  week, 
grass  mowers  2s.  a  day,  and  as  much  beer  as  they  could 
drink.  They  used  roasted  rye  instead  of  coffee  or  tea,  as 
it  cost  only  f  d.  a  Ib.  Both  men  and  women  were  at  work 
in  the  fields,  and  the  little  children  were  locked  out  of  doors 
for  the  day.  The  farmers  were  in  very  low  water,  though 
prices  were  high  and  the  land  excellent  both  for  corn  and 
pasture.  He  remarks  on  the  good  looks  of  the  labourers  in 
spite  of  their  hard  fare,  and  their  energy  in  cultivating  their 
own  '  neatly  kept  and  productive  little  cottage  gardens  ', 
seldom  without  flowers,  '  an  honour  to  England  and  which 
distinguishes  it  from  all  the  rest  of  the  world.'  The  little 
ones  looked  fat  and  well  kept  ;  the  girls  somewhat  large- 
featured  and  large-boned,  '  like  the  girls  of  America,  and 
that  is  saying  quite  as  much  as  any  reasonable  woman  can 
expect  or  wish  for.'  '  Wycombe  is  one  of  those  famous 
things  called  boroughs,  and  by  thirty-four  votes  sends 
Sir  John  Dashwood  and  Sir  Thomas  Baring  to  the  "  col- 
lective wisdom  ".'  But  so  little  interest  did  the  common 
people  take  in  the  matter  that  Cobbett's  landlord  at  the  Inn 
remembered  Dashwood,  but  had  forgotten  '  the  other '. 
Cobbett  would  not  find  much  political  indifference  in 
Bucks  at  the  present  day. 

1  W.  M.  Thackeray,  The  Four  Georges. 

1  Earl  of  Rosebery,  '  The  Grenvilles  of  Stowe,'  in  Records  of  Bucks. 

*  Edmund  Burke,  by  John  Morley.     English  Men  of  Letters. 

*  Mrs.  Shelley's  Preface  to  Shelley's  Poems. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE 

THE  first  stirrings  of  the  French  Revolution  were  watched 
with  interest  and  sympathy  on  this  side  of  the  Channel. 
France  is  the  land  of  ideals,  and  those  fine  watchwords, 
Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity  stirred  the  hopes  of 
English  reformers  till  the  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  the 
French  peasants  were  forgotten  in  the  horrible  carnival 
of  violence  and  cruelty  which  overwhelmed  the  monarchy, 

N  2 


196       LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE 

the  nobles,  and  the  Church,  and  threatened  to  extinguish 
all  the  old  civilization  of  France  in  a  sea  of  blood. 

A  stream  of  miserable  fugitives  poured  into  England  ; 
never  since  the  Reformation  had  so  many  Catholic  priests, 
monks,  and  nuns  been  seen  amongst  us.  But  the  animosity 
which  their  coming  would  otherwise  have  excited  was 
softened  by  the  sense  of  their  suffering  and  destitution  ; 
and  the  county  that  had  been  hospitable  to  persecuted 
Lollards  and  Quakers  showed  a  tolerant  kindness  to  the 
fugitive  Catholics.  The  Marquess  of  Buckingham  took  the 
lead  in  contributing  and  collecting  money  for  the  relief  of 
the  exiles,  the  Marchioness  took  charge  of  a  whole  convent 
of  French  nuns,  and  they  paid  for  the  printing  of  two 
editions  of  breviaries  not  otherwise  obtainable  in  England. 
Edmund  Burke  took  the  deepest  interest  in  the  work  of 
the  committee  for  the  relief  of  the  French  refugees,  and  at 
the  end  of  his  life  he  loved  to  visit  the  colony  of  French 
orphans  at  Penn,  and  to  play  with  these  fascinating  little 
children. 

When  Louis  XVI,  murdered  hi  1793,  had  been  followed  to 
the  grave  by  his  only  boy  two  years  later,  Louis,  Comte  de 
Provence,  brother  of  Louis  XVI,  was  titular  King  of  France. 
Born  in  1755  at  Versailles,  the  most  splendid  Court  in 
Europe,  he  early  showed  a  ready  wit  in  conversation  and 
a  love  of  literature  and  the  classics  ;  his  elder  brother 
preferred  handwork  as  a  locksmith  or  watchmaker.  While 
they  were  both  children,  a  provincial  deputation  came  to 
interview  Louis  XV,  who  received  them  with  his  grandsons 
standing  by.  The  business  over,  one  of  the  gentlemen 
began  paying  elaborate  compliments  to  the  Duke  de  Berri 
(afterwards  Louis  XVI)  but  the  boy  stopped  him  saying, 
'  I'm  not  the  clever  one,  it's  my  brother  of  Provence.'  At 
the  age  of  sixteen  '  the  clever  boy '  was  married  to  Maria- 
Josepha  of  Savoy,  amid  universal  rejoicings  at  Versailles, 
and  there  seemed  not  a  cloud  on  the  horizon.  When  the 
storm  burst  Louis  escaped  to  Austria,  and  spent  some 
unhappy  years  wandering  about  Europe  from  Venice  to 
Moscow,  each  Government  in  turn  giving  him  peremptory 
notice  to  quit.  He  bore  sorrow  and  poverty  with  fortitude, 
and  indignantly  rejected  an  offer  of  Napoleon's  to  sell  his 
birthright  for  a  large  sum  of  money  ;  he  returned  the  Order 


LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE        197 

of  the  Golden  Fleece  to  the  King  of  Spain,  with  a  spirited 
letter,  when  he  heard  that  the  same  order  had  been  given 
to  Napoleon  after  the  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien.  At 
length,  in  1807,  he  landed  in  England,  and  by  the  kind 
offices  of  the  Marquess  of  Buckingham  he  obtained  a  resting- 
place  in  Bucks. 

Hart  well  House,  which  had  belonged  to  the  Lee  family 
from  the  thirteenth  century,  is  one  of  the  beautiful  old 
historical  houses  of  the  county,  with  its  ample  gardens  and 
park  and  its  fine  trees.1  This  was  rented  by  Louis  XVIII, 
as  Comte  de  Lille,  from  Sir  George  Lee  for  £500  a  year, 
and  was  soon  filled  to  overflowing  with  French  exiles.  His 
wife  arrived  from  Russia,  his  brother  the  Count  d'Artois, 
afterwards  Charles  X,  came  with  his  sons  the  Dukes  of 
Berri  and  Angouleme  (the  latter  married  to  Madame  Royale, 
daughter  of  Louis  XVI  and  Marie  Antoinette),  accompanied 
by  a  number  of  priests  and  dependants. 

The  ministers  of  George  III  were  not  anxious  to  receive 
Louis  XVIII  for  fear  of  diplomatic  complications,  but 
both  the  king  and  the  common  people  showed  him  a  good 
deal  of  sympathy.  The  boat's  crew  which  rowed  him 
ashore  at  Yarmouth  from  the  flagship  Majestic  returned 
the  purse  he  had  left  them  as  a  present  with  a  quaint 
letter  to  their  admiral : l  '  We  holded  a  talk  about  that 
there  £15.  that  was  sent  us,  and  hope  no  offence,  your 
honour  ...  we  knows  fast  enuff  that  it  was  the  true  King  of 
France  that  went  with  your  honour  in  the  boat  and  that 
he  and  our  own  Noble  King  bless  'em  both,  and  give  every 
one  his  right,  is  good  friends  now  .  .  .  and  Mr.  Leneve  that 
steered  your  honour  and  that  there  King,  says  he  won't 
have  no  hand  in  it,  and  so  does  the  Coxen  ...  so  we  all  one 
and  all  begs  not  to  take  it  at  all.'  Eventually  the  generous 
feeling  shown  by  the  bluejackets  was  emulated  by  the 
Government,  and  a  grant  of  £14,000  a  year  was  made  to 
the  king  and  £6,000  to  the  Due  d' Angouleme.  Louis  XVIII 
settled  down  to  a  quiet  home  life,  he  turned  to  his  beloved 
books  and  found  much  comfort  in  Horace  ;  when  he  met 
any  one  in  the  grounds  he  would  salute  him  with  true 
French  politeness,  and  would  speak  a  few  words  in  tolerable 
English.  He  would  send  for  old  Mr.  Fowler  to  come  and 
see  him  as  the  only  Aylesbury  man  who  was  said  to  speak 


198        LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARWELL  HOUSE 

French.  It  pleased  him  to  point  out  to  visitors  that  on 
each  side  of  the  great  doorway  at  Hartw  ell  was  a  fleur  de 
lis,  carved  in  stone,  as  if  in  anticipation  of  his  coming. 
Once  in  about  three  weeks  he  dined  in  public,  as  had  been 
the  custom  of  the  old  French  Court,  and  visitors  were 
allowed  to  walk  round  the  table.  He  was  called  the  Sage 
of  Hart  well  and  was  as  popular  in  the  country  round  as  his 
brother  was  unpopular,  with  his  haughty  manners  and 
perverse  disposition.  Madame  Royale, '  the  Orphan  of  the 
Temple,'  was  the  most  interesting  member  of  the  party, 
her  terrible  sorrows  had  left  an  impression  of  habitual 
sadness  on  her  face  and  manner  ;  she  was  a  devout  Catholic 
with  a  tender  sympathy  for  all  sufferers.  An  early  riser 
and  an  active  walker,  she,  unlike  Louis,  avoided  society 
and  could  not  bear  attracting  attention. 

The  farmers  and  market-gardeners  round  Aylesbury 
found  excellent  customers  at  Hartwell.  There  were  usually 
from  140  to  200  persons  in  the  house.  The  halls  and 
galleries  were  subdivided  by  partitions,  without  any  regard 
to  their  architecture,  and  whole  families  were  stowed  away 
in  the  attics.  On  the  ledges  and  bows  of  the  great  roof 
were  gardens  in  boxes,  stocked  with  flowers  and  vegetables, 
the  roof  also  became  a  pigeon-house  and  a  poultry  yard ; 
the  ornamental  parapet  was  freely  cut  away  when  it  inter- 
fered with  these  new  uses ;  small  windows  were  pierced 
in  the  walls  ;  every  outhouse  and  cottage  in  the  park  was 
full  of  people.  The  household  were  very  well  conducted, 
and  with  the  gaiety  of  their  nation  amused  themselves 
with  music  and  dancing  and  made  the  best  of  the  situation. 
They  carved  little  French  mottoes  on  the  old  trees,  which 
kept  Quel  plaisir  and  Toujours  heureux  on  their  bark  long 
after  the  departure  of  the  carvers.  It  was  characteristic  of 
French  taste,  that  in  the  large  drawing-room  a  beautiful 
portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  of  its  former  mistress, 
Lady  Elizabeth  Lee,  was  completely  hidden  away  by  an 
enormous  mirror. 

In  1808  the  Marquess  of  Buckingham  entertained  the 
royal  party  at  Stowe,  and  invited  the  county  to  meet 
them.  An  account  of  the  visit  has  been  preserved  in  the 
lively  letters  of  his  nephew,  Sir  Henry  Williams  Wynn, 
afterwards  British  Minister  at  Copenhagen.2 


LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE        199 

'Stowe.  January  12, 1808.  Altho'  I  arrived  here  yesterday 
before  three  o'clock  I  was  but  just  in  time  to  see  the  reception 
of  His  Christian  Majesty.  They  were  all  drawn  up  to  receive 
him  on  the  steps  when  I,  by  dint  of  vociferation  prevailed 
upon  the  Post  Boy  to  drive  in  the  back  way.  The  moment 
he  entered  the  House  the  Band  struck  up  and  Ld.  Bucking- 
ham conducted  him  into  the  State  Apartments,  where  there 
was  a  cercle  till  he  went  to  dress,  which  operation, 
being  I  suppose  pressed  by  Hunger,  did  not  last  ten 
minutes,  but  dinner  was  not  thereby  accelerated  as  we  did 
not  get  down  till  |  past  6.  ...  The  King  seems  a  good' 
natured  good  kind  of  a  man,  but  there  is  not  certainly 
anything  either  in  his  appearance  or  manner  very  atten- 
drissant.  The  dinner  party  yesterday  consisted  of  44 
and  is  to-day  to  be  augmented  by  11  new  arrivals. 
Among  those  yesterday  were  Lord  and  Lady  Carysfort, 
Proby,  Granville,  Charlotte,  and  Fanny ;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  T. 
Fremantle  ;  Miss  Wynn,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Young,  and  a  young 
Irish  Heiress  Miss  O'Donnell,  Ebrington,  the  two  Nevilles, 
General  Harvey,  Neil  Talbot,  &c.,  &c.  Lady  Louisa 
Harvey,  the  Admiraland  two  daughters,  Mr.  and  Mrs, 
Lloyd,  Lady  Temple,  and  the  Due  and  Duchesse  de  Coigny, 
with  two  other  Frenchmen  arrive  today. 

'  The  dinner,  entre  nous  (altho'  there  are  four  French 
cooks  in  the  house),  was  the  worst  I  ever  saw  upon  a 
Table,  and  worse  served  than  anything  I  ever  saw 
before.  Lord  Buckingham  took  care  of  the  King  and 
all  the  rest  of  the  Blood  were  obliged  to  take  care  of 
themselves,  without  a  servant  literally  to  take  away 
their  plates,  or  a  glass  of  wine  within  their  reach.  The 
table  was  covered  with  dishes,  which  were  so  cold  that 
they  were  not  eatable  with  the  exception  of  a  cold  Pye 
which  from  its  proximity  to  an  immense  fire,  was  warmed 
up  again.  After  dinner  Lord  Buckingham  got  up  and  said 
"  The  King  permits  me  to  give  for  a  Toast  the  Royal  and 
Illustrious  House  of  Bourbon  and  God  bless  them  "  upon 
which  the  King  gave  "  God  bless  the  King  and  Old  England 
for  ever  "  which  Lord  Buckingham  repeated  and  said  that 
the  King  allowed  him  to  add  "  The  True  Peace  of  Europe 
founded  on  a  strict  alliance  between  the  two  sovereigns  ". 
I  fear  that  all  the  company  will  be  noted  down  in  Bona- 


200        LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE 

parte's  black  Book  and  that  we  shall  pay  for  it  if  ever 
we  go  to  France.  When  the  first  toast  was  given  the  Band 
played  0  Richard,  6  man  Eoi  !  after  which  the  Master  of  the 
Band  came  up  to  Temple  and  asked  him  whether  the 
Marseillais  Hymn  would  not  be  a  proper  air  to  play.  We 
did  not  of  course  sit  very  long  after  dinner,  and  by  the 
assistance  of  cards  and  a  little  dancing  we  got  on  to  near 
twelve  o'clock  when  we  all  went  to  Bed.  We  have  to-day 
been  out  with  the  Harriers  but  not  had  much  sport.  The 
King  went  with  Lady  Buckingham  in  the  little  Phaeton. 

'  Tomorrow  we  are  to  shoot,  and  on  Thursday  the  King 
and  the  other  Princes  are  to  plant  a  clump  of  trees,  each 
man  his  own  tree.  On  Friday  there  is  to  be  a  grand  ball 
and  on  Saturday  they  are  all  to  go  away.  .  .  .' 

'  Stowe.  January  14, 1808.  We  every  day  have  the  health 
of  the  Royal  and  Illustrious  and  he  as  regularly  gives  an 
appropriate  Toast  in  return.  Yesterday,  after  the  planting 
we  had  the  Toast,  "and  may  then:  Posterity  last  longer 
than  the  latest  acorn  of  the  latest  Tree  they  have  this  day 
planted."  To  which  the  King  replied  in  English,  "  Our 
Noble  Landlord  to  whom  our  gratefulness  is  as  rooted  as 
the  oldest  Oak."  .  .  .  They  all  seem  very  much  pleased  with 
the  attentions  which  are  shewn  them,  and  certainly  as 
far  as  expense  goes  nothing  can  be  finer  than  the  manner 
in  which  Lord  Buckingham  has  received  them. 

'  The  whole  set  went  out  a  Shooting  yesterday,  but 
whether  it  was  that  the  Hares  had  been  driven  away,  or  that 
there  were  none,  la  chasse  etait  trls  mauvaise. 

'  I  cannot  say,  that,  with  the  exception  of  one  or  two, 
any  of  the  family  have  prepossessed  me  very  much  in  their 
favour.  Old  Cond6  is  by  far  the  best,  the  Duke  d'Angou- 
leme  seems  a  gentlemanlike  man,  but  then  one  cannot  easily 
forget  how  manfully  he  ran  away  from  the  Conde  army. 
I  cannot  of  course  judge  whether  the  King  is  pleasant  in 
conversation,  but  one  question  he  made  does  not  tell 
much  of  his  Historical  knowledge.  He  asked  me  whether 
I  understood  Welsh  as  he  wanted  to  know  what  the  Prince 
of  Wales'  motto  meant  [Ich  dieri].  .  .  .  Sunday.  All  the 
Frenchmen  went  yesterday  and  to-day  we  are  almost 
reduced  to  a  family  party,  consisting  however,  of  more 
than  20.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  have  been  more  pleasant  than 


LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE        201 

the  whole  of  this  visit  and  everyone  was  sorry  to  see  them 
go  away.  The  King  behaved  during  the  whole  time  just 
as  one  would  have  wished,  gracious  with  as  much  dignity 
as  his  porpoise-like  figure  would  admit  of.  His  last  toast- 
struck  me  as  particularly  neat  and  well  expressed  for  a 
Foreigner.  "  May  the  remembrance  of  our  visit  here,  be 
as  agreeable  to  all  present  as  it  will  be  soothing  to  us."  . . .' 

The  home  life  of  Hartwell  was  sadly  clouded  in  December 
1810  by  the  death  of  the  queen  after  a  short  illness.  They 
were  a  childless  couple,  attached  to  each  other  in  a  quiet, 
matter  of  fact  way.  The  king's  letters  give  a  pathetic 
account  of  his  loneliness  after  her  death,  and  how  the  sight 
of  a  white  camellia  or  of  any  other  flower  she  had  loved, 
awoke  his  grief  afresh,  '  like  a  drop  of  wormwood  in  food.' 
'  I  was  not  aware  I  loved  the  Queen  so  much  as  I  now 
find  I  did,'  he  wrote  very  simply. 

In  1811  another  storm-bound  monarch,  Gustavus  IV, 
ex-King  of  Sweden,  arrived  at  Hartwell,  having  lost  all 
his  personal  property  as  well  as  his  kingdom.  The  portly 
Louis,  who  enjoyed  an  after-dinner  doze  over  a  book, 
found  his  guest  unduly  restless.  '  Quiet  is  what  he  professes 
to  want,'  wrote  the  Sage  of  Hartwell,  '  but  surely  whirling 
about  the  world  is  not  the  means  of  obtaining  that  object. 
...  I  now  had  rather  that  he  had  not  come.'  x  It  seemed 
improbable  that  life  should  hold  any  dramatic  surprises 
in  store  for  the  kindly  old  gentleman  who  had  never  been, 
except  in  name,  a  king.  But  one  spring  morning  (March  25, 
1814)  while  mass  was  being  celebrated  in  the  dining-room, 
where  Louis  (not  easily  removable)  was  nursing  his  gout, 
his  suite  saw  through  the  windows  with  silent  excitement 
two  post  chaises  with  four  horses  apiece,  and  white  flags, 
tearing  up  to  the  house.  Napoleon  had  resigned,  the  Allies 
were  entering  Paris,  and  Louis,  at  last  '  Desired  ',  had  been 
proclaimed  king.  All  was  now  bustle  and  stir,  Louis  signed 
a  document  in  the  library  at  Hartwell  pledging  him  to 
observe  the  constitution,  and  the  pen  became  a  relic. 
Aylesbury,  which  had  rather  forgotten  him,  burst  out  into 
bunting  and  plaudits,  the  king  alone,  '  mobbed  by  visitors 
and  pestered  with  addresses,'  preserved  his  calm. 

In  less  than  a  month  he  started  from  Aylesbury  to  assume 
his  crown  amid  great  enthusiasm  ;  the  white  flag  of  France 


202        LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE 

floated  from  the  Town  Hall,  crowds  cheered  themselves 
hoarse,  the  Bucks  Yeomanry  escorted  the  king  to  Stanmore, 
where  the  Prince  Regent  met  him  with  the  state  coach 
and  cream-coloured  horses,  and  they  entered  London  in 
triumph.  The  Bucks  Yeomen  had  given  their  money  to 
one  of  their  number  to  take  care  of,  and  this  man  had  his 
purse  stolen,  so  their  share  of  the  fun  was  a  sorry  one. 
The  name  of  Bourbon  Street  still  commemorates  in 
Aylesbury  this  memorable  day ;  and  at  Versailles  the 
king  reproduced  the  queen's  private  garden  at  Hartwell 
to  remind  him  of  '  the  happy,  happy  days  he  had  spent 
in  that  charming  county '.  One  serio-comic  incident  the 
next  year  connected  Bucks  with  the  fortunes  of  Louis  XVIII. 
As  Sir  George  Lee  took  leave  of  his  royal  tenant  on  the  steps 
of  Hartwell,  he  accepted  a  cordial  invitation  to  visit  him 
at  home.  Sir  George  reached  Paris  the  following  spring 
to  find  it  in  the  throes  of  another  convulsion.  Napoleon 
had  landed  from  Elba,  and  the  poor  old  king  was  being 
bundled  off  at  a  moment's  notice  to  the  Belgian  frontier, 
with  profuse  apologies  to  his  baffled  guest.  Byron's  sar- 
castic lines  were  justified : — 

'  Good  classic  Louis  !   is  it,  canst  thou  say, 
Desirable  to  be  the  "  Desire  "  ? 

Why  wouldst  thou  leave  calm  Hartwell's  green  abode, 
Apician  table  and  Horatian  ode, 
To  rule  a  people  who  will  not  be  ruled, 
And  love  much  rather  to  be  scourg'd  than  school'd  ?  ' 

All  England  was  stirred  by  the  excitement  of  the 
Hundred  Days'  War.  The  Bucks  regiment  took  the  field 
again  under  Wellington  at  Waterloo. 

Louis  was  reinstated ;  '  an  old  man  in  feeble  health, 
posterity  has  done  less  than  justice  to  his  industry  and 
sagacity.  He  ruled  the  country  with  a  wise  and  delicate 
hand  from  his  armchair,  and  in  his  armchair  he  died ' 
(September  1824).3 

When  Paris  rose  in  1830  and  Charles  X  was  finally 
overthrown,  his  former  neighbours  in  Bucks  were  interested 
but  not  surprised  to  hear  it.  And  when  by  another  turn 
of  Fortune's  wheel  the  younger  branch  of  the  Bourbons 
had  won  and  lost  the  throne  of  France  again,  the  Comte 


LOUIS  XVIII  AT  HARTWELL  HOUSE        203 

de  Paris,  with  his  family,  took  refuge  once  more  in  the 
county,  and  it  was  at  Stowe,  where  Lady  Kinloss's  ancestor 
had  so  hospitably  entertained  Louis  XVIII,  that  he  spent 
several  quiet  years  and  peacefully  breathed  his  last  in 
1894. 

1  Capt.  Smyth,  R.N.,  Mdes  Hartwellianae. 

2  MS.  Letters  of  Sir  Henry  Wynn. 

3  W.  G.  Berry,  France  since  Waterloo. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

SCOTT  THE  COMMENTATOR  AND  SCOTT 
THE  ARCHITECT 

THE  life  of  Thomas  Scott  (1747-1821)— known  as  '  the 
Commentator ' — is  an  instance  of  an  indomitable  purpose 
that  can  surmount  all  difficulties.  He  had  only  seven  years' 
schooling,  but  had  set  his  heart  on  acquiring  learning.  He 
was  working  inLincolnshire  under  a  harsh  father  of  old  family 
and  narrow  prejudices,  at  the  dirtiest  parts  of  a  grazier's 
work,  and  his  health  was  suffering  from  exposure  to  weather. 
He  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  become  a  candidate  for 
ordination,  but  was  sent  back  to  the  fields  for  want  of  his 
father's  consent,  and  for  lack  of  testimonials.  He  never 
gave  up  hope  or  study  while  he  minded  the  beasts,  and 
was  at  last  ordained  deacon  in  1772,  and  priest  the  next 
year.  He  was  appointed  to  the  curacies  of  Stoke  Goldington 
and  Weston-Underwood,  which  began  a  long  and  honourable 
connexion  of  the  Scott  family  with  the  county. 

Thomas  Scott  made  acquaintance  with  John  Newton, 
whom  he  succeeded  at  Olney,  and  lived  next  door  to  the 
poet  Cowper.  His  income  was  but  £50  a  year  ;  he  taught 
himself  Hebrew,  and  acquired  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  original.  He  married  at  the  age  of 
twenty-seven,  and  was  so  zealous  to  give  his  sons  the 
education  denied  to  his  own  youth,  that  three  of  them, 
at  least,  took  degrees  at  Cambridge,  and  entered  the 
church. 


204  SCOTT  THE  COMMENTATOR 

While  his  children  were  growing  up,  Thomas  Scott  re- 
moved to  London ;  and  in  1788  a  publisher  proposed  to 
him  to  write  a  Commentary  on  the  Bible,  to  appear  in 
numbers,  for  each  of  which  he  was  to  receive  a  guinea. 
Without  any  of  the  critical  knowledge  now  available,  he 
brought  to  this  immense  work  an  enthusiastic  love  of  the 
subject-matter,  and  an  infinite  capacity  for  patient  labour  ; 
he  collated  words  and  phrases  and  compared  Scripture  with 
Scripture  with  minute  care.  In  four  years  and  a  half  he 
had  accomplished  his  great  task  in  174  numbers ;  and  he 
was  then  faced  with  nothing  but  disaster.  The  publisher 
became  bankrupt,  and  though  the  merit  of  the  work  was 
immediately  recognized,  Scott  was  saddled  with  a  crushing 
burden  of  debts  and  lawsuits. 

Charles  Simeon  and  other  friends  came  to  his  aid,  and 
his  book  went  on  selling  in  such  large  numbers  that  he 
was  eventually  solvent.  He  was  given  the  Bucks  living 
of  Aston-Sandford,  where  in  1807  he  undertook  the  training 
of  students  for  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  and  learnt 
Arabic  in  his  old  age.  Meanwhile,  his  second  son,  another 
Thomas  Scott,  born  at  Weston-Underwood,  was  first  curate 
at  Emberton,  and  then  Perpetual  Curate  at  Gawcott.  He 
married,  in  Bledlow  Church,  Euphemia  Lynch  of  Antigua, 
connected  with  many  old  West  Indian  and  Devonshire 
families,  amongst  others,  with  that  of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert, 
half-brother  and  companion-in-arms  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
Mr.  Scott's  aunt,  Miss  Gilbert,  had  been  kissed  as  a  child 
by  John  Wesley,  '  the  great  saint  of  her  memory  ',  a  tradi- 
tion proudly  passed  on  to  her  great-nephews ;  another 
relation,  a  naval  officer,  brought  to  Gawcott  a  flag  he  had 
taken  in  the  American  War. 

Thomas  Scott  and  Euphemia  had  a  large  family,  the 
most  famous  of  their  sons  being  Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  the 
architect.  The  Commentator  had  a  peaceful  and  honoured 
old  age ;  he  was  the  great  light  of  the  Evangelical  party, 
and  his  Commentary  had  become  a  classic.  His  only 
daughter  married  a  pupil  he  had  prepared  for  Cambridge, 
the  Rev.  Samuel  King,  who  had  been  curate  of  Hartwell 
during  Louis  XVIII's  residence  there,  and  was  Rector  of 
Haddenham,  the  next  parish  to  Aston-Sandford,  and  the 
two  men  were  constantly  together. 


SCOTT  THE  COMMENTATOR  205 

Scott's  grandson,  the  architect,  has  left  a  lively  account 
of  the  annual  migration  of  the  family  from  Gawcott  to 
Aston-Sandford.  '  The  post-chaise  was  ordered  from 
Buckingham  to  carry  seven,  my  father  and  mother  occupied 
the  seat,  three  small  children  stood  in  front,  two  sat  in 
the  dickey  behind,  and  the  fat  old  post-boy  rode  postillion. 
My  grandfather  was  a  thin  tottering  old  man  ;  very  grave 
and  dignified.  He  wore  knee-breeches  with  silver  buckles, 
black  silk  stockings,  and  a  shovel  hat.  He  had  a  black 
velvet  cap  except  at  church,  when  he  donned  a  venerable 
wig.  The  barber  who  made  it  was  a  pious  man,  who 
himself  put  two  sons  into  the  Church.  He  walked  over 
from  Bisborough  every  Sunday  to  hear  my  grandfather 
preach,  and  a  place  was  always  kept  for  him  at  the  dinner- 
table.  Family  prayers  at  the  Rectory  were  formidable  to 
a  child  :  they  lasted  a  full  hour,  several  persons  from  the 
village  attending  them.  .  .  .  The  whole  household  seemed 
imbued  with  the  religious  sentiment.  Old  Betty  the  cook, 
Lizzy  the  waiting  maid,  and  old  Betty  Moulder,  an  infirm 
inmate,  taken  in  on  account  of  her  excellence  and  helpless- 
ness, were  all  patterns  of  goodness ;  and  even  poor  John 
Brangwin  the  serving-man  partook  of  the  atmosphere  of 
the  Rectory.  I  visited  him  with  three  of  my  sons  (in  1863) 
in  an  almshouse  at  Chenies,  when  he  poured  forth  his 
recollections  of  my  grandfather.  It  was  Sunday,  and  we 
found  him  reading  in  his  copy  of  the  Commentary  left  him 
in  my  grandfather's  will,  and  he  had  just  had  a  cold  dinner. 
"  Muster  Scott  never  had  anyt&ing  cooked  o'  Sabbath 
days,"  and  he  had  followed  his  precepts  for  more  than 
forty  years  after  his  death.' 1 

The  old  Commentator  in  his  strenuous  work  had  helped 
much  abler  men  than  faithful  John  Brangwin.  Cardinal 
Newman,  as  an  undergraduate,  spoke  of  Scott  as  '  the  man 
to  whom,  humanly  speaking,  I  almost  owe  my  soul ' ;  he 
first  planted  deep  in  Newman's  mind  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity — and  this  disciple,  who  found  salvation  along  a 
widely  different  road,  always  praised  Scott's  '  bold  un- 
worldliness,  and  vigorous  independence  of  mind  ',  and  sums 
up  his  spirit  in  the  maxims  '  Holiness  before  peace '  and 
'  Growth  is  the  evidence  of  Life '.  Another  great  thinker 
who  differed  as  widely  from  Newman,  as  Newman  did  from 


206  SCOTT  THE  COMMENTATOR 

Scott,  the  Judge,  Sir  James  Stephen,  ranked  his  writing  in  its 
deep  sincerity  as  '  the  greatest  theological  work  of  our  age 
and  country  '.  His  Commentary  was  a  mine  freely  worked 
by  later  Evangelical  writers,  and  '  formed  the  basis  of  the 
devotional  study  of  the  Scriptures  for  two  generations  of 
Englishmen '. 

When  Thomas  Scott  died,  in  1821,  Aston-Sandford  Church 
was  far  too  small  to  hold  the  sorrowing  crowds  that  had 
assembled  there ;  they  moved  on  to  the  next  parish,  and 
Daniel  Wilson,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Calcutta,  preached  his 
funeral  sermon  in  Mr.  King's  large  church  at  Haddenham. 

At  Gawcott,  the  third  son,  little  Gilbert,  was  not  specially 
considered  in  the  large  family  circle  at  the  Parsonage,  and 
was  left  to  grow  up  much  as  he  pleased,  with  the  happiest 
results.  The  hamlet  had  long  been  neglected,  only  a  name 
and  a  few  stones  in  a  field  recalled  the  fact  that  Gawcott 
had  once  had  a  chapel.  An  excellent  man,  John  West,  who 
had  made  his  money  as  a  lace-buyer,  consulted  the  elder 
Thomas  Scott  in  the  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century 
about  building  a  church  in  his  native  village.  He  had 
infinite  difficulties  to  overcome,  and  opposition  even  from 
the  Bishop,  but  at  last  a  little  church  was  built  and  conse- 
crated. Sir  Gilbert,  who  was  to  do  so  much  hereafter  to 
create  quite  a  different  standard  of  taste,  describes  it  as 
'  absurdly  unecclesiastical,  with  a  roof  sloping  all  ways, 
and  a  belfry  such  as  one  sees  over  the  stables  of  a  country 
house.  The  pulpit  occupied  the  middle  of  the  south  side, 
the  pews  facing  it  from  N."E.  and  West,  the  font  was  a  wash- 
hand  stand  with  a  white  basin  '.  Thomas  Scott,  the  younger, 
was  the  first  perpetual  curate  of  the  new  church,  and  he 
hired  the  Vicarage  at  Buckingham,  where  the  Vicar  was 
non-resident.  Later  on  he  collected  money  to  build  a 
Vicarage,  and  to  rebuild  John  West's  church,  which  showed 
signs  of  falling  to  pieces  after  some  twenty-five  years,  and 
himself  designed  the  present  edifice.  His  boy  stood  watch- 
ing the  foundations  being  put  in,  and  remembered  his  father 
telling  a  friend  he  was  about  to  apprentice  Gilbert  to  an 
architect ;  the  friend's  remark  that  he  would  no  doubt  rise 
to  the  head  of  his  profession,  and  his  father's  quick  reply, 
'  Oh,  no,  his  abilities  are  not  sufficient  for  that.'  Happily 
the  boy  had  better  models  within  reach  than  Gawcott 


Geo.  Richmond  del. 


SIR  GILBERT  SCOTT,  R.A. 


SCOTT  THE  AECHITECT  209 

Church ;  he  constantly  visited  the  fine  perpendicular 
churches  at  Hillesden  and  Maids  Morton,  and  brooded  over 
them.  At  Tingewick  he  found  some  interesting  Norman 
work,  and  Chetwode  Church  was  a  revelation  to  him  of 
Early  English  architecture. 

As  quite  a  little  boy  he  was  intensely  happy,  wandering 
about  alone,  with  his  pencil  and  sketch-book,  loving  Gothic 
architecture  by  instinct,  without  any  idea  that  it  could  ever 
be  used  again.  An  early  love  of  pictures,  engravings,  and 
sculpture  was  fostered  by  visits  to  Stowe,  before  any  of  its 
art  treasures  had  been  dispersed  at  the  sale  in  1848 ;  the 
children  were  allowed  to  drive  up  the  avenue  with  their 
mother,  in  a  baker's  cart,  their  father  riding  alongside  ;  and 
to  picnic  in  the  Grecian  Temple  of  Concord  and  Victory. 

Buckingham  possessed  at  that  time  in  Mr.  Jones  a  re- 
markable art-master,  but  of  so  humble  and  unambitious 
a  character  that  he  failed  to  do  any  high-class  work  of  his 
own.  He  had  been  sent  up  to  the  Royal  Academy  in  his 
youth  by  some  of  the  Stowe  family,  and  had  been  much 
noticed  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds — a  proud  memory  for  all 
his  later  years  of  affectionate  retrospect.  Mr.  Jones's  visits 
twice  a  week  were  the  great  events  of  Gilbert  Scott's  boy- 
hood. He  sat  watching  the  garden-path  till  he  could  see 
'  with  heart-felt  joy,  his  master's  loose  drab  gaiters  through 
the  bushes ',  and  they  would  go  off  together  to  sketch  the 
porch  or  the  stair-turret  at  Hillesden. 

^Gawcott  was  full  of  '  odd,  quaint  characters  ',  well  known 
and  liked  by  the  Vicar's  children.  There  was  Mr.  Law  the 
'  perpetual  churchwarden ',  who  lined  the  plate  after 
charity  sermons  with  a  one-pound  note  out  of  his  well- 
filled  breeches  pockets  ;  the  old  yeoman,  Benjamin  Warr, 
with  his  sturdy  wife  and  twenty  children,  the  sons  six  feet 
high,  who  made  a  brave  show  in  church  in  their  big,  square 
pew  ;  John  Walker,  of  Lenborough,  the  best  dairy  farmer, 
yeomanry-cavalier,  singer,  and  Christian  gentleman  of  the 
country-side,  more  than  once  mayor  of  Buckingham  ;  there 
was  Tom  O'Gawcott,  a  converted  prize-fighter ;  and  some 
mad  people,  who  were  soothed — like  King  Saul — by  the 
strains  of  the  village  fiddler.  One  of  them,  an  old  soldier, 
Cracky  Meads,  was  always  ready  to  show  '  how  fields  were 
won '  with  a  bayonet  he  kept  under  his  bed,  to  the  terror 

986-4  O 


210  SCOTT  THE  ARCHITECT 

and  delight  of  the  children.  There  were  well-known  and 
accepted  poachers,  especially  a  tailor,  who  was  ever  ready 
to  oblige  the  Vicar's  lady  with  a  hare.  When  the  Vicar 
first  came,  full  of  missionary  zeal,  to  reconnoitre  the  parish, 
he  found  a  large  hole  dug  across  the  road,  and  the  men 
sitting  round  it,  baiting  a  badger.  All  the  women  and  girls 
made  lace ;  there  was  a  vertical  post  in  the  cottages, 
revolving  on  an  axis,  with  a  wooden  arm,  to  which  baby 
children  were  secured,  so  that  they  could  run  round  and 
round  the  kitchen,  while  the  mother  slaved  at  her  lace- 
pillow.  Mr.  West,  the  church-builder,  shared  one  room 
with  his  servants,  all  helping  themselves  out  of  one  dish  at 
dinner,  placed  in  the  middle  of  a  round  table.  One  old 
'  peasant-lady ',  Nanny  White,  kept  a  maid,  and  lived 
almost  in  state,  and  when  the  Vicarage  children  went  to  tea 
with  her  once  a  year,  they  were  made  to  sit  on  old  high- 
backed  chairs  with  twisted  pillars  and  cane  backs,  which 
came  from  the  sale  of  the  second  great  house  at  Hillesden, 
built  after  the  siege,  which  had  just  been  bought  and  pulled 
down  by  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  to  little  Gilbert's 
intense  regret. 

An  old  man  kept  a  small  private  school  in  Gawcott ; 
most  of  the  people  could  read,  they  had  large  gardens,  and 
fat  sides  of  bacon  hung  in  the  wood  smoke  of  their  wide 
old  cottage  chimneys. 

Gilbert  Scott  left  Gawcott,  without  regret,  at  fourteen, 
quite  unconscious  of  the  deep  impression  these  village 
scenes  had  made  on  his  memory.  After  a  hard  apprentice- 
ship to  the  most  uncongenial  styles  of  architecture,  he 
suddenly  lost  his  father,  and  soon  after  received  a  com- 
mission to  build  several  of  the  Union  Workhouses  required 
under  the  new  Poor  Law  Act  in  1834,  of  which  two  were  at 
Buckingham  and  Amersham. 

His  eldest  sister  was  married  to  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Oldrid, 
who  succeeded  their  father  at  Gawcott,  and  it  was  in  his 
old  home  that  Gilbert  Scott  met  the  cousin,  Carry  Oldrid, 
whom  he  married  in  1838.  Some  arduous  years  of  dis- 
tasteful commissions  followed,  when  workhouses  and  cheap 
churches  in  the  debased  art  of  the  time  were  all  that  the 
nation  asked  of  this  great  artist. 

But  the  seed  sown  at  Hillesden  and  Maids  Morton  was 


SCOTT  THE  ARCHITECT  211 

yet  to  yield  a  harvest ;  in  1844  Scott  achieved  a  European 
reputation  by  winning  the  open  competition  for  a  great 
church  at  Hamburg,  with  designs  in  fourteenth-century 
German  Gothic.  The  Oxford  Movement,  which  gradually 
brought  about  a  revulsion  of  feeling  against  the  half -pagan 
Georgian  churches,  and  a  reverent  admiration  of  mediaeval 
services  and  architecture,  found  an  interpreter  in  this 
truly  Christian  architect.  From  1845  to  the  end  of  his  life 
in  1878,  designs  for  new  buildings,  restorations,  and  reports 
were  constantly  required  of  him.  In  the  great  days  of  his 
fame  he  gave  of  his  best  towards  the  restoration  of  many 
Bucks  churches.  He  saved  the  fine  tower  of  Aylesbury 
Church,  which  was  ready  to  fall,  and  gave  two  small  figures 
of  saints  for  the  south  transept  doorway  ;  he  restored  the 
churches  in  Middle  and  East  Claydon,  Chesham,  Great 
Horwood,  and  others.  He  rejoiced  to  find  everywhere  that 
the  consequence  of  such  restoration  was  always  a  vast 
increase  in  the  number  of  worshippers.  In  Hereford  Cathe- 
dral he  found  a  displaced  monument  to  one  of  his  old 
friends,  the  Dentons  of  Hillesden,  which  he  restored  with 
special  interest,  but  the  work  that  gave  him  the  greatest 
pleasure  was  his  appointment  as  the  architect  in  charge  of 
Westminster  Abbey. 

He  has  himself  told  of  the  restoration  of  Hillesden,  '  a 
church  dearly  loved  by  me,  as  that  which  first  called  forth 
my  reverence  for  architecture  .  .  .  after  nearly  half  a  century 
I  was  called  upon  to  survey  the  dear  old  church,  with 
a  view  to  its  restoration.  Decay,  neglect  and  mutilation 
had  been  silently  doing  their  deadly  work.  I  undertook 
the  work  not  professionally,  but  as  a  labour  of  love.  .  .  . 
I  had  the  privilege  of  myself  replacing  the  exquisite  fan- 
groining  of  the  porch.'  Much  of  the  lost  work  was  restored 
from  the  careful  sketches  Scott  had  made  as  a  boy  of 
eleven,  and  he  found  again  scraps  of  stone -mouldings  which 
he  had  himself  hidden  away  in  order  to  preserve  them. 
The  thought  of  the  beautiful  building,  whose  existence  was 
indefinitely  prolonged  by  his  care,  was  one  of  the  enduring 
joys  of  his  life.  In  1872  he  completed  the  Albert  Memorial, 
and  was  knighted  by  Queen  Victoria  ;  he  felt  that  this 
recognition  lost  half  its  value  as  his  beloved  wife  could  no 
longer  share  it  with  him.  In  the  spring  of  1878,  in  the 

o  2 


212  SCOTT  THE  ARCHITECT 

midst  of  much  important  work,  with  which  his  sons  were 
helping  him,  Sir  Gilbert  Scott's  health  failed  rather  suddenly. 
In  his  last  hours  his. mind  went  back  to  Gawcott,  and  he 
remembered  Mr.  Churchwarden  Law  dining  one  Sunday  at 
the  Vicarage,  and  the  delight  of  the  children  when,  confused 
with  many  cruets,  he  solemnly  sprinkled  his  meat  with 
sugar  ! 

It  seems  a  far  cry  from  Gawcott  to  Westminster,  but  it 
was  in  the  Abbey  that  the  great  Bucks  architect  was  fitly 
laid  to  rest.  Dean  Stanley,  in  his  sympathetic  sermon, 
spoke  of  him  as  '  one  of  those  just,  gentle,  guileless  souls 
who  in  their  lives  have  lifted  and  in  their  memories  may 
still  lift,  our  souls  upwards.  It  has  been  said  that  it  was 
by  a  strange  irony  of  fate  that  the  great  leader  in  the  revival 
of  mediaeval  architecture  should  have  been  the  grandson 
of  that  venerable  commentator  who  belonged  to  the  revival 
of  evangelical  religion.  Yet  in  fact  ...  it  was  a  fitting 
continuity  ...  in  the  deep  sense  of  inward  religion,  that 
simple  faith  in  the  Great  Unseen,  the  grandson  who  multi- 
plied and  disclosed  the  secrets  of  the  visible  sanctuaries  of 
God  throughout  the  land,  was  not  an  unworthy  descendant 
of  the  grandfather  who  endeavoured,  according  to  the  light 
of  his  time,  to  draw  forth  the  mysteries  of  the  Book  of 
Books.' 

1  Sir  Gilbert  Scott,  Recollections  of  my  Life. 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
BENJAMIN  DISRAELI,  EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD 

BENJAMIN  DISRAELI  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  most 
notable  figure  in  Bucks  during  the  Victorian  era. 

His  career  exhibited  very  dramatic  contrasts.  The 
county  which  was  so  greatly  to  honour  him  in  middle  life, 
would  have  none  of  him  in  youth.  In  Bucks  he  received 
the  first  buffets  and  humiliations  which  beset  the  opening 
of  a  career  that  threatened  to  be  only  whimsical,  eccentric, 
and  vain.  In  Bucks  his  genius  and  patience  won  him 


EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD  213 

a  safe  seat  in  Parliament,  which  he  held  as  Prime  Minister 
of  England.  From  Bucks  he  took  his  title  as  a  peer,  and 
it  was  here,  rather  than  in  Westminster  Abbey,  that  he 
chose  to  be  laid  to  rest.  From  his  grave  at  Hughenden 
sprang  the  Primrose  League  that  has  done  so  much  to 
keep  his  memory  green.  Queen  Victoria  sent  a  wreath 
of  primroses  to  his  funeral  inscribed  as  being  '  his  favourite 
flower '. 

Lord  Beaconsfield's  father,  Isaac  d'Israeli,  was  an 
antiquary  and  bookworm,  who,  honourably  preferring 
scholarship  and  poetry  to  money-making,  abandoned  the 
counting-house  in  which  he  had  been  started.  Before  he 
was  thirty  he  published  a  book,  Curiosities  of  Literature, 
which  at  once  made  him  a  name.  Descended  from  a  long 
line  of  Spanish  Jews,  Isaac  d'Israeli  wished  to  be  con- 
sidered an  Englishman,  and  had  his  son  (born  in  1804) 
baptized  into  the  Church  of  England.  But  the  prejudice 
against  the  Jews,  who  were  still  excluded  from  English 
public  life,  was  not  lightly  to  be  got  rid  of,  and  Mrs. 
d'Israeli  would  not  risk  the  ill-treatment  her  son  might 
meet  with  at  Eton  or  Oxford.  Benjamin  was  therefore 
brought  up  mainly  at  home  ;  he  often  worked  twelve  hours 
a  day,  devouring  books,  conscious  of  great  powers,  and 
passionately  ambitious  to  use  them.  Isaac  d'Israeli 
bought  the  fine  Elizabethan  Manor  House  at  Bradenham, 
among  pleasant  beech  woods  and  breezy  commons.  There 
is  a  story  that  Benjamin,  aged  fourteen,  walking  home 
with  another  boy  to  Bradenham  by  moonlight,  confided  to 
him  that  he  meant  '  to  get  himself  talked  about,  to  write 
a  book,  to  make  speeches,  to  get  into  Parliament  and  become 
a  Privy  Councillor  '.  His  friend  told  him  not  to  talk  such 
nonsense. 

In  early  manhood  Benjamin  Disraeli  published  an 
audacious  and  sparkling  novel,  Vivian  Grey,  the  hero  of 
which  was  admittedly  his  own  portrait,  and  he  succeeded 
admirably  '  in  getting  himself  talked  about '.  The  '  per- 
fumed boy-exquisite  who  forced  his  way  into  the  saloons 
of  peeresses  '  was  always  the  subject  of  remark  ;  '  men  held 
aloof  but  observant  women  prophesied  that  he  had  the 
makings  in  him  of  a  great  man.'  The  next  item  of  his 
boyish  programme  was  harder  to  achieve.  In  1832  there 


214  BENJAMIN  DISRAELI 

was  a  vacancy  in  the  neighbouring  borough.  Young 
Disraeli  '  drove  into  High  Wycombe  in  an  open  carriage 
and  four,  his  hair  was  in  long  black  curls,  and  he  was 
dressed  with  his  usual  exuberance  of  laced  shirt,  flowered 
waistcoat  and  coat  with  a  pink  lining  '  ;  his  opponent,  son 
of  Lord  Grey,  the  Prime  Minister,  had  arrived  on  his  first 
visit ;  Disraeli  seized  the  opportunity  for  an  impromptu 
address.  '  All  Wycombe  was  assembled,'  he  wrote  to  his 
sister ;  '  I  jumped  upon  the  portico  of  the  Red  Lion  and 
gave  it  them  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter,  I  can  give  you  no 
idea  of  the  effect ;  a  great  many  absolutely  cried  ...  all  the 
women  are  on  my  side  and  wear  my  colours  pink  and 
white.' l  Colonel  Grey  himself  confessed  he  had  never 
heard  a  finer  command  of  words  ;  they  certainly  did  not 
lack  force.  Standing  as  a  Radical,  he  described  the  Whigs 
as  '  that  rapacious,  tyrannical  and  incapable  faction,  who 
having  knavishly  obtained  power  by  false  pretences,  sillily 
suppose  that  they  will  be  permitted  to  retain  it  by  half 
measures '.  Mr.  Disraeli  was  badly  beaten,  and  made  an 
angry  speech  when  the  poll  closed  ;  Colonel  Grey  was 
chaired  round  the  town  with  musical  honours.  This  was 
the  first  of  three  exasperating  defeats  in  the  same  borough. 
When,  in  1837  (as  the  Tory  member  for  Maidstone),  Disraeli's 
first  florid  speech  in  the  House  was  greeted  with  scornful 
derision,  there  was  '  something  absolutely  heroic  in  the  alert 
defiance  '  with  which  the  new  member  faced  the  cruel  storm 
of  laughter.  '  I  shall  sit  down  now,'  he  said,  '  but  the  time 
will  come  when  you  will  hear  me.'  His  chief,  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  called  it  '  anything  but  a  failure  ',  and  said  that 
Disraeli  was  bound  to  make  his  way.  He  was  clever 
enough  to  take  a  friend's  advice  that  he  should  get  rid  of  his 
genius  for  a  session,  speak  shortly,  and  try  to  be  dull. 

Two  years  later,  in  1839,  he  married  a  rich  widow, 
Mrs.  Wyndham  Lewis,  much  older  than  himself.  Disraeli 
describes  their  first  meeting,  when  he  thought  her  the 
greatest  talker  he  had  ever  known,  a  perfect  '  rattle  ',l 
and  she  told  him  that  she  liked  '  silent,  melancholy  men  '  ; 
but  this  oddly  assorted  couple  became  entirely  devoted 
to  each  other,  and  enjoyed  the  happiest  married  life  for 
thirty-three  years.  His  great  interest  in  social  questions 
inspired  more  novels  ;  in  Coningsby  he  treated  of  the 


EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD  215 

hardships  of  the  peasantry  under  the  new  poor-law ;  in 
Sybil  his  vivid  pictures  of  the  misery  and  squalor  of  the 
workers  in  towns  did  much  to  promote  the  Factory  Acts, 
and  to  hasten  reform. 

In  1847  he  at  length  represented  Bucks  in  Parliament, 
and  retained  the  seat  as  long  as  he  wished  to  keep  it. 
There  was  still  some  horse-play,  but  the  laugh  was  now  on 
his  side.  At  one  Bucks  election  a  man  in  the  crowd  shouted 
'  speak  louder  and  quicker  '  ;  he  stopped,  and  singling  the 
man  out,  said  very  deliberately,  '  I  must  speak  slowly  to 
drive  what  I  have  to  say  into  your  thick  head.'  '  You  've 
got  it  now,  Joe,'  said  the  crowd,  and  there  were  no  more 
interruptions.  A  small  house  with  one  field  called  Hatch- 
man's,  in  the  Hambleden  valley,  is  pointed  out  as  giving 
Disraeli  his  first  title  to  a  vote  in  the  county. 

He  was  familiarly  known  as  '  Dizzy  ',  the  possession  of 
a  nickname  being  a  sure  sign  of  popularity.  He  was  as 
indifferent  to  wealth  as  he  was  greedy  of  fame,  but  his 
wife's  fortune  and  her  careful  economies,  with  the  devotion 
of  his  friends,  relieved  him  from  any  financial  anxiety,  and 
he  could  in  his  later  life  command  large  sums  of  money  for 
his  novels. 

When  forming  his  Government  as  Premier  in  1874, 
Disraeli  gave  the  post  of  Secretary  to  the  Treasury  to 
Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  who  by  his  purchase  of  Greenlands,  the 
old  house  of  Bulstrode  Whitelock,  had  become  a  Bucks 
country  gentleman  like  his  chief.  In  1877  Smith  Joined 
the  Cabinet  as  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  an  appointment 
which  showed  Disraeli's  discernment  of  character.  No  two 
men  could  be  more  unlike,  Smith  was  as  slow  and  deliberate 
as  the  Premier  was  brilliant  and  dramatic  ;  Punch's 
affectionate  nickname  for  Smith  of  'Old  Morality',  expressed 
the  reputation  for  integrity  and  good  sense  which  he  had 
acquired.  The  Rt.  Hon.  W.  H.  Smith  became  Leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons  and  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  and  was 
locally  a  great  benefactor  to  South  Bucks  ;  he  will  be  re- 
membered not  only  as  a  politician  of  stainless  character,  but 
as  a  promoter  and  distributor  of  the  cheap  and  wholesome 
literature  in  railway  bookstalls  and  circulating  libraries, 
by  which  so  many  readers  have  been  created.  After  his 
death  in  1891,  which  was  hastened  by  strenuous  devotion  to 


216  BENJAMIN  DISRAELI 

public  work,  his  widow  was  made  Viscountess  Hambleden, 
with  remainder  to  his  heirs. 

Disraeli's  political  career,  his  unfailing  skill  and  good 
humour  in  opposition,  his  policy  as  Prime  Minister  from 
1874  to  1880,  belong  to  the  larger  history  of  England  ;  but 
two  points  must  still  be  mentioned,  his  life  as  the  Squire 
of  Hughenden,  and  his  friendship  with  his  Sovereign, 
'  which  none  of  his  predecessors  or  successors  have  ever 
approached.' 

On  his  father's  death  in  1848  he  succeeded  to  Bradenham, 
and  he  had  purchased  the  adjoining  estate  and  house  of 
Hughenden,  from  whose  doors  he  had  been  rudely  shut 
out  in  his  young  electioneering  days,  and  where  he  was 
later  to  receive  Queen  Victoria  as  his  guest.  He  loved  the 
historical  associations  of  Hughenden,  and  the  monuments 
in  the  church  ;  he  was  fond  of  telling  how  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort  lived  there,  and  had  come  out  from  this  house  to 
compel  King  John  to  jjjgj^Magna  Carta.  He  revived  the 
arms  and  motto  of  EisSpanish  ancestors  '  Forti  nihil 
difficile '. 

He  was  fond  of  Bucks  and  proud  of  the  place  the  county 
filled  in  history ;  he  would  relate  how  the  great  rebellion 
4  was  hatched  in  these  hills,  and  whatever  evidence  of  it 
still  existed  in  the  bosom  of  the  Chilterns,  was  carefully 
removed  when  the  Stuarts  reappeared  upon  the  scene  '. 
Mrs.  Disraeli  loved  to  tell  her  guests  of  his  favourite  flowers, 
of  his  great  love  for  trees,  and  birds,  specially  the  garden 
songsters,  the  thrush,  the  black-cap,  the  goldfinch,  and  the 
whole  tribe  of  warblers,  and  how  he  could  not  bear  to  see 
a  dead  bird  or  a  fallen  tree. 

'  The  calm  of  satisfied  ambition '  was  saddened  in  his 
later  years  by  the  loss  of  the  wife  who  had  loved  him  so  well.1 
'  His  chief  pleasure  was  to  be  at  Hughenden  and  often 
alone.2  He  would  wander  through  the  park  or  the  Braden- 
ham woods,  which  in  his  youth  had  been  the  scene  of  so 
many  ambitious  and  moody  meditations.  His  trees,  his 
peacocks,  his  swans,  his  lake  and  chalk  stream  were  full 
of  the  memories  of  his  married  life.  The  cedars  in  his 
garden  were  raised  from  seed  that  he  himself  had  brought 
from  Palestine.  He  was  on  pleasant  terms  with  his  tenants 
and  labourers,  he  visited  them  in  their  cottages,  and  was 


Lockharl  Bogle  pinx. 
LORD  BEACONSFIELD 
From  the  picture  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD  219 

specially  kind  to  old  people  and  to  little  children.  He 
would  never  allow  that  Bucks  labourers  were  stolid  ;  he 
called  them  '  a  stalwart  race,  shrewd,  and  open  to  reason  '.2 
No  dust-heaps,  or  cess-pools,  choked  drains  or  damp  floors 
were  to  be  seen  on  his  property.  To  such  matters  he  looked 
with  his  own  eyes,  and  said  he  was  never  so  happy  as 
when  left  to  himself  in  these  occupations.  Three  things  he 
said  were  necessary  to  a  good  cottage — an  oven,  a  tank,  and 
a  porch.  He  was  careful  never  to  let  game  be  a  grievance, 
and  the  farmers  willingly  preserved  for  him  ;  he  was  a 
familiar  figure  among  them  in  his  leather  gaiters,  with 
a  spud  in  his  hand.  His  witty  and  satirical  sayings  were 
caught  up  and  quoted ;  as  when  he  said  that  "  an  insular 
country  subject  to  fogs,  and  with  a  powerful  middle  class, 
required  grave  statesmen  ",  or  described  the  elderly  occu- 
pants of  the  Liberal  Front  Bench  as  "extinct  volcanoes".' 

In  his  last  novel  of  Endymion,  which  brought  him  in 
£10,000,  he  amused  himself  by  describing,  under  the  name 
of  Hurstfield,  the  old  hall  at  Bradenham,  with  its  gable 
ends  and  lattice  windows,  its  huge  wrought  iron  gates, 
'  the  sylvan  beauty  of  the  old  chase,  and  the  romantic 
villages  in  the  wooded  clefts  of  the  downs.  The  clumps  of 
fine  beech-trees,  and  the  juniper  which  rose  to  a  great 
height,  gave  a  rich  wildness  to  the  scene,  and  sustained  its 
forest  character.' 

'  The  leader  of  the  country  gentlemen,  he  aspired  to  be 
a  country  gentleman  himself,  to  be  a  magistrate  to  sit  in 
top  boots  at  Quarter  Sessions  and  manage  local  business.'  x 
At  the  magistrates'  dinners  his  conversation  was  racy  and 
original,  he  took  pains  to  be  kind  and  charming,  and  to 
draw  out  new  men.  He  was  a  great  believer  in  youth, 
he  considered  that  '  Extreme  youth  coupled  with  cere- 
monious manners  '  was  the  best  recommendation  for  a 
rising  politician  ;  and  he  said  more  seriously — '  We  live  in 
an  age  when  to  be  young  and  to  be  indifferent  can  be  no 
longer  synonymous.  We  must  prepare  for  the  coming 
hour.  The  claims  of  the  Future  are  represented  by  suffer- 
ing millions,  and  the  Youth  of  a  Nation  are  the  Trustees 
of  Posterity.'  His  speeches  at  Bucks  agricultural  dinners 
were  read  all  over  England  with  delight,  when  in  his 
character  as  a  Bucks  farmer,  turnips  and  high  politics  were 


220  BENJAMIN  DISRAELI, 

deftly  combined.  The  impersonation  was  very  literally 
carried  out.  Mr.  Fowler,  a  devoted  admirer,  has  told  us 
how  startled  the  county  people  were  to  see  '  their  beloved 
M.P.  entering  the  showyard  in  full  panoply  of  agricultural 
mail ...  in  a  brown  velveteen  shooting-coat  with  a  flapping 
waistcoat,  with  long  dark  brown  leather  gaiters  drawn 
over  his  black  trousers,  a  black  billy-cock  hat,  and  a  blue 
bird's-eye  silk  handkerchief  tied  loosely  round  his  neck, 
he  carried  a  thick  spud  in  his  hand.  Every  one  was  scream- 
ing with  laughter,  as  the  genuine  Bucks  farmers  were  dressed 
in  the  best  modern  style  '.2  Something  of  a  theatrical  taste 
in  dress  clung  to  this  remarkable  man  to  the  last. 

In  1880,  when  Mr.  Disraeli  had  been  made  a  peer  after 
bringing  back  '  Peace  with  Honour '  from  Berlin,  he  had  an 
enthusiastic  reception  at  Aylesbury  on  the  eve  of  a  general 
election.  The  crowds  round  the  George  Hotel  and  the  Corn 
Exchange  were  so  dense  that  his  friends  endeavoured  to 
take  him  in  by  a  back  way,  but  every  door  was  bolted 
and  barred,  and  Lord  Beaconsfield  asked,  with  a  twinkle  in 
his  eye,  '  Have  you  no  experienced  burglar  about  here  ?  ' 
At  last  a  gentleman  stole  an  iron  meat  hook  from  the 
butchers'  market,  and  wrenched  open  the  door,  and  in  this 
way  the  Prime  Minister  entered  to  make  a  great  speech. 
There  was  wild  enthusiasm  inside  as  soon  as  he  was  recog- 
nized, political  friends  and  foes  vied  with  each  other  to 
make  the  old  man  welcome  ;  but  the  result  of  the  elections 
was  to  drive  him  from  office  for  the  last  time.. 

Lord  Beaconsfield's  friendship  with  Queen  Victoria  was 
a  remarkable  chapter  in  both  their  lives.  He  first  showed 
his  sympathy  with  the  queen  by  a  speech  hi  the  House 
of  Commons  on  the  death  of  the  Prince  Consort,  '  She  who 
reigns  over  us,'  he  said,  '  has  elected  amid  all  the  splendours 
of  Empire  to  establish  her  life  on  the  principles  of  domestic 
love.'  When  he  became  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
the  queen,  to  show  her  sympathy  with  the  Government, 
consented  to  open  Parliament  in  person.  His  opinion  of  the 
crown's  relation  to  foreign  affairs  exactly  coincided  with 
her  own.  '  He  did  what  no  other  Minister  in  the  reign  suc- 
ceeded in  doing,  hi  private  talk  with  her  he  amused  her, 
as  his  social  charm  lightened  the  routine  of  state  business. 
He  briefly  informed  her  of  the  progress  of  affairs,  but  did 


EARL  OF  BEACONSFIELD  221 

not  overwhelm  her  with  details.'  In  one  of  his  trenchant 
phrases  he  compared  his  relations  with  the  queen  with  those 
of  his  great  predecessor — '  Gladstone  treats  the  Queen  like 
a  public  department,  I  treat  her  like  a  woman.'  In  1876 
Disraeli  introduced  the  Royal  Titles  Bill  proclaiming  the 
queen  Empress  of  India.  The  queen  loved  her  Indian 
subjects,  and  the  new  title  pleased  her  extremely.  In 
the  following  August  she  honoured  her  minister  by  paying 
him  a  visit  with  Princess  Beatrice,  in  circumstances  of  much 
publicity.  The  queen  passed  under  an  arch  of  chairs, 
the  Mayor  of  Wycombe  presented  an  address  of  welcome  ; 
she  remained  at  Hughenden  for  two  hours  and  planted 
a  tree  on  the  lawn. 

A  pretty  story  is  told  of  Lord  Beaconsfield  in  old  age, 
which  was  current  about  1878.3  '  Sitting  at  dinner  by  the 
Princess  of  Wales  (Alexandra)  he  was  trying  to  cut  a  hard 
dinner-roll.  The  knife  slipped  and  cut  his  finger,  which 
the  Princess,  with  her  natural  grace,  instantly  wrapped  up 
in  her  handkerchief.  The  old  gentleman  gave  a  dramatic 
groan  and  exclaimed,  "When  I  asked  for  bread  they  gave 
me  a  stone,  but  I  had  a  Princess  to  bind  my  wounds." 

The  queen  called  him  to  the  peerage  as  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field,  and  in  1878  gave  him  the  Order  of  the  Garter.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  died  in  London,  April  19,  1881.  His  funeral 
in  Hughenden  churchyard  was  a  memorable  occasion. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  and  Prince  Leopold,  cabinet  ministers, 
ambassadors,  and  county  magnates  mingled  with  the 
villagers  who  truly  mourned  his  loss.  Four  days  later  some 
distant  neighbours,  who  had  driven  over  to  pay  a  last 
tribute  of  respect,  found  that  the  queen  herself  had  come 
down  that  afternoon  privately,  to  lay  a  wreath  of  white 
camellias  on  the  grave  of  him  whom  she  called  '  my  dear, 
great  friend '.  She  set  up  a  memorial  tablet  to  him  in 
Hughenden  church,  with  an  inscription  of  her  own  penning, 
and  the  text  '  Kings  love  him  that  speaketh  right '. 

The  queen  wrote  to  an  intimate  friend — '  His  devotion 
and  kindness  to  me,  his  wise  counsels,  his  great  gentleness 
combined  with  firmness  ;  his  one  thought  of  the  honour 
and  glory  of  the  country,  and  his  unswerving  loyalty  to 
the  throne,  make  the  death  of  my  dear  Lord  Beaconsfield 
a  national  calamity — and  my  grief  is  great  and  lasting.' 


222  THE  ROTHSCHILDS 

During  the  lifetime  of  Disraeli,  another  Jewish  family 
settled  in  Bucks,  whose  influence  in  the  county  has  been 
even  more  enduring  and  far-reaching  than  his  own,  the 
great  financial  house  of  the  Rothschilds. 

The  banker,  whose  family  controlled  the  finance  of 
Europe,  Lionel  Nathan  de  Rothschild,  had  to  fight  for 
eleven  years,  with  the  help  of  Lord  John  Russell,  for  the 
right  of  a  Jew  to  sit  in  the  English  Parliament.  He  gained 
his  cause  at  last,  and  bought  much  property  in  the  county. 
His  eldest  son,  Baron  de  Rothschild,  is  our  Lord- Lieutenant, 
and  the  generous  supporter  of  all  county  institutions  ;  his 
cousin  and  son-in-law,  Baron  Ferdinand,  bought  the  Wad- 
desdon  estate,  became  member  for  Aylesbury,  and  often 
entertained  King  Edward  VII  at  Waddesdon  Manor;  his 
grandson,  Mr.  Lionel  de  Rothschild,  is  member  for  Mid 
Bucks. 

By  the  marriage  of  the  Earl  of  Rosebery  with  Miss 
Hannah  de  Rothschild,  the  heiress  of  Mentmore,  Bucks 
numbers  amongst  her  landowners  yet  another  Prime 
Minister,  and  a  most  brilliant  writer  and  speaker. 

In  1851  a  cousin,  Sir  Anthony,  bought  the  estate  and 
rebuilt  the  house  of  Aston  Clinton  ;  he  was  High  Sheriff  of 
Bucks  in  1861.  His  wife,  Louisa  Lady  de  Rothschild,  sur- 
vived till  1910,  in  full  possession  of  her  remarkable  faculties 
to  her  ninetieth  year. 

The  Rt.  Hon.  George  W.  E.  Russell,  sometime  member 
for  Aylesbury,  continuing  the  friendship  between  his 
family  and  hers,  has  written  a  sketch  of  this  beloved  lady 
from  which  he  allows  a  quotation.4  '  Both  in  London  and  at 
Aston  Clinton,  Sir  Anthony  and  Lady  de  Rothschild 
exercised  a  varied  and  brilliant  hospitality,  in  which  what 
was  merely  fashionable  was  agreeably  relieved  by  the 
presence  of  such  men  as  Disraeli,  and  Bishop  Wilberforce, 
Thackeray  .  .  .  Robert  Lowe,  Delane,  and  Matthew  Arnold. 
The  mention  of  Thackeray's  name  suggests  a  pleasant 
reminiscence  of  that  really  kind-hearted  man.  Lady  de 
Rothschild  once  remonstrated  with  him  on  the  con- 
temptuous tone  which  in  his  writings  he  adopted  towards 
the  Jewish  race.  He  promptly  made  amends  by  inserting 
the  following  paragraph  in  the  second  chapter  of  Pendennis  : 
"  I  saw  a  Jewish  lady  only  yesterday,  with  a  child  at  her 


THE  ROTHSCHILDS  223 

knee,  and  from  whose  face  towards  the  child  there  shone 
a  sweetness  so  angelical  that  it  seemed  to  form  a  sort  of 
glory  round  both."  That  child  was  Constance  de  Roths- 
child, afterwards  Lady  Battersea.' 

This  influence  extended  far  beyond  her  own  little  daugh- 
ters ;  Lady  de  Rothschild  was  a  builder  of  schools,  and  a  keen 
promoter  of  education,  she  loved  to  hear  children's  voices 
and  children's  laughter  all  about  her.  '  Her  conversation 
was  like  her  person,  exquisitely  gentle  and  refined  .  .  .  her 
convictions  were  clear  and  resolute.  She  was  gentle  in 
speech,  and  firm  in  action.  She  was  a  life-long  and  en- 
thusiastic Liberal,  a  staunch  Free -Trader  and  an  ardent 
supporter  of  all  movements  which  favoured  National 
Temperance.  ..."  Evil  speaking,  lying  and  slandering," 
vulgar  gossip,  and  malicious  tittle-tattle  could  not  live  in 
her  presence.  She  enthroned  in  the  shrine  of  her  inmost 
heart  the  highest  ideal  of  life  and  duty,  and  that  ideal 
seemed  insensibly  and  unspokenly  to  purify  the  surrounding 
air,  and  to  elevate  the  world  in  which  she  lived.'  This  is 
perhaps  the  finest  instance  one  can  recall,  of  a  beautiful 
soul,  unspoiled  by  '  great  possessions  '. 

1  J.  A.  Froude,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

2  J.  K.  Fowler,  Echoes  of  Old  Country  Life. 

3  Rt.  Hon.  G.  W.  E.  Russell,  Collections  and  Recollections. 

4  Louisa  Lady  de  Rothschild. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS,  YEOMANRY, 
MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS 

AFTER  the  obligations  of  feudal  tenure  had  fallen  into 
disuse,  and  before  the  existence  of  a  standing  army,  the 
gentlemen  of  a  county  still  brought  their  own  retainers 
into  the  field,  or  the  Government  desired  the  Lord- 
Lieutenants  and  their  deputies  to  levy  so  many  men.  Thus, 
in  1588,  the  county  sent  its  contingent  to  Tilbury  for  the 
defence  of  Her  Majesty's  person,  when  the  Spanish  Armada 
was  expected,  and  raised  men  again  in  1599,  when  Borlase, 


224  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

Pigott,  and  Hampden  were  captains  of  the  foot-bands.  In 
1592  thirty  men  were  to  be  chosen  from  Bucks,  sent  to  the 
seaside,  and  shipped  to  Jersey,  to  strengthen  Elizabeth's 
forces  in  Brittany,  under  Sir  John  Norris.  At  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  Philip,  Lord  Wharton,  raised  a  regiment 
for  the  Parliament,  which  fought  at  Edgehill,  but  these  new 
levies  were  no  match  for  the  Cavaliers.  James  II  began 
to  organize  a  regular  army  in  the  great  camp  on  Hounslow 
Heath,  in  1685,  when  the  Earl  of  Huntingdon  raised  the 
13th  Regiment  of  the  Line,  '  composed  of  men  of  Bucking- 
hamshire.' 

Two  regiments  of  foot  more  permanently  associated  with 
the  county  were  the  14th,  founded  by  Sir  Edward  Hales 
in  1685,  and  the  16th,  by  Colonel  Archibald  Douglas  in 
1688.  Both  these  men  suffered  for  their  fidelity  to  King 
James ;  Douglas  was  superseded  in  command  of  the 
Regiment  by  William  III ;  and  Hales,  who  became  a  Roman 
Catholic  and  accompanied  King  James  in  his  first  abortive 
flight,  was  long  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  and  died  in 
France.  His  Regiment,  the  14th,  distinguished  itself  in 
the  defence  of  Gibraltar,  1727,  at  Culloden,  in  North 
America,  and  in  Flanders.  In  a  desperate  fight  at  Famars, 
near  Valenciennes,  in  1793,  with  the  Duke  of  York  in 
command,  the  regiment  was  so  fiercely  attacked  by  the 
French  revolutionary  troops  that  it  fell  back  for  a  moment, 
when  Doyle,  their  colonel,  dashed  to  the  front,  and  calling 
to  the  drummers  who  were  under  fire  to  strike  up  '  Qa  Ira  ', 
the  spirited  revolutionary  song,  he  cried  out,  '  Come  along, 
my  lads,  let's  break  up  the  scoundrels  to  their  own  tune.' 
The  effect  was  irresistible,  '  the  enemy  found  themselves 
running  away  before  they  could  turn  round '  ;  and  in 
General  Orders  after  the  battle,  '  Qa  Ira  '  was  given  to  the 
14th  as  their  own  special  quick  march.  In  an  arduous 
crisis  during  the  siege  of  Valenciennes,  this  same  year,  the 
whole  regiment  volunteered  to  go  to  the  assault ;  and  when 
the  news  reached  Winchester  of  the  capture  of  the  town, 
their  friends  in  the  Bucks  Militia,  who  were  encamped  there, 
fired  volleys  of  joy  in  the  cathedral  yard  to  celebrate  their 
prowess. 

In  praising  men  of  war,  a  famous  Bucks  gunsmith  must 
not  be  forgotten.  John  Griffin  (1692-1766),  blacksmith  in 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS     225 

the  little  village  of  Moulsoe,  was  credited  with  making  the 
best  muskets  and  fowling-pieces  which  could  be  had  ;  they 
sold  for  six  or  seven  guineas.  In  his  less  martial  moments 
Griffin  invented  the  Mortice  Lock  and  a  mould  for  covered 
buttons. 

To  return  to  the  soldiers — the  16th  Foot  had  fought  under 
Marlborough  at  Blenheim,  Ramillies,  and  Malplaquet,  had 
served  in  America  and  the  West  Indies,  and  was  known  as 
the  Bucks  Regiment,  while,  since  1782,  the  14th  had  been 
called  the  Bedfordshire. 

In  1806  Sir  Harry  Calvert  was  made  Colonel  of  the  14th, 
and  the  second  battalion  was  reinforced  by  a  fine  draft  of 
120  volunteers  from  the  Royal  Bucks  Militia.  At  the  same 
time,  General  Wynne  raised  a  famous  regiment  of  horse  in 
Wycombe,  which  town  sent  ninety -six  men  to  the  war  with 
Napoleon,  from  the  borough  and  parish.  The  second 
battalion  of  the  14th  served  in  the  Peninsula  under  Sir  John 
Moore,  and  the  word  '  Corunna '  was  inscribed  on  their 
colours.  When  they  returned  home  the  men  were  collected 
at  Buckingham  and  Aylesbury,  at  their  colonel's  request ; 
were  henceforth  known  as  the  Buckinghamshire  Regiment, 
and  again  received  strong  reinforcements  from  the  county 
militia  ;  the  16th  became  the  Bedfordshire. 

Sir  Harry  Calvert  was  a  zealous  army  reformer,  and  as 
Adjutant-General  from  1799  to  1821,  and  the  intimate 
friend  and  adviser  of  the  Duke  of  York,  he  was  able  to 
accomplish  much.  He  supported  the  plans  of  Colonel  John 
Gaspard  le  Marchant  for  training  Staff  Officers,  then  quite 
a  new  idea.  By  adapting  the  old  Antelope  Inn  at  High 
Wycombe,  a  college  was  started  in  1799,  with  a  Junior 
department  at  Great  Mario w,  under  the  Duke  of  York's 
patronage  ;  and  in  1808  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Kent, 
reviewed  the  young  gentlemen  of  the  Military  Academy 
at  Marlow  ',  a  fine  old  brick  house,  now  the  property  of  the 
Wethered  family. 

In  an  early  Victorian  novel,  Cyril  Thornton,  which  gives 
an  excellent  account  of  army  life  in  the  first  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  hero  is  represented  as  joining  the 
colours  at  Dublin,  and  when  he  is  presented  to  the  Duke 
of  Kent,  a  great  stickler  for  military  correctness,  the  Duke 
asks  him  at  once,  '  Are  you  from  Marlow,  Sir  ?  ' 

986-4  P 


226  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

The  Wycombe  college  did  excellent  service  under  le 
Marchant,  and  trained  over  200  officers  in  nine  years, 
including  many  of  Wellington's  staff ;  the  two  colleges  were 
amalgamated  later,  and  transferred  to  Sandhurst.  General 
le  Marchant  was  killed  at  Salamanca  in  1812,  and  Wellington 
thought  that '  the  success  was  dearly  purchased  by  his  loss  '. 
Two  gallant  young  cavalry  officers  of  Wycombe,  twin- 
brothers,  William  and  Gillespie  White,  fell  in  this  war,  one 
at  Salamanca,  the  other  in  Egypt,  both  holding  the  rank 
of  Deputy  Quartermaster-General ;  they  are  commemo- 
rated in  Wycombe  Church.  Other  Peninsular  veterans 
belonging  to  the  county  were  General  Sir  James  Watson, 
born  at  Chilton,  who  served  under  the  Duke  of  York,  and 
commanded  the  14th  Regiment  at  the  capture  of  lie  de 
France  and  Java,  and  died  at  Wendover  in  1862  ;  General 
Sir  William  Clayton,  of  Harleyford,  who  after  serving  in 
Spain  and  at  Waterloo  was  member  for  Marlow  for  thirteen 
years ;  and  Colonel  Hanmer,  another  of  Wellington's 
officers,  who  was  M.P.  for  Aylesbury,  and  died  in  1868,  at 
the  age  of  eighty. 

We  have  a  lively  account  of  the  share  taken  by  Bucks 
men  in  the  last  campaign  against  Napoleon,  in  the  Recollec- 
tions of  the.  Earl  of  Albemarle,  who,  as  the  youngest  ensign 
in  the  army,  carried  the  colours  of  the  third  battalion 
of  the  Buckinghamshire  Regiment  to  victory  at  Waterloo 
in  1815.  '  Fourteen  of  the  officers  and  300  of  the  men 
were  under  twenty  years  of  age — they  were  Bucks  lads 
fresh  from  the  plough,  called  at  home  "  The  Bucks  ",  but 
nicknamed  "  The  Peasants  ".  Our  Colonel,  Lieutenant- 
General  Sir  Harry  Calvert,  bore  the  name  of  a  celebrated 
brewer,  and  as  the  14th  was  one  of  the  few  regiments  with 
three  battalions,  we  were  also  nicknamed  Calvert's  Entire. 
In  my  C.O.,  Colonel  Tidy,  I  found  a  good-looking  man, 
of  spare  but  athletic  figure,  and  frank,  cheerful,  and  agree- 
able manners  ...  he  was  in  high  spirits  at  having  procured 
for  his  regiment  a  share  in  the  honour  of  the  forthcoming 
campaign.  They  were  drawn  up  in  the  square  at  Brussels 
to  be  inspected  by  an  old  General  Mackenzie,  who  called 
out  to  them,  "  Well,  I  never  saw  such  a  set  of  boys,  both 
officers  and  men  " .  Tidy  asked  him  to  modify  the  expression. 
"  I  should  have  added,"  said  the  veteran,  repeating  the 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS     227 

charge,  "  that  I  never  saw  so  fine  a  set  of  boys,  both  officers 
and  men,"  and  upon  this  he  ordered  the  colonel  to  march 
them  off  the  ground,  to  join  a  brigade  to  garrison  Antwerp. 
Tidy  would  not  budge  a  step  ;  and  Lord  Hill,  happening 
to  pass,  he  appealed  to  him — My  Lord,  were  you  satisfied 
with  the  behaviour  of  the  14th  at  Corunna  ?  Of  course 
I  was,  why  ask  the  question  ?  Because  I  am  sure  you  will 
save  this  fine  regiment  the  disgrace  of  garrison  duty.  The 
duke  himself  was  fetched  to  inspect  the  men,  and  when  they 
left  the  ground  it  was  to  the  colonel's  defiant  word  of 
command — Fourteenth  to  the  front,  quick  march.'2  And 
that  was  how  the  Bucks  lads  got  their  wish  to  share  in  all 
the  honour  and  the  suffering  of  those  memorable  days  ;  so 
well  did  they  bear  themselves  in  this  their  first  trial,  that 
they  were  reported  in  a  divisional  order  as  having  displayed 
1  a  steadiness  and  gallantry  becoming  of  veteran  troops  '  ; 
they  had  the  word  Waterloo  inscribed  on  their  colours.  One 
of  the  first  officers  killed  that  day  was  Colonel  Sir  Francis 
D'Oyley,  a  distinguished  descendant  of  an  old  Bucks 
family,  connected  with  Stone  and  Hambleden. 

A  stranger  after  the  battle  picked  up  a  fragment  of  a  buff 
colour  on  the  field  and  asked  Colonel  Tidy  if  he  had  lost  it. 
'  That  officer,  almost  riding  the  questioner  down  in  his 
wrath,  replied,  No,  Sir,  the  14th  never  lose  their  colours  ! ' 
It  was  remembered  that  the  Marquess  of  Anglesey,  who 
commanded  the  cavalry,  passed  through  Bucks  after  the 
Battle  of  Waterloo,  where  he  had  left  one  leg  behind  him, 
and  slept  at  the  George  Inn  at  Little  Brickhill,  a  busy  hostelry 
in  those  old  coaching  days.  A  few  years  later  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  passed  through  Aylesbury  on  his  way  to  Stowe* 
'  The  third  battalion  of  the  14th  was  disbanded  in  1816  ; 
the  colours  of  the  three  battalions  hang  in  the  hall  at 
Claydon  House.  Sir  Harry  Calvert  died  there  in  1827  ; 
Calvert  station,  in  the  county,  on  the  Great  Central  Railway, 
is  called  after  him. 

In  1825  the  14th  distinguished  themselves  in  India  under 
Lord  Combermere  at  the  siege  of  Bhurtpore,  when  they 
led  one  of  the  wings  of  the  assault,  and  were  chosen  to 
garrison  the  fallen  city.  Matthew  Morris,  of  Winslow,  who 
died  in  1849,  had  taken  part  in  this  siege  and  in  all  the 
battles  in  India  to  the  end  of  that  war. 

p  2 


228  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

The  14th  kept  the  name  of  the  county  till,  under  the 
scheme  of  1881,  it  received  the  title  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's 
Own  West  Yorkshire  Regiment,  and  Bucks  recruits  were 
attached  thenceforward  to  the  Oxfordshire  and  Bucking- 
hamshire Light  Infantry  Regiment,  the  old  52nd. 

The  history  of  the  Bucks  Militia,  Volunteers,  and 
Yeomanry,  is  a  long  and  honourable  one.  There  were  large 
levies  from  the  county  under  five  captains  to  resist  the 
threatened  invasion  of  the  Spanish  Armada  from  1585 
onwards.  There  was  much  mustering  of  the  militias  during 
the  Civil  War,  under  the  Commonwealth,  and  after  the 
Restoration,  in  which  the  gentlemen  of  the  county  took  an 
active  share.  In  the  early  years  of  George  III  there  was 
a  revival  of  the  Militia  at  Aylesbury,  and  John  Wilkes 
became  their  colonel  in  1762,  but  the  next  year  he  was 
dismissed  by  the  king's  desire,  to  the  great  regret  of  his 
brother  officers  and  men,  as  Lord  Temple  expressed  to 
him. 

In  1779,  when  the  French  fleet  was  threatening  our 
coasts,  a  Volunteer  Corps  was  formed  at  Aylesbury  of 
150  light  horsemen.  A  little  later  the  Marquess  of  Bucking- 
ham raised  and  equipped  a  fine  body  of  men, '  to  be  attached 
to  their  own  county  militia  or  to  form  a  separate  corps  in 
case  of  invasion.'  He  gave  the  men  '  brown  cloaks  with 
red  collars  made  in  London,  and  a  leather  roll  as  a  cloak- 
case  with  a  pocket  for  2  shirts — made  in  Buckingham '. 
The  Bucks  Militia  was  the  first  to  volunteer  for  foreign 
service  during  the  French  war,  as  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
reminded  its  successors,  who,  in  1864,  were  taking  part  in 
a  grand  review  at  Stowe,  where  the  old  colours  of  his  grand- 
father's corps  are  preserved. 

The  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  the  way  in 
which  the  victorious  French  armies  were  overrunning  Europe, 
caused  great  enthusiasm  for  the  defence  of  the  country  ;  all 
classes  were  touched  by  it ;  even  the  '  mad  dancing  master 
of  Newport  Pagnell ',  Christopher  Towles,  boasted  that 
young  gentlemen  who  began  to  dance  with  him  at  twelve 
years'  old  were  so  agile  and  intelligent  that  they  mastered 
the  firelock  and  sword-drill  as  recruits  in  a  year,  better  than 
those  who  had  been  a  dozen  years  with  the  colours.  This 
advertisement  delighted  the  poet  Cowper, '  the  author,'  he 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS    229 

writes,  'had  the  good  hap  to  be  crazed,  or  he  had  never 
produced  anything  half  so  clever.' 

Sir  William  Young,  of  Delafude,  Bucks,  whose  father  had 
been  Governor  of  Dominica  in  the  West  Indies,  commanded 
the  1st  Regiment  of  Bucks  Yeomanry,  for  whom  he  pub- 
lished a  book  of  instructions  in  1797,  and  wrote  a  song,  once 
well  known  : 

'  Yeomen  attend,  who  sword  in  hand 
Stand  forth  your  country's  glory.' 

At  the  short-lived  peace  of  Amiens  in  1802  many  Bucks 
volunteers  were  so  imbued  with  the  martial  spirit  that  they 
abandoned  civil  life,  and  joined  the  85th  Regiment,  which 
was  raised  at  Buckingham  in  1793.  The  Bucks  Yeomanry 
attended  the  coronation  of  George  IV  and  the  funeral  of 
the  Duke  of  York. 

Ten  years  later  they  were  needed  for  suppressing  riots  in 
1830  and  1831  ;  they  were  accustomed  to  act  with  the 
hearty  sympathy  of  their  fellow  citizens,  but  in  this  distaste- 
ful task  they  were  hooted  and  assaulted.  At  Oxford  the 
rioters  they  had  taken  prisoners  were  rescued  by  the 
people  at  the  fair ;  and  at  Aylesbury  the  yeomanry  were 
withdrawn  at  3  a.m.  to  avoid  further  provocation.  They 
formed  a  guard  at  Wotton  House  and  at  Waddesdon,  till 
the  neighbourhood  became  quieter. 

In  1831,  an  old  man,  Hadland,  died  at  Olney,  aged 
eighty-three,  who  had  served  in  the  militia  as  a  substitute 
for  the  poet  Cowper. 

A  long  period  of  peace  abroad  succeeded  the  great  French 
war,  important  reforms  were  carried  at  home,  and  the 
accession  of  a  maiden  queen  was  accompanied  by  many 
happy  omens. 

Princess  Victoria's  first  appearance  in  Bucks  was  as  a  girl 
of  thirteen,  when  she  passed  through  High  Wycombe  on 
her  return  from  a  visit  to  Oxford  with  her  mother,  the 
Duchess  of  Kent.  In  January  1845,  the  young  Queen  and 
Prince  Albert  were  magnificently  entertained  at  Stowe  by 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  amid  enthusiastic  demonstrations 
of  county  loyalty.  Mr.  Nield,  a  gentleman  who  had  lived 
in  a  miserly  way  at  North  Marston,  died  in  1852,  and  left 
his  large  fortune  to  the  queen,  who  bought  the  Balmoral 


230  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

estate  with  it,  and  built  the  castle.  She  contributed 
a  window  to  North  Marston  Church. 

The  sudden  outbreak  of  the  Crimean  War  in  1854  was 
a  rude  shock  to  the  hopes  which  had  gradually  grown  up  of 
a  European  peace  that  was  never  to  be  broken.  The  follow- 
ing reminiscence  of  this  war  was  written  specially  for  the 
children  of  Bucks,  by  an  honoured  Crimean  veteran, 
General  Sir  George  W.  A.  Higginson,  G.C.B.,  of  Gylderns- 
croft,  Marlow,  who  was  then  acting  as  Adjutant  of  the  3rd 
Battalion  of  the  Grenadier  Guards,  in  which  regiment  he 
served  for  thirty  years.  During  the  Crimean  War  he  was 
twice  promoted  for  service  in  the  field.  He  commanded  the 
Brigade  of  Guards  and  the  Home  District,  1879-84,  was 
Lieut  .-Governor  of  the  Tower  of  London,  1888-93.  As 
Governor  of  the  Borlase  Grammar  School,  Marlow,  he  has 
taken  a  great  interest  in  this  and  other  local  matters. 

General  Higginson  writes : 

'France  and  England  united  in  the  Crimean  War  in 
resisting  the  ambitious  designs  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  I 
against  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  for  the  first  time  in 
history  a  combined  army  of  French  and  British  soldiers 
was  dispatched  to  attack  and  destroy  the  great  naval 
arsenal  of  the  Russians  on  the  Black  Sea,  Sebastopol. 
After  a  siege  which  lasted  thirteen  months,  and  during 
which  the  allied  armies  suffered  hardships  and  priva- 
tions which  no  pen  could  adequately  describe,  the  great 
city  was  captured,  the  dockyard  destroyed,  and  the  supre- 
macy of  Russia  in  the  Euxine  annihilated.  Three  notable 
battles  were  fought  during  the  campaign,  the  first  soon 
after  the  landing  in  the  Crimea  at  the  Alma  River  ;  sub- 
sequently a  cavalry  action  at  Balaklava,  and  a  few  days 
later  a  desperate  contest  on  the  heights  of  Inkerman.  In  all 
three  the  British  soldiers  maintained  the  reputation  which 
many  years  previously  they  had  gained  in  the  Peninsula 
and  at  Waterloo  under  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington. 
Many  acts  of  heroism  and  devotion  to  duty  have  been 
recorded  by  historians  and  others.  One  special  instance 
which  illustrates  the  spirit  of  the  private  soldier  fell  under 
my  immediate  notice.  The  allied  armies  had  landed  in  the 
Crimea  on  the  14th  September,  1854,  after  a  tedious  voyage 
across  the  Black  Sea,  during  which  the  cholera,  a  violent 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS     231 

form  of  which  terrible  malady  had  caused  many  casualties 
in  Bulgaria,  still  claimed  many  victims ;  nor  did  the  com- 
plete change  of  scene  and  circumstances  which  our  enterprise 
in  landing  on  a  hostile  shore  involved  relieve  us  from  this 
dangerous  foe.  On  the  morning  of  the  20th  we  rose  from 
our  bivouac  and  all  ranks  fell  into  their  places  fully  aware 
that  before  us  lay  entrenched  the  Russian  army  under 
Prince  Menschikoff,  and  that  a  decisive  battle  was  imminent. 
As  the  different  companies  of  my  regiment  took  up  their 
ground  of  formation  I  noticed  a  private  soldier  (let  us  call 
him  Private  Johnson)  still  sitting  on  the  ground,  though  one 
of  the  smartest  and  most  trustworthy  of  our  men.  I  called 
to  him  peremptorily  to  ' '  fall  in  " .  Receiving  no  reply  I  went 
up  to  him  and  at  once  recognized,  in  the  blue-grey  colour 
of  his  face,  that  the  cholera  had  already  betrayed  the  earliest 
symptoms.  In  vain  did  he  make  every  effort  to  rise.  His 
limbs,  already  rigid,  defied  every  effort  he  made,  and  as  no 
transport  or  conveyance  of  any  kind  could  be  obtained,  my 
commanding  officer  decided  to  leave  the  poor  fellow,  giving 
him  his  rifle,  ammunition,  and  knapsack,  yet  feeling  that 
he  lay  at  the  mercy  of  any  roving  Cossack  or  the  fatal 
termination  of  his  physical  sufferings.  The  order  to  advance 
was  given,  and  with  many  a  sad  parting  glance  we  left  our 
comrade,  seated  on  his  knapsack,  whose  condition  appeared 
to  be  hopeless.  The  forward  movement  of  so  large  a  force 
was  necessarily  slow,  and  as  the  undulations  of  the  ground 
rose  and  fell  we  could  notice  the  poor  fellow  a  solitary 
speck  in  the  distance,  until  the  sound  of  heavy  firing  in  our 
front  and  the  excitement  caused  by  the  prospect  of  imme- 
diate engagement  with  the  enemy  dispelled  all  other 
thoughts.  Ere  long  we  were  in  action,  and  after  fording  the 
River  Alma  were  started  on  the  formidable  ascent  of  the 
hill  from  which  the  Russian  batteries  and  battalions  were 
dealing  heavy  and  destructive  fire  on  our  ranks.  A  slow 
and  steady  advance,  a  final  rush,  and  the  breastwork  and 
battery  were  captured  amid  the  cheers  of  victory  ;  but  the 
first  man  to  spring  through  the  nearest  embrasure  was  our 
good  comrade  Johnson  !  The  fact  did  not  come  to  my 
knowledge  till  the  battle  was  over,  and  the  search  for  those 
who  had  fallen  had  begun.  Unhurt,  yet  evidently  again 
under  the  reaction  of  his  malady,  he  related  how  that,  on 


232  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

hearing  the  first  shots  fired,  and  aware  that  the  regiment 
of  which  he  was  so  proud  was  about  to  be  engaged,  he  con- 
trived by  a  mighty  effort  to  rise  to  his  feet  and  follow  us 
with  ever-growing  strength  of  resolution.  He  joined  the 
ranks  just  before  the  final  rush,  and  surely  a  more  noble 
feat  of  arms  was  never  accomplished.  He  was  carried  with 
the  sick  and  wounded  to  the  ships,  and  so  to  Constantinople, 
where  in  the  Scutari  hospital,  soon  to  be  reorganized  under 
the  never  to  be  forgotten  care  of  Florence  Nightingale,  he 
recovered,  and  on  returning  to  England  retired  into  civil 
life.  We  had  many  bold  and  brave  men  in  our  ranks  ;  none 
who  showed  a  more  indomitable  spirit  than  the  private 
soldier  of  whom  this  incident  is  recorded.' 

In  1855,  Mr.  Stowe,  The  Times  Commissioner,  died  in 
the  hospital  at  Scutari,  the  son  of  Mr.  W.  Stowe,  surgeon,  at 
Buckingham. 

The  14th  Regiment  joined  in  the  assault  on  Sebastopol, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  war  a  Russian  gun  was  given  to 
Eton  College. 

A  Bucks  midshipman,  Edmund  Verney,  was  in  all  the 
naval  engagements  of  the  Crimean  War  under  a  splendid 
seaman,  Captain  McCleverty,  in  H.M  S.  Terrible,  one  of  the 
(then)  new  paddle-wheel  steamers,  called  by  the  Russians 
the  Black  Cat  with  the  White  Paws,  in  allusion  to  her  black 
hull  and  two  large  white  funnels.  In  the  bombardment  of 
Sebastopol,  in  October  1854,  she  fired  the  first  shot  and 
was  the  closest  ship  in-shore.  The  Terrible  weathered  the 
great  November  storm  in  the  Black  Sea,  in  which  so  many 
ships  were  lost,  and  took  part  in  the  various  bombardments 
and  assaults  of  Sebastopol,  till  in  1856  that  bravely  defended 
naval  fortress  lay  in  ruins,  and  the  Russian  Fleet  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Black  Sea.  During  the  war  Admiral  Sir 
Charles  Fremantle,  son  of  Admiral  Sir  Thomas  Fremantle 
of  Aston  Abbots,  was  in  command  of  Balaclava  Harbour, 
and  devoted  himself  to  the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  of 
the  Fleet.  He  kept  a  great  store  of  novels  for  those  well 
enough  to  read,  and  a  constant  succession  of  convalescents 
were  entertained  as  his  guests  on  board  the  Leander. 

Scarcely  had  England  recovered  from  the  Crimean  War 
than  the  far  more  terrible  news  of  the  Indian  Mutiny  in 
1857  burst  upon  the  country,  and  Edmund  Verney  served 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS     233 

as  a  sub-lieutenant  in  the  Shannon's  Naval  Brigade,  which, 
under  Sir  William  Peel,  relieved  Lucknow  so  gallantly. 
Verney  was  twice  specially  mentioned  in  dispatches,  and 
promoted  ;  and  brought  the  King  of  Oude's  flag  and  other 
trophies  home  to  Claydon. 

One  of  a  family  that  has  furnished  many  distinguished 
naval  men  to  the  county  is  Admiral  the  Hon.  Sir  Edmund 
Fremantle,  fourth  son  of  the  first  Baron  Cottesloe,  of 
Swanbourne.  The  grandson  of  one  of  Nelson's  captains,  and 
nephew  of  Sir  Charles  Fremantle  before-named,  he  entered 
the  Navy  in  1849,  and  in  the  course  of  half  a  century  of 
active  service  he  has  seen  the  great  change  from  the  wooden 
ship  to  the  ironclad,  from  sails  to  steam.  He  has  given  us 
a  series  of  pictures  of  the  service  in  The  Navy  as  I  have  known 
it,  which  he  published  in  1904.  Sir  Edmund  Fremantle  has 
served  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  the  most  exciting  inci- 
dents in  his  career  are  connected  with  the  Ashanti  War  on 
the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  1873-4,  when  as  a  Junior  Captain 
in  command  of  H.M.S.  Barracouta  he  acted  as  Senior 
Naval  Officer  for  some  months  at  a  very  critical  time.  An 
army  of  some  40,000  Ashantis  were  threatening  the  English 
forts,  and  attacking  the  tribes  friendly  to  us.  '  They  were 
lithe,  active  men  who  wore  little  clothing,  darker  in  colour, 
and  rather  smaller  than  the  coast  tribes.' 3  They  were 
brave  fighters  and  well  disciplined.  The  troops  on  shore 
were  a  West  Indian  Regiment  and  some  Houssas,  so  the 
only  white  men  available  were  the  bluejackets  and  marines 
of  the  fleet. 

^  A  war  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  in  a  climate  more  fatal 
to  white  men  than  the  fiercest  enemy,  must  always  be  an 
anxious  undertaking.  To  march  inland  is  to  traverse  foul, 
malarial  swamps,  and  thick  bush,  where  natives  lie  concealed 
like  snakes  in  grass,  in  a  damp  heat  which  takes  all  the  heart 
out  of  a  man  ;  there  are  no  proper  harbours,  and  the  ships 
at  anchor  roll  incessantly,  landing  is  dangerous  owing  to 
the  surf,  and  in  many  places  impossible.  Under  these 
perilous  and  difficult  conditions  the  small  body  of  sailors 
and  marines,  under  Captain  Fremantle  and  Colonel  Festing, 
completely  defeated  a  large  force  of  Ashantis  at  Elmina, 
and  this  first  engagement  of  the  war  had  a  great  moral  effect, 
and  was  won  with  very  little  loss  on  our  side.  There  was 


234  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

a  good  deal  more  desultory  fighting,  and  a  few  months  later 
Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  was  sent  out  as  General  and  Adminis- 
trator, and  an  advance  was  made  through  jungle  and  swamp 
to  a  village  called  Essaman,  where  Captain  Fremantle  was 
severely  wounded  in  the  arm.  He  was  bandaged  up,  and 
remained  in  command  of  his  sailors,  and  the  village  was 
carried.  When  the  march  was  resumed,  being  faint  from 
loss  of  blood,  he  was  put  into  one  of  the  few  hammocks 
available,  but  passing  his  steward  lying  by  the  side  of  the 
path  insensible  from  sunstroke,  Captain  Fremantle  insisted 
upon  yielding  his  place  to  him,  and  marched  with  his  blue- 
jackets for  the  rest  of  the  day. 

During  the  whole  campaign,  which  ended  in  the  taking 
of  Coomassie  by  Wolseley,  officers  and  men  suffered  terribly 
from  fever,  from  the  transport  difficulty,  and  from  the 
impenetrable  nature  of  the  country,  but  at  last  soldiers  and 
sailors  were  able  to  return  home.  At  Madeira  the  Barra- 
couia  received  the  news  of  a  vote  of  thanks  accorded  to  the 
forces  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  in  which  Captain 
Fremantle  was  mentioned  by  name  ;  he  received  various 
honours  from  his  sovereign .  Admiral  Sir  Edmund  Fremantle 
was  Commander-in-Chief  in  the  East  Indies,  in  China,  and 
at  Plymouth,  and  retired  in  1901,  after  fifty-two  years  on 
the  Active  List. 

The  War  in  Egypt  in  1882  was  the  occasion  of  an  act  of 
gallantry  and  humanity  by  a  Bucks  naval  officer,  which 
deserves  to  be  remembered.  The  town  of  Alexandria  was 
in  an  uproar,  Arabi  Pasha  had  revolted  against  the  Khedive, 
and  the  foreign  inhabitants  were  in  terror.  The  English 
fleet  was  in  the  harbour  awaiting  events  ;  H.M.S.  Monarch, 
commanded  by  Captain  Fairfax,  being  at  anchor  nearest  to 
the  shore.  Keen  eyes  on  board  noticed  that  the  guns 
of  the  Egyptian  forts  were  carefully  pointed  upon  her  ;  so 
silently  when  night  fell  she  slipped  her  cable,  and  took  up 
another  position.  The  next  day,  June  11,  1882,  the  storm 
burst ;  there  was  fierce  fighting  in  the  streets,  and  boatloads 
of  fugitives  of  all  nationalities  were  anxious  to  take  refuge  in 
English  ships.  Our  men-of-war  were  bombarding  the  forts, 
and  a  chance  shell  from  H.M.S.  Sultan,  aimed  at  a  fort, 
entered  the  lighthouse  and  exploded  inside  of  it,  tearing 
away  the  staircase  and  wrecking  the  middle  of  the  tower. 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS     235 

At  sunset  the  white  flag  was  hoisted  over  the  town,  and  one 
after  another  the  forts  were  silent ;  but  the  famous  light- 
house was  dark,  and  all  the  ships  coming  along  that  shallow, 
dangerous  shore  were  in  peril  of  shipwreck.  Then  it  was 
that  the  First  Lieutenant  of  the  Monarch,  William  Pigott, 
asked  his  captain's  leave  to  go  on  a  desperate  errand. 
Choosing  only  one  bluejacket,  named  Curry,  whom  he  knew 
as  a  man  of  sure  foot  and  cool  head,  and  taking  with  them 
some  rope  and  string,  matches,  hammer,  and  nails,  the  two 
men  cautiously  made  their  way  up  the  broken  masonry  of 
the  ruined  lighthouse.  It  was  an  ascent  of  great  difficulty 
and  danger  ;  the  stones  tumbled  about  their  heads  and  gave 
way  under  their  feet ;  Lieutenant  Pigott  as  the  lightest  and 
nimblest  of  the  two  generally  led  the  way,  and  by  getting 
a  rope  to  hold  here,  and  making  a  spring  there,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  reaching  the  platform  on  the  top,  which  was  quite 
intact.  They  found  the  lamp  trimmed  and  ready,  mastered 
its  mechanism,  and  in  a  very  short  time  the  friendly  revolv- 
ing light  was  flashing  out  to  sea  again  ;  but  the  lamp 
needed  tending  as  well  as  lighting,  and  for  two  nights  and  a 
day  these  gallant  sailors  stuck  to  their  post.  Communica- 
tions had  been  established  by  signal  with  the  Monarch, 
a  rope  ladder  was  made  on  board,  but  no  other  man  would 
attempt  the  ascent,  and  food  was  sent  up  the  lighthouse  by 
the  rope  which  Pigott  had  lowered.  It  was  long  before  it 
could  be  made  safe  enough  for  the  Frenchman  who  had  been 
in  charge  to  venture  up  the  tower  again.  Lieutenant  Pigott 
was  specially  mentioned  in  dispatches,  and  promoted ;  his 
chief  anxiety  was  that  his  comrade  Curry  should  receive 
his  full  share  of  the  credit  and  rewards.  In  his  old  house 
at  Doddershall  near  Quainton  (which  is  entering  on  the 
ninth  century  of  its  existence  as  the  home  of  the  same 
family)  Admiral  Pigott  has  a  great  copper  vessel  in  which 
Arabi's  cartridges  were  made,  and  a  clock  whose  works  he 
picked  up  in  a  street  of  Alexandria,  which  had  been  blown 
out  of  their  case  and  through  a  mud-wall  without  being 
injured. 

In  the  Battle  of  Tel-el-Kebir  in  the  following  September 
(1882),  General  Philip  Smith,  of  Wendover,  commanded  the 
Brigade  of  Guards. 

A  'great  Bucks  soldier,  whose  career  is  associated  with 


236  BUCKS  SAILORS  AND  SOLDIERS 

the  Egyptian  campaigns,  is  Lord  Grenfell,  of  Butler's  Court, 
Beaconsfield.  After  serving  in  the  Kaffir,  Zulu,  and  Trans- 
vaal Wars,  he  distinguished  himself  in  Egypt  in  1882  and 
1884  ;  and  became  Sirdar  of  the  Egyptian  Forces,  1885-92, 
and  again  in  1897-8 ;  he  has  since  commanded  the  4th 
Army  Corps  in  1903-4.  Lord  Grenfell  comes  of  a  family 
distinguished  for  financial  and  administrative  ability ; 
originally  Cornish,  but  settled  at  Taplow  since  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century. 

The  close  of  Queen  Victoria's  long  and  brilliant  reign  was 
darkened  by  the  South  African  War,  and  she  deeply 
mourned  the  loss  of  many  young  and  gallant  men.  Once 
again  Bucks  was  ready  and  eager  to  offer  her  best  sons  as 
soldiers  of  the  Queen,  and  one  of  the  most  popular  men  in 
the  county,  Charles  Compton  William  Cavendish,  third 
Baron  Chesham,  commanded  the  Imperial  Yeomanry  in 
the  Boer  War.  Born  in  1850,  and  educated  at  Eton,  he 
served  first  in  the  Coldstream  Guards,  then  with  the 
10th  Hussars  in  India,  and  with  the  16th  Lancers.  On  his 
retirement  in  1879,  he  joined  the  Royal  Bucks  Hussars,  and 
in  1889  became  their  colonel.  He  was  a  born  leader,  with 
a  fine  presence  ;  he  had  the  gift  of  remembering  faces,  and 
a  charming  courtesy  of  manner  which  endeared  him  to 
gentle  and  simple  alike.  As  Master  of  the  Bicester  Hounds, 
from  1885  to  1893,  Lord  Chesham  was  as  familiar  a  figure 
in  North  Bucks  as  he  was  round  his  own  beautiful  home  at 
Latimer. 

When  the  Boer  War  broke  out  his  eldest  son  served  as 
second  lieutenant  of  the  17th  Lancers.  After  the  '  black 
week '  of  disasters,  in  1899,  which  filled  so  many  English 
homes  with  mourning,  it  was  to  Lord  Chesham  that  the 
Government  turned  to  organize  a  new  force  of  Imperial 
Yeomanry,  which  he  did  with  conspicuous  success.  He 
went  out  to  South  Africa  in  January,  1900,  in  command  of 
the  10th  battalion,  which  contained  two  Bucks  companies, 
and  on  arrival  he  was  given  the  command  of  the  whole 
Yeomanry  Brigade.  He  was  twice  specially  mentioned  in 
dispatches  by  Lord  Roberts  and  Lord  Kitchener,  as  com- 
manding the  force  he  had  so  largely  created  '  with  dis- 
tinction and  dash '.  During  this  campaign  Lord  Chesham 
had  the  bitter  sorrow  of  losing  his  son,  Lieutenant  C. 


YEOMANRY,  MILITIA,  AND  VOLUNTEERS    237 

Cavendish,  who  met  a  soldier's  death  at  Diamond  Hill  near 
Pretoria,  June  11,  1900.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  father 
and  son  ever  met  during  the  war. 

On  his  return  from  the  front  he  became  Inspector-General 
of  Yeomanry,  and  devoted  all  his  enthusiasm  and  experience 
to  this  work.  Lord  Chesham  is  the  only  instance  of  a  man 
being  given  General  Officer's  rank  from  the  auxiliary  forces. 
In  July,  1901,  King  Edward  made  him  a  K.C.B.,  and  the 
people  of  Buckingham  and  his  old  comrades  gave  him 
a  magnificent  reception,  an  address,  and  a  sword  of  honour. 
Reference  was  made  to  Lady  Chesham's  services  in  nursing 
the  wounded  at  Deelfontein.  At  a  subsequent  banquet, 
when  replying  to  the  toast  of  his  health,  he  insisted  that 
every  Yeoman  present  should  stand  up  also ;  it  was  only 
with  them,  and  as  one  of  them,  that  he  would  accept  any 
honours.  Officers  and  men  sprang  to  their  feet  amidst  loud 
cheers.  Lord  Chesham  recalled  how  on  the  march  to 
Oliphant's  Nek  they  fought  every  day  for  seven  days,  and 
had  only  one  day's  rest,  and  how  having  reached  the  top 
of  the  Nek  they  had  two  days'  continuous  fighting. 

This  gallant  life  was  ended  in  a  moment  by  a  hunting 
accident,  in  1907,  when  Lord  Chesham  was  still  in  the  full 
vigour  of  his  fifty-seventh  year. 

On  Beacon  Hill,  a  grassy  point  of  the  Chilterns,  a  monu- 
ment has  been  erected  to  the  officers  and  men  who  fell  in 
the  Boer  War  ;  their  names  are  also  inscribed  on  a  bronze 
tablet  in  the  County  Hall  at  Aylesbury.  Outside  this,  and 
facing  the  Market  Square,  is  a  simple  statue  of  Lord  Chesham 
in  hunting  dress,  as  he  was  familiarly  known  among  his 
neighbours. 

1  Hon.  T.  F.  Fremantle's  MS.  Notes. 

*  Recollections  of  the  Earl  of  Albemarle. 

3  Admiral  the  Hon.  Sir  E.  Fremantle,  The  Navy  as  I  have  known  it. 


238  OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS 


CHAPTER  XXV 

OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS  AND  THE  LADY  OF  THE 
LAMP 

No  sketch  of  Bucks  biographies  would  be  complete 
without  at  least  a  glimpse  at  the  long  line  of  physicians 
and  surgeons  of  the  county  who  have  been  eminent  for  skill 
and  devotion. 

We  are  accustomed  in  literature  and  art  to  the  traditional 
figure  of  St.  Peter  with  his  keys  of  the  world  beyond — but 
here  and  now  it  is  the  followers  of  St.  Luke  that  stand  on 
guard  for  us  at  the  portals  of  Life  and  Death,  therefore  let 
us  give  them  honour  due.  We  have  a  long  roll  of  names 
from  Roger  of  Wendover  (already  mentioned)  soothing  the 
deathbed  of  a  Pope  in  the  thirteenth  century,  down  to 
Sir  Thomas  Barlow,  K.C.V.O.,  President  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Physicians,  now  living  at  Wendover,  who  minis- 
tered to  Queen  Victoria  and  to  Florence  Nightingale  in  the 
helpless  hours  of  old  age  and  death. 

Alike  in  their  devotion  to  the  sick,  the  doctors  have  been 
men  of  very  different  tastes  and  ability.  There  have  been 
philosophers  and  theologians  who  have  recognized  (like 
Shakespeare's  physician  in  Macbeth)  the  strange  influence 
of  the  mind  upon  health,  or  like  Dr.  John  Smith  (1630- 
1679),  who  wrote  a  Portrait  of  Old  Age,  which  he  called 
'  a  Sacred  Anatomy  of  Soul  and  Body ',  tracing  the  influence 
of  each  upon  the  other. 

A  fine  scholar  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  Thomas  D'Oyly, 
M.D.,  of  Greenlands,  Hambleden,  whose  mother  had  been 
one  of  the  Queen's  Maids  of  Honour ;  besides  physic  and 
astronomy  he  had  studied  languages,  and  was  one  of  the 
authors  of  a  dictionary  and  grammar,  which  became 
standard  works  for  the  study  of  Spanish. 

Some  doctors  were  great  men  socially,  like  Sir  Thomas 
Clayton,  of  the  Vache,  Chalfont,  M.D.  and  M.P.,  who  was 
Cromwell's  nominee  for  Oxford  in  Barebones'  Parliament, 
and  used  his  power  as  a  magistrate  to  throw  Quakers  into 
prison,  as  Elwood  and  his  friends  had  good  reason  to  know. 


OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS  239 

Others,  like  William  Parker,  M.D.,  without  powerful  friends, 
were  amongst  the  oppressed.  As  a  Puritan,  Dr.  Parker 
was  thrown  into  Aylesbury  Gaol  in  1665,  when  it  was  a  hot- 
bed of  the  plague,  but  removed  at  last  to  Wycombe,  by 
his  wife's  entreaties  on  his  behalf. 

Others  have  been  naturalists,  like  Dr.  Martin  Lister  of 
Radcliffe  (1638-1712),  who  collected  one  thousand  varieties 
of  shells,  which  he  gave  to  the  Ashmolean  Museum ;  and 
wrote  a  book  about  them,  the  drawings  for  which  were 
made  by  his  two  daughters,  Susannah  and  Anne.  Some 
were  astrologers,  like  Dr.  Robert  Napier  (1589-1634), 
Rector  of  Great  Linford,  who  was  ready  to  deal  with  soul 
and  body,  to  foretell  his  patient's  fate,  and  to  dispense 
amulets  and  charms.  Many  were  book-lovers  and  book- 
collectors,  like  the  versatile  and  universally  accomplished 
Dr.  John  Radcliffe,  physician  to  William  and  Mary  and 
Anne;  founder  of  the  Radcliffe  Library,  the  Radcliffe 
Observatory,  and  the  Radcliffe  Infirmary,  who  has  this 
threefold  claim  on  the  gratitude  of  posterity.  He  was  M.P. 
for  Buckingham  in  1713. 

A  physician's  fees  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  large, 
and  the  medicines  compounded  by  his  apothecary  were 
very  bulky  and  often  incredibly  nasty ;  Mrs.  Isham,  one 
of  the  Dentons  of  Hillesden,  complains  of  '  a  stinking 
balsam  as  would  choke  a  dog  to  take  it  '.1  The  physic 
arrives  in  great  bottles  marked  Liquor  A  and  Liquor  B, 
and  a  lady  in  the  Verney  letters  describes  her  husband  as 
taking  twenty  pills,  and  feeling  relief  after  the  sixteenth.' 

Surgeons  and  apothecaries  were  held  to  belong  to  a  lower 
social  grade  than  physicians.  There  is  an  outrageous  story 
told  as  late  as  1721,  of  an  irascible  baronet,  Sir  John 
Wittewronge,  of  Stantonbury  (1695-1743),  son  of  the 
member  for  Aylesbury  in  1702  and  1705,  who  picked 
a  quarrel  with  a  surgeon,  Griffiths,  at  the  Saracen's  Inn, 
Newport  Pagnell.  He  insolently  announced  that  '  such 
fellows  should  not  act  the  gentleman,  the  man  being  dressed 
like  a  physician,  with  a  sword  and  other  fopperies  '.2  The 
quarrel  ended  in  the  surgeon's  death  ;  Wittewronge  was 
outlawed  for  it,  and  proved  his  own  extreme  gentility  by 
contracting  heavy  debts  and  dying  in  the  Fleet  prison. 
Dr.  Laurence  Wright,  physician  to  Cromwell,  who  held 


240  OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS 

a  distinguished  office  in  the  College  of  Physicians,  was 
desirous  that  his  only  son  should  make  a  fashionable 
marriage  ;  he  was  able  to  give  him  a  large  fortune,  and  the 
young  man  was  '  tall,  slender  and  handsome,  gallant,  civil 
withall,  and  religious '.  Sir  Ralph  Verney  recommended 
him  as  a  suitor  to  his  Royalist  friend,  Sir  Justinian  Isham ; 
but  the  father  was  of  opinion  '  that  the  gentry  had  need  to 
make  a  bank  and  bulwark  against  that  Sea  of  Democracy 
which  is  overrunning  them  ',  [and  the  daughter  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  '  a  gilded  pill  '.* 

Probably  in  this  case  the  prejudice  was  chiefly  political, 
for,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  physicians  were  held  in  high  esteem. 

George  Bate,  M.D.  (1608-1669),  has  been  called  a  medical 
Vicar  of  Bray.  He  was  born  at  Maids  Morton,  and  when 
he  had  become  a  famous  London  doctor,  he  was  ever  ready 
to  help  his  Bucks  neighbours,  either  professionally  in  con- 
sultation, or  by  lending  money  to  the  impoverished  squires. 
He  had  amassed  great  wealth,  and  appreciated  a  good 
dinner  ;  indeed,  when  he  announced  his  intention  of  dining 
at  Hillesden,  Edmund  Denton  sent  over  in  great  haste  to 
borrow  the  Claydon  cook  and  half  a  dozen  pigeons.  But 
he  never  lost  his  active  figure  ;  '  as  lean  as  a  death's  head 
or  Dr.  Bate  '  was  a  saying  among  his  friends. 

Dr.  Bate  had  a  large  practice  '  among  precise  and  puri- 
tanical people ',  and  was  Cromwell's  physician,  but  when 
precise  people  went  out  of  fashion,  he  prescribed  for  Charles  H 
with  equal  good  will. 

A  more  interesting  character  was  Dr.  Martin  Lluelyn 
(1616-1682),  a  poet  and  a  soldier  before  he  studied  medicine. 
His  poems, '  Lluelyn's  Marrow  of  the  Muses  ',3  went  through 
several  editions.  After  fighting  for  Charles  I  he  was  ejected 
from  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  became  a  doctor.  In 
this  capacity  he  attended  his  fallen  master  to  the  last,  as 
far  as  he  was  permitted  to  do  so,  and  received  his  gloves 
as  a  souvenir. 

After  the  Restoration  he  both  doctored  Charles  II  and 
wrote  verses  about  him.  In  1664  he  settled  at  High  Wy- 
combe,  in  the  Dial  House,  now  occupied  by  Dr.  Wheeler. 
He  was  much  esteemed  as  '  an  eminent  and  learned  phy- 
sician, and  as  a  man  of  singular  integrity  of  life  and  manners, 
and  of  the  most  comely  and  decent  gravity  and  deportment '. 


OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS  241 

He  became  a  county  magistrate,  and  was  Mayor  of 
Wycombe  in  1671.  When  the  borough  wished  to  approach 
the  King  in  1681,  Dr.  Lluelyn  was  felt  at  once  to  be  the 
proper  person  to  carry  the  loyal  address  to  Windsor.  He 
died  and  was  buried  at  Wycombe.  He  left  three  clever 
sons  :  Martin,  a  soldier  ;  Richard,  a  barrister  ;  and  George, 
a  musician  and  composer,  a  friend  of  PurceU's,  who  took 
Orders,  and  adhering  to  his  father's  opinions,  was  called 
by  the  Whigs  '  a  Jacobitical,  musical,  mad  Welsh  parson  '. 

In  this  most  interesting  seventeenth  century,  when  the 
science  of  healing  was  making  immense  strides,  the  Bucks 
doctor  of  whom  we  know  most  is  William  Denton  of  Hilles- 
den  (1605-1691).  He  kept  up  an  intimate  correspondence 
for  some  sixty  years  with  his  nephew,  Sir  Ralph  Verney, 
and  his  letters,  in  a  small,  neat  hand,  concisely  and  often 
wittily  expressed,  are  still  at  Claydon  House.  Dr.  Denton 
was  educated  at  Oxford  ;  he  was  connected  by  blood  with 
most  of  the  county  families,  and  by  ties  of  friendship  with 
them  all.  '  Unwearied  in  his  devotion  to  the  sick  and 
suffering,  so  little  hardened  by  familiarity  that  he  could 
never  attend  a  death-bed  without  being  deeply  moved, 
the  trusted  adviser  and  reconciler  in  many  dark  hours  of 
family  history,  with  a  large  hopefulness  and  toleration 
born  of  his  wide  acquaintance  with  human  nature,  a  caustic 
tongue,  and  a  generous  heart,  he  maintained  the  high 
traditions  of  his  noble  profession.' 1  The  Wenmans,  whose 
fine  monuments  are  in  Twyford  Church,  were  amongst 
Dr.  Denton's  many  patients.  He  talks  of  putting  '  my  Lord 
and  my  Lady  into  physic  ',  as  one  would  refer  to  a  spring- 
cleaning  :  '  My  Lord  was  vomited  to-day  and  until  I  have 
settled  them  both,  I  cannot  with  any  conveniency  stir  any 
whither.' 

Dr.  Denton's  home  was  in  London,  but  he  was  so 
often  in  request  in  Bucks,  that  he  passed  much  time  in 
what  he  called  his  '  Manors  of  Claydon,  Hillesden,  and 
Stowe  '.  He  was  anxious  to  be  abreast  of  all  the  learning 
of  his  time,  and  desired  to  consult  medical  books  from 
Rome,  Messina,  Spain,  and  the  Low  Countries.  He  got 
surgical  instruments  from  Paris,  '  the  French  know  best 
how  to  polish  them '  ;  scissors  from  Brussels,  and  lancets 
from  Florence,  with  handles  of  buffalo-horn.  Quinine  is 

986-4  Q 


242  OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS 

very  scarce  and  dear,  the  doctor  gets  what  he  can  of  it, 
but  he  is  ready  to  find  his  materia  medico,  close  at  hand  if 
need  be.  When  a  groom  is  ill  at  Claydon,  and  a  valuable 
colt  also,  he  gives  the  horse  '  a  groundsel  purge  ',  and  the 
man  '  a  stonecrop  vomit ',  both  to  be  gathered  in  the  old 
courtyard.  Up  to  the  age  of  forty-five  Dr.  Denton  made 
his  long  journeys  on  horseback  ;  after  that  he  took  to 
a  coach,  which  proved  a  perpetual  trouble  to  him.  Two 
or  three  extra  horses  are  required  in  winter  '  to  pull  him 
through  the  dirt  from  Aylesbury',;the  coachman  gets  an  ague, 
or  a  horse  falls  lame  ;  and  the  coach  has  to  be  left  behind  at 
Claydon.  '  If  mouldy,'  writes  Dr.  Denton  to  Sir  Ralph, 
'  I  know  you  are  so  cleanly  a  person  as  to  get  it  wiped.' 

Dr.  Denton's  activity  lasted  to  the  age  of  eighty-six ; 
he  rejoiced  in  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary,  and  wrote 
a  treatise  vindicating  the  Revolution  of  1688.  He  was 
buried  at  Hillesden,  '  Mr.  Bank  of  Preston  preached  his 
funeral  sermon ; '  his  very  epitaph  has  the  joyful  note  which 
was  so  conspicuous  in  his  life — '  He  was  blessed  with  that 
happy  composition  of  body  and  mind  that  preserved  him 
cheerful,  easy  and  agreeable  to  the  last,  and  endeared  him 
to  all  that  knew  him.' 

Dr.  Thomas  Willis,  M.D.  (1621-1675),  was  a  devoted 
Royalist  and  churchman.  Having  made  a  fortune,  he  pur- 
chased Whaddon  Hall.  His  only  son,  Browne  Willis,  was 
chosen  as  member  for  Buckingham  in  1705,  when  he  bought 
a  cloak  of  blue  cloth,  which  he  continued  to  wear  for  fifty 
years.  He  became  an  antiquary  and  local  historian,  a 
zealous  restorer  of  churches,  and  a  well-known  figure  in 
Fenny  Stratford  and  the  neighbourhood. 

Sir  Samuel  Garth,  M.D.  (1661-1719),  was  a  fashionable 
physician  and  poet,  much  sought  after  for  his  witty  con- 
versation and  literary  talent.  '  He  was  a  great  admirer 
of  Marlborough,  by  whose  sword  he  was  knighted.'  He 
owned  the  Manor  of  Edgcott,  but  preferred  town  life. 

Dr.  Friend,  M.D.,  F.R.S.  (1675-1728),  had  property  at 
Hitcham,  which  descended  to  his  son.  He  was  Chemical 
Professor  at  Oxford,  and  went  with  the  Earl  of  Peterborough 
to  Spain  as  physician  to  the  army  ;  he  published  a  History 
of  Physic.  He  was  patronized  by  Tories  and  Jacobites,  as 
Mead  (another  famous  doctor  connected  with  Bucks)  was 


DR.  WILLIAM  DENTON,  PHYSICIAN  TO  CHARLES  I 
From  a  picture  at  Claydon  House 


Q2 


OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS  245 

by  Whigs  and  Hanoverians,  and  a  pleasant  story  is  told 
of  these  professional  rivals  when  party  spirit  was  very 
bitter.  Friend  was  an  M.P.  in  1722,  and  when  Atterbury 
was  imprisoned,  he  was  also  sent  to  the  Tower  on  suspicion. 
Dr.  Mead  at  once  offered  to  attend  Dr.  Friend's  discon- 
certed patients,  at  the  risk  of  becoming  unpopular  with 
his  own  ;  and  handed  over  all  their  fees  to  Friend  on  his 
release.  He  became  physician  to  Queen  Caroline  in  1727, 
and  was  buried  in  Hitcham  Church. 

A  great  and  beneficent  figure  at  Aylesbury  and  the 
neighbourhood  in  Victoria's  reign  was  the  surgeon  and 
sanitary  reformer,  Robert  Ceely  (b.  before  1800,  d.  1880). 
During  a  terrible  visitation  of  cholera  in  1832,  his  services 
to  Aylesbury  were  quite  invaluable.  His  cheerful  and  brave 
spirit  made  his  presence  the  best  cordial  in  sickness  and 
trouble.  With  Dr.  John  Lee,  of  Hart  well,  and  Sir  Harry 
Verney,  of  Claydon,  Mr.  Ceely  laboured  for  years  to  found 
a  county  hospital  at  Aylesbury  ;  and  when  it  was  estab- 
lished he  gave  his  professional  services  ungrudgingly  to 
make  it  a  success. 

Sir  Henry  W.  Acland  (1815-1900),  Bart.,  M.D.,  Regius 
Professor  of  Medicine  at  Oxford,  was  well  known  and 
beloved  in  Bucks.  His  services  to  science  and  medical 
education  belong  to  the  history  of  Oxford  and  of  the  pro- 
fession ;  but  he  was  a  pioneer  of  the  Rural  Housing' Move- 
ment, and  keen  about  district  nursing  and  the  sanitation 
of  villages.  As  Master  of  Ewelme  Hospital  and  Trustee  of 
the  Charity,  he  was  able  to  transform  Marsh  Gibbon  by 
building  a  series  of  first-rate  cottages  to  replace  some 
miserable  hovels  ;  and  his  writings  on  village  health  and 
village  life  were  widely  read .  Sir  Henry  was  an  accomplished 
musician  and  artist,  and  whatever  he  took  in  hand  he 
impressed  with  a  touch  of  genius,  grace,  and  beauty.  He  was 
a  close  friend  of  John  Ruskin  and  of  Florence  Nightingale. 

The  last  of  these  slight  sketches  of  Bucks  doctors  must  be 
devoted  to  the  grateful  recollection  of  a  general  practitioner 
in  a  country  neighbourhood,  who  gave  his  remarkable 
abilities  and  all  his  strength  to  the  public  good  ;  and  died 
worn  out  by  work  which  asked  neither  for  personal  recog- 
nition nor  reward,  but  only  that  it  should  bear  fruit. 

George  De'Ath   (1861-1901)  inherited  his  father's,  Mr. 


246  OF  BUCKS  DOCTORS 

Robert  De' Ath's,  large  practice  of  some  thirty  years'  stand- 
ing, in  Buckingham.  He  had  had  the  advantage  as  a  boy 
of  a  wider  outlook  than  his  native  town  afforded.  Like 
Cowper,  he  was  educated  at  Westminster,  and  he  took  full 
advantage  of  the  old  privileges  of  the  School  in  connexion 
with  the  Abbey  and  the  Houses  of  Parliament.  He  loved 
music  and  architecture,  and  took  the  keenest  interest  in 
politics.  His  brilliant  dramatic  gift,  and  his  skill  as  a 
speaker  and  debater  were  developed  early,  indeed  he  was 
known  as  the  boy -politician,  and  many  of  his  school  friend- 
ships endured  through  life.  He  distinguished  himself  at 
Guy's  Hospital,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  his  father's 
sudden  death  threw  upon  him  the  whole  responsibility  of 
the  laborious  profession  of  a  country  doctor,  in  great 
request  over  a  large  area. 

He  wrote  with  ease  and  grace,  but  his  daily  work  gave 
him  little  leisure  for  anything  outside  it.  He  was  passion- 
ately desirous  of  improving  the  condition  of  cottage  homes, 
and  of  making  Buckingham  '  one  of  the  healthiest,  cleanest, 
and  most  attractive  towns  in  the  country ',  and  he  used 
his  influence  as  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  and  Coroner  of 
the  Winslow  Division  with  enthusiasm  in  this  direction. 
A  friend  writes  of  him  :  '  The  thing  which  always  struck 
me  about  Dr.  De'Ath  was  the  untiring  energy  with  which 
he  dealt  with  problems  of  hygiene  and  sanitation.  I  do  not 
know  of  any  branch  of  medical  and  surgical  work  that  he 
was  specially  distinguished  in,  but  as  an  all-round  prac- 
titioner he  had  no  equal.'  He  gave  much  time  and  thought 
to  rural  district  nursing,  in  connexion  with  the  Nursing 
Home  built  by  Lord  and  Lady  Addington  in  Buckingham. 

Death  came  to  him  at  the  age  of  thirty -nine,  hastened  by 
the  overstrain  of  continual  work,  but  his  example  is  one 
of  those  influences  which  raise  and  build  up  the  whole 
community. 

Physicians  and  surgeons  could  not  carry  on  their  bene- 
ficent work  effectually  while  the  daily  care  of  the  sick  was 
committed  to  casual  and  ignorant  attendants.  The  raising 
of  nursing  into  a  skilled  profession,  demanding  discipline, 
training,  and  the  utmost  devotion  of  educated  women,  was 
started  by  Florence  Nightingale  during  the  misery  and  con- 
fusion attendant  on  the  Crimean  War,  when  nursing  by 


THE  '  LADY  OF  THE  LAMP  '  247 

women  outside  a  few  Roman  Catholic  sisterhoods  was  as 
she  said,  '  unspeakable  '.  She  would  quote  a  saying  of 
Lord  Melbourne's.  '  I  would  rather  have  men  about  me 
when  I  am  ill.  I  think  it  requires  very  strong  health  to 
put  up  with  women.'  Her  example  and  teaching  created 
a  new  type  of  nurse,  strong,  capable,  gentle,  efficient,  and 
silent ;  and  Miss  Nightingale  showed  how  worthy  such 
a  nurse  was  to  be  held  in  honour,  and  well  rewarded. 
Indirectly  Miss  Nightingale's  influence  has  entirely  changed 
public  opinion  as  to  paid  work  for  women.  She  would 
never  recognize  class  distinctions  ;  a  woman  must  be  '  sober, 
honest,  and  truthful,  without  which  there  is  no  foundation 
on  which  to  build ' ,  but  with  this  foundation  no  gifts  of  genius, 
beauty,  or  wealth  were  too  good  to  be  dedicated  to  the  service 
of  the  sick,  and  very  specially  of  the  sick  poor. 

By  the  marriage  of  her  only  sister,  Parthenope,  to  Sir 
Harry  Verney,  in  1858,  Florence  Nightingale  found  a  second 
home  at  Claydon,  and  identified  herself  at  once  with  the 
interests  of  the  county.  In  1861  the  Buckingham  and 
Winslow  Volunteers  met  in  Claydon  Park,  and  soon  after 
this  Miss  Nightingale  wrote  to  Sir  Harry  Verney,  October  8, 
1861  :  'It  was  whispered  to  me  in  Sydney  Herbert's  time 
that  Buck-shire  had  been  behindhand  in  her  tribute  of 
Volunteers.  Is  that  the  case  now  ?  I  hope  not.  But  if 
so  it  makes  those  that  have  volunteered  the  more  noble. 
If  I  might  venture  ...  I  would  gladly  ask  you  to  offer  them 
from  me  a  pair  of  colours.  Probably,  however,  they  have 
these.  If  so,  I  can  only  offer  them  from  the  bottom  of 
my  heart  the  best  wishes  of  one  who  has  "  fought  the  good 
fight  "  for  the  army,  seven  years  this  very  month,  without 
the  intermission  of  a  single  waking  hour.'  Miss  Nightingale's 
contribution  eventually  took  the  form  of  a  cup  to  be  shot  for. 

In  1861  Lady  Verney  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
Aylesbury  Hospital,  in  which  her  sister  Florence  took 
a  deep  interest.  In  this  same  year  a  clergyman's  daughter, 
Dorothy  Pattison,  fired  by  Miss  Nightingale's  example  to 
do  some  public  work,  became  the  schoolmistress  of  Little 
Woolstone  ;  she  took  up  nursing  later  on,  and,  as  Sister 
Dora,  became  the  heroine  of  the  Black  Country. 

The  fund  subscribed  by  the  nation  as  a  tribute  to  Miss 
Nightingale's  work  was  devoted  by  her  to  founding  a 


248       THE  '  LADY  OF  THE  LAMP ' 

Training  Home  for  Nurses,  in  connexion  with  the  re -opening 
of  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  in  fine  new  buildings.  Miss 
Nightingale  kept  up  affectionate  personal  relations  with 
the  matron,  sisters,  and  nurses  of  the  Hospital,  and  it  was 
long  a  yearly  f6te  in  the  Nightingale  Home,  when  the 
probationers,  with  the  Home  Sister  in  charge,  came  down 
for  a  long  day  to  the  Claydons.  A  summer  afternoon  was 
spent  in  the  woods,  and  they  returned  to  Claydon  House 
laden  with  wild  flowers,  to  be  welcomed  by  her  whom  they 
loved  to  call  their  '  Mother-Chief  '.  Her  sympathy  was  to 
be  the  inspiration  of  many  an  arduous  and  devoted  career 
of  her  probationers  in  after  years,  in  hospitals  and  work- 
houses, in  the  slums  of  our  old  cities,  and  in  nursing  centres 
newly  started  all  over  the  world. 

Later  on  Florence  Nightingale's  thoughts  were  more  and 
more  directed  to  the  prevention  of  sickness,  and  the  teach- 
ing of  health,  what  she  called  the  '  Civil  and  Military  Science 
of  Life  and  Death  '.  In  1892,  in  connexion  with  the  Bucks 
County  Council  she  started  three  qualified  ladies  as  health 
missioners,  to  give  instruction  and  advice  to  mothers  on 
the  care  and  preservation  of  health  from  infancy  onwards. 
In  these  efforts  she  was  warmly  supported  by  Mr.  Frederick 
Verney,  Chairman  of  the  Technical  Education  Committee, 
by  Dr.  George  De'Ath  of  Buckingham,  and  by  other  medical 
men.  Her  sympathy  with  the  cottage  mothers  was  very 
close  and  tender,  and  her  admiration  of  their  devotion  and 
self-denial  most  sincere. 

Miss  Nightingale  was  full  of  sympathy  for  the  experiment 
that  was  being  tried  in  the  Claydons  of  having  Village  Free 
Libraries  on  the  rates ;  she  contributed  £50  to  buy  books  for 
Steeple  Claydon,  and  threw  her  heart  into  all  that  could 
make  rural  life  more  interesting.  '  Success  will  be  slow,' 
she  wrote  in  1897,  '  but  what  ripens  too  fast,  what  is  forced, 
is  not  what  lasts  the  longest.  The  people  must  always  be 
the  most  essential  part  of  our  machinery.' 

Her  love  for  all  living  things  was  specially  shown  to  the 
birds  in  whiter  ;  the  children  at  Claydon  House  were  con- 
stantly bidden  by  '  Aunt  Florence '  to  hang  up  mutton 
bones  for  them  in  the  frost.  Urgent  little  pencil  notes 
would  come  down  to  them  when  she  was  confined  to  her 
bedroom  :  '  The  Tom-tits  have  sent  to  me  a  Deputation 


250  THE  '  LADY  OF  THE  LAMP  ' 

headed  by  the  little  one  who,  if  it  were  to  take  off  its  clothes, 
would  find  a  roomy  dwelling  in  a  walnut.  They  state  that 
two  gigantic  black  parties,  called,  they  believe,  rooks,  have 
feloniously  carried  off  their  two  best  bones — Haste  for  thy 
life,  post,  haste.' 

On  May  12,  1910,  Florence  Nightingale  reached  her 
ninetieth  birthday  ;  on  August  13,  1910,  she  passed  peace- 
fully away  in  sleep,  at  the  London  house,  No.  10,  South 
Street,  Park  Lane,  which  had  for  many  years  been  her  home. 

While  a  great  memorial  service  was  being  held  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  thronged  by  nurses  and  soldiers  and  some 
of  the  chief  people  of  the  realm,  her  own  directions  as  to  an 
absolutely  simple,  private  funeral  were  being  carried  out  in 
the  village  churchyard  of  Wellow,  Hants,  where  her  parents 
are  buried. 

Few  of  the  conventional  signs  of  grief  were  displayed ; 
a  little  band  of  about  a  dozen  mourners  stood  round  the 
grave,  in  heavy  rain ;  her  own  soft,  white  shawl  was  the  only 
pall ;  and  the  coffin  was  borne  and  lowered  into  the  grave 
by  Guardsmen  in  scarlet  uniforms,  whose  dress  and  bearing 
always  reminded  her  affectionately  of  Inkerman  Day. 

Claydon  was  represented  there  by  Mr.  Frederick  Verney, 
M.P.  for  North  Bucks,  and  his  nephew,  Sir  Harry  Verney. 

'  On  England's  annals,  through  the  long 
Hereafter  of  her  speech  and  song, 

A  light  its  ray  shall  cast 

From  portals  of  the  past. 
A  Lady  with  a  Lamp  shall  stand 
In  the  great  history  of  the  land.  .  .  .' 

And  so  the  long  procession  passes  on  and  out  of  sight ; 
king,  queen,  saint,  bishop,  crusader,  martyr,  poet,  states- 
man, teacher,  soldier,  physician,  nurse,  serving  the  county 
in  their  generation  bravely  and  well. 

The  work  changes  and  demands  new  workers, 

'  Who  follows  in  their  train  ?  ' 
1  Verney  Memoirs.  *  Gough  MSS.  3  Diet.  Nat.  Siog. 


Abbot,  Sir  William,  60. 
Abel,  William,  141. 
Abercrombie,  Jeremiah,  117, 
118. 

Acland,  Sir  Henry,  245. 
Adam,  Robert,  184. 
Addington  Cburch,  77, 117. 

—  Manor,  17,  77, 152. 

—  J.  G.  Hubbard,  1st  Baron, 
77,  246. 

—  Lady,  246. 
Addison,  Joseph,  155. 
Akeley,  139. 
Akeman  Street,  21,  86. 
Albemarle.Fortibus,  Earl  of, 

40. 

—  J.  G.  Keppel,  6th  Earl  of, 
226. 

Albert,  Prince,  220,  229. 
Alfred,  King,  24. 
Alley,  William,  91. 
Allhusen.  Henry,  172. 
Alwyn,  Thomas,  56. 
Amelia,  Princess,  171. 
Amersham,  16, 19,  26, 38,  46, 

63,  67,  79,  82,   84,  90,   143, 

148,  152,  210. 
Anderson,  George,  180. 
Andrewes,  Sir  Henry,  142. 
Andrews,  James,  17y-80. 

—  Thomas,  77. 

—  Mr.,  166-7. 

Anglesey,  1st  Marquess  of, 

227. 

Ankerwyke,  48. 
Anne,  Queen,  155,  165,  239. 
Antrobus,  Mrs.,  169. 
Appowel,  George  &  John,  76. 
Armourer,  Sir  Nicholas,  137 . 
Arne,  Dr.,  181. 
Arundel,  Bishop,  52. 
Ascham,  Roger,  59,  80. 
Ascott,  83. 
Ashendon,  40. 
Ashridge,  45,  82. 
Aston-Abbots,  18,  232. 
Aston-Clinton,  29,  68,  222. 
Aston-Sandford,  17,  201-6. 
Atterbury,  Francis,  Bishop, 

17,  165-7,  245. 

—  Rev.  Lewis,  165. 
Atton,  Bartholomew,  76. 
Aubreys,  the,  123. 
Aubrey,  John,  89. 
Austen,  Lady,  177. 
Aveline  (Fortibus),  Lady,  40. 
Aylesbury,  16,  18-19,23,29, 

30,  54,  62,  t>8,  73,  79,  82,  84, 
94,96,107,116,121,132,137- 
40,  142-3,  145-8,  152,  158, 
187-8,  191-2,  197-8,  201-2, 
211,220,  222,225-9,  237,  239, 
242, 245,  247. 

—  William  de,  46. 

Ball,  John,  51. 
Bank,  Rev.  — ,  224. 


INDEX 


Baring,  Sir  Thomas/195. 
Barker,  Christopher,  92. 
Barlow,  Sir  Thomas,  M.D., 
238. 

Barnard  Castle,  47. 
Barnet,  62. 
Barton  Hartshorn,  75. 

—  John,  59,  60,  143. 
Bassetbury  House,  90. 
Basset,  Alan,  46. 

Bate,  George,  M.D.,  240. 

—  Rev.  Matthew,  143. 
Baxter,  Richard,  17. 
Beachampton,  73,  76. 
Beacon  Hill,  237. 
Beaconsfleld,  18, 134, 148, 187- 

8,  236. 

Beauchamp,  Walter,  54. 
Beckett,  Thomas  a,  30. 
Bedford,  W.  Russell,  Duke 

of.  157, 162. 
Bedwin,  Great,  184. 
Beke,  Richard,  140. 
Belsoii,  Thomas,  97. 
Belvoir  Priory,  36. 
Bennett,  Mr.,  145. 
Berkhamstead,  31, 173. 
Bernard,  Thomas,  53. 
Bernwood,  26,  30,  89, 119. 
Biddlesden,  133. 
Bierton,  62,  65,  68. 
Biggs,  John,  133, 140. 
Birinus  (or  Berrin),  22. 
Bisham,  62,  85,  193-4. 
Blake,  Admiral,  133-4. 
Bledlow,  25,  204. 
Bletchley,  55,  78, 100, 104. 
Boarstall,  18,  21,  26,  97,  118, 

162. 

Boarstall  House,  119-24. 
Bohuns,  the.  33. 
Boleyns,  the',  83. 
Boleyn,  Sir  Thomas,  73. 
Bond,  Catherine,  118. 
Borlase,  Capt.,  223. 

—  Mary,  79. 

Borlase's,      Sir      William, 
School,  82,  230. 
Botelers,  the,  62,  73. 
Boteler,  Lady  Alice,  54. 
Bourbon  Street,  202. 
Bowyer,  Sir  William,  18. 
Brackley,  24. 

—  Lord,  145,  155. 
Bradenham,  79,  84,  90,  213, 

216,  219. 
Bradwell,  48. 
Bramston,  Sarah,  172. 
Brangwyn,  John,  205. 
Brett,  Rev.  R.,  17, 100-1. 
Brickhills,  the,  29. 
Brickhill,  Bow,  76. 

—  Great,  146. 

—  Little,    79,   94,   122,  138, 
157, 227. 

Bridgewater,  Earl    of,' 144, 
148,  161. 


Brill,  21,  26,  30,  33,  46,  97, 
119, 124,  162. 
Brown,  Alice,  100. 

—  Richard,  100. 

Browne,  Sir  Christopher, 
97. 

Buckingham,  16,  23-5.  29- 
31,  33,  36,  46,  53-4,  62,  66, 
76,  80-1,  95,  107,  116,  118, 
139-40,  149,  158,  161,  171, 
183,  205-6,  209-10,  225,  232, 
237,  239,  242,  246,  248. 

—  George  Villiers,  Duke  of, 
104. 

—  John  de,  52. 

—  and  Chandos,  2nd  Duke 
of,  210,  228-9. 

—  Marquess  of,  196-9,  2CO, 
228. 

—  Marchioness  of,  196,  200. 
Buckinghamshire,  1st  Karl 

of,  110. 

Bulstrodes,  the,  29. 
Bulstrode,  Henry,  M.P.,  107. 

—  Manor,  152, 161. 
Bunyan,  John,  17, 116. 
Burcote,  62. 
Burghersh,  Bishop,  67. 
Burke,  Edmund,  18, 112, 184, 

187-8.  191-2,  196. 

—  William,  184. 
Burnet,  Bishop,  1£1, 155. 
Burnham,  29. 

—  Lord,  187. 

Busby,  Dr.  Richard,  17. 

—  Sir  John,  152. 

—  Robert,  117. 

—  Thomas,  78. 
Butler's  Court,  187,  236. 
Butterfleld,  Rev.  E.,  141. 

—  Rev.  W.,  162. 

Calvert,  Sir  Harry,  225-7. 

—  Station,  227. 
Campion,  Sir  William,  120- 

3. 

—  Lady,  121-2. 
Canning,  George,  18,  188. 
Canterbury,  30,  37. 
Carlile,  W.  W.,  99. 
Carpenter,  Richard,  146. 
Carrington,  Earl  of,  184. 
Carysfort,  Lord  and  Lady, 

199. 
Cavendish,  Hon.  Lieut-Col., 

237. 

Cawston,  37. 
Cecil,  Sir  William  80. 
Ceely,  Robert,  245. 
Chalfont  St.  Giles,  126,  130- 

1, 142, 148,  238. 
Chalgrove  Field,  113. 
Challoner,  82,  90. 
Chaloner,  Sir  Thomas,  90, 

104. 

—  Thomas,  104,  133. 
Chamberlayne,  George,  118. 


252 


INDEX 


Chandler,  Anthony,  76. 
Charles  1, 102, 107-8, 113, 115, 

119,  126,  142,  144,  150,  157, 

170,  240. 

—  II,  134, 138, 144, 151-2, 158, 
161,  240. 

Charles  Edward,  Prince, 
166-7. 

Charlotte,  Queen,  181. 

Chase,  Thomas,  53, 67. 

Chearsley,  22. 

Chenles,46,  84,  157,165,205. 

Chesham,  C.  C.  W.  Caven- 
dish, 1st  Baron,  238-7. 

—  16,  140-1,146,  211,237. 

—  Bois,  52,  77. 
Chester,  Sir  Anthony,  142. 
Chesterfield,  Earl  of,  183. 
Chetwode,  209. 

Cheyne,  Sir  John,  52,  61 
Chich,  23. 
Chlcheley,  123, 142. 

—  Archbishop,  55. 
Chilterns,  16,  21-2,  29,  53, 

68, 110-11, 134,  216,  226, 237. 
Cbilton,  113. 
Chilton  House,  132. 
Chipping  Wycombe,  31,  91. 
Christopher,  shoemaker,  53. 
Clarke,  Samuel,  144. 
Claydons,  108-9, 113, 115, 134, 

138, 141, 184, 187-8, 245, 251. 
Claydon,  East,  96,  141,  165, 

211. 

—  House,  67,  103,  184,  187, 
227,  233,  240-2,  248. 

—  Middle,  19,  29,  62,  73,  78. 
95, 142, 162,  211. 

—  Steeple,  21,  65,  73,90,  96, 
116, 133,  248. 

Claypole,  John,  137. 
Clayton,  Sir  Thomas,  238. 

—  Sir  William,  226. 
Clerkenwell,  140. 
Clieveden,  181. 
Clifton-Reynes,  40. 
Cobbett,  Richard,  194-5. 
Cobham,  Viscount,  182. 

—  Viscountess,  169-70, 172. 
Cock,  Mr.,  148. 
—Alfred  H,  75. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  90,  107, 

170. 

Colchester,  123. 
Coleshill,  18. 
Colet,  Sir  Henry,  67. 
Colet.  John,  Dean  of  St. 

Paul's,  17,  67-69. 
Colet,  Lady,  67. 
Colnbrook,  70,  77,  83. 
Combermere,  1st  Viscount, 

227. 

Cooper's  Hill,  124. 
Cottesloe,  Sir  T.  Fremantle, 

1st  Baron,  233. 
Courtenay,  Bishop,  49. 
Cowley,  Matthias,  116. 
Cowper,  Ashley,  173. 

—  Harriet,  173. 


Cowper,  Theodora,  173. 

—  Rev.  John,  173. 

—  William,  18, 131,  168-180, 
187,  203,  228-9,  246. 

Cox,  Richard,  59. 
Crab,  Robert,  140-1. 
Crabbe,  George,  18,  188. 
Cranmer,    Thomas,    Arch- 
bishop, 78,  93. 
Creslow,  29,  89, 133. 
Crewe,  Sir  Thomas,  96. 
Croke,  Sir  George,  113. 
Cromwell,  Elizal>eth,  110. 

—  Oliver,  56,  111,  113, 116, 117, 
122, 124, 129, 130, 132-4, 137, 
146,  150,  165,  238-40. 

—  Richard,  137, 140. 

—  Thomas,  Lord,  38,  78. 
Cublington,  29. 
Cymbeline,  21,  22. 

Danelagh,  24-5. 
Danes,  21,  23,  25. 
Danvers,  Sir  John,  70. 
Darby,  Mr.,  172. 
Dashwood,  Sir  John,  195. 
Datchett,  18,  33,  34,  89,  92, 
148. 

Davies,  Dr.  A.  Morley,  19. 
Dayrell,  Sir  Marmaduke,  90. 

—  Sir  Peter,  142. 
Deane,  Richard,  133. 
De'Ath,  Dr.  George,  245, 248. 

—  Dr.  Robert,  246. 
Delafude,  229. 
Delane,  Thomas,  222. 
Denham,  45,  96. 

—  Sir  John,  18,  84, 119-124. 

—  Lady,  121. 

—  Court,  18. 

—  Place,  18. 

Dentons,  the,  143,  211,  239. 
Denton,  Sir  Alexander,  115- 
18. 

—  Alexander,  118. 

—  Anne,  115. 

—  Edmund,  240. 

—  Isabel,  81,  118. 

—  John,  118. 

—  Margaret,  104. 

—  Mary  (Hampden),  115. 

—  Mary  (Martin),  115. 

—  Susan,  117. 

—  Thomas,  115. 

—  Sir  Thomas,  115. 

—  Dr.  William,  241-2. 
Digbys,  the,  96. 

Dlgby,  Sir  Everard,  17,  97- 
8. 

—  Sir  John,  98. 

—  Sir  Kenelm,  98  9. 

—  Mary,  Lady,  98. 

—  Venetia,  Lady,  98. 
Dinton,  140. 

—  Hall,  132-3. 

Disraeli.  Benjamin.  Earl  of 
Beaconsfleld,  184,  212-22. 

—  Mrs.,  214,  216. 
D'Israeli,  Isaac,  213. 


Ditchley,  151. 
Ditton  Park,  18. 
Dobson,  Gerard,  81. 
Doddershall,  89,  96, 145,  235. 
Donne,  Anne,  173. 

-  John.  Dean,  173. 
Dorchester.  22. 
Dormers,  the,  96. 
Dormer,  Sir  Robert,  83,  96. 
Dorton,  26, 123. 
Douglas,  CoL  A.,  224. 
Dove,  Miss  J.  F.,  184.J 
Downley,  90. 

Dovle,  Col.,  224. 
D'Oyley,  Sir  Cope,  101. 

—  Sir  Francis,  227. 

—  Thomas,  M.D ,  238. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  84. 

—  Joan,    Lady    (Denham), 
84. 

—  Sir  William,  84. 
Drayton-Beauchamp,  52, 92- 

3. 

—  Drayton-Parslow,  76. 
Dryden,  John,  18, 131, 151. 
Duncombe,  family  of,  145. 
Dunstable,  37. 

Ebrington,  Lord,  199. 
Edgcott,  242. 
Edgehill,  109,  150,  224. 
Edith  of  Aylesbury,  22. 
Edward  the  Confessor,  25-27, 
30. 

—  the  Elder,  24-5. 
Edward  I,  39-47,76. 

—  II.  42. 

—  111,47-8,54,119. 

—  (the  Black  Prince),  47-8. 

—  IV,  59-68. 

—  V,  63,  64. 

—  VI,  59,  73  6,79,80-2  115. 

-  VII,  81,  221, 222,  237. 
Eliot,  Sir  John,  112. 
Elizabeth,  Queen,  53,  59,  76, 

77,  81-94,  96,  110, 140,  170, 

224,  238. 
Ellwood,  Thomas,  131,  148, 

238. 

Emberton,  204. 
Essex,  Devereux,  3rd  Earl  of, 

113, 117. 
Eton,  16, 55-6, 59, 60, 80  -1 , 91 , 

119,  123, 137,  168-9, 172,  181, 

192-3,  232,  236. 
Ewelme,  55,  245. 

Fairfax,  Captain,  R.N.,  234. 

—  Sir  Thomas,   121-3,  129, 
132. 

Falkland,     Lucius    Carey, 
Viscount,  124. 
Fanshawe,  Sir  Thomas,  123. 
Farnham  Castle,  120. 
Fawkes,  Guy,  97. 
Fawley  Court,  123. 
Fenny  Stratford,  84,  242. 
Festing,  Colonel,  233. 
Fillingham,  47. 


INDEX 


253 


Fingest,  31,  67. 
Fleetwood,  Major-General, 
132, 139. 

—  Rev.  James,  142. 

—  Sir  George,  133. 
Fletcher,  Sir  L.  Aubrey,  26. 
Fortescue,  Sir  Adrian,  69. 

83. 

—  Sir  John,  83-4,  94. 
Foscott  (Foxcote),  18,  75. 
Fournesse,  Rev.  John,  143. 
Fowler,  Edward,  66. 

—  Richard,  62. 

—  Robert,  24. 
Fowler,  J.  K.,  197,  220. 
Fox,  Charles  James,  179. 

—  George,  146. 149. 
Foxe,  John,  53. 
Frenmntle,    Hon.    Sir   Ed- 
mund, Admiral,  233-4. 

—  'Mr.  and  Mrs.  T.',  199. 

—  Sir     Charles,    Admiral, 
232-3. 

—  Sir  Thomas,  Admiral,  232. 
Friend,  —  M.D.,  242,  24*. 
Fuller,  John,  17,  74. 
Fulmer  Place,  18,  90. 

Gage,  Colonel,  121. 
Garth,  Sir  Samuel,  242. 
Gateley,  37. 

Gawcott,  17,  204-6,   209-10, 
212. 

Gayer,  Sir  Robert,  170. 
Gayhurst,  17,  96-7,  99. 
George  1, 156, 166. 

—  11,118,171-3. 

—  Ill,  172, 181-92, 197,  228. 
Gerard,  Father,  97-8. 
Gerrard's  Cross,  18. 
Giffards,  the,  96. 
GifTard,  Walter,  29. 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  204. 

—  Miss,  204. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  184,  221. 
Gloucester,  Richard.  Duke 

of,  63. 

Goodwins,  the,  150. 
Goodwin,  Arthur,  150. 

—  Sir  Francis,  94-5, 107. 
Grafton,  61. 
Granborough,  147. 
Granville,  199. 

Gray,  Dorothy,  171. 

—  Robert,  96. 

—  Thomas,  17,  42,  110, 168- 
178, 179-80. 

Greenlands,  215,  238. 
Gregory,  John,  143. 
Grenfell,  Lord,  236. 
Grendon-Underwood,   86-9, 

145. 
Grenvilles,  the,  182, 184, 188, 

191 
Grenville,  Lady  Anne,  172. 

—  Hester,  183. 

—  Rt.  Hon.  George,  18, 182, 
183. 

-Lady  Mary,  172. 


Grenville,  Mr.,  143. 
— Mr.Jun.,  187. 

—  Richard,  of  Wotton,  183. 

—  Rt.  Hon.  William,  18. 
Grey,  Arthur,  Lord,  84. 
Grey,  Colonel,  214. 
Grey,  Elizabeth,  Lady,  61. 

—  Sir  John,  61. 

—  Lord,  214. 
Griffin,  John,  224,  225. 
Griffith,  John,  146. 
Griffiths,  Surgeon,  239. 
Grove,  Jane,  146. 

Hackett,  Thomas,  152. 
Hackshott,  Thomas,  96. 
Haddenham,  140,  204, 206. 
Haddon,  Walter,  90. 
Hales,  Sir  Edward,  224. 
Hall  Barn,  131, 187. 

—  Edward,  76. 

—  Rev.  William,  77. 
Hambledon,  66-7,  79,  85,  90, 

101,  143,  215,  227,  238. 

—  Viscountess,  216. 
Hampdens,  the,  28,  96. 
Hampden,  Captain,  224. 

—  Great,  110-11. 

—  Church,  111. 

—  Griffith,  86, 110. 

—  House,  110. 

—  Isabel,  97. 

—  John,    107,   10-115,    124, 
133, 150. 

—  Mary,  115. 

—  Richard,  137. 

—  Sir  John,  69. 

—  William,  110. 
Hanger  Hill,  148. 
Hanmer,  Colonel,  226. 
Harby,  42. 

Harding,  Thomas,  53. 
Harleyford,  226. 
Harold.  27-8,  30. 
Hartnell,  John,  146. 
Hartwell,  142,  204,  245. 

—  House,  197-8,  201-2. 
Harvey,  General,  199. 

—  Lady  Louisa,  199. 
Hastings,  Lord,  79. 
Hatton,  Sir  Christopher,  84, 

90, 170. 

Hedgerley,  28. 
Henn,  Mr.,  137. 
Henry  I,  29,  30. 

—  11,30,31. 

—  Ill,  31,  35,  40,  42,  46. 
^-IV,  40,  52  54. 

—  V,  52,  54. 

—  VI,  54,  62. 

—  VII,  37, 54,  64,  134. 
-  VIII,  65-74,  78,  83. 
Herbert,    Lady    Charlotte, 

161. 

—  Rt.  Hon.  Sidney,  247. 
Herschell,  18. 

Hesketh,   Lady  (nte  Cow- 

per),  178. 
Heywood,  37. 


Higginson,  General   Sir  G. 

W.  A.,  230. 
Higham  Ferrars,  55. 
Hill,  Lord,  227. 
Hillesden,  104, 115-19, 142-3, 

209-11,  239-42. 
Hitcham,  242,  245. 
Hobart,  Sir  Miles,  107, 112. 
Hogshaw,  95. 
Holland,  Cornelius,  133. 
Holywell,  97. 

Hooker,  Richard,  17,  92,  93. 
Horton,  77, 126, 129,  162. 
Horwood,  Great,  211. 

—  Little,  104. 
How,  William,  67. 
Hughenden,  40,  66,  213,  216, 

221. 

Hungerford,  Thomas,  Lord, 
63. 

—  Walter,  63. 
Huntingdon,  Earl  of,  224. 
Hurstfleld,  219. 

Huss,  John,  52. 

Hyde  (LordClarendon),108. 

Hyde,  Sir  Robert,  146. 

Ickford,  144, 166. 
Ingleton,  Robert,  60. 
Ingoldsby,  Richard,  133, 142. 
Isbam,  Sir  Justinian,  240. 

—  Mrs.  (Denton),  239. 
Iver,  29. 

Iwardby,  Margaret    (Lady 
Verney),  103. 

James  I,  83,  93-102, 110, 119, 
173. 

—  II,  151, 158, 161,  224. 
James,  Dr.  S.  R.,  38. 
Jeffreys,  Judge,  18,  152,  155 

161-2. 

Jennings,  Jonathan,  146. 
Jewell,  Bishop,  143. 
John  of  Gaunt,  49,  50. 
John,  King,  18,  32-5,  216. 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  131, 

169, 183. 

Jones,  Inigo,  123. 
Jones,  Mr.,  209. 
Jordans,  148-9, 162. 
Joyce  the  Waterman,  80. 

Reach,  Benjamin,  146. 

—  Henry,  146. 
Keate,  Dr.,  192. 
Kent,  37,  51. 

—  Duchess  of,  229. 

—  Duke  of,  225. 
Keynes,  William  de,  29. 
Kimble,  Great,  21. 
Kimbolton  Abbey,  73. 
King,  Dr..  180. 

—  Samuel,  204,  206. 
King's  Sutton,  24. 
Kinloss,  Baroness,  203. 

Langland,  Win..  48. 
Langley  Marsh,  61, 145. 


254 


INDEX 


Lathbury,  142,  166-7. 

Martin,  Mary,  115. 

Latimer,  Bishop,  38,  126. 

Mary  II,  Queen,  162,  165. 

—  Lord,  152. 

—  Tudor,  Queen,  46,  59,  66, 

Laud,  Archbishop,  107,  111. 

74,  76,  79,  81-3,  90,  170. 

Lavendon,  29,  79. 
—  Grange,  18. 

Mayne,  Simon,  132,  133. 
Mead,  Dr.,  242,  245. 

Leckhamstead,  143. 

—  Matthew,  145. 

Lee,  family  of,  197. 

—  Miss,  188. 

—  Lady  Elizabeth,  198. 

Meads,  '  Cracky,'  209. 

—  Sir  George,  197,  202. 

Medmenham,  191. 

—  Sir  Henry,  84. 

Melbourne,  Lord,  246. 

—  Dr.  John,  245. 

Mentmore,  19,  222. 

—  Father  Roger,  97. 

Mercer,  96. 

—  Sir  Thomas,  142,  161. 

Mercla,  22-4,  25. 

Leeson,  Mr.,  188. 

Milton,  Anne,  124,  126. 

Leicester,  Dudley,  Earl  of, 

—  Christopher,  124,  126. 

90. 

—  Deborah,  131. 

Leighton  Buzzard,  188. 

—  John,  sen,  124. 

Le  Marchant,  Colonel  John, 

—  John   (poet),  18,  124-32, 

225-6. 

142,  148,  168. 

Lenborough,  18,  133,  142,  209. 

—  Keynes,  17,  29,  165. 

Leopold,  Prince,  221. 

Minshull,  Elizabeth,  130. 

Lewis,  Mrs.  Wvndham,  214. 

Missenden,  Great,  53. 

Lillingstone     Dayrell,    91, 

—  Robert  of,  53. 

143. 

Modwenna,  22,  23. 

Linford,  Great,  239. 

Monk,  General,  133. 

Linford,  Little,  75. 

Monks  Risborough,  37. 

—  Manor  of,  62. 

Moumouth,  James,  Duke  of, 

Linslade,  29. 

162. 

Lister,  Anne,  239. 

Montagu,  Lord,  62,  96. 

—  Dr.  Martin,  239. 

Monteagle,  Lord,  98. 

—  Martin,  M.P.,  95-6. 

Montfort,  Simon  de,  40,  216. 

—  Susannah,  239. 

Moore,  Sir  John,  225. 

Littlebov,  148. 

Morden,  James,  53. 

Lloyd,  Mr.  &  Mrs.,  199. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  68,  70. 

LJuelyn,  George,  241. 

Morris,  Matthew,  227. 

—  Dr.  Martin,  240,  241. 

-  William,  126. 

—  Martin,  jun.,  241. 

Moulder,  Betty,  205. 

—  Richard,  241. 

Moulsoe,  225. 

Loakes  Manor,  184. 

—  Mary,  97. 

Lollards,  17,  38,  47,  52-3. 
Long  Crendon,  54. 

Mursley,  83,  84,  96. 
Myers,  John,  75. 

Longville,  Earl  of,  29. 

'Lord    Williams'  School,' 

Napier,  Dr.  Robert,  239. 

111,  131. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte,  196-7, 

Louis  XVIII,  195-204. 

199,  201-2,  225-6. 

Lowe,  Robert,  222. 

Nelson,  Lord,  233. 

Ludgate  Hill,  22,  192. 

Nevilles,  the,  199. 

Ludgershall,  26,  47,  53. 

Newark,  34. 

Ludlow.  63. 

Xewcome,  Robert,  76. 

Luke,  Colonel,  116,  132. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  205. 

Lutterworth,  47,  51. 

Newport  Pagnell,  16.  17,  55, 

Lynch,  Euphemia,  204. 

62,  76,79,  83,  116,  117,  122, 

Lytteltons,  the,  182. 

145,  147,  149,  152,  167,  228, 

239. 

McCleverty,  Captain,  232. 

Newton,  Rev.  John,  17,  177, 

Mackenzie,  General,  226. 

203. 

Magna  Carta,  34. 

—  Sir  Isaac,  18. 

Maids  Moreton,  143,  209-10, 

—  Longville,  29. 

240. 

Nichols,  George,  96. 

Man,  Thomas,  67. 

Nield,  Mr.,  229. 

Mandevilles,  the,  33. 

Nigel  of  Boarstall,  26. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  225, 

Nightingale,    Florence,   19, 

242. 

232,  238,  245-50. 

Marlow,  16,  31,  46,  73,  75,  82, 

Norland  Wood,  67. 

85,107,  112,  148,  158,  193,  194, 

Norman,  Joan,  53. 

225-6,  230. 

Norris,  Sir  John,  224. 

—  Little,  26,  67,  79. 

North  Marston,  37,  38,  39, 

Marsh  Gibbon,  55,  245. 

147,  229-30. 

Oakley,  119,  162. 

—  Rev.  — .  142. 
O'Donnell,  Miss,  1!)9. 
Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  52. 
Oldrid,  Carry,  210. 

—  J.  H.,210. 

Olney,  16,  21,  29,52, 149,168, 

173,177-80,187,203,229. 
Orange,  Prince  of,  161-2. 
Ormonde,  Earl  of,  134. 
Ouse,  16,  21,  24,  73, 167, 177. 
Oving,  28. 
Owen,  Sir  Richard,  18. 

Packington,  Sir  John,  134. 
Padbury,  116, 117. 
Parker,  Dr.  William,  239. 
Parr,  Catherine,  Queen,  73. 
Paulet,  William,  61. 
Peacock,  Thomas  Love,  18 
193. 

Peckham,  Sir  Edmund,  79. 
Peel,  Rev.  — ,  142. 

—  Sir  Robert,  214. 

—  Sir  William,  233. 
Penda,  23. 
Penington,  Isaac,  147-9. 

—  Mary,  148. 
Penn,  187, 196. 
Penns,  the,  28. 
Penn,  John,  172. 

—  Thomas,  172. 

—  William,  148-9, 172. 
Peterborough,  Earl  of,  242. 
Philips,  Sir  Edward.  95. 

—  Thomas,  166. 
Phillips,  Edward,  126. 

—  Elizabeth,  Abbess,  166. 
Pigotts,  the,  89,  96. 
Pigott,  Captain,  224. 

—  Admiral  William,  235. 

—  Sir   Christopher,  95,  96, 
151. 

—  Squire,  145. 
Pitts,  the,  182. 

Pitt,  William,  183, 184. 
Poges,  Robert,  169. 
Pole,  Cardinal,  166. 
Pope,  Alexander,  18, 166, 168, 

183 

Potter,  Agnes,  109. 
Powell,  Mary,  130. 
Preston  Bissett,  118,  242. 
Princes  Risborough,  25,  133, 

145,  205. 

Pritchard,  Humphrey,  97. 
Proby,  the  Hon.  Granville, 

199. 

—  Lady  Charlotte,  199. 

—  Lady  Fanny,  199. 

—  Lord,  199. 
Purcell,  155,  241. 
Purefoy,  Colonel,  143. 
Pyrton,  111,  114. 

Quainton,  17,  100,  103,  151, 
235. 
Quakers,  17. 


INDEX 


255 


Quarles,  Francis,  101. 
Quarrendon,  23,  85. 

Radcliffe,  141,  289. 

—  Dr.  John,  239. 
Raleigh,   Sir    Walter,   102, 

204. 

Raunce,  John,  90. 
Reuben,  John,  81. 
Reynolds,  Dr.,  100. 

—  Sir  Joshua,  188,  198,  209. 
Richard  I,  31,  40. 

—II,  52,  59. 

—  Ill,  63. 

Roades,  William,  108,  138. 
Robert  the  Miller,  53. 
Roberts,  the,  91. 

—  George,  143. 
Rochester,  Earl  of,  137-8. 
Rockingham,  Lord,  191. 
Rogers,  Mrs.,  169. 

Rolfe,  infant  Hercules,  188. 
Rosebery,  Earl  of,  18,  182, 
184,  222. 

Ross,  Sir  James,  18. 
Rothschild,  Anthony  de,  222. 

—  Constance  de  (Lady  Bat- 
tersea),  223. 

—  Baron  Ferdinand  de,  222. 

—  Miss  Hannah  de,  222. 

—  Lionel  de,  222. 

—  Lionel  Nathan  de,  221 

—  Louisa,  Lady  de,  222,  223. 

—  Nathan    Mayer   de,   1st 
Baron,  222. 

Runnymede,  18,  33. 
Rupert,  Prince,  114, 132. 
Ruskin,  John,  245. 
Russell,    Francis,   Earl    of 
Bedford,  84. 
-  Right  Hon.  G.  W.  E.,  222. 

—  John,  146. 

—  John,  Lord,  222. 

—  Lalv,  85. 

—  Lord,  69. 

—  Rachel,  Lady,  157-65. 

—  William,  Lord,  157-62. 

St  Barbe,  Ursula,  123. 
Balden  House,  83,  84. 
Sandys,  Q2. 

Scawen,  Sir  William,  162. 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  17,  204- 
12. 

—  Thomas,  17, 133,  203-6. 

—  Thomas,  jun.,  204,  206. 

—  Sir  Walter,  18. 
Scrope,  Adrian,  133, 134. 

—  Bernard,  180. 
Seymour  Court,  73. 

—  Jane  (Queen),  73. 
Shadwell,  146. 
Shakespeare,  40.89, 126, 130, 

181. 

Shardeloes,  84. 
Shelburne,  Lord  (Marquess 

of  Lansdowne),  183,  184. 
Sheldon,  Archbishop,  144. 

—  John,  17. 


Shelley,   Percy  Bysshe,  18, 

192-4; 

—  Mrs.,  193-4. 
Sheuley,  143. 
Sherrington,  68,  76, 122. 
Shobbington,  28,  29. 
Shorne,  Sir  John,  37,  38. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  126. 
Simeon,  Charles,  204. 
Skippon,  General,  121. 
Slough,  16,  82. 

Smart,  William,  188. 
Smith,  Bishop,  66,  67. 

—  Captain,  109. 

—  Colonel,  116-18. 
—Dr.  John,  238. 

—  General  Philip,  235. 

—  Richard,  91. 

—  Sir  William,  139, 142. 

—  Rt.  Hon.  W.  H.,  19,  215. 
Soulbury,  145, 146. 
Southampton,  Earl  of,  157. 
Sparke,  Rev.  William,  100. 
Springett,  Gulielma,  148. 

—  Lady,  147. 
Stafford,  Edmund,  142. 

—  Thomas,  139. 

Stanley,  Arthur,  Dean,  212. 
Stamnore,  201. 
Stanton  St  John,  124. 
Stantonbury,  239. 
Stephen,  King,  29. 

—  Sir  James,  206. 
Stoke,  Amicla  de,  169. 

-  Court,  90, 172. 

—  Goldington,  203. 

—  Hammond,  78,  146. 

—  Mandeville,  112. 

—  Park,  172. 

—  Poges,  29,  63,  79, 107,  168- 
70, 172. 

Stone.  226. 

Stonyhurst,  78. 

Stony  Stratford,  16,  45,  46, 
61,  63,  64, 161. 

Stowe,  18,  29,  32.  107.  115, 
118,  137,  171,  181-3,  187-8, 
199,  200,  203,  209,  227-9, 241. 

-  Mr.  W.,  232. 

—  Mr.,  jun.,  232. 
Stratford,  Earl  of,  107,  108, 

124,  150. 
Stratton,  Matthew  de,  36, 

81. 

Styles,  Robert,  118. 
Sudbury,  Archbishop,  49. 
Suffolk,  Earl  of,  55. 
Sutton,  Bishop  Oliver,  46. 
Swanbourne,  73,  84, 132, 233. 
Swift,  Dean,  155. 
Swinho,  George,  145. 
Symeon,  Elizabeth,  111. 
Symes,  Mrs.  Jane,  166, 167. 


Tulbot,  Neil,  199. 
Taplow,  29,  236. 
Tavistock,  Marquess  of,  162. 
Temples,  the,  115, 182. 


Temple,  Countess,  171. 

—  Earl,  171. 

—  Hester,  183. 

—  Lady,  199. 

—  Lord,  228. 

—  Sir  Peter,  133. 

—  Sir  Richard,  137,  152. 
Thackeray,  181,  222. 
Thame,  111,  114. 
Thames,  124,  193, 194. 
Thomson,  James,  18, 183. 
Thornton,  59. 

—  Church,  76,  78. 

—  Hall,  59. 

—  School,  81. 

—  Spencer,  17. 
Throckmortons,  the,  17,  96. 
Throckmorton,  Mr.,  178. 

—  Sir  Robert,  167. 
Tidy,  Colonel,  226,  227. 
Tilbury,  92,  223. 
Tillotson,  Archbishop,  177. 
Tingewick,  21,  76,  209. 
Tothill,  William,  84. 
Towles,  Christopher,  228. 
Townshend,  Robert,  141. 
Tresham,  98. 

Trone,  151. 
Twyford,  241. 
Tyburn,  97. 
Tylesworth,  Joan,  53.- 

—  William,  53. 
Tyrell,  Sir  Hugo,  69. 

—  Sir  Thomas,  161. 
Tyringhara,  25,  60, 143. 

—  Anthony,  96, 143. 

—  Sir  John,  60. 

Udall,  Nicholas,  59. 
Unwin,  Mr.,  177. 

—  Mrs.  Mary,  173, 177,  178, 
180. 

Upton  Church,  172. 
Ussher,  Archbishop,  107. 

Vanbrugh,  Sir  John,  183. 
Vandyck,  Sir  Anthony,  98, 

150. 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  129. 
Velvet  Lawn,  21. 
Verneys,  the,  78,  96, 115, 150, 

239. 
Verney,  Sir  Edmund,  73. 

—  Sir    Edmund  (Standard 
Bearer),  102-9, 116,  150. 

—  Sir  Edmund,  jun.,  134. 

—  Sir  Edmund  Hope,  232-3. 

—  F.  P.,  Lady,  247. 

—  Sir  Francis,  102-3. 

—  Frederick,  248,  250. 

—  Sir  Harry,  245,  247. 

—  Sir  Harry  C.  W.,  250. 

—  Colonel  Henry,  137. 

—  Sir  John,  62. 

—  Dame  Margaret,  68, 107-8, 

—  Mary,  jun.,  165. 

—  Sir  Ralph  (Lord  Mayor) 
62,  69. 


256 


INDEX 


Verney,  Sir  Ralph,  70,  73, 
113,116,137-9,142,145,152, 
161.165,  240-1. 

—  Ursula,  10a 

—  2nd  Earl,  184, 187-8. 
Victoria,  Queen,  18,  25,  211, 

213, 216,  220-1,  229,  236,  238, 
245. 
Vincent,  Nathaniel,  145. 

Waddesdon,  29, 145, 151, 222, 

229. 
Wales,  Princess  of  (Queen 

Alexandra),  221. 
Walker,  John,  209. 

—  Robert,  134. 

Waller,  Edmund,  18, 81, 121, 
151, 187. 

—  Mary  ,134. 
Wallingford,  22. 
Walpole,  Horace,  169,  171, 

183. 

Walsingham.Our  Lady  of,3S. 
Walton,  Isaac,  92. 
Wandsworth,  William,  62. 
Warham.  Archbishop,  68. 
Warr,  Benjamin,  209. 
Warwick,  Beaucbamp,  Earl 

of,  54,  61,  62. 
Water  Eaton,  123. 
Watling  Street,  21,  45. 
Watson,  Sir  James,  226. 
Waynflete,  William,  56,  59. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  202, 

226,  227, 230. 
Wendover,  17, 18,  35,  38,  46, 

65,   68,  111,  140,   151,  158, 

184,  187,  235,  238. 

—  Richard  of,  35. 

—  Roger  of,  35,  36,  238. 
Wenman,  Lord  and  Lady, 

241. 

Wentworth,  Sir  Roger,  69. 
Wesley,  John,  204. 
West,  John,  206,  210. 
Westbury,  59. 

—  Provost,  59. 

Weston,  Ann  (Lady  Ver- 
ney), 70,  73. 

—  Sir  Francis,  73. 
Weston-Underwood,  17,  96, 

167, 168, 178,  203,  204. 
Weston-Turville,  68, 180. 


Wethereds,  the,  225. 
Whaddon,  59,  84,  104. 

—  Hall,  242. 
Whartons,  the,  157. 
Wharton,  Anne  (Lee),  Mrs., 

151-6. 

—  Arthur,  150. 

—  Harry,  152. 

—  Jane,  Lady,  150. 

—  Philip,  Lord  (4th  Baron), 
95,  123,  145,149-151.224. 

—  Philip,  Duke  of,  156. 

—  Thomas,  1st  Marquess  of, 
151-6. 

—  Marchioness    of     (Lucy 
Loftus),  155. 

—  Nehemiah,  111. 
Wheeler,  Dr.,  240. 
Whitchurch,  143,  180. 
White, '  Nanny,'  209. 
White,  William  and  Gilles- 

pie,  226. 

Whiteleaf  Cross,  25, 110. 
Whitelocke,  Bulstrode,  215. 
Whittingham,  Margaret, 62. 

—  Sir  Robert,  62. 
Whittlebury  Forest,  61. 
Wilberforce,  Samuel,  Bp., 

222. 
Wilkes,  John,  18,  188-192, 

22*. 

Willen,  17, 123. 
William  the  Conqueror,  28, 

29. 

—  Ill,  140,  151, 162, 170, 224. 

—  and  Mary.155,162, 239,242. 

—  Rufus,  27. 
Williams's,    Lord,    School, 

Thame,  111. 
Willis,  Browne,  77,  78,  81, 

84, 167,  242. 

Willis,  Dr.  Thomas,  242. 
Willoughby      de      Eresby, 

Lady,  151. 

Wilson,  Daniel,  Bishop,  206. 
Winchendon,  145,  150,  155, 

156. 

—  House,  152. 
Winchester,  224. 
Windsor,  Sir  Edward,  80. 

—  Edward,  Lord,  84. 

—  Miles,  84. 

—  Sir  William,  79. 


Wing,  70,  83,  96, 122. 
Wlnslow,  21,  24,  104,  117, 
123,  132,  139, 142, 14C,  227. 
Winwood,  Ralph,  137. 
Wither,  George,  120. 
Wittewronge,  Sir  John,  239. 
Woburn,  29,  68. 

—  Abbey,  157. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  66,  67,  70. 
Wolverton,  16,  2t),  82. 

—  Old,  78. 

Wooburn,  30,  31, 66, 67, 151. 

—  Church,  150. 

—  House,  150. 
Woodside,  148. 
Woodstock,  83. 
Woodville,  Elizabeth,  61. 

—  Sir  Richard,  61. 
Woolleys,  67. 
Woolston,  Little,  247. 
Worcester,  Bishop  of,  27, 35. 
Wormisley,  133. 
Wotton,  183. 

—  House,  143,  229. 
Wraysbury,  33,  61,  65. 
Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  123, 

144. 

Wright,  Dr.  Lawrence,  239. 

Wrighte,  .Sir  Nathan,  99. 

Wulwin,  26. 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  82. 

Wycliffe,  John,  17,  47-53. 

Wycombe,  16,  21,  26,  27,  31, 
33,  38,  46,  67,  80,  81,  82,  90, 
107,  142,  145,  148,  158,  183, 
195,  214,  221,  225-6,  229, 
239,  240,  241. 

—  Abbey,  184. 
Wynn,  Miss,  199. 

—  Sir  Henry  Williams,  198. 
Wynne,  General,  225. 

Yarmouth,  46,  197. 
Yewden  House,  85. 
York,  Archbishop  of,  63. 

—  Frederick,  Duke  of,  224- 
6,  229. 

—  Richard,  Duke  of,  60. 
Young,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  199. 
Young,  Thomas,  124. 
Young,  Sir  William,  229. 

Zachary,  148. 


Oxford :  Horace  Hart,  Printer  to  the  University. 


SECT. 


DA      Verney,  Margaret  Maria 

670     (Williams -Hay 

B9V4       Bucks  biographies