Ex LIBRIS 
 IRENE DWEN ANDREWS
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Second <Smes. 
 
 SIE BERNARD BURKE, 
 
 Sllstrr Sing of arms, 
 
 ATTTHOE OP /'THE PEEBAGE AND BABONETAGE," "THE LANDED 
 
 GENTBY," ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: - 
 
 LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND EOBEETS, 
 PATEKNOSTEE EOW. 
 
 1861.
 
 BILLING. PRINTER AND STEBEOTTPBB, QUILDFORD, 8URBK7.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQH 
 
 INTBODUCTION 1 
 
 THE FALL OF CONYEBS . . . . . 15 
 
 O'CONNOR OF CONNOBVILLE 28 
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WBAY OF ABDS ... 55 
 
 ELWES THE MISEB, AND ELWE8 THE BUINED BABONET 74 
 
 JOHN MTTTON OF HALSTON 110 
 
 THE O'DONELLS 125 
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT .... 149 
 
 THE HOUSE OF BOTHES 164 
 
 THE LAIBDS OF CALLENDAB .... 174 
 
 THE LAIBDS OF WESTQUABTEB .... 190 
 
 THE PEIME MINISTEB \YABD .... 212 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF THE BONAPABTES ... 273 
 
 MACCABTHT 306 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF BULSTBODE 332
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE 0'MEI.AGHLINS, ZINGS OF MEATH . . 359 
 
 LAWS OP LATJEI3TON 374 
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND . . . 396 
 
 DE VEEE, EAEL OP OXFOED ... . 413
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CAUSES OF FAMILY DECADENCE -.ENDOWMENT OF HEBEDITABY 
 HONOURS EUIN OF FAMILIES IN IBELAND PBESEBVATION 
 OF ANCIENT TITLE DEEDS HEIB OF M'FiNNAN DUFF 
 M'CABTHY MOBE'S EEPBESENTATIVE SIB AUDLEY MEB- 
 VYN'S SUGGESTION VALUE OF TBADITION FLOWEBS OF 
 FINDEBNE.
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 The jest at which fools laugh the loudest, 
 
 The downfall of our old nobility 
 Which may forerun the ruin of a kingdom. 
 I've seen an idiot clap his hands and shout 
 To see a tower like yon stoop to its base 
 In headlong ruin ; while the wise look'd round, 
 And fearful sought a distant stance to watch 
 "What fragment of the fabric next should follow ; 
 For when the turrets fall, the walls are tottering. 
 
 WALTEB SCOTT. 
 
 THE decadence of noble and wealthy families is a fact of too 
 frequent occurrence to be now a subject of doubt or dispute, 
 but the cause of such decadence, though equally obvious, 
 seems to have puzzled a host of enquirers : the whole matter 
 is referable to a few general agents. Historically consi- 
 dered, the decay and extinction of great houses may be 
 mainly attributed to the Civil Wars, from Hastings to 
 Culloden, and to the law of attainder, which, in England 
 more than in any other country of Europe, undermined 
 and overthrew the landed Aristocracy. So fatal, indeed, 
 was the operation of that law, that, of the twenty-five 
 Barons who were appointed to enforce the observance of 
 Magna Charta, there is not now in the House of Peers a 
 single male descendant ! At the Norman Conquest, a 
 
 B 2
 
 4 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 great dispersion of families occurred. Malcolm of Scot- 
 land gave protection to the Saxon exiles, and they availed 
 themselves of it in such numbers, that in the words of 
 Simeon of Durham, " they were to be met with in all the 
 farm-houses, and even in the cottages." 
 
 Passing over the turbulent times of the early Plantage- 
 nets, the baronial contests, and the French wars all more 
 or less destructive of the ancient noblesse we arrive at the 
 most striking era of family decadence, that of " the Wars 
 of the Roses." With regard to the Yorkists (who, by the 
 way, were the Liberals of those days), it was their policy, 
 De Comines asserts, to spare the common people, and to 
 cut off the nobility and gentry : and thus the victors 
 became enriched by the forfeited lands of the vanquished. 
 Through these means, and the fearful loss of life in the bat- 
 tle-field and on the scaffold, very many of the chief historic 
 houses were destroyed. Of the survivors, some that bore 
 the territorial prefix De, dropped it, having lost the inherit- 
 ance to which it applied ; and others were so impoverished, 
 that an act passed to degrade to a lower rank such of the 
 nobility as had not adequate estates. Ruined lords and 
 gentlemen went into exile, to be the miserable pensioners 
 of foreign courts, or wandered in beggary and wretchedness 
 through many of the countries of Europe. 
 
 The dynasty which succeeded in uniting the rival roses 
 was scarcely more favourable to the pld nobility. It seems 
 to have been the principle of the Tudor kings to break 
 down the ancient families of Norman origin, and con- 
 sequently, during their rule, the vicissitudes of the 
 Howards, the Percys, the Cliffords, the Dudleys, the
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 5 
 
 Nevilles, the Staffords, the Courtenays, the Greys, and the 
 De la Poles are full of melancholy and pathetic interest. 
 The star of the Stuarts was unlucky to all within its in- 
 fluence. The great Civil War of Charles the First's reign 
 ruined the Cavaliers the men of pure blood, and long- 
 derived lineage ; and the devoted loyalty of the Jacobites 
 dispersed through the armies of France, and Austria, and 
 Spain many of the best-born subjects of King James. 
 Where these causes for the decadence of families have been 
 wanting, another not less efficient has occurred to produce 
 the same results in that personal extravagance, so frequent 
 amongst those of large fortune and high position ; exposed 
 as they are to a thousand temptations unknown to the low- 
 born and the needy. Then there are the electioneering 
 struggles, the rivalry of one great county House with 
 another, and the efforts of the old gentry to retain their 
 place above the new men advanced by trade or by profes- 
 sional success. Another source of family vicissitude has 
 been overlooked, or misunderstood: the peculiar talents 
 and disposition that have led to the aggrandizement of any 
 one person are seldom repeated in his immediate successor. 
 As a general rule, nature seems to delight in varying her 
 creations, and rarely reproduces herself but at certain inter- 
 vals. Thus it is not often that a miser is succeeded in the 
 same line by a miser, a poet by a poet, or a commander by a 
 son of the same military ability as his father. More usually 
 in the miser's case, a spendthrift comes to scatter the 
 hoards of his predecessor with reckless and unsparing hand : 
 
 Riches, like insects, when concealed they lie, 
 Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.
 
 6 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 But, after all, I am inclined to think, that, in modern times, 
 the main cause of the misery and deplorable fate that have 
 happened to some of our most eminent families maybe dis- 
 covered in that part of the law of inheritance which, in the 
 absence of direct heirs male, allows the estates to pass to 
 an heiress, while the title to which they belong devolves 
 on a collateral branch that may be equally devoid of wealth 
 or education ; in other words, the property goes to one 
 line, and the dignity to another, incapable of supporting it. 
 I have always considered that it would be of infinite 
 advantage if means could be devised for remedying the 
 evil in some way or other. But for the immense difficulty 
 of rendering, even by legislative enactment, real property 
 perpetually inalienable, it might be well that the crown 
 made it a sine qua non that every recipient of an here- 
 ditary title of honour should be required, before his patent 
 could pass, to endow the dignity granted to him with a 
 landed estate which could never afterwards be detached 
 i'rom it. A Baronet's qualification might be fixed at 500 
 a year in land, a Peer's at 2000. At any rate, a scheme 
 like the following might be adopted. Each Peer or Ba- 
 ronet should be compelled, by statute, to contribute to 
 government a proper sum (to be arrived at by actuarial 
 estimate), so that out of the aggregate of such contribu- 
 tions, the administration of the day, or some public func- 
 tionary, say the Lord Chancellor or Lord President, could 
 allocate such annual payments, as it might be competent 
 to pay, to Peers and Baronets in reduced circumstances, 
 for the maintenance of their dignity. The great difficulty 
 of all such legislation is to reconcile certainty of payment
 
 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 7 
 
 to, and enjoyment by, persons who are in debt, and whose 
 property, whether in globo or annual, would, of necessity, 
 be liable to claims of their creditors. There appears, 
 however, a way of conscientious reconcilement arising from 
 the consideration of the nature of public dignities, and 
 the requirements of the public service. It has been held 
 in numerous cases, that such stipends, the enjoyment of 
 which is necessary for the maintenance of the public dig- 
 nity, or for the furtherance of the public service, cannot 
 be taken by the creditors of the holders. Consequently, 
 all that need be assumed as an argument for such legisla- 
 tion is, that it is due to the public service and dignity 
 that Peers and Baronets should always, as such, have the 
 right to receive out of a fund, constituted as suggested 
 above, such annual income for the maintenance of their 
 respective rank and position. The statute might provide 
 for this, by an enactment following out the understanding 
 already admitted by the law. 
 
 In cases where honours have been won by personal 
 achievement, and where the distinguished men, to whom 
 such honours are given, have not the means to provide the 
 required contributions, a power might be vested in the 
 crown, to authorize a sufficient sum to be paid out of the 
 exchequer to assist or enable a grantee of a peerage, or 
 baronetcy conferred for great public services, to contribute 
 the necessary sum to the fund. 
 
 Grants were made in the cases of Nelson and Wellington, 
 and similar liberality for the endowment of hereditary 
 honours achieved by merit such as theirs, might be made 
 a general rule, with very immaterial loss to the national
 
 8 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 income, and with infinite benefit to the hereditary orders 
 of the country. 
 
 In Ireland, family history and national history can 
 scarcely be separated ; the Vicissitudes of the one are the 
 Vicissitudes of the other. Ireland is a country of ruins, 
 and among the ruins may be classed the old aristocracy. 
 I often, as I pass the roofless churches with their dese- 
 crated grave-yards, "where princes and where prelates 
 sleep," think of the lines of Pope 
 
 " That grave where e'en the great find rest, 
 And blended lie the oppressor and oppressed." 
 
 For here are mingled in one undistinguished mass the 
 Irish, the Norman, the Elizabethan, the Scotch, the Crom- 
 wellian, and the Williamite, who have successively fought 
 and bled for the possession of the neighbouring fields. The 
 vicissitudes of family history in Ireland are ever recurring. 
 The loss of records and the neglect and consequent de- 
 struction of monumental memorials evidence the constant 
 revolution of property in that distracted land. What 
 cares the purchaser in the Landed Estates' Court for the 
 preservation of the tombstones of the old gentry in the 
 neighbouring unwalled churchyard? What cared the 
 Williamite for the bones of the Jacobite, or the Crom- 
 wellian for the relics of the Norman, or the Norman for 
 those of the conquered Irish ? Nowhere can we trace 
 sepulchral brasses, and very rarely indeed, knights' burial 
 effigies ; but to supply this want in some degree, the re- 
 membrance of historic events and of historic names still 
 retained among the people is something quite marvellous. 
 During centuries of gloom and defeat, it was all that was
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 9 
 
 left to them of better days, and like the ivy that adheres 
 to the ruined palaces and mansions of byegone prosperity 
 and pleasure, they clung to these memories with sin- 
 gular tenacity ; and now, when an era of prosperity has at 
 last opened on their country, they love to recall the old 
 times again, and the old families which perished in the 
 national struggle. 
 
 It is an interesting and well-authenticated fact, resulting 
 from the same feeling for the past, that the descendants 
 of the despoiled Irish have hoarded up with the greatest 
 care their ancient title deeds. 
 
 Mr. Beltz, Lancaster Herald, mentioned to Mr. Weld, the 
 Traveller, having met in the year 1802, at Kenmare, the 
 heir of M 'Finnan Duff, a poor Kerry cottager, who had in 
 his possession " the Proceedings of a Commission" of 12th 
 Elizabeth for the partition of the estates between his an- 
 cestor and a rival 0' Sullivan family papers which had been 
 preserved as a sacred heirloom through centuries of destitu- 
 tion and hopeless ruin. These parchments were so decayed 
 that Mr. Beltz could not have deciphered them if he had 
 not been familiar with the originals in the Exchequer. Crof- 
 ton Croker likewise refers to this remarkable trait in the 
 despoiled Gael, and states, in his " Sketches of the South 
 of Ireland," that he knew a blacksmith, living in the 
 West of Skibbereen, who claimed to be the representative of 
 M'Carthy More, and who showed him the M'Carthy 
 title deeds. I myself have heard from a very old friend 
 still living, that he well remembers his grandfather having 
 told him that he had seen some of the ruined heirs of the 
 dispossessed proprietors, with their deeds carefully tied up,
 
 10 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 wandering about the county of Tipperary. The parch- 
 ments thus treasured were the only signs they had left 
 them to " shew the world that they were gentlemen." 
 
 At one time, it was proposed that when parties appeared 
 before the Commissioners under the Act of Settlement to 
 prove their innocency, and failed, their title deeds should 
 be impounded. This was one of the suggestions urged in 
 1662 by Sir Audley Mervyn, Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, who went up, attended by the whole House, 
 to the Lord Lieutenant (Ormonde) to complain of the 
 too great readiness with which claimants were allowed 
 to establish innocency. Among other recommendations, 
 was the proposal that where the party failed, the deeds he 
 produced should be withheld from him. 
 
 Sir Audley said he remembered that in the north 
 of Ireland the people had a practice of stuffing the skin of 
 the calf, which they had taken from the cow, with straw 
 (which they called a Puckan), and then of setting this be- 
 fore the cow, who would low over it and lick it, and in so 
 doing would give down her milk. " These Deeds (wanting 
 the Estate) were," urged Sir Audley, "like these skins 
 stuffed with straw." 
 
 " But of what use are they, and what harm to leave 
 them with the old proprietors ?" was replied. " They will 
 serve," answered the Speaker, "like the Puckan. The 
 dispossessed will low over them, and lick them over and 
 over in their thoughts, and in so doing they will give 
 down a memory of revenge." 
 
 Tradition is confessedly the hand-maiden of history, 
 assisting the annalist in his labours, and ministering ever
 
 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 11 
 
 to his wants. Tradition is the lamp which, with flicker- 
 ing but faithful ray, guides the genealog : st along his 
 misty path, and is ofttimes the only light to indicate the 
 course he is to take. All this, tradition has been to me. In 
 my researches into the Vicissitudes of Families, the village 
 legend and the peasant's tale have been my constant helps. 
 I am pretty well acquainted with England and Ireland, 
 and in both, but especially in Ireland, I have found the 
 local memories of the old races wonderfully vivid and 
 wonderfully accurate ; the details, sometimes exaggerated 
 and sometimes partially forgotten, are of course frequently 
 inconsistent with fact, but the main features of the story 
 are substantially true, and are generally confirmed by the 
 test of subsequent investigation. The original edifice 
 stands boldly out, though additions may have been made 
 to the architecture, or time may have mouldered a portion 
 into decay. In this consists one great charm of an " old 
 country." The boundless prairies, the interminable forests, 
 the gigantic rivers of the far West are wonderful and 
 grand, and strike the mind with awe, but the heart is un- 
 touched ; whereas with us every vale, and hill, and stream 
 can tell of days gone by, of a long succession of native 
 heritors, and are replete with ancestral story. One little 
 anecdote it may be permitted me here to introduce from 
 the English side of the Channel, as peculiarly illustrative 
 of the endurance of local tradition. The hamlet of 
 Finderne, in the parish of Mickleover, about four miles 
 from Derby, was, for nine generations, the chief resi- 
 dence of a family who derived their name from the place 
 of their patrimony. From the times of Edward I. to
 
 12 
 
 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES: 
 
 those' of Henry VIII., when the male line became ex- 
 tinct, and the estate passed, by the marriage of the 
 heiress, to the Harpurs, the house of Finderne was one 
 of the most distinguished in Derbyshire. Members of it 
 had won their spurs in the Crusades, and at Cressy, and 
 at Azincourt. The sons were brave and the daughters 
 fair : one, alas ! was frail as well as fair, and the heaviest 
 blow that ever fell on the time-honoured line was when 
 Catherine Finderne, about the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, consented to be the mistress of Henry, Lord Grey of 
 Codnor. In the remarkable will of that remarkable noble- 
 man, who, in 1463, obtained a licence from the king for 
 the transmutation of metals, provision is made for his ille- 
 gitimate issue by Catherine in terms which were, no doubt, 
 deemed unexceptionable in those days, but which would 
 be deemed highly offensive in our own. The territorial 
 possessions of the Findernes were large : the Findernes 
 were High Sheriffs, occasionally Rangers of Needwood 
 Forest, and Custodians of Tutbury Castle, and they 
 matched with some of the best families of their times. 
 Finderne, originally erected tempore Edward I., and re- 
 stored and enlarged at different periods, was in 1560 one 
 of the quaintest and largest family mansions in the mid- 
 lands. The present church, then the family chapel, had 
 rows of monumental brasses and altar-tombs, all memo- 
 rials of the Findernes. In 1850, a pedigree research 
 caused me to pay a visit to the village. I sought for the 
 ancient Hall. Not a stone remained to tell where it 
 had stood ! I entered the church not a single record 
 of a Finderne was there ! I accosted a villager, hoping
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 13 
 
 to glean some stray traditions of the 'Findernes. " Fin- 
 dernes I" said he, " we have no Findernes here, but we 
 have something that once belonged to them : we have 
 Findernes' flowers." " Show me them," I replied ; and 
 the old man led me into a field which still retained faint 
 traces of terraces and foundations. "There," said he, 
 pointing to a bank of " garden flowers grown wild," " there 
 are the Findernes' flowers, brought by Sir Geoffrey from 
 the Holy Land, and do what we will, they will never die !" 
 
 Poetry mingles more with our daily life than we are apt 
 to acknowledge ; and even to an antiquary like myself, 
 the old man's prose and the subject of it were the very 
 essence of poetry. 
 
 For more than three hundred years the Findernes had 
 been extinct, the mansion they had dwelt in had crumbled 
 into dust, the brass and marble intended to perpetuate 
 the name had passed away, and a little tiny flower had for 
 ages preserved a name and a memory which the elaborate 
 works of man's hand had failed to rescue from oblivion. 
 The moral of the incident is as beautiful as the poetry. 
 We often talk of " the language of flowers/' but of the 
 eloquence of flowers we never had such a striking example 
 as that presented in these flowers of Finderne : 
 
 Time. Time, his withering hand hath laid 
 
 On battlement and tower, 
 And where rich banners were displayed, 
 
 Now only waves a flower. 
 
 Tales of fallen houses have all their moral. Some 
 warn against reckless waste, the gambling-table, the 
 race- course, and the countless ills that profligacy entails. 
 Some tell the story of electioneering ambition and ruinous
 
 14 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 expenditure; some exhibit the picture of political and 
 religious oppression, and some again of loyalty, right or 
 misguided, but faithful even to the last; some, for the 
 warning and instruction of mankind, prove that the mighty 
 may be put down from their seats, and the lowly raised 
 up; and some serve to suggest the ill luck that seems 
 occasionally to be linked with a particular race, we know 
 not why, unless it be from some hereditary failing re- 
 minding one of the observation of Cardinal Richelieu, who 
 used to say that he would never continue to employ an 
 unlucky man, because the ill-luck was pretty generally a 
 thing of his own making. 
 
 These Vicissitudes, " moving accidents," as they are, of 
 human life, afford lessons of wisdom of incalculable value : 
 the experience of the past is a warning for the future : 
 Consilium futuri ex prseterito venit. 
 
 Yet in commenting on such Vicissitudes, I cannot con- 
 clude without observing how all the greater on their account 
 does the blessing appear that has fallen to the lot of those 
 ancient families (and I rejoice to say there are many, 
 many of them in this empire) which " have stood against 
 the waves and weathers of time/' have flourished from 
 generation to generation, and still exist in all the splen- 
 dour of untarnished merit and honour. Thankful, in- 
 deed, should be those descendants who have been thus 
 Providentially favoured ; those whom to borrow the beau- 
 tiful language of the Psalms the Lord hath been mind- 
 ful of, and blessed, as He blessed the House of Israel and 
 the House of Aaron, being their help and their shield, and 
 increasing them more and more, they and their children.
 
 t Jfall 0f 
 
 - I'll noble it no further. 
 Let them erase my name from honour's list, 
 And drag my scutcheon at their horses' heels ; 
 I have deserved it all, for I am poor, 
 And poverty hath neither right of birth, 
 Nor rank, relation, claim, nor privilege. 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 THE ancient Hall at Sockburn in the county of Durham 
 " Tees-seated Sockburn, where by long descent Conyers 
 was Lord/' has mouldered to the level of its bounding 
 pastures ; a dying chestnut seems the last remnant of its 
 thick defences of green ; and the little rural church, where 
 the old Lords knelt in life and slept in death, is a ruin in 
 its lonely graveyard. The chapel-aisle retained, up to a 
 recent period, a few of the Conyers' monuments ; and 
 broken panes of coloured glass, with brasses still unworn, 
 forbade the disruption altogether of Conyers memories 
 from Sockburn; but a feeling of utter desolation now 
 strikes the tourist on visiting the home of the Conyers's. 
 All is gone. Not an acre of land in the county of Durham 
 is held by one of the name ; and of the old Hall, not one 
 stone is left on another. A curious legend, which yet 
 lingers about the place, alone connects the deserted spot 
 with a recollection of its early owners. Sir John Conyers,
 
 16 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 a doughty knight, is recorded to have slain a venomous 
 wyvern, which was the terror of the country round, and 
 to have been requited by a royal gift of the Manor of 
 Sockburn, to be held by the service of presenting a fal- 
 chion to each Bishop of Durham 011 his first entrance 
 into the Palatinate. 
 
 Truly could the Conyers' say, 
 
 " By this sword we hold our land." 
 
 I do not ask the reader to pin his faith on the Norman 
 name of Conyers being the veritable style of the dragon- 
 slaying knight of Saxon times, much less that the fal- 
 chion of Coeur de Lion's days, still preserved in the mo- 
 dern House at Sockburn, belonged to him. 
 
 But I would have him remember that the sword of the 
 Conyers' was the title-deed to their estate. In compliance 
 with the tenure, when each new Bishop of Durham first 
 comes to his diocese, the Lord of Stockburn, meeting him 
 in the middle of Neashamford, or Croft Bridge, presents 
 him with a falchion, addressing him in these words . 
 " My Lord Bishop, I here present you with the falchion 
 wherewith the Champion Conyers slew the worm, dragon, 
 or fiery-flying serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and 
 child ; in memory of which, the king then reigning gave 
 him the Manor of Sockburn, to hold by this tenure, that, 
 upon the first entrance of every Bishop into the county, 
 this falchion should be presented/' The Bishop returns 
 it, wishing the Lord of Sockburn health and long enjoy- 
 ment of the Manor.* 
 
 * Longstaffe's History of Darlington.
 
 THE FALL OF CONYERS. 17 
 
 Before the gift of Sockburn, it is asserted that Sir Roger 
 Conyers was, in the Conqueror's days, made Constable of 
 the Keep of Durham and all the soldiers there; and that 
 his son, Sir Roger, was Constable by inheritance, " as by 
 a deed is made mention in the time of Henry the First, 
 which deed is yet to see, under a great seal, himself in 
 complete armour, sustaining of his falchion and shield-at- 
 arms, and amounted of his horse, being armed, and at- 
 tired with all the furniture of the field, having a shaffron, 
 and a plume of feathers, according to the course of war 
 and the Marshal office of a Constable/' This is a gallant 
 picture, and I wish, we had better authority for it than the 
 " Manuscript of John Calverley, Esq.," from which Randal 
 had it. Certainly all the Constabulary rights had decayed 
 when the Conyers' s flaunted proudly at Stockburn. 
 
 Knightly and noble was this same race of Conyers : the 
 Sockburn line, who displayed the simple bearing, " az. a 
 maunch, or" held broad lands by inheritance, and increased 
 them by marriages with Northern heiresses. Sir John 
 Conyers, of the time of Edward I., gained the hand and 
 fortune of Scolastica, the richly- en do wed, and, if one may 
 judge from her name, "the learned/' daughter of Ralph 
 de Cotam : his grandson, another Sir John, married the 
 co-heiress of de Aiton, whose mother was a Percy of 
 Northumberland, and his son, Robert, took to wife 
 the sole heiress of William Pert, whose mother was a 
 Scrope of Yorkshire. Subsequent alliances with theEures, 
 Bigots, Markenfields, Radcliffes, Saviles, Dawnys, Bowes', 
 Bulmers, Widdringtons, and Simeons tended still further 
 to elevate the position and grandeur of the house, until at
 
 18 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 length, in the seventeenth century, ANNE CONYERS, the 
 heiress of the last male descendant of the senior branch, 
 married Francis, llth Earl of Shrewsbury, and conveyed 
 the Lordship of Sockburn to the historic name of Talbot ; 
 but the Talbots soon fell sick of the ancient acres of the 
 Conyers' s, and in about fifty or sixty years after, sold them 
 to the Blacketts. 
 
 While the Sockburn stem was flourishing in Durham, 
 an offshoot planted itself at Hornby, in Yorkshire. That 
 grand old castle came to the second branch of Conyers, by 
 the marriage of Sir John Conyers with Margery, daughter 
 and co-heir of Philip, 6th Lord D'Arcy, the 4th in descent 
 from the renowned Justice of Ireland, John, Lord D'Arcy, 
 and passed in succession to their eldest son, Sir John Con- 
 yers, who was a Knight of the Garter, and whose son, 
 William, became a Peer as Lord Conyers. This latter 
 was a brave soldier, and shared in the victory of Flodden ; 
 but two generations more closed the male descent of this 
 second family of Conyers, the Barony passing to the 
 heirs-general, the D'Arcys, Earls of Holderness, and 
 from them, through the Dukes of Leeds, to the present 
 Lord Conyers. The male representation, however, vested 
 in Conyers of Horden, in the county o^Durham, sprung 
 from a sou of the Knight of the Garter, and enriched 
 by an alliance with the heiress of Sir Robert Claxton, and 
 was sustained with honour and dignity by them, matching 
 with the Lumleys and the Harratons, and other county 
 grandees, and receiving from Charles I. a patent of Ba- 
 ronetcy. The third inheritor of the title, Sir John Con- 
 yers of Horden, succeeded to the large fortune of his
 
 THE FALL OF CONYERS. 1.9 
 
 uncle, Sir William Langhorne, Bart., whereby he became 
 possessed of the stately seat of Charlton, in Kent, a splen- 
 did mansion, built originally for Prince Henry, the eldest 
 son of James I., and considered one of the finest specimens 
 of domestic architecture of the period : he got besides a 
 very considerable estate attached thereto, and he further 
 augmented his possessions by a property in Huntingdon- 
 shire, derived from his wife. 
 
 About this period the Conyers's were thus dispersed : 
 The heirs or assigns of Anne Conyers, Countess of Shrews- 
 bury, held Sockburn ; Conyers D'Arcy, Earl of Holder- 
 nesse, and Baron Conyers, who represented the next branch, 
 kept princely state in the Conyers' Castle of Hornby; and 
 Sir John Conyers, the male chief of the whole family, who 
 had quitted his northern and ancestral home of Horden, 
 was sojourning in a far more genial climate the courtly 
 groves of Charlton. 
 
 This was the state of the family in the early part of the 
 eighteenth century. After the fashion of melodrama, let us 
 now suppose an interval of eighty or ninety years, and 
 draw up the curtain on a new scene. It is no longer the 
 grand old Hall of Sockburn, with its quaint avenues and 
 its mediaeval architecture ; it is not Hornby's proud Castle, 
 or Charlton's palace home, that the spectator sees, but a 
 room in the workhouse of Chester-le-Street, in the very 
 county of Durham where the Lords of Sockburn held such 
 potent sway, and in that work-house room, among other 
 parish paupers, is poor old Sir Thomas Conyers, the last 
 Baronet of Horden, bearing up manfully and patiently 
 against his bitter adversity. Fate seems to have done its 
 
 c 2
 
 20 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 worst ; but even in that moment of apparent hopeless suf- 
 fering, the guidance of Providence leads one to the ruined 
 gentleman's relief, one who has heart and hand open to 
 afford it. 
 
 Robert Surtees, of Mainsforth, the all- accomplished 
 historian of Durham, had been informed of this awful case 
 of vicissitude, and lost not a moment in ministering to the 
 wants and comforts of the descendant of one of those 
 grand old Durham houses that his labours had so ably 
 illustrated. 
 
 He appealed to the benevolence of the titled and opu- 
 lent; but, without waiting for the receipt of any subscription, 
 he hastened personally to aid the sufferer, and to raise him 
 from his humiliating situation. 
 
 It was on the 26th February, 1810, that Mr. Surtees 
 proceeded to the workhouse. His own grey head 
 uncovered, he accosted Sir Thomas with cordiality and 
 respect, simply stating the purport of his visit. The 
 old man was at first much affected, but soon a dormant 
 sense of pride seemed to be awakened, and he said, " I 
 am no beggar, Sir; I won't accept any such offers." Mr. 
 Surtees gently soothed this temper, assuring him that the 
 gentlemen by whom he was deputed were actuated by no 
 motive which could be offensive to him, but only by 
 feelings proper to their rank and his own ; and that by 
 acceding to their wishes, he would only evince his own 
 sense of that propriety, and prove that he, in their situation, 
 would have felt and acted as they now did. 
 
 Thus his scruples were gradually overcome, and he con- 
 sented to the proposed arrangement, with many expressions
 
 THE FALL OF CONYERS. 21 
 
 of gratitude to those who had so kindly interested them- 
 selves in his situation. 
 
 Immediate enquiries were made for more comfortable 
 and respectable accommodation than the workhouse could 
 afford ; but no narrative of mine can give to the details 
 the freshness of description with which the philanthro- 
 pist himself tells the sad story. Here are Mr. Surtees' 
 own letters : 
 
 To the Editor of the Gentleman's Magazine. 
 
 " Maiusforth, Co. Durham. 
 
 "MR. URBAN, 
 
 " You have lately called attention to the claims of 
 an unfortunate Baronet, Sir Charles Corbett; give me 
 leave, through your pages, to solicit some degree of favor- 
 able regard to the still more humiliating situation of another 
 ancient Baronet, the decayed representative of one of the 
 most honourable houses in the North." 
 
 Mr. Surtees then enters into details of the Conyers 
 family in its various branches, until the creation of the 
 Baronetcy in 1628, in the person of Sir John Conyers, of 
 Horden, and proceeds thus : 
 
 " His, Sir John Conyers', successors resided on property 
 acquired by inter-marriages in the south, 'till the extinction 
 of the elder line in the person of Sir Baldwin in 1731 ; 
 when the estates fell to heirs- general, and the title, without 
 support, fell to Ralph Conyers, of Chester-le-Street, 
 Glazier, whose father, John, was grandson of the first 
 Baronet. Sir Ralph Conyers intermarried with Jane 
 Blakistou, the eventual heiress of the Blakistons of Shiel-
 
 22 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 dion (who represent those of Gibside), a family not less 
 ancient, and scarcely less unfortunate than that of Conyers. 
 He had by her a numerous issue, and was succeeded in title 
 by his eldest son, Sir Blackiston Conyers, the heir of two 
 ancient houses, from which he derived little more than his 
 name. Sir Blackiston was early placed in the navy, where 
 he reached the rank of Lieutenant, but quitted it, on 
 obtaining, through the generous patronage of the Bowes 
 family, the honourable and lucrative post of collector of 
 the port of Newcastle. With a view to the support of 
 the title, Sir Blackiston was induced at his decease to leave 
 nearly the whole of his property, which was considerable, 
 to his nephew and successor, Sir George, whose mother 
 was a Scotch lady, of Lord Cathcart's family. In three 
 short years this infatuated youth squandered the whole 
 fortune he had derived from his uncle, in scenes of the 
 lowest dissipation; and, at his death, the barren title 
 descended to his uncle, Thomas Conyers, who, after a life, 
 perhaps of some imprudence, certainly of much hardship, 
 after an unsuccessful attempt in a humble business, and a 
 subsequent service of several years at sea, is now in his 
 72nd year, solitary and friendless, a pauper in the parish 
 workhouse of Chester-le- Street. When I add, that if any 
 credit be due to physiognomy, Sir Thomas has received 
 from nature, in his fine, manly figure and open, expressive 
 countenance, the native marks of a gentleman,* and 
 
 * " The late generous Earl of Scarborough, the only patron 
 whose kindness Sir Thomas ever experienced, proposed to solicit 
 for him the place of a poor knight of Windsor. How far such 
 a removal at his present advanced age might add to his comforts
 
 THE FALL OF COXYERS. ZO 
 
 that he bears his lot with a degree of fortitude equally 
 removed from misplaced pride or querulous meanness, 
 enough, I hope, will have been said to interest some be- 
 nevolent minds in his favour. Accustomed to a life of 
 hardship and labour, he wishes for neither affluence nor 
 luxury, but his- present humiliating situation he feels 
 severely. A trifle would prove sufficient, and a trifle 
 would surely not be ill-disposed in enabling him to pass 
 the few days which he has still to number in decent com- 
 fort and respectability. The writer of this article is will- 
 ing and desirous to contribute his mite, and will pledge 
 himself both for the literal truth of the statement, and 
 for the proper application of any sums contributed for the 
 purpose mentioned. He therefore gives his real name 
 and residence. 
 
 " Yours, &c., 
 
 " ROBERT SURTEES. 
 
 " P.S. In justice to the officers of the workhouse, it is 
 proper to mention, that Sir Thomas receives every degree 
 of attention compatible with the rules of the place, that 
 he has a separate apartment, and is provided with decent 
 clothing." 
 
 seems doubtful ; but it is apprehended that for 60 or 70 a year, 
 or even less, board and lodging might be procured for him ia 
 some respectable private family. And I beg to add, Mr. Urban, 
 that I will willingly contribute 20 a year to this purpose. I 
 have a few promises of annual guineas, which will raise this to 
 36. Of the present application, the object of it is ignorant ; 
 and it would be cruel to acquaint him with it, unless something 
 be effected for his relief. 
 
 "B. S.'
 
 24 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Within a few months after this appeal was made, Mr. 
 Surtees again addressed the Editor of the "Gentleman's 
 Magazine:" 
 
 " Mainsforth, 17th April. 
 MR. 
 
 " I lately solicited through your pages the public 
 attention to the reduced state of Sir Thomas Conyers ; and 
 I anticipated the pleasure of recording in your next 
 monthly number the success of my efforts, and of express- 
 ing the old man's grateful and overflowing feelings to his 
 benefactors. It is now my less pleasing task to record the 
 unexpected termination of those endeavours. On the 1st 
 of March (although the proposed amount of the subscrip- 
 tion was not then filled) Sir Thomas was removed to a 
 situation of ease and comfort,* which he was destined to 
 enjoy but a short time. His strength had been for some 
 time declining, and his constitution, naturally vigorous 
 and robust, sunk under the increasing burthens of age 
 and infirmity. For the last fortnight he had medical 
 assistance, but the springs of life were exhausted, and on 
 the morning of Sunday, the 15th, he arose evidently 
 weaker, and, under the awful impression of approaching 
 dissolution, passed the day in religious exercises, and in 
 taking an affectionate farewell of his friends and relatives. 
 " At six in the evening, his usual hour of retiring to 
 rest, he expressed a wish to be removed to bed, and almost 
 
 * " At the house of Mr. Wm. Pybus, in Chester-le-Street, 
 whose respectful and affectionate treatment of the old Baronet 
 deserves the highest praise."
 
 THE FALL OP CONYEKS. 25 
 
 immediately expired, without pain, and without a sigh. 
 His mental faculties remained unaltered, and the closing 
 scene of life, chequered by more than ordinary vicissitudes, 
 was serene and unclouded. In him (the last male heir 
 of a long line of ancestry, whose origin may be traced to 
 a period of high and romantic antiquity) the name and 
 title expires, and the blood of Conyers must hereafter flow 
 undistinguished in the channels of humble and laborious 
 life. Sir Thomas has left three daughters, married in very 
 inferior situations, and it is trusted his benefactors will 
 not think the residue of their contributions ill applied in 
 placing some of his numerous grandchildren in the decent 
 occupations of humble life. 
 
 " I subjoin an account of the benefactions already re- 
 ceived ; but exertions have been made by several friends, 
 of the effects of which I am not yet aware. 
 " Yours, &c., 
 
 "ROBERT SURTEES." 
 
 The Bishop of Durham . *; ;.^.* v .. 
 Sir Thomas Skeppard, Bfc. 
 George Anderson, Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 Sir Thomas H. Liddell, Bt. . 
 Sir H. Vane Tempest, Bt 
 "Wm. Radclyffe, Esq., Eougecroix . 
 Rev. John Ward, Mickleover, near Derby . 
 James Hammett, Esq . . * 
 E. A. and E. H 
 
 
 10 
 5 
 5 
 10 
 10 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 2 
 
 > 
 
 
 o. 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 a. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 E. Surtees . . . . . . 
 
 20 
 67 
 
 
 3 
 
 

 
 26 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 One short note more from Mr. Surtees closes the cor- 
 respondence : 
 
 " Mainsforth, 21st May. ; 
 " MR. URBAN, 
 
 " I must request your insertion of the following 
 subscriptions, which, as they have been received since Sir 
 Thomas Conyers's decease, will be applied to the service of 
 his descendants : 
 
 s. c. 
 
 Sir Henry Hetlierington, Bart. . . 10 
 
 Thomas Harrison, Esq., Stubhouse, co. Durham 15 
 Thomas Wilkinson, Esq., Oswald House, Durham 100 
 
 Sir Joseph Andrews, Bart 220 
 
 Sir Montagu Cholmley, Bart. . . . 500 
 
 "100 5s. have been subscribed, and the following 
 sums have been expended : Clothes and linen, 15 ; debts 
 discharged, 5 4s. lOd. ; lodging, and a gratuity for 
 trouble, 8 8s. ; medical attendance, 4 13s. 6d. ; funeral 
 expences, 19 19s. 6d. Some trifling articles have not 
 been brought into the account. 47 remain for the ser- 
 vice of the family, when the whole of the subscriptions 
 shall have been received. 
 
 "Yours, &c., 
 
 " ROBERT SURTEES." 
 
 A few lines more and my tale of the " Fall of Con- 
 yers" is told. 
 
 Magni stat nominis umbra ! The poor Baronet left 
 three daughters, married in very humble life : Jane, to
 
 THE FALL OP CONYERS. 27 
 
 William Hardy ; Elizabeth, to Joseph Hutchinson ; and 
 Dorothy, to Joseph Barker, all working men in the little 
 town of Chester-le-Street. 
 
 A time may yet come, perchance, when a descendant of 
 one of these simple artizans may arise, not unworthy of 
 the Conyers' ancient renown ; and it will be a gratifying 
 discovery to some future genealogist, when he succeeds in 
 tracing in the quarterings of such a descendant the unsul- 
 lied bearing of 
 
 CONYERS or DURHAM.
 
 28 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 'Cinmars uf C0miorfrilk, to. 
 
 These are the acts, Lothario, which shrink acres 
 
 Into brief yards bring sterling pounds to farthings, 
 
 Credit to infamy ; and the poor gull, 
 
 Who might have lived an honour'd, easy life, 
 
 To ruin, and an unregarded grave. 
 
 THE CHANGES. 
 
 THIS family held at one time a high social position, and 
 were remarkable, moreover, for eccentricity and talent. 
 In the reign of William III., I find the name of Cornelius 
 Connor in the list of claimants at Chichester House, 
 Dublin ; his claim referred to an interest in the lands of 
 Kiltamra and Carrigdaugan, in the Barony of Muskerry, 
 part of the confiscated estate of the Earl of Clancarthy. 
 
 There is a story, that the father of Cornelius having 
 lost his life when his son was an infant, by the brutality 
 of a party of Cromwell's soldiers, the widow fled, carrying 
 with her the child, to the town of Bandon, where she took 
 a small house, in Gallow's-hill Street. The little Corne- 
 lius was duly trained in the religious and political prin- 
 ciples then prevalent in that town ; and (saith the 
 legend), further to conciliate the anti-Irish spirit that 
 predominated in the politics of the place and period, his
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 29 
 
 time-honoured patronymic of O'Connor was clipped down 
 into the English-sounding Conner. I do not vouch for the 
 strict truth of all the particulars of this statement, which 
 rests on the oral tradition of persons whose accuracy was 
 impaired, perhaps, by the long lapse of time, and also, 
 perhaps, by a little propensity to romantic embellishment. 
 It is said that the mother of Cornelius, anticipating from 
 the troubled condition of the country that flight might be- 
 come necessary, had wisely provided for such a contingency 
 by quilting a large number of gold coins into her dress, 
 and that with the money thus secreted, she supported her- 
 self for a considerable time after she settled in Bandon. 
 Cornelius married in due time, and became the father of 
 " Daniel Conner, of Bandon-bridge, merchant," who made 
 considerable purchases of land. It may be worth men- 
 tioning, as a specimen of the rate at which landed pro- 
 perty was then sold, that in March, 1702, Mr. Conner 
 purchased 744 acres of the lands of Curryleagh and Pole- 
 rick, in the Barony of Muskerry, county Cork, for 
 429 6s. 9d. At the same time he purchased "the 
 Castle, Town, and Lands of Mashanaglass," in the same 
 Barony, consisting of 567 acres, for the sum of 988. 
 Mashanaglass was part of the confiscated estate of Do- 
 nough McCarthy, Earl of Clancarthy. At a previous 
 period, namely, in November, 1698, Mr. Daniel Conner 
 had obtained, " by deeds of lease and release," a good part 
 of the forfeited estate of one Justin M'Carthy, from Henry, 
 Viscount Sydney, afterwards Earl of Romney, to whom it 
 had been granted by King William the Third. 
 
 This Daniel was the father of a numerous family. His 
 son, George Conner, founded Ballybricken, beautifully
 
 30 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 situated near Cork harbour. He married Elizabeth South- 
 well, and was father of Maryanne Conner, who, in 1778, 
 married the second Lord Lisle, of Mountnorth, county Cork. 
 The present Lord Lisle descends from that marriage. 
 
 William Conner, son of Daniel, of Bandonbridge, mar- 
 ried in October, 1721, Anne, daughter of Roger Ber- 
 nard, Esq., of Palace Anne, brother of Judge Bernard, of 
 the Common Pleas, founder of the Earl of Bandon's family. 
 "William settled at Connorville, then called Ballyprevane, 
 in 1727. He built Connorville House, and planted the 
 domain. The mansion was large and commodious. The 
 offices nearly surrounded two courts, and were on a scale 
 of such magnitude as to resemble rather a village than the 
 establishment of a country gentleman.* Here William 
 Conner resided for many years, in the style of a person of 
 affluence. 
 
 His son, Roger Conner, married Anne Longfield, sister 
 of Richard, Viscount Longueville. Roger kept open 
 house, according to the fashion of wealthy Irish squires of 
 his day. He had high notions of his own dignity. At a 
 Cork assize he walked across the table in the court-house, 
 in presence of the judge, conceiving that his personal im- 
 portance gave him privileges from which meaner mortals 
 were properly excluded. The judge, who did not know 
 him, gave him a sharp reprimand. Shortly afterwards, 
 the judge received, to his great surprise, a note from Mr. 
 Conner, which was handed to him by Lord Longueville, 
 requiring either an apology, or " satisfaction " at twelve 
 paces. The judge was a man of peace ; and, as no hostile 
 
 * Tiiis description rather applies to a later period. The offices 
 were much enlarged in the succeeding generation.
 
 THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLB. 31 
 
 meeting occurred, it is not improbable that he apologized. 
 A pun of this fiery gentleman's is recorded. Being asked 
 by a guest at his table what description of wine they were 
 drinking, Roger replied that it was Pontick* wine, thereby 
 implying that it had not been paid for. The family had 
 now for some generations been known as Conners. 
 Roger one day communicated to his sons that their 
 true name was O'Connor, and that the later designation 
 had been adopted from politic motives in the previous cen- 
 tury. He had five sons ; of these, the three elder, Daniel 
 (bora in 1754), William, and Robert (the founder of Fort- 
 robert), declared that they would not resume their ancient 
 name ; but the two younger, Roger and Arthur, thence- 
 forth called themselves O'Connor. 
 
 When Roger Conner was gathered to] his fathers, his 
 fourth son, Roger O'Connor, resided at the family mansion 
 of Connorville. The family were so wealthy, that the 
 other brothers were handsomely provided for with landed 
 estates. The two who assumed the name of O'Connor 
 espoused ultra-patriotic political doctrines ; the three who 
 remained ungraced with the Milesian continued sturdy 
 partizans of Protestant ascendancy. Robert of Fortro- 
 bert, in particular, was distinguished for his Orange zeal. 
 He procured a man named Cullinane to give sworn evi- 
 dence of treasonable acts against his brother Roger, who 
 would have been hanged on Cullinane's testimony, if the 
 credit of the witness had not been shaken by the affidavit 
 of a gentleman named Spear. Robert built the spacious 
 mansion of Fortrobert on the top of a hill adjoining the 
 domain of Connorville. It is described by Mr. Daniel 
 * 'Pon tick.
 
 32 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Owen Madden, in an amusing account of the agitation of 
 the period, as being fit for. a man of six or seven thousand 
 a year. It is now, I believe, almost in ruins. Robert, 
 although not in the army, had military tastes, which he 
 gratified by commanding a corps (which he is said to have 
 pronounced corpse) of cavalry-yeomanry. I have been 
 told that he entertained exaggerated notions of the effi- 
 ciency of this formidable " corpse," and that he sometimes 
 frightened his wife by threatening to invade France at 
 their head, seize Bonaparte, bring him to Ireland captive, 
 and suspend him in an iron cage in the hall of Fortrobert ! 
 He was in constant communication with the Government 
 at Dublin Castle, to whom he furnished such representations 
 as he thought proper of the state of the country, and of 
 the measures required to overawe the population. He ac- 
 companied one of his political epistles with a map of the 
 barony in which he resided ; and in the map the domain 
 of Fortrobert occupied so large a space as to leave but little 
 room for the estates of all the other proprietors. On the 
 part of the map in front of the mansion was written by 
 the royal owner, " The finest station in the Barony for can- 
 non !" He added a tremendous oath to give force to the 
 hint, which, however, was not adopted by the Government. 
 Indeed, his political correspondence was a curious affair. 
 One of his epistles to the authorities at Dublin Castle, 
 composed, it may be presumed, in a very genial mood, com- 
 menced with the words, " My dear Government." Another 
 epistle he displayed to Sir Francis Burdett, who at that 
 time advocated " radical" politics. " Well, Sir Francis, 
 what d'ye think of that ?" he complacently asked. " Ex-
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 33 
 
 cuse me, Conner," answered the radical Baronet, "I am 
 not a judge of music ;" for the blotched and clumsy manu- 
 script, of which many of the sentences were underscored 
 with numerous lines by way of rendering them emphatic, 
 bore a comical resemblance to an awkward and imperfect 
 attempt at musical notation. 
 
 Roger O'Conner, brother of Robert, was born on the 8th 
 of March, 1763. There are some notices of him in the 
 March number of Walker's Hibernian Magazine for 1798, 
 at which period he was imprisoned in Cork gaol on a 
 charge of high treason. The notices are the production 
 of a very friendly pen. Here are a few extracts : 
 
 " His father's family ranks among the first in Irish, as 
 his mother does among the first of French families. The 
 rudiments of learning he received at Lismore, under Dr. 
 Jessop, from whence, in the year 1777, he entered Dublin 
 College, where he was allowed to be the best scholar in Ms 
 division, and the most idle lad in his class" 
 
 We are hence to infer that his literary acquisitions were 
 the fruits, not of labour, but of genius. Further on, his 
 eulogist says : 
 
 " In 1783 he quitted the Temple, and in Easter term of 
 that year we find him called to the bar, which he never 
 attended, being cursed, as he has often said, with too 
 good an estate to make diligence at a profession necessary. 
 But though he did not make a lucrative use of the bar, he 
 generally attended at the assizes at Cork as an advocate 
 (to use his own expression) unhired, in favour of the poor, 
 where in numberless instances he succeeded." 
 2 D
 
 34 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 "We have next a sketch of his moral and physical qua-' 
 lities : 
 
 " His friends represent him as affable, open, unsuspi- 
 cious, hospitable, lively, witty, and generous to a fault. 
 In person he is above the middle size, well-proportioned, 
 strong, and active. His countenance is animated, his eye 
 lively, quick, and penetrating ; his appearance engaging 
 and interesting." 
 
 When the disguised Marquess of Argyle, in Scott's 
 " Legend of Montrose," sounds his own praises to Cap- 
 tain Dalgetty in the dungeon, that astute veteran exclaims, 
 " I never heard so much good of him before. You must 
 know the Marquess well or rather you must be the Mar- 
 quess himself!" On grounds similar to those of the saga- 
 cious Dalgetty, I have little hesitation in ascribing the 
 above account of Roger O'Connor to Roger O'Connor 
 himself, although, with becoming modesty, that gentleman 
 did not append his signature to the description of his ad- 
 mirable and attractive qualities. He deemed it only right 
 that his countrymen should derive the fullest possible 
 advantage from his gift and merits; and thinking, pro- 
 bably, that virtue, when on a throne, is more influential 
 than in any humbler station, he aspired to the crown of Ire- 
 land. But he first tried his hand with the fair sex : 
 
 " He married," says his biographer, " in the year 1784, 
 Louisa Anna Strachan, eldest daughter of Colonel Stra- 
 chan, of the 32 d Regiment of Foot." 
 
 I have heard that Roger's conquest of this lady's heart 
 was rapid. Visiting one day at the lodgings which ker 
 family occupied in Cork, he found her alone, and inquired
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 35 
 
 where her father and other relatives had gone. " They 
 went on a party of pleasure/' was her answer. " Suppose 
 we get a chaise and follow them ?" said Roger, who pro- 
 fessed himself shocked at their having left Miss Strachan 
 in solitude. She consented. Roger forthwith procured u 
 carnage; they drove off, not to the party of pleasure, 
 however, but to some accommodating clergyman, by whom 
 they were speedily married. Mrs. O'Connor died in 1787, 
 leaving two children : Louisa, since dead ; and Roderick, 
 who now, in his old age, enjoys large possessions in Van 
 Diemen's Land. 
 
 Roger's second wife was Wilhelmina, daughter of Ni- 
 cholas Bowen, of Bowenscourt, Esq., by Wilhelmina Deane, 
 of the Terrenure family. He married her in August, 1788, 
 and had by her several children, among whom were Arthur, 
 afterwards of Fortrobert, and the well-known Feargus 
 O'Connor, whose chartist agitation in England is fresh in 
 the memory of the reader. 
 
 Of Roger's conjugal and parental qualities his biographer 
 already quoted speaks as follows : " He is the best of 
 husbands and of fathers ; indeed, with such a wife as Mrs, 
 O'Connor is acknowledged by all to be, none but the worst 
 of men could be other than the best of husbands. She is 
 represented as a paragon worthy of imitation." 
 
 When the progress and success of the French Revolution, 
 coupled with causes of domestic dissatisfaction, encouraged 
 a portion of the Irish people to attempt resistance to the 
 English government, the surging mass of national discon- 
 tent necessarily drew within its influence many wild, ad- 
 venturous, undisciplined spirits, scantily provided with the
 
 36 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ballast of steady, moral principles or political discretion. 
 I have, indeed, no doubt that the part taken by Arthur 
 O'Connor (younger brother of Roger) was honestly taken. 
 He forfeited, by espousing the popular cause, all that selfish 
 men hold most dear wealth, patronage, and title. He 
 was Lord Longueville's favourite nephew, and his destined 
 heir ; and his Lordship had sufficient influence to have 
 obtained for him a peerage, had Arthur been a pliant dis- 
 ciple of the school of Pitt and Castlereagh. 
 
 Roger's insurrectionary plans, his design of fortifying 
 Connorville to resist a descent from the king's troops, the 
 failure of that design, his imprisonment in various jails, 
 his wild and inflammatory publications, are already known 
 to many of my readers; and the narrative of them in 
 even moderate detail would occupy too much of my space. 
 His object in joining the insurgent councils, was, I 
 believe, to wield the Irish sceptre. He claimed to be 
 descended from the royal O'Connors. In a book which 
 he published, entitled " Chronicles of Eri," the frontispiece 
 presents his likeness, with his hand upon the Irish crown, 
 and the legend inscribed underneath, " Chief of a pros- 
 trate nation." His son Feargus records that at a later 
 period he exclaimed, in what we must suppose to have 
 been a fit of patriotic frenzy, "My arm is yet young 
 enough to wield the sword to recover my country's crown." 
 His hatred to British domination naturally extended itself 
 to the article of taxes. During the continuance of the 
 dog tax, the collector called on him one day for payment 
 of the usual imposts. Roger returned as meagre a list of 
 taxable articles as possible. ft Have you got no dogs ?"
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONXOKVILLE. 37 
 
 inquired the collector. " Not one," answered the repre- 
 sentative of ancient Irish royalty. Just at this moment a 
 favourite dog came running into the court-yard, in which 
 the collector and Roger were standing. The peril of 
 detection was imminent, but Roger suddenly exclaimed, 
 with well-feigned alarm, " A mad dog ! a mad dog \" 
 and forthwith he took refuge in the house, as if to escape 
 from the rabid animal the collector followed in terror of 
 a bite the dog was properly disposed of, and Roger, no 
 doubt, kept the tax in his pocket. 
 
 When Bonaparte was said to meditate the invasion of 
 Ireland, Roger determined to receive his imperial majesty 
 with Irish hospitality. In order to entertain the emperor 
 in a mansion not wholly unsuited to his dignity, Roger 
 purchased Dangan Castle, in the county Meath, the family 
 seat of the Earls of Mornington. Dangan was then a 
 magnificent place. What it afterwards became may be 
 learned from the following account, written by an eye- 
 witness, who visited the park in 1843. 
 
 "Arrived at the margin of the demesne," says this 
 writer, "we entered a narrow avenue by an iron gate, 
 which was opened by a woman whose house was one of 
 two or three low-thatched huts. There were no trees 
 shading the avenue ; but a high thorn hedge, bushy, wild, 
 and lofty, skirted it on either side. W r hen we had pro- 
 ceeded three or four hundred yards, the park, that had 
 once been finely wooded, but which, like a bald head, with 
 a tree here, and two there, and a few more stunted and 
 denuded of their ornamental branches, beyond this park, 
 with its fine valleys and finer eminences, once so magni-
 
 38 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 h'cently wooded, now so shabbily bare, opened upon our 
 view. The road went towards the left, and again wheeled 
 to the right. On the brow of a gentle slope stood tbe 
 castle, like a huge, ill-shaped bam grey, treeless, shelter- 
 less, and in most part roofless." 
 
 It had, in fact, been burned during the occupancy of 
 Roger O'Connor. It was insured for a considerable sum ; 
 I have heard for 7000 ; Roger received the amount of 
 the insurance, a welcome supply to a gentleman whose 
 system of finance was none of the most thrifty, and who 
 had perhaps been put to inconvenient cost in making 
 preparations for a visit from Bonaparte. When the castle 
 was burned, it needs not be said that Roger broke up 
 housekeeping. He decamped from Dangan; and three 
 of his sons, Arthur, Feargus, and Roger, bent their steps 
 to Fortrobert, where they domesticated themselves with 
 their uncle Robert, who had three daughters, co-heiresses. 
 The sentimental reader will readily anticipate the result. 
 Marriages followed in due course. Robert of Fortrobert 
 died in or about 1820, and Arthur O'Connor, elder brother 
 of Feargus, became Jure uxoris, the master of Fortrobert. 
 He died in 1828, leaving two sons. Feargus O'Connor, 
 by family arrangements needless to particularize, became 
 the occupant of the house and demesne. 
 
 Feargus printed a sketch of his own career in successive 
 numbers of a Chartist magazine, entitled " The National 
 Instructor." To the student of human character, this 
 autobiography is extremely amusing, from the personal 
 traits unconsciously disclosed by the writer. The propen- 
 sity to boast is laughably manifest in every page ; I might
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 39 
 
 almost say in every sentence. Take a few passages as 
 specimens : " My grandfather was the wealthiest man in 
 the kingdom, and kept the most splendid establish- 
 ment." " The people not only loved, but adored, both 
 my father and my uncle Arthur. They were, perhaps, 
 two of the finest-looking men, the most eloquent men, and 
 the most highly-educated men, in the kingdom." " My 
 uncle Arthur made the most splendid speech ever deli- 
 vered, upon the question of Catholic Emancipation." " I 
 remember the time when my brother Roderick had four 
 magnificent hunters, my brother Frank a splendid pony 
 called ' Chick/ my brother Arthur as splendid a pony. 
 
 My brother Roger took his airing every 
 
 day in a little chariot, a splendid covered carriage drawn 
 by four goats magnificently harnessed." Of his progress 
 at school, he says, " Although always flogged for not 
 having my lesson, during the eight years I never missed 
 the head premium in my class in everything." Of ances- 
 tral dignity "My father was so proud of his descent 
 from the Irish kings, that he would not allow a servant or 
 labourer to call his sons or daughters * Master' or 'Miss.' 
 One day one of the labourers told my father that he 
 wanted to see Master Arthur. ' Master Arthur !' exclaimed 
 my father; ' you may as well say Master Duke of York, 
 or Master Prince of Wales.' " 
 
 Of Feargus's forensic ability we have the following, among 
 many other instances : " Twenty-three Irishmen were in- 
 dicted for the murder of two policemen, Flint and Baxter. 
 . . . The whole onus of this important case was thrown 
 on my shoulders. The trial lasted thirteen hours, while
 
 40 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 single-handed I had to contend against the six ablest bar- 
 risters at the ^bar, when, to the great dismay and mortifi- 
 cation of my legal opponents and the magistrates on the 
 bench, I succeeded in acquitting every one of the prisoners." 
 In another place we have an instance of Feargus's skill in 
 horseflesh. Starting with a borrowed sum of sixty pounds 
 to be expended in horsejobbing, he trafficked so well there- 
 upon that in a few months he became the master of " seven 
 splendid hunters and two grooms." 
 
 But, with all this brag and swagger, Feargus O'Connor 
 was undoubtedly a very clever fellow. He had many 
 capabilities, but his greatest talent lay in popular decla- 
 mation. Like his father, he was exceedingly restless and 
 ambitious. The achievement whereby he first acquired 
 notoriety was his successful contest for^the county of Cork 
 in 1832. 
 
 In the summer of 1831 a great movement against 
 tithes and the Union became general through Ireland ; the 
 whole kingdom was astir; eloquence was in popular de- 
 mand, and everybody who could make a speech, or who 
 believed that he could make one, gave the public the full 
 benefit of his oratory on one side or the other. 
 
 The combination against tithes was unprecedented. 
 Millions of people had confederated to pay no tithe, and 
 to abstain from purchasing any property seized for tithe. 
 Meetings to encourage opposition to the hated impost 
 were everywhere held. Feargus had numberless oppor- 
 tunities for the display of his declamatory powers. Of 
 his talents as a popular declaimer, I shall quote two de- 
 scriptions : the first from " Ireland and her Agitators,"
 
 THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 41 
 
 written by his relative, and (at that time) fellow -agitator, 
 Mr. Daunt. 
 
 " Those who have not heard him in public/' says Mr. 
 Daunt, "and who have only judged of his abilities from 
 his printed effusions, have invariably done great injustice 
 to his powers. He was remarkably ready and self-possessed ; 
 he was capable of producing extraordinary popular effect ; 
 he had very great declamatory talent ; he had also great 
 defects. As a stimulating orator in a popular assembly, 
 he was unexcelled. It is true he dealt largely in bombast, 
 broken metaphor, and inflated language ; but while you 
 listened, these blemishes were altogether lost in the infec- 
 tious vehemence of his spirited manner. You were 
 charmed with the melodious voice, the musical intonations, 
 the astonishing volubility, the imposing self-confidence of 
 the man, and the gallant air of bold defiance with which 
 he assailed all oppression and tyranny. The difference 
 between his spoken and printed harangues was surpris- 
 ingly great." 
 
 Now hear Mr. Daniel Owen Madden's account of the 
 orator's powers : 
 
 "There was," says Mr. Madden, "a wild, Ossianic 
 spirit about O'Connor's spirit-stirring effusions that was 
 altogether different from O'Connell's wearisome blarney 
 and incessant cajolery. As men of talent and mind, it 
 would be absurd to institute any comparison between 
 them; but, as Irish popular speakers, Feargus was in 
 some respects superior to O'Connell. Though he had no 
 poetical powers, he had strong poetical feelings, and to
 
 42 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 these he often gave vent in speeches of a most romantic 
 character, whose effect was not the less powerful because 
 
 they would not bear the criticism of the closet 
 
 . . He played the part to perfection of an Irish chieftain, 
 and addressed the repealers rather as his gallant clansmen 
 than as his fellow-citizens or comrades. In truth he was 
 a picturesque agitator." * 
 
 In Feargus's character there was a strong infusion of 
 romance. Adventurous and self-confident, he was inca- 
 pable of being deterred from any political experiment by 
 its apparent difficulties. It was said of him, that if the 
 papal throne were vacant, he would offer himself with the 
 utmost composure as a candidate for the popedom, if the 
 notion caught his fancy. At the outset of his agitation, 
 seat in parliament for the county of Cork seemed almost 
 as much beyond his reach as the papal tiara. He was 
 nearly unknown ; and with those who did know him, the 
 penumbral shadow of some of his father's irregular exploits 
 created a large amount of prejudice against the son. This 
 prejudice Feargus soon neutralized by the vivacity and 
 frankness of his very ingratiating manners, and by his 
 loud and constant declarations of unbounded fealty to 
 O'Connell. He was full of frolic, told good stories, and 
 threw himself con amore into whatever sort of merriment 
 was going; and there is, perhaps, nothing that disarms 
 
 * I have heard that Mr. Daunt contemplated writing a 
 novel, of which Feargus O'Connor's adventures were to form 
 the groundwork. The subject furnishes capital materials for 
 such a book.
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 43 
 
 your dislike so much as the sense of being amused. Fear- 
 gus was uncommonly amusing. Queer stories were told 
 about his skittish antics, and his reputation for frolic 
 naturally served to promote his popularity. 
 
 Such was the whimsical genius who conceived the idea 
 of wresting the representation of the largest of the Irish 
 counties from the aristocratic families amongst whom it 
 had come to be considered as a sort of heirloom. They 
 had for a long time formed a powerful combination, of 
 which the strength seemed the more impregnable from a 
 continuance that almost amounted to prescription. Fear- 
 gus was by no means disposed to yield them an inch on. 
 the score of dignity. He was well descended, and allied 
 by blood to some of the southern noblesse. Many of his 
 nearest relatives stood high among the landed gentry of 
 the country. He was, on the whole, a decidedly interest- 
 ing agitator. At Fortrobert, a large and gloomy mansion 
 on the top of a commanding eminence, he seldom saw 
 any other company than a very few intimate associates and 
 relatives. A mystery seemed to overshadow him. The 
 house he inhabited had been built by his uncle Robert, 
 who, as we have already mentioned, was a man of ultra 
 Orange politics, and during that gentleman's life had been 
 the scene of many a Tory revel. Various questionable 
 deeds, the result of over-zealous orangeism, were laid at 
 the door of the defunct, of some of which Feargus was the 
 historian. His ghost was said to haunt the neighbouring 
 wood of Carrigmore, where, at midnight, it careered with 
 lightning speed at the head of a spectral hunt, with many 
 a shrill whoop and view -hollow that curdled the blood of
 
 44 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 superstitious eld. Feargus, during the lifetime of the 
 phantom sportsman, had lived at various periods a good 
 deal on his wits. He had once run away from his father's 
 house, and spent a summer haymaking in Wiltshire. At 
 another time he took a farm in the county Cork, on which 
 he personally laboured with industry and skill. He always 
 alluded to his fathers pecuniary losses as having been 
 incurred in the cause of Irish freedom, [and boasted of 
 belonging to a race which had furnished many martyrs to 
 patriotism. He made a good deal of political capital out 
 of the protracted exile of his uncle Arthur. 
 
 So Feargus issued forth from his fastness at Fortrobert, 
 equipped with some qualifications for acquiring popularity. 
 There was in his past career enough of mystery to pique 
 the public curiosity. He was, through different ancestral 
 lines, of " good ould blood." He was sprung from a 
 family which furnished at least one respectable political 
 martyr. He was a capital horseman and a desperate fox- 
 hunter. His manners were very facetious. He was quite 
 inexhaustible in thundering declamation. Voluble and 
 vituperative, he assailed with unsparing abuse and comical 
 sarcasm the parties obnoxious to popular hatred ; and the 
 Catholic populace soon became enthusiastic in favour of 
 the gallant Celtic prince, the descendant, as he boasted, 
 of the Ard Righ Roderick, who exhorted them in words 
 of fire to struggle for their creed and country. The 
 hustings of Cork afforded an opportunity for ancestral 
 boasts too tempting to be resisted. He informed the 
 electors that he was desirous, by his candidature, to afford 
 them an occasion of ejecting from the representation the
 
 THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 45 
 
 new families ; videlicet the Shannons, Kingstons, and 
 Bandons ; and he told Lord Bernard on the hustings, 
 that the best feather in his lordship's cap was some ancient 
 connection with the O'Connor family. 
 
 While thus confronting the county aristocracy, he was 
 anxious to cultivate the regard of the Catholic clergy and 
 the democracy. He talked of convoking a meeting of 
 the Catholic priesthood of the county under his own pre- 
 sidency, in order to deliberate upon measures for securing 
 the perpetual exclusion of Whig and Tory from the re- 
 presentation. To enlarge his influence, he got up a public 
 entertainment to himself at Enniskean. The " Great 
 Public Dinner to Feargus O'Connor, Esq.," was duly 
 advertised in the Cork newspapers. The sale of tickets 
 was at first very slack, and the dinner committee was 
 penuriously stingy. Feargus was, therefore, obliged "to 
 purchase the eatables and drinkables ; but he was indem- 
 nified for this outlay by a brisk demand for tickets on the 
 day of the dinner. Mr. Daunt presided ; the speeches 
 were partly in Irish, partly in English ; the eloquence was 
 of the most patriotic and fiery description ; the farmers 
 were enchanted ; it was midnight when the guest and 
 chairman left the banquet-hall amid the rapturous cheering 
 of the company. Their grooms had, it seems, got engaged 
 in the noisy festivity ; not a horse was forthcoming but a 
 veteran hunter of Daunt's ; the chairman, the guest, and 
 a newspaper-reporter all mounted the animal and in this 
 primeval fashion they cantered briskly on to Fortrobert, 
 O'Connor making the moonlit welkin ring with his bois- 
 terous music. The next publications of the Cork news-
 
 46 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 papers contained a magnificent account of the Great En- 
 niskean Demonstration. 
 
 Feargus now went ahead. Many of the Tory squires, 
 who had at the outset considered his success impossible, 
 began to entertain doubts on the subject. His style of 
 public speaking was canvassed by the fox-hunting gentry, 
 some of whom pronounced him " a devilish fine fellow." 
 It was also a subject of discussion how he raised the 
 sinews of war. It was known that his father wasted his 
 own patrimony in a wild career of extravagance. Mr. 
 Hedges Eyre, of Macroom Castle, saw Feargus flourishing 
 a huge bundle of bank-notes on a race-course, and ex- 
 pressed his unsophisticated wonder where the d he 
 
 got them ! 
 
 As the autumn advanced, the agitators redoubled their 
 activity. Meetings multiplied ; the electors were exhorted 
 to stand by their colours, aud assured that if they deserted 
 Ireland at her need, " they would deserve to be dragged 
 upon hurdles to the gallows, as their fathers before them 
 had been, by the old hereditary enemy." Exhortations 
 such as these were unquestionably very effective. O'Con- 
 nor was a Protestant, but he took the Catholic populace by 
 storm, by vigorously denouncing the detested tithe-system, 
 and telling piquant stories of Protestant ecclesiastical 
 mismanagement. He boasted that he " had made the tear 
 of bitter disappointment fall in the very pulpit." He 
 professed himself conscientiously anxious to relieve the 
 religion he belonged to from the clog of the tithe-system. 
 On the other hand, nothing could be more profoundly 
 deferential than his demeanour towards the Catholic clergy.
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 47 
 
 " The revered and saintly pastors of the Irish people" 
 " the venerated guardians of the people's faith" epithets 
 such as these he was accustomed to bestow upon them in 
 tones of affectionate and reverent enthusiasm. He made 
 it his boast that he was personally acquainted with a greater 
 number of Catholic priests than any other layman in Ire- 
 land; and his unctuous manner seemed to imply how 
 profoundly he appreciated the happiness and honour of so 
 great a privilege. Nor did he forget to cultivate the 
 regards of the fair sex. At the close of a public meeting 
 (I think at Mill Street) he declared that as the men had 
 had the day to themselves, the evening should be given to 
 the ladies; whereupon he called for music, got up an 
 impromptu dance, and led off with the innkeeper's wife. 
 
 The autumn passed. "Winter advanced, and the election 
 for the county was at hand. O'Connor's colleague was 
 Mr. Garret Standish Barry of Lemlara, a Catholic gentle- 
 man of exemplary character and ancient descent. He, 
 too, had tried his hand, during the summer and autumn, 
 at the work of agitation. He had attended several of the 
 meetings where congregated thousands welcomed Feargus 
 with their boisterous acclamations. The contrast between 
 the candidates was amusing. Mr. Barry was respectfully 
 received, as a Catholic candidate recommended by the 
 priests. Feargus was greeted with enthusiasm, as the gal- 
 lant champion of the people's rights, the hero who si ruck 
 terror into their tyrants, and who vowed to achieve their 
 deliverance. Feargus's daring defiance of all conceivable 
 opponents, and his vehement denunciations of English 
 misrule, contrasted laughably with the quiet, mouse like
 
 48 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 demeanour of his undemonstrative colleague, who, when 
 O'Connor had wound up a stormy oration in the midst of 
 vociferous applause, was wont to address to the electors a 
 few quiet, gentlemanly sentences, in which any strong 
 political predilection was not easily discoverable. The 
 personal appearance of the candidates completed the con- 
 trast. Mr. Barry had neat, and rather formal features, 
 and a pair of trim, black whiskers. The shaggy honours 
 of Feargus's head were foxy, his face was ugly, and his 
 countenance haggard. 
 
 To understand fully the sources of O'Connor's popu- 
 larity, the reader should bear in mind that at the period 
 of his agitation there existed in Ireland a widely-spread 
 hostility to the legislative union. The Irish people, 
 deprived of their resident legislature, felt precisely as the 
 English people would feel, if labouring under a similar 
 deprivation. If any neighbouring nation contrived to 
 annihilate the parliament at Westminster, and to exercise 
 legislative power over England, it will be readily owned 
 that the first instinct in every Englishman's mind would 
 be to recover for England her national power of self- 
 legislation. As Englishmen would feel in such a case, 
 so did Irishmen feel; and to that feeling Feargus ad- 
 dressed himself with great inflammatory talent. It is 
 true, that his attempts to reason the question of repeal 
 were contemptible, for he was destitute of the requisite 
 information on the subject, as also of natural logical power. 
 But his fiery invocations of the Spirit of Liberty, and his 
 passionate exhortations to the people to resist all oppres- 
 sion, were little impaired by the orator's lack of nearly all
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 49 
 
 the constitutional and statistical knowledge that bore upon 
 the question. 
 
 At length the day of battle arrived. The county Cork 
 election commenced towards the end of December. There 
 were pitted against each other two forces, apparently very 
 unequal. O'Connor's force was the freize-coated host. 
 They had been previously untried. They were greatly in 
 the power of their landlords ; and some doubts were felt 
 whether landlord influence might not warp their fidelity to 
 the promises they had freely and willingly tendered to 
 O'Connor in his canvass. Feargus spoke for an hour on 
 the day of nomination with his wonted energy, and ended 
 by parodying Burns : 
 
 " Now's the day and now's the hour, 
 See approach the Tory power, 
 Tithes and Slavery !" 
 
 While the candidates and their friends harangued within 
 the court-house, the streets of Cork presented an exciting 
 spectacle. Apparently interminable detachments of the 
 country voters who had travelled all night, streamed into 
 the city, each band headed by its parish priest ; and it 
 became a somewhat difficult task to provide accommodation 
 for the enormous concourse. Some of them slept in the 
 large Lancasterian school-room; others were placed in 
 the apartments of the south monastery. Next day the 
 voting went on vigorously. The landlord power of the 
 county continued to put forth its utmost strength against 
 the popular candidates. But in vain. " Fargus," as the 
 multitude pronounced the name of their favourite, "had
 
 50 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 promised to vote for repale and against tithes ;" and for 
 "Fargus" the people were resolved to incur whatever 
 martyrdom their landlords might think it proper or expe- 
 dient to inflict. Meantime every ordinary ruse was 
 attempted to secure the defeat of O'Connor, or at least to 
 diminish his majority. Various sham candidates were 
 set up to spin out the time, and successively vanished. 
 ' ' Fargus" was especially the mark for the enemy's hos- 
 tility, a comparatively small amount of which glanced off 
 from him to his colleague. "Whigs and Tories felt that if 
 the task of dislodging them from the representation had 
 been left to Mr. Barry, they might have retained their 
 parliamentary influence in the county till doomsday. 
 
 Feargus was the idol of the southern and western elec- 
 tors in particular. But in the eastern part of the county 
 Mr. Barry had mustered some ardent supporters on his 
 own account. It was the policy of the popular party, 
 when the strength of their electoral force had been suffi- 
 ciently ascertained, to divide their votes between O'Connor 
 and Barry, instead of plumping for O'Connor, as had been 
 at one time proposed. A farmer, with whom the idea of 
 " Fargus" was predominant, came up to be polled, and 
 tendered his vote for " Fargus O'Connor and Ould 
 Ireland." 
 
 " You can vote for Mr. O'Connor, and for any other 
 candidate," said the assessor ; " but there is no candidate 
 here of the name of Ould Ireland." 
 
 " Then I vote for Fargus O'Connor and Barry," said 
 the elector, adopting the correction. 
 
 At the close of the struggle, the sheriff declared O'Con.
 
 THE O'CONNORS OP CONNORVILLE. 51 
 
 nor and Barry elected, the former by a majority of over a 
 thousand. The triumph astonished the vanquished party 
 quite as much as it chagrined them. It was gained, 
 undoubtedly, by clerical co-operation. But the Catholic 
 clergy of the county would not, I believe, have thus com- 
 bined, if they had not been, at the outset, incessantly 
 stimulated to work the cause among their flocks by the 
 indefatigable zeal and industry of O'Connor. He gave 
 life and cohesion to the popular party. He rallied their 
 detached forces, taught them the extent of their power 
 and led them to victory. The landlords, whose fiat had 
 been previously decisive in the choice of representatives, 
 were unspeakably puzzled to find their influence annihi- 
 lated. The dismay and anger of the beaten party were 
 expressed with the bitterness usually incident to such a 
 predicament. Mr. Hedges Eyre paced the Conservative 
 clubroom, muttering with oaths, " not loud but deep," that 
 the county was disgraced for ever. 
 
 Feargus was now in great feather. He issued a formid- 
 able programme of his intended parliamentary labours. 
 He promised " to sit with the Speaker and rise with the 
 House." His success in the election for the county filled 
 his mind with vague and gorgeous visions of yet loftier 
 achievements. His ambition pointed to the leadership of 
 the entire popular party in Ireland, and he soon attempted 
 to unhorse O'Connell, with the view of getting into the 
 saddle himself. O'Connell had, of course, too firm a hold 
 on the popular confidence to be shaken by a political ad- 
 venturer of yesterday ; and although Feargus was a second 
 time returned for Cork county, yet he injured his own 
 
 E 2
 
 52 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 popularity very much by his efforts to promote disaffection 
 to O'Connell. At last he so completely lost influence in 
 Ireland as to be unable to get up a parish meeting. 
 
 Having alienated his Irish friends by his selfish and 
 impolitic course, he next turned his regards to England. 
 He joined the Chartists, first as a disciple ; but he soon 
 found means to acquire the confidence of their body, which 
 his great abilities for declamation enabled him to improve 
 to the utmost. He established the Northern Star news- 
 paper in Leeds as the organ of Chartism ; and its sale for 
 a time reached a fabulous amount. I have heard that 
 once, for a few weeks, it beat the Times, It is now de- 
 funct. 
 
 Among the innumerable ruses by which Feargus gained 
 the favour of the English working classes, was the cha- 
 racteristic expedient of presenting himself at a public 
 meeting arrayed in a fustian jacket, the working man's 
 livery, in which, he said, he worked as hard as any of his 
 audience, for he, too, was a "working man/' and his 
 work was to liberate the masses from their bondage. His 
 speech and his jacket were probably of the same material ; 
 but doubtless his semi-pantomimic dexterities helped, for 
 a time, to increase the influence which he derived from 
 his abilities as a declaimer, and his mental and physical 
 energy. 
 
 "When he established the Chartist Land Company, a 
 belief was universally adopted by his English admirers, 
 that the purchasers of shares, or allotments of land, would 
 make fortunes by the speculation. Bitter disappointment 
 and a vast deal of personal suffering were the principal
 
 THE O'CONNORS OF CONNORVILLE. 53 
 
 results of the experiment. There was also a religious 
 sect got up in connection with his English movement, 
 called the Chartist Christian Church, which, as we see 
 nothing now of its doings, has, I presume, been wound 
 up by the directors. 
 
 Feargus, deserted by the thousands with whom he once 
 was popular Feargus, stung to the quick by the failure of 
 successive schemes Feargus, assailed on all sides with the 
 clamorous outcry of crowds whose money had been swal- 
 lowed in the ill-starred Land Scheme, had no source of 
 consolation to fall back upon. He had long ago squan- 
 dered all his private means. No further supplies could be 
 got from the exhausted credulity of the Chartists. His 
 newspaper lost its circulation. He went mad, and was 
 confined for nearly two years and a half in Dr. Tuke's 
 asylum near Chiswick : his removal from which to private 
 lodgings probably hastened his death, which occurred on 
 the 31st of August, 1855. 
 
 Fortrobert is a wreck, and the direct heir to that once 
 handsome mansion and domain retains not an acre of 
 his patrimony. Connorville has, many years since, 
 passed away from the family of O'Connor. It was bought 
 by James Lysaght, Esq., in the Court of Chancery, and 
 sold by him in 1853 to the Earl of Norbury. The old 
 house no longer stands, and the old trees have long 
 ago been felled. But although my narrative records the 
 decadence of the immediate families of Connorville and 
 Fortrobert, it must be observed that several other branches 
 of the race, as well as many descendants, through female 
 lines from Daniel Conner, of Bandon bridge (temp. Wil-
 
 54 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 liam the Third and Anne), retain their position among the 
 gentry of the south, with sufficient means for its sup- 
 port. 
 
 I may remark, that since Feargus O'Connor's death, 
 some of his Chartist disciples, whose allegiance has survived 
 every shock, have erected a monumental statue of their 
 Chief at Nottingham, for which town he was member of 
 parliament from 1847 to 1852.
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 55 
 
 Cfje fast Wfflam ttetj f 
 
 An old Song 
 
 Of an old worshipful gentleman who had a greate estate, ' 
 That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate, d 
 And an old Porter to relieve the poor at his gate, 
 Like an old Courtier of the Queen's, 
 And the Queen's old Courtier. 
 
 OLD SONG. 
 
 SOME time after the quenching of the great Rebellion in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, more than half a million of 
 .acres in the north of Ireland were at the disposal of the 
 English Crown. Part of this territory had been the pro- 
 perty of the O'Niells, and the numerous branches of that 
 great and ancient family, and part of the O'Donells, who 
 held princely pre-eminence in Tyrconnell, or Donegal. 
 After the later insurrection of Sir Cahir O'Dogherty, 
 another chief of Donegal, and its suppression in the year 
 1608, the whole county fell to the King,, under the law of 
 -forfeiture or escheat. At the same time, five other northern 
 counties suffered a like doom: namely, Tyrone, the Prin- 
 cipality of O'Neill, Derry, O'Cahan's county, Ferma- 
 nagh, Maguire's county, Cavan, O'Reilly's county, and 
 Armagh, the property of the Clanbrassil O'Neills, and the
 
 56 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 O'Hanlons; these chiefs and their followers were put 
 under attaint, and their lands forfeited : hence arose, in 
 1610, the Plantation of Ulster with English and Scotch 
 settlers, who were generally soldiers of fortune, professional 
 adventurers, or cadets of good families. 
 
 Many of them found their way into Donegal, and these 
 may be distinguished into two kinds, viz., those who 
 arrived on the suppression of O'Donell's rebellion at the 
 end of Elizabeth's reign ; and those who " settled " under 
 James I. in 1610 ; the former were almost all of English 
 descent, whereas the latter were Scotch. In Donegal the 
 chief families of the former were the Gores, now Earls of 
 Arran, the Brookes, now represented by Sir Victor A. 
 Brooke, Bart., of Fermanagh, the Harts of Doe Castle, 
 the Sampsons, at present extinct, and the Wrays of Castle 
 Wray and Ards. Old Fynes Morison tells us that of 
 these families, Sampson, Brooke, and Hart alone brought 
 to Ireland one hundred halberdiers at their own expense to 
 aid the Queen : they therefore may be said to have earned 
 what they got. Sampson had a vast tract of wild mountain 
 range lying on the sea, and _ now comprehending Horn 
 Head, and Ards. Hart was his neighbour at Doe Castle : 
 and Brooke had Donegal town and Castle, and a fine 
 acreage south of Muckish, and Lough Salt mountains, 
 and near what now is the village of Letterkenny. To 
 John Wray 1000 acres of Carnegilla, near the same town* 
 were assigned, or probably had been purchased by him 
 from Sir John Vaughan, a "VVelchman by birth, who was 
 the original patentee. Mr. Wray was a branch of 
 the Wrays of Ashby; they were formerly of Durham^
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 57 
 
 from whence they removed to Glentworth in Yorkshire. 
 In 1660 they were created Baronets, but the title became 
 extinct on the death of Sir William James Wray in 
 1809. Their escutcheon is azure on a chief or, three 
 martlets gules; their motto, an ancient French poesie, 
 and play upon their name, " et juste ct vray" One of 
 this family, Sir Christopher Wray^ of Glentworth, was 
 Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, M.P. for Borough- 
 bridge, and Speaker of the House of Commons temp. Eliz. : 
 he died 1592. In his Latin epitaph at Glentworth, there is 
 an allusion to his motto; he was "re Justus, nomine verus ;" 
 he left behind him good advice as to how an estate was to 
 be kept: 1st, by understanding it 2nd, by not spending 
 till it comes 3rd, by a quarterly audit 4th, by keeping 
 old servants : all of which sapient rules his later Irish 
 descendants were ever disregarding to their own detri- 
 ment, which was a negative evidence of the excellence of 
 their ancestor's counsel. 
 
 Little is known of John Wray of Carnegilla, the first 
 settler from England, but his son Henry Wray had a 
 further grant from the Crown, in 1639, of the lands after- 
 wards called Castle Wray, a beautiful spot sloping up from 
 the green braes of Lough Swilly, and now in the posses- 
 sion of Francis Mansfield, Esq., a descendant of Captain 
 Mansfield, who obtained "1000 acres in Killeneguirden," 
 in the plantation of 1610. This Henry Wray had married 
 a daughter of Sir Paul Gore, by his wife Isabella Wicliff, a 
 niece of the great Earl of Strafford : and probably he ob- 
 tained this grant through the earl's paramount interest 
 with his royal master Charles I. Henry Wray's son was
 
 58 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 William Wray, who was living at Castle Wray in 1689, 
 when his name appears in the "Act of Attainder" by James 
 the Second, in common with all the prominent gentry who 
 held the Protestant Faith.* He appears to have been a 
 wise and prudent man, and bent upon staying at home, 
 and improving his estate; accordingly we look in vain for 
 his name among the valiant Donegal gentry who buckled 
 on their broadswords and went off to fight King James's 
 army at Deny in 1689. 
 
 Among these were Stewart from Lough S willy Forward 
 from Coolemacurtaine Nesbitt from Tully-Idonnell 
 Mansfield from Killigordon Babington froin Castle Doe 
 Hart from Culmore Fort Sinclair, of the stalwart 
 Caithness race, from Holyhill Vaughan and Groves from 
 Castle Shanagan Colquhoun from Letterkenny Knox 
 from Glenfin and Carhewenancannah, an awful territorial 
 title to spell or speak, with which I close the cata- 
 logue. Wray does not appear among the belligerents : he 
 had married a Miss Sampson, and migrated into the very 
 depths of the northern Donegal Highlands, where he pur- 
 chased the singularly wild, romantic and beautiful estate 
 of Ards, probably from his wife's family, who some time 
 afterwards, in 1700, sold the promontory of Horn Head, 
 with its glorious sea cliffs and sublime views, to Mr. Stew- 
 art, ancestor of the present proprietor, the Rev. Charles 
 Stewart. At Ards, Wray built him a good and large 
 mansion on a sunny bank facing the sweet south, and 
 running down to meet the purple rocks, and white strands, 
 and clear blue waters of Sheephaven ; and here he lived in 
 
 * See Archbishop King's State of the Irish Protestants under 
 King James II., Appendix, page 8.
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAT OF ARDS. 59 
 
 a princely way, amidst his woods and pleasure grounds 
 and many retainers, enjoying a climate like that of Italy 
 for softness, where, sheltered from the north and east, the 
 myrtles and geraniums grow richly in the open air, and 
 beds of rhododendrons and fuchsias stretch down to meet 
 the kisses of the Salt Sea. 
 
 On William \Vray' s death in 1710, his widow, who had 
 been his second wife, erected to his memory a mural 
 tablet, which is still to be seen amid the ruins of Clon- 
 dehorky Church; it contains in itself a pedigree and 
 a picture, and is an odd specimen of the style of that 
 day. In gallantry to the gentle widow whose piety devised 
 it, I must attribute the bad spelling to the ignorance of the 
 sculptor, unless, perhaps, the lady's tears had blinded her 
 eyes when writing it, and thus injured her orthography. 
 Probably Miss Sampson, Wray's first wife, had brought 
 him a wing of the Ards estate, which had been her father's. 
 His second lady, Angel Kilbreth, was sister to Colonel 
 James Galbraith, who was M.P. for the borough of St. 
 Johnston. Another sister was married to Mr. Sinclair, of 
 Holy Hill, county Tyrone. This Colonel Galbraith was 
 an ancestor to the Honourable Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, 
 the late Lord Enniskillen's brother, and the family is now 
 represented by Samuel Galbraith, Esq., of Clanabogan- 
 Omagh, county Tyrone. An old Scottish race were these 
 Xilbreths or Galbraiths, and governors of Dunbarton 
 Castle at the time of Queen Mary's escape from Loch- 
 leven. Wray's eldest son, Henry, succeeded to the Castle- 
 Wray property. He married Eleanor Gore, sister to the 
 first Lord Arran, and from him lineally comes the present 
 Mr. Wray, of Oak Park, near the town of Letterkenny,
 
 60 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 who represents the family ; but my business is more with 
 the younger branch, which in the person of William's 
 second son, Humphrey, appears to have inherited Ards, 
 and to have been a careful man, as he left his son an 
 immense estate ; indeed, something little short of a prin- 
 cipality in territorial extent. 
 
 Humphrey's wife had been Miss Brooke, of Colebrooke, 
 county Fermanagh, and grandaunt to the late Sir Henry 
 Brooke, Bart. Of this lady we know but little, nor is 
 there any record of the doings of her husband among the 
 traditions of the neighbourhood ; but their son, " OLD 
 WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS," is the remembered hero of 
 many a strange recital mingled with a hue of sorrow for 
 his fallen fortunes, and a romantic interest in his having 
 been the last of the old branch of the Wrays, that reigned 
 and ruled at beautiful Ards for so long a time. 
 
 I have said that he had inherited a splendid rental 
 and a wide spreading property ; his house and demesne, of 
 great beauty and extent, lay along the north strand of a 
 bay of the Atlantic Ocean ; woods waved all behind, and on 
 either side of the old mansion, while the offices occupied a 
 spacious square, and contained, besides the ample stablery 
 and coach-houses, a number of shops, such as tailors, sad- 
 dlers, shoemakers, carpenters, slaters, in short, a little 
 world of artizans, to supply the numerous household ; the 
 nearest mart being twenty miles distant, and only acces- 
 sible by a road over a steep mountain. The place was an 
 oasis in a desert ; all outside the park gates was mountain 
 heaped upon mountain, stony valleys, huge grey boulders 
 standing up like sentries on the road side ; blue tarns, 
 white strands dotted with dark pebbles, and broken tracts
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 61 
 
 of brown bog, redeemed at intervals by patches of vivid 
 verdure, virgin soil, which no spade had ever violated; 
 here, too, were stretches of natural wood, reliques of the 
 old forest : the dwarf oak ; the rowan, with its red berries ; 
 the birch, with its pale stem ; the silver ash, and the thick 
 hazels ; and the holly, growing most luxuriantly amidst 
 fantastic rocks, and glittering greenly in the sunbeams. 
 Here ran many a bubbling runnel, thundered many a 
 torrent from its gully on the hill-side, and glittered many 
 a lake far seen between the clefts of the mountains ; 
 among which, pre-eminent for its wild and romantic 
 beauty, lay Glenveagh Lough, or the Lake of the Valley 
 of the Deer, glancing like silver, or blackening like ink, 
 as it alternated in sunlight or in shadow ; deep, narrow, 
 sublimely solitary, it runs up between the precipitous wall 
 of Dooish Mountain, whose summit rises two thousand two 
 hundred feet above the glen, and on the other side the 
 steep rocks, and green declivities, and wooded precipices 
 of the Glendowan Mountain, and Lossett, which signifies 
 light. Here, at the time of which I write, the red deer 
 ran and haunted these wilds in troops, sporting amidst 
 the ancient oakwood of Mullanagore, part of which still 
 remains, or slaking their thirst in the Burn of Glenlack, 
 which rolls and whirls adown the mountain for six hundred 
 feet, or listening under the greenwood tree, and in the 
 silence of the summer morning, to the roar of waters, where, 
 across the lake, the Derrybeg Torrent is precipitated over 
 a cliff of one thousand feet, and after raving amidst the 
 lower levels, where the trees and brushwood half conceal 
 its glancing waters, hurries into the tranquil bosom of 
 lovely Glenveagh, and is at rest. A more exquisite gem
 
 O<* VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of mountain, lake, waterfall, and woodland beauty, the 
 wide world could scarce produce. 
 
 To the left of Ards rose Lough Salt with its volcanic 
 crater, and large, deep lake on the summit, along whose 
 stony rim for a mile lay the only road by which Ards 
 could be approached from the south. To the right and 
 landward of Ards soared the great mountain of Muckish, 
 with its declivities, precipices, and its hundred spurs 
 broken into unceasing hill and hollow, through which 
 grey boreens, or bridle-paths, were seen to wind like 
 serpents in the grass. More westerly still, uprose the 
 three giant mountains, Dooish, Altan, and the silvery 
 cone of Arigle, or " the white arrow," with all their peaks 
 and precipices, their shadows, and solitudes, only broken 
 by the wild bark of the golden eagle. To the east of the 
 demesne lay the sea, of great depth and exquisite colour, 
 bluest of the blue. It was, indeed, and is to this day a 
 complete solitude, but abounding in the wildest and most 
 original scenery, little known and seldom visited, but 
 replete with all that could charm the tourist, and delight 
 and satisfy the eye and pencil of the artist. Here, amidst 
 his woods, and wilds, and sea-cliffs, and mountains, 
 reigned William Wray in feudal state, and with an as- 
 sumption of power which his neighbours seemed to allow 
 him. His heart was kind, his purse was long, his step 
 was high, and his hand was open. He was profuse, 
 proud, energetic, jealous, stately, hospitable, eccentric, and 
 exclusive. Tradition tells us that he had twenty stalls in 
 his stables, kept ready for the horses of his guests, and 
 twenty covers on his table for their masters, yet the diffi-
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. DO 
 
 culty of reaching Ards was what would never come into 
 the computation of modern diners-out, and was opposed 
 to all the facility and luxury of present travelling. At 
 that time there was but one available road from Letter- 
 kenny, the frontier town, to Ards, and this had been 
 made by "William Wray himself, and with such zeal, that 
 he caused his labourers to work at it all night by torch- 
 light. It runs straight up and over Lough Salt, a moun- 
 tain one thousand five hundred feet high. Wray paved 
 most of it with square flags, and set up huge milestones 
 all along it, and resting-places, as trophies of his engineer- 
 ing prowess. When -the guests who were invited to Ards 
 arrived at Kilmacrennan, a village at the foot of the 
 mountain, the postilion unyoked the horses and replaced 
 them with bullocks, which animals were regularly pro- 
 vided by William Wray, and which slowly but strongly 
 dragged the carriages up the great mountain ; and as the 
 equipages emerged at the other side of Lough Salt, and 
 became visible to the northern region beneath, tradition 
 has it that the Master at Ards from his own lawn took a 
 telescopic observation at the distance of fourteen miles ; 
 and computing that the company would not complete the 
 rest of their journey under four hours more, and being a 
 man given to punctuality, he ordered dinner accordingly. 
 
 He was, indeed, a perfect Martinet ; one day, walking 
 in his pleasure-ground, he cried to his gardener, " John, I 
 cannot get on ;" to which the other answered, " I do not 
 wonder at it, Sir, for there is a straw in your path ;" which 
 being removed, the old gentleman resumed his walk. 
 
 He was very dignified in his appearance and manner, and
 
 64 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 once in the Grand Jury-room at Lifford, when a young fop, 
 desirous of knowing the hour, turned to him and said, "And 
 what are you, sir ?" he struck the floor with his gold- 
 headed cane, and answered, " I am William Wray of Ards, 
 sir." Yet with this characteristic of hauteur, he was most 
 kind to the poor, and would suffer the fishermen, if it 
 blew hard from the north or west, to run their smacks 
 close in under his very windows for shelter, and to coil 
 their cables and hawsers round the stems of the great 
 trees which grew close to the sea, and which remain till 
 this day. Squeamish and fastidious, he could not bear 
 to see any one eat egg or oyster be/ore him ; and once, 
 when his daughter after breakfast had the good sense 
 with her own gentle hands and a damask napkin to wash 
 up some extremely costly and beautiful cups and saucers, 
 he was so hurt and mortified, that he indignantly ordered 
 his horse, and rode into Dunfanaghy, four miles off, where 
 he breakfasted at an inn ; and this he continued to do for 
 some months, till time had effaced the recollection of the 
 indignity. 
 
 One would be inclined to accuse the man who acted 
 thus of folly ; but such conduct was rather the result of 
 pride and eccentricity, fostered by the solitary magnificence 
 in which he lived, and the station in which his wealth and 
 birth had placed him, and which the neighbouring gen- 
 try who ate his mutton and drank his claret did not dis- 
 pute. He was undoubtedly a man of wondrous activity^ 
 enterprise, and public spirit. The causeway up the steep 
 of Lough Salt he made at his own expense. The mile- 
 stones were seven feet high and four broad the last was
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 5 
 
 standing some twenty years ago. There was something 
 of the ancient Roman in the man's works, bold and mas- 
 sive. A second road he constructed over Mongorry 
 Mountain, between Letterkenny and Raphoe, with in- 
 credible trouble and cost. No hard "Whinstone rock, 
 no shaking bog, no hill-side torrent, ever could turn 
 our rectilinear road maker one foot from his straight- 
 forward course. He would blast the first, pave the 
 second, and bridge the third ; and on the map of the 
 recent Ordnance Survey, the engineer's rule could never 
 draw a straighter line than the delineation of this long road 
 presents. It is now quite forsaken, only cattle, drivers 
 make use of "ould Willie Wray's road," the present 
 generation having discovered that it is wiser, if not shorter, 
 to skirt the base of a hill than to scale the summit, a 
 process endangering the breaking of your horse's wind in 
 the going up, and the breaking of his knees, or your own 
 neck in the coming down. Mr. Wray was a great loyalist, 
 and zealous for king and constitution ; and on one occa- 
 sion suffered severely in his purse through a headlong act 
 
 of arbitrary enthusiasm for the Excise of the country ! 
 
 A small brig was at anchor, becalmed in the bay ; she 
 had a low hull, rakish masts, and smart rigging, alto- 
 gether a suspicious craft. William Wray determined to 
 pay her a visit, and getting into his grand pinnace with a 
 number of his men, boarded her, He found her cargo 
 consisted entirely of tobacco : her skipper was sulky, and 
 would not produce his papers; and the upshot of the 
 matter was, that Wray, as a magistrate and magnate of 
 the county, took upon him to legislate suo arbitrio, and
 
 66 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 under the impression that the tobacco was smuggled, the 
 skipper a contrabandist, and the king's majesty defrauded, 
 he sent on shore for all his boats, barges, corrais, and 
 sailors, and before the sun was kissing the fiery wave 
 behind Torry island, he had landed all the tobacco on the 
 seabeach, and heaping it together, set a torch to the pile 
 and burned it, producing such a smoke and such a smell 
 amidst the glades and sweet dells of Ards as never was till 
 then, or ever will be again, though the whole population 
 of Donegal were to turn out and assemble there with cigars 
 in their mouths. Under cover of the smoke the captain 
 returned in a rage to Derry, and the damages and law 
 costs he obtained at the next assizes against the too adven- 
 turous Willie were fully six hundred pounds. 
 
 William Wray's mother had been Miss Brooke, of Cole- 
 brooke, and through her he was widely and wealthily con- 
 nected in Donegal and Fermanagh. His wife was Miss 
 Hamilton, of Newtown Cunningham, county Derry ; she 
 was daughter to a Dr. Hamilton and a Miss Cunningham, 
 and sister of Sir Henry Hamilton, probably of the 
 Abercom family. The great mansion where this family 
 resided is a prominent object in the village at this day, 
 though almost a ruin ; it is a grey and massive pile, and 
 looks like an old baronial keep of other times. Sir Henry 
 had five sisters besides Mrs. Wray : one was married to 
 Mr. Olphert, of Ballyconnel ; a second to Mr. Benson, of 
 Birdstown; a third to Mr. Smith, of Newtown Lima- 
 vaddy ; a fourth to Mr. Span, of Ballemacool, near Letter- 
 kenny ; and a fifth to Mr. Stewart, of Ballygawley, direct 
 ancestor of Sir John M. Stewart, Bart. ; the sixth was
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OP ARDS. 67 
 
 the Lady of Ards, and wife of "William "VVray. Be- 
 sides all these family ramifications, Wray was allied by 
 blood or marriage with the Gores of Magherabeg, the 
 Stewarts of Horn Head, the Mansfields of Killygordon, 
 the Galbraiths of St. Johnston, the Babingtons of Urney, 
 the Sinclairs of Holly Hill, the Lowrys of Pomeroy, the 
 Eccles of Fintona, the Knoxs of Rathmullen, the Perrys 
 of Mullaghmore, the Moutrays of Favor Royal, the Boyds 
 of Ballycastle, &c. &c., all families of ancient settlers 
 in Donegal, Tyrone, and the county of Antrim. 
 
 One of his daughters married her kinsman, Richard 
 Babington ; and two gentle scholars, brothers, coming up 
 from the south of Ireland, James and Joseph Stopford, 
 sons of James Stopford, Bishop of Cloyne, and nephews 
 of the first Earl of Courtown, bound the north and south 
 together in kindly ties by wooing and wedding Anna and 
 Angel Wray, two of the lilies of Ards, which had flowered 
 in William Wray's paternal garden; another daughter 
 was united to Mr. Atkinson, of Cavan Garden, the head 
 of an old family in Donegal. Thus his connection was 
 as extensive as his fortune, and as wide as his expendi- 
 ture ; and possessing the very spirit of Irish hospitality, 
 and guest and kinsfolk being ever ready to* accept his 
 invitations, and bringing with them crowds of servants, 
 no doubt profligate and wasteful, it is little wonder 
 that all these gatherings and entertainments produced 
 their inevitable results in pecuniary difficulties, then 
 gradual decadency, and eventually something tantamount 
 to absolute and irretrievable ruin. Yet there is no record 
 of anything coarse or vicious in the extravagances which
 
 68 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 beggared the Master of Ards. One hears nothing of 
 hard drinking, or loud swearing, or boisterous revels in 
 his courtly mansion. William Wray was a gentleman a 
 high Irish gentleman too proud to be popular, and too 
 eccentric to be understood ; he could not be estimated by 
 the unimaginative and matter-of-fact people among whom 
 he dwelt ; the shrewd and money- loving northerns called 
 his unbounded hospitality, riotous living, and his diffuse- 
 ness they termed madness; but had these things been 
 done in France in the fourteenth century, and chronicled 
 by such a pen as that of Froissart, he would have classed 
 him with such entertainers as Phoebus-Gaston Count 
 de Foix, and pronounced upon him as a courteous and 
 liberal, a bountiful, and most gentle host. Yet he had not 
 many near neighbours in that wild country ; there was a 
 Mr. Olphert, a cousin of his own, at Bally connell, who 
 spent much of his time in crossing from Ballyness to Tory 
 Island, a distance of ten miles, and a navigation acpom- 
 panied with extreme peril. This he accomplished not in 
 a twelve-oared boat, broad bottomed and skilfully manned, 
 to meet the raging of the tremendous sea which runs in 
 that stormy sound, where the Atlantic beats around the 
 Horn, and breaks in thunder and in foam up its black sides : 
 but in a little corrai, or long basket, made of twigs of twisted 
 osier, and covered over with a cow-hide, so as to keep out 
 the water, and pulled by two men : nay, the story has it 
 that Olphert often put to sea in the corrai by himself, and 
 with a favourable tide and wind, accomplished the voyage 
 solus cum solo. Probably this daring navigator was a fisher- 
 man, for salmon are in great abundance in the deep blue
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 69 
 
 water around the mural cliffs of Horn Head, where the finest 
 and rarest fish are taken, and where occasionally a giant 
 whale on a lark from Greenland is seen to lie at his ease, 
 and spout in the cool summer evening. Olphert being such 
 a passionate philo-marine, and so original in his nautical 
 habits, had probably little intercourse with the Master of 
 Ards, save when they met in the Grand Jury -room at Lifford. 
 The sea scenery on this part of the coast, to the east of 
 Bloody Foreland, is sternly magnificent ; the cliffs at Horn 
 Head, embracing eight miles in extent, are matchless for 
 size, shape, exquisite colouring, and peculiarity ; the Horn 
 curls over the ocean from a height of one thousand per- 
 pendicular feet ; along its ledges, all the way from brow to 
 base, in summer, sit millions of rock-nesting birds of the 
 gull tribe, &c. ; auks, sea parrots, petrels, &c., while a 
 pair of noble eagles great birds are generally found 
 building in the precipitous face of the cliff, or floating and 
 wheeling over the green and heathy hollows through 
 which the Horn is approached. Ear out to sea lies the 
 Island of Tory, with its lofty, black, and broken cliffs, 
 resembling a huge old castle, with round towers and rugged 
 battlements, and long, dark, steep walls of rock standing 
 out in its utter solitude in the midst of the vexed Atlantic, 
 an object of intense interest, and most picturesque in its 
 outline. 
 
 Between Balliconnell and Ards is Horn Head House. 
 Here lived, in the year 1700, Captain Charles Stewart, a 
 man of ancient Scottish blood, being of the Darnley Stew_ 
 arts, and having their motto, " Avant Darnley," engraved 
 on the old silver seal which hung on his watch chain. He
 
 70 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 had been an officer in King William's army, had obtained 
 from him a grant of lands in the King's county, but 
 migrating northward in 1700, he purchased from Mr. 
 Sampson, Wray's father-in-law, the promontory of Horn 
 Head, &c., and there built a substantial and good house, 
 which from that time to this has ever preserved its name 
 for generous and refined hospitality. With this gentle- 
 man Wray had an extraordinary quarrel in 1732, which, 
 as illustrating the tone of the times, and the peculiar 
 idiosyncrasy of the Master of Ards' character, I will 
 sketch for the public. At the time the feud took place 
 William Wray was a young man Stewart was bordering 
 on seventy, and his strength broken with gout and illness. 
 Three years before, at Horn Head, " they had sworn a 
 friendship/' probably most prandial in its nature, and over 
 * bottle of claret, and nothing interrupted the harmony of 
 their intercourse, until one day, Wray, walking on some of 
 the silver strands which lined his verdant park, discovered 
 a girl gathering oysters, whom he recognized as one of 
 Stewart's tenants. This monstrous outrage on the sove- 
 reignty of his sway and the sanctity of his premises Wray 
 highly resented, and told the offender that he considered 
 it a crime for any one to gather there but himself or his 
 servants. This of course was reported to the stern old 
 Williamite, who next day dispatched his pinnace with 
 twelve men with pistols, and armed to the teeth, com- 
 manded by Stewart's son, and " ready," so Wray writes, 
 " by your direction to use me, I know not how." This 
 public affront awakened Wray's loftiest indignation, and 
 on the 9th of November he challenges Stewart, tells him
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAT OF ARDS. 71 
 
 he " must have speedy satisfaction ; that he was concerned 
 to do so with a man of his years, but that his (Wray's) 
 honour was at stake. Be master of your own weapons, 
 fix the time and place ; you must come alone as I will, as 
 the sooner this affair is ended, the sooner will revenge 
 cease. WILLIAM WRAY." 
 
 Stewart's answer was immediate having the same date 
 it is so spirited, and so like the neigh of an old war- 
 horse that had probably heard the guns peal across the 
 Boyne Water, that I will transcribe it all. 
 
 "Nov. 9th, 1732. Sir, you say that you have received 
 a deal of ill usage from me ; I am quite a stranger to that, 
 but not so to the base usage you have given me, and all 
 the satisfaction you intend me is banter by your sham 
 challenge. If you be as much in earnest as your letter 
 says, assure yourself that if I had but one day to live, I 
 would meet you on the top of Muckish rather than lose 
 by you what I have carried all my life. 
 
 "Yours, CHARLES STEWART." 
 
 If we consider that the writer was near seventy years of 
 age, and a martyr to gout, and that Muckish mountain is 
 2000 feet high, and so steep as to be almost inaccessible, 
 we shall see what stuff these Boyne and Deny men were 
 made of, and what soldiers of steel King William led to 
 victory. Happily this duel never came off; some mutual 
 friends, " Dick Babington" and " Andrew Knox," inter- 
 fered, Wray explained, and Stewart apologized for calling 
 his challenge a sham and a banter, and testifies to the
 
 72 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 truth and honour of Wray ; and thus the matter ended as 
 it should do, in a renewal of good feeling. 
 
 All this took place when Wray was a young man, and 
 probably unmarried. It is all but impossible to gather 
 records of his domestic life ; those who enjoyed his hospi- 
 tality have long since passed away, and the peasantry, 
 who are the usual depositories of the legendary stories 
 connected with great families, though forming a fine and 
 substantial yeomanry about Ards, yet are peculiarly matter- 
 of-fact, common-place, and utterly wanting in the poetical 
 element, so necessary to give the love for tradition, and 
 preserve it from age to age. Besides, extravagance is 
 always unpopular in the north, where the Scotch are so 
 widely located, and where money is so highly valued, and 
 that which we dislike and disapprove of we take no pains 
 to keep in mind, and so the memory of the last William 
 Wray of Ards is fast passing away with the works he 
 constructed, the moneys he lavished, the eccentricities he 
 exhibited, and the properties which he forfeited. A few 
 strong facts stand above the surface of the stream such 
 as we have narrated : a few also remain of a sterner and 
 sadder kind such as his expenditure increasing as his 
 income decreased: such as wisdom or frugality not resulting 
 from advancing years ; such as his son living in France, 
 where he displayed even more than the hereditary habit of 
 utter extravagance ; such as his lady sinking and dying 
 under the grief and sorrow of their ruin and their fall ; 
 and his own death afterwards in France : and finally such 
 as the sale of the entire estate, house, demesne, and all 
 appurtenances belonging to it in the year 1781, to meet
 
 THE LAST WILLIAM WRAY OF ARDS. 73 
 
 and defray the owner's debts, when it was purchased by 
 Mr. Alexander Stewart, brother of the Marquess of Lon- 
 donderry, from whom it has descended to his grandson, 
 Alexander John Robert Stewart, Esq., who is the present 
 proprietor of beautiful Ards, and the very noble estate 
 attached to it.
 
 74 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 t Jfamilu 0f 
 
 And Elwes 
 
 Master of a comfortable hoard, 
 Appearing to be scarcely worth, a crown. 
 
 PETEB PINDAB. 
 
 MISERS' wealth seldom prospers. The pent-up stream, 
 once the hand that stayed its course is removed, finds a 
 rapid vent, and wastes and scatters its waters to the ex- 
 haustion of the original source. So it is with treasures 
 accumulated by avarice : seldom do they remain with the 
 heirs of him who has worn his life away in their acquisition, 
 and in very rare instances do they form the enduring 
 foundations of a family's establishment. Warriors, states- 
 men, merchants, and lawyers all have originated great 
 and flourishing houses, but misers are rarely the patriarchs 
 of families of enduring prosperity : the same remark may 
 be made in reference to those who gathered gain by the 
 slave trade : they never flourished. It has been ascer- 
 tained as a positive fact, that no two generations of a slave- 
 dealer's race ever continued resident on the estate ac- 
 quired by the unholy pursuit of their founder ; and a 
 similar observation applies, to a certain extent, to the pro- 
 fits of the usurer. A very learned friend of mine, deeply
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 75 
 
 versed in the vicissitudes of genealogy, assures me that he 
 never knew four generations of an usurer's family to 
 endure, in regular unbroken succession. 
 
 In giving my history of the Elweses, T shall for the 
 present go no further back than the time of Charles 
 the Second, who conferred a baronetcy on Sir Gervase 
 Elwes, of Stoke, in Suffolk. From the general character 
 of the " merry monarch," and the way in which he usu- 
 ally dispensed his favours, we may safely infer, without any 
 other ground, that Sir Gervase was a boon companion, and 
 one more likely to diminish than to increase an inheritance. 
 Such, indeed, appears from all records to have been the fact. 
 The new baronet involved, as far as he was able, a noble 
 patrimony, leaving little more behind him than the skeleton 
 of an estate. Upon the death of this spendthrift, his suc- 
 cesssorand grandson, Sir Hervey^Elwes, found himself nomi- 
 nally possessed of some thousands a year, but his annual 
 receipts did not at the moment exceed a hundred pounds. 
 He had, however, a fortune, and an ample fortune in his 
 own peculiar habits, being to the full as penurious as his 
 predecessor had been extravagant. On arriving at Stoke, the 
 ancestral seat, he boldly declared that " he never would 
 leave it till he had entirely cleared the estate." Extra- 
 ordinary as such a resolution might have seemed at the 
 time, and even impossible to be effected, he lived not 
 only to realize it, but even to accumulate a great addi- 
 tional fortune over and above the lands he had inhe- 
 rited. But, in fact, he had received from nature all the 
 qualifications requisite to form perfect a miser. In his 
 youth he had been given over for a consumption, and 
 though the disease in a great measure yielded to art, yet
 
 76 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 it left him with impaired constitution, and without any of 
 those dangerous passions which boil up in stronger bodies. 
 Avarice remained the sole tenant of his bosom, and to that 
 he was devoted with a cold exclusiveness that seems well 
 nigh fabulous. He was, moreover, shy, timid, and diffident 
 in the extreme. Friends he had none, and wished for 
 none ; nor did he possess the slightest taste for study of 
 any kind ; his great delight was to accumulate gold, and 
 brood over its accumulations : next to that came partridge - 
 setting, not so much from any love of sport, as because 
 the birds sufficed to support himself and his narrow 
 household for at least a portion of the year. Game was 
 then so plentiful that he has been known to take live 
 hundred brace of birds in one season. But this multitude 
 mattered nothing to him. "What he and his people could 
 not consume was turned out again, for the miser could not 
 give any thing away. It may be worthy of notice when 
 depicting so singular a character, that his breed of dogs 
 was remarkably good, that he at all times wore a black 
 velvet cap much over his face, a worn-out full dress suit of 
 clothes, and an old great coat over his knees. He rode 
 a thin, thorough-bred horse ; and the horse and his rider 
 both looked as if a gust of wind would have blown them 
 away together. 
 
 " When the day was not so fine as to tempt him abroad, 
 he would walk backwards and forwards in his old hall to 
 save the expense of fire. If a farmer in his neighbourhood 
 came in, he would strike a light in a tinder-box that he 
 kept by him, and putting one single stick upon the grate, 
 would not add another till the first was nearly burnt out. 
 
 " As he had but little connection with London, he had
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 77 
 
 always three or four thousand pounds at a time in his 
 house. A set of fellows, who were afterwards known by 
 the appellation of the Thaxsted Gang, and who were all 
 hanged, formed a plan to rob him. They were totally 
 unsuspected at the time, as each had some apparent occcu. 
 pation during the day, and went out only at night, and 
 when they had got intelligence of any great booty. 
 
 " It was the custom of Sir Hervey to go up into his 
 bed-chamber at eight o' clock, where, after taking a basin 
 of water-gruel, by the light of a small fire, he went to 
 bed to save the unnecessary extravagance of a candle. 
 The gang, who knew the hour when his servant used 
 to go to the stable, leaving their horses in a small grove 
 on the Essex side of the river, walked across and hid 
 themselves in the church-porch till they saw the man 
 come up. They then immediately fell upon him, and after 
 some little struggle they bound and gagged him. They 
 then ran up towards the house, tied the two maids together, 
 and going up to Sir Hervey, presented their pistols and 
 demanded his money. At no part of his life did Sir 
 Hervey behave so well as in this transaction. When they 
 asked for his money, he would give them no answer till 
 they had assured him that his servant, who was a great 
 favourite, was safe. He then delivered them the key of a 
 drawer in which were fifty guineas. But they knew too 
 well he had much more in the house, and again threatened 
 his life unless he discovered where it was deposited. At 
 length he showed them the place, and they turned out a 
 large drawer where were seven and twenty hundred guineas. 
 This they packed up in two large baskets and actually 
 carrried off a robbery which for quantity of specie was
 
 78 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 perhaps never equalled. On quitting him they told him 
 they should leave a man behind, who would murder him 
 if he moved for assistance. On which he very coolly, and 
 with some simplicity, took out his watch which they had 
 not asked for and said, ' Gentlemen, I do not want to 
 take any of you, and therefore, upon my honour, I will 
 give you twenty minutes for your escape ; after that 
 time nothing shall prevent me from seeing how my servant 
 does/ He was as good as his word. When the time 
 expired, he went and untied the man; but though 
 search was made by the village, the robbers were not dis- 
 covered. When they were taken up some years afterwards 
 for other offences, and were known to be the men who 
 robbed Sir Hervey, he would not appear against them. 
 Mr. Harrington of Clare, who was his lawyer, pressed him 
 to go to Chelmsford to identify their persons ; but nothing 
 could persuade him. ' No, no/ said he ; ' I have lost my 
 money, and now you want me to lose my time also/ 
 
 " Of what temperance can do, Sir Hervey was an in- 
 stance. At an early period of life he was given over for a 
 consumption, and he lived till between eighty and ninety 
 years of age. 
 
 " Amongst the few acquaintances he had, was an occa- 
 sional club at his own village of Stoke ; and there were 
 members of it two baronets besides himself, Sir Cordwell 
 Firebras and Sir John Barnardiston. However rich they 
 were, the reckoning was always an object of their inves- 
 tigation. As they were one day settling this difficult 
 point, an odd fellow, who was a member, called out to a 
 friend who was passing, ' For heaven's sake, step up stairs
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 79 
 
 and assist the poor ! Here are three baronets, with a 
 million of money, quarrelling about a farthing/ 
 
 " When Sir Hervey died, the only tear that was dropped 
 upon his grave, fell from the eye of his servant who had 
 long and faithfully attended him. To that servant he 
 bequeathed a farm of twenty pounds per annum, to him 
 and his heirs. 
 
 "In the chastity and abstinence of his life Sir Hervey 
 Elwes was a rival to Sir Isaac Newton, for he would have 
 held it unpardonable to have given even his affections ; 
 and as he saw no lady whatever, he had but little chance 
 of bartering them matrimonially for money. When he 
 died, he lay in state, such as it was, at his estate at Stoke. 
 Some of the tenants observed, with more humour than 
 decency, ' that it was well Sir Hervey could not see it.' 
 
 " On his death, his fortune, which had now become 
 immense, fell to his nephew, Mr. Meggot, who by will 
 was ordered to assume the name and arms of Elwes ; and 
 who became ' Elwes the Miser/ par excellence. 
 
 <c Thus lived, and thus died, Sir Hervey Elwes, whose 
 possessions at the time of his death were supposed to be 
 at least two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and 
 whose annual expenditure was about one hundred and 
 ten pounds. However incredible this may appear, it is 
 yet strictly true. His clothes cost him nothing, for he 
 took them out of an old chest where they had lain since 
 the gay days of Sir Gervase. He kept his household 
 chiefly on game, and fish which he had in his own 
 ponds ; and the cows, which grazed before his own 
 door, furnished milk, cheese, and butter, for the little
 
 80 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 economical household. What fuel he did burn, his woods 
 supplied." 
 
 The character which has thus been painted for posterity, 
 and as I believe in true colours, is so dark, that we 
 gladly look around for some redeeming traits, for some 
 facts not at first sight observable, which may tend to soften 
 the harsher features of the miser, and bring him within 
 the scope of human sympathy. In his favour it may be 
 remarked, that his vices were not altogether his own, that, 
 to a certain extent, they were the result of circumstances. 
 In the anxious endeavour to recover and restore his dilapi- 
 dated estate, he had passed so many years alone, that he 
 was no longer fit to encounter the wear and tear of the busy 
 world. So extreme was his consequent shyness, that society, 
 if it gave him little pain, most assuredly afforded him no 
 gratification. Let it also be remembered that this singular 
 being had the courage to live alone for nearly seventy 
 years, without any solace from books or from the past. 
 
 Still more singular and complex was the character of 
 the individual whom the capricious will of the defunct 
 miser selected to succeed him in his vast property, to the 
 injury of the male heir, who obtained only the barren 
 title of which he could not be deprived. Of him I shall 
 have to speak presently. 
 
 The fortunate inheritor of so much wealth was the 
 nephew of Sir Hervey, and was at the time of his suc- 
 cession in his fortieth year. His father was a brewer of 
 repute in his trade, whose offices and dwelling-house were 
 situated in Southwark, which borough had at one time 
 been represented in Parliament by his grandfather, Sir
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 81 
 
 George Meggot. These premises are now tenanted by 
 Clowes, the printer. 
 
 The brewer prospered so highly in his business that he 
 was able to purchase the estate of the Calverts, at Marcham, 
 which is still held by his descendants ; but he died when 
 the future John Elwes was only four years old. Perhaps 
 it was owing to this event, which left the child under the 
 exclusive influence of his mother, that he subsequently be- 
 came a confirmed miser ; for the widow, true to the failing 
 of her race, literally starved herself to death, although she 
 had been bequeathed a hundred thousand pounds by her 
 late husband. 
 
 At an early period of life Jack Meggot was sent to 
 "Westminster school, where he remained for ten or twelve 
 years. There he appears to have acquired the repute of 
 a good classical scholar; but it is a circumstance not a 
 little remarkable, though well authenticated, that after 
 leaving school he never indulged in study of any kind, or 
 was even known to open a book. His whole library did 
 not at any time exceed the value of two pounds, while, 
 what is yet more strange, with all his love of money his 
 ignorance of accounts was such, that he never knew any- 
 thing of his own affairs. 
 
 The contemporaries of the young scholar at Westminster 
 were Mr. Worsley, subsequently master of the Board of 
 Works, and the great Lord Mansfield, who at that period 
 had no hesitation in borrowing all that his youthful compa- 
 nion even then was inclined to lend. The disposition of his 
 Lordship, however, in after-times underwent a change ; the 
 humour of the future Elwes always remained the same. 
 2 o
 
 82 VICISSITUDE^ OF FAMILIES. 
 
 From Westminster school, Jack Meggot, as he was then 
 familiarly called, removed to Geneva, where he soon entered 
 upon pursuits more agreeable to him than study. The 
 riding-master of the academy might boast of having per- 
 haps three of the best riders in Europe, Mr. Worsley, 
 Sir Sydney Meadows, and Jack Meggot. But the last- 
 named was reckoned the most desperate of the trio. The 
 young horses were always put into his hands, and he was 
 the rough rider to the other two. 
 
 During his sojourn at Geneva he was introduced to 
 Voltaire, but neither the genius nor the character of this 
 celebrated writer seems to have made much impression upon 
 him. If he alluded at all to the great exile, it was with 
 no more interest than he would have felt in speaking of 
 the most obscure individual, while for the horses in the 
 riding-school he retained a minute as well as lasting recol- 
 lection. 
 
 But these halcyon days soon passed. He had to return to 
 England ; and, as he was designed for his uncle's heir, it 
 became requisite that he should without farther loss of 
 time be introduced to Sir Hervey. But for this ceremony 
 considerable tact and the outward degeneration of his 
 usual habits were utterly indispensable. True it was that 
 he had inherited the spirit of saving from his mother, but 
 to natural avarice was joined a love of pleasure that would 
 have been ruinous to his prospects had the fact become 
 known to the old miser. Then, too, the enormous appetite 
 for which he was noted amongst his acquaintance would 
 have given no little disgust to one who could dine upon 
 half a partridge. Nor would his usual dress be less a
 
 THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 83 
 
 subject of offence, seeing that it was not only unpatched, 
 but even fashionable. Being forewarned of the perils that 
 lay in his path, our gambler and horse-jockey took the 
 necessary measures for avoiding them. To conceal the 
 enormity of his appetite, he used, prior to his avuncular 
 visitations, to pick up a substantial dinner with some ac- 
 quaintance in the neighbourhood, and having thus satisfied 
 the first inordinate cravings of hunger, he afterwards sate 
 down at Sir Hervey's table with so modest an appetite as 
 greatly conciliated the esteem of his worthy host. Upon 
 these occasions a partridge, a small pudding, and a potato, 
 constituted the repast, and, to complete the scene of penury, 
 this pittance was devoured in the coldest days without fire ; 
 it being a fixed maxim with Sir Hervey that the act of 
 eating was of itself quite sufficient to keep any reasonable 
 creature warm. 
 
 Jack Meggot, having thus effectually disguised the ex- 
 tent of his appetite, next set about providing a masquerade, 
 under which to hide his worldly habits, and show himself 
 in a costume more appropriate to the character of a miser. 
 The ruse he adopted for this purpose will be little novelty 
 to the readers of play or romance, though it may be too 
 much to say that it was actually borrowed from either. 
 His plan was, when about to visit his uncle, to stop 
 at a little obscure inn at Chelmsford, where he laid 
 aside his worldly attire, and dressed himself in character 
 for the part he had to play before his rich relative; 
 that is, he indued himself in darned worsted stock- 
 ings, a pair of small iron buckles, an old worn-out 
 coat, and a tattered waistcoat. Thus duly attired, he was
 
 84 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 always welcomed at Stoke, as a frugal exception to the 
 general world of extravagance. There they would sit, 
 the frugal pair ! with a single stick burning coldly in 
 the rusty grate, and occasionally, perhaps, a glass of wine 
 between them, over which they discussed, with many a deep 
 lament, the wasteful habits of their day. This interesting 
 and ever-recurring topic would occupy them till the evening 
 shut in, when they would retire to bed, " as it saved candle- 
 light." 
 
 "What a painful picture of human degradation ! If ex- 
 travagance be a fault, it is at least not without enjoyment ; 
 and if it ruins one, there can be no doubt of its benefiting 
 many. But what is to be said for the miser, who saves 
 only for the sake of saving, and accumulates only for the 
 sake of accumulating ? How is he better than the igno- 
 rant peasant who persists in piling up a heap of manure 
 before his door, to the offence of sight, smell, and health, 
 instead of scattering it over fields where it would be a 
 benefit. 
 
 The nephew was assiduous in his visits to his uncle, and 
 constantly accompanied him in his daily amusement of 
 partridge setting. In this he proved an admirable assist- 
 ant, for he was reputed to have some of the best setter 
 dogs in England. Their colour was as peculiar as their 
 breed, being of a black tan, while in form they were more 
 like hounds than setters. As a proof of their strength and 
 speed, their master was in the habit of telling how one of 
 them followed him to London, a distance of sixty miles, 
 and hunted all the fields that adjoined the road. 
 
 And yet, with all his outward seeming and his real
 
 THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 85 
 
 disposition to avarice, how far did the heir elect fall below 
 the uncle's idea of a prudent economy, could he but have 
 seen him in his blended character as it showed itself when, 
 away from Stoke. The acquaintances that the nephew 
 had formed at Westminster and Geneva, combined with 
 the natural influence of the large fortune inherited from, 
 his parents, opened for him the doors of rank and fashion, 
 leaving him free to choose his own society. Of this ad- 
 vantage he did not hesitate to avail himself, and plunged 
 boldly into the vortex of dissipation. " He was admitted 
 of the club at Arthur's and various other clubs of the 
 period ; and, as some proof of his notoriety at that time 
 as a man of deep play, Mr. Elwes, the late Sir Robert Ber- 
 tie, and some others, are noticed in a scene in the Adven- 
 tures of a Guinea, for the frequency of their midnight 
 orgies. Few men, even from his own acknowledgment, 
 had played deeper than himself, and with success more 
 various. I remember* hearing him say, he had once 
 played two days and a night without intermission ; and, 
 the room being a small one, the party were nearly up to 
 their knees in cards. He lost some thousands at that 
 sitting. The late Duke of Newcastle was of the party, 
 who never would quit a table where any hope of winning 
 remained. 
 
 " Had every man been of the mind of Mr. Elwes, the 
 race of innkeepers must have perished, and post-chaises 
 have returned back to those who made them ; for it was 
 the business of his life to avoid both. He always travelled 
 on horseback. To see him setting out on a journey was a 
 * Topbam, "Life of Elwes."
 
 86 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 matter truly curious. His first cure was to put two or 
 three eggs, boiled hard, into his great- coat pocket, or any 
 scraps of bread which he found ; baggage he never took ; 
 then mounting one of his hunters, his next attention was 
 to get out of London into that road where turnpikes were 
 fewest. Then stopping under any hedge where grass pre- 
 sented itself for his horse, and a little water for himself, 
 he would sit down, and refresh himself and his horse 
 together here presenting a new species of Brahmin, and 
 worth five hundred thousand pounds. 
 
 But if the delinquencies above narrated had ever come 
 to the knowledge of Sir Hervey, it may well be doubted 
 whether in his estimation they would have been atoned for 
 by the habits of avarice that accompanied and intermingled 
 with them. Of these, however, luckily for the future heir, 
 the old man was profoundly ignorant. In his hermit life 
 he took not the least note of what was passing in the 
 world beyond his own bounds, neither admitting visitors, 
 nor reading newspapers. At length he died, the worms 
 claimed their own, and his funeral oration was summed 
 tip in few words " Nobody would have lived with Sir 
 Hervey if they could ; nor could if they would." And 
 excellent ground was there for such an epitaph. In addi- 
 tion to the general misery of his habits, which, as we have 
 seen, bordered close upon famine his house presented 
 exactly the same condition in which it had come down to 
 him from remote ages. The furniture was most sacredly 
 antique, not a room had ever been painted, or a window 
 repaired ; but, as time and accidents made them, so they 
 remained, undisturbed by the hand of improvement or
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 87 
 
 renovation. In the beds above stairs, the worm and the 
 moth revelled without control, and the roof of the entire 
 building might have been adapted to the climate of Italy 
 when its season was at the mildest. 
 
 At the time of his succeeding to this singular inheritance 
 of decay and wealth, Mr. Elwes for Jack Meggot had 
 taken that name in obedience to Sir Hervey's will, 
 was in his fortieth year. I have already observed that 
 the germs of avarice were latent in him ; but although they 
 would occasionally show themselves, it was always like 
 those blossoms which no one expects will ever ripen into 
 fruit. Now a change was rapidly coming over him. He 
 had become thoroughly disgusted with noble gamblers, 
 who never paid their losings ; and with noble borrowers, 
 who never returned their loans. It did not, therefore, 
 cost him the slightest struggle to quit, and for good, the 
 circle in which he had hitherto moved, that he might 
 thenceforth devote himself to the pleasure of accumu- 
 lating. Still he did not all at once realise the cha- 
 racter of a perfect miser. On settling in Suffolk he 
 began to keep fox hounds, and his stable of hunters was 
 said to be the first in the kingdom. Of the breed of his 
 horses he could be quite sure, for he bred them himself; 
 and, what never happens in the present day, they were on 
 no account broken in, till they were six years old. This 
 was the only instance of his sacrificing money to pleasure ; 
 and even here the one extravagance was considerably 
 modified by the rigid parsimony of its details. Scrub, 
 notwithstanding he had a separate character and occupation 
 for each day in the week, might be said to lead a life of
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 happy indolence when compared to Mr. Elwes' huntsman. 
 He was, in the truest sense of the word, a man-of- all- work, 
 a -more complete factotum than the versatile Figaro himself, 
 and might have fixed a veritable epoch in the history of 
 servants. In a morning he got up at four o'clock, and 
 milked the cows, after which he prepared breakfast for 
 his master, or any friends he might have with him. Then 
 slipping on a green coat, he hurried into the stable, saddled 
 the horses, got the hounds out of the kennel, when away 
 they sallied forth to the field. After the fatigues of 
 hunting he refreshed himself by rubbing down two or 
 three horses as quickly as he could ; then he ran into the 
 house to lay the cloth and wait at dinner ; then hurried back 
 to the stables to feed the horses ; and then diversified his 
 day's amusement with an interlude of the cows again to 
 milk, the dogs to feed, and eight hunters to litter down 
 for the night. Yet with all this his master ?et him down 
 as " an idle dog, who wanted to be paid for doing nothing." 
 Alas ! for poor Scrub ! 
 
 Nor was this all the saving effected by Mr. Elwes in 
 the indulgence of his favourite, nay, of his only luxury. 
 In the summer, his dogs were, if I may use the phrase* 
 billeted upon his various tenants, where they had no work, 
 while theyfared much better than in the parsimonious kennel 
 of their master, and from these abundant retreats they were 
 again collected before the commencement of the season. How 
 sparingly the poor animals lived at home may be inferred 
 from the fact that the whole of his fox-hunting establish- 
 ment, huntsmen, hounds, and horses included, did not 
 cost him three hundred pounds a year. Yet so valuable
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. O\) 
 
 were his hunters reckoned throughout the country, that 
 for one of them three hundred guineas were offered, and 
 for another two hundred and fifty; either of them an 
 almost incredible sum in those days, when a very good 
 horse might he purchased for fifteen pounds. 
 
 During the period of his keeping up this, for him, ex- 
 traordinary establishment, which lasted for nearly four- 
 teen years, Mr. Elwes resided mostly at Stoke, in Suffolk. 
 Thence he made frequent excursions to Newmarket ; but, 
 true to the resolution he had once adopted, he never 
 engaged in betting a singular proof of his firmness of 
 purpose. He was, upon the whole, the " tenax propositi" 
 of the Roman poet, though, as we shall have occasion to 
 see, the gambler's spirit was not quite subdued in him by 
 the influence of avarice. 
 
 Thus far, though Sir Hervey and his nephew were both 
 misers, yet they " wore their rue with a difference." The 
 one was wholly and purely a miser, who appears to have had 
 no other qualities or passions whatever, save the passion of 
 accumulating. The other was of a far more complex 
 character ; and though in old age he became a fit rival to 
 his uncle, still up to the present time, and for many years 
 subsequent, the genius of parsimony held only a divided 
 empire over him. His earliest biographer for whose 
 partiality some allowance must perhaps be made, says of 
 him, " that his manners were such, so gentle, so atten- 
 tive, so gentlemanly, and so engaging, that rudeness 
 could not ruffle them, nor ingratitude break their 
 observance. He retained this peculiar feature of the old 
 court to the last. But he had a praise far beyond this ;
 
 90 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 he had the most gallant disregard of his own person, and 
 all care about himself, I* ever witnessed in man." 
 
 Courtesy and resolution are not so wholly antagonistic to 
 avarice that they may not exist together ; but it is not 
 easy to understand how generosity and the spirit of 
 hoarding should exist at the same time and in the same 
 individual. Yet such was the case with Mr. Elwes, who 
 at this period of his life could be liberal even to excess, a 
 fault which could never have been laid at the door of his 
 uncle. 
 
 An inn upon the road, a turnpike gate, and an apothe- 
 cary were all equally objects of his aversion. The first 
 he avoided on his journeys by carrying in his pocket a 
 couple of hard-boiled eggs, or fragments of dry bread, 
 which, according to his dietary, afforded ample sustenance 
 for the day, the second obstacle he overcame, like a 
 prudent general, by turning the enemy's flank ; that is to 
 say, he left the turnpike on one side, and galloped over 
 ditches however broad, and fences however high, without 
 the slightest regard to the peril of his own neck ; and the 
 other members of the healing art it was not always so 
 easy a matter ta deal with them, yet he managed pretty 
 well to keep them at arm's length ; and there are some 
 amusing anecdotes of his mode of action when other 
 people in his state would have thought two, or even three, 
 of the medical staff a very insufficient body-guard. Thus, 
 on one occasion, he received a very dangerous kick from 
 his horse, who fell with him in an extravagant leap. Any 
 other than himself would have paused here, and thought 
 * Topham.
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 91 
 
 that sufficient for the day was the evil thereof; not so 
 thought Mr. Elwes ; he rode the chase through, with his 
 leg cut to the bone, and it was only some days afterwards, 
 when it was feared an amputation would be requisite, that 
 he consented to go up to London, and, cruel necessity ! 
 part with money for surgical advice. 
 
 I have already noticed that the house he succeeded to 
 at Stoke was in a strangely dilapidated condition; but 
 things were in a much worse state at the one he had left 
 behind him at Marcham. Of this a ludicrous instance is 
 given by his nephew, Colonel Timms. A few days after 
 the Colonel had visited him in his old abode, there fell 
 during the night a heavy shower of rain, and the guest 
 had not been long in bed before he felt himself wet 
 through; and putting his hand out of the clothes, he 
 found the rain was streaming upon him through the 
 broken ceiling. So he got up and moved the bed farther 
 on. But he had not long taken up his new position 
 before he found that the change brought him no relief. 
 Again he wheeled away the couch to another spot, but with 
 no better result, till having thus traversed the length and 
 breadth of the room, he at last got into a corner where 
 the roof did not admit the rain. Upon telling his uncle 
 at breakfast the night's " adventures," "Ay, ay," 
 replied the old man, " I don't mind it myself, but for 
 those who do, that's a nice corner in the rain." 
 
 In this, which may be called the second phase of Elwes' 
 life, avarice had not as yet entirely subdued his better 
 qualities and taken the exclusive possession. If the spirit 
 of parsimony showed itself in a thousand ludicrous ways
 
 92 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 to provoke scorn or pity, still he was not so wholly ab- 
 sorbed by this evil passion that he did not often show 
 signs of a better feeling which turned aside the edge of 
 judgment. He would upon occasion lend freely where 
 the humour took him ; and in these acts of benevolence he 
 was never known to take advantage of those whom he so 
 obliged, though no doubt in speculating he was often 
 tempted into loss by his appetite for usurious bargains. 
 A single anecdote of his generosity will serve to show that 
 even now his heart was not altogether corrupted by the 
 lust of Mammon. "When his (Elwes) son was in the 
 Guards, the old man was frequently in the habit of dining 
 at the officers' mess- table. The urbanity of his manners 
 rendered him agreeable to every one, and in time he be- 
 came acquainted with every officer in the corps ; amongst 
 the rest, with a gentleman of the name of Tempest, whose 
 good-humour was almost proverbial. A vacancy happen- 
 ing in a majority, it fell to the turn of this gentleman to 
 purchase ; but as money is not always to be got upon 
 landed property at the very moment it is wanted, it was 
 imagined some officer would have been obliged to pur- 
 chase over his head. Mr. Elwes heard of the circum- 
 stance, and sent him the money next morning. He 
 asked no security. He had seen Captain Tempest and 
 liked his manners, and he never once afterwards ever 
 hinted at repayment. The obligation, however, was faith- 
 fully acquitted upon the death of the Captain, which hap- 
 pened shortly afterwards." But this in no wise takes away 
 from the generosity of the lender, and it stands as one 
 amongst the many contradictions of his character a cha-
 
 THE FAMILY' OF ELWES. 93 
 
 racter which more resembles the startling points of differ- 
 ence which the satirist loves to collect to oppose, so as to 
 form an unwholesome glare, than the mingled creations 
 of the dramatist or the romancer. It is difficult to un- 
 derstand how the same man should at the same moment 
 be prodigal of thousands, and yet almost deny to himself 
 the necessaries of life. Nothing but the genius of a 
 Shakspeare could elicit a harmonious whole out of such 
 antagonistic elements. 
 
 But though in the intercourse of private life he could 
 occasionally show himself generous to excess, it was quite 
 another thing in his money speculations. There he was 
 for ever on the look-out for hazardous enterprises that 
 might be supposed to hold out the prospect of unusual 
 gains, and this propensity often made him the dupe of 
 unprincipled adventurers, who knew how to tempt his 
 cupidity by schemes of fair promise indeed, but ever sure 
 to end in disappointment. Nor was this the only way in 
 which his avarice laid him open to the arts of the design- 
 ing. To make him a trifling present, or to do any sort of 
 work for him gratuitously, was the surest road to his 
 favour, even to the loosening of his purse-strings. Thus, 
 a wine-merchant in a small way of business, with an eye 
 to such a result, begged his acceptance of some fine wine 
 " And very fine it ought to be," would the old man say, 
 when speaking of the transaction, " for it cost me twenty 
 pounds a bottle." 
 
 The extent of his property in houses was so great that 
 it naturally followed that all his houses would not be let at 
 the same time. Some, as a matter of course, would /e-
 
 94 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 main unoccupied ; and hence it was his custom, whenever 
 he came to London, to take up his abode in the first one 
 he found vacant. In this manner he travelled from street 
 to street ; for when any tenant wanted the particular house 
 in which he was at the time, he made no hesitation in 
 yielding it to the applicant, and betaking himself to some 
 other. This was no great difficulty for a man who so 
 little encumbered himself with furniture. A couple of 
 beds, the like number of chairs, a table, and an old woman 
 comprised the whole of his household appointments. 
 None of these, except the old woman, gave him any 
 trouble, and she was afflicted with a lameness that made 
 it no easy matter to get her into motion as quickly as he 
 wished. Moreover, she had a singular aptitude for catch- 
 ing colds, and no wonder, considering what she was ex- 
 posed to ; for sometimes she was in a small house in the 
 Haymarket, then in a great mansion in Portland Place; 
 sometimes in a little room with a coal fire, at others in 
 apartments of frigid dimensions, with oiled papers in the 
 windows for glass, and with nothing to warm her save a 
 few chips that happened to be left by the carpenters. 
 
 The scene which terminated the life of this poor drudge 
 is not among the least characteristic anecdotes recorded of 
 Mr. Elwes. Nor, strange as it seems, can its truth be 
 doubted, since it comes to us upon the authority of Colonel 
 Timms, a favourite nephew of the miser's, and one more 
 inclined to soften than to exaggerate his uncle's defects. 
 
 Mr. Elwes had come to town in his usual way, and 
 taken up his abode in one of his empty houses. The 
 Colonel, who wished to see him, was by some accident in-
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 95 
 
 formed that the old man was in London, though of his 
 actual whereabouts he could get no tidings. In this 
 dilemma he enquired for him at every place where he 
 was most likely to be heard of, at Hoare's the banker, 
 at the Mount Coffee-house, and at others of his usual 
 haunts, but all to no purpose. At length, a person whom 
 he met accidentally, recollected seeing the miser go into 
 an uninhabited house in Great Marlborough Street. Thither 
 accordingly the colonel repaired, and, to follow up the 
 clue thus obtained, got hold of a chairman. But no in- 
 telligence could he gain of a gentleman called Mr. Elwes. 
 A pot-boy, however, remembered that he had seen a poor 
 old fellow open the door of a stable and lock it after him ; 
 and upon being further questioned, his description of the 
 stranger perfectly agreed with the usual appearance of Mr. 
 Elwes; and when the colonel, after repeated knocking, 
 could obtain no answer, he sent for a blacksmith, and 
 ordered him to pick the lock. This being easily accom- 
 plished, they entered the house together, and found all in 
 the lower part dark and silent. On ascending the stair- 
 case, however, they heard the indistinct moanings of some 
 one apparently in great pain. Following the sound, they 
 came to a room, where, upon an old pallet-bed, stretched 
 out the figure of the miser, who, to all seeming, was well 
 nigh at the last gasp ; but, upon some cordials being ad- 
 ministered by an apothecary hastily called in, he reco- 
 vered enough to say, " that he believed he had been ill 
 for two or three days, and that there was an old woman 
 in the house, who had herself been ill, but that he sup- 
 posed she had got well and taken herself off."
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 At this intimation they repaired to the garrets, where 
 they found the old woman, the companion of all his move- 
 ments, associate of all his journeys, stretched out lifeless 
 on the floor, with no better couch than a mere rug. 
 
 And yet this man was an indulgent landlord, under 
 whom his tenants lived easily, only that when their dwell- 
 ings needed repairs they must make them at their own 
 expense. Not a shilling would he lay out, though by such 
 ill-timed parsimony he often ran the risk of his property 
 falling into utter ruin. If the tenant preferred going to 
 some expense rather than remove, or see his abode tumble 
 about his ears, well and good ; if not, things must take 
 their course : for as he never would even patch up any 
 apartment where he had set up his staff, it could hardly 
 be expected that he would concede to others the indul- 
 gences he denied to himself. 
 
 Who could believe of such a man that he was an earnest 
 and upright magistrate, and when sitting on the Berkshire 
 bench, distinguished himself no less by his zeal than by 
 his intelligence. Yet such was the fact. And still more 
 will the reader be surprised to find him figuring as a 
 member of the House of Commons. On the dissolution 
 of Parliament there was a considerable party ferment in 
 Berkshire, to end which Lord Craven presented Mr. 
 Elwes, upon an agreement between them that he should 
 be brought in by the freeholders without any expense to 
 himself. All the cost that he incurred was by dining once 
 at the ordinary at Abingdon, so that he literally got into 
 Parliament for the sum of eighteenpence. 
 
 Upon being thus exalted to a place in the legislature,
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 97 
 
 be again took up his abode at Marcham, and finding his 
 time would he too much occupied for field sports, he 
 gave away his dogs to certain farmers in the neighbour- 
 hood. At this period he was still in full possession of all 
 his youthful activity ; and preparatory to his appearance 
 in Saint Stephen's Chapel, he used to attend constantly, 
 during the races and other public meetings, all the great 
 towns where his voters resided. At the different assem- 
 blies he would dance amongst the youngest to the last, 
 after riding over on horseback, and frequently in the rain, 
 to the place of meeting, his shoes in his boots, and his 
 bagwig in his pocket. At this time he was sixty years of 
 age. 
 
 Though vanity could not in general be objected to Mr. 
 Elwes, yet it appears that he was not a little proud of his 
 parliamentary exaltation, though it made no difference in 
 the general wretchedness of his attire. The only change 
 in this respect was that he indulged himself in a particu- 
 lar suit for the Speaker's dinners, which served for all such 
 occasions. The same, too, he wore at the table of the 
 minister and the table of the opposition, so that the wits 
 of the minority used to say, " that they had full as much 
 reason as the minister to be satisfied with Mr. Elwes, as 
 he had the same habit with everybody." Still, with all 
 his eccentricities, or, to give them a truer name, his vices 
 of avarice, he was one of the most conscientious and in- 
 dependent members in the House. Wishing for no post, 
 desirous of no rank, he was liable to none of those tempta- 
 tions which usually beset the people's representatives, and 
 too often make them false to their engagements. What 
 3 H
 
 98 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 could a minister offer to such a man, who would only have 
 been embarrassed by office or dignities, since they would 
 have taken him away from the privacy he so much de- 
 lighted in. As an instance of this, he was unhappy for 
 some days from hearing that Lord North intended to 
 make a peer of him. "I really believe," says his bio- 
 grapher, ( ' had such an honour fallen unexpectedly on his 
 head, it would have been his death. He never could have 
 survived the being obliged to keep a carnage, and three 
 or four servants, all perhaps better dressed than himself." 
 
 Though in the early part of his parliamentary career 
 he mostly voted for Lord North, yet he never scrupled to 
 join the opposition when the measures of the minister 
 went against his conscience. Hence many members of 
 the opposition looked upon him as a man " off and on/' 
 or, as they styled him, " a parliamentary coquette." 
 
 In three successive parliaments Mr. Elwes was elected 
 for Berkshire. Upon the fourth dissolution of parliament, 
 factions ran high amongst his former constituency, and 
 re-election without a contest was not to be hoped for ; but 
 a contest would have cost money, and to such a waste of 
 money the old man could not bring himself, although 
 there was every chance of his being successful, so high 
 was the general opinion of his parliamentary honour and 
 independence. Thus terminated John Elwes's parlia- 
 mentary career. 
 
 I now come to the third and last phase in the life of 
 this singular individual. By this time he had lost much of 
 the energy that had distinguished his green old age. He 
 was no longer capable of field sports, or the other violent
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 99 
 
 exercises which had once been his delight ; while the more 
 sober amusement of parliamentary duties, for they were 
 an amusement to him, had been abandoned rather than 
 risk the expense of a contested election. In this absence 
 of everything else to occupy his attention, the master- 
 passion of avarice assumed over him an absolute and 
 undisputed sway. He was fast following in the traces of 
 Sir Hervey, and from the two large fortunes that he pos- 
 sessed, riches rolled in upon him like a torrent. Had he 
 been gifted with that clear and inventive head which knows 
 how to employ as well as to accumulate, his wealth must 
 in the end have been enormous. Unluckily for him, he 
 knew scarcely anything of accounts, and, never reducing 
 his affairs to writing, he was obliged to trust much to 
 memory, and, what was still worse, to the suggestions of 
 others. Hence, every person who had a want, or a scheme 
 with an apparently high interest adventurer, or honest, 
 it signified not all was prey to him ; or rather all preyed 
 upon him ; for, like the pike, he was caught by his own 
 greediness. Topham reckons his losses in this way at no 
 less a sum than a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. 
 Nor was this the only evil arising from his excessive greed. 
 The same appetite for gain made him still a gambler in 
 spite of all his past experience and the desuetude of many 
 years. He had for some time been a member of a card- 
 club at the Mount Coffee-house; and by a constant 
 attendance on this meeting, for a time consoled himself 
 for the loss of his seat in parliament. The play was mo- 
 derate, and he had thus an opportunity of meeting many 
 of his old acquaintances from the House of Commons. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Moreover, he had the pleasure of enjoying fire and candle 
 light at the general expense, an advantage which he, of all 
 men, knew how to estimate ; for, however regardless he 
 might be of creature-comforts when he had to pay for them 
 out of his own pocket, he was fond enough of such indul- 
 gencies when they were to be had at the expense of others. 
 Thus he had an admirable taste for French dishes at 
 the table of another; no man had a better taste for 
 French wines when they did not come from his own 
 wine-merchant ; and he was very nice in his appetite 
 when he dined from home. 
 
 Had he been contented with merely saving, it would 
 have been all very well. But he must needs attempt to 
 acquire, and the instrument he chose to carry out this 
 object was picquet, at which he was, or imagined himself 
 to be, an adept. It was his ill-luck, however, to meet 
 with a gentleman who had the same opinion of his own 
 gambling talents, and, as the result showed, with much 
 reason. After a contest of two days and a night, which 
 Mr. Elwes continued with a perseverance that nothing but 
 the intensest avarice could have inspired, he rose a loser, 
 as it was generally thought, of at least three thousand 
 pounds. It would seem as if this heavy loss sobered his 
 appetite for card-playing. He now wished to revisit 
 Stoke, but was detained in London by the expenses of 
 such a journey, which he could no longer undertake in 
 the cheap way he had hitherto done. All the horses 
 that remained to him were a couple of worn-out brood 
 mares ; his old man-of-all-work was dead ; and he himself 
 had no longer the bodily vigour which enabled him to
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 101 
 
 ride sixty or seventy miles on the sustenance of two boiled 
 eggs. 
 
 At length he was carried into the country, as he had 
 been carried into parliament, free of expense, and that by 
 a gentleman far inferior to him in wealth ; but upon such 
 points Mr. Elwes never had the slightest delicacy. 
 
 On his retirement from Parliament he was about 
 seventy-five years of age, and thenceforward, as I have 
 already remarked, he abandoned himself entirely to his 
 passion, in which he began to equal, if he did not 
 excel, his uncle, Sir Hervey. If a window were broken, 
 a piece of brown paper was to be the substitute; if 
 the roof decayed, to make it sound again was an extra- 
 vagance not to be thought of. To save fuel, he would 
 try to keep himself warm by pacing up and down an old 
 greenhouse, or, when weary of this exercise, he would sit 
 in the kitchen with his servant. During the harvest, he 
 would glean the corn on the ground of his own tenants, 
 who, by way of gratifying him, would leave more strays 
 than usual, and never did any parish- pauper show himself 
 more eager in the occupation. As the season advanced, 
 his morning employment was to pick up any chips, bones, 
 or other fragments that might help to supply the much- 
 grudged, but indispensable, extravagance of a fire. One 
 day, he was surprised by a neighbouring gentleman in 
 the act of pulling down, with some difficulty, a crow's 
 nest for that purpose. On his friend expressing a wonder 
 that he should give himself so much trouble for so trifling 
 an object, he exclaimed, in all the fervour of avaricious 
 zeal, " Oh, sir, it is really a shame these creatures should
 
 102 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 do so ; only see what waste they make ; they don't care 
 how extravagant they are." 
 
 It affords no exception to his general habits of parsi- 
 mony that he now indulged in the inordinate appetite 
 which he had kept under restraint during the long sit- 
 tings of parliament. If his voraciousness was great, it 
 was at least gratified at the least possible outlay. To 
 save himself from what he considered the extortions of a 
 butcher, he would have a sheep killed, and go on eating 
 mutton till the whole was consumed, no regard being had 
 to the natural decay of the meat. "When he occasionally 
 had his river drawn, at which times cart-loads of fish were 
 often taken, not one would he suffer to be returned to the 
 water, observing that if he did, " he should never see them 
 again/' Game in the last state of putrescence, and meat 
 that walked about his plate, he would continue to eat, 
 rather than have any fresh provisions before the old were 
 finished. Nay, he even began to think the luxury of sheets 
 was too extravagant, and repudiated them accordingly. 
 Of his economy with regard to food, and of his perfect 
 indifference as to its quality, there are some instances 
 more revolting, if possible, than even those I have 
 just described. That men in a state of starvation 
 should have recourse to such means for preserving life, 
 no better being at hand, is natural enough; but the 
 tale which excites sympathy in the one case, can only 
 cause disgust in the other. Nature, however, seldom fails 
 to avenge herself when her laws are set at nought. That 
 the constitution both of his mind and body was seriously 
 affected by this continued harsh treatment, became every
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 103 
 
 day more and more apparent to the few who had not yet 
 wholly deserted him. His temper, hitherto so bland and 
 amiable, began to grow as ragged as his clothes. The 
 first symptom, however, of more immediate decay, was 
 his inability to rest at night. Not unfrequently, he would 
 alarm the house in the witching hour, by loud cries of, 
 " I will keep my money : I will. Nobody shall rob me of 
 my property ;" and when the frightened domestics hur- 
 ried to their master's rescue, he would start from this fever 
 of anxiety, and as if waking from a troubled dream, hasten 
 back to bed in seeming unconsciousness of what had hap- 
 pened. Can it be, that the sleep of avarice is as terrible 
 as that of murder ? 
 
 Another proof of his decaying faculties was to be seen 
 in his loss of memory, as well as of judgment or percep- 
 tion. In this enfeebled state it was that one of his kitchen- 
 vestals, at whose fire he was in the habit of warming himself 
 to save the expense of coals elsewhere, contrived to inspire 
 the old miser with a tender passion. He would have 
 married her, so captivated was he by her sympathy when 
 all beside appeared to have deserted him, but happily his 
 friends and relations got notice of this intent in time for 
 its prevention. 
 
 Before closing this strange eventful history, I am 
 tempted to relate one or two more anecdotes, which, how- 
 ever trifling in themselves, may yet tend in some degree 
 to elucidate his character. For six weeks previous to his 
 death the old man took to a habit of going to bed in his 
 clothes, as perfectly dressed as during the day ; and one 
 morning he was found fast asleep between the blankets,
 
 104 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 with his shoes on his feet, his stick in his hand, and an old 
 tattered hat upon his head. Upon this circumstance 
 becoming known, a servant was set to watch and take 
 care that he undressed himself; yet so attached was he 
 to this old habit, that he endeavoured to bribe his guardian ; 
 " he would leave him something in his will " if he did not 
 attempt to interfere. 
 
 On the 18th of November, 1789, Mr. Elwes discovered 
 signs of that utter prostration of the bodily powers which 
 in eight days carried him to the grave. His appetite was 
 totally gone, and he retained no longer anything beyond a 
 dim sense of what was passing around him. Yet even in 
 this last stage of feebleness, when the shadows of death 
 were deepening fast, a spark of that kindly feeling which 
 had animated him amidst all his parsimony, once again 
 broke forth his last coherent words were addressed to 
 his son John, and expressed a hope that " he Lad left him 
 what he wished." 
 
 Thus died this martyr to the love of money, when, ac- 
 cording to the testimony of Dr. Wall, he might, with com- 
 mon indulgence, have lived for another twenty years, such 
 was his muscular strength and the natural vigour of his 
 constitution. By his Will, he bequeathed to his illegiti- 
 mate sons, John and George Elwes, property amounting 
 to nearly five hundred thousand pounds. The entailed 
 estates fell to the son of Lieut.-Colonel Timms, of the 
 2nd troop of Horse Guards, his grand-nephew, John 
 Timms, Esq., who assumed by royal license, in 1793, the 
 names and arms of Hervey and Elwes. 
 
 In this distribution of wealth the only person who could
 
 THE FAMILY OP ELWES. 105 
 
 reasonably complain was his cousin, the heir male of 
 the Elwes family, Sir William Elwes (the grandson of 
 the first Baronet, Sir Gervase), who had inherited the 
 barren title without any adequate means for supporting it. 
 He resided in Syon Lane, Isleworth, in narrow circum- 
 stances, and died, and was buried there in 1778, leaving 
 by his wife, Johanna Rachael Bubulia, three sons, who 
 proved their father's will in 1779, viz., William, his heir ; 
 Henry, Colonel of the 22nd Regiment; and Thomas. 
 The eldest, Sir William Elwes, the fourth baronet, died 
 an old bachelor in the same village of Isleworth in 
 1819, and was succeeded by his nephew (his brother, 
 Colonel Henry's son), who then became Sir William 
 Henry Elwes, Bart., and was the father of the present 
 head of the family, whose chequered life and whose strug- 
 gles with the unmerited adversity into which he has been 
 plunged by no fault of his own, form one of the saddest 
 tales I have to recount of family vicissitude. His father's 
 younger brothers were both military men ; the elder, 
 Lieutenant Henry John Elwes, of the 7th West India 
 Regiment, died at Nassautown, New Providence, Bahama 
 Islands, 12th September, 1807, in his twenty-first year; 
 and the younger, Lieutenant John Raleigh Elwes, of the 
 71st Highland Light Infantry, survived only twelve days 
 the wounds he received at Waterloo. 
 
 The biography of Henry John Elwes, or, as he is by 
 right, Sir Henry John Elwes, Bart, will occupy a few 
 brief lines only. 
 
 His mother, Anne Banatyne, was one of twins, and was 
 brought up with her sister at Maulsley Castle, the seat of
 
 106 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Lord Hyndford, where it appears that Mrs. Nesbit, his 
 lordship's aunt, had them carefully educated. But indeed 
 the greater part of Henry Elwes' maternal relatives 
 seemed, if of the middle class, to have belonged to its 
 upper portions. The son of his maternal grandfather, by 
 a second wife, John Banatyne, inherited the estate of 
 Castle Bank, near Lanark, while his grandfather him- 
 self was a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Lanark, 
 and stood on an intimate footing with the Duke of 
 Hamilton. His mother and sister, too, visited some of 
 the best families in Lanarkshire, such as Lord Annan- 
 dale's, Mr. Lockhart of Lee's, and Sir William Shaw 
 Stewart's, and were often guests at the house of Mr. Owen 
 of the Cotton Mills, who has since obtained so much 
 notoriety by his benevolent, but singular, plans of social- 
 ism. It may seem strange that one so befriended by 
 every circumstance of fortune could ever have fallen into 
 the abject rear. Yet the change followed upon a single 
 unadvised step as naturally as the night follows day. 
 The two sisters were at a sea bathing-place, called Largs, 
 where they made the acquaintance of Mr. Elwes, at a ball 
 given by the 71st Highland Light Infantry, and to 
 which ball that gentleman accompanied his brother John 
 Raleigh Elwes, with whom he then happened to be on 
 a visit. The former, as his son afterwards described him, 
 was a remarkably handsome man, strongly resembling 
 George the Fourth both in look and size, and had the 
 good fortune to captivate one of the sisters, much to the 
 grief of her friends and relations, who seem to have had 
 a far clearer insight into his character than the lady had.
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 107 
 
 Married to him, however, the lady was, for when did love 
 listen to reason ? Married and repented, the repentance 
 following, and lasting long as long as the poor woman's 
 life and not only so, but leaving an inheritance of 
 bitterness to her son. 
 
 Many were the commissions obtained for the spendthrift 
 by the mediation of his friends ; but these were always 
 forfeited by his running into debt, and being thrown into 
 jail. Some slight degree of control was exercised over 
 him by his mother, but now her death removed this last 
 salutary restraint, and left him at full liberty to indulge in 
 his worst passions. Abandoning Mrs. Elwes, he went to 
 live with the wife of a ship's captain ; the result was, that 
 the seaman went mad ; so, too, did the forsaken lady ; and 
 strange to say, they both found shelter for a short time 
 in the same lunatic asylum. The sailor, however, con- 
 trived to escape from his keepers, and drowned himself. 
 The poor lady lived long enough to die in her mad- 
 ness of a broken heart, her sole support during this 
 period being a scanty annuity of thirty-five pounds per 
 annum. 
 
 While such were the sufferings of the mother, it may be 
 easily imagined what were the struggles through life of the 
 son, although the future inheritor of a baronetcy. Often 
 was the poor fellow glad to earn a morsel of bread by 
 carrying out coals, until at the age of fourteen, finding he 
 was absolutely without a home, he bound himself to a 
 collier. But the coarseness of his companions gave him a 
 distaste for this kind of life, and after twelvemonths' 
 endurance of what to his previous habits was a martyr-
 
 108 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 dom worse than poverty in its worst shape, he abandoned 
 it for ever. At the time, his father was a prisoner for debt 
 in Morpeth jail. He went to see the unhappy man, but, 
 as may reasonably be inferred, with little profit either 
 worldly or otherwise, and he then got a situation as under- 
 boots at the Queen's Head, Morpeth. This was in the 
 year 1826. After many years he quitted this service to 
 become head-waiter at Wood's Cottage, where he remained 
 four years, when, the head- waiter at Morpeth dying, he 
 returned in that capacity to his earliest situation. 
 
 At the age of twenty- one he married a respectable 
 young woman, named Matherson, and by her has had a 
 large family, all of whom he has brought up in a way that 
 reflects upon him the highest credit. Of his sons, the 
 eldest, John, is a clerk in the Border Counties railway ; 
 the second, Henry Thomas, a civil engineer, died about 
 two years ago ; and the third, Robert, is serving the last 
 year of his apprenticeship to a draper at North Shields. 
 
 But the day of railways now came on at express speed. 
 The inn at Morpeth lost its attractions for the traveller, 
 and Elwes, therefore, applied for, and obtained the situation 
 of station-master at Longhirst in Northumberland. The 
 salary was only one pound a week, and finding this insuffi- 
 cient for the support of himself and family, he took the 
 house and grass-lands he now occupies, and better times 
 eventually came upon him. The post-master of a neigh- 
 bouring town (Long Horsley) died, and Sir George Grey, 
 the then Secretary of State, procured for him the vacant 
 situation. This post he has held for about nine years, and, 
 true to the instincts of his gentle birth, has gained, by his
 
 THE FAMILY OF ELWES. 101 
 
 worth and excellent conduct, the good opinion of the 
 clergymen and gentlemen of the county. 
 
 On one occasion, they signed and forwarded to Govern- 
 ment a memorial in his behalf, with a copy of which I will 
 close this strange, sorrowful, and remarkable story : 
 
 " HENRY ELWES, the son and heir of the late Sir William 
 Elwes, Bart., was known to us when waiter at an Inn in 
 Morpeth, in which capacity he conducted himself, as we 
 believe, with great propriety during many years. He has 
 a wife and six young children ; but from the reverses his 
 family have met with, and the total alienation of their pro- 
 perty, once very considerable, he has no resources, and no 
 friends or connexions of his own who would assist him. 
 As he has always borne a good character, and we believe 
 him to be a person of great respectability, we beg to re- 
 commend him for some situation which may enable him 
 to earn a maintenance for his family, and afford him the 
 means of educating his children. 
 
 (Signed) 
 
 Francis R. Grey,* Rector of Morpeth. 
 
 William Lawson, Longhirst. 
 
 And. Robt. Fenwick, J.P., Netherton. 
 
 Rob. Green, Vicar of Long Horsley. 
 
 John Fred. Bigge, Vicar of Stamfordham. 
 
 M. W. Bigge, Banker, Newcastle. 
 
 W. M. Bigge, Lieut.-Colonel Northumberland Militia. 
 
 Charles Wm. Orde, J.P., Nunnykirk, Morpeth." 
 
 * The Hon. and Rev. Francis Grey, brother of Earl Grey, 
 and brother-in-law of the Earl of Carlisle.
 
 HO VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 f 0{w |Ujit0ii, 0f pals fair. 
 
 Herein Fortune shews herself more kind 
 
 Than is her custom ; it is still her use 
 
 To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, 
 
 To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow 
 
 An age of poverty : from which lingering penance 
 
 Of such a misery doth she cut me off. 
 
 SHAKESPEABE. 
 
 THE extravagant fellows of a family have done more to 
 overturn ancient houses than all the other causes put to- 
 gether, and no case could be more in point to establish 
 the fact than the story of the unfortunate reckless man of 
 whose sad history I am about to give a brief outline. 
 
 Shropshire stands high amongst our aristocratic counties: 
 " the proud Salopians" are almost as exclusive as the Ger- 
 man noblesse, and to be classed amongst their grandees 
 is no mean distinction : the landed properties are very 
 extensive, and their owners men of long- derived lineage. 
 
 Among these and in the first rank stood for centuries 
 the MYTTONS OF H ALSTON, representing, in the days of 
 the Plantagenets, the borough of Shrewsbury in Parlia- 
 ment, and filling the office of High Sheriff of Shropshire
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. Ill 
 
 at a very remote period. So far back as 1480, Thomas 
 Mytton, when holding that appointment, was the for- 
 tunate captor of Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, whom 
 he conducted to Salisbury, for trial and decapitation; 
 and in requital, Richard III. bestowed on "his trusty 
 and well-beloved Squire, Thomas Mytton," the Duke's 
 forfeited Castle and Lordship of Cawes. 
 
 Intermarriages with heiresses added greatly to the riches 
 of the race. Reginald de Mytton, M.P. for Shrewsbury 
 in 1373, won the well-portioned daughter of Sir Hamo 
 Vaughan, Lord of "West Tilbury, in Essex, and his son 
 Thomas, the heiress of William Burley, of Malehurst, 
 whose mother and grandmother were also themselves 
 heiresses; but the grand alliance which brought broad 
 lands and Royal blood to the subsequent Myttons was the 
 marriage of Thomas Mytton, Esq., M.P. for Shrewsbury in 
 1472 (the only son of the heiress of Burley), with Eleanor, 
 daughter and co-heiress of Sir John de Burgh, Knight, 
 Lord of Mowddwy, in Merioneth, the son of Sir Hugh 
 de Burgh, Knight, and Elizabeth his wife, sister and heir 
 of Foulk, Lord of Mowddwy, a scion of the princely line 
 of Powys. Through the heiress of De Burgh, the Lord- 
 ship of Dinas Mowddwy, extending over upwards of 32,000 
 acres, came to the Myttons. 
 
 This Mowddwy, dignified with the name of Dinas, or 
 city, still preserves the insignia of its power, the stocks 
 and whipping post, the veg vaur or great fetter, the mace 
 and standard measure. It is likewise the capital of an, 
 extensive lordship, and its powers over the surrounding 
 district are very important.
 
 112 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 As Lord of Mowddwy, Mr. Mytton used to nominate 
 the Mayor, Alderman, Recorder, Magistrates and Attornies 
 of his little Sovereignty. The Mayor tried and punished 
 criminals, and the Recorder (in absence of the Lord) took 
 cognizance of all litigated matters of property not exceeding 
 forty shillings. 
 
 Augmented in honour and influence by this advent of 
 Royal Cambrian blood, and this magnificent Cambrian 
 estate, the Myttons continued in increased splendour to 
 ally themselves with the great neigbouring families. 
 Amongst others, with those of Delves of Doddington, Grey 
 of Enville, Greville of Milcote, Corbet of Stoke, and Owen 
 of Condover, and even the younger branches from the 
 parent stem flourished in dignity. A descendant of one of 
 these, Reginald de Mytton of Weston, held a great landed 
 property in Shropshire, which is now in the possession of 
 the Earl of Bradford, and another was the celebrated Sir 
 Peter Mytton, of Lannerch Park, Co. Denbigh, Chief 
 Justice of North Wales, and M.P. for Carnarvon. 
 
 Halston, to which the family transferred their seat from 
 their more ancient residences of Cawes Castle and Hab- 
 berley, is called in ancient deeds " Holystone/' and was in 
 early times a preceptory of Knights Templars. The 
 Abbey, taken down about a hundred and fifty years ago, 
 was erected near where the present mansion stands. In 
 the good old times of Halston, before reckless waste had 
 dismantled its halls and levelled its ancestral woods, the 
 oak was seen here in its full majesty of form, and it is 
 related that one particular tree, coeval with many centuries, 
 of the family's greatness, was cut down by the spend-
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 113 
 
 thrift squire in the year 1826, and contained ten tons of 
 timber. 
 
 In the great Civil War, Mytton of Halston was one of 
 the few Shropshire gentlemen who joined the Parliamentary 
 Standard. Displaying in the cause he had espoused the 
 most undaunted bearing, tempered with the greatest 
 humanity, he rose to the rank of Major General, after a 
 series of eminent services, including the capture of Wem, 
 (the first place in Shropshire the Commons possessed,) of 
 Oswestry and of Shrewsbury, of Ruthin and of Conway. 
 In the line of politics he adopted, General Mytton was 
 influenced by his connexion with Sir Thomas Myddleton of 
 Chirk Castle : they married two sisters, and the two 
 brothers-in-law went exactly the same length in opposition 
 to the king, and no further : their hostility was levelled 
 against prerogative, but they never contemplated the 
 prostration of the monarchy, or the death of the sovereign. 
 From this gallant and upright Parliamentarian, the fifth in 
 descent was JOHN MYTTON, the eccentric, wasteful, dissi- 
 pated, openhearted, and openhanded squire of Halston, in 
 whose day, and by whose wanton extravagance and folly, 
 a time-honoured family, and a noble estate, the inheritance 
 of five hundred years, were recklessly destroyed. 
 
 John Mytton was born 30th Sept. 1796, the only son 
 of John Mytton, Esq., of Halston, by Harriet his wife, 
 daughter of William Owen, Esq., of Woodhouse. His 
 father died when he was only eighteen months old ; and I 
 may here casually notice the singular circumstance, that 
 for several generations the heir to the Halston estate had a 
 long minority. At one time the succession devolved on a 
 2 I
 
 114 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 great-grandson of the previous possessor. John Mytton's 
 minority lasted almost twenty years, and during its con- 
 tinuance a very large sum of ready money was accumu- 
 lated, which, added to a landed property of full ten 
 thousand a year, and a pedigree of even Salopian antiquity 
 and distinction, rendered the Squire of Halston one of the 
 first Commoners in England ; but a boyhood unrestrained 
 by proper control, and an education utterly neglected, led 
 to a course of profligacy and eccentricity amounting aim os 
 to madness, that marred all these gifts of fortune. Young 
 Mytton commenced by being expelled from both Westmin- 
 ster and Harrow, and, though he was entered on the books 
 ot the two Universities, he did not matriculate at either ; 
 the only indication he ever gave of an intention to do so 
 was his ordering three pipes of port to be sent to him, 
 addressed " Cambridge." When a mere child, he had been 
 allowed a pack of harriers at Halston, and at the age of 
 ten was as confirmed a scapegrace as ever lived. At nine- 
 teen he entered the 7th Hussars, and immediately joined 
 his regiment, then with the army of occupation in France. 
 Fighting was, however, all over ; and the young Cornet 
 turned at once to racing and gaming, in which he was a 
 serious loser. His military career was of short duration. 
 In four years he retired from the service, in consequence of 
 his marriage, in 1818, with Harriet Emma, eldest daughter 
 of Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt-Jones, Bart, of Stanley Hall. 
 
 By this lady, who died in 1820, he had an only child, 
 Harriet, married, in 1841, to Clement, youngest brother 
 of the present Lord Hill. After his wife's decease, the 
 course of extravagance which marked the career of
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 115 
 
 John Mytton has probably no parallel. He would not 
 suffer any one to advise him : his own violent passions and 
 his own heedless folly were the sole guides of his actions. 
 After heavy liabilities had been incurred, but previously 
 to the disposal of the first property he sold, Mr. Longue- 
 ville, of Oswestry, his agent, assured Mr. Mytton that if 
 he would content himself for the following six years with 
 an income of 6,000, the fine old Shrewsbury estate 
 the earliest patrimony of his ancestors might be saved, 
 and besought him to listen to this warning counsel. 
 " No, no," replied Mytton, " I would not give a straw 
 for life, if it was to be passed on six thousand a-year." 
 The result confirmed Mr. Longueville's apprehensions : 
 the first acre alienated led to the gradual dismemberment 
 of the whole estate ; and from this moment may be dated 
 the ruin of the Myttons of Halston. 
 
 It is not within my province, nor would it be to my 
 taste, nor, I am sure, to the satisfaction of my reader, to 
 follow step by step the gradual downward progress of this 
 unfortunate man, who, with a heart naturally generous, 
 and nobly charitable, with talents only wanting cultivation, 
 and with a spirit that retained to the last the innate cha- 
 racter of a gentleman, forfeited all the numerous advan- 
 tages he was born to, by an unrestrained submission to 
 his passions and by a lavish prodigality, which makes one 
 feel the force of a friend's remark, " that if Mytton had 
 had an income of 200,000, he would have been in 
 debt in five years." Most certain it is, that within the 
 last fifteen years of his life he squandered full half a 
 million sterling, and sold timber " the old oaks of 
 
 I 2
 
 116 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Halston " to the amount, it has been stated, of 
 80,000 ! 
 
 Poor John Mytton found a kindly biographer in the 
 late Mr. Apperley, whose " Life " of his ill-fated friend is 
 a very remarkable work, written with much of the graphic 
 force and animation of style that have made Nimrod's pen 
 so popular. To that volume, more appropriately than to 
 this, the characteristic anecdotes of Mr. Mytton's sporting 
 and gambling career belong, and the curious reader will 
 meet with much to amuse and much to sadden him in the 
 pages of those Memoirs. The coloured prints are quite 
 curiosities in their way. One of the first gives a view of 
 Halston, with its glorious plantations, and its noble sheet 
 of water, through which, as the shortest cut, its eccentric 
 owner is riding home ; another illustrates Mytton's 
 wild duck shooting : " He would sometimes," says Nim- 
 rod, " strip to his shirt to follow wild fowl in hard 
 weather, and once actually laid himself down on the 
 snow only to await their arrival at dusk. On one occa- 
 sion he outheroded Herod, for he followed some ducks in 
 puris naturalibus and escaped with perfect impunity." 
 A third illustration commemorates a singular practical 
 joke of the frolic-loving Squire. One evening, the cler- 
 gyman and doctor, who had dined at Halston, left to 
 return on horseback. Their host, having disguised him- 
 self in a countryman's frock and hat, succeeded, by riding 
 across the park, to confront them, when, in true highway- 
 man voice, he called out, "Stand and deliver!" and before 
 a reply could be given, fired off his pistol, which had, of 
 course, only a blank cartridge. The affrighted gentlemen,
 
 JOHN MYTTOX, OF HALSTOX. 117 
 
 Mytton used to say, never rode half so fast in their lives 
 before, as when, with him at their heels, they fled that 
 night to Oswestry. 
 
 Another of the prints exhibits Mr. Mytton in hunting 
 costume, entering his drawing-room, full of company, 
 mounted on a bear; and another exemplifies the old say- 
 ing, "Light come, light go." Mytton travelling in his 
 carriage, on a stormy night, from Doncaster, fell asleep 
 while counting the money he had won : the windows were 
 down, and a great many of the bank-notes were blown 
 away and lost. The reckless gambler used often to tell 
 the story as an amusing reminiscence. 
 
 One of the illustrations represents a scene which is 
 scarcely credible : a scene in which Mytton is depicted 
 with his shirt in flames. " Did you ever hear," enquires 
 Nimrod, " of a man setting fire to his own shirt to frighten 
 away the hiccup ? Such, however, was done, and this was 
 the manner in which it was performed : ' Oh ! this hor- 
 rid hiccup !' said Mytton, as he stood undressed on the 
 floor, apparently in the act of getting into bed ; ' but I'll 
 frighten it away ' so seizing a lighted candle, he applied 
 it to the tail of his shirt, and, it being a cotton one, he 
 was instantly enveloped in flames." His life was only 
 saved by the active exertions of two persons who chanced 
 to be in the room. 
 
 There is one picture wanting, to point the moral of this 
 miserable history a view of the wretched room in the 
 King's Bench Prison, where this ruined lord of wasted 
 thousands died. 
 
 I had nearly forgotten to mention Mr. Mytton's second
 
 118 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 marriage with Miss Giffard of Chillington, a marriage of 
 much misery to the lady, which ended in a separation. 
 But the crisis in the spendthrift's fate was now impending. 
 The " Times" one morning published an advertisement of 
 the sale of all the effects at Halston, in Shropshire ; and 
 very shortly after, Mr. Mytton fled to the continent, to 
 escape his creditors. " On the 5th of November, 1831," 
 says Nimrod, "during my residence in the town of 
 Calais, I was surprised by a violent knocking at my door, 
 and so unlike what I had ever heard before in that quiet 
 town, that, being at hand, I was induced to open the door 
 myself, when, to my no little astonishment, there stood 
 John Mytton ! ' In God's name,' said I, ' what has 
 brought you to France ?' ' Why,' he replied, 'just what 
 brought yourself to France' parodying the old song 
 'three couple of bailiffs were hard at my brush.' But 
 what did I see before me ? The active, vigorous, well- 
 shapen John Mytton, whom I had left some years back in 
 Shropshire ? Oh, no, compared with him, 'twas the 
 'reed shaken by the wind;' there stood before me a 
 round-shouldered, decrepit, tottering, old-young man, if I 
 may be allowed such a term, and so bloated by drink ! 
 But there was a worse sight than this there was a mind 
 as well as a body in rums ; the one had partaken of the 
 injury done to the other, and it was at once apparent that 
 the whole was a wreck. In fact, he was a melancholy 
 spectacle of fallen man." 
 
 I will not pain myself or my reader with a recital of the 
 scenes of suffering which followed, but hasten to the 
 last act in this mournful drama of real life. Arrested for
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OP H ALSTON. 119 
 
 a paltry debt, he was thrown into prison in France. "I 
 once more/' writes Nimrod, " was pained by seeing my 
 friend looking through the bars of a French prison window. 
 Here he was suffered to remain for fourteen days ; on the 
 thirteenth day I thought it my duty to inform his mother 
 of his situation, and in four days from the date of my 
 letter she was in Calais." After a while, Mytton returned 
 to England, but only to a prison and a grave. The re- 
 presentative of one of the most ancient families of his 
 county, at one time M.P. for Shrewsbury, and High 
 Sheriff for Shropshire and Merioneth, the inheritor of Hal- 
 ston and Mowddwy, and almost countless acres, the most 
 popular sportsman of England, died within the walls of 
 the King's Bench Prison, at the age of thirty-eight, de 
 serted and neglected by all, save a few faithful friends 
 and a devoted mother, who stood by his death-bed to the 
 last. 
 
 The announcement of the event produced a profound 
 impression in Shropshire ; the people, within many miles 
 of his home, were deeply affected; the degradation of 
 his later years, the faults and follies of his wretched 
 life, all were forgotten ; the generosity, the tenderness 
 of heart, the manly tastes of poor John Mytton, his 
 sporting popularity, and his very mad frolics, were re- 
 called with affectionate sympathy. The funeral of the 
 last Mytton at Halston, unprecedented in its display, will 
 long be remembered. Three thousand persons attended 
 it, and some of the first county gentlemen assembled to 
 join in the cortege. A. local paper thus chronicled the 
 ceremonial :
 
 120 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 " A hearse with four horses (driven by an attached ser- 
 vant of the deceased), a mourning coach-and-four, and 
 another carriage, formed the melancholy cavalcade through 
 Shrewsbury. On the road to Oswestry, every mark of 
 respect was paid ; and at the Queen's Head the corpse was 
 met by a detachment of the North Shropshire Cavalry (of 
 which regiment the deceased was Major), who escorted 
 them to the vault in the chapel of Halston, where the 
 remains were deposited at three o'clock on Wednesday 
 afternoon. The procession was exceedingly well arranged, 
 under the direction of Mr. Dunn, of London, assisted by 
 Messrs. Hanmer and Gittins, and entered the domain of 
 Halston in the following order : 
 
 Four Trumpeters of the North Shropshire Cavalry. 
 
 Captain Croxon and Captain Jones. 
 
 Thirty-two Members of the Cavalry. 
 
 A Standard of the Regiment, covered with crape. 
 
 Forty-two Members of the Cavalry. 
 
 Adjutant Shirley and Cornet Nicolls. 
 
 Mr. Dunn (undertaker) and Mr. Gittias. 
 
 Two Mutes. 
 
 Carriage of the Revds. \V. Jones and J. D. Pigott. 
 Two Mourning Coaches-and-Four, with the 
 
 Pall Bearers. 
 
 Hon. F. Kenyon. A. W. Corbett, Esq. 
 
 R. A. Slaney, Esq., M.P. J. R. Kynaston, Esq. 
 
 J. C. Pelham, Esq. Revd. H. C. Cotton. 
 
 The Hearse, drawn by Four Horses, with
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTOX. 121 
 
 THE BODY, 
 
 In a Coffin covered with Black Velvet, with massive han- 
 dles, richly ornamented, the Plate inscribed 
 ' JOHN MYTTON, Esq., of Halston, 
 
 Born 30th of Sept. 1796, 
 Died 29th of March, 1834.' 
 
 (The Hearse was driven by Mr. Bowyer, the Deceased's 
 Coachman, who, with Mr. M'Dougal, another Servant, 
 
 Attended him in his last moments.) 
 
 Mourning Coach with two Mourners, the Revd. E. H. 
 
 Owen (Deceased's Uncle), and the Hon. and 
 
 Revd. R. Noel Hill. 
 
 Mrs. Mytton's Carriage. 
 
 Lady Kynaston's Carriage, with Mr. W. H. Griffiths and 
 
 Mr. Cooper. 
 
 Carriage of A. W. Corbett, Esq. 
 Carriage of the Rev. Sir Edward Kynaston, Bart. 
 
 Carriage of the Rev. E. H. Owen. 
 Carriage-and-Four of the Hon. Thomas Kenyon ; 
 
 J. Beck, Esq., in his Carriage. 
 Dr. Cockerill and Lieutenant Tudor, in Carriage. 
 
 Carriage of T. N. Parker, Esq. 
 
 Carriage of W. Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Carriage of the Viscountess Avonmore. 
 
 Several Cars, &c., with Friends. 
 
 Mr. Broughall, Agent. 
 
 " About one hundred of the Tenantry, Tradesmen, and 
 Friends on horseback, closed the procession. 
 
 " Among these were Messrs. Longueville, Cartwright, 
 Bolas, Hughes, J. Howell, S. Windsor, J. Williams, Morris
 
 122 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Griffiths, Venables, D. Thomas, W. Francis, R. Edwards, 
 Farr, Blandford, Rogers, Davies, &c. &c. 
 
 " The Mutes were old men, brothers John and Edward 
 Niccolas, of Whittington; the latter was mute at the 
 funeral of the deceased's grandfather ; John was mute at 
 the grandfather's funeral, the father's funeral, and at that 
 of Mr. Mytton. 
 
 "A mourning peal was rung at Oswestry, and the 
 bells of Shrewsbury, Ellesmere, Whittington, Halston, 
 &c. tolled during the day. The number of spectators 
 was immense, and the road along which the procession 
 slowly moved was bedewed with the tears of thousands 
 who wished to have a last glance. Everything was con- 
 ducted with the greatest order; but there was a great 
 rush to enter the chapel on the body being taken out of 
 the hearse. The body was placed on a shelf in the family 
 vault, under the Communion-table of Halston Chapel, 
 surrounded by the coffins of twelve of his relatives." 
 
 The magnificent Lordship of Dinas Mowddwy, with its 
 32,000 acres originally an appanage of the dynasty of 
 Powys inherited through twelve generations from a co- 
 heiress of the Royal Lineage of Powys Wenwynwyn, had 
 been bartered, it is alleged, in adjustment of a balance 
 on turf and gambling transactions. 
 
 It became eventually the property of Mr. Bird of Man- 
 chester, and from him it passed by mortgage to the Sun 
 Fire Office, by whom it was sold by auction in October, 
 1856, to the present owner, Edmund Buckley, Esq., of 
 Ardwick, Manchester, formerly M.P. for Newcastle-under- 
 Lyue. All other family property Mr. Mytton parted with,
 
 JOHN MYTTON, OF HALSTON. 123 
 
 except a portion, Halston, that was entailed [on his eldest 
 son and namesake, by whom it was in a few years alienated. 
 Mr. Mytton, junr., disposed of it to the late Edmund 
 Wright, Esq., of Mauldeth Hall, the then head of the very 
 respectable and wealthy mercantile firm of "Wright and 
 Lee of Manchester. Mr. Wright bought this last place 
 of the Myttons for some 60,000, as a gift to his son, 
 who is now in possession, and is the present Edmund 
 Wright, Esq., of Halston Park. The career of the pur- 
 chaser, Mr. Wright, senior, strongly contrasted with that 
 of the unfortunate Myttons. While they, the lords of 
 thousands, were spending, he was making and amassing; 
 and he died enormously rich. His partner, and present 
 head of the firm, now styled Lee and Co., is another in- 
 stance of how, in this country, the spendthrift's tale may 
 be ever met by that of wealth nobly won and enjoyed. The 
 gentleman alluded to, Daniel Lee, Esq., of Springfield, near 
 Manchester, has achieved a high and popular position, not 
 in business only, but in private life, where his hospitality 
 and munificence shew him to be truly worthy of his well- 
 earned prosperity. 
 
 The story of John Mytton is not without its use and its 
 moral : a warning to the extravagant, and a lesson to the 
 profligate. It tells too of the instability of all human things. 
 A family far more ancient, and apparently as vigorous 
 as the grand old oaks that once were the pride of Halston, 
 was destroyed, after centuries of honourable and historic 
 eminence, by the mad follies of one man in the brief 
 space of eighteen years ! 
 
 What a sad conclusion to the history of a very distin-
 
 124 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 guished race, memorable in the days of the Plantagenets, 
 and renowned in the great Civil War, is the following 
 notice taken from " the Times " of Wednesday, 2nd of 
 April, 1834. 
 
 " On Monday an inquest was held in the Bench Prison, 
 on the body of John Mytton, Esq., who died there on the 
 preceding Saturday. The deceased inherited considerable 
 estates in the counties of Salop and Merioneth, for both 
 of which he served the office of High Sheriff ; and some- 
 time represented the borough of Shrewsbury in Parliament. 
 His munificence and eccentric gaieties obtained him great 
 notoriety in the sporting and gay circles, both in England 
 and on the continent. Two medical attendants stated that 
 the immediate cause of his death was disease of the brain, 
 (delirium tremens,) brought on by the excessive use of 
 spirituous liquors. The deceased was in his 38th year. 
 Verdict ' Natural Death/ "
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 125 
 
 gljjt O'gontlls. 
 
 By foreign hands, thy dying eyes were closed , 
 By foreign hands, thy decent limbs composed : 
 By foreign hands, thy distant grave adorn'd ; 
 By strangers honor'd, and by strangers mourn'd. 
 
 POPE. 
 
 THE most dangerous antagonist the English government 
 ever had to contend with in Ireland Hugh Roe O'Donell 
 was confined in the very Tower of the castle of Dublin in 
 which these lines are now written. This enterprising chief- 
 tain was the son of Hugh, Prince of Tyrconnell; his 
 mother, " dark Ina," (Inneen Dhu,) of the great dynastic 
 house of the Mac Donells of the Isles, was no degenerate 
 descendant of a race remarkable for their indomitable 
 energy. 
 
 Hugh Roe was born in the year 1571. In early life he 
 displayed not only considerable genius and independence 
 of spirit, but he made these qualities prized among his 
 clansmen and countrymen, by the noble generosity of his 
 manners, and the matchless symmetry of his form. 
 
 In former times the O'Donells of Tyrcounel and the 
 O'Neills of Tyrone were often addressed by the English
 
 126 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 monarch as his equals, and aid against foreign foes was 
 more than once asked of them, as peers in royalty, by 
 English monarch s. 
 
 In 1244, Henry the Third, King of England, solicited 
 help by a letter, still on record, addressed, " Donaldo Regi 
 de Tirconnell ;" and some of the successors of the puissant 
 Henry of England, and the scarcely less proud King Donell 
 of Tyrconnell, interchanged these royal courtesies as peers 
 in degree. It was not unnatural that the high-spirited 
 young Hugh should desire to substantiate an independence 
 so often and so distinctly recognized. He made no secret 
 of his intentions, which were soon the theme of conversa- 
 tion throughout Ireland, and which reaching the ears of the 
 Lord Justice, alarmed in no light measure the royal council 
 in Dublin Castle. Sir John Perrott, then at the head of the 
 Anglo-Irish government, instead of courting the haughty 
 young chieftain with honours and favour, framed a plot to 
 seize him, which, though successful at the time, conduced 
 eventually to render implacable the proud and injured 
 youth. 
 
 In the year 1587, a ship, laden with Spanish wines, 
 was fitted out and dispatched to one of the harbours of 
 Tyrconnell. The vessel, with this well-chosen freight, 
 cast anchor in Lough S willy, near the castle of Dun- 
 donnell. The captain, disguised as a Spaniard, proposed 
 to trade with the wardens of the stronghold ; they bought 
 and made merry ; the septs of the O'Donells, their fierce 
 feudatories the MacSweeneys, the O'Dohertys, in short, 
 all the region round, dealt with the crafty merchant. As 
 was expected, the young prince of the country, then aged
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 127 
 
 sixteen, arrived "with his train at the neighbouring castle 
 of MacSweeny, who sent the captain notice of the arrival 
 of his distinguished guest, and a request for some of his 
 choicest wines. The captain replied, that his store for sale 
 was exhausted, but that, if the young prince would come 
 on board, he should share in some choice sack, destined 
 as a present for the lord deputy. The unsuspicious young 
 Irishman accepted; he and his followers drank as 
 was the rude usage of even times more recent in his 
 country. Their arms were removed; the hatches were 
 closed down in the silent darkness of the night; the 
 ship sprang her anchor, glided over the dark midnight 
 waters of Lough Swilly, and when morning broke, was 
 clear of the Lough, upon the open sea, on her way to 
 Dublin. Thus was this notable scheme carried out, with 
 success, indeed, for the time ; but assuredly it contributed 
 not a little to envenom the hostility to the English govern- 
 ment in Ireland. During the three subsequent years of 
 his imprisonment, in this very Tower where I write, the 
 high-hearted boy grew into manhood, chafing wildly of 
 the open hills that he was heir to, and ranklingly nurtured 
 that mixture of fiercely vengeful and patriotic spirit which, 
 from the moment of his definitive escape, three years later, 
 made him, down to the hour of his death, a foe so impla- 
 cable of the English name. 
 
 A fiery and impatient prisoner was he; in 1591, he 
 managed to elude his keepers ; but was betrayed again by 
 a chief of the O'Tooles, in whose neighbouring mountain 
 fastnesses he had hoped to find a friendly and safe asylum. 
 Led back again a captive, though kept under stricter ward,
 
 128 THE O'DONELLS. 
 
 again he broke away from his bondage, and, travelling 
 in the bleak wintry season, right on over the high and 
 desolate hills of TTicklow, reached, with many difficulties, 
 the fastnesses of Gleumalur, the residence of the famous 
 Fiach mac Hugh O'Byrne. Hence the youth found means 
 to pass into Tyrconnell, where, his aged father resigning 
 in his favour, he was proclaimed by the tribes chief of his 
 name, and the white wand, the simple sceptre of his sway, 
 was placed in his hands, with solemn and time-honoured 
 rites, by the Coarb of Kilmacrinan. 
 
 For the sixteen years following he was the scourge and 
 terror of the Government. He kept his mountain terri- 
 tory of Donegal, in spite of Elizabeth's best generals; 
 carried his excursions to the remotest parts of Munster, 
 and made his power dreaded, and his name a word of 
 terror, even in the rich plains of Meath, and to where the 
 Shannon blends its waters with the Atlantic. 
 
 At last, the only military fault he was ever known to 
 commit led to his total rout at Kinsale, in the early spring 
 of 1601, by Lord Mountjoy, one of the ablest generals, 
 and perhaps the wisest statesman ever sent by England to 
 Ireland. 
 
 HUGH ROE, PRINCE OP TYRCONNELL, this bold and 
 ill.fated chieftain, was the first exile of the O'Donells. 
 
 After the defeat of the Irish, and the inefficient force 
 of their Spanish allies at Kinsale, he was so chafed with 
 wrath and anxiety at the helpless condition of his cause, 
 that for three days and nights, his native biographer in- 
 forms us, " he could not sleep nor rest soundly." After 
 that space, and after consultation with O'Neill, the asso-
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 129 
 
 ciate of his disaster, he resolved to sail for Spain to crave 
 further succours of Philip III. In the known religious 
 sympathies of the Spanish king, the exile set his trust ; 
 and, as the annalists quaintly tell us, " Moreover, on ac- 
 count of that monarch's love for the Gaels, from their 
 having primally come out of Spain to invade Ireland, as 
 is manifest in the Book of Invasions." 
 
 To accompany him on this journey, he selected Red- 
 mond Burke, Captain Hugh Mostyn, and his Confessor the 
 learned Flaheri O'Mulconry, who was afterwards Catholic 
 Archbishop of Tuam, besides some of his own faithful 
 people, clansmen of the Kinel-Conall. 
 
 " When this resolution was made public, piteous it was, 
 and mournful to hear the loud clapping of hands, the 
 impassioned tearful moaning and the loud wail of lamen- 
 tation that swelled throughout the camp of O'Donell 
 and cause they had for this sorrow, if they but knew it 
 for never again did they behold as ruler over them, him 
 who was then their ruler and earthly prince in the island 
 of Erin." 
 
 On the 6th of January, 1602, O'Donell, with his brave 
 companions, took shipping at Castlehaven, near Bantry ; 
 and on the 14th of the same month, he landed at Corunna, 
 where he was nobly received by the Conde de Cara^ena, 
 then Governor of Galicia, who invited him to lodge in his 
 house. I learn from a private letter, written to Ireland on 
 the 4th of February from Corunna, and printed in the 
 Pacata Hibernia, that, " On the 27th of January O'Donell 
 left Corunna, attended by many captaines and gentlemen of 
 qualitie, and accompanied by the ' Earle' [of Caragena], 
 2 K
 
 130 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 who evermore gave O'Donell the right hand, which, within 
 his government, he would not have done to the greatest duke 
 in Spaine ; and at his departure he presented O'Doneli 
 with one thousand duckets, and that night the Irish Prince 
 lay at Santa Lucia, the Earle of Caracena 'being returned ; 
 the next day he went to St. James of Compostella, where he 
 was received with magnificence by the prelates, citizens, and 
 religious persons, and his lodging was made ready for him 
 at Saint Martins. The king, understanding of O'Donell's 
 arrival, wrote unto the Earle of Cara9ena concerning the 
 reception of 'him and the affairs of Ireland, which was 
 one of the most gracious letters that ever king directed, 
 for by it, it plainely appeared that he would endanger 
 his kingdome to succour the Catholikes of Ireland to their 
 content, and not faile therein, for the perfecting whereof 
 great preparations were in hand. O'Donell carried with 
 him to the court, Redmond Burke, Father Florence, Cap- 
 tain Mostyn, and nine gentlemen more, where they were 
 nobly received." " The Four Masters " record faithfully 
 the princely welcome King Philip gave to the royal exile. 
 After a brief sojourn at Court, O'Donell was desired by 
 the Spanish Monarch to go back and rest at Corunna till 
 preparations were ready for his return to Ireland. At 
 Corunna he remained until the month of August follow- 
 ing. During these weary six months of waiting, the 
 annalists tell us, as we might indeed imagine, how, " It 
 was anguish of heart and sickness of mind to O'Donell, 
 that the Irish should remain so long without being aided 
 or relieved by him; and deeming the delay too long, in 
 assembling the army that had been promised him, he pre-
 
 THE O'DOXELLS. 131 
 
 pared again to go before the king/' to know what caused 
 the delay. " When he arrived at Simancas, two leagues 
 from the Court which was sojourning at Valladolid, God 
 permitted, and the misfortune, ill fate, wretchedness, and 
 curse attending upon the island of Heremon and the Irish 
 of fair Banba in general, would have it that O'Donell 
 should take his death sickness, and after he had lain 
 seventeen days, he died on the 10th of September in the 
 house which the king of Spain had in that town of 
 Simancas. 
 
 " His body," continue the simple-minded annalists, 
 "was conveyed to the king's palace at Valladolid in a 
 four-wheeled hearse, surrounded by countless numbers of 
 the king's officers of state, council and guards, with lumi- 
 nous torches and bright flambeaux of fair wax-light burning 
 on each side of him. He was afterwards buried in the 
 monastry of St. Francis, in the Chapter, with veneration 
 and honour, and in the most solemn manner that any of 
 the Gaels had ever been buried." 
 
 And here the sorrowing annalists break out into a wail 
 of wild pathetic eulogy : " Alas ! the early eclipse of him 
 who died here was mournful to many, for he was the head 
 of conference and counsel of advice and consultation of 
 the majority of the Irish, in peace as well as in war. A 
 mighty and bounteous lord, with the authority of a prince 
 to enforce the law, he was a lion in strength and force, with 
 courage and stoutheartedness in deed and word, a Caesar 
 in command, so that none durst disobey him, exacting 
 vigorous and prompt fulfilment of his commands ; yet a 
 dove in meekness and gentleness to bards, and churchmen, 
 
 K2
 
 132 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 and the learned, and all that had not incurred his displea- 
 sure, and who submitted to his authority ; a man that 
 struck all far and wide with the terror of his name, and 
 that none could terrify ; a lord, the expeller of rebels, the 
 destroyer of robbers, the exalter of the sons of life, the 
 extirpator of the sons of death, one that never brooked 
 insult or injury offered without swift vengeance and atone- 
 ment ; a determined, fierce, and bold invader of districts ; 
 a warlike predatory and fighting plunderer of distant 
 territories; the vehement, vigorous, stern and irresistible 
 destroyer of his opponents, English and Irish : one that 
 never in his life failed to do what was meet for a prince ; 
 a sweet sounding trumpet endowed with the gifts of elo- 
 quence and address, of judgment and counsel, with an 
 expression of amiability in his face that captivated every 
 beholder." 
 
 The death of O'Donell seems to have struck the native 
 Irish with dismay and hopelessness, " their characteristics," 
 say their native Four Masters, writing within about twenty 
 years from the time of Hugh's death, "and very dispositions 
 were altered ; for their bravery was changed to cowardice, 
 and their magnanimity to weakness, their pride to servility, 
 their success, valour, prowess, heroism, exultation and 
 military glory, vanished after his death. They despaired 
 of relief, so that the most of them were driven to seek aid 
 and refuge from the foe and the stranger, while others were 
 scattered and dispersed, not only throughout Ireland, but 
 throughout foreign lands, poor, needy, helpless paupers ; 
 and others were offering themselves for hire as soldiers to 
 foreigners; so that countless numbers of the freeborn
 
 THE O'DOXELLS. 133 
 
 nobles of Ireland were slain in distant foreign lands, and 
 were buried in strange places and unhereditary churches in 
 consequence of the death of this one man who departed 
 from them." 
 
 This celebrated Irishman was never married ; and was 
 consequently succeeded in his dignity by his next brother, 
 Rory, who soon after making his submission to the govern- 
 ment of King James the First, received with the title 
 of an Earl part of the vast territory of Tyrconell, over 
 which his forefathers for above eleven centuries had exer- 
 cised sovereign sway. 
 
 He soon, with reason or not, suspected the government 
 of plotting his ruin, and fled to the continent for safety, 
 perhaps for succour.* 
 
 He bore with him his only son, Hugh, then aged but 
 eleven months. With them fled the Earl's brother, Cath- 
 bar, together with his only son, Hugh, aged about two 
 years and a half, and Cathbai^s young wife, the sister of 
 the chivalrous Sir Cahir O'Doherty, chief of Innishowen. 
 With them too fled their sister, the Lady Nuala O'Donell, 
 wife of her valiant but turbulent kinsman, Sir Niall garbh 
 O'Donell, who, after refusing from the government the 
 title of Baron of Lifford, died in the Tower of London, 
 having lain there for a quarter of a century, a state pri- 
 soner of the government in whose service he had often 
 
 * Macaulay affirms that Earl Bory fled to the court of Madrid 
 but this was not the fact. The fugitive never set foot on the 
 soil of Spain. He landed in France, proceeded to Brussels, and 
 thence through Germany to Home, where he died in the first 
 jear of his foreign sojourn.
 
 134 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 risked life and honour against the cause of his tribe and 
 his co-religionists. 
 
 Besides these there went forth several principal gentle- 
 men of the same lineage, some of the leading feudatories 
 of the chieftain's house, and some of the hereditary officers 
 of his little court. Together with them, and for the same 
 reasons, fled the chieftain of the once Royal line of O'Neill, 
 and several of his noble adherents of the old lordly fami- 
 lies of the North." " Would to God," exclaim mournfully 
 the Four Masters, as they record this event, " that they 
 might have dwelt in the inheritance of their fathers until 
 their offspring had grown to manhood ! "Woe to the heart 
 that meditated ! woe to the mind that planned ! woe to the 
 counsel that decided the project which led to the company 
 that went forth on this voyage ; since there was no likeli- 
 hood that they might ever, to the world's enc!, come back 
 in safety to the principalities that had been de! ivered down 
 to them, to the inheritance of their fathers." 
 
 The illustrious refugees, whose departure is thus mourn- 
 fully chronicled, debarked in France, and passed thence to 
 the Court of Brussels, where the Archduke Governor, and 
 his consort the Infanta Isabella, received them with much 
 compassion. From the Low Countries the unhappy wan- 
 derers continued their pilgrimage towards Rome, receiv- 
 ing everywhere from Catholic princes and churchmen the 
 honours and expressions of sympathy considered to be due 
 to their condition, their misfortunes and their cause. At 
 Rome, Pope Paul the Fifth, the founder of the princely 
 house of Borghese, welcomed the exiles with paternal 
 affection.
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 135 
 
 It is more than probable that these banished princes 
 hoped to obtain from the Pontiff exhortations at least to 
 the Catholic Sovereigns to intervene with the English 
 Government in favour of themselves, and of toleration for 
 their creed ; but the Pope's efforts, whatever they were, had 
 little result beyond the limits of the Roman Court. Disen- 
 chantment of his dreams, or despair for his native land 
 and tribe, rapidly bore down the generous Tyrconnell. 
 In the course of the ensuing summer, the gallant chieftain 
 died at Rome, broken-hearted, in the prime of his days, 
 aged only thirty-three years ; and beneath a simple slab 
 of white marble, in front of the high altar of St. Peter's, 
 in Montorio, above which was enthroned, then, and for 
 nearly two hundred years after, the greatest and last of 
 Raphael's works, his divine Transfiguration, lies entombed 
 all that was mortal of the last princely O'Donell that 
 had actually reigned over Tyrconnell. 
 
 His brother, Cathbar, though in the flower of life, being 
 only in his twenty-fifth year, survived him but for a few 
 brief weeks. Sorrow and disappointment had done their 
 work upon his genial Irish heart too. In the early 
 autumn the pilgrims might be seen once more approach- 
 ing in procession the fresh grave, and depositing therein 
 Cathbar's mortal spoils, amidst sobs that had a long echo 
 among the widowed hills and broken tribes of his native 
 Tyrconnell. 
 
 From the hour of their flight the power of the O'Do- 
 nells that had endured so long was crushed in Ireland. 
 The plantation of Ulster was devised and carried out ; and 
 the lands of the .kingly O'Donells and O'Neills, and the
 
 136 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 broad heritable domains of their feudatories, were declared 
 forfeited to the Crown. Around them gathered a brood 
 of "young eaglets" from England and Scotland; and 
 upon the vast lands of the O'Donells, whose principality 
 of Tyrconnell alone, without reckoning the adjoining 
 territories over which these princes claimed and exercised 
 an ancient superiority, comprised, as I learn from the 
 Ordnance Survey, more than one million, one hundred 
 and sixty-five thousand acres, many a thrifty Scot and 
 enterprising English younger son's posterity has grown to 
 time-honoured wealth, and blossomed into fresh honours. 
 
 Earl Rory, we have seen, left an only and infant son, 
 named Hugh, subsequently Hugh Albert, or Albert Hugh. 
 He lived in Spain and the Low Countries, and styles 
 himself, in existing documents, of almost regal character, 
 Earl of Tyrconnell and Donegal, Baron of Lifford, Lord of 
 Sligo and Lower Connaught, and Knight Commander of 
 the Order of Alcantara. He rose to be a general in the 
 Spanish service, married the daughter of a Knight of the 
 Golden Fleece, of a now extinct house in the Low Coun- 
 tries, hardly second at that time to any subject family on 
 the Continent, Anna Margaret, daughter of Maximilian 
 de Hennin, Count de Bossut, and a near kinswoman of 
 the last eccentric Duke of Guise. 
 
 When Earl Rory died, this only son was aged about 
 two years and a half. For some few years I lose sight of 
 both him and his cousin german, Hugh, son of Cathbar ; 
 but in all probability they were confided to the charge of 
 Cathbar's youthful widow, the Lady Rose O'Doherty, who 
 married secondly Owen Roe O'Neill, the famous general of
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 137 
 
 the confederate Catholics, in the war against the Parliamen- 
 tarians. It may be presumed that she brought back these 
 children from Rome to the Archducal Court at Brussels ; 
 for from the " Livre des Depenses de 1'Archiduc Albert," 
 Governor of the Low Countries, which is preserved in MS., 
 and which extends over the years between 1612 and 1618, 
 I learn that from 1615 the " Conde de Tyrconnell" and 
 Don Hugo O'Donell were in the receipt of a modest 
 pension from his Imperial Highness. As both boys were 
 called Hugh, there was added to the name of him who 
 was chief of his house that of the Archduke his protector, 
 who was in all likelihood his godfather in confirmation ; 
 and^henceforward-this Hugh is equally styled Hugh- Albert 
 or Albert-Hugh. About this time he was attached as 
 page to the Court of the Infanta Isabella, the consort of 
 Archduke Albert. 
 
 That the two young O'Donells were brought up at the 
 University of Louvaine is clear, from the authority of 
 Vernulseus, who, in his Academia Lovaniensis, enumerates 
 among the men of distinction that were educated in that 
 celebrated school, " Albert Hugh O'Donell, Earl of Tyr- 
 connell, Baron of Lifford, Lord of Lower Connaught, of 
 the ancient stock of the Kings of Ireland ; and Hugh 
 O'Donell, paternal cousin german of the aforesaid Albert, 
 died a captain during the siege of Breda." 
 
 The Irish naturally cherished a generous memory of 
 this heir of one of their most famous chieftains. The 
 court of Spain was fully alive to the political importance 
 of the exile. Even at the cautious Roman Court there 
 appears to have been some that partook in a measure of
 
 138 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the illusions of the native Irish, that the exiled O'Donells 
 and O'Neills might one day be placed by circumstances 
 in a position to renew the stern struggle for their faith 
 and lands, in which fate had declared against their fathers. 
 In 1641, when the Irish rose in arms to oppose the Parlia- 
 mentarians, many an anxious eye was turned towards 
 Albert Hugh, the banished heir of Tyrconnell, who was 
 then a Spanish general of reputation. His military rank 
 and experience, his undoubted claim to the position of 
 chief, though not senior of his clan, the popular belief 
 that he was alluded to in the " old rhyming prophecies," 
 which for ages had such a strong hold upon the Celtic 
 imagination, and even still are not forgotten all contri- 
 buted to make some of the ablest of. his countrymen look 
 anxiously for his return to his native land. He seems, 
 indeed, to have craved permission of the Spanish court to 
 place himself at the service of his country ; but owing to 
 the war with France, in which he was employed, this per- 
 mission was refused ; and he died, or, as some say, was 
 drowned in 1642, the year following that in which his 
 country had again taken up arms. 
 
 A most romantic tale is told of the sister of Hugh- 
 Albert. 
 
 The Abbe Macgeoghegan, who wrote more than a cen- 
 tury after, gives the young lady's own story, as related in 
 a pamphlet which he refers to, as printed in Brussels, in 
 1627, in Spanish, and reprinted in Paris, in French, in 
 the next year. His statement is as follows : " When 
 Earl Rory fled abroad, his Countess was enceinte : she 
 sought to follow her husband into foreign lands, but was
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 139 
 
 prevented by the Viceroy, who sent her under sure escort 
 to England, where she brought forth a daughter, baptized 
 by the name of Mary. The King was informed of the 
 circumstance, and, though he had persecuted the father, 
 he took this infant under his protection, and commanded 
 that she should be called Mary Stewart, instead of Mary 
 O'Donell. 
 
 "When Earl Rory died in Rome, his widow obtained leave 
 to return to Ireland with her daughter, into whose mind 
 she instilled the principles of a strict Catholic, reminding 
 her of her father's sufferings for that faith. At twelve 
 years of age, Lady Mary was recalled to England by her 
 grandmother, the old Countess of Kildare, who was a 
 daughter of the renowned Lord Howard of Effingham. 
 She was presented to the King, who assigned her a dowry ; 
 and the old Countess of Kildare, who was very rich, de- 
 clared she should be her heir. Thus, the protection of the 
 monarch, her own illustrious birth, and a brilliant fortune, 
 all combined to make her hand sought by many lords of 
 the first distinction in England. One in particular of her 
 most assiduous suitors, a very wealthy nobleman, had won 
 the favour of her grandmother, the old Countess of Kil- 
 dare, but the young lady would not marry a Protestant. 
 The old Countess pressed his suit with her; and this 
 occurring just at the moment when Sir Cahir O'Doherty, 
 a great feudatory of her house, had risen in arms, and 
 when many leading Irish persons, her kinsmen, had been 
 arrested, made her additionally nervous about her own fate. 
 These prisoners, who were brought to England, contrived 
 to elude their gaolers, and reached Flanders. She was
 
 140 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 suspected of complicity. A nobleman of the Court ad- 
 vised her to change her religion in order to avoid sus- 
 picion, and to many some Protestant person of distinction, 
 who might serve as her protector, insinuating that nothing 
 else would satisfy the King and Lady Kildare her grand- 
 mother. In fine, she was summoned to give an account 
 of her conduct before the council. 
 
 " In this conjuncture, confiding her secret to a valet, 
 whose fidelity and discretion she knew, Lady Mary O'Douell 
 and a Catholic lady, her companion, disguised as men, 
 and attended by their trusty servant, fled on horseback to 
 Bristol, where they took shipping, landed at Rochelle, 
 and proceeded through Paris to Brussels, to the Earl of 
 Tyrconnell, who presented her to the Infanta, that prin- 
 cess receiving her with all imaginable affection and dis- 
 tinction. She soon, momentarily, became quite a celebrity 
 for her courageous resolution ; and even the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, Urban VIII., Barberini, whose nephew founded 
 the princely house of that name, addressed, on the 13th 
 of February, 1627, a congratulatory and encomiastic 
 breve to the fugitive maiden." 
 
 It is unfortunate to have a doubt to cast upon this 
 romantic tale : but history will have its victims. In the 
 Archive Chamber of St. Isidore's in Rome, there is an 
 original letter, dated from the Low Countries, on the 
 29th of July, 1631, and written to Father Luke Wadding 
 by the Earl of Tyrconnell himself, to the effect that 
 " Having heard that some woman in man's clothes is 
 travelling through your parts by the name of my sister, 
 defaming me and my house, with inconsequent snares and
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 141 
 
 inventions, I hold it well to supplicate your paternity, as 
 my very particular friend and patron, to procure the 
 arrest of that woman, not alone in consideration of my 
 honour, but that of our nation, in order that her mysteries 
 and snares may be discovered." Seven months later, 
 I find by an original letter which she addressed on the 
 9th of February, 1632, to Cardinal Barberini, nephew 
 of Pope Urban, and which, from the place where it is 
 now to be found, was evidently sent to Wadding for his 
 opinion of her statement, that she was then living for 
 some months in great misery in Rome, having left 
 Flanders, and " having married Don John Edward O'Gal- 
 lagher, a principal gentleman of Ireland my country, I 
 am now," proceeds the suppliant, "for several months 
 in Rome, the womb of Holy Church, with my said hus- 
 band, a young lady that came with me from Flanders, 
 and the nurse of the infant boy, to which, by God's good 
 will, I gave birth in Genoa, in extreme want, and in such 
 a state, that if it were not for Cardinal Ludovisi, the 
 protector [of Ireland] , and Cardinal de Bagno, who are 
 charitable to me as far as they can, I should perish with 
 the others of hunger, cold, and infinite other sufferings. 
 The Cardinal protector excuses himself for that maintain- 
 ing at his sole charge the Irish College, and never refusing 
 and giving constant help to the others of our nation, 
 besides his great allowances to every pious institution in 
 Rome, he cannot duly provide for my wants ; so that 
 reduced to this most wretched state, and in two miserable 
 little rooms provided for me by the almoner of the said 
 Cardinal protector, enceinte for some months, burthened
 
 142 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 with the above family, I can have recourse to none that 
 can more fruitfully help me. I cast myself at the feet of 
 His Holiness and of your Eminence, imploring both the 
 one and the other, by the bowels of the mercy of God our 
 Lord, to deign to use your clemency and piety towards 
 me, reduced as I am to this utter wretchedness, though of 
 royal blood, as is known to the world, and educated like a 
 daughter in the Royal Court of England." This letter, 
 now for the first time printed, is signed in a magnificently 
 bold and finished hand of the time, " MARIA STUART 
 O'DoNELL ; " and it is worthy of remark that the signature 
 of Earl Albert-Hugh, to the very letter in which he sug- 
 gests her being arrested, bears the most striking resem- 
 blance to her handwriting. 
 
 I have never been able to discover any further traces of 
 this mysterious and interesting lady. I never saw a copy 
 of the pamphlet which Macgeoghegan quotes as his 
 authority; but the fact of Earl Rory's wife being a kins- 
 woman of the royal family of England, seems to add pro- 
 bability to the statement of the young lady. Perhaps her 
 sympathetic countryman, " Don John Edward O'Gal- 
 lagher," whom she married, may have won her heart too 
 easily in Flanders, or that at all events he was not deemed 
 a suitable match by her brother : family quarrels, conse- 
 quent upon a mesalliance, may account in some degree for 
 the discrepancies that I have touched upon. 
 
 Albert-Hugh does not appear to have had any issue, 
 and with him consequently expired the inheritance of 
 the forfeited Anglo-Irish earldom, which, however, be it
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 143 
 
 borne in mind, was in a junior line of the house of 
 O'Donell. 
 
 The next remarkable representative of the house in 
 Spain was also named Hugh, and bore, with the sanction 
 of the Spanish Crown, the title of Conde de Tyrconnell in 
 that kingdom. He was probably the testamentary heir of 
 Hugh-Albert, for though bora in Ireland, he possessed 
 property in Spain, and possessed also and transmitted the 
 family papers of Earl Rory and his son, including the 
 original letters patent of James I. for the earldom, which, 
 with the great seal of Ireland still [attached, remains 
 among the muniments of Count Maximilian O'Donell in 
 Vienna. This Hugh, whose memory has long been 
 hardly dealt with by his countrymen, is commonly known 
 in Ireland by the name of " Balldearg O'Donell, or O'Do- 
 nell of the Red Spot," for many of the genuine O'Donells 
 have a curious red blood-mark beneath the skin, usually on 
 the side ; and the "old rhyming prophecies" spoke of an 
 O'Donell with the red mark, who was to be a mighty 
 champion of the Irish race. He was the son of John 
 O'Donell, an officer in the Spanish service, and of Cathe- 
 rine O'Rorke, of the old princely lineage of Brefnay. His 
 grandfather was Hugh O'Donell, of Ramelton, who was a 
 person of weight among the Catholic Confederates in the 
 great civil war, and who, from documents of the time, 
 appears to have been looked up to as " the O'Donell" from 
 1642, or at least from 1646 to 1649, in which year he 
 died. Hugh of Ramelton was son of Conn, who was the 
 son of Calvagh, Prince of Tyrconnell, the eldest son of 
 Prince Manus, the common ancestor of the principal ex-
 
 144 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 isting branches as well as of the still more distinguished 
 junior line, which was illustrated by the chivalry of Red 
 Hugh, and by the calamities of Earl Rory and his children ; 
 and here I may remark, that in all the transmissions of 
 native dignities, the line of hereditary succession gave 
 way to the " worthiest elder of the blood/' a point that 
 should never be lost sight of in the modern and ancient 
 bickerings about the claims to the representation of the 
 Celtic chieftainries. 
 
 In the Spanish service, BALLDEARG had risen to the 
 rank of a brigadier, and commanded an Irish regiment in 
 the Spanish pay, when the news of the Jacobite war in 
 Ireland sounded in his heart like the trumpet call of 
 duty. Already he had frequently offered his services to 
 the Stuarts, when Charles and James were still, like 
 himself, in exile. He now craved permission of the 
 Spanish monarch to go and serve his lawful king in Ire- 
 land. It was refused. Listening to no voice but the cry 
 of his patriotic conscience, he fled from Spain like a de- 
 serter ; but addressing an eloquent justification of his act 
 to the Spanish government, and taking shipping, he 
 reached Cork just four days after the Battle of the Boyue 
 had struck dismay into the adherents of James. On the 
 fugitive king he waited in Kinsale Harbour, on board the 
 vessel that bore that luckless sovereign to France. By 
 His Majesty he was recommended to the famous Richard 
 Talbot, Duke and Earl of Tyrconnell, and by Talbot, as 
 Viceroy, was given a commission to raise five thousand 
 men. " If you can collect fifteen thousand," added 
 Talbot " the King will be the better served, and your
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 145 
 
 country the more grateful." Armed with this authority, 
 Balldearg, by the sole magic of his name, raised, in the 
 space of six brief weeks, eight regiments of foot and two 
 of horse. If these fresh levies were ill armed, and 
 consequently remained during the war less efficient 
 than they might have been, it must not be imputed to 
 O'Donell, but to the jealousy of that knot of narrow- 
 minded men, who renewed, in this most critical conjuncture, 
 the internecine animosities of the old English Pale against 
 the ancient native houses, thus damaging fearfully the 
 cause which they had not only sworn to defend, but for 
 which they in truth made otherwise such noble sacrifices. 
 It is told by Macaulay, in his glittering language, how 
 O'Donell looked upon himself as no less royal than 
 James, and it is hinted that his object was to found a 
 Celtic monarchy, of which he was to be the sovereign. 
 Right royally proud of his regal blood O'Donell doubtless 
 was : but his nature seems to have been less open to 
 narrow jealousies than those of his rivals. His insular 
 prejudices had been mitigated by a foreign education, and 
 many years of foreign service, during which his views had 
 become more just. It was not he that revived the jea- 
 lousies of Celt and Norman then. He came to bind Celt 
 and Norman together, for the nation's sake, in the cause 
 of James. 
 
 When fate declared against that monarch, when the 
 tight at Aghrim was lost, and Galway had fallen, and 
 Limerick was about to surrender, terms were generously 
 offered by Ginkel to O'Douell. The chieftain refused as 
 long as a ray of hope remained, but his memory has been
 
 146 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 stained in Ireland for having, in that supreme hour, while 
 stipulating favourable and honourable terms for his faith- 
 ful followers, accepted what was miscalled in his country 
 a " pension" from the victorious party. The simple truth 
 is this : he had abandoned his fortune and position in 
 Spain, he had no fortune in Ireland, having given to his 
 brother, who was King James's Lord Lieutenant of 
 Donegal, whatever fortune he may have been entitled to, 
 and even that was doubtless exhausted by the sacrifices 
 made to serve King James. He could not enter Spain, 
 where he had forfeited his rank, and was liable to be 
 treated as a deserter, for having gone, contrary to the 
 king's will, to serve his native monarch. He could not, 
 like other adherents of the fallen cause of James, and 
 like that monarch himself, accept the pay of France, for 
 France was then the foe of Spain, and to Spain O'Donell 
 and his family were bound by the fealty of gratitude for 
 nearly a century of protection, as well as by the fealty of 
 military honour, for he had sworn to her allegiance. He 
 stipulated from William, the ally of Spain, for the pay of 
 a brigadier, which was his Spanish rank ; and instead of 
 going to fight for the Dutch, as he has been supposed to 
 have done, he retired to the Spanish low countries, thence 
 to Spanish Italy, and at length to Barcelona, and after 
 serving for the space of five or six years as a volunteer 
 with Spanish troops, he was rewarded for his constancy 
 by being restored to his Spanish military station, and soon 
 after, promoted to that of Major- General, and sent to a 
 command in the Low Countries. 
 
 Of this maligned chieftain I here lose all further trace.
 
 THE O'DONELLS. 147 
 
 Two of his grandnephews, sons of Hugh, the son of his 
 brother Conall, rose to high rank in the Austrian service : 
 the one called Conall in his native tongue, and Charles or 
 Charles Claudius abroad, became General of Cavalry and 
 Governor- General of Transylvania, and was made a Knight 
 Grand Cross of Maria Theresa, the most rigorous mili- 
 tary order in Europe, for his able conduct of the famous 
 winter retreat of Torgau, in the Seven Years' War : he died 
 unmarried about the year 1771. He was one of the hand- 
 somest men of the Court of the great Empress-Queen. 
 His brother John, a man of the most extraordinary 
 bravery, and a Lieutenant-General during the Seven Years' 
 "War, was also decorated with the cross of Maria Theresa, 
 and died leaving a daughter, who was brought up under 
 the direction of the Empress, and became the wife of 
 Francis Joseph Count O'Donell, her kinsman, a man of 
 considerable talent, who died Minister of Finance in 
 Austria about the year 1807. 
 
 Henry, the father of Francis-Joseph, was the founder in 
 Austria of the paternal line of the present O'Donells in 
 that country. He was a General Officer, and a Knight 
 of Maria Theresa, and married a Princess Cantacu- 
 zeno, the granddaughter of a Hospodar of Wallachia, 
 of a house that bear for arms the full escutcheon and 
 achievement of the Byzantine Emperors from whom they 
 descend. 
 
 The son of Francis-Joseph, named Maurice, married 
 Christiana, daughter of Prince Charles de Ligne, died a 
 Lieutenant - General, and was father of the amiable 
 and distinguished Major - General Count Maximilian 
 
 L 2
 
 148 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 O'Donell, whose good fortune it was to save, some 
 years ago, the life of his young sovereign from the hand 
 of an assassin, a deed for which almost every court in 
 Europe vied in showering its starry honours upon him, so 
 that he possesses at present no less than thirty-nine orders 
 of knighthood, and which was rewarded moreover by the 
 Emperor with a patent empowering him and his posterity 
 to impale the escutcheon of Austria and the eagle of the 
 Empire with that paternal coat of O'Donell, of which 
 evidence might be adduced that would prove it to be the 
 most ancient hereditary family shield in Europe. 
 
 From Joseph, brother of the above-named Count Henry, 
 the Spanish O'Donnell, LEOPOLD O'DONNELL, DUKE OF 
 TETUAN, derives his lineage, as appears minutely detailed 
 in the pedigree of the O'Donnells on registration in 
 Dublin Castle. Among the other descendants of Joseph 
 were many men of distinguished merit, and famous all in 
 their day ; but already my Celtic predilections have led me 
 perhaps to exceed my limits and the patience of my 
 reader. 
 
 In this brief record of an illustrious exiled house, 
 whose later achievements adorn, unluckily, the page of 
 foreign, instead of domestic history, I have found the 
 most efficient aid in the learning and research of my ac- 
 complished friend, Charles, Count MacDonnell, who has, 
 for this purpose, placed at my disposal the numerous and 
 very valuable Collections he has formed in illustration of 
 the English, Irish, and Scotch families, who are settled 
 in such honour abroad.
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 149 
 
 Jfatk 
 
 Chi troppo in alto sale 
 Presto in giu cade. 
 
 THE county of Westmorland the Switzerland of Eng- 
 land has natural beauties in great and charming variety. 
 Her fine meres and waters, her green luxuriant gills, and 
 her lofty range of fells, are themes of every one's praise. 
 In the midst of this " continual feast of nectared sweets, 
 where no crude surfeit reigns," have lived Langhorne, 
 Patteson, Thompson,* Mrs. Hemans, Wordsworth, Cole- 
 ridge, Southey, Wilson, Talfourd, De Quincey, and many 
 others whose muse derived inspiration from the sublime 
 and beautiful around them. 
 
 But, as if it were by a law of compensation, no county 
 is so barren of material for a work like this. Family vicis- 
 situdes, by which I mean the ups and downs of families, 
 seem almost unknown here. Scores of Worthies have 
 elevated themselves, and their families with them, from 
 a lowly condition of life to one of distinction; but, 
 once raised to eminence, they seem to bid defiance to 
 
 * The Author of the " Fables of Flora."
 
 150 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 those influences which overwhelm so many elsewhere. 
 Like their very mountains, they seem, in most cases, 
 to resist all change. The haute noblesse of Westmor- 
 land are few and far between. Of these few, some 
 have been swept away, without leaving a wreck behind : 
 others endure in all their ancient grandeur and prestige. 
 The Parrs of Kendal Castle, for instance, are gone for 
 ever, and of their great stronghold the last battlement is 
 fearfully tottering under the infirmities of age ; yet the 
 Howards of Levens, the Stricklands of Sizergh, the 
 Musgraves of Hartley, and the Lowthers of Lowther 
 are there still, coeval with, and not unlike, those stately 
 oaks and elms that crown their parks and shelter 
 their halls; and which Time has only served to imbed 
 more deeply in the ground, adding firmness and strength 
 to the various branches they have thrown forth. And as 
 with her nobility, so it is with the class next in social rank 
 the statesmen ; the peculiar name given to those who 
 live upon and cultivate their own estates ; being, probably, 
 a corruption or abbreviation of the compound term estates- 
 men. Amongst these, too, (by far the largest class) there 
 is to be found the same remarkable family solidity and 
 durability. The Addisons and Dents, and Halls, and 
 Wilsons, and Fishers, and Robinsons, and Thompsons 
 live where their ancestors lived five or six hundred years 
 ago, with little vicissitude, beyond what Time necessarily 
 brings. 
 
 In the list of statesmen I do not overlook the partial 
 alterations which emigration has made: by this agency 
 one great name has been given to the new world: the
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 151 
 
 ancestor of the illustrious George Washington emigrated 
 from Dillicar, near Grayrigg, in Westmoreland, about the 
 year 1651. 
 
 Now, the reasons why society in this province has 
 undergone so little change so little as compared to other 
 places, and so little as compared even with her fair sister 
 cannie Cumberland afford abundant matter for philo- 
 sophical speculation. A good deal, however, lies plainly 
 on the surface, and needs no ghost from the grave to tell 
 us it may be referred to her physical seclusion ; for until the 
 beginning of the reign of George the Third, Westmorland was 
 really cut off from the rest of the kingdom in a southerly 
 direction. Highways and byeways she nominally had ; but 
 they were, at best, but sheep -tracks guarded by turnpike 
 gates, until MacAdam visited them in the following reign ; 
 and her bleak fells seem to have served as so many barriers 
 against those social and political floods which have from 
 time to time swept without resistance over other parts of 
 the kingdom. Another cause which, no doubt, contributed 
 largely arid materially to the permanence of Westmorland 
 families was this; the statesmen had the sterling good 
 sense to be quiet in political matters, and to leave the two 
 great Barons of Lowther and Thanet to fight the county 
 battles : thus, by their discretion, keeping their estates 
 and families together, instead of destroying both in pur- 
 suit of an ignis fatuus, which, even in Cumberland, has 
 led many a noble race to utter ruin. The customary 
 tenure of property (there commonly called Tenant-right}, 
 and the law of primogeniture (to which the statesmen cling 
 with almost religious attachment), have, undoubtedly, con-
 
 152 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 tributed their respective shares to this remarkable state of 
 things. Be the reasons, however, what they may, the fact 
 is so, and, as recently enunciated by a distinguished per- 
 son, facts have an inexorable logic facts are stubborn 
 things. 
 
 The narrative I am about to give does not record the 
 fall of a Parr, a Veteripont, a Clifford, or a Howard. Yet 
 it is the partial history of one who saw and experienced as 
 much of life as most men, and who has left behind him 
 an example pregnant with instruction and interest. It is 
 in short, the story of "the House that Jack Built." 
 
 In the vale of the Eden, about the middle of what is 
 known as the bottom of Westmorland, as contradistin- 
 guished from the Barony of Kendal, stands the neat little 
 market-town of Appleby said to be the old Roman 
 station of Aballaba whence probably it tool; its appella- 
 tion. It is the chief, though not the largest, town in 
 the county, and was one of the oldest boroughs in the 
 kingdom. Its great antiquity, however, did not save it 
 from the vandalism of our age ; and Schedule A. of the 
 Reform Bill of 1832 is graced with the name of the 
 constituency that first sent Pitt and Canning to Parlia- 
 ment. The site of Appleby is exceedingly beautiful. 
 The town is on the slope of a steep hill, and consists 
 of one wide street running from the top to the bot- 
 tom of it, flanked at each end with a Doric pillar, 
 called a cross, bearing patriotic mottoes " Maintain 
 your loyalty" "preserve your rights/' and the like. 
 Here and there, from this main street are narrow lanes, 
 called weinds, jutting out towards the river Eden, which
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 153 
 
 sweeps majestically in a semi-circle round about. The 
 Castle, the seat of the Earls of Tufton, and once the famed 
 abode of " Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother/' with its 
 grove of many sycamores and ashes, crowns the hill. Within 
 its court-yard rises a stately tower, still bearing the marks 
 of those religious fanatics who, in Cromwell's time, thought 
 they did God service by turning his temples into stables, 
 and by battering to the ground the mansions of the great. 
 The landscape is truly grand. Wild Boar Fell is a fine 
 object ; Cross Fell, when the helm- wind is on, looks sub- 
 lime ; Saddleback and Helvellyn blend their sunlit sum- 
 mits with the sky, and distance lends enchantment to the 
 view of the Cheviots. 
 
 Now, after feasting to your heart's content on this 
 lovely scene, aim for the High- street, which I have just 
 described, and about the middle of it, on the right as you 
 descend towards the low cross, you will see, for you cannot 
 miss it, a large oblong-square, whitewashed mansion. 
 Should you ask any native what that odd-looking place 
 is, the answer will be " Thaat pleaace ? wya ! it's t' 
 hoos et Jack belt." Anglice, " That place ? why, it's the 
 house that Jack built." Should you enquire further, as 
 probably you would be inclined to do, who Jack was ? 
 the answer would be " Jack ? Wya ! Jack Robeson, 
 to be suer \" Now, John Robinson, for that was the name 
 he actually received at baptism, as attested by the cer- 
 tificate, was bora in Appleby, about the year 1727. His 
 lineage is not recorded in the books of the Norroy King- 
 of- Arm's, nor yet in Tara's Psalter. He was simply the 
 son of a thriving tradesman, to wit, as the lawyers say, of
 
 154 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 one who kept a small shop, dealt in everything from sugar 
 to a shoe-tie, and was thriving on its profits. 
 
 By means of the excellent free grammar-school of his 
 native town, Jack managed to get the rudiments of edu- 
 cation. Public opinion seems much divided as to the 
 degree of instruction he received. If it be true, that he 
 became an attorney, and was a gentleman by act of par- 
 liament, when Sir James Lowther first took a fancy to 
 him ; if that be so, it may fairly be inferred that he did, 
 at school, make some progress in scholastic knowledge : 
 but there seems to prevail a well-grounded belief that he 
 was, as a mere boy, taken into the service of the House of 
 Lowther; and that when Sir James came of age, and 
 began to look after his own affairs, he discovered in the 
 lad in his office a most expert arithmetician. Certain it 
 is, that from the moment the eye of Sir James rested 
 upon him, his advancement was assured. He rose so 
 rapidly, that the pen that attempts to describe his ascent 
 fails in speed to follow him. I must be content, therefore, 
 to consolidate his honours by saying that, in a very 
 short space of time, he was M.P. for the county of West- 
 morland, and afterwards for the borough of Harwich ; 
 Lieutenant-Colonel of the Westmorland Militia ; Secretary 
 to the Treasury ; and lastly, Surveyor- General of His 
 Majesty's Woods and Forests. There is an accepted, but 
 erroneous tradition that his rocket-like ascent gave rise to 
 the household phrase "As soon as you can say Jack 
 Robeson " an error, undoubtedly, for the saying is to be 
 found in books written before Robinson was born. In all 
 probability it came to be fathered upon him, or rather
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 155 
 
 attached to his name, from the following circumstance. 
 When Jack was Secretaiy to the Treasury under Lord 
 North's Administration, he took a very active part in 
 politics. The H.B.s of the age caricatured him as the 
 political ratcatcher, and at one time he performed those 
 delicate and mysterious duties which the Hayters and 
 Jolliffes of our own day are said to discharge for their 
 respective parties ; in other words, he was a parliamentary 
 whip. Now, Brinsley Sheridan heing very much dis- 
 tressed at the bribery and corruption that had prevailed 
 at a general election just over, was hurling his anathemas 
 at the heads of those seated on the opposition benches, (of 
 course those on the same side with himself were incapable 
 of doing any wrong in this respect), when the cry arose 
 " Name ! name !" Sheridan turning round, and looking 
 Jack somewhat impudently in the face, exclaimed, " Name ! 
 ay, I could name him as soon as I could say Jack Robe- 
 son." This was, no doubt, the occasion that gave rise to 
 the notion that the saying had its origin in Mr. Robinson's 
 rapid rise from obscurity to wealth and power. 
 
 When Sir James Lowther first resolved on making 
 Robinson member for the county of Westmorland, he 
 found it necessary to confer upon his Jack-boot (as he was 
 sometimes called) a sufficient qualification to enable him 
 to sit in the House of Commons. This qualification (until 
 abolished in 1858) was in England for a knight of the 
 shire, 600 a-year ; and 300 a-year for a borough 
 member. Property worth 600 a-year had consequently 
 to be conveyed or transferred to Jack, to qualify him 
 as a knight of the shire. Where there's a will there's
 
 156 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 a way. It was no sooner said than done. Jack was 
 now M.P. for his native county ; and then it was that he 
 built the house in Appleby, which has been partly, but 
 very imperfectly, described. 
 
 To call it either a Dotheboys Hall, a ladies' seminary, a 
 workhouse, or a house of correction, or a house of a com- 
 posite order, would convey an imperfect idea of its size, 
 shape, or general appearance. No description does so 
 well as the common one that it's " the house that Jack 
 built;" for none but Robinson would have dreamt of 
 building such a fabric. Here, when he was in the north, 
 he lived, in almost regal splendour. Whether Sir James 
 got jealous of him on this account, or had just cause of 
 quarrel, is not certainly known : the estrangement took 
 place about the time when Sir James withdrew his sup- 
 port from Lord North on the American question, and it 
 may be, as some say, that Jack refused to be dictated to. 
 However, of a truth, they did quarrel, and Jack then ex- 
 changed his seat for Harwich, which he represented many 
 years. Sir James immediately demanded a return of the 
 property qualification conferred upon Robinson when he 
 was elected member for the county. This Jack refused to 
 restore, putting forward a counter claim of as large an 
 amount. It is commonly reported that he challenged Sir 
 James. The barbarous practice of duelling was, no doubt, 
 very common at that period ; but the fact was that Sir James, 
 and not Jack, sent the challenge. The late Colonel Low- 
 ther acted as Sir James' next friend ; and so determined was 
 he, for some reason or other, to become the principal instead 
 of the second in the affair, that he told Jack to his face that
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 157 
 
 he was a scoundrel, and that he had come on purpose to tell 
 him so. Such a fire-eater was not a man after Jack's own 
 heart, and he very wisely declined to have anything to do 
 with either of them. The matter ended in Jack's dis- 
 posing of his property in Appleby, and above all, by selling 
 his property of Burgage tenure to the Earl of Thanet, 
 Sir James's political rival, who thus got an equal footing 
 in the town with the house of. Lowther, and equally 
 divided the interest, until the Reform Bill of 1832 an- 
 nihilated the whole. 
 
 In 1788, Pitt made Robinson Surveyor General of His 
 Majesty's Woods and Forests. This office brought him into 
 immediate relation with the Royal Family, especially with 
 George the Third, with whom he was a special favourite. 
 "When he died," (says his learned biographer, Mr. 
 Serjeant Atkinson ; Worthies of Westmorland) " there 
 were upwards of three hundred letters in his writing desk 
 written to him by his sovereign, some on agricultural 
 matters, but many on the American War ; letters proving 
 alike the unbounded confidence placed in his head and 
 heart ; and that George the Third, as a farmer and as a 
 politician, was one of the ablest men of the age in which 
 he lived." His biographer tells an anecdote of Jack which 
 shows more fully his status at Windsor Castle. "The 
 king was once obliged in the chase to cross Wyke Farm" 
 (Robinson lived at Wyke House, near Brentford) " but on 
 riding up to one of the gates he found it locked. He hailed 
 a man close by, but the fellow seemed lazy or unwilling to 
 do as he was bid. ' Come, come/ said the king, ( open 
 the gate. 5 ' Nay, ye mun gang aboot,' was the answer.
 
 158 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 ' Gang aboot ! ' replied the king ; ' open the gate, man 
 I'm the king V ' Why, may be/ said the chap, 'but ye 
 mun gang aboot, if ye ert king/ and sure enough the 
 king was forced to gang aboot ; which in plain English 
 means that he was obliged to go round nearly the whole 
 enclosure of Osterly Perk. Whether Nimrod lost his 
 temper or not is unrecorded ; but that he was not in at 
 the death may be taken for granted, without any record 
 of the fact. Robinson came home in the afternoon, and 
 was told of his royal master's disappointment ; and being 
 assured of the fact by the offender himself, he instantly 
 ordered horses to his carriage, and drove post haste to 
 Kew. He was admitted as usual without ceremony, and 
 the king, laughing, greeted him thus : e Ah, Robinson, 
 I see you are in distress be of good cheer ! I wish I 
 had such fine fellows in my pay as add gang aboot. Tell 
 him from me that I shall always be glad to see him/ 
 Robinson was at ease ; and auld gang aboot very soon and 
 very often found a more direct path than around the 
 palings of Osterley Park to Kew Palace, where he always 
 met with the kindness which his sturdy honesty and prac- 
 tical good sense was sure to meet with under the roof of 
 one who himself had so large a share of both. The king 
 never saw friend Jack afterwards without enquiring affec- 
 tionately after auld gang aboot. 
 
 I have noticed the autograph letters on agricultural 
 matters found amongst Robinson's papers after his death ; 
 and it is not unworthy of note that the king used to sign 
 the name of Ralph Robinson to his agricultural letters in 
 Arthur Young. Sight-seers who drive from Windsor to
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 159 
 
 Virginia Water, will also be pleased to remember that 
 they ride through a forest of trees planted by the direc- 
 tion and under the eye of Jack Robinson. He used to 
 boast that he planted nearly twenty thousand oaks in 
 Windsor Park. 
 
 Jack was now in the meridian of his glory the child 
 of fortune, the companion of princes, and the influential 
 Member of Parliament. As Secretary to the Treasury, 
 he enjoyed a retiring pension of 1000 a-year, and he 
 held in addition the lucrative appointment of Surveyor- 
 General of His Majesty's Woods and Forests. He had 
 besides kicked away the ladder by which he rose to 
 power, and so freed himself from the political tyranny of 
 Sir James Lowther. With such advantages and prestige, 
 it will not be a matter of surprise to find that his only 
 child, a lovely and accomplished daughter, was wooed on 
 every hand. So, indeed, it was ; and Mr. Neville, after- 
 wards Earl of Abergavenny, carried off the fair prize. 
 Jack had thus ennobled his family. A patent of nobility 
 for himself seemed alone wanting to fill up the measure 
 of his good fortune, and bets ran high that he would 
 get one. 
 
 But the height of his prosperity had been attained : 
 nothing further remained in store for him but the bit- 
 terest adversity and the severest trials. Robinson's fall 
 was as rapid as his marvellous rise. I have already stated 
 that he was His Majesty's Surveyor-General of Woods 
 and Forests (an office now merged in the General Board 
 of Works). At the time he held this office there was, 
 strange to say, no fixed salary attached to it, nor yet was
 
 160 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the Chief Commissioner entitled to what is commonly called 
 a commission. It seems to have been a quasi, or sort of 
 commission measured in amount by the will of the minis- 
 ter. When he asked to have his accounts audited, he was 
 told to wait ; when he asked for money, he was told to 
 help himself. This he did, but being in constant expecta- 
 tion that his accounts would be properly audited and the 
 just balance admitted, he only took what he thought 
 sufficient for his immediate wants, and which was far, 
 very far, below the amount he believed was due to him. 
 As if he had a presentiment of danger, however, he 
 never ceased to importune Pitt for a settlement. At 
 last some busy-body in the House of Commons enquired 
 why public auditors should be paid out of the public 
 purse for doing nothing, and threatened to apply 
 for a Committee on the Woods and Forests generally. 
 The effect of this threat was the ruin of Jack Robinson. 
 He had now reached the venerable age of three score 
 years and ten, and had during the period of his official 
 life been immersed in political rather than financial de- 
 tails. Those who know the difficulty there is in rendering 
 a strict and rigid account of every halfpenny paid and 
 received during a course of ten or twelve years in the 
 ordinary concerns of life, can form a good notion of 
 the difficulty, if not impossibility, of rendering one 
 for a period so long and in matters so multitudinous 
 as those Robinson had to deal with. It is said that 
 vouchers were even called for in proof of the payment of 
 turnpike tolls ! And these were no trifles in those days, 
 when he had to post to Windsor and Kew (not to mention
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 161 
 
 other places) several times a week. To add to the diffi- 
 culty of such a mode of audit, the delay in calling for 
 a settlement had deprived him of the right or power to 
 call upon others to render their accounts to him. Robin- 
 son was assisted in his endeavours to 'make out his state- 
 ment by his able and confidential old clerk, Thornborough ; 
 but he had not strength of mind or body to carry him 
 through. Weighed down with this unexpected and heavy 
 calamity, and seeing no end of it but poverty a poverty 
 not springing from extravagance or inadvertence of his 
 own, he sunk beneath it, a broken-hearted man. 
 
 After his death, Thornborough, to his infinite credit, 
 pursued the matter, and in the end proved beyond all con- 
 troversy the cruelty and injustice of the treatment of his 
 master. He clearly established the fact that the Government 
 was Robinson's debtor to a large amount, and thereupon, 
 the title to Wyke House, being freed from Exchequer 
 claims, passed to the Earl of Jersey, the noble owner of 
 the adjoining estate of Osteriey Park. Robinson died in 
 December, 1802, in Harwich; but where he was buried 
 does not appear to have been ascertained with any degree 
 of certainty. The belief, however, is, that his remains 
 lie with those of his daughter, the Countess of Aber- 
 gavenny, at the corner of Isleworth churchyard. On her 
 tomb is written 
 
 MARY NEVILL, 
 
 COUNTESS OF ABERGAVENNY, 
 
 Died 26th Oct. 1 796, 
 
 Aged 36.
 
 162 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 When a man rises in the world, especially to the great 
 social and political height that Robinson did, it is natural 
 to expect to see his family, even to a very remote degree of 
 consanguinity and affinity, rise also. Robinson had two 
 brothers ; one became a bencher of Gray's Inn, and Re- 
 corder of Appleby, and the other attained the rank of 
 Rear Admiral in the British service. A sister married 
 into the Chaytor family, now of the county of Durham, 
 but formerly, it seems, from Appleby. 
 
 But Robinson's relatives of a more remote degree do 
 not seem to have risen much above the horizon of their 
 own primary condition. About thirty years ago, two of 
 the family, father and son, the only ones of the name, 
 lived three or four miles from the county town, on a small 
 piece of land belonging to the father. Their vicissitudes 
 are not without interest. The father was a remarkably 
 fine man, full six feet three inches in height, of powerful 
 form, and honest, good-humoured appearance. In an 
 evil hour he turned smuggler. The Excise detected him 
 and he fled. His property was seized and sold to satisfy 
 the requirements of the Excise laws, and the son was 
 driven to a trade for a living. The whereabouts of the 
 father was long unknown ; indeed, at this moment it is 
 known to very few. Not long ago, one who was acquainted 
 with him of old was struck with the stalwart frame and 
 front of a Guardsman on duty at the foot of the royal 
 staircase. The recognition was mutual. Under what 
 name he serves his queen and country is not material to 
 enquire ; for his loyalty, like his manhood, is inferior to-
 
 THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. 163 
 
 none. I have mentioned that the son, upon the father's 
 flight, took to a trade. He may any day be seen plod- 
 ding his weary way, with lap-board and goose over his 
 shoulders, to some lone farm-house for a day's work in 
 the art and mystery of a tailor.
 
 164 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 $(t louse of 
 
 The bonnie House o' Leslie. 
 
 OLD BALLAD. 
 
 No Scottish family can boast of more ancient nobility, or 
 more wide-spread fame, than that of Leslie. Like many 
 of the greatest houses in Scotland, it is not of native 
 origin, but followed the stream of foreign colonization 
 in the times of Edgar, Alexander, and David. The first 
 of the race is said to have settled in the district of Garioch 
 during the reign of King William the Lion ; and he took 
 the name of Leslie from the lands which were originally 
 assigned to him. 
 
 The Leslies have indeed been great during all the suc- 
 ceeding ages of Scottish history ; and their renown has 
 not been confined to their native country; for noble 
 Leslies are to be found in Germany, France, Russia, and 
 Poland. Leslies held high commands in the army of 
 Gustavus Adolphus ; and the German Emperors main- 
 tained Leslies among their distinguished generals. 
 
 After holding a high rank for many centuries among
 
 THE HOUSE OF ROTHES. 165 
 
 the Barons of Scotland, George Leslie of Rothes was 
 created an Earl, previous to 1458; for in that year a 
 charter was granted to him by the Crown of extensive 
 estates, in which he is mentioned as Earl of Rothes and 
 Lord Leslie. 
 
 The grandeur of this house reached its culminating 
 point in the person of John Leslie, sixth Earl of Rothes, 
 son of the fifth Earl, by Lady Anne Erskine, daughter of 
 John, eighth Earl of Marr. He was born in 1630, and 
 succeeded to his titles and estates when he was eleven 
 years of age. Having neither father nor mother, and 
 having been betrothed in childhood to Lady Anne Lindsay, 
 daughter of John, seventeenth Earl of Crawford, he was 
 admitted as a member of that powerful nobleman's family, 
 and was there brought up under the influence of the most 
 rigid puritanism. Crawford was at the head of the Cove- 
 nanting party, and was all-powerful among the Presby- 
 terians ; and it is probable that the exaggeration both in 
 politics and in religion, which young Rothes witnessed in 
 his early youth, inspired him with disgust at religion 
 altogether, and rendered him in after-life a ready instru- 
 ment of despotism. 
 
 His education was, unfortunately, very much neglected, 
 and he owed everything to his own quick parts and 
 lively talents. He was an amiable man, of genial and 
 kindly disposition ; and if he had been trained in a more 
 enlightened school, he might have turned out a better 
 member of society. 
 
 When he was twenty years of age, he left his guardian's 
 tutelage, and fixed his residence with great splendour
 
 166 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 at Leslie, the mansion of his ancestors. From the year 
 1650, he began to take a very active part in the political 
 destinies of his country, and continued to be a leader of 
 the high royalist cause during the remainder of his life. 
 As soon as Charles the Second arrived in Scotland from 
 Holland, Rothes was among the first to join him, and 
 was most favourably received by the King, whose habits 
 and temper were congenial to his own. He carried the 
 sword of state at that King's Scottish coronation. 
 
 In 1651, he raised a regiment of horse among his own 
 Fifeshire vassals and dependents, and fought at the un- 
 fortunate battle of Worcester, where he was taken prisoner, 
 and sent to the Tower. He was not set free until 1655, 
 when Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart, (afterwards 
 the wife of Lauderdale), who was seldom insensible to 
 the attraction of a handsome young man, and who had 
 obtained a veiy remarkable influence over an excessively 
 ugly old one in the person of the Lord Protector, obtained 
 his freedom as the result of a double intrigue. He re- 
 mained unmolested in Scotland until 1658, when he was 
 imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle. He was soon, however, 
 liberated, and fled to King Charles, at Breda, where he 
 remained with him until the Restoration. 
 
 Rothes was a man of pleasure, and of very little moral 
 principle. He was a high aristocrat from feeling, and 
 was personally a devoted friend of the king. He was 
 lively, clever, and possessed of a most insinuating address. 
 It may, therefore, be imagined that he was just the man 
 that suited the merry monarch ; who was accordingly no 
 sooner restored to his throne, than he heaped honours and
 
 THE HOUSE OF ROTHE8. 167 
 
 posts upon young Rothes. In fact, he entrusted him, for 
 a time, with the chief direction of state affairs in Scotland. 
 In 1661, he was made President of the Council; and in 
 1662, King's High Commissioner to the Parliament. His 
 father-in-law, Lord Crawford, was now entirely in the back- 
 ground, and his office of Lord High Treasurer was con- 
 ferred upon him. He was also appointed General of the 
 Forces, and in 1664, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. 
 
 Having no very well-defined views in religious or eccle- 
 siastical matters, he was much guided in his conduct as 
 regarded them by Sharpe, Archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 and he commenced a course of severity against the abettors 
 of Puritanism. At the same time, he gave unbridled 
 license to all sorts of dissipation, which made his enemies 
 ironically remark that, as King's commissioner, he felt 
 himself in duty bound, in every respect, to represent his 
 Majesty ! 
 
 It generally happens in religious controversy, that the 
 secular arm is steeled by the ecclesiastical against those 
 who have incurred censure. The " odium theologicum " 
 is the strongest of any ; and in all persecutions, church- 
 men have been the most intolerant. So it was in the 
 present case. Rothes, now become a duke, was stimulated 
 to severity, contrary to his easy epicurean nature, by 
 Sharpe. But he was, after all, a bad persecutor, as is 
 shown by one or two trifling, though curious anecdotes. 
 The Duchess, who was daughter of the rigidly Presbyterian 
 Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, had been educated to 
 entertain the utmost reverence for those whom her lord 
 was now called on to pursue even to the death. She, true
 
 168 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 to her family principles, made a point of conscience and of 
 honour in sheltering, concealing, and supporting a number 
 of the proscribed covenanting ministers and preachers. 
 This was well known to Rothes, who used to make a joke 
 of it, and was in the habit of giving the Duchess fair 
 warning ; coming to her in the morning, he says, " My 
 Lady Duchess, my hawks are to be abroad to-night, so 
 pray keep your blackbirds safe in their cages !" On this, 
 the Duchess used to hang out a large tablecloth from the 
 window of her own chamber, which, being seen from afar, 
 served as a signal to the covenanting zealots to keep within 
 their caves and fastnesses. 
 
 One day Archbishop Sharpe was visiting the Duke at 
 Leslie, and had occasion to complain bitterly of two of 
 the principal burgesses of one of the Fifeshire towns, 
 Dunfermline or Kirkaldy (whichever was nearest to Leslie), 
 as malignant and dangerous fanatics of whom the country 
 would be well rid. His Grace said that he would punc- 
 tually attend to the Archbishop's advice. And he accord- 
 ingly sent for them, and had them in waiting, well 
 guarded, in front of his house, just as Sharpe drove off 
 in his coach after dinner, with the comfortable conviction 
 that the obnoxious covenanters were about to have a good 
 spell of the Bass-rock prison, if nothing worse. As soon 
 as the primate was gone, the Duke desired the two men to 
 be taken into a room, where he soon after joined them, and 
 found them trembling and with very sorrowful counte- 
 nances. He sent for a bottle of wine ; told them to cheer 
 up, and began to talk to them about the markets and the 
 stale of trade, &c., and plying them well with wine, he
 
 THE HOUSE OP ROTHBS. 169 
 
 sent them home more than half- seas over ! He was, in 
 fact, much too jovial and debonnaire to be a persecutor. 
 
 However, he was led into such severe measures, that he 
 incurred the disapprobation of the court which he so 
 zealously served. But the crisis of his disfavour was 
 occasioned by an accident, in which he had no share of 
 blame. In 1667, a division of De Ruyter's Dutch fleet 
 sailed up the Frith of Forth, and shot off a few harmless 
 guns against Bruntisland, on the coast of Fife. Rothes 
 was then absent on a progress in the north of Scotland. 
 This was represented most falsely by his enemies, as a 
 proof of gross negligence, and a strong push was made 
 to deprive him of his power. The King consented, but 
 resolved "de le laisser tomber doucement." The army 
 was disbanded, so he ceased to command it, and he was 
 deprived of his office of Lord High Treasurer. But on 
 the other hand, he had just before been appointed Lord 
 High Chancellor for life; and in 1680, he was raised to 
 Ducal rank, being created Duke of Rothes, Marquess of 
 Ballenbreich, Earl of Leslie, &c., &c. 
 
 He did not live long to enjoy these higher hereditary 
 honours, for he died at Holyrood House on the 27th of 
 July, 1681. His body was carried to the cathedral church 
 of St. Giles, in Edinburgh, where the funeral ceremonial 
 was conducted with a pomp and magnificence which had 
 never before been bestowed on the remains of a subject. 
 From St. Giles' it was re-conveyed to Holyrood House, 
 with a luxury of lugubrious pageantry, and there it lay 
 for some time in state ; and from thence, with the same 
 magnificence, it was carried to Leith, put on board a
 
 170 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ship, and conveyed to Leslie, where it was interred, with 
 a continuation of the same magnificence, in his family 
 mausoleum. An engraving of the superb funeral proces- 
 sion was made, and it is now valued as a curious record of 
 the utmost extent of magnificence to which funeral rites 
 had ever attained in Scotland. 
 
 The errors of the Duke of Rothes, both in public and 
 in private, were those of a defective education. Old Lord 
 Crawford had much to answer for in not caring more for 
 the mental culture of his son-in-law. His redeeming 
 qualities were ready wit, lively talents, and a genial tem- 
 perament, which might have been moulded to better 
 purposes. Bishop Burnett, who knew him well, and cer- 
 tainly was not partial to him, gives the following testi- 
 mony as to his qualities : "He had a ready dexterity in 
 the management of affairs, with a soft and insinuating 
 address. He had a quick apprehension, and a clear 
 judgment. He had no advantage of education, no sort of 
 literature ; all in him was mere nature." 
 
 The Duchess is believed to have been a woman of sin- 
 cere worth and piety, strong in the covenanting interest. 
 It is a remarkable circumstance that there were a number 
 of ladies of some of the most considerable families of 
 Scotland, and all closely connected, who were celebrated 
 for their strict religious principles, which seemed to have 
 been hereditary. The two grandmothers of the Duchess 
 of Rothes, the Lady Boyd, and the Marchioness of Hamil- 
 ton, her mother, the Countess of Crawford, and her sister- 
 in-law, also Countess of Crawford, all belonged to this 
 very strict and devoted sect, to whom it is impossible to
 
 THE HOUSE OF KOTHES. 171 
 
 deny the praise of zeal and sincerity, however much we 
 may wish that these qualities had been united with a 
 greater share of Christian liberality. 
 
 The Duke of Rothes' highest honours became extinct, 
 but his earldom was inherited by his eldest daughter, 
 Lady Margaret Leslie, who in 1674, seven years before 
 her father's death, had married Charles Hamilton, fifth 
 Earl of Haddington. She died in 1700, and was suc- 
 ceeded by her eldest son, on whom the earldom of Rothes 
 devolved ; while, by a family arrangement, sanctioned by 
 the Crown, the Earldom of Haddington was made to 
 descend to the second son. 
 
 In 1773, the Earldom of Rothes was inherited by 
 another heiress, Lady Jane Elizabeth Leslie, who became 
 Countess of Rothes on the death of her brother, the 
 ninth Earl. By her first husband, Mr. Evelyn, a gentle- 
 man of ancient family in the county of Kent, which 
 reckons among its ornaments the author of Sylva, she 
 had a son, George William, tenth Earl of Rothes, who 
 succeeded his mother in 1810. This nobleman married 
 in 1789 the Honourable Henrietta Anne Pelham, daughter 
 of Thomas Lord Pelham, afterwards created Earl of Chi- 
 chester, by whom he had three daughters, the eldest of 
 whom was the unfortunate occasion of bringing the illus- 
 trious family of Rothes within the category of fallen 
 greatness. 
 
 This young lady, the descendant of the noble blood of 
 all the Leslies, the heir and representative of the great 
 Duke of Rothes who lived like a prince, and was buried 
 like a king, condescended to stoop to a young gardener ;
 
 172 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 nay, more, made (as is reported) a most excellent, indus- 
 trious, frugal, gardener's wife during many long years. 
 
 It is said that Lady Henrietta Anne Leslie, while yet 
 quite a girl, conceived an attachment for a young work- 
 man whom she met in a garden where she occasionally 
 walked. The attachment was mutual, and strictly vir- 
 tuous ; and in a very short time the noble heiress found 
 means to make out a marriage with the object of her 
 affection, without the knowledge of her family. 
 
 This most unfortunate step was one without remedy. 
 Had it happened before the Union, instead of in 1806, 
 the old Countess, who was still alive, with the concurrence 
 of the heir apparent to the earldom (the father of the 
 young lady), would have resigned the family titles to the 
 crown, and have thus procured a new patent, with the sub- 
 stitution of a different series of heirs, so as to banish the 
 offending daughter for ever into that obscurity which she 
 had taken for her portion. But this could not now be done, 
 and the gardener's wife was the undoubted heir of the 
 splendid titles and the entailed possessions of her race. 
 
 She, however, in the meantime, strictly conformed her- 
 self to her new circumstances ; and from the period of her 
 marriage in 1806 to that of her father, the tenth EarPs 
 death, in 1817, she is said to have been a most happy and 
 respectable woman, living contentedly in lowly circum- 
 stances, and supported by the honest industry of her 
 husband. 
 
 In 1817, she became Countess of Rothes ; and the 
 young gardener, whose name was George Gwyther, there- 
 upon assumed the surname and arms of Leslie. The
 
 THE HOUSE OP ROTHES. 173 
 
 poor Countess did not live long to enjoy her new honours. 
 She died in 1819, and was followed in ten years by her 
 low-born husband. Her son and her grandson, too, are 
 passed away, and the splendid honours of the House of 
 Leslie have again devolved on a youthful Countess. It is 
 only about a year since the young Earl died, and was 
 succeeded in his titles and estates by his sister. 
 
 Let me conclude this article with an expression of 
 most friendly and very sincere anxiety that this young 
 lady may avoid the rock on which her grandmother made 
 shipwreck. She has in a great measure the fate of a 
 splendid title in her own hands. Her Earldom is not 
 only one of the most ancient in the peerage, but boasts of 
 many most illustrious alliances, and an uncommon share 
 of historical importance, and her fine domain and Castle 
 of Leslie are identified with many remai'kable and striking 
 events of feudal times. Let her carry these honours and 
 possessions into some one of the noblest houses of Great 
 Britain, so that the ancient stem of Rothes may be in- 
 vigorated by union with a Douglas, a Howard, a Suther- 
 land, or a Hamilton. 
 
 Since the foregoing remarks were written, the marriage 
 of the young Countess of Rothes with the Hon. George 
 Waldegrave,the descendant of a famous old English family, 
 well worthy of such an alliance, has been announced.
 
 174 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 0f Calhnbar. 
 
 The rowan tree grows ower their w'a, 
 
 The deer grass in their tower, 
 And the howlet, the bat, and the mowdiwart 
 
 Are rife in Burd Ellen's bower. 
 
 OLD BALLAD. 
 
 AMONGST the chief historical families of Scotland, few- 
 have risen at various periods to greater power and higher 
 honours, or have possessed more extensive estates than 
 the Livingstones, and few have fallen into more complete 
 and disastrous decay. Acquiring in the male line 
 three distinct earldoms, Linlithgow, Callendar, aad 
 Newburgh, and two viscounties, Kilsyth and Teviot, 
 with numerous baronies and minor honours, Livingstone, 
 Ealkirk, Almond, Kinnaird, Campsie, and Flacraig, they 
 almost rivalled in feudal power the mighty house of 
 Douglas ; but nearly the whole of their splendid inherit- 
 ance has disappeared, leaving the present representative 
 of the family in utter poverty, the trifling remnant of the 
 great estates of his ancestors under judicial management, 
 and his legitimacy and right to their unattainted baro- 
 netcy the subject of legal investigation. It is believed
 
 THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAK. 175 
 
 that there is not now a single landed proprietor of the 
 name of Livingstone (in the male line), with the exception 
 of Sir Alexander Livingstone of Bedlormie, whose title is 
 under question, in the possession of lands in the counties 
 of Linlithgow and Stirling, where they were once so 
 powerful. The titles of the Earldom of Newburgh, in- 
 deed, still remain, but in the person of an Italian Princess, 
 Marie Cecilia Princess Giustiniani, and Marchesa Bandini, 
 to whom they were recently (1858) adjudged by the 
 House of Lords, and the heir of the Earls of Erroll and 
 Kilmarnock still holds his unattainted earldom, and his 
 great office of Lord High Constable of Scotland, in virtue 
 of his descent from Lady Margaret Livingstone, his direct 
 ancestress, the only surviving child of James Earl of Cal- 
 lendar and Linlithgow (attainted in 1715) ; but the whole 
 of the wide-spreading lands and baronies have passed into 
 other hands. The founder of the family in Scotland, 
 Levingus, said to have been of noble Hungarian descent, 
 settled in West Lothian towards the end of the eleventh 
 century, and Livingston (the town or residence of Levin- 
 gus), in Linlithgowshire, long continued in the possession 
 of the senior line : " Thurstanus films Levingi" is dis- 
 tinctly documented in 1128. Gradually we find the 
 knights and barons of Livingstone and Callendar be- 
 coming prominent among the Magnates Scotia, filling 
 the offices of Great Chamberlain in Scotland, Lord Justice 
 General, Ambassador to England, Governor and Custodier 
 of the king's person, and Regent of the Kingdom ; their 
 banner waving in every battle, and their influence ac- 
 knowledged in every council. One is knighted under the
 
 176 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Royal Standard, and taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Durham, 17th of October, 1346, another falls at Homil- 
 don, 14th of September, 1402, and Sir Bartholomew de 
 Levingstone, the last of the elder line, is killed at Flodden, 
 gallantly fighting by the side of his chivalrous sovereign, 
 on the fatal 9th of September, 1513. Long before this, 
 the younger branch, that of Callendar, in which the 
 representation of the main line eventually merged, had 
 risen to great power, by the acquisition of that ancient 
 Thanedom, partly by royal grant, and partly by a for- 
 tunate or judicious marriage. In 1345-46, Sir William 
 Livingstone (grandson of Dominus Erchebaldus de Leviug- 
 stone, Miles, who had been compelled to swear fealty to 
 Edward the First) obtained the great Thanedom of Kal- 
 lendar or Calynter, by charter under the great seal, on the 
 forfeiture of Patrick de Calynter; but, in order to strengthen 
 his right to these domains, or, it may be, to conciliate the 
 numerous retainers of the former barons, or, perchance, 
 under the influence of the grace and beauty, and in sym- 
 pathy for the fallen fortunes of the young lady, Sir "Wil- 
 liam married Christine de Calynter, the only child and 
 heiress of the attainted Thane. By her he had two sons, 
 the younger of whom, William, carried on the line of the 
 family. Of the ancient Scottish Thanedoms, that of 
 Calentyr, possessed by the Calentyrs of Calentyr, from a 
 period prior to 1217, appears to have been the only one 
 situated to the south of the Forth ; and it was continued 
 by the marriage of Christine de Calentyr and Sir William 
 Livingstone in the possession of the lineal descendants of 
 the original Thanes for the long period of five hundred 
 years.
 
 THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 177 
 
 During the days of their feudal power, the Living- 
 stones were not more remarkable for the extent of their 
 estates and their almost regal influence, than for the 
 great alliances which they invariably formed. The Laird 
 of Callendar never seems to attempt to subdue (legiti- 
 mately, at least,) the obdurate heart of any less stately 
 damsel than the daughter of a great baron; all the 
 Livingstone wives are of this rank, Erskines, Crichtons, 
 Flemings, Hays (of Erroll), Grahams (of Montrose and 
 Menteith), Gordons (of Huntly), Douglases of the illus- 
 trious House of Morton, and the like. Even the cadet 
 branches of Kilsyth, Teviot, and Newburgh follow gene- 
 rally this aristocratic rule, Newburgh, especially, carrying 
 the same principle of action into foreign lands, and, in 
 the course of comparatively a few years, intermarrying, 
 in England, with the Howards Earls of Suffolk, the 
 Brudenells Earls of Cardigan, the Lords Clifford of Chud- 
 leigh, and the Ratcliffes Earls of Derwe.ntwater, and, in 
 the States of the Church, with the Princely House of 
 Giustiniani. 
 
 Sir Alexander Livingstone, the fourth of Callendar, 
 was one of the jury on the trial of Murdoc Duke of 
 Albany (1424) ; and, at the death of James I., was 
 constituted regent of the kingdom, and guardian of the 
 young monarch, James II. The Chancellor, Crichton, 
 had, however, custody of the king in the Castle of Edin- 
 burgh ; and it was only by a ruse that the deliverance of 
 the sovereign was effected. The Queen Dowager (Jane 
 Beaufort), who was a devoted adherent of Livingstone's, 
 contrived to get access to her son, and conveyed him, 
 2 N
 
 178 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 concealed in a chest, on board a vessel, then lying at 
 Leith, which, with its royal freight, immediately set sail, and 
 arrived at Stirling almost as soon as the Chancellor heard 
 of the escape. At Stirling their Majesties were joyfully re- 
 ceived by the Regent, but the good understanding between 
 the Queen and Livingstone was not of long duration, and in 
 1439 their animosities had reached to such a height that 
 her Majesty was imprisoned by Livingstone's order. The 
 dissensions, too, between the Regent and the Chancellor 
 continued, till the increasing power and audacity of the 
 young Earl of Douglas, sixth Earl and third Duke of 
 Touraine, the greatest subject in the kingdom, forced 
 them into a temporary reconciliation. Douglas, besides 
 Galloway and Anandale, and other extensive territories 
 in Scotland, possessed the Duchy of Touraine and County 
 of Longueville, in France. In right of his Duchy, he 
 regarded himself as a foreign prince, independent of the 
 laws of his country. He was attended by a constant train 
 of one thousand horse, and his household displayed a 
 regal magnificence, while he even created knights, and 
 convened his great vassals in Parliaments. Soon after 
 their reunion, Livingstone and Crichton, dissembling their 
 intentions, asked the Earl of Douglas to sup at the royal 
 table in the Castle of Edinburgh ; the earl was fool-hardy 
 enough to accept the invitation, and proceeded to his 
 sovereign's presence. At first he was received with appa- 
 rent cordiality, but shortly after he had taken his place 
 at the board, the head of a black bull, the certain 
 omen, in those days, in Scotland, of immediate death, was 
 placed upon the table. The earl sprang to his feet and
 
 THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAE. 179 
 
 attempted to escape, but being speedily seized and over- 
 powered, he was hurried, along with his younger brother 
 David, and Sir Malcolm Fleming, of Cumbernauld, one of 
 his chief retainers, into the courtyard of the castle, wnere 
 they were stripped of their armour, and all three in 
 succession beheaded on the same block. The death of 
 the young and princely Earl of Douglas excited universal 
 detestation, and his untimely fate was lamented in the 
 ballads of the time : 
 
 Edinburgh Castle, Toune, and^Toure, 
 
 God grant tliou sink for sin, 
 And that even for the black dinoure j 
 
 Earl Douglas gat therein. 
 
 This tragedy was enacted on the 24th November, 1440, 
 and for the moment it annihilated all opposition to the 
 regency ; but four years afterwards, William, eighth Earl 
 of Douglas, having married his cousin, the fair Maid 
 of Galloway, restored the fortunes of his house, and suc- 
 ceeded so far in influencing the young king, that Living- 
 stone was attainted of high treason ; Douglas boasting 
 that he would hang his old enemy from the battlements of 
 Livingstone's own castle, or, as he expressed it, "worry the 
 tod in his ain den." This, however, was more easily said 
 than done ; and after many cruel scenes of mutual blood- 
 shed, and alternate fields of victory and defeat, Livingstone 
 regained the royal favour, and in 1449 was made Lord 
 Justice General, and sent Ambassador to England the 
 same year. Shortly afterwards this great and turbulent 
 lord was peaceably gathered to his fathers. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his eldest son, Sir James Livingstone of Cal-
 
 180 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 lendar, who had been appointed Captain of Stirling Castle, 
 and tutor of James the Second, during the regency of his 
 father. In 1453, Sir James was sworn a Privy Councillor, 
 and appointed Master of the Royal Household, and Great 
 Chamberlain of Scotland. He was afterwards created a 
 peer of Parliament by the title of Lord Livingstone ; the 
 exact date is not known, but it was some time previous to 
 30th August, 1450, when the extensive estates of the 
 family in Stirlingshire, West Lothian, and Perthshire were 
 united into the one barony of Callendar, by a royal charter 
 in favour of James Lord Livingstone. 
 
 About a century after this, the Lord Livingstone of 
 that day was constituted by Act of Parliament, 24th April, 
 1545, along with John Lord Erskine, governor and keeper 
 of the infant Queen Mary, whom he accompanied in that 
 capacity into France, in 1548, and died there about 1553. 
 These lords received for the care of their young Queen, 
 80 a month from the last of November, 1545, to the 
 last of February, 1548, when they sailed with her to 
 France ; and thanks were formally given to them in the 
 Parliament held at Haddington, 20th July, 1548, for the 
 manner in which they had executed their trust. The 
 youngest daughter of this Lord Livingstone was one of 
 the four Maries, selected and adopted by the Queen mother, 
 Mary of Guise, from the noblest families of the land to be 
 the playmates and schoolfellows of her royal daughter. 
 In the plaintive words of the old melody 
 
 " There was Mary Seton, and Mary Beaton, 
 And Mary Fleming, and me" 
 
 Me being Mary Livingstone.
 
 THE LAIKDS OF UALLENDAR. 181 
 
 There is still to be seen at Westquarter House, the last 
 remaining mansion of the family, a large, antique, and 
 very beautiful cabinet, the doors of which are enriched with 
 various flowers traced in bead-work, which belonged to the 
 Queen, and was the united work of her four Maries. In her 
 wanderings, adversities, and captivities, Queen Mary ever 
 found these faithful attendants at her side; they accompa- 
 nied her to France, attended her while she remained there, 
 and returned with her to Scotland. Exchanging the brilliant 
 gaiety of Paris for the fanatic gloom of Edinburgh, the true- 
 hearted maidens never failed in their devotion to Mary 
 Stuart : their romantic attachment to their royal and ill- 
 fated mistress endeared them to the people ; their memo- 
 ries have been united in the melody of many a ballad, and 
 enshrined in the songs of their native land. The name 
 of Mary Livingstone, traduced and calumniated by 
 the harsh and unfeeling John Knox, yet lingers in the 
 traditions of the neighbourhood of Callendar : she is 
 still talked of as having married her father's " galopin," 
 or menial-groom, who is said to have treated her cruelly. 
 This is no farther true than that she married John Sempill, 
 of Beltrees, (John Sempill, the Dancer, as John Knox styles 
 him,) a younger son of Robert, third Lord Sempill ; that 
 he may have held the situation of equerry to Lord Living- 
 stone, then a great officer of state, and that hence he may 
 have been denominated his " galopin," perhaps to heighten 
 the story. But such appointments in the establishments 
 of the greater barons were given to the younger sons of 
 the noblest families; and this at least is certain, that 
 Sempill was at one time an equerry or page in the royal
 
 182 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 household : of this, the evidence still remains. By a 
 charter, dated 9th March, 1564, ratified by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, 19th April, 1567, Queen Mary, "in consideration 
 of the long continued services of Mary Livingstone, her 
 Majesty's familiar servitrice, and John Sempill, son of 
 Robert Lord Sempill, her daily and family servitour," 
 granted to them the lands of Auchtermuchty and others, 
 until they should be provided in an estate of 500 a-year. 
 The story that the marriage was unhappy may be as apo- 
 cryphal as that the husband was a groom. 
 
 Amid all the vicissitudes of fortune, William, sixth 
 Lord Livingstone (the brother of the Queen's Mary), 
 was the steady and unflinching adherent of his royal 
 and hapless mistress; he joined her after her escape 
 from Lochleven, fought gallantly for her at Langside, 
 and, after that fatal day, accompanied her to England 
 to share her captivity. Thither he was shortly after- 
 wards followed, in the same loyal service, by his wife, a 
 daughter of Malcolm, third Lord Fleming. On the 26th 
 of Februaiy, 1569, Nicholas Whyte writes to Secretary 
 Cecil, " the greatest person about her (Mary) is the Lord 
 Livingstone, and the Lady his wife which is a fair gentle- 
 woman." 
 
 The son of these faithful followers of an unhappy queen 
 was Alexander, seventh Lord Livingstone, who married 
 Lady Eleanor Hay, daughter of Andrew, seventh Earl of 
 Erroll, and to their care the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards 
 Electress Palatine and Queen of Bohemia, and her sister, 
 were committed. The Queen of Bohemia has been usually 
 regarded as the only daughter of James the Sixth ; but it
 
 THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 183 
 
 appears from a charter of that king, erecting Falkirk into 
 a free burgh or barony in favour of the Lord Livingstone, 
 dated 13th March, 1600, that there was another daughter 
 whose existence has generally escaped the notice of his 
 torians. This charter sets forth " the great care, extreme 
 diligence and solicitude of our said trusty cousin and 
 councillor Alexander Lord Livingstone, and Dame Helenor 
 Hay, his spouse, in divers years by past with regard to our 
 two legitimate daughters, by undertaking their education, 
 in their own society. And also, we clearly understanding 
 our foresaid illustrious, trusty cousin and councillor, to be 
 justly due the sum of 10,000, money of this realm of 
 Scotland, for the food, nourishment, sustenance and edu- 
 cation of our said two daughters, and their body-servants, 
 during the foresaid space : Therefore, in full satisfaction of 
 the said sum, and for the good, faithful, long and honour- 
 able services to us and our most illustrious progenitors 
 done and performed by the said Alexander Lord Living- 
 stone and his predecessors in defence of the kingdom 
 against all foreign and intestine foes, &c., we now give, 
 grant and dispose to the foresaid Alexander Lord Living- 
 stone," &c., &c. It is believed that this charter is the 
 only document extant establishing the existence of another 
 daughter of James the Sixth, besides the Princess Eliza- 
 beth. But although this charter bears to be "in full 
 satisfaction" of all previous services, the royal gratitude 
 did not stop here, and, the same year, in farther recog- 
 nition and reward of the good deeds of himself and his 
 predecessors, Alexander, seventh Lord Livingstone, was 
 created Earl of Linlithgow, Lord Livingstone and Call en-
 
 184 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 dar, on the 25th December, 1600, at the baptism of 
 Prince Charles ; and within little more than thirty years 
 after (on the 19th June 1633), the third son of the first 
 Earl, the Hon. Sir James Livingstone, who had won great 
 militaiy renown in the wars in Bohemia, Germany, Hol- 
 land and Sweden, was raised to a separate peerage as 
 Lord Livingstone of Almond, and on the 16th October, 
 1641, farther advanced to the dignity of Earl of Callendar. 
 But the sunshine of kingly favour was not limited to 
 the main line of Livingstone ; it shed its beams abun- 
 dantly on the younger branches. In 1627, Sir John 
 Livingstone of Kinnaird, descended from Robert, the second 
 son of Sir John Livingstone, third Laird of Callendar, was 
 created a baronet of Nova Scotia ; his son and successor, 
 Sir James, was one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber 
 to Charles the First, by whom he was created Viscount of 
 Newburgh, 13th September, 1647 ; Lord Newlurgh, faith- 
 ful to his king, was excepted from Cromwell's Act of 
 Grace, 1664, and fled out of England, and joined Charles 
 the Second at the Hague. He continued with his Majesty 
 during his exile, and on the Restoration was constituted 
 Captain of the Guards, and created Earl of Newburgh, 
 Viscount Kinnaird, and Baron Livingstone of Flacraig, to 
 him and his heirs whatsoever, by patent dated 31st De- 
 cember, 1660. These titles are now vested, by a decision 
 of the House of Lords, in the Princess Giustiniani, who 
 has been naturalized by Act of Parliament, and is the 
 present Countess of Newburgh. The history of the house 
 of Newburgh is very curious, and would in itself form an 
 interesting chapter in the romance of Peerage succession.
 
 THE LAIRDS OP CALLENDAR. 185 
 
 The Kilsyth branch was raised to the peerage as Viscount 
 Kilsyth and Baron Campsie, 17th August 1661, and the 
 Teviot family (a cadet of Kilsyth) obtained a baronetcy 
 29th June, 1627, and the Viscounty of Teviot, 4th De- 
 cember, 1696. The Westquarter baronetcy dates from 
 the 30th May, 1625. 
 
 Thus far we have seen the Livingstones in their splen- 
 dour, let us shortly contemplate them in their decline 
 and fall. George, fourth Earl of Linlithgow, died in 
 August 1695, without issue, when he was succeeded in 
 his titles and estates by his nephew, James, fourth Earl 
 of Callendar, who, engaging in the rebellion of 1715, was 
 attainted as Earl of Linlithgow and Callendar, and his 
 whole lands and dignities forfeited to the Crown. He had 
 married Lady Margaret Hay, daughter of the twelfth Earl 
 of Erroll, by whom he had one surviving child, Lady Anne 
 Livingstone, married to William, fourth Earl of Kilmar- 
 nock, and her eldest son, James, Lord Boyd, succeeded 
 in her right to the Earldom of Erroll. The great Callendar 
 property was sold to the York Buildings Company, a London 
 incorporation which speculated largely in the purchase of 
 forfeited estates ; but the " Bairns of Falkirk," as they 
 delighted to style themselves, and the other vassals and 
 tenants of the Livingstones, were a turbulent and unruly 
 race, even under their feudal lords, and little inclined to 
 yield " suit and service," and far less to pay rents, to an 
 association of London tradesmen. To them, the York 
 Buildings Company was as unintelligible as the impersonal 
 "John Company Bahadoor/' to the retainers of the Great 
 Mogul. Accordingly, the Company soon discovered that
 
 186 1CISSIT00ES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the only mode of deriving any thing from the estates was 
 to transfer them to the heiress of the family, and a long 
 lease was therefore granted to the Earl and Countess of 
 Kilmamock, who were thus re-established at Callendar, 
 and might, like the Panmure family, under somewhat 
 similar circumstances, have eventually recovered permanent 
 possession of their original domains. This lease did not 
 expire till 1773; but long before that, the Earl of Kil- 
 marnock, not taught wisdom by the ruin of his predecessor, 
 joined Charles Edward after the battle of Preston, was 
 captured on the fatal field of Culloden, sent a prisoner to 
 London, and beheaded on Tower Hill in 1746. On an 
 eminence, or rather hill, above Callendar House, now 
 crowned by a circular plantation, tradition still points 
 out the spot where the last Earl of Kilmarnock, as he 
 rode away to join the unfortunate Chevalier, lingering 
 behind his armed and mounted followers, turned his 
 horse round to take a farewell look at the grand old 
 Livingstone estate, which he was never again to see. 
 There is scarely a finer view in Britain than that which 
 this spot commands : far in the blue distance to the 
 North rises the serrated semicircle of the Grampians, 
 forming, with the broad-topped Ochills, and the waving 
 westward sweep of the Campsie Fells, and the hills of 
 Saline to the east, a magnificent mountain amphitheatre, 
 the castled Rock of Stirling glittering in the centre, and 
 the broad expanse of the Firth of Forth, more like a lake 
 or inland sea than an estuary, stretching away towards 
 the German Ocean : the rich and beautiful Carse of 
 Falkirk is in the foreground, studded with villages and
 
 THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAR. 187 
 
 church spires, and here and there an ancient feudal tower. 
 The landscape is indeed wondrously attractive, combining 
 every thing which wood, and water, and rock, and undu- 
 lating surface can contribute to diversify and adorn the 
 scene. One can fully comprehend the sad feelings of 
 the gallant but vacillating Kilmarnock, as he lingered 
 for the last time over this lovely prospect, and the noble 
 domain mapped out before him, which he was about to 
 imperil for what he must then have regarded as- the cause 
 of his legitimate sovereign. 
 
 The affairs of the York Buildings Company having fallen 
 into disorder, the Estates of Callendar were brought to ju- 
 dicial sale, and purchased about 1780 by William. Forbes, 
 Esq., a great London merchant, and a descendant of the 
 family of Forbes of Colquhany in Aberdeenshire. Mr. 
 Forbes married twice first, the beautiful Miss Macadam 
 of Craigengillian in Ayrshire, but without issue ; and se- 
 condly, Miss Agnes Chalmers of Aberdeenshire, and dying 
 in 1815, was succeeded by his eldest son, the late William 
 Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, M.P., and Vice-Lieutenant of 
 the County of Stirling, who married in 1832 Lady Louisa 
 Charteris, fifth daughter of the Earl of Wemyss and 
 March, and dying in 1856, was succeeded by his eldest 
 son, the present William Forbes, Esq. of Callendar, who, in 
 addition to the ancient Thanedom of Calleiidar, and the 
 Baronies of Hayning and Almond, the original domains 
 of the Callendars and Livingstones, is the proprietor of 
 extensive estates in the counties of Stirling, Ayr, and 
 Kircudbright. Mr. Forbes married in 1859 Miss Rose 
 O'Hara, daughter of the late John O'Hara, Esq. of Raheen,
 
 188 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 in the county of Galway, and his wife, the Dowager Lady 
 O'Donnell. 
 
 It has been handed down that for centuries " the Ladies 
 of Callendar " have been remarkable for beauty. In this, 
 the present proves the past. Thanks to these nuptials of 
 1859, the pre-eminence is more than ever preserved. The 
 spell of loveliness still endures, its power enhanced, its 
 charm unfaded. 
 
 Of the .remaining two ennobled branches of the House 
 of Livingstone, the conclusion is soon told; the Viscount 
 of Kilsyth was attainted for high treason in the same 
 year with his chief (1715), and died at Rome, in January, 
 1733, and the Peerage of Teviot became extinct on the 
 death of Viscount James in 1711. 
 
 With James, Earl of Linlithgow and Calleudar, ter- 
 minated the whole descendants in the male line of Alex- 
 ander, seventh Lord Livingstone, and the representation 
 and chieftainship of the race passed to the family of 
 Westquarter, the descendants of the Honourable Sir George 
 Livingstone, of Ogleface, the fourth son of the sixth Lord 
 Livingstone. This branch, whose fortunes form a very 
 singular episode in the Vicissitudes of Families, requires a 
 chapter to itself, the representative of "Westquarter being 
 now the heir male in general of the house of Livingstone, 
 entitled, were the attainders removed, to the Earldoms of 
 Linlithgow and Callendar. 
 
 The chief residences of the Livingstones were Living- 
 stone, and Midhope Castle in Linlithgowshire, the Castles 
 of Callendar, Herbertshire, Brighouse, and Haining in 
 Stirlingshire ; and the Viscounts of Kilsyth possessed, also
 
 THE LAIRDS OF CALLENDAR. 189 
 
 in Stirlingshire, the strongholds of Colzium and Kilsyth. 
 Of these the largest and most important appears to have 
 heen the Castle of Callendar, a place of considerable 
 strength before artillery was invented; and even so late as 
 the time of Cromwell, against whose troops it made a gallant 
 resistance, a fortress capable of defence. It then occupied 
 nearly the same site as that on which Callendar House now 
 stands ; it was encircled by a deep moat or fosse, crossed 
 by a drawbridge, and filled by the springs which now sup- 
 ply the ornamental sheet of water in the grounds. The 
 space within the moat was surrounded by a high bastioned 
 and curtained wall, and defended in front by a square 
 tower or barbacan, the wide gateway of which afforded 
 the only access from the castle to the park. The greater 
 part of the present House of Callendar is said to have 
 been built about 180 years ago, by Alexander, second 
 Earl of Callendar, generally called the covenanting Earl. 
 Herbertshire Castle, another strong embattled residence, re- 
 mains to this day ; it is one of the few genuine old Scotch 
 castles still inhabited by a family of the higher ranks; 
 though a very old building indeed the date of its erection 
 is not distinctly known it is, even now, one of the most 
 comfortable and well-arranged mansions in the county. Cal- 
 lendar House and Herbertshire belong to Mr. Forbes; they 
 are both in perfect preservation, and fitted up with all the 
 luxuries and comforts of modern life. The other strongholds 
 of the Livingstones are in ruins ; and for the rest 
 
 The Knights are dust, 
 
 And their swords are rust, 
 
 And their souls are with the saints, I trust.
 
 190 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 0f 
 
 And yon auld tattered Carle, wha sits 
 
 In dule beside the kirkyard stone, 
 Sae bent and grey and crazed wi eild 
 
 Was ance the Laird o' Lainington. 
 
 OLD BALLAD. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY adjoining the park of Callendar, and 
 separated from it by a little stream, which, rising in the 
 upper part of Stirlingshire, and wandering through some 
 of the most romantic scenery in Scotland, falls into the 
 Forth at Grangemouth, lies the estate of Westquarter, 
 which has formed a portion of the Livingstone possessions 
 since the first settlement of the family in the district ; 
 either held by the Chief, or as far back as the year 
 1400 given off as the appanage of a younger son, and 
 reverting to the head of the house on the failure of the 
 cadet branch. Situated in a walled park of three hun- 
 dred acres, diversified with rocky precipices, and undu- 
 lating banks, clothed with magnificent timber, and 
 uniting the stiff and stately avenues and terraces of 
 former days with the winding approaches of the present, 
 "Westquarter is beyond comparison the most pictu-
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 191 
 
 resque residence in the eastern district of Stirlingshire, 
 in this respect so far as regards the natural beauties 
 of the landscapes which it encloses, far surpassing the 
 larger and more ancient place of Callendar. The 
 house, which is of considerable size, built round and 
 enclosing a central court, with its porte cockere, steep 
 slated roofs and notched gables, is not unlike in extent 
 and character some of the chateaux of the provincial 
 noblesse in Normandy and Brittany. On the walls of 
 the southern and more modern portion of the building are 
 the dates 1626 and 1648, but the original edifice is much 
 older than either of these. Though a large house, from 
 the manner in which it is built, it looks much larger than 
 it is in reality, and is certainly a stately and imposing 
 mansion for the residence of a younger son : it contains 
 some ancient arms, skull-caps, and coats of mail, some 
 stern-looking pictures of the old Barons, and the cabinet 
 of the four Maries already mentioned, said to have been 
 the gift of the unfortunate Queen. The direct ancestor 
 of the first Livingstones of Westquarter appears to have 
 been Robert, the second son of Sir John, the third of 
 Callendar, who was killed at Homildon in 1402. I after- 
 wards find the estate in the possession of Sir William 
 Livingstone, of Westquarter and Cultre, fifth son of the 
 sixth Lord Livingstone, of whom the late Admiral Sir 
 Thomas Livingstone was the heir of line, and it is now 
 the property, under the Admiral's will, of his grand- 
 nephew, Thomas Livingstone Fenton Livingstone of West- 
 quarter, the heir of line of the Westquarter and Cultre 
 branch, as well as of the Honourable Sir George Living-
 
 192 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 stone of Ogleface, the first baronet. Throughout the 
 contests between Charles the First and the Parliament, 
 and during the time that Charles the Second was in 
 Scotland, although the first Earl of Callendar was for 
 a time a stout Covenanter, the Livingstones were as 
 afterwards in 1715 and 1746 the stanch adherents of 
 the Royal family, to the great injury of their fortunes in 
 the earlier of these periods, and to their utter ruin in the 
 latter. This did not, however, prevent many of the family 
 from signing the Covenant, though none of them, with 
 the exception of the second Earl of Callendar, appear to 
 have been very zealous in its favour. When the Con- 
 vention of Estates decided to take the part of the Parlia- 
 ment against the King, it was a matter of agreement that 
 the Solemn League and Covenant should be signed by both 
 nations. In Falkirk this act was performed with great 
 solemnity, on Sunday, the 7th of November, 1643. A 
 table was set before the pulpit, on which the deed lay, 
 and the elders were stationed at the various entrances of 
 the church to usher in those who intended to affix their 
 names. Amongst the elders who officiated on this occasion, 
 the most prominent and highest in rank was Sir William 
 Livingstone, or " Westquarter" as the Session Records 
 denominate him, and to him was specially committed the 
 charge of the " North aisle/' His covenanting propen- 
 sities, however, were not strong enough to prevent " West- 
 quarter" from joining his kinsman, the Earl of Callendar, 
 when it was resolved to raise a Scottish army (known as 
 the Engagement, or "Duke Hamilton's Ingagement"), 
 to attempt the rescue of King Charles. On this occasion, 
 the Earl of Callendar being nominated (llth May, 1648)
 
 THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 193 
 
 Lieutenant-General of the whole land and sea forces, his 
 well-appointed army marched into England, and took 
 possession of the town of Carlisle, of which important 
 place the Earl received the commission of governor, and 
 appointed Sir William Livingstone of Westquarter his 
 Lieuten ant-Governor. The Earl was accompanied into 
 England by a gallant band of his retainers, "the blade 
 and buckler-loving Bairns of Falkirk," and his other 
 tenants and vassals, and after the disastrous retreat, when 
 at Warrington Bridge, on the 15th August, 1648, 10,000 
 Scotchmen threw down their arms, and yielded themselves 
 prisoners of war, one glorious exception to the general 
 cowardice was exhibited by the immediate followers of 
 Lord Callendar ; they threw themselves round their chief, 
 and cutting their way through the victorious republicans, 
 returned unmolested to Falkirk. The Earl himself, on 
 getting clear of his enemies, rode straight to London, 
 whence he fled to Holland. So gallant and successful 
 was this onslaught of the Callendar retainers, and so 
 complete the escape, that the memory of the affair 
 rankled long in the heart of the Protector, and when he 
 published his Act of Indemnity in 1654, Lord Callendar 
 was specially excepted from its provisions. On the return 
 of the survivors of this gallant and devoted band to Fal- 
 kirk, it is amusing to find that they were all severally 
 summoned to appear before the Kirk Session to answer 
 to the charge of having fought for their king and chief, 
 in despite of the mandates of the Church, and that the 
 heroes who had set at defiance the battalions of the 
 Commonwealth, and had cut their way through Cromwell's
 
 194 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Ironsides, actually at least eighty-five of their number, 
 submitted to Church discipline as sinners, and confessed 
 their guilt, in the ignominious garb of penitents, at the 
 command of the fanatical Kirk Session ! 
 
 The founder of the present family of Westquarter in 
 the male line was the Honourable Sir George Livingstone 
 of Ogleface (second surviving son of William, sixth Lord 
 Livingstone), who was created a baronet on the 30th 
 May, 1625. Sir George appears to have been a prominent 
 person at the court of James the Sixth there are extant 
 three commissions of justiciary by this king, appointing 
 the Honourable George Livingstone his Majesty's Jus- 
 ticiary for the trial of various crimes. Two of them one 
 dated 1596, the other 20th August, 1597 are for the 
 trial of sundry persons accused of the crime of witchcraft. 
 Sir George became one of the adventurers for the planta- 
 tion of forfeited estates in Ireland, and in 1608 he received 
 a grant of 2000 acres in the County of Armagh, where 
 he died prior to June, 1628. 
 
 In 1645, the estate of Bedlormie was added to the pos- 
 sessions of the family, by the marriage of Sir George's 
 grandson, Alexander Livingstone, Esq. of Craigengall, 
 with Susanna Walker, the heiress. This marriage is en- 
 tered into with consent not only of the bridegroom's 
 father, but of " ane high and potent earl, James, Earl of 
 Callendar," who advances the sum of 3000 marks, to clear 
 off the debts of Bedlormie, and to enable the estate to be 
 settled, free of incumb ranee, on his kinsman. But this is 
 only one instance, amongst many, of the friendly interfe- 
 rence and assistance of the Chief to promote the interests 
 of his cousins.
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 195 
 
 Amongst the peculiarities of Scotch grants of peerage, 
 one of the most remarkable is the power, occasionally 
 conferred by the sovereign, enabling the peer in possession 
 to designate and appoint his successor in the dignity. Of 
 this there is a striking instance in the Callendar succession, 
 under which the Westquarter branch maintain that their 
 right to the titles of Lord Livingstone of Almond and 
 Earl of Callendar was not affected or injured by the 
 attainder of the Earl of Linlithgow and Callendar in 1715. 
 By a charter under the great seal, proceeding ou a sign 
 manual, dated at Auburn Abbey, in England, the 28th 
 July, 1647, Charles the First conferred on James, then 
 Earl of Callendar,. the most ample powers (failing heirs of 
 his body) of nominating and appointing successors to his 
 estates and titles ; and his Majesty did by his said royal 
 charter "Will and grant, decree and ordain, that the 
 person succeeding by the designation and nomination of 
 the said James Earl of Callendar, named and designed as 
 aforesaid, should for ever thereafter enjoy the honour, 
 title, rank, and dignity of an earl, with the same place 
 and presidency as the foresaid James Earl of Callendar 
 possessed and enjoyed." This charter was ratified in 
 Parliament on the llth May, 1648; and in virtue of this 
 charter and Act of Parliament, the estates and titles of 
 Callendar were strictly settled and limited by Lord Cal- 
 lendar. The persons first favoured by this settlemen^were 
 the family of Linlithgow, next the Livingstones of Daldeise, 
 now extinct, and lastly, " the nearest lawful heirs male 
 whatsoever of the said James Earl of Callendar/' That 
 character undoubtedly belonged to Sir Alexander Living- 
 
 o 2
 
 196 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 stone (the father of the late Admiral), by whom a case 
 was (in 1784) laid before Lord Kenyon, who gave it as 
 his unhesitating opinion that Sir Alexander was not affected 
 by the attainder of 1715, and was legally entitled to the 
 earldom. Forming part of the evidence submitted to Lord 
 Kenyon in support of the Westquarter pedigree, were several 
 documents curiously illustrative of the relations subsisting 
 in those days between the different branches of a Scottish 
 house. In 1676, the exact degree of relationship betwixt 
 the ennobled families of Linlithgow, and Callendar, and 
 the Ogleface or Westquarter branch appears to have 
 formed the subject of some legal enquiry, and immediately 
 formal declarations and attestations, under the hands and 
 seals of both earls, are prepared, and are afterwards duly 
 recorded in the Register of Probative Writs. That by 
 the Earl of Callendar is as follows: "Wee Alexander 
 Earl of Callendar Lord Livingstone and Almond, &c. 
 Doth hereby testify and declare that Sir Alexander Livin- 
 stone, Knight, now of Craigengall, is lawful son and air 
 to umquhile William Livingston, of Craigengall, who was 
 lawful son and heir to umquhile Sir George Livingstone, 
 of Ogleface, Knight, the which Sir George Livingstone 
 was next brother german to umquhile Alexander Earl of 
 Linlithgow, our grandfather. Written by William Dun- 
 cane, our servant ; given under our hand at Callendar, 
 this4wenty-ane day of October, 1676 zeiris, Before their 
 witnesses Normand Livingston of Milnhill, and William 
 Duncane above written." The attestation by the Earl of 
 Linlithgow is precisely in the same terms, and is dated 
 from the Castle of Midhope, this 20th September, 1676. 
 There were two other documents also laid before Lord
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 197 
 
 Kenyon, which are strikingly indicative of the strong 
 bonds by which families of the same race were then held 
 together in Scotland, and of the grave and stately inter- 
 course which took place betwixt the chief and the cadet 
 houses of his name. The future lot and career in life of the 
 young Laird of Bedlormie had evidently been the subject 
 of much anxious thought and consideration with his chief ; 
 for on the 27th of March, 1715, when men's minds were 
 greatly occupied with the rights and interests of higher 
 dynasties than even that of Livingstone, the Earl of Lin- 
 lithgow thus writes to his cousin of Bedlormie : " Sir, I 
 give you the trouble of this upon ane occasion I'm very 
 sorry for, I mean that of your son's going to sea again. 
 I would gladly have you consider how few of our name 
 there are now in Scotland, and that he is the nearest 
 relation of the name I have, and should anything ail. my 
 son and me must certainly succeed to the honours of 
 Linlithgow. I cannot think that he will do anything that 
 is disrespectful to you or his mother, and I am persuaded 
 he will do all he can to oblige you both. By what I can 
 learn from him, he would be satisfied with a very small 
 thing to live upon here, and I am sure it will be more for 
 your honour to have him at home, than he should go abroad 
 again. This I hope you will think of, and your comply- 
 ing with my desire will very singularly oblige, sir, your 
 affectionate cousin and humble servant, 
 
 " LINLITHGOW. 
 " I hope you will give my humble 
 
 services to your lady. 
 
 (Addressed) " To the Laird of " Callendar, March 
 
 Bedlormie. 27th, 1715."
 
 198 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 This application produced apparently no result, and 
 his lordship finds it necessary to be more specific m 
 stating what he wishes Bedlormie to do. In about a 
 month after, he writes the following : " 19th April, 
 1715. Sir, I give the trouble of this again, in favours 
 of my cousin, who I assure you I think none of his 
 friends have reason to be ashamed of. I am now about 
 to make a proposal to you about him, which is, that 
 you'll allow him fifty pounds sterling a-year, which I 
 assure you I take to be very little for a gentleman to live 
 upon, and I shall answer he shall not trouble you for 
 anything else. I hope I need use no arguments to bring 
 you into this measure, since I think an oldest son ought 
 to be very dear to his parents. You may depend on it, I 
 am resolved to do all I can to serve him, and I hope he 
 shall yet be an honour to his friends and family. I am, 
 sir, your affectionate cousin and humble servant, 
 
 " LlNLITHGOW. 
 
 " I should gladly persuade myself you'll 
 
 comply with this request. 
 " To the Laird of Bedlormie." 
 
 An annual income of 50 sterling, even in those days, 
 was certainly a moderate allowance for a gentleman of birth 
 and quality, the eldest son of a baronet, and the next in 
 succession but one to an ancient earldom ; but money went 
 far in the northern division of the kingdom at that period, 
 and kinsmen and followers, not pecuniary means, gave 
 importance and family influence. 
 
 The anticipations of Lord Linlithgow as to the failure
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 199 
 
 of the senior branches, were not long in being realized. 
 In 1695, the Earl died without issue, and his nephew and 
 successor, the Earl of Callendar,'by the decease of his only 
 son, James Lord Livingstone, on the 30th April, 1715, 
 was left without a male heir, while his only surviving 
 child, the Countess of Kilmarnock, became like her ances- 
 tress Christine de Calynter, a landless lady by the attain- 
 der of her father. The male representation of the family 
 devolved, after the attainted Earl, on Sir George Living- 
 stone, and in succession on his two brothers, Sir 
 Alexander and Sir "William ; and at their deaths, on their 
 nephew, Sir Alexander of Westquarter and Bedlormie. On 
 this accession of Sir Alexander, (the father of the late 
 Admiral Sir Thomas Livingstone), he took possession of 
 a ban-en inheritance : with the exception of Bedlormie, at 
 that time of very small annual value, strictly entailed and 
 encumbered with family provisions, not an acre of the 
 great estates of his ancestors remained ; even Westquarter 
 (though afterwards recovered, as having been illegally sold, 
 contrary to the provisions of the deed of entail under 
 which it was held) had passed into other hands, and had 
 gone by purchase into the possession of Francis, seventh 
 Lord Napier, whose family had taken up their residence 
 in the Mansion House. Indeed, the history of the re- 
 covery of Westquarter is a romance in itself, and in spite 
 of its apparent improbability, is generally believed to be 
 true; the tale runs thus : Sir Alexander Livingstone, 
 after the death of his uncle, by which event the succession 
 opened to him, deemed it necessary to visit Edinburgh for 
 the due arrangement of his affairs. He set out accordingly,
 
 200 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 by post, from London, and, on his way, stopped at the inn 
 at Belford, a small town betwixt Alnwic'k and Berwick, 
 on a stormy Christmas afternoon. So tempestuous 
 indeed was the weather, that the landlady besought Sir 
 Alexander to proceed no further that evening. She ex- 
 plained to him that the next stage was a long one, that 
 night was approaching, and the roads bad and hilly; that 
 she had only tired horses in her stables, and that, 
 besides, it was the custom of the house to entertain all the 
 postilions, hostlers, and other servants at a Christmas 
 supper. Thus urged, Sir Alexander consented to re- 
 main, only stipulating for some books and newspapers 
 to pass the evening with. Unfortunately, the library 
 of mine host of Belford was not extensive; the lady 
 brought the Bible, the Pilgrim's Progress, and the Seven 
 Champions of Christendom ; and these not meeting with 
 Sir Alexander's approval, he was informed that they ex- 
 hausted the literature of the household, but that there 
 were some curious old papers in a closet adjoining the 
 sitting-room into which he had been ushered. In default 
 of occupation more attractive, Sir Alexander began an 
 examination of the closet, which, to his astonishment, 
 he found to contain an ample store of law papers, 
 legal processes, and other similar documents, all of them 
 having reference to Scotch lawsuits. His curiosity was 
 excited, and, his eye having caught the names of Living- 
 stone and Westquarter, he continued his researches, and 
 at last lighted on the title-deeds of the estate of 
 Westquarter, which appeared to have been produced as 
 evidence to instruct some statement of fact in a litigated
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 201 
 
 case. On applying to the landlady, she cleared up the 
 mystery, by informing him that she was an Edinburgh 
 woman the daughter of a Scotch solicitor, that she had 
 married below her own condition in life, and that she had 
 removed, with her husband, to Belford, to which place, 
 at her father's death, she had brought many of his old 
 papers, which as lumber had been thrown into the closet, 
 where Sir Alexander had discovered them. Many others, 
 she told him, had been destroyed, and, being supposed to 
 be of no value, had been employed in singeing fowls, for 
 pasting up crevices and cupboards, and for other household 
 purposes. To the Westquarter documents Sir Alexander 
 was made heartily welcome ; his Belford Christmas night 
 had indeed been for him a most fortunate occurrence, and 
 he started for Edinburgh next morning, carrying with 
 him the very title-deeds with which he was enabled to 
 vindicate his right to the estate and to oust Lord Napier 
 from it. This curious story has been long current in 
 Stirlingshire, on the authority, it is said, of Sir Alexander 
 himself; and this much in corroboration is certain, that 
 some title-deeds had disappeared, that "Westquarter had 
 been sold, that it was in the possession of the Napiers, 
 and that it was recovered by Sir Alexander Livingstone, 
 as having been, in violation of the family settlements 
 under which it was held, illegally alienated. The estate 
 thus regained, the price at which it had been sold 
 though far below its value had to be repaid, and despite 
 of counter claims for rents levied and woods cut down, large 
 sums had been expended by the Napiers on permanent 
 improvements, which had also to be accounted for : in.
 
 202 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 short, though the restoration of the property and residence 
 did much for the position of the family, it added little or 
 nothing to its immediate resources. As far as actual 
 income was concerned, the nominal owner of Westquarter 
 and Bedlormie was almost in as disastrous a position as 
 his attainted relatives. To add to his comforts, Sir Alex- 
 ander had married twice, his second wife being a daugh- 
 ter of the noble House of Cranstoun, at that time as 
 impoverished as his own, and he had a family of nine sons 
 and three daughters, with no means to maintain them in 
 their station. As Sterne says, in the Sentimental Journey* 
 " when States and Empires have their periods of declen- 
 sion, and feel in their turns what distress and poverty is," 
 I stop not to tell what had gradually brought the House 
 " of Westquarter" to this decay but it was so. For his 
 nine sons Sir Alexander could do little more than usher 
 them into the world, and tell them to seek their fortune 
 where they best might find it. Two of his daughters 
 married in their own rank in life, another died young j 
 the fates of the sons were various; none of them, how- 
 ever, left descendants except one Thurstanus to be 
 more particularly referred to at least none of them left a 
 male heir. On the 17th September, 1782, Sir Alexander 
 placed his third, but eventually eldest surviving son, 
 Thomas, in the Royal Navy, on board the Frigate " Brune ;" 
 but the state of the family exchequer did not permit a 
 similar start in life to be given to the younger brother, 
 Thurstanus, who was entered, the following year (1783), at 
 the age of fourteen, as an apprentice on board " the good 
 ship Mary Anne," a merchant vessel out of the port of
 
 THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 203 
 
 London. The future lots in life of these two brothers 
 were widely different. Sir Thomas rose to the highest rank 
 in his profession, Admiral of the Red in 1851, and suc- 
 ceeded to the estates of Westquarter and Bedlormie, which 
 he cleared of all debt, and the former of which he greatly 
 added to by purchase, and embellished : he married the 
 only daughter of an opulent baronet, Sir James Stirling of 
 ' Mansfield, and was so far recognised by Government as 
 the heir and representative of the Earls of Linlithgow and 
 Callendar, that they restored him (for his life only) to the 
 offices, long hereditary in his family, of Keeper of the 
 Royal Palaces of Linlithgow and of Blackness Castle, with 
 the lands of considerable annual value which formed the 
 appanage of the Keeper. Eventually, after a long career 
 of worldly success, he died at Westquarter in 1853, a 
 wealthy and prosperous gentleman. To the otherwise 
 unbroken good fortune of Sir Thomas there was one draw- 
 back, and he felt it severely he was childless ; and in 
 addition to this, he knew that on his death a dispute as to 
 the succession must arise, disastrous and ruinous to his 
 family, and inevitably resulting, in his view of the legal 
 questions involved, in the utter extinction of the male line 
 of his house. 
 
 The different career of his younger brother, Thurstanus, 
 may to some extent be gathered from the following petition 
 which he presented to the Trinity House in 1818. It is 
 a sad and strange document as the application of a person 
 who was at that time next in succession to an ancient 
 Baronetcy, to considerable estates strictly entailed, and to 
 the undoubted representation of two Earldoms, and who
 
 204 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 was the lineal descendant, indeed, if he survived his 
 brother, the lineal heir male, of a Regent of Scotland. 
 
 The Petition proceeds as follows : 
 
 " To the Honourable the Master, Wardens, and As- 
 sistants of the Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford, 
 Stroud 
 
 "The Humble Petition of Thurstanus Livingstone, 
 aged 49 years, residing at Rotherhithe Parish, where he 
 has lived for nine years, and followed the occupation of a 
 sailor, sheweth 
 
 " That your Petit ioner went to sea at the age of four- 
 teen years, in a vessel out of the port of London, and 
 served there as an apprentice to Captain James Innes, in 
 the ship ' Mary Anne/ Jamaica trade, and latterly in the 
 station of second mate and boatswain, on board the ship 
 'Kitty/ Captain Daniel Warren, master, in the Baltic 
 trade, and in that capacity served for five voyages. 
 
 "That your Petitioner has a wife, Catherine Anne 
 Livingstone, and three' children under twelve years of age, 
 incapable of earning their living, whose names and ages 
 are, Alexander Livingstone, aged seven years; Catherine 
 Anne Livingstone, aged four years ; Thurstanus Living, 
 stone, sixteen months. 
 
 "That your Petitioner is not now able to support 
 himself and family without the charity of this corporation, 
 having no property or income, and no pension or relief 
 from any public charity or company, except from the 
 Royal Chest of Greenwich, which is 8, for a disabled 
 arm. 
 
 "Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly prays, that
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 205 
 
 he may be admitted a Pensioner of this Corporation at 
 the usual allowance. 
 
 " Your Petitioner will ever pray. 
 
 (Signed) " THURSTANUS LIVINGSTONE." 
 
 This melancholy application was successful, andThurs- 
 tanus received an annual pension of six pounds, which he 
 drew till his death, in 1839. 
 
 The foregoing petition contains merely a very brief and 
 imperfect outline of the various fortunes of Thurstanus; it 
 sets forth, correctly, that he had at first entered the mer- 
 chant service, and had never risen higher than to be a 
 second mate and boatswain, but it omits that he had served 
 for some years in the Royal Navy as a common seaman, 
 and that on leaving the navy he had taken the command 
 of a privateer, apparently an enemy's ship. In his 
 domestic circle, however, this part of his career was by no 
 means shrouded in mystery : in the course of the volu- 
 minous proof in the lawsuit to be immediately mentioned, 
 this part of his adventures is repeatedly spoken of. One 
 of his old friends, James Gale, a turner at Rotherhithe, 
 deposes, t( I have heard Thurstanus Livingstone speak of 
 a vessel of war in which he had been on board, but I can't 
 tell the name of it. I have heard him also speak of the 
 admiral, his brother, having the command of a vessel of 
 war; and Thurstanus has told me that on one occasion 
 while he, Thurstanus, had the command of a privateer, 
 he fell in with a ship of war in the command of his 
 brother, who chased him, but Thurstanus escaped." This 
 is corroborated by another old friend, Robert Clack, "a
 
 206 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 butcher to trade, in Adam Street, Rotherhithe." " Thurs- 
 tanus told me," says his friend the butcher, " that the 
 first cause of his falling out with the admiral was his 
 leaving the Royal Navy and joining a privateer. He said 
 that he was in action in a privateer, and wounded in the 
 action." 
 
 The services of Thurstanus in the navy are distinctly 
 recorded in the books of the different ships in which lie 
 served. His first appearance in the navy is on the 10th 
 December, 1796, when he joins the " Sandwich" as an 
 able seaman. Here he remains for only five months, 
 being discharged on the 6th May, 1797, in consequence 
 "of a lacerated wound in the right arm by getting it 
 entangled in the mainstay tackle fall when assisting to 
 strike Beer into the hold on the 24th of March, 1797 ;" 
 and on the 5th September, 1797, the surgeon certifies 
 that this " has deprived him of the use of his hand, for 
 which he deserves six pounds a-year, and three pounds for 
 present relief." He again enters the navy, 2nd April, 
 1809, in her Majesty's ship " Star," from which he is 
 immediately transferred to the " Salvador del Mundo," in 
 which he remains for two years and a half, when he is 
 discharged as unserviceable on the 18th of November, 
 1811. After this he is employed in various capacities, 
 " as a ship keeper to Old Mr. Mangles, of Rotherhithe : 
 and he also sailed as cook, being employed in that capa- 
 city bv Captain Johnson, who was ship's husband for 
 Mr. Mangles." In the concluding years of his life he 
 seems to have eked out his subsistence as a turner and 
 maker of yard measures, and he dies in 1839, in utter
 
 THE LAIRDS OF WESTQUARTER. 207 
 
 poverty "et sic decessit Thurstanus Filius Levingi" 
 the lineal descendant of a Regent of Scotland, who had 
 imprisoned a Queen, and decapitated an Earl of Douglas ! 
 Thurstanus left two sons and a daughter; the ad- 
 miral died in 1853, without children; and then com- 
 menced the competition for the entailed estates of 
 Bedlormie, which Sir Thomas had anticipated. Regard- 
 ing the children of Thurstanus as illegitimate, on the 
 ground that they were the offspring of his brother's 
 second marriage with the sister of 'his first wife, Sir 
 Thomas executed a deed by which he directs his trustees 
 to entail the estate of Westquarter on his grandnephew 
 and eventual heir of line, Mr. Fenton Livingstone, the 
 grandson of his sister, Mrs. Fenton. Sir Thomas held 
 both Westquarter and Bedlormie under settlements of 
 entail, but the Westquarter entail was defective from the 
 omission of a clause prohibiting the alteration of the order 
 of succession. The Bedlormie entail, on the other hand, 
 was altogether unassailable, and the succession was strictly 
 limited to heirs male. While Westquarter thus passed 
 immediately and without question to Mr. Fenton Living- 
 stone, a competition arose betwixt Mrs. Fenton, Sir 
 Thomas's sister, and her nephew, Sir Alexander Living- 
 stone, as he then styled himself, the eldest son of Thurs- 
 tanus, for the estate of Beldormie, Mrs. Fenton claiming 
 as Sir Thomas's sole heiress, on the assumption that the 
 whole heirs male had failed, and that her nephew was 
 illegitimate. In the lawsuit which ensued, and which is 
 still pending, Sir Alexander maintained 1st. That as the 
 eldest son of the cnlv brother of Sir Thomas who had
 
 208 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 left male issue, he was the heir of the investiture, and 
 entitled to the estate ; 2nd. He denied that his father's 
 two wives were sisters ; 3rd. That whether they were 
 sisters or not, was of no moment, that his parents were 
 domiciled in England, had been regularly married in facie 
 ecclesia, were both long since dead, and no attempt to 
 invalidate their marriage having been made during their 
 lives, it was impossible to question it now, that he was 
 legitimate by the law of England, and entitled to all the 
 rights and privileges which legitimacy conferred ; and 
 4th. and lastly, he pleaded, that the marriage of two 
 sisters in succession was not unlawful by the law of Scot- 
 land. After a long and elaborate litigation, a unanimous 
 judgment was pronounced by the Court of Session (on 
 the 27th of May, 1856), sustaining the third plea of Sir 
 Alexander, " that being legitimate in England, the law of 
 Scotland was bound to recognize the legitimacy so ac- 
 quired, and consequently that he was entitled to succeed 
 to the estate;" and thus entirely avoiding, and finding it 
 unnecessary to give any judgment on the questions of 
 fact and law, as to whether the two wives were or were 
 not sisters, and whether the marriage of two sisters is or 
 is not illegal by the law of Scotland. This unanimous 
 judgment of the Court of Session was carried by appeal 
 to the House of Lords, and there (in 1859) as unanimously 
 -.reversed, the whole of the law lords concurring in holding 
 'that, while Sir Alexander Livingstone was undoubtedly 
 legitimate in England, at least that his legitimacy could 
 not be effectually challenged in England, yet if in point 
 of fact his father's two wives were actuall sisters, though
 
 THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 209 
 
 legitimate, he was not the issue of a marriage which the 
 law of England regarded as lawful, and therefore they 
 remitted back the case to the Court of Session, for farther 
 consideration. Under this remit, two very nice questions, 
 one of fact and the other of law, will fall to be deter- 
 mined ; 1 st. "Were the two wives of Thurstanus Living- 
 stone sisters? 2nd. Is the marriage of two sisters in 
 succession unlawful in Scotland ? On neither of these 
 questions is it here intended to offer any opinion; the 
 first is a question of fact, as to which farther evidence 
 may be required, and the second is regarded as one of the 
 nicest and most difficult of the "Questiones Vexatce" of 
 the law of Scotland. From the proof already given, it 
 appears that Thurstanus Livingstone first married, on the 
 25th October, 1797, Susannah Browne, the widow of a 
 ship carpenter, and again, on the 7th August, 1808, 
 Catherine Anne Ticehurst, also a widow, and there seems 
 in the proof abundant moral evidence to show that these 
 two widows were the daughters of two persons of French 
 origin, John Dupuis, a Spitalfields weaver, and of Susanna 
 Dupuis, both of the parish of St. Matthew, Bethnal 
 Green. Various marriage certificates have been recovered 
 and produced, but there is no certificate of the marriage 
 of John and Susanna Dupuis ; and in the certificate of 
 the burial of Susanna Dupuis, she is not described as 
 the wife of John Dupuis, nor in that of John Dupuis is he 
 described as her husband. Both these persons are under- 
 stood to have been of French origin, and were of a class 
 of life in France not always very particular in the ob- 
 servance of matrimonial ceremonies, and therefore, like the 
 2 p
 
 210 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 hero and heroine of the "Bon Menage" of Beranger, they 
 may have been of those who 
 
 Tous deux de leur plein gre, 
 Pour se passer du divorce, 
 Se sont passes du Cure. 
 
 The legality of a marriage with the sister of a deceased 
 wife has never been the subject of a civil action before the 
 Scotch Courts. The Scotch law of marriage is embodied 
 in the statute 1567, cap. 15, which provides "that the 
 halie band of matrimony be als lawful and als frie as the 
 lawe of God has permitted the samin to be done;" and 
 the immediately preceding statute (1567, cap. 14) ex- 
 pressly refers to "the Word of God as it is contained 
 in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus." The Confession 
 of Faith of the Scotch Church (ratified by Parliament in 
 1690) indeed goes farther than this, and expressly de- 
 clares " that the man may not marry of his wife's kindred 
 nearer in blood than he may of his own, nor the woman 
 of her husband's kindred nearer of blood than her own ;" 
 but though this may be taken as the authoritative con- 
 struction of the Divine Law by the Presbyterian Church, 
 and as such, in subordination to Scripture, the standard 
 of faith to all Presbyterian bodies in this country ; yet it 
 may be seriously doubted whether a ratification by Par- 
 liament of articles of religious belief, can be regarded as 
 rendering these conclusive as statutory enactments in the 
 adjudication of civil rights. 
 
 Such, however, are the two points which at present 
 await judicial disposal in this celebrated case, and accord- 
 ing to the manner in which they may be determined will
 
 THE LAIRDS OP WESTQUARTER. 211 
 
 depend the maintenance or extinction of the great histo- 
 rical House of Livingstone in the male line in Scotland. 
 If the decision find that the widows Brown and Ticehurst 
 were sisters, and that on that ground the second marriage 
 of Thurstanus Livingstone was illegal according to the 
 law of Scotland, and the children, who sprung from it, 
 incapable of succession in Scotland, then the baronetcy of 
 Westquarter and the dormant earldom of Callendar are 
 extinct; while this somewhat anomalous result will also 
 follow, thatfan English family of Livingstone, legitimate in 
 England, will exist, the lineal legitimate descendants of the 
 Scotch families on whom these titles were conferred, and 
 yet with no right of inheritance in their honours, and thus 
 legitimate in the country of their birth and of their adop- 
 tion to every effect and purpose whatsoever, but not legiti- 
 mate to the effect of succeeding to real estate or hereditary 
 rank in the country of their origin, and in which their 
 ancestors had held high position for many ages. If the 
 representatives in the male line of the families of Linlith- 
 gow, Callendar, and Westquarter shall in this way be 
 extinguished in the land of their fathers, it remains at 
 least as some consolation to those who take an interest 
 in matters of pedigree and descent, that of the heirs of 
 line of Livingstone two still exist in possession of the 
 dignity of the Scotch peerage, viz. the Earl of Erroll, 
 the unquestioned heir of line of the Earls of Linlithgow 
 and of Callendar; and the Princess Giustiniani, in her 
 own right Countess of Newburgh, and one enjoying the 
 rank and position of a landed gentleman, Mr. Fenton 
 Livingstone, the heir of line of Westquarter.
 
 212 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 rinu Minister SSUrb, 
 
 Suscitans 'a terra inopem ; ut colloeet eum cum principibus : 
 cum principibus populi sui. PSALM cxii. 
 
 BEFORE I introduce to my readers the statesman and 
 diplomatist, who, emerging from the obscurity of a York- 
 shire cottage, swayed, for some years, the destinies of an 
 Italian State, I must say a few words concerning the court 
 which was the scene of his wonderful fortunes, and the 
 royal family to whom he owed his elevation. 
 
 "Without entering upon the early existence of Parma as 
 a free state, or detailing its subjection by the Milanese 
 Viscontis, its conquest by Louis XII. of France, and 
 its annexation to the states of the church, I may begin my 
 historical notice with the year 1545, when the ancestors of 
 the youthful prince who has within the last few months 
 been expelled from his dominions, began to reign. At 
 that date, Pope Paul III. (Farnese) erected Parma into a 
 Duchy, and for nearly two centuries after, the house of 
 Farnese reigned. In 1731, it became extinct in the male 
 line, but immediately revived in a branch of the Spanish 
 Bourbons. The last Duke of Parma's daughter, Elizabeth
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 213 
 
 Farnese, was the second wife of Philip V., the first Bour- 
 bon monarch of Spain, and was mother of two sons, from 
 whom the reigning families of Spain, Naples, and Parma are 
 descended. Charles, the elder of the two, was originally 
 Appointed to succeed to his maternal grandfather's duchy ; 
 but when he ascended the Neapolitan throne in 1735, he 
 ceded Parma to the house of Austria. However, in 1748, 
 at the peace of Aix la Chapelle, it was restored to the 
 Farnese-Bourbon dynasty in the person of the Infant 
 Philip, younger son of Elizabeth Farnese and King 
 Philip V., who accordingly became Duke of Parma and 
 Placentia, and transmitted these territories to his descend- 
 ants, Ferdinand and Louis. 
 
 In 1801, the latter was obliged to exchange his paternal 
 dominions for a glittering bribe ; and Parma and Placentia 
 were incorporated, by the command of France, with the 
 Cisalpine Republic. The Austrian Grand Duke of Tus- 
 cany was compelled to withdraw into Germany, where he 
 was provided for, first with Salzburgh, and then with 
 "Wiirzburg ; and Tuscany, under the ancient classical 
 name of Etruria, and with a royal title, became the com- 
 pensation to the Bourbon , Prince for that which he 
 had surrendered. 
 
 Louis, King of Etruria, had married, in 1797, his cousin 
 Maria Louisa, daughter of Charles IV., King of Spain, 
 by whom he had a son, Charles Louis, bora at Madrid, in 
 December 1799, and a daughter, Maria Louisa Carlotta, 
 born in October, 1802, at sea, in the voyage between 
 Leghorn and Barcelona. King Louis was not destined 
 long to wear the Etruscan crown. An early death cut
 
 214 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 short his not very important life in 1803 ; and his able 
 and accomplished widow became Queen Regent of Etruria,. 
 during the minority of her infant son King Charles. It 
 seems only due to the historical fitness of things that 
 gifts bestowed by a usurping power in France upon a 
 descendant of Henry IV. should not prosper. The ancient 
 crown of Lars For senna, thus unjustly bestowed by a 
 Bonaparte on a Bourbon, soon turned out, like a malig- 
 nant fairy gift, to be no better than a circlet of withered 
 leaves. Queen Maria Louisa and the boy King, Charles 
 Louis, found themselves suddenly discrowned in the fourth 
 year of their joint reign, when, in 1807, Napoleon Bona- 
 parte took possession of Etruria, as a portion of the 
 kingdom of Italy. However, a erown was still held out 
 to them, but it was that of a kingdom which was yet to 
 be conquered. Napoleon consoled them with prospects of 
 sovereignty. A portion of Portugal was to be theirs, and 
 a fine-sounding name was not wanting, for they were to be 
 King and Queen Regent of Lusitania. Nevertheless, thanks 
 to Wellington and British arms, this monarchy remained 
 distant and shadowy, like the fabled Atlantis. And as 
 Napoleon found the claims of his royal proteges some- 
 what troublesome, he prudently cut the matter short by 
 sending the young discrowned king to live with his ma- 
 ternal grandfather, King Charles IV. of Spain, then in 
 exile at Naples, while he shut up the Queen Regent, with 
 her daughter the Princess Carlotta, in a convent at Rome. 
 Those were days in which Candide might have sat down 
 to supper in the Carnival, not with six, but with twice six 
 wandering monarchs in want of crowns. And during the
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. '215 
 
 last half century there has never been a time when the 
 various revolutions of Europe have not thrown more kings, 
 grand dukes, and sovereign princes loose on the world, 
 than Voltaire, in his wildest dreams of sarcastic imagina- 
 tion, could ever have conceived. 
 
 It is singular, that at this very moment, a princess and a 
 prince of the illustrious house of Bourbon, and, moreover, 
 recently reigning in Parma, find themselves almost in an 
 identical position of humble dependence upon a Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, with that which I have been describing. The 
 Duchess Regent of Parma, herself a Bourbon, and heiress 
 presumptive of the elder line of that great house, and her 
 son the youthful Duke Robert, are now circumstanced 
 almost exactly as were their ancestors and predecessors 
 half a century ago. 
 
 The young Duke of Parma may be said to centre in his 
 own person the presumptive beirship to the grandest and 
 most ancient dynasties in Europe. His maternal uncle, 
 the Due de Bordeaux, being childless, he will, at his death, 
 be the undoubted heir of line of the ancient French mo- 
 narchy, through Henry IV. and the kings of Navarre, up 
 to Louis X., who was the direct descendant, from father 
 to son, of Hugh Capet. He will also be heir of the 
 ancient Celtic kings of Scotland, through the elder line 
 of Baliol, the sister and heir of that monarch having car- 
 ried the right of representing the old Scottish sovereigns 
 and the Royal Saxon line of England, through the fami- 
 lies of Lindsay and De Coucy, into the house of Bourbon. 
 He is also, in right of his paternal grandmother, Maria 
 Teresa, Duchess of Lucca and Parma, coheir of the Stuart
 
 216 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 line of kings of Great Britain; for she was one of the 
 daughters and coheirs of Victor Emmanuel, King of 
 Sardinia, who was the sole heir of King Charles I. 
 Of all the Italian princes who have been driven from 
 their thrones by the recent revolutionary movement, the 
 misfortunes of none have excited so much sympathy as 
 those of the young Duke of Parma and his mother the 
 Regent. 
 
 But I have been insensibly led to the revolutions of a 
 third generation j and I must return to the history of the 
 young Duke Robert's grandfather, Charles Louis, King of 
 Etruria, who, in 1807, was, together with his mother the 
 queen regent, reduced to a similar state of discrowned 
 exile. 
 
 The young King of Etruria continued to reside with his 
 grandfather, the old King of Spain, in his exile at Naples, 
 during the greater part of his early youth. When he was 
 a lad of fifteen, the clouds which obscured his destiny 
 seemed to clear away, with the downfall of him who had 
 been the tyrant of his family. When Napoleon Bonaparte 
 was driven from the throne of France, the chaos which he 
 had produced among the sovereign houses of Europe was 
 brought back to some degree of order, and the ancient 
 landmarks of history were sought out and re-established. 
 After thirteen years of banishment, the Grand Duke Fer- 
 dinand was brought back to Florence, no longer the capital 
 of a new Etruscan kingdom, but restored to the house of 
 Hapsburg-Lorraine. A retreat had to be found for the 
 wife of Napoleon, who, after having filled the high position 
 of Empress of the West, could not return to her place
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 217 
 
 among the unmarried daughters of Austria. It was ne- 
 cessary to give her a sovereignty, and nothing so conve- 
 nient could be found as Parma, a shred of her husband's 
 kingdom of Italy. In that principality she was accord- 
 ingly installed as Duchess, in 1814, with the reversion of 
 the succession to her son, the ex- King of Rome. Thus 
 Charles Louis de Bourbon saw both the territory to which 
 he was by birth entitled, and that over which he had for 
 a short time reigned by the fiat of Napoleon, bestowed 
 elsewhere, without a thought being wasted upon him. 
 The claims of his family were, however, brought before 
 the notice of the Congress of Vienna, and it was decided 
 to give him and his mother a measure of compensation for 
 their losses, by erecting Lucca into a Duchy, of which she 
 was made the sovereign, with a reversion to her son, who, 
 moreover, was to enjoy a revenue from Tuscany, in con- 
 sideration of his claims on the crown of Etruria, besides 
 an appanage from Spain as an Infant of that royal house. 
 This arrangement took place in 1815. And it may be 
 here stated, that two years afterwards, in 1817, an altera- 
 tion in the succession to Parma was made in his favour, 
 according to which the young ex-King of Etruria, Duke 
 of Lucca, was called to the succession on the death of the 
 ex-Empress Maria Louisa, instead of her own son, the 
 young ex- King of Rome, the Duke of Reichstadt. These 
 changes of boundary, title, and succession are very diffi- 
 cult to follow; and, fortunately, we have had little ex- 
 perience of them in our own country. But each gene- 
 ration has seen such alterations on the Continent as go far 
 to destroy the feelings of nationality and loyalty. Thus,
 
 218 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 while the ex-Empress of France, Maria Louisa, was seated 
 at Parma, the ex-Queen of Etruria, Maria Louisa, was 
 seated at Lucca, with the prospect for her son of the 
 eventual succession to his own hereditary dominions. 
 And it was arranged, that whenever that event should 
 take place, the Duchy of Lucca should be united to the 
 Grand Duchy of Tuscany, by way of compensation to the 
 Grand Duke Ferdinand for his long exile. 
 
 The charming little sovereignty of Lucca, which was 
 thus unceremoniously disposed of like an estate, first to 
 one proprietor and then to another, may be looked upon 
 as the garden of Italy. It stands pre-eminent in beauty 
 and fertility, and in the industry of its inhabitants. 
 The ancient capital of this fairy region is situated in a 
 rich plain, watered by the Serchio, and surrounded by 
 mountains. It is twelve miles from the sea, and ten miles 
 north of Pisa. Its circumference is about three miles, and 
 it is surrounded by broad ramparts planted with venerable 
 trees. It is well-built, containing many stately houses, 
 though the streets are in general narrow. The ducal 
 palace is a magnificent pile. Lucca is rich in churches. 
 The cathedral, which is of the eleventh century, is adorned 
 with fine paintings, sculptures, and monuments, and pos- 
 sesses some valuable manuscripts as old as the seventh 
 century. One of the most curious of the churches is San 
 Frediano, a most remarkable specimen of the Lombard 
 style, and erected in honour of St. Fredan, a British prince, 
 whose remains repose there. In early times, Lucca was 
 an Etruscan city, and then a Roman colony. In the 
 middle ages it was a Republic, often at war with Pisa and
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 219 
 
 Florence. At one time it was, along with Pisa, at the 
 head of the Ghibeline party. It afterwards fell under the 
 yoke of the Viscontis of Milan, and was restored to liberty 
 by the Emperor Charles IV. in 1370. It was then sub- 
 ject to successive tyrants, and at last settled into an 
 exclusive aristocracy, in A.D. 1556, by which only a certain 
 number of noble families were eligible to office. These, in 
 the year 1600, were one hundred and sixty in number; 
 but in the course of the two following centuries they had 
 dwindled to one half. Prom among these, a Senate, a 
 great council, a Signoria, and a Gonfaloniere were elected. 
 This government was swept away by the flood of the 
 French Revolution. The ancient aristocracy was suddenly 
 metamorphosed into a violent democracy, which, in its turn, 
 speedily gave way to a despotism, under Eliza Bacciochi, 
 the sister of Napoleon, who began to reign there as Grand 
 Duchess, in 1805. 
 
 There is something utterly repugnant to our English 
 ideas in a state being thus transferred like a farm, from one 
 possessor to another, and it is difficult to conceive patriot- 
 ism, loyalty, or even self-respect subsisting in the breasts* 
 of a people thus summarily disposed of. How was it 
 possible for a Mansi, a Nobili, a Bernardini, a Trenta, 
 a Montecatini, or any of the families with whom resided 
 the supreme power of the ancient republic, to offer a 
 hearty allegiance to Eliza Bacciochi, when Napoleon im- 
 posed her upon them as their Grand Duchess ? And, al- 
 though the illustrious blood of the Bourbons claimed more 
 sincere homage from nobles of ancient lineage, yet the 
 Lucchese chamberlain, or equerry at a small ducal court,
 
 220 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 might well be pardoned if he sighed for the old times 
 when his fathers and grandfathers were members of the 
 " Signoria " of their aristocratic republic. The republic 
 of Lucca had existed during many centuries of peaceful 
 though obscure self-government after the stormy civil wars 
 of the middle ages. And it is difficult to see why, after 
 the revolutionary wave of French invasion had subsided, 
 it was not entitled to be restored to its former position. 
 But it was destined to share the fate of its more illustrious 
 sisters of Genoa and Venice, with this difference, that it 
 continued to preserve for a few years longer its nationality, 
 although under a new form of government, before it was 
 merged in the larger state of Tuscany. In 1815, the 
 nobles of Lucca, who had bent the knee to Madame Eliza 
 JBacciochi, were called on to render a similar homage to 
 Maria Louisa of Spain, and her son Charles Louis of 
 Parma. 
 
 The young Duke of Lucca had no sooner attained the 
 age of twenty, than his mother arranged a marriage for 
 him, which seemed in all respects suitable, in point of 
 tige, illustrious birth, good education, and personal charms. 
 The bride was Maria Theresa, one of the four daughters of 
 Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, who abdicated in 
 March, 1821, in less than a year after his daughter's 
 marriage, and died in 1824. The sisters of the young 
 Duchess of Lucca were, Mary Beatrice, wife of Francis IV., 
 Duke of Modena ; Maria Christina, wife of Ferdinand II., 
 King of Naples ; Maria Anne (her twin sister), wife of 
 Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria. Considerable interest is 
 attached to those four young princesses, in the eyes of
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 221 
 
 Englishmen, from the fact that they are the heirs general 
 of the royal houses of Stuart, Tudor, and Plantagenet. 
 They had no brothers ; and the uncle, in favour of whom 
 their father abdicated the crown, died childless, and was 
 succeeded by the late King Charles Albert, a very remote 
 descendant of the house of Savoy, of the branch of Carig- 
 nan, and in no way conected with the Stuart family, 
 which, on the death of the Cardinal Duke of York, came 
 to be directly represented by Victor Emmanuel, King of 
 Sardinia. 
 
 The young Duchess of Lucca was just seventeen at the 
 time of her marriage, in the month of August, 1820 ; and 
 in addition to the charm of the most regular beauty, she 
 possessed that of innate, graceful dignity. It was im- 
 possible to conceive a more perfect specimen of high-born 
 and high-bred loveliness. Her education had been very strict, 
 and she was devoted to her religious duties, and pious ob- 
 servances, after the straitest forms of the Church of Rome. 
 Her mind was noble and pure, and the only drawback to 
 her many admirable qualities was that her piety partook 
 too much of the character of asceticism. The young 
 Duke, at the time of his marriage, was one of the hand- 
 somest princes in Europe. There is a very fine bust 
 of him, which was taken at that time by Bartolini the 
 sculptor of Florence, and which is a striking likeness, now 
 in the possession of Mr. Hamilton Gray, and preserved at 
 Bolsover Castle. The personal attractions of the Duke of 
 Lucca were equalled by his talents and accomplishments. 
 No one was better qualified to delight and to charm in 
 the social circle. No one was gifted with more ready
 
 222 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 wit, or lively conversational powers. No one was more 
 popular among his friends, and no one possessed greater 
 kindness of heart or amiability of manner. His learning, 
 too, was very considerable, and he possessed such versa- 
 tility of talent that he could at once quit the most gay 
 and lively scenes of social enjoyment, and become absorbed 
 in some abstruse branch of study. 
 
 The early married life of the Duke and Duchess of 
 Lucca was one of much variety and gaiety. Connected by 
 intimate ties of relationship with most of the Italian 
 reigning houses, and with the Courts of Vienna and 
 Dresden, they lived in a continual round of regal festivities; 
 and their own Court at Lucca was much more splendid in 
 consequence of their distinguished position, than, from the 
 size or the importance of its territory, it had any right 
 to be. 
 
 The late Emperor of Austria, Francis, was much 
 attached to the Duke of Parma, and as he was brother-in- 
 law to his son, he regarded him as a member of his own 
 family, and accordingly Vienna may be said to have been 
 his home even more than Lucca. There he generally 
 spent the gay season of the year. He was also a frequent 
 guest at the Court of Saxony, his sister, the Princess 
 Carlotta, having married Prince Maximilian, brother of 
 the King and father of the present Monarch by a fo^r- 
 mer wife, a Prince old enough to be her grandfather. 
 During the year of the Jubilee, 1825, the Duke and 
 Duchess of Lucca passed some of the winter months 
 in Rome ; and in that remarkable season, they were the 
 most distinguished among the illustrious strangers whom 
 the holy year brought to the Eternal City. The Court of
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 223 
 
 Lucca, although on a small scale, was brilliant. The 
 palaces were magnificent and spacious, and thronged with 
 joyous inmates. The favourite residence of the Duke 
 was La Marlia, a beautiful royal villa, distant a very few 
 miles from the town, and during the intense summer heat 
 he retired to the charming retreat of the Bagni di Lucca, 
 where he had a handsome palace. On the ]4th January, 
 1823, the Duchess gave birth to a son, Prince Ferdinand 
 Charles, who, on the abdication of his father, reigned in 
 Parma as Charles III., and who recently fell by the hand 
 of an assassin. 
 
 Having thus understood the position of the sove- 
 reign into whose service Baron Ward entered, and in 
 whose government he acted so conspicuous a part, we 
 must, for a moment, quit the royal atmosphere of the 
 palace of Lucca, and enter a lonely cottage in the parish 
 of Howden, in the county of York. This was the abode 
 of the humble ancestors of Thomas Ward; and it was 
 the spot where he passed his early years, although not the 
 place of his birth. 
 
 His grandfather, Thomas Ward, was a labourer of most 
 respectable character in the parish of Howden, where all 
 his sons and daughters were born, and where he himself 
 lived long enough to receive frequent proofs of the attach- 
 ment and bounty of his distinguished grandson. He and 
 his wife were highly esteemed, both by their superiors and 
 equals, and they maintained through life that character 
 of honesty and integrity for which many of the English 
 peasantry are so conspicuous. Old Thomas Ward was in- 
 variably treated with the utmost affection by his grandson.
 
 224 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 He used to receive very kind letters from him; and when 
 the Baron visited England in after-years, on the various 
 missions with which his sovereign entrusted him, he never 
 failed to spend a day or two at Howden, in order to show 
 him dutiful attention. 
 
 Thomas Ward's son, William, was" settled at York, as 
 stud-groom to Mr. Ridsdale, the trainer. His wife's name 
 was Margaret, and their son Thomas (the Baron) was boru 
 at York, in the year 1809. He had the misfortune to 
 lose his mother when he was very young. His father 
 married again, and we must presume that Tom did not 
 find his home comfortable ; for when he was seven years of 
 age, he ran away from his father and step-mother, and 
 went to his grandfather at Howden, where he remained 
 five years. It was to this period of his life that he always 
 reverted with the most affectionate interest ; and here it 
 was that he received his education. From seven to twelve, 
 he was an attender in the church-school, and there he 
 imbibed the sound religious principles to which he steadily 
 adhered throughout his whole life. His conduct as a 
 school-boy was good, and those who knew him well at 
 that early period remember that he was distinguished, in 
 his humble way, as an apt scholar ; and that he received 
 a Bible as a prize. When he was about twelve years old, 
 he left Howden and returned to York, and here again his 
 good conduct attracted the notice of his superiors ; and 
 he received another Bible as a gift from a lady who had 
 noticed him as an orderly, well-conducted boy, who pos- 
 sessed considerable religious knowledge. On his return 
 to York, he attended a National-school for a short time,.
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 225 
 
 and afterwards went to Mr. Ridsdale's stables, where he 
 did not continue long ; for in the year 1823 he was sent 
 out to push his fortune in the world. 
 
 He was then fourteen years of age, and an active, 
 smart, clever little fellow, with uncommon shrewdness and 
 dexterity, and with perfect good faith and honesty, founded 
 on religious principle. He was altogether a firstrate 
 specimen of a genuine Yorkshire boy. In the month of 
 October, in the year 1823, he was sent with a horse to 
 Vienna, and entered the service of Prince Aloys von 
 Lichtenstein in the department of the stables. 
 
 Materials are wanting for a particular account of the earlier 
 years of the Continental life of Tom Ward, and it is probable 
 that they do not contain many interesting incidents. He 
 continued for some time in the service of Prince Lichten- 
 ^tein, and his moral conduct was uniformly good, while he 
 distinguished himself by his knowledge of horses, and by 
 his ability as a skilful trainer and fearless rider. He was 
 very compactly built, and a light weight, and was frequently 
 selected as a jockey to ride races. He gradually rose in 
 the stables of his master, and he was at length induced 
 to leave his service by the offer of a promotion into that 
 of a Sovereign Prince and member of a royal house. 
 
 This- was Charles Louis, Duke of Lucca, who lived 
 more at Vienna than in his own dominions. Although a 
 Bourbon and a son of France, he never cultivated any 
 very intimate connection with l^ouis XVIII., or Charles 
 X. ; while he regarded the EmpeE&r Francis as a father. 
 Himself a great grandson of Maria Theresa, he was still 
 more closely connected with the Imperial family through 
 2 Q
 
 226 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 his beautiful Duchess, who was twin sister to the wife of 
 the son and heir of the Emperor. He thus was adopted as 
 a son of the house of Austria, and regarded Vienna as his 
 capital, while in common with his neighbours of Florence, 
 Parma, and Modena, he looked up to the Austrian Emperor 
 as the supporter of his sovereign authority, and respected 
 him as his political chief. 
 
 The Duke of Lucca was extremely fond of horses, and 
 as he was an Anglomaiie, it was necessary to have both 
 horses and grooms from England. Being in want of a 
 clever under-groom, Tom Ward was strongly recom- 
 mended to him, and he considered himself fortunate in 
 securing the services of so neat, active, and clever a lad. 
 Little did either master or man, at that time, think of the 
 close and important ties by which it was their fate to be 
 bound together during so many troubled and anxious 
 years ! 
 
 I cannot tell the exact year in which Ward entered 
 the Duke of Lucca's service. It must have been be- 
 tween 1825 and 1830. He was for some years in the 
 Ducal stables, when his cleverness and good conduct 
 attracted the favourable notice of his master. And as he 
 was very fond of the English, he wished to attach Ward 
 more closely to his immediate service ; and notwithstand- 
 ing his equestrian skill, he decided upon removing him 
 from his stables, and making him his under valet de cham- 
 bre. Ward owed this promotion entirely to his high 
 character, integrity, and scrupulous English cleanliness. 
 He had no personal advantages whatever, being quite 
 devoid of that showy exterior which sometimes leads to
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 227 
 
 promotion in great houses. He was undersized and by 
 no means well made, except for riding; his face was plain, 
 but with an expression in which there was a remarkable 
 union of simplicity and shrewdness. His complexion was 
 light, his eyes were grey, quick, and penetrating. He 
 was thoroughly English in his air and manner, and in 
 nothing more than in his extreme neatness in dress and 
 cleanliness in person. The Duke had many opportunities 
 of testing his integrity and moral worth ; and as he was 
 anxious to have a valet on whose sterling honesty he could 
 quite depend, he was glad to transfer his little Yorkshire 
 groom from the stable to the ante-chamber. 
 
 Ward's rise in the service of the Duke of Lucca was 
 extremely gradual, and was the result not of capricious 
 favour, but of the most well-grounded appreciation of his 
 long-tried worth and his rare intelligence. From under- 
 valet he was raised to the highest post in his master's 
 dressing-room ; and in the year 1836 he was his con- 
 fidential attendant, in which important though humble 
 capacity he continuedfor six or seven years. 
 
 The Duke was a frequent guest at the Grand Ducal 
 Court of Tuscany. He was nearly connected with the 
 reigning family, and the larger social circle of Florence 
 formed a pleasant variety from his own smaller court. 
 In the summer of 1838, he considerably enlarged the 
 circuit of his travels, being attracted by the coronation of 
 the Queen of Great Britain. He first attended the coro- 
 nation of his own brother-in-law, the Emperor of Austria, 
 at Milan, as King of Lombardy, and then he proceeded to 
 
 England. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that there is no Imperial coro- 
 nation of the Austrian Emperor. His imperial title is rather 
 personal than territorial. The crown of the Western 
 Empire (the Sacred Roman Empire) had during the latter 
 centuries of its existence degenerated into an almost 
 hereditary heirloom of the house of Hapsburgb, when it 
 was rudely rent from the brows of Francis by Napoleon. 
 Although Bonaparte created a new Western Empire, the 
 successor of Old Rome was extinguished never to be 
 revived. Yet Francis, who had been the representative of 
 the Csesars, was not to be cheated of his imperial dignity. 
 He continued an Emperor, but his Empire was Austrian 
 instead of Roman. Austria had never been more than a 
 Duchy, to which, by way of eminence, the affix " Arch" 
 had been added. The Archduke of Austria had no coro- 
 nation, but on his accession was accustomed to receive the 
 homage (Huldigung) of his states. But as the Austrian 
 Emperor was the possessor of many crowns, such as those 
 of Hungaiy, Bohemia, and Lombardy, it was decided that 
 he should henceforth undergo the ceremony of corona- 
 tion at Presburg for the Kingdom of Hungary, and at 
 Milan for that of Lombardy, and at Prague for that of 
 Bohemia. 
 
 After the coronation at Milan, the Duke of Lucca pro- 
 ceeded to England, and he was accompanied by Ward in his 
 quality of first valet de chambre. He must at that time have 
 seen at an awful distance some of those political notabili- 
 ties with whom it was his fate, a few years after, to mingle 
 in the associations of diplomatic life. At the Court of 
 Great Britain the Duke was extremely well received, and
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 229 
 
 welcomed with the distinction due to his exalted rank ; and 
 during the months of his stay in this country, he had the 
 opportunity, of which he fully availed himself, of mingling 
 with the various ranks of English society, and with the 
 manifold subdivisions of party, whether religious or politi- 
 cal, by which that society is marked. 
 
 After a stay at Windsor Castle, and one or two visits 
 with which he honoured country mansions, and a residence 
 during some time in London, his Royal Highness returned 
 to the Continent. The Duchess at this time preserved 
 the. grace and beauty for which she had been so pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished, but her health was extremely delicate, 
 and she mixed but little in society. Besides a princess, 
 who died in early infancy, the marriage of the Duke and 
 Duchess had produced only one son, the late unfortunate 
 Duke of Parma. He was at this time a boy under care 
 of his tutor Monsignore Diacchi, a Hungarian Ecclesiastic 
 of considerable talent and worth. 
 
 Such was the scene into which the young Yorkshire- 
 man was introduced, and such were the actors among 
 whom his lot was cast when he became principal valet to 
 the Duke of Lucca. 
 
 It has been already stated that "Ward had in his early 
 years received a religious education, and that he did not 
 fail to profit by what he had learnt. He always faithfully 
 adhered to the Church of England. He was unlearned in 
 doctrines, but he cultivated the fruits of sobriety, chastity, 
 and honesty ; and he regarded it as a point of duty and 
 honour to remain faithful to the communion of the Church 
 of England, in which he had been born and bred. There
 
 230 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 never was a man less ambitious; greatness \vas thrust 
 upon him without his either wishing for it or expecting it r 
 and he pursued the quiet tenor of his way, always acting 
 according to the dictates of his prudent integrity and 
 shrewd simplicity, and adopting as his motto, " Honesty 
 is the best and surest policy." 
 
 His extraordinary good sense and practical ability be- 
 came gradually more and more apparent. The Duke soon 
 began to see that his advice was good in matters far beyond 
 the departments of his stables and his wardrobe. He accord- 
 ingly consulted him in many perplexed and difficult cases 
 as they happened to occur. And he invariably found 
 such benefit from the advice of his new counsellor, that 
 he began to regard him as almost infallible. Ward soon 
 became the prime adviser in all that regarded the personal 
 expenditure and the household economy of his master. 
 Among the natives of Lucca the English valet was much 
 more popular than is usually the case with the foreign 
 favourites of princes. It was evident that he was acquiring 
 a very great share of influence ; but then it was quite as 
 evident that he was not abusing that influence in order to 
 compass any selfish ends. All that he did was character- 
 ized by straightforward plainness and simplicity. He 
 never boasted of favour, it was evident that he was always 
 entirely actuated by a desire to promote the really best 
 interests of his master, and the people soon learnt to dis- 
 tinguish between his sincere downright attachment to his 
 duties, and the timeserving fawning of court parasites. 
 As his influence increased, and as he was consulted on 
 weightier matters, he obtained a growing esteem among
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 231 
 
 the people, and Signer Tommaso was one of the most 
 popular personages in the ducal court. He never mani- 
 fested the slightest wish to rise above the level of his 
 early rank. He had married a young woman of Vienna, 
 of excellent character, but of his own station in life, and 
 he inhabited a neat little house in Lucca, in the vicinity of 
 the palace. And when he was practically the keeper of the 
 Duke's privy purse, and his adviser in some of the most 
 important concerns, he went about his humble duties with 
 the same modest and unassuming demeanour as when he had 
 no other occupation than that of overlooking his master's 
 wardrobe and arranging his toilette. The knowledge that 
 he possessed on the subject of horses, gained for him a 
 considerable amount of influence ; he became practically 
 superintendent of the ducal stud, and almost every year 
 he made journeys to his native Yorkshire, in order to pur- 
 chase fine English horses. On such occasions he never 
 omitted to visit his father, and his old grandfather and 
 uncles at Howden. 
 
 Ward had been gradually advancing in the regard and 
 confidence of the Duke and Duchess, when, in the year 
 1843, a circumstance occurred, which justly secured for 
 him a lasting place in their favour, and which at the same 
 time proved his capacity for diplomacy, and his remarkable 
 aptitude in accomplishing difficult negotiations. After the 
 death of the Marquis Man si, the management of the 
 affairs of the Duchy of Lucca fell into bad hands ; the 
 revenue was misappropriated, the Duke's private funds 
 were embezzled, and the finances had fallen into the most 
 frightful disorder. This occasioned the utmost distress of
 
 232 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 mind to the Duke ; and his health and spirits were visibly 
 affected. The anxious affection of the Duchess was on the 
 alert to find, if possible, some remedy for the evil. And 
 there was no one to whose advice she so readily had 
 recourse as Ward. He was perfectly aware of the course of 
 nefarious transactions by means of which his master was 
 impoverished, and plainly told the Duchess that there was 
 no salvation from ruin except by the immediate removal of 
 the obnoxious minister, and the adoption of a strict system 
 of financial reform. 
 
 But it was easy to suggest. The difficulty was, to 
 induce the Duke to take the decided steps which were 
 necessary. A powerful minister was to be dismissed, 
 and a complicated arrangement of embarrassed affairs 
 was to be accomplished. The only way of getting 
 the Duke to act, was by inducing some friend to take 
 the responsibility and the trouble upon himself; and 
 where was such an invaluable friend to be found ? The 
 Duchess and her faithful counsellor went over the diffe- 
 rent princes with whom her family were intimately con- 
 nected, and she found difficulties and objections to all. 
 At last she fixed upon one of the Austrian Archdukes, 
 who was Governor of Gallicia, and she decided that he 
 was the man to help them out of their difficulties by his 
 resolution in acting, and his prudence in advising, if he 
 could only be induced to undertake the difficult task. It 
 may be proper to explain that the prince thus selected was 
 Ferdinand, cousin to the Emperor, brother to the Duke 
 of Modena, and maternal uncle to the Duchess of Lucca, 
 her father, Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, having
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 233 
 
 married an Archduchess of Austria, the daughter of 
 Ferdinand, a younger son of Maria Theresa. Her 
 mind was no sooner made up than she resolved with- 
 out delay to put her plans in practice. She told Ward 
 that he must forthwith prepare for a journey to Gallicia. 
 She feared to give him full instructions in writing, or 
 to send by him any detail of circumstances to the Arch- 
 duke, lest he should be robbed by the way or examined 
 at the frontiers which he had to pass. She ascertained 
 that he was thoroughly acquainted with the posture of 
 the Duke's affairs and alive to all their difficulties; and 
 she therefore furnished him with a single line to the 
 Archduke, informing him that the bearer was a person 
 entirely in her confidence, and who had a most important 
 communication to make to his Imperial Highness, and 
 that every word that he said might be implicitly trusted. 
 
 The first difficulty to be overcome, was for Ward to 
 obtain leave of absence from the Duke, whose health and 
 spirits were such that he could ill dispense with his ser- 
 vices. However, he entreated so urgently for leave of 
 absence during three weeks, that his master was at length 
 prevailed on to grant his request. It was next necessary 
 to take measures to conceal the place of his real desti- 
 nation. Ward gave out that he was going to Dresden, and 
 in order that this might be believed, he sent several letters 
 addressed to his wife at Lucca, under cover to a confiden- 
 tial friend at Dresden, to be put from time to time into 
 the post-office of that city, so that they might arrive at 
 Lucca with the Dresden postmark. 
 
 When once he set out, he lost little time by the way. 
 ]3ut after he had crossed the Hungarian frontier, and when
 
 234 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 he was no longer in danger of having his papers seized, he 
 spent one or two nights, instead of sleeping after his long 
 day's journey, in writing out as distinct a statement as he 
 could of the Duke's affairs, and of the shameful way in 
 which he was pillaged, with a view to assist his memory 
 in the conversation that he hoped to have with the Arch- 
 duke. This statement he composed in German, which he 
 spoke and wrote fluently, although with the Viennese 
 dialect. 
 
 As soon as he arrived at Lemberg, the capital of Gal- 
 licia, he requested an audience of the Archduke, and 
 delivered to him the brief credentials with which the 
 Duchess of Lucca had entrusted him. When the Arch- 
 duke desired to know the nature of the important com- 
 munication that he had to make, Ward pulled out his 
 statement, and began to explain it. The Archduke told 
 him to leave the paper with him, and to call next day, 
 when he would be better able to talk to him. And when, 
 full of anxiety, he came at the appointed time, his Impe- 
 rial Highness complimented him on the distinctness of his 
 statement, but he demanded in what way all this concerned 
 him, and how he could be instrumental in improving the 
 state of the Duke's affairs ? Ward therefore fully entered 
 upon the mission with which he had been entrusted, and 
 a very long conversation ended in the Archduke giving 
 him the assurance that if he was requested by the Duke 
 of Lucca so to do, he would formally enter upon the trust 
 which the Duchess wished him to undertake, and endea- 
 vour to check the abuses of his master's financial adminis- 
 tration, and put order into his affairs.
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 235 
 
 No sooner had this assurance been given, than Ward 
 set out on his homeward journey, and in due time he 
 arrived at Lucca. He first acquainted the Duchess with 
 the success of her scheme, and he then hastened to present 
 himself to his master, whom he found sunk in the lowest 
 dejection, and who complained bitterly of his minister's 
 conduct, of the embarrassment of his circumstances, and 
 of his misfortunes. " Ah," said he, " I have no able and 
 powerful friend who might help me to bear my burden ! " 
 "Ward immediately caught at this idea, and suggested that 
 some one of his princely relatives and neighbours might 
 perhaps be induced to give him their aid. He began 
 with some of those who were most nearly connected with 
 his master by family ties, and proposed successively his 
 brothers-in-law, the Duke of Modena and the King of 
 Naples, his neighbour the Grand Duke of Tuscany, or the 
 King of Sardinia. All were objected to, on different 
 grounds. Ward next went warily into Germany, and 
 spake of the King of Saxony, or Prince John, who 
 were 'nearly connected with him. They would not do. 
 Then he turned to Vienna, and among the Archdukes he 
 named with considerable internal trepidation the Governor 
 of Gallicia. "Ah," said the Duke, "he would do, if he 
 could only be prevailed on to undertake the task/' 
 " Would your Royal Highness agree to put your affairs into 
 his hands, if he would consent to take the trouble?" 
 eagerly rejoined Ward. "Yes, I would, and gladly," said 
 the Duke. "Then, I have the happiness of informing 
 you that the thing is already agreed to ; and the Arch-
 
 236 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 duke only awaits your application to him, in order imme- 
 mediately to enter upon the arrangement of your affairs." 
 The satisfaction of the Duke, the Duchess, and their 
 faithful confidant, may easily be conceived. The arrange- 
 ment of the Duke's embarrassments was immediately 
 entrusted to the Archduke. The unfaithful minister was 
 dismissed, and the rapid advance of ruin was arrested in 
 good time. 
 
 The zeal and address which Ward displayed in the ar- 
 rangement of this affair, procured for him an unbounded 
 influence with his master, who, soon after this, strongly 
 urged him to accept of a portfolio, and to assume the 
 public position of a minister of state. This proposition 
 Ward refused point blank. He said that it would make 
 them both ridiculous ; that he was an uneducated English 
 groom, and quite unfit, in every way, to be elevated in the 
 manner that his Royal Highness proposed ; but that he 
 had devoted his life to him, and could serve him in a 
 private capacity quite as faithfully and as effectually as if 
 he assumed the external badge of power. He had now 
 the entire management of all the Duke's private affairs, 
 and he was consulted by him in matters of state. But he 
 held no ostensible position, and would not allow himself 
 to be regarded otherwise than as the Duke's servant. 
 
 Some months after the final conclusion of this negoci- 
 ation, when the Prime Minister had been dismissed, and 
 the finances of Lucca had been put on a better footing, 
 in the autumn of the year 1844, Ward made one of his 
 accustomed journeys into Yorkshire to buy horses for the 
 stud.
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 237 
 
 In this refusal to take office, which was not a mere 
 feint, we may recognise the native of a free and yet an 
 aristocratic country ; for Ward carried about with him 
 through life the most unmistakable type of an English- 
 man. In a despotic government, where the will of the 
 autocrat is absolute law, a word or a nod can raise the 
 most abject, and, decorating him with orders and titles, 
 can elevate him above the noblest in the land. And in 
 pursuance of this arbitrary system, of which we have the 
 most full development in Eastern countries, but which we 
 have seen in a modified degree under the various despotisms 
 of Europe, the Duke of Lucca thought it neither strange 
 nor unreasonable that his valet should, if he s"o pleased it, 
 become a minister of state, and hold his head above all the 
 native nobles. But Ward, with the intuitive sense of an 
 Englishman, felt that this would not do. Though pro- 
 bably not well read in the constitutional history of his 
 country, he yet felt as the mass of Englishmen feel, and 
 the same cause which has prevented some of our most 
 talented statesmen from gaining a thorough cordial in- 
 fluence over the English nation, made Ward refuse the 
 glittering distinction that was offered to him. With the 
 tact of an Englishman, he felt that position and station 
 were wanted in order to give a fair field to talent, integrity, 
 and honest ambition. And although his hesitation would 
 have been better founded if it had applied to free England, 
 than to an Italian people accustomed from time imme- 
 morial to bow to the caprices of rulers, yet it was k not 
 wholly mistaken ; for it was impossible that the Lucchese
 
 238 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 nobility who, one generation back, had been themselves 
 the sovereigns of their republic, could regard with com- 
 placency the sudden elevation of an obscure foreigner, 
 however great might be his personal worth. 
 
 Ward's reluctance to take upon himself the name and 
 title of cabinet minister was persevered in for some time. 
 But it was found to be inexpedient, and even impossible 
 to carry on the government with the real and virtual prime 
 minister holding the position of valet de chambre to the 
 sovereign. The Duke, therefore, at length overcame his 
 scruples, and elevated him to the position of minister of 
 state, giving him the portfolio of minister of finance. At 
 the same time he created him a Baron. 
 
 In the year 1845, an auspicious event occurred in the 
 ducal family, viz., the marriage of the only son of the 
 Duke and Duchess, Charles, hereditary Prince of Lucca. 
 This young Prince was now twenty -two years of age ; and 
 he had grown up very different from what might have 
 been expected, in the son of parents so distinguished for 
 beauty and grace. His appearance was plain, and his 
 manners were singularly undignified, as may be remem- 
 bered by many of those who knew him during his visits to 
 this country, where he astonished all who had observed 
 the graceful demeanour of his mother, and the winning 
 courtesy of his father. 
 
 The marriage which he now made was one well calcu- 
 lated to please a family who were themselves Bourbons, 
 and connected with all the highest royal houses in 
 Europe. The bride was Louisa of France, only sister of
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 239 
 
 the Due de Bordeaux, and daughter of the Due de 
 Berry. Having been born in 1819, she was three years 
 older than the Prince, and that was an advantage, con- 
 sidering his boyish temperament, which required guidance. 
 The marriage took place on the 10th November, 1845. 
 Nothing could be more gratifying to the Duke of Lucca 
 than this marriage of his son. The alliance was brilliant 
 in point of rank and birth ; and although the star of the 
 elder line of the Bourbons was not in the ascendant, yet 
 the last remaining scions of that magnificent race were 
 invested with a grand historic interest. In the probable 
 event of the death of the Due de Bordeaux without a 
 family, his sister Louisa will become heir-general of Hugh 
 Capet, as well as heir-general of the ancient Scottish and 
 Anglo-Saxon kings, through John BalioFs sister. The 
 latter, however, is a curious point of illustration known 
 and valuable to genealogists alone. But, even in the 
 present day, when illustrious birth is made to yield to 
 wealth and success, the representation in the female line 
 of the mighty Capetian and Bourbon dynasty of French 
 kings will add considerable illustration to a cadet branch 
 of the family, which is the position of the present young 
 Duke Robert of Parma, the Princess Louisa's eldest 
 son. 
 
 The issue of his marriage with Louisa of France was 
 two sons and a daughter. To the eldest was given the 
 name Robert, unusual in his family since the times of 
 Robert, son and successor of Hugh Capet. 
 
 I have followed Ward in the scenes of his early life, 
 when he passed through the discipline of obscurity and
 
 240 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 attained to a position of trust and importance. I have 
 now to trace his course amid stirring events, in which he 
 was destined to act a very conspicuous part ; and I will, in 
 the subsequent portion of the narrative, thankfully avail 
 myself of some of his letters, written from the midst of 
 his political vicissitudes. If I could publish them fully, 
 they would redound still more to the honour of his disin- 
 terested modesty, rare good sense, and right feeling. 
 But many details are involved in them which cannot, with 
 propriety, be made public during the present generation. 
 Enough, however, will appear in the extracts which I 
 propose to give, to illustrate the excellence of his charac- 
 ter, and the rare talent which he evinced for conducting- 
 the most difficult and seemingly hopeless negociations to 
 a successful conclusion. 
 
 The reader must pardon the inaccuracies of the English, 
 remembering that it is that of a Yorkshire groom, whoso 
 only college was the parish school at Howden. How- 
 ever, in the midst of a life of constant active exertion, he 
 did not neglect his improvement in his native language as- 
 well as in German, Italian, and French. Were the letters 
 written in 1839, when he was a valet, compared with 
 those written ten years after, when he was a Minister of 
 state, a considerable difference would be seen in style and 
 orthography. His best language, however, was Italian; 
 as in that he had been the most accustomed to converse 
 with men of rank and education. 
 
 In considering the character of this man, even those 
 who are not so intimately acquainted with him as to be 
 able to judge of his higher qualities, must needs admit
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 241 
 
 him to have been a consummately clever fellow, who could 
 apply all his native Yorkshire shrewdness to a new sphere, 
 and turn to his sharp intelligence for guidance in novel 
 and difficult circumstances. A certain freedom of speech, 
 with a bold hardihood of character, based entirely on a 
 conscious sense of honour, attracted, at first, the notice of 
 his master, who felt such pleasure in the open frankness of 
 the man, that he frequently took opportunities of convers- 
 ing with him and asking his advice. Ward always spoke 
 out his mind, and by the force of strong native sense and 
 unswerving determination, he impressed his master with 
 the fact that his best counsels were to be derived from the 
 truthfulness of his Yorkshire groom, and not from the 
 flattery of the titled and decorated crowds that thronged 
 his chambers of audience. 
 
 The groom was elevated to the post of personal atten- 
 dant, then of intendant of his stables and household, then 
 of comptroller of his privy purse, then of Minister of 
 state, and, in fact, Prime Minister, with baronial titles and 
 manifold knightly decorations. Such was the elevation 
 to which Ward had ascended 'at the present epoch of his 
 history. He was the trusted adviser of his master in the 
 knottiest questions of foreign politics ; the arbiter of the 
 most difficult points of international policy with other 
 states ; and the highest authority in all home affairs. He 
 was one of those men of action who speedily distinguish 
 themselves whenever the game of life is to be played; 
 quick to discern the character of those around him, and 
 prompt to avail himself of their knowledge. Little 
 hampered by the conventionalities which impose trammels 
 2 R
 
 242 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 on men bom in an elevated station and refined by elegant 
 breeding, he generally attained his object by a coup de 
 main, before others had arranged their plans to oppose 
 him. To these qualities, so instrumental to his success, he 
 added the most rugged, unyielding honesty ; and a loyal 
 singlehearted attachment to the person of his Prince. Strong 
 in his own conscious rectitude, and in the confiding regard 
 of his sovereign, Ward stood alone and fearless against all 
 the wiles and machinations of his formidable rivals, who, 
 although armed against counter wiles and counter machi- 
 nations, were quite unprepared against straightforward 
 honesty. He went right on to the point, even as the 
 pebble from the shepherd's sling penetrated the skull of 
 the mighty man of Gath. 
 
 Ward was thus, most honourably to himself, raised by 
 his master to the important office of a Minister of 
 state, with the finance department as his more peculiar 
 province in the first instance. But he soon became 
 virtually Prime Minister ; and his diplomatic talent and 
 address were such that all the arrangements between the 
 Duchy of Lucca and the other Italian states were made 
 under his immediate superintendence. In the year 1847, 
 he succeeded in settling, very much to the advantage of the 
 Duke of Lucca, a dispute between that Prince and the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany, of many years' standing; and 
 having concluded a treaty for the acknowledgment of the 
 Lucchese public debt, as well as the Customs Union 
 between the two governments, he was decorated by his 
 master with the first class of the order of St. Louis, and 
 was created a Baron of the Duchy of Lucca. The Grand
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 243 
 
 Duke of Tuscany also made him a Noble of his States, 
 and decorated him with the order of St. Joseph. An 
 account of the conferring of these honours will be given 
 hereafter, in the simple and naive words of the Baron 
 himself. Meanwhile I may say that they were showered 
 upon him without any solicitation on his part, and alto- 
 gether unexpectedly. The first news that he had of his 
 having been created a Baron was when he saw that title 
 attached to his name in some public document. Believing 
 it to be a mistake, he ordered it to be erased. And he 
 was only induced to give a reluctant consent to the 
 measure, when the Duke assured him not only that he had 
 created him a Baron, but that, under the circumstances of 
 his early obscurity and his present exalted position, it was 
 absolutely necessary that he should hold some definite 
 rank. 
 
 One day, about this time, when he entered the Duke's 
 room, he found him occupied with a pencil and paper. 
 1 ' Ward/' said his Royal Highness, " I am devising a coat 
 of arms for you. As a mark of the esteem in which you 
 are held by the Duchess as well as by myself, you shall 
 have armorial bearings compounded of her arms and my 
 own. I will give you the silver cross of Savoy with the 
 golden fleur de Us of France in dexter chief." "With many 
 expressions of gratitude for the honour which was about 
 to be conferred upon him, he asked permission to add 
 something emblematical of his native country ; and as he 
 had heard that coats of arms sometimes had supporters, 
 he would like to have the cross of Savoy and the lily of 
 Bourbon supported by English John Bulls I " So be it," 
 
 R 2
 
 244 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 said the Duke, "you shall have two bulls regardant for 
 your supporters." And thus the arras of Baron Ward may 
 be found in " Burke' s Peerage " among those of English- 
 men who have obtained foreign titles : On a field gules 
 a cross argent, in the dexter chief, a shield azure sur- 
 mounted by a royal crown, and charged with a fleur de lis 
 or; supporters, two bulls regardant, proper. 
 
 In 1847 a remarkable event took place in the history of 
 the Duke of Lucca. He put in execution the design 
 which he had long entertained, of abdicating his crown. 
 This measure he had contemplated at least twelve years 
 before ; and he always reverted to it whenever he found 
 the burden of sovereignty peculiarly distasteful. But he 
 had been hitherto prevented from accomplishing his object 
 by the consideration of the duties incumbent on a ruler, 
 and in consequence of the representations of his friends. 
 Lucca was not to be his permanent possession. He knew 
 that in the course of nature he must, ere long, inherit his 
 birthright, the Duchy of Parma, which had so long been, 
 unjustly withheld from him ; and he might well be excused 
 if he was unable to feel the same interest in his Lucchese 
 subjects with which they would have inspired him if he 
 had been born their ruler, and if they were to become the 
 subjects of his son after him. He also considered, and 
 not unjustly, that since at no distant date they were of 
 necessity to be united to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, 
 the sooner that transfer was accomplished the better. 
 The health of the Archduchess Maria Louisa was declin- 
 ing. On her death he was to become Sovereign of Parma ; 
 he wished to be fairly rid of all the cares of one
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 245 
 
 sovereignty before he was called on to undertake those of 
 another, and he considered that the treaties which he had 
 just concluded with the Grand Duke rendered the present 
 a favourable opportunity for resigning to him that which 
 must, at any rate, soon be his in perpetuity. 
 
 Many arrangements were necessary with regard to the 
 transfer of the Lucchese state. But they had been 
 rendered comparatively easy in consequence of the politi- 
 cal measures already alluded to, which had been so ably 
 accomplished by Ward. And that indefatigable diploma- 
 tist was employed to conclude the transfer of the aristo- 
 cratic old Republic from the dominion of the Duke Charles 
 Louis to that of the Grand Duke Leopold. In all this, 
 be it observed, the nobles and commons of the recently 
 erected Duchy had no choice. There is something very 
 repugnant to the ideas of an Englishman in the popula- 
 tion of a state, which, only a generation ago, had been free 
 and self-governing, being turned over like a flock of sheep 
 from the hands of one despotic master to those of another. 
 But I am describing Italy, and not England. And little 
 as such an arrangement accords with our notions, it is 
 probable that the people of Lucca were not worse governed 
 by a Bourbon and an Austrian than they had been by a 
 Gonfaloniere and Senate composed of their own nobles. 
 No one that knows personally the Duke or the Grand 
 Duke can deny them the praise of the most amiable and 
 kindly disposition ; and if they were despots, their desire, 
 at least, was that their people should be happy. 
 
 The cession of the Duchy of Lucca to Tuscany was by 
 no means an unfavourable arrangement either for the
 
 246 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 people or their sovereign. The former were at once settled 
 under the rule which was expected to be permanent. And 
 the latter received such an indemnity as secured him 
 against loss ; while he continued to enjoy his own private 
 income as an Infant of Spain. 
 
 The active agency of Ward was instrumental in the 
 amicable settlement of these momentous changes, and he 
 had just brought everything to a happy conclusion, when 
 another remarkable vicissitude occurred in the fortunes 
 of his master, which was immediately followed by a 
 catastrophe no less sudden than it was overwhelming. No 
 sooner was the Duchy of Lucca resigned into the hands of 
 the Grand Duke Leopold, and Charles Louis, thus a second 
 time discrowned, was beginning to enjoy the freedom of no 
 longer reigning, than he was called to resume the sceptre 
 of command over a more important sovereignty. The 
 Archduchess Maria Louisa died, and he became Duke of 
 Parma. 
 
 The resignation of the crown of Lucca and the succes- 
 sion to that of Parma were events that followed each 
 other so rapidly that the Duke had no time to enjoy the 
 repose of private life before he was called to take posses- 
 sion of his new states, and to be installed in the palace of 
 his ancestors. But he was scarcely settled on his throne 
 when the storm, which had been brewing in other parts 
 of the Italian peninsula, burst forth there as elsewhere 
 with such fury that he was speedily compelled to relin- 
 quish the sceptre which had just been put into his hands. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1848 he was establish- 
 ing himself at Parma, and Ward was still at Florence,
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 247 
 
 busily occupied with the concluding articles of the arrange- 
 ment which had just been effected between his master and 
 the Grand Duke of Tuscany. We will here allow him to 
 speak for himself, and to give a sketch of his actual posi- 
 tion, in an extract of a letter to his father. 
 
 Extracts from a Letter written by Baron Ward, from 
 
 Florence, I2th January, 1848. 
 
 " Many have been the changes in my position of life 
 since I saw you last, and your not writing was one great 
 reason why I have abstained from doing so, as I must 
 have spoke of all these affairs, and that might have ap- 
 peared in the eyes of many vanity. However, all has 
 gone for the best, and I hope, with the help of God, in 
 whom alone I place my confidence, all will continue so. 
 I have had many changes in life, wonderful changes for a 
 man of my humble education. When I returned last from 
 England, the whole of the Duke's administration was con- 
 fided to me. I was successful, and everything went well. 
 Afterwards, a very serious question arose between the 
 Duke of Lucca and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, which 
 lasted for two years, and ended in a very disagreeable 
 manner, by the Grand Duke protesting publicly. I at 
 that time was confided with the finance department, as 
 Minister of state and state councillor. Our minister of 
 foreign affairs, who had treated the above affair, gave it up 
 as impossible to make anything more out of it. My in- 
 defatigable spirit would not allow me to see a scandal of 
 that kind given up so cowardly, and it was, at my request, 
 confided to me. I was laughed at when I took it in band
 
 248 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 by all. Some said I was presumptuous, some said I was 
 a fool, and some said I was an ignorant fellow. I let 
 them all have their talk ; and to work I went ; and this 
 was my first step as a diplomatist. I was so successful 
 that in two months' time the Grand Duke was so con- 
 vinced of his wrong, that he was obliged to withdraw his 
 protest which had been publicly placarded by his govern- 
 ment throughout this Duchy, and confirmed the Duke of 
 Lucca's right to his credit against the Duchy of Lucca in 
 two millions of livres. And in three weeks afterwards, I 
 signed another treaty for a Customs' Union betwixt the 
 two states, and was fortunate enough to succeed, as well 
 as the raising of a public loan. All this went step after 
 step, so quick that I had not time to look round me. 
 The Grand Duke, as a demonstration of his satisfaction, 
 decorated me with the Commander Cross of St. Joseph ; 
 and the Duke of Lucca with his Cross of St. Louis, first- 
 class ; afterwards with the title of Baron for me and my 
 successors. And all at once I found myself launched into 
 the world, without really knowing how I got there ; and 
 for why do all make such a fuss of me ? Invitations on 
 all sides, all admiring a wonderful talent that I know 
 nothing of. After these affairs, and just as I was begin- 
 ning to feel myself easy in financial matters for the state 
 as minister, the Italian movement began : and again I 
 found myself in the middle of the whole, how, I know 
 not. But it has been the cause of my signing three more 
 treaties. The Duke of Lucca abdicated in favour of the 
 Grand Duke ; and since, I have been the intermediator 
 betwixt Austria and Tuscany, Modena and Tuscany, the
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 249 
 
 Dukes of Lucca and Tuscany and Modena. I have done 
 nothing but travel about from one court to the other. 
 And a few days ago, the Grand Duke of Tuscany has 
 settled upon me a handsome pension for life, for my ser- 
 vices rendered to his state. The Duke of Lucca, who is 
 now Duke of Parma, has done the same. And now I am 
 settling the liquidation betwixt the Duke of Parma and 
 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and I have four secretaries 
 and ten writers at this present moment here at Florence 
 under my direction to get done as quickly as possible ; as 
 the Duke of Parma wishes me to take part in his govern- 
 ment there. However, I shall retire if possible ; I have 
 had enough of this life. They will finish me with fatigue. 
 I have not a moment's rest, and have much to fear for my 
 health, as really I feel I cannot go on this way. I thought 
 it necessary just to give you a sketch of my past life, not 
 for vanity's sake. I am, and I hope God will maintain 
 rne so, always the same, nothing has altered in me. Only 
 I feel burdened by what many envy me for possessing. In 
 it, law and honour will be my guide through life. Though 
 humble, God has raised me above many thousands that 
 sneered upon me. But he has likewise blessed me with a 
 noble mind, and I feel his blessing in all I do. My path 
 is straight forward, and here they call it talent." 
 
 It may be interesting to know that at this period, which 
 was the commencement of his pecuniary prosperity, he 
 was mindful of the wants of his poor relations. He had 
 a family of his own to provide for, as prior to 1848 he 
 had a son and a daughter, and in 1848 another child was
 
 250 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 born to him. But no sooner could he be said himself to 
 have an assured competence, than he hastened to place his 
 father, grandfather, and other near relatives in a comfort- 
 able position according to their station. And the manner 
 in which his assistance was bestowed proved his good 
 sense. In 1848, besides a very handsome new year's gift 
 to his father, he settled one pound weekly on him, payable 
 every Monday morning. He sent considerable sums as 
 presents to his old grandfather and brother, and settled a 
 comfortable weekly allowance on them both ; that to his 
 brother being put into the savings' bank to occumulate, 
 as he was at sea. He adopted Walter Ward, the son of 
 his father's younger brother, and educated him and pro- 
 cured for him a commission in the Austrian army, which 
 he left and then joined the German Legion, and is now at 
 the Cape. The Baron was always most affectionately dis- 
 posed towards his father, brothers, and uncles, and more 
 especially towards his old grandfather, with whom he 
 had passed so many years. The letters which he wrote to 
 them were always expressive of much affection. In that 
 addressed to his father, from which I have given extracts, 
 I have limited these to his account of public matters, as 
 being alone of general interest. 
 
 When the death of Napoleon Bonaparte's widow opened 
 to Charles Louis de Bourbon the succession to the 
 dominions of his ancestors, he ascended a throne which 
 had been already undermined. In Parma the emissaries 
 of Charles Albert found men's minds too ready to receive 
 impressions of revolt and sedition. In Placentia, all were 
 gained over to the interests of Piedmont. In Pontremoli,
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 251 
 
 and Lunigiana, some wanted a republic, some were anxious 
 for annexation to Tuscany, while a few were attached to 
 their lawful sovereign. 
 
 The moral and religious condition of Parma were alike 
 deplorable. "While in other Italian cities there was a fair 
 mixture of good and evil, at Parma there was a total dead- 
 ness to religion, accompanied by a depravity of manners 
 truly revolting. The Parmesans, soft and effeminate, gave 
 little hopes of amelioration. The people of Placentia, on 
 the other hand, though mutinous and revolutionary, had 
 more strength of character, and might thus be moulded 
 into something better. A strong hatred against Parma 
 made them resolve not to submit to the same ruler, and 
 led them into the arms of Piedmont. 
 
 It is, after all, impossible for the people of those states 
 of Northern Italy to forget their historical antecedents. They 
 are essentially republican. Sovereigns of foreign race 
 have for generations attempted to establish the monarchical 
 system ; but they have fared no better than exotic plants 
 in an ungenial soil. The people are equally incapable of 
 enduring a monarchy even when constitutional, and of 
 entertaining broad and enlightened views of patriotism. 
 Their national sympathies are bounded by their respective 
 municipalities. They hate all beyond their own town 
 walls ; and when they admit of a union with a neighbour- 
 ing city, it is with the view of combining against a third 
 odious to both. 
 
 Such was the state of the people of Parma, and such 
 were their dispositions towards their native sovereign, 
 when, early in the year 1848, he ascended the throne
 
 252 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 which the death of the ex-Empress Maria Louisa had 
 rendered vacant. 
 
 Charles Louis was no sooner established at Parma, than 
 the fruits of the secret intrigues of Sardinia appeared in 
 the disaffection of his new subjects, wliich received a 
 sudden impulse from the revolution in France. Ward 
 was at that time in Florence, concluding the complicated 
 arrangements incident on the recent cession of the Duchy 
 of Lucca to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. No sooner did 
 he hear of the political troubles by which his master was 
 surrounded, than that faithful servant hastened to Parma, 
 where he arrived just in time to witness that master's over- 
 throw. The secret intrigues had been astutely devised, 
 the revolutionary movement was violent and sudden, and 
 the Duke's throne was subverted without giving him even 
 the opportunity of resistance. Flight was the only course 
 that was left ; and attended by the faithful Ward, he sud- 
 denly quitted the capital where his reign had not extended 
 over many weeks. They traversed a portion of Italy in 
 disguise ; and gaining the coast, they embarked and 
 landed in the south of France, from whence they proceeded 
 to Weistropp, a chateau and small estate which the Duke 
 had purchased near Dresden, ten years before. The Duke 
 now fixed his residence in this retired spot, where he could 
 enjoy the tranquil life of an elegant scholar and country 
 gentleman, diversified by the occasional intercourse of the 
 Royal Family of Saxony, who were his near relations, and 
 to whom he was much attached. 
 
 At Weistropp he remained almost continually during 
 the remainder of 1848 and 1849, while the great struggle
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 253 
 
 in Italy was carried on, which ended in the confusion and 
 defeat of Charles Albert, and the restoration of the 
 ascendancy of the legitimate sovereigns. While the Duke 
 remained at Weistropp, the Prince and Princess visited 
 various countries, and spent a considerable portion of their 
 exile in England. 
 
 From Weistropp, Baron Ward was despatched, in the 
 summer of 1848, to fight his master's battles in the 
 diplomatic circle of Vienna, and in the camp of Field- 
 Marshal Radetsky. He displayed the greatest energy and 
 the most consummate prudence in negociating for the in- 
 terests of the Duke, or rather for those of his family. For 
 the Duke himself had decided on abdicating his sovereignty 
 to his son, and he only waited for the downfall of Charles 
 Albert, and the restoration of legitimate authority in 
 Northern Italy, in order to execute his design. Ward 
 was invested with full powers to act for the Duke both at 
 Vienna and in Italy ; and he was, in fact, nominated as 
 his alter ego, a degree of confidence which was indeed 
 fully merited by him, but which has very seldom been 
 extended by a prince to a subject. 
 
 During the autumn of 1848, he was busily engaged in 
 negociating between Charles Louis (or Charles II. as he 
 was called), the abdicating Duke of Parma, and his son, 
 who ascended the tottering throne as Charles III. The 
 act of abdication on the one hand, and that of acceptance 
 on the other, are both countersigned by "Ward," who 
 acted as prime minister both to the father and son. Part 
 of the autumn of 1848 was spent by the Prince and 
 Princess of Parma in the island of Arran, with the
 
 254 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Marquess of Douglas and his Marchioness, nee Princess 
 Mary of Baden. Ward came to England in order to 
 arrange some of the necessary preliminaries with a view 
 to the abdication. He followed the Prince to Scotland, 
 and on his way thither he stopped at Bolsover Castle, to 
 deliver a packet with which he had been entrusted by the 
 Duke for Mr. Hamilton Gray. When invited to prolong 
 his stay there, he stated that he was unable to remain 
 longer than a few hours ; as he was anxious to devote four- 
 and-twenty hours to a visit to the village of Howden, 
 where he wished to see his aged grandfather and other 
 members of his family. And hereupon he opened a small 
 portmanteau, which was literally filled with the insignia of 
 different orders of knighthood which he had received from 
 various sovereigns ; the Grand Cross of St. George ; the 
 Grand Cross of St. Louis of Parma ; the Grand Cross of 
 St. Joseph of Tuscany; the Commander Cross of the 
 Iron Crown. All these splendid decorations he intended, 
 with pardonable vanity, to show to his Yorkshire kinsmen. 
 After having negociated the abdication of his old master, 
 and been mainly instrumental in placing on the throne of 
 Parma the youthful Charles III., he continued to be 
 prime minister, with absolute power, during the years of 
 that Prince's life and reign. 
 
 It was necessary to give this short sketch, in order to 
 enable the reader to understand the extracts from a few 
 of Baron Ward's letters with which I will conclude 
 this memoir. They are addressed to an English gentle- 
 man, who, from his very old and intimate acquaintance 
 with the Duke of Parma, had the best opportunity of
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 255 
 
 knowing and appreciating the sterling worth of Ward's 
 character, having watched his progress from the time that 
 he waited in his master's ante-chamber to that of his 
 exaltation as unlimited prime minister. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 WEISTEOPP, 22d July, 1848. 
 
 " I kept the Duke at Parma as long as I could. Had 
 he heeded my counsels throughout, I believe we should 
 have been there still. However, it seems that Providence 
 had ordained otherwise. The English Government has 
 been very kind to us throughout the whole affair. I had 
 been at Turin, treating the customs league, and there I 
 had an opportunity of informing the English Government, 
 and proving my statements, so that they had a clear view 
 of the infamous conduct of the King of Sardinia. When 
 all was beyond remedy, I was enabled, by the kindness of 
 Sir George Hamilton, to snatch the Duke from their power, 
 and by so doing I have embarrassed their whole policy, 
 and, as I hope, saved all. I see nothing to be feared 
 from Charles Albert's invasion, and really believe he will 
 soon be driven home again. I hope that the Duke will 
 benefit by this lesson ; for out of all that numerous herd 
 of courtiers fed by him, none came forward to share their 
 fate with him ; and it proves, at the end, that my poor 
 humble Yorkshire breeding was the best nobility of that 
 horrid lot ! I was desired by the Court of Tuscany to 
 take a part in their government, just at the moment of 
 the Duke's fall in Parma. My answer to the Grand Duke 
 was, that the more the Duke of Parma was sunk in mis-
 
 256 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 fortune the truer I should stick to him, and that I hoped 
 the Grand Duke would, in case of similar misfortunes, 
 find men of his own who would do the same ! The Grand 
 Duke was highly pleased with the answer, and said, 
 1 Ward, that is precisely the answer that I expected from 
 you/" In this letter Baron "Ward describes, at great 
 length, many important negociations which he had carried 
 on between his master, while Duke of Lucca, and the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the share which he had in 
 the arrangement whereby the Duchy of Lucca was ceded 
 to the Grand Duke on very favourable terms for Charles 
 Louis. "The conclusion of this important affair made 
 the Grand Duke settle an annual pension on me of 10,000 
 francs, allowing me to enjoy it when I liked, and to con- 
 tinue to serve the Duke and his son. Afterwards he con- 
 ferred his Grand Cross on me, and the title of a Tuscan 
 nobleman. The Duke of Lucca had given me his cross of 
 the first class, and, unknowingly to me, had created me a 
 Baron. Here you have a sketch of my romantic life ; for 
 I cannot term it otherwise for a national school-boy of 
 York, who only had the benefit even of that up to his 
 ninth year. To go on with my story : Unluckily for us, 
 the Archduchess Maria Louisa, Duchess of Parma, died 
 suddenly and unexpectedly. I was engaged in Florence 
 liquidating the affairs of the Lucchese abdication. * * * 
 The Duke did all he could to get me to Parma ; and when 
 the Grand Duke conferred on me the Grand Cross of 
 St. Joseph, the Duke gave me the Grand Cross of Constan- 
 tiniano of Parma. But that was not what would entice 
 Ward. However, as soon as I heard of the fall of Vienna, 
 I set out post immediately for Parma, to stand by the
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 257 
 
 Duke in such a needful moment. I was stopped on the 
 road by Zambeccari's band of Crosciati; but when con- 
 ducted to him, he most friendly told me he had heard so 
 much good of me, he was sure I should do no harm. 
 However, I arrived at Parma when the revolution had 
 conquered, and I leave you to judge my mortification. 
 However, I succeeded in compromising the Regency, so 
 that the Duke and his family had their horses taken from 
 their carriages, and were drawn in triumph through the 
 streets. The Regency were baffled by this sudden change 
 of public opinion, and begged me to become one of their 
 members. This, of course, I declined. The Duke had 
 unfortunately named a Regency before I arrived, and after 
 he had done so there was no means of getting him away, 
 as all Lombardy was in an uproar. Had the Duke not 
 done this, or even afterwards, had he given the constitu- 
 tion and formed a new ministry, all would have gone well. 
 But it was impossible for me to persuade him to this, so I 
 had no other way than that of saving the family; and 
 after having achieved the victory of public opinion, off I 
 went to Turin, and arrived there before Charles Albert 
 left for the camp. This step was, as I say, necessary in 
 order to save the family ; and I managed business so well 
 there that I kept all alive for a month longer. Had 
 Radetsky recovered in this time, you see my battle would 
 have been most glorious. I bothered Piedmont with 
 English interference to that degree that my passports 
 were sent to me. Then I claimed my rights as an English 
 subject, and obtained, in virtue of this, fifteen days' respite, 
 under English protection, to remain at Genoa. This was 
 2 s
 
 258 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 all I wanted to save the Duke, and save him I did, from 
 Genoa, with Sir George Hamilton's assistance. I was 
 excluded then from Piedmont and Tuscany. However, I 
 had the comfort to be admired for my staunch conduct 
 even hy my bitterest enemies. You see I have done what 
 I could to give you a brief sketch of what has occurred. 
 But you find a great deal of ICH, which I could not avoid 
 if I wished to give you a sketch of my romance, &c., &c., 
 &c. The Duke -will be highly delighted with your letter. 
 His intention is about the end of August to visit England. 
 He has already had a friendly invitation from the Queen." 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 " "\YEISTBOPP, DRESDEN, 
 30th July, 1848. 
 
 " You see the benefit of all that I did has vanished 
 away like smoke, in the Italian revolutions ; and it is a 
 useful lesson for life, for from this we can learn how vain 
 the things of this world are. It is not that I regret what 
 has occurred to myself, for to me all that is beyond the 
 necessaries of a humble, honest life, are accessories. It is 
 for the Duke that I feel. It is for the misfortunes of a 
 noble-minded prince, who, throughout all his life, has 
 been involved in difficulties ; and when we go to the origin 
 of all, the cause generally applicable is overdone generosity 
 and kindness. I believe that the Duke's family will, ere 
 long, be reinstated in their dukedom, and here ends all 
 my political career. I have resolved on retiring from 
 court and state whenever that happy event is realised. I 
 have lived fifteen years constantly among the Italians, and 
 I am sorry to say, that out of thousands of pretended
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 259 
 
 friends not one turned out staunch in the day of trouble. 
 Thousands the Duke has raised from nothing, and not a 
 soul of them came forward, even to say ' Do you want any 
 thing?' excepting Sebright* and Cotterell. After such 
 experience, whenever fortune reappears favourable to the 
 family, my duty is finished, and a tranquil life, after so 
 much burasco, with my dear children, will be preferred to 
 anything else this world can offer." 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 " WEISTEOPP, 9fch August, 1848. 
 
 " When his Royal Highness wrote to you of his coming 
 to England, Radetsky had not driven Carlo Alberto out of 
 the trenches on the Mincio. Now he has driven him be- 
 yond Cremona; and probably at this moment Milan has 
 been retaken. So you see all these events change the 
 Duke's position, and we have for the present something 
 more to do than to travel." 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 " llth August, 1848. 
 
 " I find myself once more launched into business, and 
 I have this day accepted the office of charge d'affaires 
 for Parma, at the Court of Vienna. So you see we intend 
 having another struggle for my master, or at least for his 
 family. All this good news, that would have warmed the 
 hearts of thousands in his Royal Highnesses position, has 
 been the cause of damping his spirits. The remembrance 
 
 * Mr. Sebright for some years was Equerry to the Duke, who 
 created him Baron de Everton. He is now British Resident at 
 Santa Maura, in the Ionian Islands. Both he and Mr. Cotterell 
 were independent English gentlemen attached to the Court of 
 Lucca. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of his past sufferings is so fresh, and the wounds are so 
 deeply engrained, that I fear he will never recover from 
 them." 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 " WEISTEOPP, 19th August, 1848. 
 
 " The affairs of Italy have travelled by steam. So quick 
 have events thereon followed the other, that we are all in 
 confusion how to act and what to do first. I came here 
 just from Vienna, and I leave to-morrow for Italy, by 
 Vienna, as Luogotenente for the Ducato di Parma, with 
 unlimited power to act, as circumstances may appear ne- 
 cessary. The Duke will not come there until all is en- 
 tirely settled. This is my mission; but mind, I have 
 another which only needs filling up ; and, if I can find 
 the man to my fancy, I shall step back and place him in 
 my shoes before I put them on. Only downright neces- 
 sity will make me take this step, of re-entering into public 
 affairs in Italy, for I am so sick and disgusted, that I 
 shall be most happy to withdraw from the whole, and 
 attend to the welfare of my family. However, I must 
 fulfil my promise, save the Duke and his duchy, and see 
 him once more righted. I cannot say for the present direct 
 here or there, as it will be very difficult to know where I 
 shall get to, and what may become of me for a time. I 
 trust in God, and fear no man ; and I doubt not but that 
 I shall work my way through. The King and Queen of 
 Prussia, as well as the King and Queen of Saxony, all 
 paid the Duke a visit here yesterday. Please take no 
 notice, should the Duke at this moment of excitement 
 not answer punctually. And be so kind as to write to 
 him often, as your letters do him much good."
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 261 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 " VIENNA, 18th December, 1848. 
 
 " When I arrived at Weistropp, I found the Duke in 
 good health. The abdication of the Emperor only allowed 
 me to remain twenty-two hours, as I was honoured with 
 the mission of congratulating, in the Duke's name, the 
 young Emperor on his accession to the throne ; so I left for 
 Olmiitz, and from thence I was commissioned to go to 
 Prague, where I was honoured with an audience of the 
 Emperor Ferdinand and the Empress. From an interview 
 with Prince Schwarzenburg, and the Russian Minister, 
 Count Medem, I have the pleasure to announce to you 
 that the Duke of Parma's affairs are in a most tranquil- 
 izing position, as Russia has pronounced positively in 
 favour of the Duke's rights being respected, and Austria 
 has given the assurance of having them respected. So 
 much for poor Tom Ward's exertions ! You see, sticking 
 to right, and going straight forward, has the help of God 
 with it at the end; and the feeble, with patience and 
 perseverance, find protection." 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 "VIENNA, 6th Feb., 1849. 
 
 " Some days I am all in hope, and no sooner have I 
 dreamt too pleasantly than up stirs some insignificant 
 intrigue as small as a nut, and before I have well had 
 time to observe it, it becomes as large and awkward as the 
 Alps. I cannot describe my position to you, as it would 
 lead me into a labyrinth of court intrigues that are only 
 known in England from romances. I have just arrived
 
 262 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 from Pesth in Hungary. I was honoured with the com- 
 mission to be the bearer of the Duke's Grand Cross to 
 Prince Windischgratz, and the Commander Cross to the 
 Colonel of the Regiment that bears the Duke's name, and 
 six crosses of Chevalier of the first class to the staff 
 officers, and three thousand francs to the soldiers of the 
 regiment, they have distinguished themselves particularly 
 in the last campaign. I was most cordially received by the 
 Prince, invited to dinner among the warriors, and honoured 
 with the place of distinction at the Prince's table." 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 " WEISTEOPP, 2d March, 1849. 
 
 " The Duke has determined to abdicate in favour of hi& 
 son. Convinced as I was that all opposition to this reso- 
 lution was useless, I made my last journey to England, 
 and came to a final accommodation with the Prince and 
 Princess as to how this could be arranged when the 
 moment was found favourable. Many obstacles of the 
 greatest importance, which I cannot mention here, were 
 necessary to be removed before a step of this kind could 
 be thought of, and I leave you to judge what a difficult 
 task I have had. God be thanked, I have got over the 
 worst part of my labour. Providence has been far above 
 our merits kind. Things have occurred which, to a cer- 
 tain degree, will justify the step that must be taken, and I 
 have been successful in smoothing down the Austrian 
 obstacles ; and I hope that my dear Duke will be able to 
 make an honourable retreat. Were it not for the immense 
 attachment and gratitude I feel for all his kindnesses 
 bestowed on me, it would have been impossible to have
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 263 
 
 carried it through. My trust in God has made me do 
 what I really never could conceive to have succeeded in, 
 driven on by the feeling of sooner die than be ungrateful. 
 The Prince has been greatly and most unjustly calumni- 
 ated ; and all I can say in his favour is, that I know all 
 the sovereigns in Italy, and that pretty well, and I do 
 really and sincerely believe that he will prove one of the 
 best among them. No one has ever taken the trouble to 
 circulate what I saw the Prince do at Viareggio. A poor 
 fellow was drowning in the sea, and the Prince begged 
 two sailors standing by, to jump in and save the man. 
 The answer was, that it was impossible, as the poor man 
 was in an underwater current. The Prince then threw 
 off his clothes and jumped into the sea. The sailors cried 
 out, He is lost.' A tremendous moment occurred be- 
 twixt him and the drowning man. But he had deter- 
 mined to save him, and he did so. I got up to the spot 
 before the Prince was out of danger ; and I wish you had 
 seen the modesty of the young man. His words were, 
 1 Dear Ward, pay these men, that they may be silent, and 
 see this poor man, who I fear is dead, attended to, and 
 say nothing to no one ;' and with that he was gone. 
 Any man capable of such a generous action is not to be 
 despised." 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 " WEISTEOPP, 17th March, 1849. 
 
 "I have received your letter of the 10th. The Duke 
 happened to come into my room, snatched it up, and had 
 the pleasure of its contents. He was sorry for the opinion 
 you pass on his intended act of abdication, and I ventured 
 to explain to him that many of his best friends would be
 
 264 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of your opinion, as he could not say that it was old age or 
 indisposition that hindered him from performing the sacred 
 duty which God had laid upon him. However, that was 
 only repeating what I have said thousands of times and 
 in thousands of ways, and I have painted futurity to him 
 in private life with all the disagreeableness that I could 
 think of. But he has suffered so much from the revolu- 
 tion of Parma, that he is horror-struck when you talk of 
 his returning there." 
 
 The Duke of Parma had fully, and, as it has turned 
 out, wisely, made up his mind to abdicate the crown in 
 favour of his son. This step was opposed by many of his 
 friends, but it is one of which he has never repented ; and 
 since the events of the past year which have been so fatal 
 to Italian dynasties, he may consider himself fortunate in 
 having renounced voluntarily, from moderation and lassi- 
 tude, that supreme authority which has been wrested from 
 others by force. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 " VIENNA, 5th June, 1849. 
 
 "Events go by steam; and being reckoned among the 
 fast locomotives, I am constantly at work. The grand 
 essential thing that I have managed was, in spite of all 
 diplomatic precautions from friends and enemies, to get 
 the young Duke to take formal possession of Parma and 
 Placentia. This is what we term now-a-days ' une faite 
 accomplie.' And it succeeding above all expectation, 
 thereby became an incontestable faite accomplie, which so 
 vexed many parties, who had their arriere pensees, that it 
 may cost me all favours formerly bestowed on me. Never
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 265 
 
 mind about that ! The cause I had so hardily fought for 
 has succeeded. No one can, out of whatever new system 
 of doing or thinking, dispute us our rights, as, if we go 
 by legitimate right, we are incontestable ; and if we go by 
 the new theory of faite decompile, we are more than safe, 
 as no one could have been better received than the young 
 Duke was, and, nota bene, under the most unfavourable 
 circumstances. But I was determined to have the faite 
 decompile accomplished before the peace with Piedmont 
 was concluded, as I was well informed what was going on 
 in those quarters. Let them say what they will of Ward, 
 they must own that he has York'd them all for once. I 
 am at war, as I said above, with friends and foes; but I 
 feel the comfort of having done my duty, acted entirely in 
 accordance with my conscience, and have no one to fear 
 but God, and He has conducted me through life, else I 
 should never have had success. Though feebly placed, 
 having no cannon and no soldiers, with God there is no 
 need of them, as is evident in our case. I expect to be in 
 Milan in a short time again, if the clouds clear away. If 
 not, I have succeeded in assuring the incontestable rights 
 of a family to whom I was, from a sense of gratitude, 
 devoted ; and I shall content myself with the day's work 
 allotted to me being accomplished, and retire to rest. The 
 young Duke did wonders at Parma, pleased everyone, was 
 found in the eyes of all sensible, active, honourable 
 pleno dl carattere. He seems born for a sovereign. The 
 tact which he displayed was like magic. He is now at 
 Malghera with Radetsky, displaying as much courage as 
 any common soldier. In short, he seems determined to 
 make up lost ground."
 
 266 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 " VIENNA, July, 1849. 
 
 " Since my return from Milan, I have had the satisfac- 
 tion to hear repeated from Prince Schwarzenburg that the 
 Duke of Parma and his government were much more 
 noble-minded than the Duke of Modena. This was the 
 complete success gained by perseverance when you know 
 you have espoused a right and honest cause. And this 
 has been my guide through life. Support what is right 
 and just, and live and die by the consequences ; and 
 allow no one, high or low, to baffle me in my work, trusting 
 solely to God, and fearing no man. This is the only way 
 to succeed ; as God alone can do and undo. Against His 
 will, all the craft of man is useless ; and with His support, 
 the frown of thousands can do no harm. I have walked 
 quietly through revolutions, and no one had the power to 
 cry out against me, and I have all my enemies under my 
 feet. Should I not therefore trust in God, and should I be 
 so vain as to fancy this to be my work ? No, it is God's 
 work alone, and I am a mere tool that He has pleased 
 to make use of; and a great blessing it is to be chosen 
 as such. Think of a boy torn from school in the ninth 
 year of his age, placed in livery stables without education ; 
 and then see him placed amidst the affairs of Europe, 
 concluding treaties ! and must not this be the work of 
 God ? Most certainly it is His work : and may I always 
 be thankful to Him, and prove as worthy as we earthly 
 beings can be for His bountiful kindness ! I have been 
 very busy here of late, and succeeded in all with great 
 success ; in short, gaining ground, day by day, with hard
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 267 
 
 work and constant attention to the important interests 
 placed in my hands. His Majesty the Emperor has been 
 pleased to confer on me the Knight Commander's Cross of 
 his order of the Corona di Ferro. The matter caused some 
 sensation amongst the diplomates ; I being the youngest 
 and the latest accredited. However, so it is, and I own 
 that it gave me great pleasure, as Austria is so very par- 
 ticular as to conferring distinctions of the kind on 
 foreigners." 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 "VIENNA, 20th July, 1849. 
 
 " The young Duke is doing wonders and gaining the 
 esteem of all who approach him. He has not, as yet, 
 taken the reins of government in hand. The peace not 
 being concluded with Piedmont has caused the delay. 
 However, he has grown impatient, and determined to 
 assume his duties. As for myself, since I left England I 
 have been very busy backwards and forwards betwixt Milan 
 and here. However, successful in all. Prince Schwarzen- 
 burg was rather hard upon me about a month ago respect- 
 ing a quarrel we have with the Duke of Modena. I was 
 to have been silenced by force -, the order was imperious. 
 But Albion's sons do not understand any language but 
 honour ; so I made the affair short, and as a sine qua non, 
 the free liberty to defend the rights of my royal master 
 without any restraint, or else Ward retires from office. 
 Ten days elapsed without an answer, and a hundred might 
 have done so before I would have humbled myself. My 
 straightforwardness at last gained the day. The Prince
 
 268 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 sent for me, inviting me ' to have the kindness to come to 
 him/ And ever since, I flatter myself that there is not a 
 man in Vienna he esteems more. Since then I have con- 
 cluded a treaty with the Minister Briick, in Milan, for the 
 free navigation of the Po, as well as a postage convention, 
 and also a military one. And I have now a very important 
 business on hand which I hope will end equally successfully/' 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 " VIENX A, 29th January, 1851. 
 
 " I am now and then everywhere, but at present hard 
 at work with the Austrian government to obtain the sums 
 due to the government of Parma for the late war. Then 
 this work finished (when is very hard to say), I am expected 
 in Parma (and have been so for the last six months), to do 
 * wonders there. So the Duke and the ministers say ; as if 
 they have anything difficult all is referred to me, and I am 
 become a real byword, ' Ma questo benedetto Ward quando 
 verra ?' After I have finished in Parma, I am bound from 
 thence direct to Madrid, to regulate the royal family affairs. 
 I am hard at work from morning to late at night, day 
 after day. But God has blessed me with health and good 
 humour, which makes toil less trouble. He has blessed 
 me with the happiness of three dear children, and a good 
 sensible wife. He has given me sufficient good sense to 
 discern the vanity of this world, so that although placed 
 in a most extraordinary position for one of my birth and 
 education, it is all no burthen to me. I go my way 
 straightforward, fearing God, and thanking him constantly 
 for his bounties, and doing cheerfully my duty. I keep
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 269 
 
 as distant as I can from the rumour of society, as my 
 business leaves me no time to cultivate it. So that I have 
 sufficient time to enjoy my cheerful fireside. And only 
 when my position does oblige me do I leave it. You 
 must conclude that I am a happy man, and so it is. I 
 am thankful to God, and happy as ever a man can be on 
 earth. Not indeed without desayremens and disappoint- 
 ments ; but these are all in business, and are often caused 
 by my eagerness to arrive ' au fond d'une affaire' too soon. 
 I never have any desagremens from society, I thank God, 
 as I am always afraid and annoyed when I have to go up 
 one step higher, fearing the consequences of falling from 
 a slender ladder when too high up. As to titles and 
 honours, I really do not know what to make of them, as 
 they are of no use but for a show, such as a court ball ; 
 and those come seldom, so the whole gives little trouble. 
 However, as you do interest yourself to know what is 
 become of Tom Ward, I send you the top of one of my 
 passports, which will save me the trouble of giving you 
 the whole pedigree. The Duke has remitted to me a letter 
 for Field Marshal Eadetsky, recommending your protege, 
 which I will forward without delay." 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 "VIENNA, 18th June, 1851. 
 
 " I thank God for his goodness in keeping me in the 
 straightforward path of duty, as it is the only one in 
 which to maintain intact a cheerful heart, and a real good 
 will to meet all the fatigues and disagreements such a 
 principle has to contend with. But assuredly it is ten
 
 270 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 thousandfold recompensed \vhen you look on after the 
 thing is accomplished. I have had a hard fight with the 
 government here, which has, by God's inspiration, often 
 given me the opportunity to baffle all the learned men on 
 the point of right, frequently with a simple expose. And 
 so I have brought them to a dead standstill, which you 
 may suppose aggravated them, but at the same time gained 
 me great esteem ; and the word Parvenu, which is often a 
 powerful weapon with a certain party, has vanished en- 
 tirely, and in its place, on dit, ' C'est un homme qui pos- 
 sede des moyens.' ' C'est une tete qui voit clair/ which, 
 with my simple straightforward system, gives me great 
 strength, as I have a much larger field to work upon than 
 many others have ; as a sturdy direct blow is attributed 
 to my want of primitive education ; and so these can be 
 dealt out in many instances very freely, and I can assure 
 you to great advantage." 
 
 I might add extracts from many more letters of great 
 interest. Enough, however, has been given to show the 
 rare merit of this man, who united honesty and dexterity, 
 simplicity and aptitude for diplomatic intrigue, in a way 
 that has seldom before been seen. He even knew how to 
 turn his early want of education and his presumed ignor- 
 ance to the advantage of the cause which he had on hand 
 and at heart. The heart was the great secret of his suc- 
 cess. He regarded the interests of his master with a 
 single-minded, generous devotedness, and espoused them 
 with much more zeal than he would have bestowed on his 
 own advancement.
 
 THE PRIME MINISTER WARD. 271 
 
 Of the subsequent years of his life little more shall 
 be said. He continued to be prime minister of Parma, 
 with absolute authority, during the short reign of Duke 
 Charles III. Although occasionally at Parma, he resided 
 chiefly at the Court of Vienna, to which he was accredited 
 as Minister Plenipotentiary by his master, and from which 
 he governed the Italian Principality. It is not my pur- 
 pose to enter upon the subject of the rights of the foreign 
 reigning dynasties, or the alleged wrongs of the native 
 Italians. Ward was the servant and the minister of the 
 Duke ; and his business was to govern the people of the 
 Dukedom according to the best interests of his master. 
 It is only natural to suppose that this government by a 
 foreigner, in the interests of a foreign dynasty, and sup- 
 ported by a great foreign power, could not be popular 
 with an excitable, discontented, mutinous people like the 
 Parmesans. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1854, Charles III., Duke 
 of Parma, was suddenly removed from this world by a 
 mysterious and violent death. One of the first acts of 
 the Duchess, his widow, desirous of popularity among 
 the subjects of her infant son, was to depose Baron Ward 
 from his ministry, and send him into banishment. It is 
 more than probable, that in the solitude of her dignified 
 exile, amid the bitter experiences of the base ingratitude 
 of those whom she tried in vain to please, this sorely tried 
 Princess may have had time and occasion to contrast the 
 sterling and disinterested devotedness of Ward with the 
 miserable fickleness of those for whom she had to sacrifice 
 him.
 
 272 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Ward was removed from the evil to come, and was 
 called to exchange this world for a better before the last 
 fatal outburst of ruin upon the family to whom he had 
 devoted the active energies of his virtuous and useful life. 
 After he was so suddenly, and so harshly, sacrificed by the 
 course of events and a vain attempt to conciliate popular 
 favour, he entirely retired from public affairs. No man 
 could more emphatically say, " Put not your trust in 
 princes/' And with the approval of a good conscience, 
 he resolved to devote the remainder of his life to those 
 occupations which seemed to have been his original desti- 
 nation, but from which he had so strangely been raised to 
 fill the position of a statesman. 
 
 Prince Metternich truly characterised him, when, after 
 the revolution of 1848, he visited that illustrious minister 
 in his retirement at Brighton, by greeting him as a 
 " Heaven-bom Diplomatist." 
 
 The ingratitude of the government of Parma, to that 
 friend whom Providence seemed to have raised up for its 
 defence, was the signal for Ward's retirement into a 
 private and comparatively humble station. He undertook 
 a large farming establishment in the neighbourhood of 
 Vienna, and spent his few last years in the enjoyment of 
 domestic happiness with his wife and children. 
 
 In 1858, Baron Ward died at the age of forty-nine. 
 And he has left us a memorable example, how integrity, 
 talent, and courage can raise a man from the lowest posi- 
 tion to ride on the high places of the earth, and to be an 
 honour to his native country.
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 273 
 
 0f 
 
 Hie Csesar, et omnis lull 
 
 Progenies. VIEGIL. 
 
 NAPOLEON'S proud assertion, that he was " the Rodolph 
 of his race," and that his patent of nobility dated from 
 the battle of Monte Notte, must not be received as evidence 
 of the humble origin of the Bonaparte family, but rather 
 of the haughty mind of the ambitious Ruler of France, 
 which could ill brook the idea of inferiority, even in this 
 respect, to the other royal potentates. At the moment 
 Napoleon uttered these expressions, the star of his destiny 
 shone the brightest, and the great European sovereigns 
 had yielded submission to one 
 
 . " Mightier far, 
 Who born no king, made monarchs draw his car.". 
 
 From a remote period the Bonapartes, or Buonapartes 
 according to the Italian spelling, (which the enemies of 
 the first Napoleon affected spitefully to keep up as show- 
 ing him not to be French), were of distinction in Italy ; 
 and so far back as the twelfth century, I find the name 
 of John Bonaparte enrolled on the list of the gallant 
 Knights of St. James of Calatrava. That celebrated order 
 admitted within its community those only who were of 
 2 T
 
 274 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 noble birth, and thus there is proof that the Bonaparte 
 family held at that distant epoch no inconsiderable posi- 
 tion in the world. The cradle of the race seems to have 
 been at Treviso ; but the tyranny of Alberic de Romano 
 forced many of the name to migrate to Bologna and Tus- 
 cany, where they established themselves at Florence and 
 San Miniato, and where they subsequently held high 
 municipal appointments. 
 
 In the Golden Book of Bologna, the Bonapartes are 
 inscribed among the patricians of Florence, and they appear 
 also recorded in the Book of the Nobility of Treviso. The 
 Bonaparte coat of arms may even now be seen over some 
 of the old Florentine houses, and the family was still 
 existent at St. Miniato at the opening of the present cen- 
 tury. On his first triumphant return from Italy, Napoleon 
 found in that little town the Canon Bonaparte, the last 
 descendant of the San Miniato branch, and he was proudly 
 acknowledged by the old ecclesiastic, who at his death, in 
 1803, made his illustrious kinsman his heir. Some of these 
 Tuscan Bonapartes were authors of repute : one, Nicholas 
 Bonaparte, wrote a play, entitled " La Veuve," the manu- 
 script of which, and a printed copy, are preserved in the 
 Imperial Library of Paris ; and another, James Bonaparte, 
 was the author of a " History of the Siege of Rome, by 
 the Constable Bourbon," which siege he had himself wit- 
 nessed, and which city, in an after-age, was to furnish 
 sach remarkable chapters in the lives of his relatives, Na- 
 poleon I., and Napoleon III. His book, written in Italian, 
 is much esteemed, and was translated into French by Prince 
 Napoleon Louis, eldest brother of the present Emperor.
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 275 
 
 111 the Catalogue of the proscribed and exiled partisans 
 of the Guelphs, in their feud with the Ghibellines, the 
 Bonapartes are named ; and from Gerini, I learn that 
 these banished nobles proceeded to Sarzana and Genoa. 
 Three of the latter line, Barthelemy, Martin, and Augustin 
 Bonaparte, assisted as "Anziani" of the Republic, at the 
 oath taken by the nobles to the Duke of Milan, in 1488; 
 and a descendant of the former, marrying into the ancient 
 house of Parenticelli, became mother of the Sovereign Pon- 
 tiff, Nicholas V. It was in 1512, that Gabriel Bonaparte, 
 of this, the Zarzana division of the family, went to Corsica, 
 and fixing his residence at Ajaccio, founded the illustrious 
 branch, for ever memorable as the parent stem whence 
 sprung Napoleon and his dynasty. Gabriel's son, Jerome 
 Bonaparte, was Chief of the Council Senators (Chef des 
 Anciens) of Ajaccio, and was Deputy to the Senate of 
 Genoa, in 1594. He left sons, of whom the eldest, 
 Francis Bonaparte, Captain of Ajaccio, and Member of 
 the Council of Ancients, in 1596, was father of Sebastian 
 Bonaparte, a distinguished scholar, born in 1603, and of 
 Fulvio Bonaparte, whose son Louis married Maria of Gondi. 
 The son of Sebastian was Carlo Bonaparte, senator of 
 Ajaccio, who had the nobility of his family recognised at 
 Genoa, in 1661. His son Joseph, also senator of Ajaccio, 
 had a son, Sebastian Bonaparte, elected "Ancien d' Ajaccio," 
 17th April, 1720. He was father of three sons : 1. Na- 
 poleon Bonaparte, chief of the ancients of Ajaccio, a 
 soldier of repute, whose only child, Isabella, was married 
 to Louis d'Ornano ; 2. Joseph Bonaparte ; and, 3. Lucien 
 Bonaparte, Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Ajaccio. The
 
 276 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 second son, Joseph Bonaparte, was acknowledged in 1759 
 by the Bonapartes of Florence as a member of their 
 family, and, like his ancestors, formed one of the council 
 of senators of his native city. His son, Carlo Bonaparte, 
 born 29th March, 1746, went to Pisa to study law, in 
 accordance with the custom of the Bonapartes of Ajaccio, 
 who never ceased to remember their Florentine nobility, 
 and invariably sent their children to complete their edu- 
 cation in Tuscany. Returning to his native country with 
 the degree of Doctor of Laws, he commenced practice, and 
 attained eminence as an advocate ; but the times were too 
 troublous then in Corsica to admit of his following the 
 calm paths of professional life. He soon resigned the 
 gown for the sword, and becoming the especial favourite of 
 Paoli, he assisted in the gallant and patriotic stand made 
 against the French for the independence of his country. 
 At the disastrous termination of the conflict, he would 
 fain have exiled himself with his kinsman Paoli, but was 
 dissuaded from the step by his wealthy uncle, the Arch- 
 deacon of Ajaccio, and became in the sequel reconciled to 
 the conquering party, and protected by the French Gover- 
 nor. 
 
 It was in the midst of the discord of fights and skir- 
 mishes of Corsica, that Carlo Bonaparte, who is described 
 as possessing a handsome person and great vivacity of 
 intellect, married Letitia Ramolini,* one of the most 
 
 * The mother of Letitia married for her second husband a 
 Swiss officer in the French service, named Fesch, and had by 
 him a son, Giuseppe, so well and so creditably known as the 
 amiable and high-minded Cardinal Fesch, who was born the 
 3rd January, 1763, and was Archbishop of Lyons, and, at one
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 277 
 
 beautiful maidens of Corsica, and a lady of incomparable 
 mental firmness. It should be here observed, as a fact 
 worthy of note, that the imperial dynasty of the Bonapartes, 
 up to the present day, has been particularly fortunate in 
 this ; that the ladies of their house, whether by birth or 
 alliance, have been, often to a surpassing degree, remark- 
 able for talent, beauty, strength of mind, and every gentler 
 female qualification . During the years of Civil War, Letitia 
 Bonaparte partook the dangers of her husband, and used to 
 accompany him through all the toils and difficulties of the 
 Mountain campaigns. On the establishment of the French 
 ascendancy, Louis XV., desirous of reconstructing the 
 Corsican nobility, issued a decree requiring all those 
 who claimed to belong to it to prove their right, and in 
 consequence, Carlo Bonaparte, having produced his docu- 
 ments, was admitted by the Council of Corsica to be 
 noble by descent for more than two hundred years. He 
 continued to adhere to the new state of things ; acted as 
 recorder of a tribunal in Corsica, and was representative 
 for the nation, and a member of the General Assembly of 
 noble deputies at the Court of the King of France. By 
 his lovely and high-spirited wife (so well known as Ma- 
 dame Mere), who died at Rome in 1832, aged 82, he had 
 a very large family ; no less than thirteen children. Of 
 these, five died in infancy ; the others (of whom one be- 
 came an Emperor, three became kings, and one daughter 
 
 time, Primate of Gaul. He died the 12th May, 1839, universally 
 respected, and left the ex-King Joseph Bonaparte heir to a part 
 of his property, having bequeathed the rest to the church of 
 Lyons, and the town of Ajaccio.
 
 278 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 was a sovereign grand duchess, and another a queen), were 
 Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Eliza, Pauline, 
 and Caroline. 
 
 A German writer, Ferdinand Gregorovius, in his inte- 
 resting work, " Wanderings in Corsica," which has been 
 elegantly translated by Mr. Muir, describes most graphi- 
 cally the Corsican home where these children were born: 
 
 "The narrow street of St. Charles, at Ajaccio, issues 
 upon a little square. An elm stands there before an 
 oldish three-storied house, the plaster of which has been 
 coloured a yellowish grey ; it has a flat roof, and a balus- 
 trade above it, a front of six windows in breadth, and 
 doors that look greatly decayed. On the corner of this 
 house you read the words ' Place Letitia' 
 
 " No marble tablet tells the stranger who has come from 
 Italy, where the houses of great men always bear inscrip- 
 tions, that he stands before the house of the Bonapartes. 
 He knocks in vain at the door ; no voice answers, and all 
 the windows are closely veiled with grey jalousies, as if 
 the house were in a state of siege from the Vendetta. 
 Not a human being is stirring upon the square ; a death- 
 like stillness rests upon the neighbourhood, as if the name 
 of Napoleon had frightened it into silence, or scared all 
 else away. At length an old man appeared at the window 
 of a house close by, and requested me to return in two 
 hours, when he should be able to give me the key. 
 
 " Bonaparte's house, which has, I am assured, sustained 
 but slight alteration, though no palace, has plainly been 
 the dwelling of a patrician family. Its appearance shows 
 this, and it is without doubt a palace compared with the
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 279 
 
 village cabin in which Pasquale Paoli was born. It is 
 roomy, handsome, and convenient ; but the rooms are 
 destitute of furniture, the tapestries alone have been left 
 on the walls, and they are decayed. The floor, which, as 
 is usual in Corsica, is laid out in small hexagonal red 
 flags, is here and there ruinous. The darkness produced 
 in the rooms by the closed jalousies and their emptiness 
 made them quite dismal. 
 
 " I entered a little room with blue tapestry, and two 
 windows, one of which, with a balcony before it, looked 
 into a court, the other into the street. You see here a 
 wall-press behind a tapestried door, and a fireplace with a 
 mantelpiece of yellow marble ornamented with some my- 
 thological reliefs. In this room, on the loth of August, 
 1769, Napoleon was born. It is a strange feeling, hard 
 to put in language, which takes possession of the soul on 
 the spot hallowed as the birthplace of a great man. 
 Something sacred, mystic, a consecrated atmosphere, 
 pervades it. It is as if you were casting a glance behind 
 the cui-tain of Nature, where she creates in silence the 
 incomprehensible organs of her action. But man discerns 
 only the phenomenal ; he attempts in vain to ascertain 
 the how. To stand in silence before the unsearchable 
 mysteries of Nature, and see with wonder the radiant 
 forms that ascend from the darkness, that is human reli- 
 gion.- For the thoughtful man nothing is more deeply 
 impressive than the starry sky of night or the starry sky 
 of history. I saw other rooms the ball-room of the 
 family, Madame Letitia's room, Napoleon's little room 
 where he slept, and that in which he studied. The two
 
 280 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 little wall-presses are still to be seen there in which his 
 school-books stood. Books stand in them at present. 
 With eager curiosity I took out some of them, as if they 
 were Napoleon's ; they were yellow with age law books, 
 theological treatises, a Livy, a Guicciardini, and others, 
 probably the property of the Pietra Santa family, who are 
 related to the Bonapartes, and to whom their house in 
 Ajaccio now belongs." 
 
 NAPOLEON, Emperor of the French, and King of Italy, 
 was the second son of Carlo Bonaparte. On the events 
 of his wonderful career I need not dwell. Instead of 
 furnishing materials for a few pages of my little volume, 
 the vicissitudes of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his entrance 
 a Corsican youth into the military school of Brienne, to 
 his death on a lonely rock in the Atlantic, form the most 
 memorable chapter in the world's history. Suffice it to 
 state that he was born at Ajaccio, 15th August, 1769 
 that he married twice that he died at St. Helena, on the 
 6th May, 1821, and that his remains, brought with reve- 
 rend care from that distant island, and received with the 
 highest honours and the most marked feeling in France, 
 now repose, under the gorgeous dome of the " Invalides," 
 on the banks of the Seine, and amid that French people 
 whom he loved so well. Napoleon's first wife, (the marriage 
 took place 9th March, 1796), was Marie Frances Josephine 
 Rose, daughter of M. Tascher de la Pagerie, a planter 
 of St. Domingo, and widow of Eugene Alexander, Vicomte 
 de Beauharnois, Deputy from the nobility of Blois to the 
 States-General in 1789, but, nevertheless, a rather radical 
 memberof the National Assembly, and Commander-in-Chief
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 281 
 
 of the Army of the Rhine. His niece, the daughter of his 
 elder brother, the Marquis de Beauharnois, was the famous 
 Madame Lavalette, who rescued her husband from prison. 
 By Napoleon, Josephine had no issue ; but by her first 
 husband (who fell a victim to the revolutionary tribunal 
 four days before the overthrow of Robespierre) Josephine was 
 mother of the charming Hortense Eugenie, ex-Queen of Hol- 
 land (whose son is the present Emperor of the French), 
 and of the gallant Viceroy of Italy, Eugene Beauharnois, 
 Duke of Leichtenburgh. Napoleon's second consort, the 
 Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Francis II., Em- 
 peror of Austria, had one son, Napoleon Francois Charles 
 Joseph, Duke of Reichstadt in Bohemia, born 20th March, 
 1811, who (in consequence of his being proclaimed Em- 
 peror, as Napoleon II., by his father, and so confirmed by 
 the Chambers of Peers and Deputies, at that abdication 
 in 1815, which Napoleon never afterwards revoked), counts 
 as second of the Napoleon sovereigns, and who died un- 
 married at the Palace of Schoenbrunn, near Vienna, 22nd 
 July, 1832. 
 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE (the eldest son of Carlo Bonaparte), 
 who was born at Ajaccio, 7th January, 1768, was designed 
 for the law, and studied at the University of Padua ; but 
 the brilliant destiny of his brother opened to him an 
 ascent to greatness which the mediocrity of his own abilities 
 never could have attained. In 1805 he ascended the throne 
 of Naples, and in 1808 exchanged that peaceful diadem for 
 the more brilliant one of Spain, from which country he was 
 expelled by the Anglo-Spanish army under Wellington. 
 
 In 1814, whilst the Emperor was engaged in the me-
 
 282 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 morable campaign in defence of the French soil, the ex- 
 King Joseph remained at Paris as Lieutenant-General of 
 the Realm and Commandant of the National Guards ; but 
 on the arrival of the Allies at Paris he fled to Switzerland. 
 There he purchased a valuable property, and there he re- 
 mained until Napoleon's return from Elba. After Wa- 
 terloo, he escaped to New York. He subsequently esta- 
 blished himself in the vicinity of Philadelphia, under the 
 name of the Count Survilliers, and became possessed of 
 a fine estate. In 1799 he published a little novel called 
 " Moina." In 1832 he came to England, and resided many 
 years near Dulwich. In 1841 he went to Tuscany and died 
 at Florence the 2 8th July, 1844. Joseph Bonaparte married, 
 August 1, 1794, Marie Julie de Clari, daughter of a mer- 
 chant of Toulon, a hospitable friend to the family when 
 they sojourned near Marseilles, and had two daughters : 
 
 Zenaide Charlotte Julie, born 8th July, 1801, married 
 at Brussels, 30th June, 1826 , to her cousin, Charles 
 Lucien, Prince Musignano, son of Lucien, Prince of 
 Canino : she died the 8th of August, 1854 : her husband 
 died on the 29th July, 1857: their son is the present Prince 
 Joseph Lucien Bonaparte. 
 
 Charlotte, born 31st October, 1802, who was married to 
 her cousin, Napoleon Louis, Grand Duke of Berg, brother 
 of Napoleon III., son of Louis, ex-King of Holland, and 
 died at Florence, his widow, the 3rd September, 1839. 
 
 LUCIEN BoNAPARTE(the third sonof Carlo), born, at Ajac- 
 cio in 1775, imbibed at an early period revolutionary senti- 
 ments, and the elevation of his brother led to his own ad- 
 vancement to honours and riches. He was successively
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 283 
 
 President, at its dissolution, of the Council of Five Hundred, 
 Minister of the interior under the Consular Government, 
 and Ambassador to Madrid in 1801. In 1804, the year 
 of Napoleon's assumption of the imperial diadem, he re- 
 tired to Italy, and establishing his residence in the Eter- 
 nal City, purchased an estate at Canino, which the Pope 
 raised into a principality, inscribing at the same time the 
 name of " the Prince of Canino" among the Roman nobles. 
 In 1810, distrustful of the security of his asylum in Italy, 
 Lucien embarked for the United States, but was captured 
 by two English frigates, and conveyed to Malta, to await 
 the orders of our Government. In conformity with those 
 instructions he was transferred to England, where he 
 arrived 18th December, and fixed himself in Shropshire, 
 about fifteen miles from Ludlow, on a beautiful estate he 
 was allowed to purchase. 
 
 Here he sojourned, devoted to literature and the repose 
 of domestic life, until the peace of 1814 opened his way 
 to the Continent, and enabled him to return to his old 
 friend and protector, Pius VII. During the Hundred 
 Days he played a prominent part, and again held the 
 portfolio of the Interior. 
 
 After the conflict at Waterloo, he urged the Emperor to 
 make one great effort in defence of his throne ; but the 
 mighty mind of Napoleon seemed then completely crushed. 
 He listened not to his brother's counsel; and Lucien 
 with difficulty effected his escape to Rome. There the 
 Prince of Canino passed the remainder of his days, much 
 respected in private life, and there he died, on the 29th 
 June, 1840. By his first wife, Christine Boyer, whom
 
 284 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 he married in 1795, and who died in 1801, he left two 
 daughters, Charlotte, wife of Prince Gabrielli, and Chris- 
 tine Egypta, who married, in 1824, Lord Dudley Coutts 
 Stuart. By his second wife, Alexandrine Laurence de 
 Bleschamp, widow of Monsieur Jouberthon, Lucieu Bona- 
 parte had three sons and three daughters. Of the former, 
 the eldest, Charles Lucien, Prince of Canino and Musig- 
 nano, distinguished in the scientific world for his zoological 
 researches, and for his famous work "Iconografia della Fauna 
 Italica," was born at Paris, 24th May, 1803, and married 
 in 1822, his cousin, Charlotte Zenaide Julia, elder daughter 
 of Joseph Bonaparte, Count of Survilliers, by whom (who 
 died the 8th Aug. 1854) he (at his death, the 29th July, 
 1857,) left issue: Joseph, Prince de Canino, and de Mu- 
 signano; Lucien, a priest, late of the Camera of his 
 Holiness ; Napoleon ; Julie, wife of Alexander del Gallo 
 Marquis de Roccagiovine ; Charlotte, wife of Pierre 
 Comte Primoli ; Marie, wife of Paul Comte de Campello ; 
 Augusta, wife of Prince Placido Gabrielli, and Bathilde, 
 wife of the Count de Cambaceres. The Prince of Canino 
 resided in the Papal dominions. The other children of Lu- 
 cien are : Louis Lucien, born in 1813, the elegant linguist 
 and scholar, now residing at Westbourne Grove, Bayswater; 
 Pierre, born in 1815 ; Anthony, born in 1816; Letitia, who 
 married, in 1821, Thomas Wyse, Esq., of the Manor of St. 
 John's "VVaterford, now the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Wyse, 
 K.C.B., her British Majesty's Ambassador at Athens; Mary, 
 widow of the Count Vincent Valentini di Canino; and 
 Constance, a nun of the Sacre Coeur at Roehampton. 
 
 The following little anecdote may not be inappropriately 
 introduced here, as illustrative of the vicissitudes inci-
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 285 
 
 dental to all spheres and conditions of life : On one 
 occasion, Louis Philippe and '.his Queen, then in exile at 
 Claremont, drove over to Roehampton to see the convent 
 of the Sacre Cceur, which had been recently established 
 there by a community of French nuns. This French Order 
 of the Sacre Coeur is one of high distinction, and was, in 
 the days of the Bourbons, one of aristocratic exclusiveness. 
 At the time of which I am speaking, the Comtesse de 
 Grammont was, I believe, at the head of the chief house 
 of the Community in Paris, and Madame Clifford, sister 
 or the late Lord Clifford, was Superioress of the Roehamp- 
 ton branch. The royal visitors, who were incognito, asked 
 permission as strangers to see the convent chapel, and 
 were allowed to go over the whole establishment. The 
 lady nun who conducted them through the house was so 
 amiable and agreeable, that the Queen, on leaving, ex- 
 pressed her extreme satisfaction with the admirable ar- 
 rangements of the community, and her pleasure at finding 
 herself once again amongst her good and pious compa- 
 triots. "Perhaps," added her Majesty, "you will be in- 
 terested to know who your visitors are. This gentleman is 
 Louis Philippe I am the Queen Marie Amelie." The nun, 
 bowing profoundly, replied with a gentle smile "And 
 I am Mademoiselle Bonaparte." The strange coincidence 
 evidently touched their majesties, and the Queen could not 
 refrain from giving expression to her surprise at the 
 waywardness of fate which had thus brought together 
 within a convent of the old regime the two royal houses 
 of Bonaparte and Orleans. 
 
 Lucien was, after Napoleon, the ablest and most for- 
 ward, though, as far as sovereign rank was concerned
 
 286 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the least ambitious of the Bonapartes, and at one time 
 his literary and scientific attainments received high lauda- 
 tion from the French savans. His " Charlemagne" made 
 its first appearance in London in 1814, but the success it 
 met with was very indifferent. Besides this too elaborate 
 epic, the Prince of Canino published two other works 
 Stellina, a novel ; and The Cyrneide, or Corsica saved. 
 
 Louis BONAPARTE, the fourth son, next brother to 
 Lucien, was born 2nd Sept. 1778, and ascended the 
 throne of Holland in 1806. Unwilling, however, to re- 
 main the mere vassal of his brother, he abdicated in 1810, 
 and adopting the modest title of Count de St. Leu, retired 
 from public life, and resided principally at Florence. His 
 wife was Hortense Eugenie de Beauharnois, Duchess de 
 St. Leu, daughter of Josephine, by her first husband the 
 Vicomte Eugene Alexandre de Beauharnois, and step- 
 daughter of Napoleon. The marriage took place in 1802, 
 and the issue of the union were three children. The 
 eldest, Napoleon Charles, named heir to the Imperial 
 throne, died at the Hague, the 5th March 1807, in the 
 fifth year of his age ; the second, Napoleon Louis, Prince 
 Royal of Holland, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, chris- 
 tened at St. Cloud by Pope Pius VII., and nominated 
 Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves in 1809, died 17th 
 March, 1831, from the effects of the fatigues he encoun- 
 tered in the Italian insurrection; and the third, CHARLES 
 Louis NAPOLEON, is the present Emperor of the French, 
 NAPOLEON III. Of their mother, HORTENSE, I will pre- 
 sently speak. 
 
 JEROME BONAPARTE, the fifth and youngest son, was
 
 THE BUONAPARTES. 28? 
 
 born 15th Nov. 1784, became King of Westphalia in 
 1807, and commanded the army of that country in the 
 invasion of Russia. In 1814, however, the Allies deprived 
 him of his throne. 
 
 At Waterloo he commanded the left wing of the French 
 army, and, on the defeat of the Emperor, retreated with 
 the debris of the forces to Paris. He subsequently pro- 
 ceeded to Wirtemberg, and was created a prince of that 
 kingdom by the title of Due de Montfort. His first wife 
 (whom he married in America, in 1803, and from whom he 
 separated in 1805,) was Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore, 
 a lady of station and fashion in the United States, of Irish 
 extraction, sister of Robert Patterson, Esq., the first hus- 
 band of the late Marchioness Wellesley, and grand- 
 daughter of old O'Carroll of Carrollstown, one of the 
 original signers of the declaration of American indepen- 
 dence. By her he had one child, Jerome, born 6th July, 
 1805, at Baltimore, and now resident, I believe, in that 
 city. The second wife of Jerome Bonaparte was Frederica 
 Catherine Sophia, daughter of Frederick, King of Wirtem- 
 berg, and by her he had two sons and one daughter, viz., 
 Jerome, Prince of Montfort, Colonel in the service of Wir- 
 temberg, who was born at Trieste, 24th Aug. 1814, and 
 died s. p. at Florence, 29th May, 1847 ; Napoleon, Prince 
 of Montfort, a leading politician, and a general of divi- 
 sion, born at Trieste in 1822, who married, in 1859, the 
 Princess Clotilda, daughter of the King of Sardinia ; and 
 Mathilde-Letitia, married to Prince Anatole Demidoff, and 
 now so popularly known at the Court of the Tuilleries as 
 the Princess Mathilde.
 
 288 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Jerome Bonaparte was a Marshal of France, and in 
 1852 was declared heir-presumptive to the throne, and a 
 French prince. He died on the 24th July, 1860, at his 
 seat, Villegenis, near Paris, and was buried in state in the 
 chapel of St. Jerome in the Hotel des Invalides, close to 
 the remains of his mighty brother. 
 
 The three sisters of Napoleon were, as I have al- 
 ready mentioned, Mary- Anne-Eliza, Pauline, and Mary- 
 Annunciade-Caroline. 
 
 The eldest, ELIZA, reigning Princess of Lucca and 
 Piombino, born 3rd January, 1777, married 5th May, 
 1797, Pascal de Bacchiochi, a noble Corsican, created by 
 his Imperial brother-in-law Grand Duke of Tuscany, under 
 the title of Felix I., and had one son, Frederick Bacchiochi, 
 who died at Rome, and one daughter, Napolienne Eliza, 
 married to the Comte Camerata. Eliza, Princess of Lucca, 
 died in 1820. 
 
 The Emperor's second sister, the gentle, devoted, and 
 beautiful PAULINE, so beautiful, that she was the origi- 
 nal of the Venus of Canova was born 22nd April, 1782, 
 and was created Princess and Duchess of Guastalla 31st 
 March 1806; but on the 26th of the following May, 
 on the annexation of the duchy to the kingdom of Italy, 
 her Highness received in compensation 6,000,000 of livres. 
 She married, first, General le Clerc, and, secondly, the 
 Prince Don Camillo de Borghese, and died at the Borghese 
 palace, near Florence, 9th June 1825. Through a life 
 of much misfortune and anxiety, Pauline clung with 
 earnest and heroic attachment to her Imperial brother and 
 his family : her only child, a son by her first husband,
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 289 
 
 died young, and his loss was nearly fatal to her. Her 
 last illness was brought on by sorrow for her brother 
 Napoleon's death. 
 
 CAROLINE, Napoleon's youngest sister, born 25th March, 
 1783, married the gallant Joachim Murat, King of Naples, 
 and had two sons and two daughters : Napoleon Achille 
 Murat, Prince Royal of Naples, born in 1801, who purchased 
 property and fixed his residence in Florida, and married in 
 America a grand niece of Washington's ; he died in 1847 ; 
 Napoleon Lucien Charles Murat, " Senateur," lately French 
 ambassador at Turin, born in 1803 ; Letitia Josephine, 
 married to the Marquis Pepoli, a nobleman of Bologna ; 
 and Louisa-Julie-Caroline, married to Count Rasponi. 
 The widow of Murat lived for many years in Austria under 
 the name of Countess of Lipano, and died at Florence, 
 18th May, 1839, of the same disease, cancer in the sto- 
 mach, as her brother Napoleon. 
 
 I now come to the present Emperor, and his mother, the 
 beautiful and interesting Hortense de Beauharnois. 
 
 Poor Hortense ! Her loveliness, her fascination, and 
 her misfortunes, made her the Mary Stuart of the Imperial 
 house. I have already said that all the ladies of the Na- 
 poleon dynasty were remarkable women ; but among them, 
 even including Josephine, Hortense stood pre-eminent. 
 She combined the graces and the loving nature of her 
 mother with the talent and spirit of her gallant brother 
 Eugene. Her whole life was one of adventurous change, 
 and would in itself fill a volume of vicissitudes. I regret 
 that I have only room to touch on the principal features 
 of her eventful career. Born a few years before the Revo- 
 2 u
 
 290 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 lution, her childhood was passed in the midst of horrors. 
 At one time, while her father and mother lay in the dun- 
 geons of Robespierre, she and her brother were actually 
 so destitute, that he, the future Viceroy of Italy, had to 
 go as apprentice to a carpenter, and she, the future Queen 
 of Holland, had to earn her livelihood at a work-woman's. 
 Robespierre and his gang had murdered her father just 
 before the 9th Therrnidor ; but when that day of retribution 
 rid the earth of the worst monsters of " the Terror," Jose- 
 phine obtained her freedom, and resumed her position in 
 society. General Bonaparte was already a great man. Eu- 
 gene's coming to ask him to get him back his dead father's 
 sword, brought on the acquaintance and the marriage of 
 the General with Josephine. The 1 8th Brumaire made 
 Bonaparte First Consul, and placed his wife and her child- 
 ren in the Tuilleries. Hortense had completed her educa- 
 tion in the admirable seminary of Madame Campan, and 
 now it was that her beauty, her captivating manners, and 
 her varied powers of mind burst in full splendour on the 
 Parisian world. Her step- and adopted father, Napoleon, 
 was dotingly proud and fond of her, but his policy and 
 ambition stood in the way of her first and best love. A 
 scion of the old noblesse, M. de Paulo, courted her, and 
 she responded to his suit ; but though he was a gallant 
 gentleman, and had become Napoleon's friend, yet when 
 he asked for the hand of Hortense, exile was the answer he 
 received. Hortense was married to Louis Bonaparte, and 
 two years after their nuptials, Napoleon was an Emperor, 
 and Louis and his wife were a prince and princess of the 
 blood imperial. This, amid the opening magnificence of
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 291 
 
 the Empire, was the most brilliant period of Hortense's 
 life, and it was now that she first produced some of those 
 beautiful musical compositions, which alone would have 
 perpetuated her name. The earliest of them breathe a 
 tone of melancholy, which seems to accord with her dis. 
 appointed affection. " Partant pour la Syrie" was of gayer 
 complexion than the rest, and charmed all Paris at the 
 time ; but little could its author then foresee the extent of 
 its future popularity and fame. That song was to be the 
 national air of France when her own loved son became 
 France's Emperor. It was to make itself heard through- 
 out the whole globe, and was to call men to victory at the 
 Alma and Inkermann, at Solferino and Magenta ; was to 
 be the Frenchman's rallying note in peace arid war, and 
 mingling with " God save the Queen," was to cheer that 
 bond of union which, I trust in God, France and England 
 may never have to break again. There is an edition of 
 Hortense's compositions exquisitely illustrated by drawings 
 of her own. In 1806, Louis and Hortense became King 
 and Queen of Holland; she was now the mother of two sons, 
 and, in 1808, when she was in Paris, a third was born, 
 the future Emperor of France. Her eldest child died an 
 infant : the other two absorbed her utmost affection. 
 Hortense's marriage had not been a happy one, from no 
 particular fault of herself or her husband, but from 
 sheer incompatibility of habits and feelings. They lived 
 mostly separate, but Hortense's whole soul was in her 
 children. Misfortune was soon, it would seem, to be 
 her constant attendant. First came the divorce of her 
 mother, and then the dethronement of Napoleon. When 
 
 u 2
 
 292 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Louis XVIII. returned in restored royalty to Paris, he 
 found Hortense there, and he, a poet and a man of letters, 
 as well as a monarch, could not resist her accomplishments 
 and fascination ; the old King was completely captivated, 
 and he created her Duchess of St. Leu. But "outre ne 
 sers" is the Beauharnais motto, and Hortense would serve 
 none hut her own. It is said, that through her influence 
 with Louis, she obtained information that helped the return 
 from Elba. Be that as it may, it is certain that the King, 
 when restored again, was persuaded by his courtiers that 
 he had been somewhat fooled in his attentions, and poor 
 Hortense was most harshly treated. She was driven from 
 Paris and from France, and, owing to the interference of 
 the French government, she had much difficulty in finding 
 anywhere a resting-place. At last, the father of her bro- 
 ther Eugene's wife, Maximilian, King of Bavaiia, afforded 
 her protection. She took up her abode at Augsburg ; here 
 she remained till she ceased to be the object of pursuit or 
 persecution, and then she went to live at a Chateau on the 
 Lake of Constance. Her brother Eugene was her neigh- 
 bour. Here she was surrounded by a little court of at- 
 tached friends, and the time passed in intellectual and 
 graceful retirement. Poet, artist, composer, and even 
 actress, the Duchess provided constant amusement for her 
 circle, and for those to whom she extended her hospitality ; 
 she would sing' her own compositions, and now and then 
 display marked dramatic powers in the little dramas that 
 the company got up. There is, in a bygone number of 
 the New Monthly Magazine, a charming description, by an 
 English lady who at that period visited her, of the Duchess
 
 THE BOXAPARTES. 293 
 
 of St. Leu, and her mode of life. But these more happy 
 hours of Hortense were soon to end, and she was once 
 more to be a wanderer. In 1824 her beloved brother 
 Eugene died : in 1831 the insurrection in Italy deprived 
 her of one of her sons, and increased her care for the other, 
 whom the affair of Strasbourg sent from France an exile 
 and an outcast. This calamity brought on his mother's 
 illness and death. Her son came in haste from England 
 to attend her, and succeeded, despite of every obstacle, in 
 reaching her then residence, the Chateau of Arenenberg in 
 the Swiss Canton of Thurgau. Here she breathed her last 
 in his arms, on the 5th Oct. 1837, just as that cloud had 
 set darkly upon him, to be only dispersed by a light, 
 fulfilling even Hortense's fondest views of the future a 
 light no other than the again risen sun of imperial France. 
 
 The present Emperor, NAPOLEON III., was bora at 
 Paris, 20th April, 1808, in the palace of the Tuilleries, and 
 the event was hailed with enthusiasm by the French people 
 as another security for the continuance of the Napoleonic 
 dynasty. 
 
 At the period of his birth his father was King of Hol- 
 land, but he afterwards resigned his throne from a con- 
 scientious scruple that he could not retain it consistently 
 with the interests of Holland and France. I need not 
 give in detail the vicissitudes in the life of the consum- 
 mate politician and marvellous man who now rules over 
 France. His history has been well and fully told by a 
 British officer, in a very interesting book, entitled " Napo- 
 leon the Third." Perhaps no alternations of fortune have 
 ever been so rapid or so wondrous as his. Within less than
 
 294 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 twenty years he has played many parts ; at one time the 
 leader of au Italian revolt, then an exile and an author, 
 then the invader of Boulogne, then a prisoner at Ham, 
 then again exile and a private gentleman in London, where 
 he loyally acted as one of the special constables; then the 
 chief of a French republic, and finally the emperor of a 
 mighty people, rivalling as a statesman and a soldier the 
 renown of his uncle, the most memorable ruler and the 
 greatest captain of France. It will be sufficient in few 
 words to state, that after the expulsion of the Bonapartes 
 in 1815, the ex-queen of Holland, taking with her her 
 little boys, retired into Bavaria, but, being driven thence 
 by the altered temper of Louis XVIII., she had to seek 
 another place of refuge, and finally, after a brief sojourn in 
 Rome, established herself at the castle of Arenenberg in 
 Switzerland, where she resided for several years, and 
 where she eventually died. Here, under the guidance of 
 his all- accomplished mother, and amid a simple and 
 energetic people, Louis Napoleon pursued his studies, 
 and not only devoted himself to literature and science, 
 but took advantage of the vicinity of the camp at Thun 
 to acquire a knowledge of military duties. "Every year," 
 says a contemporary writer, "he carried the knapsack 
 on his back, ate the soldier's fare, handled the shovel, 
 the pickaxe, and the wheelbarrow, would climb up the 
 mountains, and, after having marched many leagues in the 
 day, return at night to repose under the soldiers' tents." 
 
 "When the Bolognese revolution of 1831 broke out, 
 Louis Napoleon and his elder brother took an active part 
 in the campaign, and, aided by General Sercognani. defeated
 
 THE BONAPARTKS. 295 
 
 the Papal forces in several places ; but their successes were 
 of short duration. The two princes were soon de- 
 prived of their command, and banished from Italy. 
 Meanwhile the elder brother fell sick at Faenza, and died 
 shortly afterwards, on the 27th March, 1831 ; and Louis 
 Napoleim, hemmed in by Austrian soldiers, most vigilant 
 to capture him, only escaped by assuming the livery of one 
 of Hortense's servants. Ultimately mother and son reached 
 Cannes, the spot so memorable as that on which the great 
 Emperor first set foot on his return from Elba, and thence 
 they proceeded to Paris, to claim the generosity and hospi- 
 tality of the King of the French. This was refused them. 
 The Prince then craved permission to serve in the French 
 army, even in the humblest station ; but his prayer was 
 rejected, and his immediate departure from French soil 
 insisted on. The death of the Duke of Reichstadt made 
 him still more dangerous, for, according to the precedence 
 laid down by Napoleon I., he (or, more strictly, his 
 father, then alive) was now heir male of the Imperial 
 house. Driven from his native land, and apparently 
 from all chance of serving France, he returned once again, 
 after passing a short time in England, to his former 
 Swiss residence. In this seclusion the Prince spent a few 
 years devoted to literature and political meditation. There 
 it was that he wrote his famous " Reveries Politiques," as 
 well as his " Considerations' Politiques et Militaires sur la 
 Suisse." At length, in 1836, on the evening of the 28th 
 of October, " abandoning this happy existence," the Prince 
 arrived at Strasbourg, " impelled," to use his own words, 
 ' ' to run all the risks of a most hazardous enterprise by a
 
 296 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES, 
 
 secret voice that led him on, and by a feeling, which for 
 no consideration on earth would he have postponed,, that 
 the moment for action had arrived." Every one knows 
 how the attempt at Strasbourg miscarried, and how Louis 
 Napoleon had once again to seek shelter in a foreign land. 
 He went this time to America, and remained there until 
 called back to Europe by the fatal illness of his mother. 
 Hortense's letter, announcing her precarious state, bears 
 so feeling a testimony to the filial regard of her son, that 
 I venture to introduce it here, as exhibiting the Emperor 
 in that domestic and amiable light which, as son, husband, 
 and father, has softened the memorials of his stern politi- 
 cal life : 
 
 " MY DEAR SON, 
 
 " I am about to undergo an operation which has 
 become absolutely necessary. In case it should not ter- 
 minate successfully, I send you, in this letter, my blessing. 
 We shall meet again shall we not ? in a better world, 
 where may you come to join me as late as possible ! And 
 you will believe that, in quitting this world, I regret only 
 leaving yourself, and your fond, affectionate disposition, 
 which alone has given any charm to my existence. This 
 will be a consolation for you, my dear friend to reflect 
 that, by your attentions, you have rendered your mother 
 as happy as circumstances would allow her to be. You 
 will think also of "all my affection for you ; and this will 
 inspire you with courage. Think upon this, that we shall 
 always have a benevolent and -distinct feeling for all that 
 passes in this world below, and that, assuredly, we shall
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 297 
 
 all meet again. Reflect upon this consolatory idea ; it is 
 one which is too necessary not to be true. And that good 
 Arese, I send him my blessing as to a son. 
 
 " I press you to my heart, my dear friend. I am calm, 
 perfectly resigned ; and I would still hope that we may 
 meet again, even in this world. 
 
 " Your affectionate mother, 
 
 " HORTENSE." 
 
 " 3rd April, 1837." 
 
 After the death of his mother, which occurred on the 
 5th October, 1837, Prince Louis Napoleon again took up 
 his abode in Switzerland ; but in the following year, the 
 French Government, alarmed at the near proximity of the 
 exile, made a demand on the Helvetic Confederation for 
 his expulsion ; a demand which was as firmly and un- 
 hesitatingly refused. Louis Philippe threatened to enforce 
 his requirement by arms, and the gallant Swiss, with 
 equal resolution, prepared to resist force by force. In this 
 crisis, Louis Napoleon, unwilling that the generous and 
 hospitable land which had sheltered him so long should 
 suffer on his account, decided on leaving Switzerland. 
 The subsequent residence of Louis Napoleon in England 
 is so well remembered that I will not refer to it, further 
 than to mention that it was during his stay amongst us 
 that he published his " Idees Napoleonniennes." In 1840, 
 he made another effort to restore the Napoleon dynasty by 
 the bold but ill-concerted landing at Boulogne, and being 
 taken prisoner, was tried by the Chamber of Peers, and 
 sentenced to imprisonment for life in a French fortress.
 
 298 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Thus seemed terminated the career of this daring and able 
 man. But his destiny was not yet accomplished. In 
 1840, he entered the Chateau of Ham ; and for six long 
 years remained immured in that state prison, occupying 
 himself with his unfailing resource, literature, and political 
 thought. His patient submission to his fate was rarely 
 disturbed. On one occasion, however, harassed by petty 
 annoyances and indignities, he addressed a protest to the 
 Trench Government, so eminently characteristic that I can- 
 not refrain from giving one or two extracts : 
 
 " In the nine months during which I have now been in 
 the hands of the French Government," remonstrates the 
 illustrious captive, " I have submitted patiently to indig- 
 nities of every kind. I will, however, be no longer silent, 
 nor authorise oppression by my silence. 
 
 " My position ought to be considered under two points 
 of view the one moral, the other legal. Morally speak- 
 ing, the government which has recognised the legitimacy 
 of the head of my family is bound to recognise me as a 
 prince, and to treat me as such. 
 
 " Policy has rights which I do not dispute. Let 
 government act towards me as towards its enemy, and 
 deprive me of the means of doing it any harm ; so far, it 
 would be justified. But, on the other hand, its conduct 
 will be dastardly if it treat me, who am the son of a king, 
 the nephew of an emperor, and allied to all the sovereigns 
 of Europe, as an ordinary prisoner. 
 
 " The simplest civility of look is regarded as a crime ; 
 and all who would wish to soften the rigours of my posi- 
 tion without failing in \heir duty, are threatened with
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 299 
 
 being denounced to the authorities, and with losing their 
 places. In the midst of this France, which the head of 
 ray family rendered so great, I am treated like an excom- 
 municated person in the thirteenth century. 
 
 " The insulting inquisition which pursues me into my 
 very chamber, which follows my footsteps when I breathe 
 the fresh air in a retired corner of the fort, is not limited 
 to my person alone, but is extended even to my thoughts. 
 My letters to my family, the effusions of my heart, are 
 submitted to the strictest scrutiny ; and if a letter should 
 contain any expressions of too lively a sympathy, the letter 
 is sequestrated, and its writer is denounced to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " By an infinity of details too long to enumerate, it 
 appears that pains are taken, at every moment of the day, 
 to make me sensible of my captivity, and cry incessantly 
 in my ears, V<R metis ! 
 
 " It is important to call to mind that none of the mea- 
 sures which I have pointed out were put in force against 
 the ministers of Charles the Tenth, whose dilapidated 
 chambers I now occupy. And yet these ministers were 
 not born on the steps of a throne ; and, moreover, they 
 were not condemned to simple imprisonment, but their 
 sentence implied a more severe treatment than has been 
 given to me ; and, in fine, they were not the representatives 
 of a cause which is an object of veneration in France. 
 The treatment, therefore, which I experience is neither 
 just, legal, nor humane. 
 
 " If it be supposed that such measures will subdue me, 
 it is a mistake. It is not outrage, but marks of kindness, 
 which subdue the hearts of those who suffer."
 
 300 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 This remonstrance produced its effect, and the Prince's 
 captivity was rendered less irksome ; but still it went on 
 year after year until 1846, when Louis Napoleon at last 
 effected his escape by means graphically narrated in his 
 own letter, and in the evidence of Dr. Conneau, when 
 examined before the local tribunal, both of which state- 
 ments I annex : 
 
 Thus writes the Prince himself : 
 
 " My desire to see my father once more in this world 
 made me attempt the boldest enterprise I ever engaged in. 
 It required more resolution and courage on my part than 
 at Strasburg and Boulogne ; for I was determined not to 
 submit to the ridicule which attaches to those who are 
 arrested escaping under a disguise, and a failure I could 
 not have endured. The following are the particulars of 
 my escape : 
 
 " You know that the fort was guarded by four hundred 
 men, of whom sixty soldiers acted daily as sentries outside 
 the walls. Moreover, the principal gate of the prison was 
 guarded by three gaolers, two of whom were constantly on 
 duty. It was necessary that I should first elude their 
 vigilance ; afterwards traverse the inside court, before the 
 windows of the commandant's residence ; and, on arriving 
 there, I should still have to pass by a gate which was 
 guarded by soldiers. 
 
 " Not wishing to communicate my design to any one, it 
 was necessary to disguise myself. As several rooms in 
 the part of the building which I occupied were undergoing 
 repair, it was not difficult to assume the dress of a work- 
 man. My good and faithful valet, Charles Thelier, pro-
 
 THE BON APATITES. 301 
 
 cured a smock-frock and a pair of sabots, and, after shaving 
 off my moustaches, I took a plank on my shoulders. 
 
 " On Sunday morning I saw the workmen enter at half- 
 past eight o'clock. Charles took them some drink, in 
 order that I should not meet any of them on my way. 
 He was also to call one of the turnkeys, whilst Dr. 
 Conneau conversed with the others. Nevertheless, I had 
 scarcely got out of my room before I was accosted by a 
 workman, who took me for one of his comrades ; and at 
 the bottom of the stairs I found myself in front of the 
 keeper. Fortunately, I placed before my face the plank 
 which I was carrying, and succeeded in reaching the yard. 
 Whenever I passed a sentinel or any other person, I always 
 kept the plank before my face. 
 
 " Passing before the first sentinel, I let my pipe fall, 
 and stopped to pick up the bits. There I met the officer 
 on duty ; but as he was reading a letter, he paid no atten- 
 tion to me. The soldiers at the guard-house appeared 
 surprised at my dress, and a chasseur turned round several 
 times to look at me. I next met some workmen who 
 looked very attentively at me. I placed the plank before 
 my face ; but they appeared to be so curious that I 
 thought I should never escape, until I heard them say, 
 * Oh, it is Bertrand I' 
 
 " Once outside, I walked quickly towards the road to 
 St. Quentin. Charles, who had the day before engaged a 
 carriage, shortly overtook me, and we arrived at St. Quen- 
 tin. I passed through the town on foot, after having 
 thrown off my smock-frock. Charles procured a post- 
 chaise, under pretence of going to Cambrai. We arrived, 
 without meeting with any obstacles, at Valenciennes,
 
 302 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 where I took the railway. I had procured a Belgian 
 passport, but I was nowhere asked to show it. 
 
 " During my escape. Dr. Conneau, always so devoted 
 to me, remained in prison, and caused them to believe 
 that I was unwell, in order to give me time to reach the 
 frontier. Before I could be persuaded to quit France, it 
 was necessary that I should be convinced that the Govern- 
 ment would never set me at liberty if I would not consent 
 to dishonour myself. It was also a matter of duty that I 
 should exert all my efforts in order to be enabled to solace 
 my father in his old age." 
 
 Dr. Conneau, the escape having been discovered, was 
 brought before the local tribunal and examined. In 
 answer to the Judge's interrogatories, his statement was 
 as follows : 
 
 " I tried to conceal the departure of the Prince in order 
 to give him time to escape. I was anxious to gain, in 
 this way, at least twenty-four hours, if possible. First of 
 all, I closed the door leading from the prisoner's chamber 
 into the saloon. I kindled a strong fire, although the 
 weather was really very hot, to support the supposition 
 that he was indisposed. About eight o'clock a packet of 
 violet 'plants arrived by the diligence. I told the keeper 
 to fill some pots with earth, and prevented him from 
 entering the Prince's saloon. About half-past eight 
 o'clock the man-of-all- work came and asked me where we 
 would breakfast. ' In my room/ I replied. ' I shall 
 fetch the large table/ said he. ' It is unnecessary/ I an- 
 swered; 'the General is unwell, and will not breakfast 
 with us/ 
 
 " My intention was, in this manner, to push off further
 
 THE BONAPARTES. 303 
 
 knowledge till the next day. I said the Prince had taken 
 medicine. It was absolutely necessary that it should be 
 taken, accordingly I took it myself. I then took some 
 coffee and threw it into a pot of water, with some crumbs 
 of bread, and added nitric acid, which produced a very 
 disagreeable smell, so that the man-of-all-work might be 
 persuaded that the Prince was really ill. 
 
 " About half-past twelve I saw the commandant for the 
 second time, and informed him that the Prince was some- 
 what easier. * * * Every time that I came out of 
 the small saloon, in which the Prince was supposed to be 
 lying on a sofa, I pretended to be speaking to him. The 
 man-of-all-work did not hear me. If his ears had been at 
 all delicate, he would have been quite able to hear me 
 speaking. 
 
 " The day passed on very well till a quarter-past seven 
 o'clock. At this moment the commandant entered, with 
 an air somewhat stern. ' The Prince/ said I, ' is a little 
 better, commandant/ ' If,' replied he, ' the Prince is 
 still ill, I must speak to him I must speak to the 
 Prince.' 
 
 " I had prepared a large stuffed figure, and laid it in 
 the Prince's bed with the head resting upon the pillow. I 
 called the Prince, who, naturally enough, made no reply. 
 I retired towards the commandant, and indicated to him, 
 by a sign, that the Prince was asleep. This did not satisfy 
 him. He sat down in the saloon, saying, 'The Prince 
 will not sleep for ever. I will wait.' 
 
 " He now remarked to me, that the time for the arrival 
 of the diligence was passed, and expressed his wonder 
 that Shelier was not returned. I stated to him that he
 
 304 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 had taken a cabriolet. The drum beat, and the com- 
 mandant rose and said, ' The Prince has moved in bed 
 he is waking up.' 
 
 " The commandant stretched his ears, but did not hear 
 him (the supposed Prince) breathe. I did the same, and 
 said, ' Let him sleep on.' He drew near the bed, and 
 found a stuffed figure. He immediately turned towards 
 me, and said, ' The Prince is gone ! At what time did he 
 go ?' ' At seven in the morning/ ' Who were the per- 
 sons on guard ?' ' I know nothing !' These were the 
 only words which were interchanged between us. The 
 commandant left the room." * 
 
 The Prince hastened to England, and again took up his 
 residence in London, where he mixed much in society. 
 In 3 848, the Orleans dynasty was overthrown, and shortly 
 after, the sentence of banishment against the Imperial 
 family was reversed, but the Prince fearful that his pre- 
 sence in Paris, in the then unsettled state of France, 
 might lead to tumults delayed his return, and during 
 the interval on the memorable 10th April, 1848, the day 
 of the great Chartist demonstration, he enrolled himself 
 as a special constable in London. Within eight months 
 after, the French people, by a vast majority (the exact 
 number was 5,434,226), elected the heir of the Bonapartes 
 President of the Republic ; and in 1852, he became 
 Emperor, by a still more marked manifestation of the 
 popular will, 7,864,180 votes having been recorded. 
 
 * For the Statement of Dr. Conneau, as well as for the 
 Prince's own narrative of his escape, I am indebted to the work 
 1 have already alluded to, " Napoleon III."
 
 THE BONAPARTE8. 305 
 
 His marriage to Eugenie Marie de Guzman,* Countess 
 cle Theba, occurred on the 29th January, 1853, and the 
 birth of the Prince Imperial, Napoleon Eugene Louis, 
 followed on the 16th March, 1856. 
 
 I should in conclusion particularly remark, that her 
 Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess -Dowager of Baden, 
 and widow of the Grand Duke Charles Louis, Stephanie, 
 nde de Beauharnais, was adopted by Napoleon I., she 
 being the daughter of Claude de Beauharnais, Peer of 
 France, last Count des Roches-Baritaud. Napoleon III. 
 is consequently her cousin. Her daughters are the present 
 Princess of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, and the present 
 Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon. Such, on the whole, 
 is this mighty and wide-extended family of Bonaparte, 
 whose head at one time was certainly, like Nebuchadnezzar, 
 " the terrible of the nations." May the land that was 
 waste and desolate, become, under their future influence, 
 like the garden of Eden ! 
 
 * The family of Guzman (of which the French Empress is a 
 descendant) is one of the most illustrious and historic houses in 
 Europe ; being the parent stock from which have sprung the 
 Dukes of Medina de las Torres, the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, 
 and the Counts Dukes of Olivares, and the Marquesses and 
 Counts of Montijo, Counts of Theba, and Grandees of Spain. 
 In addition to the name of Guzman, Her Majesty is entitled to 
 that of Portocarrero, which recalls likewise great historical asso- 
 ciations. The Empress Eugenie is not the first of her race who 
 has been called to a throne ; in 1633, Donna Louisa Francesca 
 de Guzman married the King of Portugal, Don John IV., of 
 Braganza.
 
 306 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 List to me, monk, it is thy trade to talk 
 As reverend men do use in saintly wise, 
 Of life's vicissitudes and vanities. 
 Hear one plain tale that doth surpass all saws. 
 
 MATUEIN. 
 
 FROM its source in Knocknanavon (Cnoc na habun 
 Hill of the Rivers], on the confines of Glanaclirime and 
 the O'Donovan's country, till it reaches the sea at Kinsale, 
 " the pleasant Bandon, crowned with many a wood," flows 
 for a space of thirty miles through a country strewn with 
 the ruins of ancient castles. This portion of Carbery was- 
 for many centuries the stronghold of the MacCarthys 
 Reagh ; the pleasant Bandon was essentially their river, 
 for its entire course, though ranging with many an ample 
 curve through an extensive district, lay wholly within their 
 territory. Of twenty-six castles built by this sept, in the 
 county of Cork alone, the greater number guarded the 
 windings of this stream. 
 
 The historian of Cork and Kerry, following in the foot- 
 steps of Spenser, exclaims with enthusiasm, " The River
 
 MACCARTHY. 307 
 
 Bandon is extremely pleasant, having several houses, 
 castles, and woods on its banks, which are high and beau- 
 tiful. As one rows down this river, it winds in an agree- 
 able manner ; and at the end of each turn the sight is 
 pleasingly entertained with the prospect of some neat seat, 
 or romantic building, which open upon the eye one after 
 another." The neat seats were features in the landscape 
 of recent origin, the romantic buildings were the fortresses 
 of the MacCarthy Reagh and his followers. A. few of 
 these castles, like those of the 'Donovans and the 
 O' Hurleys, still raise their massive towers in imposing 
 grandeur, defiant of time and storm ; but the great mul- 
 titude of them which burthened the margins of the 
 Eandon are prostrate in the soil-heaps of rubbish, partially 
 hidden by a rank vegetation, and scarcely distinguishable 
 from the natural undulations around them. 
 
 Little more than a century and a half ago, there stood, 
 a few miles north of Castle Donovan, a far more imposing 
 and historic structure, the Castle of Dun Maenmhaighe, 
 or D unman way. The vengeance of Heaven had been 
 earned for it, and the hand of man deliberately destroyed 
 it, carried away stone from stone, and left tradition alone 
 cognizant of its site. Six miles further north, and in " a 
 wild and dreary region," surrounded by swamps, and 
 backed by a ridge of rocky hills, sterile and pathless, there 
 stands, but little scathed as to its exterior, " the large and 
 strong pile of Togher." This castle belonged also to the 
 Lord of Dunmanway, and crime, though of a less dark 
 die than that which harbingered the total destruction of 
 the former, has left the trace of retribution upon the latter
 
 308 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of these strongholds. Its foundations are on the solid 
 rock, its walls are of wonderful thickness, it might seem 
 to defy for ever, as it has defied until now, the utmost 
 that elemental fury could wreak upon it. Scarcely a stone 
 is displaced from its main walls, but through its principal 
 front, exte nding from its parapet nearly to its founda- 
 tion, is a cleft through its entire thickness, as if the 
 artillery of Heaven had stricken it. The back of the 
 structure, which overhangs a small tributary of the Bandon, 
 is covered with a screen of luxuriant and aged ivy. which 
 year by year extends its foliage over the rugged sides of 
 the building, closing up its narrow loops, towering above 
 its parapets, and occasionally accumulating in huge masses 
 that have lost their hold upon the hard rock of which the 
 castle is built, and sway hither and thither as the storms 
 career around them. From this abundant vegetation not 
 a single tendril has yet crept across the chasm, which 
 points to a dark chapter in the history of the castle's 
 earlier days, when a foul crime and a shameful punish- 
 ment led to one of the most striking, though by no means 
 the greatest, of the vicissitudes with which Irish family 
 history abounds. 
 
 The earliest instance of a voluntary alienation of any 
 considerable portion of the patrimony of the MacCarthys 
 of Desmond, for the purpose of establishing an independent 
 chieftainship, was that by which Donell Mor na Curra set- 
 tled upon Donell God (Daniel the Stammerer), his second 
 son, fifty-seven ploughlands in the pleasant valley of Glan- 
 achrime. Subsequent alienations founded the more histori- 
 cal and far more powerful families of MacCarthy Reagh, and
 
 MACCARTHY. 309 
 
 MacCarthy of Muskerry ; but Donell God was the first 
 cadet of the Princes of South Munster who received a 
 patrimony independent of the head of his race. For ten 
 generations the descend ants of Donell God flourished in the 
 heart of Carbery ; they saw other offshoots from their parent 
 stem established upon their borders, more ambitious, more 
 turbulent, and better acquainted with the social changes 
 of their country than they were, but they continued to 
 hold their own, yielding but slight acknowledgment of 
 superiority to the head of their race, none, till near upon 
 the period of their extinction, to their powerful cousins, 
 whose country encircled them, but electing, as others did, 
 by usage of Tanistry, their own chieftains. The author of 
 Carbrise Notitia informs us that they were " one of the best 
 branches of the Carthys, and always reckoned the best sco- 
 loges or housekeepers in Carbery ." Indeed, they early 
 acquired the designation of Na Feile, or the Hospitable, 
 which distinguished them from the many families of their 
 name which had multiplied around them. In such tran- 
 quillity as the martial spirit and troubled politics of their 
 time permitted, or with but such warlike diversions as 
 added relish to the festivities for which they were famous, 
 the chieftains of Glanachrime continued to flourish from 
 the twelfth to the seventeenth century. They had never 
 broken beyond the boundaries fixed for them by the 
 generous gift of Donell-Mor-na Curra, nor had their pa- 
 trimony suffered diminution by the encroachment of other 
 branches of the sept. Into what pleasant places their lot 
 had fallen, and how joyously, from generation to generation, 
 flowed on the sparkling current of their days, the reader
 
 310 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 will perceive by the following extract from a manuscript 
 pedigree of these fortunate lords of Glanachrime. This 
 pedigree is of no common authority, for it was compiled 
 in 1784, by no less a personage than John Butler, Bishop 
 of Cork, and afterwards Lord Dunboyne, and attested by 
 the MacCarthy Reagh, the O'Donovan, and four other 
 gentlemen of their blood. 
 
 " Glanachrime, situate in the West of East Carbery, 
 and County of Cork, wherein were many fertile flowery 
 plains, and flourishing verdant woods, environed with a 
 ridge of hills, the most pleasant and romantic nature 
 could intend for sheltering and watering a spot designed to 
 yield all the pleasures and desirable necessaries of life that 
 could be produced in that wholesome climate. Upon the 
 said demesne were built several spacious houses, beside 
 two strong, stately mansion castles, viz., that of Togher, 
 and the other of Dunmanway, where he (the chieftain) 
 alternately displayed his liberality, insomuch that no gen- 
 tleman in Munster, of whatsoever ability, was accounted 
 equal to him in that of housekeeping, for which reason he 
 got the name of Na Feile, or the Hospitious. The said 
 chieftain and his friends were intermixed with the best 
 Irish and Strongbonian families of Munster, and lived in 
 great splendour and happiness." 
 
 This Elysian valley in East Carbery continued the un- 
 disputed possession of the descendants of Donell God until 
 Elizabeth ascended the throne of England. That great 
 Queen, regardless of the happiness which her royal policy 
 might disturb, early set her heart upon the effective sub- 
 jugation of Ireland, and the extinction of the princely
 
 MACCARTHY. 311 
 
 rights claimed by its chiefs. Through forty years she 
 persevered through every difficulty, draining her exchequer, 
 prodigal of the lives of her English subjects, and assuming 
 increased determination as her ablest ministers despaired, 
 till the last year of her life, when the governors of Ireland 
 ventured to assure her that that troublesome country was 
 at last fairly subjected for the present! Through this 
 long period of national struggle the Lords of Glanachrime 
 still held their territory. The fiery torrent of the great 
 Desmond rebellion passed over them, the wild warriors of 
 O'Neill encircled them with slaughtered foes and a blazing 
 country, Essex led the choicest English force that had 
 been seen in Ireland since the days of Richard the Second 
 into Carbery, but they lost not an acre of the patrimony 
 of their ancestors. They saw the main line of their race 
 extinguished in the person of the Earl of Clancar, and 
 Florence, the most enlightened of the MacCarthys that had 
 existed for 400 years, sent away prisoner to the Tower of 
 London ; but confiscation, which had absorbed such large 
 portions of the inheritance of their sept, had hitherto 
 spared them. A family that had steered its fortunes so 
 ably, or so luckily, for centuries might seem to possess a 
 charm against the ordinary ill chances of life, to be safe 
 from the vicissitudes which were falling thickly around 
 them; and so perchance might it have been, had not a 
 hideous crime and an ignominious punishment stained the 
 honour of this noble chieftainship, and prepared the way 
 for their rapid dilapidation. 
 
 About the year 15 80 expired Finin (Florence), the seventh 
 in descent from Donell God. Succession amongst Irish chiefs
 
 312 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 was decided not by English law, but by usage of tanistry, 
 Finin had left sons ; and had English law prevailed, the 
 eldest of these, Cormac Don, would have stepped into the 
 post left vacant by his father. Tanistry passed over the 
 sons of the deceased chief, and called to the succession 
 "the eldest cousin of the blood," preferring in all cases 
 the brother to the son of the last ruler. Hence, as soon as 
 the remains of Finin were deposited in the churchyard of 
 Kilbarry, " the rod of command " was handed without he- 
 sitation to Cormac, his brother. The inauguration of an 
 Irish chieftain was an event of great importance, and at- 
 tended with much display and rejoicing amongst the septs. 
 The right of succession was rather ratified than regulated 
 by the ceremony of election. A white rod, the symbol of 
 authority, was delivered to the future ruler by his superior 
 lord, if he acknowledged one, or by one of his own subor- 
 dinate chieftains, as in the case of MacCarthy Reagh, 
 who received the rod from O'Mahonie. Tribute of vari- 
 ous kinds, chiefly of provisions, was due from the clan to 
 furnish the festivities attending these elections; and, if 
 MacCarthy Na Feil&, the Hospitable, inherited the distinc- 
 tion and the obligation of surpassing other chiefs in the 
 abundance of his hospitality, the reader acquainted with 
 Irish liberality at the present day may imagine the scenes 
 of rejoicing in the castles of D unman way and Togher, 
 when their new lord entered into the possession of them. 
 Within the counties of Cork and Kerry were a hundred 
 and ninety-nine castles. Of these, all except sixty-nine 
 were built by the Milesian Irish ; and the election of a 
 chief was likely to assemble them all, the more likely
 
 MACCARTHY. 313 
 
 as these elections were looked upon with grim counte- 
 nance by the Queen's authorities in Munster. Tanistry 
 and its usages were held in special disfavour by Eliza- 
 beth, who had been for years endeavouring with more 
 or less success to abolish it, and to introduce the English 
 law of succession in its place. She invited all Irish chiefs 
 to surrender their countries into her hands, to renounce 
 many feudal rights which excited her jealousy, and to 
 accept back their lands from her with the guarantee of 
 succession to their eldest sons. This inducement, which 
 had availed with each of the other great branches of their 
 family, had never tempted the chiefs of Glanachrime to 
 abandon the custom of their forefathers, and, consequently, 
 on the election of Finin, Cormac Don, the eldest son of 
 the late chieftain, was compelled to stand aside, whilst 
 the white wand was handed to his uncle. 
 
 The festivities even of D unman way and Togher at last 
 admitted of some intermission, and the various chief- 
 tains retired to their own homes. Suddenly there 
 passed a startling rumour far beyond the boundaries of 
 Carbery. It carried with it sorrow and shame to the 
 hearths of every castle in Munster. Blood had been shed 
 in those joyous halls of Dunmanway. The chieftain whose 
 election had been so recently celebrated was no more. He 
 had been most foully murdered ! The sensation produced 
 amongst the kinsmen of the murdered lord of Glanach- 
 rime could not fail to be of indignation and horror. A 
 very different feeling was produced by the intelligence in 
 the court of the President of Munster. The horror of the 
 septs, the peculiar impression of the English authorities,
 
 314 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 was increased tenfold, when the name of the murderer 
 reached them. Cormac Don hurriedly claimed the suc- 
 cession. There is no record that he was elected by his 
 kinsmen, nor indeed is it likely that he was or would be. 
 A party of English soldiers, despatched by Sir William 
 Drury, President of Munster, carried off the claimant to 
 Cork, under the charge of having murdered his uncle. 
 No man could pity him, for his guilt was proved : no man 
 could resent his punishment, ignominious as it was, for it 
 was by the verdict of twelve men that he was sentenced 
 and hung in chains. Then followed a truly singular con- 
 test for the lands of the murdered man. Had Cormac died 
 by the visitation of God, or by any hand but that of his 
 kinsmen, the captaincy of Glanachrime would, by tanistry, 
 have fallen to Cormac Don. "When Cormac Don was 
 hanged as a murderer, the inheritance passed on to the 
 next brother, and not to the son of the murdered chieftain, 
 as long as there remained elder members of the blood. 
 The heir, then, by tanistry to the murdered man was Teige 
 Onorsy [anfhorsa, i. e. of the forces], the brother of the 
 murderer. Teige accordingly without hesitation took 
 possession of the castles and lands of Glanachrime ; but 
 the circumstance of a murder committed by a man who, 
 even subsequently to his crime, had been the claimant of 
 a rich and extensive patrimony, was not likely to escape 
 the vigilant cupidity of the English authorities. At a 
 parliament held in Dublin the same year, the man who 
 had been condemned by the Cork jury for murder was 
 declared a rebel ! and his lands forfeited to the Queen. 
 This English legerdemain was wholly lost upon Teige
 
 MACCARTHY. 315 
 
 Onorsy. He evinced a decision of character equal to 
 that of his brother, and, in spite of the Dublin parliament 
 and the Lord President of Munster, seized upon the lord- 
 ship of Glanachrime. Years passed away, and no effort 
 was made by the government to disturb him ; but in the 
 meantime the son of the murdered chieftain was growing 
 towards manhood. The attention of the authorities of 
 Munster and of the native septs was called away from the 
 domestic troubles of a petty chieftain to a personage who 
 inspired more hope and fear than any other man in Ireland 
 except O'Neill. Florence MacCarthy had recently mar- 
 ried the heiress of MacCarthy Mor, in defiance of the 
 Queen, and had been sent prisoner to the Tower of 
 London. 
 
 It is presumable that Teige Onorsy, with the Act of the 
 Parliament of Dublin held in constant menace over him, was 
 demonstrative of much loyalty ; he was certainly not the man 
 whom the imprisoned Florence would desire to see chieftain 
 in the very heart of his own territory. Finin MacCormac 
 began to talk loudly of his claim to the chieftainship 
 of Glanachrime. It is probable that Tiege Onorsy at 
 once discovered who was the promoter of this claim, and 
 found that his cousin was no longer the unfriended boy 
 that he had been till then. His decision was speedily 
 taken ; he would appeal, not to the gentlemen of his sept, 
 as was usual in cases of like dispute, but to the Queen. 
 The petition which he presented to Elizabeth evinces a 
 perfect knowledge of the feelings of that royal lady. Had 
 he asserted that usage of Tanistry had always prevailed in 
 Glanachrime, and that by such usage he was the legiti-
 
 316 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 mate chieftain, he would have asserted what was true, 
 proved his claim, and lost his cause. The very name of 
 Tanistry was hateful to Elizabeth, and Tiege Onorsy 
 was far too wary to avail himself of so good a plea. Far 
 different was the purport of his petition. He humbly 
 craved her Majesty's permission to resign land and lord- 
 ship into her hands, and to resume the same by her 
 Majesty's letter patent, with succession to his eldest son. 
 This petition was presented by no less a person than Sir 
 Walter Raleigh. The case of Finin MacCormac would 
 seem hopeless : he had no claim by Tanistry, he had no 
 laud or lordship to subject to English law, and his best 
 friend and adviser was in a distant prison ; but Finin had 
 been reared in a rough school, and he gave proofs in after- 
 life that if his discretion were less, his resolution was 
 equal to that of his rival. He suddenly disappeared from 
 Carbery, and found his way to the banks of the Thames. 
 There he met with protection from a man who had 
 troubles enough and sorrows enough of his own, without 
 adopting those of others, but who did not refuse to pro- 
 , vide him with food and shelter, to pen his petitio ns for 
 him, and to convey them to the English Privy Council by 
 influence equal to that of Raleigh. It may be asserted 
 with little fear of contradiction, that there existed no man 
 in the sixteenth century who had written so many peti- 
 tions to the Queen and her Privy Council as Florence 
 MacCarthy. From the year 1588, the date of his first, 
 until 1630, that of his last, his literary labours were one 
 continued series of petitions; they were written from the 
 Tower, from the Gate-house, from the Marsh alsea, from
 
 MACCARTHY. 317 
 
 his lodgings in King Street Westminster, from the Court, 
 from Munster, from every spot of earth on which it was 
 his lot to sojourn. His enemies also wrote petitions; but 
 how clumsy, how spiritless, in comparison with his ! To 
 no one living could the friendless Finin have applied with 
 equal certainty of obtaining a ready and emphatic exposi- 
 tion of his wrongs. The presence of Teige Onorsy in 
 London, and the purport of his visit, were well known to 
 the Tower prisoner ; to blacken his character, and to re- 
 present in plaintive phrase the sorrows of the orphan 
 was all that was left wherewith to encounter the petition 
 of his rival. The fearless and assertive tone of the docu- 
 ment now laid before the reader is characteristic of the 
 hand that wrote it, and at once reminds us of the ani- 
 mated style of his controversy with the Lord Barry : 
 
 " To the Right Honourable the Lord Burleigh, Lord 
 
 High Treasurer of England. 
 
 " In most humble manner sheweth unto your Lordship, 
 your poor suppliant, Fynyn M 'Cormuck of Glaincrim, in 
 Carbry, within the county of Cork, Gent. That whereas 
 your said suppliant's father, Cormuck M'Fynyn, being 
 (as is known to the right Honourable Sir John Parrett) 
 lawfully possessed of the lands of Glaincrim, in the coun- 
 try of Carbry aforesaid, was at the instigation of one Teig 
 in Orssy, murdered by Cormuck Downe the said Teig in 
 Orssy his eldest brother ; for the which his said brother 
 was by Sir William Drury, being then Lord President of 
 Munster, hanged in chains at Corke ; and afterwards a 
 cousin of your suppliant, named Filemie M'Owen, pre-
 
 318 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 tending to possess the said lands of Glaincrime for and in 
 the name of your suppliant, was hy the said Teig in Orssy 
 in like sort murdered ; since which time he doth, as well 
 by reason of his wealth as because of your suppliant's 
 tender age, being constrained for safety of his life to for- 
 sake his country since his father's death, contrary to all 
 equity and justice, possess your said suppliant's father's 
 lands as tenant to Sir Owen M'Cartie, being therein 
 maintained by the said Sir Owen by reason that he hath 
 fostered his eldest son, and the better to entitle himself 
 thereunto, is now come hither with intent to surrender 
 the said lands to her Majesty : And forasmuch as those 
 lands doth of right belong unto your said suppliant, and 
 that the said Teig in Orssy hath already procured means 
 whereby he hath spoken to her Majesty, and preferred his 
 supplications to her Highness touching the said lands, 
 and being here these six months, ever since Sir Walter 
 Raleigh came out of Ireland, a suitor unto her Majesty 
 for those lands, he hath never all that while acquainted 
 your Lordship, or any other of the Lords of the Council, 
 with the matter, whereby it appears that he hath no right 
 thereunto, and that his intent is to steal away her Ma- 
 jesty's letters unknown to your Lordship and to the rest 
 of the Lords of the Council, which he had done already, 
 but that his said surrender may not be received, and that 
 there may be a stay made thereof before your suppliant's 
 title be tried, which being found right, that he may be 
 put in possession of his lands according to equity and 
 justice. And he shall pray, &c. 
 
 " The humble petition of Fynyn M'Cormuck, beseech- 
 ing your Lordship to peruse the same."
 
 MACCARTHY. 319 
 
 The above petition reached the hands of the Queen; but 
 the offer of Teige Onorsy to hold his lands by English 
 law had produced its effect. A letter was written to the 
 Lords Justices in' Ireland, to the effect that, " whereas 
 Teige M'Dermodie MacCarthy, of Cork, gentleman, 
 holdeth all his lands, &c., as his ancestors have heretofore 
 holden the same, that is, by the Irish custom of tanistry, 
 hath made humble suit, &c., we let you note that, for the 
 good disposition appearing in the said Teig M'Dermodie, 
 and to the end that others holding their lands by the like 
 bad custom may be the rather encouraged to alter likewise 
 the state and tenure of their lands, we are pleased to ac- 
 cept his offer." There follows, however, a provision that 
 the claim of Finin be inquired into. The inquiry was 
 quickly made and answered. " Cormac Downe had mur- 
 dered Finin's father, had possessed himself of the lands of 
 Glanachrime ; had been tried, sentenced, and hanged at 
 Cork as a murderer; the parliament in Dublin had de- 
 clared him a rebel, and confiscated his lands. Neither of 
 the present claimants had any right to the lordship in 
 question ; it belonged to her Majesty ;" and her Majesty 
 bestowed it in free gift on Teige Onorsy and his heirs 
 male for ever. 
 
 This episode in the history of the family of Dunmanway 
 would never have reached us but for circumstances far more 
 important than the rights of either of the claimants. Flo- 
 rence MacCarthy in course of time, and by dint of peti- 
 tioning, had regained his freedom and risen in court 
 favour. He was claiming vast territories in right of his 
 wife, and had carried alarm into a host of undertakers,
 
 320 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 who had already seized, or were petitioning for grants of 
 the country of MacCarthy Mor. Foremost amongst these 
 were the Brownes and the Lord Barry. A multitude of 
 charges of disloyalty were presented t& the Privy Council 
 against him, and amongst them one connected with this 
 Finin MacCormac. It is from Florence's reply in his own 
 vindication that I learn the tale that has been laid before 
 the reader. Admitting that portions of the narrative are 
 slightly conjectural, enough remains to show that the 
 writer possessed a generous and kind heart. Florence's 
 defence is dated June 14, 1594, and is headed " Answers 
 to the charges of the Lord Barry." 
 
 " 5th. Fynine Mac Cormac Mac Finin, of Gleancruym, 
 being gone over, by reason of his adversary, Teige Enorsy, 
 who went over with Sir Walter Raleigh to surrender the 
 said Gleancruym, and his father being my father's fol- 
 lower and foster brother, the boy came to me to the Tower, 
 and told me had he no friends nor means to follow his 
 cause ; whereupon, for pity and country's sake, I gave my 
 word to one Robert Foster, of Tower Street, for his diet ; 
 and, having put up his several petitions to the Council, 
 Sir Owen Hopton being removed from the Tower, and Sir 
 Michael Blount placed, the said Sir Michael would let no 
 prisoner have any liberty upon any warrant directed to his 
 predecessor, whereupon the aforesaid Foster, seeing me 
 restrained, would not credit the poor young man for his 
 diet, whereby he was constrained, through extreme misery, 
 to go with some soldiers into Brittaigne, where he was, 
 about four or five years past, killed, about Gingam, as I 
 heard of everybody that came from Sir John Merreys since."
 
 MACCARTHY. 321 
 
 How pathetic, how skilful the insinuation of Finin's 
 loyalty ! but how unlike the version of the Lord Barry ! 
 It is quite possible that the fate of Finin may have been 
 in some particulars such as Florence described it. The 
 poor fellow may have enlisted as a common soldier, and 
 Florence may have heard that he lost his life at Gingam ; 
 but the Lord Barry had heard quite another story, hence 
 his fifth charge : " Finin M'Cormac, a cousin and retainer 
 of Florence MacCarthy, was sent over by the said Flo- 
 rence to Sir William Stanley (who had deserted with an 
 Irish regiment at Derwenter, in the Low Countries), where 
 he serves and remains as yet." 
 
 Notwithstanding the rumour of Finin's death, and the 
 bold accusation of Barry, there is much probability that 
 he did really exist in the Queen's service, and that he was 
 severely wounded ; for the following curious petition was 
 presented to the Secretary of State by a wounded Finin, 
 but whether the Finin of Glanachrime or not is only con- 
 jectural : 
 
 " The humble petition of Finin MacCarthy, maimed. 
 
 "In most humble manner beseecheth your Honor's 
 good Lordship, your poor suppliant, Finin MacCarthy, 
 Gentleman, that where after long and painful services, per- 
 formed in her Majesty's service abroad, he hath therein 
 been maimed of one of his legs, as appeareth (by certificates 
 for recompense), whereof these two and a half years he 
 hath been an humble petitioner for some stay of living, 
 and albeit divers persons of far smaller desert have been 
 despatched with recompense, yet he is as far as ever from 
 
 2 Y
 
 322 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 obtaining anything, and for as much as, being a younger 
 brother, and hath neither land or living, and that for the 
 caring of his maim he hath grown to great debt (which he 
 shall never be able to pay without your furtherance), for 
 some part whereof he hath lately been imprisoned, he 
 prayeth your good Lordship to pity his state, and let him 
 have xx of lands concealed from her Majesty in Ireland 
 for years, or a pension of xx next out of 
 
 for forty- one years, or a pension of two shillings per diem, 
 or otherwise some good piece of money to pay his debts, 
 repair to his native country, live in some good sort, and 
 hereafter desist from troubling your Honour. 
 
 " As for a Poor House, Right Honourable, it is neither 
 fit for a Gentleman of his Birth, neither doeth he know 
 any room void, by four or five lives at least. 
 
 " Wherefore he humbly beseecheth your Lordship to 
 favour him. 
 
 " September, 1594." 
 
 It has chanced to many men to be robbed of their 
 inheritance, and to be cast upon the world on their own 
 resources, but to few, so nobly descended, to find them- 
 selves so utterly friendless, and to perish so early in a 
 manner so obscure as Florence MacCarthy represents him 
 to have done ; but the truth is, that whatever may have 
 been the fate of Finin MacCormac, when he was turned out 
 into the streets of London by Foster, whether he or some 
 other Finin penned the above petition, he did not lose his 
 life at Gingam, but lived to a good old age ; that the 
 martial spirit of his race conquered the infirmity in his
 
 MACCAKTHY. 3.23 
 
 legs, and even affected a reconciliation between him and 
 his rival ; for in the year 1642, fifty-five years after the 
 date of his first petition, his name, as well as that of Teige 
 Onorsy, occurs in a long list of Irish gentlemen who 
 were declared outlaws for an error made in the choice of 
 the party for which they had recently borne arms. 
 
 The fortunes of Glanachrime suffered a gloomy eclipse 
 at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when reckon- 
 ing was made for O'NeilFs rebellion ; but Teige Onorsy 
 possessed more than the usual ability of his race, he con- 
 trived to escape the perils of that reckoning, and for 
 many long years continued to enjoy her Majesty's gift. 
 He ruled over Glanachrime with more than the proverbial 
 hospitality of his house. But retribution for the crime 
 of Cormac Don, though slow to come, was in store, and 
 was coming. Another murder, not indeed so foul as that 
 of Cormac, which was but one degree less atrocious than 
 that of Cain, but more dastardly, completed the measure 
 of wickedness for which vengeance tarried. There was no 
 need of an Irish Act of Parliament this time to declare 
 murder rebellion. The assizes held at Youghal in 1652, 
 proceeded more circumstantially to prove that Glanachrime 
 was forfeited to the state. Amidst a multitude of depo- 
 sitions made in open court by parties who had suffered 
 wrong during recent troubles, appears one of a crime so 
 cowardly and so cruel that it would be fruitless to hope to 
 excite sympathy for the final overthrow of the family that 
 could countenance if not occasion it. Teige Onorsy, and 
 also his son, Teige a Duna, were gathered to their ancestors 
 before the vengeance of the law overtook their race. In
 
 324 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the library of Trinity College, Dublin, is preserved the 
 examination which elicited the details of this second 
 murder by the hand or under the connivance of a chieftain 
 of Glanachrime. 
 
 The examination of Mr. Callahan Car tie, of D unman - 
 \vay, taken 13th September, 1652 : 
 
 " Sayeth that in the first year of the troubles, this ex- 
 aminaut, then living with his father, Teige Odownie, 
 alias Cartie, well remembers that his father took into his 
 protection the person and family of John Ford, and his 
 son Robert Ford, and his wife; and about six weeks after, 
 upon Ford's request, sent the said Ford, with his son 
 Robert and their families, with a convoy towards Castle- 
 haven, and that John Ford was (as this examinant heard) 
 murthered by the way ; and the rest of them, he knows 
 not what became of them, but (as he heard) they went 
 safe to the garrison of Castlehaven. And this examinant 
 further sayeth that the names of the persons that his 
 father sent to be their convoy was Diarmid O'Leary, that 
 lives with Mr. Randal Oge Hurley ; Thomas McKnougher, 
 living near Bandon ; and Donagh O'Terrahan, of Glean- 
 achrime, and further sayeth not. 
 
 " CALL. MCCARTHY" 
 
 "Jurat et exam inants \ "F. WHEELER, 
 coram nobis." j " PETER WALLIS." 
 
 The examination of Mrs. Honor O'Donovan, alias 
 Carthy, late wife of Teige Odownie, alias Carthy, taken 
 i3th day of September, 1652 :
 
 MACCARTHY. 325 
 
 " Sayeth that about the beginning of these troubles, 
 she well remembers that John Ford and his son Robert 
 Ford, with their wives and children, came to this exami- 
 nant's husband to crave his safeguard and protection, 
 which accordingly were granted them for the space of five 
 or six weeks ; about which time the foresaid Ford desired 
 a convoy for himself and the rest to go to the garrison of 
 Castlehaven, which accordingly was granted; and this ex 
 aminant further sayeth that she heard John Ford was 
 slain about Gortebrack by some of Mac Teigh's men, and 
 further sayeth that the names of those whom this exami- 
 nant's husband appointed for the convoy was Diarmod 
 O'Leary; Thomas McKnougher; and Donagh O'Terrahan ; 
 and one Teige McKnougher, who is dead. And this ex- 
 aminant further sayeth that she was informed that some 
 of the convoy had some of the money and goods that was 
 Ford's ; and further sayeth that Thomas McKnougher and 
 Douagh O'Terrahan returned to this examinant's husband's 
 house, and was with him upon his lands as formerly ; and 
 further sayeth not. 
 
 " F. WHEELER, " HONOR ^ O'DoxovAN. 
 
 " PETER WALLIS." (Her mark)." 
 
 The examination of Teige Oge McTeige McDaniel 
 MacCarthy, of Templebryan, about forty years of age, 
 taken 20th September, 1652 : 
 
 " Sayeth that about Easter, 1642, he then being at 
 home with his wife, near Gortebrack (where John McTeige, 
 alias McTeige, and the rest of his people lay to keep in 
 the garrison of Castlehaven), being upon the country with
 
 326 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 one William Leagh Regaine, they discovered some goods 
 and English people coining along towards Castlehaven, 
 and set up the cry; whereupon those that were of the 
 convoy (as soon as this examinant and the other set up 
 the cry) threw down the goods and took some of it with 
 them and ran away, and those that were convoyed (viz. 
 John Ford and his son, and their wives and children) 
 made towards the castle, all but the pld man, who turned 
 back and ran after one of the convoy, one Dermond 
 O'Leary (as he, this examinant, was told afterwards), for 
 some money which he, the said John Ford, had delivered 
 to the said Dermond. And this examinant further sayeth 
 that he and the said Regane came to the said John Ford, 
 and that the said Regane was going to kill him with his 
 pike; and this examinant sayeth that he persuaded the 
 said Regane not to kill such an old man that had no arms, 
 but he would not be persuaded, but drew this examinant's 
 sword, and killed the said John Ford ; and this examinant 
 further sayeth that Thomas McKiiaugher (one of the con- 
 voy) came with Teige Odowney's orders (as he conceives) 
 to this examinant's brothers for some of the said Ford's 
 goods, which his said brother had taken from the said 
 Thomas McKnaugher as they were running away, which 
 were delivered accordingly ; and further sayeth not. 
 " Jurat, et examinat. ) " F. WHEELER, 
 coram nobis." j " PETER WALLIS." 
 
 It appears from another deposition in this collection, 
 in Trinity College, Dublin, that Teige Odowney and 
 O'Donovau hanged Dorothy Ford at Castle Donovan !
 
 MACCARTHY. 327 
 
 History takes no further notice of the descendants of 
 Donell God. " This rebellion," says the family pedigree, 
 " suppressed them." The extensive Lordship of Glan- 
 achrime was broken up, and parcelled out amongst various 
 English families, but the chief portion of it fell to Sir 
 Richard Cox. Smith, in his History of Cork, pictures in 
 glowing tints the prosperity that settled upon Dunmanway 
 when the ancient race was swept away, and their castle 
 thrown down for the materials wherewith to build churches, 
 schools, workshops, and pleasant villas. Though land and 
 lordships had for ever left them, this branch of the Mac- 
 Carthys was not extinct, nor is it at this day. Four gene- 
 rations existed, I know not how the fifth emerged for a 
 moment from its obscurity. Jeremiah an Duna, the 
 great-grandson of the last lord who lived in the Castle of 
 Dunmanway, was during his lifetime well-known in the 
 south of Ireland. Since his demise some few particulars 
 of his latter days have acquired a more extended notoriety, 
 for they had fallen under the notice of the learned Dr. J. 
 O } Donovan, who, in the sixth volume of his Annals of the 
 Four Masters, has published his pedigree, and with it an 
 extract of a letter from T. O'Donovan, Esq., of O'Doiio- 
 van's Cove, respecting him. 
 
 The pedigree, as given by the latter, though divested of 
 the " fertile flowery phrases and the flourishing verdant" 
 accessories with which Bishop Butler or his amanuensis had 
 embellished the family copy, is enriched with many additions 
 and much valuable information which lay beyond the reach 
 of the Bishop and the local antiquaries, and indeed beyond 
 that of all the Irish scholars of our own day. Like every
 
 328 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 composition that bears the signature of this most precise 
 writer and painstaking genealogist, its exactness is unim- 
 peachable. To the information contained in the admirable 
 letter of Mr. T. O'Donovan little can be added that is more 
 than conjectural. There is a touching anecdote told by 
 Mr. Crofton Croker, in his " Researches in the South of 
 Ireland," p. 305, of an Irish chieftain visiting the ruined 
 home of his ancestors when on the eve of quitting his 
 native country for ever. Until the publication of Mr. T. 
 'Donovan's letter it would have been hopeless to guess 
 at the name of the subject of this incident. It was then 
 readily conjectured that the anecdote of Mr. Croker was 
 not an absolute creation; of his fancy, but that Jerry- au- 
 Duna had really been surprised in one of his wanderings 
 around the ruins of Dunmanway ; but it was well known 
 that he never did quit his native land, and thus it might 
 seem that fiction had contributed a little of its colouring to 
 the picture of Mr. Croker. A passage in the Dunmanway 
 pedigree, though couched in language a little mysterious, 
 removes the suspicion ; for it implies that he had at one 
 time the intention of quitting Ireland, either to seek his 
 fortune in military service on the Continent, as so many 
 gentlemen of his blood had already done, or following the 
 poorest of his race into the wilds of the west. The former 
 is the more probable, for the pedigree was expressly made 
 for his use, " not foreseeing our intention, rather a case of 
 necessity than choice." Such a pedigree, authenticated 
 by names so unquestionable, would have placed its posses- 
 sor at once in easy association wit.h the noblest officers to 
 be found in the service of Spain, France, Italy, or Ger-
 
 MACCARTHY. 329 
 
 many ; in the remote regions of the New World it could 
 have availed little. That cherished parchment is all, abso- 
 lutely all, of the family records supposed to have been left 
 by Jerry-au-Duna that is known to be preserved. The 
 chest of papers alluded to by Mr. T. O'Donovan is not 
 traceable. The old man had treasured the record of his 
 genealogy when everything else that could have purchased 
 a crust of bread had left him, and it is not the opinion 
 of all the world that he had set his heart upon an object 
 without value. The most pleasing of " Tours in the South 
 of Ireland," written in a few hours of recreation by a 
 gentleman of whom the south of Ireland may justly feel 
 proud J. Windele, Esq. thus furnishes a justification 
 for the attachment of Jerry-au-Duna to his parchment : 
 " The MacCarthys may proudly defy any other family in 
 Europe to compete with them in antiquity, or accurate 
 preservation of the records of their descent." 
 
 The reader who is acquainted with the published letter 
 of Mr. T. O'Donovan will perhaps admit that the last days 
 of Jerry-au-Duna were spent not without dignity ; for 
 though he had lived for many years, and finally closed 
 his eyes, under a roof not his own, so generous was the 
 hospitality, so delicate the comportment of Mr. Timothy 
 O'Donovan to his friend, that the old man could have 
 scarcely discovered the truth of the forlorn condition that 
 was so gracefully disguised. This descendant of the chiefs 
 proverbially styled the Hospitable might accept without a 
 blush hospitality in his hour of misfortune from any gentle- 
 man in South Munster : by none could it be proffered with 
 more propriety than by an O'Donovan, for their families
 
 330 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 had sprung from a common ancestor, had been in alliance 
 for centuries, and had again and again renewed the con- 
 nexion of their blood by intermarriages. Assuredly by 
 none could have been penned a more touching and dig- 
 nified record of the friendship of these two gentlemen than 
 by the survivor, who has given us the brief memoir of the 
 last years of the life of Jerry-au-Duna. Had this old 
 man died childless, it might seem that retribution for the 
 crimes of Cormac Don and Teige Onorsy had fallen with 
 some leniency upon their descendant, but he left a son. 
 Charles MacCarthy Duna; and far more humiliating in a 
 certain sense, though less dependent, was the lot destined 
 for him ! In utmost poverty ! in toil and sweat, and menial 
 labour as a common house-painter for his daily bread ! this 
 descendant of so many chieftains has lived to our own 
 day, one of the most remarkable instances of the vicissi- 
 tudes that have occurred among our Irish families. He 
 is still living, in the eightieth year of his age. He has 
 had two sons 1, Teige-au-Duna, who followed his father's 
 trade in London till 1854, when he emigrated to America ; 
 2, Charles, also a house-painter, who died in a lunatic 
 asylum at Cork, a few years since, without issue. 
 
 It is highly probable that the descendants of the great 
 Florence MacCarthy, who was imprisoned in the Tower of 
 London for thirty- six years, are now reduced to a similar 
 condition, but they have not been as yet identified. His 
 lineal heir, Charles MacCarthy More, was an officer in the 
 Guards, and died without issue in 1770. The last de- 
 scendant of his second son was Handle MacCarthy, Esq., 
 who, in 1764, sold Castlelough, near Killarney, to Colonel
 
 MACCARTHY. 331 
 
 William Crosbie. According to a pedigree in the pos- 
 session of Colonel Herbert of Muckross, "this Randle 
 had several sons, who were bred to low trades, and were 
 uneducated paupers, some of whom are still [A.D. 1770] 
 living."
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 0f 
 
 Per varies casus per tot discrimina rerum. 
 
 VlBGIL. 
 
 Beau pare et beaux jardins qui, dans votre cloture, 
 Avez toujours des fleurs et des ombrages verts, 
 Non sans quelque demon qui defend aux liivers 
 D'en effacer jamais 1'agreable peinture. 
 
 MALHEEBE. 
 
 Puisse enfin le pinceau, creant sur quelques pages 
 Des sites enchantes, de vivantes images, 
 Reveiller d'autres temps. 
 
 LB FLAGTJAIS. 
 
 THE Vicissitudes of Bulstrode : Under this title, I pass 
 for a moment, for the sake of variety, from the contempla- 
 tion of the changes in families to viewing the strange 
 alternations that have occurred in a single and ancient 
 estate that of Bulstrode, in the county of Bucks. Be- 
 coming at intervals the property of sets of owners totally 
 dissimilar, and that by abrupt and singular transitions, 
 the lands of Bulstrode have had a notable and perennial, 
 and yet ever-varying existence, like some old lineage that 
 has gone on for centuries maintaining its position, despite
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 333 
 
 
 
 of the startling acts and eventful diversities in the lives of 
 those who formed the links of the descent. Bulstrode, 
 although its name dates from the Conquest, was a park in 
 the Saxon era, and now, in 1861, it is the same park still 
 aye, and one of the most beautiful in the kingdom. 
 Its very graces have no doubt been the cause of its long 
 preservation. Those fair eight hundred acres that consti- 
 tute Bulstrode, diversified as they are with bold hillocks 
 almost rising into hills, and a great number of deep 
 sweeping valleys crossing and intersecting the grounds in 
 several directions, and forming that pleasing inequality of 
 surface which constitutes the greatest beauty in the out- 
 line of Nature's scenery those eight hundred acres, I 
 say, have lasted verdant and unfading, just as with the 
 lineage I allude to, because they have always been good 
 to look upon, though marked by much deviation and 
 many oddities of deed or circumstance. Let us view 
 Bulstrode at different eras of its permanence, which has 
 now endured for some thousand years a permanence 
 of which the divers owners of the place formed the 
 vicissitudes. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Shobingtons, an ancient Buckinghamshire race, 
 held the lands of Bulstrode before the invasion of the 
 Normans. The lands were not called Bulstrode then, but 
 hear what a marvellous tale tradition has to tell of how 
 that name was acquired. "When William the Conqueror 
 had subdued this goodly realm, and was partitioning its 
 choicest acres among his armed followers, his eye lighted 
 on the neighbourhood of Gerard's Cross, and there saw
 
 334 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 
 
 this fine park, with its chief mansion-house and the other 
 surrounding possessions that had been the Shobingtons' 
 for ages. He appropriated and granted the whole to a 
 certain Norman lord who had come over with him. The 
 Shobington then in possession got timely notice of this 
 disposal of his inheritance, and he determined rather to 
 die upon the spot than tamely to suffer himself to be 
 turned out of what had descended to him from his ances- 
 tors. Thus resolved, he armed his servants and his 
 tenants, whose number was very considerable. Upon 
 which the Norman lord, who had advice of it, obtained of 
 the King a thousand of his regular troops to help him to 
 take the estate by force. Shobington thereupon applied 
 to his relations and neighbours to assist him, and the two 
 ancient families of the Hampdens, ancestors of the Hamp- 
 den who would not pay ship-money, and the Pens, ances- 
 tors of the founder of Pennsylvania, took arms, they and 
 their servants and tenants, and came to his relief. When 
 they all met together, they cast up works, remains of which 
 appear to this day in the place where the park now is, and 
 the Norman lord, with his forces, encamped before their 
 intrenchments. 
 
 Now, whether the Shobington party wanted horses or 
 not is uncertain ; but the story goes, that having collected 
 a parcel of bulls, they mounted them, and, sallying out of 
 their intrenchments in the night, surprised the Normans 
 in their camp, killed many of them, and put the rest to 
 flight. The King having intelligence of this act of daring 
 valour, and not thinking it safe for him, whilst his power 
 was yet new and unsettled, to drive a brave and obstinate
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 335 
 
 people to despair, sent a herald to them to know what 
 they would have, and promised Shobingtoii a safe conduct 
 if he would come to Court, which Shobington accordingly 
 did, riding thither upon a bull, accompanied with his 
 seven sons. Being introduced into the royal presence, 
 the King asked his demands, and why he alone ventured 
 to resist, when the rest of the kingdom had submitted to 
 his government, and owned him for their sovereign ? 
 Shobington answered that he and his ancestors had long 
 been inhabitants of this island, and had enjoyed that 
 estate for many years ; that if the King would permit him 
 to keep it, he would become his subject, and be faithful 
 to him as he had been to his predecessors. The King 
 gave him his royal word that he would, and immediately 
 granted him the free enjoyment of his estate, upon which 
 the family was from thence called Shobington Bull-Strode 
 or Bulstrbde ; but in process of time the first name was 
 discontinued, and that of Bulstrode only remained to them. 
 The truth of this story is said to be confirmed by long 
 tradition in the family, by several memoirs which they 
 have remaining, and by the ruins of the works that are to 
 this day seen in the park of Bulstrode. 
 
 II. 
 
 Some confusion occurs in the medieval history of Bul- 
 strode, for whatever may have been the possession of these 
 early Bulstrodes or Shobingtons, the manor of Bulstrode, 
 either in whole or part, belonged in the thirteenth century 
 to the Abbess and Convent of Burnham, of which convent 
 few perhaps have heard, but all Londoners know its local-
 
 336 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ity, where pic-nics pass so pleasantly now-a-days under 
 the Burnham beeches. The nuns of Burnham alienated 
 their share of Bulstrode to the Priory and Canons of 
 Bisham. The fell times of Henry VIII. swept these good 
 monks away, and we hear no more of Bulstrode in con- 
 nection with ecclesiastical foundations; and we find the 
 Bulstrode family in full possession again. In the seven- 
 teenth century they became allied with another Bucking- 
 hamshire house the Whitelocks of Fawley Court ; and 
 henceforward, up to the time of the Revolution, the names 
 of Wliitelock and Bulstrode are not a little prominent in 
 the troublous periods of Charles I., the Commonwealth, 
 and Charles II. The memory of these Whitelocks and 
 Bulstrodes clings lastingly to Bulstrode Park, their favour- 
 ite retreat from the cares of business, the turbulence o 
 party, and the changes of political fortune. 
 
 Let me here recall a few of these eminent sojourners at 
 Bulstrode. 
 
 First as to how the Bulstrodes and Whitelocks were 
 united. It was thus : Elizabeth Bulstrode, daughter of 
 Edward Bulstrode, Esq., of Bulstrode, was married to Sir 
 James Whitelock, a Judge of the Court of King's Bench. 
 Richard Whitelock, the father of this Sir James White- 
 lock, the Judge, stands in the pedigree as the youngest 
 brother of William Whitelock, the chronicler. Put to 
 London to be brought up in the trade of merchandise, 
 Richard Whitelock entered into his calling with spirit, 
 and was accustomed to visit foreign countries in the way 
 of his business. In 1570, during one of his journeys into 
 France, he was seized with pleurisy at Bordeaux, and died
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 337 
 
 there at the age of thirty-seven. As a Protestant, there 
 were difficulties respecting his interment ; but the English 
 merchants resident in that city, " to the number of 100 
 or more, armed themselves with loaded muskets, and did 
 thus escort the corpse into the vineyards, and did there 
 honourably inter it." But to return to his son the Judge, 
 Sir James Whitelock. " He was," says Bulstrode White- 
 lock, in filial reverence, in his Memorials, " as good a sub- 
 ject, as good a patriot, and as just a judge as ever lived." 
 Posterity has admitted the eulogy, and he is viewed in the 
 same light by Lord Campbell in his recent " Lives of the 
 Chancellors" a work, by the way, so agreeably written 
 and so thoroughly readable, that when once taken up even 
 for reference, one can hardly lay it down. Lord Campbell 
 quotes Charles I.'s admission respecting Sir James White- 
 lock, that he was " a stout, wise, and learned man, and 
 one who knew what belonged to uphold magistrates and 
 magistracy in their dignity." Sir James died in 1632, 
 and left behind him a son whose fame has put the memory 
 of his worthy father in the background. This son was 
 the celebrated Lord Keeper Whitelock, who, as Commis- 
 sioner, held the Great Seal of the Commonwealth under 
 Oliver Cromwell, and again as Lord Keeper under Richard 
 Cromwell, and after Richard retired. Whitelock, when 
 Cromwell's Ambassador to Sweden, was made a knight of 
 the Order of Amarantha by the Swedish Queen Christina, 
 whose eccentricities are darkened by the murder of her 
 equerry Monaldeschi. Henceforward Whitelock was 
 (somewhat illegally) called Sir Bulstrode Whitelock; but 
 I need not here pursue his biography, since it is one of 
 2 z
 
 338 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 common knowledge, for his career formed part of the his- 
 tory of his time. " He was," says Lord Campbell, " one 
 of the most interesting as well as amiable characters of the 
 age in which he lived." Whitelock married thrice ; and 
 no fewer than sixteen of his children survived him. His 
 entire issue, including those who died young, was even 
 more numerous, though nowise as extensive as Charles II. 
 would have it, when, on Whitelock's coming, at the Resto- 
 ration, to court, possibly in hope of again being guardian 
 of the Great Seal, the King bid him " go live quietly in 
 the country and take care of his wife and one-and-t\venty 
 children." Whitelock obeyed the hint ; and the dignified 
 retirement of his latter days well became the distinction of 
 his previous career. One of Lord Keeper Whitelock's 
 sons, Sir William Whitelock, was eminent at the bar, 
 and got his knighthood from Charles II. In the Lord 
 Keeper's time, there was a Bulstrode of his house who 
 figured on the opposite side of politics, and was, through 
 his existence of more than a century, one of the stanchest 
 cavaliers of his day. This was Sir Richard Bulstrode : 
 his career deserves a passing notice. 
 
 SIR RICHARD BULSTRODE was born in 1610. He was 
 a very learned lawyer, as appears by his book of Reports, 
 a work in great esteem to this day. He was of Pembroke 
 Hall, Cambridge, where he continued his studies for 
 several years. In 1633, being then about twenty-three 
 years of age, he wrote a poem on the birth of the Duke of 
 York, which is still extant in the collection of the poems 
 of that university. From Cambridge he went to the Inns 
 of Court, and was entered in the same house with his
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 339 
 
 father. He became a barrister at law, and practised as 
 such till the breaking out of the Civil Wars, when his 
 affection to the King's cause made him quit the gown for 
 the sword. He, as a soldier and cavalier, behaved himself 
 with so much prudence, bravery, and conduct, that King 
 Charles I. soon made him Adjutant-General of his army, 
 and afterwards Quarter-Master General, in which post he 
 continued to serve till the disbanding of the King's forces 
 at Truro. He was no small instance of how efficient the 
 barrister can be, when a military volunteer. On Charles IT. 
 being restored, Bulstrode, in reward of his long and faith 
 ful services to the crown, went to Brussels as envoy from 
 the King. There he wrote those letters, since so famous. 
 In 1675 he returned to England, and the King knighted 
 him. Sir Richard Bulstrode was as faithful to James II. 
 as to his royal predecessor. When James retired an exile 
 to France, Bulstrode, then nearly eighty years of age, 
 followed him, and the worthy knight ended his days at 
 the Court of St. Germans, when a hundred and one years 
 old and two months. 
 
 Sir Richard Bulstrode enjoyed a wonderful firmness of 
 mind and strength of body to the very last. After he was 
 fourscore years old and more, he would often walk twelve 
 miles in a morning, and study as many hours in a day. 
 And though it may seem a paradox, as he had exceeded a 
 hundred years, yet it cannot strictly be said that he died 
 of old age. The disease that carried him off was a stop- 
 page in his stomach, caused by an indigestion. Never- 
 theless, had proper remedies been applied, he might in all 
 probability have worn out several years longer ; but his
 
 340 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 physician, who understood his constitution, being out of 
 the way, those that were sent for to his relief durst not, 
 by reason of his age, give him an emetic, the want of 
 which, it is thought, hastened his end. 
 
 He was most accomplished, and of much ability. He 
 perfectly understood the interests of princes, and the arts 
 and intrigues of courts, and often transacted affairs of the 
 utmost importance, in all which he ever behaved himself 
 with indefatigable integrity. 
 
 Bulstrode left behind him several treatises of his own 
 composing, such as the lives of his three masters, King 
 Charles I., King Charles II., and King James II., and 
 essays on several subjects. When he was above eighty 
 years of age, he composed one hundred and eighty pieces 
 of Latin verse, as well elegies as epigrams, all of them on 
 divine subjects. The beautiful and well-known letter, 
 which Sir Richard Bulstrode wrote to his son on the sub- 
 ject'of retirement, must have been inspired by the sylvan 
 retreat of Bulstrode Park. A passage from this letter 
 offers a graceful conclusion to this account of him. " That 
 man," writes Sir Richard, " forgets his origin who puts 
 his soul out of possession of herself, by continually running 
 after business ; whereas he should abandon and bid adieu 
 to all manner of business that may any way impeach the 
 tranquillity of mind or body. He that thus retires draws 
 no man's envy upon him; he reigns by himself over his 
 family ; and all the pomp which greatness draws after it 
 is not comparable to that which you will enjoy in secret 
 by thus retiring ; which is indeed to shut up the prospect 
 of this world, that we may take the better view of the
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTKODE. 341 
 
 other, by a prudent precaution, to untwist our affections, 
 and slide off from the world before the world slips from 
 us ; whereas they that continue in the throng of business 
 their minds lose their rest ; and many times after a man 
 hath lost his rest, he loseth his labour also. He that 
 hath enough for himself and family ought not to entangle 
 himself again with more than he can well manage, and 
 make his whole life a burthen to him. And those wisely 
 retire who, being harassed with the fatigues of a public 
 life, foreseeing all weather, are willing to put into port, 
 when keeping out at sea might endanger the vessel." 
 
 With these Whitelocks and Bulstrodes of the seven- 
 teenth century their long connection with Bulstrode Park 
 ceased, but their memory and their name have ever since 
 continued to be attached in honour to the place. 
 
 HI. 
 
 Tradition gives one singular inhabitant to Bulstrode, in 
 no less a personage than "Praise-God Barebones," so dis- 
 tinguished for the fervour of his pious harangues that his 
 name was given to the Parliament of Saints, which as- 
 sembled in succession to the Long Parliament when crushed 
 by Cromwell. Nay more, tradition will have it 'that Mr. 
 Barebones built the mansion at Bulstrode ; but that was 
 not so, for the edifice owed its erection to a far less worthy 
 individual, Judge Jeffereys, of whom more directly. It is, 
 however, just possible that Mr. Barebones, a respectable 
 leather-seller, of the City of London, and a friend of 
 Bulstrode Whitelock's, may have rented the then house 
 at Bulstrode, as a temporary rural sojourn ; for be it
 
 342 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 observed that, though of singular tenets in politics and 
 religion, the members of the Barebones' Parliament were 
 men of credit and substance. " If," says Heath, speaking 
 of them in his exact relation, " all had not very bulky 
 estates, yet they had free estates, and were not of broken 
 fortunes, or such as owed great sums of money, and stood 
 in need of privileges and protection as formerly." 
 
 IV. 
 
 George, Lord Jeffereys, of Wem, the notorious Judge 
 Jeffereys, bought Bulstrode from Sir Roger Hill, a Buck- 
 inghamshire squire, and M.P. for Wendover, who seems 
 to have possessed the estate for a very short time. Jef- 
 fereys' sojourn there adds another, though not a pleasant 
 remembrance to the place. It has been questioned whe- 
 ther this personage was as bad as history generally makes 
 him out, but I fear very little beyond some slight pal- 
 liation can be urged in his favour. Cruel and over- 
 bearing he really was, though much of his injustice 
 may be attributed to the wretched administration of the 
 law, which in his days prevailed throughout the realm. 
 Jeffereys was an unscrupulous, but he was also (after 
 he once joined their cause) a faithful adherent of the 
 Stuarts, and this, too, though he was a Protestant, 
 and a man nowise servile, but of a rather independent 
 spirit. He was a daring, yet able, legal adventurer, in 
 the first instance, and afterwards a rough judge, sufficiently 
 just, as times went, in ordinary cases, but totally unfit 
 when political bias roused the fierceness of his nature. 
 Jeffereys was born about 1648, and was the sixth of the 
 seven sons of John Jeffereys, Esq., of Acton, in Denbigh-
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 343 
 
 shire, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Ireland, Kt, of Bewsey, co. Lancaster. So little is 
 known of his youth that it is a matter of doubt where 
 he was first educated. He, it is said, frequented, when 
 very young, some academy, and thence went to Shrews- 
 bury school ; from which he was removed to St. Paul's 
 school, London, where he made great proficiency. Finally, 
 Westminster had him for a pupil. When at Westminster 
 school, he is reported to have had a remarkable dream, 
 that he should become the chief scholar there, and after- 
 wards enrich himself, by study and industry, until he be- 
 came the second man in the kingdom, but in conclusion, 
 fall into great disgrace and misery. His school days 
 hardly over, Jeffereys entered as a student in the Inner 
 Temple, and how he then got on does credit, at any rate, 
 to his economy and perseverance; his allowance during 
 his legal studies was only .40 per annum from his 
 grandmother ; his father added iO a-year, and screened 
 his parsimony under the excuse of his having an expensive 
 family. JefFereys was assiduous in his application to law- 
 reading ; he had a bold presence, an audible voice, good 
 utterance, and fluency of language ; but in his disposition, 
 even early in life, he was proud, impatient, revengeful, 
 covetous, and brutish. He introduced himself into practice 
 rather irregularly. He was indeed supposed to have never 
 been called to the bar, from this reason happening to 
 attend as a law-student at the assizes, at Kingston, in 
 Surrey, in 1666, during the Plague, when there were few 
 counsel on the Circuit, he, in the absence of the regular 
 advocates, was under the momentary emergency, per-
 
 344 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 mitted (most probably for some misdemeanant) to address 
 the court. No doubt, too, before his call to the bar, he 
 assisted and received payment from those minor attorneys 
 and their clerks who were notoriously his associates and 
 pot companions when he began his career. His actual 
 call to the bar by the Law Society of the Inner Temple 
 appears to have* taken place the 22nd November, 1668, 
 when he was but twenty years of age. His early practice 
 lay at Guildhall and at the sessions at Clerkenwell ; and 
 while thus occupied, he acquired the patronage of his 
 namesake, Alderman Jeffreys. He was made Common- 
 Serjeant, and on the promotion of Sir William Dolbein 
 to the Bench, he was nominated his successor as Recorder 
 of London a speedy elevation that certainly marked some 
 public appreciation of his ability. He, while Recorder, 
 acted in a cause in which the privileges of the Stationers' 
 Company were infringed, and spoke with so much force 
 before the council, on an appeal, when King Charles II. 
 was present, that the latter noticing him, observed, "That 
 is a bold fellow." From that time the sunshine of 
 royalty began to shed its light upon Jeffereys, and he 
 came boldly forward as a violent partisan of despotic prin- 
 ciples, and of James, Duke of York ; opposed the calling 
 of a parliament, and was reckoned " an abhorrer," and 
 was burned in effigy, at Temple Bar, by the populace. 
 He had to resign his office of Recorder, which was given 
 to that Sir George Treby who, on the tablet to his memory 
 in the Temple Church, is stated to have been " Recordator 
 Magnte Urbis." 
 
 Court promotion now favoured Jeffereys. He was ap-
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 345 
 
 pointed Chief Justice of Chester, and obtained a Baronet's 
 patent 17th November, 1681, making him " Sir George 
 Jeffereys of Bulstrode, in the county of Buckingham.'' He 
 had been previously knighted. He had, in 1680, been 
 made a Serjeant-at-Law, and had been put first on the 
 roll as King's Serjeant. The rings which he presented, 
 as is customary, to the King and to others on that occa- 
 sion, had the motto, ' A Deo Rex: A Rege Lex :' The 
 King from God, the law from the King. In 1783 he be- 
 came Chief Justice of England; and when he first took 
 his seat, during a circuit, on the Bench, his elder brother, 
 Sir Thomas Jeffereys, (who was knighted at Windsor llth 
 July, 1680) was High Sheriff of his native county of Den- 
 bigh, and another of his brothers preached the assize 
 sermon. On the loth May, 1685, Jeffereys was raised to 
 the peerage as Baron Jeffereys of Wem, in the county of 
 Salop ; and on the 27th August of the same year he went, 
 as Chief Justice, to preside and earn eternal disgrace at 
 that merciless commission which sat in judgment on the 
 rebels of Monmouth's misguided insurrection. The Chief 
 Justice hanged three hundred and thirty prisoners, and 
 transported eight hundred to the colonies ; and on his 
 way back to London was, at Windsor, made Lord Chan- 
 cellor. His Lordship had now more time to reside at 
 Bulstrode. Rich and riotous living, they say, character- 
 ized his sojourn in the mansion he raised in that beautiful 
 locality. Yet some state must have been kept up; for, 
 according to Lord Clarendon's diary, King James and his 
 amiable consort, Queen Mary of Modena, dined with the 
 Chancellor there. Jeffereys' manners were certainly
 
 346 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 agreeable in private, and he was not without some ro- 
 mance in his composition. At one time, while in humble 
 circumstances, he courted and won, in secret, the affection 
 of the only daughter of an opulent citizen, one Thomas 
 Nesham, who, discovering a plot for his child's elopement, 
 secured her person, and declared positively against Jeffereys 
 obtaining her or her property. Mary Nesham sent an 
 account of these harsh proceedings to her lover. Jeffereys 
 at once acted more like a cavalier than a fortune-hunter. 
 He hastened to her rescue, and married her, though penni- 
 less; for so she was at first, but the relenting father 
 afterwards gave her 300 a-year. Jeffereys, however, 
 found his best treasure in the wife herself, who lived with 
 him in devoted attachment till her death. The lady, it 
 should be observed, to redeem even her influence from 
 blame, died some years before Jeffereys went as Chief Jus- 
 tice on his ruthless commission in the west. He married 
 secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Bludworth, and 
 widow of Sir Thomas Jones, of Fonmon, co. Glamorgan, 
 which lady survived him. 
 
 In a London mob tumult, consequent upon the Prince 
 of Orange's landing, Jeffereys, endeavouring to escape, 
 was maltreated by the populace. He was captured, and, 
 more for protection than aught else, was put in the Tower 
 by the Lords of the Privy Council, and was there arbi- 
 trarily detained. He died a prisoner in the Tower the 
 19th April, 1689, but he was never tried on any charge, 
 nor was he ever attainted, as is sometimes absurdly stated ; 
 consequently his son John succeeded him as second Lord 
 Jeffereys of Wem. This second Lord, who wasted his
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 347 
 
 patrimony iii dissipation and intemperance, married the 
 Earl of Pembroke's daughter, and their only child and 
 heiress, Henrietta Louisa, became the wife of Thomas, 
 first Earl of Pomfret, and through her the blood of the 
 Lord Chancellor Jeffereys passed, not only to the succeed- 
 ing Earls of Pomfret, but also to the Carterets Earls 
 Granville, to the eighth Earl of Winchelsea, to Dr. Stuart, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, to General Sir William Gomm, 
 G.C.B., and to numerous other nobles and gentlemen 
 whose families are extinct or still existing. John, second 
 Lord Jeffereys, dying without male issue the 9th May, 
 1702, his peerage and Baronetcy became extinct. Bui- 
 strode, it seems, fell to the lot of one of Lord Chancellor 
 Jeffereys' sons-in-law, Charles Dive, Esq., of Lincoln's 
 Inn, who married the Hon. Mary Jeffereys : he sold 
 it to the Earl of Portland. A branch of the Jeffereys 
 family that of Jeffereys of Wein springing from a com- 
 mon ancestor with the Lord Chancellor, still exists in 
 Shropshire. It should be also observed, that many mem- 
 bers of the Jeffereys family (among them, we believe, some 
 of the brothers of the Chancellor) were Quakers. One 
 Quaker alliance is remarkable : Lord Chancellor Jeffe- 
 reys' great-granddaughter, Lady Juliana Fermor, was mar- 
 ried to Thomas Penn, of Stoke Park, Bucks, now the seat 
 of Lord Taunton, which Thomas Penn was the third son 
 of the illustrious Quaker, William Penn, the founder of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 V. 
 
 Bulstrode's vicissitudes appear to have varied with the 
 times. The Roundhead Whitelocks made it notable in the
 
 348 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Commonwealth. Jeffereys filled it with a Jacobite spirit ; 
 and now that the Whigs and William III. were in the 
 ascendant, the Dutch favourite of the Dutch monarch 
 turned his eyes towards the fair acres of Bulstrode. 
 Mynheer Bentinck was no ordinary man, and the success 
 of the house of Orange owed much to him : he was con- 
 stantly by William's side in sickness and in health, in 
 peace and in war; and the King justly appreciated this 
 valuable adherent, who landed with him at Torbay in 
 1688. " The King's chief personal favour," says Burnet, 
 " lay between Bentinck and Sidney. The former was 
 made Earl of Portland and groom of the stole, and conti- 
 nued to be entirely trusted by the King, and served him 
 with great fidelity and obsequiousness ; but he could never 
 bring himself to be acceptable to the English nation/' 
 This was in some measure owing to Bentinck's being ever 
 too visibly active in bettering his own fortunes, and to his 
 being constantly so set on his own pleasures as really to 
 appear not able to follow public business with due applica- 
 tion. His anxiety for the goods of this world more than 
 once marred his popularity. For instance : after he, in Ire- 
 land,had behaved so gallantly at the battle of the Boyne, and 
 had had a principal share in obtaining the victory, and 
 was further serviceable in the reduction of Ireland, he spoilt 
 his credit by obtaining for himself a grant of the royal 
 furniture in Dublin Castle the tables and chairs of the 
 King that had been dethroned. Another remarkable act 
 of attempted appropriation was this : On Bentinck's re- 
 turn to England after brilliant doings in the war abroad, 
 he, in consideration of his great services, got a gift of the
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OJF BULSTRODE. 349 
 
 Lordships of Denbigh, Bromfield, and Yale, with other 
 lands in the principality of Wales, which being part of the 
 demesnes of the Prince of Wales, the House of Commons 
 addressed William III. to put a stop to the passing that 
 grant. The King answered thus "I have a kindness 
 for my Lord Portland, which he has deserved of me by 
 long and faithful services ; but I should not have given 
 him these lands if I had imagined the House of Commons 
 could have been concerned. I will therefore recall the 
 grant, and find some other way of shewing my favour to 
 him." And soon after his Majesty conferred on Bentinck 
 the royal house of Theobalds, with the demesnes there- 
 unto belonging, in Herts and Middlesex, and also granted 
 to him the office of ranger of the great and little parks at 
 Windsor. Bulstrode, it would seem, the Earl of Portland 
 bought with his own money. Yet, though avaricious, 
 Portland's integrity was unflinching. In 1695 there was 
 a report at the House of Commons that some members of 
 both Houses had been bribed in relation to passing an act 
 for establishing the East India ,Com pan y, and it appeared 
 that 50,000 were pressed on the Earl of Portland to use 
 his interest with the King that it might pass, which he 
 absolutely refused, saying he would for ever be their 
 enemy and opposer if they persisted in offering him the 
 money. 
 
 After attending the death of his royal master and 
 friend, William III., and after various political services, 
 the Earl of Portland, towards the close of 1708, betook 
 himself to a retired life at Bulstrode, which had become 
 his favourite residence. He passed his latter days there
 
 350 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 in a most exemplary way, and died at Bulstrode in 
 1709, in the sixty-first year of his age. He was buried 
 in the vault under the great east window of Henry VIII.'s 
 Chapel, in Westminster Abbey. His son, the second 
 Earl, was created Duke of Portland, and was also a soldier 
 and a statesman. He died at Jamaica, governor of that 
 island ; but his son William, the second Duke, made Bui- 
 strode his favourite abode ; and the second Duke's amiable 
 and talented Duchess, nee the Lady Margaret Cavendish 
 Harley, a warm patron of literature and the fine arts, 
 celebrated by Prior as " my noble, lovely, little Peggy," 
 used to here constantly entertain a host of the nota- 
 bilities of the day. Among them was her attached friend, 
 the celebrated Mrs. Delany, who came to her as her visitor 
 during the half of every autumn until the Duchess died a 
 widow in 1785. Mrs. Delany then lost her country home; 
 but the munificence of George III. supplied another to 
 this aged lady, who and whose deceased husband had been 
 the friends and intimates of Dean Swift, and who herself 
 was the attached ally of Miss Burney, afterwards Madame 
 D'Arblay. In her Memoirs, Madame D'Arblay gives 
 charming details of her own association with Mrs. Delany. 
 The following is her account of Mrs. Delany's conduct, 
 and the King's generosity, after the death of the Duchess 
 of Portland. It is so gracefully written, and is so interest- 
 ing a memorial of Bulstrode, that we do not hesitate to 
 lay it before the reader. Miss Burney is writing to her 
 father : 
 
 "I must tell you, dearest sir, a tale concerning Mrs.
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 351 
 
 Delany, which I am sure you will hear with true pleasure. 
 Among the many inferior losses which have been included 
 in her great and irreparable calamity (the death of the 
 Duchess), has been that of a country-house for the sum- 
 mer, which she had at Bulstrode, and which for the half 
 of every year was her constant home. The Duke of Port- 
 land (the Duchess's son) behaved with the utmost pro- 
 priety and feeling upon this occasion, and was most ear- 
 nest to accommodate her to the best of his power with 
 every comfort to which she had been accustomed ; but this 
 noblest of women declared she loved the memory of her 
 friend beyond all other things, and would not suffer it to 
 be tainted in the misjudging world by an action that 
 would be construed into a reflection upon her will, as if 
 deficient in consideration to her. 'And I will not,' said 
 she to me, ' suffer the children of my dearest friend to 
 suppose that their mother left undone anything she ought 
 to have done. She did not ; I knew her best, and I know 
 she did what she was sure I should most approve.' She 
 steadily, therefore, refused all offers, though made to her 
 with even painful earnestness, and though solicited till her 
 refusal became a distress to herself. 
 
 " This transaction was related, I believe, to their Ma- 
 jesties ; and Lady Weymouth, the Duchess's eldest daugh- 
 ter, was commissioned to wait upon Mrs. Delany with this 
 message : That the Queen was extremely anxious about 
 her health, and very apprehensive lest continuing in Lon- 
 don during the summer should be prejudicial to it. She 
 intreated her, therefore, to accept a house belonging to 
 the King at Windsor, which she should order to be littod
 
 352 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 up for her immediately ; and she desired Lady Weymouth 
 to give her time to consider this proposal, and by no means 
 to hurry her; as well as to assure her that, happy as it 
 would make her to have one she so sincerely esteemed for 
 a neighbour, she should remember her situation, and pro- 
 mise not to be troublesome to her. The King, at the same 
 time, desired to be allowed to stand to the additional 
 expenses incurred by the maintenance of two houses, 
 and that Mrs. Delany would accept from him 300 
 a-year." 
 
 Dick Turpin, the famous highwayman, actually robbed 
 the second Duke of Portland within his own park of Bui- 
 strode. This daring feat he thus for a bet accomplished : 
 The Duke was driving into the domain in his carriage, 
 accompanied by a few attendants on horseback. Turpm 
 hastily rode up, having apparently a roll of paper in his 
 hand, and, pointing to it, he motioned to the horsemen to 
 stand aside for a moment. Thinking he was a messenger 
 of state, they did so, when Turpin, putting his head into 
 the carriage, levelled the roll of paper at the Duke's head, 
 and his Grace perceived it contained a loaded pistol. 
 (c Your life or your watch on the instant ! " quietly said 
 Turpin. The Duke pulled the latter from his fob and 
 gave it him. Turpin drew back with sundry bows and 
 obeisances, as if receiving the Duke's answer to an impor- 
 tant despatch, and then galloped off, and was on the high 
 road out of reach before the Duke could give the alarm to 
 his followers. 
 
 The Duke's son and successor was William Henry,
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTRODE. 353 
 
 third Duke of Portland, K.G., an eminent statesman, 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and twice Prime Minister. 
 This Duke of Portland had much trouble with his pro- 
 perty. At one time his Grace was involved in a law- 
 suit with Sir James Lowther, Bart, (afterwards Earl of 
 Lonsdale), to whom a grant of extensive estates had been 
 made by Government, called Inglewood Forest, appur- 
 tenant to the manor of Penrith, in Cumberland, with the 
 township of Carlisle, previously held by the ancestors of 
 the Duke of Portland from King William III. This re- 
 markable cause, which involved in its effects the interests 
 of many families, was argued 20th November, 1771, be- 
 fore the Barons of the Exchequer, and was, after much 
 expense and vexation, decided in the Duke of Portland's 
 favour. 
 
 With this Duke's son, William Henry, the fourth Duke, 
 the Bentincks' possession of Bulstrode ended. Another 
 and a far more ancient ducal coronet came to ornament 
 its gates that of Seymour, Duke of Somerset. Edward 
 Adolphus, eleventh Duke of Somerset, bought the estate 
 from the fourth Duke of Portland in 1810, and it has 
 descended to Edward Adolphus, the twelfth and present 
 Duke of Somerset, its actual owner, whose marriage with 
 the granddaughter of the orator and dramatist, the Right 
 Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, brings also the name of 
 Sheridan in connection with Bulstrode. For many years 
 the present Duke of Somerset has not been a sojourner at 
 Bulstrode, but it is understood that he is now about to 
 reside there, and to rebuild the house and restore the 
 whole locality to that state of rural beauty which at differ- 
 2 AA
 
 354 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 ent times captivated Saxon and Norman, monk and lay- 
 man, cavalier and roundhead, judge and statesman ; and 
 which nature itself has marked out as a retirement for the 
 thoughts of poets and the fatigues of princes. 
 
 A word or two on the mansion which did, but does not 
 now, adorn Bulstrode. It was built by Judge Jeffereys in 
 1686, evidently in part from the materials of an older 
 mansion. It was of reddish brick blood-stained, as the 
 people declared it to be in JefFereys' time. The second 
 Duke of Portland made extensive alterations and improve- 
 ments ; but the third Duke pulled most of the mansion 
 down, intending a complete renovation, which he never 
 carried out. He left only the present dwelling, which is 
 elegantly constructed from the former conservatory. But 
 the park is the wonder. It is a delightful spot, containing 
 not a single level acre, and is profusely scattered over by 
 numerous plantations, disposed in the purest taste. To 
 the west of the mansion's site is a fine grove of old trees, 
 interspersed with walks leading to the flower- gardens and 
 shrubbery, and commanding many extensive and interest- 
 ing views, where the forest of Windsor and its noble castle, 
 with the Surrey hills melting into the horizon, constitute 
 some beautiful distant scenery. On a hill south-east of 
 the house, there stands a very large circular entrench- 
 ment, enclosing an area of twenty-one acres, with some 
 large old oaks growing on its banks. In fact, the park 
 displays all the charms that can be produced by diversi- 
 fied surface, commanding situation, and sylvan grandeur. 
 But I should not conclude the description without urging 
 the London wayfarer who may visit Bulstrode to wander
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OF BULSTKODE. 355 
 
 a little in the neighbourhood, and return home by Stoke 
 Pogis and Slough . At Chalfont St. Giles, near Bulstrode, 
 Milton wrote "Paradise Regained/' An old wounded 
 soldier of the Peninsular war inhabits the cottage of the 
 poet, and displays with equal pride the very place where 
 Milton sat, and the very bullet that was taken from the 
 martial exhibitor's own leg at the battle of Vittoria. The 
 inhabitants of Chalfont St. Giles are not satisfied with the 
 fame that Milton has brought them, but they also assert 
 that a descendant of Shakespeare's not long ago lived at 
 Chalfont, and alas ! for family vicissitude worked there 
 as a cobbler. Near also to Bulstrode, at Jordans, is a de- 
 solate and tombless cemetery a Quaker's burial ground, 
 where all is smooth grass but one largish mound and four 
 or five small ones. Under these lie William Penn and 
 his children William Penn (lately so ably defended 
 against Macaulay's unfounded charges, by Mr. Paget of 
 the Northern Circuit), Penn, that great and good member 
 of the Society of Friends, who, not in war, like Caesar or 
 Napoleon, but in the spirit of peace, laid the foundations 
 of a state that has flourished in honoured prosperity, and 
 has contributed not a little to the freedom and happiness 
 
 of mankind. 
 
 VI. 
 
 A few miles from Bulstrode, on the way to Slough, one 
 arrives at a long, scattered village, with the unpoetic name 
 of Stoke Pogeis, or Pogis, but with a brilliant halo of 
 poetry about it. Here, in the picturesque churchyard 
 (can it have been the country churchyard of his immortal 
 elegy ?) here, under the tombstone that he erected to his
 
 356 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 aunt and mother, lie the earthly remains of Thomas Gray. 
 Some fine monuments are also in this churchyard, glitter- 
 ing with armorial ensigns, among them frequently occur- 
 ring the red and silver barry of four of the Huntingfords, 
 and the black maunch of the Huntingdons ; but " the 
 boast of heraldry, the pomp of power," seem here quite 
 out of place. The poet, whose unfading nobility cannot 
 be brightened by blazonry, has a monopoly of the place. 
 Nor does he rest unhonoured even by marble trophy ; for, 
 though simply interred in the churchyard, there close by 
 stands a magnificent cenotaph to his memory, erected by 
 worthy John Penn, Governor of Portland Castle, county of 
 Dorset, and last hereditary governor of Pennsylvania, the 
 grandson of that William Penn of whom we have already 
 spoken in reverence, and the great-great-grandson, by the 
 way, maternally of Judge JefFereys. The vicissitudes of 
 Bulstrode will thus have alliance with Gray's monument. 
 At any rate, its construction in 1799 is another mark of 
 the intellectual benevolence of the Penn family. These 
 Penns were good genii wherever they went ; and in them, 
 that gentle spirit survived to which Hannah More alludes 
 in those lines to William Penn, beginning 
 
 " The purest wreaths which hanjj on glory's shrine, 
 For empires founded, peaceful Penn, are thine." 
 
 Oddly enough, Hannah More links Gray to a memory 
 of Bulstrode, in some other verse of hers ; when, speaking 
 of sensibility, she says 
 
 " 'Tis this that mates the pensive strains of Gray 
 Win to the open heart their easy way ; 
 Makes Portland's face its brightest rapture wear, 
 When her large bounty smooths the bed of care."
 
 THE VICISSITUDES OP BULSTRODE. 357 
 
 Mrs. Hannah More here refers to Margaret, Duchess of 
 Portland, the friend of Mrs. Delany, also of Bulstrode 
 fame, whom Mrs. More does not forget : 
 
 " Delaney, too, is oura, serenely bright, 
 Wisdom's strong ray, and virtue's milder light, 
 And she, who blessed the friend and graced the lays 
 Of poignant Swift, still gilds our social days." 
 
 Stoke, like Bulstrode, has some legal memories con- 
 nected with it. First, there is that of Queen Elizabeth's 
 Chancellor, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose dancing, which 
 charmed his royal mistress, did not hinder him from being 
 one of the wisest and honestest judges of his time. Hat- 
 ton's successor at the manor-house of Stoke was the famous 
 Sir Edward Coke, the pride and ornament of British juris- 
 prudence, whose colossal effigy by Rosa, on a pillar sixty- 
 eight feet high by "VVyatt, stands loftily and haughtily at 
 Stoke, as if prepared to remove, on instant view, any 
 ugly impression of the law which the recollection of Jef- 
 fereys of Bulstrode may have cast upon a visitor to these 
 localities. Stoke Manor House, through the taste and 
 liberality of its present owner, Lord Taunton, is admirably 
 preserved in all its pristine quaintness and decorative at- 
 traction, and is open to public inspection. It looks just 
 as it must have done in Hatton's time : one sees the same 
 old rooms, and as Gray's lines, that cannot be repeated 
 too often, say, the 
 
 " ceiling's fretted height 
 Each panel in achievement's clothing ; 
 Rich windows that exclude the light, 
 And passages that lead to nothing.
 
 358 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 " Full oft within the spacious walls, 
 
 When he had fifty winters o'er him, 
 My grave lord-keeper led the brawls 
 The seal and maces danced before him." 
 
 Stoke Park, where the Penns so long sojourned, and 
 where the present mansion was built by Wyatt in 1789, 
 is now the seat of Lord Taunton, a peer better known by 
 the names under which he, as a minister and statesman, 
 achieved his reputation, [viz., the Right Hon. Henry La- 
 bouchere. Stoke Park commands a view of stately Wind- 
 sor and of Cooper's Hill and the Forest tracts. But I 
 must go no further. I have already strayed too much 
 from Bulstrode and my subject ; but who will not stray, 
 when once in this fair county of Buckingham, so full of 
 surpassing scenery and glorious recollections, where every 
 corner has some poet to speak of, such as Milton, or Waller, 
 or Gray, or Cowper; where mansion after mansion has some 
 stirring history of its own some pedigree of doers and of 
 deeds of note ? What I here relate of the old Park of 
 the Shobingtons, the Whitelocks, and the Bentincks may 
 find a rival narrative (though with, perhaps, less striking 
 change of owners) in many a Buckinghamshire country 
 seat. "Ex uno disce omnes :" there is, I maintain, much 
 remarkably peculiar in those versatilities which have formed 
 the vicissitudes of Bulstrode.
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 359 
 
 lings flf Ptstj|. 
 
 Lear. A. king, a king;! 
 Fool. No, he's a yeoman.' 
 
 v SHAKESPEABE. 
 
 THE mutability of fortune is in no instance more signally 
 displayed than in the vicissitudes of the O'Melaghlins, 
 native Kings of Meath. Descended from Conall Crim- 
 thine, one of the sons of the renowned Irish monarch, 
 Niall the Great, they assumed from Colman More, the 
 grandson of Conall Crimthine, the soubriquet of the Clan- 
 Colman, or Southern Hy-Nialls, as contradistinguished 
 from the NorthernHy-Nialls, the O'Neills and O'Don- 
 nells, descendants of Owen and Conall Gulban, two other 
 sons of that monarch. As the " Clan-Colman," or 
 " Southern Hy-Nialls," they were known until the ninth 
 century, when they assumed the surname of O'Maolseach- 
 lain, or O'Melaghlin, from Maolseachlain, or Malachy, the 
 then monarch of Ireland. These Northern and Southern 
 Hy-Nialls exclusively occupied the throne of Ireland, from 
 the fourth to the eleventh century ; a period of time which 
 no reigning dynasty can boast of, the Sovereign of Rome 
 alone excepted. They had four royal palaces in Meath,
 
 360 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Tara, "of the Kings;" Tailten, "of the Royal Games;" 
 Tiaschtga, and Usneach, of which Ossian sung. But Tara 
 was the most magnificent, as well the palace of the reigning 
 monarch, as the place of assembly of the great Fez, or 
 native Irish Parliament. 
 
 The ancient kingdom of Meath was no inconsiderable 
 principality, for it comprised the present counties of Meath 
 and Westmeath, with parts of Dublin, Kildare, King's 
 County, the greater part of Longford, and small portions 
 of the ancient districts of Brefney and Orgiall on the bor- 
 ders of the present counties of Cavan and Louth. 
 
 The early annals of the O'Melaghlins are rich in 
 incident. One of the episodes has been dramatised 
 by Howard, of the Irish Exchequer, in a work of great 
 merit entitled "The Siege of ,Tamor," or Tara. During 
 the wars of the Danes, Turgesius, a very celebrated 
 Danish chief, had established his authority almost 
 throughout the entire kingdom, and towards the close of 
 the ninth century he became so powerful in Meath, as to 
 have O'Melaghlin, the king of that territory, at his mercy, 
 and to treat him in the light of a vassal. Conceiving a 
 dishonourable passion for the daughter of the King, 
 Turgesius offered insulting proposals to the father. The 
 outraged parent stifled his indignation, for it was hopeless 
 to resist, and had recourse to a device to save his daughter's 
 honour, and at the same time rid his country of the Danish 
 tyrant ; a device, " resembling," as Moore, the Irish bard 
 and historian, aptly observes, " in some of its particulars 
 a stratagem recorded by Plutarch in his life of Pelo-
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 361 
 
 pidas." Malachy answered that hewould send his daughter, 
 the Princess of Meath, to the fortress of the Dane, the next 
 night ; but that, as she was young and timid, she should 
 be accompanied by sixteen of her youthful maiden attend- 
 ants, and that perhaps Turgesius might select one of 
 them and spare the princess, the king's only child. At 
 the time appointed, the Dane had a grand banquet, com- 
 posed of sixteen of his principal officers, to whom, during 
 the carouse, he suggested that each should insult one of 
 the attendants of the Princess. 
 
 At length a messenger having informed Turgesius that 
 the Royal maiden and her female companions were out- 
 side the fortress, the guests, by his direction, retired, 
 lest their presence might alarm the ladies. Splendidly 
 attired in the costume of the day, the Princess and her 
 companions entered the banquet-hall, and Turgesius had 
 scarcely time to offer the first expression of his revolting 
 love, when the robes of her companions were cast aside, 
 and displayed sixteen youthful armed warriors, who seized, 
 gagged, and bound the Dane : and rushing into the ad- 
 joining apartment, dispatched his chiefs. The King of 
 Meath himself, with a chosen body of troops, was close at 
 hand, and rapidly possessed himself of the fortress, allow- 
 ing the Danish troops no quarter. The fame of this gal- 
 lant and remarkable exploit gave courage to the Irish, and 
 struck the invaders with dismay. On the following morn- 
 ing, Turgesius himself, loaded with chains, was cast into 
 Lough Annew, in Meath. 
 
 O'Melaghlin then assumed the monarchy, and attacked
 
 362 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the Danes in every direction ; but, successive swarms hav- 
 ing arrived by sea, the contest between them and the na- 
 tives was fierce and protracted, and extended long after 
 the death of the gallant Malachy. Another Malachy, the 
 descendant of O'Melaghlin, a brave and warlike prince, 
 who reigned at the close of the tenth century, had a long 
 and deadly struggle with the Danes ; and when exhausted 
 in his heroic efforts to free his country from those cruel 
 and merciless foreigners, he was deposed by Brian Boru, 
 King of Munster, ancestor of the O'Briens, who usurped 
 the throne, and broke up the ancient dynasty. At Brian's 
 death, however, at the battle of Clontarf, in the year 1014, 
 the aged Monarch, King Malachy, assumed the sceptre, 
 and followed up that memorable victory by pursuing the 
 Danes to the very gates of Dublin, and assailing them on 
 all points. After his death, in the year 1022, successive 
 princes of the rival houses of O'Brien and O'Connor of 
 Connaught contested for the sovereignty ; but ultimately 
 a gallant prince of the Hy-Nialls, Murtough M'Neill, 
 crushed their pretensions and restored the old royal race, 
 which terminated at his decease in 1168, one year pre- 
 ceding the coming of the English, and with him fell the 
 native Irish monarchy ; for Roderick O'Conor, King of 
 Connaught, who assumed the sovereignty after King Mur- 
 tough, and afterwards surrendered it to the English, was 
 but partially acknowledged by the states of the kingdom, 
 and though popularly called the last King of Ireland, 
 was not so in reality the gallant Murtough MacNeill, 
 the " Irish Hector," as he was called, having occupied that 
 position.
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 363 
 
 Another episode in the history of the O'Melaghlins, 
 Kings of Meath, which has formed many a fruitful theme 
 for bard and senachie, was the elopement, in the middle 
 of the twelfth century, of the Princess Devorgoil, wife of 
 O'Rorke, Prince of Brefny, and daughter of O'Melaghlin, 
 King of Meath, with Dermod MacMurrogh, King of 
 Leinster. To this false step of the frail, and, as she has 
 been called, lovely Princess of Brefny, has been attributed 
 the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland, upon the 
 invitation of her guilty and banished lover, King Diarmid ; 
 but, alas ! rigid historic evidence has stripped this story 
 of all its romance. Hanmer has shown that the fair and 
 lovely Devorgoil the "false young one" of Moore's 
 ^Melodies, in the famous song of " The Valley lay smiling 
 before me" was forty-four years of age, and exceedingly 
 plain, when she went off with MacMurrough j and the 
 event took place fourteen years before the arrival of the 
 Englisn ! 
 
 The success of the Anglo-Norman arms in Ireland was 
 more immediately felt by the native princes and chiefs 
 inhabiting the districts adjoining Dublin. In 1172 
 Henry the Second despoiled Murchard O'Melaghlin of 
 his kingdom of Meath, and granted it to Hugh De Lacy, 
 who was appointed Lord Palatinate of the territory. De 
 Lacy divided it among his various chiefs, who were com- 
 monly called " De Lacy's Barons ;" these were : Tyrrell, 
 Baron of Castleknock ; Nangle, Baron of Navan ; De 
 Misset, Baron of Lune ; Phepoe, Baron of Skrine ; Fitz- 
 Thomas, Baron of Kell ; Hussey, Baron of Galtrim ; 
 Fleming, Baron of Slane ; Dullard, or Dollard, of Dul-
 
 364 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 lenvarty; Nugent, Baron of Delvin and Earl of West- 
 meath ; Tuite, Baron of Moyashell ; Robert De Lacy's 
 descendants, Barons of Rathwire ; De Constantine, Baron 
 of Kilbixey; Petit, Baron of Mullingar; Fitz Henry of 
 Magherneran, Rathkenin, and Ardnorcher. To some of 
 these there succeeded the De Genevilles, Lords of Meath ; 
 Mortimer, Earl of March; the Plunkets, of Danish 
 descent, Earls of Fingall, Barons of Dunsany, and Earls 
 of Louth ; the Prestons, Viscounts Gormanston and 
 Tara ; the Barnewalls, Barons of Trimleston and Vis- 
 counts Kingsland ; the Nettervilles, Barons of Dowth ; 
 the Bellews, Barons of Duleek ; the Darcys of Flatten, 
 Barons of Navan ; the Cusacks, Barons of Culmullen ; 
 and the FitzEustaces, Barons of Portlester. Some of 
 these again were succeeded by the De Baths of Athcarn, 
 the Dowdalls of Athlumny, the Cruises, the Drakes of 
 Drake Rath, and numerous others. 
 
 Thus fell the O'Melaghlins as Kings of Meath, and 
 with them their lords or tributary chiefs, the MacGeoghe- 
 gans, O'Haras, O'Regans, O'Rorys (Anglice Rogers), 
 the MacUais (MacEvoys), O'Caseys, O'Hanrahans, and 
 numerous others, whose lands passed into the hands of 
 the invaders, and left their descendants to struggle for 
 centuries after under adverse circumstances. They are 
 now chiefly tillers of the soil of which their fathers had 
 been lords and chiefs. 
 
 The succeeding history of the O'Melaghlins would be 
 but a repetition of the sad story of the old Milesian races, 
 and need only be glanced at. Their fall, however, was not 
 sudden, but gradual ; they struggled bravely on, though
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 365 
 
 unsuccessfully, against the common enemy, who dexter- 
 ously set one chief of their house against another, aud 
 thus paved the way for the more easy subjugation of all. 
 In the reign of Henry the Eighth they had still retained 
 considerable power and preserved a large territory. In the 
 year 1544 we find Cedach O'Melaghlin inaugurated chief 
 of the Clan-Colman or South Hy-Niall race. But in 
 1548 Teige Roe O'Melaghlin brought Edmond Fahy, 
 alias White, into Delvin against his enemies ; but Fahy 
 turned on O'Melaghlin, and in King Henry's name, to 
 use the language of the Four Masters, " dispossessed and 
 expelled himself and all his race from Delvin, and drove 
 him from it, as the new swarm of bees drives away the old 
 swarm." Henceforward the O'Melaghlins, Kings of Meath, 
 chiefs of the grand old South Hy-Niall race, almost dis- 
 appear in Irish history, and present only occasionally a 
 flitting gleam on the surface, as in the war of 1641, and 
 then sink again into the darkness of obscurity. 
 
 To complete this brief summary of an illustrious race, 
 and to ascertain particulars of their decadence, I addressed 
 myself to a highly -gifted and all- accomplished friend, Dr. 
 Petrie, whose genius and learning have done so much for 
 the history, antiquities, and archaeology of Ireland ; and I 
 cannot do better than transcribe his interesting reply, which 
 tells, with sympathetic feeling, the story of the misery of 
 a descendant of this right royal line : 
 
 Dublin, 24th Feb., 1860. 
 
 "MY DEAR SIR BERNARD, Our excellent friend, 
 General Larcom, whose mind is eminently poetical and
 
 366 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 imaginative as well as solid, has, I fear, led you to expect, 
 in the particulars of my conversation with him, a more 
 striking and interesting instance of the vicissitudes of 
 fortune in families, than the facts will realize. Here, 
 however, they are for you, and given with a sincere 
 pleasure : 
 
 " Let me premise that about thirty years ago, the archi- 
 tectural and other ancient remains at Clonmacnoise, in the 
 very heart of Ireland., and up to that time but little known 
 or noticed, excited in my mind a very deep interest so 
 deep indeed, that I resolved to collect all the information 
 it might be in my power to discover with a view to the 
 compilation of a history of a locality so singularly interest- 
 ing. As you are aware, Clonmacnoise was the lona of 
 Ireland, or rather lona was the Clonmacnoise of Scotland, 
 namely, the place of sepulture of most of the royal families 
 of the country, as the O'Melaghlins, hereditary kings of 
 Meath, and, in alternate succession with the northern 
 O'Neills, kings of Ireland ; the O'Conors, kings of Con- 
 naught ; the Macarthys of Desmond or South Munster ; 
 the O'Kellys of Hymanie ; the MacDermots of Moylurg, 
 &c., &c., of whom all those I have enumerated, with 
 several others, had erected churches, or mortuary chapels 
 within the cemetery which bore the family names, and 
 within which none but the members of those families 
 respectively were formerly allowed to be interred. Now, 
 as it was a portion of my project to give an historical, as 
 well as a descriptive, account of those churches, it appeared 
 to me desirable to connect with each a genealogical his- 
 tory of the families of the founders, bringing such history
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 367 
 
 as far down to our own times as my researches would 
 allow : and in this way my attention, and indeed my feel- 
 ings also were pre-eminently drawn to the family of ' the 
 kings' i. e., the O'Melaghlins, whose church is still in 
 tolerable preservation, and within which none but those of 
 the name whose ancestors had been so interred from time 
 immemorial, are, to this day, allowed to be buried. I 
 had moreover an additional stimulus to labour ardently 
 on the compilation of their history, namely, a conviction 
 that I should be able to draw a pedigree so amply sustained 
 by authentic historical evidences as no family out of Ire- 
 land, however illustrious, and perhaps no other in Ireland, 
 could boast of. Nor was I altogether disappointed with 
 the result of my labour. From the historic annals and 
 various MS. sources, I was enabled to bring down the 
 pedigrees of the five principal branches into which the 
 family had separated, to the commencement of the last 
 century ; but I could bring them no further. These five 
 branches were Ballinderry, Fearnocht, Castletown, Castle- 
 reagh, and Mullingar. To carry down the pedigree in 
 these several branches as far as might be in my power, 
 and, more particularly, to ascertain, if possible, who might 
 be the present chief of the name, was a natural desire : and 
 so to gratify it I determined to make a visit to Moat, near 
 to which Ballinderry and Fearnocht are situated, and to 
 make it my head-quarters for a few days, while I was en- 
 gaged in seeking for information amongst the peasantry 
 located in its neighbourhood. The results were not, in 
 many ways, without interest, but the main object of my 
 inquiries was not obtained, and the present representative
 
 368 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of the ancient royal family of Ir eland is yet to be dis- 
 covered ! 
 
 " However, I ascertained satisfactorily that the line of 
 Art of Ballinderry, chief of the name at the commence- 
 ment of the last century, was extinct. According to the 
 concurrent tradition of the country, he died, without issue, 
 while resident with the family of Daly, or O'Daly, at Castle 
 Daly, near Moat, and with which family he was in some 
 way connected by an intermarriage. Indeed, according to 
 a tradition which I noted, the ancestor of the Dalys ob- 
 tained property in the county by marriage with an heiress 
 named Grace, or Graine og ni Melaghlin, ' of Moat or 
 some other castle.' This castle was most probably that 
 of Killcliegh, now Castle Daly, which had belonged to the 
 O'Melaghlins ; and as the husband was said to have been 
 ' a big trooper in Cromwell's army, but a gentleman/ he 
 was probably the James Daly of Killcleagh, who, accord- 
 ing to an inscription on a tombstone at Clonmacnoise, 
 ' dyed the 18th of January, A.D. 1679.' Art of Ballin- 
 clerry was said to have been a person of weak mind. 
 
 " Having settled this point, my inquiries were next di- 
 rected to the Fearnocht branch, of which Capt. Murrough, 
 or Morgan, was the chief at the close of the seventeenth 
 century. This Murrough appears to have been regarded 
 as the chief or leader of the Melaghlins during the rebel- 
 lion of 1641, as I should suppose in consequence of the 
 mental imbecility of his kinsman, Art ; for, in the catalogue 
 given byDeBurgo Hib. Dom. Supplementum, p. 879 
 of the nobles and gentlemen who, in 1646, associated with 
 the clergy in repudiating the peace of Ormond, we find
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 369 
 
 name of D. Morganus O'Melaghlin, cum tola sud Familid. 
 Of this Morgan and his posterity, as might be expected, 
 the traditions were very vivid, and, in general, accurate. 
 And, to my great regret, I soon learnt, from the concurrent 
 testimony of various informants, that of his offspring in 
 the male line there existed no representative. 
 
 " He left two sons and four daughters. The sons died 
 without leaving issue, and the property of the father was 
 gaveled amongst the four daughters. Of these daughters, 
 all of whom married the eldest, who was named Bridget, 
 became the wife of John Tyrrell Watt, Esq., and she, it 
 appears, sold her inheritance, in 1748, to Mr. Robert 
 Mulock, in whose posterity it still remains. 
 
 " By this marriage, John Tyrrell left a son, Wat, and 
 this Wat left a son, John, and two daughters, namely, 
 Bridget and Margaret. Of these daughters, Bridget be- 
 came the wife of Mr. Molloy, by whom she had one son, 
 who was living with his father and mother in Athlone at 
 the time when I received this information, which was given 
 to me by persons residing in the vicinity of Moate. But 
 as all my informants stated that I could obtain more pre- 
 cise information respecting the Melaghlin family from 
 Mrs. Molloy, and as I considered her son as, in a way, 
 the representative of the race, I resolved to wait upon the 
 old lady ; for a lady I found her to be, though in a very 
 humble position. 
 
 " And now, after this unreasonably long, and, as I fear 
 you will consider it, irrelevant preface, I come to the sim- 
 ple anecdote which you asked me for. On my arrival in 
 Athlone, I had no difficulty in finding Mrs. Molloy's rcsi- 
 
 2 B B
 
 370 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 dence. It was one of a range of small but decent slated 
 cottages, situated near the end of the town, on the lower 
 road, which enters it on its eastern or Dublin side. Its 
 shut hall- door was painted green, and had a brightly 
 shining brass knocker, and its two small windows were 
 equally remarkable for their cleanliness. As I had learned 
 that Mr. Molloy kept a school in this cottage, I delayed 
 my visit till after school hours. I then knocked, and 
 the doorway was opened for me by a man tall of stature, 
 finely made, and having a countenance strikingly noble 
 and commanding. He was unmistakably a gentleman. 
 
 " On my making known to him my desire to see Mrs. 
 Molloy, he informed me that he would send for his mother, 
 who, as he said, was amusing herself in her little garden ; 
 and at his request I entered an apartment which I at once 
 saw was the school -room, the whole of it being occupied 
 by writing-desks and forms, except a small space in the 
 centre which was open to the fire-place. After requesting 
 me, with a cold courtesy, to take a seat which he placed 
 for me near one of the desks, he sate down himself before 
 the fire, and without further words, gave his whole atten- 
 tion to the care of a pot of potatoes which was briskly 
 boiling. 
 
 " In a minute or two, his mother entered the room, and 
 after I had apologised for my intrusion, and made known 
 the motive and object which had impelled me to take such 
 a liberty, with a pleased look, and much grace of manner, 
 she expressed her readiness to give me all the information 
 she possessed. How copious and accurate this information 
 was will be learnt with surprise, when I state that she not
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 371 
 
 only gave me the pedigree of the family from herself up 
 to Captain Murrough, the chief, during the war of 1641, 
 but, with perfect historic accuracy, carried it up for five 
 generations higher, and could have ascended two more if 
 I had allowed her a few moments to recollect ; for, as she 
 said, her memory was beginning to find a difficulty some- 
 times in calling up names, as she was seventy-six years 
 old. But it was not necessary that I should give the old 
 lady any further trouble in this direction, in which she 
 had already given me so much more information than I 
 required. 
 
 " During our conversation, her son remained seated at 
 the fire-place, silent as before, and, as an inattentive ob- 
 server might have supposed, taking no interest in the sub- 
 ject of our colloquy. But it was not so. The occasional 
 excited expression of his melancholy eye, and the swaying 
 of his head to one side or the other, indicated more than 
 could words the deep emotions by which his heart was 
 agitated. On taking my leave, Mrs. Molloy accompanied 
 me to the hall-door, and on opening it for me we were met 
 -by her husband, who, no doubt, was coming to his dinner. 
 However, on being introduced to me by his wife, who ex- 
 plained to him the object of my visit, he declined entering, 
 and giving me his company in a walk in the direction of 
 my hotel, he entered speedily into his own history* He 
 was a gentleman by birth and education, and the inheritor 
 of a fair estate. But, after the fashion of Irish gentle- 
 men in his young days, he so far incumbered it in the 
 course of some years, as to be constrained to dispose of it. 
 However, after the discharge of all his debts, about 3000
 
 372 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 remained to him, and with this capital he entered into 
 business as a shopkeeper in Athlone. But he was not 
 successful. 
 
 " He had, however, given his son a collegiate education, 
 and the profession of a gentleman, that of a physician, 
 which he had himself chosen. But the son was not 
 remarkable for steadiness ; for the increasing poverty of 
 his father unsettled his mind, and abandoning his profes- 
 sion, he enlisted as a common soldier in the 4th or Royal 
 Irish Dragoons. 
 
 " In this position he conducted himself with the strictest 
 propriety, and was in a short time promoted to the rank 
 of sergeant. But he was not allowed to follow a soldier's 
 career. Though silent as to his own history, he could 
 not prevent the officers from discovering that he was an 
 educated and accomplished gentleman ; and when they got 
 his secret from him after some years, they resolved that 
 he should be no longer a soldier, but return to the pro- 
 fession he had abandoned. Accordingly, on being sent 
 for by the colonel one day, he was told that he was a free 
 man j that the officers had bought him out, and had filled 
 a purse, which was then presented to him as a token of 
 their regard, and with a desire to start him anew as a 
 doctor in the vicinity of his birth-place. 
 
 " I^e returned to Athlone and to his profession, and 
 devoted himself to it with so much zeal and humanity 
 being always at the service of the poor without payment 
 that he became an object of general esteem and love. No 
 inclemency of weather could prevent his going miles into 
 . the country, night as well as day, whenever called for ; and,
 
 THE O'MELAGHLINS. 373 
 
 said the father, ' the illness from which my noble son is 
 now suffering was caused by a wetting which he got in 
 this way, visiting a poor family at night/ 
 
 " Our conversation thus ended : ' He appears to me, 
 sir,' I said, ' to be seriously ill ;' and the answer was, 
 ' Sir, he is dying. He can't live a month ; and he knows 
 it, and I know it.' This was the last I could trace of the 
 Royal Melaghlins. 
 
 " Faithfully yours, 
 
 " GEORGE PETRIE."
 
 374 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 t f afos 0f 
 
 Sous 1'auguste et sage Eegence 
 
 D'un Prince aimant la bonne foi, 
 
 Law, consomme dans 1'art de regir la finance, 
 
 Trouve 1'art d'enricher les sujets et le Roi. 
 
 Verses at the time to Laic. 
 
 They are not in the roll of common men. 
 
 SHAKESPEABE. 
 
 AMONG the families of this empire who have been cele- 
 brated in foreign countries, there are none more remark- 
 able than the family of Law of Lauriston, in Scotland. 
 Other houses may have had isolated members distinguished 
 in civil or military service abroad, but the Laws can boast 
 of producing, at two different periods, two men, the one a 
 minister of finance, and the other a statesman and a 
 soldier, both of whom have had prominent connection with 
 the history of France. Among the dramatis personce of 
 the Duke of Orleans' Regency, undoubtedly the chief 
 actor was John Law of Lauriston ; and at a subsequent 
 time, especially at the Peace of Amiens, foremost rank 
 must be given to the gallant and sagacious James Alex- 
 ander Bernard Law, a Marquis and a Marshal of France. 
 The coronet of the latter has survived him, and is borne 
 by his grandson, Alexander Louis Joseph Lanr, the third
 
 THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 375 
 
 and present Marquis, a nobleman of high credit and posi- 
 tion in Paris. This fact gives the Law family the further 
 and peculiar honour of being one of the very few of 
 French noblesse of pure Scottish descent still resident and 
 flourishing in France. . 
 
 The vicissitudes of these Laws, as may be supposed from 
 the figure they have cut in the world, have been indeed of 
 a most singular and varied description, and are well de- 
 serving of the following chapter in this volume. Let me 
 begin with decidedly the greatest man of the race, John 
 Law the financier ; but before entering on his career, so 
 much lauded by some, and so outrageously and unjustly 
 blamed by others, it behoves me to show that, so far from 
 being, as is asserted, a man of obscure and humble origin, 
 he was really allied by birth to some of the noblest families 
 in Scotland. I am, therefore, the more explicit in refer- 
 ring to Law's pedigree, thus : 
 
 The family of Law, of which the Laws of Lauriston are 
 so distinguished a branch, is of very ancient standing in 
 Scotland, and has made itself illustrious as well by its own 
 deeds as by its numerous alliances with the very first of 
 the Scottish nobility. Out of Scotland, the rank and fame 
 it has achieved are remarkable. In France, the celebrity 
 of the Laws of Lauriston is historic ; and another line of 
 the Laws, which settled in England, can boast of the 
 mitres and coronets which the house of Ellenborough, so 
 eminent in divinity and jurisprudence, has obtained. The 
 Laws were, centuries ago, Free Barons in Scotland ; and 
 their descent, from and before the reign of King Robert 
 III. down to the present period, admits of the clearest
 
 376 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 proof. Nisbett, in his Heraldry, gives their arms, as 
 borne by Law of Lawbridge, Free Baron in Galloway, arg. 
 a bend and in chief a cock gu. : crest, a cock crowing. 
 These arras, with some slight alterations, are the ensigns of 
 the present Earl of Ellenborbugh and the present Marquis 
 of Lauriston. The immediate ancestor of the Laws of 
 Lauriston was Dr. James Law, of Lithrie and Burntown, 
 Archbishop of Glasgow, who married Marian, daughter of 
 John Boyle, of Kelburn (ancestor of the present Earl of Glas- 
 gow), and left a son, James Law, who assumed the title of 
 Free Baron of Burntoun, in Fifeshire, from the estate pur- 
 chased for him by his father, and who, upon taking such 
 title, added another cock gu. to his arms, and adopted the 
 motto " Nee obscura nee ima," now borne by the Marquis 
 of Lauriston. This James Law's eldest surviving son and 
 heir, James Law of Burutoun, married Margaret, daughter 
 of Sir John Preston, of Preston Hall, and had issue James 
 Law, of Burntoun, his successor, and a younger son, 
 WILLIAM LAW, who was an eminent banker and goldsmith, 
 of the city of Edinburgh, and who, with the fortune he 
 made, purchased the lands of Lauriston and Randleston, 
 with the castle of Lauriston, in the co. of Midlothian, 
 and entailed the whole estate (giving a life enjoyment to 
 his wife) upon his family. He married Jean Campbell, a 
 scion of the noble and illustrious house of Argyle, and 
 cousin of the great John Campbell, Duke of Argyle and 
 Greenwich, and of his brother, Archibald Campbell, Earl 
 of Islay, who succeeded him as Duke of Argyle. By this 
 lady, William Law of Lauriston left six sons and four 
 daughters. The eldest of these sons was the famous
 
 THE LAWS OF LAUR1STON. 377 
 
 JOHN LAW, Marquis of Essiat, of Charleval and Touey, 
 Count of Tancarville and Valen9ai, and Comptroller-General 
 of the Exchequer in France, who was born in Cramond, 
 Midlothian, the 21st April, 1671. At fourteen years of 
 age he lost his father, but it was from his mother that he 
 was to take the estate of Lauriston ; and to her was he 
 indebted for another and a far greater boon an admirable 
 education. It was the direction that she, perceiving the 
 bent of his mind, gave to her son's studies, that caused 
 him to become so perfect a proficient in arithmetical and 
 commercial knowledge. She was also well aware of his 
 love of pleasure and expense ; and she thought, and not 
 without reason, that the acquisition of the solid sciences 
 for which he showed such capacity, would eventually make 
 up for the dissipation that was likely to lead him astray. 
 The worthy lady died when Law was in his one-and- 
 twentieth year, leaving him the sole possession of Lauris- 
 ton and Randleston. 
 
 Law, with this inheritance, burst at once into boundless 
 extravagance, and soon wasted all the immediate proceeds 
 of his property. He then looked about him. He could 
 not resign being the gentleman of fashion and gaiety in 
 Edinburgh, and he turned his attention to continuing the 
 style he lived in, by means of his talents as a man of 
 commerce. 
 
 His learning and ability, wonderful for one so young, 
 soon availed him in the mercantile and banking world. 
 He was not long thus engaged, before he brought himself 
 into the notice of the King's ministers for Scotland, and 
 he was consulted by them on the best mode of arranging
 
 378 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the public accounts, and remedying the want of a cir- 
 culating medium in Scotland. As a way of effecting this, 
 he proposed the establishment of a bank of issue, which, 
 according to his daring plan, might send forth paper money 
 to the amount of the value of all the lands in the king- 
 dom. This idea was no doubt the basis of those projects 
 which subsequently gave such celebrity to his name. It 
 is pretty sure that Law derived pecuniary advantages from 
 his communications with the Scottish ministers. Law at 
 this'time, according to a contemporary account, is described 
 as " a person of imposing mien and very handsome face, 
 highly educated, displaying much intellect and eloquence 
 in conversation, and having rare address in all corporal 
 exercises in fine, a perfect gentleman." 
 
 About 1694, the love of adventure and the desire of dis- 
 play brought Law to London. Here, howsoever he had 
 acquired his fresh wealth, he lived in the most brilliant way, 
 vying with the leading young men of fashion, and proved 
 so remarkable a gallant himself, that he was designated by 
 the then favourite distinction of Beau, and was called Beau 
 Law. An untoward event, x though perhaps fortunate for 
 his future career, was now to change his course, and to 
 rouse him from a Condition far too trifling for one of his 
 powers of calculation and action. This incident was a 
 duel; but to relate it rightly, I must introduce his 
 opponent, another exquisite of the day, one Beau Wilson, 
 upon the scene. 
 
 This beau's grandfather was Rowland Wilson, a citizen 
 of London, and the founder of Merton Hospital, county of 
 Surrey. He was descended from a family that has long
 
 THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 379 
 
 been of consideration in the counties of Norfolk and Lei- 
 cester, and whose now representative is the Right Hon. 
 Henry William Wilson, Lord Berners. The Wilsons have 
 formed alliances with many ancient families, as the Walpoles 
 and the Knyvets. At this day also, the family is further 
 distinguished by the gallant deeds of Lord Berners' cousin, 
 the hero of Delhi, the present Major-General, Sir Archdale 
 Wilson, Bart, and K.C.B. The Beau himself, Edward 
 Wilson, was grandson of the above Rowland, and fifth son 
 of Thomas Wilson, Esq., of Keythorpe, High Sheriff of 
 Leicestershire in 1684-5. " Beau Wilson," says the Lon- 
 don Journal of the 3d December, 1721, " was the wonder 
 of the time he lived in. From humble circumstances [or, 
 rather, from the moderate fortune of a private gentleman's 
 younger son] he was on a sudden exalted to a very high 
 pitch. For gay dress, splendid equipage, and vast expense 
 he exceeded all the Court. How he was supported few 
 truly knew : and those who have undertaken to account 
 for it, have only done it from the darkness of conjecture." 
 
 Edward Wilson was the Brummell of his time. Pos- 
 sessed of a remarkably handsome person, a polished ad- 
 dress, and with large pecuniary supplies at his command, 
 he was well received, or, rather, anxiously courted by the 
 best famines in the kingdom. Like his antitype, Law, 
 he acquired the soubriquet of " BEAU," and was the arbiter 
 elegantiarum of every circle in which he moved. 
 
 With the gentler sex he was a universal favourite ; and 
 in times when outward adornment and frivolous accom- 
 plishments were better passports to society than sterling
 
 380 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 talents or worth, it is not to be wondered at that Beau 
 Wilson was regarded by both sexes as a paragon. 
 
 Contemporary with Wilson, and his rival both in beauty 
 of person, fashionable dress, and expensive outlay, was 
 JOHN LAW. A Mrs. Lawrence was one of the reigning 
 beauties of that day, and Mr. Wilson and Mr. Law were 
 both in the train of her admirers ; but whether it was in 
 consequence of their rivalry for her, or for Elizabeth Vil- 
 liers, the sister of the first Earl of Jersey, afterwards 
 Countess of Orkney,* that the duel with such melancholy 
 results took place, has never been clearly ascertained. At 
 no period was the disreputable custom of talking of con- 
 quests over the fair sex so prevalent as then ; and it has 
 been asserted that Law's boast of Miss Villiers' preference 
 of him led to Wilson's challenge. The History of Cra- 
 mond thus relates the particulars : 
 
 " In London, Mr. Law's superior beauty of person, ready 
 wit, and engaging manners, assisted by proper commen- 
 dations, and aided by that propensity to play for which 
 he was always noted (gambling in those days was rather 
 looked on as the necessary qualification of a gentleman 
 than as aught disreputable), procured him admission into 
 some of the first circles, and particularly attracted the 
 attention of the ladies, among whom he had the reputation 
 of being extremely fortunate. This success was, however, 
 attended with very disagreeable consequences, involving 
 
 * Elizabeth Villiers, one of the six daughters of Sir Edward 
 Villiers, had a very large share of that surprising beauty which 
 has been said to be the hereditary possession of the Villiers 
 family. There is a good deal of romance in her marriage with 
 Lord Orkney.
 
 THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 381 
 
 him in an unhappy quarrel with Mr. Wilson, a gentleman 
 renowned for a similar pre-eminence in personal endow- 
 ments, which produced a hostile meeting between the par- 
 ties. In this encounter Mr. Law came off conqueror, 
 leaving his antagonist dead on the spot where they 
 fought." 
 
 The particulars of the duel will be gleaned from the 
 Royal Commissioner's Report of the trial, which took place 
 in 1694, at the Old Bailey. 
 
 John Law, of St. Giles' in the Fields, gentleman, was 
 arraigned upon an indictment of murder for killing Edward 
 Wilson, gentleman, commonly called Beau Wilson, a per- 
 son who, by the common report of fame, kept a coach and 
 six horses, and maintained his family in great splendour 
 and grandeur ; being full of money ; no one complaining of 
 his being their debtor ; yet from whence or by what hand 
 he had the effects which caused him to appear in so great 
 equipage is hard to be determined. The matter of fact 
 was this. There was some difference happened to arise 
 between Mr. Law and the deceased concerning one Mrs. 
 Lawrence, who was acquainted with Mr. Law, upon which, 
 on the 9th of April instant, they met in Bloomsbury 
 Square, and there fought a duel, in which Mr. Wilson was 
 killed. It was made appear also that they had met several 
 times before, but had not had opportunity to fight ; be- 
 sides that, there were several letters sent by Mr. Law, or 
 given to Mr. Wilson by him, which letters were full of 
 invectives and cautions to Mr. Wilson to beware, for there 
 was a design of evil against him ; and there were two let- 
 ters sent by Mr. Wilson, one to Mr. Law, and the othe
 
 382 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 to Mrs. Lawrence. Mr. Wilson's man, one Mr. Smith, 
 said that Mr. Law came to his master's house a little 
 before the fact was done, and drank a pint of sack in the 
 parlour ; after which he heard his master say he was much 
 surprised with something that Mr. Law had told him. 
 One Captain Wightman, a person of good conformation, 
 gave account of the whole matter, and said that he was a 
 familiar friend of Mr. Wilson, and was with him and Mr. 
 Law at the Fountain Tavern, in the Strand ; and after 
 they had stayed a little while there, Mr. Law went away. 
 After which Mr. Wilson and Captain Wightman took 
 coach and were driven towards Bloomsbury; whereupon 
 Mr. Wilson stepped out of the coach into the square, 
 where Mr. Law met him ; and before they came near to- 
 gether, Mr. Wilson drew his sword ; and they both passed 
 together, making but one pass, by which Mr. Wilson re- 
 ceived a mortal wound in the lower part of his stomach, 
 of the depth of two inches, of which he instantly died. 
 
 This was the sum of the evidence for the King. The 
 letters were read in Court, which were full of aggravations 
 on both sides, without any names subscribed to them. 
 There were also witnesses that saw the duel fought, who 
 all agreed in their depositions that they drew their swords 
 and passed at each other, and presently Mr. Wilson was 
 killed. 
 
 Mr. Law, in his defence, declared that Mr. Wilson and 
 he had been together several times before the duel was 
 fought ; and never any quarrel was betwixt them till they 
 met at the Fountain Tavern, which was occasioned about 
 the letters, and that his meeting Mr. Wilson in Blooms-
 
 THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 383 
 
 bury was merely an accidental thing ; Mr. Wilson drawing 
 his sword upon him first, upon which he was forced to 
 stand upon his own defence. That the misfortune did 
 arise from a sudden heat of passion, and not from any 
 prepense malice. The Court acquainted the jury that, if 
 they found that Mr. Law and Mr. Wilson did make an 
 agreement to fight, though Mr. Wilson drew first, and that 
 Mr. Law killed him, he was (by the construction of the 
 law) guilty of murder ; for, if two men suddenly quarrel, 
 aud one kill the other, this would be but manslaughter ; 
 but this case seemed to be otherwise : for this was a con- 
 tinual quarrel, carried on betwixt them some time before ; 
 therefore must be accounted a malicious quarrel, and a 
 design of murder in the person who killed the other : like- 
 wise that it was so in all cases. 
 
 The trial was a very long one. The prisoner produced 
 many persoi s of high station and good repute to speak in 
 his favour ; and their testimony went to prove that his 
 life was generally correct, that he was not given to quar- 
 relling, nor was he a person of ill- behaviour. The jury, 
 after long deliberation, found the prisoner Guilty of Mur- 
 der, and he received sentence accordingly. A pardon was, 
 however, obtained [from the Crown ; and Law was on the 
 point of regaining his liberty, when the relatives of Mr. 
 Wilson lodged an appeal of murder, and he was detained 
 in the King's Bench. An appeal of murder was a very 
 serious thing, and requires some explanation. It was this : 
 if a man on an indictment by the Crown for murder was 
 acquitted, or found guilty and pardoned by the King, he 
 was still liable to an appeal from the wife or heir male of
 
 384 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the deceased. This appeal was in the nature of a private 
 action between the parties, by which the death of the 
 deceased was to be compensated for by the death of the 
 accused; and, if the cause went against the defendant, die 
 he must, if the plaintiff insisted on it ; since the Crown, 
 as in all other private actions, could not remit the judg- 
 ment. It was, in fact, a suit of life for life; and the 
 Shylock who gained it had not a mere pound of flesh, 
 but the fuller satisfaction of hanging on a gallows the 
 subject of his prosecution. This barbarous proceeding of 
 appeal for murder happened to be revived upon an acquittal 
 for murder even so lately as 1817, when the defendant 
 repelled the appeal by challenging the plaintiff to trial by 
 combat, which mortal mode of decision it appeared he could 
 adopt in place of trial by jury. The plaintiff declined the 
 fight; but this rendered the appeal so utterly ridiculous 
 that the whole process was abolished by act of parliament. 
 
 Law continued in durance for eight months awaiting 
 the trial, when he found means to corrupt the keeper of 
 the prison and to effect his escape. 
 
 The following is from an advertisement from the London 
 Gazette of January, 37, 1694-5 : " Captain J. Lawe, 
 aged 26, a Scotchman, lately a prisoner in the King's 
 Bench for murther, hath made his escape from the said 
 prison. Whoever secures him, so as to be delivered to 
 the said prison, shall have 5Q paid immediately by the 
 marshal of the said King's Bench." This advertisement 
 proved ineffectual. Mr. Law got out of the country, and 
 took up his abode in Paris, there and throughout France 
 to cause more singular sensation than ever did foreigner 
 before or since.
 
 THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 385 
 
 John Law's marvellous proceedings in Paris are too 
 much matter of history to need detail here. Law's con- 
 nection with the Regent, Duke of Orleans was the great- 
 est event of that able but dissipated Prince's administra- 
 tion ; and among the great commercial transactions of the 
 world, Law and his system will be remembered for ever. 
 Many and many are the accounts given, besides those in 
 the various histories of France, of Law's system and the 
 Mississippi scheme that grew upon it ; and in referring to 
 those accounts, I would mention that of Dr. Mackay, in 
 his " Popular Delusions/' as about the best of all. Yet I 
 cannot pass this mighty period of John Law's life without 
 insisting that his plans were of a far wiser nature than the 
 almost cotemporaryDarien scheme (though that chiefly owes 
 its failure to the faithlessness of William III.) : nor should 
 they be confounded with the South Sea Company, the 
 Tulipomania, the sham railway projects, and the other 
 bubbles by which visionaries and rogues have brought 
 the avaricious and the imprudent to ruin. Law was un- 
 doubtedly an able calculator and financier. He found the 
 exchequer of France on the verge of bankruptcy, and the 
 government about to sink under the pressure. His paper 
 issue and his establishment of the Royal Bank saved the 
 state and restored confidence and reanimated commerce. 
 No doubt "the Company of the West," known better as 
 the Mississippi scheme, and the numerous other companies 
 that followed, brought much ruin in their track ; but this 
 was really more owing to the madness of the French people 
 themselves than to Law, who rather yielded to the torrent 
 than courted the storm. This, however, as I say, is matter 
 3 c c
 
 386 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 of public history, and has been and is the subject of 
 never-ending discussion. I return to Law's personal 
 career. He shared, of course, immensely in the ques- 
 tionable wealth that accrued to France : he bought the 
 Hotel de Soissons and sixteen large estates, and he 
 outvied royalty in his -houses and in his gardens; for, 
 like most Scotchmen, Law was an admirable horticul- 
 turist. He thus, and it is a strong proof of his own 
 honesty and good faith, invested all his treasures in landed 
 property in France ; he put not a shilling in the funds of 
 other countries : and, when he might have purchased regal 
 domains in Scotland, he did no more than preserve his few 
 paternal acres of Lauriston there. Law was in France 
 Comptroller- General and a minister with power unlimited. 
 He obtained letters of naturalisation, and was raised to 
 nobility by various titles. He was for a time the idol 
 of the French, and he could have done just as he liked. 
 Yet, in the midst of this prosperity and influence almost 
 superhuman, he never did an unkind or an unworthy 
 action ; and not unfrequently his justice and his liberality 
 were remarkable. 
 
 On one occasion he instantly, when asked, gave five 
 hundred thousand francs towards building the church of 
 St. Roch, so familiar, now-a-days, to all visitors to Paris ; 
 and he distributed another sum of five hundred thousand 
 francs among the followers of King James, the poor Scotch, 
 Irish, and English exiles at St. Germains. Numerous 
 gifts like these might be related. Of his justice the 
 following is a sample: Count Horn, brother of Prince 
 de Horn, and a relative of the Emperor of Germany, way-
 
 THE LAWS OF LAUEISTON. 387 
 
 laid, robbed, and murdered in Paris a man loaded with 
 the proceeds of some successful sale of Mississippi shares. 
 The count was seized, tried, and condemned, but though 
 dukes, princes, and even sovereigns interceded in his be- 
 half, Law prevented the wavering Regent from yielding, 
 and contrived that stern retribution should be done. Horn 
 was executed in the Place de Gr6ve. Law's coolness 
 amidst all his grandeur, was another remarkable feature. 
 The anecdotes that are told of this would fill a volume. 
 One here must suffice. At a levee of Law's, when princes, 
 noblemen, and prelates were waiting in Law's antichamber, 
 a plain-looking gentleman craved admittance, on the score 
 of being a Scotch kinsman. " Let him instantly come in/' 
 said Law, " for that claim is always a passport with me." 
 The so honoured individual entered; it was the Earl of 
 Islay, afterwards Duke of Argyle. " I am sorry," said the 
 Earl, as Law instantly jumped up and grasped his hand, 
 " I am sorry to disturb you while engaged in such 
 momentous occupation." "By no means momentous/' 
 replied Law, "I am only writing to my gardener at 
 Lauriston about planting some cabbages " and while he 
 was doing this, the best blood of France was waiting at 
 the door ! 
 
 Law's immense wealth enabled him to gratify Mr. 
 Wilson's relatives by the payment of one hundred thou- 
 sand pounds. It would appear from the fact of this hush- 
 money not having been paid till 1721, that the determina- 
 tion of the Wilson family to bring the offender to justice 
 had continued for more than a quarter of a century, and 
 offered a bar to his return to England. The fame of his 
 
 c c 2
 
 388 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 financial oddities, however, was now at its height, and 
 led to an invitation from the English ministry to return 
 to his native country, and give it the benefit of his talents. 
 The one hundred thousand pounds reconciled the Wilsons ; 
 and Law embarked on board the Baltic Squadron, com- 
 manded by Sir John Norris. He was accommodated on 
 board the admiral's own ship, and treated with as much 
 distinction as a crowned head. 
 
 He landed at the Nore, October 20, 1721, proceeded 
 to London in a kind of triumph, and was speedily pre- 
 sented to King George I. by Sir John Norris. The 
 monarch received him with marked distinction, and loaded 
 him with compliments. He took a mansion in Conduit 
 Street, and furnished it with a splendour rarely seen at 
 that time in houses of the highest society. 
 
 On the 28th of November, 1721 (being the last day of 
 Term), Mr. Law pleaded at the bar of the King's Bench 
 on his knees, his Majesty's most gracious pardon for the 
 murder of Edward Wilson, Esq., in 1694. He was atteuded 
 at the bar by his relatives, the Duke of Argyle and the 
 Earl of Islay, and several friends ; and each of the judges 
 was presented with a pair of white gloves. 
 
 After some years' residence in England, where a high 
 degree of homage was paid to him by the upper classes, 
 Mr. Law received intelligence of the confiscation of his 
 whole property in France. The Mississippi scheme had 
 ended in the ruins of myriads there ; and these, instead of 
 blaming their own reckless speculation, laid the whole evil 
 at the door of him whose real utility they had perverted 
 and led astray. Conscious of the rectitude of his conduct
 
 THE LAWS OP LAUR1STON. 389 
 
 in the management of the French finances, and feeling 
 sure that the balance, on examination, would be found 
 greatly in his favour, Law flattered himself that he would 
 receive large compensation, especially as the Regent, Duke 
 of Orleans, professed a more than ordinary regard for him, 
 and had continued punctually to remit his official stipend 
 of 20,000 francs a-year. But the death of this kind, and 
 not unworthy, however improvident, prince, in 1723, was 
 a fatal blow to the hopes of Law. Mr. Law memorialized 
 the Prime Minister of France, the Duke de Bourbon, in 
 1724, but without success. There then remained to him, 
 of all his personal wealth, but a single diamond worth 
 5000. This, and his Scotch property, his high family 
 connections, and his own professional ability as a commer- 
 cial man, sustained him as a gentleman of fair position 
 through the rest of his existence. 
 
 He bade a final adieu to Great Britain in 1725, and 
 took up his residence at Venice, where he closed his 
 chequered life on the 21st of March, 1729, in his fifty- 
 eighth year, and was buried in the church of San Gemi- 
 niauo, whence, as that church was pulled down, his body 
 was removed by his grandnephew, the Marquis and Mar- 
 shal Law, when Governor of Venice, to the church of San 
 Mose, which still contains the remains of the great finan- 
 cier, and a monument to his memory. 
 
 John Law married Catharine, third daughter of Nicholas, 
 titular Earl of Banbury, and by her (who died his widow 
 in 1747) he had a son, Cornet John Law, of the Regiment 
 of Nassau Friesland, who died unmarried at Maestricht 
 in 1734, aged thirty, and a daughter, Mary Catherine,
 
 390 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 married to William, Viscount Wallingford, M.P. for Ban- 
 bury, Major of the first troop of Horse Guards, son of 
 Charles, fourth titular Earl of Banbury. Lord Walling- 
 ford died, vitdpatris, 1740 ; his widow died in London in 
 1790, aged about eighty; they had no issue. Thus ended 
 John Law's own line, but his name and family were to 
 continue in France with increased rank and credit. His 
 brother William's descendant was to add a coronet and 
 the renown of a warrior and statesman to the pedigree of 
 the Laws of Lauriston. WILLIAM LAW, of Lauriston, the 
 younger brother of the great financier, was Director- 
 General of the India Compan^ in France, and dying in 
 1752, left, with daughters, two sons, both distinguished 
 men ; the younger was General James Francis Law, Count 
 de Tancarville, and Chevalier de St. Louis, who com- 
 manded the French king's troops at Pondicherry, and 
 died in 1767, leaving issue; and from him descend the 
 Laws of Clapernon. The Director-General William Law's 
 elder son was JOHN LAW, Baron of Lauriston (being so 
 admitted in France), Governor of Pondicherry, and Mare- 
 schal de Camp, who married Jane, daughter of Don Alex- 
 ander Carvalho, a Portuguese noble, and with other issue 
 (one son, William Law, a naval officer, was lost in the 
 great navigator La Peyrouse's fatal expedition) was father 
 of James Alexander Bernard Law, a Marshal of France, 
 and one of the celebrated men of modern France. Him 
 I cannot pass over without a short notice. 
 
 JAMES ALEXANDER BERNARD LAW was born in Pondi- 
 cherry the 1st of February, 1768. He entered the Roycl 
 Corps of French Artillery in 178i, and was appointed
 
 THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 391 
 
 Colonel of Horse Artillery in 1794; it is in this quality 
 that he made the first campaigns of the Revolution. 
 Bonaparte, who had particular affection for the artillery, 
 appointed, when first Consul in 1800, Lauriston his aide- 
 de-camp, and charged him successfully with many impor- 
 tant missions, amongst which I must cite particularly his 
 co-operation at the defence of Copenhagen against the 
 English, and the Diplomatic Mission which he filled in 
 England, where he was charged, in 1801, to bring the 
 ratification of the preliminaries of the peace of Amiens. 
 This peace was so popular in England, that he was wel- 
 comed with much enthusiasm, and the people of London 
 took the horses out of Law's carriage, and conducted him 
 in triumph to Downing Street. 
 
 Law did good service in many a hard-fought battle, 
 when by Napoleon's side, or commanding for him. He 
 was appointed Imperial Commissary to take possession of 
 Venice, and Dalmatia, and the Mouths of the Cattaro ; 
 and, on this occasion, displayed signal valour and conduct 
 in successfully holding those places, with a small force, 
 against fifteen hundred Russians and three thousand 
 Montenegrins, or Morlachs. He was Governor-General 
 of Venice in 1807. 
 
 After the battle of Essling, Law effected the junction 
 of the Great Army with the Army of Italy, on the other 
 side of Zeimmeringberg. He did wonders at "VVagram, 
 where, commanding the battery of the famous hundred 
 pieces of cannon, he contributed to the success of the day. 
 It was General Law who accompanied to France the Arch 
 duchess Maria Louisa, on her marriage with Napoleon.
 
 392 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 After the disastrous campaign of Russia, in which he took 
 a brilliant share, Law went to Magdeburg as General-in- 
 Chief of the corps of observation on the Elbe, at the head 
 of which he helped gloriously in the campaign of 1813. 
 He was at Lautzen and Bautzen, and defeated, in desperate 
 fight, eighty thousand Russians at Goldberg. He fought 
 valiantly at Dresden and Leipsic ; and, on the day Leipsic 
 was taken, he was retiring by the bridge of Lindenau, 
 over the Elster, and finding it destroyed, he rushed with 
 his horse into the river, but on reaching the other side was 
 made prisoner. He was detained at Berlin until the resto- 
 ration of the Bourbons, in 1814; when began for General 
 Law, after his career of arms under Napoleon, his career 
 of honours under King Louis. Law, who was really a 
 soldier of the old regime, though a good servant to the 
 Emperor, and ever true to France, was not reluctant to 
 serve the King. Law was already a Baron and a Count 
 of the Empire; Louis XVIII. created him Marquis of 
 Lauriston and a Peer of France ; Chevalier of St. Louis ; 
 and Great Cordon of the Legion of Honour. He was a 
 Knight of the Iron Crown, and of various other foreign 
 orders. Law, during the Hundred Days, retired to his 
 country seat, and remained stanch to the House of Bour- 
 bon. He commanded a Corps de Reserve in the invasion of 
 Spain, in 1823, and was then made a Marshal of France. 
 The Marquis of Lauriston died at Paris, universally 
 respected, the 10th June, 1828. He held, at the time, 
 among other dignified offices, that of Master of the Royal 
 Hunt ; and k is a singular fact, that the Hotel connected 
 with that service in the Place Vendome, in which he died
 
 THE LAWS OP LAURISTON. 696 
 
 was the ancient residence of his great uncle, the Financier. 
 The Marquis's wife was Mademoiselle Claudine An- 
 toinette Julie Le Due, the daughter of an ancient Mar- 
 shal de Camp, and sister of Madame de la Bauere. 
 Mademoiselle Le Due had also a life of some vicissitude, 
 for she was arrested with all her family during the Reign 
 of Terror, and detained in the prisons of Chauny and of 
 Soissons : her life was saved by the merest chance. She 
 was afterwards Maid of Honour to the Empress Josephine, 
 then to the Empress Maria Louisa, and eventually was a 
 Lady of Honour to the Duchess of Berri. 
 
 The Marquis of Lauriston left (with a daughter, Louise 
 Coralie, married to the Count Hocquart de Turlot) two 
 sons, of whom the younger is Count Napoleon Law, an 
 officer of the Hussars of the Guard, before 1830; and the 
 elder was AUGUSTUS JOHN ALEXANDER LAW, second and 
 late Marquis of Lauriston, who was born in 1790, and was 
 an officer of Ordnance of Bonaparte, and afterwards 
 Colonel of the Garde du Corps. He made his first 
 campaign in 1809, when a mere youth, and distin- 
 guished himself at the battle of Amstetten, where he 
 attacked, in single fight, the Commandant of Hulans, 
 flung him down and made him prisoner. He obtained 
 the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the field of battle, 
 in reward of this act of intrepidity. He was appointed 
 Chevalier of St. Louis, the 1st July, 1814, and Colonel 
 of the 5th Regiment of Horse Chasseurs, the month of 
 October, 1815, and was made an hereditary Peer of France 
 in 1829. He married in 1820 Mademoiselle Jeanne Louise 
 Delie Carelle, and had three sons, viz., ALEXANDER Louis
 
 394 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 JOSEPH, third and present MARQUIS DE LAURISTON, 
 ancient officer of Artillery, born in 1821 ; Charles Louis 
 Alexander, Viscount de Lauriston, ancient Captain of 
 Cavalry, born in 1824; and Arthur Louis Ferinin, Baron 
 de Lauriston, born in 1829. The Marquis of Lauriston 
 died at Paris, the 27th June, 1860, much and deservedly 
 lamented. His eldest son, the present Marquis is well and 
 popularly known in the fashionable world of Paris. 
 
 I should not conclude without observing that Jean 
 Law, a sister of the famous financier, and second 
 daughter of William Law, of Lauriston and his wife, 
 Jean Campbell, of the house of Argyle, was married, in 
 Scotland, to Dr. Hay of Lethim, a scion of the great 
 families of the Nisbets of Dirleton, and the Hays, Mar- 
 quesses of Tweedale. Dr. Hay's only child and heiress, 
 Margaret, was married to the eminent physician Dr. 
 William Carruthers of Edinburgh, whose family are 
 the Carruthers of Dumfriesshire and Dorsetshire, and 
 whose grandson, Dr. G. E. Carruthers (now represented 
 by Emma-Maria, his youngest daughter and co-heir), ob- 
 tained a share in the proceeds of the sale (for want of heirs 
 male not aliens) of Lauriston Castle. There thus still sur- 
 vives a British connection with these Laws of Lauriston, 
 whose fame and fortunes took such historic root abroad, and 
 grew into that goodly tree, which still flourishes in France, 
 verdant and unfading, unhurt by revolution, adversity, or 
 change. 
 
 I end with a word or two about Lauriston Castle itself, 
 the old seat of the Laws, which is still a place of distinction 
 since it has become the Edinburgh suburban residence of
 
 THE LAWS OF LAURISTON. 395 
 
 her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. Lauriston 
 Castle is beautifully situate, about six or seven miles from 
 Edinburgh, on an eminence not far from the sea, a 
 little north of the village of Davidson's Mains. It was 
 built about the close of the sixteenth century by Sir Ar- 
 chibald Napier, brother of John Napier of Merchiston, 
 the far-famed inventor of Logarithms. It was much im- 
 proved and beautified by the Laws, from whom it passed 
 away in 1828, when Francis John William Law, the last 
 heir male of the entail, not being an alien, died, and when 
 the castle and estate were sold, and the proceeds ^ distri- 
 buted among the descendants and representatives in the 
 female line of William Law, the great Comptroller's father, 
 the first purchaser. It has since had various owners, 
 among them Andrew Rutherford, Esq., M.P., and the 
 property has, of late years, undergone still further amelio- 
 ration and enlargement. Here, in this castle, was born, 
 last year, the Lady Sybil-Amelia-Adela Montgomerie, 
 daughter of that enlightened and excellent nobleman, 
 Archibald William, K.T., present Earl of Eglinton, by 
 his second wife, the Lady Adela Capel, daughter of the 
 Earl of Essex. More lately the castle has been further 
 honoured as the habitation of the Royal Duchess, whose 
 daughter is Queen of a j Scotland, and it therefore allies 
 itself with Holyrood, and affords another and a graceful 
 incident in the recollections of the Laws of Lauriston.
 
 396 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 (lib fonfoss jof 
 
 What is the worst of woes that wait on Age ? 
 What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow ? 
 To view each loved one blotted from Life's page, 
 And be alone on earth. 
 
 CHILDE HAEOLD. 
 
 " Ultimus suorum moriatur !" " May he die the last of 
 all his kin!" was the Roman's bitterest wish for his 
 enemy. When, for the first [time, the malediction comes 
 to our ear, we perhaps little take in the fulness of its dire- 
 ful scope. We cling to existence naturally, and are loth 
 that the links binding us to Life, with all its familiar 
 scenes and associations, should be snapped asunder. We 
 forget the mercy that takes man away from a world where, 
 if he tarry long, he becomes a stranger among strangers. 
 She whose fortunes I am about to trace understood the 
 imprecation fully. Her mournful lot was to realize, 
 indeed, " the worst of woes that wait on age" the being 
 " alone on earth." Not only her own generation and 
 that which followed it, but the next and the next to this
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 397 
 
 again, arose, played their part in life, and disappeared j 
 yet she lived on. A wife for half-a-century, she became a 
 widow at three-score-and-ten ; but, even at this lat ter 
 period, only half of her pilgrimage was accomplished. 
 The princely race from whom she sprang passed, before 
 her eyes, through strange vicissitudes. For more than a 
 century she beheld them, in almost regal magnificence and 
 power, swaying the councils of their sovereigns and acting 
 as their representatives at home and abroad; and she 
 lived to see the head of her house an outcast and wan- 
 derer, with a price on his head, finally hunted down like a 
 wild beast, and his seigniories gone for ever. 
 
 THE LADY KATHERINE, popularly known as the Old 
 Countess of Desmond, was a Geraldine both on her father's 
 and mother's side. She was the eldest daughter of Sir 
 John FitzGerald, Lord of Decies, and of Ellen, his wife, 
 daughter of the White Knight. Her paternal grandfather 
 was Gerald, second son of James, the seventh Earl of 
 Desmond. He had received for his portion the great dis- 
 trict called the Decies, in the county of Waterford, and at 
 Dromana, on the lovely Blackwater, he had erected his 
 feudal castle. No site more suitable or romantic could 
 possibly have been discovered than that chosen by Sir 
 Gerald FitzGerald. He erected his fortressed home on 
 the highest point of a perpendicular cliff overhanging the 
 river. From this eyrie he looked out on a panorama of 
 luxuriant forest scenery, with the blue range of lofty 
 mountains stretching away in the far distance ; while the 
 river, as it flowed darkly beneath, at times narrowed and 
 at other times expanded itself into seeming lakes. In the
 
 39 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Castle of Dromana* the Lady Katherine FitzGerald was 
 born, in the third year of Edward IV., 1464. Her child- 
 hood and girlhood were passed, no doubt, in a condition 
 suited to her rank, but of them we have no particular 
 mention. "We find her, in 1483, while yet in her teens, 
 wedded to her kinsman, Thomas, third son of Thomas, 
 eighth Earl of Desmond, and brother of James, the ninth 
 Earl. The wedding took place in London, and was graced 
 by the presence of the Court. The bride danced with 
 Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.; 
 and she always described him as straight and well-formed, 
 instead of having the misshapen body which historians 
 give him. Not long had the Lady Katherine entered 
 this branch of the family when a dark shadow, as of pre- 
 saging ills yet to come, fell upon them. Her husband's 
 brother, James, the ninth Earl of Desmond, was basely 
 murdered, 7th December, 1487, by his servant, Shaun 
 (John) Maunta, at the instigation of another brother, 
 John. The "taint of blood" was henceforth on the race, 
 and never passed away. But into the Geraldine family 
 history full to overflowing, as it is, with striking inci- 
 dent it would be impossible for me here to enter. Suf- 
 fice it, that to the murdered Earl succeeded his brother 
 
 * The remains of the castle are incorporated with the mansion- 
 house of Lord Stuart de Decies, which bears the same name, 
 For a full notice of this nobleman's splendid seat, I refer the 
 reader to my "Visitation of Seats and Arms of the Noblemen 
 and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland," 1854, pp. 30, 31. 
 Lord Stuart de Decies possesses, among his paintings, an ori- 
 ginal portrait of the Old Countess of Desmond. To this picture 
 I shall allude hereafter.
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 399 
 
 Maurice, who enjoyed the honours for three-and-thirty 
 years. Earl Maurice died at Tralee in 1 520, and was 
 succeeded by his only son, James. The last-named per- 
 sonage held the title but for nine years. He died, leaving 
 no male issue ; and the honours, in consequence, devolved 
 on the husband of the Lady Katherine, who became, 18th 
 June, 1529, the twelfth Earl of Desmond. 
 
 Many years had come and gone since her bridal morn- 
 ing, when the Lady Katherine was graced with the high 
 distinction of Countess of Desmond. Her wedded life 
 had been a happy one ; for chroniclers speak kindly and 
 well of her husband. But a life purely domestic was 
 little marked with events of importance. One child, a 
 daughter, had blessed her union ; and a stepson, Maurice, 
 was spared to his father. The Earl and Countess of Des- 
 mond took up their residence in the old historical town of 
 Youghal in the county of Cork. Of Youghal their ancestors 
 had been suzerains, from the very period of the Anglo-Nor- 
 man invasion. Its religious houses and feudal defences were 
 of their creation; and in the central part of the towr, 
 adjoining Trinity Castle, they had erected for themselves 
 a palatial mansion. Here, then, the Earl and Countess 
 now fix themselves, in the eastern portion of their vast 
 possessions in Munster. Both are waxing into age. The 
 nobleman is in his seventy-sixth year, and has acquired 
 the soubriquet of Maol, or the Bald. His Countess is ten 
 years his junior; but, we may rest assured, shows little 
 traces of Time's advances. A chequered thing always is 
 human life ! Within six months after the Earldom fell 
 to him, Maurice, the Earl's only son, dies of the plague at
 
 400 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Rathkeale, in the county of Limerick. His remains are 
 brought to Youghal, where they are interred in the Fran- 
 ciscan friary. By Joan, daughter of John Fitz-Gerald, 
 the White Knight, he leaves an only child, James, of 
 whom presently. I find the aged Earl addressing a letter 
 to King Henry VIII., 5 May, 1532,* in which he accepts 
 the royal confirmation of his rank and inheritance, pro- 
 fesses allegiance, and excuses himself for not then sending 
 his grandson to the Court. Of this epistle, I give the 
 commencement and conclusion : 
 
 " Mooste highe and mighty Prince, and my mooste re- 
 duptithe Sovereigne lyghe Lord, I in my mooste humble 
 wise recommaunde my unto youre mooste noble and 
 haboundance Grace. * * * * 
 
 " Written at Youghall the 5 day of May, the 24th yere 
 of your noble raigne. 
 
 " To the Kynge's Grace. 
 
 "THOMAS, ERLL OF DESMOND." 
 
 In another document, preserved in the State Paper 
 Office, mention is made of the Earl, and proof afforded 
 of his sincere attachment to the English crown. In 
 1534, the misled young Geraldine, Silken Thomas, 
 openly, in the castle of Dublin, where he sat as his mo- 
 narch's deputy, renounced allegiance and declared himself 
 the king's enemy. Dr. Thomas Alen, warden of the 
 College of Youghal, was at the time in London ; and a 
 letter addressed to him on the 17th of May of this year 
 
 * State Papers, Henry VIII., Part III., Vol. III., pages 160, 
 161.
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. 401 
 
 from Youghal, by his brothers who were there resident, is 
 yet extant. They write by command of the Earl of Des- 
 mond, who (they remark) " marvels greatly at your long 
 tarrying." Having noticed Silken Thomas's insurrection, 
 and the special enmity he has exhibited to the warden of 
 Youghal (as he vowed that, wherever he met with him, 
 he would slay him with his own hands), they "counsel" 
 him to " instruct the King," and to " cause his Grace to 
 write a letter to my Lord of Desmond in all haste to take 
 the said traitor." But, loyal as the Earl thus proved 
 himself, even in regard to one of his own kin, no oppor- 
 tunity was afforded him of demonstrating his fidelity. 
 Very soon after the letter was despatched, he breathed his 
 last in his castle at Youghal, and was buried with his 
 fathers, under a stately tomb in the Franciscan friary, at 
 the southern end of the town. 
 
 The Lady Katherine, thus widowed, is now in her seven- 
 tieth year. Her jointure is to be the manor of Tnchiquin, 
 about five miles distant from Youghal, skirted by the sea 
 on its eastern side. Through the estate a pretty river, the 
 Finisk (Fionn-uisge, in Irish, the fair water), takes its 
 pleasant way ; and on the river's marge, about four miles 
 up from the ocean, is a strong castle, where the Countess is 
 to reside.* And here, with her only daughter, she lives, 
 while terrible things both in her family and in her country 
 
 * A great portion of the Incliiquin Castle yet remain?. It 
 was circular, and must have been, of prodigious strength ; for 
 the existing walls are no less than twelve feet in thickness. The 
 portion now standing is about thirty-five feet high, and thirty 
 feet in diameter inside the walls. 
 
 2 D D
 
 402 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 are being enacted. The decease of her husband is the 
 signal for deadly feuds among her kindred. James Fitz- 
 Maurice, her stepson, is the rightful heir to the family 
 honours. He comes from England, where he has beetf 
 page to the King,, to assume them ; and he is murdered, 
 19th March, 1540-41, by his first cousin, Maurice Fitz- 
 John. Frightful scenes follow, paving the way for the 
 Geraldine ruin, now fast approaching. James, the fifteenth 
 Earl of Desmond, dies at Askeaton, the 34th Oct. 1558, 
 and is succeeded by his son, Garrett, in whom the proud 
 race of Desmond is to be extinguished. In 1575, this last 
 Earl induces his aged kinswoman to assign to him her 
 castle. I subjoin the deed, which will be new to my 
 readers :* 
 
 "Where I, ladye Kathriu, late wief to Thomas, late 
 Earle of Desmond deceased, have and doe enjoye amongst 
 other parcells as my third parte and dower of my saide 
 late husbonde, landes by lawfull assigm', the Castell and 
 Town of Inchequyne, with six plowlandes, arrable iande, 
 called the six fie plowlands in Inchequyne, together with 
 More's meadows, pastures, groves, woods, milles and 
 milplaces, with there watercouses, rivers, streames, with 
 there weares and fishinges, parcell of the said towne and 
 belonging to the same. Be it knowen unto all men by 
 these presentes, that for good consideracions me movinge, 
 I have geven, graunted, and surrendered the said Castell 
 
 * This deed is preserved in the Exchequer, Dublin, It was 
 enrolled in Michaelmas Term, 1587, at the request of John 
 Synnotte, of Wexford, Gent., and is to be found in the Eot. 
 Mem., 29 Eliz. Mem. 21. It is now published for the first time.
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 403 
 
 and Towne of Inchequine with the said six plowelandes 
 together with all and singuler the premisses with there 
 appurtenances, together with all my intereste and estate 
 therein vnto the right honorable Gerrot, Earle of Desmond, 
 nowe Inioyenge, the revercion of the premisses, To have, 
 holde, and Inioye the same vnto the said Earle, his heires 
 and assignes, as his proper inheritance, notwithstanding 
 any dower, ioynter, or any other estate I have or oughte 
 to have in the premisses or in any parte or parcelle of 
 them. 
 
 " In Witness whereof I have herevnto put my scale the 
 fift of Auguste a thousand five hundred seventye and five, 
 and in the sevnteuthe yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereigne 
 ladye Queene Elizabeth. 
 
 " Being presente at the KATHRIN DESMOND. (L.S.) 
 
 ensealinge and deliverie 
 
 hereof by the lady Ka- 
 
 therine within named, Witness hereof, 
 
 I. DESMONDE. MORISHE SHEGHAN. 
 
 THOMAS FFAUNYNGE, Thesaurer. DAVID ROCHE, Witness. 
 
 ELLENE SHEA." 
 
 Then follows a feoffment from Gerrald, Earl of Des- 
 mond, to Maurice Shoghan, his servant ; and David 
 lloche, gentleman, of the castle and town of Inchiquin, 
 bearing date 7th August, 1575, 17 Elizabeth, to the use 
 of John Synot, of Wexford, for thirty-one years; then to 
 the use of the Earl himself and the lady Eleanor, his 
 wife, and their heirs male, with remainder to the heirs 
 
 D D 2
 
 404 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 male of James, late Earl of Desmond, father of Gerrot, 
 the now Earl, and after them to the right heirs of said 
 Gerrot. 
 
 Witnesses : Morishe Sheaghan, David Roche, and five 
 others. 
 
 John FitzGerald, of Camphire, gave livery and seizin, 
 by delivering of " a peece of earthe in the house of Inche- 
 quyne" to David Roche, in the presence of John Fitz- 
 Gerrate, Morishe M 'Gibbon, and several others. 
 
 What were the Earl of Desmond's motives in disseising 
 the old Countess we are left to conjecture. Cupidity, 
 when we think of his vast possessions, could not have in- 
 fluenced him. It is probable that, meditating at the time 
 an insurrection, he deemed it expedient to hold in his own 
 hands, or in the hands of his servants, every strong castle 
 of his district. And it was this very circumstance that 
 restored to the old Countess her castle and manor ; for, 
 after the Geraldine's wild attempt at revolt, and the attain- 
 der that followed, all conveyances of a subsequent date to 
 one, proving his rebellious intentions, were declared by 
 the English government to be null and void. Under this 
 head came the assignment of Inchiquin, which now returned 
 to the Lady Katherine. She was resident here, when, 
 3d February, 1585-6, a warrant of Privy Seal granted Sir 
 \Valter Raleigh three seigniories and a half of the forfeited 
 estates of the Earl of Desmond. These comprised 42,000 
 acres of land, extending from Lismore to the sea at 
 Youghal, and containing (with many others) the manor 
 and castle of Inchiquin. Raleigh visited the old Countess 
 and formed her personal acquaintance, as he tells us in
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 405 
 
 that surprising monument of his erudition, the " Historic 
 of the World:"* 
 
 " I myself knew the old Countess of Desmond, of 
 Inchiquin, in Munster, who lived in the year 1589, and 
 many years since, who was married in Edward the Fourth's 
 time, and held her joynture from all the Earls of Desmond 
 since then ; and that this is true all the noblemen and 
 gentlemen of Munster can witness." 
 
 Raleigh had special reasons for remembering the aged 
 Countess. There were charges for her life on the lands of 
 Inchiquin, and reservations to be made consequently in 
 the different leases he granted. I have had access to 
 some of these original demises, and am enabled to point 
 out this fact, hitherto unnoticed. Let me take, for in- 
 stance, the fine old parchment, signed and sealed with 
 Raleigh's own hand, that lies on my table. It bears an 
 endorsement : 
 
 "21 July, 1588. Colyclogfynnaye leased for a 100 
 years, commencing the 30th yeare Eliza, reigne." 
 
 The Indenture is made between " the honorable S r Wal- 
 ter Ralegh, knight, lord warden of her ma ties Stannaries 
 in y e Counties of Devon and Cornwall, and one of y e prin- 
 cipall undertakers with her ma tie for y e repeoplinge and 
 inhabitinge y e attainted and excheated lands in y e Counties 
 of Corke and Waterfourd in y e Province of Munster of 
 thone ptie. And John Clever, of London, gentleman, of 
 thother ptie." It conveys to the lessee, for a hundred 
 years, " all that ploughland comonly called or knowen by 
 
 * Book i. chapter v. section 5.
 
 406 t VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the name of Coullie Clofinna, sett and beinge within the 
 Barroney of Inchequyn in y e Countie of Corke;" and, 
 when it sets forth the rental, makes allusion to the old 
 Countess of Desmond. 
 
 " Yeldinge and payinge therefore yearely during three of 
 y e said yeares (viz.) from thend of the yeare of our Lord 
 God w * 1 shalbe One thousand ffive hundered ffoure score 
 and nyne, and from and after the Decease of the Ladie 
 Cattelyn, old Countesse Dowager of Desmond, widdowe, 
 vntill thend of the year of our lord God w ch shalbe 1593, 
 vnto the said Sir Walter Ralegh, his heires or Assignes, 
 ffive pounds of good and lawfull money of England at two 
 
 feasts or tearmes of the yeare And also yeldinge 
 
 and paying therefore yearely vnto the said Walter Ralegh 
 his heires or Assignes duringe the residue of y e said 
 tearme begynnynge from and after y e decease of y e said 
 Countesse, and after thend of the said year of o r lord God 
 which shalbe 1593 the yearely rent of Tenne pounds of 
 lawfull money of England at the said two feasts of thAn- 
 nunciation of o r Ladie St. Mary the Virgine and St. 
 Michael Tharchanngell w ch of them shall first happen 
 after the death of the said Countesse, &c." 
 
 Raleigh here calls her " the Ladie Cattelyn," the raine, 
 doubtless, by which she was familiarly known among her 
 Irish followers, in whose expressive vernacular " Kauth- 
 ken " was the right rendering of " Katherine." A MS. 
 state paper of the year subsequent to the lease enumerates 
 among the forfeitures of the attainted Earl of Desmond : 
 
 " The castle and manor of Inchiquin, now in the hands 
 of Dame Katherine FitzJohn, late wyfe to Thomas, some
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. 407 
 
 tyme Earl of Dessmond, for terme of lyef as for hir 
 dower." 
 
 In 1591, I find Sir Walter Raleigh, in a statement to 
 the Queen concerning the plantation (or, as it would now 
 be called, the colonization) of his Irish estates, describing 
 that all in the neighbourhood of Youghal had been let out 
 to English settlers, with a solitary exception : 
 
 " There remaynes unto me but an old castle and de- 
 mayne, which are yet in occupation of the old Countess of 
 Desmond for her jointure." 
 
 Fynes Moryson, in his curious " Itinerary," has a spe 
 cial notice of the Old Countess. His Tour in Ireland 
 commenced at Youghal, where he landed 9th Sept. 1613. 
 In the place where she had so long resided, and in the 
 immediate vicinage of which was her castle of Inchiquir, 
 he had ample means of acquiring information about her. 
 He describes her as 
 
 " being able to go on foote four or five miles to the 
 market towne [Youghal] , and using weekly so to doe in 
 her last yeeres." 
 
 Now, up to our own time, the country people around 
 Youghal made this weekly journey to their market town. 
 Those from Inchiquin and the adjoining sea-coast take 
 their route (as often as the tide permits) by the splendid 
 Strand, which, firm enough to bear carts and cattle as 
 well as pedestrians on its smooth sands, extends itself un- 
 broken for five miles. Each Saturday either a long caval- 
 cade or numerous detached groups may be seen at sunrise 
 proceeding to the town, and in the evening returning to 
 their homes, by the sands. Imagination may paint for us
 
 408 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the venerable Countess wending her way after this manner. 
 "We may be sure that she is not alone. Some faithful 
 hearts accompany her; for the Irish clansmen, true as 
 steel, are duteous in their homage to their Lady. But 
 why "on foote?" Wherefore travels thus the Countess 
 of Desmond ? Alas ! poverty compels her. Her lands 
 have been seized by the English settlers. Her jointure is 
 paid no longer. Her remonstrances are set at nought ; 
 and if she mention "redress/' idle mocking ensues. But, 
 aged as she is, she possesses all the spirit of her race, and 
 fedress she will seek, even from royalty itself. It is now 
 the summer of 1604, and the Countess has doubled the 
 ordinary longevity of man, being in her 140th year, when 
 she determines to cross the Channel, and present herself a 
 suppliant before James I. Coasting vessels, then as now, 
 carried on a brisk trade between Youghal and the south- 
 western ports of England. In one of these she solicits a 
 passage, nor is it refused. The little bark clears the har- 
 bour, and spreads its canvas to a favouring breeze. Gra- 
 dually the Irish coast sinks and fades from sight, and, as 
 night falls, the voyagers are in mid-ocean. Day breaks, 
 and shows nothing but sky around them, on the right 
 hand and left; but, ere darkness comes again, a dim, 
 shadowy outline of land is visible in the east, and the 
 pale moon lights up, to their joy, the shores of Eng- 
 land. They are bound for Bristol. The vessel enters 
 King's Road, and in due time goes up the Avon. 
 The anchor is dropped, and the boat lowered for the 
 passengers. They are but two two aged females the 
 Countess of Desmond and her only child. The mother
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 409 
 
 stands again on English soil, and is to make her way to 
 the great capital ; but how altered in form and mien, as 
 well in worldly circumstance, from what she was when Sir 
 Thomas FitzGerald claimed her as his bride ! 
 
 To London they are to go, and every mile of the journey 
 across England must be measured by those weary feet. 
 Her daughter's strength has totally failed her. A humble 
 wheeled vehicle is procured. It can hold but one ; but, 
 by its side, the mother will walk and watch her child. 
 Picture to yourself, kind reader, the wayfarers. How slow 
 must have been their progress ! How interminable the 
 way ! In the " Table Book" of Sidney, Earl of Leicester, 
 we have them brought before us to the life. Speaking of 
 the Countess of Desmond, he writes : 
 
 " This olde ladye . . . landing at Bristol, came on foot 
 to London, being then so olde that her daughter was de- 
 crepit, and not able to come with her, but was brought in 
 a little cart, their poverty not allowing better meanes." 
 
 That the pilgrims reached London in safety we are 
 assured, and, in the royal presence, the aged Countess 
 narrated her sufferings and obtained relief. In the great 
 metropolis, as may be supposed, her appearance created no 
 common sensation. Her portrait was at this time painted, 
 and it has come down to our own times. On the back is 
 the following inscription : 
 
 " Catherine, Countesse of Desmonde, as she appeared 
 at ye Courte of our Sovereigne Lord King James, in this 
 present year 1614 [1604 ?] and in ye 140th yeare of her 
 age. Thither she came from Bristol to seeke reliefe, ye 
 House of Desmond having been ruined by attainder. She
 
 410 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 was married in ye reigne of King Edward IV., and in 
 ye course of her long pilgrimage renewed her teethe twice. 
 Her principal residence is at Inchequin in Muuster, whi- 
 ther she undauntedlye proposeth (her purpose accom- 
 plished) incontinentlie to return : LAVS DEO." 
 
 To her Irish home she came back, at last to find rest 
 the rest of the grave ! In this same year (1604) she died,* 
 under the singular circumstances set forth in the Earl of 
 Leicester's " Table Book." 
 
 "Shee might have lived much longer, had shee not 
 mett with a kind of violent death ; for shee must needs 
 climb a nutt-tree, to gather nutts, soe, falling down, she 
 hurt her thigh, which brought a fever, and that brought 
 death." f 
 
 Enquiry has been made for the burial-place of the Old 
 Countess. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, we 
 may safely assume that her remains were laid with those 
 of her husband in the Youghal Franciscan Friary ; but a 
 search there for the tombs of the Geraldines is fruitless. 
 
 * In Sir George Carew's MS. Pedigrees of the Nobility 
 and Gentry of Ireland, now preserved at Lambeth, is the 
 descent of " the Lords of Decies " (626 and 635). To the old 
 Countess's name is appended this note " She died in anno 
 1604." 
 
 t All modern biographers of the Old Countess think it right 
 to introduce the drollery of Thomas Moore, who in his " Fudge- 
 Letters " thus uses her name : 
 
 " Older far than my grand-dam indeed, aye, as old 
 As that Countess of Desmond, of whom we are told 
 That she lived to much more than a hundred and ten, 
 And was killed by a fall from a cherry-tree then ! 
 What a frisky old girl ! "
 
 THE OLD COUNTESS OP DESMOND. 411 
 
 Seven Earls of Desmond, besides numberless members of 
 families of lesser rank, were interred within its walls, but 
 not a vestige of their monuments exists. The religious 
 house itself is swept away. The cemetery is partly built 
 on and partly converted into gardens ; and the great dra- 
 matist's speculation as to the ultimate destiny of Caesar's 
 dust may find its parallel in that of the Geraldines. The 
 clown grows his cabbages out of the ashes of brave men 
 and gentle women belonging to one of the noblest lines of 
 Europe ! 
 
 Of this wonderful woman many portraits exist, but the 
 authenticity of the majority is doubtful. At Dromana, 
 her birth-place, is a small picture painted on oak, repre- 
 senting a very aged lady, said to be the Countess. This 
 is probably genuine. The portrait taken in London, when 
 the old Countess presented herself at the Court of King 
 James, is now at Muckross, the lovely seat of Colonel 
 Herbert. It is on canvas, of an oval form, about three 
 feet long, and has a richly-carved frame. She is repre- 
 sented in the dress of her time, wearing on her head 
 a kind of hood, and on her neck a lace collar, while her 
 person is enveloped in a fur mantle laced in front. At 
 the Knight of Kerry's is a panel picture, which, being 
 attributed to the Countess, was engraved as such by Na- 
 thaniel Grogan, of Cork. A close examination, however, 
 has since revealed on the panel the name of the painter, 
 Gerard Douw, so that we must reject this picture alto- 
 gether. In the Standard Closet, Windsor, is a picture 
 likewise assigned to the Countess, and for this reason 
 engraved by Pennant in the quarto edition of his " Tour
 
 412 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 in Scotland ;" but this is really Rembrandt's mother, as 
 written on the back of the painting. At Knowle is a 
 doubtful portrait. Lastly, at Chatsworth is a picture, 
 probably a likeness, because it is said to have been 
 brought into the Cavendish family on the marriage, 28th 
 March, 1748, of William, Marquis of Hartington, with 
 the Lady Charlotte Elizabeth, only child and heir of 
 Richard, fourth Earl of Cork and Burlington.
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD, 413 
 
 , (Earl 0f *f0rb. 
 
 Think you see 
 
 The very persons of our noble story, 
 As they were living ; think you see them great, 
 And followed with the general throng and sweat 
 Of thousand friends ; then in a moment, see 
 How soon this mightiness meets misery. 
 
 SHAKESPEABE. 
 
 " Oxford, Oxford, for Lancaster !'* 
 IBID. 
 
 ft THE noblest subject in England, and indeed, as English- 
 men loved to say, the noblest subject in Europe, was 
 Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last of the old Earls of 
 Oxford. He derived his title through an uninterrupted 
 male descent, from a time when the families of Howard 
 and Seymour were still obscure, when the Nevills and 
 Percies enjoyed only a provincial celebrity, and when even 
 the great name of Plantagenet had not yet been heard in 
 England. One chief of the house of De Vere had held 
 high command at Hastings ; another had marched, with 
 Godfrey and Tancred, over heaps of slaughtered Moslem, 
 to the sepulchre of Christ. The first Earl of Oxford had 
 been minister of Henry Beauclerc. The third Earl had 
 been conspicuous among the Lords who extorted the Great
 
 414 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Charter from John. The seventh Earl had fought bravely 
 at Cressy and Poictiers. The thirteenth Earl had, through 
 many vicissitudes of fortune, been the chief of the party 
 of the Red Rose, and had led the van on the decisive day 
 of Bosworth. The seventeenth Earl had shone at the 
 Court of Elizabeth, and had won for himself an honour- 
 able place among the early masters of English poetry. 
 The nineteenth Earl had fallen in arms for the Protestant 
 religion, and for the liberties of Europe, under the walls of 
 Maestricht. His son, Aubrey, in whom closed the longest 
 and most illustrious line of nobles that England has seen, 
 a man of loose morals, but of inoffensive temper, and of 
 courtly manners, was Lord-Lieutenant of Essex and 
 Colonel of the Blues.-" 
 
 Such is Macaulay's glowing and eloquent eulogium on 
 the De Veres so eloquent indeed, that one regrets that 
 the panegyric is somewhat exaggerated, and scarcely con- 
 sistent with recorded fact. The line of the Earls of Ox- 
 ford was certainly the longest, but, as certainly, not the 
 most illustrious that England has seen. In personal 
 achievement and historical importance the De Veres can 
 bear no comparison with the Talbots, the Howards, the 
 Nevills, the Percys, or the Scropes ; in antiquity of descent, 
 the Courtenays, the De Bohuns, and the Beauchamps 
 were in all respects their equals, and in splendour of alli- 
 ances, many a less distinguished family far surpassed them. 
 There was scarcely one of our grand old houses of the 
 times of the Henrys and the Edwards that had not more 
 of royal blood. Nevertheless, I must freely admit, although 
 I cannot subscribe to the pre-eminence Macaulay assigns,
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 415 
 
 that this famous house, if inferior to any, was only so to 
 the very first, to the most historic and to the most illus- 
 trious of our ancient nobility. 
 
 It is a very difficult thing to understand the true great- 
 ness and the exact relative distinction of the nobles of this 
 country. Of the first thirty baronies on the Roll of the 
 Peerage, one-fifth are still enjoyed by the direct male 
 descendants of the original possessors ; Stourton, St. John 
 of Bletsoe, Petre, Arundell of "VVardour, Dormer, and 
 Byron ; that of North is now held by the direct female 
 descendant of the first Baron, but after her demise will 
 necessarily be inherited by her son, and thus brought 
 into another family ; all the rest are heirs general of the 
 original peers. Some of these barons far exceed many 
 Dukes in nobility and antiquity of lineage ; unlike the 
 French peerage, where the Dukes alone were formerly 
 peers, with us the maxim of the Lords, as regards the 
 several ranks in their noble house, is " Nobilitate pares, 
 quamvis gradu impares." 
 
 Following up our ducal houses in the male line, it will be 
 found that the period at which they first became ennobled 
 is often very different from what a superficial glance would 
 lead one to expect. The direct male ancestors of the 
 Duke of Newcastle were ennobled in 1299, and the 
 title (Clinton) they then possessed is still extant, though 
 it has since passed from the male into the female line. 
 His Grace of Newcastle stands in this respect at the head 
 of our ducal families; the first peerage obtained by the 
 Howards being in 1470, nearly two centuries after the 
 Clintons had sat as barons. Next to Newcastle comes the
 
 416 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 Irish house of Leinster, whose earldom of Kildare bears 
 date from 1316; and then, the illustrious family of 
 Douglas, in Scotland, their chief, the Duke of Hamilton 
 and Brandon, being Earl of Angus under a creation of 
 1326. The Clintons obtained the earldom of Hunting- 
 don eleven years after that date ; but it was granted to 
 the youngest son of the first Baron Clinton, and conse- 
 quently not to a direct ancestor of the extant family, whom 
 alone I can count. 
 
 Argyle and Montrose,in Scotland, were first ennobled in 
 1445; Norfolk, as I have already mentioned, in 1470; 
 and Rutland first inherited the ancient barony of De Ros, 
 and Belvoir Castle and estates, in 1487. But though the 
 Howards are thus excelled in mere antiquity of nobility and 
 family, the rapidity with which they rose to the highest title 
 iu the realm, their representation of the illustrious W ar 
 rennes and Mowbrays, their inheritance of the Earl-Mar- 
 shalship from the Plantagenets, and eventually of the pre- 
 mier earldom of England from the Fitzalans ; and finally 
 the brilliant place which their rank, bravery, talents, and 
 great possessions have enabled them to fill ever since they 
 first took their seats among the mailed barons of Edward 
 IV., fairly entitle them to their universally acknowledged 
 rank as the first noble house of England. That this is the 
 public feeling everywhere was clearly shown at the 
 lamented demise of the Duke of Norfolk just dead. 
 His Grace was a man most amiable and most devoted to 
 the exercise of every private virtue, yet he shrank, despite 
 of his known abilities, from being politically conspicuous ; 
 nevertheless, his funeral knell struck on the ear of civilized
 
 DE VERB, EARL OP OXFORD. 417 
 
 Europe with a sensation that did homage, not to the peer 
 only, hut to the greatness of his house. The most recently 
 ennobled of our ducal families is that of Roxburghe, Sir 
 James Innes-Norcliffe, of Innes, Bart., having inherited 
 that title in 1805, in right of the marriage of his ancestor, 
 Sir James Innes, Bart., in 1666, with Margaret, third and 
 youngest daught of Harry, Lord Ker, second son of 
 Robert, first Earl of Roxburghe. 
 
 The family of the Duke of Buckingham, the Grenvilles 
 of Wotton, inherited the earldom of Temple in 1752, on 
 the demise of the celebrated Hester, Countess Temple, 
 wife of Richard Grenville, of Wotton, Esq., M.P. Two 
 years previously, Sir Hugh Smithson of Stanwick, in 
 Yorkshire, Bart., had inherited the earldom and estates of 
 Northumberland, on the death of his father-in-law, Alger- 
 non, Duke of Somerset, son of Charles, sixth Duke of 
 Somerset, and of the Lady Elizabeth, only child of Josce- 
 line Percy, eleventh and last Earl of Northumberland. 
 
 And again, four years before this succession, that is, in 
 1746, Richard Colley Wesley, Esq., M.P., had been raised 
 to the peerage of Ireland, as Baron of Mornington ; hence 
 the brilliant house of Wellesley. 
 
 The family of the Duke of Sutherland was ennobled in 
 1702, and that of the Duke of Cleveland in 1699; the 
 favourite Beritinck was made Earl of Portland by Wil- 
 liam III., in 1689, and Sir Thomas Osborne, Bart., M.P., 
 afterwards Duke of Leeds, was created Baron Osborne 
 and Viscount Larimer, in 1674. Contemporary with him 
 in elevation to the peerage, were the illegitimate infant 
 sons of Charles II., of whom St. Albans was ennobled in 
 2 E
 
 418 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 1676, Richmond in 1675, and Grafton in 1672, whilst 
 the Dukes of Buccleuch are descended in the male line 
 from the celebrated Duke of Monmouth, ennobled in 
 1662. The first title enjoyed by the ancestors of the 
 Duke of Manchester was conferred in 1620, by those of 
 the Duke of Devonshire in 1605, and of the Duke of 
 Atholl in 1604. The Earls of Sunderland, who now hold 
 the Duchy of Marlborough, first sat as peers in 1603. 
 The first Earl of Bedford, the favourite of Henry VIII., 
 was made a peer of Parliament by that monarch in 1539. 
 Three years previously, Henry had conferred the Viscounty 
 of Beauchamp upon the brother of his Queen, Jane Seymour 
 or St. Maur, as the name was anciently spelt, and as the 
 present Duke of Somerset uses it. Beaufort alone remains 
 to be fixed in date ; and we find that Charles Somerset, 
 illegitimate son of Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, 
 marrying Elizabeth, only child and heiress of William, 
 Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Herbert, of Ragland, was sum- 
 moned to Parliament in that barony, "jure uxoris," in 
 1501, and three years afterwards created Earl of Worces- 
 ter, the progenitor of a brave and loyal race. 
 
 It would be interesting to make, among all the ranks 
 of the peerage, an examination similar to that I have ven- 
 tured to introduce here with reference to the Dukes only ; 
 but I have almost lost sight of my subject, the De 
 Veres, in this long digression. If that illustrious race 
 still endured, the date of their title of honour would 
 far transcend any Earldom or Dukedom in the existing 
 peerage. 
 
 Macaulay is not the only writer who, captivated by the
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 419 
 
 romance and chivalry of the race, has fallen into hyper- 
 bole, in describing the De Veres. Old Leland, in his 
 enthusiasm, deduces their pedigree from Noah ; and 
 another learned antiquary claims for De Vere of England 
 the highest place on the roll of European genealogy. Sir 
 Walter Scott has made the name of De Vere familiar to 
 us in his beautiful, and chivalrous romance of " Anne of 
 Geierstein." 
 
 Resting, however, on authentic evidence, I will begin 
 with ALBERIC DE VERE, the lord of vast estates and many 
 manors, (Kensington, in Middlesex, and Hedingham, in 
 Essex, amon'gst the rest,) at the time of the Doomsday 
 Survey. Great though his possessions were, and brilliant 
 his worldly position, he abandoned all for conscience sake, 
 and devoting himself to God, assumed the cowl, and died a 
 monk in Colne Priory : " Vero nihil verius." To his son, 
 another Alberic de Vere, Henry I., who held him high 
 in favour, granted the office of Lord Great Chamberlain 
 of England " to him and his heirs for ever ;" and this 
 important dignity is now enjoyed, conjointly, by his de- 
 scendants Lord Willoughby de Eresby and the Marquess 
 Cholmondeley, who derive their right to it from a memo- 
 rable and extraordinary decision of the time of Charles I., 
 to which I shall by and bye refer. 
 
 The first Earl of the de Veres was Alberic's son, Aubrey, 
 who, for his fidelity to the Empress Maud, was granted 
 the Earldom of Cambridge, " provided that that dignity 
 was not vested in the King of Scotland." But if it were, 
 Aubrey was then to have his choice of the Earldoms of 
 Oxford, Berkshire, AViltshire, or Dorsetshire. The even- 
 is E 2
 
 420 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 tual selection was Oxford, and in that title, bearing date 
 1135, he was confirmed by Henry II. Thus originated 
 the possession of this celebrated honour, which, through 
 a long series of generations and a course of much vicissi- 
 tude, endured in the same family for a period of five hun- 
 dred and sixty seven years. The son of the first Earl of 
 Oxford was the Baron of Magna Charta, and his great- 
 great grandson, John de Vere, seventh Earl, the gallant 
 soldier who fought at Cressy, and had a command at 
 Poictiers. " At one time," narrates Dugdale, " about the 
 feast of the Blessed Virgin, this Earl, returning out of 
 Brittany, was by tempest cast upon the coast of Con- 
 naught in Ireland, where he and all his companions suf- 
 fered much misery from those barbarous people there, 
 who pillaged them of all they had." 
 
 This chivalrous warrior lost his life before the walls of 
 Rheims, where the English army was encamped, on the 
 14th January, 1306. The landed estate he left, was al- 
 most fabulous in extent, stretching over the counties of 
 Hereford, Bedford, Leicester, Essex, Buckingham, Hert- 
 ford, Dorset, Wilts, Suffolk, and Cambridge. This vast 
 inheritance devolved, in due course, on his grandson, 
 ROBERT DE VERB, ninth Earl of Oxford, the favourite of 
 Richard II. His career is a striking example of the ca- 
 price of fortune. A morning all sunshine was followed 
 by a noontide of the deepest obscurity. So honoured at 
 the onset was the potent noble, that the King instituted a 
 new Order in the Peerage, and conferred upon him the 
 first Marquessate ever known in England the Marquess- 
 ate of Dublin. The dignity, too, was no empty honour :
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 421 
 
 to it was annexed a grant of the land and dominion of 
 Ireland, " and, in addition, a transfer of all profits, reve- 
 nues, and regalities, as amply as the King himself ought 
 to enjoy the same." This even was not the extent of the 
 power and rank to be assigned to Vere; for in the 
 very next year he received a still more brilliant title 
 that of Duke of Ireland. But this was the culminating 
 point of his worldly prosperity. 
 
 The second act in the drama of his life offered a dark 
 contrast to the first. His wondrous advancement, and 
 the imperious haughtiness with which he bore his eleva- 
 tion, excited the jealousy and hostility of the nobles, and a 
 confederation was formed against him, under the leader- 
 ship of the Duke of Gloucester, which coerced the King to 
 dismiss his favourite. De Vere fled from London, and 
 soon after effected his escape in disguise to the Continent, 
 accompanied by Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. He 
 returned subsequently to England, and, marching into 
 Oxfordshire at the head of four or five thousand men, was 
 met at Radcote Bridge, on the river Isis, and totally de- 
 feated by Gloucester and Henry of Bolingbroke. The 
 Royal army was completely surrounded, and the Duke 
 himself was placed in so critical a position that he could 
 secure personal safety only by throwing away his sword, 
 gauntlet, and armour, and swimming across the stream. 
 Many and harassing were the difficulties he had to over- 
 come before he succeeded in reaching the coast, and ob- 
 taining a passage in a fishing boat across the channel to 
 Flanders. Meanwhile, in the parliament convened in the 
 year 1388, he was sentenced to banishment and attainted,
 
 422 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 and all his vast property confiscated. In Flanders the 
 great and mighty Duke of Ireland suffered the extreme 
 of misery and want. One of the companions of his 
 exile, the Archbishop of York, closed his life as a simple 
 parish priest in a small village in the Low Countries. 
 De Vere never again saw England. Reduced to poverty 
 and deep distress, he dragged on a miserable existence 
 for a few years, and was at last gored by a wild boar 
 in a hunt, and died of the wound, at Lovaine, in the 
 year 1392. Truly might this fallen man exclaim with 
 Severus " I have been all things, and all was of little 
 value." Lordships of enormous extent honours, the 
 highest of the land power and fortune all had been his. 
 No subject in Europe had rivalled him in greatness, and 
 yet, within a brief while, he had scarcely wherewithal to 
 provide for his daily wants. When the news of the Duke's 
 death reached England, King Richard caused his body to 
 be brought over, had the coffin opened, that he might 
 once again see the features of the friend he had loved so 
 well, and attended the corpse himself, in grand procession, 
 to its interment at Earl's Colne, in Essex. The Duke of 
 Ireland had married twice. His first wife, the Lady Phi- 
 lippa de Coucy, though of royal blood, being grand- 
 daughter of Edward III., he repudiated, that he might 
 marry one of the maids of honour of Anne of Bohemia, 
 a Portuguese girl named Lancerona, stated by some 
 accounts to have been a joiner's daughter, but by others 
 styled " the Landgravine." This lady was the companion of 
 his banishment and adversity; and there may yet be seen 
 at Earl's Colne, among the De Vere memorials, the tomb
 
 DE VERB, EARL OP OXFORD. 423 
 
 and effigy of Lancerona, Duchess of Ireland, conspicuous 
 for the quaint head-dress of "piked horns" introduced by 
 Anne of Bohemia. "There were great murmurings 
 against the Duke of Ireland," says Froissart ; " but what 
 injured him most was his conduct to his Duchess, the 
 Lady Philippa, daughter of the Lord de Coucy, a hand- 
 some and noble lady ; for the Duke was greatly enamoured 
 with one of the Queen's damsels, called the landgravine. 
 She was a tolerably handsome, pleasant lady, whom Queen 
 Anne had brought with her from Bohemia. The Duke of 
 Ireland loved her with such ardour that he was desirous of 
 making her, if possible, his Duchess by marriage. All 
 the good people of England were much shocked at this ; 
 for his lawful wife was granddaughter to the gallant King 
 Edward and the excellent Queen Philippa, being the 
 daughter of the Princess Isabella. Her uncles, the Dukes 
 of Gloucester and York, were very wroth at this insult." 
 
 Miss Strickland ^ comments in a similar strain to Frois- 
 sart. "The first and last error of Anne of Bohemia," 
 says the gifted historian of the Queens of England, " was 
 the participation in this disgraceful transaction, by which 
 she was degraded in the eyes of subjects who had mani- 
 fested great esteem for her meek virtues. The offensive 
 part taken by the Queen in this transaction was, that she 
 actually wrote with her own hand an urgent letter to 
 Pope Urban, persuading him to sanction the divorce of 
 the Countess of Oxford, and to authorize the marriage of 
 her faithless lord with the landgravine. "Whether the 
 maid of honour were a princess or a peasant, she had 
 no right to appropriate another woman's husband. Th?
 
 424 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Queen was scarcely less culpable in aiding and abetting 
 so nefarious a measure, to the infinite injury of herself 
 and of the consort she so tenderly loved. There was 
 scarcely an Earl in England who was not related to the 
 Royal family. The Queen, by the part she took in this 
 disgraceful affair, offended every one allied to the royal 
 house of Plantagenet ; moreover, the lady whose divorce 
 was attempted was nearly allied to the house of Austria." 
 
 With Robert, first and only Duke of Ireland, and ninth 
 Earl of Oxford, expired the first line of the De Veres ; and 
 thus the brilliant sun that had shone so prosperously and 
 so brightly on the race for three centuries set in unprece- 
 dented gloom. 
 
 The second series of Earls of Oxford, who sprang from 
 the Duke's uncle, Aubrey de Vere, encountered vicissi- 
 tudes of almost parallel severity. Stanch Lancastrians, 
 they adhered with unswerving loyalty to the Red Rose ; 
 and the consequences were exile and death. After the 
 battle of Towton, which for the time ruined the Lancas- 
 trian party, and put Edward IV. on the throne, John de 
 Vere, twelfth Earl of Oxford, and his eldest son, Aubrey, 
 were detected in a correspondence with Queen Margaret, 
 were tried by martial law before the Constable, and were 
 convicted in an arbitrary manner: they were both 
 beheaded the same day on Tower Hill in 1461. But 
 their deaths were not left unrevenged. The twelfth Earl's 
 second son, John, the thirteenth Earl, soon proved himself 
 a great man, and a fatal foe to the house of York. He 
 was indeed a lion of the Lancastrian cause. Three years 
 after his father's death, a temporary triumph of the house
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 425 
 
 of Lancaster, which he aided to bring about, restored him ' 
 to his family honours. At Barnet he fought with his 
 usual sagacity and daring by the side of his brother-in-law 
 the King-making Warwick, but all to no avail. The Lan- 
 castrianleadersbecameoutcastsagain. Lingard, with graphic 
 veracity, thus tells of what befel De Vere. " Vere Earl 
 of Oxford," writes Dr. Lingard, "had escaped into Scotland, 
 and thence into France; but disdaining a life of indo- 
 lence, he collected a small squadron of twelve sail, swept 
 the narrow seas, kept the maritime counties in perpetual 
 alarm, and by frequent capture enriched himself and his 
 followers. With about four hundred men, he surprized 
 the strong fortress of Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, 
 whence he made repeated inroads into the neighbouring 
 counties, receiving supplies from the friends of the house of 
 Lancaster, and wreaking his vengeance on those of the house 
 of York. By Edward's command, Sir Henry Bodrugan 
 besieged the Mount ; but his fidelity was suspected, and 
 he was superseded by Richard Fortescue, Sheriff of Corn- 
 wall. The new commander had been a Lancastrian and 
 a friend: he had recourse to promises and persuasion; 
 and the Earl, apprehensive of the treachery of his own 
 men, surrendered the place on condition that his life, and 
 the lives of his followers should be spared, with the ex- 
 ception of the Lord Beaumont and Sir Richard Lauraarth. 
 During eleven years he was confined a close prisoner in 
 the castle of Ham, in Picardy; while his Countess, 
 the sister to the great Warwick, was compelled to support 
 herself by the profits of her needle and the secret 
 presents of her friends. He escaped from Ham
 
 426 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 with the connivance of the Governor, who had been 
 bribed by the Earl of Richmond; and we shall meet 
 with him again fighting victoriously for the house of 
 Lancaster." Strange indeed was it that that escape from 
 Ham should, like the famous escape in our own days, be 
 the prelude to a change of dynasty. De Vere was by 
 the side of Richmond when he landed at Milford Haven, 
 and he led the archer vanguard of the invading army. 
 Shakespeare makes him, while marching to Tamworth, 
 thus denounce King Richard : 
 
 " Every man's conscience is a thousand swords 
 To fight against that bloody homicide." 
 
 De Vere's prowess as commander of the vanguard told 
 with terrible effect at Bosworth, and in that battle he had 
 .at last the satisfaction of seeing the Yorkists finally 
 overthrown and utterly undone. The accession of Henry 
 to the throne brought honours and rewards to De Vere, 
 and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain was eventually 
 restored to him. The Earl was esteemed a gallant and 
 learned man, and had a high character for splendid 
 hospitality. On one occasion that hospitality was ill 
 requited. The story is thus told : " Henry VII., visit, 
 ing the Earl's castle of Hedingham, was there sumptu- 
 ously received by the princely noble ; and at his de- 
 parture, his lordship's livery servants, ranged on both 
 sides, made an avenue for the king : which attracting 
 his highness's attention, he called out to the earl, 
 and said, ' My lord, I have heard much of your hos- 
 pitality ; but I see it is greater than the speech. These 
 handsome gentlemen and yeomen, which I see on both
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 427 
 
 sides of me, are surely your menial servants/ The earl 
 smiled and said, ' It may please your grace, they were not 
 for mine ease : they are most of them my retainers, that 
 are come to do me service at such a time as this ; and 
 chiefly to see your grace/ The king started a little, and 
 rejoined, ' By my faith, my lord, I thank you for my good 
 cheer, but I may not endure to have my laws broken in 
 my sight ; my attorney must speak with you/ It is 
 added, that this affair cost his lordship eventually no less 
 than fifteen thousand marks, in the shape of compromise." 
 Yet it is but fair to the memory of Henry VII. to give 
 the following explanation from Hume of this transaction : 
 "There scarcely," writes Hume, "passed any sessions 
 during this reign without some statute against engaging 
 retainers, and giving them badges or liveries ; a practice 
 by which they were in a manner enlisted under some great 
 lord, and were kept in readiness to assist him in all wars, 
 insurrections, riots, violences, and even in bearing evidence 
 for him in courts of justice. This disorder, which had 
 prevailed during many reigns, when the law could give 
 little protection to the subject, was then deeply rooted in 
 England ; and it required all the vigilance and rigour of 
 Henry to extirpate it. The story of his severity against 
 De Vere for this abuse seems to merit praise, though 
 it is commonly cited as an instance of his avarice and 
 rapacity." 
 
 The reader of romance will not fail to recall Scott's tale 
 of "Anne of Geierstein," in which this Earl of Oxford, 
 under the disguise of John Philipson, acts so conspicuous 
 a part. It should, however, be observed that the son of
 
 428 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 Philipson, Arthur de Vere (Arthur is not even a De Vere 
 Christian name), who weds Anne of Geiersteiu, is a pure 
 creation of Sir Walter Scott's brain. John de Vere, thir- 
 teenth Earl of Oxford, had no issue besides a son, John, 
 who died young, a prisoner in the Tower, actually during 
 the very exile of his father; and the Earl was succeeded 
 by his nephew, John de Vere, fourteenth Earl of Oxford, 
 commonly called " Little John of Campes," from his dimi- 
 nutive stature and his constant residence at Castle Campes, 
 Cambridgeshire. The death of John of Campes without 
 issue, in 1526, terminated the second branch of the Earls 
 of Oxford. A cousin, John de Vere, succeeded him as 
 fifteenth Earl of Oxford. 
 
 Passing over the fifteenth Earl and his successor, I come 
 to his grandson, Edward de Vere, seventeenth Earl of 
 Oxford, the soldier and poet, so renowned at the brilliant 
 court of Elizabeth. He it was who first introduced per- 
 fumes and embroidered gloves into England. The first 
 pair of the latter he, in duty bound, presented to his 
 Royal Mistress ; and her Majesty was so charmed with 
 the gift, that she had her picture painted with these very 
 gloves on. But Oxford was not merely a courtier and a 
 coxcomb. He had a command in the fleet equipped to 
 oppose the Armada, in 1588. His lordship was one of 
 the wits of the period in which he lived, and was distin- 
 guished alike by his patriotism and chivalrous spirit. In 
 the tournaments of Elizabeth's reign the Earl of Oxford 
 was pre-eminently conspicuous, and upon two occasions he 
 was honoured with a prize from her Majesty's own hand, 
 being conducted, armed, by two ladies, into the presence
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 429 
 
 chamber for the purpose of receiving the high reward. 
 Walpole considers him the best writer of comedy of his 
 day ; and, in proof of his military capacity, a command 
 against the Armada was assigned him. He lived to be a 
 very old man, arid died in 1604, full of years and of his 
 country's esteem. Almost contemporaneously with her, 
 flourished his kinsmen, the famous brothers Sir Francis and 
 Sir Horatio Vere, both of whom added lustre to the glo- 
 rious name they inherited, and both of whom lie interred in 
 Westminster Abbey. "They lived in war much honoured, 
 and died in peace much lamented." 
 
 The seventeenth Earl of Oxford appears to have dis- 
 sipated the noble inheritance of his family. Morant, in 
 his History of Essex, refers to the circumstance, and says 
 the Earl did it to spite his father-in-law, Lord Burleigh. 
 At all events, in a very short time after, the house of De 
 Vere is found to be no longer in possession of the terri- 
 torial position it had so long held, and Robert, the nine- 
 teenth Earl, seems to have lived in early life in a poor 
 condition, and some obscurity, and not to have anticipated 
 the "vicissitude of inheriting" the Earldom of Oxford; 
 for Sir Symond D'Ewes, in his Autobiography lately 
 published from the MS. Diary in the British Museum, 
 says : 
 
 " Jan. 17th, 166.2. I visited Sir Robert Cotton, when we 
 conferred together touching the settling of Robert de Vere, 
 son of Hugh, son of Aubrey, the second son of John, the 
 fifteenth Earl of Oxford, with the title of that earldom. This 
 was on the failure of the direct line with Henry, eighteenth 
 Earl, when the Lord Willoughby de Eresby, to all men's
 
 430 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 wonder, claimed, in right of his mother, both the earldom 
 and the Lord Great-Chamberlainship. Sir Robert Cotton 
 and myself, therefore, pitying the mean condition of the 
 said Robert de Vere, the true and rightful heir, who had 
 scarce any means to live on but a Captain's place under the 
 United Provinces, and seeing that Lord "Willoughby 
 thought that by his power and wealth to carry it against 
 him, we both joined our best skill and searches together 
 to assist and uphold the said Robert de Vere's just and 
 undoubted title to the said earldom, which, in the issue, 
 by the judgment of the whole Upper House, was settled 
 upon him, though he most unfortunately lost the place of 
 Great- Chamberlain of England, which Lord Willoughby 
 obtained. I gained two men's acquaintance by the labour 
 I bestowed on this business, which afforded me exceeding 
 great satisfaction ; to wit, Horace Lord Vere, of Tilbury, 
 and Sir Albertus Joachimi, Ambassador from the Nether- 
 lands. I believe they both went over to the Netherlands, 
 and brought Robert de Vere to England with them." 
 
 One would almost suppose from this statement, that 
 had it not been for the interest taken by Sir S. D'Ewes 
 and Sir Robert Cotton in his case, Robert de Vere, the 
 poor soldier, might have lived and died in his "mean 
 condition," instead of succeeding to the oldest earldom in 
 England, for he fell only a few years afterwards, at the 
 siege of Maestricht. 
 
 One more link, and the chain of descent is completed : 
 Aubrey de Vere, the only son of this gallant Earl who fell 
 at Maestricht, was a degenerate scion of a most illustrious 
 race : the representative of Alberic, the Norman, the direct
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 431 
 
 heir of the unbending Baron of Magna Charta,the twentieth 
 Earl of Oxford, in the unbroken male line ; he lived to 
 see the ruin of his house, and died (according to popular 
 belief) its last male descendant. 
 
 Horace Walpole records the final decadence of the De 
 Veres : these are his words : 
 
 " I v/as carried to see the last remains of the glory of 
 old Aubrey De Veres, Earls of Oxford : they were once 
 masters of almost this entire county [of Essex], but quite 
 reduced, even before the extinction of their house. The 
 last Earl's son died at a miserable cottage that I was 
 shown at a distance. Hedingham Castle, where Henry 
 VII. was so sumptuously banquetted, and imposed that 
 villanous fine, for his entertainment, is now shrunk to one 
 vast, curious tower, that stands on a spacious mount 
 raised on a high hill with a large foss." 
 
 So ended De Vere, and this (to borrow from the language 
 of Sir Walter Scott) was the last scion of the noble stem, 
 so many fair boughs of which have fallen in many a 
 royal and a hapless cause. Of the De Veres it may be 
 well said, that whatever dangers their duty and fealty 
 called them to, were it from sword or lance, axe or gibbet, 
 to these they exposed themselves frankly, when their 
 doing so could mark their allegiance. 
 
 This is, indeed, but a hasty glance at the fame, the 
 achievements, and the sufferings of these mighty De Veres ; 
 but to enter minutely into their history, would require 
 more space than I can command, and might not be con- 
 sidered necessary for the purposes of this work. 
 
 In a former page, I have alluded to the litigation of
 
 432 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES. 
 
 the time of Charles I. for the De Vere succession. The 
 contest arose between Robert Vere and .Robert Lord Wil- 
 loughby de Eresby, for the Earldom of Oxford, as well as 
 for the office of Hereditary Great- Chamberlain ; and the 
 question was, whether the heir male, or a more immediate 
 heir-general, should inherit the honours and dignities of 
 the house of De Vere. Another question, however, was 
 involved, with reference to full and half- blood; for, al- 
 though Robert Vere was the undoubted heir-male, Lord 
 Willoughby was certainly not, according to our present 
 ideas, heir-general to the deceased eighteenth Earl of 
 Oxford, at whose death the controversy occurred ; and he 
 could only be reckoned as heir- general from the strange 
 and erroneous notion of the importance of FULL blood, 
 which obtained in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 The descent of the claimants, set forth in the following 
 tabular pedigree, will aid the reader : 
 
 JOHN DE VERE, 15th Earl of Oxford. 
 
 1. Lady Dorothy John. 16th Karl of=j=2. Marearet 
 
 Aubrev 
 
 Neville. 1 Oxford, d. 4 Eli- Goldins. 
 
 de Vere. 
 
 1 zabeth. 
 
 
 *& 
 
 1 
 
 Catherine, 
 
 1. Hon. =FEd\v.. 17th= 
 
 =2. Eliza- 
 
 I 
 Mary, wife | 
 
 wife of Ed- 
 
 Anne Cecil. 
 
 Earl, d. 2 
 
 beth Tren- 
 
 of Pere- 
 
 Hugh 
 
 ward, Lord 
 
 
 James 1. 
 
 tham. 
 
 erine,10th 
 
 de Vere. 
 
 Windsor. 
 
 
 
 
 Lord Wil- 
 
 
 
 , 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 loughby 
 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 Bridget, 
 
 Susan, wife 
 
 ITennr, 
 
 de Eresby. 
 
 
 wife of Wm. 
 
 wife of 
 
 of Philip, 
 
 18th Earl, 
 
 T= 
 
 Robert 
 
 Earl of 
 
 Francis, 
 
 Earl of 
 
 d. 1627, 
 
 
 de Vere, 
 
 Derby. 
 
 Lord Ncr- 
 
 Montgo- 
 
 s.p. 
 
 Robert, 
 
 male 
 
 =T= 
 
 ris^= 
 
 mery.^ 
 
 
 llth Lord 
 
 heir, 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 
 Willough- 
 
 claimed 
 
 The Duke 
 
 The Earl of 
 
 The Earb 
 
 
 hydeEres- 
 
 the earl- 
 
 of Athole, 
 
 Abingdon. 
 
 of Pem- 
 
 
 bv. claim- 
 
 dom as 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 
 brok-; and 
 
 
 ant as heir 
 
 19th 
 
 
 
 Carnarvon. 
 
 
 general, 
 
 Earl, d. 
 
 
 
 
 
 full blood. 
 
 1632.
 
 
 DE VERB. EARL OP OXFORD. 433 
 
 Adverting to this table, it is evident that, according to 
 our notions of heirship in a question between Robert De 
 Vere the heir male, and the heir general of the DeVeres. 
 ihe latter would not have been Robert, Lord Willoughby, 
 He would have come the very last in the list, instead of 
 having been put first. He, as the son of the full sister of 
 Edward, seventeenth Earl of Oxford, was preferred as heir 
 general to the daughters of Edward, seventeenth Earl of 
 Oxford ; and why ? Because, forsooth, he was the son of 
 the full sister of the father of Henry, eighteenth Earl, the 
 last holder of the title; and the three daughters of his 
 i'ather, the seventeenth Earl, were by a different mother, and 
 thus only his (Henry's) sisters by the half blood. An aunt in 
 full blood was thus regarded as the heir general, and repre- 
 sentative of the family in the female line, rather than sisters 
 by the half blood. Let us go back to the common ancestor 
 of all the parties, viz., John De Vere, fifteenth Earl of Oxford. 
 His heir male was of course (on the death of the eighteenth 
 Earl) Robert de Vere. Who was his heir general ? Accord- 
 ing to our notions, his heirs general would be the Duke of 
 Athole, the Earl of Abingdon, and the Earl of Pembroke, 
 as the representatives of the three daughters of his grand- 
 son, the seventeenth Earl, the Ladies Derby, Norris, and 
 Montgomery. Next to them would come the Earl of 
 Plymouth, as representative of the Lady Windsor, the 
 eldest daughter of his son the sixteenth Earl ; and then 
 last of all would come Lord Willoughby and the house 
 of Ancaster as representative of Lady Willoughby, the 
 second daughter of this sixteenth Earl. But, accord- 
 ing to the false estimate of the superior claim possessed 
 2 F P
 
 43 i VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 by him who was the nearest relation by full blood to the 
 last holder of the title, Lord Willoughby, though rightly 
 the last in the line of heirs general, was reckoned the 
 first ; and although Robert de Vere succeeded in establish- 
 ing his claim to the earldom, and became nineteenth 
 Earl of Oxford, Lord Willoughby obtained the dignified 
 office of Great Chamberlain of England, which was held 
 by his descendants the Dukes of Ancaster ; and is now 
 shared between his heirs general, Lord Willoughby de 
 Eresby and the Marquess Cholmondeley. If the office 
 of Great Chamberlain be one that should go in the female 
 line, it ought, according to my view, he now held of right 
 by the heir of line of the original Earls of Oxford. 
 
 When the last Duke of Ancaster died in 1779, the 
 Duchess of Athole claimed the office of Great Chamberlain, 
 as being the representative of Elizabeth, Countess of Derby, 
 eldest daughter of Edward, seventeenth Earl of Oxford; 
 and I have heard that the fourth Duke thought of renew- 
 ing the claim, but nothing was done in the matter. 
 
 Bat, in fact, if, as appears most positively to have been 
 the case, the office of Great Chamberlain was one that 
 went in the female line, not one of the descendants of 
 John, fifteenth Earl, had any right to it. It ought to 
 have left the De Vere family on the death of John, 
 fourteenth Earl, who died s. p. in the reign of Henry 
 VIII., and should now, I apprehend, be vested in the re- 
 presentative of his Lordship's sister, Dorothy, wife of John 
 Neville, Lord Latimer. 
 
 Pew peerage claims attracted more attention than this 
 of De Vere ; and, independently of the deep interest which
 
 DE VERB, EARL OF OXFORD. 435 
 
 a contest for the proudest title in England must at all times 
 create, there has been handed down in the law books the 
 brilliant summing up of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir 
 Randolph Crew, one of the judges whose advice the 
 House of Peers sought for their guidance, and one it 
 should be observed who did honour to the ermine, for he 
 surrendered his office sooner than countenance those royal 
 but illegal loans which were the forerunners of ship-money. 
 Sir Randolph was as eloquent as he was upright, in his 
 thrilling address, in the Earl of Oxford's case. This 
 most eloquent address will fitly conclude my story of the 
 decadence of De Vere : 
 
 " This great and weighty cause," (these are the Chief 
 Justice's words,) " incomparable to any other that hath 
 happened at any time, requires great deliberation, and solid 
 and mature judgment to determine it ; and I wish that all 
 the judges of England had L heard it (it being a fit case for 
 all), to the end we all together might have given our 
 humble advice to your Lordships herein. Here is repre- 
 sented to your Lordships certamen honoris, and, as I may 
 well say, illustris honoris, illustrious honour. I heard a 
 great peer of this realm, and a learned, say, when he lived 
 there was no king in Christendom had such a subject as 
 Oxford. He came in with the Conqueror, Earl of Guynes ; 
 shortly after the Conquest, made Great Chamberlain of 
 England above five hundred years ago, by Henry I., the 
 Conqueror's son, brother to Rufus; by Maud, the Em- 
 press, Earl of Oxford ; confirmed and approved by Henry 
 II., Alberico comiti, so Earl before. This great honour, 
 this high and noble dignity hath continued ever since in
 
 436 VICISSITUDES OP FAMILIES. 
 
 the remarkable surname of De Vere, by so many ages, 
 descents and generations, as no other kingdom can pro- 
 duce such a peer in one and the self-same name and title. I 
 find in all this length of time but two attainders of this 
 noble family, and those in stormy and tempestuous times, 
 when the government was unsettled, and the kingdom in 
 competition. I have laboured to make a covenant with 
 myself that affection may not press upon judgment ; for 
 I suppose there is no man that hath any apprehension of 
 gentry or nobleness, but his affection stands to the con- 
 tinuance of so noble a name and house, and would take 
 hold of a twig or a twine thread to uphold it. And yet, 
 Time hath his revolutions ; there must be a period and an 
 end to all things temporal finis rerum an end of names 
 and dignities and whatsoever is terrene, and why not of 
 De Vere ? For where is Bohun ? Where is Mowbray ? 
 Where is Mortimer ? Nay, which is more and most of all, 
 where is Plantagenet ? They are entombed in the urns 
 and sepulchres of mortality ! And yet let the name 
 and dignity of De Vere stand so long as it pleaseth 
 God." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BILLING, PRIMTEB AXD STEBEOTYPXS, OUILDKOUD, SUI'.GEY.
 
 SIR BERNARD^BURKE'S WORKS. 
 
 I. 
 
 In one volume, price 12s. 6c?., 
 THE FIRST SERIES 
 
 OF 
 
 VICISSITUDES OF FAMILIES, 
 
 AND OTHER ESSAYS. 
 BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, 
 
 Ulster IXmg of 'arms, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE PEERAGE AND BAHONETAGE." 
 
 FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 " SIB BERNARD BtrBKE has produced from his repertory a variety of 
 examples which are most entertaining. He narrates the vicissitudes of 
 the Royal Stuarts, and the House of Albany, the fortunes of the O'Neills 
 and the Greraldines, and of many other historic lines who are memorable 
 
 either for their greatness or misfortunes Hosts of Stories crowd 
 
 upon us in these interesting pages." TIMES. 
 
 " ' ULSTER' has here given us an agreeable book on one of the most 
 interesting branches of genealogy. Our novelists hardly dream of the 
 material for fiction which lies buried in county and family histories 
 books which, except in rare instances, are hopelessly unreadable. SIB 
 BERNARD BURKE, in tliis instance, comes as a ' medium' between that 
 world and the ordinary reading public, and takes advantage of his posi- 
 tion with taste and skill." ATHEN-EUM. 
 
 " Nothing more romantic than these true stories can be found in the 
 whole range of fiction." LEADER. 
 
 ' What an interesting social history of our country might be com- 
 posed (call it the Genealogical History of England) from the mere 
 details of the rise and fall of the various families which have, one after 
 another, occupied prominent places as lords of the soil in merry Eng- 
 land. If the task could be accomplished, SIR BERNARD BURKE is un- 
 questionably the man to do it. And we should not like his work the 
 less because he would bring to it something of the pedantry of a herald, 
 and something of the garrulity of a gossip, as well as the accuracy and 
 research which modern requirements exact from an historian." JOHN 
 BULL. 
 
 " A fund of amusement for a long day." DAILY NEWS. 
 
 " The contents of these pages, as supplying various links in the great 
 chain of English family history, are well worth the careful perusal of 
 grave students ; and novel readers will here meet with tales as wild aa 
 were ever imagined in fiction tales which, alas ! are only too true." 
 THE CRITIC. 
 
 " This very interesting work may almost be said to form a sequel to 
 the well-known ' Eomance of the Aristocracy,' by the same author. In 
 reading it we are at a loss whether to admire the patient industry 
 evinced in the collection of the materials, or the exquisite skill shown 
 in weaving them into a deeply interesting, and at the same time most 
 instructive narrative." DUBLIN EVENING POST. 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS, 
 
 PATEBNOSTEU BOW, LONDON.
 
 SIR BERNARD BURKE^S WORKS. 
 
 II. 
 
 In one volume, price 38s., 
 
 A GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC DICTIONARY OF 
 THE PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE. 
 
 " The best genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the Peerage and 
 Baronetage, and the first authority on all questions affecting the Aris- 
 tocracy." GLOBE. 
 
 HABBISON, (Bookseller to the Queen.) 59, PALL MALL. 
 
 in. 
 In one volume, complete, price 2 7*. 6d., 
 
 A GENEALOGICAL AND HERALDIC HISTORY OF 
 
 THE LANDED GENTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 " The untitled aristocracy have in this great work as perfect a Dic- 
 tionary of their genealogical history, family connexion, and heraldic 
 rights, as the Peerage and Baronetage. It will be an enduring and 
 trustworthy record." MOENING POST. 
 
 HAEE1SON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL. 
 
 In two volumes, bound in crimson, price 2 2s. , 
 
 A VISITATION OF THE SEATS OF GREAT BRITAIN 
 AND IRELAND. 
 
 SUustratefc brith tte of <Seats an& Coats of &rms. 
 
 IIAEBISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL. 
 
 * # * A very few Copies of this Work remain. 
 
 T. 
 
 In one volume, bound in crimson cloth, price 1 1*., 
 
 ROYAL DESCENTS AND PEDIGREES OF 
 
 FOUNDERS' KIN. 
 IIAEEISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL. 
 
 ' . vi. 
 In one volume, bound in crimson cloth, price 1 10*., 
 
 A SELECTION OF ARMS AUTHORIZED BY THE 
 
 LAWS OF HERALDRY. 
 
 SHtth numerous engrafamgs of &rnts antr iJSefcigretg. 
 HAEEISON, (Bookseller to the Queen,) 59, PALL MALL.
 
 A 000034846 6