Globusz^® Publishing 

NOTE 1 ~ Bussi and St. Evremont.

Voltaire, in the Age of Lewis XIV., ch. 24, speaking of that monarch, says, "Even at the same time when he began to encourage genius by his liberality, the Count de Bussi was severely punished for the use he made of his: he was sent to the Bastile in 1664. THE AMOURS OF THE GAULS was the pretence of his imprisonment; but the true cause was the song in which the king was treated with too much freedom, and which, upon this occasion, was brought to remembrance, to ruin Bussi, the reputed author of it.

"Qua Deodatus est heureux, De baiser ce bec amoreux, Qui d'une oreille à l'autre va ! "See Deodatus with his billing dear, Whose amorous mouth breathes love from ear to ear !

"His works were not good enough to compensate for the mischief they did him. He spoke his own language with purity; he had some merit, but more conceit: and he made no use of the merit he had, but to make himself enemies." Voltaire adds,-- "Bussi was released at the end of eighteen months; but he was in disgrace all the rest of his life, in vain protesting a regard for Lewis XIV." Bussi died 1693. Of St. Evremont, see note, postea.

NOTE 2 ~ Louis XIII.

Son and successor of Henry IV. He began to reign 14th May, 1610 and died 14th May, 1643.

NOTE 3 ~ Cardinal de Richelieu.

Of this great minister Mr. Hume gives the following character: -- "This man had no sooner, by suppleness and intrigue, gotten possession of the reins of government, than he formed at once three mighty projects -- to subdue the turbulent spirit of the great; to reduce the rebellious Hugonots; and to curb the encroaching power of the house of Austria. Undaunted and implacable, prudent and active, he braved all the opposition of the French princes and nobles in the prosecution of his vengeance; he discovered and dissipated all their secret cabals and conspiracies. His sovereign himself he held in subjection, while he exalted the throne. The people, while they lost their liberties, acquired, by means of his administration, learning, order, discipline, and renown. That confused and inaccurate genius of government, of which France partook in common with other European kingdoms, he changed into a simple monarchy, at the very time when the incapacity of Buckingham encouraged the free spirit of the Commons to establish in England a regular system of liberty." -- (History of England, vol. iv. p. 232.) Cardinal Richelieu died 1642.

NOTE 4 ~ Siege of Trino.

Trino was taken 4th May, 1639.

NOTE 5 ~ Prince Thomas

Of Savoy, uncle of the reigning duke. He died 1656.

NOTE 6 ~ As the post of Lieutenant-General was not then known.

The author has here made a mistake; for in the year 1638, while the Duke of Weimar was besieging Brisac, Cardinal Richelieu sent him two reinforcements, under the conduct of Turenne and the Count de Guébriant, as Lieutenant-Generals, a rank till that time not known in France, -- Mémoires de Turenne.

NOTE 7 ~ Du Plessis Pralin,

Afterwards Maréchal and Duke de Choiseul. He retired from the army in 1672. Monsieur Renault, in his History of France, under that year, says, -- "Le Maréchal du Plessis ne fit pas cette campagne à cause de son grand âge; il dit au roi, qu'il portoit envie a ses enfans, qui avoient l'honneur de servir sa majesté, que pour lui il souhaitoit la mort, puisqu'il n'étoit plus bon à rien; le roi l'embrassa, et lui dit: M. le Maréchal, on ne travaille que pour approcher de la réputation que vous avez acquise; il est agréable de se reposer apres tant de victoires."

NOTE 8 ~ Viscount Turenne.

This great general was killed July 27, 1675, by a cannot-shot, near the village of Saltzback, in going to choose a place whereon to erect a battery. "No one," says Voltaire, "is ignorant of the circumstances of his death; but we cannot here refrain a review of the principal of them, for the same reason that they are still talked of every day. It seems as if one could not too often repeat, that the same bullet which killed him, having shot off the arm of St. Hilaire, lieutenant-general of the artillery, his son came and bewailed his misfortune with many tears; but the father, looking towards Turenne, said, 'It is not I, but that great man, who should be lamented.' These words may be compared with the most heroic sayings recorded in all history, and are the best eulogy that can "be bestowed upon Turenne. It is uncommon, under a despotic government, where people are actuated only by their private interests, for those who have served their country to die regretted by the public. Nevertheless, Turenne was lamented both by the soldiers and people; and Louvois was the only one who rejoiced at his death. The honours which the king ordered to be paid to his memory are known to every one; and that he was interred at St. Denis, in the same manner as the Constable du Guesclin, above whom he was elevated by the voice of the public, as much as the age of Turenne was superior to the age of the constable.

"Turenne had not always been successful in his wars; he had been defeated at Mariendal, Retel, and Cambray: he had also committed errors, and was himself so great a man as to confess them. He never made great and celebrated conquests, nor ever gained those great and important victories, by which nations are subjected: but having always repaired his defeats, and done a great deal with a little, he was regarded as the first general in Europe, at a time when the art of war was more studied and better understood than ever. Moreover, though he was reproached for his infidelity in the wars of the Fronde; though, at the age of sixty years, love made him reveal the secrets of the state; and though he had exercised cruelties in the Palatinate, which did not appear necessary; yet he had always the happiness to preserve the reputation of an honest, wise, and moderate man; because his virtues and his great abilities, which were peculiar to himself, made those errors and weaknesses pardonable in him. which he had in common with the rest of mankind. If he can be compared to any one, we presume, that among all the generals of the preceding ages, Gonzalvo de Cordova, surnamed the Great Captain, is the man whom he most resembles." -- The Age of Louis XIV. ch. 11.

In former editions, the quotation from Voltaire was yet longer. It is more germain to the present matter to observe, that it appears, from the Memoirs of St. Hilaire, where Voltaire found his anecdote, that Count Hamilton was present at the death of Turenne. Monsieur de Boze had twice sent to Turenne, to beg him to come to the place where the battery was to be erected, which Turenne, as if by presentiment, declined. Count Hamilton brought the third anxious request from De Boze; and in riding to the place where he was, Turenne received his death-blow.

The horse of Montecuculi, the opposite general, was, in the course of the same day, killed by a cannon-shot.

NOTE 9 ~ Of this number was Matta.

Matta, or Matha, of whom Hamilton has drawn so striking a picture, is said to have been of the house of Bourdeille, which had the honour to produce Brantome and Montresor. The combination of indolence and talent, of wit and simplicity, of bluntness and irony, with which he is represented, may have been derived from tradition, but could only have been united into the inimitable whole by the pen of Hamilton. Several of his bon mots have been preserved; but the spirit evaporates in translation. "Where could I get this nose," said Madame D'Albret, observing a slight tendency to a flush in that feature. "At the sideboard, madam," answered Matta. When the same lady, in despair at her brother's death, refused all nourishment, Matta administered this blunt consolation: "If you are resolved, madam, never again to swallow food, you do well; but if ever you mean to eat upon any future occasion, believe me, you may as well begin just now." Madame Caylus, in her Souvenirs, commemorates the simple and natural humour of Matta, as rendering him the most delightful society in the world. Mademoiselle, in her Memoirs, alludes to his pleasantry in conversation, and turn for deep gaming. When the Memoirs of Grammont were subjected to the examination of Fontenelle, then censor of the Parisian press, he refused to license them, on account of the scandalous conduct imputed to Grammont in this party at quinze. The count no sooner heard of this than he hastened to Fontenelle, and having joked him for being more tender of his reputation than he was himself, the license was instantly issued. The censor might have retorted upon Grammont the answer which the count made to a widow, who received coldly his compliments of condolence on her husband's death. "Nay, madam, if that is the way you take it, I care as little about it as you do." He died in 1674. "Matta est mort sans confession," says Madame Maintenon, in a letter to her brother. -- Tome i. p. 67.

NOTE 10 ~ Caesars de Vendome.

Caesar Duke de Vendome was the eldest son of Henry I.V., by the celebrated Gabrielle d'Estres. He died in 1665.

NOTE 11 ~ The college of Pau.

Pau was the capital of the principality of Bearn, and lies on an eminence on the Gave Bearnois, being indeed small and well built, and formerly the seat of a parliament, a bailiwick, and a chamber of accounts. In the palace here was born Henry IV. Exclusive of an academy of sciences and liberal arts, there was in it a college of Jesuits, with five convents, and two hospitals.

NOTE 12 ~ Bidache.

A principality belonging to the family of the Grammonts, in the province of Gascogny.

NOTE 13 ~ The Baron de Batteville.

This officer appears to have been the same person who was afterwards ambassador from Spain to the court of Great Britain, where, in the summer of 1660, he offended the French court, by claiming precedence of their ambassador, Count D'Estrades, on the public entry of the Swedish ambassador into London. On this occasion the court of France compelled its rival of Spain to submit to the mortifying circumstance of acknowledging the French superiority. To commemorate this important victory, Lewis XIV. caused a medal to be struck, representing the Spanish ambassador, Marquis de Fuente, making the declaration to that king, "No concurrer con los ambassadores de Francia," with this inscription, "Jus præcedendi assertum," and under it, "Hispanorum excusatio coram xxx legatis principum, 1662." A very curious account of the fray occasioned by this dispute, drawn up by Mr. Evelyn, is to be seen in that gentleman's article in the Biographia Britannica. Lord Clarendon, speaking of Baron de Batteville, says, he was born in Burgundy, in the Spanish quarters, and bred a soldier, in which profession he was an officer of note, and at that time was governor of St. Sebastian's, and of that province. He seemed a rough man, and to have more of the camp, but in truth, knew the intrigues of a court better than most Spaniards; and, except when his passion surprised him, was wary and cunning in his negotiation. He lived with less reservation and more jollity than the ministers of that crown used to do, and drew such of the court to his table and conversation, who he observed were loud talkers, and confident enough in the king's presence. -- Continuation of Clarendon, p. 84.

NOTE 14 ~ Madame Royale.

Christina, second daughter of Henry IV., married to Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont, afterwards Duke of Savoy. She seems to have been well entitled to the character here given of her. Keysler, in his Travels, vol. i. p. 239, speaking of a fine villa, called La Vigne de Madame Royale, near Turin, says, "During the minority under the regent Christina, both the house and garden were often the scenes of riot and debauchery. On this account, in the king's advanced age, when he was, as it were, inflamed with an external flame of religion, and with which possibly the admonitions of his father-confessor might concur, this place became so odious to him, that, upon the death of Madame Royale, he bestowed it on the hospital." She died in 1663.

NOTE 15 ~ The Marchioness de Senantes.

Lord Orford says, the family of Senantes still remains in Piedmont, and bears the title of Marquis de Carailles.

NOTE 16 ~ La Venerie.

This place is thus described by Keysler. Travels, vol. i. p. 235.-- "The palace most frequented by the royal family is La Venerie, the court generally continuing there from the spring to December. It is about a league from Turin: the road that leads to it is well paved, and the greatest part of it planted with trees on each side: it is not always in a direct line, but runs a little winding between fine meadows, fields, and vineyards." After describing the palace as it then was, he adds,-- "The palace garden at present consists only of hedges and walks, whereas formerly it had fine water-works and grottos, besides the fountain of Hercules and the temple of Diana, of which a description may be seen in the Nouveau Théâtre de Piedmont. But now nothing of these remains, being gone to ruin, partly by the ravages of the French, and partly by the king's order that they should be demolished, to make room for something else; but those vacuities have not yet, and probably will not very soon be filled up."

NOTE 17 ~ The Prince de Condé.

Lewis of Bourbon, Duke d'Enguien, afterwards, by the death of his father in 1646, Prince de Condé. Of this great man Cardinal de Retz says, "he was born a general, which never happened but to Caesar, to Spinola, and to himself. He has equalled the first: he has surpassed the second. Intrepidity is one of the least shining strokes in his character. Nature had formed him with a mind as great as his courage. Fortune, in setting him out in a time of wars, has given this last a full extent to work in: his birth, or rather his education, in a family devoted and enslaved to the court, has kept the first within too strait bounds. He was not taught time enough the great and general maxims which alone are able to form men to think always consistently. He never had time to learn them of himself, because he was prevented from his youth, by the great affairs that fell unexpectedly to his share, and by the continual success he met with. This defect in him was the cause, that with the soul in the world the least inclined to evil, he has committed injuries; that with the heart of an Alexander, he has. like him, had his failings; that with a wonderful understanding, he has acted imprudently; that having all the qualities which the Duke Francis of Guise had, he has not served the state in some occasions so well as he ought; and that having likewise all the qualities of the Duke Henry of Guise, he has not carried faction so far as he might. He could not come up to the height of his merit; which, though it be a defect, must yet be owned to be very uncommon, and only to be found in persons of the greatest abilities." -- Memoirs, vol. i. p. 248, edit. 1723.

He retired from the army, soon after the death of Turenne, to Chantilly, "from whence," says Voltaire, "he very rarely came to Versailles, to behold his glory eclipsed in a place where the courtier never regards any thing but favour. He passed the remainder of his days, tormented with the gout, relieving the severity of his pains, and employing the leisure of his retreat, in the conversation of men of genius of all kinds, with which France then abounded. He was worthy of their conversation; as he was not unacquainted with any of those arts and sciences in which they shone. He continued to be admired even in his retreat; but at last that devouring fire, which, in his youth, had made him a hero, impetuous, and full of passions, having consumed the strength of his body, which was naturally rather agile than robust, he declined before his time; and the strength of his mind decaying with that of his body, there remained nothing of the great Condé during the last two years of his life. He died in 1686." -- Age of Lewis XIV., chap. 11. He was aged 66 years.

[Pepys says, "The Prince of Condé's excellence is, that there is not a more furious man in the world; danger in fight never disturbs him, except just to make him civil, and to command in words of great obligation to his officers and men; but without any the least disturbance in his judgment or spirit."]

NOTE 18 ~ Battles of Lens, Norlinguin, and Fribourg.

These were fought in the years 1648, 1645, and 1644.

NOTE 19 ~ The Queen.

Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III. of Spain, widow of Lewis XIII., to whom she was married in 1615, and mother of Lewis XIV. She died in 1666. Cardinal de Retz speaks of her in the following terms.-- " The queen had more than anybody whom I ever knew, of that sort of wit which was necessary for her not to appear a fool to those that did not know her. She had in her more of harshness than haughtiness; more of haughtiness than of greatness; more of outward appearance than reality; more regard to money than liberality; more of liberality than of self-interest; more of self-interest than disinterestedness: she was more tied to persons by habit than by affection; she had more of insensibility than of cruelty ; she had a better memory for injuries than for benefits; her intention towards piety was greater than her piety; she had in her more of obstinacy than of firmness; and more incapacity than of all the rest which I mentioned before." -- Memoirs, vol. i. p. 247.

NOTE 20 ~ The policy of the minister.

Cardinal Mazarine, who, during a few of the latter years of his life, governed France. He died at Vincennes the 9th of March 1661, aged 59 years, leaving as heir to his name and property the Marquis de la Meilleray, who married his niece, and took the title of Duke of Mazarine. On his death, Lewis XIV. and the court appeared in mourning, an honour not common, though Henry IV. had shewn it to the memory of Gabrielle d'Estrées. Voltaire, who appears unwilling to ascribe much ability to the cardinal, takes an opportunity, on occasion of his death, to make the following observation.-- "We cannot refrain from combating the opinion, which supposes prodigious abilities, and a genius almost divine, in those who have governed empires with some degree of success. It is not a superior penetration that makes statesmen; it is their character. All men, how inconsiderable soever their share of sense may be, see their own interest nearly alike. A citizen of Bern or Amsterdam, in this respect, is equal to Sejanus, Ximenes, Buckingham, Richelieu, or Mazarine; but our conduct and our enterprises depend absolutely on our natural dispositions, and our success depends upon fortune." -- Age of Lewis XIV. chap. 5.

NOTE 21 ~ The Archduke.

Leopold, brother of the Emperor Ferdinand III.

NOTE 22 ~ Peronne.

A little but strong town, standing among marshes on the river Somme, in Picardy.

NOTE 23 ~ The battle of Rocroy.

This famous battle was fought and won 19th May, 1643, five days after the death of Lewis XIII.

NOTE 24 ~ The siege of Arras.

Voltaire observes, that it was the fortune of Turenne and Condé to be always victorious when they fought at the head of the French, and to be vanquished when they commanded the Spaniards. This was Condé's fate before Arras, August 25, 1654, when he and the archduke besieged that city. Turenne attacked them in their camp, and forced their lines: the troops of the archduke were cut to pieces; and Conde, with two regiments of French and Lorrairiers, alone sustained the efforts of Turenne's army; and, while the archduke was flying, he defeated the Marshal de Hoquincourt, repulsed the Marshal de la Ferté, and retreated victoriously himself, by covering the retreat of the vanquished Spaniards. The king of Spain, in his letter to him after this engagement, had these words: "I have been informed that every thing was lost, and that you have recovered every thing."

NOTE 25 ~ The Duke of York.

Priorato, in his Memoirs of Cardinal Mazarine, mentions other Englishmen besides the Duke of York being present; as Lords Gerrard, Barclay, and Jermyn, with others. -- Memoirs, 12mo., 1673, tome i. pt. 3, p. 365.

NOTE 26 ~ Marquis de Humieres.

Lewis de Crevans, maréchal of France. He died 1694. Voltaire says of him, that he was the first who, at the siege of Arras, in 1658, was served in silver in the trenches, and had ragouts and entremets served up to his table.

NOTE 27 ~ Montmorency.

Henry Duke of Montmorency, who was taken prisoner 1st September, 1632, and had his head struck off at Thoulouse in the month of November following.

NOTE 28 ~ Bapaume.

A fortified town in Artois, seated in a barren country, without rivers or springs, and having an old palace, which gave rise to the town, with a particular governor of its own, a royal and forest ccurt. In 1641 the French took it from the Spaniards.

NOTE 29 ~ Without doubt he would have given him some severe reply.

This spirit seems not always to have attended him in his transactions with the cardinal. On occasion of the entry of the king in 1660, "Le Chevalier de Grammont, Rouville, Bellefonds, and some other courtiers, attended in the cardinal's suite, a degree of flattery which astonished every body who knew him. I was informed that the chevalier wore a very rich orange-coloured dress on that occasion." -- Lettres de Maintenon, tome i. p. 32.

NOTE 30 ~ Peter Mazarine.

Peter Mazarine was father to the cardinal. He was a native of Palermo in Sicily, which place he left in order to settle at Rome, where he died in the year 1654.

NOTE 31 ~ The peace of the Pyrenées.

This treaty was concluded 7th November, 1659.

NOTE 32 ~ The king's marriage.

Lewis XIV. with Mary Theresa of Austria. She was born 20th September, 1638, married 1st June, 1660, and entered Paris 26th August following. She died at Versailles 30th July, 1683, and was buried at St. Denis.

NOTE 33 ~ The return of Prince de Coude.

11th April. -- See De Retz's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 119.

NOTE 34 ~ La Motte Houdancourt, ------ Meneville.

These two ladies at this period seem to have made a distinguished figure in the annals of gallantry. One of their contemporaries mentions them in these terms: "In this case, perhaps, I can give a better account than most people; as, for instance, they had raised a report, when the queen-mother expelled Mademoiselle de la Motte Agencourt, that it was on his score, when I am assured, upon very good grounds, that it was for entertaining the Marquis de Richelieu against her majesty's express command. This lady, who was one of her maids of honour, was a person whom I was particularly acquainted with; and that so much, as I was supposed to have a passion for her; she was counted one of the finest women of the court, and therefore I was not displeased at all to have it thought so; for, except Mademoiselle de Meneville (who had her admirers), there was none could pretend to dispute it." -- Memoirs of the Count de Rochfort, 1696, p. 210 -- See also Anquetil Louis XIV. sa Cour et le Regent, tome i. p. 46.

NOTE 35 ~ Exhausted themselves in festivals and rejoicings for his return.

Bishop Burnet confirms this account. "With the restoration of the king," says he, "a spirit of extravagant joy spread over the nation, that brought on with it the throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety. All ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overrun the three kingdoms to such a degree, that it very much corrupted all their morals. Under the colour of drinking the king's health, there were great disorders, and much riot every where: and the pretences of religion, both in those of the hypocritical sort, and of the more honest, but no less pernicious enthusiasts, gave great advantages, as well as they furnished much matter to the profane mockers of true piety." -- History of his own Times, vol. i., p. 127, 8vo edit. Voltaire says, King Charles "was received at Dover by twenty thousand of his subjects, who fell upon their knees before him; and I have been told by some old men who were of this number, that hardly any of those who were present could refrain from tears." -- Age of Lewis XIV. chap. 5.

NOTE 36 ~ At his coronation.

There is some reason to believe that the Count de Grammont, whose circumstances at his first arrival at the court of Britain were inferior to his rank, endeavoured to distinguish himself by his literary acquirements. A scarce little book, in Latin and French, upon the coronation, has been ascribed to him with some probability. The initials subscribed in different places of the work are P. D. C., which may correspond to Philibert de Cramont, in which manner the family name was often spelled; and the dedication seems to apply accurately to the count's circumstances. The full title runs:

"Complementum Fortunatarum Insularum, sive Galathea Vaticinans; being part of an epithalamium upon the auspicious match of the most puissant and most serene Charles II., and the most illustrious Catharina, Infanta of Portugal; with a description of the Fortunate Islands. Written originally in French, by P. D. C., Gent., [The state of his fortune at this period not allowing the splendour of a French nobleman, he was only considered a private gentleman; and this he hints at in the dedication that follows.] and since translated by him into Latin and English. With the translations also of the Description of S. James's Park, and the late Fight at S. Lucar, by Mr. Edmund Waller; the Panegyric of Charles the Second, by Mr. Dryden; and other pieces relating to the present times. London, printed by W. G., 1662."

It is dedicated to James Boteler, Earl of Ossory, Viscount Thorle, afterwards Duke of Ormond, previous to his going to Ireland, [Philibert, Count Grammont married the Duke of Ormond's sister.] which dedication concludes thus:-- "The utmost height of my ambition, and the utmost scope of my desseine at present, my lord, is only, since I have no other means left me to provide for my attendance upon your lordship and the heads of your honourable family, in this your journey, that you will be pleased to accept of me, in this slender garbe, being every way otherwise disappointed by the frowns of fortune, and so unfit to pretend admittance in so splendid a train; unless it be

Nelle scorta di Febo, che a vos s'inchina, Tutta ridente, tutta di scherzi piena.

But, my lord, my own words on another occasion:

------ Se quelque jour, la Fortune Met en plus grande libertè     Mon Genie persecutè     Des rigueurs de cette importune,     Peut-être d'un Burin plus seur     Et d'un vers rempli de douceur     D'Ormond j'enterprendrai l'image; Et dans les beaux exploits de tous ses descendans La depeindray si bien que la plus fiere rage Respectera ses traits jusqu'a la fin des temps.

"This is the vow, this is the serious wish of him, my lord, who desires, for no better end, to be once again restored to the state of his former fortune, than to become thereby more ready and capable to wait hereafter on your lordship otherwise than by his pen, and so declare, by some more real deed than poetical expressions, how unfeignedly he is,

My lord,
Your lordship's
Most true and most devoted servant,
P. D. C."

The contents of the book consist chiefly of poetry of a complimentary nature. The following well-known lines of Waller's, on Westminster Abbey, he has given with much taste:--

"From hence he does that antique pile behold, Where royal heads receive the sacred gold; It gives them crowns, and does their ashes keep; There made like gods, like mortals there they sleep." "Passant plus outre il voit la chapelle ou nos rois Reçoivent l'or sacrè et leur gardant les loix, La terre aussi sacreè egalement leurs donne, La droit de sepulture et la droit de couronne."

The contents of the volume are --

A Song of the Sea Nymph Galatea, upon the marriage of Charles II. and the Princess Infanta of Portugal (fifteen stanzas, of ten lines each.)
The same in Latin.
The same in French.
St James's Park, by Waller, in English, French, and Latin.
Of the late War with Spain, 1657, and our Victory at St. Lucar, near Cadiz, by the same, in English and French.
On his sacred Majesty's Coronation, by Dryden, English and French.
The Fortunate Islands, being part of a larger poem written formerly in French, upon the happy inauguration of Charles II. By P. D. C.; and since by him translated in English and Latin. Dedicated to his dear friend Edmund Waller, Esq., with a specimen of an English version.
Another dedication:-- "To Prince Rupert, as a monument of his devoted respects and due esteem of his highness's celebrated virtues and great experience in sea-voyages; and as a deserved acknowledgment of his highness's indefatigable endeavours in promoting English plantations, P. D. C. humbly dedicates this Pindaric Rapture; being part of his poem of the Fortunate Islands, formerly written in French, and addressed to the king's majesty upon the solemnity of his auspicious coronation."-- Twenty-five stanzas, of ten lines each.
The same in Latin.
The king's excursion on the Thames, July, anno 1661; an extempore ode, "To the great and illustrious William, Earl of Devonshire, the noble and judicious Mecænas of polite literature; P. D. C. dedicates it in obedient and grateful testimony," &c.
A short ode of about sixty lines.

If we are correct in imputing this work to Grammont, he must have been in England at the time of the coronation, which agrees tolerably with the vague expression in the text that he arrived about two years after the Restoration. For this ceremony did not take place until after the deaths of the Duke of Gloucester and the Princess of Orange. It was celebrated 22nd and 23rd April, 1661, with uncommon magnificence; the whole show, as Lord Clarendon observes, being the most glorious, in the order and expense, that had ever been seen in England. The procession began from the Tower, and continued so long, that they who rode first were in Fleet-street when the king issued from the Tower. The whole ceremonial took up two days. -- See Continuation of Clarendon, p. 29; Kennet's Register, 411.

[Pepys' account of the Coronation given in his amusing Diary is so characteristic and illustrative, that we think it deserves a place here.

"April 22nd, 1661. The King's going from the Tower to White Hall. Up early and made myself as fine as I could, and put on my velvet coat, the first day that I put it on, though made half a year ago. And being ready, Sir W. Batten, my Lady, and his two daughters and his son and wife, and Sir W. Penn and his son and I, went to Mr. Young's, the flag-maker, in Cornhill; and there we had a good room to ourselves, with wine and good cake, and saw the show very well. In which it is impossible to relate the glory of this day, expressed in the clothes of them that rid, and their horses and horses-clothes. Among others, my Lord Sandwich's embroidery and diamonds were not ordinary among them. The Knights of the Bath was a brave sight of itself; and their Esquires, among which Mr. Armiger was an Esquire to one of the Knights. Remarkable were the two men that represent the two Dukes of Normandy and Aquitaine. The Bishops come next after Barons, which is the higher place; which makes me think that the next Parliament they will be called to the House of Lords. My Lord Monk rode bare after the King, and led in his hand a spare horse, as being Master of the Horse. The King, in a most rich embroidered suit and cloak, looked most noble. Wadlow the vintner, at the Devil, in Fleet-street, did lead a fine company of soldiers, all young comely men, in white doublets. There followed the Vice-Chamberlain, Sir G. Carteret, a company of men all like Turks; but I know not yet what they are for. The streets all gravelled, and the houses hung with carpets before them, made brave show, and the ladies out of the windows. So glorious was the show with gold and silver, that we were not able to look at it, our eyes at last being so much overcome. Both the King and the Duke of York took notice of us, as they saw us at the window. In the evening, by water to White Hall to my Lord's, and there I spoke with my Lord. He talked with me about his suit, which was made in France, and cost him 200l., and very rich it is with embroidery.

"CORONATION DAY.

"23rd. About four I rose and got to the Abbey, where I followed Sir J. Denham, the Surveyor, with some company that he was leading in. And with much ado, by the favour of Mr. Cooper, his man, did get up onto a great scaffold across the North end of the Abbey, where with a great deal of patience I sat from past four till eleven before the King came in. And a great pleasure it was to see the Abbey raised in the middle, all covered with red, and a throne (that is a chair) and footstool on the top of it; and all the officers of all kinds, so much as the very fiddlers, in red vests. At last comes in the Dean and Prebends of Westminster, with the Bishops (many of them in cloth of gold copes), and after them the Nobility, all in their Parliament robes, which was a most magnificent sight. Then the Duke, and the King with a sceptre (carried by my Lord Sandwich) and sword and wand before him, and the crown too. The King in his robes, bare-headed, which was very fine. And after all had placed themselves, there was a sermon and the service; and then in the choir at the high altar, the King passed through all the ceremonies of the Coronation, which to my great grief I and most in the Abbey could not see. The crown being put upon his head, a great shout began, and he came forth to the throne, and there passed through more ceremonies: as taking the oath, and having things read to him by the Bishop: and his lords (who put on their caps as soon as the King put on his crown) and bishops come, and kneeled before him. And three times the King at Arms went to the three open places on the scaffold, and proclaimed, that if any one could show any reason why Charles Stewart should not be King of England, that now he should corne and speak. And a General Pardon also was read by the Lord Chancellor, and medals flung up and down by my Lord Cornwallis, of silver, but I could not come by any. But so great a noise that I could make but little of the music; and indeed, it was lost to every body. I went out a little while before the King had done all his ceremonies, and went round the Abbey to Westminster Hall, all the way within rails, and 10,000 people with the ground covered with blue cloth; and scaffolds all the way. Into the Hall I got, where it was very fine with hangings and scaffolds one upon another full of brave ladies; and my wife in one little one, on the right hand. Here I staid walking up and down, and at last upon one of the side stalls I stood and saw the King come in with all the persons (but the soldiers) that were yesterday in the cavalcade; and a most pleasant sight it was to see them in their several robes. And the King came in with his crown on, and his sceptre in his hand, under a canopy borne up by six silver staves, carried by Barons of the Cinque Ports, and little bells at every end. And after a long time, he got up to the farther end, and all set themselves down at their several tables; and that was also a brave sight: and the King's first course carried up by the Knights of the Bath. And many fine ceremonies there was of the Heralds leading up people before him, and bowing; and my Lord of Albemarle's going to the kitchen and eating a bit of the first dish that was to go to the King's table. But, above all, was these three Lords, Northumberland, and Suffolk, and the Duke of Ormond, coming before the courses on horseback, and staying so all dinner-time, and at last bringing up (Dymock) the King's Champion, all in armour on horseback, with his bpear and target carried before him. And a Herald proclaims ' That if any dare deny Charles Stewart to be lawful King of England, here was a Champion that would fight with him;' and with these words the Champion flings down his gauntlet, and all this he do three times in his going up towards the King's table. To which when he is come, the King drinks to him, and then sends him the cup which is of gold, and he drinks it off, and then rides back again with the cup in his hand. I went from table to table to see the Bishops and all others at their dinner, and was infinitely pleased with it. And at the Lords' table, I met with William Howe, and he spoke to my Lord for me, and he did give him four rabbits and a pullet, and so Mr. Creed and I got Mr. Minshell to give us some bread, and so we at a stall eat it, as every body else did what they could get. I took a great deal of pleasure to go up and down, and look upon the ladies, and to hear the music of all sorts, but above all, the twenty-four violins. About six at night they had dined, and I went up to my wife. And strange it is to think, that these two days have held up fair till now that all is done, and the King gone out of the Hall; and then it fell a-raining and thundering and lightening as I have not seen it do for some years: which people did take great notice of; God's blessing of the work of these two days, which is a foolery to take too much notice of such things. I observed little disorder in all this, only the King's footmen had got hold of the canopy, and would keep it from the Barons of the Cinque Ports, which they endeavoured to force from them again, but could not do it till my Lord Duke of Albemarle caused it to be put into Sir R. Pye's hand till to-morrow to be decided. At Mr. Bowyer's; a great deal of company, some I knew, others I did not. Here we staid upon the leads and below till it was late, expecting to see the fire-works, but they were not performed to-night: only the city had a light like a glory round about it with bonfires. At last I went to King-street, and there sent Crockford to my father's and my house, to tell them I could not come home to-night, because of the dirt, and a coach could not be had. And so I took my wife and Mrs. Frankleyn (whom I proffered the civility of lying with my wife at Mrs. Hunt's to-night) to Axe-yard, in which at the further end there were three great bonfires, and a great many great gallants, men and women; and they laid hold of us, and would have us drink the King's health upon our knees, kneeling upon a faggot, which we all did, they drinking to us one after another. Which we thought a strange frolic; but these gallants continued there a great while, and I wondered to see how the ladies did tipple. At last I sent my wife and her bedfellow to bed, and Mr. Hunt and I went in with Mr. Thornbury (who did give the company all their wine, he being yeoman of the wine-cellar to the King); and there, with his wife and two of his sisters, and some gallant sparks that were there, we drank the King's health, and nothing else, till one of the gentlemen fell down stark drunk, and there lay; and I went to my Lord's pretty well. Thus did the day end with joy every where; and blessed be God, I have not heard of any mischance to any body through it all, but only to Serjeant Glynne, whose horse fell upon him yesterday, and is like to kill him, which people do please themselves to see how just God is to punish the rogue at such a time as this: he being now one of the King's Serjeants, and rode in the cavalcade with Maynard, to whom people wish the same fortune. There was also this night in King-street, a woman had her eye put out by a boy's flinging a firebrand into the coach. Now, after all this, I can say, that, besides the pleasure of the sight of these glorious things, I may now shut my eyes against any other objects, nor for the future trouble myself to see things of state and show, as being sure never to see the like again in this world.

"24th. At night, set myself to write down these three days' diary, and while I am about it, I hear the noise of the chambers, and other things of the fire-works, which are now playing upon the Thames before the King; and I wish myself with them, being sorry not to see them.

"30th. This morning my wife and I and Mr. Creed, took coach, and in Fish-street took up Mr. Hater and his wife, who through her mask seemed at first to be an old woman, but afterwards I found her to be a very pretty modest black woman. We got a small bait at Leatherhead, and so to Godlyman, where we lay all night. I am sorry that I am not at London, to be at Hyde-park to-morrow, among the great gallants and ladies, which will be very fine."]

NOTE 37 ~ The death of the Duke of Gloucester.

This event took place September 3rd, 1660. He died of the smallpox. [Pepys says, "by the great negligence of his doctors."] "Though mankind," as Mr. Macpherson observes, "are apt to exaggerate the virtues of princes who happen to die in early youth, their praises seem to have done no more than justice to the character of Gloucester. He joined in himself the best qualities of both his brothers; the understanding and good-nature of Charles, to the industry and application of James. The facility of the first was in him, a judicious moderation. The obstinacy of the latter was, in Gloucester, a manly firmness of mind. Attached to the religion, and a friend to the constitution of his country, he was most regretted, when his family regarded these the least. The vulgar, who crowd with eminent virtues and great actions the years which fate denies to their favourites, foresaw future misfortunes in his death; and even the judicious supposed that the measures of Charles might have derived solidity from his judgment and promising parts. The king lamented his death with all the vehemence of an affectionate sorrow." The Duke of York was much affected with the loss of a brother, whose high merit he much admired. "He was a prince," says James, "of the greatest hopes, undaunted courage, admirable parts, and a clear understanding," He had a particular talent of languages. Besides the Latin, he was master of the French, the Spanish, the Italian, and Low Dutch. He was, in short, possessed of all the natural qualities, as well as acquired accomplishments, necessary to make a great prince. -- Macpherson's History of Great Britain, ch. 1. Bishop Burnet's character of this young prince is also very favourable. -- See Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 238.

NOTE 38 ~ Princess Royal.

Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I., born November 4th, 1631. married to the Prince of Orange 2nd May, 1641, who died 27th October, 1650. She arrived in England September 23rd. [Pepys says, in his Diary, March 17th, 1660, "In a coach we went to see a house of the Princess Dowager's, in a park about a mile from the Hague, where there is one of the most beautiful rooms for pictures in the whole world. She had here one picture upon the top, with these words, dedicating it to the memory of her husband: -- ' Incomparabili marito, inconsolabilis vidua.' "] She died of the small-pox December 24th, 1660, according to Bishop Burnet, "not much lamented. She had lived," says the author, "in her widowhood for some years with great reputation, kept a decent court, and supported her brothers very liberally; and lived within bounds. But her mother, who had the art of making herself believe any thing she had a mind to, upon a conversation with the queen-mother of France, fancied the King of France might be inclined to marry her. So she writ to her to come to Paris. In order to that, she made an equipage far above what she could support. So she ran herself into debt, sold all her jewels, and some estates that were in her power as her son's guardian; and was not only disappointed of that vain expectation, but fell into some misfortunes that lessened the reputation she had formerly lived in." -- Burnet''s Own Times, vol. i. p. 238. She was mother of William III.

NOTE 39 ~ The reception of the Infanta of Portugal.

"The Infanta of Portugal landed in May (1662) at Portsmouth. [Pepys, in his Diary, May 15th, 1662, says, "At night, all the bells in the town rung, and bonfires made for the joy of the Queen's arrival, who landed at Portsmouth last night. But I do not see much true joy, but only an indifferent one, in the hearts of people, who are much discontented at the pride and luxury of the Court, and running in debt."] The king went thither, and was married privately by Lord Aubigny. a secular priest, and almoner to the queen, according to the rites of Rome, in the queen's chamber; none present but the Portuguese ambassador, three more Portuguese of quality, and two or three Portuguese women. What made this necessary was, that the Earl of Sandwich did not marry her by proxy, as usual, before she came away. How this happened, the duke knows not, nor did the chancellor know of this private marriage. The queen would not be bedded, till pronounced man and wife by Sheldon, bishop of London." -- Extract 2, from King James II.'s Journal. -- Macpherson's State Papers, vol. i. In the same collection is a curious letter from the King to Lord Clarendon, giving his opinion of the queen after having seen her.

NOTE 40 ~ The King was inferior to none.

Charles II. was born 29th May, 1630, and died 6th February, 1684-5. His character is very amply detailed, and accurately depicted by George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, in a volume published by his grand-daughter the Countess of Burlington, 8vo. 1750. See also Burnet, Clarendon, and Sheffield Duke of Buckingham.

NOTE 41 ~ The Duke of York.

James Duke of York, afterwards King James II. He was born 15th October, 1633; succeeded his brother 6th February, 1684-5; abdicated the crown in 1688; and died 6th September, 1701. Bishop Burnet's character of him appears not very far from the truth. -- "He was," says this writer, "very brave in his youth; and so much magnified by Monsieur Turenne, that till his marriage lessened him, he really clouded the king, and passed for the superior genius. He was naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till affairs and his religion wore out all his first principles and inclinations. He had a great desire to understand affairs: and in order to that he kept a constant journal of all that passed, of which he shewed me a great deal. The Duke of Buckingham gave me once a short but severe character of the two brothers. It was the more severe, because it was true: the king, (he said,) could see things if he would: and the duke would see things if he could. He had no true judgment, and was soon determined by those whom he trusted: but he was obstinate against all other advices. He was bred with high notions of kingly authority, and laid it down for a maxim, that all who opposed the king, were rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour or other, without being very nice in his choice: upon which the king once said, he believed his brother had his mistresses given him by his priests for penance. He was naturally eager and revengeful: and was against the taking off any, that set up in an opposition to the measures of the court, and who by that means grew popular in the house of commons. He was for rougher methods. He continued many years dissembling his religion, and seemed zealous for the church of England. But it was chiefly on design to hinder all propositions, that tended to unite us among ourselves. He was a frugal prince, and brought his court into method and magnificence, for he had 100,000l. a-year allowed him. He was made high admiral, and he came to understand all the concerns of the sea very particularly."

NOTE 42 ~ Miss Hyde.

Miss Anne Hyde, eldest daughter of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. King James mentions this marriage in these terms. -- "The king at first refused the Duke of York's marriage with Miss Hyde. Many of the duke's friends and servants opposed it. The king at last consented, and the Duke of York privately married her, and soon after owned the marriage. Her want of birth was made up by endowments; and her carriage afterwards became her acquired dignity." Again. "When his sister, the princess royal, came to Paris to see the queen-mother, the Duke of York fell in love with Mrs. Anne Hyde, one of her maids of honour. Besides her person, she had all the qualities proper to inflame a heart less apt to take fire than his, which she managed so well as to bring his passion to such an height, that, between the time he first saw her and the winter before the king's restoration, he resolved to marry none but her; and promised her to do it: and though, at first, when the duke asked the king his brother for his leave, he refused, and dissuaded him from it, yet at last he opposed it no more, and the duke married her privately, owned it some time after, and was ever after a true friend to the chancellor for several years." -- Macpherson's State Papers, vol. i.

[Pepys, in his Diary, October 7th, 1660, says: -- "To my lord's, and dined with him; he all dinner time talking French to me, and telling me the story how the Duke of York hath got my Lord Chancellor's daughter with child, and that she do lay it to him, and that for certain he did promise her marriage, and had signed it with his blood, but that he by stealth had got the paper out of her cabinet. And that the king would have him to marry her, but that he will not. So that the thing is very bad for the duke, and them all; but my lord do make light of it, as a thing that he believes is not a new thing for the duke to do abroad." Again, Feb. 23rd, 1660-1. -- "Mr. Hartlett told me how my Lord Chancellor had lately got the Duke of York and Duchesse, and her woman, my Lord Ossory, and a doctor, to make oath before most of the judges of the kingdom, concerning all the circumstances of the marriage. And in fine, it is confessed that they were not fully married till about a month or two before she was brought to bed; but that they were contracted long before, and time enough for the child to be legitimate. But I do not hear that it was put to the judges to determine whether it was so or no."]

NOTE 43 ~ Her father.

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, "for his comprehensive knowledge of mankind, styled the chancellor of human nature. His character, at this distance of time, may, and ought to be impartially considered. His designing or blinded contemporaries heaped the most unjust abuse upon him. The subsequent age, when the partizans of prerogative were at least the loudest, if not the most numerous, smit with a work that deified their martyr, have been unbounded in their encomium." -- Catalogue of Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 18. Lord Orford, who professes to steer a middle course, and separate his great virtues as a man from his faults as an historian, acknowledges that he possessed almost every virtue of a minister which could make his character venerable. He died in exile, in the year 1674.

NOTE 44 ~ The Duke of Ormond.

James Butler, Duke of Ormond, born 19th October, 1610, and died 21st July, 1688. Lord Clarendon, in the Continuation of his Life, observes, that "he frankly engaged his person and his fortune in the king's service, from the first hour of the troubles, and pursued it with that courage and constancy, that when the king was murdered, and he deserted by the Irish, contrary to the articles of peace which they had made with him, and when he could make no longer defence, he refused all the conditions which Cromwell offered, who would have given him all his vast estate if he would have been contented to live quietly in some of his own houses, without further concerning himself in the quarrel; and transported himself, without so much as accepting a pass from his authority, in a little weak vessel into France, where he found the king, from whom he never parted till he returned with him into England. Having thus merited as much as a subject can do from a prince, he had much more credit and esteem with the king than any other man." -- Continuation of the Life of Lord Clarendon, p. 4, fol. edit. Bishop Burnet says of him, "he was a man every way fitted for a court; of a graceful appearance, a lively wit, and a cheerful temper; a man of great expense; decent even in his vices, for he always kept up the form of region. He had gone through many transactions in Ireland with more fidelity than success. He had made a treaty with the Irish, which was broken by the great body of them, though some few of them adhered still to him. But the whole Irish nation did still pretend, that though they had broke the agreement first, yet he, or rather the king, in whose name he had treated with them, was bound to perform all the articles of the treaty. He had miscarried so in the siege of Dublin, that it very much lessened the opinion of his military conduct. Yet his constant attendance on his master, his easiness to him, and his great suffering for him, raised him to be lord-steward of the household, and lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He was firm to the protestant religion, and so far firm to the laws, that he always gave good advices; but when bad ones were followed, he was not for complaining too much of them." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 230.

NOTE 45 ~ The Earl of St. Allan's.

Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's, and Baron of St. Edmund's Bury. He was master of the horse to Queen Henrietta, and one of the privy-council to Charles II. In July 1660, he was sent ambassador to the court of France, and, in 1671, he was made lord-chamberlain of his majesty's household. He died January 2, 1683. Sir John Reresby asserts, that Lord St. Alban's was married to Queen Henrietta. "The abbess of an English college in Paris, whither the queen used to retire, would tell me," says Sir John, "that Lord Jermyn, since St. Alban's, had the queen greatly in awe of him; and indeed it was obvious that he had great interest with her concerns; but he was married to her, or had children by her, as some have reported, I did not then believe, though the thing was certainly so." -- Memoirs, p. 4. [Pepys says, in his Diary, Dec. 21st, 1660: -- "I hear that the Princess Royal hath married herself to young Jermyn, which is worse than the Duke of York's marrying the Chancellor's daughter, which is now publicly owned."] Madame Baviere, in her letters, says, "Charles the First's widow made a clandestine marriage with her chevalier d'honneur, Lord St. Alban's, who treated her extremely ill, so that, whilst she had not a faggot to warm herself, he had in his apartment a good fire and a sumptuous table. He never gave the queen a kind word and when she spoke to him he used to say, Que me veut cette femme?" Hamilton hints at his selfishness a little lower.

NOTE 46 ~ Dissipated without splendour an immense estate, upon which he had just entered.

"The Duke of Buckingham is again one hundred and forty thousand pounds in debt; and by this prorogation his creditors have time to tear all his lands to pieces." -- Andrew Marvell's Works, 4to. edit., vol. i. p. 406.

NOTE 47 ~ Sir George Berkeley.

This Sir George Berkeley, as he is here improperly called, was Charles Berkley, second son of Sir ------ Berkley, of Bruton, in Gloucestershire, and was the principal favourite and companion of the Duke of York in all his campaigns. He was created Baron Berkley of Rathdown, and Viscount Fitzharding of Ireland, and Baron Bottetort and Earl of Falmouth in England, 17th March, 1664. He had the address to secure himself in the affections equally of the king and his brother at the same time. Lord Clarendon, who seems to have conceived, and with reason, a prejudice against him, calls him "a fellow of great wickedness," and says, "he was one in whom few other men (except the king) had ever observed any virtue or quality, which they did not wish their best friends without. He was young, and of an insatiable ambition; and a little more experience might have taught him all things which his weak parts were capable of." -- Clarendon's Life, pp. 34, 267. Bishop Burnet, however, is rather more favourable. "Berkley," says he, "was generous in his expence; and it was thought if he had outlived the lewdness of that time, and come to a more sedate course of life, he would have put the king on great and noble designs." -- History, vol. i. p. 137. He lost his life in the action at Southwold Bay, the 2nd June, 1665, by a shot, which, at the same time, killed Lord Muskerry and Mr. Boyle, as they were standing on the quarter-deck, near the Duke of York, who was covered with their blood. "Lord Falmouth," as King James observes, "died not worth a farthing, though not expensive." -- Macpherson's State Papers, vol. i. "He was, however, lamented by the king with floods of tears, to the amazement of all who had seen how unshaken he stood on other assaults of fortune." -- Clarendon's Life, p. 269. Even his death did not save him from Marvell's satire.

Falmouth was there, I know not what to act, Some say, 'twas to grow duke too by contract; An untaught bullet, in his wanton scope, Dashes him all to pieces, and his hope: Such was his rise, such was his fall unpraised, -- A chance shot sooner took him than chance raised; His shattered head the fearless duke disdains, And gave the last first proof that he had brains.

Advice to a Painter, p. 1.

NOTE 48 ~ The Earl of Arran.

Richard Butler, Earl of Arran, fifth son of James Butler, the first Duke of Ormond. He was born 15th July, 1639, and educated with great care, being taught every thing suitable to his birth, and the great affection his parents had for him. As he grew up, he distinguished himself by a brave and excellent disposition, which determined him to a military life. When the duke, his father, was first made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, after the Restoration, his majesty was pleased, by his letter, dated April 23, 1662, to create Lord Richard, Baron Butler of Cloghgrenan, Viscount Tullogh, in the county of Catherlough, and Earl of Arran, with remainder to his brother. In September, 1664, he married Lady Mary Stuart, only surviving daughter of James Duke of Richmond and Lennox, by Mary, the only daughter of the great Duke of Buckingham, who died in July, 1667, at the age of eighteen, and was interred at Kilkenny. He distinguished himself in reducing the mutineers at Carrick-Fergus, and behaved with great courage in the famous sea-fight with the Dutch, in 1673. In August that year, he was created Baron Butler of Weston, in the county of Huntingdon. He married, in the preceding June, Dorothy, daughter of John Ferrars, of Tamworth Castle, in Warwickshire, Esq. In 1682, he was constituted lord-deputy of Ireland, upon his father's going over to England, and held that office until August, 1684, when the duke returned. In the year 1686, he died at London, and was interred in Westminster-abbey, leaving an only daughter, Charlotte, who was married to Charles Lord Cornwallis.

NOTE 49 ~ The Earl of Ossory.

Thomas Earl of Ossory, eldest son of the first, and father of the last Duke of Ormond, was born at Kilkenny, 8th July, 1634. At the age of twenty-one years he had so much distinguished himself, that Sir Robert Southwell then drew the following character of him: -- "He is a young man with a very handsome face; a good head of hair; well set; very good-natured; rides the great horse very well; is a very good tennis-player, fencer, and dancer; understands music, and plays on the guitar and lute; speaks French elegantly; reads Italian fluently; is a good historian; and so well versed in romances, that if a gallery be full of pictures and hangings, he will tell the stories of all that are there described. He shuts up his door at eight o'clock in the evening, and studies till midnight: he is temperate, courteous, and excellent in all his behaviour."

[Evelyn, who became acquainted with the Earl of Ossory at Paris in 1649-50, records the following amusing anecdote in his diary: -- "May 7th, 1650. -- I went with Sir Richard Browne's lady and my wife, together with the Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Ossory, and his brother, to Vamber, a place near the City famous for butter; when coming homewards, being on foot, a quarrel arose between Lord Ossory and a man in a garden, who thrust Lord Ossory from the gate with uncivil language, on which our young gallants struck the fellow on the pate, and bid him ask pardon, which he did with much submission, and so we parted; but we were not gone far before we heard a noise behind us, and saw people coming with guns, swords, staves, and forks, and who followed flinging stones; on which we turned and were forced to engage, and with our swords, stones, and the help of our servants (one of whom had a pistol) made our retreat for near a quarter of a mile, when we took shelter in a house, where we were besieged, and at length forced to submit to be prisoners. Lord Hatton with some others were taken prisoners in the flight, and his lordship was confined under three locks, and as many doors, in this rude fellow's master's house, who pretended to be steward to Monsieur St. Germain, one of the Presidents of the Grand Chambre du Parlement, and a Canon of Notre Dame. Several of us were much hurt. One of our lacquies escaping to Paris, caused the bailiff of St. Germain to come with his guard and rescue us. Immediately afterwards came Monsieur St. Germain himself in great wrath on hearing that his housekeeper was assaulted; but when he saw the king's officers, the gentlemen and noblemen, with his Majesty's Resident, and understood the occasion, he was ashamed of the accident, requesting the fellow's pardon, and desiring the ladies to accept their submission and a supper at his house."

And again, May 12th. -- "I have often heard that gallant gentleman, my Lord Ossory, affirm solemnly that in all the conflicts he ever was in, at sea or on land (in the most desperate of which he had often been), he believed he was never in so much danger as when these people rose against us. He used to call it the battaile de Vambre, and remember it with a great deal of mirth as an adventure en cavalier."]

His death was occasioned by a fever, 30th July, 1680, to the grief of his family and the public.

NOTE 50 ~ The elder of the Hamiltons.

Lord Orford, in a note on this passage, mentions George Hamilton, and Anthony Hamilton, the author of this present work, as the persons here intended to be pointed out; and towards the conclusion of the volume has attempted to disentangle the confusion occasioned by the want of particularly distinguishing to which of the gentlemen the several adventures belong in which their name occurs. The elder Hamilton, however, here described, was, I conceive, neither George nor Anthony, but James Hamilton, their brother, eldest son of Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of the Earl of Abercorn, by Mary Butler, third sister to James, the first duke of Ormond. This gentleman was a great favourite with King Charles II., who made him a groom of his bed-chamber, and colonel of a regiment. In an engagement with the Dutch, he had one of his legs taken off by a cannon-ball, of which wound he died 6th June, 1673, soon after he was brought home, and was buried in Westminster-abbey. George Hamilton was afterwards knighted, made a count in France, and mareschal-du-camp in that service. He married Miss Jennings, hereafter mentioned, and died, according to Lodge, in 1667, leaving issue by her, three daughters.

NOTE 51 ~ The beau Sydney.

Robert Sydney, the third son of the Earl of Leicester, and brother of the famous Algernon Sydney, who was beheaded. This is Lord Orford's account; though, no less authority, I should have been inclined to have considered Henry Sydney, his younger brother, who was afterwards treated Earl of Rumney, and died 8th April, 1704, as the person intended. There are some circumstances which seem particularly to point to him. Burnet, speaking of him, says, "he was a graceful man, and had lived long in the court, where he had some adventures that became very public. He was a man of a sweet and caressing temper, had no malice in his heart, but too great a love of pleasure. He had been sent envoy to Holland, in the year 1679, where he entered into such particular confidences with the prince, that he had the highest measure of his trust and favour that any Englishman ever had." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. ii. p. 494.

In the Essay on Satire, by Dryden and Mulgrave, he is spoken of in no very decent terms.

'And little Sid, for simile renown'd. Pleasure has always sought, but never found: Though all his thoughts on wine and women fall, His are so bad, sure he ne'er thinks at all. The flesh he lives upon is rank and strong; His meat and mistresses are kept too long. But sure we all mistake this pious man, Who mortifies his person all he can: What we uncharitably take for sin, Are only rules of this odd capuchin; For never hermit, under grave pretence, Has lived more contrary to common sense."

These verses, however, have been applied to Sir Charles Sedley, whose name was originally spelled Sidley. Robert Sydney died at Penshurst, 1874.

NOTE 52 ~ The queen-dowager, his mistress, lived not over well in France.

To what a miserable state the queen was reduced may be seen in the following extract from De Retz. -- "Four or five days before the king removed from Paris, I went to visit the Queen of England, whom I found in her daughter's chamber, who hath been since Duchess of Orleans. At my coming in she said, 'You see I am come to keep Henrietta company. The poor child could not rise to-day for want of a fire.' The truth is, that the cardinal for six months together had not ordered her any money towards her pension; that no trades-people would trust her for any thing -, and that there was not at her lodgings in the Louvre one single billet. You will do me the justice to suppose, that the Princess of England did not keep her bed the next day for want of a faggot; but it was not this which the Princess of Condé meant in her letter. What she spoke about was, that some days after my visiting the Queen of England, I remembered the condition I had found her in, and had strongly represented the shame of abandoning her in that manner, which caused the parliament to send 40,000 livres to her majesty. Posterity will hardly believe that a Princess of England, grand-daughter of Henry the Great, had wanted a faggot, in the month of January, to get out of bed in the Louvre, and in the eyes of a French court. We read in histories, with horror, of baseness less monstrous than this; and the little concern I have met with about it in most people's minds, has obliged me to make, I believe, a thousand times, this reflection, -- that examples of times past move men beyond comparison more than those of their own times. We accustom ourselves to what we see; and I have sometimes told you, that I doubted whether Caligula's horse being made a consul would have surprised us so much as we imagine." -- Memoirs, vol. i. p. 261. As for the relative situation of the king and Lord Jermyn (afterwards St. Alban's), Lord Clarendon says, that the "Marquis of Ormond was compelled to put himself in prison, with other gentlemen, at a pistole a-week for his diet, and to walk the streets a-foot, which was no honourable custom in Paris, whilst the Lord Jermyn kept an excellent table for those who courted him, and had a coach of his own, and all other accommodations incident to the most full fortune: and if the king had the most urgent occasion for the use but of twenty pistoles, as sometimes he had, he could not find credit to borrow it, which he often had experiment of." -- History of the Rebellion, vol. iii. p. 2.

NOTE 53 ~ Jermyn.

Henry Jermyn, younger son of Thomas, elder brother of the Earl of St. Alban's. He was created Baron Dover in 1685, and died without children, at Cheveley, in Cambridgeshire, April 6, 1708. His corpse was carried to Bruges, in Flanders, and buried in the monastery of the Carmelites there. St. Evremont, who visited Mr. Jermyn at Cheveley, says, "we went thither, and were very kindly received by a person, who, though he has taken his leave of the court, has carried the civility and good taste of it into the country." -- St. Evremont's Works, vol. ii. p. 223.

NOTE 54 ~ The princess-royal was the first who was taken with him.

It was suspected of this princess to have had a similar engagement with the Duke of Buckingham as the queen with Jermyn, and that was the cause she would not see the duke on his second voyage to Holland, in the year 1652.

NOTE 55 ~ The Countess of Castlemaine.

This lady who made so distinguished a figure in the annals of infamy, was Barbara, daughter and heir of William Villiers, Lord Viscount Grandison, of the kingdom of Ireland, who died in 1642, in consequence of wounds received at the battle of Edge-hill. She was married, just before the Restoration, to Roger Palmer, Esq., then a student in the Temple, and heir to a considerable fortune. In the 13th year of King Charles II. he was created Earl of Castlemaine in the kingdom of Ireland. She had a daughter, born in February 1661, while she cohabited with her husband; but shortly after she became the avowed mistress of the king, who continued his connection with her until about the year 1672, when she was delivered of a daughter, which was supposed to be Mr. Churchill's, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, and which the king disavowed. Her gallantries were by no means confined to one or two, nor were they unknown to his majesty. In the year 1670, she was created Baroness of Nonsuch, in Surrey, Countess of Southampton, and Duchess of Cleveland, during her natural life, with remainder to Charles and George Fitzroy, her eldest and third son, and their heirs male. In July 1705, her husband died, and she soon after married a man of desperate fortune, known by the name of Handsome Fielding, who behaving in a manner unjustifiably severe towards her, she was obliged to have recourse to law for her protection. Fortunately it was discovered that Fielding had already a wife living, by which means the duchess was enabled to free herself from his authority. She lived about two years afterwards, and died of a dropsy, on the 9th of October, 1709, in her 69th year. Bishop Burnet says, "she was a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous; foolish, but imperious; very uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour towards him, did so disorder him, that often he was not master of himself, nor capable of minding business, which, in so critical a time, required great application." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 129.

[The following amusing morceaux, extracted from Pepys, are highly illustrative: -- "May 21st, 1662. -- My wife and I to my lord's lodging; where she and I stayed walking in White Hall garden. And in the Privy garden saw the finest smocks and linen petticoats of my Lady Castlemaine's, with rich lace at the bottom, that ever I saw; and did me good to look at them. Sarah told me how the king dined at my Lady Castlemaine's, and supped every day and night the last week; and that the night the bonfires were made for joy of the queen's arrival, the king was there; but there was no fire at her door, though at all the rest of the doors almost in the street; which was much observed: and that the king and she did send for a pair of scales and weighed one another; and she, being with child, was said to be heaviest. But she is now a most disconsolate creature, and comes not out of doors, since the king's going."

"July 22nd, 1663. -- In discourse of the ladies at court, Capt. Ferrers tells me that my Lady Castlemaine is now as great again as ever she was; and that her going away was only a fit of her own upon some slighting words of the king, so that she called for her coach at a quarter of an hour's warning, and went to Richmond; and the king, the next morning, under pretence of going a hunting, went to see her and make friends, and never was a hunting at all. After which she came back to court, and commands the king as much as ever, and hath and doth what she will. No longer ago than last night, there was a private entertainment made for the king and queen at the Duke of Buckingham's, and she was not invited: but being at my Lady Suffolk's, her aunt's (where my Lady Jemimah and Lord Sandwich dined), yesterday, she was heard to say, "Well, much good may it do them, and for all that I will be as merry as they:" and so she went home and caused a great supper to be prepared. And after the king had been with the queen at Wallingford House, he come to my Lady Castlemaine's, and was there all night, and my Lord Sandwich with him. He tells me he believes that, as soon as the king can get a husband for Mrs. Stewart, however, my Lady Castlemaine's nose will be out of joint; for that she comes to be in great esteem, and is more handsome than she."

"June 10th, 1666. -- The queen, in ordinary talk before the ladies in her drawing-room, did say to my Lady Castlemaine that she feared the king did take cold, by staying so late abroad at her house. She answered before them all, that he did not stay so late abroad with her, for he went betimes thence (though he do not before one, two, or three in the morning), but must stay somewhere else. The king then coming in and overhearing, did whisper in her ear aside, and told her she was a bold impertinent woman, and bid her to be gone out of the court, and not come again till he sent for her; which she did presently, and went to a lodging in the Pall Mall, and kept there two or three days, and then sent to the king to know whether she might send for her things away out of her house. The king sent to her, she must first come and view them: and so she come, and the king went to her, and all friends again. He tells me she did, in her anger, say she would be even with the king, and print his letters to her."

"Aug. 7th, 1667. -- Though the king and my Lady Castlemaine are friends again, she is not at White Hall, but at Sir D. Harvey's, whither the king goes to her; and he says she will make him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, and promise to offend her no more so: and that, indeed, she did threaten to bring all his bastards to his eloset-door, and hath nearly hectored him out of his wits."]

NOTE 56 ~ Lady Shrewsbury.

Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury, eldest daughter of Robert Brudenel, Earl of Cardigan, and wife of Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in a duel, by George, Duke of Buckingham, March 16, 1667. She afterwards re-married with George Rodney Bridges, Esq., second son of Sir Thomas Bridges of Keynsham, in Somersetshire, knight, and died April 20, 1702. By her second husband she had one son, George Rodney Bridges, who died in 1751. This woman is said to have been so abandoned, as to have held, in the habit of a page, her gallant, the duke's horse, while he fought and killed her husband; after which she went to bed with him, stained with her husband's blood.

[Pepys says, in his Diary, Jan. 17th, 1667-8. -- "Much discourse of the duel yesterday between the Duke of Buckingham, Holmes, and one Jenkins, on one side, and my Lord of Shrewsbury, Sir John Talbot, and one Bernard Howard, on the other side: and all about my Lady Shrewsbury, who is at this time, and hath for a great while been, a mistress to the Duke of Buckingham. And so her husband challenged him, and they met yesterday in a close near Barne-Elmes, and there fought: and my Lord Shrewsbury is run through the body, from the right breast through the shoulder; and Sir John Talbot all along up one of his arms; and Jenkins killed upon the place, and the rest all in a little measure wounded. This will make the world think that the king hath good counsellors about him, when the Duke of Buckingham, the greatest man about him, is a fellow of no more sobriety than to fight about a mistress. And this may prove a very bad accident to the Duke of Buckingham, but that my Lady Castlemaine do rule all at this time as much as ever she did, and she will, it is believed, keep all matters well with the Duke of Buckingham: though this is a time that the king will be very backward, I suppose, to appear in such a business. And it is pretty to hear how the king had some notice of this challenge a week or two ago. and did give it to my Lord General to confine the duke, or take security that he should not do any such thing as fight: and the general trusted to the king that he, sending for him, would do it; and the king trusted to the general. And it is said that my Lord Shrewsbury's case is to be feared, that he may die too; and that may make it much worse for the Duke of Buckingham: and I shall not be much sorry for it, that we may have some sober man come in his room to assist in the Government."

And again, "May 15th, 1668. -- I am told that the Countess of Shrewsbury is brought home by the Duke of Buckingham to his house; where his duchess saying that it was not for her and the other to live together in a house, he answered, ' Why, madam, I did think so, and therefore have ordered your coach to be ready to carry you to your father's;' which was a devilish speech, but, they say, true; and my Lady Shrewsbury is there, it seems."]

NOTE 57 ~ The Miss Brooks.

One of these ladies married Sir John Denham, and is mentioned hereafter.

NOTE 58 ~ The new queen gave but little additional brilliancy to the court.

Lord Clarendon confirms, in some measure, this account. "There was a numerous family of men and women, that were sent from Portugal, the most improper to promote that conformity in the queen that was necessary for her condition and future happiness that could be chosen; the women, for the most part, old, and ugly, and proud, incapable of any conversation with persons of quality and a liberal education: and they desired, and indeed had conspired so far to possess the queen themselves, that she should neither learn the English language, nor use their habit, nor depart from the manners and fashions cf her own country in any particulars; which resolution," they told, "would be for the dignity of Portugal, and would quickly induce the English ladies to conform to her majesty's practice. And this imagination had made that impression, that the tailor who had been sent into Portugal to make her clothes could never be admitted to see her, or receive any employment. Nor when she came to Portsmouth, and found there several ladies of honour and prime quality to attend her in the places to which they were assigned by the king, did she receive any of them till the king himself came; nor then with any grace, or the liberty that belonged to their places and offices. She could not be persuaded to be dressed out of the wardrobe that the king had sent to her, but would wear the clothes which she had brought, until she found that the king was displeased, and would be obeyed; whereupon she conformed, against the advice of her women, who continued their opiniatrety, without any one of them receding from their own mode, which exposed them the more to reproach." -- Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 168. In a short time after their arrival in England, they were ordered back to Portugal.

NOTE 59 ~ Katherine of Braganza was far from appearing with splendour in the charming court where she came to reign; however, in the end she was pretty successful.

[Evelyn says, "May 30th, 1662. -- The queen arrived with a train of Portuguese ladies in their monstrous fardingals or guard-infantas, their complexions olivader, and sufficiently unagreeable. Her Majesty in the same habit, her foretop long and turned aside very strangely. She was yet of the handsomest countenance of all the rest, and, though low of stature, prettily shaped, languishing and excellent eyes, her teeth wronging her mouth by sticking a little too far out; for the rest lovely enough."]

Lord Clarendon says, "the queen had beauty and wit enough to make herself agreeable to him (the king;) and it is very certain, that, at their first meeting, and for some time after, the king had very good satisfaction in her." -- "Though she was of years enough to have had more experience of the world, and of as much wit as could be wished, and of a humour very agreeable at some seasons, yet, she had been bred, according to the mode and discipline of her country, in a monastery, where she had only seen the women who attended her, and conversed with the religious who resided there; and, without doubt, in her inclinations, was enough disposed to have been one of that number: and from this restraint she was called out to be a great queen, and to a free conversation in a court that was to be upon the matter new formed, and reduced from the manners of a licentious age to the old rules and limits which had been observed in better times; to which regular and decent conformity the present disposition of men or women was not enough inclined to submit, nor the king enough disposed to enact." -- Continuation of Lord Clarendon's Life, p. 167. After some struggle, she submitted to the king's licentious conduct, and from that time lived upon easy terms with him, until his death. On the. 30th of March, 1692, she left Somerset-house, her usual residence, and retired to Lisbon, where she died 31st December, 1705, N. S.

NOTE 60 ~ This princess.

"The Duchess of York," says Bishop Burnet, "was a very extraordinary woman. She had great knowledge, and a lively sense of things. She soon understood what belonged to a princess, and took state on her rather too much. She writ well, and had begun the duke's life, of which she shewed me a volume. It was all drawn from his journal; and he intended to have employed me in carrying it on. She was bred in great strictness in religion, and practised secret confession. Morley told me he was her confessor. She began at twelve years old, and continued under his direction till, upon her father's disgrace, he was put from the court. She was generous and friendly, but was too severe an enemy." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 237. She was contracted to the duke at Breda, November 24, 1659, and married at Worcester-house, 3rd September, 1660, in the night, between eleven and two, by Dr. Joseph Crowther, the duke's chaplain; the Lord Ossory giving her in marriage. -- Kennet's Register, p. 246. She died 31st March, 1671, having previously acknowledged herself to be a Roman Catholic. -- See also her character by Bishop Morley. -- Kennet's Register, p. 385, 390.

NOTE 61 ~ The Queen-dowager returned after the marriage of the Princess-royal.

Queen Henrietta Maria arrived at Whitehall, 2nd November, 1660, after nineteen years' absence. She was received with acclamations; and bonfires were lighted on the occasion, both in London and Westminster. She returned to France with her daughter, the Princess Henrietta, 2nd January, 1660-1. She arrived again at Greenwich, 28th July, 1662, and continued to keep her court in England, until July, 1665, when she embarked for France, "and took so many things with her," says Lord Clarendon, "that it was thought by many that she did not intend ever to return into England. Whatever her intentions at that time were, she never did see England again, though she lived many years after." -- Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 263. She died at Colombe, near Paris, in August, 1669; and her son, the Duke of York, pronounces this eulogium on her: "She excelled in all the good qualities of a good wife, of a good mother, and a good Christian." -- Macpherson's Original Papers, vol. i.

NOTE 62 ~ St. Evremond.

Charles de St. Dennis, Seigneur de St. Evremond, was born at St. Denis le Guast, in Lower Normandy, on the 1st of April, 1613. He was educated at Paris, with a view to the profession of the law; but he early quitted that pursuit, and went into the army, where he signalized himself on several occasions. At the time of the Pyrenean treaty, he wrote a letter censuring the conduct of Cardinal Mazarine, which occasioned his being banished France. He first took refuge in Holland; but, in 1662, he removed into England, where he continued, with a short interval, during the rest of his life. In 1675, the Duchess of Mazarine came to reside in England; and with her St. Evremond passed much of his time. He preserved his health and cheerfulness to a very great age, and died 9th of September, 1703, aged ninety years, five months, and twenty days. His biographer, Monsieur Des Maizeaux, describes him thus:-- " M. de St. Evremond had blue, lively, and sparkling eyes, a large forehead, thick eye-brows, a handsome mouth, and a sneering physiognomy. Twenty years before his death, a wen grew between his eye-brows, which in time increased to a considerable bigness. He once designed to have it cut off, but as it was no ways troublesome to him, and he little regarded that kind of deformity, Dr. Le Fevre advised him to let it alone, lest such an operation should be attended with dangerous symptoms in a man of his age. He would often make merry with himself on account of his wen, his great leather-cap, and his grey hair, which he chose to wear rather than a periwig." St. Evremond was a kind of Epicurean philosopher, and drew his own character in the following terms, in a letter to Count de Grammont:-- " He was a philosopher equally removed from superstition and impiety; a voluptuary who had no less aversion from debauchery than inclination for pleasure , a man who had never felt the pressure of indigence, and who had never been in possession of affluence; he lived in a condition despised by those who have every thing, envied by those who have nothing, and relished by those who make their reason the foundation of their happiness. When he was young he hated profusion, being persuaded that some degree of wealth was necessary for the conveniences of a long life: when he was old, he could hardly endure economy, being of opinion that want is little to be dreaded when a man has but little time left to be miserable. He was well pleased with nature, and did not complain of fortune. He hated vice, was indulgent to frailties, and lamented misfortunes. He sought not after the failings of men with a design to expose them; he only found what was ridiculous in them for his own amusement: he had a secret pleasure in discovering this himself, and would, indeed, have had a still greater in discovering this to others, had he not been checked by discretion. Life, in his opinion, was too short to read all sorts of books, and to burden one's memory with a multitude of things, at the expense of one's judgment. He did not apply himself to the most learned writings, in order to acquire knowledge, but to the most rational, to fortify his reason: he sometimes chose the most delicate, to give delicacy to his own taste, and sometimes the most agreeable, to give the same to his own genius. It remains that he should be described, such as he was, in friendship and in religion. In friendship he was more constant than a philosopher, and more sincere than a young man of good nature without experience. With regard to religion, his piety consisted more in justice and charity than in penance or mortification. He placed his confidence in God, trusting in his goodness, and hoping that in the bosom of his providence he should find his repose and his felicity.' -- He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

NOTE 63 ~ Avoid love, by pursuing other pleasures; love has never been favourable to you.

"Saint Evremond and Bussi-Rabutin, who have also written on the life of the Count de Grammont, agree with Hamilton in representing him as a man less fortunate in love than at play; not seeking for any other pleasure in the conquest of a woman but that of depriving another of her; and not able to persuade any one of his passion, because he spoke to her, as at all other times, in jest; but cruelly revenging himself on those who refused to hear him; corrupting the servants of those whom they did favour, counterfeiting their hand-writing, intercepting their letters, disconcerting their rendezvous; in one word, disturbing their amours by every thing which a rival, prodigal, indefatigable, and full of artifice, can be imagined to do. The straightest ties of blood could not secure any one from his detraction. His nephew, the Count de Guiche, was a victim; he had, in truth, offended the Count de Grammont, by having supplanted him in the affection of the Countess de Fiesque, whom he loved afterwards for the space of twelve years. Here was enough to irritate the self-love of a man less persuaded of his own merit."

Hamilton does not describe the exterior of the count, but accuses Bussi-Rabutin of having, in the following description, given a more agreeable than faithful portrait of him:-- " The Chevalier had laughing eyes, a well-formed nose, a beautiful mouth, a small dimple in the chin, which had an agreeable effect on his countenance, a certain delicacy in his physiognomy, and a handsome shape, if he had not stooped."

NOTE 64 ~ D' Olonne.

Mademoiselle de la Loupe, who is mentioned in De Retz's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 95. She married the Count d'Olonne, and became famous for her gallantries, of which the Count de Bussi speaks so much, in his "History of the Amours of the Gauls." Her maiden name was Catherine Henrietta d'Angennes, and she was daughter to Charles d'Angennes, Lord of la Loupe, Baron of Amberville, by Mary du Raynier. There is a long character of her by St. Evremond, in his works, vol. i. p. 17. The same writer, mentioning the concern of some ladies for the death of the Duke of Candale, says, "But his true mistress (the Countess d'Olonne) made herself famous by the excess of her affliction, and had, in my opinion, been happy, if she had kept it on to the last. One amour is creditable to a lady; and I know not whether it be not more advantageous to their reputation than never to have been in love." -- St. Evremond's Works, vol. ii. p. 24.

NOTE 65 ~ The Countess de Fiesque

This lady seems to have been the wife of the Count de Fiesque, who is mentioned by St. Evremond, as "fruitful in military chimeras; who, besides the post of lieutenant-general, which he had at Paris, obtained a particular commission for the beating up of the quarters, and other rash and sudden exploits, which may be resolved upon whilst one is singing the air of La Barre, or dancing a minuet." -- St. Evremond's Works, vol. i. p. 6. The count's name occurs very frequently in De Retz's Memoirs.

NOTE 66 ~ Mr. Jones, afterwards Earl of Ranelagh.

Richard, the first Earl of Ranelagh, was member of the English house of Commons, and vice-treasurer of Ireland, 1674. He held several offices under King William and Queen Anne, and died 5th January, 1711. Bishop Burnet says, "Lord Ranelagh was a young man of great parts, and as great vices: he had a pleasantness in his conversation that took much with the king; and had a great dexterity in business." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 373.

NOTE 67 ~ Amongst the queen's maids of honour there was one called Warmestre.

Lord Orford observes, that there is a family of the name of Warminster settled at Worcester, of which five persons are interred in the cathedral. One of them was dean of the church, and his epitaph mentions his attachment to the royal family. Miss Warminster, however, was probably a fictitious name. The last Earl of Arran, who lived only a short time after the period these transactions are supposed to have happened, asserted, that the maid of honour here spoken of was Miss Mary Kirk, sister of the Countess of Oxford, and who, three years after she was driven from court, married Sir Thomas Vernon, under the supposed character of a widow. It was not improbable she then assumed the name of Warminster. In the year 1669, the following is the list of the maids of honour to the queen:-- 1. Mrs. Simona Carew. 2. Mrs. Catherine Bainton. 3. Mrs. Henrietta Maria Price. 4. Mrs. Winifred Wells. The lady who had then the office of mother of the maids was Lady Saunderson. -- See Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitia, 1669, p. 301.

NOTE 68 ~ Mrs. Middleton.

Mrs. Jane Middleton, according to Granger, was a woman of small fortune, but great beauty. Her portrait is in the gallery at Windsor.

NOTE 69 ~ Miss Stewart.

Frances, Duchess of Richmond, daughter of Walter Stewart, son of Walter, Baron of Blantyre, and wife of Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox: a lady of exquisite beauty, if justly represented in a puncheon made by Roettiere, his majesty's engraver of the mint, in order to strike a medal of her, which exhibits the finest face that perhaps was ever seen. The king was supposed to be desperately in love with her; and it became common discourse, that there was a design on foot to get him divorced from the queen, in order to marry this lady. [Pepys describes her as the greatest beauty he ever saw in his life: "With her cocked hat and a red plume, with her sweet eye, little Roman nose, and excellent taille;" and adds, "If ever woman can, do exceed my Lady Castlemaine, at least in this dress: nor do I wonder if the king changes, which I verily believe is the reason of his coldness to my Lady Castlemaine."] Lord Clarendon was thought to have promoted the match with the Duke of Richmond, thereby to prevent the other design, which he imagined would hurt the king's character, embroil his affairs at present, and entail all the evils of a disputed succession on the nation. Whether he actually encouraged the Duke of Richmond's marriage, doth not appear; but it is certain that he was so strongly possessed of the king's inclination to a divorce, that, even after his disgrace, he was persuaded the Duke of Buckingham had undertaken to carry that matter through the parliament. It is certain too that the king considered him as the chief promoter of Miss Stewart's marriage, and resented it in the highest degree. The ceremony took place privately, and it was publicly declared in April, 1667. From one of Sir Robert Southwell's dispatches, dated Lisbon, December 2/12, 1667, it appears that the report of the queen's intended divorce had not then subsided in her native country. -- History of the Revolutions of Portugal, 1740, p. 352. The duchess became a widow in 1672, and died October 15, 1702. See Burnet's History, Ludlow's Memoirs, and Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond. A figure in wax of this duchess is still to be seen in Westminster Abbey.

NOTE 70 ~ Mrs. Hyde.

Theodosia, daughter of Arthur, Lord Capel, first wife of Henry Hyde, the second Earl of Clarendon.

NOTE 71 ~ Jacob Hall, the famous rope-dancer

"There was a symmetry and elegance, as well as strength and agility, in the person of Jacob Hall, which was much admired by the ladies, who regarded him as a due composition of Hercules and Adonis. The open-hearted Duchess of Cleveland was said to have been in love with this rope-dancer and Goodman the player at the same time. The former received a salary from her grace." -- Granger, vol. ii. part ii. p. 461.

NOTE 72 ~ Thomas Howard, brother to the Earl of Carlisle.

Thomas Howard, fourth son of Sir William Howard. He married Mary, Duchess of Richmond, daughter of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and died 1678. -- See Mad. Dunois's Memoirs of the English Court, 8vo., 1708.

NOTE 73 ~ Spring-garden.

This place appears, from the description of its situation in the following extract, and in some ancient plans, to have been near Charing-cross, probably where houses are now built, though still retaining the name of gardens. The entertainments usually to be met with there are thus described by a contemporary writer: "The manner is, as the company returns (i. e. from Hyde-park), to alight at the Spring-garden, so called in order to the parke, as our Thuilleries is to the course: the inclosure not disagreeable, for the solemness of the grove, the warbling of the birds, and as it opens into the spacious walks at St. James's; but the company walk in it at such a rate, you would think all the ladies were so many Atalantas contending with their wooers; and, my lord, there was no appearance that I should prove Hippomenes, who could with much ado keep pace with them: but as fast as they run, they stay there so long as if they wanted not time to finish the race; for it is usual here to find some of the young company till midnight; and the thickets of the garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry, after they have refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at a certain cabaret, in the middle of this paradise, where the forbidden fruits are certain trifling tarts, neats' tongues, salicious meats, and bad Rhenish, for which the gallants pay sauce, as indeed they do at all such houses throughout England; for they think it a piece of frugality beneath them to bargain or account for what they eat in any place, however unreasonably imposed upon." -- Character of England, 12mo., 1659, p. 56, written, it is said, by John Evelyn, Esq. Spring-garden is the scene of intrigue in many of our comedies of this period.

NOTE 74 ~ This was Montagu.

Ralph Montagu, second son of Edward, Lord Montagu. He was master of the horse to the queen, and, in 1669, was sent ambassador extraordinary to France; on his return from whence, in January, 1672, he was sworn of the privy-council. He afterwards became master of the great wardrobe, and was sent a second time to France. He took a very decided part in the prosecution of the popish plot, in 1678; but on the sacrifice of his friend, Lord Russell, he retired to Montpelier during the rest of King Charles's reign. He was active at the Revolution, and soon after created Viscount Monthermer, and Earl of Montagu. In 1705, ne became Marquis of Monthermer, and Duke of Montagu. He died 7th March, 1 709, in his 73rd year, leaving behind him the character of a very indulgent parent, a kind and bountiful master, a very hearty friend, a noble patron of men of merit, and a true assertor of English liberty.

NOTE 75 ~ Miss Hamilton.

Elizabeth, sister of the author of these Memoirs, and daughter of Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of James, the first Earl of Abercorn, by Mary, third daughter of Thomas, Viscount Thurles, eldest son of Walter, eleventh Earl of Ormond, and sister to James, the first Duke of Ormond. She married Philibert, Count of Grammont, the hero of these Memoirs, by whom she had two daughters: Claude Charlotte, married, 3rd April, 1694, to Henry, Earl of Stafford; and another, who became superior, or abbess, of the Chanonesses in Lorraine.

NOTE 76 ~ Lady Muskerry.

Lady Margaret, only child of Ulick, fifth Earl of Clanricarde, by Lady Anne Compton, daughter of William, Earl of Northampton, She was three times married:-- 1. To Charles, Lord Viscount Muskerry, who lost his life in the great sea-fight with the Dutch, 3rd June, 1665. 2. In 1676, to Robert Villiers, called Viscount Purbeck, who died in 1685. 3. To Robert Fielding, Esq. She died in August, 1698. Lord Orford, by mistake, calls her Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Kildare. -- See note 149.

NOTE 77 ~ Miss Blague.

It appears, by Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitia, 1669, that this lady, or perhaps her sister, continued one of the duchess's maids of honour at that period. The list, at that time, was as follows:-- 1. Mrs. Arabella Churchill. 2. Mrs. Dorothy Howard. 3. Mrs. Anne Ogle. 4. Mrs. Mary Blague. The mother of the maids then was Mrs. Lucy Wise. Miss Blague performed the part of Diana, in Crown's Calisto, acted at court in 1675, and was then styled late maid of honour to the queen. Lord Orford, however, it should be observed, calls her Henrietta Maria, daughter of Colonel Blague. It appears, she became the wife of Sir Thomas Yarborough, of Snaith, in Yorkshire. She was also, he says, sister of the wife of Sydney, Lord Godolphin. That nobleman married, according to Collins, in his peerage, Margaret, at that time maid of honour to Katherine, Queen of England, fourth daughter, and one of the co-heirs of Thomas Blague, Esq., groom of the bed-chamber to Charles I. and Charles II., colonel of a regiment of foot, and governor of Wallingford during the civil wars, and governor of Yarmouth and Landguard Fort, after the Restoration.

NOTE 78 ~ Prince Rupert.

Grandson of James the First, whose actions during the civil wars are well known. He was born 19th December, 1619, and died at his house in Spring Gardens, November 22, 1682. Lord Clarendon says of him, that "he was rough and passionate, and loved not debate; liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed it; and was so great an enemy to Digby and Colepepper, who were only present in the debates of the war with the officers, that he crossed all they proposed." -- History of the Rebellion, vol. ii. p. 554. He is supposed to have invented the art of mezzotinto. -- See note 151.

NOTE 79 ~ Lord Thanet.

This nobleman, I believe, was John Tufton, second Earl of Thanet, who died 6th May, 1664. Lord Orford, however, imagines him to have been Nicholas Tuftori, the third Earl of Thanet, his eldest son, who died 24th November, 1679. Both these noblemen suffered much for their loyalty.

NOTE 80 ~ Young wild boar's eyes.

Marcassin is French for a wild boar; the eyes of this creature being remarkably small and lively, from thence the French say, "Des yeux marcassins," to signify little, though roguish eyes; or, as we say, pig's eyes.

NOTE 81 ~ Miss Price, one of the maids of honour to the duchess.

Our author's memory here fails him; Miss Price was maid of honour to the queen. Mr. Granger says, "There was a Lady Price, a fine woman, who was daughter of Sir Edmund Warcup," concerning whom, see Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii. 184. Her father had the vanity to think that Charles II. would marry her, though he had then a queen. There were letters of his wherein he mentioned, that "his daughter was one night and t'other with the king, and very graciously received by him." -- Granger, vol. iv. p. 338.

NOTE 82 ~ Duncan.

I believe this name should be written Dongan. Lord Orford says, of this house were the ancient earls of Limerick.

NOTE 83 ~ Duchess of Newcastle

[Pepys, in his Diary, April llth, 1667, says:-- " To Whitehall, thinking there to have seen the Duchess of Newcastle coming this night to court to make a visit to the queen, the king having been with her yesterday to make her a visit since her coming to town. The whole story of this lady is a romance, and all she does is romantic. Her footmen in velvet coats, and herself in an antique dress, as they say; and was the other day at her own play, « The Humorous Lovers,' the most ridiculous thing that ever was wrote, but yet she and her lord mightily pleased with it; and she at the end made her respects to the players from her box, and did give them thanks. There is as much expectation of her coming to court, that people may come to see her, as if it were the Queen of Sweden; but I lost my labour, for she did not come this night."]

This fantastic lady, as Lord Orford properly calls her, was the youngest daughter of Sir Charles Lucas, and had been one of the maids of honour to Charles the First's queen, whom she attended when forced to leave England. At Paris she married the Duke of Newcastle, and continued in exile with him until the Restoration. After her return to England, she lived entirely devoted to letters, and published many volumes of plays, poems, letters, &c. She died in 1673, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Lord Orford says, there is a whole length of this duchess at Welbeck, in a theatric dress, which, tradition says, she generally wore. She had always a maid of honour in waiting during the night, who was often called up to register the duchess's conceptions. These were all of a literary kind; for her grace left no children.

NOTE 84 ~ The uncle.

John Russel, third son of Francis, the fourth Earl of Bedford, and colonel of the first regiment of foot guards. He died unmarried, in November, 1681.

NOTE 85 ~ The nephew.

William, eldest son of Edward Russel, younger brother of the above John Russel. He was standard-bearer to Charles II., and died unmarried, 1674. He was elder brother to Russel, Earl of Orford.

NOTE 86 ~ Henry Howard.

This was Henry Howard, brother to Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who, by a special Act of Parliament, in 1664, was restored to the honours of the family, forfeited by the attainder of his ancestor, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. On the death of his brother, in 1677, he became Duke of Norfolk, and died January 11, 1683-4, at his house in Arundel-street, aged 55.

NOTE 87 ~ Toulongeon will die without my assistance.

Count de Toulongeon was elder brother to Count Grammont, who, by his death, in 1679, became, according to St. Evremond, on that event, one of the richest noblemen at court. -- See St. Evremond's Works, vol. ii. p. 237.

NOTE 88 ~ Semeat.

A country seat belonging to the family of the Grammonts.

NOTE 89 ~ He was extremely handsome.

George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, was born 30th January, 1627. Lord Orford observes, "When this extraordinary man, with the figure and genius of Alcibiades, could equally charm the presbyterian Fairfax and the dissolute Charles; when he alike ridiculed that witty king and his solemn chancellor; when he plotted the ruin of his country with a cabal of bad ministers, or, equally unprincipled, supported its cause with bad patriots,-- one laments that such parts should have been devoid of every virtue; but when Alcibiades turns chemist; when he is a real bubble and a visionary miser; when ambition is but a frolic; when the worst designs are for the foolishest ends,-- contempt extinguishes all reflection on his character.

"The portrait of this duke has been drawn by four masterly hands. Burnet has hewn it out with his rough chisel; Count Hamilton touched it with that slight delicacy that finishes while it seems but to sketch; Dry-den catched the living likeness; Pope completed the historical resemblance." -- Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 78.

Of these four portraits, the second is in the text; the other three will complete the character of this extraordinary nobleman.

Bishop Burnet says, he "was a man of noble presence. He had a great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning all things into ridicule, with bold figures, and natural descriptions. He had no sort of literature, only he was drawn into chymistry; and for some years he thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's stone, which had the effect that attends on all such men as he was, when they are drawn in, to lay out for it. He had no principles of religion, virtue, or friendship; pleasure, frolic, or extravagant diversion was all that he laid to heart. He was true to nothing; for he was not true to himself. He had no steadiness nor conduct; he could keep no secret, nor execute any design without spoiling it. He could never fix his thoughts, nor govern his estate, though then the greatest in England. He was bred about the king, and for many years he had a great ascendant over him; but he spake of him to all persons with that contempt, that at last he drew a lasting disgrace upon himself. And he at length ruined both body and mind, fortune and reputation equally. The madness of vice appeared in his person in very eminent instances; since at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk in his parts, as well as in all other respects; so that his conversation was as much avoided as ever it had been courted." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 137.

Dryden's character of him is in these lines:--

"In the first rank of these did Zimri stand; A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome: Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong; Was every thing by starts, and nothing long, But, in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon; Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. Blest madman, who could every hour employ With something new to wish or to enjoy! Railing and praising were his usual themes, And both, to shew his judgment, in extremes; So over violent, or over civil, That every man with him was god or devil. In squandering wealth was his peculiar art; Nothing went unrewarded but desert. Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late; He had his jest, and they had his estate: He laugh'd himself from court, then sought relief By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief; For, spite of him, the weight of business fell On Absalom and wise Achitophel: Thus wicked but in will, of means bereft, He left not faction, but of that was left."

Absalom and Achitophel.

Pope describes the last scene of this nobleman's life in these lines:--

"In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung, On once a flock-bed, but repair'd with straw, With tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw; The George and Garter dangling from that bed, Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, Great Villiers lies: -- alas ! how chang'd from him, That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim! Gallant and gay, in Clieveden's proud alcove, The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love; Or, just as gay, at council, in a ring Of mimic'd statesmen, and their merry king. No wit, to flatter, left of all his store! No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame, this lord of useless thousand ends."

Moral Essays, Epist. iii. 1. 299.

He died 16th April, 1688, at the house of a tenant, at Kirby Moorside, near Helmsly, in Yorkshire, aged 61 years, and was buried in Westminster-abbey.

Though this note is already long, the reader will hardly complain at an extension of it, by the addition of one more character of this licentious nobleman, written by the able pen of the author of Hudibras. "The Duke of Bucks is one that has studied the whole body of vice. His parts are disproportionate to the whole, and, like a monster, he has more of some, and less of others, than he should have. He has pulled down all that nature raised in him, and built himself up again after a model of his own. He has dammed up all those lights that nature made into the noblest prospects of the world, and opened other little blind loop-holes backward, by turning day into night, and night into day. His appetite to his pleasures is diseased and crazy, like the pica in a woman, that longs to eat that which was never made for food, or a girl in the green sickness, that eats chalk and mortar. Perpetual surfeits of pleasure have filled his mind with bad and vicious humours (as well as his body with a nursery of diseases), which makes him affect new and extravagant ways, as being sick and tired with the old. Continual wine, women, and music, put false values upon things, which, by custom, become habitual, and debauch his understanding so, that he retains no right notion nor sense of things. And as the same dose of the same physic has no operation on those that are much used to it, so his pleasures require a larger proportion of excess and variety, to render him sensible of them. He rises, eats, and goes to bed by the Julian account, long after all others that go by the new style, and keeps the same hours with owls and the antipodes. He is a great observer of the Tartar customs, and never eats till the great cham, having dined, makes proclamation that all the world may go to dinner. He does not dwell in his house, but haunts it like an evil spirit, that walks all night, to disturb the family, and never appears by day. He lives perpetually benighted, runs out of his life, and loses his time as men do their ways in the dark: and as blind men are led by their dogs, so is he governed by some mean servant or other, that relates to his pleasures. He is as inconstant as the moon which he lives under; and although he does nothing but advise with his pillow all day, he is as great a stranger to himself as he is to the rest of the world. His mind entertains all things very freely that come and go, but, like guests and strangers, they are not welcome if they stay long. This lays him open to all cheats, quacks, and impostors, who apply to every particular humour while it lasts, and afterwards vanish. Thus, with St. Paul, though in a different sense, he dies daily, and only lives in the night. He deforms nature, while he intends to adorn her, like Indians that hang jewels in their lips and noses. His ears are perpetually drilled with a fiddlestick. He endures pleasures with less patience than other men do their pains." -- Butler's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 72.

[Pepys, in speaking of the release of the duke after his imprisonment in the Tower for high treason, says: "July 17th, 1667. The Duke of Buckingham is, it seems, set at liberty without any further charge against him or other clearing of him, but let to go out; which is one of the strangest instances of the fool's play, with which all publick things are done in this age, that is to be apprehended. And it is said that when he was charged with making himself popular (as indeed he is, for many of the discontented Parliament, Sir Robert Howard, and Sir Thomas Meres, and others, did attend at the council-chamber when he was examined), he should answer, that whoever was committed to prison by my Lord Chancellor or my Lord Arlington, could not want being popular. But it is worth considering the ill state a minister of state is in, under such a prince as ours is; for. undoubtedly, neither of those two great men would have been so fierce against the Duke of Buckingham at the council-table the other day, had they been assured of the king's good liking, and supporting them therein: whereas, perhaps at the desire of my Lady Castlemaine (who, I suppose, hath at last overcome the king), the Duke of Buckingham is well received again, and now these men delivered up to the interest he can make for his revenge."

Pepys also relates the following anecdote of him: -- "July 22nd, 1667. Creed tells me of the fray between the Duke of Buckingham (at the duke's playhouse the last Saturday) and Henry Killigrew, whom the Duke of Buckingham did soundly beat and take away his sword, and make a fool of, till the fellow prayed him to spare his life; and I am glad of it, for it seems in this business the Duke of Buckingham did carry himself very innocently and well, and I wish he had paid this fellow's coat well.]

NOTE 90 ~ Lord Arlington.

Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, principal secretary of state, and lord-chamberlain to King Charles II.: a nobleman whose practices, during that reign, have not left his character free from reproach. Mr. Macpherson says of him, that he "supplied the place of extensive talents by an artful management of such as he possessed. Accommodating in his principles, and easy in his address, he pleased when he was known to deceive; and his manner acquired to him a kind of influence where he commanded no respect. He was little calculated for bold measures, on account of his natural timidity; and that defect created an opinion of his moderation that was ascribed to virtue. His facility to adopt new measures was forgotten in his readiness to acknowledge the errors of the old. The deficiency of his integrity was forgiven in the decency of his dishonesty. Too weak not to be superstitious, yet possessing too much sense to own his adherence to the church of Rome, he lived a Protestant in his outward profession, but he died a Catholic. Timidity was the chief characteristic of his mind; and that being known, he was even commanded by cowards. He was the man of the least genius of the party; but he had most experience in that slow and constant current of business, which, perhaps, suits affairs of state better than the violent exertions of men of grea parts." -- Original Papers, vol. i. Lord Arlington died July 28, 1685 See a character of him in Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham's Works.

NOTE 91 ~ He sent to Holland for a wife.

This lady was Isabella, daughter to Lewis de Nassau, Lord Beverwaert, son to Maurice, Prince of Orange, and Count Nassau. By her, Lord Arlington had an only daughter, named Isabella, who married, August 1, 1672, Henry, Earl of Euston, son to King Charles II., by Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, created afterwards Duke of Grafton; and, after his death, to Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. She assisted at the coronation of King George I., as Countess of Arlington, in her own right, and died February 7, 1722-3

NOTE 92 ~ Hamilton was, of all the courtiers, the best qualified, &c.

Lord Orford says, this was George Hamilton; but it evidently refers to James Hamilton, the eldest brother, already mentioned at p. 107 and note 50. The whole of the adventures in this book in which the Hamiltons are introduced, evidently relate but to two, James and George; what belongs to each is most clearly and distinctly pointed out by the author.

NOTE 93 ~ She was daughter to the Duke of Ormond.

And second wife of the Earl of Chesterfield. She survived the adventures here related a very short time, dying in July, 1665, at the age of twenty-five years.

NOTE 94 ~ The queen was given over by her physicians.

This happened in October. 1663. Lord Arlington, in a letter to the Duke of Ormond, dated the 17th of that month, says, "the condition of the queen is much worse, and the physicians give us but little hopes of her recovery: by the next you will hear she is either in a fair way to it, or dead: to-morrow is a very critical day with her: God's will be done. The king coming to see her this morning, she told him she willingly left all the world but him; which hath very much afflicted his majesty, and all the court with him." -- Brown's Miscellanea Aulica, 1702, p. 306.

NOTE 95 ~ The Thames washes the sides of a large though not a magnificent palace

This was Whitehall, which was burnt down, except the banqueting-house, 4th January, 1698. -- See Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi. p. 367.

NOTE 96 ~ Monsieur de Comminge.

This gentleman was ambassador in London, from the court of France, during the years 1663, 1664, and 1665. Lord Clarendon, speaking of him, describes him as something capricious in his nature, which made him hard to treat with, and not always vacant at the hours himself assigned; being hypochondriac, and seldom sleeping without opium. -- Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 263.

NOTE 97 ~ Hyde Park, every one knows, is the promenade of London.

The writer already quoted gives this description of the entertainments of this place, at this period:--

"I did frequently, in the spring, accompany my lord N---- into a field near the town, which they call Hide Park; the place not unpleasant, and which they use as our Course; but with nothing of that order, equipage, and splendour; being such an assembly of wretched jades, and hackney coaches, as, next a regiment of carr-men, there is nothing approaches the resemblance. This parke was (it seemes) used by the late king and nobility for the freshness of the air, and the goodly prospect; but it is that which now (besides all other excises) they pay for here, in England, though it be free in all the world besides; every coach and horse which enters buying his mouthful, and permission of the publicane who has purchased it; for which the entrance is guarded with porters and long staves." -- A Character of England, as it was lately presented to a Nobleman of France, 12mo. 1659, p. 54.

NOTE 98 ~ Coaches with glasses.

Coaches were first introduced into England in the year 1564. Taylor, the water poet (Works, 1630, p. 240), says, -- "One William Boonen, a Dutchman, brought first the use of coaches hither; and the said Boonen was Queen Elizabeth's coachman; for, indeed, a coach was a strange monster in those days, and the sight of them put both horse and man into amazement." Dr. Percy observes, they were first drawn by two horses, and that it was the favourite Buckingham, who, about 1619, began to draw with six horses. About the same time, he introduced the sedan. The Ultimum Vale of John Carleton, 4to. 1663, p. 23, will, in a great measure, ascertain the time of the introduction of glass coaches. He says, "I could wish her (i.e. Mary Carleton's) coach (which she said my lord Taff bought for her in England, and sent it over to her, made of the new fashion, with glasse, very stately; and her pages and acquies were of the same livery), was come for me," &c. For further information on the history of coaches, see that very interesting work Beckmann's History of Inventions, new edition, in Bohn's Standard Library.

NOTE 99 ~ The Prince of Condé besieged Lerida.

This was in 1647. Voltaire says "he, Condé, was accused, upon this occasion, in certain books, of a bravado, in having opened the trenches to the music of violins; but these writers were ignorant that this was the custom of Spain." -- Age of Lewis XIV., chap. 2.

NOTE 100 ~ Marshal de Grammont.

Anthony, maréchal of France. He appears to have quitted the army in 1672. "Le Due de la Feuillade est colonel du regiment des gardes sur la demission volontaire du Maréchal de Grammont." -- Henault's History of France. He died 1678.

NOTE 101 ~ Description of Lord Chesterfield.

Philip, the second Earl of Chesterfield. He was constituted, in 1662, lord-chamberlain to the queen, and colonel of a regiment of foot, June 13, 1667. On November 29, 1679, he was appointed lord-warden and chief-justice of the king's forests on this side Trent, and sworn of the privy-council, January 26, 1680. On November 6, 1682, he was made colonel of the third regiment of foot, which, with the rest of his preferments, he resigned on the accession of James II. He lived to the age of upwards of 80, and died, January 28, 1713, at his house in Bloomsbury-square.

NOTE 102 ~ The Duke of York's marriage.

The material facts in this narrative are confirmed by Lord Clarendon. -- Continuation of his Life, p. 33. It is difficult to speak of the persons concerned in this infamous transaction without some degree of asperity, notwithstanding they are, by a strange perversion of language, styled, all men of honour.

NOTE 103 ~ Lady Carnegy.

Anne, daughter of William, Duke of Hamilton, and wife of Robert Carnegy, Earl of Southesk.

NOTE 104 ~ Talbot.

Afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel. See note on p. 98.

NOTE 105 ~ The traitor Southesk meditated a revenge.

Bishop Burnet, taking notice of the Duke of York's amours, says, "A story was set about, and generally believed, that the Earl of Southesk, that had married a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, suspecting some familiarities between the duke and his wife, had taken a sure method to procure a disease to himself, which he communicated to his wife, and was, by that means, sent round till it came to the duchess. Lord Southesk was, for some years, not ill pleased to have this believed. It looked like a peculiar strain of revenge, with which he seemed much delighted. But I know he has, to some of his friends, denied the whole of the story very solemnly." -- Burnet's Own Times, vol. i. p. 395, Oxford, 1823. It is worthy of notice, that the passage in the text was omitted in most editions of Grammont, and retained in that of Strawberry-hill, in 1772.

NOTE 106 ~ Lady Robarts.

Lord Orford says, this lady was Sarah, daughter of John Bodville, of Bodville Castle, in Caernarvonshire, wife of Robert Robarts, who died in the lifetime of his father, and was eldest son of John, Earl of Radnor. This, however, may be doubted. There was no Earl of Radnor until the year 1679, which was after the date of most, if not all the transactions related in this work; consequently, no other person, who could be called Lord Robarts, than John, the second lord, who was created Earl of Radnor, with whose character several of the qualities here enumerated, particularly his age, moroseness, &c., will be found to agree. Supposing this to be admitted, the lady will be Isabella, daughter of Sir John Smith, knight, second wife of the above John, Lord Robarts, whose character is thus portrayed by Lord Clarendon: -- "Though of a good understanding, he was of so morose a nature, that it was no easy matter to treat with him. He had some pedantic parts of learning, which made his other parts of judgment the worse. He was naturally proud and imperious, which humour was increased by an ill education; for, excepting some years spent in the inns of court, he might very justly be said to have been born and bred in Cornwall, When lord deputy in Ireland, he received the information of the chief persons there so negligently, and gave his answers so scornfully, that they besought the King that they might not be obliged to attend him any more: but he was not a man chat was to be disgraced and thrown off without much inconvenience and hazard. He had parts, which, in council and parliament, were very troublesome; for, of all men alive, who had so few friends, he had the most followers. They who conversed most with him knew him to have many humours which were very intolerable; they who were but little acquainted with him took him to be a man of much knowledge, and called his morosity gravity." -- Continuation of Clarendon, p. 102.

NOTE 107 ~ The Earl of Bristol.

George Digby. The account here given of the practices of this nobleman receives confirmation from Lord Clarendon, who observes of him, "that he had left no way unattempted to render himself gracious to the king, by saying and doing all that might be acceptable unto him, and contriving such meetings and jollities as he was pleased with." -- Continuation of his Life, p. 208. Lord Orford says of him, that "his life was one contradiction. He wrote against popery, and embraced it; he was a zealous opposerof the court, and a sacrifice to it; was conscientiously converted in the midst of his prosecution of Lord Strafford, and was most unconscientiously a prosecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts, he always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always an unsuccessful commander. He spoke for the Test Act, though a Roman Catholic, and addicted himself to astrology on the birth-day of true philosophy." -- Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 25. The histories of England abound with the adventures of this inconsistent nobleman, who died, neither loved nor regretted by any party, in the year 1676.

NOTE 108 ~ Sir John Denham.

That Sir John Denham "had passed his youth in the midst of those pleasures which people at that age indulge in without restraint," all his biographers seem to admit; but, if our author is to be relied on, Wood's account of the date of his birth, 1615, must be erroneous. He was not loaded with years when he died, if that statement is true; and so far from being seventy-nine when he married Miss Brook, he had not attained the age of more than fifty-three when he died. In this particular, I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of Wood, who omits to mention that Sir John had a former wife, by whom he had a daughter. In the year 1667, he appears to have been a lunatic, either real or feigned. Lord Lisle, in a letter to Sir William Temple, dated September 26th, says,-- "Poor Sir John Denham is fallen to the ladies also. He is at many of the meetings at dinners, talks more than ever he did, and is extremely pleased with those that seem willing to hear him, and, from that obligation, exceedingly praises the Duchess of Monmouth and my Lady Cavendish. If he had not the name of being mad, I believe, in most companies, he would be thought wittier than ever he was. He seems to have few extravagancies besides that of telling stories of himself, which he is always inclined to. Some of his acquaintance say, that extreme vanity was the cause of his madness, as well as it is an effect." -- Temple's Works, vol. i. p. 484. In Butler's Posthumous Works, vol. ii. p. 155, is an abuse of Sir John Denham, under the title of "A Panegyric upon his recovery from his madness." Sir John died 19th March, 1668, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

[Aubrey relates the following anecdotes of him:-- "I have heard Mr. Joseph Howe say that he was the dreamingest young fellow; he never expected such things from him as he hath left the world. When he was at Trinity College, Oxford, he would game extremely; when he had played away all his money, he would play away his father's wrought caps with gold. (His father was Sir John Denham, one of the Barons of the Exchequer; he had been one of Lords Justices in Ireland.) From Trinity College he went to Lincoln's Inn, where (as Judge Wadham Wyndham, who was his countryman, told me) he was as good a student as any in the house. Was not supposed to be a wit. At last, viz. 1640, his play of 'The Sophe' came out, which did take extremely. Mr. Edmund Waller said then of him, that he broke out like the Irish Rebellion -- threescore thousand strong, when nobody suspected it. He was much rooked by gamesters, and fell acquainted with that unsanctified crew to his ruin. His father had some suspicion of it, and chid him severely; whereupon his son John (only child) wrote a little Essay, printed in 8vo., 'Against Gaming,' to shew the vanities and inconveniences of it, which he presented to his father, to let him know his detestation of it; but shortly after his father's death (who left 2,000 or 1,500 lib. in ready money, two houses well furnished, and much plate), the money was played away first, and next the plate was sold. I remember, about 1646, he lost 200 lib. one night at New Cut. Miss Brooks was his second wife, a very beautiful young lady, Sir John being ancient and limping. The Duke of York fell deeply in love with her, and this occasioned Sir John's distemper of madness, which first appeared when he went from London to see the famous free-stone quarries at Portland, in Dorset. When he came within a mile of it, he turned back to London again, and would not see it; he went to Hounslow, and demanded rents of lands he had sold many years before; went to the king and told him he was the Holy Ghost; but it pleased God that he was cured of this distemper, and wrote excellent verses, particularly on the death of Mr. Abraham Cowley, afterwards. One time, when he was a student of Lincoln's Inn, having been merry at the tavern with his comrades, late at night, a frolic came into his head, to get a plasterer's brush and a pot of ink, and blot out all the signs between Temple Bar and Charing Cross, which made a strange confusion the next day, and it was in Term time. But it happened that they were discovered, and it cost him and them some moneys. This I had from R. Estcourt, Esq., that carried the ink-pot. ' In the time of the civil wars, George Withers,. the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captain of horse. It happened that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king, &c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his Majesty not to hang him, for that whilst G. W. lived, he should not be the worst poet in England."]

NOTE 109 ~ Rochester.

John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester; "a man," as Lord Orford observes, "whom the muses were fond to inspire, and ashamed to avow; and who practised, without the least reserve, that secret which can make verses more read for their defects than for their merits "(Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 43); was born, according to Burnet and Wood, in the month of April, 1648; but Gladbury,in his almanac for 1695, fixes the date on April 1, 1647, from the information of Lord Rochester himself. His father was Henry, Earl of Rochester, better known by the title of Lord Wilmot. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and, in 1665, went to sea with the Earl of Sandwich, and displayed a degree of valour which he never shewed at any period afterwards. Bishop Burnet says, he "was naturally modest, till the court corrupted him. His wit had in it peculiar brightness, to which none could ever arrive. He gave himself up to all sorts of extravagance, and to the wildest frolics that wanton wit could devise. He would have gone about the streets as a beggar, and made love as a porter. He set up a stage as an Italian mountebank. [For a copy of his speech on this occasion, see note 142.] He was for some years always drunk; and was ever doing some mischief. The king loved his company, for the diversion it afforded, better than his person; and there was no love lost between them. He took his revenges in many libels. He found out a footman that knew all the court; and he furnished him with a red coat and a musket, as a sentinel, and kept him all the winter long, every night, at the doors of such ladies as he believed might be in intrigues. In the court, a sentinel is little minded, and is believed to be posted by a captain of the guards to hinder a combat; so this man saw who walked about and visited at forbidden hours. By this means Lord Rochester made many discoveries; and when he was well furnished with materials, he used to retire into the country for a month or two to write libels. Once, being drunk, he intended to give the king a libel he had writ on some ladies, but, by mistake, he gave him one written on himself. He fell into an ill habit of body, and, in set fits of sickness, he had deep remorses, for he was guilty both of much impiety and of great immoralities. But as he recovered, he threw these off, and turned again to his former ill courses. In the last year of his life, I was much with him. and have writ a book of what passed between him and me: I do verily believe, he was then so changed, that, if he had recovered, he would have made good all his resolutions." -- History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 372. On this book, mentioned by the bishop, Dr. Johnson pronounces the following eulogium:-- that it is one "which the critic ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety. It were an injury to the reader to offer him an abridgment." -- Life of Lord Rochester. [Pepys gives the following account of Lord Rochester's runaway match. May 28, 1665. "To my Lady Sandwiche's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while. Here, upon my telling her a story of my Lord of Rochester's running away on Friday night last with Mrs. Mallett, the great beauty and fortune of the north, who had supped at White Hall with Mrs. Stewart, and was going home to her lodgings with her grandfather, my Lord Hally, by coach; and was at Charing Cross seized on by both horse and footmen, and forcibly taken from him, and put into a coach with six horses, and two women provided to receive her, and carried away. Upon immediate pursuit, my Lord of Rochester (for whom the king had spoke to the lady often, but with no success) was taken at Uxbridge; but the lady is not yet heard of, and the king mighty angry, and the lord sent to the Tower. Hereupon my lady did confess to me, as a great secret, her being concerned in this story. Tor if this match breaks between my Lord Rochester and her, then, by the consent of all her friends, my Lord Hinchingbroke stands fair, and is invited for her. She is worth, and will be at her mother's death (who keeps but little from her), 2,500l. per annum."] Lord Rochester died July 26, 1680.

NOTE 110 ~ Middlesex.

At this time the Earl of Middlesex was Lionel, who died in 1674 The person intended by our author was Charles, then Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Middlesex, and, lastly, Duke of Dorset. He was born January 24, 1637. Bishop Burnet says, he "was a generous, good-natured man. He was so oppressed with phlegm, that, till he was a little heated with wine, he scarce ever spoke; but he was, upon that exaltation, a very lively man. Never was so much ill-nature in a pen as in his, joined with so much good-nature as was in himself, even to excess; for he was against all punishing, even of malefactors. He was bountiful, even to run himself into difficulties, and charitable to a fault; for he commonly gave all he had about him when he met an object that moved him. But he was so lazy, that, though the king seemed to court him to be a favourite, he would not give himself the trouble that belonged to that post. He hated the court, and despised the king, when he saw he was neither generous nor tender-hearted." -- History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 370. Lord Orford says of him, that "he was the finest gentleman of the voluptuous court of Charles the Second, and in the gloomy one of King William. He had as much wit as his first master, or his contemporaries, Buckingham and Rochester, without the royal want of feeling, the duke's want of principles, or the earl's want of thought. The latter said, with astonishment, 'that he did not know how it was, but Lord Dorset might do any thing, and yet was never to blame.' It was not that he was free from the failings of humanity, but he had the tenderness of it too, which made everybody excuse whom everybody loved; for even the asperity of his verses seems to have been forgiven to

The best good man, with the worst-natured muse."

Noble Authors, vol. ii. p. 96. Lord Dorset died January 19, 1705-6.

[Pepys thus notices his connection with Nell Gwynn. July 13th, 1667. "Mr. Pierce tells us what troubles me, that my Lord Buckhurst hath got Nell away from the king's house, and gives her 100l. a year, so as she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more." And again, July 14th. "To Epsom, by eight o'clock, to the well; were much company. And to the towne to the King's Head; and hear that my Lord Buckhurst and Nelly are lodged at the next house, and Sir Charles Sedley with them: and keep a merry house. Poor girl! I pity her; but more the loss of her at the king's house." Also, August 26th. "Nell is already left by my Lord Buckhurst, and he makes sport of her, and swears she hath had all she could get of him; and Hart, her great admirer, now hates her; and she is very poor, and hath lost my Lady Castlemaine, who was her great friend, also; but she is come to the play-house, but is neglected by them all."]

NOTE 111 ~ Sydley.

Sir Charles Sedley was born about the year 1639, and was educated at Wadham College, Oxford. He ran into all the excesses of the times in which he lived. Burnet says, "Sedley had a more sudden and copious wit, which furnished a perpetual run of discourse; but he was not so correct as Lord Dorset, nor so sparkling as Lord Rochester." -- History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 372. He afterwards took a more serious turn, and was active against the reigning family at the Revolution; to which he was probably urged by the dishonour brought upon his daughter, created Countess of Dorchester by King James II. [The following well-known anecdote refers to this circumstance. Sedley was one day asked why he appeared so inflamed against the king, to whom he was under so many obligations? "I hate ingratitude," he said, "and therefore, as the king has made my daughter a countess, I will endeavour to make his daughter a queen." Referring to the Princess Mary, wife of the Prince of Orange, who, by the success of this great outbreak, was called to the throne under the name of William III.] Lord Rochester's lines on his powers of seduction are well known. He died 20th August, 1701.

[Among other numerous frolics related of Sir Charles Sedley, that which took place in June, 1663, when he was in company with Lord Buckhurst, Sir Thomas Ogle, &c. at the Cock Tavern, in Bow Street, Covent Garden, as recorded by Anthony Wood (see his Life, p. 53, and his Athenæ, vol. iv. p. 732), is the most notorious. "His indecent and blasphemous proceedings there raised a riot, wherein the people became very clamorous, and would have forced the door next to the street open; but being hindered, he and his companions were pelted into the room, and the windows belonging thereunto were broken. This frolic being soon spread abroad, especially by the fanatical party, who aggravated it to the utmost, by making it the most scandalous thing in nature, and nothing more reproachful to religion than that; the said company were summoned to the court of justice in Westminster Hall, where, being indicted of a riot before Sir Robert Hyde, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, were all fined, and Sir Charles to the amount of 500l. Sir Robert Hyde asked him whether ever he read the book called The Complete Gentleman, &c., to which Sir Charles made answer, that set aside his lordship, he had read more books than himself, &c. The day for payment being appointed, Sir Charles desired Mr. Henry Killegrew, and another gentleman, to apply themselves to his majesty to get it off; but instead of that, they beg'd the said sum of his majesty, and would not abate Sir Charles two-pence of the money."

Pepys thus alludes to a somewhat similar frolic in 1668: "Pierce do tell me, among other news, the late frolic and debauchery of Sir Charles Sedley and Buckhurst running up and down all the night, almost naked, through the streets; and at last fighting, and being beat by the watch and clapped up all night: and how the king takes their parts; and my Lord Chief Justice Keeling hath laid the constable by the heels to answer it next sessions: which is a horrid shame."]

NOTE 112 ~ Etheridge.

Sir George Etheridge, author of three comedies, was born about the year 1636. He was, in James the Second's reign, employed abroad; first as envoy to Hamburgh, and afterwards as minister at Ratisbon, where he died, about the time of the Revolution. The authors of the Biographia Britannica say that his death happened in consequence of an unlucky accident; for that, after having treated some company with a liberal entertainment at his house there (Ratisbon), where he had taken his glass too freely, and being, through his great complaisance, too forward in waiting on his guests at their departure, flushed as he was, he tumbled down stairs, and broke his neck, and so fell a martyr to jollity and civility.

NOTE 113 ~ A celebrated portrait painter, called Lely.

Sir Peter Lely was born at Soest, in Westphalia, 1617, and came to England in 1641. Lord Orford observes, "If Vandyck's portraits are often tame and spiritless, at least they are natural: his laboured draperies flow with ease, and not a fold but is placed with propriety. Lely supplied the want of taste with clinquant: his nymphs trail fringes and embroidery through meadows aud purling streams. Add, that Vandyck's habits are those of the times; Lely's a sort of fantastic night-gowns, fastened with a single pin. The latter was, in truth, the ladies' painter; and whether the age was improved in beauty or in flattery, Lely's women are certainly much handsomer than those of Vandyck. They please as much more as they evidently meaned to please. He caught the reigning character, and

------- on the animated canvas stole
The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul.

I do not know whether, even in softness of the flesh, he did not excel his predecessor. The beauties at Windsor are the court of Paphos, and ought to be engraved for the memoirs of its charming biographer, Count Hamilton." -- Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iii. p. 27. Sir Peter Lely died 1680, and was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden.

NOTE 114 ~ Merciless fate robbed her of life.

The lampoons of the day, some of which are to be found in Andrew Marvell's works, more than insinuated that she was deprived of life by a mixture infused into some chocolate. The slander of the times imputed her death to the jealousy of the Duchess of York.

[Pepys says in his Diary, Jan. 7th, 1666-7:-- "Lord Brouncker tells me, that my Lady Denham is at last dead. Some suspect her poisoned, but it will be best known when her body is opened to-day, she dying yesterday morning. The Duke of York is troubled for her; but hath declared he will never have another public mistress again; which I shall be glad of, and would the king would do the like." It appears that her body was never opened, and Aubrey says, "she was poisoned by the hands of the co. of Roc. with chocolate."]

NOTE 115 ~ -- he saw a very fine house, situated on the banks of a river, in the most delightful and pleasant country imaginable.

This was Bretby, in the county of Derby. A late traveller has the following reflections on this place:-- "Moving back again a few miles to the west, we trace, with sad reflection, the melancholy ruins and destruction of what was once the boasted beauty of the lovely country, viz. Bretby, the ancient seat of the Earls of Chesterfield. Nothing scarce is left of thai former grandeur, those shades, those sylvan scenes that everywhere graced the most charming of all parks: the baneful hand of luxury hath, with rude violence, laid them waste. About ten years ago, the venerable and lofty pile was standing, and exhibited delightful magnificence to its frequent visitors: its painted roofs and walls, besides a large collection of pictures, afforded much entertainment to the fond admirer of antique beauties; and the whole stood as a lasting monument of fame and credit to its lordly owner. Would they were standing now ! but that thought is vain:-- not only each surrounding monument, but the very stones themselves, have been converted to the purpose of filthy lucre." -- Tour, in 1787, from London to the Western Highlands of Scotland, 12mo., p. 29.

NOTE 116 ~ Mademoiselle de I'Orme.

Marion de I'Orme, born at Chalons, in Champagne, was esteemed the most beautiful woman of her times. It is believed that she was secretly married to the unfortunate Monsieur Cinqmars. After his death, she became the mistress of Cardinal Richelieu, and, at last, of Monsieur d'Emery, superintendent of the finances.

NOTE 117 ~ Marquis de Flamarens.

A Monsieur Flamarin, but whether the same person as here described cannot be exactly ascertained, is mentioned, in Sydney's Letters, to have been in England at a later period than is comprehended in these Memoirs. "Monsieur de Flamarin hath been received at Windsor as seriously as if it had been believed the Queen of Spam's marriage should not hold unless it were here approved; and the formalities that are usual with men of business having been observed to him, he is grown to think he is so." -- Sydney's Works, p. 94.

The following account of the singular duel which was the occasion of this nobleman coming; to England is extracted from the "Memoirs of the Count de Rochefort," already quoted:--

"A fortnight or three weeks after, as I mentioned before, the quarrel took place between Messrs, de la Frette, which did not terminate very happily. The eldest happened to be present at a ball given at court, which was attended by numerous persons of distinction; on the company leaving the ball-room, this haughty man, who owed a grudge to M. de Chalais on account of a mistress, pushed purposely against him; M. de Chalais turning about to know the cause, and discovering la Frette, loaded him with the most opprobrious terms. Had swords been in the way, the affair would have taken a more serious turn, although the scene of action was ill adapted to such sort of discussions; that the ball etiquette however might not be disturbed, La Frette made no reply, but waiting until coming out, then demanded satisfaction. It was in consequence agreed on between them to fight three against three; and a spot being fixed upon, the next morning was appointed for the rencontre, it being then too late. In the mean time, the quarrel having happened too publicly to remain a secret, the king was informed of it, and immediately despatched the Chevalier St. Agnan, to inform La Frette that he forbade his having recourse to the means he proposed to avenge himself, and that if he still persisted in them, he should lose his head. The Chevalier St. Agnan, who was his first cousin, upon meeting with him, acquainted him with the commands of the king; to which La Frette made answer, that he considered him too much his friend, to suppose that he would be instrumental in preventing the intended meeting, which was only delayed until daybreak: he added that he had better be himself a party in the contest, and that Chalais would not fail providing a match for him. The Chevalier St. Agnan, without considering that he was sent by the king, and that even allowing duels had not been so strictly prohibited as they were, he was still involving himself in a difficulty from which he could not hope to extricate himself, agreed to the request, and Chalais had notice given to him to provide him an antagonist. The Marquis de Noirmoustier, his brother-in-law, who was to assist him, being acquainted, as I said before, with the affair which had taken place betwixt La Frette and myself, I occurred to his mind, and he sent for me; but luckily I had been engaged at play at a friend's house until it grew late; and although at Paris it is not very customary to sleep from home, yet as it was reported that robbers were then much abroad, I was prevailed on to take a bed with him; this circumstance saved me; and in this instance I was convinced, that fortune, who had long persecuted, was resolved not entirely to abandon me. The eight combatants were, La Frette, Ovarti, his brother, a lieutenant in the guards, the Chevalier de St. Agnan, the Marquis de Flammarin, the Prince de Chalais, the Marquis de Noirmoustier, the Marquis d'Antin, brother of Madame de Montespan, and the Viscomte d'Angelieu. The duel proved fatal only to the Marquis d'Antin, who was killed on the spot; but notwithstanding the rest escaped his fate, they were all severely wounded. The king's anger was excessive, particularly against the Chevalier de St. Agnan, who was, in fact, more blameable than all the rest. Their fate, however, was equal; their immediate object was to fly the kingdom disguised, the king having sent orders for their arrest to the seaports and confines of his dominions. Some of them went to Spain, others to Portugal, the remainder elsewhere, as best suited their views. But however desirable a residence in a foreign country may seem, it still savours of banishment, and each had full leisure to repent his folly. No one bestowed any pity on the Chevalier de St. Agnan, thinking he had come off much better than he deserved; neither did Messrs, de la Frette attract much compassion, having always evinced so quarrelsome a disposition, that they could not be better compared than to those horses of a vicious character, who will suffer no others in the same stable with themselves. Respecting the others, public opinion took a different turn: their misfortune was much pitied; and it was hoped it had been possible that the king would have relaxed of his severity towards them. In fact, they were all persons of worth, and deserved a better fate. But no person durst mention it to the king; even the Duke de St. Agnan, who was a good deal about his person, was the first to tell his Majesty, that his son's misconduct was of a nature never to be pardoned; that if he were acquainted with his place of retreat, he should be the first to discover it, in order to bring him to justice; that he should not, therefore, trouble his Majesty with intercessions in his behalf, and believed that every one would incline to his way of thinking. This speech might be very appropriate in the mouth of a courtier, who was endeavouring to gain the favour of his prince by every possible means; but very ill becoming a parent, who, instead of blackening the transaction, should have felt it his duty to have represented it in as favourable a light as possible. The relations of Messrs, de la Frette acted differently; they did not dare themselves to speak to the king, but made use of every possible means to move his compassion. The Duchess de Chaulnes prevailed on her husband, who was ambassador at Rome, to mention it to the Pope, and however much the Holy Father might approve of the king's conduct in this affair, he, nevertheless, promised his assistance on this occasion; accordingly, a few years after, having occasion to send a legate to France, on different business, and of an import unnecessary to mention here, he was charged to speak to the king on that subject, and to say that he took an interest in it. The duchess could not have employed an agent whose recommendation would have turned out more efficacious; the Pope had it in his power to absolve the king from his oath, which was supposed to render him so rigid; but he made answer to the legate, that in every other circumstance he would joyfully oblige the Holy Father, but in this affair, he had so bound himself, that God only could discharge him from so solemn an oath. Not that he doubted the authority of the Holy See; but as the duty he owed to God required him to be a prince of his word, he firmly believed that the Pope himself would depart from the recommendation if he would but examine into its consequences."

NOTE 118 ~ Countess de la Suze.

This lady was the daughter of Gaspar de Coligni, marshal of France, and was celebrated in her time for her wit and her elegies. She was one of the few women with whom Christina, Queen of Sweden, condescended to become intimate. Though educated a Protestant, she embraced the Roman Catholic religion, less from a motive of devotion, than to have a pretence of parting from her husband, who was a Protestant, and for whom she had an invincible abhorrence; which occasioned the queen to say, "The Countess of Suze became a Catholic, that she might neither meet her husband in this world nor the next." -- See Lacombe's Life of Queen Christina. The countess died in 1673.

NOTE 119 ~ Tambonneau.

I find this person mentioned in Memoirs of the Court of France 8vo 1702, pt.ii. p. 42.

NOTE 120 ~ Talbot, who was afterwards created Duke of Tyrconnel.

Richard Talbot, the fifth son "of an Irish family, but of ancient English extraction, which had always inhabited within that circle that was called the Pale; which, being originally an English plantation, was, in so many hundred years, for the most part degenerated into the manners of the Irish, and rose and mingled with them in the late rebellion: and of this family there were two distinct families, who had competent estates, and lived in many descents in the rank of gentlemen of quality." Thus far Lord Clarendon; who adds, that Richard Talbot and his "brothers were all the sons, or the grandsons, of one who was a judge in Ireland, and esteemed a learned man." -- Continuation of Clarendon. Of the person now under consideration the same writer appears, and with great reason, to have entertained a very ill opinion. Dick Talbot, as he was called, "was brought into Flanders first by Daniel O'Neile, as one who was willing to assassinate Cromwell; and he made a journey into England with that resolution, not long before his death, and after it returned into Flanders, ready to do all that he should be required. He was a very handsome young man, wore good clothes, and was, without doubt, of a clear, ready courage, which was virtue enough to recommend a man to the duke's good opinion; which, with more expedition than could be expected, he got, to that degree, that he was made of his bedchamber; and from that qualification embarked himself, after the king's return, in the pretences of the Irish, with such an unusual confidence, and, upon private contracts, with such scandalous circumstances, that the chancellor had sometimes, at the council-table, been obliged to give him severe reprehensions, and often desired the duke to withdraw his countenance from him." -- Continuation of Clarendon. It is to be remembered that he was one of the men of honour already noticed. On King James's accession to the throne, he was created Earl of Tyrconnel, and placed, as lieutenant-general, at the head of the Irish army, where his conduct was so agreeable to his sovereign, that he was, in 1689, advanced to the dignity of Duke of Tyrconnel. He was afterwards employed by the king in Ireland, where his efforts were without effect. The Duke of Berwick says, "his stature was above the ordinary size. He had great experience of the world, having been early introduced into the best company, and possessed of an honourable employment in the household of the Duke of York; who, upon his succession to the crown, raised him to the dignity of an earl, and well knowing his zeal and attachment, made him soon after viceroy of Ireland. He was a man of very good sense, very obliging, but immoderately vain, and full of cunning. Though he had acquired great possessions, it could not be said that he had employed improper means; for he never appeared to have a passion for money. He had not a military genius, but much courage. After the Prince of Orange's invasion, his firmness preserved Ireland, and he nobly refused all the offers that were made to induce him to submit. From the time of the battle of the Boyne, he sank prodigiously, being become as irresolute in his mind as unwieldy in his person." -- Memoirs, vol. i. p. 94. [He is said to have died suddenly by poison, administered in a cup of ratafia.] He died at Limerick, 5th August, 1691.

NOTE 121 ~ One of these brothers was almoner to the queen.

This was Peter Talbot, whose character is drawn by Lord Clarendon in terms not more favourable than those in which his brother is portrayed. -- See Continuation of Clarendon, p. 363.

NOTE 122 ~ the other was called a lay-monk.

Thomas Talbot, a Franciscan friar, of wit enough, says Lord Clarendon, but of notorious debauchery. More particulars of this man may be found in the same noble historian. -- See Continuation of Clarendon, p. 963.

NOTE 123 ~ which offended the Duke of Ormond.

A very exact account of this transaction is given Lord Clarendon, by which it appears that Talbot was committed to the Tower for threatening to assassinate the Duke of Ormond. -- Continuation of Clarendon, p. 362.

NOTE 124 ~ Lord Cornwallis.

Charles, the third Lord Cornwallis, born in 1655. He married, December 27, 1673, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Stephen Fox, knight, and afterwards, in 1688, the widow of the Duke of Monmouth. Lord Cornwallis died April 29, 1698.

NOTE 125 ~ Sir Stephen Fox.

This gentleman is said to have been of a genteel family, settled at Farley, in Wiltshire, and was the architect of his own fortune. Lord Clarendon says, in his History of the Rebellion, that he was entertained by Lord Percy, then lord-chamberlain of the king's household, at Paris, about the year 1652, and continued in his majesty's service until the Restoration. On that event he was made clerk of the green cloth, and afterwards paymaster-general of the forces in England. On the 1st July, 1665, he was knighted. In 1680, he was constituted one of the lords commissioners of the treasury. On the accession of James II. he was continued first clerk of the green cloth; and, in December, 1686, was again appointed one of the commissioners of the treasury. At the Revolution, he concurred in yoting the throne vacant; and, on 19th March, 1689, was a third time appointed to the treasury; which place he held until he retired from public business, in 1701. By his first lady he had se-en sons and three daughters; and by his second, whom he married in the year 1703, when he was seventy-six years of age, he had two sons, who both afterwards became peers, -- Stephen, Earl of Ilchester, and Henry, Lord Holland, and two daughters. He died in the year 1716. at Chiswick, in his eighty-ninth year.

NOTE 126 ~ Lord Taafe, eldest son of the Earl of Carlingford.

Nicholas, the third Viscount Taafe, and second Earl of Carlingford. He was of the privy-council to King James II., and, in 1689, went as envoy to the Emperor Leopold. He lost his life the next year, 1st July, at the battle of the Boyne, commanding at that time a regiment of foot. This nobleman, although he succeeded his father in his title, was not his eldest son. King Charles appears to have had a great regard for the family. In a letter from Lord Arlington to Sir Richard Fanshaw, dated April 21, 1664, that nobleman says, "Colonel Luke Taafe (a brother of my Lord Carlingford's) hath served his Catholic majesty many years in the state of Milan, with a standing regiment there; which regiment he desires now to deliver over to Captain Nicholas Taafe, a younger son of my Lord Carlingford's. and the colonel's nephew, who is now a captain of the regiment: and his majesty commands me to recommend to your excellency the bringing this to pass, for the affection he hath to the family, and the merit of this young gentleman." -- Arlington's Letters, vol. ii. p. 21.

NOTE 127 ~ The Duke of Richmond.

Charles Stewart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox. He was afterwards sent ambassador to Denmark, and died at Elsineur, December 12, 1672. Burnet says, he "was sent to give a lustre to the negotiation, which was chiefly managed by Mr. Hensaw." -- History of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 425. [For particulars of his marriage with Miss Stewart, see note 169.]

NOTE 128 ~ Mademoiselle de la Garde,

Daughter of Charles Peliot, Lord de la Garde, whose eldest daughter married Sir Thomas Bond, comptroller of the household to the queen-mother. Sir Thomas Bond had a considerable estate at Peckham. and his second son married the niece of Jermyn, one of the heroes of these Memoirs. -- See Collin's Baronetage, vol. iii. p. 4. She became the wife of Sir Gabriel Silvius, and died 13th October, 1730.

NOTE 129 ~ Mr. Silvius,

Afterwards Sir Gabriel Silvius. In Chamberlayne's Angliæ Notitia, 1669, Gabriel de Sylvus is put down as one of the carvers to the queen, and Mrs. de Sylvus, one of the six chambriers or dressers to the queen. He was afterwards knighted, and, 30th February, 1680, was sent ambassador to the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburgh. Lord Orford says, he was a native of Orange, and was attached to the princess-royal, afterwards to the Duke of York. He also says, he was sent ambassador to Denmark.

NOTE 130 ~ Progers.

Edward Progers, Esq., was a younger son of Philip Progers, Esq., of the family of Garreddin, in Monmouthshire. His father was a colonel in the army, and equerry to James I. Edward was early introduced to court, and, after having been page to Charles I., was made groom of the bedchamber to his son, while Prince of Wales. He attached himself to the king's interest during the war with the parliament, with laudable fidelity. The following letter, from which antiquaries may derive the minute information that Charles II. did wear mourning for a whole year for his father, serves to shew the familiar style which Charles used to Progers, as well as his straitened circumstances while in the island of Jersey.

"Progers, I wold have you (besides the embroidred sute) bring me a plaine riding suite, with an innocent coate, the suites I haue for horse-backe being so spotted and spoiled that they are not to be scene out of this island. The lining of the coate, and the petit toies are referred to your greate discretion, provided there want nothing when it comes to be put on. I doe not remember there was a belt, or a hat-band, in your directions for the embroiderd suite, and those are so necessarie as you must not forget them.
"Jearsey, 14th Jan. old stile, 1649.	"CHARLES R."
"For Mr. Progers."

By a letter from Cowley to Henry Bennet, dated 18th November, 1650, Mr. Progers appears to have been then active in his master's service. -- Brown's Miscellanea Aulica, 1702, p. 153. In the lampoons of the times, particularly in those of Andrew Marvell, Mr. Progers is described as one devoted to assist his master's pleasures; for which reason, perhaps, he was banished from the king's presence in 1650, by an act of the estates of Scotland, "as an evil instrument and bad counsellor of the king." He is said to have obtained several grants to take effect upon the restoration; but it does not appear that they took effect. In 1660, he was named, says Lord Orford, one of the knights of the royal oak, an order the king then intended to institute. By the same authority we are informed that he had permission from the king to build a house in Bushy-park, near Hampton-court, on condition that, after his death, it should revert to the crown. This was the house inhabited by the late Earl of Hallifax. He represented the county of Brecon in parliament for seventeen years, but retired in 1679. On the death of his master, he retired from public life. Mr. Progers died, says Le Neve, "December 31st, or January 1st, 1713, aged ninety-six, of the anguish of cutting teeth, he having cut four new teeth and had several ready to cut, which so inflamed his gums, that he died thereof." He was in low circumstances before his death, and applied to King James for relief, with what effect is not known. Mr. Progers had a family by his wife Elizabeth Wells; and the scandal-bearers of the time remarked, that his eldest daughter Philippa, afterwards Mrs. Croxel, bore a strong resemblance to Charles II. -- Monumenta Anglicana, 1717, p. 273.

NOTE 131 ~ Dongon.

The only notice of this person I have anywhere seen, is in the following extract of a letter from Sir Richard Fanshaw to Lord Arlington, dated 4th June, 1664. -- "I ought not, in justice to an honourable person, to conclude before I acquaint your honour, that I have this day seen a letter, whereby it is certified, from my Lord Dongon (now at Heres), that, if there were any ship in Cadiz bound for Tangier, he would go over in her, to do his majesty what service he could in that garrison; which, he saith, he fears wants good officers very much." -- Fanshaw's Letters, vol. i. p. 104.

NOTE 132 ~ Durfort afterwards Earl of Feversham.

Lewis de Duras, Earl of Feversham, a native of France, being son of the Duke de Duras, and brother to the last duke of that name, as also to the Duke de Lorge. His mother was sister to the great Turenne, of the princely house of Bouillon. After the Restoration he came to England, was naturalized, and behaved with great gallantry in the sea-fight with the Dutch, in 1665. When he first came to England, he bore the name of Durfort, and the title of Marquis of Blancfort. In the twenty-fourth Charles II. he was created Baron Duras of Holdenby, in the county of Northampton; and having married Mary, the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir George Sondes, of Lees Court, in the county of Kent, who had been created Earl of Feversham, the same title was limited to him, and he succeeded to it on the death of his father-in-law. Besides these honours, King Charles preferred him to the command of the third troop of horse guards, afterwards promoted him to the second, and then to the first. In 1679, he was made master of the horse to Queen Katherine, and afterwards lord-chamberlain to her majesty. Upon King James's accession, he was admitted into the privy council, and was commander-in-chief of the forces sent against the Duke of Monmouth. After the Revolution, he continued lord-chamberlain to the queen-dowager, and master of the royal college of St. Katherine's, near the Tower. He died April 8th, 1709, aged sixty-eight, and was buried in the Savoy, in the Strand, London; but removed, March 21st, 1740, to Westminster-abbey.

NOTE 133 ~ Miss Bagot.

Elizabeth, daughter of Hervey Bagot, second son of Sir Hervey Bagot. She married first Charles Berkley, Earl of Falmouth, and, after his death, Charles Sackville, who became the first Duke of Dorset. From the pen of a satirist much dependence is not to be placed for the truth of facts. This lady's character is treated by Dryden and Mulgrave with very little respect, in the following lines, extracted from "The Essay on Satire:"

"Thus Dorset, purring like a thoughtful cat, Married; but wiser puss ne'er thought of that: And first he worried her with railing rhyme, Like Pembroke's mastiffs at his kindest time; Then for one night sold all his slavish life, A teeming widow, but a barren wife; Swell'd by contact of such a fulsome toad, He lugg'd about the matrimonial load; Till fortune, blindly kind as well as he, Has ill restored him to his liberty; Which he would use in his old sneaking way, Drinking all night, and dosing all the day; Dull as Ned Howard, whom his brisker times Had famed for dulness in malicious rhymes."

NOTE 134 ~ Miss Jennings.

This lady was one of the daughters and co-heirs of Richard Jennings, of Sundridge, in the county of Hertford, Esquire, and elder sister to the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough. Her name was Frances. She married George Hamilton, mentioned in these Memoirs; and after his death took to her second husband Richard Talbot, already mentioned, created Duke of Tyrconnel by James II., whose fortunes he followed. Lord Melfort, secretary to that prince, appears to have conceived no very favourable opinion of this lady; for in a letter to his master, dated October, 1689, he says, "There is one other thing, if it could be effectuated, were of infinite use; which is the getting the Duchess of Tyrconnel, for her health, to come into France. I did not know she had been so well known here as she is; but the terms they give her, and which, for your service, I may repeat unto you, is, that she has l'ame la plus noire qui se puisse concevoir. I think it would help to keep that peace so necessary for you, and prevent that caballing humour which has very ill effects." -- Macpherson's State Papers, vol. i. In 1699 she is mentioned in a letter from the Earl of Manchester to Lord Jersey, as one of the needy Jacobites of King James's court, to whom 3,000 crowns, part of that monarch's pension, had been distributed. -- Cole's State Papers, p. 53. In 1705 she was in England, and had an interview with her brother-in-law, the Duke of Marlborough, with whose family she seems not to have lived in any terms of cordiality.- -- Macpherson, vol. i.

[Respecting her sojourn in London, Horace Walpole relates the following singular anecdote. "At that time, part of the Royal Exchange was let out in small stalls or shops, perhaps something like a modern bazaar, and was a favourite and fashionable resort of women of the highest rank. It is said that the Duchess of Tyrconnel, being reduced to absolute want on her arrival in England, and unable for some time to procure secret access to her family, hired one of the stalls under the Royal Exchange, and maintained herself by the sale of small articles of haberdashery. She wore a white dress wrapping her whole person, and a white mask, which she never removed, and excited much interest and curiosity." Mrs. Jameson adds, "She afterwards obtained the restoration of a small part of her husband's property, with permission to reside in Dublin. To that city, perhaps, endeared to her as the scene of past happiness, and power, and splendour, she returned in 1706, a widow, poor, proscribed, and broken-hearted. While her high-spirited sister, the Duchess of Marlborough, was ruling the councils of England, or playing a desperate and contemptible game for power, the Duchess of Tyrconnel withdrew from the world: she established on the site of her husband's house, in King Street, a nunnery of the order of Poor Clares, and she passed in retreat, and the practice of the most austere devotion, the rest of her varied life. Her death was miserable: one cold wintry night, during an intense frost, she fell out of her bed; and being too feeble to rise or call for assistance, she was discovered next morning lying on the floor in a state of insensibility. It was found impossible to restore warmth or motion to her frozen limbs; and after lingering a few hours in a half lethargic state, she gradually sank into death. She expired on the 29th of February, 1730, in her eighty-second year: and on the 9th of March following, she was interred in the cathedral church of St. Patrick."]

NOTE 135 ~ Miss Temple.

Anne, daughter of Thomas Temple, of Frankton, in the county of Warwick, by Rebecca, daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew, of Beddington, in Surrey, Knight. She afterwards became the second wife of Sir Charles Lyttelton, by whom she had five sons and eight daughters. She was grandmother of the celebrated Lord Lyttelton; and died 27th August, 1718. Her husband, Sir Charles Lyttelton, lived to the advanced age of eighty-six years; and died at Hagley, May 2nd, 1716.

NOTE 136 ~ St. Albans.

This town is in the neighbourhood of Sundridge, where Miss Jennings' family resided.

NOTE 137 ~ The Earl of Oxford

This was Aubery de Vere, the last Earl of Oxford of that name, and the twentieth and last earl of that family. He was chief justice in eyre; and in the reign of Charles II. lord of the bedchamber, privy counsellor, colonel of the royal regiment of horse guards, and lord-lieutenant of the county of Essex; and lieutenant-general of the forces in the reign of William III., and also knight of the garter. He died March 12th, 1702, aged eighty years and upwards, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The author of a History of the English Stage, published by Curl, 1741, 8vo., says, that Mrs. Marshall, a celebrated actress, more known by the name of Roxana, from acting that part, was the person deceived by the Earl of Oxford in this manner. [Evelyn says, Jan. 9th:-- "I saw acted 'The Third Part of the Siege of Rhodes.' In this acted the fair and famous comedian, called Roxalana, from the part she performed; and I think it was the last, she being taken to be the Earl of Oxford's Misse (as at this time they began to call lewd women). It was in recitative music."] The particulars of the story, as there related, do not materially vary from the present account of the transaction. A more detailed narrative of this seduction is given in Madam Dunois's Memoirs of the Court of England, pt. 2, p. 71. Mrs. Marshall, who was the original Roxana in Lee's Rival Queens, belonged not to the duke's, but the king's theatre. Lord Orford, I know not on what authority, has given the name of Mrs. Barker to this lady; a name totally unknown, I believe, in the annals of the stage.

NOTE 138 ~ The public was obliged to him for the prettiest, but, at the same time, the worst actress in the kingdom.

Though no name is given to this lady, there are circumstances enough mentioned to fix on the celebrated Mrs. Barry, as the person intended by the author. Mrs. Barry was introduced to the stage by Lord Rochester, with whom she had an intrigue, the fruit of which was a daughter, who lived to the age of thirteen years, and is often mentioned in his collection of love-letters, printed in his works, which were written to Mrs. Barry. On her first theatrical attempts, so little hopes were entertained of her, that she was, as Cibber declares, discharged the company at the end of the first year, among others that were thought to be a useless expense to it. She was well born; being daughter of Robert Barry, Esq., barrister-at-law; a gentleman of an ancient family and good estate, who hurt his fortune by his attachment to Charles 1.; for whom he raised a regiment at his own expense. Tony Aston, in his "Supplement to Cibber's Apology," says, she was woman to Lady Shelton, of Norfolk, who might have belonged to the court. Curl, however, says, she was early taken under the patronage of Lady Davenant. Both these accounts may be true. The time of her appearance on the stage was probably not much earlier than 1671; in which year she performed in Tom Essence, and was, it may be conjectured, about the age of nineteen. Curl mentions the great pains taken by Lord Rochester in instructing her; which were repaid by the rapid progress she daily made in her profession. She at last eclipsed all her competitors, and in the part of Monimia established her reputation. From her performance in this character, in that of Belvidera, and of Isabella, in the Fatal Marriage, Downes says she acquired the name of the famous Mrs. Barry, both at court and in the city. "Mrs. Barry," says Dryden, in his Preface to Cleomenes, "always excellent, has in this tragedy excelled herself, and gained a reputation beyond any woman I have ever seen on the theatre." "In characters of greatness," says Cibber, "Mrs. Barry had a presence of elevated dignity; her mien and motion superb, and gracefully majestic; her voice full, clear, and strong; so that no violence of passion could be too much for her; and when distress or tenderness possessed her, she subsided into the most affecting melody and softness. In the art of exciting pity, she had a power beyond all the actresses I have yet seen, or what your imagination can conceive. In scenes of anger, defiance, or resentment, while she was impetuous and terrible, she poured out the sentiment with an enchanting harmony; and it was this particular excellence for which Dryden made her the above-recited compliment, upon her acting Cassandra in his Cleomenes. She was the first person whose merit was distinguished by the indulgence of having an annual benefit play, which was granted to her alone in King James's time, and which did not become common to others till the division of this company, after the death of King William and Queen Mary." -- Cibber's Apology, 1750, p. 133. Tony Aston says, "She was not handsome; her mouth opening most on the right side, which she strove to draw t'other way; and at times composing her face, as if sitting for her picture: she was," he adds, "middle-sized; had darkish hair, light eyes, and was indifferently plump. In tragedy, she was solemn and august; in comedy, alert, easy, and genteel; pleasant in her face and action; filling the stage with variety of gesture. She could neither sing nor dance; no, not in a country dance." -- Supplement to Cibber, p. 7. The printed letters in Otway's works are generally supposed to have been addressed to her. She adhered to Betterton in all the revolutions of the theatre, which she quitted about 1708, on account of her health. The last new character, of any consequence, which she performed, seems to have been Phædra, in Mr. Smith's tragedy. She returned, however, for one night, with Mrs. Bracegirdle, April 7, 1709; and performed Mrs. Frail, in Love for Love, for Mr. Betterton's benefit; and afterwards spoke an occasional epilogue, written by Mr. Rowe. She died 7th November, 1713, and was buried at Acton. The inscription over her remains says she was fifty-five years of age.

NOTE 139 ~ Miss Boynton.

Daughter of Matthew Boynton, second son of Sir Matthew Boynton, of Barmston, in Yorkshire. The sister of this lady married the celebrated Earl of Roscommon.

NOTE 140 ~ Pitiful strolling actress.

Probably Nell Gwyn.

NOTE 141 ~ Immediately give her the title of duchess.

The title of Duchess of Cleveland was conferred on her 3rd August, 22 Charles II., 1670.

NOTE 142 ~ The recent arrival of a famous German doctor.

Bishop Burnet confirms this account.-- "Being under an unlucky accident, which obliged him to keep out of the way, he disguised himself so, that his nearest friends could not have known him, and set up in Tower-street for an Italian mountebank, where he practised physic for some weeks, not without success. In his latter years he read books of history more. He took pleasure to disguise himself as a porter, or as a beggar; sometimes to follow some mean amours, which, for the variety of them, he affected. At other times, merely for diversion, he would go about in odd shapes; in which he acted his part so naturally, that even those who were in the secret, and saw him in these shapes, could perceive nothing by which he might be discovered." -- Burnet''s Life of Rochester, ed. 1774, p. 14.

[Lord Rochester's speech when he exhibited as a mountebank on Tower Hill, is so remarkable a document, that it seems well worthy of a place here.

"To all gentlemen, ladies, and others, whether of city, town, or country, Alexander Bendo wisheth all health and prosperity.

"Whereas this famed metropolis of England (and were the endeavours of its worthy inhabitants equal to their power, merit, and virtue, I should not stick to denounce it, in a short time, the metropolis of the whole world); whereas, I say, this city (as most great ones are) has ever been infested with a numerous company of such, whose arrogant confidence, backed with their ignorance, has enabled them to impose on the people, either by premeditated cheats, or at best, the palpable, dull, and empty mistakes of their self-deluded imagination in physic, chymical and Galenic; in astrology, physiognomy, palmistry, mathematics, alchymy, and even in government itself, the last of which I will not propose to discourse of, or meddle at all in, since it in no way belongs to my trade or vocation, as the rest do; which (thanks to my God) I find much more safe, I think equally honest, and therefore more profitable.

"But as to all the former, they have been so erroneously practised by many unlearned wretches, whom poverty and neediness, for the most part (if not the restless itch of deceiving), has forced to straggle and wander in unknown parts, that even the professions themselves, though originally the products of the most learned and wise men's laborious studies and experience, and by them left a wealthy and glorious inheritance for ages to come, seem, by this bastard race of quacks and cheats, to have been run out of all wisdom, learning, perspicuousness, and truth, with which they were so plentifully stocked; and now run into a repute of mere mists, imaginations, errors, and deceits, such as, in the management of these idle professors, indeed they were.

"You will therefore, I hope, gentlemen, ladies, and others, deem it but just that I, who for some years have with all faithfulness and assiduity courted these arts, and received such signal favours from them, that they have admitted me to the happy and full enjoyment of themselves, and trusted me with their greatest secrets, should with an earnestness and concern more than ordinary, take their parts against those impudent fops, whose saucy, impertinent addresses and pretensions have brought such a scandal upon their most immaculate honours and reputations.

"Besides, I hope you will not think I could be so impudent, that if I had intended any such foul play myself, I would have given you so fair warning, by my severe observations upon others. 'Qui alterum incusant probri, ipsum se intueri oportet,' says Plautus. However, gentlemen, in a world like this, where virtue is so exactly counterfeited, and hypocrisy so generally taken notice of, that every one, armed with suspicion, stands upon his guard against it, it will be very hard, for a stranger, especially, to escape censure. All I shall say for myself on this score is this: -- if I appear to any one like a counterfeit, even for the sake of that, chiefly, ought I to be construed a true man. Who is the counterfeit's example? His original; and that, which he employs his industry and pains to imitate and copy. Is it therefore my fault, if the cheat by his wits and endeavours makes himself so like me, that consequently I cannot avoid resembling him? Consider, pray, the valiant and the coward, the wealthy merchant and the bankrupt, the politician and the fool; they are the same in many things, and differ but in one alone.

"The valiant man holds up his head, looks confidently round about him, wears a sword, courts a lord's wife, and owns it; so does the coward: one only point of honour excepted, and that is courage, which (like false metal, one, only trial can discover) makes the distinction.

"The bankrupt walks the exchange, buys bargains, draws bills, and accepts them with the richest, whilst paper and credit are current coin: that which makes the difference is real cash; a great defect indeed, and yet but one, and that, the last found out, and still, till then, the least perceived.

"Now for the politician:-- he is a grave, deliberating, close, prying man: pray are there not grave, deliberating, close, prying fools?

"If then the difference betwixt all these (though infinite in effect) be so nice in all appearance, will you expect it should be otherwise betwixt the false physician, astrologer, etc., and the true? The first calls himself learned doctor, sends forth his bills, gives physic and counsel, tells and foretels; the other is bound to do just as much: it is only your experience must distinguish betwixt them; to which I willingly submit myself. I will only say something to the honour of the MOUNTEBANK, in case you discover me to be one.

"Reflect a little what kind of creature it is: -- he is one then, who is fain to supply some higher ability he pretends to with craft; he draws great companies to him by undertaking strange things, which can never be effected. The politician (by his example no doubt) finding how the people are taken with specious miraculous impossibilities, plays the same game; protests, declares, promises I know not what things, which he is sure can never be brought about. The people believe, are deluded, and pleased; the expectation of a future good, which shall never befal them, draws their eyes off a present evil. Thus are they kept and established in subjection, peace, and obedience; he in greatness, wealth, and power. So you see the politician is, and must be a mountebank in state affairs; and the mountebank no doubt, if he thrives, is an errant politician in physic. But that I may not prove too tedious, I will proceed faithfully to inform you, what are the things in which I pretend chiefly, at this time, to serve my country.

"First, I will (by the leave of God) .perfectly cure that labes Britannica, or grand English disease, the scurvy; and that with such ease to my patient, that he shall not be sensible of the least inconvenience, whilst I steal his distemper from him. I know there are many, who treat this disease with mercury, antimony, spirits, and salts, being dangerous remedies; in which, I shall meddle very little, and with great caution; but by more secure, gentle, and less fallible medicines, together with the observation of some few rules in diet, perfectly cure the patient, having freed him from all the symptoms, as looseness of the teeth, scorbutick spots, want of appetite, pains and lassitude in the limbs and joints, especially the legs. And to say true, there are few distempers in this nation that are not, or at least proceed not originally from the scurvy; which, were it well rooted out (as I make no question to do it from all those who shall come into my hands), there would not be heard of so many gouts, aches, dropsies, and consumptions; nay, even those thick and slimy humours, which generate stones in the kidneys and bladder, are for the most part offsprings of the scurvy. It would prove tedious to set down all its malignant race; but those who address themselves here, shall be still informed by me of the nature of their distempers, and the grounds I proceed upon to their cure: so will all reasonable people be satisfied that I treat them with care, honesty, and understanding; for I am not of their opinion, who endeavour to render their vocations rather mysterious than useful and satisfactory.

"I will not here make a catalogue of diseases and distempers; it behoves a physician, I am sure, to understand them all; but if any one come to me (as I think there are very few that have escaped my practice) I shall not be ashamed to own to my patient, where I find myself to seek; and, at least, he shall be secure with me from having experiments tried upon him; a privilege he can never hope to enjoy, either in the hands of the grand doctors of the court and Tower, or in those of the lesser quacks and mountebanks.

"It is thought fit, that I assure you of great secrecy, as well as care, in diseases, where it is requisite; whether venereal or others; as some peculiar to women, the green-sickness, weaknesses, inflammations, or obstructions in the stomach, reins, liver, spleen, &c.; for I would put no word in my bill that bears any unclean sound; it is enough that I make myself understood. I have seen physician's bills as bawdy as Aretine's Dialogues, which no man, that walks warily before God, can approve of; but I cure all suffocations, in those parts, producing fits of tne mother, convulsions, nocturnal inquietudes, and other strange accidents, not fit to be set down here; persuading young women very often that their hearts are like to break for love, when God knows, the distemper lies far enough from that place.

"I have, likewise, got the knowledge of a great secret to cure barrenness (proceeding from any accidental cause as it often falls out, and no natural defect; for nature is easily assisted, difficultly restored, but impos-sible to be made more perfect by man, than God himself had at first created and bestowed it), which I have made use of for many years with great success, especially this last year, wherein I have cured one woman that had been married twenty years, and another that had been married one and twenty years, and two women that had been three times married; as I can make appear by the testimonies of several persons in London, Westminster, and other places thereabouts. The medicines I use cleanse and strengthen the womb, and are all to be taken in the space of seven days. And because I do not intend to deceive any person, upon discourse with them, I will tell them whether I am like to do them any good. My usual contract is, to receive one-half of what is agreed upon, when the party shall be quick with child, the other half when she is brought to bed.

"Cures of this kind I have done, signal and many; for the which, I doubt not but I have the good wishes and hearty prayers of many families, who had else pined out their days under the deplorable and reproachful misfortunes of barren wombs, leaving plentiful estates and possessions to be inherited by strangers.

"As to astrological predictions, physiognomy, divination by dreams, and otherwise (palmistry I have no faith in, because there can be no reason alleged for it), my own experience has convinced me more of their considerable effects, and marvellous operations, chiefly in the directions of future proceedings, to the avoiding of dangers that threaten, and laying hold of advantages that might offer themselves; I say, my own practice has convinced me, more than all the sage and wise writings extant, of those matters; for I might say this of myself (did it not look like ostentation), that I have very seldom failed in my predictions, and often been very serviceable in my advice. How far I am capable in this way, I am sure is not fit to be delivered in print: those who have no opinion of the truth of this art, will not, I suppose, come to me about it; such as have, I make no question of giving them ample satisfaction.

"Nor will I be ashamed to set down here my willingness to practise rare secrets (though somewhat collateral to my profession), for the help, conservation, and augmentation of beauty and comeliness; a thing created at first by God, chiefly for the glory of his own name, and then for the better establishment of mutual love between man and woman; for when God had bestowed on man the power of strength and wisdom, and thereby rendered woman liable to the subjection of his absolute will, it seemed but requisite that she should be endued likewise, in recompense, with some quality that might beget in him admiration of her, and so enforce his tenderness and love.

"The knowledge of these secrets, I gathered in my travels abroad (where I have spent my time ever since I was fifteen years old, to this my nine and twentieth year) in France and Italy. Those that have travelled in Italy, will tell you what a miracle art does there assist nature in the preservation of beauty; how women of forty bear the same countenance with those of fifteen: ages are no way distinguished by faces; whereas, here in England, look a horse in the mouth, and a woman in the face, you presently know both their ages to a year. I will, therefore, give you such remedies, that, without destroying your complexion (as most of your paints and daubings do), shall render them perfectly fair; clearing and preserving them from all spots, freckles, heats, pimples, and marks of the small-pox, or any other accidental ones, so the face be not seamed or scarred.

"I will also cleanse and preserve your teeth white and round as pearls, fastening them that are loose: your gums shall be kept entire, as red as coral; your lips of the same colour, and soft as you could wish your lawful kisses.

"I will likewise administer that which shall cure the worst of breaths provided the lungs be not totally perished and imposthumated; as also certain and infallible remedies for those whose breaths are yet untainted; so that nothing but either a very long sickness, or old age itself, shall ever be able to spoil them.

"I will, besides (if it be desired) take away from their fatness, who have over much, and add flesh to those that want it, without the least detriment to their constitutions.

"Now, should Galen himself look out of his grave, and tell me these were baubles, below the profession of a physician, I would boldly answer him, that I take more glory in preserving God's image in its unblemished beauty, upon one good face, than I should do in patching up all the decayed carcasses in the world.

"They that will do me the favour to come to me, shall be sure, from three of the clock in the afternoon, till eight at night (at my lodgings in Tower-street, next door to the sign of the Black Swan, at a goldsmith's house, to find

"Their humble servant,

"ALEXANDER BENDO."]

NOTE 143 ~ The best disguise they could think of, was to disguise themselves like orange-girls.

These frolics appear to have been not unfrequent with persons of high rank at this period. In a letter from Mr. Henshaw to Sir Robert Paston, afterwards Earl of Yarmouth, dated October 13, 1670, we have the following account: "Last week, there being a faire neare Audley-end, the queen, the Dutchess of Richmond, and the Dutchess of Buckingham, had a frolick to disguise themselves like country lasses, in red petticoats, wast-cotes, &c., and so goe see the faire. Sir Bernard Gascoign, on a cart jade, rode before the queen; another stranger before the Dutchess of Buckingham; and Mr. Roper before Richmond. They had all so overdone it in their disguise, and looked so much more like antiques than country volk, that, as soon as they came to the faire, the people began to goe after them; but the queen going to a booth, to buy a pair of yellow stockins for her sweet hart, and Sir Bernard asking for a pair of gloves sticht with blew, for his sweet hart, they were soon, by their gebrish, found to be strangers, which drew a bigger flock about them. One amongst them had seen the queen at dinner, knew her, and was proud of her knowledge. This soon brought all the faire into a crowd to stare at the queen. Being thus discovered, they, as soon as they could, got to their horses; but as many of the faire as had horses got up, with their wives, children, sweet harts, or neighbours, behind them, to get as much gape as they could, till they brought them to the court gate. Thus, by ill conduct, was a merry frolick turned into a penance." -- Ives's Select Papers, p. 39.

Bishop Burnet says, "At this time (1668), the court fell into much extravagance in masquerading: both the king and queen, and all the court, went about masked, and came into houses unknown, and danced there, with a great deal of wild frolic. In all this people were so disguised, that, without being in the secret, none could distinguish them. They were carried about in hackney chairs. Once the queen's chairmen, not knowing who she was, went from her. So she was alone, and was much disturbed, and came to Whitehall in a hackney coach; some say in a cart." -- Bur-net's History, vol. i. p. 368.

NOTE 144 ~ Brounker.

Gentleman of the chamber to the Duke of York, and brother to Lord Viscount Brounker, president of the Royal Society. Lord Clarendon imputes to him the cause of the great sea-fight, in 1665, not being so well improved as it might have been, and adds, "Nor did the duke come to hear of it till some years after, when Mr. Brounker's ill course of life, and his abominable nature, had rendered him so odious, that it was taken notice of in parliament, and, upon examination, found to be true, as is here related; upon which he was expelled the House of Commons, whereof he was a member, as an infamous person, though his friend Coventry adhered to him, and used many indirect acts to have protected him, and afterwards procured him to have more countenance from the king than most men thought he deserved; being a person, throughout his whole life, never notorious for any thing but the highest degree of impudence, and stooping to the most infamous offices, and playing very well at chess, which preferred him more than the most virtuous qualities could have done." -- Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 270.

[The English fleet on this occasion was commanded by James, Duke of York. Burnet says, "When the two fleets met, it is well known what accidents disordered the Dutch, and what advantage the English had. If that first success had been followed, as was proposed, it might have been fatal to the Dutch, who, finding they had suffered so much, steered off. The duke ordered all the sail to be set on to overtake them. There was a council of war called, to concert the method of action, when they should come up with them. In that council, Pen, who commanded under the duke, happened to say that they must prepare for hotter work in the next engagement. He knew well the courage of the Dutch was never so high, as when they were desperate. The Earl of Montague, who was then a volunteer, and one of the duke's court, said to me, it was very visible that made an impression. And all the duke's domestics said, he had got honour enough: why should he venture a second time? The duchess had also given a strict charge to all the duke's servants, to do all they could to hinder him to engage too far. When matters were settled, they went to sleep; and the duke ordered a call to be given him, when they should get up to the Dutch fleet. It is not known what passed between the duke and Brounker, who was of his bed-chamber, and was then in waiting; but he came to Pen, as from the duke, and said the duke ordered the sail to be slackened. Pen was struck with the order, but did not go to argue the matter with the duke himself, as he ought to have done, but obeyed it. When the duke had slept, he, upon his waking, went out on the quarter deck, and seemed amazed to see the sails slackened, and that thereby all hope of overtaking the Dutch was lost. He questioned Pen upon it. Pen put it on Brounker, who said nothing. The duke denied he had given any such order. But he neither punished Brounker for carrying it, nor Pen for obeying it. He indeed put Brounker out of his service: and it was said, that he durst do no more, because he was so much in the king's favour, and in the mistress's."

Pepys thus notices him in his Diary; August 29th, 1667. "I hear tonight that Mr. Brounker is turned away yesterday by the Duke of York, for some bold words he was heard by Colonel Werden to say in the garden the day the chancellor was with the king -- that he believed the king would be hectored out of everything. For this, the Duke of York, who all say hath been very strong for his father-in-law at this trial, hath turned him away: and everybody, I think, is glad of it; for he was a pestilent rogue, an atheist, that would have sold his king and country for sixpence almost, so corrupt and wicked a rogue he is by all men's report. But one observed to me, that there never was the occasion of men's holding their tongues at court, and everywhere else, as there is at this day, for nobody knows which side will be uppermost."]

NOTE 145 ~ Mrs. Wetenhall.

Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Bedingfield, and wife of Thomas Wetenhall, of Hextall Court, near East Peckham, in the county of Kent. -- See Collin's Baronetage, p. 216. The family of Whetenhall, or Whet-nail, was possessed of the estate of Hextall Court from the time of Henry VIII. until within a few years past, when one of them, Henry Whetenhall, Esq. alienated it to John Fane, Earl of Westmoreland. Of this family was Edward Whetenhall, a celebrated polemical writer, who, in 1668, was consecrated bishop of Corke and Ross. -- See Wood's Athenæ Oxoniensis, vol. ii. pp. 8.51, 998.

NOTE 146 ~ Peckham.

"Peckham is about ten miles off Tunbridge Wells. Sir William Twisden has an ancient mansion here, which has been long in that family." -- Burr's History of Tunbridge Wells, 8vo. 1776, p. 237. Mr.

Hasted says, the estate was purchased by Sir William Twisden of Henry Whetenhall, Esq. -- Hasted's Kent, vol. ii. p. 274.

NOTE 147 ~ This is the Hamilton who served in the French army with distinction.

I apprehend he is the same George Hamilton already described, who married Miss Jennings, and not the author of this work, as Lord Orford supposes. In a letter from Arlington to Sir William Godolphin, dated September 7, 1671, it is said, "the Condé de Molina complains to us of certain levies Sir George Hamilton hath made in Ireland. The king hath always told him he had no express license for it; and 1 have told the Condé he must not find it strange that a gentleman who had been bred the king's page abroad, and losing his employment at home, for being a Roman Catholic, should have some more than ordinary connivance towards the making his fortune abroad by the countenance of his friends and relations in Ireland: and yet take the matter in the worst sense he could give, it would not amount to the breach of any article betwixt the king my master and the court of Spain." -- Arlington's Letters, vol. ii. p. 332. In a letter from the same nobleman to Lord Sandwich, written about October, 1667, we find the cause of Sir George Hamilton's entering into the French service: "Concerning the reformadoes of the guards of horse, his majesty thought fit the other day to have them dismissed, according to his promise, made to the parliament at the last session. Mr. Hamilton had a secret overture made him, that he, with those men, should be welcome into the French service; his majesty, at their dismission, having declared they should have leave to go abroad whither they pleased. They accepted of Mr. Hamilton's offer to carry them into France." -- Arlington's Letters, vol. i. p. 185. Lodge, in his Peerage of Ireland, says Sir George Hamilton died in 1667, which, from the first extract above, appears to be erroneous. He has evidently confounded the father and son; the former of whom was the person who died in 1667.

NOTE 148 ~ The court set out soon after.

This was in 1664, probably as soon as the queen was sufficiently recovered from the illness mentioned in note on p. 365. See Burr's History of Tunbridge Wells, p. 43.

NOTE 149 ~ Lord Muskerry.

Eldest son to the Earl of Clancarty; "a young man," says Lord Clarendon, "of extraordinary courage and expectation, who had been colonel of a regiment of foot in Flanders, under the duke, and had the general estimation of an excellent officer. He was of the duke's bedchamber; and the earl (i. e. of Falmouth) and he were at that time so near the duke, that his highness was all covered with their blood. There fell, likewise, in the same ship, and at the same instant, Mr. Richard Boyle, a younger son of the Earl of Burlington, a youth of great hope." -- Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 266.

NOTE 150 ~ Summer-hill.

Lord Orford supposes this place came to Lord Muskerry through the means of his elder brother; but in this he is mistaken, as it belonged to him in right of his wife, the only daughter of Lord Clanrickard. This seat is about five miles from the wells, and was once the residence and property of Sir Francis Walsingham, from whom it descended to his daughter Frances, who married first Sir Philip Sydney; secondly, the unfortunate Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and lastly, Richard de Burgh, Marquis of Clanrickard. In Walker's History of Independence, we are told, that "Somer-hill, a pleasant seat, worth one thousand pounds a year, belonging to the Earl of St. Alban's (who was also Marquis of Clanrickard), is given by the junto to the blood-hound Bradshaw. So he hath warned the Countesse of Leicester, who formerly had it in possession, to raise a debt of three thousand pounds, pretended due to her from the said earle (which she hath already raised four-fold), to quiet the possession against our Lord's day next." At the Restoration it seems to have returned to its original owner. It is now the residence of William Woodgate, Esq. A writer, supposed to be the Reverend Mr. Richard Oneley, thus describes it in 1771: "The house being too large for the family of the present possessor, some of the state rooms are not made use of, or furnished; but in them are still remaining superb chimney-pieces, fine carved wainscot, and other monuments of their former grandeur and magnificence. In the dining-room, above stairs, are figures, flowers, and other ornaments in stucco; particularly, a representation in relievo, over the chimney-piece, of the angelic host (as it is thought) rejoicing in the creation of the world; a design seemingly taken from Job, chap. xxxvii. v. 7. The house is inclosed with four courts, E. W. N. S. The front court, through which is the grand approach to the house, looks towards the west; from whence you have a fine prospect to the Surrey hills before you, and Seven-oak hills on the right. The prospect is limited by Baron Smythe's park on the left. The town and castle of Tunbridge, the navigable river Medway, and the rich meadows through which it runs, finely diversified with corn-fields, pasturage, hop-gardens, and orchards, are here in full view, and form a most beautiful scene. From the opposite court, on the west side of the house, are seen the Canterbury hills, near Dover, at the distance of about fifty miles; but this view, and the several objects it comprises, is best enjoyed from a rising hill, on which grow two large oaks, at a little distance southward from the house. From this stand, a stranger may behold at leisure a valley equal to Tempe, Andalusia, or Tinian." -- General Account oj Tunbridge Wells and its Environs: printed for G. Pearch, 8vo. p. 37. Mr. Hasted says, "that Lady Muskerry having, by her expensive way of life, wasted her estate, she, by piece-meals, sold off a great part of the demesne lands, lying mostly on the southern side of South-frith, to different persons; and dying in great distress, was buried accordingly, about the year 1698." -- History of Kent, vol. ii. p. 341.

NOTE 151 ~ Prince Rupert.

Lord Orford's contrast to this character of Prince Rupert is too just to be here omitted. "Born with the taste of an uncle whom his sword was not fortunate in defending, Prince Rupert was fond of those sciences which soften and adorn a hero's private hours, and knew how to mix them with his minutes of amusement, without dedicating his life to their pursuit, like us, who, wanting capacity for momentous views, make serious study of what is only the transitory occupation of a genius. Had the court of the first Charles been peaceful, how agreeably had the prince's congenial propensity flattered and confirmed the inclination of his uncle! How the muse of arts would have repaid the patronage of the monarch, when, for his first artist, she would have presented him with his nephew! How different a figure did the same prince make in a reign of dissimilar complexion! The philosophic warrior, who could relax himself into the ornament of a refined court, was thought a savage mechanic, when courtiers were only voluptuous wits. Let me transcribe a picture of Prince Rupert, drawn by a man who was far from having the least portion of wit in that age, who was superior to its indelicacy, and who yet was so overborne by its prejudices, that he had the complaisance to ridicule virtue, merit, talents. -- But Prince Rupert, alas! was an awkward lover!" Lord Orford here inserts the character in the text, and then adds, "What pity that we, who wish to transmit this prince's resemblance to posterity on a fairer canvas, have none of these inimitable colours to enface the harsher likeness! We can but oppose facts to wit, truth to satire. -- How unequal the pencils! yet what these lines cannot do, they may suggest: they may induce the reader to reflect, that if the prince was defective in the transient varnish of a court, he at least was adorned by the arts with that polish which alone can make a court attract the attention of subsequent ages." -- Catalogue of Engravers, p. 135, 8vo. ed.

[Lord Orford thus relates the circumstance of his inventing mezzo-tinto: "We must take up the prince in his laboratory, begrimed, uncombed, perhaps in a dirty shirt; on the day I am going to mention, he certainly had not shaved and powdered to charm Miss Hughes, for it happened in his retirement at Brussels, after the catastrophe of his uncle. Going out early one morning, he observed the sentinel, at some distance from his post, very busy doing something to his piece. The prince asked what he was about? He replied, the dew had fallen in the night, had made his fusil rusty, and that he was scraping and cleaning it. The prince looking at it, was struck with something like a figure eaten into the barrel, with innumerable little holes closed together, like friezed work on gold or silver, part of which the fellow had scraped away.

"One knows what a mere good officer would have said on such an accident; if a fashionable officer, he might have damned the poor fellow, and given him a shilling: but the Génie fécond en expériences from so trifling an accident conceived mezzotinto. The prince concluded that some contrivance might be found to cover a brass plate with such a grained ground of fine pressed holes, which would undoubtedly give an impression all black, and that by scraping away proper parts, the smooth superficies would leave the rest of the paper white. Communicating his idea to Wallerant Vaillant, a painter whom he maintained, they made several experiments, and at last invented a steel roller, cut with tools to make teeth like a file or rasp, with projecting points, which effectually produced the black grounds; those being scraped away and diminished at pleasure, left the gradations of light."

Evelyn, in his Diary, March 13, 1661, says: "This afternoon, Prince Rupert shewed me with his own hands the new way of graving called mezzotinto, which afterwards, by his permission, I published in my history of Chalcography; this set so many artists on work, that they soon arrived to the perfection it is since come, emulating the tenderest miniatures."

Pepys, in his Diary, February 4, 1664-5, says: "My Lord Bellasses told us an odd passage; how the king having put out Prince Rupert of his generalship, upon some miscarriage at Bristol, and Sir Richard Willis of his governorship of Newark, at the entreaty of the gentry of the county, and put in my Lord Bellasses; the great officers of the king's army mutinied, and* came in that manner with swords drawn, into the market-place of the town where the king was; which the king hearing, says: 'I must horse.' And there himself personally, when everybody expected they should have been opposed, the king came, and cried to the head of the mutineers, wtiich was Prince Rupert, 'Nephew, I command you to be gone.' So the prince, in all his fury and discontent, withdrew, and his company scattered."

Dallaway says: "He was the author of several inventions of decided utility, in his own profession, of a method to bore cannons, and of a mixed metal, of which they should be composed, and of great improvement in the manufacture of gunpowder. He communicated to Christopher Kirby a method of tempering steel for the best fish-hooks ever made in England."

Prince Rupert was also famous for his play at tennis, and for being an excellent shot. A particular instance of his skill is mentioned by Plot, where he is said to have sent two balls successively, with a horse-pistol, through the weather-cock of St. Mary's steeple at Stafford. The distance was sixty yards, and the feat was performed in the presence of Charles I.]

NOTE 152 ~ Hughes.

Mrs. Hughes was one of the actresses belonging to the king's company, and one of the earliest female performers. According to Downcs, she commenced her theatrical career after the opening of Drury-lane theatre, in 1663. She appears to have been the first female representative of Desdemona. By Prince Rupert she had a daughter, named Ruperta, married to Lieutenant-general Howe, who survived her husband many years, dying at Somerset House about the year 1740. For Mrs. Hughes Prince Rupert bought the magnificent seat of Sir Nicholas Crispe, near Hammersmith, late the residence of the Margrave of Brandenburgh, and afterwards of Queen Caroline, wife of Geo. IV., which cost 25,000l. the building. From the dramatis personæ to Tom Essence, licensed 1676, we find Mrs. Hughes was then on the stage, and in the duke's company.

NOTE 152 ~ The Duke of York took a journey the other side of London.

In Sir John Reresby's Memoirs, 8vo., 1735, p. 11, sub anno 1665, it is said, Aug. 5, "His Royal Highness the Duke and his duchess came down to York, where it was observed that Mr. Sydney, the handsomest youth of his time, and of the duke's bed-chamber, was greatly in love with the duchess; and well he might be excused; for the duchess, daughter to Chancellor Hyde, was a very handsome personage, and a woman of fine wit. The duchess, on her part, seemed kind to him, but very innocently; but he had the misfortune to be banished the court afterwards, for another reason, as was reported." Burnet mentions this transaction, and insinuates, to this cause is to be ascribed the duchess's conversion to popery. -- See Burnet's History of his Own Times, vol. i. p. 318.

NOTE 153 ~ Churchill.

Miss Arabella Churchill, daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, of Wotton Basset, in the county of Wilts, and sister to the celebrated John, Duke of Marlborough. She was born 1648. By the Duke of York she was mother of -- 1. James, Duke of Berwick; 2. Henry Fitz-James, commonly called the Grand Prior, born 1673, who was, after the Revolution, created by his father Duke of Albemarle, and died 1702; 3. Henrietta, born 1670, married to Lord Waldegrave, and died 1730. Miss Churchill afterwards became the wife of Charles Godfrey, Esq., clerk-comptroller of the green cloth, and master of the jewel office, by whom she had two daughters; one, Charlotte, married to Lord Falmouth; and the other, Elizabeth, to Edmund Dunch, Esq. Mrs. Godfrey died in May, 1730, at the age of 82.

[The feelings and situation of this woman about the beginning of the last century must have been strange and interesting. She had survived her lover, husband, and children. The sovereign who had loved her had been dethroned and exiled; her husband was serving against him; her brother (Duke of Marlborough) was opposed to the armies of Louis XIV.; and her not less illustrious son (Marshal Duc de Berwick) was defending the interests of that monarch in Spain.]

NOTE 154 ~ Montagu's elder brother having, having very à propos, got himself killed where he had no business.

Montagu's elder brother was killed before Bergen, about August, 1665. See Arlington's Letters, vol. ii., p. 87. His name was Edward. Boyer, who, in his life of Queen Anne, has made several mistakes about him, says he was dismissed for offending her majesty, by squeezing her hand. Probably he was disgraced for a time, and on that account went abroad. -- See Continuation of Clarendon, p. 292. He is mentioned in the State Poems as

"-------- Montague, by court disaster, Dwindled into the wooden horse's master."

Advice to a Painter, Part I.

NOTE 155 ~ Madame.

Henrietta, youngest daughter of Charles the First, born at Exeter, 16th June, 1644, from whence she was removed to London in 1646, and, with her governess, Lady Dalkeith, soon afterwards conveyed to France. On the Restoration, she came over to England with her mother, but returned to France in about six months, and was married to Philip, Duke of Orleans, only brother of Lewis XIV. In May, 1760, she came again to Dover, on a mission of a political nature, it is supposed, from the French king to her brother, in which she was successful. She died, soon after her return to France, suddenly, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by her husband. King James, in his Diary, says, "On the 22nd of June, the news of the Duchess of Orleans' death arrived. It was suspected that counter-poisons were given her; but when she was opened, in the presence of the English ambassador, the Earl of Ailesbury, an English physician, and surgeon, there appeared no grounds of suspicion of any foul play. Yet Bucks talked openly that she was poisoned; and was so violent as to propose to foreign ministers to make war on France." -- Macpherson's Original Papers, vol. i. At the end of Lord Arlington's Letters are five very remarkable ones from a person of quality, who is said to have been actually on the spot, giving a particular relation of her death.

[Pepys in his Diary, Nov. 22nd, 1660, says, "The Princess Henrietta is very pretty, but much below my expectation; and her dressing of herself with her hair frizzed short up to her ears, did make her seem so much the less to me. But my wife standing near her with two or three black patches on, did seem to me much handsomer than she.]

NOTE 156 ~ The Duke of Monmouth.

James, Duke of Monmouth, was the son of Charles II., by one Lucy Walters. He was born at Rotterdam, April 9, 1649, and bore the name of James Crofts until the Restoration. His education was chiefly at Paris, under the eye of the queen-mother, and the government of Thomas Ross, Esq., who was afterwards secretary to Mr. Coventry during his embassy in Sweden. At the Restoration he was brought to England, and received with joy by his father, who heaped honours and riches upon him, which were not sufficient to satisfy his ambitious views. To exclude his uncle, the Duke of York, from the throne, he was continually intriguing with the opposers of government, and was frequently in disgrace with his sovereign. On the accession of James II. he made an ineffectual attempt to raise a rebellion, was taken prisoner, and beheaded on Tower-hill, 15th July, 1685. Mr. Macpherson has drawn his character in the following terms: "Monmouth, highly beloved by the populace, was a fit instrument to carry forward his (i. e. Shaftesbury's) designs. To a gracefulness which prejudiced mankind in his favour as soon as seen, he joined an affability which gained their love. Constant in his friendships, and just to his word, by nature tender, and an utter enemy to severity and cruelty, active and vigorous in his constitution, he excelled in the manly exercises of the field. He was personally brave. He loved the pomp and the very dangers of war. But with these splendid qualities, he was vain to a degree of folly, versatile in his measures, weak in his understanding. He was ambitious without dignity, busy without consequence, attempting ever to be artful, but always a fool. Thus, taking the applause of the multitude for a certain mark of merit, he was the dupe of his own vanity, and owed all his misfortunes to that weakness. -- Macpherson's Original Papers, vol. i., chap. iii.

[Evelyn gives the following account of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion and his execution, June 14th, 1685. "There was now certaine intelligence of the Duke of Monmouth landing at Lyme in Dorsetshire, and of his having set up his standard as King of England. I pray God deliver us from the confusion which these beginnings threaten!".

June 17th. "The duke landed with but 150 men, but the whole kingdom was alarm'd, fearing that the disaffected would joyn them, many of the train'd bands nocking to him. At his landing be published a declaration, charging his ma^ty with usurpation and several horrid crimes, on pretence of his owne title, and offering to call a free parliament. This declaration was order'd to be burnt by the hangman, the duke proclaim'd a traytor, and a reward of 5,000l. to any who should kill him."

July 2nd. "No considerable account of the troops sent against the duke, tho' greate forces sent. There was a smart skirmish, but he would not be provok'd to come to an encounter, but still kept in the fastnesses."

July 8th. "Came news of Monmouth's utter defeate, and the next day of his being taken by S^r W^m Portman and Lord Lumley with the militia of their counties. It seemes the horse, commanded by Lord Grey, being newly rais'd and undisciplin'd, were not to be brought in so short a time to endure the fire, which expos'd the foote to the king's, so as when Monmouth had led the foote in greate silence and order, thinking to surprise Lieut^t Gen^l Lord Feversham newly encamp'd, and given him a smart charge, interchanging both greate and small shot, the horse, breaking their owne ranks, Monmouth gave it over, and fled with Grey, leaving their party to be cut in pieces to the number of 2,000. The whole number reported to be above 8,000, the king's but 2,700. The slaine were most of them Mendip-miners, who did greate execution with their tooles, and sold their lives very dearely, whilst their leaders flying were pursu'd and takea the next morning, not far from one another. Monmouth had gone sixteen miles on foote, changing his habite for a poore coate, and was found by Lord Lumley in a dry ditch cover'd with fern-brakes, but without sword, pistol, or any weapon, and so might have pass'd for some country man, his beard being grown so long and so grey as hardly to be known, had not his George discover'd him, which was found in his pocket. 'Tis said he trembl'd exceedingly all over, not able to speake. Grey was taken not far from him. Most of his party were Anabaptists and poore clothworkers of y^e country, no gentlemen of account being come in to him. The arch-boutefeu Ferguson, Matthews, &c. were not yet found. The 5,000l. to be given to whoever should bring Monmouth in, was to be distributed among the militia by agreement between S^r W^m Portman and Lord Lumley. The battail ended, some words, first in jest, then in passion, pass'd between Sherrington Talbot (a worthy gentⁿ, son to S^r John Talbot, and who had behav'd himselfe very handsomely) and one Capt. Love, both commanders of the militia, as to whose souldiers fought best, both drawing their swords and passing at one another. Sherrington was wounded to death on the spot, to the greate regret of those who knew him. He was Sir John's only son."

July 15th. "Monmouth was this day brought to London and examin'd before the king, to whom he made great submission, acknowledged his seduction by Ferguson the Scot, whom he nam'd y^e bloudy villain. He was sent to y^e Tower, had an interview with his late dutchesse, whom he receiv'd coldly, having lived dishonestly with y^e Lady Henrietta Wentworth for two yeares. He obstinately asserted his conversation with that debauch'd woman to be no sin, whereupon, seeing he could not be persuaded to his last breath, the divines who were sent to assist him thought not fit to administer the Holy Communion to him. For y^e rest of his faults he profess'd greate sorrow, and so died without any apparent feare; he would not make use of a cap or other circumstance, but lying downe, bid the fellow do his office better than to the late Lord Russell, and gave him gold; but the wretch made five chopps before he had his head off; w^ch so incens'd the people, that had he not been guarded and got away, they would have torn him to pieces.

"The duke made no speech on the scaffold (w^ch was on Tower-hill), but gave a paper containing not above five or six lines, for the king, in which he disclaims all title to y^e crown, acknowledges that the late king, his father, had indeede told him he was but his base sonn, and so desir'd his ma^ty to be kind to his wife and children. This relation I had from Dr. Tenison (rector of St. Martin's), who, with the Bishops of Ely and Bath and Wells, were sent to him by his ma^ty, and were at the execution.

"Thus ended this quondam duke, darling of his father and y^e ladies, being extreamly handsome and adroit; an excellent souldier and dancer, a favourite of the people, of an easy nature, debauched by lust, seduc'd by crafty knaves who would have set him up only to make a property, and took the opportunity of the king being of another religion, to gather a party of discontented men. He fail'd, and perish'd.

"He was a lovely person, had a virtuous and excellent lady that brought him greate riches, and a second dukedom in Scotland. He was master of the horse, general of the king his father's army, gentleman of the bedchamber, knight of the garter, chancellor of Cambridge, in a word, had accumulations without end. See what ambition and want of principles brought him to! He was beheaded on Tuesday, 14th July. His mother, whose name was Barlow, daughter of some very meane creatures, was a beautiful strumpet, whom I had often seene at Paris; she died miserably without any thing to bury her; yet this Perkin had ben made to believe that the king had married her; a monstrous and ridiculous forgerie; and to satisfy the world of the iniquity of the report, the king his father (if his father he really was, for he most resembl'd one Sidney, who was familiar with his mother) publickly and most solemnly renounc'd it, to be so enter'd in the council booke some yeares since, with all the privy councellors attestation."]

NOTE 157 ~ An heiress of five thousand pounds a year in Scotland.

This was Lady Anne Scott, daughter and sole heir of Francis, Earl of Buccleugh, only son and heir of Walter, Lord Scott, created Earl of Buccleugh in 1619. On their marriage the duke took the surname of Scott, and he and his lady were created Duke and Duchess of Buccleugh, Earl and Countess of Dalkeith, Baron and Baroness of Whitchester and Ashdale, in Scotland, by letters patent, dated April 20th, 1673. Also, two days after he was installed at Windsor, the king and queen, the Duke of York, and most of the court being present. The next day, being St. George's day, his majesty solemnized it with a royal feast, and entertained the knights companions in St. George's hall in the castle of Windsor. Though there were several children of this marriage, it does not appear to have been a happy one; the duke, without concealment, attaching himself to Lady Harriet Wentworth, whom, with his dying breath, he declared he considered as his only wife in the sight of God. The duchess, in May, 1688, took to her second husband Charles, Lord Cornwallis. She died Feb. 6, 1731-2, in the 81st year of her age, and was buried at Dalkeith, in Scotland. Our author is not more correct about figures than he avows himself to be in the arrangement of facts and dates: the duchess's fortune was much greater than he has stated it to have been.

NOTE 158 ~ Killegrew.

Thomas Killegrew was one of the sons of Sir Robert Killegrew, chamberlain to the queen, and was born at Hanworth, in the county of Middlesex, in the month of February, 1611. He seems to have been early intended for the court, and to qualify him for rising there, every circumstance of his education appears to have been adapted. He was appointed page of honour to King Charles I., and faithfully adhered to his cause until the death of his master; after which he attended his son in his exile; to whom he was highly acceptable, on account of his social and convivial qualifications. He married Mrs. Cecilia Crofts, one of the maids of honour to Queen Henrietta. In 1651 he was sent to Venice, as resident at that state, although, says Lord Clarendon, "the king was much dissuaded from it, but afterwards his majesty was prevailed upon, only to gratify him, that in that capacity he might borrow money of English merchants for his own subsistence; which he did, and nothing to the honour of his master; but was at last compelled to leave the republic for his vicious behaviour; of which the Venetian ambassador complained to the king, when he came afterwards to Paris." On his return from Venice, Sir John Denham wrote a copy of verses, printed in his works, bantering the foibles of his friend Killegrew; who, from his account, was as little sensible to the miseries of exile as his royal master. His attachment to the interests of Charles II. continued unabated, and at the Restoration he was appointed groom of the bed-chamber, and became so great a favourite with his majesty, that he was admitted into his company on terms of the most unrestrained familiarity, when audience was refused to the first ministers, and even on the most important occasions. It does not appear that he availed himself of his interest with the king, either to amass a fortune, or to advance himself in the state: we do not find that he obtained any other preferment than the post of master of the revels, which he held with that of groom of the bed-chamber. Oldys says he was king's jester at the same time; but although he might, and certainly did, entertain his majesty in that capacity, it can scarce be imagined to have been in consequence of any appointment of that kind. He died at Whitehall, 19th March, 1682, bewailed, as it is said, by his friends, and truly wept for by the poor. [Pepys thus relates "Thos. Killegrew's way of getting to see plays when he was a boy. He would go to the Red Bull, and when the man cried to the boys, 'Who will go and be a devil, and he shall see the play for nothing?' then would he go in, and be a devil upon the stage, and so get to see plays." He also says in his Diary, Dec. 9th, 1666: "Mr. Pierce did tell me as a great truth, as being told him by Mr. Cowly (Abraham Cowley, the poet), who was by and heard it, that Tom Killegrew publicly told the king that his matters were coming into a very ill state; but that yet there was a way to help all. Says he, 'There is a good, honest, able man that I could name, that if your majesty would employ, and command to see all things well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about the court, and hath no other employment; but if you would give him this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.' "Again, Feb. 12th, 1666-7: "Thos. Killegrew tells me how the audience at his house is not above half so much as it used to be before the late fire. That Knipp is like to make the best actor that ever come upon the stage, she understanding so well: that they are going to give her 30l. a year more. That the stage is now by his pains a thousand times better and more glorious than ever heretofore. Now wax candles, and many of them; then not above 3lbs. of tallow: now all things civil, no rudeness anywhere; then, as in a bear-garden; then two or three fiddlers, now nine or ten of the best, then nothing but rushes upon the ground, and every thing else mean; now all otherwise: then the queen seldom, and the king never, would come; now, not the king only for state, but all civil people do think they may come as well as any, He tells me that he hath gone several times (eight or ten times, he tells me) hence to Rome, to hear good music; so much he loves it, though he never did sing or play a note. That he hath ever endeavoured in the late king's time, and in this, to introduce good music, but he never could do it, there never having been any music here better than ballads. And says 'Hermitt poore' and 'Chiny Chese' was all the music we had; and yet no ordinary fiddlers get so much money as ours do here, which speaks our rudeness still. That he hath gathered our Italians from several courts in Christendom, to come to make a concert for the king, which he do give 200l. a year apiece to; but badly paid, and do come in the room of keeping four ridiculous Gun-dilows, he having got the king to put them away, and lay out money this way. And indeed I do commend him for it; for I think it is a very noble undertaking. He do intend to have sometimes of the year these operas to be performed at the two present theatres, since he is defeated in what he intended in Moorefields on purpose for it. And he tells me plainly that the city audience was as good as the court; but now they are most gone."

The following anecdotes are also preserved: -- "On one occasion, Killegrew entered the king's apartment without ceremony, equipped in boots, &c., as if he was going a journey. 'What, Killegrew,' cried Charles, 'where are you going in such a violent hurry?' 'To hell!' said Killegrew, 'to fetch up Oliver Cromwell, to look after the affairs of England, for his successor never will.'"

"The council had one day assembled, and the king, as usual, not making his appearance, the Duke of Lauderdale hastened to remonstrate with him, but his entreaties were of no avail. On quitting the presence-chamber he met Killegrew, who, on learning his errand, offered to bet him 100l. that Charles should attend the council in half an hour, which the duke, feeling certain of winning the money, instantly accepted. Killegrew immediately entered the king's apartment, and related to him the whole circumstance. 'I know,' he proceeded, 'that your majesty hates Lauderdale; now, if you go only this once to the council, I know his covetous disposition so well, that, rather than pay the 100l., he will hang himself, and never plague you again.' Charles could not refrain from laughing: -- 'Well, Killegrew,' he cried, 'I positively will go!' He kept his word, and the wager was won."]

NOTE 159 ~ The Duke of Buckingham and Lady Shrewsbury remained for a long period both happy and contented.

In a letter from Andrew Marvell, dated August 9, 1671, he says, "Buckingham runs out all with the Lady Shrewsbury, whom he believes he had a son (by,) to whom the king stood godfather: it died young, Earl of Coventry, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers." -- Marvell's Works, vol. i. p. 406. The duel in which the Earl of Shrewsbury was killed by the Duke of Buckingham happened 16th March, 1667.

NOTE 160 ~ The Duchess of Buckingham.

"Mary, Duchess of Buckingham, was the only daughter of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, and Anne, the daughter of Horace, Lord Vere; a most virtuous and pious lady, in a vicious age and court. If she had any of the vanities, she had certainly none of the vices of it. The duke and she lived lovingly and decently together; she patiently bearing with those faults in him which she could not remedy. . She survived him many years, and died near St. James's, at Westminster, and was buried in the vault of the family of Villiers, in Henry VII.'s chapel, anno 1705, ætat. 66." -- Brian Fairfax's Life of the Duke of Buckingham, 4to. 1758, p. 39. She was married at Nun Appleton, September 6, 1657. In the Memoirs of the English Court, by Madame Dunois, p. 11, it is said, "The Duchess of Buckingham has merit and virtue; she is brown and lean, but had she been the most beautiful and charming of her sex, the being his wife would have been sufficient alone to have inspired him with a dislike. Notwithstanding she knew he was always intriguing, yet she never spoke of it, and had complaisance enough to entertain his mistresses, and even to lodge them in her house; all which she suffered because she loved him." In some manuscript notes in Oldys's copy of Langbaine, by a gentleman still living, we are told that the old Lady Viscountess de Longueville, grandmother to the Earl of Sussex, who died in 1763, aged near 100, used to tell many little anecdotes of Charles II.'s queen, whom she described as a little ungraceful woman, so short-legged, that when she stood upon her feet, you would have thought she was on her knees, and yet so long waisted, that when she sat down she appeared a well-sized woman. She also described the Duchess of Buckingham, to whom she was related, as much such another in person as the queen; a little round crumpled woman, very fond of finery. She remembered paying her a visit when she (the duchess) was in mourning, at which time she found her lying on a sofa, with a kind of loose robe over her, all edged or laced with gold. This circumstance gives credit to Fairfax's observation above, that if she had any of the vanities, she had certainly none of the vices of the court.

NOTE 161 ~ It would be advisable for her to try the warm baths at Bristol.

I believe that Bath, not Bristol, is the place intended by the author. Queen Katharine's visit to the former place was earlier than to Tunbridge, being about the latter end of September, 1663. -- See Wood's Description of Bath, vol. i. p. 217. I do not find she ever was at Bristol, but at the time mentioned in the following extract:

1663. Sir John Knight, mayor. John Broadway, Richard Stremer, sheriffs.

"The 5th of September, the king and queen, with James, Duke of York, and his duchess, and Prince Rupert, &c., came to Bristol, and were splendidly received and entertained by the mayor, at a dinner provided on the occasion. They returned to Bath at four o'clock. 150 pieces of ordnance were discharged in the Marsh, at three distinct times." -- Barrett's History, &c. of Bristol, p. 692.

NOTE 162 ~ Campaign in Guinea.

This expedition was intended to have taken place in 1664. A full account of it, and how it came to be laid aside, may be seen in the Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 225.

NOTE 163 ~ The old Earl of Carlingford.

Sir Theobald Taafe, the second Viscount Taafe, created Earl of Carlingford, in the county of Louth, by privy seal, 17th June, 1661, and by patent, 26th June, 1662. He died 31st December, 1677.

NOTE 164 ~ That mad fellow Crofts.

William, Baron of Crofts, groom of the stole, and gentleman of the bed-chamber to the Duke of York; captain of a regiment of guards of the queen-mother, gentleman of the bed-chamber to the king, and ambassador to Poland. He had been sent to France by the Duke of York, to congratulate Lewis XIV. on the birth of the dauphin. -- See Biog. Brit. old ed. vol. iv. p. 2738, and Continuation of Clarendon, p. 294.

NOTE 165 ~ She saw young Churchill.

Afterwards the celebrated Duke of Marlborough, He was born midsummer-day, 1650, and died June 16, 1722. Bishop Burnet takes notice of the discovery of this intrigue. "The Duchess of Cleveland, finding that she had lost the king, abandoned herself to great disorders: one of which, by the artifice of the Duke of Buckingham, was discovered by the king in person, the party concerned leaping out of the window." -- History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 370. This was in 1668. A very particular account of this intrigue is to be seen in the Atalantis of Mrs. Manley, vol. i. p. 30. The same writer, who had lived as companion to the Duchess of Cleveland, says, in the account of her own life, that she was an eye-witness when the duke, who had received thousands from the duchess, refused the common civility of lending her twenty guineas at basset. -- The History of Rivella, 4th ed. 1725, p. 33. Lord Chesterfield's character of this nobleman is too remarkable to be omitted.

"Of all the men that ever I knew in my life (and I knew him extremely well), the late Duke of Marlborough possessed the graces in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them; and indeed he got the most by them; for I will venture (contrary to the custom of profound historians, who always assign deep causes to great events) to ascribe the better half of the Duke of Maryborough's greatness and riches to those graces. He was eminently illiterate, wrote bad English, and spelled it still worse. He had no share of what is commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing shining in his genius. He had, most undoubtedly, an excellent good plain understanding, with sound judgment. But these alone would probably have raised him but something higher than they found him, which was page to King James II.'s queen. There the graces protected and promoted him; for while he was an ensign of the guards, the Duchess of Cleveland, then favourite mistress to King Charles II., struck by those very graces, gave him five thousand pounds: with which he immediately bought an annuity for his life, of five hundred pounds a year, of my grandfather, Halifax; which was the foundation of his subsequent fortune. His figure was beautiful; but his manner was irresistible by either man or woman. It was by this engaging, graceful manner, that he was enabled, during all his wars, to connect the various and jarring powers of the grand alliance, and to carry them on to the main object of the war, notwithstanding their private and separate views, jealousies, and wrong-headednesses. Whatever court he went to (and he was often obliged to go himself to some resty and refractory ones), he as constantly prevailed, and brought them into his measures. The pensionary Heinsius, a venerable old minister, grown grey in business, and who had governed the republic of the United Provinces for more than forty years, was absolutely governed by the Duke of Marlborough, as that republic feels to this day. He was always cool; and nobody ever observed the least variation in his countenance. He could refuse more gracefully than other people could grant; and those who went away from him the most dissatisfied, as to the substance of their business, were yet personally charmed with him, and, in some degree, comforted by his manner. With all his gracefulness, no man living was more conscious of his situation or maintained his dignity better." -- Chest. Letters, letter 136.

NOTE 166 ~ Nell Gwyn, the actress.

On this passage, the first translator of this work, Mr. Boyer, has the following note: "The author of these memoirs is somewhat mistaken in this particular; for Nell Gwyn was my Lord Dorset's mistress, before the king fell in love with her; and I was told by the late Mr. Dryden, that the king having a mind to get her from his lordship, sent him upon a sleeveless errand to France. However, it is not improbable that Nell was afterwards kind to her first lover." [See Note 110.] Of the early part of Nell's life, little is known but what may be collected from the lampoons of the times; in which it is said that she was born in a night-cellar, sold fish about the streets, rambled from tavern to tavern, entertaining the company after dinner and supper with songs (her voice being very agreeable); was next taken into the house of Madame Ross, a noted courtesan; and was afterwards admitted into the theatre, where she became the mistress of both Hart and Lacey, the celebrated actors. Other accounts say, she was born in a cellar in the Coal-yard in Drury-lane; and that she was first taken notice of when selling oranges in the play-house. She belonged to the king's company at Drury-lane, and, according to Downes, was received as an actress a few years after that house was opened, in 1663. The first notice I find of her is in the year 1668, when she performed in Dryden's play of Secret Love; after which she may be traced every year until 1672, when I conjecture she quitted the stage. [Pepys mentions her as early as April 3rd, 1665, when he styles her "pretty, witty Nell." In his Diary, March 2nd, 1666-7, he says: "After dinner with my wife to the King's house to see 'The Maiden Queen,' a new play of Dryden's, mightily commended for the regularity of it, and the strain and wit: and the truth is, there is a comical part done by Nell, which is Florimell, that I never can hope to see the like done again by man or woman. So great performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before as Nell do this, both as a mad girl, then most and best of all when she comes in like a young gallant; and hath the motions and carriage of a spark the most that ever I saw any man have. It makes me, I confess, admire." And again, May 1st, 1667: "To Westminster, and saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodgings' door in Drury-lane, in her smock sleeves and bodice, looking upon one: she seemed a mighty pretty creature."] Her forte appears to have been comedy. [Pepys says in his Diary, August 22nd, 1667, "To the King's playhouse, where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the emperor's daughter, which she does most basely."] In an epilogue to Tyrannic Love, spoken by her, she says,

---------- I walk, because I die Out of my calling in a tragedy.

And from the same authority it may be collected that her person was small, and she was negligent in her dress. Her son, the Duke of St. Albans, was born before she left the stage, viz. May 8, 1670. Bishop Burnet speaks of her in these terms: -- "Gwyn, the indiscreetest and wildest creature that ever was in a court, continued, to the end of the king's life, in great favour, and was maintained at a vast expense. The Duke of Buckingham told me, that when she was first brought to the king, she asked only 500 pounds a year, and the king refused it. But when he told me this, about four years after, he said she had got of the king above sixty thousand pounds. [The editor has seen her signature to a receipt dated Nov. 20th, 1682, for 250l., being a quarter of a year's pension. Also a banker's order for payment of a similar sum, dated Oct. 15th, 1683, signed by Lord Rochester, Sir Edw. Dering, Sir Stephen Fox, &c.] She acted all persons in so lively a manner, and was such a constant diversion to the king, that even a new mistress could not drive her away; but. after all, he never treated her with the decencies of a mistress." -- History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 369. The same author notices the king's attention to her on his death-bed. Cibber, who was dissatisfied with the bishop's account of Nell, says, -- "If we consider her in all the disadvantages of her rank and education, she does not appear to have had any criminal errors, more remarkable than her sex's frailty, to answer for; and if the same author, in his latter end of that prince's life, seems to reproach his memory with too kind a concern for her support, we may allow it becomes a bishop to have had no eyes or taste for the frivolous charms or playful badinage of a king's mistress. Yet, if the common fame of her may be believed, which, in my memory, was not doubted, she had less to be laid to her charge than any other of those ladies who were in the same state of preferment: she never meddled in matters of serious moment, or was the tool of working politicians; never broke into those amorous infidelities which others, in that grave author, are accused of; but was as visibly distinguished by her particular personal inclination to the king, as her rivals were by their titles and grandeur." -- Cibber's Apology, 8vo., p. 450. One of Madame Sevigné's letters exhibits no bad portrait of Mrs. Gwyn. -- "Mademoiselle de K------ (Kerouaille, afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth) has not been disappointed in any thing she proposed. She desired to be mistress to the king, and she is so: he lodges with her almost every night, in the face of all the court: she has had a son, who has been acknowledged, and presented with two duchies: she amasses treasure, and makes herself feared and respected by as many as she can. But she did not foresee that she should find a young actress in her way, whom the king dotes on; and she has it not in her power to withdraw him from her. He divides his care, his time, and his health, between these two. The actress is as haughty as Mademoiselle: she insults her, she makes grimaces at her, she attacks her, she frequently steals the king from her, and boasts whenever he gives her the preference. She is young, indiscreet, confident, wild, and of an agreeable humour: she sings, she dances, she acts her part with a good grace. She has a son by the king, and hopes to have him acknowledged. As to Mademoiselle, she reasons thus: This duchess, says she, pretends to be a person of quality: she says she is related to the best families in France: whenever any person of distinction dies, she puts herself in mourning. -- If she be a lady of such quality, why does she demean herself to be a courtesan? She ought to die with shame. As for me, it is my profession: I do not pretend to any thing better. He has a son by me: I pretend that he ought to acknowledge him; and I am well assured he will; for he loves me as well as Mademoiselle. This creature gets the upper hand, and discountenances and embarrasses the duchess extremely." -- Letter 92. Mr. Pennant says, "-- she resided at her house, in what was then called Pall-Mall. It is the first good one on the left hand of St. James's square, as we enter from Pall-Mall. The back-room on the ground floor was (within memory) entirely of looking-glass, as was said to have been the ceiling. Over the chimney was her picture; and that of her sister was in a third room." -- London, p. 101. At this house she died, in the year 1691, and was pompously interred in the parish church of St. Martin's in the Fields; Dr. Tennison, then vicar, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, preaching her funeral sermon. This sermon, we learn, was shortly afterwards brought forward at court by Lord Jersey, to impede the doctor's preferment; but queen Mary having heard the objection, answered -- "What then?" in a sort of discomposure to which she was but little subject; "I have heard as much: this is a sign that that poor unfortunate woman died penitent; for, if I can read a man's heart through his looks, had not she made a pious and Christian end, the doctor could never have been induced to speak well of her." -- Life of Dr. Thomas Tennison, p. 20. Cibber also says, he had been unquestionably informed that our fair offender's repentance appeared in all the contrite symptoms of a Christian sincerity. -- Cibber's Apology, p. 451.

[The following anecdotes which are still preserved of the merry, open-hearted Nell, will be found highly illustrative of her lively wit and generous disposition. They are taken from various sources, including the Diaries of Evelyn and Pepys; Granger's Biography and Letters; Colley Cibber's Life; Gentleman's Magazine; Mrs. Jameson; Jesse; &c. &c.

"Mrs. Pierce tells me that the two Marshalls at the king's house, are Stephen Marshall's the great Presbyterian's daughters: and that Nelly and Beck Marshall falling out the other day, the latter called the other my Lord Buckhurst's mistress. Nell answered her, 'I was but one man's mistress, though I was brought up in a brothel, to fill strong water to the gentlemen: and you are a mistress to three or four, though a presbyter's praying daughter.'"

"Boman, when a youth and famous for his voice, was appointed to sing some part in a concert, at the private lodgings of Mrs. Gwynn; at which were only present the king, the Duke of York, and one or two more, who were usually admitted upon those detached parties of pleasure. When the performance was ended, the king expressed himself highly pleased, and gave it extraordinary commendations: 'Then, Sir,' said the lady, 'to shew you don't speak like a courtier, I hope you will make the performers a handsome present.' The king said he had no money about him, and asked the duke if he had any? To which the duke replied, 'I believe, Sir, not above a guinea or two.' Upon which the laughing lady, turning to the people about her, and drolly mimicking the king's tone and common expression, cried, 'Odd's fish, what company am I got into!'"

"Nell Gwynn was one day passing through the streets of Oxford, in her coach, when the mob mistaking her for her rival, the Duchess of Portsmouth, commenced hooting and loading her with every opprobrious epithet. Putting her head out of the coach window, 'Good people,' she said, smiling, 'you are mistaken; I am the Protestant whore.'"

"Once as she was driving up Ludgate-hill in a superb coach, some bailiffs were hurrying a clergyman to prison; she stopped, sent for the persons whom the clergyman named as attestators to his character, and finding the account a just subject for pity, paid his debt instantly, and procured him a preferment."

"An expedient adopted by the light-hearted actress, to procure the advancement of her young son to the same rank which had been conferred by Charles on his other natural children, is amusing enough. The king hap-pened to be in her apartments, when the boy was engaged in some childish sport. 'Come here, you little bastard!' -- was the free-spoken summons. Charles, to whose ears the term sounded somewhat harsh, blamed her, in his good-natured way, for the expression. 'Indeed,' she said, demurely, 'I am very sorry, but I have no other name to give him, poor boy!' A few days afterwards, this nameless young gentleman was created Baron of Heddington and Earl of Burford."

"Nelly was highly favoured by Dryden. For many years he gave her the most snowy and fantastic parts in his comedies. It looks as if he played her at the monarch a considerable time; and he wrote on purpose for her a whimsical and spirited prologue, prefixed, I think, to Aurengzebe. At the rival theatre (viz. the Duke's, under Killegrew's patent), Nokes had appeared in a hat larger than Pistol's, which gave the town wonderful delight, and supported a bad play by its pure effect. Dryden, piqued at this, caused a hat to be made the circumference of a hinder coach-wheel, and as Nelly was low of stature, and what the French call mignonne et piquante, he made her speak under the umbrella of that hat, the brims thereof being spread out horizontally to their full extension. The whole theatre was in a convulson of applause; nay, the very actors giggled, a circumstance none had observed before. Judge, therefore, what a condition 'the merriest prince alive' was in at such a conjuncture. It was beyond 'odds 'and 'odsfish;' for he wanted little of being suffocated with laughter."

"She was the most popular of all the king's mistresses, and most acceptable to the nation. The king having made a handsome present of plate to the Duchess of Portsmouth, a large concourse of people gathered round the goldsmith's shop, and loudly hooted at the duchess, wishing the silver was melted and poured down her throat, and saying that it was a thousand pities his majesty had not bestowed this bounty on Madam Ellen."

"Before Nelly became the mistress of Charles II., she was under the protection of two others of the name of Charles. She accordingly used to speak of him as her Charles III. Etherege says,

'When he was dumpish, she would still be jocund,
And chuck the royal chin of Charles the Second.'"

"The house in which Nell Gwynn lived was a freehold, and granted to her by a long lease by Charles II. Upon her discovering it to be only a lease under the crown, she returned him the lease and conveyance, saying she had always conveyed free under the crown, and always would; and would not accept it till it was conveyed free to her by an act of parliament, made on and for that purpose. Upon Nelly's death it was sold, and has been conveyed free ever since."

"Before her acquaintance with the king she is by some said to have been mistress to a brother of Lady Castlemaine, who studiously concealed her from Charles. One day, however, in spite of his caution, his majesty saw her, and that very night possessed her. Her lover carried her to the play, at a time when he had not the least suspicion of his majesty's being there; but as that monarch had an aversion to his robes of royalty, and was incumbered with the dignity of his state, he chose frequently to throw off the load of kingship, and consider himself as a private gentleman. Upon this occasion he came to the play incog., and sat in the next box to Nelly and her lover. As soon as the play was finished, his majesty, with the duke of York, the young nobleman, and Nell, retired to a tavern together, where they regaled themselves over a bottle; and the king shewed such civilities to Nell, that she began to understand the meaning of his gallantry. The tavern keeper was entirely ignorant of the quality of the company; and it was remarkable, that when the reckoning came to be paid, his majesty, upon searching his pockets, found that he had not money enough about him to discharge it, and asked the sum of his brother, who was in the same situation: upon which Nell observed, that she had got into the poorest company that she ever was in at a tavern. The reckoning was paid by the young nobleman, who that night lost both his money and mistress."

"'Oh Nell,' said Charles to her one day, l what shall I do to please the people of England? I am torn to pieces by their clamours.' 'If it please your majesty,' she answered, 'there is but one way left.' 'What is that?' said the king. 'Dismiss your ladies, may it please your majesty, and mind your business.'"

"One day she was driving in her coach to Whitehall, when a dispute arose between her coachman and another who was driving a countess, who in the midst of the discussion told his rival, that he himself drove a countess, whilst his lady was neither more nor less than a whore. The indignant Jehu jumped from his seat, and administered to the offender a severe beating. When Nell learnt from him the cause of the quarrel, she told him to 'go to, and never to risk his carcase again but in defence of truth.'"

Evelyn, who, like Dr. Burnet, was highly scandalized at the king's fondness for his mistresses, thus notices her in his Diary, March 1st, 1671:-- "I walked through St. James's Park to the gardens, where I both saw and heard a very familiar discourse between [the king] and Mrs. Nellie, as they called an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top of the wall, and [the king] standing on the green walk under it. I was heartily sorry at this scene."

Charles loved her to the last, and she is said to be the only one of his mistresses who was faithful to him. His last words were, "Let not poor Nelly starve." According to a writer in the Gent.'s Magazine, "she left a handsome sum yearly to St. Martin's church, on condition, that on every Thursday evening in the year, there should be six men employed, for the space of one hour, in ringing, for which they were to have a roasted shoulder of mutton and ten shillings for beer. She, however, is more justly remembered for her exertions in behalf of Chelsea Hospital, which would never have been completed, at least not in the reign of Charles, but for her persevering and benevolent enthusiasm."]

NOTE 167 ~ Miss Davis.

Mrs. Mary Davis was an actress belonging to the duke's theatre. She was, according to Downes, one of the four female performers who boarded in Sir William Davenant's own house, and was on the stage as early as 1664, her name being to be seen in "The Stepmother," acted in that year. She performed the character of Celia, in the "Rivals," altered by Davenant from the "Two Noble Kinsmen" of Fletcher and Shak-speare, in 1668; and, in singing- several wild and mad songs, so charmed his majesty, that she was from that time received into his favour, and had by him a daughter, Mary Tudor, born October, 1673; married in August, 1687, to Francis Ratcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater. Burnet says, Miss Davis did not keep her hold on the king long; which may be doubted, as her daughter was born four years after she was first noticed by his majesty.

[Pepys thus speaks of her in his Diary, March 7th, 1666-7. -- "To the duke's playhouse, where little-Miss Davis did dance a jig after the 2nd of the play, in boy's clothes; and the truth is, there is no comparison between Nell's dancing the other day at the king's house in boy's clothes and this, this being infinitely beyond the other." Jan. 11th, 1667-8. "Knipp told me how Miss Davis is for certain going away from the duke's house, the king being in love with her; and a house is taking for her and furnishing; and she hath a ring given her already, worth 600l." Jan. 14th. "Miss Davis is now the most impertinent slutin the world; and the more now the king do shew her countenance; and is reckoned his mistress even to the scorn of the whole world; the king gazing on her, and my Lady Castlemaine being melancholy and out of humour, all the play not smiling once. It seems she is a bastard of Colonel Howard, my Lord Berkshire, and he hath got her for the king: but Pierce says that she is a most homely jade as ever he saw, though she dances beyond any thing in the world." A story is told that Lady Castlemaine (Granger says it was Nell Gwynn) administered jalap at supper to Mary Davis on the first night of her introduction to Charles, the object of which need not be commented upon. It is sufficient (says Granger) to hint at the violence of the operation, and its disastrous effects."]

NOTE 168 ~ Chiffinch.

The name of this person occurs very often in the secret history of this reign. Wood, in enumerating the king's supper companions, says, they meet "either in the lodgings of Lodovisa. Duchess of Portsmouth, or in those of ----- Cheffing (Chiffinch), near the back-stairs, or in the apartment of Eleanor Quin (Gwyn), or in that of Baptist May; but he losing his credit, ----- Cheffing had the greatest trust among them." -- Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. 1038. So great was the confidence reposed in. him, that he was the receiver of the secret pensions paid by the court of France tc the King of England. -- See the Duke of Leeds's Letters, 1710, p. 9, 17, 33.

Chiffinch's more important duties are intimated in the beginning of a satirical poem of the time, entitled "Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's Ghost."

"It happen'd, in the twilight of the day, As England's monarch in his closet lay, And Chiffinch stepp'd to fetch the female prey, The bloody shape of Godfrey did appear," &c.

[His character is well drawn in Sir Walter Scott's novel of "Peveril of the Peak."]

NOTE 169 ~ Miss Stewart having a little recovered, &c.

See Bishop Burnet's account of Miss Stewart's marriage, in his History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 353.

[Pepys thus relates the marriage in his Diary, April 26th, 1667:-- "Mr. Evelyn told me the whole story of Mrs. Stewart's going away from court, he knowing her well; and believes her, up to her leaving the court, to be as virtuous as any woman in the world; and told me, from a lord, that she told it to but yesterday with her own mouth, and a sober man, that when the Duke of Richmond did make love to her, she did ask the king, and he did the like also; and that the king did not deny it, and told this lord that she was come to that pass, as to resolve to have married any gentleman of 1,500l. a year that would have had her in honour: for it was come to that pass, that she could not longer continue at court without prostituting herself to the king, whom she had so long kept off, though he had liberty more than any other had, or he ought to have, as to dalliance. She told this lord, that she had reflected upon the occasion she had given to the world, to think her a bad woman, and that she had no way but to marry and leave the court, rather in this way of discontent than otherwise, that the world might see that she sought not any thing but her honour; and that she will never come to live at court, more than when she comes to kiss the queen her mistress's hand; and hopes, though she hath little reason to hope, she can please her lord so as to reclaim him, that they may yet live comfortably in the country on his estate. She told this lord that all the jewels she ever had given her at court, or any other presents (more than the king's allowance of 700l. per annum out of the privy-purse for her clothes), were at her first coming, the king did give her a necklace of pearl, of about 1,100l.; and afterwards, about seven months since, when the king had hopes to have obtained some courtesy of her, the king did give her some jewels, I have forgot what, and I think a pair of pendants. The Duke of York, being once her Valentine, did give her a jewel of about 800l.; and my Lord Mandeville, her Valentine this year, a ring of about 300l.; and the King of France would have had her mother (who, he says, is one of the most cunning women in the world), to have let her stay in France, saying that he loved her not as a mistress, but as one that he could marry as well as any lady in France; and that, if she might stay, for the honour of his court, he would take care that she should not repent. But her mother, by command of the queen-mother, thought rather to bring her into England; and the King of France did give her a jewel; so that Evelyn believes she may be worth in jewels about 6,000l., and that this is all she hath in the world; and a worthy woman; and in this hath done as great an act of honour as ever was done by woman. That now the Countess Castlemaine do carry all before her; and among other arguments to prove Mrs. Stewart to have been honest to the last, he says that the king's keeping in still with my Lady Castlemaine do shew it; for he never was known to keep two mistresses in his life, and would never have kept to her, had he prevailed any thing with Mrs. Stewart. She is gone yesterday with her lord to Cobham."]

NOTE 170 ~ The expedition of Gigeri.

Gigeri is about forty leagues from Algiers. Till the year 1644 the French had a factory there; but then attempting to build a fort on the seacoast, to be a check upon the Arabs, they came down from the mountains, beat the French out of Gigeri, and demolished their fort. Sir Richard Fanshaw, in a letter to the deputy-governor of Tangier, dated 2nd of December, 1664, N.S. says, "We have certain intelligence that the French have lost Gigheria, with all they had there, and their fleet come back, with the loss of one considerable ship upon the rocks near Marselles." -- Fanshaw's Letters, vol. i. p. 347.

NOTE 171 ~ An expedition to Guinea.

This expedition was intended to have taken place in 1664. A full account of it, and how it came to be laid aside, may be seen in the Continuation of Clarendon's Life, p. 225.

NOTE 172 ~ Ovid's Epistles.

This is the translation of Ovid's epistles, published by Mr. Dryden. The second edition of it was printed in 1681.

NOTE 173 ~ A silly country girl.

Miss Gibbs, daughter of a gentleman in the county of Cambridge.

NOTE 174 ~ A melancholy heiress.

Elizabeth, daughter of John Mallet, of Enmere, in the county of Somerset.

NOTE 175 ~ The languishing Boynton.

After the deaths of Miss Boynton and of George Hamilton, Talbot married Miss Jennings, and became afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel.

NOTE 176 ~ Was blessed with the possession of Miss Hamilton.

"The famous Count Grammont was thought to be the original of The Forced Marriage. This nobleman, during his stay at the court of England, had made love to Miss Hamilton, but was coming away for France, without bringing matters to a proper conclusion. The young lady's brothers pursued him, and came up with him near Dover, in order to exchange some pistol-shot with him. They called out, 'Count Grammont, have you forgot nothing at London?' 'Excuse me,' answered the count, guessing their errand, 'I forgot to marry your sister; so lead on, and let us finish that affair.' By the pleasantry of the answer, this was the same Grammont who commanded at the siege of a place, the governor of which capitulated after a short defence, and obtained an easy capitulation. The governor then said to Monsieur Grammont, 'I'll tell you a secret -- that the reason of my capitulation was, because I was in want of powder.' Monsieur replied, 'And secret for secret -- the reason of my granting you such an easy capitulation was, because I was in want of ball.' "-- Biog. Gallica, vol. i. p. 202.

Count Grammont and his lady left England in 1669. King Charles, in a letter to his sister, the Duchess of Orleans, dated 24th October, in that year, says, "I writt to you yesterday, by the Compte de Grammont, but I beleeve this letter will come sooner to your handes; for he goes by the way of Diep, with his wife and family; and now that I have named her, I cannot chuse but againe desire you to be kinde to her; for, besides the meritt her family has on both sides, she is as good a creature as ever lived. I beleeve she will passe for a handsome woman in France, though she has not yett, since her lying-inn, recovered that good shape she had before, and I am afraide never will." -- Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 26.

"The Count de Grammont fell dangerously ill in the year 1696; of which the king (Lewis XIV.) being informed, and knowing, besides, that he was inclined to libertinism, he was pleased to send the Marquis of Dangeau to see how he did, and to advise him to think of God. Hereupon Count de Grammont, turning towards his wife, who had ever been a very devout lady, told her, 'Countess, if you don't look to it, Dangeau will juggle you out of my conversion.' Madame de l'Enclos having afterwards written to M. de St. Evremond that Count de Grammont was recovered, and turned devout, -- 'I have learned,' answered he to her, 'with a great deal of pleasure, that Count de Grammont has recovered his former health, and acquired a new devotion. Hitherto I have been contented with being a plain honest man; but I must do something more; and I only wait for your example to become a devotee. You live in a country where people have wonderful advantages of saving their souls; there, vice is almost as opposite to the mode as to virtue; sinning passes for ill breeding, and shocks decency and good manners, as much as religion. Formerly it was enough to be wicked; now one must be a scoundrel withal, to be damned in France. They who have not regard enough for another life, are led to salvation by the consideration and duties of this.' -- 'But there is enough upon a subject in which the conversion of the Count de Grammont has engaged me. I believe it to be sincere and honest. It well becomes a man who is not young, to forget he has been so.' "-- Life of St. Evremond, by Des Marzeaux, p. 136; and St. Evremond's Works, vol. ii. p. 431.

It appears that a report had been spread, that our hero was dead. St. Evremond, in a letter to de l'Enclos, says, "They talk here as if the Count de Grammont was dead, which touches me with a very sensible grief." -- St. Evremond's Work's, vol. iii. p. 39. And the same lady, in her answer, says, "Madame de Coulange has undertaken to make your compliments to the Count de Grammont, by the Countess de Grammont. He is so young, that I think him as light as when he hated sick people, and loved them after they had recovered their health." -- St. Evremond's Works, p. 59.

At length Count de Grammont, after along life, died, the 10th January, 1707, at the age of eighty-six years.

See a letter from St. Evremond to Count de Grammont on the death of his brother, Count de Toulongeon. -- St. Evremond's Works, vol. ii. p. 327.

NOTE 177 ~ Grammont Memoirs

For uniformity's sake the writer of this sketch has followed the Memoirs in the spelling of this name; but he thinks it necessary to observe that it should be Gramont, not Grammont.

NOTE 178 ~ Roscrea

In September, 1646, Owen O'Neale took Roscrea, and, as Carte says, "put man, woman, and child to the sword, except Sir George Hamilton's lady, sister to the Marquis of Ormond, and some few gentlewomen whom he kept prisoners." No family suffered more in those disastrous times than the house of Ormond. Lady Hamilton died in August, 1680, as appears from an interesting and affecting letter of her brother, the Duke of Ormond, dated Carrick, August 25th. He had lost his noble son, Lord Ossory, not three weeks before.

NOTE 179 ~ Caen

Hence possibly Voltaire's mistake in stating that Hamilton was born at Caen, in his Catalogue des Ecrivains du Siecle de Louis XIV.

NOTE 180 ~ Roman Catholics

That historian states that the king (Charles I.) deprived several papists of their military commissions, and, among others, Sir George Hamilton, who, notwithstanding, served him with loyalty and unvarying fidelity.

NOTE 181 ~ Plus arabes qu'en Arabie

They were wretched imitations of some of the Persian and Arabian tales, in which everything was distorted, and rendered absurd and preposterous.

NOTE 182 ~ Lady Chesterfield

She was born at the castle of Kilkenny, July, 1640, as appears from Carte's life of her father, the Duke of Ormond.

NOTE 183 ~ Reflections

Voltaire, upon slight evidence, had imputed to him, at an earlier period, sentiments of irreligion similar to his own;--

Aupres d'eux le vif Hamilton,
Toujours armé d'un trait qui blesse,
Medisoit de l'humaine espèce,
Et meme d'un peu mieux, dit-on.

But whether Voltaire had any better foundation for insinuating this charge than the libertine tone of Hamilton's earlier works, joined to his own wish to hold up a man of genius as a partisan of his own opinions, must remain doubtful; while it is certain that Hamilton, in his latter years, sincerely followed the Christian religion.