Part 16

[58] The other Brasses require a brief notice. The earliest is to the memory of JOHN DE COBHAM, the first Knight Banneret, and Constable of Rochester; he is dressed in a shirt of mail: round his waist is a rich girdle sustaining a long sword. Eight lines of Norman French are inscribed round the verge of the slab. 2. MAUDE DE COBHAM, wife to Reynold, Baron Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in the reign of Edward the Third: she is standing on a dog. 3. Another MAUDE DE COBHAM--probably the wife of Thomas de Cobham, who died in the reign of Richard the Second. 4. MARGARET DE COBHAM, wife of John Lord Cobham, the founder of the College. The inscription round the verge informs us, she was daughter to the Earl of Devonshire. 5. JOHN DE COBHAM, the founder of the College, standing on a lion under a canopy. In his hands he holds a church. 6. THOMAS DE COBHAM. 7. JOAN DE COBHAM, “probably the daughter of John Lord Beauchamp, and mother of the Founder.” 8. SIR JOHN BROKE, and Lady Margaret his wife, under a rich canopy with pendants and other ornaments, with triangular compartments, “containing circles with shields, one of which bears the crown of thorns, and the other the five wounds; between the pinnacles, in the centre, is a curious representation of the Trinity, in which the Deity is delineated with a triple crown, and the Holy Spirit has a human face. The figure of the knight is gone, but that of his lady remains; and beneath, are groups of eight sons and ten daughters.” 9. SIR REGINALD BRAYBROKE, the second husband of Joan Lady Cobham. 10. SIR NICHOLAS HAWBERK, her third husband. 11. JOAN DE COBHAM: she died, as appears from the inscription, “on the day of St. Hilary the Bishop, A.D. 1433.” At her feet are six sons and four daughters, and surrounding her are six escutcheons of the Cobham arms and alliances. 12. SIR THOMAS BROKE, and one of his three wives. Below them are seven sons and five daughters. Sir Thomas died in 1529. 13. SIR RALPH, or RAUF DE COBHAM, represented by a bust, in a skull-cap and shirt of mail. He died, according to the inscription, on the 20th January 1402.

[59] The Sackvilles are an ancient and very distinguished family, dating from the Conquest. The first Peer, the famous Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, succeeded Burleigh as Lord Treasurer, an office in which he was confirmed by King James. He is more celebrated, however, as the author of the earliest English Tragedy in blank verse, “Gordubuc,” and “The Induction to a Mirrour for Magistrates,” one of the noblest Poems in the language. Gordubuc is praised by Sidney for its “notable moralitie;” and the Poem is believed to have given use to the Fairy Queen. All contemporaries agree in bearing testimony to the virtues of this truly noble man. One of them thus draws his character:--“How many rare things were in him! who more loving unto his wife! who more kind unto his children! who more fast unto his friend! who more moderate unto his enemy! who more true to his word!” The sixth Earl of Dorset is also celebrated in the History of Literature: he was one of the wits of the licentious court of Charles the Second; the associate of Rochester, Villiers, and Sedley; but subsequently the patron of Prior, Dryden, Butler, Congreve, Addison, and Pope. Prior he rescued from a vintner’s tap, and Butler “owed to him that the court tasted his ‘Hudibras.’” His reputation as an author rests upon a Poem consisting of no more than eleven stanzas--the “song” beginning

“To all ye ladies now at land,”--

said to have been written on shipboard, on the night preceding a sea-fight. It is an elegant composition, and manifests a “heedlessnesse of danger” natural to a gallant youth. Pope hails him as

“the grace of courts, the Muses’ pride;”

and there can be no doubt that he was not only a generous and liberal friend to men of letters, but a judicious patron to those who needed help.

[60] The Dining Parlour--where, by the way, in 1645, the Court of Sequestration met and deprived, for loyalty to his sovereign, Edward, the fourth Earl of Dorset, of his estates--contains a series of Portraits of men who, it is certain, met together often there, assembled round the festive board of Charles, the sixth Earl. Among the more interesting and important are those of Waller and Addison, by Jarvis; Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and Goldsmith, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Otway, by Sir Peter Lely; Locke, Hobbes, Sedley, Newton, and Dryden, by Kneller; Cowley and Rochester, by Du Boyce; Tom Durfey--in “a conversation piece”--by Vandergucht; Burke, by Opie; together with copies, by less famous hands, of Ben Jonson, Congreve, Wycherley, Rowe, Garth, Swift, Cartwright, Pope, Betterton, Gay, Handel, &c., &c., &c.

[61] The artist selected as a worthy subject for his pencil the gallery which runs parallel with “the Brown Gallery,” on the upper floor. It is peculiarly striking and characteristic; and Time has shaken it into “the picturesque.” It is known as “the Retainers’ Gallery;” the sleeping apartments of the domestics branch off from it. The marble chimney-piece, although much dilapidated, is of the finest marble, and of rare workmanship.

[62] According to Hasted, the name is derived from _Pen_, an old British word signifying the top of anything; and _hyrst_, a wood.

[63] It has been the fortune of the “Arcadia” to be too highly valued in one age, and far too much underrated in another. Immediately after its publication it was received with unbounded applause:--“From it was taken the language of compliment and love, it gave a tinge of similitude to the colloquial and courtly dialect of the time, and from thence its influence was communicated to the lucubrations of the Poet, the Historian, and the Divine.” The Book is a mixture of what has been termed the heroic and the pastoral Romance, interspersed with interludes and episodes, and details the various and marvellous adventures of two friends, Musidorus and Pyrocles. It was not intended to be published to the world; but was written merely to pleasure the Countess of Pembroke--“a principal ornament to the family of the Sidneis.”

[64] The touching incident to which, perhaps, more than to any other circumstance, Sir Philip is indebted for his heroic fame, is thus related by his friend and biographer, Fulke Greville, Lord Broke:--“In his sad progress, passing along by the rest of the army, where his uncle, the General, was, and being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was presently brought him; but, as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along, who had been wounded at the same time, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle. Which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man, with these words, ‘Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.’” He lived in great pain for many days after he was wounded, and died on the 17th of October, 1586. The close of his life affords a beautiful lesson. “Calmly and steadily he awaited the approach of death. His prayers were long and fervent--his bearing was indeed that of a Christian hero. He had a noble funeral. Kings clad themselves in garments of grief--a whole people grieved for the loss of the most accomplished scholar, the most graceful courtier, the best soldier, and the worthiest man of the country and the age. He was buried in state, in the old Cathedral of St. Paul’s, on the 16th of February. Both Universities composed verses to his memory; and so general was the mourning for him, that, “for many months after his death, it was accounted indecent for any gentleman of quality to appear at Court, or in the City, in any light or gaudy apparel.”

[65] The Norrises had long been a family of note in Lancashire, and held lands in Blackrod, Sutton, &c. The family of Bradshaw, of Bradshaw, was of Saxon origin, and seated there before the conquest; after that event, Sir John Bradshaw was repossessed of his estates by the Conqueror, which went to his posterity for twenty-two descents, whereof eleven were lineally knighted, as appears by ancient charter, and other authentic evidences. A full account of the marriages may be seen in Wotton’s Baronetage (Edition 1769, vol. vi., fol. 14), down to Sir William Bradshaw, second son of Sir John Bradshaw, the tenth generation from Sir John Bradshaw; which Sir William married Mabel daughter of Hugh Norreys, or Norris, by which he got for her dowry, as sole heir of her father, the manors of Sutton, Raynhill, Whiston, Haghe, Blackerode, and West Leigh. Haghe and Blackrode were held as a twelfth part of a knight’s fee. There is a well-attested story of Mab and Mab’s Cross. She was obliged to walk bare-foot and bare-legged once a week from Haigh to near Wigan, to expiate the sin of marrying again in her husband’s absence, when she thought he had been slain. This Mab was Mabil Norreys, of Blackrode. A portion of the Cross is still to be seen at the extremity of the town of Wigan, on the left hand side of the road, leading from Wigan to Haigh Hall, now the residence of Earl Balcarras.

The Norrises of Speke and Rycot were all martial men. They held their estate of Speke by military tenure, which they imposed upon their tenantry. The Norrises acquired great honours in foreign service, in which they were so much engaged as to be unfrequent attendants at court. A part of the debateable lands at Bromfield, in Wales, was granted to this family. Sir John Norris was a most accomplished General about 1577, equally valiant and skilful in a charge as a retreat. On one memorable occasion, he effected a retreat with a handful of Englishmen, which gained him more honour than a victory could have conferred. He was sent to Ireland, as a commander, in the reign of Elizabeth; but not being properly supported by the Government, or owing perhaps to the animosity of party spirit, he did not succeed in his mission, and died _anno_ 1597.

[66] The question whether the wainscoting at Speke did or not originally come from Scotland, appears to have given rise to some discussion; and is unquestionably a matter of deep interest to antiquarians. Not long ago, Robert Whatton, Esq., F.S.A., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, took some pains to investigate its history, in order to assist the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, who had organised a committee with a view to ascertain whether there was or was not any proof to sustain the tradition.

It appears Mr. Whatton could meet with no intelligence prior to 1767. “SEACOME,” in his History of the House of Stanley, page 46, refers to it; also “ENFIELD,” in his History of Liverpool, 4to, 1774, page 115. These accounts have been copied by _Gough_, in his edition of Camden, and every subsequent writer.

The very splendid and highly-finished specimen of the carved oak wainscot, common to the counties of Lancaster and Chester, is erected against the north wall of the room, and is divided perpendicularly from the ceiling, two-thirds of its extent downwards, into eight compartments, these compartments being again subdivided horizontally into five rows of panels; a space corresponding with the width of two of the compartments, on the right hand, with the exception of the uppermost panels, is occupied by the door-case, which projects into the room. That part of the wainscot which is usually allotted to the _frieze_ or cornice, is here formed into a _projecting head_, extending through the whole length of the works in a line with the ceiling of the room, to which it is attached and secured by _nine_ supporters, correspondent with the columns below.

The columns which divide the wainscot into compartments rise from square ornamental pedestals; the shafts are fluted in two divisions, having capitals with volutes and rows of foliage, and supporting scrolls with massive square heads, increasing in diameter upwards, and reaching to the bottom of the first row of panels.

The columns of the door-case are similar to those on the wainscot, except that the shafts are ornamented in zigzag instead of fluting; in the centre, over this door, is a shield with the arms of Norris, quartering Harrington, and Molyneux, and others we cannot decipher.

With respect to the origin of this fine and beautiful work, there seems to be no evidence to support the current tradition of its having been originally Scottish. Mr. Whatton is of opinion, not only that it never came from Scotland, but that it was of neighbouring manufacture; and was executed for Edward Norris in 1598 (40th of Elizabeth), and not brought thither by his great uncle, Sir Edward, who fought at Flodden; but the probability is, that some relics brought from Scotland had been set up at Speke previous to the erection of the present Manor Hall in 1598; and as these would no doubt be transferred to the new building, it might have happened in the course of time, that what was strictly applicable to a part may have been ascribed to the whole.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Baronial Halls; vol. 2 of 2, by S.C. Hall