Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

1831]

letters, written by the same person, to the same correspondent, on the same day, one will be discovered in one of these receptacles, the other in another, and the answer in the third; and several instances will be seen, where one portion of a letter is found in one part, and the residue in another part of the same collection. A few are to be met with in the Lambeth Library, the Harleian Collection, the University Library of Cainbridge, and in private hands."

It appears that there are no documents in the State Paper Office of an earlier age than those of the reign of Henry the Eighth, with which this publication is commenced. These, in order that the continuity of series might not be broken, have been arranged in the following classes:

REVIEW.-State Papers, Vol. I.

I. The correspondence between the King and Cardinal Wolsey.

II. That between the Kiug and his other
Ministers at Home.

1II. That between the Governments of England and Ireland.

IV. That between the Government and the King's Representatives on the Scottish Border.

V. That between the Government and the King's Representatives at Calais and its dependencies.

VI. That between the Court of England and Foreign Courts, each forming a separate subdivision. VII. Miscellaneous.

The present volume embraces the two first of these classes. The first consists of one hundred and two documents, nearly one half of which are letters from Wolsey to his Royal master; and the remainder either addressed by Wolsey to other persons, or addressed to him; among the latter are several of Sir Thomas More and of Cromwell.

The papers illustrative of the Cardinal's splendid Embassy to France in 1527, are particularly complete. In one of them Wolsey gives a long description of his reception by the French King at Amiens.

"Within a myle and a half of the cite, the French King, riding upon a grey jenet, apparelled in a cote of blak velvet, cut in diverse places for shewing of the lynyng thereof, which was white satyn, accompanyed with the King of Navarre, the Cardinal of Burbon, the Duke of Vandome, the Counte Saintpole, Mons" de Gize, Mons Vandamont, the Grete Mastre, the Seneshall of Normandy, with diverse Archbishops, Bishops, and other noble men, avaunced him self towards me; to whose person GENT. MAG. May, 1831."

441

(assone as I had the sight therof) deviding my company on bothe handes, in most reverent maner, sole and alone, I did accelerate my repaire and accesse; and His Grace doing the semblable for his parte, being dis-covered, with his bonnet in his hande, encountred and with most herty, kinde, loving countenance and maner, embraced me."

After many compliments passed on both sides, the Cardinal was conducted in triumph through the city, in the principal places whereof were pageants had for peace; and was accompanied expressing the great desire the people to his lodging by the King. The Cardinal of Lorraine conducted the English Cardinal

"into my lodging, which I founde richely and pomposely apparelled with the Frenche Kinges own stuff; as the utter chamber with riche clothe of tyssue and sylver, paned, embrodered with freres [friars'] knottes, wherin was a grete and large clothe of astate of the same stuff and sorte. The record chamber was apparelled with crymyson velvet, embroderd, and replenished with large letters of gold, of F and A* crowned, with an other veray large clothe of astate, of fyne And the third chamber, being my bedd chamber, was apparelled with riche clothe of tyssue, raised, and a great sparver and counterpointe to the same. And the 4th, being as a closet, was hanged with clothe of bawdikyn, wherunto was annexed a litle gallary, hanged with crymyson velvet.

aras.

"And after a litle pawse, and shifting of my self, ther was sent into my lodging the Cardinall of Burbon, the Duke of Vandome, with many other prelates and noble men, to conduc'e me to my Ladies presence, who was lodged in the Bishops palaies; in the hall hanged and apparelled with aras, was placed wherof, being large and spacious, richely and set in right good order, on bothe sydes the Frenche Kinges garde, my Lady his moder, the Quene of Navarre [his sister], Madam Reynet [Renata, daughter of Louis XII], the Duchess of Vandom, the King of Navarre's sister, with a greate nomber of other ladies and gentlewomen, stonding in the myddes, to whose presence I sum what approaching and drawing nigh, my said Lady [the Queen] also avauncing her self forwardes, in most loving and pleasant mauer, encountred, welcomed, and embraced [Bishop Tunstall], my Lord Chamberlain me, and likewise saluted my Lord of London [Lord Sandys], Master Comptroller [Sir Henry Guildford], the Chaunceler of the Duchy [Sir Thomas More], and most parte

[blocks in formation]

4-42

REVIEW.-State Papers, Vol. I.

of suche gentlemen as came with me, and most specially thErle of Derbye, whom it liked Her Grace to kisse, and right lovingly to welcome."

After this lively description of the royal salutations, the writer proceeds to describe the more weighty transactions of the embassy, the whole dispatch extending to nineteen quarto pages, being written in the nanie of Wolsey, but with all the verbose minuteness characteristic of the chroniclers of that age.

In p. 328 we have a striking instance of the unparalleled rapacity and presumption of Wolsey. It is a letter written the very hour he heard of the death of Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester; in which he not only asks the King for that rich see, but requests to be allowed to transfer Durham, which he then held in commendam with the Archbishopric of York, to "my poore scoler the Deane of Welles,' -who was Thomas Winter, his natural son. In the former part of his petition, after some months delay, he prevailed; but Durham was given to Tunstall.

[ocr errors]

In pp. 462 et seq. is comprised an important series of papers relative to the rebellion in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, called the Pilgrimage of Grace. It appears that the popular leader known as Captain Cobler, was not Dr. Makerel the Abbot of Barlings, as it has been generally supposed, but a distinct person named Melton. Regarding the Yorkshire leader, Robert Aske, there is a curious Report from Thomas Miller, the herald who was dispatched to the rebels' head quarters at Pontefract, and who because he was considered to have encouraged them by his craven demeanour, subsequently suffered the extreme penalty of a traitor. It is not surprising that the natural firmness of character which enabled the rebel captain to assume the command over a band comprising many individuals of superior rank and wealth, should have succeeded in intimidating

the unfortunate herald.

"The sayd Haske sentt for me in to his chamber, and theyr kepynge his porte and countenance, as thowgh he hade bene a greatt prynce, with great regor and lyke a tyrant; who was accompanyd with the Archebeshop of Yourke, the Lord Darcy, Sir Robert Counstable, Mr. Magnus, Sir Crystofer Danby, and dyvers other. And, as my dewte was, I saluted the Archebyshop of Yorke and my Lord Darcy, showynge to

[May,

them the cawse I came thether for. And then the sayd Robert Aske, with a crewell and a inestemable prowde countenance, stretched hym self, and toke the herynge of my tale; whiche I openyd to hym at large, in as moche honor to our Soverayne Lord the Kyng as my reason weld serve me; wiche the sayd capetayne Aske gave no reverence to, and superstyciusly demandyd the seyght of my proclamacion. And then I toke yt owt of my purse, and delyvered y to hym, and then he redd y' openly, with out reverence to anny person, and sayd yt shold nott ned to calle no counsell for the answar of the same, for he wold of his howne whyt gave me thanswar, wiche was thys;-he, standynge in the heghest place of the chamber, takeyng the hygh astatte upon hym, sayd, Herald, as a messynger you ar wellcome to me, and all my company, intendynge as I doo. And as for this proclamacion sent frome the Lordes, from whens you com, shall nott be redde at the market crosse, nor in no place amongest my peple, wiche be all onder my gydyng; nor for feare of losse of landes, lyffe, and goodes, not for the power wiche ys agenste us, dothe not enter in to owr herttes with feare, bott ar all of on accorde, with the poynttes of our artecles, clerly intendynge to se a reformacion, or ells to dye yn thoys cawses.” -p. 486.

After some further parley, the herald had recourse to intreaty, and “fell down on his knee" before the Captain, beseeching him for permission to read the proclamation; and this appears to have been Miller's great crime that he knellid downe on his knees, beffore Robert Aske and the other treators, with the Kynges most honorable Cote of Armys on his bak; whyche comforted, coraged, and made them in suche pryde and arragoneye, to see the Kynges Cote of Armys so humble used beffore them, that they stode the more styflyer and lengor in ther detestable and cursed wyllies and pretenses."

There are several letters on the exhilarating occasion of the birth of Prince Edward, and the consequent misfortune of the Queen's death. It is proved, however, that there was an interval of at least twelve days between those two events; and that the story of the Cæsarian operation having been performed is a mere invention. It was first propagated by the Jesuit Nicolas Sanders. In a despatch to the Ambassadors in France, the calamity is ascribed to the Queen having been suffered to take cold, and to eat improper food. It appears to have been by an accidental

*Qu. superciliously?

1831] REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI.

mistake that Oct. 14, instead of Oct. 24, was recorded as the date of the Queen's death, by the chronicler Hall, who has been followed by the whole tribe of historians, excepting Strype, who names the latter day from a MS. in the College of Arms. In a letter of Sir John Russell to Crumwell, written on the 24th, probably within a few hours, or less, of the fatal occurrence, it is said, "if she skape this night, the Fyshisiouns be in good hope that she is past all daunger."

In p. 583 we have a curious account of a visit to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket, very shortly before its spoliation. The stranger was "the Lady of Montreill," who was on _her_return from the Court of Scotland to France: "I showed her Saincte Thomas shryne, and all such other thinges worthy of sight; at the which she was not litle marveilled of the greate riches therof, saing to be innumerable, and that if she had not seen it, all the men in the wourlle could never a made her to belyve it. Thus, over looking and vewing more then an owre, as well the shryne, as Sainte Thomas hed, being at both sett cousshins to knyle, and the Pryour, openyng Sainct Thomas hed, saing to her 3 tymes,

This is Saint Thomas Hed,' and offered her to kysse; but she nother knyled, nor would kysse it, but still viewing the riches therof."

It would seem that this French lady was a Protestant.

NICHOLS's Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. Vol. VI.

(Continued from p. 328.) ALTHOUGH it can scarcely be expected that a legislator so far removed from the scene of action as Lord Camelford was in 1789, could be very deeply in the secret of ministerial or opposition measures at that eventful period, there is a shrewd sagacity in his Lordship's opinions which brings him very close to the contending parties. In his letter dated Jan. 23, he thanks his correspondent for the information he gives him, which, he adds, makes him as much present as he wishes to be.

"The triumph of Thurlow over the Scotch patriot, learned in the laws of the Constitution (Loughborough), is one of those petites malices that I allow myself to indulge in with a good conscience. 1 understand nothing of the protest. Let them speak out, and pledge themselves boldly to the indefensible right of hereditary regency, if they please, and stand to it. But if that

443

point is given up, and they allow once for all that the right is conferred upon the Regent by the two Houses, I do not see their distinction, whether it is conferred by an address without limitations, or by an act under commission with limitations; in either case it is an act of legislation equally, if it constitutes an authority that is obligatory upon the subject, and so far in the teeth of their maxim, that the two branches of the legislature can do nothing without the assent of the third. To my plain understanding, if the Parliament took the Regency under their plain address, I should conceive, upon their reasoning, the difficulty insurmountable. should say to the Regent, You assumed the government upon what authority? you had no legal right in you, or you might have asserted it without the intervention of Parliament: and if you had not that right, nothing but the legislature could give it you, and the two houses inviting you to do what you had no right to do, and what they were incompetent to authorize you to do, only renders them accomplices with you in an illegal usurpation.''

Most of our readers must recollect that the faction by which the intended Regent was at that time influenced, lost all the popularity they had acquired by the impeachment of Mr. Hastings, or rather threw it entirely into Mr. Pitt's hands, who a very few years after stood in need of it all. "I rejoice," says Lord C." in the lively part the public seem to take in the contest. John is after all an honester gentleman than I took him for, and has righter feelings about him than I gave him credit for."

The Life of the Rev. Baptist Noel Turner, Rector of Denton, co. Lincoln, and Wing, co. Rutland, is much enlarged from the account given in the Gentleman's Magazine soon after his death, and enriched with the anecdotes of Dr. Johnson, first communicated by himself to the New Monthly Magazine. This relates to the learned which there is no account in Boswell's lexicographer's visit to Cambridge, of Life, probably because antecedent to his acquaintance with the Doctor. It is not unlikely, however, that soine of them will obtain a place in the forthcoming edition of Boswell, by the Right Hon. J. W. Croker. But although we allow that Mr. Turner had generally, in conversation and correspondence, the true spirit of humorous anecdote, he appears very deficient in Boswell's close imitation of Johnson's language. What we find here is rarely

444 REVIEW. Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI. [Ma y,

66

Emanuel College, Cambridge, at the recommendation of Sir John Cotton of Madingley, near Cambridge, an intimate friend of his father, and a near relation by the mother's side. Sir John, and Mr. Chafin's mother, he says, were 'grandchildren of Alderman Parsons, the greatest brewer of porter in London in those days; who when he was Lord Mayor, at his great city feast had twenty sons and daughters grown up, sitting at table with him, of which he was no doubt a little proud; but such is the mutability of human affairs, that not one male heir of the family of the name of Parsons is now in existence."

Johnsonian; it is even now and then vulgar. On one occasion, when in Trinity College library, Mr. Turner informs us that Dr. Johnson took up a folio, which proved to be the Polyhistor of Morhoff, and on opening the vo lume, exclaimed, "Here is the book upon which all my fame was originally founded; when I had read this book, I could teach my tutors." Now, in the first place, we would remark that no part of Dr. Johnson's fame could be founded on the Polyhistor, a work of bibliography, a study in which Dr. Johnson was very deficient, and in the second place, there is no edition of Morhoff in folio. The best, it is well known, is in 2 vols. 4to, 1747. There are, however, many remarks in Mr. Turner's letters, particularly those addressed to the late Mr. Nichols, which show much critical taste, and contribute to enrich this volume. We particularly allude to his " Prolegomena to Alexander's Feast," and his "Answer to the criticism of Dr. Knox." Nor will the extracts from his manuscript volume, entitled "Nuga Canore," be read without interest.

66

The Editors inform us that the Biographical Memoirs in this volume have in many cases been compiled from a variety of sources, and are therefore generally (and, we think, very justly) entitled to the terin original. The autobiography," they add, "of Mr. William Chafin, a clerical country squire, who in his old age turned author, after a life spent in pursuits of a very opposite character, will be found to possess many of the charms usually characteristic of that description of writing." That of Mr. Chafin is, in truth, not only one of the most amusing lives, but one of the most amusing narratives of life, which we ever remember to have met with. It must, however, be read entire, for we are at a loss how to convey a proper idea of the author's singularities by either abridgment or extract.

Mr. Chafin's youth appears to have been much neglected. From some strange circumstances here detailed, when he reached his fifteenth year, he was a poor, raw, ignorant youth, without having acquired any classical knowledge whatever. Another year, notwithstanding these defects, was spent in following sports of the field, but no school-book was looked into the whole time. He tells us he was then sent to

Mr. Chafin met with encouragement at Cambridge from various men of eminence, and prosecuted his studies with great success. After being admitted into holy orders, he was presented to the vicarage of St. Mary Magdalen in Taunton, Somersetshire, which he held by dispensation with the rectory of Lidlinch, in the county of Dorset, the gift of his own father, more than forty years.

Mr. Chafin retained so much of his early education, or rather no-education, as to become a sportsman of great celebrity, and this part of his character introduces us to an anecdote too curious to be omitted.

"Some few years before 1 retired to Trumpington, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales occupied Mr. Sturt's superb mansion and large domains at Critchill, about three miles from Chettle. I was introduced to his Royal Highness's notice by Mr. Churchill of Hanbury, a confidant of his Royal Highness, and I believe chief manager of his Household at Critchill; and I was recommended by him as a proper person to execute a commission for his Royal Highness, no way political, but merely relative to fox-hunting. His Royal Highness wished to extend his hunting country, but was unwilling to do so without the consent of some gentlemen, who were confederates in keeping another pack of fox-hounds, and hunted in the country which his Royal Highness wished to add to the Critchill Hunt. I was honoured and entrusted by his Royal Highness with a commission to negotiate this important business, in which I used my best endeavours, but I had persons to deal with though they were all intimate acquaintances, of tempers not very compliant; and, alI could not prevail upon them to grant my suit in full. During this negotiation, which lasted some time, I had several private conferences with his Royal Highness; and when he was absent from Critchill for a

1831.] REVIEW.-Nichols's Literary Illustrations, vol. VI.

short time, he condescended to write several letters to me on the subject; and, although I could not succeed so well in my embassy as I wished, and the Prince expected, yet he never laid any blame on me, but I was taken more into favour than before, and was invited to attend his Royal Highness in his field sports, both in hunting and shooting; and to enable me to attend him in the former, he made me a present of a very fine hunter. At that time, Mr. Napier, whom I have before mentioned, was taken much notice of by his Royal Highness. He was a spirited lad, and rode a very fleet poney of his own, of the New Forest breed, which cost him four guineas; and he was in at the death of many foxes after fine runs with the Prince's hounds.

"About this time, a very remarkable circumstance took place. One morning his Royal Highness called upon me alone, without any attendant, not even one servant, and desired ine to take his information for a rob. bery, and to grant him a search warrant. He insisted on my administering the oath to him, which I reluctantly did; and he informed me, that the head groom of his stables had his trunk broken open in the night, and a watch and many valuable articles stolen and carried away; and that it was suspected that they were concealed in such and such places, and that he chose to come himself, lest an alarm may be given and the goods removed. His Royal Highness sat by my side, while I filled up a search warraut, which his Royal Highness hastened home with, and saw the execution of it himself; the goods were found in the suspected places, a nest of thieves were detected, and all brought to condign punishment. Should his Royal Highness become Sovereign, as by the grace of God he may soon be, what a strange story it will be to tell, that a King of Great Britain did apply to a poor country

ROYAL ACADEMY.

April 30. The anniversary dinner, preparatory to the opening of the sixty-third Exhibition of the Royal Academy, took place this day. The Ministers of State, foreign Ministers and Consuls, and a great assemblage of the nobility, were present. The Lord Chancellor, in returning thanks on the part of the invited guests when their health was proposed, made the following just and eloquent observations:

445

justice to grant him a search warrant for stolen goods! But this would be a real fact."

"This is, indeed, not more a display of the triumph of the fine arts than of the deep interest which the most distinguished classes of the community take in their progress; and well they may! Of those pursuits what has not been said, what panegyrics not pronounced, hundreds, aloost thousands, of years ago, by the m

such have been as industrious as old The biographers of George IV. (and

newspapers can make them) will regret that this anecdote has been so long kept from them, but it may not yet be too late, and will certainly be considered of as great importance and originality as any with which they have illustrated the character of our late amiable monarch.

FINE ARTS.

This sketch of Mr. Chafin's life was written in 1816. "At that time," he says, in a letter to Mr. Nichols, " my life, although a domestic one (for I have never been more than 160 miles from my birth-place, in the course of a very long life) has been attended with peculiarities somewhat uncommon, and the situation I at this time stand in is so very particular, that it is impossible for any other person to be in the same, for I believe that I am the oldest member of the University of Cambridge, the oldest Clergyman in the diocese of Bristol, and the oldest magistrate in the county of Dorset ; of the two latter I am certain, but out of so many thousands there possibly may be a senior Member of the University, but on the strictest inquiry I can hear of no one." For a minute history of of Cranborne Chase," we must refer his only publication, the "Anecdotes to the work before us. He died at Chettle, in the mansion of his ancestors, at the age of 86, Aug. 14, 1818. He was the last male heir of his family. (To be continued.)

quent of tongues! That they are the ornament of prosperous fortune and the solace of adverse, give a zest to our daily toil, and watch with us through the sleepless night, enliven the solitude of the country, and tranquillize the bustle and turmoil of the town -all this is true, but it is not the whole truth. All this they do, and much more. The fine arts are great improvers of mankind; they are living sources of refinement -the offspring, indeed, of civilization; but, like her of Greece whose piety they have so often commemorated, nourishing the parent from whom their existence was derived,softening and humanizing the characters of men-assuaging the fierceness of the wilder passions; substituting calm and harmless enjoyment for more perilous excitementthe innocent intercourse of na

« AnteriorContinuar »