4

8

Countess of ARUNDEL,
Countess of DERBY,5
Countess of BEDFORD,6
Countess of MONTGOMERY,?

Lady Eliz. GUILFORD,
Lady KAT. PETER,9
Lady ANNE WINTER, 10
Lady WINSOR,

a

marriage, unwarily encouraged the hopes of inferior pretenders, among whom, as we may fairly infer from some passages in his letters in this collection, was the fantastical William Fowler, secretary to Anne of Denmark. Thus circumscribed, she renewed a childish connexion with William Seymour, grandson to the earl of Hertford, which was discovered in 1609, when both parties were summoned to appear before the Privy Council, and received a severe reprimand. This mode of proceeding produced the very consequence which James meant to avoid; for the lady, sensible that her reputation had been wounded by this inquiry, was in a manner forced into a marriage, which becoming publicly known in the course of the next spring, she was committed to close custody in the house of sir Thomas Parry, at Lambeth, and Mr. Seymour to the Tower. In this state of separation, however, they concerted means for an escape, which both effected on the same day, June 3, 1611, and Mr. Seymour got safely to Flanders; but the poor lady was retaken in Calais Road, and imprisoned in the Tower; where the sense of these undeserved oppressions operating too severely on her high spirit, she became a lunatic, and languished in that wretched state, augmented by the horrors of a prison, till her death on the 27th of September, 1615.”

4 Countess of Arundel.] Anne, daughter of Thomas, lord Dacre, and widow of the unfortunate Philip, earl of Arundel, who was imprisoned by Elizabeth for some imaginary plot, and died in the Tower, 1595. She was a most excellent woman. “ Her letters to her family (says a very competent judge) are written in the best style of the time in which she lived, and in a strain of unaffected piety and tenderness.” Lodge, vol. iii. 35. But see p. 50.

. 5, 6, ?.] See p. 18.

? Lady Anne Clifford.] The daughter of George Clifford, earl of Cumberland, so remarkable for his naval adventures in the reign of Elizabeth. This lady married some time after her appearance in the present masque, Richard, third earl of Dorset, and in 1630 Philip, earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, whom she outlived many years. The English court, or, to go further, the English nation, never possessed a nobler character than this celebrated lady. This is no place for her history, of which a spirited sketch is given by Dr. Whitaker; but it is almost impossible to pass her by without noticing her well-known answer to sir Joseph Williamson, Secretary of State to Charles II., who had ventured to name a candidate to her for the borough of Appleby.

“I have been bullied by an usurper; I have been neglected by a court ; but I will not be dictated to by a subject : your man shan't stand.

“ANNE Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery." 3 Lady Mary Neville.] Wife of Henry, seventh lord Abergavenny, and daughter of the lord Treasurer Sackville, earl of Dorset.

4 Lady Elizabeth Hatton. Fourth daughter of Thomas Cecil, first earl of Exeter, and widow of sir William Hatton. This beautiful creature afterwards married sir Edward Coke. A strange match—and which seems to have afforded more amusement to the bystanders, than comfort to the parties concerned.

5 Lady Elizabeth Garrard.] Wife of Thomas, lord Gerard, son of sir Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Rolls, 23 Elizabeth. Thomas was raised to the peerage on the accession of James I. She died 1613.

6 Lady Chichester.] Letitia, (as I believe,) daughter of sir John Perrot, and wife of sir Arthur Chichester, (baron Chichester of Belfast,) a man eminent for his great services in Ireland, and of distinguished talents and virtue. There was, indeed, another lady of this name; Frances, second daughter of lord Harrington, married to sir Robert Chichester, of Rawleigh, Devon, knight of the Bath. This lady died in 1615, and was buried, as the record says, with “muche solempnitie, in the parrishe church of Pylton.” The reader must decide between the claimants.

7 Lady Walsingham.] Probably Anne, fourth daughter of Theophilus, second earl of Suffolk, and wife of Thomas Walsingham, of Scadbury, in Kent.

HY MENÆ I;

OR, THE SOLEMNITIES OF

MASQUE AND BARRIERS

AT A MARRIAGE.