PAGE 128 (302).--_Song, at the Feast of Brougham Castle_. Henry Lord
Clifford, &c. &c., who is the subject of this Poem, was the son of
John, Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton Field, which John, Lord
Clifford, as is known to the Reader of English History, was the
person who after the battle of Wakefield slew, in the pursuit, the
young Earl of Rutland, Son of the Duke of York who had fallen in the
battle, "in part of revenge" (say the Authors of the History of
Cumberland and Westmorland); "for the Earl's Father had slain his."
A deed which worthily blemished the author (saith Speed); But who, as
he adds, "dare promise any thing temperate of himself in the heat of
martial fury? chiefly, when it was resolved not to leave any branch
of the York line standing; for so one maketh this Lord to speak."
This, no doubt, I would observe by the bye, was an action
sufficiently in the vindictive spirit of the times, and yet not
altogether so bad as represented; for the Earl was no child, as
some writers would have him, but able to bear arms, being sixteen or
seventeen years of age, as is evident from this (say the Memoirs of
the Countess of Pembroke, who was laudably anxious to wipe away, as
far as could be, this stigma from the illustrious name to which she
was born); that he was the next Child to King Edward the Fourth,
which his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that King was then
eighteen years of age: and for the small distance betwixt her
Children, see Austin Vincent in his book of Nobility, page 622,
where he writes of them all. It may further be observed, that Lord
Clifford, who was then himself only twenty-five years of age, had
been a leading Man and Commander, two or three years together in the
Army of Lancaster, before this time; and, therefore, would be less
likely to think that the Earl of Rutland might be entitled to mercy
from his youth.--But, independent of this act, at best a cruel and
savage one, the Family of Clifford had done enough to draw upon them
the vehement hatred of the House of York: so that after the Battle
of Towton there was no hope for them but in flight and concealment.
Henry, the subject of the Poem, was deprived of his estate and
honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which time he
lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the estate
of his Father-in-law (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was restored
to his estate and honours in the first year of Henry the Seventh. It
is recorded that, "when called to parliament, he behaved nobly and
wisely; but otherwise came seldom to London or the Court; and rather
delighted to live in the country, where he repaired several of his
Castles, which had gone to decay during the late troubles." Thus far
is chiefly collected from Nicholson and Burn; and I can add, from my
own knowledge, that there is a tradition current in the village of
Threlkeld and its neighbourhood, his principal retreat, that, in the
course of his shepherd life, he had acquired great astronomical
knowledge. I cannot conclude this note without adding a word upon
the subject of those numerous and noble feudal Edifices, spoken of
in the Poem, the ruins of some of which are, at this day, so great an
ornament to that interesting country. The Cliffords had always been
distinguished for an honorable pride in these Castles; and we have
seen that after the wars of York and Lancaster they were rebuilt; in
the civil Wars of Charles the First, they were again laid waste, and
again restored almost to their former magnificence by the celebrated
Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, &c. &c. Not more than 25
years after this was done, when the Estates of Clifford had passed
into the family of Tufton, three of these Castles, namely Brough,
Brougham, and Pendragon, were demolished, and the timber and other
materials sold by Thomas Earl of Thanet. We will hope that, when
this order was issued, the Earl had not consulted the text of Isaiah,
58th Chap. 12th Verse, to which the inscription placed over the
gate of Pendragon Castle, by the Countess of Pembroke (I believe his
Grandmother) at the time she repaired that structure, refers the
reader. "_And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and
thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach_, _the restorer of
paths to dwell in_." The Earl of Thanet, the present possessor of
the Estates, with a due respect for the memory of his ancestors, and
a proper sense of the value and beauty of these remains of antiquity,
has (I am told) given orders that they shall be preserved from all
depredations.