soldier, entered Lord Vere’s regiment, and soon gained a high command,
distinguishing himself at the siege of Breda. On his return to England
he was made Governor of Portsmouth, in which capacity he got into
trouble with the Parliament, and was summoned before the House of
Commons on suspicion of favouring the Royal cause. Anxious to provide
for his own interests by pleasing both sides, he contrived to give
satisfaction to the Parliament, and was therefore exonerated. Goring was
indeed anything but straightforward in his dealings; Lord Clarendon says
of him: ‘He could help himself with all the intimation of doubt, or
fear, or shame, or simplicity in his face that might gain belief to a
greater degree than I ever saw in any man, and could seem most
confounded when he was best resolved, and to want words when they flowed
from no man with greater power.’ He cajoled the popular party,
corresponded secretly with the King in 1642, threw off the mask he had
worn as adherent to the Parliament, and declared openly that he held
Portsmouth for Charles the First. The town was besieged by sea and land,
and surrendered after a meagre defence; Goring stipulating that he might
be allowed to transport himself beyond the seas, which caused great
astonishment, as also did his appointment (on his return in 1644) to the
command of cavalry in the Royal army in Lincolnshire. He now continued
to distinguish himself greatly in the service of the King, and was
present in almost every action. In 1646, his father being created Earl
of Norwich, he became Lord Goring, and held the commission of
Lieutenant-General of several counties, in which capacity he did little
good, setting a bad example to the troops by his irregular and immoral
conduct. Clarendon says of him that he had a good understanding, a sharp
wit, and keen courage, but he did not value his promise or friendship
according to any rules of honour or integrity. ‘He loved no man so well
but he would cozen him and expose him to ridicule.’ The same historian
speaks of Goring’s immoderate ambition, dissimulation, and want of
religion. He continued his vacillating line of conduct, and when in
difficulties pleaded illness, and gained permission to go to Bath for a
cure, but returned to active service, became a Privy Councillor, and had
undeserved favours showered upon him by the King. His whole career was
marked by contrasts of success and failure, courage and blundering, and
animosity towards those who like Prince Rupert filled a high position,
and stood well in the opinion of others. After many vicissitudes he
resolved to leave England, and proceeded to the Netherlands, where he
became Lieutenant-General of the Spanish army, and afterwards obtained
the same command in Spain under Don John de Silva, who, finding that he
was in communication with Cardinal Mazarin, had him seized at the head
of his troops, and sent prisoner to Madrid. Writers differ as to the
termination of this eccentric man’s career. Some say he was put to death
in prison for treason, and others that he entered a monastery and died
in the habit of a Dominican friar.
Lord Goring had no children. Dying in the lifetime of his father, Lord
Norwich was succeeded by his second son, Charles, who married Alice,
daughter of Robert Leman, Esq., and widow of Sir Richard Baker, Knight,
but having no children the titles of Norwich and Goring became extinct.
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No. 30. PRINCE RUPERT.
_In a classical dress, as Mars._
BORN 1619, DIED 1682.
BY HONTHORST.
HE was the third son of Frederic, Elector Palatine, and King of Bohemia,
by Princess Elizabeth of England, daughter of James the First. Born at
Prague during the short-lived period of his parents’ prosperity, while
inhabiting the Palace of the Bohemian capital. More than half a century
had elapsed since the birth of a royal Prince at Prague, and the event
was the occasion of great excitement and rejoicing. Persons of all
classes were invited to have a glimpse of the royal infant, swathed in
rich wrappings of gold and embroidery. Nobles and ladies, burghers and
their wives, officers of state, soldiers, peasants, all flocked to the
Palace, and clustered round the cradle of the future hero. His father
thought well to name him Rupert, after the wise and fortunate Elector
who, on the death of Wenceslaus, ascended the Imperial throne: and the
ceremony of baptism was conducted on a scale of great magnificence,
which helped not a little to drain the ill-filled coffers of Frederic
and Elizabeth. On the other hand, donations of all kinds poured in from
the nobles, the burghers, and their respective wives. Contributions of
fruit and flowers were presented by the poorer population, offerings
which were most graciously received by the gentle-hearted mother.
Her two elder sons were respectively heirs to titles (alas! how empty)
of King, and Elector Palatine. The Bohemian Ministry, willing to do
honour to a Prince born ‘in their midst,’ bestowed on the new-born babe
the dignity of Duke of Lithuania, which the child did not long enjoy,
seeing that a few months after his birth the decisive battle of Prague
was the means of driving his parents from their newly-acquired kingdom,
penniless and homeless wanderers, compelled to solicit shelter and
assistance from cold relatives and fickle friends.
Rupert was the only one of her children who accompanied Elizabeth on her
miserable flight from Custrin to Holland (a circumstance to which we
have alluded in the sketch of his brother Maurice), where the ex-Queen
with her family resided for many years, and where five children were
born to her. Little Rupert was sent to the College at Leyden, where his
eldest brother Henry was a student, and had already distinguished
himself greatly. Amongst other accomplishments, Henry was an elegant
letter-writer, and kept up a frequent correspondence with his mother. In
one of his letters he tells how ‘dear Rupert is a most lively boy,’ and
amused the students when he first arrived by speaking to them in
Bohemian.
A soldier at heart from his earliest childhood, Rupert did not remain
long at Leyden, but entered the army under Henry Frederic of Nassau, and
(Lodge tells us) was present at the siege of Thynberg, although another
biographer places the date of his first action several years later. Be
this as it may, in 1637 he marched with his brother, Charles Louis, who
now called himself Elector Palatine (their father being dead), against
the Imperialists. The gallant Lord Craven had constituted himself the
guardian of ‘the Palatine Princes,’ and accompanied them in the
expedition, writing frequently to their mother at the Hague, to give
tidings of Charles and the beloved Rupert. Lord Craven had warmly
espoused the cause of Frederic, and was now the devoted friend of the
royal widow and her family. He and his two charges distinguished
themselves during the siege of Lippe, but being worsted in an encounter
with General Hatzfeldt, Charles Louis had a narrow escape of his life.
He crossed the river in his coach, and, clinging to the shrubs and
underwood, climbed up on the precipitous bank of the opposite shore, and
made his way to Holland. His brother and Lord Craven were both taken
prisoners by the Imperialists, and carried to Vienna, where they were
lodged in the castle. With much difficulty Rupert found means to have a
few lines conveyed to his mother, wherein, after some tender expressions
of filial love and respect, he assured her that no power on earth should
induce him to renounce his party, or abjure his faith. Lord Craven
succeeded in regaining his freedom, by paying the large ransom of
£20,000; but all attempts to procure the deliverance of Rupert proved
unavailing. It was only at the expiration of three years, and on
condition that he would undertake never again to bear arms against the
Emperor, that the young Prince was set at liberty, shortly after which
event he received an offer from his uncle, Charles the First, of the
command of the cavalry in the Royal army, the King having unfurled his
standard against the Parliamentarians. He was accompanied by his brother
Maurice, whose love and admiration for his elder were unbounded; and the
exploits of these gallant Princes in the service of their royal uncle,
are they not written in the books of the chronicles of the civil wars of
England?
After the execution of Charles the First Rupert received a new
commission from Charles the Second, and continued to distinguish himself
by sea and land; went to Portugal, the Mediterranean, the French coast,
Madeira, the Azores, etc. etc.; encountered all kinds of dangers and
vicissitudes, reverses and successes. A more chequered life is scarcely
on record than that of Prince Rupert.
Our space is too limited to admit of any lengthened details of his
adventures, ‘moving accidents by flood and field,’ and of all his
‘hair-breadth ‘scapes’; but one passage in his life is too full of
romantic interest, and so characteristic of the fraternal affection of
the Palatine Princes, to be passed over in silence. Captain Fearnes, who
commanded the fine ship _The Admiral_, gives a noble and touching
description of the incidents connected with the wreck of his vessel. One
of the most disastrous tempests ever recorded in a seaman’s log overtook
the English fleet, then cruising among the Western Islands, and after
every endeavour had been made to save the ship without a chance of
success, Captain Fearnes, who survived the wreck, gives the following
report: ‘It was resolved that the ship must be our grave, and every man
very well resolved to die, and the minister told us that as many as
would receive the Sacrament he would administer it, and desired that we
would give him notice, when we saw we were past all hope, to come to the
place appointed, there to receive it, and die all together.’
Prince Rupert, believing his last moments were at hand, waved his
brother Maurice to bring his vessel, _The Honest_ _Seaman_, under the
Admiral’s stern, to bid his beloved brother an eternal farewell, to give
him his last directions and express his last wishes. Maurice, regardless
of his own safety, commanded his men to lower a boat, either to save
Rupert, or to put him on board and let them die together. His officers
refused, as they said it would be to their own destruction, and be of no
avail in saving Rupert. They made, indeed, a feint of lowering the boat,
but paid little heed to the agony of their commander. Then the crew of
_The Admiral_ came to a noble decision. Deeply touched by the devotion
which his Highness displayed, they conjured him to seek safety in the
one little boat that was left them. This he steadily refused, saying
‘that as they had run all risks with him, so he would participate them.’
Thus did either try to breathe their last in unspeakable magnanimity.
The brave seamen were not to be foiled; they elected a crew of undaunted
lads, hoisted out their boat, and by force thrust their brave Prince
into the same. He was put aboard _The Honest Seaman_, and immediately
sent back the skiff to save as many as was possible, specifying the
names of three officers, one of whom alone (and that the captain in
command) accepted the offer. Fearnes was blamed by many for deserting
his ship’s company. He and the Prince’s servant were boarded on one of
the vessels, but the unfortunate little skiff was swamped. The Prince
strove in vain to approach _The Admiral_, but it could not be done from
stress of weather, and the doomed crew waved a sad farewell from the
deck of the sinking ship to their comrades. In all, 333 men perished in
this fatal storm, but the whole story remains a glorious passage in the
annals of British seamen. Rupert’s regret for the loss of a noble ship,
with a rich freight on board, was little in comparison with his grief
for that of his valued messmates. He was again threatened with a watery
grave in a tremendous hurricane which overtook the fleet when at a short
distance from the Virgin Islands, and in this fatal storm he had to
deplore the loss of his devoted friend and brother, Prince Maurice, who
went down on the deck of the well-named _Honest Seaman_. Yet once more
he had an escape from drowning when at Paris at the Court of Louis the
Fourteenth, in company with Charles the Second. A letter from a
Roundhead thus details the circumstance:—
‘The Seine had like to have made an end of your Black Prince Rupert’ (he
was swimming with the King and Duke of York); ‘he was near being drowned
if it had not been for the help of one of his servants, who dragged him
up by the hair of his head.’ These ‘highly liveried blackamoors,’ like
all other dependants of the Prince, were much attached to their noble
master.
On his return to England in 1662 Rupert seems to have given himself up
to the pursuit of philosophical and scientific studies, even (so it was
affirmed by many) to those of an occult nature. He fitted up for himself
a workshop in the High Tower of Windsor Castle, furnished with forges,
crucibles, retorts, instruments of all sorts, and here ‘the hero of a
hundred fights’ might be seen with blacksmith’s apron and bare brawny
arms indulging in all the experiments of vital interest to a chemist and
an alchemist. In this laboratory he was frequently visited by his royal
cousin the King, and his favourite the Duke of Buckingham, both of whom
took a great delight in Rupert’s occupations. This strange man had other
apartments assigned to him in the castle, where he kept stores of armour
and weapons from all parts of the world, together with a library of
valuable books, the catalogue of which is still extant. John Evelyn was
a great admirer of Rupert’s versatile talents, and was a delighted
listener when the Prince related to him the discovery that he had made
of mezzotint engraving. The story is well known how on one occasion,
when at Brussels, the Prince observed a sentinel at some distance from
his post very busy doing something to his piece. Rupert 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,
examining the gun, 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 soldier had scraped away. This
suggested to the Prince a contrivance which resulted in the discovery of
mezzotint engraving, carried out in company with his protégé, the
painter, Wallerant Vaillant. Great rivalry was excited on the occasion,
and many people laid claim to an invention which was clearly that of
Rupert.
Other discoveries and inventions of this wonderful man we leave to his
more complete biographers. He found time in the midst of these
engrossing pursuits to become enamoured of the charms of Francisca Bard,
daughter of Lord Bellamont, by whom he had a son, on whose education he
bestowed much care. He was called Dudley Bard, and grew up to emulate
his father’s military ardour and undaunted courage, but was killed at
the siege of Buda in 1686, having just attained his twentieth year.
Negotiations were carried on at one time for an alliance between Rupert
and a member of a royal house, but came to an end in consequence of the
Prince’s slender means.
In 1660 he once more embarked to oppose the French, alternating his
beloved studies with his military and naval duties, but an old wound he
had received in the head some time before put him to great torture and
endangered his life, so much so that he was obliged to be trepanned.
Requiring rest after the operation, he joined the Merry Monarch’s merry
Court at Tunbridge Wells, and had not long been there before he formed a
connection with the fair Mistress Hughes, an actress belonging to the
King’s company, and one of the earliest female performers, who began her
theatrical career in 1663, and gained great distinction in the character
of Desdemona. The fascinations of this lady had a softening and refining
influence on the manners and habits of his Highness, and even his
beloved studies were neglected for the delights of her society. His
dress was no longer neglected, and he vied with the other courtiers of
his royal cousin in gallantry and compliments, but the beautiful
comedian was not so easy of access as most of her compeers, and it was
some time before she was induced to listen to her royal lover’s suit. He
was most lavish in his expenditure, grudging nothing to the fair siren.
He purchased for her the magnificent seat of Sir Nicholas Crispe, near
Hammersmith, afterwards the residence of the Margrave of Brandenburg,
which cost £25,000 in the building.
By her he had a daughter named Ruperta, married to General Howe, of whom
there is a most characteristic portrait in the collection of the Earl of
Sandwich at Hinchingbrook. Mrs. Hughes remained on the stage for many
years after Prince Rupert’s death, who saw little of her in his later
days, but bequeathed a large property to her and her daughter.
After leaving Tunbridge Wells he returned to Windsor, and resumed his
studies, until called once more into active service. In 1673 he was
appointed Lord High Admiral in place of the Duke of York, and commanded
the fleet against the United Provinces, when, as usual, he distinguished
himself. On the 29th of November 1682 Prince Rupert died in his house at
Spring Gardens, ‘mourned and respected’ by men of the most differing
interests. A magnificent funeral was allotted to him, and he was buried
in Westminster Abbey.
Count Grammont, in his Memoirs, gives anything but a flattering
description of the Prince’s personal appearance, but we are more
inclined to credit the testimony of such painters as Honthorst, Lely,
and Kneller, whose portraits are undoubtedly noble and prepossessing.
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No. 33. LADY DIANA RUSSELL AS A CHILD.
_Elizabethan ruff. Elaborate lace head-dress. Rich frock. Coral
and bells. Holds a pack of cards._
DIED 1701.
SHE was the second daughter of William, fifth Earl (afterwards first
Duke) of Bedford. At an early age she gave much anxiety to her family,
from having, it is said, eaten some poisonous berries, which caused the
death of her sister Anne. Diana recovered, and married, in 1667, Sir
Greville Verney of Compton Verney, County Warwick; and secondly,
William, third Baron Allington of Wymondley and Killard, of Horseheath,
County Cambridge, Constable of the Tower. Lady Allington appears to have
taken a keen interest in the passing events of the day, especially in
the Revolution of 1688. She is often mentioned in terms of genuine
affection by Rachel, Lady Russell, in her letters.
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[Illustration]
DRAWING-ROOM.
[Illustration]
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DRAWING-ROOM.
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No. 1. LADY ISABELLA DORMER, AFTERWARDS COUNTESS OF MOUNTRATH, AS A
CHILD.
_Tawny dress. Blue drapery. Fastening up a flower._
BY SIR PETER LELY.
She was the second daughter of Charles, third Lord Dormer, and second
and last Earl of Carnarvon (of that family), by Elizabeth, daughter of
Arthur, Lord Capel. She married Sir Charles Coote, fourth Earl of
Mountrath, of a noble family of French extraction, which settled first
in Devonshire, and subsequently in Ireland. Sir Charles Coote, for his
loyalty and military services, was, at the Restoration, created, with
other honours, Earl of Mountrath. It was his grandson, and third Earl of
Mountrath, who married the subject of this notice. He was much
considered at Court, carried the banner of Ireland at the funeral of
Queen Mary in 1694, was one of the Lords Justices in 1696, and died in
1709. His grandson, the sixth Earl, married Lady Diana Newport, daughter
of the Earl of Bradford.
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No. 2. LADY DIANA FEILDING.
_Oval. Blue dress. Dark hair._
DIED 1731.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
She was the daughter of Francis Newport, first Earl of Bradford, by Lady
Diana Russell. She married, first, Thomas Howard of Ashtead, County
Surrey, Esq., Knight of the Bath, Groom of the Bedchamber to George the
First, Auditor of the Exchequer, and Clerk Comptroller of the Board of
Green Cloth, by whom she had a son, who died while a schoolboy at
Westminster, and a daughter married to Lord Dudley and Ward. By her
second husband, the Honourable William Feilding, younger son of William,
fifth Earl of Denbigh, and second Earl of Desmond (whom she also
survived), she left no children. A marble tablet, surmounted by a bust,
at Ashtead, where she lies buried, bears this inscription: ‘Be this
monument sacred to the memory of Lady Diana Feilding, daughter of
Francis Newport, first Earl of Bradford. Her first husband was grandson
to the Earl of Berkshire. Surviving her children, this illustrious
branch of the house of Howard became her family. To it during her life
she assured the inheritance of that estate she enjoyed by the bounty of
her first husband, and at her death she made provision still more ample
to support the honour and dignity of the present Earl of Berkshire and
his descendants. That his gratitude therefore may be preserved in the
minds of his latest posterity, Henry Bowes, Earl of Berkshire, has
caused this monument to be erected, 1773.’ Lady Diana was very
charitable to the poor, and built and endowed alms-houses for six poor
widows in the neighbourhood of Leatherhead.
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No. 3. LADY DIANA RUSSELL.
_Oval. Blue velvet gown. Pearl necklace. Fair curls._
BORN 1622, DIED 1694.
BY VERELST.
SHE was the youngest daughter of Francis William, son of William, Lord
Russell of Thornhaugh, County North Hants, who succeeded his cousin
Edward, as fourth Earl of Bedford. Her mother was Catherine, daughter
and co-heir of Giles Bridges, Lord Chandos. Lady Diana married Francis,
Viscount Newport (afterwards first Earl of Bradford), a distinguished
loyalist, and brave soldier in Charles the First’s army. He was taken
prisoner at Oswestry in 1644, at which time his wife (with Lady
D’Aubigny and others) also fell into the hands of the rebels, as appears
by a letter from the famous Hugh Peters to the Earl of Stamford,
soliciting the release of Lady Newport. She died in 1694, and was
interred at Chenies, the burial-place of the Russell family in
Buckinghamshire.
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No. 4. PORTRAIT OF A LADY. UNKNOWN.
_Dark blue dress. Seated, leaning her arm on a boulder. Landscape in the
background._
BY SIR PETER LELY.
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[Illustration]
LIBRARY.
[Illustration]
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LIBRARY.
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No. 1. HONOURABLE ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, GRENADIER GUARDS.
_Undress. Guard’s uniform._
BORN 1794, DIED 1827.
BY SIR GEORGE HAYTER.
HE was the third son of the first Earl of Bradford by the Hon. Lucy
Byng. Was in the Grenadier Guards, and wounded at the battle of
Waterloo, and at first reported dead. He married, in 1817, Lady Selina
Needham, daughter of Francis, first Earl of Kilmorey, by whom he had
three children.
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No. 2. CAPTAIN THE HONOURABLE CHARLES ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, R.N.
_Naval uniform. Holding a telescope._
BORN 1791, DIED 1860.
BY SIR GEORGE HAYTER.
HE was the second son of Orlando, first Earl of Bradford (of the
Bridgeman family), by Lucy Elizabeth Byng, daughter of George, fourth
Viscount Torrington. He entered the Navy in 1804 as first-class
volunteer, on board the _Repulse_, Captain the Honourable Arthur Legge,
under whom the following year he became Midshipman, and was present at
Sir Robert Calder’s action at the Passage of the Dardanelles, and also
in the Expedition of the Scheldt. In 1809 he joined the _Manilla_, 36,
Captain George Francis Seymour (grandfather to the present Marquis of
Hertford, 1885); in 1810 he was confirmed Lieutenant in the _Semiramis_,
both on the Lisbon station. He was subsequently appointed
Flag-Lieutenant to his old Commander, Rear-Admiral Legge, under whose
orders he had first sailed. Charles Bridgeman was present at the defence
of Cadiz, and joined successively the _Bellerophon_, hoisting the flag
of Sir Richard Keats, on the Newfoundland station, and the _Royal
Sovereign_, yacht, Captain Sir John Poer Beresford. For two years he
then commanded the _Badger_, in the West Indies station, and assisted in
the reduction of Guadaloupe, and later on was appointed to the _Icarus_,
in South America, and the _Ruttenheimer_, which was attached to the
squadron in the Mediterranean.
Charles Bridgeman retired from active service in 1846, attaining the
rank of Vice-Admiral before his death. He married, in 1819, Elizabeth
Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Chamberlain, British Consul at Rio Janeiro,
by whom he had a family of three sons and five daughters. Charles
Bridgeman was remarkable for his personal beauty, and was deservedly
popular in the service.
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No. 3. THE HONOURABLE SELINA FORESTER, PRESENT COUNTESS OF BRADFORD.
_Black gown. Small dog in her lap._
BY FRANCIS GRANT, AFTERWARDS SIR FRANCIS GRANT, P.R.A.