of Sir John’s, were so good as to pacify the Queen, by assuring her,
that the master of Longleat hurried on the building, mainly with the
view of receiving his royal mistress. Thither therefore she repaired in
1574, in her progress from Bristol. After feasting the royal party in
the most sumptuous manner, the good knight was rewarded for his
unbounded hospitality by a message, through the Earl of Hertford (son of
Protector Somerset), to the effect his illustrious guest had expressed
‘great liking for her entertainment in the west, especially at your
house.’ Moreover, the Queen condescended, in conversation, to praise the
charms of Longleat, an example that has not been lost on succeeding
generations. Sir John finished the south and east fronts, and the
interior from the hall to what was then called the Chapel Court. He had
to his second wife, Dorothy, daughter to Sir William Wroughton of
Broadhinton, county Wilts; he died in 1580, and by his own desire was
buried by his first wife at Longbridge Deverill. Amidst all the
persecutions of Mary’s reign, he was a staunch supporter of the Reformed
Church.
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No. 25.
SIR EGREMONT THYNNE.
_Red robe. Ruff. Holding a scroll._
HE was the eldest son of Sir John Thynne of Longleat, by his second
wife. He was Serjeant-at-Law, and married Barbara, daughter of Henry
Calthorpe, whose brother was Lord Mayor of London. Aubrey has a strange
story connected with him, in his Miscellanies, which is interesting to
those who love the marvellous. One of Sir Egremont’s sisters married (as
his second wife) Sir Walter Long of Draycot, county Wilts, and had
several children; it would appear that this lady used every means in her
power to induce her husband to disinherit his son by the first marriage,
sowing dissension between the father and his first-born in a most
unpardonable manner. She persuaded her brother, Sir Egremont Thynne, to
draw up a paper, by which Sir Walter, if prevailed on to sign the same,
cut off his eldest son from the inheritance. This was at Bath, during
the Assizes, where the learned serjeant-at-law was engaged in his legal
duties; Sir Egremont accordingly drew up the document, and gave it to
his clerk one night, bidding him sit up and engross it.
The man set to work, but no sooner had he commenced, than he was
startled by a shadow falling on the parchment; he looked up hastily, and
perceived a hand between him and the candle; he rubbed his eyes, and
roused himself to his work, in the belief that he was falling asleep.
Once more came the dark blot on the deed, and this time he saw quite
clearly a small, white, lady’s hand, that vanished each time, as he
gazed on it. He flung down his pen in terror, and, hastening from the
room, went and told his master he would have no more to do with so
unpleasant a transaction. But Lady Long found some one else to do her
bidding, and the obedient husband signed and sealed.
No good came, as may well be imagined, of such dealings. The rightful
heir’s maternal relations rose in his defence, seized the body of Sir
Walter (who died shortly afterwards) in the church porch, and began a
law-suit against the second son, by which they compelled him to accept
of a moiety of the property, and to relinquish the principal estate to
his half, and elder, brother.
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No. 26.
LOUISA VISCOUNTESS WEYMOUTH.
BY VAN DER BANK.
_In a fancy dress of pink and black. Pearl ornaments. Aigrette in her
hair._
LADY Louisa Carteret was the daughter of John Carteret, Earl Granville,
by Lady Grace, daughter of John Granville, Earl of Bath.
She married the second Lord Weymouth (as his second wife) in 1733, and
had by him two sons—Thomas, who succeeded his father; and Henry, who
became Lord Carteret.
The dress in which Lady Weymouth is painted, was worn by her at a fancy
ball at the Spanish Ambassador’s, and was so much admired, that she sat
for her portrait in the same.
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No. 27.
THOMAS THYNNE, THIRD VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH,
FIRST MARQUIS OF BATH.
BY SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE.
BORN 1734, DIED 1796.
_In Parliamentary robes._
SON of the second Viscount, by Lady Louisa Carteret. In 1753 he set out
on a foreign tour to complete his education; in 1760 he was appointed
Lord of the Bedchamber to the King; in 1763, Master of the Horse to the
Queen; in 1765, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, which post he did not occupy
more than a few months, and in 1768, Secretary of State. He was also a
Privy Councillor, High Steward of the Corporation of Tamworth, and an
Elder Brother of the Trinity House. In 1759 he married Lady Elizabeth
Cavendish Bentinck, eldest daughter of William, second Duke of Portland,
by whom he had three sons and six daughters.
In 1789 he was created Marquis of Bath, and in the autumn of that year
their Majesties and the Princesses, with a numerous suite, were
sumptuously entertained at Longleat. By the way, it is mentioned, in an
elaborate account of this visit, that 30,000 people pressed into the
park, and 125 guests, independent of servants, slept in the house. The
King, George III., who had just recovered from a serious illness, and
was on his road from Weymouth, was delighted with his reception. He went
out on the roof of the house, and there observed, what many have said
before, and since, that Longleat far exceeded its reputation for beauty.
Lord Bath continued the alterations begun by his father, and died in
1796.
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No. 28.
SIR THOMAS THYNNE.
_Black dress. Pointed beard._
HE was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Thynne, by his first wife, the
daughter of Lord Audley. He was seated at Richmond, in Surrey, and
married the daughter of Walter Balquanhill, Dean of Durham, by whom he
had Thomas, called of ‘Ten Thousand,’ who was murdered. He died _v.p._
--------------
No. 29.
THE HONOURABLE HENRY COVENTRY.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
BORN 1620, DIED 1686.
_Scarlet and gold dress. Tawny mantle. Wig._
HE was the third son of Lord Keeper Coventry, by the daughter of John
Aldersley; educated at All Souls College, Oxford. A firm Royalist, on
the Restoration he was appointed a groom of the Bedchamber, and in 1664
was sent Ambassador-Extraordinary to Sweden, where he remained till
1666. The following year he and Denzil, Lord Holles, went as
Joint-Plenipotentiaries to Breda, where they concluded a peace with
France, Denmark, and the States-General. In 1668 he went again on an
embassy to Sweden, and on his return was made one of the Principal
Secretaries of State, and Privy Councillor. He gave so much satisfaction
in office that when compelled to retire from bad health, the _Gazette_
had a notice respecting him: ‘His Majesty has accepted the resignation
with some unwillingness, because of the great satisfaction he always had
in his services.’ Lord Clarendon commends his diplomatic duties, and
says he was beloved of every one.
He retired into private life, and died at his house in the Haymarket,
unmarried, leaving his estates to his namesake Henry Coventry, and his
nephew James Thynne, with several charitable bequests.
--------------
No. 30.
SIR JAMES THYNNE.
DIED 1670.
_In armour. Flowing hair._
THE eldest surviving son of the first Sir Thomas Thynne of Longleat,
whom he succeeded.
--------------
No. 31.
THOMAS THYNNE, ESQ.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
MURDERED 1682.
_Tawny-coloured dress. Wig and ruffles. Holding a cane._
THE son of Sir Thomas Thynne of Richmond, Surrey, by Stuart, daughter
and co-heir of Dr. Walter Balquanhill, Dean of Durham and Master of the
Savoy. On the death of his uncle Sir James, Thomas Thynne inherited
Longleat and other large estates, and was thenceforward known by the
nickname of ‘Tom o’ Ten Thousand.’ He enlarged and improved the house of
his inheritance, built stabling, made good roads, which were a benefit
to the country round, and was proverbial for generosity and hospitality.
Indeed, his hospitable treats are immortalised in Dryden’s poem of
‘Absalom and Achitophel,’ for Absalom (the Duke of Monmouth) and the
Master of Longleat were sincerely attached to each other. And on the
Duke’s return from banishment to Holland, in 1680, his staunch friend
Thynne gave him so enthusiastic a welcome at his house, that he was in
consequence deprived of the command of a regiment of militia in the
county.
Thomas Thynne now turned his thoughts to matrimony, and resolved to take
a wife whose birth and fortune qualified her to reign as mistress of his
lordly mansion. He therefore selected the first match in the United
Kingdom, and engaged himself to a widow lady of the mature age of
thirteen years, Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter and heir of the eleventh
Earl of Northumberland. She had been removed from her mother’s
guardianship on that lady’s second marriage, and committed to the care
of her grandmother, the Dowager Lady Northumberland, by whom she was
betrothed to Lord Ogle, son of the Duke of Newcastle, 1679. But the
bridegroom dying the next year, the heiress was once more free to bestow
her hand, and the Duke of Monmouth interested himself to further the
suit of his friend, ‘Tom o’ Ten Thousand,’ but it was whispered that the
grandmother favoured the idea more than the granddaughter. However, in
June 1681 they were contracted, and in July Mr. Thynne gained the young
lady’s consent that the marriage should be solemnised, on condition that
it was kept secret until her year of mourning should be over. In the
Marriage Service, when they came to the passage ‘with all my worldly
goods I thee endow,’ the husband placed on the open Prayer-Book one
hundred pieces of golden guineas, mixed with silver, ‘which the lady put
into her handkerchief, and then pocketed.’ No sooner was the ceremony
concluded than the bride announced her intention of going abroad to
spend a year with Lady Temple, the wife of the celebrated Sir William
Temple, in Holland, a proceeding which was the cause of much gossip,
some saying that she disliked her husband, and preferred another, and
hoped to procure a dissolution of the marriage, etc. Be this as it may,
there is no doubt that Count Königsmark, a handsome and distinguished
officer, the head of one of Sweden’s noblest families, then residing in
London, was Thynne’s rival. It is said he followed the young bride to
the Continent, at all events he laid a deep scheme to rid himself of the
obnoxious husband, by whom, he affirmed, he had been insulted. He
accordingly secured the services of a German officer, who on his part
hired two men, to one of whom (a Pole) was intrusted the actual murder.
Königsmark kept out of the way, while his three creatures watched
Thynne’s proceedings, and lay in wait for him.
On the night of February the 12th, 1682, as the unfortunate gentleman
was returning from a visit to the Countess of Northumberland, his coach
was stopped, one villain riding up to the horses’ heads, another
alongside pointing to the occupant of the carriage, when the Pole fired,
lodging several shots in the body of Thomas Thynne. On hearing the sad
news, his faithful friend, the Duke of Monmouth, from whom he had just
parted, hastened to the sufferer’s bedside, tending him through the
night with the utmost care, and taking the most energetic measures for
the detection of the murderers. Indeed, it was at first supposed that
the shot was intended for the Duke himself, but this Königsmark
strenuously denied. Thomas Thynne lingered till the next morning.
The instigator of this foul deed was acquitted; the three men in his
employ suffered death, the Duke of Monmouth witnessing the execution.
The German officer behaved with gallantry worthy a better cause, his
accomplice protested against the hardness of his fate, seeing he was
about to die for two men, and a woman, on not one of whom he had ever
set his eyes; and the Pole pleaded that he had only obeyed orders, as a
soldier should do.
The Count, so unjustly acquitted, found, however, that his reputation
had suffered by the dastardly and cruel deed, and confessing that it was
a stain on his name, he entered the Venetian service, went to the wars,
was sent to Greece as second in command, and fell at the siege of Argos,
August 1686. The well-known marble monument erected by Thomas Thynne’s
family to his memory, in Westminster Abbey, has an elaborate bas-relief
representing the murder.
Dying without children, he was succeeded by his second cousin and
namesake, afterwards first Viscount Weymouth.
--------------
No. 32.
ELIZABETH, FIRST MARCHIONESS OF BATH.
PASTEL.
BORN 1734, DIED 1825.
_White déshabille. Blue scarf._
LADY Elizabeth Cavendish Bentinck was the eldest daughter of William,
second Duke of Portland, by Lady Margaret Harley, only daughter and heir
of Edward, second Earl of Oxford.
She married, in 1759, Viscount Weymouth, who became Marquis of Bath in
1789. Their children were Viscount Weymouth, who succeeded to the
Marquisate, and George, second Lord Carteret, married to Harriet,
daughter to the second Viscount Courtenay. Lord Carteret died 1838,
_s.p._, and was succeeded in the title by his brother John, married to
Mary Anne, daughter of Thomas, Master of the Abbey, Cirencester. This
Lord Carteret also died childless, when the title became extinct. Lord
and Lady Bath had four daughters,—Louisa Countess of Aylesford,
Henrietta Countess of Chesterfield, Sophia Countess of Ashburnham, and
Mary, wife to Osborn Markham, son of the Archbishop of York. Two died
unmarried, Isabella and Caroline, of whom the former was Lady of the
Bedchamber to the Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester.
--------------
No. 33.
SIR HENRY FREDERICK THYNNE.
_Plum and fawn-coloured dress. Long and flowing hair._
--------------
No. 34.
GEORGE, FOURTH VISCOUNT TORRINGTON.
BY HOPPNER.
DIED 1812.
_Dark coat. Full wig._
THE eldest son of the third Viscount by Miss Daniel; he married, in
1765, the Lady Lucy Boyle, only daughter of John Earl of Cork and
Orrery, by whom he had four daughters,—Lady John Russell, the Countess
of Bradford, the Marchioness of Bath, and Emily, married to Henry,
eldest son of Lord Robert Seymour.
--------------
No. 35.
VISCOUNTESS LANSDOWNE.
_In a white déshabille. Flowers on the table beside her._
THE daughter of the Earl of Jersey, the wife of Thomas Thynne, (by whom
she had the second Lord Weymouth,) and afterwards of Lord Lansdowne.
--------------
No. 36.
LADY ISABELLA THYNNE.
_Buff gown. Pearls. Ringlets. Oval._
DAUGHTER of the Earl of Holland, and wife to Sir James Thynne of
Longleat.
--------------
No. 37.
JAMES THYNNE.
BY CLOSTERMANN.
DIED 1708-9.
_Grey coat. Red mantle. Cravat and ruffles._
SECOND son of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne by the daughter of Lord Keeper
Coventry; seated at Buckland, county Gloucester; LL.D. at Oxford; was
M.P. for borough of Cirencester, 1700-1. He died unmarried.
--------------
No. 38.
JOHN ALEXANDER, FOURTH MARQUIS
OF BATH.
BY GEORGE RICHMOND, R.A.
BORN 1831.
_Shooting dress._
MARQUIS of Bath, Viscount Weymouth, Baron Thynne of Warminster, county
Wilts, and a Baronet, succeeded his father in 1837. Was educated at
Eton, and Christ Church, Oxford; married the daughter of Viscount de
Vesci in 1861. Has six children, three sons, and three daughters.
--------------
No. 39.
THE LORD KEEPER COVENTRY.
BY CORNELIUS JANSEN.
BORN 1578, DIED 1640.
_In robes of office._
THE founder of the family’s fortunes was one John, who, assuming the
name of his native town, went to London, where he became a mercer, and,
doing well in business, was elected Lord Mayor in 1425.
Thomas, a descendant of the worshipful aforesaid (a lawyer, and
eventually a Judge of Common Pleas), married Margaret, daughter and heir
of —— Jefferies of Croome d’Abitot, county Worcester, still the
residence of the Earls of Coventry. The subject of this notice was his
son and heir, educated under the eye of his father, till he was
fourteen, afterwards at Balliol College, Oxford, where he remained three
years, then passed to the Inner Temple, London, to study law, which he
did zealously. ‘By an indefatigable diligence he attained the bar, and
appeared in the lustre of his profession above the common expectations,’
according to the magniloquent phrases of the time. In 1616 he was
elected Recorder of London, and in the following year Solicitor-General,
and shortly afterwards he was knighted at Theobalds.
1620 saw him Attorney-General, and in 1625 Buckingham recommended him to
the King, as Lord Keeper, the Duke being most anxious to oust his old
enemy Bishop Williams, who then held the Seals. A letter is extant from
Coventry to the Duke, in which, with many circumlocuting paragraphs, he
accepts the responsible post, which it would appear he had at first
declined from diffidence. ‘But after a great conflict in himself against
those disabilities,’ he laid himself ‘in all humility and submission at
the feet of his Sovereign, hoping that God and His Majestie would accept
his true hart and willing endevor,’ etc. etc.
But although he wrote in a style that may seem to us time-serving, it
should be rather attributed to the fashion of the day, since not long
after he had the independence to resist the grasping ambition of the
Duke, his original patron.
Buckingham was moving heaven and earth to induce the King to revive in
his favour the dormant post of Lord High Constable. The Lord Keeper was
well aware what a dangerous power would thus devolve on a dangerous man,
and he strongly advised the King to refuse.
Buckingham, furious, insolently demanded, ‘Who made you, Coventry, Lord
Keeper?’ ‘The King,’ was the reply. ‘’Tis false, ’twas I, and you shall
see that I who made, can and will unmake you.’ ‘Did I conceive,’
answered the Lord Keeper, with dignity, ‘that I held my place by your
favour, I would presently unmake myself by resigning the Seals to His
Majesty.’
The arrogant Buckingham dashed off, breathing revenge, and there is
little doubt that he would have done his worst against the man who
presumed to oppose him, had not his career been so soon ended by the
knife of the assassin.
But Coventry had other enemies, and he offended the Marquis of Hamilton
and the Earl of Manchester by the rigid discharge of his duties; the
Earl of Portland, Lord High Admiral, was also much opposed to him,
nevertheless he stood high at Court. In 1628 he was created Baron
Coventry of Aylesborough, and Lord Clarendon says that ‘he discharged
all his offices with great ability and singular reputation of integrity.
He enjoyed his place of Lord Keeper for sixteen years, and sure justice
was never better administered, even until his death; no man had held the
post so long, for the lapse of forty years.’ The whole character of the
man by Lord Clarendon is most admirable, and shows what a true friend he
was to the King he loved, by opposing him in any unwise or unjust
proceeding, even on his deathbed sending him good and wholesome counsel.
Another witness says of him, ‘He had a noble fame—not that he passed
unaccused, for envy is a constant follower of greatness, and detraction
an utter enemy of desert.’ ‘Amongst all and the many felicities of his
life,’ we again quote Clarendon, ‘that of his short sickness and willing
embracement of deathe with open armes, were of the most remarkable
observacion, for it is our _finis qui coronat opus_.’
The venial charges brought against this great and good man are so slight
as to demand no place in these pages. ‘He was of a venerable aspect,
wise, grave, and severe almost to moroseness, yet tempered with
courtesy, discreet and reticent, speaking to the point without much
eloquence—few enemies and some well-wishers—a man rather exceedingly
than passionately loved.’ He died at Durham House, Strand. His first
wife was the daughter of Edward Sebright of Besford, county Worcester,
by whom he had a daughter, and a son, his successor, the mother dying in
childbirth.
His second wife was the daughter of John Aldersey of Spurston, county
Chester, and widow of William Pitchford of London, citizen—‘lovely,
young, rich, and of good fame.’ She brought him four sons, of whom two
at least, and four daughters, were all celebrated for some high
quality—Anne, married to Sir William Saville; Mary, wife to Sir Henry
Frederick Thynne of Kempsford; Margaret, to the first Earl of
Shaftesbury; and Dorothy, to Sir John Pakington, Bart., of Westwood,
county Worcester. ‘This lady,’ says Lodge, ‘stood at one time first
candidate for the honour of having written _The Whole Duty of Man_, a
possibility which at least speaks well for the consideration in which
her talents and piety were held at the time.’
Lord Coventry published some legal works.
--------------
No. 40.
SIR WILLIAM COVENTRY.
BY SIR PETER LELY.
BORN 1626, DIED 1686.
_Tawny-coloured coat. Wig. Hand resting on book._
HE was the youngest brother of Sir John Coventry. Went to Queen’s
College, Oxford, as gentleman-commoner, when sixteen; then travelled in
foreign parts: on his return, declaring himself a loyal subject of King
Charles, he was appointed secretary to the Duke of York, and also to the
Admiralty. Other honours succeeded—Privy Councillor, Commissioner of the
Treasury, etc.
Evelyn calls him a ‘wise and witty gentleman.’ Burnet says of him: ‘A
man of great notions and eminent virtues, the best speaker in the House
of Commons, and capable of leading the best Ministry, as it was once
thought he was very near it, and deserved it more than all the rest
did.’
Having quarrelled with the Duke of Buckingham, and a duel being in
contemplation, he was forbid the Court, and retired to Minster-Lovell,
near Witney, in Oxfordshire, where he led a quiet country life, refusing
all offers of public appointments. He was never married, and died at
Somerhill, near Tunbridge Wells, where he had gone for the benefit of
the waters. He was buried at Penshurst, in the same county.
He left in his will £2000 for the relief of the French Protestants
lately banished on account of their religion, who had taken refuge in
England; also £3000 for the redemption of captives from Algeria.
--------------
No. 41.
THOMAS THYNNE, ESQ.
BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.
DIED 1710.
_Tawny suit. Full wig._
THE only son of Henry Frederick Thynne, by the daughter and co-heir of
Francis Philips of Sunbury, county Middlesex; born at Little Holland
House, Kensington; educated at Eton and Oxford. He afterwards travelled
on the Continent for two years, and on his return, Lord Weymouth, who
was his uncle, godfather, and guardian, arranged a marriage for him with
Lady Mary Villiers, daughter of the first Earl of Jersey. By his
father’s will he was not to come into possession of his estates till he
was twenty-four, which age he never attained, but his guardians
purchased property for him in Dorset, Wilts, etc. etc. He died of the
small-pox in London, leaving his wife near her confinement, and
accordingly, the month ensuing, she gave birth to a son, afterwards the
second Viscount Weymouth.
[Illustration]
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[Illustration]
_LOWER CORRIDOR_.
[Illustration]
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LOWER CORRIDOR.
--------------
No. 42.
MARIA AUDLEY, THE HONOURABLE
LADY THYNNE.
BY MYTENS.
_Full length. Richly-embroidered crimson skirt, laced and fringed, over
gown of white. White shoes. Holding fan._
THE first wife of Sir Thomas Thynne, daughter and co-heir of Lord
Audley, by Lucia, daughter and heir of Sir James Mervin of Fonthill.
Strange enough, there had been a negotiation of marriage between Miss
Mervin and Sir John Thynne, father of Sir Thomas. We are not told why
the owner of Longleat disapproved of the match for his son, but the
families were destined to be united.
Maria, Lady Thynne, had five children,—John, who died unmarried; Thomas,
seated at Richmond in Surrey, died _v.p._; James, who succeeded his
father; and two daughters,—Stuart, married to Sir Edward Bayntun of
Bromham Bayntun, county Wilts, and Elizabeth, married to John Hall of
Bradford, in the same county.