Knole in the Reign of Charles I
EDWARD SACKVILLE
4th
Earl _of_ Dorset
§ i
The wreckage of Richard’s estates devolved at his death upon his brother
Edward, who at that time was travelling in Italy. This Edward Sackville
was once to me the embodiment of Cavalier romance. At the age of
thirteen I wrote an enormous novel about him and his two sons. He had
the advantage of starting with Vandyck’s portrait in the hall, the
flame-coloured doublet, the blue Garter, the characteristic swaggering
attitude, the sword, the lovelocks, the key of office painted dangling
from his hip and the actual key dangling on a ribbon from the frame of
the picture—and then the account of his duel with Lord Bruce, his
devotion to Charles I, the plundering raid of Cromwell’s soldiers into
Knole, the murder of his younger son by the Roundheads, the picture of
the two boys throwing dice—all this was a source of rich romance to a
youthful imagination nourished on _Cyrano_ and _The Three Musketeers_. I
used to steal up to the attics to examine the old nail-studded trunks
from which the Roundheads had broken off the locks. There they were—the
visible evidence of the old paper in the Muniment Room, which said,
“They have broken open six trunks; in one of them was money; what is
lost of it we know not, in regard the keeper of it is from home.” There
they were, carelessly stacked: on one of them was stabbed the date in
big nails, 1623; and there were others, curved to fit the roof of a
barouche; of later date these, but all intimate and palpitating to a
very ignorant child to whom the centuries meant Thomas or Richard or
Edward Sackville; Holbein, Vandyck or Reynolds; farthingale chairs or
love-seats. What were dates when the centuries went by generations? The
battered trunks were stacked near the entrance to the hiding-place,
which, without the smallest justification save an old candlestick and a
rope-ladder found therein, I peopled with the fugitive figures of
priests and Royalists. I peeped into the trunks: they contained only a
dusty jumble of broken ironwork, some old books, some bits of hairy
plaster fallen from the ceiling, some numbers of _Punch_ for 1850.
Nevertheless, there were the gaping holes where the locks had been
prised off the trunks, and the lid forced back upon the hinges by an
impatient hand. Down in the Poets’ Parlour, where I lunched with my
grandfather, taciturn unless he happened to crack one of his little
stock-in-trade of jokes, Cromwell’s soldiers had held their Court of
Sequestration. The Guard Room was empty of arms or armour, save for a
few pikes and halberds, because Cromwell’s soldiers had taken all the
armour away. The past mingled with the present in constant reminder; and
out in the summer-house, after luncheon, with the bees blundering among
the flowers of the Sunk Garden and the dragon-flies flashing over the
pond, I returned to the immense ledger in which I was writing my novel,
while Grandpapa retired to his little sitting-room and whittled
paper-knives from the lids of cigar-boxes, and thought about—Heaven
knows what _he_ thought about.
Edward Sackville in the big Vandyck was indeed a handsome, rubicund
figure, “beautiful, graceful, and vigorous ... the vices he had were of
the age, which he was not stubborn enough to resist or to condemn.” What
these vices were I do not know; the records of his life make no allusion
to them. It is true that the cause of his duel remains a mystery; Lord
Clarendon knew it, but beyond mentioning that it was fought on account
of a lady, kept his own counsel. It is true also that his sister-in-law,
Lady Anne Clifford, disliked him greatly and spoke of the malice he had
always shown towards her; but then amicable relationship with Lady Anne
was not easily sustained. On the face of it, his life seems to have been
loyal and honourable: he suffered considerably for the sake of the cause
he had at heart, and his few speeches and letters are full of reserve
and dignity, supported by the facts of his own misfortunes; I do not see
what more he could have done to deserve the adjective staunch. To me at
thirteen he was very staunch and doughty, and one does not willingly go
back on one’s first impressions. His wife, too, in the pointed
stomacher, and the shoes with huge rosettes, governess to the royal
children, voted a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, was another
staunch figure: severe, uncompromising, but impeccable.
The duel with Lord Bruce was fought when Edward Sackville was
twenty-three years old, at Bergen-op-Zoom in Holland, which so late as
1814 still went by the name of Bruceland. In the Knole Muniment room a
paper cover was found upon which was written “The relation of my Lord’s
duel with the Lord Bruce,” and the following are in all probability the
papers originally contained therein. The “Worthy sir” to whom the letter
is addressed remains anonymous, but was evidently some friend in
England:
[Illustration:
EDWARD SACKVILLE, 4TH EARL OF DORSET, K.G.
_From the portrait at Knole by_ VANDYCK
]
WORTHY SIR,
As I am not ignorant, so I ought to be sensible of the false
aspersions some authorless tongues have laid upon me in the reports of
the unfortunate passage lately happened between the Lord Bruce and
myself, which, as they are spread here, so I may justly fear they
reign also where you are. There are but two ways to resolve doubts of
this nature, by oath and by sword.
The first is due to magistrates, and communicable to friends; the
other to such as maliciously slander, and impudently defend their
assertions. Your love, not my merit, assures me you hold me your
friend; which esteem I am much desirous to retain. Do me, therefore,
the right to understand the truth of that; and, in my behalf, inform
others, who either are or may be infected with sinister rumours, much
prejudicial to that fair opinion I desire to hold amongst all worthy
persons; and, on the faith of a gentleman, the relation I shall give
is neither more nor less than the bare truth. The enclosed contains
the first citation sent me from Paris by a Scottish gentleman, who
delivered it me in Derbyshire, at my father-in-law’s house. After it
follows my then answer, returned him by the same bearer. The next is
my accomplishment of my first promise, being a particular assignation
of place and weapon, which I sent by a servant of mine, by post, from
Rotterdam, as soon as I landed there, the receipt of which, joined
with an acknowledgement of my fair carriage to the deceased Lord, is
testified by the last, which periods the business till we met at
Tergose, in Zealand, it being the place allotted for rendezvous; where
he [accompanied with one Mr. Crawford, an English gentleman, for his
second, a surgeon, and his man] arrived with all the speed he could.
And there having rendered himself, I addressed my second, Sir John
Heydon, to let him understand that now all following should be done by
consent, as concerning the terms whereon we should fight, as also the
place. To our seconds we gave power for their appointments, who agreed
that we should go to Antwerp, from thence to Bergen-op-Zoom, where in
the midway a village divides the States’ territories from the
Archduke’s; and there was the destined stage, to the end, that, having
ended, he that could might presently exempt himself from the justice
of the country, by retiring into the dominion not offended. It was
further concluded, that in case any should fall or slip, that then the
combat should cease; and he, whose ill fortune had so subjected him,
was to acknowledge his life to have been in the other’s hands. But in
case one party’s sword should break, because that could only chance by
hazard, it was agreed that the other should take no advantage, but
either then be made friends, or else, upon even terms, go to it again.
Thus these conclusions, being by each of them related to his party,
were, by us, both approved and assented to. Accordingly we embarked
for Antwerp; and by reason my Lord [as I conceive, because he could
not handsomely without danger of discovery] had not paired the sword I
sent him to Paris, bringing one of the same length, but twice as
broad, my second excepted against it, and advised me to match my own,
and send him the choice; which I obeyed, it being, you know, the
challenger’s privilege to elect his weapon. At the delivery of the
swords, which was performed by Sir John Heydon, it pleased the Lord
Bruce to choose my own; and then, past expectation, he told him that
he found himself so far behind-hand, as a little of my blood would not
serve his turn; and therefore he was now resolved to have me alone,
because he knew [for I will use his own words] that so worthy a
gentleman, and my friend, could not endure to stand by, and see him do
that which he must, to satisfy himself and his honour. Thereunto Sir
John Heydon replied, that such intentions were bloody and butcherly,
far unfitting so noble a personage, who should desire to bleed for
reputation, not for life; withal adding, he thought himself injured,
being come thus far, now to be prohibited from executing those
honourable offices he came for. The Lord Bruce, for answer, only
reiterated his former resolution; the which, not for matter, but for
manner, so moved me, as though to my remembrance I had not for a long
while eaten more liberally than at dinner; and therefore, unfit for
such an action [seeing the surgeons hold a wound upon a full stomach
much more dangerous than otherwise], I requested my second to certify
him I would presently decide the difference, and should therefore meet
him, on horseback, only waited on by our surgeons, they being unarmed.
Together we rode [but one before the other some twelve score] about
two English miles; and then Passion, having so weak an enemy to assail
as my direction, easily became victor; and, using his power, made me
obedient to his commands. I being very mad with anger the Lord Bruce
should thirst after my life with a kind of assuredness, seeing I had
come so far and needlessly to give him leave to regain his lost
reputation, I bade him alight, which with all willingness he quickly
granted; and there, in a meadow [ankle-deep in the water at least],
bidding farewell to our doublets, in our shirts we began to charge
each other, having afore commanded our surgeons to withdraw themselves
a pretty distance from us; conjuring them besides, as they respected
our favour or their own safeties, not to stir, but suffer us to
execute our pleasure; we being fully resolved [God forgive us] to
despatch each other by what means we could. I made a thrust at my
enemy, but was short; and, in drawing back my arm, I received a great
wound thereon, which I interpreted as a reward for my short shooting;
but, in revenge, I pressed in to him, though I then missed him also;
and then received a wound in my right pap, which passed level through
my body, and almost to my back; and there we wrestled for the two
greatest and dearest prizes we could ever expect, trial for honour and
life; in which struggling, my hand, having but an ordinary glove on
it, lost one of her servants, though the meanest, which hung by a
skin, and, to sight, yet remaineth as before, and I am put in hope one
day to recover the use of it again. But at last breathless, yet
keeping our holds, there passed on both sides propositions for
quitting each other’s sword. But, when Amity was dead, Confidence
could not live, and who should quit first was the question, which on
neither part either would perform; and, re-striving again afresh, with
a kick and a wrench together I freed my long-captive weapon, which
incontinently levying at his throat, being master still of his, I
demanded if he would ask his life or yield his sword? Both which,
though in that imminent danger, he bravely denied to do. Myself being
wounded, and feeling loss of blood, having three conduits running on
me, began to make me faint; and he courageously persisting not to
accord to either of my propositions, remembrance of his former bloody
desire, and feeling of my present estate, I struck at his heart; but,
with his avoiding, missed my aim, yet passed through his body, and,
drawing back my sword, repassed it through again through another
place, when he cried, “Oh, I am slain!” seconding his speech with all
the force he had to cast me. But being too weak, after I had defended
his assault, I easily became master of him, laying him on his back;
when being upon him, I redemanded if he would request his life? But it
seems he prized it not at so dear a rate to be beholden for it,
bravely replying “He scorned it!” which answer of his was so noble and
worthy, as I protest I could not find in my heart to offer him any
more violence, only keeping him down, till, at length, his surgeon
afar off cried out, “He would immediately die if his wounds were not
stopped!” whereupon I asked, “if he desired his surgeon should come?”
which he accepted of; and so being drawn away, I never offered to take
his sword, accounting it inhumane to rob a dead man, for so I held him
to be. This thus ended, I retired to my surgeon, in whose arms, after
I had remained awhile for want of blood, I lost my sight, and withal,
as I then thought, my life also. But strong water and his diligence
quickly recovered me; when I escaped a great danger, for my Lord’s
surgeon, when nobody dreamt of it, came full at me with his Lord’s
sword; and had not mine with my sword interposed himself, I had been
slain by those base hands, although my Lord Bruce, weltering in his
blood, and past all expectation of life, conformable to all his former
carriage, which was undoubtedly noble, cried out “Rascal, hold thy
hand!” So may I prosper, as I have dealt sincerely with you in this
relation, which I pray you, with the enclosed letter, deliver to my
Lord Chamberlain. And so, etc.,
Yours,
EDWARD SACKVILLE.
LOVAIN, the _8th September, 1613_
The citations or letters mentioned above to be enclosed in this account
of Mr. Sackville are as follows:
_A Monsieur, Monsieur_ SACKVILLE
I, that am in France, hear how much you attribute to yourself in this
time, that I have given the world to ring your praises; and for me the
truest almanach to tell you how much I suffer. If you call to memory
when, as I gave you my hand last, I told you I reserved the heart for
a truer reconciliation, now be that noble gentleman my love once
spoke, and come do him right that would recite the trials you owe your
birth and country, where I am confident your honour gives you the same
courage to do me right that it did to do me wrong. Be master of your
weapons and time; the place wheresoever I wait on you. By doing this
you shall shorten revenge, and clear the idle opinion the world hath
of both our worths.
ED. BRUCE.
_A Monsieur, Monsieur Baron de_ KINLOSS
As it shall be far from me to seek a quarrel, so will I also be ready
to meet with any that is desirous to make trial of my valour, by so
fair a course as you require; a witness whereof yourself shall be,
who, within a month, shall receive a strict account of time, place and
weapon, where you shall find me ready disposed to give honourable
satisfaction by him that shall conduct you thither. In the meantime be
as secret of the appointment as it seems you are desirous of it.
ED. SACKVILLE.
_A Monsieur, Monsieur Baron de_ KINLOSS
I am at Torgose, a town in Zealand, to give what satisfaction your
sword can render you, accompanied with a worthy gentleman for my
second, in degree a Knight; and for your coming I will not limit you a
peremptory day, but desire you to make a definite and speedy repair,
for your own honour and fear of prevention, at which time you shall
find me there.
ED. SACKVILLE.
TORGOSE, _10th August, 1613_
_A Monsieur, Monsieur_ SACKVILLE
I have received your letter by your man, and acknowledge you have
dealt nobly with me, and I come with all possible haste to meet you.
E. BRUCE.
§ ii
Between this affair and the date of his succession to his brother
Richard, Edward Sackville was employed on various missions: he sat in
the House of Commons, he was twice sent as ambassador to Louis XIII, and
he travelled in France and Italy. He was thus, when he succeeded, an
experienced man of thirty-four, and he pursued, uninterruptedly, the
sober path of office, now Lord Chamberlain, now Lord Privy Seal, now a
Commissioner for planting Virginia, always in the confidence of the
King, and his name affixed to State documents of the day in noble
company. The disgraces and follies of his predecessors and of his
descendants were not his lot, if that murderous duel is to be excepted.
My flaming Cavalier, _flamberge au vent_, was in reality a sober and
consistent gentleman; loyal, but not impetuous; prejudiced, but not
blinded; devoted, but not afraid to speak his mind in criticism; and in
support of this claim I shall presently quote from one of his speeches
in which he argues against a continuance of the Civil War and pleads for
a prompt reconciliation between the King and his Parliament. His
judgment is acute, and his attitude remarkably sound and broad-minded.
Yet at the same time his devotion to the King was such, that after
Charles’ execution Lord Dorset never passed beyond the threshold of his
own door.
There are a few papers at Knole relating to the years before the war
began, and from them one may gather some idea of the then manner of
life, always remembering that Lord Dorset was much impoverished by the
extravagance of his brother. The total income for the year 1628 from
Knole and Sevenoaks was £100 18_s._ 6_d._—a fifth part of which was
derived from the sale of rabbits. Some details of expenses are given in
the account-books, besides those which I have already given in
connection with the park in the second chapter:
_Money spent on the pale in Knole Park for one year_ (£8 9_s._ 6_d._)
_as follows_:
£ _s._ _d._
For filling, cleaning, and making six loads of pale
rails, posts, and shores, two men 0 8 0
Setting up panels of pales, blown down by the wind
against Riverhill, 10_d._ day each man 0 5 0
Paid a labourer for spreading the mole hills in the
meads and for killing moles 0 4 3
The steward of Sevenoaks was paid ten shillings a year, the bailiff of
Sevenoaks £10, the steward of Seal £2 10_s._, the bailiff of Seal £4.
£ _s._ _d._
Four hundred nails for the pales 0 2 0
Paid for setting up pales at mock-beech gate 0 0 8
Paid toward repairing the market cross in
Sevenoaks 6 8 4
Portions of the park, such as were not already under cultivation of
hops, were leased out to farmers for grazing:
£ _s._ _d._
_The joistment[6] of Knole Park, May 1629._
Of William Bloom for 3 yearlings 1 0 0
Of George Dennis for keeping 20 runts[7] 0 13 4
Of Richard Wicking for his kines’ pasture 0 13 0
Of Richard Fletcher for summering 2 colts 0 16 0
There were other sources of revenue. Letters patent granted an
imposition of 4_s._ per chaldron on all coal exported, to be divided
among the Earl of Dorset, the Earl of Holland, and Sir Job Harby:
COAL IMPOSITIONS
£ _s._ _d._
6th May, 1634 4312 13 0
Deduction for expenses 507 11 4
Rest to be divided into thirds 3805 1 8
That is to say, Dorset’s share would be £1268 7_s._ 8_d._, or more than
£10,000 of modern money.
He obtained also £100 a year by devising to Richard Gunnel and William
Blagrave for four and a half years a piece of land at the lower end of
Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, 140 feet in length and 42 feet in
breadth, on condition that they should at their own expense put up a
play-house. What would be the rent of such a piece of land now in Fleet
Street? Certainly not £100.
In spite of the fact that he complained constantly of his reduced
income, Lord Dorset added considerably to the park. He obtained a long
lease of Seal Chart, and “all woods and under-woods of the waste or
common of the Manors of Seal and Kemsing, viz., upon Rumshott Common,
Riverhill Common, Hubbard Hill Common, and Westwood Common ... in all at
least 500 acres.”
More entertaining is the acquisition of an overseas estate—no less than
that part of the east coast of America which to-day includes New York,
Boston, and Philadelphia. Those little manors in the neighbourhood of
Sevenoaks, those 500 acres of common land, dwindle suddenly beside this
formidable tenure. “An island called Sandy [Hook]” the petition casually
begins:
An island called Sandy, lying near the continent of America, in the
height of 44 degrees, was lately discovered by one Rose, late master
of a ship, who suffered shipwreck, and, finding no inhabitants, took
possession. The Earl of Dorset prays a grant of the said island for
thirty-one years, and that none may adventure thither but such as
petitioner shall license.
A second petition takes one’s breath away with its magnificent
insolence:
The Earl of Dorset to the King. Certain islands on the south of New
England, viz: Long Island, Cole Island, Sandy Point, Hell Gates,
Martin’s [? Martha’s] Vineyard, Elizabeth Islands, Block Island, with
other islands near thereunto, were lately discovered by some of your
Majesty’s subjects and are not yet inhabited by Christians. Prays a
grant thereof with like powers of government as have been granted for
other plantations in America.
Underneath this is scribbled:
Reference to the Attorney-General to prepare a grant. Whitehall, 20th
Dec., 1637.
One would wish to evoke for a brief hour the spectres of those of his
Majesty’s subjects who found these localities uninhabited by Christians.
Returning to Knole after this seems paltry; yet even there Lord Dorset
was conducting his affairs on a proportionately large scale. He said
himself that he spent £40,000 after his son’s marriage, and one can
believe it when one reads a sample of the bill of fare provided for a
banquet. At the top is written:
To perfume the room often in the meal with orange flower water upon a
hot pan. To have fresh bowls in every corner and flowers tied upon
them, and sweet briar, stock, gilly-flowers, pinks, wallflowers and
any other sweet flowers in glasses and pots in every window and
chimney.
BANQUET _at_ KNOLE _3rd July 1636_
1 Rice Pottage
2 Barley broth
3 Buttered pickrell
4 Butter and burned eggs
5 Boiled teats
6 Roast tongues
7 Bream
8 Perches
9 Chine of Veal roast
10 Hash of mutton with Anchovies
11 Gr. Pike
12 Fish chuits [_sic_]
13 Roast venison, in blood
14 Capons (2)
15 Wild ducks (3)
16 Salmon whole, hot
17 Tenches, boiled
18 Crabs
19 Tench pie
20 Venison pasty of a Doe
21 Swans (2)
22 Herons (3)
23 Cold lamb
24 Custard
25 Venison, boiled
26 Potatoes, stewed
27 Gr. salad
28 Redeeve [_sic_] pie, hot
29 Almond pudding
30 Made dishes
31 Boiled salad
32 Pig, whole
33 Rabbits
_Another Menu_
1 Jelly of Tench, Jelly of Hartshorn
2 White Gingerbread
3 Puits [peewits]
4 Curlew
5 Ruffes [_sic_]
6 Fried perches
7 Fried Eels
8 Skirret Pie
9 Larks (3 doz.)
10 Plovers (12)
11 Teals (12)
12 Fried Pickrell
13 Fried tench
14 Salmon soused
15 Soused eel
16 Escanechia [_sic_]
17 Seagulls (6)
18 Ham of bacon
19 Sturgeon
20 Lark pie
21 Lobster pie
22 Crayfishes (3 doz.)
23 Dried tongues
24 Anchovies
25 Hartechocks [artichokes]
26 Peas
27 Fool
28 Second porridge
29 Reddeeve pie [_sic_]
30 Cherry tart
31 Laid tart
32 Carps (2)
33 Polony sasag [_sic_]
There is also a list of “household stuff” dated the year of Lord
Dorset’s succession.
“A Note
of household stuff sent by SYMONDES to KNOLE the 28th of July 1624.”
_Packed up IMPRIMIS. A fustian down bed, bolster and a pair of
in a pillows, a pair of Spanish blankets, 5 curtains of crimson
fardel, and white taffeta, the valance to it of white satin
viz.: in ye embroidered with crimson and white silk and a deep fringe
black bed suitable; a test and tester of white satin suitable to the
chamber_ valance. A white rug. All these first packed up in 2 sheets
and then packed in a white and black rug and an old
blanket.
_Packed in IT: A feather bed and bolster, a pair of down pillows, 2
another mattrasses, 5 curtains and valances of yellow cotton
fardel, trimmed with blue and yellow silk fringes and lace
viz.: next suitable, a tester to it suitable, a cushion case of yellow
ye chapel satin, a pair of blankets to wrap these things in, there is
chamber_ also in the fardel a yellow rug, and a white and black rug.
_In ye IT: Two bedsteads whereof one of them is gilt, which with
black the posts, tests, curtains, etc., are in all 11 parcels
bedchamber_ whereof 4 are matted.
_In ye IT: Packed up in mats 2 high stools, 2 low stools, and a
black footstool of cloth of tissue and chair suitable.
bedchamber_
_Next ye IT: There goes a yellow satin chair and 3 stools, suitable
Chaplain’s with their buckram covers to them. All the above written
chamber_ came from Croxall.
IT: Packed in mats my lady’s coach of cloth of silver, and
2 low stools that came from Croxall, and a said bag,
wherein are 9 cups of crimson damask laid with silver
parchment lace, and 6 gilt cups for my lord’s couch bed and
canopy, and 8 gilt cups for the bed that came from Croxall.
IT: In a wicker trunk, 2 brass branches for a dozen lights
apiece; and 2 single branches with bosses and bucks heads
to them, also a wooden box with screws for the said 2
bedsteads, a dozen of spiggots to draw wine and beer, a
bundle of marsh mallow roots, and 2 papers of almonds.
IT: A round wicker basket, wherein are 9 dozen of pewter
vessels of 9 sorts or sizes.
IT: 4 back stools of crimson and yellow stuff with silk
fringe suitable, covered with yellow baize.
IT: 6 pairs of mats to mat chambers with gt 30 yards
apiece.
IT: 2 walnut tree tables to draw out at both ends with
their frames of the same.
IT: A round table and its frame.
IT: 2 green broad cloth chairs, covered all over, laced,
and set with green silk fringe and a back stool suitable,
covered with green buckram.
IT: A box containing 3 dozen of Venice glasses.
IT: A basket wherein are 20 dozen of maple trenchers.
And finally, for I fear lest the detailing of these old papers should
grow wearisome, there is a letter which so well illustrates the humour,
the coarseness, and the difficulties of life at that time, that I make
no apology for including it:
Letter
from ELIZA COPE to her sister the COUNTESS _of_ BATH
_19th Jan. 1639._ BREWERNE
DEAR SISTER,
I am glad to hear of your jollity. I could wish myself with you a
little while sometimes. I have played at cards 4 or 5 times this
Christmas myself, after supper, which makes me think I begin to turn
gallant now. Some of my neighbours put a compliment upon me this
Christmas, and told me the old Lady Cope would never be dead so long
as I was alive, they liked their entertainment so well, when my gilt
bowl went round amongst them, which saying pleased me very well, for
she was a discreet woman and worthy the imitating. I am as well
pleased to see my little man make legs and dance a galliard, as if I
had seen the mask at Court. I am glad you got well home for we have
had extreme ill weather almost ever since you went, but now I will
take the benefit of this frost to go visit some of my neighbours on
foot to-morrow about seven miles off, but I will have a coach and 6
horses within a call, against I am weary. You know the old saying, it
is good going on foot with a horse in the hand.
Commend my service to your lord, and wishing to hear you were puking
a-mornings I bid ye good-night in haste.
Your faithful sister,
ELIZA COPE.
§ iii
On the approach of civil war there could be, of course, no doubt on
which side the Earl of Dorset would range himself. He had been for many
years closely connected with both the King and Henrietta Maria, and Lady
Dorset stood in a yet more intimate relationship to the King and Queen
as governess to their children. Since 1630, the date of the birth of
Charles II, she had held this position, and from this little anecdote it
may be judged that she was not so severe a preceptress as her portrait
might lead one to suppose:
Charles II, when a child, was weak in the legs, and ordered to wear
steel boots. Their weight so annoyed him that he pined till recreation
became labour—an old Rocker took off the steel boots and concealed
them: promising the Countess of Dorset, who was Charles’ governess,
that he would take any blame for the act on himself. Soon afterwards,
the King, Charles I, coming into the nursery, and seeing the boy’s
legs without the boots, angrily demanded who had done it. “It was I,
Sir,” said the Rocker, “who had the honour some thirty years since to
attend on your Highness in your infancy, when you had the same
infirmity wherewith now the Prince, your very own son, is troubled—and
then the Lady Cary, afterwards Countess of Monmouth, commanded your
steel boots to be taken off, who, blessed be God, since have gathered
strength and arrived at a good stature.”
It is no small tribute to Lady Dorset’s integrity that after the
outbreak of war she should have been continued in her office by
Parliament.
I have in my own possession a receipt signed by her for £125 for salary
and expenses, 1641.
War became imminent:
“the citizens grow very tumultous and flock by troops daily to the
Parliament ... they never cease yawling and crying “No Bishops, no
Bishops!” My lord of Dorset is appointed to command the train-bands,
but the citizens slight muskets charged with powder. I myself saw the
Guard attempt to drive the citizens forth, but the citizens blustered
at them and would not stir. I saw and heard my Lord of Dorset entreat
them with his hat in his hand and yet the scoundrels would not move.”
It is clear from contemporary documents that Lord Dorset was preparing
to take an active part. He did, in fact, raise a troop which he equipped
at his own expense, and with which he joined the King at York. But the
old inventories give a list of residue arms and armour indicating a
quantity originally more numerous than would be necessary to equip a
small troop; the whole house must have been rifled to produce these
weapons, all carefully listed, whether complete or incomplete,
serviceable or not serviceable, old-fashioned or up to date. One can
read between the lines of the list the anxiety that nothing should be
omitted which could possibly be pressed into the service of the King.
Among the armour at Knole at this date must have been the fine suit of
tilting armour, formerly the property of the old Lord Treasurer, and now
in the Wallace Collection, described as “a complete suit of armour ...
richly decorated by bands and bordering, deeply etched and partly gilt
with a scroll design ... the plain surfaces oxidised to a rich
russet-brown known in inventories of the period as purple armour.” This
suit, which is one of the gems of the Wallace Collection, had been made
in 1575 by Jacob Topp or Jacobi for Sir Thomas Sackville.
“An Inventory
of such arms as are now remaining in the armoury at Knole belonging to
the Rt. Hon. _EDWARD EARL_ of _DORSET_,
_first the horsemen’s arms & necessaries belonging to them_:”
Cornets for Horses 2
Curasiers arms gilt 2
Curasiers arms plain 31
White tilting armour 3
A baryears Armour gorget and gauntlet wanting 1
Sham front for tilting Run plates for barryers 1
Plated saddles suitable to the gilt arms and furniture rotten 2
Old russet saddles trimmed with red leather and furniture
defaulting 12
Old russet and black saddles 12
Black leather saddles with all furniture bits excepted 2
Old French pistols, whereof four have locks the other 9 have none
and double moulds to them 13
Swords 14
Horn flasks 49
Whereof an old damask one cornered with velvet and many not
serviceable Slight arms, back and breast 2 gorgets only to them 13
_Arms and other necessaries for foot men_
One engraven target 1
Partisan rolled with red velvet and nailed with gilt nails and
damasked with gold 1
Partisans Damasked with Silver and the Cat on them [the Cat, _i.e._
the leopard] 4
Corslets with back breast cases and headpieces 138
Spanish picks and English picks with Spanish heads whereof 4 are
broken 151
Comb head pieces 70
Old Spanish morions 50
Halberts 7
Bits 6
Full muskets complete 76
Bastard muskets 56
Muskets imperfect 4
Noulds to the muskets 2
New Rests 64
Old Rests 7
Bandeliers 36
Barrels of match wanting 16 bundles 2
(Signed) DORSET. _Jan. 1641_
It was not very long before the Parliamentarians got wind of this hoard,
and in August 1642 three troops of horse under the command of one
Cornell Sandys rode into Kent, invaded Knole, took prisoner a Sir John
Sackville whom they found in charge there, did a certain amount of rough
damage, and carried off the contents of the armoury to London. The
proceedings were thus officially reported:
_Some_ SPECIAL & REMARKABLE PASSAGES
_from both houses of_ PARLIAMENT _since Monday 15th of Aug. till Friday
the 19th 1642_.
Upon Saturday night last, the Lord General having information of a
great quantity of Arms of the Earl of Dorset’s at his house at
Sevenoaks, in Kent, in the custody of Sir John Sackville, which were
to be disposed of by him to arm a great number of the malignant party
of that County, to go to York to assist his Majesty; called a Council
of War, to consider of the same, and about 12 of the clock at night
sent out 3 troops of Horse into Kent to seize upon the said Arms;
which they did accordingly on the Sunday following; and on the Monday
brought the same to London and Sir John Sackville prisoner, there
being complete arms for 500 or 600 men.
Despite the outcry of plaintive indignation which went up from Knole,
the House of Lords report proves that their conduct towards Lord Dorset
over the incident was fair, lenient, and even generous:
That the Arms of the Earl of Dorset which were at Knole House, are
brought to Town, to be kept from being made use of against the
Parliament,
and therefore this House ordered,
That such as are rich Arms shall not be made use of, but kept safely
for the Earl of Dorset; but such as are fit to be made use of for the
service of the Kingdom are to be employed; an Inventory to be taken,
and money to be given to the Earl of Dorset in satisfaction thereof.
Thus ran the official reports; but Knole, astonished, aggrieved, and
outraged, drew up a fuller list of injuries. It was the first time rude
voices had ever echoed within those venerable walls or rude hands
rummaged among the sacred possessions, the first time that orders had
been issued there by another than the master. The Parliament men had
entered with arrogance, spoken with authority, gone beyond their
warrant, and ransacked wantonly—for from what motive but wantonness
could they have taken the plumes from the bed-tester or the cushions
from his Lordship’s own room? or spoilt the oil in the Painter’s
Chamber? or, indeed, broken forty locks, unless to overcome such slight
resistance in an unnecessarily high-handed manner? No doubt the novelty
of the experience turned their heads. Rhetorically they were the
representatives of the English Parliament, that sober and tenacious
senate, as stubborn now as at Runnymede, but in private life they were
men, however insignificant hitherto to Lord Dorset, men who, when he
passed with a swagger, murmured dully beneath their reluctant deference.
The moment when, cantering up over the crest of the hill, they first saw
the grey forbidding walls and drew rein before the massive door, their
horses’ bits jingling and the restive hoofs pawing at the gravel, must
indeed have been an experience. Likewise, to ring their spurs on the
paving-stones of the courtyards, to pass from room to room followed by a
protesting and impotent steward, to stare at the pictures, to lounge on
the velvet chairs, to set out their ink and paper on the solid table of
the parlour and to draw up their indictment. It was August; the rose
planted beneath the window of a Stuart King to commemorate his visit was
covered with its little white blossoms; the turf was smooth and green;
the flowers were bright under the young apple-trees in the orchard; the
beeches and chestnuts were deep and heavy with the fullness of summer.
The austerity of the Roundheads surely stiffened in the soft summer
spaciousness of Knole. The owner was absent: they had only his new
portrait to gaze at, with scorn of his brilliant doublet and his curling
hair.
All things considered, I think that they showed commendable restraint in
their behaviour:
_The hurt done at_ KNOLE HOUSE _the 14 Day of August 1642 by the_
COMPANY OF HORSEMEN _brought by_ CORNELL SANDYS:
There are above forty stock locks and plated locks broken, which to
make good will cost £10.
There is of gold branches belonging to the couch in the rich gallery
as much cut away as will not be made good for £40.
And in my Lord’s chamber 12 long cushion-cases embroidered with satin
and gold, and the plumes upon the bed-tester, to ye value of £30.
They have broken open six trunks; in one of them was money; what is
lost of it we know not, in regard the keeper of it is from home. They
have spoiled in the Painter’s Chamber his oil, and other wrongs there
to the value of £40.
They have broke into Sir John his Granary and have taken of his oats
and peas, to the quantity of three or four quarters £4.
The arms they have wholly taken away, there being five waggon-loads of
them.
Nor was this the last time that the Parliamentarians came to Knole.
Three years after these events Cromwell’s commissioners were installed
there as the headquarters of the Court of Sequestration for Kent, and
held their sessions in the Poets’ Parlour, when the Sackvilles were, for
a short time, deprived of the property. On this occasion there is no
record of any definite damage to the contents of the house, although a
House of Commons notice for January 1645 ordered that “two-thirds of the
goods and estates of the Earl of Dorset not exceeding the sum of £500
now at Knole in the county of Kent, and lately discovered there, shall
be employed for the use of the garrison at Dover Castle, towards the pay
of their arrears.”
Among the papers in the Muniment Room I find a letter of a later date
from Sir Kenelm Digby to Lord Dorset, referring to some stolen pictures
which he has been endeavouring to trace in Paris, and recommending to
Lord Dorset a certain M. La Fontaine for “the much pains and running
about he hath used,” suggesting that he should be rewarded with 20_s._
and recommended to good customers to sell his “powders and cigeours.” I
wonder inevitably whether the loss of these pictures had been due to any
action of Cromwell or his commissioners? Sir Kenelm’s letter, which is
long, rambling, and rather illegible, does not make any mention of the
cause or date of the disappearance. Sir Kenelm is himself of greater
interest, perhaps, than his letter or the pictures. An intimate friend
of Lord Dorset’s, the author of several housewifely little treatises,
such as _The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby_ and _Choice and Experimental
Receipts_, he was incidentally the husband of that Venetia Stanley whose
lover Richard Sackville had been. (It has, I may mention, been suggested
that Edward Sackville, not Richard, was the lover of Lady Digby; and
having regard to what I know of Sir Kenelm’s character I should think it
not inconsistent, even if this were so, that he should remain on most
friendly terms with the former lover of his wife. He had, after all, not
scrupled to sue Lord Dorset, whether Richard or Edward, for the
continuance after marriage of Lady Digby’s pension of £500 a year.) Sir
Kenelm’s portrait by Vandyck is at Knole in the Poets’ Parlour; he is a
chubby little man, with a fat outspread hand, and dimples in the place
of knuckles. At one period of the Civil War he suffered imprisonment,
when Lord Dorset, wishing to beguile his friend’s tedium, advised him to
read the recently published _Religio Medici_ of Sir Thomas Browne: Sir
Kenelm took his advice, and was so much impressed as to embody his
observations in a long letter to Lord Dorset, which was subsequently
printed (1643) by “R. C. for Daniel Frere, to be sold at his shop at the
Red Bull in Little Britain.” I happen to have the first editions of the
_Religio Medici_ and the little companion volume of Sir Kenelm’s
_Observations_: the former is heavily scored or commented by some
appreciative reader, and attention is called in the margin to favourite
passages by the drawing of a tiny hand with pointing finger, the wrist
encircled by a cuff of _point de Venise_. Sir Kenelm esteemed his
friend’s taste, and the “spirit and smartness” of the author, who set
out upon his task so excellently poised with a happy temper. Towards the
end of his discourse Sir Kenelm quite loses his sense of proportion in
his enthusiasm over Lord Dorset’s discernment, and exclaims:
_Tu regere imperio populos_ [Sackville] _memento_,
and concludes by dating his letter “the 22nd [I think I may say the
23rd, for I am sure it is morning, and I think it is day] of December
1642,” thus proving that he has sat up all night in prison with Sir
Thomas Browne—and who in this generation could with truth make such a
boast?
§ iv
More tragical events than the desecration of his house or the
imprisonment of his chubby friend marked for Lord Dorset the progress of
the Civil War. His eldest son, Lord Buckhurst, was early taken prisoner
at Miles End Green with Lord Middlesex and that same Sir Kenelm Digby,
and his younger son, Edward, was also taken prisoner at Kidlington, near
Oxford, and murdered in cold blood by a Roundhead soldier shortly after,
at Abingdon. I know nothing of this Edward Sackville except that he was
knighted at an early age, was reported to be “a good chymist,” and was
deplored in an obituary poem as being
.... _a lamp that had consumed
Scarce half its oil, yet the whole place perfumed
Wherein he lived, or did in kindness come,
As if composed of precious Balsamum_,
and as being to his friends
_that lost in losing him,
An eye, a tongue, a hand, or some choice limb_.
The author of this poem, A. Townsend, contributed also to the Knole
papers a set of verses on the death of Charles I. “It is a shame,” he
exclaims,
_those that can write in verse,
Quite cover not with elegies his hearse_,
and asks:
_Where are the learned sisters, whose full breast
Was wont to yield such store of milk, unpressed?_
[Illustration:
THE TWO SONS OF EDWARD, 4TH EARL OF DORSET:
RICHARD, LORD BUCKHURST; THE HON. EDWARD SACKVILLE
_From the portrait at Knole by_ CORNELIUS NUIE
]
The King, he says, was
.... _pious, temperate, and grave,
Just, gentle, constant, merciful, brave.
All this, and more, he was not pleased to be,
Without the woman’s virtue, Chastity_,
most unlike Solomon, who was wise, yet
.... _did incline
To worship idols, for a concubine_.
Lord Dorset himself took an active part in the fighting. At Edgehill he
recaptured the Royal Standard which had been lost to the enemy, and to
his answer during the same battle James II later testified:
The old Earl of Dorset, at Edgehill [_he wrote_], being commanded by
the King my father to carry the Prince [Charles II] and myself up a
hill out of the battle, refused to do it, and said he would not be
thought a coward for ever a King’s son in Christendom.
I think also that one of his speeches is worth printing, made at the
Council table in reply to one of Lord Bristol’s which urged the
continuance of the war. It is honest, enlightened, bold, and,
considering his personal grievances, very dignified:
The Earl of Bristol has delivered his opinion; and, my turn being next
to speak, I shall, with the like integrity, give your Lordships an
account of my sentiments in this great and important business. I shall
not, as young students do in the schools, _argumentandi gratia_,
repugn my Lord of Bristol’s tenets; but because my conscience tells me
they are not orthodox, nor consonant to the disposition of the
Commonwealth, which, languishing with a tedious sickness, must be
recovered by gentle and easy medicines in consideration of its
weakness rather than by violent vomits, or any other kind of
compelling physic. Not that I shall absolutely labour to refute my
Lord’s opinion, but justly deliver my own, which, being contrary to
his, may appear an express contradiction of it, which indeed it is
not; peace, and that a sudden one, being as necessary betwixt his
Majesty and his Parliament as light is requisite for the production of
the day, or heat to cherish from above all inferior bodies; this
division betwixt his Majesty and his Parliament being as if [by
miracle] the sun should be separated from his beams, and divided from
his proper essence. I would not, my Lords, be ready to embrace a peace
that would be more disadvantageous to us than the present war, which,
as the Earl of Bristol says, “would destroy our estates and families.”
The Parliament declares only against delinquents; such as they
conjecture have miscounselled his Majesty, and be the authors of these
tumults in the Commonwealth. But these declarations of theirs, except
such crimes can be proved against them, are of no validity. The
Parliament will do nothing unjustly, nor condemn the innocent; and
certainly innocent men had not need to fear to appear before any
judges whatsoever. And he, who shall for any cause prefer his own
private good before the public utility, is but an ill son of the
Commonwealth. _For my particular, in these wars I have suffered as
much as any; my house hath been searched, my arms taken thence, and my
son-and-heir committed to prison. Yet I shall wave these
discourtesies, because I know there was a necessity it should be so;
and as the darling business of the kingdom, the honour and prosperity
of the King, study to reconcile all these differences betwixt his
Majesty and his Parliament; and so to reconcile them, that they shall
no way prejudice his royal prerogative; of which I believe the
Parliament being a loyal defender_ [knowing the subject’s property
depends on it; for, if sovereigns cannot enjoy their rights, their
subjects cannot] will never endeavour to be infringed; so that, if
doubts and jealousies were taken away by a fair treaty between his
Majesty and the Parliament, no doubt a means might be devised to
rectify these differences—the honour of the King, the estate of us his
followers and counsellors, the privileges of Parliament, and property
of the subject, be infallibly preserved in safety: and neither the
King stoop in this to his subjects, nor the subjects be deprived of
their just liberties by the King. And whereas my Lord of Bristol
observes, “that in Spain very few civil dissensions arise, because the
subjects are truly subjects, and the Sovereign truly a Sovereign”;
that is, as I understand, the subjects are scarcely removed a degree
from slaves, nor the Sovereign from a tyrant; here in England the
subjects have, by long-received liberties granted to our ancestors by
their Kings, made their freedom resolve into a second nature; and
neither is it safe for our Kings to strive to introduce the Spanish
Government upon these free-born nations, nor just for the people to
suffer that Government to be imposed upon them, which I am certain his
Majesty’s goodness never intended. And whereas my Lord of Bristol
intimates the strength and bravery of our army as an inducement to the
continuation of these wars, which he promises himself will produce a
fair and happy peace; in this I am utterly repugnant to his opinion;
for, grant that we have an army of gallant and able men, which,
indeed, cannot be denied, yet we have infinite disadvantages on our
side, the Parliament having double our number, and surely [though our
enemies] persons of as much bravery, nay, and sure to be daily
supported, when any of their number fails; a benefit which we cannot
bestow, they having the most populous part of the kingdom at their
devotion; all, or most, of the cities, considerable towns and ports,
together with the mainest pillar of the kingdom’s safety, the sea, at
their command, and the navy; and, which is most material of all, an
inexhaustible Indies of money to pay their soldiers, out of the
liberal contributions of coin and plate sent in by people of all
conditions, who account the Parliament’s cause their cause, and so
think themselves engaged to part with the uttermost penny of their
estates in their defence, whom they esteem the patriots of their
liberties. These strengths of theirs and the defects of ours
considered, I conclude it necessary for all our safeties, and the good
of the whole Commonwealth, to beseech his Majesty to take some present
order for a treaty of peace betwixt himself and his high court of
Parliament, who, I believe, are so loyal and obedient to his sacred
Majesty, that they will propound nothing that shall be prejudicial to
his royal prerogative, or repugnant to their fidelity and duty.
It is, of course, not at all to my purpose to follow the course of the
Civil War, but only to say that after the execution of the King Lord
Dorset made a vow, which he is believed to have kept, that he would
never again stir out of his house until he should be carried out of it
in his coffin. He did not, in point of fact, survive the King by very
many years, but died in 1652 and was buried at Withyham.