Item, for alteration of things beside the Stuff Item, for Loss of Pewter, 6l. 15s. 6d. For Loss in Napery, 50s. 6d. Besides 25 Bucks and 2 Stags'. - 577 6 74 Sir Nicholas Bacon, charmed with the pleasant situation of Gorhambury, built here a neat and elegant house, adorned with fine gardens, which in those days made it very famous 2. Over the entrance into the Hall were these lines, which prove the date of the building to have been 1571: Hæc cum perfecit Nicholaus tecta Baconus. Factus eques magni Custos fuit ipse Sigilli : Mediocria firma 3. Over a gate leading into the Orchard, which had a garden on one side and a wilderness on the other, under the statue of Orpheus stood these verses: Horrida nuper eram aspectu latebræque ferarum, Ruricolis tantum numinibusque locus. Edomitor faustò huc dum forte supervenit Orpheus Ulterius qui me non sinit esse rudem; Convocat, avulsis virgulta virentia truncis, Et sedem quæ vel Diis placuisse potest. Sicque mei cultor, sic est mihi cultus et Orpheus: "As Sir Nicholas Bacon entertained the Queen with good eating, his younger son Sir Francis, whom she used, for his solid sense and grave behaviour, to call her young Lord Keeper, 18 years after, being then 34, assisted his patron, Robert Earl of Essex, in paying her a compliment on the anniversary of her accession, 1595. Against this most kind and generous patron he shortly afterwards pleaded for the Crown at his trial; and, after his execution, drew a declaration of his treasons, a piece of ingratitude for which no satisfactory apology has yet been made." R. G. History of English Improvements in Architecture, Gardening, &c. MS. quoted in the Biographia Britannica, art. NICHOLAS BACON. Mr. Walpole complimented the late Possessor of Gorhambury on his good taste in preserving the venerable mansion honoured by the visits of Elizabeth, and the residence of the great Lord Verulam. But, alas! we may apply to Fashion what the Poet says of Love," Omnia vincit Amor, et nos cedamus Amori." As a former choice preponderated in favour of old Gorhambury against Sopewell, so a later sacrificed the old to a modern Gorhambury. R. G. In the Orchard was a little Banqueting-house', adorned with great curiosity, having the Liberal Arts beautifully depicted on its walls; over them the pictures of such learned men as had excelled in each; and under them, verses expressive of the benefits derived from the study of them. These verses, and the names of those whose pictures were there placed, follow: GRAMMAR. Lex sum sermonis linguarum regula certa, Qui me non didicit cætera nulla petat. Ingenium exacuo, numerorum arcana recludo, LOGIC. Divido multiplices, res explanoque latentes "This elegant Summer-house (no longer existing) was not dedicated to Bacchanalian festivities, but to refined converse on the Liberal Arts, which were decyphered on the walls, with the heads of Cicero, Aristotle, and other illustrious antients and moderns who had excelled in each. This room seemed to have answered to the Diacta, or favourite summer-room of the younger Pliny, at his beloved Laurentinum, built for the enjoyment of an elegant privacy, apart from the noise of his house. Methinks I discover many similitudes between the villas of the Roman Orator and our great Countryman. This building, the porticos suited for both seasons, a crypto porticus or noble gallery over the other; and, finally, towers placed at different parts of the building, recall to mind many parts of the villa, so fully described by its philosophic owner." Pennant, p. 224. MUSIC. Mitigo moerores, et acerbas lenio curas, Me duce splendescit, gratis prudentia verbis By me the force of wisdom is display'd, GEOMETRY. Corpora describo rerum et quo singula pacto What bodies are, and all their forms I shew, ASTROLOGY. Astrorum lustrans cursus viresque potentes, Elicio miris fata futura modis. The motions of the starry train, And what those motions mean, I too explain. REGIOMONTANUS, HALY, COPERNICUS, PTOLOMY. The Queen this Summer had planned an extensive Progress into Kent, Surrey, and Sussex; where, according to custom, she would have received the Entertainments of the Nobles and persons of the best quality at their houses, who were glad of the honour, and made very expensive preparations for her. The Lord Buckhurst in particular was very desirous to entertain her at his house in Sussex; and therefore sent to the Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain, to understand when her Majesty's pleasure was to come into those parts; that as the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Montagu, and others, expecting her presence with them, and had made great provisions for her and her retinue, so he might not be wanting with his, QUEEN'S INTENDED PROGRESS INTO KENT, SURREY, AND SUSSEX, 1577. 61 being fain to send into Flanders to supply him, the others having drawn the country dry before him. And in what concern that Nobleman was on this occasion his letter will shew, written in the beginning of July, " That he beseeched his Lordship to pardon him, that he became troublesome unto him, to know some certainty of the Progress, if it might possibly be, the time of provision was so short; and the desire he had to do all things in such sort as appertained, so great, as he could not but thus importune his Lordship to procure her Highness to grow to some resolution, both of the time when her Majesty would be at Lewes, and how long her Highness would tarry there. For that he having already sent into Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, for provision; he assured his Lordship, he found all places possest by my Lord of Arundel, my Lord Montagu, and others, so as of force he was to send into Flanders; which he would speedily do, if the time of her Majesty's coming and tarriance with him were certain. He beseeched his Lordship, therefore (if it might be), to let him know, by his Lordship's favourable means, somewhat whereunto to trust. For if her Highness should not presently determine, he saw not how possibly they might, or could, perform that towards her Majesty which was due and convenient. He trusted his Lordship would measure his cause by his own; that he should be loth her Highness would come unto him before he were ready to receive her; to hazard thereby his dishonour, and her Majesty's dislike." And then (fearing that his house might not be agreeable to such a Guest) he added, "That he could not but beseech God, that that house of his did not mislike her; that, he said, was his chief care. The rest should be performed with that good heart, as he was sure it would be accepted. But that if her Highness had tarried but one year longer, we had been, said he, too too happy: [his house by that time more fitted for her Entertainment.] But God's will and her's be done." This was dated July the 4th, 1577. 'Thomas Sackville, educated at Hart Hall, Oxford; and afterwards at Cambridge and the Inner Temple; author of "Ferrex and Porrex," acted before the Queen by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple at Whitehall, 1561, and of the "Mirror for Magistrates;" Knight of the Shire for Sussex, 1 Elizabeth; knighted by the Duke of Norfolk in her presence, June 8, 1567; and the same day created Baron Buckhurst. He was her Embassador to congratulate Charles IX. of France, on his marriage, and sat on the trial of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; was created Earl of Dorset, 1 James I. whom he afterwards received at Oxford as Chancellor of the University, 1605. He died 1608, and was buried at Withiam, in the county of Sussex, where is Buckhurst, the antient mansionhouse of the Sackville family. See a very full and characteristic account of him in Brydges's Peerage, vol. II. p. 110, et seq. and his great attention to the Queen, as here, in the smallest matters. From various causes (chiefly from apprehension of the plague) the Queen seems to have been disappointed herself, as well as the Nobility who had made preparations for receiving her. It appears, however, by the following Letter that her Majesty was actually this year at Loseley in Surrey. July 10, 1577, Henry Goring, Esq. of Burton in Sussex, writes to Sir William More, as an old friend, that, hearing the Queen has laid two nights at Loseley, and intended to lie two nights at his house in Sussex, he asks how he is to entertain her; whether she brings her own stuffe1, beer, and other provisions, or whether Sir William provided every part." As no trace occurs of any subsequent Visit during this Summer, the Queen most probably remained in her Palace at Greenwich. Divers great persons of the Court took this opportunity to repair to Buxton Wells for their health, as Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary, Sir William Fitz-William, Mr. Manors, Lady Harrington; and amongst the rest, the Lord Treasurer Burghley. The Earl of Shrewsbury was likewise there for a gouty hand, and both drank and bathed diligently. But upon some warning from Court concerning an attempt, either to rescue the Scottish Queen, or some other danger relating to her, he was forced to leave the place, and to be gone to his charge. The Lord Treasurer set out from his house, Theobalds, about July 22; thence to Burghley House 2; thence by Derby and Ashborn in the Peak, to Chatsworth, the Earl of Shrewsbury's House, to lodge there; and so to Buxton. ''This probably means "bedding." If the Goring family still remaining in Sussex have preserved old letters, as Sir William More did, the answer to this letter would be a curious thing. John James, Esq. of Godalming (who died in March 1803), had two stools handsomely worked, and an Italian carved cabinet, which had been left by Queen Elizabeth in "a Visit to Wyatt of Loseley." By this it should seem that the Queen provided at least a part of her "stuff;" and that these curiosities were genuine there is no doubt; but there is a slight error in this traditionary narrative, which may be thus corrected. There was no Mr. Wyatt ever had Loseley; but a gentleman of that name had a house at Shackleford, in the parish of Godalming, about a mile from Loseley; and it is very possible that, when the house at Loseley was avoided to make room for the Queen, Lady More might be received at Shackleford, and might afterwards present the stools to Mrs. Wyatt, as a complimentary return for her reception. On the 23d the Lord Treasurer dates from Mr. Chamble's, at Kyngston Wood, in Cambridgeshire, near Caxton; and says, “Mr. Manors is five miles hence at Royston, for he came from London yesterday, and I from Waltham. I mean to be at my house at Burghley this night, by God's grace; and upon the return of my man from Buxton, I will take my journey as I shall see occasion." |