minister to the Tower, by a vote of the two Houses, where he remained nearly four years; and was then brought forth to a trial of twenty days, which had been previously determined to end in execu tion; and he expiated all his errors on the scaffold 1644, Et. 72. The royal pardon was pleaded, but rejected. Indeed the whole of this prosecution furnishes a fatal proof, how madly popular assemblies (when they overleap the bounds of law) naturally hurry into acts of tyranny and oppression. William second Earl of Strafford, was eldest son of Thomas, whose honours were restored to him by patent 1641, and the attainder reversed by Act of Parliament soon after the Restoration. Ob. 1695, without issue; having married Henrietta Maria, daughter of James seventh Earl of Derby. Charles I. ætat. 33, by Vandyck, whole-length; a superb picture, where the melancholy trait of countenance is strongly pourtrayed. Henry Duke of Glocester was the favourite child of Charles I.; after his father's execution, he went abroad, and participated the fortune of his family, dependant on the Court of France; from many of the miseries of which he was, however, spared by an early death. Ob. 1660. Æt. 20. Queen Henrietta Maria, and Jeffrey Hudson, by Vandyck. There is a duplicate of this picture at Petworth. This diminutive attendant was served up in a pie at an entertainment given by the Duke of Buckingham, and is said not to have exceeded eighteen inches in height, until he had attained thirty years of age, when he shot up to three feet nine inches. During the civil wars, he filled the rank of captain in the royal army; his appearance rendered him liable to insult, and engaged him in a duel with Mr. Croft, who would have met him with a squirt, but the dwarf proposed pistols on borseback, and shot his antagonist dead with the first fire. He was confined on suspicion of being concerned in a Popish plot after the Restoration, and died in the Gatehouse, aged 63. Thomas Butler Earl of Ossory, (by Mytens) son of the first, and father of the second Duke of Ormond; a man of courage and intrepidity seldom equalled, perhaps never exceeded, yet so perfectly gentle and amiable as to have endeared himself to all ranks. He commanded the English troops in the service of the Prince of Orange, at the battle of Mons, and served under Prince Rupert in the memorable sea-fight of 1666. Obiit 1680. t. 46. The Earl is in armour, and the fore part of a white horse appears extremely grand. George Calvert Lord Baltimore, (whole length) secretary to Sir Robert Cecil, and afterwards appointed secretary of state to James I. by whom he was raised to the peerage, and obtained a grant of. the province of Maryland from Charles I. Villiers Duke of Buckingham, a whole length by Cornelius Jansen. Arabella Countess of Strafford, (whole length) second wife to Earl Thomas, and daughter of John Holles Earl of Clare. It was by the marriage of her daughter Anne to Edward Lord Rockingham, that the Wentworth property became vested in the family of the late Marquis. Katharine of Portugal, a small half-length by Lely. The grand dining-room, forty feet square, and twenty feet high: Lord Strafford and his Secretary; the former supposed to be dictating to the latter his defence; one of the grandest works of Vandyck. The titles of this nobleman were, the Hon. Thomas Earl of Strafford; Viscount Wentworth; Baron Wentworth of Wentworth, Woodhouse, Newmarch, Oversley, and Raby; lord lieutenant-general, and general governor of Ireland; lord president of the council established in the northern parts of England; lordlieutenant of the county and city of York; knightof the garter; and one of the privy council. That the bearer of all these accumulated honours should be the object of public indignation and private resentment, can hardly be matter of surprise, if we recollect that they were conferred at a period, when to deserve the love of the subject was not found to be the best method of securing the favour of the sovereign. But independent of that envy and jealousy to which Strafford by his exalted situation became liable, he had considerably heightened the rancour of party by his desertion from the popular cause, to which he had early in life declared himself warmly attached; and on his apostacy was warned of his destiny by Pym, in these memorable words: "You have left us; "but I will not leave you, whilst you have a "head on your shoulders." The parliament no sooner felt itself assured of its superior strength, than the opportunity was seized to carry this threat into execution, when the court minister was impeached by the Commons of England, and the charge carried up to the Lords by Pym. His defence before his compeers was spirited, nervous, and energetic; yet looking at the temper of the times, we are not surprized to find that it was not sufficiently impressive to defeat the bill of attainder which was produced in the lower house, and approved by the Lords. He was executed on Tower Hill, May 12, 1641. Et. 49. A few weeks afterwards, the same parliament remitted to his children the heavier consequences of his sentence; and the attainder was reversed immediately after the Restoration. Anne Hyde Duchess of York was eldest daughter to the celebrated Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and married to James II. (before he came to the crown) soon after the Restoration; having so far previously favoured his addresses whilst abroad, as to render an early marriage not only a point of honour but of necessity. She died 1671, openly professing the Catholic religion. Sir Stanhope, 1572, great grandfather of William Earl of Strafford. A fine portrait of Whistle-Jacket, a celebrated racer belonging to the late Marquis, by Stubbs. There is no back ground to this piece, the noble owner of it fearing the introduction of one might spoil the picture. Perhaps, indeed, it may be judicious to omit them in portraits, as the relief is greater without them, and the attention then confined entirely to the subject. There is much nature and spirit in this picture, painted 36 years ago. This room is not fitted up. The beautiful white marble chimney-piece cost 700l. 2 |