A 
 lA 
 
cow DRAY. 
 
0 
 
 BALLANTYNE, HANSON ANU CO. 
 EUINUUUCH AND LONDON 
 
THE BUCK HALL. 
 
Co WDRAY: 
 
 ^be Ibistor^ of a (Breat lEnoUsb Ibouse. 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. CHARLES ROUNDELL. 
 
 Mitb 3Uu0tration0 
 
 FROM DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, 
 
 AND FROM 
 
 SKETCHES BY THE LATE ANTHONY SALVIN, Esq., F.S.A. 
 
 V, Herodotus, II. 99. 
 
 " So far I have set forth the results of my own observation, judgment, and research." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 BICKERS & SON, LEICESTER SQUARE. 
 
 1884. 
 
To His Excellency 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 3obn points, iBarl Spencer, Ik*©., 
 
 LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. 
 
 Dear Lord Spencer, 
 
 It is with real pleasure that I avail myself of your permission to 
 dedicate these pages to you. 
 
 They relate to Cowdray, one of the stateliest of English houses, 
 
 AND THE HOME OF THE MONTAGUES. Of THAT GREAT FAMILY YOU ARE ONE 
 OF THE CHIEF REPRESENTATIVES. FeW HISTORIES OF ONE HOUSE CAN OFFER SO 
 
 varied a picture of famous and distinguished men. 
 
 Believe me to be, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 JULIA ANNE ELIZABETH ROUNDELL. 
 
 Oeborne, Fernhurst, Sussex, 
 October 1883. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HE principal authorities consulted for this history of Cowdray 
 have been Dallaway's History of the Western Division of the 
 County of Sussex, Horsfield's History and Antiquities of 
 Sussex, Lower's History of Sussex, the Sussex Archaeological 
 Collections, the Archseologia of the Society of Antiquaries, the 
 Archaeological Journals, Lower's Chronicle of Battle Abbey, Thorpe's Cata- 
 logue of the Muniments of Battle Abbey, the Gentleman's Magazine, the 
 Annual Register, Collins' Peerage, Grose's Antiquities, the Vetusta Monu- 
 menta, Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, Elwes' Castles, Mansions, 
 and Manors of Western Sussex, and Foley's Records of the English Pro- 
 vince of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 Much information has been obtained from the Burrell Collection of 
 Manuscripts and Drawings in the British Museum. Sir William Burrell, 
 Bart., F.R.S., F.S.A., who in 1768 represented Haslemere in Parliament, 
 contemplated writing a History of Sussex. At that time the only history 
 of the county, besides the notice of it in Camden's Britanniaj was a small 
 volume written in 1730 by the Rev. T. Coxe. Sir William Burrell filled 
 his copy of this history with marginal notes. He travelled over Sussex, 
 taking transcripts from conveyances, settlements, court rolls, and family 
 documents. He visited most of the Sussex churches, making long extracts 
 from the registers, and copying the inscriptions on many of the monuments. 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 But before completing his task he was struck with paralysis and became 
 incapable of continuing his work. At his death in 1796 he left all his papers 
 to the British Museum. Sir William employed Grimm, Lambert, and other 
 artists, to make drawings for his work, and these drawings he also left to the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The Rev. James Dallaway, F.S.A., Rector of Slinfold, availed himself of 
 the Burrell Manuscripts for his History of Sussex. The second volume of this 
 History, in which is contained the account of Cowdray, is extremely rare; 
 for when this volume was nearly ready for publication all but a very few 
 copies perished in a fire at the printer's. 
 
 Besides the information derived from books, I am indebted for much 
 assistance in the preparation of this volume to the kindness of living persons. 
 Amongst these my thanks are especially due to Mr. Alexander Brown, agent 
 for the Cowdray estates from 1833 till 1867 ; to Mr. Richard Fisher of Hill 
 Top near Midhurst ; to Mr. Maunde Thompson of the British Museum ; to 
 Sir Sibbald Scott, Bart., and to Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King-at-arms. 
 Mr. Osbert Salvin has kindly allowed me to use the drawings of Cowdray 
 which were taken by the late Mr. Anthony Salvin^ F.S.A., about the 
 year 1844. 
 
 The drawings for this book have been executed by Miss Beatrice Austin, 
 Church Street, Midhurst. 
 
 The Story of a Curse, extracts from which I have been allowed to reprint 
 in the Appendix to this volume, was published in the magazine entitled 
 The Lamp, and is now out of print. It was written by a member of an old 
 Roman Catholic family in West Sussex. The omitted passages contained 
 historical notices of Cowdray, which are more fully given in the previous 
 portion of my book. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRAY I 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, K.G., EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON .... 7 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G., OF BATTLE ABBEY . . . . . .II 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G., FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE . . . .22 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY .38 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANTHONY MARIA BROWNE, SECOND VISCOUNT MONTAGUE .... 45 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES . • 5l 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COWDRAY DURING THE CIVIL WAR 78 
 
/ 
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. p^^j. 
 
 COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 87 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GEORGE SAMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE lOO 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LAST OF THE BROWNE FAMILY AT COWDRAY 106 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY . . . . . . . .. . .Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE FIRE AT COWDRAY . . . . . . . . . . I26 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 COWDRAY IN RUINS 1 33 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE CURSE OF COWDRAY . . I40 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY . . . . . . . . . 143 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 THE STORY OF A CURSE. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HE Buck Hall 
 
 Door and Roof of the Porch 
 West Front of Cowdray 
 Garden Front of Cowdray 
 The Chapel .... 
 Fountain from Cowdray 
 The Quadrangle, Eastern Side 
 
 Do., SHOWING the Gateway and the South Gallery Grimm 
 
 Windows of the Buck Hall 
 
 Grimm 
 Grimm 
 Grimm 
 Grimm 
 
 B, Austin 
 Grimm 
 
 A. Salvin 
 
 Frontispiece 
 . page lo 
 . „ 28 
 . „ 28 
 
 • » 73 
 
 . 92 
 
 . „ III 
 
 . „ III 
 
 ■ „ 123 
 
 Cowdray Two Months after the Fire — From the Gentlemati s Magazine „ 131 
 
 Ground Plan 
 
 The Kitchen Tower 
 
 The Gateway 
 
 A. Salvin 
 A, Salvin 
 A. Salvin 
 
 „ 131 
 ^, 136 
 „ 136 
 
C O W D R A Y. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Cfie jTirst iLortiie^ of CotoDrag. 
 
 N the rising ground above the Uttle river Rother, and not 
 far distant from the ruins of Cowdray House, may still be 
 traced the site of the castle of the De Bohuns, first Lords 
 of Midhurst and of Cowdray. The site of this castle was 
 at least four hundred yards in circumference ; the dry 
 fosse, the deep trench, and small portions of the old walls may still be 
 seen,* whilst the little field called the Court Green close by shows the 
 spot to which the retainers of the De Bohuns might carry their goods 
 and drive their cattle for safety under the shelter of their lord^s 
 stronghold. This plot of rising ground has always been called St. 
 Anne's Hill (the name is now often corrupted into Tan Hill or 
 Thane Hill), no doubt because the castle chapel was dedicated to St. 
 Anne. A very ancient bell, possibly removed from this chapel, still 
 
 * It is believed that the dungeon and other subterranean chambers still exist in St. Ann's Hill. 
 In the hot summer of 1842 one of the surveyors employed by Mr. Alexander Brown (the steward 
 of the Cowdray Estate) traced nearly all the old foundations by means of the dri^d^up grass, 
 
 A 
 
2 
 
 THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRJY. 
 
 hangs in the helfrv of Easc])oiirnc church, on the confines of Cowdray 
 Park. This hell, which measures 3 ft. 4 in. in diameter at the lip and 3 ft. 
 4 in. in height^ and of which the tone is B flat, is inscribed Sancta Anna 
 ora pro nobis. 
 
 Dallaway is of opinion that when this old castle of the De Bohuns fell 
 into decay its lords built another house nearer to the river, portions of 
 which in later years were made the first beginning of Cowdray House. It 
 has been thought that the two massive hexagonal towers flanking the main 
 body of the house, which were less injured by the great fire than any other 
 part of the building, were portions of the original structure. It is not 
 certain at what period the De Bohuns removed from St. Anne's Hill to 
 the lower ground, although several of their deeds are dated from Cowdray. 
 The most probable date is the reign of Edward the Third. It is, however^ 
 certain that the De Bohuns were a most powerful family. They were the 
 Hereditary Sealers of the King's Briefs, and this office, with that of Serjeant 
 of the Chapel Royal, was resigned by John de Bohun to the King so far 
 back as during the reign of Edward the First. 
 
 The importance of the De Bohun family will be seen from the following 
 extract from Camden's Britannia, edition of MDCVII. : — Fluuius autem 
 qui praeterfluit e Septentrionali agri parte scatens, plurimis hinc inde riuulis 
 increscit, inter quos praecipuus est qui praeterlabitur Cowdrey Vicecomitis 
 Montisacuti aedes splendidissimas, et ad alteram ripam Midherst, quae 
 Bohunos Dominos suos jactat, qui pro insignibus crucem coeruleam in aureo 
 clypeo gestarunt, et ab Ingelrico de Bohun sub Henrico Primo, floruerunt 
 ad Henrici VII. usque tempora, qui filiam et haeredem Joannis Bohuni 
 Dauidi Owen Equiti aurato, filio naturali Oweni Theodori cum opima haere- 
 ditate in uxorem dedit. Fuerunt hi Bohuni, ut obiter adnotem, propter 
 obsoletam verbi antiquitatem^ aliquandiu Spigur[r]nelli Regis, i. [i.e.] Sigil- 
 latores Breuium, jure hereditario ; quod officium una cum Ser[v]ientia 
 Capellae Regiae Edwardo Primo remisit Joannes de Bohun filius Franconis, 
 ut in Charta antiqua ea de re confecta legitur." 
 
 There is no doubt that the manor of Midhurst was granted to Savaric 
 de Bohun by Henry the First, and the grant was confirmed by charters of 
 four subsequent Kings, Richard the First, Henry the Third, Edward the 
 Third, and Richard the Second. 
 
 John de Bohun fought at Cressy in 1346. On his return he endowed the 
 little Benedictine nunnery of Easebourne, adjoining Easebourne church ; and 
 
THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRAY, 
 
 3 
 
 he was summoned as Lord Bohun of Midhurst to the Parliament which sat 
 from 1363 to 1366. John de Bohun's grandson, Humphrey, who died in 
 I468_, left in his will — in order to secure prayers for his own soul and for the 
 souls of his parents — 5s. 8d. to each of the vicars, rectors, and curates of the 
 parishes in which he had property. Among those thus endowed were the 
 curates of ^^Midherst, Esborn, and Farnhirst/^ It is curious to compare 
 these legacies with the bequests to the members of his household. To each 
 of his gentlemen he left 13s. 4d., to each of his valets 6s. 8d., and to each of 
 his gargons 3s. 4d. This Humphrey had two sons; the elder of whom, John, 
 was the father of Mary de Bohun, through whom the property at Cowdray 
 passed to Sir Davy Owen. Humphrey bequeathed to his eldest son his 
 sword and one horse, also one bed called fedir bed with its hangings, one 
 mattress, one bolster, one pair of blankets, one quilt, and a brazen pot 
 and plate. 
 
 John de Bohun died in 1499, ^^^^ daughter Mary 
 
 married Sir David Owen (or, as he calls himself. Sir Davy Owen), who was 
 reputed to be the natural son of Owen Tudor. Another account is that he 
 was the son of Henry the Fifth^s widow by her marriage with Owen Tudor. 
 This royal lady had died in the first days of 1437, and her husband had 
 been imprisoned in the Tower by the guardians of King Henry the Sixth. 
 In the following year he contrived to make his escape. He was killed at 
 the battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461. 
 
 Whatever may have been the true story of Sir Davy's birth, he was no 
 doubt recognised and honoured at court. In 1487 he was one of the 
 twelve knights bachelor who held the canopy over Queen Elizabeth 
 of York at her coronation; and in 1503, as one of twenty-eight 
 knights banneret, he "attended the fiancelles of Princess Margaret to 
 James, King of Scotland, escorting the bride to Scotland, and carving at 
 the marriage dinner, wearing a very rich chain.^' This chain may have been 
 the collar of SS., which is represented on his effigy in Easebourne church. 
 
 Mary de Bohun and Sir Davy Owen were probably married in 1489 : 
 and she must have died before Sir Davy made his will in 15^9, as he leaves 
 bequests to his second wife Anne, the sister of Lord Ferrers. But his tomb, 
 with his own effigy, and the effigy of his first wife, must have been pre- 
 viously completed, as in his will he makes provision for the new painting 
 and gilding of both. 
 
 Sir Davy Owen in 1529 was called as a witness before the commis- 
 
4 
 
 THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRAY, 
 
 sioners appointed to inquire into the legal proofs of the marriage of Prince 
 Arthur, elder brother of Henry the Eighth, with Katherine of Arragon. 
 He was a most important witness, as he declared that he saw Prince Arthur 
 married in St. Paul's Cathedral to Katherine, "with his own eyes, being 
 then and there present," The examination was conducted partly in English 
 and partly in Latin, and a transcript of it still exists in the British Museum. 
 In that document Sir Davy is described as "of the county of Sussex, where 
 he has dwelt forty years or thereabouts." 
 
 Sir Davy Owen died in 154!^, and was buried at Easebourne, underneath 
 a beautiful alabaster effigy. There is^ however^ no trace of the effigy of his 
 first wife, Mary de Bohun, to which reference is made in his will. Sir 
 Davy himself is represented in complete armour, with his sword at his left, 
 and his dagger at his right side, and wearing his collar of SS. His head 
 with its long hair is uncovered, and rests on his tilting helm as on a pillow.* 
 "Over the armour of the body is a tabard of arms shaped to the figure at 
 the waist_, between the openings of which at the sides are seen portions of 
 the taces below the breastplate, and from them hang the tuilles, under which 
 appears a skirt of mail indented at the bottom. The lance-rest is shown 
 on the breast as if it passed through the tabard. The arms are in brassarts, 
 coudes, and vambraces of plate^ and the hands, which are brought together 
 on the breast in an attitude of devotion, are in laminated gauntlets not 
 divided for the fingers. The legs are in cuissarts^ genouilleres^ and jambes 
 of plate, and the feet, which rest on a lion^ are in laminated soUerets rounded 
 at the toes and there ornamented with roses : spurs being attached by 
 straps.'' Sir Davy orders in his wdll that when his effigy, after being " new 
 gilte and peynted," is " sett up, I wille the iron work that shall be sett about 
 it, be ordered, faconned, and formed after the forme and facon of my Lorde 
 
 * '* The great tilting helm or heaume was actually worn only at the moment of the charge, or 
 while the combatant was in the thick of the melee : it was placed over the smaller basinet [or iron 
 skull-cap], and it rested on the shoulders. In English monuments this heaume is habitually repre- 
 sented placed beneath the head of armed effigies, for which it forms a befitting pillow." The iaces 
 [or faudes as it was called abroad] was a sort of kilt of armour or iron petticoat : to this a small 
 shield called a tuille covering the front of the thigh was fastened by straps and buckles, so as to 
 admit of the free movement of the leg. The brassart protected the upper part of the arm, the coude 
 or coudiire the elbow, the vam brace or avant-bras the lower part of the arm. The gauntlets were 
 made of pieces of iron sewn like scales on strong leather gloves. The cuissarts covered the thighs, 
 the genouillh es the knees, the jambes or greviires the legs, and the sollerets, which were constructed 
 in the same manner as the gauntlets, protected the feet. IBoutelVs Arms and Armour.] 
 
THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRAY, 
 
 5 
 
 Daubeney^s Tombe at Westmynster_, where he lieth, but I wille that it be of 
 more substaunce/' This iron work was probably of Sussex manufacture, as 
 the iron works and forges of Sussex, beginning in the time of the Roman 
 occupation of England, were not extinguished until late in the eighteenth 
 century. But not a trace now remains of the iron work which once sur- 
 rounded Sir Davy's tomb. The iron work, too, around Lord Daubeney's 
 tomb (which exhibited his badge of " two dragons' wings conjoined by a knot 
 or ") is all gone, though the tomb itself, like Sir Davy's, remains. 
 
 Sir Davy Owen gives minute directions as to his funeral at "Esse- 
 bourne/' which was to be conducted with laudable ceremonyes, after the 
 degree of a banneret." His helmet and sword, his coat-armour, his banner, 
 standard, pennant, guydon,* and the banners of the Trinity, of the Virgin 
 Mary, and of St. George, were to be borne into the church with his body 
 and hung up there. Mourning was to be given to those present according 
 to their rank. To the church at Easebourne he left valuable silver vessels, 
 mass-books, and rich altar clothes " — vestments and copes of tawny 
 damask, and of green damask embroidered with swallows, wolves, and red 
 roses. He left also money to finish the roof of the church, ^^to gylt the 
 Aungels and knottes, and peynt the panes [panels] with rede and blew." 
 To the churches of Farnhurst and Lodsworth Sir Davy gave mass-books, 
 vestments of red and blue damask, and a chalice for each of the value of 
 four marks. All his gifts of altar vessels were to be engraved with his name. 
 
 Sir Davy was very liberal to his second wife, leaving her much valuable 
 plate, — "a Basene and ane Ewer of silver of the gretest sort; thre Bowles 
 of silver, pounced with a cover, and a wolfes hede with a rynge in his 
 mouthe upon the cover parcellgilt; a great Bowie pounced with a highe 
 foote dowble gilt, with a Lyons hede with a rynge in his mouthe upon the 
 cover; a gret standynge cuppe dowble gilt with a Crowne downwardes ; 
 thre gold goblettes with a cover with my Armes upon the knoppe of the 
 cover of the sort ; a Salt of silver and dowble gilt, with a Wolfe upon the 
 cover with roses and sonnes, and the fote a rote of a tree made of silver and 
 gilte j two great Pottes of silver and gilte, nyghe a yarde hygh, of a gallon 
 a pece, dowble gilt turned vice wise ; a playne Salt of silver without a cover ; 
 a dosene of Spones of silver with knoppes gilte; a gilte Spone with a knop 
 of golde sett with a saflTer ; a chafynge Dische of silver with a wolfes hede 
 
 * Gtiydon, a long streamer slit at the end, used at funerals. 
 
6 
 
 THE FIRST LORDS OF COWDRAY, 
 
 therupoiic." She was also to have "3. Crosse of Diamontes and thre great 
 perles, price one hundred niarkes/' besides ^' haffe the stuffe of householde 
 and of all other things^ a dossene of kyne, and tenne great oxene for her 
 wayne." These oxen were much needed in the deep mud of the Sussex 
 roads, for so late as 1724 Defoe saw "an ancient lady^ and a lady of very 
 good quality, I assure you, drawn to church in her coach by six oxen; nor 
 was it done in frolic or humour, but from sheer necessity, the way being so 
 stiff and deep that no horses could go in it/^ Sir Davy also bestowed on 
 his wife down beds and "fedir^^ beds with pillows and sheets_, counterpanes 
 of verder \_i.e.j embroidered with trees], one of them having "a great Lyone 
 in the middes of golde and silke;'^ his travelling-beds of black velvet and 
 russet satin embroidered with wolves and swallows, "wyth O and N of 
 golde, and diverse flowers imbrowdred." Another legacy to her consisted 
 of " fyve pcceys of Arrays made with imagery of King Henry the V^^-, Henry 
 the VP^-_, the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of 
 Gloucester, with diverse other great men." The arras now in the Guild 
 Hall at Coventry is somewhat similar to this in design, though perhaps 
 a little later in date. But if Sir Davy^s widow married again, she was to 
 forfeit all these bequests^ retaining only ^^a hundred poundes in money .^^ 
 
 Sir Davy Owen appointed his relative Sir William Fitzwilliam his 
 principal executor, and "for his labor and payne" about the will he was 
 to receive a sum of a hundred marks, and another sum of a hundred pounds. 
 The other executor, " my good lorde of Oxenforde (the fifteenth Earl of 
 Oxford and Lord Chamberlain), was only to "have for his labour forty 
 pounds." 
 
 To this Sir William Fitzwilliam, there having been no issue of the 
 marriage between Sir Davy Owen and Mary de Bohun, Cowdray had 
 been sold in 1538, subject to Sir Davy's life interest. 
 
 The original will of Sir Davy Owen is now in the possession of Mr. 
 Alexander Brown. It is written on five skins of very thin parchment, joined 
 together lengthwise, and is signed D. Owen. On the back is the word 
 Useless^ which was written by Mr. Forster, solicitor to Mr. Poyntz. This 
 will was found in a bundle of rubbish at Cowdray. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ©ir (Kailliam jTitjtDlIliam, (JBatl of ©outfiampton. 
 
 IR WILLIAM FITZ WILLIAM may be regarded as the 
 builder of Cowdray House^ though much was added by his 
 half-brother Sir Anthony Browne and his descendants. 
 
 Sir William was the second son of Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam 
 of Aldwarke in Yorkshire, and of Lucy, daughter and co-heir 
 of John Nevill, Marquis Montacute^ brother of Richard Earl of Warwick, 
 the King-maker. Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam had an elder son, Thomas, who 
 was killed at the battle of Flodden Field in September 1513. One of the 
 pictures at Cowdray represented this Thomas and a John Fitzwilliam lying 
 dead, dressed in armour; between them was the cognizance of the family, 
 the trefoil argent, which was sprinkled all over the leaden pipes of the 
 mansion-house,^' and beneath the figures was the inscription, " In doing 
 their dutys against the Scotts.^^ 
 
 Lady Lucy survived her husband, and married secondly Sir Anthony 
 Browne. 
 
 Sir William Fitzwilliam was one of the most eminent men of his time ; 
 he was created a Knight of the Garter, and subsequently became Lord 
 Keeper of the Privy Seal, Lord High Admiral (in 1523), and Earl of South- 
 ampton (in 1537). There was a picture of Sir William at Cowdray, in 
 which he appeared "walking by the sea, holding a staff with a golden knob, 
 his face very fine.'' 
 
8 
 
 SIR WILLIAM FITZmLLIAM, K.G. 
 
 One of the principal points of interest in reference to Lord Southampton 
 is his having acted as gaoler to his aged cousin Margaret of Clarence^ whom 
 he kept shut up at Cowdray for many months. This undaunted lady was the 
 daughter of George Duke of Clarence^ who was put to death in the Tower 
 in 1478 by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine; the sister of Edward 
 Earl of Warwick, who was executed in the same prison in 1499 ') ^^^^ 
 mother of the Lord Montacute who was beheaded on Tower Hill at the end 
 of 1538. She was the niece of Edward the Fourth, and had established 
 her claim to be Countess of Salisbury in her own right. She married Sir 
 Richard Pole, a Knight of the Garter, who was cousin to Henry the Seventh. 
 Lady Salisbury lived at Warblington near Havant, and was a determined 
 Roman Catholic, never allowing her tenants to read the New Testament or 
 any of the books which the King had privileged/^ One of her sons, 
 Reginald^ who afterwards became- the celebrated Cardinal Pole, was rector 
 of South Harting (in the neighbourhood of Midhurst) in the year 1526. 
 
 Lady Salisbury had incurred the displeasure of Henry the Eighth^ not 
 only on account of her Catholic opinions, but also from the grave suspicion 
 which attached to her of being actively concerned in the promotion of that 
 rising of the Catholics in the North and West which was known as the 
 Pilgrimage of Grace. 
 
 Lord Southampton was, therefore, sent late in the year 1538 to arrest 
 Lady Salisbury at her own house^ and to take her to Cowdray as the first 
 stage of her journey to the Tower. He was no doubt well aware that his 
 task would be a difficult one, but it appears to have proved even more 
 troublesome than he had anticipated. He went to Warblington on the 
 13th of November 1538, and conveyed his prisoner to Cowdray. From 
 Cowdray he wrote on the 16th of November : " We have dealed with such an 
 one as men have not dealed withall before ; we may call her rather a strong 
 and constaunt man than a woman.^^ 
 
 Lady Salisbury must, when at Cowdray^ have heard of the execution 
 of her eldest son on Tower Hill, but her spirit was unbroken. A few 
 months later Lord Southampton wrote that he "went in hande with her, 
 but although he entreated her in both sorts, sometyme doulx and milde and 
 now roughly and asperly, she would disclose nothing. Wee suppose that 
 there hath not been seen or herd a woman so ernest^ so manlique in con- 
 tinuance, and so fierce as well in gesture as in wordes." 
 
 But Lord Southampton had found in his stout-hearted cousin's house 
 
SIR WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM, KM. 
 
 9 
 
 conclusive proofs of her guilt. He had not only found " certayne bulls 
 graunted by a bishopp of Rome/^ which alone were sufficient to ensure her 
 conviction, but he had discovered in her linen wardrobe a tunic of white 
 silk embroidered in front with the Royal Arms of England, and at the back 
 with the device of the Five Wounds of Christ — the well-known badge of 
 the Northern insurgents. This tunic was held up by Thomas Cromwell in 
 the House of Lords when^ on the 38th of April 1539, ^^the Countess of 
 Salisbury and several other persons now in custody were attainted without 
 trial.'^ Lady Salisbury's guilt was now considered to have been fully proved. 
 She was probably kept at Cowdray until the bill of attainder had passed, 
 and was then taken to the Tower. Here she was imprisoned for two years: 
 but neither disappointment, sorrow, nor suffering could cow that brave spirit. 
 Her father had died in the Tower, her brother and her son had been beheaded 
 on Tower Hill ; but she " in whose person died the very surname of Planta- 
 genet^' remained, in spite of all, firm to the end. Lady Salisbury was 
 executed on the 27th of May 1541. She refused to lay her head on the 
 block, "saying, ^ So should traitors do, and I am none.' Neither did it serve 
 that the executioner told her it was the fashion. So, turning her grey head 
 every way, she bid him, if he would have her head, get it as he would, so that 
 he was constrained to fetch it off slovenly." * 
 
 Lord Southampton obtained a royal patent to add to his park at Cow- 
 dray, and to build there an embattled castle of stone. Part of his work 
 may still be seen in the beautiful square porch at Cowdray House with the 
 remains of its roof of groined stone and plaster ornament. This roof is 
 ornamented with a radiated circle surrounding a pendent Tudor rose : inside 
 the circle are eight double quatrefoils, each within a circle of its own, and 
 in each compartment is Lord Southampton's cognizance,f a slipped trefoil 
 
 * Lady Salisbury was beheaded on Tower Green, and was buried in the church of St. Peter ad 
 Vincula within the Tower. She had prepared for herself a beautiful tomb in the small chapel to 
 the north of the altar at Christchuich Priory in Hampshire — a priory which had been greatly 
 embellished by the Earls of Salisbury. The commissioners who enforced the Act of Dissolution 
 wrote from Christchurch to Henry the Eighth with reference to this tomb, as follows : "In the 
 church we found a chapel and monument made of Caen stone, prepared by the late mother of 
 Reginald Pole for her burial, which we have caused to be defaced, and all the arms and badges 
 clearly to be delete " [erased]. 
 
 t In St. George's Chapel, Windsor, Lord Southampton's motto is rendered Leaulte se provera on 
 the shield, and Loyall et sa provara on the standard. The badge is a trefoil slipped argent. In 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 SIR IVILLIAM FITZIVILLIAM, K.G. 
 
 bearing his initials W. S., alternating with the anchor which marked his 
 position as Lord High Admiral. Over the doorway of the porch the 
 achievement still remains of the Royal Arms with the lion and griffin as 
 supporters, and with Lord Southampton's motto underneath, Loiaulte 
 Saprouera {Loyaute Se Proiwera). The letters L. and P., which alternate 
 with W. S. on the door of the porch, were probably intended to represent the 
 first and last words of the motto. 
 
 In the year 1536 Lord Southampton received a grant of Easebourne 
 Priory from Henry the Eighth. In a portion of this house Sir Davy Owen 
 appears to have made his home after having sold Cowdray House, and some 
 of the alterations in the windows and other parts of the Priory have been 
 thought by Dallaway and others to be due to him. 
 
 Lord Southampton died in 1543. He had married Mabell, daughter of 
 Henry Lord Clifford, and in his will he desired that he might be buried at 
 Midhurst if he died within a hundred miles of the place, and that a new 
 chapelP' should be built there, at an expense of five hundred marks, for the 
 burial of himself and his wife. But as he died at Newcastle-on-Tyne, whilst 
 serving on an expedition against the Scots, his body was not brought back 
 to Midhurst ; and no trace of the " new chapell '' existed when it was 
 searched for by Sir William Burrell a century ago. 
 
 Lord Southampton had no children, and left his estates at Cowdray 
 and in the neighbourhood to his half-brother Sir Anthony Browne. 
 
 the same chapel may be seen on the knee-piece of the armour of the effigy of the Earl of Lincoln 
 an anchor cabled, being his official badge as Lord High Admiral {Willemenfs Collegiate Chapel 
 of St. George^ Windsor, '\ 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 %ix antfiong TBrotone, is^ffi*, of TPattle Hbbeg. 
 
 N the middle of the fourteenth century Anthony Browne (the 
 younger son of Robert Browne or le Broun^ who represented 
 Cumberland in Parliament) settled in London, and in time 
 became a rich merchant. He was created a Knight of the 
 Bath at the coronation of Richard the Second, for he had lent a 
 large sum of money to the King, and had been generous enough to cancel the 
 bond. This Anthony Browne left two sons, Sir Robert and Sir Stephen 
 Browne. Sir Stephen, when Lord Mayor of London in 1439, sent ships to 
 the Prussian coast for cargoes of rye, which he gave away ^' among the poorer 
 sort of people.^^ In consequence of the scanty harvest of that year, corn in 
 England was extremely dear, costing three shillings a bushel. 
 
 Of Sir Robert Browne, brother of Sir Stephen, nothing is recorded. 
 But his son. Sir Thomas Browne, was Treasurer of the Household to Henry 
 the Sixth, and was one of the Commissioners who met in 1458 at Rochester 
 to inquire into the quarrel which had arisen (and which had been fought 
 out at sea) between Richard Earl of Warwick, the King-maker, and the 
 citizens of the free city of Lubeck, " who were under a treaty of friendship 
 with the King.'^ Sir Thomas Browne married Eleanor, daughter and co-heir 
 of Sir Thomas Fitzalan (brother of the Earl of Arundel), and by this 
 marriage he acquired Betch worth Castle iii Surrey.* 
 
 * Betchworth Castle was four miles east of Dorking. The baronetcy of the Brownes of Betch- 
 worth expired at the death of Sir Adam Browne in 1688. Sir Adam Browne had been selected 
 
12 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROl^^NE, K.G. 
 
 The third son of Sir Thomas Browne, Anthony, married Lady Lucy 
 Nevill, after the death of her first husband Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam, and 
 he thus became stepfather to Sir William Fitzwilliam, afterwards Earl of 
 Southampton. Sir Anthony Browne and Lady Lucy had three children: 
 Anthony ; Elizabeth (who married the Earl of Worcester, ancestor of the 
 Dukes of Beaufort) ; and Lucy (who married Sir Thomas Clifford, the ancestor 
 of the Earls of Cumberland). 
 
 At the accession of Henry the Seventh in 1485, Sir Anthony Browne 
 was ^''made Standard-bearer throughout the whole realm of England and 
 elsewhere,^' and in the following year he became one of the Esquires of the 
 King's body, and Governor of Queenborough Castle in Kent. In this year, 
 i486, he was knighted for his gallant conduct at the battle of Newark, 
 where, on the i6th of June, the Earl of Lincoln and Lambert Simnel were 
 defeated. In 1503, Sir Anthony was made Constable of the Castle of 
 Calais, and there in the year 1506 he died and was buried. Twice during 
 the three years of Sir Anthony^s governorship of Calais he was, " in con- 
 sideration of his loyalty, industry, foresight, and care,'' commissioned to 
 receive the sum of 1^5,000 francs in gold (the annual tribute paid by Louis 
 the Eleventh to Henry the Sixth). 
 
 He was succeeded by his only son Sir Anthony Browne of Battle 
 Abbey, half-brother to Lord Southampton, and the first of the Brownes of 
 Cowdray. This Sir Anthony was knighted after the siege and capture of 
 Morlaix in Brittany in the year 1523, in which year he, with the Earl of 
 Surrey, Lord High Admiral, convoyed" the Emperor Charles the Fifth 
 from Southampton to Biscay. In 1524 he was made Esquire of the 
 
 by Charles the Second as one of the intended Knights of the Royal Oak — that order which was 
 intended by the King " to perpetuate the loyalty of his faithful adherents, but abandoned under the 
 apprehension that it might perpetuate likewise dissensions which were better consigned to oblivion." 
 On the death of Sir Adam Browne's daughter Margaret (wife of William Fenwick), in 1726, the 
 Betchworth estate was sold ; and the castle was pulled down about 1830. The crest of the 
 Brownes of Betchworth, a griffin's head erased, was to be seen in perfect condition on the Browne 
 monument in Easebourne church a few years ago. It has since been mutilated by thoughtless 
 visitors to the church, but can still be distinguished. The arms, like those of the Montagues, were 
 sable, three lions passant in bend, between two double cotisses argent. The motto also was simi- 
 lar, Suivez Rayson. Sir George Browne, eldest son of Sir Thomas and brother of Sir Anthony 
 Browne, was beheaded in 1483, having espoused the cause of the Earl of Richmond and Lambert 
 Simnel in their conflict with Richard the Third. One of his daughters named Katherine, married 
 John Poyntz, High Sheriff of Surrey in 1572 and again in 1584, John Poyntz was the ancestor of 
 William Stephen Poyntz, who in 1794 married the last of the Brownes of Cowdray. 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 13 
 
 Body to Henry the Eighth, and at the Christmas feast held by the King 
 at Greenwich in that year he was one of the challengers in the jousts and 
 feats of arms. From that time Sir Anthony became more and more a 
 favourite with the King. In 1536 he was made Lieutenant of the Isle of 
 Man and those other islands belonging thereto/^ during the minority of 
 Edward, Earl of Derby; and two years later he was sent to invest Francis 
 the First with the Order of the Garter, "as also to take his oath that he 
 should not violate the league made with King Henry.^^ In 1533, Sir 
 Anthony Browne was again sent into France, accompanied by the Duke of 
 Norfolk, "the Lord Rochford, brother to the Queen ^' [Anne Boleyn], and 
 Sir William Paulet, in order to attend Francis the First to Nice, and to 
 "commune with the Pope there, concerning his stay in the King's divorce 
 from Katherine of Arragon. In 1539, Sir Anthony " obtained a grant of 
 that eminent office of Master of the Horse, with the yearly fee of forty 
 pounds for that service," and in the next year this office was confirmed to 
 him for life, and he was created a Knight of the Garter. 
 
 But Henry the Eighth was not content with conferring mere honours 
 on his favourite. In 1535 the manor of Poynings in Sussex had been 
 granted by the King to Sir Anthony Browne in exchange for other 
 lands; and on the 15th of August 1538, he received "a grant of the house 
 and scite of the late monastery of Battle in Sussex, to him, his heirs and 
 assigns for ever." 
 
 Only three months elapsed between the surrender of Battle Abbey by 
 John Hammond the last abbot, and the establishment of Sir Anthony 
 Browne and his family in his place. The abbot's lodging, according to 
 the usual custom when an abbey was surrendered to the King^s Commis- 
 sioners, became the residence of the new owner. In this case the chapter- 
 house, the cloisters, and other portions of the beautiful abbey were razed to 
 the ground. Not one stone remained upon another of the magnificent 
 cathedral church, for Sir Anthony Browne was actually able to place his 
 garden on its site, and he planted a double row of yew-trees along what had 
 been the nave of the minster. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne was, as we have seen, much in favour with Henry 
 the Eighth, but an additional reason for his having received so valuable a 
 grant as Battle Abbey may have been his marriage with Alys, the daughter 
 of Sir John Gage, one of the Royal Commissioners who carried out the Act 
 of Dissolution with respect to Battle. Sir John Gage, who was a Knight of 
 
14 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K,G. 
 
 the Garter and Constable of the Tower, had the credit of having carried out 
 the provisions of the Act with great severity. However that may have been, 
 in his will he directed that his gold collar of the Order of the Garter should 
 be sold and the proceeds given to the poor who came to his funeral from all 
 the forty parishes in w^hich he had property. He was buried at Firle near 
 Lewes, under a magnificent altar tomb ; and the manor of Alciston in the 
 Rape of Pevensey, granted to him as part of the spoils of Battle Abbey, still 
 belongs to his descendants, the Viscounts Gage. 
 
 But Battle Abbey was by no means the only grant of Church property 
 which Sir Anthony Browne received. He was given at the same time the 
 Priory of St. Mary Overy in Southwark, where he built a house.* He also 
 received the manor of Send in Surrey, which was one of the temporalities " 
 of Newark Priory, and later he obtained a grant of the manor of Brede 
 (which included a considerable portion of the town of Hastings), and Godstow, 
 which had belonged to the monastery of Syon. Besides these grants. Sir 
 Anthony, on succeeding, in the year 1543, to the property of his half-brother 
 Lord Southampton, inherited the Priory of Easebourne, the monasteries of 
 Bayham and Calceto,t and the Cistercian Abbey of Waverley in Surrey. 
 
 In the year 1540 Sir Anthony Browne was sent to the court of John of 
 Cleves, there to act as proxy at the marriage of Henry the Eighth and Anne 
 of Cleves. He appears to have been much distressed at her appearance, for 
 he says he was " never more dismayed in all his life, lamenting in his heart, 
 which altered his outward countenance, to see the lady so far unlike what 
 was reported.^' But it was then too late to prevent the marriage, and Sir 
 Anthony acted as proxy, wearing the blue and white suit of clothes in which 
 he was afterwards painted. Alys Lady Browne was selected to attend 
 Anne of Cleves on her arrival in England, and her opinion of the unfor- 
 tunate bride seems to have coincided with that of Sir Anthony, for she told 
 him that " she saw in the queen such fashions and manner of bringing up so 
 
 * The Priory of St. Mary Overy had been surrendered to Henry the Eighth on October 27th, 
 1539, but the church (now called St. Saviour's, Southwark) had been immediately purchased by the 
 parish. In 1545 the site of the priory was granted to Sir Anthony Browne, and among the MSS. 
 belonging to Mr. Cole, F.S.A., is a bill which was sent to the first Viscount Montague for *' worke 
 done upon your honor's house at Sent Marie Hoveris " in 1569. Sir Davy Owen had left money 
 to the Prior of St. Mary Overy for masses to be said in that church as a " perpetuall memorye " of 
 his grandmother, who was buried there. In the time of the second Viscount Montague the house 
 at St. Mary Overy was called Montagu Close. 
 
 + Calceto is close to Arundel. It was sold by Mr. Poyntz. 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 ^5 
 
 gross that she thought the King would never love her.'' Lord Southampton 
 was not so honest: he, with four hundred English noblemen and gentlemen, 
 was sent to receive Anne at Calais^ and he actually spoke ^'^of her excellent 
 beauty, such as I well perceive to be no less than reported/' When Henry 
 saw her himself, he complained bitterly of the fate of " princes^ who take as 
 is brought them with others^ while poor men be commonly at their own 
 choice." No doubt he regretted having sent Holbein to paint Anne's por- 
 trait, instead of leaving the choice in the wise hands of Sir Anthony Browne. 
 
 Two months later, in March 1540, Alys Lady Browne died, and was 
 buried at Battle. 
 
 In 1543 Sir Anthony Browne went to Scotland with the Duke of 
 Norfolk's army, in which expedition "they burnt above twenty villages." 
 In 1544 he and the Duke of Suffolk accompanied Henry the Eighth to 
 France; the Duke being in command of the English army, and Sir Anthony 
 Browne acting as Master of the Horse. Three of the principal pictures at 
 Cowdray represented the chief events of this expedition — namely, the march 
 from Calais towards Boulogne, the encampment of the English forces at 
 Marquison, and the siege of Boulogne. When the surrender of the town was 
 imminent. Sir Anthony Browne was sent by Henry the Eighth to "treat of a 
 general accord" with the ambassadors of the French King; and the English 
 army then returned home. The French, however, were constantly endea- 
 vouring to retake Boulogne, and early in 1545 Sir Anthony Browne was 
 employed by Henry the Eighth to raise more troops. ^^The King confiding 
 in his loyalty, valour, industry^ foresight, and care^ being Master of the 
 Horse and Knight of the Garter, commissioned him with Sir Thomas 
 Wriothesley Lord Chancellor, Henry Earl of Arundel, and William Lord St. 
 John, Chamberlain of the Household, to levy, array, and try all men able to 
 bear arms in the counties of Surrey, Sussex, Southampton, Wilts, Oxon^ 
 and Berks, and to arm them according to their degrees, and to muster them 
 in proper places ; and to march all his liege subjects so arrayed and tried (a^ 
 well men-at-arms and archers, as other horse and foot), by themselves or 
 others by them deputed, to suppress his enemies, as often as occasion shall 
 require." * In the same year Sir Anthony was made Justice in Eyre of all the 
 King's forests beyond Trent, and, finally, he was constituted Standard-Bearer 
 to Henry the Eighth, as his father had been to Henry the Seventh. 
 
 * Collins' Peerage. 
 
i6 
 
 SIR JNTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 In the last illness of Henry the Eighth Sir Anthony Browne undertook 
 the dangerous task of telling the King of his approaching end. This duty 
 he fulfilled with his usual ^^good courage and conscience/' and Henry valued 
 his old servant to the last. He appointed Sir Anthony guardian to Prince 
 Edward and to the Princess Elizabeth, he made him one of the executors of 
 his will_, and he left him a legacy of three hundred pounds. 
 
 Edward and Elizabeth were at Hertford at the time of their royal 
 father's death, and Sir Anthony Browne went with the Earl of Hertford to 
 tell them of it.* 
 
 A few days later, Sir Anthony took a prominent part in the wonderful 
 procession which conducted ^^the King's Majesty from the Tower through 
 the city of London, in most royal and goodly wise, to his Palace of West- 
 minster.'^ This took place on Saturday the 19th of February 1547, when 
 Edward the Sixth was rather more than nine years old. One of the great 
 pictures at Cowdray represented this procession. At the meeting of the 
 Sussex Archaeological Society held at Chichester in 1853, there was ex- 
 hibited a letter from the seventh Viscount Montague to the Society of 
 Antiquaries, dated 1785, in which he gives permission for this picture, 
 and this picture only, to be engraved.*f* John Topham, F.S.A., in the 
 eighth volume of the Archaeologia, gives a particular description of this 
 celebrated picture, a drawing of which he exhibited at the meeting of 
 the Society of Antiquaries in 1787. 
 
 ^'The streets through all the way where the King should pass were well 
 gravelled in every place, and railed on the side from Gracechurch Street 
 to the Little Conduit in Cheap, to the intent that the horses should not 
 slide on the pavement, nor the people be hurt by the horses. . . . Within 
 these rails stood the crafts along in their order, to the Little Conduit afore- 
 said, where stood the aldermen. On the other side of the streets in many 
 places stood priests and clerks with their crosses and censers, and in their 
 best ornaments, to cense the King; and all the way where the King should 
 pass on either side were the windows and ways garnished with cloths of 
 tapestry, arras, cloths of gold and of silver, with cushions of the same, 
 garnished with streamers and banners as richly as might be devised.^^ 
 
 The picture represented the procession at the moment of its passage 
 
 * This incident, together with that of the procession of the young King, has been made use of 
 by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, in his Constable of the Tower, Book I. chapters i and 2. 
 t Page 97. 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 17 
 
 through Goldsmiths' Row, with the shops set out with cups and beakers 
 of gold, and the master of each shop standing at his door ready to salute 
 the young King as he went by. Maitland^ in his History of London, says 
 of this Goldsmiths' Row : " It was beautiful to behold the glorious appear- 
 ance of goldsmiths' shops in the South Row of Cheapside, which in a 
 course reached from the Old Change to Bucklersbury, exclusive of four 
 shops only of other trades, in all that space." But the artist contrived to 
 show the course of the procession all the way from the Tower to West- 
 minster; with the City companies^ each headed by its master, and every 
 liveryman wearing his gown and hood. In the background was a view 
 of London Bridge, St. Mary Overy, the palace of the Bishop of Win- 
 chester, the Bankside in Southwark, and, far away, the river Ravensbourn 
 and the royal palace at Eltham. 
 
 Edward had to witness many pageants and devices on his way, and to 
 listen to much goodly melody, and eloquent speeches, treating of noble 
 histories, to the joyful welcoming and respect of so noble a King.'^ It is a 
 relief to find that one real diversion had been provided for the little boy. 
 
 In Paul's Churchyard there was a rope as great as the cable of a ship, 
 stretched in length from the battlements of Paul's steeple, with a great 
 anchor at one end, fastened a little before Mr. Dean of Paul's house-gate, 
 and when his majesty approached near the same, there came a man, a 
 stranger, a native of Arragon, lying on the rope, his arms and legs abroad, 
 running on his breast on the rope from the battlements to the ground, as 
 if it had been an arrow out of a bow, and stayed on the ground : then he 
 came to the King's Majestic and kissed his foot, and so, after certain words 
 to his Highness, departed from him again, and went upwards upon the 
 rope till he was come over the midst of the churchyard, where he, having 
 a rope about him, played certain misteries on the rope, as tumbling, and 
 casting one leg from another ; then took he the rope and tied it to the 
 cable, and tied himself by the right leg, a little beneath the waist of the 
 foot and hung by the one leg a certain space, and after recovered himself 
 up with the said rope and unknit the rope, and came down again. Which 
 stayed His Majesty with all the train a good space of time." Sir Anthony 
 Browne, as Master of the Horse, rode next the King, ^Meading a goodly 
 courser of honour, very richly trapped." The King, dressed in cloth of 
 silver embroidered with damask gold, buskins of white velvet, and glittering 
 all over with jewels, rode under a canopy borne by knights, and his horse 
 
 c 
 
 ,1 
 
i8 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 had "a rich caparison of crimson satin embroidered with pearls and damask 
 gold." The procession was of immense length, and Sir Anthony Browne, 
 "guardian of the King's Majesty,'' must have been as glad as the tired child 
 himself when at last the day was over. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne began to build a wing at Battle Abbey for the 
 reception of the Princess Elizabeth, who w^as to reside there. But he did 
 not live to finish it, and it was completed by his son. Among the muni- 
 ments of Battle Abbey is a letter to the steward there, impressing upon him 
 the necessity of watching over the rough-layers (or masons) employed on 
 the works. It appears that the building was being erected by contract, and 
 that the first set of masons, dissatisfied with their wages, had returned 
 home to their own country." Other masons were to be sent, with sl 
 substantial man as a morter-maker," and the writer urges the steward "that 
 ye woll se them well handelyde in their w^ages ; yf men feell no gayne by 
 their labours and travell, hytt were as goode that they werre gone, for they 
 woll worke none theireafter. As I vnderstonde, the worke ys takyn in 
 greatt by one mann, and he doweth gyve small wages by cause hys owne 
 gayne shulde be the morre." 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne also built Byflete House in Surrey : now pulled 
 down. 
 
 After the death of Alys Lady Browne, Sir Anthony determined to marry 
 again. His second wife was Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald 
 ninth Earl of Kildare, and better known as the Fair Geraldine. Sir Anthony 
 was forty-five years older than his bride, for at the time of their marriage 
 he was sixty and she only fifteen years of age. She had been brought up 
 at Hunsdon House with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, though 
 Henry the Eighth had remorselessly hunted down and killed nearly every 
 member of her family. There has been a strange confusion with respect to 
 this second marriage of Sir Anthony Browne ; and even Horsfield, in his 
 History of Sussex (vol. i. p. 529), makes the mistake of saying that she and 
 Alys Lady Browne were one and the same person. He remarks : " It is said 
 that Alice was a great beauty, and celebrated by the Earl of Surrey at the 
 tournaments under the name of the Fair Geraldine." After the death of 
 Sir Anthony Browne, Lady Elizabeth married Sir Edward Clinton, first Earl 
 of Lincoln, and was buried with him in a magnificent tomb in St. George's 
 Chapel, Windsor. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne survived Henry the Eighth, whom he had served 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROIVNE, K,G. 
 
 19 
 
 with so much honesty and discretion^ only one year. He died at Byflete, on 
 the 6th of May 1548. He was buried at Battle under the beautiful altar 
 tomb which he had prepared, and on which the effigy of his wife Alys lies 
 beside his own. The tomb was richly ornamented with colours and gilding, 
 many traces of which still remain : it is in excellent preservation, although 
 the noses of both figures have been knocked off, — a misfortune that is said 
 to have happened within the last thirty years. The effigy of Sir Anthony 
 was described by Collins in l'j^G as ^^a figure of a man in armour, lying on 
 his back, habited with the mantle and collar of the noble Order of the 
 Garter ; his head resting on a helmet, and at his feet an eagle (the crest of 
 his family). By him lies his lady, in the habit of the times, reposing her 
 head on a cushion, and at her feet a wolf with a collar about his neck. 
 Underneath are several cherubs, and under them escutcheons of arms curi- 
 ously cut in marble and painted, but now worn out.^^ The inscription is : 
 
 " Here lithe the Ryght Honourable Sir Anthony Browne, Knyght of the 
 Garter, Master of the Kings Majestis Horsys, And one of the moste 
 honourable Prive Cowncel of our most Dread Soverayne Lorde And Valiant 
 Kyng Henry the Eyght ; and Dame Alis His Wyfe. 
 
 Wich Alis decesid the 31 Day of Marche Ao. Dni. 1 540. And the sayd 
 
 Sir Anthony decesid the Day of Ao. Dni.* On whose Sowls And all 
 
 Cristens IHU Have Mercy, Amen." 
 
 The funeral pageant with which Sir Anthony's body was brought from 
 Byflete to Battle was one of great splendour. Being Standard-bearer of 
 England at the time of his death, the royal Standard was borne before his 
 body; his own banner of arms was borne between the Standarde and the 
 corps ; at the four corners of the coffin were two pennons and two guydons, 
 and four tapers were carried by four poor men in gownes and hoodes gorny- 
 shed with scoucheons of armes." Sir Anthony's coat of arms, his targe of 
 arms, his helmet, his crest, and his sword were carried in the procession, and 
 the Standard and other banners were to be ^^holden about the grave untyll 
 the earth be caste uppon hym." The next day at ^^the masse of the com- 
 munyon" the armour and the banners were offered to the church wdth great 
 ceremony, and hung up there. The hook on which the helmet hung remained 
 on one of the pillars of the chancel till the restoration of Battle Church a few 
 years ago. 
 
 * The blank was left by Sir Anthony when building the tomb, and was never filled up. 
 
20 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 T\\Q character of Sir Anthony Browne is well described by Lloyd, who 
 says: Three things facilitate all things: (i) Knowledge; (2) Temper; 
 (3) Time. Knowledge our knight had, either of his own or others whom he 
 commended in whatever he went about, laying the ground of matters down 
 in writing and debating with his friends before he declared himself in council. 
 A Temperance he had that kept him out of the reach of others, and brought 
 others within his. Time he took always driving, never being driven by his 
 business, which is rather a huddle than a performance when in haste: there 
 was something that all were pleased with in this man's actions. The times 
 were dark, his carriage so too ; the waves were boisterous but he the solid 
 rock, or the well-guided ship that could go with the tide. He mastered his 
 own passions and others^ too^ and both by time and opportunity : therefore 
 he died with that peace the state wanted, and with that universal repute the 
 statesmen of those troublesome times enjoyed not.^' 
 
 The most celebrated portrait at Cowdray was that of Sir Anthony 
 Browne in the parti-coloured suit which he wore when acting as proxy for 
 Henry the Eighth at the marriage of Anne of Cleves. He was represented 
 with "his neck and shoulders bare and very brown ; a monstrous sword; his 
 breeches strait and slasht, counterchanged, the left side blue and white^ the 
 right white; a hat and feather, with a gillyflower in the band, and the 
 George round his neck.'' The picture was painted on panel, and underneath 
 it was the following inscription : 
 
 "Sir Anthony Browne. He lyvinge was all at one time and at his 
 death Master of the Horse to Kyng Henrie the Eyght, and after to Kyng 
 Edwarde the Syxte, Captain of both their Majesties gentilmen pensioners, 
 Chief Standard Bearer of England, Justice in Oyer of all their forestes, 
 parkes, and chaces beyonde the river Trente northwarde. Lieutenant of the 
 forestes of Wyndesor, Wolmar, and Ashdowne, with dyvers parkes and 
 chaces southwarde. One of the executors to Kynge Henrie the Eyght, one of 
 their Majesties' Honourable Privie Councel, and Companion of the most noble 
 Order of the Garter. He ended his lyfe the syxt of May, in the second yeare 
 of King Edwarde the Syxte, at Byflete house in Surrie by hym buylded, and 
 lyethe buried at Battell in Sussex, by Dame Ailice his fyrste wyfe, where he 
 begann a stately howse since proceeded on by his sonne and heyre Anthony 
 Vicecount Mountagewe^ Chief Standard Bearer of England, Lieutenant of 
 the forest of Wyndesor with other parkes, one of the Quene Marie's 
 Honourable Privie Councel, and Knight Comptroller of the most noble 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G, 
 
 21 
 
 Order of the Garter. He had by Dame Ailice, daughter of Sir John Gage, 
 K.G. (Controwler to King Henry the Eighth, and Chancellor of the Dutchy 
 of Lancaster, and after Lord Chamberlain to Quene Marie, Constable of the 
 Tower of London, and one of theyre Privie Councel), seaven sonnes, 
 Anthony of his proper name, William, Henrie, Francis, Thomas, George, 
 and^Henrie Browne. He had also by her three daughters, Marie, Mabell, 
 and Lucye. His second and last wyfe was the ladie Elizabeth Gerald^ after 
 Countess of Lincoln, and of the daughters of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earle of 
 Kildare, by whom he had two sonnes, Edward and Thomas, who both died 
 in their infancie. In this dress he married by proxy Princess Anna Cleves, 
 relexf of Kyng Henrie the Eyght/^ 
 
 This curious picture was in a gilt frame, and was in 1771 covered with 
 glass. It unfortunately perished in the great fire at Cowdray on the night of 
 the 24th of September 1793. 
 
 Two portraits of Alys Lady Browne existed at Cowdray, both of which 
 were burnt. Both were full-length portraits : one was taken when she was 
 thirty years of age, and represented her with her hands clencht, holding a 
 watch, her gloves embroidered with yellow ; a book on a desk beside her.'' 
 In the other picture she wore "a black gown full of long points on the 
 arms, breast, and to the bottom ; gold border to her ruff ; chain of gold and 
 pearls on her neck.'' 
 
 But there appears to have been no portrait of the Fair Geraldine at 
 Cowdray : no trace of one can be found in any of the catalogues and 
 descriptions of the pictures there which were v/ritten before the fire of 1793. 
 
 William Browne, the second son of Sir Anthony Browne, married 
 Anne, the daughter and co-heir of Sir Hugh Hastings of Elsing near 
 Southampton, and from this marriage the Browncs of Elsing are descended. 
 Francis Browne married Anne, the daughter of Sir William Goring of 
 Burton near Petworth. Sir Anthony's eldest daughter, Mary, married John 
 Grey, the younger son of the Marquis of Dorset ; Mabell, the second 
 daughter, became Countess of Kildare; Lucy, the youngest, married Thomas 
 Roper of Eltham, ancestor of Lord Teynham. 
 
 * At that time it was no uncommon practice to give the same Christian name to two persons in 
 one family. 
 
 + The etymology of the word /?e/ex is open to much question. Perhaps it is a form of the 
 word Relegata, and it might be rendered Rejected. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ©ir antfiong 'Brotone, m.dS., first {discount 9@ontague.^ 
 
 NTHONY BROWNE, eldest son of Sir Anthony Browne of 
 Battle Abbey, succeeded his father in 1548. Like his father, 
 he was a man of great ability and was deservedly esteemed 
 throughout his long life. He was a staunch Roman Catholic, 
 and never varied from the faith in which he had been brought 
 up : yet he retained the favour of three successive sovereigns during those 
 troubled years in which the religion of the State changed with every change 
 of ruler. 
 
 He entertained at Cowdray both Edward the Sixth and Queen 
 Elizabeth, and he was greatly valued by Queen Mary. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne was one of the forty gentlemen who were 
 knighted at the coronation of Edward the Sixth, and he soon afterwards 
 married Lady Jane RatclifF, daughter of Robert RatclifF, Earl of Sussex. 
 
 In 155^ Edward the Sixth made his only progress, and during his 
 journey he visited three houses in Sussex, — Petworth, Cowdray, and 
 Halnaker. At Petworth the King slept four nights, attended not only by 
 the greater part of the Privy Council and an enormous number of atten- 
 dants, but also by a considerable armed force. Edward, when at Petworth, 
 
 * The Register of the Titledeeds of the first Viscount Montague (sold as waste paper) is now in 
 the British Museum, Additional MSS. 31952. 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 23 
 
 wrote in his journal: Because the nombre of bandis that were with me 
 this progresse made the traine great_, it was thought good they should be 
 sent home, save only one hundred and fifty wich were pickt out of al the 
 bandis. This was bicause the traine was thought to be nier 4000 horse, 
 wich ware inough to eat up the country, for ther was litle medow nor hay 
 al the way as I went/^ 
 
 On July :27th the King with his diminished retinue went from Petworth 
 to Cowdray. In a letter to his friend Barnaby Fitz-Patrick (who had 
 been whipping-boy to the King, and was now serving in the French army), 
 Edward thus describes his visit : For whereas you al have been occupied 
 in killing of your enemies_, in long marchings, in pained journeys, in 
 extreme 'heat, in sore skirmishings and divers assaltes, we have been 
 occupied in killing of wild bestes, in pleasant journeyes, in good fare, in 
 vewing of fair countries, and rather have sought how to fortifie our own 
 than to spoil another man's. And being thus determined came to Gilford, 
 from thens to Petworth, and so to Cowdray, a goodly house of Sir Anthony 
 Browne's, where we were marvelously, yea rather excessively banketted/' 
 
 In the next year, 1553, Lady Jane Browne gave birth to a son, on 
 the 22d of July, and on the same day she died. She was buried at 
 Midhurst on the 4th of August, and her effigy is on the Browne monu- 
 ment, which stood in Midhurst church till 1851. The effigy is evidently a 
 portrait, and in looking at it one cannot but feel sorry for the young 
 creature who died so sadly ^^at the age of twenty years," just as her 
 husband was entering on his long course of prosperity and honour. Lady 
 Jane had had a daughter named Mary, who lived to marry three times. 
 Her first husband was Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton ; on his 
 death she married Sir Thomas Heneage; and lastly she became the wife of 
 the Sir William Harvey, Bart., who was " first created Lord Ross in Ireland 
 and afterwards Baron of Kidbrook in England.'^ It is curious that the 
 date of Lady Jane's death, given on the Browne monument, should be 1552. 
 This must be an error, as Edward the Sixth, whose visit to Cowdray is 
 known to have commenced on the 27th of July 1552, could not have been 
 received there when Sir Anthony Browne's young wife had been dead only 
 five days, and still lay unburied. 
 
 In 1554 Queen Mary married Philip of Spain, and on this occasion 
 she created Sir Anthony Browne a viscount, ''in consideration of the good 
 and laudable service'' which he, her '^faithful and beloved servant, hath 
 
24 
 
 SIR ANTHOISY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 done and still continues to do, as also his nobility of birth, early care, 
 loyalty and honour." Sir Anthony chose the title of Montague, probably 
 because his grandmother, Lady Lucy, was the daughter and co-heir of the 
 Marquis Montacute. His arms were : Sable, three lions passant in bend 
 between four cotisses argent. Supporters — two lynxes argent, ducallv 
 collared, chained, and armed or. * Crest — on a wreath an eagle displayed 
 vert, beaked and membcred gules. Motto — Svyvez Rayson.-}- 
 
 In the same year Lord Montague was made Master of the Horse, and 
 was sent with Thurlby, the Bishop of Ely, to the Pope in order to make 
 arrangements "for reducing of this realm to an union with the Church of 
 Rome and to the obedience of that See/^ In 1555 Lord Montague was 
 made a member of the Privy Council and a Knight of the Garter; and in 
 1557 he acted as Lieutenant-general of the English forces at the siege of 
 St. Quentin in Picardy. 
 
 . On the death of Queen Mary the whole aspect of affairs as regarded both 
 the policy of the government and the religion of the state was entirely 
 changed. It is much to the credit of Lord Montague that he never allowed 
 the risk of losing the favour of his sovereign to influence him in his 
 religious opinions, and it is also much to the credit of Queen Elizabeth 
 that she respected him for his constant adherence to his own faith, and 
 valued him for the honesty with which he served her. 
 
 Lord Montague was naturally left out of Queen Elizabeth's Privy 
 Council, and two years later he was called upon to subscribe to the 
 abolition of the Pope's supremacy in England, and to the recognition of 
 the Queen's authority instead. Lord Montague and Francis fifth Earl of 
 Shrewsbury were the only peers who refused '^out of a sentiment of zeal 
 
 * In the Baronagium Genealogicum, by Joseph Edmondson, Mowbray Herald Extraordinary, 
 published in 1732, the original crest of the Viscounts Montague is said to have been a buck proper, 
 collared and lined or. This appears to have been a mistake, as Sir Anthony Browne of Battle 
 Abbey had for his crest the green eagle of his mother's family. In 1732 there were forty -nine 
 quarterings on the shield of the Viscounts Montague. The supporters have been variously given 
 as wolves, bears, "neboks," boars with bears' legs, bears with bulls' feet and lions' tails, heraldic 
 tigers, and lynxes. Garter King-at-Arms has kindly examined the Garter plate of the first Viscount 
 Montague (installed in October 1555), and has thus enabled me to give the correct blazon. In the 
 collection of Garter plates made by Garter Leake, the Montague crest is a buck at gaze gules, 
 with ducal collar and chain or. But the third Viscount Montague is known to have entered the 
 eagle displayed as his crest. 
 
 t On the Browne tomb the motto is rendered SUIVES R^ESON. 
 
FIRST FISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 35 
 
 and honour'' to do this. Lord Montague declared that ''he for his part 
 had, by authority of Parliament, and in the name of the whole body of 
 England, tendered obedience to the Pope; the performance of which he 
 could by no means dispense with/' He added, '^that it would be a very 
 disgraceful reflection for England, which was so lately and so well reconciled 
 by the Apostolic See, to make so sudden a revolt from it/' and he pointed 
 out that "the hazard would be as great as the scandal, should the Pope 
 thunder out his excommunication, and expose the nation by that means 
 to the resentment of its neighbouring enemies upon the score of this 
 desertion/' He and Lord Shrewsbury therefore boldly voted against the 
 proposal. Lord Shrewsbury " survived this uncourtly act of sincerity " 
 only a few months^ but Lord Montague lived to find that his honesty had 
 not diminished his favour with his sovereign. 
 
 Soon after this, in 1561, Queen Elizabeth sent Lord Montague on a 
 special mission to Spain. Its object was '^to satisfy the King of those realms 
 what just cause she had to send an army into Scotland," and to represent to 
 him the risk that he as well as herself would incur if the Guises were allowed 
 to proceed unchecked. She considered that Lord Montague was the most 
 fit person to act as Ambassador on this occasion, as she " highly esteemed 
 him for his great prudence and wisdom, though earnestly devoted to the 
 Romish religion." 
 
 Lord Montague was appointed one of the forty-seven Commissioners 
 who sat on the trial of Mary Queen of Scots in the February of 1587. For 
 Queen Elizabeth, according to Camden, " having experienced his loyalty, had 
 a great esteem for him (tho' he was a stiff Romanist). For she was sensible 
 that his regard for that religion was owing to his cradle and education, and 
 proceeded rather from principle than faction, as some people's faith did." 
 She had obliged him to suppress a chantry which he had founded in Mid- 
 hurst church during the last year of Queen Mary's reign, but her confidence 
 in him was fully justified by his behaviour at the time of the threatened 
 invasion of the Spanish Armada. When, in the spring of 1588, Queen 
 Elizabeth reviewed her army at Tilbury Fort,* ''the first that showed his 
 bands to the Queen was that noble, virtuous, honourable man the Viscount 
 Montague, who now came, though he was very sickly and in age, with a full 
 
 * Copy of a letter to Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador in France, dated London, September 
 1588, and found in the chamber of a seminary priest in England. Harl. Miscell. vol. i, p. 149. 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 resolution to live and die in defence of the Queen and of his country, against 
 all invaders whether it were Pope, King, or Potentate whatsoever; and in 
 that quarrel he would hazard his life, his children, his lands and goods. And 
 to show his mind agreeably thereto he came personally himself before the 
 Queen with his band of horsemen — being almost two hundred — the same 
 being led by his own sons, and with them a young child, very comely, seated 
 on horseback, being the heir of his house, — that is, the eldest son to the son 
 and heir; a matter much noted by many, whom I heard commend the same, 
 to see a grandfather, father, and son, at one time on horseback afore a queen 
 for her services ; though in truth I was sorry to see our adversaries so 
 greatly pleased therewith.'^ 
 
 Lord Montague, in thus " perilling his whole house in the expected con- 
 flict," must have greatly pleased Elizabeth, for she was well aware that many 
 Roman Catholics were at that time having masses said and prayers offered 
 for the success of the Spanish Armada. 
 
 Three years after the defeat of the Armada, in the August of 1591, 
 Queen Elizabeth paid a visit of nearly a week to Lord Montague at Cowdray. 
 The curious and minute account of this visit has been often quoted, but as 
 often altered and cut short: in the next chapter an exact copy of it, with the 
 original spelling, is given. Much has been said of the ridiculous and fulsome 
 speeches, laden with compliments, which were made to the Queen on this 
 occasion, — at a time when she was within a month of her fifty-eighth birth- 
 day; but if the account of her Progresses is examined, it will be seen that, 
 in foolish expenditure and bombastic addresses_, her entertainment at Cowdray 
 was far behind most of those visits which so much impoverished the noble- 
 men whom she honoured with her company. 
 
 Lord Montague's second wife was Magdalen, the daughter of William 
 Lord Dacre of Gillesland. On the Queen's arrival at Cowdray she was 
 received by Lady Montague and by her daughter Elizabeth, the wife of the 
 first Baron Dormer of Winge. 
 
 Another lady was also staying at Cowdray during the Queen's visit, — 
 Mabell, the sister of Lord Montague, who had married the eleventh Earl of 
 Kildare, brother of her stepmother the Fair Geraldine. The history of this 
 Lord Kildare is most romantic. Henry the Eighth had destroyed the whole 
 of his family, except the Fair Geraldine (whose safety may have been due to 
 her early marriage to Sir Anthony Browne). His father had been shut up in 
 the Tower till he died broken-hearted, and the King had caused his five uncles. 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 27 
 
 and his half-brother^ the tenth Earl of Kildare^ to be beheaded. The young 
 Gerald was secretly conveyed by his tutor to Flanders^ where Charles the 
 Fifth sheltered him and refused to give him up to Henry the Eighth. Car- 
 dinal Pole^ the boy^s kinsman, sent for him_, and with him he remained for 
 three years, living in the Cardinal's own house in Rome. After this Gerald 
 served under the Knights of Rhodes in Barbary during a campaign against 
 the Moors/and spent some years with them at Malta and at Tripoli. On 
 his return to Rome he narrowly escaped an end which, to him, would have 
 been more painful than a death on the scaffold or on the battle-field. Whilst 
 he was hunting near Rome his horse jumped into a deep pit which was 
 hidden from view by bushes and underwood. The horse fell to the bottom 
 and was killed, and Gerald, after clinging for a time to the roots of the trees 
 which overhung the pit, became exhausted and dropped on to its body. 
 His dog remained at the edge of the pit, and its howls at length attracted 
 the attention of some of his companions. They drew Gerald safely to the 
 top of the pit in a basket, but not till after the lapse of many hours. 
 
 At length Henry the Eighth^s death enabled Gerald to return to England. 
 He was one of the " comeliest young men of that age ; and when at a 
 masque he met Mabell, the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, who was not 
 only beautiful, but "a lady of great worth and virtue,^^ he fell in love with her 
 and married her. This marriage proved to be of great advantage to him. 
 No doubt it was owing to the influence of MabelFs father that Gerald was 
 at once knighted by Edward the Sixth. In the same year, 1552, he was made 
 a Knight of the Garter, and he received back by patent his forfeited estates in 
 Ireland. Queen Mary, in 1554, restored him to his titles of Earl of Kildare 
 and Baron Offaly. Mabell survived her husband, and lived in ^'^the fair 
 house of Maynooth^' till her death in 1610. 
 
 Lord Montague probably invited his sister to Cowdray to meet Elizabeth, 
 for it does not appear that she was in attendance on the Queen. In fact, 
 though it is recorded that Elizabeth "and the whole Court were magnifi- 
 cently entertained'' at Cowdray, no list of the guests has been preserved. 
 Lord Burleigh, however, must have been among them, as he heads a letter, 
 dated August 18, 1591, From the Court at Cowdray." 
 
 The Queen's principal amusement when at Cowdray was shooting deer 
 in the park. She killed three or four, and Queen Elizabeth's Oak," 
 against which she rested her bow, is still standing. It is a magnificent tree, 
 measuring twelve yards in circumference at a height of four feet from the 
 
28 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K,G. 
 
 ground, and stands with several other fine oaks, pollards like itself, in a 
 hollow in Cowdray Park called "The Deer Down Bottom." 
 
 Lady Kildare was the only member of the party who ventured to shoot 
 with the Queen, and though she only killed one deer, Elizabeth was so much 
 displeased with her audacity, "that she did not afterwards dine at the royal 
 table." Lady Kildare was however at length forgiven, for in the list of New 
 year's gifts to the Queen in 1599:, her offering of " seven buttons of golde of 
 two sortes, garnished with sparkes of rubyes and pearle," was accepted, and 
 a " return in guilte plate^ 21 f oz./^ was made her by order of Elizabeth.* 
 
 It is certain that before the visit of the Queen Lord Montague had 
 completed the additions to Cowdray, which made it, to use the words 
 of Mr. Freeman,f one of the greatest houses of the best house-building 
 time. . . of the very stateliest architecture, an architecture which is the 
 growth of our own soil_, whose associations are those of our own history, and 
 which is surely surpassed by the architecture of no other nation in splendour, 
 in consistency, in practical convenience." No doubt Lord Montague had 
 already caused to be painted the series of enormous frescoes which repre- 
 sented the various scenes in which he himself, his father, and Lord South- 
 ampton had taken part whilst serving their sovereign abroad. He had 
 completed the great quadrangle, and he had put up above the door of the 
 beautiful gateway the arms (so often still seen on the ancient firebacks cast 
 at Farnhurst for Lord Montague) of his house, with the lynxes as supporters, 
 the sixteen quarterings, the coronet beneath the helmet on which is the crest 
 of the eagle displayed, and the motto Suivez Raison at the bottom. J 
 
 * These New Year's presents varied in value from magnificent jewels given by the great Lords, 
 from the red silk purse containing forty pounds in "dimy soveraigns" given by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, to dresses and petticoats offered by poor ladies, to pots of green ginger and of rinds 
 of lemons presented by the royal physicians, and even included " a very fair marchpane " [i.e., a 
 rich cake], " made like a tower with men and sundry artillery in it," from the yeomen of the 
 Chamber, and another marchpane, " with the modell of Powles' church and steeples in paste," from 
 the Surveyor of the Works. Return presents, carefully apportioned in value, were made by the 
 Queen. Lord and Lady Montague always gave the same present, — a purse of cloth of gold 
 from each, containing ten pounds in "dimy soveraigns." In return, Lord Montague received one 
 guilt cup with cover, of 23 oz." Lady Montague's cup weighed only 18^ oz. ; but the one given to 
 the Archbishop weighed 40 oz. 
 
 t English Towns and Districts, p. 372. This article was written after a visit to Cowdray from 
 Oeborne. Reprinted from the Saturday Review, November 6, 1875. 
 
 X These firebacks cast for Lord Montague are all alike, and would therefore seem to have been 
 east at the same time. One is now at Oeborne, and in this the quarterings are (i) Browne ; (2) 
 
GARDEN FRONT OF COWDRAY. 
 
FIRST FISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 29 
 
 Lord Montague's eldest son (whose mother. Lady Jane Browne, had 
 died at his birth) married Mary, daughter of Sir William Dormer of Ethorp 
 in Buckinghamshire,* and had a family of three sons and three daughters. But 
 in the year after Queen Elizabeth's visit to Cowdray he died, on the 29th of 
 June 1592. His widow afterwards married Sir Edmund Uv^edale, and on 
 his death she married Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn in Lancashire. 
 
 The aged Lord Montague survived his eldest son only "three months, 
 two weeks, and six days," for he died at a house he had built at West Rorsley 
 in Surrey, on the 19th of October 1592. "This year died Anthony Browne 
 Viscount Montacute, whom Queen Mary honoured with this Title, because 
 his Grandmother was Daughter and one of the Heirs of John Nevil Marquis 
 Montacute ; who tho' he was a great Roman Catholick yet the Queen 
 [Elizabeth] finding him faithful always, lov'd him, and in his Sickness went 
 to visit him." f 
 
 Lord Montague was buried at Midhurst on the sixth of December 1592. 
 He had already prepared the beautiful tomb, composed of marble and ala- 
 baster, which so long stood in a chapel on the south side of the altar of 
 Midhurst church. J At the lower part was a great table tomb, on which 
 were the recumbent effigies of Lord Montague's two wives. Lady Jane 
 Browne and Magdalen Viscountess Montague. Both were of the size of 
 life, and evidently were portraits. They were dressed in robes of state, 
 richly ornamented with colours and gilding. They lay on an altar tomb of 
 great size, and between them (the effigy of Lady Jane being at the norths and 
 that of Lady Montague at the south side) rose another altar tomb on which 
 was the kneeling figure of Lord Montague, also life-size; this effigy also is 
 
 Albini; (3) Fitz Alan ; (4) Fitz Alan of Clun ; (5) Warren; (6) Maltravers; (7) Nevill; (8) Montague; 
 (9) Monthermer ; (10) Inglethorp ; (11) Burghe ; (12) Delapole ; (13) Bradston ; (14) Tiptoft ; (15) 
 Charlton ; (16) Montague. Some of the lower quarterings are indistinct, as the heat of many fires 
 has worn them away, but all can be traced. This fireback originally came from Cowdray. 
 
 * The sister of Mrs. Browne married the Duke of Feria. At Cowdray there was a full-length 
 portrait of " Dame Joanna Dormer, Duquessa de Feria," at the age of twenty-five, "verie pretie." 
 
 t Baker's Chronicle, p. 380. 
 
 X The tomb was of considerable height, so that the head of Lord Montague was on a level with 
 the gallery in which were the seats of the boys educated at the Midhurst Grammar School. The 
 weekly amusement of these boys was to put a piece of paper into Lord Montague's mouth. Sir 
 William Burrell remarks that when he visited Midhurst in 1768, the seventh Lord Montague had 
 *' lately fitted up a gallery for his own family, south side the church, to which there are stairs lead- 
 ing from his chapel." 
 
 1 
 
SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, KX). 
 
 an undoubted portrait. Lord Montague is represented in a suit of gilt 
 armour, over which he wears the mantle and collar of the Order of the 
 Garter, all painted in gold and colours. He kneels before a third altar, which 
 is raised on arches^ and upon which his helmet is placed. A very old helmet, 
 "thrown aside" on the removal of the tomb from Midhurst church, used to 
 rest on the altar before Lord Montague as well as the sculptured one. This 
 helmet was exhibited at the meeting of the Sussex Archaeological Society 
 at Chichester in 1853, fortunately been replaced on the monument. 
 
 It appears to have been inlaid with gold, and was undoubtedly the helmet 
 worn by Lord Montague.* On the panels of this great tomb are large 
 escutcheons, containing divers quarterings rich with colour. The tomb was 
 surrounded by small figures kneeling in pairs. These probably represented 
 the eight children of Lord Montague. Four tall obelisks of Sussex marble rose 
 at the angles of the tomb : each obelisk supported on four balls and sur- 
 mounted by a ball and by a spear-shaped pinnacle. 
 
 On a square of marble inserted in the side of the altar at which Lord 
 Montague kneels is the inscription : 
 
 "Here lyeth the Bodie of y^ Right Honourable Sir Anthony Browne, 
 Viscount Mountagewe, Chief Standarde Bearer of England, and Knight of 
 y^ Honourable Order of the Garter, whereof He was Ancienst at his Death, 
 and One of y® Honourable Privie Councell to Queue Marie, who, as He 
 was Noblye Descended from the Ladye Lucye his Grandmother, one of the 
 Daughters and Coheyres of Lord Jhon Nevill Marques Mountague^ so He 
 was Perfectly Adorned with Al y^ Virtues of True Nobilitye. And in 
 y« 66 yere of His Age He Ended His Lyfe at His Howse at Horsley in 
 Surrey, y^ 19 of October 1592, and in y^ 34° yere of y^ Raigne of oure 
 Most Soveraigne Ladie Queue Elizabeth. This Honorable Man in y^ yere 
 1553 was Employed by Quene Marie in an Honorable Ambassage to Rome 
 with Doctor Thyrlbie Bishope of Elye^ which he Performed to his Great 
 Honor and Commendation : And y^ Seconde yere after He Served Quene 
 Marie as Her Majesties Livtenant of y^ English Forces at y^ Siege of Saint 
 Quentines. In y^ yere 1559 Quene Elizabeth sent Him Ambassador into 
 Spain to Kynge Philipp, and Likewise 1565 and 1566 to the Duches of 
 Parma then Regent of y^ Lowe Countries. All which He Effected both 
 Wiselye and Honorablye to y^ Service of God^ his Prince, and Countrie.'^ 
 
 * In the drawing of the tomb which was taken by Grimm in May 1790, this helmet, with the 
 vizor raised, is placed on the top of the sculptured helmet. 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, 
 
 3^ 
 
 The inscription on Lady Jane Browne's side of the tomb is as follows:* 
 " Here lyeth Bodie of y^ Ladye Jane Radclyffe, one of y^ Daughters 
 of Robert Earl of Sussex^ who Ended Her Lyfe at Cowdray A°. D\ 1552^ 
 y^ 22 of Julye^ And Was of y® Age of Twenty Yeares. And y^ First Wyfe 
 of Anthony Viscount Mountague Here Buryed, By Whome He had Issue 
 One Sonne Anthony Browne Esquier Deceased and Here Likewise Buryed. 
 Which Anthony Was Father Unto Anthony Viscount Montague Now 
 Livinge. He had Also by Her one Daughter Marye Browne yet Livinge, 
 who was Married first to Henry Wriothesley Earle of Southampton, And 
 After to Sir Thomas Heneage, Knt., Vice Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth, 
 and One of the Honourable Privie Councell/' 
 
 On another tablet is this inscription : — Anthony Viscount Mountague 
 took to His Second Wyfe Magdalen Dacre, one of y^ Daughters of William 
 Dacre Knight, Lord Dacre of Graystock and Gylesland, and Lord Warden 
 of y^ West Marches of England foranempste Scotelande. By whome He 
 had Issue Five Sonnes, Philip, William, Sir George Browne Kn*, Thomas, 
 and Henry. And Three Daughters, Elizabeth, Mabell, and Jane. Whereof 
 Philip, William, Thomas, and Mabell Departed this Lyfe before their 
 Father/' 
 
 This magnificent tomb, which was one of the most interesting historical 
 monuments in the country, stood untouched in the centre of its chapel in 
 Midhurst church until 1851. At that time increased accommodation was 
 required in the church, and the unfortunate device was resorted to of pro- 
 viding this additional space by the removal of the Browne monument from 
 Midhurst to Easebourne church, on the outskirts of Cowdray Park. Here 
 it was placed in a mortuary chapel at the east end of the south aisle, — a 
 chapel which now forms part of the body of the church. This, the only 
 spot available for the reception of the monument, was much smaller than 
 the chapel at Midhurst in which it originally stood. The effigies of the two 
 ladies, instead of lying as before one on each side of the kneeling figure of 
 Lord Montague, are crowded together on the moiety which alone was pre- 
 served of the table tomb. Lord Montague's figure is placed close against 
 a window, and thus one principal side of the monument is wholly 
 obscured. 
 
 * It will be seen that these inscriptions were drawn up by Lord Montague's grandson, Anthony 
 Maria Browne, second Viscount Montague. He might easily have made a mistake as to the date 
 of the death of his grandfather's first wife. 
 
 ] 
 
33 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 Nor was this all the damage sustained by the monument. Its 
 removal was unluckily entrusted to persons ignorant of its beauty and 
 historical interest, who only thought of making the tomb fit the space 
 allotted to it. Most of the small kneeling figures were irreparably injured; 
 the alabaster columns remained in a builder's yard till destroyed by the 
 action of the weather^ and the escutcheons of arms were removed. The 
 fine old iron-work altogether disappeared (it became the property of the 
 builder in Midhurst, Grist by name^ who had the contract for the removal of 
 the monument to Easebourne), and the four obelisks which rose high above 
 the tomb at its angles were left to perish in the open air. 
 
 Nothing can now be done to restore the mutilated monument to its 
 original form. But the escutcheons, and two of the kneeling figures, have 
 fortunately been preserved, and these have recently been replaced by Lord 
 Spencer as nearly as possible in their original positions. Lord Montague's 
 original helmet has been cleaned from rust. A brass tablet has been 
 placed by Lord Spencer in Easebourne church, on which is the following 
 inscription : — 
 
 '^The Monument^ in memory of Sir Anthony Browne, first Viscount 
 Montague, K.G., who died 19 October 1592, aged 65, formerly stood over 
 the family vault in the Chancel of the Parish Church of Midhurst. Whence 
 it was removed in the year 1851 to the position in this church where it now 
 stands. The monument is surmounted by the sculptured figures of Sir 
 Anthony and his two wives — the Lady Jane RadclyfFe (daughter of Robert, 
 Earl of Sussex), who died at Cowdray 22d July 1552 ; and Magdalen Dacre 
 (daughter of William, Lord Dacre). 
 
 ^'This tablet was placed in Easebourne Church in the year 1883 by John 
 Poyntz, Earl Spencer, K.G., Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, grandson of the 
 Honourable Elizabeth Mary Poyntz, who died 30th December 1830. She 
 was the only sister of George Samuel^ eighth Viscount Montague, who died 
 in 1793.'^ 
 
 There was at Cowdray a portrait of the first Lord Montague, " in 
 his coronation robes, his coronet on his head^ and w^earing an immense 
 rufF.^^ This picture was unhappily destroyed in the fire, and no portrait 
 existed of either of Lord Montague's wives. It is therefore fortunate 
 that the effigies on the Browne monument have been preserved from 
 injury. 
 
 A fine full-length portrait of the first Viscount Montague is in the 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, 
 
 33 
 
 possession of the Marquess of Exeter at Burghley. It was painted by Lucas 
 de Heere. Lord Montague is represented in a rich dress, with the insignia 
 of the Order of the Garter. He wears a cap and holds his gloves in his 
 right hand. 
 
 The account of Lord Montague's possessions is curious.* "By the 
 inquisition taken after his decease, at Midhurst in Sussex, the 19th of April, 
 in 35 Elizabeth [1593], the jury found that he made his will the 19th of 
 July, 34 Elizabeth, and died on the 19th of October following; and that 
 Anthony Brown, Viscount Montagu, was his grandson and heir, and of the 
 age of nineteen years the ist of Febuary last, and was son and heir of 
 Anthony Brown (who died in his father's lifetime), son and heir to the 
 aforesaid Anthony Viscount Montagu, deceased. They also found that he 
 died seized of the manor of Battell, the manors of Barnehorne, Bread, Gate- 
 borough, Chiling, Mitchelham ; the farm of Maxfield with the appurtenances 
 in Gosling, and Westfield, Gatesborough, Marshes, &c., in Rye and Winchel- 
 sea ; the manors of Chiting-Poynings and Chiting-Balney ; the manors of 
 Loddesworth, West-Horseley, Effingham, and Verdley, and lands and tene- 
 ments called Tadham ; the manors of Lurgershall, Fullam, Saddlescomb, 
 Shulbread, Willinchmere alias Linchmere, Verdley alias Boxton, Begham, 
 Calceto, Westbrock near Bourne, Levenshot, and North and South Key : 
 the college of Hastings and rectory and advowson of the same; the scite of 
 the priory and demesne lands of the monastery of Welverley [Waverley] ; 
 the scite of the demesne lands of the priory of East-borne [Easeborne] ; the 
 manors of Wainborowe, Monkenhoke, Neatham, Dockenfield, Worthinge ; 
 the farms of Oxenforde, Northolt alias Monkton ; the rectories of East- 
 borne [Easeborne] and Farnhurst, and divers lands there; the manors of 
 Poynings-Pearching, Preston-Poynings, and Piggedeane : A capital house 
 called River-Park-House; the manors of Cowdray, Midhurst, Cocking, 
 Lynch, Rustington, Ripley, and Send, and Chapel-Farm, and Fendbarnes; 
 Jury Farm, Newark Priory, and the rectory of Send ; all in the county of 
 Sussex : The scite and mansion-house and priory of St. Mary Overies, with 
 the tenements, wharf, and liberties of the same ; the manors of Stralford, 
 Clifford, South Bradstone, Downe alias Downe-Farm, Blackwell Farm ; the 
 Warrenhouse and lands near Guilford Park ; the Alms-houses in Foyer 
 Lane, in the parish of the blessed Mary in Guilford ; the manors of Pirbright, 
 
 * Collins' Peerage, 
 
 i 
 
^4 
 
 SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K,G. 
 
 Stockwellj Pitford, Wichambreaux, Clayton,, and Stcdham^ and Oxenford 
 Farm; all in the county of Surrey; and the manor of Levenshothe in the 
 county of Kent." 
 
 On the death of Lord Montague his widow seems to have taken up her 
 residence at Battle Abbey, and to have acted there as Lady of the Manor. 
 It is not known whether Battle Abbey was her dower-house, or whether she 
 undertook the duties of Lord of the Manor on behalf of the second Lord 
 Montague. But among the Battle Abbey papers are Rolls of the First 
 High Court, View of Frankpledge, and Court Baron, holden by Magdalen 
 Viscountess Montague for the Manor of Battle, March 1593/' She con- 
 tinued to hold these courts and to receive " the Presentments of the 
 Homage until the year 1606. The date of her death is not to be found, 
 but as the courts of 1607 were held by Anthony second Viscount Montague, 
 it is probable that she died in 1606. 
 
 Lady Montague seems to have resided at St. Mary Overies during part 
 of 1593, and again in 1597, occupying the house built there by Sir Anthony 
 Browne [p. 14]. But she lived principally at Battle Abbey. Her memoirs, 
 written in Latin by her chaplain Richard Smith, still exist in the Grenville 
 Collection at the British Museum. From these, and from a curious "secret 
 information" found among the Burghley Papers, it appears that she, like her 
 husband, adhered steadfastly to the Roman Catholic religion. The informer 
 complains that "since the La. Montague's coming to dwell at Battel religion 
 in that countrey and especially in that towne is greatly decayed.^^ She 
 harboured recusants, amongst whom was one Gray, a priest who had been 
 imprisoned, but who, says the report, " now liveth in my ladye's house, being 
 suspected to doe much harme both with the Deane^ and others thereabouts." 
 The anger of the inhabitants of Battle was roused to a great pitch by the 
 conduct of Lady Montague's retainers when the report was spread that the 
 Spaniards had landed at three places in Sussex. The whole town was in 
 "the greatest hurly-burly,'^ but "at the same time my Lad. Montague's 
 people, seeing the towne of Battel in that uprore and miserable state, 
 rejoiced, and shewed signes of joy; in so much that the people fel to greate 
 exclamations and cursinges of them openly in the streates." 
 
 Sir George Browne, the eldest son of Lord Montague by his second 
 
 * John Wytheiis, who was Dean of Battle for forty-four years. 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 35 
 
 wife, knighted at Cowdray by Queen Elizabeth_, was the ancestor of the 
 Brownes, Baronets^ of Wickham in Kent. From his brother, Sir Henry 
 Browne, the Brownes, also Baronets, of Kiddington in Oxfordshire are 
 descended. 
 
 Lord Montague^s daughters by his second wife all married. Elizabeth, 
 the eldest, became the wife of the first Baron Dormer of Winge ; Mabel 
 married Sir Henry Capel, ancestor of the Earls of Essex ; and Jane, the 
 youngest, married Sir Francis Lacon of Willey in Shropshire. 
 
 The saying in Baker's Chronicle that Lord Montague was ^^a great 
 Roman Catholick " is fully borne out by the confession elicited from Robert 
 Gray, a priest. This person was examined by Topclyfe, '^the famous 
 persecutor of Papists. '' At first " he showed himself very obstinate/^ but 
 on a third examination he said enough to show that Lord Montague both 
 favoured and harboured Roman Catholic priests. The original of the paper 
 in which this confession appears is in Topclyfe*s own handwriting. He 
 says : " In his third confession, 39th of August 1593, after warning, and that 
 Robert Graye is told how he hath dissembled in his former confession, 
 and denied that he had spoken with any Jhezewitt or Seminary priest 
 since he did come to the old Viscount Montague's service, now again he is 
 told that it is discovered by letters and by apparent confessions that he hath 
 been in the company of divers Jhezewitts and beyond-sea priests in Sussex, 
 Surrey, in or about London, Bucks, and elsewhere, within these six years; 
 that the names of divers of them be known, and the places of their haunts. 
 At length he sayeth and confesseth that in summer, now three full years 
 last past, he being at Cowdray with his lord and master. Sir George Browne, 
 that now is. Knight, did come to him and did ask him if he would go with 
 him to speak with a learned man, and this examinant said yea. Then they 
 two went together, and Sir George brought this examinant to one Denny's 
 house to Todham,"^ half a mile from Cowdray, and there Sir George brought 
 this examinant up into a chamber where they found a man sitting in his 
 cloak, of above forty years old, long slender face, black hair of head, and a 
 little beard black, whom since he heard was Father Curry the Jhezewitt. 
 
 * The fine old manor-house of Todham was demolished early in the present century. Drawings 
 of it are among the Burrell Collection in the British Museum. One of the rooms had a richly orna- 
 mented ceiling covered with coats of arms : in another room the same coats of arms were arranged 
 in compartments on the wall. 
 
36 
 
 SIR JNTHONY BROWNE, K.G. 
 
 But of whom he hath heard so at that or any time this examinant doth no 
 way remember. And he and also Sir George Browne had talk with the 
 said Curry about a contract of marriage betwixt Mrs. Constance Cussalde 
 (or Cafelde) and a gentleman. And they talked also of old Garnett's 
 matters. He sayeth that they three tarried together not above half one hour, 
 and so departed, and he did never see Curry the Jhezewitt after nor before, 
 nor never heard from him by letter, writing, or message since, nor ever did 
 hear of him before or since. But once that he heard that the said Curry 
 was at River Park, where Mr. Anthony Browne was living, son and heir to 
 the old lord. . . . He remembereth that when the Lord Montague, his old 
 master, and the Lady Viscountess his wife, were at Wynge with Sir Robert 
 Dormer, about St. James' tide in the next summer before the Queen's 
 majesty was at Cowdray, or a day or two before the Assumption of the 
 Virgin Mary 1590, this examinant's lord and master and lady being at 
 Sir Robert Dormer's (who hath married their daughter Elizabeth) for the 
 space of five or six days, there was during those five or six days there one 
 Mr. Harris, a priest, whom he did hear that he had used much with the 
 Lady Babington. A tall man, blackish hair of head and beard. And 
 this man, during this time, did always (for the time of the Lady Montague 
 and the ladies being at Wynge) dine and sup and lodge in Sir Robert 
 Dormer's house — -Sir Robert Dormer and his wife being at home there at 
 Wynge. And this examinant did daily resort into the said priest^s chamber, 
 called that Mr. Harris, and conferred with him, the said Harris. And 
 during that time he did never see the said Harris go or come out of his 
 chamber. But that he did twice, upon two several days, talk with the said 
 Harris, and so did the Lady Montague, with my lord, and the now young 
 Lady Dormer their daughter, they all being there in Mr. Harris' chamber. 
 He doth well remember that Harris moved the lord and lady to be good to 
 Anthony Garnett, and they both said to Mr. Harris then, that neither of 
 them both did malice Garnett. Examinant resolutely answered that he 
 would not accuse himself, having been asked if he had said mass there, but 
 be did not deny it, but would not confess whether Harris did or not. 'For 
 if he see an hundred priests say masses he would not accuse one of them 
 thereof.' He confesseth that he hath seen Dowlman and Jackson at 
 Cowdray, in his lord and master's house; and his lord and the old lady 
 did speak with them, both his lord and his lady knowing them to be 
 priests. Dowlman and Jackson did dine in examinant's chamber, and did 
 
 1 
 
FIRST VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 37 
 
 both lodge there at Cowdray one night. And this was three or four 
 years passed. Robert Gray, Priest. 
 
 Confessed before me, Richard Topclyfe." * 
 
 Robert Gray was no doubt the priest who was sheltered by the widowed 
 Viscountess Montague at Battle Abbey [p. 34] . 
 
 In a letter to Lord Burghley, also dated 1593, Topclyfe tells him that 
 " Francis Ridcall, the rebel and traitorous priest, late steward to the old 
 Lord and Lady Montague/' had fled ^^from his farm and goods worth c^iooo 
 which was near to Woking, Surrey, upon land belonging to Lord Mon- 
 tague.^' Ridcall first took refuge with Sir Robert and Lady Dormer and 
 Harris, her traitorous seminary priest/^ He then went to Edward Bentley, 
 lately condemned for treason, but at liberty,'^ who had married a niece of 
 Lord Montague. The Bentleys lived in a tower belonging to Lord Windsor 
 in Derbyshire, and sheltered Ridcall in a wood close by. When Garnett 
 and Gray were apprehended, Ridcall fled to the north. Topclyfe adds that 
 he expected to catch him, having seized the father and mother of his guides. 
 But this expectation does not appear to have been realised. [Records of the 
 English Province of the Society of Jesus j vol. ii. p. 1^73.] 
 
 * State Papers, 1593, vol. ccxlv. 138, Quoted in Records of the English Province of the Society 
 of Jesus, vol. ii. p. 430. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 iDueen (2BH?abet{) at Cototirag^ 
 
 HE very scarce pamphlet which gave an account of the Queen's 
 visit to Cowdray was reprinted in "The Progresses and 
 Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth/' collected by John 
 Nichols, F.S.A. 
 
 The Honoralle Entertainment given to her MAJESTIE in Progresse at 
 COWDRAY in Sussex, hy the Right Honoralle the Lord MONTE- 
 CUTE, anno i^gi, August 15. 
 
 Printed hy Thomas Scarlet, and are to bee solde hy Willaim IVright, dwelling 
 in Paiiles Churchyard, neere to the French Schoole. 1591. 
 
 The Queene, having dyned at Farnham, came with a great traine to the 
 Right Honorable the Lord Mountague's, on Saterdaie, being the 15 daie of 
 August, about eight of the clocke at night ; where, upon sight of her Majestic, 
 loud musicke sounded, which at her enteraunce on the bridge suddenly 
 ceased. Then was a speech delivered by a personage in armour, standing 
 betweene two porters^ carved out of wood, he resembling the third ; holding 
 his club in one hand, and a key of golde in the other; as followeth: 
 
 Sat er day, August 15. 
 
 The Porter^s Speech. 
 
 ^'The walles of Thebes were raised by musicke: by musick these are 
 kept from falling. It was a prophesie since the first stone was layde, that 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY, 
 
 39 
 
 these walles should shake_, and the roofe totter, till the wisest, the fairest, 
 and most fortunate of all creatures, should by her first steppe make the 
 foundation staid, and by the glaunce of her eyes make the turret steddie. 
 I have beene here a porter manie yeeres ; many ladies have entred passing 
 amiable, many verie wise, none so happie. These, my fellow-porters, think- 
 ing there could be none so noble, fell on sleepe, and so incurde the seconde 
 curse of the prophesie, which is, never againe to awake. Marke how they 
 looke, more like postes than porters, retaining onlie their shapes, but 
 deprived of sences. I thought rather to cut off my eie liddes than to winke 
 till I saw the ende. And now it is : for the musick is at an end, this house 
 immoveable, your vertue immortall. O miracle of Time! Nature^s glorie! 
 Fortune's Empresse ! the World's Wonder ! Soft, this is the poet's part and 
 not the porter's. I have nothing to present but the crest of mine office, this 
 keie: Enter, possesse all, to whom the heavens have vouchsafed all. As for 
 the Owner of this house, mine honourable Lord, his tongue is the keie of 
 his heart, and his heart the locke of his soule. Therefore what he speakes 
 you may constantly beleeve ; which is that in duetie and service to your 
 Majestic he would be second to none: in praieing for your happinesse 
 equall to anie. 
 
 " TuuSy 0 Regina, quod optas explorare favor : huicjussa capescere fas est.'^ 
 Wherewithall her Highnes tooke the keye, and said, she would swear 
 for him there was none more faithfull : then being alighted, she embraced 
 the Ladie Montecute and the Ladie Dormir her daughter. The Mistresse of 
 the house (as it were weeping in her bosome) said, O happie time ! O 
 joyfull daie!" 
 
 That night her Majestic tooke her rest, and so in like manner the next 
 day, which was Sunday, being most Royallie feasted. The proportion of 
 breakefast was three oxen, and one hundred and fourtie geese. 
 
 Mundaie, August 17. 
 
 On Munday, at eight of the clock in the morning, her Highnes took 
 horse with all her traine, and rode into the parke : where was a delicate bowre 
 prepared, under the which were her Highnesse musicians placed, and acrosse- 
 bowe by a Nymph, with a sweet song, delivered to her hands to shoote at 
 the deere, about some thirtie in number, put into a paddock, of which number 
 she killed three or four, and the Countesse of Kildare one. 
 
 Then rode hir Grace to Cowdrey to dinner, and aboute six of the 
 
40 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDR/IY, 
 
 clocke ill the evening, from a turret, sawe sixteene buckes (all having fayre 
 lawe) pulled downe with greyhoundes in a laund.* All the huntinge ordered 
 by Maister Henrie Browne, the Lord Montague's third sonne, Raunger of 
 Windsore forest. 
 
 Tuesdaie, August i8. 
 
 On Tewsday hir Majestie wente to dinner to the Priory^ where my Lorde 
 himselfe kept house; and there was shee and hir Lordes most bountifully 
 feasted. After dinner she came to view my Lorde's vvalkes, where shee was 
 mette by a Pilgrime clad in a coat of russet velvet, fashioned to his calling: 
 his hatte being of the same^ with skallop-shelles of cloth of silver, who delivered 
 hir a speach in this sort following : 
 
 Pilgrime. 
 
 " Fairest of all creatures^ vouchsafe to hear a prayer of a Pilgrime, which 
 shall be shorte, and the petition which is but reasonable. God graunt the 
 worlde maie ende with your life, and your life more happie than anie in the 
 world : that is my praier. I have travelled manie countries, and in all countries 
 desire antiquities. In this Hand (but a spanne in respect of the World) and 
 in this Shire (but a finger in regard of your realme) I have heard great cause 
 of wonder, some of complaint. Harde by, and so neere as your Majesty shall 
 almost passe by, I saw an Oke, whose stateliness nayled mine eies to the 
 branches, and the ornamentes beguiled my thoughtes with astonishment. I 
 thought it free, being in the fielde, but I found it not so. For at the verie 
 entrie I mette I know not with what rough-hewed ruffian, whose armes were 
 carved out of knotty box, for I could receive nothing of him but boxes; so hastie 
 was he to strike, he had no leysure to speake. I thought there were more 
 waies to the wood than one; and finding another passage, I found also a 
 Ladie verie faire, but passing frowarde, whose wordes set mee in a greater 
 heate then the blowes. I asked her name ? she said it was Peace. I wondred 
 that Peace could never holde her peace. I cannot perswade myselfe, since 
 that time, but that there is a waspe's nest in mine eares. T returned discon- 
 tent. But if it will please your Highnesse to view it^ that rude champion at 
 your faire feete will laie downe his foule head : and at your becke that Ladie 
 will make her mouth her tongues mue. Happelie your Majestie shall finde 
 some content; I more antiquities.'' 
 
 * Laund, a lawn. 
 
 1 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY. 
 
 41 
 
 Then did the Pilgrime conduct hir Highnes to an Oke not farre off, 
 whereon hir Majestie's arms and all the armes of the Noblemen and Gentle- 
 men of that Shire were hanged in escutcheons most beutifull. And a 
 Wilde Man, cladde in ivie, at the sight of hir Highnesse, spake as followeth : 
 
 The Wilde Man*s Speech at the Tree. 
 
 ^'Mightie Princesse, whose hapines is attended by the Heavens, and 
 whose government is wondered at upon the earth, vouchsafe to heare why 
 this passage is kept, and this Oke honoured. The whole World is drawen 
 in a mappe : the Heavens in a globe ; and this Shire shrunke in a tree ; and 
 what your Majestic hath often heard off with some comfort you may now 
 beholde with full content. This Oke, from whose bodie so many armes doe 
 spread, and out of whose armes so many fingers spring, resembles in parte 
 your strength and hapinesse; strength in the number and the honour; hap- 
 pinesse, in the trueth and consent. All heartes of oke, than which nothing 
 more constant, more naturall. The Avail of this Shire is the sea, strong, but 
 rampired with true hearts, invincible; where every private man's eie is a 
 beacon to discover, everie noble man's power a bulwarke to defende. Here 
 they are all differing somewhat in degrees, not duetie: the greatnes of the 
 branches, not the greenesse. Your Majestic they account the Oke, the tree 
 of Jupiter, whose root is so deeplie fastened, that Treacherie, though she 
 undermine to the centre, cannot finde the windinges ; and whose toppe is so 
 highlie reared that Envie, though she shoote on copheigth,* cannot reach 
 her, under whose armes they have both shade and shelter. Well wot they 
 that your enemies lightnings are but flashes, and their thunder, which fills 
 the whole world with a noise of conquest, shall ende with a soft shower of 
 retreate. Be then as confident in your steppes as Caesar was in his fortune : 
 his proceedings but of conceit ; yours of vertue. Abroad courage hath made 
 you feared, at home honoured clemencie ; clemencie which the owner of this 
 grove hath tasted in such sort that his thoughts are become his heart's 
 laberinth, surprized with joie and loialtie; joie without measure; loyaltie 
 without end, living in no other ayer than that which breathes your Majestie's 
 safetie. 
 
 For himselfe, and all these honourable Lordes and Gentlemen, whose 
 
 * Cop-head was the word for a tuft of feathers or hair on the head of an animal " Copheight " 
 probably means a great height. 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY. 
 
 shieldes your Majestic doeth here beholde^ I can say this^ that as the veines 
 are dispersed through all the bodic^ yet when the heart feelcth any extreame 
 passion, sende all their bloud to the heart for comfort : so they being in 
 divers places_, when your Majestic shall but stande in feare of any daunger 
 will bring their bodies, their purses, their soulcs, to your Highncsse, being 
 their Heart, their Head, and their Soveraigne. This passage is kept straight, 
 and the Pilgrimc, I feare, hath complained : but such a disguised worlde it 
 is, that one can scarce know a Pilgrimc from a Priest, a Tayler from a 
 Gentleman, nor a Man from a Woman ; everie man seeming to be that 
 which they are not, onelie doe practise what they should not. The Heavens 
 guyde you, your Majestic governes us : though our peace be envied by them, 
 yet we hope it shall be eternall. — Elizahetha Deus nobis haec otia fecit'' 
 
 Then, upon the winding of a cornette, was a most excellent crie of 
 hounds, and three buckes kilde by the bucke hounds; and so went all backe 
 to Cowdrey to supper. 
 
 Wednesdaie, August 19. 
 
 On Wednesdaie the Lordes and Ladies dined in the walkes, feasted most 
 sumptuously at a table foure and twentie yards long. 
 
 In the beginning, hir Majestic comming to take the pleasure of the walks 
 was delighted with most delicate musicke, and brought to a goodlie fish-pond, 
 where was an Angler, that, taking no notice of hir Majestic, spake as 
 followeth : 
 
 The Angler's Speech. 
 
 " Next rowing in a westerne barge well fare angling. I have bin here 
 this two houres, and cannot catch an oyster. It may be for lacke of a bait, 
 and that were hard in this nibling world, where everie man laics bait for 
 another. In the Citie, merchants bait their tongues with a lie and an 
 oath, and so make simple men swallow deceitful wares : and fishing for 
 commoditie is growen so farre that men are become fishes, for landlordes 
 put such sweete baits on rackt rents that as good it were to be a perch in a 
 pike's belly, as a tenant in theyr farmes. All our trade is grown to trecherie, 
 for now fish are caught with medecines ; which are as unwholsom as love 
 procured by witchcraft unfortunate. We Anglers make our lines of divers 
 colours according to the kindes of waters : so men do their loves, aiming at 
 
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY. 
 
 43 
 
 the complexion of the faces. Thus Merchandize, Love, and Lordships, sucke 
 venom out of virtue. I think I shall fish all daie and catch a frog : the 
 cause is neither in the line, the hooke, nor the bait, but some thing there is 
 over beautifull which stayeth the verie niinow (of all fish the most eager) 
 from biting. For this w^e Anglers observe, that the shadow of a man turneth 
 back the fish. What will then the sight of a Goddesse ? 'Tis best angling 
 in a lowring daie, but here the sunne so glisters that the fish see my hooke 
 through my bait. But, soft, here be the Netters : these be they cannot 
 content them with a dish of fish for their supper, but will drawe a whole 
 pond for a market." 
 
 This saide, he espied a fisherman drawing his nettes towarde where hir 
 Majestic was. And calling alowde to him, 
 
 "Hoe, Sirra'^ (quoth the Angler) j "What shall I give thee for thy 
 draughte ? 
 
 " If there be never a Whale in it, take it for a noble," quoth the Netter. 
 Ang, " Be there any * maydes there ? 
 Net. " Maydes, foole ! they be sea-fish." 
 "Why?" 
 
 Net. "Venus was borne of the sea, and ^tis reason she should have 
 maydes to attend hir.'^ 
 
 Then turned he to the Queene : and after a small pawse, spake as 
 followeth : 
 
 "Madam, it is an olde saying, There is no fishing to the sea, nor service 
 to the king : but it holdes when the sea is calme and the king vertuous. 
 Your vertue maketh Envie blush and stand amazed at your happines. I 
 come not to tell the art of fishing, nor the natures of fish, nor their daintines • 
 but with a poor fisherman^s wish, that all the hollow hearts to your Majestic 
 were in my net, and if there be more then it will holde, I woulde they were 
 in the sea till I went thether a fishing. There be some so muddie minded 
 that they cannot live in a cleere river, but a standing poole : as camells will 
 not drinke tell they have troubled the water with their feet, so can they never 
 stanch their thirst till they have disturbed the state with their trecheries. 
 Soft, these are no fancies for fishermen. Yes, true hearts are as good as full 
 purses, the one the sinues of warre, the other the armes. A dish of fish is an 
 unworthy present for a Prince to accept : there be some carpes amongst them, 
 
 * Maid, the thorn-back ray, a salt-water fish. 
 
44 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COIVDRAY. 
 
 no carpers of state ; if there be, I would they might bee handled lyke carpes, 
 their tongues pulled out. Some pearches there are, I am sure ; and if anie 
 pearch higher then in dutie they ought, I would they might sodenly picke 
 over the pearch for me. Whatsoever there is, if it be good it is all yours, 
 most vertuous Ladie, that are best worthie of all/* 
 Then was the Net drawen. 
 
 The Netter having presented all the lishe of the ponde, and laying it at 
 hir feete^ departed. 
 
 That evening she hunted. 
 
 Thursday, August 20. 
 
 On Thursday she dined in the privie walkes in the garden, and the 
 Lordes and Ladies at a table of fortie-eight yardes long. In the evening the 
 countrie people presented themselves to hir Majestic in a pleasaunt daunce, 
 with taber and pipe ; and the Lorde Montague and his Lady among them, 
 to the great pleasure of all the beholders, and gentle applause of hir 
 Majestic. 
 
 Fry day J August 21. 
 On Friday she departed towards Chichester, 
 
 Going through the arbour to take horse, stoode sixe gentlemen, whom 
 hir Majestic knighted ; the Lorde Admirall laying the sworde on their 
 shoulders. 
 
 The names of the six Knights then made were these ; viz. : — 
 
 Sir George Browne, my Lordes second sonne. 
 
 Sir Robert Dormer, his sonne in lawe. 
 
 Sir Henry Goaring. 
 
 Sir Henry Glcmham. 
 
 Sir John Carrell. 
 
 Sir Nicholas Parker. 
 
 So departed hir Majestic to the dining- place, whether the Lord Mon- 
 tague and his sonnes, and the Sheriff of the Shire, attended with a goodly 
 companie of gentlemen, brought hir Highnes. 
 
 The escutchions on the Oke remaine, and there shall hange till they can 
 hang together one peece by another. 
 
 Falete. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 antftong S^ma IBrotone, seconli Uimixnt £5@ontague* 
 
 NTHONY MARIA BROWNE, second Viscount Montague, 
 the young childe very comely," who had been taken to 
 Tilbury Fort^ succeeded his grandfather in the October of 
 159^^. -He was then only twenty, but he had been married 
 since the February of 1591 to Lady Jane Sackville, daughter 
 of Thomas first Earl of Dorset, Lord High Treasurer of England. 
 
 He it was who compiled the curious Book of Orders and Rules, for 
 the direction of his household;* an abstract of which will be found in 
 the next chapter. This book still exists; it is in the possession of Mr. 
 Alexander Brown, and is beautifully written. On the title-page the shield 
 of sixteen quarterings surmounted by the coronet is carefully drawn in ink. 
 The preface, signed Anthony Mountague, follows : then the Table, or Index. 
 This portion of the book occupies five pages, written on one side of the 
 leaf. The rest of the book fills twenty-nine pages closely written on both 
 sides of the leaf. The book is simply bound, in thin boards, and is in 
 perfect preservation. 
 
 Horace Walpole mentions the second Lord Montague in his catalogue 
 of royal and noble authors, but his remarks are anything but compli- 
 mentary. In speaking of the Book of Household Rules he says, " It is a 
 ridiculous piece of mimicry of royal grandeur ; an instance of ancient pride, 
 
 * This book was printed in the Sussex Archceological Collections^ vol. vii. 
 
46 
 
 ANTHONY MARIA BROWNE, 
 
 the more remarkable as the peer who drew it up was then barely twenty- 
 four years of age. There are no fewer than thirty-six different ranks of 
 servants whom he calls his officers ; and yet it is observable though the 
 whole line were rigid Catholics, that no mention is made of his chaplains 
 or priests. His only ecclesiastic is his almoner^ and his business_, it seems, 
 was to light the fires in his hall/^ 
 
 But Horace Walpole, and many others since his time^ make a mistake 
 in supposing that this almoner (who is the last but one on the list of the 
 members of Lord Montague's household) was an ecclesiastic. He was 
 called the almoner, as he assisted the porter at the gate in the distribution 
 to the poor of alms, broken bread, and meat and beer; but in reality he 
 was a servant under the orders of the usher of the Hall. 
 
 In spite of Horace Walpole's severe remarks, the second Lord 
 Montague seems to have been looked upon as "a patron of literature.'^ 
 For in 1596 a copy of allegorical verses was dedicated to him by Anthony 
 Copley. The poem was called, A Fig for Fortune. Four years before 
 it was written, Copley was described as "the most desperate youth that 
 liveth. He did shoot at a gentleman last summer^ and did kill an ox with 
 a musket, and in Horsham church he threw his dagger at the parish clerk, 
 and stuck it in a seat of the church. There liveth not his like in England 
 for sudden attempts." * In the poem dedicated to Lord Montague, Copley 
 explains to his patron, that though he had been disastred for virtue," he 
 was ^^now winnowed by the fan of grace and Zionry.^' His improvement, 
 however, was but of short duration, for in 1603 he was tried and convicted 
 for his participation with Sir Walter Raleigh in the Arabella Stuart plot, and 
 though eventually pardoned, he at the time narrowly escaped with his life. 
 
 Probably the most beautiful picture at Cowdray was that by Isaac 
 Oliver (who died in 1617), of the second Lord Montague and his brothers. 
 It was most fortunately saved from the fire. The original is now at 
 Burghley. From Mrs. Poyntz, the last heiress of the Brownes of Cowdray, 
 it passed to her daughter Isabella Poyntz, wife of the second Marquess of 
 Exeter. A beautiful copy of the picture by Sherwin is now at Althorp.f 
 
 * Letter to Queen Elizabeth from Topclyffe. [Records of the English Province of the Society of 
 /esus, vol. i. p. 355. Sussex Archaological Collections, vol. xiv. p. 264.] 
 
 t This copy belonged to Frances Selina Poyntz, wife of the eighteenth Lord Clinton. Lady 
 Clinton left it to her niece Lady Sarah Spencer, by whom it was given to her brother the present 
 Earl Spencer. 
 
 1 
 
SECOND VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, 
 
 47 
 
 Of this picture by Oliver, Horace Walpole says, ''At the Lord Montacute^s 
 at Cowdray, is another invaluable work of Isaac. It represents three brothers, 
 of that lord^s family, whole lengths, in black : their ages twenty-one, twenty- 
 four, and eighteen, with the painter's mark ^. These young gentlemen 
 resembled each other remarkably; a peculiarity observable in the picture, 
 the motto on which is Figures conformis affectus, 1598. Another person is 
 coming into the room, aged twenty-one. The picture is ten inches by seven.'^ 
 The eldest of these youths was of course Lord Montague, the second was 
 John, and the third William, who became a Jesuit lay brother. John 
 
 married Anne, the daughter of GifFord, and from their eldest son, 
 
 Stanislaus Browne, Mark Anthony, the ninth and last Viscount Montague, 
 was descended.* 
 
 There was another picture of the second Lord Montague at Cowdray, a 
 three-quarter length on panel, but this was burnt. 
 
 It is said that Lord Montague " very commendably followed the example 
 of his grandfather.'^ He certainly was greatly esteemed by his father-in-law 
 the Earl of Dorset,t who thus mentions him in his will : '' To my dearly 
 beloved son-in-law, Anthony Browne Viscount Mountague, a great gilt cup 
 with his arms therein to be graven, of the weight of 300 oz., desiring his lord- 
 ship to keep it as a remembrance of his hearty love to him. . . . Considering 
 as well the great incertitude of mortall comfortes, as the common ingratitude 
 of this iniquitous world, where for the most parte mislikes and misconceipts, 
 though never so unjustly apprehended, are graven in brasse, and good tournes 
 and benefittes, thoughe never so kindlie bestowed, are written in the duste." 
 
 It was no doubt owing to the influence of Lord Dorset that Lord 
 Montague suflered only fine and imprisonment for his complicity in the 
 Gunpowder Plot. He, Lord Mordaunt, Lord Stourton, and the Earl of 
 Northumberland were the four powerful Roman Catholic peers who were 
 looked upon as the main support of the Catholic cause in England. 
 
 * Stanislaus Browne lived at Easebourne. He married Honor, the daughter of a merchant 
 named Malbrank who had settled at Cadiz. She was heir to her brother in the manor of Methley 
 in Warwickshire. Francis, the eldest son of Stanislaus and Honor Browne, preferred living at 
 Cadiz, and gave up Methley to his brother Mark. Mark Browne of Easebourne, Lord of Methley, 
 married twice. By his second wife Anastasia, the fourth daughter of Sir Richard Moore, Bart, of 
 Fawley in Berkshire, he had several children. The eldest was Mark Anthony Browne, ninth 
 Viscount Montague. Mark Browne died on the 7th of February 1755, when his son Mark Anthony 
 was only ten years old, and was buried at Midhurst. [Extinct Peerages, by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster.] 
 
 t Lord Dorset died suddenly in 1608, whilst seated at the council table at Whitehall. 
 
48 
 
 jlNTHONY MARIA BROWNE, 
 
 In less than eight weeks after the capture of Guy Fawkcs all these lords 
 were prisoners in the Tower. Lord Montague's case was particularly serious, 
 as Guy Fawkes had been a member of his great household at Cowdray. 
 Besides this, he was known to have intended to be absent from his place in 
 Parliament on the fifth of November in consequence of a hint from Sir Robert 
 Catesby. Lord Montague was asked to explain these circumstances. He 
 made a somewhat shuffling reply. Guy Fawkes had been placed in his house- 
 hold by his grandfather the first Viscount Montague, when he himself was 
 only nineteen and newly married. But Guy Fawkes had only remained with 
 him for four months. When Ldrd Montague was asked if he had ever seen 
 Guy Fawkes since that time^ he owned that after old Lord Montague's death 
 Guy had served at his table and slept in his house. This, however, he endea- 
 voured to explain by saying that his steward Spencer, a relative of Guy's, 
 had allowed him to spend a few days in the house at Montague Close when 
 Lord Montague was there, and had made use of him in the service of the 
 table. But he added that this had occurred twelve years before the Gun- 
 powder Plot, and that he had scarcely seen or thought of Guy Fawkes since. 
 As to Catesby's hint. Lord Montague declared that when they met in the 
 Strand on " the Tuesday fortnight before All Saints' Day/' as Lord Montague 
 was on his way to dine in the Savoy, their conversation had turned merely 
 on general subjects. Lord Montague owned that he had meant to be 
 absent in the country on the day of the opening of Parliament if he 
 could, through Lord Dorset, obtain leave from the King. If he could 
 not get leave he intended to have been in his place. His grandmother, 
 the old Viscountess Montague, had urged him not to go unless he could 
 get a sufficient leave of absence, as the hard riding would be too much 
 for his health. 
 
 This was Lord Montague's explanation of the suspicious circumstances 
 in which he found himself. He was forthwith brought before the Star 
 Chamber, and condemned to pay a fine of four thousand pounds, and to 
 be imprisoned during the King's pleasure. 
 
 Lord Montague escaped more easily than did his friends. He com- 
 pounded for his fine^ and was released after an imprisonment in the Tower 
 of about forty weeks.* 
 
 * The State Papers giving an account of Lord Montague's connection with Guy Fawkes and 
 the Gunpowder Plot were examined by Mr. Hep worth Dixon, and quoted by him in Ber Majesty s 
 J^ower, vol. ii. chap. xxii. p. 229. 
 
SECOND VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 49 
 
 Lord Montague had only one son^ Francis. Of his six daughters Anne 
 and Lucy became nuns '^beyond sea;^^* Mary married^ first^ William Lord 
 St. John of Basing, eldest son of the Marquess of Winchester (who died in 
 his father's lifetime), and^ secondly, William, the second son of Lord Arundel 
 ofWardour ; Catherine married William Tirwhitt of Kettleby in Lincoln- 
 shire; Frances married John Blomer of Hathorp in Gloucestershire; and the 
 youngest daughter, another Mary, married Robert Petre, afterwards third 
 Lord Petre. 
 
 From the Book of Household Rules it might be thought that Lord 
 Montague did all in his power to avoid extravagance and waste. But in his 
 later life he was greatly impoverished. The payment of part of his heavy 
 fine, the maintenance of his large establishment, and the keeping up of 
 his five houses. Battle, Cowdray, Byflete, West Horsley, and Montague Close, 
 may in some degree account for his indebtedness.f But in other ways his 
 expenditure was lavish ; for, on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess 
 Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine in 1612, he gave fifteen hundred pounds to 
 his two daughters in order that they might be suitably dressed at the wedding. 
 It is not therefore to, be wondered at that among the half-burnt papers found 
 at Cowdray by Sir Sibbald Scott in 1853 ^ fragment of a petition to 
 the King for pecuniary help. Only the beginning could be found ; it ran 
 thus : — 
 
 ^^The [humble petition of] Viscount Mount[ague towjards the Payment 
 of his Debts and Charge of his Daughters' Portions. 
 
 In most humble wise beseecheth your moste [excellent Majesty your 
 humble and loyal subject Anthony Viscount Mountague, as well for himself 
 as on the behalfe of the Lady Mary Ste. John, Frances Browne, Mary Peter, 
 daughters of your said . . . '' J 
 
 As Mary Browne married Robert Petre in 1620, this petition must have 
 been prepared after that date; but it is not known if it was ever presented 
 to the King. 
 
 * In 1651 the first stone of the convent of the Poor Clares at Rouen was laid there by 
 seven young English ladies of rank. Two of these were the daughters of Lady Montague, and 
 they afterwards became nuns there. [Records of the English Province of the Society of /esus, 
 vol. iv. p. 30.] 
 
 + The second Viscount Montague sold the estate of Waverley Abbey to the Coldham family. 
 [Brayley's History of Sttrrey, vol. v.] 
 
 :|: Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. vii. p. 179. 
 
 G 
 
50 ANTHONY, SECOND VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 Lord Montague died on the 23d of October 1629, and was buried under 
 the great Browne monument in Midhurst Church. 
 
 His widow survived him for many years. She sent a petition to the 
 House of Lords,* for help in repairing the damage sustained by her pro- 
 perty during the occupation of Cowdray by the parliamentary army, and 
 it may therefore be concluded that she resided at Cowdray and not at 
 Battle. 
 
 * Journal of ike House of Lords ^ vol. vii. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 C|)e QBooli of ^ousefjolD J3^nltg. 
 
 HEN the second Viscount Montague compiled his Book of 
 Household Rules he was only twenty-three years of age. But 
 in the book he shows great forethought, carefully even providing 
 for tymes of extraordinary action/' such as the marriage of 
 his children. The title of the book is as follows: — 
 
 A Booke of Orders and Rules established by 
 me Anthony Viscount Mountague for the 
 better direction and governmente 
 of my householde and family, 
 together with the severall 
 dutyes and charges 
 apperteynninge to 
 myne officers 
 and other 
 servantts. 
 
 Whereunto I have prefixed a preface declaringe my 
 purpose and intendement in that behalf, with 
 a brief view of the severall matters 
 which are herein handeled ann- 
 sweringe to the particular 
 treatises as they are 
 placed in the 
 Booke. 
 Anno Domini 1 59^, 
 
52 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 Lord Montague explains in his preface the object of his Book of Rules : — 
 For as moche as neither publique weale nor private family can continue 
 or long endure without lawes, ordinances^ and statutes to guyde and direct 
 ytt, nor without prudent and experienced ministers to execute the same : 
 1, therefore^ being desirous to live orderly and quietly within my lymytte, 
 and to mayntayne the estate of myne honor and callinge, according to my 
 degree, have esteemed ytt meete for the accomplishmente thereof, to sett 
 downe and declare in this Book of Orders ensewinge_, myne own opinion, 
 judgement, and resolution touching the manner and order of the government 
 of my private house and family ; and what officers and other servantts I 
 shalbe occasioned to use, what number of them, and what different 
 authoritye and place every one of them shall have in their degrees ; 
 together with a distinction of their severall charge, office, or dutye where- 
 unto they shall be particularly deputed and assigned. All whiche I have 
 thoroughely considered of with the most mature and deliberate advice that 
 either myself or others whom I have thoughte in theise affayres best 
 experienced weare any wayes able to affiDrde. And I dare boldely affirme 
 that they are both honourable and profitable to myselfe and very easye to 
 alle my servantts ; whiche be the especiall respectes that I did propose unto 
 myself in the very beginninge when I first intended to sett downe orders, 
 and whiche I have sythence carefully observed in the pennynge of them. 
 The first whereof I have affected for myne owne behoofe and contentement : 
 the other for the behoofe of my servantts, uppon whome I would not wyll- 
 ingly ympose that service whiche they shall notte be able even with greate 
 facillitye and quiett to themselves to performe ; whiche being soe done on 
 my parte I am likewise to expecte, and soe doe vehemently both expecte 
 and require of them that they doe carefully and dilligently ymploye them- 
 selves to performe their dutyes unto me in their service after suche manner 
 as I have here prescribed: whiche, if they shall fayle to doe, they are in 
 reason to conceave that accordinge to the quallitye of their contempt they 
 shall incurre my like discontentment with them ; and that much more than 
 if they had been tyed to more harde and unequall condicdns. But if I 
 shall perceave that they shall dulye and comendably dispose themselves to 
 the performance of their severall partes and dutyes they shall be well 
 assured to have att my handes that countenance, creditt, and advancement 
 whiche shalbe meete for them to receave and for me to yelde unto them.'' 
 The preface concludes thus : — Ytt only nowe resteth that I exhorte, 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 53 
 
 admonishe, and require all my people of what sorte soever that they 
 studiously ymbrace unitye, peace, and goode agreemente amonge them- 
 selves as the only means whereby they shall procure quiett and commen- 
 dacon to themselves and much honor and comforte to me; and that they 
 forbeare to be the revengers of their owne wrongs (if any be offered), 
 referringe themselves and their cause to my stewarde or other officers 
 appoynted in that behalfe, who, if they shall not yelde unto them suche 
 satisfaccon as shalbe in reason meete, they may boldely repayre to myself, 
 who desire noe longer to be Governowe of a family than I shall use such 
 justice and equitye that nott my best affected officer or dearest childe shalbe 
 able to abuse the meanest in my house, but shalbe by me reproved for the 
 same to the full contentement of the partye injuryed. Herein, althoughe I 
 have sincerely delivered myne owne intendemente whereby my servantts 
 may be the better incoraged to performe their dutyes and may stande in 
 more securitye from sufferinge any wronge, — yett my mynde is not that any 
 quarrelsome personne shall take more advantage of my woordes than they 
 doe truly ymporte, which promise noe satisfaccon but uppon an injurye first 
 offered. And thus much may suffice for my preface. 
 
 " Given att Cowdrye the first of this present November, A.D. 1595. 
 
 ^/ANTHONY MOUNTAGUE." 
 
 The Table. 
 
 1. My Stewarde of Householde. 
 
 2. My Comptroller. 
 
 3. My highe Stewarde of Courtes. 
 
 4. My Auditor. 
 
 5. My Generall Receaver. 
 
 6. My Solliciter. 
 
 7. My other Principall Officers. 
 
 8. My Secretarye. 
 
 9. My Gentlemen Ushers. 
 
 10. My Carver. 
 
 11. My Sewer.* 
 
 1 2. The Gentlemen of my Chamber. 
 
 13. The Gentlemen of my Horse. 
 
 * The officer who set and removed the dishes, tasted them, &c. [Halliwell.l 
 
54 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES, 
 
 14. The Gentlemen Wayters. 
 
 15. The Marshal of my Hall. 
 
 16. The Clarke of my Kitchen. 
 
 17. The Yeomen of my greate Chamber. 
 
 18. The Usher of my Hall. 
 
 19. The Chiefe Cooke. 
 
 20. The Yeomen of my Chamber. 
 
 21. The Clarke of myne Officers' Chamber. 
 
 22. The Yeoman of my Horse. 
 
 23. The Yeoman of my Seller. 
 
 24. The Yeoman of myne Ewrye.* 
 
 25. The Yeoman of my Pantrye. 
 
 26. The Yeoman of my Butterye. 
 
 27. The Yeoman of my Wardroppe. 
 
 28. The Yeomen Wayters. 
 
 29. The seconde Cooke and the Reste. 
 
 30. The Porter. 
 
 31. The Granator.f 
 
 32. The Bayliffe. 
 
 33. The Baker. 
 
 34. The Brewer. 
 
 35. The Groomes of the Great Chamber. 
 
 36. The Almoner. 
 
 37. The Scullery Man. 
 
 Long as is this list, it by no means embraced the whole of Lord 
 Montague's establishment. Many of the officers named in The Table were 
 at the head of departments, to each of which was attached a staff of servants ; 
 and, besides these^ other persons are incidentally mentioned in the book, such 
 as the Housekeeper, the Footmen, the Boyes of the Kytchen, and others. 
 
 Large establishments were very usual in the sixteenth century. Stowe 
 says, in speaking of the Earl of Derby, that he had two hundred and forty 
 servants; whilst Strype points out that Lord Burleigh, though frugal and 
 having no paternal estate, kept a family of one hundred servants.^' 
 Amongst these he had twenty gentlemen retainers each worth a thousand 
 
 * ** An office in the king's household where they take care of the linen for the king's own table, 
 lay the cloth^ and serve up water in silver ewers after dinner." [Baikj^.] 
 f The officer in charge of the granary. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 55 
 
 pounds a year_, and many wealthy persons were among the number of his 
 retainers. But it should be recollected that at the death of Queen Elizabeth 
 there were only fifty-nine temporal peers in the House of Lords. Each of 
 these was a great personage, the head of a noble family, and young gentle- 
 men were glad to accept offices in the household of such magnates.* 
 
 It is almost impossible to imagine how all these persons could have 
 found room at Cowdray, for Lord Montague gives express orders that no 
 one should lodge abroad.^^ Cowdray was celebrated for its great hall, its 
 large rooms, and its two long galleries, and we must therefore conclude that, 
 as the tradition in Midhurst is that the house could afford sleeping accom- 
 modation for two hundred persons, many must have lain on the floor upon 
 those ''^palletts^^ which Lord Montague is so particular in having removed 
 every morning. Lord Montague's orders as to the constant supply for the 
 rooms of ^' perfumes, flowers^ herbes, and bowes f in their season,^^ may have 
 had some reference to this overcrowding of the house. 
 
 Lord Montague alludes to female attendants only once. This occurs 
 when he speaks of the Gentlewomen^s service,'' which was immediately to 
 follow his own dinner. These gentlewomen were probably attendants on 
 Lady Montague, for except as " Lawnederers '^ women servants could hardly 
 have been required at Cowdray. The Yeomen of the Chamber acted as 
 housemaids, and mended Lord Montague's "lynnen and roabes;" others of 
 the household attended to the sitting-rooms and the fires ; and the boys of 
 the kitchen had ''^to keepe it, with all things therein, cleane and sweete." 
 
 Lord and Lady Montague probably dined in the large dining-parlour, on 
 the walls of which were the celebrated frescoes. The place of my dyett " 
 is the description always given of it by Lord Montague. In this apartment 
 the Gentlewomen's service " was probably laid on a separate table. The 
 officers of the household who are mentioned in Lord Montague's list dined 
 together in the Buck Hall, seated at four tables. After their meal there was 
 
 * The following notice (taken from a Louvain MS.) of one member of Lord Montague's house- 
 hold appears in the Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. vi. p. 329 : — 
 ** Richard Lambe, Esq., descended of a good house in the north country, where his ancestors lost 
 their property in the civil wars of the houses of York and Lancaster. Some parts of the remnants 
 of the estate fell by right to him upon his eldest brother's death, but failing to recover it in conse- 
 quence of his being a Catholic, he lived with Lord Montague, his wife's uncle, being his gentleman 
 for many years." 
 
 t Green boughs. 
 
 1 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES, 
 
 a ''second service'' also in the Hall, for the rest of the establishment. The 
 dinner hour was ten o'clock. Supper was served at five o'clock, but after 
 that hour 'Myveryes" (or slight meals) could be had by any persons in their 
 own rooms. Nothing is said about breakfast. Perhaps enough might 
 remain of the evening ^Myverye^' to supply an early meal. Fires in the 
 Great Hall were allowed from All Hallows Eve att night'' [October 31] 
 to Good Frydaye morninge." 
 Cards were provided in the hall for '' such strangers as shall be willinge 
 to playe and passe some tyme thereatt." Each player put a donation into 
 the " play-box/' the contents of which were afterwards divided among the 
 Yeomen officers. 
 
 The first fourteen persons named in The Table were gentlemen by birth ; 
 the two next in order were gentlemen by office ; and the rest were Yeomen 
 officers. 
 
 The Steward was the head of the whole establishment, and his office 
 was no sinecure. Lord Montague goes into many details with reference to 
 the duties of this gentleman. He was to undertake all superintendence "as 
 well in my forreyne affiiyres and outward provisions as in domesticall matters 
 and civill government of my Family." " Forreyne afFayres " included the 
 provision of all necessaries for the household, such as ^'beeves, muttons, 
 grayne, wynes, saltstore of sortes, hoppes, spyces, and fruytes of sortes, 
 lyveryes, badges, woode and coals, necessaryes, carryeages, utensilles for every 
 office, and wilde fowle." The Steward was to attend to all repairs of Lord 
 Montague's houses, and of all fences and hedges in the grounds ; and to 
 often ryde into my parkes, pastures, marshes, and other grounds, to see 
 that they bee nott abused or disordered by my baylifFes or keepers of them." 
 He had to provide " extraordinaryes, as nettes, sowes of Leade,* cases of 
 glasse, &c. j " to *' make sale of the hydes of oxen slaughtered, and of the 
 fellesf and woolle of the muttons; and order and dispose of the tallowe, 
 some for lyghtes to serve my house, some for sale, and the like for kitchein 
 stufFe." The Steward paid all wages, and overlooked the accounts of the 
 other officers. He entered his receipts and payments in a book which was 
 inspected monthly by Lord Montague, and by the auditor at the end of 
 the year. 
 
 These were the principal duties of the Steward in '^'forrayne affayres," 
 
 A pig or sow of lead was an oblong mass of metal. [Bai/ey.} 
 
 t Skins. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES, 
 
 57 
 
 but the '^matters domestical^' were next explained. In these the Steward 
 is told that First my will is that he take iippon him the carriage and porta 
 of my chiefe officer, and assiste me with sounde advice in matters of most 
 ymportance and greatest deliberacon, and therein faythfully keepe all my 
 secrettes." The other officers and servants were strictly to obey the Steward 
 even in things which seemed inconvenient to them, excepte ytt be dishonest 
 in ytt selfe or undutifull to the Prince* or State, or directly to the manifest 
 hurte of me, my wiffe, &c/' Complaints of the Steward's conduct might, 
 however, be made to Lord Montague, v^ho by his "masterly authoritye" 
 would if necessary correct him. '^But my forsight and care in my choyce 
 of an officer in soe high authoritye shall be such that I will make small 
 doubte of his comendable carryeage of himselfe in his place accordinge to 
 the greate truste that I repose in him.'' The Steward was "in civill sorte to 
 reprehende and correcte the negligent and disordered parsons,t and reforme 
 them by his grave admonition and vigilant eye over them, the ryotous, the 
 contentious, and quarrellous parsons of any degree, the revengers of their 
 own injuryes, the privye mutiners, the frequenters of tablinge, cardinge, and 
 dyceing in corners and att untymely houres and seasons, the conveighers of 
 meate and other matter out of my howse, the haunters of alehowses or sus- 
 picious places by daye or by night, the absenters from their charge, and 
 lodgeing abroade without leave, and they thatt have leave of absence that 
 doe nott returne home at their tyme lymited without lawfull lett." These 
 offenders, whether gentlemen or yeomen, were to be admonished and forbid- 
 den to attend upon Lord Montague until readye to be reformed." "But 
 the incorrigible personnes and wilful maynteyners of their outragious mis- 
 governmente and unsuff*erable disorders (if any such be fownde) whom neither 
 [the Steward's] perswasions, reason ytt selfe, nor authoritye can conteyne, 
 v^^ithin the lymytte of their dutie,'' were to be dealt with by Lord Montague 
 himself. 
 
 * As Queen Elizabeth was on the throne when the Book of Rules was compiled, Lord Montague 
 probably used the word Prince as equivalent to Sovereign. 
 
 + The words parson and person are both derived from the Latin persona. [Latham's Dic- 
 tionary.'] It has been thought that the "parsons" mentioned by Lord Montague were "the 
 superior members of the household," but these officers are not likely to have been riotous, negligent, 
 or disordered. Person and parson were often used indiscriminately at the time in which Lord 
 Montague wrote. Holinshed says, " Jerom was vicar of Stepnie, and Garrard was person of Honie- 
 lane." We may therefore conclude that Lord Montague meant " persons," in the modern sense of 
 the word. 
 
 H 
 
58 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 The Steward was to keep "and have allwayes in readiness a perfecte 
 checkrolle both of all my parsons and nomber domestically and of all my 
 reteyners* that are interteyned and allowed by me." The Steward himself 
 was to take an inventory of all the "wardroppe stufFe whatsoever/' and of 
 all the plate and silver vessels^ "with the weight and poyse of the same and 
 note of the goldsmythes' marke and yeare.'^ Three copies were to be made 
 of these inventories, of which Lord Montague himself kept one. The Clerk 
 of the Kitchen had to furnish the Steward with a " perfecte Inventorye of 
 all the pewter vessells, brasse/and other ymplements_, as well of the kitchin 
 as of all the other inferiour offices, (to witt) seller, butterye^ pantrye^ bake- 
 house, laundrye, scullery, larders, porter's lodge, and brewehouse^ bycause he 
 is to renewe ytt beinge decayed/^ 
 
 Lord Montague adds ^' Remembrances and Instruccons " for his Steward. 
 In these the Steward is cautioned to buy "somer Beeves" and small oxen 
 for "expence of householde'^ at fairs, or of the "farmers neare hand in 
 the "Springe and pryme of the yeare," But "the oxen for wynter expence, 
 stalle, and sale (especiallye if I lye at Cowdrye), be provided of large boane, 
 and well comeinge either att Coventrye Fayre on Corpus Christi daye,t or 
 att Uxbrydge on Saint Margarrite^s daye/' J The Steward is to provide 
 "muttons needeful to be boughte for slaughter of my howse of reasonable 
 boane, and out of harde, leare,§ and choyce pastures, either of the Scheppe 
 Masters from the Downes, or att fayres holden neere hande in the Springe/' 
 Forty or fifty ewes were to supply Easter lamb.|] 
 
 The Steward had to see that "herringe and wynes are best provided in 
 respecte of choyce, price, and carryeage for my expence (when I lye att 
 Cowdrye), at Chichester, Southampton, or other portes uppon the sea costes." 
 Lord Montague urges the Steward to see " that the woode and coale provided 
 for expence of my howse att Cowdrye be carefully husbanded, for that woode 
 is much wasted of late and waxeth scantt about Cowdrye . . . "that a 
 lesse proportion of salt store^ hoppes and spices be taken when they be scantt 
 and deare, and a more large when they be plentifull, and better cheape." In 
 
 * These retainers were not members of the actual household, 
 t The Thursday after Trinity Sunday. 
 Z St. Margaret's Day, Old Style, was on the 8th of July. 
 § Stubble-land. In Cheshire such pasture for sheep is now called *' leers." 
 II In many parts of England it was reckoned as important to eat lamb on Easter Sunday as to 
 eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday or plum pudding on Christmas Day. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES, 
 
 59 
 
 conclusion the Steward is to recollect '^that my reteyners be comanded nott 
 to resorte to me without their lyveryes." 
 
 Lord Montague desired the Steward to "dispose and distribute in his 
 discretion to the inferiour officers (yeomen and groomes of the Create 
 Chamber excepted) the rewardes given by Noblemen^ Centlemen, and others 
 repayring to my howse." These presents appear to have been deposited in 
 the play box, and if the condition of the box was "but meanely beneficialP^ 
 the Stev^'ard was desired to " consider the yeomen and groomes of the Creat 
 Chamber at his discretion/^ 
 
 The Steward and some of the chief officers of Lord Montague's house- 
 hold held from time to time an inquiry into the state of the household^ its 
 expenses, and the conduct of the various servants. This inquiry wa,s to be 
 held always "in the accustomed place (whiche att Cowdrye shalbe the lower 
 baye v^^indowe chamber on the right hande of the greate gate).'' 
 
 When Lord Montague w^ent on journeys the Steward v^ith the rest of 
 the principal officers was to ride immediately before him, unless Lord Mon- 
 tague's brothers, children, or uncles were present. The Steward was to dine 
 and sup in the hall, taking the head of the chief officers' table, "and that 
 allwayes in a gowne, unless he be booted.^' He is especially cautioned " nott 
 to give place unto any." But "in tyme of state and extraordinarye action" 
 the Steward and the Comptroller were to walk through the Great Hall pre- 
 ceding the first and second courses when Lord Montague's dinner was 
 carried into the dining-parlour. The Steward was reminded by Lord Mon- 
 tague that it was his duty at all times "to use himselfe towardes me, my 
 wiiFe, and (in some sorte) to my children submissively and with all reverence," 
 as an example to others; and he was "nott to presume to enter into myne, 
 or my wiffe's bedchambers or private places untill he first knocke att the 
 dures, or give some other signification by his voyce or message of his beinge 
 there and desire to come in." 
 
 The Steward had, as has been said, many duties to perform. But in 
 all these he was to be assisted by the rest of the principal officers of the 
 household, so that his labours may not have been so great as might at first 
 sight appear. 
 
 Lord Montague says of the second officer of his household_, the 
 Comptroller, " a Comptroller is a principal officer belongeinge unto me as 
 I am a vizcounte.^^ But the duties of this person appear to have con- 
 sisted in giving his lord "faythfull and sounde advice/' and in being 
 
6o 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 present when the Steward "delyvered his mynde " to the servants. When 
 the Steward had finished his remarks, the Comptroller was to " use some 
 speeche to the like efFecte ... in some modeste manner." Lord Montague 
 evidently anticipated difficulties to arise between the Steward and the 
 Comptroller, for he exhorts them to ^' agree the one with the other, afFecte 
 the one the other, and seeke the creditt the one of the other, without 
 jelousyes or suspicons, as if they weare brothers.'^ The Comptroller was 
 to dine at the Steward's table, and to ^^sytt on the forme syde right over 
 agaynst him and not yelde that place to anye whosoever." He " must 
 allwayes goe in a gowne (unles he be booted to ryde), for soe the gravity e 
 of his place and person will require.'' When he accompanied the Steward, 
 in the attendaunce uppe of my dynner and supper, att tymes of speciall 
 service," he was " nott to fayle to beare his white stafe in his hande." 
 
 The High Steward of Courts held all Lord Montague's Leetes and 
 Courte Barons," and undertook all business connected with them. His 
 place at meals was at the Steward's table, next to the Comptroller. 
 
 The Auditor audited all accounts once a year, including those of the 
 household, the ironworks, sales of wood, " rentes, revenwes, fynes, per- 
 quisites," &c. At dinner he sat next to the High Steward, but at audits 
 he was to sit att the horde's end," between the Steward and the 
 Comptroller. 
 
 The Receaver Generall assisted the Steward of Courts, and also 
 received all Lord Montague's " revenewes, perquisitts of Court, and other 
 casualtyes;" he paid all '^annuyties, tenthes, and other fees." He also 
 took his meals at the Steward's table, sitting next the Auditor. 
 
 The Solliciter took charge of all law suits, either ''^ moved by me 
 agaynst others, or commenced by others agaynst me ; " he instructed 
 counsel, and he took care that ^^the secrecye of my letters patent, court 
 rolles, and auntient evidences," were not needelessly disclosed or dis- 
 covered in open courte to my prejudice or ymparement of myne inheritance." 
 At the end of every term, he was to give an account to Lord Montague of 
 the progress of each suit that had been entered upon. The place of the 
 Solicitor at meals was next to the General Receiver. 
 
 The rest of my principall officers were to assist those already named 
 by Lord Montague, and at all times be ready to give " faythfull and sounde 
 advice." They all dined at the Steward's table, taking their places accord- 
 ing to their seniority in Lord Montague's service. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES, 
 
 6i 
 
 The Secretary was to be "a man of a good, grave discretion, and 
 especially very secrett/' He was always to be ready to attend Lord 
 Montague, keeping letters of weight fyled upp together in good order,^' 
 answering such as Lord Montague had not time to reply to himself, and 
 entering in a book an alphabetical table of all letters written. He was 
 to consider all petitions to Lord Montague, and always with a ^''respecte of 
 the ymportance and hast of the matter." Lord Montague adds, " He 
 shall nott, butt att verye speciall tymes, weare his lyverye, and that att 
 my speciall appoyntemente. His upper garment in the howse I wishe to 
 be a comely blacke cloake.^^ The Secretary also dined at the Steward's 
 table, sitting below the principal officers unless he were one of them, in 
 which case he was placed next to the Receiver. 
 
 The Gentleman Usher was an officer to whose share fell varied duties. 
 Lord Montague begins his instructions to this officer as follows : I will 
 that my Gentleman Usher (I being a Vizcounte) shall usher me or my 
 wiffe, in all places conveniente, (Videlt) through cyttyes, townes, &c., 
 bareheaded, as well on horsebacke as on foote, saveinge that in the presence 
 of an Erie or upwardes, he shall forbeare soe to doe : neither shall he ryde 
 bare before us, within the precyncte of the Prince's palaice, but on foote 
 he may goe bare to the greate chamber dure within the Courte, and noe 
 further." The Gentleman Usher took charge of all the inventories " of 
 the wardroppe stuffe of my several bowses,'^ receiving them from the 
 Steward of the Household, and going over the items room by room, in the 
 presence of three or four witnesses. He was to oversee the contineweall 
 furnishinge and cleanely keepinge of all lodgeinges, galleryes, great chambers, 
 dyneing rooms, parlours, &c ; " but he was not to concern himself with the 
 offices, nor was he to meddle with the arrangement of Lord Montague's 
 " owne lodgeings " after once going through the inventory belonging to 
 them upon Lord Montague's removeall to any place/' The Gentleman 
 Usher selected the Carver and Sewer, and had authority over the officers 
 beneath him in rank. Lord Montague proceeds: "He shall at his dis- 
 cretion appoynte all servantts' chambers and who shall lye in them ; allowe- 
 ing thereto conveniente beddinge and such like furniture to ytt, soe as 
 two goe to a bedd, allwayes provided that a gentleman be matcht with a 
 gentleman and a yeoman with a yeoman, unless the contrarye by me be 
 especially appoynted. ... He shall in the morninge first give attendaunce 
 to strangers (if there be any), associateinge unto himselfe for that purpose 
 
 .1 
 
63 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 another gentleman or two, and then serve them breakfaste and afterwarde 
 attend them as shall seeme most convenient/' At ten o'clock he attended 
 at Lord Montague's dinner, and was then at liberty till supper time. After 
 supper the Gentleman Usher took strangers to their rooms, and saw that 
 they had any " liveryes that they might require. " And if there be divers 
 (as ytt will often happen) att one tyme to goe to their severall chambers, he 
 shall cause one gentleman to goe with every stranger, soe that the most 
 sufficient be allotted to the stranger of most worthe. This done he maye for 
 that night dispose of himself as him best lyketh till bedde time.'^ On great 
 occasions Lord Montague employed two Gentlemen Ushers, one being "for 
 increase of state,^' and having no authority except in the absence of the 
 senior of the two. One of these gentlemen dined at the Steward's table, 
 sitting next to the Secretary ; the other dined with the Gentlemen Waiters, 
 sitting "the uppermoste on the benche side." Every week they changed 
 their course. 
 
 The Carver carved the meat^ and the Sewer handed it to every one 
 " accordinge to their places.^^ The Carver dined at the Waiters' table, sitting 
 next to the Gentleman Usher, and the Sewer sat immediately below the 
 Carver. 
 
 The Gentlemen of the Chamber were to remain in Lord Montague's 
 " withdraweing chamber " throughout the day, so as to be ready to receive 
 his orders and to tell him if anybody wished to see him. If he left his room, 
 and if he walked out, they were to follow him. One of them waited on 
 Lord Montague's "trencher and cuppe,'' and the next in rank waited on 
 Lady Montague in like manner. Lord Montague explains their further 
 duties as follows: "Att night if I be out of my lodgeings (ytt beinge dark) 
 some one of them shall wayte for my comeinge in with a candle to light me 
 to my chamber: where after I am, and woulde goe to bedd, they shall helpe 
 me into ytt, and beinge layed to reste, they shall either by themselves or by 
 some of the yeomen take care that the dures be all fast lockte.^' The 
 " auntientest '^ of these Gentlemen, assisted by the Senior Yeoman of the 
 Chamber, kept an inventory of all Lord Montague's clothes. The Gentle- 
 men of the Chamber dined with the Gentlemen Waiters. 
 
 The Gentleman of the Horse attended to the management of the stable, 
 and gave " expresse commandement to the groomes to attend their charge 
 by daye and by nighte, and nott to frequente ale-howses, nor lodge abroad. '^ 
 He was to look carefully after the "growndes appoynted for the somer 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 63 
 
 pasturinge^^ of the horses_, and to see that "the haye layd into the barnes 
 and loftes of the stable for wynter foode of them be nott wilfully wasted or 
 spoyled/^ When Lord Montague rode, the Gentleman of the Horse was 
 to helpe me to my horse, appoynteinge the Yeoman of my Horse to holde 
 my styrroppe, and my footeman to stande to his heade." 
 
 The Gentlemen IVayters assisted the Gentlemen of the Chamber in their 
 personal attendance on Lord and Lady Montague and on their visitors. 
 Some of them were "to hearken when I or my wiffe at any tyme doe walke 
 abroade, that they may be readye to give their attendance upon us.^^ 
 
 These officers completed the list of the Gentlemen by birth in Lord 
 Montague's household. The next in rank were the two Gentlemen ly office, 
 who were the Marshal of the Hall, and the Clarke of the Kytchin. The 
 Marshal of the Hall was only employed "att tymes of extraordinary action 
 (as in repayre of the Prince, marriage of my children, or att Christmas, and 
 the like) when I have occasion to use one/' On these great occasions the 
 Marshal undertook the duties of the Ushers of the Hall. He dined at a 
 separate table, to which he was bidden to invite the Ushers " and such servi- 
 tors or others as he shall thinke meete and convenient/' 
 
 The Clarke of the Kitchin was the manager of the whole house under the 
 direction of the Steward : combining the duties of the housekeeper, bailiff, 
 and butler of modern days. He was to make inventories of "all the uten- 
 silles, ymplementts, and necessaryes,^' and to "indente the same tripertite," 
 giving a copy to the Steward, another to " the officer of the plate," and 
 keeping the third himself. Lord Montague details the duties of the Clerk at 
 some length. He says : " I will that he keepe a whole and perfecte booke of 
 the dayly expence of all kynde of victualls, . . . and that he shewe me 
 beforehande the proportion of myne owne fare and dyett that I may add 
 thereunto or dyminishe att my pleasure. I will that he suffer none to stande 
 unseemely with his backe towarde my meat while itt is at the raunge.'^ The 
 Clerk had authority over all the cooks, and was to take care that every meal 
 was "orderly dressed without spoyle, waste, or needlesse expence.^' He was 
 "to keepe and order the spice and fruyttes, and see carefully that there be 
 noe waste of them." He was to watch that the baker made proper use of the 
 flour, and that the loaves when made of good wheat weighed sixteen ounces, 
 and when of "course and hungrye'' wheat " fifteen ounces one dram." He 
 had to superintend the brewer also, and to see that he made "good and whol- 
 som beare and eighteen gallons att the least of everye bushell." The Clerk 
 
64 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 was to '^see the slaughter-man perform his dutye in slaughteringe and 
 powderinge * of the Beife, and appoynte what messes shall be cutt out of the 
 slaughtered oxe/' He had to provide apparell for the boyes of the kitchin/' 
 rabbit nets and fishing nets^ '^entralles of beastes and cheesecurdes for wylde- 
 fowle^ oates and barlye for poultrye^ and rye for bakeing of redd deare;'' and 
 to watch over the stock of salt provisions and of ^Myve fishe/^ The Clerk was 
 constantly to go into the offices to see that they were clean and neat^ and 
 ^at some tyme as his leisure will permitt to oversee the Almoner and Porter 
 in the distributeinge of almes to the poore/^ The Clerk kept a book in which 
 he charged every week the expenditure of w^yne, beare^ and breade/^ both 
 for the household^ and for comers att the barre ; and in this book he 
 entered ^^in the margent" the names and number of ^'strangers repayringe" 
 to the house. The book was shown every fortnight to the Steward, who 
 reported its contents to Lord Montague. The Clerk sat at the head of one 
 of the tables in the hall. 
 
 The Yeomen Officers were a numerous body. At their head was the 
 Yeoman Usher of my Create Chamber. He was to see that the chairs^ stools, 
 and tables were placed ready before meals, and that they were afterwards put 
 back in their proper places. Every morning he was to see that all the large 
 rooms were neat and well swept, and kept swete with perfumes, flowers, 
 herbes, and bowes* in their season.'^ He had to attend to strangers and see 
 that they had all they might wante or desire to have.^' He was to have 
 a vigillant eye to the meate, to the extente that ytt be nott ymbezeled or 
 conveighed to corners.'^ And he took a principal part in the serving of 
 Lord Montague's own dinner. 
 
 The Usher of the Hall saw that the Steward^s table was properly laid, 
 and that no one sat down by it till the meat was placed upon it. He placed 
 strangers at meals according to their rank, looked after the waiting at the 
 Steward's table, and held " the towell whilest the Almoner doth give water 
 and my chiefe officers and gentlemen strangers doe washe.^' He had to 
 " commaund order, and silence in the hall : to remove unfitt and disordered 
 parsons owte of ytt," and to see that the Almoner did his duty. The Usher 
 dined at the table of the Clerk of the Kitchen, and sat next to him. 
 
 The Chiefe Cooke prepared Lord Montague's own dinner, assisted by the 
 "inferioure Cookes.'^ He is enjoined to "see everye thinge wholesomely 
 
 t Green boughs. 
 
 * Salting, sprinkling with salt. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 and cleanely handeled^ and with as little expence of spyce as conveniently 
 may be : and looke that all manner of poultrye or wilde fowle that comes to 
 myne own table be well pulde that there remayne noe kynde of fethers or 
 stumpes uppon them." The cook was to serve out Lord Montague's meat 
 in cleane vessels and well scowered/' He sat at dinner next to the Usher 
 of the Hall. 
 
 The Yeomen of the Chamber received from the chief Gentleman of the 
 Chamber^ "by inventorye indented between them/' all Lord Montague's 
 ^Mynnen, roabes, and Jewells/' kept them in presses, clean, swete, and safe/' 
 and mended all that was torn. Every morning they were to rise early and 
 "remove the palletts (if there be any) owte of my withdraweing chamber/' 
 to ^'make ytt cleane and swete with flowers and bowes in their seasons/' to 
 arrange Lord Montague's bedchamber, " brushe the carpetts, make the 
 fyers, and prepare brushe and laye forthe my wearinge apparell for that day." 
 Some of them were always to attend Lord Montague when he walked out, 
 "one to carrye my cloake, the reste to doe myne errands, to take uppe and 
 make cleane my bowles." They were to " serve a lyverye " in Lord 
 Montague's bedroom every night, and he adds : I will that they be verye 
 carefull to extinguishe the fyre and lights after I amme in bedde, and that 
 they locke faste and barre all the dores, and performe their business silently 
 without clamour or noyse for fear of my disturbance." Some of the yeomen 
 were to attend on Lady Montague. 
 
 The Clarke of myne Officers^ Chamber kept the room in order in which 
 the chief officers of th^ household held business meetings; he provided writ- 
 ing materials at Lord Montague's expense, wrote at the dictation of the 
 officers, and kept a record of the business transacted, to be preserved " as a 
 president for ever." 
 
 The Yeoman of the Horse discharged the duties of the Gentleman of the 
 Horse during his absence, or when none had been appointed. He helped 
 Lord Montague to mount if there was no Gentleman of the Horse in 
 attendance j at other times he held his stirrup. 
 
 The Yeoman of my Seller took charge of the plate and of the wine, and 
 sat at dinner next to the chief Cook. 
 
 The Yeoman ofmyneEwrye received all "naperye and lynnen" from Lady 
 Montague or " her assigne." He kept "a perfecte reckoninge of all torches, 
 lynkes, and candles," and gave an account of them every month to the Clerk 
 of the Kitchen. He laid the cloth at Lord Montague's dinner, placed the 
 
 I 
 
66 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 silver vessels on it, and after dinner he was desired to '^coverre them with 
 napkyns, and sett them uppon the Ewrye boorde." He also had the ordering 
 of the daily lyveryes." 
 
 The Yeoma?i of my Buttery e was to receive of the Yeoman of the Cellar, 
 " by billes indented interchangeably betweene them, all such plate (namely, 
 pottes_, holies, cuppes, &c.) as doe apperteyne to his office, and be answerable 
 to him for the same : and [to] receave of the Clarke of my Kytchin all such 
 other thinges, (Videlt.) pewter pottes, tynne iugges, caskes, &c., as belonge to 
 his office, and be likewise accomptant to him for the same/' This Yeoman 
 had charge of all ale and beer, receiving both from the brewer "by tale," 
 and accounting for the same weekly, having been careful that there was ^'^noe 
 waste or spoyil made of ytt,'' to the Clerk of the Kitchen. He, as all others 
 of Lord Montague's household, was charged to keep his office " cleanly and 
 swetely." 
 
 The Yeoman of my Warderoppe had charge of all " howsehold stuffe 
 whatsoever" belonging to his office: he received linen for the use of his 
 department from Lady Montague "or her assigne," and "as ytt shall weare 
 oute or decaye he [must] deliver it upp and crave a new supplye." Lord 
 Montague proceeds : " I will that he see the Galieryes and all lodgeinges 
 reserved for strangers cleanely and sweetly kepte, with herbes, flowers, and 
 bowes in their seasons, and the beddes of such as shall hither resorte att their 
 first cominge to be mayde, and the better sortes of quiltes of beddes att any 
 tyme to be used to be at nightes taken off, and Yrish Rugges layd in their 
 places j and in the morninge to be agayn layd on, . . . And that he see the 
 chambers of such as doe departe to be well and handsomely dressed upp, 
 and nothinge be missinge ; and that he have greate care of their fyres lefte 
 (if any be), and after such care hadd the dores be lockte uppe. I will that 
 he looke well to the keepinge cleane of all leades, gutters, and spowtes 
 about my howse, except only those within the compasse of myne own 
 lodgeinge." Every month he was to look over the servants' rooms, and " see 
 if there be any defalt in there beddinge or furniture ; and if such be, that he 
 cause it to be mended." 
 
 The Yeomen Wayters, of whom the number is not given, were to attend 
 Lord Montague whenever he walked out; during his dinner they were to 
 reverently redeliver their dishes " to the Sewer, and throughout the whole 
 meal to "give watchfuU and diligent attendance, . . . nott useinge any 
 uncomelye gestures or actions (as laugheinge, hearkeninge to tales, and the 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 67 
 
 like), whereby they may neglecte or hinder their dutyes/^ They were to wait 
 at supper as well as at dinner: and not "by anie means to lodge out of the 
 howse." When the Yeomen Wayters were in attendance on Lord Montague 
 "in the streets att London/' they were "to be allwayes in their lyveryes, 
 with handsome swordes or rapiers by their sydes." This rule was to be 
 followed ^^in the countrye att all solempne feastes as Christmas, Easter^ 
 Whitsontyde, and greate meetinges." 
 
 The Seconde Cooke and the reste dressed all the meat except that intended 
 for Lord Montague^s own table, and were to assist " the Mr. Cooke,^^ at his 
 request, with " a helpeing hande/^ They are warned not to let " any harte 
 burninge or disdayne growe ^' between them, but to " concurre well together 
 and seeke the mutual! creditt either of other." They were to serve all meat 
 in clean dishes, and if a dish was dirty they were to "returne ytt back to the 
 Scullerye man to be amended." And they were to look after the boys of 
 the kitchen, making them in all things neat and clean. 
 
 The Porter kept the great gate, and " in tyme of extraordinarye action 
 or att solempne feastes " he was to " have his messe of meate into his office " 
 there. This was to enable him " to give his dilligent attendance att the gate, 
 as well for the repayre of strangers as for disordered parsons that would come 
 in att no convenient tyme," and he is desired to "answere all comers of 
 meaner sorte att the gate." He assisted the Almoner in the distribution of 
 alms, and might " conveniently weare a gowne all wynter, and att solempne 
 tymes.'^ Lord Montague adds: "I will that att Cowdrye he keepe the con- 
 duyte cleane, and the ynner courte, with the helpe of the pore the longe 
 alleyes without the gate, and the greene before ytt." When the Porter dined 
 in the hall he sat next the Yeomen of the Chamber. 
 
 The Granator was to keepe a perfect talle of all such corne as he shall 
 receave of any manner of parson," and delivered it to the Baker and Brewer. 
 Lord Montague proceeds : " And further, that he see the corne which he is to 
 receave of my Farmers to be goode, swete, well wynnowed, and answerable 
 to the covenantts of their leases.^^ 
 
 My Bayliffe of Huslandrye fulfilled the duties of a modern farm bailiff. 
 He looked after all the parks and the cattle in them, and was every year to 
 lay up the meadows for hay, have them " rydde of all beastes (excepting att 
 Cowdrye and Battell a brase or leashe of old Buckes) betweene the five and 
 twentieth of Marche and the firstt of Aprille." The Bailiff engaged hay- 
 makers, and provided them and the " domesticall servantts " with a com- 
 
68 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 petent nombcr of forkcs and rakes." He watched over the number of loads 
 of hay that none might be wasted or spoiled : had charge of the fish-ponds, 
 and kept ^' a perfect note of the daye, moneth^ and yeare of storeinge of them, 
 and what nomber of fishes of whatsorte and scantling*" was placed in them. 
 In long frosts he was to have the ice broken on the ponds, and in wet 
 seasons he was to "have a speciall care to the tymlye draweinge of the 
 slewces and fluddgates of Lord Montague's ponds. In " extraordinary 
 tempestes^' the Bailiff was desired to warn the millers to attend to their 
 floodgates in time. Lord Montague reminds the Bailiff at Cowdrye to " con- 
 tinewe [his] right and clayme of the auntient usuall carteway through the 
 north street into the Gall meade/' and to see that "the gates at the Mill 
 and Pryorye be cheyned and locked, especially uppon the markett dayes, and 
 att other tymes also needefull, the better to avoyde and keepe out strange 
 beastes and hoggs." The Bailiff sat next the Granator at dinner in the 
 hall. 
 
 The Baker and the Brewer sat next each other at the table of the Glerk 
 of the Kitchen, below " the seconde Cooke and the rest of them/^ Both were 
 accountable to the Clerk for the amount consumed in their several depart- 
 ments. 
 
 The Grooms of the Great Chamher provided cards at their own expense 
 for the use of company. They were under the orders of the Yeoman Usher, 
 and had to keep wood ready at all times in case a fire was wanted in the hall. 
 When Lord Montague supped by candle-light, one of the grooms was to 
 carry a lighted torch before his " meate.^' 
 
 The Almoner kept the hall " cleane and swete with bowes and flowers," 
 made the fires in it, held the basin when the chief officers w^ashed, fetched 
 beer and bread for the inferior officers, and drove out of the hall all " raunters f 
 and dogges." He was to " preserve the broaken meate, breade, and beare for 
 the poore," and to distribute the almes considerately with due regarde and 
 respecte to the porest and most needye." The Almoner dined with the 
 gentlemen's servants. 
 
 The Scullerye man occupied somewhat the same position as the odd-man, 
 who does so much, of our own day. He, however, was to have "a speciall 
 regarde and care to the safe keepeinge and preserveinge of the silver vessell { 
 
 * Size, from eschantillon. {Bailey.^ t Rioters. 
 
 + Probably from vaisselle^ silver plate. 
 
 I 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 69 
 
 cotninge under his handes that ytt be neither ymbezeled nor abused/^ Every 
 night the Scidlerye man re-delivered the plate " by talle ^' to the Yeoman of the 
 Seller, ^' clean scowered and well ordered.^' He v^as answerable for all the 
 pewter vessels, and had to keep them '^and all other thinges brought into his 
 office decently and cleanely." The Scullerye man is desired to ^' have a singuler 
 regarde to the temperinge and makeinge of mustarde with good seede, and 
 to the well keepeinge and servinge of ytt.^^ He dined in " his office/' which 
 was probably the scullery, " and the boyes of the kytchin with him/' 
 
 Lord Montague's Book of Household Rules concludes with the Order of 
 Service to be used at his table, and with his Determinacion for Officers' Fees. 
 He remarks that the offices he has already mentioned are not by any meanes 
 all that were ^'conceaved^ not unfitt to be used under me," but he adds, 
 these be the offices whereof 1 have thought fit most expedient to speake." 
 
 My Determinacion for Officers^ Fees. 
 
 Forsoemuch as I have beine informed by others_, and also have seene and 
 noted myselfe, both in the tyme of my late lorde my grandfather as also since 
 in myne owne, the sundrye inconveniences that have arisen by such as by 
 reason of their place and office then before and now under myselfe doe 
 challenge certayne fees to be allowed them as of right adheringe and belonge- 
 inge to their office, and perhappes thinke that nott without injurye they can 
 be debarred from haveinge that which they soe challenge to be due : I have 
 therefore thought good to laye downe that for soe much as all such offices 
 are myne, the officers myne^ and att myne appointement and the thinges 
 accompted as fees yssueinge oute or beinge parte of that which cannott be 
 denyed to be myne : there can be noe color of reason why any officer of myne 
 can of dutye or otherwise challenge that as due to himselfe which is soe 
 manifeste to be myne : and therefore without wronge to anye, itt is in my 
 power and authoritye as my likeinge shall leade me either to tollerate the 
 haveinge of such fees, or else to frustrate and disannull them. Wherefore 
 I doe herebye publishe and declare for all officers as well within myne howse 
 as withoutt, that they shall nott have any fees whatsoever allowed them 
 saveinge only such as my Stewarde shall, by note under myne hande from 
 tyme to tyme to him delivered, have authoritye to appoynte or allowe, and that 
 to continewe only dureinge my pleasure. This only amongst many I have 
 thought good perticulerly to note, that my woodewardes for many especiall 
 causes (as well in respecte of the greate decaye that I doe alreadye fynde in my 
 
 5 
 
70 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 woodes, as also of a farre greater that myne heires may hereafter fynde if 
 greate consideracon be nott had to preserve them) be nott permitted to have 
 anie vvyndefalles_, dotterell* trees^ or such like whatsoever, besides their accus- 
 tomed fees for the markeinge, in respecte that under the colour of them 
 great domage may issue^ w^hereof just proofe can hardely to be made." 
 
 Lord Montague^s dinner was served with very great ceremony, and he 
 gives most particular directions about it. The account forms a curious and 
 interesting picture of the manners and customs in a nobleman's household 
 of that period. 
 
 ^^Att ten of the clock, ytt being covereinge tyme/^ the Gentleman 
 Usher commanded the Yeoman Usher to " call to the Yeoman of the Ewrye, 
 Pantrye, Butterye, and Seller to make ready." The Yeoman of the Ewrye 
 was then to arme" himself with an armynge towell layd uppon his righte 
 shoulder and tyed lowe under his lefte arme," and haveinge everye thinge 
 readye within his office," he was to " carrye them uppe to the Ewrye boorde." 
 Having arranged the plate on the sideboard, the Yeoman was instructed to 
 " laye the table clothe fayre uppon both his ai mes, and goe together with the 
 Yeoman Usher with due reverence to the table of my dyett, makeinge two 
 curteseys thereto, the one about the middest of the chamber, the other 
 when he cometh to ytt." f The Yeoman Usher then kissed his hand and 
 laid it on the table in the same place where the Yeoman of the Ewrye 
 was to lay his cloth. The Usher assisted the Yeoman to '^spreade" the 
 cloth, " casteinge the one end the one waye, the other ende the other waye,^^ 
 and the Yeoman kissed the tablecloth before placing it on the table. 
 "This service ended, and due curtesie done," the Usher conducted the 
 Yeoman to the sideboard to fetch the plate which was required. The 
 Usher then went to fetch the Yeoman of the Pantry, who shall followe 
 him through the hall to my dyning chamber dore," and, after the usual two 
 bows, " shall place the salte, and laye downe the kny ves, and then lay myne 
 owne trencher with a manchet| thereon and a knyfe and spoone on either 
 syde ; and my wiffe^s in like manner." The Yeoman of the Pantry made " a 
 small obeisance'^ as he laid down each article; and when he had finished, he, 
 together with the Yeoman Usher," was to make "a solempne curtesy e 
 
 * Decayed trees. In Sussex rotten trees are now called "doted trees." 
 
 t The attendants on Queen Elizabeth's table kneeled at the times when Lord Montague orders 
 his to bow. 
 
 J A small loaf of fine white bread. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 71 
 
 and departe^ soe conducted out as he came in." The spoons and knives were 
 
 hefted with silver." 
 The Yeoman of the Cellar brought up the plate and placed it on the 
 cupboard, or buffet, remaining in attendance to " fill wyne with discretion 
 to such as shall call for ytt." In the arrangement of the buffet he was 
 assisted by the Yeoman of the Buttery. 
 
 When at length the table was prepared, the Gentleman Usher sent to the 
 kitchen to ask if the dinner was ready, and then went to inquire Lord 
 Montague's pleasure, knocking at the doors although they might be open. 
 The Gentleman Usher saw that the Carver and Sewer washed at the Ewerye 
 board, and were properly ^' armed,'^ the Carver with a towel cast about 
 his necke and putt under his girdle at both sides, and one napkyn on his lefte 
 shoulder and an other on the same arme.'' The Gentleman Usher then con- 
 ducted the Carver with the usual two bows to the table, where he is told to 
 "stande seemely and decently with due reverence and sylence," till Lord 
 Montague's dyett and fare'^ were brought up. The Sewer, commanded by 
 the Gentleman Usher, went to fetch the dinner. As he passed through the 
 hall the Usher of the Hall cried, with an audible voyce. Gentlemen and 
 Yeomen, wayte uppon the Sewer for my Lorde.'' The Sewer was attended to 
 the Kitchen by " halfe a dosen Gentlemen and Yeomen atte the leaste,^' and 
 receiving the dishes '^all covered from the chief Cook, he handed them to 
 these gentlemen according to rank, calling out, For my Lorde," as he 
 approached the kitchen dresser. When the procession returned to the hall, 
 the Usher stood ready at the screen, and said to those present, ^'By your 
 leave, my Masters, causeinge them to stande uncovered " while the dinner was 
 carried through the hall, and himself walking before it to the upper end of 
 the room. Here the Yeoman Usher met the Sewer and preceded him to 
 the " greate chamber dore" where he and the dinner were received by the 
 Gentleman Usher. When all was prepared, the Gentleman Usher appointed 
 
 a comely yeoman to waight at the cuppborde/^ and then informed Lord 
 Montague that his dinner was ready. The Gentleman Usher remained in 
 the room during dinner, and when he saw it was time for the second course 
 he sent the Sewer for it with the same ceremonies as before. When the 
 meal was over, the Gentleman Usher approached the table with a towel, 
 
 gentlemen followeinge with basons and ewers/' and Lord and Lady Mon- 
 tague washed their hands; — a necessary ceremony as they had had no forks. 
 The attendants then^ " after due reverence, retired to their own dinner^ the 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 Gentleman Usher first looking that no meat had been carried to corners. 
 Afterwards he returned, with the Carver and Sewer, and the Gentlemen 
 Waiters, and waited till Lord Montague was " rysen and gone." 
 
 These tedious ceremonies were daily observed at Lord Montague's 
 
 ordinarye service." On great occasions, " in extraordinarye actions and 
 festivall times," the Steward and Comptroller, dressed "in fayre gownes nott 
 unlike, and haveinge white staves in their handes,'' preceded the Sewer 
 through the hall, ^^and the Marshall before them and the two Ushers 
 before him : and the Marshall, as the meate passeth the screene," was to say 
 " with a comendable voyce. By your leave, my masters." When the pro- 
 cession reached the dining-room on these great days, the two Yeomen Ushers 
 
 after reverence done" went to either side of the room, and the two 
 Gentleman Ushers went one to each side of the table, meeting '^att the 
 sake." The chief officers "after reverence done" were desired to ^^stande 
 a little above the middest of the chamber by the carpett.'' On these occasions 
 the Gentleman Usher was to spread two tablecloths on the table, so that 
 when the time came for washing, the " uppermoste " cloth was removed, 
 and the seconde shall appeare.'^ On this the towel was laid, which on 
 days of ordinary service " was spread on the bare table." The Gentleman 
 Usher was cautioned at no time "to suffer wayters to carrye a dishe or 
 attende att [Lord Montague's] table in dublett and hose only, without 
 cither coate, cloake, or sume upper garment." But "in greate repayre of 
 strangers" he was to '^^appoynte a suflBcient man to attende the silver vessells 
 and meate," as well as additional Sewers, Gentlemen, and Yeomen to wait 
 upon "strangers of accompte." 
 
 The conclusion of Lord Montague's Book of Household Rules is curious. 
 He says: "Thus have I nowe breifely runne over all such orders as I have 
 esteemed most convenient for the civill governemente of myne howseholde, 
 howebeitt nott so largelye as the matters themselves might well require; 
 neither soe that the strickte observeinge of noe more than is herein sett 
 downe should be suflficient to be performed by them in whose oflSces matters 
 of lesse momente, to avoyde tediousness, are lefte oute. And yett is ytt 
 heere suflBciently enoughe (as I conceave) layde downe for the full instruction 
 of everye one in that that belonges unto him. In the doeinge whereof I 
 thought ytt nott unmeete to inserte such customeable ceremonys of service as 
 are best fitteinge the degree of that place and calleinge wherein by her 
 majestye's favour I nowe lyve, meaneinge thereby neither in presumption to 
 
CHAPEL AT COWDRAY. 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 73 
 
 hazard the displeasure of the state nor in any sorte to incroache uppon the 
 rightes of my superiours^ neither yett intendeinge to yelde to any degree just 
 cause of conceyte, that this my course hath proceeded either of vayne glorye 
 or any other Hght and ydle fancye, but only of a careful! regarde moved to 
 see my people lyve under me in such civillitye and seemelye behaviour as may 
 stande most with myne honour and the dutifull discharge of their service in 
 their severall offices and places/' Lord Montague adds, " in order that igno- 
 rance hereafter be no excuse for negligence/^ that the whole Book of Rules 
 is to be read over publicly once a year, ^^and that about the audite tyme," 
 in the presence of all his servants. If any one was doubtful as to the meaning 
 of any part of the Book he could have access to it by the disci etion of the 
 Steward, and thus would be able there to learne and be resolved in all 
 poyntes and circumstances apperteyninge to his dutye." 
 
 It is strange that amongst the members of so large a household there 
 should have been no chaplain. The Almoner, as will have been seen, was 
 one of the inferior servants, and has been ranked as the chaplain only by 
 persons who have looked at The Table without studying the Book of 
 Rules. 
 
 But it is stranger still that, according to the account of Queen Elizabeth^s 
 visit to Cpwdray, no religious service was provided for her on the Sunday. 
 To quote the words of Mr. Freeman, Long before that time all the doubt- 
 ings and baitings and compromises of the earlier part of her reign had come 
 to an end, and men were, as they are now, either distinctly Protestant or 
 distinctly Roman Catholic.^^ Mr. Freeman asks, ^' Did successive Viscounts 
 Montague venture on anything so like public celebration of forbidden rites 
 as to have mass said in this chapel? Was no worship of the kind enjoined 
 by law provided for Queen Elizabeth on her visit ? It is probable_, however, 
 that no chapel existed at Cowdray at the time of Queen Elizabeth's visit, 
 and that it was built by the second Viscount Montague only four years be- 
 fore his death. The following letter from Pope Urban VIII. to Lord Mon- 
 tague, with reference to the chapel, is still preserved among the Archives of 
 the English College of Jesuits at Rome.* 
 
 * Records of the English Province^ of the Society of Je^us, vol. vi. p, 537. It is probable that 
 P. Theatino who signed this letter was the Secretary for the Propaganda at the time, England 
 having been considered a " mission country " since the secession from Rome. The Pope's seal 
 must have been attached to the document. 
 
 K 
 
74 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 Letter of His Holiness Urban VIU., Pope, to discount Montague, 
 April 17, 16:^5. 
 
 Urban VIIL, Pope. 
 ''Beloved Son, health and Apostolic blessing. 
 
 " The proofs of the sincere fidelity and devotedness you cherish towards 
 Us and the Apostolic See deserves that We should_, as far as in the Lord We 
 may, comply with your desires. Having then been informed by you of late 
 that you have erected in your own house, and fittingly adorned, a private 
 chapel in honour of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
 for the which you crave of Us the following Indults. Of Our desire to show 
 you especial favour, and absolving you hereby, and holding you to be absolved, 
 from every bond of excommunication, and suspension incurred, either by your 
 own deed, or by judicial sentence, in case you should happen to have incurred 
 any such censure, both solely with a view to the validity of these presents. 
 We graciously assent to the humble petitions presented to Us in your 
 behalf, and by the advice of Our venerable brethren, the Cardinals of the 
 Holy Roman Church, who are set over the Sacred Rites, and of Our Apostolic 
 authority, by the tenor of these presents, do decree and declare that the afore- 
 said chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Conception and Assumption 
 into Heaven of the Virgin Mother of God, shall hereafter and for evermore 
 be held by all to be a sacred place, and be named as it ought to be named 
 and known, by the title of the most Holy Sacrament and of the Immaculate 
 Conception and glorious Assumption of the same Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 And We further allow and grant by the tenor and authority of these presents, 
 that in the aforesaid chapel may freely and lawfully be kept the Feast of the 
 Conception of this Most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the month of December, 
 with its Octave, according to the ordinary rubrics of the Roman Missal con- 
 cerning Octaves, and that at Vespers and Lauds throughout the year a joint 
 commemoration of the Conception and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary may be made, and Masses both proper and votive, be celebrated. 
 And this notwithstanding Apostolic Constitutions or aught else to the con- 
 trary. — Given at Rome, Sec, April 17, 16:^5, the second year of Our 
 Pontificate. P. Theatino. 
 
 "To Our beloved Son Antony Mary Viscount Montague, English 
 ^obleman/^ 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 75 
 
 William Browne, the third brother of Anthony Maria second Viscount 
 Montague, the youth of eighteen represented in Isaac Oliver^s picture, is 
 merely described in the Peerages as having died unmarried. But the 
 Annual Letters of the Jesuit College of Li^ge (recently published in the 
 Records of the English Province^ vol. ii. p. 428) tell his curious and interesting 
 story. 
 
 William Browne was born in 1576, and during his youth devoted him- 
 self entirely to his favourite pursuits of hunting and hawking. In the 
 year he determined to make a pilgrimage to Loretto, and crossed over 
 
 to Belgium for that purpose, leaving his servants, horses, hounds, and hawks, 
 in the charge of his friends during his absence. On his way from Belgium 
 to Loretto he visited the Jesuit Fathers at the College of St. Omer. To 
 them he acknowledged that (as was natural in those troubled times) he had 
 never been confirmed. He was confirmed at St. Omer, and at once resolved 
 to belong to some one of the religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Pending his decision he returned to England, collected his rents, and disposed 
 of his stable, kennel, and mew. After much deliberation William Browne, 
 " though grandson, brother, and uncle of Viscounts Montague — his grand- 
 father was Queen Mary's Ambassador to the Holy See — was himself content 
 to spend his life in the humble duties of a Jesuit lay-brother.^' * He under- 
 took the lowest and most disagreeable employments. " For fourteen years he 
 spent almost two hours daily in the kitchen in washing the dishes, &c. He 
 cleansed out the out-offices, lit the fires, and performed other like offices, 
 with so great a sense of internal pleasure that showed itself outwardly in his 
 countenance and was a sign of heavenly light whereby he penetrated into 
 the hidden treasures of these employments which are not revealed except to 
 such as are truly little.'' When the garden was being made at the College 
 at Liege, William Browne worked as a common hodman. With a sack 
 or hodman's basket on his back, which he so fastened by a double cord over 
 his breast as to leave his hands at liberty, in which he held his Imitation of 
 Christ by Thomas a Kempis, he would carry rubbish backwards and 
 forwards ; and whilst they were filling his hod with earth or stones, &c., he 
 would sit for a little upon the trunk of a tree and draw something from the 
 book wherewith in the meantime to feed his soul ; nor did any dilatoriness 
 
 * "Condition of Catholics under James I., ' Father Gerard's Narrative of the Gtmpowder Floty 
 edited by John Norris, S.J., p. cxcix. 
 
 i 
 
76 
 
 THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 show itself in his countenance or gait." His mother and sisters, hearing by 
 report of William's occupations, thought that his conduct was inconsistent 
 with the honour of his family. He replied : " You have your delights^ whilst 
 I in the meantime, of the Divine bounty, overflow with heavenly joys. You 
 are upon the stormy and perilous ocean ; God grant that you may one day 
 land safely in port.^^ One day a youth belonging to the college met William 
 carrying a bucket of pigs' wash, and said something as to '^his title and 
 family splendour. Upon which the brother in great confusion stopped for a 
 moment, and laying down his load said, ' I had rather that the whole bucket 
 should be poured down my neck than to have heard these words from you.' 
 Then resuming his bucket he carried it to the pigs^ trough.^^ When any one 
 would see him perspiring in the performance of disgusting offices, and would 
 put in a word upon the future glory of it, ^Believe me,^ he would say, ^my 
 brother, this it is I desire, this I aspire after, that I may please God and do 
 His holy will. As to heaven. He will dispose of me as He sees fit.' . . . No 
 one ever heard William complaining of food, clothing, or lodging, — no one 
 saw him eager for recreation. After mid-day, being exhausted with labours, 
 when rather overwhelmed with sleep than desirous of indulging in it, he 
 would take a little repose, laying upon the ground with his head resting upon 
 a brick. ... If he saw any small bits of dry bread upon the table, he took 
 them as quickly as he could, as so many delicacies. He could never be 
 induced to take breakfast, unless indeed by way of antidote against the 
 plague.^' Yet William " was not by nature formed for labour, nor did long 
 habit ease the burthen, but the love of God alone, which never relaxed in 
 his soul, made the burthen easy to him even to the very day in which he fell 
 sick" of his last illness. Once when it was suggested to him that '^our 
 tepidity might be assisted by the hope of rewards and the fear of punishment," 
 his answer was, I do not remember for twenty years to have needed any 
 other spur than the love of God alone." 
 
 William Browne materially assisted in the purchase of land at Liege 
 when, in 1614, the Novitiate of the English Mission was removed thither from 
 Louvain. He lived in the College at Liege until the year 1637. In that year 
 he and two other lay-brothers were victims of charity," nursing the people 
 of Liege, during an outbreak of the plague. All three caught the plague and 
 died. William Browne's death took place on the o^oth of August 1637. In 
 his later years he was occasionally confined to his bed owing to some injury 
 to one of his legs. On these occasions he occupied himself in writing an 
 
THE BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD RULES. 
 
 77 
 
 ascetical book which is still preserved in the library at Stonyhurst. The 
 volume, which is most beautifully written, contains thirty-four chapters (some 
 760 pages of very close manuscript). On the first page are the words^ "This 
 book, belonging to the English College at Liege, was written by Brother 
 William Browne, ray Lord Montague^s brother, who lived and died a very 
 holy man, in the quality of a lay-brother of the Society of Jesus at LihgeJ' 
 
 Another Jesuit, Father Henry Lanman, was in early life one of the gentle- 
 men in the household of the second Viscount Montague. Father Lanman 
 entered the English College of Jesuits at Rome when he was twenty-seven 
 years of age. In making the usual statement regarding his antecedents, he 
 says that when he was about twenty he entered Lord Montague^s household, 
 and adds : " I was taken into the family of Viscount Montague, among the 
 upper class of retainers ; and spent six years in his service, with the interval 
 of about a year, during which he was suffering an inhuman incarceration 
 for his constant profession of the Catholic faith; nor was he allowed to have 
 any Catholic attendant, not even myself, to assist him, until he obtained a 
 little freer custody. In this interval I lived with my father. At length 
 Lord Montague took me again, and retained me until, obtaining full liberty, 
 or at least as much as he desired, he retired to his own house in the country, 
 and through his great favour and liberality I have, been enabled to make 
 my journey hither.^^ 
 
 Father Lanman continues : Up to my twenty-third year I was a schis- 
 matic. My conversion came about as follows. Among the domestics of 
 Lord Montague were many Catholics. One of them, with whom I was 
 exceedingly intimate, often talked with me about religion ; and his argu- 
 ments raised within me doubts and an inclination towards the Catholic faith, 
 to encourage which he furnished me with many books, which I read and re- 
 read with much satisfaction, especially those written by Rastall and Harding 
 against Jewell. These, however, produced no other effect than in drawing 
 me a little from attending the churches of the Protestants. At length, to 
 free me from this state of doubt, I was taken by the same friend, whose name 
 is William Coningsby, to Mr. Winckfield, a priest, and by his means, 
 through the help of God, I was reconciled to the Catholic Church, on the 
 Saturday within the octave of Corpus Christi, I59<5." * From the latter part 
 of his statement it would appear that there was no domestic chaplain at Cow- 
 dray at the time that Lanman was a member of Lord Montague's household. 
 
 * Records of the English Province of the Society oj Jesus, vol. i. p. 174. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CotDtirag During tfte €Ml Wax. 
 
 RANCIS, third Viscount Montague, succeeded his father in the 
 autumn of 16^9. He was at that time only twenty, but he 
 was already married to Lady Elizabeth Somerset, the youngest 
 daughter of the Marquess of Worcester, and his eldest son 
 Anthony had been baptized at Battle Abbey in August 1629. 
 This Anthony is said to have died unmarried, but Lord Montague had 
 two other sons, Francis and Henry, who successively inherited the title. He 
 had also one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Christopher Roper, fifth 
 Lord Teynham. 
 
 The third Lord Montague was a great sufferer during the Civil War, 
 being a Roman Catholic and a stout Royalist. He was most active in 
 assisting Charles the First with money and arms. Evelyn, in his Memoirs, 
 quotes letters from Sir Richard Browne, the ambassador at Paris, and Sir 
 Edward Nicholas, the Secretary of State in London, as follows : — 3 Sept. 
 1643. Much arms and ammunition sent. Lord Viscount Montague had 
 fifty thousand livres Tournois to purchase arms, — thirty-five thousand only 
 expended. Prays the other part may be ordered for him.'^ In November 
 of the same year Sir Richard writes: ^^Mr. Croft is gone to Rome joyntly 
 with my Lord Viscount Montague and others, to treat with som merchants 
 for furnishinge his ma^y with armes and ammunition.'^ 
 
 Lord Montague's conduct in thus assisting the King was not unnoticed 
 
COJVDRAY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 
 
 79 
 
 at home. In the Journals of the House of Commons are the following 
 entries, showing that his punishment was both speedy and severe : — 
 
 June 1643. — Resolved, that the estate of the Lord Viscount Mon- 
 tague, a papist, shall be forthwith sequestred.'^ 
 
 " I April 1644. — Ordered, that Captain Higgons do forthwith send up 
 the plate, treasure, and other goods found in the Lord Montague's house." 
 
 " 18 May 1644. — Ordered, that the goods brought up from Cowdray 
 House in Sussex by order of this House be forthwith stored up in the stores 
 of Cambden House.'' 
 
 6 June 1644. — Ordered, that the goods that are brought up which were 
 seized at the Lord Montague's house in Sussex, and particularly those goods 
 remaining at the Talbot in Southwark in Captain Higgons' custody, be 
 carried into Cambden House, and that all the said goods be there sold at the 
 best value." 
 
 These orders no doubt applied to Battle Abbey as well as to Cowdray, 
 for the Battle estates were at that time valued at ^1200 a year. 
 
 But Lord Montague had much to bear besides this spoliation. 
 
 When the Royalist general Sir Ralph Hopton surprised Arundel in the 
 " exceeding hard frost" of December 1543, he left a garrison in Cowdray on 
 his way. Lord Montague had no doubt given up his house to the soldiers, 
 and he had wisely taken the precaution of covering the historical pictures 
 painted in fresco on the walls with a thick coat of lime-wash. One of the 
 officers, however, in exercising his partizan * against the wall^ broke out from 
 one picture the face of Henry the Eighth, and it had afterwards to be re- 
 painted. Some of the men, and many of the horses, were quartered at 
 Easebourne Priory ; and when, some two hundred years later, alterations were 
 being made there by Mr. Alexander Brown, he found traces of this stable 
 in a quantity of manure which had been covered over, and which lay where 
 it had fallen, as fresh as if it had been there but a fortnight. 
 
 Sir William Waller, the Roundhead general (who was called by his 
 friends William the Conqueror), marched hurriedly after Hopton. He wrote 
 from Arundel to the House of Lords: According to your commands I 
 advanced the last Lord's Day from Farnham towards this place. I could 
 not reach that night past Haslemere. The next day I marched to Cowdray, 
 
 * Cambden House was on Netting Hill, 
 t A kind of short pike. [HalliwellJl 
 
8o 
 
 CO WDR AY DURING THE CIFIL WAR, 
 
 where we, understanding there were four troopes of horse and one hundred 
 foote, I resolved to give them the Good-night; and to that end I despatched 
 away two regiments of horse to lay the passage round : but they were too 
 nimble for me and escaped hither, where I overtook them on Tuesday 
 night.'^ The severe frost was no doubt of great service to Sir William 
 Waller in his march through those roads which were described by Horace 
 Walpole a century later as being bad beyond all badness ; though letters 
 from both armies complain of the terrible coldness of the season/^ 
 
 In a paper by the Rev. H. D. Gordon, published in the Sussex Archceo- 
 logical Collections, vol. xxviii. p. io5, the following letter from an officer 
 in Waller's army is given. It originally appeared in the Mercurius Civiciis 
 of December 21, 
 
 "Lord's Day, Dec. loth, left Farnham about two of the clocke in the after- 
 noon, marching towards 'Rdizltworth [Hazlemere], our noble generall seeming to 
 go another way to amaze the Papists and malignants, and the better to prevent 
 intelligence; and about midnight came with his whole army to the said Towne 
 where the Rendezvouz was that night. Monday, sunrising, his honour wheeled 
 about towards Medhurst, where my Lord Mountacute's house is (Cowdray), which 
 said Lord is a known and profest Papist : the house is now possest by the Parlia- 
 ment forces j where we staid that night and furnished the said castle (for indeed 
 it may well be called so in regard of the strength thereof) with all necessaries for 
 defence to awe the Papists and mahgnants, wherewith the s"^ Towne is much 
 infested and infected. Tuesday morning we marched from Medhurst, sending out 
 a party of horse to Petworth, having thought to surprise the enemy there, but they 
 fled before our successe, Hopton and the great ones to Winchester, and the rest 
 to Arundel with bag and baggage : all that night we lay on a heath within a mik 
 of Arundel." 
 
 The siege of Arundel began on Wednesday, December 13, 1643, and 
 lasted till the 6th of the following January. 
 
 On Friday, the 39th of December, Waller recovered Chichester, and one 
 of his soldiers says in his diary that for this " we brought our ammunition 
 that was at Midhurst to Arundel.^^ Mr. Gordon adds in a note that these 
 stores were brought from Cowdray, which became from that time a Parlia- 
 mentarian stronghold. 
 
 Some of Sir William Waller's troops were quartered in Midhurst church, 
 where they amused themselves by firing bullets up into the roof. Many of 
 
CO WD RAY DURING THE CIFIL JVAR. 
 
 8i 
 
 these bullets were found during the recent restoration of the church, and 
 it is remarkable that the Browne monument should have escaped injury at 
 the hands of the Roundhead soldiers. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that Lord Montague, after having been 
 despoiled of his goods and plate, and after having had so large a body of 
 troops quartered on him, was in great distress for money. One of his first 
 attempts to improve his condition w^as by the sale of West Horsley. Evelyn 
 writes in his Diary on September 14, 1665, " I went to Wotton, on 
 16 September to visite old Secretary Nicholas, being now at his new purchase 
 of West Horsley, once mortgag'd to me by Lord Viscount Montague ; a 
 pretty drie seate on ye Downe.^^ 
 
 But this sale represented but a small part of Lord Montague's pecuniary 
 difficulties, and he determined to dispark the parks of Battle Abbey. In 
 September and October 1659 he let the "Little Park of Battle" on lease 
 to various persons ; in February 1660 he let portions of " the Great Park of 
 Battle lately disparked, containing by estimation three hundred acres more 
 or less ; " and in December of the same year he let the dwelling-house 
 called the " Almery or Almonry House, with the various parcels of land 
 belonging thereto." 
 
 Lord Montague had thus every reason to avoid unnecessary expense ; 
 but from the account-book of his steward from July 1657 to July 1658 
 he appears to have been most extravagant. In that one year he spent 
 .^1945, los. on the occasional items which were paid for by his steward. 
 This sum appears large indeed when it is recollected that Lord Montague 
 as a recusant had forfeited to the Commonwealth two-thirds of his estate. 
 Among the papers at Battle Abbey were the following certificates : — " Cer- 
 tificate of the Value of the two-third parts of the Estates of Francis Viscount 
 Montague of Battle, in the several Rapes of Lewes and Pevensey, sequestered 
 for his recusancy. The whole Estate valued at 15:^00/. per An. William 
 Yalden of Blackdowrie, Gent., offers to rent the two-thirds at 800Z. per An. 
 Exhibited to the Commissioners for Compounding of Sequestration^ Dec. 16, 
 1650. Signed, Richard Sherwyn, Auditor, Oct. 15, 1651.'' "Certificate of 
 the Value of the Estates of Francis Viscount Montague of Cowdry, in the 
 several Rapes of Arundel and Chichester, the whole let at i,S75^' -^^-f 
 two-thirds of which were sequestrated for his recusancy. William Yalden 
 of Blackdowne, Gent., had agreed to rent the said two-thirds at 1,050/. 
 per An. Exhibited before the Commissioners for Compounding, Nov. 
 
 L 
 
82 
 
 COWDRAY DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 22, 1650. Signed Richard Sherwyn, Auditor, Oct. 15, The 
 curious account-book of Lord Montague's steward was preserved among 
 the Battle Abbey muniments ; and the following entries are interesting as 
 showing the domestic expenses of a nobleman at that time. 
 
 Aug. 16, 1657. Paid the Bone-setter for setting Mrs. Hall's shoulder, 5s. 
 19. Given to my Lady Gage's Coachman by my Lady's order, 
 23. Given to the Fidler for playing to. my master, is. 6d. 
 Sept. II. For two quarts of Acamarabilis,"^ which we had from London for my 
 Lady, at 8s. the quart. For the bottle to put it in, 8d. 
 For washing Will Stapler, is. 2d. 
 „ 23. Paid the fruiterer at Lewes for cherries and other things, ;^4, is. 
 Oct. 17. Accounts for the house here at London. f 
 Crossing the water at Lambeth, 4d. 
 „ 20. Paid Mrs. Mary 4s. which she laid out for two coats for my little 
 
 Master and my little Mistress. 
 „ 29. Paid Mr. Staley the Goldsmith for the use of thirty-seven pound of Gold 
 which my Lord had to Newmarket, at twopence a piece, ;£"io, 6s. 
 PaidJ the Chairman for carrying my Lady to Whitehall, being three 
 hours and a half, 3s. 
 Nov. 3. For a new Almanack, 2d. 
 
 Paid the man of the Jackanapes ^£4, os. 6d. for things for my mistress. 
 Paid Will Stapler 3d. which my Lord bid him give the chairmen for a 
 link. 
 
 „ 15. Paid for two French caps laced with silver lace for my Master and 
 
 Mistress, ;^i. 
 „ 22. Paid for a Torch, 8d. 
 
 Given to Mr. Walsingham's keeper for a Doe, los. 
 
 Paid Lewes Carrier for bringing a box of Puddings for my Mistress and 
 my Master, and the Porters bringing them out of South wark, is. 4d. 
 Dec. 10. Paid a Hackney-coachman for carrying my Lord, 3s. 
 
 Given to the Minister of St. Giles by my Lord's order, 5s. § 
 1658. Jan. 17. Paid for sweeping four Chimnies, 2s. 
 
 Paid Mr. Fiske the Dancing-master for teaching my Master to dance, 
 being two months, ;£4. 
 Feb. 2. To a Link-boy for lighting my Lady, 2d. 
 
 * Aqua Mirabilis. t The house at St. Mary Overy. See p. 19. 
 
 t From other payments in this book it appears that a sedan-chair could be hired for one 
 shilling an hour. § This was a half-yearly gift from Lord Montague. 
 
COWDRAY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, 83 
 
 Feb. 10. Paid the chairmen for carrying my Lord and my Lady to Sir John 
 Thimblebe's supper, and waiting until 6 o'clock in the morning for 
 my Lady. 
 
 „ 20. Paid the chairmen for carrying my Lady to the French Ambassador's 
 supper, and fetching my Lord home, and waiting for my Lady until 7 
 o'clock in the morning. 
 Mar. 26. Paid Mr. Phillips for half a pound of Tobacco he bought for my Lord, 5s. 
 
 30. Paid Mr. Houblon for a puncheon of Paris wine, £14. 
 April 5. For a bottle of Spruce-beer for my Mistress, 3d. 
 „ 1 7. Delivered to my Lord to give to the Nurse and Midwife at Mrs. Corn- 
 
 wallis' christening, 
 „ 21. For a Tooth for my Lord, 7s. 
 May 13. Paid Hadlowe for scouring the hangings of the coach and the seats, 5s. 
 June 2. Given to one Mr. Huddleston* by my Lord's order, los. 
 July 2. Paid Rowland Rayler for two couples and a dog, 14s. 
 For two bushels of Roses, lod. 
 
 In 1666 a tax was levied which fell heavily upon Lord Montague. This 
 was the subsidy by which the King took one pound in every hundred pounds 
 of personal estate. Servants^ both male and female, had to pay out of their 
 wages one shilling in every pound ; and for aliens these taxes were doubled. 
 Extra payments were exacted from gentlemen of rank ; a Duke being 
 taxed ^^o, a Viscount ^2^, and the eldest son of a Viscount, if of age, 
 ^1"], los. Among the old papers found at Cowdray was the assessment of 
 the members of Lord Montague's family, and of his establishment, for these 
 taxes. 
 
 In 1670, the hearth-money tax also pressed heavily upon Lord Montague. 
 This was a tax of two shillings a year on each hearth in every house rated 
 above twenty shillings a year; and the returns show that Lord Montague 
 had seventy-seven hearths in Cowdray House. 
 
 The third Lord Montague died on the 2d of November 1682. His 
 widow survived him only two years. She seems to have resided at Battle, 
 for leases still exist which were granted there by her; and in 1683 George 
 Packe was appointed " Receiver of the Rents, quit Rents, &c., of the 
 
 * This was Father Huddleston the Jesuit, who was brought by the Duke of York to Charles 
 the Second on his death-bed, and who is said to have received the King's confession that he died a 
 Roman Catholic. 
 
84 COWDRAY DURING THE CinL WylR. 
 
 Manors of Battle^ Barneholme, Swinham, and Stone, in Susscx_, by Elizabeth, 
 Viscountess Dowager Montague." 
 
 Among the pictures which were burnt at Cowdray was one which 
 represented this third Lord Montague and his wife, but it does not appear 
 to have possessed any particular merit. 
 
 Anthony, the eldest son of Francis third Viscount Montague, is generally 
 believed to have died unmarried during the lifetime of his father. But a 
 diiFerent account is given in an article in The Reliquary^ by Frederick 
 Bradley [vol. v. No. 20, April 1865]. 
 
 According to this account, Anthony quarrelled with his father and went 
 abroad, reaching the Hague just at the time of the outbreak of the Civil 
 War. He immediately returned to England, and joined the Royalist forces 
 under the Earl of Newcastle. Anthony was wounded during the siege of 
 York, in January 1644, just after his marriage to Bridget, daughter of 
 James Maskew of York, "a devoted Royalist and the owner of large estates" 
 in the county. Maskew and his two sons were killed at the battle of Mar- 
 ston Moor, izd July 1644. Anthony Browne was made prisoner at the 
 same time, but managed to escape into Derbyshire with a brother officer 
 named Adlington of Adlington Hall in Cheshire. Anthony now assumed 
 the name of John Hudson and placed himself under the protection of a 
 Roman Catholic family, the Eyres of Newbold near Chesterfield. His wife, 
 who had also been imprisoned, joined him at Newbold, his retreat having 
 been made known to her by a faithful soldier who had fought under him at 
 Marston Moor. They bought a house and a small piece of land at Newbold 
 from the Eyres, and the place is still called Hudson's Yard. At the 
 Restoration Anthony Browne petitioned the King for the restitution of his 
 wife's estates, which had been seized by Cromwell on the death of her father 
 and brothers. But Charles the Second had already granted them to Sir 
 George Barlow, and refused to act further in the matter. From London, 
 whither he had gone on this business, Anthony Browne proceeded to his old 
 home at Cowdray. Here he found new servants, who did not know him, 
 and was told that his father had left England for a time. Poor Anthony, 
 sad and lame, returned slowly to his little home at Newbold, and died there 
 very shortly afterwards. 
 
 Anthony Browne was buried in the ancient Roman Catholic chapel at 
 Newbold. A tablet, surmounted by the Montague arms, was erected to his 
 memory, and bore the following inscription : — 
 
CO WDRAY DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 85 
 
 " To the memory of the Honourable Anthony Browne, eldest son of Francis 
 Viscount Montague of Cowdray in Sussex, Major in the Volunteer Regiment at 
 York, who was Wounded in the leg in a Sally from thence 1644. [He married 
 Bridget Maskew, daughter of James Maskew of York Esquire, who, together 
 with his two Sons, was killed at Marston Moor fighting for their King and Country.] 
 He left two Sons and two Daughters, John, Gervase, Christian, and Martha. He 
 departed this life May, 6, 1666, aged 46 years. Requiescat in Pace. 
 
 'Tis very well known he had a great deal of trouble. 
 He suffered with patience, 'cause God made him able : 
 He liv'd a good Christian and hoped to get Heaven, 
 And hoped that through Christ his sins would be forgiven." 
 
 This tablet does not now exist. The chapel was dismantled in the time 
 of William the Third. It was afterwards used as a cowhouse, and all the 
 monuments and tablets taken from it were made into mantelpieces^ or 
 lintels of doors and windows. A copy of the inscription was however pre- 
 served by Anthony's children ; and his widow (who survived him for thirty- 
 four years) left a paper impressing on them the rightfulness of their claim to 
 Cowdray and the Montague peerage. She seems to have been in some 
 degree recognised by the Montague family, as she received constant presents 
 from them. 
 
 John^ the eldest son of Anthony, died unmarried. About 1689 Gervase, 
 the second son, went to London to see his uncle, Francis fourth Viscount 
 Montague. He was duly acknowledged, and promised the next succession 
 to the title, when, it was argued, he might have it without trouble or expense.^' 
 (The fourth Lord Montague had no family.) Gervase registered his claim 
 in the Heralds' Office, but in 1696 he died, twelve years before his uncle. 
 In the meantime he had worked as a mason, and having bought a piece 
 of "marble land^' at Ashford, he supplied a quantity of the marble used in 
 the building of Chatsworth. At his death his personal estate was valued at 
 only j^99, 5s. 2d. 
 
 The sons of Gervase Browne seem not to have put forward their claim to 
 the Montague peerage. But his grandson, Joseph Browne, on the death by 
 drowning of the young Viscount Montague in 1793, did endeavour to esta- 
 blish himself as the next heir. He was old at that time, and very poor, and 
 was unable to incur the expense of collecting the necessary proofs for making 
 
86 
 
 COWDRAY DURING THE CIFIL IV JR. 
 
 out his claim. He however was not devoid of the pride of his family, for he 
 refused an offer of ten thousand pounds, which was made to him on condition 
 of his relinquishing all claim to the title and property. 
 
 Joseph Browne remained a small farmer, living at Lings, in the parish 
 of North Wingfield, in Derbyshire, and there his descendants have con- 
 tinued. Their likeness to the pictures of the first Viscount Montague is 
 said to be very remarkable.* 
 
 The author of the article in The Reliquary explained the quarrel between 
 Anthony Browne and his father by saying that the third Viscount Montague 
 joined the Parliamentary forces at the outbreak of the Civil Wars. But 
 this is manifestly an error, for, as has been seen, the father was a sufferer for 
 his adherence to the Royalist cause. 
 
 * I am indebted to the above-named article in T/ie Reliquary for the whole of this information. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CotoiJraB in tfte (JBigftteentl) Centurg. 
 
 RANCIS fourth Viscount Montague was probably educated 
 abroad^ as he always signed his name Montaigu. Before his 
 time the spelHng adopted had invariably been Mountague, 
 but his successors signed themselves Montague until the title 
 became extinct in 1797. 
 He married Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of William Marquess of 
 Powys,* widow of Richard Molineux, eldest son of Carryl Viscount Moli- 
 neux. Lady Mary was the sister of the courageous Countess of Nithisdale, 
 who in February 17 16 contrived her husband^s escape from the Tower. 
 
 In 1687 Lord Montague was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex by 
 James the Second, being probably chosen on account of his firm adherence 
 to the Roman Catholic religion. 
 
 But he, too, was sadly in want of money, and he demolished the great 
 kitchen at Battle Abbey in order to profit by the sale of the materials. This 
 kitchen seems to have been in a fairly perfect condition until 1682, and was 
 a large detached building^ roofed with lead. It was, in fact, so large that 
 its destruction occupied four whole years. The materials were sold to the 
 tenantry and neighbours; the stone fetched four and five shillings the cart- 
 load, and the lead twelve shillings and sixpence the hundredweight. As 
 Goodman Griffin in February i68(5 paid ten pounds, and in the fol- 
 
 * Sir William Herbert, Baronet, created Earl of Powys 1674, Viscount Montgomery and 
 Marquess of Powys 1687, outlawed 1689, died 1696. All these titles became extinct on the death 
 of the third Marquess, unmarried, in 1748. \_Historic Peerage of England, by Sir Harris Nicolas.] 
 
88 COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 lowing May twenty pounds ^^in part of money due for lead/^ and as the 
 accounts for that year alone show that other persons took as much as two 
 tons of lead (even more was sold in the two following years)^ the vast size of 
 the building may be imagined.* 
 
 Lord Montague continued to let on lease any portions of the Parks of 
 Battle which had not previously been disparked. He also let the Cherry 
 Garden^ of three acres, all planted with cherry trees, the *^Barn called the 
 Sacristy Barn, with ten closes of land,^^ the Horse Race, the Two Butts, the 
 six closes of land known as the Deanery Land/^ and many other portions 
 of the Abbey property. His father had in 1676 granted a lease of some land 
 in Battle to a joiner named Hammond, "with permission to erect a Powder- 
 Mill/^ and in 1690 he himself relet it to William Hammond^ "Powder- 
 Maker."^ This plot of four acres was called the Perperingeye Lands, and the 
 powder-mills remained upon it until 1874. 
 
 It was in the time of this Lord Montague that so much damage was done 
 all over England by the terrible storm, which, beginning on the 2,4th. of 
 November 1703, raged with undiminished violence for a whole week.f 
 Defoe collected and published accounts of the ravages of this storm in dif- 
 ferent parts of the country, and among these descriptions is the following : — 
 
 " From Medhurst in Sussex the following Letter is a short account of the Lord 
 Montacute in his Seat there, which is extraordinary great, tho' Abridg'd in the Letter : 
 
 " Sir, — I Receiv'd a Letter from you wherein you desire me to give you an Ac- 
 count of what Damage was done in and about our Town. I praise God we came 
 off indifferent well ; the greatest Damage we received was the untiling of Houses, 
 and 3 Chimneys blown down. But 4 or 5 Stacks of Chimneys are blown down at 
 my Lord Montacute's House, within a quarter of a mile of us ; one of them fell on 
 part of the Great Hall, which did Considerable Damage : and the Church Steeple 
 of Osborn [Easebourne], half a mile from us, was blown down at the same time ; 
 and my Lord had above 500 Trees torn up by the Roots ; and near us Several 
 Barns blown down, one of Sir John Mills', a very large Tiled Barn. Your humble 
 Servant, John Prinke. 
 
 " Medhurst, yan. 18, i7o|." 
 
 * In the Beauties and Antiquities of Sussex, by Rouse, published in 1825, with illustrations 
 by the author, the view given of this kitchen represents only a crypt under the refectory of Battle 
 Abbey. The original kitchen was razed to the ground in 1685. Browne Willis, writing in 1718, 
 makes a somewhat similar mistake, imagining the refectory itself to have been the kitchen. 
 
 + "The Storm, or a Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters which 
 happened in the late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land." Published 1704. 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 89 
 
 Francis fourth Viscount Montague had no child. He died in 1708, and 
 was buried at Midhurst under the great Browne monument. 
 
 His brother Henry succeeded him as fifth Viscount Montague. 
 
 Henry Lord Montague married Barbara^ the daughter of James Wal- 
 singham of , Chesterford in E8sex_, and grand-daughter of Theophilus second 
 Earl of Suffolk. They had one son, Anthony_, and five daughters. Mary, 
 the eldest, died unmarried. Elizabeth became a nun at Pontoise in Nor-' 
 mandy. Barbara married Ralph Salvin of Tudhow, in the county of 
 Durham, and died in 1709, the year after her marriage, leaving one daughter, 
 Dorothy Salvin, who died unmarried. Catharine married George Colling- 
 woodj a Northumberland gentleman, and had a daughter, who married Sir 
 Robert Throgmorton. Anne married Anthony Kempe of Slindon, and had 
 a daughter, who became the wife of Lord Kinard. Henrietta, the youngest, 
 married Richard Harcourt, a merchant, /vho lived at Boulogne, and had 
 one daughter. The fifth Lord Montague destroyed a further portion of 
 Battle Abbey, and sold a great quantity of underw ood there to " Farrett 
 Holloway of Salehurst, Gun-founder, at the rate of five shillings for every 
 coard,* after the custom of Sussex/^ 
 
 Henry Lord Montague survived his brother only nine years, and died 
 at Epsom on the 25th of June 1717. 
 
 The curious traditions relating to the fifth Lord Montague will be found 
 in the extracts from the Story of a Curse appended to this volume. It is 
 impossible now to establish the accuracy of these stories, but they are firmly 
 believed in Midhurst and in its neighbourhood, and appear to have been 
 handed down from father to son with very little variation. 
 
 Another story is that a younger son of one of the Viscounts Montague 
 was outlawed for some crime, and lived for many years concealed in a hid- 
 ing-hole contrived in the small pavilion which stood in the centre of the 
 Close Walks. The site of this pavilion may still be seen. It was close to 
 the shores of the beautiful lake, now the wharf, and a little creek ran up to 
 it, so that boats could be brought to the door of the building. This lake was 
 the ^' verie goodlie fish-pond on the banks of which the Angler and the 
 Netter met Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Anthony, the only son of Henry Lord Montague, succeeded his father as 
 
 * A Sussex coard of wood is 14 feet long, 3 feet, wide, and 3 feet 2 inches high ; the extra two 
 inches in height being allowed for shrinking or settling. [TAo?'J>e, p. 143.] 
 
 M 
 
90 COIVDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 sixth Viscount in the summer of 17 17. Very soon after this he determined 
 to sell Battle Abbey. Cowdray had now become the favourite residence of 
 the family, and Battle in its dilapidated and forlorn condition had been 
 abandoned to the smugglers, who found in its ruined vaults convenient hid- 
 ing-places for their kegs of spirits and bales of silk. 
 
 In 1719 Lord Montague sold Battle Abbey and the whole of his property 
 at Battle to Sir Thomas Webster, Bart. Sir Thomas Webster was an 
 antiquary of some note, and was particularly anxious to purchase houses of 
 archaeological interest. He had already bought Copped Hall in Essex, and 
 after he became the owner of Battle Abbey he bought Bodiham Castle and 
 Robertsbridge Abbey, both in Sussex.* 
 
 Battle Abbey remained in the possession of the Webster family till 1857, 
 in which year it was sold to Lord Harry Vane, now the fourth Duke of 
 Cleveland. 
 
 The year after the sale of Battle Abbey the sixth Lord Montague married 
 Barbara, third daughter of Sir John Webb, Bart., of Hathorp in Gloucester- 
 shire. They had two sons, the elder of whom died at Rouen when only a 
 year old ; the second was Anthony Joseph, who afterwards became seventh 
 Viscount Montague. Their only daughter, Mary, was married in Cowdray 
 House, September 30, 1761, to Sir Richard Bedingfield, Bart., of Oxburgh 
 Hall in Norfolk. 
 
 In 173:^ Lord Montague was chosen Grand Master of the Freemasons.f 
 In 1767 he died, at the age of eighty-two, and was buried "under a raised 
 table-tomb of black marble in the cloister of Easebourne Priory, at the east end 
 
 * In 1834 Thomas Thorpe, bookseller, of 38 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, bought all the 
 Battle Abbey muniments for less than ^300 from Sir Godfrey Webster, the fourth Baronet. [This 
 Sir Godfrey married Elizabeth Vassall, the rich Jamaica heiress, who afterwards became the cele- 
 brated Lady Holland of Holland House.] 
 
 Thorpe published in 1835 a Descriptive Catalogue "of the Original Charters, Royal Grants, and 
 Donations, many with the seals, in fine preservation, the Monastic Chartulary, Official, Manorial, 
 Court Baron, Court Leet, and Rent-Rolls, Registers, and other Documents, constituting the Muni- 
 ments of Battle Abbey .... also a great mass of papers relating to the Family of Browne, 
 ennobled as the Lords Viscount Montague, of such extent and importance as to render them a 
 desideratum of much consequence in the Grand National Depositary . . . ." He adds, " It is pre- 
 sumed no collection of manuscripts of equal importance in a national point of view has ever been 
 offered for sale. The whole bound in ninety-seven volumes, folio, uniform in Russia, Price Twelve 
 Hundred Pounds." The collection was sold for the sum named to a well-known antiquary, Sir 
 Thomas Phillips of Middle Hill, Broomsgrove. 
 
 + Dallaway's History of Sussex. 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 of the south aisle of the church.^^ * Sir William Burrellj writing in 3778, 
 says, " In a small ruined chancel, without roof or paving, the late Viscount 
 Montague and many other Roman Catholics are buried without any inscrip- 
 tion to commemorate them/' f The names of these Roman Catholics are 
 not to be found in the registers of Midhurst churchy owing to the refusal of 
 the then Incumbent, Serenus Barrett (1717 to 1758), to make any entry as to 
 the baptism, marriage, or burial of a Romanist. 
 
 In 1749, during the life of the sixth Lord Montague, Horace Walpole 
 visited Cowdray, and described it in the following letter to his friend 
 George Montague : J — 
 
 " Strawberry Hill, August 26, 1749. 
 
 *' Dear George, . . . Mr. Chute and I are returned from our expedition mira- 
 culously well, considering all our distresses. If you love good roads, conveniences, 
 good inns, plenty of postillions and horses, be so kind as never to go into Sussex. 
 We thought ourselves in the northest part of England ; the whole country has a 
 Saxon air, and the inhabitants are savage, as if King George the Second was the first 
 monarch of the East Angles. Coaches grow there no more than balm and spices ; 
 we were forced to drop our post-chaise, that resembled nothing so much as Harle- 
 quin's calash, which was occasionally a chaise or a baker's cart. We journeyed over 
 Alpine mountains drenched in clouds, and thought of Harlequin again when he 
 was driving the chariot of the sun through the morning clouds, and so was glad to 
 hear the aqua-vitse man crying a dram. At last we got to Arundel Castle, which 
 was visibly built for defence in an impracticable country. It is now only a heap of 
 ruins, with a new indifferent apartment clapt up for the Norfolks when they reside 
 there for a week or a fortnight. Their priest showed us about. There are the walls 
 of a round tower, where a garrison held out against Cromwell : he planted a battery 
 on the top of the church, and reduced them. There is a gloomy gateway and 
 dungeons, in one of which, I conclude, is kept the old woman who, in the time of 
 the late rebellion, offered to show Lord Robert Sutton where arms were hidden at 
 Worksop (a seat of the Duke of Norfolk's in Nottinghamshire). The Duchess 
 
 * Dalla way's History of Sussex. 
 
 t Sir William Burrell may have been mistaken in this statement. The raised table-tomb of 
 black marble still exists in Easebourne church. The inscription upon it states that it was erected 
 in memory of the sixth Viscount Montague and his wife (who died in 1779) by their only surviving 
 son, Anthony Joseph, seventh Viscount, in the year 1781. Underneath are the words "Requiescat in 
 Pace." The tomb had not, therefore, been erected at the time of Sir William Burrell's visit to 
 Easebourne. 
 
 + Letters of Horace Walpole^ vol. ii. p. 299. 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 complimented him into dining before his search, and in the meantime the woman 
 was spirited away, and adieu the arms. . . . We were charmed with the magnifi- 
 cence of the park at Petworth, which is Percy to the backbone, but the house and 
 garden did not please our antiquarian spirit. The house is entirely new-fronted in 
 the style of the Tuilleries, and furnished exactly like Hampton Court. There is 
 one room gloriously flounced all round by whole-length pictures, with much the finest 
 carving by Gibbons that ever my eyes beheld. There are birds absolutely feathered, 
 and two antique vases with bas-relieves as perfect and beautiful as if they were 
 carved by a Grecian master. There is a noble Claude Lorrain, a very curious 
 picture of the haughty Anne Stanhope, the Protector's wife (second wife of Edward 
 Duke of Somerset, Protector in reign of his nephew, Edward the VI.), pretty, 
 but not giving one an idea of her character, and many old portraits ; but the 
 housekeeper was at London and we did not learn half. The chapel is grand and 
 proper. . . . Our greatest pleasure was seeing Cowdry, which is repairing : Lord 
 Montacute will at last live in it. We thought of old Margaret of Clarence, who 
 lived there ; one of her accusations was built on the bulls found there. It was the 
 palace of her great-uncle, the Marquess Montacute. I was charmed with the front, 
 and the court, and the fountain, but the room called Holbein's, except the curiosity 
 of it, is wretchedly painted, and infinitely inferior to those delightful stories of 
 Harry the VIIL in the private apartments at Windsor. I was much pleased with 
 a whole-length picture of Sir Anthony Browne in the very dress in which lie wedded 
 Anne of Cleeves by proxy. He is in blue and white, only his right leg is entirely 
 white, which was robed for the act of putting into bed to her. But when the king 
 came to marry her, he only put his leg into bed to kick her out. I have set up 
 my staff, and finished my pilgrimages for this year. Sussex is a great damper of 
 curiosity. Adieu ! My compliments to your sisters." 
 
 Anthony Joseph, seventh Viscount Montague, succeeded his father in 
 1767. He was the first of his family to forsake the Roman Catholic faith. 
 This was probably owing to the influence of his wife^ Frances Mackworth, 
 widow of Alexander Lord' Halkerton.* She was a devoted friend and 
 follower of Selina Countess of Huntingdon. Lady Huntingdon was a very 
 distant cousin of Lord Montague, and was much in Sussex after he suc- 
 ceeded to the title. She founded chapels at Petworth and at Emsworth, 
 
 * The wedding waistcoat of the seventh Viscount Montague is in the possession of Mr. Peter 
 Aylwin of Haslemere. It is of silver brocade, beautifully embroidered in coloured silks. The deep 
 flaps of the pockets are covered with embroidered flowers of different sorts, and there is a border of 
 the same work all round the waistcoat. 
 
{ 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 and spent some time at Chichester. She preached at Cowdray, standing 
 under the great chestnut-trees^ and encouraged Lady Montague to follow 
 her example. There is a curious engraving from a picture of Lady Hunting- 
 don (the picture itself has disappeared) in which she is represented in the 
 act of trampling on her coronet and holding up a crown of thorns. It is 
 easy to trace in her countenance that spirit which was the secret of her 
 influence. No doubt she believed that she was in all things acting from the 
 highest motives, and that the neglect of her own relations, her overbearing, 
 masterful conduct towards others (so painfully apparent in her Memoirs), 
 were but part of her duty. Many persons might, however, be tempted to 
 applv to Lady Huntingdon herself the description given by Mr. Toplady 
 of Mr. Parker in a letter to her dated 177^ : — '^I have known Mr. Parker 
 well, and he is among that particular sort of good men whom I hope to 
 meet in heaven, but with whom I must beg to be excused from having 
 much personal intercourse on earth." 
 
 Lord Montague kept a pack of buck-hounds at Cowdray. He made 
 many alterations both in the park and in the house; and, according to 
 Horsfield, he attempted to render the vicinity of the park, which is sterile 
 and capable of little improvement, more agreeable by plantations of fir, 
 which in some measure have the desired effect.^' In 1770 he put himself 
 into the hands of " Capability Brown," the celebrated landscape-gardener; 
 and though it is to be feared that Brown "improved" the Close Walks by 
 destroying a considerable portion of the thickets and trees which had formed 
 their chief beauty^ there is no doubt that he showed great taste in the plant- 
 ing of trees, both singly and in groups, in the park. Cowdray Park is one 
 of the most beautiful in England, and its trees are celebrated. The Spanish 
 chestnuts are said to be the finest in England, and Brown fortunately 
 spared the magnificent avenue of these trees (many of which are fifteen feet 
 in girth at three feet from the ground), which stretches for a mile and a half 
 along one side of the Park. 
 
 The alterations made by Lord Montague in Cowdray House were unfor- 
 tunate. He attempted to modernise the rooms in what Dallaway wisely 
 calls ^^the false taste of that day.^^ He employed Italian artists to 
 decorate the staircase and some of the rooms, and the effect thus produced 
 was entirely out of character with the date and style of the building. 
 
 But the occupation in which Lord Montague chiefly delighted was 
 turning. In one of the rooms there was a picture of him at his turning- 
 
94 COJVDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 wheel; and there was also a cabinet filled with "very neat pieces of ivory 
 work^ many of them consisting of small and delicate flowers/^ all turned 
 by him. 
 
 In the autumn of 1782 Dr. Johnson visited Cowdray. He was spending 
 some time at Brighton with Mr. Philip Metcalfe, "being pleased at once 
 with his excellent table and animated conversation.^^ Johnson made many 
 expeditions with Mr. Metcalfe, who had placed his carriage at his disposal. 
 " They went together to Chichester, and they visited Petworth and Cowdray, 
 the venerable seat of the Lords Montacute. ^ Sir,^ said Johnson, ' I should 
 like to stay here four-and-twenty hours. We see here how our ancestors 
 lived.' " 
 
 In 1783 Lord and Lady Montague settled at Brussels, and there, on 
 Easter Sunday, the iith of April 1787, Lord Montague died. 
 
 A few days before his death Lord Montague sent for the Abbe Mann, 
 and declared his regret and remorse for having abandoned the Catholic 
 religion in which he had been educated. He solemnly and repeatedly pro- 
 tested that it had been no conviction of the truth of the Protestant religion 
 which had made him take that step, but, on the contrary, what his Lordship 
 termed the vilest of motives, to wit, libertinism both in faith and morals, 
 ambition, and interest.^^ The Abbe satisfied himself that Lord Montague's 
 desire to return to the faith of his ancestors was sincere, and "his reconcilia- 
 tion [to the Roman Catholic Church] was accordingly performed with all its 
 circumstances, during which his Lordship behaved with a becoming piety 
 and perfect presence of mind.^' He then desired the Abbe Mann " to 
 make his dying sentiments and declarations as publickly known to the 
 world as it should be possible for him to do.'^ This the Abbe (who was 
 " very able and full of knowledge,'' a Canon of Courtray and Secretary to 
 the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Brussels) did by means of a long letter 
 to the Gentleman's Magazine. In this letter he explained that the death 
 of the late Lord Montague was accompanied with circumstances that gave 
 rise to considerable dispute in Flanders, " a noble lord * in a distinguished 
 situation having said that he was literally besieged and taken by assault by 
 the Roman Catholic clergy.^' The Abbe, who had " set out in a military 
 line of life,'^ defended himself and his fellow-clergy from this accusation 
 with much warmth and at great length. His letter provoked several replies; 
 
 * This appears to have been the fourth Viscount Torrington. ' 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 95 
 
 in one of them a correspondent of the Gentleman s Magazine, who signed 
 himself " Christ-Cross in the Corner/^ thus disposed of two of Lord 
 Montague's reasons for abandoning the Roman Catholic faith: — 
 
 Ambition. — Lord Montague was not distinguished in the House of Lords, 
 where his renunciation enabled him to take his seat, and where, if he had 
 ambition, was the opportunity of putting himself in the way to gratify it. 
 Interest. — It would be too ridiculous to suppose that his Lordship could 
 mean a reduction of those taxes which our law subjects a Roman Catholic 
 to, but which the mildness of those who execute the laws seldom exacts/^ 
 
 This curious correspondence will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine 
 for 1787, vol. Ivii. parts i and 3. 
 
 Another account of the reconciliation of Lord Montague to the Roman 
 Catholic Church is preserved among the records of the Benedictine Abbey 
 of St. Scholastica at Teignmouth. Father Peter Joseph Rivers, S.J., was 
 confessor to the English Benedictine nuns at Brussels in 1787, and was sent 
 for by Lord Montague during his last illness. Father Rivers was sent for 
 on Tuesday in Holy Week to visit him. The secular chapel attached to 
 the convent church was constantly attended by a poor man, who on 
 account of his rare piety was considered by the neighbours a saint, and who 
 usually spent many hours there in prayer. Father Rivers^ before starting on 
 his visits asked this good man to pray for the Viscount's conversion. ' I 
 will pray for him,' he replied, ^and I will not leave the church until my 
 prayer is granted.* And such was his fervour that he continued his supplica- 
 tions the whole of the day and the following night and part of the next 
 day without quitting the chapel. Father Rivers meantime was with the 
 dying peer, whose wife, being a bigoted Protestant, endeavoured by every 
 possible means to prevent her husband from being alone with him, hoping 
 thus to hinder the sick man from making his confession. But her vigilance 
 was happily eluded. Lord Montague became truly contrite, received all the 
 last sacraments, and gave up his soul to God, assisted by the zealous Father, 
 who remained constantly by him until Easter Day, when he peaceably ex- 
 pired.^' — Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. vii. p. 143. 
 
 Lord and Lady Montague had only two children, a son and a daughter. 
 The daughter, Elizabeth Mary, was born on the 5th of February 1767, and 
 the son, George Samuel, on the 26th of June 1769. 
 
 Lady Montague survived her husband for twenty-seven years, and died 
 in 1 814 at the age of eighty-three. She was buried at Easebourne. The 
 
96 
 
 COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 body of Lord Montague had been brought from Brussels and buried at 
 Easebourne on the 5th of May 1787. 
 
 Early in the eighteenth century the Lordship of the Borough of Mid- 
 hurst became alienated from the Lordship of the Manor, and several persons 
 acquired shares in it under marriage settlements by which it was transferred. 
 The seventh Viscount Montague repurchased these different interests. But 
 during the minority of his son, George Samuel, eighth Viscount, the Lordship 
 of the Borough was again sold. The purchaser was the Earl of Egremont ; 
 but in a short time it was re-sold by him. 
 
 Several letters from the seventh Viscount Montague were found by Sir 
 Sibbald Scott, by whose kindness I am enabled to publish some of them. 
 
 " Queen Ann Street, 17th April 1782. 
 
 " Mr. Newman, — Send up by the Chichester Coach on Friday one of the young 
 Guinea Fowls. 
 
 " I have some reason to think there will be an opposition in the County. I there- 
 fore wish my Friends had a hint given them (without making use of my Name) not 
 to engage their Votes. — I am, yours, &c., Montague." 
 
 " Brussels, i2d Dece7nber 1 784. 
 
 "Mr. Newman,' — I have received your unsatisfactory Letter of the i6th instant, 
 the only one I have had since the 8th November. I call it so as it really is, as I 
 have had no answers to the different orders I gave you, and questions I asked in 
 two or three Letters I wrote you Since the 8th November. If You have wrote me 
 any Letter betwixt the 8th November and the i6th December, send me a Copy of 
 it, as possibly the Original was lost. I have asked what Servants you have at pre- 
 sent at Cowdray and to know the amount of their Board Wages. I have heard 
 Nothing of Mr. Luff's Estimate of the Timber on the Farms intended to be 
 exchanged with Lord E. Nor of the Timber I can cut this year. You have never 
 told me if Mr. Sandham had or intended to hold all my Courts in the West before 
 Christmas as I had desired. Has Iping pond been fished and what fish did it 
 produce. Have you disposed of the Turkeys and Fowls as I directed. Have my 
 mares been taken up. I Desired no Doe Venison might be given to any body, 
 except half a Doe to Lady Catharine and the Do. to Mr. Atkins, in the Neigh- 
 bourhood of Cowdray. 
 
 "3 or 4 Does to be divided betwixt Sir Richard Bedingfeld and Mrs. Mack worthy 
 and a Couple at least sent over here if fat and the weather was favourable. I have 
 
COWDRJY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 
 
 not had a Doe nor a Word on the Subject. I wish to know Mr. Warden's Situa 
 tion, whether alive or in danger or past recovery. I also should have been glad to 
 have been informed of the amount of the monthly Bills. Let me know when you 
 close the half year at Christmas what you have received and disbursed Since Mid- 
 summer, and the Balance [will] pay your half year's Salary and Mr. Luffs. When 
 you return from the East let me know the neat Cash you bring home and what the 
 whole disbursements amounted to without sending me particulars in your usual 
 way. I shall be glad also soon after your return to know the whole balance of 
 your book, the rents from the East included. Inform me whether you wrote to 
 me betwixt the 8th November and i6th December, which will clear the matter up. 
 I intend to write again soon. — I am, yours, &c., Montague. 
 
 "Has there been any fines paid for admissions at Cocking." 
 
 " Brussels, ()th September 1785. 
 " Mr. Newman, — Mr. Astle of the Society of Antiquaries will write you a Letter 
 by a Person I have given leave to take a Copy of the procession of Edward the 
 Sixth in the parlour at Cowdray, and I desire you will let him have every Conve- 
 nience for that purpose, but he is not to take any other Copies of paintings in the 
 House without applying to me : in haste. — Yours, &c., Montague. 
 
 " To Mr. Newman, 
 
 Cowdray, Midhurst, Sussex, 
 Angleterre. 
 
 Par Ostende." 
 
 Brussels, ist February 1786. 
 
 " Mr. Newman .... It was quite right of you to give me the information you 
 did from the East. I take it Well and it was Your Duty. There are Several 
 Executors to Mr. Warden's will, and some gentlemen of good fortune, family, and 
 character, but unfortunately this Attorney is the only one that Acts, and I am very 
 sorry he exposes my Debt So much and refuses the Court Books : they were Never 
 intended to be a Security for the money, as great part was lent in my Father's time 
 before Mr. Warden was in possession of the Books. I have always wrote word to 
 the Attorney I would get the Money as fast as I could and pay it in as I could 
 meet with it : and the interest has been punctually paid to Christmas last. I 
 really have the whole principal at my Bankers, but I want it for other purposes 
 and therefore cannot conveniently spare it. I will think of the business and write to 
 you again upon it \ in the mean time if you hear any thing more about it inform 
 me. I have some thoughts of sending you over to Mr. Sargenson who lives 
 at or near Cuckfield, one of the Executors. I will write to you about Croydon 
 
 N 
 
98 COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 another time, but in the present Situation of things, I believe I shall let Wildgoose 
 stay till Midsummer. 
 
 " Mr, Sandham is welcome to the pheasants and young trees you mention. I 
 will not take any thing from Mr. Parsons for the use of the house. 
 
 " Send up directed to Israel Mauduit, Esq., two brace of large Tench and one 
 brace of the largest Carp you have in the Ponds near the House. I want to know 
 the Size of the largest Tench you have, and the number of large ones, as I have 
 thoughts of having some put into the large Pond at Cocking. 
 
 " Why don't you send me the Estimates of the Timber. I am, yours, &c., 
 
 " Montague." 
 
 The last letter from Lord Montague vi^hich was found is as follows : — 
 
 ^'Brussels, 26^k December 17 S6. 
 
 "Mr. Newman, — The last Letter I received from you was dated the 14th. No 
 mail from England to-day. Desire Mr. Higinson to Pack up carefully my Silver 
 Epergne with all the Baskets, &c., belonging to it. I think there is a leather case 
 in which all the different Baskets fit ; send it afterwards to Mr. Fogg, who will for- 
 ward it to me. Desire Mr. Higinson to weigh the silver part of it, and let me 
 know its exact weight. I have it already, but desire it may be weighed again. 
 When you return from the East you will let me know what money you bring with 
 you, and pay all you can to Messrs. Hoares. I suppose Mr. Bull's money will be 
 ready without fail next month. Give the guineas and half guineas as Christmas 
 Boxes to those I gave to last year. — I am, yours, &c., Montague." 
 
 The following letter from Lady Montague appears to have been written 
 from London on the occasion of the rejoicings for the recovery of George 
 the Third : — 
 
 " Ap. 22nd, 1789. 
 
 " Mr. Newman, — I'm afraid y^ ribon came too late for y^ rejoicing Day. I am 
 very glad it went off so well. The address was presented yesterday I understood. 
 The Cyder arrived safe. We are to have more Illuminations on Friday next, I hear. 
 My Daughter was at y^ Opera House last night, and there was y^ Greatest Crowd 
 ever known they say. Mr. Fogg furnished 5 thousand Dishes and 12 thousand 
 plates . . . W'^ you be so good to tell me If I had a loaf of bread up every week 
 what it w*^ come to w*'' y^ carriage, perhaps not much more than y^ bread here, w"" 
 is very bad. — ^Your sincere Friend and Humble Servant, F. M. 
 
 "P.S. — Fowl is exceeding good." 
 
COWDRAY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 99 
 
 One letter from Lord Montague's son was found : it seems to show that 
 the relations between father and son were not very cordial : — 
 
 " Winchester, July ^th, '86. 
 
 Mr. Newman, — I write to inform you that I have just received a Letter from 
 Briissells, and in which I am sorry to say my Father does not consent to my coming 
 over to him this summer. I think by that it is his intention to return to England 
 in the autumn. If you should hear anything about it, I should be obliged to you if 
 you would write, as I am very anxious to know. Direct to me at Winchester till 
 the 22nd of this month, and afterwards to Mr. Fogg. — I am, 
 
 "G.S.Browne." 
 
 Another letter, without date, appears by the handwriting to have been 
 written by this young man after his succession to the title. It is as follows ; — 
 
 " Cavendish Street. 
 
 " Mr. Newman, — We shall all be at Cowdray on Thursday Night, but not to 
 dinner, as we intend dining upon the Road : the Room that Miss Gage slept in last 
 summer must be got ready. I have at length fix'd the first week in September for 
 my going abroad, and have settled everything accordingly. 
 
 " Montague." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 cFeorge ©amuel, eigfitl) Miscount Montague. 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 HE eighth Viscount Montague was only eighteen at the time of his 
 father's death. Both he and his sisters were brought up by 
 their mother in the strictest school of Calvinistic Protestantism. 
 Lord Montague, however^ was sent to Winchester^ and when 
 
 at home he seems to have chafed and fretted against the 
 severity of his mother's religious views. 
 
 In the summer of 1793, when the young Lord Montague was twenty- 
 four, he determined to go abroad with his friend Charles Sedley Burdett, the 
 grandson of Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., of Foremark in Derbyshire, and elder 
 brother of the celebrated Sir Francis Burdett. According to the Gentleman's 
 Magazine, Lord Montague on his return was to have married " the amiable 
 and accomplished Miss Coutts, to whose sister Mr. Burdett was some time 
 since united.'^ 
 
 The two young men were bent on making an attempt to shoot the Falls 
 of the Rhine at Laufenburg, a place about half-way between Basle and 
 Schafthausen. Both were first-rate boatmen, and they are said to have had 
 a boat built expressly for this rash venture. The magistrates of the district 
 endeavoured to prevent Lord Montague and his friend from risking their 
 lives in so foolhardy an enterprise, and even placed soldiers on the banks of 
 the river in order to stop them from launching their boat. But the infatu- 
 ated young men contrived to elude the vigilance of these persons. 
 
 At the last moment, Dickenson, an old family servant, who had accom- 
 
GEORGE SAMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, loi 
 
 panied Lord Montague from Cowdray, tried to hold his young master back. 
 He seized Lord Montague by the collar just as he was getting into the boat, 
 but the foolish youth wrenched himself away^ leaving part of his collar and 
 neckcloth in poor Dickenson^s hand, jumped into the boat, and immediately 
 pushed ofT with his companion.* The following account of the accident 
 was in i8(57 taken down from the lips of an old man of eighty-five, who had, 
 when a boy of eleven^ been an eye-witness of the event : — 
 
 "Johannes Roller^ a butcher here at Laufenburg, born in 1782, who is still 
 in good health and vigorous, relates the story as follows : — Two Englishmen 
 (he does not know their names) came with a servant, with travelling 
 baggage, and a large black dog, in a small boat, round built before and 
 behind, not pointed at the ends like our boats here. They were travelling 
 along the Rhine, and stopped at the landing-place behind the inn called 
 Bear, but they lodged at the Eagle j still the best inn at Laufenburg. 
 
 ''These gentlemen made known that they intended to row and float 
 through the cataract. All warning from the inhabitants representing that 
 the attempt would certainly prove fatal was disregarded. They entered their 
 small boat with their dog, the servant remaining behind, and passed the 
 bridge down the Laufen.f At the first great surge the gentleman who was 
 foremost in the boat fell or jumped into the Rhine; the boat was upset at 
 the second wave of the Laufen, and the person who had remained in the 
 boat swam with his companion^ one after the other, through the Laufen, 
 sometimes visible, sometimes concealed from view, and their dog with them. 
 
 " They were last seen swimming at the spot called Oelberg (Mount of 
 Olives or Calvaire), and there, in the so-called strait, they disappeared in a 
 vortex or eddy, and were never seen again, nor were their bodies recovered. 
 At this strait of the channel of the Rhine the river has a great depth, more 
 than ICO feet; indeed along the whole length of the rapids the depth is very 
 great. The banks were crowded with spectators, but nobody could save the 
 Englishmen, who swam together, endeavouring, as it appeared, to lay hold of 
 the boat that was overset and floating along the current, but they could not 
 reach it. They sank exhausted in the whirlpool into the depths, and their 
 dog with them. 
 
 ''Johannes Roller says that he stood on the bank behind the inn of the 
 Peacockj and tried to get out with a long pole a small oar belonging to the 
 boat. The servant remained at Laufenburg, and after a while departed with 
 
 * Sussex ArchcEoIogical Collections, vol. xx. 
 
 t Rapids. 
 
I02 GEORGE SAMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 
 
 the trunks. On two occasions afterward persons came from England and 
 promised a large reward (1500 francs) for the discovery of the bodies, but 
 they never reappeared/' 
 
 The body of Lord Montague was, however, found. Mr. Wickham,* when 
 acting as Charge-d' Affaires at Berne, wrote to Lord Grenville on the 31st of 
 May 1795 as follows:— 
 
 " My Lord, — I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I have received, 
 and in compliance with Lord Robert Fitzgerald's general directions, have opened 
 a Letter addressed to his Lordship from the magistrates of Lauffenbourg, in which 
 they state that the Body of the late Viscount Montague had been found in the 
 Rhine very near the place where the melancholy accident happened that was the 
 occasion of his Death ; that as his remains were not in a situation to be embalmed 
 they had caused them to be decently interred in the Churchyard of that place. I 
 have not failed to return them all suitable thanks and acknowledgments for the 
 attention they have shown on this occasion in paying the last honours to a Subject 
 of his Majesty and a Peer of Great Britain. I have at the same time written to 
 the Baron de Degelmann to request that he would give the necessary orders that a 
 permission may be obtained for the remains to be removed to Bruck, the nearest 
 Protestant town, in case the thing should be possible, and have applied to the 
 Government here to give directions to the magistrates of that place that they may 
 be interred there with the proper ceremonies. I have also taken care to com- 
 municate all these circumstances to his Lordship's Representatives." 
 
 At the time of Mr. Wickham's letter both Laufenburg and Brugg were 
 under the dominion of the Canton of Berne, and he evidently addressed him- 
 self to the Bernese Government. Through the kindness of Mr. Adams, 
 H.B.M.^s Minister at Berne, I am able to give a translation of an extract 
 from the Archives of the Canton : — 
 
 '■'Rath Manual of the Town of Berne, 439, p. 369. June 5, 1795. 
 
 To the town of Brugg. — The EngHsh Charge-d' Affaires resident here has given 
 us notice that Lord Montaigu, the last of his race, who was unfortunately drowned 
 in the Falls of the Rhine by Schaffhausen, will be taken from Laufenburg to Bruck, 
 in order that he may be buried there on Protestant ground. As we have no hesita- 
 
 * Correspondence of Right Hon. William Wickham, vol. i. p. 63. Mr. Wickham acted as Charge- 
 d' Affaires in Switzerland during the absence of the Minister, Lord Robert Fitz-Gerald. Almost 
 immediately after the date of this letter Mr. Wickham was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to 
 the Swiss Cantons and the Orisons, in succession to Lord Robert Fitz-Gerald. 
 
GEORGE SJMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, 103 
 
 tion in giving our consent hereto, we desire to inform you thereof, and at the same 
 time to charge you to make proper arrangements in order that the dead body of 
 this unfortunate Englishman shall immediately after its arrival at Brugg be buried 
 in God's Acre there in a respectable manner according to his position." 
 
 In the Necrologium or Register of Deaths at Laufenburg no mention is 
 made of the death of Lord Montague or his friend. The Canton of Aargau, 
 in vi^hich Laufenburg is situated, being strictly Roman Catholic, no entry 
 appears to have been made in the registers with reference to Protestants. 
 
 At the time Schaffhausen, and not Laufenburg, was generally believed 
 to have been the scene of the accident, Laufenburg having been almost 
 unknown to English travellers. The Annual Register fell into this error in 
 stating that Lord Montague and Mr. Burdett were drowned in an attempt 
 to shoot the Falls of SchafFhausen. Such an attempt could not possibly 
 have been made at those Falls. But at Laufenburg the rapids have been 
 descended by boats with the help of ropes, although the enterprise is one of 
 extreme danger. At this spot the Rhine makes a bend " and sweeps in a 
 sort of torrent under a very picturesque and lofty bridge of one arch. Almost 
 immediately below this bridge a large rock stands up in the middle of the 
 stream, and this interruption to its rapid course seems to create a strong eddy, 
 particularly on the left bank. It is altogether a very dangerous place, but 
 still one that a daring boatman might attempt with some little chance of 
 success." * 
 
 A letter from Lord Montague to his steward at Cowdray desiring him 
 to make preparations for his return is now in the possession of Mr. Richard 
 Fisher, of Hill Top near Midhurst, by whose kindness I am allowed to 
 publish it : f — 
 
 "Venice, May ig^k. 
 
 " Mr. Newman, — I rec^ your letter in answer to mine of some late date in 
 March, and also two others mentioning the money that you had pay'd into Sir 
 
 * Sussex Archceological Collections, vol. xx. In vol. xxvi. of the same Collections Mr. Greaves 
 maintains that the attempt to shoot the Falls of Schaffhausen was possible, and he considers that the 
 two young men were drowned in the pool at the bottom of the lower fall at SchafFhausen. 
 
 t It is not known whether Lord Montague returned to Cowdray for his birthday (June 26), and 
 then set off to the Rhine, or whether he changed his plans and remained abroad till the preparations 
 for his foolish adventure were completed. The former course appears from various circumstances 
 to have been the most probable. 
 
I04 GEORGE SAMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, 
 
 Rob* Hemes' hands ; both of which I've answer'd, and hope by this time you 
 have rec^. 
 
 " I purpose by the latter end of this week to set out on my journey for England, 
 where I fully intend to be either before or by the 20*'' of June, and shall certainly 
 be at Cowdray on my birthday, therefore I beg you'll have everything in Readiness, 
 
 " I wish to have my Grey Mare taken up from grass, also the little Poney's and 
 two or three others, those which you think the best. Sufficiency of Port Wine may 
 be lay'd in immediately, and everything else which you think in the least necessary. 
 The Port Wine may be had of Williams at Chichester, who I shou'd wish to employ. 
 
 "Direct your next letter to Calais Poste restante. — I remain, &c., &c., &c., 
 
 "Montague." 
 
 The eighth Lord Montague vi^as only twenty-four at the time of his 
 death^ the exact date of v^hich has never been ascertained. In October 
 1793 " is the only date given in the contemporary notices of the event. By 
 his ^\\\, dated the 13th of November 1792, Lord Montague left all his 
 property to his sister, Elizabeth Mary Browne, who was then twenty-six. 
 
 There is in existence an engraving from a portrait of this Lord Montague. 
 It belongs to Mr. Richard Fisher, and it appears to have been originally 
 taken from a miniature. 
 
 The messenger sent back to England with the sad news of the young 
 Lord Montague's death crossed another who was hastening from Cowdray 
 with the tidings of the destruction of the house by fire. It is even said that 
 the two couriers met at Calais. 
 
 Lord Montague, as has been said, left the whole of his property to his 
 sister, but the title devolved on Mark Anthony Browne, who was descended 
 from John, brother of Anthony Maria second Viscount Montague [p. 47]. 
 
 Mark Anthony was born on the 3d of March 1744,* and had become 
 a Friar at Fontainebleau. On the death of the young Lord Montague he 
 received a Papal dispensation from his vows in order that he might marry 
 and carry the title back to the Roman Catholic branch of the family. He 
 did not, however, marry till 1797, four years after his succession to the title 
 as ninth Viscount Montague. 
 
 In the list of marriages given in the Annual Register for 1797 the 
 
 * The following entry appears in the Register Book of the Parish of Easebourne : — 
 
 " 1744. Mark Anthony Brown Son of Mark Brown Esquire (his Parents being of y^ Romish 
 
 Perswasion) was said to be baptized March loth." (Signed) Henry Wood, Vicar. November 
 
 28, 1883. 
 
GEORGE SAMUEL, EIGHTH VISCOUNT MONTAGUE. 105 
 
 following announcement appears : * — Feb. 6. — Lord Viscount Montague to 
 Miss Frances Manby, second daughter of the late Thomas Manby, Esq. of 
 Beads-Hallj Essex.^' But in the following month of November the last 
 Lord Montague died at Great Badow in Essex^ without hope of an heir, and 
 the title thereupon became extinct. 
 
 His body was brought to Midhurst in a gorgeous coffin, on which was a 
 large crucifix of gold. It lay in state at the Angel Inn, and was buried 
 under the Browne monument in Midhurst church. 
 
 In the list of deaths for 1797 recorded in the Annual Register an account 
 of Lord Montague's claims is given as follows : — " Nov. 27th. — Lord Viscount 
 Montague, who, though his connexion with the Sussex family does not 
 appear in the peerages, had an undoubted right to the title which he 
 assumed.'^ 
 
 The three baronetcies which had been conferred upon members of the 
 Browne family, the branches of which were settled at Betchworth in Surrey, 
 and at Kiddington and Caversham in Oxfordshire, have all died out, though 
 possibly collateral descendants exist. Dallaway says that a branch, accord- 
 ing to uncertain tradition, of this family was settled in Ireland in 1565 ; the 
 ancestor having accompanied Sir H. Sydney, Lord-Deputy, from whom the 
 present Marquess of Sligo is descended." 
 
 But in the death of the ninth Viscount Montague the family became 
 extinct in the male line. 
 
 * The marriage took place at Little Bursted. 
 
 O 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 STfie East of tfie Urotone jTamilg at CotoOtrag* 
 
 LIZABETH MARY BROWNE, the only sister of the eighth 
 Viscount Montague, a beautiful and an excellent woman, 
 succeeded to the Cowdray estates on the death of her brother. 
 On the 1st of September 1794 she married William Stephen 
 Poyntz^ Esq. of Midgham, near Newbury in Berkshire, who was 
 three years younger than herself. Mr. Poyntz was a remarkably handsome 
 man, very tall, and with a bright fresh complexion. His grandfather, the 
 Right. Hon. Stephen Poyntz, Minister at Soissons in 1728, had had charge 
 of the education of William, the '^^Butcher " Duke of Cumberland. Caroline, 
 Princess of Wales, mother of the Duke, placed in the grounds at Midgham 
 a very beautiful vase, ornamented with figures in high relief, representing the 
 life of man, as a mark of her esteem for her son's governor.* (The Browne 
 and Poyntz families were already connected, for about the year 1530 John 
 Poyntz had married Catherine Browne of Betchworth, cousin of Sir 
 Anthony Browne of Battle Abbey.) Mr. Poyntz sat in the House of Com- 
 mons for many years ; he represented Callington in Cornwall, Ashburton, 
 Chichester, and Midhurst. In politics he was a Whig, being a follower of 
 his friend Lord Althorp. 
 
 On the return of Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz from their honeymoon, they were 
 met at the great gates of Cowdray Park by a crowd of the tenants on the 
 estate, and were drawn to the entrance of the house by a number of boys 
 dressed in white. 
 
 This large vase is now in the possession of Mr. Alexander Brown. 
 
LJST OF THE BROWNE FAMILY AT COJVDRAY. 107 
 
 But in spite of this kind welcome^ Mrs. Poyntz must have felt that her 
 return to Cowdray was a time of sorrow rather than of joy. Before her eyes 
 was the blackened ruin of her beautiful old home, that magnificent seat of 
 her ancestors^ in which she felt so much interest and pride; and in her heart 
 was the sad remembrance of the death of her only brother, to whom she had 
 been devotedly attached. The accident to Lord Montague, and the fire at 
 Cowdray, had both taken place only the year before Mrs. Poyntz's marriage. 
 
 Cowdray was no longer habitable, but in that year, 1794, the keeper's 
 lodge in the park (about half-a-mile from the great house) was enlarged, and 
 there Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz resided. They lived very quietly ; and Mrs. 
 Poyntz's mother, the Dowager Viscountess Montague, lived with them. 
 
 In 1 801 a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz, and was named William 
 Montague Browne. In 1805 they had a second son, christened Courtenay 
 John Browne.* They had also three daughters. The eldest, Frances Selina, 
 married, 4th August 18 14, Robert Cotton St. John, eighteenth Lord Clinton. 
 After his death Lady Clinton married, in 1835, Sir Horace Seymour, K.C.B. 
 She died in 1875. Elizabeth Georgina, the second daughter, married, 33d 
 February 1830, the Hon. Frederick Spencer, R.N., afterwards fourth Earl 
 Spencer, K.G..^!- and was the mother of John Poyntz, the present Earl 
 Spencer, K.G., and of Lady Sarah Spencer. Countess Spencer died in 1851. 
 The youngest Miss Poyntz, Isabella, one of the greatest beauties of her time, 
 married, 12th May 18124, Brownlow second Marquess of Exeter, K.G. She 
 died in 1879, having survived both her sisters. Lady Exeter was the mother 
 of the present Marquess of Exeter. 
 
 Poor old Lady Montague never recovered from the shock of her son's 
 death, and was continually haunted by the fear that her two grandsons would 
 be drowned.^ " If they were out of her sight, she was always a prey to 
 anxiety, especially if she knew they were near the river; and in her old age, 
 when her powers were failing her, she would go to a large stone basin in the 
 grounds and grope in it with her silver-handled stick, under the impression 
 that her grandsons would be drowned there. ^ Bessy,' she would say to the 
 
 * Two groves of oak-trees were planted in Cowdray Park by Mr. Poyntz, and called after his 
 sons, who held the trees for the men as they planted them. These groves are close to the Ease- 
 bourne gate of the park ; the one on the east was called Montague after the eldest son, and that on 
 the west Courtenay after the younger boy. 
 
 t Mr, Poyntz's aunt, Margaret Georgina Poyntz, had married John, first Earl Spencer. 
 
 + Story of a Curse. 
 
io8 
 
 THE LAST OF THE 
 
 house-steward's daughter, who often aided her faiUng steps, ^ Bessy, I know 
 it will come to them, as it came to my boy.' And then she would stand 
 gazing at the weeds and floating water-lilies with a look of stony terror 
 which had never left her since the Rhine had rolled its waters over the son 
 of her love and pride." 
 
 But Lady Montague was spared the trial which was so soon to fall upon 
 her daughter, Mrs. Poyntz. In the summer of 1814, shortly before the 
 marriage of her eldest grand-daughter to Lord Clinton, she died at the age 
 of eighty-three. 
 
 In June 18 15 Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz^ accompanied by their two sons (one 
 aged fourteen and the other aged only ten) and their two unmarried 
 daughters, went to Bognor^ where they occupied the Pavilion House. The 
 two Miss Parrys, daughters of Admiral Parry, who were connections of Mrs. 
 Poyntz, came to pay them a visit. 
 
 On the 7th of July, as the weather was very warm and the sea quite 
 calm, Mr. Poyntz proposed to take the whole party out in a boat. Mrs. 
 Poyntz, who had a terror of the sea, strongly objected, but she was at last 
 persuaded into giving a most reluctant consent to the expedition. Mr. 
 Poyntz and his two sons set off accompanied by the two Miss Parrys : his 
 daughter Isabella (afterwards Lady Exeter) was left behind, as she was not 
 ready in time. She had been unpunctual before, and Mr. Poyntz said he 
 would not wait for her. Her sister Elizabeth (afterwards Lady Spencer) 
 remained with her to share her punishment. Both sisters ran down to the 
 boat to see the party off, and the youngest boy gave to Lady Exeter a little 
 locket which he always wore, begging her to keep it safe till he came back. 
 
 Mrs. Poyntz and her two daughters sat at the window in the Pavilion 
 House watching the boat. All went well till towards the middle of the after- 
 noon, when a sudden puff of wind struck the sail^ and the boat was at once 
 capsized. 
 
 The account of the accident was thus given in the Gentleman's Magazine 
 (Part ii. vol. Ixxxv. p. 79), July 7, 1815: — In the afternoon, about four 
 o^clock, as Colonel Poyntz^ his two sons, and their tutor,* Miss Parry and 
 Miss Emily Parry (daughters of the late Admiral Parry of Fareham)^ a 
 fisherman and his son, were returning to land at Bognor in a pleasure yacht^ 
 
 * The tutor was an Oxford man and a first-rate swimmer. He is said to have supported Mr. 
 Poyntz for some time in the water. A more probable account is that Mr, Poyntz and the boatman 
 clung to the mast of the capsized boat until they were saved by assistance frorn the shore. 
 
BROWNE FAMILY AT COWDRAY. 
 
 109 
 
 a sudden gust of wind upset the boat, when the whole party, except Colonel 
 Poyntz and the boatman, were drowned ; the latter saved the Colonel by 
 swimming with him on his back. Mrs. Poyntz was looking from the draw- 
 ing-room window the moment the accident happened.^^ 
 
 Mr. Poyntz managed to lay hold of the boat, and his two boys clung for 
 some time to his coat, he supporting them as best he could. But all his 
 efforts were in vain. Whether from fatigue or from cramp, their grasp 
 relaxed, and their father had the misery of feeling one after the other slip 
 from him and sink to rise no more."^ 
 
 Just before the party started on their fatal expedition, one of the Miss 
 Parrys completed a letter to a friend with these words, " I must conclude in 
 haste as we are just going out boating with Mr Poyntz.^^ Her friend 
 received this letter by the same post that brought the news of the accident. 
 
 Mrs. Poyntz survived this dreadful calamity for fifteen years, but it seems 
 never to have been absent from her thoughts. She died on the 30th 
 December 1830, and according to her desire her coffin was made of one of 
 the beautiful trees planted at Cowdray by her father. She was buried at 
 Easebourne. A fine monument by Chantrey was erected in Easebourne 
 church to her memory, and to that of her two only sons, unhappily 
 drowned in the flower of their youth under the eyes of their parents." 
 
 Mr. Poyntz did not live much at Cowdray after the death of his wife. 
 His three daughters were married, and he spent his time partly with them 
 and partly in London. In the winter of 1836 he was at Althorp, and whilst 
 out hunting with his son-in-law^ Lord Spencer, his horse put its foot into 
 a rabbit-hole, fell^ and threw him on his head with great violence. Mr. 
 Poyntz lived for some years after this fall, suffering constant pain, which 
 he bore with the greatest patience. On the 8th of April 1840 he died 
 at Hampton Court, very suddenly. It had been long known that his end 
 
 * The bodies of the two boys were recovered, and were buried in a vault at Easebourne which 
 was prepared by Mr. Poyntz. The funeral took place on the 13th of July 1815. The entry in the 
 register at Easebourne (for a copy of which I am indebted to the Rev. Henry Wood) runs as 
 follows ; — 
 
 "Extract from Easebourne Register of Burials in the year 1815. 
 
 William Montague Brown Poyntz. Cowdray. July 13. 14 yrs. S. Arnott. 
 
 Courtney John Brown Poyntz. Cowdray. July 13. 10 yrs. S. Arnott. 
 
 The above is an accurate extract. H. Wood, Vicar of Easebourne. Oct. 2. 1883." 
 
 On the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz, they were buried in the same vault. 
 
no LAST OF THE BROWNE FAMILY AT COIVDRAY. 
 
 would be sudden, and after his death the conjecture of his doctors was found 
 to be correct. In his fall he had, as they had believed, injured a joint of the 
 vertebrae at the upper part of his spine, and this injury had caused an 
 excrescence to form on the spinal column. 
 
 Mr. Poyntz was buried at Easebourne_, and a monument by Monti was 
 erected to his memory by his three daughters. 
 
 The Cowdray estates were, on the death of Mr. Poyntz, divided among 
 his daughters. Lady Clinton^ the eldest of the co-heiresses, was even more 
 strongly attached to Cowdray than were her sisters. The thought of sell- 
 ing the old family property was most painful to her, and she would willingly 
 have bought out the shares of her sisters had she been able. But it was 
 impossible. 
 
 In 1843 the estate was sold to the sixth Earl of Egmont, a naval officer 
 who had distinguished himself at Navarino. The property was sold to him 
 for <3^330,ooo, but a much larger sum could have been realised if the three 
 ladies who owned it would have consented to sell separately a part of the 
 estate. They refused, however, to dismember the property, and Lord Egmont 
 purchased the whole. 
 
 Lord and Lady Egmont lived on in the keeper^s lodge, and took but 
 little heed of the ruins of the old house. Lady Egmont died in 1870, and 
 her husband survived her only four years. On his death in 1874, his 
 nephew, the present Earl of Egmont, inherited the property. The keeper's 
 lodge was pulled down, and a new house has been lately built on its site. 
 
THE QUADRANGLE, SHOWING THE GATEWAY&THE SOUTH GALLERY. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CotoOrag in itg (3lot^. 
 
 OWDRAY HOUSE, according to Mr. Freeman, "belonged to 
 that happy moment of our national art when purely domestic 
 architecture was at its height/^ 
 
 The house was approached from the highroad by a raised 
 causeway four hundred yards in length, which was once shaded 
 by an avenue of magnificent elm-trees. This road led from the entrance- 
 gates of curiously wrought iron (still standing close to the northern end of 
 the little town of Midhurst) to the small stone bridge of two arches which 
 crosses the river Rother close to the west front of the house. 
 
 Cowdray was built in the form of a great quadrangle, enclosing a space 
 of turf which measured a hundred feet from west to east and a hundred and 
 forty feet from north to south. In the middle of this green court stood the 
 exquisite fountain (now removed to Woolbeding) which was so much admired 
 by Horace Walpole. It was surmounted by a bronze figure of Neptune 
 (copied from that modelled by Giovanni di Bologna). 
 
 The western side of this quadrangle was occupied by the lofty turreted 
 gateway with wings a hundred and eighty feet in length. The eastern side 
 contained the main body of the house, including the great Buck Hall, the 
 porch, the chapel, and the various sitting-rooms ; and these were flanked on 
 either side by a massive hexagonal tower. The west and east sides of the 
 quadrangle were connected by two long galleries. The exterior of the north 
 gallery was quite plain, but the facade of the south gallery was broken by 
 two square towers. 
 
112 
 
 COIVDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 The four octagonal turrets of the great gateway rose high above the rest 
 of the house. They contained staircases, and have fine embattled parapets. 
 These staircases were lighted by single and by cruciform loopholes, placed 
 alternately on the faces of the octagons. The entrance to the quadrangle 
 was under the outer archway, between the two outer turrets. It was closed 
 by massive wooden doors, and above it was the achievement of the first 
 Lord Montague. This achievement was carved in stone, and is similar in 
 design to the fire-backs cast for Lord Montague. It shows the sixteen 
 quarterings surmounted by his coronet, with lynxes as supporters ; and under- 
 neath is the motto Suivez Rayson. High above is the clock^ which has been 
 for so long a sad remembrance of the fire, its hands having stopped for ever 
 on that fatal night. 
 
 The eastern side of the quadrangle was rich in architectural beauties and 
 full of variety. Its most important features were the magnificent mullioned 
 window, reaching from the ground to the parapet of the roof, and lighting 
 the Buck Hall ; the beautiful stone porch built by Lord Southampton, and 
 the great tower at each end of the body of the house. Besides these there 
 were many other beautiful and singular features in the building: such as 
 the groups of richly ornamented brick chimneys, and the buttresses of stone 
 terminating in slender shafts which rose above the embattled parapet of the 
 roof. 
 
 The house was entered through Lord Southampton's porch, which, as the 
 builders of those days were not slaves to symmetry^ was not placed opposite 
 to the main gateway. It stood considerably towards the south side of the 
 quadrangle. The porch was built of stone, and had octagonal turreted 
 buttresses at its angles : outside it looked rather low, but inside the groined 
 stone roof was very richly ornamented (p. 13). Lord Southampton's initials 
 W. S. are repeated on the spandrils of the doorways. The porch is square 
 and embattled, and over its door are the royal arms with Lord South- 
 ampton's motto, LoYAUTE Saprovera, beneath. Above the porch was 
 a window which gave light to the gallery at the south end of the Buck 
 Hall. 
 
 The porch opened directly into a wide passage running across the house. 
 From this passage the Buck Hall was entered by two doorways fashioned in 
 the carved screen beneath the gallery. 
 
 The Buck Hall was one of the noblest rooms in England, and was built 
 somewhat in the style of the halls erected by Wolsey at Hampton Court 
 
COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 and at Christ Church, Oxford. It was fifty-five feet in length, twenty-six 
 feet in width, and sixty feet in height from the floor to the open louvre 
 which formed so striking a feature in the middle of the roof. This louvre, 
 "a beautiful combination of tracery and pinnacles,^^ was constructed in the 
 form of a slender cupola of three storeys in height, and was ornamented on 
 the outside by nine vanes of gilded metal placed in rows on each side of the 
 cupola and ranged one above another like a stepped gable. The magnificent 
 open timber roof of the Buck Hall was made of the variety of oak called 
 Quej'cus pedunculata. Gough imagined that this roof had been removed 
 from Battle Abbey, and this error has been repeated by other writers on 
 Cowdray. But Battle Abbey had been sold before the succession of the 
 eighth Viscount Montague, to whom Gough attributes the removal ; and the 
 only unroofed building at Battle was so much larger than the Buck Hall, 
 that the story of Gough is obviously inaccurate. The hall at Battle which 
 in some degree corresponds in size with the Buck Hall retains its original 
 roof, and appears, in a drawing made in Gough^s time, as not only habitable, 
 but furnished and in occupation. 
 
 The Buck Hall was paved with large squares of white marble nearly 
 sixteen inches square. At the south end was a gallery, possibly intended as 
 a music gallery, corresponding in width with the passage immediately below 
 it, which communicated with the porch. The wooden screen covered with 
 elaborate and delicate carving, in which the motto, cognizance, and initials 
 of Lord Southampton were frequently repeated, stretched across the hall just 
 below the gallery. The hall was surrounded on three sides with a very high 
 wainscoting of cedar, corresponding in height with the screen, but panelled, 
 not carved. Above the cornice of this wainscot and the cornice of the 
 screen were brackets on which were placed the eleven bucks to which the 
 Buck Hall owed its name. These bucks were carved in oak as large as life, 
 and were represented in various attitudes* At the end of the hall, just 
 below the gallery, two were placed together. These "sat erect like sup- 
 porters," and each held between his feet and supported against his shoulder 
 the staff of a carved and painted banner. On one banner were the Royal 
 Arms, and from the neck of the buck which bore this the bow and arrows 
 used by Queen Elizabeth at Cowdray were suspended. There is a tradi- 
 tion that this buck was clothed in the skin and crowned with the antlers 
 
 * For a considerable period after the fire half-burnt fragments of these bucks were to be seen 
 lying among the ruins. 
 
 P 
 
114 
 
 COJVDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 of one of the deer killed by the Queen. His companion buck supported a 
 banner on which the arms of Lord Montague were painted. 
 
 The windows of the Buck Hall were filled with stained glass showing 
 the armorial bearings of the family. The great bay window looking west, 
 with its five mullions, was filled with escutcheons of arms. In the centre 
 were the arms of England and of France, with imperial crowns over them, 
 each surrounded with a wreath of red and white roses. In another com- 
 partment of this window, which reaches almost from the floor to the lofty 
 roof of the hall, were the arms of Henry the Eighth. The three other 
 windows were also filled with painted glass : with the escutcheons of Fitz- 
 william^ Browne, and Sackville, and a number of other quarterings. 
 
 There were some large pictures in the Buck Hall, arranged with a 
 singular disregard to the appropriateness of the selection. The story of 
 Perseus and Andromeda w^as represented in four large compartments, "all 
 adorned with architecture ; one of these was placed on either side of the 
 fireplace, and two on the right of the hall, — the entrance being through 
 the screen. Two other large pictures, one painted by Goupy* and the 
 other by Roberti, representing Diana and her nymphs, and "The Fable of 
 Actaeon/^ were on the left side of the hall. Above the chimney-piece was 
 a picture of Christ by Lanfranc ; and pictures by the same artist of the 
 twelve Apostles, larger than life^ were arranged round the hall. On the wall 
 at the back of the gallery was a portrait of Lord Belasyse f on horseback, 
 also larger than life. 
 
 The great staircase was on the eastern side of the Buck Hall. It occu- 
 pied an area thirty-six feet long by seventeen wide. The steps were very 
 wide and extremely shallow, and the balustrade, though not in character 
 with the house, was very handsome. Portions of the balustrade are still 
 preserved in various houses near Cowdray. It was painted and profusely 
 gilded on both sides, the design being of scrolls, foliage, and Tudor 
 roses. The colour appears to have been reddish brown, and so much sand 
 was mixed with the paint that it has the appearance of terra-cotta There 
 was a dado along the walls of the staircase matching the balustrade. 
 
 * Joseph Goupy, 1 729-1 763, was a French artist who settled in England in early life. Hubert 
 Robert (Roberti), 1 733-1808, was a French painter of ancient buildings. 
 
 + John, first Baron Belasyse of Worlaby in Lincolnshire, was the second son of Thomas first 
 Viscount Fauconberg. He died in 1689, and was succeeded by his grandson Henry. On the 
 death of this second Baron Belasyse in 1692 the title became extinct. 
 
COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 The staircase was lighted by two windows, and its walls were painted with 
 the story of Tancred and Clorinda, from Tasso, by Pellegrini.* Several 
 fancy pieces by the same artist hung on the walls^ and at the bottom 
 of the stairs he had painted " Peace " and Fame " in two large compart- 
 ments. On the outside of the house (on the east or garden front), the 
 ^' insulated angle of the staircase had a slender octagonal turret gradually 
 diminishing from its base upwards^ and terminating in a slender turret 
 with a dome and a lofty vane/^ This ornament was employed in several 
 places on the building at Cowdray. 
 
 From the foot of the staircase a door led into the dining-parlour. This 
 room was thirty-six feet long and twenty feet broad : it had a large bay 
 window looking into the quadrangle, and another window looking to the 
 east. A handsome archway led from the dining-parlour to the high pace or 
 dais at the north end of the Buck Hall. 
 
 In this dining-parlour were the great historical pictures, painted in oil on 
 stucco, which were at one time attributed to Holbein. Sir Joseph AylofFe, 
 F.S.A., saw these pictures in 1773, when he speaks of them as being in fine 
 preservation. His description was published by the Society of Antiquaries 
 in the ArchcBologia, vol. iii.-)* 
 
 The pictures occupied the whole length of the sides of the room. On 
 the left or south wall (for the dining-parlour was built at right angles to the 
 Buck Hall) were three pictures. 
 
 The first represented the march of Henry the Eighth from Calais towards 
 Boulogne. On a scroll introduced into this picture were the words " The 
 Metinge of the Kinge by S"^ Antoni Browne upon the Hill betwene Callis 
 and Marquison." 
 
 The King is represented in armour, riding in the midst of a body of 
 pikemen : his Majesty is received by Sir Anthony Browne J at the head of 
 a body of horse. 
 
 The second picture was called The Camping of the King at Marquison." 
 In this a terrible thunderstorm was represented : the tents were seen blown 
 
 * Antonio Pellegrini, 1674-1741, an Italian artist, resided in England for some time, and 
 " executed several ornamental works for the mansions of the nobility." [Bryan's Dictionary of 
 Paint ers-l 
 
 t These pictures were at a later period all engraved by Basire from careful drawings taken by 
 Grimm for the Society of Antiquaries. 
 
 t Sir Anthony Browne was Master of the Horse to Henry the Eighth, and was encamped at 
 Marquison with the English forces under command of the Duke of Suffolk. 
 
COJVDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 down and torn by the tempest of wind which accompanied the storm ; and 
 in the background was the church and village of Marquison set on fire by 
 the lightning. 
 
 The third picture was of the siege of Boulogne, and was called The 
 King^s Camp.'^ Henry the Eighth was shown commanding in person a 
 battery of more than thirty guns ; he was in a suit of complete ar;nour 
 inlaid with gold, and held a baton in his hand. This was the picture from 
 which the King's face was knocked out by the partisan of the Royalist 
 officer (p. 79), and it was very badly repainted. The ^'^ Siege of Boulogne'^ 
 was a most complete representation of a siege of the period. Not only were 
 the soldiers shown with their curious uniforms and arms, but their siege- 
 train^ with ^^the great ordnance, mortars, and military machines, with the 
 method of working them, of carrying on approaches, and forming the 
 attack ; the fascines, camp colours, ensigns, banners, guidons, tents, and the 
 singular ammunition waggons shaped like half-cones, and laid on their side." 
 Several camps of the generals engaged in the siege appeared in this picture, 
 and Sir Anthony Browne was represented riding into his. 
 
 On the right (or north) side of the dining-parlour were three other 
 pictures on stucco. 
 
 The first represented ^' The Attempt made by the French to invade this 
 Kingdome in the year 1 545 ; and the Rendezvous of the English Army at 
 Portsmouth.'" In this picture Henry the Eighth was seen riding from 
 Portsmouth town to Southsea Castle on his way to the camp, attended by 
 the Duke of Suflfolk, Sir Anthony Browne, three pages and two lacqueys 
 on foot, bearing their bonnets in their hands. Two demi-lancemen, horsed 
 and completely harnessed, followed all. . . . [The King] wears on his head a 
 black bonnet ornamented with a white feather, and is dressed in ajacquet 
 of cloth of gold, and a surcoat or gown of brown velvet, with breeches and 
 hose of white silk. . . . The portrait hath by good judges been esteemed to 
 be the greatest likeness we now have of that monarch. . . . Behind the King 
 are two persons on horseback: that on the right hand is the Duke of 
 Suffolk, the King's lieutenant in this expedition, mounted on a black horse: 
 he is dressed in a scarlet habit, and hath a black bonnet on his head : his 
 beard is remarkably white, curled, and parted in the middle. The other is 
 Sir Anthony Browne, the King's Master of Horse, mounted on a white 
 courser.^^ 
 
 The second picture on the right side of the room (which was placed 
 
COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 117 
 
 above the first, probably to allow room for the fireplace), represented the 
 English and French fleets assembled at Portsmouth. In this picture was 
 seen the sinking of the Mary Rose, This ship, the second in size in the 
 English navy, sunk at Portsmouth with six hundred men on board. The 
 cause of the accident was that she was overladen with guns, and had her 
 ports (which were so placed as to be only sixteen inches above the water) 
 open j in tacking, the sea rushed in and she sank at once. But the French 
 believe that she was sunk by their fire. The Great Harry also appeared 
 in this picture, the only ship with masts in the whole squadron. She was 
 represented as bearing down on the French fleet, with the Royal Standard 
 flying at her main, with all her sails set, and her bulwarks covered with 
 targets charged with the cross of St. George ; Spithead and the Isle of Wight 
 were seen in the distance. 
 
 The last picture in the room was the bird's-eye " View of the Procession 
 of King Edward the Sixth from the Tower of London before his Coronation " 
 (p. 16). 
 
 The seventh Viscount Montague allowed this picture, and this only, 
 to be engraved from among the collection at Cowdray. 
 
 Three other historical paintings hung in the great dining-room at the 
 head of the grand staircase. These were painted on panels, and were 
 doubtless the work of a contemporary of Holbein. One of them represented 
 two knights running a tilt" in one of the jousts of the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold. The English Knight, Sir Anthony Browne, acting for 
 Henry the Eighth, was seen in the act of unhorsing his opponent, Francis 
 the First. Another picture showed the grand embassy" sent by Henry 
 to Francis to betroth his daughter Mary to the Dauphin. The third picture 
 represented an audience given by Francis the First to some ambassadors 
 from England. 
 
 In Horace Walpole's account of the painters in the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth he says : It may be wondered that I have said nothing of a work 
 much renowned and ascribed to this master [Holbein]. I mean the 
 chamber at the lord Montacute's at Cowdray ; but it is most certainly not 
 executed by him. Though the histories represented there, the habits and 
 customs of the times, make that room a singular curiosity, they are its only 
 merit. There is nothing good either in the designs, disposition^ or colouring. 
 
 " There are three other historic pieces in the same house, of much more 
 merit, ascribed to Holbein, and undoubtedly of his time. The first represents 
 
n8 
 
 COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 Francis the First on his throne^ with his courtiers and the duke of SufTo 
 (so it is written) and the earl of Southampton standing before him on an 
 embassy. This is by much the worst of the three, and has been repainted. 
 The next is smaller, and exhibits two knights running a tilt on the fore- 
 ground ; one wears the crown of France, another a coronet like that of an 
 English prince, composed of crosses and fleurs de lys, and not closed at the 
 top. An elderly man with a broad face, and an elderly lady in profile, 
 with several other figures, boldly painted but not highly finished, are sitting 
 to see the tilt. On the background is the French King's tent, and several 
 figures dancing, rejoicing, and preparing entertainments. A person seems 
 leading a queen to the tent. Under this is written ^ The meeting of the 
 Kings between Guines and Arden in the Vale of Gold.' This is an upright 
 piece. The third is the largest, broad like the first. Francis on his throne 
 at a distance with guards, &c., on each side in a line. Before him sit on 
 stools, with their backs towards you, four persons in black, and one like a 
 clergyman standing in the middle and haranguing the king. On each side 
 sit noblemen, well drawn, coloured, and neatly finished. On this piece is 
 written ^ The great ambassade sent to the French king, of the Earl of 
 Worcester, Lord Chamberlain, the bishop of Ely, Lord St. John, the Lord 
 Vaux, and others.' These pictures I should not think of Holbein • the 
 figures are more free than his, less finished, and the colouring fainter; and 
 none of the English seem portraits. The spelling too of Suffo is French. 
 Probably these faces were done by Janet, who was an able master, was 
 contemporary with Holbein, and whose works are often confounded with 
 our painters. ... In the great drawing-room at Cowdray is a chimney- 
 piece painted with grotesque figures in the good taste of Holbein, and 
 probably all he executed at that curious old seat ; the tradition in the family 
 being that he staid there but a month." 
 
 Sir Joseph AylofFe attributed the historical pictures in the dining-parlour 
 to Theodore Bernardi. This artist, about the year 1 519, painted for the south 
 transept of Chichester Cathedral a series of pictures of the kings of England 
 and of the bishops of Chichester; and he afterwards settled in Sussex. 
 
 The chapel at Cowdray was on the ground-floor. It was lighted by five 
 lofty windows, which were placed close together, almost in the form of an 
 apse, at its eastern end. The chapel was forty-eight feet in length. The 
 sanctuary at its eastern extremity was probably divided from the body of 
 the chapel by a carved wooden screen ; and from the centre of the building 
 
COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 iig 
 
 the width was increased westwards (on the south side of the chapel only) in 
 order to afford space for the congregation. The fine tracery of the windows 
 and the embattled walls of the chapel made it to the eastern front of Cow- 
 dray '^a feature as bold and ornamental as a transept to a cathedral/^ It 
 projected considerably beyond the body of the house. The chapel was 
 entered by two doorways : one at the south side formed one side of the 
 porch^ which, with an entrance towards each point of the compass, stood at 
 the end of that wide passage which crossed the house from the quadrangle 
 to the garden front. The other doorway communicated directly with the 
 space at the foot of the great staircase. (The staircase immediately adjoined 
 the northern side of the chapel : its eastern wall, however, did not project as 
 far as the spot at which the apse of the chapel commenced.) The altar- 
 piece in the chapel was finely painted, in Rome, by Amigoni ; it represented 
 the Resurrection.* 
 
 The chapel was much injured when Cowdray was occupied by the troops 
 in 1643. repaired and redecorated by the fourth Viscount Montague 
 
 in the time of William the Third, and according to the taste of that day, 
 the style of ornament being totally out of harmony with the ancient build- 
 ing. The chapel was surrounded with a mahogany wainscoting nearly ten 
 feet in height, formed of panels, of which the edges were gilt; the altar- 
 rails were also of mahogany and enriched with gilding. Above the altar 
 was a lofty canopy, reaching to the roof, and enclosing Arrigoni's picture. 
 The walls of the chapel above the wainscot were painted white and decorated 
 with gilt ornaments. On the walls were panels of plaster enclosing whole-length 
 plaster figures, and the emblems of the Passion, also in plaster. These figures 
 and emblems were in raised work, but very poorly and coarsely executed. 
 
 The chapel was paved with square tiles, arranged in bold and intricate 
 patterns, of which each tile formed a necessary portion. These tiles were 
 probably made in Sussex, and were of considerable antiquity. They were 
 highly glazed and coloured red and yellow.-(* The size of the tiles varied 
 
 * This fine picture was saved from the fire, and placed in the small Roman Catholic mission 
 chapel at Easebourne. Unfortunately, it was placed against a very damp wall, and as it became 
 completely spoilt it was destroyed. Jacopo Amigoni, born at Venice 1675, ^^^^ Madrid 1758. 
 He came to England in 1729, and remained in this country for many years. He was employed by 
 several English noblemen, and his best pictures are in England, [Bryan's Dictiotiary of Painters^ 
 vol. i. p. 24.] 
 
 t Many of the tiles that were preserved have lost their colours owing to the action of the fire. 
 The heat caused the yellow to turn grey, and the red to turn black. But a few were underneath a 
 
I20 
 
 COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 from five and a half to seven and a half inches square. Some of these tiles 
 still exist, belonging to various persons in the neighbourhood of Cowdray, 
 but many were used to mend a path to a stable. Most of those that remain 
 appear to have been coated with the plaster which fell on them from the 
 roof of the chapel at the time of the fire, and as this coating was fused by 
 the heat on the surface of the tiles, it can only be removed with considerable 
 difficulty. 
 
 Beyond the dining-parlour was a small withdrawing-room_, looking east. 
 Above the dining-parlour were two large withdrawing-rooms, opening into 
 each other, and having each a beautiful window of singular form looking 
 into the quadrangle. One of these rooms communicated with the Velvet 
 Bedchamber, which was occupied by Queen Elizabeth when at Cowdray. 
 This bedchamber was at the northern angle of the house, and had a very 
 large and fine window commanding a view of the park. Adjoining it were 
 some smaller rooms, looking east, and approached by a staircase enclosed in 
 a fine octagonal turret at the north-eastern angle of the house. The with- 
 drawing-rooms and the Velvet Bedchamber were entered from the head of 
 the great staircase. In the Velvet Bedchamber was a large historical picture 
 of the same date as those in the dining-parlour, representing the sea-fight off 
 Brest in 15 13, in which Sir Edward Howard, the English admiral, was 
 killed in an attempt to board the French galleys. At a later period this 
 room was hung with tapestry, the subjects of which were taken from 
 Raphael's Cartoons. 
 
 The other rooms in the main portion of Cowdray are said to have been 
 '^stately and well furnished,^^ but they were not numerous. One great 
 beauty of the house was that every angle of the external or western front 
 had a bow-window, but some of the rooms looking into the quadrangle and 
 gardens seem to have been rather small and dark. One room, which joined 
 the northern hexagon tower to the North Gallery, had no window whatever. 
 
 The North Gallery, which connected the east and west sides of the quad- 
 rangle, was wainscoted with Norway oak, very neat," and seems to have 
 been used as a picture-gallery. In this gallery hung the celebrated picture 
 of Sir Anthony Browne in his parti-coloured wedding suit. 
 
 black-and-white marble floor which had been laid down over part of the chapel, and the colours of 
 these are still as bright as when they were first made. It has been thought that the tiles are of the 
 time of Henry the Eighth. If this opinion is correct, it would seem that some building was erected 
 by Lord Southampton on the site of what was afterwards the chapel. 
 
COIVDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 121 
 
 The South Gallery, corresponding to the North Gallery but on the other 
 side of the courts was in 1784 divided into bedrooms, "some of which had 
 anterooms/^ This gallery had, previous to this alteration, been called the 
 Apostles^ Gallery^ from the copies of Lanfranc's large pictures in the Buck 
 Hall which hung in it. 
 
 There were two sitting-rooms (one twenty-five feet in length) on the 
 south side of the passage thrx)ugh the house. These were divided by a 
 passage which led directly to the hall from the kitchen. There were pro- 
 bably bedrooms above these sitting-rooms, as another octagonal turret, 
 similar in design to, but larger than, that adjoining the Velvet Bedchamber 
 contained a staircase and was placed at the eastern angle of this part of the 
 building. 
 
 A catalogue was made in 1777 of the pictures at Cowdray. They were 
 very numerous, but many of them seem to have been uninteresting, and 
 were probably of no great value. Sacred and mythological subjects were 
 frequent among them, and the pictures were grouped together in strange 
 fashion. In one room a "Horse Fair^^ hung next to a picture of Christ and 
 the disciples at Emmaus ; in another, " Troy on Fire " was placed between 
 Queen Esther" and a "Holy Family.^' The fine miniature by Oliver of 
 the three brothers was next to "Lord Montague^s arms cut in paper and 
 the curious portrait of Sir Anthony Browne was placed with pictures of 
 Lot and his daughters, and of Judith and Holofernes. 
 
 There was probably at Cowdray a complete series of portraits of the 
 Browne, Nevill, and Fitzwilliam families. Many of these have been already 
 mentioned in the earlier portion of this volume. But there were also seven 
 portraits of members of the Nevill family, in surcoats and robes powdered 
 with coats of arms; and a picture of "Twin brothers of the Browne family, 
 accidentally meeting in the Church of Saint Peter, after an absence of fifty 
 years, and recognising each other by the likeness only.'^ Unluckily no 
 record has been preserved of this singular meeting. 
 
 A full-length portrait of Charles the Fifth as a boy, attributed to Titian, 
 and a portrait of Erasmus, attributed to Holbein, were also in the house. The 
 latter hung above the Sussex marble chimney-piece in the dining-parlour. 
 
 The kitchen at Cowdray was in the great hexagonal tower at the south- 
 western corner of the quadrangle ; an uncovered triangular courtyard dividing 
 it from the house. The walls of the kitchen were, at the bottom, of great 
 substance. But above this " the walls were reduced in thickness on every face 
 
 a 
 
122, 
 
 COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY, 
 
 by recesses between broad piers, which, meeting in the angles, are as solid as 
 the basement, and so continue to the parapet, just below which they are 
 formed into rather tall and very strong hexagonal turrets, as severely plain 
 as the tower itself : these are, in fact, the chimneys." The kitchen was twenty- 
 two feet in diameter; it had four great fireplaces, set in deeply recessed 
 chimney arches, and its windows were at some distance from the ground. 
 Near it was the buttery ; around which were a number of little recesses, said 
 to have been used for holding plate in iron safes. A huge beam of charred 
 wood still remains over the doorway to the buttery, vividly recalling the fire. 
 A doorway in the kitchen opened into the uncovered yard,=* across which 
 the dishes had to be carried to the passage communicating with the Buck 
 Hall. In the middle of the kitchen was a large round basin of water, in the 
 centre of which a fountain was continually playing. 
 
 There was a room above the kitchen, approached from a small staircase 
 on the south of the tower. This room appears to have been used as a library, 
 in which the rare black-letter books and curious manuscripts belonging to 
 the Montague family were collected ; the more useful or more fashionable 
 library having been situated in the south angle of the west front.'^ To this 
 room, as the fire raged with greatest fury on the opposite side of the quad- 
 rangle, the few pictures and pieces of furniture which could be snatched from 
 the flames were conveyed for safety. The kitchen was thirty feet in height, 
 lighted by four large mullioned windows. The library above was of the same 
 diameter, twenty-two feet, as the kitchen, and lighted by separate windows. 
 
 The hexagonal tower at the opposite or north-eastern corner of Cowdray 
 was exposed to the full fury of the flames. It is more lofty, more massive, 
 and plainer in design than the other tower; but although its outer walls 
 resisted the fire so thoroughly that the staircase and the floor and ceiling oi 
 the room within the tower remained intact, it became, partly from damp and 
 partly from neglect, too insecure to be entered. The room within it was 
 " about twenty-two feet six inches in diameter, and groined with plain and 
 very strong ribs of the most compact masonry, springing from the angles 
 and forming a low domical roof, with a sculptured keystone in the centre." 
 
 The site of Cowdray is said to have occupied an acre of ground. 
 
 Many unfortunate alterations were made at Cowdray, chiefly by the fourth 
 Viscount Montague. To him is attributed the alteration of all the upper 
 
 * This open yard was afterwards covered with a roof. 
 
COJVDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 windows on the eastern front; these were enlarged and heavy cornices 
 added to them. The windows of the north hexagonal tower were altered at 
 the same time and in the same style, and in this case the change much 
 weakened the walls, and began the ruin which fire and neglect continued. 
 The windows of the great gateway were spoiled at the same period. The 
 fourth Viscount Montague demolished the fore [or external] court, through 
 which those persons who were not of sufficient distinction to claim admit- 
 tance at the great gateway could approach the house by way of the kitchen 
 tower. Lord Montague built on this site (which was just behind the South 
 Gallery) a narrow court joined at its eastern end to the kitchen tower, open 
 towards the west, and surrounded on the east and south with buildings. 
 These buildings comprised his stables, kennels, and other offices. They 
 were built of brick, with low rooms and lofty red-tiled roofs, and though 
 picturesque in themselves, were not in harmony with the embattled stone 
 walls and towers of Cowdray. The approach to the ruins is now made 
 through these buildings, most of which still exist. 
 
 About a hundred yards from the north side of Cowdray was a low octa- 
 gonal stone building. It was twenty-four feet in diameter, with a conical 
 roof, a plain parapet, and several windows of different sizes.^^ It was two 
 storeys in height; the floor of the upper room was supported by a wooden 
 pillar in the centre, with a base and a capital of stone ; and this room was 
 entered by two doors, each approached by flights of stone steps seven feet 
 in width, and placed on either side of the chief entrance to the tower part of 
 the building. The purpose for which this place was built has never been 
 clearly ascertained. It has been called " the guard-room : in it the fire- 
 hose and buckets were locked up on the night of the fire at Cowdray : it was at 
 one time used as a shelter for valuable plants during the winter^ and more 
 recently the upper part was made into a barn, and the lower portion served 
 as a shelter for the cattle in the park. The building still exists, being now 
 used as a lumber-room. 
 
 It is not known to whom the alteration of the Buck Hall, an alteration 
 which almost amounted to a crime, is to be attributed. It is thus described 
 by an Architectural Antiquary in the Gentleman's Magazine: ^ — '^The height 
 of the hall was divided by a floor and its length by a partition. The lower 
 part was a dark cellar, but the porch opening to a broad passage remained 
 
 * Vol. i., New Series, 1834, p. 38. 
 
 i 
 
124 
 
 COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 the chief entrance; and the principal upper room was furnished with a 
 carved chimney-piece, the frame of which has not been entirely destroyed/^ 
 In all probability this alteration was made in the later years of the seventh 
 Viscount Montague, or during the minority of his son. 
 
 Another alteration was made after the fire, during the time of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Poyntz. It is mentioned by Sir Sibbald Scott,t who, in speaking of the 
 south-east or kitchen tower, says, An intermediate floor was introduced by 
 taking off a portion of the height of the kitchen, and the space above was 
 converted into an audit-room where the tenants for many years dined 
 at the half-yearly audits, the dinner being cooked in the. old kitchen below 
 and then hoisted up through an aperture still existing in the modern floor; 
 the room was externally lighted by the upper parts of the four great 
 mullioned windows, which originally were in the great kitchen." The spiral 
 staircase would not allow of the conversance of the dinner. It led to the 
 library above, which by means of shelves and cupboards was converted into 
 a sort of ofliice, in which all the muniments and papers were deposited. 
 
 The grounds of Cowdray were very extensive. Besides the park and the 
 unique Close Walks, lawns extended eastwards from the house to a moat 
 which was filled from the river Rother. Here probably was the bowling- 
 green on which the second Viscount Montague played ; but there are now 
 no traces of it, nor of any of those fine hedges of yew, box, hornbeam, or 
 holly which were the pride of so many houses of a similar date. 
 
 The Close Walks were formed by four narrow avenues of fine old yews 
 planted at right angles so as to form a square. This square measured about 
 one hundred and fifty yards each way. In the centre were circles, also of 
 yews. From the size of the yew-trees and the arrangement of the Close 
 Walks this portion of the grounds was most remarkable. It was here that 
 Queen Elizabeth dined at the table four-and-twenty yards long. 
 
 Near the upper end of the great chestnut avenue in the park was the 
 " Puzzle-walk ^' (as it is still called), or labyrinth, formed of large box-trees. 
 The labyrinth was of very considerable size, and was intersected by numerous 
 walks both wide and narrow. Near the labyrinth was a hollow^ in the shape 
 of a horse-shoe which was called the Roundel. J It faced south-east at the 
 
 * The dividing floor and inserted chimney-piece may still be traced, 
 t Sussex ArchcEological Collections, vol. xv. p. 68. 
 
 + Roundel, or roundell, was a word used to express anything round, as a circle. Also a 
 roundelay, or catch. \_Halliwell.'\ 
 
COWDRAY IN ITS GLORY. 
 
 [25 
 
 open part^ and steps were cut round it to form seats like those in an amphi- 
 theatre. It was completely surrounded by a wide drive, arched over by 
 an avenue of large old yew-trees, and these again were surrounded by an outer 
 ring of fir-trees of great height. There is a tradition that some of the enter- 
 tainments provided for Queen Elizabeth took place in this spot. 
 
 Flower-gardens do not appear to have existed at Cowdray in its early 
 days, and no gardeners are mentioned in the list of servants given by the 
 second Lord Montague. The " fruytes of sortes " of which he speaks were 
 probably furnished by orchards ; and there is a tradition that the " Nanny 
 apple (one of the best apples in Sussex at the present day) was introduced 
 from Nancy by one of the Lords Montague. 
 
 When the fourth Viscount Montague built his offices on the site of the 
 demolished fore-court, he may have formed the large walled garden which 
 still exists to the south of these low buildings. The appearance of the red- 
 brick walls is consistent with the opinion, but there is no record of the fact. 
 
 There was a curious old sun-dial, apparently made of gun-metal,^ in the 
 grounds, but this has been recently removed. 
 
 Among the papers found at Cowdray by Sir Sibbald Scott was a half- 
 burnt fragment of an inventory of the furniture in the house. It begins : 
 ^'An Inventory of the Goods Chattells and Household Stuffe Remaining 
 and being in and about Cowdry House at the Decease of the Right 
 Hon^'^- Francis Lord Viscount Montaigu, taken the 7 day of May 1708. 
 
 ''In the Great Hall. 
 
 " One long Shuffleboard Table w**" Benches on either side fix'd to the 
 wall and round the great Bay Window there : wainscoated, and hangM 
 about with printed Callico Hangings : w^^ Eleven Stags standing upon 
 Pedistalls : allso Five Lamps.^^ 
 
 In the Dining Parlour^ or " Winter Parlor,'^ there were " five and twenty 
 Cane Chayres, Two of them being Armed, two needleworked Cushions, a 
 pair of white Linen Damask Window Curtains, one Ovall Table, two 
 Spanish Tables, fire shovel. Tongs, and a pair of Doggs, with one Steel 
 Frame for warming of Plates." " A large Tea Table w*'' Furniture of 
 Chinea" stood in the Withdrawing Room nex the Parlor.'^ 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Cf)e jTire at CotoUrag. 
 
 N the night of Tuesday, the 24th of September 1793, the fine 
 old house at Cowdray was almost entirely destroyed by fire. 
 
 About eleven o'clock on that night some men who were 
 sitting up for brewing saw flames flashing out of the windows 
 of the carpenter^s shop at the top of the north-west tower of 
 the house; and by seven o'clock on the following morning '''that ancient 
 and noble structure, with all the capital paintings, furniture, &c., a collec- 
 tion which no traveller of taste ever neglected to view or returned from 
 ungratified/' was a gutted and smouldering ruin. 
 
 According to the Gentleman^ s Magazine the flames were so rapid that 
 it was impossible to save any thing of value." But as the fire began at the 
 top of the house, it is probable that even if modern fire-engines had been at 
 hand little could have been done to arrest its course. As it was_, the key of 
 the detached stone building in which were kept the fire-hose and buckets 
 was mislaid, and much time was lost in a vain endeavour to wrench the 
 heavy door off its hinges. The steward endeavoured to get part of the 
 house pulled down by the crowd of people who rushed to the spot from 
 Midhurst, hoping in this way to stop the progress of the fire ; but the great 
 strength of the masonry rendered this impossible. 
 
 Lord Montague was abroad, but he was expected soon to return, and 
 workmen were engaged in repairing and renovating the house. Lady 
 Montague and her daughter had gone to Brighton with the intention of 
 
THE FIRE AT COIVDRAY, 
 
 127 
 
 remaining there till the repairs at Cowdray were completed. The house 
 was left in charge of a housekeeper and a very few servants, the establish- 
 ment having been greatly reduced during Lord Montague^s minority. 
 
 There was no doubt as to the cause of that disastrous fire, by means of 
 which ^^the glory of Cowdray House, with the accumulations of years, all 
 passed away as a tale that is told, being destroyed in one fatal night by the 
 fury of an inextinguishable fire; and where festive preparations were in 
 progress on the preceding evening, next morning there was nothing but 
 blackened walls and dismay and ruin/^ For the workmen had not only been 
 allowed to make their carpenter's shop in a room at the top of one of the 
 towers, just above the North Gallery, but, with almost inconceivable reck- 
 lessness, they had been burning charcoal there, in the midst of all the shav- 
 ings and chips which strewed the floor. 
 
 During the repairs all the valuables in the house, the furniture, the relics 
 from Battle Abbey, the books and curiosities, had been stored in the North 
 Gallery. Every picture which could be taken from the walls had also been 
 placed there. 
 
 The flames soon broke out in this North Gallery (immediately above 
 which they had first been seen), and in it the fire raged with an all- 
 devouring fury. The gallery was narrow and difficult of access, and scarcely 
 a single piece of furniture was saved from among the quantity of articles 
 with which it was crowded. 
 
 Three pictures only were saved. These were the group of portraits by 
 Oliver, the copy of it by Sherwin, and the picture of the two brothers 
 Fitzwilliam lying dead in armour.* 
 
 There is a picture at Woburn which is said to have been saved from the fire 
 at Cowdray. It is a copy of the Van Dyck at Windsor of Charles the First, 
 in which he is represented standing, the figure whole-length and life-size. 
 This picture was in 1833 given by Mr. Poyntz to the sixth Duke of Bedford ; 
 but it is not mentioned in any catalogue of the pictures at Cowdray, and is 
 more likely to have been among the collection of portraits at Midgham. 
 
 Many interesting relics from Battle Abbey were destroyed in the fire 
 at Cowdray. Dallaway says that " against the parapet on the left side of 
 the quadrangle were placed two ovals containing heads in baked clay, which 
 were removed from Battle Abbey when it was sold.'^ But the greatest loss 
 
 * This picture I have not been able to trace. 
 
128 
 
 THE FIRE AT COJVDRAY, 
 
 among these relics was that of the memorials of the Conquest. These con- 
 sisted of the sword of William the Conqaeror_, his coronation robe^ — that 
 royal pallium, beautifully ornamented with gold and very costly gems/^ — 
 and the Roll of Battle Abbey. The sword and the coronation robe are 
 believed to have been presented by William the Conqueror to Battle Abbey, 
 when he founded it in fulfilment of his vow made when his army vi^as 
 arrayed just before the battle of Hastings. "Upon this place of battle I 
 will found a free monastery for the salvation of you all, and especially of those 
 who fall. And this I will do in honour of God and His saints, to the end 
 that the servants of God may be succoured ; that even as I shall be enabled 
 to acquire for myself a propitious asylum, so it may be freely offered to all 
 my followers.^^ The Roll of Battle Abbey was the list of the Barons who 
 accompanied William the Conqueror to England ; and though doubts have 
 been thrown on its existence, the probability is that the Roll was made in 
 some form, and kept in the church at Battle. 
 
 These relics of the Conquest undoubtedly ought to have remained at 
 Battle Abbey ; but, according to the tradition in the Montague family, they 
 were removed to Cowdray when the seventh Viscount Montague sold Battle 
 in 1717. They perished in the fire, together with several old " religious and 
 military paintings from Battle Abbey .'^ 
 
 Poor Lady Montague was overwhelmed with grief on hearing of the 
 destruction of Cowdray. She was as yet ignorant of the far greater sorrow 
 which was so soon to fall upon her in the death of her son ; * but the loss of 
 the beautiful house and of all the treasures it contained was a terrible trial 
 to her. 
 
 A letter still exists which was written by Lady Montague from Brighton 
 to her friend the Countess of Newburgh. The letter is only dated Friday, but 
 it was evidently written immediately after the fire, possibly on the Friday 
 of the week in which the fire took place : f — 
 
 * The tradition is that Lord Montague's death and the fire at Cowdray happened on the same 
 day. But a few days at the least must have elapsed between the two events, although the exact 
 date of Lord Montague's death has never been ascertained. The news of the accident reached 
 England on the 1st of November I793- [Derby Mercury, Nov. 7, 1793.] 
 
 t This letter, with another from Lady Newburgh to Lady Montague (in which an account is 
 given of the festivities at Cowdray on Lord Montague's coming of age), are in the possession of a 
 lady who was formerly companion to Lady Newburgh's daughter. Lord and Lady Newburgh 
 resided at Slindon near Arundel. 
 
THE FIRE AT COWDRJY, 
 
 129 
 
 "Brighton, Friday. 
 
 " O my dear Lady Newburgh, I am very little able to thank You as I wish and 
 as You deserve for Your uncommon Kindness to me and my Daughter. I can't 
 express what I feel, but must leave it to y« feelings of y^ own Heart, w<=^ I'm sure 
 will be Your best Reward for the Obligations You bestow. I hope to accept your 
 very kind offer, but at present y'" House, w<^^ I prefer to any other, is too near 
 y^ Scene of all my distress, and I do feel quite a Dislike to seeing any of y^ people 
 who are at Cowdray. I must blame Higgeson, for I hear it was his men who left 
 y^ Fire in y« Shavings in y^ Work room. It seems a scene of Carelessness, or how 
 could Such a House have been so destroy'd. O I ought not to look at Second 
 Causes, the first had Doom'd it to Destruction; and I wish to submit to 
 y^ Decrees of Providence. However hard they seem they are not more than I 
 am conscious I deserve. Bessy * is much affected, but she feels with me y'^ great 
 Kindness. Mr. Sergent t has just called, and put us in mind that if y^ lead of 
 y«= House, w^^ must be worth fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds, is not saved 
 it will be stole. So I am inclined to send a man over, as I'm sure y^ Care of ye 
 people there is not to be depended upon. A quantity of Water all round y^ House, 
 and yet it was not so employ'd as to save it. \ But I shall feel angry and that is 
 sinful, so I will only return to y^ pleasing fact of your Kindness, and say that we 
 hope to profit by it before we go to Town, and believe me with every sense of Grati- 
 tude, your much obliged, affectionate, &c., &c., F. M. 
 
 " P.S. — Best and grateful compts to Lord N. and y® L^y Dowager." 
 
 Lady Montague's fears that the lead from Cowdray would be "stole'* 
 were not groundless. Numbers of articles were stolen from the house 
 during the fortnight throughout which the ruins continued smouldering. 
 There is many a house within a large circle round Midhurst which still 
 contains some object once in Cowdray. Some articles have even been 
 seen at Lewes which were saved from the fire. The extraordinary care- 
 lessness which allowed these thefts was no doubt due to the grief and 
 despair which fell on the family in the contemporaneous death of Lord 
 
 * Miss Browne, afterwards Mrs. Poyntz. 
 
 t Mr. John Sargent, who built Lavington House. He represented Seaford and Queenborough 
 in Parliament. He died in 1830. 
 
 + It is said that several of the servants in Cowdray were drunk on the night of the fire, and 
 that the house-steward tried in vain to collect a sufficient number of men to hand buckets of water- 
 from the river to the house. 
 
 R 
 
130 
 
 THE FIRE AT COWDRAY. 
 
 Montague. There seems to have been an entire absence of interest in saving 
 what was left of the contents of the house, and the whole neighbourhood 
 was allowed to roam through the ruins, carrying away anything that could 
 be moved, either as a memento of the fire, or, more generally, as an article 
 likely to be useful. 
 
 An interesting account of the condition of Cowdray a month after the 
 fire was sent to the Society of Antiquaries by a gentleman who signed him- 
 self R. G. of Enfield. His letter is dated November the 7th, i793; and is 
 as follows : — 
 
 To the Rev. Mr. Wrighte, F.S.A. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — It is with real concern that I desire you to communicate to the 
 Society any particulars of the loss which our national History has sustained by the 
 destruction of Lord Montague's house at Cowdray. If they receive no account from 
 any other person, you will be so good as to lay before them the result of a visit to the 
 ruins on Tuesday, October 22, 1793, about a month after the catastrophe, in which, 
 as far as could be done, I have endeavoured to ascertain how much of the valuable 
 collection of paintings had been saved. A very inconsiderable portion indeed ! an 
 unfortunate concurrence of circumstances having occasioned the family portraits 
 and all the historical paintings by Holbein or his contemporaries, which ornamented 
 the four drawing-rooms and his Lordship's dressing-room, to be collected together 
 during the repair of those several apartments previous to his Lordship's return from 
 the Continent into the North Gallery, which was itself decorated with modern 
 copies of the more curious whole-length portraits. At the west end of that gallery, 
 by the strangest inadvertence, the carpenters and glaziers had been permitted to 
 have their workshops, contrary to the established custom in houses of the same age 
 and style. On the night of Tuesday, September 24, Mrs. Chambers the house- 
 keeper, who, with the porter and one or two more servants, were the only inhabi- 
 tants of the spacious mansion, had retired to bed at her usual hour of eleven, in the 
 full confidence that all was safe, and not the smallest light was to be seen. She 
 had scarcely slept an hour when she was alarmed by the watchman with the cry of 
 ' Fire in the North Gallery ! ' and immediately saw it in flames with all its valuable 
 contents without a possibility of saving a single article. The inhabitants of Mid- 
 hurst, from which the house is not a mile distant, were soon ready to assist in great 
 numbers, and no help was wanting to remove the furniture, pictures, and library 
 from the three other sides of the quadrangle. But the firmness of the materials 
 rendered it absolutely impossible to break down any part so as to stop the progress 
 of the flames ; they quickly spread to the east side of the court, in which was the 
 
GROUND PLAN, 1844. 
 
THE FIRE AT COWDRAY, 
 
 great hall, chapel, and dining-parlour. These there was opportunity to unfurnish, 
 and to save the altar-piece by Arrigoni, but the historical paintings on the walls of 
 the dining-parlour were involved in the destruction, and the stucco on which they 
 were painted itself flaked off from the walls. A piece of it which I picked up from 
 the north wall, whereon was painted the principal operations of sieges, will show the 
 state to which they were reduced." 
 
 In the Gentleman's Magazine iov 1794 (vol. Ixiv. p. 13) an engraving is 
 given of Cowdray from a sketch taken on the spot in November 1793. In 
 this sketch the gateway is shown as but little injured by the fire, although 
 the windows are burnt out : the west wing and the end of the South Gallery 
 appear to have been almost untouched_, but on the other side of the gateway 
 the house even then was a ruin. The end of the North Gallery is marked by 
 the remains of the wall on either side of the windows ; in front are heaps of 
 fallen stones, and the whole of the north wing is burnt down to the lower 
 windows. Through these ruined walls are seen the remains of chimneys and 
 windows at the north-east angle of the inner court ; but these, even two 
 months after the fire, seem to be tottering and about to fall. A paling has 
 been erected across the great gateway, from which the doors have disappeared. 
 From this sketch it is evident that no restoration of the northern side of 
 Cowdray could have been possible, but the southern and western portions 
 might probably have been habitable, and could apparently have been restored 
 to their former condition without difficulty. 
 
 Mr. Quinton, writing to the Gentleman's Magazine in May 1798 (vol. 
 Ixviii. p. 371), gives some additional particulars as to the fire. He says : — 
 " Lord Montague was engaged to the eldest daughter of Mr. Coutts (the 
 present Countess of Guildford), and with a view to his marriage on his 
 return to England the mansion-house had been for several months under- 
 going a complete repair and fitting-up. The whole was completed on the 
 day preceding the night in which it was consumed, and the steward had 
 been employed during the afternoon in writing the noble owner an account 
 of its completion. This letter reached his hands. On the following day the 
 steward wrote another letter announcing its destruction ; but in his hurry of 
 spirits he directed it to Lausanne instead of to Lucerne, by which accident it 
 was two days longer in its passage to his Lordship's place of abode than it 
 otherwise would have been. Had it not been for that fatal delay, in all 
 human probability this noble family would not have had to deplore the double 
 
132 
 
 THE FIRE AT COWDRAY. 
 
 misfortune by which its name and honours have become extinguished ; for 
 the letter arrived at his Lordship's lodgings on the morning of his death, 
 about an hour after he had left them, and, as nearly as can be computed, at 
 the very moment in which he was overwhelmed by the torrent of the Rhine. 
 Had it fortunately reached his hand, there cannot be a doubt but the deep 
 impression its contents would have made on his mind would have instantly 
 diverted it to far other thoughts and purposes than the youthful and danger- 
 ous frolick which cost him his life/^- 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 0 attempt seems to have been made to restore the ruin of 
 Cowdray House after the fire, and but little care was taken to 
 preserve it from decay. The wreck of the beautiful building 
 was left as it appeared after the fire, and in a short time the 
 walls were covered over with ivy. The ivy soon concealed the 
 outlines of the structure which remained, and no doubt much contributed 
 to the further decay of the stone. 
 
 In the beginning of November 18:^5 William Cobbett visited Cowdray 
 in the course of one of his rural rides.* He came thither from Trotton, 
 where he seems to have passed over the magnificent brasses in the church 
 without notice, speaking only of '^the good and commodious and capacious 
 church.'^ Cobbett remarks, " From Trotten we f came to Midhurst, and 
 having baited our horses, went into Cowdry Park to see the ruins of that 
 once noble mansion, from which the Countess of Salisbury (the last of the 
 Plantagenets) was brought by the tyrant Henry the Eighth to be cruelly 
 murdered, in revenge for the integrity and the other great virtues of her son, 
 Cardinal Pole. . . . This noble estate, one of the finest in the whole 
 kingdom, was seized on by the King after the possessor had been murdered 
 
 * Rural Rides by William Cobbett, p. 332. 
 t Cobbett was riding with his son Richard. 
 
134 
 
 COWDRAY IN RUINS. 
 
 on his scaffold. She had committed no crime. No crime was proved 
 against her. The miscreant Thomas Cromwell, finding that no form of 
 trial would answer his purpose, invented a new mode of bringing people to 
 their death^ namely, a Bill brought into Parliament condemning her to death. 
 The estate was then granted to a Sir Anthony Brown, who was physician 
 to the King. By the descendants of this Brown, one of whom was after- 
 wards created Lord Montague, the estate has been held to this day ; and 
 Mr. Poyntz, who married the sole remaining heiress of this family, a Miss 
 Brown, is now the proprietor of the estate, comprising, I believe, forty or 
 Jifty manors, the greater part of which are in this neighbourhood, some of 
 them, however, extending more than twenty miles from the mansion. We 
 entered the park through a great iron gateway, part of which being wanting, 
 the gap was stopped up by a hurdle. We rode down to the house and all 
 round about and in amongst the ruins, now in part covered with ivy and 
 inhabited by innumerable starlings and jackdaws. The last possessor was, 
 I believe, that Lord Montague who was put an end to by the celebrated 
 nautical adventure on the Rhine along with the brother of Sir Glory.* 
 These two sensible worthies took it into their heads to go down a place 
 something resembling the waterfall of an overshot mill. They were drowned 
 just as two young kittens or two young puppies would have been. And as 
 an instance of the truth that it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, had 
 it not been for this sensible enterprise never would there have been a West- 
 minster Rump to celebrate the talents and virtues of Westminster's Pride 
 and England^s Glory. It was this Lord Montague, I believe, who had this 
 ancient and noble mansion completely repaired and fitted up as a place of 
 residence ; and a few days, or a very few weeks, at any rate, after the work 
 was completed the house was set on fire (by accident I suppose), and left 
 nearly in the state in which it now stands, except that the ivy has grown up 
 about it and partly hidden the stones from our sight. You may see, how- 
 ever, the hour of the day or night at which the fire took place, for there 
 still remains the brass of the face of the clock and the hand pointing to the 
 hour. Close by this mansion there runs a little river which runs winding 
 away through the vallies, and at last falls into the Arron. After viewing 
 the ruins we had to return into the turnpike road, and enter another 
 part of the park, which we crossed in order to go to Petworth. When you 
 
 * By this name was meant the celebrated Sir Francis Burdett. 
 
COWDRAY IN RUINS. 
 
 135 
 
 are in a part of this road through the park you look down and see the house 
 in the middle of a very fine valley, the distant boundary of which to the 
 south and south-west is the South Down Hills. Some of the trees here are 
 very fine, particularly some most magnificent rows of the Spanish chestnut. 
 I asked the people at Midhurst where Mr. Poyntz himself lived, and they 
 told me at the lodge in the park, which lodge was formerly the residence of 
 the head-keeper. The land is very good about here. It is fine rich loam 
 at top with clay further down. It is good for all sorts of trees, and they 
 seem to grow here very fast/' 
 
 This cruel composition shows that Cobbett as well as Horace Walpole 
 imagined Margaret of Clarence to have been the owner of Cowdray. It is 
 sad to think that, besides his brutal delight in the death of Lord Montague^ 
 Cobbett should have passed over unnoticed the loss of the two sons of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Poyntz, — a loss which must have been fresh in the minds of all 
 who visited Cowdray so soon after the catastrophe. 
 
 Mr. Poyntz apparently took no heed of the curious documents which 
 had escaped the flames. In an account of Cowdray written in 1834 by 
 Howard Dudley, a pupil at the Midhurst Grammar School,* the following 
 description is given: — ''^At the south end is a massive tower of large 
 dimensions braced with iron, which has escaped the fury of the flames : the 
 kitchen occupies the ground-floor and is nearly filled with faggots and 
 rubbish : by a winding staircase you reach another room of equal dimensions 
 with the kitchen ; the floor is covered with ancient deeds, valuable MSS., 
 and private letters, which are suffered to lie about in wild confusion, sub- 
 mitted to the inspection of every visitor.'^ 
 
 An "Architectural Antiquary also visited Cowdray in 1834, and sent a 
 long description of the house to the Gentleman s Magazine.'^ 
 
 He thus speaks of the ruin of the library : — " As if the calamity had 
 palsied the surviving owners, the remnants spared by the fire were long 
 neglected with the building J which contained them, and when at last either 
 were remembered, the confused heaps of furniture in the kitchen and the 
 library awaited a selection which was so slothfully performed that their value 
 
 * The account written by Howard Dudley, entitled luvenile Researches, is still one of the best 
 descriptions of Cowdray to be found. He wrote it when only thirteen years of age, printed it him- 
 self, and illustrated it with woodcuts, drawn, cut, and printed by his own hands. His early death 
 cut short a career of great promise. 
 
 t Vol. i. new series, p. 33, and see p. 123 ante. % The kitchen (or south-west) tower. 
 
136 
 
 COWDEAY IN RUINS. 
 
 was diminished or altogether lost. The last relics of old high-backed chairs, 
 and one or two paintings^ are of such a quality as to excite no regret that 
 they are resigned to decay ; but that the entire library should not have been 
 removed with reverential care is an instance of cold neglect which excites 
 the surprise and rouses the censure of all who are permitted to enter the 
 room. These manuscripts lie in heedless heaps on the floor or are scattered 
 on the shelves, and some more ancient, and known by their rightful owner to 
 be more curious than the rest, are set apart for the vacant gaze and rude treat- 
 ment of those who cannot read them — an idle ceremony, which, however, 
 may not much longer exist for complaint, since their total destruction by 
 fire has been urged, I am informed^ from a quarter likely to prove in- 
 fluential/^ 
 
 The Architectural Antiquary adds :— But the noble ruins of the house 
 itself are fast hastening to extinction. In windy weather the public are 
 not allowed to approach the walls lest the fall of some tall gable or lofty 
 window should prove fatal to the visitors; and the owner, to avoid a 
 calamity of this kind, caused a tower on the south side, and some other 
 fragments, to be demolished. One of the handsome bay windows near the 
 hall is on the eve of falling; indeed, several mullions have already given way, 
 and a few wooden props once placed by a considerate labourer residing on 
 the spot to sustain the tottering and delicate frame, are lying uselessly at its 
 base. This is the system adhered to at Cowdray ; a fragment that exhibits 
 dangerous decay is pulled down to save its falling at an unlucky moment, 
 and (what is of equal consideration) to save the few pounds which would 
 secure it in its place : and let those who view with admiration, not unalloyed 
 by painful sensations, these grand and still extensive ruins, remember that 
 for their gratification they are indebted to the durability of the masonry, 
 and (though to the liberality of free admission) not to the care of the 
 owner.^^ * 
 
 Mrs. Poyntz had died in 1830, and on the death of Mr. Poyntz in 1840 
 the curious practice of heriots was put in force. The owner of East 
 Lavington (at that time Mrs. Sargent) seized Mr. Poyntz's best chattel, a 
 team of four very fine home-bred Suffolk punch cart-horses, as heriots in 
 respect of some land in the manor of Woolavington. This heriot was 
 commuted for the sum of two hundred pounds. 
 
 * GentlemarCs Magazine^ new series, 1834, vol. i. p. 38. 
 
A 
 
 
 'If; 
 
 
 ill' 
 
 : 1 
 
 
 
 
 t if' 
 
 
 
 
 KITCHEN TOWER AT COWDRAY, 1844. 
 
 ^ ^'Tf ^^^^ 
 
 GATEWAY AT COWDRAY, 1844. 
 
cow DRAY IN RUINS, 
 
 137 
 
 On the sale of the estate to the sixth Earl of Egmont in 1843, "the 
 vendors at the purchaser's cost enfranchised the heriots, quit-rents^ and 
 reversion_, the lands in question being held on lease for ten thousand years, 
 of which some three or four hundred only had expired/'"* To estimate the 
 present value of this reversionary interest was an exceedingly difficult and 
 complicated task. 
 
 At the meeting of the British Archaeological Association in January 
 1845 a letter from Mr. Virtue to Mr. Charles Roach Smith was read^ which 
 gave an account of Cowdray. Mr. Virtue " stated that having heard that a 
 number of interesting documents and papers had been stored away in a 
 room in the ruined mansion of Cowdry near Midhurst in Sussex, the only 
 portion of the building that escaped destruction by the fire, he took occasion 
 to visit Cowdry House in November last. He ascertained that the room 
 having become ruinous and unsafe, and many of the papers having been 
 carried away by persons who chanced to visit the ruins, the remainder had 
 been thrown into the closets which surrounded the room, which were then 
 nailed up and the papers left to decay. The present state of this chamber 
 is such that at no very distant time it must fall, and these old documents will 
 probably perish/' Mr. Thomas King of Chichester wrote next month " in 
 reference to the collection of old papers at Cowdray House, that they had 
 been deposited in a detached dovecot at the time of the fire, and that they 
 related to the times of Elizabeth, James^ and the Protectorate. Mr. King 
 has some of these papers in his possession, one of which is a detailed account 
 of expenses for liveries and tailor's work during Elizabeth's reign : he has 
 also court rolls and other documents of the time of James the First. Part 
 of these papers had been wantonly destroyed and used as wrappers or for 
 kindling fires, but the Earl of Egmont has recently purchased the estate, 
 and the ruins will no longer be accessible to mischievous idlers.^' f 
 
 Some eleven years later the remaining documents in this room were 
 examined by Sir Sibbald Scott, Bart., F.S.A., and described by him in the 
 Sussex Archceological Collections (vol. xv. p. 67). He says that when 
 he visited the room, the floor was strewn with parchments and papers ; 
 some had been thrust by handfuls into the cupboards, and many were 
 gathered in little heaps in corners where gusts of wind had probably driven 
 
 * Mr. Alexander Brown supplied this information. He conducted the business. 
 + A rchcBO logical Jouj'nal, vol. ii. 
 
 S 
 
COIVDRAY IN RUINS. 
 
 them, and where the damp had caused them to adhere in masses, rendering 
 many of them illegible; for small traces of glazing remained in the wide case- 
 ments, consequently the rain could penetrate from any quarter; the ivy, 
 moreover, had thrust its way to the ceiling, and jackdaws had evidently 
 learned to look on this apartment as their own. ... But more ruthless 
 still than the rain, oi* damp, or jackdaws had been the spoiling hands of 
 casual visitors before the door had been closed to the public. The collec- 
 tors of autographs and seals had in frequent cases torn off these appen- 
 dages ; doubtless many documents had been carried away wholly, but 
 generally they were thus mutilated, and then flung down on the floor as 
 valueless.'^ Important papers were, it is to be hoped, not dealt with after 
 this fashion. But Sir Sibbald Scott mentions some that were extremely 
 curious and interesting {Sussex Archceological Collections, vol. xv. p. 69). 
 He adds, ^' There were piles of letters to and from different members of the 
 family down to the last young Lord who was drowned.^^ It is greatly to 
 be regretted that these papers should never have been collected, or even 
 preserved. 
 
 The beautiful fountain in the centre of the court at Cowdray seems to 
 have excited no admiration. Lord Robert Spencer, an intimate friend of 
 Mr. Poyntz, remarked to him one day that it was very fine. The fountain 
 was then scattered in bits about the court at Cowdray. Mr. Poyntz replied 
 that he might have it if he liked to take the trouble of moving and restor- 
 ing it. Lord Robert, who was at that time the owner of Woolbeding,* at 
 once removed it to his garden, where it still remains. I am enabled by the 
 kindness of Lady Lanerton to give a sketch of this fountain. 
 
 The ivy, which was so long allowed to grow thickly over the ruins of 
 Cowdray, has of late years been cut, but the damage it has done in forcing 
 its way between the stones can never be repaired. 
 
 Above the great gateway the face of the clock still remains, with its 
 hands still pointing to the hour at which it stopped ; by the door is the old 
 . bell, and the original staples which held the doors of the gateway. The 
 kitchen still contains the enormous dripping-pan, five feet long and four, feet 
 wide, and the great meat-screen and meat-block. Among these relics of old 
 Cowdray are lying a fine mirror-frame, a chandelier, and Lady Montague's 
 harp, on which are the words H. Nadermari a Paris. 
 
 * Lord Robert Spencer purchased Woolbeding from Sir Charles Mills. 
 
COWDBAY IN RUINS. 
 
 '39 
 
 Unfortunately the sheltering trees inside and around the Close Walks 
 have lately been cut down. The ancient yews^ so long standing in those 
 cloister-like avenues which were unique in England, are exposed to the 
 winds; many are already broken and injured, some even have fallen to the 
 ground. 
 
 A great portion of the Puzzle-walk or Labyrinth still exists, and some of 
 the box-trees are of considerable size; but when, during the Peninsular War, 
 no hard wood for turnery could be obtained from abroad, great numbers of 
 the large box-trees which formed the Puzzle-walk were unfortunately cut 
 down, and the wood sold for a large sum to London turners. 
 
 The seats in the Roundel or amphitheatre can still be traced ; and 
 above it the spot may now be seen on which a bonfire was always lit on the 
 coming of age or marriage of one of the Viscounts Montague, or on the 
 occasion of the birth of an heir to Cowdray. These bonfires were laid on a 
 high mound with no trees near the spot, and could be seen for miles 
 around. 
 
 Some of the large old oaks still remain in the Park, but a very large 
 number of them were cut down in 1793 and the two following years, and 
 sold to the Government. They were sent to Portsmouth and Plymouth,^^ 
 no doubt to be used in the dockyards. 
 
 * Glimpses of our Sussex Ancestors, part ii. p. 228. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Cf)e €uvgz of CotoDrag* 
 
 E so-called curse of fire and water connected with the house 
 of Montague will be found fully described in the Appen- 
 dix to this volume. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne's great possessions were chiefly de- 
 rived from the spoils of the Church, and to him the words 
 of the terrible curse pronounced in the church of every ruined monastery 
 were supposed to apply. This curse was read by the priest, standing in 
 front of the altar, and is given by Sir Henry Spelman in his History of 
 Sacrilege. 
 
 ^^By the authority of Almighty God and blessed Peter, Prince of the 
 Apostles, to whom is committed by God the power to bind and loose on 
 earth, let vengeance be declared on the malefactors, robbers, and spoliators of 
 
 the goods and possessions, rights and liberties^ of the monastery of Saint , 
 
 and of the whole congregation of that monastery, unless they do effectually 
 repent of their malignity. If the said malefactors should repent of what 
 they have done, may the blessing of God Almighty come upon them and 
 reward them for their good works. But if in truth their hearts are hardened 
 in their iniquity, and they refuse to render up their possessions in the state 
 in which they are bound to restore them, and to make amends by due peni- 
 tence, may there light upon them every curse with which God Almighty has 
 cursed those who have said to the Lord God, Depart from us, we desire 
 
THE CURSE OF COWDRAY. 
 
 141 
 
 not the knowledge of thy ways ; and who have said, Let us possess by 
 inheritance the sanctuary of God. May the torment of perpetual fire be 
 their portion and inheritance with Korah, Dathan^ and Abiram, who went 
 down living into hell-fire_, with Judas and Pilate, Caiaphas and Annas, 
 Simon Magus and Nero, who are tormented for ever in torments without 
 end. May they not dwell with Christ, neither with his saints, nor have 
 communion with him in celestial peace, but dwell with the devil amid 
 infernal torments, and perish for evermore. Cursed be they in the city, 
 cursed be they in the field, cursed in the castle, cursed in the island. Cursed 
 be the fruit of their womb, cursed their dwelling-place, cursed their going- 
 out and entering-in, cursed be they wherever they may abide. May God 
 send them hunger and thirst, chiding and reproof, and crush them in all 
 their doings until he finally root them out of the earth. May the heavens 
 above their head be as brass and the earth beneath their feet as iron. May 
 God strike them with imbecility, blindness, and madness, and may they 
 grope at mid-day as in the darkness of the night, and know not whither to 
 direct their steps. May they suffer from calumny and cruel and violent 
 oppression, and find no deliverer. May their carcases be devoured by the 
 birds of the air and the beasts of the field, and may no man give them 
 sepulture. May a wicked man be set over them, and Satan stand at their 
 right hand. May all these curses come upon them, following in their track 
 till they overtake and seize them and they perish utterly. Fiat. Fiat.^' 
 
 Such were the fearful words in which Sir Anthony Browne, in common 
 with all those who despoiled the Church, was publicly cursed. 
 
 Two accounts are given of the manner in which the curse of fire and 
 water was pronounced directly on him and on his descendants. One of 
 these will be found in the Story of a CursCj p. 163, in which the speaker is the 
 Sub-Prioress of Easebourne. But the more generally received tradition is 
 that, when Sir Anthony was holding his first great feast in the Abbotts Hall 
 at Battle, a monk made his way through the crowd of guests, and striding 
 up to the dais on which Sir Anthony sat, cursed him to his face. He fore- 
 told the doom that would befall the posterity of Sir Anthony, and prophesied 
 that the curse would cleave to his family until it should cease to exist. He 
 concluded with the words, " By fire and water thy line shall come to an 
 end, and it shall perish out of the land.^' 
 
 The following letter from a curate of Easebourne (published in Notes and 
 QuerieSj first series, vol. iii.) refers to this tradition : — 
 
THE CURSE OF COJVDRAY. 
 
 " When curate of Easebourne, in which parish are situated the ruins 
 of their ancestral hall of Cowdray^ I frequently heard the village dames 
 recite the tales of the rude forefathers of the hamlet respecting the family 
 [of Montague]. They relate that when the great Sir Anthony (temp. 
 Henry VIII.) was holding a revel^ a monk presented himself before the 
 guests and pronounced the curse of fire and water against the male 
 descendants of the family till none should be left, because the knight had 
 received and was retaining the church lands of Battle Abbey and those 
 which belonged to the Priory of Easebourne. . . . The old villagers^ the 
 servants, and the descendants of servants of the family point to the ruins 
 of the hall, and religiously cling to the belief that its destruction and that 
 of its lord resulted from the curse. It certainly seems an illustration of 
 Archbishop Whitgift's words to Queen Elizabeth, Church land added 
 to an ancient inheritance hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and 
 secretly consumed both ; or like the eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and 
 thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and her- 
 self that stole it/ — E. Rds.,* Queens College, Birmingham, Feb. %o, 1851.^' 
 
 The sorrows and misfortunes which befell the Montague family in their 
 later days were very great, and it is remarkable that these should have been 
 caused by fire and water. But, on the other hand. Sir Anthony Browne 
 himself and most of his descendants lived in the full enjoyment of honour 
 and prosperity for above two hundred years. It requires a stretch of faith 
 to believe that a curse, so long deferred, should at last have been allowed 
 to fall on the young heads of those who were so remotely descended from 
 the original possessor of the Abbey lands. 
 
 * Richards. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Cf)e Domain of Colotfrag. 
 
 ASEBOURNE CHURCH, on the outskirts of Cowdray Park, is 
 a very ancient building, and till its recent restoration it retained 
 many of its characteristic features. In this church are the 
 monuments already referred to of Sir Anthony Browne and 
 of Sir Davy Owen. The font is massive, of dark Sussex 
 marble ; the basin is formed in the centre of a square block of marble, 
 carved round the sides, and supported on one short massive pillar. The 
 pillar rested on two square blocks of marble, the upper one being carved 
 with four trefoils springing from a circle surrounding the base of the pillar. 
 Sir William Burrell in 1778 made a careful drawing of this font. At the 
 recent restoration of Easebourne church four small white stone pillars were 
 added to this ancient font, one being inserted at each corner, connecting the 
 base with the upper portion. Easebourne is the mother church of Mid- 
 hurst, Farnhurst, and Lodsworth. In the churchyard is a curious tombstone 
 erected to the memory of John Shotter, who died in 1776. He was believed 
 to have caused the death of his wife by throwing her downstairs. On the 
 tombstone is a representation of John Shotter's house, in front of which 
 he is seen dragging his wife by the hair and trampling on her arm. Close 
 to him is a skeleton, bending towards the murderer in a threatening attitude 
 from the top of an adjacent tomb. John Shotter, however, married a second 
 wife, who survived him. The tombstone is now much defaced by the 
 
144 
 
 THE DOMAIN OF CO WD RAY. 
 
 weather, but drawings of it in its original state have fortunately been 
 preserved. 
 
 Easebourne Priory stands close to Easebourne church, the south wall of 
 which formed one side of the cloisters. The Priory w^as founded by John 
 de Bohun about the middle of the thirteenth century for a Prioress and five 
 nuns of the Benedictine Order. It appears that the Prioress of Easebourne 
 in 1441 was severely rebuked by the Bishop of Chichester * for her extrava- 
 gance. The Bishop sent his Commissary^ Master Walter Eston, to hold a 
 visitation in the chapter-house at Easebourne, and he made the following 
 report : — " In the first place it has been proved and discovered . . . that the 
 house was in debt to the amount of ^40, and this principally from the 
 costly expenses of the Prioress, because she frequently rides abroad, and pre- 
 tends that she does so on the common business of the house, although it is 
 not so, with a train of attendants much too large, and tarries long abroad, 
 and she feasts sumptuously both when abroad and at home, and is very 
 choice in her dress, so much so that the fur trimmings of her mantle are 
 worth 100 shillings. Also the Prioress compels her sisters to work continu- 
 ally like hired workwomen, and they receive nothing whatever for their own 
 use from their w^ork, but the Prioress takes the whole profit." t The name 
 of this Prioress has not been preserved. She was suspended by the Bishop 
 from ^^all administration of the temporal goods of the Priory; she was 
 
 by no means to compel her sisters to continual work of their hands, and if 
 they should wish of their own accord to work, they shall be free to do so,^^ 
 reserving for themselves half of their earnings, and applying the rest to " the 
 advantage of the house and unburdening it from debts.^^ The Prioress was 
 '^with all possible speed [to] diminish her excessive household," and to 
 retain only such persons as appeared to the Episcopal administrators to be 
 absolutely necessary. If she had occasion to ride abroad she was not to 
 make a lengthened stay, and " she must and ought rightly to content herself 
 with four horses only.^^ No guests were to be received without the consent 
 of the administrators ; and, hardest to bear of all, " the Prioress shall con- 
 vert the fur trimmings, superfluous to her condition and very costly, to the 
 discharge of the debts of the house." 
 
 Two other visitations were held in the chapter-house of Easebourne 
 
 * Richard Praty, Bishop of Chichester from 1438 till his death in 1445. 
 t Episcopal Registry^ quoted in Sussex Archaological Collections^ vol. ix. p. 7. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRA x . 
 
 Priory^ the one by Bishop Story in July 1478, and the other by a Commis- 
 sary sent by the aged Bishop Sherburn in August 15:^1. Agnes Tawke was 
 Prioress in 1478, and Margaret Sackfield in 1521. At both of these visita- 
 tions bitter complaints were made by the nuns of the extravagance and 
 unfair rule of their superiors. In all the nuns declared that their 
 
 allowance of one mark (13s. 4d.) every year for their clothing was not paid 
 to them by the Prioress, nor were they provided by her with apparel. 
 Complaints were also made of irregularities in the conduct of the inmates of 
 the Priory. The nuns there have been described as wild females^, scions of 
 high family, put there to keep them quiet.^^ Want of occupation may have 
 been the cause of much evil. 
 
 In 1535 Easebourne Priory was suppressed. Margaret Sackfield, the last 
 Prioress_, surrendered the property to the King's Commissioners, and the few 
 inmates of the Priory returned to their own homes. 
 
 The house and lands were in the following year granted to Lord South- 
 ampton ; Baldwyn Hammet, chaplain to the nuns, receiving a yearly pension 
 of one hundred shillings. In the Survey of the year 1568 the house called 
 Easebourne Priory '' is mentioned, wherein be granaries, and a brew- 
 house, all inclosed within the park of Cowdray, and subject to the deer 
 coming in." 
 
 A very curious chest, once in Easebourne Priory, is now in the possession 
 of Mr. Alexander Brown. The chest is of iron^ possibly of Spanish origin. 
 The lid, which is of very great weight, contains on its inner surface a medley 
 of iron springs, bolts, and hinges, all in connection with the secret spring of 
 the lock. After long examination and many trials by an expert, the final 
 bolt had to be forced, for the spring could not be discovered. Inside the 
 chest were household bills of the Lords Montague for wax candles at thirty- 
 six shillings the pound, and for tea at three guineas the pound. There is a 
 tradition about this chest to the following effect. It is said to have con- 
 tained the deeds of Easebourne Priory, and that it was secured by two large 
 padlocks (still in existence), the small keys of which were kept by the Bishop 
 of Chichester and the Abbot of Waverley. The Prioress of Easebourne kept 
 the great key which opened the central lock and another lock which was 
 hidden under one of the large iron studs on the top of the chest. But this 
 key was of no use unless the padlocks were unlocked, and unless a small 
 skewer was applied to two springs, reached through tiny holes in the elabo- 
 rate ornamentation of the lid. Tradition says that the Prioress contrived to 
 
14^ 
 
 THE DOM JIN OF COWDRJY. 
 
 let a smith named Gosden^ living in Midhurst^ take impressions of the keys 
 kept by the Bishop and Abbot during one of their visits to Easebourne. 
 Gosden thereupon made additional keys; the Prioress opened the chest_, and 
 pawned the Priory deeds which were in it. 
 
 In Easebourne Priory there was a curious strong room or safe. It was 
 six feet square, built of stone and brick, banded about and laced across with 
 Swedish iron bars, of such quality that when it was, with difficulty, demo- 
 lished, these bars were kept like gold for future use. 
 
 Easebourne Priory has been considerably modernised, but the great 
 oaken beams, fifteen inches sqtiare, and the steps of Sussex marble still 
 remain. The plaster ceiling of what is called the Abbess's Parlour is 
 probably the work of the Italian artists who were employed to decorate the 
 chapel at Cowdray in the time of William the Third. 
 
 Dallaway considered that the windows in Easebourne church were of the 
 date of Henry the Sixth. The lancet windows in the refectory or chapter- 
 house*' of the Priory are of the date of Henry the Third. These windows 
 have been walled up. Dallaway believed that this was done when Lord 
 Southampton converted the Priory into a dwelling-house. The windows can 
 still be traced, and the fine buttress on the outer side of the refectory 
 remains untouched. The building has long been used as a granary, and a 
 portion of it was made by Mr. Poyntz into a pigeon-house, with nests formed 
 in the wall to accommodate above a thousand pigeons. 
 
 The south aisle of Easebourne Church was the chapel of the nuns of 
 Easebourne Priory, and it was also their burial-place. 
 
 Easebourne has always been considered to be a particularly healthy 
 village. Sir William Burrell, writing in 1768, says that the ages of six 
 persons buried at Easebourne amounted to five hundred and four years. In 
 1776 two brothers and a sister were living in Easebourne parish whose united 
 ages amounted to two hundred and forty years. 
 
 The wall of the churchyard at Easebourne belongs to four parishes — Ease- 
 bourne itself, Midhurst, Farnhurst, and Lodsworth. Sir William Burrell 
 adds that in the tenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the churches of 
 Easebourne and Farnhurst were still considered to belong to Easebourne 
 Priory. No Vicar was endowed, but the duties of the parishes were 
 
 * The number of inmates was too small to require a large refectory. The room was probably 
 used as the chapter-house. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY. 
 
 147 
 
 discharged by two stipendiary priests, of whose wages the fermors are 
 bound to discharge the lord/' 
 
 The manor of Cowdray, situate in the parishes of Easebourne, Fernhurst, 
 and Midlavant, is one of the hundred and forty manors in Sussex in which the 
 custom of Borough-English prevails. This custom prevails to some extent, 
 according to Mr. Corner, F.S.A. \_Sussex Archceological CollectionSj vol. vi. 
 p. 174], in many parts of England, but chiefly in Sussex, Suffolk, and 
 Surrey. 
 
 Borough-English is the opposite of primogeniture, and it means the 
 descent of lands to the youngest^ instead of to the eldest son of the owner. 
 In some cases women have been allowed to benefit by the custom. If the 
 owner of the property died without issue, the estate passed to his youngest 
 brother. Th^e custom varied considerably in different manors. In some, 
 women were not recognised at all ; in others, if the custom does not extend 
 to prefer the youngest daughter, or youngest brother, or collateral heir, all 
 the daughters would be entitled to the inheritance.'^ \_Sussex Archceological 
 Collections.'] 
 
 Another peculiarity of the borough of Midhurst was the issue of town 
 tokens.* Rye and Midhurst were the only places in Sussex which issued town 
 pieces^ i.e.y one token struck for the use of the whole town. These town 
 pieces are thus described in W. Boyne's Tokens of the I'jth Century, p. 464: — 
 
 Obverse. — A Midhurst Farthing in Sussex. [In one circle] — For Use 
 of y^ Poor. [In an inner circle] — A Shuttle. 1670. Reverse. — Two Saints 
 near a palm-tree. 
 
 The Tradesmen's tokens of Midhurst were four in number.f 
 
 Obverse. — Thomas : Aylwin : in : T. R. A. Reverse, — Midhurst : in : 
 Sussex. 1667. 
 
 Obverse. — Henery : Cortney : in : Reverse.- — Midhorst in Sosex. H. C. 
 Device. — A double-headed eagle displayed in centre of token. 
 
 * Tokens were small coins struck by private tradesmen, and in a few cases by towns, of the 
 value of farthings and halfpennies, and sometimes of pennies. The necessity for small change 
 throughout the country caused this innovation. It was begun by private tradesmen, but afterwards 
 their example was followed by cities, towns, and villages. But the custom only lasted from the 
 year 1648 till the end of the year 1672. In Somersetshire thirteen towns issued town pieces ; in 
 Dorsetshire, eight ; in Devonshire, five ; in Kent, one ; in Sussex, two. But not one town piece was 
 issued in the whole of Yorkshire. 
 
 t The second initial is probably that of the wife of the tradesman, inserted as in the marking 
 of household linen of the present time. 
 
148 
 
 THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY, 
 
 Obverse. — John Pepson 1669. Reverse. — In Midhcrst in Susex. I.E. P. 
 Device. — A stick of candles. 
 
 Obverse. — lohn Shotter. Reverse. — in Medhurst. I. S. Device. — The 
 Grocers' Arms.* 
 
 A street in Midhurst is still called the Mint. 
 
 The selection of the weaver's shuttle as the device on the town pieces of 
 Midhurst may have been made in consequence of the manufacture of coarse 
 quiltSj which was of some importance at Midhurst during the seventeenth 
 century. The Grammar school of Midhurst (at which Richard Cobden, Sir 
 Charles Lyell, and Charles St. John the naturalist were educated) was 
 founded in 1672 by Gilbert Hannam_, quilt-maker. He established the 
 school during his lifetime for twelve boys^ to be instructed in Lattin and 
 Greekj and in writing and arithmatick, if they be capable to learne." Owing 
 to the inadequacy of the endowment of twenty pounds a year, the Grammar 
 School at one time fell into decay, but it is now restored to its original 
 and flourishing condition. The manufacture of quilts, however^ has long 
 ceased in Midhurst. 
 
 Midhurst church has recently been restored. The original building is 
 thought by Mr. Durrant Cooperf to have been rebuilt at the end of the reign 
 of Henry the Fifth, or very early in the reign of Henry the Sixth. But the 
 lower part of the tower was then left untouched, and was late Norman or 
 very early English. The church no doubt existed in the time of Henry the 
 Sixth, for in 1438 there was a dispute between Sir John de Bohun and the 
 Prioress of Easebourne on the one side, and the burgesses of Midhurst on the 
 other, as to their respective rights. The quarrel was referred to John Rick- 
 inghale. Bishop of Chichester, who decided it in favour of the burgesses. 
 They were to enjoy the right of burial at Easebourne, in consideration of 
 their repairing the nave and cloister of the church there, and of keeping in 
 order seventy-two feet of the churchyard wall. On the other hand, the 
 Prioress of Easebourne was no longer to pay for the bell-ropes and belfry- 
 wheels required for Midhurst church. 
 
 Michael Bageley of Midhurst, in the year 142^2, founded a chantry in 
 Midhurst church, and gave the endowment for a priest, afterwards called 
 
 * The Grocers' Arms were three cloves, or three sugar-loaves, or a chevron in the midst of nine 
 cloves arranged in threes. 
 
 f Sussex ArchcBological Collections, vol. xx. p. 24. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY. 
 
 149 
 
 the Morrow priest^* to sing matins there. Michael had succeeded his 
 brother Thomas Bageley^ who "being a valiant disciple and adherent of 
 Wickcliffe/^ was martyred, being brent in the place of Smythfield/' The 
 Chantry lands also maintained a lamp, which was always kept burning in 
 Midhurst church. 
 
 The high-mass priest at Midhurst was, until the Reformation^ provided 
 by the Prioress at Easebourne, and he and the Morrow-priest served the 
 church. 
 
 One Brov/ne monument still remains on the east wall of Midhurst 
 church, close to the spot on which stood Lord Montague's great tomb. 
 This represents two figures, a man and a woman, kneeling on either side of 
 an altar. On each side is a Corinthian pillar painted blue, and the monu- 
 ment bears a coat of arms. It was erected in memory of Joan, the wife of 
 Francis Browne. The inscription runs as follows : — 
 
 Dyed 1 1 of March ano : domini 1554. 
 
 Lo, here a Dame interred lies, a Courtney by descent, 
 
 A courteous, chaste and humble Wife whilst God here Life her lent. 
 
 To Francis Browne in Lyfe she was a worthy godly Mate, 
 
 Whose Patience, Myldness, Constancy, renowned her Estate. 
 
 Unto the Poor (each where) that lackt there wants she did supply 
 
 And wrought all Deeds of Charity with Zeal aboundantlye. 
 
 The World she did more loathe than love and most set her delight 
 
 In doing good and serving him devoutly Day and Night. 
 
 When Sickness did oppress her sore with Torments hard to byde 
 
 Christ's Death she thought on evermore, to him she only cried. 
 
 She lived to dye, she dyed to live j she longed there to be 
 
 Where are such Joys no Tongue can tell nor Mortal Eyes can see. 
 
 Thus living well and leaving Toil and dying virtuously 
 
 Let All that Virtuous Woman love in Heart say secretly 
 
 Farewell O Joan, set free by Death from worldly woes and Sinne 
 
 Our Lord grant that thy Soul in Heaven may endless Rest there Win. 
 
 In 131 1, during the reign of Edward the Second, Midhurst for the first 
 time returned members to Parliament. Two members were returned from 
 
 * Probably from Morwe, morning, morrow, [ffallhvell.^ 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COIVDRAY, 
 
 that period until i832_, from which time Midhurst has returned only one 
 member. 
 
 The two first members for Midhurst were Henry Boteler (or Butler) and 
 Henry le Puflfere. They were elected by the free burgesses, that is, the 
 owners of messuages or tenements in the borough from which free rents were 
 derived, as distinguished from the villeins, cottars, and customary tenants of 
 the Lords of Cowdray. Of these free burgesses the number in 131 1 was 
 thirty-six, but two of them, the Bishop of Durham and a widow lady named 
 Joan de Bohun, were disqualified. Henry Boteler was not rich, for in the 
 tax which was levied in 1341 on the ninth part of a burgess's goods he paid 
 only for one horse worth 6s. 8d., two oxen worth 8s., and two pigs worth 
 3s. 4d. 
 
 William Yalden of Blackdown, the friend of Oliver Cromwell, was 
 member for Midhurst during the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell. 
 
 The most distinguished man who has represented Midhurst was Charles 
 James Fox, who was returned for the borough on the loth of May 1768, 
 when he was only nineteen years of age.* During the year and eight 
 months which elapsed before Fox attained his majority bespoke frequently 
 and with great ability in the House of Commons, particularly distinguishing 
 himself in two encounters with Burke. The first of these occasions was soon 
 after his election, when he spoke against the return of Colonel Luttrell for 
 Middlesex in the great Wilkes controversy. Horace Walpole remarks that 
 Fox then answered Burke with great ability but with confidence equally 
 premature/^ The second encounter between Burke and Fox took place on 
 the 9th of January 1770. Fox spoke at the end of the debate on the 
 Address, and his pungent comments on some passages in Burke's speech set 
 the Treasury Bench in a roar of laughter. On one of these occasions. Burke, 
 much nettled, turned on Fox and exclaimed, You may speak if you like, 
 but being a minor, you have no right to vote.'' -|- 
 
 Lower, in the History of Sussex, vol. ii. p. 5ij, remarks that in Midhurst 
 "there were formerly about iQ^o burgage tenements, which entitled their 
 respective owners to vote. One of the Lords Montague pulled some of them 
 down that he might enlarge Cowdray Park, but had stones inscribed 
 
 * Fox was born on the 24th of January 1 749. 
 
 t The debates in the House of Commons were at that time reported too slightly for this retort 
 to appear. I am indebted for the anecdote to the Right Hon. Spencer Walpole, to whom it was 
 told by his father. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY. 
 
 A Burgage put into the wall to indicate their sites, whereupon a noble Duke 
 remarked that ' So low had the elective franchise fallen, that at Midhurst 
 the very stones appeared as voters for members of Parliament/ 
 
 The Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem built a Commandery 
 at Midhurst_, and had jurisdiction over a large district, still called the Liberty 
 of St. John. The persons resident in this district were independent both of 
 the manor of Cowdray and of the borough of Midhurst. The Liberty com- 
 prised a district reaching to Easebourne^ to Milland Marsh (in the parish of 
 Iping, five miles north-west of Midhurst), to Moses Hill (in the parish of 
 Farnhurst, six miles to the north), and to Hoyle Farm (in the parish of 
 Heyshott, three miles south-east of Midhurst). The exemptions of the 
 inhabitants of the Liberty of St. John are very similar to those of the Liberty 
 of Lodsworth. The Liberty of St. John was in 1543^ after the suppression 
 of the Order of the Knights of St. John in England, granted to the Earl 
 of Southampton. 
 
 The beautiful Commandery House (a drawing of which still exists in the 
 Burrell Collections in the British Museum) was pulled down in the present 
 century, and a mansion, described by Horsfield \_History and Antiquities of 
 the County of Sussex, vol. ii. p. 94] as a modern and commodious dwell- 
 ing,^^ was erected in its stead. 
 
 Midhurst used to be governed by a Queen's bailiff and a Lord's bailiff. 
 The former still acts as returning officer at the Parliamentary elections, and 
 presides at the Courts Leet. The duty of the Lord^s bailiff is now obsolete. 
 Before the establishment of County Courts the Lord of the borough had a 
 court for the recovery of small debts. It was held once in every three 
 weeks, and the Lord's bailiff, in connection with this court, distrained for 
 moneys recovered. 
 
 Lodsworth, a small village east of Midhurst, enjoyed a Liberty of its own 
 which was co-extensive with the parish. This Liberty was under the 
 jurisdiction of the Bishops of London. The exemptions of the residents 
 within this Liberty were — ^' i. Exemption from all suit and service to any 
 Hundred Court. 2. No tolls to be paid to the King at any market or fair 
 throughout England and Wales. 3. No money to be paid to the sheriff's 
 turn nor to be subject to his jurisdiction^ but the bailiff of the Bishop of 
 London to return all writs. 4. A three-weeks' court to be held to recover 
 
 * Dallaway's History of Sussex, vol. i. p, 277. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAV, 
 
 debts by a jury of free suitors, with imprisonment for debt in the gaol belong- 
 ing to the Liberty. 5. No inquisition post-mortem to be held for lands." 
 
 This Liberty was granted to Sir Anthony Browne with the manor of 
 Lodsworth by Henry the Eighth. 
 
 The '^gaol belonging to the Liberty was underneath the manor-house 
 called River House. The dungeon was entered from the outside, and was 
 immediately below the great chamber in which the courts of the bishops of 
 London were held. It is said that the rings in the wall of this dungeon, to 
 which the unfortunate debtors were chained, were still existing when the 
 place was demolished. The Bishops of London exercised the right of ^' pit 
 and gallows within their Liberty. Galley Hill, on the South Heath near 
 Lodsworth, marks the site of their gallows. The River House has been much 
 modernised ; the fine chimney-piece (which no doubt in old days reached to 
 the ceiling) can still be seen, but the house has been subdivided, and it is 
 difficult to trace the outlines of the ancient rooms. The fine old fire-back, 
 with Lord Montague's arms, is irreparably cracked. 
 
 North Heath, situated due north of Midhurst, and on the main road to 
 Farnhurst, had once its gallows. On this spot the mail was robbed in the 
 early spring of 1799. Two brothers named Drewitt were found guilty of 
 the robbery. They were tried at the Spring Assizes, and executed at 
 Horsham on the 13th of April 1799. The younger brother asserted his 
 innocence throughout, and maintained with his last breath that he had had 
 no hand in the robbery. But both brothers were hanged at Horsham, and 
 according to the barbarous practice (instituted by George the Second in 
 1752*) their bodies were brought to the North Heath, and hung in chains 
 there. These chains or irons still exist. An iron collar and waistband 
 were placed round the body of the criminal, iron bands extended on each 
 side of his legs ; these bands were connected at the knees, and meeting 
 under his feet, were fixed to the waistband. It hardly admits of a doubt 
 that the younger Drewitt was not guilty, but that he died to save the guilty 
 person, his own father. After the execution the miserable father spent the 
 remainder of his days in sitting at the foot of the gibbet on which swung the 
 bodies of his two sons. 
 
 There is a curious tradition in Sussex to the effect that *^the stroke of a 
 
 * The practice of hanging in chains was abandoned in 1833-34. [See History of Criminal Law 
 in England, by Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, vol. i. p. 477.] 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY. 
 
 153 
 
 dead man's hand will cure any affection of the throat. Persons will walk 
 long distances to have the benefit of this cure. Whilst the body of the 
 younger Drewitt, who^ as the tradition goes, " hung a many months, he not 
 being guilty, and having on the new pair of deerskin breeches in which he 
 was taken,^' remained on the gallows^ children were held up and the dead 
 man^s hand was swung by their friends across their throats in order to cure 
 their complaints. The gibbet remained on the North Heath for many years. 
 At last it was cut down. The gibbet itself was made into a prop to support 
 the roof of a neighbouring cottage, and the irons were sold. The gibbet is 
 not now in existence. The man who placed it in his house as a support 
 married a relative of the Drewitt brothers ; she could not bear to look at 
 it, and it was burnt. 
 
 Verdley Castle, in the midst of Verdley Wood, south of Midhurst and 
 close to the North Heath, was once a building of some importance. It was, 
 according to Grose's Supplement to the Antiquities of England and Wales, 
 vol. ii., *^a quadrangular building, nearly twice as long as broad, measuring on 
 the outside thirty-three feet four inches by sixty-eight feet. The parts stand- 
 ing (in 1784) are the westernmost end, with small returns on the north and 
 south sides ; the first containing eight feet two inches, and the second eleven 
 feet six ; the thickness of the walls about five feet four inches. Near the 
 door are some slight traces of a narrow winding staircase." 
 
 For what purpose Verdley Castle was built must be left to conjecture. 
 The wet ditch around it seems to indicate a moat. It may have been a 
 hunting-tower of the Lords de Bohun, or a place in which the Prioress of 
 Easebourne kept her tithes of wheat and other produce. In the first year of 
 the reign of Edward the Sixth, Verdley was held by Sir Anthony Browne by 
 military service. 
 
 Verdley Castle was built in a spot which was well concealed from the 
 eye of passers-by. A few ancient yew-trees only marked the hollow in which 
 it lay.* 
 
 The castle was (according to Horsfield's History of Sussex, vol. ii. p. 
 104) "destroyed . . . some years ago for the purpose of applying the 
 materials to the repair of the roads." This process has lately (j 883) been 
 continued ; the foundations of the castle have been dug up, and the ancient 
 
 * Grimm, who took the sketch of Verdley Castle on the 31st of May 1782, says that the place 
 was "only known to such as hunt the martin cat." 
 
 U 
 
/ 
 
 T54 THE DOMAIN OF COIVDRAY. 
 
 stones broken for repairs of roads. In the course of this recent demolition 
 an ancient key was dug up^ also a knife with ivory handle and silver blade. 
 
 Verdley Castle was built in the midst of a very extensive oak wood, 
 which extends from Bexley Hill on the east to Holder Hill on the west, a 
 distance of about two miles. Midway between these two hills lies the 
 little village of Henley, through which ran the old coach-road to Chichester. 
 This narrow and steep road is paved with large slabs of stone; and extra 
 horses were kept at the King's Arras Inn at the bottom of the hill to help 
 the heavy coaches and road-waggons up the ascent. In 18:^5 the new road 
 was constructed. On Holder Hill still stands the semaphore, which, with 
 its companions on Portsmouth Hill, Black-down, and other heights, trans- 
 mitted the news of the battles of the Peninsular War to London. Below 
 Holder Hill, in the midst of the oak wood, is the spot still known as 
 Cavalry's Quarters. A troop of Royalist horse was concealed in these woods 
 during the occupation of Cowdray by the Parliamentary forces. These 
 horsemen contrived to capture the outposts of the Roundheads. Tradition 
 says that their commander was a lady ; but, although the story is well known, 
 her name has been forgotten. 
 
 Verdley Castle and its neighbouring woods supplied many a hiding-place 
 for the kegs of spirits and bales of silk conveyed by smugglers from the sea- 
 coast. Persons now alive recollect seeing the long files of loaded horses 
 crossing the hills on their way from the sea-coast. 
 
 Farnhurst, a little village, once in the midst of oak and beech woods, 
 was originally looked upon as a pannage of hogs."* Later its iron- 
 works brought the parish into notice; and here were the last ironworks 
 of West Sussex. The very large iron-foundry at Farnhurst remained for 
 several generations in the family of Butler, and it was employed by Govern- 
 ment for casting cannon in 1770. The foundry was situated close to a 
 large wood which is still called the Mine Pits, and this wood is full of holes 
 out of which the iron was dug. Many other woods in the neighbourhood 
 bear similar traces. One of the Butler family brought skilled workmen 
 from the North of England to be employed in the foundry at Farnhurst ; 
 and the descendants of these persons are now known in the neighbourhood 
 by the surname of Far-miner. The ancient church of Farnhurst^ dedicated 
 to St. Margaret, and mother-church of Linchmere, has been thrice restored. 
 
 * Pannage, the acorns and beechmast on which pigs feed in woods. 
 
THE DOM J IN OF COWDRJY. 
 
 155 
 
 The massive oak beams and the old font of Sussex marble still remain, also 
 a few traces of painting in fresco on the north wall of the chancel. In 
 1520 Thomas Trybe of Farn hurst left to St. Margaret's light of Farn- 
 hurst a shepe ; and in 1535 William Byggenolde* left to St. Margaret's 
 light of Farnhurst two shepe; to Saynt Sounday's light, a shepe; -(-to St. 
 Anthony^s lights a shepe.^^ [Sussex Archceological Collections, vol. xii. p. 
 
 Shulbred Abbey, or Shelbred Priory, near Farnhurst, was founded by Sir 
 Ralph de Arderne, during the reign of King John, as a Priory of five Black 
 (secular) Canons of the Order of St. Augustine. Sir Ralph richly endowed 
 the Priory, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. The heirs of Sir Ralph in 
 1240 sold the patronage of the Priory, with the third part of a knight's fee, 
 to William de Percy, lord of Petworth. The Percy family were generous to 
 the Black Canons of Shulbred, giving them a mill to grind their corn, and 
 endowing them with the patronage of several Sussex livings. The Priory was, 
 however, suppressed in 1535. The last Prior, who surrendered the property 
 to the King's Commissioners, was George Waldene. In 1543 Shulbred 
 and its lands were granted to Sir William Fitzwilliam, Earl of South- 
 ampton, and descended with his other property to his half-brother, Sir 
 Anthony Browne. 
 
 S oon after the suppression of the Black Canons of Shulbred, the Priory 
 was converted into a farm-house. The monks' room, thirty-four feet five 
 inches long and twenty feet four inches in width, has a groined roof supported 
 by octagonal pillars, from which the arches spring. This room is now a 
 dairy, and the roof is only nine feet from the present floor. The original 
 floor, formed of large square stones three inches thick, is about two feet 
 below the present level. This portion of the building was probably a crypt. 
 It was lighted by three small parallelogram windows " on its southern 
 side. Grose [Supplement to the Jntiquities of England and Wales, vol. ii.) 
 seems to have thought that the Priory was once very large, and modern 
 research has proved the correctness of this view. Grose adds that there 
 was once a large porch on the southern side of the Priory, lately taken 
 down " at the time of his visit. The best description of Shulbred Priory 
 is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1799, part ii. p. 641. ^'The 
 entrance is through a large doorway, which opens into a passage leading 
 
 * This name is still common in Farnhurst. 
 
 t Saint Sunday is Easter Day. 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COWDRAY, 
 
 to the common hall. On each side of the passage are several gloomy cells, 
 the ceiling arched, with intersecting angles of ancient workmanship. Hence 
 a flight of several massive stone steps, worn through age, leads the inquirer 
 through a dark vaulted passage to the rooms above.^^ The largest of these 
 rooms is the Prior's chamber, with a small lancet window high up on its 
 eastern wall, and a massive oak beam reaching across the whole width of 
 the room. There is another window on the southern side. On the other 
 walls are rude paintings in fresco, most of which are still in fair preservation. 
 The paintings are with one exception executed on a plaster partition which 
 divides the room. These paintings are of the date of James the First. 
 The centre one represents the Royal Arms, and underneath is James's well- 
 known motto, Beati pacificL Some of the paintings represent hunting 
 scenes. On one are seen two cocks fighting with broad-sword and shield ; 
 .a view of the Priory is in the background. A third picture represents three 
 ladies in dresses of the date of the sixteenth century. But the most curious 
 paintings are those which represent the announcement by various birds and 
 animals of the birth of Christ. The words they are supposed to speak 
 are written on labels attached to their tongues, and have evidently been 
 intended to resemble the sounds uttered by each. Above is the sentence 
 Ecce, virgo concipiet, et pariet filium, et vocabitur nomen Jesus." 
 
 The Cock says, Christus natus est.'' 
 
 The Duck : Quando, quando." 
 
 The Magpie or Raven : In hac nocte." 
 
 The Bull : Ubi, ubi.'' 
 
 The Lamb : " In Bethlem." 
 
 Underneath are the words " Gloria sit tibi, Domine, qui natus est de 
 Virgine, cum Patre, et Sancto Spiritu, in sempiterna saecula.'' 
 " Om'is spi' laudet Dom'". Amen.'' 
 
 The Prior's chamber is thirty-five feet four inches in length and twenty- 
 two feet in width. The floor is covered with tiles, some of which are richly 
 ornamented. 
 
 Shulbred Priory is no longer used as a farm-house. The present tenant 
 carefully preserves the ancient building and its surroundings. 
 
 The old bridge between Shulbred Priory and Farnhurst was probably 
 built by the Canons; but the Priory was difficult of access, as it was buried 
 in a wood through which there was no road. Even in 1835 Horsfield says 
 that it was " not to be approached even in summer but with diflSculty." 
 
THE DOMAIN OF COJVDRAY. 
 
 157 
 
 William Yalden^ who represented Midhurst in 1659, is said to have 
 entertained Cromwell at his house on Blackdown Hill^ near Farnhurst. 
 The Ealdwins and the Entingenappes (now Yaldwin and Enticknap) are 
 among the most ancient of the families in West Sussex. The Entingenappes 
 have now sunk to the level of the poorest cottagers^ but they are said to 
 possess a deed dated before the Conquest respecting an estate at Chidding- 
 fold, near Blackdown. A William Yalden was living in 1330^ and the 
 family still possess deeds of the time of Edward the Third. Another 
 William Yalden lived at Blackdown in 1 590 ; but the present house bears 
 the date 1640^ and the initials W. Y. It was doubtless built by the Yalden 
 who was the friend of Cromwell. Blackdown was sold in 1844, and the 
 bed in which Cromwell was reported to have slept was^ with other relics of 
 his time, destroyed. 
 
1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE STORY OF A CURSK 
 
 T was when I was young — now a long time ago — that I heard the story 
 I am about to relates — one of the most potent and forcible illustrations 
 of the theory of Sir Henry Spelman in his History of Sacrilege^ that 
 the curse attending the spoliation of religious houses follows the 
 successive races which have profited by it with a relentless and 
 unerring retribution. 
 
 Do any of my readers know the little rural town of Midhurst in West Sussex ? 
 It was in my time far from the line of railways, and only once a day was its solitude 
 and silence broken by the arrival of the London and Chichester coach, which 
 changed horses at the Angel Inn. During the Goodwood week, however, it assumed 
 an unwonted appearance of bustle and movement, for all the road was crowded by 
 post-chaises, drags, breaks, and extra stage-coaches, conveying passengers to the 
 great meeting across the Downs, whose green swelling sides rose a couple of miles 
 south of the town. 
 
 On this occasion the North Street was filled with lookers-on ; it was a privilege 
 to possess or be invited to a window overlooking the stream of carriages. The 
 Grammar School boys got a half-holiday, and cheered the more aristocratic equipages 
 as they passed, and especially the great stage-coach, which on Monday evening 
 took down the supernumeraries of the Goodwood household — an army of cooks and 
 
i6o 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 waiters, besides three large live turtles slung behind the dickey. Lord Chesterfield, 
 Admiral Rous, the Duke of Beaufort, and Lord Milltown all passed yearly through 
 the town in their own carriages, some with four horses, — and to witness the stream 
 of life and brilliant company on its way to Goodwood Downs was the annual 
 Saturnalia of the dull little borough. 
 
 After the last carriage had returned townwards on Saturday, Midhurst resumed 
 its quiet ways, only varied at long intervals by the election, or it would be fairer 
 to say the nomination, of its member by the neighbouring House of Cowdray, its 
 local dynasty. 
 
 Well, in those early days, I was a school-girl of sixteen, who had scarcely ever 
 seen a town, and to whom the carriages passing through to Goodwood had all the 
 attraction of a Roman Carnival. As it was not considered proper by the local 
 authorities on etiquette to witness this magnificent pageant save from a window, I 
 was sent with my governess to the house of an old lady who possessed a curious 
 little tenement crowned by a large bow- windowed room overlooking the street,"^ 
 and there I was installed behind the muslin curtains, with a table spread with tea 
 and strawberries and seedcake, such as I have never tasted since, to fill up the 
 breaks of time and amusement caused by the occasional want of continuity in the 
 stream of carriages. 
 
 It was thus I first made the acquaintance of Mrs. Barlow, then in her eighty- 
 fourth year, and on taking leave of her and offering my thanks for her kindness, 
 she said, "I hope you will come back some time, my dear, and see my curiosities. 
 They are much better worth looking at than the carriages, and Anna and I are 
 always. glad to see you." 
 
 Anna, her niece and companion, was a quiet, kind, commonplace old maid, 
 with nothing remarkable about her but her talent for making seedcake, and for 
 cultivating the finest carnations in the neighbourhood. Her aunt, on the contrary, 
 was one of the most intelligent women I have ever met, though nearly self-edu- 
 cated ; and though born in an inferior position — she had been the daughter of the 
 last house-steward of Cowdray — she was visited and universally respected by the 
 neighbouring county families for her sterling worth, her exhaustless fund of old- 
 world Sussex traditions and anecdotes, and her instinctive appreciation of all that 
 was singular and beautiful in curiosities and works of art. Never having been 
 further than Chichester from her native town, it was astonishing how she had col- 
 lected a museum of bric-k-brac, which would have sent a modern hunter of china 
 and old carvings wild with envy. 
 
 * This interesting old house' was pulled down in 1880 to make room for a new Town-Hall. 
 [J. R.] 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 How well I remember them all ! The old Japan cabinets, fragrant with otto of 
 roses and musk, and holding countless precious odds and ends wrapped in silver 
 paper ; the Venice-glass bottles formed like harps and ships and spiral cylinders ; 
 the quaint mourning-rings of a dozen half-forgotten friends or extinct families ; the 
 enamelled patch-boxes that Belinda might have envied for her toilette table ; the 
 snuff-boxes that Chesterfield and Walpole might have exchanged ; the paste buckles 
 and buttons that would have graced the court-suit of Sir Charles Grandison ; lockets 
 with initials and faded locks of hair, saddest of all memorials, whose very identity 
 only lived in the memory of one ancient lady ; letters tied up with ribbon whose 
 colour had died out with the vitality of the writer. These, and hundreds of trinkets, 
 painted fans, and pieces of old lace, filled those wonderful and apparently inex- 
 haustible drawers. 
 
 There were shelves and cupboards, too, filled with priceless china, parrots and 
 monsters in Bow and Chelsea, services of Crown, Derby, and Wedgwood, drinking- 
 cups in pink and blue, and pale Chinese egg-shell sets, fragile and delicate as 
 flowers. 
 
 Then came the ugly and tasteless rarities of the late Georgian period ; the work- 
 boxes and jewellery with portraits of Queen Charlotte and her court ; the memorials 
 of British victories, Waterloo and Peninsular souvenirs, medals of Sir John Moore, 
 and of Nelson and of Wellington ; bits of wood taken from the deck of the Victory, 
 or from the famous tree of Quatre Bras ; straw and ivory toys made by the French 
 prisoners in England; bone models of the guillotine; portrait-rings of Marie 
 Antoinette, silhouettes of Napoleon, and willow leaves from St. Helena. 
 
 Like the conjuror's bottle, the quaint old lacquer drawers appeared to be inex- 
 haustible, — at least to a girl's imagination ; — and half the summer passed and a 
 bi-weekly visit left fresh treasures still untouched and unexplored.* 
 
 There were, however, two objects which I never tired of looking at again and 
 again. One was a beautiful ivory triptych, evidently of Spanish or Italian work- 
 manship, representing the Holy Trinity, the Apostles, and the three states of the 
 soul after death — paradise, purgatory, and hell ; the other was a very striking por- 
 trait in oil of a lady in a nun's dress, telling her beads. Both of these had come 
 from the old Hall of Cowdray, where my venerable friend's youth had been passed. 
 In the ruins of Cowdray I spent many an hour, dreaming over the fate that had 
 pursued the owners, and gazing on that beautiful Tudor quadrangle, rich in 
 mullioned windows, broken escutcheons, and crumbling battlements, which was, 
 and is, even in its decay, the glory of the neighbourhood. The picture was 
 
 * Mrs. Barlow died in 1852 at the age of ninety-four. After her death her possessions were 
 sold for a trifling sum, and were all dispersed. [J. R.] 
 
 X 
 
l62 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 that of Elizabeth Browne, a Benedictine nun of Pontoise, a noble convent much 
 affected by the daughters of the great English Catholic houses, whom the penal 
 laws forbade to follow a religious vocation at home. It appeared to have been 
 painted about the end of the seventeenth century, and by a master-hand. The 
 clear-cut noble features, the dark thoughtful eyes, the blue-veined hand, and the 
 brown olive-wood rosary that lay in those slender fingers, were all rendered with 
 the living touch of the best French or Flemish school, instinct with transparent 
 though sombre colouring, and the mellow light that so well befitted the subject. 
 
 It was this portrait that one day introduced the subject of the old Lords of 
 Cowdray, and the terrible fate that pursued their race like the avenging furies of a 
 Greek tragedy. There is scarcely a more striking instance of the doom of sacrilege 
 than in the story of the confiscator of Easebourne Priory as it lives in the memory 
 and traditions of the neighbourhood, and as I then learned it from one who had 
 in her childhood witnessed its literal accomplishment. As she told it to me I 
 relate it now. The Protestant local guide-books have omitted all mention of its 
 most salient incidents, and the later members of the family were extremely jealous 
 of their becoming known. 
 
 Cowdray has twice changed hands since then, and all reason for silence is over. 
 The last Browne of the old stock has long slept in the vaults of Easebourne Priory, 
 and none live who can be pained by the revival of the oral tradition of Midhurst 
 on the subject. 
 
 I repeat it from the narrative I heard from the lips of one whose position in the 
 household of Cowdray gave her the most intimate knowledge of the family legend. 
 It will carry greater weight from the fact of her being a strong Protestant, and an 
 unwilling witness to the accompHshment of the curse known to have been pro- 
 nounced on the confiscators or inheritors of Easebourne Priory. 
 
 EASEBOURNE PRIORY. 
 
 The little house of Benedictine Canonesses which bore the name of Easebourne 
 Priory still exists, an ancient and picturesque mass of mulUons and gables, at 
 the upper end of Cowdray Park, adjoining the beautiful old parish church of 
 Easebourne. 
 
 The convent garden still remains, divided by grey stone walls and arches : 
 the convent parlour, part of the cloisters, and the refectory were turned into 
 domestic offices, and the once stately Gothic chapter-house is now a barn and 
 
 1 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 163 
 
 wood-house. The habitable part of the house has been for many years the dwelling 
 of the agent for the Cowdray estates, and is still so occupied. Opposite to it on 
 the other side of the road is the magnificent avenue of Spanish chestnuts, un- 
 rivalled in English " Sylva," and which stretches for more than a mile along the 
 western boundary of the beautiful park. Behind the Priory is the parish church, 
 which contains the memorials of some of the former Lords of Midhurst, and the 
 mausoleum of the Viscounts Montague. The beautiful marble statue of the last of 
 the line, — Mary, the wife of William Poyntz, — is one of the noblest works Chantrey 
 ever executed : the lovely, sad, uplifted face, the mournful attitude, the eyes raised 
 to heaven for strength and consolation, well befit the effigy of one in whose terrible 
 bereavement the family curse received its crowning fulfilment, and whose piety and 
 charity are still a living memory in Midhurst. 
 
 The Priory of Easebourne was founded by John de Bohun for a Prioress and 
 five nuns. It seems to have been a quiet though rather a relaxed community ; for 
 we find a complaint was made of the Prioress for negligence, fondness of dress, and 
 for unnecessary journeys to the Episcopal Court of Chichester before the Reforma- 
 tion. An ordinance of the Bishop applied a severe reform to the laxity of the 
 house, and the rule was observed (not without some grumbling on the part of the 
 inmates) till the final suppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth. 
 
 It is here that local tradition steps in and relates what took place. The Prioress 
 had virtually resigned the government of the house and had been succeeded by 
 her Sub-Prioress, Dame Alicia Hill, an austere and holy religious, whose efforts to 
 restore monastic discipline had been crowned with partial success, although they 
 had rendered her unpopular with the unzealous part of the community. 
 
 When the King's Commissioners called on the Prioress to resign the keys 
 of the house, the valiant Sub-Prioress was called on to countersign the act of 
 surrender. 
 
 " Heed ye well, my masters," she said, " what ye do. The pious founders of 
 this house left a heavy and terrible malison on all who should molest and harry us, 
 poor and unworthy servants though we be of Christ and St. Benedict, and on all 
 who in after time should aid or profit by a deed of sacrilege. As the traditions of 
 our house and of the faithful people of Easebourne attest, a curse of fire and water 
 on the male children and heirs of the spoilers is invoked by those who gave lands 
 and protection to the spouses of Christ dwelling in Easebourne Priory, for the rest 
 of their souls, and in perpetual remembrance of their charity. That curse ye are 
 about to incur. He who takes these lands it shall come upon him, and his name 
 shall die out. It shall follow as the heritage of the race that comes after him, and 
 it shall continue even until the end." 
 
 The community dispersed, and the fair cloisters and lands of Easebourne 
 
t54 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Priory were given by the sacrilegious Tudor to the Earl of Southampton, with the 
 lands of Shulbred Abbey, four miles distant in the parish of Lynchmere. Shulbred 
 was an Augustine Canonry dedicated to Our Lady. The Earl, then Sir William 
 Fitzwilliam, enriched with the spoil of the religious houses, and being a man 
 of equal ambition and cultivated taste, applied his wealth to the erection of the 
 magnificent mansion of Cowdray, once the rival of Audley End and Hatfield in 
 architectural grandeur and beauty, and even now one of the noblest ruins in exist- 
 ence of the Tudor period. 
 
 On the death of Lord Southampton without heirs, the Cowdray property, includ- 
 ing the confiscated priory lands, passed to his half-brother, Sir Anthony Browne, 
 whose Catholic profession by no means prevented his being one of the most 
 favoured courtiers of Henry VIH. and Edward VI. 
 
 Sir Anthony Browne's son and namesake was employed by Mary Tudor for the 
 negotiations on the Spanish marriage and the renewal of relations with the Holy 
 See, and was by her created Viscount Montague. He remained a faithful Catholic 
 on the accession of Elizabeth, but an incurable courtier. Like other Catholic 
 possessors of Priory lands, he wrung an unwilling act of renunciation from the 
 Church. At any rate, he made no restitution during the brief return of England 
 to the faith, and let the golden occasion of reparation pass from him, if he ever 
 thought of it. In every country the " doom of sacrilege " has seemed to be the 
 peculiar task of Divine justice. Even in cases where the Church has been coerced 
 into a reluctant assent, the intentions of pious founders have been terribly vindi- 
 cated, and Sir Henry Spelman's impartial and learned work on the judgments of 
 Heaven on spoliation contains no more remarkable instance than that of the pos- 
 sessors of Cowdray and its sacrilegiously acquired dependencies. 
 
 But for a time in their case the curse slumbered. With all their shortcomings 
 and omissions, the Lords Montague were true in the main to the proscribed faith, 
 and used their favour with Elizabeth for the protection of its ministers. Their 
 known loyalty — one might say courtiership — ensured Cowdray complete immunity 
 from search or violation, and the visit of the Queen set the seal on their favour. 
 
 ELIZABETH AT COWDRAY. 
 
 . . . On Tuesday the Queen feasted at Easebourne Priory." In this brief 
 sentence we see how lightly the memories of his ancestor's spoliations sat on the 
 owner of Cowdray. We can picture the scene — the old convent parlour decked 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 in bravery borrowed from the great Hall — the improvised banquet, probably of a 
 rural character, junket and cream and fruit, venison and poultry, covering the 
 board where the Prioress and her nuns had kept austere fast or simple feast as the 
 seasons of the holy rule bade them, and whence the ample crumbs had gone to 
 feed the poor of Christ. Now the daughter of Henry VIII. revelled and ban- 
 queted in the despoiled and desecrated nunnery, amid her court of time-servers 
 and flatterers; her host the receiver of the lands and wealth which were God's 
 heritage, and which no law of man could give him. Did any there remember 
 the awful words of the curse coupled with that possession ? Or was there then a 
 pious intention in the mind of the holder of restoring them in better times, such as 
 all Catholics were then looking for through the accession of James of Scotland, or 
 of some Catholic Prince, when Elizabeth should have been gathered to her unwept 
 and childless grave ? 
 
 We know not, but we know that at that very time hiding-holes and trap-doors 
 were being cunningly fashioned, not only in Cowdray itself, but in the adjacent 
 keeper's lodge, to hide the seminarist priests and Jesuit fathers who came from 
 Rheims and Douay, and that perhaps at the very hour of the royal visit — certainly 
 very shortly after, and for years following — the Montagues were giving shelter to the 
 apostles of the faith, and keeping alight in their halls the lamp of the sanctuary. 
 And it is easy to understand that the hand of God was stayed and the curse 
 averted whilst the work of reparation went on. 
 
 Before the early dinner at the Priory the royal party adjourned to the beautiful 
 old pleasaunce called the Close Walks, where a circle of ancient yews still marks 
 the site of the Queen's visit. Narrow avenues of the same trees planted at right 
 angles give the wood almost the appearance of a Gothic cloister, and the centre is 
 occupied by a tangle of underwood, and carpeted in spring with wood-anemones and 
 the large blue periwinkle with its wreaths of dark glossy leaves. 
 
 No fairer sylvan scene graces even the South Saxon land, so rich in woodland 
 glories ; and none could be fitter for the pageants of pilgrims and wild men, 
 decked with scallop-shells or wreathed with ivy and armed with clubs, which the 
 taste of the day arranged before the court. The pilgrim met Elizabeth at the 
 entrance of the Close Walks, and made an allegorical description of peace, which 
 seems to have had reference to the lately concluded Irish wars. Carew's Pacata 
 Hibernia and Spenser's own letters tell us how that deadly peace was accom- 
 plished ; and the Countess of Kildare, who had lost the royal favour the day before 
 by proving too true a markswoman, could have told, from close personal know- 
 ledge, how the " Lady Peace " had been won in the valleys of Desmond by the 
 swords of Essex and Mountjoy. 
 
 At an old gnarled oak in the middle of the Close Walks, a wild man, girt with 
 
i66 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ivy, addressed Elizabeth in the fulsome strain of almost Oriental slavishness to 
 which the Tudor reigns had brought the once free but courteous speech of free 
 Englishmen. He praised the clemency of the Queen. Clemency ! while the soil 
 of Ulster was reeking with blood ; while the valleys of Craven and Richmondshire, 
 the hills of Durham, and the wolds of Holderness were yet strewed with the bleach- 
 ing bones of the brave Northern Catholics, who had sworn to restore the faith or 
 die in arms round the standard of the Nortons ! Clemency ! while the Tower 
 vaults echoed with the shrieks of tortured victims, and while the pavement of 
 Fotheringay was yet freshly red with the blood of Mary Stuart, — while the gibbet 
 of Tyburn claimed its daily procession of martyrs, priests, and faithful laymen ! 
 Truly the iron must have entered into the souls of those Sussex Catholic lords and 
 gentlemen, — the Brownes, the Gorings, the Carylls, the Glenhams, the Parkers, — 
 when they could tamely hear and favour such words in order to receive knighthood 
 at the sword of the murderess of their brethren ! 
 
 PENAL DAYS. 
 
 All hopes of court favour and patronage were soon dashed by the accession of 
 James the First, and the advent to power of Cecil and the bitterest enemies of the 
 Catholic faith. 
 
 The priesfs hole in the keeper's lodge was soon needed, and Blackwell the 
 archpriest is said to have died there. 
 
 During the tenure of Francis the third Viscount Montague, Cowdray seems to 
 have been a frequent refuge of the persecuted priests. The wife of the third 
 Viscount Montague was a daughter of the loyal house of Somerset (as zealous for 
 God as it was true to the cause of Charles the First), and she seems to have been a 
 devout and courageous woman. We find her daughters as nuns in the Low 
 Countries, her sons in the army of the King at Hopton Heath and other south- 
 country battlefields ; and though Cowdray, from its position on the low meadows 
 beside the Rother, escaped the fate of the fortified houses of Catholics and 
 Cavaliers, the family were included in the black list of fine and persecution as 
 " Papists and malignants." 
 
 The fourth Viscount Montague married Lady Mary Herbert, the daughter of 
 the Marquess of Powys : under her pious auspices the better traditions of the 
 house were fostered, the Church harboured, the poor fed and instructed, and the 
 faith kept alive. To her is attributed the renovation of the beautiful chapel in the 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 167 
 
 house at Cowdray, — a work evidently of that date. A statue of Our Lady still 
 exists on the left-hand wall, garlanded now with growing ivy ; — last witness to the 
 faith of the owners, and to the hopes of a Catholic restoration that preceded the 
 Revolution of 1688, and that encouraged the more powerful families at least to 
 give some care to the beauty of the house of God and to all that marked the dis- 
 tinctive faith of Catholics. 
 
 MURDER AND APOSTASY. 
 
 It is at this point that I am obliged to have recourse to the verbal narrative of 
 the aged lady whom I have mentioned for an event which still lives in Midhurst 
 local tradition, but which no written work seems to have preserved. The Montague 
 family had every interest in not recalling it, and the " troublous times " in which it 
 occurred gave facilities for suppression and partial oblivion which w^ould be sought 
 in vain now. 
 
 The fifth Viscount Montague was, according to tradition, a violent and wicked 
 man. That he preserved the outward form of his religion is certain, but his life 
 was a standing negation of its precepts. He seems to have given great cause of 
 scandal by persistent immorality, and to have been more than once refused absolu- 
 tion by his chaplain and confessor on this ground. The courageous priest had 
 required the removal of the cause of sin before granting the pardon of the Church, 
 and Lord Montague's pride revolted at such an act on the part of one whom he 
 evidently considered as a mere officer of his household. 
 
 There is some discrepancy in the accounts of the crime I am about to relate. 
 My aged informant always declared that the dispute arose in the confessional, and 
 that Lord Montague killed the priest of God as he sat in the seat of pardon and 
 judgment. The present local tradition is that the dispute on the absolution pre- 
 ceded another as to whether the chaplain should begin mass before the entry of 
 Lord Montague. He refused to keep the congregation waiting — in those days a 
 rapid celebration was almost a matter of necessity — and on the following Sunday 
 he commenced mass without waiting. Lord Montague entered when mass was 
 half over, and, furious at the slight which he conceived to be offered him, he drew 
 forth a pistol and shot the priest at the altar. 
 
 The probability is that both stories are partially true, and that ill-blood had 
 arisen gradually. To change a chaplain in those days of flight and proscription 
 was no easy matter, and the perpetual presence of an authorised reprover of vice 
 
i68 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 and ill-doing seems to have intensified Lord Montague's anger to ihe verge of 
 madness. 
 
 Whether he fled from the fear of legal pursuit, or owing to the more terrible 
 remorse of his own conscience is not clear, but he left Cowdray and was said to 
 have gone abroad, — no unlikely assertion in the days when the presence of the 
 exiled Court of St. Germains drew so many Catholic noblemen and gentlemen to 
 the Continent. 
 
 Mrs. Barlow, however, stated that this was a mere pretence. Lady Montague, 
 she said, kept up full state at Cowdray ; the unhappy Lord Montague, by a just 
 and striking retribution, living concealed for nearly fifteen years in the priest's 
 hiding-hole in the keeper's lodge. This lodge was afterwards the residence of the 
 descendants of the Montague family. The hiding-hole I frequently saw in my 
 youth; it was about six feet square and very high, reaching through two low 
 storeys, and opening with a sliding panel into a cupboard in one of the upper bed- 
 rooms, behind a fireplace. When it was first opened in renovating the house it is 
 said to have contained an iron chair, a table, a brass lamp, and a manuscript 
 book. 
 
 In this dungeon, lighted from an aperture above and nearly airless, many a 
 priest had sheltered from pursuivant and sheriff ; and here, and probably in the 
 adjoining rooms, the fifth Lord Montague expiated his crime, going out, it is said, 
 at night into the Close Walks, and especially into a beautiful avenue of sweeping 
 limes in Cowdray Park, to meet and converse with his devoted wife. These fre- 
 quent meetings, and Lady Montague's habit, probably intentional, of wearing a 
 long white dress and mantle, gave the spot the reputation of ghostly visitors, and 
 when I was a girl it still bore the name of the Lady's Walk. The room where 
 Lord Montague lived, and in which he died in 17 17, was also said to be haunted, 
 and was never given to visitors if it could be avoided. The Extinct Peei^age of 
 Collins gives his death as taking place at Epsom and his burial at Bath. It is a 
 proof that some mystery attended both, as had he died at Epsom he would have 
 been far nearer the family vault at Cowdray than Bath. 
 
 [The Lady's Walk is at the upper part of Cowdray Park, near the Lodsworth 
 gate and the Steward's Pond. It runs from west to east. The priest's hole in 
 the keeper's lodge at Cowdray communicated with the roof, and had also a secret 
 staircase leading up to it. There was only just room in it for one person to sit 
 down on a stone recess hollowed out in one of the walls : the opposite wall was so 
 shaped as to admit the knees of the seated occupant. This hiding-hole, now pulled 
 down, is fresh in the recollection of many living persons. 
 
 Most of the hiding-holes in English country-houses were contrived by the 
 Jesuit Brother Owen, nicknamed Little John. "A great servant of God in a 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 169 
 
 diminutive body. With incomparable skill he knew how to conduct priests to a 
 place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls, and bury 
 them in impenetrable recesses, which entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand 
 windings. But, what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised 
 the entrances to these, as to make them most unlike what they really were. More- 
 over, he kept these places so close a secret v»dth himself, that he would never dis- 
 close to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both 
 their architect and builder, working at them with inexhaustible industry and labour, 
 for generally the thickest walls had to be broken into and large stones excavated, 
 requiring stronger arms than were attached to a body so diminutive as to give him 
 the nickname of Little John. And by this his skill many priests were preserved 
 from the fury of the persecutors, nor is it easy to find any one who had not often 
 been indebted for his life to Owen's hiding-places. When he was about to design 
 one, he commenced the work by receiving the Most Holy Eucharist, sought to aid 
 its progress by continual prayer, and offered the completion of it to God alone, 
 accepting of no other reward for his toil than the merit of charity and the consola- 
 tion of labouring for the good of Cathohcs." Hinlip Castle, near Worcester, was 
 full of Little John's hiding-holes. It belonged to the Abington family, but has 
 been pulled down. The castle was frequently searched for the hidden priests.* 
 The searcher, Sir Henry Bromley, had "Argus' eyes, and many watchful and subtle 
 companions that would spy out the least advantage or cause of suspicion, and yet 
 they searched and sounded every corner in that great house till they were all weary, 
 and found no likelihood of discovering what they came for, though they continued 
 the daily search, and that with double diligence, all the whole week following." 
 Little John was there. He had hidden the two priests at Hinlip in a secure (though 
 a very small) hiding-hole,t in which he had stored provisions to supply their need. 
 He himself and his companion Ashley "had but one apple between them all those 
 six or seven days. Whereupon they thought it best to come out ; and yet, not so 
 much to save themselves from death by famine, as for that they perceived the 
 resolution of the searchers to be of staying in the house till they had either found 
 
 * Garnett and Oldcorne, supposed to have been concerned in the Gunpowder Plot. Owen and 
 Ashley were also charged with complicity in that Plot. 
 
 t Garnett thus describes the situation of himself and Oldcorne : — "After we had been in the 
 hoale seven dayes and seven nights and some odd hours, every man may well think we were well 
 wearyed ; and indeed so it was, for we generally satte save that some times we could half stretch 
 ourselves, the place not being high eno', and we had our legges so straitened that we could not 
 sitting find place for them, so that we both were in continuall paine of our legges, and both our 
 legges, especially mine, were much swollen. . . , We were very merry and content within, and 
 heard the searchers every day most curious over us, which made me indeed think the place would 
 be found. . , . When we came forth we appeared like two ghostes." 
 
 Y 
 
 -I 
 
170 APPENDIX, 
 
 or famished those whom they knew to be within." Little John and his friend gave 
 themselves up, vainly hoping to save the hidden priests from discovery. But Little 
 John's appearance showed the searchers that the supposed hiding-holes existed. 
 " At the top of the mansion was a gallery running round the whole interior, and 
 whose walls were covered with beautifully carved wainscoting. Behind these were 
 the celebrated hiding-places, having their secret entrances so cleverly made as to 
 appear a part only of the rest of the wall." Little John voluntarily came out of his 
 hiding-hole, well knowing the fate that awaited him. He hoped, but in vain, 
 to save his friends. He was, with his companion Ashley, immediately arrested. 
 Cecil wrote on the occasion : — " It is incredible how great was the joy caused by 
 this arrest throughout the kingdom, knowing the great skill of Owen in constructing 
 hiding-places, and the innumerable quantity of these dark holes which he had 
 schemed for hiding priests all through England." Cecil hoped by ''coaxing, if he 
 is willing thus to contract for his life," to get from Little John " an excellent booty 
 of priests." If he would not confess, the secret was to be wrung from him. The 
 story of Little John's end is one of the most horrible of all the dreadful tales of 
 the Tower. It is enough to give the words of the Keeper of the Tower regarding 
 his death. " The man is dead ; he died in our hands" a.d. 1606. — Records of the 
 English Province of the Society of Jesus ^ vol. iv, J. R.] 
 
 The sixth Viscount Montague was chosen in 1732 Grand Master of the Free 
 and Accepted Masons. The craft not having been at that date condemned by the 
 Holy See, many CathoHcs belonged to it, and especially in Jacobite families. 
 Masonry played a large part in Scotland, especially in the attempts for the Restora- 
 tion of the House of Stuart. Pius VI. first forbade Catholics taking the Masonic 
 oaths, in common with all other secret societies. 
 
 Of the seventh Viscount Montague we only know at first that he enlarged and 
 beautified the park, improved the grounds, and added largely to the collection of 
 works of art at Cowdray which two centuries of wealth and taste had accumulated 
 there. By degrees he appears to have sought out the society of Protestants, and his 
 marriage with the widowed Lady Halkerton, a Methodist of Lady Huntingdon's 
 school and sect, set the seal on his defection from the faith. The accursed spirit 
 of the eighteenth century, which preceded the French Revolution, was on him, and 
 he at length followed the Duke of Norfolk, Sir William Gascoigne, and other 
 Catholic noblemen and gentlemen in an open apostasy. 
 
 The reason he gave for it to his friends was the double land-tax imposed on 
 Catholics at that time, and which fell heavily on his broad manors, the old 
 inheritance of the monks of Battle and Shulbred, and of the nuns of Easebourne. 
 It seems to have been suddenly decided on. On the Sunday after the legal com- 
 munication of the Act, Lord Montague ordered his coach, and on stepping into it, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 desired his coachman to drive him to the parish church of Midhurst. The faithful 
 servant turned, threw down the reins, and descended from the box. " No, my 
 Lord," he said ; " if you will, the devil may drive you to the devil, but not I." 
 
 The next step was to dismantle the household chapel, and Lady Montague was 
 very anxious to hold evening services there. On more than one occasion this was 
 attempted, but the lights could never be kept in above a few moments, and persisted 
 in going out without any apparent cause, till even the Protestant servants introduced 
 by Lady Montague took alarm at the omen, and the idea of services in the chapel 
 was abandoned. Lady Montague, however, was in the habit of preaching in the 
 park, and is said to have persuaded her friend and visitor the celebrated Selina 
 Countess of Huntingdon to hold forth to an outdoor congregation under the trees 
 near the house. 
 
 And so the faith was trampled out in the little town, tw^o-thirds of whose inhabi- 
 tants had been baptized into the Catholic Church. The old servants were dis- 
 charged and dispersed, the chapel removed to a miserable cottage in Easebourne, 
 where a priest yet strove to keep the altar on a wretched stipend insufficient for 
 existence, and the Methodist propaganda went on unceasingly under the patronage 
 of Lady Montague, who had full influence over her weak and wicked husband. 
 
 Time passed, and sickness long and sore brought Lord Montague an unhoped- 
 for and undeserved proof of God's mercy. Unlike his companions in apostasy, he 
 had time to repent ; too late indeed to repair his sin, but in time at least to be 
 absolved in his last hours and reconciled to the Church. He died in 1787, and 
 ordered with his last breath that his recantation should be published after his death 
 in the Gentleman^ s Magazi?ie, as well as in the newspapers of the day. In it he 
 asks pardon for the scandal given to his fellow-Catholics, and implores the mercy 
 of God for the injury he had done to his dependants, and he declares that his 
 apostasy was solely based on worldly motives, and not on any doubts as to the 
 authority to the Church. A copy of the original document also exists in the 
 registers of the Catholic Mission of Slindon. 
 
 THE FULFILMENT OF THE CURSE. 
 
 The Dowager Viscountess Montague continued to reside at Cowdray, paying 
 only occasional visits to London. She seems to have devoted herself to the edu- 
 cation of her two children in the most rigid principles of Evangelical Protestantism. 
 With her daughter she succeeded ; but her son, George Samuel, eighth Vis- 
 
172 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 count Montague, was a wild careless young man, who chafed at his mother's 
 authority, laughed at her pet preachers ; and without evincing the slightest tendency 
 to return to the faith of his ancestors, he yet never took kindly to the new lights of 
 the Evangelical revival. 
 
 No sooner was he of an age to emancipate himself from his mother's authority 
 than he started for the Continent with his friend Mr. Burdett and an old family 
 servant. . . . They conceived the mad project of passing the Falls of the B.hine in 
 a small boat. . . . The old Cowdray servant, Dickinson, tried to drag Lord 
 Montague back, exclaiming, "Oh my Lord ! it's the curse of water I For God's 
 sake give up the trial ! " But it was useless. . . . The first fall was passed in safety, 
 and Dickinson standing on the shore saw the two young men rise up in the boat 
 waving their handkerchiefs in triumph. They neared the second fall, and entered 
 the cloud of spray that encircles this, the most terrible point of the passage. They 
 were never seen again. . . . The old servant lingered for some time on the spot 
 in the hope of recovering his master's body, but as days passed and the river gave 
 back no sign or token of the dead, he departed sorrowfully for Cowdray to tell the 
 tale of desolation to the widowed mother. Ere he reached England the other part 
 of the curse— //^^ curse of fire — had swept with devouring fury through the halls 
 acquired and raised by sacrilege, and Cowdray, one of the stateliest mansions of 
 the Tudor era, was a smoking and blackened ruin. . . . The flames, fanned to 
 double rapidity by a fierce September gale, soon did their worst on the entire 
 edifice. Never was a ruin more complete than that which stood bare and bleak 
 beneath the light of the harvest moon when the fire had ceased to roar and crackle 
 through the desolate halls of the Montagues. 
 
 Very few family relics were saved, and the few that were so seem to have been 
 dispersed and uncared for in the deeper grief and desolation that fell on the house 
 at the death of its heir. There was no thought of rebuilding the mansion ; the 
 curse had come home at last, though its avenging force was not yet all spent, and 
 even the mourners seem to have recognised and dreaded it, and to have made no 
 attempt to restore the pride and magnificence of the old Lords of Cowdray. 
 
 The title, but not the estates, devolved on a poor Friar of Fontainebleau, a dis- 
 tant kinsman of the house, who most unwillingly accepted a Papal dispensation 
 from his vows in order to carry on the line. In spite of the marriage which he 
 contracted and which only lasted a few months, he left no children, and with him 
 the family honours became extinct. 
 
 Mary Browne, sister of the eighth Viscount Montague and heiress of the estate, 
 was brought up by her mother, and was a beautiful, pious, and amiable woman, 
 wanting nothing save the light of faith, of which her father's apostasy had deprived 
 her, to have been one of the noblest types of womanhood. She was married 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 173 
 
 shortly after her succession to the estates to William Poyntz, ... a very handsome 
 and accomplished man. 
 
 On their marriage the old keeper's lodge in the centre of the park was com- 
 pletely renovated and added to, and it became the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz. 
 Here old Lady Montague partly lived also, devoting herself to the exercises of piety 
 of her sect, but constantly haunted by the idea that the terrible family curse would 
 some time find out the two boys who had been, with three daughters, born to the 
 young couple. . . . The children of Cowdray grew in strength and age, and were 
 in the fulness of their boyhood when in 1815 they were taken as usual to the sea- 
 side at Bognor. ... It was a lovely summer's day, and Mr. Poyntz, seeing how 
 exceptionally bright and calm the sea was, proposed to go out boating. To this 
 Mrs. Poyntz, who inherited her mother's vague terror as to the family prediction, 
 strongly objected, but was at length persuaded into giving a very reluctant consent 
 . . . The boat heeled over, . . . and the two boys sunk never to rise again. 
 
 What wonder that to their dying day the unhappy parents could never endure 
 the sight of the sea, or that the bereaved mother, at least, carried to her grave the 
 terrible conviction that her sorrow was the accomplishment of the curse invoked by 
 the pious founders of Easebourne on the spoilers of their peaceful cloister ! That 
 this was her belief was borne ample witness to by the older inhabitants ; and it 
 haunted her through the childhood of her boys, and left its indelible mark upon 
 her after life of prayer, retirement, and charity. Few will look on her monument 
 in Easebourne church without tracing in the beautiful portrait due to Chantrey's 
 genius the shadow of a more than common sorrow. . . . 
 
 In 1843 the Cowdray estates were sold to the sixth Earl of Egmont, a naval 
 officer of considerable reputation at Navarino and Algiers. 
 
 It was in 1845, when I was on a visit at Cowdray Lodge, that I first saw the 
 priest's hiding-hole. The Montague family had never allowed it to be shown, and 
 were very chary of any reference to their Catholic forefathers. The rooms adja- 
 cent to it were said to be haunted by the Lord Montague who had died there, 
 and Lord Egmont himself told me that it was difficult to get the servants to go 
 into the corridor at night, and that one or two visitors had been so much frightened, 
 it had become impossible to use the rooms. 
 
 The old Catholic mission lingered on at Easebourne till, on the death of its 
 last incumbent. Father Poland (one of the last survivors of the ancient English 
 College of Douai), it was removed into the town of Midhurst itself, and a very plain 
 and modest building under the invocation of St. Francis was erected by Dr. Grant, 
 Bishop of Southwark. For some years it was served from the neighbouring mission 
 of Burton Park near Pet worth, but it now possesses a resident priest, the Rev. 
 James Carter, Chamberlain to his late Holiness Pius IX. As Midhurst has now 
 
174 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 easy and rapid railway communication with London and with the South Coast, there 
 is some hope that in time Catholics may fix their residence in the beautiful environs 
 and revive what was once a principal asylum and centre of English Catholicity. Of 
 the original congregation there remain, alas ! but very few traces, but one or two 
 pious and zealous families connected by birth or marriage with Midhurst have 
 returned to reside there. It is much that, after such vicissitudes, apostasy, repres- 
 sion, and adverse influences, the lamp of the sanctuary has never been quite 
 extinguished. 
 
 To those who, like myself, remember the deplorable state of Catholicity in Sussex 
 forty years ago, the great revival now spreading through the county is full of hope 
 and interest. The re-establishment of the great Order of St. Bruno in the Carthu- 
 sian monastery of Cowfold, of the Prsemonstratensians at Storrington, and of the 
 Servites at Bognor, the resurrection of the Mission of Our Lady of Consolation at 
 West Grinstead, the staunch maintenance of faith and practice in the ancient 
 Catholic parish of Burton, the Franciscan foundation at Crawley, that of the There- 
 sian nuns at Chichester, — their venerable Prioress being the last of the Pendrels of 
 Boscobel, — the establishment of missions at Liphook, Worthing, and Shoreham, 
 and above all of that central radius of South Saxon Catholicity, Arundel, and its 
 magnificent church (worthy of the best days of Christian piety) : these and count- 
 less other religious foundations spreading along our sea-board and wherever new 
 communications are opened, give assurance that the seed sown in persecution, 
 confiscation, and martyrdom will prevail over the tares and cockle of sacrilege and 
 self-seeking, and that fresh conversions to truth from among those separated from 
 us so widely and yet in outward rite so near may here and elsewhere spread the 
 faith, re-people the cloister, raise once more worthy temples of God and the saints, 
 and draw down on the beautiful forest county the blessing of that unity of faith our 
 forefathers rejoiced in. 
 
 In the meantime it is well to keep living the memory of old days, the sins and 
 the good deeds of those who have gone before us. In times like the present, when 
 the hand of retribution is becoming more and more visible among the spoilers of 
 God's Church on the Continent, when the holy shrines of Rome and Italy are laid 
 waste and the cloisters are made desolate, it is well to recall what, in our own land 
 has ever been the doom of sacrilege, — testified to by innumerable Protestant 
 writers, of whom the learned Sir Henry Spelman and his annotators are among the 
 principal. 
 
 Church lands have never prospered in the hands of impropriators, and many a 
 family dates its decadence from a careless acceptance of the fatal legacy, or from a 
 covetous acquisition of what has once been and should still be the patrimony of 
 the altar and of the poor. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ^75 
 
 Wherever restitution cannot be made, a thinking Catholic will at least feel him- 
 self obliged in a special manner to make reparation to the Church, by aiding her 
 needs in the locality from which he derives his confiscated wealth as far as he can, 
 according to the intentions of the pious founders, in order to avert from himself 
 and his heirs the curse which has certainly been incurred by the original spoliators, 
 and which in many notable instances seems to have followed family after family 
 with the avenging and mysterious scourge of God's inscrutable justice. 
 
 K. S. 
 
 V 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Anne of Cleves, 14. 
 
 Battle Abbey, 13, 34, 81, 87, 90, 98. 
 Betchworth Castle, 1 1. 
 Browne, Sir Anthony, K.G., 11-22; his 
 portrait, 20, 92; his funeral pageant, 19. 
 Browne, Brother William, S.J., 25. 
 
 Stanislaus, 47. 
 
 Anthony, of Lings, 84. 
 
 Joan, 149. 
 
 Baronetcies, 11, 35, 105. 
 
 Blackdown, 157. 
 Book of household rules, 51-74. 
 Borough English, 147. 
 Burgage tenements, 150. 
 
 Clarence, Margaret of. Countess of 
 
 Salisbury, 8, 92, 133. 
 Close Walks, 124, 139. 
 Cobbett, William, 133. 
 Commandery House, Midhurst, 151. 
 Copley, Anthony, 46. 
 Cowdray, description of, 1 11- 126, 133- 
 
 140. 
 
 Cowdray, fire at, 126-133. 
 
 De Bohun family, 2. 
 De Bohun, John de, 2, 3. 
 De Bohun, Mary de, 3. 
 
 Edward VI., visit to Cowdray, 23 ; 
 
 procession of, 16, 97, 117. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, at Cowdray, 27, 38- 
 
 45- 
 
 Easebourne, 2, 143-147. 
 Evelyn, John, 78, 81. 
 
 FiTZWiLLiAM, William Fitzwilliam, Earl 
 
 of Southampton, K.G., 7-1 1. 
 Farnhurst, 154. 
 Fire-backs, 28. 
 Fire at Cowdray, 126-133. 
 Fair Geraldine, 18. 
 Fountain at Cowdray, no, 138. 
 Fox, Charles James, 150. 
 
 Guy Fawkes, 48. 
 
 Hearth-money, 83. 
 Hiding-hole, 89, 168. 
 Huntingdon, Countess of, 93. 
 
 z 
 
1 78 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 94. 
 
 KiLDARE, Earl and Countess of, 26, 27. 
 
 Lambe, Richard, 55. 
 Lanman, Father, SJ., 77. 
 Lods worth, 151. 
 
 MiDHURST, 147-15 1. 
 
 Manuscripts at Cowdray, 135-139. 
 
 Montague, Sir Anthony Browne, K.G., 
 first Viscount, 22-38; his tomb, 29-33; 
 his portrait, 32 ; his possessions, 33. 
 
 Anthony Maria, second Vis- 
 count, 45-51; his household rules, 
 51-74; his imprisonment, 48. 
 
 Francis, third Viscount, 78-83 ; 
 
 his estates sequestered, 78, 81 ; his 
 steward's accounts, 82. 
 
 Francis, fourth Viscount, 87, 88, 
 
 123. 
 
 Henry, fifth Viscount, 89, 167. 
 
 Anthony, sixth Viscount, 90. 
 
 Anthony, Joseph, seventh Vis- 
 count, 92-99, 170; his recantation, 
 94, 95 ; his letters, 96-98. 
 
 George Samuel, eighth Viscount, 
 
 100-104, 128, 131, 172; his letters, 
 99, 103. 
 
 Mark Anthony, ninth Viscount, 
 
 47, 104, 105. 
 
 Montague, Magdalen, Viscountess, 34. 
 
 Frances, Viscountess, 107, 171 ; 
 
 her letters, 98, 129 
 
 North Heath gibbet, 152. 
 
 Owen, Sir Davy, 3 ; his effigy, 4 ; his 
 
 will, 5, 6. 
 Overy, St. Mary, 14. 
 
 PoYNTZ, Mr. and Mrs., 106-110; death 
 
 of their sons, 108, 109. 
 Poyntz, John, 12. 
 Puzzle-walk, 124, 139. 
 
 River House, 36, 152. 
 Rules, book of, 51-74- 
 
 Shulbred Priory, 155. 
 Southampton, Earl of, 7-1 1. 
 Storm of 1703, 88. 
 
 Tokens, 147. 
 Todham, 35. 
 
 Urban VHI, Pope, letter from, 74. 
 
 Verdley Castle, 153. 
 
 Walpole, Horace, 91, 47, 117. 
 Waller, Sir William, 79. 
 
 THE end. 
 
 PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
I A 
 
GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 
 
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