Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/71

 godson, and held the memory of his father's faithful services in regard. But the more atrocious act of joining in the powder-plot would certainly and deservedly have subjected him to capital punishment, if Lord Morley, the father of his wife, had not interceded for a pardon, which was granted him upon the terms of his never quitting the county of Worcester during the remainder of his life. This confinement was rendered less irksome to him by his engaging in a labour, the result of which we enjoy at present—the collection of materials for the history of Worcestershire; since arranged, compleated, and published by Dr. Nash.

Lord Morley had some claim, it should seem, upon the mercy of James, with respect to Abingdon, as it was through the means of his daughter, the wife of the latter, that the plot in agitation was discovered. Anxious to save the life of her brother Lord Monteagle, she framed the obscure letter received by that nobleman the night before the catastrophe was to have taken place; the meaning of which our English Solomon has the merit of alone being able to develope. Perpetually implicated in such dark contrivances, as at once demanded secrecy in their arrangement, and means of escape if attended with ill-success, Thomas converted the House of Hendlip into a proper scene for both