Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/352

 260 RENT-ROLL OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. At the same time, to this House how closely does the Psalmist's awful language apply ! — " Thou dost set them in slippery places ; thou castest them down and destroyest them. Oh ! how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end." Fsalm Ixxiii. 18, 19. To the StafFords', "their birth and state'' proved, as we shall see, "shadows not substantial things" — with them " the paths of glory" Uterallij " led to the grave." In those days, as Southey remarks, " to die in peace at a good old age was indeed a rare fortune for men in high station." To fall in battle, or to receive the honours of poUtical martyrdom, was the fate of too man}^ members of our cliief families. Two of this family were secretly murdered — three forfeited their lives on the scaffold — three fell in the field, not whilst defending their country against foreign enemies, but in the intestine factions of York and Lancaster. In three instances the father followed his expectant heir to the tomb. This melancholy catalogue may be closed by the name of the accompHshed Surrey, who, in his thirtieth year, shared the fate of his grandfather and great grandfather, the second and third Dukes of Buckingham, and whose untimely end must ever be a subject of regret amidst these walls. Had his life been spared, England might, perhaps, from his encouragement and example, have advanced earlier to that high rank in learning and in hterature, which, through her Universities, she still so happily maintains. One of the fatal events, to which I have referred, Froissart narrates in his own unrivalled manner. When Richard II. was on his route to Scotland, an archer of Sir Richard (Ralph ^) Stafford's, the son of Hugh, Earl of Stafford, pierced with his arrow an esquire of Sir John Holland's, the king's half-brother. " Tidynges anone was brought to Sir Johan of Holande, that an archer of Sir Richarde Stafforde's had slayne a squyer of his, y^ man that he loued best in all the world. Whan Sir Johan of Holande was well enfourmed of this aduenture, he was ryght sore displeased, <k sayd, 1 shall neur eate nor drinke tyll it be reuenged, than he lepte on his horse, <t toke certayne of his men with him, and departed fro hts owne lodgyng, it was as than right late, & so rode into the fieldes. And as he and his men rode up & downe amonfre the hedojes and busshes, in a straite waye he mett at aduenture, with Sir Richarde StafForde, <k because it was nigut.