Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/217

 io» s. iv. Arc. 26,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 179 it in his said chamber." The peccant father failing to appear, the Masters of the Bench, to remove so great a acandal, were driven in his behalf to deposit 51. towards the keeping of the child. Notice of the penalties to be enforced was ordered to be given to Sir Symonds Dewes, Knt., the offender's brother. In 1645 we find that, through the troubles and distractions of the times " by reason of these un- natural civil wars, there has been no reading in this or any other Inn of Court for three years, so that the number of Benchers is grown very small." Ancients of the Utter Bar are accordingly called up as asso- ciates, to ait and be in commons with the Masters of the Bench at the Bench table, and each of them to be chosen Reader according to his antiquity. Cessation of reading and of commons on account of the Plague is duly chronicled pp. 1304-5. No men- tion of the Fire of London is to be traced. It is needless to say that the work has been excellently done, and is of high importance. It is of singular interest to all concerned in genealogical studies. Whether it is to be continued for a couple of cen- turies or less is what we wait to see. With its excellent index it is, at least, complete and ser- viceable so far as it extends. 1/emoirn of Lady Fanshawe. Edited, with an Introduction, by Beatrice Marshall. (Lane.) NOTHISO is, in its way, more striking than the contrast between the Court of Charles II. as seen in the vivacious pages of Fepys or the scandalous record of Hamilton and the views of domestic interiors supplied by the great Duchess of New- castle, by Dorothy Osborne, and by Anne, Lady Fanshawe, whose memoirs are now, after three- quarters of a century, reprinted. To pass from one to the other is like quitting an atmosphere of miasma for one of golden sunlight and pure air. We welcome, accordingly, the new volume, against which we have nothing whatever to urge except that the author—unintentionally, no doubt — is guilty of grave injustice to Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, as much the superior of Anne Fanshawe in intellect as in social rank. We could—did time and space permit, and were the occasion appropriate—dwell on this matter until our eyelids "could no longer wag." Lady Fan- ihawe's work, however, written during her long widowhood, deserves better than to be made the -subject of any controversy. Besides being a delight- ful domestic revelation, it is a really important historical document, casting light upon the wars of Charles I. and the Commonwealth; the residence abroad of the exiled Charles II.; life in Ireland when, in 1649, Sir Richard, Anne's husband, sought to rally the king's friends; and in Spain and Por- tugal, when he first went to petition the Spanish monarch for pecuniary aid for the exiled Charles ; when, subsequently to the Restoration, he carried the portrait of Charles II. to Catherine ; or when, in 1662, he was appointed ambassador to Portugal, and, in 1604, ambassador to Spain. In the intervals of what appear to have been her ordinary avoca- tions of bearing children—in which, though few of them survived, she showed exemplary resourceful- ness—and escaping from shipwreck, the menace of which seems perpetually to have dogged her. Lady Fanshawe made acute observations, from which in later years she drew up records erring only or prin- cipally in regard to fullness and fidelity of dates. Her memoir was first printed in 1829, and reissued by Sir Harris Nicolas in 1830, from a transcript by her great-granddaughter Catherine Colman. Her MS., in her own handwriting, is in the possession of the Fanshawe family. What use has been made of this- for purposes of revision we are unable to state. The memoir itself, as it now appears, constitute* enchanting reading, and the work occupies a con- spicuous place among autobiographies. It should, indeed, be freed from the comparative obscurity in which it has dwelt, and should become one of the most popular works of its class. It is simple and admirable in style, and equally attractive for pur- poses of edification and delight. Lady Fanshawe's admiration for and pride in her husband are very touching, and the work is none the worse, but perhaps the better, for the essentially feminine unreasonableness which is shown whenever the name of Hyde conies on the carpet. Of the fine Fanshawe portraits still in existence several are reproduced, ami are the subject of a special intro- ductory essay by Mr. Allan Fea. These include & portrait of Anne, Lady Fanshawe, formerly at Parsloes, which serves as frontispiece, a second by Lely. and a third from an old print; a likeness of Sir Richard after Lely, and one from a print by Faithorne (misspelt Farthorne). There is a fac- simile of Lady Fanshawe's original MS., very faint in colour, and there are views of Ware Park. Parsloes, and elsewhere, and prints of the arrival • if Catherine of Braganza in Portsmouth and at Whitehall. Unnecessary doubt seems to be cast in a note on p. 100 on the word "hem." A mendicant friar showed the Fanshawe party in a silver box the greatest wonder of the world in the shape or what not of "the hem of St. Joseph which was taken as he hewed his timber." As the context shows, the " hem " means the sort of suspiration. of the woodman felling a tree. Memoirs of Robert Carey, Earl of MonmoiUh. Edited by G. H. Powell. (De La More Press.) " A POPULAR and spirited young nobleman, a con- temporary of Shakespeare, a near relative and intimate acquaintance of Queen Elizabeth, and an eyewitness of [and participator in] the repulse of the Spanish Armada," Robert Gary has met with unmerited neglect. His name is rarely found in works of biographical and bibliographical reference, though Mr. C. H. Firth consecrates an article to him under ' Robert Carey' in the ' D.N.B.' Besides making some noise in the world and occupying positions of great and perilous responsibility, Cary left behind him memoirs which Sir Walter Scott republished in 1808, and which are now for the first time since that date reprinted. These occupy a fitting position in Mr. Gollancz's series of " King's Classics," and are ushered in by a useful intro- duction of Mr. Powell, supplying all obtainable information. Their first editor was the Earl of Corke («'<:) and Orrery, the owner of the MS., which he printed in 1759. Two editions appeared in the same year, and the book then slept until it was reprinted in 1808 by Sir Walter. Some notes fur- nished are by Lord Cork and Scott. The frontis- piece of Lord Cork's edition, representing a visit of Queen Elizabeth to Henry Gary, Lord Hunsdon, our hero's father, is reproduced. Scott's attention was drawn to the book by the amount of light it costs upon Border history. The union of love of adventure and regard for the main chance is very curious. The work is highly interesting, and has genuine historical value. Its appearance in this excellent series is specially welcome.