Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/128

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. MAY, IMS.

Leslie Stephen in his article in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.' throws no light on her identity : he gathered his fa<?ts from previous writers.

She was the daughter of William Grove of Chiesbury, Wilts, M.P. for Shaftesbury, and sister of Capt. Hugh Grove, who was beheaded by order of Oliver Cromwell at Exeter Castle, May 16, 1655. There was every reason, as a matter of expediency, for keeping the fact of the marriage quiet. In Hoare's ' History of Wilts ' it is stated that the local clergy were " suspected " by Cromwell. Fuller was a prebendary of Salisbury, and known as " a stout Church and King man." His uncle Davenant had been bishop ; his first cousin and brother-in- law the Rev. Edward Davenant (nephew of the Bishop) was married to Katherine Grove ; and two other brothers-in-law were the Rev. William Grove, and the Captain Hugh before mentioned, who lost his head for devotion to the Royal cause. Bailey says : " His [Fuller's] connexion with the place would certainly have little benefited him, and he, therefore, kept a wary silence."

The romantic circumstances connected with the tragic fate of Capt. Grove deserve to be briefly related. He demanded that Col. Dove, the sheriff, should publicly read in Salisbury a proclamation issued by the Royalists. Dove refused.

" Next day, at the early hour of four in the morning, Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, colonel Penrud- docke, and captain Hugh Grove entered the city, with one hundred and fifty hoi-semen, and seized the two Judges and the Sheriff, in their beds. The Judges, attired iu their robes of office, were then compelled to surrender their Com- missions ; and Wagstaffe, after the Royalist Procla- mation had been read, proposed to execute both them and the Sheriff on the spot; but, yielding to the entreaties of Penruddocke, consented to spare the Judges, reserving the Sheriff for future punishment. Early in the afternoon, the Boy; lists left the city with the Sheriff in custody."

The judges were imprisoned. Major Botoler, after they had been confined two days, came to their relief ; and Col. Dove, being released "on parole" by the Royalists, returned to Salisbury. Meanwhile Desborowe, Crom- well's brother-in-law, hastened to the assist- ance of Botoler, and with their united forces pursued and captured the King's party at South Molton. Wagstaffe escaped, but Pen- ruddocke and Grove were executed. Bailey remarks, without the smallest inkling of the close connexion, that perhaps this gentleman was the "loving friend Hugh Grove" mentioned by the Bishop in his will, 0,3 undoubtedly lie was ; and the Bishop

mentions him again in the codicil " of this will, which now resteth in the custodie* of Hugh Grove, gent." It is very significant that, under the head of Wiltshire, there is no mention in Fuller's ' Worthies ' of this brother-in-law, for obvious reasons ; but had the author lived long enough, after the Restoration, to see his great book through the press, he would have given an ample account of a relative whose manly speech on the scaffold, for God, for King and country, must have touched the heart of that brave old soldier of the Church mili- tant, who would have been proud to record the connexion. J. F. FULLER, F.S.A.

Dublin.

SOUTHEY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO 'THE CRITICAL REVIEW.'

(See ante, pp. 35, 66, 94. )

IN April, 1800, Southey left for his second visit to Portugal, and did not return till June, 1801. During this absence he evi- dently did no reviewing. On Aug. 3 he announces that he is again at work for Hamilton, and to him we ought probably to give credit for the article on Escoiquiz's ' Mexico Conquistada ' (Appendix, vol. xxxii. pp. 513-20). By this time Southey's in- tense studies had given him a mastery over the literature of the Peninsula which is reflected in the skilled critical comments of his concluding paragraph. In his review of Count de Noronia's poems we have evidence of his fondness for inserting in his articles brief synoptic views of this litera- ture in precisely the same tone as in that on Escoiquiz. Another feature which points to Southey is the personal interest which the reviewer betrays in the subject of the poem. The epic of his own by which Southey set the greatest store, and on which he had been labouring since his youth, was ' Madoc.' For its materials he had been delving deeply into the customs of the Aztecs, and therefore such an opinionated expression as that which opens the article comes naturally from his pen :

" No action, ancient or modern, presents so splendid a subject to the epic poet as the Conquest of Mexico ; the means are great and surprising, the end of adequate importance ; the scene offers whatever is beautiful in painting ; the costume is new and striking, the superstition strange and terrible."

Ellis' 3 ' Specimens of the Early English Poets,' September, 1801. The individual remarks that suggest Southey are: (1) the