Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/46

 30 [9th S. IV. July 8, m NOTES AND QUERIES. LOYAL ADDRESSES TO RICHARD CROMWELL. (9th S. iii. 367.) There appeared in the Penny Magazine (30 Nov., 7, 14, and 21 Dec, 1839) a series of articles on 'Richard Cromwell and his Wife.' They are eminently readable and contain much useful information concerning the erstwhile Protector. The removal of the loyal addresses by Richard from Whitehall to Hampton Court in two old trunks is duly noted, and it is said that " of these two trunks- ful of broken faith he continued to take great care all the rest of his life." Having returned to England from his exile about the year 1680, he lived in retirement at Cheshunt in the house of Baron Pengelly until his death in 1712. The anecdote concerning the ex- hibition of the loyal addresses to a new acquaintance is thus given in the Penny Magazine:—■ " Dr. Lort, an industrious collector of recondite matters, related, on the authority of the Rev. George North, vicar of Codicote, near Welwyn, in Hertfordshire (who had been acquainted with two persons that had frequented Richard in the last years of his life at Cheshunt), the following par- ticulars—'None were admitted to visit him but such as had strong recommendations from some of his intimate acquaintance as being men of an agree- able and cheerful conversation and of strict honour. One of the two persons just mentioned, who lived at Ware, was recommended under thiH character, and introduced to him with an admonition to con- form to the old gentleman's peculiarities without asking any questions or seeming to make observa- tions. After an hour or two nad been spent in conversation and in drinking Richard started up, took the candle, and was followed by the rest of the company (who all, excepting the last admitted man, knew what was going forward), carrying the bottles and the glasses into a dirty garret, where was nothing but a round hair trunk. Ihis Mr. Cromwell pulled out to the middle of the room, and, calling for a bumper of wine, drank " Prosperity to Old England!" The company did the same, when the new guest was called to do so, sitting aside [? astride] on the trunk, as all of them had done. Richard desired him to sit light, as he had no less under him than the lives and fortunes of all the good people of Eng- land ! The trunk was then opened, and the original addresses showed him, with great mirth and laughter. Such was Richard's method of initiating a new acquaintance.'" Some years ago the Rev. Arthur Brown, curate of the parish, delivered a lecture on Cheshunt before the members and friends of the Cheshunt Working Men's Association. This was printed with notes in 1865. In a note on p. 38 Mr. Brown expresses his dis- belief in this and other stories concerning Richard Cromwell, because they do not receive the sanction of Oliver Cromwell, Esq., who in 1820 published (Longmans) ' Memoirs of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, and of his Sons, Richard and Henry.' John T. Page. West Haddon, Northampton. There is in the British Museum Library a book entitled 'A True Catalogue or Account of the Several Places and Most Eminent Persons in the Three Nations, and elsewhere, where, and by whom, Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Common- wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland,' 4to. 1659. I quote from the old printed cata- logue. This may in some measure form a key to the addresses spoken of by your corre- spondent, which I fear have perished. Astaete. A somewhat similar anecdote of Richard Cromwell will be found in a volume with the following title :— " The History of Addresses. By one very near A Kin to the Author of the Tale of a Tub. Diu multumque desideratum. London Printed in the Year 1709." The Dedicatory Address of fourteen pages is inscribed to "W B Esqr," and is dated 2 May, 1709. The pages in "Whit. Mem." where the addresses are to be found are given. The volume comprises 244 pages, with an index of the places from which letters were received. John Taylor. Northampton. The story quoted 9th S. iii. 367 may be found, with some slight variations, in ' Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell,' by the Rev. Mark Noble, 2 vols., London, 1787, a book which contains much interesting and useful information, though Thomas Carlyle speaks in a most disparaging manner of the book and its author. Carlyle sums up his caustic criticism as follows :— "Such as it is, this same Dictionary [i.e., the above book] without judgment and without arrange- ment, 'bad Dictionary gone to pie' as we may call it, is the storehouse from which subsequent Bio- graphies have all furnished themselves. The reader with continual vigilance of suspicion, once knowing what man he has to do with, digs through it, and again through it, covers the margins of it with notes and contradictions, with references, deductions, rectifications, execrations—in a sorrowful but not entirely unprofitable manner."—' Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,' chap, ii., Introduction. According to the 'Memoirs of Cromwell,' Richard Cromwell died in the house of Ser- jeant Pengelly at Cheshunt, Herts, 12 July 1712, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the chancel of Hursley Church, Hants. The book is dedicated to John Mon-