Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/44

 xl INTRODUCTION ���Ken, the author of several widely-known hymns, as " Awake My Soul" and " Glory to Thee, My God, This Night." He was one of the nonjuring bishops, and at this time living in retirement under the protection of Viscount Thynne. Ardelia was much impressed by the beauty and consistency of Bishop Ken's life. She even goes so far as to say, in her poem on the hurricane of 1703, that the bishop's man- sion at Wells would never have been so scourged by the wild winds had Bishop Ken not been supplanted by Bishop Kidder. On the whole, we may safely say that Longleat was the source to Ardelia of much personal happiness, and of much in the way of poetical guidance and inspiration. �Ardelia's long, dignified, and rather heavy poem on the death of Sir William Twysden, shows how intimately she �knew him and how genuinely she admired him. �The Twysdens were also her husband's relatives, for Sir William was the great-grandson of the famous Elizabeth Heneage, the first Countess of Winchilsea. When Anne visited at the Twysden estate it must have been with an envious pleasure that she gazed upon certain heir- looms there. Sir William owned the picture of the first Lady Winchilsea and "the blew case of gold in which it is," and also a dozen of silver plates that had been given by the said Lady Winchilsea as a legacy to Sir William's grand- mother, "having the said Ladies armes on the one side and coronet of an Earle over them, and on the backside a Coro- net and over against it A. T.," the initials of the grandmother, Anne Twysden. There was also "a gold booke " and "a gold bole and cover to it belonging," which had apparently come from the same source. Sir William was learned in history, genealogies and heraldry. He was, according to Ardelia, a clear-sighted and moderate patriot; an author himself of no mean rank; and a gentleman of fine taste, high breeding, and affable manners. ������ �