Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/410

 The Green Bag.

Vol. II. No. 9.

BOSTON. September, 1890.

REMINISCENCES OF LORD THURLOW.

IN a book published some years since, entitled "The Law," the author, Mr. Cyrus Jay, gives some interesting reminiscences of Lord Thurlow. Many of them were new to the writer, and in the hope that they may prove " Entertaining " to the read ers of the " Green Bag," he has transcribed them for their benefit.

Lord Bacon has remarked that they who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble " potatoes, the most valuable part of which is under ground." When one of Lord Thurlow's friends was endeavoring to make out his relationship to the Secretary of Cromwell, whose family had been settled in the county adjoining (Suffolk), he re plied, " Sir, there were two Thurlows in that part of the country, — Thurlow the Secretary, and Thurlow the Carrier; I am descended from the latter." We have read of a man who, in prospect of his promotion, being asked concerning his pedigree an swered that he was not particularly sure, but had been credibly informed that he had three brothers in the ark. But a distinguished poet of obscure origin surpasses this in his epitaph, —

"Princes and heralds, by your leave Here lie the bones of Matthew Prior, The son of Adam and of Eve : Can Bourbon or Nassau go higher?"

Perhaps no chancellor ever gave so many church benefices to poor clergymen of real merit as Thurlow. Among other instances of his eccentric goodness the following appears to deserve peculiar notice. A curate who had a numerous family, but no patron among the great, was prompted by his wants and a favorable opportunity which the sudden death of his rector afforded, to make a personal application to Thurlow. The Chancellor was struck with his appearance and address, and after hearing his story, whimsically asked him, " Whom have you to recommend you? " "Only the Lord of Hosts, my lord." " Well," replied Thurlow, instantly, " as it is the first recommendation I have from his Lordship, be assured that I shall attend to it." The living was given to the meritorious applicant.

Lord Thurlow by his natural disposition was utterly disqualified, one would have thought, for discharging the duties of a judge or performing the part of a courtier. His violent and often ungovernable temper, which in its subdued moods deserved the name of surliness or bluntness, seemed to form an insuperable impediment to success in either of these capacities. Yet despite of it Lord Thurlow was a supple and pliant courtier, and although his learning has possibly been overrated, an able and impartial judge. He showed the natural fierceness of his disposition when quite a boy. Dr. Donne, one of the prebendaries of Canter bury Cathedral, held a living somewhere in the neighborhood of Thurlow's father, with whom he became intimate. Having observed that young Thurlow was rough and overbearing, he obtained his father's permission to send him to Canterbury school, with the master of which he had had a quarrel, in the hope that the intractable temper and fearless insolence of the future chancellor would render him a constant source of annoyance to the unfortunate master. This 49