1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. - 



being a courtly and active gentleman, he was 

 commanded once to dance before the queen, and in 

 a turn, not being able to recover himself, fell into 

 her lap as she sate on a little stool, with many of 

 her ladies about her. 1 Drayton's Epist. Sandford 

 bears witness to the excellence of Catherine's taste 

 in the selection of a husband thus singularly intro- 

 duced ; the person of Owen Tudor, he tells us, 

 was so absolute in all the lineaments of bis body 

 that the only contemplation of it might make a 

 queen forget all other circumstances. Three sons 

 were the fruit of this union; the two, Edward and 

 Jasper, were created Earls of Richmond and Pem- 

 broke, by their half-brother, with pre-eminence, 

 ays Fuller, to take place above all earls, for kings 

 have absolute authority in dispensing houours ; the 

 younger entered into a religious community, and 

 died a monk. After the death of Catherine, which 

 happened in 1437, the government thought tit to 

 punish the temerity [we may be sure we have not 

 th right story here] of the bold knight, who had 

 dared to match the hand of a queen, and Owen 

 Tudor was committed to the Tower ; but not of a 

 disposition to submit tamely to confinement, the 

 hardy Welchman, either by fraud or force, con- 

 trived to effect his escape. A cotemporary writer, 

 in recording the prisoner's attempt, make? an as- 

 iertion which goes far to disprove the ostentatious 

 accounts so industriously circulated by Henry VII., 

 Hud his partizans, respecting the royal descent of 

 that monarch's paternal ancestor. The passage 

 in the chronicle runs thus ' This same year one 

 Oweyn, no man of birth, neither of likelihood, 

 broke out of Newgate against night at searching 

 time, through help of his priest, and went his way, 

 hurting foule his keeper. The which Osveyn had 

 privily wedded the Queen Catherine, and had three 

 or four children by her, unweeting the common 

 people, till that she was dead and buried.' 



This is extracted from an Harleian MS., 

 the author of which is entirely unknown, 

 and therefore, historically, of little autho- 

 rity perhaps a Yorkist ; at all events, not 

 well informed ; for he talks of Newgate, 

 instead of the Tower, and denies not only 

 the birth, but the beauty of Owen mali- 

 ciously, it may seem. But the industrious 

 spirit of the author of these volumes, which 

 \v 3 warmly recommend, to our younger 

 readers especially, is worthy of all praise. 



Richmond, or Scenes in the Life of a 

 Bow-street Officer. 3 vols. I2mo. ; 1827. 

 Richmond, very early in life, gave mani- 

 festations of an adventurous disposition. 

 He was the son of a small farmer, and 

 associated with the peasant boys and girls 

 of his native village. A little damsel of 

 about twelve or thirteen attracted his 

 childish devolion , and as that young lady 

 pursuant, we suppose, to village custom 

 was already provided with an humble 

 servant, of corresponding age, it soon be- 

 came Richmond's sole and worthy em- 

 ployment to plague his unfortunate rival, 

 and render him ridiculous in tlie eyes of 

 the fair oue. For this object, indefati- 

 g-ably and successfully pursued, he plan- 

 ned sortie manoeuvres not unworthy his 



maturer years. These mischievous pranks 

 coupled with the frequent rumours in the 

 village of his intermeddling with the 

 neighbouring orchards, operated upon his 

 father's fears, and our hero was at length 

 removed to school, in the hope, which 

 fond parents are led to entertain for their 

 comfort, that the prognostics afforded by 

 the little darling of becoming a future 

 rogue and vagabond, will quietly vanish, 

 arid the man belie the auguries of the 

 boy. 



Richmond, however, appeared by BO 

 means carved out for a thief. Oh noj 

 the discriminations of character are most 

 decided between the plunderer of orchards, 

 fish-ponds, and preserves, and the pick- 

 pocket or housebreaker ; and though 

 Richmond appeared on his entrance into 

 life to partake of many of the qualities of 

 the first, he did not at all share those of 

 the second. Nor indeed was the poaching 

 line of life his real bent, but rather a tem- 

 porary expedient only, resulting from the 

 untowardness of circumstances, which, 

 when they decidedly thwart our instincts, 

 induce us to tack, and to follow those pur- 

 suits, which may draw out our native 

 powers in the best way fortune admits of. 

 His talents and tendencies seemed to lie 

 in ferreting out and balking other people's 

 purposes and plans sometimes in work- 

 ing on their follies, or virtues, or difficul- 

 ties, for the sake of making them instru- 

 ments in aiding his operations upon others ; 

 by dint of practice he acquired extreme 

 facility in turning any given complexity 

 of circumstances to account following 

 up his game through every sort of let or 

 hindrance, gathering strength from defeat 

 and discomfiture, and making his very 

 failures bear him on, in the long run, to- 

 wards final success. 



He had some genius, but no application 

 for science, and none for monotonous labour 

 of any kind. His mind was active and 

 various, and wanted objects to act upon, 

 wide as the universe. One might have 

 prophesied he would turn out a traveller. 

 No; that was uot the thing. Yet he took 

 French leave of the counting-house desk 

 at Liverpool, where his plodding parent 

 had intended he should sit for some years, 

 and set off to roam, he knew not whither, 

 with a reckless companion. Destiny threw 

 him among some strolling players; and 

 while the scene was new, he swam in ex- 

 citement, and was so fascinated by the 

 prospect of the Thespian style of travel- 

 ling through life, that he must needs in- 

 troduce among the set, his little village- 

 love, to whom his heart had still steadily 

 turned. She was grown a beautiful young 

 woman, and loved him with a deep sin- 

 cerity. His enterprising character, aided 

 by his frequent and assiduous, but stealthy 

 attempts upon her affections, had done it 



