■2°* S. X. July 7. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



for your care of his turne, and desires you 

 •will be pleased to continue lit. 



(^Addressed) " To my noble frend S"" William Le Neve, 

 Clarenceux King of Armes, att his lodg- 

 ing in the office of armes." 



Through the foresight of this learned peer at 

 the outbreak of the disastrous civil struggles, some 

 of our national monuments and biographical evi- 

 dences have been preserved from oblivion. For 

 at his own charge and expence the Mr. Dugdale 

 above mentioned (afterwards the learned Sir Wil- 

 liam), together with a skilful arms-painter, were 

 dispatched to the principal cathedrals, collegiate 

 and other churches, there to copy as accurately as 

 possible arms, epitaphs, and monuments, that at 

 least some record of them might be handed down 

 to better and less turbulent times. Dugdale was 

 a great protege of Lord Hatton, and through him 

 received great promotion. We find him in 1648 

 escorting Lady Elizabeth Hatton to her husband 

 in France, and travelling with them. 



Under date of 1659, Oct. 30, Lord Hatton was 

 the medium of a very extraordinary communi- 

 cation addressed to Lord Chancellor Hyde. It 

 was no less a proposal than to form a coalition 

 between the Royalist and Parliamentary interests 

 by a match between King Charles II. and the 

 daughter of one of the leaders of the faction, Col. 

 Lambert. He says, — 



"... I have received from a very good hand a notion, 

 which I am limited to declai-e only to yourself and Mr. 

 secretary Nicholas, to be communicated onlj' to the King, 

 and humbly to beg the jyisuranee from his Majesty upon 

 the word of a King that he will impart it to no person 

 else whomsoever. And if this secrecy be not assured from 

 his Ma'y and you both unto me, then will my correspon- 

 dent desist ... It is therefore thought by the movers in 

 this business, that no security can serve him who can 

 settle the King in his three thrones, but such a bond as 

 the established law of the nation cannot violate or break, 

 and that is that the King should marry the Lord Lam- 

 bert's daughter. The grounds of the motion are the 

 great ease and speed of settling the King's business this 

 way rather than any other. The many difficulties and 

 very hai'd conditions which is believed are found in all 

 other ways will be cut off, it being in this case the lady's 

 fate and interest that it should be so. And it is believed 

 no foreign aid will be so cheap, nor leave our master at so 

 much liberty as this way. The race is a very good 

 gentleman's family, and kings have condescended to gen- 

 tlewomen and subjects. The lady is pretty, of an extra- 

 ordinarj' sweetness of disposition, and very virtuously 

 and ingenuously disposed. The father is a person, set 

 aside his unhappy engagement, of very great parts and 

 very noble inclinations, and certainly more capable of 

 being passed bi' than the rest. I have delivered my 

 message, and am next to desire you will speed awaj' to 

 me your two opinions whether you think fit to move it 

 to our master or not, and have' any hopes it may be lis- 

 tened unto. If you think it not &t, let me know, and let 

 it die, and burn this letter. If you find cause to propose 

 it, then put all the expedition to it that may be, and if 

 our master approve it, then let that be drawn up into a 

 letter," &c. &c. 



Little did Lord Hatton imagine when he penned 



the above communication that the identical lady 

 he was then negotiating for would become his own 

 daughter-in-law. 



The lapse of a few years developed strange 

 events. 1660, Oct. 21, is the date of a warrant 

 for this very John Lambert to be committed close 

 prisoner to Guernsey, of which island Lord Hat- 

 ton was governor. Through influence doubtless 

 some indulgence was granted to the prisoner, and 

 licence was given to his wife and her three chil- 

 dren to rejoin him. 



Lambert had two daughters, Frances and Mary. 

 With the latter the governor's son fell in love and 

 formed a clandestine marriage. Lord Hatton (in 

 a document in the State Paper Office) states that 

 some of the islanders have endeavoured to bring 

 him into disgrace, as having connived at the con- 

 nection of his son with the daughter of a rebel; 

 but he excuses himself as ignorant of the fact, 

 and that when it did come to his knowledge be 

 discarded him entirely, turning him out of doors. 



With regard to this nobleman as an author, 

 Walpole, in his Noble Autliors, says, Christopher 

 Lord Hatton published the Psalter of David with 

 titles and collects according to the matter of eacli 

 psalm (8vo., Oxford, 1644). Wood mentions the 

 work as "the compilation of Dr. Jeremy Taylor." * 

 In the Bodleian copy is this note in MS., — 



" For the use of the publique library of the famous uni- 

 versity of Oxford, in testimony of the high esteem and 

 affection towards her by Christ"" Hatton." 



Walpole adds, — 



"A very long preface is likel.v, however, from its tenour 

 to have proceeded from the pen of Taylor." 



If so It must have been dictated by Lord Hat- 

 ton. Had it been an anonymous work of Taylor's 

 own composition, he would hardly in the preface 

 have written such passages as the following ; they 

 would rather point to the reputed noble author : 



" If any man's piety, receives advantage by this intend- 

 ment it is what I wish ; but I desire that his charity 

 might increase too, and that he would say a hearty 

 prayer for me and my family, for I am more desirous my 

 posterity should be pious than honourable .... for there is 

 no honour so great as to serve God in a great capacitie, 

 and tho' I wait not at the altar yet I will pay there such 

 oblations of my time and industrie as I can redeem from, 

 the service of His Majestie and the impertinencies of my own 

 life:-' 



Walpol'e, in continuation, records that, — 



" In the decline of life Lord Hatton left his wife and 

 family to starve, and amused himself with a company of 

 players." 



Such a report, unless accounted for by tbe 

 imbecility of age, does not accord with the enter- 

 tained opinion of the pious and erudite nobleman, 



* Upon the authorit}' of Keimett we have the asseve- 

 ration of Captain Hatton, son of Lord Hatton, that though 

 Mr. Royston published one edition under the name of Dr. 

 Taylor, it was in reality the production of his father. 



