256 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OF 



with 4000 meiij Sir Gelly again accompanied liim, and was wounded 

 in the first action with the enemy.* The siege of Rouen was the 

 principal operation undertaken, but as Henri IV. would not permit 

 the earl to storm the place, he had little op})ortunity to signalize 

 himself, and returned in disgust. 



It was on his return that this generous nobleman applied to the 

 queen to bestow a grant of Wigmore on his friend and companion 

 in arms ; and Sir Gelly was probably influenced by its contiguity 

 to his wife's possessions to make choice of it. Other grants had 

 preceded it, at the instance of the earl, and, if we may credit the 

 sarcastic stanza written soon after the siege of Cadiz, such an acces- 

 sion of fortune must have been very seasonable. 



A gentleman of Wales, a knight of Cales, 



And a laird of the north country; — 

 But a yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, 



Will buy them out all three. -f- 



Sir Gelly rose into importance from the countenance of the Earl 

 of Essex, and soon found himself courted on all sides. There are 

 several letters preserved at Blithfield which attest this fact with 

 regard to one family alone, but extracts from two will be sufficient 

 to establish the point. Richard Broughton, Esq., writing to 

 Richard Bagot, Esq., on the 27th of March, 1594, says — " Yester- 

 day, like an asse, he (Mr. Escort) was with IMr. Meyrick, to in- 

 treat that my lord of Essex wold not conceave ill of him in this his 

 sekinge [oi the place of a justice for Wales, in opposition to Mr. 

 Broughton]." Again, William Treu, Esq , writing to his wife, 

 the daughter of Richard Bagot, on St. Andrew's eve, 1599, ob- 

 serves — " My lord Riche deals badly with me, but I have good 

 words of Sir Gelly Meyrick and Sir Harry Lindley." Indeed, such 

 was the supposed extent of his influence that the renowned Isaac 

 Casanbon, who was patronized by the Earl of Essex, chose to give 

 the name of Meyrick, or as it was sometimes spelt, Meric, to his 

 infant child. 



It was in 1595 that the valiant hero. Sir Roger Williams, whom 



• In a letter from Anthony Bagot, Esq., to Richard Broughton, Esq., 

 dated from the wars, he says " Mr. Reynolds and I are all the officers my 

 lord hath, Mr. Meyrick sycke at Diepe, but 4 of his gard came with us, and 

 three of them sycke." MS., penes Lord Bagot. 



-|- Percy's Reliques of Ant. Poetry. See, afterwards, what Sir Gelly, who 

 was a Welshman and a Knight of Cales, says of his means. Cadiz was then 

 called Cales. 



