JVNB 23. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



477 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 23. 1855. 



aattS. 



JHTLTON^S ELEGT ON THE MARCHIONESS OF 

 WINCHESTER. 



Lest what is a palpable error shouUl come to be 

 Teceived as a truth (for persons who correct a 

 previous statement are generally supposed to be 

 in the right), and lest I may lie under the suspi- 

 cion of having written carelessly in my tract on 

 Milton, where I have really endeavoured to secure 

 a reasonable amount of exactness, I trouble you 

 and the public with the following remarks on a 

 passage in Mr. Keightley's new volume on Milton. 



In order to determine the period when Milton 

 wrote his much-admired Elegy on the Marchioness 

 of Winchester, I stated, on the authority of a co- 

 temporary manuscript of Peers' Pedigrees in my 

 possession, that the marchioness died in the year 

 1631. Mr. Keightley says this shows of what little 

 value manuscripts of this nature are. I do not 

 agree with him in this opinion : but let that pass. 

 To show that this date, however, cannot be right, 

 he tells us that the marchioness was certainly dead 

 in 1628 or 1629; because there is another Elegy 

 on her death in the posthumous volume of poems 

 ty Sir John Beaumont, which was printed in 1629 ; 

 the author having died in the year preceding. 



Now true it is that Sir John Beaumont did 

 write an Elegy on the death of a Marchioness of 

 Winchester, and that the Elegy is printed in this 

 volume : but any one who peruses his Elegy, and, 

 to go no farther, compares it with Milton's Elegy, 

 will see at once that the marchioness of Beaumont 

 tind the marchioness of Milton were two different 

 persons. We see nothing in Beaumont's Elesy 

 of the peculiar and affecting circumstances of the 

 death of the young marchioness, to whom 



" Atropos for Lucina came." 

 Nor was she the daughter of an earl, as Beaumont's 

 marchioness evidently was : " Thy father's earl- 

 dom." Nor could it be said of Milton's mar- 

 chioness, that England's state 



" Was wholly managed by thy grandsire's brow." 



Nor could it be said of the marchioness, who died 

 at so early an age, that there was in her wisdom — 



" Bv which thou didst thy husband's state maintain, 

 Wliich sure had fallen without thee; and in vain 

 Had aged Paulet wealth and honours heap'd 

 Upon his house, if strangers had them reap'd." 



But all these circumstances surround the wife 

 of William, the fourth Marquis of Winchester, 

 who wiis Lucy, one of the daughters of Thomas 

 Cecil, Earl of E.Keter ; and granddaughter of 

 William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who is clearly the 

 person alluded to in the line quoted above. 



This marchioness died, according to the peer- 

 ages, in 1614; and might very well be honoured 

 with an Elegy by Sir John Beaumont, printed in 

 the posthumous collection of his pieces in 1629. 



Unless, therefore, some other evidence can be 

 produced, we may continue to regard 1631 as the 

 time of the death of Jane (Savage), Marchioness 

 of Winchester, and of the composition of Milton's 

 Elegy. Joseph Hdntek. 



A. GENUINE INTERCEPTED I,BTTER. 



In 1745 was published by authority, printed for 

 M. Cooper in Paternoster Row : 



" A Genuine Intercepted Letter from Father Patrick 

 Graham, Almoner and Confessor to the Pretender's Son, 

 in Scotland, to Father Benedict Yorke, Titular Bishop of 

 St. David's at Bath." 



Most persons are acquainted with the history of 

 the last of the Stuarts. Father Benedict was soon 

 translated from Bath to York, of which town he 

 was Duke ; then Cardinal ; leaving England, he 

 died in Italy ; and a splendid monument in St. 

 Peter's at Rome covers his remains. This letter 

 to Father Benedict is, I am inclined to think, 

 scarce ; and I therefore transcribe it verbatim for 

 the especial benefit of those readers of " N. & Q.* 

 who appreciate writings political and polemical: ^ 



" May it please your Lordship, | 



" That I may execute the commands you gave mp 

 about four months ago to write you the success of our 

 expedition to Scotland, %vilh my opinion of our prince, 

 and those about him. I can now with the most pleasure 

 assure you that we are actually landed in Scotland ; that 

 hitherto our enterprise seems to be guided bj' the imme- 

 diate hand of Providence; and that the prospect before 

 us seems adequate to all the success that has hitherto 



crowned his R — 1 H s's attempts. 



" Immediately upon our landing, the Prince of W 



kneel'd down with the utmost transport, and kiss'd the 

 earth with great humility; then lifting up his eyes to 

 Heaven, he implor'd the aid and blessing of the Mother 

 of God, and St. Winifred (for whom he has always had a 

 partial devotion). After that, he order'd his standard 

 to be set up ; and all his followers, to the number of about 

 two hundred, being around him, he admitted me first, 

 and then the principal lords and gentlemen, to the honour 

 of kissing his hand. 



" Since that time everything has happened as the most 

 sanguine could expect; "the usurper's forces fly before us, 

 and in every skirmish the hand of the Blessed Virgin is 

 visibly with us, and, of consequence, success attends us. 



Which success his R — 1 H s, and I too, attribute entirely 



to his wearing constantly about his neck a small medal 

 (which his Holiness caused to be struck for the purpose,' 

 and sent him a little while before we embark'd for Scot- 

 land) : on one side of which is represented his R— I 



H s leading Britannia Repentant to kiss the Pope's 



toe; His Holiness from his throne extends his open arms 

 to receive her ; round the margin of that side is read this 

 sentence : 



' Perierat et inventa est.'' 



On the reverse is the figure of the Prince of Wales with 

 a lifted sword ready to stab Heresy, who lies sprawling at 



