252 NORBURY MANOR HOUSE AND THE FITZHERBERTS. 
A specimen of Topcliffe’s handwriting, which affords a further ae 
proof of his remarkable notions of spelling, remarkable even in 
those days of capricious orthography, occurs in the facsimile of 
the Fitzherbert pedigree (Plate XIX.) that he drew up for the use 
of the Council. Richard Topcliffe, of Somerby, Lincolnshire, was 
of excellent family, and was specially proud of his sixteen-quar- 
tered coat. This placed him above the ordinary run of priest- 
hunters or pursuivants. He was on terms of intimacy and friend- 
ship with several of the Privy Council and had no difficulty in 
obtaining private interviews with the Queen, and receiving instruc- 
tions immediately from her. Among the State Papers is a rough 
copy of Topcliffe’s pedigree in his friend Lord Burleigh’s own - 
hand; and the emblazoned genealogy of Topcliffe was one of 
those with which the Lord Treasurer decorated the cloisters of — 
Theobald in conjunction with the highest in the land. The close 
connection of a man of this character and calibre with the Govern- 
ment of the day, is one of the saddest and most humiliating” 
features of the inner life of the court of Elizabeth. Such 
an intimacy is, however, after all, well worthy of a Council 4 
who could actually coolly endorse the letter of a traitor priest, 
offering to murder a co-religionist, specially obnoxious to the by 
Government, with a poisoned Host, and who could continue — 
to correspond with such a miscreant, and to act upon his infor- 
mation.* Anes. 
Nor did the persecution of the Fitzherberts extend merely : 
to the members of the family. The severe laws of this reign 
were strained to the utmost with respect to their tenant: 
power of Commissioners, or powers specially delegated to pu 
suivants of the Privy Council, were brought into play agains 
them. Several of their Staffordshire tenants died in the gaol « 
that county; whilst, the Derby gaol, a specially pestilential plac 
built over the town sewer, and subject to constant epidemics 
* Dom. State Papers, Eliz. 251, No. 49; the letter is addressed to Sir Robert 
Cecil, Burleigh’s son, the Secretary to the Council. : AK 
