106 



shire, were to me oftentimes but the Gay Harbours of Anguish, 

 insomuch as a wise man that knew the Insides of my Fortunes 

 would often say, that I lived in both my Lords' great families as 

 the River of Roan (or Rhodamus) runs thro' the Lake of Geneva 

 — without mingling any part of its streams with the Lake ; for I 

 gave myself wholly to Retiredness (as much as I could) in both 

 these great Familys, and made good books and virtuous thoughts 

 my study and companions, which can never deserve affliction nor 

 be daunted where it unjustly happens, and by a Happy Genious I 

 overcame all these troubles." 



In 1643, thirteen years after her marriage to the Earl of Pem- 

 broke, her cousin, the last usurper of her inheritance, died, and 

 although King James and his judges had pronounced her disin- 

 heritance, a Greater Disposer of events had issued a more potent 

 edict, and her cousin, the fifth Earl of Cumberland, although he 

 had had seven sons, died without a male heir, and the inheritance 

 that had been wrested from her came back to her indisputably. 

 The male line of the Cliffords was now extinct, and the shepherd- 

 lord's prediction completed. 



In 1649, a year before her husband's death, the Countess of 

 Pembroke came to the north and took possession of her estates : 

 she leaves London July nth, arrives at Skipton on the i8th, 

 Barden Tower on the 28th, Appleby Castle August 8th, Brougham 

 Castle on the i8th. 



The civil war between King and Parliament had then been 

 raging for some time, and she finds her castles more or less 

 demolished, and the churches ruined and desecrated by Crom- 

 well's soldiers ; so she sets to work with extraordinary energy and 

 determination to repair and reinstate ; her friends advise her to 

 desist, as Cromwell would be very likely to pull them down again, 

 but she replies, " Let him destroy my castles if he will, and as 

 often as he levels them I will rebuild them, so long as he leaves 

 me a shilling in my pocket. 



Then there were manor courts to be held, to reclaim rights and 

 correct abuses ; boundaries to be ridden, and a general putting 

 to rights of nearly all Westmorland and a part of Yorkshire — for 



