G2 



real incident which gave rise to the very first poem of any importance which ouv 

 own Milton ever wrote. 



And this incident many still suppose (though others deny it) took place 

 in this same Forest of Haywood. This circumstance, however, is unimportant, 

 any further than as serving to show what a place of note the Forest of Haywood 

 had long been, and even then continued to be. I will only premise further by 

 saying that the heroine of the Mask of Comus with her friends were travelling 

 on horseback, which was usual in those days, when roads were not only bad but 

 exceedingly intricate, On the 2Gth June, 1631, the Earl of Bridgwater having 

 been appointed President of Wales, or the Welsh Marshes, took up his official 

 residence at Ludlow Castle, which was the usual residence of the Welsh Presi- 

 dents ; and when, as an old MS. states, "he entered the castle amidst the 

 discharge of the great guns and firelocks of the soldier, attended by all the 

 officers magnificently dressed and mounted. And so great was the pom]) that 

 the like thereof was never before seen in those parts." Wright (" History of 

 Ludlow") tells us also that a large assemblage of neighbouring nobility and 

 gentry had been invited to the castle. And, amongst others, " the Earl's sons, 

 the Lord Brackley and Mr. Thomas Egerton, and his daughter the Lady Alice ; 

 and these being on their journey from Gloucester — 



to attend their father's state, 



And new entrusted sceptre. 



were benighted in Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire, and the lady for a short 

 time lost. The adventure being related to their father on their arrival at the 

 castle, Milton, at the request of his friend Henry Lawes, who taught music in 

 the family, wrote the ' Mask of Comus.' Lawes composed the music, and it was 

 acted on Blichaelmas night, the two brothers, the young lady, and Lawes him- 

 self bearing each a part in the representation." 



-*>GZG^£g&&* 



