By Bev. Chr. Wordsworth, M.A. 251 



In the borough chamberlains' account for these years there does 

 not seem to be any mention of the Earl of Salisbury or his passing 

 through the town. There was a dinner given to the Earl of Hertford 

 and the justices in 1612, and a sugar loaf to Sir Gilbert Prynne. 

 Lord Hertford sent a brace of bucks to the corporation as a graceful 

 compliment. There was a "great Fray at y' hart, when Mr. Stevens 

 was slayne," which entailed visits to London and Southampton. 

 Mr. Parker and Mr. Oliver Webb also were "hurte." Several 

 rogues and women were whipped, and in 1613 13s. M. was con- 

 tributed " for ayd money to mary the Lady Elizabeth, the King's 

 daughter," and 10s. was paid "to the Lady Elizabeth for players." 

 The queen's players were here on Feb. 18th and 2nd Nov., 1613, 

 and there was a " dynner for 41 preachers " at l.s. a head, apparently 

 when the King came by. " My Lord Dudley's players " also had 

 10s., and the King's trumpeters that amount twice. 



A letter written by Mr. John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton 

 on May 27th gives further particulars about the Earl of Salisbury, 

 who was Sir Dudley's friend. He explains the presence of Lord 

 Hay, as a messenger from the King, bringing " a fair diamond of 

 £400," " set or rather hung square in a gold ring without a foyle, 

 for a token," with a message also from the Queen — and of Sir John 

 Holies, as a representative of Prince Henry, who died so sadly on 

 Nov. 6th of that year. Sir John was Comptroller of the Prince of 

 Wales' Household. 



These royal emissaries "returned with a good hope, though in the opinion 

 of most about him [the earl] was deploratus long before. He found so little 

 good in the Bath that he made all the haste he could out of that suffocating 

 sulphureous air, as he called it ; though others think he hastened the faster 

 homeward, to countermine his underminers; and, as he termed it, to cast 

 dust in their eyes. As the case stands, it was best that he gave up the world, 

 for they say, his friends fell from him apace, and some near about him ; and, 

 howsover he had fared with his health, it is verily thought he would never 

 have been himselfe againe in power and credit." 



Three months before, Mr. John More had written to Sir Ealph 

 Winwood : — 



" In this short time of his Lordship's weakness, almost all our great affairs 

 are come to a stand, and his hand is already shrewdly missed." (Nichols's 

 Progresses of K. James 1., ii., 445, &c.) 



