16 Mistress Jane Lane. 
of Blithfield, and of their nine children John, Richard, Jane, and 
Mary will always be remembered as having assisted the King in 
his sore dilemma. 
John Lane was for three years colonel for the King at Stafford, 
Rushall Hall, and Lichfield. It will show the character of this 
man that, when summoned by Basil, Earl of Denbigh, to surrender 
Domestic, Rushall, he replied he had orders to keep it for His 
Le r” Sacred Majesty, and therefore, if the Earl desired to 
1644, prevent the shedding of blood, he must depart, for he 
would maintain His Majesty’s commands to the loss of his dearest 
blood. With such sentiments it is no wonder that he was voted a 
gtr “ malignant,” and on the 31st of July, 1650, it was 
for Advances, Ordered that all his estates should be seized. Richard 
Lane had been a Groom of the King’s Bedchamber. He it was 
who accompanied Charles LI. in his flight from Worcester, and rode 
the King’s “ pad nag ”—one of the fourteen horses sent 
Sates by Mrs. Mary Graves for the use of the King before the 
Calendar battle. This lady, in a petition to the King after 
State Papers, i csp t : 
162). the Restoration said it was she who sent Francis 
Yates to guide the King, for which office the poor fellow was 
afterwards hung, and she maintained his widow and five children. 
Mary Lane, who married Mr. Nicholas, of Manningford, was the 
youngest daughter—the heroine in Sir Walter Scott’s novel of 
Woodstock—his “ Alice Lee ””—at this time about thirty-two years 
of age. Jane was the eldest daughter, and I fear that I cannot 
conscientiously put her age at much less than thirty-five or thirty- 
six. I won’t go so far as to describe her as “ fat, fair, and forty.” 
Her portrait, says Mr. Hughes, in Boscobel, is attributed to Lely, 
is in the possession of the Lane family, and greatly resembles that 
of Anne Boleyn in its thoughtful expression, as well as in the 
features and colour of the hair. 
* A pure transparent pale, yet radiant face, 
Like to a lighted alabaster vase.”—Byron. 
Pe The print taken of Mrs. Lane riding behind the King 
Verse Il- makes her of a pleasing countenance and good figure, 
ated, and a reprint of the original portrait in the same 
