MARY RICH, COUNTESS OF WARWICK 145 



Clandeboye, found no favour in Mary's sight, and 

 in spite of her father's displeasure she refused to 

 marry him. Her heart, it appears, was set on Charles 

 Rich, a younger son of the Earl of Warwick and 

 Baron of Leeze (as the name was spelt in those days), 

 and with small prospect of succeeding to the title. 

 Her father's opposition to the match was at length 

 " by my Lord Warwick's and my Lord Goreing's 

 intercession " overcome, and he told me, writes Mary, 

 " that I should be suddenly married." A splendid 

 ceremony in London was desired by the great Earl 

 for his loving, if wayward, daughter, but this again 

 was sorely against Mary's inclinations. She could 

 " not endure to be Mrs. Bride in a public wedding." 

 And so, she goes on to say, " I was, by that fear and 

 Mr. Rich's earnest solicitation, prevailed with, with- 

 out my father's knowledge, to be privately married 

 at a little village near Hampton Court on July 

 21, 1641, called Shepertone ; which, when my father 

 knew he was again something displeased at me for 

 it, but after I had begged his pardon, and assured 

 him I did it only to avoid a public wedding, which 

 he knew I had always declared against, his great 

 indulgence to me made him forgive me that fault 

 also ; and within a few days after I was carried 

 down to Lees, my Lord of Warwick's house in the 

 country, where I received as kind a welcome as was 

 possible from that family, and particularly from my 

 good father-in-law." 



And so the youthful bride, " being but fifteen years 

 old, and as much as between the 8th of November 

 and 2 1 St July," settled down at Leighs Priory, which, 

 with the exception of one brief interval, and of occa- 

 sional visits to London, was to be her home for seven- 



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