By Charles Edward Long, Esq. 213 



man's narrative, but for which he gave no kind of authority, the reader 

 is referred to the Notes upon the Poem.^ Under the title of the 

 " Mysterious Story of Littlecote," the legend has been more recently 

 amplified in Sir Bernard Burke's " Romance of the Aristocracy,"^ 

 with various graphic and picturesque details, equally, as we suspect, 

 the production of mere fancy. 



I may here observe that one, if I am not in error, of the tradi- 

 tions of the villagers is that it was a case of incest ; and, situated 

 as Darell was without wife or family, we require some such appal- 

 ling horror to serve as a motive for the perpetration of a further 

 crime so heinous. It does not distinctly appear whether Darell's f/^^ 6,ita/ 

 sister was of the whole or of the half-blood. If the latter, it may 

 be observed that his step-mother married twice after his father's 

 decease, that he was ten years old at that time, that he outlived 

 the second of these two husbands ; and it is therefore not likely that 

 she remained an inmate of Littlecote. Moreover, we have evidence 

 by means of some Chancery proceedings, of a very scurrilous and 

 vindictive description, which took place prior to 1579, and to 

 which my attention was drawn by Mr. Carrington of Lincoln's Inn, 

 to show that he and his step-mother were at open variance ; and 

 that therefore, as regards any half-sister, no such accusation can 

 be supported. With respect to his own mother, she was then the 

 wife of Sir John Rogers of Bryanstone, while the sister is stated 

 to have been married to Egremont Radcliffe, who was beheaded in 

 1577, this crime occurring, as we are told, about 1588 or 9. With 

 regard to the connection between Popham and Darell, there is no 

 doubt but that a great intimacy subsisted. Many letters passed 

 between them, and particularly with reference to a dispute with 

 the second Earl of Pembroke, concerning the felling of timber at 

 Axford. This occurred in 1582-3, when it would appear that 

 Darell was imprisoned, apparently for some sort of contumacy in the 

 case. Lord Campbell, in his interesting " Lives of the Chief Jus- 

 tices." has quoted the Littlecote legend as if he believed it, and lias 

 also, in a great measure, adopted Fuller's and Aubrey's loose asser- 

 tions us regards Popham's antecedents, his early depravities, and 



' Ilokcby. Nipto .'5 G. ^ Vol. i. p. 174 



