1824.] 
wonderful thing in his family, not fewer 
than four of this great house, in little 
more than a century, having fallen by 
violent deaths.” The first of the men, 
John Holland, Duke of Exeter, half 
brother to Richard II., was beheaded 
by Henry IV. for a conspiracy to replace 
that ill-fated monarch on the throne, 
and aftey his execution, barbarously per- 
formed at Bristol, by a bungling execu- 
tioner, the king granted Poultney Inn 
to the mad wag, his son, Henry Prince 
of Wales,* whose cellars he also stock- 
ed with the red wine of Gascony, duty 
free; and here, perchance, as well as at 
his favourite haunt, the tavern in East- 
cheap, he abandoned himself to those 
wild frolics, which, so happily comme- 
morated by our divine Shakespeare. 
form an untiring subject of amusement 
to every reader possessing the slighitest 
relish for wit. The house afterwards 
returned to its former owners,* the 
Dukes of Exeter; and during the civil 
wars of the Roses, its master sometimes 
advanced to the highest point of splen- 
dour, lived as became the princely line 
from which he had descended, and, at 
others, roamed in foreign lands a wretch- 
ed mendicant, Philip de Comines af- 
firms, that he has seen Henry Holland, 
Duke of Exeter, when obliged, by the 
defeat of the Lancastrians, to seek for 
safety in flight barefoot, begging from 
door to door, and running after the 
Duke of Burgundy’s carriage in the 
same ragged condition for a trifling 
alms: at length this wealthy prince 
granted to him, and an equally illustrious 
and indigent exile, the Duke of Somer- 
set, small pensions, on which they were 
enabled to subsist without imploring the 
aid of casual charity. But soon came 
the restoration of Henry VI. In his 
turn Edward Plantagenet was compel- 
led to fly from his kingdom in such 
haste, that he had no time to provide 
himself with money for his journey, and 
* In speaking of this prince, we are called 
upon to record his literary taste, a feature 
not always noticed by historians. Andrews, 
in his chronology, says, ‘‘ That Henry V. 
loved books beyond the power of purchas- 
ing them, we know from Rymer’s Foedera, 
where we find, in 1424, a petition from the 
Lady Westmoreland, that the Chronicles 
of Jerusalem, and the Expedition of God- 
frey of Bouillon, which the late king had 
borrowed of her might be restored. The 
prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, had 
also lent the king the works of St. Gregory, 
and complains of the prior of Shene for de- 
taining the book.” 
Walks in London.— Fhe Monument 
299 
was obliged to give his ermine cloak 
in payment to the master of the vessel 
for his passage to Holland; and the 
Duke of Exeter returned to England, 
to enjoy those advantages befitting his 
high rank and wealth, having been ac- 
counted, in the early part of Henry’s 
reign, the richest subject in the realm, 
But shifting as the scene of a pantomime 
was the fortune of this luckless noble- 
man. On the total overthrow of the 
House of Lancaster, the utter blight 
of the red rose, after fighting with m- 
effectual bravery. at the battle of Barnet, 
he escaped to the sanctuary at West- 
minster, where he remained for some 
time in the vain hope that his wife, who 
was “ sister every way to the vindictive 
Edward,” would procure his pardon 
from that triumphant monarch; but 
equally infelicitous in wedlock as in 
war, this hard-hearted woman was 
wholly bent upon breaking the tie which 
bound them together, and, neglectful of 
his interests, employed herself in-bring- 
ing about a divorce. Tired of being 
immured in the sanctuary, and disgust- 
ed with the unfeeling conduct’ of the 
Duchess, he withdrew privately from 
London; and reduced again to the 
most abject state, with no other pros- 
pect than that of subsisting by the 
bounty of others, he attempted to cross 
the sea in a small boat, but the waves, 
equally unfriendly as his enemies on 
shore, wrecked the frail vessel in which 
he had embarked, and his lifeless body 
was cast upon the coast of Kent, a cir- 
cumstance which, even in the distressed 
condition of the Duke of Exeter, was 
considered fortunate by the prosperous 
Edward, who had been taught to fear 
this unwaving partizan of the rival house 
as a powerful opponent. Nearly ‘four 
hundred years have elapsed since the 
death of this valiant but ill-starred gentle- 
man, and never has any tragedy, brought 
forward upon the stage during so long a 
‘period, presented so affecting a picture 
of grandeurin distress as that of the Duke 
of Exeter, reduced to beg his bread of 
the proud nobles of Burgundy; the 
reality of suffering has exceeded the 
fiction of the dramatist, and an incident 
too painful for representation, nobility 
in rags, craving a morsel from the hand 
of charity, is to be found only in the 
veritable page of the historian. Passing 
through several hands, Poultney-Inn, 
granted by Edward VI, to the Earl of 
Shrewsbury, changed its name to that of 
Shrewsbury-house. The noble family 
of the Talbots, wheresoever we shall 
2Q2 meet 
