July 12. 1851.J 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



19 



FKIVATE AMOURS OF OLIVER CROMWELl.. 



I know nothing more of the enclosed, than that 

 I found it with the MS. which I lately sent you on 

 the subject of Cromwell's " Dealings with the 

 Devil" (Vol. iii., p. 282.). 



I should conclude it to be a carelessly-made 

 transcript of a contemporary MS., the production,, 

 probably, of some warm royalist, who may, or may 

 not, have had some grounds for his assertions. At 

 all events, it gives a few curious details, and, in its 

 general outline, agrees singuhu-ly with the incidents 

 on which Mrs. Behn's play, The Round Heads ; or 

 The Good Old Cause, is founded : sufficiently so 

 to give it at least an air of authenticity, so far as 

 the popular belief of the day was concerned. 



S. II. H. 



" After Cromwell had been declared General of the 

 Commonwealth's Forces, he seized the possessions of 

 the Royalists, who had escaped his implacable resent- 

 ment ; and the New Hall fell to the share of the 

 Usurper, who, flushed with the victory of Worcester, 

 disposed at pleasure of the forsaken seates of the noble 

 Fugitives, who still supported Charles II. 's Drooping 

 Standards ; and adding insulte to oppression, com- 

 manded the domesticks of the Duke of Buckingham to 

 follow their master's desperate fortune, and to carry 

 him five shillings, which lie might want in his exile, 

 for the purchase of a Lordship, whose yearly value 

 exceeded then 1300/. Cromwell kept possession of 

 New Hall till he assumed the title of Protector, and 

 was inslaled at While Hall, in the Pallace of the 

 English Kings: Then he chose Hampton Court for 

 his Summer Residence. He led at New Hall an ob- 

 scure life, without pomp, without luxury, having but 

 two servants in his retinue. Though his manners were 

 natuaraly austere, he had some private amoures, which 

 he indulged with great Caution and Secrecy. His 

 favourites were General Lambert's wife and Major- 

 General Vernon's sister : the first was a well-bred, 

 genteel woman, fatheless to her husband from natural 

 aversion, and attached to Cromwell from a conformity 

 of inclination in a mysterious enjoyment and stolen 

 embraces, with mask of religious deportment and severe 

 virtue: the other was a person made to inspire lust 

 and desire, but selfish, revengfnll, and indiscreet. 

 These two rivals heartily detested each other: Mrs. 

 Lambert reproached Cromwell for his aflCection to a 

 worthless, giddy, and wanton woman ; and Mrs. Ver- 

 non laughed at liim for being the dupe of the affected 

 fondness and hipocry of an artful JMistress. They 

 once met at the house of Colonel Hammond, a Creature 

 of Cromwell's, and reviled each other with the most 

 virulent sarcasms. IMrs. Lambert, fired with rage and 

 resentment, went immediately to New Hall, where 

 Oliver was at that juncture, and insisted upon her 

 Rival's dismissioti for her unprovoked outrage. 

 Cromwell, who was tlien past the meridian of volup- 

 tuous sensations, sacrificed the person be was no longer 

 fit to enjoy, to a woman who had gained his esteem 

 and confidence, and delegated to Mrs. Lambert all the 

 domestic concerns of his house in Essex. Cromwell's 



wife, called afterwards the Protectress, was a sober 

 helpmate, who, dressed in humble stuff", like a Quaker, 

 neither interfered in his amours or politics. She never 

 went to New Hall but once, and that was on the 25th 

 of April, 1652, when he invited all his family to a 

 grand entertainment on account of his Birthday. The 

 other Guests were, his mother, who survived his eleva- 

 tion to the Protectorship : she was a virtuous woman 

 of the name of Stewart, related to the Royall Family ; 

 Dcsborough, his brother-in-law ; and Fleetwood, who 

 had married his daughter; his Eldest Son, Richard, a 

 man of an inoffensive and unambitious Character, who 

 had been married some years, and lived in the country 

 on a small estate which he possessed in right of his 

 wife, where he spent his time in acts of benevolence: 

 at the trial of Charles I. he fell on his knees and con- 

 jured his Father in the most pathetic manner to spare 

 the life of his Sovereign ; his brother Henry, after- 

 wards Govonor of Ireland, where he was universally 

 beloved for his mild administration ; Mrs. Claypole, 

 the darling of her father ; and his three other daughters : 

 Mrs. Rich, married to the Grandson and heir of 

 the Earl of Warwick ; Lady Falconbridge ; and the 

 Youngest, who lived in celibacy. They spent a week 

 at New Hall, in innocent mirth and jollity ; Oliver 

 himself joining in convivial pleasure Avith his children, 

 disengaged the whole time from state affairs and Poli- 

 tical Speculations. 



'• His constant visitors at New Hall were some Regi- 

 cides, and the meanest, lowest, and most ignorant 

 among the Citizens on whome he had decreed that the 

 Sovereign power should be vested. To excell in Fana- 

 ticism seemed a necessary qualification in this new par- 

 liment ; and Oliver foresaw that they would soon 

 throw up the reins of Government, which they were un- 

 qualified to guide, and raise himself to an unlimited 

 power far beyond that of former Kings. 



'■ It seems I\Irs. Lambert continued to reside at New 

 Hall during Cromwell's Protectorship, and that Col. 

 Wite, his trusty friend, was often sent with kind mes- 

 sages and preasants from Oliver, who travelled himself 

 in the night, with hurry and precipitation, to enjoy with 

 her some moments of domestic comfort and tran- 

 quility." 



SPURIOUS EDITION OF DAILY S ANNUITIES. 



In the course of last year a curious and impu- 

 dent bibliographical fraud was perpetrated by 

 some parties unknown. I am not aware that it 

 has been puljlicly exposed as yet. 



The celebrated work on annuities, by the late 

 Francis Baily, was published in I8I0 by Richard- 

 son, and printed by Richard Taylor. It was at 

 first in one volume ; but on the publication of an 

 appendix in 1813, two titles were printed with 

 this last date, and the stock then remaining was 

 sold in two volumes. As the book became scarce, 

 it gradually rose in price, until, when by a rare 

 chance a copy came to the hammer, it seldom 

 fetched less tlian five guineas. This price was 

 lowered, as well by the general decline in the 



