50 The Life of William, Duke of Newcastle 



England to serve his Majesty ; but seeing no probability of 

 either returning into England or doing his Majesty any service 

 in that kind, he resolved to retire to some place where he 

 might live privately ; and having chosen the city of Antwerp 

 for that purpose, went to the Hague to take his leave of his 

 Highness the Prince, our now gracious Sovereign. My Lord 

 had then but a small stock of money left ; for though the then 

 Marquis of Hertford (after Duke of Somerset) and his cousin- 

 german, once removed, the now Earl of Devonshire had lent 

 him ^2000 between them ; yet all that was spent, and above 

 /iooo more, which my Lord borrowed during the time he lived 

 in Rotterdam, his expense being the more, by reason (as I 

 mentioned) he lived freely and nobly. 



However my Lord, notwithstanding that little provision 

 of money he had, set forth from Rotterdam to Antwerp, where 

 for some time he lay in a public inn, until one of his friends 

 that had a great love and respect for my Lord, Mr. Endymion 

 Porter, who was Groom of the Bed-chamber to his Majesty 

 King Charles the First (a place not only honourable, but very 

 profitable) being not willing that a person of such quality as 

 my Lord should lie in a public-house, proffered him lodgings 

 at the house where he was, and would not let my Lord be at 

 quiet, until he had accepted of them 1 . 



My Lord, after he had stayed some while there, endeavouring 

 to find out a house for himself which might fit him and his 

 small family (for at that time he had put off most of his train), 

 and also be for his own content, lighted on one that belonged 

 to the widow of a famous picture-drawer, Van Ruben, 2 which 

 he took. 



About this time my Lord was much necessitated for money, 

 which forced him to try several ways for to obtain so much 

 as would relieve his present wants. At' last Mr. Aylesbury, 

 the only son to Sir Thomas Aylesbury, Knight and Baronet, 

 and brother to the now Countess of Clarendon, a very worthy 

 gentleman 3 , and great friend to my Lord, having some moneys 

 that belonged to the now Duke of Buckingham, and seeing 



1 See The Life and Letters of Endymion Porter, by Dorothea Townshend, 1897, p. 231. 



2 This ' picture-drawer ' was Rubens. Mr. Lower says that he ' had a magnificent 

 museum, which the Duke afterwards purchased for £1000 '. 



3 William Aylesbury, the translator of Davila's History of the Civil Wars of France, 

 born 1615, died 1656. Hyde married his sister Frances. See his life in the Dictionary 

 of National Biography, vol. ii. 



