The Third Book 105 



his father being a wise man, and seeing that his son had a 

 good natural wit, and was of a very good disposition, suffered 

 him to follow his own genius ; whereas his other son Charles, 

 in whom he found a greater love and inclination to learning, 

 he encouraged as much that way as possibly he could. 



One time it happened that a young gentleman, one of my 

 Lord's relations, had bought some land, at the same time 

 when my Lord had bought a singing-boy for ^50, a horse 

 for ^50, and a dog for £2 ; which humour his father Sir Charles 

 liked so well, that he was pleased to say, that if he should 

 find his son to be so covetous, that he would buy land before 

 he was twenty years of age, he would disinherit him. But 

 above all the rest, my Lord had a great inclination to the art 

 of horsemanship and weapons, in which later his father Sir 

 Charles, being a most ingenious and unparalleled master of 

 that age, was his only tutor 1 , and kept him also several 

 masters in the art of horsemanship, and sent him to the Mews 

 to Mons. Antoine, who was then accounted the best master 

 in that art 2 . But my Lord's delight in those heroic exercises 

 was such, that he soon became master thereof himself, which 

 increased much his father's hopes of his future perfections, 

 who being himself a person of a noble and heroic nature, 

 was extremely well pleased to observe his son take delight 



1 Jonson, in his Underwoods, has an epigram on the Duke's fencing (No. LXXXIX) : 



They talk of Fencing and the use of arms, 



The art of urging and avoiding harms, 



The noble science, and the mastering skill 



Of making just approaches how to kill ; 



To hit in angles, and to clash with time : 



As all defence or offence were a chime ! 



I hate such measured — give me mettled fire, 



That trembles in the blaze, but then mounts higher 



A quick and dazzling motion ; when a pair 



Of bodies meet like rarefied air ! 



Their weapons darted with that flame and force 



As they outdid the lightning in the course ; 



This were a spectacle, a sight to draw 



Wonder to valour ! No, it is the law 



Of daring not to do a wrong ; 'tis true 



Valour to slight it, being done to you, 



To know the heads of danger, where 'tis fit 



To bend, to break, provoke, or suffer it ; 



All this, my Lord, is valour, this is yours, 



And was your father's, all your ancestors ! 



Who durst live great 'mongst all the colds and heats 



Of human life ; as all the frosts and sweats 



Of fortune, when or death appeared, or bands ; 



And valiant were, with or without their hands. 



2 St. Antoine was the riding master of Prince Henry. — Dalton, Life of Sir Edward 

 Cecil, i, 210. 



P 



