i 5 8 



Life of^the Duchess of Newcastle 



rather for formality than benefit ; for my mother cared not 

 so much for our dancing and fiddling, singing and prating 

 of several languages, as that we should be bred virtuously, 

 modestly, civilly, honourably, and on honest principles. 



As for my brothers, of which I had three, I know not how 



they were bred. First, they were bred when I was not capable 



to observe, or before I was born ; likewise the breeding of 



men were after different manner of ways from those of women. 



But this I know, that they loved virtue, endeavoured merit, 



practised justice, and spoke truth ; they were constantly 



loyal, and truly valiant. Two of my three brothers were 



excellent soldiers, and martial discipliners, being practised 



therein ; for though they might have lived upon their own 



estates very honourably, yet they rather chose to serve in 



the wars under the States of Holland, than to live idly at 



home in peace : my brother, Sir Thomas Lucas 1 , there 



having a troop of horse ; my brother (the youngest) Sir 



Charles Lucas, serving therein. But he served the States 



not long, for after he had been at the siege and taking of some 



towns, he returned home again ; and though he had the less 



experience, yet he was like to have proved the better soldier, 



if better could have been, for naturally he had a practical 



genius to the warlike arts, or arts in war, as natural poets have 



to poetry 2 . But his life was cut off before he could arrive 



to the true perfection thereof ; yet he writ 3 A Treatise 



1 Knighted, April 14, 1628. 



2 Sir Charles Lucas, according to Clarendon (Rebellion, xi, 108), was held as good a 

 commander of horse as the nation had. ' He had been bred in the Low Countries, and 

 always amongst the horse, so that he had little conversation in that court, where great 

 civility was practised and learned. He was very brave in his person, and in a day of 

 battle a gallant man to look upon, and follow ; but at all other times and places of a 

 nature not to be lived with, of an ill understanding, of a rough and proud nature, which 

 made him during the time of their being in Colchester more intolerable than the siege, 

 or any fortune that threatened them ; yet they all desired to accompany him in his 

 death.' See also the note on his life in the Appendix. 



3 The Duchess wrote the following poem on her brother s death : 



An Elegy upon the Death of my Brother. 



Dear Brother, 



Thy idea in my mind doth lie, 

 And is entombed in my sad memory, 

 Where every day I to thy shrine do go, 

 And offer tears, which from my eyes do flow ; 

 My heart the fire, whose flames are ever pure, 

 Shall on Love's altar last while life endure ; 

 My sorrow incense strews of sighs fetched deep, 

 My thoughts keep watch o'er thy sweet spirit's sleep. 

 Dear blessed soul, though thou art gone, yet lives 

 Thy fame on earth, and man thee praises give : 

 But all's too small : for thy heroic mind 

 Was above all the praises of mankind. 



— Poems, p. 271, ed. 1664. 



