160 Life of the Duchess of Newcastle 



(my brother the Lord Lucas to a virtuous and beautiful lady, 

 daughter to Sir Christopher Nevil, son to the Lord Aber- 

 gavenny ; and my brother Sir Thomas Lucas to a virtuous 

 lady of an ancient family, one Sir John Byron's daughter), 

 likewise three of my four sisters (one married Sir Peter Kille- 

 grew, the other Sir William Walter, the third Sir Edmund 

 Pye \ the fourth as yet unmarried), yet most of them lived 

 with my mother, especially when she was at her country- 

 house, living most commonly at London half the year, which 

 is the metropolitan city of England. But when they were at 

 London, they were dispersed into several houses of their own, 

 yet for the most part they met every day, feasting each other 

 like Job's children. But this unnatural war came like a 

 whirlwind, which felled down their houses, where some in the 

 wars were crushed to death, as my youngest brother Sir 

 Charles Lucas, and my brother Sir Thomas Lucas. And 

 though my brother Sir Thomas Lucas died not immediately 

 of his wounds, yet a wound he received on his head in Ireland 

 shortened his life 2 . 



But to rehearse their recreations. Their customs were in 

 winter time to go sometimes to plays, or to ride in their 

 coaches about the streets to see the concourse and recourse 

 of people : and in the spring time to visit the Spring Garden, 

 Hyde Park, and the like places 3 ; and sometimes they would 

 have music, and sup in barges upon the water. These harm- 

 less recreations they would pass their time away with ; for 

 I observed they did seldom make visits, nor never went abroad 

 with strangers in their company, but only themselves in a 

 flock together, agreeing so well that there seemed but one 

 mind amongst them. And not only my own brothers and 

 sisters agreed so, but my brothers and sisters in law, and their 

 children, although but young, had the like agreeable natures 



i Of these three gentlemen, Sir William Walter of Sarsden, Oxfordshire, and Sir Ed- 

 mund Pye of Leckhampstead, Bucks, took up arms for the King. Walter was fined 

 £1430, and Pye £3065. Sir Peter Killegrew supported the Parliament.— Calendar of 

 the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding, pp. 1009, 1443, 3290. 



2 Sir Thomas Lucas left the Dutch service about 1638, and was given the command 

 of a troop of horse in Ireland by Strafford (Strafford Letters, ii, 254 262). He fought 

 under the command of Ormond throughout the Irish rebellion, and died about 1649 . 

 Carte, Life of Ormond, iii, 451, ed. 185 1. 



3 A description of Hyde Park a few years later is quoted on p. 302. The same author 

 thus describes Spring Garden : ' The manner is as the company returns (i.e. from Hyde 

 Park), to alight at the Spring Garden, so called in order to the Park, as our Thuilleries 

 is to the course : the inclosure not disagreeable for the solemness of the grove, the warbling 

 of the birds, and as it opens into the spacious walks at St. James's.' — Evelyn's Character 

 of England. 



