IV. — The Poems of Thomas Third Lord Fairfax. 

 (From the Bodleian MS. Fairfax 40 ; formerly MS. Add. A. 120.) 



In the annals of England the name of Thomas, third Lord Fair- 

 fax, is deservedly illustrious. As a general, he was an intrepid 

 fighter and a skilful commander; in his private life, a man of 

 scholarly tastes, happy in his country estates, which he preferred 

 to the court. Policy and self-advancement were far from his thoughts, 

 despite his great opportunities for aggrandizement ; and the simplic- 

 ity of his character, at which his enemies sneered, was but a proof 

 of his sincerit}'. To sketch his life in detail is unnecessary, yet his 

 poems will gain significance if, in the briefest manner, we review 

 his interesting career. 



The son of Fernandino, second Lord Fairfax, and Mary, daughter 

 of Lord Sheffield, he was born at Denton, Yorkshire, in 1612, of 

 a family long distinguished for its soldierly qualities, hi 1620 his 

 grand-father, Thomas, first Lord Fairfax, then a man of sixt}', joined, 

 with two of his sons, the single regiment sent by James I to the 

 support of the Elector of the Palatinate. He was obliged to return 

 to England to take part in the Parliamentary elections, Init his two 

 sons died at Frankenthal at the head of their troops. Fernandino 

 did not make this campaign, and his father spoke of him as a 

 " tolerable country justice, but a mere coward at fighting " ^ ; yet 

 Fernandino took the field against Charles I, and certainly did not 

 deserve this taunt. 



The early years of our poet were spent in Yorkshire, and he un- 

 doubtedly enjoyed in his first studies the guidance of his great 

 uncle, BMward Fairfax, the translator of Tasso. In 1626 he entered 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, where he remained four years, and 

 then, following the family traditions, he went to the Low Countries, 

 to serve under Lord Vere against the Spaniards. Another young 

 volunteer in the same camp was Turenne. After witnessing the 

 capture of Bois-le-Duc, he traveled and studied in France for eighteen 

 months, returned to England in 1632, and requested permission to 

 volunteer under Gustavus Adolphus, Ijut liis faniil\- opposed it, antl 

 he retired to the Yorkshire estates to live the life of a country gentlc- 



* A Life of the Grrat /.,•!,/ l-\i;if,i\. li\ ( 'l(jiiieiit:s J{. Marklmm, London. 

 1870, p. 12 



