1628.] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 9 



been the commencement of his decreased attention to 

 public business. 



He had then been married twenty-eight years, being 

 in the fifty -first year of his age. Of his numerous 

 family he lost five sons and three daughters. Edward, 

 his first born and heir was probably about twenty-six 

 years old; Sir John Somerset, his second son, most 

 likely occupied Troy House, a few miles off, while his 

 next surviving and sixth son, Charles Somerset, he 

 installed as Governor of his Castle. 



The noble Earl, inclined to a plethoric constitution, 

 had not uniform good health, being subject to gout, 

 yet was he of a joyous, hearty, kind, benevolent dis 

 position. He was too a man of some learning, with 

 out being distinguished for its application, otherwise 

 than in some verbal polemical discussions attributed to 

 him by Dr. Bayly, the last chaplain in his service, who 

 has preserved many of his witty apophthegms, pre 

 senting us with indications of his religious and political 

 sentiments. 



Although our interest in this memoir concerns us 

 less in reference to the father, than to be informed 

 respecting his son, yet the intelligent reader cannot 

 fail to discover, that Edward, now Lord Herbert, during 

 the early years of his life, was necessarily so intimately 

 associated with all matters of domestic history, affect 

 ing the large family then resident at Eaglan Castle, 

 that such relations as can be gathered respecting its 

 several branches at that early period, are invested with 

 a degree of interest which they might not under other 

 circumstances possess. 



