NOTE C. 



Ilarleian MS. 287, fo. 280. &quot; 1 have receyved yo r gentill and courteous 

 lettre, and thank you hartely for it. And albeit my sonne hath begged this 

 benefice of you, w ch indeed was yo r 9 by my promyse, yet I trust or it be long to 

 provide some other of better value for you, in parte of satisfaction of this that is 

 paste, ye shal be sure to have the first, and the best that I may gyve in eyther 

 botlie shires. And in good faythe I am sory you have not this for yo r adver 

 tisement concerning Mr. Dopledick. I have great cause to thinke myself much 

 beholden unto you, but herein (I thank you) I fynd by soundry weyes you do 

 but as you are wonte, 1 should be much to blame if any tyme shall make me 

 forgetfull of it, and remembring it I muste be unthankfull if I requyte it not, if 

 it lye in my power. My desyer is that if you be acquaynted w th Mr. Dopledick, 

 that you will of jo r self lett hym understand that I have told you my intention is 

 to have my second sonne married in Suff., and w* all that I have requyered 

 you, if you should understand of any convenient manage for him to advertise 

 me of it, and so furthe as you shall think moste meet. In deed of all my 

 children he is of best hope in learning, and thereupon to feele his disposycion 

 howe he is inclyned that waye, whereof 1 gladly wold be advertised w th some 

 speed. And besyde I praye you signifie unto me th age of the mayde, w th 

 whome she hath ben brought up, and who maye be the meetest meanes to bring 

 the same to passe, yf upon yo r signification I shall have cause to lyke of it, 

 and of the other syde if you for want of a quayntaince w th hym be not meete to 

 begyne to breake this matter (whereof I wold be very sory) then 1 wold gladly 

 be enfonned from you who were meet to do it. I have written to my sonne 

 that he shall see yo r lettres conveyed w ll &amp;gt; speed, whensoever you are disposed to 

 writt unto me, for in thies causes protracting of tyme may verye muche hinder, 

 my meaning is not to have many acquainted w th this matter, till I knowe what 

 will come of it. Thus wishing to you as to myself I bid you hartely farewell, 

 from my house at Gorhambury the xxvijth of July, 1568. 



Yo r verey frynd, 

 To my verye frend Robert N. BACON, C.S. 



Asshfeild, esquyer, geve 



these. 



Whatever may have been the promise of him when a youth, all which we 

 now know of him is, that he was an artist of some merit. Grimstone, in his 

 History of St. Albans, says, &quot; He had a great talent for painting, and travelled 

 into Italy to improve himself in that art.&quot; Lord Orford, in his History of 

 Painting, ranks him very high in reputation, amongst the British artists. At 

 Culford he left some few pieces of fruit and fish, but they are lost or destroyed, 

 and the only remaining specimens of his works are preserved at Gorhambury, 

 these are a full length portrait of himself, a cook supposed to have been a 

 representation of Lady Bacon, with a great variety of dead game in the fore 

 ground, part of which appears unfinished, but the remainder has been greatly 

 admired. There is also a small portrait of his mother. 



He is thus mentioned in Pennant s Journey from Chester. Near him is his 

 accomplished kinsman, his half-brother, Sir Nathaniel Bacon, knight of the 

 Bath, leaning back in his chair, in a green jacket laced, yellow stockings, a dog 

 by him, and sword and pallet hung up. &quot; In the art of painting, none,&quot; says 

 Peacham, &quot; deserveth more respect and admiration than Master Nathaniel 

 Bacon, of Brome, in Suffolk ; not inferior, in my judgment, to our skillfullest 

 masters.&quot; lie improved his talent by travelling into Italy ; and left in this 

 house, as a proof of the excellency of his performances, this portrait, and a most 

 excellent one of a cook, a perfect Venus, with an old game-keeper ; behind is a 

 variety of dead game, in particular a swan, whose plumage is expressed with 

 inimitable softness and gloss. 



Sir Nath. Bacon se ipse p. Chambers se 4to. in the anecdotes of painting. 

 Sir Nathaniel Bacon, second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, painted his own por 

 trait and a cook maid, with large and small fowls, in a masterly manner. Both 

 these pictures are at Gorhambury. lie was ancestor to the present Lord Towns- 

 head . Mr. Nathaniel Bacon, younger son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight and 



