HISTORY OF HARTING. 1 05 



latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, we may num- 

 ber successively five John Carylls of Harting, four of 

 whom attained some eminence, while the remaining 

 scion of the noble house died of smallpox at a com- 

 paratively early age. In Elizabeth's reign the Carylls 

 had inherited the wealth of Richard Colyer, of London, 

 mercer. Their estate, however, as we have seen, suffered 

 greatly in the time of Charles I., when their mansion 

 was twice sacked and title deeds destroyed; and John 

 Caryll of Harting I., the eminent loyalist, had to pay 

 the Commonwealth a heavy fine. As some set-off, 

 doubtless his wife Catharine, daughter of Lord Petre, 

 brought wealth and considerable influence to the 

 Carylls of Harting. John, their eldest son,* of a 

 family of seven, whom for designation we shall hence- 

 forth call " Mr. Secretary " (as he afterwards became 

 Secretary and Master of Requests to Queen Mary of 

 Modena, the second wife and Queen of James II.), 

 succeeded to the estate in this parish, as John Caryll of 

 Harting II., and was from his early days a personage of 

 some mark. He had fame as a man of letters before 

 the conclusion of Charles the Second's reign, as Pepys 

 testifies, though in qualified language. " /th March, 

 1667. To the Duke's Playhouse, and saw 'The 

 English Princesse, or Richard the Third,' a most sad 

 melancholy play and pretty good ; but nothing emi- 

 nent in it as some tragedys are : only little Miss 

 Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play." 

 Richard the Third, the best known of Mr. Secretary 

 Carylls productions, consists of a heavily-rhymed set 

 of thoroughly English verses, much like the cumbrous 

 armour of the Tudor times ; the play owed its brief 

 popularity to the acting of Betterton. Much of the 

 thought and manner of the piece are borrowed from 

 Shakespeare. For example, there is an imitation of 



Baptized at Harting " John, the son of John Caryll, of 

 Hartinge, Esq., was baptized the Second of November, 1625." 

 Harting Register, No. I. 



