138 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



of that unquestionable fidelity, and gave such daily demonstra- 

 tion of his affection to the Commonwealth, that Cromwell 

 more suspected the connivance of the Justice (who ought 

 not to have deferred the examination of the persons till 

 the morning) than the integrity of a man so well known as the 

 innkeeper was. The Earl remained in London whilst the 

 inquiry was warm and importunate, and afterwards easily 

 procured a passage for Flanders, and so returned to Cologne." 



Tradition, borne out by many facts, then records that 

 after the year 1660, when Charles II. was restored 

 to the throne, Gilvy, the innkeeper mentioned in this 

 history, was sent for to Court, and the King paid him 

 great attention, for he had then become a colonel in 

 the army of the Commonwealth ; and that the Earl of 

 Rochester, out of gratitude to him for saving his life, 

 came down to Aylesbury, and, as a lasting memorial of 

 his escape and of his gratitude, built him this room and 

 appurtenances, and decorated it as here described. 



Many persons who were good judges of pictures 

 consider they were all painted by Antonio Verrio, who 

 painted the ceilings at Whitehall ; at all events, no 

 expense had been spared to render the building worthy 

 of the event it was built to commemorate. 



The White Hart is supposed by many to have been 

 an inn as far back as the Wars of the Roses, and to 

 have been the rendezvous of the White Rose Party. 

 The old structure, which was pulled down in 1S13, was 

 a very curious building, with three high gables facing 

 the street, and a large gallery running round the great 

 court-yard. There was one singular circumstance relat- 

 ing to it, in the names of the rooms on the f^round floor. 



