THE REAL DARELL 179 



grave nearly three years, and could not therefore have 

 done so. He was, it is true, Attorney-General at the 

 time of Darell's supposed crime, and, had there l)een 

 a trial, and liad he been bribed, could possibly have 

 procured a nolle prosequi. 



But Darell certainly made over the reversion of 

 Littlecote to Popham ia 1586, and Popham took 

 possession upon Darell's decease. The story of this 

 transaction being the bribe in question we owe to 

 Aubrey, the county historian (or rather, the county 

 gossip), who actually gives an account of the trial 

 and says, " Sir John Popham gave sentence according 

 to law, but being a great person and a favourite, he 

 pronounced a noli jyi'osequL" 



More to the point is the fact that Darell, in 1583, 

 offered Lord Chancellor Bromley the then large sum 

 of .£5000 to be " his good friend." 



Those who are interested in the Darell story are 

 equally divided as to his general character. One 

 would have us believe that he was a Model Squire, 

 who fished for trout, took an enthralling interest in his 

 flower-garden, and if he did not always come home to 

 tea (because tea not having at that period been intro- 

 duced, it was impossible to do so), was content with a 

 modest pint of claret at dinner, and spent the rest of 

 the evening in reading what improving literature was 

 to be had in the Elizabethan age ; which, I fear, 

 judging from the general character of the time, was 

 of a somewhat meagre nature. 



The real Darell was not quite like that picture. 

 We already know that he had one mistress at Little- 

 cote, and then there was Lady Anne Hungerford, an 



