33ratigate palace. 25 



stones, and so wild and high has grown the grass, that it 

 looks as if no one had trodden there for ages. A noble 

 pleasure-ground formerly extended round the mansion, 

 and beyond it was the spacious park, where the duke and 

 duchess, the parents of Lady Jane, with all the house- 

 hold, gentlemen and gentlewomen, used to hunt. Traces 

 of walks and alleys, and broad spaces for exercise or 

 pleasure are still visible, though generations have passed 

 away since the members of the house of Groby sauntered 

 among them, and the place has much the appearance of 

 a wilderness ; yet the aspect is not that of total wildness, 

 of a spot where the hand of man has never been ; indi- 

 cations everywhere present themselves, that where the 

 nettle, and the dandelion, with its golden petals and 

 sphere of down, reign undisturbed, the rose and lily 

 once grew luxuriantly. The house too, how desolate 

 and changed ! The earls of Leicester, of Hinton, and of 

 Ferrars presided here; then came Sir Edward Grey, 

 Lord Ferrars of Groby, and then the Earl of Hunting- 

 don. Here also resided the Marquis of Dorset, the 

 son-in-law of him who wedded the Dowager Queen of 

 France, Charles Brandon, "cloths of gold and freize," 

 as sung the courtly poet, when contrasting his own con- 

 dition with that of the widowed queen. 



" Cloth of freize, be not too bold, 

 Though thou art matched with cloth of gold ; 

 Cloth of gold, do not despise, 

 Though thou art matched with cloth of frieze." 



