CHAP, VI. 



MINING ENTERPRISE IN WALES. 



140 



January, 1G2T, 1 on l>ehalf of a young man "of civill 

 life and honest conversation," whom he desired to serve 

 i>\ com mending him to the notice of his lordship. He 

 als<> continued to maintain his pleasant country house at 

 Bush Hill, near Edmonton, which he occupied when 

 engaged on the engineering business of the New River, 

 near to which it was conveniently situated. 



At length all correspondence ceases, and the busy 

 hand and head of the old man find rest in death. Sir 

 Hugh died on the 10th of December, 1631, at the 

 advanced age of seventy-six. In his will, which he 

 made on the 21st November, three weeks before his 

 death, when he was "sick in bodie" but "strong in 

 mind," for which he praised God, he directed that he 

 should be buried in the church of St. Matthew, Friday- 

 street, where he had officiated as churchwarden and 

 where six of his sons and five of his daughters had been 

 baptized. It had been his parish church, and was hal- 

 lowed in his memory by many associations of family 

 griefs as well as joys ; for there he had buried several 

 of his children in early life, amongst others his two 

 eldest-born sons. The church of St. Matthew, however, 

 lias long since ceased to exist, though its registers have 

 been preserved : it was destroyed in the great fire of 

 1666, and the monumental record of Sir Hugh's last 

 resting-place perished in the common ruin. 



The popular and oft-repeated story of Sir Hugh 

 Myddelton having died in poverty and obscurity is only 

 one of the numerous fables which have accumulated 

 a l)o ul his memory. 2 He left fair portions to all the 



1 ; State Paper OHiee : Domestic 

 I'aper.s,' Charles I., vol. xlix.. Art. 41. 



2 The tradition still survives that 

 Sir Hn^li retired in his old age to the 

 village of Kemberton, near ShiiVnal, 

 Salop, where he lived in great indi- 

 gence under the assumed name of 

 Raymond, and that he was there occa- 

 sionally employed as a street paviour ! 



The parish register is said to contain 

 an entry !' his l.nrial on the llth of 

 March, 1702; by which date Hugh 

 Myddelton, had he lived until then, 

 would have been about 150 years old ! 

 The entry in the register was com- 

 municated by the rector of the parish 

 in 1809 to the ' Gentleman's Magazine' 

 (vol. Ixxix., p. 795), but it is scarcely 



