1605.] THE EARL OF WORCESTER. 133 



retained it for fifteen years (the longest unbroken period on 

 record), he was, on the 2nd of the same month, made Keeper of 

 the Privy Seal. Mr. Henry Dircks records that this nobleman 

 " was remarkable for athletic acquirements, distinguishing him- 

 self by the manly exercises of riding and tilting, in which he 

 was perhaps superior to any of his contemporaries ; his horse- 

 manship having been greatly extolled by all writers, in alluding 

 to his character." Sir Robert Maunton says that, in the days 

 of good Queen Bess, the Earl of Worcester " was a very fine 

 gentleman, and the best horseman and tilter of the time, which 

 [accomplishments] were then the manlike and noble recrea- 

 tions of the court, and such as took up the applause of men, 

 as well as the praise and commendation of ladies." Towards 

 the close of his life the noble earl was usually apostrophized 

 by his contemporaries as " the last of the queen's (Elizabeth) 

 old courtiers." That the earl's post of Master of the Horse 

 was no sinecure may be gathered from the following passage 

 of a familiar letter which his lordship wrote from Royston, 

 December 4, 1604, to the Earl of Shrewsbury : " Had not this 

 journey to Huntingdon drawn me from the place of all 

 advertesments youe showld have herd from mee beefore this, 

 and since my departure from London I thinke I have not had 

 2 howers of 24 of rest but Sundays, for in the morning wee 

 ar on horsbacke by 8, & so continew in full carryer from the 

 deathe of one hare to another, untyll 4 at n'yght ; then for the 

 most part, wee are 5 myles from home ; by that tyme I find 

 at my lodging some tymes one, most comonly 2 packets of 

 letters, all w*^*^ must bee awnswered beefore I sleep, for heare 

 is none of the Cownsell but my self no not a clarke of the 

 Cownsell nor privey signet, so that an ordinary warrant for 

 post horse must pass my own hand, my own secretary being 

 syke at London : And, I thank God, never better in healthe ; 

 but wishe hartely to be backe at London, as youe thinke I 

 have cawse, being far from my humor to turn pen man at 

 theas yeares." Writing from Thetford, March 3, 1604-5, to 

 Lord Cranborne, the earl refers to the king's illness : " The 

 reason yt hathe so long continued hathe been the sharpness 

 of the ayr and wynd ; for every day that he huntethe he takes 



