252 THE OLD BERKS HUNT 



about the time of the great plague. The 

 commonly received story, however, of its 

 having been built in this isolated spot, in a 

 valley in the very centre of the Berkshire 

 Downs, as a place of refuge from infection, 

 is entirely without foundation. Such a course 

 would have been completely contrary to the 

 character of the first Earl of Craven, who was, 

 like a gallant knight of old, " sans peur et 

 sans reproache." In fact, during the height 

 of the plague, while the architect Webbe, a 

 pupil of Inigo Jones, and the workmen were 

 busy upon his new house in the lonely Berk- 

 shire valley, he remained in London occupied 

 in nursing the sick, and doing all he could 

 to restore confidence to the panic stricken 

 people, and to arrest the progress of the dire 

 disease. A gallant soldier in his youth, he 

 remained faithful to King James II. to the 

 last, when all others, even his own children, 

 forsook him. Lord Craven, as Colonel of the 

 Coldstreams (in which he succeeded Monk), 

 was in command of the palace guard at 

 Whitehall when James determined on flight. 

 Receiving the order to remove the guard, 

 the aged nobleman absolutely refused to obey, 

 until he received the command from the King 

 in person. 



This Lord Craven is supposed to have mar- 



