Memoirs 191 



some towns, he returned home again ; and though he 

 had the less experience, yet he was Hke to have proved 

 the better soldier, if better could have been, for natur- 

 ally he had a practick genius to the warlike arts, or 

 arts of war, as natural poets have to poetry : but his 

 hfe was cut off before he could arrive to the true per- 

 fection thereof. Yet he writ " A Treatise of the Arts 

 in War," but by reason it was in characters, and the 

 key thereof lost, we cannot as yet understand any 

 thing therein, at least not so as to divulge it. My 

 other brother, the Lord Lucas, who was heir to my 

 father's estate, and as it were the father to take care 

 of us all, is not less valiant then they were, although 

 his skill in the discipline of war was not so much, 

 being not bred therein, yet he had more skill in the 

 use of the sword and is more learned in other arts and 

 sciences then they were, he being a great scholar, by 

 reason he is given much to studious contemplation. 



Their practice was, when they met together, to 

 exercise themselves with fencing, wrestling, shooting, 

 and such like exercises, for I observed they did sel- 

 dome hawk or hunt, and very seldom or never dance, 

 or play on musick, saying it was too effeminate for 

 masculine spirits. Neither had they skill, or did use 

 to play, for ought I could hear, at cards or dice, or 

 the hke games, nor given to any vice, as I did know, 

 unless to love a mistress were a crime, not that I 

 know any they had, but what report did say, and 

 usually reports are false, at least exceed the truth. 



As for the pastimes of my sisters when they were 

 in the country, it was to reade, work, walk, and 

 discourse with each other; for though two of my 

 three brothers were married, my brother the Lord 

 Lucas to a virtuous and beautiful lady, daughter to 

 Sir Christopher Nevil, son to the Lord Abergavenny^ 



