TOMBS OF THE LEES 83 



year he made a marginal note to the line, thus : 

 ' This tomb is since erased and pulled down, 16 12.' 

 Admiral Smyth, to whom I am indebted in the 

 main for the above, says : ' Under so open an 

 avowal Sir Henry Lee, the most chivalrous knight 

 of his day, and Sir Walter Scott's type of perfection, 

 may be dubbed a knight suits peur, though, alas ! 

 not sans rcprocke. He being buried at Ouarrendon, 

 and his wife and children at Aylesbury, is significant.' 

 In my ' Recollections of Old Country Life ' I have 

 described the wife's monument, dated 15S4, with 

 that of her children, and am tempted to make a 

 quotation here. Above the canopy there are these 

 lines : 



If passing by this tomb thou dost desire 



To know what in this marble shrine do lie. 

 The some of that which now thou dost require 



This scleder verse to you will soon descrie. 



Then follows this inscription, quite Spenserian in its 

 diction : the spelling, with its contraction of the 

 letter ' n,' is peculiar : 



Entombed here doth lie a worthy dame. 



Extract and born of noble house and blood. 



Her sire. Lord Paget, hight of worthy fame. 



Whose virtues cannot sink in Lethe's flood. 



Two brethren had she, baros of this realm, 



A knight her feere. Sir Henry Lee he hight. 



To whom she bare three impes, which had to name 



John, Henry, Mary, slain by fortune's spight ; 



First two beig young, which caused their parets moe. 



The third in flower, and prime of all her yeares. 



All three doe rest within this marble stone. 



By which the fickleess of worldly joyes appears. 



