172 



A Contribution to the History of 



defeat and flight from Prague, A.D. 1620, can never be forgotten 

 here, and has been a favorite theme for authors of man}' countries. 



There no doubt young "Waller was, fascinated by the cause, if 

 not by the Princess, and there, too, I think he must have made the 

 friendship of Sir Ralph Hopton, one of her most devoted friends. 

 At the defeat of the White Mountain, near Prague, during the 

 charge of a regiment of Cossacks, Waller's horse was shot under 

 him. On they came, death seemed inevitable, as the animal was 

 partly on him and his foot was entangled in the stirrup ; but they 

 passed over him, and he rejoined his friends without having re- 

 ceived any serious injury. 



For these, and it may be other, services, Waller was knighted by 

 King James on his return to England, A.D. 1622, at Wanstead, 

 one of Queen Elizabeth's hunting lodges, in Epping Forest. 



Soon after he married Jane, daughter and sole heiress of Sir 

 Richard Reynell, 1 of Ford, Dorset, by whom he had an only daughter, 

 Margaret, who became the wife of Sir William Courtenay, of 

 Powderham Castle, ancestor of the Earls of Devon. Little did the 

 bridegroom think when he and his bride dwelt 'neath Lansdown Hill 

 of the shadows coming to him on that very spot before many years 

 had elapsed. Lady Waller died at Bath, 1633, 2 and was buried in 

 the south transept of the Abbey Church there. Her monument, in 

 which her husband is joined, may still be seen, bearing this epitaph : 



" To the deare memory of the right vertuous and worthy Lady Jane, Lady 

 Waller, sole daughter and heir to Sir Eichard Reynell, wife to Sir William 

 Waller, knight. 



" Sole issue of a matchless paire, 

 Both of their state and vertues heyre ; 

 In graces great, in stature small, 

 As full of spirit as voyd of gall ; 

 Cheerfully brave, bounteously close, 

 Holy without vainglorious showes; 

 Happy and yet from envy free, 

 Learn'd without pride, witty yet wise, 

 Reader this riddle read with mee, 

 Here the good Lady Waller lyes." 



1 This name not to be confounded with the Rosewells of Ford Abbey. 

 2 In his " Recollections " he says their eldest child was born seven years after 

 their marriage. 



