196 



The Ayliffes of GriUenham. 



vain and bountiful to excess : a great patroness of poets, particularly 

 of Dr. Donne, B. Jonson, Drayton, and Samuel Danyell, on whom 

 she " rained sweet showers of gold" in return for which they were 

 not sparing in their eulogy. She spent so much of her own and 

 her husband's money upon Moor Park, in Hertfordshire (pronounced 

 by Sir William Temple to be the " most perfect garden that he ever 

 saw"), as to be obliged to sell it. 1 The tC cousin " (i.e., relative) 

 killed by " young Mr. Ayloffe of Wilts 93 was, most probably, Mr. 

 Francis Harington, son of Thomas Harington, of Boothby Pagnell, 

 Co. Lincoln, who fell in a duel in 1623. One Mr. Arthur Samwell 2 

 is usually named as the principal antagonist by whom he was killed, 

 so that young Ayliff would be implicated only as a promoter and 

 abettor. Brawls and quarrels, especially among the Scottish and 

 English courtiers, were of frequent occurrence at this period ; and 

 parties of young men under the names of " Roaring Boys " and 

 " Roysterers " infested the streets of London at night, to the terror 

 of the peaceful. It being the fashion also to wear swords, any 

 provocation was immediately followed up by violence. 



The next of this family given to enterprize and movement was 

 one Mr. John Ayliffe, of whom this freak is mentioned in an original 

 letter among Sir Richard Veruey's MSS. correspondence : — 3 



" 1673. Oct. 28. One merry story by the way. A sabot [French wooden 

 shoe] was found on or under the Speaker's chair, with the Arms of England on 

 the one side and of France on the other : with beads, &c, on one side, and 'Laws, 

 Liberty and Religion ' on'jthe other ; with this motto ' Utrum horum mavis accipe ' 

 \_Chuse which you will have], 



u P.S. — It was one Ayliffe that did it, and as soon released as apprehended." 



That his name was John we learn from another paper, in the 

 Marquis of Bath's collection at Longleat : — 4 



" Original Petition to the King by John Ayloffe who stands charged with 

 printing ' The Appeal ' and ' The Votes of Parliament ' : and for having laid in a 

 libellous manner a wooden shoe in the speaker's chair, for which he has suffered 

 two years exile. Asks pardon." 



1 The engraved portrait of this lady is in Lodge's " Portraits," Vol. V. 

 2 There was a marriage between the Samwell and Harington families. 

 3 See Seventh Report of the Historical Commissioners, p. 491°. 

 4 Fourth Report of Historical Commissioners, p. 235 a . 



