218 



The Littlecote Legend. (No. 4.) 



(that is, between the old midwife's declaration and death, and the 

 sop thrown out to Bromley); then again for four years more, when 

 Popham came finally to the rescue, had a retaining 1 fee in the 

 reversion of Littlecote, hurried down, though at some cost of 

 dignity, to the Marlborough Sessions, and saved the life of his 

 friend as counsel, though on this point at variance with the account 

 given by Aubrey, who calls him a "Judge;" and so the curtain 

 fell for a while on this dreary and doleful drama. They must 

 indeed be "lovers of the marvellous" w T ho can swallow all these 

 ingredients and yet remain among the faithful. 



In conclusion, and wearisome though the recapitulation may be, 

 I must be permitted to sum up this interminable case by plucking 

 the plumage off the story in detail, and then leaving the old 

 woman's narrative and its applicability to Darell and to Littlecote to 

 be decided by your readers according to the evidence. First then of 

 John Aubrey, the original conservator of the tradition, to whom 

 your " credulous " correspondent lends so willing an ear. 



1. He (Aubrey) speaks of Darell's "lady's waiting woman." 

 Darell had no " lady," consequently there was no "lady's waiting 

 woman." 



2. "The old woman," he says, "went to a Justice of Peace — 

 search was made — the very chamber found — the Knight was 

 brought to his trial," and, to be short, "this Judge had this noble 

 house &c, for a bribe to save his (Darell's,) life." Now these 

 are purely imaginary details, though founded no doubt on the old 

 woman's mutterings about a murder somewhere at some time or 

 other. She did not go to a Justice of the Peace, for the reason 

 that she was ill and dying and in bed : no search could have been 

 made to which she was a party, and no chamber found, for a similar 

 reason ; not the slightest allusion to any trial of such a nature can 

 be met with, and, if met with, Popham, who was not a Judge until 

 after Darell's death eleven years subsequent, could never have presi- 

 ded. The enquiry, if there ever was an enquiry consequent upon 

 Mrs. Barnes's deposition, was scattered to the winds, and although 

 Darell was engaged in virulent altercations, first with Lord Pem- 

 broke in 1582, who was so exasperated against him that he declared 



