By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 



283 



This tradition, with divers headings, such as " Truth stranger 

 than fiction," and, of course, with various readings, has been 

 re-produced again and again in newspapers and periodicals. 

 In one it is asserted that Charles II., on discovering the marriage 

 between his brother, the Duke of York, and Ann Hyde, sent for 

 the former, and after having " first plied him with sharp raillery," 

 finished by saying, " James as you have brewn, so you must drink," 

 and forthwith commanded the marriage to be certified and pro- 

 mulgated. The expressions used are supposed to have referred to 

 the previous calling of the Duchess of York. No such tales are 

 related, however, in any authentic history. It is not in the 

 f Memoirs of Count Grammont " (a very likely book in which to 

 have found it, had it been true) ; neither is it in " Macpherson's 

 Stuart Papers." In fact, as far as can be ascertained, it has never 

 appeared in print, except in some periodical publication. 



Miss Strickland nevertheless gives us a proof 1 that the tradition 

 has not been confined to mere newspaper gossip, but has been 

 repeated by those who might be supposed to be well informed on 

 the subject. In fact, she traces the story to no less a person than 

 the Cardinal York, the last of the direct male descendants of 

 James II., who died as recently as the commencement of the 

 present century. The Cardinal York, it is said, narrated the tale 

 to Cardinal Gonsalvi, and by the latter, it was repeated to the 

 Marchese de Solari, from whose lips (as I understand her words) 

 Miss Strickland herself heard it. It was told too with this 

 explanation, that Queen Anne's grandmother was not a washer- 

 woman, or blanchisseuse, but a tub-girl, one who not only assisted 

 in brewing beer (an employment in earlier times of women rather 

 than men), but in selling the ale and yeast from the tubs to the 

 customers. This distinction coming as it did from one like 

 Cardinal York, born and bred in Italy, gives some little colour to 

 the possible authenticity of the story. 



The question arises, " How far is this tradition true " ? I own 

 that I am not inclined to dismiss it as a mere fiction, or as " a 

 legend invented for the purpose of exhibiting a contrast between 



1 Lives of tho Queens of England. (Queen Anne.) 

 VOL. IX. — NO. XXVII. Y 



