By C. E. Long, Esq. 



203 



supposed horrible fate the villagers of Ramsbury have moulded 

 into a tale of terror. 



2. At page 214 (vol. iv.) the first edition of Camden is spoken 

 of as having been published in 1607. It should have been said the 

 first Folio edition. There was an octavo edition in 1586 and an- 

 other in quarto in 1596. Camden's silence is strong evidence, and 

 should satisfy us that, if he ever heard, he never believed the 

 tragic tale : and more especially as he knew the place, and speaks 

 of it as "lon£? since a seate of the Darells." 



3. The next point to which we have to allude is at page 215 

 (vol. iv.) where a letter (in the Stourhead Library and signed "A. 

 Hungerford,") is referred to as having been written by an Anthony 

 Hungerford. This baptismal name being only inferred from the 

 initial A, the writer of it, was from a comparison of dates and 

 and other circumstances conjectured to be an Anthony, cousin and 

 possibly a brother scape-grace of Darell. A copy of this letter, 

 together with others in the same handwriting, has since been found 

 at the Rolls' Office, and, very much to our amazement, it turns out 

 to have been written not by any Anthony Hungerford, but by 

 Anne, Lady Hungerford, who was divorced in 1569-70 by her hus- 

 band, Sir "Walter Hungerford, (of Farley Castle, who died 1595,) 

 and retired to Louvain where she died in 1603, advanced in years, 

 and, if we may judge by the writings of her confessor, in the full- 

 est odour of sanctity. It would seem to be almost beyond a doubt 



i that Darell was the cause of this separation between Sir Walter 

 and his wife. But no record of the divorce case can be found. 

 The dates of such documents at Doctors' Commons do not extend 



y beyond 1635, and a search at Lambeth was productive of no result. 



it I This lady was the second wife of Sir Walter, and the daughter of 

 J Sir William Dormer of Ascot, Co. Bucks. Her other letters, (al- 

 luded to above as having been found at the Rolls' Office) are of a na- 

 ture that would have been fatal to any reputation even in the days 

 ! of our second Charles. For instance, she writes to her "dear Dorrell" 

 I begging hira to "think" as she says "what you have to doe, and 

 let me not be undone, for the bearer telleth me that my counsell is 

 marvellously astonied for he cannot goo forward according to his 

 I n 2 



