The Hertford Correspondence. 



189 



Many other letters of the Earl of Hertford are extant, but for 

 the present it may suffice to take one more view of him towards 

 the close of his career. For this we are indebted to the auto- 

 biography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, who saw the venerable earl in 

 the procession which attended James I. when he went to open the 

 parliament that met on the 30th of January, 1621 (the parliament 

 which impeached Lord Chancellor Bacon). "Amongst the nobi- 

 lity," writes D'Ewes ; " I especially viewed the Lord Seymour, 

 Earl of Hertford, now some eighty-three years old, and even 

 decrepit with age !" This was within three months of Hertford's 

 death. Mr. Gr. L. Craik, from whom the above notice is derived, 

 then recites the following letter (still in the Duke of Sutherland's 

 possession) written by the Earl about two years previously. It is 

 a sort of news-letter addressed to a friend in Scotland, and is inte- 

 resting in many respects, especially as showing how his sentiments 

 in respect of the Spanish match were the same as those uttered in 

 the House of Commons by his grandson, Sir Francis Seymour, the 

 member for Marlborough. This document "which fills a folio page 

 and a half, is finished off with seven elaborate flourishes of penman- 

 | ship (one of them attached to the very careful and distinct signa- 

 ture), which spread over the remaining half-page, but cannot be 

 imitated here. It is addressed on the back — 'To my very loving 

 friend Sir Robert Grordon, Knight, these be delivered. ' Sir Robert 

 Gordon's father-in-law, who is mentioned in the letter, was Dean 

 of Salisbury." — Romance of the Peerage, 3. xii. 



The Earl of Hertford to Sir Eobert Gordon (son-in-law to the 

 Bean of Salisbury.) 



Sir : — I have at several times received two letters from you, the one of the 

 21st November, 1618, and the other bearing no date, by which it seemeth you 

 have sent others which are not as yet come to my hands. These which I have 

 received are so full of courtesy and kind offers of your love and affection that I 

 | cannot return too many thanks for the same, with assurance of my love again 

 to you and yours upon all occasions. The news of mine and my wife's health, 

 you so much desire to hear, I thank God stand well. As for other occurrents, 

 some are comfortable and good, and others not altogether so pleasing, by reason 

 of the loss of our late noble queen, Anne [wife of James I.] which hath spread 



2 c 



