257 



'iV'ilteljirr IMfs nnii tern 



Henry, Earl of Dan by. — In Vol. I., No. 3, Mr. Jackson made 

 us acquainted with the first public act, on the theatre of life, of 

 Henry Dan vers, afterwards Earl of Danby. The object of the 

 following " Note" is to supply a glimpse of the closing career of 

 the same nobleman. This was in 1642, shortly before his decease; 

 and just as the Civil War was about to break out. He was then 

 living at Cornbury House in Oxfordshire, where he appears to have 

 made himself unpopular. 1 At this period he appears to have been 

 greatly annoyed by a French gentleman, Sir William St. Eavie, 

 who, in his capacity of Ranger of the neighbouring forest of 

 Wichwood, became an unpleasant rival in the infliction of feudal 

 grievances on the country. Lord Danby had red deer as well as 

 the king, but the exercise of an obsolete royal prerogative, which 

 had recently been put in force, brought matters to a crisis, and 

 induced the earl to prosecute a cause against St. Ravie, before the 

 peers. This was no other than king Charles's extension of Wich- 

 wood forest so far beyond its accustomed limits as to embrace more 

 than thirty additional towns. [By towns we must understand 

 villages or townships] . The country people, thus suddenly brought 

 under the sway of forest-law, of course felt it to be a great grievance. 



1 Amongst the Star- Chamber Reports is the following case : — 

 "The Attorney General v. Ewer, Esquire, Easter, 7 Charles (a.d. 1631). 

 The Defendent at several times, and at several places, and to several persons, 

 did in scorn, disgrace, and contempt of the Earl of Danby use these words — 



viz., 1 my Lord of Danby he is a base cheating Lord, and a 



Cozening Lord, and a Base Fellow I am a better man than 



he ; he hath cozened the country people in taking away their Common ; so as he 

 hath the daily curses of thousands.' And for this he was committed to the Fleet 

 during his Majesty's pleasure, bound to his Grood Behaviour during life, fined 

 £1000, to pay £1000 damage, and at the Bar of this Court and the Assizes at 

 Oxon to acknowledge his offence and ask the Earl forgiveness." — Rushworth" 1 's 

 Coll., vol. 3, app. 36. 



