Longleat 
a new staircase and a hall door, which subsequently 
was removed. The “ Merry Monarch ” accompanied 
by his Queen and his brother, the Duke of York, 
afterwards James II., visited him in 1663. Then the 
estates passed to a nephew, Thomas Thynne, the 
friend of the Duke of Monmouth. Enormously 
wealthy, great and powerful, his life ended in 
tragedy, and would furnish a strange story for some 
historical romance. Dryden in. his poem, or political 
satire, “Absalom and Achitophel,” alludes to this 
wealthy commoner, called from his riches “Tom of 
the Ten Thousand.” Dryden styles him Issachar, 
and when telling of Monmouth’s triumphal progress 
in the West, and the enthusiasm which he aroused 
among the Wiltshire squires, the poet sings;— 
But hospitable treats did most commend 
Wise Issachar, his wealthy western friend. 
Here, in this hall, the squire of Longleat often 
entertained the errant Duke, and over their wine- 
cups they talked veiled treason and hatched plots 
for the future rising. But in spite of many gay 
scenes that were enacted in the hall of Longleat, 
tragedy was in the air. Of the fate of Monmouth 
I need not speak. His friend the Squire was soon 
engaged to be married to a fair young widow. Lady 
Ogle, then only fifteen years of age. They married 
early in those days. The Squire prepared Longleat 
for his bride, “drawing-room, dining-room and al¬ 
cove chamber” being specially decorated for the 
occasion. The marriage took place, but the bride for 
some unexplained reason desired to stay for a year 
with Sir William Temple, English Ambassador to 
Holland, and his lady, before settling down at Long¬ 
leat. She seems to have met a fascinating person, 
one Count Konigsmark, a Swedish noble, who so 
admired the young bride, that he determined to 
murder her husband. Three assassins were engaged, 
and they waylaid the poor victim as he was driving 
in his coach along Pall Mall, and a Pole named 
Borosky shot at him through the w indow of the coach 
and mortally wounded him. By court favor the 
Count escaped, but his three desperadoes were 
executed. Ihomas Thynne was laid to rest in 
Westminster Abbey, and on his tomb is a bas-relief 
representing his assassination. His bride soon con¬ 
soled herself by marrying the Duke of Somerset, 
and became the great favorite of Queen Anne. 
Swift, in his “Windsor Prophecy,” thus satirized the 
court beauty;:— 
And, dear Englond, if ought I understond. 
Beware of Carrots from Northumberlond. 
Carrots sown Thynne a deep root may get. 
If so be they are in Somer set: 
Their Conyngs mark thou; for I have been told 
They assassine when young, and poison when old. 
It is needless to say that the lady had red 
hair, that she was the daughter of the Duke of 
Northumberland, and that the names of her tw'o 
husbands and her lover are but thinly disguised. 
Swift lamented his lampoon, as it cost him a bish¬ 
opric. 
Idle estate then passed to a cousin upon whom 
court favor shone, and who was created Baron 
Thynne and Viscount Weymouth. "I he Longleat 
gardens now began to assume the formal character 
of the then fashionable Dutch pattern. Every¬ 
thing was made stiff and stately, with chequered 
flower-beds and geometric figures. During this 
period (1682-1714) the chapel was finished, and a 
long raised terrace erected before the front door. 
The Viscount was a life-long friend of Ken, Bishop 
of Bath and Wells, and when Ken and many other 
conscientious men did not see their way to take the 
oath of allegiance to William HE, and formed the 
party known as Non-jurors, being deprived of his 
bishopric, he retired to Longleat and found there 
“ a shelter, affluence and rest. ” We shall see pres¬ 
ently the large upstairs room known as Ken’s 
library, where for many years he wrote and read, 
composed hymns, sang them to his viol, prayed and 
died. His sojourn at Longleat imparts additional 
historic interest to the house, and another figure, 
dear to the hearts of the lovers of English literature 
is associated with Ken. Here Isaac Walton, Ken’s 
nephew, and the son of the author of “The Compleat 
Angler,” was a frequent visitor. There is a book in 
the library bearing the autograph “Iz. Wa.” (Izaak 
Walton). One of the daughters of the house was 
Frances, afterwards Countess of Hereford, a famous 
patroness of poets. Dr. Watts named her Eusebia, 
and Mrs. Elizabeth Row-e, a constant visitor to Long¬ 
leat, Cleora; and Pope and Thomson piped for her, 
until the latter grievously offended her ladyship 
by showing a preference to her husband’s port, 
rather than to listening to her poems. The atmos¬ 
phere of Longleat must, however, have been literary 
which could have developed such cultivated tastes 
in the fair Eusebia. 
After this time Longleat suffered from a long 
minority and the absence of a resident owner, d he 
third Lord Weymouth, when he came of age in 1754, 
brought back its former glories He first set to 
w ork on the gardens. It w^as the unhappy era of the 
landscape gardener, and of course Capability Brown 
was called in, and at once destroyed all remains of 
the sweet old-fashioned Dutch garden. Clumps of 
trees arise, and vistas are formed, and the little stream 
that turned the prior’s mill is fashioned into a lake. 
The noble owner became Marquis of Batb in 1789. 
King George IV. and his court visited him, one 
hundred and twenty-five persons slept in the house; 
there was a mighty provision of oxen, fat bucks, 
game and other good things; and 30,000 people 
assembled in the park to cheer the monarch. 
At the beginning of the last century Wyatt, the 
