H ouse and Garden 
COTTAGES AT EAST CLAYDON 
of war, his Standard Bearer. 
After the long tenancy of the 
Giffards, he had taken up his 
residence at Claydon House 
in 1620. In the days of 
James I., he had been the 
trusted friend and comrade of 
the young Prince Henry, the 
English Marcellus, of whom 
so much was hoped, but who 
died untimely in his nine¬ 
teenth year. His case sug¬ 
gests perhaps the most curi¬ 
ous “ might-have-been ” of 
history. Had he lived, Eng¬ 
land might have had no 
Charles I.,— no Civil War,— 
no Cromwell,—no Charles II., 
nor succeeding James,—no William III.,— 
no resort to H anover for a collateral branch, 
—therefore no George III.,—and, who can 
tell, no American War. 
After Prince H enrv’s death, Sir Edmund 
Verney accompanied Prince Charles, now 
heir to the throne, on his wife-hunting Span¬ 
ish journey, unwilling wooer to a lady un¬ 
willing to be wooed. Every member of the 
Prince’s suite was as heartily sick of the 
venture as was the Prince himself, and Sir 
Edmund’s stout Protestantism entangled him 
in a broil with a certain priest who came 
dangling after one of the English pages. 
Little wonder that no matrimony resulted. 
Fine portraits of both Sir P'.dmund and 
of his son and successor, Ralph, look down 
from the walls, and reappear in the “ Mem¬ 
oirs.” Both sat in the Long Parliament. 
Of some of its most stirring scenes, we have 
the vivid jottings of an 
eye-witness in Ralph’s 
pencil diary, recovered 
from one of the trunks 
in the attic. Both 
father and son were 
strong upholders of 
parliamentary liberty 
against royal encroach¬ 
ment. When the crisis 
came, Sir Edmund 
found that he could 
not fight against the 
King, and Ralph, that 
he could not fight 
against the Parliament. 
With heavy hearts 
they parted at the di¬ 
viding of the ways. 
Sir Edmund came 
back no more to Clay¬ 
don, and lies in an un¬ 
known grave on Edge- 
hill field. Though 
for a time separated 
5 
