by John Aubrey
GEORGE HERBERT
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[Born 1593. Poet. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1616 and was public orator from 1619 until 1627. He became the friend of Sir Henry Wotton, Donne and Bacon, the last of whom is said to have held him in such high esteem as to submit his writings to him before publication. He acquired the favour of James I, who conferred upon him a sinecure worth £120 a year, and having powerful friends, he attached himself for some time to the Court in the hope of preferment. The death of two of his patrons, however, led him to change his views, and coming under the influence of Nicholas Ferrar, the quietist of Little Gidding, and of Laud, he took orders in 1626, becoming in 1630 Rector of Bemerton in Wiltshire, where he passed the remainder of his life, discharging the duties of a parish priest with conscientious assiduity. His chief works are The Temple, or Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1634), The Country Parson (1652) and Jacula Prudentium, a collection of pithy proverbial sayings, the two last in prose. The Temple, which was published posthumously, had immediate acceptance, and according to Izaak Walton who wrote his life, twenty thousand copies were sold in a few years. Among its admirers were Charles I, William Cowper and Coleridge. Herbert wrote some of the most exquisite sacred poetry in the language, although his style, influenced by Donne, is at times characterised by artificiality and conceits. He was an excellent classical scholar and an accomplished musician. He died in 1633.]
IN BRECKNOCKSHIRE, ABOUT 3 miles from Brecknock, is a village called Penkelly, where is a little Castle. It is an ancient Seate of the Herberts. Mr. Herbert, of this place, came, by the mother’s side, of Wgan. The Lord Cherbery’s ancestor came by the second venter, who was a Miller’s daughter. The greatest part of the estate was settled on the issue by the 2d venter, viz. Montgomery castle, and Aberystwith. Upon this Match with the Miller’s daughter are to this day recited, or sung, by the Welsh, verses to this sence:—O God! Woe is me miserable, my father was a Miller, and my mother a Milleresse, and I am now a Ladie.
In a Buriall-place in the Church at Montgomery (belonging to the Castle) is a great freestone monument of Richard Herbert, Esq. (father to the learned Lord Herbert of Cherbery, and Mr. George Herbert, who wrote the Sacred Poems) where are the effigies of him and Magdalene his wife, who afterwards was maried to Sir John Danvers of Wilts, and lies interred at Chelsey church but without any monument. Dr. Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s, preached her funerall sermon, to which are annexed severall verses, Latin and Greeke, by Mr. George Herbert, in Memorie of Her. She was buryed, as appeares by the sermon, July 1, 1627.
Mr. George Herbert was kinsman (remote) and Chapelaine to Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, and Lord Chamberlayn. His Lordship gave him a Benefice at Bemmarton (between Wilton and Salisbury) a pittifull little chappell of Ease to Foughelston. The old house was very ruinous. Here he built a very handsome howse for the Minister, of Brick, and made a good garden and walkes. He lyes in the Chancell, under no large, nor yet very good, marble grave-stone, without any Inscription.
In the Chancell are many apt sentences of the Scripture. At his Wive’s Seate, My life is hid with Christ in God (he hath verses on this Text in his Poems). Above, in a little windowe-blinded, with a Veile (ill painted) Thou art my hideing place.
He maried Jane, the third daughter of Charles Danvers, of Bayntun, in com. Wilts, Esq. but had no issue by her. He was a very fine complexion and consumptive. His mariage, I suppose, hastened his death. My kinswoman was a handsome bona roba and ingeniose.
When he was first maried he lived a yeare or better at Dantesey house. H. Allen, of Dantesey, was well acquainted with him, who has told me that he had a very good hand on the Lute, and that he sett his own Lyricks or sacred poems.
Scripsit:—Sacred Poems, called The Church, printed, Cambridge, 1633; a Booke entituled The Country Parson, not printed till about 1650, 8vo. He also writt a folio in Latin, which because the parson of Hineham could not read, his widowe (then wife to Sir Robert Cooke) condemned to the uses of good houswifry. (This account I had from Mr. Arnold Cooke, one of Sir Robert Cooke’s sonnes, whom I desired to aske his mother-in-lawe for Mr. G. Herbert’s MSS.)
He was buryed (according to his owne desire) with the singing service for the buriall of dead, by the singing men of Sarum. Francis Sambroke (attorney) then assisted as a Chorister boy; my uncle, Thomas Danvers, was at the Funerall.
’Tis an honour to the place, to have had the heavenly and ingeniose contemplation of this good man, who was pious even to prophesie; e.g.
Religion now on tip-toe stands,
Ready to goe to the American strands.
MARY HERBERT: COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE
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[Born 1561. She spent her childhood chiefly at Ludlow Castle, where her father, Sir Henry Sidney, resided as President of Wales, and she was carefully educated, acquiring a knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Her brother Philip was her constant childhood companion. On Queen Elizabeth’s suggestion she became a member of the Royal Household in 1575, and accompanied the Queen on her progresses round the country. In 1577 she became the third wife of Henry, Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Leicester advanced a part of her dowry, owing to her father’s poverty. She suggested the composition of her brother’s Arcadia, which she revised and added to. For, in 1586, she lost her mother, her father and her brother and, when she had recovered from this blow, she applied herself to the literary tasks which Sir Philip Sidney had left unfinished or had contemplated, and took under her protection the many men of letters to whom he had acted as patron: Edmund Spenser, Samuel Daniel, Nicholas Breton, Thomas Moffat, Thomas Nashe, Gabriel Harvey, John Donne and Ben Jonson. Her poetry, according to Sir John Harrington, should outlast Wilton’s walls. Died 1621.]
MARY, COUNTESSE OF Pembroke, was sister to Sir Philip Sydney: maried to Henry, the eldest son of William Earle of Pembroke; but this subtile old Earle did see that his faire and witty daughter-in-lawe would home his sonne, and told him so, and advised him to keepe her in the Countrey and not to let her frequent the Court.
She was a beautifull Ladie and had an excellent witt, and had the best breeding that that age could afford. Shee had a pritty sharpe-ovall face. Her haire was of a reddish yellowe.
She was very salacious, and she had a Contrivance that in the Spring of the yeare, when the Stallions were to leape the Mares, they were to be brought before such a part of the house, where she had a vidette (a hole to peepe out at) to looke on them and please herselfe with their Sport; and then she would act the like sport herselfe with her stallions. One of her great Gallants was Crooke-back’t Cecill, Earl of Salisbury.
In her time, Wilton House was like a College, there were so many learned and ingeniose persons. She was the greatest Patronesse of witt and learning of any Lady in her time. She was a great Chymist, and spent yearly a great deale in that study. She kept for her Laborator in the house Adrian Gilbert (vulgarly called Dr. Gilbert) halfe-brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was a great Chymist in those dayes and a Man of excellent naturall Parts; but very Sarcastick, and the greatest Buffoon in the Nation; cared not what he said to man or woman of what quality soever. ’Twas he that made the curious wall about Rowlington-parke, which is the parke that adjoynes the howse at Wilton. Mr. Henry Sanford was the Earle’s Secretary, a good scholar and poet, and who did penne part of the Arcadia dedicated to her (as appeares by the preface). He haz a preface before it with the two letters of his name. She also gave an honourable yearly Pension to Dr. Mouffet, who hath writt a Booke De Insectis. Also one Boston, a good Chymist, a Salisbury man borne, who did undoe himselfe by studying the Philosophers-stone, and she would have kept him, but he would have all the golde to himselfe, and so dyed, I thinke, in a Gaole. And I cannot imagine that Mr. Edmund Spencer could be a stranger here.
At Wilton is a good Library, which was collected in this learned Ladie’s time. There is a Manuscript very elegantly written, viz. all the Psalmes of David translated by
Sir Philip Sydney, curiously bound in crimson velvet. There is a MS. writt by Dame Marian Of Hunting and Hawking, in English verse, written in King Henry 8th’s time. There is the Legier book of Wilton, one page Saxon and the other Latin, which Mr. Dugdale perused. There was a Latin Poeme, a Manuscript, writt in Julius Caesar’s time; wherein amongst the Dogges, was mention of Tumblers, and that they were found no where, but in Britaine.
This curious seate of Wilton and the adjacent countrey is an Arcadian place and a Paradise. Sir Philip Sydney was much here, and there was so great love between him and his faire sister that I have heard old Gentlemen say that they lay together, and it was thought the first Philip Earle of Pembroke was begot by him, but he inherited not the witt of either brother or sister.
This Countesse, after her Lord’s death, maried to Sir Matthew Lister, Knight, one of the colledge of Physitians, London. Jack Markham saies they were not maried. He was, they say, a learned and handsome Gentleman. She built then a curious house in Bedfordshire called Houghton Lodge, neer Ampthill. The architects were sent for from Italie. It is built according to the Description of Basilius’s house in the firste booke of Arcadia. It is most pleasantly situated, and has fower Visto’s; each prospect 25 or 30 miles. This was sold to the Earle of Elgin. The house did cost 10,000 pounds the building.
An epitaph on the Lady Mary, Countesse of Pembroke (in print somewhere) by William Browne, who wrote the Pastoralls:
Underneath this sable Herse
Lies the Subject of all Verse:
Sydney’s Sister, Pembroke’s Mother
Death! ere thou Kill’st such another
Fair, and good, and learnd as SHEE,
Time will throw his Dart at thee.
WILLIAM HERBERT: EARL OF PEMBROKE
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[Born 1501. Esquire of the Body of Henry VIII. Married a sister of Queen Catharine Parr. Gentleman of the Privy Chamber 1546. Appointed one of Henry VIII’s executors and a member of Edward VI’s Council. Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse 1548. Helped to quell Cornish Rising 1549. President of Wales 1550. Took part in Somerset’s trial (1551) and obtained his Wiltshire estates. Created Earl of Pembroke 1551. Joined Northumberland in proclaiming Lady Jane Grey as Queen, but declared for Mary in time. Intimate with King Philip. Envoy to France 1555. Governor of Calais 1556. Lord Steward under Elizabeth 1568. Died 1570.]
HE WAS (AS I take it) a younger brother, a mad fighting young Fellow. ’Tis certaine he was a servant to the house of Worcester, and wore their blew-coate and Badge. My cosen Whitney’s great aunt gave him a golden angell when he went to London. One time, being at Bristowe, he was arrested, and killed one of the Sheriffes of the City. He made his escape through Back-street, through the (then great) Gate, into the Marsh, and gott into France.
Upon this action of Killing the Sheriffe, the City ordered the Gate to be walled-up, and only a little posterne gate or dore, with a Turnestile for a foot-passenger, which continued so till Bristowe was a Garrison for the King, and the great Gate was then opened. He was called black Will Herbert.
In France he betooke himselfe into the Army, where he shewd so much courage, and readinesse of witt in Conduct, that in short time he became Eminent, and was favoured by the King, who afterwards recommended him to Henry the VIII of England, who much valued him, and heaped favours and honours upon him.
He maried Anne Par, sister of Queen Katharine Par, by whom he had 2 sonnes, Henry Earle of Pembroke and Edward, the ancestor of the Lord Powys.
He was made Privy Councellor and conservator of King Henry the Eight’s Will. He could neither write, nor read, but had a Stamp for his name. He was of good Naturall; but very Cholerique. He was strong sett, but bony, reddish-favoured, of a sharp eie, sterne looke.
Upon the Dissolution of the Abbeys, He gave him the Abbey of Wilton, and a country of Lands and Mannours there about belonging to it. He gave him also the Abbey of Remesbury, in Wilts, with much lands belonging to it. He gave him Cardiff-Castle, in Glamorganshire, with the ancient Crownelands belonging to it.
In Queen Mary’s time, upon the return of the Catholique Religion, the nunnes came again to Wilton Abbey, and this William, Earl of Pembroke, came to the gate (which lookes towards the court by the street, but now is walled up) with his cappe in hand, and fell upon his knee to the Lady Abesse and the Nunnes, crying peccavi [I have sinned]. Upon Queen Mary’s death, the Earle came to Wilton (like a Tygre) and turned them out, crying, out, ye Whores, to worke, to worke, ye Whores, goe spinne.
He, being a stranger in our Country, and an upstart, was much envyed. And in those days (of sword and buckler) noblemen (and also great Knights, as the Longs) when they went to the Assizes or Sessions at Salisbury, etc., had a great number of Retainers following them; and there were (you have heard) in those dayes, Feudes, i.e. quarrels and animosities, between great neighbours. Particularly this newe Earle was much envyed by the then Lord Sturton of Sturton (which is a most parkely ground and Romancy pleasant place: heretofore all horrid, and woody) who would when he went or returned from Sarum (by Wilton was his rode) sound his Trumpets and give reproachfull challenging words; ’twas a relique of Knighthood Errantry.
These Lord Stourtons were possessed of a great Estate in the West till in Queen Maries dayes, the Lord Stourton was attainted by his murthering of Mr. Hargill his Steward, whom he killed and buryed in his Cellar, for which he was hanged in a silken halter at Salisbury.
There was a great Feud between this Lord Stourton and William Herbert the first Earle of Pembroke of that Family, who was altogether a Stranger in the West, and from a private Gentleman, and of no Estate, but only a Soldier of Fortune becoming a Favourite of King Henr. 8, at the dissolution of the Abbeys, in few years from nothing slipt into a prodigiouse Estate of the Church Lands: Which brought great Envy on him, from this Baron of an ancient Family and great Paternall Estate, besides the Difference in Religion. This Lord Stourton aforesayd was a person of great Spirit and Courage, and kept in his Retinew the stoutest fellowes he could heare of: Amongst others, he heard of one Hargill a mighty, stowt fellowe, who had lately killed a man, who was recommended to his Lordship for his valour: who when he came in to his family, the Lord Stourton gave the next Sunday ten groates to the Priest of the parish to say a Masse for him at Church, for the expiation of his (Hargill) sin in killing the man. A surley, dogged, crosse fellowe it seemes he was, whom at last when his Lordship had advanced to be Steward of his Estate, cosined his Lord of the Mannour of Kilmanton (the next parish.) I thinke it was a Trust: Which the Lord Stourton, who also had a good spirit, seeing his servant Hargill had so ensnared him in lowe tricks, as that he could not possibly be relieved: not able to beare so great and ungratefull an abuse, murthered him as aforesayd.
Venetia Digby
Reproduced by gracious permission of His Majesty the King from the portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck at Windsor
Sir Kenelm Digby
From the portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck, in the collection of Sir Felix Cassel, Bart., at Putteridge Bury
In Queen Elizabeth’s time, some Bishop (I have forgott who) that had been his chaplain, was sent to the Earl of Pembroke from the Queen and Council, to take Interrogatories from him. So he takes out his pen and inke, examines and writes. When he had writt a good deale, sayd the Earle, Now lett me see it. Why, quoth the Bishop, Your Lordship cannot read it? That’s all one: I’le see it, quoth he, and takes it, and teares it to pieces. Zounds, you rascall, quoth he, d’ee thinke I will have my Throate cutt with a pen-knife? It seems they had a minde to have pick’t a hole in his Coate, and to have gott his Estate.
’Tis reported that he caused himselfe to be lett bloud, and bled so much that it was his death, and that he should say as he was expiring, They would have Wilton, they would have Wilton, and so gave up the Ghost.
This William (the founder of the Family) had a little reddish picked nosed Cur-dog: none of the Prettiest: which loved him, and the Earle loved the dog. When the Earle dyed, the dog would not
goe from his Master’s dead body, but pined away, and dyed under the hearse; the picture of which Dog is under his picture in the Gallery at Wilton.
WILLIAM AND PHILIP HERBERT: EARLS OF PEMBROKE
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[William Herbert (1580–1630) succeeded his father as third earl in 1601. He was immoderately given up to women and was committed to the Fleet Prison and banished from Court for refusing to marry Mary Fitton, a Maid of Honour and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who was with child by him. On the accession of James I, Pembroke secured a high position at Court, becoming a Knight of the Garter, Keeper of the Forest of Clarendon and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. In 1604 he married Lady Mary Talbot, a great heiress, and the wedding was celebrated by a tournament at Wilton, but Clarendon said he paid much too dear for his wife’s fortune by taking her person into the bargain. He attended the death-bed of James I, who entreated him to testify publicly that he had died a Protestant. Pembroke carried the crown at Charles I’s coronation and was made a member of the committee which advised the King on foreign affairs and of the Permanent Council of War. He was deeply interested in the New World, becoming a Member of the King’s Council for the Virginia Company in 1609, the North West Passage Company in 1612, the Bermudas Company in 1615, the New England Company in 1620 and the Guiana Company 1627. He was also a member of the East India Company. He was a patron of many poets, including Massinger and Chapman, and every New Year’s Day he sent Ben Jonson £20 to buy books. Inigo Jones visited Italy at his expense and he was the friend of Donne and Shakespeare, the First Folio of whose plays is dedicated To the Most Noble and Incomparable Pair of Brethren, William and Philip Herbert. Philip, who succeeded his brother as fourth Earl of Pembroke, was born in 1584 and was named after Sir Philip Sidney. He was the chief favourite of James I in the early years of his reign, who created him Earl of Montgomery and made him lavish grants of land. In 1628 he received the grant of Trinidad, Tobago and the Barbadoes. He was foul mouthed and quarrelsome and took the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. Died 1650.]