Strange Pages from Family PapersThiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
Strange Pages from Family Papers
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Legends; Superstition
"His garb is humble, ne'er was seen
Such garb with such a noble mien;
Among the shepherd grooms no mate
Hath he, a child of strength and state!
Yet lacks not friends for solemn glee,
And a cheerful company,
That learned of him submissive ways;
And comforted his private days.
To his side the fallow deer
Came, and rested without fear;
The eagle, lord of land and sea,
Stooped down to pay him fealty;
And both the undying fish that swim,
Through Bowscale-Tarn did wait on him,
The pair were servants to his eye
In their immortality;
They moved about in open sight,
To and fro, for his delight.
He knew the rocks which angels haunt
On the mountains visitant,
He hath kenned them taking wing;
And the caves where fairies sing
He hath entered; and been told
By voices how men lived of old."
But one of the first acts of Henry VII., on his accession to the
throne was to restore young Clifford to his birthright, and to all the
possessions that his distinguished sire had won. There are few
authentic facts, however, recorded concerning him; for it seems that
as soon as he had emerged from the hiding-place where he had been
brought up in ignorance of his rank, finding himself more illiterate
than was usual, even in an illiterate age, he retired to a tower,
which he built in a beautiful and sequestered forest, where, under the
direction of the monks of Bolton Abbey, he gave himself up to the
forbidden studies of alchemy and astrology. His descendant Anne
Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, describes him as "a plain man, who
lived for the most part a country life, and came seldom either to
Court or London, excepting when called to Parliament, on which
occasion he behaved himself like a wise and good English nobleman." He
was twice married, and was succeeded by his son, called Wild Henry
Clifford, from the irregularities of his youth.
And we may cite the case of Matthew Hale, who, on one occasion was
instrumental to justice being done through himself appearing in
disguise, and supporting the wronged party. It is related that the
younger of two brothers had endeavoured to deprive the elder of an
estate of L500 a year by suborning witnesses to declare that he died
in a foreign land. But appearing in Court in the guise of a miller,
Sir Matthew Hale was chosen the twelfth juryman to sit on this cause.
As soon as the clerk of the juryman had sworn in the juryman, a short
dexterous fellow came into their apartment, and slipped ten gold
pieces into the hands of eleven of the jury, giving the miller only
five, while the judge was generally supposed to be bribed with a large
sum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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