“In this black marble that each sex may finde White and faire presidents to guide the minde, Men, Women, know, remember “Both liv’d lively examples of conjugal, Paternal, maternal, and religious vertue. The Baronet particularly honoured for Morall, economical and prudential merit. The ladie reverenced for Sanctimonious zeal, humble and constant patience, Abundant charitie, and admirable justice. “Their daughter Elizabeth (who died a mayde, her parents lyving) Belovede, admired for Devoute, chaste, modest and discrete demeanour and fervent Charitie. Reader! Depart! Imitate! 1648.” So the ancient tradition of the “bad Baronet” has its exception here, at any rate. But what shall we say of the lady whose “sanctimonious zeal” is the subject of such confident allusion? Only this: that there are two different meanings to “sanctimonious,” and that we must give her the benefit of the best of them. Referring to dictionaries we find that to be sanctimonious is either to be holy, or to be “hypocritically pious or devout,” like Shakespeare’s “sanctimonious pirate.” Unfortunately for the posthumous fame of the doubtless altogether estimable lady, there is but one connotation of that expression nowadays, and it is not the flattering one. The stately stone eighteenth-century mansion of the Throckmortons, with widespreading wings, ending in pavilions looking more than a thought too airy for this cold climate of ours, was the work of the Woods, to whom much of the architectural dignity of the city of Bath is due. There are (or we must now say there were) curious relics in this grand house of the Roman Catholic Throckmortons. They included a chemise of that precious “martyr,” Mary, Queen of Scots, whom we know from the pages of history to have been one of the most wicked women that ever lived, and who was justly—but belatedly—beheaded; and a gold medal of Charles the First, another “martyr.” Here, too, is, or was, the famous coat made for Sir John Throckmorton in 1811. Curious prints of the making of this celebrated article of attire, brought into being as the subject of a wager, are still sometimes to be met with. The fashioning of it was a hey-presto! kind of business. From the shearing of the sheep, all through the many processes of treating the wool, weaving the cloth, and making the coat, to the wearing of that coat for dinner at Newbury, the total time occupied was but thirteen hours and twenty minutes!