§ iii
Pomp, wealth, and infirmities now began to take the place of brilliant youth and comparative irresponsibility. The frivolous Lord Buckhurst became Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, he succeeded to the estates of the Cranfields, he married, he was made Lord Chamberlain, he was given the Garter, and he had a fit of apoplexy in the King’s bedroom. In order to recover his health he went abroad; his passport is at Knole, on yellow parchment, with the King’s signature at the top:
Charles the Second by the Grace of God, etc., to all admirals, vice-admirals, captains of our ships at sea, governors, commanders, soldiers, mayors, sheriffs, justices of the peace, bailiffs, constables, customers, controllers, searchers, and all other our loving subjects whom it may concern, greeting:
Whereas our right trusty and right well-beloved cousin Charles Earl of Dorset and Middlesex hath desired our licence to go beyond the seas for recovery of his health, we are graciously pleased to condescend thereunto, and accordingly our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby require, that you permit and suffer the said Charles Earl of Dorset and Middlesex with six servants by name Richard Raphael, Robert Pennock, Thomas Bridges, —— Solomon, John Carter, and Christopher Garner, also forty pounds in money, and all baggage, utensils, carriages, and necessaries to the said Earl belonging, freely to embark in any of our ports and from thence to pass beyond the seas without any let, hindrance, or molestation whatsoever. And you are likewise to permit the said Earl and his servants at their return back into this Kingdom to pass with like freedom, into the same, affording them [as there may be occasion] all requisite aid and furtherance as well going as returning. And for so doing this shall be your warrant.
Given at our court at Windsor, the 23rd day of August 1681, in the three and thirtieth year of our reign.
By his Maty’s Command,
L. JENKINS.
There is also a letter from one of the servants mentioned in the passport, saying that they had had a good passage to Dieppe, “except Mr. Raphael, who was kind to ye fishes.”
There is another letter, from the Mr. Raphael in question, written home to Robert Pennock from Paris while on the same journey, saying that his Lordship wants the pond finished against the spring, orders the gardener to manure all the trees, and wishes Pennock to obtain a sure-footed nag, as his Lordship intends for the future only to make use of a saddle-horse between Copt Hall and London to prevent the pain of the gravel, of which infirmity his Lordship has lately been much troubled.
About this time he married. I have in my hands one of his love-letters, in faded ink; there is no date, no beginning, and no signature: it is superscribed “for the Countess of Falmouth,” and enclosed is a lock of reddish-brown hair—most dead and poignant token—of surprising length when one considers the heavy wig which was to be worn over it.
I must beg leave that we may be a little earlier than ordinary at Hick’s hall to-day, for to-morrow, i may be so miserable as not to see you; besides i am in pain till i can clear some doubts that have kept me waking all night; something i observed in your looks which shewed you had been displeased, at what i dare not ask; but till i know i must suffer the torment of uncertain guessing; though i am pretty well assured i could not be concerned in it [more than in the trouble it gave you]; being so perfectly yours, that it will of necessity be counted your own fault if ever i offend you, since ’tis you alone have the government not only of all my actions but of my very thoughts, to confirm you in the belief of this truth i do from this moment give up to you all my pretences to freedom or any power over myself, and though you may justly think it below you to be owned the sovereign of so mean a dominion as my heart, i have yet confidence upon my knees to offer it you; since never any prince could boast of so clear a title, and so absolute power, as you shall ever possess in it.
We know a good deal about Lord Dorset’s expenses and finances. We know that on the death of his mother he obtained an additional income of £1744 14s. 11d. a year from her estates. We know that thirty-four houses in the Strand were granted to him, and let as follows:
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 houses at from £6 to £65 each | 950 | 7 | 1 |
| 3 houses built by him and let at £90 each | 270 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | £1220 | 7 | 1 |
We know that twenty-four tenements east of Somerset House were granted to him for ninety-nine years at a yearly rent of £24 10s. 4d.—and that out of them he should have made £1768 a year, as witness the list I reproduce, taken from a manuscript at Knole, but either he or his bailiff must disgracefully have neglected his business, for on Lord Dorset’s death many rents were found to be in arrear, one tenant’s yearly rent of £30 having accumulated to the sum of £235 5s. 6d., or nearly eight years’ owing, and another rent of £17 18s. 4d. had accumulated to arrears of £111 19s. 10½d. His servants’ accounts, too, were in a state of confusion, and some of the wages unpaid up to three years.
| Signs | Rent | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | s. | d. | |
| The Rising Sun | 64 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 Stars and King’s Arms | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | 0 | 0 | |
| 110 | 0 | 0 | |
| Surgeon’s Arms | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| The Golden Ball | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| The Golden Key | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mitre | 90 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 Golden [?] | 90 | 0 | 0 |
| Black Lion | 90 | 0 | 0 |
| Golden Fleece | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | 0 | 0 | |
| Golden [?] | 48 | 0 | 0 |
| Two Cats | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 60 | 0 | 0 | |
| 70 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hen and Chicken | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| Spread Eagle, a Bath house | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 Black Lions | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| The Angel | 70 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | 0 | 0 | |
| The Dorset Arms Tavern | 140 | 0 | 0 |
| Swan | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bull Head Tavern | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| The Dial | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| Ship and Bale | 34 | 0 | 0 |
| The Peacock | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 1768 | 0 | 0 | |
His total income for the year 1698–99 was £7650 4s. 3½d.—the curious accuracy of these sums does not seem to tally with the confusion to which I have referred—that is to say, about £40,000 of modern money. It may be interesting, while on this subject, to show some of the means common among the great nobles for filling their pockets. In 1697, for instance, we read that “My Lord Chamberlain Dorset has sold the keepership of Greenwich Park to the Earl of Romney” [James Vernon to Matthew Prior], and in the same year—this is when he was getting on in years and entirely withdrawing from politics—“Lord Dorset hath resigned his office of Lord Chamberlain to the Earl of Sunderland for the sum of ten thousand pounds,” but where was this sum to come from? not out of Lord Sunderland’s pocket; no, but “which his Majesty pays.” There was yet another method by which money might conveniently be raised: it is well illustrated by Dorset’s petition regarding the dues on tobacco:
To the King’s most Ext Maty
The humble Petition of CHARLES Earl of Middlesex.
Humbly Sheweth
That by the act [for preventing planting of tobacco in England and for regulating the Plantation Trade] all ships that shall return from any of yr Majties foreign plantations and not return to yr Majties Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales or Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and there pay the customs and duties ... shall be confisable and their bonds forfeited. That the Phenix of London, Richard Pidgeon Commander and several other ships have ... discharged merchandizes of the growth of yr Majties Plantations, in yr Kingdom of Ireland, so that by law they are forfeited as by the said Act produceable may appear.
May it therefore please yr Sacred Majty to grant yr Petitioner all forfeitures as well past as to come on accompt of the said Act, with power to depute such persons as he shall think fitting, to look upon and take care that no such abuses shall be in ye future.
[Knole MSS. 1671.]
To this petition I should like to add another, representing the other point of view, that of the unfortunate people who had the King’s soldiers quartered upon them in intolerable numbers, and were, as it appears, not refunded for the expenses to which they had been put. I add this the more willingly, as Dorset was commonly reputed the friend of the poor, and it is said of him that “crowds of poor daily thronged his gates, expecting thence their bread. The lazy and the sick, as he accidentally saw them, were removed from the street to the physician, and not only cured but supplied with what might enable them to resume their former calling. The prisoner has often been released by my Lord’s paying the debt, and the condemned been pardoned, through his intercession with the sovereign.”
To the Right Honble CHARLES Earl of Dorset and Middlesex.
The humble petition of the Innholders and Alehouse Keepers in the parish of Sevenoaks in the county of Kent, Humbly Sheweth,
That your said petitioners have every year since ye coming of his present Majesty had either foot or horse quartered on them, even much beyond their neighbours ... The said innkeepers are willing to serve their King and Country, but beyond their ability cannot, they therefore humbly pray that care may be taken for procuring their arrears due, or at least to prevent more soldiers coming on them, which they understand are, unless your Honour will stand in the gap ...
[Knole MSS.]
Some of the foregoing papers, then, account for his income; we have also some notes as to his expenses. To his servants he paid £8 to £10 a year for “ordinary men and maids.” For beef he paid 2s. a stone; for mutton, 3d. a pound; pullets were 6d. each; a goose was 1s. 8d.; a pheasant, 1s.; a hare, 8d.; a tongue, 1s.; a partridge, 9d.; a pigeon, 3d.; a turkey, 2s. 6d.; a calf’s head, 1s. 6d. A bushel of oysters cost him 4s. 6d.; a peck of damsons, 1s. Wheat cost him 7s. a bushel; salt, 5s. a bushel. For 130 walnuts he paid 1s. 6d., and for a dozen candles 5s. 6d.—a surprising price. We have also a detailed account of his cellar. For strong beer he paid 35s. a hogshead, and for small beer 10s. a hogshead. From July 1690 to November 1691 his total wine bill amounted to £598 19s. 4d., an alarming sum when we reflect that he was paying only 5s. 1d. for a gallon of red port, 6s. 8d. for a gallon of sherry, and 8s. for a gallon of canary. We are given the details entered in the cellar from August 1690 to January 1691; they are sufficiently formidable: 425 gallons of red port, 85 gallons of sherry, 72 gallons of canary, 63 gallons of white port, and a quart of hock. One wonders whether Lord Dorset was “laying down,” or whether this quantity was adequate only to the six months shown on the account book.
Lord Dorset seems to have carried large sums of money about on his person, for the steward’s account book at Knole shows a regular daily entry of 10s. for loose change to his Lordship, and when he was set upon by footpads near Tyburn they robbed him not only of his gold George, but also of forty or fifty pounds. This does not perhaps seem a very enormous sum for a wealthy man to carry, but it must always be remembered that in order to obtain the modern equivalent it is necessary to multiply by at least five.
Before leaving the Knole papers of this date—and there is much that I have regretfully discarded, many letters, for instance, regarding the election of Lord Buckhurst to the House of Commons, which throw interesting sidelights upon the methods of electioneering in the early days of Charles II—I should like to quote one letter of unknown authorship, relating to the Rye House Plot. The letter is addressed to Lord Dorset: it is unsigned and undated, but the date must be placed, by virtue of internal evidence, in July 1683, by reason of the reference to Captain Walcot who was tried on July 12th in connection with the plot.
The party that went for my Lord Essex found him in his garden gathering of nut-meg peaches, he was lodged in my Lord Feversham’s lodgings, in Whitehall, and the next day, having not made use of the favour of pen and ink, so well as my Lord Howard hath, he was sent to the Tower.
My Lord Howard runs like a spout, fresh, and fresh he hath writ enough to hang himself, and 1 hundred more, and cried enough to drown himself, he hath cast his lodgings in Whitehall.
Sir John Burlace was brought before the Council yesterday, upon sending intelligence to my Lord Lovelace that there was a warrant against him. He stayed one night in the messenger’s hands and was this morning bail for my Lord Lovelace, and both of them dismissed.
The enclosed is an account how far the Grand Jury hath proceeded, that little note hath the names of some of the Grand Jury.
None were tried this afternoon but Capt. Walcot who was cast by a most clear evidence being at several consults, the places all named, his raising of arms, his own letter to the King, and one of the consults was at the Vulture, Ludgate Hill, and Sheppard’s House, he had very little to say for himself, but that the witnesses swore away his life to secure their own, he excepted against all Jury men that were of the lieutenancy and behaved himself with a great deal of decency and resolution. They had a declaration ready drawn by Goodenough so soon as ever the King was killed, and particular men appointed to murder the most considerable persons. Borne by name was to kill this Lord Keeper, and refused it because it looked like an unneighbourly thing, my Lord pulled off his hat and said Thank you, neighbour.
I find also, dated 1690, this curious vocabulary of thieves’ slang scribbled on the back of some particulars relating to the appointment of a new incumbent for Sevenoaks. Unfortunately half the alphabet is missing:
| Autem mort | a marryed woman |
| Abram | naked |
| abram-cour | a tatterdemalion |
| autem | a church |
| boughar | a cur |
| bouse | drink |
| bousing-ken | an ale-house |
| borde | a shilling |
| boung | a purse |
| bing | to goe |
| bing a wast | to goe away |
| bube | ye pox |
| buge | a dog |
| bleating-cheat | a sheep |
| billy-cheat | an apron |
| bite ye peter or Roger | steal ye portmantle |
| budge | one that steals cloaks |
| bulk and file | a pickpocket and his mate |
| cokir | a lyar |
| cuffin quire | a justice |
| crampings | bolts and shackles |
| chats | ye gallows |
| crackmans | hedges |
| calle togeman Joseph | a cloak |
| couch | to lye asleep |
| couch a hogshead | to goe to sleep |
| commission mish | a shirt |
| cackling-cheat | a chicken |
| cassan | cheese |
| crash | to kill |
| crashing-cheat | teeth |
| cloy | to steal |
| cut | to speak |
| cut bien whydds | to speak well |
| cut quire whydds | to speak evill |
| confeck | counterfeit |
| cly ye jerk | to be whipt |
| dimber | pretty |
| damber | rascall |
| drawers | stockings |
| duds | goods |
| deusea vile | ye country |
| dommerer | a madman |
| darkmans | night or even |
| dup | to enter |
| tip me my earnest | give me my part |
| filch | a staffe |
| ferme | a hole |
| fambles | hands |
| fambles cheats | rings and gloves |
| fib | to beat |
| flag | a groat |
| fogus | tobacco |
| fencing cully | one that receives stolne goods |
| glimmer | fire |
| glaziers | eyes |
| granna | corne |
| gentry more | a gallant wench |
| gun | lip |
| gage | a pot or pipe |
| grunting-cheat | a sucking pig |
| giger | a dore |
| gybe | a passe |
| glasier | one that goes in at windows |
| gilt | a picklock |
| harmanbeck | a constable |
| heave a book | to rob a house |
| half berd | sixpence |
| heartsease | 20 shillings |
| knapper of knappers | a sheep stealer |
| lightmans | morning or day |
| lib | to tumble |
| libben | an house |
| lage | water |
| libedge | a bed |
| lullabye-cheat | a child |
| lap | pottage |
| lucries | all manner of clothes |
| maunder | to beg |
| magery prater | an hen |
| muffling-cheat | a napkin |
| mumpers | gentile beggars[[10]] |