PRIVATE AMOURS OF OLIVER CROMWELL.
I know nothing more of the enclosed, than that I found it with the MS. which I lately sent you on the subject of Cromwell's "Dealings with the Devil" (Vol. iii., p. 282.).
I should conclude it to be a carelessly-made transcript of a contemporary MS., the production, probably, of some warm royalist, who may, or may not, have had some grounds for his assertions. At all events, it gives a few curious details, and, in its general outline, agrees singularly with the incidents on which Mrs. Behn's play, The Round Heads; or The Good Old Cause, is founded: sufficiently so to give it at least an air of authenticity, so far as the popular belief of the day was concerned.
S. H. H.
"After Cromwell had been declared General of the Commonwealth's Forces, he seized the possessions of the Royalists, who had escaped his implacable resentment; and the New Hall fell to the share of the Usurper, who, flushed with the victory of Worcester, disposed at pleasure of the forsaken seates of the noble Fugitives, who still supported Charles II.'s Drooping Standards; and adding insulte to oppression, commanded the domesticks of the Duke of Buckingham to follow their master's desperate fortune, and to carry him five shillings, which he might want in his exile, for the purchase of a Lordship, whose yearly value exceeded then 1300l. Cromwell kept possession of New Hall till he assumed the title of Protector, and was instaled at White Hall, in the Pallace of the English Kings: Then he chose Hampton Court for his Summer Residence. He led at New Hall an obscure life, without pomp, without luxury, having but two servants in his retinue. Though his manners were natuaraly austere, he had some private amoures, which he indulged with great Caution and Secrecy. His favourites were General Lambert's wife and Major-General Vernon's sister: the first was a well-bred, genteel woman, fatheless to her husband from natural aversion, and attached to Cromwell from a conformity of inclination in a mysterious enjoyment and stolen embraces, with mask of religious deportment and severe virtue: the other was a person made to inspire lust and desire, but selfish, revengfull, and indiscreet. These too rivals heartily detested each other: Mrs. Lambert reproached Cromwell for his affection to a worthless, giddy, and wanton woman; and Mrs. Vernon laughed at him for being the dupe of the affected fondness and hipocry of an artful Mistress. They once met at the house of Colonel Hammond, a Creature of Cromwell's, and reviled each other with the most virulent sarcasms. Mrs. Lambert, fired with rage and resentment, went immediately to New Hall, where Oliver was at that juncture, and insisted upon her Rival's dismission for her unprovoked outrage. Cromwell, who was then past the meridian of voluptuous sensations, sacrificed the person he was no longer fit to enjoy, to a woman who had gained his esteem and confidence, and delegated to Mrs. Lambert all the domestic concerns of his house in Essex. Cromwell's wife, called afterwards the Protectress, was a sober helpmate, who, dressed in humble stuff, like a Quaker, neither interfered in his amours or politics. She never went to New Hall but once, and that was on the 25th of April, 1652, when he invited all his family to a grand entertainment on account of his Birthday. The other Guests were, his mother, who survived his elevation to the Protectorship: she was a virtuous woman of the name of Stewart, related to the Royall Family; Desborough, his brother-in law; and Fleetwood, who had married his daughter; his Eldest Son, Richard, a man of an inoffensive and unambitious Character, who had been married some years, and lived in the country on a small estate which he possessed in right of his wife, where he spent his time in acts of benevolence: at the trial of Charles I. he fell on his knees and conjured his Father in the most pathetic manner to spare the life of his Sovereign; his brother Henry, afterwards Govonor of Ireland, where he was universally beloved for his mild administration; Mrs. Claypole, the darling of her father; and his three other daughters: Mrs. Rich, married to the Grandson and heir of the Earl of Warwick; Lady Falconbridge; and the Youngest, who lived in celibacy. They spent a week at New Hall, in innocent mirth and jollity; Oliver himself joining in convivial pleasure with his children, disengaged the whole time from state affairs and Political Speculations.
"His constant visitors at New Hall were some Regicides, and the meanest, lowest, and most ignorant among the Citizens on whome he had decreed that the Sovereign power should be vested. To excell in Fanaticism seemed a necessary qualification in this new parliment; and Oliver foresaw that they would soon throw up the reins of Government, which they were unqualified to guide, and raise himself to an unlimited power far beyond that of former Kings.
"It seems Mrs. Lambert continued to reside at New Hall during Cromwell's Protectorship, and that Col. Wite, his trusty friend, was often sent with kind messages and preasants from Oliver, who travelled himself in the night, with hurry and precipitation, to enjoy with her some moments of domestic comfort and tranquility."