[29]. That Llanthony, in Monmouthshire, the purchase of which in the present century gave rise to so singular a chapter in the history of Landor, and whose charms, in retrospect, prompted the lines—
‘Llanthony! an ungenial clime,
And the broad wing of restless Time,
Have rudely swept thy massy walls,
And rockt thy Abbots in their palls.
I loved thee, by thy streams of yore;
By distant streams, I love thee more.’
[30]. Part of Lord Northampton’s large estates came eventually to Lord Arundel by bequest. He also inherited Northampton’s house at Greenwich, and occasionally resided there, until its destruction by fire in January, 1616. Chamberlain’s account of the incident, given to Sir Dudley Carleton, is worth quotation for the comment with which it ends: ‘There fell a great mischance to the Earl of Arundel by the burning of his house ... at Greenwich, where he lost a great deal of household stuff and rich furniture; the fury of the fire being such that nothing could be saved. No doubt the Papists will ascribe and publish it as a punishment for his deserting or falling from them.’ Ten days before the fire, Arundel had testified, publicly, his conformity with the Church of England. But he had shewn long before that his religious views and convictions differed widely from those in which he had been brought up.
[31]. The question was complicated by opposition offered by the Lord Keeper Williams to the terms in which Lord Arundel’s patent was originally drawn. The relations between Arundel and Buckingham were never cordial, and the Lord Keeper seems to have profited by that circumstance to make his opposition to the pension effectual. It is probable that he had good grounds for so much of his objection as related to certain powers proposed to be vested in the Earl Marshal’s court. But on that point Arundel’s views eventually prevailed—until the time of the Long Parliament. The Lord Keeper’s letter is printed in Cabala, p. 285.
[32]. ‘In my deare lorde I long since placed my true affection and love.... Had I manie lives I would have adventured them all.’ Lady Maltravers to the Earl of Arundel, 6 Feb., 1626 (MS. Harl., 1581, f. 390).