During this state of affairs in London an agreeable episode was being enacted at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, the seat of his son, Lord Herbert. In September, 1663, Charles the Second and his Queen visited Bath, Badminton, Cirencester, and other places, in their progress to Oxford. Mr. Godolphin, writing from Bath on the 18th of September, 1663, to his brother, says:—[T]“We were waiting on the King to Badminton, a house of my Lord Herbert of Raglan, where the King dined, and was handsomely entertained.” From Oxford, he again writes to his brother, on the 28th September, 1663, in which he informs him that, among other matters, he will “receive the account promised of our progress through Bath, hither.” A news-letter, dated “Oxford, 28th” [1663,] which is no doubt the one alluded to, commences:—
“On Tuesday, the 22nd instant,.[?] the King and Queen left Bath, and at their entrance into Gloucestershire were met by the High Sheriff; and a little after by the Lord Herbert of Raglan, Lord Lieutenant of that County, with a brave appearance of the gentry of that County, who all conducted their Majesties to the Lord Herbert’s house, at Badminton, where their Majesties were nobly entertained at dinner.”
They went thence to Cirencester, where they supped at Lord Newburgh’s, and lodged that night.
An obvious discrepancy occurs in the two accounts of the dinner, Mr. Godolphin on the 18th writes of it as having taken place, whereas the Oxford news-letter names the 22nd.
From 1660, we find Lord Clarendon making a temporary residence of Worcester House in the Strand, where, in December, the same year, Evelyn paid a visit to the Lord Chancellor’s newly married daughter. And four years later he dined there, being afterwards taken in their coach by the Chancellor and his Lady, to see their palace, building at the upper end of St. James’s Street.[37]
The Marquis’s own residence never transpires, but it is more than probable he would reside near to, or within easy access of Vauxhall, where we have next to trace his very different, exceedingly arduous, and most trying undertaking.
Footnotes
[A] Bod. Lib. “Carte Papers. Lord Wharton’s Papers, 81.”
[B] Brit. Mus. Birch MSS. No. 4459.
[C] See [Appendix A.]