In a literary and scientific point of view, this was a period of great historical interest. In December, 1608, Milton was born; while in April, 1616, Shakespeare died. In 1611 the new translation of the Bible was published. Lord Napier, in Scotland, invented his system of logarithms; the great Harvey was propounding his discovery respecting the circulation of the blood; and Sir Hugh Myddleton had completed his great undertaking of forming the New River. Such are a few among the prominent facts that mark the intelligence and enterprise of those times.
It is possible that Henry Lord Herbert’s parliamentary duties, his attendance at court, with other circumstances, might occasion prolonged residence at Worcester House, in the Strand, the ancient family town mansion, a locality which was occupied by many noble families above two centuries ago. Nothing transpires to indicate his presence at Raglan Castle at that period.
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW FROM MAP OF LONDON, 1658.
On the 24th of August, 1621, died Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon; and on the 3rd of March, 1627, in the 79th year of his age, Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester, the honoured parents of Henry Lord Herbert, who succeeded to his father’s dignities and fortune. Their decease happened at their town residence, whence each was conveyed with great funeral solemnity to Raglan, where, being interred in the family vault of Raglan Church, suitable monuments were raised to their memory.
Of Henry, now fifth Earl of Worcester, we have less intelligence as resident in London than as retired to his magnificent Castle of Raglan, in Monmouthshire. On the 13th of March, 1628, he obtained dispensation to be absent from Parliament,[A] which appears to have been the commencement of his decreased attention to public business.
He had then been married twenty-eight years, being in the fifty-first year of his age. Of his numerous family he lost five sons and three daughters. Edward, his first born and heir was probably about twenty-six years old; Sir John Somerset, his second son, most likely occupied Troy House, a few miles off, while his next surviving and sixth son, Charles Somerset, he installed as Governor of his Castle.
The noble Earl, inclined to a plethoric constitution, had not uniform good health, being subject to gout, yet was he of a joyous, hearty, kind, benevolent disposition. He was too a man of some learning, without being distinguished for its application, otherwise than in some verbal polemical discussions attributed to him by Dr. Bayly, the last chaplain in his service, who has preserved many of his witty apophthegms, presenting us with indications of his religious and political sentiments.
Although our interest in this memoir concerns us less in reference to the father, than to be informed respecting his son, yet the intelligent reader cannot fail to discover, that Edward, now Lord Herbert, during the early years of his life, was necessarily so intimately associated with all matters of domestic history, affecting the large family then resident at Raglan Castle, that such relations as can be gathered respecting its several branches at that early period, are invested with a degree of interest which they might not under other circumstances possess.
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