“Which latter proffer the King accepted, and did borrow it.
“Nay,” said the Marquis, “I will lend it you upon these conditions: 1. That you read it; and 2. That you make use of it.”
“But perceiving how some of the new made Lords fretted and bit their thumbs at certain passages in the Marquis’s discourse, he thought a little to please his Majesty, though he displeased them, the men who were so much displeased already, protesting unto his Majesty that no man was so much for the absolute power of a King as Aristotle. Desiring the book out of the King’s hand, he told the King he would show him one remarkable passage to that purpose; turning to that place that had this verse, viz.:—
“A king can kill, a king can save, A king can make a lord a knave, And of a knave, a lord also, &c.”
“Whereupon there were divers new-made Lords who slunk out of the room, which the King observing, told the Marquis—
“My Lord, at this rate you will drive away all my nobility.”
“I protest unto your Majesty,” the Marquis replied, “I am as new a made lord as any of them all, but I was never called knave and rogue so much in all my life, as I have been since I received this last honour; and why should they not bear their shares?”
An incident is related as occurring during one of the entertainments given to the royal visitor, which is too characteristic to be omitted. A dessert of Welsh grown fruit having been provided, had to be presented to the King. Sir Thomas Somerset, the Marquis’s brother, living at Troy House, five miles from Raglan, delighted much in fine gardens and orchards, ordering and replenishing them with all the varieties of choicest fruits. He sent his brother a present of fair, ripe fruit, which the Marquis could not suffer to be presented to the King by any other hands than his own, the particulars of which are circumstantially detailed by Dr. Bayly, who was very likely an eye-witness. He says:—“In comes the Marquis to the King, at the latter end of the supper, led by the arm, having such a goodly presence with him, that his being led became him, rather like some ceremony of state, than show of impotence; and his slow pace, occasioned by his infirmity, expressed a Spanish gravity rather than feebleness. Thus, with a silver dish in each hand filled with rarities, and a little basket upon his arm, as a supply in case his Majesty should be over-bountiful of his favours to the ladies that were standers by.” Making his third obeisance, he, in his own peculiar mode of pleasantry, presenting the fruit, observed: “I assure your Majesty that this present came from Troy.”
The royal reply was no less witty. The King, smiling, said, “Truly, my Lord, I have heard that corn now grows where Troy town stood, but I never thought there had grown any apricots there before. ”[23]
During his stay at Raglan the King made the tour of neighbouring towns. At the Castle he was sumptuously entertained; the apartment he occupied is still marked by its fine large remaining window, and its proximity to the picture gallery; also the Pleasaunce or Bowling-green, where he sought amusement and exercise.