I FEEL it incumbent upon me to offer a few words of apology for the shortcomings and inequalities of this small work, and the disproportion of the length of some notices, and that of others; but I have had many difficulties to contend with since I began my pleasant labours,—the absence, for instance, of books of reference when travelling, and still more, the failure of sight, which has rendered me more than usually dependent on the kind help of others for description of pictures, details of dress, and the like.
Being essentially a family record, I have given more especial attention to the notices of such personages as were connected, even remotely, with the owners of Longleat, making, as a rule, the records of public, subservient to those of private, and domestic life, excepting, as in many cases, where they were closely intertwined. To Kings and Queens I have usually apportioned but a few lines, deviating from this rule, however, when treating of the King and Queen of Bohemia, whose lives read as a romance.
I have consulted history by many hands, and memoirs of all kinds,—Clarendon, Burnet, Strype, Aubrey, Conway, Granger, Lodge, etc. etc., and only refrained from quoting my authorities in footnotes from the fear of swelling a volume already, I fear, too bulky.
To Canon Jackson, for whose invaluable help I can offer no adequate thanks, I am indebted for stores of information, which his well-known local knowledge, and love, and power of research, could alone supply. Neither am I ashamed to own (since I had his permission) how largely I have helped myself to gifts so freely bestowed.
Mr. Ernest Law kindly came to my assistance in the vexed question of the portrait of Francis I. and his Queen, for so many years improperly named, by allowing me to make use of a note belonging to his forthcoming interesting work on Hampton Court Palace. The picture in question has been attributed to different painters,—Sir Antonio More, Janet, and a French artist, Maître Amboise, little known to fame. A similar portrait was painted, and has been engraved, of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Mary, widow of Louis XII., King of France, but the position of the figures is transposed, the Queen (doubtless in deference to her rank) being on the right hand.
Many delightful hours, both at Longleat itself, and in manifold, and devious wanderings, have been passed, in compiling this brief memorial of the portraits in ‘the most august house in England.’
