“1687, April 17. Gorges vilaus Lord dooke of bookingam.”
He must have gone to the grave unattended except by the parish officials. The Earl of Arran accidentally passing by the inn while he was dying, gave, indeed, directions to see him “decently interred.” But the memory of his grave has faded; there is not only no stone to preserve his name, but even tradition cannot point out the spot upon which to place it, so that his ashes may be covered by a poor monument. The reader will recall the famous lines of Pope:—
“In the worst inn’s worst room,” &c.
The room is still shewn to the curious; it is a small and poor chamber, not the “worst” in the house, although a strange contrast to the princely halls the licentious duke had so long inhabited:—
“No wit to flatter left of all his store,
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more;
There, victor of his health, his fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends.”