[56] At the end of this gallery are, branching to the right and left, the private apartments of the family; and in a room opening out of the west end of the Picture-gallery, Queen Elizabeth is reported to have slept when she honoured the Lord Cobham with a visit during her progress through Kent. In the centre of the ancient Ceiling are still preserved her Arms, with the date, 1599.
[57] An interesting series of Helmets hangs upon the walls of the chancel. They vary in age and appearance. The most interesting are two tilting helmets of the time of Henry V. These helmets were worn over the bassinet, which was also of steel, and fitted close to the head, having a movable visor which covered the face. The tilting or tournament helmet had nothing of the kind, an opening for the admission of light and air being formed by the projection of the lower portion, which covered the face, from the cap above. A few holes were drilled for sight, and the helmet rested upon the shoulders, being made wider at the neck, while the bassinet fitted it closely. The crest of the wearer, a plume of feathers, or other ornament, was generally affixed to these tournament helmets; and upon one of these at Cobham the staples remain upon the top and a hook behind, which helped to retain such decorations. A helmet thus ornamented with the crest of the Brokes—a Saracen’s head—still remains upon the walls. It is, however, of a much later date, probably about the time of Henry VII., and is a war-helmet with a movable visor.
[58] The other Brasses require a brief notice. The earliest is to the memory of John de Cobham, the first Knight Banneret, and Constable of Rochester; he is dressed in a shirt of mail: round his waist is a rich girdle sustaining a long sword. Eight lines of Norman French are inscribed round the verge of the slab. 2. Maude de Cobham, wife to Reynold, Baron Cobham, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in the reign of Edward the Third: she is standing on a dog. 3. Another Maude De Cobham—probably the wife of Thomas de Cobham, who died in the reign of Richard the Second. 4. Margaret de Cobham, wife of John Lord Cobham, the founder of the College. The inscription round the verge informs us, she was daughter to the Earl of Devonshire. 5. John de Cobham, the founder of the College, standing on a lion under a canopy. In his hands he holds a church. 6. Thomas de Cobham. 7. Joan de Cobham, “probably the daughter of John Lord Beauchamp, and mother of the Founder.” 8. Sir John Broke, and Lady Margaret his wife, under a rich canopy with pendants and other ornaments, with triangular compartments, “containing circles with shields, one of which bears the crown of thorns, and the other the five wounds; between the pinnacles, in the centre, is a curious representation of the Trinity, in which the Deity is delineated with a triple crown, and the Holy Spirit has a human face. The figure of the knight is gone, but that of his lady remains; and beneath, are groups of eight sons and ten daughters.” 9. Sir Reginald Braybroke, the second husband of Joan Lady Cobham. 10. Sir Nicholas Hawberk, her third husband. 11. Joan de Cobham: she died, as appears from the inscription, “on the day of St. Hilary the Bishop, A.D. 1433.” At her feet are six sons and four daughters, and surrounding her are six escutcheons of the Cobham arms and alliances. 12. Sir Thomas Broke, and one of his three wives. Below them are seven sons and five daughters. Sir Thomas died in 1529. 13. Sir Ralph, or Rauf de Cobham, represented by a bust, in a skull-cap and shirt of mail. He died, according to the inscription, on the 20th January 1402.
[59] The Sackvilles are an ancient and very distinguished family, dating from the Conquest. The first Peer, the famous Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, succeeded Burleigh as Lord Treasurer, an office in which he was confirmed by King James. He is more celebrated, however, as the author of the earliest English Tragedy in blank verse, “Gordubuc,” and “The Induction to a Mirrour for Magistrates,” one of the noblest Poems in the language. Gordubuc is praised by Sidney for its “notable moralitie;” and the Poem is believed to have given use to the Fairy Queen. All contemporaries agree in bearing testimony to the virtues of this truly noble man. One of them thus draws his character:—“How many rare things were in him! who more loving unto his wife! who more kind unto his children! who more fast unto his friend! who more moderate unto his enemy! who more true to his word!” The sixth Earl of Dorset is also celebrated in the History of Literature: he was one of the wits of the licentious court of Charles the Second; the associate of Rochester, Villiers, and Sedley; but subsequently the patron of Prior, Dryden, Butler, Congreve, Addison, and Pope. Prior he rescued from a vintner’s tap, and Butler “owed to him that the court tasted his ‘Hudibras.’” His reputation as an author rests upon a Poem consisting of no more than eleven stanzas—the “song” beginning
“To all ye ladies now at land,”—
said to have been written on shipboard, on the night preceding a sea-fight. It is an elegant composition, and manifests a “heedlessnesse of danger” natural to a gallant youth. Pope hails him as
“the grace of courts, the Muses’ pride;”
and there can be no doubt that he was not only a generous and liberal friend to men of letters, but a judicious patron to those who needed help.
[60] The Dining Parlour—where, by the way, in 1645, the Court of Sequestration met and deprived, for loyalty to his sovereign, Edward, the fourth Earl of Dorset, of his estates—contains a series of Portraits of men who, it is certain, met together often there, assembled round the festive board of Charles, the sixth Earl. Among the more interesting and important are those of Waller and Addison, by Jarvis; Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and Goldsmith, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Otway, by Sir Peter Lely; Locke, Hobbes, Sedley, Newton, and Dryden, by Kneller; Cowley and Rochester, by Du Boyce; Tom Durfey—in “a conversation piece”—by Vandergucht; Burke, by Opie; together with copies, by less famous hands, of Ben Jonson, Congreve, Wycherley, Rowe, Garth, Swift, Cartwright, Pope, Betterton, Gay, Handel, &c., &c., &c.
[61] The artist selected as a worthy subject for his pencil the gallery which runs parallel with “the Brown Gallery,” on the upper floor. It is peculiarly striking and characteristic; and Time has shaken it into “the picturesque.” It is known as “the Retainers’ Gallery;” the sleeping apartments of the domestics branch off from it. The marble chimney-piece, although much dilapidated, is of the finest marble, and of rare workmanship.