Near the spot at which Hagbush-lane comes out into the Holloway-road to Highgate, the great lord Bacon met with the cause of his death, in a way not generally known. He was taking an airing in his coach, on a winter-day, with Dr. Witherborne, a Scotchman, physician to James I., and the snow laying on the ground. It occurred to lord Bacon that flesh might be preserved in snow as well as in salt; resolving to try the experiment, they alighted from the carriage, and going into a poor woman’s cottage at the foot of Highgate-hill, they bought a hen; his lordship helped to stuff the body with snow, which so chilled him that he fell ill, and could not return to his lodgings; he therefore went to the earl of Arundel’s house at Highgate, where a bed was warmed for him with a pan of coals; but the bed not having been lain in for about a year before was damp, and so increased his disorder that in two or three days he died.
It is not to defame so great a man, the greatest of modern times, but merely to illustrate his well-known attachment to particular favourites, that a paper is here for the first time printed. It is a bill of fees to counsel, upon an order made in the court of chancery by lord Bacon, as keeper of the great seal, during the first year he held it. From this it appears that counsel had been retained to argue a demurrer, on the first day of Michaelmas term, 1617; and that the hearing stood over till the following Tuesday, before which day “one of my lord-keeper’s favourites” was retained as other counsel, and, “being one of my lord-keeper’s favourites,” had a double fee for his services. The mention of so extraordinary a fact in a common bill of costs may perhaps justify its rather out-of-the-way introduction in this place. The paper from whence it is here printed, the editor of the Every-Day Book has selected from among other old unpublished manuscripts in his possession, connected with the affairs of sir Philip Hoby, who was ambassador to the emperor of Germany from Henry VIII., and held other offices during that reign.
| (COPY.) | |
| Termino Micalis, 1617. | |
| To Mr. Bagger of the Iner-Temple,Councellor, the firste day of theTearme, for attending at theChancery barr, to mayntain or.demurrer against Sr. Tho. Hoby,by my Lo: Keeper’s order, thatdaye to attend the Corte, wch.herd noe motions that daye, butdeferd it of until Tusday following | xxii. s. |
| Uppon Tusdaye following wee hadyonge Mr. Tho: Finch, and Mr.Bagger, of our Councell, to attendthere to mayntaine the samedemurrer, and the cause be cancelled;Upon (which) my Lo:Keeper ordered, that he refferredthe cause to be heard before Sr.Charles Cesér King, one of thedocters of the Chancery, to makea reporte unto his Lo: of theCause, that his Lo: might betterconsider, whether the demurrershould stand good, or noe:—Mr.Tho: Finch his fee, being one ofmy Lo: favourites, had | 44s. |
| Mr. Bager his Fee | 22s. |
At Copenhagen-house, the eye and the stomach may be satisfied together. A walk to it through the fresh air creates an appetite, and the sight must be allowed some time to take in the surrounding prospect. A seat for an hour or two at the upstairs tea-room windows on a fine day is a luxury. As the clouds intercept the sun’s rays, and as the winds disperse or congregate the London atmosphere, the appearance of the objects it hovers over continually varies. Masses of building in that direction daily stretch out further and further across the fields, so that the metropolis may be imagined a moving billow coming up the heights to drown the country. Behind the house the
“Hedge-row elms, o’er hillocks green,”
is exquisitely beautiful, and the fine amphitheatre of wood, from Primrose-hill to Highgate-archway and Hornsey, seems built up to meet the skies. A stroll towards either of these places from Copenhagen-house, is pleasant beyond imagination. Many residents in London to whom walking would be eminently serviceable, cannot “take a walk” without a motive; to such is recommended the “delightful task” of endeavouring to trace Hagbush-lane.
Crossing the meadow west of Copenhagen-house, to the north-east corner, there is a mud built cottage in the widest part of Hagbush-lane, as it runs due north from the angle formed by its eastern direction. It stands on the site of one still more rude, at which until destroyed, labouring men and humble wayfarers, attracted by the sequestered and rural beauties of the lane, stopped to recreate. It was just such a scene as Morland would have coveted to sketch, and therefore Mr. Fussell with “an eye for the picturesque,” and with a taste akin to Morland’s, made a [drawing] of it while it was standing, and placed it on the wood whereon it is engraven, to adorn the [next page].