token, which jewell I cannot better repose with any then with hym that is so faythfull and trustye to his majestie as my sayd nephew is; and I give hym also a crosse of diamondes, given me by my by my ladie my mother. Item: I give to my very good lord the earle of Somersett my second. George." This good earl of Somerset, it will be remembered, was the leading contriver of Overbury's fate, and escaped alone from condemnation, by being the minion of king James. In Reliquiæ Wottonianæ is a letter from sir Henry Wotton to sir Edmund Bacon, dated London, June 16, 1614, which gives the following account of lord Northampton's decease. "The earle of Northampton having, after a lingering fever, spent more spirits than a younger body could well have borne, by the incision of a wennish tumor on his thigh, yesternight between eleven and twelve of the clock, departed out of this world; where as he had proved much variety and vicissitude of fortune in the course of his life, so peradventure he hath prevented another change thereof by the opportunity of his end: for there went a general voice through the court on Sunday last, upon the commitment of Dr. Sharp and sir C. Cornwallis, that he was somewhat implicated in that business." Sagaciously therefore has lord Orford remarked, that the earl died luckily.] MARGARET, COUNTESS OF CUMBERLAND. [THIS Countess of Cumberland, says Mr. Cole2, was Margaret Russell, youngest daughter of Francis earl of Bedford, and wife to George Clifford, earl of Cumberland. She died May 24, 1616, at Brougham castle, leaving issue one daughter, Anne, whose filial piety is recorded on a pillar in Westmorland, which bears the inscription below 3. Daniel the poet addressed a metrical epistle to this countess, and inscribed to her his Ovidian letter from Octavia to Antony; before which, he declared that ⚫ Coleana MSS. vol. xxxv. p. 81. 3 "This pillar was erected in the year 1656, by Anne countess of Pembroke, &c. for a memorial of her last parting, in this place, with her good and pious mother, Margaret countess dowager of Cumberland, on the 2d of April 1616: in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of four pounds to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham every second day of April for ever, upon the stone-table hard by. Laus Deo!" Mr. Brydges observes, that lady Margaret was happier in the filial affections of her daughter, than in the conjugal tenderness of her husband; who, taken up with military glory and the pomp of tilts and tournaments, paid little attention to domestic duties. Mem. of the Peers, p. 452. Mr. Pennant, in his Journey from Chester, has printed part of her ladyship's diary, which too forcibly corroborates the observation of Mr. Brydges. this most virtuous lady "lent ear to his notes, and comfort unto him." Her ladyship is introduced here, from the supposition of having made the following epitaph on an ancestor of the Cavendish family, who took his master's degree at Cambridge in 1572, having studied twentyeight years (as says the grace) there and at Oxford 4. "An Epitaph upon the Death of the worshipfull and rarely accomplished Master Richard Candish of Suffolk, Esq. Promised and made by Margaret Countess of Comberland, 1601. "Candish, deriv'd from noble parentage, Till Death cut off his well-employed yeares. Whose heavenly part surmounted hath the skies." This epitaph was placed on a small obelisk against the wall of the south aisle in Hornsey church, Middlesex; and has been printed by Mr. Lysons 5, who says, that Richard Candish was chosen one of the burgesses for Denbigh, anno 1572, in opposition to the inclination and even the threats of queen Elizabeth's great favourite, the earl of Leicester.] • Cole MS. ut sup. • Environs of London, vol. iii. p. 54. |