the time as merrily as he had ever done before. His father next made him deputy-warden of the east march, and granted him the reversion of Norham castle. After a curious account of the borderers, and of his own conduct in managing them, which he did with singular success, he relates his journey to court, at the end of the year 1602, when the queen was seized with her mortal sickness; the interesting detail of which may be seen in Mr. Brydges's Memoirs of the Peerage, with his jaunt to the Scottish king. "Now," says sir Robert, "I was to beginne a new worlde: for by the king's coming to the crowne, I was to lose the best part of my living. My office of wardenry ceased, and I lost the pay of forty horse, which were not so little (both) as a £1000 per annum. Most of the great ones in court envyed my happinesse when they heard I was sworne of the king's bedchamber; and in Scotland I had no acquaintance. I onely relied on God and the king: the one never left mee; the other shortly after his coming to London deceived my expectation, and adhered to those that sought my ruin"." Neither the severities of Osborne, says lord Corke, nor the more just censures of Rapin, nor the several bitter strokes that have been vented by every late writer against James the first, have wounded that monarch so effectually as what here falls from sir Robert Cary's pen. Osborne may be said to write with rage, Rapin not to be totally free from prejudice, most of the others to swim with the stream; but the author of these Memoirs appears so evidently void of that haste which attends rancour, and that prejudice which accompanies revenge, that Some time afterwards, however, fortune smiled on him again; and prince Charles was put under the care of his wife, from four years old till he was near eleven. When this charge was delivered up, she had a pension settled on her during life of £400 a year. "And now," continues sir Robert, " beganne anew more troubles for mee to run through: for it was resolved by some of my ill-wishers that I should leave his (duke Charles's) service when my wife went from him. And to that end there was a Scotch gentleman 3 of great learning and very good worth, sent for out of Ireland from his service there, to be placed as cheife gouvernour over the duke, both in his bed-chamber and over his household; and prince Henry the cheife instrument of his preferment. Over hee came, and daily expected to receive his charge by the appointment of the king and councill: and to that end a councill was called, the king being present, where it was propounded that this gentleman should be cheife gentleman of his bedchamber, master of his robes, and commander of his household and family: and for that I had served him long, they would not cleane dismisse me, but I should be of his bed-chamber still, and keeper of his privy-purse. It was neere concluding that it should be so, but my God that never forsooke me, putt it into the minde of my lord chamber what he here says of himself and his royal master, may be depended upon as a truth-a truth that shows how unhappily king James was governed by favourites, and how easily he forgot his promises. Memoirs, p. 156. 3 Sir James Fullerton, says Mr. Brydges. laine Suffolke to say something for me. It was no -more but this; he said to the king, Sir, this gentle6 man that is recommended to bee so neere the duke, I have heard much worth of him, and by report hee is a fitt man for neere attendance about his grace. Notwithstanding, give me leave, I beseech you, to speak my knowledge of my cosin Cary. I have knowne him long, and the manner of his living. There was none in the late queene's court, that lived in a better fashion then hee did. Hee so behaved himselfe, that hee was beloved of all in court and elsewhere; wheresoever he went, the company he kept was of the best, as well noblemen as others. He carryed himselfe so, as every honest man was glad of his " company. He ever spent with the best; and wore as good cloths as any, and he exceeded in making ' choice of what he wore to be handsome and comely. His birth I need speake nothing of; it is known well enough. I leave him to your majestie to dis'pose of; only this, sure I am, there is none about the duke that knowes how to furnish him with 'clothes and apparell so well as hee; and therefore in my opinion hee is the fittest man to be master of the ' robes.'-This cast the scales. The king tooke hold of his speech, and said hee had spoken justly and honestly, my birth and breeding requiring the cheife place about his sonne, and I should have it and the mastership of his robes." When the duke of York was created prince of Wales, on the death of his brother Henry, sir Robert was made his chamberlain, and not long after baron of Leppington. At the age of sixty-two he followed the prince to Madrid, and at his coronation in 1626, was created earl of Monmouth. He died April 12, 1639, when he must have been on the verge of eighty 4. The following letter was printed in lord Corke's Appendix. "Sir Robert Cary to the lord Hunsdon, his father. "May it please your lordship t' understande, that yesterday yn the afternoone, I stoode by her majestie as she was att cards yn the presens chamber. She cawld me too her, and asket me when you ment too go too Barwyke? I towlde hyr, that you determynde to begyn your journey presently after Whytsontyd. She grew yntoo a grate rage, begynnynge with God's wonds! that she wolde sett you by the feete, and 'send another yn your place, if you dalyed with her thus; for she wolde not be thus dalyed with all.' I towlde her that with as much possyble speed as myght be, you wolde departe, and that your lying att London this fortnyght, was too no other ende but to make provysion for your jorney. She anseryd me, that you have byn goynge from Crystmas too Ester, and from Ester to Whytsonday; but if you differde the tyme any longer, she wolde appoynt some uther yn your place; and thys message she commandyd me to sende you. "Your lordship's humble and obedyent sunne, "R. CARY."] Mem. of the Peers, vol. i. p. 432. LORD KEEPER COVENTRY. BESIDES recapitulating several of his speeches in print, Wood says he hath extant 2 2 "An Answer to the Petition against Recusants." And that there goes under his name another piece called "Perfect and exact Directions to all those that desire to know the true and just Fees of all the Offices belonging to the Court of Common Pleas, Chancery, &c." Lond. 8vo. [Thomas, lord Coventry, son and heir of Thomas Coventry, esq. one of the justices of the court of common pleas3, was born in 1578; became a gentleman commoner of Baliol college, Oxon, at the age of fourteen; continued there three years, says Wood, under a strict discipline; whence he removed to the Inner Temple, and pursuing his father's steps in the laudable studies of the municipal laws, was chosen autumn reader of that society 2 Vol. i. p. 627. 3 Dugdale, Orig. Jurid. p. 166. |