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and upland, with the square plain Saxon tower of St. Alban's Abbey high above all. In the centre pond was a Roman temple or banqueting-room, paved with black and white marble. of the doors had a device of mirrors, so that a stranger fancied he was looking into the gardens when the door was closed."Hepworth Dixon.

An excellent account of Bacon's Gorhambury is given by Bishop Hind in a letter to Bishop Warburton, 14th June, 1679:

"This ancient seat. . . stands very pleasantly on high ground in the midst of a fine park, well wooded. There is a gentle descent from it to a pleasant vale, which again rises gradually into hills at a distance, and those well cultivated, or finely planted. The house itself is of the antique structure, with turrets, but low, and covered with a white stucco, not unlike the old part of your lordship's palace at Gloucester. It is built round a court, nearly square, the front to the south, with a little turn, I think, to the east. The rooms are numerous, but small, except the hall, which is of moderate size, but too narrow for the height the chapel neat and well-proportioned, but damp and fusty, being (as is usual with chapels belonging to the lay lords) seldom or never used. On the west side of the house runs a gallery, about the length of that at Prior Park; the windows, especially the oriel window at the west, finely painted; the niches covered with pictures of the great men of the time of the Stuarts; and the ceiling, which is coved, ornamented with the great men of antiquity, painted in compartments. At the end of the gallery is a return, which serves for a billiard-room. Underneath the gallery and billiard-room is a portico for walking, and that too painted. I should have observed that the chamber floor of the front is a library, furnished, as it seemed to me on a slight glance, with the books of the time, as the gallery is with the persons. The furniture altogether unique, and suitable to the rest. It is impossible that any fine man or woman of these times should endure to live at this place; but the whole

has an air of silence, repose, and recollection very suitable to the idea one has of those

'Shades, that to Bacon could retreat afford ;'

and to me is one of the most delicious seats I ever saw."*

The present mansion, the seat of Earl Verulam, was built in 1778-1785, by Lord Grimston, from the designs of Sir Robert Taylor. It is a spacious semi-classical structure, consisting of a centre of stone, with a grand portico supported on Corinthian columns, and two wings of brick covered with stucco. The hall, library, and reception-rooms are spacious, well-proportioned, and contain a good collection of pictures. Among these are portraits of Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord-Keeper; of Francis Bacon, by Vansomar; and of his half-brother, Sir Nathaniel Bacon, painted by himself. There are also portraits of Queen Mary, of Queen Elizabeth (painted by Hilliard), James I., Earls of Pembroke and Cumberland, Archbishop Abbot of Canterbury, Queen Catherine of Braganza, and many other illustrious personages.

On Lord Bacon's death, Gorhambury descended to Sir Thomas Meantys, his cousin and heir, whose widow married Sir Harbottle Grimston. His son purchased the reversion of the estate, which has since continued in his descendants, created successively Viscount Grimston, and, in 1815, Earl of Verulam.

Gorhambury stands in the midst of a noble and well-wooded park of six hundred acres, about a mile and a-half to the northeast of St. Albans. Some remains of Bacon's house are still extant.

III.

I have said that a full pardon being granted to Bacon, he was entitled once more to take his place among his peers. But no parliament was summoned during the

"Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of his Friends,"

p. 429.

clean heart."

He addressed himself privately both to the king and the Duke of Buckingham; but the latter had set his eye upon York House, and the former, though at first inclined to support his chancellor, was soon persuaded that, by flinging so great a victim before the Commons, he might check them from pursuing their perilous investigations. Bacon saw that his ruin was predetermined, and, like the old Roman, he drew his cloak around him, and prepared to fall with dignity. It may be that, by resigning the Seals, he hoped to propitiate his enemies, and avert a struggle for which his ill-health unfitted him; and he was doubtlessly moved by the urgent and repeated solicitations of the king, who, with tears in his eyes, besought the Lord Chancellor to abandon his defence, surrender his office, and trust his honour and his fortunes to the Crown. The bitterness of his enemies, however, was not to be so easily satisfied. He had not acknowledged his guilt, because he had not received particulars of the actions alleged against him. They were now set forth, with the view of wringing from him a plea of "guilty." Twenty-two were charges of corruption, one was of carelessness. The majority of them, however, were speedily abandoned by the accusers themselves, who confined their indictment to four only.

*

Bacon was about to be put upon his trial, when, on the 24th of April, perceiving that he was helpless in the hands of his enemies, he sent to the Lords, through the Prince of Wales, his "humble submission and supplication." In this he says: "I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge that, having understood the particulars of

* These have been minutely examined by Mr. Hepworth Dixon in his "Story of Lord Bacon's Life," and I think he shows very clearly that an impartial jury would decide that they were "not proven."

the charge not formally from the House, but enough to inform my conscience and memory, I find matter sufficient and full both to move me to desert the defence, and to move your lordships to condemn and answer me."

This is not the confession of a criminal, but rather the submission of a man who feels that he has by his weakness given colour to the accusations of his enemies, and that, as he cannot offer a complete defence, he will attempt no partial explanation. He had done some things weakly, foolishly, thoughtlessly. He had allowed his servants, through want of supervision, to drag their master's high office through much foul mire. He had allowed the continuance of a practice which, as it led to bribery and corruption, he could not excuse; and having allowed it, he owned his responsibility, but "never had he bribe or reward in his eye or thought when pronouncing sentence or order." No fair judgment can be pronounced on the subject of Bacon's moral criminality until, as Mr. Spedding says, four questions have been considered. "1. What was the understanding, open or secret, upon which the present, or 'bribe,' was given or taken ? 2. To what extent was the practice prevalent at the time? 3. How far was it tolerated? 4. How stood it with regard to other abuses prevailing at the same time?" No one will deny the reprehensibility of the practice, and Bacon himself, when his conscience was awakened, saw it clearly. It was in this sense that he spoke to Dr. Rawley: "I was the justest judge that was in England these fifty years, but it was the justest censure in Parliament that was there these two hundred years."

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The sentence passed upon the ex-chancellor (3rd May) was to the following effect :

"That the Lord Viscount St. Albans shall undergo fine and ransom of £40,000; that he shall be imprisoned in the Tower during the king's pleasure; that he shall for ever be incapable of any office, place, or employment in the State or Commonwealth; that he shall never sit in Parliament, nor come within the verge of the Court."

Thus was compassed the ruin and disgrace of the greatest Englishman of his time, and his enemies triumphed in his downfall. Cranfield became Lord

Treasurer and Earl of Middlesex; Buckingham obtained a lease of York House; Williams obtained the Seals. While these men rejoiced in their spoils, Bacon, on the 31st of May, was carried to the Tower, bearing with him in his hour of darkness the love and friendship of such fine natures as Ben Jonson, the learned Selden, the Church poet George Herbert, Hobbes of Malmesbury, Sir Robert Cotton, and Sir Henry Savile.

He was moved from the Tower, however, on the following day, through the interposition of Prince Charles, and allowed to retire to Gorhambury. At first he yearned to return to the movement and action of political life; and his fine being remitted, and a pension of £1200 a-year granted to him, he was not without some hope of being eventually reinstated in office. In this he was disappointed. In 1624, he received a full pardon, annulling his exclusion from the House of Lords; but by that time advancing years and increasing weakness had disabled him from participation in parliamentary contention. Meanwhile he had renewed the studies and learned pursuits in which he had always delighted, and gradually he recovered his composure and intellectual tranquillity. His leisure hours were cheered by his birds and his dogs, his blooming gardens, his thriving planta

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