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bate betweene gentilmen, and trobleth divers housys of religioun, to bring from them ther tythes, shamfully beting ther tenaunts, and s'vants, in such wyse as some whol townes are fayne to kepe the churches both nighte and daye, and dare not com at their own housys *."

From the quarter, however, to which these complaints were addressed there could be little probability of interference; for Henry Clifford was a great favourite with the new monarch, and this, as the countess of Pembroke has remarked in the Memoirs of her family, "made him more stout and less submitting to his old father, Henry, lord Clifford, than otherwise he would have been +." In short, presuming on the affection of his sovereign, so far as to believe that his conduct in a remote part of the north of England, however dissolute, would be overlooked, he became, in fact, the leader of a troop of banditti, committing in the idle levity of his heart, or for the sake of plunder, all the wanton mischief and spoliation of which his father so justly complains.

* History of Craven, p. 255.

+ Censura Literaria, Vol. vi. p. 404, from Harl. MSS.

6177.

To this lawless and degrading career, there is reason however to conclude, that an early stop was put by the humanizing power of love; for he must have married shortly after the letter which I have quoted was written, being a father by his second wife, lady Margaret Percy, daughter of the sixth earl of Northumberland, at the age of twenty-four; and, as it is not likely that he would continue this irregular line of conduct after he had entered into the marriage state, we may flatter ourselves that his father's closing years were cheered by beholding him a wiser and a better man.

The next view, indeed, which we have of this nobleman, presents him to us under a much more imposing aspect; for scarcely had two years elapsed after his accession to the lordship and honour of Skipton, when Henry the Eighth, who had not forgotten their former intimacy, conferred upon him the dignity of earl of Cumberland.

Of his lordship's expenses to London on this occasion, and during a residence there of five weeks and one day, a very curious account has been preserved by Dodsworth, from an original in Skipton Castle which has now perished; and from this document, and from Dr. Whitaker's observations

upon it, I shall present my readers with a few facts which will throw no uninteresting light upon the manners and modes of living which prevailed during the reign of Henry the Eighth.

It was during the months of June and July, and in the seventeeth year of Henry's reign, that this journey was undertaken; a period of the year somewhat different from that which a nobleman would now select for a visit to the metropolis; but, - at that time, the badness of the roads was such as to render an early spring or winter journey to town an achievement not only difficult but hazardous.

It appears that the new earl was attended on this expedition by thirty-three of his servants on horseback. How many days were occupied in travelling is not mentioned, but his expenses on the road are put down at 7. 15s. 1d. On his arrival in the capital, he was lodged at Derby-place, now the Heralds' College; and we find, from the first list of charges, that his expenditure in house-keeping for himself and his whole retinue, including horses, did not amount to more than forty-six pounds, seven shillings, or about nine pounds per week; a circumstance which will the less surprise us, when we read, under the same head, that his wine for five weeks

amounted to the sum of three shillings, and his desserts, consisting of cherries, to two-pence! There is an article also for rushes, which, even in the apartments of the palace, had not yet given way to the much more cleanly and elegant accommodation of the carpet.

Yet immediately afterwards, under the title of "Household Stuff bought," we discover that both napkins and table-cloths, a luxury which many might suppose of much later date, were purchased both for the parlour and hall of this earl in 1525.

Then follows an account of the sums expended for new liveries, which, on such an occasion, it was thought necessary should be of the most sumptuous kind; and they are accordingly described as consisting of coats laced with gold and silver, faced with satin, and embroidered with the cognizances of the Cliffords. But one of the most extraordinary items in this part of the expenditure is, “To the parson of Guisely for his livery, 13s. 4d. ;" a strange term for the robes of one who appears to have acted as chaplain to the family.

We have seen, from the complaints of his father, that this nobleman was in his earliest youth a great lover of dress; nor did the partiality appear to desert

him as he advanced in life; for under the head of "My Lord's Robes and Apparell," which were purchased during this visit to town, there is an abundant supply of the most rich and costly articles. It should be recollected, however, that his robes as an earl, and which were, it seems, of crimson velvet and ermine, form part of the catalogue; but, independent of these, there is a long list of velvets and satins, tawny, black, and russet, together with velvet dress-shoes, French caps, a sword whose "chape" was silver gilt, &c. &c.

Somewhat anomalously placed under this head, are also to be found the complete equipment of a lover of the bow, as a bugle-horn tipped with silver, a green sash, a pair of shooting gloves, and several dozens of arrows with differently formed heads; and shortly afterwards we find his lordship purchasing a falcon for one pound, and obtaining a hound from my lord of Westmoreland; articles which sufficiently prove how much attached this nobleman was to rural diversions; for these were the only treasures, excepting dress, which he thought worthy of being carried from London into the north. He did not, however, absolutely forget his countess, whom he had left at Skipton, though, as Whitaker

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