Skelton, that "breathless rhymer," as he was appositely characterized by bishop Hall, wrote a Latin elegy upon the funeral of this illustrious lady, which Ballard has anglicised in his Memoirs. He compares her to Penelope, to Abigail, and to Hester: En tres jam proceres nobilitate pares.] the following notes were added to the several items of female apparel: "A sloppe is a morninge cassocke for ladyes and gentlewomen, not open before. A surcote is a mourneing garment made like a close or straite bodyed gowne, which is worne under the mantle: the same for a countesse must have a trayne before, an other behinde; for a baronesse noe trayne. The traine before to be narrow, not exceeding the breadth of 8 ynches, and must be trussed up before, under the girdle, or borne upon hir left arme." In Leland's Collectanea, vol. iv., is described, from Harl. MS. 6079, "Ordinances by Margaret, countess of Richmond and Derby, as to what preparation is to be made against the deliverance of a queen," &c. NICHOLAS 2, LORD VAUX, SEEMS to have been a great ornament to the reign of Henry the seventh, and to the court of Henry the eighth, in its more joyous days, before queens, ministers, peers, and martyrs, embrued so many scaffolds with their blood. William Vaux, his father, had forfeited his fortunes in the cause of Henry the sixth. They were restored to the son with the honour of knighthood, on his fighting stoutly at the battle of Stoke against the earl of Lincoln, on the side of Henry the seventh. In the seventeenth of that reign, at the marriage of prince Arthur, the brave young Vaux appeared in a gown of purple velvet, adorned with pieces of gold so thick and massive, that, exclusive of the silk and furs, it was valued at a thousand pounds about his neck he wore a collar of SS, weighing eight hundred pounds in nobles. 2 [In his quarto edition of this Catalogue, lord Orford remarked, that the judicious editor of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry has, on very good reasons, surmised, that Nicholas, lord Vaux, was not the poet, but his son Thomas. His lordship, however, persisted in retaining this article of Nicholas, though it ought to have been displaced for his successor.] In those days it not only required great bodily strength to support the weight of their cumbersome armour; their very luxury of apparel for the drawing-room would oppress a system of modern muscles! In the first of Henry the eighth, Vaux was made lieutenant of the castle of Guisnes in Picardy; and in the fifth of that reign was at the siege of Therouenne. In the tenth year he was one of the embassadors for confirming the peace between Henry and the French king; and soon after in commission for preparing the famous interview between those monarchs near Guisnes. These martial and festival talents were the direct road to Henry's heart, who, in his fifteenth year, created sir Nicholas a baron at the palace of Bridewell: but he lived not long to enjoy the splendour of this favour. Departing this life in 15233, he founded chantries for the souls of his ancestors; portioned his three daughters with five hundred pounds apiece for their marriages; and to his sons Thomas and William bequeathed all his wearing gere, except cloth of gold, cloth of silver, and tissue. A battle, 4 3 [In 1524, May 14, says the accurate Mr. Lodge, only seventeen days after his advancement to the peerage. See the article of Thomas, lord Vaux.] • Wood, vol. i. p. 19. Dugdale, vol. ii. p. 304. Tanner, p. 731. |