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its original place in some Catholic church, will perfectly understand the difference alluded to. But indeed museums of all kinds may be called necessary evils; they do indeed preserve from loss or destruction much that is highly valuable, and so far are deserving of all praise; but their miscellaneous contents, however tastefully or scientifically arranged, no more retain the character and interest that belonged to them in their proper places, than the wild beasts caged in some zoological collection are like the same animals when seen at large in their native forests.

Leaving the hall, I found myself in the very oldest part of the building, treading floors that had been laid down in Edward the First's time, if not long anterior, and indulging in idle speculations-as no doubt many others have done, and more will do-anent the antique passages and chambers. Thence I made my way, by a sort of rambling route, till I was again brought to a standstill by a sort of inner porch of carved wood, not very unlike the door to some side-aisle or smaller chapel in a Gothic cathedral. This richly-decorated screen proved to be the entrance to the dining-room, which, both as regarded its size and ornaments, was worthy of so singular a portal. But a dining-room, even to an antiquarian, never shews to so much advantage as when the banquet is really spread there, and though the sunbeams shone in cheerfully enough, yet the unfurnished chamber had somewhat of a desolate appearance. Not so the splendid gallery above, extending nearly ninety feet in length, and being rather more than twelve feet in width. The genealogist will here find what to him may prove a more alluring prospect than the beautiful scene of field and woodland that surrounds the castle. In the heraldic character of the stained glass belonging to the oriel windows is much of great interest, as tending to illustrate the story of those who have successively ruled in these halls, and have passed away into the dust and silence of the grave, but whose names will never be wholly forgotten so long as English chronicle is read and remembered. The spirit, too, of popular tradition has been busy here, and perhaps with no less truth than the chronicles themselves. Thus a staircase leading to the castle-chapel is called Cromwell's staircase, a token that the Protector was once here, and no unwelcome visitant; so too a room in which stood a billiard-table is called Queen Anne's room, leaving us to infer that she also had been here on some occasion; and in a small chamber adjoining the corridor already mentioned is a cupboard wherein Charles the First is said to have hidden after the unlucky affair at Banbury. How far this popular story agrees with the principles of the then lord of the castle, or the actual facts of the case, is another question-it were pity to spoil a good tale by too curious an inquiry into the matter.

I have already alluded to the church; it stands near the bridge and tower leading to the castle, and although not very large, yet it possesses a peculiar interest as belonging to the thirteenth century. This noble relic is composed of a chancel, nave, and south aisle, its interior being about ninety-one feet from east to west in length, while it is full fortyfour feet wide, inclusive of the aisle, which equals the nave in width, and extends fourteen feet beyond it on the side of the chancel. The east window is in the decorated style, with the geometrical tracery which prevailed at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Immediately beneath the window is the altar, a stone slab supported on three plain corbels, and still retaining those small crosses which in Roman Catholic

days it was the custom to imprint upon each altar at the time of consecration.

Let the reader now place himself with me for a moment at the west end of the chancel, and imagine that he is looking southward into the aisle, for at this point he will be more particularly struck by the forms and groupings of the principal monuments. On the left he will see a recess highly decorated with the most beautiful Gothic tracery, wherein is a tomb with two recumbent figures, belonging to the Wykeham family, as appears from the small crest on the helmet of the male effigies, which is besides invested with a collar composed of roses and sunbeams; the female also has a collar, but of S.S. In front of the recess were at one time springing arches that must have contributed greatly to its elegance and general effect; these, however, have been destroyed, and according to tradition by barbarians on the one side or the other in the war between Charles the First and his Parliament, though I much fear that the blame of this useless spoliation must be given to the Royalists. Lord Say was, from some cause, peculiarly distasteful to the king himself, who seems to have eagerly seized every opportunity of shewing his aversion, and it is therefore probable enough that this work of destruction was effected when Charles besieged, and after a day's resistance took, Broughton Castle, which at the time was garrisoned by a troop of horse. True it is that the place was surrendered upon capitulation, but agreements of this kind have seldom been found to tie up the hands of the conquerors very strictly, and more particularly in civil war, when all the worst passions of men are called into full activity.

In the ledger stones of the chancel floor are numerous memorials of the Saye and Sele family; and, as you look into the aisle, a monument faces you with a recumbent image of one of that race, but the legs are not crossed, and the whole is so worn and wasted that nothing curious can any longer be traced in the details of his armour. The family arms, however, are quartered on various shields around the tomb.

We now come to what may well be called the gem and prime ornament of this church. In the south-eastern corner of the aisle, half hidden by a memorial of the Saye and Seles, is a monument of a most beautiful Gothic character belonging to a De Broughton, and dating from the time of Edward the Second. It stands under a canopy let into the wall, a rich and beautiful specimen of decorated work; and though time has nearly effaced the arms and the inscription upon the tomb, yet a lingering tradition still remains that the figure represents the founder of the church and castle. Nothing certain can be gathered from the monument itself; the arms have scarcely a distinguishable trace left, and the only clue we have to the inscriptions on the tomb, or to its former tenant, is a MS. of Anthony-a-Wood's in the Ashmolean Museum, In that antiquarian's collection for Broughton, the indefatigable Skelton found a detached slip of paper with a memorandum to this effect: "Thomas de Broughton, miles quondà Dnus de Broughton qi multimodis ornamentis hanc eccliam adornavit, cujus animæ propitietur deus amon." This document Skelton supposes to have belonged to the tomb in question, though it is no longer to be decyphered; but if he be right in his conjecture, it is clearly decisive against this figure representing the founder of the church. and castle, since, in that case, the epitaph would scarcely have recorded the knight as having simply "contributed much towards decorating the

edifice." The lesser distinction of ornamenting would not have been remembered while that of actually founding it was forgotten.

The family of Fiennes, or Fenys, as we find it anciently written, the head of which bears the title of Lord Saye and Sele, have long been in possession of this noble mansion with the lands pertaining to it. They may boast of a regal descent, their early ancestor, Ingelram de Fiennes, having married the daughter of Faramus de Boloign, the nephew of Maude, wife of king Stephen, and in most periods of English History we find the nobles of this house playing a distinguished part. The pen of Shakspeare has immortalized James first Lord Saye and Sele more effectually than either chronicle or history could have done, and few readers will need more than a brief allusion to the scene in the second part of Henry the Sixth, where Jack Cade insists upon beheading the venerable nobleman, first, because he spoke Latin, and secondly, because he pleaded so well for his life. But in truth, the many high offices he held under the crown, had made him odious to the rabble, without any other cause, for he was constable of Dover, warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Chamberlain to the King, a member of his council, and finally Lord High Treasurer of England. In the time of the great civil war, and in the few years immediately preceding it, Broughton Castle became a place of considerable interest. The Lord Saye and Sele of that day was considered, Anthony-a-Wood tells us, as the godfather of the discontented party, "who had meetings of them in his house at Broughton, where was a room and passage thereunto which his servants were prohibited to come near; and when they were of a complete number, there would be great noises and talkings heard among them to the admiration of those that lived in the house, yet could they never discern their lord's companions.' I did not see, or did not take any particular notice of the room myself; but Lord Nugent, somewhat in opposition to Anthony's account, describes it as having been surrounded with thick walls in such a manner that no sound from within could be heard, and he adds that it appears to have been built about the reign of King John. In either case it would seem to have been no unfitting place for a council of conspirators, though his lordship thinks it would have been much more probable if the scene of their meeting had been laid in the open fields; I must confess I do not see this; that men having some secret object to consult upon should assemble in a room where they could be neither heard nor seen is perfectly natural, and might, if it were necessary, be confirmed by many an example.

Lord Clarendon, as may be supposed, is no friendly critic when discussing the temper and talents of this celebrated nobleman; and yet amidst all the dark shadows he has contrived to cast upon his character, it stands out commanding, and even brilliant. He was the valued friend of Hampden-no slight praise to the best and greatest-and " his parts were so much above many of his own rank that he had always great credit and authority in Parliament." It would appear too that although he opposed the Court, in its more violent measures," he had not the least thought of dissolving the monarchy, and less of levelling the ranks and distinctions of men." Surely the fair inference from this would be that while he conscientiously opposed an unconstitutional and arbitrary exercise of power-or what he at least considered to be such-he was still no less the friend of monarchy within its proper limits. His subsequent

* Wood's Athena Oxonienses. William Fiennes; p. 546, vol. iii.

conduct says much for this favourable estimate of his character, for after Charles had been put to death it was in vain that Cromwell invited him to partake of his honours; "he turned away," says Noble, "from that great man with disgust and abhorrence as the betrayer of the common interest of the republic, and retired to the Isle of Lundy."* Yet throughout the whole of the civil war he had been regarded with bitter and intense hatred by the unhappy monarch; of this the proofs are only too numerous; as for instance-in a " Proclamation of his Majestie's Grace, Favour, and Pardon, to the Inhabitants of his County of Oxon," dated the 3rd of November, at Oxford where his Court was then held, he particularly excepts the "Lord Say, Nathaniel Fynes, Esq., Sir William Cobb, and John Doyley, Esq., against all which we shall proceed according to the rules of law as against traitors and stirrers of sedition against us." Again when in the month of March, 1642, the Parliament applied to Charles for a safe conduct for certain of their commissioners to treat of peace, the answer was that "His Majestie hath sent a safe conduct for the Earle of Northumberland, Mr. Pierpoint, Sir William Ermyn, Sir John Holland, and Mr. Whitelocke, but hath not admitted the Lord Say to attend him, as being excepted against by name in his Proclamation at Oxford of the third of November, and by a writ to the Sheriffe proclaimed then in that County, on which his Majestie's Intention is declared to proceed against him as a person guilty of high Treason."‡

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Lastly, for it would be useless to multiply these instances, Lord Saye's house and lands were ravaged by an especial warrant under the King's own hand, as appears from the following statement given in the Speciall Passages," &c. "It is certain that Prince Robert have plundered the Lord Say his house, Master Fynes his house, Master Whitelocke's house, Members of Parliament, and taken away all his cattle, and destroyed his Deere, and such as they could not kill, they brake downe the Parke Pales to let them out. And that when the Maior of Banbury shewed Prince Robert the King's hand and seale that the towne should not be plundered, for that his Majestie had accepted of a composition, Prince Robert threw it away, and said, my unkle little knowes what belongs to the warres, and so commanded his men to plunder, which they did to the purpose, and had no respect of persons, for the Malignants suffered more than the honest men of the Towne whom they called the Roundheads." (This is curious as shewing that the nickname of Roundheads was only just now coming into use.) "But that which startles us most is a warrant under his Majestie's owne hand for the plundering the Lord Say his house and demolishing of it, and invites the people to doe it, with a grant unto them of all the materialls of the house; we had thought till this was produced that the King had not been accessary to these horrible pilfering courses; there is a Banbury man gone up to the Parliament with the warrant, who informes of most wicked and devellish outrages committed by Prince Robert his forces, yet to put a colour upon the business it is given out it is against the King and Prince Robert's minds

Noble's Memoirs of Cromwell, &c. p. 377, vol. i.

†This will be found amongst the broadsheets in the British Museum, with the press F. C., mark 12. 176, Folio. London, 1642.

See Husband's Collection of Orders, &c. Folio. London, 1646, page 55. Husband was printer to the House of Commons, and these ordinances, &c., were published under their authority.

to plunder; hanged a man but yesterday and yet they plunder the more. This warrant under the King's owne hand is an undoubted truth, and fit to be knowne to all the Kingdome, that they may see what they are like to expect. Redding might have defended themselves, but the Malignants begun to plunder the honest partie there even when Master Martin was present there with his dragoones to defend them, so it was time for Master Martin to leave them to the mercy of the cavaliers, which hitherto hath been cruelty wheresoever they came."*

Notwithstanding the rooted enmity expressed towards Lord Saye in this and many similar stories, he does not appear to have been by any means hostile to the person of Charles, or to monarchy in the abstract. In September, 1648, having been employed as one of the commissioners at the treaty of the Isle of Wight, he upon his return to London sided with those who voted the royal answers to be a sufficient ground for considering of a peace; and we have already remarked that he broke off with Cromwell upon the King's execution. He was concerned too with Monk in the new, or convention-parliament, for which, as probably for other causes, he was taken into favour by Charles the Second, and made Lord Privy Seal, and Lord Chamberlain of the household, dying at the advanced age of eighty, when he was buried in Broughton church. From him the present noble owner of the title and estate is lineally descended; but indeed the name appears to have stood deservedly high throughout all periods of English history, and if we go back to a remote age we shall find one of his ancestors associated with the barons, who compelled Magna Charta from King John. The source thus pure, the stream has never suffered the least contamination in its descent, but sparkles on as bright and unpolluted at the present hour, as at the first intimation of its gushing forth from the fountains and well-heads of English chronicle. J. B. B.

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See a collection in the British Museum under the title "THE PASSAGES IN PARLIAMENT," "A PERFECT DIURNALL OF THE PASSAGES IN FARLIAMENT," "SPECIALL PASSAGES AND CERTAIN INFORMATIONS," &c. &c.; for this rare and valuable medley consists of divers flying sheets published from time to time by various printers during the great civil war, to record the events of the day. The paper in question is dated from Maidenhead, November 5th, 1642, number 13; but the reader will experience some difficulty in finding the desired article, for there is more than one number 13 in the volume. The book itself must be sought for in the catalogue of periodicals under the year 1642, and with the press mark 11.

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