A BARONIAL HALL ABOUT THE TIME OF | seeing I cannot by any means conveniently diminish, THE CIVIL WARS.' THE STORY OF RAGLAN CASTLE. Of the many grey old castles with which the fair green fields of England are studded, few present greater claims to interest than RAGLAN. It is one of the most splendid monuments of that period, when the comforts of a baronial residence were grafted on the sterner features of the feudal fortress-an edifice at once luxurious and massive, and fitted alike for a stronghold in time of war, or a palace in time of peace. It is besides of great historical interest, as having afforded a refuge to the unhappy Charles I. at a period when his fortunes grew darker every day; and as being also the last fortress which held out in his cause. The final tenant of its splendid halls, before they were dismantled by the ruthless parliamentarians-the venerable Marquis of Worcester-was a characteristic specimen of the old cavalier, in all his noblest attributes. Memories of sorrow, self-devotion and loyalty such as these, confer a touching interest upon this picturesque old ruin, and they are admirably brought out in the publication which we propose to make the basis of the present article. my earnest trust and desire is, that you will now consider me with such larger proportions in this case, as shall seem good unto your friendly wisdoms, even as I shall think myself much beholden for the same. And so I commit you unto God. From Tetbury Castle, this 15 of January, 1569. Your assured friend to my power.-G. Shrewsbury.' "This passage,' Mr. Lodge observes,' will serve to correct a vulgar error, relating to the consumption of wine in those days, which, instead of being less, appears to have been-at least in the houses of the great-even more considerable than that of the present time. The good people who tell us that Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour breakfasted on roast beef, generally add, that wine was then used in England as a medicine, for it was sold only by apothecaries. The latter assertion, though founded on a fact, seems to have led to a mistake in the former; for the word apothecary [from the Greek аñobýкη, a repositorium] is applicable to any shopkeeper, or warehouseman, and was probably once used in that general sense.' In the retinues and domestic attendance of the nobles of this period, everything proclaimed that the era of feudal authority and magnificence had departed. AcRaglan Castle is situated near the high-road from cordingly, when the civil wars had commenced, no Monmouth to Abergavenny, in the midst of a luxu-peer, however wealthy or high in rank, could drag after riant and well-wooded country; and in sight of the him a regiment, or even a company, of unwilling bold mountains of the Welsh frontier. Its most vassals to the field. On the contrary, the meanest ancient portion dates from very carly times; but it hind was free to choose between king and parliament. did not attain its highest state of magnificence until Something, however, of the mere pomp of feudalism very near the stormy period of the civil wars, in which was still maintained in the domestic establishments of it was so soon afterwards destined to be reduced to the nobility and wealthier gentry. The father of ruin. It was then an extensive and splendid pile, John Evelyn, when he was sheriff of the counties of giving shelter to some hundreds of inmates-a school Surrey and Sussex, had a hundred and sixteen servants, of chivalry and gentle nurture. Its halls, now roof-in liveries of green satin doublets, besides several gentleless and overgrown with ivy, then witnessed a gor- men and persons of quality, who waited upon him, geous and picturesque form of baronial life, which can dressed in the same garb.' never return again; and the details of which, as ably gathered up by Dr. Beattie, will be read with curiosity and interest : "BARONIAL LIFE.-Of the expenses of a nobleman's family and household in the olden time, some idea may be formed by adverting to the facts adduced by writers of the day. In a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had the custody of Mary of Scotland, to the Marquis of Winchester and Sir Walter Mildmay, it is said— May it please you to understand, that whereas I have had a certain ordinary allowance of wine, amongst other noblemen, for expenses in my household, without impost: the charges daily that I do now sustain, and have done all this year past, well known by reason of the Queen of Scots, are so great therein, as I am compelled to be now a suitor unto you, that you will please to have a friendly consideration, unto the necessity of my large expenses. Truly two tuns in a month have not hitherto sufficed ordinarily; besides that which is sacrificed at times for her bathings, and such like use; which (1) The Abbeys and Castles of England," by W. Beattie, M.D. ublishing in parts at 2s 6d. each. G. Virtue, Ivy-lane. VOL. XIII. "One of the largest, if not the very largest, of English establishments ever maintained by a subject, was that of the Lord Treasurer, the Earl of Dorset, heir of the Lord Buckhurst, and well-known poet of the court. It consisted of two hundred and twenty servants, besides workmen attached to the house, and others that were hired occasionally. "The chief servants of the nobility-so they were called, but they were rather followers or clients-were still the younger sons of respectable, or even noble families, who attached themselves to the fortunes of a powerful patron, and served him either in court or military affairs, for which they were allowed separate retinues in men and horses, with gratuities in money, and promises of promotion. The progress of improvement that had banished minstrels, jugglers, and tumblers, from princely establishments, had naturally introduced the drama in their room; and, accordingly, we sometimes find a company of actors classed among the servants of the chief nobleman, as well as a family physician, or even a whole band. A steward, distinneck, presided as marshal of the household, and next guished by a velvet jacket, and a gold chain about his to him was the clerk of the kitchen. But these cumbrous appendages were daily lessening, as domestic comfort came to be better understood. This improvement, however, had commenced still earlier among those of less rank and pretension. All who had their fortune still to seek in the court, or in the army, and all who repaired to the metropolis in quest of pleasure, found, so early as the time of Elizabeth, that the bustle and the scramble of new and stirring times, made a numerous train of attendants an uncomfortable appendage. The gallant, and the courtier, therefore, like Sir John Falstaff, studied French thrift,' and contented himself with a single skirted page,' who walked behind him carrying his cloak and rapier. In consequence of the extravagant living introduced during this period, the spendthrift gentleman often sank into the serving-man, as we may see from the frequent recurrence of such a transformation in the old plays. When servants were out of place-as we learn from the same authentic pictures of the real life of the times-they sometimes repaired to St. Paul's Churchyard, the great place of public lounge, and there stood against the pillars, holding before them a written placard, stating their peculiar qualifications, and their desire of employment. "But whatever retrenchment,' observes the same author, might be making in the household expenditure by a diminished attendance, it was more than counterbalanced by an extravagance in dress, and personal ornament, that had now become an absolute frenzy.' It is said that King James almost daily figured in a new suit, a humour that soon became prevalent among his courtiers. Still more generally influential than his own example was that of his several handsome favourites, all of whom having been indebted for the royal favour merely to their personal attractions, spared no pains nor cost to give those natural advantages their full effect. When Buckingham was sent ambassador to France, to bring the Princess Henrietta to England, he provided for this important mission a suit of white uncut velvet and a cloak, both set all over with diamonds, valued at eighty thousand pounds, besides a feather made of great diamonds. His sword, girdle, hatband, and spurs, were also set thick with diamonds. Another suit which he prepared for the same occasion, was of purple satin, embroidered all over with pearls, and valued at twenty thousand pounds. In addition to these, he had twenty other dresses of great richness. As a throng of nobles and gentlemen attended him, we may conceive how their estates must have been impoverished by the purchase of chains of gold, ropes of pearl, and splendid dresses, befitting the retinue of such an ambassador. Even a court festival, of the time of James the First, must have made a perilous inroad upon a year's amount of the largest income. Thus, at the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the Palatine, Lady Wotton wore a gown profusely ornamented with embroidery, that cost fifty pounds a yard; and Lord Montague spent fifteen hundred pounds on the dresses of his two daughters, that they might be fit to appear at court on the same occasion..... 'Prodigality in feasting and riotous living soon became as conspicuous as extravagance with regard to dress. In proof whereof, we may mention the antesuppers of the epicurean Earl of Carlisle. Weldon informs us, that he gave a banquet to the French ambassador at Essex House, where fish of such huge size were served up, and which had been brought all the way from Russia, that no dishes in England could hold them, until several were made for the express purpose. The household expenditure of James the First was twice as much as that of his predecessor, amounting to a hundred thousand pounds annually. "COUNTRY LIFE.-While such were the habits of the courtiers, the country aristocracy still followed that kind of life so much familiarized to our minds by the descriptions in the old songs and plays of the golden days of good Queen Bess.' The rural knight, or squire, inhabited a huge building-half house, half castle-crowded with servants in homespun blue coats, many of whom were only serviceable in filling up the blank spaces of the mansion; but as these had been born in his worship's service, it was held as a matter of course that they should live and die in it. "The family rose at daybreak, and first of all assembled at prayers, which were read by the family chaplain. Then came breakfast; after which the master of the household and his sons got into their saddles, and went off to hunt the deer, followed by some score of mounted attendants; while the lady and her daughters superintended the dairy, or the buttery, prescribed the day's task for the spinningwheels, dealt out bread and meat at the gate to the poor, and concocted all manner of simples for the sick and infirm of the village. If leisure still remained, the making of confections and preserves was a neverfailing resource; independently of spinning and sewing, or perhaps embroidering some battle or hunting piece, which had been commenced by the housewives of a preceding generation.' "At noon dinner was served up in the Great Hall, the walls of which were plentifully adorned with stags' horns, casques, antique brands, and calivers. The noisy dinner-bell, that sent the note of warning over the country, gave also a universal invitation and welcome to the hospitable board; and after dinner sack, or home-brewed October,' occupied the time until sunset, when the hour of retiring to rest was at hand. "Such was the ordinary history of a day in the country mansion. When the weather prevented outdoor recreation or employment, the family library, containing some six or eight tomes, that had perhaps issued from the press of Caxton, or Wynkyn de Worde, was in requisition; and, if the members of the family could read, they might while away the hours in perusing these volumes for the twentieth time. In this fashion, they derived their knowledge of religion from the Bible, and the Practice of Piety;' their Protestantism and horror of Popery from Fox's Acts rebuke, his adherents, who swore, drank, brawled, and intrigued, to show their hatred of the enemy, and their devotedness to the royal cause.' "LIFE AT RAGLAN.-Down to this eventful period, the castellated mansion of Raglan had continued to bask in the sunshine of prosperity. Its halls were frequented by the élite of rank and station, and by threw so much lustre upon that and the preceding reign. The Earl, whose revenues were princely, lived in a style becoming the representative of an illustrious race; and while he observed great state, and gave sumptuous banquets to the magnates of the land, he did not neglect the humble votaries of the Muse." "HOLIDAYS.-In such a state of life the set holidays were glorious eras; the anticipation, the enjoy-many of that intellectual aristocracy whose genius ment, the remembrance of a single Christmas or birthday, furnished matter for a whole month of happiness. On such an occasion the lord of the manor was more than a king, as he proceeded with his family through the crowds of assembled peasants, to witness their games of merriment, and feats of agility or strength; for his smile inspired the competitors with double strength or swiftness; while the prize acquired a tenfold value because it was he who bestowed it. At evening, his bounty was expressed by oxen roasted whole, and puncheons of mighty ale, with which he feasted the crowd; while his house was thrown open to the throng of his more immediate acquaintances and dependents. After the feast, his hall was cleared for dancing; three fiddlers and a piper struck up; and as the mirth and fun grew fast and furious,' the strong oaken floor was battered and ploughed in all directions by the hobnailed shoes of those who danced with all their might, and with all their hearts. "Such was the life of an old country gentleman when James succeeded to the crown of England. But these habits, the last relics of the simplicity of the olden times, did not long survive that event. Tidings of the gay doings at court, and the wonderful good fortune of the royal favourites, reached the ears of the aristocratic rustics; and from that moment rural occupations and village maypoles lost their charm. The young were impatient to repair to the metropolis; and the old were obliged to yield to the prevailing fashion. With all the fierce impetuosity of novices, rural esquires, and well-dowried country widows, rushed into the pleasures and excesses of a town life; and thus, with a rapidity hitherto unknown in England, and at which moralists became giddy, ancient manners were soon abandoned; fortunes, that had accumulated for generations, vanished; the hereditary estates of centuries became the property of men of yesterday; and the time-honoured names of some of the most ancient families disappeared from the scroll of English heraldry, and soon ceased to be remembered. "When Charles came to the throne, the coldness of his character and his decorous habits discountenanced those coarse and profligate excesses; and the courtiers endeavoured to conform to something like the rules of external decency. A general sobriety of demeanour succeeded.' 'But, as the stern ascetic Puritans grew into power, and advanced to the destruction of the monarchy with prayer and fasting, the court party soon became eager to distinguish themselves by an entirely opposite behaviour. All the excesses of the former reign were resumed; and Charles found himself unable to restrain, or even to Such was the gaiety and splendour of Raglan when interrupted by the civil wars, which converted every nobleman's house into a fortress, and reduced so many to the state of ruin in which we now behold them. As the civil commotions increased the venerable Marquis of Worcester fortified his baronial castle, and received his sovereign with the greatest magnificence. He had already expended an immense sum upon raising and equipping a regiment, which was shortly afterwards broken up, and such was his unbounded liberality "that the King, fearing lest the garrison stores should become exhausted by his numerous suite, offered to invest him with powers to exact supplies from the neighbouring county." But, with great magnanimity, Worcester replied, "I humbly thank your Majesty, but my castle would not long stand if it leant upon the country. I had rather myself be brought to a morsel of bread than see one morsel wrung from the poor to entertain your Majesty." The fugitive Charles was, indeed, right royally treated at Raglan; but this could not gild over the intense bitterness of his position, dependent as he was upon the voluntary contributions of his adherents. But nothing could be deeper, more chivalrous than their devotion. The old Marquis seems to have foreseen the ruin brought upon his house by embracing the fortunes of his royal master, but he shrunk not from the surrender. When the king last entered the gates of Raglan, the Marquis delivered his Majesty the keys, according to the ordinary custom, the king restoring them to the Marquis: the Marquis said,— "I beseech your Majesty to keep them, and you please, for they are in a good hand, but I am afraid that ere it be long, I shall be forced to deliver them into the hands of those who will spoil the compliment." And so it happened. But never perhaps was there a more devoted instance of loyal affection than the following, which soothed the retirement of the fallen monarch during his stay beneath the Marquis's roof: "The reverend individual, whom his own act has immortalized, was Thomas Swift, incumbent of the neighbouring parish of Goodrich. Fully aware of the King's pecuniary distress, he mortgaged his estate; and with the money thus raised he proceeded to Raglan Castle. The Governor with whom he was personally acquainted, asked the object of his visit, and whether he could serve him; for he was equally esteemed as a zealous pastor, and a staunch royalist. 'I am only come,' said he, 'to give his Majesty my coat;' and, in taking it off, the Marquess pleasantly observed: "Thy coat, I fear me, is of little worth.' 'Why then,' said Swift, 'take my waistcoat also.' And here was the hidden treasure, for, on being ripped up, it was found to contain three hundred broad gold pieces. 'And the King,' says Lord Clarendon, 'received no relief that was more scasonable and acceptable than this during the war.' Mr. Swift's zeal and activity in the royal cause exposed him to much danger and many sufferings. He was plundered,' says Heath, more than thirty times by the Parliament's army, and ejected from his church living. His estate was sequestered, and he himself thrown into prison." Charles now left Raglan for a while, but only to return to it after the fatal battle of Naseby. Only five days before this he had written to the Queen that "his affairs were never in so fair and hopeful a way," on the sixth he was a fugitive. Flying by Leicester and Bewdley to Hereford, he made his way to Abergavenny, where he met the Commissioners-persons of large influence in the county-who professed that that they should shortly be able to raise him another force. Thence he went for the last time to Raglan Castle, to await, in a state of devouring anxiety and growing melancholy the further issue of the unhappy struggle. There he was again received with the deepest devotion by the gallant and devoted Marquis. "At Raglan, however, says the historian, the King, as on his former visit, passed days and weeks in sports and ceremonies, in hunting and audiencegiving;' for every effort was employed by those around him to obliterate all recollections of the past by promises and predictions of a brilliant future. When his majesty re-entered the gates of Raglanwhich was indeed a harbour of refuge in his distressthe loyal Marquess, kneeling down, kissed his Liege's hand; and then rising up saluted him with this compliment- Domine! non sum dignus.' To which the King replied My Lord, I may very well answer you again: I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. No man would trust me with so much money as you have done.' To which the Marquess replied-I hope your Majesty will prove a defender of the Faith." His Lordship was a Catholic. his past errors, and regaining the hearts of his alienated subjects, not one was permitted to prosper. And as a fatal climax to his unhappy fortunes, 'it was at Raglan Castle,' says Lord Clarendon, that the King received the terrible information of the surrender of Bristol (September 11, 1645), which he so little apprehended, that if the evidence thereof had not been unquestionable, it could not have been believed. With what indignation and dejection of mind the King received this advertisement, needs no other description and enlargement than the setting down in the very words of it the letter which the King writ thereupon to Prince Rupert; which, considering the unspeakable indulgence his Majesty had ever showed towards that Prince, is sufficient evidence how highly he was incensed by that act, which yet he took some time sadly to think of and consider, before he would allow himself to abate so much of his natural candour towards him. As soon as he received that surprising intelligence, the King removed from Raglan Castle. The King took leave of Raglan Castle on the 15th of September, mournfully observing to the Marquess, that by so doing he hoped to ease his lordship of a heavy burden.' His Majesty then thanked his noble and devoted host for the large sums of money which had been advanced to him in the course of his troubles. Whereupon the Marquess replied: "Sire, I had your word for the money; but I never thought to have been so soon repaid; for now that you have given me thanks, I have all I looked for.' Well might the royal guest have expressed his feelings on quitting Raglan in the following lines taken from his own Collection:' "I fall! I fall! Whom shall I call? Alas! can he be heard, Who now is neither loved nor feared? When from their glorious seat "At Raglan the King'stayed until news came that Fairfax, after taking Leicester, had marched into the west, and defeated Goring's troops at Lamport; at the same time that the Scottish army, on its march, had taken a small garrison between Hereford and Worcester by storm, and put all within it to the sword;' while Prince Rupert sent for all those foot, "On one occasion he was hotly pursued in his retreat which were levied towards a new army to supply the through Shire Newton, by a party of sixty Roundgarrison. But the expectations, which had been heads; but reaching a place called Charleston Rock, industriously fostered in the King's mind of a more near the New passage, a fishing-boat was found, in || propitious fortune, became every day more faint. Of which he was safely ferried over the Severn into all the schemes that had been set afoot for retrieving Gloucestershire. His pursuers coming up in the meanwhile, but only to find their object defeated, seized upon the remaining boats, and with drawn swords compelled the fishermen to ferry them across. They hurried into the boats, and, with the royal fugitive still in view, made all haste to be once more on his traces. The poor fishermen, however, being royalists at heart, had no sympathy with these kinghunters; but rowing lustily towards a reef of rocks called the English Stones,' within a gun-shot of the Gloucester shore, there hauled in their oars; and landing their freight on the rocks, told them the water was so shallow that the boats could go no further, and they might easily wade to the opposite bank. And such, in fact, was quite practicable at low water; but, in the present instance, the tide flowed so rapidly, that in making the attempt to reach the opposite bank the whole party were drowned." Scarcely had the royal fugitive departed than the stout old cavalier was called upon to fill up the measure of his devotion by standing a siege by the forces ⠀⠀ of Fairfax. The defence was long and obstinate, and, although it was evident that the place must finally surrender, the Marquis maintained to the last a merry heart, and a cheerful countenance. He was a dear lover of a joke, and could joke under the most desperate circumstances. "One evening, during the hottest period of the cannonade," says Dr. Bayly, "there came a musket bullet in at the window of the withdrawing room, where my lord used to entertain his friends with his pleasant discourses after dinners and suppers, which, glancing upon a little marble pillar of the window, and from thence hit the Marquess upon the side of his head, and fell down flattened upon the table, which breaking the pillar in pieces, it made such a noise in the room, that his daughter-in-law, the Countess of Glamorgan, who stood in the same window, ran away as if the house had been falling down upon her head, crying out 'O Lord! O Lord! But at length finding herself more afraid than hurt, she returned back again, no less excusing her as she was pleased to call it rudeness to her father, than acknowledging her fears to all the company. To whom the Marquess said: 'Daughter, you had reason to run away when your father was knocked on the head.' Then pausing some little while, and turning the flattened bullet round with his finger, he further said: 'Gentlemen, those who had a mind to flatter me, were wont to tell me that I had a good head in my younger days; but if I don't flatter myself, I think I have a good head-piece in my old age, or else it would not have been musket proof!" At last, further resistance being hopeless, Raglan was surrendered, Fairfax marched in with his troops, and the castle was dismantled. The ruin of the devoted Marquis of Worcester was now complete. "The loss sustained by the family in the immediate destruction of the castle and woods, according to the printed statement, was computed at one hundred thousand pounds; besides enormous sums furnished to his Majesty for the raising and equipment of two armies, and the maintenance of a numerous garrison, of which the daily expenses alone must have required a princely revenue. With this evidence of the Marquess's resources, it is not surprising that he should be described by Clarendon as the most moneyed man of the kingdom.' The siege was followed by the sequestration and sale of the whole estate, which, by the parliamentary audit of 1646, amounted to twenty thousand pounds per annum, and remained in the hands of Cromwell till the Restoration, a period of fourteen years. All the old timber in the parks adjacent was cut down and sold; the lead was stript from the roof of the great hall, and sold for six thousand pounds; and a quantity of the timber was carried to Bristol, and there used in rebuilding the wooden houses upon the old bridge, which had recently been destroyed by fire. But the loss of the library was in every sense a national loss, for in this, among many rare invaluable manuscripts, were the archives of Gwent, with the earliest records of Welsh literature. One of these manuscripts,' says the late Mr. Thomas, 'was an interesting work by Geraint Bardd Glass y Cadair, an illustrious Welshman, who flourished about the ninth century. He was the first who composed a Welsh grammar, a work that was revised by Einion and Edeyrn, which form and arrangement are now extant; but the original MS. was in the Raglan library at its capitulation.' "In his palmy days, long before he was created Marquess, the good Earl lived in princely state in this Castle. Surrounded by faithful friends, numerous retainers, and a household that, by its daily expenditure, bespoke almost unlimited resources, he enjoyed in age all the happiness to which men look forward as the reward and solace of a virtuous youth; for, though long practised in the offices of Court, he could still relish the sweets of domestic retirement, the humanizing influence of science, and the conversation of pious and learned men. He was a friend of literature, a pattern of religious consistency, an example of loyalty which no reverses could shake; and when at last plunged into the deepest adversity, stript of his property, bent down with years, and suffering from bodily pain, he maintained a degree of mental serenity that softened the remembrance of his wrongs, showed the true foundation of his faith, and enabled him to view every dispensation of good or evil as coming from God, and intended, by weaning his thoughts from this world, to give him nearer and clearer views of heaven. Reduced in four short years from the height of prosperity into the very abyss of adversity-his home desolate, the prospects of his family blasted, his friends hopeless or in prison, himself an inmate of the Tower-it is impossible to withhold our sympathy from a man who, in no circumstances, forgot the true nobility of his nature, and the obligations of his creed; but in every trial could exclaim, in the words of his own motto-Mutare vel timere sperno.” In conclusion, we cannot but thank Dr. Beattie for the research which has placed before us so vivid a picture of the period of the civil wars. No writer on |