life he led at this time in London, that "he came to Lincoln's Inn, where he associated himself with those of the best rank and quality, and the most ingenious persons; for though he were of a nature not adverse to study and contemplation, yet he seemed rather addicted to conversation, and the reading of men and their several tempers, than to a continual poring upon authors." * Men of a large soul have no need of all those studies that are necessary to the education of other men. Nature offers herself to be studied by them, without the spectacles of books to read her by. They have only to look inward, as Dryden finely says, and they will observe her, in all her strength and all her weakness, there.

There is only one incident in these early and irregular practises which, if true, leaves a serious stain on that portion of the life of Cromwell. Sir William Dugdale originated it in his "Short View of the Late Troublest," where we find this remark:-"By his exorbitances, at last he so wasted his patrimony, that, having attempted his uncle Steward for a supply of his wants, and finding that, on a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail, he endeavoured by colour of law to lay hold of his estate, representing him as a person

"Portraiture of his Royal Highness Oliver," by Carrington, p. 8., a book on the whole not so deficient in trustworthiness as others of the time- Mr. Daubeny's for instance- or M. Gregorio Leti's. The last, published in French, at Amsterdam, fifty years after Cromwell's death, obtained considerable circulation in England. A copy is in my possession, and a short specimen of it may possibly amuse the reader. For instance, M. Gregorio Leti makes Cromwell a prodigy of learning at the univer sity, exceedingly admired by the bishops, a great favourite with king James. He then sends him over to France upon his travels, gives us a particular account of his gallantries, introduces him to an audience (of the French king, and an intimacy with cardinal Richelieu. Upon his return he assures us, that Cromwell was highly in the good graces of Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, to whom he says he was nearly related; and, what is still more extraordinary than all this, Mr. Leti lets us into the secret, that the bishop had an amour with Cromwell's wife; and in the same ingenious style, and with equally scrupulous attention to truth, he perseveres through the whole work, assuring us, that he wrote it during his stay in England, and that he took care to be perfectly well informed as to every thing which he relates. It is bare justice to Mr. Leti, however, to add, that he names the earl of Anglesea, the earl of Aylesbury, and several other persons of distinction, as the authors of the various matters he acquaints us with; and it is just possible that they were the somewhat stupid but successful jokes of those distinguished persons. See Appendix, (A.)

† P. 459.

not able to govern it. But therein he failed." The diligent researches of Mr. Noble, it must be admitted, seem to confirm this serious charge, while they are more explicit in detailing the grounds of it. From them it would seem that, soon after his return to Huntingdon from London, he "endeavoured to reinstate his fortune by annexing the estate of his maternal uncle, sir Thomas Steward, to his own, even in the lifetime of sir Thomas. It was not unlikely that he had asked of that gentleman a liberal supply, and finding that by a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail, he endeavoured to lay hold of his estate, representing him as a person not able to govern it;' which he did by petitioning his majesty to grant him a commission of lunacy; but the king dismissed the petition as ill-founded." With a strong reluctance to entertain this story, I am nevertheless bound to subjoin what strikes me to be further evidence in support of it - evidence which some may even take to be incontrovertible. Hacket, in his life of archbishop Williams (Scrinia Reserata), gives it as an eminent proof of that wily bishop's penetration that, at the very outset of Cromwell's career, he thoroughly detected his character. In a council held in 1645, Hacket represents Williams thus speaking of Cromwell to the king: "I knew him at Buckden, but never knew his religion, being a common spokesman for sectaries, and maintaining their part with stubbornness. He never discoursed as if he were pleased with your majesty and your officers, and indeed he loves none that are more than his equals. Your majesty did him but justice in refusing his petition against sir Thomas Steward of the Isle of Ely; but he takes them all for his enemies that would not let him undo his best friend, and, above all that live, I think him the most mindful of an injury. He talks openly that it is fit some should act more vigorously against your forces, and bring your person into the power of the parlement. He hates the earl of Essex, because he says he is but half an enemy to your majesty, and has done you more favor than harm.

His fortunes are broken, that it is impossible for him to subsist (much less satisfy his ambition) but by your majesty's bounty, or by the ruin of us all in one common confusion. In short, every beast has some evil properties, but Cromwell has the properties of all evil beasts."

One consideration remains, involving a different and less injurious view of the charge itself. It is indisputable that this sir Thomas Steward at his death, which occurred not many years afterwards, left the whole of his fortune to his nephew -to the young man at whose hands he had suffered so recently such a cruel and insulting wrong. Is it possible to imagine that intercession on the part of relatives, which is alleged to have brought this result about, would have sufficed in any way to that end, if the old man had not now, in reality, proved somewhat wavering in his wits. Giving Oliver Cromwell the advantage (to which he is fairly entitled) of the doubt so started, it is surely not difficult to imagine that, when he petitioned the king to the effect stated by Dugdale and Noble, and apparently corroborated by archbishop Williams himself, he may really have believed his kinsman to be labouring under the malady alleged.

The time now arrived, however, when the wild days were to close, and with them the imputations they gave birth to - when higher purposes and objects were to wake out of their early sleep in Cromwell's heart, and thenceforth sleep no more when his fellow townsmen were to ask with wonder among each other how such a reformation could have risen,

"Since his addiction was to courses vain;
His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, any sequestration,
From open haunts."

and possibly some one, more intelligent and accomplished than the rest, was to answer in that counterquotation from the prince of poets and philosophers,

whose death should just then have plunged the world in mourning, if the world had known his value,

"The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
And so this man obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty."

Whereat might the questioner have rejoined, with the strongest confidence that he had indeed attained in this the secret of Cromwell's mental progress,

"It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd."

On the 22d of August, 1620, four months after the completion of his twenty-first year, Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier, daughter of sir James Bourchier, of Felsted in Essex, a kinswoman of the Hampdens, a woman of high spirit, of an ancient and honourable family, and whose irreproachable life, and unobtrusive manners, should indeed have protected her from [the insults and obloquies of the time, if any thing could have been held sacred from them. The marriage took place at St. Giles's Church, Cripplegate, London; and, three days afterwards, we discover from a deed still in existence, Cromwell (described in the document as Oliver Cromwell, alias Williams, of Huntingdon, esq.) entered into a defeasance of statute staple to Thomas Morley, citizen and leather-seller, of London, in 40007. conditioned that he should, before the 20th of November following, convey and assure unto Elizabeth his wife, "for the term of her life, for her jointure, all that parsonage house of Hartford, with all the glebe lands and tythes," in the county of Huntingdon.* It is interesting to find, that some years afterwards, when Cromwell's wants appeared to require it, this amiable and excellent woman surrendered this jointure, which, with the fortune she had brought her husband, is reported to have gone in satisfaction of the debts contracted by early extravagance. Nor, through all the wonderful changes she was

* See Noble's " Memoirs of the Protectoral House."

*

doomed to experience, did she ever lose the simplicity and modesty of her youth. She is said to have borne what few women can patiently bear, with only such complaints as the most sweet and generous nature would give utterance to — and in this was more influenced by love than restrained by awe. Her husband's elevation she rather endured than rejoiced in; for even the stern Ludlow, when telling us that "he (the protector) removed from the Cockpit, which house the parliament had assigned to him, to take possession of Whitehall, which he assigned to himself, adds, that "his wife seemed at first unwilling to remove thither, though afterwards she became better satisfied with her grandeur." This "satisfaction" will, perhaps, be more

I have already ventured to say all that, perhaps, need be said in a question of this kind in my Life of Strafford, pp. 281-284., to which the reader is referred; but one of the notes in Noble's book bears too close a reference to this subject to be omitted here; and the writer was too candid as well as industrious not to have a right to claim fair attention to what he supposes himself to have had reason to believe in a case of this kind. "The protector Oliver," he says, "though a great devotee, is known to have indulged himself, after he arrived at power, with the company of ladies, and that not in the most innocent manner. Lady Dysert, afterwards duchess of Lauderdale, and Mrs. Lambert, have been frequently given as his mistresses. They were ladies of very different accomplishments; the former was beautiful, witty, learned, and full of intrigue; Mrs. Lambert employed herself only in praying and singing hymns. It was a court jest, that the protector's instrument (of government) was found under my lady Lambert's petticoat. His acquaintance with the gay lady Dysert gave such offence to the godly, that he was obliged to decline his visits to her; and it was thought that general Tollemache owed his birth to Oliver; but there could no hurt arise in holding heavenly meditation with Mrs. Lambert. Heath, in his Flagellum,' says, Mrs. Lambert was a woman of good birth and good parts, and of pleasing attractions, both for mind and body. There is a history printed of a pretended natural son of the protector's, but it is too marvellous to be true. Probably, however, Oliver had natural children, one of whom might be Dr. Millington, after whose name in the register of Strensham, in Worcestershire (the birthplace of the humorous Butler), is, 'Query, was not he a bastard of Oliver Cromwell?' and I am the more inclined to think this true, because in the post. script of a letter from Ursula Hornyhold, dated from London, Dec. 4. 1744, to a gentleman in the vicinity of that place, is, 'Did you ever hear it said that Dr. Millington was illegitimate. Here has been talk that Dr. Millington was a bastard of Oliver Cromwell.' The scandal it would have given, had the puritans known of his amours, and the advantages the cavaliers would have made of it, would be sufficient reasons for his keeping matters of this kind from the eyes of the public. Besides, though her highness was an obedient wife, she was not without spirit and sensibility: but, though she might know that she had reason to suspect the protector, we cannot suppose she carried it to such unreasonable lengths as to be jealous of Christina, queen of Sweden, as some pretend."

+"Ludlow's Memoirs." The royalist writers, I may observe, were so deficient in materials of accusation against her, that they made as much as they could of an alleged plainness of person; and Cowley, meaning to VOL. VI.

D