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THE CAMDEN SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS.* THE autobiography of Lady Anne Halkett (born Murray) is that of a faithful and pious Royalist, who contributed to the escape of the young Duke of York from Parliamentary custody. He was removed from the St. James's Palace during a pretended
game at hide-and-seek, and brought to "Mistress Anne" to be disguised in feminine habiliments, which, as she records, fitted him exactly, and made him look "very pretty," notwithstanding that her tailor, to whom she had conveyed the most necessary measurements, had been much astonished by her little friend's
proportions. After dressing him, she took care to send "for a Wood-Street cake, which she knew he loved," in order that he might go comfortably down the river. He was escorted by her accomplice, Colonel Bamfield, who was moved to pray fervently that the wind might continue favourable ; thus they sped him loyally and kindly toward his unhappy destinies. Some years later, Anne was presented to the King of Scots in Edinburgh, when she had found it necessary to draw from him a most gracious intimation "that the world is too full of false rumours, easily to engage his belief in anything that shall be to your pre- judice." She was met in his presence by a person ill-disposed towards her, but Charles appears to have received her with his usual tact and graciousness ; she was afterwards mortified at finding herself not specially recognised by him, and a spirited animadversion reached his ear from her ; whereat he came the next day, and said, "Mrs. Murray, I am ashamed I have been so long a' speaking to you, but it was because I could not say enough to you for the service you did my brother ; but if ever I can command what I have a right to as my own, there shall be nothing in my power I will not do for you." Therewith, "the King laid his hand upon both mine, as they lay upon my breast." Mistress Murray could not help responding with all humility and blandness, and of course, learnt subsequently not to put her "trust in princes." After the repulse of Charles from England, he had again to thank her for her humane attention to the wounds of numbers nf his partisans ; she was afterwards ex- posed, when the English had overrun the country, to many slights and annoyances, which she encountered with a spirit and breed- ing that procured instant respect and satisfaction. Her marriage, soon after these events, connected her more permanently with Scotland, where she died at the age of seventy-seven, leaving behind a large collection of devotional meditations.
The most interesting elements of this memoir have yet to be indicated to our readers, for they are comprised in a candid record of private attachments, difficulties, and afflictions, which constitute a very remarkable romance of real life. A few gaps occur in the narrative, which we are assisted to surmount by Mr. Nicholl's excellent introduction, in which he has made use of a short life published in 1778, and perhaps of other documents ; but it remains by no means clear bow long Colonel Bamfield was deceived in considering himself a widower, and how far he wilfully deceived our authoress, upon whom he brought so much trouble and ill-repute, that she was well-nigh too disgusted with the world to give any attention to her last and most worthy admirer, Sir James Halkett ; on whose behalf she was very gravely and shrewdly advised by a clergyman, whom they both respected. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Murray, the tutor of Charles I., and born in 1622, shortly before the death of her father, who had, after some variable experiences at Court, been promoted to the Provostehip of Eton. She was very strictly brought up by her mother, who was strongly opposed to her first admirer, Thomas, son of a Lord Howard, of Escrik, foreseeing that the latter's family would be inconvenienced, if not offended by the affair, and feeling that she was under obligations to them. Anne Murray, who had lately passed her twenty-first year, gave the young man no hope that she would marry him without the con- sent of the families, but held firmly to her promise that she would marry no one else while he was single ; she incurred, even thus, the severe displeasure of her mother, and was so ill-treated that she consulted a kinsman in Holland as to hew it might suit her to enter a Protestant convent there. Sir Patrick Drummond, however, "who was a wise and dis- creet gentleman," wrote such "a handsome, serious letter to the mother, that she was reconciled to her daughter, and began to treat her more like a friend than a daughter." Thomas Howard, on the other hand, was induced by an aristocratic aunt of his,
* Canada Society Publications. 2 vols. Printed for the Camden Society. 1875. who "gloried much of her wit and contrivance," to violate his engagements, and contract another marriage privately. The position of his betrothed is here described, in the temper of an heroic age :— " I was alone in my sister's chamber when I read the letter, and flinging myself down upon her bed, I said, 'Is this the man for whom I have suffered so much ? Since he hath made himself unworthy my love, he is unworthy my anger or concern ;' and rising immediately, wont out into the next room to my supper, as unconcernedly as if Ihad never had an interest in him, nor had never lost it. A little after, my mother came to the knowledge of it from my Lord H—, who was much discontented at his son's marriage, and often wished he had had his former choice. Nothing troubled me more than my mother's laughing at me, and, perhaps, so did others, but all I said was, 'I thought he had injured himself more than me, and I had much rather he had done it than I;' and once, I confess, in passion, being provoked by something I had heard, I said, with too much seriousness,' I pray God he may never die in peace till he confess his fault and ask me forgiveness.' But I acknowledge this as a fault, and have a hundred times begged the Lord's pardon for it, for though in some respects it might be justified as wishing him repentance, yet many circumstances might make it im- possible for me to bo a witness of it. And God forbid that any should want peace for my passion. When Miriam [a maid-servant] firstheard he was married, she lifted up her hands, and said, Give her, 0 Lord! dry breasts and a miscarrying womb,' which I reproved her for, but it seems the Lord thought St to grant her request," dze.
It must be owned that for this man's sake Anne had prevaricated a little with her mother, by granting him a farewell audience on one occasion when she had blindfolded herself because she had promised not to see him. "Little more than a twelvemonth after Anne Murray lost her mother" (this we copy from the beginning of a paragraph which has got printed in quite a wrong place in our introduction), "Anne lived some time with a brother-in-law of hers, and got acquainted with Colonel Bamfield ; she admired the religious touches in his conversation, but could not forbear asking him why he lived altogether apart from his wife. He excused himself on the ground of his employment, and of her being surrounded by relatives of the popular party ; he disclosed no attachment to Anne till some time after the affair of the Duke of York, when a report arrived that his wife was dead, and he then courted her so effectually that she promised to marry him as soon as could be conveniently arranged. He afterwards told her of a new report that his wife was living, and at another time that he had ascertained the contrary. Anne now reached a period of terrible perplexity, throughout which she conducted herself shrewdly and conscientiously ; she had even the pain of hearing that her brother was soulewhat hurt in a duel to which he had challenged the colonel, who, however, seems to have treated him with much forbearance and courtesy. The circumstances under which Sir James Halkett first noticed her were such as to exercise the sincerity of his good-will and honourable disposi- tions. We must pass over some other troubles in her life, of which she has left an interesting record.
In the Society's next volume, Dr. Rimbalt introduces to us "Two Sermons Preached by the Boy-bishop, one at St. Paul's, in the reign of Henry VIII., and one at Gloucester, in that of Mary." The existence of such a dignitary before the Reformation was first brought to the notice of antiquaries by the paraphernalia and proportions of a little effigy preserved in Salisbury Cathedral, and the archives of this and other dioceses have thrown light on the nature and general popularity of the institution. The Boy-bishop bore office from St. Nicholas's Day (6th December) till Inno- cents' Day, heading processions, visitations, &c., and receiving liberal contributions ; he was elected by the choristers who were his Fellows, and they officiated as prebends to him. The boys of St. Paul's School were directed by their founder, Dean Colet, to attend regularly their Boy-bishop's sermon (which was composed by a person of ruaturer age). Some Protestants naturally treated the whole institution as exceedingly irreverent ; so it was abolished by Henry VIII., revived in Mary's reign, and at last discontinued under her successor, from which time real Bishops were held in greater reverence. An author named by Dr. Rimbalt thought the anniversary Montem at Eton was merely a corruption of a procession usual on these occasions. "The scholars being prevented by the edict of Henry VIII. from con- tinuing that ceremony, gave a new face to their festivity, and began their pastime as soldiers, and elected a captain." The Afontem, even within the memory of persons living in 1777, had been kept a little before Christmas.
Mr. Wilkinson publishes "Receipts and Expenses in the Building of Bodmin Church, A.D. 1469-72," observing that this was a period of energetic church restoration throughout Corn- wall. Much of the zeal displayed by the subscribers is attributed to the influence of the industrial guilds, and this isolated county was little disturbed by the civil war which raged in the rest of the kingdom. Mr. Gardiner has edited, from an original manu- script, "Notes of a Judgment delivered by Sir George Croke in the Hampden case," which are more brief than the two reports furnished in the State Trials, but -have received autograph cor- rections. We must leave it to lawyers to derive some edifica- tion thence. The speech in Dr. Leighton's case, tried in the Star Chamber in 1636, looks violent and common-place ; the career of this pamphleteer, who received a very savage punish- ment for many very inflammatory expressions, has been investi- gated both by the late Mr. Bruce and by Mr. Gardiner.
The last-named author has supplemented his history of the Buckingham Administration by editing "Letters Relative to the Mission of Sir Thomas Roe to Gustavus Adolphus, 1629-30." Two earlier letters of the Swedish King's to his Ambassador in Great Britain are given us in an appendix ; one is in the original Latin, the other translated into the English (or rather the Scotch) .of Sir James Spens, and both refer to the terms on which a league might have been formed to resist the ascendancy of the eldest of the "Partitioning Powers." The proffered support of England, under the circumstances then existing, was welcomed by our ex- reellent ally with a marked circumspection. The negotiations conducted by Sir Thomas Roe, which were extended to Holland and other countries which had to be reconciled to each other, are edited with interspersed historical elucidations. The liveliest elements of the correspondence were furnished by Charles's un- ducky kinswoman, Elizabeth of Bohemia, but the despatches of Roe himself are rendered interesting and impressive by the general fervour of his tone, and his bold, quaint, and felicitous diction.
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