Cobham

“ The Lord Cobham’s (or Cobham’s) Head, named after Sir John Oldcastle “the good Lord Cobham,” was situated in Cold Bath Fields, and on the west side of Coppice Row, now Farringdon Road, at the point where it was joined by Cobham Row.
It was first opened in 1728 (about April) , and in its garden there was then “a fine canal stocked with very good carp and tench fit to kill,” and anglers were invited to board at the house. ”

“ The road from Stoke D'Abernon runs north-west through the two Cobhams, Church Cobham and Street Cobham. The little Plough Inn, which acts as refreshment-room for Cobham railway station, suggests the proper spirit of village revelry. A spreading yew arbour should shade good ale from the summer suns, and by the side of the garden across the road, gay with geraniums, see-saws and swings, runs a tiny stream, rippling down to the Mole. ”

“ COBHAM, a village in the Medway parliamentary division of Kent, England, 4 m. W. of Rochester. The church (Early English and later, and restored by Sir G. G. Scott) is famous for its collection of ancient brasses, of which thirteen belonging to the years 1320–1529 commemorate members of the Brooke and Cobham families. There are some fine oak stalls and some tilting armour of the 14th century in the chancel. Cobham college, containing 20 almshouses, took the place, after the dissolution, of a college for priests founded by Sir John de Cobham in the 14th century. ”

“ In the case of an old and tried soldier like Lord Cobham this proceeding caused a great sensation. Bills were introduced in both houses to take from the crown the power of breaking officers, and motions were made to petition the king to inform them who had advised him to such a course. By breaking with Walpole Cobham forfeited the favour of the king; but by opposing the excise he gained the esteem of the Prince of Wales, and by assailing the South Sea Company he obtained the sympathy of the people. ”

“ Truly, as George Eliot says, "Nature repairs her ravages."
Cobham Park is nearly seven miles round, and its exquisitely varied scenery of wood and glade is conspicuous at the spot where the chestnut tree called "The Four Sisters" is placed. There is a lovely walk from Cobham Hall to Rochester through the "Long Avenue," so named in contradistinction to the "Grand Avenue," which opens into Cobham village. This walk, which slopes all the way down from the Mausoleum, leads to a seat placed midway in an open spot where charming views of the Medway valley are obtained. ”

“ What you want, of course, is some man whose name and reputation, as well as his valour and skill, will inspire the whole party with trust. But I will pledge myself for such a man."
"For whom?" demanded Count Aremberg.
"None other than my old and dear friend, Sir Walter Raleigh," replied Lord Cobham. "He will never hang back when Cobham asks him to draw the sword; and, moreover, he has already received disgust which makes his blood boil. I saw him this morning, with a letter from Cecil in his hand. ”

“ Cobb’s court, Black Friars.†
Cobb’s yard, 1. Blackman’s street.† 2. Petticoat lane.†
Cobham, a town in Surry, situated on the river Mole, six miles from Epsom, in the road from London to Guilford.
Near Cobham are several fine seats, particularly one belonging to the Lord Ligonier, and another, the seat of Mr. Bridges, which is built in a very singular taste, tho’ very plain on the outside, somewhat after the manner of an Italian villa. The principal rooms are richly ornamented; the ceilings are gilt ”

“ He was a careful and accurate man; you can still trace below Lord Cobham's left knee the fastenings of the Garter.
Lord Cobham's wife, Joan, was the author of one of the longest wills in existence. She remembered everybody, including the prisoners in chains at Southwark and the sick men in the hospitals. Her executor Robert Belknappe was to have "a horn made from a griffin's hoof with a silver core, and the said horn has a silver rim and two silver gilt feet." But she was most anxious, poor lady, about her soul. ”

“ George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton, was her brother, and Cobham's nephew, as well as William's intimate friend; Richard and George Grenville, the first of whom is better known as Lord Temple, and the second as a laborious but intolerable prime minister, were Cobham's nephews; Richard, indeed, was his heir. A family connection was131 thus formed, which, at first held up to ridicule under the nickname of 'Cobham's cubs,' or 'The Cousins,' or 'The Boy Patriots,' was to be for the next thirty years a notable factor in political history, and a sinister element in Pitt's career. ”

“ She was here sumptuously entertained by William lord Cobham, a nobleman who enjoyed a considerable share of her favor, and who, after acquitting himself to her satisfaction in an embassy to the Low-Countries, was rewarded with the garter and the place of a privy-councillor. He was however a person of no conspicuous ability, and his wealth and his loyalty appear to have been his principal titles of merit. ”

“ Attorney, you said this never came out of Cobham's quiver; he is a simple man. Is he so simple? no: he hath a disposition of his own, he will not easily be [Pg 26] guided by others; but when he has once taken head in a matter, he is not easily drawn from it: he is no babe.
He then goes on to point out the inherent improbabilities of Cobham's story; he himself had no means for persuading the King of Spain to disburse money, having lost his wardenship of the Stannaries; he knew England to be stronger and Spain to be weaker than they had been ”

“ In the reign of King John, Henry de Cobham gave 1,000 marks to the king for his favour. He left three sons, viz., John, who was Sheriff of Kent, Justice of Common Pleas, and Judge Itinerant; Reginald, also Sheriff of Kent, Constable of Dover Castle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports; and William, also Justice Itinerant. The eldest, John de Cobham, was succeeded by his son John, who in turn became Sheriff of Kent, one of the Justices of King’s Bench and Common Pleas, and Baron of the Exchequer. ”

“ COBHAM, THOMAS de (d. 1327) , bishop of Worcester, was a member of the well-known Kentish family of Cobham (Mon. Malmese. Vit. Edw. II, p. 197) . He graduated in three universities in arts at Paris, in canon law at Oxford, and in theology at Cambridge (Annales Paulini, p. 274) . It has also been erroneously stated that he was chancellor of Cambridge (note to Godwin, De Præsulibus, ii. 42) , through a confusion with another Thomas de Cobham, who held that post in 1422 (Graduati Cantabrigienses, Append, p. 3 ; Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 599, ed. Hardy) . ”

“ CHAPTER XXX. the case of sir john oldcastle, lord cobham. — reference to his former life and character. — fox's book of martyrs. — the archbishop's statement. — milner. — hall. — lingard. — cobham offers the wager of battle. — appeals peremptorily to the pope. — henry's anxiety to save him. — he is condemned, but no writ of execution is issued by the king. — cobham escapes from the tower.
1413.
The death of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and the circumstances which preceded it, require a more patient and a more impartial examination than they have often met with. ”

“ Oldcastle, or Lord Cobham, as he was also called, had no sooner got out of prison than he rushed into the flames of sedition, and illustrated by his conduct the process of a leap from the frying-pan into the fire. He appointed a meeting of his followers at Eltham for the purpose of surprising Henry, but the king observing the moves of the knight determined if possible to avoid being check-mated. His majesty repaired to Westminster, when Cobham, changing his tactics, fixed upon St. Giles's Fields as the place of rendezvous. ”

“ Who was Hang’d as a Traytor, and Burnt as a Heretick.
At the beginning of the reign of Henry V., about the year 1413, the anger of the clergy was excited against the Lollards, and they fabricated a report of a pretended conspiracy among them, headed by Sir John Oldcastle, or, as he was called by courtesy, Lord Cobham, in his wife’s right.
Lord Cobham has the honour of being the first author and the first martyr among the nobility of England. He was a man of considerable natural abilities, proficient in literature, of a ready wit, and skilled in the affairs of the cabinet or in the field. ”

“ On 27 Oct. 1735 Cobham attained the rank of general. During the rest of Walpole's ministry he maintained his attitude of opposition, and in 1737 joined in a protest against the refusal of the upper house to request the king to settle 100,000l. a year on the Prince of Wales out of the civil list (Hervey, Memoirs, iii. 89–90) . After Walpole's downfall a coalition was effected among Lord Wilmington, the Pelhams, and the prince's party, which Cobham joined. He was created a field-marshal on 28 March 1742, and on 25 Dec. was appointed colonel of the first troop of horse-guards. ”

“ The humouring an Irish chief at the expense of an honest man might have been forgiven; but St Leger was less successful than before in keeping down the expenditure, and the home Government, trusting to the supplies from the mint, sent no remittances. His applications for money were in consequence vexatiously frequent. 'Religion' did not prosper with him; and the reviving uncertainty of the relations between England and France, in the winter of 1550–51, made the presence of a stronger hand desirable. Lord Cobham was first thought of as a fit person. ”

“ Still more unfavourably shines another of the generals of this reign. Lord Cobham did not lack bravery, but he owed most of his celebrity to Pope. He did not care how wicked a man was, provided only he were a gentleman in his vices; and he was guilty of an act which Marlborough would have contemplated with horror—namely, tried hard to make infidels of two promising young gentlemen—Gilbert West, and George, subsequently Lord, Lyttelton. ”

“ From the moment that John Cobham detected such an approach to the habits of civilised life as sleeping under a roof, he looked upon the wild son of the Moors as virtually reclaimed, and so it proved. Every day he became more and more like his fellow-men. He abandoned his primitive oven, and bought his bread at the baker's. He accepted thankfully the decent clothing necessary to his attending Miss Phoebe in her rides round the country. He worked regularly and steadily at whatever labour was assigned to him, receiving wages like the other farm servants ”

“ On 5 Aug. he was appointed colonel of the 1st dragoons, which was exchanged in the following year for the 10th.
Cobham died on 13 Sept. 1749, and was buried at Stowe. He married Anne, daughter of Edmund Halsey of Stoke Pogis, Buckinghamshire, but had no issue. According to the terms of the grant he was succeeded in the viscounty and barony by his sister Hester, wife of Richard Grenville of Wootton, Buckinghamshire. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his cousin, William Temple, great-grandson of Sir John Temple of Stanton Bury, who was the second son of Sir Thomas Temple, the first baronet. ”

“ A sister of Lord Cobham was married to Mr. Secretary Cecil, “and the match would have been advantageous, but possibly my Lady, with her deep insight into character, divined that the gentleman was not of the steady stuff which makes for worldly security.” Moreover the best matches are by no means to be found near the Court, and close at hand, in the same county, lived one greater than the Cobhams, a man whom many a maid and every widow would be proud to espouse. ”

“ The same time, the lord Cobham, sir Iohn Oldcastell, whilest he shifted from place to place to escape the hands of them, who he knew would be glad to laie hold on him, had conueied himselfe in secret wise into an husbandmans house, not farre from S. Albons, within the precinct of a lordship belonging to the abbat of that towne. The abbats seruants getting knowledge hereof, came thither by night, but they missed their purpose, for he was gone; but they caught diuerse of his men, whome they [Pg 92] caried streict to prison. ”

“ Jemlikha, the favorite Greek slave of Dakiānos of Ephesus. Nature had endowed him with every charm, “his words were sweeter than the honey of Arabia, and his wit sparkled like a diamond.” One day, Dakianos was greatly annoyed by a fly, which persisted in tormenting the king, whereupon Jemlikha said to himself, “If Dakianos cannot rule a fly, how can he be the creator of heaven and earth?” ”

“ The duke told the rascal that a blind man does not climb trees to gather their fruits; and one born blind might, if his sight were restored, know that one color differed from another, but could not possibly know which was which. ”

“ I am all gaiety and good humor; you are all turmoil and lamentation. I sing, laugh, and welcome pleasure wherever I find it; you take your lantern to look for misery, which the sun itself cannot discover. ”

“ Versatile (Sir George) , a scholar, pleasing in manners, warm-hearted, generous, with the seeds of virtue and the soul of honor, but being deficient in stability, he takes his color, like the chameleon, from the objects at hand. Thus, with Maria Delaval, he is manly, frank, affectionate, and noble; with Lord Vibrate, hesitating, undecided, and tossed with doubts; with Lady Vibrate, boisterously gay, extravagant, and light-hearted. Sir George is betrothed to Maria Delaval, but the death of his father delays the marriage. He travels, and gives a fling to youthful indulgences. ”