John Gough

“ And for over half a century he has affectionately remembered John B. Gough, who, in the height of his own power and success, saw resolution and possibilities in the ardent young hill-man, and actually did him the kindness and the honor of introducing him to an audience in one of the Massachusetts towns; and it was really a great kindness and a great honor, from a man who had won his [Pg 120] fame to a young man just beginning an oratorical career. ”

“ What is more remarkable is that he lived for ten years after The Excursion was printed; and Wordsworth must have written the passage in the Seventh Book referring to Gough in anticipation of his death, probably 13 years before he died.
Mr. John Watson of Kendal tells me that he has had put into his hands a MS. autobiography of Gough. Mr. Watson has himself written an interesting sketch of the blind botanist. ”

“ GOUGH, JOHN BARTHOLOMEW (1817–1886) , American temperance orator, was born at Sandgate, Kent, England, on the 22nd of August 1817. He was educated by his mother, a schoolmistress, and at the age of twelve was sent to the United States to seek his fortune. He lived for two years with family friends on a farm in western New York, and then entered a book-bindery in New York City to learn the trade. ”

“ Memnon consecrated his hair to the Nile. This practice of Achilles was imitated by Alexander at the funeral of Hephæstion."
It is likely that Wordsworth had read this note to the annotated edition (1763) of Pope's Homer; but it is also probable that he was familiar with the passage in Pausanias.
NOTE E
(See p. 303)
Many particulars regarding John Gough may be found in Cornelius Nicholson's Annals of Kendal, pp. 355-368 (Whitaker and Coy., 1861) . He was born in 1757 and died in 1825. "Before the completion of his third year, he was attacked with small-pox, which deprived him of his sight. ”

“ His life was mainly devoted to antiquarian researches. In association with Sir John Cullum, he prompted and assisted Gough in his great work on the ‘Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain,’ and to Ord's exertions, Gough testified, ‘are owing the impressions of some of the finest brasses, as well as many valuable descriptive hints’ (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. vi. 286) . In September 1780 he undertook a tour in search of brasses in East-Anglia, together with Gough and Cullum, who described their success with enthusiasm. ”

“ GOUGH, GOWGHE, GOWGH, or GOUGE, JOHN (fl. 1528–1556) , printer, stationer, and translator, first lived in Cheapside, next to Paul's Gate, possibly in the house of John Rastell; he afterwards moved into Lombard Street, using the sign of the mermaid in both places. There is no foundation for the story that he was servant or apprentice to Wynkyn de Worde. ”

“ Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh Castle (afterwards Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury) is the only person in the entire Hungerford history upon whom the least probability of connexion with the story can be attached. To him there is this great objection in limine, that he was certainly not murdered by his wife in 1523, because he was beheaded in 1541. But it will be observed that our Chronicle merely records the fact of the lady's execution, and that the crime for which she is stated to have suffered was inserted by Stowe from some other authority. ”

“ His uncle Aubrey de Vere was his heir; and in the parliament held at Winchester, in January following, he was, for the good service done to the king and his father, restored to the estates of his family, and to the dignity of Earl of Oxford, with remainder to his heirs male for ever. ”

“ It is obvious that during the many generations which have passed since the execution of Buckingham, there might have been many opportunities of concealing in the out-buildings of an inn the remains of some way-laid traveller, or the victim of some alehouse brawl. ”

“ Captivated with the beau-ideal of an amiable prince, a youth the patron of youth, a scholar the friend of scholars, such a theme, in such hands, has naturally amplified itself into a goodly Protestant legend, almost rivalling some of those of the earlier creed. ”

“ An historical antiquary would receive little thanks if he ventured to brush rudely against the hallowed dew of so much loyal poetry and pious enthusiasm. Still, it will be evident from the preceding statement of facts that king Edward had very little to do with the foundation of Christ's Hospital. Both the house itself, and the revenues for its support, came from his predecessor, or were raised by the bounty of the citizens themselves; and we do not trace any thing bestowed upon it in Edward's letters patent beyond the name by which it should be known. ”

“ It was this Beatrice who was destined to convey the dignity of a comte to the man who might win her in marriage. Her grandmother, Emma, was still living, and it was by her advice, being an English woman, that a husband was selected in the English court for the future comtesse of Guisnes. The nobleman of her choice was Aubrey de Vere, son of Aubrey the king's chamberlain. ”

“ The present chronicle tells us how he escaped,—by hiding in the gutters of his house. The history of that house, "a fair house of old time called the Green Gate," will be found in Stowe's Survay, where he states that "John Mutas, a Pickarde or Frenchman, dwelt there, and harboured in his house many Frenchmen that kalendred wolstedes, and did other things contrary to the franchises of the citizens." This John Meutas, or Meautys, (called James in the present chronicle,) founded a family in England, of which a pedigree will be found in Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, vol. i. p. ”

“ The picture at Christ's hospital is derived from Holbein's so far as the principal figures go. The number of aldermen kneeling to the right is increased to eight; and to the left are bishop Ridley and three others also kneeling. In the background the governors of the hospital are standing with their wands, to the number of about forty. Besides these, a boy and girl of the hospital are kneeling before the king, and fourteen others of either sex are ranged in couples along the front of the picture, the rows being terminated by a beadle and a matron. ”

“ The marriage of Beatrice is said to have been hastened because she was in precarious health, and lest, in case of her death without issue, the comté of Guisnes should revert to the next heir, by name Arnold de Gand. The comte Manasses died in the year 1137; whereupon Henry de Bourbourg, the father of the young heiress, dispatched a message to his son-in-law, Aubrey de Vere, requiring him to come immediately to take possession of the county of Guisnes, and obtain investiture from his suzerain the earl of Flanders. ”

“ The next day Robert de Vere received his writ of summons as Earl of Oxford, and coming to parliament the day following, he had his place next to the earl of Arundel [18] .
The Lord Willoughby was in the same year created an earl, by the title of Earl of Lindsey, in the county of Lincoln. He is famous in the history of the civil war, and was slain at Edge Hill in 1642. In his family the office of Lord Great Chamberlain descended through seven generations to Robert the seventh Earl of Lindsey and fourth Duke of Ancaster; On whose death in 1779 it again fell in abeyance between co-heirs. ”

“ In 1524 king Henry and cardinal Wolsey personally visited the house; and shortly after William Renscrofte, a refractory lay brother of the Observants of Greenwich, was committed to the custody of the Franciscans. [19] The next year they were visited by doctor Alleyn on the part of the cardinal. [20] In 1528, in the case of a prisoner who had broken away from the sessions at Newgate, [21] the convent asserted its right of sanctuary, a privilege that could scarcely be often put in requisition, as the much-frequented sanctuary of Saint Martin le Grand was in the immediate vicinity. ”

“ The two parishes of Christ church and Saint Bartholomew's the Less were fully constituted by Henry's grant, and so was the control of the city over the hospital of Saint Bartholomew; and the city retained all the estates which the grant conveyed, neither receiving or requiring any subsequent confirmation of them from king Edward the Sixth. Among those estates was the late house of the Grey Friars, but with no specific instructions as to the purposes to which it should be devoted. Its disposal appears to have been left to the discretion of the citizens ”

“ We have seen how the convent had been originally established by the charity of the principal citizens, how its library had been added by the bounty of Whittington, and how the mayor and aldermen were recognised as the "founders." Like other "founders," or patrons of religious houses, at this crisis, they would naturally be inclined to urge those hereditary claims which were advanced, with more or less success, by various proprietors who occupied a similar position throughout the country ”

“ CHAPTER XXV I SETTLE MY ACCOUNT WITH MY LORD BROCTON
Of how I fared the seas with Jonadab Kilroot, master of the stolid barque, "Merchant of London," I say nothing, or as good as nothing. Master Kilroot was a noisy, bulky man, with a whiff of the tar-barrel ever about him and a heart as stout as a ship's biscuit. He feared God always, and drubbed his men whenever it was necessary; in his estimation the office of sea-captain was the most important under heaven, and Master John Freake the greatest man on earth. ”

“ When the lord mayor and aldermen rode to Saint Paul's on the afternoon of the following Christmas day, all the children stood in array from Saint Laurence lane in Cheap towards Paul's, being 340 in number, attired in one livery of russet cotton, [46] the boys with red caps, and the girls with kerchiefs on their heads, having a woman-keeper between every twenty children, and accompanied also by the physicians and four surgeons, and the masters of the hospital—who were some of the most eminent citizens. ”

“ Waleys was then reappointed, and died mayor in 1302; after which Sir John le Blount was mayor during the six remaining years of Edward's reign. It is very possible that Waleys and Rokesley had the credit of erecting the buildings of the Grey Friars, not because they were done at their personal expense, but by contributions of the citizens under their patronage and superintendence. Waleys was apparently an equal or greater benefactor to the house of Franciscan Sisters without Aldgate, in whose chapel his bones were laid to rest. See the note upon him in the French Chronicle of London, p. 12. ”

“ Meanwhile, the citizens themselves did not cease in their exertions to mitigate the crying evil of a large houseless population. On the 26th July, 1552, began the preparing of the Grey Friars house for the poor fatherless children; and also, in the latter end of the same month, began the repairing of Saint Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, for poor impotent and lame persons. ”

“ Above all, when the reader is referred to p. 42, and is apprised of the crime for which this wretched man at last suffered the extreme penalty of the laws there is so much reason to conclude he had long outraged, it will not be thought unjust that the stigma should at length, in the pages of history, be removed from one of his victims to himself. ”

“ In May 1552 we find bishop Ridley writing to secretary Cecill, [41] to state that the citizens were willing to provide for the poor "both meat, drink, clothing, and firing," but that they lacked lodging; wherefore he proceeded to beg "a wide, large, empty house of the king's majesty called Bridewell, that would wonderfully well serve to lodge Christ in,"—under which holy name, with much too free an adaptation of Matthew xxv. 35, 36, &c. the bishop was pleased to designate the poor, then "lying abroad, in the streets of London, both hungry, naked, and cold." ”

“ If she so do, here is like to be a combat, the heartburning being already very great; the old worn pelf [Diana of Poictiers, then aged fifty-three,] fearing thereby to lose some part of her credit, who presently reigneth alone, and without empeasche." And again, from Amboise, April 29, "The said post hath brought word, that the lady Fleming is brought to bed of a man-child, whereat our women do not much rejoyce." ”

“ Their first and principal benefactor was John Iwyn, citizen and mercer, who gave them some land and houses in the parish of St. Nicholas in the Shambles, by deed dated in the 9th Hen. III. Upon this they erected their original building. The first chapel, which became the choir of the church, was built at the cost of sir William Joyner, who was mayor of London in 1239; the nave was added by sir Henry Waleys, who was mayor during several years of the reign of Edward I. ”

“ The church of the Grey Friars had been the favourite place of sepulture with those of the aristocracy of England who had died in the metropolis. According to the reckoning of Weever the church had been honoured with the sepulture of four Queens, four Duchesses, four Countesses, one Duke, two Earls, eight Barons, [36] and some thirty-five Knights: and in all six hundred sixty and three persons of quality. Stowe tells us that "there were nine tombs of alabaster and marble, invironed with strikes of iron, in the choir; and one tomb in the body of the church, also coped with iron ”

“ Saint Francis, the founder and patron of the Friars Minors, [4] was born at Assisi in Italy in the year 1182; and he was still a young man when he commenced his scheme of religious observance. The Rule of his Fraternity was approved by Pope Innocent III. in 1210, revised in the Lateran council of 1215, and confirmed by Honorius III. in 1224. At the first general convention of the fraternity in 1217 its numbers were already considerable ”

“ With this letter to illustrate the character of Walter lord Hungerford, considering also that names and dates are all consistent, it may at all events be admitted as a fair suggestion that the lady executed at Tybourn may have been the second wife, Alice Sandys; that his cruelty to her may have driven her to attempt to get rid of him by poison, or that he, wishing to get rid of her (as he did afterwards of his third wife) , may have brought some accusation against her, and procured her condemnation. ”