Part 6 (1/2)
”Dorothy Gray.
The careful, tender mother of many children, one of whom alone had the misfortune to survive her.”
The touch in the last words, ”the misfortune to survive her!”--Carlyle's words upon his wife's tomb recur to me:
”And he feels that the light of his life has gone out.”
These were men wailing for women. I cannot believe but that there are many women who would prefer to share the fate of men who die. There is such love on earth. Sujatas are not confined to India. As she says:
”But if Death called Senani, I should mount The pile and lay that dear head in my lap, My daily way, rejoicing when the torch Lit the quick flame and rolled the choking smoke.
For it is written, if an Indian wife Die so, her love shall give her husband's soul For every hair upon her head, a crore Of years in Swerza.”
I think I know women who would esteem it a mercy to be allowed to pa.s.s away with _him_, if the Eternal had not set his ”canon 'gainst self-slaughter.” This prohibition the Indian wots not of, but mounts the pile believing as thoroughly as Abraham did when he placed Isaac on the altar, that G.o.d wills it so. They were equally mistaken; and this suggests that we may all be very much surprised when we come to understand rightly, how very seldom the unknown requires any sacrifice of what is pleasing to us in this present world of his. It seems to me it is not G.o.d but men who are disposed to make the path so very th.o.r.n.y.
[Sidenote: _Gray's Tomb._]
Upon Gray's own tomb there is inscribed:
”One morn I missed him on the accustomed hill.
Along the heath, and near his favorite tree; Another came, nor yet beside the rill, Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he.”
One perfect gem outweighs a thousand mediocre performances and makes its creator immortal. The world has not a second Gray's Elegy among all its treasures. Nor is it likely to have. We found you still in your accustomed place.
The manor house of Stoke Pogis, which took its name from a marriage, away back in the 13th century, between a member of the Pogis family and an heiress, Amicia de Stoke, furnished the subject of Gray's ”Long Story,” a poem known now only to the curious student of English literature. How fortunate for the world that the poet did not let his reputation rest upon it!
[Sidenote: _Chief Justice c.o.ke._]
The old house, built in the time of good Queen Bess on an older foundation, is still more noted as the home of Sir Edward c.o.ke, the famous Lord Chief Justice and the rival of Bacon. In 1601 c.o.ke, who had married three years before a wealthy young widow, Lady Hatton of Hatton House, the daughter of Lord Burleigh, entertained the Virgin Queen at Stoke Pogis in a manner befitting the royal dignity and the length of his own purse. Among other presents which her Majesty graciously deigned to accept at the hands of her subject on the occasion was jewelry valued at 1,000, a large sum in those days.
c.o.ke's marriage did not turn out very happily. He was old enough to be his wife's father, and she always affected for him the utmost contempt, even forbidding him to enter her house in London except by the back door. The poor man bore his hen-pecking in silence for many years, but at last she went one step too far. During his absence in London she packed up and removed from Stoke to one of her own houses his plate and other valuables. The outraged husband forcibly entered her house and reclaimed his property, taking, as she said, some of hers also. This led to legal proceedings, in which she, through the aid of Bacon, got the better of him, and a reconciliation took place.
The next year the broil took another phase. Lady Hatton--she always refused to take c.o.ke's name--had borne him a daughter, who was the heiress of her mother's estates as well as of c.o.ke's wealth. Her hand had been sought by Sir John Villiers, but as he was poor his suit had been rejected. A turn came in the tide. c.o.ke, shorn of most of his honors, was in disgrace, and the Duke of Buckingham, Sir John's brother, was King James's favorite and the dispenser of immense patronage. c.o.ke, with the object of winning back the royal favor and of humbling Bacon, his great enemy, now determined to ally himself with the rising house, and offered his daughter to Villiers. Lady Hatton, who had not been consulted in the matter, refused her consent, ran away with her daughter, and concealed her in the house of a kinsman. But c.o.ke found out her hiding place, and with a dozen stout fellows broke into the house and seized his daughter. Lady Hatton, aided by Bacon, carried her case to the privy council and c.o.ke was proceeded against in the Star Chamber. But with Buckingham behind him the old lawyer proved too strong for Bacon this time, and succeeded in throwing his wife into prison and in forcing her to consent to the match.
The marriage took place at Hampton Court in the presence of the king, the queen, and the most distinguished of the n.o.bility, and Frances became Lady Villiers. Stoke Pogis was settled on the bridegroom, who was shortly raised to the peerage as Viscount Purbeck and Baron Villiers, of Stoke Pogis, and c.o.ke flattered himself that his troubles had at last ended. But the marriage resulted like many another ill-a.s.sorted union.
Lady Villiers, after driving her husband nearly to the verge of distraction, eloped with Sir Robert Howard, and lived for many years an eventful and scandalous life, which finally brought its reward in her degradation, imprisonment, and death.
If the course of true love never runs smooth, it may be taken for granted that the stream is even more tempestuous when marriage is made a matter of family alliance with no love at all in the matter. Our young ladies were unanimous upon this point, and one and all declared their firm resolve and readiness to trust to ”true love” with all its risks.
The Queen Dowager, being appealed to by them for support, settled the matter by reciting the lines of an old Scotch song:
”La.s.sie tak the man ye loe Whate'er ye're minnie say, Though ye sud mak ye're bridal bed Amang pea strae.”
So ta-ta all worldly considerations and family alliances, and the rest of it, say the wild romps of the Gay Charioteers.
[Sidenote: _Royal Visits._]
Several years after the death of c.o.ke, Stoke Pogis was for a short time the place of confinement of Charles I., who could see from its windows the towers of Windsor Castle, which he was never again to enter except as a headless corpse. On the death of Viscount Purbeck, who resided in the manor house after c.o.ke's decease, Stoke Pogis pa.s.sed by purchase into the hands of the Gayer family. When Charles II. came to his own again the then possessor of the mansion was knighted, and became so devoted in his affection for the Stuarts that when in after time King William desired to visit Stoke Pogis to see a place so rich in historical a.s.sociations, the old knight would not listen to it. In vain did his wife intercede: he declared that the usurper should not cross his threshold, and he kept his word. So it came to be said that Stoke Pogis had sumptuously entertained one sovereign, been the prison of another, and refused admission to a third.
We were told that quite recently Queen Victoria had visited it in person, with a view to its purchase for her daughter, and while walking through its magnificent suite of rooms she expressed the wish that her own Windsor had their equal. She finally decided to purchase Claremont, the price demanded for Stoke, it is said, having been too great to square with her majesty's estimate of value. It is in the market to-day.