^{page 189 note a} Conyngesby. Out of an ample choice of the modes of spelling this name, varieties of which will hereafter occur, that has been adopted as the standard which appears in the prose inscription on the tomb. For the orthography of Jefferies I have taken Nash, the historian of Worcestershire, as my guide.

^{page 189 note b} In the hundred of Overs, near Tenbury.

^{page 190 note a} This battle, or rather surprise of the rebellious barons under Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby, by Henry the King's nephew, son of the Earl of Almaine, took place in the year 1266.—Dugdale, Baronage, i. 263.

^{page 190 note b} In the parish of Hope-under-Dinmore, now the property and residence of John Arkwright, Esq.

^{page 190 note c} MS. pedigree of the Conyngesby family.

^{page 190 note d} Indeed he ended, as far as we have any account of him, within a few months after Sandys began. Conyngesby, as stated below, set out on his first expedition in April 1594, and on his last, October 10, 1610, the year in which Sandys went to Paris, on his way to Venice, about the time that Henry IV. was assassinated, in the early part of May.—Relation of a Journey, &c. p. 1.

^{page 190 note e} For a further description of the present state of this monument, and a corrected copy of the inscriptions, I am indebted to the kindness of the Bev. Eichard Baker, Sector of Neen Solars, and Miss Baker, my own copy taken at the beginning of the last century being not altogether perfect. The monument is mural, and represents Humphrey Conyngesby in armour: it is in the south transept, and is surmounted by the family arms and crest; but the motto, TACTA LIBERTAS, existing in 1719, has disappeared. Under the arms are these verses, in four separate compartments:—

(1.) TYME CVTTETH DOWNE THE BODY,

BVT CHRIST RAISETH VP THE SPIRIT.

(2.) HERE CONINGESBIE IN LIVELY SHAPE THOV LIEST

WHO SOMETIMES WERT THE CHAMPION OP CHRIST

DIDST TRAVAILE EVROPE FOR HIS ONLIE SAKE

AND (FOVND THE FOE) HIS QVARBELL VNDERTAKE

WHAT GREATER VALOVR PIETIE COVLD BEE

THAN BLEED FOR HIM WHO SHED HIS BLOOD FOR THEE.

(3.) ALASS! OVR LIFE ALTHOVGH WEE STAIE AT HOME

IS BVT A TOYLESOME PILGBIMADGE ON EARTH

BVT THOV A DOVBLE PILGRIMADGE DIDST ROAME

THOV WAST ALLMOST ABROAD EVEN FROM THY BYRTH

THY JOVRNEYS END WAS HEAVEN OF HOMES THE BEST

WHER TILL THOV CAM'ST THOV NEVER COVLD'ST

TAKE BEST.

(4.) OVE LIFE IS LOST YET LIV'ST THOV EVER

DEATH HATH HIS DVE YET DI'ST THOV

NEVEB.

Beneath these verses is the prose inscription given in the text, and under it are the following lines:—

MAN STAY SEE MVSE MOORNE AND MINDE THY END

FLESH POMPE TYME THOVGHTS WORLD WELTH AS WIND

DOETH PASS

LOVE FEARE HATE HOPE FAST PRAY FEED GIVE AMEND

MAN BEAST FISH FOWLE AND ALL ELS IS AS GRASS

SEE HEARE THY SELFE FRALE FLESH AS IN A GLASS

NO ODS BETWEENE VS BVT VNSERTAINE HOWRES

WHICH ARE PRESCRIBED BY THE HEAVENLY POWERES

FOR DEATH IN FINE ALL KIND OF FLESH DEVOVRES

RESPICE FINEM

FAREWELL THEN SISTEE FLESH AND THINKE OF ME

WHAT I AM TOMOROW THOV MAYST BE.

The arms were repeated in the transept window with this legend:—

These arms were set up in the memory of Humphrey Conyngesby, Esq. sometime Lord of Neen Sollers, by his half-sister and sole executrix, Joice Jeffrys.

Anno Domini 1628.

But these have long since perished.

^{page 192 note a} Bockelton is in the upper division of the hundred of Doddintree. Hull, in that parish, so called from its situation on a hill, belonged to the family of Barnaby in the 16th and 17th centuries.—Nash, i. pp. 115, 116.

^{page 192 note b} Rodolph II. eldest son of Maximilian II. and Mary of Spain, was born July 28, 1552; crowned King of Hungary, September 25, 1572; King of Bohemia, September 21, 1575; elected King of the Romans, October 27, and crowned November 1 of the same year. In the year following he succeeded his father as Emperor, and died January 10, 1612, aged 39.—Pfeffel, Nouvel Abregèe de l'Histoire d'Allemagne, torn. ii. pp. 218, 219.

^{page 192 note c} Strigonium, now Gran, a town of Lower Hungary, near the confluence of the Gran with the Danube. At the close of the 16th and opening of the 17th centuries it was considered the bulwark of Christendom. It was thrice besieged between the years 1595 and 1605, and at last won by the Turks, from whom it had been taken in the first siege by the Imperialists, after an occupation of fifty-two years. These operations were attended by many fierce and sanguinary struggles, and were very attractive to soldiers of fortune throughout Europe, as partaking of the character of a croisade. To have been present at these feats of arms seems to have been a feather in the cap of the gallants of the age. Ben Jonson introduces it as one of the vaunts of his vain-glorious braggart, Bobadill:—

“Wellbred.—Captain Bobadill, why muse you so?

“Bobadill.—Faith, I was thinking of an honourable piece of service was performed to-morrow, being St. Mark's day, shall be some ten years now.

“Elder Knowell.—In what place, Captain?

“Bobadill.—Why, at the beleaguering of Strigonium, where, in less than two hours, seven hundred resolute gentlemen as any in Europe lost their lives upon the breach. I'll tell you, gentlemen, it was the first, but the best, leaguer that ever I beheld with these eyes, except the taking in of—what do you call it?—last year by the Genoways, ” &c.—Every Man in His Humour, act iii. sc. 1. a The writer of this inscription (it could hardly have been composed by Mrs. Joyce Jefferies, though she might have supplied the materials) has apparently committed an anachronism in placing any siege of Strigonium at this period. The first and only siege during the lifetime of Mahomet III. was in 1594. This must have been when Conyngesby was on his first journey in France, Germany, Sicily, and Italy. Having set out in that year, he continued out four years and upwards, returned to England, and set out on his second tour, in which, as is stated, he became a volunteer at the siege. “Afterwards “he travels through Greece, and arrives at Constantinople while Mahomet III. was on the throne. Now, neither of the two other sieges alluded to in the former note occurred till the reign of Achmet, who succeeded Mahomet III. See Knolles, History of the Turks, in Mahomet III. and Achmet.

^{page 193 note e} Emload, Emlade, or Evenload, in the upper division of the hundred of Oswaldeslaw, a manor belonging some time to the priory of Worcester, but given with other lands at the Dissolution to Sir Philip Hoby, Knight, from whom it came to Lord Compton, from him to Mr. Croker, and after this to Mr. Freeman, and his son Mr. Coningsby Freeman, who sold it.—Nash, i. p. 393.

^{page 194 note a} “Hame, or Homme, ” says Nash, “is a manor in the parish of Clifton-upon-Teme. Here was anciently a castle, the seat of the family of the Jefferies of Clifton, who purchased it of Edmund Withypole in 25 Eliz-Henry Jefferies, Esq. resided here in 1569; as did William, his grandson, in 1634; whose son, Henry Jefferies of Horn Castle, Esq. a man of considerable learning, and much respected in this county in his time, was the last male heir of the family. He died July 30, 1709, and left all his estates to his niece, Jane Bloome, on condition she married Edward Winnington, Esq. and assumed the name and arms of Jefferies; since which time it hath passed along with Clifton, and now belongs to Sir Edward Winnington of Stanford Hall, Bart. 1779.”—Hist, and Antiq. of Worcestershire, i. pp. 239–244.

^{page 194 note b} The seat of a branch of the Berkeley family, about four miles west of Worcester.

^{page 194 note c} i. e. was at one time in the receipt of.

^{page 195 note a} Broadward. A farm and township so called about a mile to the south of Leominster, on the Arrow. Mrs. Jefferies held it under Brazenose College, Oxford. Wharton is adjacent to it on the south.

^{page 195 note b} An estate in the parish of Tarrington, in the county of Hereford, between Ledbury and Hereford. This estate was, however, sold in 1638.

^{page 196 note a} The annuity left by Sir Thomas Conyngesby amounted to 10l. per annum, the other to 66l.13s. 4d.

^{page 196 note b} Her nephew William has drawn out at the end of her diary, “A note taken the 27 8ber, 1650, of such debts as were due by bill or bond to my aunt Jefferyes.” These in the first statement amount to 743l. 18s. 8d., and in a second, dated June 23, 1651, to 664l. 16s., making a total of 1408l. 14s. 8d.

^{page 197 note a} Memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick, 3d edition, p. 247.

^{page 198 note a} The spelling of this book is one of its curious features: it is a transcript of speech as well as an exposition of thought; for it corresponds closely with the mode of expression and pronunciation prevailing among the common people of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Salop at the present day. Thus in January, 1642, we have a striking example relative to the dress of Miss Acton. A yeard an a half of scarlet baize was bought to make her a wastcoate to dress her in, and four yeards of red galoon to bind him, i.e. the wastcoate. Instances of the dialect of our peasantry occurring in its pages are without number.

^{page 199 note a} Among the proofs of her affection for him are as follow:—

1640, August 12. Gave my godson and graund Nephew Henry Jeffreys.... 5s.

1644, January 1. Henry Jefferies. Gave my beloved Godson and Nephew, Henry Jeffreys, 2s. 6d.

1647. Gave my godsonne, Hary Jeffreys, at Whitsontide Is.

^{page 200 note a} Garnons is situated at about seven miles westward from Hereford, and is the seat of Sir Henry Geers Cotterell.

^{page 204 note a} Sum not inserted.

^{page 206 note a} Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley, Camd. Soc. 1854, p. 177.

^{page 206 note b} Assessment or contribution.

^{page 207 note a} Letters of a Subaltern Officer, &c. in Archæologia, XXXV. p. 332. The Bishop was Dr. George Coke, who died in 1646.—Duncumb, Collections towards the Hist, and Antiq. of the County of Hereford, i. 490.

^{page 208 note a} Mercurius Rusticus, p. 71, et seq.

^{page 208 note b} Mansell Gamage, in the hundred of Grimsworth, about eight miles W.N. W. of Hereford.

^{page 209 note a} His commission from the Marquess of Hertford bears date December 20, 1642.—Papers of Sir Edward “Walker, Harl. MSS. Brit. Mus. 6851.

^{page 209 note b} Bridstock Harford, a physician of great repute in Hereford.

^{page 210 note a} See the narrative of Sir Richard Cave in Duncumb, i. 245, et seq.

^{page 211 note a} Sir William Waller carried off considerable booty of plate and money in this excursion. Mrs. Jefferies was rated among the highest in the contribution extorted from Widemarsh Ward. She paid 40l. Only three householders were assessed so high, and no one above it, in the whole city.—MS. Papers of Price, the Mayor, in 1642–43, by favour of the Eev. W. Poole.

^{page 212 note a} Wolverley (?), two miles north-west from Kidderminster, in the county of Worcester.

^{page 213 note a} Corbet. Military Government, &c. in Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, p. 111. Gloucester, 1825. Small 4to.

^{page 213 note b} Hereford was surprised December 18, 1645.—A New Tricke to take Townes, &c. London, printed by E. G. 1645, small 4to.

^{page 213 note c} One of them, Colonel Barnard, killed afterwards at the storming of Canon-Frome, held it only for a short time in 1644, between the death of Mynne and the appointment of Scudamore.

^{page 214 note a} Corbet, ut supra, p. 45.

^{page 215 note a} Diary of Sir Homy Slingsby, p. 163. Oxford, 1836. 8vo.

^{page 215 note b} Serjeant Hoskyns, an eminent lawyer, member for the city of Hereford in the reigns of James I. and Charles I.

^{page 215 note c} Marginal.

^{page 215 note d} i. e. without taking it. In this expression more is meant than meets the eye. The people of Hereford city and county entertained a contemptuous feeling towards the Scots on account of their failure. The siege was raised September 2, 1645.

^{page 216 note a} The representation is not overdrawn. As the eldest daughter of Henry Neville, Lord of Bergavenny, and wife of the owner of Hampton Court, Cecilia Conyngesby must have enjoyed something more than the common advantages of life prior to this reverse. But by the pressure of the time she was reduced almost to the condition of a pauper, and became an earnest suppliant and humble dependant upon the tender mercies of a capricious and not very honest junto. From 1650 to 1652 her applications for relief, still preserved among the Composition Documents in the State-Paper Office, are frequent and most importunate. In her petition to Goldsmiths’ Hall, dated September 20, 1650, she begs for a fifth out of her husband's estates in the counties of Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and Leicester, “to maintain her and her great charge of children;” and an order is sent to the commissioners of these counties that they cause the said estates to be sequestered, and make allowance accordingly. On the 16th of August, 1651, nothing having been done, she again addresses the board in London, setting forth that the country commissioners had given no obedience to the first order; and that, though another had been made, and received their signatures, it had been suppressed. The property was then once more ordered to be sequestered, and an inquiry to be made as. to who had received the rents; and “they shall consider of a fifth part.” On September 8th, 1652, her application is renewed, with a plea of urgent distress: “Your petitioner's condition is more than ordinary sad, by reason of her children's want of a natural support of food. Your petitioner therefore once more implores your honours’ favourable order for a fifth part out of Shropshire lands.” An answer, deferred till the 29th, informs her that the estate is under extent to Sir Thomas Allen, and while it is so “we can allow no fifths.” In October and November, being only supported, as she avers, by the little credit left her, “she renews her solicitation, and controverts the truth of the plea of “extent;” and, after some apparent shuffling on the part of the clerk of the country committee, an order is obtained from London that an inquiry be made and a certificate drawn up by the Salop commissioners themselves.

The struggle is thus ultimately narrowed to one-fifth of the annual rent of Fitz-William Conyngesby's claims upon the very Neen-Solars estate out of which Mrs. JefFeries's annuity was also paid, the London creditor having, as to all his other property, laid his hands upon the lion's share; and it helps to show that her suspicions as to the fraudulent intentions of the agents in Salop were not altogether groundless.

How much longer Cecilia Conyngesby was teased and kept at bay in this state of indigence has not been discovered. Yet the case, hard as it may appear (and that there was some unusual difficulty in it cannot be denied), is not the worst of the kind that might be selected. Surely the sickness of hope deferred must have been epidemic among the sufferers in the royal cause.

As to her husband, he had all this while, though absent from England, been plying the sequestrators with petitions on behalf of himself and his family. His affairs, however, had fallen into a most complicated condition. Before the war broke out, in 1641, his estates were deeply encumbered with a debt, according to his own representation, of 20, 000l. In December 1650 he owed Sir Thomas Allen, a money-lender in London, 4, 836l. 12s. He had borrowed at 8 per cent., and every month and six days, by his creditors’ showing, his liabilities were increasing 40l. In October 1655 his fine, as one who had been a Member of Parliament, was set at 4, 2431. 3s. 3d. In the confused and inaccurate “Catalogue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen that have compounded for their Estates, ”’ printed for Thomas Dring in 1655, his name does not appear.—Composition Documents, State-Paper Office, Series I. vol. i. f. 575, et seq.; vol. xvii. f. 101, et seq. ff. 110, 113; Series II. vol. xlviii. ff. 311, 320, 321.

^{page 216 note a} He was a bailiff at Neen Solars, and seems to have occupied also a portion of the estate; for mention is made of his lease.

^{page 217 note a} In act ii. of Sir Robert Howard's satirical drama, “The Committee, ” two Cavalier colonels, who come to compound for their estates, fee the doorkeeper of the committee-room, both at their entrance and exit.

^{page 218 note a} Blakeway, Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 216, et seq.; The True Informer, March 16 to 23, 1643–4; King's Pamphlets, small 4to. British Museum.

^{page 218 note b} Dr. Bentley has an allusion to this library in the Dedication of his Horace to the Earl of Oxford, where, after mentioning the Harleian Manuscripts then existing, and increasing in number, he adds: “Hie tibi instrumentorum veterum, partim in Urbe, partim rure in avitis sedibus, Bramtonife castello (quod ab Edwardi usque I. astate per Bryanum Harleium, equitem, ad seros adhuc nepotes demissum est) thesaurus adservatur; quotidiano quidem is auctu crescens, et jam nunc multo ditior futurus, nisi ad alia damna per Civiles superiore sæculo tumultus, castellis, templis, villis, nemoribusque vestris illata Bibliothecte quoque locupletissimæ direptio accessisset.”—Hor. Bentl. Dedicatio. Edit. alt. Amst. 1713. 4to.

^{page 223 note a} Shelsley Beauchamp, a parish ia the hundred of Doddingtree, and county of Worcester, 8½ miles southwest from Stourport.

^{page 223 note b} Tedstone Delamere and Tedston Wafer are parishes in the hundred of Broxash, and county of Hereford, within 5 miles towards the north-east of Bromyard.

^{page 223 note c} The latter part of it betrays some failure and irregularity in the handwriting. Her last entry of receipts bears date April 1, 1648; of disbursements, March 27, 1648.

^{page 223 note d} Sufton Court, the seat of Richard Hereford, Esq. near Hereford.