it, and for my oune part I am soe unskillfull in ye mistery that I must crave yor pardon and begge you to picke (sic) it out yourselfe, wch favour I hope you will not give a flat deniall to.' This is written from neare unto Marlborough' and is dated 12 October 1663.

As we have seen, Sir Francis Seymour died in July 1664. His son became second Baron Seymour of Trowbridge, but only held the honour just over a year, dying on the 25th of August 1665. His death is entered in the Preshute parish register, and he was buried in the chancel of Trowbridge Church on the 7th of September.

His eldest surviving son Francis, whose birth we noticed above, was only eight years old when his father died, and he became third Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. The following years of his life, until he was about eighteen, seem to have been for the most part spent at Marlborough, where he lived with his mother and sisters and his brother Charles. In 1675, by the death of his Uncle John,1 he became fifth Duke of Somerset. Like his cousin William, the third duke, he was to hold his honours but a short time and die young. In the spring of 1678 he was travelling in Italy, and on the 20th of April arrived at Lerici near Genoa. At his entrance to the town he had the misfortune to fall into the company of some Frenchmen, who travelled, like the duke, 'out of curiosity.'2 It was about the middle of the day when they arrived, a time when the churches usually are open, and consequently when the Italian ladies were most likely to be seen.' Upon this motive they went into the church of the Augustinians where, it is said, the Frenchmen were guilty of some indecencies towards certain

1 Among the MSS. of the city of Salisbury, there is a council order of September 1694, bidding the Chamberlin doe procure the picture of His Grace, late John Duke of Somerset, and that the same shall be paid for out of the chamber Revenue, his grace having been a worthy benefactor to the poor of this city.'

2 Lansd. MS. 722, fol. 133.

ladies of the family of Botti. Horatio Botti, the husband of one of the ladies, having ascertained where the gentlemen dined, watched his opportunity, and shot at the first one of them who appeared at the door of the inn. The Duke of Somerset was the victim, and died instantly—' an act of barbarity, the more to be resented because the duke's part in the rudeness offered to the Ladies was least offensive.' The duke's uncle, Mr. Hildebrand Alington, who seems to have been travelling with his nephew, immediately notified the crime to the Republic of Genoa with a demand for justice. That Government seemed to be highly incensed against the criminal, and in all appearance used its utmost to apprehend him and bring him to justice, but he timely quitted the Genoese dominion and so escaped.' All the Government could then do was to affix a brass plate over the door where the murder was committed, declaring the crime, and promising a reward to those who should apprehend the murderer.

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At a later date King James II. was petitioned by the family of Botti to consent to the pardon of Horatio Botti. James consented out of resentment, it is said, towards Charles, Duke of Somerset (only brother and heir of the murdered man), for refusing to attend the Pope's nuncio on his arrival in England. However, the full tale of this event must come later, for it belongs to the life of the man who was now to become sixth Duke of Somerset-Charles, the Proud Duke.

CHAPTER VII

THE PROUD DUKE: HIS CHILDREN AND HIS
CHILDREN'S CHILDREN

'He was probably the most ridiculous man of his time; he had the pomp of an Eastern Pasha without the grave dignity which Eastern manners confer. He was like the Pasha of a burlesque or an opéra bouffe.' And again, All his rank, his dignity and influence could not protect him against the ridicule and contempt with which his feeble character, his extravagant pride and his grotesquely haughty demeanour invariably brought upon him.'

Thus McCarthy pithily sums up the character of Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, better known as the 'Proud Duke.' His preposterous pride in his rank and dignity was indeed calculated to make him the sport of satirists, hiding, as it did then and afterwards, from the general conception of his character what common-sense he had. The anecdotes that keep bright the picture of his absurd pride are well known, but some bear repetition. It was he who, whenever he travelled in England, had the roads in front of him scoured by a body of outriders to see that none of the lower orders looked on his sacred person. Apropos of this we find among the list of his household servants, four running footmen. One of these received £6 a year, two others £8, one of them also getting 2s. 6d. a day when heran by himself,' with 'a livery, and waist

coats, drawers, stockings, pumps, cap, sash and petticoat breeches.' The fourth agreed on a salary of £10 a year, ' with 2s. 6d. a day when I run by myself a journey, and 1s. a day when I run by his Grace's coach. No money allowed when I run any way under twenty miles. To find my own stockings and pumps, and to have my running clothes washed in the house.' 1

One

Several anecdotes concerning the duke's travelling are preserved among the Memoirs of the Kit Cat Club. tells how Sir James Delaval having laid a wager of £1000 that he would make the duke's carriage give his precedence, stationed himself in a narrow lane in a coach emblazoned with the arms of Howard, and setting his servants shouting, 'Way, way, for the Duke of Norfolk,' forced the duke's carriage to give way as it entered the lane. On another occasion the duke's servants shouted, 'Get out of the way!' to a man leading a pig by the roadside. 'Why?' asked the man. Because my Lord Duke is coming, and he does not like to be looked at.' 'But I will see him, and my pig shall see him too,' retorted the man, and he held the pig up by the ears until the duke had passed.

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All his servants obeyed the duke by signs, and his wife and children were kept almost in the same state of servility. It certainly says much for the man that he was able to crush the spirit of his haughty first wife, Elizabeth Percy, but perhaps he exaggerated when he rebuked his second wife, one of the Black Funereal Finches,' who dared to tap him with her fan :- Madam, my first duchess was a Percy, and she never took such a liberty.' His daughter, Charlotte, paid dearly for the forbidden pleasure of sitting down in his presence. She lost £20,000 of her inheritance. It is really cheering to come across one or two stories of his election campaigns in which, as we shall see later, his dignity must have been grievously spoiled. And although 1 Gentleman's Magazine, lxi. p. 199.

one realises that Swift's biting sarcasms were mainly political, one can imagine how he must have enjoyed wielding the only weapon that could be directed with any effect against the duke's invulnerable fortress of pride. Anthony Henley must have enjoyed the same pleasure when, according to Walpole, he directed a letter to the duke, 'over against the trunk shop at Charing Cross,' meaning, of course, Northumberland House.

At the same time there is another side to Somerset's character, a side hardly ever emphasised, simply because the absurdities of his all-absorbing pose have dwarfed every other interest where he is concerned. There is no question that both Whig and Tory parties regarded him as a tower of strength to the Hanoverian cause, not only because of his great territorial and political influence, but also because he was steadfast in his principles, and because his pride ever saved him from descending to the acts of duplicity which so many of his contemporaries, caring little for public opinion, performed smilingly and with an easy conscience. True, he did not, as we shall see, shrink from nocturnal meetings with Harley, but that he regarded as making for the welfare of the Hanoverian cause and preserving, as he wrote to Harley, 'the future quiet and happy reign of the Queen, whose happiness and welfare you and I both ought in the highest sense of gratitude to have the preference of all other consideration in our thoughts.' Moreover, his share in the political situation at the end of Anne's reign must always be remembered. It was his prompt action in combination with the Dukes of Shrewsbury and Argyll that thwarted Bolingbroke's Jacobite schemes, when Anne lay dying, and brought the Elector of Hanover to the English throne.

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Macky describing the duke in 1702, says he was of a middle stature, well-shaped, a very black complexion, a lover of music and poetry, of good judgment ["not a grain,' interpolated Swift, "hardly common sense "], but by reason