Wriothesley, second Earl of Southampton of that name, at Loseley, as a suspected Papist. Some particulars of the Spanish Armada. Notes from various Documents preserved at Loseley, of precautionary measures and preparations of defence Original Letters relating to the clandestine marriage of Mr. John Donne, afterwards Dr. Donne, with Ann More Original Letters of Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury Original Documents relating to Sir Walter Ralegh Papers concerning the Earl and Countess of Somerset's confinement in the Tower, and trial, as accomplices in Overbury's murder; Extraordinary Letters of King. Inventories of the Earl of Somerset's Effects Imprisonment of Sir Thomas Monson, as concerned in Particulars of Sir George Chaworth's (afterwards Vis- count Chaworth's) Embassy to the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria, to condole with her, on the part of his sovereign, James the First, on the INTRODUCTION. THE reader of these Papers may imagine himself introduced to the Muniment Room of an ancient hall in Surrey, of which the key had been lost, and its existence disregarded during an interval of two hundred years. He has approached, through a grove of lofty forest trees, the extensive front of the venerable mansion of stone, of which that depository of Family Records is an appendage. He enters the lofty hall round which the portraits of its former owners are arranged, depicted "in their habits as they lived;" the sun-beams stream through the light shafts of the lofty embayed window, illumining the household coats of the family, emblazoned in the gorgeous tinctures of heraldry on the glass. He indulges perhaps in an antiquarian reverie, and beholds in his mind's eye those venerable personages, traversing the spacious floor to welcome with obsequious formality the Sovereign whose image still remains suspended on the walls, originally placed there as a compliment conspicuous to his own eye, on occasion of a personal visit.* How will our reader find * In the Hall at Loseley are portraits of James the First and his Queen; and a very large picture of Sir William More Molyneux (who died in 1760) and his family. There are also in the house original portraits of Edward VI., the Chancellor this vision of his fancy confirmed, when, gliding as it were unnoticed through the ideal scene, as an insignificant actor in the drama of another age, he enters by our guidance the little chamber before mentioned, now by chance accessible, explores the ponderous oaken coffers which it contains; paper after paper is taken out, inscribed in various and obsolete hands; the autographs of King, of Peer, of Statesman, or Divine. Some relating to the events of their day, which have survived to "fill up chronicles" in after times. Some to beings unnoticed in the roll of historic fame, but which incidentally illustrate the popular feelings and habits of the period. Such a discovery would stamp the picture sketched by fancy with something of reality; such a vision may be summoned up at Loseley; such are its manuscripts. We add a few prefatory notes on the demesne of Loseley and its possessors. The manor of Loseley, which became in the sixteenth century the seat of the Mores, bore its present appellation from the Saxon times. Osmund held it of King Edward the Confessor; the Conqueror gave it to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel and Shrewsbury, who had distinguished himself as one of the principal leaders of the Norman army at the battle of Hastings. The extent of the demesne at this period seems to have been about four hundred acres. The name is probably that of a Saxon proprietor, Loth or Lot, compounded with the term ley expressing a plain, a pasture, an inclosed tract of ground; indeed it was often written Lothesly, which so nearly expresses its pronunciation at this day, that a stranger More, (perhaps a relative, although the arms do not agree with those of More of Loseley,) Ann Boleyn, and of the Mores from Sir William to Sir Poynings. could scarcely err in the name; which he certainly would by giving the first syllable the sound of the neuter verb to lose. Loseley is situate about two miles from Guildford, and from the left or west bank of the river Wey. That ancient town is supposed in the early period to have stood on the west side of the river, and by its castle and outworks to have occupied also the site of the present town on the east. This assertion is pretty well confirmed by the curious ancient vaultings still existing under the Angel Inn at Guildford, on the west side of the main street, and by the supposed site of the ancient town being still marked out as the Bury fields;* and there is great probability that this last-mentioned spot was occupied in the time of the Romans, of whose presence, at least in the neighbourhood, undoubted evidence has been discovered. Loseley had, no doubt, from an early period, its manse or capital dwelling house fortified with a moat, according to the custom of the feudal age, some vestiges of which defence still remain. The demesne of Loseley passed into the possession of various persons by inheritance or purchase until the reign of Henry VIII. when it was purchased by Christopher More, esq. whose grandfather was Thomas More of Norton, in the county of Derby, gent. with whom the pedigree * At Albury, i. e. the old burgh or bury, (by the bye, a similar and frequent appellation for Roman sites,) we traced the foundations of the temple, or rather tomb, mentioned by Aubrey. At Broadstreet Green, on the open common, are vestiges of a Roman dwelling, the apartments of which have been paved with tesseræ, formed from the ironstone with which the sandy soil of the country is interspersed, neatly squared into dies of various dimensions. of More of Loseley, in the books of the Heralds' College, begins.* The Historian of Surrey states that he was Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in the 24th and 31st of Henry VIII.; that he was knighted on the first occasion, and in the 37th of the same reign, had the office of Remembrancer in the Exchequer. Sir Christopher died at Loseley, August 16, 1549, having had issue by Margaret, the first of two wives,† five sons and seven daughters. There is an inscription in the Loseley chapel in the Church of St. Nicholas, Guildford, to his memory, where in all probability he was interred. William, the eldest of his children, was born January 30, 1519-20, represented the borough of Guildford several times in Parliament in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, as also the county of Surrey in the latter reign, when he was twice Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex, and was appointed Vice-Admiral of the last-mentioned county; an officer whose duty it was to enforce the rights of the Admiralty on the shores of the district to which his jurisdiction applied. He was knighted May 14, 1576, by the Earl of Leicester, in the Earl of Lincoln's garden at * Letter from Sir Geo. Nayler to W. Bray, Esq. F.S.A. Among the muniments at Loseley, we found a writ under the privy seal of Henry VIII. dated Chelseheth, 24th December, in the 24th of his reign, A. D. 1533, granting to Christopher More, designated as one of the Clerks of the Exchequer, licence to impark and surround with hedges, ditches, and pales, 200 acres of land at his manor of Loseley, free warren in the same, &c. Red deer were kept in this park. She was daughter of Walter Mudge, Esq. His second wife was Constance, daughter of Richard Sackvile, of Buckhurst, relict of William Heneage, Esq. The following original letter shews the credit in which he |