recording the coat-of-arms "in the great parlour window of the house where Mr. Lewis lives," he remarks that it "did belong to the family of Barker, and came by inheritance from them to Mr. Fairfax, the present owner thereof." William Fairfax, the only surviving male representative of the third generation, died, as appears from the register,* in his 4th year. There is a small tablet to his memory against the east wall of the north aisle with the following touching epitaph, under the Fairfax coat-of-arms, sculptured in white marble : Dedicated to ye Memory of WILLIAM FAIRFAX, Son to Henry Fairfax Esq. by Ann Jvly ye 27th 1684. This little silent gloomy monument And though translated, could not be refined. The seventh dear pledge the nuptual joys had given, In the same grave resteth also The grave in question is close by, in the eastern end of the north aisle, and marked by a small white stone, which is thus inscribed : Under This Stone Lyeth Interred Two deare departed Ann Alethea Fairfax, See 'A Few Words about Hurst,' p. 38. Not far from this, and quite close to the east wall beneath the window, is a long narrow white grave-stone with an inscription that has puzzled me much, and I am quite unable to suggest any explanation which will bring the dates into harmony with what I have written above. At the top of the stone is the Fairfax coat, with a crescent for difference; at the foot, a Death's-head and cross-bones; on either side an hour-glass, and in the space between, this epitaph:— Here resteth Fran : Ye Granchild of County of Yorke, Esqr., Henry & Ann his 1678. To begin with was Fran., a son or a daughter? Francis or Frances? The word 'grandchild' may be of either gender. We know that little William Fairfax was the 'seventh dear pledge,' and therefore had other brothers and sisters: and that one sister Frances survived him, became sole heiress of the property, and married in 1697 David, fourth Lord Cardross, and eventually eighth Earl of Buchan; and thus became grandmother to Thomas, Lord Erskine, Lord Chancellor of England in the reign of George III. But in 1678 little William Fairfax was not yet born. And it is impossible that he could have had an elder brother or sister by the same father and mother, who died two years before his birth at the age of 56. Further, if this Fran. Fairfax was 56 in 1678, he (or she) was born in 1622; but it is clear from his epitaph that Henry Fairfax, the elder, in 1622 was only 21 years of age, and could not be then a grandfather. I leave it therefore as an unsolved mystery, which can only be explained by a reference to the Registers of Hurst. Owing to the distance of Scotland from Hurst, the Countess of Buchan soon after her marriage caused the property to be sold to the ancestor of the Palmer family, in whose possession, I believe, it still remains. And thus the Fairfaxes disappeared for good from Hurst, after a sojourn of less than fifty years. Swallowfield and its Owners. By Lady Russell. (Continued from page 115.) 1685. In February, 1685, on the accession of James II., Henry, Earl of Clarendon, was made Lord Privy Seal, and his brother Lord Rochester, Lord Treasurer. Lady Clarendon continued Lady of the Bedchamber to Catherine, the Queen Dowager, who removed from Whitehall to Somerset House, where she held her DowagerCourt with considerable splendour. In March of this year Lady Clarendon was much distressed at the death of Mary, the daughter of John Evelyn, who died of smallpox. Lady Clarendon had wished the Queen to make her a Maid of Honour, but the young lady, who seems to have been a paragon of virtue and accomplishments, shewed no eagerness to join the Court. Her father was not, however, above mentioning in his diary, with pride, the "Divers noble persons " who sent their coaches with six horses to honour her funeral at Deptford, amongst whom was the Earl of Clarendon, whilst Lady Clarendon was the recipient of one of the sixty memorial rings distributed on this occasion. On the 21st May, Lord Clarendon had Evelyn to dine with him to meet Sir William Dugdale, Garter King at Arms, author of the Monasticon, who was then 82 years of age, and the latter shewed them "a draught of the exact shape and dimensions of the crowne the Queene had been crowned withal, together with the jewells and pearles; their weight and value, which amounted to £100,658 sterling." The next day, the Lord Privy Seal (Lord Clarendon) took Evelyn and "a French gentleman" to the House of Lords, and placed them "next the Bar, just below the bishops, very commodiously, both for hearing and seeing." On the 9th July we find that Lady Clarendon supped at Lambeth with Elias Ashmole, and met Evelyn, the Bishop of St. Asaph, and Dr. Tenison, and that they were treated "at a greate feaste." On the 12th July, Lord Clarendon accompanied the Duchess of Monmouth to the Tower to see her husband, who was to suffer death in two days. The Duke received her very coldly, and spoke chiefly to Lord Clarendon, whose intercession he earnestly implored. In August of this year, Lord Clarendon was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and he nominated Evelyn one of the Commissioners to act as Deputy Lord Privy Seal during his absence; in consequence of which we find that on the 3rd of September Lord Clarendon took Evelyn to Windsor to give thanks to his Majesty "for this greate honour," dining, by the way, at Sir Henry Capel's, at Kew. In this month, Lord Clarendon pleaded with the King the cause of Alice, Lady Lisle, who was condemned by Judge Jefferies in his "Bloody Assize" to be burnt alive for having harboured for one night at her house, Moyles Court, Hants, two dissenters, fugitives from Sedgemoor. Lady St. John and Lady Abergavenny wrote a letter to Lord Clarendon, which he read to the King, stating that, though her husband was one of the Judges of Charles I., Lady Lisle had always been a determined Royalist, and had been a favourer of the King's friends in their greatest extremities during the late Civil War, among others of these ladies themselves; and on these grounds, as well as for her general loyalty, earnestly recommended her to pardon. Her son had served in the King's army, and she had often declared that she shed more tears than any woman in England on the day of the death of Charles I., and after the attainder of her husband his estate was granted to her at the instance of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. All intercession now, however, was in vain, the only commutation being the block instead of the stake. She underwent this sentence with great courage at the age of 80, in the Market-place at Winchester, attended by her daughter Triphena. In October (1685), shortly before their departure for Ireland, Lord and Lady Clarendon entertained Evelyn at Swallowfield, and the latter in his diary gives us the following interesting account of the place : "22nd October. I accompanied my Lady Clarendon to her house at Swallowfield, in Berks, dining by the way at Mr. Graham's* Lodge at Bagshot; hence we went to Swallowfield. This house is * James Graham, Privy Purse to the King, married Dorothy Howard, Maid of Honour. after the antient building of honourable gentlemen's houses, when they kept up antient hospitality, but the gardens and waters are as elegant as 'tis possible to make a flat, by art and industrie and no meane expence, my lady being so extraordinarily skill'd in the flowery part, and my lord in diligence of planting, so that I have hardly seen a seate which shows more tokens of it than what is to be found here, not only in the delicious and rarest fruite of a garden, but in those innumerable timber trees in the ground about the seate, to the greatest ornament and benefit of the place. There is one orchard of 1,000 golden and other cider pippins; walks and groves of elms, limes, oaks, and other trees. The garden is so beset with all manner of sweete shrubbs, that it perfumes the aire. The distribution also of the quarters, walks, and parterres is excellent. The nurseries, kitchen garden, full of the most desirable plants; two very noble orangeries, well furnished; but, above all, the canall and fishponds, the one fed with a white, the other with a black running water, fed by a quick and swift river, so well and plentifully stor❜d with fish that for pike, carp, breame, and tench, I never saw anything approaching it. We had at every meal carp and pike, of size fit for the table of a prince; and what added to the delight was to see the hundreds taken by the drag, out of which, the cooke standing by, we pointed out what we had most mind to, and had carp that would have been worth at London 20s. a-piece. The waters are flagg'd about with Calamus aromaticus, with which my lady has hung a closet that retains the smell very perfectly. There is also a certaine sweete willow and other exotics; also a very fine bowlinggreene, meadow, pasture, and wood; in a word, all that can render a country seate delightful. There is, besides, a well-furnished library in the house." Evelyn stayed at Swallowfield three nights. He writes on the 26th October as follows: "We return'd to London, having been treated with all sorts of cheere and noble freedom by that most religious and virtuous lady. She was now preparing to go for Ireland with her husband, made Lord Deputy, and went to this country house and antient seate of her father and family, to set things in order during her absence; but never were good people and neighbours more concern'd than all the country (the poor especially) for the departure of this charitable woman; every one was in teares, and she as unwilling to part from them. There was amongst them a maiden of primitive life, the daughter of a poore labouring man, who had sustained her parents by her labour, and has for many |