accession of Prince Charles, fitter for a ceremonial Archbishop than a governing King, as some thought, will not be forgotten. Then how the Elector Palatine was married; and troubles began to brew in Germany; and little Dr. Laud was made Archdeacon of Huntingdon :-such news the Historical Student can supply. And on the whole, all students and persons can know always that Oliver's mind was kept full of news, and never wanted for pabulum! But from the day of his Birth, which is jotted down, as above, in the Parish-register of St. John's, Huntingdon, there is no other authentic jotting or direct record concerning Oliver himself to be met with anywhere, till in Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, we come to this,* 1616. 'A Festo Annunciationis, 1616. Oliverius Cromwell Hunting, doniensis admissus ad commeatum Sociorum, Aprilis vicesimo tertio ; Tutore Magistro Ricardo Howlet:' Oliver Cromwell from Huntingdon admitted here, 23d April, 1616; Tutor Mr. Richard Howlet.-Between which and the next Entry some zealous individual of later date has crowded-in these lines: Hic fuit grandis ille Impostor, Carnifex perditissimus, qui pientissimo Rege Carolo Primo nefaria cæde sublato, ipsum usurpavit Thronum, et Tria Regna per quinque ferme annorum spatium, sub Protectoris nomine, indomitâ tyrannide vexavit.' Pientissimo, which might as well be piantissimo if conjugation and declension were observed, is accredited barbarous-latin for most pious, but means properly most expiative; by which title the zealous individual of later date indicates his martyred Majesty ; a most expiative' Majesty indeed. Curious enough, of all days on this same day, Shakspeare, as his stone monument still testifies, at Stratford-on-Avon, died: 1 1663 Obiit Anno Domini 1616. While Oliver Cromwell was entering himself of Sidney-Sussex College, William Shakspeare was taking his farewell of this * Noble, i., 254. † Collier's Life of Shakspeare (London, 1845), p. 253 world. Oliver's Father had, most likely, come with him; it is but twelve miles from Huntingdon; you can go and come in a day. Oliver's Father saw Oliver write in the Album at Cambridge: at Stratford, Shakspeare's Ann Hathaway was weeping over his bed. The first world-great thing that remains of English History, the Literature of Shakspeare, was ending; the second world-great thing that remains of English History, the armed Appeal of Puritanism to the Invisible God of Heaven against many very Visible Devils, on Earth and Elsewhere, was, so to speak, beginning. They have their exits and their entrances. And one People in its time plays many parts. Chevalier Florian, in his Life of Cervantes, has remarked that Shakspeare's death-day, 23d April, 1616, was likewise that of Cervantes at Madrid. Twenty-third of April' is, sure enough, the authentic Spanish date: but Chevalier Florian has omitted to notice that the English twenty-third is of Old Style. The brave Miguel died ten days before Shakspeare; and already lay buried, smoothed right nobly into his long rest. The Historical Student can meditate on these things. In the foregoing winter, here in England, there was much trying of Ker Earl of Somerset, and my Lady once of Essex, and the poisoners of Overbury; and before Christmas the inferior murderers and infamous persons were mostly got hanged; and in these very days, while Oliver began his studies, my Lord of Somerset and my Lady were tried, and not hanged. And Chief Justice Coke, Coke upon Lyttleton, had got into difficulties by the business. And England generally was overspread with a very fetid atmosphere of Court-news, murders, and divorce-cases, in those months which still a little affects even the History of England. Poor Somerset Ker, King's favorite, 'son of the Laird of Ferniehirst,' he and his extremely unedifying affairs, except as they might transiently affect the nostrils of some Cromwell of importance,—do not much belong to the History of England! Carrion ought at length to be buried. Alas, if 'wise memory' is ever to prevail, there is need of much wise oblivion' first.Oliver's Tutor in Cambridge, of whom legible History and I now nothing, was 'Magister Richard Howlet:' whom readers must fancy a grave ancient Puritan and Scholar, in dark antiqua. rian clothes and dark antiquarian ideas, according to their faculty. The indubitable fact is, that he, Richard Howlet, did, in SidneySussex College, with his best ability, endeavor to infiltrate some. thing that he called instruction into the soul of Oliver Cromwel1 and of other youths submitted to him: but how, of what quality, with what method, with what result, will remain extremely obscure to every one. In spite of mountains of books, so are books written, all grows very obscure. About this same date George Ratcliffe, Wentworth Strafford's George, at Oxford, finds his green-baize table-cover, which his mother had sent him, to small, has it cut into 'stockings,' and goes about with the same.* So unfashionable were young Gentlemen Commoners. Queer Elizabeth was the first person in this country who ever wore knit stockings. 1617. In March of this year, 1617, there was another royal visit at Hinchinbrook. But this time, I conceive, the royal entertainment would be much more moderate; Sir Oliver's purse growing lank. Over in Huntingdon, Robert Cromwell was lying sick, somewhat indifferent to royal progresses. King James, this time, was returning northward to visit poor old Scotland again, to get his Pretended-Bishops set into activity, if he could. It is well known that he could not, to any satisfactory extent, neither now nor afterwards: his Pretended-Bishops, whom by cunning means he did get instituted, had the name of Bishops, but next to none of the authority, of the respect, or alas, even of the cash, suitable to the reality of that office. They were by the Scotch People derisively called Tulchan Bishops.—Did the reader 66 * 66 University College, Oxford, 4 Dec., 1610. "Loving Mother,-** Send also, I pray you, by Briggs" (this is Briggs the Carrier, who dies in January, and continues forwarding butter in May) a green table-cloth of a yard and half a quarter, and two linen table. cloths. ** If the green table-cloth be too little, I will make a pair of warm stockings of it. * * -Thus remembering my humble duty, I take my leave.-Your loving Son, "GEORGE RADCLIFFE." Radcliffe's Letters (by Whitaker), p. 64-5 † Camden's Annals; Nichols's Progresses. ever see, or fancy in his mind, a Tulchan? Tulchan is, or rather was, for the thing is long since obsolete, a Calf-skin stuffed into the rude similitude of a Calf,—similar enough to deceive the imperfect perceptive organs of a Cow. At milking-time the Tulchan, with head duly bent, was set as if to suck; the fond cow looking round fancied that her calf was busy, and that all was right, and so gave her milk freely, which the cunning maid was straining in white abundance into her pail all the while! The Scotch milkmaids in those days cried, 'Where is the Tulchan a; is the Tulchan ready?' So of the Bishops. Scotch Lairds were eager enough to milk the Church Lands and Tithes, to get the rents out of them freely, which was not always easy. They were glad to construct a Form of Bishops to please the King and Church, and make the 'milk' come without disturbance. The reader now knows what a Tulchan Bishop was. A piece of mechanism constructed not without difficulty, in Parliament and King's Council, among the Scots; and torn asunder afterwards with dreadful clamor, and scattered to the four winds, so soon as the Cow became awake to it!— Villiers Buckingham, the new favorite, of whom we say little, was of the royal party here. Dr. Laud, too, King's Chaplain, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, attended the King on this occasion; had once more the pleasure of seeing Huntingdon, the cradle of his promotions, and the birth-place of Oliver. In Scotland, Dr. Laud, much to his regret, found "no religion at all," no surplices, no altars in the east or anywhere; no bowing, no responding; not the smallest regularity of fuglemanship or devotional drill-exercise; in short "no religion at all that I could see,”which grieved me much.* What to us is greatly more momentous: while these royal things went on in Scotland, in the end of this same June at Huntingdon, Robert Cromwell died. His will is dated 6th June.† His burial-day is marked in the Church of All-Saints, 24th June, 1617. For Oliver, the chief mourner, one of the most pregnant epochs. The same year, died his old Grandfather Steward at Ely. Mrs. Robert Cromwell saw herself at once fatherless and * Wharton's Laud (London, 1695), pp. 97, 109, 138. † Noble, i., 84 second time widowed, in this year of bereavement. Left with six daughters and an only son; of whom three were come to years. Oliver was now, therefore, a young heir; his age eighteen, last April. How many of his Sisters, or whether any of them, were yet settled, we do not learn from Noble's confused searching of records or otherwise. Of this Huntingdon nousehold, and its new head, we learn next to nothing by direct evidence; but can decisively enough, by inference, discern several things. 'Oliver returned no more to Cambridge.' It was now fit that he should take his Father's place here at Huntingdon; that he should, by the swiftest method, qualify himself in some degree for that. The universal very credible tradition is that he,' soon after,' proceeded to London, to gain some knowledge of Law. Soon after' will mean certain months, we know not how many, after July, 1617. Noble says, he was entered of Lincoln's Inn." The Books of Lincoln's Inn, of Gray's Inn, of all the Inns of Court have been searched; and there is no Oliver Cromwel found in them. The Books of Gray's Inn contain these Crom well names, which are perhaps worth transcribing: Thomas Cromwell, 1524; Francis Cromwell, 1561; The first of which seems to me probably or possibly to mean Thomas Cromwell Malleus Monachorum, at that time returned from his Italian adventures, and in the service of Cardinal Wolsey;-taking the opportunity of hearing the readers,' old Benchers who then actually read, and of learning Law. The Henry Cromwell of February, 1653, is expressly entered as 'Second sonne to his Highness Oliver, Lord Protector :' an interesting little fact, since it is an indisputable one. For the rest, Henry Cromwell was already a Colonel in the Army in 1651 :* in 1654, during the spring months he was in Ireland; in the • Old Newspaper, in Cromwelliana, p. 91. |