Baron of Dudley, respecting their mutual hunting in Leicester forest, and Bradgate park. As a parcel of the manor of Groby, Bradgate, formerly belonged to Hugh Grandmeisnell,† and with it, passed by the marriage of his daughter and co-heir, Petronilla, to Robert Blanchmaines, Earl of Leicester; and afterwards, by marriage also, to Saker de Quincy, Earl of Winton. In the reign of Edward I., it came into the family of the Ferrers, by the marriage of Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Roger de Quincy, with William de Ferrers, second son of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, whose son and heir, William, was in 1293, created Baron Ferrers of Groby.

In 1444, on the death of William Lord Ferrers, of

IN the midst of the most sequestered part of Leicestershire, deserted and solitary, backed by rude eminences, and skirted by lowly and romantic valleys, stands | BRADGATE, the birth-place and abode of the beauteous LADY JANE GREY, the accomplished, but unfortunate daughter of the House of Suffolk. The approach to this spot from the little village of Cropston, is particularly striking. On the left stands a group of venerable trees, at the extremity of which rise the remains of the once magnificent mansion of the Greys of Groby. On the right is a hill, known by the name of the Coppice, covered with slate, but so intermixed with forest-fern and flowers, as to form a beautiful contrast with the deep shade of the adjoining wood. To add to the loveliness of the scene, a winding trout-stream finds its way from rock to rock, washing the once festive walls of the building, until it reaches the more fertile meadows of Swithland. Nor ought we to omit the beautiful vale of Newtown, the romantic loneliness of which would be worthy even the pen of a Scott. In the distance, situated upon a hill, is a tower, yclept OLD JOHN, commanding a magnificent view of the adjacent country, including the far-distant eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles Brandon, Duke view of the adjacent country, including the far-distant | of Suffolk, and of his illustrious consort, Mary, Queen castles of Nottingham and Belvoir.

Leland has given the following description of the

Groby, who died without any surviving male issue, Bradgate descended to Sir Edward Grey,‡ knight, in right of his wife, Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of had died during his father's life time) and he was Henry, the son of the last mentioned William, (who accordingly, on December 14th, 1446, summoned to parliament, under the title of Sir Edward Grey, his grandson, was in 1471, created Earl of Huntingknight, Lord Ferrers of Groby.§ Sir Thomas Grey, don, and a knight of the garter; and in 1475, was he married a second wife, Cicely, daughter and heir advanced to the higher dignity of Marquis of Dorset ; of William, Lord Bonville and Harrington. Henry, his grandson, the third Marquis of Dorset, succeeded to the title in 1530, and married the Lady Frances,

Dowager of France, and youngest sister of Henry

*Nichols' " Leicestershire," vol. iii. p. 681.

: The family of Grey was of Norman origin; their arms,

place, as it appeared in his time ;-" From Leicester to Brodegate by ground welle woodded 3 Miles. At + This manor, with other lands in the county, was given by Brodegate is a fair Parke and a Lodge lately builded William the Conqueror, to Hugh Grandmeisnell, a Norman, there by the Lorde Thomas Gray, Marquise of Dor-created Baron of Hinckley, and High Steward of England, by William Rufus.-Burton's "Leicestershire," p. 122. sete, Father to Henry that is now Marquise. There is a fair and plentiful spring of Water brought by Master Brok as a Man wold juge agayne the Hille thoroug the Lodge, and thereby it dryvitt a Mylle. | This Parke was part of the olde Erle's of Leicesters' Landes, and sins by Heires generales it cam to the Lorde Ferreres of Groby, and so to the Grayes. The Parke of Brodegate is a vj Miles cumpace."

Barry of six, Argent and Azure, in chief three torteauxes, Ermine; the motto, A ma puissance. Rollo, or Fulbert, the chamberlain of Robert, duke of Normandy, was possessed, by gift from Robert, of the castle and lands of Croy, in Picardy, The first notice we find of this family in England, is shortly from whence he took the name of de Croy, afterwards de Gray. after the Conquest, when Arnold de Gray, grandson of the above-mentioned Rollo, became Lord of Water Eaton, Stoke, and Rotherfield, in right of his wife, Joan, daughter and heiress of the Baron de Ponte de l'Arche.

§ Vide Dugdale's "Baronage," vol. i. p. 719. Sir John Grey, their son, who succeeded as Lord Ferrers of Groby, was slain daughter and co-heir of Richard Widvile, Earl of Rivers; who after his death became the Queen of Edward IV. He left two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Richard Grey.-Polydore Virgil, p. 513.

at the battle of St. Alban's, in 1460; he married Elizabeth,

VIII, by whom he had issue, three daughters, the | Thomas Grey, the second Marquis of Dorset, princiLADY JANE GREY, Catherine, and Mary.†

where the nettle and the thistle now reign in peace, | sent day, if not authenticated by several whose vethe rose and the lily sprang luxuriantly."

The Chapel, a small building adjoining the Lady Jane's tower, and the only part of the mansion on which any care for its preservation has been bestowed, contains a handsome monument (in alabaster,) commemorative of Henry, Lord Grey of Groby, (cousin to the Lady Jane Grey,) and his wife; whose effigies lie recumbent, beneath an arched canopy supported by composed Ionic columns.

The former is encased in armour, and robed; round the neck is a high collar; the hair is cut short but the beard broad; the head resting on a helmet, with the gauntlets placed at the feet. His lady is clothed in a gown and a short jacket, and suspended from a waist-belt is a chain, with tassels at the bottom; a long ruff covers the neck. The whole is surmounted by the family arms and supporters. In a vault in the middle of the chapel, made to contain three coffins, repose the remains of Lady Diana Grey, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Stamford, by his first wife, Elizabeth; Thomas, Earl of Stamford; and Mary, Countess Dowager of Stamford, for whom there is the following inscription on a large blue slate on the floor;

racity was as unquestionable as their judgment, would be wholly incredible.+-But the history of her eventful life has engaged the attention of so many writers, and is so generally known, as to render its repetition unnecessary; we cannot, however, entirely pass over in silence the period of her education, nearly the whole of which she resided at Bradgate. Burton, in his additions to Leicestershire, calls her "that most noble and admired Princess Jane Grey; who being but young, at the age of seventeen years, as John Bale writeth, attained to such excellent learning, both in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, and also in the study of divinity, by the instruction of Mr. Aylmer, as appeareth by her many writings, letters, &c., that, as Mr. Fox saith of her, had her fortune been answerable to her bringing up, undoubtedly she might have been compared to the house of Vespasians, Sempronians, and Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi in Rome, and, in these days the chiefest men of the universities." It was at Bradgate that Roger Ascham paid her that visit, which he describes with so much pleasure in his "Scholemaster," and which we cannot refrain from quoting. "Before I went into Germanie, I came to Brodegate in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much beholding. Her parentes, the Duke and the Dutchesse, with all the householde, Gentlemen and Gentleweemen, were hunting in the Parke: I found her in her chamber, reading Phædon Platonis in Greeke, and that with as much delite, as some gentleman would read a mery tale in Bocase. The melancholy associations connected with the After salutation, and duetie done, with some other name of Lady Jane have given to Bradgate an talke, I asked her, why shee would leese such pasattraction, which, notwithstanding its picturesque time in the Parke. Smiling shee answered mee: I wisse, all their sport in the Parke, is but a shadow beauty, it would doubtless never have otherwise possessed. The story of this lady's "almost infancy,' to that pleasure, that I finde in Plato: Alas good as it has justly been observed by a writer of the pre-how came you, Madame, quoth I, to this deepe knowfolke, they never felt what true pleasure ment. And

“D. G.—The Right Honourable THOMAS GREY, Baron of Grooby, Viscount Woodvil, and Earl of Stamford, late Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire and Somersetshire, died January the 31st, 1719, aged 67 years. The Right Honourable MARY, Countess Dowager of Stamford, died November 10th, 1722, aged 51 years."

This Chapel was formerly used as a place of shelter by the cattle, but has since been repaired, and newly paved. The key is in the charge of the keeper at the lodge.

Viz. quarterly, 1. Grey, as before; 2. Hastings, or, a maunch, gules; 3. Valence, barry of ten, argent and azure, eight martlets in orle gules; 4. Ferrers of Groby, vaire, or, and gules; 5. Astley, azure, a cinquefoil, ermine; 6. Widvile, arg. a fess and canton, gules; 7. Bonvile, sable, six mullets, argent; 8. Harrington, sable, a fret, argent. Crest, on a wreath, a unicorn erect, ermine, armed, crested, and hoofed, or; a full sun behind it, whose rays are resplendent all round him, proper. Supporters, two unicorns, erminë, armed, erested, and hoofed, or; Motto, A ma puissance.

ledge of pleasure, and what did chiefly allure you vnto

In 1645, an order was made, that the Countess of Stamford, (being then at Bradgate,) should have the protection of the House of Lords, that no soldiers or commanders should be quartered in the house, or park." In 1694, the mansion had a narrow escape from destruction by fire, caused, it is said, by the then Countess of Stamford; and according to tradition, it was fired in three several places. The cause of this rash attempt has been variously accounted for, but all agree in stating that the Countess had an intrigue with her husband's chaplain.† A separation immediately afterwards took place, and the Earl married, secondly, Mary, daughter and co-heir of Joseph Maynard, Esq. In the following year, Bradgate was honoured by a visit from King William, when it is related, that a large room with a bow window was fitted up for his reception.‡

it, seeing not many women, but very fewe men have | and from him is lineally descended the present Earl attayned thereunto. I will tell you, quoth shee, and of Stamford and Warrington. tell you a troth, which perchance ye will maruel at. One of the greatest benefites that euer God gaue me, is, that hee sente so sharpe and seuere parentes, and so gentle a scholemaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speake, keepe silence, sit, stand, or go, eate, drinke, be mery, or sad, bee swoing, playing, dauncing, or any thing els, I must doe it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, euen so perfectly, as God made the world, or ells I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes, with pinches, nippes, and bobbes, and other wayes, which I will not name, for the honor I beare them, so without measure misordered, that I think my selfe in hell, till time come, that I must goe to M. Elmer, who teacheth mee so gently, so pleasantly, with such faire allurements to learning, that I thinke all the time nothing, while I am with him. And when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because, whatever I doe els, but learning, is full of greefe, trouble, feare, and whole misliking vnto mee: and thus my booke, hath been so much my pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasure, in very deede, bee but trifles and troubles vnto mee.-I remember this talke gladly, both because it is so worthy of memory, and because also it was the last talke that euer I had, and the last time euer I saw that noble and worthy lady.'

Shortly after the death of the Countess Dowager of Stamford, in 1722, Bradgate appears to have been deserted by the family as a residence, and to have gradually fallen into a state of dilapidation. Towards the close of the last century, the then Earl disposed of the materials of the building, on condition, that the purchaser should remove them from the ground within a given period. Luckily, however, for the admirers of history and antiquity, the contract was not fulfilled; some parts were consequently left standing, and have,

"Journals of the Lords," vol. vii. p. 399.

On the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk, the family lost all claim to their titles and estates, until James I. + Thorosby says, she set it on fire, or caused it to be set on by letters patent, bearing date, July 21st, 1603, bes-fire, at the instigation of her sister, who then lived in London. towed the barony of Groby on Sir Henry Grey,† of The story is thus told. Some time after the Earl had married, Pergo, nephew of the last mentioned nobleman. On returning to the house of his ancestors, he immediately disposed of his property in Essex, and settled at the family mansion at Bradgate, where he lies buried. He was succeeded by his eldest grandson, Henry, who married Anne, daughter and co-heir of William Cecil, Earl of Exeter, in whose right he became pos-cestershire,” vol. i. p. 120. sessed of the manor, borough, and castle of Stamford, whence he took the title of the earldom, on being created a peer, March the 6th, 1628, by Charles I.;

"Scholemaster," fol. 11, edit. 1571.

+ Son of the Lord John Grey, (youngest brother of the last Duke of Suffolk,) by his wife Mary, daughter of Viscount Montacute; to whom, through the interest of his wife, had been granted in 1559, the site of a capital messuage in Essex, called Pergo, a part of the ancient and royal manor öf Havering, at Bower.-Vide Morant's "Essex."

he brought his lady to his seat at Bradgate; her sister wrote to her, desiring to know "how she liked her habitation, and the country she was in ?" the Countess wrote for answer," that the house was tolerable, that the country was a forest, and the inhabitants all brutes," The sister in consequence, by letter, desired her "to set fire to the house, and run away by the light of it." The former part of the request, it is said, she put immediately into practice. The burning is now visible.-" Lei

"An old man," says Nichols, "now living (1804) at Anstey, aged eighty-one, remembers the principal part of Bradgate quite entire. He had been in all the rooms; and says, there was a door out of the dining room into the chapel. The same person recollects being told by his father, (who was only thirty years older than himself,) that he was carried, when a child, to the end of Anstey town, to see King William pass across the fields on his way to Bradgate."- Leicestershire," vol. iii. p. 680.

15

The principal seat of the Earl of Stamford is at Enville, in Staffordshire.

with the exception of natural decay, remained in nearly | May well detain the pensive pilgrim, when the same state ever since.*