Year: 1641 (Page 6 of 7)

The 28th of July I went to Leyden;

The 26th of July I passed by a straight and commodious river through Delft to the Hague; in which journey I observed divers leprous (([“Perhaps,” says Southey in vol. xix. of the Quarterly Review, “ this is the latest notice of lepers in Europe being thus thrust apart from the rest of mankind, and Holland is likely to be the country in which the disease would continue longest ”(p. 5).] – AH))  poor creatures dwelling in solitary huts on the brink of the water, and permitted to ask the charity of passengers, which is conveyed to them in a floating box that they cast out.

Arrived at the Hague, I went first to the Queen of Bohemia‘s court, where I had the honor to kiss her Majesty’s hand, and several of the Princesses’, her daughters. Prince Maurice was also there, newly come out of Germany; and my Lord Finch, not long before fled out of England from the fury of the Parliament. It was a fasting day with the Queen for the unfortunate death of her husband, and the presence chamber had been hung with black velvet ever since his decease.

The next day we arrived at Dort, the first town of Holland, furnished with all German commodities, and especially Rhenish wines and timber. It hath almost at the extremity a very spacious and venerable church; a stately senate house, wherein was holden that famous synod against the Arminians in 1618 (( [From 13th November, 1618, to 19th May, 1619- Its object was to effect a compromise between the Arminians and the Calvinists ; but the latter prevailed.] –AD)); and in that hall hangeth a picture of “The Passion,” an exceeding rare and much-esteemed piece.

From Dort, being desirous to hasten toward the army, I took wagon this afternoon to Rotterdam, whither we were hurried in less than an hour, though it be ten miles distant; so furiously do those Foremen drive. I went first to visit the great church, the Doole, the Bourse, and the public statue of the learned Erasmus, of brass. (([In the Groote Markt. It is by Hendrik de Keyser, and was erected in 1522. – AH])) They showed us his house, or rather the mean cottage, wherein he was born, over which there are extant these lines, in capital letters:

“ÆDIBUS HIS ORTUS, MUNDUM DECORAVIT ERASMUS
ARTIBUS INGENIO, RELIGIONE, FIDE. (([In the last chapter of Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth, 1861, some of the best scenes in which are confessedly from the “mediaeval pen” of Erasmus, the motto “over the tailor’s house in the Brede-Kirk Straet ” is given as—“ Haec est parva domus natus qua magnus Erasmus.” But further alterations must now have taken place, for according to Baedeker, “the façade of the house No. 5 in this street [the Wyde Kerkstraat], with a statuette of Erasmus in the pediment, is an exact repro- duction of the front of the house in which the great scholar was born” (Belgium and Holland, 1905, p. 294).]))

The next day at noon, we landed at Flushing.

Being desirous to overtake the Leagure (([Siege. See post, under 17th December, 1684.] – AD)), which was then before Genep ((On the Niers, in the province of Limburg— a place which, having been greatly strengthened by the Cardinal Infante D. Ferdinando, in 1635, was at this time besieged by the French and Dutch. –  AH)), ere the summer should be too far spent, we went this evening from Flushing to Middleburg, another fine town in this island ((i.e. the island of Walcheren.  – AH)), to De Vere, whence the most ancient and illustrious Earls of Oxford derive their family, who have spent so much blood in assisting the state during their wars. From De Vere we passed over many towns, houses, and ruins of demolished suburbs, etc., which have formerly been swallowed up by the sea; at what time no less than eight of those islands had been irrecoverably lost.

We returned again this evening, and on the 21st of July embarked in a Dutch frigate, bound for Flushing, convoyed and accompanied by five other stout vessels, whereof one was a man-of-war.

On the 19th of July, we made a short excursion to Rochester, and having seen the cathedral went to Chatham to see the Royal Sovereign, a glorious vessel of burden lately built there, being for defense and ornament, the richest that ever spread cloth before the wind.

She carried an hundred brass cannon, and was 1,200 tons; a rare sailer, the work of the famous Phineas Pett, inventor of the frigate-fashion of building, to this day practiced.

But what is to be deplored as to this vessel is, that it cost his Majesty the affections of his subjects, perverted by the malcontent of great ones, who took occasion to quarrel for his having raised a very slight tax for the building of this, and equipping the rest of the navy, without an act of Parliament; though, by the suffrages of the major part of the Judges the King might legally do in times of imminent danger, of which his Majesty was best apprised.

But this not satisfying a jealous party, it was condemned as unprecedented, and not justifiable as to the Royal prerogative; and, accordingly, the Judges were removed out of their places, fined, and imprisoned.

so that, on the 15th of July, having procured a pass at the Custom-house, where I repeated my oath of allegiance, I went from London to Gravesend, accompanied with one Mr. Caryll, a Surrey gentleman, and our servants, where we arrived by six o’clock that evening, with a purpose to take the first opportunity of a passage for Holland (([In this he was acting upon the counsel he gives in his Preface to The State of France as to foreign travel:—“ The principall places of Europe, wherein a gentleman may, uno intuitu, behold as in a theater the chief and most signal actions wrhich (out of his owne countrey) concerne this later age and part of the world, are the Netherlands, comprehending Flanders and the divided provinces; which is a perfect encycle and synopsis of whatever one may elsewhere see in all the other countryes of Europe; and for this end I willingly recommend them to be first visited, no otherwise than do those who direct us in the study of history to the reading first of some authentick epitome, or universall chronology, before we adventure to launch forth into that vast and profound ocean of voluminous authours” (Miscellaneous Writings, 1825, p. 50). He goes on to regret that when he visited the Low Countries his judgment was yet immature.] – Footnote by Austin Dobson )).

But the wind as yet not favorable, we had time to view the Block-house of that town, which answered to another over against it at Tilbury, famous for the rendezvous of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1588, which we found stored with twenty pieces of cannon, and other ammunition proportionable.

and the day after sat to one Vanderborcht ((Hendrik van der Borcht, a painter of Brussels, lived at Frankenthal. Lord Arundel, finding his son at Frankfort, sent him to Mr. Petty, his chaplain and agent, then collecting for him in Italy, and afterwards kept him in his service as long as he lived. The younger Van der Borcht was both painter and engraver; he drew many of the Arundelian curiosities, and etched several things both in that and the Royal Collection. A book of his drawings from the former, containing 567 pieces, is pre-served at Paris ; and is described in the catalogue of L’Orangerie. After the death of the Earl, he entered into the service of the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II ., and lived in esteem in London for a considerable time; but returned to Antwerp, and died there in 1660. [Hollar engraved the portrait of both father and son, the former from a picture by the latter.] – Footnote by Austin Dobson)) for my picture in oil, at Arundel-house ((In the Strand, between Milford Lane and Strand Bridge. Arundel Street, Norfolk Street, Howard Street, and others now occupy the site. – Footnote by Austin Dobson )), whose servant that excellent painter was, brought out of Germany when the Earl returned from Vienna (whither he was sent Ambassador-extraordinary, with great pomp and charge, though without any effect, through the artifice of the Jesuited Spaniard who governed all in that conjuncture).

With Vanderborcht, the painter, he brought over Winceslaus Hollar, the sculptor, who engraved not only the unhappy Deputy’s trial in Westminster-hall, but his decapitation; as he did several other historical things, then relating to the accidents happening during the Rebellion in England, with great skill; besides many cities, towns, and landscapes, not only of this nation, but of foreign parts, and divers portraits of famous persons then in being; and things designed from the best pieces of the rare paintings and masters of which the Earl of Arundel was possessor, purchased and collected in his travels with incredible expense: so as, though Hollar’s were but etched in aquafortis((a solution of nitric acid (HNO₃ —AD)), I account the collection to be the most authentic and useful extant.

Hollar was the son of a gentleman near Prague, in Bohemia, and my very good friend, perverted at last by the Jesuits at Antwerp to change his religion; a very honest, simple, well-meaning man, who at last came over again into England, where he died.

We have the whole history of the king’s reign, from his trial in Westminster-hall and before, to the restoration of King Charles II., represented in several sculptures, with that also of Archbishop Laud, by this indefatigable artist; besides innumerable sculptures (([Sculptures = engravings. .Johnson still uses the word in this sense in a letter to Mr. Barnard of May 28, 1768.] )) in the works of Dugdale, Ashmole, and other historical and useful works. I am the more particular upon this for the fruit of that collection, which I wish I had entire.

This picture ((His own portrait, by Van der Borcht. [It is still in the Picture Gallery at Wotton House.] – Footnote by Austin Dobson)) I presented to my sister, being at her request, on my resolution to absent myself from this ill face of things at home, which gave umbrage(([Suspicion, foreshadowing. -AD])) to wiser than myself that the medal was reversing, and our calamities but yet in their infancy:

and, on the 28th of June, I went to London with my sister, Jane.

I returned to Wotton.