to the loss of 164,000l." To the lastnamed scene we must now follow him; but of his " great sufferings" we shall find little more than his cruel destiny to the consumption of two good dinners. On the 6th of September, 1651, Mr. Evelyn went from Paris with his wife "to St. Germain's, to condole with Mr. Waller's losse, and carried with him and treated at dinner that excellent and pious person the Deane of St. Paule's, Dr. Stewart, and Sir Lewis Dyve." Again, on the 3d of December following, "Sir Lewis Dyve dined with us, who, relating some of his adventures, shew'd me divers pieces of broad gold, which, being in his pocket in a fight, preserv'd his life by receiving a musket-bullet on them, which deaden'd its violence, so that it went no further, but made such a stroake on the gold as fix'd the impressions upon one another, battering and bending severall of them; the bullet itselfe was flatted, and retain'd on it the colour of the gold. He assur'd us that, of an hundred of them, which it seems he then had in his pocket, not one escap'd without some blemish. "He affirm'd that his being protect ed by a Neapolitan Prince, who conniv'd at his bringing some horses into France, contrary to order of ye Viceroy, by assistance of some banditti, was the occasion of a difference between those great men, and consequently of y late civil war in that kingdom, the Viceroy having kill'd the Prince standing on his defence at his owne castle. "He told me that the second time of the Scots coming into England, the King was six times their number, and might easily have beaten them, but And here, at the close of Sir Lewis's stories, may well be appended the opinion which Mr. Evelyn formed of him after the previous dinner, that "this Knight was indeede a valiant gentleman, but not a little given to romance when he spake of himselfe !" + The third of the before-mentioned letters in the Epistolæ Ho-elianæ was addressed to Sir Lewis when at Paris. It has no date; but was probably written about 1653. From its commencement we learn that the correspondence between Howel and our hero was more extensive than appears in print: “Noble Knight, yours of the 22 current come to safe hand; but what you please to attribute therein to my letters, may be more properly applied to yours in point of intrinsic value; for, by this correspondence with you, I do as our East India merchants use to do ;I venture beads and other baggatels, out of the proceeds whereof I have pearl and other oriental jewels return'd me in yours."-It is to be lamented that none of these gems of Sir Lewis's pen have occurred for insertion here. Howel proceeds with some reflections on the fanaticism of the age, and introduces a poem on that subject. A subsequent paragraph gives at second hand the subject at least of Sir Lewis's last letter: "You write that you have The German Dyet,' which goes forth in my name, and you say, that 'you never had more matter for your money.' I have valued it the more ever * This means the Marquis, or, more correctly, the Duke, of Hamilton, who suffered under great suspicion, though there is reason to believe very unjustly. + It is remarkable that in this particular Sir Lewis had as illustrious an example as Sir Kenelm Digby, who was in some measure his kinsman, and to whom we are indebted for his introduction to our present notice. Sir Kenelm, like Sir Lewis, and "as was reason," took the lead in conversation; but his philosophical anecdotes were as much distrusted as Sir Lewis's military ones. Evelyn expresses such difficulty of credit; and the following is an extract from the recently published Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe: "When we came to Calais, we met the Earl of Strafford and Sir Kenelm Digby, with some others of our countrymen. We were all feasted at the Governor's of the castle, and much excellent discourse passed; but, as was reason, most share was Sir Kenelm Digby's, who had enlarged somewhat more in extraordinary stories than might be averred, and all of them passed with great applause and wonder of the French then at table; but the concluding one was, that barnacles, a bird in Jersey, was first a shell-fish to appearance; and from that, sticking upon old wood, became in time a hird. After some consideration, they unanimously burst out into laughter, believing it altogether false; and, to say the truth, it was the only thing true he had discoursed with them; that was his infirmity, though otherwise a person of most excellent parts, and a very fine bred gentleman." since in regard that you please to set such a rate upon't, for I know your opinion is current_and sterling. I shall shortly by T. B. send you a new History of Naples, which also did cost me a great deal of oyl and labor."Howel's "German Diet" was published in 1653, and his "Parthenopeia, or History of Naples" in 1654. These dates nearly fix that of this letter; in the conclusion of which Howel desires "to present the humblest of service to the noble Earl your brother," who had then recently succeeded to the title, on the death of the first and celebrated Earl, Jan. 21, 1652-3. My biographical collections regarding Sir Lewis now cease until the period of his death, which occurred nine years after the Restoration, in the seventieth year of his age. He was buried in the church of Combe Hay in Somersetshire, where, within the rails of the altar, is the following inscription on a brass plate: * "Here lyeth ye body of Sr LEWIS DYVE of Bromham in the county of Bedford, kt. ouly son of St John Dyve of Bromham, kt. by Dame Beatrice his wife, daughter of Charles Walcot, of Walcott in ye county of Salop, esq. who was afterwards married to ye Rt Honble John Earle of Bristol, by whom she had issue ye Rt Honble George now Earle of Bristol. The said Sr Lewis Dyve took to wife Howard daughter of Sir John Strangways, of Melbury Sampford in the county of Dorset, and by her had issue at the time of his death three sons, Francis, Lewis, and John, and one daughter Grace, who married George Hussey, of Marnhull in the county Of Sir Lewis's three surviving sons, the eldest, Francis, married, first, his cousin Grace, daughter of Giles Strange1665, at the Parish of the Close, Lichways, esq.; and secondly, Dec. 14, field, Theophila, daughter of John Hacket, D.D. Bishop of Lichfield. He was a benefactor to the repairs of Lichfield Cathedral, where his name is inscribed on one of the stalls of the choir, FRANCISCUS DYVE, arm. f. f. He appears also to have put up a new pulpit in Bromham Church, which has on it the arms of Dyve impaling Hacket. He was appointed a Gentle man of the King's Privy-chamber in 1669; and died without issue, in 1685, leaving his next brother Lewis his heir. Lewis was a military man; as appears stone in Bromham Church: from his epitaph on a flat black "Here lyeth interred ye body of Capt. Lewis Dyve, ye son of Sir Lewis Dyve, who departed this life the jst of Jan. 1686, at his house at Brumham in the county of Bedford, in ye 46th year of his age." || Captain Dyve was married, as his arms, carved at the head of this epitaph, impale a bend between six martbeing surmounted by its crest (a cuslets; (qu. Delabere?) and each coat tom occasionally practised in the seventeenth century, though discountenanced by most heralds), that of the lady's side is a cock's head erased. He had three children, one son and two daughters. His son Lewis, born at *Collinson, in the History of Somersetshire, makes the strange blunder of placing this inscription in Dunkerton Church; he also gives but an imperfect abstract, omitting all mention of the connection with the Bristol family.-Combhay became the property of Sir Lewis in 1644, it afterwards went to the Husseys, the family into which his daughter was married. † On the flat marble to the memory of this lady in Sherborne Church, Dorsetshire (see p. 21), are the arms of Digby, impaling quarterly, 1 and 4, a chevron between three chess-rooks Ermine, for Walcot of Walcot; which shows that the monument in Bromham Church (see p. 20) was not, as supposed, erected in honour of her first husband, Sir John Dyve, but was intended, by him, for his father, Sir Lewis, whose lady was Mary, daughter of Sir Walter Strickland, and whose arms, quartered with Dyve, occupy the chief place on that monument, viz. three escallops. Mr. Hussey's first wife had been a Walcot; a cousin of his second through the Countess of Bristol her mother.-The daughter of Sir Lewis Dyve was grandmother of the excellent artist Giles Hussey, esq. of whom there is a portrait and memoir in the History of Dorsetshire. § Carlisle's "Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber," p. 183. Il The inscription is correctly copied from the stone in Bromham Church; but the age is evidently incorrect. Capt. Lewis Dyve was born in 1633. (See p. 22.) ¶ See Sir Nicholas Bacon's entrance to the chapel of Corpus Christi College, engraved in vol. xcvi. i. 393. New Ross, co. Wexford, Jan. 2, 1677, was twice married, and had one son, who died an infant, and five daughters. This Lewis appears by the Bromham, register to have been living there from 1700 to 1708, but it was about the latter year that he sold the old family estate to Sir Thomas Trevor. John, the youngest son of Sir Lewis Dyve, was married April 29, 1673, at St. Chad's, Lichfield, to Frances, third daughter of Sir Robert Wolseley, the first Baronet of Wolseley in Staffordshire. He was appointed one of the Clerks of the Privy Council in 1691. (Jones's Index.) He died in 1692, and was buried in St. James's, Westminster, as was his widow Frances, who died in 1702. By that lady he had John his successor, another son named Lewis, and a daughter Charlotte, who was married to Robert Lord Sundon, and died childless Jan. 1, 1741-2. His Lordship (when Mr. Clayton) was one of the executors to the will of the great Duke of Marlborough (see the will in the 6th vol. of Coxe's Marlborough. His wife was the friend and correspondent of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and enjoyed the confidence of Queen Caroline. There are portraits after Kneller of Mr. and Mrs. Clayton, with an inscription in Latin, stating that they were presented in 1728 by Mrs. C. to Dr. Freind, the celebrated physician, who had attended Mr. Clayton in a dangerous illness. There is also a whole-length portrait of Lady Sundon on Lord Ilchester's staircase at Melbury. The succeeding John Divet married Dorothy, daughter and heiress of Walter Aston, of Millwich in Staffordshire, esq. great-uncle of the sixth, seventh, and eighth Lords Aston of Forfar. This Mr. Dive died at a very advanced age, Jan. 25, 1769, at his house in Queen-square, Westminster. He left issue a son John, and a daughter Charlotte, who, having been a Maid of Honour to the Princess of Wales, became, Feb. 4, 1762, the second wife of Samuel second and last Lord Masham; she died without issue May 21, 1773, aged 61; and is buried in the church-yard of Laver near Ongar in Essex. The third John Dive (then a Captain in the Guards,) married in 1737 Anne Dorothy Montgomery; by whom he had two sons, who died without issue; and a daughter Charlotte, married in 1759 to John Edmondes, esq. whose daughter Charlotte became the wife of Llewellin Traherne, esq. and the mother of a gentleman now living, to whose contributions this memoir has been considerably indebted. J. G. N. "Grant unto our Queen thy servant, a little infant, in fashion and body comely and beautiful, in pregnant wit, notable and excellent. Grant the same to be in obedience like Abraham, in chastity and brotherly love Moses, in strength and valour like Samplike Joseph, in meekness and mildness like son; let him be found faithful as David; after thy heart; let him be wise among kings as the most wise Solomon; let him be like Job, a simple and upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil; let him finally be garnished with be garnished with the comeliness of all virtuous conditions, and in the same let him wax old and live, that he may see his children's children to the third and fourth generation. And give to our Sovereign Lord and Lady King Philip and Queen Mary thy blessings and long life upon earth; and grant that of them may come Kings and Queens, which may stedfastly continue in faith, love, and holiness. And blessed be their seed of our God; that all nations may know thou art only God in all the earth, which art blessed for ever and ever. Amen." *See the Account of Loans to the Lords and Commons in 1722, where Lewis Dive and John Dive are called brothers of Mr. Clayton. Index Rerum et Vocabulorum.—Tracts in London Institution, vol. 144, no. 7. The family latterly always wrote their name with an i; and this gentleman did so, in a power of attorney dated March 7, 1719 (penes H. H. G.) He was then resident in Queen-square, Westminster, where he died fifty years after. This is "Tommy Townshend's Mr. Dive," as Mr. Daniel Wray calls him in 1745; see Nichols's Literary Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, vol. I. p. 58. |