Chap. III. HENRY, the office of Governor. He was a man of many accom- BOOK I, plishments, and had a strong bias for some of the physical LIFE OF sciences. But it does not seem that he possessed that PRINCE OF force of character which in the elder Sir Thomas CHALONER WALES. was a conspicuous quality. From a very early age, HENRY showed that in him were combined in happy proportions a strong relish for the pleasures of literature with a relish not less keen for the pursuits and employments of an active and out-of-doors life. He could enjoy books thoroughly, without being absorbed by them. He had a manly delight in field sports, without falling under the temptation to become a slave to his pastime. If in anything his enjoyments tended to excess, as he grew towards maturity, it was seen in his devotion to warlike exercises. So that even the excess testified to that real manliness of spirit which keeps the body in subjection, instead of pampering its pleasures and its aptitudes. He seems to have learnt, unusually early in life, that the natural instincts of youth will have their truest gratification, and will retain their fullest zest, when made, by deliberate choice, steps towards a conscious fitness for the duties of manhood. Alike in what we have from his own pen, and in the testimonies of those who were the closest observers of his brief career, we see evidence that he had formed a due estimate of the responsibilities that, to human view, lay close before him. Of his thoughts about kingship we possess only fragments. Of his father's thoughts on that subject we enjoy an exhaustive exposition. The contrast in the thinking is curiously significant. Some of the best known anecdotes of HENRY'S life exhibit the interest he felt in naval matters. That tendency may, perhaps, have taken its birth in a London Book I, PRINCE OF HENRY'S INTEREST IN FAIRS. MS. HARL., vol. 6279 * incident of March, 1604. The Earl of NOTTINGHAM, Lord High Admiral, was then in the flush of Court favour. The Prince had been but for a few months in England, and his sight-seeing had not, as yet, included the baptism ORIGIN OF of a ship. The Admiral prepared that novelty to please him. It was at the Tower that the Prince first examined NAVAL AF- the Disdain' (15 March, 1604). Whether at the same time he made his first acquaintance with the most famous inhabitant of the Tower is matter of mere conjecture. Life of Pett, RALEGH, at all events, was there on the day when Phineas PETT moored his new vessel off Tower Wharf, for the Prince's delight. Before any long time had passed, RaLEGH was busy in the composition of a Discourse of a maritimal voyage, and of the passages and incidents therein, with a like object. The acquaintance, however began, was improved with every passing year. Of the many hopes which came to a sudden end eight years afterwards, few, it is probable, were more sanguine or more far-reaching than those of the King's keenly watched and dreaded prisoner. HENRY AND For England, RALEGH saw in Prince HENRY a wise and brave king to come. For himself, he saw not only a generous friend, but a man who might be the means of giving shape and substance to many patriotic schemes with which a brain that could not be imprisoned had long been teeming. RALEGH. There is evidence that on more than one topic of public policy RALEGH's counsel made a deep impression on HENRY. One instance of it will be seen presently. But apart altogether from such positive results as admit of * It was not strictly a 'launch.' The vessel had been built expressly for the Prince, at Chatham, and was brought thence to London to be named with the usual ceremonies. + He was removed to the Fleet Prison ten days afterwards. BOOK I. LIFE OF Chap. III. HENRY, testimony, their intercourse is memorable. It must have been by virtue of some congeniality of nature that a youth in HENRY's position so quickly leapt across many obstacles -to an appreciation, alike of the circumstances and of the WALES. character of RALEGH, which still commends itself to those who have looked into them most searchingly. The estimate has been many times confirmed by the investigations of history, long afterwards, but it was strongly opposed to the broad current of contemporary opinion. A heart larger than the average may have its divinations, as well as the intellect that is more acute and better furnished than the average. THE INVES- INTO THE NAVAL April. But the generous heart is often allied with a hasty temper. The impression made on the Prince by RALEGH'S writings on naval matters had, amongst other results, that DOCKYARDS. of increasing both his interest in the management of the royal dockyards, and his familiar intercourse with Phineas PETT. PETT was master shipwright at Chatham, and, as we have seen, the designer of the prince's first vessel Disdain. When Sir Robert COTTON had induced the 1608. King to issue that Commission of Inquiry into the Navy, See Chap. ii, of the results of which some account has been given in the pp. 62, 63. preceding Chapter, PETT was one of the persons whose official doings were brought into question. HENRY took a warm interest in the inquiry and testified openly his anxiety on PETT's behalf. A specific charge about an alleged disproportion between timber paid for and the vessels built therewith was investigated at Woolwich. Both the King and the Prince were present. HENRY stood by PETT's side. When the evidence was seen to disprove the charge, the Prince cried with a loud voice disregarding alike the royal presence and the forms of law Where be now those perjured fellows that dare thus ་ Ms. Life of Phineas Pett, in MS. HARL 6279 (B.M.) P. 45. Воок 1, LIFE OF HENRY'S abuse His Majesty with false informations? Do they not worthily deserve hanging?' The warmth of HENRY's friendship seems to have suffered little diminution by the absence of its objects. When his friends went to far-off countries he encouraged them to be active correspondents by setting them a good example. SPONDENCE. He welcomed all sorts of real and worthy information. About the government and affairs of foreign countries his curiosity was insatiable. When important letters came to him he not only read them with care but made abstracts of their contents. When the labour-loving Lord Treasurer SALISBURY noticed, with regret, in his son CRANBORNE certain indications of a turn towards indolence, it was by an appeal to Prince HENRY's example that he strove to correct the failing. HENRY evinced eagerness to learn by all methods. Books, letters, conversation, personal insight into notable things and new inventions, were alike acceptable to him. HIS PUR CHASE OF LIBRARY, In April, 1609, the death of John, Lord LUMLEY, without issue, enabled the Prince to gratify his love of books by purchasing a Library which probably was more valuable than any other collection then existing in England, with the exception of that of Sir Robert COTTON. Thirty years before, Lord LUMLEY had inherited the fine library of his father-in-law, Henry FITZALAN, Earl of ARUNDEL, who had been a collector of choice manuscripts at a time when the reckless dispersion of monastic treasures impoverished the nation, but gave, here and there, golden opportunities to openhanded private men. When the estates of the FITZALANS came to LUMLEY-in virtue of an entail made by the Earl of ARUNDEL during Lady LUMLEY'S lifetime-the splendid succession had lost its best charm. The wife who had thus enriched him was Chap. III. PRINCE OF at Norf. dead, and he was childless. His wife's sister, the Duchess Book I, of NORFOLK, was also dead, but had left a son. LUMLEY LIFE OF sold his life interest in the broad lands, and forests, and in HENRY, the famous castle of Arundel, to the next heir, but he kept WALES. the library and found one of the chief pleasures of his Muniments remaining term of life in liberally augmenting it. HENRY'S House first care, after his purchase, was to have a careful catalogue made of the collection. And he soon gave evidence that he had bought the books for use; not for show. also made many important additions, from time to time, during his three years' ownership. (Sussex, Box 7), as cited in Tierney's He Arundel, p. 19. Privy Purse Book; in Correspond ence, JAMES 1, vol. lvii, § 87, p. 4. NAMENTS OF Chronicle of Perhaps the most festive days of that brief span were the sixth of January, 1610, and the sixth of June of the same year, on both of which Whitehall again witnessed a gay (RH) tournament. On twelfth-day, at the head of a band of THE TOURknights which included LENNOX, ARUNDEL, SOUTHAMPTON, 1610. HAY, Sir Thomas SOMERSET, and Sir Richard PRESTON, HENRY kept his barriers against fifty-six assailants, and before a brilliant court, for whose pleasure the long mimic fight was diversified by the gay devices of Inigo JONES, and the graceful verses of Ben JONSON. Next day the jousting was followed by a banquet not less splendid. At Whitehall, as at Stirling sixteen years before,-the banquetting lasted seven hours, but it was enlivened by a comedy in which the ladies were not condemned to silence. In the following June, HENRY's creation as Prince of WALES Was Oberon, a celebrated by tiltings on a more extensive scale, as well as Jonson's by masques and dances, and by an elaborate naval battle upon the Thames. But the prince himself seems to have taken more pleasure in witnessing from time to time, at Woolwich or at Chatham, the launching of real ships fitted for real warfare. Nor are indications wanting that during his ponderings on the many advices which he England, p. The Speeches at Prince Henrics Bar riers; and Musque. Works, vol. v, pp. 965-974, 1st edit.) |
