grave matrons, under whose care they were placed, and who bore in the Royal household the honourable name of “Mothers of the Maids.” I have recovered the names of three of these English duennas. Elizabeth Jones, gentlewoman, Mother of the Maids under Queen Elizabeth, was buried in the church of St. Clement Danes, in London, on the 22nd of January, 1607-8. Lady Sanderson was “Mother of the Maids” to the Queen of Charles the Second, and she could have told many curious stories about old Rowley and Rochester. What an annotator of De Grammont and of Pepys! Mrs. Lucy Wise, “Mother of the Maids” to Anne Hyde, wife of the Duke of York (we may fairly assume), was well up in stories about the two brothers, Charles and James—to say nothing of the rest of the worthies who live in the pages of Pepys, and smile so charmingly on the canvas of Lely.
I have often wondered that the subject has not been taken up by some of our many writers, as a serious subject. What a volume for Mudie or Smith of the Strand, “Lives of the Maids of Honour.” Here is a title “to let”:—
“TE HE!”
CHERRY TARTS;
or,
MAIDS OF HONOUR.
from
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO QUEEN VICTORIA.
Board of Green Cloth, 12th June, 1681.
Order was this day given that the Maides of Honour should have Cherry Tarts instead of Gooseberry Tarts, it being observed that Cherrys are at Three Pence per pound.—MS. Warrant Book of King Charles the Second’s Lord Steward of the Household.
Such grace the King of Kings bestowed upon her,
That he’s promoted her—a Maid of Honour.
Old Epitaph.
And all the Maids of Honour cry “Te He!”
Mason and Walpole—Heroic Epistle.
Swift amused “Stella” with a like notion. Hear what he says in his famous “Journal,” under the 19th of September, 1711. He had been laughing with the Maids about their lodgings in “the Round Tower” at Windsor, and wrapping up little witticisms in charming innuendoes about their lodgings.
Arbuthuot [a famous doctor and wit] made me draw up a sham subscription for a book, called a “History of the Maids of Honour, since Harry the Eighth, showing they make the best Wives, with a List of all the Maids of Honour since, &c.” To pay a crown in hand, and t’other crown upon delivery of the book; and all in the common forms of those things. We got a gentleman to write it fair, because my hand is known, and we sent it to the Maids of Honour when they came to supper. If they bite at it, ’twill be a very good Court jest; and the Queen will certainly have it. We did not tell Mrs. Hill.
The Queen was “Great Anna,” and Mrs. Hill (I may mention in passing) was Mrs. Abigail Hill, whose name of Abigail has become, through her alone, a cant or common name for a chambermaid or bedchamber woman.
In this work I purpose giving some curious particulars of the Maids of Honour who danced attendance on Elizabeth Tudor (Queen Elizabeth). Some of their names I may here mention, “to book subscribers.” There will be Blanche Parry, who has a monument at Backton, in Herefordshire; Lucy, Lady Latimer, who lies buried at Hackney; Sir Walter Raleigh’s wife, Elizabeth Throgmorton; Miss Fitton, to whom Kemp the actor dedicates his famous “Nine Days’ Wonder;” Lady Catherine Stanley, afterwards Lady Griesly, whose jewelled portrait (with the real jewel lent by Lady des Vœux) was one of the attractions of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition. In this part of the work I rely mainly for a sale on the materials I have discovered relating to the Lady Elizabeth Russell, whose monument is shown in Westminster Abbey (not erroneously, as I shall prove) as that of the lady who died from the prick of a needle. Lady Elizabeth kept a richly embroidered volume, in which she entered several recipes for heart-ache, head-ache, quince pies, Warden pies, light venison pasties, and from this I purpose extracting largely for future editions of Mrs. Rundell and Miss Acton. A curious entry in this precious volume I may mention in passing. It relates to the three rumps of beef for breakfast, allowed to the Maids in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as Sir Richard Steele assures us in No. 148 of “The Tatler,” and readers have hitherto been found unwilling to believe.
My materials at present for the lives of the Maids attached to the household of Anne of Denmark, the queen of James I., are few and not very interesting. I am sorry for this. A few lives, however, will prove of value to (d.v.) our future queen, the Princess Alexandra, and to her I purpose seeking permission to dedicate my work.
Of the Maids to Henrietta Maria I have full and entertaining particulars. This part of my work will include Cecilia Crofts (Tom Killigrew’s wife). Miss Porter (Endymion’s daughter), Mrs. Kirk, that delightful blue-stocking, and Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle, whose life of her husband no casket is too good to contain. I claim particular attention for the life of Anne Hyde, the future mother of the two Queens of England, Mary and Anne.
When I come to Catherine of Braganza, my materials are ample and readable. The reader will find plenty of true gossip and Court scandal touching Britannia Stewart (afterwards Duchess of Richmond and Lenox), Mrs. Simena Carew, Mrs. Catherine Boynton, Mrs. Henrietta Maria Price, Mrs. Winifred Wells, Mademoiselle de la Garde, and Mademoiselle Bardon. Tom Thynne’s intended bride, Mary Trevor, will be found acceptable seaside and Christmas fireside reading in this portion of my work.
Equally rich (if not more so) will be found those chapters in my work which relate to the Maids of Honour connected with the court of Anne Hyde, Duchess of York. Arabella Churchill (Marlborough’s sister) will be seen to advantage; Jennings, Duchess of Tyrconnell (Sarah of Marl-