Page:Tixall Poetry.djvu/449

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Notes.
395

some account of him, in Wood, vol. ii. p. 918. and in Brydges's Collins's Peerage, vol. viii. p. 156.

P. 273. These lines were addressed to Walter, third Lord Aston, on his second marriage; with "Catherine Gage," daughter of Sir Thomas Gage of Firle, in Suffolk: Which marriage took place about the year 1680. Catherine Gage, Lady Aston, was the collector of the poems in the Third Division of the Tixall Poetry. The allusions to good love, both in the verses and letter which accompanies them, will be explained below.

P. 276. There is, I believe, a poem by Quarles, entitled "Argalus and Parthenia," in which probably this epitaph may be found.

P. 277. I think this pastoral beautiful. It is easy, perspicuous, elegant, and natural. The images are rural, and the verse is melodious. The comparison, between the pleasure of thinking of an absent friend, and the enjoyment of sunshine, through the thick branches of a wood, is highly poetical, and original. I have often contemplated the imagery there described, with great delight, but never met with it in description before. Millon had an eye to the effect, in the expression, chequered shade.

P. 283. I must here inform the reader, that Lord Talbot, of Ingestrie, (which is only a mile from Tixall,) has in his possession, a folio MS. beautifully, as well as accurately written, which contains a clear, and concise account of nearly all the parishes, together with the pedigrees of the families, in the Hundred of Pyrehill, in which Tixall stands. This folio MS. was compiled by Walter Chetwynd, Esq. of Ingestrie, the contemporary, and friend of Dr Plot, and of Burton, author of "The History of Leicestershire," one of the first county histories published in England. It had been lent by Lord Talbot, to the late Reverend Stebbing Shaw, and, about two years ago, was in the possession of my learned friend, Samuel Pipe Wolferstan, Esq. of Stadfold, near Tamworth; by whose kindness, I was enabled to make several valuable extracts from it, and among them the following:

"Trent having left Wolseley, and Bishton, passeth by Colton, and so takes its farewell of Pyrehill Hundred. In 20 Conq. Goiffridus held Colton, of Robert