CHAPTER XIV.

GORHAMBURT.
"Ut Rosa flos floram, sio est domus ista domomm." (Over the door. Chapter House, Yorkminflter.)
GoRHAMBURY, where Bacon passed many years of his yoath, was built in 1571, as we see by the inscription over the Roman Portico of the ruins : —
" Hsec cam perfecit Nioolaus tecta BaoonuSy Elizabeth regni lustra fuere duo. Factus eques, magni custos fuit ipse sigilli Gloria sit soli, tota tributa Deo. Mediocria firma 1571.''^
It appears that upon the outside of the present approach there was formerly a piazza with a range of pillars of the Tuscan order in front The walls of the piazza were painted ai fresco, with the adventures of Ulysses, by Van Koepen. In one piazza a statue of Henry YIII. stood, the headless trunk of which may yet be observed. In the other was a figure of Lady Bacon. In the Orchard there stood an elegant Summer House (no longer existing), '' dedicated to refined conversation on the liberal arts, which were deciphered on the walls with the heads of Cicero, Aristotle, and other illustrious ancients." This room seems to have answered to the diceia, or favourite summer room, of the younger Pliny at his beloved Laurentinum (Liber ii., Epist. 17). '* This building, — ^the porticos suited for both seasons — a cr3rpto- porticus, or noble galleiy, over the other — and finally, towers placed at different parts, recall to mind many things of the villa."
There was a statue of Orpheus, which stood at the entrance to
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the orchard, and there were the following lines over it, which seem singularly appropriate for the home of the greatest poet the world has ever seen !
*' Horrida nuper eram aspectn latebrseque f eramm Buricolis tantum numinibusque locos Edomitor fausto hie dum forte supervenit Orpheus UlteriuB qui me non sinit esse rudem Convocat avulsis virgulta virentia truncis Ed sedem quae vol Diis placaisse potest. Sicque mei cultor, sic est mihi coitus et Orpheus ; Floreat O noster cultus amorque diu."
In " ThA Wisdom of the Ancienis" Bacon quotes the fable of Orpheus, which seems to illustrate these Latin lines. " So great was the power and alluring force of this harmony that he drew the woods and moved the very stones to come and place them- selves in an orderly and decent fashion about him."
Compare Shakespeare : —
" Therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods ; Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, But music for a time doth change his nature."
{Merchant of Venice^ vi.)
'* But the most excellent remedy, in every temptation, is that of Orpheus, who, by loudly chanting and resounding the praises of the gods, confounded the voices, and kept himself from hearing the music of the Sirens; for divine contemplations exceed the pleasures of sense, not only in power but also in sweetness." (" The Sirens" Bacon.)
Considering that Orpheus was the supposed founder of the Mysteries, and that he seems to be a fit emblem of the most in- spired poetry, (and particularly the Platonic or Love philosophy,) nothing could be more appropriate than to thus hear of his statue at Gk)rhambury. Perhaps Bacon wrote these lines, or they first implanted in his mind the idea to write philosophical play sys- tems to illustrate the Orphic theology, for he seems to have taken the last line for his motto. Certain it is that he has come nearer
GORHAMBURY. 277
Orpheus than Orpheus himself, for he has and will draw all the world after him with his divine music for ever ! Amongst some dedicatory verses to the memory of Bacon, prefixed to the '' Ad- vancement of Learning," 1640 (Oxford), and entitled Manti Venir laminiani, we find some curious things which we think we ought to introduce here. We find in these Latin verses addressed to Bacon's memory, a frequent allusion to the Muses, Apollo, Castalia, Pegassus, Helicon, and other poetical or classical con- ceits, that seem strangely out of harmony with the memory of a rigid philosopher. We suppose the critics will say this was the extravagant way of writing in those days : —
" Qualis per umbras Ditis Enridice vagaos Palpare gestiit orphSom, quali Orpheus, Saliente tandem (vix prius crisp^) Styge, Alite fibras lyrse titillavit mana ; Talis plicata PbiloIog<>'n senigmatis Petiit Baconam vindicem, tali manu Lactata cristas eztulit Philosopbia : Hamique soccis repitantem Comicis Non proprio Ardelionibos molimine Sarsit, sed Instauravit. Hinc politius Surgit cothamo celsiore, et Organo Stagirita virbius reviviscit NovoP
Compare Warburton's "Divine Legation" (book ii. sect, iv), where he states Orpheus instituted the Mysteries. " So Orpheus is said to get to hell by the power of his harp : —
Threicia fretos cithara, fidibusque canoris.'' (263.)
'' Orpheus, as we have said, first brought the mysteries from Egypt into Thrace, and even religion itself: hence it was called Sprixita, as being supposed the invention of the Thracian." (" Divine Legation," bk, ii. sect. iv. 232.)
" Had an old poem, under the name of Orpheus, intitled, A DESCENT INTO HELL^ been now extant, it would, probably, have shown us, that no more was meant than Orpheus's initiation; and that the idea of Virgil's sixth book was taken from thence." (P. 264, "Divine Legation.")
278 GORHAMBURY.
''The verses which go under the name of Orpheus, are, at least, more ancient than Plato and Herodotus: though since interpolated. It was the common opinion, that they were genuine ; and those who doubted of that, yet gave them to the earliest Pythagorians. The subject of them are the mysteries, under the several titles of &poyiafi,oi fifirpfoi rsXsra/, hphi \&yog, and 4 tig ddov xardOaffrg, Pausanias tells us, that Orpheus's hymns were sung in the rites of Ceres in preference to Homer's." (" Divine Legation," 233, ibid.)
'* Si potoit mania arcessere conjugis Orpheus, Threlcia fretua cithara fidibuaque canoria : Si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit, Itque reditque viam totiea : quid Theaea magnum, Quid memorem Alciden ? et mi genus ab Jove aunmio.''
Compare : —
" ' Tlie riot of the tipsy Bacchanals^
Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.* — That ia an old device ; and it waa play'd When I from Thebea came last a conqueror." —
— Midsfiimmer-Nigh^s Dream.
Why do we introduce all this, and what bearing can it have upon Bacon or the plays and poems) Simply this, that we recognize in the passage quoted, in memory of Bacon (prefixed to our folio (1640) of the '' Magna Instauratio"), a writer who knows more of Bacon than can be safely put in plain language, but who presents us with the most tremendous side hint or parallel in Orpheus it is possible to imagine, seeing we are at once referred to the Mysteries and the most inspired poetry.
Gorhambury was the fourth house built upon the estate. It cost £1898, exclusive of timber and lime, sand and freestone, brought from the Abbey of St Albans. It was five years build- ing. The building consisted of a quadrangle seventy feet square, inside which was the entrance we see now, called the Roman porch. Elizabeth paid her visit in 1572, and again in May 1577. The cost of the four days' entertainment amounted to
GORHAMBVRY, 279
£577, 68. 7^. The items are curious : Flour, £47, 12& 6d. ; Beer, £24, 16s. 8d. j Wine, £57, fis. 8d.; Milk, 6d.; Lights, £40, 18s. Id.; Fowl, £108, 128. lid. The guests or servants stole pewter to the value of £6, 15s. 6d. In 1601 Bacon succeeded to the estate ; he found the house, though only thirty-three years old, very dilapidated, so he set to work to build another near the Ichabod Ponds.^ In 1665, Yerulam House (of which there is a detailed accoulit by Aubrey) was pulled down and the materials sold. The old house was patched up, and in 1778 the present mansion of the Grimstons' (who took the title of Earls Yerulam with the estates) was built. The present entrance to the park is not the original one of Bacon's time, which can, however, still be traced by a few stately relicts of a once magnificent avenue. This may be followed in front of the cricket-field, leading at right angles to the present road, down the park in the direction of the wooded heights. Everything about Gorhambury is very beautiful.
The '' Kiss Oak " is not far from Temple House, the old ruins of Bacon's dwelling-place. It is a magnificent old tree riven frequently by lightning, perfectly hollow within, yet green and flourishing outside, as if its immortality, like Bacon's, defied age, decay, storm, or corruption. We easily got inside it, and found it wide enough to extend our two arms at full length. Up above were six large holes showing the sky overhead. The wood was as rotten as tinder, crumbling under the touch, but the marvel- lous part of its energy is to be seen in its perfectly green appear- ance outside. We should say it must be quite twenty-four feet in
^ When Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper, lived, every room in Gorhambury was served with a pipe of water from the pond distant about a mile off. In the lifetime of Mr Anthony Bacon the water ceased, and his Lordship coming to the inheritance, could not recover the water with- out infinite charge. When he was Lord Chancellor, he built Yerulam House cLo9t by the pond yard, for a place of privaqf when he was called upon to despatch any urgent business. And being asked why he built there, his Lordship answered that, seeing he could not carry the water to his house, he would carry his hotise to the water.
28o GORHAMB UR V.
circumference, but this is only a rade gaess. It seemed to recall those lines in The Tempest of Jupiter : —
" To the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak With his own bolt"
The ruins of the old house Bacon lived in are very lovely, but in a very neglected condition. They go still by the name of the Temple ; and what better name could they bear than this^ seeing that it was for many years the hallowed home of the greatest of God's inspired representatives 1
Knight writes in his " Pictorial England ": — " In the house lately occupied by Messrs Roake & Yarty in the Strand, is pre- served part of an old ceiling, the last remnant of York House, where Bacon was bom."
'^ The house in which he lived " (says Knight) '^ was burned down in 1676, but No. 1 of Gray's Inn Square stands upon its site. The walls of the chambers on the north side of the stair- case are covered with the wainscot rescued from the fire. In the gardens, a very few years ago, were some trees that he had planted. The author of 'London and it Environs described' (Dodsley, 1761), makes mention (iii 58) of a summer-house which once stood in the gardens, and bore a Latin inscription to the effect that Bacon erected it in 1609, in memory of Jeremy Bettenham, formerly a Reader of Gray's Inn : —
" ' Till lately there was a summer-house erected by the great Sir Francis Bacon upon a small mount. The inscription in memory of Bettenham was as follows : —
' Franciscus Bacon
Begis Solicitor GeueraluB
Executor testamenti Jeremiffi Bettenham,
nuper Lectoris hujus hospitii viri innocentis, abetinentis, et contemplativi *^
hanc sedem in memoriam ejuadem Jeremise extruxit.
An. Dom. 1609.' "
A trifle like this bespeaks more for Bacon's character and tenderness of heart than volumes of panegyric !
I
GORHAMBURY. 281
Aubrey's Oossip.
" His Lordship was a good Poet, but conceal'd as appears by his Letters." (Aubrey.)
"John Aubrey, in his MS. notes, the dedication of which to Anthony Wood is dated 15th June 1680, which are printed at the end of Letters written by eminent persons^ &c, London. 1813. gives us the following further information about Lord Bacon.
" In his Lordship's prosperity Sr. Fulke Grevil, Lord Brooke, was his great friend and acquaintance, but when he was in dis- grace and want, he was so unworthy as to forbid his butler to let him have any more small beer, which he had often sent for, his stomack being nice, and the small beere of Grayes Inne not liking his pallet. This has done his memorie more dishonour then Sr Ph. Sydney's friendship engraven on his monument hath donne him honour.
" Bichard, Earle of Dorset, was a great admirer and friend ot the Ld. Ch. Bacon, and was wont to have Sr Tho. Ballingsley along with him to remember and putt downe in writing my Lord's sayinges at table. Mr. Ben lonson was one of his friends and acquaintance, as doeth appeare by his excellent verses on his Lordship's birth day, in his 2nd voL and in his ' Underwoods,' where he gives him a character, and concludes, That about his time, and within his view, were borne all the witts that could honour a nation or help studie. He came often to Sr John Danvers at Chelsey. Sir John told me that when his Lordship had wrote the ' Hist, of Hen. 7,' he sent the manuscript copie to him to desire his opinion of it before it 'twas printed. Qd Sir John, Your Lordship knowes that I am no scholar. Tis no matter, said my Lord, I know what a scholar can say ; I would know what you can say. Sir John read it, and gave his opinion what he misliked (which I am sorry I have forgott) which my Lord acknowledged to be true, and mended it. * Why,' said he, ' a schollar would never have told me this.'
T
282 GORHAMBVRY.
*' Mr Tho. Hobbes (Malmesburiensis) was beloved by his Lord- ship, who was wont to have him waike in his delicate groTes, when he did meditate : and when a notion darted into his mind, Mr Hobbes was presently to write it downe, and his Lordship was wont to say that he did it better than any one els aboat him ; for that many times, when he read their notes he scarce understood what they writt, because they understood it not clearly themselves. In short, all that were qrtai and good loved and honoured him. Sir Edward Coke, Ld. Chiefe Justice, alwayes envyed him, and would be undervalueing his lawe. I knew old lawyers that remembred it.
*' He was Lord Protector during King James' progresse into Scotland, and gave audience in great state to Ambassadors in the banquett'ing house at Whitehall. His Lordship would many time have musique in the next roome where he meditated. The Aviary at Yorke House was built by his Lordship ; it did cost 300 lib. Every meale, according to the season of the yeare, he had his table strewed with sweet herbes and flowers, which he sayd did refresh his spirits and memorie. When his Lordship was at his country house at Gorhambery, St Alban's seemed as if the court had been there, so nobly did he live. His servants had liveries with his crest ; ^ his watermen were more employed by gentlemen then even the kings.
'' King James sent a buck to him, and he gave the keeper fifty pounds.
" He was wont to say to his servant, HurU, (who was a notable thrifty man, and loved this world, and the only servant he had that he could never gett to become bound for him) * The world was made for man (Hunt), and not man for the world.' Hunt left an estate of 1006 lib. per ann., in Somerset
"None of his servants durst appeare before him without Spanish leather bootes : for he would smell the neates leather, which offended him.
^ A boare.
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'' His Lordship being in Yorke House garden looking on Fishers as they were throwing their nett, asked them what they would take for their draught ; they answered so much : his Lordship, would offer them no more but so much. They drew up their nett, and it were only 2 or 3 little fishes. His Lordship, then told them, it had been better for them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped to haue a better draught ; but, said his Lord- ship, ' Hope is a good breakfast^ bui an HI supper.'
''Upon his being in disfavour, his servants suddenly went away, he compared them to the flying of the vermin when the house was falling.
'' One told his Lordship it was now time to look about him. He replyed, ' I doe not looke dboui me, I looke above me.'
'' His Lordship would often drinke a good draught of strong beer (March beer) to- bed-wards, to lay his working fancy asleep: which otherwise would keepe him from sleeping great part of the night
** Three of his Lordship's servants [Sir Tho. Meautys, Mr . . . Bushell, Mr . . . Idney.] kept their coaches, and some kept race- horses.
"... His Favourites tooke bribes, but his Lop. alwayes gave judgement secundem xquvm et bonum. His Decrees in Chancery stand firme, there are fewer of his decrees reverst, than of any other Chancellor.
." [Aubrey in his 'Life of Hobbes,' Vol. IL Part ii p. 602 of the same work, states. ' The Lord Chancellor Bacon loved to converse with him. He assisted his Lordship in translating severall of his essayes into Latin, one I well remember is that, Of the Greatness of Cities : [1 Kingdoms] the rest I haue forgott. His Lordship was a very contemplative person, and was wont to contemplate in his delicious walks at Gorhambery, and dictate to Mr Bushell, or some other of his gentlemen, that attended him with ink and paper ready to set downe presently his thoughts.']
" Mr Hobbes told me that the cause of his Lordship's death was trying an experiment. As he was taking an aire in a coach
284 GORHAMB UR V.
with Dr Witherborne (a Scotchman, Physician to the King) towards Highgate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into m j Lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snoi^ as in salt. They were resolved they would try the experiment pre- sently. They alighted out of the coach, and went into a poore woman's house at the bottome of Highgate hill, and bouglit a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stufiTed Hie bodie with snow, and my Lord did help to doe it himselfe. The snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not retume to his lodgings, (I suppose thej- at Oraye's Inne,) but went to the Earl of Arundell's house at High- gate, where they putt him into a good bed warmed with a panne, but it was a damp bed that had not been layn in about a 7eare before, which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 dayes, as I remember he [Mr Hobbes] told me, he dyed of suffocation." (Vol. XL Part i. p. 221-7.)
THE END.
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