he Earl's Father had slain his.' A deed which worthily blemished
the author (saith Speed); But who, as he adds, 'dare promise any
thing temperate of himself in the heat of martial fury? chiefly,
when it was resolved not to leave any branch of the York line
standing; for so one maketh this Lord to speak.' This, no doubt, I
would observe by the bye, was an action sufficiently in the
vindictive spirit of the times, and yet not altogether so bad as
represented; 'for the Earl was no child, as some writers would
have him, but able to bear arms, being sixteen or seventeen years
of age, as is evident from this (say the Memoirs of the Countess
of Pembroke, who was laudably anxious to wipe away, as far as
could be, this stigma from the illustrious name to which she was
born); that he was the next Child to King Edward the Fourth, which
his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that King was then
eighteen years of age: and for the small distance betwixt her
Children, see Austin Vincent in his book of Nobility, page 622,
where he writes of them all. It may further be observed, that Lord
Clifford, who was then himself only twenty-five years of age, had
been a leading Man and Commander, two or three years together in
the Army of Lancaster, before this time; and, therefore, would be
less likely to think that the Earl of Rutland might be entitled to
mercy from his youth.--But, independent of this act, at best a
cruel and savage one, the Family of Clifford had done enough to
draw upon them the vehement hatred of the House of York: so that
after the Battle of Towton there was no hope for them but in
flight and concealment. Henry, the subject of the Poem, was
deprived of his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four
years; all which time he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in
Cumberland, where the estate of his Father-in-law (Sir Lancelot
Threlkeld) lay. He was restored to his estate and honours in the
first year of Henry the Seventh. It is recorded that, 'when called
to parliament, he behaved nobly and wisely; but otherwise came
seldom to London or the Court; and rather delighted to live in the
country, where he repaired several of his Castles, which had gone
to decay during the late troubles.' Thus far is chiefly collected
from Nicholson and Burn; and I can add, from my own knowledge,
that there is a tradition current in the village of Threlkeld and